diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 14182-0.txt | 16121 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14182.txt | 16506 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/14182.zip | bin | 0 -> 363964 bytes |
6 files changed, 32643 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/14182-0.txt b/14182-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1e7049 --- /dev/null +++ b/14182-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16121 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14182 *** + +THE WORLD'S BEST ORATIONS, Vol. 1 (of 10) + + + +THE ADVISORY COUNCIL + +The Right Hon. Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke. Bart., Member of +Parliament--Author of 'Greater Britain,' etc., London, England. + +William Draper Lewis, PH. D., Dean of the Department of Law, +University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. + +William P. Trent, M.A., Professor of English and History, Colombia +University, in the city of New York. + +W. Stuart Symington, Jr., PH. D., Professor of the Romance Languages, +Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. + +Alcee Fortier, Lit.D., Professor of the Romance Languages, +Tulane University, New Orleans, La. + +William Vincent Byars, Journalist, St Louis, Mo. + +Richard Gottheil, PH. D., Professor of Oriental Languages, +Columbia University, in the city of New York. + +Austin H. Merrill, A.M., Professor of Elocution, Vanderbilt +University, Nashville, Tenn. + +Sheldon Jackson. D. D., LL. D., Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. + +A. Marshall Elliott, PH.D. LL. D., Professor of the Romance Languages, +Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. + +John W. Million, A.M., President of Hardin College, Mexico, Mo. + +J. Raymond Brackett. PH. D., Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, +and Professor of Comparative Literature, University Of +Colorado, Boulder, Colo. + +W. F. Peirce. M.A., LL. D., President Of Kenyox College, Gambier, +Ohio. + +S. Plantz, PH.D., D. D., President of Lawrence University, +Appleton, Wis. + +George Tayloe Winston, LL.D., President of the University Of Texas, +Austin, Texas. + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +VOL. I + +Preface: Justice David J. Brewer + +The Oratory Of Anglo-Saxon Countries: Prof. Edward A. Allen + +ABELARD, PIERRE 1079-1142 + The Resurrection of Lazarus + The Last Entry into Jerusalem + The Divine Tragedy + +ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS 1807-1886 + The States and the Union + +ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JUNIOR 1835- + The Battle of Gettysburg + +ADAMS, JOHN 1735-1826 + Inaugural Address + The Boston Massacre + +ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY 1767-1848 + Oration at Plymouth Lafayette The + Jubilee of the Constitution + +ADAMS, SAMUEL 1722-1803 + American Independence + +AELRED 1109-1166 + A Farewell + A Sermon after Absence + On Manliness + +AESCHINES 389-314 B. C. + Against Crowning Demosthenes + +AIKEN, FREDERICK A. 1810-1878 + Defense of Mrs. Mary E, Surratt + +ALBERT THE GREAT (ALBERTUS MAGNUS) 1205-1280 + The Meaning of the Crucifixion + The Blessed Dead + +ALLEN, ETHAN + A Call to Arms + +AMES, FISHER 1758-1808 + On the British Treaty + +ANSELM, SAINT 1032-1109 + The Sea of Life + +ARNOLD, THOMAS 1795-1842 + The Realities of Life and Death + +ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN 1830-1886 + Inaugural Address + +ATHANASIUS 298-373 + The Divinity of Christ + +AUGUSTINE, SAINT 354-430 + The Lord's Prayer + +BACON, FRANCIS 1561-1626 + Speech against Dueling + +BARBOUR, JAMES 1775-1842 + Treaties as Supreme Laws + +BARNAVE, ANTOINE PIERRE JOSEPH MARIE 1761-1793 + Representative Democracy against Majority Absolutism + Commercial Politics + +BARROW, ISAAC 1630-1677 + Slander + +BASIL THE GREAT 329-379 + On a Recreant Nan + +BAXTER, RICHARD 1615-1691 + Unwillingness to Improve + +BAYARD. JAMES A. 1767-1815 + The Federal Judiciary + Commerce and Naval Power + +BAYARD, THOMAS F. 1828-1898 + A Plea for Conciliation in 1876 + +BEACONSFIELD, LORD 1804-1881 + The Assassination of Lincoln + Against Democracy for England + The Meaning of "Conservatism" + +BEDE, THE VENERABLE 672-735 + The Meeting of Mercy and Justice + A Sermon for Any Day + The Torments of Hell + +BEECHER. HENRY WARD 1813-1887 + Raising the Flag over Fort Sumter + Effect of the Death of Lincoln + +BELHAVEN, LORD 1656-1708 + A Plea for the National Life of Scotland + +BELL, JOHN 1797-1869 + Against Extremists, North and South + Transcontinental Railroads + +BENJAMIN, JUDAH P. 1811-1884 + Farewell to the Union + Slavery as Established by Law + + + + +PREFACE + +Oratory is the masterful art. Poetry, painting, music, sculpture, +architecture please, thrill, inspire; but oratory rules. The orator +dominates those who hear him, convinces their reason, controls their +judgment, compels their action. For the time being he is master. +Through the clearness of his logic, the keenness of his wit, the +power of his appeal, or that magnetic something which is felt and +yet cannot be defined, or through all together, he sways his +audience as the storm bends the branches of the forest. Hence it is +that in all times this wonderful power has been something longed for +and striven for. Demosthenes, on the beach, struggling with the +pebbles in his mouth to perfect his articulation, has been the great +example. Yet it is often true of the orator, as of the poet; +_nascitur_ _non_ _fit_. Patrick Henry seemed to be inspired as +"Give me liberty or give me death" rolled from his lips. The +untutored savage has shown himself an orator. + +Who does not delight in oratory? How we gather to hear even an +ordinary speaker! How often is a jury swayed and controlled by the +appeals of counsel! Do we not all feel the magic of the power, and +when occasionally we are permitted to listen to a great orator how +completely we lose ourselves and yield in willing submission to the +imperious and impetuous flow of his speech! It is said that after +Webster's great reply to Hayne every Massachusetts man walking down +Pennsylvania Avenue seemed a foot taller. + +This marvelous power is incapable of complete preservation on the +printed page. The presence, the eye, the voice, the magnetic touch, +are beyond record. The phonograph and kinetoscope may some day seize +and perpetuate all save the magnetic touch, but that weird, +illusive, indefinable yet wonderfully real power by which the orator +subdues may never be caught by science or preserved for the cruel +dissecting knife of the critic. It is the marvelous light flashing +out in the intellectual heavens which no Franklin has yet or may +ever draw and tie to earth by string of kite. + +But while there is a living something which no human art has yet been +able to grasp and preserve, there is a wonderful joy and comfort in +the record of that which the orator said. As we read we see the very +picture, though inarticulate, of the living orator. We may never know +all the marvelous power of Demosthenes, yet _Proton_, _meg_, _o_ +_andres_ _Athenaioi_, suggests something of it. Cicero's silver speech +may never reach our ears, and yet who does not love to read _Quousque_ +_tandem_ _abutere_, _O_ _Catilina_, _patientia_ _nostra_? So if on +the printed page we may not see the living orator, we may look upon +his picture--the photograph of his power. And it is this which it is +the thought and purpose of this work to present. We mean to +photograph the orators of the world, reproducing the words which they +spake, and trusting to the vivid imagination of the thoughtful reader +to put behind the recorded words the living force and power. In this +we shall fill a vacant place in literature. There are countless books +of poetry in which the gems of the great poets of the world have been +preserved, but oratory has not been thus favored. We have many +volumes which record the speeches of different orators, sometimes +connected with a biography of their lives and sometimes as independent +gatherings of speeches. We have also single books, like Goodrich's +'British Eloquence,' which give us partial selections of the great +orations. But this is intended to be universal in its reach, a +complete encyclopedia of oratory. The purpose is to present the best +efforts of the world's greatest orators in all ages; and with this +purpose kept in view as the matter of primary importance, to +supplement the great orations with others that are representative and +historically important--especially with those having a fundamental +connection with the most important events in the development of +Anglo-Saxon civilization. The greatest attention has been given to +the representative orators of England and America, so that the work +includes all that is most famous or most necessary to be known in the +oratory of the Anglo-Saxon race. Wherever possible, addresses have +been published in extenso. This has been the rule followed in giving +the great orations. In dealing with minor orators, the selections +made are considerable enough to show the style, method, and spirit. +Where it has been necessary to choose between two orations of equal +merit, the one having the greater historical significance has been +selected. Of course it would not be possible, keeping within +reasonable limits, to give every speech of every one worthy to be +called an orator. Indeed, the greatest of orators sometimes failed. +So we have carefully selected only those speeches which manifest the +power of eloquence; and this selection, we take pleasure in assuring +our readers, has been made by the most competent critics of the +country. + +We have not confined ourselves to any one profession or field of +eloquence. The pulpit, the bar, the halls of legislation, and the +popular assembly have each and all been called upon for their best +contributions. The single test has been, is it oratory? the single +question, is there eloquence? The reader and student of every class +will therefore find within these pages that which will satisfy his +particular taste and desire in the matter of oratory. + +As this work is designed especially for the American reader, we have +deemed it proper to give prominence to Anglo-Saxon orators; and yet +this prominence has not been carried so far as to make the work a +one-sided collection. It is not a mere presentation of American or +even of English-speaking orators. We submit the work to the American +public in the belief that all will find pleasure, interest, and +instruction in its pages, and in the hope that it will prove an +Inspiration to the growing generation to see to it that oratory be +not classed among the "lost arts," but that it shall remain an +ever-present and increasing power and blessing to the world. + +David J. Brewer + + + +THE ORATORY OF ANGLO-SAXON COUNTRIES + +By Edward A. Allen, Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English Literature +in the University of Missouri + +English-speaking people have always been the freest people, the +greatest lovers of liberty, the world has ever seen. Long before +English history properly begins, the pen of Tacitus reveals to us +our forefathers in their old home-land in North Germany beating back +the Roman legions under Varus, and staying the progress of Rome's +triumphant car whose mighty wheels had crushed Hannibal, Jugurtha, +Vercingetorix, and countless thousands in every land. The Germanic +ancestors of the English nation were the only people who did not +bend the neck to these lords of all the world besides. In the year +9, when the Founder of Christianity was playing about his humble +home at Nazareth, or watching his father at work in his shop, our +forefathers dealt Rome a blow from which she never recovered. As +Freeman, late professor of history at Oxford, said in one of his +lectures: "In the blow by the Teutoburg wood was the germ of the +Declaration of Independence, the germ of the surrender of Yorktown." +Arminius was our first Washington, "_haud_ _dubie_ _liberator_," as +Tacitus calls him,--the savior of his country. + +When the time came for expansion, and our forefathers in the fifth +century began the conquest and settlement of the island that was to +become their New England, they pushed out the Celts, the native +inhabitants of the island, just as their descendants, about twelve +hundred years later, were to push out the indigenous people of this +continent, to make way for a higher civilization, a larger +destiny. No Englishman ever saw an armed Roman in England, and +though traces of the Roman conquest may be seen everywhere in that +country to-day, it is sometimes forgotten that it was the Britain of +the Celts, not the England of the English, which was held for so +many centuries as a province of Rome. + +The same love of freedom that resisted the Roman invasion in the +first home of the English was no less strong in their second home, +when Alfred with his brave yeomen withstood the invading Danes at +Ashdown and Edington, and saved England from becoming a Danish +province. It is true that the Normans, by one decisive battle, +placed a French king on the throne of England, but the English +spirit of freedom was never subdued; it rose superior to the +conquerors of Hastings, and in the end English speech and English +freedom gained the mastery. + +The sacred flame of freedom has burned in the hearts of the +Anglo-Saxon race through all the centuries of our history, and this +spirit of freedom is reflected in our language and in our +oratory. There never have been wanting English orators when English +liberty seemed to be imperiled; indeed, it may be said that the +highest oratory has always been coincident with the deepest +aspirations of freedom. + +It is said of Pitt,--the younger, I believe,--that he was fired to +oratory by reading the speeches in Milton's 'Paradise Lost.' These +speeches--especially those of Satan, the most human of the +characters in this noble epic,--when analyzed and traced to their +source, are neither Hebrew nor Greek, but English to the core. They +are imbued with the English spirit, with the spirit of Cromwell, +with the spirit that beat down oppression at Marston Moor, and +ushered in a freer England at Naseby. In the earlier Milton of a +thousand years before, whether the work of Caedmon or of some other +English muse, the same spirit is reflected in Anglo-Saxon +words. Milton's Satan is more polished, better educated, thanks to +Oxford and Cambridge, but the spirit is essentially one with that of +the ruder poet; and this spirit, I maintain, is English. + +The dry annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are occasionally lighted +up with a gleam of true eloquence, as in the description of the +battle of Brunanburh, which breaks forth into a pean of +victory. Under the year 991, there is mention of a battle at Maldon, +between the English and the Danes, in which great heroism must have +been displayed, for it inspired at the time one of the most +patriotic outbursts of song to be found in the whole range of +English literature. During an enforced truce, because of a swollen +stream that separated the two armies, a messenger is sent from the +Danes to Byrhtnoth, leader of the English forces, with a proposition +to purchase peace with English gold. Byrhtnoth, angry and resolute, +gave him this answer:-- + +"Hearest thou, pirate, what this folk sayeth? They will give you +spears for tribute, weapons that will avail you nought in +battle. Messenger of the vikings, get thee back. Take to thy people +a sterner message, that here stands a fearless earl, who with his +band wilt defend this land, the home of Aethelred, my prince, folk +and fold. Too base it seems to me that ye go without battle to your +ships with our money, now that ye have come thus far into our +country. Ye shall not so easily obtain treasure. Spear and sword, +grim battle-play, shall decide between us ere we pay tribute." + +Though the battle was lost and Byrhtnoth slain, the spirit of the +man is an English inheritance. It is the same spirit that refused +ship-money to Charles I., and tea-money to George III. + +The encroachments of tyranny and the stealthier step of royal +prerogative have shrunk before this spirit which through the +centuries has inspired the noblest oratory of England and +America. It not only inspired the great orators of the mother +country, it served at the same time as a bond of sympathy with the +American colonies in their struggle for freedom. Burke, throughout +his great speech on Conciliation, never lost sight of this idea:-- + +"This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies +probably than in any other people of the earth. The people of the +colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, sir, is a nation +which still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The +colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was +most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment +they parted from your bands. They are therefore not only devoted to +liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and our English +principles. ... The temper and character which prevail in our +colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, +I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade +them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood +of freedom circulates. The language in which they would hear you +tell them this tale would detect the imposition; your speech would +betray you. ... In order to prove that Americans have no right to +their liberties, we are every day endeavoring to subvert the maxims +which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To prove that +the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the +value of freedom itself; and we never gain a paltry advantage over +them in debate without attacking some of those principles, or deriding +some of those feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood. +. . . As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority +of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple +consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of +England worship freedom they will turn their faces towards you. The +more ardently they love liberty the more perfect will be their +obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere--it is a weed that grows in +every soil. They can have it from Spain; they may have it from +Prussia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your true +interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but +you." + +So, too, in the speeches of Chatham, the great Commoner, whose +eloquence has never been surpassed, an intense spirit of liberty, +the animating principle of his life, shines out above all things +else. Though opposed to the independence of the colonies, he could +not restrain his admiration for the spirit they manifested:-- + +"The Americans contending for their rights against arbitrary +exactions I love and admire. It is the struggle of free and virtuous +patriots. ... My Lords, you cannot conquer America. You may swell +every expense and every effort still more extravagantly; pile and +accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and +barter with every pitiful little German prince that sells and sends +his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince; your efforts are +forever vain and impotent If I were an American as I am an +Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I would +never lay down my arms--never--never--never!" + +Wherever the principle of Anglo-Saxon freedom and the rights of man +have been at stake, the all-animating voice of the orator has kept +alive the sacred flame. In the witenagemote of the earlier tongs, in +the parliament of the later kings, in the Massachusetts town-meeting +and in the Virginia House of Burgesses, in the legislature of every +State, and in the Congress of the United States, wherever in +Anglo-Saxon countries the torch of liberty seemed to burn low, the +breath of the orator has fanned it into flame. It fired the +eloquence of Sheridan pleading against Warren Hastings for the +down-trodden natives of India in words that have not lost their +magnetic charm:-- + +"My Lords, do you, the judges of this land and the expounders of its +rightful laws, do you approve of this mockery and call that the +character of Justice which takes the form of right to execute wrong? +No. my Lords, justice is not this halt and miserable object; it is +not the ineffective bauble of an Indian pagoda; it is not the +portentous phantom of despair; it is not like any fabled monster, +formed in the eclipse of reason and found in some unhallowed grove +of superstitious darkness and political dismay. No, my Lords! In the +happy reverse of all this I turn from the disgusting caricature to +the real image. Justice I have now before me, august and pure, the +abstract ideal of all that would be perfect in the spirits and +aspirings of men--where the mind rises; where the heart expands; +where the countenance is ever placid and benign; where the favorite +attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate, to hear their cry, and help +them; to rescue and relieve, to succor and save; majestic from its +mercy, venerable from its utility, uplifted without pride, firm +without obduracy, beneficent in each preference, lovely though in +her frown." + +This same spirit fired the enthusiasm of Samuel Adams and James Otis +to such a pitch of eloquence that "every man who heard them went +away ready to take up arms." It inspired Patrick Henry to hurl his +defiant alternative of "liberty or death" in the face of unyielding +despotism. It inspired that great-hearted patriot and orator, Henry +Clay, in the first quarter of this century, to plead, single-handed +and alone, in the Congress of the United States, session after +session before the final victory was won, for the recognition of the +provinces of South America in their struggle for independence. + +"I may be accused of an imprudent utterance of my feelings on this +occasion. I care not: when the independence, the happiness, the +liberty of a whole people is at stake, and that people our +neighbors, our brethren, occupying a portion of the same continent, +imitating our example, and participating in the same sympathies with +ourselves. I will boldly avow my feelings and my wishes in their +behalf, even at the hazard of such an imputation. I maintain that an +oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and +break their fetters. This was the great principle of the English +revolution. It was the great principle of our own. Spanish-America +has been doomed for centuries to the practical effects of an odious +tyranny. If we were justified, she is more than justified. I am no +propagandist. I would not seek to force upon other nations our +principles and our liberty, if they do not want them. But if an +abused and oppressed people will their freedom; if they seek to +establish it; if, in truth, they have established it, we have a +right, as a sovereign power, to notice the fact, and to act as +circumstances and our interest require. I will say in the language +of the venerated father of my country, 'born in a land of liberty, +my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best +wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see +an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.'" + +This same spirit loosed the tongue of Wendell Phillips to plead the +cause of the enslaved African in words that burned into the hearts +of his countrymen. It emboldened George William Curtis to assert the +right to break the shackles of party politics and follow the +dictates of conscience:-- + +"I know,--no man better,--how hard it is for earnest men to +separate their country from their party, or their religion from +their sect. But, nevertheless, the welfare of the country is dearer +than the mere victory of party, as truth is more precious than the +interest of any sect. You will hear this patriotism scorned as an +impracticable theory, as the dream of a cloister, as the whim of a +fool. But such was the folly of the Spartan Leonidas, staying with +his three hundred the Persian horde, and teaching Greece the +self-reliance that saved her. Such was the folly of the Swiss Arnold +von Winkelried, gathering into his own breast the points of Austrian +spears, making his dead body the bridge of victory for his +countrymen. Such was the folly of the American Nathan Hale, gladly +risking the seeming disgrace of his name, and grieving that be had +but one life to give for his country. Such are the beacon-lights of +a pure patriotism that burn forever in men's memories and answer +each other through the illuminated ages." + +So long as there are wrongs to be redressed, so long as the strong +oppress the weak, so long as injustice sits in high places, the +voice of the orator will be needed to plead for the rights of +man. He may not, at this stage of the republic, be called upon to +sound a battle cry to arms, but there are bloodless victories to be +won as essential to the stability of a great nation and the +uplifting of its millions of people as the victories of the +battlefield. + +When the greatest of modern political philosophers, the author of +the Declaration of Independence, urged that, if men were left free +to declare the truth the effect of its great positive forces would +overcome the negative forces of error, he seems to have hit the +central fact of civilization. Without freedom of thought and +absolute freedom to speak out the truth as one sees it, there can be +no advancement, no high civilization. To the orator who has heard +the call of humanity, what nobler aspiration than to enlarge and +extend the freedom we have inherited from our Anglo-Saxon +forefathers, and to defend the hope of the world? + +Edward A. Allen + + + +PIERRE ABELARD (1079-1142) + +Abelard's reputation for oratory and for scholarship was so great +that he attracted hearers and disciples from all quarters. They +encamped around him like an army and listened to him with such +eagerness that the jealousy of some and the honest apprehension of +others were excited by the boldness with which he handled religious +subjects. He has been called the originator of modern rationalism, +and though he was apparently worsted in his contest with his great +rival, St. Bernard, he remains the most real and living personality +among the great pulpit orators of the Middle Ages. This is due in +large part, no doubt, to his connection with the unfortunate +Heloise. That story, one of the most romantic, as it is one of the +saddest of human history, must be passed over with a mere mention of +the fact that it gave occasion for a number of the sermons of +Abelard which have come down to us. Several of those were preached +in the convent of the Paraclete of which Heloise became abbess,-- +where, in his old age, her former lover, broken with the load of a +life of most extraordinary sorrows, went to die. These sermons do +not suggest the fire and force with which young Abelard appealed to +France, compelling its admiration even in exciting its alarm, but +they prevent him from being a mere name as an orator. + +He was born near Nantes, A. D. 1079. At his death in 1142, he was +buried in the convent of the Paraclete, where the body of Heloise +was afterwards buried at his side. + +The extracts from his sermons here given were translated by +Rev. J. M. Neale, of Sackville College, from the first collected +edition of the works of Abelard, published at Paris in 1616. There +are thirty-two such sermons extant. They were preached in Latin, or, +at least, they have come down to us in that language. + + +THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS + +The Lord performed that miracle once for all in the body which much +more blessedly he performs every day in the souls of penitents. He +restored life to Lazarus, but it was a temporal life, one that would +die again. He bestows life on the penitent; life, but it is life +that will remain, world without end. The one is wonderful in the +eyes of men; the other is far more wonderful in the judgment of the +faithful; and in that it is so much the greater, by so much the more +is it to be sought. This is written of Lazarus, not for Lazarus +himself, but for us and to us. "Whatsoever things," saith the +Apostle, "were written of old, were written for our learning." The +Lord called Lazarus once, and he was raised from temporal death. He +calls us often, that we may rise from the death of the soul. He said +to him once, "Come forth!" and immediately he came forth at one +command of the Lord. The Lord every day invites us by Scripture to +confession, exhorts us to amendment, promises the life which is +prepared for us by him who willeth not the death of a sinner. We +neglect his call, we despise his invitation, we contemn his promise. +Placed between God and the devil, as between a father and a foe, we +prefer the enticement of the enemy to a father's warning. "We are +not ignorant," says the Apostle, "of the devices of Satan,"--the +devices, I say, by which he induces us to sin, and keeps us back +from repentance. Suggesting sin, he deprives us of two things by +which the best assistance might be offered to us, namely, shame and +fear. For that which we avoid, we avoid either through fear of some +loss, or through the reverence of shame.... When, therefore, Satan +impels any one to sin, he easily accomplishes the object, if, as we +have said, he first deprives him of fear and shame. And when he has +effected that, he restores the same things, but in another sense, +which he has taken away; that so he may keep back the sinner from +confession, and make him die in his sin. Then he secretly whispers +into his soul: "Priests are light-minded, and it is a difficult +thing to check the tongue. If you tell this or that to them, it +cannot remain a secret; and when it shall have been published +abroad, you will incur the danger of losing your good character, or +bearing some injury, and being confounded from your own vileness." +Thus the devil deceives that wretched man; he first takes from +him that by which he ought to avoid sin, and then restores the same +thing, and by it retains him in sin. His captive fears temporal, and +not spiritual, evil; he is ashamed before men and he despises +God. He is ashamed that things should come to the knowledge of men +which he was not ashamed to commit in the sight of God, and of the +whole heavenly host. He trembles at the judgment of man, and he has +no respect to that of God. Of which the Apostle says: "It is a +fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God"; and the +Truth saith himself, "Fear not them that kill the body, and after +that have no more that they can do; but fear him rather who can cast +body and soul into hell." + +There are diseases of the soul, as there are of the body; and +therefore the Divine mercy has provided beforehand physicians for +both. Our Lord Jesus Christ saith, "I came not to call the +righteous, but sinners to repentance." His priests now hold his +place in the Church, to whom, as unto physicians of the soul, we +ought to confess our sins, that we may receive from them the +plaister of satisfaction. He that fears the death of the body, in +whatever part of the body he may suffer, however much he may be +ashamed of the disease, makes no delay in revealing it to the +physician, and setting it forth, so that it may be cured. However +rough, however hard may be the remedy, he avoids it not, so that he +may escape death. Whatever he has that is most precious, he makes no +hesitation in giving it, if only for a little while he may put off +the death of the body. What, then, ought we to do for the death of +the soul? For this, however terrible, may be forever prevented, +without such great labor, without such great expense. The Lord seeks +us ourselves, and not what is ours. He stands in no need of our +wealth who bestows all things. For it is he to whom it is said, "My +goods are nothing unto thee." With him a man is by so much the +greater, as, in his own judgment, he is less. With him a man is as +much the more righteous, as in his own opinion he is the more +guilty. In his eyes we hide our faults all the more, the more that +here by confession we manifest them. + + +THE LAST ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM + +"He came unto his own, and his own received him not." That is, he +entered Jerusalem. Yet now he entered, not Jerusalem, which by +interpretation is "The Vision of Peace," but the home of +tyranny. For now the elders of the city have so manifestly conspired +against him, that he can no longer find a place of refuge within +it. This is not to be attributed to his helplessness but to his +patience. He could be harbored there securely, seeing that no one +can do him harm by violence, and that he has the power to incline +the hearts of men whither he wills. For in that same city he freely +did whatever he willed to do; and when he sent his disciples +thither, and commanded them that they should loose the ass and the +colt, and bring them to him, and said that no man would forbid them, +he accomplished that which he said, although he was not ignorant of +the conspiracy against himself. Of which he saith to his disciples +whom he sends, "Go ye into the castle over against you"; that is, to +the place which is equally opposed to God and to you; no longer to +be called a city, an assembly of men living under the law, but a +castle of tyrannical fortification. Go confidently, saith he, into +the place, though such it is, and though it is therefore opposed to +you, and do with all security that which I command you. Whence he +adds, also: "And if any man say aught unto you, say that the Lord +hath need of them, and he will straightway send them away." A +wonderful confidence of power! As if the Lord, using his own right +of command, lays his own injunction on those whom he knows already +to have conspired for his death. Thus he commands, thus he enjoins, +thus he compels obedience. Nor do they who are sent hesitate in +accomplishing that which is laid upon them, confident as they are in +the strength of the power of him who sends them. By that power they +who were chiefly concerned in this conspiracy had been more than +once ejected from the Temple, where many were not able to resist +one. And they, too, after this ejection and conspiracy, as we have +said, when he was daily teaching in the Temple, knew how intrepid he +showed himself to be, into whose hands the Father had given all +things. And last of all, when he desired to celebrate the Passover +in the same night in which he had foreordained to be betrayed, he +again sent his Disciples whither he willed, and prepared a home for +himself in the city itself, wherein he might keep the feast. He, +then, who so often showed his power in such things as these, now +also, if he had desired it, could have prepared a home wherever he +would, and had no need to return to Bethany. Therefore, he did these +two things intentionally: he showed that they whom he avoided were +unworthy of his dwelling among them; and he gave himself, in the +last hours of his life, to his beloved hosts, that they might have +their own reception of him as the reward of their hospitality. + + +THE DIVINE TRAGEDY + +Whether, therefore, Christ is spoken of as about to be crowned or +about to be crucified, it is said that he "went forth"; to signify +that the Jews, who were guilty of so great wickedness against him, +were given over to reprobation, and that his grace would now pass to +the vast extent of the Gentiles, where the salvation of the Cross, +and his own exaltation by the gain of many peoples, in the place of +the one nation of the Jews, has extended itself. Whence, also, +to-day we rightly go forth to adore the Cross in the open plain; +showing mystically that both glory and salvation had departed from +the Jews, and had spread themselves among the Gentiles. But in that +we afterwards returned (in procession) to the place whence we had +set forth, we signify that in the end of the world the grace of God +will return to the Jews; namely, when, by the preaching of Enoch and +Elijah, they shall be converted to him. Whence the Apostle: "I would +not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that +blindness in part has fallen upon Israel, until the fullness of the +Gentiles shall be come, and so all Israel shall be saved." Whence +the place itself of Calvary, where the Lord was crucified, is now, +as we know, contained in the city; whereas formerly it was without +the walls. "The crown wherewith his Mother crowned him in the day of +his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." For +thus kings are wont to exhibit their glory when they betroth queens +to themselves, and celebrate the solemnities of their nuptials. Now +the day of the Lord's crucifixion was, as it were, the day of his +betrothal; because it was then that he associated the Church to +himself as his bride, and on the same day descended into Hell, and, +setting free the souls of the faithful, accomplished in them that +which he had promised to the thief: "Verily I say unto thee, to-day +shalt thou be with me in Paradise." + +"To-day," he says, of the gladness of his heart; because in his body +he suffered the torture of pain; but while the flesh inflicted on +him torments through the outward violence of men, his soul was filled +with joy on account of our salvation, which he thus brought to +pass. Whence, also, when he went forth to his crucifixion, he +stilled the women that were lamenting him, and said, "Daughters of +Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your +children." As if he said, "Grieve not for me in these my sufferings, +as if by their means I should fall into any real destruction; but +rather lament for that heavy vengeance which hangs over you and your +children, because of that which they have committed against me." So +we, also, brethren, should rather weep for ourselves than for him; +and for the faults which we have committed, not for the punishments +which he bore. Let us so rejoice with him and for him, as to grieve +for our own offenses, and for that the guilty servant committed the +transgression, while the innocent Lord bore the punishment. He +taught us to weep who is never said to have wept for himself, though +he wept for Lazarus when about to raise him from the dead. + + + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS (1807-1886) + +The son of one President of the United States and the grand-son of +another, Charles Francis Adams won for himself in his own right a +position of prominence in the history of his times. He studied law +in the office of Daniel Webster, and after beginning practice was +drawn into public life by his election to the Massachusetts +legislature in which he served from 1831 to 1838. A Whig in politics +until the slavery issue became prominent, he was nominated for +Vice-President on the Free Soil ticket with Van Buren in 1848. The +Republican party which grew out of the Free Soil movement elected +him to Congress as a representative of the third Massachusetts +district in 1858 and re-elected him in 1860. In 1861 President +Lincoln appointed him minister to England, and he filled with credit +that place which had been filled by his father and grandfather +before him. He died November 21st, 1886, leaving besides his own +speeches and essays an edition of the works of John and John Quincy +Adams in twenty-two volumes octavo. + + +THE STATES AND THE UNION +(Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 31st, 1861) + +I confess, Mr. Speaker, that I should be very jealous, as a citizen +of Massachusetts, of any attempt on the part of Virginia, for +example, to propose an amendment to the Constitution designed to +rescind or abolish the bill of rights prefixed to our own form of +government. Yet I cannot see why such a proposition would be more +unjustifiable than any counter proposition to abolish slavery in +Virginia, as coming from Massachusetts. If I have in any way +succeeded in mastering the primary elements of our forms of +government, the first and fundamental idea is, the reservation to +the people of the respective States of every power of regulating +their own affairs not specifically surrendered in the Constitution. +The security of the State governments depends upon the fidelity +with which this principle is observed. + +Even the intimation of any such interference as I have mentioned by +way of example could not be made in earnest without at once shaking +the entire foundation of the whole confederated Union. No man shall +exceed me in jealousy of affection for the State rights of Massachusetts. +So far as I remember, nothing of this kind was ever thought of +heretofore; and I see no reason to apprehend that what has not +happened thus far will be more likely to happen hereafter. But if +the time ever come when it does occur, I shall believe the +dissolution of the system to be much more certain than I do at this +moment. + +For these reasons, I cannot imagine that there is the smallest +foundation for uneasiness about the intentions of any considerable +number of men in the free States to interfere in any manner whatever +with slavery in the States, much less by the hopeless mode of +amending the Constitution. To me it looks like panic, pure panic. +How, then, is it to be treated? Is it to be neglected or ridiculed? +Not at all. If a child in the nursery be frightened by the idea of a +spectre, common humanity would prompt an effort by kindness to +assuage the alarm. But in cases where the same feeling pervades the +bosoms of multitudes of men, this imaginary evil grows up at once +into a gigantic reality, and must be dealt with as such. It is at +all times difficult to legislate against a possibility. The +committee have reported a proposition intended to meet this case. +It is a form of amendment of the Constitution which, in substance, +takes away no rights whatever which the free States ever should +attempt to use, whilst it vests exclusively in the slave States the +right to use them or not, as they shall think proper, the whole +treatment of the subject to which they relate being conceded to be a +matter of common interest to them, exclusively within their +jurisdiction, and subject to their control. A time may arrive, in +the course of years, when they will themselves desire some act of +interference in a friendly and beneficent spirit. If so, they have +the power reserved to them of initiating the very form in which it +would be most welcome. If not, they have a security, so long as this +government shall endure, that no sister State shall dictate any +change against their will. + +I have now considered all the alleged grievances which have thus far +been brought to our attention, 1. The personal liberty laws, which +never freed a slave. 2. Exclusion from a Territory which +slaveholders will never desire to occupy. 3. Apprehension of an +event which will never take place. For the sake of these three +causes of complaint, all of them utterly without practical result, +the slaveholding States, unquestionably the weakest section of this +great Confederacy, are voluntarily and precipitately surrendering +the realities of solid power woven into the very texture of a +government that now keeps nineteen million freemen, willing to +tolerate, and, in one sense, to shelter, institutions which, but for +that, would meet with no more sympathy among them than they now do +in the remainder of the civilized world. + +For my own part, I must declare that, even supposing these alleged +grievances to be more real than I represent them, I think the +measures of the committee dispose of them effectually and +forever. They contribute directly all that can be legitimately done +by Congress, and they recommend it to the legislatures of the States +to accomplish the remainder. Why, then, is it that harmony is not +restored? The answer is, that you are not satisfied with this +settlement, however complete. You must have more guarantees in the +Constitution. You must make the protection and extension of slavery +in the Territories now existing, and hereafter to be acquired, a +cardinal doctrine of our great charter. Without that, you are +determined to dissolve the Union. How stands the case, then? We +offer to settle the question finally in all of the present territory +that you claim, by giving you every chance of establishing slavery +that you have any right to require of us. You decline to take the +offer, because you fear it will do you no good. Slavery will not go +there. But, if that be true, what is the use of asking for the +protection anyhow, much less in the Constitution? Why require +protection where you will have nothing to protect? All you appear to +desire it for is New Mexico. Nothing else is left. Yet, you will not +accept New Mexico at once, because ten years of experience have +proved to you that protection has been of no use thus far. But, if +so, how can you expect that it will be of so much more use hereafter +as to make it worth dissolving the Union? + +But, if we pass to the other condition, is it any more reasonable? +Are we going to fight because we cannot agree upon the mode of +disposing of our neighbor's lands? Are we to break up the Union of +these States, cemented by so many years of common sufferings, and +resplendent with so many years of common glory, because it is +insisted that we should incorporate into what we regard as the +charter of our freedom a proclamation to the civilized world that we +intend to grasp the territory of other nations whenever we can do +it, for the purpose of putting into it certain institutions which +some of us disapprove, and that, too, whether the people inhabiting +that territory themselves approve of it or not? + +I am almost inclined to believe that they who first contrived this +demand must have done so for the sake of presenting a condition +which they knew beforehand must be rejected, or which, if accepted, +must humiliate us in the dust forever. In point of fact, this +proposal covers no question of immediate moment which may not be +settled by another and less obnoxious one. Why is it, then, +persevered in, and the other rejected? The answer is obvious. You +want the Union dissolved. You want to make it impossible for +honorable men to become reconciled. If it be, indeed, so, then on +you, and you alone, shall rest the responsibility of what may +follow. If the Union be broken up, the reason why it happened shall +remain on record forever. It was because you rejected one form of +settling a question which might be offered and accepted with honor, +in order to insist upon another which you knew we could not accept +without disgrace. I answer for myself only when I say that, if the +alternative to the salvation of the Union be only that the people of +the United States shall, before the Christian nations of the earth, +print in broad letters upon the front of their charter of republican +government the dogma of slave propagandism over the remainder of the +countries of the world, I will not consent to brand myself with what +I deem such disgrace, let the consequences be what they may. + +But it is said that this answer closes the door of reconciliation. +The slaveholding States will secede, and what then? + +This brings me to the last point which I desire to touch today, the +proper course for the government to pursue in the face of these +difficulties. Some of the friends with whom I act have not hesitated +to express themselves in favor of coercion; and they have drawn very +gloomy pictures of the fatal consequences to the prosperity and +security of the whole Union that must ensue. For my own sake, I am +glad that I do not partake so largely in these fears. I see no +obstacle to the regular continuance of the government in not less +than twenty States, and perhaps more, the inhabitants of which have +not in a moment been deprived of that peculiar practical wisdom in +the management of their affairs which is the secret of their past +success. Several new States will, before long, be ready to take +their places with us and make good, in part, the loss of the old +ones. The mission of furnishing a great example of free government +to the nations of the earth will still be in our hands, impaired, I +admit, but not destroyed; and I doubt not our power to accomplish it +yet in spite of the temporary drawback. Even the problem of coercion +will go on to solve itself without our aid. For if the sentiment of +disunion become so far universal and permanent in the dissatisfied +States as to show no prospect of good from resistance, and there be +no acts of aggression attempted on their part, I will not say that I +may not favor the idea of some arrangement of a peaceful character, +though I do not now see the authority under which it can be originated. +The new Confederacy can scarcely be other than a secondary Power. It +can never be a maritime State. It will begin with the necessity of +keeping eight millions of its population to watch four millions, and +with the duty of guarding, against the egress of the latter, several +thousand miles of an exposed border, beyond which there will be no +right of reclamation. Of the ultimate result of a similar experiment, +I cannot, in my own mind, have a moment's doubt. At the last session +I ventured to place on record, in this House, a prediction by which +I must abide, let the effect of the future on my sagacity be what it +may. I have not yet seen any reason to doubt its accuracy. I now +repeat it. The experiment will ignominiously fail. + +But there are exceptions to the adoption of this peaceful policy +which it will not be wise to overlook. If there be violent and +wanton attacks upon the persons or the property of the citizens of +the United States or of their government, I see not how demands for +immediate redress can be avoided. If any interruptions should be +attempted of the regular channels of trade on the great +water-courses or on the ocean, they cannot long be permitted. And if +any considerable minorities of citizens should be persecuted or +proscribed on account of their attachment to the Union, and should +call for protection, I cannot deny the obligation of this government +to afford it. There are persons in many of the States whose +patriotic declarations and honorable pledges of support of the Union +may bring down upon them more than the ill-will of their infatuated +fellow-citizens. It would be impossible for the people of the United +States to look upon any proscription of them with indifference. +These are times which should bring together all men, by whatever +party name they may have been heretofore distinguished, upon common +ground. + +When I heard the gentlemen from Virginia the other day so bravely +and so forcibly urging their manly arguments in support of the +Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws, my heart +involuntarily bounded towards them as brethren sacredly engaged in a +common cause. Let them, said I to myself, accept the offered +settlement of the differences that remain between us, on some fair +basis like that proposed by the committee, and then, what is to +prevent us all, who yet believe that the Union must be preserved, +from joining heart and hand our common forces to effect it? When the +cry goes out that the ship is in danger of sinking, the first duty +of every man on board, no matter what his particular vocation, is to +lend all the strength he has to the work of keeping her afloat. +What! shall it be said that we waver in the view of those +who begin by trying to expunge the sacred memory of the fourth of +July? Shall we help them to obliterate the associations that cluster +around the glorious struggle for independence, or stultify the +labors of the patriots who erected this magnificent political +edifice upon the adamantine base of human liberty? Shall we +surrender the fame of Washington and Laurens, of Gadsden and the +Lees, of Jefferson and Madison, and of the myriads of heroes whose +names are imperishably connected with the memory of a united people? +Never, never! + + + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JUNIOR + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. son of Charles Francis Adams, keeps up +the tradition of his family so well that, unless it is John Adams +himself, no other member of the family surpasses him as an orator. +He was born in Boston, May 27th, 1835; graduating at Harvard +and studying law in the office of R. H. Dana, Jr. His peaceful +pursuits were interrupted by the Civil War which he entered a first +lieutenant, coming out a brevet-brigadier general. He was a chief of +squadron in the Gettysburg campaign and served in Virginia +afterwards. He was for six years president of the Union Pacific +railroad and is well known both as a financier and as an author. +The address on the Battle of Gettysburg is generally given as his +masterpiece, but he has delivered a number of other orations of high +and well-sustained eloquence. + + +THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Delivered at Quincy, Mass., July 4th, +1869) + +Six years ago this anniversary, we, and not only we who stood upon +the sacred and furrowed field of battle, but you and our whole +country, were drawing breath after the struggle of Gettysburg. For +three long days we had stood the strain of conflict, and now, at +last, when the nation's birthday dawned, the shattered rebel columns +had suddenly withdrawn from our front, and we drew that long breath +of deep relief which none have ever drawn who have not passed in +safety through the shock of doubtful battle. Nor was our country +gladdened then by news from Gettysburg alone. The army that day +twined noble laurel garlands round the proud brow of the +motherland. Vicksburg was, thereafter, to be forever associated with +the Declaration of Independence, and the glad anniversary +rejoicings, as they rose from every town and village and city of the +loyal North, mingled with the last sullen echoes that died away from +our cannon over Cemetery Ridge, and were answered by glad shouts of +victory from the far Southwest. To all of us of this generation, +--and especially to such of us as were ourselves part of those great +events,--this celebration, therefore, now has and must ever retain +a special significance. It belonged to us, as well as to our +fathers. As upon this day ninety-three years ago this nation was +brought into existence through the efforts of others, so upon this +day six years ago I am disposed to believe through our own efforts, +it dramatically touched the climax of its great argument. + +The time that has since elapsed enables us now to look back and to +see things in their true proportions. We begin to realize that the +years we have so recently passed through, though we did not +appreciate it at the time, were the heroic years of American +history. Now that their passionate excitement is over, it is +pleasant to dwell upon them; to recall the rising of a great people; +the call to arms as it boomed from our hilltops and clashed from our +steeples; the eager patriotism of that fierce April which kindled +new sympathies in every bosom, which caused the miser to give freely +of his wealth, the wife with eager hands to pack the knapsack of her +husband, and mothers with eyes glistening with tears of pride, to +look out upon the shining bayonets of their boys; then came the +frenzy of impatience and the defeat entailed upon us by rashness and +inexperience, before our nation settled down, solidly and patiently, +to its work, determined to save itself from destruction; and then +followed the long weary years of doubt and mingled fear and hope, +until at last that day came six years ago which we now celebrate-- +the day which saw the flood, tide of rebellion reach the high-water +mark, whence it never after ceased to recede. At the moment, +probably, none of us, either at home or at the seat of war, realized +the grandeur of the situation, the dramatic power of the incidents, +or the Titanic nature of the conflict. To you who were at home, +mothers, fathers, wives, sisters, brothers, citizens of the common +country, if nothing else, the agony of suspense, the anxiety, the +joy, and, too often, the grief which was to know no end, which +marked the passage of those days, left little either of time or +inclination to dwell upon aught save the horrid reality of the +drama. To others who more immediately participated in those great +events, the daily vexations and annoyances--the hot and dusty day +--the sleepless, anxious night--the rain upon the unsheltered +bivouac--the dead lassitude which succeeded the excitement of action +--the cruel orders which recognized no fatigue and made no +allowance for labors undergone--all these small trials of the +soldier's life made it possible to but few to realize the grandeur +of the drama to which they were playing a part. Yet we were not +wholly oblivious of it. Now and then I come across strange evidences +of this in turning over the leaves of the few weather-stained, +dogeared volumes which were the companions of my life in camp. The +title page of one bears witness to the fact that it was my companion +at Gettysburg, and in it I recently found some lines of Browning's +noble poem of 'Saul' marked and altered to express my sense of our +situation, and bearing date upon this very fifth of July. The poet +had described in them the fall of snow in the springtime from a +mountain, under which nestled a valley; the altering of a few words +made them well describe the approach of our army to Gettysburg. + + "Fold on fold, all at once, we crowded thundrously down to your + feet; + And there fronts yon, stark black but alive yet, your army of old + With its rents, the successive bequeathing of conflicts untold. + Yea, each harm got in fighting your battles, each furrow and scar + Of its head thrust twixt you and the tempest--all hail, here we + are." + +And there we were, indeed, and then and there was enacted such a +celebration as I hope may never again be witnessed there or +elsewhere on another fourth of July. Even as I stand here before +you, through the lapse of years and the shifting experiences of the +recent past, visions and memories of those days rise thick and fast +before me. We did, indeed, crowd thundrously down to their feet. Of +the events of those three terrible days I may speak with feeling and +yet with modesty, for small, indeed, was the part which those with +whom I served were called upon to play. When those great bodies of +infantry drove together in the crash of battle, the clouds of +cavalry which had hitherto covered up their movements were swept +aside to the flanks. Our work for the time was done, nor had it been +an easy or a pleasant work. The road to Gettysburg had been paved +with our bodies and watered with our blood. Three weeks before, in +the middle days of June, I, a captain of cavalry, had taken the +field at the head of one hundred mounted men, the joy and pride of +my life. Through twenty days of almost incessant conflict the hand +of death had been heavy upon us, and now, upon the eve of +Gettysburg, thirty-four of the hundred only remained, and our +comrades were dead on the field of battle, or languishing in +hospitals, or prisoners in the hands of the enemy. Six brave young +fellows we had buried in one grave where they fell on the heights of +Aldie. It was late on the evening of the first of July, that there +came to us rumors of heavy fighting at Gettysburg, nearly forty +miles away. The regiment happened then to be detached, and its +orders for the second were to move in the rear of Sedgwick's corps +and see that no man left the column. All that day we marched to the +sound of the cannon. Sedgwick, very grim and stern, was pressing +forward his tired men, and we soon saw that for once there would be +no stragglers from the ranks. As the day grew old and as we passed +rapidly up from the rear to the head of the hurrying column, the +roar of battle grew more distinct, until at last we crowned a hill, +and the contest broke upon us. Across the deep valley, some two +miles away, we could see the white smoke of the bursting shells, +while below the sharp incessant rattle of the musketry told of the +fierce struggle that was going on. Before us ran the straight, +white, dusty road, choked with artillery, ambulances, caissons, +ammunition trains, all pressing forward to the field of battle, +while mixed among them, their bayonets gleaming through the dust +like wavelets on a river of steel, tired, foot-sore, hungry, +thirsty, begrimed with sweat and dust, the gallant infantry of +Sedgwick's corps hurried to the sound of the cannon as men might +have flocked to a feast. Moving rapidly forward, we crossed the +brook which ran so prominently across the map of the field of +battle, and halted on its further side to await our orders. Hardly +had I dismounted from my horse when, looking back, I saw that the +head of the column had reached the brook and deployed and halted on +its other bank, and already the stream was filled with naked men +shouting with pleasure as they washed off the sweat of their long +day's march. Even as I looked, the noise of the battle grew louder, +and soon the symptoms of movement were evident. The rappel was +heard, the bathers hurriedly clad themselves, the ranks were formed, +and the sharp, quick snap of the percussion caps told us the men +were preparing their weapons for action. Almost immediately a +general officer rode rapidly to the front of the line, addressed to +it a few brief, energetic words, the short sharp order to move by +the flank was given, followed immediately by the "double-quick"; the +officer placed himself at the head of the column, and that brave +infantry which had marched almost forty miles since the setting of +yesterday's sun,--which during that day had hardly known either +sleep, or food, or rest, or shelter from the July heat,--now, as +the shadows grew long, hurried forward on the run to take its place +in the front of battle and to bear up the reeling fortunes of the +day. + +It is said that at the crisis of Solferino, Marshal McMahon appeared +with his corps upon the field of battle, his men having run for +seven miles. We need not go abroad for examples of endurance and +soldierly bearing. The achievement of Sedgwick and the brave Sixth +Corps, as they marched upon the field of Gettysburg on that second +day of July, far excels the vaunted efforts of the French Zouaves. + +Twenty-four hours later we stood on that same ground. Many dear +friends had yielded up their young lives during the hours which had +elapsed, but, though twenty thousand fellow-creatures were wounded +or dead around us, though the flood gates of heaven seemed opened +and the torrents fell upon the quick and the dead, yet the elements +seemed electrified with a certain magic influence of victory, and as +the great army sank down over-wearied in its tracks it felt that the +crisis and danger was passed,--that Gettysburg was immortal. + +May I not, then, well express the hope that never again may we or +ours be called upon so to celebrate this anniversary? And yet now +that the passionate hopes and fears of those days are all over,-- +now that the grief which can never be forgotten is softened and +modified by the soothing hand of time,--now that the distracting +doubts and untold anxieties are buried and almost forgotten,--we +love to remember the gathering of the hosts, to bear again in memory +the shock of battle, and to wonder at the magnificence of the +drama. The passion and the excitement are gone, and we can look at +the work we have done and pronounce upon it. I do not fear the sober +second judgment. Our work was a great work,--it was well done, and +it was done thoroughly. Some one has said, "Happy is the people +which has no history." Not so! As it is better to have loved and +lost than never to have loved at all, so it is better to have lived +greatly, even though we have suffered greatly, than to have passed a +long life of inglorious ease. Our generation,--yes, we ourselves +have been a part of great things. We have suffered greatly and +greatly rejoiced; we have drunk deep of the cup of joy and of +sorrow; we have tasted the agony of defeat, and we have supped full +with the pleasures of victory. We have proved ourselves equal to +great deeds, and have learnt what qualities were in us, which in +more peaceful times we ourselves did not suspect. + +And, indeed, I would here in closing fain address a few words to +such of you, if any such are here, who like myself may nave been +soldiers during the War of the Rebellion. We should never more be +partisans. We have been a part of great events in the service of the +common country, we have worn her uniform, we have received her pay +and devoted ourselves to the death, if need be, in her service. When +we were blackened by the smoke of Antietam, we did not ask or care +whether those who stood shoulder to shoulder beside us, whether he +who led us, whether those who sustained us, were Democrats or +Republicans, conservatives or radicals; we asked only that they +might prove as true as was the steel we grasped, and as brave as we +ourselves would fain have been. When we stood like a wall of stone +vomiting fire from the heights of Gettysburg,--nailed to our +position through three long days of mortal Hell,--did we ask each +other whether that brave officer who fell while gallantly leading +the counter-charge--whether that cool gunner steadily serving his +piece before us amid the storm of shot and shell--whether the poor +wounded, mangled, gasping comrades, crushed and torn, and dying in +agony around us--had voted for Lincoln or Douglas, for Breckenridge +or Bell? We then were full of other thoughts. We prized men for what +they were worth to the common country of us all, and recked not of +empty words. Was the man true, was he brave, was he earnest, was all +we thought of then;--not, did he vote or think with us, or label +himself with our party name? This lesson let us try to remember. We +cannot give to party all that we once offered to country, but our duty +is not yet done. We are no longer, what we have been, the young guard +of the Republic; we have earned an exemption from the dangers of the +field and camp, and the old musket or the crossed sabres hang harmless +over our winter fires, never more to be grasped in these hands +henceforth devoted to more peaceful labors; but the duties of the +citizen, and of the citizen who has received his baptism in fire, are +still incumbent upon us. Though young in years, we should remember +that henceforth, and as long as we live in the land, we are the +ancients,--the veterans of the Republic. As such, it is for us to +protect in peace what we preserved in war; it is for us to look at all +things with a view to the common country and not to the exigencies of +party politics; it is for us ever to bear in mind the higher +allegiance we have sworn, and to remember that he who has once been a +soldier of the motherland degrades himself forever when he becomes the +slave of faction. Then at last, if through life we ever bear these +lessons freshly in mind will it be well for us, will it be well for +our country, will it be well for those whose names we bear, that our +bones also do not molder with those of our brave comrades beneath the +sods of Gettysburg, or that our graves do not look down on the +swift-flowing Mississippi from the historic heights of Vicksburg? + + + +JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826) + +John Adams, second President of the United States, was not a man of +the strong emotional temperament which so often characterizes the +great orator. He was fitted by nature for a student and scholar +rather than to lead men by the direct appeal the orator makes to +their emotions, their passions, or their judgment His inclinations +were towards the Church; but after graduating from Harvard College, +which he entered at the age of sixteen, he had a brief experience as +a school-teacher and found it so distasteful to him that he adopted +the law as a relief, without waiting to consult his inclinations +further. "Necessity drove me to this determination," he writes, "but +my inclination was to preach." He began the practice of law in his +native village of Braintree, Massachusetts, and took no prominent +part in public affairs until 1765, when he appeared as counsel for +the town of Boston in proceedings growing out of the Stamp Act +difficulties. + +From this time on, his name is constantly associated with the great +events of the Revolution. That be never allowed his prejudices as a +patriot to blind him to his duties as a lawyer, he showed by +appearing as counsel for the British soldiers who killed Crispus +Attucks, Samuel Gray, and others, in the Boston riot of 1770. He was +associated in this case with Josiah Quincy, and the two +distinguished patriots conducted the case with such ability that the +soldiers were acquitted--as no doubt they should have been. + +Elected a member of the Continental Congress, Mr. Adams did work in +it which identified him in an enduring way with the formative period +of republican institutions in America. This must be remembered in +passing upon his acts when as President, succeeding Washington, he +is brought into strong contrast with the extreme republicans of the +French school. In the Continental Congress, contrasted with English +royalists and conservatives Mr. Adams himself appeared an extremist, +as later on, under the same law of contrast, he appeared +conservative when those who were sometimes denounced as "Jacobins" +and "Levellers" were fond of denouncing him as a disguised royalist. + +Prior to his administration as President, he had served as +commissioner to the court of France, "Minister Plenipotentiary for +the Purpose of Negotiating a Treaty of Peace and Commerce with Great +Britain"; commissioner to conclude a treaty with the States-General +of Holland; minister to England after the conclusion of peace, and +finally as Vice-President under Washington. His services in every +capacity in which he was engaged for his country showed his great +ability and zeal: but in the struggle over the Alien and Sedition +Laws his opponents gave him no quarter and when he retired from the +Presidency it was with the feeling, shared to some extent by his +great opponent Jefferson, that republics never have a proper regard +for the services and sacrifices of statesmen, though they are only +too ready to reward military heroes beyond their deserts. The author +of 'Familiar Letters on Public Affairs' writes of Mr. Adams:-- + +"He was a man of strong mind, great learning, and eminent ability to +use knowledge both in speech and writing. He was ever a firm +believer in Christianity, not from habit and example but from a +diligent investigation of its proofs. He had an uncompromising +regard for his own opinion and was strongly contrasted with +Washington in this respect. He seemed to have supposed that his +opinions could not have been corrected by those of other men or +bettered by any comparison." + +It might be inferred from this that Mr. Adams was as obstinate in +prejudice as in opinion, but as he had demonstrated to the contrary +in taking the unpopular cause of the British soldiers at the +beginning of his public career, he showed it still more strikingly +by renewing and continuing until his death a friendship with +Jefferson which had been interrupted by the fierce struggle over the +Alien and Sedition Act. + + +INAUGURAL ADDRESS (March 4th. 1797) + +When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course +for America remained, between unlimited submission to a foreign +legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of +reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable +powers of fleets and armies they must determine to resist, than from +those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise +concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole +and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on +the purity of their attentions, the justice of their cause, and the +integrity and intelgence of the people, under an over-ruling +Providence, which had so signally protected this country from the +first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little +more than half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the +chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was lifted up, +but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched +into an ocean of uncertainty. + +The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary War, +supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order, +sufficient, at least, for the temporary preservation of society. The +confederation, which was early felt to be necessary, was prepared +from the models of the Bavarian and Helvetic confederacies, the only +examples which remain, with any detail and precision, in history, +and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever +considered. But, reflecting on the striking difference, in so many +particulars, between this country and those where a courier may go +from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was +then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the +formation of it, that it could not be durable. + +Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, +if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in +States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences-- +universal languor, jealousies, rivalries of States, decline of +navigation and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, +universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of +public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with +foreign nations; and, at length, in discontents, animosities, +combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening +some great national calamity. + +In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were not abandoned +by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or +integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more +perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, +provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and +secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, +discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy +constitution of government. + +Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course +of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United +States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, +animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read +it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads, prompted by +good hearts; as an experiment better adapted to the genius, +character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than +any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general +principles and great outlines, it was conformable to such a system +of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my +own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. +Claiming a right of suffrage common with my fellow-citizens in the +adoption or rejection of a constitution, which was to rule me and my +posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express +my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It +was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it, in my mind, +that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I +entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it, but such as +the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see +and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives +in Congress and the State legislature, according to the constitution +itself, adopt and ordain. + +Returning to the bosom of my country, after a painful separation +from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station +under the new order of things; and I have repeatedly laid myself +under the most serious obligations to support the constitution. The +operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its +friends; and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its +administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, +prosperity, and happiness of the nation, I have acquired an habitual +attachment to it, and veneration for it. + +What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our +esteem and love? + +There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations +of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the +sight of superior intelligences; but this is very certain, that to a +benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any +nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an +assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the +other chamber of Congress--of a government in which the executive +authority, as well as that of all the branches of the legislature, +are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their +neighbors, to make and execute laws for the general good. Can any +thing essential, any thing more, than mere ornament and decoration +be added to this by robes or diamonds? Can authority be more +amiable or respectable when it descends from accident or +institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs +fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened +people? For it is the people that are represented; it is their power +and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every +legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The +existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a +full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue +throughout the whole body of the people. And what object of +consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human +mind? If natural pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when +it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from +conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence. + +In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be unfaithful to +ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our +liberties--if anything partial or extraneous should infect the +purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an +election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and +that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the +government may be the choice of a party, for its own ends, not of +the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be +obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or +violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the government may not +be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may +be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern +ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that, in such cases, +choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance. + +Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such +are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people +of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise +and virtuous of all nations for eight years, under the administration +of a citizen, who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by +prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people +inspired with the same virtues, and animated with the same ardent +patriotism and love of liberty, to independence and peace, to +increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the +gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of +foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity. + +In that retirement, which is his voluntary choice, may he long live +to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services--the gratitude +of mankind; the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which +are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future +fortunes of his country, which is opening from year to year. His +name may be still a rampart and the knowledge that he lives a +bulwark against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace. + +This example has been recommended to the imitation of his +successors, by both houses of Congress, and by the voice of the +legislatures and the people, throughout the nation. + +On this subject it might become me better to be silent, or to speak +with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I +hope, will be admitted as an apology, if I venture to say, that if a +preference upon principle, of a free republican government, formed +upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial +inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the +United States, and a conscientious determination to support it, +until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, +expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a respectful attention to +the constitution of the individual States, and a constant caution +and delicacy towards the State governments; if an equal and +impartial regard to the rights, interests, honor, and happiness of +all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a +northern or southern, eastern or western position, their various +political opinions on essential points, or their personal +attachments; if a love of virtuous men, of all parties and +denominations; if a love of science or letters and a wish to +patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, +universities, academies, and every institution of propagating +knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of people, not +only for their benign influence on the happiness of life, in all its +stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only +means of preserving our constitution from its natural enemies, the +spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, +profligacy, and corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, +which is the angel of destruction to elective governments, if a love +of equal laws, of justice and humanity, in the interior administration; +if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufactures +for necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and +humanity towards the aboriginal nations of America, and a +disposition to ameliorate their condition by inclining them to be +more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them; +if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable +faith with all nations, and the system of neutrality and +impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been +adopted by the government, and so solemnly sanctioned by both houses +of Congress, and applauded by the legislatures of the States and by +public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if +a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of +seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the +friendship, which has been so much for the honor and interest of +both nations; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the +people of America and the internal sentiment of their own power and +energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every +just cause, and remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an +intention to pursue, by amicable negotiation, a reparation for the +injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our +fellow-citizens, by whatever nation; and, if success cannot be +obtained, to lay the facts before the legislature, that they may +consider what further measures the honor and interest of the +government and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do +justice, as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all +nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all +the world; if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and +resources of the American people, on which I have so often hazarded +my all, and never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the high +destinies of this country, and of my own duties towards it, founded +on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements +of the people, deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not +obscured, but exalted, by experience and age; and with humble +reverence, I feel it my duty to add, if a veneration for the +religion of the people who profess and call themselves Christians, +and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity +among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable +me, in any degree, to comply with your wishes, it shall be my +strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two houses +shall not be without effect. + +With this great example before me--with the sense and spirit, the +faith and honor, the duty and interest of the same American people, +pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I +entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy; and my mind +is prepared, without hesitation, to lay myself under the most solemn +obligations to support it to the utmost of my power. + +And may that Being who is supreme over all, the patron of order, the +fountain of justice, and the protector, in all ages of the world, of +virtuous liberty, continue his blessing upon this nation and its +government, and give it all possible success and duration, +consistent with the ends of his providence! + + +THE BOSTON MASSACRE + +(First Day's Speech in Defense of the British Soldiers Accused of +Murdering Attucks, Gray and Others, in the Boston Riot of 1770) + +_May_ _If_ _Please_ _Your_ _Honor_,_ and_ _You_,_ Gentlemen_ _of_ +_the_ _Jury_:-- + +I am for the prisoners at the bar, and shall apologize for it only in +the words of the Marquis Beccaria:-- + +"If I can but be the instrument of preserving one life, his +blessings and tears of transport shall be a sufficient consolation +for me for the contempt of all mankind." + +As the prisoners stand before you for their lives, it may be proper +to recollect with what temper the law requires we should proceed to +this trial. The form of proceeding at their arraignment has +discovered that the spirit of the law upon such occasions is +conformable to humanity, to common sense and feeling; that it is all +benignity and candor. And the trial commences with the prayer of the +court, expressed by the clerk, to the Supreme Judge of judges, +empires, and worlds, "God send you a good deliverance." + +We find in the rules laid down by the greatest English judges, who +have been the brightest of mankind: We are to look upon it as more +beneficial that many guilty persons should escape unpunished than +one innocent should suffer. The reason is, because it is of more +importance to the community that innocence should be protected than +it is that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so +frequent in the world that all of them cannot be punished; and many +times they happen in such a manner that it is not of much +consequence to the public whether they are punished or not. But when +innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to +die, the subject will exclaim, "It is immaterial to me whether I +behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security." And if such a +sentiment as this should take place in the mind of the subject, +there would be an end to all security whatsoever, I will read the +words of the law itself. + +The rules I shall produce to you from Lord Chief-Justice Hale, whose +character as a lawyer, a man of learning and philosophy, and a +Christian, will be disputed by nobody living; one of the greatest +and best characters the English nation ever produced. His words are +these:-- + +(2 H. H. P. C.): _Tutius_ _semper_ _est_ _errare_, _in_ +_acquietando_ _quam_ _in_ _puniendo_, _ex_ _parte_ _misericordiae_ +_quam_ _ex_ _parte_ _justitiae_.--"It is always safer to err in +acquitting than punishing, on the part of mercy than the part of +justice." + +The next is from the same authority, 305:-- + +_Tutius_ _erratur_ _ex_ _parte_ _mitiori_,--"It is always safer to +err on the milder side, the side of mercy." + +(H. H. P. C. 509): "The best rule in doubtful cases is rather to +incline to acquittal than conviction." + +And on page 300:-- + +_Quod_ _dubitas_, _ne_ _feceris_.--"Where you are doubtful, never act; +that is, if you doubt of the prisoner's guilt, never declare him +guilty." + +This is always the rule, especially in cases of life. Another rule +from the same author, 289, where he says:-- + +"In some cases presumptive evidences go far to prove a person +guilty, though there is no express proof of the fact to be committed +by him; but then it must be very warily expressed, for it is better +five guilty persons should escape unpunished than one innocent +person should die." + +The next authority shall be from another judge of equal character, +considering the age wherein he lived; that is, Chancellor Fortescue +in 'Praise of the Laws of England,' page 59. This is a very +ancient writer on the English law. His words are:-- + +"Indeed, one would rather, much rather, that twenty guilty persons +escape punishment of death, than one innocent person be condemned +and suffer capitally." + +Lord Chief-Justice Hale says:-- + +"It is better five guilty persons escape, than one innocent person +suffer." + +Lord Chancellor Fortescue, you see, carries the matter further, and +says:-- + +"Indeed, one had rather, much rather, that twenty guilty persons +should escape than one innocent person suffer capitally." + +Indeed, this rule is not peculiar to the English law; there never +was a system of laws in the world in which this rule did not +prevail. It prevailed in the ancient Roman law, and, which is more +remarkable, it prevails in the modern Roman law. Even the judges in +the Courts of Inquisition, who with racks, burnings, and scourges +examine criminals,--even there they preserve it as a maxim, that +it is better the guilty should escape punishment than the innocent +suffer. _Satius_ _esse_ _nocentem_ _absolvi_ _quam_ _innocentem_ +_damnari_. This is the temper we ought to set out with, and these +the rules we are to be governed by. And I shall take it for granted, +as a first principle, that the eight prisoners at the bar had better +be all acquitted, though we should admit them all to be guilty, than +that any one of them should, by your verdict, be found guilty, being +innocent. + +I shall now consider the several divisions of law under which the +evidence will arrange itself. + +The action now before you is homicide; that is, the killing of one +man by another. The law calls it homicide; but it is not criminal in +all cases for one man to slay another. Had the prisoners been on the +Plains of Abraham and slain a hundred Frenchmen apiece, the English +law would have considered it as a commendable action, virtuous and +praiseworthy; so that every instance of killing a man is not a crime +in the eye of the law. There are many other instances which I cannot +enumerate--an officer that executes a person under sentence of +death, etc. So that, gentlemen, every instance of one man's killing +another is not a crime, much less a crime to be punished with death. +But to descend to more particulars. + +The law divides homicide into three branches; the first is +"justifiable," the second "excusable," and the third "felonious." +Felonious homicide is subdivided into two branches; the first is +murder, which is killing with malice aforethought; the second is +manslaughter, which is killing a man on a sudden provocation. Here, +gentlemen, are four sorts of homicide; and you are to consider +whether all the evidence amounts to the first, second, third or +fourth of these heads. The fact was the slaying five unhappy persons +that night. You are to consider whether it was justifiable, +excusable, or felonious; and if felonious, whether it was murder or +manslaughter. One of these four it must be. You need not divide your +attention to any more particulars. I shall, however, before I come +to the evidence, show you several authorities which will assist you +and me in contemplating the evidence before us. + +I shall begin with justifiable homicide. If an officer, a sheriff, +execute a man on the gallows, draw and quarter him, as in case of +high treason, and cut off his head, this is justifiable homicide. It +is his duty. So also, gentlemen, the law has planted fences and +barriers around every individual; it is a castle round every man's +person, as well as his house. As the love of God and our neighbor +comprehends the whole duty of man, so self-love and social +comprehend all the duties we owe to mankind; and the first branch is +self-love, which is not only our indisputable right, but our +clearest duty. By the laws of nature, this is interwoven in the +heart of every individual. God Almighty, whose law we cannot alter, +has implanted it there, and we can annihilate ourselves as easily as +root out this affection for ourselves. It is the first and strongest +principle in our nature. Justice Blackstone calls it "The primary +canon in the law of nature." That precept of our holy religion which +commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves does not command us to +love our neighbor better than ourselves, or so well. No Christian +divine has given this interpretation. The precept enjoins that our +benevolence to our fellow-men should be as real and sincere as our +affection to ourselves, not that it should be as great in degree. A +man is authorized, therefore, by common sense and the laws of +England, as well as those of nature, to love himself better than his +fellow-subject. If two persons are cast away at sea, and get on a +plank (a case put by Sir Francis Bacon), and the plank is +insufficient to hold them both, the one has a right to push the +other off to save himself. The rules of the common law, therefore +which authorize a man to preserve his own life at the expense of +another's, are not contradicted by any divine or moral law. We talk +of liberty and property, but if we cut up the law of self-defense, +we cut up the foundations of both; and if we give up this, the rest +is of very little value, and therefore this principle must be +strictly attended to; for whatsoever the law pronounces in the case +of these eight soldiers will be the law to other persons and after +ages. All the persons that have slain mankind in this country from +the beginning to this day had better have been acquitted than that a +wrong rule and precedent should be established. + +I shall now read to you a few authorities on this subject of +self-defense. Foster, 273 (in the case of justifiable self-defense): + +"The injured party may repel force with force in defense of person, +habitation, or property, against one who manifestly intendeth and +endeavoreth with violence or surprise to commit a known felony upon +either. In these cases he is not obliged to retreat, but pursue his +adversary till he finds himself out of danger; and a conflict +between them he happeneth to kill, such killing is fiable." + +I must entreat you to consider the words of this authority. The +injured person may repel force by force against any who endeavoreth +to commit any kind of felony on him or his. Here the rule is, I have +a right to stand on my own defense, if you intend to commit +felony. If any of the persons made an attack on these soldiers, with +an intention to rob them, if it was but to take their hats +feloniously, they had a right to kill them on the spot, and had no +business to retreat. If a robber meet me in the street and command +me to surrender my purse, I have a right to kill him without asking +any questions. If a person commit a bare assault on me, this will +not justify killing; but if he assault me in such a manner as to +discover an intention to kill me, I have a right to destroy him, +that I may put it out of his power to kill me. In the case you will +have to consider, I do not know there was any attempt to steal from +these persons; however, there were some persons concerned who would, +probably enough, have stolen, if there had been anything to +steal, and many were there who had no such disposition. But this is +not the point we aim at. The question is, Are you satisfied the +people made the attack in order to kill the soldiers? If you are +satisfied that the people, whoever they were, made that assault with +a design to kill or maim the soldiers, this was such an assault as +will justify the soldiers killing in their own defense. Further, it +seems to me, we may make another question, whether you are satisfied +that their real intention was to kill or maim, or not? If any +reasonable man in the situation of one of these soldiers would have +had reason to believe in the time of it, that the people came with +an intention to kill him, whether you have this satisfaction now or +not in your own minds, they were justifiable, at least excusable, in +firing. You and I may be suspicious that the people who made this +assault on the soldiers did it to put them to flight, on purpose +that they might go exulting about the town afterwards in triumph; +but this will not do. You must place yourselves in the situation of +Weems and Killroy--consider yourselves as knowing that the prejudice +of the world about you thought you came to dragoon them into +obedience, to statutes, instructions, mandates, and edicts, which +they thoroughly detested--that many of these people were +thoughtless and inconsiderate, old and young, sailors and landsmen, +negroes and mulattoes--that they, the soldiers, had no friends +about them, the rest were in opposition to them; with all the bells +ringing to call the town together to assist the people in King +Street, for they knew by that time that there was no fire; the +people shouting, huzzaing, and making the mob whistle, as they call +it, which, when a boy makes it in the street is no formidable thing, +but when made by a multitude is a most hideous shriek, almost as +terrible as an Indian yell; the people crying, "Kill them, kill +them. Knock them over," heaving snowballs, oyster shells, clubs, +white-birch sticks three inches and a half in diameter; consider +yourselves in this situation, and then judge whether a reasonable +man in the soldiers' situation would not have concluded they were +going to kill him. I believe if I were to reverse the scene, I +should bring it home to our own bosoms. Suppose Colonel Marshall +when he came out of his own door and saw these grenadiers coming +down with swords, etc., had thought it proper to have appointed a +military watch; suppose he had assembled Gray and Attucks that were +killed, or any other person in town, and appointed them in that +situation as a military watch, and there had come from Murray's +barracks thirty or forty soldiers with no other arms than snowballs, +cakes of ice, oyster shells, cinders, and clubs, and attacked this +military watch in this manner, what do you suppose would have been +the feelings and reasonings of any of our householders? I confess, I +believe they would not have borne one-half of what the witnesses +have sworn the soldiers bore, till they had shot down as many as +were necessary to intimidate and disperse the rest; because the law +does not oblige us to bear insults to the danger of our lives, to +stand still with such a number of people around us, throwing such +things at us, and threatening our lives, until we are disabled to +defend ourselves. + +(Foster, 274): "Where a known felony is attempted upon the person, +be it to rob or murder, here the party assaulted may repel force +with force, and even his own servant, then attendant on him, or any +other person present, may interpose for preventing mischief, and if +death ensue, the party so interposing will be justified. In this +case nature and social duty co-operate." + +Hawkins, P. C., Chapter 28, Section 25, towards the end:--"Yet it +seems that a private person, _a_ _fortiori_, an officer of justice, who +happens unavoidably to kill another in endeavoring to defend himself +from or suppress dangerous rioters, may justify the fact in as much +as he only does his duty in aid of the public justice." + +Section 24:--"And I can see no reason why a person, who, without +provocation, is assaulted by another, in any place whatsoever, in +such a manner as plainly shows an intent to murder him, as by +discharging a pistol, or pushing at him with a drawn sword, etc., +may not justify killing such an assailant, as much as if he had +attempted to rob him. For is not he who attempts to murder me more +injurious than he who barely attempts to rob me? And can it be more +justifiable to fight for my goods than for my life?" + +And it is not only highly agreeable to reason that a man in such +circumstances may lawfully kill another, but it seems also to be +confirmed by the general tenor of our books, which, speaking of +homicide _se_ _defendo_, suppose it done in some quarrel or affray. + +(Hawkins, p. 71. section 14); "And so, perhaps, the killing of dangerous +rioters may be justified by any private persons, who cannot +otherwise suppress them or defend themselves from them, inasmuch as +every private person seems to be authorized by the law to arm +himself for the purposes aforesaid." + +Here every private person is authorized to arm himself; and on the +strength of this authority I do not deny the inhabitants had a right +to arm themselves at that time for their defense, not for +offense. That distinction is material, and must be attended to. + +(Hawkins, p. 75, section 14): "And not only he who on an assault retreats +to the wall, or some such strait, beyond which he can go no further +before he kills the other, is judged by the law to act upon +unavoidable necessity; but also he who being assaulted in such a +manner and in such a place that he cannot go back without manifestly +endangering his life, kills the other without retreating at all." + +(Section 16); "And an officer who kills one that insults him in the +execution of his office, and where a private person that kills one +who feloniously assaults him in the highway, may justify the fact +without ever giving back at all." + +There is no occasion for the magistrate to read the riot act. In the +case before you, I suppose you will be satisfied when you come to +examine the witnesses and compare it with the rules of the common +law, abstracted from all mutiny acts and articles of war, that these +soldiers were in such a situation that they could not help +themselves. People were coming from Royal Exchange Lane, and other +parts of the town, with clubs and cord-wood sticks; the soldiers +were planted by the wail of the Customhouse; they could not retreat; +they were surrounded on all sides, for there were people behind them +as well as before them; there were a number of people in the Royal +Exchange Lane; the soldiers were so near to the Customhouse that +they could not retreat, unless they had gone into the brick wall of +it. I shall show you presently that all the party concerned in this +unlawful design were guilty of what any one of them did; if anybody +threw a snowball it was the act of the whole party; if any struck +with a club or threw a club, and the club had killed anybody, the +whole party would have been guilty of murder in the law. Lord +Chief-Justice Holt, in Mawgrige's case (Keyling, 128), says:-- + +"Now, it has been held, that if A of his malice prepense assaults B +to kill him, and B draws his sword and attacks A and pursues him, +then A, for his safety, gives back and retreats to a wall, and B +still pursuing him with his drawn sword, A in his defense kills B; +this is murder in A. For A having malice against B, and in pursuance +thereof endeavoring to kill him, is answerable for all the +consequences of which he was the original cause. It is not +reasonable for any man that is dangerously assaulted, and when he +perceives his life in danger from his adversary, but to have liberty +for the security of his own life, to pursue him that maliciously +assaulted him; for he that has manifested that he has malice against +another is not at to be trusted with a dangerous weapon in his +hand. And so resolved by all the judges when they met at Seargeant's +Inn, in preparation for my Lord Morley's trial." + +In the case here we will take Montgomery, if you please, when he was +attacked by the stout man with a stick, who aimed it at his head, +with a number of people round him crying out, "Kill them, kill +them." Had he not a right to kill the man? If all the party were +guilty of the assault made by the stout man, and all of them had +discovered malice in their hearts, had not Montgomery a right, +according to Lord Chief-Justice Holt, to put it out of their power +to wreak their malice upon him? I will not at present look for any +more authorities in the point of self-defense; you will be able to +judge from these how far the law goes in justifying or excusing any +person in defense of himself, or taking away the life of another who +threatens him in life or limb. The next point is this: that in case +of an unlawful assembly, all and every one of the assembly is guilty +of all and every unlawful act committed by any one of that assembly +in prosecution of the unlawful design set out upon. + +Rules of law should be universally known, whatever effect they may +have on politics; they are rules of common law, the law of the land; +and it is certainly true, that wherever there is an unlawful +assembly, let it consist of many persons or of a few, every man in +it is guilty of every unlawful act committed by any one of the whole +party, be they more or be they less, in pursuance of their unlawful +design. This is the policy of the law; to discourage and prevent +riots, insurrections, turbulence, and tumults. + +In the continual vicissitudes of human things, amidst the shocks of +fortune and the whirls of passion that take place at certain +critical seasons, even in the mildest government, the people are +liable to run into riots and tumults. There are Church-quakes and +State-quakes in the moral and political world, as well as +earthquakes, storms, and tempests in the physical. Thus much, +however, must be said in favor of the people and of human nature, +that it is a general, if not a universal truth, that the aptitude of +the people to mutinies, seditions, tumults, and insurrections, is in +direct proportion to the despotism of the government. In +governments completely despotic,--that is, where the will of one +man is the only law, this disposition is most prevalent. In +aristocracies next; in mixed monarchies, less than either of the +former; in complete republics the least of all, and under the same +form of governments as in a limited monarchy, for example, the +virtue and wisdom of the administrations may generally be measured +by the peace and order that are seen among the people. However this +may be, such is the imperfection of all things in this world, that +no form of government, and perhaps no virtue or wisdom in the +administration, can at all times avoid riots and disorders among the +people. + +Now, it is from this difficulty that the policy of the law has +framed such strong discouragements to secure the people against +tumults; because, when they once begin, there is danger of their +running to such excesses as will overturn the whole system of +government. There is the rule from the reverend sage of the law, so +often quoted before:-- + +(1 H. H. P. C. 437): "All present, aiding and assisting, are equally +principal with him that gave the stroke whereof the party died. For +though one gave the stroke, yet in interpretation of law it is the +stroke of every person that was present, aiding and assisting." + +(1 H. H. P. C. 440): "If divers come with one assent to do mischief, +as to kill, to rob or beat, and one doeth it, they are all +principals in the felony. If many be present and one only give the +stroke whereof the party dies, they are all principal, if they came +for that purpose." + +Now, if the party at Dock Square came with an intention only to beat +the soldiers, and began to affray with them, and any of them had +been accidentally killed, it would have been murder, because it was +an unlawful design they came upon. If but one does it they are all +considered in the eye of the law guilty; if any one gives the mortal +stroke, they are all principals here, therefore there is a reversal +of the scene. If you are satisfied that these soldiers were there +on a lawful design, and it should be proved any of them shot without +provocation, and killed anybody, he only is answerable for it. + +(First Kale's Pleas of the Crown, 1 H. H. P. C. 444): "Although if +many come upon an unlawful design, and one of the company till one +of the adverse party in pursuance of that design, all are +principals; yet if many be together upon a lawful account, and one +of the company kill another of the adverse party, without any +particular abetment of the rest to this fact of homicide, they are +not all guilty that are of the company, but only those that gave the +stroke or actually abetted him to do it." + +(1 H. H. P. C. 445): "In case of a riotous assembly to rob or steal +deer, or to do any unlawful act of violence, there the offense of +one is the offense of all the company." + +(In another place, 1 H. H. P. C. 439): "The Lord Dacre and divers +others went to steal deer in the park of one Pellham. Raydon, one +of the company, killed the keeper in the park, the Lord Dacre and +the rest of the company being in the other part of the park. Yet it +was adjudged murder in them all, and they died for it." (And he +quotes Crompton 25, Dalton 93. p. 241.) "So that in so strong a +case as this, where this nobleman set out to hunt deer in the ground +of another, he was in one part of the park and his company in +another part, yet they were all guilty of murder." + +The next is:-- + +(Kale's Pleas of the Crown, 1 H. H. P. C. 440): "The case of +Drayton Bassit; divers persons doing an unlawful act, all are +guilty of what is done by one." + +(Foster 353, 354): "A general resolution against all opposers, +whether such resolution appears upon evidence to have been actually +and implicitly entered into by the confederates, or may reasonably +be collected from their number, arms or behavior, at or before the +scene of action, such resolutions so proved have always been +considered as strong ingredients in cases of this kind. And in cases +of homicide committed in consequence of them, every person present, +in the sense of the law, when the homicide has been involved in the +guilt of him that gave the mortal blow." + +(Foster): "The cases of Lord Dacre, mentioned by Hale, and of +Pudsey, reported by Crompton and cited by Hale, turned upon this +point. The offenses they respectively stood charged with, as +principals, were committed far out of their sight and hearing, and +yet both were held to be present. It was sufficient that at the +instant the facts were committed, they were of the same party and +upon the same pursuit, and under the same engagements and +expectations of mutual defense and support with those that did the +facts." + +Thus far I have proceeded, and I believe it will not be hereafter +disputed by anybody, that this law ought to be known to every one +who has any disposition to be concerned in an unlawful assembly, +whatever mischief happens in the prosecution of the design they set +out upon, all are answerable for it. It is necessary we should +consider the definitions of some other crimes as well as murder; +sometimes one crime gives occasion to another. An assault is +sometimes the occasion of manslaughter, sometimes of excusable +homicide. It is necessary to consider what is a riot, (1 Hawkins, +ch. 65, section 2): I shall give you the definition of it:-- + +"Wheresoever more than three persons use force or violence, for the +accomplishment of any design whatever, all concerned are rioters." + +Were there not more than three persons in Dock Square? Did they not +agree to go to King Street, and attack the main guard? Where, then, +is the reason for hesitation at calling it a riot? If we cannot +speak the law as it is, where is our liberty? And this is law, that +wherever more than three persons are gathered together to accomplish +anything with force, it is a riot. + +(1 Hawkins, ch. 65, section 2): "Wherever more than three persons use +force and violence, all who are concerned therein are rioters. But +in some cases wherein the law authorizes force, it is lawful and +commendable to use it. As for a sheriff [2 And. 67 Poph. 121], or +constable [3 H. 7, 10, 6], or perhaps even for a private person +[Poph. 121, Moore 656], to assemble a competent number of people, in +order with force to oppose rebels or enemies or rioters, and +afterwards, with such force actually to suppress them." + +I do not mean to apply the word rebel on this occasion; I have no +reason to suppose that ever there was one in Boston, at least among +the natives of the country; but rioters are in the same situation, +as far as my argument is concerned, and proper officers may suppress +rioters, and so may even private persons. + +If we strip ourselves free from all military laws, mutiny acts, +articles of war and soldiers' oaths, and consider these prisoners as +neighbors, if any of their neighbors were attacked in King Street, +they had a right to collect together to suppress this riot and +combination. If any number of persons meet together at a fair or +market, and happen to fall together by the ears, they are not guilty +of a riot, but of a sudden affray. Here is another paragraph, which +I must read to you:-- + +(1 Hawkins, ch. 65, section 3): "If a number of persons being met together +at a fair or market, or on any other lawful or innocent occasion, +happen, on a sudden quarrel, to fall together by the ears, they are +not guilty of a riot, but of a sudden affray only, of which none are +guilty but those who actually began it," etc. + +It would be endless, as well as superfluous, to examine whether +every particular person engaged in a riot were in truth one of the +first assembly or actually had a previous knowledge of the design +thereof. I have endeavored to produce the best authorities, and to +give you the rules of law in their words, for I desire not to +advance anything of my own. I choose to lay down the rules of law +from authorities which cannot be disputed. Another point is this, +whether and how far a private person may aid another in distress? +Suppose a press-gang should come on shore in this town and assault +any sailor or householder in King Street, in order to carry him on +board one of his Majesty's ships, and impress him without any +warrant as a seaman in his Majesty's service; how far do you suppose +the inhabitants would think themselves warranted by law to interpose +against that lawless press-gang? I agree that such a press-gang +would be as unlawful an assembly as that was in King Street. If they +were to press an inhabitant and carry him off for a sailor, would not +the inhabitants think themselves warranted by law to interpose in +behalf of their fellow-citizen? Now, gentlemen, if the soldiers had +no right to interpose in the relief of the sentry, the inhabitants +would have no right to interpose with regard to the citizen, for +whatever is law for a soldier is law for a sailor and for a +citizen. They all stand upon an equal footing in this respect. I +believe we shall not have it disputed that it would be lawful to go +into King Street and help an honest man there against the +press-master. We have many instances in the books which authorize +it. + +Now, suppose you should have a jealousy in your minds that the +people who made this attack upon the sentry had nothing in their +intention more than to take him off his post, and that was +threatened by some. Suppose they intended to go a little further, +and tar and feather him, or to ride him (as the phrase is in +Hudibras), he would have had a good right to have stood upon his +defense--the defense of his liberty; and if he could not preserve +that without the hazard of his own life, he would have been +warranted in depriving those of life who were endeavoring to +deprive him of his. That is a point I would not give up for my +right hand--nay, for my life. + +Well, I say, if the people did this, or if this was only their +intention, surely the officers and soldiers had a right to go to his +relief; and therefore they set out upon a lawful errand. They were, +therefore, a lawful assembly, if we only consider them as private +subjects and fellow-citizens, without regard to mutiny acts, +articles of war, or soldiers' oaths. A private person, or any number +of private persons, has a right to go to the assistance of a +fellow-subject in distress or danger of his life, when assaulted and +in danger from a few or a multitude. + +(Keyl. 136): "If a man perceives another by force to be injuriously +treated, pressed, and restrained of his liberty, though the person +abused doth not complain or call for aid or assistance, and others, +out of compassion, shall come to his rescue, and kill any of those +that shall so restrain him, that is manslaughter." + +Keyl.: "A and others without any warrant impress B to serve the king +at sea. B quietly submitted, and went off with the pressmaster. +Hugett and the others pursued them, and required a sight of their +warrant; but they showing a piece of paper that was not a sufficient +warrant, thereupon Hugett with the others drew their swords, and the +pressmasters theirs, and so there was a combat, and those who +endeavored to rescue the pressed man killed one of the pretended +pressmasters. This was but manslaughter; for when the liberty of +one subject is invaded, it affects all the rest. It is a +provocation to all people, as being of ill example and pernicious +consequences." + +Lord Raymond, 1301. The Queen _versus_ Tooley _et_ _al_. Lord +Chief-Justice Holt says: "The prisoner (i.e. Tooley) in this had +sufficient provocation; for if one be impressed upon an unlawful +authority, it is a sufficient provocation to all people out of +compassion; and where the liberty of the subject is invaded, it is a +provocation to all the subjects of England, etc.; and surely a man +ought to be concerned for Magna Charta and the laws: and if any one, +against the law, imprisons a man, he is an offender against Magna +Charta." + +I am not insensible to Sir Michael Foster's observations on these +cases, but apprehend they do not invalidate the authority of them as +far as I now apply them to the purposes of my argument. If a +stranger, a mere fellow-subject, may interpose to defend the +liberty, he may, too, defend the life of another individual. But, +according to the evidence, some imprudent people, before the sentry, +proposed to take him off his post; others threatened his life; and +intelligence of this was carried to the main guard before any of the +prisoners turned out. They were then ordered out to relieve the +sentry; and any of our fellow-citizens might lawfully have gone upon +the same errand. They were, therefore, a lawful assembly. + +I have but one point of law more to consider, and that is this: In +the case before you I do not pretend to prove that every one of the +unhappy persons slain was concerned in the riot. The authorities +read to you just now say it would be endless to prove whether every +person that was present and in a riot was concerned in planning the +first enterprise or not. Nay, I believe it but justice to say some +were perfectly innocent of the occasion. I have reason to suppose +that one of them was--Mr. Maverick. He was a very worthy young +man, as he has been represented to me, and had no concern in the +rioters' proceedings of that night; and I believe the same may be +said in favor of one more at least, Mr. Caldwell, who was slain; +and, therefore, many people may think that as he and perhaps another +was innocent, therefore innocent blood having been shed, that must +be expiated by the death of somebody or other. I take notice of +this, because one gentleman was nominated by the sheriff for a +juryman upon this trial, because he had said he believed Captain +Preston was innocent, but innocent blood had been shed, and +therefore somebody ought to be hanged for it, which he thought was +indirectly giving his opinion in this cause. I am afraid many other +persons have formed such an opinion. I do not take it to be a rule, +that where innocent blood is shed the person must die. In the +instance of the Frenchmen on the Plains of Abraham, they were +innocent, fighting for their king and country; their blood is as +innocent as any. There may be multitudes killed, when innocent +blood is shed on all sides; so that it is not an invariable rule. I +will put a case in which, I dare say, all will agree with me. Here +are two persons, the father and the son, go out a-hunting. They +take different roads. The father hears a rushing among the bushes, +takes it to be game, fires, and kills his son, through a mistake. +Here is innocent blood shed, but yet nobody will say the father +ought to die for it. So that the general rule of law is, that +whenever one person has a right to do an act, and that act, by any +accident takes away the life of another, it is excusable. It bears +the same regard to the innocent as to the guilty. If two men are +together, and attack me, and I have a right to kill them, I strike +at them, and by mistake strike a third and kill him, as I had a +right to kill the first, my killing the other will be excusable, as +it happened by accident. If I, in the heat of passion, aim a blow +at the person who has assaulted me, and aiming at him I kill another +person, it is but manslaughter. + +(Foster. 261. section 3): "If an action unlawful in itself is done +deliberately, and with intention of mischief, or great bodily harm +to particulars, or of mischief indiscriminately, fall it where it +may, and death ensues, against or beside the original intention of +the party, it will be murder. But if such mischievous intention doth +not appear, which is matter of fact, and to be collected from +circumstances, and the act was done heedlessly and inconsiderately, +it will be manslaughter, not accidental death; because the act upon +which death ensued was unlawful." + +Suppose, in this case, the mulatto man was the person who made the +assault; suppose he was concerned in the unlawful assembly, and this +party of soldiers, endeavoring to defend themselves against him, +happened to kill another person, who was innocent--though the +soldiers had no reason, that we know of, to think any person there, +at least of that number who were crowding about them, innocent; they +might, naturally enough, presume all to be guilty of the riot and +assault, and to come with the same design--I say, if on firing on +those who were guilty, they accidentally killed an innocent person, +it was not their fault. They were obliged to defend themselves +against those who were pressing upon them. They are not answerable +for it with their lives; for on supposition it was justifiable or +excusable to kill Attucks, or any other person, it will be equally +justifiable or excusable if in firing at him they killed another, +who was innocent; or if the provocation was such as to mitigate the +guilt of manslaughter, it will equally mitigate the guilt, if they +killed an innocent man undesignedly, in aiming at him who gave the +provocation, according to Judge Foster; and as this point is of such +consequence, I must produce some more authorities for it: + +(1 Hawkins. 84): "Also, if a third person accidentally happen to be +killed by one engaged in a combat, upon a sudden quarrel, it seems +that he who killed him is guilty of manslaughter only," etc. (H. H +P. C. 442, to the same point; and 1 H. H. P. C. 484. and 4 Black, +27.) + +I shall now consider one question more, and that is concerning +provocation. We have hitherto been considering self-defense, and +how far persons may go in defending themselves against aggressors, +even by taking away their lives, and now proceed to consider such +provocations as the law allows to mitigate or extenuate the guilt of +killing, where it is not justifiable or excusable. An assault and +battery committed upon a man in such a manner as not to endanger his +life is such a provocation as the law allows to reduce killing down +to the crime of manslaughter. Now, the law has been made on more +considerations than we are capable of making at present; the law +considers a man as capable of bearing anything and everything but +blows. I may reproach a man as much as I please; I may call him a +thief, robber, traitor, scoundrel, coward, lobster, bloody-back, +etc., and if he kill me it will be murder, if nothing else but words +precede; but if from giving him such kind of language I proceed to +take him by the nose, or fillip him on the forehead, that is an +assault; that is a blow. The law will not oblige a man to stand +still and bear it; there is the distinction. Hands off; touch me +not. As soon as you touch me, if I run you through the heart, it is +but manslaughter. The utility of this distinction, the more you +think of it the more you will be satisfied with it. It is an +assault whenever a blow is struck, let it be ever so slight, and +sometimes even without a blow. The law considers man as frail and +passionate. When his passions are touched, he will be thrown off +his guard, and therefore the law makes allowance for this frailty +--considers him as in a fit of passion, not having the possession of +his intellectual faculties, and therefore does not oblige him to +measure out his blows with a yard-stick, or weigh them in a scale. +Let him kill with a sword, gun, or hedge-stake, it is not murder, +but only manslaughter. + +(Keyling's Report, 135. Regina _versus_ Mawgrige.) "Rules supported +by authority and general consent, showing what are always allowed to +be sufficient provocations. First, if one man upon any words shall +make an assault upon another, either by pulling him by the nose or +filliping him on the forehead, and he that is so assaulted shall +draw his sword and immediately run the other through, that is but +manslaughter, for the peace is broken by the person killed and with +an indignity to him that received the assault. Besides, he that was +so affronted might reasonably apprehend that he that treated him in +that manner might have some further design upon him." + +So that here is the boundary, when a man is assaulted and kills in +consequence of that assault, it is but manslaughter. I will just +read as I go along the definition of assault:-- + +(1 Hawkins. ch. 62, section 1): "An assault is an attempt or offer, with +force or violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking +at him with or without a weapon, or presenting a gun at him at such +a distance to which the gun will carry, or pointing a pitchfork at +him, or by any other such like act done in angry, threatening +manner, etc.; but no words can amount to an assault," + +Here is the definition of an assault, which is a sufficient +provocation to soften killing down to manslaughter:-- + +(1 Hawkins, ch. 31, section 36): "Neither can he be thought guilty of a +greater crime than manslaughter, who, finding a man in bed with his +wife, or being actually struck by him, or pulled by the nose or +filliped upon the forehead, immediately kills him, or in the defense +of his person from an unlawful arrest, or in the defense of his +house from those who, claiming a title to it, attempt forcibly to +enter it, and to that purpose shoot at it," etc. + +Every snowball, oyster shell, cake of ice, or bit of cinder, that +was thrown that night at the sentinel, was an assault upon him; +every one that was thrown at the party of soldiers was an assault +upon them, whether it hit any of them or not. I am guilty of an +assault if I present a gun at any person; and if I insult him in +that manner and he shoots me, it is but manslaughter. + +(Foster. 295, 396): "To what I have offered with regard to sudden +rencounters let me add, that the blood already too much heated, +kindleth afresh at every pass or blow. And in the tumult of the +passions, in which the mere instinct of self-preservation has no +inconsiderable share, the voice of reason is not heard; and +therefore the law, in condescension to the infirmities of flesh and +blood, doth extenuate the offense." + +Insolent, scurrilous, or slanderous language, when it precedes an +assault, aggravates it. + +(Foster, 316): "We all know that words of reproach, how grating and +offensive soever, are in the eye of the law no provocation in the +case of voluntary homicide: and yet every man who hath considered +the human frame, or but attended to the workings of his own heart +knoweth that affronts of that kind pierce deeper and stimulate in +the veins more effectually than a slight injury done to a third +person, though under the color of justice, possibly can." + +I produce this to show the assault in this case was aggravated by +the scurrilous language which preceded it. Such words of reproach +stimulate in the veins and exasperate the mind, and no doubt if an +assault and battery succeeds them, killing under such provocation is +softened to manslaughter, but killing without such provocation makes +it murder. + + End of the first day's speech + + + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1767-1848) + +No other American President, not even Thomas Jefferson, has equaled +John Quincy Adams in literary accomplishments. His orations and +public speeches will be found to stand for a tradition of +painstaking, scholastic finish hardly to be found elsewhere in +American orations, and certainly not among the speeches of any other +President. As a result of the pains he took with them, they belong +rather to literature than to politics, and it is possible that they +will not be generally appreciated at their real worth for several +generations still to come. If, as is sometimes alleged in such +cases, they gain in literary finish at the expense of force, it is +not to be forgotten that the forcible speech which, ignoring all +rules, carries its point by assault, may buy immediate effect at the +expense of permanent respectability. And if John Quincy Adams, who +labored as Cicero did to give his addresses the greatest possible +literary finish, does not rank with Cicero among orators, it is +certain that respectability will always be willingly conceded him by +every generation of his countrymen. + +Some idea of the extent of his early studies may be gained from his +father's letter to Benjamin Waterhouse, written from Auteuil, +France, in 1785. John Quincy Adams being then only in his eighteenth +year, the elder Adams said of him:-- + +"If you were to examine him in English and French poetry, I know not +where you would find anybody his superior; in Roman and English +history few persons of his age. It is rare to find a youth possessed +of such knowledge. He has translated Virgil's 'Aeneid,' 'Suetonius,' +the whole of 'Sallust'; 'Tacitus,' 'Agricola'; his 'Germany' and +several other books of his 'Annals,' a great part of Horace, some +of Ovid, and some of Caesar's 'Commentaries,' in writing, besides a +number of Tully's orations. ... In Greek his progress has not been +equal, yet he has studied morsels in Aristotle's 'Poetics,' in +Plutarch's 'Lives,' and Lucian's 'Dialogues,' 'The Choice of +Hercules,' in Xenophon, and lately he has gone through several +books of Homer's 'Iliad.'" + +The elder Adams concludes the list of his son's accomplishments with +a catalogue of his labors in mathematics hardly inferior in length +to that cited in the classics. Even if it were true, as has been +urged by the political opponents of the Adams family, that no one of +its members has ever shown more than respectable natural talent, +it would add overwhelming weight to the argument in favor of the +laborious habits of study which have characterized them to the third +and fourth generations, and, from the time of John Adams until our +own, have made them men of mark and far-reaching national influence. + +In national politics, John Quincy Adams, the last of the line of +colonial gentlemen who achieved the presidency, stood for education, +for rigid ideas of moral duty, for dignity, for patriotism, for all +the virtues which are best cultivated through processes of +segregation. He ended an epoch in which it was possible for a man +who, as he did, wrote 'Poems on Religion and Society' and +paraphrased the Psalms into English verse to be elected President. +It has hardly been possible since his day. + +Chosen as a Democrat in 1825, Mr. Adams was really the first Whig +President. His speeches are important, historically, because they +define political tendencies as a result of which the Whig party took +the place of the Federalist. + + +ORATION AT PLYMOUTH + +(Delivered at Plymouth on the Twenty-Second Day of December, 1802, +in Commemoration of the Landing of the Pilgrims) + +Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human +heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those +of veneration for our forefathers, and of love for our posterity. + +They form the connecting links between the selfish and the social +passions. By the fundamental principle of Christianity, the +happiness of the individual is interwoven, by innumerable and +imperceptible ties, with that of his contemporaries. By the power +of filial reverence and parental affection, individual existence is +extended beyond the limits of individual life, and the happiness of +every age is chained in mutual dependence upon that of every other. +Respect for his ancestors excites, in the breast of man, interest in +their history, attachment to their characters, concern for their +errors, involuntary pride in their virtues. Love for his posterity +spurs him to exertion for their support, stimulates him to virtue +for their example, and fills him with the tenderest solicitude for +their welfare. Man, therefore, was not made for himself alone. No, +he was made for his country, by the obligations of the social +compact; he was made for his species, by the Christian duties of +universal charity; he was made for all ages past, by the sentiment +of reverence for his forefathers; and he was made for all future +times, by the impulse of affection for his progeny. Under the +influence of these principles, + +"Existence sees him spurn her bounded reign." + +They redeem his nature from the subjection of time and space; he is +no longer a "puny insect shivering at a breeze"; he is the glory of +creation, formed to occupy all time and all extent; bounded, during +his residence upon earth, only to the boundaries of the world, and +destined to life and immortality in brighter regions, when the +fabric of nature itself shall dissolve and perish. + +The voice of history has not, in all its compass, a note but answers +in unison with these sentiments. The barbarian chieftain, who +defended his country against the Roman invasion, driven to the +remotest extremity of Britain, and stimulating his followers to +battle by all that has power of persuasion upon the human heart, +concluded his persuasion by an appeal to these irresistible +feelings: "Think of your forefathers and of your posterity." The +Romans themselves, at the pinnacle of civilization, were actuated by +the same impressions, and celebrated, in anniversary festivals, +every great event which had signalized the annals of their +forefathers. To multiply instances where it were impossible to +adduce an exception would be to waste your time and abuse your +patience; but in the sacred volume, which contains the substance of +our firmest faith and of our most precious hopes, these passions not +only maintain their highest efficacy, but are sanctioned by the +express injunctions of the Divine Legislator to his chosen people. + +The revolutions of time furnish no previous example of a nation +shooting up to maturity and expanding into greatness with the +rapidity which has characterized the growth of the American people. +In the luxuriance of youth, and in the vigor of manhood, it is +pleasing and instructive to look backwards upon the helpless days of +infancy; but in the continual and essential changes of a growing +subject, the transactions of that early period would be soon +obliterated from the memory but for some periodical call of +attention to aid the silent records of the historian. Such +celebrations arouse and gratify the kindliest emotions of the bosom. +They are faithful pledges of the respect we bear to the memory of +our ancestors and of the tenderness with which we cherish the rising +generation. They introduce the sages and heroes of ages past to the +notice and emulation of succeeding times; they are at once +testimonials of our gratitude, and schools of virtue to our +children. + +These sentiments are wise; they are honorable; they are virtuous; +their cultivation is not merely innocent pleasure, it is incumbent +duty. Obedient to their dictates, you, my fellow-citizens, have +instituted and paid frequent observance to this annual solemnity. +And what event of weightier intrinsic importance, or of more +extensive consequences, was ever selected for this honorary +distinction? + +In reverting to the period of our origin, other nations have +generally been compelled to plunge into the chaos of impenetrable +antiquity, or to trace a lawless ancestry into the caverns of +ravishers and robbers. It is your peculiar privilege to +commemorate, in this birthday of your nation, an event ascertained +in its minutest details; an event of which the principal actors are +known to you familiarly, as if belonging to your own age; an event +of a magnitude before which imagination shrinks at the imperfection +of her powers. It is your further happiness to behold, in those +eminent characters, who were most conspicuous in accomplishing the +settlement of your country, men upon whose virtue you can dwell with +honest exultation. The founders of your race are not handed down to +you, like the father of the Roman people, as the sucklings of a +wolf. You are not descended from a nauseous compound of fanaticism +and sensuality, whose only argument was the sword, and whose only +paradise was a brothel. No Gothic scourge of God, no Vandal pest of +nations, no fabled fugitive from the flames of Troy, no bastard +Norman tyrant, appears among the list of worthies who first landed +on the rock, which your veneration has preserved as a lasting +monument of their achievement. The great actors of the day we now +solemnize were illustrious by their intrepid valor no less than by +their Christian graces, but the clarion of conquest has not blazoned +forth their names to all the winds of heaven. Their glory has not +been wafted over oceans of blood to the remotest regions of the +earth. They have not erected to themselves colossal statues upon +pedestals of human bones, to provoke and insult the tardy hand of +heavenly retribution. But theirs was "the better fortitude of +patience and heroic martyrdom." Theirs was the gentle temper of +Christian kindness; the rigorous observance of reciprocal justice; +the unconquerable soul of conscious integrity. Worldly fame has +been parsimonious of her favor to the memory of those generous +companions. Their numbers were small; their stations in life +obscure; the object of their enterprise unostentatious; the theatre +of their exploits remote; how could they possibly be favorites of +worldly Fame--that common crier, whose existence is only known by +the assemblage of multitudes; that pander of wealth and greatness, +so eager to haunt the palaces of fortune, and so fastidious to the +houseless dignity of virtue; that parasite of pride, ever scornful +to meekness, and ever obsequious to insolent power; that heedless +trumpeter, whose ears are deaf to modest merit, and whose eyes are +blind to bloodless, distant excellence? + +When the persecuted companions of Robinson, exiles from their native +land, anxiously sued for the privilege of removing a thousand +leagues more distant to an untried soil, a rigorous climate, and a +savage wilderness, for the sake of reconciling their sense of +religious duty with their affections for their country, few, perhaps +none of them, formed a conception of what would be, within two +centuries, the result of their undertaking. When the jealous and +niggardly policy of their British sovereign denied them even that +humblest of requests, and instead of liberty would barely consent to +promise connivance, neither he nor they might be aware that they +were laying the foundations of a power, and that he was sowing the +seeds of a spirit, which, in less than two hundred years, would +stagger the throne of his descendants, and shake his united kingdoms +to the centre. So far is it from the ordinary habits of mankind to +calculate the importance of events in their elementary principles, +that had the first colonists of our country ever intimated as a part +of their designs the project of founding a great and mighty nation, +the finger of scorn would have pointed them to the cells of bedlam +as an abode more suitable for hatching vain empires than the +solitude of a transatlantic desert. + +These consequences, then so little foreseen, have unfolded +themselves, in all their grandeur, to the eyes of the present age. +It is a common amusement of speculative minds to contrast the +magnitude of the most important events with the minuteness of their +primeval causes, and the records of mankind are full of examples for +such contemplations. It is, however, a more profitable employment +to trace the constituent principles of future greatness in their +kernel; to detect in the acorn at our feet the germ of that majestic +oak, whose roots shoot down to the centre and whose branches aspire +to the skies. Let it be, then, our present occupation to inquire +and endeavor to ascertain the causes first put in operation at the +period of our commemoration, and already productive of such +magnificent effects; to examine with reiterated care and minute +attention the characters of those men who gave the first impulse to +a new series of events in the history of the world; to applaud and +emulate those qualities of their minds which we shall find deserving +of our admiration; to recognize with candor those features which +forbid approbation or even require censure, and, finally, to lay +alike their frailties and their perfections to our own hearts, +either as warning or as example. + +Of the various European settlements upon this continent, which have +finally merged in one independent nation, the first establishments +were made at various times, by several nations, and under the +influence of different motives. In many instances, the conviction of +religious obligation formed one and a powerful inducement of the +adventures; but in none, excepting the settlement at Plymouth, did +they constitute the sole and exclusive actuating cause. Worldly +interest and commercial speculation entered largely into the views +of other settlers, but the commands of conscience were the only +stimulus to the emigrants from Leyden. Previous to their expedition +hither, they had endured a long banishment from their native +country. Under every species of discouragement, they undertook the +vogage; they performed it in spite of numerous and almost +insuperable obstacles; they arrived upon a wilderness bound with +frost and hoary with snow, without the boundaries of their charter, +outcasts from all human society, and coasted five weeks together, in +the dead of winter, on this tempestuous shore, exposed at once to +the fury of the elements, to the arrows of the native savage, and to +the impending horrors of famine. + +Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which +difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. These +qualities have ever been displayed in their mightiest perfection, as +attendants in the retinue of strong passions. From the first +discovery of the Western Hemisphere by Columbus until the settlement +of Virginia which immediately preceded that of Plymouth, the various +adventurers from the ancient world had exhibited upon innumerable +occasions that ardor of enterprise and that stubbornness of pursuit +which set all danger at defiance, and chained the violence of nature +at their feet. But they were all instigated by personal interests. +Avarice and ambition had tuned their souls to that pitch of exaltation. +Selfish passions were the parents of their heroism. It was reserved +for the first settlers of New England to perform achievements +equally arduous, to trample down obstructions equally formidable, to +dispel dangers equally terrific, under the single inspiration of +conscience. To them even liberty herself was but a subordinate and +secondary consideration. They claimed exemption from the mandates +of human authority, as militating with their subjection to a +superior power. Before the voice of heaven they silenced even the +calls of their country. + +Yet, while so deeply impressed with the sense of religious +obligation, they felt, in all its energy, the force of that tender +tie which binds the heart of every virtuous man to his native +land. It was to renew that connection with their country which had +been severed by their compulsory expatriation, that they resolved to +face all the hazards of a perilous navigation and all the labors of +a toilsome distant settlement. Under the mild protection of the +Batavian government, they enjoyed already that freedom of religious +worship, for which they had resigned so many comforts and enjoyments +at home; but their hearts panted for a restoration to the bosom of +their country. Invited and urged by the open-hearted and truly +benevolent people who had given them an asylum from the persecution +of their own kindred to form their settlement within the territories +then under their jurisdiction, the love of their country +predominated over every influence save that of conscience alone, and +they preferred the precarious chance of relaxation from the bigoted +rigor of the English government to the certain liberality and +alluring offers of the Hollanders. Observe, my countrymen, the +generous patriotism, the cordial union of soul, the conscious yet +unaffected vigor which beam in their application to the British +monarch:-- + +"They were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother +country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. They were +knit together in a strict and sacred bond, to take care of the good +of each other and of the whole. It was not with them as with other +men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause +to wish themselves again at home." + +Children of these exalted Pilgrims! Is there one among you who can +hear the simple and pathetic energy of these expressions without +tenderness and admiration? Venerated shades of our forefathers! No, +ye were, indeed, not ordinary men! That country which had ejected +you so cruelly from her bosom you still delighted to contemplate in +the character of an affectionate and beloved mother. The sacred bond +which knit you together was indissoluble while you lived; and oh, +may it be to your descendants the example and the pledge of harmony +to the latest period of time! The difficulties and dangers, which so +often had defeated attempts of similar establishments, were unable +to subdue souls tempered like yours. You heard the rigid +interdictions; you saw the menacing forms of toil and danger, +forbidding your access to this land of promise; but you heard +without dismay; you saw and disdained retreat. Firm and undaunted in +the confidence of that sacred bond; conscious of the purity, and +convinced of the importance of your motives, you put your trust in +the protecting shield of Providence, and smiled defiance at the +combining terrors of human malice and of elemental strife. These, in +the accomplishment of your undertaking, you were summoned to +encounter in their most hideous forms; these you met with that +fortitude, and combatted with that perseverance, which you had +promised in their anticipation; these you completely vanquished in +establishing the foundations of New England, and the day which we +now commemorate is the perpetual memorial of your triumph. + +It were an occupation peculiarly pleasing to cull from our early +historians, and exhibit before you every detail of this transaction; +to carry you in imagination on board their bark at the first moment +of her arrival in the bay; to accompany Carver, Winslow, Bradford, +and Standish, in all their excursions upon the desolate coast; to +follow them into every rivulet and creek where they endeavored to +find a firm footing, and to fix, with a pause of delight and +exultation, the instant when the first of these heroic adventurers +alighted on the spot where you, their descendants, now enjoy the +glorious and happy reward of their labors. But in this grateful +task, your former orators, on this anniversary, have anticipated all +that the most ardent industry could collect, and gratified all that +the most inquisitive curiosity could desire. To you, my friends, +every occurrence of that momentous period is already familiar. A +transient allusion to a few characteristic instances, which mark the +peculiar history of the Plymouth settlers, may properly supply the +place of a narrative, which, to this auditory, must be superfluous. + +One of these remarkable incidents is the execution of that +instrument of government by which they formed themselves into a body +politic, the day after their arrival upon the coast, and previous to +their first landing. This is, perhaps, the only instance in human +history of that positive, original social compact, which speculative +philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of +government. Here was a unanimous and personal assent, by all the +individuals of the community, to the association by which they +became a nation. It was the result of circumstances and discussions +which had occurred during their passage from Europe, and is a full +demonstration that the nature of civil government, abstracted from +the political institutions of their native country, had been an +object of their serious meditation. The settlers of all the former +European colonies had contented themselves with the powers conferred +upon them by their respective charters, without looking beyond the +seal of the royal parchment for the measure of their rights and the +rule of their duties. The founders of Plymouth had been impelled by +the peculiarities of their situation to examine the subject with +deeper and more comprehensive research. After twelve years of +banishment from the land of their first allegiance, during which +they had been under an adoptive and temporary subjection to another +sovereign, they must naturally have been led to reflect upon the +relative rights and duties of allegiance and subjection. They had +resided in a city, the seat of a university, where the polemical and +political controversies of the time were pursued with uncommon +fervor. In this period they had witnessed the deadly struggle +between the two parties, into which the people of the United +Provinces, after their separation from the crown of Spain, had +divided themselves. The contest embraced within its compass not only +theological doctrines, but political principles, and Maurice and +Barnevelt were the temporal leaders of the same rival factions, of +which Episcopius and Polyander were the ecclesiastical champions. + +That the investigation of the fundamental principles of government +was deeply implicated in these dissensions is evident from the +immortal work of Grotius, upon the rights of war and peace, which +undoubtedly originated from them. Grotius himself had been a most +distinguished actor and sufferer in those important scenes of +internal convulsion, and his work was first published very shortly +after the departure of our forefathers from Leyden. It is well +known that in the course of the contest Mr. Robinson more than once +appeared, with credit to himself, as a public disputant against +Episcopius; and from the manner in which the fact is related by +Governor Bradford, it is apparent that the whole English Church at +Leyden took a zealous interest in the religious part of the +controversy. As strangers in the land, it is presumable that they +wisely and honorably avoided entangling themselves in the political +contentions involved with it. Yet the theoretic principles, as they +were drawn into discussion, could not fail to arrest their +attention, and must have assisted them to form accurate ideas +concerning the origin and extent of authority among men, independent +of positive institutions. The importance of these circumstances +will not be duly weighed without taking into consideration the state +of opinion then prevalent in England. The general principles of +government were there little understood and less examined. The +whole substance of human authority was centred in the simple +doctrine of royal prerogative, the origin of which was always traced +in theory to divine institution. Twenty years later, the subject +was more industriously sifted, and for half a century became one of +the principal topics of controversy between the ablest and most +enlightened men in the nation. The instrument of voluntary +association executed on board the Mayflower testifies that the +parties to it had anticipated the improvement of their nation. + +Another incident, from which we may derive occasion for important +reflections, was the attempt of these original settlers to establish +among them that community of goods and of labor, which fanciful +politicians, from the days of Plato to those of Rousseau, have +recommended as the fundamental law of a perfect republic. This +theory results, it must be acknowledged, from principles of +reasoning most flattering to the human character. If industry, +frugality, and disinterested integrity were alike the virtues of +all, there would, apparently, be more of the social spirit, in +making all property a common stock, and giving to each individual a +proportional title to the wealth of the whole. Such is the basis +upon which Plato forbids, in his Republic, the division of property. +Such is the system upon which Rousseau pronounces the first man who +enclosed a field with a fence, and, said, "This is mine," a traitor +to the human species. A wiser, and more useful philosophy, however, +directs us to consider man according to the nature in which he was +formed; subject to infirmities, which no wisdom can remedy; to +weaknesses, which no institution can strengthen; to vices, which no +legislation can correct. Hence, it becomes obvious that separate +property is the natural and indisputable right of separate exertion; +that community of goods without community of toil is oppressive and +unjust; that it counteracts the laws of nature, which prescribe that +he only who sows the seed shall reap the harvest; that it +discourages all energy, by destroying its rewards; and makes the +most virtuous and active members of society the slaves and drudges +of the worst. Such was the issue of this experiment among our +forefathers, and the same event demonstrated the error of the system +in the elder settlement of Virginia. Let us cherish that spirit of +harmony which prompted our forefathers to make the attempt, under +circumstances more favorable to its success than, perhaps, ever +occurred upon earth. Let us no less admire the candor with which +they relinquished it, upon discovering its irremediable inefficacy. +To found principles of government upon too advantageous an estimate +of the human character is an error of inexperience, the source of +which is so amiable that it is impossible to censure it with +severity. We have seen the same mistake, committed in our own age, +and upon a larger theatre. Happily for our ancestors, their +situation allowed them to repair it before its effects had proved +destructive. They had no pride of vain philosophy to support, no +perfidious rage of faction to glut, by persevering in their mistakes +until they should be extinguished in torrents of blood. + +As the attempt to establish among themselves the community of goods +was a seal of that sacred bond which knit them so closely together, +so the conduct they observed towards the natives of the country +displays their steadfast adherence to the rules of justice and their +faithful attachment to those of benevolence and charity. + +No European settlement ever formed upon this continent has been more +distinguished for undeviating kindness and equity towards the +savages. There are, indeed, moralists who have questioned the right +of the Europeans to intrude upon the possessions of the aboriginals +in any case, and under any limitations whatsoever. But have they +maturely considered the whole subject? The Indian right of +possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of the +country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields; +their constructed habitations; a space of ample sufficiency for +their subsistence, and whatever they had annexed to themselves by +personal labor, was undoubtedly, by the laws of nature, theirs. But +what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles +over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the +liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by +one of ten thousand for whom they were created? Shall the exuberant +bosom of the common mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of +millions, be claimed exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring? +Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments +of civilization himself, but shall he control the civilization of a +world? Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like a rose? +Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall before the ax of +industry, and to rise again, transformed into the habitations of +ease and elegance? Shall he doom an immense region of the globe to +perpetual desolation, and to hear the howlings of the tiger and the +wolf silence forever the voice of human gladness? Shall the fields +and the valleys, which a beneficent God has formed to teem with the +life of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting +barrenness? Shall the mighty rivers, poured out by the hand of +nature, as channels of communication between numerous nations, roll +their waters in sullen silence and eternal solitude to the deep? +Have hundreds of commodious harbors, a thousand leagues of coast, +and a boundless ocean, been spread in the front of this land, and +shall every purpose of utility to which they could apply be +prohibited by the tenant of the woods? No, generous philanthropists! +Heaven has not been thus inconsistent in the works of its hands. +Heaven has not thus placed at irreconcilable strife its moral laws +with its physical creation. The Pilgrims of Plymouth obtained their +right of possession to the territory on which they settled, by +titles as fair and unequivocal as any human property can be held. +By their voluntary association they recognized their allegiance to +the government of Britain, and in process of time received whatever +powers and authorities could be conferred upon them by a charter +from their sovereign. The spot on which they fixed had belonged to +an Indian tribe, totally extirpated by that devouring pestilence +which had swept the country shortly before their arrival. The +territory, thus free from all exclusive possession, they might have +taken by the natural right of occupancy. Desirous, however, of +giving ample satisfaction to every pretense of prior right, by +formal and solemn conventions with the chiefs of the neighboring +tribes, they acquired the further security of a purchase. At their +hands the children of the desert had no cause of complaint. On the +great day of retribution, what thousands, what millions of the +American race will appear at the bar of judgment to arraign their +European invading conquerors! Let us humbly hope that the fathers +of the Plymouth Colony will then appear in the whiteness of +innocence. Let us indulge in the belief that they will not only be +free from all accusation of injustice to these unfortunate sons of +nature, but that the testimonials of their acts of kindness and +benevolence towards them will plead the cause of their virtues, as +they are now authenticated by the record of history upon earth. + +Religious discord has lost her sting; the cumbrous weapons of +theological warfare are antiquated; the field of politics supplies +the alchemists of our times with materials of more fatal explosion, +and the butchers of mankind no longer travel to another world for +instruments of cruelty and destruction. Our age is too enlightened +to contend upon topics which concern only the interests of eternity; +the men who hold in proper contempt all controversies about trifles, +except such as inflame their own passions, have made it a +commonplace censure against your ancestors, that their zeal was +enkindled by subjects of trivial importance; and that however +aggrieved by the intolerance of others, they were alike intolerant +themselves. Against these objections, your candid judgment will not +require an unqualified justification; but your respect and gratitude +for the founders of the State may boldly claim an ample apology. The +original grounds of their separation from the Church of England were +not objects of a magnitude to dissolve the bonds of communion, much +less those of charity, between Christian brethren of the same +essential principles. Some of them, however, were not inconsiderable, +and numerous inducements concurred to give them an extraordinary +interest in their eyes. When that portentous system of abuses, the +Papal dominion, was overturned, a great variety of religious sects +arose in its stead in the several countries, which for many +centuries before had been screwed beneath its subjection. The +fabric of the reformation, first undertaken in England upon a +contracted basis, by a capricious and sanguinary tyrant, had been +successively overthrown and restored, renewed and altered, according +to the varying humors and principles of four successive monarchs. +To ascertain the precise point of division between the genuine +institutions of Christianity and the corruptions accumulated upon +them in the progress of fifteen centuries, was found a task of +extreme difficulty throughout the Christian world. + +Men of the profoundest learning, of the sublimest genius, and of the +purest integrity, after devoting their lives to the research, +finally differed in their ideas upon many great points, both of +doctrine and discipline. The main question, it was admitted on all +hands, most intimately concerned the highest interests of man, both +temporal and eternal. Can we wonder that men who felt their +happiness here and their hopes of hereafter, their worldly welfare +and the kingdom of heaven at stake, should sometimes attach an +importance beyond their intrinsic weight to collateral points of +controversy, connected with the all-involving object of the +reformation? The changes in the forms and principles of religious +worship were introduced and regulated in England by the hand of +public authority. But that hand had not been uniform or steady in +its operations. During the persecutions inflicted in the interval +of Popish restoration under the reign of Mary, upon all who favored +the reformation, many of the most zealous reformers had been +compelled to fly their country. While residing on the continent of +Europe, they had adopted the principles of the most complete and +rigorous reformation, as taught and established by Calvin. On +returning afterwards to their native country, they were dissatisfied +with the partial reformation, at which, as they conceived, the +English establishment had rested; and claiming the privilege of +private conscience, upon which alone any departure from the Church +of Rome could be justified, they insisted upon the right of adhering +to the system of their own preference, and, of course, upon that of +nonconformity to the establishment prescribed by the royal +authority. The only means used to convince them of error and +reclaim them from dissent was force, and force served but to confirm +the opposition it was meant to suppress. By driving the founders of +the Plymouth Colony into exile, it constrained them to absolute +separation from the Church of England; and by the refusal afterwards +to allow them a positive toleration, even in this American +wilderness, the council of James I. rendered that separation +irreconcilable. Viewing their religious liberties here, as held +only by sufferance, yet bound to them by all the ties of conviction, +and by all their sufferings for them, could they forbear to look +upon every dissenter among themselves with a jealous eye? Within +two years after their landing, they beheld a rival settlement +attempted in their immediate neighborhood; and not long after, the +laws of self-preservation compelled them to break up a nest of +revelers, who boasted of protection from the mother country, and who +had recurred to the easy but pernicious resource of feeding their +wanton idleness, by furnishing the savages with the means, the +skill, and the instruments of European destruction. Toleration, in +that instance, would have been self-murder, and many other examples +might be alleged, in which their necessary measures of self-defense +have been exaggerated into cruelty, and their most indispensable +precautions distorted into persecution. Yet shall we not pretend +that they were exempt from the common laws of mortality, or entirely +free from all the errors of their age. Their zeal might sometimes +be too ardent, but it was always sincere. At this day, religious +indulgence is one of our clearest duties, because it is one of our +undisputed rights. While we rejoice that the principles of genuine +Christianity have so far triumphed over the prejudices of a former +generation, let us fervently hope for the day when it will prove +equally victorious over the malignant passions of our own. + +In thus calling your attention to some of the peculiar features in +the principles, the character, and the history of our forefathers, +it is as wide from my design, as I know it would be from your +approbation, to adorn their memory with a chaplet plucked from the +domain of others. The occasion and the day are more peculiarly +devoted to them, and let it never be dishonored with a contracted +and exclusive spirit. Our affections as citizens embrace the whole +extent of the Union, and the names of Raleigh, Smith, Winthrop, +Calvert, Penn, and Oglethorpe, excite in our minds recollections +equally pleasing and gratitude equally fervent with those of Carver +and Bradford. Two centuries have not yet elapsed since the first +European foot touched the soil which now constitutes the American +Union. Two centuries more and our numbers must exceed those of +Europe itself. The destinies of this empire, as they appear in +prospect before us, disdain the powers of human calculation. Yet, +as the original founder of the Roman state is said once to have +lifted upon his shoulders the fame and fortunes of all his +posterity, so let us never forget that the glory and greatness of +all our descendants is in our hands. Preserve in all their purity, +refine, if possible, from all their alloy, those virtues which we +this day commemorate as the ornament of our forefathers. Adhere to +them with inflexible resolution, as to the horns of the altar; +instill them with unwearied perseverance into the minds of your +children; bind your souls and theirs to the national Union as the +chords of life are centred in the heart, and you shall soar with +rapid and steady wing to the summit of human glory. Nearly a +century ago, one of those rare minds to whom it is given to discern +future greatness in its seminal principles upon contemplating the +situation of this continent, pronounced, in a vein of poetic +inspiration, "Westward the star of empire takes its way." Let us +unite in ardent supplication to the Founder of nations and the +Builder of worlds, that what then was prophecy may continue +unfolding into history,--that the dearest hopes of the human race +may not be extinguished in disappointment, and that the last may +prove the noblest empire of time. + +LAFAYETTE (Delivered in Congress, December 31st, 1834) + +On the sixth of September, 1757, Lafayette was born. The kings of +Prance and Britain were seated upon their thrones by virtue of the +principle of hereditary succession, variously modified and blended +with different forms of religious faith, and they were waging war +against each other, and exhausting the blood and treasure of their +people for causes in which neither of the nations had any beneficial +or lawful interest. + +In this war the father of Lafayette fell in the cause of his king +but not of his country. He was an officer of an invading army, the +instrument of his sovereign's wanton ambition and lust of conquest. +The people of the electorate of Hanover had done no wrong to him or +to his country. When his son came to an age capable of +understanding the irreparable loss that he had suffered, and to +reflect upon the causes of his father's fate, there was no drop of +consolation mingled in the cup from the consideration that he had +died for his country. And when the youthful mind was awakened to +meditation upon the rights of mankind, the principles of freedom, +and theories of government, it cannot be difficult to perceive in +the illustrations of his own family records the source of that +aversion to hereditary rule, perhaps the most distinguishing feature +of his own political opinions and to which he adhered through all +the vicissitudes of his life.... + +Lafayette was born a subject of the most absolute and most splendid +monarchy of Europe, and in the highest rank of her proud and +chivalrous nobility. He had been educated at a college of the +University of Paris, founded by the royal munificence of Louis XIV., +or Cardinal Richelieu. Left an orphan in early childhood, with the +inheritance of a princely fortune, he had been married, at sixteen +years of age, to a daughter of the house of Noailles, the most +distinguished family of the kingdom, scarcely deemed in public +consideration inferior to that which wore the crown. He came into +active life, at the change from boy to man, a husband and a father, +in the full enjoyment of everything that avarice could covet, with a +certain prospect before him of all that ambition could crave. Happy +in his domestic affections, incapable, from the benignity of his +nature, of envy, hatred, or revenge, a life of "ignoble ease and +indolent repose" seemed to be that which nature and fortune had +combined to prepare before him. To men of ordinary mold this +condition would have led to a life of luxurious apathy and sensual +indulgence. Such was the life into which, from the operation of the +same causes, Louis XV. had sunk, with his household and court, while +Lafayette was rising to manhood surrounded by the contamination of +their example. Had his natural endowments been even of the higher +and nobler order of such as adhere to virtue, even in the lap of +prosperity, and in the bosom of temptation, he might have lived and +died a pattern of the nobility of France, to be classed, in +aftertimes, with the Turennes and the Montausiers of the age of +Louis XIV., or with the Villars or the Lamoignons of the age +immediately preceding his own. + +But as, in the firmament of heaven that rolls over our heads, there +is, among the stars of the first magnitude, one so pre-eminent in +splendor as, in the opinion of astronomers, to constitute a class by +itself, so in the fourteen hundred years of the French monarchy, +among the multitudes of great and mighty men which it has evolved, +the name of Lafayette stands unrivaled in the solitude of glory. + +In entering upon the threshold of life, a career was to open before +him. He had the option of the court and the camp. An office was +tendered to him in the household of the King's brother, the Count de +Provence, since successively a royal exile and a reinstated king. +The servitude and inaction of a court had no charms for him; +he preferred a commission in the army, and, at the time of the +Declaration of Independence, was a captain of dragoons in garrison +at Metz. + +There, at an entertainment given by his relative, the Marechal de +Broglie, the commandant of the place, to the Duke of Gloucester, +brother to the British king, and then a transient traveler through +that part of France, he learns, as an incident of intelligence +received that morning by the English Prince from London, that the +congress of rebels at Philadelphia had issued a Declaration of +Independence. A conversation ensues upon the causes which have +contributed to produce this event, and upon the consequences which +may be expected to flow from it. The imagination of Lafayette has +caught across the Atlantic tide the spark emitted from the +Declaration of Independence; his heart has kindled at the shock, +and, before he slumbers upon his pillow, he has resolved to devote +his life and fortune to the cause. + +You have before you the cause and the man. The self-devotion of +Lafayette was twofold. First to the people, maintaining a bold and +seemingly desperate struggle against oppression, and for national +existence. Secondly, and chiefly, to the principles of their +declaration, which then first unfurled before his eyes the +consecrated standard of human rights. To that standard, without an +instant of hesitation, he repaired. Where it would lead him, it is +scarcely probable that he himself then foresaw. It was then +identical with the Stars and Stripes of the American Union, floating +to the breeze from the Hall of Independence, at Philadelphia. Nor +sordid avarice, nor vulgar ambition, could point his footsteps to +the pathway leading to that banner. To the love of ease or pleasure +nothing could be more repulsive. Something may be allowed to the +beatings of the youthful breast, which make ambition virtue, and +something to the spirit of military adventure, imbibed from his +profession, and which he felt in common with many others. France, +Germany, Poland, furnished to the armies of this Union, in our +revolutionary struggle, no inconsiderable number of officers of high +rank and distinguished merit. The names of Pulaski and De Kalb are +numbered among the martyrs of our freedom, and their ashes repose in +our soil side by side with the canonized bones of Warren and of +Montgomery. To the virtues of Lafayette, a more protracted career +and happier earthly destinies were reserved. To the moral principle +of political action, the sacrifices of no other man were comparable +to his. Youth, health, fortune; the favor of his king; the +enjoyment of ease and pleasure; even the choicest blessings of +domestic felicity--he gave them all for toil and danger in a +distant land, and an almost hopeless cause; but it was the cause of +justice, and of the rights of human kind. ... + +Pronounce him one of the first men of his age, and you have not yet +done him justice. Try him by that test to which he sought in vain to +stimulate the vulgar and selfish spirit of Napoleon; class him among +the men who, to compare and seat themselves, must take in the +compass of all ages; turn back your eyes upon the records of time, +summon from the creation of the world to this day the mighty dead of +every age and every clime--and where, among the race of merely +mortal men, shall one be found, who, as the benefactor of his kind, +shall claim to take precedence of Lafayette? + +There have doubtless been, in all ages, men whose discoveries or +inventions, in the world of matter or of mind, have opened new +avenues to the dominion of man over the material creation; have +increased his means or his faculties of enjoyment; have raised him +in nearer approximation to that higher and happier condition, the +object of his hopes and aspirations in his present state of existence. + +Lafayette discovered no new principle of politics or of morals. He +invented nothing in science. He disclosed no new phenomenon in the +laws of nature. Born and educated in the highest order of feudal +nobility, under the most absolute monarchy of Europe, in possession +of an affluent fortune, and master of himself and of all his +capabilities, at the moment of attaining manhood the principle of +republican justice and of social equality took possession of his +heart and mind, as if by inspiration from above. He devoted +himself, his life, his fortune, his hereditary honors, his towering +ambition, his splendid hopes, all to the cause of liberty. He came +to another hemisphere to defend her. He became one of the most +effective champions of our independence; but, that once achieved, he +returned to his own country, and thenceforward took no part in the +controversies which have divided us. In the events of our +revolution, and in the forms of policy which we have adopted for the +establishment and perpetuation of our freedom, Lafayette found the +most perfect form of government. He wished to add nothing to it. +He would gladly have abstracted nothing from it. Instead of the +imaginary republic of Plato, or the Utopia of Sir Thomas Moore, he +took a practical existing model, in actual operation here, and never +attempted or wished more than to apply it faithfully to his own +country. + +It was not given to Moses to enter the promised land; but he saw it +from the summit of Pisgah. It was not given to Lafayette to witness +the consummation of his wishes in the establishment of a republic +and the extinction of all hereditary rule in France. His principles +were in advance of the age and hemisphere in which he lived. A +Bourbon still reigns on the throne of France, and it is not for us +to scrutinize the title by which he reigns. The principles of +elective and hereditary power, blended in reluctant union in his +person, like the red and white roses of York and Lancaster, may +postpone to aftertime the last conflict to which they must +ultimately come. The life of the patriarch was not long enough for +the development of his whole political system. Its final +accomplishment is in the womb of time. + +The anticipation of this event is the more certain, from the +consideration that all the principles for which Lafayette contended +were practical. He never indulged himself in wild and fanciful +speculations. The principle of hereditary power was, in his +opinion, the bane of all republican liberty in Europe. Unable to +extinguish it in the Revolution of 1830, so far as concerned the +chief magistracy of the nation, Lafayette had the satisfaction of +seeing it abolished with reference to the peerage. An hereditary +crown, stript of the support which it may derive from an hereditary +peerage, however compatible with Asiatic despotism, is an anomaly in +the history of the Christian world, and in the theory of free +government. There is no argument producible against the existence +of an hereditary peerage but applies with aggravated weight against +the transmission, from sire to son, of an hereditary crown. The +prejudices and passions of the people of France rejected the +principle of inherited power, in every station of public trust, +excepting the first and highest of them all; but there they clung to +it, as did the Israelites of old to the savory deities of Egypt. + +This is not the time nor the place for a disquisition upon the +comparative merits, as a system of government, of a republic, and a +monarchy surrounded by republican institutions. Upon this subject +there is among us no diversity of opinion; and if it should take the +people of France another half century of internal and external war, +of dazzling and delusive glories; of unparalleled triumphs, +humiliating reverses, and bitter disappointments, to settle it to +their satisfaction, the ultimate result can only bring them to the +point where we have stood from the day of the Declaration of +Independence--to the point where Lafayette would have brought +them, and to which he looked as a consummation devoutly to be +wished. + +Then, too, and then only, will be the time when the character of +Lafayette will be appreciated at its true value throughout the +civilized world. When the principle of hereditary dominion shall be +extinguished in all the institutions of France; when government +shall no longer be considered as property transmissible from sire to +son, but as a trust committed for a limited time, and then to return +to the people whence it came; as a burdensome duty to be discharged, +and not as a reward to be abused; when a claim, any claim, to +political power by inheritance shall, in the estimation of the whole +French people, be held as it now is by the whole people of the North +American Union--then will be the time for contemplating the +character of Lafayette, not merely in the events of his life, but in +the full development of his intellectual conceptions, of his fervent +aspirations, of the labors and perils and sacrifices of his long and +eventful career upon earth; and thenceforward, till the hour when +the trump of the Archangel shall sound to announce that Time shall +be no more, the name of Lafayette shall stand enrolled upon the +annals of our race, high on the list of the pure and disinterested +benefactors of mankind. + + +THE JUBILEE OF THE CONSTITUTION (Delivered at New York, April 30th, 1839) + +Fellow-Citizens and Brethren, Associates of the New York Historical +Society:-- + +Would it be an unlicensed trespass of the imagination to conceive +that on the night preceding the day of which you now commemorate the +fiftieth anniversary--on the night preceding that thirtieth of +April, 1789, when from the balcony of your city hall the chancellor +of the State of New York administered to George Washington the +solemn oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the +United States, and to the best of his ability to preserve, protect, +and defend the Constitution of the United States--that in the +visions of the night the guardian angel of the Father of our country +had appeared before him, in the venerated form of his mother, and, +to cheer and encourage him in the performance of the momentous and +solemn duties that he was about to assume, had delivered to him a +suit of celestial armor--a helmet, consisting of the principles of +piety, of justice, of honor, of benevolence, with which from his +earliest infancy he had hitherto walked through life, in the +presence of all his brethren; a spear, studded with the self-evident +truths of the Declaration of Independence; a sword, the same with +which he had led the armies of his country through the war of +freedom to the summit of the triumphal arch of independence; a +corslet and cuishes of long experience and habitual intercourse in +peace and war with the world of mankind, his contemporaries of the +human race, in all their stages of civilization; and, last of all, +the Constitution of the United States, a shield, embossed by +heavenly hands with the future history of his country. + +Yes, gentlemen, on that shield the Constitution of the United States +was sculptured (by forms unseen, and in characters then invisible to +mortal eye), the predestined and prophetic history of the one +confederated people of the North American Union. + +They had been the settlers of thirteen separate and distinct English +colonies, along the margin of the shore of the North American +continent; contiguously situated, but chartered by adventurers of +characters variously diversified, including sectarians, religious +and political, of all the classes which for the two preceding +centuries had agitated and divided the people of the British islands +--and with them were intermingled the descendants of Hollanders, +Swedes, Germans, and French fugitives from the persecution of the +revoker of the Edict of Nantes. + +In the bosoms of this people, thus heterogeneously composed, there +was burning, kindled at different furnaces, but all furnaces of +affliction, one clear, steady flame of liberty. Bold and daring +enterprise, stubborn endurance of privation, unflinching intrepidity +in facing danger, and inflexible adherence to conscientious +principle, had steeled to energetic and unyielding hardihood the +characters of the primitive settlers of all these colonies. Since +that time two or three generations of men had passed away, but they +had increased and multiplied with unexampled rapidity; and the land +itself had been the recent theatre of a ferocious and bloody +seven-years' war between the two most powerful and most civilized +nations of Europe contending for the possession of this continent. + +Of that strife the victorious combatant had been Britain. She had +conquered the provinces of France. She had expelled her rival +totally from the continent, over which, bounding herself by the +Mississippi, she was thenceforth to hold divided empire only with +Spain. She had acquired undisputed control over the Indian tribes +still tenanting the forests unexplored by the European man. She had +established an uncontested monopoly of the commerce of all her +colonies. But forgetting all the warnings of preceding ages-- +forgetting the lessons written in the blood of her own children, +through centuries of departed time, she undertook to tax the people +of the colonies without their consent. + +Resistance, instantaneous, unconcerted, sympathetic, inflexible +resistance, like an electric shock, startled and roused the people +of all the English colonies on this continent. + +This was the first signal of the North American Union, The struggle +was for chartered rights--for English liberties--for the cause +of Algernon Sidney and John Hampden--for trial by jury--the +Habeas Corpus and Magna Charta. + +But the English lawyers had decided that Parliament was +omnipotent--and Parliament, in its omnipotence, instead of trial by +jury and the Habeas Corpus, enacted admiralty courts in England to +try Americans for offenses charged against them as committed in +America; instead of the privileges of Magna Charta, nullified the +charter itself of Massachusetts Bay; shut up the port of Boston; +sent armies and navies to keep the peace and teach the colonies that +John Hampden was a rebel and Algernon Sidney a traitor. + +English liberties had failed them. From the omnipotence of +Parliament the Colonists appealed to the rights of man and the +omnipotence of the God of battles. Union! Union! was the instinctive +and simultaneous cry throughout the land. Their congress, assembled +at Philadelphia, once--twice--had petitioned the king; had +remonstrated to Parliament; had addressed the people of Britain, for +the rights of Englishmen--in vain. Fleets and armies, the blood of +Lexington, and the fires of Charlestown and Falmouth, had been the +answer to petition, remonstrance, and address. ... + +The dissolution of allegiance to the British crown, the severance of +the colonies from the British empire, and their actual existence as +independent States, were definitively established in fact, by war +and peace. The independence of each separate State had never been +declared of right. It never existed in fact. Upon the principles of +the Declaration of Independence, the dissolution of the ties of +allegiance, the assumption of sovereign power, and the institution +of civil government, are all acts of transcendent authority, which +the people alone are competent to perform; and, accordingly, it is +in the name and by the authority of the people, that two of these +acts--the dissolution of allegiance, with the severance from the +British empire, and the declaration of the United Colonies, as free +and independent States, were performed by that instrument. + +But there still remained the last and crowning act, which the people +of the Union alone were competent to perform--the institution of +civil government, for that compound nation, the United States of +America. + +At this day it cannot but strike us as extraordinary, that it does +not appear to have occurred to any one member of that assembly, +which had laid down in terms so clear, so explicit, so unequivocal, +the foundation of all just government, in the imprescriptible rights +of man, and the transcendent sovereignty of the people, and who in +those principles had set forth their only personal vindication from +the charges of rebellion against their king, and of treason to their +country, that their last crowning act was still to be performed upon +the same principles. That is, the institution, by the people of the +United States, of a civil government, to guard and protect and +defend them all. On the contrary, that same assembly which issued +the Declaration of Independence, instead of continuing to act in the +name and by the authority of the good people of the United States, +had, immediately after the appointment of the committee to prepare +the Declaration, appointed another committee, of one member from +each colony, to prepare and digest the form of confederation to be +entered into between the colonies. + +That committee reported on the twelfth of July, eight days after the +Declaration of Independence had been issued, a draft of articles of +confederation between the colonies. This draft was prepared by John +Dickinson, then a delegate from Pennsylvania, who voted against the +Declaration of Independence, and never signed it, having been +superseded by a new election of delegates from that State, eight +days after his draft was reported. + +There was thus no congeniality of principle between the Declaration +of Independence and the articles of confederation. The foundation of +the former was a superintending Providence--the rights of man, and +the constituent revolutionary power of the people. That of the +latter was the sovereignty of organized power, and the independence +of the separate or dis-united States. The fabric of the Declaration +and that of the confederation were each consistent with its own +foundation, but they could not form one consistent, symmetrical +edifice. They were the productions of different minds and of adverse +passions; one, ascending for the foundation of human government to +the laws of nature and of God, written upon the heart of man; the +other, resting upon the basis of human institutions, and +prescriptive law, and colonial charter. The corner stone of the one +was right, that of the other was power. ... + +Where, then, did each State get the sovereignty, freedom, and +independence, which the articles of confederation declare it +retains?--not from the whole people of the whole Union--not from +the Declaration of Independence--not from the people of the State +itself. It was assumed by agreement between the legislatures of the +several States, and their delegates in Congress, without authority +from or consultation of the people at all. + +In the Declaration of Independence, the enacting and constituent +party dispensing and delegating sovereign power is the whole people +of the United Colonies. The recipient party, invested with power, is +the United Colonies, declared United States. + +In the articles of confederation, this order of agency is inverted. +Each State is the constituent and enacting party, and the United +States in Congress assembled the recipient of delegated power--and +that power delegated with such a penurious and carking hand that it +had more the aspect of a revocation of the Declaration of +Independence than an instrument to carry it into effect. + +None of these indispensably necessary powers were ever conferred by +the State legislatures upon the Congress of the federation; and well +was it that they never were. The system itself was radically +defective. Its incurable disease was an apostasy from the principles +of the Declaration of Independence. A substitution of separate State +sovereignties, in the place of the constituent sovereignty of the +people, was the basis of the Confederate Union. + +In the Congress of the confederation, the master minds of James +Madison and Alexander Hamilton were constantly engaged through the +closing years of the Revolutionary War and those of peace which +immediately succeeded. That of John Jay was associated with them +shortly after the peace, in the capacity of secretary to the +Congress for foreign affairs. The incompetency of the articles of +confederation for the management of the affairs of the Union at home +and abroad was demonstrated to them by the painful and mortifying +experience of every day. Washington, though in retirement, was +brooding over the cruel injustice suffered by his associates in +arms, the warriors of the Revolution; over the prostration of the +public credit and the faith of the nation, in the neglect to provide +for the payment even of the interest upon the public debt; over the +disappointed hopes of the friends of freedom; in the language of the +address from Congress to the States of the eighteenth of April, 1783 +--"the pride and boast of America, that the rights for which she +contended were the rights of human nature." + +At his residence at Mount Vernon, in March 1785, the first idea was +started of a revisal of the articles of confederation, by an +organization, of means differing from that of a compact between the +State legislatures and their own delegates in Congress. A +convention of delegates from the State legislatures, independent of +the Congress itself, was the expedient which presented itself for +effecting the purpose, and an augmentation of the powers of Congress +for the regulation of commerce, as the object for which this +assembly was to be convened. In January 1786 the proposal was made +and adopted in the legislature of Virginia, and communicated to the +other State legislatures. + +The convention was held at Annapolis, in September of that year. It +was attended by delegates from only five of the central States, who, +on comparing their restricted powers with the glaring and +universally acknowledged defects of the confederation reported only +a recommendation for the assemblage of another convention of +delegates to meet at Philadelphia, in May 1787, from all the States, +and with enlarged powers. + +The Constitution of the United States was the work of this +convention. But in its construction the convention immediately +perceived that they must retrace their steps, and fall back from a +league of friendship between sovereign States to the constituent +sovereignty of the people; from power to right--from the +irresponsible despotism of State sovereignty to the self-evident +truths of the Declaration of Independence. In that instrument, the +right to institute and to alter governments among men was ascribed +exclusively to the people--the ends of government were declared to +be to secure the natural rights of man; and that when the government +degenerates from the promotion to the destruction of that end, the +right and the duty accrues to the people to dissolve this degenerate +government and to institute another. The signers of the Declaration +further averred, that the one people of the United Colonies were +then precisely in that situation--with a government degenerated +into tyranny, and called upon by the laws of nature and of nature's +God to dissolve that government and to institute another. Then, in +the name and by the authority of the good people of the colonies, +they pronounced the dissolution of their allegiance to the king, and +their eternal separation from the nation of Great Britain--and +declared the United Colonies independent States. And here as the +representatives of the one people they had stopped. They did not +require the confirmation of this act, for the power to make the +declaration had already been conferred upon them by the people, +delegating the power, indeed, separately in the separate colonies, +not by colonial authority, but by the spontaneous revolutionary +movement of the people in them all. + +From the day of that Declaration, the constituent power of the +people had never been called into action. A confederacy had been +substituted in the place of a government, and State sovereignty had +usurped the constituent sovereignty of the people. + +The convention assembled at Philadelphia had themselves no direct +authority from the people. Their authority was all derived from the +State legislatures. But they had the articles of confederation +before them, and they saw and felt the wretched condition into which +they had brought the whole people, and that the Union itself was in +the agonies of death. They soon perceived that the indispensably +needed powers were such as no State government, no combination of +them, was by the principles of the Declaration of Independence +competent to bestow. They could emanate only from the people. A +highly respectable portion of the assembly, still clinging to the +confederacy of States, proposed, as a substitute for the +Constitution, a mere revival of the articles of confederation, with +a grant of additional powers to the Congress. Their plan was +respectfully and thoroughly discussed, but the want of a government +and of the sanction of the people to the delegation of powers +happily prevailed. A constitution for the people, and the +distribution of legislative, executive, and judicial powers was +prepared. It announced itself as the work of the people themselves; +and as this was unquestionably a power assumed by the convention, +not delegated to them by the people, they religiously confined it to +a simple power to propose, and carefully provided that it should be +no more than a proposal until sanctioned by the confederation +Congress, by the State legislatures, and by the people of the +several States, in conventions specially assembled, by authority of +their legislatures, for the single purpose of examining and passing +upon it. + +And thus was consummated the work commenced by the Declaration of +Independence--a work in which the people of the North American +Union, acting under the deepest sense of responsibility to the +Supreme Ruler of the universe, had achieved the most transcendent +act of power that social man in his mortal condition can perform-- +even that of dissolving the ties of allegiance by which he is bound +to his country; of renouncing that country itself; of demolishing +its government; of instituting another government; and of making for +himself another country in its stead. + +And on that day, of which you now commemorate the fiftieth +anniversary,--on that thirtieth day of April, 1789,--was this +mighty revolution, not only in the affairs of our own country, +but in the principles of government over civilized man, accomplished. + +The revolution itself was a work of thirteen years--and had never +been completed until that day. The Declaration of Independence and +the Constitution of the United States are parts of one consistent +whole, founded upon one and the same theory of government, then new +in practice, though not as a theory, for it had been working itself +into the mind of man for many ages, and had been especially +expounded in the writings of Locke, though it had never before been +adopted by a great nation in practice. + +There are yet, even at this day, many speculative objections to this +theory. Even in our own country, there are still philosophers who +deny the principles asserted in the Declaration, as self-evident +truths--who deny the natural equality and inalienable rights of man +--who deny that the people are the only legitimate source of power +--who deny that all just powers of government are derived from the +consent of the governed. Neither your time, nor perphaps the +cheerful nature of this occasion, permit me here to enter upon the +examination of this anti-revolutionary theory, which arrays State +sovereignty against the constituent sovereignty of the people, and +distorts the Constitution of the United States into a league of +friendship between confederate corporations, I speak to matters of +fact. There is the Declaration of Independence, and there is the +Constitution of the United States--let them speak for themselves. +The grossly immoral and dishonest doctrine of despotic State +sovereignty, the exclusive judge of its own obligations, and +responsible to no power on earth or in heaven, for the violation of +them, is not there. The Declaration says, it is not in me. The +Constitution says, it is not in me. + + + +SAMUEL ADAMS (1723-1803) + +Samuel Adams, called by his contemporaries, "the Father of the +American Revolution," drew up in 1764 the instructions of the people +of Boston to their representatives in the Massachusetts general +assembly, containing what is said to be the first official denial of +the right of the British Parliament to tax the Colonists. + +Deeply religious by nature, having what Everett calls "a most +angelic voice," studying sacred music as an avocation, and +exhibiting through life the fineness of nerve and sensitiveness of +temperament which gave him his early disposition to escape the +storms of life by a career in the pulpit, circumstances, or rather +his sense of fitness, dominating his physical weakness, imposed on +him the work of leading in what results have shown to be the +greatest revolution of history. So sensitive, physically, that he +had "a tremulous motion of the head when speaking," his intellectual +force was such that he easily became a leader of popular opposition +to royal authority in New England. Unlike Jefferson in being a +fluent public speaker, he resembled him in being the intellectual +heir of Sidney and Locke. He showed very early in life the bent +which afterwards forced him, as it did the naturally timid and +retiring Jefferson, to take the leadership of the uneducated masses +of the people against the wealth, the culture, and the conservatism +of the colonial aristocracy. + +After passing through the Lovell School he graduated at Harvard +College, and on proposing a thesis for his second degree, as college +custom required, he defended the proposition that "it is lawful to +resist the supreme authority, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise +be preserved." Like questions had been debated during the Middle +Ages from the time returning Crusaders brought back with them copies +of Aristotle and other great Greek philosophers whose authority was +still reverenced at Byzantium and Bagdad when London and Paris knew +nothing of them. Out of the denial of one set of schoolmen that a +divine right to rule, greater than that derived from the people, +could exist in kings, grew the political controversy which preceded +the English revolution against the Stuarts. Our revolution grew out +of the English as the French grew out of ours, and in putting on his +seal Cromwell's motto, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," +Jefferson, the Virginian, illustrated the same intellectual +heredity which Samuel Adams, the New Englander, showed in asserting +the right of the people composing the Commonwealth to resist the +supreme authority when in their judgment its exercise had become +prejudicial to their rights or their interests. + +From 1764 when he was chosen to present the denial made by the +people of Boston of the English Parliament's right to tax them, +until he joined Jefferson in forcing on the then unprepared mind of +the public the idea of a complete and final separation from the +"Mother Country," his aggressive denunciations of the English +government's attempts at absolutism made him so hated by the English +administration and its colonial representatives that, with John +Hancock, he was specially exempted from General Gage's amnesty +proclamation of June 1775, as "having committed offenses of too +flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of +condign punishment." + +Joining with John Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson in forcing issues +for complete separation from England and for the formal Declaration +of Independence, Samuel Adams was himself the author of the +celebrated circular letter addressed by the assembly of +Massachusetts to the speakers of the several assemblies in other +colonies. In 1774 he was chosen a member of the Continental +Congress, where he took a prominent part in preventing the +possibility of compromise with England. In 1794 he succeeded Hancock +as governor of Massachusetts, retiring in 1797 because of "the +increasing infirmities of age." + +Like many other statesmen of his time he lived the greater part of +his life in poverty, but his only son, dying before him, left him a +property which supported him in his old age. + +It is said that his great oration on American Independence, +delivered at Philadelphia in August 1776, and published here, is the +only complete address of his which has come down to us. It was +translated into French and published in Paris, and it is believed +that Napoleon borrowed from it the phrase, "A Nation of +Shopkeepers," to characterize the English. + + +AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE + +Countrymen and Brethren:-- + +I would gladly have declined an honor to which I find myself +unequal. I have not the calmness and impartiality which the +infinite importance of this occasion demands. I will not deny the +charge of my enemies, that resentment for the accumulated injuries +of our country, and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthusiasm, +may deprive me of that accuracy of judgment and expression which men +of cooler passions may possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear +me with caution, to examine your prejudice, and to correct the +mistakes into which I may be hurried by my zeal. + +Truth loves an appeal to the common sense of mankind. Your +unperverted understandings can best determine on subjects of a +practical nature. The positions and plans which are said to be above +the comprehension of the multitude may be always suspected to be +visionary and fruitless. He who made all men hath made the truths +necessary to human happiness obvious to all. + +Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is +reserved the honor of leveling the popery of politics. They opened +the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge +for himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of +the sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal +ones? + +Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for eternity, +and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to know from +our feelings the experience that will make us happy. "You can +discern," they say, "objects distant and remote, but cannot perceive +those within your grasp. Let us have the distribution of present +goods, and cut out and manage as you please the interests of +futurity." This day, I trust, the reign of political protestantism +will commence. We have explored the temple of royalty, and found +that the idol we have bowed down to has eyes which see not, ears +that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We +have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be +obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his +subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of +self-direction which he bestowed on them. From the rising to the +setting sun, may his kingdom come! + +Having been a slave to the influence of opinion early acquired, and +distinctions generally received, I am ever inclined not to despise +but pity those who are yet in darkness. But to the eye of reason +what can be more clear than that all men have an equal right to +happiness? Nature made no other distinction than that of higher and +lower degrees of power of mind and body. But what mysterious +distribution of character has the craft of statesmen, more fatal +than priestcraft, introduced? + +According to their doctrine, the offspring of perhaps the lewd +embraces of a successful invader shall, from generation to +generation, arrogate the right of lavishing on their pleasures a +proportion of the fruits of the earth, more than sufficient to +supply the wants of thousands of their fellow-creatures; claim +authority to manage them like beasts of burthen, and, without +superior industry, capacity, or virtue, nay, though disgraceful to +humanity by their ignorance, intemperance, and brutality, shall be +deemed best calculated to frame laws and to consult for the welfare +of society. + +Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given +merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the +follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so +equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as +nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of +Providence be equally enjoyed by all? Away, then, with those absurd +systems which to gratify the pride of a few debase the greater part +of our species below the order of men. What an affront to the King +of the universe, to maintain that the happiness of a monster, sunk +in debauchery and spreading desolation and murder among men, of a +Caligula, a Nero, or a Charles, is more precious in his sight than +that of millions of his suppliant creatures, who do justice, love +mercy, and walk humbly with their God! No, in the judgment of heaven +there is no other superiority among men than a superiority in wisdom +and virtue. And can we have a safer model in forming ours? The +Deity, then, has not given any order or family of men authority over +others; and if any men have given it, they only could give it for +themselves. Our forefathers, 'tis said, consented to be subject to +the laws of Great Britain. I will not, at present, dispute it, nor +mark out the limits and conditions of their submission; but will it +be denied that they contracted to pay obedience and to be under the +control of Great Britain because it appeared to them most beneficial +in their then present circumstances and situations? We, my +countrymen, have the same right to consult and provide for our +happiness which they had to promote theirs. If they had a view to +posterity in their contracts, it must have been to advance the +felicity of their descendants. If they erred in their expectations +and prospects, we can never be condemned for a conduct which they +would have recommended had they foreseen our present condition. + +Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives and +religion of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty +parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters of uncertain +and contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are +not bound to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us +whether our pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the +miserable privilege of having the rewards of our honesty, industry, +the fruits of those fields which they purchased and bled for, +wrested from us at the will of men over whom we have no check. Did +they contract for us that, with folded arms, we should expect that +justice and mercy from brutal and inflamed invaders which have been +denied to our supplications at the foot of the throne? Were we to +hear our character as a people ridiculed with indifference? Did they +promise for us that our meekness and patience should be insulted; +our coasts harassed, our towns demolished and plundered, and our +wives and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger, and death, without +our feeling the resentment of men, and exerting those powers of +self-preservation which God has given us? No man had once a greater +veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear to me +as branches of the same parental trunk, and partakers of the same +religion and laws; I still view with respect the remains of the +constitution as I would a lifeless body, which had once been +animated by a great and heroic soul. But when I am aroused by the +din of arms; when I behold legions of foreign assassins, paid by +Englishmen to imbrue their hands in our blood; when I tread over the +uncoffined bodies of my countrymen, neighbors, and friends; when I +see the locks of a venerable father torn by savage hands, and a +feeble mother, clasping her infants to her bosom, and on her knees +imploring their lives from her own slaves, whom Englishmen have +allured to treachery and murder; when I behold my country, once the +seat of industry, peace, and plenty, changed by Englishmen to a +theatre of blood and misery, Heaven forgive me, if I cannot root out +those passions which it has implanted in my bosom, and detest +submission to a people who have either ceased to be human, or have +not virtue enough to feel their own wretchedness and servitude! + +Men who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a +display of words, talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for +protection. Had she a single eye to our advantage? A nation of +shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested. Let us not be so +amused with words; the extension of her commerce was her object. +When she defended our coasts, she fought for her customers, and +convoyed our ships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired for her +by our industry. She has treated us as beasts of burthen, whom the +lordly masters cherish that they may carry a greater load. Let us +inquire also against whom she has protected us? Against her own +enemies with whom we had no quarrel, or only on her account, and +against whom we always readily exerted our wealth and strength when +they were required. Were these colonies backward in giving +assistance to Great Britain, when they were called upon in 1739 to +aid the expedition against Carthagena? They at that time sent three +thousand men to join the British army, although the war commenced +without their consent. But the last war, 'tis said, was purely +American. This is a vulgar error, which, like many others, has +gained credit by being confidently repeated. The dispute between +the courts of Great Britain and France related to the limits of +Canada and Nova Scotia. The controverted territory was not claimed +by any in the colonies, but by the crown of Great Britain. It was +therefore their own quarrel. The infringement of a right which +England had, by the treaty of Utrecht, of trading in the Indian +country of Ohio, was another cause of the war. The French seized +large quantities of British manufacture and took possession of a +fort which a company of British merchants and factors had erected +for the security of their commerce. The war was therefore waged in +defense of lands claimed by the crown, and for the protection of +British property. The French at that time had no quarrel with +America, and, as appears by letters sent from their commander-in-chief, +to some of the colonies, wished to remain in peace with us. The +part, therefore, which we then took, and the miseries to which we +exposed ourselves, ought to be charged to our affection to Britain. +These colonies granted more than their proportion to the support of +the war. They raised, clothed, and maintained nearly twenty-five +thousand men, and so sensible were the people of England of our +great exertions, that a message was annually sent to the House of +Commons purporting, "that his Majesty, being highly satisfied with +the zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects in North America +had exerted themselves in defense of his Majesty's just rights and +possessions, recommend it to the House to take the same into +consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation." + +But what purpose can arguments of this kind answer? Did the +protection we received annul our rights as men, and lay us under an +obligation of being miserable? + +Who among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim +authority to make your child a slave because you had nourished him +in infancy? + +'Tis a strange species of generosity which requires a return +infinitely more valuable than anything it could have bestowed that +demands as a reward for a defense of our property a surrender of +those inestimable privileges, to the arbitrary will of vindictive +tyrants, which alone give value to that very property. + +Political right and public happiness are different words for the +same idea. They who wander into metaphysical labyrinths, or have +recourse to original contracts, to determine the rights of men, +either impose on themselves or mean to delude others. Public utility +is the only certain criterion. It is a test which brings disputes to +a speedy decision, and makes its appeal to the feelings of +mankind. The force of truth has obliged men to use arguments drawn +from this principle who were combating it, in practice and +speculation. The advocates for a despotic government and +nonresistance to the magistrate employ reasons in favor of their +systems drawn from a consideration of their tendency to promote +public happiness. + +The Author of Nature directs all his operations to the production of +the greatest good, and has made human virtue to consist in a +disposition and conduct which tends to the common felicity of his +creatures. An abridgement of the natural freedom of men, by the +institutions of political societies, is vindicable only on this +foot. How absurd, then, is it to draw arguments from the nature of +civil society for the annihilation of those very ends which society +was intended to procure! Men associate for their mutual advantage. +Hence, the good and happiness of the members, that is, the majority +of the members, of any State, is the great standard by which +everything relating to that State must finally be determined; and +though it may be supposed that a body of people may be bound by a +voluntary resignation (which they have been so infatuated as to +make) of all their interests to a single person, or to a few, it can +never be conceived that the resignation is obligatory to their +posterity; because it is manifestly contrary to the good of the +whole that it should be so. + +These are the sentiments of the wisest and most virtuous champions +of freedom. Attend to a portion on this subject from a book in our +own defense, written, I had almost said, by the pen of inspiration. +"I lay no stress," says he, "on charters; they derive their rights +from a higher source. It is inconsistent with common sense to +imagine that any people would ever think of settling in a distant +country on any such condition, or that the people from whom they +withdrew should forever be masters of their property, and have power +to subject them to any modes of government they pleased. And had +there been expressed stipulations to this purpose in all the +charters of the colonies, they would, in my opinion, be no more +bound by them, than if it had been stipulated with them that they +should go naked, or expose themselves to the incursions of wolves +and tigers." + +Such are the opinions of every virtuous and enlightened patriot in +Great Britain. Their petition to heaven is, "That there may be one +free country left upon earth, to which they may fly, when venality, +luxury, and vice shall have completed the ruin of liberty there." + +Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we +ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind +an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. Dismissing, +therefore, the justice of our cause, as incontestable, the only +question is, What is best for us to pursue in our present +circumstances? + +The doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, I believe, generally +exploded; but as I would attend to the honest weakness of the +simplest of men, you will pardon me if I offer a few words on that +subject. + +We are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, +three millions of souls united in one cause. We have large armies, +well disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in +military skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished +with arsenals and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and +foreign nations are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. +There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing +Providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and +almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our +own arm which has saved us. + +The hand of heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps humble +instruments and means in the great Providential dispensation which +is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not +look back, lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and +derision to the world. For can we ever expect more unanimity and a +better preparation for defense; more infatuation of counsel among +our enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force +and resistance which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will +secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity of +free, imperial States. We cannot suppose that our opposition has +made a corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or +created in them a greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can +therefore expect a restoration and establishment of our privileges, +and a compensation for the injuries we have received from their want +of power, from their fears, and not from their virtues. The +unanimity and valor which will effect an honorable peace can render +a future contest for our liberties unnecessary. He who has strength +to chain down the wolf is a madman if he let him loose without +drawing his teeth and paring his nails. + +From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England +and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall +date the ruin of this country. A politic minister will study to +lull us into security, by granting us the full extent of our +petitions. The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the +virtue, which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and +unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our +descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and +zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption +would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our +resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty which now +animates our hearts and gives success to our arms is extinct, our +numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to +tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if +peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren +and Montgomery are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled +bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward +of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, +supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut +the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to +riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye +love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than +the animating contest of freedom,--go from us in peace. We ask not +your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed +you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget +that ye were our countrymen! + +To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America +is utterly impossible. So vast a continent, and of such a distance +from the seat of empire, will every day grow more unmanageable. The +motion of so unwieldy a body cannot be directed with any dispatch +and uniformity without committing to the Parliament of Great Britain +powers inconsistent with our freedom. The authority and force which +would be absolutely necessary for the preservation of the peace and +good order of this continent would put all our valuable rights +within the reach of that nation. + +As the administration of government requires firmer and more +numerous supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed +on us would be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect +of their increasing on our posterity. The scale of officers, from +the rapacious and needy commissioner to the haughty governor, and +from the governor, with his hungry train, to perhaps a licentious +and prodigal viceroy, must be upheld by you and your children. The +fleets and armies which will be employed to silence your murmurs and +complaints must be supported by the fruits of your industry. + +And yet with all this enlargement of the expense and powers of +government, the administration of it at such a distance, and over so +extensive a territory, must necessarily fail of putting the laws +into vigorous execution, removing private oppressions, and forming +plans for the advancement of agriculture and commerce, and +preserving the vast empire in any tolerable peace and security. If +our posterity retain any spark of patriotism, they can never tamely +submit to such burthens. This country will be made the field of +bloody contention till it gain that independence for which nature +formed it. It is, therefore, injustice and cruelty to our +offspring, and would stamp us with the character of baseness and +cowardice, to leave the salvation of this country to be worked out +by them with accumulated difficulty and danger. + +Prejudice, I confess, may warp our judgments. Let us hear the +decision of Englishmen on this subject, who cannot be suspected of +partiality. "The Americans," they say, "are but little short of half +our number. To this number they have grown from a small body of +original settlers by a very rapid increase. The probability is that +they will go on to increase, and that in fifty or sixty years they +will be double our number, and form a mighty empire, consisting of a +variety of States, all equal or superior to ourselves in all the +arts and accomplishments which give dignity and happiness to human +life. In that period will they be still bound to acknowledge that +supremacy over them which we now claim? Can there be any person who +will assert this, or whose mind does not revolt at the idea of a +vast continent holding all that is valuable to it at the discretion +of a handful of people on the other side of the Atlantic? But if at +that period this would be unreasonable, what makes it otherwise now? +Draw the line if you can. But there is still a greater difficulty." + +Britain is now, I will suppose, the seat of liberty and virtue, and +its legislature consists of a body of able and independent men, who +govern with wisdom and justice. The time may come when all will be +reversed; when its excellent constitution of government will be +subverted; when, pressed by debts and taxes, it will be greedy to +draw to itself an increase of revenue from every distant province, +in order to ease its own burdens; when the influence of the crown, +strengthened by luxury and a universal profligacy of manners, will +have tainted every heart, broken down every fence of liberty, and +rendered us a nation of tame and contented vassals; when a general +election will be nothing but a general auction of boroughs, and when +the Parliament, the grand council of the nation, and once the +faithful guardian of the State, and a terror to evil ministers, will +be degenerated into a body of sycophants, dependent and venal, +always ready to confirm any measures, and little more than a public +court for registering royal edicts. Such, it is possible, may, some +time or other, be the state of Great Britain. What will, at that +period, be the duty of the colonies? Will they be still bound to +unconditional submission? Must they always continue an appendage to +our government and follow it implicitly through every change that +can happen to it? Wretched condition, indeed, of millions of +freemen as good as ourselves! Will you say that we now govern +equitably, and that there is no danger of such revolution? Would to +God that this were true! But you will not always say the same. Who +shall judge whether we govern equitably or not? Can you give the +colonies any security that such a period will never come? No. THE +PERIOD, COUNTRYMEN, IS ALREADY COME! The calamities were at our +door. The rod of oppression was raised over us. We were roused +from our slumbers, and may we never sink into repose until we can +convey a clear and undisputed inheritance to our posterity! This +day we are called upon to give a glorious example of what the wisest +and best of men were rejoiced to view, only in speculation. This +day presents the world with the most august spectacle that its +annals ever unfolded,--millions of freemen, deliberately and +voluntarily forming themselves into a society for their common +defense and common happiness. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, +and Sidney, will it not add to your benevolent joys to behold your +posterity rising to the dignity of men, and evincing to the world +the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual +enjoyment of that equal liberty, which you were happy, when on +earth, in delineating and recommending to mankind? + +Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are +indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors +through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have +formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and +with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social +compact. Here no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to +honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the +name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to +promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This +is the only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of +night to the obscurity for which nature intended him, and expect +only from the eagle to brush the clouds with his wings and look +boldly in the face of the sun. + +Some who would persuade us that they have tender feelings for future +generations, while they are insensible to the happiness of the +present, are perpetually foreboding a train of dissensions under our +popular system. Such men's reasoning amounts to this: Give up all +that is valuable to Great Britain and then you will have no +inducements to quarrel among yourselves; or, suffer yourselves to be +chained down by your enemies that you may not be able to fight with +your friends. + +This is an insult on your virtue as well as your common sense. Your +unanimity this day and through the course of the war is a decisive +refutation of such invidious predictions. Our enemies have already +had evidence that our present constitution contains in it the +justice and ardor of freedom and the wisdom and vigor of the most +absolute system. When the law is the will of the people, it will be +uniform and coherent; but fluctuation, contradiction, and +inconsistency of councils must be expected under those governments +where every revolution in the ministry of a court produces one in +the State--such being the folly and pride of all ministers, that +they ever pursue measures directly opposite to those of their +predecessors. + +We shall neither be exposed to the necessary convulsions of elective +monarchies, nor to the want of wisdom, fortitude, and virtue, to +which hereditary succession is liable. In your hands it will be to +perpetuate a prudent, active, and just legislature, and which will +never expire until you yourselves loose the virtues which give it +existence. + +And, brethren and fellow-countrymen, if it was ever granted to +mortals to trace the designs of Providence, and interpret its +manifestations in favor of their cause, we may, with humility of +soul, cry out, "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy Name be the +praise!" The confusion of the devices among our enemies, and the +rage of the elements against them, have done almost as much towards +our success as either our councils or our arms. + +The time at which this attempt on our liberty was made, when we were +ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were +free from the incursions of enemies in this country; the gradual +advances of our oppressors enabling us to prepare for our defense; +the unusual fertility of our lands and clemency of the seasons; the +success which at first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity +among our friends and reducing our internal foes to acquiescence-- +these are all strong and palpable marks and assurances that +Providence is yet gracious unto Zion, that it will turn away the +captivity of Jacob. + +Our glorious reformers when they broke through the fetters of +superstition effected more than could be expected from an age so +darkened. But they left much to be done by their posterity. They +lopped off, indeed, some of the branches of Popery, but they left +the root and stock when they left us under the domination of human +systems and decisions, usurping the infallibility which can be +attributed to Revelation alone. They dethroned one usurper only to +raise up another; they refused allegiance to the Pope only to place +the civil magistrate in the throne of Christ, vested with authority +to enact laws and inflict penalties in his kingdom. And if we now +cast our eyes over the nations of the earth, we shall find that, +instead of possessing the pure religion of the Gospel, they may be +divided either into infidels, who deny the truth; or politicians who +make religion a stalking horse for their ambition; or professors, +who walk in the trammels of orthodoxy, and are more attentive to +traditions and ordinances of men than to the oracles of truth. + +The civil magistrate has everywhere contaminated religion by making +it an engine of policy; and freedom of thought and the right of +private judgment, in matters of conscience, driven from every other +corner of the earth, direct their course to this happy country as +their last asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests, and shelter them +under the wings of a universal toleration! Be this the seat of +unbounded religious freedom. She will bring with her in her train, +industry, wisdom, and commerce. She thrives most when left to shoot +forth in her natural luxuriance, and asks from human policy only not +to be checked in her growth by artificial encouragements. + +Thus, by the beneficence of Providence, we shall behold our empire +arising, founded on justice and the voluntary consent of the people, +and giving full scope to the exercise of those faculties and rights +which most ennoble our species. Besides the advantages of liberty +and the most equal constitution, Heaven has given us a country with +every variety of climate and soil, pouring forth in abundance +whatever is necessary for the support, comfort, and strength of a +nation. Within our own borders we possess all the means of +sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the same time, these +advantages are so distributed among the different States of this +continent, as if nature had in view to proclaim to us: Be united +among yourselves and you will want nothing from the rest of the +world. + +The more northern States most amply supply us with every necessary, +and many of the luxuries of life; with iron, timber, and masts for +ships of commerce or of war; with flax for the manufacture of linen, +and seed either for oil or exportation. + +So abundant are our harvests, that almost every part raises more +than double the quantity of grain requisite for the support of the +inhabitants. From Georgia and the Carolinas we have, as well for our +own wants as for the purpose of supplying the wants of other powers, +indigo, rice, hemp, naval stores, and lumber. + +Virginia and Maryland teem with wheat, Indian corn, and tobacco. +Every nation whose harvest is precarious, or whose lands yield not +those commodities which we cultivate, will gladly exchange their +superfluities and manufactures for ours. + +We have already received many and large cargoes of clothing, +military stores, etc., from our commerce with foreign powers, and, +in spite of the efforts of the boasted navy of England, we shall +continue to profit by this connection. + +The want of our naval stores has already increased the price of +these articles to a great height, especially in Britain. Without our +lumber, it will be impossible for those haughty islanders to convey +the products of the West Indies to their own ports; for a while they +may with difficulty effect it, but, without our assistance, their +resources soon must fail. Indeed, the West India Islands appear as +the necessary appendages to this our empire. They must owe their +support to it, and ere long, I doubt not, some of them will, from +necessity, wish to enjoy the benefit of our protection. + +These natural advantages will enable us to remain independent of the +world, or make it the interest of European powers to court our +alliance, and aid in protecting us against the invasion of others. +What argument, therefore, do we want to show the equity of our +conduct; or motive of interest to recommend it to our prudence? +Nature points out the path, and our enemies have obliged us to +pursue it. + +If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence on +Great Britain to the dignity and happiness of living a member of a +free and independent nation, let me tell him that necessity now +demands what the generous principle of patriotism should have +dictated. + +We have no other alternative than independence, or the most +ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies +thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody +career; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out +to us as a voice from heaven:-- + +"Will you permit our posterity to groan under the galling chains of +our murderers? Has our blood been expended in vain? Is the only +benefit which our constancy till death has obtained for our country, +that it should be sunk into a deeper and more ignominious vassalage? +Recollect who are the men that demand your submission, to whose +decrees you are invited to pay obedience. Men who, unmindful of +their relation to you as brethren; of your long implicit submission +to their laws; of the sacrifice which you and your forefathers made +of your natural advantages for commerce to their avarice; formed a +deliberate plan to wrest from you the small pittance of property +which they had permitted you to acquire. Remember that the men who +wish to rule over you are they who, in pursuit of this plan of +despotism, annulled the sacred contracts which they had made with +your ancestors; conveyed into your cities a mercenary soldiery to +compel you to submission by insult and murder; who called your +patience cowardice, your piety hypocrisy." + +Countrymen, the men who now invite you to surrender your rights into +their hands are the men who have let loose the merciless savages to +riot in the blood of their brethren; who have dared to establish +Popery triumphant in our land; who have taught treachery to your +slaves, and courted them to assassinate your wives and children. + +These are the men to whom we are exhorted to sacrifice the blessings +which Providence holds out to us; the happiness, the dignity, of +uncontrolled freedom and independence. + +Let not your generous indignation be directed against any among us +who may advise so absurd and maddening a measure. Their number is +but few, and daily decreases; and the spirit which can render them +patient of slavery will render them contemptible enemies. + +Our Union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, +and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We +may justly address you, as the _decemviri_ did the Romans, and say, +"Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. +Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your +happiness depends." + +You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force +of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The +hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom; they +are animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp +their swords can look up to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries +are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who +turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct +their swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, +in your generous enterprise with gratitude to Heaven for past +success, and confidence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask +no greater blessing than to share with you the common danger and +common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that my ashes +may be mingled with those of a Warren and Montgomery, it is that +these American States may never cease to be free and independent. + + + +AELRED + +(1109-1166) + +Saint Aelred, Ealred, or Ethelred. was abbot of the Cistercian +monastery at Rievaulx, Yorkshire, in the twelfth century. Thirty-two +of his sermons, collected and published by Richard Gibbon, remain as +examples of the pulpit eloquence of his age; but not very much is +remembered of Aelred himself except that he was virtuous enough to +be canonized, and was held in high estimation as a preacher during +the Middle Ages. He died in 1166. + +His command of language is extraordinary, and he is remarkable for +the cumulative power with which he adds clause to clause and +sentence to sentence, in working towards a climax. + + +A FAREWELL + +It is time that I should begin the journey to which the law of our +order compels me, desire incites me, and affection calls me. But +how, even for so short a time, can I be separated from my beloved +ones? Separated, I say, in body, and not in spirit; and I know that +in affection and spirit I shall be so much the more present by how +much in body I am the more absent. I speak after the manner of men +because of the infirmity of my flesh; my wish is, that I may lay +down among you the tabernacle of my flesh, that I may breathe forth +my spirit in your hands, that ye may close the eyes of your father, +and that all my bones should be buried in your sight! Pray, +therefore, O my beloved ones, that the Lord may grant me the desire +of my soul. Call to mind, dearest brethren, that it is written of +the Lord Jesus, when he was about to remove his presence from his +Disciples, that he, being assembled together with them, commanded +them that they should not depart from Jerusalem. Following, +therefore, his example, since, after our sweet banquet, we have now +risen from the table, I, who in a little while am about to go away, +command you, beseech you, warn you, not to depart from Jerusalem. +For Jerusalem signifies peace. Therefore, we commend peace to you, +we enjoin peace to you. Now, Christ himself, our Peace, who hath +united us, keep you in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of +peace; to whose protection and consolation I commend you under the +wings of the Holy Ghost; that he may return you to me, and me to you +in peace and with safety. Approach now, dearest sons, and in sign of +the peace and love which I have commended to you, kiss your father; +and let us all pray together that the Lord may make our way +prosperous, and grant us when we return to find you in the same +peace, who liveth and reigneth one God, through all ages of ages. +Amen. + + +A SERMON AFTER ABSENCE + +Behold, I have returned, my beloved sons, my joy and my crown in the +Lord! Behold! I have returned after many labors, after a dangerous +journey; I am returned to you, I am returned to your love. This day +is the day of exultation and joy, which, when I was in a foreign +land, when I was struggling with the winds and with the sea, I so +long desired to behold; and the Lord hath heard the desire of the +poor. O love, how sweetly thou inflamest those that are absent! +How deliciously thou feedest those that are present; and yet dost +not satisfy the hungry till thou makest Jerusalem to have peace and +fillest it with the flour of wheat! This is the peace which, as you +remember, I commended to you when the law of our order compelled me +for a time to be separated from you; the peace which, now I have +returned, I find (Thanks be to God!) among you; the peace of Christ, +which, with a certain foretaste of love, feeds you in the way that +shall satisfy you with the plentitude of the same love in your +country. Well, beloved brethren, all that I am, all that I have, +all that I know, I offer to your profit, I devote to your advantage. +Use me as you will; spare not my labor if it can in any way serve to +your benefit. Let us return, therefore, if you please, or rather +because you please, to the work which we have intermitted; and let +us examine the Holy Ghost enduing us with the light of truth, the +heavenly treasures which holy Isaiah has laid up under the guise of +parables, when he writes that parable which the people, freed from +his tyranny, shall take up against the king of Babylon. "And it +shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest +from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage +wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this +parable against the king of Babylon." Let us, therefore, understand +the parable as a parable. Not imagining that it was spoken against +Nebuchadnezzar, the prince of that earthly Babylon, but rather +against him who is from the North, the prince of confusion. ... If +any one of us, then, who was once set in the confusion of vices, and +oppressed by the yoke of iniquity, now rejoices that he rests from +his labors, and is without confusion for that which is past, and has +cast off the yoke of that worst of slaveries, let him take up this +parable against the king of Babylon. There is labor in vice, there +is rest in virtue; there is confusion in lust, there is security in +chastity; there is servitude in covetousness, there is liberty in +charity. Now, there is a labor in vice, and labor for vice, and +labor against vice. A labor in vice, when, for the sake of +fulfilling our evil desires, the ancient enemy inflicts hard labor +upon us. There is a labor for vice, when any one is either +afflicted against his will, for the evil which he has done, or of +his will is troubled by the labor of penance. There is a labor +against vice, when he that is converted to God is troubled with +divers temptations. There is also a confusion in vice, when a man, +distracted by most evil passions, is not ruled by reason, but +hurried along confusedly by the tumult of vices; a confusion for +vice, when a man is found out and convicted of any crime, and is +therefore confounded, or when a man repenting and confessing what he +has done is purified by healthful confusion and confession; and +there is a confusion against vice, when a man, converted to God, +resists the temptation from which he suffers, by the recollection of +former confusion. + +Wonder not if I have kept you longer to-day than my wont is, because +desirous of you, after so long a hunger, I could not be easily +satiated with your presence. Think not, indeed, that even now I am +satiated; I leave off speaking because I am weary, not because I am +satisfied. But I shall be satisfied when the glory of Christ shall +appear, in whom I now embrace you with delight, you, with whom I +hope that I shall be happily found in him, to whom is honor and +glory to ages of ages. Amen. + + +ON MANLINESS + +Fortitude comes next, which is necessary in temptation, since +perfection of sanctity cannot be so uninterruptedly maintained in +this life that its serenity will be disturbed by no temptations. But +as our Lord God seems to us, in times when everything appears +peaceful and tranquil, to be merciful and loving and the giver of +joy, thus when he exposes us either to the temptations of the flesh, +or to the suggestions of demons, or when he afflicts us with the +troubles, or wears us out with the persecutions of this world, he +seems, as it were, a hard and angry master. And happy is he who +becomes valiant in this his anger, now resisting, now fighting, now +flying, so as to be found neither infirm through consenting, nor +weak through despairing. Therefore, brethren, whoever is not found +valiant in his anger cannot exult in his glory. If we have passed +through fire and water, so that neither did the fire consume us, nor +the water drown us, whose is the glory? Is it ours, so that we +should exult in it as if it belonged to us? God forbid! How many +exult, brethren, when they are praised by men, taking the glory of +the gifts of God as if it were their own and not exulting in the +honor of Christ, who, while they seek that which is their own and +not the things of Jesus Christ, both lose that which is their own +and do not gain that which is Christ's! He then exults in Christ's +glory, who seeks not his glory but Christ's, and he understands +that, in ourselves, there is nothing of which we can boast, since we +have nothing that is our own. And this is the way in which, in +individual men, the City of Confusion is overthrown, when chastity +expels luxury, fortitude overthrows temptations, humility excludes +vanity. Furthermore, we have sanctification from the faith and +sacraments of Christ, fortitude from the love of Christ, exultation +in the hope of the promises of Christ. Let us each do what we can, +that faith may sanctify us, love strengthen us, and hope make us +joyful in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever +and forever. Amen. + + + +AESCHINES (389-314 B.C.) + +Professor R. C. Jebe says of Aeschines, the rival of Demosthenes for +supremacy at Athens, that when the Rhodians asked him to teach them +oratory, he replied that he did not know it himself. He took pride +in being looked upon as a representative of natural oratorical +genius who had had little help from the traditions of the schools. +"If, however, Aeschines was no rhetorical artist," writes Doctor +Jebb, "he brought to public speaking the twofold training of the +actor and the scribe. He had a magnificent voice under perfect +musical control. 'He compares me to the sirens,' says Aeschines of +his rival." + +First known as an actor, playing "tritagonist" in the tragedies of +Sophocles and the other great Athenian dramatists, Aeschines was +afterwards clerk to one of the minor officials at Athens; then +secretary to Aristophon and Eubulos, well-known public men, and +later still secretary of the _ekklesia_ or assembly. + +The greatest event of his life was his contest with Demosthenes 'De +Corona' (Over the Crown). When Ktesiphon proposed that Athens should +bestow a wreath of gold on Demosthenes for his public services, +Aechines, after the bill proposing it had come before the assembly, +challenged it and gave notice of his intention to proceed against +Ktesiphon for proposing an unconstitutional measure. One of the +allegations in support of its unconstitutionally was that "to record +a bill describing Demosthenes as a public benefactor was to deposit +a lying document among the public archives." The issues were thus +joined between Aeschines and Demosthenes for one of the most +celebrated forensic contests in history. Losing the case Aeschines +went into banishment. He died at Samos, B.C. 314, in his +seventy-fifth year. He is generally ranked next to Demosthenes among +Greek orators. For the following from the oration of Aeschines, the +reader is under obligations to Professor Jebb's admirable translation. + + +AGAINST CROWNING DEMOSTHENES (Against Ktesiphon) + +Our days have not fallen on the common chances of mortal life. We +have been set to bequeath a story of marvels to posterity. Is not +the king of Persia, he who cut through Athos, and bridged the +Hellespont, he who demands earth and water from the Greeks, he who +in his letters presumes to style himself lord of all men from the +sunrise to the sunset, is he not struggling at this hour, no longer +for authority over others, but for his own life? Do you not see the +men who delivered the Delphian temple invested not only with that +glory but with the leadership against Persia? While Thebes-- +Thebes, our neighbor city--has been in one day swept from the face +of Greece--justly it may be in so far as her general policy was +erroneous, yet in consequence of a folly which was no accident, but +the judgment of heaven. The unfortunate Lacedaemonians, though they +did but touch this affair in its first phase by the occupation of +the temple,--they who once claimed the leadership of Greece,-- +are now to be sent to Alexander in Asia to give hostages, to parade +their disasters, and to hear their own and their country's doom from +his lips, when they have been judged by the clemency of the master +they provoked. Our city, the common asylum of the Greeks, from +which, of old, embassies used to come from all Greece to obtain +deliverance for their several cities at our hands, is now battling, +no more for the leadership of Greece, but for the ground on which it +stands. And these things have befallen us since Demosthenes took +the direction of our policy. The poet Hesiod will interpret such a +case. There is a passage meant to educate democracies and to +counsel cities generally, in which he warns us not to accept +dishonest leaders. I will recite the lines myself, the reason, I +think, for our learning the maxims of the poets in boyhood being +that we may use them as men:-- + + "Oft hath the bad man been the city's bane; + Oft hath his sin brought to the sinless pain: + Oft hath all-seeing Heaven sore vexed the town + With dearth and death and brought the people down; + Cast down their walls and their most valiant slain, + And on the seas made all their navies vain!" + +Strip these lines of their poetic garb, look at them closely, and I +think you will say these are no mere verses of Hesiod--that they are +a prophecy of the administration of Demosthenes, for by the agency +of that administration our ships, our armies, our cities have been +swept from the earth. ... "O yes," it will be replied, "but then he +is a friend of the constitution." If, indeed, you have a regard +only to his delicacy you will be deceived as you were before, but +not if you look at his character and at the facts. I will help you +to estimate the characteristics which ought to be found in a friend +of the constitution; in a sober-minded citizen. I will oppose to +them the character that may be looked for in an unprincipled +revolutionist. Then you shall draw your comparison and consider on +which part he stands--not in his language, remember, but in his +life. Now all, I think, will allow that these attributes should +belong to a friend of the constitution: First, that he should be of +free descent by both parents so that the disadvantage of birth may +not embitter him against those laws which preserve the democracy. +Second, that he should be able to show that some benefit has been +done to the people by his ancestors; or, at the worst, that there +had been no enmity between them which would prompt him to revenge +the misfortunes of his fathers on the State. Third, he should be +virtuous and temperate in his private life, so that no profligate +expense may lead him into taking bribes to the hurt of the people. +Next, he should be sagacious and able to speak--since our ideal is +that the best course should be chosen by the intelligence and then +commended to his hearers by the trained eloquence of the orator, +--though, if we cannot have both, sagacity must needs take rank +before eloquence. Lastly, he must have a stout heart or he may play +the country false in the crisis of danger or of war. The friend of +oligarchy must be the opposite of all this. I need not repeat the +points. Now, consider: How does Demosthenes answer to these +conditions? + +[After accusing Demosthenes of being by parentage half a Scythian, +Greek in nothing but language, the orator proceeds: ]-- + +In his private life, what is he? The tetrarch sank to rise a +pettifogger, a spendthrift, ruined by his own follies. Then having +got a bad name in this trade, too, by showing his speeches to the +other side, he bounded on the stage of public life, where his +profits out of the city were as enormous as his savings were small. +Now, however, the flood of royal gold has floated his extravagance. +But not even this will suffice. No wealth could ever hold out long +against vice. In a word, he draws his livelihood not from his own +resources but from your dangers. What, however, are his +qualifications in respect to sagacity and to power of speech? A +clever speaker, an evil liver! And what is the result to Athens? +The speeches are fair; the deeds are vile! Then as to courage I +have a word to say. If he denied his cowardice or if you were not +aware of it, the topic might have called for discussion, but since +he himself admits in the assemblies and you know it, it remains only +to remind you of the laws on the subject. Solon, our ancient +lawgiver, thought the coward should be liable to the same penalties +as the man who refuses to serve or who has quitted his post. +Cowardice, like other offenses, is indictable. + +Some of you will, perhaps, ask in amazement: Is a man to be indicted +for his temperament? He is. And why? In order that every one of +us fearing the penalties of the law more than the enemy may be the +better champion of his country. Accordingly, the lawgiver excludes +alike the man who declines service, the coward, and the deserter of +his post, from the lustral limits in the market place, and suffers +no such person to receive a wreath of honor or to enter places of +public worship. But you, Ktesiphon, exhort us to set a crown on the +head to which the laws refuse it. You by your private edict call a +forbidden guest into the forefront of our solemn festival, and +invite into the temple of Dionysos that dastard by whom all temples +have been betrayed. ... Remember then, Athenians, that the city +whose fate rests with you is no alien city, but your own. Give the +prizes of ambition by merit, not by chance. Reserve your rewards +for those whose manhood is truer, whose characters are worthier. +Look at each other and judge not only with your ears but with your +eyes who of your number are likely to support Demosthenes. His +young companions in the chase or the gymnasium? No, by the Olympian +Zeus! He has not spent his life in hunting or in any healthful +exercise, but in cultivating rhetoric to be used against men of +property. Think of his boastfulness when he claims by his embassy +to have snatched Byzantium out of the hands of Philip, to have +thrown the Acharnians into revolt, to have astonished the Thebans +with his harangue! He thinks that you have reached the point of +fatuity at which you can be made to believe even this--as if your +citizen were the deity of persuasion instead of a pettifogging +mortal! And when at the end of his speech, he calls as his +advocates those who shared his bribes, imagine that you see upon +this platform where I now speak before you, an array drawn up to +confront their profligacy--the benefactors of Athens: Solon, who set +in order the Democracy by his glorious laws, the philosopher, the +good legislator, entreating you with the gravity which so well +became him never to set the rhetoric of Demosthenes above your oaths +and above the laws; Aristides, who assessed the tribute of the +Confederacy, and whose daughters after his death were dowered by the +State--indignant at the contumely threatened to justice and +asking: Are you not ashamed? When Arthmios of Zeleia brought +Persian gold to Greece and visited Athens, our fathers well-nigh put +him to death, though he was our public guest, and proclaimed him +expelled from Athens and from all territory that the Athenians rule; +while Demosthenes, who has not brought us Persian gold but has taken +bribes for himself and has kept them to this day, is about to +receive a golden wreath from you! And Themistokles, and they who +died at Marathon and Plataea, aye, and the very graves of our +forefathers--do you not think they will utter a voice of +lamentation, if he who covenants with barbarians to work against +Greece shall be--crowned! + + + +FREDERICK A. AIKEN (1810-1878) + +In defending the unpopular cause of the British soldiers who were +engaged in the Boston Massacre, John Adams said:-- + +"May it please your honor and you, gentlemen of the jury, I am for +the prisoner at the bar, and shall apologize for it only in the +words of the Marquis of Beccaria: 'If I can but be the instrument of +preserving one life, his blessings and tears of transport shall be a +sufficient compensation to me for the contempt of all mankind.'" + +Something of the same idea inspires the fine opening of Aiken's +defense of Mrs. Surratt. It lacks the sinewy assertiveness of +Adams's terse and almost defiant apology for doing his duty as a +lawyer in spite of public opinion, but it justifies itself and the +plea it introduces. + +Until within the recent past, political antagonisms have been too +strong to allow fair consideration for such orations as that of +Aiken at the Surratt trial. But this is no longer the case. It can +now be considered on its merits as an oration, without the +assumption that it is necessary in connection with it to pass on the +evidence behind it. + +The assassins of President Lincoln were tried by military commission +under the War Department's order of May 6th, 1865. The prosecution +was conducted by Brigadier-General Joseph Holt, as judge +advocate-general, with Brevet-Colonel H. L. Burnett, of Indiana, and +Hon. John A. Bingham, of Ohio, assisting him. The attorneys for the +defense were Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland; Thomas Ewing, of Kansas; +W. E. Doster, of Pennsylvania; Frederick A. Aiken, of the District +of Columbia; Walter S. Cox, John W. Clampit, and F. Stone, of +Maryland. The fault of the Adams oration in the case of the Boston +Massacre is one of excessive severity of logic. Aiken errs in the +direction of excessive ornament, but, considering the importance of +the occasion and the great stress on all engaged in the trial as +well as on the public, the florid style may have served better than +the force of severe logic could have done. + + +DEFENSE OF MRS. MARY E. SURRATT + +For the lawyer as well as the soldier, there is an equally pleasant +duty--an equally imperative command. That duty is to shelter the +innocent from injustice and wrong, to protect the weak from +oppression, and to rally at all times and all occasions, when +necessity demands it, to the special defense of those whom nature, +custom, or circumstance may have placed in dependence upon our +strength, honor, and cherishing regard. That command emanates and +reaches each class from the same authoritative and omnipotent +source. It comes from a superior whose right to command none dare +question, and none dare disobey. In this command there is nothing of +that _lex_ _talionis_ which nearly two thousand years ago nailed to the +cross its Divine Author. + +"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets." + +God has not only given us life, but he has filled the world with +everything to make life desirable; and when we sit down to determine +the taking away of that which we did not give, and which, when +taken away, we cannot restore, we consider a subject the most solemn +and momentous within the range of human thought and human action. + +Profoundly impressed with the innocence of our client, we enter upon +the last duty in her case with the heartfelt prayer that her +honorable judges may enjoy the satisfaction of not having a single +doubt left on their minds in granting her an acquittal, either as to +the testimony affecting her, or by the surrounding circumstances of +the case. + +The first point that naturally arises in the presentation of the +defense of our client is that which concerns the plea that has been +made to the jurisdiction of the commission to try her--a plea +which by no means implies anything against the intelligence, +fairness, or integrity of the brilliant and distinguished officers +who compose the court, but merely touches the question of the right +of this tribunal, under the authority by which it is convoked. This +branch of her case is left to depend upon the argument already +submitted by her senior counsel, the _grande_ _decus_ _columenque_ +of his profession, and which is exhaustive of the subject on which +it treats. Therefore, in proceeding to the discussion of the merits +of the case against her, the jurisdiction of the court, for the sake +of argument, may be taken as conceded. + +But, if it be granted that the jurisdiction is complete, the next +preliminary inquiry naturally is as to the principles of evidence by +which the great mass of accumulated facts is to be analyzed and +weighed in the scales of justice and made to bias the minds of her +judges; and it may be here laid down as a _concessum_ in the case, +that we are here in this forum, constrained and concluded by the +same process, in this regard, that would bind and control us in any +other court of civil origin having jurisdiction over a crime such as +is here charged. For it is asserted in all the books that +court-martial must proceed, so far as the acceptance and the +analysis of evidence is concerned, upon precisely those reasonable +rules of evidence which time and experience, _ab_ _antiquo_, surviving +many ages of judicial wisdom, have unalterably fixed as unerring +guides in the administration of the criminal law. Upon this conceded +proposition it is necessary to consume time by the multiplication of +references. We are content with two brief citations from works of +acknowledged authority. + +In Greenleaf it is laid down:-- + +"That courts-martial are bound, in general, to observe the rules of +the law of evidence by which the courts of criminal jurisdiction are +governed." (3 Greenleaf, section 467.) + +This covers all the great general principles of evidence, the points +of difference being wholly as to minor matters. And it is also +affirmed in Benet:-- + +"That it has been laid down as an indisputable principle, that +whenever a legislative act erects a new jurisdiction, without +prescribing any particular rules of evidence to it, the common law +will supply its own rules, from which it will not allow such +newly-erected court to depart. The rules of evidence, then, that +obtain in the criminal courts of the country must be the guides for +the courts-martial; the end sought for being the truth, these rules +laid down for the attainment of that end must be intrinsically the +same in both cases. These rules constitute the law of evidence, and +involve the quality, admissibility, and effect of evidence and its +application to the purposes of truth." (Benet, pp. 226, 327.) + +Therefore, all the facts that tend against the accused, and all +those that mate for her, are to be weighed and are to operate upon +her conviction or acquittal precisely as they would in a court of +law. If they present a case such as would there convict her she may +be found guilty here; and if, on the other hand, the rules of law +upon these facts would raise any presumption or create any doubt, or +force any conclusions that would acquit her in a court of law, then +she must be discharged, upon the same principles by the commission. +This is a point which, in our judgment, we cannot too strongly +impress upon the minds of her judges. The extraordinary character +of the crime--the assassination that removed from us the President +of the United States--makes it most desirable that the findings of +this tribunal shall be so well founded in reason as to satisfy and +secure public confidence, and approval; for many of the most +material objects of the prosecution, and some of the most important +ends of justice, will be defeated and frustrated if convictions and +acquittals, and more especially the former, shall be adjudged upon +the grounds that are notoriously insufficient. + +Such a course of action would have a tendency to draw sympathy and +support to the parties thus adjudged guilty, and would rob the +result of this investigation of the wholesome support of +professional and public opinion. The jurisdiction of the +commission, for example, is a matter that has already provoked +considerable criticism and much warm disapproval; but in the case of +persons clearly found to be guilty, the public mind would easily +overlook any doubts that might exist as to the regularity of the +court in the just sentence that would overtake acknowledged +criminals. Thus, if Booth himself and a party of men clearly +proved, by ocular evidence or confession, to have aided him, were +here tried and condemned, and, as a consequence, executed, not much +stress, we think, would be laid by many upon the irregularity of the +mode by which they should reach that just death which all good +citizens would affirm to be their deserts. But the case is far +different when it affects persons who are only suspected, or against +whom the evidence is weak and imperfect; for, if citizens may be +arraigned and convicted for so grievous an offense as this upon +insufficient evidence, every one will feel his own personal safety +involved, and the tendency would be to intensify public feelings +against the whole process of the trial. It would be felt and argued +that they had been condemned upon evidence that would not have +convicted them in a civil court, and that they had been deprived, +therefore, of the advantage, which they would have had for their +defense. Reproach and contumely upon the government would be the +natural result, and the first occasion would arise in all history +for such demonstrations as would be sure to follow the condemnation +of mere citizens, and particularly of a woman, upon evidence on +which an acquittal would follow in a civil court. It is, therefore, +not only a matter of the highest concern to the accused themselves, +as a question of personal and private right, but also of great +importance upon considerations of general public utility and policy, +that the results of this trial, as affecting each of the accused, +among them Mrs. Surratt, shall be rigidly held within the bounds and +limitations that would control in the premises, if the parties were +on trial in a civil court upon an indictment equivalent to the +charges and specifications here. Conceding, as we have said, the +jurisdiction for the purpose of this branch of the argument, we hold +to the principle first enunciated as the one great, all-important, +and controlling rule that is to guide the commission in the findings +they are now about to make. In order to apply this principle to the +case of our client, we do not propose to range through the general +rules of evidence with a view to seeing how they square with the +facts as proven against her. In the examination of the evidence in +detail, many of these must from necessity be briefly alluded to; but +there is only one of them to which we propose in this place to +advert specifically, and that is the principle that may be justly +said to lie at the foundation of all the criminal law--a principle +so just, that it seems to have sprung from the brain of Wisdom +herself, and so undoubted and universal as to stand upon the +recognition of all the times and all the mighty intellects through +and by which the common law has been built up. We allude, of +course, to that principle which declares that "every man is held to +be innocent until he shall be proven guilty"--a principle so +natural that it has fastened itself upon the common reason of +mankind, and been immemorially adopted as a cardinal doctrine in all +courts of justice worthy of the name. It is by reason of this great +underlying legal tenet that we are in possession of the rule of law, +administered by all the courts, which, in mere technical expression, +may be termed "the presumption of innocence in favor of the accused." +And it is from hence that we derive that further application of the +general principle, which has also become a rule of law, and of +universal application wherever the common law is respected (and with +which we have more particularly to deal), by which it is affirmed, +in common language, that in any prosecution for crime "the accused +must be acquitted where there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt." +We hardly think it necessary to adduce authorities for this position +before any tribunal. In a civil court we certainly should waive the +citations, for the principle as stated would be assumed by any civil +judge and would, indeed, be the starting point for any investigation +whatever. Though a maxim so common and conceded, it is fortified by +the authority of all the great lights of the law. Before reference +is made to them, however, we wish to impress upon the minds of the +court another and important rule to which we shall have occasion to +refer:-- + +"The evidence in support of a conspiracy is generally +circumstantial" (Russell on Crimes, Vol. ii., 698.) + +In regard to circumstantial evidence, all the best and ablest +writers, ancient and modern, agree in treating it as wholly inferior +in cogency, force, and effect, to direct evidence. And now for the +rule that must guide the jury in all cases of reasonable doubt:-- + +"If evidence leave reasonable ground for doubt, the conclusion +cannot be morally certain, however great may be the preponderance of +probability in its favor." (Wills on Circumstantial Evidence. Law +Library, Vol. xli.) + +"The burden of proof in every criminal case is on the government to +prove all the material allegations in the indictment; and if, on the +whole evidence, the jury have a reasonable doubt whether the +defendant is guilty of the crime charged, they are bound to acquit +him. If the evidence lead to a reasonable doubt, that doubt will +avail in favor of the prisoner." (1 Greenleaf, section 34--Note.) + +Perhaps one of the best and clearest definitions of the meaning of a +"reasonable doubt" is found in an opinion given in Dr. Webster's +case by the learned and accurate Chief-Justice of Massachusetts. He +said;-- + +"The evidence must establish the truth of the fact to a reasonable +and moral certainty; a certainty that convinces and directs the +understanding and satisfies the reason and judgment of those who are +bound to act conscientiously upon it." (Commonwealth versus +Webster, 5 Cush., 320.) + +Far back in the early history of English jurisprudence we find that +it was considered a most serious abuse of the common law, "that +justices and their officers, who kill people by false judgment, be +not destroyed as other murderers, which King Alfred caused to be +done, who caused forty-four justices in one year to be hanged for +their false judgment. He hanged Freburne because he judged Harpin to +die, whereas the jury were in doubt of their verdict; for in +doubtful cases we ought rather to save than to condemn." + +The spirit of the Roman law partook of the same care and caution in +the condemnation of those charged with crime. The maxim was:-- + +"_Satius_ _est_ _impunitum_ _relinqui_ _facinus_ _nocentis_, _quam_ +_innocentem_ _damnare_." + +That there may be no mistake concerning the fact that this +commission is bound as a jury by these rules, the same as juries in +civil courts, we again quote from Benet:-- + +"It is in the province of the court (court-martial) to decide all +questions on the admissibility of evidence. Whether there is any +evidence is a question for the court as judges, but whether the +evidence is sufficient is a question for the court as jury to +determine, and this rule applies to the admissibility of every kind +of evidence, written as well as oral." (Benet, pp. 225, 226.) + +These citations may be indefinitely multiplied, for this principle +is as true in the law as any physical fact in the exact sciences. +It is not contended, indeed, that any degree of doubt must be of a +reasonable nature, so as to overset the moral evidence of guilt. +A mere possibility of innocence will not suffice, for, upon human +testimony, no case is free from possible innocence. Even the more +direct evidence of crime may be possibly mistaken. But the doubt +required by the law must be consonant with reason and of such a +nature that in analogous circumstances it would affect the action of +a reasonable creature concerning his own affairs. We may make the +nature of such a doubt clearer to the court by alluding to a very +common rule in the application of the general principle in certain +cases, and the rule will readily appeal to the judgment of the court +as a remarkable and singularly beautiful example of the inexorable +logic with which the law applies its own unfailing reason. + +Thus, in case of conspiracy, and some others, where many persons are +charged with joint crime, and where the evidence against most of +them must, of necessity, be circumstantial, the plea of "reasonable +doubt" becomes peculiarly valuable to the separate accused, and the +mode in which it is held it can best be applied is the test whether +the facts as proved, circumstantial, as supposed, can be made to +consist just as reasonably with a theory that is essentially +different from the theory of guilt. + +If, therefore, in the developments of the whole facts of a +conspiracy, all the particular facts against a particular person can +be taken apart and shown to support a reasonable theory that +excludes the theory of guilt, it cannot be denied that the moral +proof of the latter is so shaken as to admit the rule concerning the +presumption of innocence. For surely no man should be made to +suffer because certain facts are proved against him, which are +consistent with guilt, when it can be shown that they are also, and +more reasonably, consistent with innocence. And, as touching the +conspiracy here charged, we suppose there are hundreds of innocent +persons, acquaintances of the actual assassin, against whom, on the +social rule of _noscitur_ _a_ _sociis_, mercifully set aside in law, +many facts might be elicited that would corroborate a suspicion of +participation in his crime; but it would be monstrous that they +should suffer from that theory when the same facts are rationally +explainable on other theories. + +The distinguished assistant judge advocate, Mr. Bingham, who has +brought to the aid of the prosecution, in this trial, such ready and +trenchant astuteness in the law, has laid the following down as an +invariable rule, and it will pass into the books as such:-- + +"A party who conspires to do a crime may approach the most upright +man in the world with whom he had been, before the criminality was +known to the world, on terms of intimacy, and whose position in the +world was such that he might be on terms of intimacy with reputable +gentlemen. It is the misfortune of a man that is approached in that +way; it is not his crime, and it is not colorably his crime either." + +This rule of construction, we humbly submit, in connection with the +question of doubt, has a direct and most weighty bearing upon the +case of our client. Some indication of the mode in which we propose +to apply it may be properly stated here. Now, in all the evidence, +there is not a shadow of direct and positive proof which connects +Mrs. Surratt with a participation in this conspiracy alleged, or +with any knowledge of it. Indeed, considering the active part she is +charged with taking, and the natural communicativeness of her sex, +the case is most singularly and wonderfully barren of even +circumstantial facts concerning her. But all there is, is +circumstantial. Nothing is proved against her except some few +detached facts and circumstances lying around the outer circle of +the alleged conspiracy, and by no means necessarily connected with +guilty intent or guilty knowledge. + +It becomes our duty to see:-- + +1. What these facts are. + +2. The character of the evidence in support of them, and of the + witnesses by whom they are said to be proven. And, + +3. Whether they are consistent with a reasonable theory by which + guilt is excluded. + +We assume, of course, as a matter that does not require argument, +that she has committed no crime at all, even if these facts be +proved, unless there is the necessary express or implied criminal +intent, for guilty knowledge and guilty intent are the constituent +elements, the principles of all crime. The intent and malice, too, +in her case, must be express, for the facts proved against her, +taken in themselves, are entirely and perfectly innocent, and are +not such as give rise to a necessary implication of malice. This +will not be denied. Thus, when one commits a violent homicide, the +law will presume the requisite malice; but when one only delivers a +message, which is an innocent act in itself, the guilty knowledge, +malice, and intent, that are absolutely necessary to make it criminal, +must be expressly proven before any criminal consequences can attach +to it. And, to quote:-- + +"Knowledge and intent, when material, must be shown by the +prosecutor." (Wharton's American Criminal Law, section 631.) + +The intent to do a criminal act as defined by Bouvier implies and +means a preconceived purpose and resolve and determination to commit +the crime alleged. To quote again:-- + +"But the intent or guilty knowledge must be brought directly home to +the defendant." (Wharton's American Criminal Law, 635) + +"When an act, in itself indifferent, becomes criminal, if done with +a particular intent, then the intent must be proved and found," (3 +Greenleaf, section 13.) + +In the light of these principles, let us examine the evidence as it +affects Mrs. Surratt. 1. What are the acts she has done? The +specification against her, in the general charge, is as follows;-- + +"And in further prosecution of the said conspiracy, Mary E. Surratt +did, at Washington City, and within the military department and +military lines aforesaid, on or before the sixth day of March, +A.D. 1865, and on divers other days and times between that day and +the twentieth of April, A.D. 1865, receive and entertain, harbor +and conceal, aid and assist, the said John Wilkes Booth, David +E. Herold, Lewis Payne, John H. Surratt, Michael O'Laughlin, George +A. Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, and their confederates, with knowledge +of the murderous and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid, and with +intent to aid, abet, and assist them in the execution thereof, and +in escaping from justice after the murder of the said Abraham +Lincoln, as aforesaid." + +The first striking fact proved is her acquaintance with John Wilkes +Booth--that he was an occasional visitor at her house. From the +evidence, if it can be relied on, it distinctly appears that this +acquaintance commenced the latter part of January, in the vicinage +of three months only before the assassination of the President, and, +with slight interruptions, it was continued down to the day of the +assassination of the President. Whether he was first invited to the +house and introduced to the family by Weichmann, John H. Surratt, or +some other person, the evidence does not disclose. When asked by the +judge advocate, "Whom did he call to see," the witness, Weichmann, +responded, "He generally called for Mr. Surratt--John H. Surratt-- +and, in the absence of John H. Surratt, he would call for +Mrs. Surratt." + +Before calling the attention of the commission to the next evidence +of importance against Mrs. Surratt, we desire to refresh the +recollection of the court as to the time and manner, and by whom, +according to the testimony of Lloyd, the carbines were first brought +to his (Lloyd's) house. + +From the official record the following is taken:-- + +Question.--Will you state whether or not some five or six weeks +before the assassination of the President, any or all of these men +about whom I have inquired came to your house? + +Answer.--They were there. + +Q.--All three together? + +A.--Yes; John H. Surratt, Herold, and Atzerodt were there together. + +Q.--What did they bring to your house, and what did they do there? + +A.--When they drove up there in the morning, John H. Surratt and +Atzerodt came first; they went from my house and went toward T. B., +a post office kept about five miles below there. They had not been +gone more than half an hour when they returned with Herold; then the +three were together--Herold, Surratt, and Atzerodt. + +Q.--What did they bring to your house? + +A.--I saw nothing until they all three came into the bar-room, I +noticed one of the buggies--the one I supposed Herold was driving +or went down in--standing at the front gate. All three of them, +when they came into the bar-room, drank, I think, and then John +Surratt called me into the front parlor, and on the sofa were two +carbines, with ammunition. I think he told me they were carbines. + +Q,--Anything besides the carbines and ammunition? + +A,--There was also a rope and a monkey-wrench. + +Q.--How long a rope? + +A.--I cannot tell. It was a coil--a right smart bundle--probably +sixteen to twenty feet. + +Q.--Were those articles left at your house? + +A.--Yes, sir; Surratt asked me to take care of them, to conceal the +carbines. I told him that there was no place to conceal them, and I +did not wish to keep such things in the house. + +Q.--You say that he asked you to conceal those articles for him? + +A.--Yes, sir; he asked me to conceal them. I told him there was no +place to conceal them. He then carried me into a room that I had +never been in, which was just immediately above the store room, as +it were, in the back building of the house. I had never been in that +room previous to that time. He showed me where I could put them, +underneath the joists of the house--the joists of the second floor +of the main building. This little unfinished room will admit of +anything between the joists. + +Q.--Were they put in that place? + +A.--They were put in there according to his directions. + +Q.--Were they concealed in that condition? + +A.--Yes, sir: I put them in there. I stated to Colonel Wells +through mistake that Surratt put them there; but I put them in there +myself, I carried the arms up myself. + +Q.--How much ammunition was there? + +A.--One cartridge box. + +Q.--For what purpose, and for how long, did he ask you to keep +these articles? + +A.--I am very positive that he said that he would call for them in +a few days. He said that he just wanted them to stay for a few days +and he would call for them. + +It also appears in evidence against Mrs. Surratt, if the testimony +is to be relied on, that on the Tuesday previous to the murder of +the President, the eleventh of April, she met John M. Lloyd, a +witness for the prosecution, at Uniontown, when, the following took +place:-- + +Question by the judge advocate:--Did she say anything to you in +regard to those carbines? + +Answer.--When she first broached the subject to me, I did not know +what she had reference to; then she came out plainer, and I am quite +positive she asked me about the "shooting irons." I am quite +positive about that, but not altogether positive. I think she named +"shooting irons" or something to call my attention to those things, +for I had almost forgot about their being there. I told her that +they were hid away far back--that I was afraid that the house +would be searched, and they were shoved far back. She told me to get +them out ready; they would be wanted soon. + +Q.--Was her question to you first, whether they were still there, +or what was it? + +A.--Really, I cannot recollect the first question she put to me. I +could not do it to save my life. + +On the afternoon of the fourteenth of April, at about half-past five +Lloyd again met Mrs. Surratt, at Surrattsville, at which time, +according to his version, she met him by the woodpile near the house +and told him to have those shooting irons ready that night as there +would be some parties calling for them, and that she gave him +something wrapped in a piece of paper, and asked him to get two +bottles of whisky ready also. This mesage to Mr. Lloyd is the +second item of importance against Mrs. Surratt, and in support of +the specification against her. The third and last fact that makes +against her in the minds of the court is the one narrated by Major +H. W. Smith, a witness for the prosecution, who states that while at +the house of Mrs. Surratt, on the night of the seventeenth of April, +assisting in making arrest of its inmates, the prisoner, Payne, came +in. He (Smith) stepped to the door of the parlor and said, +"Mrs. Surratt, will you step here a minute?" As Mrs. Surratt came +forward, he asked her this question, "Do you know this man?" She +replied, quoting the witness's language, "Before God, sir, I do not +know this man, and I have never seen him." An addition to this is +found in the testimony of the same witness, as he was drawn out by +the judge advocate. The witness repeats the language of +Mrs. Surratt, "Before God, sir, I do not know this man, and I have +never seen him, and did not hire him to dig a gutter for me." The +fact of the photographs and card of the State arms of Virginia have +ceased to be of the slightest importance, since the explanations +given in evidence concerning them, and need not be alluded to. If +there is any doubt as to whom they all belonged, reference to the +testimony of Misses Surratt and Fitzpatrick will settle it. + +These three circumstances constitute the part played by the accused, +Mary E. Surratt, in this great conspiracy. They are the acts she +has done. They are all that two months of patient and unwearying +investigation, and the most thorough search for evidence that was +probably ever made, have been able to develop against her. The +acquaintance with Booth, the message to Lloyd, the nonrecognition of +Payne, constitute the sum total of her receiving, entertaining, +harboring and concealing, aiding and assisting those named as +conspirators and their confederates, with knowledge of the murderous +and traitorous conspiracy; and with intent to aid, abet, and assist +them in the execution thereof, and in escaping from justice. The +acts she has done, in and of themselves are perfectly innocent. Of +themselves they constitute no crime. They are what you or I or any +of us might have done. She received and entertained Booth, the +assassin, and so did a hundred others. She may have delivered a +message to Lloyd--so have a hundred others. She might have said +she did not know Payne--and who within the sound of my voice can +say they know him now? They are ordinary and commonplace +transactions, such as occur every day and to almost everybody. But +as all the case against her must consist in the guilty intent that +will be attempted to be connected with these facts, we now propose +to show that they are not so clearly proven as to free them from +great doubt, and, therefore, we will inquire:-- + +2. How are these acts proven? Solely by the testimony of Louis +J. Weichmann and John M. Lloyd. Here let us state that we have no +malice toward either of them, but if in the analysis of their +evidence we should seem to be severe, it is that error and duplicity +may be exposed and innocence protected. + +We may start out with the proposition that a body of men banded +together for the consummation of an unlawful act against the +government, naturally would not disclose their purpose and hold +suspicious consultations concerning it in the presence continually +of an innocent party. In the light of this fair presumption let us +look at the acts of Weichmann, as disclosed by his own testimony. +Perhaps the most singular and astonishing fact that is made to +appear is his omnipresence and co-action with those declared to be +conspirators, and his professed and declared knowledge of all their +plans and purposes. His acquaintance with John H. Surratt commenced +in the fall of 1859, at St. Charles, Maryland. In January 1863 he +renewed his acquaintance with him in this city. On the first of +November, 1864, he took board and lodging with Mrs. Surratt at her +house, No. 541 H. Street, in this city. If this testimony is +correct, he was introduced to Booth on the fifteenth day of January, +1865. At this first, very first meeting, he was invited to Booth's +room at the National, where he drank wine and took cigars at Booth's +expense. After consultation about something in an outer passage +between Booth and the party alleged to be with him by Weichmann, +they all came into the room, and for the first time business was +proceeded with in his presence. After that he met Booth in +Mrs. Surratt's parlor and in his own room, and had conversations +with him. As near as Weichmann recollects, about three weeks after +his introduction he met the prisoner, Atzerodt, at Mrs. Surratt's. +(How Atzerodt was received at the house will be referred to.) About +the time that Booth played Pescara in the 'Apostate' at Ford's +Theatre, Weichmann attended the theatre in company with Surratt and +Atzerodt. At the theatre they were joined by Herold. John +T. Holohan, a gentleman not suspected of complicity in the great +tragedy, also joined the company at the theatre. After the play was +over, Surratt, Holohan, and himself went as far as the corner of +Tenth and E Streets, when Surratt, noticing that Atzerodt and Herold +were not with them, sent Weichmann back for them. He found them in +a restaurant with Booth, by whose invitation Weichmann took a drink. +After that the entire party went to Kloman's, on Seventh Street, and +had some oysters. The party there separated, Surratt, Weichmann, +and Holohan going home. In the month of March last the prisoner, +Payne, according to Weichmann, went to Mrs. Surratt's house and +inquired for John H. Surratt. "I, myself," says Weichmann, "went to +open the door, and he inquired for Mr. Surratt I told him +Mr. Surratt was not at home; but I would introduce him to the +family, and did introduce him to Mrs. Surratt--under the name of +Wood." What more? By Weichmann's request Payne remained in the +house all night. He had supper served him in the privacy of +Weichmann's own room. More than that, Weichmann went down into the +kitchen and got the supper and carried it up to him himself, and as +nearly as he recollects, it was about eight weeks previous to the +assassination; Payne remained as Weichmann's guest until the nest +morning, when he left on the early train for Baltimore. About three +weeks after that Payne called again. Says Weichmann, "I again went +to the door, and I again ushered him into the parlor." But he adds +that he had forgotten his name, and only recollected that he had +given the name of Wood on the former visit, when one of the ladies +called Payne by that name. He who had served supper to Payne in his +own room, and had spent a night with him, could not recollect for +three weeks the common name of "Wood," but recollects with such +distinctness and particularity scenes and incidents of much greater +age, and by which he is jeopardizing the lives of others. Payne +remained that time about three days, representing himself to the +family as a Baptist preacher; claiming that he had been in prison in +Baltimore for about a week; that he had taken the oath of allegiance +and was going to become a good loyal citizen. To Mrs. Surratt this +seemed eccentric, and she said "he was a great-looking Baptist +preacher." "They looked upon it as odd and laughed about it." It +seemed from Weichmann's testimony that he again shared his room with +Payne. Returning from his office one day, and finding a false +mustache on the table in his room, he took it and threw it into his +toilet box, and afterward put it with a box of paints into his +trunk. The mustache was subsequently found in Weichmann's baggage. +When Payne, according to Weichmann's testimony, inquired, "Where is +my mustache?" Weichmann said nothing, but "thought it rather queer +that a Baptist preacher should wear a false mustache." He says that +he did not want it about his room--"thought no honest person had any +reason to wear a false mustache," and as no "honest person" should +be in possession of it, he locked it up in his own trunk. Weichmann +professes throughout his testimony the greatest regard and +friendship for Mrs. Surratt and her son. Why did he not go to +Mrs. Surratt and communicate his suspicions at once? She, an +innocent and guileless woman, not knowing what was occurring in her +own house; he, the friend, coming into possession of important +facts, and not making them known to her, the head of the household, +but claiming now, since this overwhelming misfortune has fallen upon +Mrs. Surratt, that, while reposing in the very bosom of the family +as a friend and confidant, he was a spy and an informer, and, that, +we believe, is the best excuse the prosecution is able to make for +him. His account and explanation of the mustache would be treated +with contemptuous ridicule in a civil court. + +But this is not all. Concede Weichmann's account of the mustache to +be true, and if it was not enough to rouse his suspicions that all +was not right, he states that, on the same day, he went to Surratt's +room and found Payne seated on the bed with Surratt, playing with +bowie knives, and surrounded with revolvers and spurs. Miss Honora +Fitzpatrick testifies that Weichmann was treated by Mrs. Surratt +"more like a son than a friend." Poor return for motherly care! +Guilty knowledge and participation in crime or in wild schemes for +the capture of the President would be a good excuse for not making +all this known to Mrs. Surratt. In speaking of the spurs and +pistols, Weichmann knew that there were just eight spurs and two +long navy revolvers. Bear in mind, we ask you, gentlemen of the +commission, that there is no evidence before you showing that +Mrs. Surratt knew anything about these things. It seems farther on, +about the nineteenth of March, that Weichmann went to the Herndon +House with Surratt to engage a room. He says that he afterwards +learned from Atzerodt that it was for Payne, but contradicts himself +in the same breath by stating that he inquired of Atzerodt if he +were going to see Payne at the Herndon House. His intimate +knowledge of Surratt's movements between Richmond and Washington, +fixing the dates of the trips with great exactitude; of Surratt's +bringing gold back; of Surratt's leaving on the evening of the third +of April for Canada, spending his last moments here with Weichmann; +of Surratt's telling Weichmann about his interview with Davis and +Benjamin--in all this knowledge concerning himself and his +associations with those named as conspirators he is no doubt +truthful, as far as his statements extend; but when he comes to +apply some of this knowledge to others, he at once shakes all faith +in his testimony bearing upon the accused. + +"Do you remember," the question was asked him, "early in the month +of April, of Mrs. Surratt having sent for you and asking you to give +Mr. Booth notice that she wished to see him?" + +Weichmann stated in his reply that she did, that it was on the +second of April, and that he found in Mr. Booth's room John +McCullough, the actor, when he delivered the message. One of two +things to which he swears in this statement cannot be true; 1. That +he met John McCullough in Booth's room, for we have McCullough's +sworn statement that at that time he was not in the city of +Washington, and if, when he delivered the message to Booth, +McCullough was in the room, it could not have been the second of +April. + +ST. LAWRENCE HALL. MONTREAL, June 3. 1865. + +I am an actor by profession, at present fulfilling an engagement at +Mr. Buckland's theatre, in this city. I arrived here on the twelfth +of May. I performed two engagements at Ford's Theatre in Washington, +during the past winter, the last one closing on Saturday evening, +twenty-fifth of March. I left Washington Sunday evening, +twenty-sixth of March, and have not been there since. I have no +recollection of meeting any person by the name of Weichmann. +--John McCullough. + +Sworn to and before me, at the United States Consulate General's, in +Montreal, this third day of June, A.D. 1865. + C. H. POWERS, U. S. Vice Consul-General. + +If he can be so mistaken about those facts, may he not be in regard +to that whole transaction? It is also proved by Weichmann that +before Mrs. Surratt started for the country, on the fourteenth of +April, Booth called; that he remained three or four minutes, and +then Weichmann and Mrs. Surratt started for the country. + +All this comes out on his first examination in chief. The following +is also told in his first cross-examination: Mrs. Surratt keeps a +boarding house in this city, and was in the habit of renting out her +rooms, and that he was upon very intimate terms with Surratt; that +they occupied the same room; that when he and Mrs. Surratt went to +Surrattsville on the fourteenth, she took two packages, one of +papers, the contents of the other were not known. That persons have +been in the habit of going to Mrs. Surratt's and staying a day or +two; that Atzerodt stopped in the house only one night; that the +first time Payne came to the house he was dressed genteelly, like a +gentleman; that he heard both Mrs. Surratt and her daughter say that +they did not care about having Atzerodt brought to the house; and at +the conclusion, in swearing as to Mrs. Surratt's character, he said +it was exemplary and lady-like in every respect, and apparently, as +far as he could judge, she was all the time, from the first of +November up to the fourteenth of April, "doing her duties to God and +man." It also distinctly appears that Weichmann never had any +conversation with Mrs. Surratt touching any conspiracy. One thing +is apparent to our minds, and it is forced upon us, as it must be +upon every reasonable mind, that in order to have gained all this +knowledge Weichmann must have been within the inner circle of the +conspiracy. He knows too much for an innocent man, and the +conclusion is perfectly irresistible that if Mrs. Surratt had +knowledge of what was going on, and had been, with others, a +_particeps_ _criminis_ in the great conspiracy, she certainly would +have done more than she did or has been shown against her, and +Weichmann would have known it. How does her nonrecognition of +Payne, her acquaintance with Booth, and the delivery of the message +to Lloyd, compare with the long and startling array of facts proved +against Weichmann out of his own mouth? All the facts point +strongly to him as a co-conspirator. + +Is there a word on record of conversation between Booth and +Mrs. Surratt? That they did converse together, we know; but if +anything treasonable had passed between them, would not the quick +ears of Weichmann have caught it, and would not he have recited it +to this court? + +When Weichmann went, on Tuesday, the eleventh of April, to get +Booth's buggy, he was not asked by Mrs. Surratt to get ten +dollars. It was proffered by Booth, according to Weichmann, and +he took it. If Mrs. Surratt ever got money from Booth she paid +it back to him. It is not her character to be in anyone's debt. + +There was no intimacy with Booth, as Mrs. Surratt has proved, but +only common acquaintance, and such as would warrant only occasional +calls on Booth's part, and only intimacy would have excused +Mrs. Surratt to herself in accepting such a favor, had it been made +known to her. Moreover, Miss Surratt has attested to remarks of her +brother, which prove that intimacy of Booth with his sister and +mother were not considered desirable by him. + +The preceding facts are proven by statements made by Weichmann +during his first examination. But, as though the commission had not +sufficiently exposed the character of one of its chief witnesses in +the role of grand conspirator, Weichmann is recalled and further +attests to the genuineness of the following telegram: + +NEW YORK, March 23d, 1865.--To WEICHMANN, Esq., 541 H St.--Tell John +telegraph number and street at once. [Signed] J. BOOTH. + +What additional proof of confidential relations between Weichmann +and Booth could the court desire? If there was a conspiracy planned +and maintained among the persons named in the indictment, Weichmann +must have had entire knowledge of the same, else he had not been +admitted to that degree of knowledge to which he testifies; and in +such case, and in the alleged case of Mrs. Surratt's complicity, +Weichmann must have known the same by circumstances strong enough to +exclude doubt, and in comparison with which all present facts of +accusation would sink into insignificance. + +We proceed to the notice and review of the second chief witness of +the prosecution against Mrs. Surratt, John M. Lloyd. He testifies +to the fact of a meeting with Mrs. Surratt at Uniontown on the +eleventh of April, 1865, and to a conversation having occurred +between Mrs. Surratt and himself in regard to which he states: "I am +quite positive she asked me about the 'shooting irons'; I am quite +positive about that, but not altogether positive. I think she named +shooting irons, or something to call my attention to those things, +for I had almost forgotten about their being there." Question.-- +"Was her question to you first, whether they were there, or what was +it?" Answer.--"Really, I cannot recollect the first question she +put to me--I could not do it to save my life." The question was +asked Lloyd, During this conversation, was the word 'carbine' +mentioned? He answered, "No. She finally came out (but I cannot be +determined about it, that she said shooting irons), and asked me in +relation to them." The question was then asked, "Can you swear on +your oath, that Mrs. Surratt mentioned the words 'shooting irons' +to you at all?" A.--"I am very positive she did." Q. __ "Are you +certain?" A.--"I am very positive that she named shooting irons +on both occasions. Not so positive as to the first as I am about +the last." + +Here comes in the plea of "reasonable doubt." If the witness himself +is not absolutely positive as to what occurred, and as to the +conversation that took place, how can the jury assume to act upon it +as they would upon a matter personally concerning themselves? + +On this occasion of Mrs. Surratt's visit to Uniontown, three days +before the assassination, where she met Lloyd, and where this +conversation occurred between them, at a time when Lloyd was, by +presumption, sober and not intoxicated, he declares definitely +before the commission that he is unable to recollect the +conversation, or parts of it, with distinctness. But on the +fourteenth of April, and at a time when, as testified by his +sister-in-law, he was more than ordinarily affected by intoxicating +drink,--and Captain Gwynn, James Lusby, Knott, the barkeeper, and +others, corroborate the testimony as to his absolute inebriation-- +he attests that he positively remembers that Mrs. Surratt said to +him, "'Mr. Lloyd, I want you to have those shooting irons +ready. That a person would call for them.' That was the language +she made use of, and she gave me this other thing to give to whoever +called." + +In connection with the fact that Lloyd cannot swear positively that +Mrs. Surratt mentioned "shooting irons" to him at Uniontown, bear +in mind the fact that Weichmann sat in the buggy on the same seat +with Mrs. Surratt, and he swears that he heard nothing about +"shooting irons." Would not the quick ears of Weichmann have heard +the remark had it been made? + +The gentlemen of the commission will please recollect that these +statements were rendered by a man addicted to excessive use of +intoxicating liquors; that he was even inordinately drunk at the +time referred to; that he had voluntarily complicated himself in the +concealment of the arms by John H. Surratt and his friends; that he +was in a state of maudlin terror when arrested and when forced to +confess; that for two days he maintained denial of all knowledge +that Booth and Herold had been at his house; and that at last, and +in the condition referred to, he was coerced by threats to confess, +and into a weak and common effort to exculpate himself by the +accusation of another and by statements of conversation already +cited. Notwithstanding his utter denial of all knowledge of Booth +and Herold having called at his house, it afterward appears, by his +own testimony, that immediately Herold commanded him (Lloyd) "For +God's sake, make haste and get those things," he comprehended what +"things" were indicated, without definition, and brought forth both +carbines and whisky. He testifies that John H. Surratt had told +him, when depositing the weapons in concealment in his house, that +they would soon be called for, but did not instruct him, it seems, +by whom they would be demanded. + +All facts connecting Lloyd with the case tend to his implication and +guilt, and to prove that he adopted the _dernier_ _ressort_ of guilt-- +accusation and inculpation of another. In case Lloyd were innocent +and Mrs. Surratt the guilty coadjutrix and messenger of the +conspirators, would not Lloyd have been able to cite so many open +and significant remarks and acts of Mrs. Surratt that he would not +have been obliged to recall, in all perversion and weakness of +uncertainty, deeds and speech so common and unmeaning as his +testimony includes? + +It is upon these considerations that we feel ourselves safe and +reasonable in the position that there are facts and circumstances, +both external and internal, connected with the testimony of +Weichmann and Lloyd, which, if they do not destroy, do certainly +greatly shake their credibility, and which, under the rule that will +give Mrs. Surratt the benefit of all reasonable doubts, seem to +forbid that she should be convicted upon the unsupported evidence of +these two witnesses. But even admitting the facts to be proven as +above recited, it remains to be seen where is the guilty knowledge +of the contemplated assassination; and this brings us to the inquiry +whether these facts are not explainable so as to exclude guilt. + +From one of the most respected of legal authorities the following is +taken:-- + +"Whenever, therefore, the evidence leaves it indifferent which of +several hypotheses is true, or merely establishes some finite +probability in favor of one hypothesis rather than another, such +evidence cannot amount to proof. The maxim of the law is that it is +better that ninety-nine offenders should escape than that one +innocent man should be condemned." (Starkie on Evidence.) + +The acts of Mrs. Surratt must have been accompanied with criminal +intent in order to make them criminal. If any one supposes that any +such intent existed, the supposition comes alone from inference. If +disloyal acts and constant disloyal practices, if overt and open +action against the government, on her part, had been shown down to +the day of the murder of the President, it would do something toward +establishing the inference of criminal intent. On the other hand, +just the reverse is shown. The remarks here of the learned and +honorable judge advocate are peculiarly appropriate to this branch +of the discussion, and, with his authority, we waive all others. + +"If the court please, I will make a single remark. I think the +testimony in this case has proved, what I believe history +sufficiently attests, how kindred to each other are the crimes of +treason against a nation and the assassination of its chief +magistrate. As I think of those crimes, the one seems to be, if not +the necessary consequence, certainly a logical sequence from the +other. The murder of the President of the United States, as alleged +and shown, was preeminently a political assassination. Disloyalty to +the government was its sole, its only inspiration. When, therefore, +we shall show, on the part of the accused, acts of intense +disloyalty, bearing arms in the field against that government, we +show, with him, the presence of an animus toward the government +which relieves this accusation of much, if not all, of its +improbability. And this course of proof is constantly resorted to in +criminal courts. I do not regard it as in the slightest degree a +departure from the usages of the profession in the administration of +public justice. The purpose is to show that the prisoner, in his +mind and course of life, was prepared for the commission of this +crime: that the tendencies of his life, as evidenced by open and +overt acts, lead and point to this crime, if not as a necessary, +certainly as a most probable, result, and it is with that view, and +that only, that the testimony is offered." + +Is there anything in Mrs. Surratt's mind and course of life to show +that she was prepared for the commission of this crime? The +business transaction by Mrs. Surratt at Surrattsville, on the +fourteenth, clearly discloses her only purpose in making this visit. +Calvert's letters, the package of papers relating to the estate, the +business with Nothe, would be sufficiently clear to most minds, when +added to the fact that the other unknown package had been handed to +Mrs, Offutt; that, while at Surrattsville, she made an inquiry for, +or an allusion to, Mr. Lloyd, and was ready to return to Washington +when Lloyd drove up to the house. Does not this open wide the door +for the admission of the plea of "reasonable doubt"? Had she really +been engaged in assisting in the great crime, which makes an epoch +in our country's history, her only object and most anxious wish +would have been to see Lloyd. It was no ruse to transact important +business there to cover up what the uncharitable would call the real +business. Calvert's letter was received by her on the forenoon of +the fourteenth, and long before she saw Booth that day, or even +before Booth knew that the President would be at the theatre that +night, Mrs. Surratt had disclosed her intention to go to +Surrattsville, and had she been one moment earlier in her start she +would not have seen Booth at all. All these things furnish powerful +presumptions in favor of the theory that, if she delivered the +message at all, it was done innocently. + +In regard to the nonrecognition of Payne, the third fact adduced by +the prosecution against Mrs. Surratt, we incline to the opinion +that, to all minds not forejudging, the testimony of Miss Anna +E. Surratt, and various friends and servants of Mrs. Surratt, +relative to physical causes, might fully explain and account for +such ocular remissness and failure. In times and on occasions of +casual meeting of intimate acquaintances on the street, and of +common need for domestic uses, the eyesight of Mrs. Surratt had +proved treacherous and failing. How much more liable to fail her +was her imperfect vision on an occasion of excitement and anxiety, +like the night of her arrest and the disturbance of her household by +military officers, and when the person with whom she was confronted +was transfigured by a disguise which varied from the one in which +she had previously met him, with all the wide difference between a +Baptist parson and an earth-soiled, uncouthly-dressed digger of +gutters! Anna E. Surratt, Emma Offutt, Anna Ward, Elize Holohan, +Honora Fitzpatrick, and a servant, attest to all the visual +incapacity of Mrs. Surratt, and the annoyance she experienced +therefrom in passing friends without recognition in the daytime, and +from inability to sew or read even on a dark day, as well as at +night. The priests of her church, and gentlemen who have been +friendly and neighborhood acquaintances of Mrs. Surratt for many +years, bear witness to her untarnished name, to her discreet and +Christian character, to the absence of all imputation of disloyalty, +to her character for patriotism. Friends and servants attest to her +voluntary and gratuitous beneficence to our soldiers stationed +near her; and, "in charges for high treason, it is pertinent to +inquire into the humanity of the prisoner toward those representing +the government," is the maxim of the law; and, in addition, we +invite your attention to the singular fact that of the two officers +who bore testimony in this matter, one asserts that the hall wherein +Payne sat was illuminated with a full head of gas; the other, that +the gaslight was purposely dimmed. The uncertainty of the witness +who gave the testimony relative to the coat of Payne may also be +called to your notice. + +Should not this valuable testimony of loyal and moral character +shield a woman from the ready belief, on the part of judges who +judge her worthiness in every way, that during the few moments Booth +detained Mrs. Surratt from her carriage, already waiting, when he +approached and entered the house, she became so converted to +diabolical evil as to hail with ready assistance his terrible plot, +which must have been framed (if it were complete in his intent at +that hour, half-past two o'clock), since the hour of eleven that +day? + +If any part of Lloyd's statements is true, and Mrs. Surratt did +verily bear to his or Mrs. Offutt's hands the field glass, enveloped +in paper, by the evidence itself we may believe she knew not the +nature of the contents of the package; and had she known, what evil +could she or any other have attached to a commission of so common a +nature? No evidence of individual or personal intimacy with Booth +has been adduced against Mrs. Surratt; no long and apparently +confidential interviews; no indications of a private comprehension +mutual between them; only the natural and not frequent custom on the +part of Booth--as any other associate of her son might and +doubtless did do--of inquiring through the mother, whom he would +request to see, of the son, who, he would learn, was absent from +home. No one has been found who could declare any appearance of the +nursing or mysteriously discussing of anything like conspiracy +within the walls of Mrs. Surratt's house. Even if the son of +Mrs. Surratt, from the significancies of associations, is to be +classed with the conspirators, if such a body existed, it is +monstrous to suppose that the son would weave a net of circumstantial +evidences around the dwelling of his widowed mother, were he never +so reckless and sin-determined; and that they (the mother and the +son) joined hands in such dreadful pact, is a thought more monstrous +still! + +A mother and son associate in crime, and such a crime as this, which +half of the civilized world never saw matched in all its dreadful +bearings! Our judgments can have hardly recovered their unprejudiced +poise since the shock of the late horror, if we can contemplate with +credulity such a picture, conjured by the unjust spirits of +indiscriminate accusation and revenge. A crime which, in its public +magnitude, added to its private misery, would have driven even the +Atis-haunted heart of a Medici, a Borgia, or a Madame Bocarme to +wild confession before its accomplishment, and daunted even that +soul, of all the recorded world the most eager for novelty in +license, and most unshrinking in sin--the indurated soul of +Christina of Sweden; such a crime the profoundest plotters within +padded walls would scarcely dare whisper; the words forming the +expression of which, spoken aloud in the upper air, would convert +all listening boughs to aspens, and all glad sounds of nature to +shuddering wails. And this made known, even surmised, to a woman a +_materfamilias_ the good genius, the _placens_ _uxor_ of a home where +children had gathered all the influences of purity and the +reminiscences of innocence, where religion watched, and the Church +was minister and teacher! + +Who--were circumstantial evidence strong and conclusive, such as +only time and the slow-weaving fates could elucidate and deny--who +will believe, when the mists of uncertainty which cloud the present +shall have dissolved, that a woman born and bred in respectability +and competence--a Christian mother, and a citizen who never +offended the laws of civil propriety; whose unfailing attention to +the most sacred duties of life has won for her the name of "a proper +Christian matron"; whose heart was ever warmed by charity; whose +door unbarred to the poor; and whose Penates had never cause to veil +their faces--who will believe that she could so suddenly and so +fully have learned the intricate arts of sin? A daughter of the +South, her life associations confirming her natal predilections, her +individual preferences inclined, without logic or question, to the +Southern people, but with no consciousness nor intent of disloyalty +to her government, and causing no exclusion from her friendship and +active favors of the people of the loyal North, nor repugnance in +the distribution among our Union soldiery of all needed comforts, +and on all occasions. + +A strong but guileless-hearted woman, her maternal solicitude would +have been the first denouncer, even the abrupt betrayer of a plotted +crime in which one companion of her son could have been implicated, +had cognizance of such reached her. Her days would have been +agonized, and her nights sleepless, till she might have exposed and +counteracted that spirit of defiant hate which watched its moment of +vantage to wreak an immortal wrong--till she might have sought the +intercession and absolution of the Church, her refuge, in behalf of +those she loved. The brains which were bold and crafty and couchant +enough to dare the world's opprobrium in the conception of a scheme +which held as naught the lives of men in highest places, would never +have imparted it to the intelligence, nor sought the aid nor +sympathy, of any living woman who had not, like Lady Macbeth, +"unsexed herself"--not though she were wise and discreet as Maria +Theresa or the Castilian Isabella. This woman knew it not. This +woman, who, on the morning preceding that blackest day in our +country's annals, knelt in the performance of her most sincere and +sacred duty at the confessional, and received the mystic rite of the +Eucharist, knew it not. Not only would she have rejected it with +horror, but such a proposition, presented by the guest who had sat +at her hearth as the friend and convive of the son upon whose arm +and integrity her widowed womanhood relied for solace and +protection, would have roused her maternal wits to some sure cunning +which would have contravened the crime and sheltered her son from +the evil influences and miserable results of such companionship. + +The mothers of Charles IX. and of Nero could harbor underneath their +terrible smiles schemes for the violent and unshriven deaths, or the +moral vitiation and decadence which would painfully and gradually +remove lives sprung from their own, were they obstacles to their +demoniac ambition. But they wrought their awful romances of crime in +lands where the sun of supreme civilization, through a gorgeous +evening of Sybaritic luxury, was sinking, with red tints of +revolution, into the night of anarchy and national caducity. In our +own young nation, strong in its morality, energy, freedom, and +simplicity, assassination can never be indigenous. Even among the +desperadoes and imported lazzaroni of our largest cities, it is +comparatively an infrequent cause of fear. + +The daughters of women to whom, in their yet preserved abodes, the +noble mothers who adorned the days of our early independence are +vividly remembered realities and not haunting shades--the +descendants of earnest seekers for liberty, civil and religious, of +rare races, grown great in heroic endurance, in purity which comes +of trial borne, and in hope born of conscious right, whom the wheels +of fortune sent hither to transmit such virtues--the descendants +of these have no heart, no ear for the diabolisms born in hotbeds of +tyranny and intolerance. No descendant of these--no woman of this +temperate land--could have seen, much less joined, her son, +descending the sanguinary and irrepassable ways of treason and +murder to an ignominious death, or an expatriated and attainted +life, worse than the punishing wheel and bloody pool of the poets' +hell. + +In our country, where reason and moderation so easily quench the +fires of insane hate, and where the vendetta is so easily overcome +by the sublime grace of forgiveness, no woman could have been found +so desperate as to sacrifice all spiritual, temporal, and social +good, self, offspring, fame, honor, and all the desiderata of life, +and time, and immortality, to the commission, or even countenance, +of such a deed of horror, as we have been compelled to contemplate +during the two months past. + +In a Christian land, where all records and results of the world's +intellectual, civil, and moral advancement mold the human heart and +mind to highest impulses, the theory of old Helvetius is more +probable than desirable. + +The natures of all born in equal station are not so widely varied as +to present extremes of vice and goodness, but by the effects of rarest +and severest experience. Beautiful fairies and terrible gnomes do not +stand by each infant's cradle, sowing the nascent mind with tenderest +graces or vilest errors. The slow attrition of vicious associations +and law-defying indulgences, or the sudden impetus of some terribly +multiplied and social disaster, must have worn away the susceptibility +of conscience and self-respect, or dashed the mind from the height of +these down to the depths of despair and recklessness, before one of +ordinary life could take counsel with violence and crime. In no such +manner was the life of our client marked. It was the parallel of +nearly all the competent masses. Surrounded by the scenes of her +earliest recollections, independent in her condition she was satisfied +with the _mundus_ of her daily pursuits, and the maintenance of her own +and children's status in society and her Church. + +Remember your wives, mothers, sisters, and gentle friends whose +graces, purity, and careful affection, ornament and cherish and +strengthen your lives. Not widely different from their natures and +spheres have been the nature and sphere of the woman who sits in the +prisoner's dock to-day, mourning with the heart of Alcestis her +children and her lot; by whose desolated hearthstone a solitary +daughter wastes her uncomforted life away in tears and prayers and +vigils for the dawn of hope; and this wretchedness and unpitied +despair have closed like a shadow around one of earth's common +pictures of domestic peace and social comfort, destroyed by the one +sole cause--suspicion fastened and fed upon the facts of +acquaintance and mere fortuitous intercourse with that man in whose +name so many miseries gather, the assassin of the President. + +Since the days when Christian teachings first elevated woman to her +present free, refined, and refining position, man's power and +honoring regard have been the palladium of her sex. + +Let no stain of injustice, eager for a sacrifice to revenge, rest +upon the reputation of the men of our country and time! + +This woman, who, widowed of her natural protectors, who, in +helplessness and painfully severe imprisonment, in sickness and in +grief ineffable, sues for mercy and justice from your hands, may +leave a legacy of blessings, sweet as fruition-hastening showers, +for those you love and care for, in return for the happiness of fame +and home restored, though life be abbreviated and darkened through +this world by the miseries of this unmerited and woeful trial. But +long and chilling is the shade which just retribution, slow creeping +on, _ped_ _claudo_, casts around the fate of him whose heart is +merciless to his fellows bowed low in misfortune. + + + +ALBERTUS MAGNUS (1205-1280) + +Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus), teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, +was one of the most celebrated orators and theologians of the Church +in the thirteenth century. He was born at Lauingen on the Danube in +1205 (according to some in 1193), and, becoming a Dominican at the +age of twenty-nine, he taught in various German cities with +continually increasing celebrity, until finally the Pope called him +to preach in Rome. In 1260 he was made Bishop of Ratisbon, but after +three years resigned the bishopric and returned to his work in the +ranks of the clergy. While teaching at Cologne he suddenly lost his +memory, probably as a result of his excessive studies. He died +November 15th, 1280. He was placed on the calendar of saints in +1615. His works, collected by Peter Jammy, and published at Lyons in +1651, make twenty-one volumes, folio. + + +THE MEANING OF THE CRUCIFIXION + +It was surrounded by the thick wreath of thorns even to the tender +brain. Whence in the Prophet,--the people hath surrounded me with +the thorns of sin. And why was this, save that thine own head might +not suffer--thine own conscience might not be wounded? His eyes +grew dark in death; and those lights, which give light to the world, +were for a time extinguished. And when they were clouded, there was +darkness over all the earth, and with them the two great lights of +the firmament were moved, to the end that thine eyes might be turned +away, lest they should behold vanity; or, if they chance to behold +it, might for his sake condemn it. Those ears, which in heaven +unceasingly hear "Holy, Holy, Holy," vouchsafed on earth to be +filled with: "Thou hast a devil,--Crucify him, Crucify him!" to +the intent that thine ears might not be deaf to the cry of the poor, +nor, open to idle tales, should readily receive the poison of +detraction or of adulation. That fair face of him that was fairer +than the children of men, yea, than thousands of angels, was +bedaubed with spitting, afflicted with blows, given up to mockery, +to the end that thy face might be enlightened, and, being +enlightened, might be strengthened, so that it might be said of +thee, "His countenance is no more changed." That mouth, which +teaches angels and instructs men "which spake and it was done," was +fed with gall and vinegar, that thy mouth might speak the truth, and +might be opened to the praise of the Lord; and it was silent, lest +thou shouldst lightly lend thy tongue to the expression of anger. + +Those hands, which stretched abroad the heavens, were stretched out +on the cross and pierced with most bitter nails; as saith Isaiah, "I +have stretched forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people." +And David, "They pierced my hands and my feet; I may tell all my +bones." And Saint Jerome says, "We may, in the stretching forth of +his hands, understand the liberality of the giver, who denieth +nothing to them that ask lovingly; who restored health to the leper +that requested it of him; enlightened him that was blind from his +birth; fed the hungry multitude in the wilderness." And again he +says, "The stretched-out hands denote the kindness of the parent, +who desires to receive his children to his breast." And thus let thy +hands be so stretched out to the poor that thou mayest be able to +say, "My soul is always in my hand." For that which is held in the +hand is not easily forgotten. So he may be said to call his soul to +memory, who carries it, as it were, in his hands through the good +opinion that men conceive of it. His hands were fixed, that they may +instruct thee to hold back thy hands, with the nails of fear, from +unlawful or harmful works. + +That glorious breast, in which are hidden all the treasures of +wisdom and knowledge, is pierced with the lance of a soldier, to the +end that thy heart might be cleansed from evil thoughts, and being +cleansed might be sanctified, and being sanctified might be +preserved. The feet, whose footstool the Prophets commanded to be +sanctified, were bitterly nailed to the cross, lest thy feet should +sustain evil, or be swift to shed blood; but, running in the way of +the Lord, stable in his path, and fixed in his road, might not turn +aside to the right hand nor to the left. "What could have been done +more?" + +Why did Christ bow his head on the cross? To teach us that by +humility we must enter into Heaven. Also, to show that we must rest +from our own work. Also, that he might comply with the petition, +"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth"; also that he might +ask permission of his bride to leave her. Of great virtue is the +memory of the Lord's passion, which, if it be firmly held in the +mind, every cloud of error and sin is dispersed. Whence the blessed +Bernard says: "Always having Christ, and him crucified, in the +heart." + + +THE BLESSED DEAD + +They who die in the Lord are blessed, on account of two things which +immediately follow. For they enter into most sweet rest, and enjoy +most delicate refreshment. Concerning their rest it immediately +follows. "Even so saith the spirit" (that is, says the gloss, the +whole Trinity), for they rest from their labors. "And it is a +pleasant bed on which they take their rest, who, as is aforesaid, +die in the Lord." For this bed is none other than the sweet +consolation of the Creator. Of this consolation he speaks himself by +the Prophet Isaiah: "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I +comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Of the +second,--that is, the delicate refreshment of those that die in +Christ,--it is immediately subjoined, and their works do follow +them. For every virtue which a man has practiced by good works in +this world will bring a special cup of recompense, and offer it to +the soul that has entered into rest. Thus, purity of body and mind +will bring one cup, justice another, which also is to be said +concerning truth, love, gentleness, humility, and the other +virtues. Of this holy refreshment it is written in Isaiah: "Kings +shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers." By +kings we understand the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who, in +inseparable unity, possess the kingdom of heaven; by queens, the +virtues are expressed, which, as has been said, receive the cups of +refreshment from the storehouse of the Trinity, and offer them to +the happy souls. Pray, therefore, dearly beloved, to the Lord, that +he would so grant us to live according to his will, that we may die +in him, and may evermore be comforted and refreshed by him. + + + +ETHAN ALLEN + +Ethan Allen of New York, a descendant of the Revolutionary hero +made famous by the capture of Ticonderoga, has never been a +professional public speaker, but from time to time, when stirred by +some cause which appealed to him strongly, he has shown great power +as an orator. His address of 1861, delivered in New York city, is +here republished from a contemporaneous report, preserved among the +papers of Mr. Enos Clarke. It was described in the newspapers of the +day as "thrilling eloquence," and perhaps it is the best expression +extant of the almost inconceivable excitement of the opening months +of the war. + +In 1872 Mr. Alien joined the Liberal Republicans and made earnest +pleas for reconciliation with the South. In 1897 he took a prominent +part in supporting the Cubans in their struggle for independence. + + +A CALL TO ARMS (Delivered in New York city in 1861) + +Fellow-Citizens:-- + +Once more the country is aroused by a call to arms. It is now +nearly a century ago that our fathers assembled in mass meetings in +this city to devise ways and means for this very flag which to-day +we give to the winds of heaven, bearing defiance from every star. +Fired, then, with the same spirit of freedom that kindles on this +spot to-day, for the time throwing aside the habiliments of peace, +our fathers armed themselves for vengeance and for war. The history +of that war, read it in the hearts of the American people; the +trials and struggles of that war, mark them in the teardrops which +the very allusion brings to every eye; the blessings from that war, +count them in the temples of industry and trade that arise +everywhere around us; the wisdom of that war, and the honor and the +perpetuity of its triumphs, behold the one in our unexampled +prosperity as a nation, and the other in the impulses that, like an +electric flash, bind heart to heart, throughout this vast +assemblage, in the firm resolve that, cost what it may, rebellion +shall go down. Again, the American people are assembled in mass +meetings throughout the nation, while the States once more rock in +the throes of revolution. Once more the cry to arms reverberates +throughout the land; but this time we war against domestic foes. +Treason has raised its black flag near the tomb of Washington, and +the Union of our States hangs her fate upon the bayonet and the +sword. Accursed be the hand that would not seize the bayonet; +withered the arm that would not wield the sword in such a cause! +Everything that the American citizen holds dear hangs upon the issue +of this contest. Our national honor and reputation demand that +rebellion shall not triumph on our soil. In the name of our heroic +dead, in the name of our numberless victories, in the name of our +thousand peaceful triumphs, our Union shall and must be preserved! +Our peaceful triumphs? These are the victories we should be jealous +to guard. Let others recount their martial glories; they shall be +eclipsed by the charity and the grace of the triumphs which have +been won in peace. "Peace hath her victories not less renowned than +war," and the hard-earned fruits of these victories rebellion shall +not take from us. Our peaceful triumphs? Who shall enumerate their +value to the millions yet unborn? What nation in so short a time +has seen so many? On the land and on the sea, in the realms of +science and in the world of art, we have everywhere gathered our +honors and won our garlands. Upon the altars of the States they yet +lie, fresh from gathering, while their happy influence fills the +land. Of the importance and value of our thousand peaceful triumphs +time will permit me to mention only one. It is now just two years +ago when up the waters of the Potomac sailed the representatives of +an empire till then shut out from intercourse with all Christian +nations. In the Eastern seas there lay an empire of islands which +had hitherto enjoyed no recognition in the Christian world other +than its name upon the map. No history, as far as we know, +illuminated it; no ancient time-marks told of its advancement, step +by step, in the march of improvement. There it has rested for +thousands of years, wrapped in the mysteries of its own +exclusiveness--gloomy, dark, peculiar. It has been supposed to +possess great powers; and vague rumors have attributed to it arts to +us unknown. Against nearly all the world, for thousands of years +Japan has obstinately shut her doors; the wealth of the Christian +world could not tempt her cupidity; the wonders of the Christian +world could not excite her curiosity. There she lay, sullen and +alone, the phenomenon of nations. England and France and the other +powerful governments of Europe have at various times tried to +conquer this Oriental exclusiveness, but the Portuguese only partly +succeeded, while all the rest have signally failed. At length we, +bearing at our masthead the glorious old Stars and Stripes, approach +the mysterious portals and seek an entrance. Not with cannon and +the implements of death do we demand admission, but, appreciating +the saying of Euripides, that + + "Resistless eloquence shall open + The gates that steel exclude," + +we peacefully appeal to that sense of justice which is the "touch of +nature that makes the whole world kin," and behold! the +interdiction is removed; the doors of the mysterious empire fly +open, and a new garland is added to our commercial conquests! Who +shall set limits to the gain that shall follow this one victory of +peace, if our government shall be perpetuated so as to gather it for +the generations? Who shall say that in an unbroken, undivided +union, the opening of the empire of Japan shall not accomplish for +the present era all that the Reformation, the art of printing, +steam, and the telegraph have done within the last three hundred +years? New avenues of wealth are thrown open; new fields are to be +occupied; arts new to us, perhaps, are to be studied; and science, +doubtless, has revelations to make us, from that arcana of nations, +equal to anything we have ever learned before. Fifty millions of +people are to be enlightened; the printing press is yet to catch the +daily thought and stamp it on the page; the magnetic wire must yet +tremble along her highways, and Niphon yet tremble to her very +centre at each heart-beat of our ocean steamers, as they sweep +through her waters and thunder round her island homes. All hail, +all hail, to these children of the morning; all hail, all hail, to +the Great Republic of the West that calls them into life! From +every age that has passed there comes a song of praise for the +treaty that has been consummated. The buried masters of three +thousand years start again to life and march in solemn and grand +procession before the eyes of the new-found empire. Homer with his +songs, Greece with her arts, Rome with her legions, and America with +her heroes, all come to us with the freshness and novelty of the +newly born. Wipe off the mold that time has gathered upon their +tombs, and let them all come forth and answer, at the summons of a +new-born nation that calls them again to life! + +Tell to these strangers the story of the resurrection. Clutching in +their hands their dripping blades, the warriors recount their +conquests, and joined at last in harmonious brotherhood, Copernicus, +with bony fingers pointing upward, tells to Confucius his story of +the stars! + +Fellow-citizens, I have recounted but one of our many peaceful +triumphs. Shall all these hopes of the future, shall all these +peaceful victories of our people, shall all these struggles of the +past be swept away by the dissolution of this Union and the +destruction of the government? Forbid it, Almighty God! Rather +perish a thousand times the cause of the rebellion, and over the +ruins of slavery let peace once more resume her sway, and let the +cannon's lips grow cold. _Delenda_ _est_ _Carthago_, said the old +Roman patriot, when gloom settled upon his State. The rebellion +must go down in the same spirit, say we all to-day. Down with +party, sect, and class, and up with a sentiment of unanimity when +our country calls to arms! New England leads us in the contest. +The legions of Vermont are now _en_ _route_ for the field. Again, +she can say with truth that "the bones of her sons lie mingling and +bleaching with the soil of every State from Maine to Georgia, and +there they will lie forever." New York must not be behind the Old +Bay State which led a year ago. In the spirit world, Warren calls +to Hamilton, and Hamilton calls back to Warren, that hand in hand +their mortal children go on together to fame, to victory, or to the +grave. Where the ranks are full, let us catch an inspiration from +the past, and with it upon us go forth to conflict. Go call the +roll on Saratoga, Bunker Hill, and Yorktown, that the sheeted dead +may rise as witnesses, and tell your legions of the effort to +dissolve their Union, and there receive their answer. Mad with +frenzy, burning with indignation at the thought, all ablaze for +vengeance upon the traitors, such shall be the fury and impetuosity +of the onset that all opposition shall be swept away before them, as +the pigmy yields to the avalanche that comes tumbling, rumbling, +thundering from its Alpine home! Let us gather at the tomb of +Washington and invoke his immortal spirit to direct us in the +combat. Rising again incarnate from the tomb, in one hand he holds +that same old flag, blackened and begrimed with the smoke of a +seven-years' war, and with the other hand be points us to the foe. +Up and at them! Let immortal energy strengthen our arms, and +infernal fury thrill us to the soul. One blow,--deep, effectual, +and forever,--one crushing blow upon the rebellion, in the name of +God, Washington, and the Republic! + + + +FISHER AMES (1758-1808) + +Fisher Ames is easily first among the New England Federalist orators +of the first quarter of a century of the Republic. He was greatly, +sometimes extravagantly, admired by his contemporaries, and his +addresses are studied as models by eminent public speakers of our +own day. Dr. Charles Caldwell in his autobiography calls Ames "one +of the most splendid rhetoricians of his age." . . . "Two of his +speeches," writes Doctor Caldwell, "that on Jay's Treaty and that +usually called his Tomahawk speech, because it included some +resplendent passages on Indian massacre, were the most brilliant and +fascinating specimens of eloquence I have ever heard, though I have +listened to some of the most eloquent speakers in the British +Parliament,--among others to Wilberforce and Mackintosh, +Plunkett, Brougham, and Canning. Doctor Priestly who was familiar +with the oratory of Pitt the father, and Pitt the son, as also with +that of Burke and Fox, made to myself the acknowledgment that the +speech of Ames on the British treaty was 'the most bewitching piece +of eloquence' to which he had ever listened." + +Ames was born at Dedham, Massachusetts, on April 9th, 1758. His +father, Nathaniel Ames, a physician, had the "honorable family +standing" which was so important in the life of most of the +colonies. He had scientific tendencies and published an +"Astronomical Diary," or nautical almanac, which was in considerable +vogue. The son, however, developed at the early age of six years a +fondness for classical literature, which led him to undertake to +master Latin. He made such progress that he was admitted to Harvard +when but twelve years old. While there, it "was observed that he +coveted the glory of eloquence," showing his fondness for oratory +not merely in the usual debating society declamation, but by the +study of classical models and of such great English poets as +Shakespeare and Milton. To this, no doubt correctly, has been +attributed his great command of language and his fertility in +illustration. After graduating from Harvard in 1774, he studied law +in Boston, served in the Massachusetts legislature, in the +convention for ratifying the Federal constitution, and in the first +Congress elected under the constitution. After retiring, be was +called in 1804 to the presidency of Harvard. He declined the honor, +however, on account of diffidence and failing health. His death +occurred on the fourth of July, 1808, in the fiftieth year of his age. + +After the treaty with Great Britain (Jay's), concluded in 1794, had +been ratified and proclaimed by the President, he communicated it to +the House of Representatives, "in order that the necessary +appropriations might be made to carry it into effect." The speech +on the Treaty, delivered by Ames, was on a resolution in favor of +making the appropriations thus called for, the House being in +committee of the whole April 28th, 1796. + + +ON THE BRITISH TREATY + +(Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 28, 1796) + +Mr. Chairman:-- + +I entertain the hope, perhaps a rash one, that my strength will hold +me out to speak a few minutes. + +In my judgment, a right decision will depend more on the temper and +manner with which we may prevail upon ourselves to contemplate the +subject than upon the development of any profound political +principles, or any remarkable skill in the application of them. If +we could succeed to neutralize our inclinations, we should find less +difficulty than we have to apprehend in surmounting all our +objections. + +The suggestion, a few days ago, that the House manifested symptoms +of heat and irritation, was made and retorted as if the charge ought +to create surprise, and would convey reproach. Let us be more just +to ourselves and to the occasion. Let us not affect to deny the +existence and the intrusion of some portion of prejudice and feeling +into the debate, when, from the very structure of our nature, we +ought to anticipate the circumstance as a probability, and when we +are admonished by the evidence of our senses that it is the fact. + +How can we make professions for ourselves, and offer exhortations to +the House, that no influence should be felt but that of duty, and no +guide respected but that of the understanding, while the peal to +rally every passion of man is continually ringing in our ears? + +Our understandings have been addressed, it is true, and with ability +and effect; but, I demand, has any corner of the heart been left +unexplored? It has been ransacked to find auxiliary arguments, and, +when that attempt failed, to awaken the sensibilities that would +require none. Every prejudice and feeling has been summoned to +listen to some peculiar style of address; and yet we seem to believe +and to consider as an affront a doubt that we are strangers to any +influence but that of unbiased reason. + +It would be strange that a subject which has aroused in turn all the +passions of the country should be discussed without the interference +of any of our own. We are men, and, therefore, not exempt from those +passions; as citizens and representatives we feel the interests that +must excite them. The hazard of great interests cannot fail to +agitate strong passions. We are not disinterested; it is impossible +we should be dispassionate. The warmth of such feelings may becloud +the judgment, and, for a time, pervert the understanding. But the +public sensibility, and our own, has sharpened the spirit of +inquiry, and given an animation to the debate. The public attention +has been quickened to mark the progress of the discussion, and its +judgment, often hasty and erroneous on first impressions, has become +solid and enlightened at last. Our result will, I hope, on that +account, be the safer and more mature, as well as more accordant +with that of the nation. The only constant agents in political +affairs are the passions of men. Shall we complain of our nature-- +shall we say that man ought to have been made otherwise? It is right +already, because he, from whom we derive our nature, ordained it so; +and because thus made and thus acting, the cause of truth and the +public good is the more surely promoted. + +But an attempt has been made to produce an influence of a nature +more stubborn and more unfriendly to truth. It is very unfairly +pretended, that the constitutional right of this house is at stake, +and to be asserted and preserved only by a vote in the negative. We +hear it said that this is a struggle for liberty, a manly resistance +against the design to nullify this assembly and to make it a cipher +in the government; that the President and Senate, the numerous +meetings in the cities, and the influence of the general alarm of +the country, are the agents and instruments of a scheme of coercion +and terror, to force the treaty down our throats, though we loathe +it, and in spite of the clearest convictions of duty and conscience. + +It is necessary to pause here and inquire whether suggestions of +this kind be not unfair in their very texture and fabric, and +pernicious in all their influences. They oppose an obstacle in the +path of inquiry, not simply discouraging, but absolutely +insurmountable. They will not yield to argument; for as they were +not reasoned up, they cannot be reasoned down. They are higher than +a Chinese wall in truth's way, and built of materials that are +indestructible. While this remains, it is vain to argue; it is vain +to say to this mountain, Be thou cast into the sea. For, I ask of +the men of knowledge of the world whether they would not hold him +for a blockhead that should hope to prevail in an argument whose +scope and object is to mortify the self-love of the expected +proselyte? I ask, further, when such attempts have been made, have +they not failed of success? The indignant heart repels a conviction +that is believed to debase it. + +The self-love of an individual is not warmer in its sense, nor more +constant in its action, than what is called in French, _l'esprit_ +_du_ _corps_, or the self-love of an assembly; that jealous +affection which a body of men is always found to bear towards its +own prerogatives and power. I will not condemn this passion. Why +should we urge an unmeaning censure or yield to groundless fears +that truth and duty will be abandoned, because men in a public +assembly are still men, and feel that _esprit_ _du_ _corps_ which is +one of the laws of their nature? Still less should we despond or +complain, if we reflect that this very spirit is a guardian instinct +that watches over the life of this assembly. It cherishes the +principle of self-preservation, and without its existence, and its +existence with all the strength we see it possess, the privileges of +the representatives of the people, and mediately the liberties of +the people, would not be guarded, as they are, with a vigilance that +never sleeps and an unrelaxed constancy and courage. If the +consequences, most unfairly attributed to the vote in the +affirmative, were not chimerical, and worse, for they are deceptive, +I should think it a reproach to be found even moderate in my zeal to +assert the constitutional powers of this assembly; and whenever they +shall be in real danger, the present occasion affords proof that +there will be no want of advocates and champions. + +Indeed, so prompt are these feelings, and, when once roused, so +difficult to pacify, that if we could prove the alarm was +groundless, the prejudice against the appropriations may remain on +the mind, and it may even pass for an act of prudence and duty to +negative a measure which was lately believed by ourselves, and may +hereafter be misconceived by others, to encroach upon the powers of +the House. Principles that bear a remote affinity with usurpation +on those powers will be rejected, not merely as errors, but as +wrongs. Our sensibilities will shrink from a post where it is +possible they may be wounded, and be inflamed by the slightest +suspicion of an assault. + +While these prepossessions remain, all argument is useless. It may +be heard with the ceremony of attention, and lavish its own +resources, and the patience it wearies, to no manner of purpose. The +ears may be open; but the mind will remain locked up, and every pass +to the understanding guarded. + +Unless, therefore, this jealous and repulsive fear for the rights of +the House can be allayed, I will not ask a hearing. + +I cannot press this topic too far; I cannot address myself with too +much emphasis to the magnanimity and candor of those who sit here, +to suspect their own feelings, and, while they do, to examine the +grounds of their alarm. I repeat it, we must conquer our persuasion +that this body has an interest in one side of the question more than +the other, before we attempt to surmount our objections. On most +subjects, and solemn ones too, perhaps in the most solemn of all, we +form our creed more from inclination than evidence. + +Let me expostulate with gentlemen to admit, if it be only by way of +supposition, and for a moment, that it is barely possible they have +yielded too suddenly to their alarms for the powers of this House; +that the addresses which have been made with such variety of forms +and with so great dexterity in some of them, to all that is +prejudice and passion in the heart, are either the effects or the +instruments of artifice and deception, and then let them see the +subject once more in its singleness and simplicity. + +It will be impossible, on taking a fair review of the subject, to +justify the passionate appeals that have been made to us to struggle +for our liberties and rights, and the solemn exhortations to reject +the proposition, said to be concealed in that on your table, to +surrender them forever. In spite of this mock solemnity, I demand, +if the House will not concur in the measure to execute the treaty, +what other course shall we take? How many ways of proceeding lie +open before us? + +In the nature of things there are but three; we are either to make +the treaty, to observe it, or break it. It would be absurd to say +we will do neither. If I may repeat a phrase already much abused, +we are under coercion to do one of them; and we have no power, by +the exercise of our discretion, to prevent the consequences of a +choice. + +By refusing to act, we choose. The treaty will be broken and fall to +the ground. Where is the fitness, then, of replying to those who +urge upon the House the topics of duty and policy that they attempt +to force the treaty down, and to compel this assembly to renounce +its discretion, and to degrade itself to the rank of a blind and +passive instrument in the hands of the treaty-making power? In case +we reject the appropriation, we do not secure any greater liberty of +action; we gain no safer shelter than before from the consequences +of the decision. Indeed, they are not to be evaded. It is neither +just nor manly to complain that the treaty-making power has produced +this coercion to act. It is not the act or the despotism of that +power--it is the nature of things that compels. Shall we, dreading +to become the blind instruments of power, yield ourselves the +blinder dupes of mere sounds of imposture? Yet that word, that empty +word, coercion, has given scope to an eloquence that, one would +imagine, could not be tired and did not choose to be quieted. + +Let us examine still more in detail the alternatives that are before +us, and we shall scarcely fail to see, in still stronger lights, the +futility of our apprehensions for the power and liberty of the +House. + +If, as some have suggested, the thing called a treaty is +incomplete,--if it has no binding force or obligation,--the first +question is, Will this House complete the instrument, and, by +concurring, impart to it that force which it wants? + +The doctrine has been avowed that the treaty, though formally +ratified by the executive power of both nations, though published as +a law for our own by the President's proclamation, is still a mere +proposition submitted to this assembly, no way distinguishable, in +point of authority or obligation, from a motion for leave to bring +in a bill, or any other original act of ordinary legislation. This +doctrine, so novel in our country, yet so dear to many, precisely +for the reason that, in the contention for power, victory is always +dear, is obviously repugnant to the very terms as well as the fair +interpretation of our own resolutions (Mr. Blount's). We declare +that the treaty-making power is exclusively vested in the President +and Senate, and not in this House. Need I say that we fly in the +face of that resolution when we pretend that the acts of that power +are not valid until we have concurred in them? It would be +nonsense, or worse, to use the language of the most glaring +contradiction, and to claim a share in a power which we at the same +time disdain as exclusively vested in other departments. + +What can be more strange than to say that the compacts of the +President and Senate with foreign nations are treaties, without our +agency, and yet those compacts want all power and obligation, until +they are sanctioned by our concurrence? It is not my design, in this +place, if at all, to go into the discussion of this part of the +subject. I will, at least for the present, take it for granted, that +this monstrous opinion stands in little need of remark, and if it +does, lies almost out of the reach of refutation. + +But, say those who hide the absurdity under the cover of ambiguous +phrases, Have we no discretion? And if we have, are we not to make +use of it in judging of the expediency or inexpediency of the +treaty? Our resolution claims that privilege, and we cannot +surrender it without equal inconsistency and breach of duty. + +If there be any inconsistency in the case, it lies, not in making +the appropriations for the treaty, but in the resolution itself +(Mr. Blount's). Let us examine it more nearly. A treaty is a bargain +between nations, binding in good faith; and what makes a bargain? +The assent of the contracting parties. We allow that the treaty +power is not in this House; this House has no share in contracting, +and is not a party; of consequence, the President and Senate alone +may make a treaty that is binding in good faith. We claim, however, +say the gentlemen, a right to judge of the expediency of treaties; +that is the constitutional province of our discretion. Be it +so. What follows? Treaties, when adjudged by us to be inexpedient, +fall to the ground, and the public faith is not hurt. This, +incredible and extravagant as it may seem, is asserted. The amount +of it, in plainer language, is this--the President and Senate are to +make national bargains, and this House has nothing to do in making +them. But bad bargains do not bind this House, and, of inevitable +consequence, do not bind the nation. When a national bargain, called +a treaty, is made, its binding force does not depend upon the +making, but upon our opinion that it is good. . . . + +To expatiate on the value of public faith may pass with some men for +declamation--to such men I have nothing to say. To others I will +urge, Can any circumstance mark upon a people more turpitude and +debasement? Can anything tend more to make men think themselves +mean, or degrade to a lower point their estimation of virtue and +their standard of action? + +It would not merely demoralize mankind; it tends to break all the +ligaments of society, to dissolve that mysterious charm which +attracts individuals to the nation, and to inspire in its stead a +repulsive sense of shame and disgust. + +What is patriotism? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a +man was born? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this +ardent preference because they are greener? No, sir; this is not the +character of the virtue, and it soars higher for its object. It is +an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and +twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus +we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In +their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the +venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen makes +that honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as +sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense, and is +conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what +rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable when a State renounces +the principles that constitute their security? Or, if his life +should not be invaded, what would its enjoyments be in a country +odious in the eyes of strangers and dishonored in his own? Could he +look with affection and veneration to such a country as his parent? +The sense of having one would die within him; he would blush for his +patriotism, if he retained any, and justly, for it would be a +vice. He would be a banished man in his native land. + +I see no exception to the respect that is paid among nations to the +law of good faith. If there are cases in this enlightened period +when it is violated, there are none when it is decried. It is the +philosophy of politics, the religion of governments. It is observed +by barbarians--a whiff of tobacco smoke, or a string of beads, +gives not merely binding force, but sanctity to treaties. Even in +Algiers a truce may be bought for money; but, when ratified, even +Algiers is too wise, or too just, to disown and annul its +obligation. Thus, we see neither the ignorance of savages nor the +principles of an association for piracy and rapine, permit a nation +to despise its engagements. If, sir, there could be a resurrection +from the foot of the gallows, if the victims of justice could live +again, collect together and form a society, they would, however +loath, soon find themselves obliged to make justice, that justice +under which they fell, the fundamental law of their state. They +would perceive it was their interest to make others respect, and +they would therefore soon pay some respect themselves to the +obligations of good faith. + +It is painful, I hope it is superfluous, to make even the +supposition, that America should furnish the occasion of this +opprobrium. No, let me not even imagine that a republican +government, sprung as our own is, from a people enlightened and +uncorrupted, a government whose origin is right, and whose daily +discipline is duty, can, upon solemn debate, make its option to be +faithless--can dare to act what despots dare not avow, what our +own example evinces, the states of Barbary are unsuspected of. No, +let me rather make the supposition that Great Britain refuses to +execute the treaty, after we have done everything to carry it into +effect. Is there any language of reproach pungent enough to express +your commentary on the fact? What would you say, or rather what +would you not say? Would you not tell them, wherever an Englishman +might travel, shame would stick to him--he would disown his country. +You would exclaim, England, proud of your wealth, and arrogant in +the possession of power--blush for these distinctions, which +become the vehicles of your dishonor. Such a nation might truly say +to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my +mother and my sister. We should say of such a race of men, their +name is a heavier burden than their debt. + +I can scarcely persuade myself to believe that the consideration I +have suggested requires the aid of any auxiliary. But, +unfortunately, auxiliary arguments are at hand. Five millions of +dollars, and probably more, on the score of spoliations committed on +our commerce, depend upon the treaty. The treaty offers the only +prospect of indemnity. Such redress is promised as the merchants +place some confidence in. Will you interpose and frustrate that +hope, leaving to many families nothing but beggary and despair? It +is a smooth proceeding to take a vote in this body; it takes less +than half an hour to call the yeas and nays and reject the treaty. +But what is the effect of it? What, but this? The very men +formerly so loud for redress, such fierce champions that even to ask +for justice was too mean and too slow, now turn their capricious +fury upon the sufferers and say by their vote, to them and their +families, No longer eat bread; petitioners, go home and starve; we +can not satisfy your wrongs and our resentments. + +Will you pay the sufferers out of the treasury? No. The answer was +given two years ago, and appears on our journals. Will you give them +letters of marque and reprisal to pay themselves by force? No; that +is war. Besides, it would be an opportunity for those who have +already lost much to lose more. Will you go to war to avenge their +injury? If you do, the war will leave you no money to indemnify +them. If it should be unsuccessful, you will aggravate existing +evils; if successful, your enemy will have no treasure left to give +our merchants; the first losses will be confounded with much +greater, and be forgotten. At the end of a war there must be a +negotiation, which is the very point we have already gained; and why +relinquish it? And who will be confident that the terms of the +negotiation, after a desolating war, would be more acceptable to +another House of Representatives than the treaty before us? Members +and opinions may be so changed that the treaty would then be +rejected for being what the present majority say it should be. +Whether we shall go on making treaties and refusing to execute them, +I know not. Of this I am certain, it will be very difficult to +exercise the treaty-making power on the new principles, with much +reputation or advantage to the country. + +The refusal of the posts (inevitable if we reject the treaty) is a +measure too decisive in its nature to be neutral in its +consequences. From great causes we are to look for great effects. A +plain and obvious one will be the price of the western lands will +fall. Settlers will not choose to fix their habitation on a field of +battle. Those who talk so much of the interest of the United States +should calculate how deeply it will be affected by rejecting the +treaty; how vast a tract of wild land will almost cease to be +property. The loss, let it be observed, will fall upon a fund +expressly devoted to sink the national debt. What, then, are we +called upon to do? However the form of the vote and the +protestations of many may disguise the proceeding, our resolution is +in substance, and it deserves to wear the title of a resolution to +prevent the sale of the western lands and the discharge of the +public debt. + +Will the tendency to Indian hostilities be contested by any one? +Experience gives the answer. The frontiers were scourged with war +till the negotiation with Great Britain was far advanced, and then +the state of hostility ceased. Perhaps the public agents of both +nations are innocent of fomenting the Indian war, and perhaps they +are not. We ought not, however, to expect that neighboring nations, +highly irritated against each other, will neglect the friendship of +the savages; the traders will gain an influence and will abuse it; +and who is ignorant that their passions are easily raised, and +hardly restrained from violence? Their situation will oblige them to +choose between this country and Great Britain, in case the treaty +should be rejected. They will not be our friends, and at the same +time the friends of our enemies. + +But am I reduced to the necessity of proving this point? Certainly +the very men who charged the Indian war on the detention of the +posts, will call for no other proofs than the recital of their own +speeches. It is remembered with what emphasis, with what acrimony, +they expatiated on the burden of taxes, and the drain of blood and +treasure into the western country, in consequence of Britain's +holding the posts. Until the posts are restored, they exclaimed, the +treasury and the frontiers must bleed. + +If any, against all these proofs, should maintain that the peace +with the Indians will be stable without the posts, to them I will +urge another reply. From arguments calculated to produce conviction, +I will appeal directly to the hearts of those who hear me, and ask +whether it is not already planted there. I resort especially to the +convictions of the western gentlemen, whether, supposing no posts +and no treaty, the settlers will remain in security. Can they take +it upon them to say that an Indian peace, under these circumstances, +will prove firm? No, sir; it will not be peace, but a sword; it will +be no better than a lure to draw victims within the reach of the +tomahawk. + +On this theme, my emotions are unutterable. If I could find words +for them--if my powers bore any proportion to my zeal--I would +swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, it should reach every +log house beyond the mountains, I would say to the inhabitants, Wake +from your false security; your cruel dangers, your more cruel +apprehensions, are soon to be renewed; the wounds, yet unhealed, are +to be torn open again; in the daytime, your path through the woods +will be ambushed; the darkness of midnight will glitter with the +blaze of your dwellings. You are a father--the blood of your sons +shall fatten your corn-field; you are a mother--the war-whoop shall +wake the sleep of the cradle. + +On this subject you need not suspect any deception on your feelings. +It is a spectacle of horror which can not be overdrawn. If you have +nature in your hearts, it will speak a language compared with which +all I have said or can say will be poor and frigid. + +Will it be whispered that the treaty has made a new champion for the +protection of the frontiers? It is known that my voice as well as +vote has been uniformly given in conformity with the ideas I have +expressed. Protection is the right of the frontiers; it is our duty +to give it. + +Who will accuse me of wandering out of the subject? Who will say +that I exaggerate the tendencies of our measures? Will any one +answer by a sneer, that all this is idle preaching? Will any one +deny that we are bound, and I would hope to good purpose, by the +most solemn sanctions of duty, for the vote we give? Are despots +alone to be approached for unfeeling indifference to the tears and +blood of their subjects? Are republicans unresponsible? Have the +principles, on which you ground the reproach upon cabinets and +kings, no practical influence, no binding force? Are they merely +themes of idle declamation, introduced to decorate the morality of a +newspaper essay, or to furnish pretty topics of harangue from the +windows of that state house? I trust it is neither too presumptuous +nor too late to ask, Can you put the dearest interest of society at +risk without guilt, and without remorse? + +It is vain to offer as an excuse, that public men are not to be +reproached for the evils that may happen to ensue from their +measures. This is very true, where they are unforeseen or +inevitable. Those I have depicted are not unforeseen; they are so +far from inevitable, we are going to bring them into being by our +vote. We choose the consequences, and become as justly answerable +for them as for the measure that we know will produce them. + +By rejecting the posts, we light the savage fires--we bind the +victims. This day we undertake to render account to the widows and +orphans whom our decision will make, to the wretches that will be +roasted at the stake, to our country, and I do not deem it too +serious to say, to conscience and to God. We are answerable, and if +duty be anything more than a word of imposture, if conscience be not +a bugbear, we are preparing to make ourselves as wretched as our +country. + +There is no mistake in this case; there can be none. Experience has +already been the prophet of events, and the cries of our future +victims have already reached us. The western inhabitants are not a +silent and uncomplaining sacrifice. The voice of humanity issues +from the shade of their wilderness. It exclaims, that while one hand +is held up to reject this treaty, the other grasps a tomahawk. It +summons our imagination to the scenes that will open. It is no great +effort to the imagination to conceive that events so near are +already begun. I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage +vengeance and the shrieks of torture. Already they seem to sigh in +the west wind--already they mingle with every echo from the +mountains. + +It is not the part of prudence to be inattentive to the tendencies +of measures. Where there is any ground to fear that these will be +pernicious, wisdom and duty forbid that we should underrate them. If +we reject the treaty, will our peace be as safe as if we executed it +with good faith? I do honor to the intrepid spirit of those who say +it will. It was formerly understood to constitute the excellence of +a man's faith to believe without evidence and against it. + +But as opinions on this article are changed, and we are called to +act for our country, it becomes us to explore the dangers that will +attend its peace, and to avoid them if we can. + +Few of us here, and fewer still in proportion of our constituents, +will doubt that, by rejecting, all those dangers will be +aggravated. . . . + + + +ST. ANSELM (1032-1109) + +St. Anselm, who has been called the acutest thinker and profoundest +theologian of his day, was born in Piedmont about 1032. Educated +under the celebrated Lanfranc, he went to England in 1093 and became +Archbishop of Canterbury. He was banished by William Rufus as a +result of a conflict between royal and ecclesiastical prerogative. +He died in 1109. Neale calls him the last of the great fathers +except St. Bernard, and adds that "he probably possessed the +greatest genius of all except St. Augustine." + +The sermon here given, the third of the sixteen extant, is given +entire from Neale's translation. It is one of the best examples of +the Middle-Age style of interpreting all Scripture as metaphor and +parable. It contains, moreover, a number of striking passages, such +as, "It is a proof of great virtue to struggle with happiness." + +THE SEA OP LIFE + +"And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, +and to go before him to the other side, while he sent the multitude +away." (Matt, xiv, 22.) + +In this section, according to its mystical interpretation, we have a +summary description of the state of the Church, from the coming of +the Savior to the end of the world. For the Lord constrained his +Disciples to get into a ship, when he committed the Church to the +government of the Apostles and their followers. And thus to go +before him unto the other side,--that is, to bear onwards towards +the haven of the celestial country, before he himself should +entirely depart from the world. For, with his elect, and on account +of his elect, he ever remains here until the consummation of all +things; and he is preceded to the other side of the sea of this +world by those who daily pass hence to the Land of the Living. And +when he shall have sent all that are his to that place, then, +leaving the multitude of the reprobate, and no longer warning them +to be converted, but giving them over to perdition, he will depart +hence that he may be with his elect alone in the kingdom. + +Whence it is added, "while he sent the multitude away." For in the +end of the world he will "send away the multitude" of his enemies, +that they may then be hurried by the Devil to everlasting +vdamnation. "And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up in a +mountain to pray." He will not send away the multitude of the +Gentiles till the end of the world; but he did dismiss the multitude +of the Jewish people at the time when, as saith Isaiah, "He +commanded his clouds that they should rain no rain upon it"; that +is, he commanded his Apostles that they should preach no longer to +the Jews, but should go to the Gentiles. Thus, therefore, he sent +away that multitude, and "went up into a mountain"; that is, to the +height of the celestial kingdom, of which it had been written, "Who +shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall rise up in his +holy place?" For a mountain is a height, and what is higher than +heaven? There the Lord ascended. And he ascended alone, "for no man +hath ascended up into heaven save he that came down from heaven, +even the Son of Man which is in heaven." And even when he shall come +at the end of the world, and shall have collected all of us, his +members, together, and shall have raised us into heaven, he will +also ascend alone, because Christ, the head, is one with his +body. But now the Head alone ascends,--the Mediator of God and man +--the man Christ Jesus. And he goes up to pray, because he went to +the Father to intercede for us. "For Christ is not entered into +holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true, but into +heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." + +It follows: "And when the evening was come, he was there alone." +This signifies the nearness of the end of the world, concerning +which John also speaks: "Little children, it is the last time." +Therefore it is said that, "when the evening was come, he was there +alone," because, when the world was drawing to its end, he by +himself, as the true high priest, entered into the holy of holies, +and is there at the right hand of God, and also maketh intercession +for us. But while he prays on the mountain, the ship is tossed with +waves in the deep. For, since the billows arise, the ship may be +tossed; but since Christ prays, it cannot be overwhelmed. ... + +We may notice, also, that this commotion of the waves, and tottering +or half-sinking of Peter, takes place even in our time, according to +the spiritual sense daily. For every man's own besetting sin is the +tempest. You love God; you walk upon the sea; the swellings of this +world are under your feet. You love the world; it swallows you up; +its wont is to devour, not to bear up, its lovers. But when your +heart fluctuates with the desire of sin, call on the divinity of +Christ, that you may conquer that desire. You think that the wind is +then contrary when the adversity of this world rises against you, +and not also when its prosperity fawns upon you. For when wars, when +tumults, when famine, when pestilence comes, when any private +calamity happens even to individual men, then the wind is thought +adverse, and then it is held right to call upon God; but when the +world smiles with temporal felicity, then, forsooth, the wind is not +contrary. Do not, by such tokens as these, judge of the tranquillity +of the time; but judge of it by your own temptations. See if you are +tranquil within yourself; see if no internal tempest is overwhelming +you. It is a proof of great virtue to struggle with happiness, so +that it shall not seduce, corrupt, subvert. Learn to trample on this +world; remember to trust in Christ. And if your foot be moved,--if +you totter,--if there be some temptations that you cannot +overcome,--if you begin to sink, cry out to Jesus, Lord, save +me. In Peter, therefore, the common condition of all of us is to be +considered; so that, if the wind of temptation endeavor to upset us +in any matter, or its billows to swallow us up, we may cry to +Christ. He shall stretch forth his hand, and preserve us from the +deep. + +It follows: "And when he was come into the ship, the wind ceased." +In the last day he shall ascend into the ship of the Church, because +then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory; which throne may not +unfitly be understood of the Church. For he who by faith and good +works now and always dwells in the Church shall then, by the +manifestation of his glory, enter into it. And then the wind shall +cease, because evil spirits shall no more have the power of sending +forth against it the flames of temptation or the commotions of +troubles; for then all things shall be at peace and at rest. + +It follows: "Then they that were with him in the ship came and +worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God." They +who remain faithfully in the Church amidst the tempests of +temptations will approach to him with joy, and, entering into his +kingdom with him, will worship him; and, praising him perpetually, +will affirm him of a truth to be the Son of God. Then, also, that +will happen which is written concerning the elect raised from death: +"All flesh shall come and shall worship before my face," saith the +Lord. And again: "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they +will always be praising thee." For him, whom with their heart they +believe unto righteousness, and with their mouth confess to +salvation, him they shall see with their heart to light, and with +their mouth shall praise to glory, when they behold how ineffably he +is begotten of the Father, with whom he liveth and reigneth, in the +unity of the Holy Ghost, God to all ages of ages. Amen. + + + +THOMAS ARNOLD (1795-1842) + +Doctor Thomas Arnold, the celebrated head master of Rugby was born +June 13th, 1795, at West Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, where his +father, William Arnold, was a Collector of Customs. After several +years at Winchester school, he went to Oxford where in 1815 he was +elected a fellow of Oriel College. His intellectual bent showed at +Oxford, on the one hand, in fondness for Aristotle and Thucydides, +and on the other in what one of his friends has described as "an +earnest, penetrating, and honest examination of Christianity." As a +result of this honesty and earnestness, he became and remains a +great force wherever English is spoken. Elected head master of Rugby +in December 1827, and remaining in charge of that school for nearly +fourteen years, he almost revolutionized and did much to civilize +the English system of public education. When he left Rugby, in +December 1841, it was to go to Oxford as professor of Modern +History, but his death, June 12th, 1842, left him remembered by the +English-speaking world as "Arnold of Rugby." He left five volumes of +sermons, an edition of 'Thucydides,' a 'History of Rome' in three +volumes, and other works, but his greatest celebrity has been given +him by the enthusiastic love which his manly Christian character +inspired in his pupils and acquaintances, furnishing as it did the +master motive of 'Tom Brown at Rugby,' a book which is likely to +hold the place it has taken next to 'Robinson Crusoe' among English +classics for the young. + +The sermon here republished from the text given in 'Simons's Sermons +of Great Preachers,' is an illustration of the eloquence which +appeals to the mind of others, not through musical and beautiful +language so much as through deep thought and compact expression. + + +THE REALITIES OF LIFE AND DEATH + +"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."--Matt. xxii. 32 + +We hear these words as a part of our Lord's answer to the Sadducees; +and, as their question was put in evident profaneness, and the +answer to it is one which to our minds is quite obvious and natural, +so we are apt to think that in this particular story there is less +than usual that particularly concerns us. But it so happens, that +our Lord, in answering the Sadducees, has brought in one of the most +universal and most solemn of all truths,--which is indeed implied +in many parts of the Old Testament, but which the Gospel has +revealed to us in all its fullness,--the truth contained in the +words of the text, that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the +living." + +I would wish to unfold a little what is contained in these words, +which we often hear even, perhaps, without quite understanding them; +and many times oftener without fully entering into them. And we may +take them, first, in their first part, where they say that "God is +not the God of the dead." + +The word "dead," we know, is constantly used in Scripture in a +double sense, as meaning those who are dead spiritually, as well as +those who are dead naturally. And, in either sense, the words are +alike applicable: "God is not the God of the dead." + +God's not being the God of the dead signifies two things: that they +who are without him are dead, as well as that they who are dead are +also without him. So far as our knowledge goes respecting inferior +animals, they appear to be examples of this truth. They appear to +us to have no knowledge of God; and we are not told that they have +any other life than the short one of which our senses inform us. I +am well aware that our ignorance of their condition is so great that +we may not dare to say anything of them positively; there may be a +hundred things true respecting them which we neither know nor +imagine. I would only say that, according to that most imperfect +light in which we see them, the two points of which I have been +speaking appear to meet in them: we believe that they have no +consciousness of God, and we believe that they will die. And so +far, therefore, they afford an example of the agreement, if I may so +speak, between these two points; and were intended, perhaps, to be +to our view a continual image of it. But we had far better speak of +ourselves. And here, too, it is the case that "God is not the God +of the dead." If we are without him we are dead; and if we are dead +we are without him: in other words, the two ideas of death and +absence from God are in fact synonymous. + +Thus, in the account given of the fall of man, the sentence of death +and of being cast out of Eden go together; and if any one compares +the description of the second Eden in the Revelation, and recollects +how especially it is there said, that God dwells in the midst of it, +and is its light by day and night, he will see that the banishment +from the first Eden means a banishment from the presence of God. +And thus, in the day that Adam sinned, he died; for he was cast out +of Eden immediately, however long he may have moved about afterwards +upon the earth where God was not. And how very strong to the same +point are the words of Hezekiah's prayer, "The grave cannot praise +thee, Death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit +cannot hope for thy truth"; words which express completely the +feeling that God is not the God of the dead. This, too, appears to +be the sense generally of the expression used in various parts of +the Old Testament, "Thou shalt surely die." It is, no doubt, left +purposely obscure; nor are we ever told, in so many words, all that +is meant by death; but, surely, it always implies a separation from +God, and the being--whatever the notion may extend to--the being +dead to him. Thus, when David had committed his great sin, and had +expressed his repentance for it, Nathan tells him, "The Lord also +hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die": which means, most +expressively, thou shalt not die to God. In one sense David died, +as all men die; nor was he by any means freed from the punishment of +his sin: he was not, in that sense, forgiven; but he was allowed +still to regard God as his God; and, therefore, his punishments were +but fatherly chastisements from God's hand, designed for his profit, +that he might be partaker of God's holiness. And thus, although +Saul was sentenced to lose his kingdom, and although he was killed +with his sons on Mount Gilboa, yet I do not think that we find the +sentence passed upon him, "Thou shalt surely die;" and, therefore, +we have no right to say that God had ceased to be his God, although +he visited him with severe chastisements, and would not allow him to +hand down to his sons the crown of Israel. Observe, also, the +language of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, where the expressions +occur so often, "He shall surely live," and "He shall surely die." +We have no right to refer these to a mere extension on the one hand, +or a cutting short on the other, of the term of earthly existence. +The promise of living long in the land, or, as in Hezekiah's case, +of adding to his days fifteen years, is very different from the full +and unreserved blessing, "Thou shalt surely live." And we know, +undoubtedly, that both the good and the bad to whom Ezekiel spoke +died alike the natural death of the body. But the peculiar force of +the promise, and of the threat, was, in the one case, Thou shalt +belong to God; in the other, Thou shalt cease to belong to him; +although the veil was not yet drawn up which concealed the full +import of those terms, "belonging to God," and "ceasing to belong to +him": nay, can we venture to affirm that it is fully drawn aside +even now? + +I have dwelt on this at some length, because it really seems to +place the common state of the minds of too many amongst us in a +light which is exceedingly awful; for if it be true, as I think the +Scripture implies, that to be dead, and to be without God, are +precisely the same thing, then can it be denied that the symptoms of +death are strongly marked upon many of us? Are there not many who +never think of God or care about his service? Are there not many who +live, to all appearances, as unconscious of his existence as we +fancy the inferior animals to be? And is it not quite clear, that to +such persons, God cannot be said to be their God? He may be the God +of heaven and earth, the God of the universe, the God of Christ's +Church; but he is not their God, for they feel to have nothing at +all to do with him; and, therefore, as he is not their God, they +are, and must be, according to the Scripture, reckoned among the +dead. + +But God is the God "of the living." That is, as before, all who are +alive, live unto him; all who live unto him are alive. "God said, I +am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" +and, therefore, says our Lord, "Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are +not and cannot be dead." They cannot be dead because God owns them; +he is not ashamed to be called their God; therefore, they are not +cast out from him; therefore, by necessity, they live. Wonderful, +indeed, is the truth here implied, in exact agreement, as we have +seen, with the general language of Scripture; that, as she who but +touched the hem of Christ's garment was, in a moment, relieved from +her infirmity, so great was the virtue which went out from him; so +they who are not cast out from God, but have anything: whatever to +do with him, feel the virtue of his gracious presence penetrating +their whole nature; because he lives, they must live also. + +Behold, then, life and death set before us; not remote (if a few +years be, indeed, to be called remote), but even now present before +us; even now suffered or enjoyed. Even now we are alive unto God or +dead unto God; and, as we are either the one or the other, so we +are, in the highest possible sense of the terms, alive or dead. In +the highest possible sense of the terms; but who can tell what that +highest possible sense of the terms is? So much has, indeed, been +revealed to us, that we know now that death means a conscious and +perpetual death, as life means a conscious and perpetual life. But +greatly, indeed, do we deceive ourselves, if we fancy that, by +having thus much told us, we have also risen to the infinite +heights, or descended to the infinite depths, contained in those +little words, life and death. They are far higher, and far deeper, +than ever thought or fancy of man has reached to. But, even on the +first edge of either, at the visible beginnings of that infinite +ascent or descent, there is surely something which may give us a +foretaste of what is beyond. Even to us in this mortal state, even +to you advanced but so short a way on your very earthly journey, +life and death have a meaning: to be dead unto God or to be alive to +him, are things perceptibly different. + +For, let me ask of those who think least of God, who are most +separate from him, and most without him, whether there is not now +actually, perceptibly, in their state, something of the coldness, +the loneliness, the fearfulness of death? I do not ask them whether +they are made unhappy by the fear of God's anger; of course they are +not: for they who fear God are not dead to him, nor he to them. The +thought of him gives them no disquiet at all; this is the very point +we start from. But I would ask them whether they know what it is to +feel God's blessing, For instance: we all of us have our troubles of +some sort or other, our disappointments, if not our sorrows. In +these troubles, in these disappointments,--I care not how small they +may be,--have they known what it is to feel that God's hand is over +them; that these little annoyances are but his fatherly correction; +that he is all the time loving us, and supporting us? In seasons of +joy, such as they taste very often, have they known what it is to +feel that they are tasting the kindness of their heavenly Father, +that their good things come from his hand, and are but an infinitely +slight foretaste of his love? Sickness, danger,--I know that they +come to many of us but rarely; but if we have known them, or at +least sickness, even in its lighter form, if not in its graver,-- +have we felt what it is to know that we are in our Father's hands, +that he is with us, and will be with us to the end; that nothing can +hurt those whom he loves? Surely, then, if we have never tasted +anything of this: if in trouble, or in joy, or in sickness, we are +left wholly to ourselves, to bear as we can, and enjoy as we can; if +there is no voice that ever speaks out of the heights and the depths +around us, to give any answer to our own; if we are thus left to +ourselves in this vast world,--there is in this a coldness and a +loneliness; and whenever we come to be, of necessity, driven to be +with our own hearts alone, the coldness and the loneliness must be +felt. But consider that the things which we see around us cannot +remain with us, nor we with them. The coldness and loneliness of the +world, without God, must be felt more and more as life wears on: in +every change of our own state, in every separation from or loss of a +friend, in every more sensible weakness of our own bodies, in every +additional experience of the uncertainty of our own counsels,--the +deathlike feeling will come upon us more and more strongly: we shall +gain more of that fearful knowledge which tells us that "God is not +the God of the dead." + +And so, also, the blessed knowledge that he is the God "of the +living" grows upon those who are truly alive. Surely he "is not far +from every one of us." No occasion of life fails to remind those who +live unto him, that he is their God, and that they are his children. +On light occasions or on grave ones, in sorrow and in joy, still the +warmth of his love is spread, as it were, all through the atmosphere +of their lives: they for ever feel his blessing. And if it fills +them with joy unspeakable even now, when they so often feel how +little they deserve it; if they delight still in being with God, and +in living to him, let them be sure that they have in themselves the +unerring witness of life eternal:--God is the God of the living, +and all who are with him must live. + +Hard it is, I well know, to bring this home, in any degree, to the +minds of those who are dead: for it is of the very nature of the +dead that they can hear no words of life. But it has happened that, +even whilst writing what I have just been uttering to you, the news +reached me that one, who two months ago was one of your number, who +this very half-year has shared in all the business and amusements of +this place, is passed already into that state where the meanings of +the terms life and death are become fully revealed. He knows what +it is to live unto God and what it is to die to him. Those things +which are to us unfathomable mysteries, are to him all plain: and +yet but two months ago he might have thought himself as far from +attaining this knowledge as any of us can do. Wherefore it is +clear, that these things, life and death, may hurry their lesson +upon us sooner than we deem of, sooner than we are prepared to +receive it. And that were indeed awful, if, being dead to God, and +yet little feeling it, because of the enjoyments of our worldly life +these enjoyments were of a sudden to be struck away from us, and we +should find then that to be dead to God is death indeed, a death +from which there is no waking and in which there is no sleeping +forever. + + + +CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR (1830-1886) + +If "Eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary and no more." +President Arthur's inaugural address is one of its best examples. He +was placed in a position of the gravest difficulty. He had been +nominated for Vice-President as a representative of the "Stalwart" +Republicans when that element of the party had been defeated in +National convention by the element then described as "Half-Breeds." +After the assassination of President Garfield by the "paranoiac" +Guiteau, the country waited with breathless interest to hear what +the Vice-President would say in taking the Presidency. With a tact +which amounted to genius, which never failed him during his +administration, which in its results showed itself equivalent to the +highest statesmanship, Mr. Arthur, a man to whom his opponents had +been unwilling to concede more than mediocre abilities, rose to the +occasion, disarmed factional oppositions, mitigated the animosity of +partisanship, and during his administration did more than had been +done before him to re-unite the sections divided by Civil War. + +He was born in Fairfield, Vermont, October 5th, 1830. His father, +Rev. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman, born in Ireland, gave him +a good education, sending him to Union College where he graduated in +1848. After teaching school in Vermont, he studied law and began +practice in New York city. Entering politics as a Henry Clay Whig, +and casting his first vote in 1852 for Winfield Scott, he was active +as a Republican in the Fremont campaign of 1856 and from that time +until elected to the Vice-Presidency took that strong interest in +public affairs which led his opponents to class him as a +"professional politician." During the Civil War he was +inspector-general and quarter-master general of New York troops. In +1871 President Grant appointed him collector of the port of New York +and he held the office until July 1878. when he was suspended by +President Hayes. Taking an active part in the movement to nominate +General Grant for the Presidency to succeed Mr. Hayes. he attended +the Republican convention of 1880, and after the defeat of the Grant +forces, he was nominated as their representative for the +Vice-Presidency. He died suddenly in New York city, November 18th, +1886, having won for himself during his administration as President +the good-will of so many of his political opponents that the future +historian will probably study his administration as that during +which the most notable changes of the decade were made from the +politics of the Civil War period. + + +INAUGURAL ADDRESS (Delivered September 22d, 1881) + +For the fourth time in the history of the Republic its chief +magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts are filled with +grief and horror at the hideous crime which has darkened our land, +and the memory of the murdered President, his protracted sufferings, +his unyielding fortitude, the example and achievements of his life +and the pathos of his death will forever illumine the pages of our +history. + +For the fourth time, the officer elected by the people and ordained +by the constitution to fill a vacancy so created, is called to +assume the executive chair. The wisdom of our fathers, foreseeing +even the most dire possibilities, made sure that the government +should never be imperiled because of the uncertainty of human +life. Men may die but the fabric of our free institutions remains +unshaken. No higher or more assuring proof could exist of the +strength and permanence of popular government than the fact that +though the chosen of the people be struck down, his constitutional +successor is peacefully installed without shock or strain except +that of the sorrow which mourns the bereavement. All the noble +aspirations of my lamented predecessor, which found expression +during his life, the measures devised and suggested during his brief +administration to correct abuses, to enforce economy, to advance +prosperity, to promote the general welfare, to insure domestic +security and maintain friendly and honorable relations with the +nations of the earth, will be garnered in the hearts of the people +and it will be my earnest endeavor to profit and to see that the +nation shall profit by his example and experience. + +Prosperity blesses our country. Our fiscal policy as fixed by law +is well-grounded and generally approved. No threatening issue mars +our foreign intercourse and the wisdom, integrity, and thrift of our +people may be trusted to continue undisturbed the present career of +peace, tranquillity, and welfare. The gloom and anxiety which have +enshrouded the country must make repose especially welcome now. No +demand for speedy legislation has been heard; no adequate occasion +is apparent for an unusual session of Congress. The constitution +defines the functions and powers of the executive as clearly as +those of either of the other two departments of the government, and +he must answer for the just exercise of the discretion it permits +and the performance of the duties it imposes. Summoned to these +high duties and responsibilities, and profoundly conscious of their +magnitude and gravity, I assume the trust imposed by the +constitution, relying for aid on divine guidance and on the virtue, +patriotism, and intelligence of the American people. + + + +ATHANASIUS (298-373) + +Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, owes his great celebrity +chiefly to the controversy with the Arians, in which for half a +century he was at the head of the orthodox party in the Church. He +was born at Alexandria in the year 298, and was ordained a priest at +the age of twenty-one. He accompanied his bishop, Alexander, to the +Council of Nice in 325, and when under thirty years old succeeded to +the bishopric, on the death of Alexander, His success in the Arian +controversy was not achieved without cost, since, as an incident of +it, he spent twenty years in banishment. His admirers credit him +with "a deep mind, invincible courage, and living faith," but as his +orations and discourses were largely controversial, the interest +which now attaches to them is chiefly historical. The following was +preached from the seventh and eighth verses of the Forty-Fifth +Psalm. + + +THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST + +Behold, O ye Arians, and acknowledge hence the truth. The Psalmist +speaks of us all as fellows or partakers of the Lord, but were he +one of things which come out of nothing and of things generated he +himself had been one of those who partake. But since he hymned him +as the eternal God, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and +ever," and has declared that all other things partake of him, what +conclusion must we draw, but that he is distinct from generated +things, and he only the Father's veritable word, radiance, and +wisdom, which all things generate partake, being sanctified by him +in the Spirit? And, therefore, he is here "anointed," not that he +may become God, for he was so even before; nor that he may become +king, for he had the kingdom eternally, existing as God's image, as +the sacred oracle shows; but in our behalf is this written, as +before. For the Israelitish kings, upon their being anointed, then +became kings, not being so before, as David, as Ezekias, as Josias, +and the rest; but the Savior, on the contrary, being God, and ever +ruling in the Father's kingdom, and being himself the Dispenser of +the Holy Ghost, nevertheless is here said to be anointed, that, as +before, being said as man to be anointed with the Spirit, he might +provide for us more, not only exaltation and resurrection, but the +indwelling and intimacy of the Spirit. And signifying this, the Lord +himself hath said by his own mouth, in the Gospel according to +John: "I have sent them into the world, and for their sakes do I +sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified in the truth." In +saying this, he has shown that he is not the sanctified, but the +Sanctifier; for he is not sanctified by other, but himself +sanctifies himself, that we may be sanctified in the truth. He who +sanctifies himself is Lord of sanctification. How, then, does this +take place? What does he mean but this? "I, being the Father's Word, +I give to myself, when become man, the Spirit; and myself, become +man, do I sanctify in him, that henceforth in me, who am truth (for +'Thy Word is Truth'), all may be sanctified." + +If, then, for our sake, he sanctifies himself, and does this when he +becomes man, it is very plain that the Spirit's descent on him in +Jordan was a descent upon us, because of his bearing our body. And +it did not take place for promotion to the Word, but again for our +sanctification, that we might share his anointing, and of us it +might be said, Know ye not that ye are God's temple, and the Spirit +of God dwelleth in you? For when the Lord, as man, was washed in +Jordan, it was we who were washed in him and by him. And when he +received the Spirit, we it was who, by him, were made recipients of +it. And, moreover, for this reason, not as Aaron, or David, or the +rest, was he anointed with oil, but in another way, above all his +fellows, "with the oil of gladness," which he himself interprets to +be the Spirit, saying by the prophet, "The Spirit of the Lord is +upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me"; as also the Apostle has +said, "How God anointed him with the Holy Ghost." When, then, were +these things spoken of him, but when he came in the flesh, and was +baptized in Jordan, and the spirit descended on him? And, indeed, +the Lord himself said, "The Spirit shall take of mine," and "I will +send him"; and to his Disciples, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And, +notwithstanding, he who, as the word and radiance of the Father, +gives to others, now is said to be sanctified, because now he has +become Man, and the Body that is sanctified is his. From him, then, +we have begun to receive the unction and the seal, John saying, "And +ye have an unction from the Holy One"; and the Apostle, "And ye were +sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Therefore, because of us, +and for us, are these words. What advance, then, of promotion, and +reward of virtue, or generally of conduct, is proved from this in +our Lord's instance? For if he was not God, and then had become +God--if, not being king, he was preferred to the kingdom, your +reasoning would have had some faint plausibility. But if he is God, +and the throne of his kingdom is everlasting, in what way could God +advance? Or what was there wanting to him who was sitting on his +Father's throne? And if, as the Lord himself has said, the Spirit +is his, and takes of his, and he sends it, it is not the Word, +considered as the Word and Wisdom, who is anointed with the Spirit, +which he himself gives, but the flesh assumed by him, which is +anointed in him and by him; that the sanctification coming to the +Lord as man, may come to all men from him. For, not of itself, +saith he, doth the Spirit speak, but the word is he who gives it to +the worthy. For this is like the passage considered above; for, as +the Apostle hath written, "Who, existing in form of God, thought it +not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled himself, and took a +servant's form," so David celebrates the Lord, as the everlasting +God and king, but sent to us, and assuming our body, which is +mortal. For this is his meaning in the Psalm, "All thy garments +smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia"; and it is represented by +Nicodemus's and by Mary's company, when he came, bringing a mixture +of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight; and they took +the spices which they had prepared for the burial of the Lord's +body. + +What advancement, then, was it to the Immortal to have assumed the +mortal? Or what promotion is it to the Everlasting to have put on +the temporal? What reward can be great to the Everlasting God and +King, in the bosom of the Father? See ye not, that this, too, was +done and written because of us and for us, that us who are mortal +and temporal, the Lord, become man, might mate immortal, and bring +into the everlasting kingdom of heaven? Blush ye not, speaking lies +against the divine oracles? For when our Lord Jesus Christ had been +among us, we, indeed, were promoted, as rescued from sin; but he is +the same, nor did he alter when he became man (to repeat what I have +said), but, as has been written, "The word of God abideth forever." +Surely as, before his becoming man, he, the Word, dispensed to the +saints the Spirit as his own; so also, when made man, be sanctifies +all by the Spirit, and says to his Disciples, "Receive ye the Holy +Ghost." And he gave to Moses and the other seventy; and through him +David prayed to the Father, saying, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from +me." On the other hand, when made man, he said, "I will send to you +the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth"; and he sent him, he, the Word +of God, as being faithful. + +Therefore "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," +remaining unalterable, and at once gives and receives, giving as +God's Word, receiving as man. It is not the Word then, viewed as the +Word, that is promoted,--for he had all things and has had them +always,--but men, who have in him and through him their origin of +receiving them. For, when he is now said to be anointed in a human +respect, we it is who in him are anointed; since also, when he is +baptized, we it is who in him are baptized. But on all these things +the Savior throws much light, when he says to the Father, "And the +glory which thou gavest me, I have given to them, that they may be +one, even as we are one." Because of us, then, he asked for glory, +and the words occur, "took" and "gave" and "highly exalted," that we +might take, and to us might be given, and we might be exalted, in +him; as also for us he sanctifies himself, that we might be +sanctified in him. + +But if they take advantage of the word "wherefore," as connected +with the passage in the Psalm, "Wherefore God, even thy God, hath +anointed thee," for their own purposes, let these novices in +Scripture and masters in irreligion know that, as before, the word +"wherefore" does not imply reward of virtue or conduct in the Word, +but the reason why he came down to us, and of the Spirit's +anointing, which took place in him for our sakes. For he says not, +"Wherefore he anointed thee in order to thy being God or King or Son +or Word,"--for so he was before, and is forever, as has been +shown,--but rather, "Since thou art God and king, therefore thou +wast anointed, since none but thou couldst unite man to the Holy +Ghost, thou the image of the Father, in which we were made in the +beginning; for thine is even the Spirit," For the nature of things +generate could give no warranty for this, angels having +transgressed, and men disobeyed. Wherefore there was need of God; +and the Word is God; that those who had become under a curse, he +himself might set free. If then he was of nothing, he would not +have been the Christ or Anointed, being one among others and having +fellowship as the rest. But, whereas he is God, as being the Son of +God, and is everlasting King, and exists as radiance and expression +of the Father, wherefore fitly is he the expected Christ, whom the +Father announces to mankind, by revelation to his holy prophets; +that as through him we have come to be, so also in him all men might +be redeemed from their sins, and by him all things might be ruled. +And this is the cause of the anointing which took place in him, and +of the incarnate presence of the Word; which the Psalmist +foreseeing, celebrates, first his Godhead and kingdom, which is the +Father's, in these tones, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a +sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom"; then +announces his descent to us thus: "Wherefore God, even thy God, hath +anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." + + + +SAINT AUGUSTINE (354-430) + +Saint Augustine who is always classed as one of the four great Latin +fathers is generally conceded to be chief among them in natural +strength of intellect. Saint Jerome, who excelled him in knowledge +of classical literature, is his inferior in intellectual acuteness; +and certainly no other theologian of the earlier ages of the Church +has done so much as has Saint Augustine to influence the thought of +its strongest minds. + +Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was a Numidian by birth. He had a +Christian mother, whose devotion resulted in his conversion, as well +as in that of his father, who seems to have been a man of liberal +mind, aware of the value of literary education. Augustine was well +versed in the Latin classics. The extent of his knowledge of Greek +literature has been questioned, but it is conceded that he knew the +language, at least well enough for purposes of comparative study of +the Scripture text. + +As a young man, his ideas of morality, as we know from his +'Confessions,' were not severe. He was not extraordinarily +licentious, but he had the introspective sensitiveness which seems +to characterize great genius wherever it is found, and in his later +life he looked with acute pain on the follies of his youth. + +Becoming a Christian at the age of twenty-three, he was ordained a +priest four years later, and in 395 became Bishop of Hippo. Of his +literary works, his book 'The City of God' is accounted his masterpiece, +though it is not so generally read as his 'Confessions.' The sermon +on the Lord's Prayer here given as an illustration of his style in +the pulpit, is from his 'Homilies on the New Testament,' as +translated in Parker's 'Library of the Fathers.' + + +THE LORD'S PRAYER + +The order established for your edification requires that ye learn +first what to believe, and afterwards what to ask. For so saith the +Apostle, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be +saved." This testimony blessed Paul cited out of the Prophet; for by +the Prophet were those times foretold, when all men should call upon +God; "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be +saved." And he added, "How then shall they call on him in whom they +have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they +have not heard? Or how shall they hear without a preacher? Or how +shall they preach except they be sent?" Therefore were preachers +sent. They preached Christ. As they preached, the people heard; by +hearing they believed, and by believing called upon him. Because +then it was most rightly and most truly said, "How shall they call +on him in whom they have not believed?" therefore have ye first +learned what to believe: and to-day have learned to call on him in +whom ye have believed. + +The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, hath taught us a prayer; and +though he be the Lord himself, as ye have heard and repeated in the +Creed, the Only Son of God, yet he would not be alone. He is the +Only Son, and yet would not be alone; he hath vouchsafed to have +brethren. For to whom doth he say, "Say, Our Father, which art in +heaven?" Whom did he wish us to call our father, save his own +father? Did he grudge us this? Parents sometimes when they have +gotten one, or two, or three children, fear to give birth to any +more, lest they reduce the rest to beggary. But because the +inheritance which he promised us is such as many may possess, and no +one be straitened, therefore hath he called into his brotherhood the +peoples of the nations; and the only son hath numberless brethren, +who say, "Our Father, which art in heaven." So said they who have +been before us; and so shall say those who will come after us. See +how many brethren the only son hath in his grace, sharing his +inheritance with those for whom he suffered death. We had a father +and mother on earth, that we might be born to labors and to death; +but we have found other parents, God our father and the Church our +mother, by whom we are born unto life eternal. Let us then consider, +beloved, whose children we have begun to be; and let us live so as +becomes those who have such a father. See, how that our Creator hath +condescended to be our Father. + +We have heard whom we ought to call upon, and with what hope of an +eternal inheritance we have begun to have a father in heaven; let us +now hear what we must ask of him. Of such a father what shall we +ask? Do we not ask rain of him, to-day, and yesterday, and the day +before? This is no great thing to have asked of such a father, and +yet ye see with what sighings, and with what great desire we ask for +rain, when death is feared,--when that is feared which none can +escape. For sooner or later every man must die, and we groan, and +pray, and travail in pain, and cry to God, that we may die a little +later, How much more ought we to cry to him, that we may come to +that place where we shall never die! + +Therefore it is said, "Hallowed be thy name." This we also ask of +him that his name may be hallowed in us; for holy is it always. And +how is his name hallowed in us, except while it makes us holy? For +once we were not holy, and we are made holy by his name; but he is +always holy, and his name always holy. It is for ourselves, not for +God, that we pray. For we do not wish well to God, to whom no ill +can ever happen. But we wish what is good for ourselves, that his +holy name may be hallowed, that that which is always holy, may be +hallowed in us. + +"Thy kingdom come." Come it surely will, whether we ask or no. +Indeed, God hath an eternal kingdom. For when did he not reign? +When did he begin to reign? For his kingdom hath no beginning, +neither shall it have any end. But that ye may know that in this +prayer also we pray for ourselves, and not for God (For we do not +say, "Thy kingdom come," as though we were asking that God may +reign); we shall be ourselves his kingdom, if believing in him we +make progress in this faith. All the faithful, redeemed by the +blood of his only son, will be his kingdom. And this his kingdom +will come, when the resurrection of the dead shall have taken place; +for then he will come himself. And when the dead are risen, he will +divide them, as he himself saith, "and he shall set some on the +right hand, and some on the left." To those who shall be on the +right hand he will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the +kingdom." This is what we wish and pray for when we say, "Thy +kingdom come"; that it may come to us. For if we shall be reprobates, +that kingdom shall come to others, but not to us. But if we shall +be of that number, who belong to the members of his only-begotten +son, his kingdom will come to us, and will not tarry. For are there +as many ages yet remaining as have already passed away? The Apostle +John hath said, "My little children, it is the last hour." But it +is a long hour proportioned to this long day; and see how many years +this last hour lasteth. But, nevertheless, be ye as those who +watch, and so sleep, and rise again, and reign. Let us watch now, +let us sleep in death; at the end we shall rise again, and shall +reign without end. + +"Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth." The third thing we +pray for is, that his will may be done as in heaven so in earth. +And in this, too, we wish well for ourselves. For the will of God +must necessarily be done. It is the will of God that the good +should reign, and the wicked be damned. Is it possible that this +will should not be done? But what good do we wish for ourselves, +when we say, "Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth?" Give +ear. For this petition may be understood in many ways, and many +things are to be in our thoughts in this petition, when we pray God, +"Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth." As thy angels offend +thee not, so may we also not offend thee. Again, how is "Thy will +be done as in heaven, so in earth," understood? All the holy +Patriarchs, all the Prophets, all the Apostles, all the spiritual +are, as it were, God's heaven; and we in comparison of them are +earth. "Thy will be done in heaven, so in earth"; as in them, so in +us also. Again, "Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth"; the +Church of God is heaven, his enemies are earth. So we wish well for +our enemies, that they too may believe and become Christians, and so +the will of God be done as in heaven, so also in earth. Again, "Thy +will be done as in heaven, so in earth." Our spirit is heaven, and +the flesh earth. As our spirit is renewed by believing, so may our +flesh be renewed by rising again; and "the will of God be done as in +heaven, so in earth." Again, our mind whereby we see truth, and +delight in this truth, is heaven; as, "I delight in the law of God, +after the inward man." What is the earth? "I see another law in my +members, warring against the law of my mind?" When this strife +shall have passed away, and a full concord be brought about of the +flesh and spirit, the will of God will be done as in heaven, so also +in earth. When we repeat this petition, let us think of all these +things, and ask them all of the Father. Now all these things which +we have mentioned, these three petitions, beloved, have respect to +the life eternal. For if the name of our God is sanctified in us, +it will be for eternity. If his kingdom come, where we shall live +forever, it will be for eternity. If his will be done as in heaven, +so in earth, in all the ways which I have explained, it will be for +eternity. + +There remain now the petitions for this life of our pilgrimage; +therefore follows, "Give us this day our daily bread." Give us +eternal things, give us things temporal. Thou hast promised a +kingdom, deny us not the means of subsistence. Thou wilt give +everlasting glory with thyself hereafter, give us in this earth +temporal support. Therefore is it day by day, and to-day, that is, +in this present time. For when this life shall have passed away, +shall we ask for daily bread then? For then it will not be called +day by day, but to-day. Now it is called day by day, when one day +passes away, and another day succeeds. Will it be called day by day +when there will be one eternal day? This petition for daily bread +is doubtless to be understood in two ways, both for the necessary +supply of our bodily food, and for the necessities of our spiritual +support. There is a necessary supply of bodily food, for the +preservation of our daily life, without which we cannot live. This +is food and clothing, but the whole is understood in a part. When +we ask for bread, we thereby understand all things. There is a +spiritual food, also, which the faithful know, which ye, too, will +know when ye shall receive it at the altar of God. This also is +"daily bread," necessary only for this life. For shall we receive +the Eucharist when we shall have come to Christ himself, and begun +to reign with him forever? So then the Eucharist is our daily +bread; but let us in such wise receive it, that we be not refreshed +in our bodies only, but in our souls. For the virtue which is +apprehended there, is unity, that gathered together into his body, +and made his members, we may be what we receive. Then will it be, +indeed, our daily bread. Again, what I am handling before you now +is "daily bread"; and the daily lessons which ye hear in church are +daily bread, and the hymns ye hear and repeat are daily bread. For +all these arc necessary in our state of pilgrimage. But when we +shall have got to heaven, shall we hear the Word, we who shall see +the Word himself, and hear the Word himself, and eat and drink him +as the angels do now? Do the angels need books, and interpreters, +and readers? Surely not. They read in seeing, for the truth itself +they see, and are abundantly satisfied from that fountain, from +which we obtain some few drops. Therefore has it been said touching +our daily bread, that this petition is necessary for us in this +life. + +"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Is this necessary +except in this life? For in the other we shall have no debts. For +what are debts, but sins? See, ye are on the point of being +baptized, then all your sins will be blotted out, none whatever will +remain. Whatever evil ye have ever done, in deed, or word, or +desire, or thought, all will be blotted out. And yet if in the life +which is after baptism there were security from sin, we should not +learn such a prayer as this, "Forgive us our debts." Only let us by +all means do what comes next, "As we forgive our debtors." Do ye +then, who are about to enter in to receive a plenary and entire +remission of your debts, do ye above all things see that ye have +nothing in your hearts against any other, so as to come forth from +baptism secure, as it were, free and discharged of all debts, and +then begin to purpose to avenge yourselves on your enemies, who in +time past have done you wrong. Forgive, as ye are forgiven. God can +do no one wrong, and yet he forgiveth who oweth nothing. How then +ought he to forgive who is himself forgiven, when he forgiveth all +who oweth nothing that can be forgiven him? + +"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Will this +again be necessary in the life to come? "Lead us not into +temptation," will not be said except where there can be temptation. +We read in the book of holy Job, "Is not the life of man upon earth +a temptation?" What, then, do we pray for? Hear what. The Apostle +James saith, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of +God." He spoke of those evil temptations whereby men are deceived, +and brought under the yoke of the devil. This is the kind of +temptation he spoke of. For there is another sort of temptation +which is called a proving; of this kind of temptation it is written, +"The Lord your God tempteth [proveth] you to know whether ye love +him." What means "to know"? "To make you know," for he knoweth +already. With that kind of temptation whereby we are deceived and +seduced, God tempteth no man. But undoubtedly in his deep and +hidden judgment he abandons some. And when he hath abandoned them, +the tempter finds his opportunity. For he finds in him no +resistance against his power, but forthwith presents himself to him +as his possessor, if God abandon him. Therefore, that he may not +abandon us, do we say, "Lead us not into temptation." "For every one +is tempted," says the same Apostle James, "when he is drawn away of +his own lust and enticed. Then lust, when it hath conceived, +bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth +death." What, then, has he hereby taught us? To fight against our +lusts. For ye are about to put away your sins in holy baptism; but +lusts will still remain, wherewith ye must fight after that ye are +regenerate. For a conflict with your own selves still remains. Let +no enemy from without be feared; conquer thine own self, and the +whole world is conquered. What can any tempter from without, whether +the devil or the devil's minister, do against thee? Whosoever sets +the hope of gain before thee to seduce thee, let him only find no +covetousness in thee; and what can he who would tempt thee by gain +effect? Whereas, if covetousness be found in thee, thou takest fire +at the sight of gain, and art taken by the bait of this corrupt +food. But if we find no covetousness in thee, the trap remains +spread in vain. Or should the tempter set before thee some woman of +surpassing beauty; if chastity be within, iniquity from without is +overcome. Therefore, that he may not take thee with the bait of a +strange woman's beauty, fight with thine own lust within; thou hast +no sensible perception of thine enemy, but of thine own +concupiscence thou hast. Thou dost not see the devil, but the object +that engageth thee thou dost see. Get the mastery then over that of +which thou art sensible within. Fight valiantly, for he who hath +regenerated thee is thy judge; he hath arranged the lists, he is +making ready the crown. But because thou wilt without doubt be +conquered, if thou have not him to aid thee, if he abandon thee, +therefore dost thou say in the prayer, "Lead us not into +temptation." The judge's wrath hath given over some to their own +lusts; and the Apostle says, "God gave them over to the lusts of +their hearts." How did he give them up? Not by forcing, but by +forsaking them. + +"Deliver us from evil," may belong to the same sentence. Therefore, +that thou mayst understand it to be all one sentence, it runs thus, +"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Therefore, +he added "but," to show that all this belongs to one sentence, "Lead +us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." How is this? I +will propose them singly. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver +us from evil." By delivering us from evil, he leadeth us not into +temptation; by not leading us into temptation, he delivereth us from +evil. + +And, truly, it is a great temptation, dearly beloved, it is a great +temptation in this life, when that in us is the subject of +temptation whereby we attain pardon if, in any of our temptations, +we have fallen. It is a frightful temptation when that is taken from +us whereby we may be healed from the wounds of other temptations. I +know that ye have not yet understood me. Give me your attention, +that ye may understand. Suppose, avarice tempts a man, and he is +conquered in any single temptation (for sometimes even a good +wrestler and fighter may get roughly handled): avarice, then, has +got the better of a man, good wrestler though he be, and he has done +some avaricious act. Or there has been a passing lust; it has not +brought the man to fornication, nor reached unto adultery--for when +this does take place, the man must at all events be kept back from +the criminal act. But he "hath seen a woman to lust after her"; he +has let his thoughts dwell on her with more pleasure than was right; +he has admitted the attack; excellent combatant though he be, he has +been wounded, but he has not consented to it; he has beaten back the +motion of his lust, has chastised it with the bitterness of grief, +he has beaten it back; and has prevailed. Still, in the very fact +that he had slipped, has he ground for saying, "Forgive us our +debts." And so of all other temptations, it is a hard matter that in +them all there should not be occasion for saying, "Forgive us our +debts." What, then, is that frightful temptation which I have +mentioned, that grievous, that tremendous temptation, which must be +avoided with all our strength, with all our resolution; what is it? +When we go about to avenge ourselves. Anger is kindled, and the man +bums to be avenged. O frightful temptation! Thou art losing that, +whereby thou hadst to attain pardon for other faults. If thou hadst +committed any sin as to other senses, and other lusts, hence +mightest thou have had thy cure, in that thou mightest say, "Forgive +us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." But whoso instigateth +thee to take vengeance will lose for thee the power thou hadst to +say, "As we also forgive our debtors." When that power is lost, all +sins will be retained; nothing at all is remitted. + +Our Lord and Master, and Savior, knowing this dangerous temptation +in this life, when he taught us six or seven petitions in this +prayer, took none of them for himself to treat of, and to commend to +us with greater earnestness, than this one. Have we not said, "Our +Father, which art in heaven," and the rest which follows? Why after +the conclusion of the prayer, did he not enlarge upon it to us, +either as to what he had laid down in the beginning, or concluded +with at the end, or placed in the middle? For why said he not, if +the name of God be not hallowed in you, or if ye have no part in the +kingdom of God, or if the will of God be not done in you, as in +heaven, or if God guard you not, that ye enter not into temptation; +why none of all these? but what saith he? "Verily I say unto you, +that if ye forgive men their trespasses," in reference to that +petition, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." +Having passed over all the other petitions which he taught us, this +he taught us with an especial force. There was no need of insisting +so much upon those sins in which if a man offend, he may know the +means whereby he may be cured; need of it there was with regard to +that sin in which, if thou sin, there is no means whereby the rest +can be cured. For this thou oughtest to be ever saying, "Forgive us +our debts." What debts? There is no lack of them, for we are but +men; I have talked somewhat more than I ought, have said something I +ought not, have laughed more than I ought, have eaten more than I +ought, have listened with pleasure to what I ought not, have drunk +more than I ought, have seen with pleasure what I ought not, have +thought with pleasure on what I ought not; "Forgive us our debts, as +we also forgive our debtors." This if thou hast lost, thou art lost +thyself. + +Take heed, my brethren, my sons, sons of God, take heed, I beseech +you, in that I am saying to you. Fight to the uttermost of your +powers with your own hearts. And if ye shall see your anger making a +stand against you, pray to God against it, that God may make thee +conqueror of thyself, that God may make thee conqueror, I say, not +of thine enemy without, but of thine own soul within. For he will +give thee his present help, and will do it. He would rather that we +ask this of him, than rain. For ye see, beloved, how many petitions +the Lord Christ hath taught us; and there is scarce found among them +one which speaks of daily bread, that all our thoughts may be molded +after the life to come. For what can we fear that he will not give +us, who hath promised and said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God +and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you; +for your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things before ye +ask him." "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, +and all these things shall be added unto you." For many have been +tried even with hunger, and have been found gold, and have not been +forsaken by God. They would have perished with hunger, if the daily +inward bread were to leave their heart. After this let us chiefly +hunger. For, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after +righteousness, for they shall be filled." But he can in mercy look +upon our infirmity, and see us, as it is said, "Remember that we are +dust." He who from the dust made and quickened man, for that his +work of clay's sake, gave his only son to death. Who can explain, +who can worthily so much as conceive, how much he loveth us? + + + +FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) + +Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, is called by +one of his contemporaries, "the eloquentest man in England." Perhaps +those who read his legal arguments before the Star Chamber may not +see this eloquence so fully exemplified in them as in his +incomparable essays; but wherever he speaks, it is Francis Bacon +speaking. It is doubtful if any other man ever lived who has even +approached him in the power of controlling his own and subsequent +times by purely intellectual means. Until his time, Aristotle had no +rival in the domain of pure intellect Since he lived, the higher +mind of the world has owned his mastery and has shown the results of +the inspiration of his intellectual daring in following, regardless +of consequences, the "inductive method," the determination to make +truth fruitful through experiment, which has resulted in the +scientific accomplishments of the modern world. Lucretius writes of +the pleasure of knowing truth as like that a man on shore in a storm +has in seeing the struggles of those who are about to be +shipwrecked:-- + +"'Tis sweet when the seas are roughened by violent winds to view on +land the toils of others; not that there is pleasure in seeing +others in distress, but because man is glad to know himself +secure. It is pleasant, too, to look with no share of peril on the +mighty contests of war; but nothing is sweeter than to reach those +calm, undisturbed temples, raised by the wisdom of philosophers, +whence thou mayst look down on poor, mistaken mortals, wandering up +and down in life's devious ways."--(Lucretius ii 1, translated by +Ramage.) + + "Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis, + E terra magnum altcrius spectare laborem; + Non quia vexari quenquam est jucunda voluptas, + Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est," etc. + +Perhaps the spirit of the ancient learning was never so well +expressed elsewhere as in these lines. In what may be called a plea +for the possibilities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries +Bacon answered it. + +"Is there any such happiness for a man's mind to be raised above the +confusion of things where he may have the prospect of the order of +nature and error of man? But is this view of delight only and not of +discovery--of contentment, and not of benefit? Shall he not as well +discern the riches of Nature's warehouse as the beauties of her +shop? Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to produce +worthy effects and to endow the life of man with infinite +commodities?" + +Among the "infinite commodities" already developed from the thought +flowing into and out of the mind which framed these sublime +sentences are the steam engine, the electric motor, the discoveries +of the microscope in the treatment of disease, the wonders of +chemistry, working out practical results to alleviate human misery, +and to increase steadily from year to year, and from century to +century, the sum of human comfort. Looking forward to this, Bacon +worked for it until his whole life became a manifestation of his +master-thought. It may be said with literal truth that he died of +it, for the cold which brought him his death resulted from his +rashness in leaving his carriage, when sick, to experiment on the +arrest of putrefaction by freezing. The idea came to him. It was +winter and the ground was covered with snow. He was feeble, but he +left his carriage to stuff snow into the carcass of a chicken he had +procured for the experiment. The experiment succeeded, and +centuries later, as a result of it, England is fed with the meat of +America and Australia, But Bacon died after it, leaving behind him +ideas which stamp him as the greatest and brightest, whether or not +he was also "the meanest of mankind." On this latter point, he may +speak for himself, as he does thus in the volume 'State Trials' from +which his speech on Dueling, before the Star Chamber, here used, is +extracted:-- + +(Howell's, Vol. ii.): "Upon advised consideration of the charge, +descending into my own conscience and calling my memory to account, +as far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am +guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense and put myself +upon the grace and mercy of your lordships. ... To the nineteenth +article, _vis._, 'That in the cause between Reynell and Peacock, he +received from Reynell two hundred pounds and a diamond ring worth +four or five hundred pounds,' I confess and declare that on my first +coming to the Seal when I was at Whitehall, my servant Hunt +delivered me two hundred pounds from Sir George Reynell, my near +ally, to be bestowed upon furniture of my house, adding further that +he had received divers former favors from me. And this was, as I +verily think, before any suit was begun. The ring was received +certainly _pendente_ _lite_, and though it was at New Year's tide it was +too great a value for a New Year's gift, though, I take it, nothing +near the value mentioned in the article." + +That while Lord Chancellor of England he took gifts intended to +corrupt justice, he confessed to his shame, but he does not seem to +have been wholly able to decide whether in doing so he broke faith +with those who wished to corrupt him, or with the kingdom and +constitution of England he represented, against their desire to +purchase justice. He seems to have believed that though his conduct +was corrupt, his decisions were honest. He says, indeed, that in +spite of his bribe-taking, "he never had bribe or reward in his eye +or thought when he pronounced any sentence or order." + +This cannot be admitted in excuse even for Bacon, but his moral +weakness, if it obscure for the time the splendor of his intellect, +died with him, while his genius, marvelously radiant above that of +any other of the last ten centuries, still illuminates the path of +every pioneer of progress. + +His address to the Star Chamber on Dueling was delivered in the +proceedings against Mr. William Priest for writing and sending a +challenge, and Mr. Richard Wright for carrying it, January 26th, +1615, Bacon being then the King's attorney-general. The text is from +T. B. Howell's 'State Trials,' London 1816. + +SPEECH AGAINST DUELING + +My Lords, I thought it fit for my place, and for these times, to +bring to hearing before your lordships some cause touching private +duels, to see if this court can do any good to tame and reclaim that +evil, which seems unbridled. And I could have wished that I had met +with some greater persons, as a subject for your censure; both +because it had been more worthy of this presence, and also the +better to have shown the resolution I myself have to proceed without +respect of persons in this business. But finding this cause on foot +in my predecessor's time, I thought to lose no time in a mischief +that groweth every day; and besides, it passes not amiss sometimes +in government, that the greater sort be admonished by an example +made in the meaner, and the dog to be eaten before the lion. Nay, I +should think, my lords, that men of birth and quality will leave the +practice, when it begins to be vilified, and come so low as to +barber-surgeons and butchers, and such base mechanical persons. And +for the greatness of this presence, in which I take much comfort, +both as I consider it in itself, and much more in respect it is by +his Majesty's direction, I will supply the meanness of the +particular cause, by handling of the general point; to the end that +by the occasion of this present cause, both my purpose of +prosecution against duels and the opinion of the court, without +which I am nothing, for the censure of them may appear, and thereby +offenders in that kind may read their own case, and know what they +are to expect; which may serve for a warning until example may be +made in some greater person, which I doubt the times will but too +soon afford. + +Therefore, before I come to the particular, whereof your lordships +are now to judge, I think the time best spent to speak somewhat (1) +of the nature and greatness of this mischief; (2) of the causes and +remedies; (3) of the justice of the law of England, which some stick +not to think defective in this matter; (4) of the capacity of this +court, where certainly the remedy of this mischief is best to be +found; (5) touching mine own purpose and resolution, wherein I shall +humbly crave your lordships' aid and assistance. + +For the mischief itself, it may please your lordships to take into +your consideration that, when revenge is once extorted out of the +magistrate's hands, contrary to God's ordinance, _mihi_ _vindicta_, +_ego_ _retribuam_, and every man shall bear the sword, not to +defend, but to assail, and private men begin once to presume to give +law to themselves and to right their own wrongs, no man can foresee +the danger and inconveniences that may arise and multiply thereupon. +It may cause sudden storms in court, to the disturbance of his +Majesty and unsafety of his person. It may grow from quarrels to +bandying, and from bandying to trooping, and so to tumult and +commotion; from particular persons to dissension of families and +alliances; yea, to national quarrels, according to the infinite +variety of accidents, which fall not under foresight. So that the +State by this means shall be like to a distempered and imperfect +body, continually subject to inflammations and convulsions. +Besides, certainly both in divinity and in policy, offenses of +presumption are the greatest. Other offenses yield and consent to +the law that it is good, not daring to make defense, or to justify +themselves; but this offense expressly gives the law an affront, as +if there were two laws, one a kind of gown law and the other a law +of reputation, as they term it. So that Paul's and Westminster, the +pulpit and the courts of justice, must give place to the law, as the +King speaketh in his proclamation, of ordinary tables, and such +reverend assemblies; the Yearbooks, and statute books must give +place to some French and Italian pamphlets, which handle the +doctrines of duels, which, if they be in the right, _transeamus_ +_ad_ _illa_, let us receive them, and not keep the people in +conflict and distraction between two laws. Again, my lords, it is a +miserable effect, when young men full of towardness and hope, such +as the poets call "_Aurorae_ _filii_," sons of the morning, in whom +the expectation and comfort of their friends consisteth, shall be +cast away and destroyed in such a vain manner. But much more it is +to be deplored when so much noble and genteel blood should be spilt +upon such follies, as, if it were adventured in the field in service +of the King and realm, were able to make the fortune of a day and +change the future of a kingdom. So your lordships see what a +desperate evil this is; it troubleth peace; it disfurnisheth war; it +bringeth calamity upon private men, peril upon the State, and +contempt upon the law. + +Touching the causes of it: the first motive, no doubt, is a false +and erroneous imagination of honor and credit; and therefore the +King, in his last proclamation, doth most aptly and excellently call +them bewitching duels. For, if one judge of it truly, it is no +better than a sorcery that enchanteth the spirits of young men, that +bear great minds with a false show, _species_ _falsa_; and a kind of +satanical illusion and apparition of honor against religion, against +law, against moral virtue, and against the precedents and examples +of the best times and valiantest nations; as I shall tell you by and +by, when I shall show you that the law of England is not alone in +this point. But then the seed of this mischief being such, it is +nourished by vain discourses and green and unripe conceits, which, +nevertheless, have so prevailed as though a man were staid and +sober-minded and a right believer touching the vanity and +unlawfulness of these duels; yet the stream of vulgar opinion is +such, as it imposeth a necessity upon men of value to conform +themselves, or else there is no living or looking upon men's faces; +so that we have not to do, in this case, so much with particular +persons as with unsound and depraved opinions, like the dominations +and spirits of the air which the Scripture speaketh of. Hereunto +may be added that men have almost lost the true notion and +understanding of fortitude and valor. For fortitude distinguisheth +of the grounds of quarrels whether they be just; and not only so, +but whether they be worthy; and setteth a better price upon men's +lives than to bestow them idly. Nay, it is weakness and disesteem +of a man's self, to put a man's life upon such ledger performances. +A man's life is not to be trifled away; it is to be offered up and +sacrificed to honorable services, public merits, good causes, and +noble adventures. It is in expense of blood as it is in expense of +money. It is no liberality to make a profusion of money upon every +vain occasion; nor no more is it fortitude to make effusion of +blood, except the cause be of worth. And thus much for the cause of +this evil. + +For the remedies. I hope some great and noble person will put his +hand to this plough, and I wish that my labors of this day may be +but forerunners to the work of a higher and better hand. But yet to +deliver my opinion as may be proper for this time and place, there +be four things that I have thought on, as the most effectual for the +repressing of this depraved custom of particular combats. + +The first is, that there do appear and be declared a constant and +settled resolution in the State to abolish it. For this is a thing, +my lords, must go down at once or not at all; for then every +particular man will think himself acquitted in his reputation, when +he sees that the State takes it to heart, as an insult against the +King's power and authority, and thereupon hath absolutely resolved +to master it; like unto that which we set down in express words in +the edict of Charles IX. of France, touching duels, that the King +himself took upon him the honor of all that took themselves grieved +or interested for not having performed the combat. So must the State +do in this business; and in my conscience there is none that is but +of a reasonable sober disposition, be he never so valiant, except it +be some furious person that is like a firework, but will be glad of +it, when he shall see the law and rule of State disinterest him of a +vain and unnecessary hazard. + +Secondly, care must be taken that this evil be no more cockered, nor +the humor of it fed; wherein I humbly pray your lordships, that I +may speak my mind freely, and yet be understood aright. The +proceedings of the great and noble commissioners martial I honor and +reverence much, and of them I speak not in any sort. But I say the +compounding of quarrels, which is otherwise in use by private +noblemen and gentlemen, is so punctual, and hath such reference and +respect unto the received conceits, what is beforehand, and what is +behindhand, and I cannot tell what, as without all question it doth, +in a fashion, countenance and authorize this practice of duels as if +it had in it somewhat of right. + +Thirdly, I must acknowledge that I learned out of the King's last +proclamation, the most prudent and best applied remedy for this +offense, if it shall please his Majesty to use it, that the wit of +man can devise. This offense, my lords, is grounded upon a false +conceit of honor; and therefore it would be punished in the same +kind, in _eo_ _quis_ _rectissime_ _plectitur_, _in_ _quo_ _peccat_. +The fountain of honor is the King and his aspect, and the access to +his person continueth honor in life, and to be banished from his +presence is one of the greatest eclipses of honor that can be. If +his Majesty shall be pleased that when this court shall censure any +of these offenses in persons of eminent quality, to add this out of +his own power and discipline, that these persons shall be banished +and excluded from his court for certain years, and the courts of his +queen and prince, I think there is no man that hath any good blood +in him will commit an act that shall cast him into that darkness +that he may not behold his sovereign's face. + +Lastly, and that which more properly concerneth this court. We see, +my lords, the root of this offense is stubborn; for it despiseth +death, which is the utmost of punishments; and it were a just but a +miserable severity to execute the law without all remission or +mercy, where the case proveth capital. And yet the late severity in +France was more, where by a kind of martial law, established by +ordinance of the King and Parliament, the party that had slain +another was presently had to the gibbet, insomuch as gentlemen of +great quality were hanged, their wounds bleeding, lest a natural +death should prevent the example of justice. But, my lords, the +course which we shall take is of far greater lenity, and yet of no +less efficacy; which is to punish, in this court, all the middle +acts and proceedings which tend to the duel, which I will enumerate +to you anon, and so to hew and vex the root in the branches, which, +no doubt, in the end will kill the root, and yet prevent the +extremity of law. + +Now for the law of England, I see it excepted to, though ignorantly, +in two points. The one, that it should make no difference between +an insidious and foul murder, and the killing of a man upon fair +terms, as they now call it. The other, that the law hath not +provided sufficient punishment and reparations for contumely of +words, as the lie, and the like. But these are no better than +childish novelties against the divine law, and against all laws in +effect, and against the examples of all the bravest and most +virtuous nations of the world. + +For first, for the law of God, there is never to be found any +difference made in homicide, but between homicide voluntary and +involuntary, which we term misadventure. And for the case of +misadventure itself, there were cities of refuge; so that the +offender was put to his flight, and that flight was subject to +accident, whether the revenger of blood should overtake him before +he had gotten sanctuary or no. It is true that our law hath made a +more subtle distinction between the will inflamed and the will +advised, between manslaughter in heat and murder upon prepensed +malice or cold blood, as the soldiers call it; an indulgence not +unfit for a choleric and warlike nation; for it is true, _ira_ +_furor_ _brevis_, a man in fury is not himself. This privilege of +passion the ancient Roman law restrained, but to a case; that was, +if the husband took the adulterer in the manner. To that rage and +provocation only it gave way, that a homicide was justifiable. But +for a difference to be made in killing and destroying man, upon a +forethought purpose, between foul and fair, and, as it were, between +single murder and vied murder, it is but a monstrous child of this +latter age, and there is no shadow of it in any law, divine or +human. Only it is true, I find in the Scripture that Cain enticed +his brother into the field and slew him treacherously; but Lamech +vaunted of his manhood, that he would kill a young man, and if it +were to his hurt; so as I see no difference between an insidious +murder and a braving or presumptuous murder, but the difference +between Cain and Lamech. As for examples in civil states, all +memory doth consent, that Graecia and Rome were the most valiant and +generous nations of the world; and that, which is more to be noted, +they were free estates, and not under a monarchy; whereby a man +would think it a great deal the more reason that particular persons +should have righted themselves. And yet they had not this practice +of duels, nor anything that bare show thereof; and sure they would +have had it, if there had been any virtue in it. Nay, as he saith, +"_Fas_ _est_ _et_ _ab_ _hoste_ _doceri_" It is memorable, that which +is reported by a counsel or ambassador of the emperor, touching the +censure of the Turks of these duels. There was a combat of this +kind performed by two persons of quality of the Turks, wherein one +of them was slain, and the other party was converted before the +council of bashaws. The manner of the reprehension was in these +words: "How durst you undertake to fight one with the other? Are +there not Christians enough to kill? Did you not know that whether +of you shall be slain, the loss would be the great seignor's?" So, +as we may see, the most warlike nations, whether generous or +barbarous, have ever despised this wherein now men glory. + +It is true, my lords, that I find combats of two natures authorized, +how justly I will not dispute as to the latter of them. The one, +when upon the approaches of armies in the face one of the other, +particular persons have made challenges for trial of valors in the +field upon the public quarrel. This the Romans called "_pugna_ +_per_ _provocationem_." And this was never, but either between the +generals themselves, who were absolute, or between particulars by +license of the generals; never upon private authority. So you see +David asked leave when he fought with Goliath; and Joab, when the +armies were met, gave leave, and said "Let the young man play before +us." And of this kind was that famous example in the wars of +Naples, between twelve Spaniards and twelve Italians, where the +Italians bore away the victory; besides other infinite like examples +worthy and laudable, sometimes by singles, sometimes by numbers. + +The second combat is a judicial trial of right, where the right is +obscure, introduced by the Goths and the northern nations, but more +anciently entertained in Spain. And this yet remains in some cases +as a divine lot of battle, though controverted by divines, touching +the lawfulness of it; so that a wise writer saith: "_Taliter_ +_pugnantes_ _videntur_ _tentare_ _Deum_, _quia_ _hoc_ _volunt_ _ut_ +_Deus_ _ostendat_ _et_ _faciat_ _miraculum_, _ut_ _justam_ _causam_ +_habens_ _victor_ _efficiatur_, _quod_ _saepe_ _contra_ _accidit_." +But whosoever it be, this kind of fight taketh its warrant from law. +Nay, the French themselves, whence this folly seemeth chiefly to +have flown, never had it but only in practice and toleration, and +never as authorized by law; and yet now of late they have been fain +to purge their folly with extreme rigor, in so much as many +gentlemen left between death and life in the duels, as I spake +before, were hastened to hanging with their wounds bleeding. For +the State found it had been neglected so long, as nothing could be +thought cruelty which tended to the putting of it down. As for the +second defect, pretended in our law, that it hath provided no remedy +for lies and fillips, it may receive like answer. It would have +been thought a madness amongst the ancient lawgivers to have set a +punishment upon the lie given, which in effect is but a word of +denial, a negative of another's saying. Any lawgiver, if he had +been asked the question, would have made Solon's answer: That he had +not ordained any punishment for it, because he never imagined the +world would have been so fantastical as to take it so highly. The +civilians dispute whether an action of injury lie for it, and rather +resolve the contrary. And Francis I. of France, who first set on +and stamped this disgrace so deep, is taxed by the judgment of all +wise writers for beginning the vanity of it; for it was he, that +when he had himself given the lie and defy to the Emperor, to make +it current in the world, said in a solemn assembly, "that he was no +honest man that would bear the lie," which was the fountain of this +new learning. + +As for the words of approach and contumely, whereof the lie was +esteemed none, it is not credible, but that the orations themselves +are extant, what extreme and exquisite reproaches were tossed up and +down in the Senate of Rome and the places of assembly, and the like +in Graecia, and yet no man took himself fouled by them, but took +them but for breath, and the style of an enemy, and either despised +them or returned them, but no blood was spilt about them. + +So of every touch or light blow of the person, they are not in +themselves considerable, save that they have got them upon the stamp +of a disgrace, which maketh these light things pass for great +matters. The law of England and all laws hold these degrees of +injury to the person, slander, battery, mayhem, death; and if there +be extraordinary circumstances of despite and contumely, as in case +of libels and bastinadoes and the like, this court taketh them in +hand and punisheth them exemplarily. But for this apprehension of a +disgrace that a fillip to the person should be a mortal wound to the +reputation, it were good that men did hearken unto the saying of +Gonsalvo, the great and famous commander, that was wont to say a +gentleman's honor should be _de_ _tela_ _crassiore_, of a good +strong warp or web, that every little thing should not catch in it; +when as now it seems they are but of cobweb-lawn or such light +stuff, which certainly is weakness, and not true greatness of mind, +but like a sick man's body, that is so tender that it feels +everything. And so much in maintenance and demonstration of the +wisdom and justice of the law of the land. + +For the capacity of this court, I take this to be a ground +infallible, that wheresoever an offense is capital, or matter of +felony, though it be not acted, there the combination or practice +tending to the offense is punishable in this court as high +misdemeanor. So practice to imprison, though it took no effect; +waylaying to murder, though it took no effect; and the like; have +been adjudged heinous misdemeanors punishable in this court. Nay, +inceptions and preparations in inferior crimes, that are not +capital, as suborning and preparing of witnesses that were never +deposed, or deposed nothing material, have likewise been censured in +this court, as appeareth by the decree in Garnon's case. + +Why, then, the major proposition being such, the minor cannot be +denied, for every appointment of the field is but combination and +plotting of murder. Let them gild it how they list, they shall never +have fairer terms of me in a place of justice. Then the conclusion +followeth, that it is a case fit for the censure of the court. And +of this there be precedents in the very point of challenge. It was +the case of Wharton, plaintiff, against Ellekar and Acklam, +defendants, where Acklam, being a follower of Ellekar's, was +censured for carrying a challenge from Ellekar to Wharton, though +the challenge was not put in writing, but delivered only by word of +message; and there are words in the decree, that such challenges are +to the subversion of government. These things are well known, and +therefore I needed not so much to have insisted upon them, but that +in this case I would be thought not to innovate anything of my own +head, but to follow the former precedents of the court, though I +mean to do it more thoroughly, because the time requires it more. + +Therefore now to come to that which concerneth my part, I say that +by the favor of the king and the court, I will prosecute in this +court in the cases following: If any man shall appoint the field, +though the fight be not acted or performed. If any man shall send +any challenge in writing, or any message of challenge. If any man +carry or deliver any writing or message of challenge. If any man +shall accept to be second in a challenge of either side. If any man +shall depart the realm, with intention and agreement to perform the +fight beyond the seas. If any man shall revive a quarrel by any +scandalous bruits or writings, contrary to former proclamation +published by his Majesty in that behalf. + +Nay I hear there be some counsel learned of duels, that tell voting +men when they are beforehand, and when they are otherwise and +thereby incense and incite them to the duel, and make an art of +it. I hope I shall meet with some of them too; and I am sure, my +lords, this course of preventing duels, in nipping them in the bud, +is fuller of clemency and providence than the suffering them to go +on, and hanging men with their wounds bleeding, as they did in +France. + +To conclude, I have some petitions to make first to your lordship, +my lord chancellor, that in case I be advertised of a purpose in any +to go beyond the sea to fight, I may have granted his Majesty's writ +of _ne_ _exeat_ _regnum_ to stop him, for this giant bestrideth the +sea, and I would take and snare him by the foot on this side; for +the combination and plotting is on this side, though it should be +acted beyond the sea. And your lordship said notably the last time +I made a motion in this business, that a man may be as well _fur_ +_de_ _se_ as _felo_ _de_ _se_, if he steal out of the realm for a +bad purpose. As for the satisfying of the words of the writ, no man +will doubt but he does _machinari_ _contra_ _coronam_, as the words +of the writ be, seeking to murder a subject; for that is ever +_contra_ _coronam_ _et_ _dignitatem_. I have also a suit to your +lordships all in general, that for justice's sake, and for true +honor's sake, honor of religion, law, and the King our master, +against this fond and false disguise or puppetry of honor. I may, +in my prosecution, which, it is like enough, may sometimes stir +coals, which I esteem not for my particular, but as it may hinder +the good service, I may, I say, be countenanced and assisted from +your lordships. Lastly, I have a petition to the nobles and +gentlemen of England, that they would learn to esteem themselves at +a just price. _Non_ _hos_ _quaesitim_ _munus_ _in_ _usus_--their +blood is not to be spilt like water or a vile thing; therefore, that +they would rest persuaded there cannot be a form of honor, except it +be upon a worthy matter. But this, _ipsi_ _viderunt_, I am resolved. + + + +JAMES BARBOUR (1775-1842) + +Senator James Barbour's speech on the treaty-making power, made in +the United States Senate in January 1816, is one of the ablest and +most concise presentations of the Virginia view of the Federal +constitution represented by Madison before he came under Jefferson's +influence. The speech itself, here reproduced from Benton's +'Debates,' sufficiently explains all that is of permanent importance +in the question presented to the Senate, If, under the Federal +constitution, it was necessary after the ratification of a treaty to +specially repeal laws in conflict with it, then such laws and +"municipal regulations" as remained unrepealed by special act would +be in force in spite of the treaty. Arguing against this as it +affected the treaty-making power of the Senate from which the House +of Representatives was excluded by the constitution, Senator Barbour +declared the treaty-making power supreme over commerce, and +incidentally asserted that unless there is such a supremacy lodged +somewhere in the government, the condition would be as anomalous as +that of Christendom when it had three Popes. + +Mr. Barbour was born in 1775 and educated for the bar. He served in +the Virginia legislature, was twice governor of the State, and twice +elected to represent it in the United States Senate. He was +Secretary of War in 1825 under John Quincy Adams, who sent him as +minister to England--a post from which he was recalled by President +Jackson. He presided over the national convention which nominated +William Henry Harrison for the presidency, dying in 1842. + +TREATIES AS SUPREME LAWS + +Mr. President, as it seems to be the wish of the Senate to pass upon +this subject without debate, it adds to the reluctance I always feel +when compelled, even by a sense of duty, to intrude on their +attention. Yet, as I feel myself obliged, under the solemn +responsibility attached to the station I hold here, to vote against +the bill under consideration--as I think, also, it is but a due +respect to the other branch of the legislature, from whom it is my +misfortune to differ, and but an act of justice to myself to state +the grounds of my opinion, I must be pardoned for departing from the +course which seemed to be desired by the Senate. + +In the exercise of this privilege, with a view to promote the wishes +of the Senate as far as a sense of duty will permit, I will confine +myself to a succinct view of the most prominent objections which lie +against its passage, rather than indulge in the extensive range of +which the subject is susceptible. Before I enter into the discussion +of the merits of the question, I beg leave to call the attention of +the Senate to the course which was adopted by us in relation to this +subject. A bill, brought in by the Committee on Foreign Relations, +passed the Senate unanimously, declaring that all laws in opposition +to the convention between the United States and Great Britain, +concluded on the third of July last, should be held as null and +void. The principle on which this body acted was, that the treaty, +upon the exchange of its ratification, did, of itself, repeal any +commercial regulation, incompatible with its provisions, existing in +our municipal code; it being by us believed at the time that such a +bill was not necessary, but by a declaratory act, it was supposed, +all doubts and difficulties, should any exist, might be +removed. This bill is sent to the House of Representatives, who, +without acting thereon, send us the one under consideration, but +differing materially from ours. Far from pretending an intimate +knowledge of the course of business pursued by the two houses, I do +not say that the mode adopted in this particular case is irregular, +but if it has not the sanction of precedent, it appears to me to be +wanting in that courtesy which should be perpetually cherished +between the two houses. It would have been more decorous to have +acted on our bill, to have agreed to it if it were approved, to +reject or amend it. In the latter case, upon its being returned to +the Senate, the views of the other body would have been contrasted +with our own, and we might then have regularly passed upon the +subject. A different course, however, has been adopted; and if a +regard to etiquette had been the only obstacle to my support to the +bill, it would have been readily given; for it is the substance, and +not the shadow, which weighs with me. The difference between the two +bills is rendered important by its involving a constitutional +question. + +It is my misfortune, for such I certainly esteem it, to differ from +the other branch of the legislature on that question; were it a +difference of opinion on the expediency of a measure, it might +readily be obviated, as being entirely free, or at least I hope so, +from pride of opinion. My disposition is to meet, by mutual +concession, those with whom I am in the habit of acting; but when a +principle of the constitution is involved, concession and compromise +are out of the question. With one eye on the sacred charter of our +liberties, and the other on the solemn sanction under which I act +here, I surrender myself to the dictates of my best judgment (weak +enough God knows), and fearlessly pursue the course pointed out by +these guides. My regret is certainly greatly lessened by the +reflection that there is no difference of opinion with any one on +the propriety of executing the treaty with good faith--we differ +only as to the manner in which our common purpose shall be effected. + +The difference between the friends of the bill, and those opposed to +it is, as I understand it, this: the former contend, that the law of +Congress, discriminating between American and British tonnage, is +not abrogated by the treaty, although its provisions conflict with +the treaty, but that to effect its repeal, the bill in question, a +mere echo of the treaty, must pass; the latter, among whom I wish to +be considered, on the contrary say, that the law above alluded to +was annulled upon the ratification of the treaty. I hope I have +succeeded in stating the question fairly, for that certainly was my +wish, and it is also my determination to discuss it in the same +spirit. + +This, then, is the issue which is made up between the friends and +the opponents of the bill; and although in its practical effects I +cannot believe it would be of consequence which way it is decided, +yet, as the just interpretation of the constitution is the pivot on +which it turns, from that consideration alone the question becomes +an interesting one. + +Fortunately for us we have a written constitution to recur to, +dictated with the utmost precision of which our language is +susceptible--it being the work of whatsoever of wisdom, of +experience, and of foresight, united America possessed. + +To a just understanding of this instrument, it will be essential to +recur to the object of its adoption; in this there can be no +difference of opinion. The old band of union had been literally +dissolved in its own imbecility; to remedy this serious evil, an +increase of the powers of the general government was indispensable. + +To draw the line of demarcation between the powers thus granted to +the general government, and those retained by the States, was the +primary and predominating object. In conformity with this view, we +find a general enumeration of the powers assigned the former, of +which Congress is made the depository; which powers, although +granted to Congress in the first instance, are, in the same +instrument, subsequently distributed among the other branches of the +government. Various examples might be adduced in support of this +position. The following for the present will suffice: Article i., section +i, of the constitution declares, that "all legislative powers herein +granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which +shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." Yet we +find, by the seventh section of the same article, the President +invested with a large share of legislative power, and, in fact, +constituting an integral branch of the legislature; in addition to +this, I will here barely add, that the grant of the very power to +regulate the exercise of which gave birth to this bill, furnishes, +by the admission of the friends of the bill, another evidence of the +truth of this position, as I shall show hereafter; and, therefore, +to comprehend the true meaning of the constitution, an isolated view +of a particular clause or section will involve you in error, while a +comprehensive one, both of its spirit and letter, will conduct you +to a just result; when apparent collisions will be removed, and +vigor and effect will be given to every part of the instrument. +With this principle as our guide, I come directly to that part of +the constitution which recognizes the treaty-making power. In the +second clause, second section, second article, are the following +plain and emphatic words: "He [the President] shall have power, by +and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, +provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur." Two +considerations here irresistibly present themselves--first, there +is no limitation to the exercise of the power, save such +restrictions as arise from the constitution, as to the subjects on +which it is to act; nor is there any participation of the power, +with any other branch of the government, in any way alluded to. + +Am I borne out in this declaration by the clause referred to? That +I am, seems to me susceptible of demonstration. To the President +and Senate has been imparted the power of making treaties. Well, +what is a treaty? If a word have a known signification by the +common consent of mankind, and it be used without any qualification +in a law, constitution, or otherwise, the fair inference is that the +received import of such word is intended to be conveyed. If so, the +extent of the power intended to be granted admits of no difficulty. +It reaches to those acts of courtesy and kindness, which +philanthropy has established in the intercourse of nations, as well +as to treaties of commerce, of boundaries, and, in fine, to every +international subject whatsoever. This exposition is supported by +such unequivocal authority, that it is believed it will not be +questioned. I, therefore, infer that it will be readily yielded, +that in regard to the treaty, in aid of which this bill is +exhibited, the treaty-making power has not exceeded its just limits. +So far we have proceeded on sure ground; we now come to the pith of +the question. Is the legislative sanction necessary to give it +effect? I answer in the negative. Why? Because, by the second +clause of the sixth article of the constitution, it is declared that +all treaties made or which shall be made, under the authority of the +United States, shall be the supreme law of the land. If this clause +means anything, it is conclusive of the question. + +If the treaty be a supreme law, then whatsoever municipal regulation +comes within its provisions must _ipso_ _facto_ be annulled--unless +gentlemen contend there can be at the same time two supreme laws, +emanating from the same authority, conflicting with each other, and +still both in full vigor and effect. This would indeed produce a +state of things without a parallel in human affairs, unless indeed +its like might be found in the history of the Popes. In one +instance, we are told, there were three at one time roaming over the +Christian world, all claiming infallibility, and denouncing their +anathemas against all who failed to yield implicit obedience to +their respective mandates, when to comply with the one was to +disobey the other. A result like this, so monstrous in its aspect, +excludes the interpretation which produces it. It is a safe course +in attempting to ascertain the meaning of a law or constitution to +connect different clauses (no matter how detached) upon the same +subject together. Let us do it in this case. The President shall +have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to +make treaties, which treaties shall be the supreme law of the +land. I seek to gain no surreptitious advantage from the word +supreme, because I frankly admit that it is used in the +Constitution, in relation to the laws and constitutions of the +States; but I appeal to it merely to ascertain the high authority +intended to be imparted by the framers of the constitution to a +ratified treaty. It is classed in point of dignity with the laws of +the United States. We ask for no superiority, but equality; and as +the last law made annuls a former one, where they conflict, so we +contend that a subsequent treaty, as in the present case, revokes a +former law in opposition thereto. But the other side contend that it +is inferior to the law in point of authority, which continues in +full force despite of a treaty, and to its repeal the assent of the +whole legislature is necessary. Our claims rest on the expressed +words of the constitution--the opposite on implication; and if the +latter be just, I cannot forbear to say that the framers of the +constitution would but ill deserve what I have heretofore thought a +just tribute to their meritorious services. If they really designed +to produce the effect contended for, instead of so declaring by a +positive provision, they have used a language which, to my mind, +operates conclusively against it. Under what clause of the +constitution is the right to exercise this power set up? The reply +is, the third clause of eighth section, first article--Congress +shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, etc. I +immediately inquire to what extent does the authority of Congress, +in relation to commercial treaties, reach? Is the aid of the +legislature necessary in all cases whatsoever, to give effect to a +commercial treaty? It is readily admitted that it is not. That a +treaty, whose influence is extra territorial, becomes obligatory the +instant of its ratification. That, as the aid of the legislature is +not necessary to its execution, the legislature has no right to +interpose. It is then admitted that while a general power on the +subject of commerce is given to Congress, that yet important +commercial regulations may be adopted by treaty, without the +co-operation of the legislature, notwithstanding the generality of +the grant of power on commercial subjects to Congress. If it be true +that the President and Senate have, in their treaty-making power, an +exclusive control over part and not over the whole, I demand to know +at what point that exclusive control censes? In the clause relied +upon, there is no limitation. The fact is, sir, none exists. The +treaty-making power over commerce is supreme. No legislative +sanction is necessary, if the treaty be capable of self-execution, +and when a legislative sanction is necessary, as I shall more at +large hereafter show, such sanction, when given, adds nothing to the +validity of the treaty, but enables the proper authority to execute +it; and when the legislature do act in this regard, it in under such +obligation as the necessity of fulfilling a moral contract imposes. + +If it be inquired of me what I understand by the clause in question, +in answer I refer to the principle with which I set out: that this +was a grant of power to the general government of which Congress was +in the first instance merely the depository, which power, had not a +portion thereof been transferred to another branch of the +government, would have been exclusively exercised by Congress, but +that a distribution of this power has been made by the constitution; +as a portion thereof has been given to the treaty-making power, and +that which is not transferred is left in the possession of +Congress. Hence, to Congress it is competent to act in this grant in +its proper character by establishing municipal regulations. The +President and the Senate, on the other hand, have the same power +within their sphere, that is, by a treaty or convention with a +foreign nation, to establish such regulations in regard to commerce, +as to them may seem friendly to the public interest. Thus each +department moves in its own proper orbit, nor do they come in +collision with each other. If they have exercised their respective +powers on the same subject, the last act, whether by the legislature +or the treaty-making power, abrogates a former one. The legislature +of the nation may, if a cause exist in their judgment sufficient to +justify it, abrogate a treaty, as has been done; so the President +and Senate by a treaty may abrogate a pre-existing law containing +interfering provisions, as has been done heretofore (without the +right being questioned), and as we say in the very case under +consideration. I will endeavor to make myself understood by +examples; Congress has power, under the clause in question, to lay +embargoes, to pass nonintercourse, or nonimportation, or +countervailing laws, and this power they have frequently +exercised. On the other hand, if the nation against whom one of +those laws is intended to operate is made sensible of her injustice +and tenders reparation, the President and Senate have power by +treaty to restore the amicable relations between the two nations, +and the law directing otherwise, upon the ratification of the +treaty, is forthwith annulled. Again, if Congress should be of +opinion that the offending nation had not complied with their +engagements, they might by law revoke the treaty, and place the +relation between the two nations upon such footing as they +approved. Where is the collision here? I see none. This view of the +subject presents an aspect as innocent as that which is produced +when a subsequent law repeals a former one. By this interpretation +you reconcile one part of the constitution with another, giving to +each a proper effect, a result always desirable, and in rules of +construction claiming a precedence to all others. Indeed, sir, I do +not see how the power in question could have been otherwise +arranged. The power which has been assigned to Congress was +indispensable; without it we should have been at the mercy of a +foreign government, who, knowing the incompetency of Congress to +act, would have subjected our commerce to the most injurious +regulations, as was actually the case before the adoption of the +constitution, when it was managed by the States, by whom no regular +system could be established; indeed, we all know this very subject +was among the most prominent of the causes which produced the +constitution. Had this state of things continued, no nation which +could profit by a contrary course would have treated. On the other +hand, had not a power been given to some branch of the government to +treat, whatever might have been the friendly dispositions of other +powers, or however desirous to reciprocate beneficial arrangements, +they could not, without a treaty-making power lodged somewhere, be +realized. + +I therefore contend, that although to Congress a power is given in +the clause alluded to, to regulate commerce, yet this power is in +part, as I have before endeavored to show, given to the President +and Senate in their treaty-making capacity--the truth of which +position is admitted by the friends of the bill to a certain extent. +The fact is, that the only difference between us is to ascertain the +precise point where legislative aid is necessary to the execution of +the treaty, and where not. To fix this point is to settle the +question. After the most mature reflection which I have been able +to give this subject, my mind has been brought to the following +results; Whenever the President and Senate, within the acknowledged +range of their treaty-making power, ratify a treaty upon +extraterritorial subjects, then it is binding without any auxiliary +law. Again, if from the nature of the treaty self-executory, no +legislative aid is necessary. If on the contrary, the treaty from +its nature cannot be carried into effect but by the agency of the +legislature, that is, if some municipal regulation be necessary, +then the legislature must act not as participating in the +treaty-making power, but in its proper character as a legislative +body. + + + +BARNAVE (1761-1793) + +Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave was born at Grenoble, France, in +1761. He was the son of an advocate, who gave him a careful +education. His first work of a public character, a pamphlet against +the Feudal system, led to his election to the States-General in +1789. He advocated the Proclamation of the Rights of Man and +identified himself with those enthusiastic young Republicans of whom +Lafayette is the best type. The emancipation of the Jews from all +civil and religious disabilities and the abolition of slavery +throughout French territory owed much to his efforts. He also +opposed the Absolute Veto and led the fight for the sequestration of +the property of the Church. This course made him a popular idol and +in the early days of the Revolution he was the leader of the extreme +wing of the Republicans. When he saw, however, that mob law was +about to usurp the place of the Republican institutions for which he +had striven, he leaned towards the court and advocated the +sacrosanctity of the King's person. Denounced as a renegade, with +his life threatened and his influence lost, he retired to his native +province. In August 1792 he was impeached for correspondence with +the King, and on November 26th, 1793. he was guillotined. The +specimens of his eloquence here given were translated for this +Library from the Paris edition of his works, published in 1843. + +REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AGAINST MAJORITY ABSOLUTISM +(Delivered in the National Assembly, August 11th, 1791) + +It is not enough to desire to be free--one must know how to be +free. I shall speak briefly on this subject, for after the success +of our deliberations, I await with confidence the spirit and action +of this Assembly. I only wish to announce my opinions on a +question, the rejection of which would sooner or later mean the loss +of our liberties. This question leaves no doubt in the minds of +those who reflect on governments and are guided by impartial +judgments. Those who have combatted the committee have made a +fundamental error. They have confounded democratic government with +representative government; they have confounded the rights of the +people with the qualifications of an elector, which society +dispenses for its well understood interest. Where the government is +representative, where there exists an intermediary degree of +electors, society which elects them has essentially the right to +determine the conditions of their eligibility. There is one right +existing in our constitution, that of the active citizen, but the +function of an elector is not a right. I repeat, society has the +right to determine its conditions. Those who misunderstand the +nature as they do the advantages of representative government, +remind us of the governments of Athens and Sparta, ignoring the +differences that distinguish them from France, such as extent of +territory, population, etc. Do they forget that they interdicted +representative government? Have they forgotten that the +Lacedemonians had the right to vote in the assemblies only when they +held helots? And only by sacrifice of individual rights did the +Lacedemonians, Athenians, and Romans possess any democratic +governments! I ask those who remind us of them, if it is at such +government they would arrive? I ask those who profess here +metaphysical ideas, because they have no practical ideas, those who +envelop the question in clouds of theory, because they ignore +entirely the fundamental facts of a positive government--I ask is +it forgotten that the democracy of a portion of a people would exist +but by the entire enslavement of the other portion of the people? A +representative government has but one evil to fear, that of +corruption. That such a government shall be good, there must be +guaranteed the purity and incorruptibility of the electorate. This +body needs the union of three eminent guarantees. First, the light +of a fair education and broadened views. Second, an interest in +things, and still better if each had a particular and considerable +interest at stake to defend. Third, such condition of fortune as to +place the elector above attack from corruption. + +These advantages I do not look for in the superior class of the +rich, for they undoubtedly have too many special and individual +interests, which they separate from the general interests. But if +it is true that we must not look for the qualifications of the pure +elector among the eminently rich, neither should I look for it among +those whose lack of fortune has prevented their enlightenment; among +such, unceasingly feeling the touches of want, corruption too easily +can find its means. It is, then, in the middle class that we find +the qualities and advantages I have cited. And, I ask, is it the +demand that they contribute five to ten francs that causes the +assertion that we would throw elections into the hands of the rich? +You have established the usage that the electors receive nothing; if +it were otherwise their great number would make an election most +expensive. From the instant that the voter has not means enough to +enable him to sacrifice a little time from his daily labor, one of +three things would occur. The voter would absent himself, or insist +on being paid by the State, else he would be rewarded by the one who +wanted to obtain his suffrage. This does not occur when a +comfortable condition is necessary to constitute an elector. As +soon as the government is established, when the constitution is +guaranteed, there is but a common interest for those who live on +their property, and those who toil honestly. Then can be +distinguished those who desire a stable government and those who +seek but revolution and change, since they increase in importance in +the midst of trouble as vermin in the midst of corruption. + +If it is true, then, that under an established constitutional +government all its well-wishers have the same interest, the power of +the same must be placed in the hands of the enlightened who can have +no interest pressing on them, greater than the common interest of +all the citizens. Depart from these principles and you fall into the +abuses of representative government. You would have extreme poverty +in the electorate and extreme opulence in the legislature. You would +see soon in France what yon see now in England, the purchase of +voters in the boroughs not with money even, but with pots of +beer. Thus incontestably are elected many of their parliamentary +members. Good representation must not be sought in either extreme, +but in the middle class. The committee have thus placed it by making +it incumbent that the voter shall possess an accumulation the +equivalent of, say forty days of labor. This would unite the +qualities needed to make the elector exercise his privilege with an +interest in the same. It is necessary that he own from one hundred +and twenty to two hundred and forty livres, either in property or +chattels. I do not think it can seriously be said that this +qualification is fixed too high, unless we would introduce among our +electors men who would beg or seek improper recompense. + +If you would have liberty subsist do not hesitate because of +specious arguments which will be presented to you by those who, if +they reflect, will recognize the purity of our intentions and the +resultant advantages of our plans. I add to what I have already +said that the system will diminish many existing inconveniences, and +the proposed law will not have its full effect for two years. They +tell us we are taking from the citizen a right which elevated him by +the only means through which he can acquire it. I reply that if it +was an honor the career which you will open for them will imprint +them with character greater and more in conformity with true +equality. Our opponents have not failed either to magnify the +inconveniences of changing the constitution. Nor do I desire its +change. For that reason we should not introduce imprudent +discussions to create the necessity of a national convention. In +one word, the advice and conclusions of the committee are the sole +guarantees for the prosperity and peaceable condition of the nation. + +COMMERCIAL POLITICS + +Commerce forms a numerous class, friends of external peace and +internal tranquillity, who attach themselves to the established +government. + +It creates great fortunes, which in republics become the origin of +the most forceful aristocracies. As a rule commerce enriches the +cities and their inhabitants, and increases the laboring and +mechanical classes, in opening more opportunities for the +acquirement of riches. To an extent it fortifies the democratic +element in giving the people of the cities greater influence in the +government. It arrives at nearly the same result by impoverishing +the peasant and land owner, by the many new pleasures offered him +and by displaying to him the ostentation and voluptuousness of +luxury and ease. It tends to create bands of mercenaries rather +than those capable of worthy personal service. It introduces into +the nation luxury, ease, and avarice at the same time as labor. + +The manners and morals of a commercial people are not the manners of +the merchant. He individually is economical, while the general mass +are prodigal. The individual merchant is conservative and moral, +while the general public are rendered dissolute. + +The mixture of riches and pleasures which commerce produces joined +to freedom of manners, leads to excesses of all kinds, at the same +time that the nation may display the perfection of elegance and +taste that one noticed in Rome, mistress of the world or in France +before the Revolution. In Rome the wealth was the inflow of the +whole world, the product of the hardiest ambition, producing the +deterioration of the soldier and the indifference of the patrician. +In France the wealth was the accumulation of an immense commerce and +the varied labors of the most industrious nation on the earth +diverted by a brilliant and corrupt court, a profligate and +chivalrous nobility, and a rich and voluptuous capital. + +Where a nation is exclusively commercial, it can make an immense +accumulation of riches without sensibly altering its manners. The +passion of the trader is avarice and the habit of continuous +labor. Left alone to his instincts he amasses riches to possess +them, without designing or knowing how to use them. Examples are +needed to conduct him to prodigality, ostentation, and moral +corruption. As a rule the merchant opposes the soldier. One desires +the accumulations of industry, the other of conquest. One makes of +power the means of getting riches, the other makes of riches the +means of getting power. One is disposed to be economical, a taste +due to his labor. The other is prodigal, the instinct of his +valor. In modern monarchies these two classes form the aristocracy +and the democracy. Commerce in certain republics forms an +aristocracy, or rather an "extra aristocracy in the democracy." +These are the directing forces of such democracies, with the +addition of two other governing powers, which have come in, the +clergy and the legal fraternity, who assist largely in shaping the +course of events. + + + +ISAAC BARROW (1630-1677) + +It is not often that a sermon, however eloquent it may be, becomes a +literary classic, as has happened to those preached by Barrow +against Evil Speaking. Literature--that which is expressed in +letters--has its own method, foreign to that of oratory--the art +of forcing one mind on another by word of mouth. Literature can +rely on suggestion, since it leaves those who do not comprehend at +once free to read over again what has attracted their attention +without compelling their understanding. All great literature relies +mostly on suggestion. This is the secret of Shakespeare's strength +in 'Hamlet,' as it is the purpose of Burke's in such speeches as +that at the trial of Hastings, to compel immediate comprehension by +crowding his meaning on the hearer in phalanxed sentences, moving to +the attack, rank on rank, so that the first are at once supported +and compelled by those which succeed them. + +It is not easy to find the secret by virtue of which sermons that +made Barrow his reputation for eloquence escaped the fate of most +eloquent sermons so far as to find a place in the standard +"Libraries of English Classics," but it lies probably in their +compactness, clearness, and simplicity. Barrow taught Sir Isaac +Newton mathematics, and his style suggests the method of thought +which Newton illustrated in such great results. + +Born in London in 1630, Barrow was educated at the Charterhouse +School, at Felstead, and at Cambridge. Belonging to a Royalist +family, under Cromwell, he left England after his graduation and +traveled abroad, studying the Greek fathers in Constantinople. After +the Restoration he became Lucasian professor of mathematics at +Cambridge and chaplain to Charles II., who called him the best +scholar in England. Celebrated for the length of his sermons, Barrow +had nevertheless a readiness at sharp repartee which made him +formidable on occasion. "I am yours, Doctor, to the knee-strings," +said the Earl of Rochester, meeting him at court and seeking +amusement at his expense. "I am yours, my lord, to the shoe-tie," +answered the Doctor, bowing still lower than the Earl had +done. "Yours, Doctor, to the ground," said Rochester. "Yours, ray +lord, to the centre of the earth," answered Barrow with another +bow. "Yours. Doctor, to the lowest pit of hell," said Rochester, as +he imagined, in conclusion. "There, my lord, I must leave you!" was +the immediate answer. + +SLANDER + +General declamations against vice and sin are indeed excellently +useful, as rousing men to consider and look about them; but they do +often want effect, because they only raise confused apprehensions of +things, and indeterminate propensions to action, which usually, +before men thoroughly perceive or resolve what they should practice, +do decay and vanish. As he that cries out "Fire!" doth stir up +people, and inspireth them with a kind of hovering tendency every +way, yet no man thence to purpose moveth until he be distinctly +informed where the mischief is; then do they, who apprehend +themselves concerned, run hastily to oppose it: so, till we +particularly discern where our offenses lie (till we distinctly know +the heinous nature and the mischievous consequences of them), we +scarce will effectually apply ourselves to correct them. Whence it +is requisite that men should be particularly acquainted with their +sins, and by proper arguments be dissuaded from them. + +In order whereto I have now selected one sin to describe, and +dissuade from, being in nature as vile, and in practice as common, +as any other whatever that hath prevailed among men. It is slander, +a sin which in all times and places hath been epidemical and rife, +but which especially doth seem to reign and rage in our age and +country. + +There are principles innate to men, which ever have, and ever will, +incline them to this offense. Eager appetites to secular and sensual +goods; violent passions, urging the prosecution of what men affect; +wrath and displeasure against those who stand in the way of +compassing their desires; emulation and envy towards those who +happen to succeed better, or to attain a greater share in such +things; excessive self-love; unaccountable malignity and vanity are +in some degrees connatural to all men, and ever prompt them to this +dealing, as appearing the most efficacious, compendious, and easy +way of satisfying such appetites, of promoting such designs, of +discharging such passions. Slander thence hath always been a +principal engine whereby covetous, ambitious, envious, ill-natured, +and vain persons have striven to supplant their competitors and +advance themselves; meaning thereby to procure, what they chiefly +prize and like, wealth, or dignity, or reputation, favor and power +in the court, respect and interest with the people. + +But from especial causes our age peculiarly doth abound in this +practice; for, besides the common dispositions inclining thereto, +there are conceits newly coined, and greedily entertained by many, +which seem purposely leveled at the disparagement of piety, charity, +and justice, substituting interest in the room of conscience, +authorizing and commending for good and wise, all ways serving to +private advantage. There are implacable dissensions, fierce +animosities, and bitter zeals sprung up; there is an extreme +curiosity, niceness, and delicacy of judgment; there is a mighty +affectation of seeming wise and witty by any means; there is a great +unsettlement of mind, and corruption of manners, generally diffused +over people; from which sources it is no wonder that this flood hath +so overflown, that no banks can restrain it, no fences are able to +resist it; so that ordinary conversation is full of it, and no +demeanor can be secure from it. + +If we do mark what is done in many (might I not say, in most?) +companies, what is it but one telling malicious stories of, or +fastening odious characters upon, another? What do men commonly +please themselves in so much as in carping and harshly censuring, in +defaming and abusing their neighbors? Is it not the sport and +divertisement of many to cast dirt in the faces of all they meet +with? to bespatter any man with foul imputations? Doth not in every +corner a Momus lurk, from the venom of whose spiteful or petulant +tongue no eminency of rank, dignity of place, or sacredness of +office, no innocence or integrity of life, no wisdom or +circumspection in behavior, no good-nature or benignity in dealing +and carriage, can protect any person? Do not men assume to +themselves a liberty of telling romances, and framing characters +concerning their neighbors, as freely as a poet doth about Hector or +Turnus, Thersites or Draucus? Do they not usurp a power of playing +with, or tossing about, of tearing in pieces their neighbor's good +name, as if it were the veriest toy in the world? Do not many having +a form of godliness (some of them demurely, others confidently, both +without any sense of, or remorse for, what they do) backbite their +brethren? Is it not grown so common a thing to asperse causelessly +that no man wonders at it, that few dislike, that scarce any detest +it? that most notorious calumniators are heard, not only with +patience, but with pleasure; yea, are even held in vogue and +reverence as men of a notable talent, and very serviceable to their +party? so that slander seemeth to have lost its nature and not to +be now an odious sin, but a fashionable humor, a way of pleasing +entertainment, a fine knack, or curious feat of policy; so that no +man at least taketh himself or others to be accountable for what is +said in this way? Is not, in fine, the case become such, that +whoever hath in him any love of truth, any sense of justice or +honesty, any spark of charity towards his brethren, shall hardly be +able to satisfy himself in the conversations he meeteth; but will be +tempted, with the holy prophet, to wish himself sequestered from +society, and cast into solitude; repeating those words of his, "Oh, +that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that +I might leave my people, and go from them: for they are ... an +assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their +bow for lies"? This he wished in an age so resembling ours, that I +fear the description with equal patness may suit both: "Take ye +heed" (said he then, and may we not advise the like now?) "every one +of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother +will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with +slanders. They will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not +speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and +weary themselves to commit iniquity." + +Such being the state of things, obvious to experience, no discourse +may seem more needful, or more useful, than that which serveth to +correct or check this practice: which I shall endeavor to do (1) by +describing the nature, (2) by declaring the folly of it: or showing +it to be very true which the wise man here asserteth, "He that +uttereth slander is a fool." Which particulars I hope so to +prosecute, that any man shall be able easily to discern, and ready +heartily to detest this practice. + +1. For explication of its nature, we may describe slander to be the +uttering false (or equivalent to false, morally false) speech +against our neighbor, in prejudice to his fame, his safety, his +welfare, or concernment in any kind, out of malignity, vanity, +rashness, ill-nature, or bad design. That which is in Holy +Scripture forbidden and reproved under several names and notions: +of bearing false witness, false accusation, railing censure, +sycophantry, talebearing, whispering, backbiting, supplanting, +taking up reproach: which terms some of them do signify the nature, +others denote the special kinds, others imply the manners, others +suggest the ends of this practice. But it seemeth most fully +intelligible by observing the several kinds and degrees thereof; +as also by reflecting on the divers ways and manners of practicing +it. + +The principal kinds thereof I observe to be these:-- + +1. The grossest kind of slander is that which in the Decalogue is +called, bearing false testimony against our neighbor; that is, +flatly charging him with acts which he never committed, and is +nowise guilty of. As in the case of Naboth, when men were suborned +to say, "Naboth did blaspheme God and the king," and as was David's +case, when he thus complained, "False witnesses did rise up, they +laid to my charge things that I knew not of." This kind in the +highest way (that is, in judicial proceedings) is more rare; and of +all men, they who are detected to practice it are held most vile and +infamous, as being plainly the most pernicious and perilous +instruments of injustice, the most desperate enemies of all men's +right and safety that can be. But also out of the court there are +many knights-errant of the poet, whose business it is to run about +scattering false reports; sometimes loudly proclaiming them in open +companies, sometimes closely whispering them in dark corners; thus +infecting conversation with their poisonous breath: these no less +notoriously are guilty of this kind, as bearing always the same +malice and sometimes breeding as ill effects. + +2. Another kind is, affixing scandalous names, injurious epithets, +and odious characters upon persons, which they deserve not. As when +Corah and his accomplices did accuse Moses of being ambitious, +unjust, and tyrannical; when the Pharisees called our Lord an +impostor, a blasphemer, a sorcerer, a glutton and wine-bibber, an +incendiary and perverter of the people, one that spake against +Caesar, and forbade to give tribute; when the Apostles were charged +with being pestilent, turbulent, factious, and seditious fellows. +This sort being very common, and thence in ordinary repute not so +bad, yet in just estimation may be judged even worse than the +former, as doing to our neighbor more heavy and more irreparable +wrong. For it imposeth on him really more blame, and that such +which he can hardly shake off; because the charge signifies habits +of evil, and includeth many acts; then, being general and +indefinite, can scarce be disproved. He, for instance, that calleth +a sober man drunkard doth impute to him many acts of such +intemperance (some really past, others probably future), and no +particular time or place being specified, how can a man clear +himself of that imputation, especially with those who are not +thoroughly acquainted with his conversation? So he that calleth a +man unjust, proud, perverse, hypocritical, doth load him with most +grievous faults, which it is not possible that the most innocent +person should discharge himself from. + +3. Like to that kind is this: aspersing a man's actions with harsh +censures and foul terms, importing that they proceed from ill +principles, or tend to bad ends; so as it doth not or cannot +appear. Thus, when we say of him that is generously hospitable, +that he is profuse; of him that is prudently frugal, that he is +niggardly; of him that is cheerful and free in his conversation, +that he is vain or loose; of him that is serious and resolute in +a good way, that he is sullen or morose; of him that is +conspicuous and brisk in virtuous practice, that it is ambition +or ostentation which prompts him; of him that is close and +bashful in the like good way, that it is sneaking stupidity, or +want of spirit; of him that is reserved, that it is craft; of him +that is open, that it is simplicity in him; when we ascribe a +man's liberality and charity to vainglory or popularity; his +strictness of life, and constancy in devotion, to superstition, +or hypocrisy. When, I say, we pass such censures, or impose such +characters on the laudable or innocent practice of our neighbors, +we are indeed slanderers, imitating therein the great calumniator, +who thus did slander even God himself, imputing his prohibition of +the fruit unto envy towards men; "God," said he, "doth know that in +the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be +as gods, knowing good and evil;" who thus did ascribe the steady +piety of Job, not to a conscientious love and fear of God, but to +policy and selfish design: "Doth Job fear God for naught?" + +Whoever, indeed, pronounceth concerning his neighbor's intentions +otherwise than as they are evidently expressed by words, or +signified by overt actions, is a slanderer; because he pretendeth to +know, and dareth to aver, that which he nowise possibly can tell +whether it be true; because the heart is exempt from all +jurisdiction here, is only subject to the government and trial of +another world; because no man can judge concerning the truth of such +accusations, because no man can exempt or defend himself from them: +so that apparently such practice doth thwart all course of justice +and equity. + +4. Another kind is, perverting a man's words or actions +disadvantageously by affected misconstruction. All words are +ambiguous, and capable of different senses, some fair, some more +foul; all actions have two handles, one that candor and charity +will, another that disingenuity and spite may lay hold on; and in +such cases to misapprehend is a calumnious procedure, arguing +malignant disposition and mischievous design. Thus, when two men +did witness that our Lord affirmed, he "could demolish the Temple, +and rear it again in three days"--although he did, indeed, speak +words to that purpose, meaning them in a figurative sense, +discernible enough to those who would candidly have minded his drift +and way of speaking:--yet they who crudely alleged them against +him are called false witnesses. "At last," saith the Gospel, "came +two false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, I am able to +destroy the temple," etc. Thus, also, when some certified of St +Stephen, as having said that "Jesus of Nazareth should destroy that +place, and change the customs that Moses delivered"; although +probably he did speak words near to that purpose, yet are those men +called false witnesses. "And," saith St. Luke, "they set up false +witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous +words," etc. Which instances do plainly show, if we would avoid the +guilt of slander, how careful we should be to interpret fairly and +favorably the words and actions of our neighbor. + +5. Another sort of this practice is, partial and lame representation +of men's discourse, or their practice, suppressing some part of the +truth in them, or concealing some circumstances about them which +might serve to explain, to excuse, or to extenuate them. In such a +manner easily, without uttering; any logical untruth, one may yet +grievously calumniate. Thus, suppose a man speaketh a thing upon +supposition, or with exception, or in way of objection, or merely +for disputation's sake, in order to the discussion or clearing of +truth; he that should report him asserting it absolutely, +unlimitedly, positively, and peremptorily, as his own settled +judgment, would notoriously calumniate. If one should be inveigled +by fraud, or driven by violence, or slip by chance into a bad place +or bad company, he that should so represent the gross of that +accident, as to breed an opinion of that person, that out of pure +disposition and design he did put himself there, doth slanderously +abuse that innocent person. The reporter in such cases must not +think to defend himself by pretending that he spake nothing false; +for such propositions, however true in logic, may justly be deemed +lies in morality, being uttered with a malicious and deceitful (that +is, with a calumnious) mind, being apt to impress false conceits and +to produce hurtful effects concerning our neighbor. There are +slanderous truths as well as slanderous falsehoods; when truth is +uttered with a deceitful heart, and to a base end, it becomes a lie. +"He that speaketh truth," saith the wise man, "showeth forth +righteousness, but a false witness deceit." Deceiving is the proper +work of slander; and truth abused to that end putteth on its nature, +and will engage into like guilt. + +6, Another kind of calumny is, by instilling sly suggestions, which +although they do not downrightly assert falsehoods, yet they breed +sinister opinions in the hearers, especially in those who, from +weakness or credulity, from jealousy or prejudice, from negligence +or inadvertency, are prone to entertain them. This is done in many +ways: by propounding wily suppositions, shrewd insinuations, crafty +questions, and specious comparisons, intimating a possibility, or +inferring some likelihood of, and thence inducing to believe the +fact. "Doth not," saith this kind of slanderer, "his temper incline +him to do thus? may not his interest have swayed him thereto? had +he not fair opportunity and strong temptation to it? hath he not +acted so in like cases? Judge you, therefore, whether he did it +not." Thus the close slanderer argueth; and a weak or prejudiced +person is thereby so caught, that he presently is ready thence to +conclude the thing done. Again: "He doeth well," saith the +sycophant, "it is true; but why, and to what end? Is it not, as +most men do, out of ill design? may he not dissemble now? may he +not recoil hereafter? have not others made as fair a show? yet we +know what came of it." Thus do calumnious tongues pervert the +judgments of men to think ill of the most innocent, and meanly of +the worthiest actions. Even commendation itself is often used +calumniously, with intent to breed dislike and ill-will towards a +person commended in envious or jealous ears; or so as to give +passage to dispraises, and render the accusations following more +credible. Tis an artifice commonly observed to be much in use +there, where the finest tricks of supplanting are practiced, with +greatest effect; so that _pessimum_ _inimicorum_ _genus_, +_laudantes_; there is no more pestilent enemy than a malevolent +praiser. All these kinds of dealing, as they issue from the +principles of slander, and perform its work, so they deservedly bear +the guilt thereof. + +7. A like kind is that of oblique and covert reflections; when a man +doth not directly or expressly charge his neighbor with faults, +but yet so speaketh that he is understood, or reasonably presumed +to do it. This is a very cunning and very mischievous way of +slandering; for therein the skulking calumniator keepeth a +reserve for himself, and cutteth off from the person concerned +the means of defense. If he goeth to clear himself from the +matter of such aspersions: "What need," saith this insidious +speaker, "of that? must I needs mean you? did I name you? why do +you then assume it to yourself? do you not prejudge yourself +guilty? I did not, but your own conscience, it seemeth, doth +accuse you. You are so jealous and suspicious, as persons +overwise or guilty use to be." So meaneth this serpent out of the +hedge securely and unavoidably to bite his neighbor, and is in +that respect more base and more hurtful than the most flat and +positive slanderer. + +8. Another kind is that of magnifying and aggravating the faults of +others; raising any small miscarriage into a heinous crime, any +slender defect into an odious vice, and any common infirmity into +a strange enormity; turning a small "mote in the eye" of our +neighbor into a huge "beam," a little dimple in his face into a +monstrous wen. This is plainly slander, at least in degree, and +according to the surplusage whereby the censure doth exceed the +fault. As he that, upon the score of a small debt, doth extort a +great sum, is no less a thief, in regard to what amounts beyond +his due, than if without any pretense he had violently or +fraudulently seized on it, so he is a slanderer that, by +heightening faults or imperfections, doth charge his neighbor +with greater blame, or load him with more disgrace than he +deserves. 'Tis not only slander to pick a hole where there is +none, but to make that wider which is, so that it appeareth more +ugly, and cannot so easily be mended. For charity is wont to +extenuate faults, justice doth never exaggerate them. As no man +is exempt from some defects, or can live free from some +misdemeanors, so by this practice every man may be rendered very +odious and infamous. + +9. Another kind of slander is, imputing to our neighbor's practice, +judgment, or profession, evil consequences (apt to render him +odious, or despicable) which have no dependence on them, or +connection with them. There do in every age occur disorders and +mishaps, springing from various complications of causes, working +some of them in a more open and discernible, others in a more secret +and subtle way (especially from Divine judgment and providence +checking or chastising sin); from such occurrences it is common to +snatch occasion and matter of calumny. Those who are disposed this +way are ready peremptorily to charge them upon whomsoever they +dislike or dissent from, although without any apparent cause, or +upon most frivolous and senseless pretenses; yea, often when reason +showeth quite the contrary, and they who are so charged are in just +esteem of all men the least obnoxious to such accusations. So, +usually, the best friends of mankind, those who most heartily wish +the peace and prosperity of the world and most earnestly to their +power strive to promote them, have all the disturbances and +disasters happening charged on them by those fiery vixens, who (in +pursuance of their base designs, or gratification of their wild +passions) really do themselves embroil things, and raise miserable +combustions in the world. So it is that they who have the +conscience to do mischief will have the confidence also to disavow +the blame and the iniquity, to lay the burden of it on those who are +most innocent. Thus, whereas nothing more disposeth men to live +orderly and peaceably, nothing more conduceth to the settlement and +safety of the public, nothing so much draweth blessings down from +heaven upon the commonwealth, as true religion, yet nothing hath +been more ordinary than to attribute all the miscarriages and +mischiefs that happened unto it; even those are laid at his door, +which plainly do arise from the contempt or neglect of it, being the +natural fruits or the just punishments of irreligion. King Ahab, by +forsaking God's commandments and following wicked superstitions, had +troubled Israel, drawing sore judgments and calamities thereon; yet +had he the heart and the face to charge those events on the great +assertor of piety, Elias: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" The +Jews by provocation of Divine justice had set themselves in a fair +way towards desolation and ruin; this event to come they had the +presumption to lay upon the faith of our Lord's doctrine. "If," +said they, "we let him alone, all men will believe on him, and the +Romans shall come, and take away our place and nation," whereas, in +truth, a compliance with his directions and admonitions had been the +only means to prevent those presaged mischiefs. And, _si_ _Tibris_ +_ascenderit_ _in_ _mania_, if any public calamity did appear, then +_Christianos_ _ad_ _leones_, Christians must be charged and +persecuted as the causes thereof. To them it was that Julian and +other pagans did impute all the discussions, confusions, and +devastations falling upon the Roman Empire. The sacking of Rome by +the Goths they cast upon Christianity; for the vindication of it +from which reproach St. Augustine did write those renowned books 'De +Civitate Dei.' So liable are the best and most innocent sort of men +to be calumniously accused in this manner. + +Another practice (worthily bearing the guilt of slander) is, aiding +and being accessory thereto, by anywise furthering, cherishing, +abetting it. He that by crafty significations of ill-will doth +prompt the slanderer to vent his poison; he that by a willing +audience and attention doth readily suck it up, or who greedily +swalloweth it down by credulous approbation and assent; he that +pleasingly relisheth and smacketh at it, or expresseth a delightful +complacence therein; as he is a partner in the fact, so he is a +sharer in the guilt. There are not only slanderous throats, but +slanderous ears also; not only wicked inventions, which engender and +brood lies, but wicked assents, which hatch and foster them. Not +only the spiteful mother that conceiveth such spurious brats, but +the midwife that helpeth to bring them forth, the nurse that feedeth +them, the guardian that traineth them up to maturity, and setteth +them forth to live in the world; as they do really contribute to +their subsistence, so deservedly they partake in the blame due to +them, and must be responsible for the mischief they do. + + + +BASIL THE GREAT (329-379) + +Basil the Great, born at Caesarea in Cappadocia A. D. 329, was one +of the leading orators of the Christian Church in the fourth +century. He was a friend of the famous Gregory of Nazianzus, and +Gregory of Nyssa was his brother. + +The spirit of his time was one of change. The foundations of the +Roman world were undermined. The old classical civilization of +beauty and order had reached its climax and reacted on itself; the +Greek worship of the graceful; the Roman love of the regular, the +strong, the martial, the magnificent, had failed to save the world +from a degradation which, under the degeneracy of the later Caesars, +had become indescribable. The early Christians, filled with a +profound conviction of the infernal origin of the corruption of the +decaying civilization they saw around them, were moved by such a +compelling desire to escape it as later times can never realize and +hardly imagine. Moved by this spirit, the earnest young men of the +time, educated as Basil was in the philosophy, the poetry, and the +science of the classical times, still felt that having this they +would lose everything unless they could escape the influences of the +world around them. They did not clearly discriminate between what +was within and without themselves. It was not clear to them whether +the corruption of an effete civilization was not the necessary +corruption of all human nature including their own. This doubt sent +men like Basil to the desert to attempt, by fasting and scourging, +to get such mastery over their bodies as to compel every rebellious +nerve and stubborn muscle to yield instant obedience to their +aspirations after a more than human perfection. If they never +attained their ideal; if we find them coming out of the desert, as +they sometimes did, to engage in controversies, often fierce and +unsaintly enough, we can see, nevertheless, how the deep emotions of +their struggle after a higher life made them the great orators they +were. Their language came from profound depths of feeling. Often +their very earnestness betrays them into what for later ages is +unintelligibility. Only antiquarians now can understand how deeply +the minds of the earlier centuries of the New Order, which saved +progress from going down into the bottomless pit of classical +decadence, were stirred by controversies over prepositions and +conjunctions. But if we remember that in all of it, the men who +are sometimes ridiculed as mere ascetics, mere pedants, were moved +by a profound sense of their duty to save a world so demoralized, so +shameless in the pursuit of everything sensual and base, that +nothing short of their sublime enthusiasm, their very madness of +contempt for the material and the sensual, could have saved it. + +After studying in Constantinople and in Athens, the spirit of the +Reformers of his time took hold on Basil and, under the ascetic +impulse, he visited the hermits of Arabia and Asia Minor, hoping to +learn sanctity from them. He founded a convent in Pontus, which his +mother and sister entered. After his ordination as "Presbyter." he +was involved in the great Arian controversy, and the ability he +showed as a disputant probably had much to do with his promotion to +the bishopric of Caesarea. In meeting the responsibilities of that +office, his courage and eloquence made him famous. When threatened +by the Emperor Valens, he replied that having nothing but a few +books and his cloak, he did not fear confiscation of his goods; that +he could not be exiled, since the whole earth was the Lord's; that +torture and death would merely put an end to his labors and bring +him nearer to the God for whom he longed. He died at Caesarea +A. D. 379. Such men must be judged from their own standpoints. It is +worth much to understand them. + +The sermon 'To the Fallen,' here used from Fish's translation, was +greatly admired by Fenelon, who calls it a masterpiece. It was +occasioned by a nun's breaking a vow of perpetual virginity. + +ON A RECREANT NUN + +It is time, now, to take up the exclamation of the Prophet: "O that +my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might +weep for the wounded of the daughter of my people!"--Jer. ix. i. + +For, although they are wrapped in profound silence, and lie quite +stupefied by their calamity, and deprived, by their deadly wound, +even of the very sense of suffering, yet it does not become us to +withhold our tears over so sad a fall. For if Jeremiah deemed those +worthy of countless lamentations who had received bodily wounds in +battle, what shall we say when souls are involved in so great a +calamity? "Thy wounded," says the Prophet, "are not wounded with +the sword, and thy dead are not the dead of war." But my +lamentation is for grievous sin, the sting of the true death, and +for the fiery darts of the wicked, which have cruelly kindled a +flame in both body and soul. Well might the laws of God groan +within themselves, beholding such pollution on earth, those laws +which always utter their loud prohibition, saying in olden time, +"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife"; and in the Gospels, +"That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed +adultery with her already in his heart." But now they behold the +very bride of the Lord--her of whom Christ is the head-- +committing adultery without fear or shame. Yes, the very spirits of +departed saints may well groan, the zealous Phineas, that it is not +permitted to him now to snatch the spear and to punish the loathsome +sin with a summary corporeal vengeance; and John the Baptist, that +he cannot now leave the celestial abodes, as he once left the +wilderness, and hasten to rebuke the transgression, and if the +sacrifice were called for, to lay down his head sooner than abate +the severity of his reproof. Nay, let us rather say that, like +blessed Abel, John "being dead yet speaketh," and now lifts up his +voice with a yet louder cry than in the case of Herodias, saying, +"It is not lawful for thee to have her." For, although the body of +John, yielding to the inevitable sentence of God, has paid the debt +of nature, and his tongue is silent, yet "the word of God is not +bound." And he who, when the marriage covenant had been violated in +the case of a fellow-servant, was faithful even unto death with his +stern reproofs, what must he have felt if he had seen the holy +bride-chamber of the Lord thus wantonly outraged? + +But as for thee, O thou who hast thus cast off the yoke of that +divine union, and deserted the undefiled chamber of the true King, +and shamefully fallen into this disgraceful and impious defilement, +since thou hast no way of evading this bitter charge, and no method +or artifice can avail to conceal thy fearful crime, thou boldly +hardenest thyself in guilt. And as he who has once fallen into the +abyss of crime becomes henceforth an impious despiser, so thou +deniest thy very covenant with the true bridegroom; alleging that +thou wast not a virgin, and hadst never taken the vow, although thou +hast both received and given many pledges of virginity. Remember +the good confession which thou hast made before God and angels and +men. Remember that venerable assembly, and the sacred choir of +virgins, and the congregation of the Lord, and the Church of the +saints. Remember thy aged grandmother in Christ, whose Christian +virtues still flourish in the vigor of youth; and thy mother in the +Lord, who vies with the former, and strives by new and unwonted +endeavors to dissolve the bands of custom; and thy sister likewise, +in some things their imitator, and in some aspiring to excel them, +and to surpass in the merits of virginity the attainments of her +progenitors, and both in word and deed diligently inviting thee, her +sister, as is meet, to the same competition. Remember these, and +the angelic company associated with them in the service of the Lord, +and the spiritual life though yet in the flesh, and the heavenly +converse upon earth. Remember the tranquil days and the luminous +nights, and the spiritual songs, and the melodious psalmody, and the +holy prayers, and the chaste and undefiled couch, and the progress +in virginal purity, and the temperate diet so helpful in preserving +thy virginity uncontaminated. And where is now that grave +deportment, and that modest mien, and that plain attire which so +become a virgin, and that beautiful blush of bashfulness, and that +comely paleness--the delicate bloom of abstinence and vigils, that +outshines every ruddier glow. How often in prayer that thou +mightest keep unspotted thy virginal purity hast thou poured forth +thy tears! How many letters hast thou indited to holy men, +imploring their prayers, not that thou mightest obtain these human +--nuptials, shall I call them? rather this dishonorable defilement +--but that thou mightest not fall away from the Lord Jesus? How +often hast thou received the gifts of the spouse! And why should I +mention also the honors accorded for his sake by those who are his +--the companionship of the virgins, journeyings with them, welcomes +from them, encomiums on virginity, blessings bestowed by virgins, +letters addressed to thee as to a virgin! But now, having been just +breathed upon by the aerial spirit that worketh in the children of +disobedience, thou hast denied all these, and hast bartered that +precious and enviable possession for a brief pleasure, which is +sweet to thy taste for a moment, but which afterward thou wilt find +bitterer than gall. + +Besides all this, who can avoid exclaiming with grief, "How is Zion, +the faithful city, become an harlot!" Nay, does not the Lord +himself say to some who now walk in the spirit of Jeremiah, "Hast +thou seen what the virgin of Israel hath done unto me?" "I +betrothed her unto me in faith and purity, in righteousness and in +judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies," even as I promised +her by Hosea, the prophet. But she has loved strangers; and even +while I her husband lived, she has made herself an adulteress, and +has not feared to become the wife of another husband. And what +would the bride's guardian and conductor say, the divine and blessed +Paul? Both the ancient Apostle, and this modern one, under whose +auspices and instruction thou didst leave thy father's house, and +join thyself to the Lord? Would not each, filled with grief at the +great calamity, say, "The thing which I greatly feared has come upon +me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me," for "I espoused +you unto one husband, that I might present you as a chaste virgin to +Christ"; and I was always fearful, lest in some way as the serpent +beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so thy mind should sometime be +corrupted. And on this account I always endeavored, like a skillful +charmer, by innumerable incantations, to suppress the tumult of the +passions, and by a thousand safeguards to secure the bride of the +Lord, rehearsing again and again the manner of her who is unmarried, +how that she only "careth for the things of the Lord, that she may +be holy both in body and in spirit"; and I set forth the honor of +virginity, calling thee the temple of God, that I might add wings to +thy zeal, and help thee upward to Jesus; and I also had recourse to +the fear of evil, to prevent thee from falling, telling thee that +"if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." I +also added the assistance of my prayers, that, if possible, "thy +whole body, and soul, and spirit might be preserved blameless unto +the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," But all this labor I have +spent in vain upon thee; and those sweet toils have ended in a +bitter disappointment; and now I must again groan over her of whom I +ought to have joy. For lo, thou hast been beguiled by the serpent +more bitterly than Eve; for not only has thy mind become defiled, +but with it thy very body also, and what is still more horrible--I +dread to say it, but I cannot suppress it; for it is as fire burning +and blazing in my bones, and I am dissolving in every part and +cannot endure it--thou hast taken the members of Christ, and made +them the members of a harlot. This is incomparably the greatest +evil of all. This is a new crime in the world, to which we may +apply the words of the Prophet, "Pass over the isles of Chittim, and +see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there +be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no +gods?" For the virgin hath changed her glory, and now glories in +her shame. The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth +trembleth very exceedingly. Now, also, the Lord says, the virgin +hath committed two evils, she hath forsaken me, the true and holy +bridegroom of sanctified souls, and hath fled to an impious and +lawless polluter of the body, and corrupter of the soul. She hath +turned away from God her Savior, and hath yielded her members +servants to imparity and iniquity; she bath forgotten me, and gone +after her lover, by whom she shall not profit. + +It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, +and he cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of the +Lord's virgins to offend. What impudent servant ever carried his +insane audacity so far as to fling himself upon the couch of his +lord? Or what robber has ever become so madly hardened as to lay +hands upon the very offerings devoted to God?--but here it is not +inanimate vessels, but living bodies, inhabited by souls made in the +image of God. Since the beginning of the world was any one ever +heard of, who dared, in the midst of a great city, in broad midday, +to deface the likeness of a king by inscribing upon it the forms of +filthy swine? He that despises human nuptials dies without mercy +under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose +ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son +of God, and defiled his espoused wife, and done despite to the +spirit of virginity? . . . + +But, after all this, "shall they fall and not arise? shall he turn +away and not return?" Why hath the virgin turned away in so +shameless an apostasy?--and that, too, after having heard Christ, +the bridegroom, saying by Jeremiah, "And I said, after she had +lewdly done all these things, turn thou unto me. But she returned +not," "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? +Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people +recovered?" Truly thou mightest find in the Divine Scriptures many +remedies for such an evil--many medicines that recover from +perdition and restore to life; mysterious words about death and +resurrection, a dreadful judgment, and everlasting punishment; the +doctrines of repentance and remission of sins; those innumerable +examples of conversion--the piece of silver, the lost sheep, the +son that had devoured his living with harlots, that was lost and +found, that was dead and alive again. Let us use these remedies for +the evil; with these let us heal our souls. Think, too, of thy last +day (for thou art not to live always, more than others), of the +distress, and the anguish, as the hour of death draws nearer, of the +impending sentence of God, of the angels moving on rapid wing, of +the soul fearfully agitated by all these things, and bitterly +tormented by a guilty conscience, and clinging pitifully to the +things here below, and still under the inevitable necessity of +taking its departure. Picture to thy mind the final dissolution of +all that belongs to our present life, when the Son of Man shall come +in his glory, with his holy angels; for he "shall come, and shall +not keep silence," when he shall come to judge the living and the +dead, and to render to every man according to his work; when the +trumpet, with its loud and terrible echo, shall awaken those who +have slept from the beginning of the world, and they shall come +forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of the life, and +they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. Remember +the divine vision of Daniel, how he brings the judgment before our +eyes. "I beheld," says he, "till the thrones were placed, and the +Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the +hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery +flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and +came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, +and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment +was set, and the books were opened," revealing all at once in the +hearing of all men and all angels, all things, whether good or bad, +open or secret, deeds, words, thoughts. What effect must all these +things have on those who have lived viciously? Where, then, shall +the soul, thus suddenly revealed in all the fullness of its shame in +the eyes of such a multitude of spectators--Oh, where shall it +hide itself? In what body can it endure those unbounded and +intolerable torments of the unquenchable fire, and the tortures of +the undying worm, and the dark and frightful abyss of hell, and the +bitter howlings, and woeful wailings, and weeping, and gnashing of +teeth; and all these dire woes without end? Deliverance from these +after death there is none; neither is there any device, nor +contrivance, for escaping these bitter torments. But now it is +possible to escape them. Now, then, while it is possible, let us +recover ourselves from our fall, let us not despair of restoration, +if we break loose from our vices. Jesus Christ came into the world +to save sinners. "Oh, come, let us worship and bow down," let us +weep before him. His word, calling us to repentance, lifts up its +voice and cries aloud, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest." There is, then, a way to be +saved, if we will Death has prevailed and swallowed us up; but be +assured, that God will wipe away every tear from the face of every +penitent. The Lord is faithful in all his words. He does not lie, +when he says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as +white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as +wool." The great Physician of souls is ready to heal thy disease; +he is the prompt Deliverer, not of thee alone, but of all who are in +bondage to sin. These are his words,--his sweet and life-giving +lips pronounced them,--"They that be whole need not a physician, but +they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but +sinners to repentance." What excuse, then, remains to thee, or to +any one else, when he utters such language as this? The Lord is +willing to heal thy painful wound, and to enlighten thy darkness. +The Good Shepherd leaves the sheep who have not strayed, to seek for +thee. If thou give thyself up to him, he will not delay, he in his +mercy will not disdain to carry thee upon his own shoulders, +rejoicing that he has found his sheep which was lost. The Father +stands waiting thy return from thy wanderings. Only arise and come, +and whilst thou art yet a great way off he will run and fall upon +thy neck; and, purified at once by thy repentance, thou shalt be +enfolded in the embraces of his friendship. He will put the best +robe on thy soul, when it has put off the old man with his deeds; he +will put a ring on thy hands when they have been washed from the +blood of death; he will put shoes on thy feet, when they have turned +from the evil way to the path of the Gospel of peace; and he will +proclaim a day of joy and gladness to the whole family of both +angels and men, and will celebrate thy salvation with every form of +rejoicing. For he himself says, "Verily I say unto you, that joy +shall be in heaven before God over one sinner that repenteth." And +if any of those that stand by should seem to find fault, because +thou art so quickly received, the good Father himself will plead for +thee, saying, "It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; +for this my daughter was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and +is found." + + + +RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691) + +Richard Baxter, author of 'The Saints' Everlasting Rest' and of +other works to the extent of sixty octavo volumes, was called by +Doddridge "the English Demosthenes." He was born November 12th. +1615, in Shropshire, England, and was admitted to orders in the +English Church in 1638. He refused, however, to take the oath of +"Submission to Archbishops. Bishops," etc., and established himself +as the pastor of a dissenting church in Kidderminster. He was twice +imprisoned for refusing to conform to the requirements of the +Established Church. He died in 1691. One of his critics says of +him:-- + +"The leading characteristics of Baxter are, eminent piety and vigor +of intellect, keenness of logic, burning power and plainness of +language, melting pathos, cloudless perspicuity, graceful +description, and a certain vehemence of feeling which brings home +his words with an irresistible force." + +The sermon here extracted from was preached first at Kidderminster +and afterwards at London, and it is said it produced "a profound +sensation." As published entire, under the title 'Making Light of +Christ and Salvation,' it makes a considerable volume. + +UNWILLINGNESS TO IMPROVE + +Beloved hearers, the office that God bath called us to, is by +declaring the glory of his grace, to help under Christ to the saving +of men's souls, I hope you think not that I come hither to-day on +any other errand. The Lord knows I had not set a foot out of doors +but in hope to succeed in this work for your souls. I have +considered, and often considered, what is the matter that so many +thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their +salvation; and I find this that is mentioned in my text is the +cause. It is one of the wonders of the world, that when God hath so +loved the world as to send his Son, and Christ hath made a +satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the +benefits of it so freely to them, even without money or price, that +yet the most of the world should perish; yea, the most of those +that are thus called by his word! Why, here is the reason, when +Christ hath done all this, men make light of it. God hath showed +that he is not unwilling; and Christ hath showed that he is not +unwilling that men should be restored to God's favor and be saved; +but men are actually unwilling themselves. God takes not pleasure +in the death of sinners, but rather that they return and live. But +men take such pleasure in sin that they will die before they will +return. The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physician, and hath +provided them a sufficient plaster of his own blood: but if men make +light of it, and will not apply it, what wonder if they perish after +all? The Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition. This, +sad experience tells us, the most of the world is guilty of. It is +a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care, +their time, their pains, for known vanities, while God and glory are +cast aside; that he who is all should seem to them as nothing, and +that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all; that God +should set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their +certain end, and that they should sit down, and loiter, or run after +the childish toys of the world, and so much forget the prize that +they should run for. Were it but possible for one of us to see the +whole of this business as the all-seeing God doth; to see at one +view both heaven and hell, which men are so near; and see what most +men in the world are minding, and what they are doing every day, it +would be the saddest sight that could be imagined. Oh how should we +marvel at their madness, and lament their self-delusion! Oh poor +distracted world! what is it you run after? and what is it that +you neglect? If God had never told them what they were sent into +the world to do, or whither they are going, or what was before them +in another world, then they had been excusable; but he hath told +them over and over, till they were weary of it. Had he left it +doubtful, there had been some excuse; but it is his sealed word, and +they profess to believe it, and would take it ill of us if we should +question whether they do believe it or not. + +Beloved, I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this crime; +but seeing it is the commonest cause of men's destruction, I suppose +you will judge it the fittest matter for our inquiry, and deserving +our greatest care for the cure, To which end I shall, 1. Endeavor +the conviction of the guilty, 2. Shall give them such considerations +as may tend to humble and reform them. 3. I shall conclude with +such direction as may help them that are willing to escape the +destroying power of this sin. And for the first, consider:-- + +1. It is the case of most sinners to think themselves freest from +those sins that they are most enslaved to; and one reason why we +cannot reform them, is because we cannot convince them of their +guilt. It is the nature of sin so far to blind and befool the +sinner, that he knoweth not what he doth, but thinketh he is free +from it when it reigneth in him, or when he is committing it; it +bringeth men to be so much unacquainted with themselves that they +know not what they think, or what they mean and intend, nor what +they love or hate, much less what they are habituated and +disposed to. They are alive to sin, and dead to all the reason, +consideration, and resolution that should recover them, as if it +were only by their sinning that we must know they are alive. May +I hope that you that hear me to-day are but willing to know the +truth of your case, and then I shall be encouraged to proceed to +an inquiry. God will judge impartially; why should not we do so? +Let me, therefore, by these following questions, try whether none +of you are slighters of Christ and your own salvation. And follow +me, I beseech you, by putting them close to your own hearts, and +faithfully answering them. + +1. Things that men highly value will be remembered; they will be +matter of their freest and sweetest thoughts. This is a known +case. + +Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation that think of +them so seldom and coldly in comparison of other things? Follow thy +own heart, man, and observe what it daily runneth after; and then +judge whether it make not light of Christ. + +We cannot persuade men to one hour's sober consideration what they +should do for an interest in Christ, or in thankfulness for his +love, and yet they will not believe that they make light of him. + +2. Things that we highly value will be matter of our discourse; the +judgment and heart will command the tongue. Freely and +delightfully will our speech run after them. This also is a known +case. + +Do not those men make light of Christ and salvation that shun the +mention of his name, unless it be in a vain or sinful use? Those +that love not the company where Christ and salvation is much talked +of, but think it troublesome, precise discourse; that had rather +hear some merry jests, or idle tales, or talk of their riches or +business in the world? When you may follow them from morning to +night, and scarce have a savory word of Christ; but, perhaps, some +slight and weary mention of him sometimes; judge whether these make +not light of Christ and salvation. How seriously do they talk of the +world and speak vanity! but how heartlessly do they make mention of +Christ and salvation! + +3. The things that we highly value we would secure the possession +of, and, therefore, would take any convenient course to have all +doubts and fears about them well resolved. Do not those men then +make light of Christ and salvation that have lived twenty or +thirty years in uncertainty whether they have any part in these +or not, and yet never seek out for the right resolution of their +doubts? Are all that hear me this day certain they shall be +saved? Oh that they were! Oh, had you not made light of +salvation, you could not so easily bear such doubting of it; you +could not rest till you had made it sure, or done your best to +make it sure. Have you nobody to inquire of, that might help you +in such a work? Why, you have ministers that are purposely +appointed to that office. Have you gone to them, and told them +the doubtfulness of your case, and asked their help in the +judging of your condition? Alas, ministers may sit in their +studies from one year to another, before ten persons among a +thousand will come to them on such an errand! Do not these make +light of Christ and salvation? When the Gospel pierceth the heart +indeed, they cry out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do to be +saved?" Trembling and astonished, Paul cries out, "Lord, what +wilt thou have me to do?" And so did the convinced Jews to +Peter. But when hear we such questions? + +4. The things that we value do deeply affect us, and some motions +will be in the heart according to our estimation of them. O sirs, +if men made not light of these things, what working would there be +in the hearts of all our hearers! What strange affections would it +raise in them to hear of the matters of the world to come! How +would their hearts melt before the power of the Gospel! What sorrow +would be wrought in the discovery of their sins! What astonishment +at the consideration of their misery! What unspeakable joy at the +glad tidings of salvation by the blood of Christ! What resolution +would be raised in them upon the discovery of their duty! Oh what +hearers should we have, if it were not for this sin! Whereas, now +we are liker to weary them, or preach them asleep with matters of +this unspeakable moment. We talk to them of Christ and salvation +till we make their heads ache; little would one think by their +careless carriage that they heard and regarded what we said, or +thought we spoke at all to them. + +5. Our estimation of things will be seen in the diligence of our +endeavors. That which we highliest value, we shall think no pains +too great to obtain. Do not those men then make light of Christ +and salvation that think all too much that they do for them; that +murmur at his service, and think it too grievous for them to +endure? that ask of his service as Judas of the ointment, What +need this waste? Cannot men be saved without so much ado? This is +more ado than needs. For the world they will labor all the day, +and all their lives; but for Christ and salvation they are afraid +of doing too much. Let us preach to them as long as we will, we +cannot bring them to relish or resolve upon a life of holiness. +Follow them to their houses, and you shall not hear them read a +chapter, nor call upon God with their families once a day; nor will +they allow him that one day in seven which he hath separated to his +service. But pleasure, or worldly business, or idleness, must have a +part. And many of them are so far hardened as to reproach them that +will not be as mad as themselves. And is not Christ worth the +seeking? Is not everlasting salvation worth more than all this? Doth +not that soul make light of all these that thinks his ease more worth +than they? Let but common sense judge. + +6. That which we most highly value, we think we cannot buy too dear: +Christ and salvation are freely given, and yet the most of men go +without them because they cannot enjoy the world and them together. +They are called but to part with that which would hinder them from +Christ, and they will not do it. They are called but to give God +his own, and to resign all to his will, and let go the profits and +pleasures of this world when they must let go either Christ or them, +and they will not. They think this too dear a bargain, and say they +cannot spare these things; they must hold their credit with men; +they must look to their estates: how shall they live else? They +must have their pleasure, whatsoever becomes of Christ and +salvation: as if they could live without Christ better than without +these: as if they were afraid of being losers by Christ or could +make a saving match by losing their souls to gain the world. Christ +hath told us over and over that if we will not forsake all for him +we cannot be his disciples. Far are these men from forsaking all, +and yet will needs think that they are his disciples indeed. + +7. That which men highly esteem, they would help their friends to as +well as themselves. Do not those men make light of Christ and +salvation that can take so much care to leave their children +portions in the world, and do so little to help them to heaven? +that provide outward necessaries so carefully for their families, +but do so little to the saving of their souls? Their neglected +children and friends will witness that either Christ, or their +children's souls, or both, were made light of. + +8. That which men highly esteem, they will so diligently seek after +that you may see it in the success, if it be a matter within +their reach. You may see how many make light of Christ, by the +little knowledge they have of him, and the little communion with +him, and communication from him; and the little, yea, none of his +special grace in them. Alas! how many ministers can speak it to +the sorrow of their hearts, that many of their people know almost +nothing of Christ, though they hear of him daily! Nor know they +what they must do to be saved: if we ask them an account of these +things, they answer as if they understood not what we say to +them, and tell us they are no scholars, and therefore think they +are excusable for their ignorance. Oh if these men had not made +light of Christ and their salvation, but had bestowed but half as +much pains to know and enjoy him as they have done to understand +the matters of their trades and callings in the world, they would +not have been so ignorant as they are: they make light of these +things, and therefore will not be at the pains to study or learn +them. When men that can learn the hardest trade in a few years +have not learned a catechism, nor how to understand their creed, +under twenty or thirty years' preaching, nor can abide to be +questioned about such things, doth not this show that they have +slighted them in their hearts? How will these despisers of Christ +and salvation be able one day to look him in the face, and to +give an account of these neglects? + + + +JAMES A. BAYARD (1767-1815) + +During the first decade of the nineteenth century, a most important +formative period of American history, James A. Bayard was the +recognized leader of the Federalists in the Senate. They had lost +the presidential election of 1800, and their party had been so +completely disorganized by the defeat that they never recovered from +it, nor won, as a party, another victory. Defeat, however, did not +prevent them from making a stubborn fight for principle--from +filing, as it were, an appeal from the first to the third quarter of +the century. In this James A. Bayard was their special advocate and +representative. The pleas he made in his celebrated speech on the +Judiciary, delivered in the House of Representatives, and in similar +speeches in the Senate, defined as they had not been defined before, +the views of that body of Conservatives whose refusal to accept the +defeat of 1800 as anything more than an ephemeral incident, led to +the far-reaching results achieved by other parties which their ideas +brought into existence. It was said of Bayard, as their +representative and leader, that "he was distinguished for the depth +of his knowledge, the solidity of his reasoning, and the perspicuity +of his illustration." He was called "the Goliath of Federalism," +and "the high priest of the constitution," by the opponents of +"Jacobinism." as Federalists often termed Jeffersonian democracy. +Mr. Bayard was born in Philadelphia, July 28th, 1767. His father, +Dr. James A. Bayard, claimed his descent from the celebrated +"Chevalier" Bayard,--a fact which greatly influenced the son as it +has others of the family who have succeeded him in public life. +Thus when offered the French mission James A. Bayard declined it, +fearing that it might involve the suspicion of a bargain. "My +ambitions," he wrote in a letter to a relative, "shall never be +gratified at the expense of a suspicion. I shall never lose sight +of the motto of the great original of our name." + +After preparing for the bar. Bayard settled in Delaware and in 1796 +that State elected him to the lower house of Congress, promoting him +in 1804 to the Senate and re-electing him at the expiration of his +first term. In 1813, President Madison appointed him one of the +Commissioners to conclude the treaty of peace with England. + +After the success of that mission, he was appointed minister to +Russia, but declined saying that he had "no wish to serve the +administration except when his services were necessary for the +public good." He died in August 1815. + +His speeches show a strong and comprehensive grasp of facts, a power +to present them in logical sequence, and an apprehension of +principle which is not often seen in public speeches. They were +addressed, however, only to the few who will take the pains to do +severe and connected thinking and they are never likely to become +extensively popular. + +THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY + +(Delivered on the Judiciary Bill, in the House of Representatives, +on the Nineteenth of February, 1802) + +Mr. Chairman:-- + +I must be allowed to express my surprise at the course pursued by +the honorable gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Giles, in the remarks +which be has made on the subject before us. I had expected that he +would have adopted a different line of conduct. I had expected it +as well from that sentiment of magnanimity which ought to have been +inspired by a sense of the high ground he holds on the floor of this +House, as from the professions of a desire to conciliate, which he +has so repeatedly made during the session. We have been invited to +bury the hatchet, and brighten the chain of peace. We were disposed +to meet on middle-ground. We had assurances from the gentleman that +he would abstain from reflections on the past, and that his only +wish was that we might unite in future in promoting the welfare of +our common country. We confided in the gentleman's sincerity, and +cherished the hope, that if the divisions of party were not banished +from the House, its spirit would be rendered less intemperate. Such +were our impressions, when the mask was suddenly thrown aside, and +we saw the torch of discord lighted and blazing before our eyes. +Every effort has been made to revive the animosities of the House +and inflame the passions of the nation. I am at no loss to perceive +why this course has been pursued. The gentleman has been unwilling +to rely upon the strength of his subject, and has, therefore, +determined to make the measure a party question. He has probably +secured success, but would it not have been more honorable and more +commendable to have left the decision of a great constitutional +question to the understanding, and not to the prejudices of the +House? It was my ardent wish to discuss the subject with calmness +and deliberation, and I did intend to avoid every topic which could +awaken the sensibility of party. This was my temper and design when +I took my seat yesterday. It is a course at present we are no +longer at liberty to pursue. The gentleman has wandered far, very +far, from the points of the debate, and has extended his +animadversions to all the prominent measures of the former +administrations. In following him through his preliminary +observations, I necessarily lose sight of the bill upon your table. + +The gentleman commenced his strictures with the philosophic +observation, that it was the fate of mankind to hold different +opinions as to the form of government which was preferable; that +some were attached to the monarchical, while others thought the +republican more eligible. This, as an abstract remark, is certainly +true, and could have furnished no ground of offense, if it had not +evidently appeared that an allusion was designed to be made to the +parties in this country. Does the gentleman suppose that we have a +less lively recollection than himself, of the oath which we have +taken to support the constitution; that we are less sensible of the +spirit of our government, or less devoted to the wishes of our +constituents? Whatever impression it might be the intention of the +gentleman to make, he does not believe that there exists in the +country an anti-republican party. He will not venture to assert +such an opinion on the floor of this House. That there may be a few +individuals having a preference for monarchy is not improbable; but +will the gentleman from Virginia, or any other gentleman, affirm in +his place, that there is a party in the country who wish to +establish monarchy? Insinuations of this sort belong not to the +legislature of the Union. Their place is an election ground, or an +alehouse. Within these walls they are lost; abroad, they have had +an effect, and I fear are still capable of abusing popular +credulity. + +We were next told of the parties which have existed, divided by the +opposite views of promoting executive power and guarding the rights +of the people. The gentleman did not tell us in plain language, but +he wished it to be understood, that he and his friends were the +guardians of the people's rights, and that we were the advocates of +executive power. + +I know that this is the distinction of party which some gentlemen +have been anxious to establish; but it is not the ground on which we +divide. I am satisfied with the constitutional powers of the +executive, and never wished nor attempted to increase them; and I do +not believe, that gentlemen on the other side of the House ever had +a serious apprehension of danger from an increase of executive +authority. No, sir, our views, as to the powers which do and ought +to belong to the general and State governments, are the true sources +of our divisions. I co-operate with the party to which I am +attached, because I believe their true object and end is an honest +and efficient support of the general government, in the exercise of +the legitimate powers of the constitution. + +I pray to God I may be mistaken in the opinion I entertain as to the +designs of gentlemen to whom I am opposed. Those designs I believe +hostile to the powers of this government. State pride extinguishes a +national sentiment. Whatever power is taken from this government is +given to the States. + +The ruins of this government aggrandize the States. There are +States which are too proud to be controlled; whose sense of +greatness and resource renders them indifferent to our protection, +and induces a belief that if no general government existed, their +influence would be more extensive, and their importance more +conspicuous. There are gentlemen who make no secret of an extreme +point of depression, to which the government is to be sunk. To that +point we are rapidly progressing. But I would beg gentlemen to +remember that human affairs are not to be arrested in their course, +at artificial points. The impulse now given may be accelerated by +causes at present out of view. And when those, who now design well, +wish to stop, they may find their powers unable to resist the +torrent. It is not true, that we ever wished to give a dangerous +strength to executive power. While the government was in our hands, +it was our duty to maintain its constitutional balance, by +preserving the energies of each branch. There never was an attempt +to vary the relation of its powers. The struggle was to maintain +the constitutional powers of the executive. The wild principles of +French liberty were scattered through the country. We had our +Jacobins and disorganizes. They saw no difference between a king +and a president, and as the people of France had put down their +King, they thought the people of America ought to put down their +President. They, who considered the constitution as securing all +the principles of rational and practicable liberty, who were +unwilling to embark upon the tempestuous sea of revolution in +pursuit of visionary schemes, were denounced as monarchists. A line +was drawn between the government and the people, and the friends of +the government were marked as the enemies of the people. I hope, +however, that the government and the people are now the same; and I +pray to God, that what has been frequently remarked, may not, in +this case, be discovered to be true that they, who have the name of +the people the most often in their mouths, have their true interests +the most seldom at their hearts. + +The honorable gentleman from Virginia wandered to the very confines +of the federal administration, in search of materials the most +inflammable and most capable of kindling the passions of his +party. ... + +I did suppose, sir, that this business was at an end; and I did +imagine, that as gentlemen had accomplished their object, they would +have been satisfied. But as the subject is again renewed, we must be +allowed to justify our conduct. I know not what the gentleman calls +an expression of the public will. There were two candidates for the +office of President, who were presented to the House of +Representatives with equal suffrages. The constitution gave us the +right and made it our duty to elect that one of the two whom we +thought preferable. A public man is to notice the public will as +constitutionally expressed. The gentleman from Virginia, and many +others, may have had their preference; but that preference of the +public will not appear by its constitutional expression. Sir, I am +not certain that either of those candidates had a majority of the +country in his favor. Excluding the State of South Carolina, the +country was equally divided. We know that parties in that State were +nearly equally balanced, and the claims of both the candidates were +supported by no other scrutiny into the public will than our +official return of votes. Those votes are very imperfect evidence of +the true will of a majority of the nation. They resulted from +political intrigue and artificial arrangement. + +When we look at the votes, we must suppose that every man in +Virginia voted the same way. These votes are received as a correct +expression of the public will. And yet we know that if the votes of +that State were apportioned according to the several voices of the +people, that at least seven out of twenty-one would have been +opposed to the successful candidate. It was the suppression of the +will of one-third of Virginia, which enables gentlemen now to say +that the present chief magistrate is the man of the people. I +consider that as the public will, which is expressed by +constitutional organs. To that will I bow and submit. The public +will, thus manifested, gave to the House of Representatives the +choice of the two men for President. Neither of them was the man +whom I wished to make President; but my election was confined by the +constitution to one of the two, and I gave my vote to the one whom I +thought was the greater and better man. That vote I repeated, and +in that vote I should have persisted, had I not been driven from it +by imperious necessity. The prospect ceased of the vote being +effectual, and the alternative only remained of taking one man for +President, or having no President at all. I chose, as I then +thought, the lesser evil. + +From the scene in this House, the gentleman carried us to one in the +Senate. I should blush, sir, for the honor of the country, could I +suppose that the law, designed to be repealed, owed its support in +that body to the motives which have been indicated. The charge +designed to be conveyed, not only deeply implicates the integrity of +individuals of the Senate, but of the person who was then the chief +magistrate. The gentleman, going beyond all precedent, has mentioned +the names of members of that body, to whom commissions issued for +offices not created by the bill before them, but which that bill, by +the promotions it afforded, was likely to render vacant. He has +considered the scandal of the transaction as aggravated by the +issuing of commissions for offices not actually vacant, upon the +bare presumption that they would become vacant by the incumbents +accepting commissions for higher offices which were issued in their +favor. The gentleman has particularly dwelt upon the indecent +appearance of the business, from two commissions being held by +different persons at the same time for the same office. + +I beg that it will be understood that I mean to give no opinion as +to the regularity of granting a commission for a judicial office, +upon the probability of a vacancy before it is actually vacant; but +I shall be allowed to say that so much doubt attends the point, that +an innocent mistake might be made on the subject. I believe, sir, +it has been the practice to consider the acceptance of an office as +relating to the date of the commission. The officer is allowed his +salary from that date, upon the principle that the commission is a +grant of the office, and the title commences with the date of the +grant. This principle is certainly liable to abuse, but where there +was a suspicion of abuse I presume the government would depart from +it. Admitting the office to pass by the commission, and the +acceptance to relate to its date, it then does not appear very +incorrect, in the case of a commission for the office of a circuit +judge, granted to a district judge, as the acceptance of the +commission for the former office relates to the date of the +commission, to consider the latter office as vacant from the same +time. The offices are incompatible. You cannot suppose the same +person in both offices at the same time. From the moment, +therefore, that you consider the office of circuit judge as filled +by a person who holds the commission of district judge, you must +consider the office of district judge as vacated. The grant is +contingent. If the contingency happen, the office vests from the +date of the commission; if the contingency does not happen, the +grant is void. If this reasoning be sound, it was not irregular, in +the late administration, after granting a commission to a district +judge, for the place of a circuit judge, to make a grant of the +office of the district judge, upon the contingency of his accepting +the office of circuit judge. + +The legislative power of the government is not absolute, but +limited. If it be doubtful whether the legislature can do what the +constitution does not explicitly authorize, yet there can be no +question, that they cannot do what the constitution expressly +prohibits. To maintain, therefore, the constitution, the judges are +a check upon the legislature. The doctrine, I know, is denied, and +it is, therefore, incumbent upon me to show that it is sound. It +was once thought by gentlemen, who now deny the principle, that the +safety of the citizen and of the States rested upon the power of the +judges to declare an unconstitutional law void. How vain is a paper +restriction if it confers neither power nor right. Of what +importance is it to say, Congress are prohibited from doing certain +acts, if no legitimate authority exists in the country to decide +whether an act done is a prohibited act? Do gentlemen perceive the +consequences which would follow from establishing the principle, +that Congress have the exclusive right to decide upon their own +powers? This principle admitted, does any constitution remain? +Does not the power of the legislature become absolute and +omnipotent? Can you talk to them of transgressing their powers, +when no one has a right to judge of those powers but themselves? +They do what is not authorized, they do what is inhibited, nay, at +every step, they trample the constitution under foot; yet their acts +are lawful and binding, and it is treason to resist them. How ill, +sir, do the doctrines and professions of these gentlemen agree. +They tell us they are friendly to the existence of the States; that +they are the friends of federative, but the enemies of a +consolidated general government, and yet, sir, to accomplish a +paltry object, they are willing to settle a principle which, beyond +all doubt, would eventually plant a consolidated government, with +unlimited power, upon the ruins of the State governments. + +Nothing can be more absurd than to contend that there is a practical +restraint upon a political body, who are answerable to none but +themselves for the violation of the restraint, and who can derive, +from the very act of violation, undeniable justification of their +conduct. + +If, Mr. Chairman, you mean to have a constitution, you must discover +a power to which the acknowledged right is attached of pronouncing +the invalidity of the acts of the legislature, which contravened the +instrument. + +Does the power reside in the States? Has the legislature of a State +a right to declare an act of Congress void? This would be erring +upon the opposite extreme. It would be placing the general +government at the feet of the State governments. It would be +allowing one member of the Union to control all the rest. It would +inevitably lead to civil dissension and a dissolution of the general +government. Will it be pretended that the State courts have the +exclusive right of deciding upon the validity of our laws? + +I admit they have the right to declare an act of Congress void. But +this right they enjoy in practice, and it ever essentially must +exist, subject to the revision and control of the courts of the +United States. If the State courts definitely possessed the right +of declaring the invalidity of the laws of this government, it would +bring us in subjection to the States. The judges of those courts, +being bound by the laws of the State, if a State declared an act of +Congress unconstitutional, the law of the State would oblige its +courts to determine the law invalid. This principle would also +destroy the uniformity of obligation upon all the States, which +should attend every law of this government. If a law were declared +void in one State, it would exempt the citizens of that State from +its operation, whilst obedience was yielded to it in the other +States. I go further, and say, if the States or State courts had a +final power of annulling the acts of this government, its miserable +and precarious existence would not be worth the trouble of a moment +to preserve. It would endure but a short time, as a subject of +derision, and, wasting into an empty shadow, would quickly vanish +from our sight. + +Let me now ask, if the power to decide upon the validity of our laws +resides with the people. Gentlemen cannot deny this right to the +people. I admit they possess it. But if, at the same time, it does +not belong to the courts of the United States, where does it lead +the people? It leads them to the gallows. Let us suppose that +Congress, forgetful of the limits of their authority, pass an +unconstitutional law. They lay a direct tax upon one State and +impose none upon the others. The people of the State taxed contest +the validity of the law. They forcibly resist its execution. They +are brought by the executive authority before the courts upon +charges of treason. The law is unconstitutional, the people have +done right, but the court are bound by the law, and obliged to +pronounce upon them the sentence which it inflicts. Deny to the +courts of the United States the power of judging upon the +constitutionality of our laws, and it is vain to talk of its +existing elsewhere. The infractors of the laws are brought before +these courts, and if the courts are implicitly bound, the invalidity +of the laws can be no defense. There is, however, Mr. Chairman, +still a stronger ground of argument upon this subject. I shall +select one or two cases to illustrate it. Congress are prohibited +from passing a bill of attainder; it is also declared in the +constitution, that "no attainder of treason shall work corruption of +blood or forfeiture, except during the life of the party attainted." +Let us suppose that Congress pass a bill of attainder, or they +enact, that any one attainted of treason shall forfeit, to the use +of the United States, all the estate which he held in any lands or +tenements. + +The party attainted is seized and brought before a federal court, +and an award of execution passed against him. He opens the +constitution and points to this line, "no bill of attainder or _ex_ +_post_ _facto_ law shall be passed." The attorney for the United +States reads the bill of attainder. + +The courts are bound to decide, but they have only the alternative +of pronouncing the law or the constitution invalid. It is left to +them only to say that the law vacates the constitution, or the +constitution voids the law. So, in the other case stated, the heir +after the death of his ancestor, brings his ejectment in one of the +courts of the United States to recover his inheritance. The law by +which it is confiscated is shown. The constitution gave no power to +pass such a law. On the contrary, it expressly denied it to the +government. The title of the heir is rested on the constitution, the +title of the government on the law. The effect of one destroys the +effect of the other; the court must determine which is effectual. + +There are many other cases, Mr. Chairman, of a similar nature to +which I might allude. There is the case of the privilege of +_habeas_ _corpus_, which cannot be suspended but in times of +rebellion or invasion. Suppose a law prohibiting the issue of the +writ at a moment of profound peace! If, in such case, the writ were +demanded of a court, could they say, it is true the legislature were +restrained from passing the law suspending the privilege of this +writ, at such a time as that which now exists, but their mighty +power has broken the bonds of the constitution, and fettered the +authority of the court? I am not, sir, disposed to vaunt, but +standing on this ground, I throw the gauntlet to any champion upon +the other side. I call upon them to maintain, that, in a collision +between a law and the constitution, the judges are bound to support +the law, and annul the constitution. Can the gentlemen relieve +themselves from this dilemma? Will they say, though a judge has no +power to pronounce a law void, he has a power to declare the +constitution invalid? + +The doctrine for which I am contending, is not only clearly +inferable from the plain language of the constitution, but by law +has been expressly declared and established in practice since the +existence of the government. + +The second section of the third article of the constitution +expressly extends the judicial power to all cases arising under the +constitution, laws, etc. The provision in the second clause of the +sixth article leaves nothing to doubt. "This constitution and the +laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof +etc., shall be the supreme law of the land." The constitution is +absolutely the supreme law. Not so the acts of the legislature! +Such only are the law of the land as are made in pursuance of the +constitution. + +I beg the indulgence of the committee one moment, while I read the +following provision from the twenty-fifth section of the judicial +act of the year 1789: "A final judgment or decree in any suit in the +highest court of law or equity of a state, in which a decision in +the suit could be had, where is drawn in question the validity of a +treaty or statute of, or an authority exercised under, the United +States, and the decision is against their validity, etc., may be +re-examined and reversed or affirmed in the Supreme Court of the +United States, upon a writ of error." Thus, as early as the year +1789, among the first acts of the government, the legislature +explicitly recognized the right of a State court to declare a +treaty, a statute, and an authority exercised under the United +States, void, subject to the revision of the Supreme Court of the +United States; and it has expressly given the final power to the +Supreme Court to affirm a judgment which is against the validity, +either of a treaty, statute, or an authority of the government. + +I humbly trust, Mr. Chairman, that I have given abundant proofs from +the nature of our government, from the language of the constitution, +and from legislative acknowledgment, that the judges of our courts +have the power to judge and determine upon the constitutionality of +our laws. + +Let me now suppose that, in our frame of government, the judges are +a check upon the legislature; that the constitution is deposited in +their keeping. Will you say afterwards that their existence depends +upon the legislature? That the body whom they are to check has the +power to destroy them? Will you say that the constitution may be +taken out of their hands by a power the most to be distrusted, +because the only power which could violate it with impunity? Can +anything be more absurd than to admit that the judges are a check +upon the legislature, and yet to contend that they exist at the will +of the legislature? A check must necessarily imply a power +commensurate to its end. The political body, designed to check +another, must be independent of it, otherwise there can be no check. +What check can there be when the power designed to be checked can +annihilate the body which is to restrain? + +I go further, Mr. Chairman, and take a stronger ground. I say, in +the nature of things, the dependence of the judges upon the +legislature, and their right to declare the acts of the legislature +void, are repugnant, and cannot exist together. The doctrine, sir, +supposes two rights--first, the right of the legislature to +destroy the office of the judge, and the right of the judge to +vacate the act of the legislature. You have a right to abolish by a +law the offices of the judges of the circuit courts; they have a +right to declare the law void. It unavoidably follows, in the +exercise of these rights, either that you destroy their rights, or +that they destroy yours. This doctrine is not a harmless absurdity, +it is a most dangerous heresy. It is a doctrine which cannot be +practiced without producing not discord only, but bloodshed. If you +pass the bill upon your table, the judges have a constitutional +right to declare it void. I hope they will have courage to exercise +that right; and if, sir, I am called upon to take my side, standing +acquitted in ray conscience, and before my God, of all motives but +the support of the constitution of my country, I shall not tremble +at the consequences. + +The constitution may have its enemies, but I know that it has also +its friends. I beg gentlemen to pause, before they take this rash +step. There are many, very many, who believe, if you strike this +blow, you inflict a mortal wound on the constitution. There are many +now willing to spill their blood to defend that constitution. Are +gentlemen disposed to risk the consequences? Sir, I mean no threats, +I have no expectation of appalling the stout hearts of my +adversaries; but if gentlemen are regardless of themselves, let them +consider their wives and children, their neighbors and their +friends. Will they risk civil dissension, will they hazard the +welfare, will they jeopardize the peace of the country, to save a +paltry sum of money, less than thirty thousand dollars? + +Mr. Chairman, I am confident that the friends of this measure are +not apprised of the nature of its operation, nor sensible of the +mischievous consequences which are likely to attend it. Sir, the +morals of your people, the peace of the country, the stability of +the government, rest upon the maintenance of the independence of the +judiciary. It is not of half the importance in England, that the +judges should be independent of the crown, as it is with us that +they should be independent of the legislature. Am I asked, would +you render the judges superior to the legislature? I answer, no, +but co-ordinate. Would you render them independent of the +legislature? I answer, yes, independent of every power on earth, +while they behave themselves well. The essential interests, the +permanent welfare of society, require this independence; not, sir, +on account of the judge; that is a small consideration, but on +account of those between whom he is to decide. You calculate on the +weaknesses of human nature, and you suffer the judge to be dependent +on no one, lest he should be partial to those on whom he depends. +Justice does not exist where partiality prevails. A dependent judge +cannot be impartial. Independence is, therefore, essential to the +purity of your judicial tribunals. + +Let it be remembered, that no power is so sensibly felt by society, +as that of the judiciary. The life and property of every man is +liable to be in the hands of the judges. Is it not our great +interest to place our judges upon such high ground that no fear can +intimidate, no hope seduce them? The present measure humbles them +in the dust, it prostrates them at the feet of faction, it renders +them the tools of every dominant party. It is this effect which I +deprecate, it is this consequence which I deeply deplore. What does +reason, what does argument avail, when party spirit presides? +Subject your bench to the influence of this spirit, and justice bids +a final adieu to your tribunals. We are asked, sir, if the judges +are to be independent of the people? The question presents a false +and delusive view. We are all the people. We are, and as long as +we enjoy our freedom, we shall be divided into parties. The true +question is, shall the judiciary be permanent, or fluctuate with the +tide of public opinion? I beg, I implore gentlemen to consider the +magnitude and value of the principle which they are about to +annihilate. If your judges are independent of political changes, +they may have their preferences, but they will not enter into the +spirit of party. But let their existence depend upon the support of +the power of a certain set of men, and they cannot be impartial. +Justice will be trodden under foot. Your courts will lose all +public confidence and respect. + +The judges will be supported by their partisans, who, in their turn, +will expect impunity for the wrongs and violence they commit. The +spirit of party will be inflamed to madness: and the moment is not +far off, when this fair country is to be desolated by a civil war. + +Do not say that you render the judges dependent only on the people +You make them dependent on your President. This is his measure. +The same tide of public opinion which changes a President will +change the majorities in the branches of the legislature The +legislature will be the instrument of his ambition, and he will have +the courts as the instruments of his vengeance. He uses the +legislature to remove the judges, that he may appoint creatures of +his own. In effect, the powers of the government will be +concentrated in the hands of one man, who will dare to act with more +boldness, because he will be sheltered from responsibility. The +independence of the judiciary was the felicity of our constitution. +It was this principle which was to curb the fury of party on sudden +changes. The first movements of power gained by a struggle are the +most vindictive and intemperate. Raised above the storm it was the +judiciary which was to control the fiery zeal, and to quell the +fierce passions of a victorious faction. + +We are standing on the brink of that revolutionary torrent, which +deluged in blood one of the fairest countries of Europe. + +France had her national assembly, more numerous than, and equally +popular with, our own. She had her tribunals of justice, and her +juries. But the legislature and her courts were but the instruments +of her destruction. Acts of proscription and sentences of banishment +and death were passed in the cabinet of a tyrant. Prostrate your +judges at the feet of party, and you break down the mounds which +defend you from this torrent. + +I am done. I should have thanked my God for greater power to resist +a measure so destructive to the peace and happiness of the +country. My feeble efforts can avail nothing. But it was my duty to +make them. The meditated blow is mortal, and from the moment it is +struck, we may bid a final adieu to the constitution. + +COMMERCE AND NAVAL POWER (United States Senate, February 12th, 1810) + +God has decided that the people of this country should be commercial +people. You read that decree in the seacoast of seventeen hundred +miles which he has given you; in the numerous navigable waters which +penetrate the interior of the country; in the various ports and +harbors scattered alone your shores; in your fisheries; in the +redundant productions of your soil; and, more than all, in the +enterprising and adventurous spirit of your people. It is no more a +question whether the people of this country shall be allowed to +plough the ocean, than it is whether they shall be permitted to +plough the land. It is not in the power of this government, nor +would it be if it were as strong as the most despotic upon the +earth, to subdue the commercial spirit, or to destroy the commercial +habits of the country. Young as we are, our tonnage and commerce +surpass those of every nation upon the globe but one, and if +not wasted by the deprivations to which they were exposed by their +defenseless situation, and the more ruinous restrictions to which +this government subjected them, it would require not many more years +to have made them the greatest in the world. Is this immense wealth +always to be exposed as a prey to the rapacity of freebooters? Why +will you protect your citizens and their property upon land, and +leave them defenseless upon the ocean? As your mercantile property +increases, the prize becomes more tempting to the cupidity of +foreign nations. In the course of things, the ruins and aggressions +which you have experienced will multiply, nor will they be +restrained while we have no appearance of a naval force. + +I have always been in favor of a naval establishment--not from the +unworthy motives attributed by the gentleman from Georgia to a +former administration, in order to increase patronage, but from a +profound conviction that the safety of the Union and the prosperity +of the nation depended greatly upon its commerce, which never could +be securely enjoyed without the protection of naval power. I offer, +sir, abundant proof for the satisfaction of the liberal mind of that +gentleman, that patronage was not formerly a motive in voting an +increase in the navy, when I give now the same vote, when surely I +and my friends have nothing to hope, and for myself, I thank God, +nothing to wish from the patronage it may confer. + +You must and will have a navy; but it is not to be created in a day, +nor is it to be expected that, in its infancy, it will be able to +cope, foot to foot with the full-grown vigor of the navy of +England. But we are even now capable of maintaining a naval force +formidable enough to threaten the British commerce, and to render +this nation an object of more respect and consideration. + +In another point of view, the protection of commerce has become more +indispensable. The discovery is completely made, that it is from +commerce that the revenue is to be drawn which is to support this +government, A direct tax, a stamp act, a carriage tax, and an +excise, have been tried; and I believe, sir, after the lesson which +experience has given on the subject, no set of men in power will +ever repeat them again, for all they are likely to produce. The +burden must be pretty light upon the people of this country, or the +rider is in great danger. You may be allowed to sell your back lands +for some time longer, but the permanent fund for the support of this +government is the imports. + +If the people were willing to part with commerce, can the government +dispense with it? But when it belongs equally to the interest of the +people and of the government to encourage and protect it, will you +not spare a few of those dollars which it brings into your treasury, +to defend and protect it? + +In relation to the increase of a permanent military force, a free +people cannot cherish too great a jealousy. An army may wrest the +power from the hands of the people, and deprive them of their +liberty. It becomes us, therefore, to be extremely cautious how we +augment it. But a navy of any magnitude can never threaten us with +the same danger. Upon land, at this time, we have nothing--and +probably, at any future time, we shall have but little--to fear +from any foreign power. It is upon the ocean we meet them; it is +there our collisions arise; it is there we are most feeble, most +vulnerable, and most exposed; it is there by consequence, that our +safety and prosperity must require an augmented force. + + + +THOMAS F. BAYARD (1828-1898) + +In 1876, when the country was in imminent danger of the renewal of +civil war as a result of the contested presidential election, the +conservative element of the Democratic party, advised by Mr. Tilden +himself, determined to avoid anything which might result in extreme +measures. The masses of the people were excited as they had not +been since the close of the Civil War, and the great majority of the +Democrats of the country were undoubtedly opposed to making +concessions. Thomas F. Bayard, who took the lead in the Senate as +the representative of the moderate policy favored by Mr. Tilden, met +the reproaches sure to be visited in such cases on the peacemaker. +Nevertheless, he advocated the Electoral Commission as a method of +settling the contest, and his speech in supporting it, without doubt +one of the best as it was certainly the most important of his life, +paved the way for the final adoption of the bill. It is no more +than justice to say that the speech is worthy of the dignity of that +great occasion. + +Mr. Bayard inherited the equable temperament shown by his father and +his grandfather. He was a warm-hearted man with a long memory for +services done him, but he had a faculty of containing himself which +few men exercise to the degree that he exercised it habitually, both +in his public and private life. The habit was so strong, in fact, +that he indulged only on rare occasions that emotion which is +necessary for the highest success as an orator. The calmness of his +thought shows itself in logic which, while it may invite confidence, +does not compel admiration. When he is moved, however, the freedom +of his utterances from exaggeration and from that tendency to rant +which mars many orations makes such periods as those with which he +closes his speech on the Electoral Bill models of expression for all +who wish to realize the highest possibilities of cumulative force. + +The son of one United States Senator, James A. Bayard, of Delaware, +and the grandson of another, Mr. Bayard represented well the family +tradition of integrity. Born in 1828, he succeeded to his father's +place in the Senate when forty-one years of age, and remained in the +public service until within a short time of his death. He was +Secretary of State under the first Cleveland administration and +ambassador to England under the second. In the convention which +nominated Mr. Cleveland in 1884, Mr. Bayard, who had been strongly +supported for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1880, was so +close to the presidency at the beginning of the balloting that his +managers confidently expected his success. He became much attached +to President Cleveland, and in 1896 he took a course on the +financial issue then uppermost, which alienated many of his friends, +as far as friends could be alienated by the political action of a +man whose public and private life were so full of dignity, +simplicity, and the qualities which result from habitual good faith. +Mr. Bayard survived almost into the twentieth century as a last +representative of the colonial gentlemen who debated the Federal +Constitution. Supposed to be cold and unapproachable, he was really +warm in his friendships, with a memory which never allowed an act of +service done him to escape it. Few better men have had anything to +do with the politics of the second half of the century. He died in +1898. + +W. V. B. + +A PLEA FOR CONCILIATION IN 1876 + +("Counting the Electoral Votes," United States Senate, January 24th, +1877) + +Mr. President, I might have been content as a friend of this measure +to allow it to go before the Senate and the country unaccompanied by +any remarks of mine had it not been the pleasure of the Senate to +assign me as one of the minority in this Chamber to a place upon the +select committee appointed for the purpose of reporting a bill +intended to meet the exigencies of the hour in relation to the +electoral votes. There is for every man in a matter of such gravity +his own measure of responsibility, and that measure I desire to +assume. Nothing less important than the decision, into whose hands +the entire executive power of this government shall be vested in the +next four years, is embraced in the provisions of this bill. The +election for President and Vice-President has been held, but as to +the results of that election the two great political parties of the +country stand opposed in serious controversy. Each party claims +success for its candidate and insists that he and he alone shall be +declared by the two houses of Congress entitled to exercise the +executive power of this government for the next four years. The +canvass was prolonged and unprecedented in its excitement and even +bitterness. The period of advocacy of either candidate has passed, +and the time for judgment has almost come. How shall we who purpose +to make laws for others do better than to exhibit our own reverence +for law and set the example here of subordination to the spirit of +law? + +It cannot be disguised that an issue has been sought, if not +actually raised, in this country, between a settlement of this great +question by sheer force and arbitrary exercise of power or by the +peaceful, orderly, permanent methods of law and reason. Ours is, as +we are wont to boast, a government of laws, and not of will; and we +must not permit it to pass away from us by changing its nature. + + "O, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand, + For what can war but endless war still breed?" + +By this measure now before the Senate it is proposed to have a +peaceful conquest over partisan animosity and lawless action, to +procure a settlement grounded on reason and justice, and not upon +force. Therefore, it is meant to lift this great question of +determining who has been lawfully elected President and +Vice-President of these United States out of the possibility of +popular broils and tumult, and elevate it with all dignity to the +higher atmosphere of legal and judicial decision. In such a spirit I +desire to approach the consideration of the subject and shall seek +to deal with it at least worthily, with a sense of public duty +unobstructed, I trust, by prejudice or party animosity. The truth of +Lord Bacon's aphorism that "great empire and little minds go ill +together," should warn us now against the obtrusion of narrow or +technical views in adjusting such a question and at such a time in +our country's history. + +Mr. President, from the very commencement of the attempt to form the +government under which we live, the apportionment of power in the +executive branch and the means of choosing the chief magistrate have +been the subject of the greatest difficulty. Those who founded this +government and preceded us in its control had felt the hand of +kingly power, and it was from the abuse of executive power that they +dreaded the worst results. Therefore it was that when the +Constitution came to be framed that was the point upon which they +met and upon which they parted, less able to agree than upon almost +all others combined. A glance at the history of the convention that +met at Philadelphia on the fourteenth of May, 1787, but did not +organize until the twenty-fifth day of the same month, will show +that three days after the convention assembled two plans of a +Constitution were presented, respectively, by Mr. Edmund Randolph, +of Virginia, and Mr. Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina. The first +proposed the election of the executive by the legislature, as the +two houses were then termed, for a term of seven years, with +ineligibility for re-election. The other proposed an election, but +left the power to elect or the term of office in blank. Both of +these features in the schemes proposed came up early for +consideration, and, as I have said before, as the grave and able +minds of that day approached this subject they were unable to agree, +and accordingly, from time to time, the question was postponed and +no advance whatever made in the settlement of the question. Indeed, +so vital and wide was the difference that each attempt made during +the course of the five months in which that convention was assembled +only seemed to result in renewed failure. So it stood until the +fourth day of September had arrived. The labors of the convention +by that time had resulted in the framing of a Constitution, wise and +good and fairly balanced, calculated to preserve power sufficient in +the government, and yet leaving that individual freedom and liberty +essential for the protection of the States and their citizens. Then +it was that this question, so long postponed, came up for +consideration and had to be decided. As it was decided then, it +appears in the Constitution as submitted to the States in 1787; but +an amendment of the second article was proposed in 1804, which, +meeting the approval of the States, became part of the Constitution. + +I must be pardoned if I repeat something of what has preceded in +this debate, by way of citation from the Constitution of the United +States, in order that we may find there our warrant for the present +measure. There were difficulties of which these fathers of our +government were thoroughly conscious. The very difficulties that +surround the question to-day are suggested in the debates of 1800, +in which the history of double returns is foretold by Mr. Pinckney +in his objections to the measure then before the Senate. The very +title of that act, "A Bill Prescribing a Mode of Deciding Disputed +Elections of President and Vice-President of the United States," +will show the difficulties which they then perceived and of which +they felt the future was to be so full. They made the attempt in +1800 to meet those difficulties. They did not succeed. Again and +again the question came before them. In 1824 a second attempt was +made at legislation. It met the approval of the Senate. It seemed +to meet the approval of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House, +by whom it was reported without amendment, but never was acted upon +in that body, and failed to become a law. This all shows to us that +there has been a postponement from generation to generation of a +subject of great difficulty that we of to-day are called upon to +meet under circumstances of peculiar and additional disadvantage; +for while in the convention of 1787 there was a difference arising +from interest, from all the infinite variances of prejudice and +opinion upon subjects of local, geographical, and pecuniary +interests, and making mutual concessions and patriotic considerations +necessary at all times, yet they were spared the most dangerous +of all feelings under which our country has suffered of late; for, +amid all the perturbing causes to interfere with and distract their +counsels, partisan animosity was at least unknown. There was in that +day no such thing as political party in the United States:-- + + "Then none were for a party, + But all were for the State." + +Political parties were formed afterward and have grown in strength +since, and to-day the troubles that afflict our country chiefly may +be said to arise from the dangerous excess of party feeling in our +councils. + +But I propose to refer to the condition of the law and the +Constitution as we now find it. The second article of the first +section of the Constitution provides for the vesting of the +executive power in the President and also for the election of a +Vice-President. First it provides that "each State" shall, through +its legislature, appoint the number of electors to which it is +entitled, which shall be the number of its Representatives in +Congress and its Senators combined. The power there is to the State +to appoint. The grant is as complete and perfect that the State +shall have that power as is another clause of the Constitution +giving to "each State" the power to be represented by the Senators +in this branch of Congress. There is given to the electors +prescribed duties, which I will read:-- + +The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by +ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, +shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves: they +shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and +in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they +shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and +of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of +votes for each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and +transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, +directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate +shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, +open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. + +Then follows the duty and power of Congress in connection with this +subject to determine the time of choosing the electors and the day +on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same +throughout the United States. The next clause provides for the +qualifications of the candidates for the presidency and +vice-presidency. The next clause gives power to the Congress of the +United States to provide for filling the office of President and +Vice-President in the event of the death, resignation, or inability +of the incumbents to vest the powers and duties of the said office. +The other clause empowers Congress thus to designate a temporary +President. The other clauses simply relate to the compensation of +the President and the oath he shall take to perform the duties of +the office. Connected with that delegation of power is to be +considered the eighth section of the first article which gives to +the Congress of the United States power "to make all laws which +shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the +foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution +in the government of the United States, or in any department or +officer thereof." + +It will be observed, so far, that the Constitution has provided the +power but has not provided the regulations for carrying that power +into effect. The Supreme Court of the United States sixty-odd years +ago defined so well the character of that power and the method of +its use that I will quote it from the first volume of _Wheaton's +Reports, page 326:_ + +Leaving it to the legislature from time to time to adopt its own +means to effectuate, legitimate, and mold and model the exercise of +its powers as its own wisdom and public interest should require. + +In less than four years, in March 1792, after the first Congress had +assembled there was legislation upon this subject, carrying into +execution the power vested by this second article of the +Constitution in a manner which will leave no doubt of what the men +of that day believed was competent and proper. Here let me advert +to that authority which must ever attach to the contemporaneous +exposition of historical events. The men who sat in the Congress of +1792 had many of them been members of the convention that framed the +Federal Constitution. All were its contemporaries and closely were +they considering with master-minds the consequences of that work. +Not only may we gather from the manner in which they treated this +subject when they legislated upon it in 1792 what were their views +of the powers of Congress on the subject of where the power was +lodged and what was the proper measure of its exercise, but we can +gather equally well from the inchoate and imperfect legislation of +1800 what those men also thought of their power over this subject, +because, although differing as to details, there were certain +conceded facts as to jurisdiction quite as emphatically expressed as +if their propositions had been enacted into law. Likewise in 1824 +the same instruction is afforded. If we find the Senate of the +United States without division pass bills which, although not passed +by the co-ordinate branch of Congress, are received by them and +reported back from the proper committees after examination and +without amendment to the committee of the whole House, we may learn +with equal authority what was conceded by those houses as to the +question of power over the subject. In a compilation made at the +present session by order of the House Committee, co-ordinate with +the Senate Committee, will be found at page 129 a debate containing +expressions by the leading men of both parties in 1857 of the +lawfulness of the exercise of the legislative power of Congress over +this subject. I venture to read here from the remarks of +Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, one of the most respected and conservative +minds of his day in the Congress of the United States:-- + +The Constitution evidently contemplated a provision to be made by +law to regulate the details and the mode of counting the votes for +President and Vice-President of the United States. The President of +the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of +Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then +be counted. By whom, and how to be counted, the Constitution does +not say. But Congress has power to make all laws which shall be +necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing +powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the +government of the United States, or in any department or officer +thereof. Congress, therefore, has the power to regulate by law the +details of the mode in which the votes are to be counted. As yet, +no such law has been found necessary. The cases, happily, have been +rare in which difficulties have occurred in the count of the +electoral votes. All difficulties of this sort have been managed +heretofore by the consent of the two houses--a consent either +implied at the time or declared by joint resolutions adopted by the +houses on the recommendation of the joint committee which is usually +raised to prescribe the mode in which the count is to be made. In +the absence of law, the will of the two houses thus declared has +prescribed the rule under which the President of the Senate and the +tellers have acted. It was by this authority, as I understand it, +that the President of the Senate acted yesterday. The joint +resolution of the two bouses prescribed the mode in which the +tellers were to make the count and also required him to declare the +result, which he did. It was under the authority, therefore, and by +the direction of the two houses that he acted. The resolutions by +which the authority was given were according to unbroken usage and +established precedent. + +Mr. President, the debate from which I have read took place in 1857 +and was long and able, the question there arising upon the proposed +rejection of the vote of the State of Wisconsin, because of the +delay of a single day in the meeting of the electors. A violent +snowstorm having prevented the election on the third of December, it +was held on the fourth, which was clearly in violation of the law of +Congress passed in pursuance of the Constitution requiring that the +votes for the electors should be cast on the same day throughout the +Union. That debate will disclose the fact that the danger then +became more and more realized of leaving this question unsettled as +to who should determine whether the electoral votes of a State +should be received or rejected when the two houses of Congress +should differ upon that subject. There was no arbiter between +them. This new-fangled idea of the present hour, that the presiding +officer of the Senate should decide that question between the two +disagreeing houses, had not yet been discovered in the fertility of +political invention, or born perhaps of party necessity. The +question has challenged all along through our country's history +the ablest minds of the country; but at last we have reached a point +when under increased difficulties we are bound to settle it. It arose +in 1817 in the case of the State of Indiana, the question being +whether Indiana was a State in the Union at the time of the casting +of her vote. The two houses disagreed upon that subject; but by a +joint resolution, which clearly assumed the power of controlling the +subject, as the vote of Indiana did not if cast either way control +the election, the difficulty was tided over by an arrangement for +that time and that occasion only. In 1820 the case of the State of +Missouri arose and contained the same question. There again came the +difficulty when the genius and patriotism of Henry Clay were brought +into requisition and a joint resolution introduced by him and +adopted by both houses was productive of a satisfactory solution for +the time being. The remedy was merely palliative; the permanent +character of the difficulty was confessed and the fact that it was +only a postponement to men of a future generation of a question +still unsettled. + +It is not necessary, and would be fatiguing to the Senate and to +myself, to give anything like a sketch of the debate which followed, +of the able and eminent men on both sides who considered the +question, arriving, however, at one admitted conclusion, that the +remedy was needed and that it did lie in the law-making power of the +government to furnish it. + +Thus, Mr. President, the unbroken line of precedent, the history of +the usage of this government from 1789 at the first election of +President and Vice-President until 1873, when the last count of +electoral votes was made for the same offices, exhibits this fact, +that the control of the count of the electoral votes, the +ascertainment and declaration of the persons who were elected +President and Vice-President, has been under the co-ordinate power +of the two houses of Congress, and under no other power at any time +or in any instance. The claim is now gravely made for the first +time, in 1877, that in the event of disagreement of the two houses +the power to count the electoral votes and decide upon their +validity under the Constitution and law is vested in a single +individual, an appointee of one of the houses of Congress, the +presiding officer of the Senate. In the event of a disagreement +between the two houses, we are now told, he is to assume the power, +in his sole discretion, to count the vote, to ascertain and declare +what persons have been elected; and this, too, in the face of an act +of Congress, passed in 1792, unrepealed, always recognized, followed +in every election from the time it was passed until the present day. +Section 5 of the act of 1792 declares:-- + +That Congress shall be in session on the second Wednesday in +February 1793, and on the second Wednesday in February succeeding +every meeting of the electors; and the said certificates, or so many +of them as shall have been received, shall then be opened, the votes +counted, and the persons who shall fill the offices of President and +Vice-President ascertained and declared agreeably to the +Constitution. + +Let it be noted that the words "President of the Senate" nowhere +occur in the section. + +But we are now told that though "Congress shall be in session," that +though these two great bodies duly organized, each with its +presiding officer, accompanied by all its other officers, shall meet +to perform the duty of ascertaining and declaring the true result of +the action of the electoral colleges and what persons are entitled +to these high executive offices, in case they shall not agree in +their decisions there shall be interposed the power of the presiding +officer of one of the houses to control the judgment of either and +become the arbiter between them. Why, Mr. President, how such a +claim can be supposed to rest upon authority is more than I can +imagine. It is against all history. It is against the meaning of +laws. It is not consistent with the language of the Constitution. +It is in the clearest violation of the whole scheme of this popular +government of ours, that one man should assume a power in regard to +which the convention hung for months undecided, and carefully and +grudgingly bestowing that power even when they finally disposed of +it. Why, sir, a short review of history will clearly show how it +was that the presiding officer of the Senate became even the +custodian of the certificates of the electors. + +On the fourth of September, 1787, when approaching the close of +their labors, the convention discovered that they must remove this +obstacle, and they must come to an agreement in regard to the +deposit of this grave power. When they were scrupulously +considering that no undue grant of power should be made to either +branch of Congress, and when no one dreamed of putting it in the +power of a single hand, the proposition was made by Hon. Mr. Brearly, +from a committee of eleven, of alterations in the former schemes of +the convention, which embraced this subject. It provided:-- + +5. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as its legislature may +direct a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators +and Members of the House of Representatives to which the State may +be entitled in the legislature. + +6. The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by +ballot for two persons, one of whom at least shall not be an +inhabitant of the same State with themselves; and they shall make +a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes +for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit +sealed to the seat of the general government, directed to the +President of the Senate. + +7. The President of the Senate shall, in that house, open all the +certificates; and the votes shall be then and there counted. The +person having the greatest number of votes shall be the +President, if such number shall be a majority of the whole number +of the electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have +such majority and have an equal number of votes, then the Senate +shall choose by ballot one of them for President; but if no +person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list +the Senate shall choose by ballot the President. And in every +case after the choice of the President the person having the +greatest number of votes shall be Vice-President. But if there +should remain two or more who shall equal votes, the Senate shall +choose from them the Vice-President. (See 'Madison Papers.' page +506. etc.) + +Here we discover the reason why the President of the Senate was made +the custodian of these certificates. It was because in that plan of +the Constitution the Senate was to count the votes alone; the House +was not to be present; and in case there was a tie or failure to +find a majority the Senate was to elect the President and +Vice-President. The presiding officer of the body that was to count +the votes alone, of the body that alone was to elect the President +in default of a majority--the presiding officer of that body was +naturally the proper person to hold the certificates until the +Senate should do its duty. It might as well be said that because +certificates and papers of various kinds are directed to the +President of this Senate to be laid before the Senate that he should +have the control to enact those propositions into law, as to say +that because the certificates of these votes were handed to him he +should have the right to count them and ascertain and declare what +persons had been chosen President and Vice-President of the United +States. + +But the scheme reported by Mr. Brearly met with no favor. In the +first place, it was moved and seconded to insert the words "in the +presence of the Senate and House of Representatives" after the word +"counted." That was passed in the affirmative. Next it was moved to +strike out the words "the Senate shall immediately choose by ballot" +and insert the words "and House of Representatives shall immediately +choose by ballot one of them for President, and the members of each +State shall have one vote," and this was adopted by ten States in +the affirmative to one State in the negative. + +Then came another motion to agree to the following paragraph, giving +to the Senate the right to choose the Vice-President in case of the +failure to find a majority, which was agreed to by the convention; +so that the amendment as agreed to read as follows:-- + +The President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House +of Representatives, shall open all the certificates, and the votes +shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of +votes shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole +number of electors appointed: and if there be more than one who have +such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of +Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for +President, the representation from each State having one vote; but +if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list +the House of Representatives shall in like manner choose by ballot +the President. + +And then follows that if there should remain two candidates voted +for as Vice-President having an equal vote the Senate shall choose +from them the Vice-President. Mr. President, is it not clear that +the Constitution directed that the certificates should be deposited +with the presiding officer of that body which was alone to count the +votes and elect both the President and Vice-President in case there +was a failure to find a majority of the whole number of electors +appointed? There is a maxim of the law, that where the reason ceases +the law itself ceases. It is not only a maxim of common law, but +equally of common sense. The history of the manner in which and the +reason for which the certificates were forwarded to the President of +the Senate completely explains why he was chosen as the depositary +and just what connection he had with and power over those +certificates. After the power had been vested in the House of +Representatives to ballot for the President, voting by States, after +the presence of the House of Representatives was made equally +necessary before the count could begin or proceed at all, the +President of the Senate was still left as the officer designated to +receive the votes. Why? Because the Senate is a continuing body, +because the Senate always has a quorum. Divided into three classes, +there never is a day or a time when a quorum of the Senate of the +United States is not elected and cannot be summoned to perform its +functions under the Constitution. Therefore you had the officer of a +continuing body, and as the body over which he presided and by whom +he is chosen was one of the two co-ordinate bodies to perform the +great function of counting the votes and of ascertaining and +declaring the result of the electoral vote, he was left in charge of +the certificates. + +You also find in the sixth section of the act of 1792 that Congress +exercised its regulating power and declared "that in case there +shall be no President of the Senate at the seat of government on the +arrival of the persons intrusted with the lists of votes of the +electors, then such persons shall deliver the lists of votes in +their custody into the office of the Secretary of State to be safely +kept and delivered over as soon as may be to the President of the +Senate." + +What does this signify? That it was a simple question of custody, of +safe and convenient custody, and there is just as much reason to say +that the Secretary of State being the recipient of those votes had a +right to count them as to say that the other officer designated as +the recipient of the votes, the President of the Senate, had a right +to count them. + +Now, here is another fact a denial of which cannot be safely +challenged. Take the history of these debates upon the formation of +the Federal Constitution from beginning to end, search them, and no +line or word can be discovered that even suggests any power whatever +in any one man over the subject, much less in the President of the +Senate, in the control of the election of the President or the +Vice-President. Why, sir, there is the invariable rule of +construction in regard to which there can be no dispute, that the +express grant of one thing excludes any other. Here you have the +direction to the President of the Senate that be shall receive these +certificates, or if absent that another custodian shall receive +them, hold them during his absence and pass them over to him as soon +as may be, and that then he shall in the presence of the two houses +of Congress "open all the certificates." There is his full measure +of duty; it is clearly expressed; and then after that follows the +totally distinct duty, not confided to him, that "the votes shall +then be counted." + +I doubt very much whether any instrument not written by an inspired +hand was more clear, terse, frugal of all words except those +necessary to express its precise meaning, than the Constitution of +the United States. It would require the greatest ingenuity to +discover where fewer words could be used to accomplish a plain end. +How shall it be that in this closely considered charter, where every +word, every punctuation was carefully weighed and canvassed, they +should employ seven words out of place when two words in place would +have fulfilled their end? If it had been intended to give this +officer the power to count, how easy to read, "The President of the +Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of +Representatives, open and count the votes." Why resort to this +other, strained, awkward, ungrammatical, unreasonable transposition +of additional words to grant one power distinctly and leave the +other to be grafted upon it by an unjust implication? No, +Mr. President, if it were a deed of bargain and sale, or any +question of private grant, if it did not touch the rights of a great +people, there would be but one construction given to this language, +that the expression of one grant excluded the other. It was a +single command to the President of the Senate that, as the +custodian, he should honestly open those certificates and lay them +before the two houses of Congress who were to act, and then his duty +was done, and that was the belief of the men who sat in that +convention, many of whom joined in framing the law of 1792 which +directed Congress to be in session on a certain day and that the +votes should be counted and the persons who should fill the office +of President and Vice-president ascertained and declared agreeably +to the Constitution. + +The certificates are to be opened by their custodian, the President +of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and the House of +Representatives. Let it be noted this is not in the presence of the +Senators and Representatives, but it is in the presence of two +organized bodies who cannot be present except as a Senate and as a +House of Representatives, each with its own organization, its own +presiding officer and all adjuncts, each organized for the +performance of a great duty. + +When the first drafts of the Constitution were made, instead of +saying "in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives," +they called it "the Legislature." What is a Legislature? A +law-making body organized, not a mob, but an organized body to make +laws; and so the law-making power of this Union, consisting of these +two houses, is brought together. But it seems to me a most +unreasonable proposition to withhold from the law-making power of +this government the authority to regulate this subject and yet be +willing to intrust it to a single hand. There is not a theory of +this government that will support such a construction. It is +contrary to the whole genius of the government; it is contrary to +everything in the history of the formation of the government; it is +contrary to the usage of the government since its foundation. + +The President of the Senate is commanded by the Constitution to open +the votes in the presence of the two houses. He does not summon +them to witness his act, but they summon him by appointing a day and +hour when he is to produce and open in their presence all the +certificates he may have received, and only then and in their +presence can he undertake to open them at all. If he was merely to +summon them as witnesses of his act it would have been so stated. +But when did the President of the Senate ever undertake to call the +two houses together to witness the opening and counting of the +votes? No, sir; he is called at their will and pleasure to bring +with him the certificates which he has received, and open them +before them and under their inspection, and not his own. When the +certificates have been opened, when the votes have been counted, can +the President of the Senate declare the result? No, sir, he has +never declared a result except as the mouthpiece and the organ of +the two houses authorizing and directing him what to declare, and +what he did declare was what they had ascertained and in which +ascertainment he had never interfered by word or act. + +Suppose there shall be an interruption in the count, as has occurred +in our history, can the President of the Senate do it? Did he ever +do it? Is such an instance to be found? Every interruption in the +count comes from some Member of the House or of the Senate, and upon +that the pleasure of the two houses is considered, the question put +to them to withdraw if they desire, and the count is arrested until +they shall order it to recommence. The proceeding in the count, the +commencement of the count is not in any degree under his control. +It is and ever was in the two houses, and in them alone. They are +not powerless spectators; they do not sit "state statues only," but +they are met as a legislature in organized bodies to insure a +correct result of the popular election, to see to it that "the votes +shall then be counted" agreeably to the Constitution. + +In 1792 when some of the men who sat in the convention that framed +the Constitution enacted into law the powers given in relation to +the count of the electoral votes, they said, as I have read, that +the certificates then received shall be opened and the votes +counted, "and the persons to fill the offices of President and +Vice-President ascertained agreeably to the Constitution," and that +direction is contained in the same section of the law that commands +Congress to be in session on that day. It is the law-making power of +the nation, the legislature, that is to perform this solemn and +important duty, and not a single person who is selected by one +branch of Congress and who is removable at their will, according to +a late decision of the Senate. + +Yes, Mr. President, the power contended for by some Senators, that +the President of the Senate can, in the contingency of a +disagreement between the two houses, from the necessity of the case, +open and count the vote, leads to this: that upon every disputed +vote and upon every decision a new President of the Senate could be +elected; that one man could be selected in the present case to count +the vote of Florida; another, of South Carolina; another, of Oregon; +another, of Louisiana; and the Senate could fill those four offices +with four different men, each chosen for that purpose, and when that +purpose was over to be displaced by the same breath that set them up +for the time being. + +Now, sir, if, as has been claimed, the power of counting the votes +is deposited equally in both houses, does not this admission exclude +the idea of any power to count the votes being deposited in the +presiding officer of one of those houses, who is, as I say, eligible +and removable by a bare majority of the Senate, and at will? If the +presiding officer of the Senate can thus count the vote, the Senate +can control him. Then the Senate can control the count and, the +Senate appointing their President, become the sole controllers of +the vote in case of disagreement. What then becomes of the equal +measure of power in the two houses over this subject? If the power +may be said to exist only in case of disagreement, and then _ex_ +_necessitate_ _rei_, all that remains for the Senate is to disagree, +and they themselves have created the very contingency that gives +them the power, through their President to have the vote counted or +not counted, as they may desire. Why, sir, such a statement +destroys all idea of equality of power between the two houses in +regard to this subject. + +When the President of the Senate has opened the certificates and +handed them over to the tellers of the two houses, in the presence +of the two houses, his functions and powers have ended. He cannot +repossess himself of those certificates or papers. He can no longer +control their custody. They are then and thereafter in the +possession and under the control of the two houses who shall alone +dispose of them. + +Why, sir, what a spectacle would it be, some ambitious and +unscrupulous man the presiding officer of the Senate, as was once +Aaron Burr, assuming the power to order the tellers to count the +vote of this State and reject the vote of that, and so boldly and +shamelessly reverse the action of the people expressed at the polls, +and step into the presidency by force of his own decision. Sir, this +is a reduction of the thing to an absurdity never dreamed of until +now, and impossible while this shall remain a free government of +law. + +Now, Mr. President, as to the measure before us a few words. It will +be observed that this bill is enacted for the present year, and no +longer. + +This is no answer to an alleged want of constitutional power +to pass it, but it is an answer in great degree where the mere +policy and temporary convenience of the act are to be considered. + +In the first place, the bill gives to each house of Congress +equal power over the question of counting, at every stage. + +It preserves intact the prerogatives, under the Constitution, of +each house. + +It excludes any possibility of judicial determination by the +presiding officer of the Senate upon the reception and exclusion of +a vote. + +The certificates of the electoral colleges will be placed in the +possession and subject to the disposition of both houses of Congress +in joint session. + +The two houses are co-ordinate and separate and distinct. Neither +can dominate the other. They are to ascertain whether the electors +have been validly appointed, and whether they have validly performed +their duties as electors. The two houses must, under the act of +1792, "ascertain and declare" whether there has been a valid +election, according to the Constitution and laws of the United +States. The votes of the electors and the declaration of the result +by the two houses give a valid title, and nothing else can, unless +no majority has been disclosed by the count; in which case the duty +of the House is to be performed by electing a President, and of the +Senate by electing a Vice-President. + +If it be the duty of the two houses "to ascertain" whether the +action of the electors has been in accordance with the Constitution, +they must inquire. They exercise supervisory power over every branch +of public administration and over the electors. The methods they +choose to employ in coming to a decision are such as the two houses, +acting separately or together, may lawfully employ. Sir, the grant +of power to the commission is in just that measure, no more and no +less. The decision they render can be overruled by the concurrent +votes of the two houses. Is it not competent for the two houses of +Congress to agree that a concurrent majority of the two houses is +necessary to reject the electoral vote of a State? If so, may they +not adopt means which they believe will tend to produce a +concurrence? Finally, sir, this bill secures the great object for +which the two houses were brought together: the counting of the +votes of the electoral college; not to elect a President by the two +houses, but to determine who has been elected agreeably to the +Constitution and the laws. It provides against the failure to count +the electoral vote of a State in event of disagreement between the +two houses, in case of single returns, and, in cases of contest and +double returns, furnishes a tribunal whose composition secures a +decision of the question in disagreement, and whose perfect justice +and impartiality cannot be gainsaid or doubted. + +The tribunal is carved out of the body of the Senate and out of the +body of the House by their vote _viva_ _voce_. No man can sit upon +it from either branch without the choice, openly made, by a majority +of the body of which he is a member, that he shall go there. The +five judges who are chosen are from the court of last resort in this +country, men eminent for learning, selected for their places because +of the virtues and the capacities that fit them for this high +station. ... Mr. President, objection has been made to the +employment of the commission at all, to the creation of this +committee of five senators, five representatives, and five judges of +the Supreme Court, and the reasons for the objection have not been +distinctly stated. The reasons for the appointment I will dwell +upon briefly. + +Sir, how has the count of the vote of every President and +Vice-President, from the time of George Washington and John Adams, +in 1789, to the present day, been made? Always and without +exception by tellers appointed by the two houses. This is without +exception, even in the much commented case of Mr. John Langdon, who, +before the government was in operation, upon the recommendation of +the constitutional convention, was appointed by the Senate its +President, for the sole purpose of opening and counting these votes. +He did it, as did every successor to him, under the motion and +authority of the two houses of Congress, who appointed their own +agents, called tellers to conduct the count, and whose count, being +reported to him, was by him declared. + +From 1793 to 1865 the count of votes was conducted under concurrent +resolutions of the two houses, appointing their respective +committees to join "in ascertaining and reporting a mode of +examining the votes for President and Vice-President." + +The respective committees reported resolutions fixing the time and +place for the assembling of the two houses, and appointing tellers +to conduct the examination on the part of each house respectively. + +Mr. President, the office of teller, or the word "teller," is +unknown to the Constitution, and yet each house has appointed +tellers, and has acted upon their report, as I have said, from the +very foundation of the government. The present commission is more +elaborate, but its objects and its purposes are the same, the +information and instruction of the two houses who have a precisely +equal share in its creation and organization; they are the +instrumentalities of the two houses for performing the high +constitutional duty of ascertaining whom the electors in the several +States have duly chosen President and Vice-President of the United +States. Whatever is the jurisdiction and power of the two houses of +Congress over the votes, and the judgment of either reception or +rejection, is by this law wholly conferred upon this commission of +fifteen. The bill presented does not define what that jurisdiction +and power is, but it leaves it all as it is, adding nothing, +subtracting nothing. Just what power the Senate by itself, or the +House by itself, or the Senate and the House acting together, have +over the subject of counting, admitting, or rejecting an electoral +vote, in case of double returns from the same State, that power is +by this act, no more and no less, vested in the commission of +fifteen men; reserving, however, to the two houses the power of +overruling the decision of the commission by their concurrent +action. + +The delegation to masters in chancery of the consideration and +adjustments of questions of mingled law and fact is a matter of +familiar and daily occurrence in the courts of the States and of the +United States. + +The circuit court of the United States is composed of the district +judge and the circuit judge, and the report to them of a master is +affirmed unless both judges concur in overruling it. + +Under the present bill the decision of the commission will stand +unless overruled by the concurrent votes of the two houses. I do not +propose to follow the example which has been set here in the Senate +by some of the advocates as well as the opponents of this measure, +and discuss what construction is to be given and what definition may +be applied or ought to be applied in the exercise of this power by +the commission under this law. Let me read the bill:-- + +All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the +electoral votes of each State shall be opened, in the alphabetical +order of the States, as provided in Section 1 of this act; and when +there shall be more than one such certificate or paper, as the +certificates and papers from such State shall so be opened +(excepting duplicates of the same return), they shall be read by the +tellers, and thereupon the President of the Senate shall call for +objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and +shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground +thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member +of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. +When all such objections so made to any certificate, vote, or paper +from a State shall have been received and read, all such +certificates, votes, and papers so objected to, and all papers +accompanying the same, together with such objections, shall be +forthwith submitted to said commission, which shall proceed to +consider the same, with the same powers, if any, now possessed for +that purpose by the two houses acting separately or together, and, +by a majority of votes, decide whether any and what votes from such +States are the votes provided for by the Constitution of the United +States, and how many and what persons were duly appointed electors +in such State, and may therein take into view such petitions, +depositions, and other papers, if any, as shall, by the Constitution +and now existing law, be competent and pertinent in such +consideration: which decision shall be made in writing. + +It will be observed that all the questions to be decided by this +commission are to be contained in the written objections. Until +those objections are read and filed, their contents must be unknown, +and the issues raised by them undescribed. But whatever they are, +they are submitted to the decision of the commission. The duty of +interpreting this law and of giving a construction to the +Constitution and existing laws is vested in the commission; and I +hold that we have no right or power to control in advance, by our +construction, their sworn judgment as to the matters which they are +to decide. We would defeat the very object of the bill should we +invade the essential power of judgment of this commission and +establish a construction in advance and bind them to it. It would, +in effect, be giving to them a mere mock power to decide by leaving +them nothing to decide. + +Mr. President, there are certainly very good reasons why the +concurrent action of both houses should be necessary to reject a +vote. It is that feature of this bill which has my heartiest +concurrence; for I will frankly say that the difficulties which have +oppressed me most in considering this question a year or more ago, +before any method had been devised, arose from my apprehensions of +the continued absorption of undue power over the affairs of the +States; and I here declare that the power and the sole power of +appointing the electors is in the State, and nowhere else. The +power of ascertaining whether the State has executed that power +justly and according to the Constitution and laws is the duty which +is cast upon the two houses of Congress. Now, if, under the guise +or pretext of judging of the regularity of the action of a State or +its electors, the Congress or either house may interpose the will of +its members in opposition to the will of the State, the act will be +one of usurpation and wrong, although I do not see where is the +tribunal to arrest and punish it except the great tribunal of an +honest public opinion. But sir that tribunal, though great, though +in the end certain, is yet ofttimes slow to be awakened to action; +and therefore I rejoice when the two houses agree that neither of +them shall be able to reject the vote of a State which is without +contest arising within that State itself, but that the action of +both shall be necessary to concur in the rejection. + +If either house may reject, or by dissenting cause a rejection, then +it is in the power of either house to overthrow the electoral +colleges or the popular vote, and throw the election upon the House +of Representatives. This, it is clear to me, cannot be lawfully done +unless no candidate has received a majority of the votes of all the +electors appointed. The sworn duty is to ascertain what persons have +been chosen by the electors, and not to elect by Congress. + +It may be said that the Senate would not be apt to throw the +election into the House. Not so, Mr. President; look at the +relative majorities of the two houses of Congress as they will be +after the fourth of March next. It is true there will be a +numerical majority of the members of the Democratic party in the +House of Representatives, but the States represented will have a +majority as States of the Republican party. If the choice were to +be made after March 4th, then a Republican Senate, by rejecting or +refusing to count votes, could of its own motion throw the election +into the House; which, voting by States, would be in political +accord with the Senate. The House of Representatives, like the +present House in its political complexion, composed of a numerical +majority, and having also a majority of the States of the same +party, would have the power then to draw the election into its own +hands. Mr. President, either of these powers would be utterly +dangerous and in defeat of the object and intent of the +constitutional provisions on this subject. + +Sir, this was my chief objection to the twenty-second joint rule. +Under that rule either house of Congress, without debate, without +law, without reason, without justice, could, by the sheer exercise +of its will or its caprice, disfranchise any State in the electoral +college. Under that rule we lived and held three presidential +elections. + +In January 1873, under a resolution introduced by the honorable +Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman] and adopted by the Senate, the +Committee on Privileges and Elections, presided over by the +honorable Senator from Indiana [Mr Morton], proceeded to investigate +the elections held in the States of Louisiana and Arkansas, and +inquired whether these elections had been held in accordance with +the Constitution and laws of the United States and the laws of said +States, and sent for persons and papers and made thorough +investigation, which resulted in excluding the electoral votes of +Louisiana from the count, (See Report No. 417, third session +Forty-Second Congress.) + +The popular vote was then cast, and it was cast at the mercy of a +majority in either branch of Congress, who claimed the right to +annul it by casting out States until they should throw the election +into a Republican House of Representatives. I saw that dangerous +power then, and, because I saw it then, am I so blind, am I so +without principle in my action, that I should ask for myself a +dangerous power that I refused to those who differ from me in +opinion? God forbid. + +This concurrence of the two houses to reject the electoral votes of +a State was the great feature that John Marshall sought for in +1800. The Senate then proposed that either house should have power +to reject a vote. The House of Representatives, under the lead of +John Marshall, declared that they should concur to reject the vote, +and upon that difference of opinion the measure fell and was never +revived. In 1824 the bill prepared by Mr. Van Buren contained the +same wholesome principle and provided that the two houses must +concur in the rejection of a vote. Mr. Van Buren reported this bill +in 1824. It was amended and passed, and, as far as I can find from +the record, without a division of the Senate. It was referred in the +House of Representatives to the Committee on the Judiciary, and it +was reported back by Mr. Daniel Webster, without amendment, to the +Committee of the Whole House, showing their approval of the bill; +and that principle is thoroughly incorporated in the present measure +and gives to me one of the strong reasons for my approval. + +Mr. President, this bill is not the product of any one man's mind, +but it is the result of careful study and frequent amendment. +Mutual concessions, modifications of individual preferences, were +constantly and necessarily made in the course of framing such a +measure as it now stands. My individual opinions might lead me to +object to the employment of the judicial branch at all, of +ingrafting even to any extent political power upon the judicial +branch or its members, or confiding to them any question even +quasi-political in its character. To this I have expressed and +still have disinclination, but my sense of the general value of this +measure and the necessity for the adoption of a plan outweighed my +disposition to insist upon my own preferences as to this feature. +At first I was disposed to question the constitutional power to call +in the five justices of the Supreme Court, but the duty of +ascertaining what are the votes, the true votes, under the +Constitution, having been imposed upon the commission, the methods +were necessarily discretionary with the two houses. Any and every +aid that intelligence and skill combined can furnish may be justly +used when it is appropriate to the end in view. + +Why, sir, the members of the Supreme Court have in the history of +this country been employed in public service entirely distinct from +judicial function. Here lately the treaty of Washington was +negotiated by a member of the Supreme Court of the United States; +the venerable and learned Mr. Justice Nelson, of New York, was +nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as one of the +Joint High Commission. Chief-Justice Jay was sent in 1794, while he +was chief-justice of the United States, as minister plenipotentiary +to England, and negotiated a treaty of permanent value and +importance to both countries. He was holding court in the city of +Philadelphia at the time that he was nominated and confirmed, as is +found by reference to his biography, and-- + +Without vacating his seat upon the bench he went to England, +negotiated the treaty which has since borne his name, and returned +to this country in the spring of the following year. + +His successor was Chief-Justice Rutledge, and the next to him was +Chief-Justice Oliver Ellsworth. He, while holding the high place of +chief-justice, was nominated and confirmed as minister plenipotentiary +to Spain. By a law of Congress the chief-justice of the United +States is _ex_ _officio_ the president of the Board of Regents of +the Smithsonian Institution. + +Mr. Morton--I should like to ask the Senator, if it does not +interrupt him, whether he regards the five judges acting on this +commission as acting in their character as judges of the Supreme +Court, if that is their official character, and that this bill +simply enlarges their jurisdiction in that respect? + +Mr. Bayard--Certainly not, Mr. President. They are not acting as +judges of the Supreme Court, and their powers and their jurisdiction +as judges of the Supreme Court are not in any degree involved; they +are simply performing functions under the government not +inconsistent, by the Constitution, or the law, or the policy of the +law, with the stations which they now hold. So I hold that the +employment of one or more of the Supreme Court judges in the matter +under discussion was appropriate legislation. We have early and high +authority in the majorities in both House and Senate in the bill of +1800, in both of which houses a bill was passed creating a +commission similar to that proposed by this bill and calling in the +chief-justice of the United States as the chairman of the grand +committee, as they called it then, a commission as we term it now. + +As has been said before, many of the Senators and members of the +Congress of 1800 had taken part in the convention that framed the +Constitution, and all were its contemporaries, and one of the chief +actors in the proceedings on the part of the House of Representatives +was John Marshall, of Virginia, who one year afterward became the +chief-justice of the United States, whose judicial interpretations +have since that time clad the skeleton of the Constitution with +muscles of robust power. Is it not safe to abide by such examples? +And I could name many more, and some to whom my respect is due for +other and personal reasons. + +In the debate of 1817, in the case of the disputed vote of Indiana; +in 1820, in the case of Missouri; and again in 1857, in the case of +Wisconsin, I find an array of constitutional lawyers who took part +in those debates, among them the most distinguished members of both +political parties, concurring in the opinion that by appropriate +legislation all causes of dispute on this all-important matter of +counting the electoral vote could be and ought to be adjusted +satisfactorily. Why, sir, even the dictum of Chancellor Kent, that +has been read here with so much apparent confidence by the honorable +Senator from Indiana, is itself expressed to be his opinion of the +law "in the absence of legislation on the subject." + +Mr. President, there were other objections to this bill; one by the +honorable Senator from Indiana. He denounced it as "a compromise." +I have gone over its features and I have failed to discover, nor has +the fact yet been stated in my hearing, wherein anything is +compromised. What power of the Senate is relinquished? What power +of the House is relinquished? What power that both should possess +is withheld? I do not know where the compromise can be, what +principle is surrendered. This bill intends to compromise nothing +in the way of principle, to compromise no right, but to provide an +honest adjudication for the rights of all. Where is it unjust? Whose +rights are endangered by it? Who can foretell the judgment of this +commission upon any question of law or fact? Sir, there is no +compromise in any sense of the word, but there is a blending of +feeling, a blending of opinions in favor of right and justice. + +But, sir, if it were a compromise, what is there in compromise that +is discreditable either to men or to nations? This very charter of +government under which we live was created in a spirit of compromise +and mutual concession. Without that spirit it never would have been +made, and without a continuance of that spirit it will not be +prolonged. Sir, when the Committee on Style and Revision of the +Federal convention of 1787 had prepared a digest of their plan, they +reported a letter to accompany the plan to Congress, from which I +take these words as being most applicable to the bill under +consideration:-- + +And thus the Constitution which we now present is the result of a +spirit of amity and of that mutual deference and concession which +the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable. + +The language of that letter may well be applied to the present +measure; and had the words been recalled to my memory before the +report was framed I cannot doubt that they would have been adopted +as part of it to be sent here to the Senate as descriptive of the +spirit and of the object with which the committee had acted. + +But, sir, the honorable Senator also stated, as a matter deterring +us from our proper action on this bill, that the shadow of +intimidation had entered the halls of Congress, and that members of +this committee had joined in this report and presented this bill +under actual fear of personal violence. Such a statement seems to me +almost incredible. I may not read other men's hearts and know what +they have felt, nor can I measure the apprehension of personal +danger felt by the honorable Senator. It seems to me incredible. +Fear, if I had it, had been the fear of doing wrong in this great +juncture of public affairs, not the fear of the consequences of doing +right. Had there been this intimidation tenfold repeated to which the +Senator has alluded, and of which I have no knowledge, I should have +scorned myself had I hesitated one moment in my onward march of duty +on this subject. + +"Hate's yell, or envy's hiss, or folly's bray"-- + +what are they to a man who, in the face of events such as now +confront us, is doing that which his conscience dictates to him do? +It has been more than one hundred years since a great judgment was +delivered in Westminster Hall in England by one of the great judges +of our English-speaking people. Lord Mansfield, when delivering +judgment in the case of the King against John Wilkes, was assailed +by threats of popular violence of every description, and he has +placed upon record how such threats should be met by any public man +who sees before him the clear star of duty and trims his bark only +that he may follow it through darkness and through light. I will ask +my friend from Missouri if he will do me the favor to read the +extract to which I have alluded. + +Mr. Cockrell read as follows:-- + +But here, let me pause. + +It is fit to take some notice of the various terrors hung out; the +numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the +hall, out of all reach of hearing what passes in court, and the +tumults which, in other places, have shamefully insulted all order +and government. Audacious addresses in print dictate to us from +those they call the people, the judgment to be given now and +afterward upon the conviction. Reasons of policy are urged from +danger to the kingdom by commotion and general confusion. + +Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and respectable +audience to let the whole world know all such attempts are vain. + +I pass over many anonymous letters I have received. Those in print +are public; and some of them have been brought judicially before the +court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do +my duty, unawed. What am I to fear? That _mendax_ _infamia_ from +the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The +lies of calumny carry no terror to me. I trust that my temper of +mind, and the color and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of +armor against these arrows. If, during this king's reign, I have +ever supported his government, and assisted his measures, I have +done it without any other reward than the consciousness of doing +what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon +the points themselves, without mixing in party or faction, and +without any collateral views. I honor the king, and respect the +people; bat many things acquired by force of either, are, in my +account, objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is +that popularity which follows, not that which is run after. It is +that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to +the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will not do that which +my conscience tells me is wrong upon this occasion to gain the +huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which +come from the press; I will not avoid doing what I think is right, +though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libel, all that +falsehood and malice can invent or the credulity of a deluded +populace can swallow. I can say, with a great magistrate, upon an +occasion and under circumstances not unlike, "_Ego_ _hoc_ _animo_ +_semper_ _fui_. _ut_ _invidiam_ _virtute_ _partam_ _gloriam_, _non_ +_invidiam_ _putarem_." + +The threats go further than abuse; personal violence is denounced. I +do not believe it; it is not the genius of the worst men of this +country in the worst of times. But I have set my mind at rest. The +last end that can happen to any man never comes too soon, if he +falls in support of the law and liberty of his country (for liberty +is synonymous to law and government). Such a shock, too, might be +productive of public good: it might awake the better part of the +kingdom out of that lethargy which seems to have benumbed them; and +bring the mad part back to their senses, as men intoxicated are +sometimes stunned into sobriety.--Burrows's Reports No. 4, +pp. 2561-3. + +Mr. Bayard--Mr. President, in the course of my duty here as a +representative of the rights of others, as a chosen and sworn public +servant, I feel that I have no right to give my individual wishes, +prejudices, interests, undue influence over my public action. To do +so would be to commit a breach of trust in the powers confided to +me. It is true I was chosen a Senator by a majority only, but not +for a majority only. I was chosen by a party, but not for a party. +I represent all the good people of the State which has sent me here. +In my office as a Senator I recognize no claim upon my action in the +name and for the sake of party. The oath I have taken is to support +the Constitution of my country's government, not the fiat of any +political organization, even could its will be ascertained. In +sessions preceding the present I have adverted to the difficulty +attending the settlement of this great question, and have urgently +besought action in advance at a time when the measure adopted could +not serve to predicate its results to either party. My failure then +gave me great uneasiness, and filled me with anxiety; and yet I can +now comprehend the wisdom concealed in my disappointment, for in the +very emergency of this hour, in the shadow of the danger that has +drawn so nigh to us, has been begotten in the hearts of American +Senators and Representatives and the American people a spirit worthy +of the occasion--born to meet these difficulties, to cope with +them, and, God willing, to conquer them. + +Animated by this spirit the partisan is enlarged into the patriot. +Before it the lines of party sink into hazy obscurity; and the +horizon which bounds our view reaches on every side to the uttermost +verge of the great Republic. It is a spirit that exalts humanity, +and imbued with it the souls of men soar into the pure air of +unselfish devotion to the public welfare. It lighted with a smile +the cheek of Curtius as he rode into the gulf; it guided the hand of +Aristides as he sadly wrote upon the shell the sentence of his own +banishment; it dwelt in the frozen earthworks of Valley Forge; and +from time to time it has been an inmate of these halls of +legislation. I believe it is here to-day, and that the present +measure was born under its influence. + + + +LORD BEACONSFIELD (BENJAMIN DISRAELI) (1804-1881) + +When, at the age of thirty-three. Benjamin Disraeli entered the +House of Commons, he was flushed with his first literary successes +and inclined perhaps to take parliamentary popularity by storm. It +was the first year of Victoria's reign (1837) and the fashions of +the times allowed great latitude for the display of idiosyncracies +in dress. It seems that Disraeli pushed this advantage to the point +of license. We hear much of the amount of jewelry he wore and of the +gaudiness of his waistcoats. This may or may not have had a deciding +influence in determining the character of his reception by the +house, but at any rate it was a tempestuous one. He was repeatedly +interrupted, and when he attempted to proceed the uproar of cries +and laughter finally overpowered him and he abandoned for the time +being the attempt to speak--not, however, until he had served on +the house due notice of his great future, expressed in the memorable +words--thundered, we are told, at the top of his voice, and +audible still in English history--"You shall hear me!" + +Not ten years later, the young man with the gaudy waistcoats had +become the leading Conservative orator of the campaign against the +Liberals on their Corn Law policy and so great was the impression +produced by his speeches that in 1852, when the Derby ministry was +formed, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. + +The secret of his success is the thorough-going way in which he +identified himself with the English aristocracy. Where others had +apologized for aristocracy as a method of government, he justified. +Instead of excusing and avoiding, he assumed that a government of +privilege rather than that based on rights or the assumption of +their existence is the best possible government, the only natural +one, the only one capable of perpetuating itself without constant +and violent changes. Kept on the defensive by the forward movement +of the people, as well as by the tendency towards Liberalism or +Radicalism shown by the men of highest education among the +aristocratic classes themselves, the English Conservatives were +delighted to find a man of great ability and striking eloquence, who +seemed to have a religious conviction that "Toryism" was the only +means of saving society and ensuring progress. It is characteristic +of his mind and his methods, that he does not shrink from calling +himself a Tory. He is as proud of bearing that reproach as Camilla +Desmoulins was of being called a Sansculotte. When a man is thus +"for thorough," he becomes representative of all who have his +aspirations or share his tendencies without his aggressiveness. No +doubt Disraeli's speeches are the best embodiment of Tory principle, +the most attractive presentation of aristocratic purposes in +government made in the nineteenth century. No member of the English +peerage to the "manner born" has approached him in this respect. +It is not a question of whether others have equaled or exceeded him +in ability or statesmanship. On that point there may be room for +difference of opinion, but to read any one of his great speeches is +to see at once that he has the infinite advantage of the rest in +being the strenuous and faith-inspired champion of aristocracy and +government by privilege--not the mere defender and apologist for +it. + +In the extent of his information, the energy and versatility of his +intellect, and the boldness of his methods, he had no equal among +the Conservative leaders of the Victorian reign. His audacity was +well illustrated when, after the great struggle over the reform +measures of 1866 which he opposed, the Conservatives succeeded to +power, and he, as their representative, advanced a measure "more +sweeping in its nature as a reform bill than that he had +successfully opposed" when it was advocated by Gladstone. In +foreign affairs, he showed the same boldness, working to check the +Liberal advance at home by directing public attention away from +domestic grievances to brilliant achievements abroad. This policy +which his opponents resented the more bitterly because they saw it +to be the only one by which they could be held in check, won him the +title of "Jingo," and made him the leading representative of British +imperialism abroad as he was of English aristocracy at home. + +THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN (From a Speech in Parliament, 1865) + +There are rare instances when the sympathy of a nation approaches +those tenderer feelings which are generally supposed to be peculiar +to the individual and to be the happy privilege of private life; and +this is one. Under any circumstances we should have bewailed the +catastrophe at Washington; under any circumstances we should have +shuddered at the means by which it was accomplished. But in the +character of the victim, and even in the accessories of his last +moments, there is something so homely and innocent that it takes the +question, as it were, out of all the pomp of history and the +ceremonial of diplomacy,--it touches the heart of nations and +appeals to the domestic sentiment of mankind. Whatever the various +and varying opinions in this house, and in the country generally, on +the policy of the late President of the United States, all must +agree that in one of the severest trials which ever tested the moral +qualities of man he fulfilled his duty with simplicity and strength. +Nor is it possible for the people of England at such a moment to +forget that he sprang from the same fatherland and spoke the same +mother tongue. When such crimes are perpetrated the public mind is +apt to fall into gloom and perplexity, for it is ignorant alike of +the causes and the consequences of such deeds. But it is one of our +duties to reassure them under unreasoning panic and despondency. +Assassination has never changed the history of the world. I will +not refer to the remote past, though an accident has made the most +memorable instance of antiquity at this moment fresh in the minds +and memory of all around me. But even the costly sacrifice of a +Caesar did not propitiate the inexorable destiny of his country. If +we look to modern times, to times at least with the feelings of +which we are familiar, and the people of which were animated and +influenced by the same interests as ourselves, the violent deaths of +two heroic men, Henry IV. of France and the Prince of Orange, are +conspicuous illustrations of this truth. In expressing our +unaffected and profound sympathy with the citizens of the United +States on this untimely end of their elected chief, let us not, +therefore, sanction any feeling of depression, but rather let us +express a fervent hope that from out of the awful trials of the last +four years, of which the least is not this violent demise, the +various populations of North America may issue elevated and +chastened, rich with the accumulated wisdom and strong in the +disciplined energy which a young nation can only acquire in a +protracted and perilous struggle. Then they will be enabled not +merely to renew their career of power and prosperity, but they will +renew it to contribute to the general happiness of mankind. It is +with these feelings that I second the address to the crown. + +AGAINST DEMOCRACY FOR ENGLAND (Delivered in 1865) + +Sir, I could have wished, and once I almost believed, that it was +not necessary for me to take part in this debate. I look on this +discussion as the natural epilogue of the Parliament of 1859; we +remember the prologue. I consider this to be a controversy between +the educated section of the Liberal party and that section of the +Liberal party, according to their companions and colleagues, not +entitled to an epithet so euphuistic and complimentary. But after +the speech of the minister, I hardly think it would become me, +representing the opinions of the gentlemen with whom I am acting on +this side of the house, entirely to be silent. We have a measure +before us to-night which is to increase the franchise in boroughs. +Without reference to any other circumstances I object to that measure. +I object to it because an increase of the franchise in boroughs is a +proposal to redistribute political power in the country. I do not +think political power in the country ought to be treated partially; +from the very nature of things it is impossible, if there is to be a +redistribution of political power, that you can only regard the +suffrage as it affects one section of the constituent body. +Whatever the proposition of the honorable gentleman, whether +abstractedly it may be expedient or not, this is quite clear, that +it must be considered not only in relation to the particular persons +with whom it will deal, but to other persons with whom it does not +deal, though it would affect them. And therefore it has always been +quite clear that if you deal with the subject popularly called +Parliamentary Reform, you must deal with it comprehensively. The +arrangements you may make with reference to one part of the +community may not be objectionable in themselves, but may be +extremely objectionable if you consider them with reference to other +parts. Consequently it has been held--and the more we consider the +subject the more true and just appears to be the conclusion--that +if you deal with the matter you must deal with it comprehensively. +You must not only consider borough constituencies, you must consider +county constituencies: and when persons rise up and urge their +claims to be introduced into the constituent body, even if you think +there is a plausible claim substantiated on their part, you are +bound in policy and justice to consider also the claims of other +bodies not in possession of the franchise, but whose right to +consideration may be equally great. And so clear is it when you +come to the distribution of power that you must consider the subject +in all its bearings, that even honorable gentlemen who have taken +part in this debate have not been able to avoid the question of what +they call the redistribution of seats--a very important part of +the distribution of power. It is easy for the honorable member for +Liskeard, for example, to rise and say, in supporting this measure +for the increase of the borough franchise, that it is impossible any +longer to conceal the anomalies of our system in regard to the +distribution of seats. "Is it not monstrous," he asks, "that Calne, +with 173 voters, should return a member, while Glasgow returns only +two, with a constituency of 20,000?" Well, it may be equally +monstrous that Liskeard should return one member, and that +Birkenhead should only make a similar return. The distribution of +seats, as any one must know who has ever considered the subject +deeply and with a sense of responsibility towards the country, is +one of the most profound and difficult questions that can be brought +before the house. It is all very well to treat it in an easy, +offhand manner; but how are you to reconcile the case of North +Cheshire, of North Durham, of West Kent, and many other counties, +where you find four or six great towns, with a population, perhaps, +of 100,000, returning six members to this house, while the rest of +the population of the county, though equal in amount, returns only +two members? How are you to meet the case of the representation of +South Lancashire in reference to its boroughs? Why, those are more +anomalous than the case of Calne. + +Then there is the question of Scotland. With a population hardly +equal to that of the metropolis, and with wealth greatly inferior-- +probably not more than two-thirds of the amount--Scotland yet +possesses forty-eight members, while the metropolis has only twenty. +Do you Reformers mean to say that you are prepared to disfranchise +Scotland; or that you are going to develop the representation of the +metropolis in proportion to its population and property; and so +allow a country like England, so devoted to local government and so +influenced by local feeling, to be governed by London? And, +therefore, when those speeches are made which gain a cheer for the +moment, and are supposed to be so unanswerable as arguments in favor +of parliamentary change, I would recommend the house to recollect +that this, as a question, is one of the most difficult and one of +the deepest that can possibly engage the attention of the country. +The fact is this--in the representation of this country you do not +depend on population or on property merely, or on both conjoined; +you have to see that there is something besides population and +property--you have to take care that the country itself is +represented. That is one reason why I am opposed to the second +reading of the bill. There is another objection which I have to +this bill brought forward by the honorable member for Leeds, and +that is, that it is brought forward by the member for Leeds. I do +not consider this a subject which ought to be intrusted to the care +and guidance of any independent member of this house. If there be +one subject more than another that deserves the consideration and +demands the responsibility of the government, it certainly is the +reconstruction of our parliamentary system; and it is the government +or the political party candidates for power, who recommend a policy, +and who will not shrink from the responsibility of carrying that +policy into effect if the opportunity be afforded to them, who alone +are qualified to deal with a question of this importance. But, sir, +I shall be told, as we have been told in a previous portion of the +adjourned debate, that the two great parties of the State cannot be +trusted to deal with this question, because they have both trifled +with it. That is a charge which has been made repeatedly during +this discussion and on previous occasions, and certainly a graver +one could not be made in this house. I am not prepared to admit +that even our opponents have trifled with this question. We have +had a very animated account by the right honorable gentleman who has +just addressed us as to what may be called the Story of the Reform +Measures. It was animated, but it was not accurate. Mine will be +accurate, though I fear it will not be animated. I am not prepared +to believe that English statesmen, though they be opposed to me in +politics, and may sit on opposite benches, could ever have intended +to trifle with this question. I think that possibly they may have +made great mistakes in the course which they took; they may have +miscalculated, they may have been misled; but I do not believe that +any men in this country, occupying the posts, the eminent posts, of +those who have recommended any reconstruction of our parliamentary +system in modern days, could have advised a course which they +disapproved. They may have thought it perilous, they may have +thought it difficult, but though they may have been misled I am +convinced they must have felt that it was necessary. Let me say a +word in favor of one with whom I have had no political connection, +and to whom I have been placed in constant opposition in this house +when he was an honored member of it--I mean Lord Russell. I +cannot at all agree with the lively narrative of the right honorable +gentleman, according to which Parliamentary Reform was but the +creature of Lord John Russell, whose cabinet, controlled by him with +the vigor of a Richelieu, at all times disapproved his course; still +less can I acknowledge that merely to amuse himself, or in a moment +of difficulty to excite some popular sympathy, Lord John Russell was +a statesman always with Reform in his pocket, ready to produce it +and make a display. How different from that astute and sagacious +statesman now at the head of her Majesty's government, whom I almost +hoped to have seen in his place this evening. I am sure it would +have given the house great pleasure to have seen him here, and the +house itself would have assumed a more good-humored appearance. I +certainly did hope that the noble lord would have been enabled to be +in his place and prepared to support his policy. According to the +animated but not quite accurate account of the right honorable +gentleman who has just sat down, all that Lord Derby did was to +sanction the humor and caprice of Lord John Russell. It is true +that Lord John Russell when prime minister recommended that her +Majesty in the speech from the throne should call the attention of +Parliament to the expediency of noticing the condition of our +representative system; but Lord John Russell unfortunately shortly +afterwards retired from his eminent position. + +He was succeeded by one of the most considerable statesmen of our +days, a statesman not connected with the political school of Lord +John Russell, who was called to power not only with assistance of +Lord John Russell and the leading members of the Whig party, but +supported by the whole class of eminent statesmen who had been +educated in the same school and under the same distinguished master. +This eminent statesman, however, is entirely forgotten. The right +honorable gentleman overlooks the fact that Lord Aberdeen, when +prime minister, and when all the principal places in his cabinet +were filled with the disciples of Sir Robert Peel, did think it his +duty to recommend the same counsel to her Majesty. But this is an +important, and not the only important, item in the history of the +Reform Bill which has been ignored by the right honorable gentleman. +The time, however, came when Lord Aberdeen gave place to another +statesman, who has been complimented on his sagacity in evading the +subject, as if such a course would be a subject for congratulation. +Let me vindicate the policy of Lord Palmerston in his absence. He +did not evade the question. Lord Palmerston followed the example of +Lord John Russell. He followed the example also of Lord Aberdeen, +and recommended her Majesty to notice the subject in the speech from +the throne. What becomes, then, of the lively narrative of the +right honorable gentleman, and what becomes of the inference and +conclusions which he drew from it? Not only is his account +inaccurate, but it is injurious, as I take it, to the course of +sound policy and the honor of public men. Well, now you have three +prime ministers bringing forward the question of Parliamentary +Reform; you have Lord John Russell, Lord Aberdeen, and you have even +that statesman who, according to the account of the right honorable +gentleman, was so eminent for his sagacity in evading the subject +altogether. Now, let me ask the house to consider the position of +Lord Derby when he was called to power, a position which you cannot +rightly understand if you accept as correct the fallacious +statements of the right honorable gentleman. I will give the house +an account of this subject, the accuracy of which I believe neither +side will impugn. It may not possibly be without interest, and will +not, I am sure, be without significance. Lord Derby was sent for by +her Majesty--an unwilling candidate for office, for let me remind +the house that at that moment there was an adverse majority of 140 +in the House of Commons, and I therefore do not think that Lord +Derby was open to any imputation in hesitating to accept political +responsibility under such circumstances. Lord Derby laid these +considerations before her Majesty. I speak, of course, with +reserve. I say nothing now which I have not said before on the +discussion of political subjects in this house. But when a +government comes in on Reform and remains in power six years without +passing any measure of the kind, it is possible that these +circumstances, too, may be lost sight of. Lord Derby advised her +Majesty not to form a government under his influence, because there +existed so large a majority against him in the House of Commons, and +because this question of Reform was placed in such a position that +it was impossible to deal with it as he should wish. But it should +be remembered that Lord Derby was a member of the famous Cabinet +which carried the Reform Bill in 1832. Lord Derby, as Lord Stanley, +was in the House of Commons one of the most efficient promoters of +the measure. Lord Derby believed that the bill had tended to effect +the purpose for which it was designed, and although no man superior +to prejudices could fail to see that some who were entitled to the +exercise of the franchise were still debarred from the privilege, +yet he could not also fail to perceive the danger which would arise +from our tampering with the franchise. On these grounds Lord Derby +declined the honor which her Majesty desired to confer upon him, but +the appeal was repeated. Under these circumstances it would have +been impossible for any English statesman longer to hesitate; but I +am bound to say that there was no other contract or understanding +further than that which prevails among men, however different their +politics, who love their country and wish to maintain its greatness. +I am bound to add that there was an understanding at the time +existing among men of weight on both sides of the house that the +position in which the Reform question was placed was one +embarrassing to the crown and not creditable to the house, and that +any minister trying his best to deal with it under these +circumstances would receive the candid consideration of the house. +It was thought, moreover, that a time might possibly arrive when +both parties would unite in endeavoring to bring about a solution +which would tend to the advantage and benefit of the country. And +yet, says the right honorable gentleman, it was only in 1860 that +the portentous truth flashed across the mind of the country--only +in 1860, after so many ministers had been dealing with the question +for so many years. All I can say is that this was the question, and +the only question, which engaged the attention of Lord Derby's +cabinet. The question was whether they could secure the franchise +for a certain portion of the working classes, who by their industry, +their intelligence, and their integrity, showed that they were +worthy of such a possession, without at the same time overwhelming +the rest of the constituency by the numbers of those whom they +admitted. That, sir, was the only question which occupied the +attention of the government of Lord Derby and yet the right +honorable gentleman says that it was in 1860 that the attention of +the public was first called to the subject, when, in fact, the +question of Parliamentary Reform had been before them for ten years, +and on a greater scale than that embraced by the measure under +consideration this evening. + +I need not remind the house of the reception which Lord Derby's Bill +encountered. It is neither my disposition, nor, I am sure, that of +any of my colleagues, to complain of the votes of this house on that +occasion. Political life must be taken as you find it, and as far as +I am concerned not a word shall escape me on the subject. But from +the speeches made the first night, and from the speech made by the +right honorable gentleman this evening, I believe I am right in +vindicating the conduct pursued by the party with which I act. I +believe that the measure which we brought forward was the only one +which has tended to meet the difficulties which beset this question. +Totally irrespective of other modes of dealing with the question, +there were two franchises especially proposed on this occasion, which, +in my mind, would have done much towards solving the difficulty. The +first was the franchise founded upon personal property, and the second +the franchise founded upon partial occupation. Those two franchises, +irrespective of other modes by which we attempted to meet the want and +the difficulty--these two franchises, had they been brought into +committee of this house, would, in my opinion, have been so shaped and +adapted that they would have effected those objects which the majority +of the house desire. We endeavored in that bill to make proposals +which were in the genius of the English constitution. We did not +consider the constitution a mere phrase. We knew that the +constitution of this country is a monarchy tempered by co-ordinate +estates of the realm. We knew that the House of Commons is an estate +of the realm; we knew that the estates of the realm form a political +body, invested with political power for the government of the country +and for the public good; yet we thought that it was a body founded +upon privilege and not upon right. It is, therefore, in the noblest +and properest sense of the word, an aristocratic body, and from that +characteristic the Reform Bill of 1832 did not derogate; and if at +this moment we could contrive, as we did in 1859, to add considerably +to the number of the constituent body, we should not change that +characteristic, but it would still remain founded upon an aristocratic +principle. Well, now the Secretary of State [Sir G. Grey] has +addressed us to-night in a very remarkable speech. He also takes up +the history of Reform, and before I touch upon some of the features of +that speech it is my duty to refer to the statements which he made +with regard to the policy which the government of Lord Derby was +prepared to assume after the general election. By a total +misrepresentation of the character of the amendment proposed by Lord +John Russell, which threw the government of 1858 into a minority, and +by quoting a passage from a very long speech of mine in 1859, the +right honorable gentleman most dexterously conveyed these two +propositions to the house--first, that Lord John Russell had proposed +an amendment to our Reform Bill, by which the house declared that no +bill could be satisfactory by which the working classes were not +admitted to the franchise--one of our main objects being that the +working classes should in a great measure be admitted to the +franchise; and, secondly, that after the election I was prepared, as +the organ of the government, to give up all the schemes for those +franchises founded upon personal property, partial occupation, and +other grounds, and to substitute a bill lowering the borough +qualification. That conveyed to the house a totally inaccurate idea +of the amendment of Lord John Russell. There was not a single word in +that amendment about the working classes. There was not a single +phrase upon which that issue was raised, nor could it have been +raised, because our bill, whether it could have effected the object or +not, was a bill which proposed greatly to enfranchise the working +classes. And as regards the statement I made, it simply was this. +The election was over--we were still menaced, but we, still acting +according to our sense of duty, recommended in the royal speech that +the question of a reform of Parliament should be dealt with; because I +must be allowed to remind the house that whatever may have been our +errors, we proposed a bill which we intended to carry. And having +once taken up the question as a matter of duty, no doubt greatly +influenced by what we considered the unhappy mistakes of our +predecessors, and the difficult position in which they had placed +Parliament and the country, we determined not to leave the question +until it had been settled. But although still menaced, we felt it to +be our duty to recommend to her Majesty to introduce the question of +reform when the Parliament of 1859 met; and how were we, except in +that spirit of compromise which is the principal characteristic of our +political system, how could we introduce a Reform Bill after that +election, without in some degree considering the possibility of +lowering the borough franchise? But it was not a franchise of 6 +pounds, but it was an arrangement that was to be taken with the rest +of the bill, and if it had been met in the same spirit we might have +retained our places. But, says the right honorable gentleman, +pursuing his history of the Reform question, when the government of +Lord Derby retired from office "we came in, and we were perfectly +sincere in our intentions to carry a Reform Bill; but we experienced +such opposition, and never was there such opposition. There was the +right honorable gentleman," meaning myself, "he absolutely allowed our +bill to be read a second time." + +That tremendous reckless opposition to the right honorable +gentleman, which allowed the bill to be read a second time, seems to +have laid the government prostrate. If he had succeeded in throwing +out the bill, the right honorable gentleman and his friends would +have been relieved from great embarrassment. But the bill having +been read a second time, the government were quite overcome, and it +appears they never have recovered from the paralysis up to this +time. The right honorable gentleman was good enough to say that the +proposition of his government was rather coldly received upon his +side of the house, but he said "nobody spoke against it." Nobody +spoke against the bill on this side, but I remember some most +remarkable speeches from the right honorable gentleman's friends. +There was the great city of Edinburgh, represented by acute +eloquence of which we never weary, and which again upon the present +occasion we have heard; there was the great city of Bristol, +represented on that occasion among the opponents, and many other +constituencies of equal importance. But the most remarkable speech, +which "killed cock robin" was absolutely delivered by one who might +be described as almost a member of the government--the chairman of +ways and means [Mr. Massey], who, I believe, spoke from immediately +behind the prime minister. Did the government express any +disapprobation of such conduct? They have promoted him to a great +post, and have sent him to India with an income of fabulous amount. +And now they are astonished they cannot carry a Reform Bill. If +they removed all those among their supporters who oppose such bills +by preferring them to posts of great confidence and great lucre, how +can they suppose that they will ever carry one? Looking at the +policy of the government, I am not at all astonished at the speech +which the right honorable gentleman, the Secretary of State, has +made this evening. Of which speech I may observe, that although it +was remarkable for many things, yet there were two conclusions at +which the right honorable gentleman arrived. First, the repudiation +of the rights of man, and, next, the repudiation of the 6 pounds +franchise. The first is a great relief, and, remembering what the +feeling of the house was only a year ago, when, by the dangerous but +fascinating eloquence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we were +led to believe that the days of Tom Paine had returned, and that +Rousseau was to be rivaled by a new social contract, it must be a +great relief to every respectable man here to find that not only are +we not to have the rights of man, but we are not even to have the +1862 franchise. It is a matter, I think, of great congratulation, +and I am ready to give credit to the Secretary of State for the +honesty with which he has expressed himself, and I only wish we had +had the same frankness, the same honesty we always have, arising +from a clear view of his subject, in the first year of the +Parliament as we have had in the last. I will follow the example of +the right honorable gentleman and his friends. I have not changed +my opinions upon the subject of what is called Parliamentary Reform. +All that has occurred, all that I have observed, all the results of +my reflections, lead me to this more and more--that the principle +upon which the constituencies of this country should be increased is +one not of radical, but I may say of lateral reform--the extension +of the franchise, not its degradation. And although I do not wish +in any way to deny that we were in the most difficult position when +the Parliament of 1859 met, being anxious to assist the crown and +the Parliament by proposing some moderate measure which men on both +sides might support, we did, to a certain extent, agree to some +modification of the 10 pounds franchise--to what extent no one knows; but +I may say that it would have been one which would not at all have +affected the character of the franchise, such as I and my colleagues +wished to maintain. Yet I confess that my opinion is opposed, as it +originally was, to any course of the kind. I think that it would +fail in its object, that it would not secure the introduction of +that particular class which we all desire to introduce, but that it +would introduce many others who are totally unworthy of the +suffrage. But I think it is possible to increase the electoral body +of the country by the introduction of voters upon principles in +unison with the principles of the constitution, so that the suffrage +should remain a privilege, and not a right--a privilege to be +gained by virtue, by intelligence, by industry, by integrity, and to +be exercised for the common good of the country. I think if you +quit that ground--if you once admit that every man has a right to +vote whom you cannot prove to be disqualified--you would change +the character of the constitution, and you would change it in a +manner which will tend to lower the importance of this country. +Between the scheme we brought forward and the measure brought +forward by the honorable member for Leeds, and the inevitable +conclusion which its principal supporters acknowledge it must lead +to, it is a question between an aristocratic government in the +proper sense of the term--that is, a government by the best men of +all classes--and a democracy. I doubt very much whether a +democracy is a government that would suit this country; and it is +just as well that the house, when coming to a vote on this question, +should really consider if that be the real issue, between retaining +the present constitution--not the present constitutional body, but +between the present constitution and a democracy. + +It is just as well for the house to recollect that what is at issue +is of some price. You must remember, not to use the word profanely, +that we are dealing really with a peculiar people. There is no +country at the present moment that exists under the circumstances +and under the same conditions as the people of this realm. You +have, for example, an ancient, powerful, richly-endowed Church, and +perfect religious liberty. You have unbroken order and complete +freedom. You have estates as large as the Romans; you have a +commercial system of enterprise such as Carthage and Venice united +never equaled. And you must remember that this peculiar country +with these strong contrasts is governed not by force; it is not +governed by standing armies--it is governed by a most singular +series of traditionary influences, which generation after generation +cherishes and preserves because they know that they embalm customs +and represent the law. And, with this, what have you done? You +have created the greatest empire that ever existed in modern times +You have amassed a capital of fabulous amount. You have devised and +sustained a system of credit still more marvelous and above all, you +have established and maintained a scheme, so vast and complicated, +of labor and industry, that the history of the world offers no +parallel to it. And all these mighty creations are out of all +proportion to the essential and indigenous elements and resources of +the country. If you destroy that state of society, remember this-- +England cannot begin again. There are countries which have been in +great peril and gone through great suffering; there are the United +States, which in our own immediate day have had great trials; you +have had--perhaps even now in the States of America you have--a +protracted and fratricidal civil war which has lasted for four +years; but if it lasted for four years more, vast as would be the +disaster and desolation, when ended the United States might begin +again, because the United States would only be in the same condition +that England was at the end of the War of the Roses, and probably +she had not even 3,000,000 of population, with vast tracts of virgin +soil and mineral treasures, not only undeveloped but undiscovered. +Then you have France. France had a real revolution in our days and +those of our predecessors--a real revolution, not merely a +political and social revolution. You had the institutions of the +country uprooted, the orders of society abolished--you had even the +landmarks and local names removed and erased. But France could +begin again. France had the greatest spread of the most exuberant +soil in Europe; she had, and always had, a very limited population, +living in a most simple manner. France, therefore, could begin +again. But England--the England we know, the England we live in, +the England of which we are proud--could not begin again. I don't +mean to say that after great troubles England would become a howling +wilderness. No doubt the good sense of the people would to some +degree prevail, and some fragments of the national character would +survive; but it would not be the old England--the England of power +and tradition, of credit and capital, that now exists. That is not +in the nature of things, and, under these circumstances, I hope the +house will, when the question before us is one impeaching the +character of our constitution, sanction no step that has a +preference for democracy but that they will maintain the ordered +state of free England in which we live, I do not think that in this +country generally there is a desire at this moment for any further +change in this matter. I think the general opinion of the country +on the subject of Parliamentary Reform is that our views are not +sufficiently matured on either side. Certainly, so far as I can +judge I cannot refuse the conclusion that such is the condition of +honorable gentlemen opposite. We all know the paper circulated +among us before Parliament met, on which the speech of the honorable +member from Maidstone commented this evening. I quite sympathize +with him; it was one of the most interesting contributions to our +elegiac literature I have heard for some time. But is it in this +house only that we find these indications of the want of maturity in +our views upon this subject? Our tables are filled at this moment +with propositions of eminent members of the Liberal party--men +eminent for character or talent, and for both--and what are these +propositions? All devices to counteract the character of the +Liberal Reform Bill, to which they are opposed: therefore, it is +quite clear, when we read these propositions and speculations, that +the mind and intellect of the party have arrived at no conclusions +on the subject. I do not speak of honorable gentlemen with +disrespect; I treat them with the utmost respect; I am prepared to +give them the greatest consideration; but I ask whether these +publications are not proofs that the active intelligence of the +Liberal party is itself entirely at sea on the subject? + +I may say there has been more consistency, more calmness, and +consideration on this subject on the part of gentlemen on this side +than on the part of those who seem to arrogate to themselves the +monopoly of treating this subject. I can, at least, in answer to +those who charge us with trifling with the subject, appeal to the +recollection of every candid man, and say that we treated it with +sincerity--we prepared our measure with care, and submitted it to +the house, trusting to its candid consideration--we spared no +pains in its preparation: and at this time I am bound to say, +speaking for my colleagues, in the main principles on which that +bill was founded--namely, the extension of the franchise, not its +degradation, will be found the only solution that will ultimately be +accepted by the country. Therefore, I cannot say that I look to +this question, or that those with whom I act look to it, with any +embarrassment. We feel we have done our duty; and it is not without +some gratification that I have listened to the candid admissions of +many honorable gentlemen who voted against it that they feel the +defeat of that measure by the liberal party was a great mistake. So +far as we are concerned, I repeat we, as a party, can look to +Parliamentary Reform not as an embarrassing subject; but that is no +reason why we should agree to the measure of the honorable member +for Leeds. It would reflect no credit on the House of Commons. It +is a mean device. I give all credit to the honorable member for Leeds +for his conscientious feeling; but it would be a mockery to take +this bill; from the failures of the government and the whole of the +circumstances that attended it, it is of that character that I think +the house will best do its duty to the country, and will best meet +the constituencies with a very good understanding, if they reject +the measure by a decided majority. + +THE MEANING OF "CONSERVATISM" (Manchester, .April 3d, 1872) + +_Gentlemen:_-- +The chairman has correctly reminded you that this is not the first +time that my voice has been heard in this hall. But that was an +occasion very different from that which now assembles us together-- +was nearly thirty years ago, when I endeavored to support and +stimulate the flagging energies of an institution in which I thought +there were the germs of future refinement and intellectual advantage +to the rising generation of Manchester, and since I have been here +on this occasion I have learned with much gratification that it is +now counted among your most flourishing institutions. There was also +another and more recent occasion when the gracious office fell to me +to distribute among the members of the Mechanics' Institution those +prizes which they had gained through their study in letters and in +science. Gentlemen, these were pleasing offices, and if life +consisted only of such offices you would not have to complain of +it. But life has its masculine duties, and we are assembled here to +fulfill some of the most important of these, when, as citizens of a +free country, we are assembled together to declare our determination +to maintain, to uphold the constitution to which we are debtors, in +our opinion, for our freedom and our welfare. + +Gentlemen, there seems at first something incongruous that one +should be addressing the population of so influential and +intelligent a county as Lancashire who is not locally connected with +them, and, gentlemen, I will frankly admit that this circumstance +did for a long time make me hesitate in accepting your cordial and +generous invitation. But, gentlemen, after what occurred yesterday, +after receiving more than two hundred addresses from every part of +this great county, after the welcome which then greeted me, I feel +that I should not be doing justice to your feelings, I should not do +my duty to myself, if I any longer consider my presence here +to-night to be an act of presumption. Gentlemen, though it may not +be an act of presumption, it still is, I am told, an act of great +difficulty. Our opponents assure us that the Conservative party has +no political program; and, therefore, they must look with much +satisfaction to one whom you honor to-night by considering him the +leader and representative of your opinions when he comes forward, at +your invitation, to express to you what that program is. The +Conservative party are accused of having no program of policy. If by +a program is meant a plan to despoil churches and plunder landlords, +I admit we have no program. If by a program is meant a policy which +assails or menaces every institution and every interest, every class +and every calling in the country, I admit we have no program. But if +to have a policy with distinct ends, and these such as most deeply +interest the great body of the nation, be a becoming program for a +political party, then I contend we have an adequate program, and one +which, here or elsewhere, I shall always be prepared to assert and +to vindicate. + +Gentlemen, the program of the Conservative party is to maintain the +constitution of the country. I have not come down to Manchester to +deliver an essay on the English constitution; but when the banner of +Republicanism is unfurled--when the fundamental principles of our +institutions are controverted--I think, perhaps, it may not be +inconvenient that I should make some few practical remarks upon the +character of our constitution upon that monarchy limited by the +co-ordinate authority of the estates of the realm, which, under the +title of Queen, Lords, and Commons, has contributed so greatly to +the prosperity of this country, and with the maintenance of which I +believe that prosperity is bound up. + +Gentlemen, since the settlement of that constitution, now nearly two +centuries ago, England has never experienced a revolution, though +there is no country in which there has been so continuous and such +considerable change. How is this? Because the wisdom of your +forefathers placed the prize of supreme power without the sphere of +human passions. Whatever the struggle of parties, whatever the +strife of factions, whatever the excitement and exaltation of the +public mind, there has always been something in this country round +which all classes and parties could rally, representing the majesty +of the law, the administration of justice, and involving, at the +same time, the security for every man's rights and the fountain of +honor. Now, gentlemen, it is well clearly to comprehend what is +meant by a country not having a revolution for two centuries. It +means, for that space, the unbroken exercise and enjoyment of the +ingenuity of man. It means for that space the continuous application +of the discoveries of science to his comfort and convenience. It +means the accumulation of capital, the elevation of labor, the +establishment of those admirable factories which cover your +district; the unwearied improvement of the cultivation of the land, +which has extracted from a somewhat churlish soil harvests more +exuberant than those furnished by lands nearer to the sun. It means +the continuous order which is the only parent of personal liberty +and political right. And you owe all these, gentlemen, to the +throne. + +There is another powerful and most beneficial influence which is +also exercised by the crown. Gentlemen, I am a party man. I believe +that, without party, parliamentary government is impossible. I look +upon parliamentary government as the noblest government in the +world, and certainly the one most suited to England. But without the +discipline of political connection, animated by the principle of +private honor, I feel certain that a popular assembly would sink +before the power or the corruption of a minister. Yet, gentlemen, I +am not blind to the faults of party government. It has one great +defect. Party has a tendency to warp the intelligence, and there is +no minister, however resolved he may be in treating a great public +question, who does not find some difficulty in emancipating himself +from the traditionary prejudice on which he has long acted. It is, +therefore, a great merit in our constitution, that before a minister +introduces a measure to Parliament, he must submit it to an +intelligence superior to all party, and entirely free from +influences of that character. + +I know it will be said, gentlemen, that, however beautiful in +theory, the personal influence of the sovereign is now absorbed in +the responsibility of the minister. Gentlemen, I think you will +find there is great fallacy in this view. The principles of the +English constitution do not contemplate the absence of personal +influence on the part of the sovereign; and if they did, the +principles of human nature would prevent the fulfillment of such a +theory. Gentlemen, I need not tell you that I am now making on this +subject abstract observations of general application to our +institutions and our history. But take the case of a sovereign of +England, who accedes to his throne at the earliest age the law +permits, and who enjoys a long reign,--take an instance like that +of George III. From the earliest moment of his accession that +sovereign is placed in constant communication with the most able +statesmen of the period, and of all parties. Even with average +ability it is impossible not to perceive that such a sovereign must +soon attain a great mass of political information and political +experience. Information and experience, gentlemen, whether they are +possessed by a sovereign or by the humblest of his subjects, are +irresistible in life. No man with the vast responsibility that +devolves upon an English minister can afford to treat with +indifference a suggestion that has not occurred to him, or +information with which he had not been previously supplied. But, +gentlemen, pursue this view of the subject. The longer the reign, +the influence of that sovereign must proportionately increase. All +the illustrious statesmen who served his youth disappear. A new +generation of public servants rises up, there is a critical +conjunction in affairs--a moment of perplexity and peril. Then it +is that the sovereign can appeal to a similar state of affairs that +occurred perhaps thirty years before. When all are in doubt among +his servants, he can quote the advice that was given by the +illustrious men of his early years, and, though he may maintain +himself within the strictest limits of the constitution, who can +suppose, when such information and such suggestions are made by the +most exalted person in the country, that they can be without effect? +No, gentlemen; a minister who could venture to treat such influence +with indifference would not be a constitutional minister, but an +arrogant idiot. + +Gentlemen, the influence of the crown is not confined merely to +political affairs. England is a domestic country. Here the home is +revered and the hearth is sacred. The nation is represented by a +family--the royal family; and if that family is educated with a +sense of responsibility and a sentiment of public duty, it is +difficult to exaggerate the salutary influence they may exercise +over a nation. It is not merely an influence upon manners; it is not +merely that they are a model for refinement and for good taste-- +they affect the heart as well as the intelligence of the people; and +in the hour of public adversity, or in the anxious conjuncture of +public affairs, the nation rallies round the family and the throne, +and its spirit is animated and sustained by the expression of public +affection. Gentlemen, there is yet one other remark that I would +make upon our monarchy, though had it not been for recent +circumstances, I should have refrained from doing so. An attack has +recently been made upon the throne on account of the costliness of +the institution. Gentlemen, I shall not dwell upon the fact that if +the people of England appreciate the monarchy, as I believe they do, +it would be painful to them that their royal and representative +family should not be maintained with becoming dignity, or fill in +the public eye a position inferior to some of the nobles of the +land. Nor will I insist upon what is unquestionably the fact, that +the revenues of the crown estates, on which our sovereign might live +with as much right as the Duke of Bedford, or the Duke of +Northumberland, has to his estates, are now paid into the public +exchequer. All this, upon the present occasion, I am not going to +insist upon. What I now say is this: that there is no sovereignty of +any first-rate State which costs so little to the people as the +sovereignty of England. I will not compare our civil list with those +of European empires, because it is known that in amount they treble +and quadruple it; but I will compare it with the cost of sovereignty +in a republic, and that a republic with which you are intimately +acquainted--the republic of the United States of America. + +Gentlemen, there is no analogy between the position of our sovereign, +Queen Victoria, and that of the President of the United States. The +President of the United States is not the sovereign of the United +States. There is a very near analogy between the position of the +President of the United States and that of the prime minister of +England, and both are paid at much the same rate--the income of a +second-class professional man. The sovereign of the United States is +the people; and I will now show you what the sovereignty of the United +States costs. Gentlemen, you are aware of the Constitution of the +United States. There are thirty-seven independent States, each with a +sovereign legislature. Besides these, there is a Confederation of +States, to conduct their external affairs, which consists of the House +of Representatives and a Senate. There are two hundred and +eighty-five members of the House of Representatives, and there are +seventy-four members of the Senate, making altogether three hundred +and fifty-nine members of Congress. Now each member of Congress +receives 1,000 pounds sterling per annum. In addition to this he +receives an allowance called "mileage," which varies according to the +distance which he travels, but the aggregate cost of which is about +30,000 pounds per annum. That makes 389,000 pounds, almost the +exact amount of our civil list. + +But this, gentlemen, will allow you to make only a very imperfect +estimate of the cost of sovereignty in the United States. Every +member of every legislature in the thirty-seven States is also paid. +There are, I believe, five thousand and ten members of State +legislatures, who receive about $350 per annum each. As some of the +returns are imperfect, the average which I have given of expenditure +may be rather high, and therefore I have not counted the mileage, +which is also universally allowed. Five thousand and ten members of +State legislatures at $350 each make $1,753,500, or 350,700 pounds +sterling a year. So you see, gentlemen, that the immediate +expenditure for the sovereignty of the United States is between +700,000 and 800,000 pounds a year. Gentlemen, I have not time to +pursue this interesting theme, otherwise I could show that you have +still but imperfectly ascertained the cost of sovereignty in a +republic. But, gentlemen, I cannot resist giving you one further +illustration. + +The government of this country is considerably carried on by the aid +of royal commissions. So great is the increase of public business +that it would be probably impossible for a minister to carry on +affairs without this assistance. The Queen of England can command +for these objects the services of the most experienced statesmen, +and men of the highest position in society. If necessary, she can +summon to them distinguished scholars or men most celebrated in +science and in arts; and she receives from them services that are +unpaid. They are only too proud to be described in the commission +as her Majesty's "trusty councilors"; and if any member of these +commissions performs some transcendent services, both of thought and +of labor, he is munificently rewarded by a public distinction +conferred upon him by the fountain of honor. Gentlemen, the +government of the United States, has, I believe, not less availed +itself of the services of commissions than the government of the +United Kingdom; but in a country where there is no fountain of +honor, every member of these commissions is paid. + +Gentlemen, I trust I have now made some suggestions to you +respecting the monarchy of England which at least may be so far +serviceable that when we are separated they may not be altogether +without advantage; and now, gentlemen, I would say something on the +subject of the House of Lords. It is not merely the authority of +the throne that is now disputed, but the character and the influence +of the House of Lords that are held up by some to public disregard. +Gentlemen, I shall not stop for a moment to offer you any proofs of +the advantage of a second chamber; and for this reason. That +subject has been discussed now for a century, ever since the +establishment of the government of the United States, and all great +authorities, American, German, French, Italian, have agreed in this, +that a representative government is impossible without a second +chamber. And it has been, especially of late, maintained by great +political writers in all countries, that the repeated failure of +what is called the French republic is mainly to be ascribed to its +not having a second chamber. + +But, gentlemen, however anxious foreign countries have been to enjoy +this advantage, that anxiety has only been equaled by the difficulty +which they have found in fulfilling their object. How is a second +chamber to be constituted? By nominees of the sovereign power? +What influence can be exercised by a chamber of nominees? Are they +to be bound by popular election? In what manner are they to be +elected? If by the same constituency as the popular body, what +claim have they, under such circumstances, to criticize or to +control the decisions of that body? If they are to be elected by a +more select body, qualified by a higher franchise, there immediately +occurs the objection, why should the majority be governed by the +minority? The United States of America were fortunate in finding a +solution of this difficulty; but the United States of America had +elements to deal with which never occurred before, and never +probably will occur again, because they formed their illustrious +Senate from materials that were offered them by the thirty-seven +States. We gentlemen, have the House of Lords, an assembly which +has historically developed and periodically adapted itself to the +wants and necessities of the times. + +What, gentlemen, is the first quality which is required in a second +chamber? Without doubt, independence. What is the best foundation of +independence? Without doubt, property. The prime minister of England +has only recently told you, and I believe he spoke quite accurately, +that the average income of the members of the House of Lords is +20,000 pounds per annum. Of course there are some who have more, +and some who have less; but the influence of a public assembly, so far +as property is concerned, depends upon its aggregate property, which, +in the present case, is a revenue of 9,000,000 pounds a year. But, +gentlemen, you must look to the nature of this property. It is +visible property, and therefore it is responsible property, which +every rate-payer in the room knows to his cost. But, gentlemen, it is +not only visible property; it is, generally speaking, territorial +property; and one of the elements of territorial property is, that it +is representative. Now, for illustration, suppose--which God +forbid--there was no House of Commons, and any Englishman,--I will +take him from either end of the island,--a Cumberland, or a Cornish +man, finds himself aggrieved, the Cumbrian says: "This conduct I +experience is most unjust. I know a Cumberland man in the House of +Lords, the Earl of Carlisle or the Earl of Lonsdale; I will go to him; +he will never see a Cumberland man ill-treated." The Cornish man will +say: "I will go to the Lord of Port Eliot; his family have sacrificed +themselves before this for the liberties of Englishmen, and he will +get justice done me." + +But, gentlemen, the charge against the House of Lords is that the +dignities are hereditary, and we are told that if we have a House of +Peers they should be peers for life. There are great authorities in +favor of this, and even my noble friend near me [Lord Derby], the +other day, gave in his adhesion to a limited application of this +principle. Now, gentlemen, in the first place, let me observe that +every peer is a peer for life, as he cannot be a peer after his +death; but some peers for life are succeeded in their dignities by +their children. The question arises, who is most responsible--a +peer for life whose dignities are not descendible, or a peer for +life whose dignities are hereditary? Now, gentlemen, a peer for +life is in a very strong position. He says: "Here I am; I have got +power and I will exercise it." I have no doubt that, on the whole, +a peer for life would exercise it for what he deemed was the public +good. Let us hope that. But, after all, he might and could +exercise it according to his own will. Nobody can call him to +account; he is independent of everybody. But a peer for life whose +dignities descend is in a very different position. He has every +inducement to study public opinion, and, when he believes it just, +to yield; because he naturally feels that if the order to which he +belongs is in constant collision with public opinion, the chances +are that his dignities will not descend to his posterity. + +Therefore, gentlemen, I am not prepared myself to believe that a +solution of any difficulties in the public mind on this subject is +to be found by creating peers for life. I know there are some +philosophers who believe that the best substitute for the House of +Lords would be an assembly formed of ex-governors of colonies. I +have not sufficient experience on that subject to give a decided +opinion upon it. When the Muse of Comedy threw her frolic grace over +society, a retired governor was generally one of the characters in +every comedy; and the last of our great actors,--who, by the way, +was a great favorite at Manchester,--Mr. Farren, was celebrated for +his delineation of the character in question. Whether it be the +recollection of that performance or not, I confess I am inclined to +believe that an English gentleman--born to business, managing his +own estate, administering the affairs of his county, mixing with all +classes of his fellow-men, now in the hunting field, now in the +railway direction, unaffected, unostentatious, proud of his +ancestors, if they have contributed to the greatness of our common +country--is, on the whole, more likely to form a Senator agreeable +to English opinion and English taste than any substitute that has +yet been produced. + +Gentlemen, let me make one observation more on the subject of the +House of Lords before I conclude. There is some advantage in +political experience. I remember the time when there was a similar +outcry against the House of Lords, but much more intense and +powerful; and, gentlemen, it arose from the same cause. A Liberal +government had been installed in office, with an immense Liberal +majority. They proposed some violent measures. The House of Lords +modified some, delayed others, and some they threw out. Instantly +there was a cry to abolish or to reform the House of Lords, and the +greatest popular orator [Daniel O'Connell] that probably ever +existed was sent on a pilgrimage over England to excite the people +in favor of this opinion. What happened? That happened, gentlemen, +which may happen to-morrow. There was a dissolution of Parliament. +The great Liberal majority vanished. The balance of parties was +restored. It was discovered that the House of Lords had behind them +at least half of the English people. We heard no more cries for +their abolition or their reform, and before two years more passed +England was really governed by the House of Lords, under the wise +influence of the Duke of Wellington and the commanding eloquence of +Lyndhurst; and such was the enthusiasm of the nation in favor of the +second chamber that at every public meeting its health was drunk, +with the additional sentiment, for which we are indebted to one of +the most distinguished members that ever represented the House of +Commons: "Thank God, there is the House of Lords." + +Gentlemen, you will, perhaps, not be surprised that, having made +some remarks upon the monarchy and the House of Lords, I should say +something respecting that house in which I have literally passed the +greater part of my life, and to which I am devotedly attached. It +is not likely, therefore, that I should say anything to depreciate +the legitimate position and influence of the House of Commons. +Gentlemen, it is said that the diminished power of the throne and +the assailed authority of the House of Lords are owing to the +increased power of the House of Commons, and the new position which +of late years, and especially during the last forty years, it has +assumed in the English constitution. Gentlemen, the main power of +the House of Commons depends upon its command over the public purse, +and its control of the public expenditure; and if that power is +possessed by a party which has a large majority in the House of +Commons, the influence of the House of Commons is proportionately +increased, and, under some circumstances, becomes more predominant. +But, gentlemen, this power of the House of Commons is not a power +which has been created by any reform act, from the days of Lord +Grey, in 1832, to 1867. It is the power which the House of Commons +has enjoyed for centuries, which it has frequently asserted and +sometimes even tyrannically exercised. Gentlemen, the House of +Commons represents the constituencies of England, and I am here to +show you that no addition to the elements of that constituency has +placed the House of Commons in a different position with regard to +the throne and the House of Lords from that it has always +constitutionally occupied. + +Gentlemen, we speak now on this subject with great advantage. We +recently have had published authentic documents upon this matter +which are highly instructive. We have, for example, just published +the census of Great Britain, and we are now in possession of the +last registration of voters for the United Kingdom. Gentlemen, it +appears that by the census the population at this time is about +32,000,000. It is shown by the last registration that, after making +the usual deductions for deaths, removals, double entries, and so +on, the constituency of the United Kingdom may be placed at +2,200,000. So, gentlemen, it at once appears that there are +30,000,000 people in this country who are as much represented by the +House of Lords as by the House of Commons, and who, for the +protection of their rights, must depend upon them and the majesty of +the throne. And now, gentlemen, I will tell you what was done by +the last reform act. + +Lord Grey, in his measure of 1832, which was no doubt a +statesmanlike measure, committed a great, and for a time it appeared +an irretrievable, error. By that measure he fortified the +legitimate influence of the aristocracy, and accorded to the middle +classes great and salutary franchises; but he not only made no +provision for the representation of the working classes in the +constitution, but he absolutely abolished those ancient franchises +which the working classes had peculiarly enjoyed and exercised from +time immemorial. Gentlemen, that was the origin of Chartism, and of +that electoral uneasiness which existed in this country more or less +for thirty years. + +The Liberal party, I feel it my duty to say, had not acted fairly by +this question. In their adversity they held out hopes to the +working classes, but when they had a strong government they laughed +their vows to scorn. In 1848 there was a French revolution, and a +republic was established. No one can have forgotten what the effect +was in this country. I remember the day when not a woman could +leave her house in London, and when cannon were planted on +Westminster Bridge. When Lord Derby became prime minister affairs +had arrived at such a point that it was of the first moment that the +question should be sincerely dealt with. He had to encounter great +difficulties, but he accomplished his purpose with the support of a +united party. And gentlemen, what has been the result? A year ago +there was another revolution in France, and a republic was again +established of the most menacing character. What happened in this +country? You could not get half a dozen men to assemble in a street +and grumble. Why? Because the people had got what they wanted. +They were content, and they were grateful. + +But, gentlemen, the constitution of England is not merely a +constitution in State, it is a constitution in Church and State. The +wisest sovereigns and statesmen have ever been anxious to connect +authority with religion--some to increase their power, some, +perhaps, to mitigate its exercise. But the same difficulty has been +experienced in effecting this union which has been experienced in +forming a second chamber--either the spiritual power has usurped +upon the civil, and established a sacerdotal society, or the civil +power has invaded successfully the rights of the spiritual, and the +ministers of religion have been degraded into stipendiaries of the +state and instruments of the government. In England we accomplish +this great result by an alliance between Church and State, between +two originally independent powers. I will not go into the history of +that alliance, which is rather a question for those archaeological +societies which occasionally amuse and instruct the people of this +city. Enough for me that this union was made and has contributed for +centuries to the civilization of this country. Gentlemen, there is +the same assault against the Church of England and the union between +the State and the Church as there is against the monarchy and +against the House of Lords. It is said that the existence of +nonconformity proves that the Church is a failure. I draw from these +premises an exactly contrary conclusion; and I maintain that to have +secured a national profession of faith with the unlimited enjoyment +of private judgment in matters spiritual, is the solution of the +most difficult problem, and one of the triumphs of civilization. + +It is said that the existence of parties in the Church also proves +its incompetence. On that matter, too, I entertain a contrary +opinion. Parties have always existed in the Church; and some have +appealed to them as arguments in favor of its divine institution, +because, in the services and doctrines of the Church have been found +representatives of every mood in the human mind. Those who are +influenced by ceremonies find consolation in forms which secure to +them the beauty of holiness. Those who are not satisfied except +with enthusiasm find in its ministrations the exaltation they +require, while others who believe that the "anchor of faith" can +never be safely moored except in the dry sands of reason find a +religion within the pale of the Church which can boast of its +irrefragable logic and its irresistible evidence. + +Gentlemen, I am inclined sometimes to believe that those who +advocate the abolition of the union between Church and State have +not carefully considered the consequences of such a course. The +Church is a powerful corporation of many millions of her Majesty's +subjects, with a consummate organization and wealth which in its +aggregate is vast. Restricted and controlled by the State, so +powerful a corporation may be only fruitful of public advantage, but +it becomes a great question what might be the consequences of the +severance of the controlling tie between these two bodies. The State +would be enfeebled, but the Church would probably be strengthened. +Whether that is a result to be desired is a grave question for all +men. For my own part, I am bound to say that I doubt whether it +would be favorable to the cause of civil and religious liberty. I +know that there is a common idea that if the union between Church +and State was severed, the wealth of the Church would revert to the +State; but it would be well to remember that the great proportion of +ecclesiastical property is the property of individuals. Take, for +example, the fact that the great mass of Church patronage is +patronage in the hands of private persons. That you could not touch +without compensation to the patrons. You have established that +principle in your late Irish Bill, where there was very little +patronage. And in the present state of the public mind on the +subject, there is very little doubt that there would be scarcely a +patron in England--irrespective of other aid the Church would +receive--who would not dedicate his compensation to the spiritual +wants of his neighbors. + +It was computed some years ago that the property of the Church in this +manner, if the union was terminated, would not be less than between +80,000,000 and 90,000,000 pounds, and since that period the amount +of private property dedicated to the purposes of the Church has very +largely increased. I therefore trust that when the occasion offers +for the country to speak out it will speak out in an unmistakable +manner on this subject; and recognizing the inestimable services of +the Church, that it will call upon the government to maintain its +union with the State. Upon this subject there is one remark I would +make. Nothing is more surprising to me than the plea on which the +present outcry is made against the Church of England. I could not +believe that in the nineteenth century the charge against the Church +of England should be that churchmen, and especially the clergy, had +educated the people. If I were to fix upon one circumstance more than +another which redounded to the honor of churchmen, it is that they +should fulfill this noble office; and, next to being "the stewards of +divine mysteries," I think the greatest distinction of the clergy is +the admirable manner in which they have devoted their lives and their +fortunes to this greatest of national objects. + +Gentlemen, you are well acquainted in this city with this +controversy. It was in this city--I don't know whether it was not +in this hall--that that remarkable meeting was held of the +Nonconformists to effect important alterations in the Education Act, +and you are acquainted with the discussion in Parliament which arose +in consequence of that meeting. Gentlemen, I have due and great +respect for the Nonconformist body. I acknowledge their services to +their country, and though I believe that the political reasons which +mainly called them into existence have entirely ceased, it is +impossible not to treat with consideration a body which has been +eminent for its conscience, its learning, and its patriotism; but I +must express my mortification that, from a feeling of envy or of +pique, the Nonconformist body, rather than assist the Church in its +great enterprise, should absolutely have become the partisans of a +merely secular education. I believe myself, gentlemen, that without +the recognition of a superintending Providence in the affairs of +this world all national education will be disastrous, and I feel +confident that it is impossible to stop at that mere recognition. +Religious education is demanded by the nation generally and by the +instincts of human nature. I should like to see the Church and the +Nonconformists work together; but I trust, whatever may be the +result, the country will stand by the Church in its efforts to +maintain the religious education of the people. Gentlemen, I +foresee yet trials for the Church of England; but I am confident in +its future. I am confident in its future because I believe there is +now a very general feeling that to be national it must be +comprehensive. I will not use the word "broad," because it is an +epithet applied to a system with which I have no sympathy. But I +would wish churchmen, and especially the clergy, always to remember +that in our "Father's home there are many mansions," and I believe +that comprehensive spirit is perfectly consistent with the +maintenance of formularies and the belief in dogmas without which I +hold no practical religion can exist. + +Gentlemen, I have now endeavored to express to you my general views +upon the most important subjects that can interest Englishmen. They +are subjects upon which, in my mind, a man should speak with +frankness and clearness to his countrymen, and although I do not +come down here to make a party speech, I am bound to say that the +manner in which those subjects are treated by the leading subject of +this realm is to me most unsatisfactory. Although the prime minister +of England is always writing letters and making speeches, and +particularly on these topics, he seems to me ever to send forth an +"uncertain sound." If a member of Parliament announces himself a +Republican, Mr. Gladstone takes the earliest opportunity of +describing him as a "fellow-worker" in public life. If an +inconsiderate multitude calls for the abolition or reform of the +House of Lords, Mr. Gladstone says that it is no easy task, and that +he must think once or twice, or perhaps even thrice, before he can +undertake it. If your neighbor, the member for Bradford, Mr. Miall, +brings forward a motion in the House of Commons for the severance of +Church and State, Mr. Gladstone assures Mr. Miall with the utmost +courtesy that he believes the opinion of the House of Commons is +against him, but that if Mr. Miall wishes to influence the House of +Commons he must address the people out of doors; whereupon Mr. Miall +immediately calls a public meeting, and alleges as its cause the +advice he has just received from the prime minister. + +But, gentlemen, after all, the test of political institutions is the +condition of the country whose fortunes they regulate; and I do not +mean to evade that test. You are the inhabitants of an island of no +colossal size; which, geographically speaking, was intended by +nature as the appendage of some continental empire--either of +Gauls and Franks on the other side of the Channel or of Teutons and +Scandinavians beyond the German Sea. Such indeed, and for a long +period, was your early history. You were invaded; you were pillaged +and you were conquered; yet amid all these disgraces and +vicissitudes there was gradually formed that English race which has +brought about a very different state of affairs. Instead of being +invaded, your land is proverbially the only "inviolate land"--"the +inviolate land of the sage and free." Instead of being plundered, +you have attracted to your shores all the capital of the world. +Instead of being conquered, your flag floats on many waters, and +your standard waves in either zone. It may be said that these +achievements are due to the race that inhabited the land, and not to +its institutions. Gentlemen, in political institutions are the +embodied experiences of a race. You have established a society of +classes which give vigor and variety to life. But no class +possesses a single exclusive privilege, and all are equal before the +law. You possess a real aristocracy, open to all who desire to +enter it. You have not merely a middle class, but a hierarchy of +middle classes, in which every degree of wealth, refinement, +industry, energy, and enterprise is duly represented. + +And now, gentlemen, what is the condition of the great body of the +people? In the first place, gentlemen, they have for centuries been +in the full enjoyment of that which no other country in Europe has +ever completely attained--complete rights of personal freedom. In +the second place, there has been a gradual, and therefore a wise, +distribution on a large scale of political rights. Speaking with +reference to the industries of this great part of the country, I can +personally contrast it with the condition of the working classes +forty years ago. In that period they have attained two results-- +the raising of their wages and the diminution of their toil. +Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man. +That the working classes of Lancashire and Yorkshire have proved not +unworthy of these boons may be easily maintained; but their progress +and elevation have been during this interval wonderfully aided and +assisted by three causes, which are not so distinctively +attributable to their own energies. The first is the revolution in +locomotion, which has opened the world to the working man, which has +enlarged the horizon of his experience, increased his knowledge of +nature and of art, and added immensely to the salutary recreation, +amusement, and pleasure of his existence. The second cause is the +cheap postage, the moral benefits of which cannot be exaggerated. +And the third is that unshackled press which has furnished him with +endless sources of instruction, information, and amusement. + +Gentlemen, if you would permit me, I would now make an observation +upon another class of the laboring population. This is not a civic +assembly, although we meet in a city. That was for convenience, but +the invitation which I received was to meet the county and all the +boroughs of Lancashire; and I wish to make a few observations upon +the condition of the agricultural laborer. That is a subject which +now greatly attracts public attention. And, in the first place, to +prevent any misconception, I beg to express my opinion that an +agricultural laborer has as much right to combine for the bettering +of his condition as a manufacturing laborer or a worker in metals. +If the causes of his combination are natural--that is to say, if +they arise from his own feelings and from the necessities of his own +condition--the combination will end in results mutually beneficial +to employers and employed. If, on the other hand, it is factitious +and he is acted upon by extraneous influences and extraneous ideas, +the combination will produce, I fear, much loss and misery both to +employers and employed; and after a time he will find himself in a +similar, or in a worse, position. + +Gentlemen, in my opinion, the farmers of England cannot, as a body, +afford to pay higher wages than they do, and those who will answer +me by saying that they must find their ability by the reduction of +rents are, I think, involving themselves with economic laws which +may prove too difficult for them to cope with. The profits of a +fanner are very moderate. The interest upon capital invested in +land is the smallest that any property furnishes. The farmer will +have his profits and the investor in land will have his interest, +even though they may be obtained at the cost of changing the mode of +the cultivation of the country. Gentlemen, I should deeply regret +to see the tillage of this country reduced, and a recurrence to +pasture take place. I should regret it principally on account of +the agricultural laborers themselves. Their new friends call them +Hodge, and describe them as a stolid race. I must say that, from my +experience of them, they are sufficiently shrewd and open to reason. +I would say to them with confidence, as the great Athenian said to +the Spartan who rudely assailed him: "Strike, but hear me." + +First, a change in the cultivation of the soil of this country would +be very injurious to the laboring class; and second, I am of opinion +that that class instead of being stationary has made if not as much +progress as the manufacturing class, very considerable progress +during the last forty years. Many persons write and speak about the +agricultural laborer with not so perfect a knowledge of his +condition as is desirable. They treat him always as a human being +who in every part of the country finds himself in an identical +condition. Now, on the contrary, there is no class of laborers in +which there is greater variety of condition than that of the +agricultural laborers. It changes from north to south, from east to +west, and from county to county. It changes even in the same +county, where there is an alteration of soil and of configuration. +The hind in Northumberland is in a very different condition from the +famous Dorsetshire laborer; the tiller of the soil in Lincolnshire +is different from his fellow-agriculturalist in Sussex. What the +effect of manufactures is upon the agricultural districts in their +neighborhood it would be presumption in me to dwell upon; your own +experience must tell you whether the agricultural laborer in North +Lancashire, for example, has had no rise in wages and no diminution +in toil. Take the case of the Dorsetshire laborer--the whole of +the agricultural laborers on the southwestern coast of England for a +very long period worked only half the time of the laborers in other +parts of England, and received only half the wages. In the +experience of many, I dare say, who are here present, even thirty +years ago a Dorsetshire laborer never worked after three o'clock in +the day; and why? Because the whole of that part of England was +demoralized by smuggling. No one worked after three o'clock in the +day, for a very good reason--because he had to work at night. No +farmer allowed his team to be employed after three o'clock, because +he reserved his horses to take his illicit cargo at night and carry +it rapidly into the interior. Therefore, as the men were employed +and remunerated otherwise, they got into a habit of half work and +half play so far as the land was concerned, and when smuggling was +abolished--and it has only been abolished for thirty years-- +these imperfect habits of labor continued, and do even now continue +to a great extent. That is the origin of the condition of the +agricultural laborer in the southwestern part of England. + +But now gentlemen, I want to test the condition of the agricultural +laborer generally; and I will take a part of England with which I am +familiar, and can speak as to the accuracy of the facts--I mean +the group described as the south-midland counties. The conditions +of labor there are the same, or pretty nearly the same, throughout. +The group may be described as a strictly agricultural community, and +they embrace a population of probably a million and a half. Now, I +have no hesitation in saying that the improvement in their lot +during the last forty years has been progressive and is remarkable. +I attribute it to three causes. In the first place, the rise in +their money wages is no less than fifteen per cent. The second +great cause of their improvement is the almost total disappearance +of excessive and exhausting toil, from the general introduction of +machinery. I don't know whether I could get a couple of men who +could or, if they could, would thresh a load of wheat in my +neighborhood. The third great cause which has improved their +condition is the very general, not to say universal, institution of +allotment grounds. Now, gentlemen, when I find that this has been +the course of affairs in our very considerable and strictly +agricultural portion of the country, where there have been no +exceptional circumstances, like smuggling, to degrade and demoralize +the race, I cannot resist the conviction that the condition of the +agricultural laborers, instead of being stationary, as we are +constantly told by those not acquainted with them, has been one of +progressive improvement, and that in those counties--and they are +many--where the stimulating influence of a manufacturing +neighborhood acts upon the land, the general conclusion at which I +arrive is that the agricultural laborer has had his share in the +advance of national prosperity. Gentlemen, I am not here to +maintain that there is nothing to be done to increase the well-being +of the working classes of this country, generally speaking. There +is not a single class in the country which is not susceptible of +improvement; and that makes the life and animation of our society. +But in all we do we must remember, as my noble friend told them at +Liverpool, that much depends upon the working classes themselves; +and what I know of the working classes in Lancashire makes me sure +that they will respond to this appeal. Much, also, may be expected +from that sympathy between classes which is a distinctive feature of +the present day; and, in the last place, no inconsiderable results +may be obtained by judicious and prudent legislation. But, +gentlemen, in attempting to legislate upon social matters, the great +object is to be practical--to have before us some distinct aims +and some distinct means by which they can be accomplished. + +Gentlemen, I think public attention as regards these matters ought +to be concentrated upon sanitary legislation. That is a wide +subject, and, if properly treated, comprises almost every +consideration which has a just claim upon legislative interference. +Pure air, pure water, the inspection of unhealthy habitations, the +adulteration of food,--these and many kindred matters may be +legitimately dealt with by the legislature; and I am bound to say +the legislature is not idle upon them; for we have at this time two +important measures before Parliament on the subject. One--by a late +colleague of mine, Sir Charles Adderley--is a large and +comprehensive measure, founded upon a sure basis, for it consolidates +all existing public acts, and improves them. A prejudice has been +raised against that proposal, by stating that it interferes with the +private acts of the great towns. I take this opportunity of +contradicting that. The bill of Sir Charles Adderley does not touch +the acts of the great towns. It only allows them, if they think +fit, to avail themselves of its new provisions. + +The other measure by the government is of a partial character. What +it comprises is good, so far as it goes, but it shrinks from that +bold consolidation of existing acts which I think one of the great +merits of Sir Charles Adderley's bill, which permits us to become +acquainted with how much may be done in favor of sanitary +improvement by existing provisions. Gentlemen, I cannot impress +upon you too strongly my conviction of the importance of the +legislature and society uniting together in favor of these important +results. A great scholar and a great wit, three hundred years ago, +said that, in his opinion, there was a great mistake in the Vulgate, +which, as you all know, is the Latin translation of the Holy +Scriptures, and that, instead of saying "Vanity of vanities, all is +vanity"--_Vanitas_ _vanitatum_, _omnia_ _vanitas_--the wise and +witty king really said:"_Sanitas_ _sanitatum_, _omnia_ _sanitas_." +Gentlemen, it is impossible to overrate the importance of the +subject. After all the first consideration of a minister should be +the health of the people. A land may be covered with historic +trophies, with museums of science and galleries of art, with +universities and with libraries; the people may be civilized and +ingenious; the country may be even famous in the annals and action +of the world, but, gentlemen, if the population every ten years +decreases, and the stature of the race every ten years diminishes, +the history of that country will soon be the history of the past. + +Gentlemen, I said I had not come here to make a party speech. I +have addressed you upon subjects of grave, and I will venture to +believe of general, interest; but to be here and altogether silent +upon the present state of public affairs would not be respectful to +you, and, perhaps, on the whole, would be thought incongruous. +Gentlemen, I cannot pretend that our position either at home or +abroad is in my opinion satisfactory. At home, at a period of +immense prosperity, with a people contented and naturally loyal, we +find to our surprise the most extravagant doctrines professed and +the fundamental principles of our most valuable institutions +impugned, and that, too, by persons of some authority. Gentlemen, +this startling inconsistency is accounted for, in my mind, by the +circumstances under which the present administration was formed. It +is the first instance in my knowledge of a British administration +being avowedly formed on a principle of violence. It is unnecessary +for me to remind you of the circumstances which preceded the +formation of that government. You were the principal scene and +theatre of the development of statesmanship that then occurred. You +witnessed the incubation of the portentous birth. You remember when +you were informed that the policy to secure the prosperity of +Ireland and the content of Irishmen was a policy of sacrilege and +confiscation. Gentlemen, when Ireland was placed under the wise and +able administration of Lord Abercorn, Ireland was prosperous, and I +may say content. But there happened at that time a very peculiar +conjuncture in politics. The Civil War in America had just ceased; +and a band of military adventurers--Poles, Italians, and many +Irishmen--concocted in New York a conspiracy to invade Ireland, +with the belief that the whole country would rise to welcome them. +How that conspiracy was baffled--how those plots were confounded, +I need not now remind you. For that we were mainly indebted to the +eminent qualities of a great man who has just left us. You remember +how the constituencies were appealed to to vote against the +government which had made so unfit an appointment as that of Lord +Mayo to the vice-royalty of India. It was by his great qualities +when Secretary for Ireland, by his vigilance, his courage, his +patience, and his perseverance that this conspiracy was defeated. +Never was a minister better informed. He knew what was going on at +New York just as well as what was going on in the city of Dublin. + +When the Fenian conspiracy had been entirely put down, it became +necessary to consider the policy which it was expedient to pursue in +Ireland; and it seemed to us at that time that what Ireland required +after all the excitement which it had experienced was a policy which +should largely develop its material resources. There were one or two +subjects of a different character, which, for the advantage of the +State, it would have been desirable to have settled, if that could +have been effected with a general concurrence of both the great +parties in that country. Had we remained in office, that would have +been done. But we were destined to quit it, and we quitted it +without a murmur. The policy of our successors was different. Their +specific was to despoil churches and plunder landlords, and what has +been the result? Sedition rampant, treason thinly veiled, and +whenever a vacancy occurs in the representation a candidate is +returned pledged to the disruption of the realm. Her Majesty's new +ministers proceeded in their career like a body of men under the +influence of some delirious drug. Not satiated with the spoliation +and anarchy of Ireland, they began to attack every institution and +every interest, every class and calling in the country. It is +curious to observe their course. They took into hand the army. What +have they done? I will not comment on what they have done. I will +historically state it, and leave you to draw the inference. So long +as constitutional England has existed there has been a jealousy +among all classes against the existence of a standing army. As our +empire expanded, and the existence of a large body of disciplined +troops became a necessity, every precaution was taken to prevent the +danger to our liberties which a standing army involved. + +It was a first principle not to concentrate in the island any +overwhelming number of troops, and a considerable portion was +distributed in the colonies. Care was taken that the troops +generally should be officered by a class of men deeply interested in +the property and the liberties of England. So extreme was the +jealousy that the relations between that once constitutional force, +the militia, and the sovereign were rigidly guarded, and it was +carefully placed under local influences. All this is changed. We +have a standing army of large amount, quartered and brigaded and +encamped permanently in England, and fed by a considerable and +constantly increasing reserve. + +It will in due time be officered by a class of men eminently +scientific, but with no relations necessarily with society; while +the militia is withdrawn from all local influences, and placed under +the immediate command of the Secretary of War. Thus, in the +nineteenth century, we have a large standing army established in +England, contrary to all the traditions of the land, and that by a +Liberal government, and with the warm acclamations of the Liberal +party. + +Let us look what they have done with the Admiralty. You remember, +in this country especially, the denunciations of the profligate +expenditure of the Conservative government, and you have since had +an opportunity of comparing it with the gentler burden of Liberal +estimates. The navy was not merely an instance of profligate +expenditure, but of incompetent and inadequate management. A great +revolution was promised in its administration. A gentleman +[Mr. Childers], almost unknown to English politics, was strangely +preferred to one of the highest places in the councils of her +Majesty. He set to at his task with ruthless activity. The +Consulative Council, under which Nelson had gained all his +victories, was dissolved. The secretaryship of the Admiralty, an +office which exercised a complete supervision over every division of +that great department,--an office which was to the Admiralty what +the Secretary of State is to the kingdom,--which, in the qualities +which it required and the duties which it fulfilled, was rightly a +stepping-stone to the cabinet, as in the instances of Lord Halifax, +Lord Herbert, and many others,--was reduced to absolute +insignificance. Even the office of Control, which of all others +required a position of independence, and on which the safety of the +navy mainly depended, was deprived of all its important attributes. +For two years the opposition called the attention of Parliament to +these destructive changes, but Parliament and the nation were alike +insensible. Full of other business, they could not give a thought +to what they looked upon merely as captious criticism. It requires +a great disaster to command the attention of England; and when +the Captain was lost, and when they had the detail of the perilous +voyage of the Megara, then public indignation demanded a complete +change in this renovating administration of the navy. + +And what has occurred? It is only a few weeks since that in the +House of Commons I heard the naval statement made by a new First +Lord [Mr. Goschen], and it consisted only of the rescinding of all +the revolutionary changes of his predecessor, the mischief of every +one of which during the last two years has been pressed upon the +attention of Parliament and the country by that constitutional and +necessary body, the Opposition. Gentlemen, it will not do for +me--considering the time I have already occupied, and there are +still some subjects of importance that must be touched--to dwell +upon any of the other similar topics, of which there is a rich +abundance. I doubt not there is in this hall more than one farmer +who has been alarmed by the suggestion that his agricultural +machinery should be taxed. + +I doubt not there is in this hall more than one publican who +remembers that last year an act of Parliament was introduced to +denounce him as a "sinner." I doubt not there are in this hall a +widow and an orphan who remember the profligate proposition to +plunder their lonely heritage. But, gentlemen, as time advanced it +was not difficult to perceive that extravagance was being +substituted for energy by the government. The unnatural stimulus +was subsiding. Their paroxysms ended in prostration. Some took +refuge in melancholy, and their eminent chief alternated between a +menace and a sigh. As I sat opposite the treasury bench the +ministers reminded me of one of those marine landscapes not very +unusual on the coast of South America. You behold a range of +exhausted volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest. +But the situation is still dangerous. There are occasional +earthquakes, and ever and anon the dark rumbling of the sea. + +But, gentlemen, there is one other topic on which I must touch. If +the management of our domestic affairs has been founded upon a +principle of violence, that certainly cannot be alleged against the +management of our external relations. I know the difficulty of +addressing a body of Englishmen on these topics. The very phrase +"Foreign Affairs" makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to +treat of subjects with which be has no concern. Unhappily the +relations of England to the rest of the world, which are "Foreign +Affairs," are the matters which most influence his lot. Upon them +depends the increase or reduction of taxation. Upon them depends +the enjoyment or the embarrassment of his industry. And yet, though +so momentous are the consequences of the mismanagement of our +foreign relations, no one thinks of them till the mischief occurs +and then it is found how the most vital consequences have been +occasioned by mere inadvertence. + +I will illustrate this point by two anecdotes. Since I have been in +public life there has been for this country a great calamity and +there is a great danger, and both might have been avoided. The +calamity was the Crimean War. You know what were the consequences +of the Crimean War: A great addition to your debt, an enormous +addition to your taxation, a cost more precious than your treasure +--the best blood of England. Half a million of men, I believe, +perished in that great undertaking. Nor are the evil consequences +of that war adequately described by what I have said. All the +disorders and disturbances of Europe, those immense armaments that +are an incubus on national industry and the great obstacle to +progressive civilization, may be traced and justly attributed to the +Crimean War. And yet the Crimean War need never have occurred. + +When Lord Derby acceded to office, against his own wishes, in 1852, +the Liberal party most unconstitutionally forced him to dissolve +Parliament at a certain time by stopping the supplies, or at least +by limiting the period for which they were voted. There was not a +single reason to justify that course, for Lord Derby had only +accepted office, having once declined it, on the renewed application +of his sovereign. The country, at the dissolution, increased the +power of the Conservative party, but did not give to Lord Derby a +majority, and he had to retire from power. There was not the +slightest chance of a Crimean War when he retired from office; but +the Emperor of Russia, believing that the successor of Lord Derby +was no enemy to Russian aggression in the East, commenced those +proceedings, with the result of which you are familiar. I speak of +what I know, not of what I believe, but of what I have evidence in +my possession to prove--that the Crimean War never would have +happened if Lord Derby had remained in office. + +The great danger is the present state of our relations with the +United States. When I acceded to office I did so, so far as +regarded the United States of America, with some advantage. During +the whole of the Civil War in America both my noble friend near me +and I had maintained a strict and fair neutrality. This was fully +appreciated by the government of the United States, and they +expressed their wish that with our aid the settlement of all +differences between the two governments should be accomplished. +They sent here a plenipotentiary, an honorable gentleman, very +intelligent and possessing general confidence. My noble friend near +me, with great ability, negotiated a treaty for the settlement of +all these claims. He was the first minister who proposed to refer +them to arbitration, and the treaty was signed by the American +government. It was signed, I think, on November 10th, on the eve of +the dissolution of Parliament. The borough elections that first +occurred proved what would be the fate of the ministry, and the +moment they were known in America the American government announced +that Mr. Reverdy Johnson, the American minister, had mistaken his +instructions, and they could not present the treaty to the Senate +for its sanction--the sanction of which there had been previously no +doubt. But the fact is that, as in the case of the Crimean War, it +was supposed that our successors would be favorable to Russian +aggression, so it was supposed that by the accession to office of +Mr. Gladstone and a gentleman you know well, Mr. Bright, the +American claims would be considered in a very different spirit. How +they have been considered is a subject which, no doubt, occupies +deeply the minds of the people of Lancashire. Now, gentlemen, +observe this--the question of the Black Sea involved in the +Crimean War, the question of the American claims involved in our +negotiations with Mr. Johnson, are the two questions that have again +turned up, and have been the two great questions that have been +under the management of his government. + +How have they treated them? Prince Gortschakoff, thinking he saw an +opportunity, announced his determination to break from the Treaty of +Paris, and terminate all the conditions hostile to Russia which had +been the result of the Crimean War. What was the first movement on +the part of our government is at present a mystery. This we know, +that they selected the most rising diplomatist of the day and sent +him to Prince Bismarck with a declaration that the policy of Russia, +if persisted in, was war with England. Now, gentlemen, there was +not the slightest chance of Russia going to war with England, and no +necessity, as I shall always maintain, of England going to war with +Russia. I believe I am not wrong in stating that the Russian +government was prepared to withdraw from the position they had +rashly taken; but suddenly her Majesty's government, to use a +technical phrase, threw over the plenipotentiary, and, instead of +threatening war, if the Treaty of Paris were violated, agreed to +arrangements by which the violation of that treaty should be +sanctioned by England, and, in the form of a congress, showed +themselves guaranteeing their own humiliation. That Mr. Odo Russell +made no mistake is quite obvious, because he has since been selected +to be her Majesty's ambassador at the most important court of +Europe. Gentlemen, what will be the consequence of this +extraordinary weakness on the part of the British government it is +difficult to foresee. Already we hear that Sebastopol is to be +refortified, nor can any man doubt that the entire command of the +Black Sea will soon be in the possession of Russia. The time may +not be distant when we may hear of the Russian power in the Persian +Gulf, and what effect that may have upon the dominions of England +and upon those possessions on the productions of which you every +year more and more depend, are questions upon which it will be well +for you on proper occasions to meditate. + +I come now to that question which most deeply interests you at this +moment, and that is our relations with the United States. I +approved the government referring this question to arbitration. It +was only following the policy of Lord Stanley. My noble friend +disapproved the negotiations being carried on at Washington. I +confess that I would willingly have persuaded myself that this was +not a mistake, but reflection has convinced me that my noble friend +was right. I remember the successful negotiation of the +Clayton-Bulwer treaty by Sir Henry Bulwer. I flattered myself that +treaties at Washington might be successfully negotiated; but I agree +with my noble friend that his general view was far more sound than +my own. But no one, when that commission was sent forth, for a +moment could anticipate the course of its conduct under the strict +injunctions of the government. We believed that commission was sent +to ascertain what points should be submitted to arbitration, to be +decided by the principles of the law of nations. We had not the +slightest idea that that commission was sent with power and +instructions to alter the law of nations itself. When that result +was announced, we expressed our entire disapprobation; and yet +trusting to the representations of the government that matters were +concluded satisfactorily, we had to decide whether it were wise, if +the great result was obtained, to wrangle upon points however +important, such as those to which I have referred. + +Gentlemen, it appears that, though all parts of England were ready +to make those sacrifices, the two negotiating States--the +government of the United Kingdom and the government of the United +States--placed a different interpretation upon the treaty when the +time had arrived to put its provisions into practice. Gentlemen, in +my mind, and in the opinion of my noble friend near me, there was +but one course to take under the circumstances, painful as it might +be, and that was at once to appeal to the good feeling and good +sense of the United States, and, stating the difficulty, to invite +confidential conference whether it might not be removed. But her +Majesty's government took a different course. On December 15th her +Majesty's government were aware of a contrary interpretation being +placed on the Treaty of Washington by the American government. The +prime minister received a copy of their counter case, and he +confessed he had never read it. He had a considerable number of +copies sent to him to distribute among his colleagues, and you +remember, probably, the remarkable statement in which he informed +the house that he had distributed those copies to everybody except +those for whom they were intended. + +Time went on, and the adverse interpretation of the American +government oozed out, and was noticed by the press. Public alarm +and public indignation were excited; and it was only seven weeks +afterward, on the very eve of the meeting of Parliament,--some +twenty-four hours before the meeting of Parliament,--that her +Majesty's government felt they were absolutely obliged to make a +"friendly communication" to the United States that they had arrived +at an interpretation of the treaty the reverse of that of the +American government. What was the position of the American +government? Seven weeks had passed without their having received +the slightest intimation from her Majesty's ministers. They had +circulated their case throughout the world. They had translated it +into every European language. It had been sent to every court and +cabinet, to every sovereign and prime minister. It was impossible +for the American government to recede from their position, even if +they had believed it to be an erroneous one. And then, to aggravate +the difficulty, the prime minister goes down to Parliament, declares +that there is only one interpretation to be placed on the treaty, +and defies and attacks everybody who believes it susceptible of +another. + +Was there ever such a combination of negligence and blundering? And +now, gentlemen, what is about to happen? All we know is that her +Majesty's ministers are doing everything in their power to evade the +cognizance and criticism of Parliament. They have received an +answer to their "friendly communication"; of which, I believe, it +has been ascertained that the American government adhere to their +interpretation; and yet they prolong the controversy. What is about +to occur it is unnecessary for one to predict; but if it be this-- +if after a fruitless ratiocination worthy of a schoolman, we +ultimately agree so far to the interpretation of the American +government as to submit the whole case to arbitration, with feeble +reservation of a protest, if it be decided against us, I venture to +say that we shall be entering on a course not more distinguished by +its feebleness than by its impending peril. There is before us +every prospect of the same incompetence that distinguished our +negotiations respecting the independence of the Black Sea; and I +fear that there is every chance that this incompetence will be +sealed by our ultimately acknowledging these direct claims of the +United States, which, both as regards principle and practical +results, are fraught with the utmost danger to this country. +Gentlemen, don't suppose, because I counsel firmness and decision at +the right moment, that I am of that school of statesmen who are +favorable to a turbulent and aggressive diplomacy. I have resisted +it during a great part of my life. I am not unaware that the +relations of England to Europe have undergone a vast change during +the century that has just elapsed. The relations of England to +Europe are not the same as they were in the days of Lord Chatham or +Frederick the Great. The Queen of England has become the sovereign +of the most powerful of Oriental States. On the other side of the +globe there are now establishments belonging to her, teeming with +wealth and population, which will, in due time, exercise their +influence over the distribution of power. The old establishments of +this country, now the United States of America, throw their +lengthening shades over the Atlantic, which mix with European +waters. These are vast and novel elements in the distribution of +power. I acknowledge that the policy of England with respect to +Europe should be policy of reserve, but proud reserve; and in +answer to those statesmen--those mistaken statesmen who have +intimated the decay of the power of England and the decline of its +resources, I express here my confident conviction that there never +was a moment in our history when the power of England was so great +and her resources so vast and inexhaustible. + +And yet, gentlemen, it is not merely our fleets and armies, our +powerful artillery, our accumulated capital, and our unlimited +credit on which I so much depend, as upon that unbroken spirit of +her people, which I believe was never prouder of the imperial +country to which they belong. Gentlemen, it is to that spirit that I +above all things trust. I look upon the people of Lancashire as +fairly representative of the people of England. I think the manner +in which they have invited me here, locally a stranger, to receive +the expression of their cordial sympathy, and only because they +recognize some effort on my part to maintain the greatness of their +country, is evidence of the spirit of the land. I must express to +you again my deep sense of the generous manner in which you have +welcomed me, and in which you have permitted me to express to you my +views upon public affairs. Proud of your confidence, and encouraged +by your sympathy, I now deliver to you, as my last words, the cause +of the Tory party, of the English constitution, and of the British +empire. + + + +THE VENERABLE BEDE (672-735) + +The VENERABLE BEDE, "The father of English literature," was bora +about 672 in the county of Durham. The Anglo-Saxons, whose earliest +historian he was, had been converted by St. Austin and others by the +then not unusual process of preaching to the king until he was +persuaded to renounce heathenism both for himself and his +subjects. Bede, though born among a people not greatly addicted +either to religion or letters, became a remarkable preacher, +scholar, and thinker. Professionally a preacher, his sermons are +interesting, chiefly because they are the earliest specimens of +oratory extant from any Anglo-Saxon public speaker. + +Best known as the author of the 'Ecclesiastical History of England,' +Bede was a most prolific writer. He left a very considerable +collection of sermons or homilies, many of which are still +extant. He also wrote on science, on poetic art, on medicine, +philosophy, and rhetoric, not to mention his hymns and his 'Book of +Epigrams in Heroic and Elegaic Verse'--all very interesting and some +of them valuable, as any one may see who will take the trouble to +read them in his simple and easily understood Latin. It is a pity, +however, that they are not adequately translated and published in a +shape which would make the father of English eloquence the first +English rhetorician, as he was the first English philosopher, poet, +and historian, more readily accessible to the general public. + +Bede's sermons deal very largely in allegory, and though he may have +been literal in his celebrated suggestions of the horrors of hell-- +which were certainly literally understood by his hearers--it is +pertinent to quote in connection with them his own assertion, that +"he who knows how to interpret allegorically will see that the inner +sense excels the simplicity of the letter as apples do leaves." + +Bede's reputation spread not only through England but throughout +Western Europe and to Rome. Attempts were made to thrust honors on +him, but he refused them for fear they would prevent him from +learning. He taught in a monastery at Jarrow where at one time he +had six hundred monks and many strangers attending on his +discourses. + +He died in 735, just as he had completed the first translation of +the Gospel of John ever made into any English dialect. The present +Anglo-Saxon version, generally in use among English students, is +supposed to include that version if not actually to present its +exact language. The King James version comes from Bede's in a direct +line of descent through Wycliff and Tyndale. + + +THE MEETING OF MERCY AND JUSTICE + +There was a certain father of a family, a powerful king, who had +four daughters, of whom one was called Mercy, the second Truth, the +third Justice, the fourth Peace; of whom it is said, "Mercy and +Truth are met together; Justice and Peace have kissed each other." +He had also a certain most wise son, to whom no one could be +compared in wisdom. He had, also, a certain servant, whom he had +exalted and enriched with great honor: for he had made him after his +own likeness and similitude, and that without any preceding merit on +the servant's part. But the Lord, as is the custom with such wise +masters, wished prudently to explore, and to become acquainted with, +the character and the faith of his servant, whether he were +trustworthy towards himself or not; so he gave him an easy +commandment, and said, "If you do what I tell you, I will exalt you +to further honors; if not, you shall perish miserably." + +The servant heard the commandment, and without any delay went and +broke it. Why need I say more? Why need I delay you by my words and +by my tears? This proud servant, stiff-necked, full of contumely, +and puffed up with conceit, sought an excuse for his transgression, +and retorted the whole fault on his Lord. For when he said, "the +woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she deceived me," he threw all +the fault on his Maker. His Lord, more angry for such contumelious +conduct than for the transgression of his command, called four most +cruel executioners, and commanded one of them to cast him into +prison, another to afflict him with grievous torments; the third to +strangle him, and the fourth to behead him. By and by, when occasion +offers, I will give you the right name of these tormentors. + +These torturers, then, studying how they might carry out their own +cruelty, took the wretched man and began to afflict him with all +manner of punishments. But one of the daughters of the King, by +name Mercy, when she had heard of this punishment of the servant, +ran hastily to the prison, and looking in and seeing the man given +over to the tormentors, could not help having compassion upon him, +for it is the property of Mercy to have pity. She tore her garments +and struck her hands together, and let her hair fall loose about her +neck, and crying and shrieking, ran to her father, and kneeling +before his feet began to say with an earnest and sorrowful voice: +"My beloved father, am not I thy daughter Mercy? and art not thou +called merciful? If thou art merciful, have mercy upon thy servant; +and if thou wilt not have mercy upon him, thou canst not be called +merciful; and if thou art not merciful, thou canst not have me, +Mercy, for thy daughter." While she was thus arguing with her +father, her sister Truth came up, and demanded why it was that Mercy +was weeping. "Your sister Mercy," replied the father, "wishes me to +have pity upon that proud transgressor whose punishment I have +appointed." Truth, when she heard this, was excessively angry, and +looking sternly at her father, "Am not I," said she, "thy daughter +Truth? art not thou called true? Is it not true that thou didst +fix a punishment for him, and threaten him with death by torments? +If thou art true, thou wilt follow that which is true; if thou art +not true, thou canst not have me, Truth, for thy daughter." Here, +you see, Mercy and Truth are met together. The third sister, +namely, Justice, hearing this strife, contention, quarreling, and +pleading, and summoned by the outcry, began to inquire the cause +from Truth. And Truth, who could only speak that which was true, +said, "This sister of ours, Mercy, if she ought to be called a +sister who does not agree with us, desires that our father should +have pity on that proud transgressor." Then Justice, with an angry +countenance, and meditating on a grief which she had not expected, +said to her father, "Am not I thy daughter Justice? are thou not +called just? If thou art just, thou wilt exercise justice on the +transgressor; if thou dost not exercise that justice, thou canst not +be just; if thou art not just, thou canst not have me, Justice, for +thy daughter." So here were Truth and Justice on the one side, and +Mercy on the other. _Ultima_ _coelicolum_ _terras_ _Astrea_ +_reliquit_; this means, that Peace fled into a far distant country. +For where there is strife and contention, there is no peace; and by +how much greater the contention, by so much further peace is driven +away. + +Peace, therefore, being lost, and his three daughters in warm +discussion, the King found it an extremely difficult matter to +determine what he should do, or to which side he should lean. +For, if he gave ear to Mercy, he would offend Truth and Justice if +he gave ear to Truth and Justice, he could not have Mercy for his +daughter; and yet it was necessary that he should be both merciful +and just, and peaceful and true. There was great need then of good +advice. The father, therefore, called his wise son, and consulted +him about the affair. Said the son, "Give me my father, this present +business to manage, and I will both punish the transgressor for +thee, and will bring back to thee in peace thy four daughters." +"These are great promises," replied the father, "if the deed only +agrees with the word. If thou canst do that which thou sayest, I +will act as thou shalt exhort me." + +Having, therefore, received the royal mandate, the son took his +sister Mercy along with him, and leaping upon the mountains, passing +over the hills, came to the prison, and looking through the windows, +looking through the lattice, he beheld the imprisoned servant, shut +out from the present life, devoured of affliction, and from the sole +of his foot even to the crown there was no soundness in him. He saw +him in the power of death, because through him death entered into +the world. He saw him devoured, because, when a man is once dead he +is eaten of worms. And because I now have the opportunity of +telling you, you shall hear the names of the four tormentors. The +first, who put him in prison, is the Prison of the Present Life, of +which it is said, "Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in +Mesech"; the second, who tormented him, is the Misery of the World, +which besets us with all kinds of pain and wretchedness; the third, +who was putting him to death, conquered death, bound the strong man, +took his goods, and distributed the spoils; and ascending up on +high, led captivity captive and gave gifts for men, and brought back +the servant into his country, crowned with double honor, and endued +with a garment of immortality. When Mercy beheld this, she had no +grounds for complaint, Truth found no cause of discontent, because +her father was found true. The servant had paid all his penalties. +Justice in like manner complained not, because justice had been +executed on the transgressor; and thus he who had been lost was +found. Peace, therefore, when she saw her sisters at concord, came +back and united them. And now, behold, Mercy and Truth are met +together, Justice and Peace have kissed each other. Thus, +therefore, by the Mediator of man and angels, man was purified and +reconciled, and the hundredth sheep was brought back to the fold of +God. To which fold Jesus Christ brings us, to whom is honor and +power everlasting. Amen. + +A SERMON FOR ANY DAY + +Beloved brethren, it is time to pass from evil to good, from +darkness to light, from this most unfaithful world to everlasting +joys, lest that day take us unawares in which our Lord Jesus Christ +shall come to make the round world a desert, and to give over to +everlasting punishment sinners who would not repent of the sins +which they did. There is a great sin in lying, as saith Solomon, +"The lips which lie slay the soul. The wrath of man worketh not the +righteousness of God," no more doth his covetousness. Whence the +Apostle saith, "The love of money and pride are the root of all +evil." Pride, by which that apostate angel fell, who, as it is read +in the prophecy, "despised the beginning of the ways of God. How +art thou fallen from heaven!" We must avoid pride, which had power +to deceive angels; how much more will it have power to deceive men! +And we ought to fear envy, by which the devil deceived the first +man, as it is written, "Christ was crucified through envy, +therefore he that envieth his neighbor crucifieth Christ," + +See that ye always expect the advent of the Judge with fear and +trembling, lest he should find us unprepared; because the Apostle +saith, "My days shall come as a thief in the night." Woe to them +whom it shall find sleeping in sins, for "then," as we read in the +Gospel, "He shall gather all nations, and shall separate them one +from the other, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye +blessed of my Father," where there is no grief nor sorrow; where +there is no other sound but love, and peace, and everlasting +gladness with all the elect of God; where no good thing can be +wanting. Then shall the righteous answer and say, Lord, why hast +thou prepared such glory and such good things? He shall answer, for +mercy, for faith, for piety, and truth and the like. Lord, when +didst thou see these good things in us? The Lord shall answer, +"Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the +least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me, and what ye +did in secret, I will reward openly." Then shall the King say unto +them on his left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting +fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, where shall be weepjng +and gnashing of teeth," and tears of eyes; where death is desired +and comes not; where the worm dieth not and the fire is not +quenched; where is no joy, but sorrow; where is no rest, except +pain; where nothing is heard but lamentations. Then they also shall +answer and say, Lord, why hast thou prepared such punishments for +us? For your iniquity and malignity, the Lord shall say. + +Therefore, my brethren, I beseech you, that they who are in the +habits of good works would persevere in every good work; and that +they who are evil would amend themselves quickly, before sudden +death come upon them. While, therefore, we have time, let us do good +to all men, and let us leave off doing ill, that we may attain to +eternal life. + +THE TORMENTS OF HELL + +The Sunday is a chosen day, in which the angels rejoice. We must +ask who was the first to request that souls might (on Sunday) have +rest in hell; and the answer is that Paul the Apostle and Michael +the Archangel besought the Lord when they came back from hell; for +it was the Lord's will that Paul should see the punishments of that +place. He beheld trees all on fire, and sinners tormented on those +trees; and some were hung by the feet, some by the hands, some by +the hair, some by the neck, some by the tongue, and some by the arm. +And again, he saw a furnace of fire burning with seven flames, and +many were punished in it; and there were seven plagues round about +this furnace; the first, snow; the second, ice; the third, fire, the +fourth, blood; the fifth, serpents; the sixth, lightning; the +seventh, stench; and in that furnace itself were the souls of the +sinners who repented not in this life. There they are tormented, +and every one receiveth according to his works; some weep, some +howl, some groan; some burn and desire to have rest, but find it +not, because souls can never die. Truly we ought to fear that place +in which is everlasting dolor, in which is groaning, in which is +sadness without joy, in which are abundance of tears on account of +the tortures of souls; in which a fiery wheel is turned a thousand +times a day by an evil angel, and at each turn a thousand souls are +burnt upon it. After this he beheld a horrible river, in which were +many diabolic beasts, like fishes in the midst of the sea, which +devour the souls of sinners; and over that river there is a bridge, +across which righteous souls pass without dread, while the souls of +sinners suffer each one according to its merits. + +There Paul beheld many souls of sinners plunged, some to the knees, +some to the loins, some to the mouth, some to the eyebrows; and +every day and eternally they are tormented. And Paul wept, and asked +who they were that were therein plunged to the knees. And the angel +said, These are detractors and evil speakers; and those up to the +loins are fornicators and adulterers, who returned not to +repentance; and those to the mouth are they who went to Church, but +they heard not the word of God; and those to the eyebrows are they +who rejoiced in the wickedness of their neighbor. And after this, he +saw between heaven and earth the soul of a sinner, howling betwixt +seven devils, that had on that day departed from the body. And the +angels cried out against it and said, Woe to thee, wretched soul! +What hast thou done upon earth? Thou hast despised the commandments +of God, and hast done no good works; and therefore thou shalt be +cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of +teeth. And after this, in one moment, angels carried a soul from its +body to heaven; and Paul heard the voice of a thousand angels +rejoicing over it, and saying, O most happy and blessed soul! +rejoice to-day, because thou hast done the will of God. And they set +it in the presence of God. ... And the angel said, Whoso keepeth +the Sunday shall have his part with the angels of God. And Paul +demanded of the angel, how many kinds of punishment there were in +hell. And the angel said, there are a hundred and forty-four +thousand, and if there were a hundred eloquent men, each having four +iron tongues, that spoke from the beginning of the world, they could +not reckon up the torments of hell. But let us, beloved brethren, +hearing of these so great torments, be converted to our Lord that we +may be able to reign with the angels. + + + +HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813-1887) + +A very great orator must be a thoroughly representative man, +sensitive enough to be moved to the depths of his nature by the +master-passions of his time. Henry Ward Beecher was a very great +orator,--one of the greatest the country has produced,--and in his +speeches and orations inspired by the feelings which evolved the +Civil War and were themselves exaggerated by it to tenfold strength, +we feel all the volcanic forces which buried the primitive political +conditions of the United States deep under the ashes and lava of +their eruption. Words are feeble in the presence of the facts of +such a war. But what more could words do to suggest its meaning than +they do in Mr. Beecher's oration on the raising of the flag at Fort +Sumter, April 14th, 1865:-- + +"The soil has drunk blood and is glutted. Millions mourn for myriads +slain, or, envying the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns and villages +have been razed. Fruitful fields have been turned back to +wilderness. It came to pass as the prophet had said: 'The sun was +turned to darkness and the moon to blood.' The course of the law was +ended. The sword sat chief magistrate in half the nation; industry +was paralyzed; morals corrupted; the public weal invaded by rapine +and anarchy; whole States were ravaged by avenging armies. The world +was amazed. The earth reeled." + +In such passages, Mr. Beecher has something of the force which +immortalized the "Voluspa." The "bardic inspiration," which moved +the early Norse poets to sing the bloody results of the "Berserker +fury," peculiar to the Teutonic and Norse peoples, seems to control +him as he recounts the dreadful features of the war and reminds the +vanquished of the meaning of defeat. + +In considering the oratory inspired by the passions which found +their climax in the destructiveness of civil war,--and especially in +considering such magnificent outbursts as Mr. Beecher's oration at +Fort Sumter, intelligence will seek to free itself alike from +sympathy and from prejudice that it may the better judge the effect +of the general mind of the people on the orator, and the extent to +which that general mind as he voiced it, was influenced by the +strength of his individuality. If when we ourselves are moved by no +passion we judge with critical calmness the impassioned utterances +of the orators of any great epoch of disturbance, we can hardly fail +to be repelled by much that the critical faculties will reject as +exaggeration. But taking into account the environment, the +traditions, the public opinion, the various general or individual +impulses which influenced the oratory of one side or the other, we +can the better determine its true relation to the history of the +human intellect and that forward movement of the world which is but +a manifestation of the education of intellect. + +Mr. Beecher had the temperament, the habits, the physique of the +orator. His ancestry, his intellectual training, his surroundings, +fitted him to be a prophet of the crusade against slavery. Of those +names which for a time were bruited everywhere as a result of the +struggles of the three decades from 1850 to 1880, a majority are +already becoming obscure, and in another generation most of the rest +will be "names only" to all who are not students of history as a +specialty. But the mind in Henry Ward Beecher was so representative; +he was so fully mastered by the forces which sent Sherman on his +march to the sea and Grant to his triumph at Appomattox, that he +will always be remembered as one of the greatest orators of the +Civil War period. Perhaps when the events of the war are so far +removed in point of time as to make a critical judgment really +possible, he may even rank as the greatest. + +RAISING THE FLAG OVER FORT SUMTER (Delivered April 14th, 1865, by +request of President Lincoln) + +On this solemn and joyful day we again lift to the breeze our +fathers' flag, now again the banner of the United States, with the +fervent prayer that God will crown it with honor, protect it from +treason, and send it down to our children, with all the blessings of +civilization, liberty, and religion. Terrible in battle, may it be +beneficent in peace. Happily, no bird or beast of prey has been +inscribed upon it. The stars that redeem the night from darkness, +and the beams of red light that beautify the morning, have been +united upon its folds. As long as the sun endures, or the stars, +may it wave over a nation neither enslaved nor enslaving! Once, and +but once, has treason dishonored it. In that insane hour when the +guiltiest and bloodiest rebellion of all time hurled their fires +upon this fort, you, sir [turning to General Anderson], and a small, +heroic band, stood within these now crumbled walls, and did gallant +and just battle for the honor and defense of the nation's banner. +In that cope of fire, that glorious flag still peacefully waved to +the breeze above your head unconscious of harm as the stars and +skies above it. Once it was shot down. A gallant hand, in whose +care this day it has been, plucked it from the ground, and reared it +again--"cast down, but not destroyed." After a vain resistance, +with trembling hand and sad heart, you withdrew it from its height, +closed its wings, and bore it far away, sternly to sleep amid the +tumults of rebellion, and the thunder of battle. The first act of +war had begun. The long night of four years had set in. While the +giddy traitors whirled in a maze of exhilaration, dim horrors were +already advancing, that were ere long to fill the land with blood. +To-day you are returned again. We devoutly join with you in +thanksgiving to Almighty God that he has spared your honored life, +and vouchsafed to you the glory of this day. The heavens over you +are the same, the same shores are here, morning comes, and evening, +as they did. All else, how changed! What grim batteries crowd the +burdened shores! What scenes have filled this air, and disturbed +these waters! These shattered heaps of shapeless stone are all that +is left of Fort Sumter. Desolation broods in yonder city--solemn +retribution hath avenged our dishonored banner! You have come back +with honor, who departed hence four years ago, leaving the air +sultry with fanaticism. The surging crowds that rolled up their +frenzied shouts as the flag came down, are dead, or scattered, or +silent, and their habitations are desolate. Ruin sits in the cradle +of treason. Rebellion has perished. But there flies the same flag +that was insulted. With starry eyes it looks over this bay for the +banner that supplanted it, and sees it not. You that then, for the +day, were humbled, are here again, to triumph once and forever. In +the storm of that assault this glorious ensign was often struck; +but, memorable fact, not one of its stars was torn out by shot or +shell. It was a prophecy. It said: "Not a State shall be struck +from this nation by treason!" The fulfillment is at hand. Lifted +to the air to-day, it proclaims that after four years of war, "Not a +State is blotted out." Hail to the flag of our fathers, and our +flag! Glory to the banner that has gone through four years black +with tempests of war, to pilot the nation back to peace without +dismemberment! And glory be to God, who, above all hosts and +banners, hath ordained victory, and shall ordain peace. Wherefore +have we come hither, pilgrims from distant places? Are we come to +exult that Northern hands are stronger than Southern? No; but to +rejoice that the hands of those who defend a just and beneficent +government are mightier than the hands that assaulted it. Do we +exult over fallen cities? We exult that a nation has not fallen. +We sorrow with the sorrowful. We sympathize with the desolate. We +look upon this shattered fort and yonder dilapidated city with sad +eyes, grieved that men should have committed such treason, and glad +that God hath set such a mark upon treason that all ages shall dread +and abhor it. We exult, not for a passion gratified, but for a +sentiment victorious; not for temper, but for conscience; not, as we +devoutly believe, that our will is done, but that God's will hath +been done. We should be unworthy of that liberty intrusted to our +care, if, on such a day as this, we sullied our hearts by feelings +of aimless vengeance; and equally unworthy if we did not devoutly +thank him who hath said: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the +Lord," that he hath set a mark upon arrogant rebellion, ineffaceable +while time lasts. + +Since this flag went down on that dark day, who shall tell the +mighty woes that have made this land a spectacle to angels and men? +The soil has drunk blood and is glutted. Millions mourn for myriads +slain, or, envying the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns and villages +have been razed. Fruitful fields have been turned back to +wilderness. It came to pass, as the prophet said: "The sun was +turned to darkness and the moon to blood," The course of law was +ended. The sword sat chief magistrate in half the nation; industry +was paralyzed; morals corrupted; the public weal invaded by rapine +and anarchy; whole States ravaged by avenging armies. The world was +amazed. The earth reeled. When the flag sunk here, it was as if +political night had come, and all beasts of prey had come forth to +devour. That long night is ended. And for this returning day we +have come from afar to rejoice and give thanks. No more war. No +more accursed secession. No more slavery, that spawned them both. +Let no man misread the meaning of this unfolding flag! It says: +"Government has returned hither." It proclaims, in the name of +vindicated government, peace and protection to loyalty, humiliation +and pains to traitors. This is the flag of sovereignty. The +nation, not the States, is sovereign. Restored to authority, this +flag commands, not supplicates. There may be pardon, but no +concession. There may be amnesty and oblivion, but no honeyed +compromises. The nation to-day has peace for the peaceful, and war +for the turbulent. The only condition to submission is to submit! +There is the Constitution, there are the laws, there is the +government. They rise up like mountains of strength that shall not +be moved. They are the conditions of peace. One nation, under one +government, without slavery, has been ordained and shall stand. +There can be peace on no other basis. On this basis reconstruction +is easy, and needs neither architect nor engineer. Without this +basis no engineer nor architect shall ever reconstruct these +rebellious States. We do not want your cities or your fields. We +do not envy you your prolific soil, nor heavens full of perpetual +summer. Let agriculture revel here, let manufactures make every +stream twice musical, build fleets in every port, inspire the arts +of peace with genius second only to that of Athens, and we shall be +glad in your gladness, and rich in your wealth. All that we ask is +unswerving loyalty and universal liberty. And that, in the name of +this high sovereignty of the United States of America, we demand and +that, with the blessing of Almighty God, we will have! We raise our +fathers banner that it may bring back better blessings than those of +old; that it may cast out the devil of discord; that it may restore +lawful government, and a prosperity purer and more enduring than +that which it protected before; that it may win parted friends from +their alienation; that it may inspire hope, and inaugurate universal +liberty; that it may say to the sword, "Return to thy sheath"; and +to the plow and sickle, "Go forth"; that it may heal all jealousies, +unite all policies, inspire a new national life, compact our +strength, purify our principles, ennoble our national ambitions, and +make this people great and strong, not for agression and +quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world, giving to us the +glorious prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to more +humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to rational, instituted +civil liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood. Reverently, +piously, in hopeful patriotism, we spread this banner on the sky, as +of old the bow was painted on the cloud and, with solemn fervor, +beseech God to look upon it, and make it a memorial of an +everlasting covenant and decree that never again on this fair land +shall a deluge of blood prevail. Why need any eye turn from this +spectacle? Are there not associations which, overleaping the recent +past, carry us back to times when, over North and South, this flag +was honored alike by all? In all our colonial days we were one, in +the long revolutionary struggle, and in the scores of prosperous +years succeeding, we were united. When the passage of the Stamp Act +in 1765 aroused the colonies, it was Gadsden, of South Carolina, +that cried, with prescient enthusiasm, "We stand on the broad common +ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men. +There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on this +continent, but all of us," said he, "Americans." That was the voice +of South Carolina. That shall be the voice of South Carolina. +Faint is the echo; but it is coming. We now hear it sighing sadly +through the pines; but it shall yet break in thunder upon the shore. +No North, no West, no South, but the United States of America. +There is scarcely a man born in the South who has lifted his hand +against this banner but had a father who would have died for it. Is +memory dead? Is there no historic pride? Has a fatal fury struck +blindness or hate into eyes that used to look kindly towards each +other, that read the same Bible, that hung over the historic pages +of our national glory, that studied the same Constitution? Let this +uplifting bring back all of the past that was good, but leave in +darkness all that was bad. It was never before so wholly unspotted; +so clear of all wrong, so purely and simply the sign of justice and +liberty. Did I say that we brought back the same banner that you +bore away, noble and heroic sir? It is not the same. It is more +and better than it was. The land is free from slavery since that +banner fell. + +When God would prepare Moses for emancipation, he overthrew his +first steps and drove him for forty years to brood in the +wilderness. When our flag came down, four years it lay brooding in +darkness. It cried to the Lord, "Wherefore am I deposed?" Then +arose before it a vision of its sin. It had strengthened the +strong, and forgotten the weak. It proclaimed liberty, but trod +upon slaves. In that seclusion it dedicated itself to liberty. +Behold, to-day, it fulfills its vows! When it went down four +million people had no flag. To-day it rises, and four million +people cry out, "Behold our flag!" Hark! they murmur. It is the +Gospel that they recite in sacred words: "It is a Gospel to the +poor, it heals our broken hearts, it preaches deliverance to +captives, it gives sight to the blind, it sets at liberty them that +are bruised." Rise up then, glorious Gospel banner, and roll out +these messages of God. Tell the air that not a spot now sullies thy +whiteness. Thy red is not the blush of shame, but the flush of joy. +Tell the dews that wash thee that thou art as pure as they. Say to +the night that thy stars lead toward the morning; and to the +morning, that a brighter day arises with healing in its wings. And +then, O glowing flag, bid the sun pour light on all thy folds with +double brightness while thou art bearing round and round the world +the solemn joy--a race set free! a nation redeemed! The mighty +hand of government, made strong in war by the favor of the God of +Battles, spreads wide to-day the banner of liberty that went down in +darkness, that arose in light; and there it streams, like the sun +above it, neither parceled out nor monopolized, but flooding the air +with light for all mankind. Ye scattered and broken, ye wounded and +dying, bitten by the fiery serpents of oppression, everywhere, in +all the world, look upon this sign, lifted up, and live! And ye +homeless and houseless slaves, look, and ye are free! At length +you, too, have part and lot in this glorious ensign that broods with +impartial love over small and great, the poor and the strong, the +bond and the free. In this solemn hour, let us pray for the quick +coming of reconciliation and happiness under this common flag. But +we must build again, from the foundations, in all these now free +Southern States. No cheap exhortations "to forgetfulness of the +past, to restore all things as they were," will do. God does not +stretch out his hand, as he has for four dreadful years, that men +may easily forget the might of his terrible acts. Restore things as +they were! What, the alienations and jealousies, the discords and +contentions, and the causes of them? No. In that solemn sacrifice +on which a nation has offered for its sins so many precious victims, +loved and lamented, let our sins and mistakes be consumed utterly +and forever. No, never again shall things be restored as before the +war. It is written in God's decree of events fulfilled, "Old things +are passed away." That new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, +draws near. Things as they were! Who has an omnipotent hand to +restore a million dead, slain in battle or wasted by sickness, or +dying of grief, broken-hearted? Who has omniscience to search for +the scattered ones? Who shall restore the lost to broken families? +Who shall bring back the squandered treasure, the years of industry +wasted, and convince you that four years of guilty rebellion and +cruel war are no more than dirt upon the hand, which a moment's +washing removes and leaves the hand clean as before? Such a war +reaches down to the very vitals of society. Emerging from such a +prolonged rebellion, he is blind who tells you that the State, by a +mere amnesty and benevolence of government, can be put again, by a +mere decree, in its old place. It would not be honest, it would not +be kind or fraternal, for me to pretend that Southern revolution +against the Union has not reacted, and wrought revolution in the +Southern States themselves, and inaugurated a new dispensation. +Society here is like a broken loom, and the piece which Rebellion +put in, and was weaving, has been cut, and every thread broken. You +must put in new warp and new woof, and weaving anew, as the fabric +slowly unwinds we shall see in it no Gorgon figures, no hideous +grotesques of the old barbarism, but the figures of liberty, vines, +and golden grains, framing in the heads of justice, love, and +liberty. The august convention of 1787 formed the Constitution with +this memorable preamble: "We, the people of the United States, in +order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure +domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the +general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves +and our posterity, do ordain this Constitution for the United States +of America." Again, in the awful convention of war, the people of +the United States, for the very ends just recited, have debated, +settled, and ordained certain fundamental truths, which must +henceforth be accepted and obeyed. Nor is any State nor any +individual wise who shall disregard them. They are to civil affairs +what the natural laws are to health--indispensable conditions of +peace and happiness. What are the ordinances given by the people, +speaking out of fire and darkness of war, with authority inspired by +that same God who gave the law from Sinai amid thunders and trumpet +voices? 1. That these United States shall be one and indivisible. +2. That States have not absolute sovereignty, and have no right to +dismember the Republic. 3. That universal liberty is indispensable +to republican government, and that slavery shall be utterly and +forever abolished. + +Such are the results of war! These are the best fruits of the war. +They are worth all they have cost. They are foundations of peace. +They will secure benefits to all nations as well as to ours. Our +highest wisdom and duty is to accept the facts as the decrees of +God. We are exhorted to forget all that has happened. Yes, the +wrath, the conflict, the cruelty, but not those overruling decrees +of God which this war has pronounced. As solemnly as on Mount +Sinai, God says, "Remember! remember!" Hear it to-day. Under this +sun, tinder that bright child of the sun, our banner, with the eyes +of this nation and of the world upon us, we repeat the syllables of +God's providence and recite the solemn decrees: No more Disunion! +No more Secession! No more Slavery! Why did this civil war begin? +We do not wonder that European statesmen failed to comprehend this +conflict, and that foreign philanthropists were shocked at a +murderous war that seemed to have no moral origin, but, like the +brutal fights of beasts of prey, to have sprung from ferocious +animalism. This great nation, filling all profitable latitudes, +cradled between two oceans, with inexhaustible resources, with +riches increasing in an unparalleled ratio, by agriculture, by +manufactures, by commerce, with schools and churches, with books and +newspapers thick as leaves in our own forests, with institutions +sprung from the people, and peculiarly adapted to their genius; a +nation not sluggish, but active, used to excitement, practiced in +political wisdom, and accustomed to self-government, and all its +vast outlying parts held together by the Federal government, mild in +temper, gentle in administration, and beneficent in results, seemed +to have been formed for peace. All at once, in this hemisphere of +happiness and hope, there came trooping clouds with fiery bolts, +full of death and desolation. At a cannon shot upon this fort, all +the nation, as if it had been a trained army lying on its arms, +awaiting a signal, rose up and began a war which, for awfulness, +rises into the front rank of bad eminence. The front of the battle, +going with the sun, was twelve hundred miles long; and the depth, +measured along a meridian, was a thousand miles. In this vast area +more than two million men, first and last, for four years, have, in +skirmish, fight, and battle, met in more than a thousand conflicts; +while a coast and river line, not less than four thousand miles in +length, has swarmed with fleets freighted with artillery. The very +industry of the country seemed to have been touched by some infernal +wand, and, with sudden wheel, changed its front from peace to war. +The anvils of the land beat like drums. As out of the ooze emerge +monsters, so from our mines and foundries uprose new and strange +machines of war, ironclad. And so, in a nation of peaceful habits, +without external provocation, there arose such a storm of war as +blackened the whole horizon and hemisphere. What wonder that +foreign observers stood amazed at this fanatical fury, that seemed +without Divine guidance, but inspired wholly with infernal frenzy. +The explosion was sudden, but the train had long been laid. We must +consider the condition of Southern society, if we would understand +the mystery of this iniquity. Society in the South resolves itself +into three divisions, more sharply distinguished than in any other +part of the nation. At the base is the laboring class, made up of +slaves. Next is the middle class, made up of traders, small +farmers, and poor men. The lower edge of this class touches the +slave, and the upper edge reaches up to the third and ruling class. +This class was a small minority in numbers, but in practical ability +they had centred in their hands the whole government of the South, +and had mainly governed the country. Upon this polished, cultured, +exceedingly capable, and wholly unprincipled class, rests the whole +burden of this war. Forced up by the bottom heat of slavery, the +ruling class in all the disloyal States arrogated to themselves a +superiority not compatible with republican equality, nor with just +morals. They claimed a right of pre-eminence. An evil prophet +arose who trained these wild and luxuriant shoots of ambition to the +shapely form of a political philosophy. By its reagents they +precipitated drudgery to the bottom of society, and left at the top +what they thought to be a clarified fluid. In their political +economy, labor was to be owned by capital; in their theory of +government, the few were to rule the many. They boldly avowed, not +the fact alone, that, under all forms of government, the few rule +the many, but their right and duty to do so. Set free from the +necessity of labor, they conceived a contempt for those who felt its +wholesome regimen. Believing themselves foreordained to supremacy, +they regarded the popular vote, when it failed to register their +wishes, as an intrusion and a nuisance. They were born in a garden, +and popular liberty, like freshets overswelling their banks, but +covered their dainty walks and flowers with slime and mud--of +democratic votes. When, with shrewd observation, they saw the +growth of the popular element in the Northern States, they +instinctively took in the inevitable events. It must be controlled +or cut off from a nation governed by gentlemen! Controlled, less +and less, could it be in every decade; and they prepared secretly, +earnestly, and with wide conference and mutual connivance, to +separate the South from the North. We are to distinguish between +the pretenses and means, and the real causes of this war. To +inflame and unite the great middle class of the South, who had no +interest in separation and no business with war, they alleged +grievances that never existed, and employed arguments which they, +better than all other men, knew to be specious and false. + +Slavery itself was cared for only as an instrument of power or of +excitement. They had unalterably fixed their eye upon empire, and +all was good which would secure that, and bad which hindered it. +Thus, the ruling class of the South--an aristocracy as intense, +proud, and inflexible as ever existed--not limited either by +customs or institutions, not recognised and adjusted in the regular +order of society, playing a reciprocal part in its machinery, but +secret, disowning its own existence, baptized with ostentatious +names of democracy, obsequious to the people for the sake of +governing them; this nameless, lurking aristocracy, that ran in the +blood of society like a rash not yet come to the skin; this +political tapeworm, that produced nothing, but lay coiled in the +body, feeding on its nutriment, and holding the whole structure to +be but a servant set up to nourish it--this aristocracy of the +plantation, with firm and deliberate resolve, brought on the war, +that they might cut the land in two, and, clearing themselves from +an incorrigibly free society, set up a sterner, statelier empire, +where slaves worked that gentlemen might live at ease. Nor can +there be any doubt that though, at first, they meant to erect the +form of republican government, this was but a device, a step +necessary to the securing of that power by which they should be able +to change the whole economy of society. That they never dreamed of +such a war, we may well believe. That they would have accepted it, +though twice as bloody, if only thus they could rule, none can doubt +that knows the temper of these worst men of modern society. But +they miscalculated. They understood the people of the South; but +they were totally incapable of understanding the character of the +great working classes of the loyal States. That industry, which is +the foundation of independence, and so of equity, they stigmatized +as stupid drudgery, or as mean avarice. That general intelligence +and independence of thought which schools for the common people and +newspapers breed, they reviled as the incitement of unsettled zeal, +running easily into fanaticism. They more thoroughly misunderstood +the profound sentiment of loyality, the deep love of country, which +pervaded the common people. If those who knew them best had never +suspected the depth and power of that love of country which threw it +into an agony of grief when the flag was here humbled, how should +they conceive of it who were wholly disjoined from them in sympathy? +The whole land rose up, you remember, when the flag came down, as if +inspired unconsciously by the breath of the Almighty, and the power +of omnipotence. It was as when one pierces the banks of the +Mississippi for a rivulet, and the whole raging stream plunges +through with headlong course. There they calculated, and +miscalculated! And more than all, they miscalculated the bravery of +men who have been trained under law, who are civilized and hate +personal brawls, who are so protected by society as to have +dismissed all thought of self-defense, the whole force of whose life +is turned to peaceful pursuits. These arrogant conspirators against +government, with Chinese vanity, believed that they could blow away +these self-respecting citizens as chaff from the battlefield. Few +of them are left alive to ponder their mistake! Here, then, are the +roots of this civil war. It was not a quarrel of wild beasts, it +was an inflection of the strife of ages, between power and right, +between ambition and equity. An armed band of pestilent +conspirators sought the nation's life. Her children rose up and +fought at every door and room and hall, to thrust out the murderers +and save the house and household. It was not legitimately a war +between the common people of the North and South. The war was set +on by the ruling class, the aristocratic conspirators of the South. +They suborned the common people with lies, with sophistries, with +cruel deceits and slanders, to fight for secret objects which they +abhorred, and against interests as dear to them as their own lives, +I charge the whole guilt of this war upon the ambitious, educated, +plotting, political leaders of the South. They have shed this ocean +of blood. They have desolated the South. They have poured poverty +through all her towns and cities. They have bewildered the +imagination of the people with phantasms, and led them to believe +that they were fighting for their homes and liberty, whose homes +were unthreatened, and whose liberty was in no jeopardy. These +arrogant instigators of civil war have renewed the plagues of Egypt, +not that the oppressed might go free, but that the free might be +oppressed. A day will come when God will reveal judgment, and +arraign at his bar these mighty miscreants; and then, every orphan +that their bloody game has made, and every widow that sits +sorrowing, and every maimed and wounded sufferer, and every bereaved +heart in all the wide regions of this land, will rise up and come +before the Lord to lay upon these chief culprits of modern history +their awful witness. And from a thousand battlefields shall rise up +armies of airy witnesses, who, with the memory of their awful +sufferings, shall confront the miscreants with shrieks of fierce +accusation; and every pale and starved prisoner shall raise his +skinny hand in judgment. Blood shall call out for vengeance, and +tears shall plead for justice, and grief shall silently beckon, and +love, heart-smitten, shall wail for justice. Good men and angels +will cry out: "How long, O Lord, how long, wilt thou not avenge?" +And, then, these guiltiest and most remorseless traitors, these high +and cultured men,--with might and wisdom, used for the destruction +of their country,--the most accursed and detested of all criminals, +that have drenched a continent in needless blood, and moved the +foundations of their times with hideous crimes and cruelty, caught +up in black clouds, full of voices of vengeance and lurid with +punishment, shall be whirled aloft and plunged downwards forever and +forever in an endless retribution; while God shall say, "Thus shall +it be to all who betray their country"; and all in heaven and upon +the earth will say "Amen!" + +But for the people misled, for the multitudes drafted and driven +into this civil war, let not a trace of animosity remain. The +moment their willing hand drops the musket, and they return to their +allegiance, then stretch out your own honest right hand to greet +them. Recall to them the old days of kindness. Our hearts wait for +their redemption. All the resources of a renovated nation shall be +applied to rebuild their prosperity, and smooth down the furrows of +war. Has this long and weary period of strife been an unmingled +evil? Has nothing been gained? Yes, much. This nation has +attained to its manhood. Among Indian customs is one which admits +young men to the rank of warriors only after severe trials of +hunger, fatigue, pain, endurance. They reach their station, not +through years, but ordeals. Our nation has suffered, but now is +strong. The sentiment of loyalty and patriotism, next in importance +to religion, has been rooted and grounded. We have something to be +proud of, and pride helps love. Never so much as now did we love +our country. But four such years of education in ideas, in the +knowledge of political truth, in the love of history, in the +geography of our own country, almost every inch of which we have +probed with the bayonet, have never passed before. There is half a +hundred years' advance in four. We believed in our institutions and +principles before; but now we know their power. It is one thing to +look upon artillery, and be sure that it is loaded; it is another +thing to prove its power in battle! We believe in the hidden power +stored in our institutions; we had never before seen this nation +thundering like Mount Sinai at all those that worshiped the calf at +the base of the mountain. A people educated and moral are competent +to all the exigencies of national life. A vote can govern better +than a crown. We have proved it. A people intelligent and +religious are strong in all economic elements. They are fitted for +peace and competent to war. They are not easily inflamed, and, when +justly incensed, not easily extinguished. They are patient in +adversity, endure cheerfully needful burdens, tax themselves to meet +real wants more royally than any prince would dare to tax his +people. They pour forth without stint relief for the sufferings of +war, and raise charity out of the realm of a dole into a munificent +duty of beneficence. The habit of industry among free men prepares +them to meet the exhaustion of war with increase of productiveness +commensurate with the need that exists. Their habits of skill +enable them at once to supply such armies as only freedom can +muster, with arms and munitions such as only free industry can +create. Free society is terrible in war, and afterwards repairs the +mischief of war with celerity almost as great as that with which the +ocean heals the seams gashed in it by the keel of ploughing ships. +Free society is fruitful of military genius. It comes when called; +when no longer needed, it falls back as waves do to the level of the +common sea, that no wave may be greater than the undivided water. +With proof of strength so great, yet in its infancy, we stand up +among the nations of the world, asking no privileges, asserting no +rights, but quietly assuming our place, and determined to be second +to none in the race of civilization and religion. Of all nations we +are the most dangerous and the least to be feared. We need not +expound the perils that wait upon enemies that assault us. They are +sufficiently understood! But we are not a dangerous people because +we are warlike. All the arrogant attitudes of this nation, so +offensive to foreign governments, were inspired by slavery, and +under the administration of its minions. Our tastes, our habits, +our interests, and our principles, incline us to the arts of peace. +This nation was founded by the common people for the common people. +We are seeking to embody in public economy more liberty, with higher +justice and virtue, than have been organized before. By the +necessity of our doctrines, we are put in sympathy with the masses +of men in all nations. It is not our business to subdue nations, +but to augment the powers of the common people. The vulgar ambition +of mere domination, as it belongs to universal human nature, may +tempt us; but it is withstood by the whole force of our principles, +our habits, our precedents, and our legends. We acknowledge the +obligation which our better political principles lay upon us, to set +an example more temperate, humane, and just, than monarchical +governments can. We will not suffer wrong, and still less will we +inflict it upon other nations. Nor are we concerned that so many, +ignorant of our conflict, for the present, misconceive the reasons +of our invincible military zeal. "Why contend," say they, "for a +little territory that you do not need?" Because it is ours! +Because it is the interest of every citizen to save it from becoming +a fortress and refuge of iniquity. This nation is our house, and +our fathers' house; and accursed be the man who will not defend it +to the uttermost. More territory than we need! England, that is +not large enough to be our pocket, may think that it is more than we +need, because it is more than it needs; but we are better judges of +what we need than others are. + +Shall a philanthropist say to a banker, who defends himself against +a robber, "Why do you need so much money?" But we will not reason +with such questions. When any foreign nation willingly will divide +its territory and give it cheerfully away, we will answer the +question why we are fighting for territory! At present--for I pass +to the consideration of benefits that accrue to the South in +distinction from the rest of the nation--the South reaps only +suffering; but good seed lies buried under the furrows of war, that +peace will bring to harvest, 1. Deadly doctrines have been purged +away in blood. The subtle poison of secession was a perpetual +threat of revolution. The sword has ended that danger. That which +reason had affirmed as a philosophy, that people have settled as a +fact. Theory pronounces, "There can be no permanent government +where each integral particle has liberty to fly off." Who would +venture upon a voyage in a ship each plank and timber of which might +withdraw at its pleasure? But the people have reasoned by the logic +of the sword and of the ballot, and they have declared that States +are inseparable parts of the national government. They are not +sovereign. State rights remain; but sovereignty is a right higher +than all others; and that has been made into a common stock for the +benefit of all. All further agitation is ended. This element must +be cast out of political problems. Henceforth that poison will not +rankle in the blood. 2. Another thing has been learned: the rights +and duties of minorities. The people of the whole nation are of +more authority than the people of any section. These United States +are supreme over Northern, Western, and Southern States. It ought +not to have required the awful chastisement of this war to teach +that a minority must submit the control of the nation's government +to a majority. The army and navy have been good political +schoolmasters. The lesson is learned. Not for many generations +will it require further illustration. 3. No other lesson will be +more fruitful of peace than the dispersion of those conceits of +vanity, which, on either side, have clouded the recognition of the +manly courage of all Americans. If it be a sign of manhood to be +able to fight, then Americans are men. The North certainly is in no +doubt whatever of the soldierly qualities of Southern men. Southern +soldiers have learned that all latitudes breed courage on this +continent. Courage is a passport to respect. The people of all the +regions of this nation are likely hereafter to cherish a generous +admiration of each other's prowess. The war has bred respect, and +respect will breed affection, and affection peace and unity. 4. No +other event of the war can fill an intelligent Southern man, of +candid nature, with more surprise than the revelation of the +capacity, moral and military, of the black race. It is a revelation +indeed. No people were ever less understood by those most familiar +with them. They were said to be lazy, lying, impudent, and cowardly +wretches, driven by the whip alone to the tasks needful to their own +support and the functions of civilization. They were said to be +dangerous, bloodthirsty, liable to insurrection; but four years of +tumultuous distress and war have rolled across the area inhabited by +them, and I have yet to hear of one authentic instance of the +misconduct of a colored man. They have been patient and gentle and +docile, and full of faith and hope and piety; and, when summoned to +freedom, they have emerged with all the signs and tokens that +freedom will be to them what it was to us, the swaddling-band that +shall bring them to manhood. And after the government, honoring +them as men summoned them to the field, when once they were +disciplined, and had learned the arts of war, they have proved +themselves to be not second to their white brethren in arms. And +when the roll of men that have shed their blood is called in the +other land, many and many a dusky face will rise, dark no more when +the light of eternal glory shall shine upon it from the throne of +God! 5. The industry of the Southern States is regenerated, and now +rests upon a basis that never fails to bring prosperity. Just now +industry is collapsed; but it is not dead; it sleepeth. It is vital +yet. It will spring like mown grass from the roots that need but +showers and heat and time to bring them forth. Though in many +districts not a generation will see wanton wastes of self-invoked +war repaired, and many portions may lapse again to wilderness, yet, +in our lifetime, we shall see States, as a whole, raised to a +prosperity, vital, wholesome, and immovable, 6. The destruction of +class interests, working with a religion which tends toward true +democracy, in proportion as it is pure and free, will create a new +era of prosperity for the common laboring people of the South, Upon +them have come the labor, the toil, and the loss of this war. They +have fought blindfolded. They have fought for a class that sought +their degradation, while they were made to believe that it was for +their own homes and altars. Their leaders meant a supremacy which +would not long have left them political liberty, save in name. But +their leaders are swept away. The sword has been hungry for the +ruling classes. It has sought them out with remorseless zeal. New +men are to rise up; new ideas are to bud and blossom; and there will +be men with different ambition and altered policy. 7, Meanwhile, +the South, no longer a land of plantations, but of farms; no longer +tilled by slaves, but by freedmen, will find no hindrance to the +spread of education. Schools will multiply. Books and papers will +spread. Churches will bless every hamlet. There is a good day +coming for the South. Through darkness and tears and blood she has +sought it. It has been an unconscious _via_ _dolorosa_. But in the +end it will be worth all that it has cost. Her institutions before +were deadly. She nourished death in her bosom. The greater her +secular prosperity, the more sure was her ruin. Every year of delay +but made the change more terrible. Now, by an earthquake, the evil +is shaken down. And her own historians, in a better day, shall +write, that from the day the sword cut off the cancer, she began to +find her health. What, then, shall hinder the rebuilding of the +Republic? The evil spirit is cast out: why should not this nation +cease to wander among tombs, cutting itself? Why should it not +come, clothed and in its right mind, to "sit at the feet of Jesus"? +Is it feared that the government will oppress the conquered States? +What possible motive has the government to narrow the base of that +pyramid on which its own permanence depends? Is it feared that the +rights of the States will be withheld? The South is not more +jealous of State rights than the North. State rights from the +earliest colonial days have been the peculiar pride and jealousy of +New England. In every stage of national formation, it was +peculiarly Northern, and not Southern, statesmen that guarded State +rights as we were forming the Constitution. But once united, the +loyal States gave up forever that which had been delegated to the +national government. And now, in the hour of victory, the loyal +States do not mean to trench upon Southern State rights. They will +not do it, nor suffer it to be done. There is not to be one rule +for high latitudes and another for low. We take nothing from the +Southern States that has not already been taken from the Northern. +The South shall have just those rights that every eastern, every +middle, every western State has--no more, no less. We are not +seeking our own aggrandizement by impoverishing the South. Its +prosperity is an indispensable element of our own. + +We have shown, by all that we have suffered in war, how great is our +estimate of the Southern States of this Union; and we will measure +that estimate, now, in peace, by still greater exertions for their +rebuilding. Will reflecting men not perceive, then, the wisdom of +accepting established facts, and, with alacrity of enterprise, begin +to retrieve the past? Slavery cannot come back. It is the interest, +therefore, of every man to hasten its end. Do you want more war? Are +you not yet weary of contest? Will you gather up the unexploded +fragments of this prodigious magazine of all mischief, and heap them +up for continued explosions? Does not the South need peace? And, +since free labor is inevitable, will you have it in its worst forms +or in its best? Shall it be ignorant, impertinent, indolent, or +shall it be educated, self-respecting, moral, and self-supporting? +Will you have men as drudges, or will you have them as citizens? +Since they have vindicated the government, and cemented its +foundation stones with their blood, may they not offer the tribute +of their support to maintain its laws and its policy? It is better +for religion; it is better for political integrity; it is better for +industry; it is better for money--if you will have that ground +motive--that you should educate the black man, and, by education, +make him a citizen. They who refuse education to the black man would +turn the South into a vast poorhouse, and labor into a pendulum, +incessantly vibrating between poverty and indolence. From this +pulpit of broken stone we speak forth our earnest greeting to all +our land. We offer to the President of these United States our +solemn congratulations that God has sustained his life and health +under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings of four bloody years, +and permitted him to behold this auspicious consummation of that +national unity for which he has waited with so much patience and +fortitude, and for which he has labored with such disinterested +wisdom. To the members of the government associated with him in the +administration of perilous affairs in critical times; to the +senators and representatives of the United States, who have eagerly +fashioned the instruments by which the popular will might express +and enforce itself, we tender our grateful thanks. To the officers +and men of the army and navy, who have so faithfully, skillfully, +and gloriously upheld their country's authority, by suffering, +labor, and sublime courage, we offer a heart-tribute beyond the +compass of words. Upon those true and faithful citizens, men and +women, who have borne up with unflinching hope in the darkest hour, +and covered the land with their labor of love and charity, we invoke +the divinest blessing of him whom they have so truly imitated. But +chiefly to thee, God of our fathers, we render thanksgiving and +praise for that wondrous Providence that has brought forth from such +a harvest of war the seed of so much liberty and peace! We invoke +peace upon the North. Peace be to the West! Peace be upon the South! +In the name of God we lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, +union, and liberty, now and for evermore! Amen. + + +EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF LINCOLN (Delivered in Brooklyn, April +16th. 1865) + +Again a great leader of the people has passed through toil, sorrow, +battle, and war, and come near to the promised land of peace, into +which he might not pass over. Who shall recount our martyr's +sufferings for this people? Since the November of 1860, his horizon +has been black with storms. By day and by night, he trod a way of +danger and darkness. On his shoulders rested a government dearer to +him than his own life. At its integrity millions of men were striking +at home. Upon this government foreign eyes lowered. It stood like a +lone island in a sea full of storms, and every tide and wave seemed +eager to devour it. Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows and +anxieties have rested, but not on one such, and in such measure, as +upon that simple, truthful, noble soul, our faithful and sainted +Lincoln. Never rising to the enthusiasm of more impassioned natures +in hours of hope, and never sinking with the mercurial in hours of +defeat to the depths of despondency, he held on with unmovable +patience and fortitude, putting caution against hope, that it might +not be premature, and hope against caution, that it might not yield +to dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly, through four black and +dreadful purgatorial years, wherein God was cleansing the sin of his +people as by fire. + +At last, the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the country. The +mountains began to give forth their forms from out the darkness, and +the East came rushing toward us with arms full of joy for all our +sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad exceedingly that had +sorrowed immeasurably. Peace could bring to no other heart such joy, +such rest, such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he looked +upon it as Moses looked upon the promised land. Then the wail of a +nation proclaimed that he had gone from among us. Not thine the +sorrow, but ours, sainted soul. Thou hast, indeed, entered the +promised land, while we are yet on the march. To us remains the +rocking of the deep, the storm upon the land, days of duty and +nights of watching; but thou art sphered high above all darkness and +fear, beyond all sorrow and weariness. Rest, O weary heart! Rejoice +exceedingly, thou that hast enough suffered! Thou hast beheld him +who invisibly led thee in this great wilderness. Thou standest +among the elect. Around thee are the royal men that have ennobled +human life in every age. Kingly art thou, with glory on thy brow as +a diadem. And joy is upon thee for evermore. Over all this land, +over all the little cloud of years that now from thine infinite +horizon moves back as a speck, thou art lifted up as high as the +star is above the clouds that bide us, but never reach it. In the +goodly company of Mount Zion thou shalt find that rest which thou +hast sorrowing sought in vain; and thy name, an everlasting name in +heaven, shall flourish in fragrance and beauty as long as men shall +last upon the earth, or hearts remain, to revere truth, fidelity, +and goodness. + +Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemisphere, as the +joy and the sorrow of the same week in this land. The joy was as +sudden as if no man had expected it, and as entrancing as if it had +fallen a sphere from heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and swept +business from its moorings, and ran down through the land in +irresistible course. Men embraced each other in brotherhood that +were strangers in the flesh. They sang, or prayed, or, deeper yet, +many could only think thanksgiving and weep gladness. That peace was +sure; that government was firmer than ever; that the land was +cleansed of plague; that the ages were opening to our footsteps, and +we were to begin a march of blessings; that blood was staunched, and +scowling enmities were sinking like storms beneath the horizon; that +the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was to rise up in +unexampled honor among the nations of the earth--these thoughts, +and that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and hopes, and +desires, and yearnings, that filled the soul with tremblings like +the heated air of midsummer days--all these kindled up such a +surge of joy as no words may describe. + +In one hour joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam or breath. A +sorrow came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep through +the forest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling the +flowers, daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and pouring +blackness and darkness across the land and up the mountains. Did +ever so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless +feelings? It was the uttermost of joy; it was the uttermost of +sorrow--noon and midnight, without a space between. + +The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so terrible that at first +it stunned sensibility. Citizens were like men awakened +at midnight by an earthquake and bewildered to find everything that +they were accustomed to trust wavering and falling. The very earth +was no longer solid. The first feeling was the least. Men waited to +get straight to feel. They wandered in the streets as if groping +after some impending dread, or undeveloped sorrow, or some one to +tell them what ailed them. They met each other as if each would ask +the other, "Am I awake, or do I dream?" There was a piteous +helplessness. Strong men bowed down and wept. Other and common +griefs belonged to some one in chief; this belonged to all. It was +each and every man's. Every virtuous household in the land felt as +if its firstborn were gone. Men were bereaved and walked for days as +if a corpse lay unburied in their dwellings. There was nothing else +to think of. They could speak of nothing but that; and yet of that +they could speak only falteringly. All business was laid +aside. Pleasure forgot to smile. The city for nearly a week ceased +to roar. The great Leviathan lay down, and was still. Even avarice +stood still, and greed was strangely moved to generous sympathy and +universal sorrow. Rear to his name monuments, found charitable +institutions, and write his name above their lintels; but no +monument will ever equal the universal, spontaneous, and sublime +sorrow that in a moment swept down lines and parties, and covered up +animosities, and in an hour brought a divided people into unity of +grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish. ... + +This nation has dissolved--but in tears only. It stands +foursquare, more solid to-day than any pyramid in Egypt. This people +are neither wasted, nor daunted, nor disordered. Men hate slavery +and love liberty with stronger hate and love to-day than ever +before. The government is not weakened, it is made stronger. How +naturally and easily were the ranks closed! Another steps forward, +in the hour that the one fell, to take his place and his mantle; and +I avow my belief that he will be found a man true to every instinct +of liberty; true to the whole trust that is reposed in him; vigilant +of the Constitution; careful of the laws; wise for liberty, in that +he himself, through his life, has known what it was to suffer from +the stings of slavery, and to prize liberty from bitter personal +experiences. + +Where could the head of government in any monarchy be smitten down +by the hand of an assassin, and the funds not quiver or fall +one-half of one per cent? After a long period of national +disturbance, after four years of drastic war, after tremendous +drafts on the resources of the country, in the height and top of our +burdens, the heart of this people is such that now, when the head of +government is stricken down, the public funds do not waver, but +stand as the granite ribs in our mountains. + +Republican institutions have been vindicated in this experience as +they never were before; and the whole history of the last four +years, rounded up by this cruel stroke, seems, in the providence of +God, to have been clothed, now, with an illustration, with a +sympathy, with an aptness, and with a significance, such as we never +could have expected nor imagined. God, I think, has said, by the +voice of this event, to all nations of the earth, "Republican +liberty, based upon true Christianity, is firm as the foundation of +the globe." + +Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with new +influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly hear what before +they refused to listen to. Now his simple and weighty words will be +gathered like those of Washington, and your children and your +children's children shall be taught to ponder the simplicity and +deep wisdom of utterances which, in their time, passed, in party +heat, as idle words. Men will receive a new impulse of patriotism +for his sake and will guard with zeal the whole country which he +loved so well. I swear you, on the altar of his memory, to be more +faithful to the country for which he has perished. They will, as +they follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that slavery against +which he warred, and which, in vanquishing him, has made him a +martyr and a conqueror. I swear you, by the memory of this martyr, +to hate slavery with an unappeasable hatred. They will admire and +imitate the firmness of this man, his inflexible conscience for the +right, and yet his gentleness, as tender as a woman's, his +moderation of spirit, which not all the heat of party could inflame, +nor all the jars and disturbances of his country shake out of +place. I swear you to an emulation of his justice, his moderation, +and his mercy. + +You I can comfort; but how can I speak to that twilight million to +whom his name was as the name of an angel of God? There will be +wailing in places which no minister shall be able to reach. When, +in hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the field +throughout the South, the dusky children, who looked upon him as +that Moses whom God sent before them to lead them out of the land of +bondage, learn that he has fallen, who shall comfort them? O, thou +Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort thy people of old, to thy +care we commit the helpless, the long-wronged, and grieved. + +And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when +alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and +States are his pallbearers, and the cannon beats the hours with +solemn progression. Dead, dead, dead, he yet speaketh. Is Washington +dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David dead? Is any man that ever was fit +to live dead? Disenthralled of flesh, and risen in the unobstructed +sphere where passion never comes, he begins his illimitable +work. His life now is grafted upon the infinite, and will be +fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast +overcome. Your sorrows, O people, are his peace. Your bells and +bands and muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. Wail and weep +here; God made it echo joy and triumph there. Pass on. + +Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried man +and from among the people. We return him to you a mighty +conqueror. Not thine any more, but the nation's; not ours, but the +world's. Give him place, O ye prairies. In the midst of this great +continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who +shall pilgrim to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and +patriotism. Ye winds that move over the mighty places of the West, +chant his requiem. Ye people, behold a martyr whose blood, as so +many articulate words, pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty. + + + +LORD BELHAVEN (1656-1708) + +Scotland ceased to exist as a nation by the act of union, May 1st, +1707. As occasions have been so rare in the world's history when a +nation has voluntarily abdicated its sovereignty and ceased to exist +by its own free act, it would be too much to say that Lord +Belhaven's speech against surrendering Scotch nationality was worthy +of so remarkable a scene as that presented in he Scotch Parliament +when, soon after its opening, November 1st, 1706, he rose to make the +protest which immortalized him. + +Smollet belongs more properly to another generation, but the feeling +against the union was rather exaggerated than diminished between the +date of its adoption and that of his poem, 'The Tears of Scotland,' +into the concluding stanza of which he has condensed the passion +which prompted Belhaven's protest:-- + + "While the warm blood bedews my veins + And unimpaired remembrance reigns, + Resentment of my country's fate + Within my filial heart shall beat, + And spite of her insulting foe, + My sympathizing verse shall flow;-- + 'Mourn, helpless Caledonia, mourn, + Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn!'" + +If there is nothing in Belhaven's oration which equals this in +intensity, there is power and pathos, as well as Ciceronian syntax, +in the period: "Hannibal, my lord, is at our gates; Hannibal is come +within our gates; Hannibal is come the length of this table; he is +at the foot of this throne; if we take not notice he'll seize upon +these regalia, he'll take them as our _spolia_ _opima_, and whip us +out of this house, never to return." + +It is unfortunate for Belhaven's fame as an orator that his most +effective passages are based on classical allusions intelligible at +once to his audience then, but likely to appear pedantic in times +when Latin has ceased to be the "vulgar tongue" of the educated, as +it still was in the Scotland of Queen Anne's time. + +The text of his speech here used is from 'The Parliamentary +Debates,' London 1741. + + +A PLEA FOR THE NATIONAL LIFE OF SCOTLAND (Delivered 1706 in the +Scotch Parliament) + +My Lord Chancellor:-- + +When I consider the affair of a union betwixt the two nations, as it +is expressed in the several articles thereof, and now the subject of +our deliberation at this time I find my mind crowded with a variety +of melancholy thoughts, and I think it my duty to disburden myself +of some of them, by laying them before, and exposing them to, the +serious consideration of this honorable house. + +I think I see a free and independent kingdom delivering up that +which all the world hath been fighting for since the days of Nimrod; +yea, that for which most of all the empires, kingdoms, states, +principalities, and dukedoms of Europe, are at this very time +engaged in the most bloody and cruel wars that ever were, to-wit, a +power to manage their own affairs by themselves, without the +assistance and counsel of any other. + +I think I see a national church, founded upon a rock, secured by a +claim of right, hedged and fenced about by the strictest and most +pointed legal sanction that sovereignty could contrive, voluntarily +descending into a plain, upon an equal level with Jews, Papists, +Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and other sectaries, etc. I think +I see the noble and honorable peerage of Scotland, whose valiant +predecessors led armies against their enemies, upon their own proper +charges and expenses, now divested of their followers and +vassalages, and put upon such an equal foot with their vassals, that +I think I see a petty English exciseman receive more homage and +respect than what was paid formerly to their quondam Mackallamores. + +I think I see the present peers of Scotland, whose noble ancestors +conquered provinces, over-run countries, reduced and subjected towns +and fortified places, exacted tribute through the greatest part of +England, now walking in the court of requests like so many English +attorneys, laying aside their walking swords when in company with +the English peers, lest their self-defense should be found murder. + +I think I see the honorable estate of barons, the bold assertors of +the nation's rights and liberties in the worst of times, now +setting a watch upon their lips and a guard upon their tongues, +lest they be found guilty of _scandalum_ _magnatum_. + +I think I see the royal state of boroughs walking their desolate +streets, hanging down their heads under disappointments, wormed out +of all the branches of their old trade, uncertain what hand to turn +to, necessitate to become 'prentices to their unkind neighbors; and +yet, after all, finding their trade so fortified by companies, and +secured by prescriptions, that they despair of any success therein. + +I think I see our learned judges laying aside their practiques and +decisions, studying the common law of England, graveled with +_certioraries_, _nisi_ _prius's_, writs of error, _verdicts_ _indovar_, +_ejectione_ _firmae_, injunctions, demurs, etc., and frighted with +appeals and avocations, because of the new regulations and +rectifications they may meet with. + +I think I see the valiant and gallant soldiery either sent to learn +the plantation-trade abroad; or at home petitioning for a small +subsistence, as the reward of their honorable exploits; while their +old corps are broken, the common soldiers left to beg, and the +youngest English corps kept standing. + +I think I see the honest, industrious tradesman loaded with new +taxes and impositions, disappointed of the equivalents, drinking +water in place of ale, eating his saltless pottage, petitioning for +encouragement to his manufactories, and answered by counter-petitions. + +In short, I think I see the laborious plowman, with his corn +spoiling upon his hands, for want of sale, cursing the day of his +birth, dreading the expense of his burial, and uncertain whether to +marry or do worse. + +I think I see the incurable difficulties of the landed men, fettered +under the golden chain of equivalents, their pretty daughters +petitioning for want of husbands, and their sons for want of +employment. + +I think I see our mariners delivering up their ships to their Dutch +partners, and what through presses and necessity, earning their +bread as underlings in the royal English navy. + +But above all, my lord, I think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, +like Caesar, sitting in the midst of our senate, ruefully looking +round about her, covering herself with her royal garment, attending +the fatal blow, and breathing out her last with an _Et_ _tu_ +_quoque_, _mi_ _fili_. + +Are not these, my lord, very afflicting thoughts? And yet they are +but the least part suggested to me by these dishonorable +articles. Should not the consideration of these things vivify these +dry bones of ours? Should not the memory of our noble predecessors' +valor and constancy rouse up our drooping spirits? Are our noble +predecessors' souls got so far into the English cabbage stock and +cauliflowers that we should show the least inclination that way? Are +our eyes so blinded? Are our ears so deafened? Are our hearts so +hardened? Are our tongues so faltered? Are our hands so fettered +that in this our day, I say, my lord, that in this our day, we +should not mind the things that concern the very being and +well-being of our ancient kingdom, before the day be hid from our +eyes? + +No, my lord, God forbid! man's extremity is God's opportunity; he is +a present help in time of need, and a deliverer, and that right +early. Some unforeseen Providence will fall out, that may cast the +balance; some Joseph or other will say, "Why do ye strive together, +since ye are brethren?" None can destroy Scotland, save Scotland +itself; hold your hands from the pen, you are secure. Some Judah or +other will say, "Let not our hands be upon the lad, he is our +brother." There will be a Jehovah-Jireh, and some ram will he caught +in the thicket, when the bloody knife is at our mother's throat. Let +us up then, my lord, and let our noble patriots behave themselves +like men, and we know not bow soon a blessing may come. + +My lord, I wish from my heart, that this my vision prove not as true +as my reasons for it are probable. I design not at this time to +enter into the merits of any one particular article; I intend this +discourse as an introduction to what I may afterwards say upon the +whole debate as it falls in before this honorable house; and +therefore, in the farther prosecution of what I have to say, I shall +insist upon few particulars, very necessary to be understood, before +we enter into the detail of so important a matter. + +I shall, therefore, in the first place, endeavor to encourage a free +and full deliberation, without animosities and heats. In the next +place I shall endeavor to make an inquiry into the nature and source +of the unnatural and dangerous divisions that are now on foot within +this isle, with some motives showing that it is our interest to lay +them aside at this time. Then I shall inquire into the reasons +which have induced the two nations to enter into a treaty of union +at this time, with some considerations and meditations with relation +to the behavior of the lord's commissioners of the two kingdoms in +the management of this great concern. And lastly, I shall propose a +method, by which we shall most distinctly, and without confusion, go +through the several articles of this treaty, without unnecessary +repetitions or loss of time. And all this with all deference, and +under the correction of this honorable house. + +My lord chancellor, the greatest honor that was done unto a Roman +was to allow him the glory of a triumph; the greatest and most +dishonorable punishment was that of _parricide_. He that was guilty of +_parricide_ was beaten with rods upon his naked body till the blood +gushed out of all the veins of his body; then he was sewed up in a +leathern sack, called a _culeus_ with a cock, a viper, and an ape, +and thrown headlong into the sea. + +My lord, _patricide_ is a greater crime than _parricide_, all the world +over. + +In a triumph, my lord, when the conqueror was riding in his +triumphal chariot, crowned with laurels, adorned with trophies, and +applauded with huzzas, there was a monitor appointed to stand behind +him, to warn him not to be high-minded, not puffed up with +overweening thoughts of himself; and to his chariot were tied a whip +and a bell, to mind him that for all his glory and grandeur he was +accountable to the people for his administration, and would be +punished as other men, if found guilty. + +The greatest honor amongst us, my lord, is to represent the +sovereign's sacred person in Parliament; and in one particular it +appears to be greater than that of a triumph, because the whole +legislative power seems to be wholly intrusted with him. If he give +the royal assent to an act of the estates, it becomes a law +obligatory upon the subject, though contrary or without any +instructions from the sovereign. If he refuse the royal assent to a +vote in Parliament, it cannot be a law, though he has the +Sovereign's particular and positive instructions for it. + +His Grace, the Duke of Queensbury, who now presents her Majesty in +this session of Parliament, hath had the honor of that great trust, +as often, if not more, than any Scotchman ever had. He hath been +the favorite of two successive sovereigns; and I cannot but commend +his constancy and perseverance, that notwithstanding his former +difficulties and unsuccessful attempts, and maugre some other +specialties not yet determined, that his Grace has yet had the +resolution to undertake the most unpopular measures last. If his +Grace succeed in this affair of a union, and that it prove for the +happiness and welfare of the nation, then he justly merits to have a +statue of gold erected for himself; but if it shall tend to the +entire destruction and abolition of our nation, and that we the +nation's trustees will go into it, then I must say that a whip and a +bell, a cock and a viper and an ape, are but too small punishments +for any such bold, unnatural undertaking and complaisance. + +That I may pave a way, my lord, to a full, calm, and free reasoning +upon this affair, which is of the last consequence unto this nation, +I shall mind this honorable house, that we are the successors of our +noble predecessors, who founded our monarchy, framed our laws, +amended, altered, and corrected them from time to time, as the +affairs and circumstances of the nation did require, without the +assistance or advice of any foreign power or potentate, and who, +during the time of 2,000 years, have handed them down to us, a free +independent nation, with the hazard of their lives and fortunes. +Shall not we then argue for that which our progenitors have +purchased for us at so dear a rate, and with so much immortal honor +and glory? God forbid. Shall the hazard of a father unbind the +ligaments of a dumb son's tongue; and shall we hold our peace, when +our _patria_ is in danger? I speak this, my lord, that I may +encourage every individual member of this house to speak his mind +freely. There are many wise and prudent men amongst us, who think +it not worth their while to open their mouths; there are others, who +can speak very well, and to good purpose, who shelter themselves +under the shameful cloak of silence, from a fear of the frowns of +great men and parties. I have observed, my lord, by my experience, +the greatest number of speakers in the most trivial affairs; and it +will always prove so, while we come not to the right understanding +of the oath _de_ _fideli_, whereby we are bound not only to give our +vote, but our faithful advice in Parliament, as we should answer to +God; and in our ancient laws, the representatives of the honorable +barons and the royal boroughs are termed spokesmen. It lies upon +your lordships, therefore, particularly to take notice of such whose +modesty makes them bashful to speak. Therefore, I shall leave it +upon you, and conclude this point with a very memorable saying of an +honest private gentleman to a great queen, upon occasion of a State +project, contrived by an able statesman, and the favorite to a great +king, against a peaceable, obedient people, because of the diversity +of their laws and constitutions: "If at this time thou hold thy +peace, salvation shall come to the people from another place, but +thou and thy house shall perish." I leave the application to each +particular member of this house. + +My lord, I come now to consider our divisions. We are under the +happy reign (blessed be God) of the best of queens, who has no evil +design against the meanest of her subjects, who loves all her +people, and is equally beloved by them again; and yet that under the +happy influence of our most excellent Queen there should be such +divisions and factions more dangerous and threatening to her +dominions than if we were under an arbitrary government, is most +strange and unaccountable. Under an arbitrary prince all are willing +to serve because all are under a necessity to obey, whether they +will or not. He chooses therefore whom he will, without respect to +either parties or factions; and if he think fit to take the advices +of his councils or parliaments, every man speaks his mind freely, +and the prince receives the faithful advice of his people without +the mixture of self-designs. If he prove a good prince, the +government is easy; if bad, either death or a revolution brings a +deliverance. Whereas here, my lord, there appears no end of our +misery, if not prevented in time; factions are now become +independent, and have got footing in councils, in parliaments, in +treaties, armies, in incorporations, in families, among kindred, +yea, man and wife are not free from their political jars. + +It remains therefore, my lord, that I inquire into the nature of +these things; and since the names give us not the right idea of the +thing, I am afraid I shall have difficulty to make myself well +understood. + +The names generally used to denote the factions are Whig and Tory, +as obscure as that of Guelfs and Gibelins. Yea, my lord, they have +different significations, as they are applied to factions in each +kingdom; a Whig in England is a heterogeneous creature, in Scotland +he is all of a piece; a Tory in England is all of a piece, and a +statesman in Scotland, he is quite otherways, an anti-courtier and +anti-statesman. + +A Whig in England appears to be somewhat like Nebuchadnezzar's +image, of different metals, different classes, different principles, +and different designs; yet take the Whigs all together, they are +like a piece of fine mixed drugget of different threads, some finer, +some coarser, which, after all, make a comely appearance and an +agreeable suit. Tory is like a piece of loyal-made English cloth, +the true staple of the nation, all of a thread; yet, if we look +narrowly into it, we shall perceive diversity of colors, which, +according to the various situations and positions, make various +appearances. Sometimes Tory is like the moon in its full, as +appeared in the affair of the bill of occasional conformity; upon +other occasions it appears to be under a cloud, and as if it were +eclipsed by a greater body, as it did in the design of calling over +the illustrious Princess Sophia. However, by this we may see their +designs are to outshoot Whig in his own bow. + +Whig in Scotland is a true blue Presbyterian, who, without +considering time or power, will venture their all for the Kirk, but +something less for the State. The greatest difficulty is how to +describe a Scots Tory. Of old, when I knew them first, Tory was an +honest-hearted comradish fellow, who, provided he was maintained and +protected in his benefices, titles, and dignities by the State, was +the less anxious who had the government and management of the +Church. But now what he is since _jure_ _divino_ came in fashion, and +that Christianity, and, by consequence, salvation comes to depend +upon episcopal ordination, I profess I know not what to make of him; +only this I must say for him, that he endeavors to do by opposition +that which his brother in England endeavors by a more prudent and +less scrupulous method. + +Now, my lord, from these divisions there has got up a kind of +aristocracy something like the famous triumvirate at Rome; they are +a kind of undertakers and pragmatic statesmen, who, finding their +power and strength great, and answerable to their designs, will make +bargains with our gracious sovereign; they will serve her +faithfully, but upon their own terms; they must have their own +instruments, their own measures; this man must be turned out, and +that man put in, and then they will make her the most glorious queen +in Europe. + +Where will this end, my lord? Is not her Majesty in danger by such +a method? Is not the monarchy in danger? Is not the nation's peace +and tranquillity in danger? Will a change of parties make the +nation more happy? No, my lord, the seed is sown that is like to +afford us a perpetual increase; it is not an annual herb, it takes +deep root; it seeds and breeds; and, if not timely prevented by her +Majesty's royal endeavors, will split the whole island in two. + +My lord, I think, considering our present circumstances at this +time, the Almighty God has reserved this great work for us. We may +bruise this Hydra of division, and crush this Cockatrice's egg. Our +neighbors in England are not yet fitted for any such thing; they are +not under the afflicting hand of Providence, as we are; their +circumstances are great and glorious; their treaties are prudently +managed, both at home and abroad; their generals brave and valorous; +their armies successful and victorious; their trophies and laurels +memorable and surprising; their enemies subdued and routed; their +strongholds besieged and taken, sieges relieved, marshals killed and +taken prisoners; provinces and kingdoms are the results of their +victories; their royal navy is the terror of Europe; their trade and +commerce extended through the universe, encircling the whole +habitable world and rendering their own capital city the emporium +for the whole inhabitants of the earth. And, which is yet more than +all these things, the subjects freely bestow their treasure upon +their sovereign! And, above all, these vast riches, the sinews of +war, and without which all the glorious success had proved abortive +--these treasures are managed with such faithfulness and nicety, +that they answer seasonably all their demands, though at never so +great a distance. Upon these considerations, my lord, how hard and +difficult a thing will it prove to persuade our neighbors to a +self-denying bill. + +'Tis quite otherwise with us, my lord; we are an obscure poor +people, though formerly of better account, removed to a remote +corner of the world, without name, and without alliances, our posts +mean and precarious, so that I profess I don't think any one post of +the kingdom worth the briguing after, save that of being +commissioner to a long session of a factious Scotch Parliament, with +an antedated commission, and that yet renders the rest of the +ministers more miserable. What hinders us then, my lord, to lay +aside our divisions, to unite cordially and heartily together in our +present circumstances, when our all is at stake? Hannibal, my lord, +is at our gates; Hannibal is come within our gates Hannibal is come +the length of this table; he is at the foot of this throne; he will +demolish this throne; if we take not notice, he'll seize upon these +regalia, he'll take them as our _spolia_ _opima_, and whip us out of +this house, never to return again. + +For the love of God then, my lord, for the safety and welfare of our +ancient kingdom, whose sad circumstances, I hope, we shall yet +convert into prosperity and happiness, we want no means, if we +unite. God blessed the peacemakers; we want neither men, nor +sufficiency of all manner of things necessary, to make a nation +happy; all depends upon management, _Concordia_ _res_ _parvae_ +_crescunt_. I fear not these articles, though they were ten times +worse than they are, if we once cordially forgive one another, and +that, according to our proverb, bygones be bygones, and fair play +for time to come. For my part, in the sight of God, and in the +presence of this honorable house, I heartily forgive every man, and +beg that they may do the same to me; and I do most humbly propose +that his grace, my lord commissioner, may appoint an Agape, may +order a love feast for this honorable house, that we may lay aside +all self-designs, and after our fasts and humiliations may have a +day of rejoicing and thankfulness, may eat our meat with gladness, +and our bread with a merry heart; then shall we sit each man under +his own fig-tree, and the voice of the turtle shall be heard in our +land, a bird famous for constancy and fidelity. + +My lord, I shall make a pause here, and stop going on further in my +discourse, till I see further, if his grace, my lord commissioner, +receive any humble proposals for removing misunderstandings among +us, and putting an end to our fatal divisions; upon honor, I have no +other design, and I am content to beg the favor upon my bended +knees. (No answer.) My lord chancellor, I am sorry that I must +pursue the thread of my sad and melancholy story. What remains, I +am afraid may prove as afflicting as what I have said; I shall +therefore consider the motives which have engaged the two nations to +enter upon a treaty of union at this time. In general, my lord, I +think both of them had in their view to better themselves by the +treaty; but before I enter upon the particular motives of each +nation, I must inform this honorable house that since I can +remember, the two nations have altered their sentiments upon that +affair, even almost to downright contradiction--they have changed +headbands, as we say; for the English, till of late, never thought +it worth their pains of treating with us; the good bargain they made +at the beginning they resolve to keep, and that which we call an +incorporating union was not so much as in their thoughts. The first +notice they seemed to take of us was in our affair of Caledonia, +when they had most effectually broken off that design in a manner +very well known to the world, and unnecessary to be repeated here; +they kept themselves quiet during the time of our complaints upon +that head. In which time our sovereign, to satisfy the nation, and +allay their heats, did condescend to give us some good laws, and +amongst others that of personal liberties; but they having declared +their succession, and extended their entail, without ever taking +notice of us, our gracious sovereign Queen Anne was graciously +pleased to give the royal assent to our act of security, to that of +peace and war after the decease of her Majesty, and the heirs of her +body, and to give us a hedge to all our sacred and civil interests, +by declaring it high treason to endeavor the alteration of them, as +they were then established. Thereupon did follow the threatening +and minatory laws against us by the Parliament of England, and the +unjust and unequal character of what her Majesty had so graciously +condescended to in our favors. Now, my lord, whether the desire +they had to have us engaged in the same succession with them, or +whether they found us like a free and independent people, breathing +after more liberty than what formerly was looked after, or whether +they were afraid of our act of security, in case of her Majesty's +decease; which of all these motives has induced them to a treaty I +leave it to themselves. This I must say only, they have made a good +bargain this time also. + +For the particular motives that induced us, I think they are obvious +to be known, we found by sad experience, that every man hath +advanced in power and riches, as they have done in trade, and at the +same time considering that nowhere through the world slaves are +found to be rich, though they should be adorned with chains of gold, +we thereupon changed our notion of an incorporating union to that of +a federal one; and being resolved to take this opportunity to make +demands upon them, before we enter into the succession, we were +content to empower her Majesty to authorize and appoint +commissioners to treat with the commissioners of England, with as +ample powers as the lords commissioners from England had from their +constituents, that we might not appear to have less confidence in +her Majesty, nor more narrow-heartedness in our act, than our +neighbors of England. And thereupon last Parliament, after her +Majesty's gracious letter was read, desiring us to declare the +succession in the first place, and afterwards to appoint +commissioners to treat, we found it necessary to renew our former +resolve, which I shall read to this honorable house. The resolve +presented by the Duke of Hamilton last session of Parliament:-- + +"That this Parliament will not proceed to the nomination of a +successor till we have had a previous treaty with England, in +relation to our commerce, and other concerns with that nation. And +further, it is resolved that this Parliament will proceed to make +such limitations and conditions of government, for the rectification +of our constitution, as may secure the liberty, religion, and +independency of this kingdom, before they proceed to the said +nomination." + +Now, my lord, the last session of Parliament having, before they +would enter into any treaty with England, by a vote of the house, +passed both an act for limitations and an act for rectification of +our constitution, what mortal man has reason to doubt the design of +this treaty was only federal? + +My lord chancellor, it remains now, that we consider the behavior of +the lords commissioners at the opening of this treaty. And before I +enter upon that, allow me to make this meditation, that if our +posterity, after we are all dead and gone, shall find themselves +under an ill-made bargain, and shall have recourse unto our records, +and see who have been the managers of that treaty, by which they +have suffered so much; when they read the names, they will certainly +conclude, and say, Ah! our nation has been reduced to the last +extremity, at the time of this treaty; all our great chieftains, all +our great peers and considerable men, who used formerly to defend +the rights and liberties of the nation, have been all killed and +dead in the bed of honor, before ever the nation was necessitated to +condescend to such mean and contemptible terms. Where are the names +of the chief men, of the noble families of Stuarts, Hamiltons, +Grahams, Campbels, Gordons, Johnstons, Humes, Murrays, Kers? Where +are the two great officers of the crown, the constables and marshals +of Scotland? They have certainly all been extinguished, and now we +are slaves forever. + +Whereas the English records will make their posterity reverence the +memory of the honorable names who have brought under their fierce, +warlike, and troublesome neighbors, who had struggled so long for +independence, shed the best blood of their nation and reduced a +considerable part of their country to become waste and desolate. + +I am informed, my lord, that our commissioners did indeed frankly +tell the lords commissioners for England that the inclinations of +the people of Scotland were much altered of late, in relation to an +incorporating union; and that, therefore, since the entail was to +end with her Majesty's life (whom God long preserve), it was proper +to begin the treaty upon the foot of the treaty of 1604, year of +God, the time when we came first under one sovereign; but this the +English commissioners would not agree to, and our commissioners, +that they might not seem obstinate, were willing to treat and +conclude in the terms laid before this honorable house and subjected +to their determination. If the lords commissioners for England had +been as civil and complaisant, they should certainly have finished a +federal treaty likewise, that both nations might have the choice +which of them to have gone into as they thought fit; but they would +hear of nothing but an entire and complete union, a name which +comprehends a union, either by incorporation, surrender, or +conquest, whereas our commissioners thought of nothing but a fair, +equal, incorporating union. Whether this be so or not I leave it to +every man's judgment; but as for myself I must beg liberty to think +it no such thing; for I take an incorporating union to be, where +there is a change both in the material and formal points of +government, as if two pieces of metal were melted down into one +mass, it can neither be said to retain its former form or substance +as it did before the mixture. But now, when I consider this treaty, +as it hath been explained and spoke to before us this three weeks by +past, I see the English constitution remaining firm, the same two +houses of Parliament, the same taxes, the same customs, the same +excises, the same trading companies, the same municipal laws and +courts of judicature; and all ours either subject to regulations or +annihilations, only we have the honor to pay their old debts and to +have some few persons present for witnesses to the validity of the +deed when they are pleased to contract more. + +Good God! What, is this an entire surrender! + +My lord, I find my heart so full of grief and indignation that I +must beg pardon not to finish the last part of my discourse, that I +may drop a tear as the prelude to so sad a story. + + + +JOHN BELL (1797-1869) + +John Bell, of Tennessee, who was a candidate with Edward Everett on +the "Constitutional Union" ticket of 1860, when Virginia, Kentucky, +and Tennessee gave him their thirty-nine electoral votes in favor of +a hopeless peace, will always seem one of the most respectable +figures in the politics of a time when calmness and conservatism, +such as characterized him and his coadjutor., Mr. Everett, of +Massachusetts, had ceased to be desired by men who wished immediate +success in public life. He was one of the founders of the Whig +party, and by demonstrating himself to be one of the very few men +who could win against Andrew Jackson's opposition in Tennessee, he +acquired, under Jackson and Van Buren, a great influence with the +Whigs of the country at large. He was a member of Congress from +Tennessee for fourteen years dating from 1827, when he won by a +single vote against Felix Grundy, one of the strongest men in +Tennessee and a special favorite with General Jackson. Disagreeing +with Jackson on the removal of the deposits, Bell was elected +Speaker of the House over Jackson's protege, James K. Polk, in 1834, +and in 1841 he entered the Whig cabinet as Secretary of War under +Harrison who had defeated another of Jackson's proteges, Van +Buren. In 1847 and again in 1853, he was elected United States +Senator from Tennessee and he did his best to prevent secession. He +had opposed Calhoun's theories of the right of a State to nullify a +Federal act if unconstitutional, and in March 1858, in the debate +over the Lecompton constitution, he opposed Toombs in a speech which +probably made him the candidate of the Constitutional Unionists two +years later. Another notable speech, of even more far-reaching +importance, he had delivered in 1853 in favor of opening up the West +by building the Pacific Railroad, a position in which he was +supported by Jefferson Davis. + +Mr. Bell was for the Union in 1861, denying the right of secession, +but he opposed the coercion of the Southern States, and when the +fighting actually began he sided with Tennessee, and took little or +no part in public affairs thereafter. He died in 1869. + + +AGAINST EXTREMISTS NORTH AND SOUTH (From a Speech in the Senate, +March 18th, 1858. on the Lecompton Constitution) + +The honorable Senator from Georgia, Mr. Toombs, announced some great +truths to-day. He said that mankind made a long step, a great +stride, when they declared that minorities should not rule; and that +a still higher and nobler advance had been made when it was decided +that majorities could only rule through regular and legal forms. He +asserted this general doctrine with reference to the construction he +proposed to give to the Lecompton constitution; and to say that the +people of Kansas, unless they spoke through regular forms, cannot +speak at all. He will allow me to say, however, that the forms +through which a majority speaks must be provided and established by +competent authority, and his doctrine can have no application to the +Lecompton constitution, unless he can first show that the +legislature of Kansas was vested with legal authority to provide for +the formation of a State constitution; for, until that can be shown, +there could be no regular and legal forms through which the majority +could speak. But how does that Senator reconcile his doctrine with +that avowed by the President, as to the futility of attempting, by +constitutional provisions, to fetter the power of the people in +changing their constitution at pleasure? In no States of the Union +so much as in some of the slaveholding States would such a doctrine +as that be so apt to be abused by incendiary demagogues, +disappointed and desperate politicians, in stirring up the people to +assemble voluntarily in convention--disregarding all the +restrictions in their constitution--and strike at the property of +the slaveholder. + +The honorable Senator from Kentucky inquired what, under this new +doctrine, would prevent the majority of the people of the States of +the Union from changing the present Federal Constitution, and +abrogating all existing guarantees for the protection of the small +States, and any peculiar or particular interest confined to a +minority of the States of the Union. The analogy, I admit, is not +complete between the Federal Constitution and a constitution of a +State; but the promulgation of the general principle, that a +majority of the people are fettered by no constitutional +restrictions in the exercise of their right to change their form of +government, is dangerous. That is quite enough for the purposes of +demagogues and incendiary agitators. When I read the special +message of the President, I said to some friends that the message, +taking it altogether, was replete with more dangerous heresies than +any paper I had ever seen emanating, not from a President of the +United States, but from any political club in the country, and +calculated to do more injury. I consider it in effect, and in its +tendencies, as organizing anarchy. + +We are told that if we shall admit Kansas with the Lecompton +constitution, this whole difficulty will soon be settled by the +people of Kansas. How? By disregarding the mode and forms +prescribed by the constitution for amending it? No. I am not sure +that the President, after all the lofty generalities announced in +his message, in regard to the inalienable rights of the people, +intended to sanction the idea that all the provisions of the +Lecompton constitution in respect to the mode and form of amending +it should be set aside. He says the legislature now elected may, at +its first meeting, call a convention to amend the constitution; and +in another passage of his message he says that this inalienable +power of the majority must be exercised in a lawful manner. This is +perplexing. Can there be any lawful enactment of the legislature in +relation to the call of a convention, unless it be in conformity +with the provisions of the constitution? They require that +two-thirds of the members of the legislature shall concur in passing +an act to take the sense of the people upon the call of a +convention, and that the vote shall be taken at the next regular +election, which cannot be held until two years afterwards. How can +this difficulty be got over? The truth is, that unless all +constitutional impediments in respect to forms be set aside, and the +people take it in hand to amend the constitution on revolutionary +principles, there can be no end of agitation on this subject in less +than three years. I long since ventured the prediction that there +would be no settlement of the difficulties in Kansas until the next +presidential election. To continue the agitation is too important +to the interests of both the great parties of the country to +dispense with it, as long as any pretext can be found for prolonging +it. In the closing debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, I told its +supporters that they could do nothing more certain to disturb the +composure of the two Senators who sat on the opposite side of the +chamber, the one from Massachusetts [Mr. Sumner] and the other from +Ohio [Mr. Chase], than to reject that bill. Its passage was the +only thing in the range of possible events by which their political +fortunes could be resuscitated, so completely had the Free-Soil +movement at the North been paralyzed by the compromise measures of +1850. I say now to the advocates of this measure, if they want to +strengthen the Republican party, and give the reins of government +into their hands, pass this bill. If they desire to weaken the +power of that party, and arrest the progress of slavery agitation, +reject it. And if it is their policy to put an end to the agitation +connected with Kansas affairs at the earliest day practicable, as +they say it is, then let them remit this constitution back to the +people of Kansas, for their ratification or rejection. In that way +the whole difficulty will be settled before the adjournment of the +present session of Congress, without the violation of any sound +principle, or the sacrifice of the rights of either section of the +Union. + +But the President informs us that threatening and ominous clouds +impend over the country; and he fears that if Kansas is not admitted +under the Lecompton constitution, slavery agitation will be revived +in a more dangerous form than it has ever yet assumed. There may be +grounds for that opinion, for aught I know; but it seems to me that +if any of the States of the South have taken any position on this +question which endangers the peace of the country, they could not +have been informed of the true condition of affairs in Kansas, and +of the strong objections which may be urged on principle against the +acceptance by Congress of the Lecompton constitution. And I have +such confidence in the intelligence of the people of the whole +South, that when the history and character of this instrument shall +be known, even those who would be glad to find some plausible +pretext for dissolving the Union will see that its rejection by +Congress would not furnish them with such a one as they could make +available for their purposes. + +When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was under discussion, in 1854, in +looking to all the consequences which might follow the adoption of +that measure, I could not overlook the fact that a sentiment of +hostility to the Union was widely diffused in certain States of the +South; and that that sentiment was only prevented from assuming an +organized form of resistance to the authority of the Federal +government, at least in one of the States, in 1851, by the earnest +remonstrance of a sister State, that was supposed to sympathize with +her in the project of establishing a southern republic. Nor could I +fail to remember that the project--I speak of the convention held in +South Carolina, in pursuance of an act of the legislature--was +then postponed, not dropped. The argument was successfully urged +that an enterprise of such magnitude ought not to be entered upon +without the co-operation of a greater number of States than they +could then certainly count upon. It was urged that all the +cotton-planting States would, before a great while, be prepared to +unite in the movement, and that they, by the force of circumstances, +would bring in all the slaveholding States. The ground was openly +taken, that separation was an inevitable necessity. It was only a +question of time. It was said that no new aggression was necessary +on the part of the North to justify such a step. It was said that +the operation of this government from its foundation had been +adverse to southern interests; and that the admission of California +as a free State, and the attempt to exclude the citizens of the +South, with their property, from all the territory acquired from +Mexico, was a sufficient justification for disunion. It was not a +mere menace to deter the North from further aggressions. These +circumstances made a deep impression on my mind at the time, and +from a period long anterior to that I had known that it was a maxim +with the most skillful tacticians among those who desire separation, +that the slaveholding States must be united--consolidated into one +party. That object once effected, disunion, it was supposed, would +follow without difficulty. + +I had my fears that the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was expected to +consolidate the South, and to pave the way for the accomplishment of +ulterior plans by some of the most active supporters of that measure +from the South; and these fears I indicated in the closing debate on +that subject. Some of the supporters of that measure, I fear, are +reluctant now to abandon the chances of finding some pretext for +agitating the subject of separation in the South in the existing +complications of the Kansas embroilment. + +To what extent the idea of disunion is entertained in some of the +Southern States, and what importance is attached to the policy of +uniting the whole South in one party as a preliminary step, may be +inferred from a speech delivered before the Southern convention lately +held in Knoxville, Tenn., by Mr. De Bow, the president of the +convention, and the editor of a popular Southern review. I will only +refer now to the fate to which the author resigns those who dare to +break the ranks of that solid phalanx in which he thinks the South +should be combined--that is, to be "held up to public scorn and +public punishment as traitors and Tories, more steeped in guilt than +those of the Revolution itself." + +The honorable Senator from New York further announced to us in +exultant tones, that "at last there was a North side of this +Chamber, a North side of the Chamber of the House of Representatives, +and a North side of the Union, as well as a South side of all +these"; and he admonished us that the time was at hand when freedom +would assert its influence in the regulation of the domestic and +foreign policy of the country. + +When was there a time in the history of the government that there +was no North side of this Chamber and of the other? When was there a +time that there was not a proud array of Northern men in both +Chambers, distinguished by their genius and ability, devoted to the +interests of the North, and successful in maintaining them? + +Though it may be true that Southern men have filled the executive +chair for much the larger portion of the time that has elapsed since +the organization of the government, yet when, in what instance was +it, that a Southerner has been elevated to that high station without +the support of a majority of the freemen of the North? + +Do you of the North complain that the policy of the government, under +the long-continued influence of Southern Presidents, has been +injurious or fatal to your interests? Has it paralyzed your industry? +Has it crippled your resources? Has it impaired your energies? Has +it checked your progress in any one department of human effort? Let +your powerful mercantile marine, your ships whitening every sea--the +fruit of wise commercial regulations and navigation laws; let your +flourishing agriculture, your astonishing progress in manufacturing +skill, your great canals, your thousands of miles of railroads, your +vast trade, internal and external, your proud cities, and your +accumulated millions of moneyed capital, ready to be invested in +profitable enterprises in any part of the world, answer that question. +Do you complain of a narrow and jealous policy under Southern rule, in +extending and opening new fields of enterprise to your hardy sons in +the great West, along the line of the great chain of American lakes, +even to the head waters of the Father of Rivers, and over the rich and +fertile plains stretching southward from the lake shores? Let the +teeming populations--let the hundreds of millions of annual products +that have succeeded to the but recent dreary and unproductive haunts +of the red man--answer that question. That very preponderance of +free States which the Senator from New York contemplates with such +satisfaction, and which has moved him exultingly to exclaim that +there is at last a North side of this Chamber, has been hastened by +the liberal policy of Southern Presidents and Southern statesmen; and +has it become the ambition of that Senator to unite and combine all +this great, rich, and powerful North in the policy of crippling the +resources and repressing the power of the South? Is this to be the +one idea which is to mold the policy of the government, when that +gentleman and his friends shall control it? If it be, then I appeal +to the better feelings and the better judgment of his followers to +arrest him in his mad career. Sir, let us have some brief interval of +repose at least from this eternal agitation of the slavery question. +Let power go into whatever hands it may, let us save the Union! + +I have all the confidence other gentlemen can have in the extent to +which this Union is intrenched in the hearts of the great mass of +the people of the North and South; but when I reflect upon and +consider the desperate and dangerous extremes to which ambitious +party leaders are often prepared to go, without meaning to do the +country any mischief, in the struggle for the imperial power, the +crown of the American presidency, I sometimes tremble for its fate. + +Two great parties are now dividing the Union on this question. It is +evident to every man of sense, who examines it, that practically, in +respect to slavery, the result will be the same both to North and +South; Kansas will be a free State, no matter what may be the +decision on this question. But how that decision may affect the +fortunes of those parties, is not certain; and there is the chief +difficulty. But the greatest question of all is, How will that +decision affect the country as a whole? + +Two adverse yet concurrent and mighty forces are driving the vessel +of State towards the rocks upon which she must split, unless she +receives timely aid--a paradox, yet expressive of a momentous and +perhaps a fatal truth. + +There is no hope of rescue unless the sober-minded men, both of the +North and South, shall, by some sufficient influence, be brought to +adopt the wise maxims and sage counsels of the great founders of our +government. + + +TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROADS (Delivered in the United States Senate, +February 17th, 1858. in Support of the Pacific Railroad Bill) + +An objection made to this bill is, the gigantic scale of the +projected enterprise. A grand idea it is. A continent of three +thousand miles in extent from east to west, reaching from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, is to be connected by a railway! Honorable +Senators will remember, that over one thousand miles--one-third of +this whole expanse of the continent--the work is already +accomplished, and that chiefly by private enterprise. I may, as a +safe estimate, say, that a thousand miles of this railroad leading +from the Atlantic to the West, upon the line of the lakes, and +nearly as much upon a line further south, are either completed, or +nearly so. We have two thousand miles yet to compass, in the +execution of a work which it is said has no parallel in the history +of the world. No, sir; it has no parallel in the history of the +world, ancient or modern, either as to its extent and magnitude, or +to its consequences, beneficent and benignant in all its bearings on +the interests of all mankind. It is in these aspects, and in the +contemplation of these consequences, that it has no parallel in the +history of the world--changing the course of the commerce of the +world--bringing the West almost in contact, by reversing the +ancient line of communication, with the gorgeous East, and all its +riches, the stories of which, in our earlier days we regarded as +fabulous; but now, sir, what was held to be merely fictions of the +brain in former times, in regard to the riches of Eastern Asia, is +almost realized on our own western shores. Sir, these are some of +the inducements to the construction of this great road, besides its +importance to the military defenses of the country, and its mail +communications. Sir, it is a magnificent and splendid project in +every aspect in which you can view it. One-third of this great +railway connection is accomplished; two-thirds remain to be. Shall +we hesitate to go forward with the work? + +Now, with regard to the means provided for the construction of the +road. It is said, here is an enormous expenditure of the public money +proposed. We propose to give twenty millions of dollars in the bonds +of the government, bearing five per cent. interest, and fifteen +millions of acres of land, supposed to be worth as much more, on the +part of the government. This is said to be enormous, and we are +reminded that we ought to look at what the people will say, and how +they will feel when they come to the knowledge that twenty millions in +money and twenty millions in land have been given for the construction +of a railway! Some doubtless there are in this chamber who are ready +to contend that we had better give these fifteen millions of acres of +land to become homesteads for the landless and homeless. What is this +twenty millions in money, and how is it to be paid? It is supposed +that the road cannot be constructed in less than five years. In that +event, bonds of the government to the amount of four millions of +dollars will issue annually. Probably the road will not be built in +less than ten years, and that will require an issue of bonds amounting +to two millions a year; and possibly the road may not be finished in +less than twenty years, which would limit the annual issue of bonds to +one million. The interest upon these bonds, at five per cent, will +of course have to be paid out of the treasury, a treasury in which +there is now a surplus of twelve or fourteen millions of dollars. +When the road is completed and the whole amount of twenty millions in +lands is paid, making the whole sum advanced by the government forty +millions, the annual interest upon them will only be two millions. +And what is that? Why, sir, the donations and benevolences, the +allowances of claims upon flimsy and untenable grounds, and other +extravagant and unnecessary expenditures that are granted by Congress +and the executive departments, while you have an overflowing treasury, +will amount to the half of that sum annually. The enormous sum of two +millions is proposed to be paid out of the treasury annually, when +this great road shall be completed! It is a tremendous undertaking, +truly! What a scheme! What extravagance! I understand the cost of +the New York and Erie road alone, constructed principally by private +enterprise, has been not less than thirty millions--between thirty +and thirty-three millions of dollars. That work was constructed by a +single State giving aid occasionally to a company, which supplied the +balance of the cost. I understand that the road from Baltimore to +Wheeling, when it shall have been finished, and its furniture placed +upon it, will have cost at least thirty millions. What madness, what +extravagance, then, is it for the government of the United States to +undertake to expend forty millions for a road from the Mississippi +to the Pacific. + +Mr. President, one honorable Senator says the amount is not +sufficient to induce a capitalist to invest his money in the +enterprise. Others, again, say it is far too much; more than we can +afford to give for the construction of the work. Let us see which is +right. The government is to give twenty millions in all out of the +treasury for the road; or we issue bonds and pay five per cent, +interest annually upon them, and twenty millions in lands, which, if +regarded as money, amounts to a cost to the government of two +millions per annum. + +What are the objects to be accomplished? A daily mail from the +valley of the Mississippi to the Pacific; the free transportation of +all troops and munitions of war required for the protection and +defense of our possessions on the Pacific; which we could not hold +three months in a war either with England or France, without such a +road. By building this road we accomplish this further object: This +road will be the most effective and powerful check that can be +interposed by the government upon Indian depredations and +aggressions upon our frontiers or upon each other; the northern +tribes upon the southern, and the southern upon the northern. You +cut them in two. You will be constantly in their midst, and cut off +their intercommunication and hostile depredations. You will have a +line of quasi fortifications, a line of posts and stations, with +settlements on each side of the road. Every few miles you will thus +have settlements strong enough to defend themselves against inroads +of the Indians, and so constituting a wall of separation between the +Indian tribes, composed of a white population, with arms in their +hands. This object alone would, perhaps, be worth as much as the +road will cost; and when I speak of what the road will be worth in +this respect, I mean to say, that besides the prevention of savage +warfare, the effusion of blood, it will save millions of dollars to +the treasury annually, in the greater economy attained in moving +troops and military supplies and preventing hostilities. + +. . . + +I have been thus particular in noting these things because I want to +show where or on which side the balance will be found in the +adjustment of the responsibility account between the friends and the +opponents of this measure--which will have the heaviest account to +settle with the country. + +For myself, I am not wedded to this particular scheme. Rather than +have no road, I would prefer to adopt other projects. I am now +advocating one which I supposed would meet the views of a greater +number of Senators than any other. I think great honor is due to +Mr. Whitney for having originated the scheme, and having obtained +the sanction of the legislatures of seventeen or eighteen States of +the Union. Rather than have the project altogether fail, I would be +willing to adopt this plan. It may not offer the same advantages for +a speedy consummation of the work; but still, we would have a road +in prospect, and that would be a great deal. But if gentlemen are to +rise here in their places year after year--and this is the fifth +year from the time we ought to have undertaken this work--and tell +us it is just time to commence a survey, we will never have a +road. The honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Butler] says +there ought to be some limitation in this idea of progress, when +regarded as a spur to great activity and energy, as to what we shall +do in our day. He says we have acquired California; we have opened +up those rich regions on our western borders, which promises such +magnificent results; and he asks, is not that enough for the present +generation? Leave it to the nest generation to construct a work of +such magnitude as this--requiring forty millions of dollars from +the government. Mr. President, I have said that if the condition was +a road or no road, I would regard one hundred and fifty millions of +dollars as well laid out by the government for the work; though I +have no idea that it will take such an amount. Eighty or one hundred +millions of dollars will build the road. + +But with regard to what is due from this generation to itself, or +what may be left to the next generation, I say it is for the present +generation that we want the road. As to our having acquired +California, and opened this new world of commerce and enterprise, +and as to what we shall leave to the next generation, I say that, +after we of this generation shall have constructed this road, we +will, perhaps, not even leave to the next generation the +construction of a second one. The present generation, in my +opinion, will not pass away until it shall have seen two great lines +of railroads in prosperous operation between the Atlantic and +Pacific Oceans, and within our own territory, and still leave quite +enough to the next generation--the third and fourth great lines of +communication between the two extremes of the continent. One, at +least, is due to ourselves, and to the present generation; and I +hope there are many within the sound of my voice who will live to +see it accomplished. We want that new Dorado, the new Ophir of +America, to be thrown open and placed within the reach of the whole +people. We want the great cost, the delays, as well as the +privations and risks of a passage to California, by the malarious +Isthmus of Panama, or any other of the routes now in use, to be +mitigated, or done away with. There will be some greater equality +in the enjoyment and advantages of these new acquisitions upon the +Pacific coast when this road shall be constructed. The +inexhaustible gold mines, or placers of California, will no longer +be accessible only to the more robust, resolute, or desperate part +of our population, and who may be already well enough off to pay +their passage by sea, or provide an outfit for an overland travel of +two and three thousand miles. Enterprising young men all over the +country, who can command the pittance of forty or fifty dollars to +pay their railroad fare; heads of families who have the misfortune +to be poor, but spirit and energy enough to seek comfort and +independence by labor, will no longer be restrained by the necessity +of separating themselves from their families, but have it in their +power, with such small means as they may readily command, in eight +or ten days, to find themselves with their whole households +transported and set down in the midst of the gold regions of the +West, at full liberty to possess and enjoy whatever of the rich +harvest spread out before them their industry and energy shall +entitle them to. It will be theirs by as good a title as any can +boast who have had the means to precede them. We hear much said of +late of the justice and policy of providing a homestead, a quarter +section of the public land, to every poor and landless family in the +country. Make this road, and you enable every poor man in the +country to buy a much better homestead, and retain all the pride and +spirit of independence. Gentlemen here may say that the region of +California, so inviting, and abundant in gold now, will soon be +exhausted, and all these bright prospects for the enterprising poor +pass away. No, sir; centuries will pass--ages and ages must roll +away before those gold-bearing mountains shall all have been +excavated--those auriferous sands and alluvial deposits shall give +out all their wealth; and even after all these shall have failed, +the beds of the rivers will yield a generous return to the toil of +the laborer. ... + +Mr. President, I alluded to the importance of having a communication +by railway between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, in +the event of war with any great maritime Power. I confess that the +debates upon the subject of our foreign relations within the last +few weeks, if all that was said had commanded my full assent, would +have dissipated very much the force of any argument which I thought +might be fairly urged in favor of this road as a necessary work for +the protection and security of our possessions on the Pacific coast. +We now hear it stated, and reiterated by grave and respectable and +intelligent Senators, that there is no reason that any one should +apprehend a war with either Great Britain or France. Not now, nor +at any time in the future; at all events, unless there shall be a +total change in the condition, social, political, and economical, of +those Powers, and especially as regards Great Britain. All who have +spoken agree that there is no prospect of war. None at all. I +agree that I can see nothing in the signs of the times which is +indicative of immediate and certain war. Several gentlemen have +thrown out the idea that we hold the bond of Great Britain to keep +the peace, with ample guarantees and sureties, not only for the +present time, but for an indefinite time; and as long as Great +Britain stands as an independent monarchy. These sureties and +guarantees are said to consist in the discontented and destitute +class of her population, of her operatives and laborers, and the +indispensable necessity of the cotton crop of the United States in +furnishing them with employment and subsistence, without which it is +said she would be torn with internal strife. + +I could tell gentlemen who argue in that way, that we have another +guarantee that Great Britain will not break with the United States +for any trivial cause, which they have not thought proper to raise. +We may threaten and denounce and bluster as much as we please about +British violations of the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, and the +Mosquito protectorate, about the assumption of territorial dominion +over the Balize or British Honduras, and the new colony of the Bay +Islands; and Great Britain will negotiate, explain, treat, and +transgress, and negotiate again, and resort to any device, before +she will go to war with us, as long as she can hope to prolong the +advantages to herself of the free-trade policy now established with +the United States. It is not only the cotton crop of America which +she covets, but it is the rich market for the products of her +manufacturing industry, which she finds in the United States; and +this has contributed as much as any other cause to improve the +condition of her operatives, and impart increased prosperity to her +trade and revenue. As long as we think proper to hold to our +present commercial regulations, I repeat that it will require very +great provocation on our part to force Great Britain into a war with +the United States. . . . + +As for this road, we are told at every turn that it is ridiculous to +talk of war in connection with it, for we will have no wars except +those with the Indians. Both England and France dare not go to war +with us. I say this course of argument is not only unwise and +delusive, but if such sentiments take hold on the country, they will +be mischievous; they will almost to a certainty lead to a daring and +reckless policy on our part; and as each government labors under a +similar delusion as to what the other will not dare to do, what is +more probable than that both may get into such a position--the +result of a mutual mistake--that war must ensue? It is worth while +to reflect upon the difference between the policy of Great Britain +and this country in her diplomatic correspondence and debates in +Parliament. When we make a threat, Great Britain does not threaten +in turn. We hear of no gasconade on her part. If we declare that we +have a just right to latitude 54 degrees 40', and will maintain our right +at all hazard, she does not bluster, and threaten, and declare what +she will do, if we dare to cany out our threat. When we talk about +the Mosquito king, of Balize, and of the Bay Islands, and declare +our determination to drive her from her policy and purposes in +regard to them, we do not hear of an angry form of expression from +her. We employed very strong language last year in regard to the +rights of American fishermen; but the reply of Great Britain +scarcely assumed the tone of remonstrance against the intemperate +tone of our debates. Her policy upon all such occasions is one of +wisdom. Her strong and stern purpose is seldom to be seen in her +diplomatic intercourse, or in the debates of her leading statesmen; +but if you were about her dock-yards, or in her foundries, or her +timber-yards, and her great engine manufactories, and her armories, +you would find some bustle and stir. There, all is life and motion. + +I have always thought that the proper policy of this country is to +make no threats--to make no parade of what we intend to do. Let +us put the country in a condition to defend its honor and interests; +to maintain them successfully whenever they may be assailed; no +matter by what Power, whether by Great Britain, or France, or both +combined. Make this road; complete the defenses of the country, of +your harbors, and navy yards; strengthen your navy--put it upon an +efficient footing; appropriate ample means for making experiments to +ascertain the best model of ships-of-war, to be driven by steam or +any other motive power; the best models of the engines to be +employed in them; to inquire whether a large complement of guns, or +a few guns of great calibre, is the better plan. We may well, upon +such questions, take a lesson from England. At a recent period she +has been making experiments of this nature, in order to give +increased efficiency to her naval establishment. How did she set +about it? Her Admiralty Board gave orders for eleven of the most +perfect engines that could be built by eleven of the most skillful +and eminent engine-builders in the United Kingdom, without limit as +to the cost, or any other limitation, except as to class or size. +At the same time orders were issued for the building of thirteen +frigates of a medium class by thirteen of the most skillful +shipbuilders in the kingdom, in order to ascertain the best models, +the best running lines, and the best of every other quality +desirable in a war vessel. This is the mode in which Great Britain +prepares for any contingencies which may arise. She cannot tell +when they may occur, yet she knows that she has no immunity from +those chances which, at some time or other, are seen to happen to +all nations. In my opinion, the construction of this road from the +Mississippi to the Pacific is essential to the protection and safety +of this country, in the event of a war with any great maritime +Power. It may take ten years to complete it; but every hundred +miles of it, which may be finished before the occurrence of war, +will be just so much gained--so much added to our ability to +maintain our honor in that war. In every view of this question I +can take, I am persuaded that we ought at least prepare to commence +the work, and do it immediately. + + + +JUDAH PHILIP BENJAMIN (1811-1884) + +Judah P. Benjamin, the "Beaconsfield of the Confederacy," was born +at St. Croix in the West Indies, where his parents, a family of +English-Jews, on their way to settle in New Orleans, were delayed by +the American measures against intercourse with England. In 1816 his +parents brought him to Wilmington, North Carolina, where, and at +Yale College, he was educated. Not until after he was ready to +begin life at the bar, did he reach New Orleans, the destination for +which his parents had set out before he was born. In New Orleans, +after a severe struggle, he rose to eminence as a lawyer, and his +firm, of which Mr. Slidell was a partner, was the leading law firm +of the State. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Whig +in 1852 and re-elected as a Democrat in 1859. With Mr. Slidell, who +was serving with him in the Senate, he withdrew in 1861 and became +Attorney-General in the Confederate cabinet. He was afterwards made +Secretary of War, but as the Confederate congress censured him in +that position he resigned it and Mr. Davis immediately appointed him +Secretary of State. After the close of the war, when pursuit after +members of the Confederate cabinet was active, he left the coast of +Florida in an open boat and landed at the Bahamas, taking passage +thence to London where he rose to great eminence as a lawyer. He +was made Queen's Counsel, and on his retirement from practice, +because of ill health, in 1883, a farewell banquet was given him by +the bar in the hall of the Inner Temple, probably the most notable +compliment paid in England to any orator since the banquet to +Berryer. He died in 1884. + +Benjamin was called the "brains of the Confederacy" and in acuteness +of intellect he probably surpassed most men of his time. He +resembled Disraeli in this as well as in being a thorough-going +believer in an aristocratic method of government rather than in one +based on universal suffrage and the will of the masses determined by +majority vote. + +FAREWELL TO THE UNION (On Leaving the United States Senate in 1861) + +Mr. President, if we were engaged in the performance of our +accustomed legislative duties, I might well rest content with the +simple statement of my concurrences in the remarks just made by my +colleague [Mr. Slidell]. Deeply impressed, however, with the +solemnity of the occasion, I cannot remain insensible to the duty of +recording, among the authentic reports of your proceedings, the +expression of my conviction that the State of Louisiana has judged +and acted well and wisely in this crisis of her destiny. + +Sir, it has been urged, on more than one occasion, in the +discussions here and elsewhere, that Louisiana stands on an +exceptional footing. It has been said that whatever may be the +rights of the States that were original parties to the Constitution, +--even granting their right to resume, for sufficient cause, those +restricted powers which they delegated to the general government in +trust for their own use and benefit,--still Louisiana can have no +such right, because she was acquired by purchase. Gentlemen have +not hesitated to speak of the sovereign States formed out of the +territory ceded by France as property bought with the money of the +United States, belonging to them as purchasers; and, although they +have not carried their doctrine to its legitimate results, I must +conclude that they also mean to assert, on the same principle, the +right of selling for a price that which for a price was bought. + +I shall not pause to comment on this repulsive dogma of a party +which asserts the right of property in free-born white men, in order +to reach its cherished object of destroying the right of property in +slave-born black men--still less shall I detain the Senate in +pointing out how shadowy the distinction between the condition of +the servile African and that to which the white freeman of my State +would be reduced, if it, indeed, be true that they are bound to this +government by ties that cannot be legitimately dissevered without +the consent of that very majority which wields its powers for their +oppression. I simply deny the fact on which the argument is +founded. I deny that the province of Louisiana, or the people of +Louisiana, were ever conveyed to the United States for a price as +property that could be bought or sold at will. Without entering +into the details of the negotiation, the archives of our State +Department show the fact to be, that although the domain, the public +lands, and other property of France in the ceded province, were +conveyed by absolute title to the United States, the sovereignty was +not conveyed otherwise than in trust. + +A hundredfold, sir, has the Government of the United States been +reimbursed by the sales of public property, of public lands, for the +price of the acquisition; but not with the fidelity of the honest +trustee has it discharged the obligations as regards the +sovereignty. + +I have said that the government assumed to act as trustee or +guardian of the people of the ceded province, and covenanted to +transfer to them the sovereignty thus held in trust for their use +and benefit, as soon as they were capable of exercising it. What is +the express language of the treaty? + +"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the +Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, +according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the +enjoyments of all rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of +the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and +protected in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the +religion which they profess." + +And, sir, as if to mark the true nature of the cession in a manner +too significant to admit of misconstruction, the treaty stipulates +no price; and the sole consideration for the conveyance, as stated +on its face, is the desire to afford a strong proof of the +friendship of France for the United States. By the terms of a +separate convention stipulating the payment of a sum of money, the +precaution is again observed of stating that the payment is to be +made, not as a consideration or a price or a condition precedent of +the cession, but it is carefully distinguished as being a +consequence of the cession. It was by words thus studiously chosen, +sir, that James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson marked their +understanding of a contract now misconstrued as being a bargain and +sale of sovereignty over freemen. With what indignant scorn would +those stanch advocates of the inherent right of self-government have +repudiated the slavish doctrine now deduced from their action! + +How were the obligations of this treaty fulfilled? That Louisiana +at that date contained slaves held as property by her people through +the whole length of the Mississippi Valley, that those people had an +unrestricted right of settlement with their slaves under legal +protection throughout the entire ceded province, no man has ever yet +had the hardihood to deny. Here is a treaty promise to protect +their property--their slave property--in that Territory, before +it should become a State. That this promise was openly violated, in +the adjustment forced upon the South at the time of the admission of +Missouri, is a matter of recorded history. The perspicuous and +unanswerable exposition of Mr. Justice Catron, in the opinion +delivered by him in the Dred Scott case, will remain through all +time as an ample vindication of this assertion. + +If then, sir, the people of Louisiana had a right, which Congress +could not deny, of the admission into the Union with all the rights +of all the citizens of the United States, it is in vain that the +partisans of the right of the majority to govern the minority with +despotic control, attempt to establish a distinction, to her +prejudice, between her rights and those of any other State. The only +distinction which really exists is this, that she can point to a +breach of treaty stipulations expressly guaranteeing her rights, as +a wrong superadded to those which have impelled a number of her +sister States to the assertion of their independence. + +The rights of Louisiana as a sovereign State are those of Virginia; +no more, no less. Let those who deny her right to resume delegated +powers successfully refute the claim of Virginia to the same right, +in spite of her express reservation made and notified to her sister +States when she consented to enter the Union! And, sir, permit me to +say that, of all the causes which justify the action of the Southern +States, I know none of greater gravity and more alarming magnitude +than that now developed of the right of secession. A pretension so +monstrous as that which perverts a restricted agency constituted by +sovereign States for common purposes, into the unlimited despotism +of the majority, and denies all legitimate escape from such +despotism, when powers not delegated are usurped, converts the whole +constitutional fabric into the secure abode of lawless tyranny, and +degrades sovereign States into provincial dependencies. + +It is said that the right of secession, if conceded, makes of our +government a mere rope of sand; that to assert its existence +imputes to the framers of the Constitution the folly of planting +the seeds of death in that which was designed for perpetual +existence. If this imputation were true, sir, it would merely prove +that their offspring was not exempt from that mortality which is the +common lot of all that is not created by higher than human +power. But it is not so, sir. Let facts answer theory. For +two-thirds of a century this right has been known by many of the +States to be, at all times, within their power. Yet, up to the +present period, when its exercise has become indispensable to a +people menaced with absolute extermination, there have been but two +instances in which it has been even threatened seriously; the first, +when Massachusetts led the New England States in an attempt to +escape from the dangers of our last war with Great Britain; the +second, when the same State proposed to secede on account of the +admission of Texas as a new State into the Union. + +Sir, in the language of our declaration of secession from Great +Britain, it is stated as an established truth, that "all experience +has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are +sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which +they have been accustomed"; and nothing can be more obvious to the +calm and candid observer of passing events than that the disruption +of the Confederacy has been due, in a great measure, not to the +existence, but to the denial of this right. Few candid men would +refuse to admit that the Republicans of the North would have been +checked in their mad career had they been convinced of the existence +of this right, and the intention to assert it. The very knowledge of +its existence by preventing occurrences which alone could prompt its +exercise would have rendered it a most efficient instrument in the +preservation of the Union, But, sir, if the fact were otherwise-- +if all the teachings of experience were reversed--better, far +better, a rope of sand, aye, the flimsiest gossamer that ever +glistened in the morning dew, than chains of iron and shackles of +steel; better the wildest anarchy, with the hope, the chance, of one +hour's inspiration of the glorious breath of freedom, than ages of +the hopeless bondage and oppression to which our enemies would +reduce us. + +We are told that the laws must be enforced; that the revenues must +be collected; that the South is in rebellion without cause, and that +her citizens are traitors. + +Rebellion! the very word is a confession; an avowal of tyranny, +outrage, and oppression. It is taken from the despot's code, and +has no terror for others than slavish souls. When, sir, did +millions of people, as a single man, rise in organized, deliberate, +unimpassioned rebellion against justice, truth, and honor? Well did +a great Englishman exclaim on a similar occasion:-- + +"You might as well tell me that they rebelled against the light of +heaven, that they rejected the fruits of the earth. Men do not war +against their benefactors; they are not mad enough to repel the +instincts of self-preservation. I pronounce fearlessly that no +intelligent people ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere, +rational, and benevolent authority. No people were ever born +blind. Infatuation is not a law of human nature. When there is a +revolt by a free people, with the common consent of all classes of +society, there must be a criminal against whom that revolt is +aimed." + +Traitors! Treason! Ay, sir, the people of the South imitate and +glory in just such treason as glowed in the soul of Hampden; just +such treason as leaped in living flame from the impassioned lips of +Henry; just such treason as encircles with a sacred halo the undying +name of Washington. + +You will enforce the laws. You want to know if we have a government; +if you have any authority to collect revenue; to wring tribute from +an unwilling people? Sir, humanity desponds, and all the inspiring +hopes of her progressive improvement vanish into empty air at the +reflections which crowd on the mind at hearing repeated, with +aggravated enormity, the sentiments against which a Chatham launched +his indignant thunders nearly a century ago. The very words of Lord +North and his royal master are repeated here in debate, not as +quotations, but as the spontaneous outpourings of a spirit the +counterpart of theirs. + +In Lord North's speech on the destruction of the tea in Boston +harbor, he said:-- + +"We are no longer to dispute between legislation and taxation; we +are now only to consider whether or not we have any authority +there. It is very clear we have none, if we suffer the property of +our subjects to be destroyed. We must punish, control, or yield to +them." + +And thereupon he proposed to close the port of Boston, just as the +representatives of Massachusetts now propose to close the port of +Charleston, in order to determine whether or not you have any +authority there. It is thus that, in 1861, Boston is to pay her +debt of gratitude to Charleston, which, in the days of her struggle, +proclaimed the generous sentiment that "the cause of Boston was the +cause of Charleston." Who, after this, will say that republicans +are ungrateful? Well, sir, the statesmen of Great Britain answered +to Lord North's appeal, "yield." The courtiers and the politicians +said, "punish," "control." The result is known. History gives you +the lesson. Profit by its teachings! + +So, sir, in the address sent under the royal sign-manual to +Parliament, it was invoked to take measures "for better securing the +execution of the laws," and it acquiesced in the suggestion. Just as +now, a senile executive, under the sinister influence of insane +counsels, is proposing, with your assent, "to secure the better +execution of the laws," by blockading ports and turning upon the +people of the States the artillery which they provided at their own +expense for their own defense, and intrusted to you and to him for +that and for no other purpose--nay, even in States that are now +exercising the undoubted and most precious rights of a free people; +where there is no secession; where the citizens are assembling to +hold peaceful elections for considering what course of action is +demanded in this dread crisis by a due regard for their own safety +and their own liberty; aye, even in Virginia herself, the people are +to cast their suffrages beneath the undisguised menaces of a +frowning fortress. Cannon are brought to bear on their homes, and +parricidal hands are preparing weapons for rending the bosom of the +mother of Washington. + +Sir, when Great Britain proposed to exact tribute from your fathers +against their will, Lord Chatham said:-- + +"Whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own; no man has a right +to take it from him without his consent. Whoever attempts to do it +attempts an injury. Whoever does it commits a robbery. You have no +right to tax America. I rejoice that America has resisted. + +"Let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be +asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend +to every point of legislation whatever, so that we may bind their +trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power, except +that of taking money out of their own pockets without their +consent." + +It was reserved for the latter half of the nineteenth century, and +for the Congress of a Republic of free men, to witness the willing +abnegation of all power, save that of exacting tribute. What +Imperial Britain, with the haughtiest pretensions of unlimited power +over dependent colonies, could not even attempt without the vehement +protest of her greatest statesmen, is to be enforced in aggravated +form, if you can enforce it, against independent States. + +Good God, sir! since when has the necessity arisen of recalling to +American legislators the lessons of freedom taught in lisping +childhood by loving mothers; that pervade the atmosphere we have +breathed from infancy; that so form part of our very being, that in +their absence we would lose the consciousness of our own identity? +Heaven be praised that not all have forgotten them; that when we +shall have left these familiar halls, and when force bills, +blockades, armies, navies, and all the accustomed coercive +appliances of despots shall be proposed and advocated, voices shall +be heard from this side of the chamber that will make its very roof +resound with the indignant clamor of outraged freedom. Methinks I +still hear ringing in my ears the appeal of the eloquent +Representative [Hon. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio], whose Northern +home looks down on Kentucky's fertile borders: "Armies, money, blood +cannot maintain this Union; justice, reason, peace may." + +And now to you, Mr. President, and to my brother Senators, on all +sides of this chamber, I bid a respectful farewell; with many of +those from whom I have been radically separated in political +sentiment, my personal relations have been kindly, and have inspired +me with a respect and esteem that I shall not willingly forget; with +those around me from the Southern States I part as men part from +brothers on the eve of a temporary absence, with a cordial pressure +of the hand and a smiling assurance of the speedy renewal of sweet +intercourse around the family hearth. But to you, noble and +generous friends, who, born beneath other skies, possess hearts that +beat in sympathy with ours; to you, who, solicited and assailed by +motives the most powerful that could appeal to selfish natures, have +nobly spurned them all; to you, who, in our behalf, have bared your +breasts to the fierce beatings of the storm, and made willing +sacrifice of life's most glittering prizes in your devotion to +constitutional liberty; to you, who have made our cause your cause, +and from many of whom I feel I part forever, what shall I, can I +say? Naught, I know and feel, is needed for myself; but this I will +say for the people in whose name I speak to-day: whether prosperous +or adverse fortunes await you, one priceless treasure is yours-- +the assurance that an entire people honor your names, and hold them +in grateful and affectionate memory. But with still sweeter and +more touching return shall your unselfish devotion be rewarded. +When, in after days, the story of the present shall be written, when +history shall have passed her stern sentence on the erring men who +have driven their unoffending brethren from the shelter of their +common home, your names will derive fresh lustre from the contrast; +and when your children shall hear repeated the familiar tale, it +will be with glowing cheek and kindling eye; their very souls will +stand a-tiptoe as their sires are named, and they will glory in +their lineage from men of spirit as generous and of patriotism as +high-hearted as ever illustrated or adorned the American Senate. + +SLAVERY AS ESTABLISHED BY LAW (Delivered in the United States +Senate, March 11th, 1858) + +Examine your Constitution; are slaves the only species of property +there recognized as requiring peculiar protection? Sir, the +inventive genius of our brethren of the North is a source of vast +wealth to them and vast benefit to the nation. I saw a short time +ago in one of the New York journals, that the estimated value of a +few of the patents now before us in this capitol for renewal was +$40,000,000. I cannot believe that the entire capital invested in +inventions of this character in the United States can fall short of +one hundred and fifty or two hundred million dollars. On what +protection does this vast property rest? Just upon that same +constitutional protection which gives a remedy to the slave-owner +when his property is also found outside of the limits of the State +in which he lives. + +Without this protection what would be the condition of the Northern +inventor? Why, sir, the Vermont inventor protected by his own law +would come to Massachusetts, and there say to the pirate who had +stolen his property, "Render me up my property, or pay me value for +its use." The Senator from Vermont would receive for answer, if he +were the counsel of this Vermont inventor: "Sir, if you want +protection for your property go to your own State; property is +governed by the laws of the State within whose jurisdiction it is +found; you have no property in your invention outside of the limits +of your State; you cannot go an inch beyond it." Would not this be +so? Does not every man see at once that the right of the inventor +to his discovery, that the right of the poet to his inspiration, +depends upon those principles of eternal justice which God has +implanted in the heart of man; and that wherever he cannot exercise +them, it is because man, faithless to the trust that he has received +from God, denies them the protection to which they are entitled? + +Sir, follow out the illustration which the Senator from Vermont +himself has given; take his very case of the Delaware owner of a +horse riding him across the line into Pennsylvania. The Senator +says, "Now you see that slaves are not property, like other +property; if slaves were property like other property, why have you +this special clause in your Constitution to protect a slave? You +have no clause to protect a horse, because horses are recognized as +property everywhere." Mr. President, the same fallacy lurks at the +bottom of this argument, as of all the rest. Let Pennsylvania +exercise her undoubted jurisdiction over persons and things within +her own boundary, let her do as she has a perfect right to +do--declare that hereafter, within the State of Pennsylvania, there +shall be no property in horses, and that no man shall maintain a +suit in her courts for the recovery of property in a horse, and +where will your horse owner be then? Just where the English poet is +now; just where the slaveholder and the inventor would be if the +Constitution, foreseeing a difference of opinion in relation to +rights in these subject-matters, had not provided the remedy in +relation to such property as might easily be plundered. Slaves, if +you please, are not property like other property in this, that you +can easily rob us of them; but as to the right in them, that man has +to overthrow the whole history of the world, he has to overthrow +every treatise on jurisprudence, he has to ignore the common +sentiment of mankind, he has to repudiate the authority of all that +is considered sacred with man, ere he can reach the conclusion that +the person who owns a slave, in a country where slavery has been +established for ages, has no other property in that slave than the +mere title which is given by the statute law of the land where it is +found. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of +10), by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14182 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7fa7a5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #14182 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14182) diff --git a/old/14182.txt b/old/14182.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21e8098 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14182.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16506 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10), by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) + +Author: Various + +Release Date: November 27, 2004 [EBook #14182] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S BEST ORATIONS, *** + + + + +Produced by Kent Fielden + + + + + +THE WORLD'S BEST ORATIONS, Vol. 1 (of 10) + + + +THE ADVISORY COUNCIL + +The Right Hon. Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke. Bart., Member of +Parliament--Author of 'Greater Britain,' etc., London, England. + +William Draper Lewis, PH. D., Dean of the Department of Law, +University Of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. + +William P. Trent, M.A., Professor of English and History, Colombia +University, in the city of New York. + +W. Stuart Symington, Jr., PH. D., Professor of the Romance Languages, +Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. + +Alcee Fortier, Lit.D., Professor of the Romance Languages, +Tulane University, New Orleans, La. + +William Vincent Byars, Journalist, St Louis, Mo. + +Richard Gottheil, PH. D., Professor of Oriental Languages, +Columbia University, in the city of New York. + +Austin H. Merrill, A.M., Professor of Elocution, Vanderbilt +University, Nashville, Tenn. + +Sheldon Jackson. D. D., LL. D., Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. + +A. Marshall Elliott, PH.D. LL. D., Professor of the Romance Languages, +Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. + +John W. Million, A.M., President of Hardin College, Mexico, Mo. + +J. Raymond Brackett. PH. D., Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, +and Professor of Comparative Literature, University Of +Colorado, Boulder, Colo. + +W. F. Peirce. M.A., LL. D., President Of Kenyox College, Gambier, +Ohio. + +S. Plantz, PH.D., D. D., President of Lawrence University, +Appleton, Wis. + +George Tayloe Winston, LL.D., President of the University Of Texas, +Austin, Texas. + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + +VOL. I + +Preface: Justice David J. Brewer + +The Oratory Of Anglo-Saxon Countries: Prof. Edward A. Allen + +ABELARD, PIERRE 1079-1142 + The Resurrection of Lazarus + The Last Entry into Jerusalem + The Divine Tragedy + +ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS 1807-1886 + The States and the Union + +ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, JUNIOR 1835- + The Battle of Gettysburg + +ADAMS, JOHN 1735-1826 + Inaugural Address + The Boston Massacre + +ADAMS, JOHN QUINCY 1767-1848 + Oration at Plymouth Lafayette The + Jubilee of the Constitution + +ADAMS, SAMUEL 1722-1803 + American Independence + +AELRED 1109-1166 + A Farewell + A Sermon after Absence + On Manliness + +AESCHINES 389-314 B. C. + Against Crowning Demosthenes + +AIKEN, FREDERICK A. 1810-1878 + Defense of Mrs. Mary E, Surratt + +ALBERT THE GREAT (ALBERTUS MAGNUS) 1205-1280 + The Meaning of the Crucifixion + The Blessed Dead + +ALLEN, ETHAN + A Call to Arms + +AMES, FISHER 1758-1808 + On the British Treaty + +ANSELM, SAINT 1032-1109 + The Sea of Life + +ARNOLD, THOMAS 1795-1842 + The Realities of Life and Death + +ARTHUR, CHESTER ALAN 1830-1886 + Inaugural Address + +ATHANASIUS 298-373 + The Divinity of Christ + +AUGUSTINE, SAINT 354-430 + The Lord's Prayer + +BACON, FRANCIS 1561-1626 + Speech against Dueling + +BARBOUR, JAMES 1775-1842 + Treaties as Supreme Laws + +BARNAVE, ANTOINE PIERRE JOSEPH MARIE 1761-1793 + Representative Democracy against Majority Absolutism + Commercial Politics + +BARROW, ISAAC 1630-1677 + Slander + +BASIL THE GREAT 329-379 + On a Recreant Nan + +BAXTER, RICHARD 1615-1691 + Unwillingness to Improve + +BAYARD. JAMES A. 1767-1815 + The Federal Judiciary + Commerce and Naval Power + +BAYARD, THOMAS F. 1828-1898 + A Plea for Conciliation in 1876 + +BEACONSFIELD, LORD 1804-1881 + The Assassination of Lincoln + Against Democracy for England + The Meaning of "Conservatism" + +BEDE, THE VENERABLE 672-735 + The Meeting of Mercy and Justice + A Sermon for Any Day + The Torments of Hell + +BEECHER. HENRY WARD 1813-1887 + Raising the Flag over Fort Sumter + Effect of the Death of Lincoln + +BELHAVEN, LORD 1656-1708 + A Plea for the National Life of Scotland + +BELL, JOHN 1797-1869 + Against Extremists, North and South + Transcontinental Railroads + +BENJAMIN, JUDAH P. 1811-1884 + Farewell to the Union + Slavery as Established by Law + + + + +PREFACE + +Oratory is the masterful art. Poetry, painting, music, sculpture, +architecture please, thrill, inspire; but oratory rules. The orator +dominates those who hear him, convinces their reason, controls their +judgment, compels their action. For the time being he is master. +Through the clearness of his logic, the keenness of his wit, the +power of his appeal, or that magnetic something which is felt and +yet cannot be defined, or through all together, he sways his +audience as the storm bends the branches of the forest. Hence it is +that in all times this wonderful power has been something longed for +and striven for. Demosthenes, on the beach, struggling with the +pebbles in his mouth to perfect his articulation, has been the great +example. Yet it is often true of the orator, as of the poet; +_nascitur_ _non_ _fit_. Patrick Henry seemed to be inspired as +"Give me liberty or give me death" rolled from his lips. The +untutored savage has shown himself an orator. + +Who does not delight in oratory? How we gather to hear even an +ordinary speaker! How often is a jury swayed and controlled by the +appeals of counsel! Do we not all feel the magic of the power, and +when occasionally we are permitted to listen to a great orator how +completely we lose ourselves and yield in willing submission to the +imperious and impetuous flow of his speech! It is said that after +Webster's great reply to Hayne every Massachusetts man walking down +Pennsylvania Avenue seemed a foot taller. + +This marvelous power is incapable of complete preservation on the +printed page. The presence, the eye, the voice, the magnetic touch, +are beyond record. The phonograph and kinetoscope may some day seize +and perpetuate all save the magnetic touch, but that weird, +illusive, indefinable yet wonderfully real power by which the orator +subdues may never be caught by science or preserved for the cruel +dissecting knife of the critic. It is the marvelous light flashing +out in the intellectual heavens which no Franklin has yet or may +ever draw and tie to earth by string of kite. + +But while there is a living something which no human art has yet been +able to grasp and preserve, there is a wonderful joy and comfort in +the record of that which the orator said. As we read we see the very +picture, though inarticulate, of the living orator. We may never know +all the marvelous power of Demosthenes, yet _Proton_, _meg_, _o_ +_andres_ _Athenaioi_, suggests something of it. Cicero's silver speech +may never reach our ears, and yet who does not love to read _Quousque_ +_tandem_ _abutere_, _O_ _Catilina_, _patientia_ _nostra_? So if on +the printed page we may not see the living orator, we may look upon +his picture--the photograph of his power. And it is this which it is +the thought and purpose of this work to present. We mean to +photograph the orators of the world, reproducing the words which they +spake, and trusting to the vivid imagination of the thoughtful reader +to put behind the recorded words the living force and power. In this +we shall fill a vacant place in literature. There are countless books +of poetry in which the gems of the great poets of the world have been +preserved, but oratory has not been thus favored. We have many +volumes which record the speeches of different orators, sometimes +connected with a biography of their lives and sometimes as independent +gatherings of speeches. We have also single books, like Goodrich's +'British Eloquence,' which give us partial selections of the great +orations. But this is intended to be universal in its reach, a +complete encyclopedia of oratory. The purpose is to present the best +efforts of the world's greatest orators in all ages; and with this +purpose kept in view as the matter of primary importance, to +supplement the great orations with others that are representative and +historically important--especially with those having a fundamental +connection with the most important events in the development of +Anglo-Saxon civilization. The greatest attention has been given to +the representative orators of England and America, so that the work +includes all that is most famous or most necessary to be known in the +oratory of the Anglo-Saxon race. Wherever possible, addresses have +been published in extenso. This has been the rule followed in giving +the great orations. In dealing with minor orators, the selections +made are considerable enough to show the style, method, and spirit. +Where it has been necessary to choose between two orations of equal +merit, the one having the greater historical significance has been +selected. Of course it would not be possible, keeping within +reasonable limits, to give every speech of every one worthy to be +called an orator. Indeed, the greatest of orators sometimes failed. +So we have carefully selected only those speeches which manifest the +power of eloquence; and this selection, we take pleasure in assuring +our readers, has been made by the most competent critics of the +country. + +We have not confined ourselves to any one profession or field of +eloquence. The pulpit, the bar, the halls of legislation, and the +popular assembly have each and all been called upon for their best +contributions. The single test has been, is it oratory? the single +question, is there eloquence? The reader and student of every class +will therefore find within these pages that which will satisfy his +particular taste and desire in the matter of oratory. + +As this work is designed especially for the American reader, we have +deemed it proper to give prominence to Anglo-Saxon orators; and yet +this prominence has not been carried so far as to make the work a +one-sided collection. It is not a mere presentation of American or +even of English-speaking orators. We submit the work to the American +public in the belief that all will find pleasure, interest, and +instruction in its pages, and in the hope that it will prove an +Inspiration to the growing generation to see to it that oratory be +not classed among the "lost arts," but that it shall remain an +ever-present and increasing power and blessing to the world. + +David J. Brewer + + + +THE ORATORY OF ANGLO-SAXON COUNTRIES + +By Edward A. Allen, Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English Literature +in the University of Missouri + +English-speaking people have always been the freest people, the +greatest lovers of liberty, the world has ever seen. Long before +English history properly begins, the pen of Tacitus reveals to us +our forefathers in their old home-land in North Germany beating back +the Roman legions under Varus, and staying the progress of Rome's +triumphant car whose mighty wheels had crushed Hannibal, Jugurtha, +Vercingetorix, and countless thousands in every land. The Germanic +ancestors of the English nation were the only people who did not +bend the neck to these lords of all the world besides. In the year +9, when the Founder of Christianity was playing about his humble +home at Nazareth, or watching his father at work in his shop, our +forefathers dealt Rome a blow from which she never recovered. As +Freeman, late professor of history at Oxford, said in one of his +lectures: "In the blow by the Teutoburg wood was the germ of the +Declaration of Independence, the germ of the surrender of Yorktown." +Arminius was our first Washington, "_haud_ _dubie_ _liberator_," as +Tacitus calls him,--the savior of his country. + +When the time came for expansion, and our forefathers in the fifth +century began the conquest and settlement of the island that was to +become their New England, they pushed out the Celts, the native +inhabitants of the island, just as their descendants, about twelve +hundred years later, were to push out the indigenous people of this +continent, to make way for a higher civilization, a larger +destiny. No Englishman ever saw an armed Roman in England, and +though traces of the Roman conquest may be seen everywhere in that +country to-day, it is sometimes forgotten that it was the Britain of +the Celts, not the England of the English, which was held for so +many centuries as a province of Rome. + +The same love of freedom that resisted the Roman invasion in the +first home of the English was no less strong in their second home, +when Alfred with his brave yeomen withstood the invading Danes at +Ashdown and Edington, and saved England from becoming a Danish +province. It is true that the Normans, by one decisive battle, +placed a French king on the throne of England, but the English +spirit of freedom was never subdued; it rose superior to the +conquerors of Hastings, and in the end English speech and English +freedom gained the mastery. + +The sacred flame of freedom has burned in the hearts of the +Anglo-Saxon race through all the centuries of our history, and this +spirit of freedom is reflected in our language and in our +oratory. There never have been wanting English orators when English +liberty seemed to be imperiled; indeed, it may be said that the +highest oratory has always been coincident with the deepest +aspirations of freedom. + +It is said of Pitt,--the younger, I believe,--that he was fired to +oratory by reading the speeches in Milton's 'Paradise Lost.' These +speeches--especially those of Satan, the most human of the +characters in this noble epic,--when analyzed and traced to their +source, are neither Hebrew nor Greek, but English to the core. They +are imbued with the English spirit, with the spirit of Cromwell, +with the spirit that beat down oppression at Marston Moor, and +ushered in a freer England at Naseby. In the earlier Milton of a +thousand years before, whether the work of Caedmon or of some other +English muse, the same spirit is reflected in Anglo-Saxon +words. Milton's Satan is more polished, better educated, thanks to +Oxford and Cambridge, but the spirit is essentially one with that of +the ruder poet; and this spirit, I maintain, is English. + +The dry annals of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle are occasionally lighted +up with a gleam of true eloquence, as in the description of the +battle of Brunanburh, which breaks forth into a pean of +victory. Under the year 991, there is mention of a battle at Maldon, +between the English and the Danes, in which great heroism must have +been displayed, for it inspired at the time one of the most +patriotic outbursts of song to be found in the whole range of +English literature. During an enforced truce, because of a swollen +stream that separated the two armies, a messenger is sent from the +Danes to Byrhtnoth, leader of the English forces, with a proposition +to purchase peace with English gold. Byrhtnoth, angry and resolute, +gave him this answer:-- + +"Hearest thou, pirate, what this folk sayeth? They will give you +spears for tribute, weapons that will avail you nought in +battle. Messenger of the vikings, get thee back. Take to thy people +a sterner message, that here stands a fearless earl, who with his +band wilt defend this land, the home of Aethelred, my prince, folk +and fold. Too base it seems to me that ye go without battle to your +ships with our money, now that ye have come thus far into our +country. Ye shall not so easily obtain treasure. Spear and sword, +grim battle-play, shall decide between us ere we pay tribute." + +Though the battle was lost and Byrhtnoth slain, the spirit of the +man is an English inheritance. It is the same spirit that refused +ship-money to Charles I., and tea-money to George III. + +The encroachments of tyranny and the stealthier step of royal +prerogative have shrunk before this spirit which through the +centuries has inspired the noblest oratory of England and +America. It not only inspired the great orators of the mother +country, it served at the same time as a bond of sympathy with the +American colonies in their struggle for freedom. Burke, throughout +his great speech on Conciliation, never lost sight of this idea:-- + +"This fierce spirit of liberty is stronger in the English colonies +probably than in any other people of the earth. The people of the +colonies are descendants of Englishmen. England, sir, is a nation +which still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The +colonists emigrated from you when this part of your character was +most predominant; and they took this bias and direction the moment +they parted from your bands. They are therefore not only devoted to +liberty, but to liberty according to English ideas and our English +principles. ... The temper and character which prevail in our +colonies are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, +I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade +them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins the blood +of freedom circulates. The language in which they would hear you +tell them this tale would detect the imposition; your speech would +betray you. ... In order to prove that Americans have no right to +their liberties, we are every day endeavoring to subvert the maxims +which preserve the whole spirit of our own. To prove that +the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the +value of freedom itself; and we never gain a paltry advantage over +them in debate without attacking some of those principles, or deriding +some of those feelings, for which our ancestors have shed their blood. +. . . As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority +of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple +consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of +England worship freedom they will turn their faces towards you. The +more ardently they love liberty the more perfect will be their +obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere--it is a weed that grows in +every soil. They can have it from Spain; they may have it from +Prussia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your true +interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but +you." + +So, too, in the speeches of Chatham, the great Commoner, whose +eloquence has never been surpassed, an intense spirit of liberty, +the animating principle of his life, shines out above all things +else. Though opposed to the independence of the colonies, he could +not restrain his admiration for the spirit they manifested:-- + +"The Americans contending for their rights against arbitrary +exactions I love and admire. It is the struggle of free and virtuous +patriots. ... My Lords, you cannot conquer America. You may swell +every expense and every effort still more extravagantly; pile and +accumulate every assistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and +barter with every pitiful little German prince that sells and sends +his subjects to the shambles of a foreign prince; your efforts are +forever vain and impotent If I were an American as I am an +Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country I would +never lay down my arms--never--never--never!" + +Wherever the principle of Anglo-Saxon freedom and the rights of man +have been at stake, the all-animating voice of the orator has kept +alive the sacred flame. In the witenagemote of the earlier tongs, in +the parliament of the later kings, in the Massachusetts town-meeting +and in the Virginia House of Burgesses, in the legislature of every +State, and in the Congress of the United States, wherever in +Anglo-Saxon countries the torch of liberty seemed to burn low, the +breath of the orator has fanned it into flame. It fired the +eloquence of Sheridan pleading against Warren Hastings for the +down-trodden natives of India in words that have not lost their +magnetic charm:-- + +"My Lords, do you, the judges of this land and the expounders of its +rightful laws, do you approve of this mockery and call that the +character of Justice which takes the form of right to execute wrong? +No. my Lords, justice is not this halt and miserable object; it is +not the ineffective bauble of an Indian pagoda; it is not the +portentous phantom of despair; it is not like any fabled monster, +formed in the eclipse of reason and found in some unhallowed grove +of superstitious darkness and political dismay. No, my Lords! In the +happy reverse of all this I turn from the disgusting caricature to +the real image. Justice I have now before me, august and pure, the +abstract ideal of all that would be perfect in the spirits and +aspirings of men--where the mind rises; where the heart expands; +where the countenance is ever placid and benign; where the favorite +attitude is to stoop to the unfortunate, to hear their cry, and help +them; to rescue and relieve, to succor and save; majestic from its +mercy, venerable from its utility, uplifted without pride, firm +without obduracy, beneficent in each preference, lovely though in +her frown." + +This same spirit fired the enthusiasm of Samuel Adams and James Otis +to such a pitch of eloquence that "every man who heard them went +away ready to take up arms." It inspired Patrick Henry to hurl his +defiant alternative of "liberty or death" in the face of unyielding +despotism. It inspired that great-hearted patriot and orator, Henry +Clay, in the first quarter of this century, to plead, single-handed +and alone, in the Congress of the United States, session after +session before the final victory was won, for the recognition of the +provinces of South America in their struggle for independence. + +"I may be accused of an imprudent utterance of my feelings on this +occasion. I care not: when the independence, the happiness, the +liberty of a whole people is at stake, and that people our +neighbors, our brethren, occupying a portion of the same continent, +imitating our example, and participating in the same sympathies with +ourselves. I will boldly avow my feelings and my wishes in their +behalf, even at the hazard of such an imputation. I maintain that an +oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and +break their fetters. This was the great principle of the English +revolution. It was the great principle of our own. Spanish-America +has been doomed for centuries to the practical effects of an odious +tyranny. If we were justified, she is more than justified. I am no +propagandist. I would not seek to force upon other nations our +principles and our liberty, if they do not want them. But if an +abused and oppressed people will their freedom; if they seek to +establish it; if, in truth, they have established it, we have a +right, as a sovereign power, to notice the fact, and to act as +circumstances and our interest require. I will say in the language +of the venerated father of my country, 'born in a land of liberty, +my anxious recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best +wishes, are irresistibly excited, whensoever, in any country, I see +an oppressed nation unfurl the banners of freedom.'" + +This same spirit loosed the tongue of Wendell Phillips to plead the +cause of the enslaved African in words that burned into the hearts +of his countrymen. It emboldened George William Curtis to assert the +right to break the shackles of party politics and follow the +dictates of conscience:-- + +"I know,--no man better,--how hard it is for earnest men to +separate their country from their party, or their religion from +their sect. But, nevertheless, the welfare of the country is dearer +than the mere victory of party, as truth is more precious than the +interest of any sect. You will hear this patriotism scorned as an +impracticable theory, as the dream of a cloister, as the whim of a +fool. But such was the folly of the Spartan Leonidas, staying with +his three hundred the Persian horde, and teaching Greece the +self-reliance that saved her. Such was the folly of the Swiss Arnold +von Winkelried, gathering into his own breast the points of Austrian +spears, making his dead body the bridge of victory for his +countrymen. Such was the folly of the American Nathan Hale, gladly +risking the seeming disgrace of his name, and grieving that be had +but one life to give for his country. Such are the beacon-lights of +a pure patriotism that burn forever in men's memories and answer +each other through the illuminated ages." + +So long as there are wrongs to be redressed, so long as the strong +oppress the weak, so long as injustice sits in high places, the +voice of the orator will be needed to plead for the rights of +man. He may not, at this stage of the republic, be called upon to +sound a battle cry to arms, but there are bloodless victories to be +won as essential to the stability of a great nation and the +uplifting of its millions of people as the victories of the +battlefield. + +When the greatest of modern political philosophers, the author of +the Declaration of Independence, urged that, if men were left free +to declare the truth the effect of its great positive forces would +overcome the negative forces of error, he seems to have hit the +central fact of civilization. Without freedom of thought and +absolute freedom to speak out the truth as one sees it, there can be +no advancement, no high civilization. To the orator who has heard +the call of humanity, what nobler aspiration than to enlarge and +extend the freedom we have inherited from our Anglo-Saxon +forefathers, and to defend the hope of the world? + +Edward A. Allen + + + +PIERRE ABELARD (1079-1142) + +Abelard's reputation for oratory and for scholarship was so great +that he attracted hearers and disciples from all quarters. They +encamped around him like an army and listened to him with such +eagerness that the jealousy of some and the honest apprehension of +others were excited by the boldness with which he handled religious +subjects. He has been called the originator of modern rationalism, +and though he was apparently worsted in his contest with his great +rival, St. Bernard, he remains the most real and living personality +among the great pulpit orators of the Middle Ages. This is due in +large part, no doubt, to his connection with the unfortunate +Heloise. That story, one of the most romantic, as it is one of the +saddest of human history, must be passed over with a mere mention of +the fact that it gave occasion for a number of the sermons of +Abelard which have come down to us. Several of those were preached +in the convent of the Paraclete of which Heloise became abbess,-- +where, in his old age, her former lover, broken with the load of a +life of most extraordinary sorrows, went to die. These sermons do +not suggest the fire and force with which young Abelard appealed to +France, compelling its admiration even in exciting its alarm, but +they prevent him from being a mere name as an orator. + +He was born near Nantes, A. D. 1079. At his death in 1142, he was +buried in the convent of the Paraclete, where the body of Heloise +was afterwards buried at his side. + +The extracts from his sermons here given were translated by +Rev. J. M. Neale, of Sackville College, from the first collected +edition of the works of Abelard, published at Paris in 1616. There +are thirty-two such sermons extant. They were preached in Latin, or, +at least, they have come down to us in that language. + + +THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS + +The Lord performed that miracle once for all in the body which much +more blessedly he performs every day in the souls of penitents. He +restored life to Lazarus, but it was a temporal life, one that would +die again. He bestows life on the penitent; life, but it is life +that will remain, world without end. The one is wonderful in the +eyes of men; the other is far more wonderful in the judgment of the +faithful; and in that it is so much the greater, by so much the more +is it to be sought. This is written of Lazarus, not for Lazarus +himself, but for us and to us. "Whatsoever things," saith the +Apostle, "were written of old, were written for our learning." The +Lord called Lazarus once, and he was raised from temporal death. He +calls us often, that we may rise from the death of the soul. He said +to him once, "Come forth!" and immediately he came forth at one +command of the Lord. The Lord every day invites us by Scripture to +confession, exhorts us to amendment, promises the life which is +prepared for us by him who willeth not the death of a sinner. We +neglect his call, we despise his invitation, we contemn his promise. +Placed between God and the devil, as between a father and a foe, we +prefer the enticement of the enemy to a father's warning. "We are +not ignorant," says the Apostle, "of the devices of Satan,"--the +devices, I say, by which he induces us to sin, and keeps us back +from repentance. Suggesting sin, he deprives us of two things by +which the best assistance might be offered to us, namely, shame and +fear. For that which we avoid, we avoid either through fear of some +loss, or through the reverence of shame.... When, therefore, Satan +impels any one to sin, he easily accomplishes the object, if, as we +have said, he first deprives him of fear and shame. And when he has +effected that, he restores the same things, but in another sense, +which he has taken away; that so he may keep back the sinner from +confession, and make him die in his sin. Then he secretly whispers +into his soul: "Priests are light-minded, and it is a difficult +thing to check the tongue. If you tell this or that to them, it +cannot remain a secret; and when it shall have been published +abroad, you will incur the danger of losing your good character, or +bearing some injury, and being confounded from your own vileness." +Thus the devil deceives that wretched man; he first takes from +him that by which he ought to avoid sin, and then restores the same +thing, and by it retains him in sin. His captive fears temporal, and +not spiritual, evil; he is ashamed before men and he despises +God. He is ashamed that things should come to the knowledge of men +which he was not ashamed to commit in the sight of God, and of the +whole heavenly host. He trembles at the judgment of man, and he has +no respect to that of God. Of which the Apostle says: "It is a +fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God"; and the +Truth saith himself, "Fear not them that kill the body, and after +that have no more that they can do; but fear him rather who can cast +body and soul into hell." + +There are diseases of the soul, as there are of the body; and +therefore the Divine mercy has provided beforehand physicians for +both. Our Lord Jesus Christ saith, "I came not to call the +righteous, but sinners to repentance." His priests now hold his +place in the Church, to whom, as unto physicians of the soul, we +ought to confess our sins, that we may receive from them the +plaister of satisfaction. He that fears the death of the body, in +whatever part of the body he may suffer, however much he may be +ashamed of the disease, makes no delay in revealing it to the +physician, and setting it forth, so that it may be cured. However +rough, however hard may be the remedy, he avoids it not, so that he +may escape death. Whatever he has that is most precious, he makes no +hesitation in giving it, if only for a little while he may put off +the death of the body. What, then, ought we to do for the death of +the soul? For this, however terrible, may be forever prevented, +without such great labor, without such great expense. The Lord seeks +us ourselves, and not what is ours. He stands in no need of our +wealth who bestows all things. For it is he to whom it is said, "My +goods are nothing unto thee." With him a man is by so much the +greater, as, in his own judgment, he is less. With him a man is as +much the more righteous, as in his own opinion he is the more +guilty. In his eyes we hide our faults all the more, the more that +here by confession we manifest them. + + +THE LAST ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM + +"He came unto his own, and his own received him not." That is, he +entered Jerusalem. Yet now he entered, not Jerusalem, which by +interpretation is "The Vision of Peace," but the home of +tyranny. For now the elders of the city have so manifestly conspired +against him, that he can no longer find a place of refuge within +it. This is not to be attributed to his helplessness but to his +patience. He could be harbored there securely, seeing that no one +can do him harm by violence, and that he has the power to incline +the hearts of men whither he wills. For in that same city he freely +did whatever he willed to do; and when he sent his disciples +thither, and commanded them that they should loose the ass and the +colt, and bring them to him, and said that no man would forbid them, +he accomplished that which he said, although he was not ignorant of +the conspiracy against himself. Of which he saith to his disciples +whom he sends, "Go ye into the castle over against you"; that is, to +the place which is equally opposed to God and to you; no longer to +be called a city, an assembly of men living under the law, but a +castle of tyrannical fortification. Go confidently, saith he, into +the place, though such it is, and though it is therefore opposed to +you, and do with all security that which I command you. Whence he +adds, also: "And if any man say aught unto you, say that the Lord +hath need of them, and he will straightway send them away." A +wonderful confidence of power! As if the Lord, using his own right +of command, lays his own injunction on those whom he knows already +to have conspired for his death. Thus he commands, thus he enjoins, +thus he compels obedience. Nor do they who are sent hesitate in +accomplishing that which is laid upon them, confident as they are in +the strength of the power of him who sends them. By that power they +who were chiefly concerned in this conspiracy had been more than +once ejected from the Temple, where many were not able to resist +one. And they, too, after this ejection and conspiracy, as we have +said, when he was daily teaching in the Temple, knew how intrepid he +showed himself to be, into whose hands the Father had given all +things. And last of all, when he desired to celebrate the Passover +in the same night in which he had foreordained to be betrayed, he +again sent his Disciples whither he willed, and prepared a home for +himself in the city itself, wherein he might keep the feast. He, +then, who so often showed his power in such things as these, now +also, if he had desired it, could have prepared a home wherever he +would, and had no need to return to Bethany. Therefore, he did these +two things intentionally: he showed that they whom he avoided were +unworthy of his dwelling among them; and he gave himself, in the +last hours of his life, to his beloved hosts, that they might have +their own reception of him as the reward of their hospitality. + + +THE DIVINE TRAGEDY + +Whether, therefore, Christ is spoken of as about to be crowned or +about to be crucified, it is said that he "went forth"; to signify +that the Jews, who were guilty of so great wickedness against him, +were given over to reprobation, and that his grace would now pass to +the vast extent of the Gentiles, where the salvation of the Cross, +and his own exaltation by the gain of many peoples, in the place of +the one nation of the Jews, has extended itself. Whence, also, +to-day we rightly go forth to adore the Cross in the open plain; +showing mystically that both glory and salvation had departed from +the Jews, and had spread themselves among the Gentiles. But in that +we afterwards returned (in procession) to the place whence we had +set forth, we signify that in the end of the world the grace of God +will return to the Jews; namely, when, by the preaching of Enoch and +Elijah, they shall be converted to him. Whence the Apostle: "I would +not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that +blindness in part has fallen upon Israel, until the fullness of the +Gentiles shall be come, and so all Israel shall be saved." Whence +the place itself of Calvary, where the Lord was crucified, is now, +as we know, contained in the city; whereas formerly it was without +the walls. "The crown wherewith his Mother crowned him in the day of +his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart." For +thus kings are wont to exhibit their glory when they betroth queens +to themselves, and celebrate the solemnities of their nuptials. Now +the day of the Lord's crucifixion was, as it were, the day of his +betrothal; because it was then that he associated the Church to +himself as his bride, and on the same day descended into Hell, and, +setting free the souls of the faithful, accomplished in them that +which he had promised to the thief: "Verily I say unto thee, to-day +shalt thou be with me in Paradise." + +"To-day," he says, of the gladness of his heart; because in his body +he suffered the torture of pain; but while the flesh inflicted on +him torments through the outward violence of men, his soul was filled +with joy on account of our salvation, which he thus brought to +pass. Whence, also, when he went forth to his crucifixion, he +stilled the women that were lamenting him, and said, "Daughters of +Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and your +children." As if he said, "Grieve not for me in these my sufferings, +as if by their means I should fall into any real destruction; but +rather lament for that heavy vengeance which hangs over you and your +children, because of that which they have committed against me." So +we, also, brethren, should rather weep for ourselves than for him; +and for the faults which we have committed, not for the punishments +which he bore. Let us so rejoice with him and for him, as to grieve +for our own offenses, and for that the guilty servant committed the +transgression, while the innocent Lord bore the punishment. He +taught us to weep who is never said to have wept for himself, though +he wept for Lazarus when about to raise him from the dead. + + + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS (1807-1886) + +The son of one President of the United States and the grand-son of +another, Charles Francis Adams won for himself in his own right a +position of prominence in the history of his times. He studied law +in the office of Daniel Webster, and after beginning practice was +drawn into public life by his election to the Massachusetts +legislature in which he served from 1831 to 1838. A Whig in politics +until the slavery issue became prominent, he was nominated for +Vice-President on the Free Soil ticket with Van Buren in 1848. The +Republican party which grew out of the Free Soil movement elected +him to Congress as a representative of the third Massachusetts +district in 1858 and re-elected him in 1860. In 1861 President +Lincoln appointed him minister to England, and he filled with credit +that place which had been filled by his father and grandfather +before him. He died November 21st, 1886, leaving besides his own +speeches and essays an edition of the works of John and John Quincy +Adams in twenty-two volumes octavo. + + +THE STATES AND THE UNION +(Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 31st, 1861) + +I confess, Mr. Speaker, that I should be very jealous, as a citizen +of Massachusetts, of any attempt on the part of Virginia, for +example, to propose an amendment to the Constitution designed to +rescind or abolish the bill of rights prefixed to our own form of +government. Yet I cannot see why such a proposition would be more +unjustifiable than any counter proposition to abolish slavery in +Virginia, as coming from Massachusetts. If I have in any way +succeeded in mastering the primary elements of our forms of +government, the first and fundamental idea is, the reservation to +the people of the respective States of every power of regulating +their own affairs not specifically surrendered in the Constitution. +The security of the State governments depends upon the fidelity +with which this principle is observed. + +Even the intimation of any such interference as I have mentioned by +way of example could not be made in earnest without at once shaking +the entire foundation of the whole confederated Union. No man shall +exceed me in jealousy of affection for the State rights of Massachusetts. +So far as I remember, nothing of this kind was ever thought of +heretofore; and I see no reason to apprehend that what has not +happened thus far will be more likely to happen hereafter. But if +the time ever come when it does occur, I shall believe the +dissolution of the system to be much more certain than I do at this +moment. + +For these reasons, I cannot imagine that there is the smallest +foundation for uneasiness about the intentions of any considerable +number of men in the free States to interfere in any manner whatever +with slavery in the States, much less by the hopeless mode of +amending the Constitution. To me it looks like panic, pure panic. +How, then, is it to be treated? Is it to be neglected or ridiculed? +Not at all. If a child in the nursery be frightened by the idea of a +spectre, common humanity would prompt an effort by kindness to +assuage the alarm. But in cases where the same feeling pervades the +bosoms of multitudes of men, this imaginary evil grows up at once +into a gigantic reality, and must be dealt with as such. It is at +all times difficult to legislate against a possibility. The +committee have reported a proposition intended to meet this case. +It is a form of amendment of the Constitution which, in substance, +takes away no rights whatever which the free States ever should +attempt to use, whilst it vests exclusively in the slave States the +right to use them or not, as they shall think proper, the whole +treatment of the subject to which they relate being conceded to be a +matter of common interest to them, exclusively within their +jurisdiction, and subject to their control. A time may arrive, in +the course of years, when they will themselves desire some act of +interference in a friendly and beneficent spirit. If so, they have +the power reserved to them of initiating the very form in which it +would be most welcome. If not, they have a security, so long as this +government shall endure, that no sister State shall dictate any +change against their will. + +I have now considered all the alleged grievances which have thus far +been brought to our attention, 1. The personal liberty laws, which +never freed a slave. 2. Exclusion from a Territory which +slaveholders will never desire to occupy. 3. Apprehension of an +event which will never take place. For the sake of these three +causes of complaint, all of them utterly without practical result, +the slaveholding States, unquestionably the weakest section of this +great Confederacy, are voluntarily and precipitately surrendering +the realities of solid power woven into the very texture of a +government that now keeps nineteen million freemen, willing to +tolerate, and, in one sense, to shelter, institutions which, but for +that, would meet with no more sympathy among them than they now do +in the remainder of the civilized world. + +For my own part, I must declare that, even supposing these alleged +grievances to be more real than I represent them, I think the +measures of the committee dispose of them effectually and +forever. They contribute directly all that can be legitimately done +by Congress, and they recommend it to the legislatures of the States +to accomplish the remainder. Why, then, is it that harmony is not +restored? The answer is, that you are not satisfied with this +settlement, however complete. You must have more guarantees in the +Constitution. You must make the protection and extension of slavery +in the Territories now existing, and hereafter to be acquired, a +cardinal doctrine of our great charter. Without that, you are +determined to dissolve the Union. How stands the case, then? We +offer to settle the question finally in all of the present territory +that you claim, by giving you every chance of establishing slavery +that you have any right to require of us. You decline to take the +offer, because you fear it will do you no good. Slavery will not go +there. But, if that be true, what is the use of asking for the +protection anyhow, much less in the Constitution? Why require +protection where you will have nothing to protect? All you appear to +desire it for is New Mexico. Nothing else is left. Yet, you will not +accept New Mexico at once, because ten years of experience have +proved to you that protection has been of no use thus far. But, if +so, how can you expect that it will be of so much more use hereafter +as to make it worth dissolving the Union? + +But, if we pass to the other condition, is it any more reasonable? +Are we going to fight because we cannot agree upon the mode of +disposing of our neighbor's lands? Are we to break up the Union of +these States, cemented by so many years of common sufferings, and +resplendent with so many years of common glory, because it is +insisted that we should incorporate into what we regard as the +charter of our freedom a proclamation to the civilized world that we +intend to grasp the territory of other nations whenever we can do +it, for the purpose of putting into it certain institutions which +some of us disapprove, and that, too, whether the people inhabiting +that territory themselves approve of it or not? + +I am almost inclined to believe that they who first contrived this +demand must have done so for the sake of presenting a condition +which they knew beforehand must be rejected, or which, if accepted, +must humiliate us in the dust forever. In point of fact, this +proposal covers no question of immediate moment which may not be +settled by another and less obnoxious one. Why is it, then, +persevered in, and the other rejected? The answer is obvious. You +want the Union dissolved. You want to make it impossible for +honorable men to become reconciled. If it be, indeed, so, then on +you, and you alone, shall rest the responsibility of what may +follow. If the Union be broken up, the reason why it happened shall +remain on record forever. It was because you rejected one form of +settling a question which might be offered and accepted with honor, +in order to insist upon another which you knew we could not accept +without disgrace. I answer for myself only when I say that, if the +alternative to the salvation of the Union be only that the people of +the United States shall, before the Christian nations of the earth, +print in broad letters upon the front of their charter of republican +government the dogma of slave propagandism over the remainder of the +countries of the world, I will not consent to brand myself with what +I deem such disgrace, let the consequences be what they may. + +But it is said that this answer closes the door of reconciliation. +The slaveholding States will secede, and what then? + +This brings me to the last point which I desire to touch today, the +proper course for the government to pursue in the face of these +difficulties. Some of the friends with whom I act have not hesitated +to express themselves in favor of coercion; and they have drawn very +gloomy pictures of the fatal consequences to the prosperity and +security of the whole Union that must ensue. For my own sake, I am +glad that I do not partake so largely in these fears. I see no +obstacle to the regular continuance of the government in not less +than twenty States, and perhaps more, the inhabitants of which have +not in a moment been deprived of that peculiar practical wisdom in +the management of their affairs which is the secret of their past +success. Several new States will, before long, be ready to take +their places with us and make good, in part, the loss of the old +ones. The mission of furnishing a great example of free government +to the nations of the earth will still be in our hands, impaired, I +admit, but not destroyed; and I doubt not our power to accomplish it +yet in spite of the temporary drawback. Even the problem of coercion +will go on to solve itself without our aid. For if the sentiment of +disunion become so far universal and permanent in the dissatisfied +States as to show no prospect of good from resistance, and there be +no acts of aggression attempted on their part, I will not say that I +may not favor the idea of some arrangement of a peaceful character, +though I do not now see the authority under which it can be originated. +The new Confederacy can scarcely be other than a secondary Power. It +can never be a maritime State. It will begin with the necessity of +keeping eight millions of its population to watch four millions, and +with the duty of guarding, against the egress of the latter, several +thousand miles of an exposed border, beyond which there will be no +right of reclamation. Of the ultimate result of a similar experiment, +I cannot, in my own mind, have a moment's doubt. At the last session +I ventured to place on record, in this House, a prediction by which +I must abide, let the effect of the future on my sagacity be what it +may. I have not yet seen any reason to doubt its accuracy. I now +repeat it. The experiment will ignominiously fail. + +But there are exceptions to the adoption of this peaceful policy +which it will not be wise to overlook. If there be violent and +wanton attacks upon the persons or the property of the citizens of +the United States or of their government, I see not how demands for +immediate redress can be avoided. If any interruptions should be +attempted of the regular channels of trade on the great +water-courses or on the ocean, they cannot long be permitted. And if +any considerable minorities of citizens should be persecuted or +proscribed on account of their attachment to the Union, and should +call for protection, I cannot deny the obligation of this government +to afford it. There are persons in many of the States whose +patriotic declarations and honorable pledges of support of the Union +may bring down upon them more than the ill-will of their infatuated +fellow-citizens. It would be impossible for the people of the United +States to look upon any proscription of them with indifference. +These are times which should bring together all men, by whatever +party name they may have been heretofore distinguished, upon common +ground. + +When I heard the gentlemen from Virginia the other day so bravely +and so forcibly urging their manly arguments in support of the +Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws, my heart +involuntarily bounded towards them as brethren sacredly engaged in a +common cause. Let them, said I to myself, accept the offered +settlement of the differences that remain between us, on some fair +basis like that proposed by the committee, and then, what is to +prevent us all, who yet believe that the Union must be preserved, +from joining heart and hand our common forces to effect it? When the +cry goes out that the ship is in danger of sinking, the first duty +of every man on board, no matter what his particular vocation, is to +lend all the strength he has to the work of keeping her afloat. +What! shall it be said that we waver in the view of those +who begin by trying to expunge the sacred memory of the fourth of +July? Shall we help them to obliterate the associations that cluster +around the glorious struggle for independence, or stultify the +labors of the patriots who erected this magnificent political +edifice upon the adamantine base of human liberty? Shall we +surrender the fame of Washington and Laurens, of Gadsden and the +Lees, of Jefferson and Madison, and of the myriads of heroes whose +names are imperishably connected with the memory of a united people? +Never, never! + + + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JUNIOR + +CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, Jr. son of Charles Francis Adams, keeps up +the tradition of his family so well that, unless it is John Adams +himself, no other member of the family surpasses him as an orator. +He was born in Boston, May 27th, 1835; graduating at Harvard +and studying law in the office of R. H. Dana, Jr. His peaceful +pursuits were interrupted by the Civil War which he entered a first +lieutenant, coming out a brevet-brigadier general. He was a chief of +squadron in the Gettysburg campaign and served in Virginia +afterwards. He was for six years president of the Union Pacific +railroad and is well known both as a financier and as an author. +The address on the Battle of Gettysburg is generally given as his +masterpiece, but he has delivered a number of other orations of high +and well-sustained eloquence. + + +THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG (Delivered at Quincy, Mass., July 4th, +1869) + +Six years ago this anniversary, we, and not only we who stood upon +the sacred and furrowed field of battle, but you and our whole +country, were drawing breath after the struggle of Gettysburg. For +three long days we had stood the strain of conflict, and now, at +last, when the nation's birthday dawned, the shattered rebel columns +had suddenly withdrawn from our front, and we drew that long breath +of deep relief which none have ever drawn who have not passed in +safety through the shock of doubtful battle. Nor was our country +gladdened then by news from Gettysburg alone. The army that day +twined noble laurel garlands round the proud brow of the +motherland. Vicksburg was, thereafter, to be forever associated with +the Declaration of Independence, and the glad anniversary +rejoicings, as they rose from every town and village and city of the +loyal North, mingled with the last sullen echoes that died away from +our cannon over Cemetery Ridge, and were answered by glad shouts of +victory from the far Southwest. To all of us of this generation, +--and especially to such of us as were ourselves part of those great +events,--this celebration, therefore, now has and must ever retain +a special significance. It belonged to us, as well as to our +fathers. As upon this day ninety-three years ago this nation was +brought into existence through the efforts of others, so upon this +day six years ago I am disposed to believe through our own efforts, +it dramatically touched the climax of its great argument. + +The time that has since elapsed enables us now to look back and to +see things in their true proportions. We begin to realize that the +years we have so recently passed through, though we did not +appreciate it at the time, were the heroic years of American +history. Now that their passionate excitement is over, it is +pleasant to dwell upon them; to recall the rising of a great people; +the call to arms as it boomed from our hilltops and clashed from our +steeples; the eager patriotism of that fierce April which kindled +new sympathies in every bosom, which caused the miser to give freely +of his wealth, the wife with eager hands to pack the knapsack of her +husband, and mothers with eyes glistening with tears of pride, to +look out upon the shining bayonets of their boys; then came the +frenzy of impatience and the defeat entailed upon us by rashness and +inexperience, before our nation settled down, solidly and patiently, +to its work, determined to save itself from destruction; and then +followed the long weary years of doubt and mingled fear and hope, +until at last that day came six years ago which we now celebrate-- +the day which saw the flood, tide of rebellion reach the high-water +mark, whence it never after ceased to recede. At the moment, +probably, none of us, either at home or at the seat of war, realized +the grandeur of the situation, the dramatic power of the incidents, +or the Titanic nature of the conflict. To you who were at home, +mothers, fathers, wives, sisters, brothers, citizens of the common +country, if nothing else, the agony of suspense, the anxiety, the +joy, and, too often, the grief which was to know no end, which +marked the passage of those days, left little either of time or +inclination to dwell upon aught save the horrid reality of the +drama. To others who more immediately participated in those great +events, the daily vexations and annoyances--the hot and dusty day +--the sleepless, anxious night--the rain upon the unsheltered +bivouac--the dead lassitude which succeeded the excitement of action +--the cruel orders which recognized no fatigue and made no +allowance for labors undergone--all these small trials of the +soldier's life made it possible to but few to realize the grandeur +of the drama to which they were playing a part. Yet we were not +wholly oblivious of it. Now and then I come across strange evidences +of this in turning over the leaves of the few weather-stained, +dogeared volumes which were the companions of my life in camp. The +title page of one bears witness to the fact that it was my companion +at Gettysburg, and in it I recently found some lines of Browning's +noble poem of 'Saul' marked and altered to express my sense of our +situation, and bearing date upon this very fifth of July. The poet +had described in them the fall of snow in the springtime from a +mountain, under which nestled a valley; the altering of a few words +made them well describe the approach of our army to Gettysburg. + + "Fold on fold, all at once, we crowded thundrously down to your + feet; + And there fronts yon, stark black but alive yet, your army of old + With its rents, the successive bequeathing of conflicts untold. + Yea, each harm got in fighting your battles, each furrow and scar + Of its head thrust twixt you and the tempest--all hail, here we + are." + +And there we were, indeed, and then and there was enacted such a +celebration as I hope may never again be witnessed there or +elsewhere on another fourth of July. Even as I stand here before +you, through the lapse of years and the shifting experiences of the +recent past, visions and memories of those days rise thick and fast +before me. We did, indeed, crowd thundrously down to their feet. Of +the events of those three terrible days I may speak with feeling and +yet with modesty, for small, indeed, was the part which those with +whom I served were called upon to play. When those great bodies of +infantry drove together in the crash of battle, the clouds of +cavalry which had hitherto covered up their movements were swept +aside to the flanks. Our work for the time was done, nor had it been +an easy or a pleasant work. The road to Gettysburg had been paved +with our bodies and watered with our blood. Three weeks before, in +the middle days of June, I, a captain of cavalry, had taken the +field at the head of one hundred mounted men, the joy and pride of +my life. Through twenty days of almost incessant conflict the hand +of death had been heavy upon us, and now, upon the eve of +Gettysburg, thirty-four of the hundred only remained, and our +comrades were dead on the field of battle, or languishing in +hospitals, or prisoners in the hands of the enemy. Six brave young +fellows we had buried in one grave where they fell on the heights of +Aldie. It was late on the evening of the first of July, that there +came to us rumors of heavy fighting at Gettysburg, nearly forty +miles away. The regiment happened then to be detached, and its +orders for the second were to move in the rear of Sedgwick's corps +and see that no man left the column. All that day we marched to the +sound of the cannon. Sedgwick, very grim and stern, was pressing +forward his tired men, and we soon saw that for once there would be +no stragglers from the ranks. As the day grew old and as we passed +rapidly up from the rear to the head of the hurrying column, the +roar of battle grew more distinct, until at last we crowned a hill, +and the contest broke upon us. Across the deep valley, some two +miles away, we could see the white smoke of the bursting shells, +while below the sharp incessant rattle of the musketry told of the +fierce struggle that was going on. Before us ran the straight, +white, dusty road, choked with artillery, ambulances, caissons, +ammunition trains, all pressing forward to the field of battle, +while mixed among them, their bayonets gleaming through the dust +like wavelets on a river of steel, tired, foot-sore, hungry, +thirsty, begrimed with sweat and dust, the gallant infantry of +Sedgwick's corps hurried to the sound of the cannon as men might +have flocked to a feast. Moving rapidly forward, we crossed the +brook which ran so prominently across the map of the field of +battle, and halted on its further side to await our orders. Hardly +had I dismounted from my horse when, looking back, I saw that the +head of the column had reached the brook and deployed and halted on +its other bank, and already the stream was filled with naked men +shouting with pleasure as they washed off the sweat of their long +day's march. Even as I looked, the noise of the battle grew louder, +and soon the symptoms of movement were evident. The rappel was +heard, the bathers hurriedly clad themselves, the ranks were formed, +and the sharp, quick snap of the percussion caps told us the men +were preparing their weapons for action. Almost immediately a +general officer rode rapidly to the front of the line, addressed to +it a few brief, energetic words, the short sharp order to move by +the flank was given, followed immediately by the "double-quick"; the +officer placed himself at the head of the column, and that brave +infantry which had marched almost forty miles since the setting of +yesterday's sun,--which during that day had hardly known either +sleep, or food, or rest, or shelter from the July heat,--now, as +the shadows grew long, hurried forward on the run to take its place +in the front of battle and to bear up the reeling fortunes of the +day. + +It is said that at the crisis of Solferino, Marshal McMahon appeared +with his corps upon the field of battle, his men having run for +seven miles. We need not go abroad for examples of endurance and +soldierly bearing. The achievement of Sedgwick and the brave Sixth +Corps, as they marched upon the field of Gettysburg on that second +day of July, far excels the vaunted efforts of the French Zouaves. + +Twenty-four hours later we stood on that same ground. Many dear +friends had yielded up their young lives during the hours which had +elapsed, but, though twenty thousand fellow-creatures were wounded +or dead around us, though the flood gates of heaven seemed opened +and the torrents fell upon the quick and the dead, yet the elements +seemed electrified with a certain magic influence of victory, and as +the great army sank down over-wearied in its tracks it felt that the +crisis and danger was passed,--that Gettysburg was immortal. + +May I not, then, well express the hope that never again may we or +ours be called upon so to celebrate this anniversary? And yet now +that the passionate hopes and fears of those days are all over,-- +now that the grief which can never be forgotten is softened and +modified by the soothing hand of time,--now that the distracting +doubts and untold anxieties are buried and almost forgotten,--we +love to remember the gathering of the hosts, to bear again in memory +the shock of battle, and to wonder at the magnificence of the +drama. The passion and the excitement are gone, and we can look at +the work we have done and pronounce upon it. I do not fear the sober +second judgment. Our work was a great work,--it was well done, and +it was done thoroughly. Some one has said, "Happy is the people +which has no history." Not so! As it is better to have loved and +lost than never to have loved at all, so it is better to have lived +greatly, even though we have suffered greatly, than to have passed a +long life of inglorious ease. Our generation,--yes, we ourselves +have been a part of great things. We have suffered greatly and +greatly rejoiced; we have drunk deep of the cup of joy and of +sorrow; we have tasted the agony of defeat, and we have supped full +with the pleasures of victory. We have proved ourselves equal to +great deeds, and have learnt what qualities were in us, which in +more peaceful times we ourselves did not suspect. + +And, indeed, I would here in closing fain address a few words to +such of you, if any such are here, who like myself may nave been +soldiers during the War of the Rebellion. We should never more be +partisans. We have been a part of great events in the service of the +common country, we have worn her uniform, we have received her pay +and devoted ourselves to the death, if need be, in her service. When +we were blackened by the smoke of Antietam, we did not ask or care +whether those who stood shoulder to shoulder beside us, whether he +who led us, whether those who sustained us, were Democrats or +Republicans, conservatives or radicals; we asked only that they +might prove as true as was the steel we grasped, and as brave as we +ourselves would fain have been. When we stood like a wall of stone +vomiting fire from the heights of Gettysburg,--nailed to our +position through three long days of mortal Hell,--did we ask each +other whether that brave officer who fell while gallantly leading +the counter-charge--whether that cool gunner steadily serving his +piece before us amid the storm of shot and shell--whether the poor +wounded, mangled, gasping comrades, crushed and torn, and dying in +agony around us--had voted for Lincoln or Douglas, for Breckenridge +or Bell? We then were full of other thoughts. We prized men for what +they were worth to the common country of us all, and recked not of +empty words. Was the man true, was he brave, was he earnest, was all +we thought of then;--not, did he vote or think with us, or label +himself with our party name? This lesson let us try to remember. We +cannot give to party all that we once offered to country, but our duty +is not yet done. We are no longer, what we have been, the young guard +of the Republic; we have earned an exemption from the dangers of the +field and camp, and the old musket or the crossed sabres hang harmless +over our winter fires, never more to be grasped in these hands +henceforth devoted to more peaceful labors; but the duties of the +citizen, and of the citizen who has received his baptism in fire, are +still incumbent upon us. Though young in years, we should remember +that henceforth, and as long as we live in the land, we are the +ancients,--the veterans of the Republic. As such, it is for us to +protect in peace what we preserved in war; it is for us to look at all +things with a view to the common country and not to the exigencies of +party politics; it is for us ever to bear in mind the higher +allegiance we have sworn, and to remember that he who has once been a +soldier of the motherland degrades himself forever when he becomes the +slave of faction. Then at last, if through life we ever bear these +lessons freshly in mind will it be well for us, will it be well for +our country, will it be well for those whose names we bear, that our +bones also do not molder with those of our brave comrades beneath the +sods of Gettysburg, or that our graves do not look down on the +swift-flowing Mississippi from the historic heights of Vicksburg? + + + +JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826) + +John Adams, second President of the United States, was not a man of +the strong emotional temperament which so often characterizes the +great orator. He was fitted by nature for a student and scholar +rather than to lead men by the direct appeal the orator makes to +their emotions, their passions, or their judgment His inclinations +were towards the Church; but after graduating from Harvard College, +which he entered at the age of sixteen, he had a brief experience as +a school-teacher and found it so distasteful to him that he adopted +the law as a relief, without waiting to consult his inclinations +further. "Necessity drove me to this determination," he writes, "but +my inclination was to preach." He began the practice of law in his +native village of Braintree, Massachusetts, and took no prominent +part in public affairs until 1765, when he appeared as counsel for +the town of Boston in proceedings growing out of the Stamp Act +difficulties. + +From this time on, his name is constantly associated with the great +events of the Revolution. That be never allowed his prejudices as a +patriot to blind him to his duties as a lawyer, he showed by +appearing as counsel for the British soldiers who killed Crispus +Attucks, Samuel Gray, and others, in the Boston riot of 1770. He was +associated in this case with Josiah Quincy, and the two +distinguished patriots conducted the case with such ability that the +soldiers were acquitted--as no doubt they should have been. + +Elected a member of the Continental Congress, Mr. Adams did work in +it which identified him in an enduring way with the formative period +of republican institutions in America. This must be remembered in +passing upon his acts when as President, succeeding Washington, he +is brought into strong contrast with the extreme republicans of the +French school. In the Continental Congress, contrasted with English +royalists and conservatives Mr. Adams himself appeared an extremist, +as later on, under the same law of contrast, he appeared +conservative when those who were sometimes denounced as "Jacobins" +and "Levellers" were fond of denouncing him as a disguised royalist. + +Prior to his administration as President, he had served as +commissioner to the court of France, "Minister Plenipotentiary for +the Purpose of Negotiating a Treaty of Peace and Commerce with Great +Britain"; commissioner to conclude a treaty with the States-General +of Holland; minister to England after the conclusion of peace, and +finally as Vice-President under Washington. His services in every +capacity in which he was engaged for his country showed his great +ability and zeal: but in the struggle over the Alien and Sedition +Laws his opponents gave him no quarter and when he retired from the +Presidency it was with the feeling, shared to some extent by his +great opponent Jefferson, that republics never have a proper regard +for the services and sacrifices of statesmen, though they are only +too ready to reward military heroes beyond their deserts. The author +of 'Familiar Letters on Public Affairs' writes of Mr. Adams:-- + +"He was a man of strong mind, great learning, and eminent ability to +use knowledge both in speech and writing. He was ever a firm +believer in Christianity, not from habit and example but from a +diligent investigation of its proofs. He had an uncompromising +regard for his own opinion and was strongly contrasted with +Washington in this respect. He seemed to have supposed that his +opinions could not have been corrected by those of other men or +bettered by any comparison." + +It might be inferred from this that Mr. Adams was as obstinate in +prejudice as in opinion, but as he had demonstrated to the contrary +in taking the unpopular cause of the British soldiers at the +beginning of his public career, he showed it still more strikingly +by renewing and continuing until his death a friendship with +Jefferson which had been interrupted by the fierce struggle over the +Alien and Sedition Act. + + +INAUGURAL ADDRESS (March 4th. 1797) + +When it was first perceived, in early times, that no middle course +for America remained, between unlimited submission to a foreign +legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of +reflection were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable +powers of fleets and armies they must determine to resist, than from +those contests and dissensions which would certainly arise +concerning the forms of government to be instituted over the whole +and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however, on +the purity of their attentions, the justice of their cause, and the +integrity and intelgence of the people, under an over-ruling +Providence, which had so signally protected this country from the +first, the representatives of this nation, then consisting of little +more than half its present numbers, not only broke to pieces the +chains which were forging, and the rod of iron that was lifted up, +but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and launched +into an ocean of uncertainty. + +The zeal and ardor of the people during the Revolutionary War, +supplying the place of government, commanded a degree of order, +sufficient, at least, for the temporary preservation of society. The +confederation, which was early felt to be necessary, was prepared +from the models of the Bavarian and Helvetic confederacies, the only +examples which remain, with any detail and precision, in history, +and certainly the only ones which the people at large had ever +considered. But, reflecting on the striking difference, in so many +particulars, between this country and those where a courier may go +from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day, it was +then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the +formation of it, that it could not be durable. + +Negligence of its regulations, inattention to its recommendations, +if not disobedience to its authority, not only in individuals but in +States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences-- +universal languor, jealousies, rivalries of States, decline of +navigation and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, +universal fall in the value of lands and their produce, contempt of +public and private faith, loss of consideration and credit with +foreign nations; and, at length, in discontents, animosities, +combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening +some great national calamity. + +In this dangerous crisis, the people of America were not abandoned +by their usual good sense, presence of mind, resolution, or +integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form a more +perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, +provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and +secure the blessings of liberty. The public disquisitions, +discussions, and deliberations issued in the present happy +constitution of government. + +Employed in the service of my country abroad during the whole course +of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution of the United +States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation, +animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read +it with great satisfaction, as the result of good heads, prompted by +good hearts; as an experiment better adapted to the genius, +character, situation, and relations of this nation and country than +any which had ever been proposed or suggested. In its general +principles and great outlines, it was conformable to such a system +of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my +own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. +Claiming a right of suffrage common with my fellow-citizens in the +adoption or rejection of a constitution, which was to rule me and my +posterity, as well as them and theirs, I did not hesitate to express +my approbation of it on all occasions, in public and in private. It +was not then, nor has been since, any objection to it, in my mind, +that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor have I +entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it, but such as +the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see +and feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives +in Congress and the State legislature, according to the constitution +itself, adopt and ordain. + +Returning to the bosom of my country, after a painful separation +from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected to a station +under the new order of things; and I have repeatedly laid myself +under the most serious obligations to support the constitution. The +operation of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its +friends; and from an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its +administration, and delight in its effects upon the peace, order, +prosperity, and happiness of the nation, I have acquired an habitual +attachment to it, and veneration for it. + +What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our +esteem and love? + +There may be little solidity in an ancient idea that congregations +of men into cities and nations are the most pleasing objects in the +sight of superior intelligences; but this is very certain, that to a +benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented by any +nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an +assembly like that which has so often been seen in this and the +other chamber of Congress--of a government in which the executive +authority, as well as that of all the branches of the legislature, +are exercised by citizens selected at regular periods by their +neighbors, to make and execute laws for the general good. Can any +thing essential, any thing more, than mere ornament and decoration +be added to this by robes or diamonds? Can authority be more +amiable or respectable when it descends from accident or +institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs +fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened +people? For it is the people that are represented; it is their power +and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every +legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The +existence of such a government as ours for any length of time is a +full proof of a general dissemination of knowledge and virtue +throughout the whole body of the people. And what object of +consideration more pleasing than this can be presented to the human +mind? If natural pride is ever justifiable or excusable, it is when +it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from +conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence. + +In the midst of these pleasing ideas, we should be unfaithful to +ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our +liberties--if anything partial or extraneous should infect the +purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an +election is to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and +that can be procured by a party through artifice or corruption, the +government may be the choice of a party, for its own ends, not of +the nation for the national good. If that solitary suffrage can be +obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces, by fraud or +violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the government may not +be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may +be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern +ourselves; and candid men will acknowledge that, in such cases, +choice would have little advantage to boast of over lot or chance. + +Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such +are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people +of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise +and virtuous of all nations for eight years, under the administration +of a citizen, who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by +prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people +inspired with the same virtues, and animated with the same ardent +patriotism and love of liberty, to independence and peace, to +increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the +gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of +foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity. + +In that retirement, which is his voluntary choice, may he long live +to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services--the gratitude +of mankind; the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which +are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future +fortunes of his country, which is opening from year to year. His +name may be still a rampart and the knowledge that he lives a +bulwark against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace. + +This example has been recommended to the imitation of his +successors, by both houses of Congress, and by the voice of the +legislatures and the people, throughout the nation. + +On this subject it might become me better to be silent, or to speak +with diffidence; but as something may be expected, the occasion, I +hope, will be admitted as an apology, if I venture to say, that if a +preference upon principle, of a free republican government, formed +upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial +inquiry after truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the +United States, and a conscientious determination to support it, +until it shall be altered by the judgments and wishes of the people, +expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a respectful attention to +the constitution of the individual States, and a constant caution +and delicacy towards the State governments; if an equal and +impartial regard to the rights, interests, honor, and happiness of +all the States in the Union, without preference or regard to a +northern or southern, eastern or western position, their various +political opinions on essential points, or their personal +attachments; if a love of virtuous men, of all parties and +denominations; if a love of science or letters and a wish to +patronize every rational effort to encourage schools, colleges, +universities, academies, and every institution of propagating +knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of people, not +only for their benign influence on the happiness of life, in all its +stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only +means of preserving our constitution from its natural enemies, the +spirit of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, +profligacy, and corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, +which is the angel of destruction to elective governments, if a love +of equal laws, of justice and humanity, in the interior administration; +if an inclination to improve agriculture, commerce, and manufactures +for necessity, convenience, and defense; if a spirit of equity and +humanity towards the aboriginal nations of America, and a +disposition to ameliorate their condition by inclining them to be +more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them; +if an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable +faith with all nations, and the system of neutrality and +impartiality among the belligerent powers of Europe which has been +adopted by the government, and so solemnly sanctioned by both houses +of Congress, and applauded by the legislatures of the States and by +public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained by Congress; if +a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence of +seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the +friendship, which has been so much for the honor and interest of +both nations; if, while the conscious honor and integrity of the +people of America and the internal sentiment of their own power and +energies must be preserved, an earnest endeavor to investigate every +just cause, and remove every colorable pretense of complaint; if an +intention to pursue, by amicable negotiation, a reparation for the +injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our +fellow-citizens, by whatever nation; and, if success cannot be +obtained, to lay the facts before the legislature, that they may +consider what further measures the honor and interest of the +government and its constituents demand; if a resolution to do +justice, as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all +nations, and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all +the world; if an unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and +resources of the American people, on which I have so often hazarded +my all, and never been deceived; if elevated ideas of the high +destinies of this country, and of my own duties towards it, founded +on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements +of the people, deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not +obscured, but exalted, by experience and age; and with humble +reverence, I feel it my duty to add, if a veneration for the +religion of the people who profess and call themselves Christians, +and a fixed resolution to consider a decent respect for Christianity +among the best recommendations for the public service, can enable +me, in any degree, to comply with your wishes, it shall be my +strenuous endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two houses +shall not be without effect. + +With this great example before me--with the sense and spirit, the +faith and honor, the duty and interest of the same American people, +pledged to support the Constitution of the United States, I +entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy; and my mind +is prepared, without hesitation, to lay myself under the most solemn +obligations to support it to the utmost of my power. + +And may that Being who is supreme over all, the patron of order, the +fountain of justice, and the protector, in all ages of the world, of +virtuous liberty, continue his blessing upon this nation and its +government, and give it all possible success and duration, +consistent with the ends of his providence! + + +THE BOSTON MASSACRE + +(First Day's Speech in Defense of the British Soldiers Accused of +Murdering Attucks, Gray and Others, in the Boston Riot of 1770) + +_May_ _If_ _Please_ _Your_ _Honor_,_ and_ _You_,_ Gentlemen_ _of_ +_the_ _Jury_:-- + +I am for the prisoners at the bar, and shall apologize for it only in +the words of the Marquis Beccaria:-- + +"If I can but be the instrument of preserving one life, his +blessings and tears of transport shall be a sufficient consolation +for me for the contempt of all mankind." + +As the prisoners stand before you for their lives, it may be proper +to recollect with what temper the law requires we should proceed to +this trial. The form of proceeding at their arraignment has +discovered that the spirit of the law upon such occasions is +conformable to humanity, to common sense and feeling; that it is all +benignity and candor. And the trial commences with the prayer of the +court, expressed by the clerk, to the Supreme Judge of judges, +empires, and worlds, "God send you a good deliverance." + +We find in the rules laid down by the greatest English judges, who +have been the brightest of mankind: We are to look upon it as more +beneficial that many guilty persons should escape unpunished than +one innocent should suffer. The reason is, because it is of more +importance to the community that innocence should be protected than +it is that guilt should be punished; for guilt and crimes are so +frequent in the world that all of them cannot be punished; and many +times they happen in such a manner that it is not of much +consequence to the public whether they are punished or not. But when +innocence itself is brought to the bar and condemned, especially to +die, the subject will exclaim, "It is immaterial to me whether I +behave well or ill, for virtue itself is no security." And if such a +sentiment as this should take place in the mind of the subject, +there would be an end to all security whatsoever, I will read the +words of the law itself. + +The rules I shall produce to you from Lord Chief-Justice Hale, whose +character as a lawyer, a man of learning and philosophy, and a +Christian, will be disputed by nobody living; one of the greatest +and best characters the English nation ever produced. His words are +these:-- + +(2 H. H. P. C.): _Tutius_ _semper_ _est_ _errare_, _in_ +_acquietando_ _quam_ _in_ _puniendo_, _ex_ _parte_ _misericordiae_ +_quam_ _ex_ _parte_ _justitiae_.--"It is always safer to err in +acquitting than punishing, on the part of mercy than the part of +justice." + +The next is from the same authority, 305:-- + +_Tutius_ _erratur_ _ex_ _parte_ _mitiori_,--"It is always safer to +err on the milder side, the side of mercy." + +(H. H. P. C. 509): "The best rule in doubtful cases is rather to +incline to acquittal than conviction." + +And on page 300:-- + +_Quod_ _dubitas_, _ne_ _feceris_.--"Where you are doubtful, never act; +that is, if you doubt of the prisoner's guilt, never declare him +guilty." + +This is always the rule, especially in cases of life. Another rule +from the same author, 289, where he says:-- + +"In some cases presumptive evidences go far to prove a person +guilty, though there is no express proof of the fact to be committed +by him; but then it must be very warily expressed, for it is better +five guilty persons should escape unpunished than one innocent +person should die." + +The next authority shall be from another judge of equal character, +considering the age wherein he lived; that is, Chancellor Fortescue +in 'Praise of the Laws of England,' page 59. This is a very +ancient writer on the English law. His words are:-- + +"Indeed, one would rather, much rather, that twenty guilty persons +escape punishment of death, than one innocent person be condemned +and suffer capitally." + +Lord Chief-Justice Hale says:-- + +"It is better five guilty persons escape, than one innocent person +suffer." + +Lord Chancellor Fortescue, you see, carries the matter further, and +says:-- + +"Indeed, one had rather, much rather, that twenty guilty persons +should escape than one innocent person suffer capitally." + +Indeed, this rule is not peculiar to the English law; there never +was a system of laws in the world in which this rule did not +prevail. It prevailed in the ancient Roman law, and, which is more +remarkable, it prevails in the modern Roman law. Even the judges in +the Courts of Inquisition, who with racks, burnings, and scourges +examine criminals,--even there they preserve it as a maxim, that +it is better the guilty should escape punishment than the innocent +suffer. _Satius_ _esse_ _nocentem_ _absolvi_ _quam_ _innocentem_ +_damnari_. This is the temper we ought to set out with, and these +the rules we are to be governed by. And I shall take it for granted, +as a first principle, that the eight prisoners at the bar had better +be all acquitted, though we should admit them all to be guilty, than +that any one of them should, by your verdict, be found guilty, being +innocent. + +I shall now consider the several divisions of law under which the +evidence will arrange itself. + +The action now before you is homicide; that is, the killing of one +man by another. The law calls it homicide; but it is not criminal in +all cases for one man to slay another. Had the prisoners been on the +Plains of Abraham and slain a hundred Frenchmen apiece, the English +law would have considered it as a commendable action, virtuous and +praiseworthy; so that every instance of killing a man is not a crime +in the eye of the law. There are many other instances which I cannot +enumerate--an officer that executes a person under sentence of +death, etc. So that, gentlemen, every instance of one man's killing +another is not a crime, much less a crime to be punished with death. +But to descend to more particulars. + +The law divides homicide into three branches; the first is +"justifiable," the second "excusable," and the third "felonious." +Felonious homicide is subdivided into two branches; the first is +murder, which is killing with malice aforethought; the second is +manslaughter, which is killing a man on a sudden provocation. Here, +gentlemen, are four sorts of homicide; and you are to consider +whether all the evidence amounts to the first, second, third or +fourth of these heads. The fact was the slaying five unhappy persons +that night. You are to consider whether it was justifiable, +excusable, or felonious; and if felonious, whether it was murder or +manslaughter. One of these four it must be. You need not divide your +attention to any more particulars. I shall, however, before I come +to the evidence, show you several authorities which will assist you +and me in contemplating the evidence before us. + +I shall begin with justifiable homicide. If an officer, a sheriff, +execute a man on the gallows, draw and quarter him, as in case of +high treason, and cut off his head, this is justifiable homicide. It +is his duty. So also, gentlemen, the law has planted fences and +barriers around every individual; it is a castle round every man's +person, as well as his house. As the love of God and our neighbor +comprehends the whole duty of man, so self-love and social +comprehend all the duties we owe to mankind; and the first branch is +self-love, which is not only our indisputable right, but our +clearest duty. By the laws of nature, this is interwoven in the +heart of every individual. God Almighty, whose law we cannot alter, +has implanted it there, and we can annihilate ourselves as easily as +root out this affection for ourselves. It is the first and strongest +principle in our nature. Justice Blackstone calls it "The primary +canon in the law of nature." That precept of our holy religion which +commands us to love our neighbor as ourselves does not command us to +love our neighbor better than ourselves, or so well. No Christian +divine has given this interpretation. The precept enjoins that our +benevolence to our fellow-men should be as real and sincere as our +affection to ourselves, not that it should be as great in degree. A +man is authorized, therefore, by common sense and the laws of +England, as well as those of nature, to love himself better than his +fellow-subject. If two persons are cast away at sea, and get on a +plank (a case put by Sir Francis Bacon), and the plank is +insufficient to hold them both, the one has a right to push the +other off to save himself. The rules of the common law, therefore +which authorize a man to preserve his own life at the expense of +another's, are not contradicted by any divine or moral law. We talk +of liberty and property, but if we cut up the law of self-defense, +we cut up the foundations of both; and if we give up this, the rest +is of very little value, and therefore this principle must be +strictly attended to; for whatsoever the law pronounces in the case +of these eight soldiers will be the law to other persons and after +ages. All the persons that have slain mankind in this country from +the beginning to this day had better have been acquitted than that a +wrong rule and precedent should be established. + +I shall now read to you a few authorities on this subject of +self-defense. Foster, 273 (in the case of justifiable self-defense): + +"The injured party may repel force with force in defense of person, +habitation, or property, against one who manifestly intendeth and +endeavoreth with violence or surprise to commit a known felony upon +either. In these cases he is not obliged to retreat, but pursue his +adversary till he finds himself out of danger; and a conflict +between them he happeneth to kill, such killing is fiable." + +I must entreat you to consider the words of this authority. The +injured person may repel force by force against any who endeavoreth +to commit any kind of felony on him or his. Here the rule is, I have +a right to stand on my own defense, if you intend to commit +felony. If any of the persons made an attack on these soldiers, with +an intention to rob them, if it was but to take their hats +feloniously, they had a right to kill them on the spot, and had no +business to retreat. If a robber meet me in the street and command +me to surrender my purse, I have a right to kill him without asking +any questions. If a person commit a bare assault on me, this will +not justify killing; but if he assault me in such a manner as to +discover an intention to kill me, I have a right to destroy him, +that I may put it out of his power to kill me. In the case you will +have to consider, I do not know there was any attempt to steal from +these persons; however, there were some persons concerned who would, +probably enough, have stolen, if there had been anything to +steal, and many were there who had no such disposition. But this is +not the point we aim at. The question is, Are you satisfied the +people made the attack in order to kill the soldiers? If you are +satisfied that the people, whoever they were, made that assault with +a design to kill or maim the soldiers, this was such an assault as +will justify the soldiers killing in their own defense. Further, it +seems to me, we may make another question, whether you are satisfied +that their real intention was to kill or maim, or not? If any +reasonable man in the situation of one of these soldiers would have +had reason to believe in the time of it, that the people came with +an intention to kill him, whether you have this satisfaction now or +not in your own minds, they were justifiable, at least excusable, in +firing. You and I may be suspicious that the people who made this +assault on the soldiers did it to put them to flight, on purpose +that they might go exulting about the town afterwards in triumph; +but this will not do. You must place yourselves in the situation of +Weems and Killroy--consider yourselves as knowing that the prejudice +of the world about you thought you came to dragoon them into +obedience, to statutes, instructions, mandates, and edicts, which +they thoroughly detested--that many of these people were +thoughtless and inconsiderate, old and young, sailors and landsmen, +negroes and mulattoes--that they, the soldiers, had no friends +about them, the rest were in opposition to them; with all the bells +ringing to call the town together to assist the people in King +Street, for they knew by that time that there was no fire; the +people shouting, huzzaing, and making the mob whistle, as they call +it, which, when a boy makes it in the street is no formidable thing, +but when made by a multitude is a most hideous shriek, almost as +terrible as an Indian yell; the people crying, "Kill them, kill +them. Knock them over," heaving snowballs, oyster shells, clubs, +white-birch sticks three inches and a half in diameter; consider +yourselves in this situation, and then judge whether a reasonable +man in the soldiers' situation would not have concluded they were +going to kill him. I believe if I were to reverse the scene, I +should bring it home to our own bosoms. Suppose Colonel Marshall +when he came out of his own door and saw these grenadiers coming +down with swords, etc., had thought it proper to have appointed a +military watch; suppose he had assembled Gray and Attucks that were +killed, or any other person in town, and appointed them in that +situation as a military watch, and there had come from Murray's +barracks thirty or forty soldiers with no other arms than snowballs, +cakes of ice, oyster shells, cinders, and clubs, and attacked this +military watch in this manner, what do you suppose would have been +the feelings and reasonings of any of our householders? I confess, I +believe they would not have borne one-half of what the witnesses +have sworn the soldiers bore, till they had shot down as many as +were necessary to intimidate and disperse the rest; because the law +does not oblige us to bear insults to the danger of our lives, to +stand still with such a number of people around us, throwing such +things at us, and threatening our lives, until we are disabled to +defend ourselves. + +(Foster, 274): "Where a known felony is attempted upon the person, +be it to rob or murder, here the party assaulted may repel force +with force, and even his own servant, then attendant on him, or any +other person present, may interpose for preventing mischief, and if +death ensue, the party so interposing will be justified. In this +case nature and social duty co-operate." + +Hawkins, P. C., Chapter 28, Section 25, towards the end:--"Yet it +seems that a private person, _a_ _fortiori_, an officer of justice, who +happens unavoidably to kill another in endeavoring to defend himself +from or suppress dangerous rioters, may justify the fact in as much +as he only does his duty in aid of the public justice." + +Section 24:--"And I can see no reason why a person, who, without +provocation, is assaulted by another, in any place whatsoever, in +such a manner as plainly shows an intent to murder him, as by +discharging a pistol, or pushing at him with a drawn sword, etc., +may not justify killing such an assailant, as much as if he had +attempted to rob him. For is not he who attempts to murder me more +injurious than he who barely attempts to rob me? And can it be more +justifiable to fight for my goods than for my life?" + +And it is not only highly agreeable to reason that a man in such +circumstances may lawfully kill another, but it seems also to be +confirmed by the general tenor of our books, which, speaking of +homicide _se_ _defendo_, suppose it done in some quarrel or affray. + +(Hawkins, p. 71. section 14); "And so, perhaps, the killing of dangerous +rioters may be justified by any private persons, who cannot +otherwise suppress them or defend themselves from them, inasmuch as +every private person seems to be authorized by the law to arm +himself for the purposes aforesaid." + +Here every private person is authorized to arm himself; and on the +strength of this authority I do not deny the inhabitants had a right +to arm themselves at that time for their defense, not for +offense. That distinction is material, and must be attended to. + +(Hawkins, p. 75, section 14): "And not only he who on an assault retreats +to the wall, or some such strait, beyond which he can go no further +before he kills the other, is judged by the law to act upon +unavoidable necessity; but also he who being assaulted in such a +manner and in such a place that he cannot go back without manifestly +endangering his life, kills the other without retreating at all." + +(Section 16); "And an officer who kills one that insults him in the +execution of his office, and where a private person that kills one +who feloniously assaults him in the highway, may justify the fact +without ever giving back at all." + +There is no occasion for the magistrate to read the riot act. In the +case before you, I suppose you will be satisfied when you come to +examine the witnesses and compare it with the rules of the common +law, abstracted from all mutiny acts and articles of war, that these +soldiers were in such a situation that they could not help +themselves. People were coming from Royal Exchange Lane, and other +parts of the town, with clubs and cord-wood sticks; the soldiers +were planted by the wail of the Customhouse; they could not retreat; +they were surrounded on all sides, for there were people behind them +as well as before them; there were a number of people in the Royal +Exchange Lane; the soldiers were so near to the Customhouse that +they could not retreat, unless they had gone into the brick wall of +it. I shall show you presently that all the party concerned in this +unlawful design were guilty of what any one of them did; if anybody +threw a snowball it was the act of the whole party; if any struck +with a club or threw a club, and the club had killed anybody, the +whole party would have been guilty of murder in the law. Lord +Chief-Justice Holt, in Mawgrige's case (Keyling, 128), says:-- + +"Now, it has been held, that if A of his malice prepense assaults B +to kill him, and B draws his sword and attacks A and pursues him, +then A, for his safety, gives back and retreats to a wall, and B +still pursuing him with his drawn sword, A in his defense kills B; +this is murder in A. For A having malice against B, and in pursuance +thereof endeavoring to kill him, is answerable for all the +consequences of which he was the original cause. It is not +reasonable for any man that is dangerously assaulted, and when he +perceives his life in danger from his adversary, but to have liberty +for the security of his own life, to pursue him that maliciously +assaulted him; for he that has manifested that he has malice against +another is not at to be trusted with a dangerous weapon in his +hand. And so resolved by all the judges when they met at Seargeant's +Inn, in preparation for my Lord Morley's trial." + +In the case here we will take Montgomery, if you please, when he was +attacked by the stout man with a stick, who aimed it at his head, +with a number of people round him crying out, "Kill them, kill +them." Had he not a right to kill the man? If all the party were +guilty of the assault made by the stout man, and all of them had +discovered malice in their hearts, had not Montgomery a right, +according to Lord Chief-Justice Holt, to put it out of their power +to wreak their malice upon him? I will not at present look for any +more authorities in the point of self-defense; you will be able to +judge from these how far the law goes in justifying or excusing any +person in defense of himself, or taking away the life of another who +threatens him in life or limb. The next point is this: that in case +of an unlawful assembly, all and every one of the assembly is guilty +of all and every unlawful act committed by any one of that assembly +in prosecution of the unlawful design set out upon. + +Rules of law should be universally known, whatever effect they may +have on politics; they are rules of common law, the law of the land; +and it is certainly true, that wherever there is an unlawful +assembly, let it consist of many persons or of a few, every man in +it is guilty of every unlawful act committed by any one of the whole +party, be they more or be they less, in pursuance of their unlawful +design. This is the policy of the law; to discourage and prevent +riots, insurrections, turbulence, and tumults. + +In the continual vicissitudes of human things, amidst the shocks of +fortune and the whirls of passion that take place at certain +critical seasons, even in the mildest government, the people are +liable to run into riots and tumults. There are Church-quakes and +State-quakes in the moral and political world, as well as +earthquakes, storms, and tempests in the physical. Thus much, +however, must be said in favor of the people and of human nature, +that it is a general, if not a universal truth, that the aptitude of +the people to mutinies, seditions, tumults, and insurrections, is in +direct proportion to the despotism of the government. In +governments completely despotic,--that is, where the will of one +man is the only law, this disposition is most prevalent. In +aristocracies next; in mixed monarchies, less than either of the +former; in complete republics the least of all, and under the same +form of governments as in a limited monarchy, for example, the +virtue and wisdom of the administrations may generally be measured +by the peace and order that are seen among the people. However this +may be, such is the imperfection of all things in this world, that +no form of government, and perhaps no virtue or wisdom in the +administration, can at all times avoid riots and disorders among the +people. + +Now, it is from this difficulty that the policy of the law has +framed such strong discouragements to secure the people against +tumults; because, when they once begin, there is danger of their +running to such excesses as will overturn the whole system of +government. There is the rule from the reverend sage of the law, so +often quoted before:-- + +(1 H. H. P. C. 437): "All present, aiding and assisting, are equally +principal with him that gave the stroke whereof the party died. For +though one gave the stroke, yet in interpretation of law it is the +stroke of every person that was present, aiding and assisting." + +(1 H. H. P. C. 440): "If divers come with one assent to do mischief, +as to kill, to rob or beat, and one doeth it, they are all +principals in the felony. If many be present and one only give the +stroke whereof the party dies, they are all principal, if they came +for that purpose." + +Now, if the party at Dock Square came with an intention only to beat +the soldiers, and began to affray with them, and any of them had +been accidentally killed, it would have been murder, because it was +an unlawful design they came upon. If but one does it they are all +considered in the eye of the law guilty; if any one gives the mortal +stroke, they are all principals here, therefore there is a reversal +of the scene. If you are satisfied that these soldiers were there +on a lawful design, and it should be proved any of them shot without +provocation, and killed anybody, he only is answerable for it. + +(First Kale's Pleas of the Crown, 1 H. H. P. C. 444): "Although if +many come upon an unlawful design, and one of the company till one +of the adverse party in pursuance of that design, all are +principals; yet if many be together upon a lawful account, and one +of the company kill another of the adverse party, without any +particular abetment of the rest to this fact of homicide, they are +not all guilty that are of the company, but only those that gave the +stroke or actually abetted him to do it." + +(1 H. H. P. C. 445): "In case of a riotous assembly to rob or steal +deer, or to do any unlawful act of violence, there the offense of +one is the offense of all the company." + +(In another place, 1 H. H. P. C. 439): "The Lord Dacre and divers +others went to steal deer in the park of one Pellham. Raydon, one +of the company, killed the keeper in the park, the Lord Dacre and +the rest of the company being in the other part of the park. Yet it +was adjudged murder in them all, and they died for it." (And he +quotes Crompton 25, Dalton 93. p. 241.) "So that in so strong a +case as this, where this nobleman set out to hunt deer in the ground +of another, he was in one part of the park and his company in +another part, yet they were all guilty of murder." + +The next is:-- + +(Kale's Pleas of the Crown, 1 H. H. P. C. 440): "The case of +Drayton Bassit; divers persons doing an unlawful act, all are +guilty of what is done by one." + +(Foster 353, 354): "A general resolution against all opposers, +whether such resolution appears upon evidence to have been actually +and implicitly entered into by the confederates, or may reasonably +be collected from their number, arms or behavior, at or before the +scene of action, such resolutions so proved have always been +considered as strong ingredients in cases of this kind. And in cases +of homicide committed in consequence of them, every person present, +in the sense of the law, when the homicide has been involved in the +guilt of him that gave the mortal blow." + +(Foster): "The cases of Lord Dacre, mentioned by Hale, and of +Pudsey, reported by Crompton and cited by Hale, turned upon this +point. The offenses they respectively stood charged with, as +principals, were committed far out of their sight and hearing, and +yet both were held to be present. It was sufficient that at the +instant the facts were committed, they were of the same party and +upon the same pursuit, and under the same engagements and +expectations of mutual defense and support with those that did the +facts." + +Thus far I have proceeded, and I believe it will not be hereafter +disputed by anybody, that this law ought to be known to every one +who has any disposition to be concerned in an unlawful assembly, +whatever mischief happens in the prosecution of the design they set +out upon, all are answerable for it. It is necessary we should +consider the definitions of some other crimes as well as murder; +sometimes one crime gives occasion to another. An assault is +sometimes the occasion of manslaughter, sometimes of excusable +homicide. It is necessary to consider what is a riot, (1 Hawkins, +ch. 65, section 2): I shall give you the definition of it:-- + +"Wheresoever more than three persons use force or violence, for the +accomplishment of any design whatever, all concerned are rioters." + +Were there not more than three persons in Dock Square? Did they not +agree to go to King Street, and attack the main guard? Where, then, +is the reason for hesitation at calling it a riot? If we cannot +speak the law as it is, where is our liberty? And this is law, that +wherever more than three persons are gathered together to accomplish +anything with force, it is a riot. + +(1 Hawkins, ch. 65, section 2): "Wherever more than three persons use +force and violence, all who are concerned therein are rioters. But +in some cases wherein the law authorizes force, it is lawful and +commendable to use it. As for a sheriff [2 And. 67 Poph. 121], or +constable [3 H. 7, 10, 6], or perhaps even for a private person +[Poph. 121, Moore 656], to assemble a competent number of people, in +order with force to oppose rebels or enemies or rioters, and +afterwards, with such force actually to suppress them." + +I do not mean to apply the word rebel on this occasion; I have no +reason to suppose that ever there was one in Boston, at least among +the natives of the country; but rioters are in the same situation, +as far as my argument is concerned, and proper officers may suppress +rioters, and so may even private persons. + +If we strip ourselves free from all military laws, mutiny acts, +articles of war and soldiers' oaths, and consider these prisoners as +neighbors, if any of their neighbors were attacked in King Street, +they had a right to collect together to suppress this riot and +combination. If any number of persons meet together at a fair or +market, and happen to fall together by the ears, they are not guilty +of a riot, but of a sudden affray. Here is another paragraph, which +I must read to you:-- + +(1 Hawkins, ch. 65, section 3): "If a number of persons being met together +at a fair or market, or on any other lawful or innocent occasion, +happen, on a sudden quarrel, to fall together by the ears, they are +not guilty of a riot, but of a sudden affray only, of which none are +guilty but those who actually began it," etc. + +It would be endless, as well as superfluous, to examine whether +every particular person engaged in a riot were in truth one of the +first assembly or actually had a previous knowledge of the design +thereof. I have endeavored to produce the best authorities, and to +give you the rules of law in their words, for I desire not to +advance anything of my own. I choose to lay down the rules of law +from authorities which cannot be disputed. Another point is this, +whether and how far a private person may aid another in distress? +Suppose a press-gang should come on shore in this town and assault +any sailor or householder in King Street, in order to carry him on +board one of his Majesty's ships, and impress him without any +warrant as a seaman in his Majesty's service; how far do you suppose +the inhabitants would think themselves warranted by law to interpose +against that lawless press-gang? I agree that such a press-gang +would be as unlawful an assembly as that was in King Street. If they +were to press an inhabitant and carry him off for a sailor, would not +the inhabitants think themselves warranted by law to interpose in +behalf of their fellow-citizen? Now, gentlemen, if the soldiers had +no right to interpose in the relief of the sentry, the inhabitants +would have no right to interpose with regard to the citizen, for +whatever is law for a soldier is law for a sailor and for a +citizen. They all stand upon an equal footing in this respect. I +believe we shall not have it disputed that it would be lawful to go +into King Street and help an honest man there against the +press-master. We have many instances in the books which authorize +it. + +Now, suppose you should have a jealousy in your minds that the +people who made this attack upon the sentry had nothing in their +intention more than to take him off his post, and that was +threatened by some. Suppose they intended to go a little further, +and tar and feather him, or to ride him (as the phrase is in +Hudibras), he would have had a good right to have stood upon his +defense--the defense of his liberty; and if he could not preserve +that without the hazard of his own life, he would have been +warranted in depriving those of life who were endeavoring to +deprive him of his. That is a point I would not give up for my +right hand--nay, for my life. + +Well, I say, if the people did this, or if this was only their +intention, surely the officers and soldiers had a right to go to his +relief; and therefore they set out upon a lawful errand. They were, +therefore, a lawful assembly, if we only consider them as private +subjects and fellow-citizens, without regard to mutiny acts, +articles of war, or soldiers' oaths. A private person, or any number +of private persons, has a right to go to the assistance of a +fellow-subject in distress or danger of his life, when assaulted and +in danger from a few or a multitude. + +(Keyl. 136): "If a man perceives another by force to be injuriously +treated, pressed, and restrained of his liberty, though the person +abused doth not complain or call for aid or assistance, and others, +out of compassion, shall come to his rescue, and kill any of those +that shall so restrain him, that is manslaughter." + +Keyl.: "A and others without any warrant impress B to serve the king +at sea. B quietly submitted, and went off with the pressmaster. +Hugett and the others pursued them, and required a sight of their +warrant; but they showing a piece of paper that was not a sufficient +warrant, thereupon Hugett with the others drew their swords, and the +pressmasters theirs, and so there was a combat, and those who +endeavored to rescue the pressed man killed one of the pretended +pressmasters. This was but manslaughter; for when the liberty of +one subject is invaded, it affects all the rest. It is a +provocation to all people, as being of ill example and pernicious +consequences." + +Lord Raymond, 1301. The Queen _versus_ Tooley _et_ _al_. Lord +Chief-Justice Holt says: "The prisoner (i.e. Tooley) in this had +sufficient provocation; for if one be impressed upon an unlawful +authority, it is a sufficient provocation to all people out of +compassion; and where the liberty of the subject is invaded, it is a +provocation to all the subjects of England, etc.; and surely a man +ought to be concerned for Magna Charta and the laws: and if any one, +against the law, imprisons a man, he is an offender against Magna +Charta." + +I am not insensible to Sir Michael Foster's observations on these +cases, but apprehend they do not invalidate the authority of them as +far as I now apply them to the purposes of my argument. If a +stranger, a mere fellow-subject, may interpose to defend the +liberty, he may, too, defend the life of another individual. But, +according to the evidence, some imprudent people, before the sentry, +proposed to take him off his post; others threatened his life; and +intelligence of this was carried to the main guard before any of the +prisoners turned out. They were then ordered out to relieve the +sentry; and any of our fellow-citizens might lawfully have gone upon +the same errand. They were, therefore, a lawful assembly. + +I have but one point of law more to consider, and that is this: In +the case before you I do not pretend to prove that every one of the +unhappy persons slain was concerned in the riot. The authorities +read to you just now say it would be endless to prove whether every +person that was present and in a riot was concerned in planning the +first enterprise or not. Nay, I believe it but justice to say some +were perfectly innocent of the occasion. I have reason to suppose +that one of them was--Mr. Maverick. He was a very worthy young +man, as he has been represented to me, and had no concern in the +rioters' proceedings of that night; and I believe the same may be +said in favor of one more at least, Mr. Caldwell, who was slain; +and, therefore, many people may think that as he and perhaps another +was innocent, therefore innocent blood having been shed, that must +be expiated by the death of somebody or other. I take notice of +this, because one gentleman was nominated by the sheriff for a +juryman upon this trial, because he had said he believed Captain +Preston was innocent, but innocent blood had been shed, and +therefore somebody ought to be hanged for it, which he thought was +indirectly giving his opinion in this cause. I am afraid many other +persons have formed such an opinion. I do not take it to be a rule, +that where innocent blood is shed the person must die. In the +instance of the Frenchmen on the Plains of Abraham, they were +innocent, fighting for their king and country; their blood is as +innocent as any. There may be multitudes killed, when innocent +blood is shed on all sides; so that it is not an invariable rule. I +will put a case in which, I dare say, all will agree with me. Here +are two persons, the father and the son, go out a-hunting. They +take different roads. The father hears a rushing among the bushes, +takes it to be game, fires, and kills his son, through a mistake. +Here is innocent blood shed, but yet nobody will say the father +ought to die for it. So that the general rule of law is, that +whenever one person has a right to do an act, and that act, by any +accident takes away the life of another, it is excusable. It bears +the same regard to the innocent as to the guilty. If two men are +together, and attack me, and I have a right to kill them, I strike +at them, and by mistake strike a third and kill him, as I had a +right to kill the first, my killing the other will be excusable, as +it happened by accident. If I, in the heat of passion, aim a blow +at the person who has assaulted me, and aiming at him I kill another +person, it is but manslaughter. + +(Foster. 261. section 3): "If an action unlawful in itself is done +deliberately, and with intention of mischief, or great bodily harm +to particulars, or of mischief indiscriminately, fall it where it +may, and death ensues, against or beside the original intention of +the party, it will be murder. But if such mischievous intention doth +not appear, which is matter of fact, and to be collected from +circumstances, and the act was done heedlessly and inconsiderately, +it will be manslaughter, not accidental death; because the act upon +which death ensued was unlawful." + +Suppose, in this case, the mulatto man was the person who made the +assault; suppose he was concerned in the unlawful assembly, and this +party of soldiers, endeavoring to defend themselves against him, +happened to kill another person, who was innocent--though the +soldiers had no reason, that we know of, to think any person there, +at least of that number who were crowding about them, innocent; they +might, naturally enough, presume all to be guilty of the riot and +assault, and to come with the same design--I say, if on firing on +those who were guilty, they accidentally killed an innocent person, +it was not their fault. They were obliged to defend themselves +against those who were pressing upon them. They are not answerable +for it with their lives; for on supposition it was justifiable or +excusable to kill Attucks, or any other person, it will be equally +justifiable or excusable if in firing at him they killed another, +who was innocent; or if the provocation was such as to mitigate the +guilt of manslaughter, it will equally mitigate the guilt, if they +killed an innocent man undesignedly, in aiming at him who gave the +provocation, according to Judge Foster; and as this point is of such +consequence, I must produce some more authorities for it: + +(1 Hawkins. 84): "Also, if a third person accidentally happen to be +killed by one engaged in a combat, upon a sudden quarrel, it seems +that he who killed him is guilty of manslaughter only," etc. (H. H +P. C. 442, to the same point; and 1 H. H. P. C. 484. and 4 Black, +27.) + +I shall now consider one question more, and that is concerning +provocation. We have hitherto been considering self-defense, and +how far persons may go in defending themselves against aggressors, +even by taking away their lives, and now proceed to consider such +provocations as the law allows to mitigate or extenuate the guilt of +killing, where it is not justifiable or excusable. An assault and +battery committed upon a man in such a manner as not to endanger his +life is such a provocation as the law allows to reduce killing down +to the crime of manslaughter. Now, the law has been made on more +considerations than we are capable of making at present; the law +considers a man as capable of bearing anything and everything but +blows. I may reproach a man as much as I please; I may call him a +thief, robber, traitor, scoundrel, coward, lobster, bloody-back, +etc., and if he kill me it will be murder, if nothing else but words +precede; but if from giving him such kind of language I proceed to +take him by the nose, or fillip him on the forehead, that is an +assault; that is a blow. The law will not oblige a man to stand +still and bear it; there is the distinction. Hands off; touch me +not. As soon as you touch me, if I run you through the heart, it is +but manslaughter. The utility of this distinction, the more you +think of it the more you will be satisfied with it. It is an +assault whenever a blow is struck, let it be ever so slight, and +sometimes even without a blow. The law considers man as frail and +passionate. When his passions are touched, he will be thrown off +his guard, and therefore the law makes allowance for this frailty +--considers him as in a fit of passion, not having the possession of +his intellectual faculties, and therefore does not oblige him to +measure out his blows with a yard-stick, or weigh them in a scale. +Let him kill with a sword, gun, or hedge-stake, it is not murder, +but only manslaughter. + +(Keyling's Report, 135. Regina _versus_ Mawgrige.) "Rules supported +by authority and general consent, showing what are always allowed to +be sufficient provocations. First, if one man upon any words shall +make an assault upon another, either by pulling him by the nose or +filliping him on the forehead, and he that is so assaulted shall +draw his sword and immediately run the other through, that is but +manslaughter, for the peace is broken by the person killed and with +an indignity to him that received the assault. Besides, he that was +so affronted might reasonably apprehend that he that treated him in +that manner might have some further design upon him." + +So that here is the boundary, when a man is assaulted and kills in +consequence of that assault, it is but manslaughter. I will just +read as I go along the definition of assault:-- + +(1 Hawkins. ch. 62, section 1): "An assault is an attempt or offer, with +force or violence, to do a corporal hurt to another, as by striking +at him with or without a weapon, or presenting a gun at him at such +a distance to which the gun will carry, or pointing a pitchfork at +him, or by any other such like act done in angry, threatening +manner, etc.; but no words can amount to an assault," + +Here is the definition of an assault, which is a sufficient +provocation to soften killing down to manslaughter:-- + +(1 Hawkins, ch. 31, section 36): "Neither can he be thought guilty of a +greater crime than manslaughter, who, finding a man in bed with his +wife, or being actually struck by him, or pulled by the nose or +filliped upon the forehead, immediately kills him, or in the defense +of his person from an unlawful arrest, or in the defense of his +house from those who, claiming a title to it, attempt forcibly to +enter it, and to that purpose shoot at it," etc. + +Every snowball, oyster shell, cake of ice, or bit of cinder, that +was thrown that night at the sentinel, was an assault upon him; +every one that was thrown at the party of soldiers was an assault +upon them, whether it hit any of them or not. I am guilty of an +assault if I present a gun at any person; and if I insult him in +that manner and he shoots me, it is but manslaughter. + +(Foster. 295, 396): "To what I have offered with regard to sudden +rencounters let me add, that the blood already too much heated, +kindleth afresh at every pass or blow. And in the tumult of the +passions, in which the mere instinct of self-preservation has no +inconsiderable share, the voice of reason is not heard; and +therefore the law, in condescension to the infirmities of flesh and +blood, doth extenuate the offense." + +Insolent, scurrilous, or slanderous language, when it precedes an +assault, aggravates it. + +(Foster, 316): "We all know that words of reproach, how grating and +offensive soever, are in the eye of the law no provocation in the +case of voluntary homicide: and yet every man who hath considered +the human frame, or but attended to the workings of his own heart +knoweth that affronts of that kind pierce deeper and stimulate in +the veins more effectually than a slight injury done to a third +person, though under the color of justice, possibly can." + +I produce this to show the assault in this case was aggravated by +the scurrilous language which preceded it. Such words of reproach +stimulate in the veins and exasperate the mind, and no doubt if an +assault and battery succeeds them, killing under such provocation is +softened to manslaughter, but killing without such provocation makes +it murder. + + End of the first day's speech + + + +JOHN QUINCY ADAMS (1767-1848) + +No other American President, not even Thomas Jefferson, has equaled +John Quincy Adams in literary accomplishments. His orations and +public speeches will be found to stand for a tradition of +painstaking, scholastic finish hardly to be found elsewhere in +American orations, and certainly not among the speeches of any other +President. As a result of the pains he took with them, they belong +rather to literature than to politics, and it is possible that they +will not be generally appreciated at their real worth for several +generations still to come. If, as is sometimes alleged in such +cases, they gain in literary finish at the expense of force, it is +not to be forgotten that the forcible speech which, ignoring all +rules, carries its point by assault, may buy immediate effect at the +expense of permanent respectability. And if John Quincy Adams, who +labored as Cicero did to give his addresses the greatest possible +literary finish, does not rank with Cicero among orators, it is +certain that respectability will always be willingly conceded him by +every generation of his countrymen. + +Some idea of the extent of his early studies may be gained from his +father's letter to Benjamin Waterhouse, written from Auteuil, +France, in 1785. John Quincy Adams being then only in his eighteenth +year, the elder Adams said of him:-- + +"If you were to examine him in English and French poetry, I know not +where you would find anybody his superior; in Roman and English +history few persons of his age. It is rare to find a youth possessed +of such knowledge. He has translated Virgil's 'Aeneid,' 'Suetonius,' +the whole of 'Sallust'; 'Tacitus,' 'Agricola'; his 'Germany' and +several other books of his 'Annals,' a great part of Horace, some +of Ovid, and some of Caesar's 'Commentaries,' in writing, besides a +number of Tully's orations. ... In Greek his progress has not been +equal, yet he has studied morsels in Aristotle's 'Poetics,' in +Plutarch's 'Lives,' and Lucian's 'Dialogues,' 'The Choice of +Hercules,' in Xenophon, and lately he has gone through several +books of Homer's 'Iliad.'" + +The elder Adams concludes the list of his son's accomplishments with +a catalogue of his labors in mathematics hardly inferior in length +to that cited in the classics. Even if it were true, as has been +urged by the political opponents of the Adams family, that no one of +its members has ever shown more than respectable natural talent, +it would add overwhelming weight to the argument in favor of the +laborious habits of study which have characterized them to the third +and fourth generations, and, from the time of John Adams until our +own, have made them men of mark and far-reaching national influence. + +In national politics, John Quincy Adams, the last of the line of +colonial gentlemen who achieved the presidency, stood for education, +for rigid ideas of moral duty, for dignity, for patriotism, for all +the virtues which are best cultivated through processes of +segregation. He ended an epoch in which it was possible for a man +who, as he did, wrote 'Poems on Religion and Society' and +paraphrased the Psalms into English verse to be elected President. +It has hardly been possible since his day. + +Chosen as a Democrat in 1825, Mr. Adams was really the first Whig +President. His speeches are important, historically, because they +define political tendencies as a result of which the Whig party took +the place of the Federalist. + + +ORATION AT PLYMOUTH + +(Delivered at Plymouth on the Twenty-Second Day of December, 1802, +in Commemoration of the Landing of the Pilgrims) + +Among the sentiments of most powerful operation upon the human +heart, and most highly honorable to the human character, are those +of veneration for our forefathers, and of love for our posterity. + +They form the connecting links between the selfish and the social +passions. By the fundamental principle of Christianity, the +happiness of the individual is interwoven, by innumerable and +imperceptible ties, with that of his contemporaries. By the power +of filial reverence and parental affection, individual existence is +extended beyond the limits of individual life, and the happiness of +every age is chained in mutual dependence upon that of every other. +Respect for his ancestors excites, in the breast of man, interest in +their history, attachment to their characters, concern for their +errors, involuntary pride in their virtues. Love for his posterity +spurs him to exertion for their support, stimulates him to virtue +for their example, and fills him with the tenderest solicitude for +their welfare. Man, therefore, was not made for himself alone. No, +he was made for his country, by the obligations of the social +compact; he was made for his species, by the Christian duties of +universal charity; he was made for all ages past, by the sentiment +of reverence for his forefathers; and he was made for all future +times, by the impulse of affection for his progeny. Under the +influence of these principles, + +"Existence sees him spurn her bounded reign." + +They redeem his nature from the subjection of time and space; he is +no longer a "puny insect shivering at a breeze"; he is the glory of +creation, formed to occupy all time and all extent; bounded, during +his residence upon earth, only to the boundaries of the world, and +destined to life and immortality in brighter regions, when the +fabric of nature itself shall dissolve and perish. + +The voice of history has not, in all its compass, a note but answers +in unison with these sentiments. The barbarian chieftain, who +defended his country against the Roman invasion, driven to the +remotest extremity of Britain, and stimulating his followers to +battle by all that has power of persuasion upon the human heart, +concluded his persuasion by an appeal to these irresistible +feelings: "Think of your forefathers and of your posterity." The +Romans themselves, at the pinnacle of civilization, were actuated by +the same impressions, and celebrated, in anniversary festivals, +every great event which had signalized the annals of their +forefathers. To multiply instances where it were impossible to +adduce an exception would be to waste your time and abuse your +patience; but in the sacred volume, which contains the substance of +our firmest faith and of our most precious hopes, these passions not +only maintain their highest efficacy, but are sanctioned by the +express injunctions of the Divine Legislator to his chosen people. + +The revolutions of time furnish no previous example of a nation +shooting up to maturity and expanding into greatness with the +rapidity which has characterized the growth of the American people. +In the luxuriance of youth, and in the vigor of manhood, it is +pleasing and instructive to look backwards upon the helpless days of +infancy; but in the continual and essential changes of a growing +subject, the transactions of that early period would be soon +obliterated from the memory but for some periodical call of +attention to aid the silent records of the historian. Such +celebrations arouse and gratify the kindliest emotions of the bosom. +They are faithful pledges of the respect we bear to the memory of +our ancestors and of the tenderness with which we cherish the rising +generation. They introduce the sages and heroes of ages past to the +notice and emulation of succeeding times; they are at once +testimonials of our gratitude, and schools of virtue to our +children. + +These sentiments are wise; they are honorable; they are virtuous; +their cultivation is not merely innocent pleasure, it is incumbent +duty. Obedient to their dictates, you, my fellow-citizens, have +instituted and paid frequent observance to this annual solemnity. +And what event of weightier intrinsic importance, or of more +extensive consequences, was ever selected for this honorary +distinction? + +In reverting to the period of our origin, other nations have +generally been compelled to plunge into the chaos of impenetrable +antiquity, or to trace a lawless ancestry into the caverns of +ravishers and robbers. It is your peculiar privilege to +commemorate, in this birthday of your nation, an event ascertained +in its minutest details; an event of which the principal actors are +known to you familiarly, as if belonging to your own age; an event +of a magnitude before which imagination shrinks at the imperfection +of her powers. It is your further happiness to behold, in those +eminent characters, who were most conspicuous in accomplishing the +settlement of your country, men upon whose virtue you can dwell with +honest exultation. The founders of your race are not handed down to +you, like the father of the Roman people, as the sucklings of a +wolf. You are not descended from a nauseous compound of fanaticism +and sensuality, whose only argument was the sword, and whose only +paradise was a brothel. No Gothic scourge of God, no Vandal pest of +nations, no fabled fugitive from the flames of Troy, no bastard +Norman tyrant, appears among the list of worthies who first landed +on the rock, which your veneration has preserved as a lasting +monument of their achievement. The great actors of the day we now +solemnize were illustrious by their intrepid valor no less than by +their Christian graces, but the clarion of conquest has not blazoned +forth their names to all the winds of heaven. Their glory has not +been wafted over oceans of blood to the remotest regions of the +earth. They have not erected to themselves colossal statues upon +pedestals of human bones, to provoke and insult the tardy hand of +heavenly retribution. But theirs was "the better fortitude of +patience and heroic martyrdom." Theirs was the gentle temper of +Christian kindness; the rigorous observance of reciprocal justice; +the unconquerable soul of conscious integrity. Worldly fame has +been parsimonious of her favor to the memory of those generous +companions. Their numbers were small; their stations in life +obscure; the object of their enterprise unostentatious; the theatre +of their exploits remote; how could they possibly be favorites of +worldly Fame--that common crier, whose existence is only known by +the assemblage of multitudes; that pander of wealth and greatness, +so eager to haunt the palaces of fortune, and so fastidious to the +houseless dignity of virtue; that parasite of pride, ever scornful +to meekness, and ever obsequious to insolent power; that heedless +trumpeter, whose ears are deaf to modest merit, and whose eyes are +blind to bloodless, distant excellence? + +When the persecuted companions of Robinson, exiles from their native +land, anxiously sued for the privilege of removing a thousand +leagues more distant to an untried soil, a rigorous climate, and a +savage wilderness, for the sake of reconciling their sense of +religious duty with their affections for their country, few, perhaps +none of them, formed a conception of what would be, within two +centuries, the result of their undertaking. When the jealous and +niggardly policy of their British sovereign denied them even that +humblest of requests, and instead of liberty would barely consent to +promise connivance, neither he nor they might be aware that they +were laying the foundations of a power, and that he was sowing the +seeds of a spirit, which, in less than two hundred years, would +stagger the throne of his descendants, and shake his united kingdoms +to the centre. So far is it from the ordinary habits of mankind to +calculate the importance of events in their elementary principles, +that had the first colonists of our country ever intimated as a part +of their designs the project of founding a great and mighty nation, +the finger of scorn would have pointed them to the cells of bedlam +as an abode more suitable for hatching vain empires than the +solitude of a transatlantic desert. + +These consequences, then so little foreseen, have unfolded +themselves, in all their grandeur, to the eyes of the present age. +It is a common amusement of speculative minds to contrast the +magnitude of the most important events with the minuteness of their +primeval causes, and the records of mankind are full of examples for +such contemplations. It is, however, a more profitable employment +to trace the constituent principles of future greatness in their +kernel; to detect in the acorn at our feet the germ of that majestic +oak, whose roots shoot down to the centre and whose branches aspire +to the skies. Let it be, then, our present occupation to inquire +and endeavor to ascertain the causes first put in operation at the +period of our commemoration, and already productive of such +magnificent effects; to examine with reiterated care and minute +attention the characters of those men who gave the first impulse to +a new series of events in the history of the world; to applaud and +emulate those qualities of their minds which we shall find deserving +of our admiration; to recognize with candor those features which +forbid approbation or even require censure, and, finally, to lay +alike their frailties and their perfections to our own hearts, +either as warning or as example. + +Of the various European settlements upon this continent, which have +finally merged in one independent nation, the first establishments +were made at various times, by several nations, and under the +influence of different motives. In many instances, the conviction of +religious obligation formed one and a powerful inducement of the +adventures; but in none, excepting the settlement at Plymouth, did +they constitute the sole and exclusive actuating cause. Worldly +interest and commercial speculation entered largely into the views +of other settlers, but the commands of conscience were the only +stimulus to the emigrants from Leyden. Previous to their expedition +hither, they had endured a long banishment from their native +country. Under every species of discouragement, they undertook the +vogage; they performed it in spite of numerous and almost +insuperable obstacles; they arrived upon a wilderness bound with +frost and hoary with snow, without the boundaries of their charter, +outcasts from all human society, and coasted five weeks together, in +the dead of winter, on this tempestuous shore, exposed at once to +the fury of the elements, to the arrows of the native savage, and to +the impending horrors of famine. + +Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which +difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. These +qualities have ever been displayed in their mightiest perfection, as +attendants in the retinue of strong passions. From the first +discovery of the Western Hemisphere by Columbus until the settlement +of Virginia which immediately preceded that of Plymouth, the various +adventurers from the ancient world had exhibited upon innumerable +occasions that ardor of enterprise and that stubbornness of pursuit +which set all danger at defiance, and chained the violence of nature +at their feet. But they were all instigated by personal interests. +Avarice and ambition had tuned their souls to that pitch of exaltation. +Selfish passions were the parents of their heroism. It was reserved +for the first settlers of New England to perform achievements +equally arduous, to trample down obstructions equally formidable, to +dispel dangers equally terrific, under the single inspiration of +conscience. To them even liberty herself was but a subordinate and +secondary consideration. They claimed exemption from the mandates +of human authority, as militating with their subjection to a +superior power. Before the voice of heaven they silenced even the +calls of their country. + +Yet, while so deeply impressed with the sense of religious +obligation, they felt, in all its energy, the force of that tender +tie which binds the heart of every virtuous man to his native +land. It was to renew that connection with their country which had +been severed by their compulsory expatriation, that they resolved to +face all the hazards of a perilous navigation and all the labors of +a toilsome distant settlement. Under the mild protection of the +Batavian government, they enjoyed already that freedom of religious +worship, for which they had resigned so many comforts and enjoyments +at home; but their hearts panted for a restoration to the bosom of +their country. Invited and urged by the open-hearted and truly +benevolent people who had given them an asylum from the persecution +of their own kindred to form their settlement within the territories +then under their jurisdiction, the love of their country +predominated over every influence save that of conscience alone, and +they preferred the precarious chance of relaxation from the bigoted +rigor of the English government to the certain liberality and +alluring offers of the Hollanders. Observe, my countrymen, the +generous patriotism, the cordial union of soul, the conscious yet +unaffected vigor which beam in their application to the British +monarch:-- + +"They were well weaned from the delicate milk of their mother +country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land. They were +knit together in a strict and sacred bond, to take care of the good +of each other and of the whole. It was not with them as with other +men, whom small things could discourage, or small discontents cause +to wish themselves again at home." + +Children of these exalted Pilgrims! Is there one among you who can +hear the simple and pathetic energy of these expressions without +tenderness and admiration? Venerated shades of our forefathers! No, +ye were, indeed, not ordinary men! That country which had ejected +you so cruelly from her bosom you still delighted to contemplate in +the character of an affectionate and beloved mother. The sacred bond +which knit you together was indissoluble while you lived; and oh, +may it be to your descendants the example and the pledge of harmony +to the latest period of time! The difficulties and dangers, which so +often had defeated attempts of similar establishments, were unable +to subdue souls tempered like yours. You heard the rigid +interdictions; you saw the menacing forms of toil and danger, +forbidding your access to this land of promise; but you heard +without dismay; you saw and disdained retreat. Firm and undaunted in +the confidence of that sacred bond; conscious of the purity, and +convinced of the importance of your motives, you put your trust in +the protecting shield of Providence, and smiled defiance at the +combining terrors of human malice and of elemental strife. These, in +the accomplishment of your undertaking, you were summoned to +encounter in their most hideous forms; these you met with that +fortitude, and combatted with that perseverance, which you had +promised in their anticipation; these you completely vanquished in +establishing the foundations of New England, and the day which we +now commemorate is the perpetual memorial of your triumph. + +It were an occupation peculiarly pleasing to cull from our early +historians, and exhibit before you every detail of this transaction; +to carry you in imagination on board their bark at the first moment +of her arrival in the bay; to accompany Carver, Winslow, Bradford, +and Standish, in all their excursions upon the desolate coast; to +follow them into every rivulet and creek where they endeavored to +find a firm footing, and to fix, with a pause of delight and +exultation, the instant when the first of these heroic adventurers +alighted on the spot where you, their descendants, now enjoy the +glorious and happy reward of their labors. But in this grateful +task, your former orators, on this anniversary, have anticipated all +that the most ardent industry could collect, and gratified all that +the most inquisitive curiosity could desire. To you, my friends, +every occurrence of that momentous period is already familiar. A +transient allusion to a few characteristic instances, which mark the +peculiar history of the Plymouth settlers, may properly supply the +place of a narrative, which, to this auditory, must be superfluous. + +One of these remarkable incidents is the execution of that +instrument of government by which they formed themselves into a body +politic, the day after their arrival upon the coast, and previous to +their first landing. This is, perhaps, the only instance in human +history of that positive, original social compact, which speculative +philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of +government. Here was a unanimous and personal assent, by all the +individuals of the community, to the association by which they +became a nation. It was the result of circumstances and discussions +which had occurred during their passage from Europe, and is a full +demonstration that the nature of civil government, abstracted from +the political institutions of their native country, had been an +object of their serious meditation. The settlers of all the former +European colonies had contented themselves with the powers conferred +upon them by their respective charters, without looking beyond the +seal of the royal parchment for the measure of their rights and the +rule of their duties. The founders of Plymouth had been impelled by +the peculiarities of their situation to examine the subject with +deeper and more comprehensive research. After twelve years of +banishment from the land of their first allegiance, during which +they had been under an adoptive and temporary subjection to another +sovereign, they must naturally have been led to reflect upon the +relative rights and duties of allegiance and subjection. They had +resided in a city, the seat of a university, where the polemical and +political controversies of the time were pursued with uncommon +fervor. In this period they had witnessed the deadly struggle +between the two parties, into which the people of the United +Provinces, after their separation from the crown of Spain, had +divided themselves. The contest embraced within its compass not only +theological doctrines, but political principles, and Maurice and +Barnevelt were the temporal leaders of the same rival factions, of +which Episcopius and Polyander were the ecclesiastical champions. + +That the investigation of the fundamental principles of government +was deeply implicated in these dissensions is evident from the +immortal work of Grotius, upon the rights of war and peace, which +undoubtedly originated from them. Grotius himself had been a most +distinguished actor and sufferer in those important scenes of +internal convulsion, and his work was first published very shortly +after the departure of our forefathers from Leyden. It is well +known that in the course of the contest Mr. Robinson more than once +appeared, with credit to himself, as a public disputant against +Episcopius; and from the manner in which the fact is related by +Governor Bradford, it is apparent that the whole English Church at +Leyden took a zealous interest in the religious part of the +controversy. As strangers in the land, it is presumable that they +wisely and honorably avoided entangling themselves in the political +contentions involved with it. Yet the theoretic principles, as they +were drawn into discussion, could not fail to arrest their +attention, and must have assisted them to form accurate ideas +concerning the origin and extent of authority among men, independent +of positive institutions. The importance of these circumstances +will not be duly weighed without taking into consideration the state +of opinion then prevalent in England. The general principles of +government were there little understood and less examined. The +whole substance of human authority was centred in the simple +doctrine of royal prerogative, the origin of which was always traced +in theory to divine institution. Twenty years later, the subject +was more industriously sifted, and for half a century became one of +the principal topics of controversy between the ablest and most +enlightened men in the nation. The instrument of voluntary +association executed on board the Mayflower testifies that the +parties to it had anticipated the improvement of their nation. + +Another incident, from which we may derive occasion for important +reflections, was the attempt of these original settlers to establish +among them that community of goods and of labor, which fanciful +politicians, from the days of Plato to those of Rousseau, have +recommended as the fundamental law of a perfect republic. This +theory results, it must be acknowledged, from principles of +reasoning most flattering to the human character. If industry, +frugality, and disinterested integrity were alike the virtues of +all, there would, apparently, be more of the social spirit, in +making all property a common stock, and giving to each individual a +proportional title to the wealth of the whole. Such is the basis +upon which Plato forbids, in his Republic, the division of property. +Such is the system upon which Rousseau pronounces the first man who +enclosed a field with a fence, and, said, "This is mine," a traitor +to the human species. A wiser, and more useful philosophy, however, +directs us to consider man according to the nature in which he was +formed; subject to infirmities, which no wisdom can remedy; to +weaknesses, which no institution can strengthen; to vices, which no +legislation can correct. Hence, it becomes obvious that separate +property is the natural and indisputable right of separate exertion; +that community of goods without community of toil is oppressive and +unjust; that it counteracts the laws of nature, which prescribe that +he only who sows the seed shall reap the harvest; that it +discourages all energy, by destroying its rewards; and makes the +most virtuous and active members of society the slaves and drudges +of the worst. Such was the issue of this experiment among our +forefathers, and the same event demonstrated the error of the system +in the elder settlement of Virginia. Let us cherish that spirit of +harmony which prompted our forefathers to make the attempt, under +circumstances more favorable to its success than, perhaps, ever +occurred upon earth. Let us no less admire the candor with which +they relinquished it, upon discovering its irremediable inefficacy. +To found principles of government upon too advantageous an estimate +of the human character is an error of inexperience, the source of +which is so amiable that it is impossible to censure it with +severity. We have seen the same mistake, committed in our own age, +and upon a larger theatre. Happily for our ancestors, their +situation allowed them to repair it before its effects had proved +destructive. They had no pride of vain philosophy to support, no +perfidious rage of faction to glut, by persevering in their mistakes +until they should be extinguished in torrents of blood. + +As the attempt to establish among themselves the community of goods +was a seal of that sacred bond which knit them so closely together, +so the conduct they observed towards the natives of the country +displays their steadfast adherence to the rules of justice and their +faithful attachment to those of benevolence and charity. + +No European settlement ever formed upon this continent has been more +distinguished for undeviating kindness and equity towards the +savages. There are, indeed, moralists who have questioned the right +of the Europeans to intrude upon the possessions of the aboriginals +in any case, and under any limitations whatsoever. But have they +maturely considered the whole subject? The Indian right of +possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of the +country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields; +their constructed habitations; a space of ample sufficiency for +their subsistence, and whatever they had annexed to themselves by +personal labor, was undoubtedly, by the laws of nature, theirs. But +what is the right of a huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles +over which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the +liberal bounties of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by +one of ten thousand for whom they were created? Shall the exuberant +bosom of the common mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of +millions, be claimed exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring? +Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments +of civilization himself, but shall he control the civilization of a +world? Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like a rose? +Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall before the ax of +industry, and to rise again, transformed into the habitations of +ease and elegance? Shall he doom an immense region of the globe to +perpetual desolation, and to hear the howlings of the tiger and the +wolf silence forever the voice of human gladness? Shall the fields +and the valleys, which a beneficent God has formed to teem with the +life of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting +barrenness? Shall the mighty rivers, poured out by the hand of +nature, as channels of communication between numerous nations, roll +their waters in sullen silence and eternal solitude to the deep? +Have hundreds of commodious harbors, a thousand leagues of coast, +and a boundless ocean, been spread in the front of this land, and +shall every purpose of utility to which they could apply be +prohibited by the tenant of the woods? No, generous philanthropists! +Heaven has not been thus inconsistent in the works of its hands. +Heaven has not thus placed at irreconcilable strife its moral laws +with its physical creation. The Pilgrims of Plymouth obtained their +right of possession to the territory on which they settled, by +titles as fair and unequivocal as any human property can be held. +By their voluntary association they recognized their allegiance to +the government of Britain, and in process of time received whatever +powers and authorities could be conferred upon them by a charter +from their sovereign. The spot on which they fixed had belonged to +an Indian tribe, totally extirpated by that devouring pestilence +which had swept the country shortly before their arrival. The +territory, thus free from all exclusive possession, they might have +taken by the natural right of occupancy. Desirous, however, of +giving ample satisfaction to every pretense of prior right, by +formal and solemn conventions with the chiefs of the neighboring +tribes, they acquired the further security of a purchase. At their +hands the children of the desert had no cause of complaint. On the +great day of retribution, what thousands, what millions of the +American race will appear at the bar of judgment to arraign their +European invading conquerors! Let us humbly hope that the fathers +of the Plymouth Colony will then appear in the whiteness of +innocence. Let us indulge in the belief that they will not only be +free from all accusation of injustice to these unfortunate sons of +nature, but that the testimonials of their acts of kindness and +benevolence towards them will plead the cause of their virtues, as +they are now authenticated by the record of history upon earth. + +Religious discord has lost her sting; the cumbrous weapons of +theological warfare are antiquated; the field of politics supplies +the alchemists of our times with materials of more fatal explosion, +and the butchers of mankind no longer travel to another world for +instruments of cruelty and destruction. Our age is too enlightened +to contend upon topics which concern only the interests of eternity; +the men who hold in proper contempt all controversies about trifles, +except such as inflame their own passions, have made it a +commonplace censure against your ancestors, that their zeal was +enkindled by subjects of trivial importance; and that however +aggrieved by the intolerance of others, they were alike intolerant +themselves. Against these objections, your candid judgment will not +require an unqualified justification; but your respect and gratitude +for the founders of the State may boldly claim an ample apology. The +original grounds of their separation from the Church of England were +not objects of a magnitude to dissolve the bonds of communion, much +less those of charity, between Christian brethren of the same +essential principles. Some of them, however, were not inconsiderable, +and numerous inducements concurred to give them an extraordinary +interest in their eyes. When that portentous system of abuses, the +Papal dominion, was overturned, a great variety of religious sects +arose in its stead in the several countries, which for many +centuries before had been screwed beneath its subjection. The +fabric of the reformation, first undertaken in England upon a +contracted basis, by a capricious and sanguinary tyrant, had been +successively overthrown and restored, renewed and altered, according +to the varying humors and principles of four successive monarchs. +To ascertain the precise point of division between the genuine +institutions of Christianity and the corruptions accumulated upon +them in the progress of fifteen centuries, was found a task of +extreme difficulty throughout the Christian world. + +Men of the profoundest learning, of the sublimest genius, and of the +purest integrity, after devoting their lives to the research, +finally differed in their ideas upon many great points, both of +doctrine and discipline. The main question, it was admitted on all +hands, most intimately concerned the highest interests of man, both +temporal and eternal. Can we wonder that men who felt their +happiness here and their hopes of hereafter, their worldly welfare +and the kingdom of heaven at stake, should sometimes attach an +importance beyond their intrinsic weight to collateral points of +controversy, connected with the all-involving object of the +reformation? The changes in the forms and principles of religious +worship were introduced and regulated in England by the hand of +public authority. But that hand had not been uniform or steady in +its operations. During the persecutions inflicted in the interval +of Popish restoration under the reign of Mary, upon all who favored +the reformation, many of the most zealous reformers had been +compelled to fly their country. While residing on the continent of +Europe, they had adopted the principles of the most complete and +rigorous reformation, as taught and established by Calvin. On +returning afterwards to their native country, they were dissatisfied +with the partial reformation, at which, as they conceived, the +English establishment had rested; and claiming the privilege of +private conscience, upon which alone any departure from the Church +of Rome could be justified, they insisted upon the right of adhering +to the system of their own preference, and, of course, upon that of +nonconformity to the establishment prescribed by the royal +authority. The only means used to convince them of error and +reclaim them from dissent was force, and force served but to confirm +the opposition it was meant to suppress. By driving the founders of +the Plymouth Colony into exile, it constrained them to absolute +separation from the Church of England; and by the refusal afterwards +to allow them a positive toleration, even in this American +wilderness, the council of James I. rendered that separation +irreconcilable. Viewing their religious liberties here, as held +only by sufferance, yet bound to them by all the ties of conviction, +and by all their sufferings for them, could they forbear to look +upon every dissenter among themselves with a jealous eye? Within +two years after their landing, they beheld a rival settlement +attempted in their immediate neighborhood; and not long after, the +laws of self-preservation compelled them to break up a nest of +revelers, who boasted of protection from the mother country, and who +had recurred to the easy but pernicious resource of feeding their +wanton idleness, by furnishing the savages with the means, the +skill, and the instruments of European destruction. Toleration, in +that instance, would have been self-murder, and many other examples +might be alleged, in which their necessary measures of self-defense +have been exaggerated into cruelty, and their most indispensable +precautions distorted into persecution. Yet shall we not pretend +that they were exempt from the common laws of mortality, or entirely +free from all the errors of their age. Their zeal might sometimes +be too ardent, but it was always sincere. At this day, religious +indulgence is one of our clearest duties, because it is one of our +undisputed rights. While we rejoice that the principles of genuine +Christianity have so far triumphed over the prejudices of a former +generation, let us fervently hope for the day when it will prove +equally victorious over the malignant passions of our own. + +In thus calling your attention to some of the peculiar features in +the principles, the character, and the history of our forefathers, +it is as wide from my design, as I know it would be from your +approbation, to adorn their memory with a chaplet plucked from the +domain of others. The occasion and the day are more peculiarly +devoted to them, and let it never be dishonored with a contracted +and exclusive spirit. Our affections as citizens embrace the whole +extent of the Union, and the names of Raleigh, Smith, Winthrop, +Calvert, Penn, and Oglethorpe, excite in our minds recollections +equally pleasing and gratitude equally fervent with those of Carver +and Bradford. Two centuries have not yet elapsed since the first +European foot touched the soil which now constitutes the American +Union. Two centuries more and our numbers must exceed those of +Europe itself. The destinies of this empire, as they appear in +prospect before us, disdain the powers of human calculation. Yet, +as the original founder of the Roman state is said once to have +lifted upon his shoulders the fame and fortunes of all his +posterity, so let us never forget that the glory and greatness of +all our descendants is in our hands. Preserve in all their purity, +refine, if possible, from all their alloy, those virtues which we +this day commemorate as the ornament of our forefathers. Adhere to +them with inflexible resolution, as to the horns of the altar; +instill them with unwearied perseverance into the minds of your +children; bind your souls and theirs to the national Union as the +chords of life are centred in the heart, and you shall soar with +rapid and steady wing to the summit of human glory. Nearly a +century ago, one of those rare minds to whom it is given to discern +future greatness in its seminal principles upon contemplating the +situation of this continent, pronounced, in a vein of poetic +inspiration, "Westward the star of empire takes its way." Let us +unite in ardent supplication to the Founder of nations and the +Builder of worlds, that what then was prophecy may continue +unfolding into history,--that the dearest hopes of the human race +may not be extinguished in disappointment, and that the last may +prove the noblest empire of time. + +LAFAYETTE (Delivered in Congress, December 31st, 1834) + +On the sixth of September, 1757, Lafayette was born. The kings of +Prance and Britain were seated upon their thrones by virtue of the +principle of hereditary succession, variously modified and blended +with different forms of religious faith, and they were waging war +against each other, and exhausting the blood and treasure of their +people for causes in which neither of the nations had any beneficial +or lawful interest. + +In this war the father of Lafayette fell in the cause of his king +but not of his country. He was an officer of an invading army, the +instrument of his sovereign's wanton ambition and lust of conquest. +The people of the electorate of Hanover had done no wrong to him or +to his country. When his son came to an age capable of +understanding the irreparable loss that he had suffered, and to +reflect upon the causes of his father's fate, there was no drop of +consolation mingled in the cup from the consideration that he had +died for his country. And when the youthful mind was awakened to +meditation upon the rights of mankind, the principles of freedom, +and theories of government, it cannot be difficult to perceive in +the illustrations of his own family records the source of that +aversion to hereditary rule, perhaps the most distinguishing feature +of his own political opinions and to which he adhered through all +the vicissitudes of his life.... + +Lafayette was born a subject of the most absolute and most splendid +monarchy of Europe, and in the highest rank of her proud and +chivalrous nobility. He had been educated at a college of the +University of Paris, founded by the royal munificence of Louis XIV., +or Cardinal Richelieu. Left an orphan in early childhood, with the +inheritance of a princely fortune, he had been married, at sixteen +years of age, to a daughter of the house of Noailles, the most +distinguished family of the kingdom, scarcely deemed in public +consideration inferior to that which wore the crown. He came into +active life, at the change from boy to man, a husband and a father, +in the full enjoyment of everything that avarice could covet, with a +certain prospect before him of all that ambition could crave. Happy +in his domestic affections, incapable, from the benignity of his +nature, of envy, hatred, or revenge, a life of "ignoble ease and +indolent repose" seemed to be that which nature and fortune had +combined to prepare before him. To men of ordinary mold this +condition would have led to a life of luxurious apathy and sensual +indulgence. Such was the life into which, from the operation of the +same causes, Louis XV. had sunk, with his household and court, while +Lafayette was rising to manhood surrounded by the contamination of +their example. Had his natural endowments been even of the higher +and nobler order of such as adhere to virtue, even in the lap of +prosperity, and in the bosom of temptation, he might have lived and +died a pattern of the nobility of France, to be classed, in +aftertimes, with the Turennes and the Montausiers of the age of +Louis XIV., or with the Villars or the Lamoignons of the age +immediately preceding his own. + +But as, in the firmament of heaven that rolls over our heads, there +is, among the stars of the first magnitude, one so pre-eminent in +splendor as, in the opinion of astronomers, to constitute a class by +itself, so in the fourteen hundred years of the French monarchy, +among the multitudes of great and mighty men which it has evolved, +the name of Lafayette stands unrivaled in the solitude of glory. + +In entering upon the threshold of life, a career was to open before +him. He had the option of the court and the camp. An office was +tendered to him in the household of the King's brother, the Count de +Provence, since successively a royal exile and a reinstated king. +The servitude and inaction of a court had no charms for him; +he preferred a commission in the army, and, at the time of the +Declaration of Independence, was a captain of dragoons in garrison +at Metz. + +There, at an entertainment given by his relative, the Marechal de +Broglie, the commandant of the place, to the Duke of Gloucester, +brother to the British king, and then a transient traveler through +that part of France, he learns, as an incident of intelligence +received that morning by the English Prince from London, that the +congress of rebels at Philadelphia had issued a Declaration of +Independence. A conversation ensues upon the causes which have +contributed to produce this event, and upon the consequences which +may be expected to flow from it. The imagination of Lafayette has +caught across the Atlantic tide the spark emitted from the +Declaration of Independence; his heart has kindled at the shock, +and, before he slumbers upon his pillow, he has resolved to devote +his life and fortune to the cause. + +You have before you the cause and the man. The self-devotion of +Lafayette was twofold. First to the people, maintaining a bold and +seemingly desperate struggle against oppression, and for national +existence. Secondly, and chiefly, to the principles of their +declaration, which then first unfurled before his eyes the +consecrated standard of human rights. To that standard, without an +instant of hesitation, he repaired. Where it would lead him, it is +scarcely probable that he himself then foresaw. It was then +identical with the Stars and Stripes of the American Union, floating +to the breeze from the Hall of Independence, at Philadelphia. Nor +sordid avarice, nor vulgar ambition, could point his footsteps to +the pathway leading to that banner. To the love of ease or pleasure +nothing could be more repulsive. Something may be allowed to the +beatings of the youthful breast, which make ambition virtue, and +something to the spirit of military adventure, imbibed from his +profession, and which he felt in common with many others. France, +Germany, Poland, furnished to the armies of this Union, in our +revolutionary struggle, no inconsiderable number of officers of high +rank and distinguished merit. The names of Pulaski and De Kalb are +numbered among the martyrs of our freedom, and their ashes repose in +our soil side by side with the canonized bones of Warren and of +Montgomery. To the virtues of Lafayette, a more protracted career +and happier earthly destinies were reserved. To the moral principle +of political action, the sacrifices of no other man were comparable +to his. Youth, health, fortune; the favor of his king; the +enjoyment of ease and pleasure; even the choicest blessings of +domestic felicity--he gave them all for toil and danger in a +distant land, and an almost hopeless cause; but it was the cause of +justice, and of the rights of human kind. ... + +Pronounce him one of the first men of his age, and you have not yet +done him justice. Try him by that test to which he sought in vain to +stimulate the vulgar and selfish spirit of Napoleon; class him among +the men who, to compare and seat themselves, must take in the +compass of all ages; turn back your eyes upon the records of time, +summon from the creation of the world to this day the mighty dead of +every age and every clime--and where, among the race of merely +mortal men, shall one be found, who, as the benefactor of his kind, +shall claim to take precedence of Lafayette? + +There have doubtless been, in all ages, men whose discoveries or +inventions, in the world of matter or of mind, have opened new +avenues to the dominion of man over the material creation; have +increased his means or his faculties of enjoyment; have raised him +in nearer approximation to that higher and happier condition, the +object of his hopes and aspirations in his present state of existence. + +Lafayette discovered no new principle of politics or of morals. He +invented nothing in science. He disclosed no new phenomenon in the +laws of nature. Born and educated in the highest order of feudal +nobility, under the most absolute monarchy of Europe, in possession +of an affluent fortune, and master of himself and of all his +capabilities, at the moment of attaining manhood the principle of +republican justice and of social equality took possession of his +heart and mind, as if by inspiration from above. He devoted +himself, his life, his fortune, his hereditary honors, his towering +ambition, his splendid hopes, all to the cause of liberty. He came +to another hemisphere to defend her. He became one of the most +effective champions of our independence; but, that once achieved, he +returned to his own country, and thenceforward took no part in the +controversies which have divided us. In the events of our +revolution, and in the forms of policy which we have adopted for the +establishment and perpetuation of our freedom, Lafayette found the +most perfect form of government. He wished to add nothing to it. +He would gladly have abstracted nothing from it. Instead of the +imaginary republic of Plato, or the Utopia of Sir Thomas Moore, he +took a practical existing model, in actual operation here, and never +attempted or wished more than to apply it faithfully to his own +country. + +It was not given to Moses to enter the promised land; but he saw it +from the summit of Pisgah. It was not given to Lafayette to witness +the consummation of his wishes in the establishment of a republic +and the extinction of all hereditary rule in France. His principles +were in advance of the age and hemisphere in which he lived. A +Bourbon still reigns on the throne of France, and it is not for us +to scrutinize the title by which he reigns. The principles of +elective and hereditary power, blended in reluctant union in his +person, like the red and white roses of York and Lancaster, may +postpone to aftertime the last conflict to which they must +ultimately come. The life of the patriarch was not long enough for +the development of his whole political system. Its final +accomplishment is in the womb of time. + +The anticipation of this event is the more certain, from the +consideration that all the principles for which Lafayette contended +were practical. He never indulged himself in wild and fanciful +speculations. The principle of hereditary power was, in his +opinion, the bane of all republican liberty in Europe. Unable to +extinguish it in the Revolution of 1830, so far as concerned the +chief magistracy of the nation, Lafayette had the satisfaction of +seeing it abolished with reference to the peerage. An hereditary +crown, stript of the support which it may derive from an hereditary +peerage, however compatible with Asiatic despotism, is an anomaly in +the history of the Christian world, and in the theory of free +government. There is no argument producible against the existence +of an hereditary peerage but applies with aggravated weight against +the transmission, from sire to son, of an hereditary crown. The +prejudices and passions of the people of France rejected the +principle of inherited power, in every station of public trust, +excepting the first and highest of them all; but there they clung to +it, as did the Israelites of old to the savory deities of Egypt. + +This is not the time nor the place for a disquisition upon the +comparative merits, as a system of government, of a republic, and a +monarchy surrounded by republican institutions. Upon this subject +there is among us no diversity of opinion; and if it should take the +people of France another half century of internal and external war, +of dazzling and delusive glories; of unparalleled triumphs, +humiliating reverses, and bitter disappointments, to settle it to +their satisfaction, the ultimate result can only bring them to the +point where we have stood from the day of the Declaration of +Independence--to the point where Lafayette would have brought +them, and to which he looked as a consummation devoutly to be +wished. + +Then, too, and then only, will be the time when the character of +Lafayette will be appreciated at its true value throughout the +civilized world. When the principle of hereditary dominion shall be +extinguished in all the institutions of France; when government +shall no longer be considered as property transmissible from sire to +son, but as a trust committed for a limited time, and then to return +to the people whence it came; as a burdensome duty to be discharged, +and not as a reward to be abused; when a claim, any claim, to +political power by inheritance shall, in the estimation of the whole +French people, be held as it now is by the whole people of the North +American Union--then will be the time for contemplating the +character of Lafayette, not merely in the events of his life, but in +the full development of his intellectual conceptions, of his fervent +aspirations, of the labors and perils and sacrifices of his long and +eventful career upon earth; and thenceforward, till the hour when +the trump of the Archangel shall sound to announce that Time shall +be no more, the name of Lafayette shall stand enrolled upon the +annals of our race, high on the list of the pure and disinterested +benefactors of mankind. + + +THE JUBILEE OF THE CONSTITUTION (Delivered at New York, April 30th, 1839) + +Fellow-Citizens and Brethren, Associates of the New York Historical +Society:-- + +Would it be an unlicensed trespass of the imagination to conceive +that on the night preceding the day of which you now commemorate the +fiftieth anniversary--on the night preceding that thirtieth of +April, 1789, when from the balcony of your city hall the chancellor +of the State of New York administered to George Washington the +solemn oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the +United States, and to the best of his ability to preserve, protect, +and defend the Constitution of the United States--that in the +visions of the night the guardian angel of the Father of our country +had appeared before him, in the venerated form of his mother, and, +to cheer and encourage him in the performance of the momentous and +solemn duties that he was about to assume, had delivered to him a +suit of celestial armor--a helmet, consisting of the principles of +piety, of justice, of honor, of benevolence, with which from his +earliest infancy he had hitherto walked through life, in the +presence of all his brethren; a spear, studded with the self-evident +truths of the Declaration of Independence; a sword, the same with +which he had led the armies of his country through the war of +freedom to the summit of the triumphal arch of independence; a +corslet and cuishes of long experience and habitual intercourse in +peace and war with the world of mankind, his contemporaries of the +human race, in all their stages of civilization; and, last of all, +the Constitution of the United States, a shield, embossed by +heavenly hands with the future history of his country. + +Yes, gentlemen, on that shield the Constitution of the United States +was sculptured (by forms unseen, and in characters then invisible to +mortal eye), the predestined and prophetic history of the one +confederated people of the North American Union. + +They had been the settlers of thirteen separate and distinct English +colonies, along the margin of the shore of the North American +continent; contiguously situated, but chartered by adventurers of +characters variously diversified, including sectarians, religious +and political, of all the classes which for the two preceding +centuries had agitated and divided the people of the British islands +--and with them were intermingled the descendants of Hollanders, +Swedes, Germans, and French fugitives from the persecution of the +revoker of the Edict of Nantes. + +In the bosoms of this people, thus heterogeneously composed, there +was burning, kindled at different furnaces, but all furnaces of +affliction, one clear, steady flame of liberty. Bold and daring +enterprise, stubborn endurance of privation, unflinching intrepidity +in facing danger, and inflexible adherence to conscientious +principle, had steeled to energetic and unyielding hardihood the +characters of the primitive settlers of all these colonies. Since +that time two or three generations of men had passed away, but they +had increased and multiplied with unexampled rapidity; and the land +itself had been the recent theatre of a ferocious and bloody +seven-years' war between the two most powerful and most civilized +nations of Europe contending for the possession of this continent. + +Of that strife the victorious combatant had been Britain. She had +conquered the provinces of France. She had expelled her rival +totally from the continent, over which, bounding herself by the +Mississippi, she was thenceforth to hold divided empire only with +Spain. She had acquired undisputed control over the Indian tribes +still tenanting the forests unexplored by the European man. She had +established an uncontested monopoly of the commerce of all her +colonies. But forgetting all the warnings of preceding ages-- +forgetting the lessons written in the blood of her own children, +through centuries of departed time, she undertook to tax the people +of the colonies without their consent. + +Resistance, instantaneous, unconcerted, sympathetic, inflexible +resistance, like an electric shock, startled and roused the people +of all the English colonies on this continent. + +This was the first signal of the North American Union, The struggle +was for chartered rights--for English liberties--for the cause +of Algernon Sidney and John Hampden--for trial by jury--the +Habeas Corpus and Magna Charta. + +But the English lawyers had decided that Parliament was +omnipotent--and Parliament, in its omnipotence, instead of trial by +jury and the Habeas Corpus, enacted admiralty courts in England to +try Americans for offenses charged against them as committed in +America; instead of the privileges of Magna Charta, nullified the +charter itself of Massachusetts Bay; shut up the port of Boston; +sent armies and navies to keep the peace and teach the colonies that +John Hampden was a rebel and Algernon Sidney a traitor. + +English liberties had failed them. From the omnipotence of +Parliament the Colonists appealed to the rights of man and the +omnipotence of the God of battles. Union! Union! was the instinctive +and simultaneous cry throughout the land. Their congress, assembled +at Philadelphia, once--twice--had petitioned the king; had +remonstrated to Parliament; had addressed the people of Britain, for +the rights of Englishmen--in vain. Fleets and armies, the blood of +Lexington, and the fires of Charlestown and Falmouth, had been the +answer to petition, remonstrance, and address. ... + +The dissolution of allegiance to the British crown, the severance of +the colonies from the British empire, and their actual existence as +independent States, were definitively established in fact, by war +and peace. The independence of each separate State had never been +declared of right. It never existed in fact. Upon the principles of +the Declaration of Independence, the dissolution of the ties of +allegiance, the assumption of sovereign power, and the institution +of civil government, are all acts of transcendent authority, which +the people alone are competent to perform; and, accordingly, it is +in the name and by the authority of the people, that two of these +acts--the dissolution of allegiance, with the severance from the +British empire, and the declaration of the United Colonies, as free +and independent States, were performed by that instrument. + +But there still remained the last and crowning act, which the people +of the Union alone were competent to perform--the institution of +civil government, for that compound nation, the United States of +America. + +At this day it cannot but strike us as extraordinary, that it does +not appear to have occurred to any one member of that assembly, +which had laid down in terms so clear, so explicit, so unequivocal, +the foundation of all just government, in the imprescriptible rights +of man, and the transcendent sovereignty of the people, and who in +those principles had set forth their only personal vindication from +the charges of rebellion against their king, and of treason to their +country, that their last crowning act was still to be performed upon +the same principles. That is, the institution, by the people of the +United States, of a civil government, to guard and protect and +defend them all. On the contrary, that same assembly which issued +the Declaration of Independence, instead of continuing to act in the +name and by the authority of the good people of the United States, +had, immediately after the appointment of the committee to prepare +the Declaration, appointed another committee, of one member from +each colony, to prepare and digest the form of confederation to be +entered into between the colonies. + +That committee reported on the twelfth of July, eight days after the +Declaration of Independence had been issued, a draft of articles of +confederation between the colonies. This draft was prepared by John +Dickinson, then a delegate from Pennsylvania, who voted against the +Declaration of Independence, and never signed it, having been +superseded by a new election of delegates from that State, eight +days after his draft was reported. + +There was thus no congeniality of principle between the Declaration +of Independence and the articles of confederation. The foundation of +the former was a superintending Providence--the rights of man, and +the constituent revolutionary power of the people. That of the +latter was the sovereignty of organized power, and the independence +of the separate or dis-united States. The fabric of the Declaration +and that of the confederation were each consistent with its own +foundation, but they could not form one consistent, symmetrical +edifice. They were the productions of different minds and of adverse +passions; one, ascending for the foundation of human government to +the laws of nature and of God, written upon the heart of man; the +other, resting upon the basis of human institutions, and +prescriptive law, and colonial charter. The corner stone of the one +was right, that of the other was power. ... + +Where, then, did each State get the sovereignty, freedom, and +independence, which the articles of confederation declare it +retains?--not from the whole people of the whole Union--not from +the Declaration of Independence--not from the people of the State +itself. It was assumed by agreement between the legislatures of the +several States, and their delegates in Congress, without authority +from or consultation of the people at all. + +In the Declaration of Independence, the enacting and constituent +party dispensing and delegating sovereign power is the whole people +of the United Colonies. The recipient party, invested with power, is +the United Colonies, declared United States. + +In the articles of confederation, this order of agency is inverted. +Each State is the constituent and enacting party, and the United +States in Congress assembled the recipient of delegated power--and +that power delegated with such a penurious and carking hand that it +had more the aspect of a revocation of the Declaration of +Independence than an instrument to carry it into effect. + +None of these indispensably necessary powers were ever conferred by +the State legislatures upon the Congress of the federation; and well +was it that they never were. The system itself was radically +defective. Its incurable disease was an apostasy from the principles +of the Declaration of Independence. A substitution of separate State +sovereignties, in the place of the constituent sovereignty of the +people, was the basis of the Confederate Union. + +In the Congress of the confederation, the master minds of James +Madison and Alexander Hamilton were constantly engaged through the +closing years of the Revolutionary War and those of peace which +immediately succeeded. That of John Jay was associated with them +shortly after the peace, in the capacity of secretary to the +Congress for foreign affairs. The incompetency of the articles of +confederation for the management of the affairs of the Union at home +and abroad was demonstrated to them by the painful and mortifying +experience of every day. Washington, though in retirement, was +brooding over the cruel injustice suffered by his associates in +arms, the warriors of the Revolution; over the prostration of the +public credit and the faith of the nation, in the neglect to provide +for the payment even of the interest upon the public debt; over the +disappointed hopes of the friends of freedom; in the language of the +address from Congress to the States of the eighteenth of April, 1783 +--"the pride and boast of America, that the rights for which she +contended were the rights of human nature." + +At his residence at Mount Vernon, in March 1785, the first idea was +started of a revisal of the articles of confederation, by an +organization, of means differing from that of a compact between the +State legislatures and their own delegates in Congress. A +convention of delegates from the State legislatures, independent of +the Congress itself, was the expedient which presented itself for +effecting the purpose, and an augmentation of the powers of Congress +for the regulation of commerce, as the object for which this +assembly was to be convened. In January 1786 the proposal was made +and adopted in the legislature of Virginia, and communicated to the +other State legislatures. + +The convention was held at Annapolis, in September of that year. It +was attended by delegates from only five of the central States, who, +on comparing their restricted powers with the glaring and +universally acknowledged defects of the confederation reported only +a recommendation for the assemblage of another convention of +delegates to meet at Philadelphia, in May 1787, from all the States, +and with enlarged powers. + +The Constitution of the United States was the work of this +convention. But in its construction the convention immediately +perceived that they must retrace their steps, and fall back from a +league of friendship between sovereign States to the constituent +sovereignty of the people; from power to right--from the +irresponsible despotism of State sovereignty to the self-evident +truths of the Declaration of Independence. In that instrument, the +right to institute and to alter governments among men was ascribed +exclusively to the people--the ends of government were declared to +be to secure the natural rights of man; and that when the government +degenerates from the promotion to the destruction of that end, the +right and the duty accrues to the people to dissolve this degenerate +government and to institute another. The signers of the Declaration +further averred, that the one people of the United Colonies were +then precisely in that situation--with a government degenerated +into tyranny, and called upon by the laws of nature and of nature's +God to dissolve that government and to institute another. Then, in +the name and by the authority of the good people of the colonies, +they pronounced the dissolution of their allegiance to the king, and +their eternal separation from the nation of Great Britain--and +declared the United Colonies independent States. And here as the +representatives of the one people they had stopped. They did not +require the confirmation of this act, for the power to make the +declaration had already been conferred upon them by the people, +delegating the power, indeed, separately in the separate colonies, +not by colonial authority, but by the spontaneous revolutionary +movement of the people in them all. + +From the day of that Declaration, the constituent power of the +people had never been called into action. A confederacy had been +substituted in the place of a government, and State sovereignty had +usurped the constituent sovereignty of the people. + +The convention assembled at Philadelphia had themselves no direct +authority from the people. Their authority was all derived from the +State legislatures. But they had the articles of confederation +before them, and they saw and felt the wretched condition into which +they had brought the whole people, and that the Union itself was in +the agonies of death. They soon perceived that the indispensably +needed powers were such as no State government, no combination of +them, was by the principles of the Declaration of Independence +competent to bestow. They could emanate only from the people. A +highly respectable portion of the assembly, still clinging to the +confederacy of States, proposed, as a substitute for the +Constitution, a mere revival of the articles of confederation, with +a grant of additional powers to the Congress. Their plan was +respectfully and thoroughly discussed, but the want of a government +and of the sanction of the people to the delegation of powers +happily prevailed. A constitution for the people, and the +distribution of legislative, executive, and judicial powers was +prepared. It announced itself as the work of the people themselves; +and as this was unquestionably a power assumed by the convention, +not delegated to them by the people, they religiously confined it to +a simple power to propose, and carefully provided that it should be +no more than a proposal until sanctioned by the confederation +Congress, by the State legislatures, and by the people of the +several States, in conventions specially assembled, by authority of +their legislatures, for the single purpose of examining and passing +upon it. + +And thus was consummated the work commenced by the Declaration of +Independence--a work in which the people of the North American +Union, acting under the deepest sense of responsibility to the +Supreme Ruler of the universe, had achieved the most transcendent +act of power that social man in his mortal condition can perform-- +even that of dissolving the ties of allegiance by which he is bound +to his country; of renouncing that country itself; of demolishing +its government; of instituting another government; and of making for +himself another country in its stead. + +And on that day, of which you now commemorate the fiftieth +anniversary,--on that thirtieth day of April, 1789,--was this +mighty revolution, not only in the affairs of our own country, +but in the principles of government over civilized man, accomplished. + +The revolution itself was a work of thirteen years--and had never +been completed until that day. The Declaration of Independence and +the Constitution of the United States are parts of one consistent +whole, founded upon one and the same theory of government, then new +in practice, though not as a theory, for it had been working itself +into the mind of man for many ages, and had been especially +expounded in the writings of Locke, though it had never before been +adopted by a great nation in practice. + +There are yet, even at this day, many speculative objections to this +theory. Even in our own country, there are still philosophers who +deny the principles asserted in the Declaration, as self-evident +truths--who deny the natural equality and inalienable rights of man +--who deny that the people are the only legitimate source of power +--who deny that all just powers of government are derived from the +consent of the governed. Neither your time, nor perphaps the +cheerful nature of this occasion, permit me here to enter upon the +examination of this anti-revolutionary theory, which arrays State +sovereignty against the constituent sovereignty of the people, and +distorts the Constitution of the United States into a league of +friendship between confederate corporations, I speak to matters of +fact. There is the Declaration of Independence, and there is the +Constitution of the United States--let them speak for themselves. +The grossly immoral and dishonest doctrine of despotic State +sovereignty, the exclusive judge of its own obligations, and +responsible to no power on earth or in heaven, for the violation of +them, is not there. The Declaration says, it is not in me. The +Constitution says, it is not in me. + + + +SAMUEL ADAMS (1723-1803) + +Samuel Adams, called by his contemporaries, "the Father of the +American Revolution," drew up in 1764 the instructions of the people +of Boston to their representatives in the Massachusetts general +assembly, containing what is said to be the first official denial of +the right of the British Parliament to tax the Colonists. + +Deeply religious by nature, having what Everett calls "a most +angelic voice," studying sacred music as an avocation, and +exhibiting through life the fineness of nerve and sensitiveness of +temperament which gave him his early disposition to escape the +storms of life by a career in the pulpit, circumstances, or rather +his sense of fitness, dominating his physical weakness, imposed on +him the work of leading in what results have shown to be the +greatest revolution of history. So sensitive, physically, that he +had "a tremulous motion of the head when speaking," his intellectual +force was such that he easily became a leader of popular opposition +to royal authority in New England. Unlike Jefferson in being a +fluent public speaker, he resembled him in being the intellectual +heir of Sidney and Locke. He showed very early in life the bent +which afterwards forced him, as it did the naturally timid and +retiring Jefferson, to take the leadership of the uneducated masses +of the people against the wealth, the culture, and the conservatism +of the colonial aristocracy. + +After passing through the Lovell School he graduated at Harvard +College, and on proposing a thesis for his second degree, as college +custom required, he defended the proposition that "it is lawful to +resist the supreme authority, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise +be preserved." Like questions had been debated during the Middle +Ages from the time returning Crusaders brought back with them copies +of Aristotle and other great Greek philosophers whose authority was +still reverenced at Byzantium and Bagdad when London and Paris knew +nothing of them. Out of the denial of one set of schoolmen that a +divine right to rule, greater than that derived from the people, +could exist in kings, grew the political controversy which preceded +the English revolution against the Stuarts. Our revolution grew out +of the English as the French grew out of ours, and in putting on his +seal Cromwell's motto, "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God," +Jefferson, the Virginian, illustrated the same intellectual +heredity which Samuel Adams, the New Englander, showed in asserting +the right of the people composing the Commonwealth to resist the +supreme authority when in their judgment its exercise had become +prejudicial to their rights or their interests. + +From 1764 when he was chosen to present the denial made by the +people of Boston of the English Parliament's right to tax them, +until he joined Jefferson in forcing on the then unprepared mind of +the public the idea of a complete and final separation from the +"Mother Country," his aggressive denunciations of the English +government's attempts at absolutism made him so hated by the English +administration and its colonial representatives that, with John +Hancock, he was specially exempted from General Gage's amnesty +proclamation of June 1775, as "having committed offenses of too +flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of +condign punishment." + +Joining with John Adams, Franklin, and Jefferson in forcing issues +for complete separation from England and for the formal Declaration +of Independence, Samuel Adams was himself the author of the +celebrated circular letter addressed by the assembly of +Massachusetts to the speakers of the several assemblies in other +colonies. In 1774 he was chosen a member of the Continental +Congress, where he took a prominent part in preventing the +possibility of compromise with England. In 1794 he succeeded Hancock +as governor of Massachusetts, retiring in 1797 because of "the +increasing infirmities of age." + +Like many other statesmen of his time he lived the greater part of +his life in poverty, but his only son, dying before him, left him a +property which supported him in his old age. + +It is said that his great oration on American Independence, +delivered at Philadelphia in August 1776, and published here, is the +only complete address of his which has come down to us. It was +translated into French and published in Paris, and it is believed +that Napoleon borrowed from it the phrase, "A Nation of +Shopkeepers," to characterize the English. + + +AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE + +Countrymen and Brethren:-- + +I would gladly have declined an honor to which I find myself +unequal. I have not the calmness and impartiality which the +infinite importance of this occasion demands. I will not deny the +charge of my enemies, that resentment for the accumulated injuries +of our country, and an ardor for her glory, rising to enthusiasm, +may deprive me of that accuracy of judgment and expression which men +of cooler passions may possess. Let me beseech you, then, to hear +me with caution, to examine your prejudice, and to correct the +mistakes into which I may be hurried by my zeal. + +Truth loves an appeal to the common sense of mankind. Your +unperverted understandings can best determine on subjects of a +practical nature. The positions and plans which are said to be above +the comprehension of the multitude may be always suspected to be +visionary and fruitless. He who made all men hath made the truths +necessary to human happiness obvious to all. + +Our forefathers threw off the yoke of Popery in religion; for you is +reserved the honor of leveling the popery of politics. They opened +the Bible to all, and maintained the capacity of every man to judge +for himself in religion. Are we sufficient for the comprehension of +the sublimest spiritual truths, and unequal to material and temporal +ones? + +Heaven hath trusted us with the management of things for eternity, +and man denies us ability to judge of the present, or to know from +our feelings the experience that will make us happy. "You can +discern," they say, "objects distant and remote, but cannot perceive +those within your grasp. Let us have the distribution of present +goods, and cut out and manage as you please the interests of +futurity." This day, I trust, the reign of political protestantism +will commence. We have explored the temple of royalty, and found +that the idol we have bowed down to has eyes which see not, ears +that hear not our prayers, and a heart like the nether millstone. We +have this day restored the Sovereign to whom alone men ought to be +obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious eye beholds his +subjects assuming that freedom of thought and dignity of +self-direction which he bestowed on them. From the rising to the +setting sun, may his kingdom come! + +Having been a slave to the influence of opinion early acquired, and +distinctions generally received, I am ever inclined not to despise +but pity those who are yet in darkness. But to the eye of reason +what can be more clear than that all men have an equal right to +happiness? Nature made no other distinction than that of higher and +lower degrees of power of mind and body. But what mysterious +distribution of character has the craft of statesmen, more fatal +than priestcraft, introduced? + +According to their doctrine, the offspring of perhaps the lewd +embraces of a successful invader shall, from generation to +generation, arrogate the right of lavishing on their pleasures a +proportion of the fruits of the earth, more than sufficient to +supply the wants of thousands of their fellow-creatures; claim +authority to manage them like beasts of burthen, and, without +superior industry, capacity, or virtue, nay, though disgraceful to +humanity by their ignorance, intemperance, and brutality, shall be +deemed best calculated to frame laws and to consult for the welfare +of society. + +Were the talents and virtues which heaven has bestowed on men given +merely to make them more obedient drudges, to be sacrificed to the +follies and ambition of a few? Or, were not the noble gifts so +equally dispensed with a divine purpose and law, that they should as +nearly as possible be equally exerted, and the blessings of +Providence be equally enjoyed by all? Away, then, with those absurd +systems which to gratify the pride of a few debase the greater part +of our species below the order of men. What an affront to the King +of the universe, to maintain that the happiness of a monster, sunk +in debauchery and spreading desolation and murder among men, of a +Caligula, a Nero, or a Charles, is more precious in his sight than +that of millions of his suppliant creatures, who do justice, love +mercy, and walk humbly with their God! No, in the judgment of heaven +there is no other superiority among men than a superiority in wisdom +and virtue. And can we have a safer model in forming ours? The +Deity, then, has not given any order or family of men authority over +others; and if any men have given it, they only could give it for +themselves. Our forefathers, 'tis said, consented to be subject to +the laws of Great Britain. I will not, at present, dispute it, nor +mark out the limits and conditions of their submission; but will it +be denied that they contracted to pay obedience and to be under the +control of Great Britain because it appeared to them most beneficial +in their then present circumstances and situations? We, my +countrymen, have the same right to consult and provide for our +happiness which they had to promote theirs. If they had a view to +posterity in their contracts, it must have been to advance the +felicity of their descendants. If they erred in their expectations +and prospects, we can never be condemned for a conduct which they +would have recommended had they foreseen our present condition. + +Ye darkeners of counsel, who would make the property, lives and +religion of millions depend on the evasive interpretations of musty +parchments; who would send us to antiquated charters of uncertain +and contradictory meaning, to prove that the present generation are +not bound to be victims to cruel and unforgiving despotism, tell us +whether our pious and generous ancestors bequeathed to us the +miserable privilege of having the rewards of our honesty, industry, +the fruits of those fields which they purchased and bled for, +wrested from us at the will of men over whom we have no check. Did +they contract for us that, with folded arms, we should expect that +justice and mercy from brutal and inflamed invaders which have been +denied to our supplications at the foot of the throne? Were we to +hear our character as a people ridiculed with indifference? Did they +promise for us that our meekness and patience should be insulted; +our coasts harassed, our towns demolished and plundered, and our +wives and offspring exposed to nakedness, hunger, and death, without +our feeling the resentment of men, and exerting those powers of +self-preservation which God has given us? No man had once a greater +veneration for Englishmen than I entertained. They were dear to me +as branches of the same parental trunk, and partakers of the same +religion and laws; I still view with respect the remains of the +constitution as I would a lifeless body, which had once been +animated by a great and heroic soul. But when I am aroused by the +din of arms; when I behold legions of foreign assassins, paid by +Englishmen to imbrue their hands in our blood; when I tread over the +uncoffined bodies of my countrymen, neighbors, and friends; when I +see the locks of a venerable father torn by savage hands, and a +feeble mother, clasping her infants to her bosom, and on her knees +imploring their lives from her own slaves, whom Englishmen have +allured to treachery and murder; when I behold my country, once the +seat of industry, peace, and plenty, changed by Englishmen to a +theatre of blood and misery, Heaven forgive me, if I cannot root out +those passions which it has implanted in my bosom, and detest +submission to a people who have either ceased to be human, or have +not virtue enough to feel their own wretchedness and servitude! + +Men who content themselves with the semblance of truth, and a +display of words, talk much of our obligations to Great Britain for +protection. Had she a single eye to our advantage? A nation of +shopkeepers are very seldom so disinterested. Let us not be so +amused with words; the extension of her commerce was her object. +When she defended our coasts, she fought for her customers, and +convoyed our ships loaded with wealth, which we had acquired for her +by our industry. She has treated us as beasts of burthen, whom the +lordly masters cherish that they may carry a greater load. Let us +inquire also against whom she has protected us? Against her own +enemies with whom we had no quarrel, or only on her account, and +against whom we always readily exerted our wealth and strength when +they were required. Were these colonies backward in giving +assistance to Great Britain, when they were called upon in 1739 to +aid the expedition against Carthagena? They at that time sent three +thousand men to join the British army, although the war commenced +without their consent. But the last war, 'tis said, was purely +American. This is a vulgar error, which, like many others, has +gained credit by being confidently repeated. The dispute between +the courts of Great Britain and France related to the limits of +Canada and Nova Scotia. The controverted territory was not claimed +by any in the colonies, but by the crown of Great Britain. It was +therefore their own quarrel. The infringement of a right which +England had, by the treaty of Utrecht, of trading in the Indian +country of Ohio, was another cause of the war. The French seized +large quantities of British manufacture and took possession of a +fort which a company of British merchants and factors had erected +for the security of their commerce. The war was therefore waged in +defense of lands claimed by the crown, and for the protection of +British property. The French at that time had no quarrel with +America, and, as appears by letters sent from their commander-in-chief, +to some of the colonies, wished to remain in peace with us. The +part, therefore, which we then took, and the miseries to which we +exposed ourselves, ought to be charged to our affection to Britain. +These colonies granted more than their proportion to the support of +the war. They raised, clothed, and maintained nearly twenty-five +thousand men, and so sensible were the people of England of our +great exertions, that a message was annually sent to the House of +Commons purporting, "that his Majesty, being highly satisfied with +the zeal and vigor with which his faithful subjects in North America +had exerted themselves in defense of his Majesty's just rights and +possessions, recommend it to the House to take the same into +consideration, and enable him to give them a proper compensation." + +But what purpose can arguments of this kind answer? Did the +protection we received annul our rights as men, and lay us under an +obligation of being miserable? + +Who among you, my countrymen, that is a father, would claim +authority to make your child a slave because you had nourished him +in infancy? + +'Tis a strange species of generosity which requires a return +infinitely more valuable than anything it could have bestowed that +demands as a reward for a defense of our property a surrender of +those inestimable privileges, to the arbitrary will of vindictive +tyrants, which alone give value to that very property. + +Political right and public happiness are different words for the +same idea. They who wander into metaphysical labyrinths, or have +recourse to original contracts, to determine the rights of men, +either impose on themselves or mean to delude others. Public utility +is the only certain criterion. It is a test which brings disputes to +a speedy decision, and makes its appeal to the feelings of +mankind. The force of truth has obliged men to use arguments drawn +from this principle who were combating it, in practice and +speculation. The advocates for a despotic government and +nonresistance to the magistrate employ reasons in favor of their +systems drawn from a consideration of their tendency to promote +public happiness. + +The Author of Nature directs all his operations to the production of +the greatest good, and has made human virtue to consist in a +disposition and conduct which tends to the common felicity of his +creatures. An abridgement of the natural freedom of men, by the +institutions of political societies, is vindicable only on this +foot. How absurd, then, is it to draw arguments from the nature of +civil society for the annihilation of those very ends which society +was intended to procure! Men associate for their mutual advantage. +Hence, the good and happiness of the members, that is, the majority +of the members, of any State, is the great standard by which +everything relating to that State must finally be determined; and +though it may be supposed that a body of people may be bound by a +voluntary resignation (which they have been so infatuated as to +make) of all their interests to a single person, or to a few, it can +never be conceived that the resignation is obligatory to their +posterity; because it is manifestly contrary to the good of the +whole that it should be so. + +These are the sentiments of the wisest and most virtuous champions +of freedom. Attend to a portion on this subject from a book in our +own defense, written, I had almost said, by the pen of inspiration. +"I lay no stress," says he, "on charters; they derive their rights +from a higher source. It is inconsistent with common sense to +imagine that any people would ever think of settling in a distant +country on any such condition, or that the people from whom they +withdrew should forever be masters of their property, and have power +to subject them to any modes of government they pleased. And had +there been expressed stipulations to this purpose in all the +charters of the colonies, they would, in my opinion, be no more +bound by them, than if it had been stipulated with them that they +should go naked, or expose themselves to the incursions of wolves +and tigers." + +Such are the opinions of every virtuous and enlightened patriot in +Great Britain. Their petition to heaven is, "That there may be one +free country left upon earth, to which they may fly, when venality, +luxury, and vice shall have completed the ruin of liberty there." + +Courage, then, my countrymen, our contest is not only whether we +ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind +an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty. Dismissing, +therefore, the justice of our cause, as incontestable, the only +question is, What is best for us to pursue in our present +circumstances? + +The doctrine of dependence on Great Britain is, I believe, generally +exploded; but as I would attend to the honest weakness of the +simplest of men, you will pardon me if I offer a few words on that +subject. + +We are now on this continent, to the astonishment of the world, +three millions of souls united in one cause. We have large armies, +well disciplined and appointed, with commanders inferior to none in +military skill, and superior in activity and zeal. We are furnished +with arsenals and stores beyond our most sanguine expectations, and +foreign nations are waiting to crown our success by their alliances. +There are instances of, I would say, an almost astonishing +Providence in our favor; our success has staggered our enemies, and +almost given faith to infidels; so we may truly say it is not our +own arm which has saved us. + +The hand of heaven appears to have led us on to be, perhaps humble +instruments and means in the great Providential dispensation which +is completing. We have fled from the political Sodom; let us not +look back, lest we perish and become a monument of infamy and +derision to the world. For can we ever expect more unanimity and a +better preparation for defense; more infatuation of counsel among +our enemies, and more valor and zeal among ourselves? The same force +and resistance which are sufficient to procure us our liberties will +secure us a glorious independence and support us in the dignity of +free, imperial States. We cannot suppose that our opposition has +made a corrupt and dissipated nation more friendly to America, or +created in them a greater respect for the rights of mankind. We can +therefore expect a restoration and establishment of our privileges, +and a compensation for the injuries we have received from their want +of power, from their fears, and not from their virtues. The +unanimity and valor which will effect an honorable peace can render +a future contest for our liberties unnecessary. He who has strength +to chain down the wolf is a madman if he let him loose without +drawing his teeth and paring his nails. + +From the day on which an accommodation takes place between England +and America, on any other terms than as independent States, I shall +date the ruin of this country. A politic minister will study to +lull us into security, by granting us the full extent of our +petitions. The warm sunshine of influence would melt down the +virtue, which the violence of the storm rendered more firm and +unyielding. In a state of tranquillity, wealth, and luxury, our +descendants would forget the arts of war and the noble activity and +zeal which made their ancestors invincible. Every art of corruption +would be employed to loosen the bond of union which renders our +resistance formidable. When the spirit of liberty which now +animates our hearts and gives success to our arms is extinct, our +numbers will accelerate our ruin and render us easier victims to +tyranny. Ye abandoned minions of an infatuated ministry, if +peradventure any should yet remain among us, remember that a Warren +and Montgomery are numbered among the dead. Contemplate the mangled +bodies of your countrymen, and then say, What should be the reward +of such sacrifices? Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, +supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut +the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to +riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye +love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude than +the animating contest of freedom,--go from us in peace. We ask not +your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed +you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget +that ye were our countrymen! + +To unite the supremacy of Great Britain and the liberty of America +is utterly impossible. So vast a continent, and of such a distance +from the seat of empire, will every day grow more unmanageable. The +motion of so unwieldy a body cannot be directed with any dispatch +and uniformity without committing to the Parliament of Great Britain +powers inconsistent with our freedom. The authority and force which +would be absolutely necessary for the preservation of the peace and +good order of this continent would put all our valuable rights +within the reach of that nation. + +As the administration of government requires firmer and more +numerous supports in proportion to its extent, the burdens imposed +on us would be excessive, and we should have the melancholy prospect +of their increasing on our posterity. The scale of officers, from +the rapacious and needy commissioner to the haughty governor, and +from the governor, with his hungry train, to perhaps a licentious +and prodigal viceroy, must be upheld by you and your children. The +fleets and armies which will be employed to silence your murmurs and +complaints must be supported by the fruits of your industry. + +And yet with all this enlargement of the expense and powers of +government, the administration of it at such a distance, and over so +extensive a territory, must necessarily fail of putting the laws +into vigorous execution, removing private oppressions, and forming +plans for the advancement of agriculture and commerce, and +preserving the vast empire in any tolerable peace and security. If +our posterity retain any spark of patriotism, they can never tamely +submit to such burthens. This country will be made the field of +bloody contention till it gain that independence for which nature +formed it. It is, therefore, injustice and cruelty to our +offspring, and would stamp us with the character of baseness and +cowardice, to leave the salvation of this country to be worked out +by them with accumulated difficulty and danger. + +Prejudice, I confess, may warp our judgments. Let us hear the +decision of Englishmen on this subject, who cannot be suspected of +partiality. "The Americans," they say, "are but little short of half +our number. To this number they have grown from a small body of +original settlers by a very rapid increase. The probability is that +they will go on to increase, and that in fifty or sixty years they +will be double our number, and form a mighty empire, consisting of a +variety of States, all equal or superior to ourselves in all the +arts and accomplishments which give dignity and happiness to human +life. In that period will they be still bound to acknowledge that +supremacy over them which we now claim? Can there be any person who +will assert this, or whose mind does not revolt at the idea of a +vast continent holding all that is valuable to it at the discretion +of a handful of people on the other side of the Atlantic? But if at +that period this would be unreasonable, what makes it otherwise now? +Draw the line if you can. But there is still a greater difficulty." + +Britain is now, I will suppose, the seat of liberty and virtue, and +its legislature consists of a body of able and independent men, who +govern with wisdom and justice. The time may come when all will be +reversed; when its excellent constitution of government will be +subverted; when, pressed by debts and taxes, it will be greedy to +draw to itself an increase of revenue from every distant province, +in order to ease its own burdens; when the influence of the crown, +strengthened by luxury and a universal profligacy of manners, will +have tainted every heart, broken down every fence of liberty, and +rendered us a nation of tame and contented vassals; when a general +election will be nothing but a general auction of boroughs, and when +the Parliament, the grand council of the nation, and once the +faithful guardian of the State, and a terror to evil ministers, will +be degenerated into a body of sycophants, dependent and venal, +always ready to confirm any measures, and little more than a public +court for registering royal edicts. Such, it is possible, may, some +time or other, be the state of Great Britain. What will, at that +period, be the duty of the colonies? Will they be still bound to +unconditional submission? Must they always continue an appendage to +our government and follow it implicitly through every change that +can happen to it? Wretched condition, indeed, of millions of +freemen as good as ourselves! Will you say that we now govern +equitably, and that there is no danger of such revolution? Would to +God that this were true! But you will not always say the same. Who +shall judge whether we govern equitably or not? Can you give the +colonies any security that such a period will never come? No. THE +PERIOD, COUNTRYMEN, IS ALREADY COME! The calamities were at our +door. The rod of oppression was raised over us. We were roused +from our slumbers, and may we never sink into repose until we can +convey a clear and undisputed inheritance to our posterity! This +day we are called upon to give a glorious example of what the wisest +and best of men were rejoiced to view, only in speculation. This +day presents the world with the most august spectacle that its +annals ever unfolded,--millions of freemen, deliberately and +voluntarily forming themselves into a society for their common +defense and common happiness. Immortal spirits of Hampden, Locke, +and Sidney, will it not add to your benevolent joys to behold your +posterity rising to the dignity of men, and evincing to the world +the reality and expediency of your systems, and in the actual +enjoyment of that equal liberty, which you were happy, when on +earth, in delineating and recommending to mankind? + +Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are +indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors +through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have +formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and +with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social +compact. Here no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to +honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the +name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to +promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This +is the only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of +night to the obscurity for which nature intended him, and expect +only from the eagle to brush the clouds with his wings and look +boldly in the face of the sun. + +Some who would persuade us that they have tender feelings for future +generations, while they are insensible to the happiness of the +present, are perpetually foreboding a train of dissensions under our +popular system. Such men's reasoning amounts to this: Give up all +that is valuable to Great Britain and then you will have no +inducements to quarrel among yourselves; or, suffer yourselves to be +chained down by your enemies that you may not be able to fight with +your friends. + +This is an insult on your virtue as well as your common sense. Your +unanimity this day and through the course of the war is a decisive +refutation of such invidious predictions. Our enemies have already +had evidence that our present constitution contains in it the +justice and ardor of freedom and the wisdom and vigor of the most +absolute system. When the law is the will of the people, it will be +uniform and coherent; but fluctuation, contradiction, and +inconsistency of councils must be expected under those governments +where every revolution in the ministry of a court produces one in +the State--such being the folly and pride of all ministers, that +they ever pursue measures directly opposite to those of their +predecessors. + +We shall neither be exposed to the necessary convulsions of elective +monarchies, nor to the want of wisdom, fortitude, and virtue, to +which hereditary succession is liable. In your hands it will be to +perpetuate a prudent, active, and just legislature, and which will +never expire until you yourselves loose the virtues which give it +existence. + +And, brethren and fellow-countrymen, if it was ever granted to +mortals to trace the designs of Providence, and interpret its +manifestations in favor of their cause, we may, with humility of +soul, cry out, "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy Name be the +praise!" The confusion of the devices among our enemies, and the +rage of the elements against them, have done almost as much towards +our success as either our councils or our arms. + +The time at which this attempt on our liberty was made, when we were +ripened into maturity, had acquired a knowledge of war, and were +free from the incursions of enemies in this country; the gradual +advances of our oppressors enabling us to prepare for our defense; +the unusual fertility of our lands and clemency of the seasons; the +success which at first attended our feeble arms, producing unanimity +among our friends and reducing our internal foes to acquiescence-- +these are all strong and palpable marks and assurances that +Providence is yet gracious unto Zion, that it will turn away the +captivity of Jacob. + +Our glorious reformers when they broke through the fetters of +superstition effected more than could be expected from an age so +darkened. But they left much to be done by their posterity. They +lopped off, indeed, some of the branches of Popery, but they left +the root and stock when they left us under the domination of human +systems and decisions, usurping the infallibility which can be +attributed to Revelation alone. They dethroned one usurper only to +raise up another; they refused allegiance to the Pope only to place +the civil magistrate in the throne of Christ, vested with authority +to enact laws and inflict penalties in his kingdom. And if we now +cast our eyes over the nations of the earth, we shall find that, +instead of possessing the pure religion of the Gospel, they may be +divided either into infidels, who deny the truth; or politicians who +make religion a stalking horse for their ambition; or professors, +who walk in the trammels of orthodoxy, and are more attentive to +traditions and ordinances of men than to the oracles of truth. + +The civil magistrate has everywhere contaminated religion by making +it an engine of policy; and freedom of thought and the right of +private judgment, in matters of conscience, driven from every other +corner of the earth, direct their course to this happy country as +their last asylum. Let us cherish the noble guests, and shelter them +under the wings of a universal toleration! Be this the seat of +unbounded religious freedom. She will bring with her in her train, +industry, wisdom, and commerce. She thrives most when left to shoot +forth in her natural luxuriance, and asks from human policy only not +to be checked in her growth by artificial encouragements. + +Thus, by the beneficence of Providence, we shall behold our empire +arising, founded on justice and the voluntary consent of the people, +and giving full scope to the exercise of those faculties and rights +which most ennoble our species. Besides the advantages of liberty +and the most equal constitution, Heaven has given us a country with +every variety of climate and soil, pouring forth in abundance +whatever is necessary for the support, comfort, and strength of a +nation. Within our own borders we possess all the means of +sustenance, defense, and commerce; at the same time, these +advantages are so distributed among the different States of this +continent, as if nature had in view to proclaim to us: Be united +among yourselves and you will want nothing from the rest of the +world. + +The more northern States most amply supply us with every necessary, +and many of the luxuries of life; with iron, timber, and masts for +ships of commerce or of war; with flax for the manufacture of linen, +and seed either for oil or exportation. + +So abundant are our harvests, that almost every part raises more +than double the quantity of grain requisite for the support of the +inhabitants. From Georgia and the Carolinas we have, as well for our +own wants as for the purpose of supplying the wants of other powers, +indigo, rice, hemp, naval stores, and lumber. + +Virginia and Maryland teem with wheat, Indian corn, and tobacco. +Every nation whose harvest is precarious, or whose lands yield not +those commodities which we cultivate, will gladly exchange their +superfluities and manufactures for ours. + +We have already received many and large cargoes of clothing, +military stores, etc., from our commerce with foreign powers, and, +in spite of the efforts of the boasted navy of England, we shall +continue to profit by this connection. + +The want of our naval stores has already increased the price of +these articles to a great height, especially in Britain. Without our +lumber, it will be impossible for those haughty islanders to convey +the products of the West Indies to their own ports; for a while they +may with difficulty effect it, but, without our assistance, their +resources soon must fail. Indeed, the West India Islands appear as +the necessary appendages to this our empire. They must owe their +support to it, and ere long, I doubt not, some of them will, from +necessity, wish to enjoy the benefit of our protection. + +These natural advantages will enable us to remain independent of the +world, or make it the interest of European powers to court our +alliance, and aid in protecting us against the invasion of others. +What argument, therefore, do we want to show the equity of our +conduct; or motive of interest to recommend it to our prudence? +Nature points out the path, and our enemies have obliged us to +pursue it. + +If there is any man so base or so weak as to prefer a dependence on +Great Britain to the dignity and happiness of living a member of a +free and independent nation, let me tell him that necessity now +demands what the generous principle of patriotism should have +dictated. + +We have no other alternative than independence, or the most +ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies +thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody +career; whilst the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out +to us as a voice from heaven:-- + +"Will you permit our posterity to groan under the galling chains of +our murderers? Has our blood been expended in vain? Is the only +benefit which our constancy till death has obtained for our country, +that it should be sunk into a deeper and more ignominious vassalage? +Recollect who are the men that demand your submission, to whose +decrees you are invited to pay obedience. Men who, unmindful of +their relation to you as brethren; of your long implicit submission +to their laws; of the sacrifice which you and your forefathers made +of your natural advantages for commerce to their avarice; formed a +deliberate plan to wrest from you the small pittance of property +which they had permitted you to acquire. Remember that the men who +wish to rule over you are they who, in pursuit of this plan of +despotism, annulled the sacred contracts which they had made with +your ancestors; conveyed into your cities a mercenary soldiery to +compel you to submission by insult and murder; who called your +patience cowardice, your piety hypocrisy." + +Countrymen, the men who now invite you to surrender your rights into +their hands are the men who have let loose the merciless savages to +riot in the blood of their brethren; who have dared to establish +Popery triumphant in our land; who have taught treachery to your +slaves, and courted them to assassinate your wives and children. + +These are the men to whom we are exhorted to sacrifice the blessings +which Providence holds out to us; the happiness, the dignity, of +uncontrolled freedom and independence. + +Let not your generous indignation be directed against any among us +who may advise so absurd and maddening a measure. Their number is +but few, and daily decreases; and the spirit which can render them +patient of slavery will render them contemptible enemies. + +Our Union is now complete; our constitution composed, established, +and approved. You are now the guardians of your own liberties. We +may justly address you, as the _decemviri_ did the Romans, and say, +"Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. +Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your +happiness depends." + +You have now in the field armies sufficient to repel the whole force +of your enemies and their base and mercenary auxiliaries. The +hearts of your soldiers beat high with the spirit of freedom; they +are animated with the justice of their cause, and while they grasp +their swords can look up to Heaven for assistance. Your adversaries +are composed of wretches who laugh at the rights of humanity, who +turn religion into derision, and would, for higher wages, direct +their swords against their leaders or their country. Go on, then, +in your generous enterprise with gratitude to Heaven for past +success, and confidence of it in the future. For my own part, I ask +no greater blessing than to share with you the common danger and +common glory. If I have a wish dearer to my soul than that my ashes +may be mingled with those of a Warren and Montgomery, it is that +these American States may never cease to be free and independent. + + + +AELRED + +(1109-1166) + +Saint Aelred, Ealred, or Ethelred. was abbot of the Cistercian +monastery at Rievaulx, Yorkshire, in the twelfth century. Thirty-two +of his sermons, collected and published by Richard Gibbon, remain as +examples of the pulpit eloquence of his age; but not very much is +remembered of Aelred himself except that he was virtuous enough to +be canonized, and was held in high estimation as a preacher during +the Middle Ages. He died in 1166. + +His command of language is extraordinary, and he is remarkable for +the cumulative power with which he adds clause to clause and +sentence to sentence, in working towards a climax. + + +A FAREWELL + +It is time that I should begin the journey to which the law of our +order compels me, desire incites me, and affection calls me. But +how, even for so short a time, can I be separated from my beloved +ones? Separated, I say, in body, and not in spirit; and I know that +in affection and spirit I shall be so much the more present by how +much in body I am the more absent. I speak after the manner of men +because of the infirmity of my flesh; my wish is, that I may lay +down among you the tabernacle of my flesh, that I may breathe forth +my spirit in your hands, that ye may close the eyes of your father, +and that all my bones should be buried in your sight! Pray, +therefore, O my beloved ones, that the Lord may grant me the desire +of my soul. Call to mind, dearest brethren, that it is written of +the Lord Jesus, when he was about to remove his presence from his +Disciples, that he, being assembled together with them, commanded +them that they should not depart from Jerusalem. Following, +therefore, his example, since, after our sweet banquet, we have now +risen from the table, I, who in a little while am about to go away, +command you, beseech you, warn you, not to depart from Jerusalem. +For Jerusalem signifies peace. Therefore, we commend peace to you, +we enjoin peace to you. Now, Christ himself, our Peace, who hath +united us, keep you in the unity of the spirit and in the bond of +peace; to whose protection and consolation I commend you under the +wings of the Holy Ghost; that he may return you to me, and me to you +in peace and with safety. Approach now, dearest sons, and in sign of +the peace and love which I have commended to you, kiss your father; +and let us all pray together that the Lord may make our way +prosperous, and grant us when we return to find you in the same +peace, who liveth and reigneth one God, through all ages of ages. +Amen. + + +A SERMON AFTER ABSENCE + +Behold, I have returned, my beloved sons, my joy and my crown in the +Lord! Behold! I have returned after many labors, after a dangerous +journey; I am returned to you, I am returned to your love. This day +is the day of exultation and joy, which, when I was in a foreign +land, when I was struggling with the winds and with the sea, I so +long desired to behold; and the Lord hath heard the desire of the +poor. O love, how sweetly thou inflamest those that are absent! +How deliciously thou feedest those that are present; and yet dost +not satisfy the hungry till thou makest Jerusalem to have peace and +fillest it with the flour of wheat! This is the peace which, as you +remember, I commended to you when the law of our order compelled me +for a time to be separated from you; the peace which, now I have +returned, I find (Thanks be to God!) among you; the peace of Christ, +which, with a certain foretaste of love, feeds you in the way that +shall satisfy you with the plentitude of the same love in your +country. Well, beloved brethren, all that I am, all that I have, +all that I know, I offer to your profit, I devote to your advantage. +Use me as you will; spare not my labor if it can in any way serve to +your benefit. Let us return, therefore, if you please, or rather +because you please, to the work which we have intermitted; and let +us examine the Holy Ghost enduing us with the light of truth, the +heavenly treasures which holy Isaiah has laid up under the guise of +parables, when he writes that parable which the people, freed from +his tyranny, shall take up against the king of Babylon. "And it +shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest +from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage +wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this +parable against the king of Babylon." Let us, therefore, understand +the parable as a parable. Not imagining that it was spoken against +Nebuchadnezzar, the prince of that earthly Babylon, but rather +against him who is from the North, the prince of confusion. ... If +any one of us, then, who was once set in the confusion of vices, and +oppressed by the yoke of iniquity, now rejoices that he rests from +his labors, and is without confusion for that which is past, and has +cast off the yoke of that worst of slaveries, let him take up this +parable against the king of Babylon. There is labor in vice, there +is rest in virtue; there is confusion in lust, there is security in +chastity; there is servitude in covetousness, there is liberty in +charity. Now, there is a labor in vice, and labor for vice, and +labor against vice. A labor in vice, when, for the sake of +fulfilling our evil desires, the ancient enemy inflicts hard labor +upon us. There is a labor for vice, when any one is either +afflicted against his will, for the evil which he has done, or of +his will is troubled by the labor of penance. There is a labor +against vice, when he that is converted to God is troubled with +divers temptations. There is also a confusion in vice, when a man, +distracted by most evil passions, is not ruled by reason, but +hurried along confusedly by the tumult of vices; a confusion for +vice, when a man is found out and convicted of any crime, and is +therefore confounded, or when a man repenting and confessing what he +has done is purified by healthful confusion and confession; and +there is a confusion against vice, when a man, converted to God, +resists the temptation from which he suffers, by the recollection of +former confusion. + +Wonder not if I have kept you longer to-day than my wont is, because +desirous of you, after so long a hunger, I could not be easily +satiated with your presence. Think not, indeed, that even now I am +satiated; I leave off speaking because I am weary, not because I am +satisfied. But I shall be satisfied when the glory of Christ shall +appear, in whom I now embrace you with delight, you, with whom I +hope that I shall be happily found in him, to whom is honor and +glory to ages of ages. Amen. + + +ON MANLINESS + +Fortitude comes next, which is necessary in temptation, since +perfection of sanctity cannot be so uninterruptedly maintained in +this life that its serenity will be disturbed by no temptations. But +as our Lord God seems to us, in times when everything appears +peaceful and tranquil, to be merciful and loving and the giver of +joy, thus when he exposes us either to the temptations of the flesh, +or to the suggestions of demons, or when he afflicts us with the +troubles, or wears us out with the persecutions of this world, he +seems, as it were, a hard and angry master. And happy is he who +becomes valiant in this his anger, now resisting, now fighting, now +flying, so as to be found neither infirm through consenting, nor +weak through despairing. Therefore, brethren, whoever is not found +valiant in his anger cannot exult in his glory. If we have passed +through fire and water, so that neither did the fire consume us, nor +the water drown us, whose is the glory? Is it ours, so that we +should exult in it as if it belonged to us? God forbid! How many +exult, brethren, when they are praised by men, taking the glory of +the gifts of God as if it were their own and not exulting in the +honor of Christ, who, while they seek that which is their own and +not the things of Jesus Christ, both lose that which is their own +and do not gain that which is Christ's! He then exults in Christ's +glory, who seeks not his glory but Christ's, and he understands +that, in ourselves, there is nothing of which we can boast, since we +have nothing that is our own. And this is the way in which, in +individual men, the City of Confusion is overthrown, when chastity +expels luxury, fortitude overthrows temptations, humility excludes +vanity. Furthermore, we have sanctification from the faith and +sacraments of Christ, fortitude from the love of Christ, exultation +in the hope of the promises of Christ. Let us each do what we can, +that faith may sanctify us, love strengthen us, and hope make us +joyful in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever +and forever. Amen. + + + +AESCHINES (389-314 B.C.) + +Professor R. C. Jebe says of Aeschines, the rival of Demosthenes for +supremacy at Athens, that when the Rhodians asked him to teach them +oratory, he replied that he did not know it himself. He took pride +in being looked upon as a representative of natural oratorical +genius who had had little help from the traditions of the schools. +"If, however, Aeschines was no rhetorical artist," writes Doctor +Jebb, "he brought to public speaking the twofold training of the +actor and the scribe. He had a magnificent voice under perfect +musical control. 'He compares me to the sirens,' says Aeschines of +his rival." + +First known as an actor, playing "tritagonist" in the tragedies of +Sophocles and the other great Athenian dramatists, Aeschines was +afterwards clerk to one of the minor officials at Athens; then +secretary to Aristophon and Eubulos, well-known public men, and +later still secretary of the _ekklesia_ or assembly. + +The greatest event of his life was his contest with Demosthenes 'De +Corona' (Over the Crown). When Ktesiphon proposed that Athens should +bestow a wreath of gold on Demosthenes for his public services, +Aechines, after the bill proposing it had come before the assembly, +challenged it and gave notice of his intention to proceed against +Ktesiphon for proposing an unconstitutional measure. One of the +allegations in support of its unconstitutionally was that "to record +a bill describing Demosthenes as a public benefactor was to deposit +a lying document among the public archives." The issues were thus +joined between Aeschines and Demosthenes for one of the most +celebrated forensic contests in history. Losing the case Aeschines +went into banishment. He died at Samos, B.C. 314, in his +seventy-fifth year. He is generally ranked next to Demosthenes among +Greek orators. For the following from the oration of Aeschines, the +reader is under obligations to Professor Jebb's admirable translation. + + +AGAINST CROWNING DEMOSTHENES (Against Ktesiphon) + +Our days have not fallen on the common chances of mortal life. We +have been set to bequeath a story of marvels to posterity. Is not +the king of Persia, he who cut through Athos, and bridged the +Hellespont, he who demands earth and water from the Greeks, he who +in his letters presumes to style himself lord of all men from the +sunrise to the sunset, is he not struggling at this hour, no longer +for authority over others, but for his own life? Do you not see the +men who delivered the Delphian temple invested not only with that +glory but with the leadership against Persia? While Thebes-- +Thebes, our neighbor city--has been in one day swept from the face +of Greece--justly it may be in so far as her general policy was +erroneous, yet in consequence of a folly which was no accident, but +the judgment of heaven. The unfortunate Lacedaemonians, though they +did but touch this affair in its first phase by the occupation of +the temple,--they who once claimed the leadership of Greece,-- +are now to be sent to Alexander in Asia to give hostages, to parade +their disasters, and to hear their own and their country's doom from +his lips, when they have been judged by the clemency of the master +they provoked. Our city, the common asylum of the Greeks, from +which, of old, embassies used to come from all Greece to obtain +deliverance for their several cities at our hands, is now battling, +no more for the leadership of Greece, but for the ground on which it +stands. And these things have befallen us since Demosthenes took +the direction of our policy. The poet Hesiod will interpret such a +case. There is a passage meant to educate democracies and to +counsel cities generally, in which he warns us not to accept +dishonest leaders. I will recite the lines myself, the reason, I +think, for our learning the maxims of the poets in boyhood being +that we may use them as men:-- + + "Oft hath the bad man been the city's bane; + Oft hath his sin brought to the sinless pain: + Oft hath all-seeing Heaven sore vexed the town + With dearth and death and brought the people down; + Cast down their walls and their most valiant slain, + And on the seas made all their navies vain!" + +Strip these lines of their poetic garb, look at them closely, and I +think you will say these are no mere verses of Hesiod--that they are +a prophecy of the administration of Demosthenes, for by the agency +of that administration our ships, our armies, our cities have been +swept from the earth. ... "O yes," it will be replied, "but then he +is a friend of the constitution." If, indeed, you have a regard +only to his delicacy you will be deceived as you were before, but +not if you look at his character and at the facts. I will help you +to estimate the characteristics which ought to be found in a friend +of the constitution; in a sober-minded citizen. I will oppose to +them the character that may be looked for in an unprincipled +revolutionist. Then you shall draw your comparison and consider on +which part he stands--not in his language, remember, but in his +life. Now all, I think, will allow that these attributes should +belong to a friend of the constitution: First, that he should be of +free descent by both parents so that the disadvantage of birth may +not embitter him against those laws which preserve the democracy. +Second, that he should be able to show that some benefit has been +done to the people by his ancestors; or, at the worst, that there +had been no enmity between them which would prompt him to revenge +the misfortunes of his fathers on the State. Third, he should be +virtuous and temperate in his private life, so that no profligate +expense may lead him into taking bribes to the hurt of the people. +Next, he should be sagacious and able to speak--since our ideal is +that the best course should be chosen by the intelligence and then +commended to his hearers by the trained eloquence of the orator, +--though, if we cannot have both, sagacity must needs take rank +before eloquence. Lastly, he must have a stout heart or he may play +the country false in the crisis of danger or of war. The friend of +oligarchy must be the opposite of all this. I need not repeat the +points. Now, consider: How does Demosthenes answer to these +conditions? + +[After accusing Demosthenes of being by parentage half a Scythian, +Greek in nothing but language, the orator proceeds: ]-- + +In his private life, what is he? The tetrarch sank to rise a +pettifogger, a spendthrift, ruined by his own follies. Then having +got a bad name in this trade, too, by showing his speeches to the +other side, he bounded on the stage of public life, where his +profits out of the city were as enormous as his savings were small. +Now, however, the flood of royal gold has floated his extravagance. +But not even this will suffice. No wealth could ever hold out long +against vice. In a word, he draws his livelihood not from his own +resources but from your dangers. What, however, are his +qualifications in respect to sagacity and to power of speech? A +clever speaker, an evil liver! And what is the result to Athens? +The speeches are fair; the deeds are vile! Then as to courage I +have a word to say. If he denied his cowardice or if you were not +aware of it, the topic might have called for discussion, but since +he himself admits in the assemblies and you know it, it remains only +to remind you of the laws on the subject. Solon, our ancient +lawgiver, thought the coward should be liable to the same penalties +as the man who refuses to serve or who has quitted his post. +Cowardice, like other offenses, is indictable. + +Some of you will, perhaps, ask in amazement: Is a man to be indicted +for his temperament? He is. And why? In order that every one of +us fearing the penalties of the law more than the enemy may be the +better champion of his country. Accordingly, the lawgiver excludes +alike the man who declines service, the coward, and the deserter of +his post, from the lustral limits in the market place, and suffers +no such person to receive a wreath of honor or to enter places of +public worship. But you, Ktesiphon, exhort us to set a crown on the +head to which the laws refuse it. You by your private edict call a +forbidden guest into the forefront of our solemn festival, and +invite into the temple of Dionysos that dastard by whom all temples +have been betrayed. ... Remember then, Athenians, that the city +whose fate rests with you is no alien city, but your own. Give the +prizes of ambition by merit, not by chance. Reserve your rewards +for those whose manhood is truer, whose characters are worthier. +Look at each other and judge not only with your ears but with your +eyes who of your number are likely to support Demosthenes. His +young companions in the chase or the gymnasium? No, by the Olympian +Zeus! He has not spent his life in hunting or in any healthful +exercise, but in cultivating rhetoric to be used against men of +property. Think of his boastfulness when he claims by his embassy +to have snatched Byzantium out of the hands of Philip, to have +thrown the Acharnians into revolt, to have astonished the Thebans +with his harangue! He thinks that you have reached the point of +fatuity at which you can be made to believe even this--as if your +citizen were the deity of persuasion instead of a pettifogging +mortal! And when at the end of his speech, he calls as his +advocates those who shared his bribes, imagine that you see upon +this platform where I now speak before you, an array drawn up to +confront their profligacy--the benefactors of Athens: Solon, who set +in order the Democracy by his glorious laws, the philosopher, the +good legislator, entreating you with the gravity which so well +became him never to set the rhetoric of Demosthenes above your oaths +and above the laws; Aristides, who assessed the tribute of the +Confederacy, and whose daughters after his death were dowered by the +State--indignant at the contumely threatened to justice and +asking: Are you not ashamed? When Arthmios of Zeleia brought +Persian gold to Greece and visited Athens, our fathers well-nigh put +him to death, though he was our public guest, and proclaimed him +expelled from Athens and from all territory that the Athenians rule; +while Demosthenes, who has not brought us Persian gold but has taken +bribes for himself and has kept them to this day, is about to +receive a golden wreath from you! And Themistokles, and they who +died at Marathon and Plataea, aye, and the very graves of our +forefathers--do you not think they will utter a voice of +lamentation, if he who covenants with barbarians to work against +Greece shall be--crowned! + + + +FREDERICK A. AIKEN (1810-1878) + +In defending the unpopular cause of the British soldiers who were +engaged in the Boston Massacre, John Adams said:-- + +"May it please your honor and you, gentlemen of the jury, I am for +the prisoner at the bar, and shall apologize for it only in the +words of the Marquis of Beccaria: 'If I can but be the instrument of +preserving one life, his blessings and tears of transport shall be a +sufficient compensation to me for the contempt of all mankind.'" + +Something of the same idea inspires the fine opening of Aiken's +defense of Mrs. Surratt. It lacks the sinewy assertiveness of +Adams's terse and almost defiant apology for doing his duty as a +lawyer in spite of public opinion, but it justifies itself and the +plea it introduces. + +Until within the recent past, political antagonisms have been too +strong to allow fair consideration for such orations as that of +Aiken at the Surratt trial. But this is no longer the case. It can +now be considered on its merits as an oration, without the +assumption that it is necessary in connection with it to pass on the +evidence behind it. + +The assassins of President Lincoln were tried by military commission +under the War Department's order of May 6th, 1865. The prosecution +was conducted by Brigadier-General Joseph Holt, as judge +advocate-general, with Brevet-Colonel H. L. Burnett, of Indiana, and +Hon. John A. Bingham, of Ohio, assisting him. The attorneys for the +defense were Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland; Thomas Ewing, of Kansas; +W. E. Doster, of Pennsylvania; Frederick A. Aiken, of the District +of Columbia; Walter S. Cox, John W. Clampit, and F. Stone, of +Maryland. The fault of the Adams oration in the case of the Boston +Massacre is one of excessive severity of logic. Aiken errs in the +direction of excessive ornament, but, considering the importance of +the occasion and the great stress on all engaged in the trial as +well as on the public, the florid style may have served better than +the force of severe logic could have done. + + +DEFENSE OF MRS. MARY E. SURRATT + +For the lawyer as well as the soldier, there is an equally pleasant +duty--an equally imperative command. That duty is to shelter the +innocent from injustice and wrong, to protect the weak from +oppression, and to rally at all times and all occasions, when +necessity demands it, to the special defense of those whom nature, +custom, or circumstance may have placed in dependence upon our +strength, honor, and cherishing regard. That command emanates and +reaches each class from the same authoritative and omnipotent +source. It comes from a superior whose right to command none dare +question, and none dare disobey. In this command there is nothing of +that _lex_ _talionis_ which nearly two thousand years ago nailed to the +cross its Divine Author. + +"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, +do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets." + +God has not only given us life, but he has filled the world with +everything to make life desirable; and when we sit down to determine +the taking away of that which we did not give, and which, when +taken away, we cannot restore, we consider a subject the most solemn +and momentous within the range of human thought and human action. + +Profoundly impressed with the innocence of our client, we enter upon +the last duty in her case with the heartfelt prayer that her +honorable judges may enjoy the satisfaction of not having a single +doubt left on their minds in granting her an acquittal, either as to +the testimony affecting her, or by the surrounding circumstances of +the case. + +The first point that naturally arises in the presentation of the +defense of our client is that which concerns the plea that has been +made to the jurisdiction of the commission to try her--a plea +which by no means implies anything against the intelligence, +fairness, or integrity of the brilliant and distinguished officers +who compose the court, but merely touches the question of the right +of this tribunal, under the authority by which it is convoked. This +branch of her case is left to depend upon the argument already +submitted by her senior counsel, the _grande_ _decus_ _columenque_ +of his profession, and which is exhaustive of the subject on which +it treats. Therefore, in proceeding to the discussion of the merits +of the case against her, the jurisdiction of the court, for the sake +of argument, may be taken as conceded. + +But, if it be granted that the jurisdiction is complete, the next +preliminary inquiry naturally is as to the principles of evidence by +which the great mass of accumulated facts is to be analyzed and +weighed in the scales of justice and made to bias the minds of her +judges; and it may be here laid down as a _concessum_ in the case, +that we are here in this forum, constrained and concluded by the +same process, in this regard, that would bind and control us in any +other court of civil origin having jurisdiction over a crime such as +is here charged. For it is asserted in all the books that +court-martial must proceed, so far as the acceptance and the +analysis of evidence is concerned, upon precisely those reasonable +rules of evidence which time and experience, _ab_ _antiquo_, surviving +many ages of judicial wisdom, have unalterably fixed as unerring +guides in the administration of the criminal law. Upon this conceded +proposition it is necessary to consume time by the multiplication of +references. We are content with two brief citations from works of +acknowledged authority. + +In Greenleaf it is laid down:-- + +"That courts-martial are bound, in general, to observe the rules of +the law of evidence by which the courts of criminal jurisdiction are +governed." (3 Greenleaf, section 467.) + +This covers all the great general principles of evidence, the points +of difference being wholly as to minor matters. And it is also +affirmed in Benet:-- + +"That it has been laid down as an indisputable principle, that +whenever a legislative act erects a new jurisdiction, without +prescribing any particular rules of evidence to it, the common law +will supply its own rules, from which it will not allow such +newly-erected court to depart. The rules of evidence, then, that +obtain in the criminal courts of the country must be the guides for +the courts-martial; the end sought for being the truth, these rules +laid down for the attainment of that end must be intrinsically the +same in both cases. These rules constitute the law of evidence, and +involve the quality, admissibility, and effect of evidence and its +application to the purposes of truth." (Benet, pp. 226, 327.) + +Therefore, all the facts that tend against the accused, and all +those that mate for her, are to be weighed and are to operate upon +her conviction or acquittal precisely as they would in a court of +law. If they present a case such as would there convict her she may +be found guilty here; and if, on the other hand, the rules of law +upon these facts would raise any presumption or create any doubt, or +force any conclusions that would acquit her in a court of law, then +she must be discharged, upon the same principles by the commission. +This is a point which, in our judgment, we cannot too strongly +impress upon the minds of her judges. The extraordinary character +of the crime--the assassination that removed from us the President +of the United States--makes it most desirable that the findings of +this tribunal shall be so well founded in reason as to satisfy and +secure public confidence, and approval; for many of the most +material objects of the prosecution, and some of the most important +ends of justice, will be defeated and frustrated if convictions and +acquittals, and more especially the former, shall be adjudged upon +the grounds that are notoriously insufficient. + +Such a course of action would have a tendency to draw sympathy and +support to the parties thus adjudged guilty, and would rob the +result of this investigation of the wholesome support of +professional and public opinion. The jurisdiction of the +commission, for example, is a matter that has already provoked +considerable criticism and much warm disapproval; but in the case of +persons clearly found to be guilty, the public mind would easily +overlook any doubts that might exist as to the regularity of the +court in the just sentence that would overtake acknowledged +criminals. Thus, if Booth himself and a party of men clearly +proved, by ocular evidence or confession, to have aided him, were +here tried and condemned, and, as a consequence, executed, not much +stress, we think, would be laid by many upon the irregularity of the +mode by which they should reach that just death which all good +citizens would affirm to be their deserts. But the case is far +different when it affects persons who are only suspected, or against +whom the evidence is weak and imperfect; for, if citizens may be +arraigned and convicted for so grievous an offense as this upon +insufficient evidence, every one will feel his own personal safety +involved, and the tendency would be to intensify public feelings +against the whole process of the trial. It would be felt and argued +that they had been condemned upon evidence that would not have +convicted them in a civil court, and that they had been deprived, +therefore, of the advantage, which they would have had for their +defense. Reproach and contumely upon the government would be the +natural result, and the first occasion would arise in all history +for such demonstrations as would be sure to follow the condemnation +of mere citizens, and particularly of a woman, upon evidence on +which an acquittal would follow in a civil court. It is, therefore, +not only a matter of the highest concern to the accused themselves, +as a question of personal and private right, but also of great +importance upon considerations of general public utility and policy, +that the results of this trial, as affecting each of the accused, +among them Mrs. Surratt, shall be rigidly held within the bounds and +limitations that would control in the premises, if the parties were +on trial in a civil court upon an indictment equivalent to the +charges and specifications here. Conceding, as we have said, the +jurisdiction for the purpose of this branch of the argument, we hold +to the principle first enunciated as the one great, all-important, +and controlling rule that is to guide the commission in the findings +they are now about to make. In order to apply this principle to the +case of our client, we do not propose to range through the general +rules of evidence with a view to seeing how they square with the +facts as proven against her. In the examination of the evidence in +detail, many of these must from necessity be briefly alluded to; but +there is only one of them to which we propose in this place to +advert specifically, and that is the principle that may be justly +said to lie at the foundation of all the criminal law--a principle +so just, that it seems to have sprung from the brain of Wisdom +herself, and so undoubted and universal as to stand upon the +recognition of all the times and all the mighty intellects through +and by which the common law has been built up. We allude, of +course, to that principle which declares that "every man is held to +be innocent until he shall be proven guilty"--a principle so +natural that it has fastened itself upon the common reason of +mankind, and been immemorially adopted as a cardinal doctrine in all +courts of justice worthy of the name. It is by reason of this great +underlying legal tenet that we are in possession of the rule of law, +administered by all the courts, which, in mere technical expression, +may be termed "the presumption of innocence in favor of the accused." +And it is from hence that we derive that further application of the +general principle, which has also become a rule of law, and of +universal application wherever the common law is respected (and with +which we have more particularly to deal), by which it is affirmed, +in common language, that in any prosecution for crime "the accused +must be acquitted where there is a reasonable doubt of his guilt." +We hardly think it necessary to adduce authorities for this position +before any tribunal. In a civil court we certainly should waive the +citations, for the principle as stated would be assumed by any civil +judge and would, indeed, be the starting point for any investigation +whatever. Though a maxim so common and conceded, it is fortified by +the authority of all the great lights of the law. Before reference +is made to them, however, we wish to impress upon the minds of the +court another and important rule to which we shall have occasion to +refer:-- + +"The evidence in support of a conspiracy is generally +circumstantial" (Russell on Crimes, Vol. ii., 698.) + +In regard to circumstantial evidence, all the best and ablest +writers, ancient and modern, agree in treating it as wholly inferior +in cogency, force, and effect, to direct evidence. And now for the +rule that must guide the jury in all cases of reasonable doubt:-- + +"If evidence leave reasonable ground for doubt, the conclusion +cannot be morally certain, however great may be the preponderance of +probability in its favor." (Wills on Circumstantial Evidence. Law +Library, Vol. xli.) + +"The burden of proof in every criminal case is on the government to +prove all the material allegations in the indictment; and if, on the +whole evidence, the jury have a reasonable doubt whether the +defendant is guilty of the crime charged, they are bound to acquit +him. If the evidence lead to a reasonable doubt, that doubt will +avail in favor of the prisoner." (1 Greenleaf, section 34--Note.) + +Perhaps one of the best and clearest definitions of the meaning of a +"reasonable doubt" is found in an opinion given in Dr. Webster's +case by the learned and accurate Chief-Justice of Massachusetts. He +said;-- + +"The evidence must establish the truth of the fact to a reasonable +and moral certainty; a certainty that convinces and directs the +understanding and satisfies the reason and judgment of those who are +bound to act conscientiously upon it." (Commonwealth versus +Webster, 5 Cush., 320.) + +Far back in the early history of English jurisprudence we find that +it was considered a most serious abuse of the common law, "that +justices and their officers, who kill people by false judgment, be +not destroyed as other murderers, which King Alfred caused to be +done, who caused forty-four justices in one year to be hanged for +their false judgment. He hanged Freburne because he judged Harpin to +die, whereas the jury were in doubt of their verdict; for in +doubtful cases we ought rather to save than to condemn." + +The spirit of the Roman law partook of the same care and caution in +the condemnation of those charged with crime. The maxim was:-- + +"_Satius_ _est_ _impunitum_ _relinqui_ _facinus_ _nocentis_, _quam_ +_innocentem_ _damnare_." + +That there may be no mistake concerning the fact that this +commission is bound as a jury by these rules, the same as juries in +civil courts, we again quote from Benet:-- + +"It is in the province of the court (court-martial) to decide all +questions on the admissibility of evidence. Whether there is any +evidence is a question for the court as judges, but whether the +evidence is sufficient is a question for the court as jury to +determine, and this rule applies to the admissibility of every kind +of evidence, written as well as oral." (Benet, pp. 225, 226.) + +These citations may be indefinitely multiplied, for this principle +is as true in the law as any physical fact in the exact sciences. +It is not contended, indeed, that any degree of doubt must be of a +reasonable nature, so as to overset the moral evidence of guilt. +A mere possibility of innocence will not suffice, for, upon human +testimony, no case is free from possible innocence. Even the more +direct evidence of crime may be possibly mistaken. But the doubt +required by the law must be consonant with reason and of such a +nature that in analogous circumstances it would affect the action of +a reasonable creature concerning his own affairs. We may make the +nature of such a doubt clearer to the court by alluding to a very +common rule in the application of the general principle in certain +cases, and the rule will readily appeal to the judgment of the court +as a remarkable and singularly beautiful example of the inexorable +logic with which the law applies its own unfailing reason. + +Thus, in case of conspiracy, and some others, where many persons are +charged with joint crime, and where the evidence against most of +them must, of necessity, be circumstantial, the plea of "reasonable +doubt" becomes peculiarly valuable to the separate accused, and the +mode in which it is held it can best be applied is the test whether +the facts as proved, circumstantial, as supposed, can be made to +consist just as reasonably with a theory that is essentially +different from the theory of guilt. + +If, therefore, in the developments of the whole facts of a +conspiracy, all the particular facts against a particular person can +be taken apart and shown to support a reasonable theory that +excludes the theory of guilt, it cannot be denied that the moral +proof of the latter is so shaken as to admit the rule concerning the +presumption of innocence. For surely no man should be made to +suffer because certain facts are proved against him, which are +consistent with guilt, when it can be shown that they are also, and +more reasonably, consistent with innocence. And, as touching the +conspiracy here charged, we suppose there are hundreds of innocent +persons, acquaintances of the actual assassin, against whom, on the +social rule of _noscitur_ _a_ _sociis_, mercifully set aside in law, +many facts might be elicited that would corroborate a suspicion of +participation in his crime; but it would be monstrous that they +should suffer from that theory when the same facts are rationally +explainable on other theories. + +The distinguished assistant judge advocate, Mr. Bingham, who has +brought to the aid of the prosecution, in this trial, such ready and +trenchant astuteness in the law, has laid the following down as an +invariable rule, and it will pass into the books as such:-- + +"A party who conspires to do a crime may approach the most upright +man in the world with whom he had been, before the criminality was +known to the world, on terms of intimacy, and whose position in the +world was such that he might be on terms of intimacy with reputable +gentlemen. It is the misfortune of a man that is approached in that +way; it is not his crime, and it is not colorably his crime either." + +This rule of construction, we humbly submit, in connection with the +question of doubt, has a direct and most weighty bearing upon the +case of our client. Some indication of the mode in which we propose +to apply it may be properly stated here. Now, in all the evidence, +there is not a shadow of direct and positive proof which connects +Mrs. Surratt with a participation in this conspiracy alleged, or +with any knowledge of it. Indeed, considering the active part she is +charged with taking, and the natural communicativeness of her sex, +the case is most singularly and wonderfully barren of even +circumstantial facts concerning her. But all there is, is +circumstantial. Nothing is proved against her except some few +detached facts and circumstances lying around the outer circle of +the alleged conspiracy, and by no means necessarily connected with +guilty intent or guilty knowledge. + +It becomes our duty to see:-- + +1. What these facts are. + +2. The character of the evidence in support of them, and of the + witnesses by whom they are said to be proven. And, + +3. Whether they are consistent with a reasonable theory by which + guilt is excluded. + +We assume, of course, as a matter that does not require argument, +that she has committed no crime at all, even if these facts be +proved, unless there is the necessary express or implied criminal +intent, for guilty knowledge and guilty intent are the constituent +elements, the principles of all crime. The intent and malice, too, +in her case, must be express, for the facts proved against her, +taken in themselves, are entirely and perfectly innocent, and are +not such as give rise to a necessary implication of malice. This +will not be denied. Thus, when one commits a violent homicide, the +law will presume the requisite malice; but when one only delivers a +message, which is an innocent act in itself, the guilty knowledge, +malice, and intent, that are absolutely necessary to make it criminal, +must be expressly proven before any criminal consequences can attach +to it. And, to quote:-- + +"Knowledge and intent, when material, must be shown by the +prosecutor." (Wharton's American Criminal Law, section 631.) + +The intent to do a criminal act as defined by Bouvier implies and +means a preconceived purpose and resolve and determination to commit +the crime alleged. To quote again:-- + +"But the intent or guilty knowledge must be brought directly home to +the defendant." (Wharton's American Criminal Law, 635) + +"When an act, in itself indifferent, becomes criminal, if done with +a particular intent, then the intent must be proved and found," (3 +Greenleaf, section 13.) + +In the light of these principles, let us examine the evidence as it +affects Mrs. Surratt. 1. What are the acts she has done? The +specification against her, in the general charge, is as follows;-- + +"And in further prosecution of the said conspiracy, Mary E. Surratt +did, at Washington City, and within the military department and +military lines aforesaid, on or before the sixth day of March, +A.D. 1865, and on divers other days and times between that day and +the twentieth of April, A.D. 1865, receive and entertain, harbor +and conceal, aid and assist, the said John Wilkes Booth, David +E. Herold, Lewis Payne, John H. Surratt, Michael O'Laughlin, George +A. Atzerodt, Samuel Arnold, and their confederates, with knowledge +of the murderous and traitorous conspiracy aforesaid, and with +intent to aid, abet, and assist them in the execution thereof, and +in escaping from justice after the murder of the said Abraham +Lincoln, as aforesaid." + +The first striking fact proved is her acquaintance with John Wilkes +Booth--that he was an occasional visitor at her house. From the +evidence, if it can be relied on, it distinctly appears that this +acquaintance commenced the latter part of January, in the vicinage +of three months only before the assassination of the President, and, +with slight interruptions, it was continued down to the day of the +assassination of the President. Whether he was first invited to the +house and introduced to the family by Weichmann, John H. Surratt, or +some other person, the evidence does not disclose. When asked by the +judge advocate, "Whom did he call to see," the witness, Weichmann, +responded, "He generally called for Mr. Surratt--John H. Surratt-- +and, in the absence of John H. Surratt, he would call for +Mrs. Surratt." + +Before calling the attention of the commission to the next evidence +of importance against Mrs. Surratt, we desire to refresh the +recollection of the court as to the time and manner, and by whom, +according to the testimony of Lloyd, the carbines were first brought +to his (Lloyd's) house. + +From the official record the following is taken:-- + +Question.--Will you state whether or not some five or six weeks +before the assassination of the President, any or all of these men +about whom I have inquired came to your house? + +Answer.--They were there. + +Q.--All three together? + +A.--Yes; John H. Surratt, Herold, and Atzerodt were there together. + +Q.--What did they bring to your house, and what did they do there? + +A.--When they drove up there in the morning, John H. Surratt and +Atzerodt came first; they went from my house and went toward T. B., +a post office kept about five miles below there. They had not been +gone more than half an hour when they returned with Herold; then the +three were together--Herold, Surratt, and Atzerodt. + +Q.--What did they bring to your house? + +A.--I saw nothing until they all three came into the bar-room, I +noticed one of the buggies--the one I supposed Herold was driving +or went down in--standing at the front gate. All three of them, +when they came into the bar-room, drank, I think, and then John +Surratt called me into the front parlor, and on the sofa were two +carbines, with ammunition. I think he told me they were carbines. + +Q,--Anything besides the carbines and ammunition? + +A,--There was also a rope and a monkey-wrench. + +Q.--How long a rope? + +A.--I cannot tell. It was a coil--a right smart bundle--probably +sixteen to twenty feet. + +Q.--Were those articles left at your house? + +A.--Yes, sir; Surratt asked me to take care of them, to conceal the +carbines. I told him that there was no place to conceal them, and I +did not wish to keep such things in the house. + +Q.--You say that he asked you to conceal those articles for him? + +A.--Yes, sir; he asked me to conceal them. I told him there was no +place to conceal them. He then carried me into a room that I had +never been in, which was just immediately above the store room, as +it were, in the back building of the house. I had never been in that +room previous to that time. He showed me where I could put them, +underneath the joists of the house--the joists of the second floor +of the main building. This little unfinished room will admit of +anything between the joists. + +Q.--Were they put in that place? + +A.--They were put in there according to his directions. + +Q.--Were they concealed in that condition? + +A.--Yes, sir: I put them in there. I stated to Colonel Wells +through mistake that Surratt put them there; but I put them in there +myself, I carried the arms up myself. + +Q.--How much ammunition was there? + +A.--One cartridge box. + +Q.--For what purpose, and for how long, did he ask you to keep +these articles? + +A.--I am very positive that he said that he would call for them in +a few days. He said that he just wanted them to stay for a few days +and he would call for them. + +It also appears in evidence against Mrs. Surratt, if the testimony +is to be relied on, that on the Tuesday previous to the murder of +the President, the eleventh of April, she met John M. Lloyd, a +witness for the prosecution, at Uniontown, when, the following took +place:-- + +Question by the judge advocate:--Did she say anything to you in +regard to those carbines? + +Answer.--When she first broached the subject to me, I did not know +what she had reference to; then she came out plainer, and I am quite +positive she asked me about the "shooting irons." I am quite +positive about that, but not altogether positive. I think she named +"shooting irons" or something to call my attention to those things, +for I had almost forgot about their being there. I told her that +they were hid away far back--that I was afraid that the house +would be searched, and they were shoved far back. She told me to get +them out ready; they would be wanted soon. + +Q.--Was her question to you first, whether they were still there, +or what was it? + +A.--Really, I cannot recollect the first question she put to me. I +could not do it to save my life. + +On the afternoon of the fourteenth of April, at about half-past five +Lloyd again met Mrs. Surratt, at Surrattsville, at which time, +according to his version, she met him by the woodpile near the house +and told him to have those shooting irons ready that night as there +would be some parties calling for them, and that she gave him +something wrapped in a piece of paper, and asked him to get two +bottles of whisky ready also. This mesage to Mr. Lloyd is the +second item of importance against Mrs. Surratt, and in support of +the specification against her. The third and last fact that makes +against her in the minds of the court is the one narrated by Major +H. W. Smith, a witness for the prosecution, who states that while at +the house of Mrs. Surratt, on the night of the seventeenth of April, +assisting in making arrest of its inmates, the prisoner, Payne, came +in. He (Smith) stepped to the door of the parlor and said, +"Mrs. Surratt, will you step here a minute?" As Mrs. Surratt came +forward, he asked her this question, "Do you know this man?" She +replied, quoting the witness's language, "Before God, sir, I do not +know this man, and I have never seen him." An addition to this is +found in the testimony of the same witness, as he was drawn out by +the judge advocate. The witness repeats the language of +Mrs. Surratt, "Before God, sir, I do not know this man, and I have +never seen him, and did not hire him to dig a gutter for me." The +fact of the photographs and card of the State arms of Virginia have +ceased to be of the slightest importance, since the explanations +given in evidence concerning them, and need not be alluded to. If +there is any doubt as to whom they all belonged, reference to the +testimony of Misses Surratt and Fitzpatrick will settle it. + +These three circumstances constitute the part played by the accused, +Mary E. Surratt, in this great conspiracy. They are the acts she +has done. They are all that two months of patient and unwearying +investigation, and the most thorough search for evidence that was +probably ever made, have been able to develop against her. The +acquaintance with Booth, the message to Lloyd, the nonrecognition of +Payne, constitute the sum total of her receiving, entertaining, +harboring and concealing, aiding and assisting those named as +conspirators and their confederates, with knowledge of the murderous +and traitorous conspiracy; and with intent to aid, abet, and assist +them in the execution thereof, and in escaping from justice. The +acts she has done, in and of themselves are perfectly innocent. Of +themselves they constitute no crime. They are what you or I or any +of us might have done. She received and entertained Booth, the +assassin, and so did a hundred others. She may have delivered a +message to Lloyd--so have a hundred others. She might have said +she did not know Payne--and who within the sound of my voice can +say they know him now? They are ordinary and commonplace +transactions, such as occur every day and to almost everybody. But +as all the case against her must consist in the guilty intent that +will be attempted to be connected with these facts, we now propose +to show that they are not so clearly proven as to free them from +great doubt, and, therefore, we will inquire:-- + +2. How are these acts proven? Solely by the testimony of Louis +J. Weichmann and John M. Lloyd. Here let us state that we have no +malice toward either of them, but if in the analysis of their +evidence we should seem to be severe, it is that error and duplicity +may be exposed and innocence protected. + +We may start out with the proposition that a body of men banded +together for the consummation of an unlawful act against the +government, naturally would not disclose their purpose and hold +suspicious consultations concerning it in the presence continually +of an innocent party. In the light of this fair presumption let us +look at the acts of Weichmann, as disclosed by his own testimony. +Perhaps the most singular and astonishing fact that is made to +appear is his omnipresence and co-action with those declared to be +conspirators, and his professed and declared knowledge of all their +plans and purposes. His acquaintance with John H. Surratt commenced +in the fall of 1859, at St. Charles, Maryland. In January 1863 he +renewed his acquaintance with him in this city. On the first of +November, 1864, he took board and lodging with Mrs. Surratt at her +house, No. 541 H. Street, in this city. If this testimony is +correct, he was introduced to Booth on the fifteenth day of January, +1865. At this first, very first meeting, he was invited to Booth's +room at the National, where he drank wine and took cigars at Booth's +expense. After consultation about something in an outer passage +between Booth and the party alleged to be with him by Weichmann, +they all came into the room, and for the first time business was +proceeded with in his presence. After that he met Booth in +Mrs. Surratt's parlor and in his own room, and had conversations +with him. As near as Weichmann recollects, about three weeks after +his introduction he met the prisoner, Atzerodt, at Mrs. Surratt's. +(How Atzerodt was received at the house will be referred to.) About +the time that Booth played Pescara in the 'Apostate' at Ford's +Theatre, Weichmann attended the theatre in company with Surratt and +Atzerodt. At the theatre they were joined by Herold. John +T. Holohan, a gentleman not suspected of complicity in the great +tragedy, also joined the company at the theatre. After the play was +over, Surratt, Holohan, and himself went as far as the corner of +Tenth and E Streets, when Surratt, noticing that Atzerodt and Herold +were not with them, sent Weichmann back for them. He found them in +a restaurant with Booth, by whose invitation Weichmann took a drink. +After that the entire party went to Kloman's, on Seventh Street, and +had some oysters. The party there separated, Surratt, Weichmann, +and Holohan going home. In the month of March last the prisoner, +Payne, according to Weichmann, went to Mrs. Surratt's house and +inquired for John H. Surratt. "I, myself," says Weichmann, "went to +open the door, and he inquired for Mr. Surratt I told him +Mr. Surratt was not at home; but I would introduce him to the +family, and did introduce him to Mrs. Surratt--under the name of +Wood." What more? By Weichmann's request Payne remained in the +house all night. He had supper served him in the privacy of +Weichmann's own room. More than that, Weichmann went down into the +kitchen and got the supper and carried it up to him himself, and as +nearly as he recollects, it was about eight weeks previous to the +assassination; Payne remained as Weichmann's guest until the nest +morning, when he left on the early train for Baltimore. About three +weeks after that Payne called again. Says Weichmann, "I again went +to the door, and I again ushered him into the parlor." But he adds +that he had forgotten his name, and only recollected that he had +given the name of Wood on the former visit, when one of the ladies +called Payne by that name. He who had served supper to Payne in his +own room, and had spent a night with him, could not recollect for +three weeks the common name of "Wood," but recollects with such +distinctness and particularity scenes and incidents of much greater +age, and by which he is jeopardizing the lives of others. Payne +remained that time about three days, representing himself to the +family as a Baptist preacher; claiming that he had been in prison in +Baltimore for about a week; that he had taken the oath of allegiance +and was going to become a good loyal citizen. To Mrs. Surratt this +seemed eccentric, and she said "he was a great-looking Baptist +preacher." "They looked upon it as odd and laughed about it." It +seemed from Weichmann's testimony that he again shared his room with +Payne. Returning from his office one day, and finding a false +mustache on the table in his room, he took it and threw it into his +toilet box, and afterward put it with a box of paints into his +trunk. The mustache was subsequently found in Weichmann's baggage. +When Payne, according to Weichmann's testimony, inquired, "Where is +my mustache?" Weichmann said nothing, but "thought it rather queer +that a Baptist preacher should wear a false mustache." He says that +he did not want it about his room--"thought no honest person had any +reason to wear a false mustache," and as no "honest person" should +be in possession of it, he locked it up in his own trunk. Weichmann +professes throughout his testimony the greatest regard and +friendship for Mrs. Surratt and her son. Why did he not go to +Mrs. Surratt and communicate his suspicions at once? She, an +innocent and guileless woman, not knowing what was occurring in her +own house; he, the friend, coming into possession of important +facts, and not making them known to her, the head of the household, +but claiming now, since this overwhelming misfortune has fallen upon +Mrs. Surratt, that, while reposing in the very bosom of the family +as a friend and confidant, he was a spy and an informer, and, that, +we believe, is the best excuse the prosecution is able to make for +him. His account and explanation of the mustache would be treated +with contemptuous ridicule in a civil court. + +But this is not all. Concede Weichmann's account of the mustache to +be true, and if it was not enough to rouse his suspicions that all +was not right, he states that, on the same day, he went to Surratt's +room and found Payne seated on the bed with Surratt, playing with +bowie knives, and surrounded with revolvers and spurs. Miss Honora +Fitzpatrick testifies that Weichmann was treated by Mrs. Surratt +"more like a son than a friend." Poor return for motherly care! +Guilty knowledge and participation in crime or in wild schemes for +the capture of the President would be a good excuse for not making +all this known to Mrs. Surratt. In speaking of the spurs and +pistols, Weichmann knew that there were just eight spurs and two +long navy revolvers. Bear in mind, we ask you, gentlemen of the +commission, that there is no evidence before you showing that +Mrs. Surratt knew anything about these things. It seems farther on, +about the nineteenth of March, that Weichmann went to the Herndon +House with Surratt to engage a room. He says that he afterwards +learned from Atzerodt that it was for Payne, but contradicts himself +in the same breath by stating that he inquired of Atzerodt if he +were going to see Payne at the Herndon House. His intimate +knowledge of Surratt's movements between Richmond and Washington, +fixing the dates of the trips with great exactitude; of Surratt's +bringing gold back; of Surratt's leaving on the evening of the third +of April for Canada, spending his last moments here with Weichmann; +of Surratt's telling Weichmann about his interview with Davis and +Benjamin--in all this knowledge concerning himself and his +associations with those named as conspirators he is no doubt +truthful, as far as his statements extend; but when he comes to +apply some of this knowledge to others, he at once shakes all faith +in his testimony bearing upon the accused. + +"Do you remember," the question was asked him, "early in the month +of April, of Mrs. Surratt having sent for you and asking you to give +Mr. Booth notice that she wished to see him?" + +Weichmann stated in his reply that she did, that it was on the +second of April, and that he found in Mr. Booth's room John +McCullough, the actor, when he delivered the message. One of two +things to which he swears in this statement cannot be true; 1. That +he met John McCullough in Booth's room, for we have McCullough's +sworn statement that at that time he was not in the city of +Washington, and if, when he delivered the message to Booth, +McCullough was in the room, it could not have been the second of +April. + +ST. LAWRENCE HALL. MONTREAL, June 3. 1865. + +I am an actor by profession, at present fulfilling an engagement at +Mr. Buckland's theatre, in this city. I arrived here on the twelfth +of May. I performed two engagements at Ford's Theatre in Washington, +during the past winter, the last one closing on Saturday evening, +twenty-fifth of March. I left Washington Sunday evening, +twenty-sixth of March, and have not been there since. I have no +recollection of meeting any person by the name of Weichmann. +--John McCullough. + +Sworn to and before me, at the United States Consulate General's, in +Montreal, this third day of June, A.D. 1865. + C. H. POWERS, U. S. Vice Consul-General. + +If he can be so mistaken about those facts, may he not be in regard +to that whole transaction? It is also proved by Weichmann that +before Mrs. Surratt started for the country, on the fourteenth of +April, Booth called; that he remained three or four minutes, and +then Weichmann and Mrs. Surratt started for the country. + +All this comes out on his first examination in chief. The following +is also told in his first cross-examination: Mrs. Surratt keeps a +boarding house in this city, and was in the habit of renting out her +rooms, and that he was upon very intimate terms with Surratt; that +they occupied the same room; that when he and Mrs. Surratt went to +Surrattsville on the fourteenth, she took two packages, one of +papers, the contents of the other were not known. That persons have +been in the habit of going to Mrs. Surratt's and staying a day or +two; that Atzerodt stopped in the house only one night; that the +first time Payne came to the house he was dressed genteelly, like a +gentleman; that he heard both Mrs. Surratt and her daughter say that +they did not care about having Atzerodt brought to the house; and at +the conclusion, in swearing as to Mrs. Surratt's character, he said +it was exemplary and lady-like in every respect, and apparently, as +far as he could judge, she was all the time, from the first of +November up to the fourteenth of April, "doing her duties to God and +man." It also distinctly appears that Weichmann never had any +conversation with Mrs. Surratt touching any conspiracy. One thing +is apparent to our minds, and it is forced upon us, as it must be +upon every reasonable mind, that in order to have gained all this +knowledge Weichmann must have been within the inner circle of the +conspiracy. He knows too much for an innocent man, and the +conclusion is perfectly irresistible that if Mrs. Surratt had +knowledge of what was going on, and had been, with others, a +_particeps_ _criminis_ in the great conspiracy, she certainly would +have done more than she did or has been shown against her, and +Weichmann would have known it. How does her nonrecognition of +Payne, her acquaintance with Booth, and the delivery of the message +to Lloyd, compare with the long and startling array of facts proved +against Weichmann out of his own mouth? All the facts point +strongly to him as a co-conspirator. + +Is there a word on record of conversation between Booth and +Mrs. Surratt? That they did converse together, we know; but if +anything treasonable had passed between them, would not the quick +ears of Weichmann have caught it, and would not he have recited it +to this court? + +When Weichmann went, on Tuesday, the eleventh of April, to get +Booth's buggy, he was not asked by Mrs. Surratt to get ten +dollars. It was proffered by Booth, according to Weichmann, and +he took it. If Mrs. Surratt ever got money from Booth she paid +it back to him. It is not her character to be in anyone's debt. + +There was no intimacy with Booth, as Mrs. Surratt has proved, but +only common acquaintance, and such as would warrant only occasional +calls on Booth's part, and only intimacy would have excused +Mrs. Surratt to herself in accepting such a favor, had it been made +known to her. Moreover, Miss Surratt has attested to remarks of her +brother, which prove that intimacy of Booth with his sister and +mother were not considered desirable by him. + +The preceding facts are proven by statements made by Weichmann +during his first examination. But, as though the commission had not +sufficiently exposed the character of one of its chief witnesses in +the role of grand conspirator, Weichmann is recalled and further +attests to the genuineness of the following telegram: + +NEW YORK, March 23d, 1865.--To WEICHMANN, Esq., 541 H St.--Tell John +telegraph number and street at once. [Signed] J. BOOTH. + +What additional proof of confidential relations between Weichmann +and Booth could the court desire? If there was a conspiracy planned +and maintained among the persons named in the indictment, Weichmann +must have had entire knowledge of the same, else he had not been +admitted to that degree of knowledge to which he testifies; and in +such case, and in the alleged case of Mrs. Surratt's complicity, +Weichmann must have known the same by circumstances strong enough to +exclude doubt, and in comparison with which all present facts of +accusation would sink into insignificance. + +We proceed to the notice and review of the second chief witness of +the prosecution against Mrs. Surratt, John M. Lloyd. He testifies +to the fact of a meeting with Mrs. Surratt at Uniontown on the +eleventh of April, 1865, and to a conversation having occurred +between Mrs. Surratt and himself in regard to which he states: "I am +quite positive she asked me about the 'shooting irons'; I am quite +positive about that, but not altogether positive. I think she named +shooting irons, or something to call my attention to those things, +for I had almost forgotten about their being there." Question.-- +"Was her question to you first, whether they were there, or what was +it?" Answer.--"Really, I cannot recollect the first question she +put to me--I could not do it to save my life." The question was +asked Lloyd, During this conversation, was the word 'carbine' +mentioned? He answered, "No. She finally came out (but I cannot be +determined about it, that she said shooting irons), and asked me in +relation to them." The question was then asked, "Can you swear on +your oath, that Mrs. Surratt mentioned the words 'shooting irons' +to you at all?" A.--"I am very positive she did." Q. __ "Are you +certain?" A.--"I am very positive that she named shooting irons +on both occasions. Not so positive as to the first as I am about +the last." + +Here comes in the plea of "reasonable doubt." If the witness himself +is not absolutely positive as to what occurred, and as to the +conversation that took place, how can the jury assume to act upon it +as they would upon a matter personally concerning themselves? + +On this occasion of Mrs. Surratt's visit to Uniontown, three days +before the assassination, where she met Lloyd, and where this +conversation occurred between them, at a time when Lloyd was, by +presumption, sober and not intoxicated, he declares definitely +before the commission that he is unable to recollect the +conversation, or parts of it, with distinctness. But on the +fourteenth of April, and at a time when, as testified by his +sister-in-law, he was more than ordinarily affected by intoxicating +drink,--and Captain Gwynn, James Lusby, Knott, the barkeeper, and +others, corroborate the testimony as to his absolute inebriation-- +he attests that he positively remembers that Mrs. Surratt said to +him, "'Mr. Lloyd, I want you to have those shooting irons +ready. That a person would call for them.' That was the language +she made use of, and she gave me this other thing to give to whoever +called." + +In connection with the fact that Lloyd cannot swear positively that +Mrs. Surratt mentioned "shooting irons" to him at Uniontown, bear +in mind the fact that Weichmann sat in the buggy on the same seat +with Mrs. Surratt, and he swears that he heard nothing about +"shooting irons." Would not the quick ears of Weichmann have heard +the remark had it been made? + +The gentlemen of the commission will please recollect that these +statements were rendered by a man addicted to excessive use of +intoxicating liquors; that he was even inordinately drunk at the +time referred to; that he had voluntarily complicated himself in the +concealment of the arms by John H. Surratt and his friends; that he +was in a state of maudlin terror when arrested and when forced to +confess; that for two days he maintained denial of all knowledge +that Booth and Herold had been at his house; and that at last, and +in the condition referred to, he was coerced by threats to confess, +and into a weak and common effort to exculpate himself by the +accusation of another and by statements of conversation already +cited. Notwithstanding his utter denial of all knowledge of Booth +and Herold having called at his house, it afterward appears, by his +own testimony, that immediately Herold commanded him (Lloyd) "For +God's sake, make haste and get those things," he comprehended what +"things" were indicated, without definition, and brought forth both +carbines and whisky. He testifies that John H. Surratt had told +him, when depositing the weapons in concealment in his house, that +they would soon be called for, but did not instruct him, it seems, +by whom they would be demanded. + +All facts connecting Lloyd with the case tend to his implication and +guilt, and to prove that he adopted the _dernier_ _ressort_ of guilt-- +accusation and inculpation of another. In case Lloyd were innocent +and Mrs. Surratt the guilty coadjutrix and messenger of the +conspirators, would not Lloyd have been able to cite so many open +and significant remarks and acts of Mrs. Surratt that he would not +have been obliged to recall, in all perversion and weakness of +uncertainty, deeds and speech so common and unmeaning as his +testimony includes? + +It is upon these considerations that we feel ourselves safe and +reasonable in the position that there are facts and circumstances, +both external and internal, connected with the testimony of +Weichmann and Lloyd, which, if they do not destroy, do certainly +greatly shake their credibility, and which, under the rule that will +give Mrs. Surratt the benefit of all reasonable doubts, seem to +forbid that she should be convicted upon the unsupported evidence of +these two witnesses. But even admitting the facts to be proven as +above recited, it remains to be seen where is the guilty knowledge +of the contemplated assassination; and this brings us to the inquiry +whether these facts are not explainable so as to exclude guilt. + +From one of the most respected of legal authorities the following is +taken:-- + +"Whenever, therefore, the evidence leaves it indifferent which of +several hypotheses is true, or merely establishes some finite +probability in favor of one hypothesis rather than another, such +evidence cannot amount to proof. The maxim of the law is that it is +better that ninety-nine offenders should escape than that one +innocent man should be condemned." (Starkie on Evidence.) + +The acts of Mrs. Surratt must have been accompanied with criminal +intent in order to make them criminal. If any one supposes that any +such intent existed, the supposition comes alone from inference. If +disloyal acts and constant disloyal practices, if overt and open +action against the government, on her part, had been shown down to +the day of the murder of the President, it would do something toward +establishing the inference of criminal intent. On the other hand, +just the reverse is shown. The remarks here of the learned and +honorable judge advocate are peculiarly appropriate to this branch +of the discussion, and, with his authority, we waive all others. + +"If the court please, I will make a single remark. I think the +testimony in this case has proved, what I believe history +sufficiently attests, how kindred to each other are the crimes of +treason against a nation and the assassination of its chief +magistrate. As I think of those crimes, the one seems to be, if not +the necessary consequence, certainly a logical sequence from the +other. The murder of the President of the United States, as alleged +and shown, was preeminently a political assassination. Disloyalty to +the government was its sole, its only inspiration. When, therefore, +we shall show, on the part of the accused, acts of intense +disloyalty, bearing arms in the field against that government, we +show, with him, the presence of an animus toward the government +which relieves this accusation of much, if not all, of its +improbability. And this course of proof is constantly resorted to in +criminal courts. I do not regard it as in the slightest degree a +departure from the usages of the profession in the administration of +public justice. The purpose is to show that the prisoner, in his +mind and course of life, was prepared for the commission of this +crime: that the tendencies of his life, as evidenced by open and +overt acts, lead and point to this crime, if not as a necessary, +certainly as a most probable, result, and it is with that view, and +that only, that the testimony is offered." + +Is there anything in Mrs. Surratt's mind and course of life to show +that she was prepared for the commission of this crime? The +business transaction by Mrs. Surratt at Surrattsville, on the +fourteenth, clearly discloses her only purpose in making this visit. +Calvert's letters, the package of papers relating to the estate, the +business with Nothe, would be sufficiently clear to most minds, when +added to the fact that the other unknown package had been handed to +Mrs, Offutt; that, while at Surrattsville, she made an inquiry for, +or an allusion to, Mr. Lloyd, and was ready to return to Washington +when Lloyd drove up to the house. Does not this open wide the door +for the admission of the plea of "reasonable doubt"? Had she really +been engaged in assisting in the great crime, which makes an epoch +in our country's history, her only object and most anxious wish +would have been to see Lloyd. It was no ruse to transact important +business there to cover up what the uncharitable would call the real +business. Calvert's letter was received by her on the forenoon of +the fourteenth, and long before she saw Booth that day, or even +before Booth knew that the President would be at the theatre that +night, Mrs. Surratt had disclosed her intention to go to +Surrattsville, and had she been one moment earlier in her start she +would not have seen Booth at all. All these things furnish powerful +presumptions in favor of the theory that, if she delivered the +message at all, it was done innocently. + +In regard to the nonrecognition of Payne, the third fact adduced by +the prosecution against Mrs. Surratt, we incline to the opinion +that, to all minds not forejudging, the testimony of Miss Anna +E. Surratt, and various friends and servants of Mrs. Surratt, +relative to physical causes, might fully explain and account for +such ocular remissness and failure. In times and on occasions of +casual meeting of intimate acquaintances on the street, and of +common need for domestic uses, the eyesight of Mrs. Surratt had +proved treacherous and failing. How much more liable to fail her +was her imperfect vision on an occasion of excitement and anxiety, +like the night of her arrest and the disturbance of her household by +military officers, and when the person with whom she was confronted +was transfigured by a disguise which varied from the one in which +she had previously met him, with all the wide difference between a +Baptist parson and an earth-soiled, uncouthly-dressed digger of +gutters! Anna E. Surratt, Emma Offutt, Anna Ward, Elize Holohan, +Honora Fitzpatrick, and a servant, attest to all the visual +incapacity of Mrs. Surratt, and the annoyance she experienced +therefrom in passing friends without recognition in the daytime, and +from inability to sew or read even on a dark day, as well as at +night. The priests of her church, and gentlemen who have been +friendly and neighborhood acquaintances of Mrs. Surratt for many +years, bear witness to her untarnished name, to her discreet and +Christian character, to the absence of all imputation of disloyalty, +to her character for patriotism. Friends and servants attest to her +voluntary and gratuitous beneficence to our soldiers stationed +near her; and, "in charges for high treason, it is pertinent to +inquire into the humanity of the prisoner toward those representing +the government," is the maxim of the law; and, in addition, we +invite your attention to the singular fact that of the two officers +who bore testimony in this matter, one asserts that the hall wherein +Payne sat was illuminated with a full head of gas; the other, that +the gaslight was purposely dimmed. The uncertainty of the witness +who gave the testimony relative to the coat of Payne may also be +called to your notice. + +Should not this valuable testimony of loyal and moral character +shield a woman from the ready belief, on the part of judges who +judge her worthiness in every way, that during the few moments Booth +detained Mrs. Surratt from her carriage, already waiting, when he +approached and entered the house, she became so converted to +diabolical evil as to hail with ready assistance his terrible plot, +which must have been framed (if it were complete in his intent at +that hour, half-past two o'clock), since the hour of eleven that +day? + +If any part of Lloyd's statements is true, and Mrs. Surratt did +verily bear to his or Mrs. Offutt's hands the field glass, enveloped +in paper, by the evidence itself we may believe she knew not the +nature of the contents of the package; and had she known, what evil +could she or any other have attached to a commission of so common a +nature? No evidence of individual or personal intimacy with Booth +has been adduced against Mrs. Surratt; no long and apparently +confidential interviews; no indications of a private comprehension +mutual between them; only the natural and not frequent custom on the +part of Booth--as any other associate of her son might and +doubtless did do--of inquiring through the mother, whom he would +request to see, of the son, who, he would learn, was absent from +home. No one has been found who could declare any appearance of the +nursing or mysteriously discussing of anything like conspiracy +within the walls of Mrs. Surratt's house. Even if the son of +Mrs. Surratt, from the significancies of associations, is to be +classed with the conspirators, if such a body existed, it is +monstrous to suppose that the son would weave a net of circumstantial +evidences around the dwelling of his widowed mother, were he never +so reckless and sin-determined; and that they (the mother and the +son) joined hands in such dreadful pact, is a thought more monstrous +still! + +A mother and son associate in crime, and such a crime as this, which +half of the civilized world never saw matched in all its dreadful +bearings! Our judgments can have hardly recovered their unprejudiced +poise since the shock of the late horror, if we can contemplate with +credulity such a picture, conjured by the unjust spirits of +indiscriminate accusation and revenge. A crime which, in its public +magnitude, added to its private misery, would have driven even the +Atis-haunted heart of a Medici, a Borgia, or a Madame Bocarme to +wild confession before its accomplishment, and daunted even that +soul, of all the recorded world the most eager for novelty in +license, and most unshrinking in sin--the indurated soul of +Christina of Sweden; such a crime the profoundest plotters within +padded walls would scarcely dare whisper; the words forming the +expression of which, spoken aloud in the upper air, would convert +all listening boughs to aspens, and all glad sounds of nature to +shuddering wails. And this made known, even surmised, to a woman a +_materfamilias_ the good genius, the _placens_ _uxor_ of a home where +children had gathered all the influences of purity and the +reminiscences of innocence, where religion watched, and the Church +was minister and teacher! + +Who--were circumstantial evidence strong and conclusive, such as +only time and the slow-weaving fates could elucidate and deny--who +will believe, when the mists of uncertainty which cloud the present +shall have dissolved, that a woman born and bred in respectability +and competence--a Christian mother, and a citizen who never +offended the laws of civil propriety; whose unfailing attention to +the most sacred duties of life has won for her the name of "a proper +Christian matron"; whose heart was ever warmed by charity; whose +door unbarred to the poor; and whose Penates had never cause to veil +their faces--who will believe that she could so suddenly and so +fully have learned the intricate arts of sin? A daughter of the +South, her life associations confirming her natal predilections, her +individual preferences inclined, without logic or question, to the +Southern people, but with no consciousness nor intent of disloyalty +to her government, and causing no exclusion from her friendship and +active favors of the people of the loyal North, nor repugnance in +the distribution among our Union soldiery of all needed comforts, +and on all occasions. + +A strong but guileless-hearted woman, her maternal solicitude would +have been the first denouncer, even the abrupt betrayer of a plotted +crime in which one companion of her son could have been implicated, +had cognizance of such reached her. Her days would have been +agonized, and her nights sleepless, till she might have exposed and +counteracted that spirit of defiant hate which watched its moment of +vantage to wreak an immortal wrong--till she might have sought the +intercession and absolution of the Church, her refuge, in behalf of +those she loved. The brains which were bold and crafty and couchant +enough to dare the world's opprobrium in the conception of a scheme +which held as naught the lives of men in highest places, would never +have imparted it to the intelligence, nor sought the aid nor +sympathy, of any living woman who had not, like Lady Macbeth, +"unsexed herself"--not though she were wise and discreet as Maria +Theresa or the Castilian Isabella. This woman knew it not. This +woman, who, on the morning preceding that blackest day in our +country's annals, knelt in the performance of her most sincere and +sacred duty at the confessional, and received the mystic rite of the +Eucharist, knew it not. Not only would she have rejected it with +horror, but such a proposition, presented by the guest who had sat +at her hearth as the friend and convive of the son upon whose arm +and integrity her widowed womanhood relied for solace and +protection, would have roused her maternal wits to some sure cunning +which would have contravened the crime and sheltered her son from +the evil influences and miserable results of such companionship. + +The mothers of Charles IX. and of Nero could harbor underneath their +terrible smiles schemes for the violent and unshriven deaths, or the +moral vitiation and decadence which would painfully and gradually +remove lives sprung from their own, were they obstacles to their +demoniac ambition. But they wrought their awful romances of crime in +lands where the sun of supreme civilization, through a gorgeous +evening of Sybaritic luxury, was sinking, with red tints of +revolution, into the night of anarchy and national caducity. In our +own young nation, strong in its morality, energy, freedom, and +simplicity, assassination can never be indigenous. Even among the +desperadoes and imported lazzaroni of our largest cities, it is +comparatively an infrequent cause of fear. + +The daughters of women to whom, in their yet preserved abodes, the +noble mothers who adorned the days of our early independence are +vividly remembered realities and not haunting shades--the +descendants of earnest seekers for liberty, civil and religious, of +rare races, grown great in heroic endurance, in purity which comes +of trial borne, and in hope born of conscious right, whom the wheels +of fortune sent hither to transmit such virtues--the descendants +of these have no heart, no ear for the diabolisms born in hotbeds of +tyranny and intolerance. No descendant of these--no woman of this +temperate land--could have seen, much less joined, her son, +descending the sanguinary and irrepassable ways of treason and +murder to an ignominious death, or an expatriated and attainted +life, worse than the punishing wheel and bloody pool of the poets' +hell. + +In our country, where reason and moderation so easily quench the +fires of insane hate, and where the vendetta is so easily overcome +by the sublime grace of forgiveness, no woman could have been found +so desperate as to sacrifice all spiritual, temporal, and social +good, self, offspring, fame, honor, and all the desiderata of life, +and time, and immortality, to the commission, or even countenance, +of such a deed of horror, as we have been compelled to contemplate +during the two months past. + +In a Christian land, where all records and results of the world's +intellectual, civil, and moral advancement mold the human heart and +mind to highest impulses, the theory of old Helvetius is more +probable than desirable. + +The natures of all born in equal station are not so widely varied as +to present extremes of vice and goodness, but by the effects of rarest +and severest experience. Beautiful fairies and terrible gnomes do not +stand by each infant's cradle, sowing the nascent mind with tenderest +graces or vilest errors. The slow attrition of vicious associations +and law-defying indulgences, or the sudden impetus of some terribly +multiplied and social disaster, must have worn away the susceptibility +of conscience and self-respect, or dashed the mind from the height of +these down to the depths of despair and recklessness, before one of +ordinary life could take counsel with violence and crime. In no such +manner was the life of our client marked. It was the parallel of +nearly all the competent masses. Surrounded by the scenes of her +earliest recollections, independent in her condition she was satisfied +with the _mundus_ of her daily pursuits, and the maintenance of her own +and children's status in society and her Church. + +Remember your wives, mothers, sisters, and gentle friends whose +graces, purity, and careful affection, ornament and cherish and +strengthen your lives. Not widely different from their natures and +spheres have been the nature and sphere of the woman who sits in the +prisoner's dock to-day, mourning with the heart of Alcestis her +children and her lot; by whose desolated hearthstone a solitary +daughter wastes her uncomforted life away in tears and prayers and +vigils for the dawn of hope; and this wretchedness and unpitied +despair have closed like a shadow around one of earth's common +pictures of domestic peace and social comfort, destroyed by the one +sole cause--suspicion fastened and fed upon the facts of +acquaintance and mere fortuitous intercourse with that man in whose +name so many miseries gather, the assassin of the President. + +Since the days when Christian teachings first elevated woman to her +present free, refined, and refining position, man's power and +honoring regard have been the palladium of her sex. + +Let no stain of injustice, eager for a sacrifice to revenge, rest +upon the reputation of the men of our country and time! + +This woman, who, widowed of her natural protectors, who, in +helplessness and painfully severe imprisonment, in sickness and in +grief ineffable, sues for mercy and justice from your hands, may +leave a legacy of blessings, sweet as fruition-hastening showers, +for those you love and care for, in return for the happiness of fame +and home restored, though life be abbreviated and darkened through +this world by the miseries of this unmerited and woeful trial. But +long and chilling is the shade which just retribution, slow creeping +on, _ped_ _claudo_, casts around the fate of him whose heart is +merciless to his fellows bowed low in misfortune. + + + +ALBERTUS MAGNUS (1205-1280) + +Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus), teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas, +was one of the most celebrated orators and theologians of the Church +in the thirteenth century. He was born at Lauingen on the Danube in +1205 (according to some in 1193), and, becoming a Dominican at the +age of twenty-nine, he taught in various German cities with +continually increasing celebrity, until finally the Pope called him +to preach in Rome. In 1260 he was made Bishop of Ratisbon, but after +three years resigned the bishopric and returned to his work in the +ranks of the clergy. While teaching at Cologne he suddenly lost his +memory, probably as a result of his excessive studies. He died +November 15th, 1280. He was placed on the calendar of saints in +1615. His works, collected by Peter Jammy, and published at Lyons in +1651, make twenty-one volumes, folio. + + +THE MEANING OF THE CRUCIFIXION + +It was surrounded by the thick wreath of thorns even to the tender +brain. Whence in the Prophet,--the people hath surrounded me with +the thorns of sin. And why was this, save that thine own head might +not suffer--thine own conscience might not be wounded? His eyes +grew dark in death; and those lights, which give light to the world, +were for a time extinguished. And when they were clouded, there was +darkness over all the earth, and with them the two great lights of +the firmament were moved, to the end that thine eyes might be turned +away, lest they should behold vanity; or, if they chance to behold +it, might for his sake condemn it. Those ears, which in heaven +unceasingly hear "Holy, Holy, Holy," vouchsafed on earth to be +filled with: "Thou hast a devil,--Crucify him, Crucify him!" to +the intent that thine ears might not be deaf to the cry of the poor, +nor, open to idle tales, should readily receive the poison of +detraction or of adulation. That fair face of him that was fairer +than the children of men, yea, than thousands of angels, was +bedaubed with spitting, afflicted with blows, given up to mockery, +to the end that thy face might be enlightened, and, being +enlightened, might be strengthened, so that it might be said of +thee, "His countenance is no more changed." That mouth, which +teaches angels and instructs men "which spake and it was done," was +fed with gall and vinegar, that thy mouth might speak the truth, and +might be opened to the praise of the Lord; and it was silent, lest +thou shouldst lightly lend thy tongue to the expression of anger. + +Those hands, which stretched abroad the heavens, were stretched out +on the cross and pierced with most bitter nails; as saith Isaiah, "I +have stretched forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people." +And David, "They pierced my hands and my feet; I may tell all my +bones." And Saint Jerome says, "We may, in the stretching forth of +his hands, understand the liberality of the giver, who denieth +nothing to them that ask lovingly; who restored health to the leper +that requested it of him; enlightened him that was blind from his +birth; fed the hungry multitude in the wilderness." And again he +says, "The stretched-out hands denote the kindness of the parent, +who desires to receive his children to his breast." And thus let thy +hands be so stretched out to the poor that thou mayest be able to +say, "My soul is always in my hand." For that which is held in the +hand is not easily forgotten. So he may be said to call his soul to +memory, who carries it, as it were, in his hands through the good +opinion that men conceive of it. His hands were fixed, that they may +instruct thee to hold back thy hands, with the nails of fear, from +unlawful or harmful works. + +That glorious breast, in which are hidden all the treasures of +wisdom and knowledge, is pierced with the lance of a soldier, to the +end that thy heart might be cleansed from evil thoughts, and being +cleansed might be sanctified, and being sanctified might be +preserved. The feet, whose footstool the Prophets commanded to be +sanctified, were bitterly nailed to the cross, lest thy feet should +sustain evil, or be swift to shed blood; but, running in the way of +the Lord, stable in his path, and fixed in his road, might not turn +aside to the right hand nor to the left. "What could have been done +more?" + +Why did Christ bow his head on the cross? To teach us that by +humility we must enter into Heaven. Also, to show that we must rest +from our own work. Also, that he might comply with the petition, +"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth"; also that he might +ask permission of his bride to leave her. Of great virtue is the +memory of the Lord's passion, which, if it be firmly held in the +mind, every cloud of error and sin is dispersed. Whence the blessed +Bernard says: "Always having Christ, and him crucified, in the +heart." + + +THE BLESSED DEAD + +They who die in the Lord are blessed, on account of two things which +immediately follow. For they enter into most sweet rest, and enjoy +most delicate refreshment. Concerning their rest it immediately +follows. "Even so saith the spirit" (that is, says the gloss, the +whole Trinity), for they rest from their labors. "And it is a +pleasant bed on which they take their rest, who, as is aforesaid, +die in the Lord." For this bed is none other than the sweet +consolation of the Creator. Of this consolation he speaks himself by +the Prophet Isaiah: "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I +comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem." Of the +second,--that is, the delicate refreshment of those that die in +Christ,--it is immediately subjoined, and their works do follow +them. For every virtue which a man has practiced by good works in +this world will bring a special cup of recompense, and offer it to +the soul that has entered into rest. Thus, purity of body and mind +will bring one cup, justice another, which also is to be said +concerning truth, love, gentleness, humility, and the other +virtues. Of this holy refreshment it is written in Isaiah: "Kings +shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers." By +kings we understand the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who, in +inseparable unity, possess the kingdom of heaven; by queens, the +virtues are expressed, which, as has been said, receive the cups of +refreshment from the storehouse of the Trinity, and offer them to +the happy souls. Pray, therefore, dearly beloved, to the Lord, that +he would so grant us to live according to his will, that we may die +in him, and may evermore be comforted and refreshed by him. + + + +ETHAN ALLEN + +Ethan Allen of New York, a descendant of the Revolutionary hero +made famous by the capture of Ticonderoga, has never been a +professional public speaker, but from time to time, when stirred by +some cause which appealed to him strongly, he has shown great power +as an orator. His address of 1861, delivered in New York city, is +here republished from a contemporaneous report, preserved among the +papers of Mr. Enos Clarke. It was described in the newspapers of the +day as "thrilling eloquence," and perhaps it is the best expression +extant of the almost inconceivable excitement of the opening months +of the war. + +In 1872 Mr. Alien joined the Liberal Republicans and made earnest +pleas for reconciliation with the South. In 1897 he took a prominent +part in supporting the Cubans in their struggle for independence. + + +A CALL TO ARMS (Delivered in New York city in 1861) + +Fellow-Citizens:-- + +Once more the country is aroused by a call to arms. It is now +nearly a century ago that our fathers assembled in mass meetings in +this city to devise ways and means for this very flag which to-day +we give to the winds of heaven, bearing defiance from every star. +Fired, then, with the same spirit of freedom that kindles on this +spot to-day, for the time throwing aside the habiliments of peace, +our fathers armed themselves for vengeance and for war. The history +of that war, read it in the hearts of the American people; the +trials and struggles of that war, mark them in the teardrops which +the very allusion brings to every eye; the blessings from that war, +count them in the temples of industry and trade that arise +everywhere around us; the wisdom of that war, and the honor and the +perpetuity of its triumphs, behold the one in our unexampled +prosperity as a nation, and the other in the impulses that, like an +electric flash, bind heart to heart, throughout this vast +assemblage, in the firm resolve that, cost what it may, rebellion +shall go down. Again, the American people are assembled in mass +meetings throughout the nation, while the States once more rock in +the throes of revolution. Once more the cry to arms reverberates +throughout the land; but this time we war against domestic foes. +Treason has raised its black flag near the tomb of Washington, and +the Union of our States hangs her fate upon the bayonet and the +sword. Accursed be the hand that would not seize the bayonet; +withered the arm that would not wield the sword in such a cause! +Everything that the American citizen holds dear hangs upon the issue +of this contest. Our national honor and reputation demand that +rebellion shall not triumph on our soil. In the name of our heroic +dead, in the name of our numberless victories, in the name of our +thousand peaceful triumphs, our Union shall and must be preserved! +Our peaceful triumphs? These are the victories we should be jealous +to guard. Let others recount their martial glories; they shall be +eclipsed by the charity and the grace of the triumphs which have +been won in peace. "Peace hath her victories not less renowned than +war," and the hard-earned fruits of these victories rebellion shall +not take from us. Our peaceful triumphs? Who shall enumerate their +value to the millions yet unborn? What nation in so short a time +has seen so many? On the land and on the sea, in the realms of +science and in the world of art, we have everywhere gathered our +honors and won our garlands. Upon the altars of the States they yet +lie, fresh from gathering, while their happy influence fills the +land. Of the importance and value of our thousand peaceful triumphs +time will permit me to mention only one. It is now just two years +ago when up the waters of the Potomac sailed the representatives of +an empire till then shut out from intercourse with all Christian +nations. In the Eastern seas there lay an empire of islands which +had hitherto enjoyed no recognition in the Christian world other +than its name upon the map. No history, as far as we know, +illuminated it; no ancient time-marks told of its advancement, step +by step, in the march of improvement. There it has rested for +thousands of years, wrapped in the mysteries of its own +exclusiveness--gloomy, dark, peculiar. It has been supposed to +possess great powers; and vague rumors have attributed to it arts to +us unknown. Against nearly all the world, for thousands of years +Japan has obstinately shut her doors; the wealth of the Christian +world could not tempt her cupidity; the wonders of the Christian +world could not excite her curiosity. There she lay, sullen and +alone, the phenomenon of nations. England and France and the other +powerful governments of Europe have at various times tried to +conquer this Oriental exclusiveness, but the Portuguese only partly +succeeded, while all the rest have signally failed. At length we, +bearing at our masthead the glorious old Stars and Stripes, approach +the mysterious portals and seek an entrance. Not with cannon and +the implements of death do we demand admission, but, appreciating +the saying of Euripides, that + + "Resistless eloquence shall open + The gates that steel exclude," + +we peacefully appeal to that sense of justice which is the "touch of +nature that makes the whole world kin," and behold! the +interdiction is removed; the doors of the mysterious empire fly +open, and a new garland is added to our commercial conquests! Who +shall set limits to the gain that shall follow this one victory of +peace, if our government shall be perpetuated so as to gather it for +the generations? Who shall say that in an unbroken, undivided +union, the opening of the empire of Japan shall not accomplish for +the present era all that the Reformation, the art of printing, +steam, and the telegraph have done within the last three hundred +years? New avenues of wealth are thrown open; new fields are to be +occupied; arts new to us, perhaps, are to be studied; and science, +doubtless, has revelations to make us, from that arcana of nations, +equal to anything we have ever learned before. Fifty millions of +people are to be enlightened; the printing press is yet to catch the +daily thought and stamp it on the page; the magnetic wire must yet +tremble along her highways, and Niphon yet tremble to her very +centre at each heart-beat of our ocean steamers, as they sweep +through her waters and thunder round her island homes. All hail, +all hail, to these children of the morning; all hail, all hail, to +the Great Republic of the West that calls them into life! From +every age that has passed there comes a song of praise for the +treaty that has been consummated. The buried masters of three +thousand years start again to life and march in solemn and grand +procession before the eyes of the new-found empire. Homer with his +songs, Greece with her arts, Rome with her legions, and America with +her heroes, all come to us with the freshness and novelty of the +newly born. Wipe off the mold that time has gathered upon their +tombs, and let them all come forth and answer, at the summons of a +new-born nation that calls them again to life! + +Tell to these strangers the story of the resurrection. Clutching in +their hands their dripping blades, the warriors recount their +conquests, and joined at last in harmonious brotherhood, Copernicus, +with bony fingers pointing upward, tells to Confucius his story of +the stars! + +Fellow-citizens, I have recounted but one of our many peaceful +triumphs. Shall all these hopes of the future, shall all these +peaceful victories of our people, shall all these struggles of the +past be swept away by the dissolution of this Union and the +destruction of the government? Forbid it, Almighty God! Rather +perish a thousand times the cause of the rebellion, and over the +ruins of slavery let peace once more resume her sway, and let the +cannon's lips grow cold. _Delenda_ _est_ _Carthago_, said the old +Roman patriot, when gloom settled upon his State. The rebellion +must go down in the same spirit, say we all to-day. Down with +party, sect, and class, and up with a sentiment of unanimity when +our country calls to arms! New England leads us in the contest. +The legions of Vermont are now _en_ _route_ for the field. Again, +she can say with truth that "the bones of her sons lie mingling and +bleaching with the soil of every State from Maine to Georgia, and +there they will lie forever." New York must not be behind the Old +Bay State which led a year ago. In the spirit world, Warren calls +to Hamilton, and Hamilton calls back to Warren, that hand in hand +their mortal children go on together to fame, to victory, or to the +grave. Where the ranks are full, let us catch an inspiration from +the past, and with it upon us go forth to conflict. Go call the +roll on Saratoga, Bunker Hill, and Yorktown, that the sheeted dead +may rise as witnesses, and tell your legions of the effort to +dissolve their Union, and there receive their answer. Mad with +frenzy, burning with indignation at the thought, all ablaze for +vengeance upon the traitors, such shall be the fury and impetuosity +of the onset that all opposition shall be swept away before them, as +the pigmy yields to the avalanche that comes tumbling, rumbling, +thundering from its Alpine home! Let us gather at the tomb of +Washington and invoke his immortal spirit to direct us in the +combat. Rising again incarnate from the tomb, in one hand he holds +that same old flag, blackened and begrimed with the smoke of a +seven-years' war, and with the other hand be points us to the foe. +Up and at them! Let immortal energy strengthen our arms, and +infernal fury thrill us to the soul. One blow,--deep, effectual, +and forever,--one crushing blow upon the rebellion, in the name of +God, Washington, and the Republic! + + + +FISHER AMES (1758-1808) + +Fisher Ames is easily first among the New England Federalist orators +of the first quarter of a century of the Republic. He was greatly, +sometimes extravagantly, admired by his contemporaries, and his +addresses are studied as models by eminent public speakers of our +own day. Dr. Charles Caldwell in his autobiography calls Ames "one +of the most splendid rhetoricians of his age." . . . "Two of his +speeches," writes Doctor Caldwell, "that on Jay's Treaty and that +usually called his Tomahawk speech, because it included some +resplendent passages on Indian massacre, were the most brilliant and +fascinating specimens of eloquence I have ever heard, though I have +listened to some of the most eloquent speakers in the British +Parliament,--among others to Wilberforce and Mackintosh, +Plunkett, Brougham, and Canning. Doctor Priestly who was familiar +with the oratory of Pitt the father, and Pitt the son, as also with +that of Burke and Fox, made to myself the acknowledgment that the +speech of Ames on the British treaty was 'the most bewitching piece +of eloquence' to which he had ever listened." + +Ames was born at Dedham, Massachusetts, on April 9th, 1758. His +father, Nathaniel Ames, a physician, had the "honorable family +standing" which was so important in the life of most of the +colonies. He had scientific tendencies and published an +"Astronomical Diary," or nautical almanac, which was in considerable +vogue. The son, however, developed at the early age of six years a +fondness for classical literature, which led him to undertake to +master Latin. He made such progress that he was admitted to Harvard +when but twelve years old. While there, it "was observed that he +coveted the glory of eloquence," showing his fondness for oratory +not merely in the usual debating society declamation, but by the +study of classical models and of such great English poets as +Shakespeare and Milton. To this, no doubt correctly, has been +attributed his great command of language and his fertility in +illustration. After graduating from Harvard in 1774, he studied law +in Boston, served in the Massachusetts legislature, in the +convention for ratifying the Federal constitution, and in the first +Congress elected under the constitution. After retiring, be was +called in 1804 to the presidency of Harvard. He declined the honor, +however, on account of diffidence and failing health. His death +occurred on the fourth of July, 1808, in the fiftieth year of his age. + +After the treaty with Great Britain (Jay's), concluded in 1794, had +been ratified and proclaimed by the President, he communicated it to +the House of Representatives, "in order that the necessary +appropriations might be made to carry it into effect." The speech +on the Treaty, delivered by Ames, was on a resolution in favor of +making the appropriations thus called for, the House being in +committee of the whole April 28th, 1796. + + +ON THE BRITISH TREATY + +(Delivered in the House of Representatives, April 28, 1796) + +Mr. Chairman:-- + +I entertain the hope, perhaps a rash one, that my strength will hold +me out to speak a few minutes. + +In my judgment, a right decision will depend more on the temper and +manner with which we may prevail upon ourselves to contemplate the +subject than upon the development of any profound political +principles, or any remarkable skill in the application of them. If +we could succeed to neutralize our inclinations, we should find less +difficulty than we have to apprehend in surmounting all our +objections. + +The suggestion, a few days ago, that the House manifested symptoms +of heat and irritation, was made and retorted as if the charge ought +to create surprise, and would convey reproach. Let us be more just +to ourselves and to the occasion. Let us not affect to deny the +existence and the intrusion of some portion of prejudice and feeling +into the debate, when, from the very structure of our nature, we +ought to anticipate the circumstance as a probability, and when we +are admonished by the evidence of our senses that it is the fact. + +How can we make professions for ourselves, and offer exhortations to +the House, that no influence should be felt but that of duty, and no +guide respected but that of the understanding, while the peal to +rally every passion of man is continually ringing in our ears? + +Our understandings have been addressed, it is true, and with ability +and effect; but, I demand, has any corner of the heart been left +unexplored? It has been ransacked to find auxiliary arguments, and, +when that attempt failed, to awaken the sensibilities that would +require none. Every prejudice and feeling has been summoned to +listen to some peculiar style of address; and yet we seem to believe +and to consider as an affront a doubt that we are strangers to any +influence but that of unbiased reason. + +It would be strange that a subject which has aroused in turn all the +passions of the country should be discussed without the interference +of any of our own. We are men, and, therefore, not exempt from those +passions; as citizens and representatives we feel the interests that +must excite them. The hazard of great interests cannot fail to +agitate strong passions. We are not disinterested; it is impossible +we should be dispassionate. The warmth of such feelings may becloud +the judgment, and, for a time, pervert the understanding. But the +public sensibility, and our own, has sharpened the spirit of +inquiry, and given an animation to the debate. The public attention +has been quickened to mark the progress of the discussion, and its +judgment, often hasty and erroneous on first impressions, has become +solid and enlightened at last. Our result will, I hope, on that +account, be the safer and more mature, as well as more accordant +with that of the nation. The only constant agents in political +affairs are the passions of men. Shall we complain of our nature-- +shall we say that man ought to have been made otherwise? It is right +already, because he, from whom we derive our nature, ordained it so; +and because thus made and thus acting, the cause of truth and the +public good is the more surely promoted. + +But an attempt has been made to produce an influence of a nature +more stubborn and more unfriendly to truth. It is very unfairly +pretended, that the constitutional right of this house is at stake, +and to be asserted and preserved only by a vote in the negative. We +hear it said that this is a struggle for liberty, a manly resistance +against the design to nullify this assembly and to make it a cipher +in the government; that the President and Senate, the numerous +meetings in the cities, and the influence of the general alarm of +the country, are the agents and instruments of a scheme of coercion +and terror, to force the treaty down our throats, though we loathe +it, and in spite of the clearest convictions of duty and conscience. + +It is necessary to pause here and inquire whether suggestions of +this kind be not unfair in their very texture and fabric, and +pernicious in all their influences. They oppose an obstacle in the +path of inquiry, not simply discouraging, but absolutely +insurmountable. They will not yield to argument; for as they were +not reasoned up, they cannot be reasoned down. They are higher than +a Chinese wall in truth's way, and built of materials that are +indestructible. While this remains, it is vain to argue; it is vain +to say to this mountain, Be thou cast into the sea. For, I ask of +the men of knowledge of the world whether they would not hold him +for a blockhead that should hope to prevail in an argument whose +scope and object is to mortify the self-love of the expected +proselyte? I ask, further, when such attempts have been made, have +they not failed of success? The indignant heart repels a conviction +that is believed to debase it. + +The self-love of an individual is not warmer in its sense, nor more +constant in its action, than what is called in French, _l'esprit_ +_du_ _corps_, or the self-love of an assembly; that jealous +affection which a body of men is always found to bear towards its +own prerogatives and power. I will not condemn this passion. Why +should we urge an unmeaning censure or yield to groundless fears +that truth and duty will be abandoned, because men in a public +assembly are still men, and feel that _esprit_ _du_ _corps_ which is +one of the laws of their nature? Still less should we despond or +complain, if we reflect that this very spirit is a guardian instinct +that watches over the life of this assembly. It cherishes the +principle of self-preservation, and without its existence, and its +existence with all the strength we see it possess, the privileges of +the representatives of the people, and mediately the liberties of +the people, would not be guarded, as they are, with a vigilance that +never sleeps and an unrelaxed constancy and courage. If the +consequences, most unfairly attributed to the vote in the +affirmative, were not chimerical, and worse, for they are deceptive, +I should think it a reproach to be found even moderate in my zeal to +assert the constitutional powers of this assembly; and whenever they +shall be in real danger, the present occasion affords proof that +there will be no want of advocates and champions. + +Indeed, so prompt are these feelings, and, when once roused, so +difficult to pacify, that if we could prove the alarm was +groundless, the prejudice against the appropriations may remain on +the mind, and it may even pass for an act of prudence and duty to +negative a measure which was lately believed by ourselves, and may +hereafter be misconceived by others, to encroach upon the powers of +the House. Principles that bear a remote affinity with usurpation +on those powers will be rejected, not merely as errors, but as +wrongs. Our sensibilities will shrink from a post where it is +possible they may be wounded, and be inflamed by the slightest +suspicion of an assault. + +While these prepossessions remain, all argument is useless. It may +be heard with the ceremony of attention, and lavish its own +resources, and the patience it wearies, to no manner of purpose. The +ears may be open; but the mind will remain locked up, and every pass +to the understanding guarded. + +Unless, therefore, this jealous and repulsive fear for the rights of +the House can be allayed, I will not ask a hearing. + +I cannot press this topic too far; I cannot address myself with too +much emphasis to the magnanimity and candor of those who sit here, +to suspect their own feelings, and, while they do, to examine the +grounds of their alarm. I repeat it, we must conquer our persuasion +that this body has an interest in one side of the question more than +the other, before we attempt to surmount our objections. On most +subjects, and solemn ones too, perhaps in the most solemn of all, we +form our creed more from inclination than evidence. + +Let me expostulate with gentlemen to admit, if it be only by way of +supposition, and for a moment, that it is barely possible they have +yielded too suddenly to their alarms for the powers of this House; +that the addresses which have been made with such variety of forms +and with so great dexterity in some of them, to all that is +prejudice and passion in the heart, are either the effects or the +instruments of artifice and deception, and then let them see the +subject once more in its singleness and simplicity. + +It will be impossible, on taking a fair review of the subject, to +justify the passionate appeals that have been made to us to struggle +for our liberties and rights, and the solemn exhortations to reject +the proposition, said to be concealed in that on your table, to +surrender them forever. In spite of this mock solemnity, I demand, +if the House will not concur in the measure to execute the treaty, +what other course shall we take? How many ways of proceeding lie +open before us? + +In the nature of things there are but three; we are either to make +the treaty, to observe it, or break it. It would be absurd to say +we will do neither. If I may repeat a phrase already much abused, +we are under coercion to do one of them; and we have no power, by +the exercise of our discretion, to prevent the consequences of a +choice. + +By refusing to act, we choose. The treaty will be broken and fall to +the ground. Where is the fitness, then, of replying to those who +urge upon the House the topics of duty and policy that they attempt +to force the treaty down, and to compel this assembly to renounce +its discretion, and to degrade itself to the rank of a blind and +passive instrument in the hands of the treaty-making power? In case +we reject the appropriation, we do not secure any greater liberty of +action; we gain no safer shelter than before from the consequences +of the decision. Indeed, they are not to be evaded. It is neither +just nor manly to complain that the treaty-making power has produced +this coercion to act. It is not the act or the despotism of that +power--it is the nature of things that compels. Shall we, dreading +to become the blind instruments of power, yield ourselves the +blinder dupes of mere sounds of imposture? Yet that word, that empty +word, coercion, has given scope to an eloquence that, one would +imagine, could not be tired and did not choose to be quieted. + +Let us examine still more in detail the alternatives that are before +us, and we shall scarcely fail to see, in still stronger lights, the +futility of our apprehensions for the power and liberty of the +House. + +If, as some have suggested, the thing called a treaty is +incomplete,--if it has no binding force or obligation,--the first +question is, Will this House complete the instrument, and, by +concurring, impart to it that force which it wants? + +The doctrine has been avowed that the treaty, though formally +ratified by the executive power of both nations, though published as +a law for our own by the President's proclamation, is still a mere +proposition submitted to this assembly, no way distinguishable, in +point of authority or obligation, from a motion for leave to bring +in a bill, or any other original act of ordinary legislation. This +doctrine, so novel in our country, yet so dear to many, precisely +for the reason that, in the contention for power, victory is always +dear, is obviously repugnant to the very terms as well as the fair +interpretation of our own resolutions (Mr. Blount's). We declare +that the treaty-making power is exclusively vested in the President +and Senate, and not in this House. Need I say that we fly in the +face of that resolution when we pretend that the acts of that power +are not valid until we have concurred in them? It would be +nonsense, or worse, to use the language of the most glaring +contradiction, and to claim a share in a power which we at the same +time disdain as exclusively vested in other departments. + +What can be more strange than to say that the compacts of the +President and Senate with foreign nations are treaties, without our +agency, and yet those compacts want all power and obligation, until +they are sanctioned by our concurrence? It is not my design, in this +place, if at all, to go into the discussion of this part of the +subject. I will, at least for the present, take it for granted, that +this monstrous opinion stands in little need of remark, and if it +does, lies almost out of the reach of refutation. + +But, say those who hide the absurdity under the cover of ambiguous +phrases, Have we no discretion? And if we have, are we not to make +use of it in judging of the expediency or inexpediency of the +treaty? Our resolution claims that privilege, and we cannot +surrender it without equal inconsistency and breach of duty. + +If there be any inconsistency in the case, it lies, not in making +the appropriations for the treaty, but in the resolution itself +(Mr. Blount's). Let us examine it more nearly. A treaty is a bargain +between nations, binding in good faith; and what makes a bargain? +The assent of the contracting parties. We allow that the treaty +power is not in this House; this House has no share in contracting, +and is not a party; of consequence, the President and Senate alone +may make a treaty that is binding in good faith. We claim, however, +say the gentlemen, a right to judge of the expediency of treaties; +that is the constitutional province of our discretion. Be it +so. What follows? Treaties, when adjudged by us to be inexpedient, +fall to the ground, and the public faith is not hurt. This, +incredible and extravagant as it may seem, is asserted. The amount +of it, in plainer language, is this--the President and Senate are to +make national bargains, and this House has nothing to do in making +them. But bad bargains do not bind this House, and, of inevitable +consequence, do not bind the nation. When a national bargain, called +a treaty, is made, its binding force does not depend upon the +making, but upon our opinion that it is good. . . . + +To expatiate on the value of public faith may pass with some men for +declamation--to such men I have nothing to say. To others I will +urge, Can any circumstance mark upon a people more turpitude and +debasement? Can anything tend more to make men think themselves +mean, or degrade to a lower point their estimation of virtue and +their standard of action? + +It would not merely demoralize mankind; it tends to break all the +ligaments of society, to dissolve that mysterious charm which +attracts individuals to the nation, and to inspire in its stead a +repulsive sense of shame and disgust. + +What is patriotism? Is it a narrow affection for the spot where a +man was born? Are the very clods where we tread entitled to this +ardent preference because they are greener? No, sir; this is not the +character of the virtue, and it soars higher for its object. It is +an extended self-love, mingling with all the enjoyments of life, and +twisting itself with the minutest filaments of the heart. It is thus +we obey the laws of society, because they are the laws of virtue. In +their authority we see, not the array of force and terror, but the +venerable image of our country's honor. Every good citizen makes +that honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious, but as +sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense, and is +conscious that he gains protection while he gives it. For what +rights of a citizen will be deemed inviolable when a State renounces +the principles that constitute their security? Or, if his life +should not be invaded, what would its enjoyments be in a country +odious in the eyes of strangers and dishonored in his own? Could he +look with affection and veneration to such a country as his parent? +The sense of having one would die within him; he would blush for his +patriotism, if he retained any, and justly, for it would be a +vice. He would be a banished man in his native land. + +I see no exception to the respect that is paid among nations to the +law of good faith. If there are cases in this enlightened period +when it is violated, there are none when it is decried. It is the +philosophy of politics, the religion of governments. It is observed +by barbarians--a whiff of tobacco smoke, or a string of beads, +gives not merely binding force, but sanctity to treaties. Even in +Algiers a truce may be bought for money; but, when ratified, even +Algiers is too wise, or too just, to disown and annul its +obligation. Thus, we see neither the ignorance of savages nor the +principles of an association for piracy and rapine, permit a nation +to despise its engagements. If, sir, there could be a resurrection +from the foot of the gallows, if the victims of justice could live +again, collect together and form a society, they would, however +loath, soon find themselves obliged to make justice, that justice +under which they fell, the fundamental law of their state. They +would perceive it was their interest to make others respect, and +they would therefore soon pay some respect themselves to the +obligations of good faith. + +It is painful, I hope it is superfluous, to make even the +supposition, that America should furnish the occasion of this +opprobrium. No, let me not even imagine that a republican +government, sprung as our own is, from a people enlightened and +uncorrupted, a government whose origin is right, and whose daily +discipline is duty, can, upon solemn debate, make its option to be +faithless--can dare to act what despots dare not avow, what our +own example evinces, the states of Barbary are unsuspected of. No, +let me rather make the supposition that Great Britain refuses to +execute the treaty, after we have done everything to carry it into +effect. Is there any language of reproach pungent enough to express +your commentary on the fact? What would you say, or rather what +would you not say? Would you not tell them, wherever an Englishman +might travel, shame would stick to him--he would disown his country. +You would exclaim, England, proud of your wealth, and arrogant in +the possession of power--blush for these distinctions, which +become the vehicles of your dishonor. Such a nation might truly say +to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my +mother and my sister. We should say of such a race of men, their +name is a heavier burden than their debt. + +I can scarcely persuade myself to believe that the consideration I +have suggested requires the aid of any auxiliary. But, +unfortunately, auxiliary arguments are at hand. Five millions of +dollars, and probably more, on the score of spoliations committed on +our commerce, depend upon the treaty. The treaty offers the only +prospect of indemnity. Such redress is promised as the merchants +place some confidence in. Will you interpose and frustrate that +hope, leaving to many families nothing but beggary and despair? It +is a smooth proceeding to take a vote in this body; it takes less +than half an hour to call the yeas and nays and reject the treaty. +But what is the effect of it? What, but this? The very men +formerly so loud for redress, such fierce champions that even to ask +for justice was too mean and too slow, now turn their capricious +fury upon the sufferers and say by their vote, to them and their +families, No longer eat bread; petitioners, go home and starve; we +can not satisfy your wrongs and our resentments. + +Will you pay the sufferers out of the treasury? No. The answer was +given two years ago, and appears on our journals. Will you give them +letters of marque and reprisal to pay themselves by force? No; that +is war. Besides, it would be an opportunity for those who have +already lost much to lose more. Will you go to war to avenge their +injury? If you do, the war will leave you no money to indemnify +them. If it should be unsuccessful, you will aggravate existing +evils; if successful, your enemy will have no treasure left to give +our merchants; the first losses will be confounded with much +greater, and be forgotten. At the end of a war there must be a +negotiation, which is the very point we have already gained; and why +relinquish it? And who will be confident that the terms of the +negotiation, after a desolating war, would be more acceptable to +another House of Representatives than the treaty before us? Members +and opinions may be so changed that the treaty would then be +rejected for being what the present majority say it should be. +Whether we shall go on making treaties and refusing to execute them, +I know not. Of this I am certain, it will be very difficult to +exercise the treaty-making power on the new principles, with much +reputation or advantage to the country. + +The refusal of the posts (inevitable if we reject the treaty) is a +measure too decisive in its nature to be neutral in its +consequences. From great causes we are to look for great effects. A +plain and obvious one will be the price of the western lands will +fall. Settlers will not choose to fix their habitation on a field of +battle. Those who talk so much of the interest of the United States +should calculate how deeply it will be affected by rejecting the +treaty; how vast a tract of wild land will almost cease to be +property. The loss, let it be observed, will fall upon a fund +expressly devoted to sink the national debt. What, then, are we +called upon to do? However the form of the vote and the +protestations of many may disguise the proceeding, our resolution is +in substance, and it deserves to wear the title of a resolution to +prevent the sale of the western lands and the discharge of the +public debt. + +Will the tendency to Indian hostilities be contested by any one? +Experience gives the answer. The frontiers were scourged with war +till the negotiation with Great Britain was far advanced, and then +the state of hostility ceased. Perhaps the public agents of both +nations are innocent of fomenting the Indian war, and perhaps they +are not. We ought not, however, to expect that neighboring nations, +highly irritated against each other, will neglect the friendship of +the savages; the traders will gain an influence and will abuse it; +and who is ignorant that their passions are easily raised, and +hardly restrained from violence? Their situation will oblige them to +choose between this country and Great Britain, in case the treaty +should be rejected. They will not be our friends, and at the same +time the friends of our enemies. + +But am I reduced to the necessity of proving this point? Certainly +the very men who charged the Indian war on the detention of the +posts, will call for no other proofs than the recital of their own +speeches. It is remembered with what emphasis, with what acrimony, +they expatiated on the burden of taxes, and the drain of blood and +treasure into the western country, in consequence of Britain's +holding the posts. Until the posts are restored, they exclaimed, the +treasury and the frontiers must bleed. + +If any, against all these proofs, should maintain that the peace +with the Indians will be stable without the posts, to them I will +urge another reply. From arguments calculated to produce conviction, +I will appeal directly to the hearts of those who hear me, and ask +whether it is not already planted there. I resort especially to the +convictions of the western gentlemen, whether, supposing no posts +and no treaty, the settlers will remain in security. Can they take +it upon them to say that an Indian peace, under these circumstances, +will prove firm? No, sir; it will not be peace, but a sword; it will +be no better than a lure to draw victims within the reach of the +tomahawk. + +On this theme, my emotions are unutterable. If I could find words +for them--if my powers bore any proportion to my zeal--I would +swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, it should reach every +log house beyond the mountains, I would say to the inhabitants, Wake +from your false security; your cruel dangers, your more cruel +apprehensions, are soon to be renewed; the wounds, yet unhealed, are +to be torn open again; in the daytime, your path through the woods +will be ambushed; the darkness of midnight will glitter with the +blaze of your dwellings. You are a father--the blood of your sons +shall fatten your corn-field; you are a mother--the war-whoop shall +wake the sleep of the cradle. + +On this subject you need not suspect any deception on your feelings. +It is a spectacle of horror which can not be overdrawn. If you have +nature in your hearts, it will speak a language compared with which +all I have said or can say will be poor and frigid. + +Will it be whispered that the treaty has made a new champion for the +protection of the frontiers? It is known that my voice as well as +vote has been uniformly given in conformity with the ideas I have +expressed. Protection is the right of the frontiers; it is our duty +to give it. + +Who will accuse me of wandering out of the subject? Who will say +that I exaggerate the tendencies of our measures? Will any one +answer by a sneer, that all this is idle preaching? Will any one +deny that we are bound, and I would hope to good purpose, by the +most solemn sanctions of duty, for the vote we give? Are despots +alone to be approached for unfeeling indifference to the tears and +blood of their subjects? Are republicans unresponsible? Have the +principles, on which you ground the reproach upon cabinets and +kings, no practical influence, no binding force? Are they merely +themes of idle declamation, introduced to decorate the morality of a +newspaper essay, or to furnish pretty topics of harangue from the +windows of that state house? I trust it is neither too presumptuous +nor too late to ask, Can you put the dearest interest of society at +risk without guilt, and without remorse? + +It is vain to offer as an excuse, that public men are not to be +reproached for the evils that may happen to ensue from their +measures. This is very true, where they are unforeseen or +inevitable. Those I have depicted are not unforeseen; they are so +far from inevitable, we are going to bring them into being by our +vote. We choose the consequences, and become as justly answerable +for them as for the measure that we know will produce them. + +By rejecting the posts, we light the savage fires--we bind the +victims. This day we undertake to render account to the widows and +orphans whom our decision will make, to the wretches that will be +roasted at the stake, to our country, and I do not deem it too +serious to say, to conscience and to God. We are answerable, and if +duty be anything more than a word of imposture, if conscience be not +a bugbear, we are preparing to make ourselves as wretched as our +country. + +There is no mistake in this case; there can be none. Experience has +already been the prophet of events, and the cries of our future +victims have already reached us. The western inhabitants are not a +silent and uncomplaining sacrifice. The voice of humanity issues +from the shade of their wilderness. It exclaims, that while one hand +is held up to reject this treaty, the other grasps a tomahawk. It +summons our imagination to the scenes that will open. It is no great +effort to the imagination to conceive that events so near are +already begun. I can fancy that I listen to the yells of savage +vengeance and the shrieks of torture. Already they seem to sigh in +the west wind--already they mingle with every echo from the +mountains. + +It is not the part of prudence to be inattentive to the tendencies +of measures. Where there is any ground to fear that these will be +pernicious, wisdom and duty forbid that we should underrate them. If +we reject the treaty, will our peace be as safe as if we executed it +with good faith? I do honor to the intrepid spirit of those who say +it will. It was formerly understood to constitute the excellence of +a man's faith to believe without evidence and against it. + +But as opinions on this article are changed, and we are called to +act for our country, it becomes us to explore the dangers that will +attend its peace, and to avoid them if we can. + +Few of us here, and fewer still in proportion of our constituents, +will doubt that, by rejecting, all those dangers will be +aggravated. . . . + + + +ST. ANSELM (1032-1109) + +St. Anselm, who has been called the acutest thinker and profoundest +theologian of his day, was born in Piedmont about 1032. Educated +under the celebrated Lanfranc, he went to England in 1093 and became +Archbishop of Canterbury. He was banished by William Rufus as a +result of a conflict between royal and ecclesiastical prerogative. +He died in 1109. Neale calls him the last of the great fathers +except St. Bernard, and adds that "he probably possessed the +greatest genius of all except St. Augustine." + +The sermon here given, the third of the sixteen extant, is given +entire from Neale's translation. It is one of the best examples of +the Middle-Age style of interpreting all Scripture as metaphor and +parable. It contains, moreover, a number of striking passages, such +as, "It is a proof of great virtue to struggle with happiness." + +THE SEA OP LIFE + +"And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, +and to go before him to the other side, while he sent the multitude +away." (Matt, xiv, 22.) + +In this section, according to its mystical interpretation, we have a +summary description of the state of the Church, from the coming of +the Savior to the end of the world. For the Lord constrained his +Disciples to get into a ship, when he committed the Church to the +government of the Apostles and their followers. And thus to go +before him unto the other side,--that is, to bear onwards towards +the haven of the celestial country, before he himself should +entirely depart from the world. For, with his elect, and on account +of his elect, he ever remains here until the consummation of all +things; and he is preceded to the other side of the sea of this +world by those who daily pass hence to the Land of the Living. And +when he shall have sent all that are his to that place, then, +leaving the multitude of the reprobate, and no longer warning them +to be converted, but giving them over to perdition, he will depart +hence that he may be with his elect alone in the kingdom. + +Whence it is added, "while he sent the multitude away." For in the +end of the world he will "send away the multitude" of his enemies, +that they may then be hurried by the Devil to everlasting +vdamnation. "And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up in a +mountain to pray." He will not send away the multitude of the +Gentiles till the end of the world; but he did dismiss the multitude +of the Jewish people at the time when, as saith Isaiah, "He +commanded his clouds that they should rain no rain upon it"; that +is, he commanded his Apostles that they should preach no longer to +the Jews, but should go to the Gentiles. Thus, therefore, he sent +away that multitude, and "went up into a mountain"; that is, to the +height of the celestial kingdom, of which it had been written, "Who +shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall rise up in his +holy place?" For a mountain is a height, and what is higher than +heaven? There the Lord ascended. And he ascended alone, "for no man +hath ascended up into heaven save he that came down from heaven, +even the Son of Man which is in heaven." And even when he shall come +at the end of the world, and shall have collected all of us, his +members, together, and shall have raised us into heaven, he will +also ascend alone, because Christ, the head, is one with his +body. But now the Head alone ascends,--the Mediator of God and man +--the man Christ Jesus. And he goes up to pray, because he went to +the Father to intercede for us. "For Christ is not entered into +holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true, but into +heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." + +It follows: "And when the evening was come, he was there alone." +This signifies the nearness of the end of the world, concerning +which John also speaks: "Little children, it is the last time." +Therefore it is said that, "when the evening was come, he was there +alone," because, when the world was drawing to its end, he by +himself, as the true high priest, entered into the holy of holies, +and is there at the right hand of God, and also maketh intercession +for us. But while he prays on the mountain, the ship is tossed with +waves in the deep. For, since the billows arise, the ship may be +tossed; but since Christ prays, it cannot be overwhelmed. ... + +We may notice, also, that this commotion of the waves, and tottering +or half-sinking of Peter, takes place even in our time, according to +the spiritual sense daily. For every man's own besetting sin is the +tempest. You love God; you walk upon the sea; the swellings of this +world are under your feet. You love the world; it swallows you up; +its wont is to devour, not to bear up, its lovers. But when your +heart fluctuates with the desire of sin, call on the divinity of +Christ, that you may conquer that desire. You think that the wind is +then contrary when the adversity of this world rises against you, +and not also when its prosperity fawns upon you. For when wars, when +tumults, when famine, when pestilence comes, when any private +calamity happens even to individual men, then the wind is thought +adverse, and then it is held right to call upon God; but when the +world smiles with temporal felicity, then, forsooth, the wind is not +contrary. Do not, by such tokens as these, judge of the tranquillity +of the time; but judge of it by your own temptations. See if you are +tranquil within yourself; see if no internal tempest is overwhelming +you. It is a proof of great virtue to struggle with happiness, so +that it shall not seduce, corrupt, subvert. Learn to trample on this +world; remember to trust in Christ. And if your foot be moved,--if +you totter,--if there be some temptations that you cannot +overcome,--if you begin to sink, cry out to Jesus, Lord, save +me. In Peter, therefore, the common condition of all of us is to be +considered; so that, if the wind of temptation endeavor to upset us +in any matter, or its billows to swallow us up, we may cry to +Christ. He shall stretch forth his hand, and preserve us from the +deep. + +It follows: "And when he was come into the ship, the wind ceased." +In the last day he shall ascend into the ship of the Church, because +then he shall sit upon the throne of his glory; which throne may not +unfitly be understood of the Church. For he who by faith and good +works now and always dwells in the Church shall then, by the +manifestation of his glory, enter into it. And then the wind shall +cease, because evil spirits shall no more have the power of sending +forth against it the flames of temptation or the commotions of +troubles; for then all things shall be at peace and at rest. + +It follows: "Then they that were with him in the ship came and +worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God." They +who remain faithfully in the Church amidst the tempests of +temptations will approach to him with joy, and, entering into his +kingdom with him, will worship him; and, praising him perpetually, +will affirm him of a truth to be the Son of God. Then, also, that +will happen which is written concerning the elect raised from death: +"All flesh shall come and shall worship before my face," saith the +Lord. And again: "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house; they +will always be praising thee." For him, whom with their heart they +believe unto righteousness, and with their mouth confess to +salvation, him they shall see with their heart to light, and with +their mouth shall praise to glory, when they behold how ineffably he +is begotten of the Father, with whom he liveth and reigneth, in the +unity of the Holy Ghost, God to all ages of ages. Amen. + + + +THOMAS ARNOLD (1795-1842) + +Doctor Thomas Arnold, the celebrated head master of Rugby was born +June 13th, 1795, at West Cowes, in the Isle of Wight, where his +father, William Arnold, was a Collector of Customs. After several +years at Winchester school, he went to Oxford where in 1815 he was +elected a fellow of Oriel College. His intellectual bent showed at +Oxford, on the one hand, in fondness for Aristotle and Thucydides, +and on the other in what one of his friends has described as "an +earnest, penetrating, and honest examination of Christianity." As a +result of this honesty and earnestness, he became and remains a +great force wherever English is spoken. Elected head master of Rugby +in December 1827, and remaining in charge of that school for nearly +fourteen years, he almost revolutionized and did much to civilize +the English system of public education. When he left Rugby, in +December 1841, it was to go to Oxford as professor of Modern +History, but his death, June 12th, 1842, left him remembered by the +English-speaking world as "Arnold of Rugby." He left five volumes of +sermons, an edition of 'Thucydides,' a 'History of Rome' in three +volumes, and other works, but his greatest celebrity has been given +him by the enthusiastic love which his manly Christian character +inspired in his pupils and acquaintances, furnishing as it did the +master motive of 'Tom Brown at Rugby,' a book which is likely to +hold the place it has taken next to 'Robinson Crusoe' among English +classics for the young. + +The sermon here republished from the text given in 'Simons's Sermons +of Great Preachers,' is an illustration of the eloquence which +appeals to the mind of others, not through musical and beautiful +language so much as through deep thought and compact expression. + + +THE REALITIES OF LIFE AND DEATH + +"God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."--Matt. xxii. 32 + +We hear these words as a part of our Lord's answer to the Sadducees; +and, as their question was put in evident profaneness, and the +answer to it is one which to our minds is quite obvious and natural, +so we are apt to think that in this particular story there is less +than usual that particularly concerns us. But it so happens, that +our Lord, in answering the Sadducees, has brought in one of the most +universal and most solemn of all truths,--which is indeed implied +in many parts of the Old Testament, but which the Gospel has +revealed to us in all its fullness,--the truth contained in the +words of the text, that "God is not the God of the dead, but of the +living." + +I would wish to unfold a little what is contained in these words, +which we often hear even, perhaps, without quite understanding them; +and many times oftener without fully entering into them. And we may +take them, first, in their first part, where they say that "God is +not the God of the dead." + +The word "dead," we know, is constantly used in Scripture in a +double sense, as meaning those who are dead spiritually, as well as +those who are dead naturally. And, in either sense, the words are +alike applicable: "God is not the God of the dead." + +God's not being the God of the dead signifies two things: that they +who are without him are dead, as well as that they who are dead are +also without him. So far as our knowledge goes respecting inferior +animals, they appear to be examples of this truth. They appear to +us to have no knowledge of God; and we are not told that they have +any other life than the short one of which our senses inform us. I +am well aware that our ignorance of their condition is so great that +we may not dare to say anything of them positively; there may be a +hundred things true respecting them which we neither know nor +imagine. I would only say that, according to that most imperfect +light in which we see them, the two points of which I have been +speaking appear to meet in them: we believe that they have no +consciousness of God, and we believe that they will die. And so +far, therefore, they afford an example of the agreement, if I may so +speak, between these two points; and were intended, perhaps, to be +to our view a continual image of it. But we had far better speak of +ourselves. And here, too, it is the case that "God is not the God +of the dead." If we are without him we are dead; and if we are dead +we are without him: in other words, the two ideas of death and +absence from God are in fact synonymous. + +Thus, in the account given of the fall of man, the sentence of death +and of being cast out of Eden go together; and if any one compares +the description of the second Eden in the Revelation, and recollects +how especially it is there said, that God dwells in the midst of it, +and is its light by day and night, he will see that the banishment +from the first Eden means a banishment from the presence of God. +And thus, in the day that Adam sinned, he died; for he was cast out +of Eden immediately, however long he may have moved about afterwards +upon the earth where God was not. And how very strong to the same +point are the words of Hezekiah's prayer, "The grave cannot praise +thee, Death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit +cannot hope for thy truth"; words which express completely the +feeling that God is not the God of the dead. This, too, appears to +be the sense generally of the expression used in various parts of +the Old Testament, "Thou shalt surely die." It is, no doubt, left +purposely obscure; nor are we ever told, in so many words, all that +is meant by death; but, surely, it always implies a separation from +God, and the being--whatever the notion may extend to--the being +dead to him. Thus, when David had committed his great sin, and had +expressed his repentance for it, Nathan tells him, "The Lord also +hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die": which means, most +expressively, thou shalt not die to God. In one sense David died, +as all men die; nor was he by any means freed from the punishment of +his sin: he was not, in that sense, forgiven; but he was allowed +still to regard God as his God; and, therefore, his punishments were +but fatherly chastisements from God's hand, designed for his profit, +that he might be partaker of God's holiness. And thus, although +Saul was sentenced to lose his kingdom, and although he was killed +with his sons on Mount Gilboa, yet I do not think that we find the +sentence passed upon him, "Thou shalt surely die;" and, therefore, +we have no right to say that God had ceased to be his God, although +he visited him with severe chastisements, and would not allow him to +hand down to his sons the crown of Israel. Observe, also, the +language of the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel, where the expressions +occur so often, "He shall surely live," and "He shall surely die." +We have no right to refer these to a mere extension on the one hand, +or a cutting short on the other, of the term of earthly existence. +The promise of living long in the land, or, as in Hezekiah's case, +of adding to his days fifteen years, is very different from the full +and unreserved blessing, "Thou shalt surely live." And we know, +undoubtedly, that both the good and the bad to whom Ezekiel spoke +died alike the natural death of the body. But the peculiar force of +the promise, and of the threat, was, in the one case, Thou shalt +belong to God; in the other, Thou shalt cease to belong to him; +although the veil was not yet drawn up which concealed the full +import of those terms, "belonging to God," and "ceasing to belong to +him": nay, can we venture to affirm that it is fully drawn aside +even now? + +I have dwelt on this at some length, because it really seems to +place the common state of the minds of too many amongst us in a +light which is exceedingly awful; for if it be true, as I think the +Scripture implies, that to be dead, and to be without God, are +precisely the same thing, then can it be denied that the symptoms of +death are strongly marked upon many of us? Are there not many who +never think of God or care about his service? Are there not many who +live, to all appearances, as unconscious of his existence as we +fancy the inferior animals to be? And is it not quite clear, that to +such persons, God cannot be said to be their God? He may be the God +of heaven and earth, the God of the universe, the God of Christ's +Church; but he is not their God, for they feel to have nothing at +all to do with him; and, therefore, as he is not their God, they +are, and must be, according to the Scripture, reckoned among the +dead. + +But God is the God "of the living." That is, as before, all who are +alive, live unto him; all who live unto him are alive. "God said, I +am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;" +and, therefore, says our Lord, "Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob are +not and cannot be dead." They cannot be dead because God owns them; +he is not ashamed to be called their God; therefore, they are not +cast out from him; therefore, by necessity, they live. Wonderful, +indeed, is the truth here implied, in exact agreement, as we have +seen, with the general language of Scripture; that, as she who but +touched the hem of Christ's garment was, in a moment, relieved from +her infirmity, so great was the virtue which went out from him; so +they who are not cast out from God, but have anything: whatever to +do with him, feel the virtue of his gracious presence penetrating +their whole nature; because he lives, they must live also. + +Behold, then, life and death set before us; not remote (if a few +years be, indeed, to be called remote), but even now present before +us; even now suffered or enjoyed. Even now we are alive unto God or +dead unto God; and, as we are either the one or the other, so we +are, in the highest possible sense of the terms, alive or dead. In +the highest possible sense of the terms; but who can tell what that +highest possible sense of the terms is? So much has, indeed, been +revealed to us, that we know now that death means a conscious and +perpetual death, as life means a conscious and perpetual life. But +greatly, indeed, do we deceive ourselves, if we fancy that, by +having thus much told us, we have also risen to the infinite +heights, or descended to the infinite depths, contained in those +little words, life and death. They are far higher, and far deeper, +than ever thought or fancy of man has reached to. But, even on the +first edge of either, at the visible beginnings of that infinite +ascent or descent, there is surely something which may give us a +foretaste of what is beyond. Even to us in this mortal state, even +to you advanced but so short a way on your very earthly journey, +life and death have a meaning: to be dead unto God or to be alive to +him, are things perceptibly different. + +For, let me ask of those who think least of God, who are most +separate from him, and most without him, whether there is not now +actually, perceptibly, in their state, something of the coldness, +the loneliness, the fearfulness of death? I do not ask them whether +they are made unhappy by the fear of God's anger; of course they are +not: for they who fear God are not dead to him, nor he to them. The +thought of him gives them no disquiet at all; this is the very point +we start from. But I would ask them whether they know what it is to +feel God's blessing, For instance: we all of us have our troubles of +some sort or other, our disappointments, if not our sorrows. In +these troubles, in these disappointments,--I care not how small they +may be,--have they known what it is to feel that God's hand is over +them; that these little annoyances are but his fatherly correction; +that he is all the time loving us, and supporting us? In seasons of +joy, such as they taste very often, have they known what it is to +feel that they are tasting the kindness of their heavenly Father, +that their good things come from his hand, and are but an infinitely +slight foretaste of his love? Sickness, danger,--I know that they +come to many of us but rarely; but if we have known them, or at +least sickness, even in its lighter form, if not in its graver,-- +have we felt what it is to know that we are in our Father's hands, +that he is with us, and will be with us to the end; that nothing can +hurt those whom he loves? Surely, then, if we have never tasted +anything of this: if in trouble, or in joy, or in sickness, we are +left wholly to ourselves, to bear as we can, and enjoy as we can; if +there is no voice that ever speaks out of the heights and the depths +around us, to give any answer to our own; if we are thus left to +ourselves in this vast world,--there is in this a coldness and a +loneliness; and whenever we come to be, of necessity, driven to be +with our own hearts alone, the coldness and the loneliness must be +felt. But consider that the things which we see around us cannot +remain with us, nor we with them. The coldness and loneliness of the +world, without God, must be felt more and more as life wears on: in +every change of our own state, in every separation from or loss of a +friend, in every more sensible weakness of our own bodies, in every +additional experience of the uncertainty of our own counsels,--the +deathlike feeling will come upon us more and more strongly: we shall +gain more of that fearful knowledge which tells us that "God is not +the God of the dead." + +And so, also, the blessed knowledge that he is the God "of the +living" grows upon those who are truly alive. Surely he "is not far +from every one of us." No occasion of life fails to remind those who +live unto him, that he is their God, and that they are his children. +On light occasions or on grave ones, in sorrow and in joy, still the +warmth of his love is spread, as it were, all through the atmosphere +of their lives: they for ever feel his blessing. And if it fills +them with joy unspeakable even now, when they so often feel how +little they deserve it; if they delight still in being with God, and +in living to him, let them be sure that they have in themselves the +unerring witness of life eternal:--God is the God of the living, +and all who are with him must live. + +Hard it is, I well know, to bring this home, in any degree, to the +minds of those who are dead: for it is of the very nature of the +dead that they can hear no words of life. But it has happened that, +even whilst writing what I have just been uttering to you, the news +reached me that one, who two months ago was one of your number, who +this very half-year has shared in all the business and amusements of +this place, is passed already into that state where the meanings of +the terms life and death are become fully revealed. He knows what +it is to live unto God and what it is to die to him. Those things +which are to us unfathomable mysteries, are to him all plain: and +yet but two months ago he might have thought himself as far from +attaining this knowledge as any of us can do. Wherefore it is +clear, that these things, life and death, may hurry their lesson +upon us sooner than we deem of, sooner than we are prepared to +receive it. And that were indeed awful, if, being dead to God, and +yet little feeling it, because of the enjoyments of our worldly life +these enjoyments were of a sudden to be struck away from us, and we +should find then that to be dead to God is death indeed, a death +from which there is no waking and in which there is no sleeping +forever. + + + +CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR (1830-1886) + +If "Eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary and no more." +President Arthur's inaugural address is one of its best examples. He +was placed in a position of the gravest difficulty. He had been +nominated for Vice-President as a representative of the "Stalwart" +Republicans when that element of the party had been defeated in +National convention by the element then described as "Half-Breeds." +After the assassination of President Garfield by the "paranoiac" +Guiteau, the country waited with breathless interest to hear what +the Vice-President would say in taking the Presidency. With a tact +which amounted to genius, which never failed him during his +administration, which in its results showed itself equivalent to the +highest statesmanship, Mr. Arthur, a man to whom his opponents had +been unwilling to concede more than mediocre abilities, rose to the +occasion, disarmed factional oppositions, mitigated the animosity of +partisanship, and during his administration did more than had been +done before him to re-unite the sections divided by Civil War. + +He was born in Fairfield, Vermont, October 5th, 1830. His father, +Rev. William Arthur, a Baptist clergyman, born in Ireland, gave him +a good education, sending him to Union College where he graduated in +1848. After teaching school in Vermont, he studied law and began +practice in New York city. Entering politics as a Henry Clay Whig, +and casting his first vote in 1852 for Winfield Scott, he was active +as a Republican in the Fremont campaign of 1856 and from that time +until elected to the Vice-Presidency took that strong interest in +public affairs which led his opponents to class him as a +"professional politician." During the Civil War he was +inspector-general and quarter-master general of New York troops. In +1871 President Grant appointed him collector of the port of New York +and he held the office until July 1878. when he was suspended by +President Hayes. Taking an active part in the movement to nominate +General Grant for the Presidency to succeed Mr. Hayes. he attended +the Republican convention of 1880, and after the defeat of the Grant +forces, he was nominated as their representative for the +Vice-Presidency. He died suddenly in New York city, November 18th, +1886, having won for himself during his administration as President +the good-will of so many of his political opponents that the future +historian will probably study his administration as that during +which the most notable changes of the decade were made from the +politics of the Civil War period. + + +INAUGURAL ADDRESS (Delivered September 22d, 1881) + +For the fourth time in the history of the Republic its chief +magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts are filled with +grief and horror at the hideous crime which has darkened our land, +and the memory of the murdered President, his protracted sufferings, +his unyielding fortitude, the example and achievements of his life +and the pathos of his death will forever illumine the pages of our +history. + +For the fourth time, the officer elected by the people and ordained +by the constitution to fill a vacancy so created, is called to +assume the executive chair. The wisdom of our fathers, foreseeing +even the most dire possibilities, made sure that the government +should never be imperiled because of the uncertainty of human +life. Men may die but the fabric of our free institutions remains +unshaken. No higher or more assuring proof could exist of the +strength and permanence of popular government than the fact that +though the chosen of the people be struck down, his constitutional +successor is peacefully installed without shock or strain except +that of the sorrow which mourns the bereavement. All the noble +aspirations of my lamented predecessor, which found expression +during his life, the measures devised and suggested during his brief +administration to correct abuses, to enforce economy, to advance +prosperity, to promote the general welfare, to insure domestic +security and maintain friendly and honorable relations with the +nations of the earth, will be garnered in the hearts of the people +and it will be my earnest endeavor to profit and to see that the +nation shall profit by his example and experience. + +Prosperity blesses our country. Our fiscal policy as fixed by law +is well-grounded and generally approved. No threatening issue mars +our foreign intercourse and the wisdom, integrity, and thrift of our +people may be trusted to continue undisturbed the present career of +peace, tranquillity, and welfare. The gloom and anxiety which have +enshrouded the country must make repose especially welcome now. No +demand for speedy legislation has been heard; no adequate occasion +is apparent for an unusual session of Congress. The constitution +defines the functions and powers of the executive as clearly as +those of either of the other two departments of the government, and +he must answer for the just exercise of the discretion it permits +and the performance of the duties it imposes. Summoned to these +high duties and responsibilities, and profoundly conscious of their +magnitude and gravity, I assume the trust imposed by the +constitution, relying for aid on divine guidance and on the virtue, +patriotism, and intelligence of the American people. + + + +ATHANASIUS (298-373) + +Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, owes his great celebrity +chiefly to the controversy with the Arians, in which for half a +century he was at the head of the orthodox party in the Church. He +was born at Alexandria in the year 298, and was ordained a priest at +the age of twenty-one. He accompanied his bishop, Alexander, to the +Council of Nice in 325, and when under thirty years old succeeded to +the bishopric, on the death of Alexander, His success in the Arian +controversy was not achieved without cost, since, as an incident of +it, he spent twenty years in banishment. His admirers credit him +with "a deep mind, invincible courage, and living faith," but as his +orations and discourses were largely controversial, the interest +which now attaches to them is chiefly historical. The following was +preached from the seventh and eighth verses of the Forty-Fifth +Psalm. + + +THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST + +Behold, O ye Arians, and acknowledge hence the truth. The Psalmist +speaks of us all as fellows or partakers of the Lord, but were he +one of things which come out of nothing and of things generated he +himself had been one of those who partake. But since he hymned him +as the eternal God, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and +ever," and has declared that all other things partake of him, what +conclusion must we draw, but that he is distinct from generated +things, and he only the Father's veritable word, radiance, and +wisdom, which all things generate partake, being sanctified by him +in the Spirit? And, therefore, he is here "anointed," not that he +may become God, for he was so even before; nor that he may become +king, for he had the kingdom eternally, existing as God's image, as +the sacred oracle shows; but in our behalf is this written, as +before. For the Israelitish kings, upon their being anointed, then +became kings, not being so before, as David, as Ezekias, as Josias, +and the rest; but the Savior, on the contrary, being God, and ever +ruling in the Father's kingdom, and being himself the Dispenser of +the Holy Ghost, nevertheless is here said to be anointed, that, as +before, being said as man to be anointed with the Spirit, he might +provide for us more, not only exaltation and resurrection, but the +indwelling and intimacy of the Spirit. And signifying this, the Lord +himself hath said by his own mouth, in the Gospel according to +John: "I have sent them into the world, and for their sakes do I +sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified in the truth." In +saying this, he has shown that he is not the sanctified, but the +Sanctifier; for he is not sanctified by other, but himself +sanctifies himself, that we may be sanctified in the truth. He who +sanctifies himself is Lord of sanctification. How, then, does this +take place? What does he mean but this? "I, being the Father's Word, +I give to myself, when become man, the Spirit; and myself, become +man, do I sanctify in him, that henceforth in me, who am truth (for +'Thy Word is Truth'), all may be sanctified." + +If, then, for our sake, he sanctifies himself, and does this when he +becomes man, it is very plain that the Spirit's descent on him in +Jordan was a descent upon us, because of his bearing our body. And +it did not take place for promotion to the Word, but again for our +sanctification, that we might share his anointing, and of us it +might be said, Know ye not that ye are God's temple, and the Spirit +of God dwelleth in you? For when the Lord, as man, was washed in +Jordan, it was we who were washed in him and by him. And when he +received the Spirit, we it was who, by him, were made recipients of +it. And, moreover, for this reason, not as Aaron, or David, or the +rest, was he anointed with oil, but in another way, above all his +fellows, "with the oil of gladness," which he himself interprets to +be the Spirit, saying by the prophet, "The Spirit of the Lord is +upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me"; as also the Apostle has +said, "How God anointed him with the Holy Ghost." When, then, were +these things spoken of him, but when he came in the flesh, and was +baptized in Jordan, and the spirit descended on him? And, indeed, +the Lord himself said, "The Spirit shall take of mine," and "I will +send him"; and to his Disciples, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost." And, +notwithstanding, he who, as the word and radiance of the Father, +gives to others, now is said to be sanctified, because now he has +become Man, and the Body that is sanctified is his. From him, then, +we have begun to receive the unction and the seal, John saying, "And +ye have an unction from the Holy One"; and the Apostle, "And ye were +sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Therefore, because of us, +and for us, are these words. What advance, then, of promotion, and +reward of virtue, or generally of conduct, is proved from this in +our Lord's instance? For if he was not God, and then had become +God--if, not being king, he was preferred to the kingdom, your +reasoning would have had some faint plausibility. But if he is God, +and the throne of his kingdom is everlasting, in what way could God +advance? Or what was there wanting to him who was sitting on his +Father's throne? And if, as the Lord himself has said, the Spirit +is his, and takes of his, and he sends it, it is not the Word, +considered as the Word and Wisdom, who is anointed with the Spirit, +which he himself gives, but the flesh assumed by him, which is +anointed in him and by him; that the sanctification coming to the +Lord as man, may come to all men from him. For, not of itself, +saith he, doth the Spirit speak, but the word is he who gives it to +the worthy. For this is like the passage considered above; for, as +the Apostle hath written, "Who, existing in form of God, thought it +not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled himself, and took a +servant's form," so David celebrates the Lord, as the everlasting +God and king, but sent to us, and assuming our body, which is +mortal. For this is his meaning in the Psalm, "All thy garments +smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia"; and it is represented by +Nicodemus's and by Mary's company, when he came, bringing a mixture +of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pounds weight; and they took +the spices which they had prepared for the burial of the Lord's +body. + +What advancement, then, was it to the Immortal to have assumed the +mortal? Or what promotion is it to the Everlasting to have put on +the temporal? What reward can be great to the Everlasting God and +King, in the bosom of the Father? See ye not, that this, too, was +done and written because of us and for us, that us who are mortal +and temporal, the Lord, become man, might mate immortal, and bring +into the everlasting kingdom of heaven? Blush ye not, speaking lies +against the divine oracles? For when our Lord Jesus Christ had been +among us, we, indeed, were promoted, as rescued from sin; but he is +the same, nor did he alter when he became man (to repeat what I have +said), but, as has been written, "The word of God abideth forever." +Surely as, before his becoming man, he, the Word, dispensed to the +saints the Spirit as his own; so also, when made man, be sanctifies +all by the Spirit, and says to his Disciples, "Receive ye the Holy +Ghost." And he gave to Moses and the other seventy; and through him +David prayed to the Father, saying, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from +me." On the other hand, when made man, he said, "I will send to you +the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth"; and he sent him, he, the Word +of God, as being faithful. + +Therefore "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," +remaining unalterable, and at once gives and receives, giving as +God's Word, receiving as man. It is not the Word then, viewed as the +Word, that is promoted,--for he had all things and has had them +always,--but men, who have in him and through him their origin of +receiving them. For, when he is now said to be anointed in a human +respect, we it is who in him are anointed; since also, when he is +baptized, we it is who in him are baptized. But on all these things +the Savior throws much light, when he says to the Father, "And the +glory which thou gavest me, I have given to them, that they may be +one, even as we are one." Because of us, then, he asked for glory, +and the words occur, "took" and "gave" and "highly exalted," that we +might take, and to us might be given, and we might be exalted, in +him; as also for us he sanctifies himself, that we might be +sanctified in him. + +But if they take advantage of the word "wherefore," as connected +with the passage in the Psalm, "Wherefore God, even thy God, hath +anointed thee," for their own purposes, let these novices in +Scripture and masters in irreligion know that, as before, the word +"wherefore" does not imply reward of virtue or conduct in the Word, +but the reason why he came down to us, and of the Spirit's +anointing, which took place in him for our sakes. For he says not, +"Wherefore he anointed thee in order to thy being God or King or Son +or Word,"--for so he was before, and is forever, as has been +shown,--but rather, "Since thou art God and king, therefore thou +wast anointed, since none but thou couldst unite man to the Holy +Ghost, thou the image of the Father, in which we were made in the +beginning; for thine is even the Spirit," For the nature of things +generate could give no warranty for this, angels having +transgressed, and men disobeyed. Wherefore there was need of God; +and the Word is God; that those who had become under a curse, he +himself might set free. If then he was of nothing, he would not +have been the Christ or Anointed, being one among others and having +fellowship as the rest. But, whereas he is God, as being the Son of +God, and is everlasting King, and exists as radiance and expression +of the Father, wherefore fitly is he the expected Christ, whom the +Father announces to mankind, by revelation to his holy prophets; +that as through him we have come to be, so also in him all men might +be redeemed from their sins, and by him all things might be ruled. +And this is the cause of the anointing which took place in him, and +of the incarnate presence of the Word; which the Psalmist +foreseeing, celebrates, first his Godhead and kingdom, which is the +Father's, in these tones, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a +sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom"; then +announces his descent to us thus: "Wherefore God, even thy God, hath +anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." + + + +SAINT AUGUSTINE (354-430) + +Saint Augustine who is always classed as one of the four great Latin +fathers is generally conceded to be chief among them in natural +strength of intellect. Saint Jerome, who excelled him in knowledge +of classical literature, is his inferior in intellectual acuteness; +and certainly no other theologian of the earlier ages of the Church +has done so much as has Saint Augustine to influence the thought of +its strongest minds. + +Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was a Numidian by birth. He had a +Christian mother, whose devotion resulted in his conversion, as well +as in that of his father, who seems to have been a man of liberal +mind, aware of the value of literary education. Augustine was well +versed in the Latin classics. The extent of his knowledge of Greek +literature has been questioned, but it is conceded that he knew the +language, at least well enough for purposes of comparative study of +the Scripture text. + +As a young man, his ideas of morality, as we know from his +'Confessions,' were not severe. He was not extraordinarily +licentious, but he had the introspective sensitiveness which seems +to characterize great genius wherever it is found, and in his later +life he looked with acute pain on the follies of his youth. + +Becoming a Christian at the age of twenty-three, he was ordained a +priest four years later, and in 395 became Bishop of Hippo. Of his +literary works, his book 'The City of God' is accounted his masterpiece, +though it is not so generally read as his 'Confessions.' The sermon +on the Lord's Prayer here given as an illustration of his style in +the pulpit, is from his 'Homilies on the New Testament,' as +translated in Parker's 'Library of the Fathers.' + + +THE LORD'S PRAYER + +The order established for your edification requires that ye learn +first what to believe, and afterwards what to ask. For so saith the +Apostle, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be +saved." This testimony blessed Paul cited out of the Prophet; for by +the Prophet were those times foretold, when all men should call upon +God; "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be +saved." And he added, "How then shall they call on him in whom they +have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they +have not heard? Or how shall they hear without a preacher? Or how +shall they preach except they be sent?" Therefore were preachers +sent. They preached Christ. As they preached, the people heard; by +hearing they believed, and by believing called upon him. Because +then it was most rightly and most truly said, "How shall they call +on him in whom they have not believed?" therefore have ye first +learned what to believe: and to-day have learned to call on him in +whom ye have believed. + +The Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, hath taught us a prayer; and +though he be the Lord himself, as ye have heard and repeated in the +Creed, the Only Son of God, yet he would not be alone. He is the +Only Son, and yet would not be alone; he hath vouchsafed to have +brethren. For to whom doth he say, "Say, Our Father, which art in +heaven?" Whom did he wish us to call our father, save his own +father? Did he grudge us this? Parents sometimes when they have +gotten one, or two, or three children, fear to give birth to any +more, lest they reduce the rest to beggary. But because the +inheritance which he promised us is such as many may possess, and no +one be straitened, therefore hath he called into his brotherhood the +peoples of the nations; and the only son hath numberless brethren, +who say, "Our Father, which art in heaven." So said they who have +been before us; and so shall say those who will come after us. See +how many brethren the only son hath in his grace, sharing his +inheritance with those for whom he suffered death. We had a father +and mother on earth, that we might be born to labors and to death; +but we have found other parents, God our father and the Church our +mother, by whom we are born unto life eternal. Let us then consider, +beloved, whose children we have begun to be; and let us live so as +becomes those who have such a father. See, how that our Creator hath +condescended to be our Father. + +We have heard whom we ought to call upon, and with what hope of an +eternal inheritance we have begun to have a father in heaven; let us +now hear what we must ask of him. Of such a father what shall we +ask? Do we not ask rain of him, to-day, and yesterday, and the day +before? This is no great thing to have asked of such a father, and +yet ye see with what sighings, and with what great desire we ask for +rain, when death is feared,--when that is feared which none can +escape. For sooner or later every man must die, and we groan, and +pray, and travail in pain, and cry to God, that we may die a little +later, How much more ought we to cry to him, that we may come to +that place where we shall never die! + +Therefore it is said, "Hallowed be thy name." This we also ask of +him that his name may be hallowed in us; for holy is it always. And +how is his name hallowed in us, except while it makes us holy? For +once we were not holy, and we are made holy by his name; but he is +always holy, and his name always holy. It is for ourselves, not for +God, that we pray. For we do not wish well to God, to whom no ill +can ever happen. But we wish what is good for ourselves, that his +holy name may be hallowed, that that which is always holy, may be +hallowed in us. + +"Thy kingdom come." Come it surely will, whether we ask or no. +Indeed, God hath an eternal kingdom. For when did he not reign? +When did he begin to reign? For his kingdom hath no beginning, +neither shall it have any end. But that ye may know that in this +prayer also we pray for ourselves, and not for God (For we do not +say, "Thy kingdom come," as though we were asking that God may +reign); we shall be ourselves his kingdom, if believing in him we +make progress in this faith. All the faithful, redeemed by the +blood of his only son, will be his kingdom. And this his kingdom +will come, when the resurrection of the dead shall have taken place; +for then he will come himself. And when the dead are risen, he will +divide them, as he himself saith, "and he shall set some on the +right hand, and some on the left." To those who shall be on the +right hand he will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the +kingdom." This is what we wish and pray for when we say, "Thy +kingdom come"; that it may come to us. For if we shall be reprobates, +that kingdom shall come to others, but not to us. But if we shall +be of that number, who belong to the members of his only-begotten +son, his kingdom will come to us, and will not tarry. For are there +as many ages yet remaining as have already passed away? The Apostle +John hath said, "My little children, it is the last hour." But it +is a long hour proportioned to this long day; and see how many years +this last hour lasteth. But, nevertheless, be ye as those who +watch, and so sleep, and rise again, and reign. Let us watch now, +let us sleep in death; at the end we shall rise again, and shall +reign without end. + +"Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth." The third thing we +pray for is, that his will may be done as in heaven so in earth. +And in this, too, we wish well for ourselves. For the will of God +must necessarily be done. It is the will of God that the good +should reign, and the wicked be damned. Is it possible that this +will should not be done? But what good do we wish for ourselves, +when we say, "Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth?" Give +ear. For this petition may be understood in many ways, and many +things are to be in our thoughts in this petition, when we pray God, +"Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth." As thy angels offend +thee not, so may we also not offend thee. Again, how is "Thy will +be done as in heaven, so in earth," understood? All the holy +Patriarchs, all the Prophets, all the Apostles, all the spiritual +are, as it were, God's heaven; and we in comparison of them are +earth. "Thy will be done in heaven, so in earth"; as in them, so in +us also. Again, "Thy will be done as in heaven, so in earth"; the +Church of God is heaven, his enemies are earth. So we wish well for +our enemies, that they too may believe and become Christians, and so +the will of God be done as in heaven, so also in earth. Again, "Thy +will be done as in heaven, so in earth." Our spirit is heaven, and +the flesh earth. As our spirit is renewed by believing, so may our +flesh be renewed by rising again; and "the will of God be done as in +heaven, so in earth." Again, our mind whereby we see truth, and +delight in this truth, is heaven; as, "I delight in the law of God, +after the inward man." What is the earth? "I see another law in my +members, warring against the law of my mind?" When this strife +shall have passed away, and a full concord be brought about of the +flesh and spirit, the will of God will be done as in heaven, so also +in earth. When we repeat this petition, let us think of all these +things, and ask them all of the Father. Now all these things which +we have mentioned, these three petitions, beloved, have respect to +the life eternal. For if the name of our God is sanctified in us, +it will be for eternity. If his kingdom come, where we shall live +forever, it will be for eternity. If his will be done as in heaven, +so in earth, in all the ways which I have explained, it will be for +eternity. + +There remain now the petitions for this life of our pilgrimage; +therefore follows, "Give us this day our daily bread." Give us +eternal things, give us things temporal. Thou hast promised a +kingdom, deny us not the means of subsistence. Thou wilt give +everlasting glory with thyself hereafter, give us in this earth +temporal support. Therefore is it day by day, and to-day, that is, +in this present time. For when this life shall have passed away, +shall we ask for daily bread then? For then it will not be called +day by day, but to-day. Now it is called day by day, when one day +passes away, and another day succeeds. Will it be called day by day +when there will be one eternal day? This petition for daily bread +is doubtless to be understood in two ways, both for the necessary +supply of our bodily food, and for the necessities of our spiritual +support. There is a necessary supply of bodily food, for the +preservation of our daily life, without which we cannot live. This +is food and clothing, but the whole is understood in a part. When +we ask for bread, we thereby understand all things. There is a +spiritual food, also, which the faithful know, which ye, too, will +know when ye shall receive it at the altar of God. This also is +"daily bread," necessary only for this life. For shall we receive +the Eucharist when we shall have come to Christ himself, and begun +to reign with him forever? So then the Eucharist is our daily +bread; but let us in such wise receive it, that we be not refreshed +in our bodies only, but in our souls. For the virtue which is +apprehended there, is unity, that gathered together into his body, +and made his members, we may be what we receive. Then will it be, +indeed, our daily bread. Again, what I am handling before you now +is "daily bread"; and the daily lessons which ye hear in church are +daily bread, and the hymns ye hear and repeat are daily bread. For +all these arc necessary in our state of pilgrimage. But when we +shall have got to heaven, shall we hear the Word, we who shall see +the Word himself, and hear the Word himself, and eat and drink him +as the angels do now? Do the angels need books, and interpreters, +and readers? Surely not. They read in seeing, for the truth itself +they see, and are abundantly satisfied from that fountain, from +which we obtain some few drops. Therefore has it been said touching +our daily bread, that this petition is necessary for us in this +life. + +"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Is this necessary +except in this life? For in the other we shall have no debts. For +what are debts, but sins? See, ye are on the point of being +baptized, then all your sins will be blotted out, none whatever will +remain. Whatever evil ye have ever done, in deed, or word, or +desire, or thought, all will be blotted out. And yet if in the life +which is after baptism there were security from sin, we should not +learn such a prayer as this, "Forgive us our debts." Only let us by +all means do what comes next, "As we forgive our debtors." Do ye +then, who are about to enter in to receive a plenary and entire +remission of your debts, do ye above all things see that ye have +nothing in your hearts against any other, so as to come forth from +baptism secure, as it were, free and discharged of all debts, and +then begin to purpose to avenge yourselves on your enemies, who in +time past have done you wrong. Forgive, as ye are forgiven. God can +do no one wrong, and yet he forgiveth who oweth nothing. How then +ought he to forgive who is himself forgiven, when he forgiveth all +who oweth nothing that can be forgiven him? + +"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Will this +again be necessary in the life to come? "Lead us not into +temptation," will not be said except where there can be temptation. +We read in the book of holy Job, "Is not the life of man upon earth +a temptation?" What, then, do we pray for? Hear what. The Apostle +James saith, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of +God." He spoke of those evil temptations whereby men are deceived, +and brought under the yoke of the devil. This is the kind of +temptation he spoke of. For there is another sort of temptation +which is called a proving; of this kind of temptation it is written, +"The Lord your God tempteth [proveth] you to know whether ye love +him." What means "to know"? "To make you know," for he knoweth +already. With that kind of temptation whereby we are deceived and +seduced, God tempteth no man. But undoubtedly in his deep and +hidden judgment he abandons some. And when he hath abandoned them, +the tempter finds his opportunity. For he finds in him no +resistance against his power, but forthwith presents himself to him +as his possessor, if God abandon him. Therefore, that he may not +abandon us, do we say, "Lead us not into temptation." "For every one +is tempted," says the same Apostle James, "when he is drawn away of +his own lust and enticed. Then lust, when it hath conceived, +bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth +death." What, then, has he hereby taught us? To fight against our +lusts. For ye are about to put away your sins in holy baptism; but +lusts will still remain, wherewith ye must fight after that ye are +regenerate. For a conflict with your own selves still remains. Let +no enemy from without be feared; conquer thine own self, and the +whole world is conquered. What can any tempter from without, whether +the devil or the devil's minister, do against thee? Whosoever sets +the hope of gain before thee to seduce thee, let him only find no +covetousness in thee; and what can he who would tempt thee by gain +effect? Whereas, if covetousness be found in thee, thou takest fire +at the sight of gain, and art taken by the bait of this corrupt +food. But if we find no covetousness in thee, the trap remains +spread in vain. Or should the tempter set before thee some woman of +surpassing beauty; if chastity be within, iniquity from without is +overcome. Therefore, that he may not take thee with the bait of a +strange woman's beauty, fight with thine own lust within; thou hast +no sensible perception of thine enemy, but of thine own +concupiscence thou hast. Thou dost not see the devil, but the object +that engageth thee thou dost see. Get the mastery then over that of +which thou art sensible within. Fight valiantly, for he who hath +regenerated thee is thy judge; he hath arranged the lists, he is +making ready the crown. But because thou wilt without doubt be +conquered, if thou have not him to aid thee, if he abandon thee, +therefore dost thou say in the prayer, "Lead us not into +temptation." The judge's wrath hath given over some to their own +lusts; and the Apostle says, "God gave them over to the lusts of +their hearts." How did he give them up? Not by forcing, but by +forsaking them. + +"Deliver us from evil," may belong to the same sentence. Therefore, +that thou mayst understand it to be all one sentence, it runs thus, +"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Therefore, +he added "but," to show that all this belongs to one sentence, "Lead +us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." How is this? I +will propose them singly. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver +us from evil." By delivering us from evil, he leadeth us not into +temptation; by not leading us into temptation, he delivereth us from +evil. + +And, truly, it is a great temptation, dearly beloved, it is a great +temptation in this life, when that in us is the subject of +temptation whereby we attain pardon if, in any of our temptations, +we have fallen. It is a frightful temptation when that is taken from +us whereby we may be healed from the wounds of other temptations. I +know that ye have not yet understood me. Give me your attention, +that ye may understand. Suppose, avarice tempts a man, and he is +conquered in any single temptation (for sometimes even a good +wrestler and fighter may get roughly handled): avarice, then, has +got the better of a man, good wrestler though he be, and he has done +some avaricious act. Or there has been a passing lust; it has not +brought the man to fornication, nor reached unto adultery--for when +this does take place, the man must at all events be kept back from +the criminal act. But he "hath seen a woman to lust after her"; he +has let his thoughts dwell on her with more pleasure than was right; +he has admitted the attack; excellent combatant though he be, he has +been wounded, but he has not consented to it; he has beaten back the +motion of his lust, has chastised it with the bitterness of grief, +he has beaten it back; and has prevailed. Still, in the very fact +that he had slipped, has he ground for saying, "Forgive us our +debts." And so of all other temptations, it is a hard matter that in +them all there should not be occasion for saying, "Forgive us our +debts." What, then, is that frightful temptation which I have +mentioned, that grievous, that tremendous temptation, which must be +avoided with all our strength, with all our resolution; what is it? +When we go about to avenge ourselves. Anger is kindled, and the man +bums to be avenged. O frightful temptation! Thou art losing that, +whereby thou hadst to attain pardon for other faults. If thou hadst +committed any sin as to other senses, and other lusts, hence +mightest thou have had thy cure, in that thou mightest say, "Forgive +us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." But whoso instigateth +thee to take vengeance will lose for thee the power thou hadst to +say, "As we also forgive our debtors." When that power is lost, all +sins will be retained; nothing at all is remitted. + +Our Lord and Master, and Savior, knowing this dangerous temptation +in this life, when he taught us six or seven petitions in this +prayer, took none of them for himself to treat of, and to commend to +us with greater earnestness, than this one. Have we not said, "Our +Father, which art in heaven," and the rest which follows? Why after +the conclusion of the prayer, did he not enlarge upon it to us, +either as to what he had laid down in the beginning, or concluded +with at the end, or placed in the middle? For why said he not, if +the name of God be not hallowed in you, or if ye have no part in the +kingdom of God, or if the will of God be not done in you, as in +heaven, or if God guard you not, that ye enter not into temptation; +why none of all these? but what saith he? "Verily I say unto you, +that if ye forgive men their trespasses," in reference to that +petition, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." +Having passed over all the other petitions which he taught us, this +he taught us with an especial force. There was no need of insisting +so much upon those sins in which if a man offend, he may know the +means whereby he may be cured; need of it there was with regard to +that sin in which, if thou sin, there is no means whereby the rest +can be cured. For this thou oughtest to be ever saying, "Forgive us +our debts." What debts? There is no lack of them, for we are but +men; I have talked somewhat more than I ought, have said something I +ought not, have laughed more than I ought, have eaten more than I +ought, have listened with pleasure to what I ought not, have drunk +more than I ought, have seen with pleasure what I ought not, have +thought with pleasure on what I ought not; "Forgive us our debts, as +we also forgive our debtors." This if thou hast lost, thou art lost +thyself. + +Take heed, my brethren, my sons, sons of God, take heed, I beseech +you, in that I am saying to you. Fight to the uttermost of your +powers with your own hearts. And if ye shall see your anger making a +stand against you, pray to God against it, that God may make thee +conqueror of thyself, that God may make thee conqueror, I say, not +of thine enemy without, but of thine own soul within. For he will +give thee his present help, and will do it. He would rather that we +ask this of him, than rain. For ye see, beloved, how many petitions +the Lord Christ hath taught us; and there is scarce found among them +one which speaks of daily bread, that all our thoughts may be molded +after the life to come. For what can we fear that he will not give +us, who hath promised and said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God +and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you; +for your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things before ye +ask him." "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, +and all these things shall be added unto you." For many have been +tried even with hunger, and have been found gold, and have not been +forsaken by God. They would have perished with hunger, if the daily +inward bread were to leave their heart. After this let us chiefly +hunger. For, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after +righteousness, for they shall be filled." But he can in mercy look +upon our infirmity, and see us, as it is said, "Remember that we are +dust." He who from the dust made and quickened man, for that his +work of clay's sake, gave his only son to death. Who can explain, +who can worthily so much as conceive, how much he loveth us? + + + +FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626) + +Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, is called by +one of his contemporaries, "the eloquentest man in England." Perhaps +those who read his legal arguments before the Star Chamber may not +see this eloquence so fully exemplified in them as in his +incomparable essays; but wherever he speaks, it is Francis Bacon +speaking. It is doubtful if any other man ever lived who has even +approached him in the power of controlling his own and subsequent +times by purely intellectual means. Until his time, Aristotle had no +rival in the domain of pure intellect Since he lived, the higher +mind of the world has owned his mastery and has shown the results of +the inspiration of his intellectual daring in following, regardless +of consequences, the "inductive method," the determination to make +truth fruitful through experiment, which has resulted in the +scientific accomplishments of the modern world. Lucretius writes of +the pleasure of knowing truth as like that a man on shore in a storm +has in seeing the struggles of those who are about to be +shipwrecked:-- + +"'Tis sweet when the seas are roughened by violent winds to view on +land the toils of others; not that there is pleasure in seeing +others in distress, but because man is glad to know himself +secure. It is pleasant, too, to look with no share of peril on the +mighty contests of war; but nothing is sweeter than to reach those +calm, undisturbed temples, raised by the wisdom of philosophers, +whence thou mayst look down on poor, mistaken mortals, wandering up +and down in life's devious ways."--(Lucretius ii 1, translated by +Ramage.) + + "Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis, + E terra magnum altcrius spectare laborem; + Non quia vexari quenquam est jucunda voluptas, + Sed quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est," etc. + +Perhaps the spirit of the ancient learning was never so well +expressed elsewhere as in these lines. In what may be called a plea +for the possibilities of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries +Bacon answered it. + +"Is there any such happiness for a man's mind to be raised above the +confusion of things where he may have the prospect of the order of +nature and error of man? But is this view of delight only and not of +discovery--of contentment, and not of benefit? Shall he not as well +discern the riches of Nature's warehouse as the beauties of her +shop? Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to produce +worthy effects and to endow the life of man with infinite +commodities?" + +Among the "infinite commodities" already developed from the thought +flowing into and out of the mind which framed these sublime +sentences are the steam engine, the electric motor, the discoveries +of the microscope in the treatment of disease, the wonders of +chemistry, working out practical results to alleviate human misery, +and to increase steadily from year to year, and from century to +century, the sum of human comfort. Looking forward to this, Bacon +worked for it until his whole life became a manifestation of his +master-thought. It may be said with literal truth that he died of +it, for the cold which brought him his death resulted from his +rashness in leaving his carriage, when sick, to experiment on the +arrest of putrefaction by freezing. The idea came to him. It was +winter and the ground was covered with snow. He was feeble, but he +left his carriage to stuff snow into the carcass of a chicken he had +procured for the experiment. The experiment succeeded, and +centuries later, as a result of it, England is fed with the meat of +America and Australia, But Bacon died after it, leaving behind him +ideas which stamp him as the greatest and brightest, whether or not +he was also "the meanest of mankind." On this latter point, he may +speak for himself, as he does thus in the volume 'State Trials' from +which his speech on Dueling, before the Star Chamber, here used, is +extracted:-- + +(Howell's, Vol. ii.): "Upon advised consideration of the charge, +descending into my own conscience and calling my memory to account, +as far as I am able, I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am +guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defense and put myself +upon the grace and mercy of your lordships. ... To the nineteenth +article, _vis._, 'That in the cause between Reynell and Peacock, he +received from Reynell two hundred pounds and a diamond ring worth +four or five hundred pounds,' I confess and declare that on my first +coming to the Seal when I was at Whitehall, my servant Hunt +delivered me two hundred pounds from Sir George Reynell, my near +ally, to be bestowed upon furniture of my house, adding further that +he had received divers former favors from me. And this was, as I +verily think, before any suit was begun. The ring was received +certainly _pendente_ _lite_, and though it was at New Year's tide it was +too great a value for a New Year's gift, though, I take it, nothing +near the value mentioned in the article." + +That while Lord Chancellor of England he took gifts intended to +corrupt justice, he confessed to his shame, but he does not seem to +have been wholly able to decide whether in doing so he broke faith +with those who wished to corrupt him, or with the kingdom and +constitution of England he represented, against their desire to +purchase justice. He seems to have believed that though his conduct +was corrupt, his decisions were honest. He says, indeed, that in +spite of his bribe-taking, "he never had bribe or reward in his eye +or thought when he pronounced any sentence or order." + +This cannot be admitted in excuse even for Bacon, but his moral +weakness, if it obscure for the time the splendor of his intellect, +died with him, while his genius, marvelously radiant above that of +any other of the last ten centuries, still illuminates the path of +every pioneer of progress. + +His address to the Star Chamber on Dueling was delivered in the +proceedings against Mr. William Priest for writing and sending a +challenge, and Mr. Richard Wright for carrying it, January 26th, +1615, Bacon being then the King's attorney-general. The text is from +T. B. Howell's 'State Trials,' London 1816. + +SPEECH AGAINST DUELING + +My Lords, I thought it fit for my place, and for these times, to +bring to hearing before your lordships some cause touching private +duels, to see if this court can do any good to tame and reclaim that +evil, which seems unbridled. And I could have wished that I had met +with some greater persons, as a subject for your censure; both +because it had been more worthy of this presence, and also the +better to have shown the resolution I myself have to proceed without +respect of persons in this business. But finding this cause on foot +in my predecessor's time, I thought to lose no time in a mischief +that groweth every day; and besides, it passes not amiss sometimes +in government, that the greater sort be admonished by an example +made in the meaner, and the dog to be eaten before the lion. Nay, I +should think, my lords, that men of birth and quality will leave the +practice, when it begins to be vilified, and come so low as to +barber-surgeons and butchers, and such base mechanical persons. And +for the greatness of this presence, in which I take much comfort, +both as I consider it in itself, and much more in respect it is by +his Majesty's direction, I will supply the meanness of the +particular cause, by handling of the general point; to the end that +by the occasion of this present cause, both my purpose of +prosecution against duels and the opinion of the court, without +which I am nothing, for the censure of them may appear, and thereby +offenders in that kind may read their own case, and know what they +are to expect; which may serve for a warning until example may be +made in some greater person, which I doubt the times will but too +soon afford. + +Therefore, before I come to the particular, whereof your lordships +are now to judge, I think the time best spent to speak somewhat (1) +of the nature and greatness of this mischief; (2) of the causes and +remedies; (3) of the justice of the law of England, which some stick +not to think defective in this matter; (4) of the capacity of this +court, where certainly the remedy of this mischief is best to be +found; (5) touching mine own purpose and resolution, wherein I shall +humbly crave your lordships' aid and assistance. + +For the mischief itself, it may please your lordships to take into +your consideration that, when revenge is once extorted out of the +magistrate's hands, contrary to God's ordinance, _mihi_ _vindicta_, +_ego_ _retribuam_, and every man shall bear the sword, not to +defend, but to assail, and private men begin once to presume to give +law to themselves and to right their own wrongs, no man can foresee +the danger and inconveniences that may arise and multiply thereupon. +It may cause sudden storms in court, to the disturbance of his +Majesty and unsafety of his person. It may grow from quarrels to +bandying, and from bandying to trooping, and so to tumult and +commotion; from particular persons to dissension of families and +alliances; yea, to national quarrels, according to the infinite +variety of accidents, which fall not under foresight. So that the +State by this means shall be like to a distempered and imperfect +body, continually subject to inflammations and convulsions. +Besides, certainly both in divinity and in policy, offenses of +presumption are the greatest. Other offenses yield and consent to +the law that it is good, not daring to make defense, or to justify +themselves; but this offense expressly gives the law an affront, as +if there were two laws, one a kind of gown law and the other a law +of reputation, as they term it. So that Paul's and Westminster, the +pulpit and the courts of justice, must give place to the law, as the +King speaketh in his proclamation, of ordinary tables, and such +reverend assemblies; the Yearbooks, and statute books must give +place to some French and Italian pamphlets, which handle the +doctrines of duels, which, if they be in the right, _transeamus_ +_ad_ _illa_, let us receive them, and not keep the people in +conflict and distraction between two laws. Again, my lords, it is a +miserable effect, when young men full of towardness and hope, such +as the poets call "_Aurorae_ _filii_," sons of the morning, in whom +the expectation and comfort of their friends consisteth, shall be +cast away and destroyed in such a vain manner. But much more it is +to be deplored when so much noble and genteel blood should be spilt +upon such follies, as, if it were adventured in the field in service +of the King and realm, were able to make the fortune of a day and +change the future of a kingdom. So your lordships see what a +desperate evil this is; it troubleth peace; it disfurnisheth war; it +bringeth calamity upon private men, peril upon the State, and +contempt upon the law. + +Touching the causes of it: the first motive, no doubt, is a false +and erroneous imagination of honor and credit; and therefore the +King, in his last proclamation, doth most aptly and excellently call +them bewitching duels. For, if one judge of it truly, it is no +better than a sorcery that enchanteth the spirits of young men, that +bear great minds with a false show, _species_ _falsa_; and a kind of +satanical illusion and apparition of honor against religion, against +law, against moral virtue, and against the precedents and examples +of the best times and valiantest nations; as I shall tell you by and +by, when I shall show you that the law of England is not alone in +this point. But then the seed of this mischief being such, it is +nourished by vain discourses and green and unripe conceits, which, +nevertheless, have so prevailed as though a man were staid and +sober-minded and a right believer touching the vanity and +unlawfulness of these duels; yet the stream of vulgar opinion is +such, as it imposeth a necessity upon men of value to conform +themselves, or else there is no living or looking upon men's faces; +so that we have not to do, in this case, so much with particular +persons as with unsound and depraved opinions, like the dominations +and spirits of the air which the Scripture speaketh of. Hereunto +may be added that men have almost lost the true notion and +understanding of fortitude and valor. For fortitude distinguisheth +of the grounds of quarrels whether they be just; and not only so, +but whether they be worthy; and setteth a better price upon men's +lives than to bestow them idly. Nay, it is weakness and disesteem +of a man's self, to put a man's life upon such ledger performances. +A man's life is not to be trifled away; it is to be offered up and +sacrificed to honorable services, public merits, good causes, and +noble adventures. It is in expense of blood as it is in expense of +money. It is no liberality to make a profusion of money upon every +vain occasion; nor no more is it fortitude to make effusion of +blood, except the cause be of worth. And thus much for the cause of +this evil. + +For the remedies. I hope some great and noble person will put his +hand to this plough, and I wish that my labors of this day may be +but forerunners to the work of a higher and better hand. But yet to +deliver my opinion as may be proper for this time and place, there +be four things that I have thought on, as the most effectual for the +repressing of this depraved custom of particular combats. + +The first is, that there do appear and be declared a constant and +settled resolution in the State to abolish it. For this is a thing, +my lords, must go down at once or not at all; for then every +particular man will think himself acquitted in his reputation, when +he sees that the State takes it to heart, as an insult against the +King's power and authority, and thereupon hath absolutely resolved +to master it; like unto that which we set down in express words in +the edict of Charles IX. of France, touching duels, that the King +himself took upon him the honor of all that took themselves grieved +or interested for not having performed the combat. So must the State +do in this business; and in my conscience there is none that is but +of a reasonable sober disposition, be he never so valiant, except it +be some furious person that is like a firework, but will be glad of +it, when he shall see the law and rule of State disinterest him of a +vain and unnecessary hazard. + +Secondly, care must be taken that this evil be no more cockered, nor +the humor of it fed; wherein I humbly pray your lordships, that I +may speak my mind freely, and yet be understood aright. The +proceedings of the great and noble commissioners martial I honor and +reverence much, and of them I speak not in any sort. But I say the +compounding of quarrels, which is otherwise in use by private +noblemen and gentlemen, is so punctual, and hath such reference and +respect unto the received conceits, what is beforehand, and what is +behindhand, and I cannot tell what, as without all question it doth, +in a fashion, countenance and authorize this practice of duels as if +it had in it somewhat of right. + +Thirdly, I must acknowledge that I learned out of the King's last +proclamation, the most prudent and best applied remedy for this +offense, if it shall please his Majesty to use it, that the wit of +man can devise. This offense, my lords, is grounded upon a false +conceit of honor; and therefore it would be punished in the same +kind, in _eo_ _quis_ _rectissime_ _plectitur_, _in_ _quo_ _peccat_. +The fountain of honor is the King and his aspect, and the access to +his person continueth honor in life, and to be banished from his +presence is one of the greatest eclipses of honor that can be. If +his Majesty shall be pleased that when this court shall censure any +of these offenses in persons of eminent quality, to add this out of +his own power and discipline, that these persons shall be banished +and excluded from his court for certain years, and the courts of his +queen and prince, I think there is no man that hath any good blood +in him will commit an act that shall cast him into that darkness +that he may not behold his sovereign's face. + +Lastly, and that which more properly concerneth this court. We see, +my lords, the root of this offense is stubborn; for it despiseth +death, which is the utmost of punishments; and it were a just but a +miserable severity to execute the law without all remission or +mercy, where the case proveth capital. And yet the late severity in +France was more, where by a kind of martial law, established by +ordinance of the King and Parliament, the party that had slain +another was presently had to the gibbet, insomuch as gentlemen of +great quality were hanged, their wounds bleeding, lest a natural +death should prevent the example of justice. But, my lords, the +course which we shall take is of far greater lenity, and yet of no +less efficacy; which is to punish, in this court, all the middle +acts and proceedings which tend to the duel, which I will enumerate +to you anon, and so to hew and vex the root in the branches, which, +no doubt, in the end will kill the root, and yet prevent the +extremity of law. + +Now for the law of England, I see it excepted to, though ignorantly, +in two points. The one, that it should make no difference between +an insidious and foul murder, and the killing of a man upon fair +terms, as they now call it. The other, that the law hath not +provided sufficient punishment and reparations for contumely of +words, as the lie, and the like. But these are no better than +childish novelties against the divine law, and against all laws in +effect, and against the examples of all the bravest and most +virtuous nations of the world. + +For first, for the law of God, there is never to be found any +difference made in homicide, but between homicide voluntary and +involuntary, which we term misadventure. And for the case of +misadventure itself, there were cities of refuge; so that the +offender was put to his flight, and that flight was subject to +accident, whether the revenger of blood should overtake him before +he had gotten sanctuary or no. It is true that our law hath made a +more subtle distinction between the will inflamed and the will +advised, between manslaughter in heat and murder upon prepensed +malice or cold blood, as the soldiers call it; an indulgence not +unfit for a choleric and warlike nation; for it is true, _ira_ +_furor_ _brevis_, a man in fury is not himself. This privilege of +passion the ancient Roman law restrained, but to a case; that was, +if the husband took the adulterer in the manner. To that rage and +provocation only it gave way, that a homicide was justifiable. But +for a difference to be made in killing and destroying man, upon a +forethought purpose, between foul and fair, and, as it were, between +single murder and vied murder, it is but a monstrous child of this +latter age, and there is no shadow of it in any law, divine or +human. Only it is true, I find in the Scripture that Cain enticed +his brother into the field and slew him treacherously; but Lamech +vaunted of his manhood, that he would kill a young man, and if it +were to his hurt; so as I see no difference between an insidious +murder and a braving or presumptuous murder, but the difference +between Cain and Lamech. As for examples in civil states, all +memory doth consent, that Graecia and Rome were the most valiant and +generous nations of the world; and that, which is more to be noted, +they were free estates, and not under a monarchy; whereby a man +would think it a great deal the more reason that particular persons +should have righted themselves. And yet they had not this practice +of duels, nor anything that bare show thereof; and sure they would +have had it, if there had been any virtue in it. Nay, as he saith, +"_Fas_ _est_ _et_ _ab_ _hoste_ _doceri_" It is memorable, that which +is reported by a counsel or ambassador of the emperor, touching the +censure of the Turks of these duels. There was a combat of this +kind performed by two persons of quality of the Turks, wherein one +of them was slain, and the other party was converted before the +council of bashaws. The manner of the reprehension was in these +words: "How durst you undertake to fight one with the other? Are +there not Christians enough to kill? Did you not know that whether +of you shall be slain, the loss would be the great seignor's?" So, +as we may see, the most warlike nations, whether generous or +barbarous, have ever despised this wherein now men glory. + +It is true, my lords, that I find combats of two natures authorized, +how justly I will not dispute as to the latter of them. The one, +when upon the approaches of armies in the face one of the other, +particular persons have made challenges for trial of valors in the +field upon the public quarrel. This the Romans called "_pugna_ +_per_ _provocationem_." And this was never, but either between the +generals themselves, who were absolute, or between particulars by +license of the generals; never upon private authority. So you see +David asked leave when he fought with Goliath; and Joab, when the +armies were met, gave leave, and said "Let the young man play before +us." And of this kind was that famous example in the wars of +Naples, between twelve Spaniards and twelve Italians, where the +Italians bore away the victory; besides other infinite like examples +worthy and laudable, sometimes by singles, sometimes by numbers. + +The second combat is a judicial trial of right, where the right is +obscure, introduced by the Goths and the northern nations, but more +anciently entertained in Spain. And this yet remains in some cases +as a divine lot of battle, though controverted by divines, touching +the lawfulness of it; so that a wise writer saith: "_Taliter_ +_pugnantes_ _videntur_ _tentare_ _Deum_, _quia_ _hoc_ _volunt_ _ut_ +_Deus_ _ostendat_ _et_ _faciat_ _miraculum_, _ut_ _justam_ _causam_ +_habens_ _victor_ _efficiatur_, _quod_ _saepe_ _contra_ _accidit_." +But whosoever it be, this kind of fight taketh its warrant from law. +Nay, the French themselves, whence this folly seemeth chiefly to +have flown, never had it but only in practice and toleration, and +never as authorized by law; and yet now of late they have been fain +to purge their folly with extreme rigor, in so much as many +gentlemen left between death and life in the duels, as I spake +before, were hastened to hanging with their wounds bleeding. For +the State found it had been neglected so long, as nothing could be +thought cruelty which tended to the putting of it down. As for the +second defect, pretended in our law, that it hath provided no remedy +for lies and fillips, it may receive like answer. It would have +been thought a madness amongst the ancient lawgivers to have set a +punishment upon the lie given, which in effect is but a word of +denial, a negative of another's saying. Any lawgiver, if he had +been asked the question, would have made Solon's answer: That he had +not ordained any punishment for it, because he never imagined the +world would have been so fantastical as to take it so highly. The +civilians dispute whether an action of injury lie for it, and rather +resolve the contrary. And Francis I. of France, who first set on +and stamped this disgrace so deep, is taxed by the judgment of all +wise writers for beginning the vanity of it; for it was he, that +when he had himself given the lie and defy to the Emperor, to make +it current in the world, said in a solemn assembly, "that he was no +honest man that would bear the lie," which was the fountain of this +new learning. + +As for the words of approach and contumely, whereof the lie was +esteemed none, it is not credible, but that the orations themselves +are extant, what extreme and exquisite reproaches were tossed up and +down in the Senate of Rome and the places of assembly, and the like +in Graecia, and yet no man took himself fouled by them, but took +them but for breath, and the style of an enemy, and either despised +them or returned them, but no blood was spilt about them. + +So of every touch or light blow of the person, they are not in +themselves considerable, save that they have got them upon the stamp +of a disgrace, which maketh these light things pass for great +matters. The law of England and all laws hold these degrees of +injury to the person, slander, battery, mayhem, death; and if there +be extraordinary circumstances of despite and contumely, as in case +of libels and bastinadoes and the like, this court taketh them in +hand and punisheth them exemplarily. But for this apprehension of a +disgrace that a fillip to the person should be a mortal wound to the +reputation, it were good that men did hearken unto the saying of +Gonsalvo, the great and famous commander, that was wont to say a +gentleman's honor should be _de_ _tela_ _crassiore_, of a good +strong warp or web, that every little thing should not catch in it; +when as now it seems they are but of cobweb-lawn or such light +stuff, which certainly is weakness, and not true greatness of mind, +but like a sick man's body, that is so tender that it feels +everything. And so much in maintenance and demonstration of the +wisdom and justice of the law of the land. + +For the capacity of this court, I take this to be a ground +infallible, that wheresoever an offense is capital, or matter of +felony, though it be not acted, there the combination or practice +tending to the offense is punishable in this court as high +misdemeanor. So practice to imprison, though it took no effect; +waylaying to murder, though it took no effect; and the like; have +been adjudged heinous misdemeanors punishable in this court. Nay, +inceptions and preparations in inferior crimes, that are not +capital, as suborning and preparing of witnesses that were never +deposed, or deposed nothing material, have likewise been censured in +this court, as appeareth by the decree in Garnon's case. + +Why, then, the major proposition being such, the minor cannot be +denied, for every appointment of the field is but combination and +plotting of murder. Let them gild it how they list, they shall never +have fairer terms of me in a place of justice. Then the conclusion +followeth, that it is a case fit for the censure of the court. And +of this there be precedents in the very point of challenge. It was +the case of Wharton, plaintiff, against Ellekar and Acklam, +defendants, where Acklam, being a follower of Ellekar's, was +censured for carrying a challenge from Ellekar to Wharton, though +the challenge was not put in writing, but delivered only by word of +message; and there are words in the decree, that such challenges are +to the subversion of government. These things are well known, and +therefore I needed not so much to have insisted upon them, but that +in this case I would be thought not to innovate anything of my own +head, but to follow the former precedents of the court, though I +mean to do it more thoroughly, because the time requires it more. + +Therefore now to come to that which concerneth my part, I say that +by the favor of the king and the court, I will prosecute in this +court in the cases following: If any man shall appoint the field, +though the fight be not acted or performed. If any man shall send +any challenge in writing, or any message of challenge. If any man +carry or deliver any writing or message of challenge. If any man +shall accept to be second in a challenge of either side. If any man +shall depart the realm, with intention and agreement to perform the +fight beyond the seas. If any man shall revive a quarrel by any +scandalous bruits or writings, contrary to former proclamation +published by his Majesty in that behalf. + +Nay I hear there be some counsel learned of duels, that tell voting +men when they are beforehand, and when they are otherwise and +thereby incense and incite them to the duel, and make an art of +it. I hope I shall meet with some of them too; and I am sure, my +lords, this course of preventing duels, in nipping them in the bud, +is fuller of clemency and providence than the suffering them to go +on, and hanging men with their wounds bleeding, as they did in +France. + +To conclude, I have some petitions to make first to your lordship, +my lord chancellor, that in case I be advertised of a purpose in any +to go beyond the sea to fight, I may have granted his Majesty's writ +of _ne_ _exeat_ _regnum_ to stop him, for this giant bestrideth the +sea, and I would take and snare him by the foot on this side; for +the combination and plotting is on this side, though it should be +acted beyond the sea. And your lordship said notably the last time +I made a motion in this business, that a man may be as well _fur_ +_de_ _se_ as _felo_ _de_ _se_, if he steal out of the realm for a +bad purpose. As for the satisfying of the words of the writ, no man +will doubt but he does _machinari_ _contra_ _coronam_, as the words +of the writ be, seeking to murder a subject; for that is ever +_contra_ _coronam_ _et_ _dignitatem_. I have also a suit to your +lordships all in general, that for justice's sake, and for true +honor's sake, honor of religion, law, and the King our master, +against this fond and false disguise or puppetry of honor. I may, +in my prosecution, which, it is like enough, may sometimes stir +coals, which I esteem not for my particular, but as it may hinder +the good service, I may, I say, be countenanced and assisted from +your lordships. Lastly, I have a petition to the nobles and +gentlemen of England, that they would learn to esteem themselves at +a just price. _Non_ _hos_ _quaesitim_ _munus_ _in_ _usus_--their +blood is not to be spilt like water or a vile thing; therefore, that +they would rest persuaded there cannot be a form of honor, except it +be upon a worthy matter. But this, _ipsi_ _viderunt_, I am resolved. + + + +JAMES BARBOUR (1775-1842) + +Senator James Barbour's speech on the treaty-making power, made in +the United States Senate in January 1816, is one of the ablest and +most concise presentations of the Virginia view of the Federal +constitution represented by Madison before he came under Jefferson's +influence. The speech itself, here reproduced from Benton's +'Debates,' sufficiently explains all that is of permanent importance +in the question presented to the Senate, If, under the Federal +constitution, it was necessary after the ratification of a treaty to +specially repeal laws in conflict with it, then such laws and +"municipal regulations" as remained unrepealed by special act would +be in force in spite of the treaty. Arguing against this as it +affected the treaty-making power of the Senate from which the House +of Representatives was excluded by the constitution, Senator Barbour +declared the treaty-making power supreme over commerce, and +incidentally asserted that unless there is such a supremacy lodged +somewhere in the government, the condition would be as anomalous as +that of Christendom when it had three Popes. + +Mr. Barbour was born in 1775 and educated for the bar. He served in +the Virginia legislature, was twice governor of the State, and twice +elected to represent it in the United States Senate. He was +Secretary of War in 1825 under John Quincy Adams, who sent him as +minister to England--a post from which he was recalled by President +Jackson. He presided over the national convention which nominated +William Henry Harrison for the presidency, dying in 1842. + +TREATIES AS SUPREME LAWS + +Mr. President, as it seems to be the wish of the Senate to pass upon +this subject without debate, it adds to the reluctance I always feel +when compelled, even by a sense of duty, to intrude on their +attention. Yet, as I feel myself obliged, under the solemn +responsibility attached to the station I hold here, to vote against +the bill under consideration--as I think, also, it is but a due +respect to the other branch of the legislature, from whom it is my +misfortune to differ, and but an act of justice to myself to state +the grounds of my opinion, I must be pardoned for departing from the +course which seemed to be desired by the Senate. + +In the exercise of this privilege, with a view to promote the wishes +of the Senate as far as a sense of duty will permit, I will confine +myself to a succinct view of the most prominent objections which lie +against its passage, rather than indulge in the extensive range of +which the subject is susceptible. Before I enter into the discussion +of the merits of the question, I beg leave to call the attention of +the Senate to the course which was adopted by us in relation to this +subject. A bill, brought in by the Committee on Foreign Relations, +passed the Senate unanimously, declaring that all laws in opposition +to the convention between the United States and Great Britain, +concluded on the third of July last, should be held as null and +void. The principle on which this body acted was, that the treaty, +upon the exchange of its ratification, did, of itself, repeal any +commercial regulation, incompatible with its provisions, existing in +our municipal code; it being by us believed at the time that such a +bill was not necessary, but by a declaratory act, it was supposed, +all doubts and difficulties, should any exist, might be +removed. This bill is sent to the House of Representatives, who, +without acting thereon, send us the one under consideration, but +differing materially from ours. Far from pretending an intimate +knowledge of the course of business pursued by the two houses, I do +not say that the mode adopted in this particular case is irregular, +but if it has not the sanction of precedent, it appears to me to be +wanting in that courtesy which should be perpetually cherished +between the two houses. It would have been more decorous to have +acted on our bill, to have agreed to it if it were approved, to +reject or amend it. In the latter case, upon its being returned to +the Senate, the views of the other body would have been contrasted +with our own, and we might then have regularly passed upon the +subject. A different course, however, has been adopted; and if a +regard to etiquette had been the only obstacle to my support to the +bill, it would have been readily given; for it is the substance, and +not the shadow, which weighs with me. The difference between the two +bills is rendered important by its involving a constitutional +question. + +It is my misfortune, for such I certainly esteem it, to differ from +the other branch of the legislature on that question; were it a +difference of opinion on the expediency of a measure, it might +readily be obviated, as being entirely free, or at least I hope so, +from pride of opinion. My disposition is to meet, by mutual +concession, those with whom I am in the habit of acting; but when a +principle of the constitution is involved, concession and compromise +are out of the question. With one eye on the sacred charter of our +liberties, and the other on the solemn sanction under which I act +here, I surrender myself to the dictates of my best judgment (weak +enough God knows), and fearlessly pursue the course pointed out by +these guides. My regret is certainly greatly lessened by the +reflection that there is no difference of opinion with any one on +the propriety of executing the treaty with good faith--we differ +only as to the manner in which our common purpose shall be effected. + +The difference between the friends of the bill, and those opposed to +it is, as I understand it, this: the former contend, that the law of +Congress, discriminating between American and British tonnage, is +not abrogated by the treaty, although its provisions conflict with +the treaty, but that to effect its repeal, the bill in question, a +mere echo of the treaty, must pass; the latter, among whom I wish to +be considered, on the contrary say, that the law above alluded to +was annulled upon the ratification of the treaty. I hope I have +succeeded in stating the question fairly, for that certainly was my +wish, and it is also my determination to discuss it in the same +spirit. + +This, then, is the issue which is made up between the friends and +the opponents of the bill; and although in its practical effects I +cannot believe it would be of consequence which way it is decided, +yet, as the just interpretation of the constitution is the pivot on +which it turns, from that consideration alone the question becomes +an interesting one. + +Fortunately for us we have a written constitution to recur to, +dictated with the utmost precision of which our language is +susceptible--it being the work of whatsoever of wisdom, of +experience, and of foresight, united America possessed. + +To a just understanding of this instrument, it will be essential to +recur to the object of its adoption; in this there can be no +difference of opinion. The old band of union had been literally +dissolved in its own imbecility; to remedy this serious evil, an +increase of the powers of the general government was indispensable. + +To draw the line of demarcation between the powers thus granted to +the general government, and those retained by the States, was the +primary and predominating object. In conformity with this view, we +find a general enumeration of the powers assigned the former, of +which Congress is made the depository; which powers, although +granted to Congress in the first instance, are, in the same +instrument, subsequently distributed among the other branches of the +government. Various examples might be adduced in support of this +position. The following for the present will suffice: Article i., section +i, of the constitution declares, that "all legislative powers herein +granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which +shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." Yet we +find, by the seventh section of the same article, the President +invested with a large share of legislative power, and, in fact, +constituting an integral branch of the legislature; in addition to +this, I will here barely add, that the grant of the very power to +regulate the exercise of which gave birth to this bill, furnishes, +by the admission of the friends of the bill, another evidence of the +truth of this position, as I shall show hereafter; and, therefore, +to comprehend the true meaning of the constitution, an isolated view +of a particular clause or section will involve you in error, while a +comprehensive one, both of its spirit and letter, will conduct you +to a just result; when apparent collisions will be removed, and +vigor and effect will be given to every part of the instrument. +With this principle as our guide, I come directly to that part of +the constitution which recognizes the treaty-making power. In the +second clause, second section, second article, are the following +plain and emphatic words: "He [the President] shall have power, by +and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, +provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur." Two +considerations here irresistibly present themselves--first, there +is no limitation to the exercise of the power, save such +restrictions as arise from the constitution, as to the subjects on +which it is to act; nor is there any participation of the power, +with any other branch of the government, in any way alluded to. + +Am I borne out in this declaration by the clause referred to? That +I am, seems to me susceptible of demonstration. To the President +and Senate has been imparted the power of making treaties. Well, +what is a treaty? If a word have a known signification by the +common consent of mankind, and it be used without any qualification +in a law, constitution, or otherwise, the fair inference is that the +received import of such word is intended to be conveyed. If so, the +extent of the power intended to be granted admits of no difficulty. +It reaches to those acts of courtesy and kindness, which +philanthropy has established in the intercourse of nations, as well +as to treaties of commerce, of boundaries, and, in fine, to every +international subject whatsoever. This exposition is supported by +such unequivocal authority, that it is believed it will not be +questioned. I, therefore, infer that it will be readily yielded, +that in regard to the treaty, in aid of which this bill is +exhibited, the treaty-making power has not exceeded its just limits. +So far we have proceeded on sure ground; we now come to the pith of +the question. Is the legislative sanction necessary to give it +effect? I answer in the negative. Why? Because, by the second +clause of the sixth article of the constitution, it is declared that +all treaties made or which shall be made, under the authority of the +United States, shall be the supreme law of the land. If this clause +means anything, it is conclusive of the question. + +If the treaty be a supreme law, then whatsoever municipal regulation +comes within its provisions must _ipso_ _facto_ be annulled--unless +gentlemen contend there can be at the same time two supreme laws, +emanating from the same authority, conflicting with each other, and +still both in full vigor and effect. This would indeed produce a +state of things without a parallel in human affairs, unless indeed +its like might be found in the history of the Popes. In one +instance, we are told, there were three at one time roaming over the +Christian world, all claiming infallibility, and denouncing their +anathemas against all who failed to yield implicit obedience to +their respective mandates, when to comply with the one was to +disobey the other. A result like this, so monstrous in its aspect, +excludes the interpretation which produces it. It is a safe course +in attempting to ascertain the meaning of a law or constitution to +connect different clauses (no matter how detached) upon the same +subject together. Let us do it in this case. The President shall +have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to +make treaties, which treaties shall be the supreme law of the +land. I seek to gain no surreptitious advantage from the word +supreme, because I frankly admit that it is used in the +Constitution, in relation to the laws and constitutions of the +States; but I appeal to it merely to ascertain the high authority +intended to be imparted by the framers of the constitution to a +ratified treaty. It is classed in point of dignity with the laws of +the United States. We ask for no superiority, but equality; and as +the last law made annuls a former one, where they conflict, so we +contend that a subsequent treaty, as in the present case, revokes a +former law in opposition thereto. But the other side contend that it +is inferior to the law in point of authority, which continues in +full force despite of a treaty, and to its repeal the assent of the +whole legislature is necessary. Our claims rest on the expressed +words of the constitution--the opposite on implication; and if the +latter be just, I cannot forbear to say that the framers of the +constitution would but ill deserve what I have heretofore thought a +just tribute to their meritorious services. If they really designed +to produce the effect contended for, instead of so declaring by a +positive provision, they have used a language which, to my mind, +operates conclusively against it. Under what clause of the +constitution is the right to exercise this power set up? The reply +is, the third clause of eighth section, first article--Congress +shall have power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, etc. I +immediately inquire to what extent does the authority of Congress, +in relation to commercial treaties, reach? Is the aid of the +legislature necessary in all cases whatsoever, to give effect to a +commercial treaty? It is readily admitted that it is not. That a +treaty, whose influence is extra territorial, becomes obligatory the +instant of its ratification. That, as the aid of the legislature is +not necessary to its execution, the legislature has no right to +interpose. It is then admitted that while a general power on the +subject of commerce is given to Congress, that yet important +commercial regulations may be adopted by treaty, without the +co-operation of the legislature, notwithstanding the generality of +the grant of power on commercial subjects to Congress. If it be true +that the President and Senate have, in their treaty-making power, an +exclusive control over part and not over the whole, I demand to know +at what point that exclusive control censes? In the clause relied +upon, there is no limitation. The fact is, sir, none exists. The +treaty-making power over commerce is supreme. No legislative +sanction is necessary, if the treaty be capable of self-execution, +and when a legislative sanction is necessary, as I shall more at +large hereafter show, such sanction, when given, adds nothing to the +validity of the treaty, but enables the proper authority to execute +it; and when the legislature do act in this regard, it in under such +obligation as the necessity of fulfilling a moral contract imposes. + +If it be inquired of me what I understand by the clause in question, +in answer I refer to the principle with which I set out: that this +was a grant of power to the general government of which Congress was +in the first instance merely the depository, which power, had not a +portion thereof been transferred to another branch of the +government, would have been exclusively exercised by Congress, but +that a distribution of this power has been made by the constitution; +as a portion thereof has been given to the treaty-making power, and +that which is not transferred is left in the possession of +Congress. Hence, to Congress it is competent to act in this grant in +its proper character by establishing municipal regulations. The +President and the Senate, on the other hand, have the same power +within their sphere, that is, by a treaty or convention with a +foreign nation, to establish such regulations in regard to commerce, +as to them may seem friendly to the public interest. Thus each +department moves in its own proper orbit, nor do they come in +collision with each other. If they have exercised their respective +powers on the same subject, the last act, whether by the legislature +or the treaty-making power, abrogates a former one. The legislature +of the nation may, if a cause exist in their judgment sufficient to +justify it, abrogate a treaty, as has been done; so the President +and Senate by a treaty may abrogate a pre-existing law containing +interfering provisions, as has been done heretofore (without the +right being questioned), and as we say in the very case under +consideration. I will endeavor to make myself understood by +examples; Congress has power, under the clause in question, to lay +embargoes, to pass nonintercourse, or nonimportation, or +countervailing laws, and this power they have frequently +exercised. On the other hand, if the nation against whom one of +those laws is intended to operate is made sensible of her injustice +and tenders reparation, the President and Senate have power by +treaty to restore the amicable relations between the two nations, +and the law directing otherwise, upon the ratification of the +treaty, is forthwith annulled. Again, if Congress should be of +opinion that the offending nation had not complied with their +engagements, they might by law revoke the treaty, and place the +relation between the two nations upon such footing as they +approved. Where is the collision here? I see none. This view of the +subject presents an aspect as innocent as that which is produced +when a subsequent law repeals a former one. By this interpretation +you reconcile one part of the constitution with another, giving to +each a proper effect, a result always desirable, and in rules of +construction claiming a precedence to all others. Indeed, sir, I do +not see how the power in question could have been otherwise +arranged. The power which has been assigned to Congress was +indispensable; without it we should have been at the mercy of a +foreign government, who, knowing the incompetency of Congress to +act, would have subjected our commerce to the most injurious +regulations, as was actually the case before the adoption of the +constitution, when it was managed by the States, by whom no regular +system could be established; indeed, we all know this very subject +was among the most prominent of the causes which produced the +constitution. Had this state of things continued, no nation which +could profit by a contrary course would have treated. On the other +hand, had not a power been given to some branch of the government to +treat, whatever might have been the friendly dispositions of other +powers, or however desirous to reciprocate beneficial arrangements, +they could not, without a treaty-making power lodged somewhere, be +realized. + +I therefore contend, that although to Congress a power is given in +the clause alluded to, to regulate commerce, yet this power is in +part, as I have before endeavored to show, given to the President +and Senate in their treaty-making capacity--the truth of which +position is admitted by the friends of the bill to a certain extent. +The fact is, that the only difference between us is to ascertain the +precise point where legislative aid is necessary to the execution of +the treaty, and where not. To fix this point is to settle the +question. After the most mature reflection which I have been able +to give this subject, my mind has been brought to the following +results; Whenever the President and Senate, within the acknowledged +range of their treaty-making power, ratify a treaty upon +extraterritorial subjects, then it is binding without any auxiliary +law. Again, if from the nature of the treaty self-executory, no +legislative aid is necessary. If on the contrary, the treaty from +its nature cannot be carried into effect but by the agency of the +legislature, that is, if some municipal regulation be necessary, +then the legislature must act not as participating in the +treaty-making power, but in its proper character as a legislative +body. + + + +BARNAVE (1761-1793) + +Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave was born at Grenoble, France, in +1761. He was the son of an advocate, who gave him a careful +education. His first work of a public character, a pamphlet against +the Feudal system, led to his election to the States-General in +1789. He advocated the Proclamation of the Rights of Man and +identified himself with those enthusiastic young Republicans of whom +Lafayette is the best type. The emancipation of the Jews from all +civil and religious disabilities and the abolition of slavery +throughout French territory owed much to his efforts. He also +opposed the Absolute Veto and led the fight for the sequestration of +the property of the Church. This course made him a popular idol and +in the early days of the Revolution he was the leader of the extreme +wing of the Republicans. When he saw, however, that mob law was +about to usurp the place of the Republican institutions for which he +had striven, he leaned towards the court and advocated the +sacrosanctity of the King's person. Denounced as a renegade, with +his life threatened and his influence lost, he retired to his native +province. In August 1792 he was impeached for correspondence with +the King, and on November 26th, 1793. he was guillotined. The +specimens of his eloquence here given were translated for this +Library from the Paris edition of his works, published in 1843. + +REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY AGAINST MAJORITY ABSOLUTISM +(Delivered in the National Assembly, August 11th, 1791) + +It is not enough to desire to be free--one must know how to be +free. I shall speak briefly on this subject, for after the success +of our deliberations, I await with confidence the spirit and action +of this Assembly. I only wish to announce my opinions on a +question, the rejection of which would sooner or later mean the loss +of our liberties. This question leaves no doubt in the minds of +those who reflect on governments and are guided by impartial +judgments. Those who have combatted the committee have made a +fundamental error. They have confounded democratic government with +representative government; they have confounded the rights of the +people with the qualifications of an elector, which society +dispenses for its well understood interest. Where the government is +representative, where there exists an intermediary degree of +electors, society which elects them has essentially the right to +determine the conditions of their eligibility. There is one right +existing in our constitution, that of the active citizen, but the +function of an elector is not a right. I repeat, society has the +right to determine its conditions. Those who misunderstand the +nature as they do the advantages of representative government, +remind us of the governments of Athens and Sparta, ignoring the +differences that distinguish them from France, such as extent of +territory, population, etc. Do they forget that they interdicted +representative government? Have they forgotten that the +Lacedemonians had the right to vote in the assemblies only when they +held helots? And only by sacrifice of individual rights did the +Lacedemonians, Athenians, and Romans possess any democratic +governments! I ask those who remind us of them, if it is at such +government they would arrive? I ask those who profess here +metaphysical ideas, because they have no practical ideas, those who +envelop the question in clouds of theory, because they ignore +entirely the fundamental facts of a positive government--I ask is +it forgotten that the democracy of a portion of a people would exist +but by the entire enslavement of the other portion of the people? A +representative government has but one evil to fear, that of +corruption. That such a government shall be good, there must be +guaranteed the purity and incorruptibility of the electorate. This +body needs the union of three eminent guarantees. First, the light +of a fair education and broadened views. Second, an interest in +things, and still better if each had a particular and considerable +interest at stake to defend. Third, such condition of fortune as to +place the elector above attack from corruption. + +These advantages I do not look for in the superior class of the +rich, for they undoubtedly have too many special and individual +interests, which they separate from the general interests. But if +it is true that we must not look for the qualifications of the pure +elector among the eminently rich, neither should I look for it among +those whose lack of fortune has prevented their enlightenment; among +such, unceasingly feeling the touches of want, corruption too easily +can find its means. It is, then, in the middle class that we find +the qualities and advantages I have cited. And, I ask, is it the +demand that they contribute five to ten francs that causes the +assertion that we would throw elections into the hands of the rich? +You have established the usage that the electors receive nothing; if +it were otherwise their great number would make an election most +expensive. From the instant that the voter has not means enough to +enable him to sacrifice a little time from his daily labor, one of +three things would occur. The voter would absent himself, or insist +on being paid by the State, else he would be rewarded by the one who +wanted to obtain his suffrage. This does not occur when a +comfortable condition is necessary to constitute an elector. As +soon as the government is established, when the constitution is +guaranteed, there is but a common interest for those who live on +their property, and those who toil honestly. Then can be +distinguished those who desire a stable government and those who +seek but revolution and change, since they increase in importance in +the midst of trouble as vermin in the midst of corruption. + +If it is true, then, that under an established constitutional +government all its well-wishers have the same interest, the power of +the same must be placed in the hands of the enlightened who can have +no interest pressing on them, greater than the common interest of +all the citizens. Depart from these principles and you fall into the +abuses of representative government. You would have extreme poverty +in the electorate and extreme opulence in the legislature. You would +see soon in France what yon see now in England, the purchase of +voters in the boroughs not with money even, but with pots of +beer. Thus incontestably are elected many of their parliamentary +members. Good representation must not be sought in either extreme, +but in the middle class. The committee have thus placed it by making +it incumbent that the voter shall possess an accumulation the +equivalent of, say forty days of labor. This would unite the +qualities needed to make the elector exercise his privilege with an +interest in the same. It is necessary that he own from one hundred +and twenty to two hundred and forty livres, either in property or +chattels. I do not think it can seriously be said that this +qualification is fixed too high, unless we would introduce among our +electors men who would beg or seek improper recompense. + +If you would have liberty subsist do not hesitate because of +specious arguments which will be presented to you by those who, if +they reflect, will recognize the purity of our intentions and the +resultant advantages of our plans. I add to what I have already +said that the system will diminish many existing inconveniences, and +the proposed law will not have its full effect for two years. They +tell us we are taking from the citizen a right which elevated him by +the only means through which he can acquire it. I reply that if it +was an honor the career which you will open for them will imprint +them with character greater and more in conformity with true +equality. Our opponents have not failed either to magnify the +inconveniences of changing the constitution. Nor do I desire its +change. For that reason we should not introduce imprudent +discussions to create the necessity of a national convention. In +one word, the advice and conclusions of the committee are the sole +guarantees for the prosperity and peaceable condition of the nation. + +COMMERCIAL POLITICS + +Commerce forms a numerous class, friends of external peace and +internal tranquillity, who attach themselves to the established +government. + +It creates great fortunes, which in republics become the origin of +the most forceful aristocracies. As a rule commerce enriches the +cities and their inhabitants, and increases the laboring and +mechanical classes, in opening more opportunities for the +acquirement of riches. To an extent it fortifies the democratic +element in giving the people of the cities greater influence in the +government. It arrives at nearly the same result by impoverishing +the peasant and land owner, by the many new pleasures offered him +and by displaying to him the ostentation and voluptuousness of +luxury and ease. It tends to create bands of mercenaries rather +than those capable of worthy personal service. It introduces into +the nation luxury, ease, and avarice at the same time as labor. + +The manners and morals of a commercial people are not the manners of +the merchant. He individually is economical, while the general mass +are prodigal. The individual merchant is conservative and moral, +while the general public are rendered dissolute. + +The mixture of riches and pleasures which commerce produces joined +to freedom of manners, leads to excesses of all kinds, at the same +time that the nation may display the perfection of elegance and +taste that one noticed in Rome, mistress of the world or in France +before the Revolution. In Rome the wealth was the inflow of the +whole world, the product of the hardiest ambition, producing the +deterioration of the soldier and the indifference of the patrician. +In France the wealth was the accumulation of an immense commerce and +the varied labors of the most industrious nation on the earth +diverted by a brilliant and corrupt court, a profligate and +chivalrous nobility, and a rich and voluptuous capital. + +Where a nation is exclusively commercial, it can make an immense +accumulation of riches without sensibly altering its manners. The +passion of the trader is avarice and the habit of continuous +labor. Left alone to his instincts he amasses riches to possess +them, without designing or knowing how to use them. Examples are +needed to conduct him to prodigality, ostentation, and moral +corruption. As a rule the merchant opposes the soldier. One desires +the accumulations of industry, the other of conquest. One makes of +power the means of getting riches, the other makes of riches the +means of getting power. One is disposed to be economical, a taste +due to his labor. The other is prodigal, the instinct of his +valor. In modern monarchies these two classes form the aristocracy +and the democracy. Commerce in certain republics forms an +aristocracy, or rather an "extra aristocracy in the democracy." +These are the directing forces of such democracies, with the +addition of two other governing powers, which have come in, the +clergy and the legal fraternity, who assist largely in shaping the +course of events. + + + +ISAAC BARROW (1630-1677) + +It is not often that a sermon, however eloquent it may be, becomes a +literary classic, as has happened to those preached by Barrow +against Evil Speaking. Literature--that which is expressed in +letters--has its own method, foreign to that of oratory--the art +of forcing one mind on another by word of mouth. Literature can +rely on suggestion, since it leaves those who do not comprehend at +once free to read over again what has attracted their attention +without compelling their understanding. All great literature relies +mostly on suggestion. This is the secret of Shakespeare's strength +in 'Hamlet,' as it is the purpose of Burke's in such speeches as +that at the trial of Hastings, to compel immediate comprehension by +crowding his meaning on the hearer in phalanxed sentences, moving to +the attack, rank on rank, so that the first are at once supported +and compelled by those which succeed them. + +It is not easy to find the secret by virtue of which sermons that +made Barrow his reputation for eloquence escaped the fate of most +eloquent sermons so far as to find a place in the standard +"Libraries of English Classics," but it lies probably in their +compactness, clearness, and simplicity. Barrow taught Sir Isaac +Newton mathematics, and his style suggests the method of thought +which Newton illustrated in such great results. + +Born in London in 1630, Barrow was educated at the Charterhouse +School, at Felstead, and at Cambridge. Belonging to a Royalist +family, under Cromwell, he left England after his graduation and +traveled abroad, studying the Greek fathers in Constantinople. After +the Restoration he became Lucasian professor of mathematics at +Cambridge and chaplain to Charles II., who called him the best +scholar in England. Celebrated for the length of his sermons, Barrow +had nevertheless a readiness at sharp repartee which made him +formidable on occasion. "I am yours, Doctor, to the knee-strings," +said the Earl of Rochester, meeting him at court and seeking +amusement at his expense. "I am yours, my lord, to the shoe-tie," +answered the Doctor, bowing still lower than the Earl had +done. "Yours, Doctor, to the ground," said Rochester. "Yours, ray +lord, to the centre of the earth," answered Barrow with another +bow. "Yours. Doctor, to the lowest pit of hell," said Rochester, as +he imagined, in conclusion. "There, my lord, I must leave you!" was +the immediate answer. + +SLANDER + +General declamations against vice and sin are indeed excellently +useful, as rousing men to consider and look about them; but they do +often want effect, because they only raise confused apprehensions of +things, and indeterminate propensions to action, which usually, +before men thoroughly perceive or resolve what they should practice, +do decay and vanish. As he that cries out "Fire!" doth stir up +people, and inspireth them with a kind of hovering tendency every +way, yet no man thence to purpose moveth until he be distinctly +informed where the mischief is; then do they, who apprehend +themselves concerned, run hastily to oppose it: so, till we +particularly discern where our offenses lie (till we distinctly know +the heinous nature and the mischievous consequences of them), we +scarce will effectually apply ourselves to correct them. Whence it +is requisite that men should be particularly acquainted with their +sins, and by proper arguments be dissuaded from them. + +In order whereto I have now selected one sin to describe, and +dissuade from, being in nature as vile, and in practice as common, +as any other whatever that hath prevailed among men. It is slander, +a sin which in all times and places hath been epidemical and rife, +but which especially doth seem to reign and rage in our age and +country. + +There are principles innate to men, which ever have, and ever will, +incline them to this offense. Eager appetites to secular and sensual +goods; violent passions, urging the prosecution of what men affect; +wrath and displeasure against those who stand in the way of +compassing their desires; emulation and envy towards those who +happen to succeed better, or to attain a greater share in such +things; excessive self-love; unaccountable malignity and vanity are +in some degrees connatural to all men, and ever prompt them to this +dealing, as appearing the most efficacious, compendious, and easy +way of satisfying such appetites, of promoting such designs, of +discharging such passions. Slander thence hath always been a +principal engine whereby covetous, ambitious, envious, ill-natured, +and vain persons have striven to supplant their competitors and +advance themselves; meaning thereby to procure, what they chiefly +prize and like, wealth, or dignity, or reputation, favor and power +in the court, respect and interest with the people. + +But from especial causes our age peculiarly doth abound in this +practice; for, besides the common dispositions inclining thereto, +there are conceits newly coined, and greedily entertained by many, +which seem purposely leveled at the disparagement of piety, charity, +and justice, substituting interest in the room of conscience, +authorizing and commending for good and wise, all ways serving to +private advantage. There are implacable dissensions, fierce +animosities, and bitter zeals sprung up; there is an extreme +curiosity, niceness, and delicacy of judgment; there is a mighty +affectation of seeming wise and witty by any means; there is a great +unsettlement of mind, and corruption of manners, generally diffused +over people; from which sources it is no wonder that this flood hath +so overflown, that no banks can restrain it, no fences are able to +resist it; so that ordinary conversation is full of it, and no +demeanor can be secure from it. + +If we do mark what is done in many (might I not say, in most?) +companies, what is it but one telling malicious stories of, or +fastening odious characters upon, another? What do men commonly +please themselves in so much as in carping and harshly censuring, in +defaming and abusing their neighbors? Is it not the sport and +divertisement of many to cast dirt in the faces of all they meet +with? to bespatter any man with foul imputations? Doth not in every +corner a Momus lurk, from the venom of whose spiteful or petulant +tongue no eminency of rank, dignity of place, or sacredness of +office, no innocence or integrity of life, no wisdom or +circumspection in behavior, no good-nature or benignity in dealing +and carriage, can protect any person? Do not men assume to +themselves a liberty of telling romances, and framing characters +concerning their neighbors, as freely as a poet doth about Hector or +Turnus, Thersites or Draucus? Do they not usurp a power of playing +with, or tossing about, of tearing in pieces their neighbor's good +name, as if it were the veriest toy in the world? Do not many having +a form of godliness (some of them demurely, others confidently, both +without any sense of, or remorse for, what they do) backbite their +brethren? Is it not grown so common a thing to asperse causelessly +that no man wonders at it, that few dislike, that scarce any detest +it? that most notorious calumniators are heard, not only with +patience, but with pleasure; yea, are even held in vogue and +reverence as men of a notable talent, and very serviceable to their +party? so that slander seemeth to have lost its nature and not to +be now an odious sin, but a fashionable humor, a way of pleasing +entertainment, a fine knack, or curious feat of policy; so that no +man at least taketh himself or others to be accountable for what is +said in this way? Is not, in fine, the case become such, that +whoever hath in him any love of truth, any sense of justice or +honesty, any spark of charity towards his brethren, shall hardly be +able to satisfy himself in the conversations he meeteth; but will be +tempted, with the holy prophet, to wish himself sequestered from +society, and cast into solitude; repeating those words of his, "Oh, +that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, that +I might leave my people, and go from them: for they are ... an +assembly of treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their +bow for lies"? This he wished in an age so resembling ours, that I +fear the description with equal patness may suit both: "Take ye +heed" (said he then, and may we not advise the like now?) "every one +of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother +will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with +slanders. They will deceive every one his neighbor, and will not +speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and +weary themselves to commit iniquity." + +Such being the state of things, obvious to experience, no discourse +may seem more needful, or more useful, than that which serveth to +correct or check this practice: which I shall endeavor to do (1) by +describing the nature, (2) by declaring the folly of it: or showing +it to be very true which the wise man here asserteth, "He that +uttereth slander is a fool." Which particulars I hope so to +prosecute, that any man shall be able easily to discern, and ready +heartily to detest this practice. + +1. For explication of its nature, we may describe slander to be the +uttering false (or equivalent to false, morally false) speech +against our neighbor, in prejudice to his fame, his safety, his +welfare, or concernment in any kind, out of malignity, vanity, +rashness, ill-nature, or bad design. That which is in Holy +Scripture forbidden and reproved under several names and notions: +of bearing false witness, false accusation, railing censure, +sycophantry, talebearing, whispering, backbiting, supplanting, +taking up reproach: which terms some of them do signify the nature, +others denote the special kinds, others imply the manners, others +suggest the ends of this practice. But it seemeth most fully +intelligible by observing the several kinds and degrees thereof; +as also by reflecting on the divers ways and manners of practicing +it. + +The principal kinds thereof I observe to be these:-- + +1. The grossest kind of slander is that which in the Decalogue is +called, bearing false testimony against our neighbor; that is, +flatly charging him with acts which he never committed, and is +nowise guilty of. As in the case of Naboth, when men were suborned +to say, "Naboth did blaspheme God and the king," and as was David's +case, when he thus complained, "False witnesses did rise up, they +laid to my charge things that I knew not of." This kind in the +highest way (that is, in judicial proceedings) is more rare; and of +all men, they who are detected to practice it are held most vile and +infamous, as being plainly the most pernicious and perilous +instruments of injustice, the most desperate enemies of all men's +right and safety that can be. But also out of the court there are +many knights-errant of the poet, whose business it is to run about +scattering false reports; sometimes loudly proclaiming them in open +companies, sometimes closely whispering them in dark corners; thus +infecting conversation with their poisonous breath: these no less +notoriously are guilty of this kind, as bearing always the same +malice and sometimes breeding as ill effects. + +2. Another kind is, affixing scandalous names, injurious epithets, +and odious characters upon persons, which they deserve not. As when +Corah and his accomplices did accuse Moses of being ambitious, +unjust, and tyrannical; when the Pharisees called our Lord an +impostor, a blasphemer, a sorcerer, a glutton and wine-bibber, an +incendiary and perverter of the people, one that spake against +Caesar, and forbade to give tribute; when the Apostles were charged +with being pestilent, turbulent, factious, and seditious fellows. +This sort being very common, and thence in ordinary repute not so +bad, yet in just estimation may be judged even worse than the +former, as doing to our neighbor more heavy and more irreparable +wrong. For it imposeth on him really more blame, and that such +which he can hardly shake off; because the charge signifies habits +of evil, and includeth many acts; then, being general and +indefinite, can scarce be disproved. He, for instance, that calleth +a sober man drunkard doth impute to him many acts of such +intemperance (some really past, others probably future), and no +particular time or place being specified, how can a man clear +himself of that imputation, especially with those who are not +thoroughly acquainted with his conversation? So he that calleth a +man unjust, proud, perverse, hypocritical, doth load him with most +grievous faults, which it is not possible that the most innocent +person should discharge himself from. + +3. Like to that kind is this: aspersing a man's actions with harsh +censures and foul terms, importing that they proceed from ill +principles, or tend to bad ends; so as it doth not or cannot +appear. Thus, when we say of him that is generously hospitable, +that he is profuse; of him that is prudently frugal, that he is +niggardly; of him that is cheerful and free in his conversation, +that he is vain or loose; of him that is serious and resolute in +a good way, that he is sullen or morose; of him that is +conspicuous and brisk in virtuous practice, that it is ambition +or ostentation which prompts him; of him that is close and +bashful in the like good way, that it is sneaking stupidity, or +want of spirit; of him that is reserved, that it is craft; of him +that is open, that it is simplicity in him; when we ascribe a +man's liberality and charity to vainglory or popularity; his +strictness of life, and constancy in devotion, to superstition, +or hypocrisy. When, I say, we pass such censures, or impose such +characters on the laudable or innocent practice of our neighbors, +we are indeed slanderers, imitating therein the great calumniator, +who thus did slander even God himself, imputing his prohibition of +the fruit unto envy towards men; "God," said he, "doth know that in +the day ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be +as gods, knowing good and evil;" who thus did ascribe the steady +piety of Job, not to a conscientious love and fear of God, but to +policy and selfish design: "Doth Job fear God for naught?" + +Whoever, indeed, pronounceth concerning his neighbor's intentions +otherwise than as they are evidently expressed by words, or +signified by overt actions, is a slanderer; because he pretendeth to +know, and dareth to aver, that which he nowise possibly can tell +whether it be true; because the heart is exempt from all +jurisdiction here, is only subject to the government and trial of +another world; because no man can judge concerning the truth of such +accusations, because no man can exempt or defend himself from them: +so that apparently such practice doth thwart all course of justice +and equity. + +4. Another kind is, perverting a man's words or actions +disadvantageously by affected misconstruction. All words are +ambiguous, and capable of different senses, some fair, some more +foul; all actions have two handles, one that candor and charity +will, another that disingenuity and spite may lay hold on; and in +such cases to misapprehend is a calumnious procedure, arguing +malignant disposition and mischievous design. Thus, when two men +did witness that our Lord affirmed, he "could demolish the Temple, +and rear it again in three days"--although he did, indeed, speak +words to that purpose, meaning them in a figurative sense, +discernible enough to those who would candidly have minded his drift +and way of speaking:--yet they who crudely alleged them against +him are called false witnesses. "At last," saith the Gospel, "came +two false witnesses, and said, This fellow said, I am able to +destroy the temple," etc. Thus, also, when some certified of St +Stephen, as having said that "Jesus of Nazareth should destroy that +place, and change the customs that Moses delivered"; although +probably he did speak words near to that purpose, yet are those men +called false witnesses. "And," saith St. Luke, "they set up false +witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous +words," etc. Which instances do plainly show, if we would avoid the +guilt of slander, how careful we should be to interpret fairly and +favorably the words and actions of our neighbor. + +5. Another sort of this practice is, partial and lame representation +of men's discourse, or their practice, suppressing some part of the +truth in them, or concealing some circumstances about them which +might serve to explain, to excuse, or to extenuate them. In such a +manner easily, without uttering; any logical untruth, one may yet +grievously calumniate. Thus, suppose a man speaketh a thing upon +supposition, or with exception, or in way of objection, or merely +for disputation's sake, in order to the discussion or clearing of +truth; he that should report him asserting it absolutely, +unlimitedly, positively, and peremptorily, as his own settled +judgment, would notoriously calumniate. If one should be inveigled +by fraud, or driven by violence, or slip by chance into a bad place +or bad company, he that should so represent the gross of that +accident, as to breed an opinion of that person, that out of pure +disposition and design he did put himself there, doth slanderously +abuse that innocent person. The reporter in such cases must not +think to defend himself by pretending that he spake nothing false; +for such propositions, however true in logic, may justly be deemed +lies in morality, being uttered with a malicious and deceitful (that +is, with a calumnious) mind, being apt to impress false conceits and +to produce hurtful effects concerning our neighbor. There are +slanderous truths as well as slanderous falsehoods; when truth is +uttered with a deceitful heart, and to a base end, it becomes a lie. +"He that speaketh truth," saith the wise man, "showeth forth +righteousness, but a false witness deceit." Deceiving is the proper +work of slander; and truth abused to that end putteth on its nature, +and will engage into like guilt. + +6, Another kind of calumny is, by instilling sly suggestions, which +although they do not downrightly assert falsehoods, yet they breed +sinister opinions in the hearers, especially in those who, from +weakness or credulity, from jealousy or prejudice, from negligence +or inadvertency, are prone to entertain them. This is done in many +ways: by propounding wily suppositions, shrewd insinuations, crafty +questions, and specious comparisons, intimating a possibility, or +inferring some likelihood of, and thence inducing to believe the +fact. "Doth not," saith this kind of slanderer, "his temper incline +him to do thus? may not his interest have swayed him thereto? had +he not fair opportunity and strong temptation to it? hath he not +acted so in like cases? Judge you, therefore, whether he did it +not." Thus the close slanderer argueth; and a weak or prejudiced +person is thereby so caught, that he presently is ready thence to +conclude the thing done. Again: "He doeth well," saith the +sycophant, "it is true; but why, and to what end? Is it not, as +most men do, out of ill design? may he not dissemble now? may he +not recoil hereafter? have not others made as fair a show? yet we +know what came of it." Thus do calumnious tongues pervert the +judgments of men to think ill of the most innocent, and meanly of +the worthiest actions. Even commendation itself is often used +calumniously, with intent to breed dislike and ill-will towards a +person commended in envious or jealous ears; or so as to give +passage to dispraises, and render the accusations following more +credible. Tis an artifice commonly observed to be much in use +there, where the finest tricks of supplanting are practiced, with +greatest effect; so that _pessimum_ _inimicorum_ _genus_, +_laudantes_; there is no more pestilent enemy than a malevolent +praiser. All these kinds of dealing, as they issue from the +principles of slander, and perform its work, so they deservedly bear +the guilt thereof. + +7. A like kind is that of oblique and covert reflections; when a man +doth not directly or expressly charge his neighbor with faults, +but yet so speaketh that he is understood, or reasonably presumed +to do it. This is a very cunning and very mischievous way of +slandering; for therein the skulking calumniator keepeth a +reserve for himself, and cutteth off from the person concerned +the means of defense. If he goeth to clear himself from the +matter of such aspersions: "What need," saith this insidious +speaker, "of that? must I needs mean you? did I name you? why do +you then assume it to yourself? do you not prejudge yourself +guilty? I did not, but your own conscience, it seemeth, doth +accuse you. You are so jealous and suspicious, as persons +overwise or guilty use to be." So meaneth this serpent out of the +hedge securely and unavoidably to bite his neighbor, and is in +that respect more base and more hurtful than the most flat and +positive slanderer. + +8. Another kind is that of magnifying and aggravating the faults of +others; raising any small miscarriage into a heinous crime, any +slender defect into an odious vice, and any common infirmity into +a strange enormity; turning a small "mote in the eye" of our +neighbor into a huge "beam," a little dimple in his face into a +monstrous wen. This is plainly slander, at least in degree, and +according to the surplusage whereby the censure doth exceed the +fault. As he that, upon the score of a small debt, doth extort a +great sum, is no less a thief, in regard to what amounts beyond +his due, than if without any pretense he had violently or +fraudulently seized on it, so he is a slanderer that, by +heightening faults or imperfections, doth charge his neighbor +with greater blame, or load him with more disgrace than he +deserves. 'Tis not only slander to pick a hole where there is +none, but to make that wider which is, so that it appeareth more +ugly, and cannot so easily be mended. For charity is wont to +extenuate faults, justice doth never exaggerate them. As no man +is exempt from some defects, or can live free from some +misdemeanors, so by this practice every man may be rendered very +odious and infamous. + +9. Another kind of slander is, imputing to our neighbor's practice, +judgment, or profession, evil consequences (apt to render him +odious, or despicable) which have no dependence on them, or +connection with them. There do in every age occur disorders and +mishaps, springing from various complications of causes, working +some of them in a more open and discernible, others in a more secret +and subtle way (especially from Divine judgment and providence +checking or chastising sin); from such occurrences it is common to +snatch occasion and matter of calumny. Those who are disposed this +way are ready peremptorily to charge them upon whomsoever they +dislike or dissent from, although without any apparent cause, or +upon most frivolous and senseless pretenses; yea, often when reason +showeth quite the contrary, and they who are so charged are in just +esteem of all men the least obnoxious to such accusations. So, +usually, the best friends of mankind, those who most heartily wish +the peace and prosperity of the world and most earnestly to their +power strive to promote them, have all the disturbances and +disasters happening charged on them by those fiery vixens, who (in +pursuance of their base designs, or gratification of their wild +passions) really do themselves embroil things, and raise miserable +combustions in the world. So it is that they who have the +conscience to do mischief will have the confidence also to disavow +the blame and the iniquity, to lay the burden of it on those who are +most innocent. Thus, whereas nothing more disposeth men to live +orderly and peaceably, nothing more conduceth to the settlement and +safety of the public, nothing so much draweth blessings down from +heaven upon the commonwealth, as true religion, yet nothing hath +been more ordinary than to attribute all the miscarriages and +mischiefs that happened unto it; even those are laid at his door, +which plainly do arise from the contempt or neglect of it, being the +natural fruits or the just punishments of irreligion. King Ahab, by +forsaking God's commandments and following wicked superstitions, had +troubled Israel, drawing sore judgments and calamities thereon; yet +had he the heart and the face to charge those events on the great +assertor of piety, Elias: "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" The +Jews by provocation of Divine justice had set themselves in a fair +way towards desolation and ruin; this event to come they had the +presumption to lay upon the faith of our Lord's doctrine. "If," +said they, "we let him alone, all men will believe on him, and the +Romans shall come, and take away our place and nation," whereas, in +truth, a compliance with his directions and admonitions had been the +only means to prevent those presaged mischiefs. And, _si_ _Tibris_ +_ascenderit_ _in_ _mania_, if any public calamity did appear, then +_Christianos_ _ad_ _leones_, Christians must be charged and +persecuted as the causes thereof. To them it was that Julian and +other pagans did impute all the discussions, confusions, and +devastations falling upon the Roman Empire. The sacking of Rome by +the Goths they cast upon Christianity; for the vindication of it +from which reproach St. Augustine did write those renowned books 'De +Civitate Dei.' So liable are the best and most innocent sort of men +to be calumniously accused in this manner. + +Another practice (worthily bearing the guilt of slander) is, aiding +and being accessory thereto, by anywise furthering, cherishing, +abetting it. He that by crafty significations of ill-will doth +prompt the slanderer to vent his poison; he that by a willing +audience and attention doth readily suck it up, or who greedily +swalloweth it down by credulous approbation and assent; he that +pleasingly relisheth and smacketh at it, or expresseth a delightful +complacence therein; as he is a partner in the fact, so he is a +sharer in the guilt. There are not only slanderous throats, but +slanderous ears also; not only wicked inventions, which engender and +brood lies, but wicked assents, which hatch and foster them. Not +only the spiteful mother that conceiveth such spurious brats, but +the midwife that helpeth to bring them forth, the nurse that feedeth +them, the guardian that traineth them up to maturity, and setteth +them forth to live in the world; as they do really contribute to +their subsistence, so deservedly they partake in the blame due to +them, and must be responsible for the mischief they do. + + + +BASIL THE GREAT (329-379) + +Basil the Great, born at Caesarea in Cappadocia A. D. 329, was one +of the leading orators of the Christian Church in the fourth +century. He was a friend of the famous Gregory of Nazianzus, and +Gregory of Nyssa was his brother. + +The spirit of his time was one of change. The foundations of the +Roman world were undermined. The old classical civilization of +beauty and order had reached its climax and reacted on itself; the +Greek worship of the graceful; the Roman love of the regular, the +strong, the martial, the magnificent, had failed to save the world +from a degradation which, under the degeneracy of the later Caesars, +had become indescribable. The early Christians, filled with a +profound conviction of the infernal origin of the corruption of the +decaying civilization they saw around them, were moved by such a +compelling desire to escape it as later times can never realize and +hardly imagine. Moved by this spirit, the earnest young men of the +time, educated as Basil was in the philosophy, the poetry, and the +science of the classical times, still felt that having this they +would lose everything unless they could escape the influences of the +world around them. They did not clearly discriminate between what +was within and without themselves. It was not clear to them whether +the corruption of an effete civilization was not the necessary +corruption of all human nature including their own. This doubt sent +men like Basil to the desert to attempt, by fasting and scourging, +to get such mastery over their bodies as to compel every rebellious +nerve and stubborn muscle to yield instant obedience to their +aspirations after a more than human perfection. If they never +attained their ideal; if we find them coming out of the desert, as +they sometimes did, to engage in controversies, often fierce and +unsaintly enough, we can see, nevertheless, how the deep emotions of +their struggle after a higher life made them the great orators they +were. Their language came from profound depths of feeling. Often +their very earnestness betrays them into what for later ages is +unintelligibility. Only antiquarians now can understand how deeply +the minds of the earlier centuries of the New Order, which saved +progress from going down into the bottomless pit of classical +decadence, were stirred by controversies over prepositions and +conjunctions. But if we remember that in all of it, the men who +are sometimes ridiculed as mere ascetics, mere pedants, were moved +by a profound sense of their duty to save a world so demoralized, so +shameless in the pursuit of everything sensual and base, that +nothing short of their sublime enthusiasm, their very madness of +contempt for the material and the sensual, could have saved it. + +After studying in Constantinople and in Athens, the spirit of the +Reformers of his time took hold on Basil and, under the ascetic +impulse, he visited the hermits of Arabia and Asia Minor, hoping to +learn sanctity from them. He founded a convent in Pontus, which his +mother and sister entered. After his ordination as "Presbyter." he +was involved in the great Arian controversy, and the ability he +showed as a disputant probably had much to do with his promotion to +the bishopric of Caesarea. In meeting the responsibilities of that +office, his courage and eloquence made him famous. When threatened +by the Emperor Valens, he replied that having nothing but a few +books and his cloak, he did not fear confiscation of his goods; that +he could not be exiled, since the whole earth was the Lord's; that +torture and death would merely put an end to his labors and bring +him nearer to the God for whom he longed. He died at Caesarea +A. D. 379. Such men must be judged from their own standpoints. It is +worth much to understand them. + +The sermon 'To the Fallen,' here used from Fish's translation, was +greatly admired by Fenelon, who calls it a masterpiece. It was +occasioned by a nun's breaking a vow of perpetual virginity. + +ON A RECREANT NUN + +It is time, now, to take up the exclamation of the Prophet: "O that +my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might +weep for the wounded of the daughter of my people!"--Jer. ix. i. + +For, although they are wrapped in profound silence, and lie quite +stupefied by their calamity, and deprived, by their deadly wound, +even of the very sense of suffering, yet it does not become us to +withhold our tears over so sad a fall. For if Jeremiah deemed those +worthy of countless lamentations who had received bodily wounds in +battle, what shall we say when souls are involved in so great a +calamity? "Thy wounded," says the Prophet, "are not wounded with +the sword, and thy dead are not the dead of war." But my +lamentation is for grievous sin, the sting of the true death, and +for the fiery darts of the wicked, which have cruelly kindled a +flame in both body and soul. Well might the laws of God groan +within themselves, beholding such pollution on earth, those laws +which always utter their loud prohibition, saying in olden time, +"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife"; and in the Gospels, +"That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed +adultery with her already in his heart." But now they behold the +very bride of the Lord--her of whom Christ is the head-- +committing adultery without fear or shame. Yes, the very spirits of +departed saints may well groan, the zealous Phineas, that it is not +permitted to him now to snatch the spear and to punish the loathsome +sin with a summary corporeal vengeance; and John the Baptist, that +he cannot now leave the celestial abodes, as he once left the +wilderness, and hasten to rebuke the transgression, and if the +sacrifice were called for, to lay down his head sooner than abate +the severity of his reproof. Nay, let us rather say that, like +blessed Abel, John "being dead yet speaketh," and now lifts up his +voice with a yet louder cry than in the case of Herodias, saying, +"It is not lawful for thee to have her." For, although the body of +John, yielding to the inevitable sentence of God, has paid the debt +of nature, and his tongue is silent, yet "the word of God is not +bound." And he who, when the marriage covenant had been violated in +the case of a fellow-servant, was faithful even unto death with his +stern reproofs, what must he have felt if he had seen the holy +bride-chamber of the Lord thus wantonly outraged? + +But as for thee, O thou who hast thus cast off the yoke of that +divine union, and deserted the undefiled chamber of the true King, +and shamefully fallen into this disgraceful and impious defilement, +since thou hast no way of evading this bitter charge, and no method +or artifice can avail to conceal thy fearful crime, thou boldly +hardenest thyself in guilt. And as he who has once fallen into the +abyss of crime becomes henceforth an impious despiser, so thou +deniest thy very covenant with the true bridegroom; alleging that +thou wast not a virgin, and hadst never taken the vow, although thou +hast both received and given many pledges of virginity. Remember +the good confession which thou hast made before God and angels and +men. Remember that venerable assembly, and the sacred choir of +virgins, and the congregation of the Lord, and the Church of the +saints. Remember thy aged grandmother in Christ, whose Christian +virtues still flourish in the vigor of youth; and thy mother in the +Lord, who vies with the former, and strives by new and unwonted +endeavors to dissolve the bands of custom; and thy sister likewise, +in some things their imitator, and in some aspiring to excel them, +and to surpass in the merits of virginity the attainments of her +progenitors, and both in word and deed diligently inviting thee, her +sister, as is meet, to the same competition. Remember these, and +the angelic company associated with them in the service of the Lord, +and the spiritual life though yet in the flesh, and the heavenly +converse upon earth. Remember the tranquil days and the luminous +nights, and the spiritual songs, and the melodious psalmody, and the +holy prayers, and the chaste and undefiled couch, and the progress +in virginal purity, and the temperate diet so helpful in preserving +thy virginity uncontaminated. And where is now that grave +deportment, and that modest mien, and that plain attire which so +become a virgin, and that beautiful blush of bashfulness, and that +comely paleness--the delicate bloom of abstinence and vigils, that +outshines every ruddier glow. How often in prayer that thou +mightest keep unspotted thy virginal purity hast thou poured forth +thy tears! How many letters hast thou indited to holy men, +imploring their prayers, not that thou mightest obtain these human +--nuptials, shall I call them? rather this dishonorable defilement +--but that thou mightest not fall away from the Lord Jesus? How +often hast thou received the gifts of the spouse! And why should I +mention also the honors accorded for his sake by those who are his +--the companionship of the virgins, journeyings with them, welcomes +from them, encomiums on virginity, blessings bestowed by virgins, +letters addressed to thee as to a virgin! But now, having been just +breathed upon by the aerial spirit that worketh in the children of +disobedience, thou hast denied all these, and hast bartered that +precious and enviable possession for a brief pleasure, which is +sweet to thy taste for a moment, but which afterward thou wilt find +bitterer than gall. + +Besides all this, who can avoid exclaiming with grief, "How is Zion, +the faithful city, become an harlot!" Nay, does not the Lord +himself say to some who now walk in the spirit of Jeremiah, "Hast +thou seen what the virgin of Israel hath done unto me?" "I +betrothed her unto me in faith and purity, in righteousness and in +judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies," even as I promised +her by Hosea, the prophet. But she has loved strangers; and even +while I her husband lived, she has made herself an adulteress, and +has not feared to become the wife of another husband. And what +would the bride's guardian and conductor say, the divine and blessed +Paul? Both the ancient Apostle, and this modern one, under whose +auspices and instruction thou didst leave thy father's house, and +join thyself to the Lord? Would not each, filled with grief at the +great calamity, say, "The thing which I greatly feared has come upon +me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me," for "I espoused +you unto one husband, that I might present you as a chaste virgin to +Christ"; and I was always fearful, lest in some way as the serpent +beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so thy mind should sometime be +corrupted. And on this account I always endeavored, like a skillful +charmer, by innumerable incantations, to suppress the tumult of the +passions, and by a thousand safeguards to secure the bride of the +Lord, rehearsing again and again the manner of her who is unmarried, +how that she only "careth for the things of the Lord, that she may +be holy both in body and in spirit"; and I set forth the honor of +virginity, calling thee the temple of God, that I might add wings to +thy zeal, and help thee upward to Jesus; and I also had recourse to +the fear of evil, to prevent thee from falling, telling thee that +"if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy." I +also added the assistance of my prayers, that, if possible, "thy +whole body, and soul, and spirit might be preserved blameless unto +the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," But all this labor I have +spent in vain upon thee; and those sweet toils have ended in a +bitter disappointment; and now I must again groan over her of whom I +ought to have joy. For lo, thou hast been beguiled by the serpent +more bitterly than Eve; for not only has thy mind become defiled, +but with it thy very body also, and what is still more horrible--I +dread to say it, but I cannot suppress it; for it is as fire burning +and blazing in my bones, and I am dissolving in every part and +cannot endure it--thou hast taken the members of Christ, and made +them the members of a harlot. This is incomparably the greatest +evil of all. This is a new crime in the world, to which we may +apply the words of the Prophet, "Pass over the isles of Chittim, and +see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there +be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no +gods?" For the virgin hath changed her glory, and now glories in +her shame. The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth +trembleth very exceedingly. Now, also, the Lord says, the virgin +hath committed two evils, she hath forsaken me, the true and holy +bridegroom of sanctified souls, and hath fled to an impious and +lawless polluter of the body, and corrupter of the soul. She hath +turned away from God her Savior, and hath yielded her members +servants to imparity and iniquity; she bath forgotten me, and gone +after her lover, by whom she shall not profit. + +It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, +and he cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of the +Lord's virgins to offend. What impudent servant ever carried his +insane audacity so far as to fling himself upon the couch of his +lord? Or what robber has ever become so madly hardened as to lay +hands upon the very offerings devoted to God?--but here it is not +inanimate vessels, but living bodies, inhabited by souls made in the +image of God. Since the beginning of the world was any one ever +heard of, who dared, in the midst of a great city, in broad midday, +to deface the likeness of a king by inscribing upon it the forms of +filthy swine? He that despises human nuptials dies without mercy +under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose +ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son +of God, and defiled his espoused wife, and done despite to the +spirit of virginity? . . . + +But, after all this, "shall they fall and not arise? shall he turn +away and not return?" Why hath the virgin turned away in so +shameless an apostasy?--and that, too, after having heard Christ, +the bridegroom, saying by Jeremiah, "And I said, after she had +lewdly done all these things, turn thou unto me. But she returned +not," "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? +Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people +recovered?" Truly thou mightest find in the Divine Scriptures many +remedies for such an evil--many medicines that recover from +perdition and restore to life; mysterious words about death and +resurrection, a dreadful judgment, and everlasting punishment; the +doctrines of repentance and remission of sins; those innumerable +examples of conversion--the piece of silver, the lost sheep, the +son that had devoured his living with harlots, that was lost and +found, that was dead and alive again. Let us use these remedies for +the evil; with these let us heal our souls. Think, too, of thy last +day (for thou art not to live always, more than others), of the +distress, and the anguish, as the hour of death draws nearer, of the +impending sentence of God, of the angels moving on rapid wing, of +the soul fearfully agitated by all these things, and bitterly +tormented by a guilty conscience, and clinging pitifully to the +things here below, and still under the inevitable necessity of +taking its departure. Picture to thy mind the final dissolution of +all that belongs to our present life, when the Son of Man shall come +in his glory, with his holy angels; for he "shall come, and shall +not keep silence," when he shall come to judge the living and the +dead, and to render to every man according to his work; when the +trumpet, with its loud and terrible echo, shall awaken those who +have slept from the beginning of the world, and they shall come +forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of the life, and +they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. Remember +the divine vision of Daniel, how he brings the judgment before our +eyes. "I beheld," says he, "till the thrones were placed, and the +Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the +hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery +flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and +came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, +and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment +was set, and the books were opened," revealing all at once in the +hearing of all men and all angels, all things, whether good or bad, +open or secret, deeds, words, thoughts. What effect must all these +things have on those who have lived viciously? Where, then, shall +the soul, thus suddenly revealed in all the fullness of its shame in +the eyes of such a multitude of spectators--Oh, where shall it +hide itself? In what body can it endure those unbounded and +intolerable torments of the unquenchable fire, and the tortures of +the undying worm, and the dark and frightful abyss of hell, and the +bitter howlings, and woeful wailings, and weeping, and gnashing of +teeth; and all these dire woes without end? Deliverance from these +after death there is none; neither is there any device, nor +contrivance, for escaping these bitter torments. But now it is +possible to escape them. Now, then, while it is possible, let us +recover ourselves from our fall, let us not despair of restoration, +if we break loose from our vices. Jesus Christ came into the world +to save sinners. "Oh, come, let us worship and bow down," let us +weep before him. His word, calling us to repentance, lifts up its +voice and cries aloud, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest." There is, then, a way to be +saved, if we will Death has prevailed and swallowed us up; but be +assured, that God will wipe away every tear from the face of every +penitent. The Lord is faithful in all his words. He does not lie, +when he says, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as +white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as +wool." The great Physician of souls is ready to heal thy disease; +he is the prompt Deliverer, not of thee alone, but of all who are in +bondage to sin. These are his words,--his sweet and life-giving +lips pronounced them,--"They that be whole need not a physician, but +they that are sick. I am not come to call the righteous, but +sinners to repentance." What excuse, then, remains to thee, or to +any one else, when he utters such language as this? The Lord is +willing to heal thy painful wound, and to enlighten thy darkness. +The Good Shepherd leaves the sheep who have not strayed, to seek for +thee. If thou give thyself up to him, he will not delay, he in his +mercy will not disdain to carry thee upon his own shoulders, +rejoicing that he has found his sheep which was lost. The Father +stands waiting thy return from thy wanderings. Only arise and come, +and whilst thou art yet a great way off he will run and fall upon +thy neck; and, purified at once by thy repentance, thou shalt be +enfolded in the embraces of his friendship. He will put the best +robe on thy soul, when it has put off the old man with his deeds; he +will put a ring on thy hands when they have been washed from the +blood of death; he will put shoes on thy feet, when they have turned +from the evil way to the path of the Gospel of peace; and he will +proclaim a day of joy and gladness to the whole family of both +angels and men, and will celebrate thy salvation with every form of +rejoicing. For he himself says, "Verily I say unto you, that joy +shall be in heaven before God over one sinner that repenteth." And +if any of those that stand by should seem to find fault, because +thou art so quickly received, the good Father himself will plead for +thee, saying, "It was meet that we should make merry and be glad; +for this my daughter was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and +is found." + + + +RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691) + +Richard Baxter, author of 'The Saints' Everlasting Rest' and of +other works to the extent of sixty octavo volumes, was called by +Doddridge "the English Demosthenes." He was born November 12th. +1615, in Shropshire, England, and was admitted to orders in the +English Church in 1638. He refused, however, to take the oath of +"Submission to Archbishops. Bishops," etc., and established himself +as the pastor of a dissenting church in Kidderminster. He was twice +imprisoned for refusing to conform to the requirements of the +Established Church. He died in 1691. One of his critics says of +him:-- + +"The leading characteristics of Baxter are, eminent piety and vigor +of intellect, keenness of logic, burning power and plainness of +language, melting pathos, cloudless perspicuity, graceful +description, and a certain vehemence of feeling which brings home +his words with an irresistible force." + +The sermon here extracted from was preached first at Kidderminster +and afterwards at London, and it is said it produced "a profound +sensation." As published entire, under the title 'Making Light of +Christ and Salvation,' it makes a considerable volume. + +UNWILLINGNESS TO IMPROVE + +Beloved hearers, the office that God bath called us to, is by +declaring the glory of his grace, to help under Christ to the saving +of men's souls, I hope you think not that I come hither to-day on +any other errand. The Lord knows I had not set a foot out of doors +but in hope to succeed in this work for your souls. I have +considered, and often considered, what is the matter that so many +thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their +salvation; and I find this that is mentioned in my text is the +cause. It is one of the wonders of the world, that when God hath so +loved the world as to send his Son, and Christ hath made a +satisfaction by his death sufficient for them all and offereth the +benefits of it so freely to them, even without money or price, that +yet the most of the world should perish; yea, the most of those +that are thus called by his word! Why, here is the reason, when +Christ hath done all this, men make light of it. God hath showed +that he is not unwilling; and Christ hath showed that he is not +unwilling that men should be restored to God's favor and be saved; +but men are actually unwilling themselves. God takes not pleasure +in the death of sinners, but rather that they return and live. But +men take such pleasure in sin that they will die before they will +return. The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physician, and hath +provided them a sufficient plaster of his own blood: but if men make +light of it, and will not apply it, what wonder if they perish after +all? The Scripture giveth us the reason of their perdition. This, +sad experience tells us, the most of the world is guilty of. It is +a most lamentable thing to see how most men do spend their care, +their time, their pains, for known vanities, while God and glory are +cast aside; that he who is all should seem to them as nothing, and +that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all; that God +should set mankind in such a race where heaven or hell is their +certain end, and that they should sit down, and loiter, or run after +the childish toys of the world, and so much forget the prize that +they should run for. Were it but possible for one of us to see the +whole of this business as the all-seeing God doth; to see at one +view both heaven and hell, which men are so near; and see what most +men in the world are minding, and what they are doing every day, it +would be the saddest sight that could be imagined. Oh how should we +marvel at their madness, and lament their self-delusion! Oh poor +distracted world! what is it you run after? and what is it that +you neglect? If God had never told them what they were sent into +the world to do, or whither they are going, or what was before them +in another world, then they had been excusable; but he hath told +them over and over, till they were weary of it. Had he left it +doubtful, there had been some excuse; but it is his sealed word, and +they profess to believe it, and would take it ill of us if we should +question whether they do believe it or not. + +Beloved, I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this crime; +but seeing it is the commonest cause of men's destruction, I suppose +you will judge it the fittest matter for our inquiry, and deserving +our greatest care for the cure, To which end I shall, 1. Endeavor +the conviction of the guilty, 2. Shall give them such considerations +as may tend to humble and reform them. 3. I shall conclude with +such direction as may help them that are willing to escape the +destroying power of this sin. And for the first, consider:-- + +1. It is the case of most sinners to think themselves freest from +those sins that they are most enslaved to; and one reason why we +cannot reform them, is because we cannot convince them of their +guilt. It is the nature of sin so far to blind and befool the +sinner, that he knoweth not what he doth, but thinketh he is free +from it when it reigneth in him, or when he is committing it; it +bringeth men to be so much unacquainted with themselves that they +know not what they think, or what they mean and intend, nor what +they love or hate, much less what they are habituated and +disposed to. They are alive to sin, and dead to all the reason, +consideration, and resolution that should recover them, as if it +were only by their sinning that we must know they are alive. May +I hope that you that hear me to-day are but willing to know the +truth of your case, and then I shall be encouraged to proceed to +an inquiry. God will judge impartially; why should not we do so? +Let me, therefore, by these following questions, try whether none +of you are slighters of Christ and your own salvation. And follow +me, I beseech you, by putting them close to your own hearts, and +faithfully answering them. + +1. Things that men highly value will be remembered; they will be +matter of their freest and sweetest thoughts. This is a known +case. + +Do not those then make light of Christ and salvation that think of +them so seldom and coldly in comparison of other things? Follow thy +own heart, man, and observe what it daily runneth after; and then +judge whether it make not light of Christ. + +We cannot persuade men to one hour's sober consideration what they +should do for an interest in Christ, or in thankfulness for his +love, and yet they will not believe that they make light of him. + +2. Things that we highly value will be matter of our discourse; the +judgment and heart will command the tongue. Freely and +delightfully will our speech run after them. This also is a known +case. + +Do not those men make light of Christ and salvation that shun the +mention of his name, unless it be in a vain or sinful use? Those +that love not the company where Christ and salvation is much talked +of, but think it troublesome, precise discourse; that had rather +hear some merry jests, or idle tales, or talk of their riches or +business in the world? When you may follow them from morning to +night, and scarce have a savory word of Christ; but, perhaps, some +slight and weary mention of him sometimes; judge whether these make +not light of Christ and salvation. How seriously do they talk of the +world and speak vanity! but how heartlessly do they make mention of +Christ and salvation! + +3. The things that we highly value we would secure the possession +of, and, therefore, would take any convenient course to have all +doubts and fears about them well resolved. Do not those men then +make light of Christ and salvation that have lived twenty or +thirty years in uncertainty whether they have any part in these +or not, and yet never seek out for the right resolution of their +doubts? Are all that hear me this day certain they shall be +saved? Oh that they were! Oh, had you not made light of +salvation, you could not so easily bear such doubting of it; you +could not rest till you had made it sure, or done your best to +make it sure. Have you nobody to inquire of, that might help you +in such a work? Why, you have ministers that are purposely +appointed to that office. Have you gone to them, and told them +the doubtfulness of your case, and asked their help in the +judging of your condition? Alas, ministers may sit in their +studies from one year to another, before ten persons among a +thousand will come to them on such an errand! Do not these make +light of Christ and salvation? When the Gospel pierceth the heart +indeed, they cry out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do to be +saved?" Trembling and astonished, Paul cries out, "Lord, what +wilt thou have me to do?" And so did the convinced Jews to +Peter. But when hear we such questions? + +4. The things that we value do deeply affect us, and some motions +will be in the heart according to our estimation of them. O sirs, +if men made not light of these things, what working would there be +in the hearts of all our hearers! What strange affections would it +raise in them to hear of the matters of the world to come! How +would their hearts melt before the power of the Gospel! What sorrow +would be wrought in the discovery of their sins! What astonishment +at the consideration of their misery! What unspeakable joy at the +glad tidings of salvation by the blood of Christ! What resolution +would be raised in them upon the discovery of their duty! Oh what +hearers should we have, if it were not for this sin! Whereas, now +we are liker to weary them, or preach them asleep with matters of +this unspeakable moment. We talk to them of Christ and salvation +till we make their heads ache; little would one think by their +careless carriage that they heard and regarded what we said, or +thought we spoke at all to them. + +5. Our estimation of things will be seen in the diligence of our +endeavors. That which we highliest value, we shall think no pains +too great to obtain. Do not those men then make light of Christ +and salvation that think all too much that they do for them; that +murmur at his service, and think it too grievous for them to +endure? that ask of his service as Judas of the ointment, What +need this waste? Cannot men be saved without so much ado? This is +more ado than needs. For the world they will labor all the day, +and all their lives; but for Christ and salvation they are afraid +of doing too much. Let us preach to them as long as we will, we +cannot bring them to relish or resolve upon a life of holiness. +Follow them to their houses, and you shall not hear them read a +chapter, nor call upon God with their families once a day; nor will +they allow him that one day in seven which he hath separated to his +service. But pleasure, or worldly business, or idleness, must have a +part. And many of them are so far hardened as to reproach them that +will not be as mad as themselves. And is not Christ worth the +seeking? Is not everlasting salvation worth more than all this? Doth +not that soul make light of all these that thinks his ease more worth +than they? Let but common sense judge. + +6. That which we most highly value, we think we cannot buy too dear: +Christ and salvation are freely given, and yet the most of men go +without them because they cannot enjoy the world and them together. +They are called but to part with that which would hinder them from +Christ, and they will not do it. They are called but to give God +his own, and to resign all to his will, and let go the profits and +pleasures of this world when they must let go either Christ or them, +and they will not. They think this too dear a bargain, and say they +cannot spare these things; they must hold their credit with men; +they must look to their estates: how shall they live else? They +must have their pleasure, whatsoever becomes of Christ and +salvation: as if they could live without Christ better than without +these: as if they were afraid of being losers by Christ or could +make a saving match by losing their souls to gain the world. Christ +hath told us over and over that if we will not forsake all for him +we cannot be his disciples. Far are these men from forsaking all, +and yet will needs think that they are his disciples indeed. + +7. That which men highly esteem, they would help their friends to as +well as themselves. Do not those men make light of Christ and +salvation that can take so much care to leave their children +portions in the world, and do so little to help them to heaven? +that provide outward necessaries so carefully for their families, +but do so little to the saving of their souls? Their neglected +children and friends will witness that either Christ, or their +children's souls, or both, were made light of. + +8. That which men highly esteem, they will so diligently seek after +that you may see it in the success, if it be a matter within +their reach. You may see how many make light of Christ, by the +little knowledge they have of him, and the little communion with +him, and communication from him; and the little, yea, none of his +special grace in them. Alas! how many ministers can speak it to +the sorrow of their hearts, that many of their people know almost +nothing of Christ, though they hear of him daily! Nor know they +what they must do to be saved: if we ask them an account of these +things, they answer as if they understood not what we say to +them, and tell us they are no scholars, and therefore think they +are excusable for their ignorance. Oh if these men had not made +light of Christ and their salvation, but had bestowed but half as +much pains to know and enjoy him as they have done to understand +the matters of their trades and callings in the world, they would +not have been so ignorant as they are: they make light of these +things, and therefore will not be at the pains to study or learn +them. When men that can learn the hardest trade in a few years +have not learned a catechism, nor how to understand their creed, +under twenty or thirty years' preaching, nor can abide to be +questioned about such things, doth not this show that they have +slighted them in their hearts? How will these despisers of Christ +and salvation be able one day to look him in the face, and to +give an account of these neglects? + + + +JAMES A. BAYARD (1767-1815) + +During the first decade of the nineteenth century, a most important +formative period of American history, James A. Bayard was the +recognized leader of the Federalists in the Senate. They had lost +the presidential election of 1800, and their party had been so +completely disorganized by the defeat that they never recovered from +it, nor won, as a party, another victory. Defeat, however, did not +prevent them from making a stubborn fight for principle--from +filing, as it were, an appeal from the first to the third quarter of +the century. In this James A. Bayard was their special advocate and +representative. The pleas he made in his celebrated speech on the +Judiciary, delivered in the House of Representatives, and in similar +speeches in the Senate, defined as they had not been defined before, +the views of that body of Conservatives whose refusal to accept the +defeat of 1800 as anything more than an ephemeral incident, led to +the far-reaching results achieved by other parties which their ideas +brought into existence. It was said of Bayard, as their +representative and leader, that "he was distinguished for the depth +of his knowledge, the solidity of his reasoning, and the perspicuity +of his illustration." He was called "the Goliath of Federalism," +and "the high priest of the constitution," by the opponents of +"Jacobinism." as Federalists often termed Jeffersonian democracy. +Mr. Bayard was born in Philadelphia, July 28th, 1767. His father, +Dr. James A. Bayard, claimed his descent from the celebrated +"Chevalier" Bayard,--a fact which greatly influenced the son as it +has others of the family who have succeeded him in public life. +Thus when offered the French mission James A. Bayard declined it, +fearing that it might involve the suspicion of a bargain. "My +ambitions," he wrote in a letter to a relative, "shall never be +gratified at the expense of a suspicion. I shall never lose sight +of the motto of the great original of our name." + +After preparing for the bar. Bayard settled in Delaware and in 1796 +that State elected him to the lower house of Congress, promoting him +in 1804 to the Senate and re-electing him at the expiration of his +first term. In 1813, President Madison appointed him one of the +Commissioners to conclude the treaty of peace with England. + +After the success of that mission, he was appointed minister to +Russia, but declined saying that he had "no wish to serve the +administration except when his services were necessary for the +public good." He died in August 1815. + +His speeches show a strong and comprehensive grasp of facts, a power +to present them in logical sequence, and an apprehension of +principle which is not often seen in public speeches. They were +addressed, however, only to the few who will take the pains to do +severe and connected thinking and they are never likely to become +extensively popular. + +THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY + +(Delivered on the Judiciary Bill, in the House of Representatives, +on the Nineteenth of February, 1802) + +Mr. Chairman:-- + +I must be allowed to express my surprise at the course pursued by +the honorable gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Giles, in the remarks +which be has made on the subject before us. I had expected that he +would have adopted a different line of conduct. I had expected it +as well from that sentiment of magnanimity which ought to have been +inspired by a sense of the high ground he holds on the floor of this +House, as from the professions of a desire to conciliate, which he +has so repeatedly made during the session. We have been invited to +bury the hatchet, and brighten the chain of peace. We were disposed +to meet on middle-ground. We had assurances from the gentleman that +he would abstain from reflections on the past, and that his only +wish was that we might unite in future in promoting the welfare of +our common country. We confided in the gentleman's sincerity, and +cherished the hope, that if the divisions of party were not banished +from the House, its spirit would be rendered less intemperate. Such +were our impressions, when the mask was suddenly thrown aside, and +we saw the torch of discord lighted and blazing before our eyes. +Every effort has been made to revive the animosities of the House +and inflame the passions of the nation. I am at no loss to perceive +why this course has been pursued. The gentleman has been unwilling +to rely upon the strength of his subject, and has, therefore, +determined to make the measure a party question. He has probably +secured success, but would it not have been more honorable and more +commendable to have left the decision of a great constitutional +question to the understanding, and not to the prejudices of the +House? It was my ardent wish to discuss the subject with calmness +and deliberation, and I did intend to avoid every topic which could +awaken the sensibility of party. This was my temper and design when +I took my seat yesterday. It is a course at present we are no +longer at liberty to pursue. The gentleman has wandered far, very +far, from the points of the debate, and has extended his +animadversions to all the prominent measures of the former +administrations. In following him through his preliminary +observations, I necessarily lose sight of the bill upon your table. + +The gentleman commenced his strictures with the philosophic +observation, that it was the fate of mankind to hold different +opinions as to the form of government which was preferable; that +some were attached to the monarchical, while others thought the +republican more eligible. This, as an abstract remark, is certainly +true, and could have furnished no ground of offense, if it had not +evidently appeared that an allusion was designed to be made to the +parties in this country. Does the gentleman suppose that we have a +less lively recollection than himself, of the oath which we have +taken to support the constitution; that we are less sensible of the +spirit of our government, or less devoted to the wishes of our +constituents? Whatever impression it might be the intention of the +gentleman to make, he does not believe that there exists in the +country an anti-republican party. He will not venture to assert +such an opinion on the floor of this House. That there may be a few +individuals having a preference for monarchy is not improbable; but +will the gentleman from Virginia, or any other gentleman, affirm in +his place, that there is a party in the country who wish to +establish monarchy? Insinuations of this sort belong not to the +legislature of the Union. Their place is an election ground, or an +alehouse. Within these walls they are lost; abroad, they have had +an effect, and I fear are still capable of abusing popular +credulity. + +We were next told of the parties which have existed, divided by the +opposite views of promoting executive power and guarding the rights +of the people. The gentleman did not tell us in plain language, but +he wished it to be understood, that he and his friends were the +guardians of the people's rights, and that we were the advocates of +executive power. + +I know that this is the distinction of party which some gentlemen +have been anxious to establish; but it is not the ground on which we +divide. I am satisfied with the constitutional powers of the +executive, and never wished nor attempted to increase them; and I do +not believe, that gentlemen on the other side of the House ever had +a serious apprehension of danger from an increase of executive +authority. No, sir, our views, as to the powers which do and ought +to belong to the general and State governments, are the true sources +of our divisions. I co-operate with the party to which I am +attached, because I believe their true object and end is an honest +and efficient support of the general government, in the exercise of +the legitimate powers of the constitution. + +I pray to God I may be mistaken in the opinion I entertain as to the +designs of gentlemen to whom I am opposed. Those designs I believe +hostile to the powers of this government. State pride extinguishes a +national sentiment. Whatever power is taken from this government is +given to the States. + +The ruins of this government aggrandize the States. There are +States which are too proud to be controlled; whose sense of +greatness and resource renders them indifferent to our protection, +and induces a belief that if no general government existed, their +influence would be more extensive, and their importance more +conspicuous. There are gentlemen who make no secret of an extreme +point of depression, to which the government is to be sunk. To that +point we are rapidly progressing. But I would beg gentlemen to +remember that human affairs are not to be arrested in their course, +at artificial points. The impulse now given may be accelerated by +causes at present out of view. And when those, who now design well, +wish to stop, they may find their powers unable to resist the +torrent. It is not true, that we ever wished to give a dangerous +strength to executive power. While the government was in our hands, +it was our duty to maintain its constitutional balance, by +preserving the energies of each branch. There never was an attempt +to vary the relation of its powers. The struggle was to maintain +the constitutional powers of the executive. The wild principles of +French liberty were scattered through the country. We had our +Jacobins and disorganizes. They saw no difference between a king +and a president, and as the people of France had put down their +King, they thought the people of America ought to put down their +President. They, who considered the constitution as securing all +the principles of rational and practicable liberty, who were +unwilling to embark upon the tempestuous sea of revolution in +pursuit of visionary schemes, were denounced as monarchists. A line +was drawn between the government and the people, and the friends of +the government were marked as the enemies of the people. I hope, +however, that the government and the people are now the same; and I +pray to God, that what has been frequently remarked, may not, in +this case, be discovered to be true that they, who have the name of +the people the most often in their mouths, have their true interests +the most seldom at their hearts. + +The honorable gentleman from Virginia wandered to the very confines +of the federal administration, in search of materials the most +inflammable and most capable of kindling the passions of his +party. ... + +I did suppose, sir, that this business was at an end; and I did +imagine, that as gentlemen had accomplished their object, they would +have been satisfied. But as the subject is again renewed, we must be +allowed to justify our conduct. I know not what the gentleman calls +an expression of the public will. There were two candidates for the +office of President, who were presented to the House of +Representatives with equal suffrages. The constitution gave us the +right and made it our duty to elect that one of the two whom we +thought preferable. A public man is to notice the public will as +constitutionally expressed. The gentleman from Virginia, and many +others, may have had their preference; but that preference of the +public will not appear by its constitutional expression. Sir, I am +not certain that either of those candidates had a majority of the +country in his favor. Excluding the State of South Carolina, the +country was equally divided. We know that parties in that State were +nearly equally balanced, and the claims of both the candidates were +supported by no other scrutiny into the public will than our +official return of votes. Those votes are very imperfect evidence of +the true will of a majority of the nation. They resulted from +political intrigue and artificial arrangement. + +When we look at the votes, we must suppose that every man in +Virginia voted the same way. These votes are received as a correct +expression of the public will. And yet we know that if the votes of +that State were apportioned according to the several voices of the +people, that at least seven out of twenty-one would have been +opposed to the successful candidate. It was the suppression of the +will of one-third of Virginia, which enables gentlemen now to say +that the present chief magistrate is the man of the people. I +consider that as the public will, which is expressed by +constitutional organs. To that will I bow and submit. The public +will, thus manifested, gave to the House of Representatives the +choice of the two men for President. Neither of them was the man +whom I wished to make President; but my election was confined by the +constitution to one of the two, and I gave my vote to the one whom I +thought was the greater and better man. That vote I repeated, and +in that vote I should have persisted, had I not been driven from it +by imperious necessity. The prospect ceased of the vote being +effectual, and the alternative only remained of taking one man for +President, or having no President at all. I chose, as I then +thought, the lesser evil. + +From the scene in this House, the gentleman carried us to one in the +Senate. I should blush, sir, for the honor of the country, could I +suppose that the law, designed to be repealed, owed its support in +that body to the motives which have been indicated. The charge +designed to be conveyed, not only deeply implicates the integrity of +individuals of the Senate, but of the person who was then the chief +magistrate. The gentleman, going beyond all precedent, has mentioned +the names of members of that body, to whom commissions issued for +offices not created by the bill before them, but which that bill, by +the promotions it afforded, was likely to render vacant. He has +considered the scandal of the transaction as aggravated by the +issuing of commissions for offices not actually vacant, upon the +bare presumption that they would become vacant by the incumbents +accepting commissions for higher offices which were issued in their +favor. The gentleman has particularly dwelt upon the indecent +appearance of the business, from two commissions being held by +different persons at the same time for the same office. + +I beg that it will be understood that I mean to give no opinion as +to the regularity of granting a commission for a judicial office, +upon the probability of a vacancy before it is actually vacant; but +I shall be allowed to say that so much doubt attends the point, that +an innocent mistake might be made on the subject. I believe, sir, +it has been the practice to consider the acceptance of an office as +relating to the date of the commission. The officer is allowed his +salary from that date, upon the principle that the commission is a +grant of the office, and the title commences with the date of the +grant. This principle is certainly liable to abuse, but where there +was a suspicion of abuse I presume the government would depart from +it. Admitting the office to pass by the commission, and the +acceptance to relate to its date, it then does not appear very +incorrect, in the case of a commission for the office of a circuit +judge, granted to a district judge, as the acceptance of the +commission for the former office relates to the date of the +commission, to consider the latter office as vacant from the same +time. The offices are incompatible. You cannot suppose the same +person in both offices at the same time. From the moment, +therefore, that you consider the office of circuit judge as filled +by a person who holds the commission of district judge, you must +consider the office of district judge as vacated. The grant is +contingent. If the contingency happen, the office vests from the +date of the commission; if the contingency does not happen, the +grant is void. If this reasoning be sound, it was not irregular, in +the late administration, after granting a commission to a district +judge, for the place of a circuit judge, to make a grant of the +office of the district judge, upon the contingency of his accepting +the office of circuit judge. + +The legislative power of the government is not absolute, but +limited. If it be doubtful whether the legislature can do what the +constitution does not explicitly authorize, yet there can be no +question, that they cannot do what the constitution expressly +prohibits. To maintain, therefore, the constitution, the judges are +a check upon the legislature. The doctrine, I know, is denied, and +it is, therefore, incumbent upon me to show that it is sound. It +was once thought by gentlemen, who now deny the principle, that the +safety of the citizen and of the States rested upon the power of the +judges to declare an unconstitutional law void. How vain is a paper +restriction if it confers neither power nor right. Of what +importance is it to say, Congress are prohibited from doing certain +acts, if no legitimate authority exists in the country to decide +whether an act done is a prohibited act? Do gentlemen perceive the +consequences which would follow from establishing the principle, +that Congress have the exclusive right to decide upon their own +powers? This principle admitted, does any constitution remain? +Does not the power of the legislature become absolute and +omnipotent? Can you talk to them of transgressing their powers, +when no one has a right to judge of those powers but themselves? +They do what is not authorized, they do what is inhibited, nay, at +every step, they trample the constitution under foot; yet their acts +are lawful and binding, and it is treason to resist them. How ill, +sir, do the doctrines and professions of these gentlemen agree. +They tell us they are friendly to the existence of the States; that +they are the friends of federative, but the enemies of a +consolidated general government, and yet, sir, to accomplish a +paltry object, they are willing to settle a principle which, beyond +all doubt, would eventually plant a consolidated government, with +unlimited power, upon the ruins of the State governments. + +Nothing can be more absurd than to contend that there is a practical +restraint upon a political body, who are answerable to none but +themselves for the violation of the restraint, and who can derive, +from the very act of violation, undeniable justification of their +conduct. + +If, Mr. Chairman, you mean to have a constitution, you must discover +a power to which the acknowledged right is attached of pronouncing +the invalidity of the acts of the legislature, which contravened the +instrument. + +Does the power reside in the States? Has the legislature of a State +a right to declare an act of Congress void? This would be erring +upon the opposite extreme. It would be placing the general +government at the feet of the State governments. It would be +allowing one member of the Union to control all the rest. It would +inevitably lead to civil dissension and a dissolution of the general +government. Will it be pretended that the State courts have the +exclusive right of deciding upon the validity of our laws? + +I admit they have the right to declare an act of Congress void. But +this right they enjoy in practice, and it ever essentially must +exist, subject to the revision and control of the courts of the +United States. If the State courts definitely possessed the right +of declaring the invalidity of the laws of this government, it would +bring us in subjection to the States. The judges of those courts, +being bound by the laws of the State, if a State declared an act of +Congress unconstitutional, the law of the State would oblige its +courts to determine the law invalid. This principle would also +destroy the uniformity of obligation upon all the States, which +should attend every law of this government. If a law were declared +void in one State, it would exempt the citizens of that State from +its operation, whilst obedience was yielded to it in the other +States. I go further, and say, if the States or State courts had a +final power of annulling the acts of this government, its miserable +and precarious existence would not be worth the trouble of a moment +to preserve. It would endure but a short time, as a subject of +derision, and, wasting into an empty shadow, would quickly vanish +from our sight. + +Let me now ask, if the power to decide upon the validity of our laws +resides with the people. Gentlemen cannot deny this right to the +people. I admit they possess it. But if, at the same time, it does +not belong to the courts of the United States, where does it lead +the people? It leads them to the gallows. Let us suppose that +Congress, forgetful of the limits of their authority, pass an +unconstitutional law. They lay a direct tax upon one State and +impose none upon the others. The people of the State taxed contest +the validity of the law. They forcibly resist its execution. They +are brought by the executive authority before the courts upon +charges of treason. The law is unconstitutional, the people have +done right, but the court are bound by the law, and obliged to +pronounce upon them the sentence which it inflicts. Deny to the +courts of the United States the power of judging upon the +constitutionality of our laws, and it is vain to talk of its +existing elsewhere. The infractors of the laws are brought before +these courts, and if the courts are implicitly bound, the invalidity +of the laws can be no defense. There is, however, Mr. Chairman, +still a stronger ground of argument upon this subject. I shall +select one or two cases to illustrate it. Congress are prohibited +from passing a bill of attainder; it is also declared in the +constitution, that "no attainder of treason shall work corruption of +blood or forfeiture, except during the life of the party attainted." +Let us suppose that Congress pass a bill of attainder, or they +enact, that any one attainted of treason shall forfeit, to the use +of the United States, all the estate which he held in any lands or +tenements. + +The party attainted is seized and brought before a federal court, +and an award of execution passed against him. He opens the +constitution and points to this line, "no bill of attainder or _ex_ +_post_ _facto_ law shall be passed." The attorney for the United +States reads the bill of attainder. + +The courts are bound to decide, but they have only the alternative +of pronouncing the law or the constitution invalid. It is left to +them only to say that the law vacates the constitution, or the +constitution voids the law. So, in the other case stated, the heir +after the death of his ancestor, brings his ejectment in one of the +courts of the United States to recover his inheritance. The law by +which it is confiscated is shown. The constitution gave no power to +pass such a law. On the contrary, it expressly denied it to the +government. The title of the heir is rested on the constitution, the +title of the government on the law. The effect of one destroys the +effect of the other; the court must determine which is effectual. + +There are many other cases, Mr. Chairman, of a similar nature to +which I might allude. There is the case of the privilege of +_habeas_ _corpus_, which cannot be suspended but in times of +rebellion or invasion. Suppose a law prohibiting the issue of the +writ at a moment of profound peace! If, in such case, the writ were +demanded of a court, could they say, it is true the legislature were +restrained from passing the law suspending the privilege of this +writ, at such a time as that which now exists, but their mighty +power has broken the bonds of the constitution, and fettered the +authority of the court? I am not, sir, disposed to vaunt, but +standing on this ground, I throw the gauntlet to any champion upon +the other side. I call upon them to maintain, that, in a collision +between a law and the constitution, the judges are bound to support +the law, and annul the constitution. Can the gentlemen relieve +themselves from this dilemma? Will they say, though a judge has no +power to pronounce a law void, he has a power to declare the +constitution invalid? + +The doctrine for which I am contending, is not only clearly +inferable from the plain language of the constitution, but by law +has been expressly declared and established in practice since the +existence of the government. + +The second section of the third article of the constitution +expressly extends the judicial power to all cases arising under the +constitution, laws, etc. The provision in the second clause of the +sixth article leaves nothing to doubt. "This constitution and the +laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof +etc., shall be the supreme law of the land." The constitution is +absolutely the supreme law. Not so the acts of the legislature! +Such only are the law of the land as are made in pursuance of the +constitution. + +I beg the indulgence of the committee one moment, while I read the +following provision from the twenty-fifth section of the judicial +act of the year 1789: "A final judgment or decree in any suit in the +highest court of law or equity of a state, in which a decision in +the suit could be had, where is drawn in question the validity of a +treaty or statute of, or an authority exercised under, the United +States, and the decision is against their validity, etc., may be +re-examined and reversed or affirmed in the Supreme Court of the +United States, upon a writ of error." Thus, as early as the year +1789, among the first acts of the government, the legislature +explicitly recognized the right of a State court to declare a +treaty, a statute, and an authority exercised under the United +States, void, subject to the revision of the Supreme Court of the +United States; and it has expressly given the final power to the +Supreme Court to affirm a judgment which is against the validity, +either of a treaty, statute, or an authority of the government. + +I humbly trust, Mr. Chairman, that I have given abundant proofs from +the nature of our government, from the language of the constitution, +and from legislative acknowledgment, that the judges of our courts +have the power to judge and determine upon the constitutionality of +our laws. + +Let me now suppose that, in our frame of government, the judges are +a check upon the legislature; that the constitution is deposited in +their keeping. Will you say afterwards that their existence depends +upon the legislature? That the body whom they are to check has the +power to destroy them? Will you say that the constitution may be +taken out of their hands by a power the most to be distrusted, +because the only power which could violate it with impunity? Can +anything be more absurd than to admit that the judges are a check +upon the legislature, and yet to contend that they exist at the will +of the legislature? A check must necessarily imply a power +commensurate to its end. The political body, designed to check +another, must be independent of it, otherwise there can be no check. +What check can there be when the power designed to be checked can +annihilate the body which is to restrain? + +I go further, Mr. Chairman, and take a stronger ground. I say, in +the nature of things, the dependence of the judges upon the +legislature, and their right to declare the acts of the legislature +void, are repugnant, and cannot exist together. The doctrine, sir, +supposes two rights--first, the right of the legislature to +destroy the office of the judge, and the right of the judge to +vacate the act of the legislature. You have a right to abolish by a +law the offices of the judges of the circuit courts; they have a +right to declare the law void. It unavoidably follows, in the +exercise of these rights, either that you destroy their rights, or +that they destroy yours. This doctrine is not a harmless absurdity, +it is a most dangerous heresy. It is a doctrine which cannot be +practiced without producing not discord only, but bloodshed. If you +pass the bill upon your table, the judges have a constitutional +right to declare it void. I hope they will have courage to exercise +that right; and if, sir, I am called upon to take my side, standing +acquitted in ray conscience, and before my God, of all motives but +the support of the constitution of my country, I shall not tremble +at the consequences. + +The constitution may have its enemies, but I know that it has also +its friends. I beg gentlemen to pause, before they take this rash +step. There are many, very many, who believe, if you strike this +blow, you inflict a mortal wound on the constitution. There are many +now willing to spill their blood to defend that constitution. Are +gentlemen disposed to risk the consequences? Sir, I mean no threats, +I have no expectation of appalling the stout hearts of my +adversaries; but if gentlemen are regardless of themselves, let them +consider their wives and children, their neighbors and their +friends. Will they risk civil dissension, will they hazard the +welfare, will they jeopardize the peace of the country, to save a +paltry sum of money, less than thirty thousand dollars? + +Mr. Chairman, I am confident that the friends of this measure are +not apprised of the nature of its operation, nor sensible of the +mischievous consequences which are likely to attend it. Sir, the +morals of your people, the peace of the country, the stability of +the government, rest upon the maintenance of the independence of the +judiciary. It is not of half the importance in England, that the +judges should be independent of the crown, as it is with us that +they should be independent of the legislature. Am I asked, would +you render the judges superior to the legislature? I answer, no, +but co-ordinate. Would you render them independent of the +legislature? I answer, yes, independent of every power on earth, +while they behave themselves well. The essential interests, the +permanent welfare of society, require this independence; not, sir, +on account of the judge; that is a small consideration, but on +account of those between whom he is to decide. You calculate on the +weaknesses of human nature, and you suffer the judge to be dependent +on no one, lest he should be partial to those on whom he depends. +Justice does not exist where partiality prevails. A dependent judge +cannot be impartial. Independence is, therefore, essential to the +purity of your judicial tribunals. + +Let it be remembered, that no power is so sensibly felt by society, +as that of the judiciary. The life and property of every man is +liable to be in the hands of the judges. Is it not our great +interest to place our judges upon such high ground that no fear can +intimidate, no hope seduce them? The present measure humbles them +in the dust, it prostrates them at the feet of faction, it renders +them the tools of every dominant party. It is this effect which I +deprecate, it is this consequence which I deeply deplore. What does +reason, what does argument avail, when party spirit presides? +Subject your bench to the influence of this spirit, and justice bids +a final adieu to your tribunals. We are asked, sir, if the judges +are to be independent of the people? The question presents a false +and delusive view. We are all the people. We are, and as long as +we enjoy our freedom, we shall be divided into parties. The true +question is, shall the judiciary be permanent, or fluctuate with the +tide of public opinion? I beg, I implore gentlemen to consider the +magnitude and value of the principle which they are about to +annihilate. If your judges are independent of political changes, +they may have their preferences, but they will not enter into the +spirit of party. But let their existence depend upon the support of +the power of a certain set of men, and they cannot be impartial. +Justice will be trodden under foot. Your courts will lose all +public confidence and respect. + +The judges will be supported by their partisans, who, in their turn, +will expect impunity for the wrongs and violence they commit. The +spirit of party will be inflamed to madness: and the moment is not +far off, when this fair country is to be desolated by a civil war. + +Do not say that you render the judges dependent only on the people +You make them dependent on your President. This is his measure. +The same tide of public opinion which changes a President will +change the majorities in the branches of the legislature The +legislature will be the instrument of his ambition, and he will have +the courts as the instruments of his vengeance. He uses the +legislature to remove the judges, that he may appoint creatures of +his own. In effect, the powers of the government will be +concentrated in the hands of one man, who will dare to act with more +boldness, because he will be sheltered from responsibility. The +independence of the judiciary was the felicity of our constitution. +It was this principle which was to curb the fury of party on sudden +changes. The first movements of power gained by a struggle are the +most vindictive and intemperate. Raised above the storm it was the +judiciary which was to control the fiery zeal, and to quell the +fierce passions of a victorious faction. + +We are standing on the brink of that revolutionary torrent, which +deluged in blood one of the fairest countries of Europe. + +France had her national assembly, more numerous than, and equally +popular with, our own. She had her tribunals of justice, and her +juries. But the legislature and her courts were but the instruments +of her destruction. Acts of proscription and sentences of banishment +and death were passed in the cabinet of a tyrant. Prostrate your +judges at the feet of party, and you break down the mounds which +defend you from this torrent. + +I am done. I should have thanked my God for greater power to resist +a measure so destructive to the peace and happiness of the +country. My feeble efforts can avail nothing. But it was my duty to +make them. The meditated blow is mortal, and from the moment it is +struck, we may bid a final adieu to the constitution. + +COMMERCE AND NAVAL POWER (United States Senate, February 12th, 1810) + +God has decided that the people of this country should be commercial +people. You read that decree in the seacoast of seventeen hundred +miles which he has given you; in the numerous navigable waters which +penetrate the interior of the country; in the various ports and +harbors scattered alone your shores; in your fisheries; in the +redundant productions of your soil; and, more than all, in the +enterprising and adventurous spirit of your people. It is no more a +question whether the people of this country shall be allowed to +plough the ocean, than it is whether they shall be permitted to +plough the land. It is not in the power of this government, nor +would it be if it were as strong as the most despotic upon the +earth, to subdue the commercial spirit, or to destroy the commercial +habits of the country. Young as we are, our tonnage and commerce +surpass those of every nation upon the globe but one, and if +not wasted by the deprivations to which they were exposed by their +defenseless situation, and the more ruinous restrictions to which +this government subjected them, it would require not many more years +to have made them the greatest in the world. Is this immense wealth +always to be exposed as a prey to the rapacity of freebooters? Why +will you protect your citizens and their property upon land, and +leave them defenseless upon the ocean? As your mercantile property +increases, the prize becomes more tempting to the cupidity of +foreign nations. In the course of things, the ruins and aggressions +which you have experienced will multiply, nor will they be +restrained while we have no appearance of a naval force. + +I have always been in favor of a naval establishment--not from the +unworthy motives attributed by the gentleman from Georgia to a +former administration, in order to increase patronage, but from a +profound conviction that the safety of the Union and the prosperity +of the nation depended greatly upon its commerce, which never could +be securely enjoyed without the protection of naval power. I offer, +sir, abundant proof for the satisfaction of the liberal mind of that +gentleman, that patronage was not formerly a motive in voting an +increase in the navy, when I give now the same vote, when surely I +and my friends have nothing to hope, and for myself, I thank God, +nothing to wish from the patronage it may confer. + +You must and will have a navy; but it is not to be created in a day, +nor is it to be expected that, in its infancy, it will be able to +cope, foot to foot with the full-grown vigor of the navy of +England. But we are even now capable of maintaining a naval force +formidable enough to threaten the British commerce, and to render +this nation an object of more respect and consideration. + +In another point of view, the protection of commerce has become more +indispensable. The discovery is completely made, that it is from +commerce that the revenue is to be drawn which is to support this +government, A direct tax, a stamp act, a carriage tax, and an +excise, have been tried; and I believe, sir, after the lesson which +experience has given on the subject, no set of men in power will +ever repeat them again, for all they are likely to produce. The +burden must be pretty light upon the people of this country, or the +rider is in great danger. You may be allowed to sell your back lands +for some time longer, but the permanent fund for the support of this +government is the imports. + +If the people were willing to part with commerce, can the government +dispense with it? But when it belongs equally to the interest of the +people and of the government to encourage and protect it, will you +not spare a few of those dollars which it brings into your treasury, +to defend and protect it? + +In relation to the increase of a permanent military force, a free +people cannot cherish too great a jealousy. An army may wrest the +power from the hands of the people, and deprive them of their +liberty. It becomes us, therefore, to be extremely cautious how we +augment it. But a navy of any magnitude can never threaten us with +the same danger. Upon land, at this time, we have nothing--and +probably, at any future time, we shall have but little--to fear +from any foreign power. It is upon the ocean we meet them; it is +there our collisions arise; it is there we are most feeble, most +vulnerable, and most exposed; it is there by consequence, that our +safety and prosperity must require an augmented force. + + + +THOMAS F. BAYARD (1828-1898) + +In 1876, when the country was in imminent danger of the renewal of +civil war as a result of the contested presidential election, the +conservative element of the Democratic party, advised by Mr. Tilden +himself, determined to avoid anything which might result in extreme +measures. The masses of the people were excited as they had not +been since the close of the Civil War, and the great majority of the +Democrats of the country were undoubtedly opposed to making +concessions. Thomas F. Bayard, who took the lead in the Senate as +the representative of the moderate policy favored by Mr. Tilden, met +the reproaches sure to be visited in such cases on the peacemaker. +Nevertheless, he advocated the Electoral Commission as a method of +settling the contest, and his speech in supporting it, without doubt +one of the best as it was certainly the most important of his life, +paved the way for the final adoption of the bill. It is no more +than justice to say that the speech is worthy of the dignity of that +great occasion. + +Mr. Bayard inherited the equable temperament shown by his father and +his grandfather. He was a warm-hearted man with a long memory for +services done him, but he had a faculty of containing himself which +few men exercise to the degree that he exercised it habitually, both +in his public and private life. The habit was so strong, in fact, +that he indulged only on rare occasions that emotion which is +necessary for the highest success as an orator. The calmness of his +thought shows itself in logic which, while it may invite confidence, +does not compel admiration. When he is moved, however, the freedom +of his utterances from exaggeration and from that tendency to rant +which mars many orations makes such periods as those with which he +closes his speech on the Electoral Bill models of expression for all +who wish to realize the highest possibilities of cumulative force. + +The son of one United States Senator, James A. Bayard, of Delaware, +and the grandson of another, Mr. Bayard represented well the family +tradition of integrity. Born in 1828, he succeeded to his father's +place in the Senate when forty-one years of age, and remained in the +public service until within a short time of his death. He was +Secretary of State under the first Cleveland administration and +ambassador to England under the second. In the convention which +nominated Mr. Cleveland in 1884, Mr. Bayard, who had been strongly +supported for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1880, was so +close to the presidency at the beginning of the balloting that his +managers confidently expected his success. He became much attached +to President Cleveland, and in 1896 he took a course on the +financial issue then uppermost, which alienated many of his friends, +as far as friends could be alienated by the political action of a +man whose public and private life were so full of dignity, +simplicity, and the qualities which result from habitual good faith. +Mr. Bayard survived almost into the twentieth century as a last +representative of the colonial gentlemen who debated the Federal +Constitution. Supposed to be cold and unapproachable, he was really +warm in his friendships, with a memory which never allowed an act of +service done him to escape it. Few better men have had anything to +do with the politics of the second half of the century. He died in +1898. + +W. V. B. + +A PLEA FOR CONCILIATION IN 1876 + +("Counting the Electoral Votes," United States Senate, January 24th, +1877) + +Mr. President, I might have been content as a friend of this measure +to allow it to go before the Senate and the country unaccompanied by +any remarks of mine had it not been the pleasure of the Senate to +assign me as one of the minority in this Chamber to a place upon the +select committee appointed for the purpose of reporting a bill +intended to meet the exigencies of the hour in relation to the +electoral votes. There is for every man in a matter of such gravity +his own measure of responsibility, and that measure I desire to +assume. Nothing less important than the decision, into whose hands +the entire executive power of this government shall be vested in the +next four years, is embraced in the provisions of this bill. The +election for President and Vice-President has been held, but as to +the results of that election the two great political parties of the +country stand opposed in serious controversy. Each party claims +success for its candidate and insists that he and he alone shall be +declared by the two houses of Congress entitled to exercise the +executive power of this government for the next four years. The +canvass was prolonged and unprecedented in its excitement and even +bitterness. The period of advocacy of either candidate has passed, +and the time for judgment has almost come. How shall we who purpose +to make laws for others do better than to exhibit our own reverence +for law and set the example here of subordination to the spirit of +law? + +It cannot be disguised that an issue has been sought, if not +actually raised, in this country, between a settlement of this great +question by sheer force and arbitrary exercise of power or by the +peaceful, orderly, permanent methods of law and reason. Ours is, as +we are wont to boast, a government of laws, and not of will; and we +must not permit it to pass away from us by changing its nature. + + "O, yet a nobler task awaits thy hand, + For what can war but endless war still breed?" + +By this measure now before the Senate it is proposed to have a +peaceful conquest over partisan animosity and lawless action, to +procure a settlement grounded on reason and justice, and not upon +force. Therefore, it is meant to lift this great question of +determining who has been lawfully elected President and +Vice-President of these United States out of the possibility of +popular broils and tumult, and elevate it with all dignity to the +higher atmosphere of legal and judicial decision. In such a spirit I +desire to approach the consideration of the subject and shall seek +to deal with it at least worthily, with a sense of public duty +unobstructed, I trust, by prejudice or party animosity. The truth of +Lord Bacon's aphorism that "great empire and little minds go ill +together," should warn us now against the obtrusion of narrow or +technical views in adjusting such a question and at such a time in +our country's history. + +Mr. President, from the very commencement of the attempt to form the +government under which we live, the apportionment of power in the +executive branch and the means of choosing the chief magistrate have +been the subject of the greatest difficulty. Those who founded this +government and preceded us in its control had felt the hand of +kingly power, and it was from the abuse of executive power that they +dreaded the worst results. Therefore it was that when the +Constitution came to be framed that was the point upon which they +met and upon which they parted, less able to agree than upon almost +all others combined. A glance at the history of the convention that +met at Philadelphia on the fourteenth of May, 1787, but did not +organize until the twenty-fifth day of the same month, will show +that three days after the convention assembled two plans of a +Constitution were presented, respectively, by Mr. Edmund Randolph, +of Virginia, and Mr. Charles Pinckney, of South Carolina. The first +proposed the election of the executive by the legislature, as the +two houses were then termed, for a term of seven years, with +ineligibility for re-election. The other proposed an election, but +left the power to elect or the term of office in blank. Both of +these features in the schemes proposed came up early for +consideration, and, as I have said before, as the grave and able +minds of that day approached this subject they were unable to agree, +and accordingly, from time to time, the question was postponed and +no advance whatever made in the settlement of the question. Indeed, +so vital and wide was the difference that each attempt made during +the course of the five months in which that convention was assembled +only seemed to result in renewed failure. So it stood until the +fourth day of September had arrived. The labors of the convention +by that time had resulted in the framing of a Constitution, wise and +good and fairly balanced, calculated to preserve power sufficient in +the government, and yet leaving that individual freedom and liberty +essential for the protection of the States and their citizens. Then +it was that this question, so long postponed, came up for +consideration and had to be decided. As it was decided then, it +appears in the Constitution as submitted to the States in 1787; but +an amendment of the second article was proposed in 1804, which, +meeting the approval of the States, became part of the Constitution. + +I must be pardoned if I repeat something of what has preceded in +this debate, by way of citation from the Constitution of the United +States, in order that we may find there our warrant for the present +measure. There were difficulties of which these fathers of our +government were thoroughly conscious. The very difficulties that +surround the question to-day are suggested in the debates of 1800, +in which the history of double returns is foretold by Mr. Pinckney +in his objections to the measure then before the Senate. The very +title of that act, "A Bill Prescribing a Mode of Deciding Disputed +Elections of President and Vice-President of the United States," +will show the difficulties which they then perceived and of which +they felt the future was to be so full. They made the attempt in +1800 to meet those difficulties. They did not succeed. Again and +again the question came before them. In 1824 a second attempt was +made at legislation. It met the approval of the Senate. It seemed +to meet the approval of the Committee on the Judiciary of the House, +by whom it was reported without amendment, but never was acted upon +in that body, and failed to become a law. This all shows to us that +there has been a postponement from generation to generation of a +subject of great difficulty that we of to-day are called upon to +meet under circumstances of peculiar and additional disadvantage; +for while in the convention of 1787 there was a difference arising +from interest, from all the infinite variances of prejudice and +opinion upon subjects of local, geographical, and pecuniary +interests, and making mutual concessions and patriotic considerations +necessary at all times, yet they were spared the most dangerous +of all feelings under which our country has suffered of late; for, +amid all the perturbing causes to interfere with and distract their +counsels, partisan animosity was at least unknown. There was in that +day no such thing as political party in the United States:-- + + "Then none were for a party, + But all were for the State." + +Political parties were formed afterward and have grown in strength +since, and to-day the troubles that afflict our country chiefly may +be said to arise from the dangerous excess of party feeling in our +councils. + +But I propose to refer to the condition of the law and the +Constitution as we now find it. The second article of the first +section of the Constitution provides for the vesting of the +executive power in the President and also for the election of a +Vice-President. First it provides that "each State" shall, through +its legislature, appoint the number of electors to which it is +entitled, which shall be the number of its Representatives in +Congress and its Senators combined. The power there is to the State +to appoint. The grant is as complete and perfect that the State +shall have that power as is another clause of the Constitution +giving to "each State" the power to be represented by the Senators +in this branch of Congress. There is given to the electors +prescribed duties, which I will read:-- + +The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by +ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, +shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves: they +shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and +in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they +shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and +of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of +votes for each; which lists they shall sign and certify, and +transmit sealed to the seat of government of the United States, +directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate +shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, +open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. + +Then follows the duty and power of Congress in connection with this +subject to determine the time of choosing the electors and the day +on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same +throughout the United States. The next clause provides for the +qualifications of the candidates for the presidency and +vice-presidency. The next clause gives power to the Congress of the +United States to provide for filling the office of President and +Vice-President in the event of the death, resignation, or inability +of the incumbents to vest the powers and duties of the said office. +The other clause empowers Congress thus to designate a temporary +President. The other clauses simply relate to the compensation of +the President and the oath he shall take to perform the duties of +the office. Connected with that delegation of power is to be +considered the eighth section of the first article which gives to +the Congress of the United States power "to make all laws which +shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the +foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution +in the government of the United States, or in any department or +officer thereof." + +It will be observed, so far, that the Constitution has provided the +power but has not provided the regulations for carrying that power +into effect. The Supreme Court of the United States sixty-odd years +ago defined so well the character of that power and the method of +its use that I will quote it from the first volume of _Wheaton's +Reports, page 326:_ + +Leaving it to the legislature from time to time to adopt its own +means to effectuate, legitimate, and mold and model the exercise of +its powers as its own wisdom and public interest should require. + +In less than four years, in March 1792, after the first Congress had +assembled there was legislation upon this subject, carrying into +execution the power vested by this second article of the +Constitution in a manner which will leave no doubt of what the men +of that day believed was competent and proper. Here let me advert +to that authority which must ever attach to the contemporaneous +exposition of historical events. The men who sat in the Congress of +1792 had many of them been members of the convention that framed the +Federal Constitution. All were its contemporaries and closely were +they considering with master-minds the consequences of that work. +Not only may we gather from the manner in which they treated this +subject when they legislated upon it in 1792 what were their views +of the powers of Congress on the subject of where the power was +lodged and what was the proper measure of its exercise, but we can +gather equally well from the inchoate and imperfect legislation of +1800 what those men also thought of their power over this subject, +because, although differing as to details, there were certain +conceded facts as to jurisdiction quite as emphatically expressed as +if their propositions had been enacted into law. Likewise in 1824 +the same instruction is afforded. If we find the Senate of the +United States without division pass bills which, although not passed +by the co-ordinate branch of Congress, are received by them and +reported back from the proper committees after examination and +without amendment to the committee of the whole House, we may learn +with equal authority what was conceded by those houses as to the +question of power over the subject. In a compilation made at the +present session by order of the House Committee, co-ordinate with +the Senate Committee, will be found at page 129 a debate containing +expressions by the leading men of both parties in 1857 of the +lawfulness of the exercise of the legislative power of Congress over +this subject. I venture to read here from the remarks of +Mr. Hunter, of Virginia, one of the most respected and conservative +minds of his day in the Congress of the United States:-- + +The Constitution evidently contemplated a provision to be made by +law to regulate the details and the mode of counting the votes for +President and Vice-President of the United States. The President of +the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of +Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then +be counted. By whom, and how to be counted, the Constitution does +not say. But Congress has power to make all laws which shall be +necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing +powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the +government of the United States, or in any department or officer +thereof. Congress, therefore, has the power to regulate by law the +details of the mode in which the votes are to be counted. As yet, +no such law has been found necessary. The cases, happily, have been +rare in which difficulties have occurred in the count of the +electoral votes. All difficulties of this sort have been managed +heretofore by the consent of the two houses--a consent either +implied at the time or declared by joint resolutions adopted by the +houses on the recommendation of the joint committee which is usually +raised to prescribe the mode in which the count is to be made. In +the absence of law, the will of the two houses thus declared has +prescribed the rule under which the President of the Senate and the +tellers have acted. It was by this authority, as I understand it, +that the President of the Senate acted yesterday. The joint +resolution of the two bouses prescribed the mode in which the +tellers were to make the count and also required him to declare the +result, which he did. It was under the authority, therefore, and by +the direction of the two houses that he acted. The resolutions by +which the authority was given were according to unbroken usage and +established precedent. + +Mr. President, the debate from which I have read took place in 1857 +and was long and able, the question there arising upon the proposed +rejection of the vote of the State of Wisconsin, because of the +delay of a single day in the meeting of the electors. A violent +snowstorm having prevented the election on the third of December, it +was held on the fourth, which was clearly in violation of the law of +Congress passed in pursuance of the Constitution requiring that the +votes for the electors should be cast on the same day throughout the +Union. That debate will disclose the fact that the danger then +became more and more realized of leaving this question unsettled as +to who should determine whether the electoral votes of a State +should be received or rejected when the two houses of Congress +should differ upon that subject. There was no arbiter between +them. This new-fangled idea of the present hour, that the presiding +officer of the Senate should decide that question between the two +disagreeing houses, had not yet been discovered in the fertility of +political invention, or born perhaps of party necessity. The +question has challenged all along through our country's history +the ablest minds of the country; but at last we have reached a point +when under increased difficulties we are bound to settle it. It arose +in 1817 in the case of the State of Indiana, the question being +whether Indiana was a State in the Union at the time of the casting +of her vote. The two houses disagreed upon that subject; but by a +joint resolution, which clearly assumed the power of controlling the +subject, as the vote of Indiana did not if cast either way control +the election, the difficulty was tided over by an arrangement for +that time and that occasion only. In 1820 the case of the State of +Missouri arose and contained the same question. There again came the +difficulty when the genius and patriotism of Henry Clay were brought +into requisition and a joint resolution introduced by him and +adopted by both houses was productive of a satisfactory solution for +the time being. The remedy was merely palliative; the permanent +character of the difficulty was confessed and the fact that it was +only a postponement to men of a future generation of a question +still unsettled. + +It is not necessary, and would be fatiguing to the Senate and to +myself, to give anything like a sketch of the debate which followed, +of the able and eminent men on both sides who considered the +question, arriving, however, at one admitted conclusion, that the +remedy was needed and that it did lie in the law-making power of the +government to furnish it. + +Thus, Mr. President, the unbroken line of precedent, the history of +the usage of this government from 1789 at the first election of +President and Vice-President until 1873, when the last count of +electoral votes was made for the same offices, exhibits this fact, +that the control of the count of the electoral votes, the +ascertainment and declaration of the persons who were elected +President and Vice-President, has been under the co-ordinate power +of the two houses of Congress, and under no other power at any time +or in any instance. The claim is now gravely made for the first +time, in 1877, that in the event of disagreement of the two houses +the power to count the electoral votes and decide upon their +validity under the Constitution and law is vested in a single +individual, an appointee of one of the houses of Congress, the +presiding officer of the Senate. In the event of a disagreement +between the two houses, we are now told, he is to assume the power, +in his sole discretion, to count the vote, to ascertain and declare +what persons have been elected; and this, too, in the face of an act +of Congress, passed in 1792, unrepealed, always recognized, followed +in every election from the time it was passed until the present day. +Section 5 of the act of 1792 declares:-- + +That Congress shall be in session on the second Wednesday in +February 1793, and on the second Wednesday in February succeeding +every meeting of the electors; and the said certificates, or so many +of them as shall have been received, shall then be opened, the votes +counted, and the persons who shall fill the offices of President and +Vice-President ascertained and declared agreeably to the +Constitution. + +Let it be noted that the words "President of the Senate" nowhere +occur in the section. + +But we are now told that though "Congress shall be in session," that +though these two great bodies duly organized, each with its +presiding officer, accompanied by all its other officers, shall meet +to perform the duty of ascertaining and declaring the true result of +the action of the electoral colleges and what persons are entitled +to these high executive offices, in case they shall not agree in +their decisions there shall be interposed the power of the presiding +officer of one of the houses to control the judgment of either and +become the arbiter between them. Why, Mr. President, how such a +claim can be supposed to rest upon authority is more than I can +imagine. It is against all history. It is against the meaning of +laws. It is not consistent with the language of the Constitution. +It is in the clearest violation of the whole scheme of this popular +government of ours, that one man should assume a power in regard to +which the convention hung for months undecided, and carefully and +grudgingly bestowing that power even when they finally disposed of +it. Why, sir, a short review of history will clearly show how it +was that the presiding officer of the Senate became even the +custodian of the certificates of the electors. + +On the fourth of September, 1787, when approaching the close of +their labors, the convention discovered that they must remove this +obstacle, and they must come to an agreement in regard to the +deposit of this grave power. When they were scrupulously +considering that no undue grant of power should be made to either +branch of Congress, and when no one dreamed of putting it in the +power of a single hand, the proposition was made by Hon. Mr. Brearly, +from a committee of eleven, of alterations in the former schemes of +the convention, which embraced this subject. It provided:-- + +5. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as its legislature may +direct a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators +and Members of the House of Representatives to which the State may +be entitled in the legislature. + +6. The electors shall meet in their respective States and vote by +ballot for two persons, one of whom at least shall not be an +inhabitant of the same State with themselves; and they shall make +a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes +for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit +sealed to the seat of the general government, directed to the +President of the Senate. + +7. The President of the Senate shall, in that house, open all the +certificates; and the votes shall be then and there counted. The +person having the greatest number of votes shall be the +President, if such number shall be a majority of the whole number +of the electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have +such majority and have an equal number of votes, then the Senate +shall choose by ballot one of them for President; but if no +person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list +the Senate shall choose by ballot the President. And in every +case after the choice of the President the person having the +greatest number of votes shall be Vice-President. But if there +should remain two or more who shall equal votes, the Senate shall +choose from them the Vice-President. (See 'Madison Papers.' page +506. etc.) + +Here we discover the reason why the President of the Senate was made +the custodian of these certificates. It was because in that plan of +the Constitution the Senate was to count the votes alone; the House +was not to be present; and in case there was a tie or failure to +find a majority the Senate was to elect the President and +Vice-President. The presiding officer of the body that was to count +the votes alone, of the body that alone was to elect the President +in default of a majority--the presiding officer of that body was +naturally the proper person to hold the certificates until the +Senate should do its duty. It might as well be said that because +certificates and papers of various kinds are directed to the +President of this Senate to be laid before the Senate that he should +have the control to enact those propositions into law, as to say +that because the certificates of these votes were handed to him he +should have the right to count them and ascertain and declare what +persons had been chosen President and Vice-President of the United +States. + +But the scheme reported by Mr. Brearly met with no favor. In the +first place, it was moved and seconded to insert the words "in the +presence of the Senate and House of Representatives" after the word +"counted." That was passed in the affirmative. Next it was moved to +strike out the words "the Senate shall immediately choose by ballot" +and insert the words "and House of Representatives shall immediately +choose by ballot one of them for President, and the members of each +State shall have one vote," and this was adopted by ten States in +the affirmative to one State in the negative. + +Then came another motion to agree to the following paragraph, giving +to the Senate the right to choose the Vice-President in case of the +failure to find a majority, which was agreed to by the convention; +so that the amendment as agreed to read as follows:-- + +The President of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and House +of Representatives, shall open all the certificates, and the votes +shall then be counted. The person having the greatest number of +votes shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole +number of electors appointed: and if there be more than one who have +such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then the House of +Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for +President, the representation from each State having one vote; but +if no person have a majority, then from the five highest on the list +the House of Representatives shall in like manner choose by ballot +the President. + +And then follows that if there should remain two candidates voted +for as Vice-President having an equal vote the Senate shall choose +from them the Vice-President. Mr. President, is it not clear that +the Constitution directed that the certificates should be deposited +with the presiding officer of that body which was alone to count the +votes and elect both the President and Vice-President in case there +was a failure to find a majority of the whole number of electors +appointed? There is a maxim of the law, that where the reason ceases +the law itself ceases. It is not only a maxim of common law, but +equally of common sense. The history of the manner in which and the +reason for which the certificates were forwarded to the President of +the Senate completely explains why he was chosen as the depositary +and just what connection he had with and power over those +certificates. After the power had been vested in the House of +Representatives to ballot for the President, voting by States, after +the presence of the House of Representatives was made equally +necessary before the count could begin or proceed at all, the +President of the Senate was still left as the officer designated to +receive the votes. Why? Because the Senate is a continuing body, +because the Senate always has a quorum. Divided into three classes, +there never is a day or a time when a quorum of the Senate of the +United States is not elected and cannot be summoned to perform its +functions under the Constitution. Therefore you had the officer of a +continuing body, and as the body over which he presided and by whom +he is chosen was one of the two co-ordinate bodies to perform the +great function of counting the votes and of ascertaining and +declaring the result of the electoral vote, he was left in charge of +the certificates. + +You also find in the sixth section of the act of 1792 that Congress +exercised its regulating power and declared "that in case there +shall be no President of the Senate at the seat of government on the +arrival of the persons intrusted with the lists of votes of the +electors, then such persons shall deliver the lists of votes in +their custody into the office of the Secretary of State to be safely +kept and delivered over as soon as may be to the President of the +Senate." + +What does this signify? That it was a simple question of custody, of +safe and convenient custody, and there is just as much reason to say +that the Secretary of State being the recipient of those votes had a +right to count them as to say that the other officer designated as +the recipient of the votes, the President of the Senate, had a right +to count them. + +Now, here is another fact a denial of which cannot be safely +challenged. Take the history of these debates upon the formation of +the Federal Constitution from beginning to end, search them, and no +line or word can be discovered that even suggests any power whatever +in any one man over the subject, much less in the President of the +Senate, in the control of the election of the President or the +Vice-President. Why, sir, there is the invariable rule of +construction in regard to which there can be no dispute, that the +express grant of one thing excludes any other. Here you have the +direction to the President of the Senate that be shall receive these +certificates, or if absent that another custodian shall receive +them, hold them during his absence and pass them over to him as soon +as may be, and that then he shall in the presence of the two houses +of Congress "open all the certificates." There is his full measure +of duty; it is clearly expressed; and then after that follows the +totally distinct duty, not confided to him, that "the votes shall +then be counted." + +I doubt very much whether any instrument not written by an inspired +hand was more clear, terse, frugal of all words except those +necessary to express its precise meaning, than the Constitution of +the United States. It would require the greatest ingenuity to +discover where fewer words could be used to accomplish a plain end. +How shall it be that in this closely considered charter, where every +word, every punctuation was carefully weighed and canvassed, they +should employ seven words out of place when two words in place would +have fulfilled their end? If it had been intended to give this +officer the power to count, how easy to read, "The President of the +Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of +Representatives, open and count the votes." Why resort to this +other, strained, awkward, ungrammatical, unreasonable transposition +of additional words to grant one power distinctly and leave the +other to be grafted upon it by an unjust implication? No, +Mr. President, if it were a deed of bargain and sale, or any +question of private grant, if it did not touch the rights of a great +people, there would be but one construction given to this language, +that the expression of one grant excluded the other. It was a +single command to the President of the Senate that, as the +custodian, he should honestly open those certificates and lay them +before the two houses of Congress who were to act, and then his duty +was done, and that was the belief of the men who sat in that +convention, many of whom joined in framing the law of 1792 which +directed Congress to be in session on a certain day and that the +votes should be counted and the persons who should fill the office +of President and Vice-president ascertained and declared agreeably +to the Constitution. + +The certificates are to be opened by their custodian, the President +of the Senate, in the presence of the Senate and the House of +Representatives. Let it be noted this is not in the presence of the +Senators and Representatives, but it is in the presence of two +organized bodies who cannot be present except as a Senate and as a +House of Representatives, each with its own organization, its own +presiding officer and all adjuncts, each organized for the +performance of a great duty. + +When the first drafts of the Constitution were made, instead of +saying "in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives," +they called it "the Legislature." What is a Legislature? A +law-making body organized, not a mob, but an organized body to make +laws; and so the law-making power of this Union, consisting of these +two houses, is brought together. But it seems to me a most +unreasonable proposition to withhold from the law-making power of +this government the authority to regulate this subject and yet be +willing to intrust it to a single hand. There is not a theory of +this government that will support such a construction. It is +contrary to the whole genius of the government; it is contrary to +everything in the history of the formation of the government; it is +contrary to the usage of the government since its foundation. + +The President of the Senate is commanded by the Constitution to open +the votes in the presence of the two houses. He does not summon +them to witness his act, but they summon him by appointing a day and +hour when he is to produce and open in their presence all the +certificates he may have received, and only then and in their +presence can he undertake to open them at all. If he was merely to +summon them as witnesses of his act it would have been so stated. +But when did the President of the Senate ever undertake to call the +two houses together to witness the opening and counting of the +votes? No, sir; he is called at their will and pleasure to bring +with him the certificates which he has received, and open them +before them and under their inspection, and not his own. When the +certificates have been opened, when the votes have been counted, can +the President of the Senate declare the result? No, sir, he has +never declared a result except as the mouthpiece and the organ of +the two houses authorizing and directing him what to declare, and +what he did declare was what they had ascertained and in which +ascertainment he had never interfered by word or act. + +Suppose there shall be an interruption in the count, as has occurred +in our history, can the President of the Senate do it? Did he ever +do it? Is such an instance to be found? Every interruption in the +count comes from some Member of the House or of the Senate, and upon +that the pleasure of the two houses is considered, the question put +to them to withdraw if they desire, and the count is arrested until +they shall order it to recommence. The proceeding in the count, the +commencement of the count is not in any degree under his control. +It is and ever was in the two houses, and in them alone. They are +not powerless spectators; they do not sit "state statues only," but +they are met as a legislature in organized bodies to insure a +correct result of the popular election, to see to it that "the votes +shall then be counted" agreeably to the Constitution. + +In 1792 when some of the men who sat in the convention that framed +the Constitution enacted into law the powers given in relation to +the count of the electoral votes, they said, as I have read, that +the certificates then received shall be opened and the votes +counted, "and the persons to fill the offices of President and +Vice-President ascertained agreeably to the Constitution," and that +direction is contained in the same section of the law that commands +Congress to be in session on that day. It is the law-making power of +the nation, the legislature, that is to perform this solemn and +important duty, and not a single person who is selected by one +branch of Congress and who is removable at their will, according to +a late decision of the Senate. + +Yes, Mr. President, the power contended for by some Senators, that +the President of the Senate can, in the contingency of a +disagreement between the two houses, from the necessity of the case, +open and count the vote, leads to this: that upon every disputed +vote and upon every decision a new President of the Senate could be +elected; that one man could be selected in the present case to count +the vote of Florida; another, of South Carolina; another, of Oregon; +another, of Louisiana; and the Senate could fill those four offices +with four different men, each chosen for that purpose, and when that +purpose was over to be displaced by the same breath that set them up +for the time being. + +Now, sir, if, as has been claimed, the power of counting the votes +is deposited equally in both houses, does not this admission exclude +the idea of any power to count the votes being deposited in the +presiding officer of one of those houses, who is, as I say, eligible +and removable by a bare majority of the Senate, and at will? If the +presiding officer of the Senate can thus count the vote, the Senate +can control him. Then the Senate can control the count and, the +Senate appointing their President, become the sole controllers of +the vote in case of disagreement. What then becomes of the equal +measure of power in the two houses over this subject? If the power +may be said to exist only in case of disagreement, and then _ex_ +_necessitate_ _rei_, all that remains for the Senate is to disagree, +and they themselves have created the very contingency that gives +them the power, through their President to have the vote counted or +not counted, as they may desire. Why, sir, such a statement +destroys all idea of equality of power between the two houses in +regard to this subject. + +When the President of the Senate has opened the certificates and +handed them over to the tellers of the two houses, in the presence +of the two houses, his functions and powers have ended. He cannot +repossess himself of those certificates or papers. He can no longer +control their custody. They are then and thereafter in the +possession and under the control of the two houses who shall alone +dispose of them. + +Why, sir, what a spectacle would it be, some ambitious and +unscrupulous man the presiding officer of the Senate, as was once +Aaron Burr, assuming the power to order the tellers to count the +vote of this State and reject the vote of that, and so boldly and +shamelessly reverse the action of the people expressed at the polls, +and step into the presidency by force of his own decision. Sir, this +is a reduction of the thing to an absurdity never dreamed of until +now, and impossible while this shall remain a free government of +law. + +Now, Mr. President, as to the measure before us a few words. It will +be observed that this bill is enacted for the present year, and no +longer. + +This is no answer to an alleged want of constitutional power +to pass it, but it is an answer in great degree where the mere +policy and temporary convenience of the act are to be considered. + +In the first place, the bill gives to each house of Congress +equal power over the question of counting, at every stage. + +It preserves intact the prerogatives, under the Constitution, of +each house. + +It excludes any possibility of judicial determination by the +presiding officer of the Senate upon the reception and exclusion of +a vote. + +The certificates of the electoral colleges will be placed in the +possession and subject to the disposition of both houses of Congress +in joint session. + +The two houses are co-ordinate and separate and distinct. Neither +can dominate the other. They are to ascertain whether the electors +have been validly appointed, and whether they have validly performed +their duties as electors. The two houses must, under the act of +1792, "ascertain and declare" whether there has been a valid +election, according to the Constitution and laws of the United +States. The votes of the electors and the declaration of the result +by the two houses give a valid title, and nothing else can, unless +no majority has been disclosed by the count; in which case the duty +of the House is to be performed by electing a President, and of the +Senate by electing a Vice-President. + +If it be the duty of the two houses "to ascertain" whether the +action of the electors has been in accordance with the Constitution, +they must inquire. They exercise supervisory power over every branch +of public administration and over the electors. The methods they +choose to employ in coming to a decision are such as the two houses, +acting separately or together, may lawfully employ. Sir, the grant +of power to the commission is in just that measure, no more and no +less. The decision they render can be overruled by the concurrent +votes of the two houses. Is it not competent for the two houses of +Congress to agree that a concurrent majority of the two houses is +necessary to reject the electoral vote of a State? If so, may they +not adopt means which they believe will tend to produce a +concurrence? Finally, sir, this bill secures the great object for +which the two houses were brought together: the counting of the +votes of the electoral college; not to elect a President by the two +houses, but to determine who has been elected agreeably to the +Constitution and the laws. It provides against the failure to count +the electoral vote of a State in event of disagreement between the +two houses, in case of single returns, and, in cases of contest and +double returns, furnishes a tribunal whose composition secures a +decision of the question in disagreement, and whose perfect justice +and impartiality cannot be gainsaid or doubted. + +The tribunal is carved out of the body of the Senate and out of the +body of the House by their vote _viva_ _voce_. No man can sit upon +it from either branch without the choice, openly made, by a majority +of the body of which he is a member, that he shall go there. The +five judges who are chosen are from the court of last resort in this +country, men eminent for learning, selected for their places because +of the virtues and the capacities that fit them for this high +station. ... Mr. President, objection has been made to the +employment of the commission at all, to the creation of this +committee of five senators, five representatives, and five judges of +the Supreme Court, and the reasons for the objection have not been +distinctly stated. The reasons for the appointment I will dwell +upon briefly. + +Sir, how has the count of the vote of every President and +Vice-President, from the time of George Washington and John Adams, +in 1789, to the present day, been made? Always and without +exception by tellers appointed by the two houses. This is without +exception, even in the much commented case of Mr. John Langdon, who, +before the government was in operation, upon the recommendation of +the constitutional convention, was appointed by the Senate its +President, for the sole purpose of opening and counting these votes. +He did it, as did every successor to him, under the motion and +authority of the two houses of Congress, who appointed their own +agents, called tellers to conduct the count, and whose count, being +reported to him, was by him declared. + +From 1793 to 1865 the count of votes was conducted under concurrent +resolutions of the two houses, appointing their respective +committees to join "in ascertaining and reporting a mode of +examining the votes for President and Vice-President." + +The respective committees reported resolutions fixing the time and +place for the assembling of the two houses, and appointing tellers +to conduct the examination on the part of each house respectively. + +Mr. President, the office of teller, or the word "teller," is +unknown to the Constitution, and yet each house has appointed +tellers, and has acted upon their report, as I have said, from the +very foundation of the government. The present commission is more +elaborate, but its objects and its purposes are the same, the +information and instruction of the two houses who have a precisely +equal share in its creation and organization; they are the +instrumentalities of the two houses for performing the high +constitutional duty of ascertaining whom the electors in the several +States have duly chosen President and Vice-President of the United +States. Whatever is the jurisdiction and power of the two houses of +Congress over the votes, and the judgment of either reception or +rejection, is by this law wholly conferred upon this commission of +fifteen. The bill presented does not define what that jurisdiction +and power is, but it leaves it all as it is, adding nothing, +subtracting nothing. Just what power the Senate by itself, or the +House by itself, or the Senate and the House acting together, have +over the subject of counting, admitting, or rejecting an electoral +vote, in case of double returns from the same State, that power is +by this act, no more and no less, vested in the commission of +fifteen men; reserving, however, to the two houses the power of +overruling the decision of the commission by their concurrent +action. + +The delegation to masters in chancery of the consideration and +adjustments of questions of mingled law and fact is a matter of +familiar and daily occurrence in the courts of the States and of the +United States. + +The circuit court of the United States is composed of the district +judge and the circuit judge, and the report to them of a master is +affirmed unless both judges concur in overruling it. + +Under the present bill the decision of the commission will stand +unless overruled by the concurrent votes of the two houses. I do not +propose to follow the example which has been set here in the Senate +by some of the advocates as well as the opponents of this measure, +and discuss what construction is to be given and what definition may +be applied or ought to be applied in the exercise of this power by +the commission under this law. Let me read the bill:-- + +All the certificates and papers purporting to be certificates of the +electoral votes of each State shall be opened, in the alphabetical +order of the States, as provided in Section 1 of this act; and when +there shall be more than one such certificate or paper, as the +certificates and papers from such State shall so be opened +(excepting duplicates of the same return), they shall be read by the +tellers, and thereupon the President of the Senate shall call for +objections, if any. Every objection shall be made in writing, and +shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground +thereof, and shall be signed by at least one Senator and one Member +of the House of Representatives before the same shall be received. +When all such objections so made to any certificate, vote, or paper +from a State shall have been received and read, all such +certificates, votes, and papers so objected to, and all papers +accompanying the same, together with such objections, shall be +forthwith submitted to said commission, which shall proceed to +consider the same, with the same powers, if any, now possessed for +that purpose by the two houses acting separately or together, and, +by a majority of votes, decide whether any and what votes from such +States are the votes provided for by the Constitution of the United +States, and how many and what persons were duly appointed electors +in such State, and may therein take into view such petitions, +depositions, and other papers, if any, as shall, by the Constitution +and now existing law, be competent and pertinent in such +consideration: which decision shall be made in writing. + +It will be observed that all the questions to be decided by this +commission are to be contained in the written objections. Until +those objections are read and filed, their contents must be unknown, +and the issues raised by them undescribed. But whatever they are, +they are submitted to the decision of the commission. The duty of +interpreting this law and of giving a construction to the +Constitution and existing laws is vested in the commission; and I +hold that we have no right or power to control in advance, by our +construction, their sworn judgment as to the matters which they are +to decide. We would defeat the very object of the bill should we +invade the essential power of judgment of this commission and +establish a construction in advance and bind them to it. It would, +in effect, be giving to them a mere mock power to decide by leaving +them nothing to decide. + +Mr. President, there are certainly very good reasons why the +concurrent action of both houses should be necessary to reject a +vote. It is that feature of this bill which has my heartiest +concurrence; for I will frankly say that the difficulties which have +oppressed me most in considering this question a year or more ago, +before any method had been devised, arose from my apprehensions of +the continued absorption of undue power over the affairs of the +States; and I here declare that the power and the sole power of +appointing the electors is in the State, and nowhere else. The +power of ascertaining whether the State has executed that power +justly and according to the Constitution and laws is the duty which +is cast upon the two houses of Congress. Now, if, under the guise +or pretext of judging of the regularity of the action of a State or +its electors, the Congress or either house may interpose the will of +its members in opposition to the will of the State, the act will be +one of usurpation and wrong, although I do not see where is the +tribunal to arrest and punish it except the great tribunal of an +honest public opinion. But sir that tribunal, though great, though +in the end certain, is yet ofttimes slow to be awakened to action; +and therefore I rejoice when the two houses agree that neither of +them shall be able to reject the vote of a State which is without +contest arising within that State itself, but that the action of +both shall be necessary to concur in the rejection. + +If either house may reject, or by dissenting cause a rejection, then +it is in the power of either house to overthrow the electoral +colleges or the popular vote, and throw the election upon the House +of Representatives. This, it is clear to me, cannot be lawfully done +unless no candidate has received a majority of the votes of all the +electors appointed. The sworn duty is to ascertain what persons have +been chosen by the electors, and not to elect by Congress. + +It may be said that the Senate would not be apt to throw the +election into the House. Not so, Mr. President; look at the +relative majorities of the two houses of Congress as they will be +after the fourth of March next. It is true there will be a +numerical majority of the members of the Democratic party in the +House of Representatives, but the States represented will have a +majority as States of the Republican party. If the choice were to +be made after March 4th, then a Republican Senate, by rejecting or +refusing to count votes, could of its own motion throw the election +into the House; which, voting by States, would be in political +accord with the Senate. The House of Representatives, like the +present House in its political complexion, composed of a numerical +majority, and having also a majority of the States of the same +party, would have the power then to draw the election into its own +hands. Mr. President, either of these powers would be utterly +dangerous and in defeat of the object and intent of the +constitutional provisions on this subject. + +Sir, this was my chief objection to the twenty-second joint rule. +Under that rule either house of Congress, without debate, without +law, without reason, without justice, could, by the sheer exercise +of its will or its caprice, disfranchise any State in the electoral +college. Under that rule we lived and held three presidential +elections. + +In January 1873, under a resolution introduced by the honorable +Senator from Ohio [Mr. Sherman] and adopted by the Senate, the +Committee on Privileges and Elections, presided over by the +honorable Senator from Indiana [Mr Morton], proceeded to investigate +the elections held in the States of Louisiana and Arkansas, and +inquired whether these elections had been held in accordance with +the Constitution and laws of the United States and the laws of said +States, and sent for persons and papers and made thorough +investigation, which resulted in excluding the electoral votes of +Louisiana from the count, (See Report No. 417, third session +Forty-Second Congress.) + +The popular vote was then cast, and it was cast at the mercy of a +majority in either branch of Congress, who claimed the right to +annul it by casting out States until they should throw the election +into a Republican House of Representatives. I saw that dangerous +power then, and, because I saw it then, am I so blind, am I so +without principle in my action, that I should ask for myself a +dangerous power that I refused to those who differ from me in +opinion? God forbid. + +This concurrence of the two houses to reject the electoral votes of +a State was the great feature that John Marshall sought for in +1800. The Senate then proposed that either house should have power +to reject a vote. The House of Representatives, under the lead of +John Marshall, declared that they should concur to reject the vote, +and upon that difference of opinion the measure fell and was never +revived. In 1824 the bill prepared by Mr. Van Buren contained the +same wholesome principle and provided that the two houses must +concur in the rejection of a vote. Mr. Van Buren reported this bill +in 1824. It was amended and passed, and, as far as I can find from +the record, without a division of the Senate. It was referred in the +House of Representatives to the Committee on the Judiciary, and it +was reported back by Mr. Daniel Webster, without amendment, to the +Committee of the Whole House, showing their approval of the bill; +and that principle is thoroughly incorporated in the present measure +and gives to me one of the strong reasons for my approval. + +Mr. President, this bill is not the product of any one man's mind, +but it is the result of careful study and frequent amendment. +Mutual concessions, modifications of individual preferences, were +constantly and necessarily made in the course of framing such a +measure as it now stands. My individual opinions might lead me to +object to the employment of the judicial branch at all, of +ingrafting even to any extent political power upon the judicial +branch or its members, or confiding to them any question even +quasi-political in its character. To this I have expressed and +still have disinclination, but my sense of the general value of this +measure and the necessity for the adoption of a plan outweighed my +disposition to insist upon my own preferences as to this feature. +At first I was disposed to question the constitutional power to call +in the five justices of the Supreme Court, but the duty of +ascertaining what are the votes, the true votes, under the +Constitution, having been imposed upon the commission, the methods +were necessarily discretionary with the two houses. Any and every +aid that intelligence and skill combined can furnish may be justly +used when it is appropriate to the end in view. + +Why, sir, the members of the Supreme Court have in the history of +this country been employed in public service entirely distinct from +judicial function. Here lately the treaty of Washington was +negotiated by a member of the Supreme Court of the United States; +the venerable and learned Mr. Justice Nelson, of New York, was +nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate as one of the +Joint High Commission. Chief-Justice Jay was sent in 1794, while he +was chief-justice of the United States, as minister plenipotentiary +to England, and negotiated a treaty of permanent value and +importance to both countries. He was holding court in the city of +Philadelphia at the time that he was nominated and confirmed, as is +found by reference to his biography, and-- + +Without vacating his seat upon the bench he went to England, +negotiated the treaty which has since borne his name, and returned +to this country in the spring of the following year. + +His successor was Chief-Justice Rutledge, and the next to him was +Chief-Justice Oliver Ellsworth. He, while holding the high place of +chief-justice, was nominated and confirmed as minister plenipotentiary +to Spain. By a law of Congress the chief-justice of the United +States is _ex_ _officio_ the president of the Board of Regents of +the Smithsonian Institution. + +Mr. Morton--I should like to ask the Senator, if it does not +interrupt him, whether he regards the five judges acting on this +commission as acting in their character as judges of the Supreme +Court, if that is their official character, and that this bill +simply enlarges their jurisdiction in that respect? + +Mr. Bayard--Certainly not, Mr. President. They are not acting as +judges of the Supreme Court, and their powers and their jurisdiction +as judges of the Supreme Court are not in any degree involved; they +are simply performing functions under the government not +inconsistent, by the Constitution, or the law, or the policy of the +law, with the stations which they now hold. So I hold that the +employment of one or more of the Supreme Court judges in the matter +under discussion was appropriate legislation. We have early and high +authority in the majorities in both House and Senate in the bill of +1800, in both of which houses a bill was passed creating a +commission similar to that proposed by this bill and calling in the +chief-justice of the United States as the chairman of the grand +committee, as they called it then, a commission as we term it now. + +As has been said before, many of the Senators and members of the +Congress of 1800 had taken part in the convention that framed the +Constitution, and all were its contemporaries, and one of the chief +actors in the proceedings on the part of the House of Representatives +was John Marshall, of Virginia, who one year afterward became the +chief-justice of the United States, whose judicial interpretations +have since that time clad the skeleton of the Constitution with +muscles of robust power. Is it not safe to abide by such examples? +And I could name many more, and some to whom my respect is due for +other and personal reasons. + +In the debate of 1817, in the case of the disputed vote of Indiana; +in 1820, in the case of Missouri; and again in 1857, in the case of +Wisconsin, I find an array of constitutional lawyers who took part +in those debates, among them the most distinguished members of both +political parties, concurring in the opinion that by appropriate +legislation all causes of dispute on this all-important matter of +counting the electoral vote could be and ought to be adjusted +satisfactorily. Why, sir, even the dictum of Chancellor Kent, that +has been read here with so much apparent confidence by the honorable +Senator from Indiana, is itself expressed to be his opinion of the +law "in the absence of legislation on the subject." + +Mr. President, there were other objections to this bill; one by the +honorable Senator from Indiana. He denounced it as "a compromise." +I have gone over its features and I have failed to discover, nor has +the fact yet been stated in my hearing, wherein anything is +compromised. What power of the Senate is relinquished? What power +of the House is relinquished? What power that both should possess +is withheld? I do not know where the compromise can be, what +principle is surrendered. This bill intends to compromise nothing +in the way of principle, to compromise no right, but to provide an +honest adjudication for the rights of all. Where is it unjust? Whose +rights are endangered by it? Who can foretell the judgment of this +commission upon any question of law or fact? Sir, there is no +compromise in any sense of the word, but there is a blending of +feeling, a blending of opinions in favor of right and justice. + +But, sir, if it were a compromise, what is there in compromise that +is discreditable either to men or to nations? This very charter of +government under which we live was created in a spirit of compromise +and mutual concession. Without that spirit it never would have been +made, and without a continuance of that spirit it will not be +prolonged. Sir, when the Committee on Style and Revision of the +Federal convention of 1787 had prepared a digest of their plan, they +reported a letter to accompany the plan to Congress, from which I +take these words as being most applicable to the bill under +consideration:-- + +And thus the Constitution which we now present is the result of a +spirit of amity and of that mutual deference and concession which +the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable. + +The language of that letter may well be applied to the present +measure; and had the words been recalled to my memory before the +report was framed I cannot doubt that they would have been adopted +as part of it to be sent here to the Senate as descriptive of the +spirit and of the object with which the committee had acted. + +But, sir, the honorable Senator also stated, as a matter deterring +us from our proper action on this bill, that the shadow of +intimidation had entered the halls of Congress, and that members of +this committee had joined in this report and presented this bill +under actual fear of personal violence. Such a statement seems to me +almost incredible. I may not read other men's hearts and know what +they have felt, nor can I measure the apprehension of personal +danger felt by the honorable Senator. It seems to me incredible. +Fear, if I had it, had been the fear of doing wrong in this great +juncture of public affairs, not the fear of the consequences of doing +right. Had there been this intimidation tenfold repeated to which the +Senator has alluded, and of which I have no knowledge, I should have +scorned myself had I hesitated one moment in my onward march of duty +on this subject. + +"Hate's yell, or envy's hiss, or folly's bray"-- + +what are they to a man who, in the face of events such as now +confront us, is doing that which his conscience dictates to him do? +It has been more than one hundred years since a great judgment was +delivered in Westminster Hall in England by one of the great judges +of our English-speaking people. Lord Mansfield, when delivering +judgment in the case of the King against John Wilkes, was assailed +by threats of popular violence of every description, and he has +placed upon record how such threats should be met by any public man +who sees before him the clear star of duty and trims his bark only +that he may follow it through darkness and through light. I will ask +my friend from Missouri if he will do me the favor to read the +extract to which I have alluded. + +Mr. Cockrell read as follows:-- + +But here, let me pause. + +It is fit to take some notice of the various terrors hung out; the +numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the +hall, out of all reach of hearing what passes in court, and the +tumults which, in other places, have shamefully insulted all order +and government. Audacious addresses in print dictate to us from +those they call the people, the judgment to be given now and +afterward upon the conviction. Reasons of policy are urged from +danger to the kingdom by commotion and general confusion. + +Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and respectable +audience to let the whole world know all such attempts are vain. + +I pass over many anonymous letters I have received. Those in print +are public; and some of them have been brought judicially before the +court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way. I will do +my duty, unawed. What am I to fear? That _mendax_ _infamia_ from +the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The +lies of calumny carry no terror to me. I trust that my temper of +mind, and the color and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of +armor against these arrows. If, during this king's reign, I have +ever supported his government, and assisted his measures, I have +done it without any other reward than the consciousness of doing +what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon +the points themselves, without mixing in party or faction, and +without any collateral views. I honor the king, and respect the +people; bat many things acquired by force of either, are, in my +account, objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is +that popularity which follows, not that which is run after. It is +that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to +the pursuit of noble ends by noble means. I will not do that which +my conscience tells me is wrong upon this occasion to gain the +huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which +come from the press; I will not avoid doing what I think is right, +though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libel, all that +falsehood and malice can invent or the credulity of a deluded +populace can swallow. I can say, with a great magistrate, upon an +occasion and under circumstances not unlike, "_Ego_ _hoc_ _animo_ +_semper_ _fui_. _ut_ _invidiam_ _virtute_ _partam_ _gloriam_, _non_ +_invidiam_ _putarem_." + +The threats go further than abuse; personal violence is denounced. I +do not believe it; it is not the genius of the worst men of this +country in the worst of times. But I have set my mind at rest. The +last end that can happen to any man never comes too soon, if he +falls in support of the law and liberty of his country (for liberty +is synonymous to law and government). Such a shock, too, might be +productive of public good: it might awake the better part of the +kingdom out of that lethargy which seems to have benumbed them; and +bring the mad part back to their senses, as men intoxicated are +sometimes stunned into sobriety.--Burrows's Reports No. 4, +pp. 2561-3. + +Mr. Bayard--Mr. President, in the course of my duty here as a +representative of the rights of others, as a chosen and sworn public +servant, I feel that I have no right to give my individual wishes, +prejudices, interests, undue influence over my public action. To do +so would be to commit a breach of trust in the powers confided to +me. It is true I was chosen a Senator by a majority only, but not +for a majority only. I was chosen by a party, but not for a party. +I represent all the good people of the State which has sent me here. +In my office as a Senator I recognize no claim upon my action in the +name and for the sake of party. The oath I have taken is to support +the Constitution of my country's government, not the fiat of any +political organization, even could its will be ascertained. In +sessions preceding the present I have adverted to the difficulty +attending the settlement of this great question, and have urgently +besought action in advance at a time when the measure adopted could +not serve to predicate its results to either party. My failure then +gave me great uneasiness, and filled me with anxiety; and yet I can +now comprehend the wisdom concealed in my disappointment, for in the +very emergency of this hour, in the shadow of the danger that has +drawn so nigh to us, has been begotten in the hearts of American +Senators and Representatives and the American people a spirit worthy +of the occasion--born to meet these difficulties, to cope with +them, and, God willing, to conquer them. + +Animated by this spirit the partisan is enlarged into the patriot. +Before it the lines of party sink into hazy obscurity; and the +horizon which bounds our view reaches on every side to the uttermost +verge of the great Republic. It is a spirit that exalts humanity, +and imbued with it the souls of men soar into the pure air of +unselfish devotion to the public welfare. It lighted with a smile +the cheek of Curtius as he rode into the gulf; it guided the hand of +Aristides as he sadly wrote upon the shell the sentence of his own +banishment; it dwelt in the frozen earthworks of Valley Forge; and +from time to time it has been an inmate of these halls of +legislation. I believe it is here to-day, and that the present +measure was born under its influence. + + + +LORD BEACONSFIELD (BENJAMIN DISRAELI) (1804-1881) + +When, at the age of thirty-three. Benjamin Disraeli entered the +House of Commons, he was flushed with his first literary successes +and inclined perhaps to take parliamentary popularity by storm. It +was the first year of Victoria's reign (1837) and the fashions of +the times allowed great latitude for the display of idiosyncracies +in dress. It seems that Disraeli pushed this advantage to the point +of license. We hear much of the amount of jewelry he wore and of the +gaudiness of his waistcoats. This may or may not have had a deciding +influence in determining the character of his reception by the +house, but at any rate it was a tempestuous one. He was repeatedly +interrupted, and when he attempted to proceed the uproar of cries +and laughter finally overpowered him and he abandoned for the time +being the attempt to speak--not, however, until he had served on +the house due notice of his great future, expressed in the memorable +words--thundered, we are told, at the top of his voice, and +audible still in English history--"You shall hear me!" + +Not ten years later, the young man with the gaudy waistcoats had +become the leading Conservative orator of the campaign against the +Liberals on their Corn Law policy and so great was the impression +produced by his speeches that in 1852, when the Derby ministry was +formed, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. + +The secret of his success is the thorough-going way in which he +identified himself with the English aristocracy. Where others had +apologized for aristocracy as a method of government, he justified. +Instead of excusing and avoiding, he assumed that a government of +privilege rather than that based on rights or the assumption of +their existence is the best possible government, the only natural +one, the only one capable of perpetuating itself without constant +and violent changes. Kept on the defensive by the forward movement +of the people, as well as by the tendency towards Liberalism or +Radicalism shown by the men of highest education among the +aristocratic classes themselves, the English Conservatives were +delighted to find a man of great ability and striking eloquence, who +seemed to have a religious conviction that "Toryism" was the only +means of saving society and ensuring progress. It is characteristic +of his mind and his methods, that he does not shrink from calling +himself a Tory. He is as proud of bearing that reproach as Camilla +Desmoulins was of being called a Sansculotte. When a man is thus +"for thorough," he becomes representative of all who have his +aspirations or share his tendencies without his aggressiveness. No +doubt Disraeli's speeches are the best embodiment of Tory principle, +the most attractive presentation of aristocratic purposes in +government made in the nineteenth century. No member of the English +peerage to the "manner born" has approached him in this respect. +It is not a question of whether others have equaled or exceeded him +in ability or statesmanship. On that point there may be room for +difference of opinion, but to read any one of his great speeches is +to see at once that he has the infinite advantage of the rest in +being the strenuous and faith-inspired champion of aristocracy and +government by privilege--not the mere defender and apologist for +it. + +In the extent of his information, the energy and versatility of his +intellect, and the boldness of his methods, he had no equal among +the Conservative leaders of the Victorian reign. His audacity was +well illustrated when, after the great struggle over the reform +measures of 1866 which he opposed, the Conservatives succeeded to +power, and he, as their representative, advanced a measure "more +sweeping in its nature as a reform bill than that he had +successfully opposed" when it was advocated by Gladstone. In +foreign affairs, he showed the same boldness, working to check the +Liberal advance at home by directing public attention away from +domestic grievances to brilliant achievements abroad. This policy +which his opponents resented the more bitterly because they saw it +to be the only one by which they could be held in check, won him the +title of "Jingo," and made him the leading representative of British +imperialism abroad as he was of English aristocracy at home. + +THE ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN (From a Speech in Parliament, 1865) + +There are rare instances when the sympathy of a nation approaches +those tenderer feelings which are generally supposed to be peculiar +to the individual and to be the happy privilege of private life; and +this is one. Under any circumstances we should have bewailed the +catastrophe at Washington; under any circumstances we should have +shuddered at the means by which it was accomplished. But in the +character of the victim, and even in the accessories of his last +moments, there is something so homely and innocent that it takes the +question, as it were, out of all the pomp of history and the +ceremonial of diplomacy,--it touches the heart of nations and +appeals to the domestic sentiment of mankind. Whatever the various +and varying opinions in this house, and in the country generally, on +the policy of the late President of the United States, all must +agree that in one of the severest trials which ever tested the moral +qualities of man he fulfilled his duty with simplicity and strength. +Nor is it possible for the people of England at such a moment to +forget that he sprang from the same fatherland and spoke the same +mother tongue. When such crimes are perpetrated the public mind is +apt to fall into gloom and perplexity, for it is ignorant alike of +the causes and the consequences of such deeds. But it is one of our +duties to reassure them under unreasoning panic and despondency. +Assassination has never changed the history of the world. I will +not refer to the remote past, though an accident has made the most +memorable instance of antiquity at this moment fresh in the minds +and memory of all around me. But even the costly sacrifice of a +Caesar did not propitiate the inexorable destiny of his country. If +we look to modern times, to times at least with the feelings of +which we are familiar, and the people of which were animated and +influenced by the same interests as ourselves, the violent deaths of +two heroic men, Henry IV. of France and the Prince of Orange, are +conspicuous illustrations of this truth. In expressing our +unaffected and profound sympathy with the citizens of the United +States on this untimely end of their elected chief, let us not, +therefore, sanction any feeling of depression, but rather let us +express a fervent hope that from out of the awful trials of the last +four years, of which the least is not this violent demise, the +various populations of North America may issue elevated and +chastened, rich with the accumulated wisdom and strong in the +disciplined energy which a young nation can only acquire in a +protracted and perilous struggle. Then they will be enabled not +merely to renew their career of power and prosperity, but they will +renew it to contribute to the general happiness of mankind. It is +with these feelings that I second the address to the crown. + +AGAINST DEMOCRACY FOR ENGLAND (Delivered in 1865) + +Sir, I could have wished, and once I almost believed, that it was +not necessary for me to take part in this debate. I look on this +discussion as the natural epilogue of the Parliament of 1859; we +remember the prologue. I consider this to be a controversy between +the educated section of the Liberal party and that section of the +Liberal party, according to their companions and colleagues, not +entitled to an epithet so euphuistic and complimentary. But after +the speech of the minister, I hardly think it would become me, +representing the opinions of the gentlemen with whom I am acting on +this side of the house, entirely to be silent. We have a measure +before us to-night which is to increase the franchise in boroughs. +Without reference to any other circumstances I object to that measure. +I object to it because an increase of the franchise in boroughs is a +proposal to redistribute political power in the country. I do not +think political power in the country ought to be treated partially; +from the very nature of things it is impossible, if there is to be a +redistribution of political power, that you can only regard the +suffrage as it affects one section of the constituent body. +Whatever the proposition of the honorable gentleman, whether +abstractedly it may be expedient or not, this is quite clear, that +it must be considered not only in relation to the particular persons +with whom it will deal, but to other persons with whom it does not +deal, though it would affect them. And therefore it has always been +quite clear that if you deal with the subject popularly called +Parliamentary Reform, you must deal with it comprehensively. The +arrangements you may make with reference to one part of the +community may not be objectionable in themselves, but may be +extremely objectionable if you consider them with reference to other +parts. Consequently it has been held--and the more we consider the +subject the more true and just appears to be the conclusion--that +if you deal with the matter you must deal with it comprehensively. +You must not only consider borough constituencies, you must consider +county constituencies: and when persons rise up and urge their +claims to be introduced into the constituent body, even if you think +there is a plausible claim substantiated on their part, you are +bound in policy and justice to consider also the claims of other +bodies not in possession of the franchise, but whose right to +consideration may be equally great. And so clear is it when you +come to the distribution of power that you must consider the subject +in all its bearings, that even honorable gentlemen who have taken +part in this debate have not been able to avoid the question of what +they call the redistribution of seats--a very important part of +the distribution of power. It is easy for the honorable member for +Liskeard, for example, to rise and say, in supporting this measure +for the increase of the borough franchise, that it is impossible any +longer to conceal the anomalies of our system in regard to the +distribution of seats. "Is it not monstrous," he asks, "that Calne, +with 173 voters, should return a member, while Glasgow returns only +two, with a constituency of 20,000?" Well, it may be equally +monstrous that Liskeard should return one member, and that +Birkenhead should only make a similar return. The distribution of +seats, as any one must know who has ever considered the subject +deeply and with a sense of responsibility towards the country, is +one of the most profound and difficult questions that can be brought +before the house. It is all very well to treat it in an easy, +offhand manner; but how are you to reconcile the case of North +Cheshire, of North Durham, of West Kent, and many other counties, +where you find four or six great towns, with a population, perhaps, +of 100,000, returning six members to this house, while the rest of +the population of the county, though equal in amount, returns only +two members? How are you to meet the case of the representation of +South Lancashire in reference to its boroughs? Why, those are more +anomalous than the case of Calne. + +Then there is the question of Scotland. With a population hardly +equal to that of the metropolis, and with wealth greatly inferior-- +probably not more than two-thirds of the amount--Scotland yet +possesses forty-eight members, while the metropolis has only twenty. +Do you Reformers mean to say that you are prepared to disfranchise +Scotland; or that you are going to develop the representation of the +metropolis in proportion to its population and property; and so +allow a country like England, so devoted to local government and so +influenced by local feeling, to be governed by London? And, +therefore, when those speeches are made which gain a cheer for the +moment, and are supposed to be so unanswerable as arguments in favor +of parliamentary change, I would recommend the house to recollect +that this, as a question, is one of the most difficult and one of +the deepest that can possibly engage the attention of the country. +The fact is this--in the representation of this country you do not +depend on population or on property merely, or on both conjoined; +you have to see that there is something besides population and +property--you have to take care that the country itself is +represented. That is one reason why I am opposed to the second +reading of the bill. There is another objection which I have to +this bill brought forward by the honorable member for Leeds, and +that is, that it is brought forward by the member for Leeds. I do +not consider this a subject which ought to be intrusted to the care +and guidance of any independent member of this house. If there be +one subject more than another that deserves the consideration and +demands the responsibility of the government, it certainly is the +reconstruction of our parliamentary system; and it is the government +or the political party candidates for power, who recommend a policy, +and who will not shrink from the responsibility of carrying that +policy into effect if the opportunity be afforded to them, who alone +are qualified to deal with a question of this importance. But, sir, +I shall be told, as we have been told in a previous portion of the +adjourned debate, that the two great parties of the State cannot be +trusted to deal with this question, because they have both trifled +with it. That is a charge which has been made repeatedly during +this discussion and on previous occasions, and certainly a graver +one could not be made in this house. I am not prepared to admit +that even our opponents have trifled with this question. We have +had a very animated account by the right honorable gentleman who has +just addressed us as to what may be called the Story of the Reform +Measures. It was animated, but it was not accurate. Mine will be +accurate, though I fear it will not be animated. I am not prepared +to believe that English statesmen, though they be opposed to me in +politics, and may sit on opposite benches, could ever have intended +to trifle with this question. I think that possibly they may have +made great mistakes in the course which they took; they may have +miscalculated, they may have been misled; but I do not believe that +any men in this country, occupying the posts, the eminent posts, of +those who have recommended any reconstruction of our parliamentary +system in modern days, could have advised a course which they +disapproved. They may have thought it perilous, they may have +thought it difficult, but though they may have been misled I am +convinced they must have felt that it was necessary. Let me say a +word in favor of one with whom I have had no political connection, +and to whom I have been placed in constant opposition in this house +when he was an honored member of it--I mean Lord Russell. I +cannot at all agree with the lively narrative of the right honorable +gentleman, according to which Parliamentary Reform was but the +creature of Lord John Russell, whose cabinet, controlled by him with +the vigor of a Richelieu, at all times disapproved his course; still +less can I acknowledge that merely to amuse himself, or in a moment +of difficulty to excite some popular sympathy, Lord John Russell was +a statesman always with Reform in his pocket, ready to produce it +and make a display. How different from that astute and sagacious +statesman now at the head of her Majesty's government, whom I almost +hoped to have seen in his place this evening. I am sure it would +have given the house great pleasure to have seen him here, and the +house itself would have assumed a more good-humored appearance. I +certainly did hope that the noble lord would have been enabled to be +in his place and prepared to support his policy. According to the +animated but not quite accurate account of the right honorable +gentleman who has just sat down, all that Lord Derby did was to +sanction the humor and caprice of Lord John Russell. It is true +that Lord John Russell when prime minister recommended that her +Majesty in the speech from the throne should call the attention of +Parliament to the expediency of noticing the condition of our +representative system; but Lord John Russell unfortunately shortly +afterwards retired from his eminent position. + +He was succeeded by one of the most considerable statesmen of our +days, a statesman not connected with the political school of Lord +John Russell, who was called to power not only with assistance of +Lord John Russell and the leading members of the Whig party, but +supported by the whole class of eminent statesmen who had been +educated in the same school and under the same distinguished master. +This eminent statesman, however, is entirely forgotten. The right +honorable gentleman overlooks the fact that Lord Aberdeen, when +prime minister, and when all the principal places in his cabinet +were filled with the disciples of Sir Robert Peel, did think it his +duty to recommend the same counsel to her Majesty. But this is an +important, and not the only important, item in the history of the +Reform Bill which has been ignored by the right honorable gentleman. +The time, however, came when Lord Aberdeen gave place to another +statesman, who has been complimented on his sagacity in evading the +subject, as if such a course would be a subject for congratulation. +Let me vindicate the policy of Lord Palmerston in his absence. He +did not evade the question. Lord Palmerston followed the example of +Lord John Russell. He followed the example also of Lord Aberdeen, +and recommended her Majesty to notice the subject in the speech from +the throne. What becomes, then, of the lively narrative of the +right honorable gentleman, and what becomes of the inference and +conclusions which he drew from it? Not only is his account +inaccurate, but it is injurious, as I take it, to the course of +sound policy and the honor of public men. Well, now you have three +prime ministers bringing forward the question of Parliamentary +Reform; you have Lord John Russell, Lord Aberdeen, and you have even +that statesman who, according to the account of the right honorable +gentleman, was so eminent for his sagacity in evading the subject +altogether. Now, let me ask the house to consider the position of +Lord Derby when he was called to power, a position which you cannot +rightly understand if you accept as correct the fallacious +statements of the right honorable gentleman. I will give the house +an account of this subject, the accuracy of which I believe neither +side will impugn. It may not possibly be without interest, and will +not, I am sure, be without significance. Lord Derby was sent for by +her Majesty--an unwilling candidate for office, for let me remind +the house that at that moment there was an adverse majority of 140 +in the House of Commons, and I therefore do not think that Lord +Derby was open to any imputation in hesitating to accept political +responsibility under such circumstances. Lord Derby laid these +considerations before her Majesty. I speak, of course, with +reserve. I say nothing now which I have not said before on the +discussion of political subjects in this house. But when a +government comes in on Reform and remains in power six years without +passing any measure of the kind, it is possible that these +circumstances, too, may be lost sight of. Lord Derby advised her +Majesty not to form a government under his influence, because there +existed so large a majority against him in the House of Commons, and +because this question of Reform was placed in such a position that +it was impossible to deal with it as he should wish. But it should +be remembered that Lord Derby was a member of the famous Cabinet +which carried the Reform Bill in 1832. Lord Derby, as Lord Stanley, +was in the House of Commons one of the most efficient promoters of +the measure. Lord Derby believed that the bill had tended to effect +the purpose for which it was designed, and although no man superior +to prejudices could fail to see that some who were entitled to the +exercise of the franchise were still debarred from the privilege, +yet he could not also fail to perceive the danger which would arise +from our tampering with the franchise. On these grounds Lord Derby +declined the honor which her Majesty desired to confer upon him, but +the appeal was repeated. Under these circumstances it would have +been impossible for any English statesman longer to hesitate; but I +am bound to say that there was no other contract or understanding +further than that which prevails among men, however different their +politics, who love their country and wish to maintain its greatness. +I am bound to add that there was an understanding at the time +existing among men of weight on both sides of the house that the +position in which the Reform question was placed was one +embarrassing to the crown and not creditable to the house, and that +any minister trying his best to deal with it under these +circumstances would receive the candid consideration of the house. +It was thought, moreover, that a time might possibly arrive when +both parties would unite in endeavoring to bring about a solution +which would tend to the advantage and benefit of the country. And +yet, says the right honorable gentleman, it was only in 1860 that +the portentous truth flashed across the mind of the country--only +in 1860, after so many ministers had been dealing with the question +for so many years. All I can say is that this was the question, and +the only question, which engaged the attention of Lord Derby's +cabinet. The question was whether they could secure the franchise +for a certain portion of the working classes, who by their industry, +their intelligence, and their integrity, showed that they were +worthy of such a possession, without at the same time overwhelming +the rest of the constituency by the numbers of those whom they +admitted. That, sir, was the only question which occupied the +attention of the government of Lord Derby and yet the right +honorable gentleman says that it was in 1860 that the attention of +the public was first called to the subject, when, in fact, the +question of Parliamentary Reform had been before them for ten years, +and on a greater scale than that embraced by the measure under +consideration this evening. + +I need not remind the house of the reception which Lord Derby's Bill +encountered. It is neither my disposition, nor, I am sure, that of +any of my colleagues, to complain of the votes of this house on that +occasion. Political life must be taken as you find it, and as far as +I am concerned not a word shall escape me on the subject. But from +the speeches made the first night, and from the speech made by the +right honorable gentleman this evening, I believe I am right in +vindicating the conduct pursued by the party with which I act. I +believe that the measure which we brought forward was the only one +which has tended to meet the difficulties which beset this question. +Totally irrespective of other modes of dealing with the question, +there were two franchises especially proposed on this occasion, which, +in my mind, would have done much towards solving the difficulty. The +first was the franchise founded upon personal property, and the second +the franchise founded upon partial occupation. Those two franchises, +irrespective of other modes by which we attempted to meet the want and +the difficulty--these two franchises, had they been brought into +committee of this house, would, in my opinion, have been so shaped and +adapted that they would have effected those objects which the majority +of the house desire. We endeavored in that bill to make proposals +which were in the genius of the English constitution. We did not +consider the constitution a mere phrase. We knew that the +constitution of this country is a monarchy tempered by co-ordinate +estates of the realm. We knew that the House of Commons is an estate +of the realm; we knew that the estates of the realm form a political +body, invested with political power for the government of the country +and for the public good; yet we thought that it was a body founded +upon privilege and not upon right. It is, therefore, in the noblest +and properest sense of the word, an aristocratic body, and from that +characteristic the Reform Bill of 1832 did not derogate; and if at +this moment we could contrive, as we did in 1859, to add considerably +to the number of the constituent body, we should not change that +characteristic, but it would still remain founded upon an aristocratic +principle. Well, now the Secretary of State [Sir G. Grey] has +addressed us to-night in a very remarkable speech. He also takes up +the history of Reform, and before I touch upon some of the features of +that speech it is my duty to refer to the statements which he made +with regard to the policy which the government of Lord Derby was +prepared to assume after the general election. By a total +misrepresentation of the character of the amendment proposed by Lord +John Russell, which threw the government of 1858 into a minority, and +by quoting a passage from a very long speech of mine in 1859, the +right honorable gentleman most dexterously conveyed these two +propositions to the house--first, that Lord John Russell had proposed +an amendment to our Reform Bill, by which the house declared that no +bill could be satisfactory by which the working classes were not +admitted to the franchise--one of our main objects being that the +working classes should in a great measure be admitted to the +franchise; and, secondly, that after the election I was prepared, as +the organ of the government, to give up all the schemes for those +franchises founded upon personal property, partial occupation, and +other grounds, and to substitute a bill lowering the borough +qualification. That conveyed to the house a totally inaccurate idea +of the amendment of Lord John Russell. There was not a single word in +that amendment about the working classes. There was not a single +phrase upon which that issue was raised, nor could it have been +raised, because our bill, whether it could have effected the object or +not, was a bill which proposed greatly to enfranchise the working +classes. And as regards the statement I made, it simply was this. +The election was over--we were still menaced, but we, still acting +according to our sense of duty, recommended in the royal speech that +the question of a reform of Parliament should be dealt with; because I +must be allowed to remind the house that whatever may have been our +errors, we proposed a bill which we intended to carry. And having +once taken up the question as a matter of duty, no doubt greatly +influenced by what we considered the unhappy mistakes of our +predecessors, and the difficult position in which they had placed +Parliament and the country, we determined not to leave the question +until it had been settled. But although still menaced, we felt it to +be our duty to recommend to her Majesty to introduce the question of +reform when the Parliament of 1859 met; and how were we, except in +that spirit of compromise which is the principal characteristic of our +political system, how could we introduce a Reform Bill after that +election, without in some degree considering the possibility of +lowering the borough franchise? But it was not a franchise of 6 +pounds, but it was an arrangement that was to be taken with the rest +of the bill, and if it had been met in the same spirit we might have +retained our places. But, says the right honorable gentleman, +pursuing his history of the Reform question, when the government of +Lord Derby retired from office "we came in, and we were perfectly +sincere in our intentions to carry a Reform Bill; but we experienced +such opposition, and never was there such opposition. There was the +right honorable gentleman," meaning myself, "he absolutely allowed our +bill to be read a second time." + +That tremendous reckless opposition to the right honorable +gentleman, which allowed the bill to be read a second time, seems to +have laid the government prostrate. If he had succeeded in throwing +out the bill, the right honorable gentleman and his friends would +have been relieved from great embarrassment. But the bill having +been read a second time, the government were quite overcome, and it +appears they never have recovered from the paralysis up to this +time. The right honorable gentleman was good enough to say that the +proposition of his government was rather coldly received upon his +side of the house, but he said "nobody spoke against it." Nobody +spoke against the bill on this side, but I remember some most +remarkable speeches from the right honorable gentleman's friends. +There was the great city of Edinburgh, represented by acute +eloquence of which we never weary, and which again upon the present +occasion we have heard; there was the great city of Bristol, +represented on that occasion among the opponents, and many other +constituencies of equal importance. But the most remarkable speech, +which "killed cock robin" was absolutely delivered by one who might +be described as almost a member of the government--the chairman of +ways and means [Mr. Massey], who, I believe, spoke from immediately +behind the prime minister. Did the government express any +disapprobation of such conduct? They have promoted him to a great +post, and have sent him to India with an income of fabulous amount. +And now they are astonished they cannot carry a Reform Bill. If +they removed all those among their supporters who oppose such bills +by preferring them to posts of great confidence and great lucre, how +can they suppose that they will ever carry one? Looking at the +policy of the government, I am not at all astonished at the speech +which the right honorable gentleman, the Secretary of State, has +made this evening. Of which speech I may observe, that although it +was remarkable for many things, yet there were two conclusions at +which the right honorable gentleman arrived. First, the repudiation +of the rights of man, and, next, the repudiation of the 6 pounds +franchise. The first is a great relief, and, remembering what the +feeling of the house was only a year ago, when, by the dangerous but +fascinating eloquence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we were +led to believe that the days of Tom Paine had returned, and that +Rousseau was to be rivaled by a new social contract, it must be a +great relief to every respectable man here to find that not only are +we not to have the rights of man, but we are not even to have the +1862 franchise. It is a matter, I think, of great congratulation, +and I am ready to give credit to the Secretary of State for the +honesty with which he has expressed himself, and I only wish we had +had the same frankness, the same honesty we always have, arising +from a clear view of his subject, in the first year of the +Parliament as we have had in the last. I will follow the example of +the right honorable gentleman and his friends. I have not changed +my opinions upon the subject of what is called Parliamentary Reform. +All that has occurred, all that I have observed, all the results of +my reflections, lead me to this more and more--that the principle +upon which the constituencies of this country should be increased is +one not of radical, but I may say of lateral reform--the extension +of the franchise, not its degradation. And although I do not wish +in any way to deny that we were in the most difficult position when +the Parliament of 1859 met, being anxious to assist the crown and +the Parliament by proposing some moderate measure which men on both +sides might support, we did, to a certain extent, agree to some +modification of the 10 pounds franchise--to what extent no one knows; but +I may say that it would have been one which would not at all have +affected the character of the franchise, such as I and my colleagues +wished to maintain. Yet I confess that my opinion is opposed, as it +originally was, to any course of the kind. I think that it would +fail in its object, that it would not secure the introduction of +that particular class which we all desire to introduce, but that it +would introduce many others who are totally unworthy of the +suffrage. But I think it is possible to increase the electoral body +of the country by the introduction of voters upon principles in +unison with the principles of the constitution, so that the suffrage +should remain a privilege, and not a right--a privilege to be +gained by virtue, by intelligence, by industry, by integrity, and to +be exercised for the common good of the country. I think if you +quit that ground--if you once admit that every man has a right to +vote whom you cannot prove to be disqualified--you would change +the character of the constitution, and you would change it in a +manner which will tend to lower the importance of this country. +Between the scheme we brought forward and the measure brought +forward by the honorable member for Leeds, and the inevitable +conclusion which its principal supporters acknowledge it must lead +to, it is a question between an aristocratic government in the +proper sense of the term--that is, a government by the best men of +all classes--and a democracy. I doubt very much whether a +democracy is a government that would suit this country; and it is +just as well that the house, when coming to a vote on this question, +should really consider if that be the real issue, between retaining +the present constitution--not the present constitutional body, but +between the present constitution and a democracy. + +It is just as well for the house to recollect that what is at issue +is of some price. You must remember, not to use the word profanely, +that we are dealing really with a peculiar people. There is no +country at the present moment that exists under the circumstances +and under the same conditions as the people of this realm. You +have, for example, an ancient, powerful, richly-endowed Church, and +perfect religious liberty. You have unbroken order and complete +freedom. You have estates as large as the Romans; you have a +commercial system of enterprise such as Carthage and Venice united +never equaled. And you must remember that this peculiar country +with these strong contrasts is governed not by force; it is not +governed by standing armies--it is governed by a most singular +series of traditionary influences, which generation after generation +cherishes and preserves because they know that they embalm customs +and represent the law. And, with this, what have you done? You +have created the greatest empire that ever existed in modern times +You have amassed a capital of fabulous amount. You have devised and +sustained a system of credit still more marvelous and above all, you +have established and maintained a scheme, so vast and complicated, +of labor and industry, that the history of the world offers no +parallel to it. And all these mighty creations are out of all +proportion to the essential and indigenous elements and resources of +the country. If you destroy that state of society, remember this-- +England cannot begin again. There are countries which have been in +great peril and gone through great suffering; there are the United +States, which in our own immediate day have had great trials; you +have had--perhaps even now in the States of America you have--a +protracted and fratricidal civil war which has lasted for four +years; but if it lasted for four years more, vast as would be the +disaster and desolation, when ended the United States might begin +again, because the United States would only be in the same condition +that England was at the end of the War of the Roses, and probably +she had not even 3,000,000 of population, with vast tracts of virgin +soil and mineral treasures, not only undeveloped but undiscovered. +Then you have France. France had a real revolution in our days and +those of our predecessors--a real revolution, not merely a +political and social revolution. You had the institutions of the +country uprooted, the orders of society abolished--you had even the +landmarks and local names removed and erased. But France could +begin again. France had the greatest spread of the most exuberant +soil in Europe; she had, and always had, a very limited population, +living in a most simple manner. France, therefore, could begin +again. But England--the England we know, the England we live in, +the England of which we are proud--could not begin again. I don't +mean to say that after great troubles England would become a howling +wilderness. No doubt the good sense of the people would to some +degree prevail, and some fragments of the national character would +survive; but it would not be the old England--the England of power +and tradition, of credit and capital, that now exists. That is not +in the nature of things, and, under these circumstances, I hope the +house will, when the question before us is one impeaching the +character of our constitution, sanction no step that has a +preference for democracy but that they will maintain the ordered +state of free England in which we live, I do not think that in this +country generally there is a desire at this moment for any further +change in this matter. I think the general opinion of the country +on the subject of Parliamentary Reform is that our views are not +sufficiently matured on either side. Certainly, so far as I can +judge I cannot refuse the conclusion that such is the condition of +honorable gentlemen opposite. We all know the paper circulated +among us before Parliament met, on which the speech of the honorable +member from Maidstone commented this evening. I quite sympathize +with him; it was one of the most interesting contributions to our +elegiac literature I have heard for some time. But is it in this +house only that we find these indications of the want of maturity in +our views upon this subject? Our tables are filled at this moment +with propositions of eminent members of the Liberal party--men +eminent for character or talent, and for both--and what are these +propositions? All devices to counteract the character of the +Liberal Reform Bill, to which they are opposed: therefore, it is +quite clear, when we read these propositions and speculations, that +the mind and intellect of the party have arrived at no conclusions +on the subject. I do not speak of honorable gentlemen with +disrespect; I treat them with the utmost respect; I am prepared to +give them the greatest consideration; but I ask whether these +publications are not proofs that the active intelligence of the +Liberal party is itself entirely at sea on the subject? + +I may say there has been more consistency, more calmness, and +consideration on this subject on the part of gentlemen on this side +than on the part of those who seem to arrogate to themselves the +monopoly of treating this subject. I can, at least, in answer to +those who charge us with trifling with the subject, appeal to the +recollection of every candid man, and say that we treated it with +sincerity--we prepared our measure with care, and submitted it to +the house, trusting to its candid consideration--we spared no +pains in its preparation: and at this time I am bound to say, +speaking for my colleagues, in the main principles on which that +bill was founded--namely, the extension of the franchise, not its +degradation, will be found the only solution that will ultimately be +accepted by the country. Therefore, I cannot say that I look to +this question, or that those with whom I act look to it, with any +embarrassment. We feel we have done our duty; and it is not without +some gratification that I have listened to the candid admissions of +many honorable gentlemen who voted against it that they feel the +defeat of that measure by the liberal party was a great mistake. So +far as we are concerned, I repeat we, as a party, can look to +Parliamentary Reform not as an embarrassing subject; but that is no +reason why we should agree to the measure of the honorable member +for Leeds. It would reflect no credit on the House of Commons. It +is a mean device. I give all credit to the honorable member for Leeds +for his conscientious feeling; but it would be a mockery to take +this bill; from the failures of the government and the whole of the +circumstances that attended it, it is of that character that I think +the house will best do its duty to the country, and will best meet +the constituencies with a very good understanding, if they reject +the measure by a decided majority. + +THE MEANING OF "CONSERVATISM" (Manchester, .April 3d, 1872) + +_Gentlemen:_-- +The chairman has correctly reminded you that this is not the first +time that my voice has been heard in this hall. But that was an +occasion very different from that which now assembles us together-- +was nearly thirty years ago, when I endeavored to support and +stimulate the flagging energies of an institution in which I thought +there were the germs of future refinement and intellectual advantage +to the rising generation of Manchester, and since I have been here +on this occasion I have learned with much gratification that it is +now counted among your most flourishing institutions. There was also +another and more recent occasion when the gracious office fell to me +to distribute among the members of the Mechanics' Institution those +prizes which they had gained through their study in letters and in +science. Gentlemen, these were pleasing offices, and if life +consisted only of such offices you would not have to complain of +it. But life has its masculine duties, and we are assembled here to +fulfill some of the most important of these, when, as citizens of a +free country, we are assembled together to declare our determination +to maintain, to uphold the constitution to which we are debtors, in +our opinion, for our freedom and our welfare. + +Gentlemen, there seems at first something incongruous that one +should be addressing the population of so influential and +intelligent a county as Lancashire who is not locally connected with +them, and, gentlemen, I will frankly admit that this circumstance +did for a long time make me hesitate in accepting your cordial and +generous invitation. But, gentlemen, after what occurred yesterday, +after receiving more than two hundred addresses from every part of +this great county, after the welcome which then greeted me, I feel +that I should not be doing justice to your feelings, I should not do +my duty to myself, if I any longer consider my presence here +to-night to be an act of presumption. Gentlemen, though it may not +be an act of presumption, it still is, I am told, an act of great +difficulty. Our opponents assure us that the Conservative party has +no political program; and, therefore, they must look with much +satisfaction to one whom you honor to-night by considering him the +leader and representative of your opinions when he comes forward, at +your invitation, to express to you what that program is. The +Conservative party are accused of having no program of policy. If by +a program is meant a plan to despoil churches and plunder landlords, +I admit we have no program. If by a program is meant a policy which +assails or menaces every institution and every interest, every class +and every calling in the country, I admit we have no program. But if +to have a policy with distinct ends, and these such as most deeply +interest the great body of the nation, be a becoming program for a +political party, then I contend we have an adequate program, and one +which, here or elsewhere, I shall always be prepared to assert and +to vindicate. + +Gentlemen, the program of the Conservative party is to maintain the +constitution of the country. I have not come down to Manchester to +deliver an essay on the English constitution; but when the banner of +Republicanism is unfurled--when the fundamental principles of our +institutions are controverted--I think, perhaps, it may not be +inconvenient that I should make some few practical remarks upon the +character of our constitution upon that monarchy limited by the +co-ordinate authority of the estates of the realm, which, under the +title of Queen, Lords, and Commons, has contributed so greatly to +the prosperity of this country, and with the maintenance of which I +believe that prosperity is bound up. + +Gentlemen, since the settlement of that constitution, now nearly two +centuries ago, England has never experienced a revolution, though +there is no country in which there has been so continuous and such +considerable change. How is this? Because the wisdom of your +forefathers placed the prize of supreme power without the sphere of +human passions. Whatever the struggle of parties, whatever the +strife of factions, whatever the excitement and exaltation of the +public mind, there has always been something in this country round +which all classes and parties could rally, representing the majesty +of the law, the administration of justice, and involving, at the +same time, the security for every man's rights and the fountain of +honor. Now, gentlemen, it is well clearly to comprehend what is +meant by a country not having a revolution for two centuries. It +means, for that space, the unbroken exercise and enjoyment of the +ingenuity of man. It means for that space the continuous application +of the discoveries of science to his comfort and convenience. It +means the accumulation of capital, the elevation of labor, the +establishment of those admirable factories which cover your +district; the unwearied improvement of the cultivation of the land, +which has extracted from a somewhat churlish soil harvests more +exuberant than those furnished by lands nearer to the sun. It means +the continuous order which is the only parent of personal liberty +and political right. And you owe all these, gentlemen, to the +throne. + +There is another powerful and most beneficial influence which is +also exercised by the crown. Gentlemen, I am a party man. I believe +that, without party, parliamentary government is impossible. I look +upon parliamentary government as the noblest government in the +world, and certainly the one most suited to England. But without the +discipline of political connection, animated by the principle of +private honor, I feel certain that a popular assembly would sink +before the power or the corruption of a minister. Yet, gentlemen, I +am not blind to the faults of party government. It has one great +defect. Party has a tendency to warp the intelligence, and there is +no minister, however resolved he may be in treating a great public +question, who does not find some difficulty in emancipating himself +from the traditionary prejudice on which he has long acted. It is, +therefore, a great merit in our constitution, that before a minister +introduces a measure to Parliament, he must submit it to an +intelligence superior to all party, and entirely free from +influences of that character. + +I know it will be said, gentlemen, that, however beautiful in +theory, the personal influence of the sovereign is now absorbed in +the responsibility of the minister. Gentlemen, I think you will +find there is great fallacy in this view. The principles of the +English constitution do not contemplate the absence of personal +influence on the part of the sovereign; and if they did, the +principles of human nature would prevent the fulfillment of such a +theory. Gentlemen, I need not tell you that I am now making on this +subject abstract observations of general application to our +institutions and our history. But take the case of a sovereign of +England, who accedes to his throne at the earliest age the law +permits, and who enjoys a long reign,--take an instance like that +of George III. From the earliest moment of his accession that +sovereign is placed in constant communication with the most able +statesmen of the period, and of all parties. Even with average +ability it is impossible not to perceive that such a sovereign must +soon attain a great mass of political information and political +experience. Information and experience, gentlemen, whether they are +possessed by a sovereign or by the humblest of his subjects, are +irresistible in life. No man with the vast responsibility that +devolves upon an English minister can afford to treat with +indifference a suggestion that has not occurred to him, or +information with which he had not been previously supplied. But, +gentlemen, pursue this view of the subject. The longer the reign, +the influence of that sovereign must proportionately increase. All +the illustrious statesmen who served his youth disappear. A new +generation of public servants rises up, there is a critical +conjunction in affairs--a moment of perplexity and peril. Then it +is that the sovereign can appeal to a similar state of affairs that +occurred perhaps thirty years before. When all are in doubt among +his servants, he can quote the advice that was given by the +illustrious men of his early years, and, though he may maintain +himself within the strictest limits of the constitution, who can +suppose, when such information and such suggestions are made by the +most exalted person in the country, that they can be without effect? +No, gentlemen; a minister who could venture to treat such influence +with indifference would not be a constitutional minister, but an +arrogant idiot. + +Gentlemen, the influence of the crown is not confined merely to +political affairs. England is a domestic country. Here the home is +revered and the hearth is sacred. The nation is represented by a +family--the royal family; and if that family is educated with a +sense of responsibility and a sentiment of public duty, it is +difficult to exaggerate the salutary influence they may exercise +over a nation. It is not merely an influence upon manners; it is not +merely that they are a model for refinement and for good taste-- +they affect the heart as well as the intelligence of the people; and +in the hour of public adversity, or in the anxious conjuncture of +public affairs, the nation rallies round the family and the throne, +and its spirit is animated and sustained by the expression of public +affection. Gentlemen, there is yet one other remark that I would +make upon our monarchy, though had it not been for recent +circumstances, I should have refrained from doing so. An attack has +recently been made upon the throne on account of the costliness of +the institution. Gentlemen, I shall not dwell upon the fact that if +the people of England appreciate the monarchy, as I believe they do, +it would be painful to them that their royal and representative +family should not be maintained with becoming dignity, or fill in +the public eye a position inferior to some of the nobles of the +land. Nor will I insist upon what is unquestionably the fact, that +the revenues of the crown estates, on which our sovereign might live +with as much right as the Duke of Bedford, or the Duke of +Northumberland, has to his estates, are now paid into the public +exchequer. All this, upon the present occasion, I am not going to +insist upon. What I now say is this: that there is no sovereignty of +any first-rate State which costs so little to the people as the +sovereignty of England. I will not compare our civil list with those +of European empires, because it is known that in amount they treble +and quadruple it; but I will compare it with the cost of sovereignty +in a republic, and that a republic with which you are intimately +acquainted--the republic of the United States of America. + +Gentlemen, there is no analogy between the position of our sovereign, +Queen Victoria, and that of the President of the United States. The +President of the United States is not the sovereign of the United +States. There is a very near analogy between the position of the +President of the United States and that of the prime minister of +England, and both are paid at much the same rate--the income of a +second-class professional man. The sovereign of the United States is +the people; and I will now show you what the sovereignty of the United +States costs. Gentlemen, you are aware of the Constitution of the +United States. There are thirty-seven independent States, each with a +sovereign legislature. Besides these, there is a Confederation of +States, to conduct their external affairs, which consists of the House +of Representatives and a Senate. There are two hundred and +eighty-five members of the House of Representatives, and there are +seventy-four members of the Senate, making altogether three hundred +and fifty-nine members of Congress. Now each member of Congress +receives 1,000 pounds sterling per annum. In addition to this he +receives an allowance called "mileage," which varies according to the +distance which he travels, but the aggregate cost of which is about +30,000 pounds per annum. That makes 389,000 pounds, almost the +exact amount of our civil list. + +But this, gentlemen, will allow you to make only a very imperfect +estimate of the cost of sovereignty in the United States. Every +member of every legislature in the thirty-seven States is also paid. +There are, I believe, five thousand and ten members of State +legislatures, who receive about $350 per annum each. As some of the +returns are imperfect, the average which I have given of expenditure +may be rather high, and therefore I have not counted the mileage, +which is also universally allowed. Five thousand and ten members of +State legislatures at $350 each make $1,753,500, or 350,700 pounds +sterling a year. So you see, gentlemen, that the immediate +expenditure for the sovereignty of the United States is between +700,000 and 800,000 pounds a year. Gentlemen, I have not time to +pursue this interesting theme, otherwise I could show that you have +still but imperfectly ascertained the cost of sovereignty in a +republic. But, gentlemen, I cannot resist giving you one further +illustration. + +The government of this country is considerably carried on by the aid +of royal commissions. So great is the increase of public business +that it would be probably impossible for a minister to carry on +affairs without this assistance. The Queen of England can command +for these objects the services of the most experienced statesmen, +and men of the highest position in society. If necessary, she can +summon to them distinguished scholars or men most celebrated in +science and in arts; and she receives from them services that are +unpaid. They are only too proud to be described in the commission +as her Majesty's "trusty councilors"; and if any member of these +commissions performs some transcendent services, both of thought and +of labor, he is munificently rewarded by a public distinction +conferred upon him by the fountain of honor. Gentlemen, the +government of the United States, has, I believe, not less availed +itself of the services of commissions than the government of the +United Kingdom; but in a country where there is no fountain of +honor, every member of these commissions is paid. + +Gentlemen, I trust I have now made some suggestions to you +respecting the monarchy of England which at least may be so far +serviceable that when we are separated they may not be altogether +without advantage; and now, gentlemen, I would say something on the +subject of the House of Lords. It is not merely the authority of +the throne that is now disputed, but the character and the influence +of the House of Lords that are held up by some to public disregard. +Gentlemen, I shall not stop for a moment to offer you any proofs of +the advantage of a second chamber; and for this reason. That +subject has been discussed now for a century, ever since the +establishment of the government of the United States, and all great +authorities, American, German, French, Italian, have agreed in this, +that a representative government is impossible without a second +chamber. And it has been, especially of late, maintained by great +political writers in all countries, that the repeated failure of +what is called the French republic is mainly to be ascribed to its +not having a second chamber. + +But, gentlemen, however anxious foreign countries have been to enjoy +this advantage, that anxiety has only been equaled by the difficulty +which they have found in fulfilling their object. How is a second +chamber to be constituted? By nominees of the sovereign power? +What influence can be exercised by a chamber of nominees? Are they +to be bound by popular election? In what manner are they to be +elected? If by the same constituency as the popular body, what +claim have they, under such circumstances, to criticize or to +control the decisions of that body? If they are to be elected by a +more select body, qualified by a higher franchise, there immediately +occurs the objection, why should the majority be governed by the +minority? The United States of America were fortunate in finding a +solution of this difficulty; but the United States of America had +elements to deal with which never occurred before, and never +probably will occur again, because they formed their illustrious +Senate from materials that were offered them by the thirty-seven +States. We gentlemen, have the House of Lords, an assembly which +has historically developed and periodically adapted itself to the +wants and necessities of the times. + +What, gentlemen, is the first quality which is required in a second +chamber? Without doubt, independence. What is the best foundation of +independence? Without doubt, property. The prime minister of England +has only recently told you, and I believe he spoke quite accurately, +that the average income of the members of the House of Lords is +20,000 pounds per annum. Of course there are some who have more, +and some who have less; but the influence of a public assembly, so far +as property is concerned, depends upon its aggregate property, which, +in the present case, is a revenue of 9,000,000 pounds a year. But, +gentlemen, you must look to the nature of this property. It is +visible property, and therefore it is responsible property, which +every rate-payer in the room knows to his cost. But, gentlemen, it is +not only visible property; it is, generally speaking, territorial +property; and one of the elements of territorial property is, that it +is representative. Now, for illustration, suppose--which God +forbid--there was no House of Commons, and any Englishman,--I will +take him from either end of the island,--a Cumberland, or a Cornish +man, finds himself aggrieved, the Cumbrian says: "This conduct I +experience is most unjust. I know a Cumberland man in the House of +Lords, the Earl of Carlisle or the Earl of Lonsdale; I will go to him; +he will never see a Cumberland man ill-treated." The Cornish man will +say: "I will go to the Lord of Port Eliot; his family have sacrificed +themselves before this for the liberties of Englishmen, and he will +get justice done me." + +But, gentlemen, the charge against the House of Lords is that the +dignities are hereditary, and we are told that if we have a House of +Peers they should be peers for life. There are great authorities in +favor of this, and even my noble friend near me [Lord Derby], the +other day, gave in his adhesion to a limited application of this +principle. Now, gentlemen, in the first place, let me observe that +every peer is a peer for life, as he cannot be a peer after his +death; but some peers for life are succeeded in their dignities by +their children. The question arises, who is most responsible--a +peer for life whose dignities are not descendible, or a peer for +life whose dignities are hereditary? Now, gentlemen, a peer for +life is in a very strong position. He says: "Here I am; I have got +power and I will exercise it." I have no doubt that, on the whole, +a peer for life would exercise it for what he deemed was the public +good. Let us hope that. But, after all, he might and could +exercise it according to his own will. Nobody can call him to +account; he is independent of everybody. But a peer for life whose +dignities descend is in a very different position. He has every +inducement to study public opinion, and, when he believes it just, +to yield; because he naturally feels that if the order to which he +belongs is in constant collision with public opinion, the chances +are that his dignities will not descend to his posterity. + +Therefore, gentlemen, I am not prepared myself to believe that a +solution of any difficulties in the public mind on this subject is +to be found by creating peers for life. I know there are some +philosophers who believe that the best substitute for the House of +Lords would be an assembly formed of ex-governors of colonies. I +have not sufficient experience on that subject to give a decided +opinion upon it. When the Muse of Comedy threw her frolic grace over +society, a retired governor was generally one of the characters in +every comedy; and the last of our great actors,--who, by the way, +was a great favorite at Manchester,--Mr. Farren, was celebrated for +his delineation of the character in question. Whether it be the +recollection of that performance or not, I confess I am inclined to +believe that an English gentleman--born to business, managing his +own estate, administering the affairs of his county, mixing with all +classes of his fellow-men, now in the hunting field, now in the +railway direction, unaffected, unostentatious, proud of his +ancestors, if they have contributed to the greatness of our common +country--is, on the whole, more likely to form a Senator agreeable +to English opinion and English taste than any substitute that has +yet been produced. + +Gentlemen, let me make one observation more on the subject of the +House of Lords before I conclude. There is some advantage in +political experience. I remember the time when there was a similar +outcry against the House of Lords, but much more intense and +powerful; and, gentlemen, it arose from the same cause. A Liberal +government had been installed in office, with an immense Liberal +majority. They proposed some violent measures. The House of Lords +modified some, delayed others, and some they threw out. Instantly +there was a cry to abolish or to reform the House of Lords, and the +greatest popular orator [Daniel O'Connell] that probably ever +existed was sent on a pilgrimage over England to excite the people +in favor of this opinion. What happened? That happened, gentlemen, +which may happen to-morrow. There was a dissolution of Parliament. +The great Liberal majority vanished. The balance of parties was +restored. It was discovered that the House of Lords had behind them +at least half of the English people. We heard no more cries for +their abolition or their reform, and before two years more passed +England was really governed by the House of Lords, under the wise +influence of the Duke of Wellington and the commanding eloquence of +Lyndhurst; and such was the enthusiasm of the nation in favor of the +second chamber that at every public meeting its health was drunk, +with the additional sentiment, for which we are indebted to one of +the most distinguished members that ever represented the House of +Commons: "Thank God, there is the House of Lords." + +Gentlemen, you will, perhaps, not be surprised that, having made +some remarks upon the monarchy and the House of Lords, I should say +something respecting that house in which I have literally passed the +greater part of my life, and to which I am devotedly attached. It +is not likely, therefore, that I should say anything to depreciate +the legitimate position and influence of the House of Commons. +Gentlemen, it is said that the diminished power of the throne and +the assailed authority of the House of Lords are owing to the +increased power of the House of Commons, and the new position which +of late years, and especially during the last forty years, it has +assumed in the English constitution. Gentlemen, the main power of +the House of Commons depends upon its command over the public purse, +and its control of the public expenditure; and if that power is +possessed by a party which has a large majority in the House of +Commons, the influence of the House of Commons is proportionately +increased, and, under some circumstances, becomes more predominant. +But, gentlemen, this power of the House of Commons is not a power +which has been created by any reform act, from the days of Lord +Grey, in 1832, to 1867. It is the power which the House of Commons +has enjoyed for centuries, which it has frequently asserted and +sometimes even tyrannically exercised. Gentlemen, the House of +Commons represents the constituencies of England, and I am here to +show you that no addition to the elements of that constituency has +placed the House of Commons in a different position with regard to +the throne and the House of Lords from that it has always +constitutionally occupied. + +Gentlemen, we speak now on this subject with great advantage. We +recently have had published authentic documents upon this matter +which are highly instructive. We have, for example, just published +the census of Great Britain, and we are now in possession of the +last registration of voters for the United Kingdom. Gentlemen, it +appears that by the census the population at this time is about +32,000,000. It is shown by the last registration that, after making +the usual deductions for deaths, removals, double entries, and so +on, the constituency of the United Kingdom may be placed at +2,200,000. So, gentlemen, it at once appears that there are +30,000,000 people in this country who are as much represented by the +House of Lords as by the House of Commons, and who, for the +protection of their rights, must depend upon them and the majesty of +the throne. And now, gentlemen, I will tell you what was done by +the last reform act. + +Lord Grey, in his measure of 1832, which was no doubt a +statesmanlike measure, committed a great, and for a time it appeared +an irretrievable, error. By that measure he fortified the +legitimate influence of the aristocracy, and accorded to the middle +classes great and salutary franchises; but he not only made no +provision for the representation of the working classes in the +constitution, but he absolutely abolished those ancient franchises +which the working classes had peculiarly enjoyed and exercised from +time immemorial. Gentlemen, that was the origin of Chartism, and of +that electoral uneasiness which existed in this country more or less +for thirty years. + +The Liberal party, I feel it my duty to say, had not acted fairly by +this question. In their adversity they held out hopes to the +working classes, but when they had a strong government they laughed +their vows to scorn. In 1848 there was a French revolution, and a +republic was established. No one can have forgotten what the effect +was in this country. I remember the day when not a woman could +leave her house in London, and when cannon were planted on +Westminster Bridge. When Lord Derby became prime minister affairs +had arrived at such a point that it was of the first moment that the +question should be sincerely dealt with. He had to encounter great +difficulties, but he accomplished his purpose with the support of a +united party. And gentlemen, what has been the result? A year ago +there was another revolution in France, and a republic was again +established of the most menacing character. What happened in this +country? You could not get half a dozen men to assemble in a street +and grumble. Why? Because the people had got what they wanted. +They were content, and they were grateful. + +But, gentlemen, the constitution of England is not merely a +constitution in State, it is a constitution in Church and State. The +wisest sovereigns and statesmen have ever been anxious to connect +authority with religion--some to increase their power, some, +perhaps, to mitigate its exercise. But the same difficulty has been +experienced in effecting this union which has been experienced in +forming a second chamber--either the spiritual power has usurped +upon the civil, and established a sacerdotal society, or the civil +power has invaded successfully the rights of the spiritual, and the +ministers of religion have been degraded into stipendiaries of the +state and instruments of the government. In England we accomplish +this great result by an alliance between Church and State, between +two originally independent powers. I will not go into the history of +that alliance, which is rather a question for those archaeological +societies which occasionally amuse and instruct the people of this +city. Enough for me that this union was made and has contributed for +centuries to the civilization of this country. Gentlemen, there is +the same assault against the Church of England and the union between +the State and the Church as there is against the monarchy and +against the House of Lords. It is said that the existence of +nonconformity proves that the Church is a failure. I draw from these +premises an exactly contrary conclusion; and I maintain that to have +secured a national profession of faith with the unlimited enjoyment +of private judgment in matters spiritual, is the solution of the +most difficult problem, and one of the triumphs of civilization. + +It is said that the existence of parties in the Church also proves +its incompetence. On that matter, too, I entertain a contrary +opinion. Parties have always existed in the Church; and some have +appealed to them as arguments in favor of its divine institution, +because, in the services and doctrines of the Church have been found +representatives of every mood in the human mind. Those who are +influenced by ceremonies find consolation in forms which secure to +them the beauty of holiness. Those who are not satisfied except +with enthusiasm find in its ministrations the exaltation they +require, while others who believe that the "anchor of faith" can +never be safely moored except in the dry sands of reason find a +religion within the pale of the Church which can boast of its +irrefragable logic and its irresistible evidence. + +Gentlemen, I am inclined sometimes to believe that those who +advocate the abolition of the union between Church and State have +not carefully considered the consequences of such a course. The +Church is a powerful corporation of many millions of her Majesty's +subjects, with a consummate organization and wealth which in its +aggregate is vast. Restricted and controlled by the State, so +powerful a corporation may be only fruitful of public advantage, but +it becomes a great question what might be the consequences of the +severance of the controlling tie between these two bodies. The State +would be enfeebled, but the Church would probably be strengthened. +Whether that is a result to be desired is a grave question for all +men. For my own part, I am bound to say that I doubt whether it +would be favorable to the cause of civil and religious liberty. I +know that there is a common idea that if the union between Church +and State was severed, the wealth of the Church would revert to the +State; but it would be well to remember that the great proportion of +ecclesiastical property is the property of individuals. Take, for +example, the fact that the great mass of Church patronage is +patronage in the hands of private persons. That you could not touch +without compensation to the patrons. You have established that +principle in your late Irish Bill, where there was very little +patronage. And in the present state of the public mind on the +subject, there is very little doubt that there would be scarcely a +patron in England--irrespective of other aid the Church would +receive--who would not dedicate his compensation to the spiritual +wants of his neighbors. + +It was computed some years ago that the property of the Church in this +manner, if the union was terminated, would not be less than between +80,000,000 and 90,000,000 pounds, and since that period the amount +of private property dedicated to the purposes of the Church has very +largely increased. I therefore trust that when the occasion offers +for the country to speak out it will speak out in an unmistakable +manner on this subject; and recognizing the inestimable services of +the Church, that it will call upon the government to maintain its +union with the State. Upon this subject there is one remark I would +make. Nothing is more surprising to me than the plea on which the +present outcry is made against the Church of England. I could not +believe that in the nineteenth century the charge against the Church +of England should be that churchmen, and especially the clergy, had +educated the people. If I were to fix upon one circumstance more than +another which redounded to the honor of churchmen, it is that they +should fulfill this noble office; and, next to being "the stewards of +divine mysteries," I think the greatest distinction of the clergy is +the admirable manner in which they have devoted their lives and their +fortunes to this greatest of national objects. + +Gentlemen, you are well acquainted in this city with this +controversy. It was in this city--I don't know whether it was not +in this hall--that that remarkable meeting was held of the +Nonconformists to effect important alterations in the Education Act, +and you are acquainted with the discussion in Parliament which arose +in consequence of that meeting. Gentlemen, I have due and great +respect for the Nonconformist body. I acknowledge their services to +their country, and though I believe that the political reasons which +mainly called them into existence have entirely ceased, it is +impossible not to treat with consideration a body which has been +eminent for its conscience, its learning, and its patriotism; but I +must express my mortification that, from a feeling of envy or of +pique, the Nonconformist body, rather than assist the Church in its +great enterprise, should absolutely have become the partisans of a +merely secular education. I believe myself, gentlemen, that without +the recognition of a superintending Providence in the affairs of +this world all national education will be disastrous, and I feel +confident that it is impossible to stop at that mere recognition. +Religious education is demanded by the nation generally and by the +instincts of human nature. I should like to see the Church and the +Nonconformists work together; but I trust, whatever may be the +result, the country will stand by the Church in its efforts to +maintain the religious education of the people. Gentlemen, I +foresee yet trials for the Church of England; but I am confident in +its future. I am confident in its future because I believe there is +now a very general feeling that to be national it must be +comprehensive. I will not use the word "broad," because it is an +epithet applied to a system with which I have no sympathy. But I +would wish churchmen, and especially the clergy, always to remember +that in our "Father's home there are many mansions," and I believe +that comprehensive spirit is perfectly consistent with the +maintenance of formularies and the belief in dogmas without which I +hold no practical religion can exist. + +Gentlemen, I have now endeavored to express to you my general views +upon the most important subjects that can interest Englishmen. They +are subjects upon which, in my mind, a man should speak with +frankness and clearness to his countrymen, and although I do not +come down here to make a party speech, I am bound to say that the +manner in which those subjects are treated by the leading subject of +this realm is to me most unsatisfactory. Although the prime minister +of England is always writing letters and making speeches, and +particularly on these topics, he seems to me ever to send forth an +"uncertain sound." If a member of Parliament announces himself a +Republican, Mr. Gladstone takes the earliest opportunity of +describing him as a "fellow-worker" in public life. If an +inconsiderate multitude calls for the abolition or reform of the +House of Lords, Mr. Gladstone says that it is no easy task, and that +he must think once or twice, or perhaps even thrice, before he can +undertake it. If your neighbor, the member for Bradford, Mr. Miall, +brings forward a motion in the House of Commons for the severance of +Church and State, Mr. Gladstone assures Mr. Miall with the utmost +courtesy that he believes the opinion of the House of Commons is +against him, but that if Mr. Miall wishes to influence the House of +Commons he must address the people out of doors; whereupon Mr. Miall +immediately calls a public meeting, and alleges as its cause the +advice he has just received from the prime minister. + +But, gentlemen, after all, the test of political institutions is the +condition of the country whose fortunes they regulate; and I do not +mean to evade that test. You are the inhabitants of an island of no +colossal size; which, geographically speaking, was intended by +nature as the appendage of some continental empire--either of +Gauls and Franks on the other side of the Channel or of Teutons and +Scandinavians beyond the German Sea. Such indeed, and for a long +period, was your early history. You were invaded; you were pillaged +and you were conquered; yet amid all these disgraces and +vicissitudes there was gradually formed that English race which has +brought about a very different state of affairs. Instead of being +invaded, your land is proverbially the only "inviolate land"--"the +inviolate land of the sage and free." Instead of being plundered, +you have attracted to your shores all the capital of the world. +Instead of being conquered, your flag floats on many waters, and +your standard waves in either zone. It may be said that these +achievements are due to the race that inhabited the land, and not to +its institutions. Gentlemen, in political institutions are the +embodied experiences of a race. You have established a society of +classes which give vigor and variety to life. But no class +possesses a single exclusive privilege, and all are equal before the +law. You possess a real aristocracy, open to all who desire to +enter it. You have not merely a middle class, but a hierarchy of +middle classes, in which every degree of wealth, refinement, +industry, energy, and enterprise is duly represented. + +And now, gentlemen, what is the condition of the great body of the +people? In the first place, gentlemen, they have for centuries been +in the full enjoyment of that which no other country in Europe has +ever completely attained--complete rights of personal freedom. In +the second place, there has been a gradual, and therefore a wise, +distribution on a large scale of political rights. Speaking with +reference to the industries of this great part of the country, I can +personally contrast it with the condition of the working classes +forty years ago. In that period they have attained two results-- +the raising of their wages and the diminution of their toil. +Increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man. +That the working classes of Lancashire and Yorkshire have proved not +unworthy of these boons may be easily maintained; but their progress +and elevation have been during this interval wonderfully aided and +assisted by three causes, which are not so distinctively +attributable to their own energies. The first is the revolution in +locomotion, which has opened the world to the working man, which has +enlarged the horizon of his experience, increased his knowledge of +nature and of art, and added immensely to the salutary recreation, +amusement, and pleasure of his existence. The second cause is the +cheap postage, the moral benefits of which cannot be exaggerated. +And the third is that unshackled press which has furnished him with +endless sources of instruction, information, and amusement. + +Gentlemen, if you would permit me, I would now make an observation +upon another class of the laboring population. This is not a civic +assembly, although we meet in a city. That was for convenience, but +the invitation which I received was to meet the county and all the +boroughs of Lancashire; and I wish to make a few observations upon +the condition of the agricultural laborer. That is a subject which +now greatly attracts public attention. And, in the first place, to +prevent any misconception, I beg to express my opinion that an +agricultural laborer has as much right to combine for the bettering +of his condition as a manufacturing laborer or a worker in metals. +If the causes of his combination are natural--that is to say, if +they arise from his own feelings and from the necessities of his own +condition--the combination will end in results mutually beneficial +to employers and employed. If, on the other hand, it is factitious +and he is acted upon by extraneous influences and extraneous ideas, +the combination will produce, I fear, much loss and misery both to +employers and employed; and after a time he will find himself in a +similar, or in a worse, position. + +Gentlemen, in my opinion, the farmers of England cannot, as a body, +afford to pay higher wages than they do, and those who will answer +me by saying that they must find their ability by the reduction of +rents are, I think, involving themselves with economic laws which +may prove too difficult for them to cope with. The profits of a +fanner are very moderate. The interest upon capital invested in +land is the smallest that any property furnishes. The farmer will +have his profits and the investor in land will have his interest, +even though they may be obtained at the cost of changing the mode of +the cultivation of the country. Gentlemen, I should deeply regret +to see the tillage of this country reduced, and a recurrence to +pasture take place. I should regret it principally on account of +the agricultural laborers themselves. Their new friends call them +Hodge, and describe them as a stolid race. I must say that, from my +experience of them, they are sufficiently shrewd and open to reason. +I would say to them with confidence, as the great Athenian said to +the Spartan who rudely assailed him: "Strike, but hear me." + +First, a change in the cultivation of the soil of this country would +be very injurious to the laboring class; and second, I am of opinion +that that class instead of being stationary has made if not as much +progress as the manufacturing class, very considerable progress +during the last forty years. Many persons write and speak about the +agricultural laborer with not so perfect a knowledge of his +condition as is desirable. They treat him always as a human being +who in every part of the country finds himself in an identical +condition. Now, on the contrary, there is no class of laborers in +which there is greater variety of condition than that of the +agricultural laborers. It changes from north to south, from east to +west, and from county to county. It changes even in the same +county, where there is an alteration of soil and of configuration. +The hind in Northumberland is in a very different condition from the +famous Dorsetshire laborer; the tiller of the soil in Lincolnshire +is different from his fellow-agriculturalist in Sussex. What the +effect of manufactures is upon the agricultural districts in their +neighborhood it would be presumption in me to dwell upon; your own +experience must tell you whether the agricultural laborer in North +Lancashire, for example, has had no rise in wages and no diminution +in toil. Take the case of the Dorsetshire laborer--the whole of +the agricultural laborers on the southwestern coast of England for a +very long period worked only half the time of the laborers in other +parts of England, and received only half the wages. In the +experience of many, I dare say, who are here present, even thirty +years ago a Dorsetshire laborer never worked after three o'clock in +the day; and why? Because the whole of that part of England was +demoralized by smuggling. No one worked after three o'clock in the +day, for a very good reason--because he had to work at night. No +farmer allowed his team to be employed after three o'clock, because +he reserved his horses to take his illicit cargo at night and carry +it rapidly into the interior. Therefore, as the men were employed +and remunerated otherwise, they got into a habit of half work and +half play so far as the land was concerned, and when smuggling was +abolished--and it has only been abolished for thirty years-- +these imperfect habits of labor continued, and do even now continue +to a great extent. That is the origin of the condition of the +agricultural laborer in the southwestern part of England. + +But now gentlemen, I want to test the condition of the agricultural +laborer generally; and I will take a part of England with which I am +familiar, and can speak as to the accuracy of the facts--I mean +the group described as the south-midland counties. The conditions +of labor there are the same, or pretty nearly the same, throughout. +The group may be described as a strictly agricultural community, and +they embrace a population of probably a million and a half. Now, I +have no hesitation in saying that the improvement in their lot +during the last forty years has been progressive and is remarkable. +I attribute it to three causes. In the first place, the rise in +their money wages is no less than fifteen per cent. The second +great cause of their improvement is the almost total disappearance +of excessive and exhausting toil, from the general introduction of +machinery. I don't know whether I could get a couple of men who +could or, if they could, would thresh a load of wheat in my +neighborhood. The third great cause which has improved their +condition is the very general, not to say universal, institution of +allotment grounds. Now, gentlemen, when I find that this has been +the course of affairs in our very considerable and strictly +agricultural portion of the country, where there have been no +exceptional circumstances, like smuggling, to degrade and demoralize +the race, I cannot resist the conviction that the condition of the +agricultural laborers, instead of being stationary, as we are +constantly told by those not acquainted with them, has been one of +progressive improvement, and that in those counties--and they are +many--where the stimulating influence of a manufacturing +neighborhood acts upon the land, the general conclusion at which I +arrive is that the agricultural laborer has had his share in the +advance of national prosperity. Gentlemen, I am not here to +maintain that there is nothing to be done to increase the well-being +of the working classes of this country, generally speaking. There +is not a single class in the country which is not susceptible of +improvement; and that makes the life and animation of our society. +But in all we do we must remember, as my noble friend told them at +Liverpool, that much depends upon the working classes themselves; +and what I know of the working classes in Lancashire makes me sure +that they will respond to this appeal. Much, also, may be expected +from that sympathy between classes which is a distinctive feature of +the present day; and, in the last place, no inconsiderable results +may be obtained by judicious and prudent legislation. But, +gentlemen, in attempting to legislate upon social matters, the great +object is to be practical--to have before us some distinct aims +and some distinct means by which they can be accomplished. + +Gentlemen, I think public attention as regards these matters ought +to be concentrated upon sanitary legislation. That is a wide +subject, and, if properly treated, comprises almost every +consideration which has a just claim upon legislative interference. +Pure air, pure water, the inspection of unhealthy habitations, the +adulteration of food,--these and many kindred matters may be +legitimately dealt with by the legislature; and I am bound to say +the legislature is not idle upon them; for we have at this time two +important measures before Parliament on the subject. One--by a late +colleague of mine, Sir Charles Adderley--is a large and +comprehensive measure, founded upon a sure basis, for it consolidates +all existing public acts, and improves them. A prejudice has been +raised against that proposal, by stating that it interferes with the +private acts of the great towns. I take this opportunity of +contradicting that. The bill of Sir Charles Adderley does not touch +the acts of the great towns. It only allows them, if they think +fit, to avail themselves of its new provisions. + +The other measure by the government is of a partial character. What +it comprises is good, so far as it goes, but it shrinks from that +bold consolidation of existing acts which I think one of the great +merits of Sir Charles Adderley's bill, which permits us to become +acquainted with how much may be done in favor of sanitary +improvement by existing provisions. Gentlemen, I cannot impress +upon you too strongly my conviction of the importance of the +legislature and society uniting together in favor of these important +results. A great scholar and a great wit, three hundred years ago, +said that, in his opinion, there was a great mistake in the Vulgate, +which, as you all know, is the Latin translation of the Holy +Scriptures, and that, instead of saying "Vanity of vanities, all is +vanity"--_Vanitas_ _vanitatum_, _omnia_ _vanitas_--the wise and +witty king really said:"_Sanitas_ _sanitatum_, _omnia_ _sanitas_." +Gentlemen, it is impossible to overrate the importance of the +subject. After all the first consideration of a minister should be +the health of the people. A land may be covered with historic +trophies, with museums of science and galleries of art, with +universities and with libraries; the people may be civilized and +ingenious; the country may be even famous in the annals and action +of the world, but, gentlemen, if the population every ten years +decreases, and the stature of the race every ten years diminishes, +the history of that country will soon be the history of the past. + +Gentlemen, I said I had not come here to make a party speech. I +have addressed you upon subjects of grave, and I will venture to +believe of general, interest; but to be here and altogether silent +upon the present state of public affairs would not be respectful to +you, and, perhaps, on the whole, would be thought incongruous. +Gentlemen, I cannot pretend that our position either at home or +abroad is in my opinion satisfactory. At home, at a period of +immense prosperity, with a people contented and naturally loyal, we +find to our surprise the most extravagant doctrines professed and +the fundamental principles of our most valuable institutions +impugned, and that, too, by persons of some authority. Gentlemen, +this startling inconsistency is accounted for, in my mind, by the +circumstances under which the present administration was formed. It +is the first instance in my knowledge of a British administration +being avowedly formed on a principle of violence. It is unnecessary +for me to remind you of the circumstances which preceded the +formation of that government. You were the principal scene and +theatre of the development of statesmanship that then occurred. You +witnessed the incubation of the portentous birth. You remember when +you were informed that the policy to secure the prosperity of +Ireland and the content of Irishmen was a policy of sacrilege and +confiscation. Gentlemen, when Ireland was placed under the wise and +able administration of Lord Abercorn, Ireland was prosperous, and I +may say content. But there happened at that time a very peculiar +conjuncture in politics. The Civil War in America had just ceased; +and a band of military adventurers--Poles, Italians, and many +Irishmen--concocted in New York a conspiracy to invade Ireland, +with the belief that the whole country would rise to welcome them. +How that conspiracy was baffled--how those plots were confounded, +I need not now remind you. For that we were mainly indebted to the +eminent qualities of a great man who has just left us. You remember +how the constituencies were appealed to to vote against the +government which had made so unfit an appointment as that of Lord +Mayo to the vice-royalty of India. It was by his great qualities +when Secretary for Ireland, by his vigilance, his courage, his +patience, and his perseverance that this conspiracy was defeated. +Never was a minister better informed. He knew what was going on at +New York just as well as what was going on in the city of Dublin. + +When the Fenian conspiracy had been entirely put down, it became +necessary to consider the policy which it was expedient to pursue in +Ireland; and it seemed to us at that time that what Ireland required +after all the excitement which it had experienced was a policy which +should largely develop its material resources. There were one or two +subjects of a different character, which, for the advantage of the +State, it would have been desirable to have settled, if that could +have been effected with a general concurrence of both the great +parties in that country. Had we remained in office, that would have +been done. But we were destined to quit it, and we quitted it +without a murmur. The policy of our successors was different. Their +specific was to despoil churches and plunder landlords, and what has +been the result? Sedition rampant, treason thinly veiled, and +whenever a vacancy occurs in the representation a candidate is +returned pledged to the disruption of the realm. Her Majesty's new +ministers proceeded in their career like a body of men under the +influence of some delirious drug. Not satiated with the spoliation +and anarchy of Ireland, they began to attack every institution and +every interest, every class and calling in the country. It is +curious to observe their course. They took into hand the army. What +have they done? I will not comment on what they have done. I will +historically state it, and leave you to draw the inference. So long +as constitutional England has existed there has been a jealousy +among all classes against the existence of a standing army. As our +empire expanded, and the existence of a large body of disciplined +troops became a necessity, every precaution was taken to prevent the +danger to our liberties which a standing army involved. + +It was a first principle not to concentrate in the island any +overwhelming number of troops, and a considerable portion was +distributed in the colonies. Care was taken that the troops +generally should be officered by a class of men deeply interested in +the property and the liberties of England. So extreme was the +jealousy that the relations between that once constitutional force, +the militia, and the sovereign were rigidly guarded, and it was +carefully placed under local influences. All this is changed. We +have a standing army of large amount, quartered and brigaded and +encamped permanently in England, and fed by a considerable and +constantly increasing reserve. + +It will in due time be officered by a class of men eminently +scientific, but with no relations necessarily with society; while +the militia is withdrawn from all local influences, and placed under +the immediate command of the Secretary of War. Thus, in the +nineteenth century, we have a large standing army established in +England, contrary to all the traditions of the land, and that by a +Liberal government, and with the warm acclamations of the Liberal +party. + +Let us look what they have done with the Admiralty. You remember, +in this country especially, the denunciations of the profligate +expenditure of the Conservative government, and you have since had +an opportunity of comparing it with the gentler burden of Liberal +estimates. The navy was not merely an instance of profligate +expenditure, but of incompetent and inadequate management. A great +revolution was promised in its administration. A gentleman +[Mr. Childers], almost unknown to English politics, was strangely +preferred to one of the highest places in the councils of her +Majesty. He set to at his task with ruthless activity. The +Consulative Council, under which Nelson had gained all his +victories, was dissolved. The secretaryship of the Admiralty, an +office which exercised a complete supervision over every division of +that great department,--an office which was to the Admiralty what +the Secretary of State is to the kingdom,--which, in the qualities +which it required and the duties which it fulfilled, was rightly a +stepping-stone to the cabinet, as in the instances of Lord Halifax, +Lord Herbert, and many others,--was reduced to absolute +insignificance. Even the office of Control, which of all others +required a position of independence, and on which the safety of the +navy mainly depended, was deprived of all its important attributes. +For two years the opposition called the attention of Parliament to +these destructive changes, but Parliament and the nation were alike +insensible. Full of other business, they could not give a thought +to what they looked upon merely as captious criticism. It requires +a great disaster to command the attention of England; and when +the Captain was lost, and when they had the detail of the perilous +voyage of the Megara, then public indignation demanded a complete +change in this renovating administration of the navy. + +And what has occurred? It is only a few weeks since that in the +House of Commons I heard the naval statement made by a new First +Lord [Mr. Goschen], and it consisted only of the rescinding of all +the revolutionary changes of his predecessor, the mischief of every +one of which during the last two years has been pressed upon the +attention of Parliament and the country by that constitutional and +necessary body, the Opposition. Gentlemen, it will not do for +me--considering the time I have already occupied, and there are +still some subjects of importance that must be touched--to dwell +upon any of the other similar topics, of which there is a rich +abundance. I doubt not there is in this hall more than one farmer +who has been alarmed by the suggestion that his agricultural +machinery should be taxed. + +I doubt not there is in this hall more than one publican who +remembers that last year an act of Parliament was introduced to +denounce him as a "sinner." I doubt not there are in this hall a +widow and an orphan who remember the profligate proposition to +plunder their lonely heritage. But, gentlemen, as time advanced it +was not difficult to perceive that extravagance was being +substituted for energy by the government. The unnatural stimulus +was subsiding. Their paroxysms ended in prostration. Some took +refuge in melancholy, and their eminent chief alternated between a +menace and a sigh. As I sat opposite the treasury bench the +ministers reminded me of one of those marine landscapes not very +unusual on the coast of South America. You behold a range of +exhausted volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest. +But the situation is still dangerous. There are occasional +earthquakes, and ever and anon the dark rumbling of the sea. + +But, gentlemen, there is one other topic on which I must touch. If +the management of our domestic affairs has been founded upon a +principle of violence, that certainly cannot be alleged against the +management of our external relations. I know the difficulty of +addressing a body of Englishmen on these topics. The very phrase +"Foreign Affairs" makes an Englishman convinced that I am about to +treat of subjects with which be has no concern. Unhappily the +relations of England to the rest of the world, which are "Foreign +Affairs," are the matters which most influence his lot. Upon them +depends the increase or reduction of taxation. Upon them depends +the enjoyment or the embarrassment of his industry. And yet, though +so momentous are the consequences of the mismanagement of our +foreign relations, no one thinks of them till the mischief occurs +and then it is found how the most vital consequences have been +occasioned by mere inadvertence. + +I will illustrate this point by two anecdotes. Since I have been in +public life there has been for this country a great calamity and +there is a great danger, and both might have been avoided. The +calamity was the Crimean War. You know what were the consequences +of the Crimean War: A great addition to your debt, an enormous +addition to your taxation, a cost more precious than your treasure +--the best blood of England. Half a million of men, I believe, +perished in that great undertaking. Nor are the evil consequences +of that war adequately described by what I have said. All the +disorders and disturbances of Europe, those immense armaments that +are an incubus on national industry and the great obstacle to +progressive civilization, may be traced and justly attributed to the +Crimean War. And yet the Crimean War need never have occurred. + +When Lord Derby acceded to office, against his own wishes, in 1852, +the Liberal party most unconstitutionally forced him to dissolve +Parliament at a certain time by stopping the supplies, or at least +by limiting the period for which they were voted. There was not a +single reason to justify that course, for Lord Derby had only +accepted office, having once declined it, on the renewed application +of his sovereign. The country, at the dissolution, increased the +power of the Conservative party, but did not give to Lord Derby a +majority, and he had to retire from power. There was not the +slightest chance of a Crimean War when he retired from office; but +the Emperor of Russia, believing that the successor of Lord Derby +was no enemy to Russian aggression in the East, commenced those +proceedings, with the result of which you are familiar. I speak of +what I know, not of what I believe, but of what I have evidence in +my possession to prove--that the Crimean War never would have +happened if Lord Derby had remained in office. + +The great danger is the present state of our relations with the +United States. When I acceded to office I did so, so far as +regarded the United States of America, with some advantage. During +the whole of the Civil War in America both my noble friend near me +and I had maintained a strict and fair neutrality. This was fully +appreciated by the government of the United States, and they +expressed their wish that with our aid the settlement of all +differences between the two governments should be accomplished. +They sent here a plenipotentiary, an honorable gentleman, very +intelligent and possessing general confidence. My noble friend near +me, with great ability, negotiated a treaty for the settlement of +all these claims. He was the first minister who proposed to refer +them to arbitration, and the treaty was signed by the American +government. It was signed, I think, on November 10th, on the eve of +the dissolution of Parliament. The borough elections that first +occurred proved what would be the fate of the ministry, and the +moment they were known in America the American government announced +that Mr. Reverdy Johnson, the American minister, had mistaken his +instructions, and they could not present the treaty to the Senate +for its sanction--the sanction of which there had been previously no +doubt. But the fact is that, as in the case of the Crimean War, it +was supposed that our successors would be favorable to Russian +aggression, so it was supposed that by the accession to office of +Mr. Gladstone and a gentleman you know well, Mr. Bright, the +American claims would be considered in a very different spirit. How +they have been considered is a subject which, no doubt, occupies +deeply the minds of the people of Lancashire. Now, gentlemen, +observe this--the question of the Black Sea involved in the +Crimean War, the question of the American claims involved in our +negotiations with Mr. Johnson, are the two questions that have again +turned up, and have been the two great questions that have been +under the management of his government. + +How have they treated them? Prince Gortschakoff, thinking he saw an +opportunity, announced his determination to break from the Treaty of +Paris, and terminate all the conditions hostile to Russia which had +been the result of the Crimean War. What was the first movement on +the part of our government is at present a mystery. This we know, +that they selected the most rising diplomatist of the day and sent +him to Prince Bismarck with a declaration that the policy of Russia, +if persisted in, was war with England. Now, gentlemen, there was +not the slightest chance of Russia going to war with England, and no +necessity, as I shall always maintain, of England going to war with +Russia. I believe I am not wrong in stating that the Russian +government was prepared to withdraw from the position they had +rashly taken; but suddenly her Majesty's government, to use a +technical phrase, threw over the plenipotentiary, and, instead of +threatening war, if the Treaty of Paris were violated, agreed to +arrangements by which the violation of that treaty should be +sanctioned by England, and, in the form of a congress, showed +themselves guaranteeing their own humiliation. That Mr. Odo Russell +made no mistake is quite obvious, because he has since been selected +to be her Majesty's ambassador at the most important court of +Europe. Gentlemen, what will be the consequence of this +extraordinary weakness on the part of the British government it is +difficult to foresee. Already we hear that Sebastopol is to be +refortified, nor can any man doubt that the entire command of the +Black Sea will soon be in the possession of Russia. The time may +not be distant when we may hear of the Russian power in the Persian +Gulf, and what effect that may have upon the dominions of England +and upon those possessions on the productions of which you every +year more and more depend, are questions upon which it will be well +for you on proper occasions to meditate. + +I come now to that question which most deeply interests you at this +moment, and that is our relations with the United States. I +approved the government referring this question to arbitration. It +was only following the policy of Lord Stanley. My noble friend +disapproved the negotiations being carried on at Washington. I +confess that I would willingly have persuaded myself that this was +not a mistake, but reflection has convinced me that my noble friend +was right. I remember the successful negotiation of the +Clayton-Bulwer treaty by Sir Henry Bulwer. I flattered myself that +treaties at Washington might be successfully negotiated; but I agree +with my noble friend that his general view was far more sound than +my own. But no one, when that commission was sent forth, for a +moment could anticipate the course of its conduct under the strict +injunctions of the government. We believed that commission was sent +to ascertain what points should be submitted to arbitration, to be +decided by the principles of the law of nations. We had not the +slightest idea that that commission was sent with power and +instructions to alter the law of nations itself. When that result +was announced, we expressed our entire disapprobation; and yet +trusting to the representations of the government that matters were +concluded satisfactorily, we had to decide whether it were wise, if +the great result was obtained, to wrangle upon points however +important, such as those to which I have referred. + +Gentlemen, it appears that, though all parts of England were ready +to make those sacrifices, the two negotiating States--the +government of the United Kingdom and the government of the United +States--placed a different interpretation upon the treaty when the +time had arrived to put its provisions into practice. Gentlemen, in +my mind, and in the opinion of my noble friend near me, there was +but one course to take under the circumstances, painful as it might +be, and that was at once to appeal to the good feeling and good +sense of the United States, and, stating the difficulty, to invite +confidential conference whether it might not be removed. But her +Majesty's government took a different course. On December 15th her +Majesty's government were aware of a contrary interpretation being +placed on the Treaty of Washington by the American government. The +prime minister received a copy of their counter case, and he +confessed he had never read it. He had a considerable number of +copies sent to him to distribute among his colleagues, and you +remember, probably, the remarkable statement in which he informed +the house that he had distributed those copies to everybody except +those for whom they were intended. + +Time went on, and the adverse interpretation of the American +government oozed out, and was noticed by the press. Public alarm +and public indignation were excited; and it was only seven weeks +afterward, on the very eve of the meeting of Parliament,--some +twenty-four hours before the meeting of Parliament,--that her +Majesty's government felt they were absolutely obliged to make a +"friendly communication" to the United States that they had arrived +at an interpretation of the treaty the reverse of that of the +American government. What was the position of the American +government? Seven weeks had passed without their having received +the slightest intimation from her Majesty's ministers. They had +circulated their case throughout the world. They had translated it +into every European language. It had been sent to every court and +cabinet, to every sovereign and prime minister. It was impossible +for the American government to recede from their position, even if +they had believed it to be an erroneous one. And then, to aggravate +the difficulty, the prime minister goes down to Parliament, declares +that there is only one interpretation to be placed on the treaty, +and defies and attacks everybody who believes it susceptible of +another. + +Was there ever such a combination of negligence and blundering? And +now, gentlemen, what is about to happen? All we know is that her +Majesty's ministers are doing everything in their power to evade the +cognizance and criticism of Parliament. They have received an +answer to their "friendly communication"; of which, I believe, it +has been ascertained that the American government adhere to their +interpretation; and yet they prolong the controversy. What is about +to occur it is unnecessary for one to predict; but if it be this-- +if after a fruitless ratiocination worthy of a schoolman, we +ultimately agree so far to the interpretation of the American +government as to submit the whole case to arbitration, with feeble +reservation of a protest, if it be decided against us, I venture to +say that we shall be entering on a course not more distinguished by +its feebleness than by its impending peril. There is before us +every prospect of the same incompetence that distinguished our +negotiations respecting the independence of the Black Sea; and I +fear that there is every chance that this incompetence will be +sealed by our ultimately acknowledging these direct claims of the +United States, which, both as regards principle and practical +results, are fraught with the utmost danger to this country. +Gentlemen, don't suppose, because I counsel firmness and decision at +the right moment, that I am of that school of statesmen who are +favorable to a turbulent and aggressive diplomacy. I have resisted +it during a great part of my life. I am not unaware that the +relations of England to Europe have undergone a vast change during +the century that has just elapsed. The relations of England to +Europe are not the same as they were in the days of Lord Chatham or +Frederick the Great. The Queen of England has become the sovereign +of the most powerful of Oriental States. On the other side of the +globe there are now establishments belonging to her, teeming with +wealth and population, which will, in due time, exercise their +influence over the distribution of power. The old establishments of +this country, now the United States of America, throw their +lengthening shades over the Atlantic, which mix with European +waters. These are vast and novel elements in the distribution of +power. I acknowledge that the policy of England with respect to +Europe should be policy of reserve, but proud reserve; and in +answer to those statesmen--those mistaken statesmen who have +intimated the decay of the power of England and the decline of its +resources, I express here my confident conviction that there never +was a moment in our history when the power of England was so great +and her resources so vast and inexhaustible. + +And yet, gentlemen, it is not merely our fleets and armies, our +powerful artillery, our accumulated capital, and our unlimited +credit on which I so much depend, as upon that unbroken spirit of +her people, which I believe was never prouder of the imperial +country to which they belong. Gentlemen, it is to that spirit that I +above all things trust. I look upon the people of Lancashire as +fairly representative of the people of England. I think the manner +in which they have invited me here, locally a stranger, to receive +the expression of their cordial sympathy, and only because they +recognize some effort on my part to maintain the greatness of their +country, is evidence of the spirit of the land. I must express to +you again my deep sense of the generous manner in which you have +welcomed me, and in which you have permitted me to express to you my +views upon public affairs. Proud of your confidence, and encouraged +by your sympathy, I now deliver to you, as my last words, the cause +of the Tory party, of the English constitution, and of the British +empire. + + + +THE VENERABLE BEDE (672-735) + +The VENERABLE BEDE, "The father of English literature," was bora +about 672 in the county of Durham. The Anglo-Saxons, whose earliest +historian he was, had been converted by St. Austin and others by the +then not unusual process of preaching to the king until he was +persuaded to renounce heathenism both for himself and his +subjects. Bede, though born among a people not greatly addicted +either to religion or letters, became a remarkable preacher, +scholar, and thinker. Professionally a preacher, his sermons are +interesting, chiefly because they are the earliest specimens of +oratory extant from any Anglo-Saxon public speaker. + +Best known as the author of the 'Ecclesiastical History of England,' +Bede was a most prolific writer. He left a very considerable +collection of sermons or homilies, many of which are still +extant. He also wrote on science, on poetic art, on medicine, +philosophy, and rhetoric, not to mention his hymns and his 'Book of +Epigrams in Heroic and Elegaic Verse'--all very interesting and some +of them valuable, as any one may see who will take the trouble to +read them in his simple and easily understood Latin. It is a pity, +however, that they are not adequately translated and published in a +shape which would make the father of English eloquence the first +English rhetorician, as he was the first English philosopher, poet, +and historian, more readily accessible to the general public. + +Bede's sermons deal very largely in allegory, and though he may have +been literal in his celebrated suggestions of the horrors of hell-- +which were certainly literally understood by his hearers--it is +pertinent to quote in connection with them his own assertion, that +"he who knows how to interpret allegorically will see that the inner +sense excels the simplicity of the letter as apples do leaves." + +Bede's reputation spread not only through England but throughout +Western Europe and to Rome. Attempts were made to thrust honors on +him, but he refused them for fear they would prevent him from +learning. He taught in a monastery at Jarrow where at one time he +had six hundred monks and many strangers attending on his +discourses. + +He died in 735, just as he had completed the first translation of +the Gospel of John ever made into any English dialect. The present +Anglo-Saxon version, generally in use among English students, is +supposed to include that version if not actually to present its +exact language. The King James version comes from Bede's in a direct +line of descent through Wycliff and Tyndale. + + +THE MEETING OF MERCY AND JUSTICE + +There was a certain father of a family, a powerful king, who had +four daughters, of whom one was called Mercy, the second Truth, the +third Justice, the fourth Peace; of whom it is said, "Mercy and +Truth are met together; Justice and Peace have kissed each other." +He had also a certain most wise son, to whom no one could be +compared in wisdom. He had, also, a certain servant, whom he had +exalted and enriched with great honor: for he had made him after his +own likeness and similitude, and that without any preceding merit on +the servant's part. But the Lord, as is the custom with such wise +masters, wished prudently to explore, and to become acquainted with, +the character and the faith of his servant, whether he were +trustworthy towards himself or not; so he gave him an easy +commandment, and said, "If you do what I tell you, I will exalt you +to further honors; if not, you shall perish miserably." + +The servant heard the commandment, and without any delay went and +broke it. Why need I say more? Why need I delay you by my words and +by my tears? This proud servant, stiff-necked, full of contumely, +and puffed up with conceit, sought an excuse for his transgression, +and retorted the whole fault on his Lord. For when he said, "the +woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she deceived me," he threw all +the fault on his Maker. His Lord, more angry for such contumelious +conduct than for the transgression of his command, called four most +cruel executioners, and commanded one of them to cast him into +prison, another to afflict him with grievous torments; the third to +strangle him, and the fourth to behead him. By and by, when occasion +offers, I will give you the right name of these tormentors. + +These torturers, then, studying how they might carry out their own +cruelty, took the wretched man and began to afflict him with all +manner of punishments. But one of the daughters of the King, by +name Mercy, when she had heard of this punishment of the servant, +ran hastily to the prison, and looking in and seeing the man given +over to the tormentors, could not help having compassion upon him, +for it is the property of Mercy to have pity. She tore her garments +and struck her hands together, and let her hair fall loose about her +neck, and crying and shrieking, ran to her father, and kneeling +before his feet began to say with an earnest and sorrowful voice: +"My beloved father, am not I thy daughter Mercy? and art not thou +called merciful? If thou art merciful, have mercy upon thy servant; +and if thou wilt not have mercy upon him, thou canst not be called +merciful; and if thou art not merciful, thou canst not have me, +Mercy, for thy daughter." While she was thus arguing with her +father, her sister Truth came up, and demanded why it was that Mercy +was weeping. "Your sister Mercy," replied the father, "wishes me to +have pity upon that proud transgressor whose punishment I have +appointed." Truth, when she heard this, was excessively angry, and +looking sternly at her father, "Am not I," said she, "thy daughter +Truth? art not thou called true? Is it not true that thou didst +fix a punishment for him, and threaten him with death by torments? +If thou art true, thou wilt follow that which is true; if thou art +not true, thou canst not have me, Truth, for thy daughter." Here, +you see, Mercy and Truth are met together. The third sister, +namely, Justice, hearing this strife, contention, quarreling, and +pleading, and summoned by the outcry, began to inquire the cause +from Truth. And Truth, who could only speak that which was true, +said, "This sister of ours, Mercy, if she ought to be called a +sister who does not agree with us, desires that our father should +have pity on that proud transgressor." Then Justice, with an angry +countenance, and meditating on a grief which she had not expected, +said to her father, "Am not I thy daughter Justice? are thou not +called just? If thou art just, thou wilt exercise justice on the +transgressor; if thou dost not exercise that justice, thou canst not +be just; if thou art not just, thou canst not have me, Justice, for +thy daughter." So here were Truth and Justice on the one side, and +Mercy on the other. _Ultima_ _coelicolum_ _terras_ _Astrea_ +_reliquit_; this means, that Peace fled into a far distant country. +For where there is strife and contention, there is no peace; and by +how much greater the contention, by so much further peace is driven +away. + +Peace, therefore, being lost, and his three daughters in warm +discussion, the King found it an extremely difficult matter to +determine what he should do, or to which side he should lean. +For, if he gave ear to Mercy, he would offend Truth and Justice if +he gave ear to Truth and Justice, he could not have Mercy for his +daughter; and yet it was necessary that he should be both merciful +and just, and peaceful and true. There was great need then of good +advice. The father, therefore, called his wise son, and consulted +him about the affair. Said the son, "Give me my father, this present +business to manage, and I will both punish the transgressor for +thee, and will bring back to thee in peace thy four daughters." +"These are great promises," replied the father, "if the deed only +agrees with the word. If thou canst do that which thou sayest, I +will act as thou shalt exhort me." + +Having, therefore, received the royal mandate, the son took his +sister Mercy along with him, and leaping upon the mountains, passing +over the hills, came to the prison, and looking through the windows, +looking through the lattice, he beheld the imprisoned servant, shut +out from the present life, devoured of affliction, and from the sole +of his foot even to the crown there was no soundness in him. He saw +him in the power of death, because through him death entered into +the world. He saw him devoured, because, when a man is once dead he +is eaten of worms. And because I now have the opportunity of +telling you, you shall hear the names of the four tormentors. The +first, who put him in prison, is the Prison of the Present Life, of +which it is said, "Woe is me that I am constrained to dwell in +Mesech"; the second, who tormented him, is the Misery of the World, +which besets us with all kinds of pain and wretchedness; the third, +who was putting him to death, conquered death, bound the strong man, +took his goods, and distributed the spoils; and ascending up on +high, led captivity captive and gave gifts for men, and brought back +the servant into his country, crowned with double honor, and endued +with a garment of immortality. When Mercy beheld this, she had no +grounds for complaint, Truth found no cause of discontent, because +her father was found true. The servant had paid all his penalties. +Justice in like manner complained not, because justice had been +executed on the transgressor; and thus he who had been lost was +found. Peace, therefore, when she saw her sisters at concord, came +back and united them. And now, behold, Mercy and Truth are met +together, Justice and Peace have kissed each other. Thus, +therefore, by the Mediator of man and angels, man was purified and +reconciled, and the hundredth sheep was brought back to the fold of +God. To which fold Jesus Christ brings us, to whom is honor and +power everlasting. Amen. + +A SERMON FOR ANY DAY + +Beloved brethren, it is time to pass from evil to good, from +darkness to light, from this most unfaithful world to everlasting +joys, lest that day take us unawares in which our Lord Jesus Christ +shall come to make the round world a desert, and to give over to +everlasting punishment sinners who would not repent of the sins +which they did. There is a great sin in lying, as saith Solomon, +"The lips which lie slay the soul. The wrath of man worketh not the +righteousness of God," no more doth his covetousness. Whence the +Apostle saith, "The love of money and pride are the root of all +evil." Pride, by which that apostate angel fell, who, as it is read +in the prophecy, "despised the beginning of the ways of God. How +art thou fallen from heaven!" We must avoid pride, which had power +to deceive angels; how much more will it have power to deceive men! +And we ought to fear envy, by which the devil deceived the first +man, as it is written, "Christ was crucified through envy, +therefore he that envieth his neighbor crucifieth Christ," + +See that ye always expect the advent of the Judge with fear and +trembling, lest he should find us unprepared; because the Apostle +saith, "My days shall come as a thief in the night." Woe to them +whom it shall find sleeping in sins, for "then," as we read in the +Gospel, "He shall gather all nations, and shall separate them one +from the other, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the +goats. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye +blessed of my Father," where there is no grief nor sorrow; where +there is no other sound but love, and peace, and everlasting +gladness with all the elect of God; where no good thing can be +wanting. Then shall the righteous answer and say, Lord, why hast +thou prepared such glory and such good things? He shall answer, for +mercy, for faith, for piety, and truth and the like. Lord, when +didst thou see these good things in us? The Lord shall answer, +"Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the +least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me, and what ye +did in secret, I will reward openly." Then shall the King say unto +them on his left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting +fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, where shall be weepjng +and gnashing of teeth," and tears of eyes; where death is desired +and comes not; where the worm dieth not and the fire is not +quenched; where is no joy, but sorrow; where is no rest, except +pain; where nothing is heard but lamentations. Then they also shall +answer and say, Lord, why hast thou prepared such punishments for +us? For your iniquity and malignity, the Lord shall say. + +Therefore, my brethren, I beseech you, that they who are in the +habits of good works would persevere in every good work; and that +they who are evil would amend themselves quickly, before sudden +death come upon them. While, therefore, we have time, let us do good +to all men, and let us leave off doing ill, that we may attain to +eternal life. + +THE TORMENTS OF HELL + +The Sunday is a chosen day, in which the angels rejoice. We must +ask who was the first to request that souls might (on Sunday) have +rest in hell; and the answer is that Paul the Apostle and Michael +the Archangel besought the Lord when they came back from hell; for +it was the Lord's will that Paul should see the punishments of that +place. He beheld trees all on fire, and sinners tormented on those +trees; and some were hung by the feet, some by the hands, some by +the hair, some by the neck, some by the tongue, and some by the arm. +And again, he saw a furnace of fire burning with seven flames, and +many were punished in it; and there were seven plagues round about +this furnace; the first, snow; the second, ice; the third, fire, the +fourth, blood; the fifth, serpents; the sixth, lightning; the +seventh, stench; and in that furnace itself were the souls of the +sinners who repented not in this life. There they are tormented, +and every one receiveth according to his works; some weep, some +howl, some groan; some burn and desire to have rest, but find it +not, because souls can never die. Truly we ought to fear that place +in which is everlasting dolor, in which is groaning, in which is +sadness without joy, in which are abundance of tears on account of +the tortures of souls; in which a fiery wheel is turned a thousand +times a day by an evil angel, and at each turn a thousand souls are +burnt upon it. After this he beheld a horrible river, in which were +many diabolic beasts, like fishes in the midst of the sea, which +devour the souls of sinners; and over that river there is a bridge, +across which righteous souls pass without dread, while the souls of +sinners suffer each one according to its merits. + +There Paul beheld many souls of sinners plunged, some to the knees, +some to the loins, some to the mouth, some to the eyebrows; and +every day and eternally they are tormented. And Paul wept, and asked +who they were that were therein plunged to the knees. And the angel +said, These are detractors and evil speakers; and those up to the +loins are fornicators and adulterers, who returned not to +repentance; and those to the mouth are they who went to Church, but +they heard not the word of God; and those to the eyebrows are they +who rejoiced in the wickedness of their neighbor. And after this, he +saw between heaven and earth the soul of a sinner, howling betwixt +seven devils, that had on that day departed from the body. And the +angels cried out against it and said, Woe to thee, wretched soul! +What hast thou done upon earth? Thou hast despised the commandments +of God, and hast done no good works; and therefore thou shalt be +cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of +teeth. And after this, in one moment, angels carried a soul from its +body to heaven; and Paul heard the voice of a thousand angels +rejoicing over it, and saying, O most happy and blessed soul! +rejoice to-day, because thou hast done the will of God. And they set +it in the presence of God. ... And the angel said, Whoso keepeth +the Sunday shall have his part with the angels of God. And Paul +demanded of the angel, how many kinds of punishment there were in +hell. And the angel said, there are a hundred and forty-four +thousand, and if there were a hundred eloquent men, each having four +iron tongues, that spoke from the beginning of the world, they could +not reckon up the torments of hell. But let us, beloved brethren, +hearing of these so great torments, be converted to our Lord that we +may be able to reign with the angels. + + + +HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813-1887) + +A very great orator must be a thoroughly representative man, +sensitive enough to be moved to the depths of his nature by the +master-passions of his time. Henry Ward Beecher was a very great +orator,--one of the greatest the country has produced,--and in his +speeches and orations inspired by the feelings which evolved the +Civil War and were themselves exaggerated by it to tenfold strength, +we feel all the volcanic forces which buried the primitive political +conditions of the United States deep under the ashes and lava of +their eruption. Words are feeble in the presence of the facts of +such a war. But what more could words do to suggest its meaning than +they do in Mr. Beecher's oration on the raising of the flag at Fort +Sumter, April 14th, 1865:-- + +"The soil has drunk blood and is glutted. Millions mourn for myriads +slain, or, envying the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns and villages +have been razed. Fruitful fields have been turned back to +wilderness. It came to pass as the prophet had said: 'The sun was +turned to darkness and the moon to blood.' The course of the law was +ended. The sword sat chief magistrate in half the nation; industry +was paralyzed; morals corrupted; the public weal invaded by rapine +and anarchy; whole States were ravaged by avenging armies. The world +was amazed. The earth reeled." + +In such passages, Mr. Beecher has something of the force which +immortalized the "Voluspa." The "bardic inspiration," which moved +the early Norse poets to sing the bloody results of the "Berserker +fury," peculiar to the Teutonic and Norse peoples, seems to control +him as he recounts the dreadful features of the war and reminds the +vanquished of the meaning of defeat. + +In considering the oratory inspired by the passions which found +their climax in the destructiveness of civil war,--and especially in +considering such magnificent outbursts as Mr. Beecher's oration at +Fort Sumter, intelligence will seek to free itself alike from +sympathy and from prejudice that it may the better judge the effect +of the general mind of the people on the orator, and the extent to +which that general mind as he voiced it, was influenced by the +strength of his individuality. If when we ourselves are moved by no +passion we judge with critical calmness the impassioned utterances +of the orators of any great epoch of disturbance, we can hardly fail +to be repelled by much that the critical faculties will reject as +exaggeration. But taking into account the environment, the +traditions, the public opinion, the various general or individual +impulses which influenced the oratory of one side or the other, we +can the better determine its true relation to the history of the +human intellect and that forward movement of the world which is but +a manifestation of the education of intellect. + +Mr. Beecher had the temperament, the habits, the physique of the +orator. His ancestry, his intellectual training, his surroundings, +fitted him to be a prophet of the crusade against slavery. Of those +names which for a time were bruited everywhere as a result of the +struggles of the three decades from 1850 to 1880, a majority are +already becoming obscure, and in another generation most of the rest +will be "names only" to all who are not students of history as a +specialty. But the mind in Henry Ward Beecher was so representative; +he was so fully mastered by the forces which sent Sherman on his +march to the sea and Grant to his triumph at Appomattox, that he +will always be remembered as one of the greatest orators of the +Civil War period. Perhaps when the events of the war are so far +removed in point of time as to make a critical judgment really +possible, he may even rank as the greatest. + +RAISING THE FLAG OVER FORT SUMTER (Delivered April 14th, 1865, by +request of President Lincoln) + +On this solemn and joyful day we again lift to the breeze our +fathers' flag, now again the banner of the United States, with the +fervent prayer that God will crown it with honor, protect it from +treason, and send it down to our children, with all the blessings of +civilization, liberty, and religion. Terrible in battle, may it be +beneficent in peace. Happily, no bird or beast of prey has been +inscribed upon it. The stars that redeem the night from darkness, +and the beams of red light that beautify the morning, have been +united upon its folds. As long as the sun endures, or the stars, +may it wave over a nation neither enslaved nor enslaving! Once, and +but once, has treason dishonored it. In that insane hour when the +guiltiest and bloodiest rebellion of all time hurled their fires +upon this fort, you, sir [turning to General Anderson], and a small, +heroic band, stood within these now crumbled walls, and did gallant +and just battle for the honor and defense of the nation's banner. +In that cope of fire, that glorious flag still peacefully waved to +the breeze above your head unconscious of harm as the stars and +skies above it. Once it was shot down. A gallant hand, in whose +care this day it has been, plucked it from the ground, and reared it +again--"cast down, but not destroyed." After a vain resistance, +with trembling hand and sad heart, you withdrew it from its height, +closed its wings, and bore it far away, sternly to sleep amid the +tumults of rebellion, and the thunder of battle. The first act of +war had begun. The long night of four years had set in. While the +giddy traitors whirled in a maze of exhilaration, dim horrors were +already advancing, that were ere long to fill the land with blood. +To-day you are returned again. We devoutly join with you in +thanksgiving to Almighty God that he has spared your honored life, +and vouchsafed to you the glory of this day. The heavens over you +are the same, the same shores are here, morning comes, and evening, +as they did. All else, how changed! What grim batteries crowd the +burdened shores! What scenes have filled this air, and disturbed +these waters! These shattered heaps of shapeless stone are all that +is left of Fort Sumter. Desolation broods in yonder city--solemn +retribution hath avenged our dishonored banner! You have come back +with honor, who departed hence four years ago, leaving the air +sultry with fanaticism. The surging crowds that rolled up their +frenzied shouts as the flag came down, are dead, or scattered, or +silent, and their habitations are desolate. Ruin sits in the cradle +of treason. Rebellion has perished. But there flies the same flag +that was insulted. With starry eyes it looks over this bay for the +banner that supplanted it, and sees it not. You that then, for the +day, were humbled, are here again, to triumph once and forever. In +the storm of that assault this glorious ensign was often struck; +but, memorable fact, not one of its stars was torn out by shot or +shell. It was a prophecy. It said: "Not a State shall be struck +from this nation by treason!" The fulfillment is at hand. Lifted +to the air to-day, it proclaims that after four years of war, "Not a +State is blotted out." Hail to the flag of our fathers, and our +flag! Glory to the banner that has gone through four years black +with tempests of war, to pilot the nation back to peace without +dismemberment! And glory be to God, who, above all hosts and +banners, hath ordained victory, and shall ordain peace. Wherefore +have we come hither, pilgrims from distant places? Are we come to +exult that Northern hands are stronger than Southern? No; but to +rejoice that the hands of those who defend a just and beneficent +government are mightier than the hands that assaulted it. Do we +exult over fallen cities? We exult that a nation has not fallen. +We sorrow with the sorrowful. We sympathize with the desolate. We +look upon this shattered fort and yonder dilapidated city with sad +eyes, grieved that men should have committed such treason, and glad +that God hath set such a mark upon treason that all ages shall dread +and abhor it. We exult, not for a passion gratified, but for a +sentiment victorious; not for temper, but for conscience; not, as we +devoutly believe, that our will is done, but that God's will hath +been done. We should be unworthy of that liberty intrusted to our +care, if, on such a day as this, we sullied our hearts by feelings +of aimless vengeance; and equally unworthy if we did not devoutly +thank him who hath said: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the +Lord," that he hath set a mark upon arrogant rebellion, ineffaceable +while time lasts. + +Since this flag went down on that dark day, who shall tell the +mighty woes that have made this land a spectacle to angels and men? +The soil has drunk blood and is glutted. Millions mourn for myriads +slain, or, envying the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns and villages +have been razed. Fruitful fields have been turned back to +wilderness. It came to pass, as the prophet said: "The sun was +turned to darkness and the moon to blood," The course of law was +ended. The sword sat chief magistrate in half the nation; industry +was paralyzed; morals corrupted; the public weal invaded by rapine +and anarchy; whole States ravaged by avenging armies. The world was +amazed. The earth reeled. When the flag sunk here, it was as if +political night had come, and all beasts of prey had come forth to +devour. That long night is ended. And for this returning day we +have come from afar to rejoice and give thanks. No more war. No +more accursed secession. No more slavery, that spawned them both. +Let no man misread the meaning of this unfolding flag! It says: +"Government has returned hither." It proclaims, in the name of +vindicated government, peace and protection to loyalty, humiliation +and pains to traitors. This is the flag of sovereignty. The +nation, not the States, is sovereign. Restored to authority, this +flag commands, not supplicates. There may be pardon, but no +concession. There may be amnesty and oblivion, but no honeyed +compromises. The nation to-day has peace for the peaceful, and war +for the turbulent. The only condition to submission is to submit! +There is the Constitution, there are the laws, there is the +government. They rise up like mountains of strength that shall not +be moved. They are the conditions of peace. One nation, under one +government, without slavery, has been ordained and shall stand. +There can be peace on no other basis. On this basis reconstruction +is easy, and needs neither architect nor engineer. Without this +basis no engineer nor architect shall ever reconstruct these +rebellious States. We do not want your cities or your fields. We +do not envy you your prolific soil, nor heavens full of perpetual +summer. Let agriculture revel here, let manufactures make every +stream twice musical, build fleets in every port, inspire the arts +of peace with genius second only to that of Athens, and we shall be +glad in your gladness, and rich in your wealth. All that we ask is +unswerving loyalty and universal liberty. And that, in the name of +this high sovereignty of the United States of America, we demand and +that, with the blessing of Almighty God, we will have! We raise our +fathers banner that it may bring back better blessings than those of +old; that it may cast out the devil of discord; that it may restore +lawful government, and a prosperity purer and more enduring than +that which it protected before; that it may win parted friends from +their alienation; that it may inspire hope, and inaugurate universal +liberty; that it may say to the sword, "Return to thy sheath"; and +to the plow and sickle, "Go forth"; that it may heal all jealousies, +unite all policies, inspire a new national life, compact our +strength, purify our principles, ennoble our national ambitions, and +make this people great and strong, not for agression and +quarrelsomeness, but for the peace of the world, giving to us the +glorious prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to more +humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to rational, instituted +civil liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood. Reverently, +piously, in hopeful patriotism, we spread this banner on the sky, as +of old the bow was painted on the cloud and, with solemn fervor, +beseech God to look upon it, and make it a memorial of an +everlasting covenant and decree that never again on this fair land +shall a deluge of blood prevail. Why need any eye turn from this +spectacle? Are there not associations which, overleaping the recent +past, carry us back to times when, over North and South, this flag +was honored alike by all? In all our colonial days we were one, in +the long revolutionary struggle, and in the scores of prosperous +years succeeding, we were united. When the passage of the Stamp Act +in 1765 aroused the colonies, it was Gadsden, of South Carolina, +that cried, with prescient enthusiasm, "We stand on the broad common +ground of those natural rights that we all feel and know as men. +There ought to be no New England man, no New Yorker, known on this +continent, but all of us," said he, "Americans." That was the voice +of South Carolina. That shall be the voice of South Carolina. +Faint is the echo; but it is coming. We now hear it sighing sadly +through the pines; but it shall yet break in thunder upon the shore. +No North, no West, no South, but the United States of America. +There is scarcely a man born in the South who has lifted his hand +against this banner but had a father who would have died for it. Is +memory dead? Is there no historic pride? Has a fatal fury struck +blindness or hate into eyes that used to look kindly towards each +other, that read the same Bible, that hung over the historic pages +of our national glory, that studied the same Constitution? Let this +uplifting bring back all of the past that was good, but leave in +darkness all that was bad. It was never before so wholly unspotted; +so clear of all wrong, so purely and simply the sign of justice and +liberty. Did I say that we brought back the same banner that you +bore away, noble and heroic sir? It is not the same. It is more +and better than it was. The land is free from slavery since that +banner fell. + +When God would prepare Moses for emancipation, he overthrew his +first steps and drove him for forty years to brood in the +wilderness. When our flag came down, four years it lay brooding in +darkness. It cried to the Lord, "Wherefore am I deposed?" Then +arose before it a vision of its sin. It had strengthened the +strong, and forgotten the weak. It proclaimed liberty, but trod +upon slaves. In that seclusion it dedicated itself to liberty. +Behold, to-day, it fulfills its vows! When it went down four +million people had no flag. To-day it rises, and four million +people cry out, "Behold our flag!" Hark! they murmur. It is the +Gospel that they recite in sacred words: "It is a Gospel to the +poor, it heals our broken hearts, it preaches deliverance to +captives, it gives sight to the blind, it sets at liberty them that +are bruised." Rise up then, glorious Gospel banner, and roll out +these messages of God. Tell the air that not a spot now sullies thy +whiteness. Thy red is not the blush of shame, but the flush of joy. +Tell the dews that wash thee that thou art as pure as they. Say to +the night that thy stars lead toward the morning; and to the +morning, that a brighter day arises with healing in its wings. And +then, O glowing flag, bid the sun pour light on all thy folds with +double brightness while thou art bearing round and round the world +the solemn joy--a race set free! a nation redeemed! The mighty +hand of government, made strong in war by the favor of the God of +Battles, spreads wide to-day the banner of liberty that went down in +darkness, that arose in light; and there it streams, like the sun +above it, neither parceled out nor monopolized, but flooding the air +with light for all mankind. Ye scattered and broken, ye wounded and +dying, bitten by the fiery serpents of oppression, everywhere, in +all the world, look upon this sign, lifted up, and live! And ye +homeless and houseless slaves, look, and ye are free! At length +you, too, have part and lot in this glorious ensign that broods with +impartial love over small and great, the poor and the strong, the +bond and the free. In this solemn hour, let us pray for the quick +coming of reconciliation and happiness under this common flag. But +we must build again, from the foundations, in all these now free +Southern States. No cheap exhortations "to forgetfulness of the +past, to restore all things as they were," will do. God does not +stretch out his hand, as he has for four dreadful years, that men +may easily forget the might of his terrible acts. Restore things as +they were! What, the alienations and jealousies, the discords and +contentions, and the causes of them? No. In that solemn sacrifice +on which a nation has offered for its sins so many precious victims, +loved and lamented, let our sins and mistakes be consumed utterly +and forever. No, never again shall things be restored as before the +war. It is written in God's decree of events fulfilled, "Old things +are passed away." That new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, +draws near. Things as they were! Who has an omnipotent hand to +restore a million dead, slain in battle or wasted by sickness, or +dying of grief, broken-hearted? Who has omniscience to search for +the scattered ones? Who shall restore the lost to broken families? +Who shall bring back the squandered treasure, the years of industry +wasted, and convince you that four years of guilty rebellion and +cruel war are no more than dirt upon the hand, which a moment's +washing removes and leaves the hand clean as before? Such a war +reaches down to the very vitals of society. Emerging from such a +prolonged rebellion, he is blind who tells you that the State, by a +mere amnesty and benevolence of government, can be put again, by a +mere decree, in its old place. It would not be honest, it would not +be kind or fraternal, for me to pretend that Southern revolution +against the Union has not reacted, and wrought revolution in the +Southern States themselves, and inaugurated a new dispensation. +Society here is like a broken loom, and the piece which Rebellion +put in, and was weaving, has been cut, and every thread broken. You +must put in new warp and new woof, and weaving anew, as the fabric +slowly unwinds we shall see in it no Gorgon figures, no hideous +grotesques of the old barbarism, but the figures of liberty, vines, +and golden grains, framing in the heads of justice, love, and +liberty. The august convention of 1787 formed the Constitution with +this memorable preamble: "We, the people of the United States, in +order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure +domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the +general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves +and our posterity, do ordain this Constitution for the United States +of America." Again, in the awful convention of war, the people of +the United States, for the very ends just recited, have debated, +settled, and ordained certain fundamental truths, which must +henceforth be accepted and obeyed. Nor is any State nor any +individual wise who shall disregard them. They are to civil affairs +what the natural laws are to health--indispensable conditions of +peace and happiness. What are the ordinances given by the people, +speaking out of fire and darkness of war, with authority inspired by +that same God who gave the law from Sinai amid thunders and trumpet +voices? 1. That these United States shall be one and indivisible. +2. That States have not absolute sovereignty, and have no right to +dismember the Republic. 3. That universal liberty is indispensable +to republican government, and that slavery shall be utterly and +forever abolished. + +Such are the results of war! These are the best fruits of the war. +They are worth all they have cost. They are foundations of peace. +They will secure benefits to all nations as well as to ours. Our +highest wisdom and duty is to accept the facts as the decrees of +God. We are exhorted to forget all that has happened. Yes, the +wrath, the conflict, the cruelty, but not those overruling decrees +of God which this war has pronounced. As solemnly as on Mount +Sinai, God says, "Remember! remember!" Hear it to-day. Under this +sun, tinder that bright child of the sun, our banner, with the eyes +of this nation and of the world upon us, we repeat the syllables of +God's providence and recite the solemn decrees: No more Disunion! +No more Secession! No more Slavery! Why did this civil war begin? +We do not wonder that European statesmen failed to comprehend this +conflict, and that foreign philanthropists were shocked at a +murderous war that seemed to have no moral origin, but, like the +brutal fights of beasts of prey, to have sprung from ferocious +animalism. This great nation, filling all profitable latitudes, +cradled between two oceans, with inexhaustible resources, with +riches increasing in an unparalleled ratio, by agriculture, by +manufactures, by commerce, with schools and churches, with books and +newspapers thick as leaves in our own forests, with institutions +sprung from the people, and peculiarly adapted to their genius; a +nation not sluggish, but active, used to excitement, practiced in +political wisdom, and accustomed to self-government, and all its +vast outlying parts held together by the Federal government, mild in +temper, gentle in administration, and beneficent in results, seemed +to have been formed for peace. All at once, in this hemisphere of +happiness and hope, there came trooping clouds with fiery bolts, +full of death and desolation. At a cannon shot upon this fort, all +the nation, as if it had been a trained army lying on its arms, +awaiting a signal, rose up and began a war which, for awfulness, +rises into the front rank of bad eminence. The front of the battle, +going with the sun, was twelve hundred miles long; and the depth, +measured along a meridian, was a thousand miles. In this vast area +more than two million men, first and last, for four years, have, in +skirmish, fight, and battle, met in more than a thousand conflicts; +while a coast and river line, not less than four thousand miles in +length, has swarmed with fleets freighted with artillery. The very +industry of the country seemed to have been touched by some infernal +wand, and, with sudden wheel, changed its front from peace to war. +The anvils of the land beat like drums. As out of the ooze emerge +monsters, so from our mines and foundries uprose new and strange +machines of war, ironclad. And so, in a nation of peaceful habits, +without external provocation, there arose such a storm of war as +blackened the whole horizon and hemisphere. What wonder that +foreign observers stood amazed at this fanatical fury, that seemed +without Divine guidance, but inspired wholly with infernal frenzy. +The explosion was sudden, but the train had long been laid. We must +consider the condition of Southern society, if we would understand +the mystery of this iniquity. Society in the South resolves itself +into three divisions, more sharply distinguished than in any other +part of the nation. At the base is the laboring class, made up of +slaves. Next is the middle class, made up of traders, small +farmers, and poor men. The lower edge of this class touches the +slave, and the upper edge reaches up to the third and ruling class. +This class was a small minority in numbers, but in practical ability +they had centred in their hands the whole government of the South, +and had mainly governed the country. Upon this polished, cultured, +exceedingly capable, and wholly unprincipled class, rests the whole +burden of this war. Forced up by the bottom heat of slavery, the +ruling class in all the disloyal States arrogated to themselves a +superiority not compatible with republican equality, nor with just +morals. They claimed a right of pre-eminence. An evil prophet +arose who trained these wild and luxuriant shoots of ambition to the +shapely form of a political philosophy. By its reagents they +precipitated drudgery to the bottom of society, and left at the top +what they thought to be a clarified fluid. In their political +economy, labor was to be owned by capital; in their theory of +government, the few were to rule the many. They boldly avowed, not +the fact alone, that, under all forms of government, the few rule +the many, but their right and duty to do so. Set free from the +necessity of labor, they conceived a contempt for those who felt its +wholesome regimen. Believing themselves foreordained to supremacy, +they regarded the popular vote, when it failed to register their +wishes, as an intrusion and a nuisance. They were born in a garden, +and popular liberty, like freshets overswelling their banks, but +covered their dainty walks and flowers with slime and mud--of +democratic votes. When, with shrewd observation, they saw the +growth of the popular element in the Northern States, they +instinctively took in the inevitable events. It must be controlled +or cut off from a nation governed by gentlemen! Controlled, less +and less, could it be in every decade; and they prepared secretly, +earnestly, and with wide conference and mutual connivance, to +separate the South from the North. We are to distinguish between +the pretenses and means, and the real causes of this war. To +inflame and unite the great middle class of the South, who had no +interest in separation and no business with war, they alleged +grievances that never existed, and employed arguments which they, +better than all other men, knew to be specious and false. + +Slavery itself was cared for only as an instrument of power or of +excitement. They had unalterably fixed their eye upon empire, and +all was good which would secure that, and bad which hindered it. +Thus, the ruling class of the South--an aristocracy as intense, +proud, and inflexible as ever existed--not limited either by +customs or institutions, not recognised and adjusted in the regular +order of society, playing a reciprocal part in its machinery, but +secret, disowning its own existence, baptized with ostentatious +names of democracy, obsequious to the people for the sake of +governing them; this nameless, lurking aristocracy, that ran in the +blood of society like a rash not yet come to the skin; this +political tapeworm, that produced nothing, but lay coiled in the +body, feeding on its nutriment, and holding the whole structure to +be but a servant set up to nourish it--this aristocracy of the +plantation, with firm and deliberate resolve, brought on the war, +that they might cut the land in two, and, clearing themselves from +an incorrigibly free society, set up a sterner, statelier empire, +where slaves worked that gentlemen might live at ease. Nor can +there be any doubt that though, at first, they meant to erect the +form of republican government, this was but a device, a step +necessary to the securing of that power by which they should be able +to change the whole economy of society. That they never dreamed of +such a war, we may well believe. That they would have accepted it, +though twice as bloody, if only thus they could rule, none can doubt +that knows the temper of these worst men of modern society. But +they miscalculated. They understood the people of the South; but +they were totally incapable of understanding the character of the +great working classes of the loyal States. That industry, which is +the foundation of independence, and so of equity, they stigmatized +as stupid drudgery, or as mean avarice. That general intelligence +and independence of thought which schools for the common people and +newspapers breed, they reviled as the incitement of unsettled zeal, +running easily into fanaticism. They more thoroughly misunderstood +the profound sentiment of loyality, the deep love of country, which +pervaded the common people. If those who knew them best had never +suspected the depth and power of that love of country which threw it +into an agony of grief when the flag was here humbled, how should +they conceive of it who were wholly disjoined from them in sympathy? +The whole land rose up, you remember, when the flag came down, as if +inspired unconsciously by the breath of the Almighty, and the power +of omnipotence. It was as when one pierces the banks of the +Mississippi for a rivulet, and the whole raging stream plunges +through with headlong course. There they calculated, and +miscalculated! And more than all, they miscalculated the bravery of +men who have been trained under law, who are civilized and hate +personal brawls, who are so protected by society as to have +dismissed all thought of self-defense, the whole force of whose life +is turned to peaceful pursuits. These arrogant conspirators against +government, with Chinese vanity, believed that they could blow away +these self-respecting citizens as chaff from the battlefield. Few +of them are left alive to ponder their mistake! Here, then, are the +roots of this civil war. It was not a quarrel of wild beasts, it +was an inflection of the strife of ages, between power and right, +between ambition and equity. An armed band of pestilent +conspirators sought the nation's life. Her children rose up and +fought at every door and room and hall, to thrust out the murderers +and save the house and household. It was not legitimately a war +between the common people of the North and South. The war was set +on by the ruling class, the aristocratic conspirators of the South. +They suborned the common people with lies, with sophistries, with +cruel deceits and slanders, to fight for secret objects which they +abhorred, and against interests as dear to them as their own lives, +I charge the whole guilt of this war upon the ambitious, educated, +plotting, political leaders of the South. They have shed this ocean +of blood. They have desolated the South. They have poured poverty +through all her towns and cities. They have bewildered the +imagination of the people with phantasms, and led them to believe +that they were fighting for their homes and liberty, whose homes +were unthreatened, and whose liberty was in no jeopardy. These +arrogant instigators of civil war have renewed the plagues of Egypt, +not that the oppressed might go free, but that the free might be +oppressed. A day will come when God will reveal judgment, and +arraign at his bar these mighty miscreants; and then, every orphan +that their bloody game has made, and every widow that sits +sorrowing, and every maimed and wounded sufferer, and every bereaved +heart in all the wide regions of this land, will rise up and come +before the Lord to lay upon these chief culprits of modern history +their awful witness. And from a thousand battlefields shall rise up +armies of airy witnesses, who, with the memory of their awful +sufferings, shall confront the miscreants with shrieks of fierce +accusation; and every pale and starved prisoner shall raise his +skinny hand in judgment. Blood shall call out for vengeance, and +tears shall plead for justice, and grief shall silently beckon, and +love, heart-smitten, shall wail for justice. Good men and angels +will cry out: "How long, O Lord, how long, wilt thou not avenge?" +And, then, these guiltiest and most remorseless traitors, these high +and cultured men,--with might and wisdom, used for the destruction +of their country,--the most accursed and detested of all criminals, +that have drenched a continent in needless blood, and moved the +foundations of their times with hideous crimes and cruelty, caught +up in black clouds, full of voices of vengeance and lurid with +punishment, shall be whirled aloft and plunged downwards forever and +forever in an endless retribution; while God shall say, "Thus shall +it be to all who betray their country"; and all in heaven and upon +the earth will say "Amen!" + +But for the people misled, for the multitudes drafted and driven +into this civil war, let not a trace of animosity remain. The +moment their willing hand drops the musket, and they return to their +allegiance, then stretch out your own honest right hand to greet +them. Recall to them the old days of kindness. Our hearts wait for +their redemption. All the resources of a renovated nation shall be +applied to rebuild their prosperity, and smooth down the furrows of +war. Has this long and weary period of strife been an unmingled +evil? Has nothing been gained? Yes, much. This nation has +attained to its manhood. Among Indian customs is one which admits +young men to the rank of warriors only after severe trials of +hunger, fatigue, pain, endurance. They reach their station, not +through years, but ordeals. Our nation has suffered, but now is +strong. The sentiment of loyalty and patriotism, next in importance +to religion, has been rooted and grounded. We have something to be +proud of, and pride helps love. Never so much as now did we love +our country. But four such years of education in ideas, in the +knowledge of political truth, in the love of history, in the +geography of our own country, almost every inch of which we have +probed with the bayonet, have never passed before. There is half a +hundred years' advance in four. We believed in our institutions and +principles before; but now we know their power. It is one thing to +look upon artillery, and be sure that it is loaded; it is another +thing to prove its power in battle! We believe in the hidden power +stored in our institutions; we had never before seen this nation +thundering like Mount Sinai at all those that worshiped the calf at +the base of the mountain. A people educated and moral are competent +to all the exigencies of national life. A vote can govern better +than a crown. We have proved it. A people intelligent and +religious are strong in all economic elements. They are fitted for +peace and competent to war. They are not easily inflamed, and, when +justly incensed, not easily extinguished. They are patient in +adversity, endure cheerfully needful burdens, tax themselves to meet +real wants more royally than any prince would dare to tax his +people. They pour forth without stint relief for the sufferings of +war, and raise charity out of the realm of a dole into a munificent +duty of beneficence. The habit of industry among free men prepares +them to meet the exhaustion of war with increase of productiveness +commensurate with the need that exists. Their habits of skill +enable them at once to supply such armies as only freedom can +muster, with arms and munitions such as only free industry can +create. Free society is terrible in war, and afterwards repairs the +mischief of war with celerity almost as great as that with which the +ocean heals the seams gashed in it by the keel of ploughing ships. +Free society is fruitful of military genius. It comes when called; +when no longer needed, it falls back as waves do to the level of the +common sea, that no wave may be greater than the undivided water. +With proof of strength so great, yet in its infancy, we stand up +among the nations of the world, asking no privileges, asserting no +rights, but quietly assuming our place, and determined to be second +to none in the race of civilization and religion. Of all nations we +are the most dangerous and the least to be feared. We need not +expound the perils that wait upon enemies that assault us. They are +sufficiently understood! But we are not a dangerous people because +we are warlike. All the arrogant attitudes of this nation, so +offensive to foreign governments, were inspired by slavery, and +under the administration of its minions. Our tastes, our habits, +our interests, and our principles, incline us to the arts of peace. +This nation was founded by the common people for the common people. +We are seeking to embody in public economy more liberty, with higher +justice and virtue, than have been organized before. By the +necessity of our doctrines, we are put in sympathy with the masses +of men in all nations. It is not our business to subdue nations, +but to augment the powers of the common people. The vulgar ambition +of mere domination, as it belongs to universal human nature, may +tempt us; but it is withstood by the whole force of our principles, +our habits, our precedents, and our legends. We acknowledge the +obligation which our better political principles lay upon us, to set +an example more temperate, humane, and just, than monarchical +governments can. We will not suffer wrong, and still less will we +inflict it upon other nations. Nor are we concerned that so many, +ignorant of our conflict, for the present, misconceive the reasons +of our invincible military zeal. "Why contend," say they, "for a +little territory that you do not need?" Because it is ours! +Because it is the interest of every citizen to save it from becoming +a fortress and refuge of iniquity. This nation is our house, and +our fathers' house; and accursed be the man who will not defend it +to the uttermost. More territory than we need! England, that is +not large enough to be our pocket, may think that it is more than we +need, because it is more than it needs; but we are better judges of +what we need than others are. + +Shall a philanthropist say to a banker, who defends himself against +a robber, "Why do you need so much money?" But we will not reason +with such questions. When any foreign nation willingly will divide +its territory and give it cheerfully away, we will answer the +question why we are fighting for territory! At present--for I pass +to the consideration of benefits that accrue to the South in +distinction from the rest of the nation--the South reaps only +suffering; but good seed lies buried under the furrows of war, that +peace will bring to harvest, 1. Deadly doctrines have been purged +away in blood. The subtle poison of secession was a perpetual +threat of revolution. The sword has ended that danger. That which +reason had affirmed as a philosophy, that people have settled as a +fact. Theory pronounces, "There can be no permanent government +where each integral particle has liberty to fly off." Who would +venture upon a voyage in a ship each plank and timber of which might +withdraw at its pleasure? But the people have reasoned by the logic +of the sword and of the ballot, and they have declared that States +are inseparable parts of the national government. They are not +sovereign. State rights remain; but sovereignty is a right higher +than all others; and that has been made into a common stock for the +benefit of all. All further agitation is ended. This element must +be cast out of political problems. Henceforth that poison will not +rankle in the blood. 2. Another thing has been learned: the rights +and duties of minorities. The people of the whole nation are of +more authority than the people of any section. These United States +are supreme over Northern, Western, and Southern States. It ought +not to have required the awful chastisement of this war to teach +that a minority must submit the control of the nation's government +to a majority. The army and navy have been good political +schoolmasters. The lesson is learned. Not for many generations +will it require further illustration. 3. No other lesson will be +more fruitful of peace than the dispersion of those conceits of +vanity, which, on either side, have clouded the recognition of the +manly courage of all Americans. If it be a sign of manhood to be +able to fight, then Americans are men. The North certainly is in no +doubt whatever of the soldierly qualities of Southern men. Southern +soldiers have learned that all latitudes breed courage on this +continent. Courage is a passport to respect. The people of all the +regions of this nation are likely hereafter to cherish a generous +admiration of each other's prowess. The war has bred respect, and +respect will breed affection, and affection peace and unity. 4. No +other event of the war can fill an intelligent Southern man, of +candid nature, with more surprise than the revelation of the +capacity, moral and military, of the black race. It is a revelation +indeed. No people were ever less understood by those most familiar +with them. They were said to be lazy, lying, impudent, and cowardly +wretches, driven by the whip alone to the tasks needful to their own +support and the functions of civilization. They were said to be +dangerous, bloodthirsty, liable to insurrection; but four years of +tumultuous distress and war have rolled across the area inhabited by +them, and I have yet to hear of one authentic instance of the +misconduct of a colored man. They have been patient and gentle and +docile, and full of faith and hope and piety; and, when summoned to +freedom, they have emerged with all the signs and tokens that +freedom will be to them what it was to us, the swaddling-band that +shall bring them to manhood. And after the government, honoring +them as men summoned them to the field, when once they were +disciplined, and had learned the arts of war, they have proved +themselves to be not second to their white brethren in arms. And +when the roll of men that have shed their blood is called in the +other land, many and many a dusky face will rise, dark no more when +the light of eternal glory shall shine upon it from the throne of +God! 5. The industry of the Southern States is regenerated, and now +rests upon a basis that never fails to bring prosperity. Just now +industry is collapsed; but it is not dead; it sleepeth. It is vital +yet. It will spring like mown grass from the roots that need but +showers and heat and time to bring them forth. Though in many +districts not a generation will see wanton wastes of self-invoked +war repaired, and many portions may lapse again to wilderness, yet, +in our lifetime, we shall see States, as a whole, raised to a +prosperity, vital, wholesome, and immovable, 6. The destruction of +class interests, working with a religion which tends toward true +democracy, in proportion as it is pure and free, will create a new +era of prosperity for the common laboring people of the South, Upon +them have come the labor, the toil, and the loss of this war. They +have fought blindfolded. They have fought for a class that sought +their degradation, while they were made to believe that it was for +their own homes and altars. Their leaders meant a supremacy which +would not long have left them political liberty, save in name. But +their leaders are swept away. The sword has been hungry for the +ruling classes. It has sought them out with remorseless zeal. New +men are to rise up; new ideas are to bud and blossom; and there will +be men with different ambition and altered policy. 7, Meanwhile, +the South, no longer a land of plantations, but of farms; no longer +tilled by slaves, but by freedmen, will find no hindrance to the +spread of education. Schools will multiply. Books and papers will +spread. Churches will bless every hamlet. There is a good day +coming for the South. Through darkness and tears and blood she has +sought it. It has been an unconscious _via_ _dolorosa_. But in the +end it will be worth all that it has cost. Her institutions before +were deadly. She nourished death in her bosom. The greater her +secular prosperity, the more sure was her ruin. Every year of delay +but made the change more terrible. Now, by an earthquake, the evil +is shaken down. And her own historians, in a better day, shall +write, that from the day the sword cut off the cancer, she began to +find her health. What, then, shall hinder the rebuilding of the +Republic? The evil spirit is cast out: why should not this nation +cease to wander among tombs, cutting itself? Why should it not +come, clothed and in its right mind, to "sit at the feet of Jesus"? +Is it feared that the government will oppress the conquered States? +What possible motive has the government to narrow the base of that +pyramid on which its own permanence depends? Is it feared that the +rights of the States will be withheld? The South is not more +jealous of State rights than the North. State rights from the +earliest colonial days have been the peculiar pride and jealousy of +New England. In every stage of national formation, it was +peculiarly Northern, and not Southern, statesmen that guarded State +rights as we were forming the Constitution. But once united, the +loyal States gave up forever that which had been delegated to the +national government. And now, in the hour of victory, the loyal +States do not mean to trench upon Southern State rights. They will +not do it, nor suffer it to be done. There is not to be one rule +for high latitudes and another for low. We take nothing from the +Southern States that has not already been taken from the Northern. +The South shall have just those rights that every eastern, every +middle, every western State has--no more, no less. We are not +seeking our own aggrandizement by impoverishing the South. Its +prosperity is an indispensable element of our own. + +We have shown, by all that we have suffered in war, how great is our +estimate of the Southern States of this Union; and we will measure +that estimate, now, in peace, by still greater exertions for their +rebuilding. Will reflecting men not perceive, then, the wisdom of +accepting established facts, and, with alacrity of enterprise, begin +to retrieve the past? Slavery cannot come back. It is the interest, +therefore, of every man to hasten its end. Do you want more war? Are +you not yet weary of contest? Will you gather up the unexploded +fragments of this prodigious magazine of all mischief, and heap them +up for continued explosions? Does not the South need peace? And, +since free labor is inevitable, will you have it in its worst forms +or in its best? Shall it be ignorant, impertinent, indolent, or +shall it be educated, self-respecting, moral, and self-supporting? +Will you have men as drudges, or will you have them as citizens? +Since they have vindicated the government, and cemented its +foundation stones with their blood, may they not offer the tribute +of their support to maintain its laws and its policy? It is better +for religion; it is better for political integrity; it is better for +industry; it is better for money--if you will have that ground +motive--that you should educate the black man, and, by education, +make him a citizen. They who refuse education to the black man would +turn the South into a vast poorhouse, and labor into a pendulum, +incessantly vibrating between poverty and indolence. From this +pulpit of broken stone we speak forth our earnest greeting to all +our land. We offer to the President of these United States our +solemn congratulations that God has sustained his life and health +under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings of four bloody years, +and permitted him to behold this auspicious consummation of that +national unity for which he has waited with so much patience and +fortitude, and for which he has labored with such disinterested +wisdom. To the members of the government associated with him in the +administration of perilous affairs in critical times; to the +senators and representatives of the United States, who have eagerly +fashioned the instruments by which the popular will might express +and enforce itself, we tender our grateful thanks. To the officers +and men of the army and navy, who have so faithfully, skillfully, +and gloriously upheld their country's authority, by suffering, +labor, and sublime courage, we offer a heart-tribute beyond the +compass of words. Upon those true and faithful citizens, men and +women, who have borne up with unflinching hope in the darkest hour, +and covered the land with their labor of love and charity, we invoke +the divinest blessing of him whom they have so truly imitated. But +chiefly to thee, God of our fathers, we render thanksgiving and +praise for that wondrous Providence that has brought forth from such +a harvest of war the seed of so much liberty and peace! We invoke +peace upon the North. Peace be to the West! Peace be upon the South! +In the name of God we lift up our banner, and dedicate it to peace, +union, and liberty, now and for evermore! Amen. + + +EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF LINCOLN (Delivered in Brooklyn, April +16th. 1865) + +Again a great leader of the people has passed through toil, sorrow, +battle, and war, and come near to the promised land of peace, into +which he might not pass over. Who shall recount our martyr's +sufferings for this people? Since the November of 1860, his horizon +has been black with storms. By day and by night, he trod a way of +danger and darkness. On his shoulders rested a government dearer to +him than his own life. At its integrity millions of men were striking +at home. Upon this government foreign eyes lowered. It stood like a +lone island in a sea full of storms, and every tide and wave seemed +eager to devour it. Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows and +anxieties have rested, but not on one such, and in such measure, as +upon that simple, truthful, noble soul, our faithful and sainted +Lincoln. Never rising to the enthusiasm of more impassioned natures +in hours of hope, and never sinking with the mercurial in hours of +defeat to the depths of despondency, he held on with unmovable +patience and fortitude, putting caution against hope, that it might +not be premature, and hope against caution, that it might not yield +to dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly, through four black and +dreadful purgatorial years, wherein God was cleansing the sin of his +people as by fire. + +At last, the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the country. The +mountains began to give forth their forms from out the darkness, and +the East came rushing toward us with arms full of joy for all our +sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad exceedingly that had +sorrowed immeasurably. Peace could bring to no other heart such joy, +such rest, such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he looked +upon it as Moses looked upon the promised land. Then the wail of a +nation proclaimed that he had gone from among us. Not thine the +sorrow, but ours, sainted soul. Thou hast, indeed, entered the +promised land, while we are yet on the march. To us remains the +rocking of the deep, the storm upon the land, days of duty and +nights of watching; but thou art sphered high above all darkness and +fear, beyond all sorrow and weariness. Rest, O weary heart! Rejoice +exceedingly, thou that hast enough suffered! Thou hast beheld him +who invisibly led thee in this great wilderness. Thou standest +among the elect. Around thee are the royal men that have ennobled +human life in every age. Kingly art thou, with glory on thy brow as +a diadem. And joy is upon thee for evermore. Over all this land, +over all the little cloud of years that now from thine infinite +horizon moves back as a speck, thou art lifted up as high as the +star is above the clouds that bide us, but never reach it. In the +goodly company of Mount Zion thou shalt find that rest which thou +hast sorrowing sought in vain; and thy name, an everlasting name in +heaven, shall flourish in fragrance and beauty as long as men shall +last upon the earth, or hearts remain, to revere truth, fidelity, +and goodness. + +Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemisphere, as the +joy and the sorrow of the same week in this land. The joy was as +sudden as if no man had expected it, and as entrancing as if it had +fallen a sphere from heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and swept +business from its moorings, and ran down through the land in +irresistible course. Men embraced each other in brotherhood that +were strangers in the flesh. They sang, or prayed, or, deeper yet, +many could only think thanksgiving and weep gladness. That peace was +sure; that government was firmer than ever; that the land was +cleansed of plague; that the ages were opening to our footsteps, and +we were to begin a march of blessings; that blood was staunched, and +scowling enmities were sinking like storms beneath the horizon; that +the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was to rise up in +unexampled honor among the nations of the earth--these thoughts, +and that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and hopes, and +desires, and yearnings, that filled the soul with tremblings like +the heated air of midsummer days--all these kindled up such a +surge of joy as no words may describe. + +In one hour joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam or breath. A +sorrow came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep through +the forest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling the +flowers, daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and pouring +blackness and darkness across the land and up the mountains. Did +ever so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless +feelings? It was the uttermost of joy; it was the uttermost of +sorrow--noon and midnight, without a space between. + +The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so terrible that at first +it stunned sensibility. Citizens were like men awakened +at midnight by an earthquake and bewildered to find everything that +they were accustomed to trust wavering and falling. The very earth +was no longer solid. The first feeling was the least. Men waited to +get straight to feel. They wandered in the streets as if groping +after some impending dread, or undeveloped sorrow, or some one to +tell them what ailed them. They met each other as if each would ask +the other, "Am I awake, or do I dream?" There was a piteous +helplessness. Strong men bowed down and wept. Other and common +griefs belonged to some one in chief; this belonged to all. It was +each and every man's. Every virtuous household in the land felt as +if its firstborn were gone. Men were bereaved and walked for days as +if a corpse lay unburied in their dwellings. There was nothing else +to think of. They could speak of nothing but that; and yet of that +they could speak only falteringly. All business was laid +aside. Pleasure forgot to smile. The city for nearly a week ceased +to roar. The great Leviathan lay down, and was still. Even avarice +stood still, and greed was strangely moved to generous sympathy and +universal sorrow. Rear to his name monuments, found charitable +institutions, and write his name above their lintels; but no +monument will ever equal the universal, spontaneous, and sublime +sorrow that in a moment swept down lines and parties, and covered up +animosities, and in an hour brought a divided people into unity of +grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish. ... + +This nation has dissolved--but in tears only. It stands +foursquare, more solid to-day than any pyramid in Egypt. This people +are neither wasted, nor daunted, nor disordered. Men hate slavery +and love liberty with stronger hate and love to-day than ever +before. The government is not weakened, it is made stronger. How +naturally and easily were the ranks closed! Another steps forward, +in the hour that the one fell, to take his place and his mantle; and +I avow my belief that he will be found a man true to every instinct +of liberty; true to the whole trust that is reposed in him; vigilant +of the Constitution; careful of the laws; wise for liberty, in that +he himself, through his life, has known what it was to suffer from +the stings of slavery, and to prize liberty from bitter personal +experiences. + +Where could the head of government in any monarchy be smitten down +by the hand of an assassin, and the funds not quiver or fall +one-half of one per cent? After a long period of national +disturbance, after four years of drastic war, after tremendous +drafts on the resources of the country, in the height and top of our +burdens, the heart of this people is such that now, when the head of +government is stricken down, the public funds do not waver, but +stand as the granite ribs in our mountains. + +Republican institutions have been vindicated in this experience as +they never were before; and the whole history of the last four +years, rounded up by this cruel stroke, seems, in the providence of +God, to have been clothed, now, with an illustration, with a +sympathy, with an aptness, and with a significance, such as we never +could have expected nor imagined. God, I think, has said, by the +voice of this event, to all nations of the earth, "Republican +liberty, based upon true Christianity, is firm as the foundation of +the globe." + +Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with new +influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly hear what before +they refused to listen to. Now his simple and weighty words will be +gathered like those of Washington, and your children and your +children's children shall be taught to ponder the simplicity and +deep wisdom of utterances which, in their time, passed, in party +heat, as idle words. Men will receive a new impulse of patriotism +for his sake and will guard with zeal the whole country which he +loved so well. I swear you, on the altar of his memory, to be more +faithful to the country for which he has perished. They will, as +they follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that slavery against +which he warred, and which, in vanquishing him, has made him a +martyr and a conqueror. I swear you, by the memory of this martyr, +to hate slavery with an unappeasable hatred. They will admire and +imitate the firmness of this man, his inflexible conscience for the +right, and yet his gentleness, as tender as a woman's, his +moderation of spirit, which not all the heat of party could inflame, +nor all the jars and disturbances of his country shake out of +place. I swear you to an emulation of his justice, his moderation, +and his mercy. + +You I can comfort; but how can I speak to that twilight million to +whom his name was as the name of an angel of God? There will be +wailing in places which no minister shall be able to reach. When, +in hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the field +throughout the South, the dusky children, who looked upon him as +that Moses whom God sent before them to lead them out of the land of +bondage, learn that he has fallen, who shall comfort them? O, thou +Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort thy people of old, to thy +care we commit the helpless, the long-wronged, and grieved. + +And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when +alive. The nation rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and +States are his pallbearers, and the cannon beats the hours with +solemn progression. Dead, dead, dead, he yet speaketh. Is Washington +dead? Is Hampden dead? Is David dead? Is any man that ever was fit +to live dead? Disenthralled of flesh, and risen in the unobstructed +sphere where passion never comes, he begins his illimitable +work. His life now is grafted upon the infinite, and will be +fruitful as no earthly life can be. Pass on, thou that hast +overcome. Your sorrows, O people, are his peace. Your bells and +bands and muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. Wail and weep +here; God made it echo joy and triumph there. Pass on. + +Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried man +and from among the people. We return him to you a mighty +conqueror. Not thine any more, but the nation's; not ours, but the +world's. Give him place, O ye prairies. In the midst of this great +continent his dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who +shall pilgrim to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and +patriotism. Ye winds that move over the mighty places of the West, +chant his requiem. Ye people, behold a martyr whose blood, as so +many articulate words, pleads for fidelity, for law, for liberty. + + + +LORD BELHAVEN (1656-1708) + +Scotland ceased to exist as a nation by the act of union, May 1st, +1707. As occasions have been so rare in the world's history when a +nation has voluntarily abdicated its sovereignty and ceased to exist +by its own free act, it would be too much to say that Lord +Belhaven's speech against surrendering Scotch nationality was worthy +of so remarkable a scene as that presented in he Scotch Parliament +when, soon after its opening, November 1st, 1706, he rose to make the +protest which immortalized him. + +Smollet belongs more properly to another generation, but the feeling +against the union was rather exaggerated than diminished between the +date of its adoption and that of his poem, 'The Tears of Scotland,' +into the concluding stanza of which he has condensed the passion +which prompted Belhaven's protest:-- + + "While the warm blood bedews my veins + And unimpaired remembrance reigns, + Resentment of my country's fate + Within my filial heart shall beat, + And spite of her insulting foe, + My sympathizing verse shall flow;-- + 'Mourn, helpless Caledonia, mourn, + Thy banished peace, thy laurels torn!'" + +If there is nothing in Belhaven's oration which equals this in +intensity, there is power and pathos, as well as Ciceronian syntax, +in the period: "Hannibal, my lord, is at our gates; Hannibal is come +within our gates; Hannibal is come the length of this table; he is +at the foot of this throne; if we take not notice he'll seize upon +these regalia, he'll take them as our _spolia_ _opima_, and whip us +out of this house, never to return." + +It is unfortunate for Belhaven's fame as an orator that his most +effective passages are based on classical allusions intelligible at +once to his audience then, but likely to appear pedantic in times +when Latin has ceased to be the "vulgar tongue" of the educated, as +it still was in the Scotland of Queen Anne's time. + +The text of his speech here used is from 'The Parliamentary +Debates,' London 1741. + + +A PLEA FOR THE NATIONAL LIFE OF SCOTLAND (Delivered 1706 in the +Scotch Parliament) + +My Lord Chancellor:-- + +When I consider the affair of a union betwixt the two nations, as it +is expressed in the several articles thereof, and now the subject of +our deliberation at this time I find my mind crowded with a variety +of melancholy thoughts, and I think it my duty to disburden myself +of some of them, by laying them before, and exposing them to, the +serious consideration of this honorable house. + +I think I see a free and independent kingdom delivering up that +which all the world hath been fighting for since the days of Nimrod; +yea, that for which most of all the empires, kingdoms, states, +principalities, and dukedoms of Europe, are at this very time +engaged in the most bloody and cruel wars that ever were, to-wit, a +power to manage their own affairs by themselves, without the +assistance and counsel of any other. + +I think I see a national church, founded upon a rock, secured by a +claim of right, hedged and fenced about by the strictest and most +pointed legal sanction that sovereignty could contrive, voluntarily +descending into a plain, upon an equal level with Jews, Papists, +Socinians, Arminians, Anabaptists, and other sectaries, etc. I think +I see the noble and honorable peerage of Scotland, whose valiant +predecessors led armies against their enemies, upon their own proper +charges and expenses, now divested of their followers and +vassalages, and put upon such an equal foot with their vassals, that +I think I see a petty English exciseman receive more homage and +respect than what was paid formerly to their quondam Mackallamores. + +I think I see the present peers of Scotland, whose noble ancestors +conquered provinces, over-run countries, reduced and subjected towns +and fortified places, exacted tribute through the greatest part of +England, now walking in the court of requests like so many English +attorneys, laying aside their walking swords when in company with +the English peers, lest their self-defense should be found murder. + +I think I see the honorable estate of barons, the bold assertors of +the nation's rights and liberties in the worst of times, now +setting a watch upon their lips and a guard upon their tongues, +lest they be found guilty of _scandalum_ _magnatum_. + +I think I see the royal state of boroughs walking their desolate +streets, hanging down their heads under disappointments, wormed out +of all the branches of their old trade, uncertain what hand to turn +to, necessitate to become 'prentices to their unkind neighbors; and +yet, after all, finding their trade so fortified by companies, and +secured by prescriptions, that they despair of any success therein. + +I think I see our learned judges laying aside their practiques and +decisions, studying the common law of England, graveled with +_certioraries_, _nisi_ _prius's_, writs of error, _verdicts_ _indovar_, +_ejectione_ _firmae_, injunctions, demurs, etc., and frighted with +appeals and avocations, because of the new regulations and +rectifications they may meet with. + +I think I see the valiant and gallant soldiery either sent to learn +the plantation-trade abroad; or at home petitioning for a small +subsistence, as the reward of their honorable exploits; while their +old corps are broken, the common soldiers left to beg, and the +youngest English corps kept standing. + +I think I see the honest, industrious tradesman loaded with new +taxes and impositions, disappointed of the equivalents, drinking +water in place of ale, eating his saltless pottage, petitioning for +encouragement to his manufactories, and answered by counter-petitions. + +In short, I think I see the laborious plowman, with his corn +spoiling upon his hands, for want of sale, cursing the day of his +birth, dreading the expense of his burial, and uncertain whether to +marry or do worse. + +I think I see the incurable difficulties of the landed men, fettered +under the golden chain of equivalents, their pretty daughters +petitioning for want of husbands, and their sons for want of +employment. + +I think I see our mariners delivering up their ships to their Dutch +partners, and what through presses and necessity, earning their +bread as underlings in the royal English navy. + +But above all, my lord, I think I see our ancient mother Caledonia, +like Caesar, sitting in the midst of our senate, ruefully looking +round about her, covering herself with her royal garment, attending +the fatal blow, and breathing out her last with an _Et_ _tu_ +_quoque_, _mi_ _fili_. + +Are not these, my lord, very afflicting thoughts? And yet they are +but the least part suggested to me by these dishonorable +articles. Should not the consideration of these things vivify these +dry bones of ours? Should not the memory of our noble predecessors' +valor and constancy rouse up our drooping spirits? Are our noble +predecessors' souls got so far into the English cabbage stock and +cauliflowers that we should show the least inclination that way? Are +our eyes so blinded? Are our ears so deafened? Are our hearts so +hardened? Are our tongues so faltered? Are our hands so fettered +that in this our day, I say, my lord, that in this our day, we +should not mind the things that concern the very being and +well-being of our ancient kingdom, before the day be hid from our +eyes? + +No, my lord, God forbid! man's extremity is God's opportunity; he is +a present help in time of need, and a deliverer, and that right +early. Some unforeseen Providence will fall out, that may cast the +balance; some Joseph or other will say, "Why do ye strive together, +since ye are brethren?" None can destroy Scotland, save Scotland +itself; hold your hands from the pen, you are secure. Some Judah or +other will say, "Let not our hands be upon the lad, he is our +brother." There will be a Jehovah-Jireh, and some ram will he caught +in the thicket, when the bloody knife is at our mother's throat. Let +us up then, my lord, and let our noble patriots behave themselves +like men, and we know not bow soon a blessing may come. + +My lord, I wish from my heart, that this my vision prove not as true +as my reasons for it are probable. I design not at this time to +enter into the merits of any one particular article; I intend this +discourse as an introduction to what I may afterwards say upon the +whole debate as it falls in before this honorable house; and +therefore, in the farther prosecution of what I have to say, I shall +insist upon few particulars, very necessary to be understood, before +we enter into the detail of so important a matter. + +I shall, therefore, in the first place, endeavor to encourage a free +and full deliberation, without animosities and heats. In the next +place I shall endeavor to make an inquiry into the nature and source +of the unnatural and dangerous divisions that are now on foot within +this isle, with some motives showing that it is our interest to lay +them aside at this time. Then I shall inquire into the reasons +which have induced the two nations to enter into a treaty of union +at this time, with some considerations and meditations with relation +to the behavior of the lord's commissioners of the two kingdoms in +the management of this great concern. And lastly, I shall propose a +method, by which we shall most distinctly, and without confusion, go +through the several articles of this treaty, without unnecessary +repetitions or loss of time. And all this with all deference, and +under the correction of this honorable house. + +My lord chancellor, the greatest honor that was done unto a Roman +was to allow him the glory of a triumph; the greatest and most +dishonorable punishment was that of _parricide_. He that was guilty of +_parricide_ was beaten with rods upon his naked body till the blood +gushed out of all the veins of his body; then he was sewed up in a +leathern sack, called a _culeus_ with a cock, a viper, and an ape, +and thrown headlong into the sea. + +My lord, _patricide_ is a greater crime than _parricide_, all the world +over. + +In a triumph, my lord, when the conqueror was riding in his +triumphal chariot, crowned with laurels, adorned with trophies, and +applauded with huzzas, there was a monitor appointed to stand behind +him, to warn him not to be high-minded, not puffed up with +overweening thoughts of himself; and to his chariot were tied a whip +and a bell, to mind him that for all his glory and grandeur he was +accountable to the people for his administration, and would be +punished as other men, if found guilty. + +The greatest honor amongst us, my lord, is to represent the +sovereign's sacred person in Parliament; and in one particular it +appears to be greater than that of a triumph, because the whole +legislative power seems to be wholly intrusted with him. If he give +the royal assent to an act of the estates, it becomes a law +obligatory upon the subject, though contrary or without any +instructions from the sovereign. If he refuse the royal assent to a +vote in Parliament, it cannot be a law, though he has the +Sovereign's particular and positive instructions for it. + +His Grace, the Duke of Queensbury, who now presents her Majesty in +this session of Parliament, hath had the honor of that great trust, +as often, if not more, than any Scotchman ever had. He hath been +the favorite of two successive sovereigns; and I cannot but commend +his constancy and perseverance, that notwithstanding his former +difficulties and unsuccessful attempts, and maugre some other +specialties not yet determined, that his Grace has yet had the +resolution to undertake the most unpopular measures last. If his +Grace succeed in this affair of a union, and that it prove for the +happiness and welfare of the nation, then he justly merits to have a +statue of gold erected for himself; but if it shall tend to the +entire destruction and abolition of our nation, and that we the +nation's trustees will go into it, then I must say that a whip and a +bell, a cock and a viper and an ape, are but too small punishments +for any such bold, unnatural undertaking and complaisance. + +That I may pave a way, my lord, to a full, calm, and free reasoning +upon this affair, which is of the last consequence unto this nation, +I shall mind this honorable house, that we are the successors of our +noble predecessors, who founded our monarchy, framed our laws, +amended, altered, and corrected them from time to time, as the +affairs and circumstances of the nation did require, without the +assistance or advice of any foreign power or potentate, and who, +during the time of 2,000 years, have handed them down to us, a free +independent nation, with the hazard of their lives and fortunes. +Shall not we then argue for that which our progenitors have +purchased for us at so dear a rate, and with so much immortal honor +and glory? God forbid. Shall the hazard of a father unbind the +ligaments of a dumb son's tongue; and shall we hold our peace, when +our _patria_ is in danger? I speak this, my lord, that I may +encourage every individual member of this house to speak his mind +freely. There are many wise and prudent men amongst us, who think +it not worth their while to open their mouths; there are others, who +can speak very well, and to good purpose, who shelter themselves +under the shameful cloak of silence, from a fear of the frowns of +great men and parties. I have observed, my lord, by my experience, +the greatest number of speakers in the most trivial affairs; and it +will always prove so, while we come not to the right understanding +of the oath _de_ _fideli_, whereby we are bound not only to give our +vote, but our faithful advice in Parliament, as we should answer to +God; and in our ancient laws, the representatives of the honorable +barons and the royal boroughs are termed spokesmen. It lies upon +your lordships, therefore, particularly to take notice of such whose +modesty makes them bashful to speak. Therefore, I shall leave it +upon you, and conclude this point with a very memorable saying of an +honest private gentleman to a great queen, upon occasion of a State +project, contrived by an able statesman, and the favorite to a great +king, against a peaceable, obedient people, because of the diversity +of their laws and constitutions: "If at this time thou hold thy +peace, salvation shall come to the people from another place, but +thou and thy house shall perish." I leave the application to each +particular member of this house. + +My lord, I come now to consider our divisions. We are under the +happy reign (blessed be God) of the best of queens, who has no evil +design against the meanest of her subjects, who loves all her +people, and is equally beloved by them again; and yet that under the +happy influence of our most excellent Queen there should be such +divisions and factions more dangerous and threatening to her +dominions than if we were under an arbitrary government, is most +strange and unaccountable. Under an arbitrary prince all are willing +to serve because all are under a necessity to obey, whether they +will or not. He chooses therefore whom he will, without respect to +either parties or factions; and if he think fit to take the advices +of his councils or parliaments, every man speaks his mind freely, +and the prince receives the faithful advice of his people without +the mixture of self-designs. If he prove a good prince, the +government is easy; if bad, either death or a revolution brings a +deliverance. Whereas here, my lord, there appears no end of our +misery, if not prevented in time; factions are now become +independent, and have got footing in councils, in parliaments, in +treaties, armies, in incorporations, in families, among kindred, +yea, man and wife are not free from their political jars. + +It remains therefore, my lord, that I inquire into the nature of +these things; and since the names give us not the right idea of the +thing, I am afraid I shall have difficulty to make myself well +understood. + +The names generally used to denote the factions are Whig and Tory, +as obscure as that of Guelfs and Gibelins. Yea, my lord, they have +different significations, as they are applied to factions in each +kingdom; a Whig in England is a heterogeneous creature, in Scotland +he is all of a piece; a Tory in England is all of a piece, and a +statesman in Scotland, he is quite otherways, an anti-courtier and +anti-statesman. + +A Whig in England appears to be somewhat like Nebuchadnezzar's +image, of different metals, different classes, different principles, +and different designs; yet take the Whigs all together, they are +like a piece of fine mixed drugget of different threads, some finer, +some coarser, which, after all, make a comely appearance and an +agreeable suit. Tory is like a piece of loyal-made English cloth, +the true staple of the nation, all of a thread; yet, if we look +narrowly into it, we shall perceive diversity of colors, which, +according to the various situations and positions, make various +appearances. Sometimes Tory is like the moon in its full, as +appeared in the affair of the bill of occasional conformity; upon +other occasions it appears to be under a cloud, and as if it were +eclipsed by a greater body, as it did in the design of calling over +the illustrious Princess Sophia. However, by this we may see their +designs are to outshoot Whig in his own bow. + +Whig in Scotland is a true blue Presbyterian, who, without +considering time or power, will venture their all for the Kirk, but +something less for the State. The greatest difficulty is how to +describe a Scots Tory. Of old, when I knew them first, Tory was an +honest-hearted comradish fellow, who, provided he was maintained and +protected in his benefices, titles, and dignities by the State, was +the less anxious who had the government and management of the +Church. But now what he is since _jure_ _divino_ came in fashion, and +that Christianity, and, by consequence, salvation comes to depend +upon episcopal ordination, I profess I know not what to make of him; +only this I must say for him, that he endeavors to do by opposition +that which his brother in England endeavors by a more prudent and +less scrupulous method. + +Now, my lord, from these divisions there has got up a kind of +aristocracy something like the famous triumvirate at Rome; they are +a kind of undertakers and pragmatic statesmen, who, finding their +power and strength great, and answerable to their designs, will make +bargains with our gracious sovereign; they will serve her +faithfully, but upon their own terms; they must have their own +instruments, their own measures; this man must be turned out, and +that man put in, and then they will make her the most glorious queen +in Europe. + +Where will this end, my lord? Is not her Majesty in danger by such +a method? Is not the monarchy in danger? Is not the nation's peace +and tranquillity in danger? Will a change of parties make the +nation more happy? No, my lord, the seed is sown that is like to +afford us a perpetual increase; it is not an annual herb, it takes +deep root; it seeds and breeds; and, if not timely prevented by her +Majesty's royal endeavors, will split the whole island in two. + +My lord, I think, considering our present circumstances at this +time, the Almighty God has reserved this great work for us. We may +bruise this Hydra of division, and crush this Cockatrice's egg. Our +neighbors in England are not yet fitted for any such thing; they are +not under the afflicting hand of Providence, as we are; their +circumstances are great and glorious; their treaties are prudently +managed, both at home and abroad; their generals brave and valorous; +their armies successful and victorious; their trophies and laurels +memorable and surprising; their enemies subdued and routed; their +strongholds besieged and taken, sieges relieved, marshals killed and +taken prisoners; provinces and kingdoms are the results of their +victories; their royal navy is the terror of Europe; their trade and +commerce extended through the universe, encircling the whole +habitable world and rendering their own capital city the emporium +for the whole inhabitants of the earth. And, which is yet more than +all these things, the subjects freely bestow their treasure upon +their sovereign! And, above all, these vast riches, the sinews of +war, and without which all the glorious success had proved abortive +--these treasures are managed with such faithfulness and nicety, +that they answer seasonably all their demands, though at never so +great a distance. Upon these considerations, my lord, how hard and +difficult a thing will it prove to persuade our neighbors to a +self-denying bill. + +'Tis quite otherwise with us, my lord; we are an obscure poor +people, though formerly of better account, removed to a remote +corner of the world, without name, and without alliances, our posts +mean and precarious, so that I profess I don't think any one post of +the kingdom worth the briguing after, save that of being +commissioner to a long session of a factious Scotch Parliament, with +an antedated commission, and that yet renders the rest of the +ministers more miserable. What hinders us then, my lord, to lay +aside our divisions, to unite cordially and heartily together in our +present circumstances, when our all is at stake? Hannibal, my lord, +is at our gates; Hannibal is come within our gates Hannibal is come +the length of this table; he is at the foot of this throne; he will +demolish this throne; if we take not notice, he'll seize upon these +regalia, he'll take them as our _spolia_ _opima_, and whip us out of +this house, never to return again. + +For the love of God then, my lord, for the safety and welfare of our +ancient kingdom, whose sad circumstances, I hope, we shall yet +convert into prosperity and happiness, we want no means, if we +unite. God blessed the peacemakers; we want neither men, nor +sufficiency of all manner of things necessary, to make a nation +happy; all depends upon management, _Concordia_ _res_ _parvae_ +_crescunt_. I fear not these articles, though they were ten times +worse than they are, if we once cordially forgive one another, and +that, according to our proverb, bygones be bygones, and fair play +for time to come. For my part, in the sight of God, and in the +presence of this honorable house, I heartily forgive every man, and +beg that they may do the same to me; and I do most humbly propose +that his grace, my lord commissioner, may appoint an Agape, may +order a love feast for this honorable house, that we may lay aside +all self-designs, and after our fasts and humiliations may have a +day of rejoicing and thankfulness, may eat our meat with gladness, +and our bread with a merry heart; then shall we sit each man under +his own fig-tree, and the voice of the turtle shall be heard in our +land, a bird famous for constancy and fidelity. + +My lord, I shall make a pause here, and stop going on further in my +discourse, till I see further, if his grace, my lord commissioner, +receive any humble proposals for removing misunderstandings among +us, and putting an end to our fatal divisions; upon honor, I have no +other design, and I am content to beg the favor upon my bended +knees. (No answer.) My lord chancellor, I am sorry that I must +pursue the thread of my sad and melancholy story. What remains, I +am afraid may prove as afflicting as what I have said; I shall +therefore consider the motives which have engaged the two nations to +enter upon a treaty of union at this time. In general, my lord, I +think both of them had in their view to better themselves by the +treaty; but before I enter upon the particular motives of each +nation, I must inform this honorable house that since I can +remember, the two nations have altered their sentiments upon that +affair, even almost to downright contradiction--they have changed +headbands, as we say; for the English, till of late, never thought +it worth their pains of treating with us; the good bargain they made +at the beginning they resolve to keep, and that which we call an +incorporating union was not so much as in their thoughts. The first +notice they seemed to take of us was in our affair of Caledonia, +when they had most effectually broken off that design in a manner +very well known to the world, and unnecessary to be repeated here; +they kept themselves quiet during the time of our complaints upon +that head. In which time our sovereign, to satisfy the nation, and +allay their heats, did condescend to give us some good laws, and +amongst others that of personal liberties; but they having declared +their succession, and extended their entail, without ever taking +notice of us, our gracious sovereign Queen Anne was graciously +pleased to give the royal assent to our act of security, to that of +peace and war after the decease of her Majesty, and the heirs of her +body, and to give us a hedge to all our sacred and civil interests, +by declaring it high treason to endeavor the alteration of them, as +they were then established. Thereupon did follow the threatening +and minatory laws against us by the Parliament of England, and the +unjust and unequal character of what her Majesty had so graciously +condescended to in our favors. Now, my lord, whether the desire +they had to have us engaged in the same succession with them, or +whether they found us like a free and independent people, breathing +after more liberty than what formerly was looked after, or whether +they were afraid of our act of security, in case of her Majesty's +decease; which of all these motives has induced them to a treaty I +leave it to themselves. This I must say only, they have made a good +bargain this time also. + +For the particular motives that induced us, I think they are obvious +to be known, we found by sad experience, that every man hath +advanced in power and riches, as they have done in trade, and at the +same time considering that nowhere through the world slaves are +found to be rich, though they should be adorned with chains of gold, +we thereupon changed our notion of an incorporating union to that of +a federal one; and being resolved to take this opportunity to make +demands upon them, before we enter into the succession, we were +content to empower her Majesty to authorize and appoint +commissioners to treat with the commissioners of England, with as +ample powers as the lords commissioners from England had from their +constituents, that we might not appear to have less confidence in +her Majesty, nor more narrow-heartedness in our act, than our +neighbors of England. And thereupon last Parliament, after her +Majesty's gracious letter was read, desiring us to declare the +succession in the first place, and afterwards to appoint +commissioners to treat, we found it necessary to renew our former +resolve, which I shall read to this honorable house. The resolve +presented by the Duke of Hamilton last session of Parliament:-- + +"That this Parliament will not proceed to the nomination of a +successor till we have had a previous treaty with England, in +relation to our commerce, and other concerns with that nation. And +further, it is resolved that this Parliament will proceed to make +such limitations and conditions of government, for the rectification +of our constitution, as may secure the liberty, religion, and +independency of this kingdom, before they proceed to the said +nomination." + +Now, my lord, the last session of Parliament having, before they +would enter into any treaty with England, by a vote of the house, +passed both an act for limitations and an act for rectification of +our constitution, what mortal man has reason to doubt the design of +this treaty was only federal? + +My lord chancellor, it remains now, that we consider the behavior of +the lords commissioners at the opening of this treaty. And before I +enter upon that, allow me to make this meditation, that if our +posterity, after we are all dead and gone, shall find themselves +under an ill-made bargain, and shall have recourse unto our records, +and see who have been the managers of that treaty, by which they +have suffered so much; when they read the names, they will certainly +conclude, and say, Ah! our nation has been reduced to the last +extremity, at the time of this treaty; all our great chieftains, all +our great peers and considerable men, who used formerly to defend +the rights and liberties of the nation, have been all killed and +dead in the bed of honor, before ever the nation was necessitated to +condescend to such mean and contemptible terms. Where are the names +of the chief men, of the noble families of Stuarts, Hamiltons, +Grahams, Campbels, Gordons, Johnstons, Humes, Murrays, Kers? Where +are the two great officers of the crown, the constables and marshals +of Scotland? They have certainly all been extinguished, and now we +are slaves forever. + +Whereas the English records will make their posterity reverence the +memory of the honorable names who have brought under their fierce, +warlike, and troublesome neighbors, who had struggled so long for +independence, shed the best blood of their nation and reduced a +considerable part of their country to become waste and desolate. + +I am informed, my lord, that our commissioners did indeed frankly +tell the lords commissioners for England that the inclinations of +the people of Scotland were much altered of late, in relation to an +incorporating union; and that, therefore, since the entail was to +end with her Majesty's life (whom God long preserve), it was proper +to begin the treaty upon the foot of the treaty of 1604, year of +God, the time when we came first under one sovereign; but this the +English commissioners would not agree to, and our commissioners, +that they might not seem obstinate, were willing to treat and +conclude in the terms laid before this honorable house and subjected +to their determination. If the lords commissioners for England had +been as civil and complaisant, they should certainly have finished a +federal treaty likewise, that both nations might have the choice +which of them to have gone into as they thought fit; but they would +hear of nothing but an entire and complete union, a name which +comprehends a union, either by incorporation, surrender, or +conquest, whereas our commissioners thought of nothing but a fair, +equal, incorporating union. Whether this be so or not I leave it to +every man's judgment; but as for myself I must beg liberty to think +it no such thing; for I take an incorporating union to be, where +there is a change both in the material and formal points of +government, as if two pieces of metal were melted down into one +mass, it can neither be said to retain its former form or substance +as it did before the mixture. But now, when I consider this treaty, +as it hath been explained and spoke to before us this three weeks by +past, I see the English constitution remaining firm, the same two +houses of Parliament, the same taxes, the same customs, the same +excises, the same trading companies, the same municipal laws and +courts of judicature; and all ours either subject to regulations or +annihilations, only we have the honor to pay their old debts and to +have some few persons present for witnesses to the validity of the +deed when they are pleased to contract more. + +Good God! What, is this an entire surrender! + +My lord, I find my heart so full of grief and indignation that I +must beg pardon not to finish the last part of my discourse, that I +may drop a tear as the prelude to so sad a story. + + + +JOHN BELL (1797-1869) + +John Bell, of Tennessee, who was a candidate with Edward Everett on +the "Constitutional Union" ticket of 1860, when Virginia, Kentucky, +and Tennessee gave him their thirty-nine electoral votes in favor of +a hopeless peace, will always seem one of the most respectable +figures in the politics of a time when calmness and conservatism, +such as characterized him and his coadjutor., Mr. Everett, of +Massachusetts, had ceased to be desired by men who wished immediate +success in public life. He was one of the founders of the Whig +party, and by demonstrating himself to be one of the very few men +who could win against Andrew Jackson's opposition in Tennessee, he +acquired, under Jackson and Van Buren, a great influence with the +Whigs of the country at large. He was a member of Congress from +Tennessee for fourteen years dating from 1827, when he won by a +single vote against Felix Grundy, one of the strongest men in +Tennessee and a special favorite with General Jackson. Disagreeing +with Jackson on the removal of the deposits, Bell was elected +Speaker of the House over Jackson's protege, James K. Polk, in 1834, +and in 1841 he entered the Whig cabinet as Secretary of War under +Harrison who had defeated another of Jackson's proteges, Van +Buren. In 1847 and again in 1853, he was elected United States +Senator from Tennessee and he did his best to prevent secession. He +had opposed Calhoun's theories of the right of a State to nullify a +Federal act if unconstitutional, and in March 1858, in the debate +over the Lecompton constitution, he opposed Toombs in a speech which +probably made him the candidate of the Constitutional Unionists two +years later. Another notable speech, of even more far-reaching +importance, he had delivered in 1853 in favor of opening up the West +by building the Pacific Railroad, a position in which he was +supported by Jefferson Davis. + +Mr. Bell was for the Union in 1861, denying the right of secession, +but he opposed the coercion of the Southern States, and when the +fighting actually began he sided with Tennessee, and took little or +no part in public affairs thereafter. He died in 1869. + + +AGAINST EXTREMISTS NORTH AND SOUTH (From a Speech in the Senate, +March 18th, 1858. on the Lecompton Constitution) + +The honorable Senator from Georgia, Mr. Toombs, announced some great +truths to-day. He said that mankind made a long step, a great +stride, when they declared that minorities should not rule; and that +a still higher and nobler advance had been made when it was decided +that majorities could only rule through regular and legal forms. He +asserted this general doctrine with reference to the construction he +proposed to give to the Lecompton constitution; and to say that the +people of Kansas, unless they spoke through regular forms, cannot +speak at all. He will allow me to say, however, that the forms +through which a majority speaks must be provided and established by +competent authority, and his doctrine can have no application to the +Lecompton constitution, unless he can first show that the +legislature of Kansas was vested with legal authority to provide for +the formation of a State constitution; for, until that can be shown, +there could be no regular and legal forms through which the majority +could speak. But how does that Senator reconcile his doctrine with +that avowed by the President, as to the futility of attempting, by +constitutional provisions, to fetter the power of the people in +changing their constitution at pleasure? In no States of the Union +so much as in some of the slaveholding States would such a doctrine +as that be so apt to be abused by incendiary demagogues, +disappointed and desperate politicians, in stirring up the people to +assemble voluntarily in convention--disregarding all the +restrictions in their constitution--and strike at the property of +the slaveholder. + +The honorable Senator from Kentucky inquired what, under this new +doctrine, would prevent the majority of the people of the States of +the Union from changing the present Federal Constitution, and +abrogating all existing guarantees for the protection of the small +States, and any peculiar or particular interest confined to a +minority of the States of the Union. The analogy, I admit, is not +complete between the Federal Constitution and a constitution of a +State; but the promulgation of the general principle, that a +majority of the people are fettered by no constitutional +restrictions in the exercise of their right to change their form of +government, is dangerous. That is quite enough for the purposes of +demagogues and incendiary agitators. When I read the special +message of the President, I said to some friends that the message, +taking it altogether, was replete with more dangerous heresies than +any paper I had ever seen emanating, not from a President of the +United States, but from any political club in the country, and +calculated to do more injury. I consider it in effect, and in its +tendencies, as organizing anarchy. + +We are told that if we shall admit Kansas with the Lecompton +constitution, this whole difficulty will soon be settled by the +people of Kansas. How? By disregarding the mode and forms +prescribed by the constitution for amending it? No. I am not sure +that the President, after all the lofty generalities announced in +his message, in regard to the inalienable rights of the people, +intended to sanction the idea that all the provisions of the +Lecompton constitution in respect to the mode and form of amending +it should be set aside. He says the legislature now elected may, at +its first meeting, call a convention to amend the constitution; and +in another passage of his message he says that this inalienable +power of the majority must be exercised in a lawful manner. This is +perplexing. Can there be any lawful enactment of the legislature in +relation to the call of a convention, unless it be in conformity +with the provisions of the constitution? They require that +two-thirds of the members of the legislature shall concur in passing +an act to take the sense of the people upon the call of a +convention, and that the vote shall be taken at the next regular +election, which cannot be held until two years afterwards. How can +this difficulty be got over? The truth is, that unless all +constitutional impediments in respect to forms be set aside, and the +people take it in hand to amend the constitution on revolutionary +principles, there can be no end of agitation on this subject in less +than three years. I long since ventured the prediction that there +would be no settlement of the difficulties in Kansas until the next +presidential election. To continue the agitation is too important +to the interests of both the great parties of the country to +dispense with it, as long as any pretext can be found for prolonging +it. In the closing debate on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, I told its +supporters that they could do nothing more certain to disturb the +composure of the two Senators who sat on the opposite side of the +chamber, the one from Massachusetts [Mr. Sumner] and the other from +Ohio [Mr. Chase], than to reject that bill. Its passage was the +only thing in the range of possible events by which their political +fortunes could be resuscitated, so completely had the Free-Soil +movement at the North been paralyzed by the compromise measures of +1850. I say now to the advocates of this measure, if they want to +strengthen the Republican party, and give the reins of government +into their hands, pass this bill. If they desire to weaken the +power of that party, and arrest the progress of slavery agitation, +reject it. And if it is their policy to put an end to the agitation +connected with Kansas affairs at the earliest day practicable, as +they say it is, then let them remit this constitution back to the +people of Kansas, for their ratification or rejection. In that way +the whole difficulty will be settled before the adjournment of the +present session of Congress, without the violation of any sound +principle, or the sacrifice of the rights of either section of the +Union. + +But the President informs us that threatening and ominous clouds +impend over the country; and he fears that if Kansas is not admitted +under the Lecompton constitution, slavery agitation will be revived +in a more dangerous form than it has ever yet assumed. There may be +grounds for that opinion, for aught I know; but it seems to me that +if any of the States of the South have taken any position on this +question which endangers the peace of the country, they could not +have been informed of the true condition of affairs in Kansas, and +of the strong objections which may be urged on principle against the +acceptance by Congress of the Lecompton constitution. And I have +such confidence in the intelligence of the people of the whole +South, that when the history and character of this instrument shall +be known, even those who would be glad to find some plausible +pretext for dissolving the Union will see that its rejection by +Congress would not furnish them with such a one as they could make +available for their purposes. + +When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was under discussion, in 1854, in +looking to all the consequences which might follow the adoption of +that measure, I could not overlook the fact that a sentiment of +hostility to the Union was widely diffused in certain States of the +South; and that that sentiment was only prevented from assuming an +organized form of resistance to the authority of the Federal +government, at least in one of the States, in 1851, by the earnest +remonstrance of a sister State, that was supposed to sympathize with +her in the project of establishing a southern republic. Nor could I +fail to remember that the project--I speak of the convention held in +South Carolina, in pursuance of an act of the legislature--was +then postponed, not dropped. The argument was successfully urged +that an enterprise of such magnitude ought not to be entered upon +without the co-operation of a greater number of States than they +could then certainly count upon. It was urged that all the +cotton-planting States would, before a great while, be prepared to +unite in the movement, and that they, by the force of circumstances, +would bring in all the slaveholding States. The ground was openly +taken, that separation was an inevitable necessity. It was only a +question of time. It was said that no new aggression was necessary +on the part of the North to justify such a step. It was said that +the operation of this government from its foundation had been +adverse to southern interests; and that the admission of California +as a free State, and the attempt to exclude the citizens of the +South, with their property, from all the territory acquired from +Mexico, was a sufficient justification for disunion. It was not a +mere menace to deter the North from further aggressions. These +circumstances made a deep impression on my mind at the time, and +from a period long anterior to that I had known that it was a maxim +with the most skillful tacticians among those who desire separation, +that the slaveholding States must be united--consolidated into one +party. That object once effected, disunion, it was supposed, would +follow without difficulty. + +I had my fears that the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was expected to +consolidate the South, and to pave the way for the accomplishment of +ulterior plans by some of the most active supporters of that measure +from the South; and these fears I indicated in the closing debate on +that subject. Some of the supporters of that measure, I fear, are +reluctant now to abandon the chances of finding some pretext for +agitating the subject of separation in the South in the existing +complications of the Kansas embroilment. + +To what extent the idea of disunion is entertained in some of the +Southern States, and what importance is attached to the policy of +uniting the whole South in one party as a preliminary step, may be +inferred from a speech delivered before the Southern convention lately +held in Knoxville, Tenn., by Mr. De Bow, the president of the +convention, and the editor of a popular Southern review. I will only +refer now to the fate to which the author resigns those who dare to +break the ranks of that solid phalanx in which he thinks the South +should be combined--that is, to be "held up to public scorn and +public punishment as traitors and Tories, more steeped in guilt than +those of the Revolution itself." + +The honorable Senator from New York further announced to us in +exultant tones, that "at last there was a North side of this +Chamber, a North side of the Chamber of the House of Representatives, +and a North side of the Union, as well as a South side of all +these"; and he admonished us that the time was at hand when freedom +would assert its influence in the regulation of the domestic and +foreign policy of the country. + +When was there a time in the history of the government that there +was no North side of this Chamber and of the other? When was there a +time that there was not a proud array of Northern men in both +Chambers, distinguished by their genius and ability, devoted to the +interests of the North, and successful in maintaining them? + +Though it may be true that Southern men have filled the executive +chair for much the larger portion of the time that has elapsed since +the organization of the government, yet when, in what instance was +it, that a Southerner has been elevated to that high station without +the support of a majority of the freemen of the North? + +Do you of the North complain that the policy of the government, under +the long-continued influence of Southern Presidents, has been +injurious or fatal to your interests? Has it paralyzed your industry? +Has it crippled your resources? Has it impaired your energies? Has +it checked your progress in any one department of human effort? Let +your powerful mercantile marine, your ships whitening every sea--the +fruit of wise commercial regulations and navigation laws; let your +flourishing agriculture, your astonishing progress in manufacturing +skill, your great canals, your thousands of miles of railroads, your +vast trade, internal and external, your proud cities, and your +accumulated millions of moneyed capital, ready to be invested in +profitable enterprises in any part of the world, answer that question. +Do you complain of a narrow and jealous policy under Southern rule, in +extending and opening new fields of enterprise to your hardy sons in +the great West, along the line of the great chain of American lakes, +even to the head waters of the Father of Rivers, and over the rich and +fertile plains stretching southward from the lake shores? Let the +teeming populations--let the hundreds of millions of annual products +that have succeeded to the but recent dreary and unproductive haunts +of the red man--answer that question. That very preponderance of +free States which the Senator from New York contemplates with such +satisfaction, and which has moved him exultingly to exclaim that +there is at last a North side of this Chamber, has been hastened by +the liberal policy of Southern Presidents and Southern statesmen; and +has it become the ambition of that Senator to unite and combine all +this great, rich, and powerful North in the policy of crippling the +resources and repressing the power of the South? Is this to be the +one idea which is to mold the policy of the government, when that +gentleman and his friends shall control it? If it be, then I appeal +to the better feelings and the better judgment of his followers to +arrest him in his mad career. Sir, let us have some brief interval of +repose at least from this eternal agitation of the slavery question. +Let power go into whatever hands it may, let us save the Union! + +I have all the confidence other gentlemen can have in the extent to +which this Union is intrenched in the hearts of the great mass of +the people of the North and South; but when I reflect upon and +consider the desperate and dangerous extremes to which ambitious +party leaders are often prepared to go, without meaning to do the +country any mischief, in the struggle for the imperial power, the +crown of the American presidency, I sometimes tremble for its fate. + +Two great parties are now dividing the Union on this question. It is +evident to every man of sense, who examines it, that practically, in +respect to slavery, the result will be the same both to North and +South; Kansas will be a free State, no matter what may be the +decision on this question. But how that decision may affect the +fortunes of those parties, is not certain; and there is the chief +difficulty. But the greatest question of all is, How will that +decision affect the country as a whole? + +Two adverse yet concurrent and mighty forces are driving the vessel +of State towards the rocks upon which she must split, unless she +receives timely aid--a paradox, yet expressive of a momentous and +perhaps a fatal truth. + +There is no hope of rescue unless the sober-minded men, both of the +North and South, shall, by some sufficient influence, be brought to +adopt the wise maxims and sage counsels of the great founders of our +government. + + +TRANS-CONTINENTAL RAILROADS (Delivered in the United States Senate, +February 17th, 1858. in Support of the Pacific Railroad Bill) + +An objection made to this bill is, the gigantic scale of the +projected enterprise. A grand idea it is. A continent of three +thousand miles in extent from east to west, reaching from the +Atlantic to the Pacific, is to be connected by a railway! Honorable +Senators will remember, that over one thousand miles--one-third of +this whole expanse of the continent--the work is already +accomplished, and that chiefly by private enterprise. I may, as a +safe estimate, say, that a thousand miles of this railroad leading +from the Atlantic to the West, upon the line of the lakes, and +nearly as much upon a line further south, are either completed, or +nearly so. We have two thousand miles yet to compass, in the +execution of a work which it is said has no parallel in the history +of the world. No, sir; it has no parallel in the history of the +world, ancient or modern, either as to its extent and magnitude, or +to its consequences, beneficent and benignant in all its bearings on +the interests of all mankind. It is in these aspects, and in the +contemplation of these consequences, that it has no parallel in the +history of the world--changing the course of the commerce of the +world--bringing the West almost in contact, by reversing the +ancient line of communication, with the gorgeous East, and all its +riches, the stories of which, in our earlier days we regarded as +fabulous; but now, sir, what was held to be merely fictions of the +brain in former times, in regard to the riches of Eastern Asia, is +almost realized on our own western shores. Sir, these are some of +the inducements to the construction of this great road, besides its +importance to the military defenses of the country, and its mail +communications. Sir, it is a magnificent and splendid project in +every aspect in which you can view it. One-third of this great +railway connection is accomplished; two-thirds remain to be. Shall +we hesitate to go forward with the work? + +Now, with regard to the means provided for the construction of the +road. It is said, here is an enormous expenditure of the public money +proposed. We propose to give twenty millions of dollars in the bonds +of the government, bearing five per cent. interest, and fifteen +millions of acres of land, supposed to be worth as much more, on the +part of the government. This is said to be enormous, and we are +reminded that we ought to look at what the people will say, and how +they will feel when they come to the knowledge that twenty millions in +money and twenty millions in land have been given for the construction +of a railway! Some doubtless there are in this chamber who are ready +to contend that we had better give these fifteen millions of acres of +land to become homesteads for the landless and homeless. What is this +twenty millions in money, and how is it to be paid? It is supposed +that the road cannot be constructed in less than five years. In that +event, bonds of the government to the amount of four millions of +dollars will issue annually. Probably the road will not be built in +less than ten years, and that will require an issue of bonds amounting +to two millions a year; and possibly the road may not be finished in +less than twenty years, which would limit the annual issue of bonds to +one million. The interest upon these bonds, at five per cent, will +of course have to be paid out of the treasury, a treasury in which +there is now a surplus of twelve or fourteen millions of dollars. +When the road is completed and the whole amount of twenty millions in +lands is paid, making the whole sum advanced by the government forty +millions, the annual interest upon them will only be two millions. +And what is that? Why, sir, the donations and benevolences, the +allowances of claims upon flimsy and untenable grounds, and other +extravagant and unnecessary expenditures that are granted by Congress +and the executive departments, while you have an overflowing treasury, +will amount to the half of that sum annually. The enormous sum of two +millions is proposed to be paid out of the treasury annually, when +this great road shall be completed! It is a tremendous undertaking, +truly! What a scheme! What extravagance! I understand the cost of +the New York and Erie road alone, constructed principally by private +enterprise, has been not less than thirty millions--between thirty +and thirty-three millions of dollars. That work was constructed by a +single State giving aid occasionally to a company, which supplied the +balance of the cost. I understand that the road from Baltimore to +Wheeling, when it shall have been finished, and its furniture placed +upon it, will have cost at least thirty millions. What madness, what +extravagance, then, is it for the government of the United States to +undertake to expend forty millions for a road from the Mississippi +to the Pacific. + +Mr. President, one honorable Senator says the amount is not +sufficient to induce a capitalist to invest his money in the +enterprise. Others, again, say it is far too much; more than we can +afford to give for the construction of the work. Let us see which is +right. The government is to give twenty millions in all out of the +treasury for the road; or we issue bonds and pay five per cent, +interest annually upon them, and twenty millions in lands, which, if +regarded as money, amounts to a cost to the government of two +millions per annum. + +What are the objects to be accomplished? A daily mail from the +valley of the Mississippi to the Pacific; the free transportation of +all troops and munitions of war required for the protection and +defense of our possessions on the Pacific; which we could not hold +three months in a war either with England or France, without such a +road. By building this road we accomplish this further object: This +road will be the most effective and powerful check that can be +interposed by the government upon Indian depredations and +aggressions upon our frontiers or upon each other; the northern +tribes upon the southern, and the southern upon the northern. You +cut them in two. You will be constantly in their midst, and cut off +their intercommunication and hostile depredations. You will have a +line of quasi fortifications, a line of posts and stations, with +settlements on each side of the road. Every few miles you will thus +have settlements strong enough to defend themselves against inroads +of the Indians, and so constituting a wall of separation between the +Indian tribes, composed of a white population, with arms in their +hands. This object alone would, perhaps, be worth as much as the +road will cost; and when I speak of what the road will be worth in +this respect, I mean to say, that besides the prevention of savage +warfare, the effusion of blood, it will save millions of dollars to +the treasury annually, in the greater economy attained in moving +troops and military supplies and preventing hostilities. + +. . . + +I have been thus particular in noting these things because I want to +show where or on which side the balance will be found in the +adjustment of the responsibility account between the friends and the +opponents of this measure--which will have the heaviest account to +settle with the country. + +For myself, I am not wedded to this particular scheme. Rather than +have no road, I would prefer to adopt other projects. I am now +advocating one which I supposed would meet the views of a greater +number of Senators than any other. I think great honor is due to +Mr. Whitney for having originated the scheme, and having obtained +the sanction of the legislatures of seventeen or eighteen States of +the Union. Rather than have the project altogether fail, I would be +willing to adopt this plan. It may not offer the same advantages for +a speedy consummation of the work; but still, we would have a road +in prospect, and that would be a great deal. But if gentlemen are to +rise here in their places year after year--and this is the fifth +year from the time we ought to have undertaken this work--and tell +us it is just time to commence a survey, we will never have a +road. The honorable Senator from South Carolina [Mr. Butler] says +there ought to be some limitation in this idea of progress, when +regarded as a spur to great activity and energy, as to what we shall +do in our day. He says we have acquired California; we have opened +up those rich regions on our western borders, which promises such +magnificent results; and he asks, is not that enough for the present +generation? Leave it to the nest generation to construct a work of +such magnitude as this--requiring forty millions of dollars from +the government. Mr. President, I have said that if the condition was +a road or no road, I would regard one hundred and fifty millions of +dollars as well laid out by the government for the work; though I +have no idea that it will take such an amount. Eighty or one hundred +millions of dollars will build the road. + +But with regard to what is due from this generation to itself, or +what may be left to the next generation, I say it is for the present +generation that we want the road. As to our having acquired +California, and opened this new world of commerce and enterprise, +and as to what we shall leave to the next generation, I say that, +after we of this generation shall have constructed this road, we +will, perhaps, not even leave to the next generation the +construction of a second one. The present generation, in my +opinion, will not pass away until it shall have seen two great lines +of railroads in prosperous operation between the Atlantic and +Pacific Oceans, and within our own territory, and still leave quite +enough to the next generation--the third and fourth great lines of +communication between the two extremes of the continent. One, at +least, is due to ourselves, and to the present generation; and I +hope there are many within the sound of my voice who will live to +see it accomplished. We want that new Dorado, the new Ophir of +America, to be thrown open and placed within the reach of the whole +people. We want the great cost, the delays, as well as the +privations and risks of a passage to California, by the malarious +Isthmus of Panama, or any other of the routes now in use, to be +mitigated, or done away with. There will be some greater equality +in the enjoyment and advantages of these new acquisitions upon the +Pacific coast when this road shall be constructed. The +inexhaustible gold mines, or placers of California, will no longer +be accessible only to the more robust, resolute, or desperate part +of our population, and who may be already well enough off to pay +their passage by sea, or provide an outfit for an overland travel of +two and three thousand miles. Enterprising young men all over the +country, who can command the pittance of forty or fifty dollars to +pay their railroad fare; heads of families who have the misfortune +to be poor, but spirit and energy enough to seek comfort and +independence by labor, will no longer be restrained by the necessity +of separating themselves from their families, but have it in their +power, with such small means as they may readily command, in eight +or ten days, to find themselves with their whole households +transported and set down in the midst of the gold regions of the +West, at full liberty to possess and enjoy whatever of the rich +harvest spread out before them their industry and energy shall +entitle them to. It will be theirs by as good a title as any can +boast who have had the means to precede them. We hear much said of +late of the justice and policy of providing a homestead, a quarter +section of the public land, to every poor and landless family in the +country. Make this road, and you enable every poor man in the +country to buy a much better homestead, and retain all the pride and +spirit of independence. Gentlemen here may say that the region of +California, so inviting, and abundant in gold now, will soon be +exhausted, and all these bright prospects for the enterprising poor +pass away. No, sir; centuries will pass--ages and ages must roll +away before those gold-bearing mountains shall all have been +excavated--those auriferous sands and alluvial deposits shall give +out all their wealth; and even after all these shall have failed, +the beds of the rivers will yield a generous return to the toil of +the laborer. ... + +Mr. President, I alluded to the importance of having a communication +by railway between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, in +the event of war with any great maritime Power. I confess that the +debates upon the subject of our foreign relations within the last +few weeks, if all that was said had commanded my full assent, would +have dissipated very much the force of any argument which I thought +might be fairly urged in favor of this road as a necessary work for +the protection and security of our possessions on the Pacific coast. +We now hear it stated, and reiterated by grave and respectable and +intelligent Senators, that there is no reason that any one should +apprehend a war with either Great Britain or France. Not now, nor +at any time in the future; at all events, unless there shall be a +total change in the condition, social, political, and economical, of +those Powers, and especially as regards Great Britain. All who have +spoken agree that there is no prospect of war. None at all. I +agree that I can see nothing in the signs of the times which is +indicative of immediate and certain war. Several gentlemen have +thrown out the idea that we hold the bond of Great Britain to keep +the peace, with ample guarantees and sureties, not only for the +present time, but for an indefinite time; and as long as Great +Britain stands as an independent monarchy. These sureties and +guarantees are said to consist in the discontented and destitute +class of her population, of her operatives and laborers, and the +indispensable necessity of the cotton crop of the United States in +furnishing them with employment and subsistence, without which it is +said she would be torn with internal strife. + +I could tell gentlemen who argue in that way, that we have another +guarantee that Great Britain will not break with the United States +for any trivial cause, which they have not thought proper to raise. +We may threaten and denounce and bluster as much as we please about +British violations of the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, and the +Mosquito protectorate, about the assumption of territorial dominion +over the Balize or British Honduras, and the new colony of the Bay +Islands; and Great Britain will negotiate, explain, treat, and +transgress, and negotiate again, and resort to any device, before +she will go to war with us, as long as she can hope to prolong the +advantages to herself of the free-trade policy now established with +the United States. It is not only the cotton crop of America which +she covets, but it is the rich market for the products of her +manufacturing industry, which she finds in the United States; and +this has contributed as much as any other cause to improve the +condition of her operatives, and impart increased prosperity to her +trade and revenue. As long as we think proper to hold to our +present commercial regulations, I repeat that it will require very +great provocation on our part to force Great Britain into a war with +the United States. . . . + +As for this road, we are told at every turn that it is ridiculous to +talk of war in connection with it, for we will have no wars except +those with the Indians. Both England and France dare not go to war +with us. I say this course of argument is not only unwise and +delusive, but if such sentiments take hold on the country, they will +be mischievous; they will almost to a certainty lead to a daring and +reckless policy on our part; and as each government labors under a +similar delusion as to what the other will not dare to do, what is +more probable than that both may get into such a position--the +result of a mutual mistake--that war must ensue? It is worth while +to reflect upon the difference between the policy of Great Britain +and this country in her diplomatic correspondence and debates in +Parliament. When we make a threat, Great Britain does not threaten +in turn. We hear of no gasconade on her part. If we declare that we +have a just right to latitude 54 degrees 40', and will maintain our right +at all hazard, she does not bluster, and threaten, and declare what +she will do, if we dare to cany out our threat. When we talk about +the Mosquito king, of Balize, and of the Bay Islands, and declare +our determination to drive her from her policy and purposes in +regard to them, we do not hear of an angry form of expression from +her. We employed very strong language last year in regard to the +rights of American fishermen; but the reply of Great Britain +scarcely assumed the tone of remonstrance against the intemperate +tone of our debates. Her policy upon all such occasions is one of +wisdom. Her strong and stern purpose is seldom to be seen in her +diplomatic intercourse, or in the debates of her leading statesmen; +but if you were about her dock-yards, or in her foundries, or her +timber-yards, and her great engine manufactories, and her armories, +you would find some bustle and stir. There, all is life and motion. + +I have always thought that the proper policy of this country is to +make no threats--to make no parade of what we intend to do. Let +us put the country in a condition to defend its honor and interests; +to maintain them successfully whenever they may be assailed; no +matter by what Power, whether by Great Britain, or France, or both +combined. Make this road; complete the defenses of the country, of +your harbors, and navy yards; strengthen your navy--put it upon an +efficient footing; appropriate ample means for making experiments to +ascertain the best model of ships-of-war, to be driven by steam or +any other motive power; the best models of the engines to be +employed in them; to inquire whether a large complement of guns, or +a few guns of great calibre, is the better plan. We may well, upon +such questions, take a lesson from England. At a recent period she +has been making experiments of this nature, in order to give +increased efficiency to her naval establishment. How did she set +about it? Her Admiralty Board gave orders for eleven of the most +perfect engines that could be built by eleven of the most skillful +and eminent engine-builders in the United Kingdom, without limit as +to the cost, or any other limitation, except as to class or size. +At the same time orders were issued for the building of thirteen +frigates of a medium class by thirteen of the most skillful +shipbuilders in the kingdom, in order to ascertain the best models, +the best running lines, and the best of every other quality +desirable in a war vessel. This is the mode in which Great Britain +prepares for any contingencies which may arise. She cannot tell +when they may occur, yet she knows that she has no immunity from +those chances which, at some time or other, are seen to happen to +all nations. In my opinion, the construction of this road from the +Mississippi to the Pacific is essential to the protection and safety +of this country, in the event of a war with any great maritime +Power. It may take ten years to complete it; but every hundred +miles of it, which may be finished before the occurrence of war, +will be just so much gained--so much added to our ability to +maintain our honor in that war. In every view of this question I +can take, I am persuaded that we ought at least prepare to commence +the work, and do it immediately. + + + +JUDAH PHILIP BENJAMIN (1811-1884) + +Judah P. Benjamin, the "Beaconsfield of the Confederacy," was born +at St. Croix in the West Indies, where his parents, a family of +English-Jews, on their way to settle in New Orleans, were delayed by +the American measures against intercourse with England. In 1816 his +parents brought him to Wilmington, North Carolina, where, and at +Yale College, he was educated. Not until after he was ready to +begin life at the bar, did he reach New Orleans, the destination for +which his parents had set out before he was born. In New Orleans, +after a severe struggle, he rose to eminence as a lawyer, and his +firm, of which Mr. Slidell was a partner, was the leading law firm +of the State. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Whig +in 1852 and re-elected as a Democrat in 1859. With Mr. Slidell, who +was serving with him in the Senate, he withdrew in 1861 and became +Attorney-General in the Confederate cabinet. He was afterwards made +Secretary of War, but as the Confederate congress censured him in +that position he resigned it and Mr. Davis immediately appointed him +Secretary of State. After the close of the war, when pursuit after +members of the Confederate cabinet was active, he left the coast of +Florida in an open boat and landed at the Bahamas, taking passage +thence to London where he rose to great eminence as a lawyer. He +was made Queen's Counsel, and on his retirement from practice, +because of ill health, in 1883, a farewell banquet was given him by +the bar in the hall of the Inner Temple, probably the most notable +compliment paid in England to any orator since the banquet to +Berryer. He died in 1884. + +Benjamin was called the "brains of the Confederacy" and in acuteness +of intellect he probably surpassed most men of his time. He +resembled Disraeli in this as well as in being a thorough-going +believer in an aristocratic method of government rather than in one +based on universal suffrage and the will of the masses determined by +majority vote. + +FAREWELL TO THE UNION (On Leaving the United States Senate in 1861) + +Mr. President, if we were engaged in the performance of our +accustomed legislative duties, I might well rest content with the +simple statement of my concurrences in the remarks just made by my +colleague [Mr. Slidell]. Deeply impressed, however, with the +solemnity of the occasion, I cannot remain insensible to the duty of +recording, among the authentic reports of your proceedings, the +expression of my conviction that the State of Louisiana has judged +and acted well and wisely in this crisis of her destiny. + +Sir, it has been urged, on more than one occasion, in the +discussions here and elsewhere, that Louisiana stands on an +exceptional footing. It has been said that whatever may be the +rights of the States that were original parties to the Constitution, +--even granting their right to resume, for sufficient cause, those +restricted powers which they delegated to the general government in +trust for their own use and benefit,--still Louisiana can have no +such right, because she was acquired by purchase. Gentlemen have +not hesitated to speak of the sovereign States formed out of the +territory ceded by France as property bought with the money of the +United States, belonging to them as purchasers; and, although they +have not carried their doctrine to its legitimate results, I must +conclude that they also mean to assert, on the same principle, the +right of selling for a price that which for a price was bought. + +I shall not pause to comment on this repulsive dogma of a party +which asserts the right of property in free-born white men, in order +to reach its cherished object of destroying the right of property in +slave-born black men--still less shall I detain the Senate in +pointing out how shadowy the distinction between the condition of +the servile African and that to which the white freeman of my State +would be reduced, if it, indeed, be true that they are bound to this +government by ties that cannot be legitimately dissevered without +the consent of that very majority which wields its powers for their +oppression. I simply deny the fact on which the argument is +founded. I deny that the province of Louisiana, or the people of +Louisiana, were ever conveyed to the United States for a price as +property that could be bought or sold at will. Without entering +into the details of the negotiation, the archives of our State +Department show the fact to be, that although the domain, the public +lands, and other property of France in the ceded province, were +conveyed by absolute title to the United States, the sovereignty was +not conveyed otherwise than in trust. + +A hundredfold, sir, has the Government of the United States been +reimbursed by the sales of public property, of public lands, for the +price of the acquisition; but not with the fidelity of the honest +trustee has it discharged the obligations as regards the +sovereignty. + +I have said that the government assumed to act as trustee or +guardian of the people of the ceded province, and covenanted to +transfer to them the sovereignty thus held in trust for their use +and benefit, as soon as they were capable of exercising it. What is +the express language of the treaty? + +"The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated in the +Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, +according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the +enjoyments of all rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of +the United States; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and +protected in the enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the +religion which they profess." + +And, sir, as if to mark the true nature of the cession in a manner +too significant to admit of misconstruction, the treaty stipulates +no price; and the sole consideration for the conveyance, as stated +on its face, is the desire to afford a strong proof of the +friendship of France for the United States. By the terms of a +separate convention stipulating the payment of a sum of money, the +precaution is again observed of stating that the payment is to be +made, not as a consideration or a price or a condition precedent of +the cession, but it is carefully distinguished as being a +consequence of the cession. It was by words thus studiously chosen, +sir, that James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson marked their +understanding of a contract now misconstrued as being a bargain and +sale of sovereignty over freemen. With what indignant scorn would +those stanch advocates of the inherent right of self-government have +repudiated the slavish doctrine now deduced from their action! + +How were the obligations of this treaty fulfilled? That Louisiana +at that date contained slaves held as property by her people through +the whole length of the Mississippi Valley, that those people had an +unrestricted right of settlement with their slaves under legal +protection throughout the entire ceded province, no man has ever yet +had the hardihood to deny. Here is a treaty promise to protect +their property--their slave property--in that Territory, before +it should become a State. That this promise was openly violated, in +the adjustment forced upon the South at the time of the admission of +Missouri, is a matter of recorded history. The perspicuous and +unanswerable exposition of Mr. Justice Catron, in the opinion +delivered by him in the Dred Scott case, will remain through all +time as an ample vindication of this assertion. + +If then, sir, the people of Louisiana had a right, which Congress +could not deny, of the admission into the Union with all the rights +of all the citizens of the United States, it is in vain that the +partisans of the right of the majority to govern the minority with +despotic control, attempt to establish a distinction, to her +prejudice, between her rights and those of any other State. The only +distinction which really exists is this, that she can point to a +breach of treaty stipulations expressly guaranteeing her rights, as +a wrong superadded to those which have impelled a number of her +sister States to the assertion of their independence. + +The rights of Louisiana as a sovereign State are those of Virginia; +no more, no less. Let those who deny her right to resume delegated +powers successfully refute the claim of Virginia to the same right, +in spite of her express reservation made and notified to her sister +States when she consented to enter the Union! And, sir, permit me to +say that, of all the causes which justify the action of the Southern +States, I know none of greater gravity and more alarming magnitude +than that now developed of the right of secession. A pretension so +monstrous as that which perverts a restricted agency constituted by +sovereign States for common purposes, into the unlimited despotism +of the majority, and denies all legitimate escape from such +despotism, when powers not delegated are usurped, converts the whole +constitutional fabric into the secure abode of lawless tyranny, and +degrades sovereign States into provincial dependencies. + +It is said that the right of secession, if conceded, makes of our +government a mere rope of sand; that to assert its existence +imputes to the framers of the Constitution the folly of planting +the seeds of death in that which was designed for perpetual +existence. If this imputation were true, sir, it would merely prove +that their offspring was not exempt from that mortality which is the +common lot of all that is not created by higher than human +power. But it is not so, sir. Let facts answer theory. For +two-thirds of a century this right has been known by many of the +States to be, at all times, within their power. Yet, up to the +present period, when its exercise has become indispensable to a +people menaced with absolute extermination, there have been but two +instances in which it has been even threatened seriously; the first, +when Massachusetts led the New England States in an attempt to +escape from the dangers of our last war with Great Britain; the +second, when the same State proposed to secede on account of the +admission of Texas as a new State into the Union. + +Sir, in the language of our declaration of secession from Great +Britain, it is stated as an established truth, that "all experience +has shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are +sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which +they have been accustomed"; and nothing can be more obvious to the +calm and candid observer of passing events than that the disruption +of the Confederacy has been due, in a great measure, not to the +existence, but to the denial of this right. Few candid men would +refuse to admit that the Republicans of the North would have been +checked in their mad career had they been convinced of the existence +of this right, and the intention to assert it. The very knowledge of +its existence by preventing occurrences which alone could prompt its +exercise would have rendered it a most efficient instrument in the +preservation of the Union, But, sir, if the fact were otherwise-- +if all the teachings of experience were reversed--better, far +better, a rope of sand, aye, the flimsiest gossamer that ever +glistened in the morning dew, than chains of iron and shackles of +steel; better the wildest anarchy, with the hope, the chance, of one +hour's inspiration of the glorious breath of freedom, than ages of +the hopeless bondage and oppression to which our enemies would +reduce us. + +We are told that the laws must be enforced; that the revenues must +be collected; that the South is in rebellion without cause, and that +her citizens are traitors. + +Rebellion! the very word is a confession; an avowal of tyranny, +outrage, and oppression. It is taken from the despot's code, and +has no terror for others than slavish souls. When, sir, did +millions of people, as a single man, rise in organized, deliberate, +unimpassioned rebellion against justice, truth, and honor? Well did +a great Englishman exclaim on a similar occasion:-- + +"You might as well tell me that they rebelled against the light of +heaven, that they rejected the fruits of the earth. Men do not war +against their benefactors; they are not mad enough to repel the +instincts of self-preservation. I pronounce fearlessly that no +intelligent people ever rose, or ever will rise, against a sincere, +rational, and benevolent authority. No people were ever born +blind. Infatuation is not a law of human nature. When there is a +revolt by a free people, with the common consent of all classes of +society, there must be a criminal against whom that revolt is +aimed." + +Traitors! Treason! Ay, sir, the people of the South imitate and +glory in just such treason as glowed in the soul of Hampden; just +such treason as leaped in living flame from the impassioned lips of +Henry; just such treason as encircles with a sacred halo the undying +name of Washington. + +You will enforce the laws. You want to know if we have a government; +if you have any authority to collect revenue; to wring tribute from +an unwilling people? Sir, humanity desponds, and all the inspiring +hopes of her progressive improvement vanish into empty air at the +reflections which crowd on the mind at hearing repeated, with +aggravated enormity, the sentiments against which a Chatham launched +his indignant thunders nearly a century ago. The very words of Lord +North and his royal master are repeated here in debate, not as +quotations, but as the spontaneous outpourings of a spirit the +counterpart of theirs. + +In Lord North's speech on the destruction of the tea in Boston +harbor, he said:-- + +"We are no longer to dispute between legislation and taxation; we +are now only to consider whether or not we have any authority +there. It is very clear we have none, if we suffer the property of +our subjects to be destroyed. We must punish, control, or yield to +them." + +And thereupon he proposed to close the port of Boston, just as the +representatives of Massachusetts now propose to close the port of +Charleston, in order to determine whether or not you have any +authority there. It is thus that, in 1861, Boston is to pay her +debt of gratitude to Charleston, which, in the days of her struggle, +proclaimed the generous sentiment that "the cause of Boston was the +cause of Charleston." Who, after this, will say that republicans +are ungrateful? Well, sir, the statesmen of Great Britain answered +to Lord North's appeal, "yield." The courtiers and the politicians +said, "punish," "control." The result is known. History gives you +the lesson. Profit by its teachings! + +So, sir, in the address sent under the royal sign-manual to +Parliament, it was invoked to take measures "for better securing the +execution of the laws," and it acquiesced in the suggestion. Just as +now, a senile executive, under the sinister influence of insane +counsels, is proposing, with your assent, "to secure the better +execution of the laws," by blockading ports and turning upon the +people of the States the artillery which they provided at their own +expense for their own defense, and intrusted to you and to him for +that and for no other purpose--nay, even in States that are now +exercising the undoubted and most precious rights of a free people; +where there is no secession; where the citizens are assembling to +hold peaceful elections for considering what course of action is +demanded in this dread crisis by a due regard for their own safety +and their own liberty; aye, even in Virginia herself, the people are +to cast their suffrages beneath the undisguised menaces of a +frowning fortress. Cannon are brought to bear on their homes, and +parricidal hands are preparing weapons for rending the bosom of the +mother of Washington. + +Sir, when Great Britain proposed to exact tribute from your fathers +against their will, Lord Chatham said:-- + +"Whatever is a man's own is absolutely his own; no man has a right +to take it from him without his consent. Whoever attempts to do it +attempts an injury. Whoever does it commits a robbery. You have no +right to tax America. I rejoice that America has resisted. + +"Let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be +asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend +to every point of legislation whatever, so that we may bind their +trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power, except +that of taking money out of their own pockets without their +consent." + +It was reserved for the latter half of the nineteenth century, and +for the Congress of a Republic of free men, to witness the willing +abnegation of all power, save that of exacting tribute. What +Imperial Britain, with the haughtiest pretensions of unlimited power +over dependent colonies, could not even attempt without the vehement +protest of her greatest statesmen, is to be enforced in aggravated +form, if you can enforce it, against independent States. + +Good God, sir! since when has the necessity arisen of recalling to +American legislators the lessons of freedom taught in lisping +childhood by loving mothers; that pervade the atmosphere we have +breathed from infancy; that so form part of our very being, that in +their absence we would lose the consciousness of our own identity? +Heaven be praised that not all have forgotten them; that when we +shall have left these familiar halls, and when force bills, +blockades, armies, navies, and all the accustomed coercive +appliances of despots shall be proposed and advocated, voices shall +be heard from this side of the chamber that will make its very roof +resound with the indignant clamor of outraged freedom. Methinks I +still hear ringing in my ears the appeal of the eloquent +Representative [Hon. George H. Pendleton, of Ohio], whose Northern +home looks down on Kentucky's fertile borders: "Armies, money, blood +cannot maintain this Union; justice, reason, peace may." + +And now to you, Mr. President, and to my brother Senators, on all +sides of this chamber, I bid a respectful farewell; with many of +those from whom I have been radically separated in political +sentiment, my personal relations have been kindly, and have inspired +me with a respect and esteem that I shall not willingly forget; with +those around me from the Southern States I part as men part from +brothers on the eve of a temporary absence, with a cordial pressure +of the hand and a smiling assurance of the speedy renewal of sweet +intercourse around the family hearth. But to you, noble and +generous friends, who, born beneath other skies, possess hearts that +beat in sympathy with ours; to you, who, solicited and assailed by +motives the most powerful that could appeal to selfish natures, have +nobly spurned them all; to you, who, in our behalf, have bared your +breasts to the fierce beatings of the storm, and made willing +sacrifice of life's most glittering prizes in your devotion to +constitutional liberty; to you, who have made our cause your cause, +and from many of whom I feel I part forever, what shall I, can I +say? Naught, I know and feel, is needed for myself; but this I will +say for the people in whose name I speak to-day: whether prosperous +or adverse fortunes await you, one priceless treasure is yours-- +the assurance that an entire people honor your names, and hold them +in grateful and affectionate memory. But with still sweeter and +more touching return shall your unselfish devotion be rewarded. +When, in after days, the story of the present shall be written, when +history shall have passed her stern sentence on the erring men who +have driven their unoffending brethren from the shelter of their +common home, your names will derive fresh lustre from the contrast; +and when your children shall hear repeated the familiar tale, it +will be with glowing cheek and kindling eye; their very souls will +stand a-tiptoe as their sires are named, and they will glory in +their lineage from men of spirit as generous and of patriotism as +high-hearted as ever illustrated or adorned the American Senate. + +SLAVERY AS ESTABLISHED BY LAW (Delivered in the United States +Senate, March 11th, 1858) + +Examine your Constitution; are slaves the only species of property +there recognized as requiring peculiar protection? Sir, the +inventive genius of our brethren of the North is a source of vast +wealth to them and vast benefit to the nation. I saw a short time +ago in one of the New York journals, that the estimated value of a +few of the patents now before us in this capitol for renewal was +$40,000,000. I cannot believe that the entire capital invested in +inventions of this character in the United States can fall short of +one hundred and fifty or two hundred million dollars. On what +protection does this vast property rest? Just upon that same +constitutional protection which gives a remedy to the slave-owner +when his property is also found outside of the limits of the State +in which he lives. + +Without this protection what would be the condition of the Northern +inventor? Why, sir, the Vermont inventor protected by his own law +would come to Massachusetts, and there say to the pirate who had +stolen his property, "Render me up my property, or pay me value for +its use." The Senator from Vermont would receive for answer, if he +were the counsel of this Vermont inventor: "Sir, if you want +protection for your property go to your own State; property is +governed by the laws of the State within whose jurisdiction it is +found; you have no property in your invention outside of the limits +of your State; you cannot go an inch beyond it." Would not this be +so? Does not every man see at once that the right of the inventor +to his discovery, that the right of the poet to his inspiration, +depends upon those principles of eternal justice which God has +implanted in the heart of man; and that wherever he cannot exercise +them, it is because man, faithless to the trust that he has received +from God, denies them the protection to which they are entitled? + +Sir, follow out the illustration which the Senator from Vermont +himself has given; take his very case of the Delaware owner of a +horse riding him across the line into Pennsylvania. The Senator +says, "Now you see that slaves are not property, like other +property; if slaves were property like other property, why have you +this special clause in your Constitution to protect a slave? You +have no clause to protect a horse, because horses are recognized as +property everywhere." Mr. President, the same fallacy lurks at the +bottom of this argument, as of all the rest. Let Pennsylvania +exercise her undoubted jurisdiction over persons and things within +her own boundary, let her do as she has a perfect right to +do--declare that hereafter, within the State of Pennsylvania, there +shall be no property in horses, and that no man shall maintain a +suit in her courts for the recovery of property in a horse, and +where will your horse owner be then? Just where the English poet is +now; just where the slaveholder and the inventor would be if the +Constitution, foreseeing a difference of opinion in relation to +rights in these subject-matters, had not provided the remedy in +relation to such property as might easily be plundered. Slaves, if +you please, are not property like other property in this, that you +can easily rob us of them; but as to the right in them, that man has +to overthrow the whole history of the world, he has to overthrow +every treatise on jurisprudence, he has to ignore the common +sentiment of mankind, he has to repudiate the authority of all that +is considered sacred with man, ere he can reach the conclusion that +the person who owns a slave, in a country where slavery has been +established for ages, has no other property in that slave than the +mere title which is given by the statute law of the land where it is +found. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of +10), by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD'S BEST ORATIONS, *** + +***** This file should be named 14182.txt or 14182.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/1/8/14182/ + +Produced by Kent Fielden + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/14182.zip b/old/14182.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e10c15 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14182.zip |