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diff --git a/34637-8.txt b/34637-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4914daf --- /dev/null +++ b/34637-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9583 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional +Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3), by Theodore Parker + +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: Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3) + +Author: Theodore Parker + +Release Date: December 13, 2010 [EBook #34637] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPEECHES, ADDRESSES, SERMONS (2/3) *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +SPEECHES, ADDRESSES, + +AND + +OCCASIONAL SERMONS, + +BY + +THEODORE PARKER, + +MINISTER OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN BOSTON. + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + +VOL. II. + +BOSTON: +HORACE B. FULLER, +(SUCCESSOR TO WALKER, FULLER, AND COMPANY,) +245, WASHINGTON STREET. + +1867. + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, by +THEODORE PARKER, +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court +of the District of Massachusetts. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. + + +I. + +A SERMON OF THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF BOSTON.--Preached +at the Melodeon, on Sunday, February 18, 1849 + + PAGE 1 + +II. + +SOME THOUGHTS ON THE MOST CHRISTIAN USE OF THE +SUNDAY.--A Sermon preached at the Melodeon, on Sunday, +January 30, 1848 56 + +III. + +A SERMON OF IMMORTAL LIFE.--Preached at the Melodeon +on Sunday, September 20, 1846 105 + +IV. + +THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.--An Address +delivered before the Onondaga Teachers' Institute at Syracuse, +New York, October 4, 1849 139 + +V. + +THE POLITICAL DESTINATION OF AMERICA, AND THE +SIGNS OF THE TIMES.--An Address delivered before +several literary Societies in 1848 198 + +VI. + +A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF JOHN +QUINCY ADAMS.--Delivered at the Melodeon, on Sunday, +March 5, 1848 252 + +VII. + +A SPEECH AT A MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY +SOCIETY, TO CELEBRATE THE ABOLITION OF +SLAVERY BY THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, April 6, 1848 331 + +VIII. + +A SPEECH AT FANEUIL HALL, BEFORE THE NEW ENGLAND +ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, May 31, 1848 344 + +IX. + +SOME THOUGHTS ON THE FREE SOIL PARTY, AND THE +ELECTION OF GENERAL TAYLOR, December, 1848 360 + + + + +A SERMON OF THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF BOSTON.--PREACHED AT THE +MELODEON, ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1849. + +MATTHEW VIII. 20. + + By their fruits ye shall know them. + + +Last Sunday I said something of the moral condition of Boston; to-day I +ask your attention to a Sermon of the Spiritual Condition of Boston. I +use the word spiritual in its narrower sense, and speak of the condition +of this town in respect to piety. A little while since, in a sermon of +piety, I tried to show that love of God lay at the foundation of all +manly excellence, and was the condition of all noble, manly development; +that love of truth, love of justice, love of love, were respectively the +condition of intellectual, moral, and affectional development, and that +they were also respectively the intellectual, moral, and affectional +forms of piety; that the love of God as the Infinite Father, the +totality of truth, justice, and love was the general condition of the +total development of man's spiritual powers. But I showed, that +sometimes this piety, intellectual, moral, affectional or total, did not +arrive at self-consciousness; the man only unconsciously loving the +Infinite in one or all these modes, and in such cases the man was a +loser by frustrating his piety, and allowing it to stop in the truncated +form of unconsciousness. + +Now what is in you will appear out of you; if piety be there in any of +these forms, in either mode, it will come out; if not there, its fruits +cannot appear. You may reason forward or backward: if you know piety +exists, you may foretell its appearance; if you find fruits thereof, you +may reason back and be sure of its existence. Piety is love of God as +God, and as we only love what we are like, and in that degree, so it is +also a likeness to God. Now it is a general doctrine in Christendom that +divinity must manifest itself; and, in assuming the highest form of +manifestation known to us, divinity becomes humanity. However, that +doctrine is commonly taught in the specific and not generic form, and is +enforced by an historical and concrete example, but not by way of a +universal thesis. It appears thus: The Christ was God; as such He must +manifest himself; the form of manifestation was that of a complete and +perfect man. I reject the concrete example, but accept the universal +doctrine on which the special dogma of the Trinity is erected. From that +I deduce this as a general rule: If you follow the law of your nature, +and are simple and true to that, as much of godhead as there is in you, +so much of manhood will come out of you, and, as much of manhood comes +out of you, so much of godhead was there within you; as much subjective +divinity, so much objective humanity. + +Such being the case, the demands you can make on a man for manliness +must depend for their answer on the amount of piety on deposit in his +character; so it becomes important to know the condition of this town in +respect of piety, for if this be not right in the above sense, nothing +else is right; or, to speak more clerically, "Unless the Lord keep the +city, the watchman waketh but in vain," and unless piety be developed or +a-developing in men, it is vain for the minister to sit up late of a +Saturday night to concoct his sermon, and to rise up early of a Sunday +morning to preach the same; he fights but as one that beateth the air, +and spends his strength for that which is nought. They are in the right, +therefore, who first of all things demand piety: so let us see what +signs or proof we have, and of what amount of piety in Boston. + +To determine this, we must have some test by which to judge of the +quality, distinguishing piety from impiety, and some standard whereby to +measure the quantity thereof; for though you may know what piety is in +you, I what is in me, and God what is in both and in all the rest of us, +it is plain that we can only judge of the existence of piety in other +men, and measure its quantity by an outward manifestation thereof, in +some form which shall serve at once as a trial test and a standard +measure. + +Now, then, as I mentioned in that former sermon, it is on various sides +alleged that there are two outward manifestations of piety, a good deal +unlike: each is claimed by some men as the exclusive trial test and +standard measure. Let me say a word of each. + +I. Some contend for what I call the conventional standard; that is, the +manifestation of piety by means of certain prescribed forms. Of these +forms there are three modes or degrees: namely, first, the form of +bodily attendance on public worship; second, the belief in certain +doctrines, not barely because they are proven true, or known without +proof, but because they are taught with authority; and third, a passive +acquiescence in certain forms and ceremonies, or an active performance +thereof. + +II. The other I call the natural standard; that is, the manifestation of +piety in the natural form of morality in its various degrees and modes +of action. + + * * * * * + +It is plain, that the amount of piety in a man or a town, will appear +very different when tested by one or the other of these standards. It +may be that very little water runs through the wooden trough which feeds +the saw-mill at Niagara, and yet a good deal, blue and bounding, may +leap over the rock, adown its natural channel. In a matter of this +importance, when taking account of a stock so precious as piety, it is +but fair to try it by both standards. + + * * * * * + +Let us begin with the conventional standard, and examine piety by its +manifestation in the ecclesiastical forms. Here is a difficulty at the +outset, in determining upon the measure, for there is no one and general +ecclesiastical standard, common to all parties of Christians, from the +Catholic to the Quaker; each measures by its own standard, but denies +the correctness of all the others. It is as if a foot were declared the +unit of long measure, and then the actual foot of the chief justice of a +State, were taken as the rule by which to correct all measurements; then +the foot would vary as you went from North Carolina to South, and, in +any one State, would vary with the health of the judge. However, to do +what can be done with a measure thus uncertain, it is plain, that, +estimated by any ecclesiastical standard, the amount of piety is small. +There is, as men often say, "A general decline of piety;" that is a +common complaint, recorded and registered. But what makes the matter +worse to the ecclesiastical philosopher, and more appalling to the +complainers, is this: it is a decline of long standing. The disease +which is thus lamented is said to be acute, but is proved to be chronic +also; only it would seem, from the lamentations of some modern +Jeremiahs, that the decline went on with accelerated velocity, and, the +more chronic the disease was, the acuter it also became. + +Tried by this standard, things seem discouraging. To get a clearer view, +let us look a little beyond our own borders, at first, and then come +nearer home. The Catholic church complains of a general defection. The +majority of the Christian church confesses that the Protestant +Reformation was not a revival of religion, not a "Great awakening," but +a great falling to sleep; the faith of Luther and Calvin was a great +decline of religion--a decline of piety in the ecclesiastical form; that +modern philosophy, the physics of Galileo and Newton, the metaphysics of +Descartes and of Kant, mark another decline of religion--a decline of +piety in the philosophical form; that all the modern democracy of the +eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, marks a yet further decline of +religion--a decline of piety in the political form; that all the modern +secular societies, for removing the evils of men and their sins, mark a +yet fourth decline of religion--a decline of piety in the philanthropic +form. Certainly, when measured by the mediæval standard of Catholicism, +these mark four great declensions of piety, for, in all four, the old +principle of subordination to an external and personal authority is set +aside. + +All over Europe this decline is still going on; ecclesiastical +establishments are breaking down; other establishments are a-building +up. Pius the Ninth seems likely to fulfil his own prophecy, and be the +last of the Popes; I mean the last with temporal power. There is a great +schism in the north of Europe; the Germans will be Catholics, but no +longer Roman. The old forms of piety, such as service in Latin, the +withholding of the Bible from the people, compulsory confession, the +ungrateful celibacy of a reluctant priesthood--all these are protested +against. It is of no avail that the holy coat of Jesus, at Treves, works +greater miracles than the apostolical napkins and aprons; of no avail +that the Virgin Mary appeared on the nineteenth of September, 1846, to +two shepherd-children, at La Salette, in France. What are such things to +Ronge and Wessenberg? Neither the miraculous coat, nor the miraculous +mother, avails aught against this untoward generation, charm they never +so wisely. The decline of piety goes on. By the new Constitution of +France, all forms of religion are equal; the Catholic and the +Protestant, the Mahometan and the Jew, are equally sheltered under the +broad shield of the law. Even Spain, the fortress walled and moated +about, whither the spirit of the middle ages retired and shut herself up +long since, womanning her walls with unmanly priests and kings, with +unfeminine queens and nuns--even Spain fails with the general failure. +British capitalists buy up her convents and nunneries, to turn them into +woollen mills. Monks and nuns forget their beads in some new +handicraft; sister Mary, who sat still in the house, is now also busy +with serving, careful, indeed, about more things than formerly, but not +cumbered nor troubled as before. Meditative Rachels, and Hannahs, long +unblest, who sat in solitude, have now become like practical Dorcas, +making garments for the poor; the Bank is become more important than the +Inquisition. The order of St. Francis d'Assisi, of St. Benedict, even of +St. Dominic himself, is giving way before the new order of Arkwright, +Watt, and Fulton,--the order of the spinning jenny and the power-loom. +It is no longer books on the miraculous conception, or meditations on +the five wounds of the Saviour, or commentaries on the song of songs +which is Solomon's, that get printed there: but fiery novels of Eugene +Sue, and George Sand; and so extremes meet. + +Protestant establishments share the same peril. A new sect of +Protestants rises up in Germany, who dissent as much from the letter and +spirit of Protestantism, as the Protestants from Catholicism; men that +will not believe the infallibility of the Bible, the doctrine of the +Trinity, the depravity of man, the eternity of future punishment, nor +justification by faith--a justification before God, for mere belief +before men. The new spirit gets possession of new men, who cannot be +written down, nor even howled down. Excommunication or abuse does no +good on such men as Bauer, Strauss, and Schwegler; and it answers none +of their questions. It seems pretty clear, that in all the north of +Germany, within twenty years, there will be entire freedom of worship, +for all sects, Protestant and Catholic. + +In England, Protestantism has done its work less faithfully than in +Germany. The Protestant spirit of England came here two hundred years +ago, so that new and Protestant England is on the west of the ocean; in +England, an established church lies there still, an iceberg in the +national garden. But even there, the decline of the ecclesiastical form +of piety is apparent: the new bishops must not sit in the House of +Lords, till the old ones die out, for the number of lords spiritual must +not increase, though the temporal may; the new attempt, at Oxford and +elsewhere, to restore the Middle Ages, will not prosper. Bring back all +the old rites and forms into Leeds and Manchester; teach men the +theology of Thomas Aquinas, or of St. Bernard; bid them adore the +uplifted wafer, as the very God, men who toil all day with iron mills, +who ride in steam-drawn coaches, and talk by lightning in a whisper, +from the Irk to the Thames,--they will not consent to the philosophy or +the theology of the Middle Ages, nor be satisfied with the old forms of +piety, which, though too elevated for their fathers in the time of +Elizabeth, are yet too low for them, at least too antiquated. Dissenters +have got into the House of Commons; the test-act is repealed, and a man +can be a captain in the army, or a postmaster in a village, without +first taking the Lord's Supper, after the fashion of the Church of +England. Some men demand the abandonment of tithes, the entire +separation of Church and State, the return to "The voluntary principle" +in religion. "The battering ram which levelled old Sarum," and other +boroughs as corrupt, now beats on the church, and the "Church is in +danger." Men complain of the decline of piety in England. An intelligent +and very serious writer, not long ago, lamenting this decline, in proof +thereof, relates, that formerly men began their last wills, "In the name +of God, Amen;" and headed bills of lading with, "Shipped in good order, +by the grace of God;" that indictments for capital crimes charged the +culprit with committing felony, "At the instigation of the devil," and +now, he complains, these forms have gone out of use. + +In America, in New England, in Boston, when measured by that standard, +the same decline of piety is apparent. It is often said that our +material condition is better than our moral; that in advance of our +spiritual condition. There is a common clerical complaint of a certain +thinness in the churches; men do not give their bodily attendance, as +once they did; they are ready enough to attend lectures, two or three in +a week, no matter how scientific and abstract, or how little connected +with their daily work, yet they cannot come to the church without +teasing beforehand, nor keep awake while there. It is said the minister +is not respected as formerly. True, a man of power is respected, heard, +sought, and followed, but it is for his power, for his words of grace +and truth, not for his place in a pulpit; he may have more influence as +a man, but less as a clergyman. Ministers lament a prevalent disbelief +of their venerable doctrines; that there is a concealed skepticism in +regard to them, often not concealed. This, also, is a well-founded +complaint; the well-known dogmas of theology were never in worse repute; +there was never so large a portion of the community in New England who +were doubtful of the Trinity, of eternal damnation, of total depravity, +of the atonement, of the Godhead of Jesus, of the miracles of the New +Testament, and of the truth of every word of the Bible. A complaint is +made, that the rites and forms which are sometimes called "the +ordinances of religion," are neglected; that few men join the church, +and though the old hedge is broken down before the altar, yet the number +of communicants diminishes, and it is no longer able-headed men, the +leaders of society, who come; that the ordinances seem haggard and +ghastly to young men, who cannot feed their hungry souls on such a thin +pittance of spiritual aliment as these afford; that the children are not +baptized. These things are so; so in Europe, Catholic and Protestant; so +in America, so in Boston. Notwithstanding the well-founded complaint +that our modern churches are too costly for the times, we do not build +temples which bear so high a proportion to our wealth as the early +churches of Boston; the attendance at meeting does not increase as the +population; the ministers are not prominent, as in the days of Wilson, +of Cotton, and of Norton; their education is not now in the same +proportion to the general culture of the times. Harvard College, +dedicated to "Christ and the Church," designed at first chiefly for the +education of the clergy, graduates few ministers; theological literature +no longer overawes all other. The number of church members was never so +small in proportion to the voters as now; the number of Protestant +births never so much exceeded the number of Protestant baptisms. Young +men of superior ability and superior education have little affection for +the ministry; take little interest in the welfare of the church. Nay, +youths descended from a wealthy family seldom look that way. It is poor +men's sons, men of obscure family, who fill the pulpits; often, +likewise, men of slender ability, eked out with an education +proportionately scant. The most active members of the churches are +similar in position, ability, and culture. These are undeniable facts. +They are not peculiar to New England. You find them wherever the +voluntary principle is resorted to. In England, in Catholic countries, +you find the old historic names in the Established Church; there is no +lack of aristocratic blood in clerical veins; but there and everywhere +the church seems falling astern of all other craft which can keep the +sea. + +Since these things are so, men who have only the conventional standard +wherewith to measure the amount of piety, only that test to prove its +existence by, think we are rapidly going to decay; that the tabernacle +is fallen down, and no man rises to set it up. They complain that Zion +is in distress; theological newspapers lament that there are no revivals +to report; that "The Lord has withheld His arm," and does not "pour out +His Spirit upon the churches." Ghastly meetings are held by men with +sincere and noble heart, but saddened face; speeches are made which seem +a groan of linked wailings long drawn out. Men mourn at the infidelity +of the times, at the coldness of some, at the deadness of others. All +the sects complain of this, yet each loves to attribute the deadness of +the rival sects to their special theology; it is Unitarianism which is +choking the Unitarians, say their foes, and the Unitarians know how to +retort after the same fashion. The less enlightened put the blame of +this misfortune on the good God who has somehow "withheld His hand," or +omitted to "pour out His Spirit,"--the people perishing for want of the +open vision. Others put the blame on mankind; some on "poor human +nature," which is not what might have been expected, not perceiving +that if the fault be there it is not for us to remedy, and if God made +man a bramble-bush, that no wailing will make him bear figs. Yet others +refer this condition to the use made of human nature, which certainly is +a more philosophical way of looking at the matter. + +Now there is one sect which has done great service in former days, which +is, I think, still doing something to enlighten and liberalize the land, +and, I trust, will yet do more, more even than it consciously intends. +The name of Unitarian is deservedly dear to many of us, who yet will not +be shackled by any denominational fetters. This sect has always been +remarkable for a certain gentlemanly reserve about all that pertained to +the inward part of religion; other faults it might have, but it did not +incur the reproach of excessive enthusiasm, or a spirituality too +sublimated and transcendental for daily use. This sect has long been a +speckled bird among the denominations, each of which has pecked at her, +or at least cawed with most unmelodious croak against this new-fledged +sect. It was said the Unitarians had "denied the Lord that bought them;" +that theirs was the church of unbelief--not the church of Christ, but of +No-Christ; that they had a Bible of their own, and a thin, poor Bible, +too; that their ways were ways of destruction; "Touch not, taste not, +handle not," was to be written on their doctrines; that they had not +even the grace of lukewarmness, but were moral and stone-cold; that +they looked fair on the side turned towards man, but on the Godward side +it was a blank wall with no gate, nor window, nor loop-hole, nor eyelet +for the Holy Ghost to come through; that their prayers were only a show +of devotion to cover up the hard rock of the flinty heart, or the frozen +ground of morality. Their faith, it was said, was only a conviction +after the case was proven by unimpeachable evidence, and good for +nothing; while belief without evidence, or against proof, seems to be +the right ecclesiastical talisman. + +For a long time the Unitarian sect did not grumble unduly, but set +itself to promote the cultivation of reason and apply that to religion; +to cultivate morality and apply it to life; and to demand the most +entire personal freedom for all men in all matters pertaining to +religion. Hence came its merits; they were very great merits, too, and +not at all the merits of the times, held in common with the other sects. +I need not dwell on this, and the good works of Unitarianism, in this +the most Unitarian city in the world; but as a general thing the +Unitarians, it seems to me, did neglect the culture of piety; and of +course their morality, while it lasted, would be unsatisfactory, and in +time would wither and dry up because it had no deepness of earth to grow +out of. The Unitarians, as a general thing, began outside, and sought to +work inward, proceeding from the special to the general, by what might +be called the inductive mode of religious culture; that was the form +adopted in pulpits, and in families so far as there was any religious +education attempted in private. That is not the method of nature, where +all growth is the development of a living germ, which by an inward power +appropriates the outward things it needs, and grows thereby. Hence came +the defects of Unitarianism, and they were certainly very great defects; +but they came almost unavoidably from the circumstances of the times. +The sensational philosophy was the only philosophy that prevailed; the +Orthodox sects had always rejected a part of that philosophy, not in the +name of science, but of piety, and they supplied its place not with a +better philosophy, but with tradition, speaking with an authority which +claimed to be above human nature. It was not in the name of reason that +they rejected a false philosophy, but in the name of religion often +denounced all philosophy and the reason which demanded it. The +Unitarians rejected that portion of Orthodoxy, became more consistent +sensationalists, and arrived at results which we know. Now it is easy to +see their error; not difficult to avoid it; but forty or fifty years ago +it was almost impossible not to fall into this mistake. Sometimes it +seems as if the Unitarians were half conscious of this defect, and so +dared not be original, but borrowed Orthodox weapons, or continued to +use Trinitarian phrases long after they had blunted those weapons of +their point, and emptied the phrases of their former sense. In the +controversy between the Orthodox and Unitarians, neither party was +wholly right: the Unitarians had reason to charge the Orthodox with +debasing man's nature, and representing God as not only unworthy, but +unjust, and somewhat odious; the Trinitarians were mainly right in +charging us with want of conscious piety, with beginning to work at the +wrong end; but at the same time it must be remembered, that, in +proportion to their numbers, the Unitarians have furnished far more +philanthropists and reformers than any of the other sects. It is time to +confess this on both sides. + +For a long time the Unitarian sect did not complain much of the decline +of piety; it did not care to have an organization, loving personal +freedom too well for that, and it had not much denominational feeling; +indeed, its members were kept together, not so much by an agreement and +unity of opinion among themselves, as by a unity of opposition from +without; it was not the hooks on their shields that held the legion +together with even front, but the pressure of hostile shields crowded +upon them from all sides. They did not believe in spasmodic action; if a +body was dead, they gave it burial, without trying to galvanize it into +momentary life, not worth the spark it cost; they knew that a small +cloud may make a good many flashes in the dark, but that many +lightnings cannot make light. They stood apart from the violent efforts +of other churches to get converts. The converts they got commonly +adhered to their faith, and in this respect differed a good deal from +those whom "Revivals" brought into other churches; with whom +Christianity sprung up in a night, and in a night also perished. Some +years ago, when this city was visited and ravaged by Revivals, the +Unitarians kept within doors, gave warning of the danger, and suffered +less harm and loss from that tornado than any of the sects. Unitarianism +seems, in this city, to have done its original work; so the company is +breaking up by degrees, and the men are going off, to engage in other +business, to weed other old fields, or to break up new land, each man +following his own sense of duty, and for himself determining whether to +go or stay. But at the same time, an attempt is made to keep the company +together; to cultivate a denominational feeling; to put hooks and +staples on the shields which no longer offer that formidable and even +front; to teach all trumpets to give the same sectarian bray, all voices +to utter the same war-cry. The attempt does not succeed; the ranks are +disordered, the trumpets give an uncertain sound, and the soldiers do +not prepare themselves for denominational battle; nay, it often happens +that the camp lacks the two sinews of war--both money, and men. Hence +the denominational view of religious affairs has undergone a change; I +make no doubt a real and sincere change, though I know this has been +denied, and the change thought only official. The men I refer to are +sincere and devout men; some of them quite above the suspicion of mere +official conduct. This sect is now the loudest in its wailing; these +Christian Jeremiahs tell us that we do not realize spiritual things, +that we are all dead men, that there is no health in us. These cold +Unitarian Thomases crowd unwontedly together in public to bewail the +spiritual weather, the dearth of piety in Boston, the "General decline +of religion" in New England. Church unto church raises the Macedonian +cry, "Come over and help us!" The opinion seems general that piety is in +a poor way, and must have watchers, the strongest medicine, and nursing +quite unusual, or it will soon be all over, and Unitarianism will give +up the ghost. Various causes have I heard assigned for the malady; some +think that there has been over-much preaching of philosophy, though +perhaps there is not evidence to convict any one man in particular of +the offence; that philosophy is the dog in the manger, who keeps the +hungry Unitarian flock from their spiritual hay, and cut-straw, which +are yet of not the smallest use to him. But look never so sharp, and you +do not find this dangerous beast in the neighborhood of the fold. Others +think that there has been also an excess of moral preaching, against the +prevalent sins of the nation, I suppose--but few individuals seem +liable to conviction on that charge. Yet others think this decline comes +from the fact that the terrors have not been duly and sufficiently +administered from the pulpit; that while Catholics and Methodists thrive +under such influences, the Unitarian widows are neglected in the weekly +ministration of terror and of threat; that there has not been so much an +excess of lightning in the form of philosophy or morality, but only a +lack of thunder. + +This temporary movement among the Unitarians of Boston is natural; in +some respects it is what our fathers would have called "judicial." The +Unitarians have been cold, have looked more at the outward +manifestations of goodness than at the inward spirit of piety which was +to make the manifestations; they have not had an excess of philosophy, +or of morality, but a defect of piety. They have been more respectable +than pious. They have not always quite rightly appreciated the +enthusiasm of sterner and more austere sects; not always done justice to +the inwardness of religion those sects sought to promote. When their +churches get a little thin, and their denominational affairs a little +disturbed, it is quite natural these Unitarians should look after the +cause and pass over to lamentations at the present state of things; +while looking at the community from the new point of view, it is quite +natural that they should suppose piety on the decline, and religion +dying out. Yes, in general it is plain that, if men have no eyes but +conventional eyes, no spirit but that of the ecclesiastical order they +serve in, and of the denomination they belong to, it is natural for them +to think that because piety does not flow in the old ecclesiastical +channel, it does not flow anywhere, and there is none at all to run. +Thus it is easy to explain the complaint of the Catholics at the great +defection of the most enlightened nations of Europe; the lamentation of +the Protestants at the heresy of the most enlightened portion of their +sect; and the Unitarian wail over the general decline of piety in the +city of Boston. Some men can only judge the present age by the +conventional standard of the past, and as the old form of piety does not +appear, they must conclude there is no piety. + + * * * * * + +Let us now recur to the other or natural standard, and look at the +manifestation of piety in the form of morality. Last Sunday I spoke of +our moral condition; and it appeared that morals were in a low state +here when compared with the ideal morals of Christianity. Now as the +outward deed is but the manifestation of the inward life, and objective +humanity the index of subjective divinity, so the low state of morals +proves a low state of piety; if the heart of this town was right towards +God, then would its hand also be right towards man. I am one of those +who for long years have lamented the want of vital piety in this +people. We not only do not realize spiritual things, but we do not make +them our ideals. I see proofs of this want of piety in the low morals of +trade, of the public press; in poverty, intemperance, and crime; in the +vices and social wrongs touched on the last Sunday. I judge the tree by +its fruit. But it is not on this ground that the ecclesiastical +complaint is based. Men who make so much ado about the absence of piety, +do not appeal for proof thereof to the great vices and prominent sins of +the times; they see no sign of that in our trade and our politics; in +the misery that festers in putrid lanes, one day to breed a pestilence, +which it were even cheaper to hinder now, than cure at a later time; +nobody mentions as proof the Mexican War, the political dishonesty of +officers, the rapacity of office-seekers, the servility of men who will +tamely suffer the most sacred rights of three millions of men to be +trodden into the dust. Matters which concern millions of men came up +before your Congress; the great Senator of Massachusetts loitered away +the time of the session here in Boston, managing a lawsuit for a few +thousand dollars, and no fault was publicly found with such neglect of +public duty; but men see no lack of piety indicated by this fact, and +others like it; they find signs of that lack in empty pews, in a +deserted communion-table, in the fact that children, though brought up +to reverence truth and justice, to love man and to love God, are not +baptized with water; or in the fact that Unitarianism or Trinitarianism +is on the decline! How many wailings have we all heard or read, because +the Puritan churches of Boston have not kept the faith of their grim +founders; what lamentations at the rising up of a sect which refuses the +doctrine of the Trinity, or at the appearance of a few men who, +neglecting the common props of Christianity, rest it, for its basis, on +the nature of man and the nature of God: though almost all the eminent +philanthropy of the day is connected with these men, yet they are still +called "Infidel," and reviled on all hands! + +The state of things mentioned in the last sermon does indicate a want of +piety, a deep and a great want. I do not see signs of that in the debt +and decay of churches, in absence from meetings, in doubt of theological +dogmas, in neglect of forms and ceremonies which once were of great +value; but I do see it in the low morals of trade, of the press; in the +popular vices. On a national scale I see it in the depravity of +political parties, in the wicked war we have just fought, in the slavery +we still tolerate and support. Yes, as I look on the churches of this +city, I see a want of piety in the midst of us. If eminent piety were in +them, and allowed to follow its natural bent, it would come out of them +in the form of eminent humanity; they would lead in the philanthropies +of this day, where they hardly follow. In this condition of the churches +I see a most signal proof of the low estate of piety; they do not +manifest a love of truth, which is the piety of the intellect; nor a +love of justice, which is the piety of the moral sense; nor a love of +love, which is the piety of the affections; nor a love of God as the +Infinite Father of all men, which is the total piety of the whole soul. +For lack of this internal divinity there is a lack of external humanity. +Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? This is what I complain +of, what I mourn over. + +The clergymen of this city are most of them sincere men, I doubt not; +some of them men of a superior culture; many of them laborious men; +most, perhaps all of them, deeply interested in the welfare of the +churches, and the promotion of piety. But how many of them are marked +and known for their philanthropy, distinguished for their zeal in +putting down any of the major sins of our day, zealous in any work of +reform? I fear I can count them all on the fingers of a single hand; yet +there are enough to bewail the departure of monastic forms, and of the +theology which led men in the dimness of a darker age, but cannot shine +in the rising light of this. I find no fault with these men; I blame +them not; it is their profession which so blinds their eyes. They are as +wise and as valiant as the churches let them be. What sect in all this +land ever cared about temperance, education, peace betwixt nations, or +even the freedom of all men in our own, so much as this sect cares for +the baptizing of children with water, and that for the baptizing of men; +this for the doctrine of the Trinity, and all for the infallibility of +the Bible? Do you ask the sects to engage in the work of extirpating +concrete wrong? It is in vain; each reformer tries it--the mild sects +answer, "I pray thee have me excused;" the sterner sects reply with +awful speech. A distinguished theological journal of another city thinks +the philanthropies of this day are hostile to piety, and declares that +true spiritual Christianity never prevails where men think slavery is a +sin. A distinguished minister of a highly respectable sect declares the +temperance societies unchristian, and even atheistical. He reasons thus: +The church is an instrument appointed by God and Christ, to overcome all +forms of wrong, intemperance among the rest; to neglect this instrument +and devise another, a temperance society, to wit, is to abandon the +institutions of God and Christ, and so it is unchristian and +atheistical. In other words, here is intemperance, a stone of stumbling, +and a rock of offence, in our way; there is an old wooden beetle, which +has done great service of old time, and is said to have been made by +God's own hand; men smite therewith the stone or smite it not; still it +lies there a stone of stumbling and a stone of shame; other men +approach, and with a sledge-hammer of well-tempered steel smite the +rock, and break off piece after piece, smoothing the rough +impracticable way; they call on men to come to their aid, with such +weapons as they will. But our minister bids them beware; the beetle is +"of the Lord," the iron which breaks the rock in pieces is an +unchristian and atheistical instrument. Yet was this minister an +earnest, a pious, and a self-denying man, who sincerely sought the good +of men. He had been taught to know no piety but in the church's form. I +would not do dishonor to the churches; they have done great service, +they still do much; I would only ask them to be worthy of their +Christian name. They educate men a little, and allow them to approach +emancipation, but never to be free and go alone. + + * * * * * + +I see much to complain of in the condition of piety; yet nothing to be +alarmed at. When I look back, it seems worse still, far worse. There has +not been "A decline of piety" in Boston of late years. Religion is not +sick. Last Sunday, I spoke of the great progress made in morality within +fifty years; I said it was an immense progress within two hundred years. +Now, there cannot be such a progress in the outward manifestation +without a corresponding and previous development of the inward +principle. Morality cannot grow without piety more than an oak without +water, earth, sun, and air. Let me go back one hundred years; see what a +difference between the religious aspect of things then and now! +certainly there has been a great growth in spirituality since that day. +I am not to judge men's hearts; I may take their outward lives as the +test and measure of their inward piety. Will you say the outward life +never completely comes up to that? It does so as completely now as then. +Compare the toleration of these times with those; compare the +intelligence of the community; the temperance, sobriety, chastity, +virtue in general. Look at what is now done in a municipal way by towns +and States for mankind; see the better provision made for the poor, for +the deaf, the dumb, the blind, for the insane, even for the idiot; see +what is done for the education of the people--in schools, academies, +colleges, and by public lectures; what is done for the criminal to +prevent the growth of crime. See what an amelioration of the penal laws; +how men are saved and restored to society, who had once been wholly +lost. See what is done by philanthropy still more eminent, which the +town and State have not yet overtaken and enacted into law; by the +various societies for reform--those for temperance, for peace, for the +discipline of prisons, for the discharged convicts, for freeing the +slave. See this Anti-slavery party, which, in twenty years, has become +so powerful throughout all the Northern States, so strong that it cannot +be howled down, and men begin to find it hardly safe to howl over it; a +party which only waits the time to lift up its million arms, and hurl +the hateful institution of slavery out of the land! All these humane +movements come from a divine piety in the soul of man. A tree which +bears such fruits is not a dead tree; is not wholly to be despaired of; +is not yet in a "decline," and past all hope of recovery. Is the age +wanting in piety, which makes such efforts as these? Yes, you will say, +because it does no more. I agree to this, but it is rich in piety +compared to other times. Ours is an age of faith; not of mere belief in +the commandments of men, but of faith in the nature of man and the +commandments of God. + +This prevailing and contagious complaint about the decline of religion +is not one of the new things of our time. In the beginning of the last +century, Dr. Colman, first minister of the church in Brattle street, +lamented in small capitals over the general decline of piety:--"The +venerable name of religion and of the church is made a sham pretence for +the worst of villanies, for uncharitableness and unnatural oppression of +the pious and the peaceable;" "the perilous times are come, wherein men +are lovers only of their own selves." "Ah, calamitous day," says he, +"into which we are fallen, and into which the sins of our infatuated age +have brought us!" He looks back to the founders of New England; they +"were rich in faith, and heirs of a better world," "men of whom the +world was not worthy;" "they laid in a stock of prayers for us which +have brought down many blessings on us already." Samuel Willard +bewailed "the checkered state of the gospel church;" it was "in every +respect a gloomy day, and covered with thick clouds." + +We retire yet further back, to the end of the seventeenth century; a +hundred and sixty or seventy years ago, Dr. Increase Mather, not only in +his own pulpit, but also at "the great and Thursday lecture," lamented +over "the degeneracy and departing glory of New England." He complained +that there was a neglect of the Sabbath, of the ordinances, and of +family worship; he groaned at the lax discipline of the churches, and +looked, says another, "as fearfully on the growing charity as on the +growing vices of the age." He called the existing generation "an +unconverted generation." "Atheism and profaneness," says he, "have come +to a prodigious height;" "God will visit" for these things; "God is +about to open the windows of heaven, and pour down the cataracts of His +wrath ere this generation ... is passed away." If a comet appeared in +the sky, it was to admonish men of the visitation, and make "the haughty +daughters of Zion reform their pride of apparel." "The world is full of +unbelief" (that is, in the malignant aspect and disastrous influence of +comets), "but there is an awful Scripture for them that do profanely +condemn such signal works!" + +One of the present and well-known indications of the decline of piety, +that is often thought a modern luxury, and ridiculously denounced in +the pulpit, which has done its part in fostering the enjoyment, was +practised to an extent that alarmed the prim shepherds of the New +England flock in earlier days. The same Dr. Mather preached a series of +sermons "tending to promote the power of godliness," and concludes the +whole with a discourse "Of sleeping at sermons," and says: "To sleep in +the public worship of God is a thing too frequently and easily +practised; it is a great and a dangerous evil." "Sleeping at a sermon is +a greater sin than speaking an idle word. Therefore, if men must be +called to account for idle words, much more for this!" "Gospel sermons +are among the most precious talents which any in this world have +conferred upon them. But what a sad account will be given concerning +those sermons which have been slept away! As light as thou makest of it +now, it may be conscience will roar for it upon a death-bed!" "Verily, +there is many a soul that will find this to be a dismal thought at the +day of judgment, when he shall remember so many sermons I might have +heard for my everlasting benefit, but I slighted and slept them all +away. Therefore consider, if men allow themselves in this evil their +souls are in danger to perish." "It is true that a godly man may be +subject unto this as well as unto other infirmities; but he doth not +allow himself therein." "The name of the glorious God is greatly +prophaned by this inadvertency." "The support of the evangelical +ministry is ... discouraged." He thought the character of the pulpit was +not sufficient explanation of this phenomenon, and adds, in his +supernatural way, "Satan is the external cause of this evil;" "he had +rather have men wakeful at any time than at sermon time." The good man +mentions, by way of example, a man who "had not slept a wink at a sermon +for more than twenty years together," and also, but by way of warning, +the unlucky youth in the Acts who slept at Paul's long sermon, and fell +out of the window, and "was taken up dead." Sleeping was "adding +something of our own to the worship of God;" "when Nadab and Abihu did +so, there went out fire from the Lord and consumed them to death." "The +holy God hath not been a little displeased for this sin." "It is not +punished by men, but therefore the Lord himself will visit for it." +"Tears of blood will trickle down thy dry and damned cheeks forever and +ever, because thou mayest not be so happy as to hear one sermon, or to +have one offer of grace more throughout the never-ending dayes of +eternity." Other men denounced their "Wo to sleepy sinners," and issued +their "Proposals for the revival of dying religion." + +Dr. Mather thought there was "A deluge of prophaneness," and bid men "be +much in mourning and humiliation that God's bottle may be filled with +tears." He thought piety was going out because surplices were coming +in; it was wicked to "consecrate a church;" keeping Christmas was "like +the idolatry of the calf." The common-prayer, an organ, a musical +instrument in a church, was "not of God." Such things were to our worthy +fathers in the ministry what temperance and anti-slavery societies are +to many of their sons--an "abomination," "unchristian and atheistic!" +The introduction of "regular singing" was an indication to some that +"all religion is to cease;" "we might as well go over to Popery at +once." Inoculation for the smallpox was as vehemently and ably opposed +as the modern attempt to abolish the gallows; it was "a trusting more to +the machinations of men than to the all-wise providence of God." + +"When the enchantments of this world," says the ecclesiastical +historian, "caused the rising generation more sensibly to neglect the +primitive designs and interests of religion propounded by their fathers; +a change in the tenor of the divine dispensation towards this country +was quickly the matter of every one's observation." "Our wheat and our +pease fell under an unaccountable blast." "We were visited with +multiplied shipwrecks;" "pestilential sicknesses did sometimes become +epidemic among us." "Indians cruelly butchered many hundreds of our +inhabitants, and scattered whole towns with miserable ruins." "The +serious people throughout the land were awakened by these intimations of +divine displeasure to inquire into the causes and matters of the +controversie." Accordingly, 1679, a synod was convened at Boston, to +"inquire into the causes of the Lord's controversie with his New England +people," who determined the matter.[1] + +A little later, in 1690, the General Court considered the subject anew, +and declared, that "A corruption of manners, attended with inexcusable +degeneracies and apostacies ... is the cause of the controversie." We +"are now arriving at such an extremity, that the axe is laid to the root +of the trees, and we are in eminent danger of perishing, if a speedy +reformation of our provoking evils prevent it not." In 1702, Cotton +Mather complains that "Our manifold indispositions to recover the dying +power of Godliness, were successive calamities, under all of which, our +apostacies from that Godliness, have rather proceeded than abated." "The +old spirit of New England has been sensibly going out of the world, as +the old saints in whom it was have gone; and, instead thereof, the +spirit of the world, with a lamentable neglect of strict piety, has +crept in upon the rising generation." + +You go back to the time of the founders and fathers of the colony, and +it is no better. In 1667, Mr. Wilson, who had "A singular gift in the +practice of discipline," on his death-bed declared, that "God would +judge the people for their rebellion and self-willed spirit, for their +contempt of civil and ecclesiastical rulers, and for their luxury and +sloth," and before that he said, "People rise up as Corah, against their +ministers." "And for our neglect of baptizing the children of the +church,... I think God is provoked by it. Another sin I take to be the +making light ... of the authority of the Synods." John Norton, whose +piety was said to be "Grace, grafted on a crab-stock," in 1660, growled, +after his wont, on account of the "Heart of New England, rent with the +blasphemies of this generation." John Cotton, the ablest man in New +England, who "Liked to sweeten his mouth with a piece of Calvin, before +he went to sleep," and was so pious that another could not swear while +he was under the roof, mourned at "The condition of the churches;" and, +in 1652, on his death-bed, after bestowing his blessing on the President +of Harvard College, who had begged it of him, exhorted the elders to +"Increase their watch against those declensions, which he saw the +professors of religion falling into."[2] In 1641, such was the condition +of piety in Boston, that it was thought necessary to banish a man, +because he did not believe in original sin. In 1639, a fast was +appointed, "To deplore the prevalence of the small-pox, the want of zeal +in the professors of religion, and the general decay of piety." "The +church of God had not been long in this wilderness," thus complains a +minister, one hundred and fifty years ago, "before the dragon cast +forth several floods to devour it; but not the least of these floods was +one of the Antinomian and familistical heresies." "It is incredible what +alienations of mind, and what a very calenture the devil raised in the +country upon this odd occasion." "The sectaries" "began usually to +seduce women into their notions, and by these women, like their first +mother, they soon hooked in the husbands also." So, in 1637, the Synod +of Cambridge was convened, to despatch "The apostate serpent:" one woman +was duly convicted of holding "About thirty monstrous opinions," and +subsequently, by the civil authorities, banished from the colony. The +synod, after much time was "spent in ventilation and emptying of private +passions," condemned eighty-two opinions, then prevalent in the colony, +as erroneous, and decided to "Refer doubts to be resolved by the great +God." Even in 1636, John Wilson lamented "The dark and distracted +condition of the churches of New England." + +"The good old times," when piety was in a thriving state, and the +churches successful and contented, lay as far behind the "Famous Johns," +as it now does behind their successors in office and lamentation. Then, +as now, the complaint had the same foundation: ministers and other good +men could not see that new piety will not be put into the old forms, +neither the old forms of thought, nor the old forms of action. In the +days of Wilson, Cotton, and Norton, there was a gradual growth of +piety; in the days of the Mathers, of Colman, and Willard, and from that +time to this, there has been a steady improvement of the community, in +intellectual, moral, and religious culture. Some men could not see the +progress two hundred years ago, because they believed in no piety, +except as it was manifested in their conventional forms. It is so now. +Mankind advances by the irresistible law of God, under the guidance of a +few men of large discourse, who look before and after, but amid the +wailing of many who think each advance is a retreat, and every stride a +stumble. + +Now-a-days nobody complains at "The ungodly custom of wearing long +hair;" no dandy is dealt with by the church, for his dress; the weakest +brother is not offended by "Regular singing,"--so it be regular,--"by +organs and the like;" nobody laments at "The reading of Scripture +lessons," or "The use of the Lord's Prayer" in public religious +services, or is offended, because a clergyman makes a prayer at a +funeral, and solemnizes a marriage,--though these are "prelatical +customs," and were detested by our fathers. Yet, other things, now as +much dreaded, and thought "of a bad and dangerous tendency," will one +day prove themselves as innocent, though now as much mourned over. Many +an old doctrine will fade out, and though some think a star has fallen +out of heaven, a new truth will rise up and take its place. It is to be +expected that ministers will often complain of "The general decay of +religion." The position of a clergyman, fortunate in many things, is +unhappy in this: he seldom sees the result of his labors, except in the +conventional form mentioned above. The lawyer, the doctor, the merchant +and mechanic, the statesman and the farmer, all have visible and +palpable results of their work, while the minister can only see that he +has baptized men, and admitted them to his church; the visible and +quotable tokens of his success, are a large audience, respectable and +attentive, a thriving Sunday school, or a considerable body of +communicants. If these signs fail, or become less than formerly, he +thinks he has labored in vain; that piety is on the decline, for it is +only by this form that he commonly tests and measures piety itself. +Hence, a sincere and earnest minister, with the limitations which he so +easily gets from his profession and social position, is always prone to +think ill of the times, to undervalue the new wine which refuses to be +kept in the old bottles, but rends them asunder; hence he bewails the +decline of religion, and looks longingly back to the days of his +fathers. + +But you will ask, Why does not a minister demand piety in its natural +form? Blame him not; unconsciously he fulfils his contract, and does +what he is taught, ordained, and paid for doing. It is safe for a +minister to demand piety of his parish, in the conventional form; not +safe to demand it in the form of morality--eminent piety, in the form +of philanthropy: it would be an innovation; it would "Hurt men's +feelings;" it might disturb some branches of business; at the North, it +would interfere with the liquor-trade; at the South, with the +slave-trade; everywhere it would demand what many men do not like to +give. If a man asks piety in the form of bodily attendance at church, on +the only idle day in the week, when business and amusement must be +refrained from; in the form of belief in doctrines which are commonly +accepted by the denomination, and compliance with its forms,--that is +customary; it hurts nobody's feelings; it does not disturb the +liquor-trade, nor the slave-trade; it interferes with nothing, not even +with respectable sleep in a comfortable pew. A minister, like others +loves to be surrounded by able and respectable men; he seeks, therefore, +a congregation of such. If he is himself an able man, it is well; but +there are few in any calling, whom we designate as able. Our weak man +cannot instruct his parishioners; he soon learns this, and ceases to +give them counsel on matters of importance. They would not suffer it, +for the larger includes the less, not the less the larger. He is not +strong by nature; their position overlooks and commands his. He must +speak and give some counsel; he wisely limits himself to things of but +little practical interest, and his parishioners are not offended: "That +is my sentiment exactly," says the most worldly man in the church, +"Religion is too pure to be mixed up with the practical business of the +street." The original and effectual preaching in such cases, is not from +the pulpit down upon the pews, but from the pews up to the pulpit, which +only echoes, consciously or otherwise, but does not speak. + +In a solar system, the central sun, not barely powerful from its +position, is the most weighty body; heavier than all the rest put +together; so with even swing they all revolve about it. Our little +ministerial sun was ambitious of being amongst large satellites; he is +there, but the law of gravitation amongst men is as certain as in +matter; he cannot poise and swing the system; he is not the sun thereof, +not even a primary planet, only a little satellite revolving with many +nutations round some primary, in an orbit that is oblique, complicated, +and difficult to calculate; now waxing in a "Revival," now waning in a +"Decline of piety," now totally eclipsed by his primary that comes +between him and the light which lighteth every man. Put one of the cold +thin moons of Saturn into the centre of the solar system,--would the +universe revolve about that little dot? Loyal matter with irresistible +fealty gravitates towards the sun, and wheels around the balance-point +of the world's weight, be it where it may, called by whatever name. + +While ministers insist unduly on the conventional manifestation of +piety, it is not a thing unheard of for a layman to resolve to go to +heaven by the ecclesiastical road, yet omit resolving to be a good man +before he gets there. Such a man finds the ordinary forms of piety very +convenient, and not at all burdensome; they do not interfere with his +daily practice of injustice and meanness of soul; they seem a substitute +for real and manly goodness; they offer a royal road to saintship here +and heaven hereafter. Is the man in arrears with virtue, having long +practised wickedness and become insolvent? This form is a new bankrupt +law of the spirit, he pays off his old debts in the ecclesiastical +currency--a pennyworth of form for a pound of substantial goodness. This +bankrupt sinner, cleared by the ecclesiastical chancery, is a solvent +saint; he exhorts at meetings, strains at every gnat, and mourns over +"The general decay of piety," and teaches other men the way in which +they should go--to the same end. + + "So morning insects that in muck begun, + Shine, buzz, and fly-blow in the evening sun." + +I honor the founders of New England; they were pious men--their lives +proved it; but domineered over by false opinions in theology, they put +their piety into very unnatural and perverted forms. They had ideas +which transcended their age; they came here to make those ideas into +institutions. That they had great faults, bigotry, intolerance, and +superstition, is now generally conceded. They were picked men, "wheat +sifted out of three kingdoms," to plant a new world withal. They have +left their mark very deep and very distinct in this town, which was +their prayer and their pride. It may seem unjust to ourselves to compare +a whole community like our own with such a company as filled Boston in +the first half century of its existence,--men selected for their +spiritual hardihood; but here and now, in the midst of Boston, are men +quite as eminent for piety who as far transcend this age, as the +Puritans and the pilgrims surpassed their time. The Puritan put his +religion into the ecclesiastical form; not into the form of the Roman or +the English Church, but into a new one of his own. His descendant, +inheriting his father's faith in God, and stern self-denial, but +sometimes without his bigotry, intolerance, and superstition, with +little fear but with more love of God, and consequently with more love +of man, puts his piety into a new form. It is not the form of the old +Church; the Church of the Puritans is to him often what the Church of +the Pope and the prelates was to his ungentle sire. He puts his piety +into the form of goodness; eminent piety becomes philanthropy, and takes +the shape of reform. In such men, in many of their followers, I see the +same trust in God, the same scorn of compromising right and truth, the +same unfaltering allegiance to the eternal Father, which shone in the +pilgrims who founded this new world, which fired the reformers of the +Church; yes, which burned in the hearts of Paul and John. Piety has not +failed and gone out; each age has its own forms thereof; the old and +passing can never understand the new, nor can they consent to decrease +with the increase of the new. Once, men put their piety into a church, +Catholic or Protestant; they made creeds and believed them; they devised +rites and symbols, which helped their faith. It was well; but we cannot +believe those creeds, nor be aided by such symbols and such rites. Why +pretend to drag a weighty crutch about because it helped your father +once, wandering alone and in the dark, sounding on his dim and perilous +way? Once earthen roads were the best we knew, and horses' feet had +shoes of swiftness; now we need not, out of reverence, refuse the iron +road, the chariot and the steed of flame; nor out of irreverence need we +spurn the path our fathers trod; sorely bested and hunted after, +tear-bedewed and travel-stained, they journeyed there, passing on to +their God. If the mother that bore us were never so rude, and to our +eyes might seem never so graceless now, still she was our mother, and +without her we should not have been born. Wives and children may men +have, and manifold; each has but one mother. The great institution we +call the Christian Church has been the mother of us all; and though in +her own dotage she deny our piety, and call us infidel, far be it from +me to withhold the richly earned respect. Behind a decent veil, then, +let us hide our mother's weakness, and ourselves pass on. Once piety +built up a theocracy, and men say it was divine; now piety, everywhere +in Christendom, builds up democracies; it is a diviner work. + + * * * * * + +The piety of this age must manifest itself in Morality, and appear in a +church where the priests are men of active mind and active hand; men of +ideas, who commune with God and man through faith and works, finding no +truth is hostile to their creed, no goodness foreign to their litany, no +piety discordant with their psalm. The man who once would have built a +convent and been its rigorous chief, now founds a temperance society, +contends against war, toils for the pauper, the criminal, the madman, +and the slave, for men bereft of senses and of sense. The synod of Dort +and of Cambridge, the assembly of divines at Westminster, did what they +could with what piety they had; they put it into decrees and platforms, +into catechisms and creeds. But the various conventions for reform put +their piety into resolves and then into philanthropic works. I do not +believe there has ever been an age when piety bore so large a place in +the whole being of New England as at this day, or attendance on +church-forms so small a part. The attempts made and making for a better +education of the people, the lectures on science and literature +abundantly attended in this town, the increased fondness for reading, +the better class of books which are read--all these indicate an +increased love of truth, the intellectual part of piety; societies for +reform and for charity show an increase of the moral and affectional +parts of piety; the better, the lovelier idea of God which all sects are +embracing, is a sign of increased love of God. Thus all parts of piety +are proving their existence by their work. The very absence from the +churches, the disbelief of the old sour theologies, the very neglect of +outward forms and ceremonies of religion, the decline of the ministry +itself, under the present circumstances, shows an increase of piety. The +baby-clothes were well and wide for the baby; now, the fact that he +cannot get them on, shows plainly that he has outgrown them, is a boy +and no longer a baby. + +Once Piety fled to the Church as the only sanctuary in the waste wide +world, and was fondly welcomed there, fed and fostered. When power fled +off from the Church--"Wilt thou also go away?" said she; "Lord," said +Piety, "to whom shall we go? Thou only hast the words of everlasting +life." Once convents and cathedrals were what the world needed as +shelter for this fair child of God; then she dwelt in the grim edifice +that our fathers built, and for a time counted herself "lodged in a +lodging where good things are." Now is she grown able to wander forth +fearless and free, lodging where the night overtakes her, and doing what +her hands find to do, not unattended by the Providence which hitherto +has watched over and blessed her. I respect piety in the Hebrew saints, +prophets, and bards, who spoke the fiery speech, or sung their sweet and +soul-inspiring psalm: + + "Out from the heart of Nature rolled + The burdens of the Bible old." + +I honor piety among the saints of Greece, clad in the form of +philanthropy and art, speaking still in dramas, in philosophies, and +song, and in the temple and the statue too: + + "Not from a vain and shallow thought + His awful Jove young Phidias brought." + +I admire at the piety of the Middle Ages, which founded the monastic +tribes of men, which wrote the theologies, scholastic and mystic both, +still speaking to the mind of men, or in poetic legends insinuated +truth; which built that heroic architecture, overmastering therewith the +sense and soul of man: + + "The passive master lent his hand + To the vast Soul that o'er him planned: + And the same Power that reared the shrine, + Bestrode the tribes that knelt therein." + +But the piety which I find now, in this age, here in our own land, I +respect, honor, and admire yet more; I find it in the form of moral +life; that is the piety I love, piety in her own loveliness. Would I +could find poetic strains as fit to sing of her--but yet such + + "Loveliness needs not the foreign aid of ornament, + But is, when unadorned, adorned the most." + +Let me do no dishonor to other days, to Hebrew or to Grecian saints. +Unlike and hostile though they were, they jointly fed my soul in +earliest days. I would not underrate the mediæval saints, whose words +and works have been my study in a manlier age; yet I love best the fair +and vigorous piety of our own day. It is beautiful, amid the strong, +rank life of the nineteenth century, amid the steam-mills and the +telegraphs which talk by lightning, amid the far-reaching enterprises of +our time, and 'mid the fierce democracies, it is beautiful to find this +fragrant piety growing up in unwonted forms, in places where men say no +seed of heaven can lodge and germinate. So in a June meadow, when a boy, +and looking for the cranberries of another year, faded and tasteless, +amid the pale but coarse rank grass, and discontented that I found them +not, so I have seen the crimson arethusa or the cymbidium shedding an +unexpected loveliness o'er all the watery soil and all the pale and +coarse rank grass, a prophecy of summer near at hand. So in October, +when the fields are brown with frost, the blue and fringed gentian meets +your eye, filling with thankful tears. + +There is no decline of piety, but an increase of it; a good deal has +been done in two hundred years, in one hundred years, yes, in fifty +years. Let us admit, with thankfulness of heart, that piety is in +greater proportion to all our activity now than ever before: but then +compare ourselves with the ideal of human nature, our piety with the +ideal piety, and we must confess that we are little and very low. Boston +is the most active city in the world, the most enterprising. In no place +is it so easy to obtain men's ears and their purses for any good word +and work. But think of the evils we know of and tolerate; think of an +ideal Christian city, then think of Boston; of a Christian man, aye of +Christ himself, and then think of you and me, and we are filled with +shame. If there were a true, manly piety in this town, in due proportion +to our numbers, wealth, and enterprise, how long would the vices of this +city last? How long would men complain of a dead body of divinity and a +dead church, and a ministry that was dead? How long would intemperance +continue, and pauperism, in Boston; how long slavery in this land? + + * * * * * + +Last Sunday, in the name of the poor, I asked you for your charity. +To-day I ask for dearer alms: I ask you to contribute your piety. It +will help the town more than the little money all of us can give. Your +money will soon be spent; it feeds one man once; we cannot give it +twice, though the blessing thereof may linger long in the hand which +gave. Few of us can give much money to the poor; some of us none at all. +This we can all give: the inspiration of a man with a man's piety in his +heart, living it out in a man's life. Your money may be ill spent, your +charity misapplied, but your piety never. After all, there is nothing +you can give which men will so readily take and so long remember as +this. Mothers can give it to their daughters and their sons; men, after +spending thereof profusely at home, can coin their inexhausted store +into industry, patience, integrity, temperance, justice, humanity, a +practical love of man. A thousand years ago, it was easy to excuse men +if they chiefly showed religion in the conventional pattern of the +church. Forms then were helps, and the nun has been mother to much of +the charity of our times. It is easy to excuse our fathers for their +superstitious reverence for rites and forms. But now, in an age which +has its eyes a little open, a practical and a handy age, we are without +excuse if our piety appears not in a manly life, our faith in works. To +give this piety to cheer and bless mankind, you must have it first, be +cheered and blessed thereby yourself. Have it, then, in your own way; +put it into your own form. Do men tell you, "This is a degenerate age," +and "Religion is dying out?" tell them that when those stars have faded +out of the sky from very age, when other stars have come up to take +their place, and they too have grown dim and hollow-eyed and old, that +religion will still live in man's heart, the primal, everlasting light +of all our being. Do they tell you that you must put piety into their +forms; put it there if it be your place; if not, in your place. Let men +see the divinity that is in you by the humanity that comes out from you. +If they will not see it, cannot, God can and will. Take courage from the +past, not its counsel; fear not now to be a man. You may find a new Eden +where you go, a river of God in it, and a tree of life, an angel to +guard it; not the warning angel to repel, but the guiding angel to +welcome and to bless. + + * * * * * + +It was four years yesterday since I first came here to speak to you; I +came hesitatingly, reluctant, with much diffidence as to my power to do +what it seemed to me was demanded. I did not come merely to pull down, +but to build up, though it is plain much theological error must be +demolished before any great reform of man's condition can be brought +about. I came not to contend against any man, or sect, or party, but to +speak a word for truth and religion in the name of man and God. I was in +bondage to no sect; you in bondage to none. When a boy I learned that +there is but one religion though many theologies. I have found it in +Christians and in Jews, in Quakers and in Catholics. I hope we are all +ready to honor what is good in each sect, and in rejecting its evil not +to forget our love and wisdom in our zeal. + +When I came I certainly did not expect to become a popular man, or +acceptable to many. I had done much which in all countries brings odium +on a man, though perhaps less in Boston than in any other part of the +world. I had rejected the popular theology of Christendom. I had exposed +the low morals of society, had complained of the want of piety in its +natural form. I had fatally offended the sect, small in numbers, but +respectable for intelligence and goodness, in which I was brought up. I +came to look at the signs of the times from an independent point of +view, and to speak on the most important of all themes. I thought a +house much smaller than this would be much too large for us. I knew +there would be fit audience; I thought it would be few, and the few +would soon have heard enough and go their ways. + +I know I have some advantages above most clergymen: I am responsible to +no sect; no sect feels responsible for me; I have rejoiced at good +things which I have seen in all sects; the doctrines which I try to +teach do not rest on tradition, on miracles, or on any man's authority; +only on the nature of man. I seek to preach the natural laws of man. I +appeal to history for illustration, not for authority. I have no fear of +philosophy. I am willing to look a doubt fairly in the face, and think +reason is sacred as conscience, affection, or the religious faculty in +man. I see a profound piety in modern science. I have aimed to set forth +absolute religion, the ideal religion of human nature, free piety, free +goodness, free thought. I call that Christianity, after the greatest man +of the world, one who himself taught it; but I know that this was never +the Christianity of the churches, in any age. I have endeavored to teach +this religion and apply it to the needs of this time. These things +certainly give me some advantages over most other ministers. Of the +disadvantages which are personal to myself, I need not speak in public, +but some which come from my position, ought to be noticed with a word. +The walls of this house, the associations connected with it, furnish +little help to devotion; we must rely on ourselves wholly for that. +Other clergymen, by their occasional exchanges, can present their +hearers with an agreeable variety in substance and in form. A single +man, often heard, becomes wearisome and unprofitable, for "No man can +feed us always." This I feel to be a great disadvantage which I labor +under. Your kindness and affectionate indulgence make me feel it all the +more. But one man cannot be twenty men. + +When I came here I knew I should hurt men's feelings. My theology would +prove more offensive and radical than men thought; the freedom of speech +which men liked at a distance would not be pleasing when near at hand; +my doctrines of morality I knew could not be pleasing to all men; not to +all good men. I saw by your looks that in my abstractions I did not go +too far for your sympathy, or too fast for your following. I soon found +that my highest thought and most pious sentiment were most warmly +welcomed as such; but when I came to put abstract thought and mystical +piety into concrete goodness, and translate what you had accepted as +Christian faith into daily life; when I came to apply piety to trade, +politics, life in general, I knew that I should hurt men's feelings. It +could not be otherwise. Yet I have had a most patient and faithful +hearing. One thing I must do in my preaching: I must be in earnest. I +cannot stand here before you and before God, attempting to teach piety +and goodness, and not feel the fire and show the fire. The greater the +wrong, the more popular, the more must I oppose it, and with the +clearer, abler speech. It is not necessary for me to be popular, to be +acceptable, even to be loved. It is necessary that I should tell the +truth. But let that pass. You come hither week after week, it is now +year after year that you come, to listen to one humble man. Do you get +poor in your souls? Does your religion become poor and low? Are you +getting less in the qualities of a man? If so, then leave me, to empty +seats, to cold and voiceless walls; go elsewhere, and feed your souls +with a wise passiveness, or an activity wiser yet. Such is your duty; +let no affection for me hinder you from performing it. The same +theology, the same form suits not all men. But if it is not so, if I do +you good, if you grow in mind and conscience, heart and soul, then I ask +one thing--Let your piety become natural life, your divinity become +humanity. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] The Synod declared: "That God hath a controversie with his New +England people is undeniable." "There are visible manifest evils, which +without doubt the Lord is provoked by." 1. "A great and visible decay of +the power of Godliness amongst many professors in these churches." 2. +"Pride doth abound in New England. Many have offended God by strange +apparel." 3. "Church fellowship and other divine institutions are +grossly neglected." "Quakers are false worshippers," "and Anabaptists +... do no better than set up an Altar against the Lord's Altar." 4. "The +holy and glorious name of God hath been polluted;" "because of swearing +the land mourns." "It is a frequent thing for men to sit in prayer-time +... and to give way to their own sloth and sleepiness." "We read of but +one man in Scripture that slept at a sermon, and that sin had like to +have cost him his life." 5. "There is much Sabbath-breaking; since there +are multitudes that do profanely absent themselves from the public +worship of God,... walking abroad and travelling ... being a common +practice on the Sabbath Day." "Worldly unsuitable discourses are very +common upon the Lord's Day." "This brings wrath, fires, and other +judgments upon a professing people." 6. "As to what concerns families +and Government thereof, there is much amiss." "Children and servants ... +are not kept in due subjection." "This is a sin which brings great +judgments, as we see in Eli's and David's family." 7. "Inordinate +passions, sinful heats and hatreds, and that amongst church members." 8. +"There is much intemperance:" "it is a common practice for +town-dwellers, yea, and church members, to frequent public houses, and +there to misspend precious time." 9. "There is much want of truth +amongst men." "The Lord is not wont to suffer such an iniquity to pass +unpunished." 10. "Inordinate affection unto the world." "There hath been +in many professors an insatiable desire after land and worldly +accommodations; yea, so as to forsake churches and ordinances, and to +live like heathen, only so that they might have elbow-room in the world. +Farms and merchandisings have been preferred before the things of God." +"Such iniquity causeth war to be in the gate, and cities to be burned +up." "When Lot did forsake the land of Canaan and the church which was +in Abraham's family, that so he might have better worldly accommodations +in Sodom, God fired him out of all." "There are some traders that sell +their goods at excessive rates; day-laborers and mechanics are +unreasonable in their demands." 11. "There hath been opposition to the +work of reformation." 12. "A public spirit is greatly wanting in the +most of men." 13. "There are sins against the gospel, whereby the Lord +has been provoked." "Christ is not prized and embraced in all his +offices and ordinances as ought to be." + +[2] In 1646, Mr. Samuel Symonds wrote to Governor Winthrop, as follows: +"I will also mention the text preached upon at our last fast, and the +propositions raised thereupon, because it was so seasonable to New +England's condition. Jeremiah 30:17; For I will restore health to thee, +and heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an +outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom noe man careth for. + +"1. Prop. That sick tymes doe passe over Zion. + +"2. That sad and bitter neglect is the portion, aggravation and +affliction of Zion in the tyme of his sicknesse and wounds, but +especially in the neglect of those that doe neglect it, and yet, +notwithstanding, doe acknowledge it to be Zion. + +"3. That the season of penitent Zion's passion, is the season of God's +compassion. + +"This sermon tended much to the settling of Godly minds here in God's +way, and to raise their spirits, and, as I conceive, hath suitable +effects." + + + + +II. + +SOME THOUGHTS ON THE MOST CHRISTIAN USE OF THE SUNDAY.--A SERMON +PREACHED AT THE MELODEON, ON SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 1848. + +MARK II. 27. + + The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. + + +From past ages we have received many valuable institutions, that have +grown out of the transient wants or the permanent nature of man. Amongst +these are two which have done a great service in promoting the +civilization of mankind, which still continue amongst us. I speak now of +the institution of Sunday, and that of preaching. By the one, a seventh +part of the time is separated from the common pursuits of life, in order +that it may be devoted to bodily relaxation, and to the culture of the +spiritual powers of man; by the other, a large body of men, in most +countries the best educated class, are devoted to the cultivation of +these spiritual powers. Such at least is the theory of those two +institutions, be their effect in practice what it may. This morning, +let us look at one of them, and so I invite your attention to some +thoughts relative to the Sunday--to the most Christian and profitable +use of that day. + +There is a stricter party of Christians amongst us, who speak out their +opinions concerning the Sunday; this comprises what are commonly called +the more "evangelical" sects. There is a party less strict in many +particulars, comprising what are commonly called the more "liberal" +sects. They have hitherto been comparatively silent on this theme. Their +opinions about the Sunday have not usually been so plainly spoken out, +but have been made apparent by their actions, by occasional and passing +words, rather than by full, distinct, and emphatic declarations. The +stricter party, of late years, have been growing a little more strict; +the party less strict likewise advance in the opposite direction. +Recently, a call has been published by a few men, for a convention to +consult and take some steps towards the less rigid course, for the +purpose, as I understand it, of making the Sunday even more valuable +than it is now. I take it for granted that both parties desire to make +the best possible use of the Sunday--the use most conducive to the +highest interests of mankind; that they desire this equally. There are +good men on both sides, the more and the less strict; pious men, in the +best sense of that word, may be found on both sides. There is no need +of imputing bad motives to either party in order to explain the +difference between the two. + +Such is the aspect of the two parties in the field, looking opposite +ways, but at one another. It seems likely that there will be a quarrel, +and, as is usual in such cases, hard words on each side, hard thoughts +and unkind feelings on both sides. Before the quarrel begins, and our +eyes are blinded by the dust of controversy; before our blood is fired, +and we become wholly incapable of judgment--let us look coolly at the +matter, and ask, Do we need any change in respect to the observance of +the Sunday? Are the present opinions respecting the origin, nature, and +original design of that institution just and true? Is the present mode +of observing it the most profitable that can be devised? The inquiry is +one of great importance. + +To answer these questions, it is necessary to go back a little into the +history of the Hebrew Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. However, it is +not needful to go much into detail, or consume this precious hour in a +learned discussion on antiquarian matters which concern none but +scholars. + +With the Hebrews the actual observance of Saturday--the Sabbath--as a +day rest, seems to be of pretty late origin. The first mention of it in +authentic Hebrew history, as actually observed, occurs about two hundred +years after Samuel, and about six hundred after Moses--a little less +than nine hundred before Christ. The passage is found in 2 Kings 4: 23; +a child had died, as the narrative relates--the mother wished to send +for Elisha, "the man of God." Her husband objects, saying, "Wherefore +wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither new moon nor Sabbath." This +connection with the new moon is significant. In the earlier historical +books of Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, and the first of +Kings, there is no mention of the Sabbath, not the least allusion to it. + +This seems to have been the origin of its observance:--The worship of +one God, with the distinctive name Jehovah, gradually got established in +the Hebrew nation; for this they seem largely indebted to Moses. +Gradually this worship of Jehovah became connected with a body of +priests, who were regularly organized at length, and claimed descent +from Levi--some of them from Aaron, his celebrated descendant, the elder +brother of Moses. The rise of the Levitical priesthood is remarkable, +and easily traced in the Old Testament. Some books are entirely +destitute of a Levitical spirit, such as Genesis and Judges; others are +filled with it, as Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the books of Chronicles. +With the priesthood it seems there came the observance of certain days +for religious or festal purposes--New Moon days, Full Moon days, and the +like. These seem to have been derived from the nations about them, with +whom the moon--deified as Astarte, the Queen and Mother of Heaven, and +under other names--was long an object of worship. The observance of +those days points back to the period when Fetichism, the worship of +Nature, was the prominent form of religion. With the other days of +religious observance came the seventh day, called the Sabbath. No one +knows its true historical origin. The statement respecting its origin, +in the fourth commandment, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, can +hardly be accepted as literally true by any one in this century. No +scientific man, in the present stage of philosophic inquiry, will +believe that God created the universe in six days, and then rested on +the seventh. Did other nations observe this day before the Hebrews; was +it also connected with some Fetichistic form of worship; what was the +historical event which led to the selection of that day in special? This +it is easy to ask, but perhaps not possible to answer. These are curious +questions; they are of little practical importance to us at this moment. + +After the Hebrew institutions of religion got fixed--the worship of +Jehovah, the Levitical priesthood, and the peculiar forms of +sacrifice--it became common to refer their origin back to the time of +Moses, who lived fourteen or fifteen hundred years before Christ. Since +few memorials from his age have come down to us, it is plain we can know +little of him. But from the impression which his character left on his +nation, and through them on the whole world; from the myths so early +connected with his name, it seems pretty clear that he was one of the +greatest and most extraordinary men that ever lived. Mankind seldom tell +great things of little men. It is difficult to say what share he had in +making the laws of the Hebrew nation which are commonly referred to +him,--and, as it is popularly taught, revealed to him directly by +Jehovah. Perhaps we are not safe in referring to him even the whole of +the ten commandments; surely not in any one of their present forms.[3] +Was the Sabbath observed as a day of rest before Moses? Was its +observance enforced by him? Was it even known to him? These questions +are not easily answered. This is only certain: from the time of Moses to +that of Jehoram, a period of about six hundred years, there is no +historical mention of its observance, not the least allusion to it. Yet +we have documents which treat of that period,--the books of Joshua, +Judges, Samuel, and the Kings,--some of them historical documents, which +go into the minute detail of the national peculiarities, and were +evidently written with a good deal of concern for strict integrity and +truth; they refer to the national rite of circumcision. Now, if the +Sabbath had been observed during that period, it is difficult to believe +it would have received no passing notice in those historical books. But +not only is there no mention of it therein, none even in the times of +David and Solomon, who favored the priesthood so strongly; but in the +book of Chronicles, the most Levitical book in the Bible, at a date more +than two hundred years later than the time of Jehoram, it is distinctly +declared that the Sabbath had not been kept for nearly five hundred +years.[4] But even if this statement is true, which is scarcely +probable, it is plain from the frequent mention of the Sabbath in the +writings of the latter part of that period--Isaiah, Jeremiah, and +others--that the institution was one well known and highly regarded by +religious men. After the return from the Babylonian exile, it seems to +have been kept with considerable rigor; this we learn from the book of +Nehemiah. + +The Hebrew law, as it is contained in the Pentateuch, is a singular +mixture of conflicting statutes, evidently belonging to different ages, +many of them wholly unsuitable to the condition of the people when the +laws are alleged to have been given. However, they are all referred back +to the time of Moses in the Pentateuch itself, and by the popular +theology at the present day. In the law the command is given to keep +the seventh day as a day of rest, and that command is referred +distinctly to Jehovah himself. The reason is given for choosing that +day:--"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the +seventh day he rested and was refreshed;" the Sabbath, therefore, was to +be kept in commemoration of the fact, that after Jehovah had spent the +week in creating the world, "he rested and was refreshed." It was to be +a day of rest for master and slave, for man and beast. A special +sacrifice was offered on that day, in addition to the usual ceremonies, +but no provision was made for the religious instruction of the people. +The Sabbath was what its Hebrew name implies, a rest from all labor. The +law, in general terms, forbade all work; but, not content with that, it +descends to minute details, specifically prohibiting by statute the +gathering or preparation of food on the Sabbath, even of food to be +consumed on that day itself; the lighting of a fire, or the removal from +one's place; and, by a decision where the statute did not apply, forbade +the gathering of sticks of wood. The punishment for violating the +Sabbath in general, or in any one of these particulars, was death: +"Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death." However, amusement +was not prohibited, nor eating and drinking, only work. The command, +"Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day," at a later period, +was liberally interpreted, and a man was allowed to go two thousand +cubits, a Sabbath-day's journey. + +Long after the time of Moses, some of the Hebrews returned from exile +amongst a more civilized and refined people. It seems probable that only +the stricter portion returned and established themselves in the land of +their fathers. Nehemiah, their leader, enforced the observance of the +Sabbath with a strictness and rigor of which earlier times afford no +evidence. But the nation was not content with making it a day of +idleness. They established synagogues, where the people freely assembled +on the Sabbath and other public days, for religious instruction, and +thus founded an excellent institution which has shown itself fruitful of +good results. So far as I know, that is the earliest instance on record +of provision being made for the regular religious instruction of the +whole people. Experience has shown its value, and now all the most +highly civilized nations of the earth have established similar +institutions. However, in the synagogues the business of religious +instruction was not at all in the hands of the priests, but in those of +the people, acting in their primary character without regard to +Levitical establishments. A priest, as such, is never an instructor of +the people; he is to go through his ritual, not beyond it. + +It is easy to learn from the New Testament what were the current +opinions about the Sabbath in the time of Christ. It was unlawful to +gather a head of wheat on the Sabbath, as a man walked through the +fields; it was unlawful to cure a sick man, though that cure could be +effected by a touch or a word; unlawful for a man to walk home and carry +the light cushion on which he had lain. What was unlawful was reckoned +wicked also; for what is a crime in the eyes of the priest, he commonly +pretends is likewise a sin before the eyes of God. Yet it was not +unlawful to eat, drink, and be merry on the Sabbath; nor to lift a sheep +out of the ditch; nor to quarrel with a man who came to deliver mankind +from their worst enemies. It was lawful to perform the rite of +circumcision on the Sabbath, but unlawful to cure a man of any sickness. +Jesus once placed these two, the allowing of that ritual mutilation and +the prohibition of the humane act of curing the sick on the Sabbath, in +ridiculous contrast. In the fourth gospel he goes further, and actually +denies the alleged ground for the original institution of the Sabbath; +he denies that God had ever ceased from his work, or rested: "My father +worketh hitherto."[5] However, in effecting these cures he committed a +capital offence; the Pharisees so regarded it, and took measures to +insure his punishment. It does not appear that they were illegal +measures. It is probable they took regular and legal means to bring him +to condign punishment as a Sabbath-breaker. He escaped by flight. + +Such was the Sabbath with the Hebrews, such the recorded opinion of +Jesus concerning it. There were also other days in which labor was +forbidden, but with them we have nothing to do at present. Jesus taught +piety and goodness without the Hebrew limitations; of course, then, the +new wine of Christianity could not be put into the old bottles of the +Jews. Their fast days and Sabbath days, their rites and forms, were not +for him. + + * * * * * + +Now, not long after the death of Christ, his followers became gradually +divided into two parties. First, there were the Jewish Christians; that +was the oldest portion, the old school of Christians. They are mentioned +in ecclesiastical history as the Ebionites, Nazarines, and under yet +other names. Peter and James were the great men in that division of the +early Christians. Matthew, and the author of the Gospel according to the +Hebrews, were their evangelists. The church at Jerusalem was their +strong-hold. They kept the whole Hebrew law; all its burdensome ritual, +its circumcision and its sacrifices, its new-moon days and its full-moon +days, Sabbath, fasts, and feasts; the first fifteen bishops of the +church at Jerusalem were circumcised Jews. It seems to me they +misunderstood Jesus fatally; counting him nothing but the Messiah of the +Old Testament, and Christianity, therefore, nothing but Judaism +brightened up and restored to its original purity. + +I have often mentioned how strongly Matthew, taking him for the author +of the first gospel, favors this way of thinking. He represents Jesus as +commanding his disciples to observe all the Mosaic law, as the Pharisees +interpreted that law,[6] though such a command is utterly inconsistent +with the general spirit of Christ's teachings, and even with his plain +declaration, as preserved in other parts of the same gospel. It is +worthy of note, that this command is peculiar to Matthew. But there is +another instance of the same Jewish tendency, though not so obvious at +first sight. Matthew represents Jesus as saying, "The Son of man," that +is, the Messiah, "is Lord even of the Sabbath day." Accordingly, he is +competent to expound the law correctly, and determine what is lawful to +do on that day. In Matthew, therefore, Jesus, in his character of +Messiah, is represented as giving a judicial opinion, and ruling that it +"is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." Now, Mark and Luke represent +it a little different. In Mark, Jesus himself declares that "The Sabbath +was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Matthew entirely omits +that remarkable saying. According to Mark, Jesus declares in general +terms, that man is of more consequence than the observance of the +Sabbath, while Matthew only considers that the Messiah is "Lord of the +Sabbath day." The cause of this diversity is quite plain. Matthew was a +Jewish Christian, and thought Christianity was nothing but restored +Judaism. + + * * * * * + +The other party may be called liberal Christians, though they must not +be confounded with the party which now bears that name. They were the +new school of the early Christians. They rejected the Hebrew law, so far +as it did not rest on human nature, and considered that Christianity was +a new thing; Christ, not a mere Jew, but a universal man, who had thrown +down the wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles. All the old, +artificial distinctions, therefore, were done away with at once. Paul +was the head of the liberal party among the primitive Christians. He was +considered a heretic; and though he was more efficient than any of the +other early preachers of Christianity, yet the author of the Apocalypse +thought him not worthy of a place in the foundation of the new +Jerusalem, which rests on the twelve apostles.[7] The fourth gospel with +peculiarities of its own, is written wholly in the interest of this +party; James is not mentioned in it at all, and Peter plays but quite a +subordinate part, and is thrown into the shade by John. The disciples +are spoken of as often misunderstanding their great Teacher. These +peculiarities cannot be considered as accidental; they are monuments of +the controversy then going on between the two parties. Paul stood in +direct opposition to the Jewish Christians. This is plain from the +epistle to the Galatians, in which the heads of the rival sects appear +very unlike the description given of them in the book of Acts. The +observance of Jewish sacred days was one of the subjects of controversy. +Let us look only at the matter of the Sabbath, as it came in question +between the two parties. Paul exalts Christ far above the Messianic +predictions of the Old Testament, calling him an image of the invisible +God, and declaring that all the fulness of divinity dwells in him, and +adds, that he had annulled the old Hebrew law. "Therefore," says Paul, +"let no man judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, +or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath."[8] Here he distinctly states the +issue between the two Christian sects. Elsewhere he speaks of the Jewish +party, as men that "would pervert the gospel of Christ," by teaching +that a man was "justified by the works of the law;" that is, by a minute +observance of the Hebrew ritual.[9] Paul rejects the authority of the +Old Testament. The law of Moses was but a schoolmaster's servant, to +bring us to Christ; man had come to Christ, and needed that servant no +longer; the law was a taskmaster and guardian set over man in his +minority, now he had come of age, and was free; the law was a shadow of +good things, and they had come; it was a law of sin and death, which no +man could bear, and now the law of the spirit of life, as revealed by +Jesus Christ, had made men free from the law of sin and death. Such was +the work of the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Thus sweeping off +the authority of the old law in general, he proceeds to particulars: he +rejects circumcision, and the offering of sacrifices; rejects the +distinction of nations as Jew and Gentile; the distinction of meats as +clean and unclean, and all distinction of days, as holy and not holy. If +one man thought one day holier than another day; if another man thought +all days equally holy, he would have each man true to his conviction, +but not seek to impose that conviction on his brothers. Such was Paul's +opinion of "The law of Moses;" such, of the Sabbath; the Christians were +not "subject to ordinances." + + * * * * * + +Let us come now to the common practice of the early Christians. The +apostles went about and preached Christianity, as they severally +understood it. They spoke as they found opportunity; on the Sabbath to +the Jews in the synagogues, and on other days, as they found time and +hearers. It does not appear from the New Testament, that they limited +themselves to any particular day; they were missionaries, some of them +remained but a little while in a place, making the most of their time. +It seems that the early Christians, who lived in large towns, met every +day for religious purposes. But as that would be found inconvenient, one +day came to be regarded as the regular time of their meetings. The +Jewish Christians observed the Sabbath with pharisaic rigor, while the +liberal Christians neglected it. But both parties of Christians +observed, at length, the first day of the week as a peculiar day. No one +knows when this observance of the Sunday began; it is difficult to find +proof in the New Testament, that the apostles regarded it as a peculiar +day; it seems plain that Paul did not. But it is certain that in the +second century after Jesus, the Christians in general did so regard it, +and perhaps all of them. + +Why was the Sunday chosen as the regular day for religious meeting? It +was regarded as the day on which Jesus rose from the dead; and, +following the mythical account in Genesis, it was the day on which God +began the creation, and actually created the light. Here there were two +reasons for the selection of that day; both are frequently mentioned by +the early Christian writers. Sunday, therefore, was to them a symbol of +the new creation, and of the light that had come into the world. The +liberal Christians, in separating from the Jewish Sabbath, would +naturally exalt the new religious day. Athanasius, I think, is the first +who ascribes a divine origin to the institution of Sunday. He says, "The +Lord changed this day from the Sabbath to the Sunday;" but Athanasius +lived three centuries after Christ, and seems to have known little about +the matter. + +The officers and the order of services in the churches on the Sunday +seem derived from the usages of the Jewish synagogues. The Sunday was +thus observed: the people came together in the morning; the exercises +consisted of readings from the Old Testament and such writings of the +Christians as the assembly saw fit to have read to them. In respect to +these writings there was a wide difference in the different churches, +some accepting more and others less. The overseer, or bishop, made an +address, perhaps an exposition of the passage of Scripture. Prayers were +said and hymns chanted; the Lord's supper was celebrated. The form no +doubt differed, and widely, too, in different places. It was not the +form of servitude but the spirit of freedom, they observed. But all +these things were done, likewise, on other days; the Lord's supper could +be celebrated on any day, and is on every day by the Catholic church, +even now; for the Catholics have been true to the early practices in +more points than the Protestants are willing to admit. In some places it +is certain there was a "communion" every day. Sunday was regarded holy +by the early Christians, just as certain festivals are regarded holy by +the Catholics, the Episcopalians, and the Lutherans, at this day; as the +New Englanders regard Thanksgiving day as holy. Other days, likewise, +were regarded as holy; were used in the same manner as the Sunday. Such +days were observed in honor of particular events in the life of Jesus, +or in honor of saints and martyrs, or they were days consecrated by +older festivals belonging to the more ancient forms of religion. In the +Catholic church such days are still numerous. It is only the Puritans +who have completely rejected them, and they have been obliged to +substitute new ones in their place. However, there was one peculiarity +of the Sunday which distinguished it from most or all other days. It was +a day of religious rejoicing. On other days the Christians knelt in +prayer; on the Sunday they stood up on joyful feet, for light had come +into the world. Sunday was a day of gladness and rejoicing. The early +Christians had many fasts; they were commonly held on Wednesdays and +Fridays, often on Saturday also, the more completely to get rid of the +Jewish superstition which consecrated that day; but on Sunday there must +be no fast. He would be a heretic who should fast on Sunday. It is +strictly forbidden in the "canons of the apostles;" a clergyman must be +degraded and a layman excommunicated, for the offence. Says St. +Ignatius, in the second century, if the epistle be genuine, "Every +lover of Christ feasts on the Lord's day." "We deem it wicked," says +Tertullian in the third century, "to fast on the Sunday, or to pray on +our knees." "Oh," says St. Jerome, "that we could fast on the Sunday, as +Paul did and they that were with him." St. Ambrose says, the "Manichees +were damned for fasting on the Lord's day." At this day the Catholic +church allows no fast on Sunday, save the Sunday before the crucifixion; +even Lent ceases on that day. + +It does not appear that labor ceased on Sunday, in the earliest age of +Christianity. But when Sunday became the regular and most important day +for holding religious meetings, less labor must of course be performed +on that day. At length it became common in some places to abstain from +ordinary work on the Sunday. It is not easy to say how early this was +brought about. But after Christianity had become "respectable," and +found its way to the ranks of the wealthy, cultivated and powerful, laws +got enacted in its favor. Now, the Romans, like all other ancient +nations, had certain festal days in which it was not thought proper to +labor unless work was pressing. It was disreputable to continue common +labor on such days without an urgent reason; they were pretty numerous +in the Roman calendar. Courts did not sit on those days; no public +business was transacted. They were observed as Christmas and the more +important saints' days in Catholic countries; as Thanksgiving day and +the Fourth of July with us. In the year three hundred and twenty-one, +Constantine, the first Christian emperor of Rome, placed Sunday among +their ferial days. This was perhaps the first legislative action +concerning the day. The statute forbids labor in towns, but expressly +excludes all prohibition of field-labor in the country.[10] About three +hundred and sixty-six or seven, the Council of Laodicea decreed that +Christians "ought not to Judaize and be idle on the Sabbath, but to work +on that day; especially observing the Lord's day, and if it is possible, +as Christians, resting from labor." Afterwards the Emperor Theodosius +forbade certain public games on Sunday, Christmas, Epiphany, and the +whole time from Easter to Pentecost. Justinian likewise forbade +theatrical exhibitions, races in the circus, and the fights of wild +beasts, on Sunday, under severe penalties. This was done in order that +the religious services of the Christians might not be disturbed. By his +laws the Sunday continued to be a day in which public business was not +to be transacted. But the Christmas days, the fifteen days of Easter, +and numerous other days previously observed by Christians or pagans, +were put in the same class by the law. All this it seems was done from +no superstitious notions respecting those days, but for the sake of +public utility and convenience. However, the rigor of the Jewish +Sabbatical laws was by no means followed. Labors of love, _opera +caritatis_, were considered as suitable business for those days. The +very statute of Theodosius recommended the emancipation of slaves on +Sunday. All impediments to their liberation were removed on that day, +and though judicial proceedings in all other matters were forbidden on +Sunday, an exception was expressly made in favor of emancipating slaves. +This statute was preserved in the code of Justinian.[11] All these laws +go to show that there were similar customs previously established among +the Christians, without the aid of legislation. + +About the middle of the sixth century the Council of Orleans forbade +labor in the fields, though it did not forbid travelling with cattle and +oxen, the preparation of food, or any work necessary to the cleanliness +of the house or the person--declaring that rigors of that sort belong +more to a Jewish than to a Christian observance of the day. That, I +think, is the earliest ecclesiastical decree which has come down to us +forbidding field-labor in the country; a decree unknown till five +hundred and thirty-eight years after Christ. But before that, in the +year three hundred and thirteen, the Council of Elvira in Spain +decreed, that if any one in a city absented himself three Sundays +consecutively from the church, he should be suspended from communion for +a short time. Such a regulation, however, was founded purely on +considerations of public utility. Many church establishments have +thought it necessary to protect themselves from desertion by similar +penal laws. + +In Catholic countries, at the present day, the morning of Sunday is +appropriated to public worship, the people flocking to church. But the +afternoon and evening are devoted to society, to amusement of various +kinds. Nothing appears sombre, but every thing has a festive air; even +the theatres are open. Sunday is like Christmas, or a Thanksgiving day +in Boston, only the festive demonstrations are more public. It is so in +the Protestant countries on the continent of Europe. Work is suspended, +public and private, except what is necessary for the observance of the +day; public lectures are suspended; public libraries closed; but +galleries of paintings and statues are thrown open and crowded; the +public walks are thronged. In Southern Germany, and, doubtless, +elsewhere, young men and women have I seen in summer, of a Sunday +afternoon, dancing on the green, the clergyman, Protestant or Catholic, +looking on and enjoying the cheerfulness of the young people. Americans +think their mode of keeping Sunday is unholy; they, that ours is Jewish +and pharisaical. In Paris, sometimes, courses of scientific lectures +are delivered after the hours of religious services, to men who are busy +during the week with other cares, and who gladly take the hours of their +only leisure day to gain a little intellectual instruction. + +When England was a Catholic country, Catholic notions of Sunday of +course prevailed. Labor was suspended; there was service in the +churches, and afterwards there were sports for the people, but they were +attended with quarrelling, noise, uproar, and continual drunkenness. It +was so after the Reformation. In the time of Elizabeth, the laws forbade +labor except in time of harvest, when it was thought right to work, if +need were, and "save the thing that God hath sent." Some of the +Protestants wished to reform those disorders, and convert the Sunday to +a higher use. The government, and sometimes the superior clergy, for a +long time interfered to prevent the reform, often to protect the abuse. +The "Book of Sports," appointed to be read in churches, is well known to +us from the just indignation with which it filled our fathers. + +Now, it is plain, that in England, before the Reformation, the Sunday +was not appropriated to its highest use; not to the highest interests of +mankind; no, not to the highest concerns, which the people, at that +time, were capable of appreciating. The attempts, made then and +subsequently, by government, to enforce the observance of the day, for +purposes not the highest, led to a fearful reaction; that to other and +counter reactions. The ill consequences of those movements have not yet +ceased on either side of the ocean. + +The Puritans represented the spirit of reaction against ecclesiastical +and other abuses of their time, and the age before them. Let me do these +men no injustice. I honor the heroic virtues of our fathers not less +because I see their faults; see the cause of their faults, and the +occasion which demanded such masculine and terrible virtues as the +Puritans unquestionably possessed. I speak only of their doctrine of the +Sunday. They were driven from one extreme to the other, for oppression +makes wise men mad. They took mainly the notions of the Sabbath, which +belong to the later portions of the Old Testament; they interpreted them +with the most pharisaical rigor, and then applied them to the Sunday. +Did they find no warrant for that rigor in the New Testament? they found +enough in the Old; enough in their own character, and their consequent +notions of God. They thus introduced a set of ideas respecting the +Sunday, which the Christian church had never known before, and rigidly +enforced an observance thereof utterly foreign both to the letter and +spirit of the New Testament. They made Sunday a terrible day; a day of +fear, and of fasting, and of trembling under the terrors of the Lord. +They even called it by the Hebrew name--the Sabbath. The Catholics had +said it was not safe to trust the Scriptures in the hands of the people, +for an inspired Word needed an expositor also inspired. The abuse which +the Puritans made of the Bible by their notions of the Sunday, seemed a +fulfilment of the Catholic prophecy. But the Catholics did not see what +is plain to all men now--that this very abuse of Sunday and Scripture +was only the reaction against other abuses, ancient, venerated, and +enforced by the Catholic church itself. + +Every sect has some institution which is the symbol of its religious +consciousness, though not devised for that purpose. With the early +Christians, it was their love-feasts and communion; with the Catholics, +it is their gorgeous ritual with its ancient date and divine +pretensions--a ritual so imposing to many; with the Quakers, who scorn +all that is symbolic, the symbol equally appears in the plain dress and +the plain speech, the broad brim, and _thee_ and _thou_. With the +Puritans, this symbol was the Sabbath, not the Sunday. Their Sabbath was +like themselves, austere, inflexible as their "divine decrees;" not +human and of man, but Hebrew and of the Jews, stern, cold, and sad. + +The Puritans were possessed with the sentiment of fear before God; they +had ideas analogous to that sentiment, and wrought out actions akin to +those ideas. They brought to America their ideas and sentiments. Behold +the effect of their actions. Let us walk reverently backward, with +averted eyes to cover up their folly, their shame, and their sin, as +they could not walk to conceal the folly of their progenitors. The +Puritans are the fathers of New England and her descendant States; the +fathers of the American idea; of most things in America that are good; +surely, of most that is best. They seem made on purpose for their work +of conquering a wilderness and founding a State. It is not with gentle +hands, not with the dalliance of effeminate fingers, that such a task is +done. The work required energy the most masculine, in heart, head, and +hands. None but the Puritans could have done such a work. They could +fast as no men; none could work like them; none preach; none pray; none +could fight as they fought. They have left a most precious inheritance +to men who have the same greatness of soul, but have fallen on happier +times. Yet this inheritance is fatal to mere imitators, who will go on +planting of vineyards, where the first planter fell intoxicated with the +fruit of his own toil. This inheritance is dangerous to men who will be +no wiser than their ancestors. Let us honor the good deeds of our +fathers; and not eat, but reverently bury their honored bones. + +The Puritans represented the natural reaction of mankind against old +institutions that were absurd or tyrannical. The Catholic church had +multiplied feast days to an extreme, and taken unnecessary pains to +promote fun and frolic. The Puritans would have none of the saints' days +in their calendar; thought sport was wicked; cut down Maypoles, and +punished a man who kept Christmas after the old fashion. The Catholic +church had neglected her golden opportunities for giving the people +moral and religious instruction; had quite too much neglected +public prayer and preaching, but relied mainly on sensuous +instruments--architecture, painting, music. In revenge, the Puritan had +a meeting-house as plain as boards could make it; tore the pictures to +pieces; thought an organ "was not of God," and had sermons long and +numerous, and prayers full of earnestness, zeal, piety, and faith, in +short, possessed of all desirable things except an end. Did the +Catholics forbid the people the Bible, emphatically the book of the +people--the Puritan would read no other book; called his children Hebrew +names, and reënacted "the laws of God" in the Old Testament, "until we +can make better." Did Henry and Elizabeth underrate the people and +overvalue the monarchy, nature had her vengeance for that abuse, and the +Puritan taught the world that kings, also, had a joint in their necks. + +The Puritans went to the extreme in many things: in their contempt for +amusements, for what was graceful in man or beautiful in woman; in their +scorn of art, of elegant literature, even of music; in their general +condemnation of the past, from which they would preserve little +excepting what was Hebrew, which, of course, they over-honored as much +as they undervalued all the rest. In their notions respecting the Sunday +they went to the same extreme. The general reason is obvious. They +wished to avoid old abuses, and thought they were not out of the water +till they were in the fire. But there was a special reason, also: the +English are the most empirical of all nations. They love a fact more +than an idea, and often cling to an historical precedent rather than +obey a great truth which transcends all precedents. The national +tendency to external things, perhaps, helped lead them to these peculiar +notions of the Sabbath. The precedent they found in "The chosen people," +and established, as they thought, by God himself. + + * * * * * + +The ideas of the Puritans respecting the Sunday are still cherished in +the popular theology of New England. There is one party in our churches +possessed of many excellences, which has always had the merit of +speaking out fully what it thinks and feels. At this day that party +still represents the Puritanic opinions about the Sunday, though a +little modified. They teach that God created the world in six days, and +rested the seventh; that he commanded mankind, also, to rest on that +day; commanded a man to be stoned to death for picking up sticks of a +Saturday; that by divine authority the first day of the week was +substituted for the seventh, and therefore that it is the religious duty +of all men to rest from work on that day, for the Hebrew law of the +Sabbath is binding on Christians for ever. It is maintained that +abstinence from work on Sunday is as much a religious duty as abstinence +from theft or hatred; that the day must be exclusively devoted to +religion, in the technical sense of that word, to public or private +worship, to religious reading, thought, or conversation. To attend +church on that day is thought to be a good in itself, though it should +lead to no further good, and therefore a duty as imperative as the duty +of loving man and God. The preacher may not edify, still the duty of +attending to his ministration of the word remains the same; for the +attendance is a good in itself. It is taught that work, that amusement, +common conversation, the reading of a book not technically religious, is +a sin, just as clearly a sin as theft or hatred, though perhaps not so +great. Writing a letter, even, is denounced as a sin, though the letter +be written for the purpose of arresting the progress of a war, and +securing life and freedom to millions of men. + +Now, it is very plain that such ideas are not consistent with the truth. +In the language of the church, they are a heresy. As we learn the facts +of the case we must give up such ideas concerning the Sunday. It is like +any other day. Christianity knows no classes of days, as holy or +profane; all days are the Lord's days, all time holy time. + + * * * * * + +But then comes the other question, What is the best use to be made of +the day; the use most conducive to the highest interests of mankind? +Will it be most profitable to "give up the Sunday," to use it as the +Catholics do, as the Puritans did, or to adopt some other method? To +answer these questions fairly, let us look and see the effects of the +present notions about the Sunday, and the stricter mode of observing it +here in New England. The experience of two hundred years is worth +looking at. Let us look at the good effects first. + +The good and evil of any age are commonly bound so closely together, +that in plucking up the tares, there is danger lest the wheat also be +uprooted, at least trodden down. In America, especially in New England, +every thing is intense, with of course a tendency to extravagance, to +fanaticism. Look at some of the most obvious signs of that intensity. No +conservatism in the world is so bigoted as American conservatism; no +democracy so intense. Nowhere else can you find such thorough-going +defenders of the existing state of things, social, ecclesiastical, +civil; such defenders of drunkenness, ignorance, superstition, slavery, +and war; nowhere such radical enemies to the existing state of things; +such foes of drunkenness, ignorance, superstition, slavery, and war. No +"Revivals of religion" are like the American; none of old were like +these. See how the American soldiers fight; how the American men will +work. Puritanism was intense enough in England; in the New World it was +yet more so. Our fathers were intense Calvinists; more Calvinistic than +Calvin--they became Hopkinsian. They hated the Pope; kings and bishops +were their aversion. They feared God. Did they love him--love him as +much? They had an intense religious activity, but they had another +intensity. It is better that we should say it, rather than men who do +not honor them. That intensity of action, when turned towards material +things, or, as they called them, "carnal things," needed some powerful +check. It was found in their bigotry and superstition. In such an age as +theirs, when the Reformation broke down all the ordinary restraints of +society, and rent asunder the golden ties which bound man to the past; +when the Anglican church ended in fire, and the English monarchy in +blood; when men full of piety thanked God for the fire and the +bloodshed, and felt the wrongs of a thousand years driving them almost +to madness--what was there to keep such men within bounds, and restrain +them from the wildest license and unbridled anarchy? Nothing but +superstition; nothing short of fear of hell. They broke down the +monarchy; they trod the church under their feet. She who had once been +counted as the queen and mother of society, was now to be regarded only +as the Apocalyptical woman in scarlet, the mother of abominations, bride +of the devil, and queen of hell. The Old Testament wrought on the minds +of these men like a charm, to stimulate and to soothe. "One day," said +they, "is made holy by God; in it shall no work be done by man or beast, +or thing inanimate. On that day all must attend church as an act of +religion." Here, then, was a bar extending across the stream of +worldliness, filling one seventh part of its channel, wide and deep, and +wonderfully interrupting its whelming tide. I admire the divine skill +which compounds the gases in the air; which balances centripetal and +centrifugal forces into harmonious proportions,--those fair ellipses in +the unseen air; but still more marvellous is that same skill, diviner +now, which compounds the folly and the wisdom of mankind; balances +centripetal and centrifugal forces here, stilling the noise of kings and +the tumult of the people, making their wrath to serve him, and the +remnant thereof restraining forever. + +On Sunday, master and man, the slave stolen from the wilderness, the +servant--a Christian man bought from some Christian conqueror,--must +cease from their work. Did the covetous, the cruel, the strong, oppress +the weak for six days, the Sabbath said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but +no further." The servant was free from his master, and the weary was at +rest. The plough stood still in the furrow; the sheaf lay neglected in +the field; the horse and the ox enjoyed their master's Sabbath of rest, +all heedless of the divine decrees, of election or reprobation, yet not +the less watched over by that dear Providence which numbered the hairs +of the head, and overruled the falling of a sparrow for the sparrow's +good. All must attend church, master and man, rich and poor, oppressor +and oppressed. Good things and great things got read out of the Bible, +it was the book of the people, the New Testament, written much of it in +the interest of all mankind, with special emphasis laid on the rights of +the weak and the duties of the strong. Good things got said in sermon +and in prayer. The speakers must think, the hearers think, as well as +tremble. Begin to think in a circle narrow as a lady's ring, or the +Assembly's Catechism, you will think out; for thought, like all +movement, tends to the right line. Calvinism has always bred thinkers, +and when barbarism was the first danger was perhaps the only thing which +could do it. Calvinism, too, has always shown itself in favor of popular +liberty to a certain degree, and though it stops far short of the mark, +yet goes far beyond the Catholic or Episcopalian. + +Sunday, thus enforced by superstition, has yet been the education-day of +New England; the national school-time for the culture of man's highest +powers; therein have the clergy been our educators, and done a vast +service which mankind will not soon forget. It was good seed they sowed +on this soil of the New World; the harvest is proof of that. They +builded wiser than they knew. Their unconscious hands constructed the +thought of God. Even their superstition and bigotry did much to preserve +church and clergy to us; much also to educate and develop the highest +powers of man. But for that superstition we might have seen the same +anarchy, the same unbridled license in the seventeenth century, which we +saw in the eighteenth, as a consequence of a similar revolution, a +similar reaction; only it would have been carried out with the intensity +of that most masculine and earnest race of men. How much further English +atrocities would have gone than the French did go; how long it would +have taken mankind, by their proper motion, to reascend from a fall so +adverse and so low, I cannot tell. I see what saved them from the +plunge. + +True, the Sunday was not what it should be, more than the week; +preaching was not what it should be, more than practice. But without +that Sunday, and without that preaching, New England would have been a +quite different land; America another nation altogether; the world by no +means so far advanced as now. New England with her descendants has +always been the superior portion of America. I flatter no man's +prejudice, but speak a plain truth. She is superior in intelligence, in +morality--that is too plain for proof. The prime cause of that +superiority must be sought in the character of the fathers of New +England; but a secondary and most powerful cause is to be found also in +those two institutions--Sunday and preaching. Why is it that all great +movements, from the American Revolution down to anti-slavery, have begun +here? Why is it that education societies, missionary societies, Bible +societies, and all the movements for the advance of mankind, begin here? +Why, it is no more an accident than the rising of the tide. Find much of +the cause in the superior character, and therefore in the superior aims +of the forefathers, much also will be found due to this--Once in the +week they paused from all work; they thought of their God, who had +delivered them from the iron house and yoke of bondage; they listened to +the words of able men, exhorting them to justice, piety, and a heavenly +walk with God; they trembled at fear of hell; they rejoiced at hope of +heaven. The church--no, the "meeting-house"--was the common property of +all; the minister the common friend. The slave looked up to him; the +chief magistrate dared not look down on him. For more than a hundred +years the ablest men of New England went into the pulpit. No talent was +thought too great, no learning too rich and profound, no genius too holy +and divine, for the work of teaching men their highest duty, and +helping to their highest bliss. He was the minister to all. There was +not then a church for the rich, and a chapel for the poor; the rich and +the poor met together, for one God was the maker of them all--their +Father too; they had one Gospel, one Redeemer,--their Brother not less +than their God; they journeyed toward the same heaven, which had but one +entrance for great and little; they prayed all the same prayer. The +effect of this socialism of religion is seldom noticed; so we walk on +moist earth, not thinking that we tread on the thunder-cloud and the +lightning. But it is not in human nature for men of intense religious +activity to meet in the same church, sing the same psalm, pray the same +prayer, partake the same elements of communion, and not be touched with +compassion--each for all, and all for each. The same causes which built +up religion in New England, built up democracy along with it. Is it not +easy to see the cause which made the rich men of New England the most +benevolent of rich men; gave them their character for generosity and +public spirit--yes, for eminent humanity? The acorn is not more +obviously the parent of the oak than those two institutions of New +England the parent of such masculine virtues as distinguish her sons. + +Regarded merely as a day of rest from labor, the Sunday has been of +great value to us. Considering the intense character of the nation, our +tendency to material things, and our restless love of work, it seems as +if a Moses of the nineteenth century, legislating for us, would enact +two rest-days in the week, rather than one. It is a good thing that a +man once a week pauses from his work, arrays himself in clean garments, +and is at rest. + +Regarded in its other aspects, Sunday has aided the intellectual culture +of the people to a degree not often appreciated. To many a man, yes, to +most men, it is their only reading day, and they will read "secular" +books, spite of the clerical admonition. Many a poor boy in New England, +who has toiled all the week, and would gladly have studied all the +night, did not obstinate Nature forbid, has studied stealthily all +Sunday, not Jeremiah and the prophets, but Homer and the mathematics, +and risen at length to eminence amongst cultivated men;--he has to thank +the Sunday for the beginnings of that manly growth. + +The moral and religious effect of the day is yet more important. One +seventh part of the time was to be devoted to moral and religious +culture. The clergy watched diligently over Sunday, as their own day. +Work was then the accident; religion was the business. Every thing with +us becomes earnest; Sunday as earnest as the week. It must not be spent +idly. Perhaps no body of clergymen, for two hundred years, on the whole, +were ever so wakeful and active as the American. They also are earnest +and full of intensity, especially in the more serious sects. I think I +am not very superstitious; not often inclined to lean on my father's +staff rather than walk on my own feet; not over-much accustomed to take +things on trust because they have been trusted to all along: but I must +confess that I see a vast amount of good achieved by the aid of these +two institutions, the Sunday and preaching, which could not have been +done without them. I know I have my prejudices; I love the Sunday; a +professional bias may warp me aside, for I am a preacher--the pulpit is +my joy and my throne. Judge you how far my profession and my prejudice +have led me astray in estimating the value of the Sunday, its preaching, +and the good they have achieved for us in New England. I know what +superstition, what bigotry, has been connected with both; I know it has +kept grim and terrible guard about these institutions. I look upon that +superstition and bigotry, as on the old New England guns which were +fought with in the Indian wars, the French wars, and the +Revolution;--things that did service when men knew not how to defend +what they valued most with better tools and more Christian. I look on +both with the same melancholy veneration, but honor them the more that +now they are old, battered, unfit for use and covered with rust; I would +respectfully hang them up, superstition and the musket, side by side; +honorable, but harmless, with their muzzles down, and pray God it might +never be my lot to handle such ungodly weapons, though in a cause never +so humane and holy. + + * * * * * + +Let us look a little at the ill effects of these notions of the Sunday +and the observance which they led to. It is thought an act of religion +to attend church and give a mere bodily presence there. Hence the +minister often relies on this circumstance to bring his audience +together; preaches sermons on the duty of going to church, while +ingenuous boys blush for his weakness, and ask, "Were it not better to +rely on your goodness, your piety, your wisdom; on your superior ability +to teach men, even on your eloquence, rather than tell them it is an act +of religion to come and hear you, when both they and you are painfully +conscious that they are thereby made no wiser, no better, nor more +Christian?" This notion is a dangerous one for a clergyman. It flatters +his pride and encourages his sloth. It blinds him to his own defects, +and leads him to attribute his empty benches to the perverseness of +human nature and the carnal heart, which a few snow-flakes can frighten +from his church, while a storm will not keep them from a lecture on +science or literature. No doubt it is a man's duty to seek all +opportunities of becoming wiser and better. So far as church-going helps +that work, so far it is a duty. But to count it in itself, irrespective +of its consequences, an act of religion, is to commit a dangerous +error, which has proved fatal to many a man's growth in goodness and +piety. Let us look to the end, not merely at the means. + +This notion has also a bad effect on the hearers. It is thought an act +of religion to attend church, whether you are edified or not by sermon, +by psalm, or prayer; an act of religion, though you could more +profitably spend the time in your own closet at home, or with your own +thoughts in the fields. Of course, then, he who attends once a day is +thought a Christian to a certain degree; if twice, more so; if thrice, +why that denotes an additional amount of growth in grace. In this way +the day is often spent in a continual round of meetings. Sermon follows +sermon; prayer treads upon the footsteps of prayer; psalm effaces psalm, +till morning, afternoon, evening, all are gone. The Sunday is ended and +over; the man is tired--but has he been profited and made better +thereby? The sermons and the prayers have cancelled one another, been +heard and forgot. They were too numerous to remember or produce their +effect. So on a summer's lake, as the winds loiter and then pass by, +ripple follows ripple, and wave succeeds to wave, yet the next day the +wind has ceased and the unstable water bears no trace left there by all +the blowings of the former day, but bares its incontinent bosom to the +frailest and most fleeting clouds. + +Another ill effect follows from regarding attendance at church as an act +of religion in itself:--It is forgotten that a man cannot teach what he +does not know. If you have more manhood than I, more religion; if you +are the more humane and the more divine, it is idle for me to try and +teach you divinity and humanity; idle in you to make believe you are +taught. The less must learn of the greater, not the greater directly of +the less. It is too often forgotten by the preacher that his hearers may +be capable of teaching him; that he cannot fill them out of an +emptiness, but a fulness. Hence, it comes to pass that no one, how +advanced soever, is allowed to graduate, so to say, from the church. +Perhaps it may do a great man, mature in Christianity, good to sit down +with his fellows and hear a little man talk who knows nothing of +religion; it may increase his sympathy with mankind. It can hardly be an +act of religion to such a man so advanced in his goodness and piety; +perhaps not the best use he could make of the hour. + +The current opinion hinders social tendencies. A man must not meet with +his friend and neighbor, or if he does, he must talk with bated breath, +with ghostly countenance, and of a ghostly theme. From this abuse of the +Sunday comes much of the cold and unsocial character which strangers +charge us with. As things now go, there are many who have no opportunity +for social intercourse except the hours of the Sunday. Then it is +forbidden them. So they suffer and lose much of the charm of life; +become ungenial, unsocial, stiff, and hard, and cold. + +This notion hinders men, also, from intellectual culture. They must read +no book but one professedly religious. Such works are commonly poor and +dull; written mainly by men of little ability, of little breadth of +view; not written in the interest of mankind, but only of a sect--the +Calvinists or Unitarians. A good man groans when he looks over the +immense piles of sectarian books written with good motives, and read +with the most devout of intentions, but which produce their best effect +when they lead only to sleep. Yet it is commonly taught that it is +religion to spend a part of Sunday in reading such works, in listening, +or in trying to listen, or in affecting to try and listen, to the most +watery sermons, while it is wicked to read some "secular" book, +philosophy, history, poem, or tale, which expands the mind and warms the +heart. Our poor but wisdom-seeking boy must read his Homer only by +stealth. There are many men who have no time for intellectual pursuits, +none for reading, except on Sunday. It is cruel to tell them they shall +read none but sectarian books or listen only to sectarian words. + +But there are other evils yet. These notions and the corresponding +practice tend to make religion external, consisting in obedience to +form, in compliance with custom; while religion is and can be only +piety and goodness, love to God and love to man. To keep the Sunday +idle, to attend church, is not being religious. It is easy to do that; +easy to stop there, and then to look at real, manly saints, who live in +the odor of sanctity, whose sentiment is a prayer, their deeds religion, +and their whole life a perpetual communion with God, and say, "Infidel! +Unbeliever." + +Then, as one day is devoted to religion, it is thought that is enough; +that religion has no more business in the world than the world in +religion. So division is made of the territory of mortal life, in which +partition worldliness has six days, while poor religion has only the +Sunday, and content with her own limits, feels no salient wish to absorb +or annex the week! It is painful to see this abuse of an institution so +noble. No commonness of its occurrence renders it less painful. It is +painful to be told that men of the most scrupulous sects on Sunday, are +in the week the least scrupulous of men. + +But even in religious matters it is thought all things which pertain +directly to the religious welfare of men are not proper to be discussed +on Sunday. One must not preach against intemperance, against slavery, +against war, on Sunday. It is not "evangelical;" not "preaching the +gospel." Yet it is thought proper to preach on total depravity, on +eternal damnation; to show that God will damn forever the majority of +mankind; that the apostle Peter was a Unitarian. The Sunday is not the +time, the pulpit not the place, preaching not the instrument, wherewith +to oppose the monstrous sins of our day, and secure education, +temperance, peace, freedom, for mankind. It is not evangelical, not +Christian, to do that of a Sunday! Yet wonderful to say, it is not +thought very wicked to hold a political caucus on Sunday for the merest +party purposes; not wicked at all to work all day at the navy-yards in +fitting out vessels, if they are only vessels of war; not at all wicked +to toil all Sunday, if it is only in aiming to kill men in regular +battle. Theological newspapers can expend their cheap censure on a +member of Congress for writing a letter on Sunday, yet have no word of +fault to find with the order which sets hundreds to work on Sunday in +preparing armaments of war; not a word against the war which sets men to +butcher their Christian brothers on the day which Christians celebrate +as the anniversary of Christ's triumph over death! These things show +that we have not yet arrived at the most profitable and Christian mode +of using the Sunday; and when I consider these abuses I wonder not that +the cry of "Infidel" is met by the unchristian taunt, yet more deserved +and biting, "Thou hypocrite!" I wonder not that some men say, "Let us +away with the Sunday altogether; and if we have no place for rest, we +will have none for hypocrisy." + +The efforts honestly made by good and honest men, to Judaize the day +still more; to revive the sterner features of ancient worship; to put a +yoke on us which neither we nor our fathers could bear; to transform the +Christian Sunday into the Jewish Sabbath, must lead to a reaction. Abuse +on one side will be met by abuse on the other; despotic asceticism by +license; Judaism by heathenism. Superstition is the mother of denial. +Men will scorn the Sunday; abuse its timely rest. Its hours that may be +devoted to man's highest interests will be prostituted to low aims, and +worldliness make an unbroken sweep from one end of the month to the +other; and then it will take years of toil before mankind can get back +and secure the blessings now placed within an easy reach. I put it to +you, men whose heads time has crowned with white, or sprinkled with a +sober gray, if you would deem it salutary to enforce on your +grandchildren the Sabbath austerities which your parents imposed on you? +In your youth was the Sunday a welcome day; a genial day; or only +wearisome and sour? Was religion, dressed in her Sabbath dress, a +welcome guest; was she lovely and to be desired? Your faces answer. Let +us profit by your experience. + + * * * * * + +How can we make the Sunday yet more valuable? If we abandon the +superstitious notions respecting its origin and original design, the +evils that have hitherto hindered its use will soon perish of +themselves. They all grow out of that root. If men are not driven into +a reaction by pretensions for the Sunday which facts will not warrant; +if unreasonable austerities are not forced upon them in the name of the +law, and the name of God; there is no danger in our day that men will +abandon an institution which already has done so much service to +mankind. Let Sunday and preaching stand on their own merits, and they +will encounter no more opposition than the common school and the +work-days of the week. Then men will be ready enough to appropriate the +Sunday to the highest objects they know and can appreciate. Tell men the +Sunday is made for man, and they will use it for its highest use. Tell +them man is made for it, and they will war on it as a tyrant. I should +be sorry to see the Sunday devoted to common work; sorry to hear the +clatter of a mill, or the rattle of the wheels of business on that day. +I look with pain on men engaged needlessly in work on that day; not with +the pain of wounded superstition, but a deeper regret. I would not water +my garden with perfumes when common water was at hand. We shall always +have work enough in America; hand-work, and head-work, for common +purposes. There is danger that we shall not have enough of rest, of +intellectual cultivation, of refinement, of social intercourse; that our +time shall be too much devoted to the lower interests of life, to the +means of living and not the end. + +I would not consider it an act of religion to attend church: only a +good thing to go there when the way of improvement leads through it; +when you are made wiser and better by being there. I am pained to see a +man spend the whole of a Sunday in going to church,--and forgetting +himself in getting acquainted with the words of the preachers. I think +most intelligent hearers, and most intelligent and Christian preachers, +will confess that two sermons are better than three, and one is better +than two. One need only look at the afternoon face of a congregation in +the city, to be satisfied of this. If one half the day were devoted to +public worship, the other half might be free for private studies of men +at home, for private devotion, for social relaxation, for intercourse +with one's own family and friends. Then Sunday afternoon and evening +would afford an excellent opportunity for meetings for the promotion of +the great humane movements of the day, which some would think not +evangelical enough to be treated of in the morning. Would it be +inconsistent with the great purposes of the day, inconsistent with +Christianity, to have lectures on science, literature, and similar +subjects delivered then? I do not believe the Catholic custom of +spending the Sunday afternoon in England, before the Reformation, was a +good one. It diverted men from the higher end to the lower. I cannot +think that here and now we need amusement so much as society, +instruction, refinement, and devotion. Yet it seems to me unwise to +restrain the innocent sports of children of a Sunday, to the same degree +that our fathers did; to make Sunday to them a day of gloom and sadness. +Thoughtful parents are now much troubled in this matter; they cannot +enforce the old discipline, so disastrous to themselves; they fear to +trust their own sense of what is right;--so, perhaps, get the ill of +both schemes, and the good of neither. There are in Boston about thirty +thousand Catholics, twenty-five thousand of them, probably, too ignorant +to read with pleasure or profit any book. At home, amusement formed a +part of their Sunday service; it was a part of their religion to make a +festive use of Sunday afternoon. What shall they do? Is it Christian in +us by statute to interdict them from their recreation? With the +exception of children and these most ignorant persons, it does not +appear that there is any class amongst us who need any part of the +Sunday for sport. + +I am not one of those who wish "to give up the Sunday;" indeed there are +few such men amongst us; I would make it yet more useful and profitable. +I would remove from it the superstition and the bigotry which have so +long been connected with it; I would use it freely, as a Christian not +enslaved by the letter of Judaism, but made free by an obedience to the +law of the spirit of life. I would use the Sunday for religion in the +wide sense of that word; use it to promote piety and goodness, for +humanity, for science, for letters, for society. I would not abuse it +by impudent license on the one hand, nor by slavish superstition on the +other. We can easily escape the evils which come of the old abuse; can +make the Sunday ten times more valuable than it is even now; can employ +it for all the highest interests of mankind, and fear no reaction into +libertinism. + +The Sunday is made for man, as are all other days; not man for the +Sunday. Let us use it, then, not consuming its hours in a Jewish +observance; not devote it to the lower necessities of life, but the +higher; not squander it in idleness, sloth, frivolity, or sleep; let us +use it for the body's rest, for the mind's culture, for head and heart +and soul. + +Men and women, you have received the Sunday from your fathers, as a day +to be devoted to the highest interests of man. It has done great service +for them and for you. But it has come down accompanied with superstition +which robs it of half its value. It is easy for you to make the day far +more profitable to yourselves than it ever was to your fathers; easy to +divest it of all bigotry, to free it from all oldness of the letter; +easy to leave it for your children an institution which shall bless them +for ages yet to come: or it is easy to bind on their necks unnatural +restraints; to impose on their conscience and understanding absurdities +which at last they must repel with scorn and contempt. It is in your +hands to make the Sunday Jewish or Christian. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[3] These celebrated commandments have come down to us in three distinct +forms; namely, in Exodus xx., in Exodus xxxiv., and in Deut. v. The +differences between these several codes are quite remarkable and +significant. + +[4] 2 Chron. 36:21. + +[5] John 5:1-18, and 7:19-24. + +[6] Matthew 23:1-3. + +[7] Rev. 21:14. + +[8] Coloss. 2:16. + +[9] Galat. 1:5. + +[10] Justinian, _Cod._ Lib. iii. Tit. xii. l. 3. + +[11] _Cod._, Lib. iii. Tit. xii. l. 2. See also, l. 3 and 11. + + + + +III. + +A SERMON OF IMMORTAL LIFE.--PREACHED AT THE MELODEON, ON SUNDAY, +SEPTEMBER 20, 1846. + +WISDOM OF SOLOMON III. 1, 4. + + The souls of the righteous are in the hands of God: their + hope is full of immortality. + + +It is the belief of mankind that we shall all live forever. This is not +a doctrine of Christianity alone. It belongs to the human race. You may +find nations so rude that they live houseless, in caverns of the earth; +nations that have no letters, not knowing the use of bows and arrows, +fire or even clothes, but no nation without a belief in immortal life. +The form of that belief is often grotesque and absurd; the mode of proof +ridiculous; the expectations of what the future life is to be are often +childish and silly. But notwithstanding all that, the fact still +remains, the belief that the soul of a man never dies. + +How did mankind come by this opinion? "By a miraculous revelation," says +one. But according to the common theory of miraculous revelations, the +race could not have obtained it in this way, for according to that +theory the heathen had no such revelations; yet we find this doctrine +the settled belief of the whole heathen world. The Greeks and Romans +believed it long before Christ; the Chaldees, with no pretence to +miraculous inspiration, taught the idea of immortality; while the Jews, +spite of their alleged revelations, rested only in the dim sentiment +thereof. + +It was not arrived at by reasoning. It requires a good deal of hard +thinking to reason out and prove this matter. Yet you find this belief +among nations not capable as yet of that art of thinking and to that +degree, nations who never tried to prove it, and yet believe it as +confidently as we. The human race did not sit down and think it out; +never waited till they could prove it by logic and metaphysics; did not +delay their belief till a miraculous revelation came to confirm it. It +came to mankind by intuition; by instinctive belief, the belief which +comes unavoidably from the nature of man. In this same way came the +belief in God; the love of man; the sentiment of justice. Men could see, +and knew they could see, before they proved it; before they had theories +of vision; without waiting for a miraculous revelation to come and tell +them they had eyes, and might see if they would look. Some faculties of +the body act spontaneously at first--so others of the spirit. + +Immortality is a fact of man's nature, so it is a part of the universe, +just as the sun is a fact in the heavens and a part of the universe. +Both are writings from God's hand; each therefore a revelation from Him, +and of Him; only not miraculous, but natural, regular, normal. Yet each +is just as much a revelation from Him as if the great Soul of all had +spoken in English speech to one of us and said, "There is a sun there in +the heavens, and thou shalt live for ever." Yes, the fact is more +certain than such speech would make it, for this fact speaks always--a +perpetual revelation, and no words can make it more certain. + +As a man attains consciousness of himself, he attains consciousness of +his immortality. At first he asks proof no more of his eternal existence +than of his present life; instinctively he believes both. Nay, he does +not separate the two; this life is one link in that golden and electric +chain of immortality; the next life another and more bright, but in the +same chain. Immortality is what philosophers call an ontological fact; +it belongs essentially to the being of man, just as the eye is a +physiological fact and belongs to the body of man. To my mind this is +the great proof of immortality: the fact that it is written in human +nature; written there so plain that the rudest nations have not failed +to find it, to know it; written just as much as form is written on the +circle, and extension on matter in general. It comes to our +consciousness as naturally as the notions of time and space. We feel it +as a desire; we feel it as a fact. What is thus in man is writ there of +God who writes no lies. To suppose that this universal desire has no +corresponding gratification, is to represent Him, not as the father of +all but as only a deceiver. I feel the longing after immortality, a +desire essential to my nature, deep as the foundation of my being; I +find the same desire in all men. I feel conscious of immortality; that I +am not to die; no, never to die, though often to change. I cannot +believe this desire and consciousness are felt only to mislead, to +beguile, to deceive me. I know God is my father, and the father of the +nations. Can the Almighty deceive his children? For my own part, I can +conceive of nothing which shall make me more certain of my immortality. +I ask no argument from learned lips. No miracle could make me more sure; +no, not if the sheeted dead burst cerement and shroud, and rising forth +from their honored tombs stood here before me, the disenchanted dust +once more enchanted with that fiery life; no, not if the souls of all my +sires since time began came thronging round, and with miraculous speech +told me they lived and I should also live. I could only say, "I knew all +this before, why waste your heavenly speech!" I have now indubitable +certainty of eternal life. Death removing me to the next state, can give +me infallible certainty. + +But there are men who doubt of immortality. They say they are conscious +of the want, not of the fact. They need a proof. The exception here +proves the rule. You do not doubt your personal and conscious existence +now; you ask no proof of that; you would laugh at me should I try to +convince you that you are alive and self-conscious. Yet one of the +leaders of modern philosophy wanted a proof of his as a basis for his +science, and said,--"I am because I think." But his thought required +proof as much as his being; yes, logically more, for being is the ground +of thinking, not thinking of being. At this day there are sound men who +deny the existence of this outward world, declaring it only a +dreamworld. This ground, they say, and yonder sun have being but in +fancy, like the sun and ground you perchance dreamed of last night whose +being was only a being-dreamed. These are exceptional men, and help +prove the common rule, that man trusts his senses and believes an +outward world. Yet such are more common amongst philosophers than men +who doubt of their immortal life. You cannot easily reason those men out +of their philosophy and into their senses, nor by your own philosophy +perhaps convince them that there is an outward world. + +I think few of you came to your belief in everlasting life through +reasoning. Your belief grew out of your general state of mind and heart. +You could not help it. Perhaps few of you ever sat down and weighed the +arguments for and against it, and so made up your mind. Perhaps those +who have the firmest consciousness of the fact are least familiar with +the arguments which confirm that consciousness. If a man disbelieves it, +if he denies it, his opinion is not often to be changed immediately or +directly by argument. His special conviction has grown out of his +general state of mind and heart, and is only to be removed by a change +in his whole philosophy. I am not honoring men for their belief, nor +blaming men who doubt or deny. I do not believe any one ever willingly +doubted this; ever purposely reasoned himself into the denial thereof. +Men doubt because they cannot help it; not because they will, but must. + +There are a great many things true which no man as yet can prove true; +some things so true that nothing can make them plainer, or more plainly +true. I think it is so with this doctrine, and therefore, for myself, +ask no argument. With my views of man, of God, of the relation between +the two, I want no proof, satisfied with my own consciousness of +immortality. Yet there are arguments which are fair, logical, just, +which satisfy the mind, and may, perhaps, help persuade some men who +doubt, if such men there are amongst you. I think that immortality is a +fact of consciousness; a fact given in the constitution of man: +therefore a matter of sentiment. But it requires thought to pick it out +from amongst the other facts of consciousness. Though at first merely a +feeling, a matter of sentiment, on examination it becomes an idea--a +matter of thought. It will bear being looked at in the sharpest and +dryest light of logic. Truth never flinches before reason. It is so with +our consciousness of God; that is an ontological fact, a fact given in +the nature of man. At first it is a feeling, a matter of sentiment. By +thought we abstract this fact from other facts; we find an idea of God. +That is a matter of philosophy, and the analyzing mind legitimates the +idea and at length demonstrates the existence of God, which we first +learned without analysis, and by intuition. A great deal has been +written to prove the existence of God, and that by the ablest men; yet I +cannot believe that any one was ever reasoned directly into a belief in +God, by all those able men, nor directly out of it by all the skeptics +and scoffers. Indirectly such works affect men, change their philosophy +and modes of thought, and so help them to one or the other conclusion. + +The idea of immortality, like the idea of God, in a certain sense, is +born in us, and fast as we come to consciousness of ourselves we come to +consciousness of God, and of ourselves as immortal. The higher we +advance in wisdom, goodness, piety, the larger place do God and +immortality hold in our experience and inward life. I think that is the +regular and natural process of a man's development. Doubt of either +seems to me an exception, an irregularity. Causes that remove the doubt +must be general more than special. + + * * * * * + +However, in order to have a basis of thought and reasoning, as well as +of intuition and reason, let me mention some of the arguments for +everlasting life. + +I. The first is drawn from the general belief of mankind. The greatest +philosophers and the most profound and persuasive religious teachers of +the whole world have taught this. That is an important fact, for these +men represent the consciousness of mankind in the highest development it +has yet reached, and in such points are the truest representatives of +man. What is more, the human race believes it, not merely as a thing +given by miraculous revelation, not as a matter proven by science, not +as a thing of tradition resting on some man's authority, but believes it +instinctively, not knowing and not asking why, or how; believes it as a +fact of consciousness. Now in a matter of this sort the opinion of the +human race is worth considering. I do not value very much the opinion of +a priesthood in Rome or Judea, or elsewhere on this point, or any other, +for they may have designs adverse to the truth. But the general +sentiment of the human race in a matter like this is of the greatest +importance. This general sentiment of mankind is a quite different thing +from public opinion, which favors freedom in one country and slavery in +another; this sentiment of mankind relates to what is a matter of +feeling with most men. It is only a few thinkers that have made it a +matter of thought. The opinion of mankind, so far as we know, has not +changed on this point for four thousand years. Since the dawn of +history, man's belief in immortality has continually been developing and +getting deeper fixed. + +Still more, this belief is very dear to mankind. Let me prove that. If +it were true that one human soul was immortal and yet was to be +eternally damned, getting only more clotted with crime and deeper bit by +agony as the ages went slowly by, then immortality were a curse, not to +that man only, but to all mankind--for no amount of happiness, merited +or undeserved, could ever atone or make up for the horrid wrong done to +that one most miserable man. Who of you is there that could relish +Heaven, or even bear it for a moment, knowing that a brother was doomed +to smart with ever greatening agony, while year on year, and age on age, +the endless chain of eternity continued to coil round the flying wheels +of hell? I say the thought of one such man would fill even Heaven with +misery, and the best man of men would scorn the joys of everlasting +bliss, would spurn at Heaven and say, "Give me my brother's place; for +me there is no Heaven while he is there!" Now it has been popularly +taught, that not one man alone, but the vast majority of all mankind, +are thus to be condemned; immortal only to be everlastingly wretched. +That is the popular doctrine now in this land. It has been so taught in +the Christian churches these sixteen centuries and more--taught in the +name of Christ! Such an immortality would be a curse to men, to every +man; as much so to the "saved" as to the "lost;" for who would willingly +stay in Heaven, and on such terms? Surely not he who wept with weeping +men! Yet in spite of this vile doctrine drawn over the world to come, +mankind religiously believes that each shall live for ever. This shows +how strong is the instinct which can lift up such a foul and hateful +doctrine and still live on. Tell me not that scoffers and critics shall +take away man's faith in endless life: it has stood a harder test than +can ever come again. + + * * * * * + +II. The next argument is drawn from the nature of man. + +1. All men desire to be immortal. This desire is instinctive, natural, +universal. In God's world such a desire implies the satisfaction thereof +equally natural and universal. It cannot be that God has given man this +universal desire of immortality, this belief in it, and yet made it all +a mockery. Man loves truth; tells it; rests only in it; how much more +God who is the trueness of truth. Bodily senses imply their objects--the +eye light, the ear sound; the touch, the taste, the smell, things +relative thereto. Spiritual senses likewise foretell their object,--are +silent prophecies of endless life. The love of justice, beauty, truth, +of man and God, points to realities unseen as yet. We are ever hungering +after noblest things, and what we feed on makes us hunger more. The +senses are satisfied, but the soul never. + +2. Then, too, while this composite body unavoidably decays, this simple +soul which is my life decays not. Reason, the affections, all the powers +that make the man, decay not. True, the organs by which they act become +impaired. But there is no cause for thinking that love, conscience, +reason, will, ever become weaker in man; but cause for thinking that all +these continually become more strong. Was the mind of Newton gone when +his frame, long over-tasked, refused its wonted work? + +3. Here on earth, every thing in its place and time matures. The acorn +and the chestnut, things natural to this climate, ripen every year. A +longer season would make them no better nor bigger. It is so with our +body--that, under proper conditions, becomes mature. It is so with all +the things of earth. But man is not fully grown as the acorn and the +chestnut; never gets mature. Take the best man and the greatest--all his +faculties are not developed, fully grown and matured. He is not complete +in the qualities of a man; nay, often half his qualities lie all unused. +Shall we conclude these are never to obtain development and do their +work? The analogy of nature tells us that man, the new-born plant, is +but removed by death to another soil, where he shall grow complete and +become mature. + +4. Then, too, each other thing under its proper conditions not only +ripens but is perfect also after its kind. Each clover-seed is perfect +as a star. Every lion, as a general rule, is a common representation of +all lionhood; the ideal of his race made real in him, a thousand years +of life would not make him more. But where is the Adamitic man; the type +and representative of his race, who makes actual its idea? Even Jesus +bids you not call him good; no man has all the manhood of mankind. Yes, +there are rudiments of greatness in us all, but abortive, incomplete, +and stopped in embryo. Now all these elements of manhood point as +directly to another state as the unfinished walls of yonder rising +church intimate that the work is not complete, that the artist here +intends a roof, a window there, here a tower, and over all a +heaven-piercing spire. All men are abortions, our failure pointing to +the real success. Nay, we are all waiting to be born, our whole nature +looking to another world, and dimly presaging what that world shall be. +Death, however we misname him, seasonable or out of time, is the +birth-angel, that alone. + +5. Besides, the presence of injustice, of wrong, points the same way. +The fact that one man goes out of this life in childhood, in manhood, at +any time before the natural measure of his days is full; the fact that +any one is by circumstances made wretched; that he is hindered from his +proper growth and has not here his natural due--all intimates to me his +future life. I know that God is just. I know His justice too shall make +all things right, for He must have the power, the wish, the will +therefor, to speak in human speech. I see the injustice in this city, +its pauperism, suffering, and crime, men smarting all their life, and by +no fault of theirs. I know there must be another hemisphere to balance +this; another life, wherein justice shall come to all and for all. Else +God were unjust; and an unjust God to me is no God at all, but a +wretched chimera which my soul rejects with scorn. I see the autumn +prefigured in the spring. The flowers of May-day foretold the harvest, +its rosy apples and its yellow ears of corn. As the bud now lying cold +and close upon the bark of every tree throughout our northern clime is a +silent prophecy of yet another spring and other summers, and harvests +too; so this instinctive love of justice scantly budding here and nipped +by adverse fate, silently but clearly tells of a kingdom of heaven. I +take some miserable child here in this city, squalid in dress and look, +ignorant and wicked too as most men judge of vagrant vice, made so by +circumstances over which that child had no control; I turn off with a +shudder at the public wrong we have done and still are doing; but in +that child I see proof of another world, yes, Heaven glittering from +behind those saddened eyes. I know that child has a man's nature in him, +perhaps a Channing's trusting piety; perhaps a Newton's mind; has surely +rudiments of more than these; for what were Channing, Newton, both of +them, but embryo men? I turn off with a shudder at the public wrong, but +a faith in God's justice, in that child's eternal life, which nothing +can ever shake. + + * * * * * + +III. A third argument is drawn from the nature of God. He, as the +infinite, the unconditioned, the absolute, is all-powerful, all-wise, +all-good. Therefore he must wish the best of all possible things; must +know the best of all possible things; must will the best of all possible +things, and so bring it to pass. Life is a possible thing; eternal life +is possible. Neither implies a contradiction; yes, to me they seem +necessary, more than possible. Now, then, as life, serene and happy +life, is better than non-existence, so immortality is better than +perpetual death. God must know that, wish that, will that, and so bring +that about. Man, therefore, must be immortal. This argument is brief +indeed, but I see not how it can be withstood. + +I do not know that one of you doubts of eternal life. If any does, I +know not if these thoughts will ever affect his doubt. Still, I think +each argument is powerful; to one that thinks, reasons, balances, and +then decides, exceeding powerful. All put together form a mass of +argument which, as it seems to me, no logic can resist. Yet I beg you to +understand that I do not rest immortality on any reasoning of mine, but +on reason itself; not on these logical arguments, but on man's +consciousness, and the instinctive belief which is common to the human +race. I believed my immortality before I proved it; believed it just as +strongly then as now. Nay, could some doubter rise, and, to my thinking, +vanquish all these arguments, I should still hold fast my native faith, +nor fear the doubter's arms. The simple consciousness of men is stronger +than all forms of proof. Still, if men want arguments--why, there they +are. + + * * * * * + +The belief in immortality is one thing; the special form thereof, the +definite notion of the future life, another and quite different. The +popular doctrine in our churches I think is this: That this body which +we lay in the dust shall one day be raised again, the living soul joined +on anew, and both together live the eternal life. But where is the soul +all this time, between our death-day and our day of rising? Some say it +sleeps unconscious, dead all this time; others, that it is in Heaven +now, or else in hell; others, in a strange and transient home, imperfect +in its joy or woe, waiting the final day and more complete account. It +seems to me this notion is absurd and impossible: absurd in its doctrine +relative to the present condition of departed souls; impossible in what +it teaches of the resurrection of this body. If my soul is to claim the +body again, which shall it be, the body I was born into, or that I died +out of? If I live to the common age of men, changing my body as I must, +and dying daily, then I have worn some eight or ten bodies. So at the +last, which body shall claim my soul, for the ten had her? The soul +herself may claim them all. But to make the matter still more intricate, +there is in the earth but a certain portion of matter out of which human +bodies can be made. Considering all the millions of men now living, the +myriads of millions that have been before, it is plain, I think, that +all the matter suitable for human bodies has been lived over many times. +So if the world were to end to-day, instead of each old man having ten +bodies from which to choose the one that fits him best, there would be +ten men, all clamoring for each body! Shall I then have a handful of my +former dust, and that alone? That is not the resurrection of my former +body. This whole doctrine of the resurrection of the flesh seems to me +impossible and absurd. + +I know men refer this, as many other things no better, to Jesus. I find +no satisfactory evidence that he taught the resurrection of the body; +there is some evidence that he did not. I know it was the doctrine of +the Pharisees of his time, of Paul, the early Christians, and more or +less of the Christian churches to this day. In Christ's time in Judea, +there were the Sadducees, who taught the eternal death of men; the +Pharisees who taught the resurrection of the flesh and its reunion with +the soul; the Essenes, who taught the immortality of the soul, but +rejected the resurrection of the body. Paul was a Pharisee, and in his +letters taught the resurrection of the dead, the belief of the +Pharisees. From him it has come down to us, and in the creed of many +churches it is still written, "I believe in the resurrection of the +flesh." Many doubted this in early times, but the council of Nice +declared all men accursed who dared to doubt the resurrection of the +flesh. I mention this as absurd and impossible, because it is still, I +fear, the popular belief, and lest some should confound the doctrine of +immortality with this tenet of the Pharisees. Let it be remembered the +immortality of the soul is one thing, the resurrection of the body +another and quite different. + + * * * * * + +What is this future life? what can we know of it besides its existence? +Some men speak as if they knew the way around Heaven as around the wards +of their native city. What we can know in detail is cautiously to be +inferred from the nature of man and the nature of God. I will modestly +set down what seems to me. + +It must be a conscious state. Man is by his nature conscious; yes, +self-conscious. He is progressive in his self-consciousness. I cannot +think a removal out of the body destroys this consciousness; rather that +it enhances and intensifies this. Yet consciousness in the next life +must differ as much from consciousness here as the ripe peach differs +from the blossom, or the bud, or the bark, or the earthly materials out +of which it grew. The child is no limit to the man, nor my consciousness +now to what I may be, must be hereafter. + +It must be a social state. Our nature is social; our joys social. For +our progress here, our happiness, we depend on one another. Must it not +be so there? It must be an advance upon our nature and condition here. +All the analogy of nature teaches that. Things advance from small to +great; from base to beautiful. The girl grows into a woman; the bud +swells into the blossom, that into the fruit. The process over, the work +begins anew. How much more must it be so in the other life. What old +powers we shall discover now buried in the flesh; what new powers shall +come upon us in that new state, no man can know; it were but poetic +idleness to talk of them. We see in some great man, what power of +intellect, imagination, justice, goodness, piety, he reveals, lying +latent in us all. How men bungle in their works of art! No Raphael can +paint a dew-drop or a flake of frost. Yet some rude man, tired with his +work, lies down beneath a tree, his head upon his swarthy arm, and sleep +shuts, one by one, these five scant portals of the soul, and what an +artist is he made at once! How brave a sky he paints above him, with +what golden garniture of clouds set off; what flowers and trees, what +men and women does he not create, and moving in celestial scenes! What +years of history does he condense in one short minute, and when he +wakes, shakes off the purple drapery of his dream as if it were but +worthless dust and girds him for his work anew! What other powers there +are shut up in men less known than this artistic phantasy; powers of +seeing the distant, recalling the past, predicting the future, feeling +at once the character of men--of this we know little, only by rare +glimpses at the unwonted side of things. But yet we know enough to guess +there are strange wonders there waiting to be revealed. + +What form our conscious, social, and increased activity shall take, we +know not. We know of that no more than before our birth we knew of this +world, of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch, or the things which +they reveal. We are not born into that world, have not its senses yet. +This we know, that the same God, all-powerful, all-wise, all-good, rules +there and then, as here and now. Who cannot trust him to do right and +best for all? For my own part, I feel no wish to know how or where, or +what I shall be hereafter. I know it will be right for my truest +welfare; for the good of all. I am satisfied with this trust. + +Yet the next life must be a state of retribution. Thither we carry +nothing but ourselves, our naked selves. Our fortune we leave behind us; +our honors and rank return to such as gave; even our reputation, the +good or ill men thought we were, clings to us no more. We go thither +without our staff or scrip; nothing but the man we are. Yet that man is +the result of all life's daily work; it is the one thing which we have +brought to pass. I cannot believe men who have voluntarily lived mean, +little, vulgar and selfish lives, will go out of this and into that, +great, noble, generous, good, and holy. Can the practical saint and the +practical hypocrite enter on the same course of being together? I know +the sufferings of bad men here, the wrong they do their nature, and what +comes of that wrong. I think that suffering is the best part of sin, the +medicine to heal it with. What men suffer here from their wrong-doing is +its natural consequence; but all that suffering is a mercy, designed to +make them better. Every thing in this world is adapted to promote the +welfare of God's creatures. Must it not be so in the next? How many men +seem wicked from our point of view, who are not so from their own; how +many become infamous through no fault of theirs; the victims of +circumstances, born into crime, of low and corrupt parents, whom former +circumstances made corrupt! Such men cannot be sinners before God. Here +they suffer from the tyranny of appetites they never were taught to +subdue; they have not the joy of a cultivated mind. The children of the +wild Indian are capable of the same cultivation as children here; yet +they are savages. Is it always to be so? Is God to be partial in +granting the favors of another life? I cannot believe it. I doubt not +that many a soul rises up from the dungeon and the gallows, yes, from +dens of infamy amongst men, clean and beautiful before God. Christ, says +the Gospel, assured the penitent thief of sharing heaven with him--and +that day. Many seem inferior to me, who in God's sight must be far +before me; men who now seem too low to learn of me here, may be too high +to teach me there. + +I cannot think the future world is to be feared, even by the worst of +men. I had rather die a sinner than live one. Doubtless justice is there +to be done; that may seem stern and severe. But remember God's justice +is not like a man's; it is not vengeance, but mercy; not poison, but +medicine. To me it seems tuition more than chastisement. God is not the +Jailer of the Universe, but the Shepherd of the people; not the Hangman +of mankind, but their Physician; yes, our Father. I cannot fear Him as I +fear men. I cannot fail to love. I abhor sin, I loathe and nauseate +thereat; most of all at my own. I can plead for others and extenuate +their guilt, perhaps they for mine; not I for my own. I know God's +justice will overtake me, giving me what I have paid for. But I do not, +cannot fear it. I know His justice is love; that if I suffer, it is for +my everlasting joy. I think this is a natural state of mind. I do not +find that men ever dread the future life, or turn pale on their +death-bed at thought of God's vengeance, except when a priesthood has +frightened them to that. The world's literature, which is the world's +confession, proves what I say. In Greece, in classic days, when there +was no caste of priests, the belief in immortality was current and +strong. But in all her varied literature I do not remember a man dying, +yet afraid of God's vengeance. The rude Indian of our native land did +not fear to meet the Great Spirit, face to face. I have sat by the +bedside of wicked men, and while death was dealing with my brother, I +have watched the tide slow ebbing from the shore, but I have known no +one afraid to go. Say what we will, there is nothing stronger and deeper +in men than confidence in God, a solemn trust that He will do us good. +Even the worst man thinks God his Father; and is he not? Tell me not of +God's vengeance, punishing men for his own glory! There is no such +thing. Talk not to me of endless hell, where men must suffer for +suffering's sake, be damned for an eternity of woe. I tell you there is +no such thing, nor can there ever be. Does not even the hireling +shepherd, when a single lamb has gone astray, leave the ninety and nine +safe in their fold, go forth some stormy night and seek the wanderer, +rejoicing to bring home the lost one on his shoulders? And shall God +forget His child, his frailest or most stubborn child; leave him in +endless misery, a prey to insatiate Sin, that grim, bloodthirsty wolf, +prowling about the human fold? I tell you No; not God. Why, this +eccentric earth forsakes the sun awhile, careering fast and far away, +but that attractive power prevails at length, and the returning globe +comes rounding home again. Does a mortal mother desert her son, wicked, +corrupt and loathsome though he be? If so, the wiser world cries, Shame! +But she does not. When her child becomes loathsome and hateful to the +world, drunk with wickedness, and when the wicked world puts him away +out of its sight, strangling him to death, that mother forgets not her +child. She had his earliest kiss from lips all innocent of coming ill, +and she will have his last. Yes, she will press his cold and stiffened +form to her own bosom; the bosom that bore and fed the innocent babe +yearns yet with mortal longing for the murdered murderer. Infamous to +the world, his very dust is sacred dust to her. She braves the world's +reproach, buries her son, piously hoping, that as their lives once +mingled, so their ashes shall. The world, cruel and forgetful oft, +honors the mother in its deepest heart. Do you tell me that culprit's +mother loves her son more than God can love him? Then go and worship +her. I know that when father and mother both forsake me, in the +extremity of my sin, I know my God loves on. Oh yes, ye sons of men, +Indian and Greek, ye are right to trust your God. Do priests and their +churches say No!--bid them go and be silent forever. No grain of dust +gets lost from off this dusty globe; and shall God lose a man from off +this sphere of souls? Believe it not. + +I know that suffering follows sin, lasting long as the sin. I thank God +it is so; that God's own angel stands there to warn back the erring +Balaams, wandering towards woe. But God, who sends the rain, the dew, +the sun, on me as on a better man, will, at last, I doubt it not, make +us all pure, all just, all good, and so, at last, all happy. This +follows from the nature of God himself, for the All-good must wish the +welfare of His child; the All-wise know how to achieve that welfare; the +All-powerful bring it to pass. Tell me He wishes not the eternal welfare +of all men, then I say, That is not the God of the universe. I own not +that as God. Nay, I tell you it is not God you speak of, but some +heathen fancy, smoking up from your unhuman heart. I would ask the worst +of mothers, Did you forsake your child because he went astray, and +mocked your word? "Oh no," she says; "he was but a child, he knew no +better, and I led him right, corrected him for his good, not mine!" Are +we not all children before God; the wisest, oldest, wickedest, God's +child! I am sure He will never forsake me, how wicked soever I become. I +know that he is love; love, too, that never fails. I expect to suffer +for each conscious, wilful wrong; I wish, I hope, I long to suffer for +it. I am wronged if I do not; what I do not outgrow, live over and +forget here, I hope to expiate there. I fear a sin; not to outgrow a +sin. + + * * * * * + +A man who has lived here a manly life, must enter the next under the +most favorable circumstances. I do not mean a man of mere negative +goodness, starting in the road of old custom, with his wheels deep in +the ruts, not having life enough to go aside, but a positively good man, +one bravely good. He has lived heaven here, and must enter higher up +than a really wicked man, or a slothful one, or one but negatively good. +He can go from earth to heaven, as from one room to another, pass +gradually, as from winter to spring. To such an one, no revolution +appears needed. The next life, it seems, must be a continual progress, +the improvement of old powers, the disclosure or accession of new ones. +What nobler reach of thought, what profounder insight, what more +heavenly imagination, what greater power of conscience, faith and love, +will bless us there and then, it were vain to calculate, it is far +beyond our span. You see men now, whose souls are one with God, and so +His will works through them as the magnetic fire runs on along the +unimpeding line. What happiness they have, it is they alone can say. How +much greater must it be there; not even they can tell. Here the body +helps us to some things. Through these five small loop-holes the world +looks in. How much more does the body hinder us from seeing? Through the +sickly body yet other worlds look in. He who has seen only the daylight, +knows nothing of that heaven of stars, which all night long hang +overhead their lamps of gold. When death has dusted off this body from +me, who will dream for me the new powers I shall possess? It were vain +to try. Time shall reveal it all. + +I cannot believe that any state in Heaven is a final state, only a +condition of progress. The bud opens into the blossom, the flower +matures into the fruit. The salvation of to-day is not blessedness +enough for to-morrow. Here we are first babes of earth, with a few +senses, and those imperfect, helpless and ignorant; then children of +earth; then youths; then men, armed with reason, conscience, affection, +piety, and go on enlarging these without end. So methinks it must be +there, that we shall be first babes of Heaven, then children, next +youths, and so go on growing, advancing and advancing--our being only a +becoming more and more, with no possibility of ever reaching the end. If +this be true, then there must be a continual increase of being. So, in +some future age, the time will come, when each one of us shall have more +mind, and heart, and soul, than Christ on earth; more than all men now +on earth have ever had; yes, more than they and all the souls of men now +passed to Heaven;--shall have, each one of us, more being than they all +have had, and so more truth, more soul, more faith, more rest and bliss +of life. + + * * * * * + +Do men of the next world look in upon this? Are they present with us, +conscious of our deeds or thoughts? Who knows? Who can say aye or no? +The unborn know nothing of the life on earth; yet the born of earth know +somewhat of them, and make ready for their coming. Who knows but men +born to heaven are waiting for your birth to come--have gone to prepare +a place for us? All that is fancy, and not fact; it is not philosophy, +but poetry; no more. Of this we may be sure, that what is best will be; +what best for saint or sinner; what most conducive to their real good. +That is no poetry, but unavoidable truth, which all mankind may well +believe. + +There are many who never attained their true stature here, yet without +blameworthiness of theirs; men cheated of their growth. Many a Milton +walks on his silent way, and goes down at last, not singing and unsung. +How many a possible Newton or Descartes has dug the sewers of a city, +and dies, giving no sign of the wealthy soul he bore! + + "Chill penury repressed his noble rage, + And froze the genial current of the soul." + +What if the best of you had been born slaves in North Carolina, or among +savages at New Zealand; nay, in some of the filthy cellars of Boston, +and turned friendless into the streets; what might you have become? +Surely not what you are; yet, before God, you might, perhaps, be more +deserving, and, at death, go to a far higher place. What is so terribly +wrong here, must be righted there. It cannot be that God will thrust a +man out of Heaven, because his mother was a savage, a slave, a pauper, +or a criminal. It is men's impiety which does so here, not Heaven's +justice there! How the wrong shall be righted I know not, care not now +to know; of the fact I ask no further certainty. Many that are last +shall be first. It may be that the pirate, in heaven, having outgrown +his earthly sins, shall teach justice to the judge who hanged him here. +They who were oppressed and trampled on, kept down, dwarfed, stinted and +emaciate in soul, must have justice done them there, and will doubtless +stand higher in Heaven than we, who, having many talents, used them +poorly, or hid them idle in the dirt, knowing our Father's will, yet +heeding not. It was Jesus that said, Many shall come from the east and +the west, and sit down in the kingdom of God, and men, calling +themselves saints, be thrust out. + + * * * * * + +Shall we remember the deeds of the former life; this man that he picked +rags out of the mud in the streets, and another that he ruled nations? +Who can tell; nay, who need care to ask? Such a remembrance seems not +needed for retribution's sake. The oak remembers not each leaf it ever +bore, though each helped to form the oak, its branch and bole. How much +has gone from our bodies! we know not how it came or went! How much of +our past life is gone from our memory, yet its result lives in our +character! The saddler remembers not every stitch he took while an +apprentice, yet each stitch helped form the saddle. + + * * * * * + +Shall we know our friends again? For my own part I cannot doubt it; +least of all when I drop a tear over their recent dust. Death does not +separate them from us here. Can life in heaven do it? They live in our +remembrance; memory rakes in the ashes of the dead, and the virtues of +the departed flame up anew, enlightening the dim cold walls of our +consciousness. Much of our joy is social here; we only half enjoy an +undivided good. God made mankind, but sundered that into men, that they +might help one another. Must it not be so there, and we be with our +real friends? Man loves to think it; yet to trust is wiser than to +prophesy. But the girl who went from us a little one may be as parent to +her father when he comes, and the man who left us have far outgrown our +dream of an angel when we meet again. I cannot doubt that many a man who +not long ago left his body here, now far surpasses the radiant manliness +which Jesus won and wore; yes, is far better, greater, too, than many +poorly conceive of God. + + * * * * * + +There are times when we think little of a future life. In a period of +success, serene and healthy life; the day's good is good enough for that +day. But there comes a time when this day's good is not enough; its ill +too great to bear. When death comes down and wrenches off a friend from +our side; wife, child, brother, father, a dear one taken; this life is +not enough. Oh, no, not to the coldest, coarsest, and most sensual man. +I put it to you, to the most heartless of you all, or the most cold and +doubting--When you lay down in the earth your mother, sister, wife, or +child, remembering that you shall see their face no more, is life +enough? Do you not reach out your arms for heaven, for immortality, and +feel you cannot die? When I see men at a feast, or busy in the street, I +do not think of their eternal life; perhaps feel not my own. But when +the stiffened body goes down to the tomb, sad, silent, remorseless, I +feel there is no death for the man. That clod which yonder dust shall +cover is not my brother. The dust goes to its place, the man to his own. +It is then I feel my immortality. I look through the grave into heaven. +I ask no miracle, no proof, no reasoning for me. I ask no risen dust to +teach me immortality. I am conscious of eternal life. + +But there are worse hours than these: seasons bitterer than death, +sorrows that lie a latent poison in the heart, slowly sapping the +foundations of our peace. There are hours when the best life seems a +sheer failure to the man who lived it, his wisdom folly, his genius +impotence, his best deed poor and small; when he wonders why he was +suffered to be born; when all the sorrows of the world seem poured upon +him; when he stands in a populous loneliness, and though weak, can only +lean in upon himself. In such hour he feels the insufficiency of this +life. It is only his cradle-time, he counts himself just born; all +honors, wealth and fame are but baubles in his baby hand; his deep +philosophy but nursery rhymes. Yet he feels the immortal fire burning in +his heart. He stretches his hands out from the swaddling-clothes of +flesh, reaching after the topmost star, which he sees, or dreams he +sees, and longs to go alone. Still worse, the consciousness of sin comes +over him; he feels that he has insulted himself. All about him seems +little; himself little, yet clamoring to be great. Then we feel our +immortality; through the gairish light of day we see a star or two +beyond. The soul within us feels her wings, contending to be born, +impatient for the sky, and wrestles with the earthly worm that folds us +in. + + "Mysterious Night! when our first Parent knew + Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, + Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, + This glorious canopy of light and blue? + Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew, + Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, + Hesperus with the host of heaven came; + And lo, Creation widened in man's view. + Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed + Within thy beams, O Sun? or who could find, + Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood revealed, + That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind? + Why do we then shun Death with anxious strife? + If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?" + +I would not slight this wondrous world. I love its day and night. Its +flowers and its fruits are dear to me. I would not wilfully lose sight +of a departing cloud. Every year opens new beauty in a star; or in a +purple gentian fringed with loveliness. The laws too of matter seem more +wonderful the more I study them, in the whirling eddies of the dust, in +the curious shells of former life buried by thousands in a grain of +chalk, or in the shining diagrams of light above my head. Even the ugly +becomes beautiful when truly seen. I see the jewel in the bunchy toad. +The more I live, the more I love this lovely world; feel more its Author +in each little thing; in all that is great. But yet I feel my +immortality the more. In childhood the consciousness of immortal life +buds forth feeble, though full of promise. In the man it unfolds its +fragrant petals, his most celestial flower, to mature its seed +throughout eternity. The prospect of that everlasting life, the perfect +justice yet to come, the infinite progress before us, cheer and comfort +the heart. Sad and disappointed, full of self-reproach, we shall not be +so forever. The light of heaven breaks upon the night of trial, sorrow, +sin; the sombre clouds which overhung the east, grown purple now, tell +us the dawn of heaven is coming in. Our faces, gleamed on by that, smile +in the new-born glow; we are beguiled of our sadness before we are +aware. The certainty of this provokes us to patience, it forbids us to +be slothfully sorrowful. It calls us to be up and doing. The thought +that all will at last be right with the slave, the poor, the weak, and +the wicked, inspires us with zeal to work for them here, and make it all +right for them even now. + +There is small merit in being willing to die; it seems almost sinful in +a good man to wish it when the world needs him here so much. It is weak +and unmanly to be always looking and sighing voluptuously for that. But +it is of great comfort to have in your soul a sure trust in +immortality; of great value here and now to anticipate time and live +to-day the eternal life. That we may all do. The joys of heaven will +begin as soon as we attain the character of heaven and do its duties. +That may begin to-day. It is everlasting life to know God, to have His +Spirit dwelling in you, yourself at one with Him. Try that and prove its +worth. Justice, usefulness, wisdom, religion, love, are the best things +we hope for in Heaven. Try them on--they will fit you here not less +becomingly. They are the best things of earth. Think no outlay of +goodness and piety too great. You will find your reward begin here. As +much goodness and piety, so much Heaven. Men will not pay you--God will; +pay you now; pay you hereafter and for ever. + + + + +IV. + +THE PUBLIC EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.--AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE +ONONDAGA TEACHERS' INSTITUTE, AT SYRACUSE, NEW YORK, OCTOBER 4, 1849. + + +Education is the developing and furnishing of the faculties of man. To +educate the people is one of the functions of the State. It is generally +allowed in the free States of America, that the community owes each +child born into it a chance for education, intellectual, moral, and +religious. Hence the child has a just and recognized claim on the +community for the means of this education, which is to be afforded him, +not as a charity, but as a right. + +The fact indicates the progress mankind has made in not many years. Once +the state only took charge of the military education of the people; not +at all of their intellectual, moral, or religious culture. They received +their military discipline, not for the special and personal advantage of +the individuals, Thomas and Oliver, but for the benefit of the state. +They received it, not because they were men claiming it in virtue of +their manhood, but as subjects of the state, because their military +training was needful for the state, or for its rulers who took the name +thereof. Then the only culture which the community took public pains to +bestow on its members, was training them to destroy. The few, destined +to command, learned the science of destruction, and the kindred science +of defence; the many, doomed to obey, learned only the art to destroy, +and the kindred art of defence. + +The ablest men of the nation were sought out for military teachers, +giving practical lessons of the science and the art; they were covered +with honor and loaded with gold. The wealth of the people and their +highest science went to this work. Institutions were founded to promote +this education, and carefully watched over by the state, for it was +thought the Commonwealth depended on disciplined valor. The soldier was +thought to be the type of the state, the archetype of man; accordingly +the highest spiritual function of the state was the production of +soldiers. + + * * * * * + +Most of the civilized nations have passed through that stage of their +development: though the few or the many are still taught the science or +the art of war in all countries called Christian, there is yet a class +of men for whom the state furnishes the means of education that is not +military; means of education which the individuals of that class could +not provide for themselves. This provision is made at the cost of the +state; that is, at the cost of every man in the state, for what the +public pays, you pay and I pay, rich or poor, willingly and consciously, +or otherwise. This class of men is different in different countries, and +their education is modified to suit the form of government and the idea +of the state. In Rome the state provides for the public education of +priests. Rome is an ecclesiastical state; her government is a +Theocracy--a government of all the people, but by the priests, for the +sake of the priests, and in the name of God. Place in the church is +power, bringing honor and wealth; no place out of the church is of much +value. The offices are filled by priests, the chief magistrate is a +priest, supposed to derive his power and right to rule, not +democratically, from the people, or royally, by inheritance,--for in +theory the priest is as if he had no father, as theoretically he has no +child,--but theocratically from God. + +In Rome the priesthood is thought to be the flower of the state. The +most important spiritual function of the state, therefore, is the +production of priests; accordingly the greatest pains are taken with +their education. Institutions are founded at the public cost, to make +priests out of men; these institutions are the favorites of government, +well ordered, well watched over, well attended, and richly honored. +Institutions for the education of the people are of small account, ill +endowed, watched over but poorly, thinly attended, and not honored at +all. The people are designed to be subjects of the church, and as little +culture is needed for that, though much to make them citizens thereof, +so little is given. + +As there are institutions for the education of the priests, so there is +a class of men devoted to that work; able men, well disciplined, +sometimes men born with genius, and always men furnished with the +accomplishments of sacerdotal and scientific art; very able men, very +well disciplined, the most learned and accomplished men in the land. +These men are well paid and abundantly honored, for on their +faithfulness the power of the priesthood, and so the welfare of the +state, is thought to depend. Without the allurement of wealth and +honors, these able men would not come to this work; and without the help +of their ability, the priests could not be well educated. Hence their +power would decline; the class, tonsured and consecrated but not +instructed, would fall into contempt; the theocracy would end. So the +educators of the priests are held in honor, surrounded by baits for +vulgar eyes; but the public educators of the people, chiefly women or +ignorant men, are held in small esteem. The very buildings destined to +the education of the priests are conspicuous and stately; the colleges +of the Jesuits, the Propaganda, the seminaries for the education of +priests, the monasteries for training the more wealthy and _regular_ +clergy, are great establishments, provided with libraries, and furnished +with all the apparatus needful for their important work. But the +school-houses for the people are small and mean buildings, ill made, ill +furnished, and designed for a work thought to be of little moment. All +this is in strict harmony with the idea of the theocracy, where the +priesthood is mighty and the people are subjects of the Church; where +the effort of the state is toward producing a priest. + + * * * * * + +In England the state takes charge of the education of another class, the +nobility and gentry; that is, of young men of ancient and historical +families, the nobility, and young men of fortune, the gentry. England is +an oligarchical state; her government an aristocracy, the government of +all by a few, the nobility and gentry, for the sake of a few, and in the +name of a king. There the foundation of power is wealth and birth from a +noble family. The union of both takes place in a wealthy noble. There, +nobility is the blossom of the state; aristocratic birth brings wealth, +office, and their consequent social distinction. Political offices are +chiefly monopolized by men of famous birth or great riches. The king, +the chief officer of the land, must surpass all others in wealth, and +the pomp and circumstance which comes thereof, and in aristocracy of +birth. He is not merely noble but royal; his right to rule is not at +all derived from the people, but from his birth. Thus he has the two +essentials of aristocratic influence, birth and wealth, not merely in +the heroic degree, but in the supreme degree. + +As the state is an aristocracy, its most important spiritual function is +the production of aristocrats; each noble family transmits the full +power of its blood only to a single person--the oldest son; of the +highest form, the royal, only one is supposed to be born in a +generation, only one who receives and transmits in full the blood royal. + +As the nobility are the blossom of the state, great pains must be taken +with the education of those persons born of patrician or wealthy +families. As England is not merely a military or ecclesiastical state, +though partaking largely of both, but commercial, agricultural and +productive in many ways; as she holds a very prominent place in the +politics of the world, so there must be a good general education +provided for these persons; otherwise their power would decline, the +nobility and gentry sink into contempt, and the government pass into +other hands,--for though a man may be born to rank and wealth, he is not +born to knowledge, nor to practical skill. Hence institutions are +founded for the education of the aristocratic class: Oxford and +Cambridge, "those twins of learning," with their preparatories and +help-meets. + +The design of these institutions is to educate the young men of family +and fortune. The aim in their academic culture is not as in Pagan Rome, +a military state, to make soldiers, nor as in Christian Rome, to turn +out priests; it is not, as in the German universities, to furnish the +world with scholars and philosophers, men of letters and science, but to +mature and furnish the gentleman, in the technical sense of that word, a +person conventionally fitted to do the work of a complicated +aristocratic state, to fill with honor its various offices, military, +political, ecclesiastical or social, and enjoy the dignity which comes +thereof. These universities furnish the individual who resorts thither +with opportunities not otherwise to be had; they are purchased at the +cost of the state, at the cost of each man in the state. The alumnus at +Oxford pays his term-bills, indeed, but the amount thereof is a trifle +compared to the actual cost of his residence there; mankind pays the +residue. + +These institutions are continually watched over by the state, which is +the official guardian of aristocratic education; they are occasionally +assisted by grants from the public treasury, though they are chiefly +endowed by the voluntary gifts of individual men. But these private +gifts, like the public grants, come from the earnings of the whole +nation. They are well endowed, superintended well, and richly honored; +their chancellors and vice-chancellors are men of distinguished social +rank; they have their representatives in Parliament; able men are sought +out for teachers, professors, heads of houses; men of good ability, of +masterly education, and the accomplishments of a finished gentleman; +they are well paid, and copiously rewarded with honors and social +distinction. Gentility favors these institutions; nobility watches over +them, and royalty smiles upon them. In this threefold sunlight, no +wonder that they thrive. The buildings at their service are among the +most costly and elegant in the land; large museums are attached to them, +and immense libraries; every printer in England, at his own cost, must +give a copy of each book he publishes to Cambridge and Oxford. What +wealth can buy, or artistic genius can create, is there devoted to the +culture of this powerful class. + +But while the nobility and gentry are reckoned the flower of the state, +the common people are only the leaves, and therefore thought of small +importance in the political botany of the nation. Their education is +amazingly neglected; is mainly left to the accidental piety of private +Christians, to the transient charity of philanthropic men, or the +"enlightened self-interest" of mechanics and small-traders, who now and +then found institutions for the education of some small fraction of the +multitude. But such institutions are little favored by the government, +or the spirit of the dominant class; gentility does not frequent them, +nor nobility help them, nor royalty watch over to foster and to bless. +The Parliament, which voted one hundred thousand pounds of the nation's +money for the queen's horses and hounds, had but thirty thousand to +spare for the education of her people. No honor attends the educators of +the people; no wealth is heaped up for them; no beautiful buildings are +erected for their use; no great libraries got ready at the public +charge; no costly buildings are provided. You wonder at the colleges and +collegiate churches of Oxford and of Cambridge; at the magnificence of +public edifices in London, new or ancient--the House of Parliament, the +Bank, the palaces of royal and noble men, the splendor of the +churches--but you ask, where are the school-houses for the people? You +go to Bridewell and Newgate for the answer. All this is consistent with +the idea of an aristocracy. The gentleman is the type of the state; and +the effort of the state is towards producing him. The people require +only education enough to become the servants of the gentleman, and seem +not to be valued for their own sake, but only as they furnish pabulum +for the flower of the oligarchy. + +In Rome and England, great sums have been given by wealthy men, and by +the state itself, to furnish the means of a theocratic or aristocratic +education to a certain class; and to produce the national priests, and +the national gentlemen. There public education is the privilege of a +few, but bought at the cost of the many; for the plough-boy in +Yorkshire, who has not culture enough to read the petition for daily +bread in the Lord's Prayer, helps pay the salary of the Master of +Trinity, and the swine-herd in the Roman Campagna, who knows nothing of +religion, except what he learns at Christmas and Easter, by seeing the +Pope carried on men's shoulders into St. Peter's, helps support the +Propaganda and the Roman College. The privileged classes are to receive +an education under the eye of the state, which considers itself bound to +furnish them the means of a public education, partly at the individual's +cost, chiefly at the cost of the public. The amount of education depends +on three things:--on the educational attainments of the human race; on +the wealth and tranquillity of the special nation, enabling it to avail +itself of that general attainment; and on the natural powers and +industry of the particular individual in the nation. Such is the +solidarity of mankind that the development of the individual thus +depends on that of the race, and the education of a priest in Rome or a +gentleman in England is the resultant of these three forces,--the +attainment of mankind, the power of the nation, and the private +character and conduct of the man himself. Each of these three is a +variable and not a constant quantity. So the amount of education which a +man can receive at Oxford or at Rome fluctuates and depends on the +state of the nation and of the world; but as the attainments of mankind +have much increased within a few years, as the wealth of England has +increased, and her tranquillity become more secure, you see how easy it +becomes for the state to offer each gentleman an amount of education +which it would have been quite impossible to furnish in the time of the +Yorks and the Lancasters. + + * * * * * + +In America things are quite other and different. I speak of the Free +States of the North; the Slave States have the worst features of an +oligarchy combined with a theocratic pride of caste, which generates +continual unkindness; there the idea of the state is found inconsistent +with the general and public education of the people; it is as much so in +South Carolina as in England or Rome; even more so, for the public and +general culture of all is only dangerous to a theocracy or aristocracy +while it is directly fatal to slavery. In England, and still more in +Catholic Rome, the churches--themselves a wonderful museum of +curiosities, and open all the day to all persons--form an important +element for the education of the most neglected class. But slavery and +education of the people are incommensurable quantities. No amount of +violence can be their common measure. The republic, where master and +slave were equally educated, would soon be a red-republic. The +slave-master knows this, and accordingly puts education to the ban, and +glories in keeping three million barbarians in the land, and, of course, +suffers the necessary degradation which comes thereof. But in the free +states of the North the government is not a theocracy, or an +aristocracy; the state, in theory is not for the few, nor even for the +majority, but for all; classes are not recognized, and therefore not +protected in any privilege. The government is a democracy, the +government of all, by all, for all, and in the name of all. A man is +born to all the rights of mankind; all are born to them, so all are +equal. Therefore, what the state pays for, not only comes at the cost of +all, but must be for the use and benefit of all. Accordingly, as a +theocracy demands the education of priests, and an aristocracy that of +the nobility and the gentry, so a democracy demands the education of +all. The aim must be, not to make priests and gentlemen of a few, a +privileged class, but to make men of all; that is, to give a normal and +healthy development of their intellectual, moral, affectional and +religious faculties, to furnish and instruct them with the most +important elementary knowledge, to extend this development and +furnishing of the faculties as far as possible. + +Institutions must be founded for this purpose--to educate all, rich and +poor, men well-born with good abilities, men ill-born with slender +natural powers. In New England, these institutions have long since been +founded at the public cost, and watched over with paternal care, as the +ark of our covenant, the palladium of our nation. It has been recognized +as a theory, and practised on as a fact, that all the property in the +land is held by the state for the public education of the people, as it +is for their defence; that property is amenable to education as to +military defence. + +In a democracy there are two reasons why this theory and practice +prevail. One is a political reason. It is for the advantage of the +state; for each man that keeps out of the jail and the poor-house, +becomes a voter at one-and-twenty; he may have some office of trust and +honor; the highest office is open before him. As so much depends on his +voting wisely, he must have a chance to qualify himself for his right of +electing and of being elected. It is as necessary now in a democracy, +and as much demanded by the idea thereof, that all should be thus +qualified by education, as it once was in a military state, that all +should be bred up soldiers. + +The other is a philosophical reason. It is for the advantage of the +individual himself, irrespective of the state. The man is a man, an +integer, and the state is for him; as well as a fraction of the state, +and he for it. He has a man's rights; and, however inferior in might to +any other man, born of parentage how humble soever, to no wealth at all, +with a body never so feeble, he is yet a man, and so equal in rights to +any other man born of a famous line, rich and able; of course he has a +right to a chance for the best culture which the educational attainment +of mankind, and the circumstances of the nation render possible to any +man; to so much thereof as he has the inborn power and the voluntary +industry to acquire. This conclusion is getting acted on in New England, +and there are schools for the dumb and the blind, even for the idiot and +the convict. + +So, then, as the idea of our government demands the education of all, +the amount of education must depend on the same three variables +mentioned before; it must be as good as it is possible for them to +afford. The democratic state has never done its political and +educational duty, until it affords every man a chance to obtain the +greatest amount of education which the attainment of mankind renders it +possible for the nation, in its actual circumstances, to command, and +the man's nature and disposition render it possible for him to take. + +Looking at the matter politically, from the point of view of the State, +each man must have education enough to exercise his rights of electing +and being elected. It is not easy to fix the limits of the amount; it is +also a variable continually increasing. Looking at the matter +philosophically, from the point of view of the individual, there is no +limit but the attainment of the race and the individual's capacity for +development and growth. Only a few men will master all which the +circumstances of the nation and the world render attainable; some will +come short for lack of power, others for lack of inclination. Make +education as accessible as it can now be made, as attractive as the +teachers of this age can render it, the majority will still get along +with the smallest amount that is possible or reputable. Only a few will +strive for the most they can get. There will be many a thousand farmers, +traders, and mechanics in their various callings, manual and +intellectual, to a single philosopher. This also is as it should be, and +corresponds with the nature of man and his function on the earth. Still +all have the natural right to the means of education to this extent, by +fulfilling its condition. + +To accomplish this work, the democratic education of the whole people, +with the aim of making them men, we want public institutions founded by +the people, paid for by the public money; institutions well endowed, +well attended, watched over well, and proportionably honored; we want +teachers, able men, well disciplined, well paid, and honored in +proportion to their work. It is a good thing to educate the privileged +classes, priests in a theocracy, and gentlemen in an aristocracy. Though +they are few in number, it is a great work; the servants thereof are not +too well paid, nor too much held in esteem in England, nor in Rome, nor +too well furnished with apparatus. But the public education of a whole +people is a greater work, far more difficult, and should be attended +with corresponding honor, and watched over even more carefully by the +state. + +After the grown men of any country have provided for their own physical +wants, and insured the needful physical comforts, their most important +business is to educate themselves still further, and train up the rising +generation to their own level. It is important to leave behind us +cultivated lands, houses and shops, railroads and mills, but more +important to leave behind us men grown, men that are men; such are the +seed of material wealth,--not it of them. The highest use of material +wealth is its educational function. + +Now the attainments of the human race increase with each generation; the +four leading nations of Christendom, England, France, Germany, and the +United States, within a hundred years, have apparently, at the least, +doubled their spiritual attainments; in the free states of America, +there is a constant and rapid increase of wealth, far beyond the +simultaneous increase of numbers; so not only does the educational +achievement of mankind become greater each age, but the power of the +state to afford each man a better chance for a better education, +greatens continually, the educational ability of the state enlarging as +those two factors get augmented. The generation now grown up, is, +therefore, able and bound to get a better culture than their fathers, +and leave to their own children a chance still greater. + +Each child of genius, in the nineteenth century, is born at the foot of +the ladder of learning, as completely as the first child, with the same +bodily and spiritual nakedness; though of the most civilized race, with +six, or sixty thousands of years behind him, he must begin with nothing +but himself. Yet such is the union of all mankind, that, with the aid of +the present generation, in a few years he will learn all that mankind +has learned in its long history; next go beyond that, discovering and +creating anew; and then draw up to the same height the new generation, +which will presently surpass him. + + * * * * * + +A man's education never ends, but there are two periods thereof, quite +dissimilar, the period of the Boy, and that of the Man. Education in +general is the developing and instructing the faculties, and is, +therefore, the same in kind to both man and boy, though it may be +brought about by different forces. The education of the boy, so far as +it depends on institutions, and conscious modes of action, must be so +modified as to enable him to meet the influences which will surround him +when he is a man; otherwise, his training will not enable him to cope +with the new forces he meets, and so will fail of the end of making him +a man. I pass over the influence of the family, and of nature, which do +not belong to my present theme. In America, the public education of men +is chiefly influenced by four great powers, which I will call +educational forces, and which correspond to four modes of national +activity: + +I. The political action of the people, represented by the State; + +II. The industrial action of the people, represented by Business; + +III. The ecclesiastical action of the people, represented by the Church; + +IV. The literary action of the people, represented by the Press. + +I now purposely name them in this order, though I shall presently refer +to them several times, and in a different succession. These forces act +on the people, making us such men as we are; they act indirectly on the +child before he comes to consciousness; directly, afterwards, but most +powerfully on the man. What is commonly and technically called +education--the development and instruction of the faculties of children, +is only preparatory; the scholastic education of the boy is but +introductory to the practical education of the man. It is only this +preparatory education of the children of the people that is the work of +the school-masters. Their business is to give the child such a +development of his faculties, and such furniture of preliminary +knowledge, that he can secure the influence of all these educational +forces, appreciating and enhancing the good, withstanding, +counteracting, and at last ending the evil thereof, and so continue his +education; and at the same time that he can work in one or more of those +modes of activity, serving himself and mankind, politically by the +state, ecclesiastically by the church, literarily by the press, or at +any rate, industrially by his business. To give children the preparatory +education necessary for this fourfold receptivity, or activity, we need +three classes of public institutions: + +I. Free common schools; + +II. Free high schools; + +III. Free colleges. + +Of these I will presently speak in detail, but now, for the sake of +shortness, let me call them all collectively by their generic name--the +School. It is plain the teachers who work by this instrument ought to +understand the good and evil of the four educational forces which work +on men grown, in order to prepare their pupils to receive the good +thereof, and withstand the evil. So then let us look a moment at the +character of these educational forces, and see what they offer us, and +what men they are likely to make of their unconscious pupils. Let us +look at the good qualities first, and next at the evil. + +It is plain that business, the press, and politics all tend to promote a +great activity of body and mind. In business, the love of gain, the +enterprising spirit of our practical men in all departments, their +industry, thrift and forecast, stimulate men to great exertions, and +produce a consequent development of the faculties called out. Social +distinction depends almost wholly on wealth; that never is accumulated +by mere manual industry, such is the present constitution of society, +but it is acquired by the higher forms of industry, in which the powers +of nature serve the man, or he avails himself of the creations of mere +manual toil. Hence there is a constant pressure towards the higher modes +of industry for the sake of money; of course, a constant effort to be +qualified for them. So in the industrial departments the mind is more +active than the hand. Accordingly it has come to pass that most of the +brute labor of the free states is done by cattle, or by the forces of +nature--wind, water, fire--which we have harnessed by our machinery, and +set to work. In New England most of the remaining work which requires +little intelligence is done by Irishmen, who are getting a better +culture by that very work. Men see the industrial handiwork of the +North, and wonder; they do not always see the industrial head-work, +which precedes, directs and causes it all; they seldom see the complex +forces of which this enterprise and progress are the resultant. + +There is no danger that we shall be sluggards. Business now takes the +same place in the education of the people that was once held by war: it +stimulates activity, promotes the intercourse of man with man, nation +with nation; assembling men in masses, it elevates their temperature, so +to say; it leads to new and better forms of organization; it excites men +to invention, so that thereby we are continually acquiring new power +over the elements, peacefully annexing to our domain new provinces of +nature--water, wind, fire, lightning--setting them to do our work, +multiplying the comforts of life, and setting free a great amount of +human time. It is not at all destructive; not merely conservative, but +continually creates anew. Its creative agent is not brute force, but +educated mind. A man's trade is always his teacher, and industry keeps a +college for mankind, much of our instruction coming through our hands; +with us, where the plough is commonly in the hands of him who owns the +land it furrows, business affords a better education than in most other +countries, and develops higher qualities of mind. There is a marked +difference in this respect between the North and South. There was never +before such industry, such intense activity of head and hand in any +nation in a time of peace. + +The press encourages the same activity, enterprise, perseverance. Both +of these encourage generosity; neither honors the miser, who gets for +the sake of getting, or "starves, cheats, and pilfers to enrich an +heir;" he does not die respectably in Boston, who dies rich and +bequeaths nothing to any noble public charity. It encourages industry +which accumulates with the usual honesty, and for a rather generous +use. + +The press furnishes us with books exceedingly cheap. We manufacture +literature cheaper than any nation except the Chinese. Even the best +books, the works of the great masters of thought, are within the reach +of an industrious farmer or mechanic, if half a dozen families combine +for that purpose. The educational power of a few good books scattered +through a community, is well known. + +Then the press circulates, cheap and wide, its newspapers, emphatically +the literature of men who read nothing else: they convey intelligence +from all parts of the world, and broaden the minds of home-keeping +youths, who need not now have homely wits. + +The state, also, promotes activity, enterprise, hardihood, perseverance +and thrift. The American Government is eminently distinguished by these +five qualities. The form of government stimulates patriotism, each man +has a share in the public lot. The theocracies, monarchies, and +aristocracies of old time have produced good and great examples of +patriotism, in the few or the many; but the nobler forms of love of +country, of self-denial and disinterested zeal for its sake, are left +for a democracy to bring to light. + +Here all men are voters, and all great questions are, apparently and in +theory, left to the decision of the whole people. This popular form of +government is a great instrument in developing and instructing the mind +of the nation. It helps extend and intensify the intelligent activity +which is excited by business and the press. Such is the nature of our +political institutions that, in the free states, we have produced the +greatest degree of national unity of action, with the smallest +restriction of personal freedom, have reconciled national unity with +individual variety, not seeking uniformity; thus room is left for as +much individualism as a man chooses to take; a vast power of talent, +enterprise and invention is left free for its own work. Elsewhere, save +in England, this is latent, kept down by government. Since this power is +educated and has nothing to hold it back; since so much brute work is +done by cattle and the forces of nature, now domesticated and put in +harness, and much time is left free for thought, more intelligence is +demanded, more activity, and the citizens of the free states have become +the most active, enterprising and industrious people in the world; the +most inventive in material work. + +In all these three forms of action there is much to stir men to love of +distinction. The career is open to talent, to industry; open to every +man; the career of letters, business, and politics. Our rich men were +poor men; our famous men came of sires else not heard of. The laurel, +the dollar, the office, and the consequent social distinction of men +successful in letters, business and politics, these excite the obscure +or needy youth to great exertions, and he cannot sleep; emulation wakes +him early, and keeps him late astir. Behind him, scattering "the rear of +darkness," stalk poverty and famine, gaunt and ugly forms, with scorpion +whip to urge the tardier, idler man. The intense ambition for money, for +political power, and the social results they bring, keeps men on the +alert. So ambition rises early, and works with diligence that never +tires. + +The Church, embracing all the churches under that name, cultivates the +memory of men, and teaches reverence for the past; it helps keep +activity from wandering into unpopular forms of wickedness or of +unbelief. Men who have the average intelligence, goodness and piety, it +keeps from slipping back, thus blocking to rearward the wheels of +society, so that the ascent gained shall not be lost; men who have less +than this average it urges forward, addressing them in the name of God, +encouraging by hope of heaven, and driving with fear of hell. It turns +the thought of the people towards God; it sets before us some facts in +the life, and some parts of the doctrine, of the noblest One who ever +wore the form of man, bidding us worship him. The ecclesiastical worship +of Jesus of Nazareth is, perhaps, the best thing in the American church. +It has the Sunday and the institution of preaching under its control. A +body of disciplined men are its servants; they praise the ordinary +virtues; oppose and condemn the unpopular forms of error and of sin. +Petty vice, the vice of low men, in low places, is sure of their lash. +They promote patriotism in its common form. Indirectly, they excite +social and industrial rivalry, and favor the love of money by the honor +they bestow upon the rich and successful. But at the same time they +temper it a little, sometimes telling men, as business or the state does +not, that there is in man a conscience, affection for his brother-man, +and a soul which cannot live by bread alone; no, not by wealth, office, +fame and social rank. They tell us, also, of eternity, where worldly +distinctions, except of orthodox and heterodox, are forgotten, where +wealth is of no avail; they bid us remember God. + +Such are the good things of these great national forces; the good things +which in this fourfold way we are teaching ourselves. The nation is a +monitorial school, wonderfully contrived for the education of the +people. I do not mean to say that it is by the forethought of men that +the American democracy is at the same time a great practical school for +the education of the human race. This result formed no part of our plan, +and is not provided for by the Constitution of the United States; it +comes of the forethought of God, and is provided for in the Constitution +of the Universe. + +Now each of these educational forces has certain defects, negative +evils, and certain vices, positive evils, which tend to misdirect the +nation, and so hinder the general education of the people: of these, +also, let me speak in detail. + +The state appeals to force, not to justice; this is its last appeal; the +force of muscles aided by force of mind, instructed by modern science in +the art to kill. The nation appeals to force in the settlement of +affairs out of its borders. We have lately seen an example of this, when +we commenced war against a feeble nation, who, in that special +emergency, had right on her side, about as emphatically as the force was +on our side. The immediate success of the enterprise, the popular +distinction acquired by some of the leaders, the high honor bestowed on +one of its heroes, all this makes the lesson of injustice attractive. It +may be that a similar experiment will again be tried, and doubtless with +like success. Certainly there is no nation this side of the water which +can withstand the enterprise, the activity, the invention, industry and +perseverance of a people so united, and yet so free and intelligent. +Another successful injustice of this character, on a large scale, will +make right still less regarded, and might honored yet more. + +The force we employ out of our borders, might opposed to right, we +employ also at home against our brethren, and keep three millions of +them in bondage; we watch for opportunities to extend the institution of +slavery over soil unpolluted by that triple curse, and convert the +Constitution, the fundamental law of the land, into an instrument for +the defence of slavery. + +The men we honor politically, by choosing them to offices in the state, +are commonly men of extraordinary force, sometimes, it is true, only of +extraordinary luck, but of only ordinary justice; men who, perhaps, have +mind in the heroic degree, but conscience of the most vulgar pattern. +They are to keep the law of the United States when it is wholly hostile +to the law of the universe, to the everlasting justice of God. + +I am not speaking to politicians, professional representatives of the +state; not speaking for political effect; not of the state as a +political machine for the government of the people. I am speaking to +teachers, for an educational purpose; of the state as an educational +machine, as one of the great forces for the spiritual development of the +people. Now by this preference of force and postponement of justice at +home and abroad, in the selection of men for office, with its wealth, +and rank, and honor, by keeping the law of the land to the violation of +the law of God, it is plain we are teaching ourselves to love wrong; at +least to be insensible to the right. What we practise on a national +scale as a people, it is not easy to think wrong when practised on a +personal scale, by this man and that. + +The patriotism, also, which the state nurses, is little more than that +Old Testament patriotism which loves your countryman, and hates the +stranger; the affection which the Old Testament attributes to Jehovah, +and which makes him say, "I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau;" a patriotism +which supports our country in the wrong as readily as in the right, and +is glad to keep one sixth part of the nation in bondage without hope. It +is not a patriotism which, beginning here, loves all the children of +God, but one that robs the Mexican, enslaves the African, and +exterminates the Indian. + +These are among the greater evils taught us by the political action of +the people as a whole. If you look at the action of the chief political +parties, you see no more respect for justice in the politics of either +party, than in the politics of the nation, the resultant of both; no +more respect for right abroad, or at home. One party aims distinctively +at preserving the property already acquired; its chief concern is for +that, its sympathy there; where its treasure is, is also its heart. It +legislates, consciously or otherwise, more for accumulated wealth, than +for the laboring man who now accumulates. This party goes for the +dollar; the other for the majority, and aims at the greatest good of the +greatest number, leaving the good of the smaller number to most +uncertain mercies. Neither party seems to aim at justice, which protects +both the wealth that labor has piled up, and the laborer who now creates +it; justice, which is the point of morals common to man and God, where +the interests of all men, abroad and at home, electing and elected, +greatest number and smallest number, exactly balance. Falsehood, fraud, +a willingness to deceive, a desire for the power and distinction of +office, a readiness to use base means in obtaining office--these vices +are sown with a pretty even hand upon both parties, and spring up with +such blossoms and such a fruitage as we all see. The third political +party has not been long enough in existence to develop any distinctive +vices of its own. + +I shall not speak of the public or private character of the politicians +who direct the state; no doubt that is a powerful element in our +national education; but as a class, they seem no better and no worse +than merchants, mechanics, ministers and farmers, as a class; so in +their influence there is nothing peculiar, only their personal character +ceases to be private, and becomes a public force in the education of the +people. + + * * * * * + +The Churches have the same faults as the State. There is the same +postponement of justice and preference of force, the same neglect of the +law of God in their zeal for the statutes of men; the same crouching to +dollars or to numbers. However, in the churches these faults appear +negatively, rather than as an affirmation. The worldliness of the church +is not open, self-conscious and avowed; it is not, as a general thing, +that human injustice is openly defended, but rather justice goes by +default. But if the churches do not positively support and teach +injustice, as the state certainly does, they do not teach the opposite, +and, so far as that goes, are allies of the state in its evil influence. +The fact that the churches, as such, did not oppose the war, and do not +oppose slavery, its continuance, or its extension; nay, that they are +often found its apologists and defenders, seldom its opponents; that +they not only pervert the sacred books of the Christians to its defence, +but wrest the doctrines of Christianity to justify it; the fact that +they cannot, certainly do not, correct the particularism of the +political parties, the love of wealth in one, of mere majorities in the +other; that they know no patriotism not bounded by their country, none +coextensive with mankind; that they cannot resist the vice of party +spirit--these are real proofs that the church is but the ally of the +state in this evil influence. + +But the church has also certain specific faults of its own. It teaches +injustice by continually referring to the might of God, not His justice; +to His ability and will to damn mankind, not asking if He has the right? +It teaches that in virtue of His infinite power, He is not amenable to +infinite justice, and to infinite love. Thus, while the state teaches, +in the name of expediency and by practice, that the strong may properly +be the tyrants of the weak, the mighty nation over the feeble, the +strong race over the inferior, that the government may dispense with +right at home and abroad--the church, as theory in Christ's name, +teaches that God may repudiate His own justice and His own love. + +The churches have little love of truth, as such, only of its uses. It +must be such a truth as they can use for their purposes; canonized +truth; truth long known; that alone is acceptable and called "religious +truth;" all else is "profane and carnal," as the reason which discovers +it. They represent the average intelligence of society; hence, while +keeping the old, they welcome not the new. They promote only popular +forms of truth, popular in all Christendom, or in their special sect. +They lead in no intellectual reforms; they hinder the leaders. +Negatively and positively, they teach, that to believe what is +clerically told you in the name of religion, is better than free, +impartial search after the truth. They dishonor free thinking, and +venerate constrained believing. When the clergy doubt, they seldom give +men audience of their doubt. Few scientific men not clerical believe the +Bible account of creation,--the universe made in six days, and but a few +thousand years ago,--or that of the formation of woman, and of the +deluge. Some clerical men still believe these venerable traditions, +spite of the science of the times; but the clerical men who have no +faith in these stories not only leave the people to think them true and +miraculously taught, but encourage men in the belief, and calumniate the +men of science who look the universe fairly in the face and report the +facts as they find them. + +The church represents only the popular morality, not any high and +aboriginal virtue. It represents not the conscience of human nature, +reflecting the universal and unchangeable moral laws of God, touched and +beautified by his love, but only the conscience of human history, +reflecting the circumstances man has passed by, and the institutions he +has built along the stream of time. So, while it denounces unpopular +sins, vices below the average vice of society, it denounces also +unpopular excellence, which is above the average virtue of society. It +blocks the wheels rearward, and the car of humanity does not roll down +hill; but it blocks them forward also. No great moral movement of the +age is at all dependent directly on the church for its birth; very +little for its development. It is in spite of the church that reforms go +forward; it holds the curb to check more than the rein to guide. In +morals, as in science, the church is on the anti-liberal side, afraid of +progress, against movement, loving "yet a little sleep, a little +slumber;" conservative and chilling, like ice, not creative, nor even +quickening, as water. It doffs to use and wont; has small confidence in +human nature, much in a few facts of human history. It aims to separate +Piety from Goodness, her natural and heaven-appointed spouse, and marry +her to Bigotry, in joyless and unprofitable wedlock. The church does +not lead men to the deep springs of human nature, fed ever from the far +heights of the Divine nature, whence flows that river of God, full of +living water, where weary souls may drink perennial supply. While it +keeps us from falling back, it does little directly to advance mankind. +In common with the state, this priest and Levite pass by on the other +side of the least developed classes of society, leaving the slave, the +pauper, and the criminal, to their fate, hastening to strike hands with +the thriving or the rich. + +These faults are shared in the main by all sects; some have them in the +common, and some in a more eminent degree, but none is so distinguished +from the rest as to need emphatic rebuke, or to deserve a special +exemption from the charge. Such are the faults of the church of every +land, and must be from the nature of the institution; like the state, it +can only represent the average of mankind. + +I am not speaking to clergymen, professional representatives of the +church, not of the church as an ecclesiastical machine for keeping and +extending certain opinions and symbols; not for an ecclesiastical +purpose; I speak to teachers, for an educational purpose, of the church +as an educational machine, one of the great forces for the spiritual +development of the people. + + * * * * * + +The Business of the land has also certain vices of its own; while it +promotes the virtues I have named before, it does not tend to promote +the highest form of character. It does not promote justice and humanity, +as one could wish; it does not lead the employer to help the operative +as a man, only to use him as a tool, merely for industrial purposes. The +average merchant cares little whether his ship brings cloth and cotton, +or opium and rum. The average capitalist does not wish the stock of his +manufacturing company divided into small shares, so that the operatives +can invest their savings therein and have a portion of the large +dividends of the rich; nor does he care whether he takes a mortgage on a +ship or a negro slave, nor whether his houses are rented for sober +dwellings, or for drunkeries; whether the state hires his money to build +harbors at home, or destroy them abroad. The ordinary manufacturer is as +ready to make cannons and cannon-balls to serve in a war which he knows +is unjust, as to cast his iron into mill-wheels, or forge it into +anchors. The common farmer does not care whether his barley feeds +poultry for the table, or, made into beer, breeds drunkards for the +almshouse and the jail; asks not whether his rye and potatoes become the +bread of life, or, distilled into whiskey, are deadly poison to men and +women. He cares little if the man he hires become more manly or not; he +only asks him to be a good tool. Whips for the backs of negro slaves are +made, it is said, in Connecticut with as little compunction as Bibles +are printed there; "made to order," for the same purpose--for the +dollar. The majority of blacksmiths would as soon forge fetter-chains to +enslave the innocent limbs of a brother-man, as draught-chains for oxen. +Christian mechanics and pious young women, who would not hurt the hair +of an innocent head, have I seen at Springfield, making swords to +slaughter the innocent citizens of Vera Cruz and Jalapa. The ships of +respectable men carry rum to intoxicate the savages of Africa, powder +and balls to shoot them with; they carry opium to the Chinese; nay, +Christian slaves from Richmond and Baltimore to New Orleans and +Galveston. In all commercial countries, the average vice of the age is +mixed up with the industry of the age, and unconsciously men learn the +wickedness long intrenched in practical life. It is thought industrial +operations are not amenable to the moral law, only to the law of trade. +"Let the supply follow the demand" is the maxim. A man who makes as +practical a use of the golden rule as of his yard-stick, is still an +exception in all departments of business. + +Even in the commercial and manufacturing parts of America, money +accumulates in large masses; now in the hands of an individual, now of a +corporation. This money becomes an irresponsible power, acting by the +laws, but yet above them. It is wielded by a few men, to whom it gives a +high social position and consequent political power. They use this +triple form of influence, pecuniary, social and political, in the spirit +of commerce, not of humanity, not for the interest of mankind; thus the +spirit of trade comes into the state. Hence it is not thought wrong in +politics to buy a man, more than in commerce to buy a ship; hence the +rights of a man, or a nation, are looked on as articles of trade, to be +sold, bartered, and pledged; and in the Senate of the United States, we +have heard a mass of men, more numerous than all our citizens seventy +years ago, estimated as worth twelve hundred millions of dollars. + +In most countries business comes more closely into contact with men than +the state, or the church, or the press, and is a more potent educator. +Here it not only does this, but controls the other three forces, which +are mainly instruments of this; hence this form of evil is more +dangerous than elsewhere, for there is no power organized to resist it +as in England or Rome; so it subtly penetrates everywhere, bidding you +place the accidents before the substance of manhood, and value money +more than man. + + * * * * * + +Notwithstanding the good qualities of the Press, the books it +multiplies, and the great service it renders, it also has certain vices +of its own. From the nature of the thing the greater part of literature +represents only the public opinion of the time. It must therefore teach +deference to that, not deference to truth and justice. It is only the +eminent literature which can do more than this; books, which at first +fall into few hands though fit, and like the acorns sown with the +mulleins and the clover, destined to germinate but slowly, long to be +over-topped by an ephemeral crop, at last, after half an hundred years, +shall mature their own fruit for other generations of men. The current +literature of this age only popularizes the thought of the eminent +literature of the past. Great good certainly comes from this, but also +great evil. + +Of all literature, the newspapers come most into contact with men--they +are the literature of the people, read by such as read nothing else; +read also by such as read all things beside. Taken in the mass, they +contain little to elevate men above the present standard. The political +journals have the general vice of our politics, and the special faults +of the particular party; the theological journals have the common +failings of the church, intensified by the bigotry of the sects they +belong to; the commercial journals represent the bad qualities of +business. Put all three together, and it is not their aim to tell the +truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, nor to promote +justice, the whole of justice, and nothing but justice. The popular +literature helps bring to consciousness the sentiments and ideas which +prevail in the state, the church, and business. It brings those +sentiments and ideas intimately into connection with men, magnetizing +them with the good and ill of those three powers, but it does little +directly to promote a higher form of human character. + +So, notwithstanding the good influence of these four modes of national +activity in educating the grown men of America, they yet do not afford +the highest teaching which the people require, to realize individually +the idea of a man, and jointly that of a democracy. The state does not +teach perfect justice; the church does not teach that, or love of truth. +Business does not teach perfect morality, and the average literature, +which falls into the hands of the million, teaches men to respect public +opinion more than the word of God, which transcends that. Thus these +four teach only the excellence already organized or incorporated in the +laws, the theology, the customs, and the books of the land. I cannot but +think these four teachers are less deficient here than in other lands, +and have excellences of their own, but the faults mentioned are +inseparable from such institutions. An institution is an organized +thought; of course, no institution can represent a truth which is too +new or too high for the existing organizations, yet that is the truth +which it is desirable to teach. So there will always be exceptional men, +with more justice, truth and love than is represented by the +institutions of the time, who seem therefore hostile to these +institutions, which they seek to improve and not destroy. Contemporary +with the priests of Judah and Israel were the prophets thereof, +antithetic to one another as the centripetal and centrifugal forces, +but, like them, both necessary to the rhythmic movement of the orbs in +heaven, and the even poise of the world. + +In Rome and in England the idea of a theocracy and an aristocracy has +become a fact in the institutions of the land, which accordingly favor +the formation of priests and gentlemen. The teachers of the educated +class, therefore, may trust to the machinery already established to do +their work, only keeping off the spirit of the age which would make +innovations; and such is the respectability and popular esteem of the +institutions, that this is done easier than men think, by putting an +exceptional book in the index at Rome or in the academical fire at +Oxford. But here, the idea of a democracy is by no means so well +established and organized in institutions. It is new, and while a +theocrat and an aristocrat are respected everywhere, a democrat is held +in suspicion; accordingly, to make men, the teacher cannot trust his +educational machinery, he must make it, and invent anew as well as turn +his mill. + + * * * * * + +These things being so, it is plain the teachers in the schools should be +of such a character that they can give the children what they will most +want when they become men; such an intellectual and moral development +that they can appreciate and receive the good influence of these four +educational forces, and withstand, resist, and exterminate the evil +thereof. In the schools of a democracy which are to educate the people +and make them men, you need more aboriginal virtue than in the schools +of an aristocracy or a theocracy, where a few are to be educated as +gentlemen or priests. Since the institutions of the land do not +represent the idea of a democracy, and the average spirit of the people, +which makes the institutions, represents it no more, if the children of +the people are to become better than their fathers, it is plain their +teachers must be prophets, and not priests merely; must animate them +with a spirit higher, purer and more holy than that which inspires the +state, the church, business, or the common literature of the times. As +the teacher cannot impart and teach what he does not possess and know, +it is also plain that the teacher must have this superior spirit. + + * * * * * + +To accomplish the public education of the children of the people, we +need the three classes of institutions just mentioned: free Common +Schools, free High Schools and free Colleges. Let me say a word of each. + +The design of the Common School is to take children at the proper age +from their mothers, and give them the most indispensable development, +intellectual, moral, affectional and religious; to furnish them with as +much positive, useful knowledge as they can master, and, at the same +time, teach them the three great scholastic helps or tools of +education--the art to read, to write and calculate. + +The children of most parents are easily brought to school, by a little +diligence on the part of the teachers and school committee; but there +are also children of low and abandoned, or, at least, neglected parents, +who live in a state of continual truancy; they are found on the banks of +your canals; they swarm in your large cities. When those children become +men, through lack of previous development, instruction and familiarity +with these three instruments of education, they cannot receive the full +educational influence of the state and church, of business and the +press: they lost their youthful education, and therefore they lose, in +consequence, their manly culture. They remain dwarfs, and are barbarians +in the midst of society; there will be exceptional men whom nothing can +make vulgar; but this will be the lot of the mass. They cannot perform +the intelligent labor which business demands, only the brute work, so +they lose the development which comes through the hand that is active in +the higher modes of industry, which, after all, is the greatest +educational force; accordingly, they cannot compete with ordinary men, +and remain poor; lacking also that self-respect which comes of being +respected, they fall into beggary, into intemperance, into crime; so, +from being idlers at first, a stumbling-block in the way of society, +they become paupers, a positive burden which society must take on its +shoulders; or they turn into criminals, active foes to the industry, the +order, and the virtue of society. + +Now if a man abandons the body of his child, the state adopts that body +for a time; takes the guardianship thereof, for the child's own sake; +sees that it is housed, fed, clad, and cared for. If a man abandons his +child's spirit, and the child commits a crime, the state, for its own +sake, assumes the temporary guardianship thereof, and puts him in a +jail. When a man deserts his child, taking no concern about his +education, I venture to make the suggestion, whether it would not be +well, as a last resort, for the State to assume the guardianship of the +child for its own sake, and for the child's sake. We allow no one, with +ever so thick a skin, to grow up in nakedness; why should we suffer a +child, with however so perverse a parent, to grow up in ignorance and +degenerate into crime? Certainly, a naked man is not so dangerous to +society as an ignorant man, nor is the spectacle so revolting. I should +have less hope of a state where the majority were so perverse as to +continue ignorant of reading, writing and calculating, than of one where +they were so thick-skinned as to wear no clothes. In Massachusetts, +there is an Asylum for juvenile offenders, established by the city of +Boston, a Farm School for bad boys, established by the characteristic +benevolence of the rich men of that place, and a State Reform School +under the charge of the Commonwealth: all these are for lads who break +the laws of the land. Would it not be better to take one step more, +adopt them before they offended, and allow no child to grow up in the +barbarism of ignorance? Has any man an unalienable right to live a +savage in the midst of civilization? + +We need also public High Schools, to take children where the common +schools leave them, and carry them further on. Some States have done +something towards establishing such institutions; they are common in New +England. Some have established Normal Schools, special High Schools for +the particular and professional education of public teachers. Without +these, it is plain there would not be a supply of competent educators +for the public service. + +Then we need free Colleges, conducted by public officers, and paid for +by the public purse. Without these the scheme is not perfect. The idea +which lies at the basis of the public education of a people in a +democracy, is this: Every man, on condition of doing his duty, has a +right to the means of education, as much as a right, on the same +condition, to the means of defence from a public enemy in time of war, +or from starvation in time of plenty and of peace. I say every man, I +mean every woman also. The amount of education must depend on the three +factors named before,--on the general achievement of mankind, the +special ability of the state, and the particular power of the +individual. + +If all is free, common schools, high schools, and colleges, boys and +girls of common ability and common love of learning, will get a common +education; those of greater ability, a more extended education, and +those of the highest powers, the best culture which the race can now +furnish, and the state afford. Hitherto no nation has established a +public college, wholly at the public cost, where the children of the +poor and the rich could enjoy together the great national charity of +superior education. To do this is certainly not consistent with the idea +of a theocracy or an aristocracy, but it is indispensable to the +complete realization of a democracy. Otherwise the children of the rich +will have a monopoly of superior education, which is the case with the +girls everywhere--for only the daughters of rich men can get a superior +education, even in the United States--and with boys in England and +France, and of course the offices, emoluments and honors which depend on +a superior education; or else the means thereof will be provided for +poor lads by private benefactions, charity-funds and the like, which +some pious and noble man has devoted to this work. In this case the +institutions will have a sectarian character, be managed by narrow, +bigoted men, and the gift of the means of education be coupled with +conditions which must diminish its value, and fetter the free spirit of +the young man. This takes place in many of the collegiate establishments +of the North, which, notwithstanding those defects, have done a great +good to mankind. + +The Common Schools giving their pupil the power of reading, writing and +calculating, developing his faculties and furnishing him with much +elementary knowledge, put him in communication with all that is written +in a common form, in the English tongue; its treasures lie level to his +eye and hand. The High School and the College, teaching him also other +languages, afford him access to the treasures contained there; teaching +him the mathematics and furnishing him with the discipline of science, +they enable him to understand all that has hitherto been recorded in the +compendious forms of philosophy, and thus place the child of large +ability in connection with all the spiritual treasures of the world. In +the mean time, for all these pupils, there is the material and the human +world about them, the world of consciousness within. They can study both +and add what they may to the treasures of human discovery or invention. + +It seems to me that it is the duty of the state to place the means of +this education within the reach of all children of superior ability,--a +duty that follows from the very idea of a democracy, not to speak of +the idea of Christianity. It is not less the interest of the state to do +so, for then, youths, well born, with good abilities, will not be +hindered from getting a breeding proportionate to their birth, and from +occupying the stations which are adequately filled only by men of +superior native abilities, enriched by culture, and developed to their +highest power. Then the work of such stations will fall to the lot of +such men, and of course be done. Eminent ability, talent, or genius, +should have eminent education, and so serve the nation in its eminent +kind; for when God makes a million-minded man, as once or twice in the +ages, or a myriad-minded man, as He does now and then, it is plain that +this gift also is to be accounted precious, and used for the advantage +of all. + +I say no state has ever attempted to establish such institutions; yet +the Government of the United States has a seminary for the public +education of a few men at the public cost. But it is a school to qualify +men to fight; they learn the science of destruction, the art thereof, +the kindred art and science of defence. If the same money we now pay for +military education at West Point were directed to the education of +teachers of the highest class, say professors and presidents of +colleges; if the same pains were taken to procure able men, to furnish +them with the proper instruction for their special work, and give them +the best possible general development of their powers, not forgetting +the moral, the affectional and the religious, and animating them with +the philanthropic spirit needed for such a work, how much better results +would appear! But in the present intellectual condition of the people it +would be thought unworthy of a nation to train up school-masters! But is +it only soldiers that we need? + +All these institutions are but introductory, a preparatory school, in +three departments, to fit youths for the great educational establishment +of practical life. This will find each youth and maiden as the schools +leave him, moulding him to their image, or moulded by him to a better. +So it is plain what the teachers are to do:--besides teaching the +special branches which fall to their lot, they are to supply for the +pupils, the defects of the State, of the Church, of Business, and the +Press, especially the moral defects. For this great work of mediating +between the mother and the world, for so furnishing and fitting the +rising generation, introducing them into practical life, that they shall +receive all the good of these public educational forces with none of the +ill, but enhance the one while they withstand the other, and so each in +himself realize the idea of man, and all in their social capacity, the +idea of a democracy--it is also plain what sort of men we need for +teachers: we need able men, well endowed by nature, well disciplined by +art; we need superior men--men juster than the state, truer and better +than the churches, more humane than business, and higher than the common +literature of the press. There are always men of that stamp born into +the world; enough of them in any age to do its work. How shall we bring +them to the task? Give young men and women the opportunity to fit +themselves for the work, at free common schools, high schools, normal +schools, and colleges; give them a pay corresponding to their services, +as in England and Rome; give them social rank and honor in that +proportion, and they will come; able men will come; men well disciplined +will come; men of talent and even genius for education will come. + +In the state you pay a man of great political talents large money and +large honors; hence there is no lack of ability in politics, none of +competition for office. In the church you pay a good deal for a "smart +minister," one who can preach an audience into the pews and not himself +out of the pulpit. Talent enough goes to business; educated talent too, +at least with a special education for this, honor, and social +distinction. Private colleges and theological schools, often, have +powerful men for their professors and presidents; sometimes, men of much +talent for education; commonly, men of ripe learning and gentlemanly +accomplishments. Even men of genius seek a place as teachers in some +private college, where they are under the control of the leaders of a +sect--and must not doubt its creed, nor set science a-going freely lest +it run over some impotent theological dogma--or else of a little +coterie, or close corporation of men selected because radical or because +conservative, men chosen not on account of any special fitness for +superintending the superior education of the people, but because they +were one-sided, and leaned this way in Massachusetts and that in +Virginia. Able men seek such places because they get a competent pay, +competent honors, competent social rank. Senators and ambassadors are +not ashamed to be presidents of a college, and submit to the control of +a coterie, or a sect, and produce their results. If such men can be had +for private establishments to educate a few to work in such trammels and +such company, certainly, it is not difficult to get them for the public +and for the education of all. As the state has the most children to +educate, the most money to pay with, it is clear, not only that they +need the best ability for this work, but that they can have it soon as +they make the teacher's calling gainful and respectable. + +In England and Rome, the most important spiritual function of the state +is the production of the gentleman and the priest; in democratic America +it is the production of the man. Some nations have taken pains with the +military training of all the people, for the sake of the state, and made +every man a soldier. No nation has hitherto taken equivalent pains with +the general education of all, for the sake of the state and the sake of +the citizens;--"the heathens of China" have done more than any Christian +people, for the education of all. This was not needed in a theocracy, +nor an aristocracy; it is essential to a democracy. This is needed +politically; for where all men are voters, the ignorant man, who cannot +read the ballot which he casts; the thief, the pirate, and the murderer, +may, at any time, turn the scale of an election, and do us a damage +which it will take centuries to repair. Ignorant men are the tools of +the demagogue; how often he uses them, and for what purposes, we need +not go back many years to learn. Let the people be ignorant and suffrage +universal, a very few men will control the state, and laugh at the folly +of the applauding multitude whose bread they waste, and on whose necks +they ride to insolence and miserable fame. + +America has nothing to fear from any foreign foe; for nearly forty years +she has had no quarrel but of her own making. Such is our enterprise and +our strength, that few nations would, carelessly, engage in war with us; +none, without great provocation. In the midst of us, is our danger; not +in foreign arms, but in the ignorance and the wickedness of our own +children, the ignorance of the many, the wickedness of the few who will +lead the many to their ruin. The bulwark of America is not the army and +navy of the United States, with all the men at public cost instructed +in the art of war; it is not the swords and muskets idly bristling in +our armories; it is not the cannon and the powder carefully laid by; no, +nor is it yet the forts, which frown in all their grim barbarity of +stone along the coast, defacing the landscape, else so fair: these might +all be destroyed to-night, and the nation be as safe as now. The more +effectual bulwark of America is her schools. The cheap spelling-book, or +the vane on her school-house is a better symbol of the nation than "The +star-spangled banner;" the printing press does more than the cannon; the +press is mightier than the sword. The army that is to keep our +liberties--you are part of that, the noble army of teachers. It is you, +who are to make a great nation greater, even wise and good,--the next +generation better than their sires. + +Europe shows us, by experiment, that a republic cannot be made by a few +well-minded men, however well-meaning. They tried for it at Rome, full +of enlightened priests; in Germany, the paradise of the scholar, but +there was not a people well educated, and a democracy could not stand +upright long enough to be set a-going. In France, where men are better +fitted for the experiment than elsewhere in continental Europe, you see +what comes of it--the first step is a stumble, and for their president, +the raw republicans chose an autocrat, not a democrat; not a mere +soldier, but only the name of a soldier; one that thinks it an insult +if liberty, equality, and fraternity be but named! + +Think you a democracy can stand without the education of all; not barely +the smallest pittance thereof which will keep a live soul in a live +body, but a large, generous cultivation of mind and conscience, heart +and soul? A man, with half an eye, can see how we suffer continually in +politics for lack of education among the people. Some nations are +priest-ridden, some king-ridden, some ridden of nobles; America is +ridden by politicians, a heavy burden for a foolish neck. + +Our industrial interests demand the same education. The industrial +prosperity of the North, our lands yearly enriching, while they bear +their annual crop; our railroads, mills and machines, the harness with +which we tackle the elements,--for we domesticate fire and water, yes, +the very lightning of heaven--all these are but material results of the +intelligence of the people. Our political success and our industrial +prosperity, both come from the pains taken with the education of the +people. Halve this education, and you take away three fourths of our +political welfare, three fourths of our industrial prosperity; double +this education, you greaten the political welfare of the people, you +increase their industrial success fourfold. Yes, more than that, for the +results of education increase by a ratio of much higher powers. + +It seems strange that so few of the great men in politics have cared +much for the education of the people; only one of those, now prominent +before the North, is intimately connected with it. He, at great personal +sacrifice of money, of comfort, of health, even of respectability, +became superintendent of the common schools of Massachusetts, a place +whence we could ill spare him, to take the place of the famous man he +succeeds. Few of the prominent scholars of the land interest themselves +in the public education of the people. The men of superior culture think +the common school beneath their notice; but it is the mother of them +all. + +None of the States of the North has ever given this matter the attention +it demands. When we legislate about public education, this is the +question before us:--Shall we give our posterity the greatest blessing +that one generation can bestow upon another? Shall we give them a +personal power which will create wealth in every form, multiply ships, +and roads of earth, or of iron; subdue the forest, till the field, chain +the rivers, hold the winds as its vassals, bind with an iron yoke the +fire and water, and catch and tame the lightning of God? Shall we give +them a personal power which will make them sober, temperate, healthy, +and wise; that shall keep them at peace, abroad and at home, organize +them so wisely that all shall be united, and yet, each left free, with +no tyranny of the few over the many, or the little over the great? +Shall we enable them to keep, to improve, to double manifold the +political, social, and personal blessings they now possess; shall we +give them this power to create riches, to promote order, peace, +happiness--all forms of human welfare, or shall we not? That is the +question. Give us intelligent men, moral men, men well developed in mind +and conscience, heart and soul, men that love man and God, industrial +prosperity, social prosperity, and political prosperity, are sure to +follow. But without such men, all the machinery of this threefold +prosperity is but a bauble in a child's hand, which he will soon break +or lose, which he cannot replace when gone, nor use while kept. + +Rich men, who have intelligence and goodness, will educate their +children, at whatever cost. There are some men, even poor men's sons, +born with such native power that they will achieve an education, often a +most masterly culture; men whom no poverty can degrade, or make vulgar, +whom no lack of means of culture can keep from being wise and great. +Such are exceptional men; the majority, nine tenths of the people, will +depend, for their culture, on the public institutions of the land. If +there had never been a free public school in New England, not half of +her mechanics and farmers would now be able to read, not a fourth part +of her women. I need not stop to tell what would be the condition of her +agriculture, her manufactures, her commerce; they would have been, +perhaps, even behind the agriculture, commerce and manufactures of South +Carolina. I need not ask what would be the condition of her free +churches, or the republican institutions which now beautify her rugged +shores and sterile soil; there would be no such churches, no such +institutions. If there had been no such schools in New England, the +Revolution would yet remain to be fought. Take away the free schools, +you take away the cause of our manifold prosperity; double their +efficiency and value, you not only double and quadruple the prosperity +of the people, but you will enlarge their welfare--political, social, +personal--far more than I now dare to calculate. I know men object to +public schools; they say, education must be bottomed on religion, and +that cannot be taught unless we have a State religion, taught "by +authority" in all our schools; we cannot teach religion, without +teaching it in a sectarian form. This objection is getting made in New +York; we have got beyond it in New England. It is true, all manly +education must be bottomed on religion; it is essential to the normal +development of man, and all attempts at education, without this, must +fail of the highest end. But there are two parts of religion which can +be taught in all the schools, without disturbing the denominations, or +trenching upon their ground, namely, piety, the love of God, and +goodness, the love of man. The rest of religion, after piety and +goodness are removed, may safely be left to the institutions of any of +the sects, and so the state will not occupy their ground. + +It is often said that superior education is not much needed; the common +schools are enough, and good enough, for it is thought that superior +education is needed for men as lawyers, ministers, doctors, and the +like, not for men as men. It is not so. We want men cultivated with the +best discipline, everywhere, not for the profession's sake, but for +man's sake. Every man with a superior culture, intellectual, moral, and +religious, every woman thus developed, is a safeguard and a blessing. He +may sit on the bench of a judge or a shoemaker, be a clergyman or an +oysterman, that matters little, he is still a safeguard and a blessing. +The idea that none should have a superior education but professional +men--they only for the profession's sake--belongs to dark ages, and is +unworthy of a democracy. + + * * * * * + +It is the duty of all men to watch over the public education of the +people, for it is the most important work of the state. It is +particularly the duty of men who, hitherto, have least attended to it, +men of the highest culture, men, too, of the highest genius. If a man +with but common abilities has attained great learning, he is one of the +"public administrators," to distribute the goods of men of genius, from +other times and lands, to mankind, their legal heirs. Why does God +sometimes endow a man with great intellectual power, making, now and +then, a million-minded man? Is that superiority of gift solely for the +man's own sake? Shame on such a thought. It is of little value to him +unless he use it for me; it is for your sake and my sake, more than for +his own. He is a precious almoner of wisdom; one of the public guardians +of mankind, to think for us, to help us think for ourselves; born to +educate the world of feebler men. I call on such men, men of culture, +men of genius, to help build up institutions for the education of the +people. If they neglect this, they are false to their trust. The culture +which hinders a man from sympathy with the ignorant, is a curse to both, +and the genius which separates a man from his fellow-creatures, lowlier +born than he, is the genius of a demon. + + * * * * * + +Men and women, practical teachers now before me, a great trust is in +your hands; nine tenths of the children of the people depend on you for +their early culture, for all the scholastic discipline they will ever +get; their manly culture will depend on that, their prosperity thereon, +all these on you. When they are men, you know what evils they will +easily learn from state and church, from business and the press. It is +for you to give them such a developing and such a furnishing of their +powers, that they will withstand, counteract and exterminate that evil. +Teach them to love justice better than their native land, truth better +than their church, humanity more than money, and fidelity to their own +nature better than the public opinion of the press. As the chief thing +of all, teach them to love man and God. Your characters will be the +inspiration of these children; your prayers their practice, your faith +their works. + +The rising generation is in your hands, you can fashion them in your +image, you will, you must do this. Great duties will devolve on these +children when grown up to be men; you are to fit them for these duties. +Since the Revolution, there has not been a question before the country, +not a question of constitution or confederacy, free trade or protective +tariff, sub-treasury or bank, of peace or war, freedom or slavery, the +extension of liberty, or the extension of bondage--not a question of +this sort has come up before Congress, or the people, which could not +have been better decided by seven men, honest, intelligent, and just, +who loved man and God, and looked, with a single eye, to what was right +in the case. It is your business to train up such men. A representative, +a senator, a governor may be made, any day, by a vote. Ballots can make +a president out of almost any thing; the most ordinary material is not +too cheap and vulgar for that. But all the votes of all the conventions, +all the parties, are unable to make a people capable of +self-government. They cannot put intelligence and justice into the head +of a single man. You are to do that. You are the "Sacred Legion," the +"Theban Brothers" to repel the greatest foes that can invade the land, +the only foes to be feared; you are to repel ignorance, injustice, +unmanliness, and irreligion. With none else to help you, in ten years' +time you can double the value of your schools; double the amount of +development and instruction you annually furnish. So doing, you shall +double, triple, quadruple, multiply manifold the blessings of the land. +You can, if you will. I ask If you will? If your works say "Yes," then +you will be the great benefactors of the land, not giving money, but a +charity far nobler yet, education, the greatest charity. You will help +fulfil the prophecy which noble men long since predicted of mankind, and +help found the kingdom of heaven on earth; you will follow the steps of +that noblest man of men, the Great Educator of the human race, whom the +Christians still worship as their God. Yes, you will work with God +himself; He will work with you, work for you, and bless you with +everlasting life. + + + + +V. + +THE POLITICAL DESTINATION OF AMERICA AND THE SIGNS OF THE +TIMES.--DELIVERED BEFORE SEVERAL LITERARY SOCIETIES, 1848. + + +Every nation has a peculiar character, in which it differs from all +others that have been, that are, and possibly from all that are to come; +for it does not yet appear that the Divine Father of the nations ever +repeats himself and creates either two nations or two men exactly alike. +However, as nations, like men, agree in more things than they differ, +and in obvious things too, the special peculiarity of any one tribe does +not always appear at first sight. But if we look through the history of +some nation which has passed off from the stage of action, we find +certain prevailing traits which continually reappear in the language and +laws thereof; in its arts, literature, manners, modes of religion--in +short, in the whole life of the people. The most prominent thing in the +history of the Hebrews is their continual trust in God, and this marks +them from their first appearance to the present day. They have +accordingly done little for art, science, philosophy, little for +commerce and the useful arts of life, but much for religion; and the +psalms they sung two or three thousand years ago are at this day the +hymns and prayers of the whole Christian world. Three great historical +forms of religion, Judaism, Christianity, and Mahometanism, all have +proceeded from them. + +He that looks at the Ionian Greeks finds in their story always the same +prominent characteristic, a devotion to what is beautiful. This appears +often to the neglect of what is true, right, and therefore holy. Hence, +while they have done little for religion, their literature, +architecture, sculpture, furnish us with models never surpassed, and +perhaps not equalled. Yet they lack the ideal aspiration after religion +that appears in the literature and art, and even language of some other +people, quite inferior to the Greeks in elegance and refinement. +Science, also, is most largely indebted to these beauty-loving Greeks +for truth is one form of loveliness. + +If we take the Romans, from Romulus their first king, to Augustulus the +last of the Cæsars, the same traits of national character appear, only +the complexion and dress thereof changed by circumstances. There is +always the same hardness and materialism, the same skill in organizing +men, the same turn for affairs and genius for legislation. Rome borrowed +her theology and liturgical forms; her art, science, literature, +philosophy, and eloquence; even her art of war was an imitation. But +law sprung up indigenous in her soil; her laws are the best gift she +offers to the human race,--the "monument more lasting than brass," which +she has left behind her. + +We may take another nation, which has by no means completed its history, +the Saxon race, from Hengist and Horsa to Sir Robert Peel: there also is +a permanent peculiarity in the tribe. They are yet the same bold, handy, +practical people as when their bark first touched the savage shores of +Britain; not over religious; less pious than moral; not so much upright +before God, as downright before men; servants of the understanding more +than children of reason; not following the guidance of an intuition, and +the light of an idea, but rather trusting to experiment, facts, +precedents, and usages; not philosophical, but commercial; warlike +through strength and courage, not from love of war or its glory; +material, obstinate, and grasping, with the same admiration of horses, +dogs, oxen, and strong drink; the same willingness to tread down any +obstacle, material, human or divine, which stands in their way; the same +impatient lust of wealth and power; the same disposition to colonize and +reannex other lands; the same love of liberty and love of law; the same +readiness in forming political confederations. + +In each of these four instances, the Hebrews, the Ionians, the Romans, +and the Anglo-Saxon race, have had a nationality so strong, that while +they have mingled with other nations in commerce and in war, as victors +and vanquished, they have stoutly held their character through all; they +have thus modified feebler nations joined with them. To take the last, +neither the Britons nor the Danes affected very much the character of +the Anglo-Saxons; they never turned it out of its course. The Normans +gave the Saxon manners, refinement, letters, elegance. The Anglo-Saxon +bishop of the eleventh century, dressed in untanned sheep-skins, "the +woolly side out and the fleshy side in;" he ate cheese and flesh, drank +milk and mead. The Norman taught him to wear cloth, to eat also bread +and roots, to drink wine. But in other respects the Norman left him as +he found him. England has received her kings and her nobles from +Normandy, Anjou, the Provence, Scotland, Holland, Hanover, often seeing +a foreigner ascend her throne; yet the sturdy Anglo-Saxon character held +its own, spite of the new element infused into its blood: change the +ministries, change the dynasties often as they will, John Bull is +obstinate as ever, and himself changes not; no philosophy or religion +makes him less material. No nation but the English could have produced a +Hobbes, a Hume, a Paley, or a Bentham; they are all instantial and not +exceptional men in that race. + + * * * * * + +Now this idiosyncrasy of a nation is a sacred gift; like the genius of a +Burns, a Thorwaldsen, a Franklin, or a Bowditch, it is given for some +divine purpose, to be sacredly cherished and patiently unfolded. The +cause of the peculiarities of a nation or an individual man we cannot +fully determine as yet, and so we refer it to the chain of causes which +we call Providence. But the national persistency in a common type is +easily explained. The qualities of father and mother are commonly +transmitted to their children, but not always, for peculiarities may lie +latent in a family for generations, and reappear in the genius or the +folly of a child--often in the complexion and features: and besides, +father and mother are often no match. But such exceptions are rare, and +the qualities of a race are always thus reproduced, the deficiency of +one man getting counterbalanced by the redundancy of the next: the +marriages of a whole tribe are not far from normal. + +Some nations, it seems, perish through defect of this national +character, as individuals fail of success through excess or deficiency +in their character. Thus the Celts, that great flood of a nation which +once swept over Germany, France, England, and, casting its spray far +over the Alps, at one time threatened destruction to Rome itself, seem +to have been so filled with love of individual independence that they +could never accept a minute organization of human rights and duties, and +so their children would not group themselves into a city, as other +races, and submit to a strong central power, which should curb +individual will enough to insure national unity of action. Perhaps this +was once the excellence of the Celts, and thereby they broke the +trammels and escaped from the theocratic or despotic traditions of +earlier and more savage times, developing the power of the individual +for a time, and the energy of a nation loosely bound; but when they came +in contact with the Romans, Franks and Saxons, they melted away as snow +in April--only, like that, remnants thereof yet lingering in the +mountains and islands of Europe. No external pressure of famine or +political oppression now holds the Celts in Ireland together, or gives +them national unity of action enough to resist the Saxon foe. Doubtless +in other days this very peculiarity of the Irish has done the world some +service. Nations succeed each other as races of animals in the +geological epochs, and like them, also, perish when their work is done. + +The peculiar character of a nation does not appear nakedly, without +relief and shadow. As the waters of the Rhone, in coming from the +mountains, have caught a stain from the soils they have traversed which +mars the cerulean tinge of the mountain snow that gave them birth, so +the peculiarities of each nation become modified by the circumstances to +which it is exposed, though the fundamental character of a nation, it +seems, has never been changed. Only when the blood of the nation is +changed by additions from another stock is the idiosyncrasy altered. + +Now, while each nation has its peculiar genius or character which does +not change, it has also and accordingly a particular work to perform in +the economy of the world, a certain fundamental idea to unfold and +develop. This is its national task, for in God's world, as in a shop, +there is a regular division of labor. Sometimes it is a limited work, +and when it is done the nation may be dismissed, and go to its repose. +_Non omnia possumus omnes_ is as true of nations as of men; one has a +genius for one thing, another for something different, and the idea of +each nation and its special work will depend on the genius of the +nation. Men do not gather grapes of thorns. + +In addition to this specific genius of the nation and its corresponding +work, there are also various accidental or subordinate qualities, which +change with circumstances, and so vary the nation's aspect that its +peculiar genius and peculiar duty are often hid from its own +consciousness, and even obscured to that of the philosophic looker-on. +These subordinate peculiarities will depend first on the peculiar +genius, idea and work of the nation, and next on the transient +circumstances, geographical, climactic, historical and secular, to which +the nation has been exposed. The past helped form the circumstances of +the present age, and they the character of the men now living. Thus new +modifications of the national type continually take place; new +variations are played, but on the same old strings and of the same old +tune. Once circumstances made the Hebrews entirely pastoral, now as +completely commercial; but the same trust in God, the same national +exclusiveness appear, as of old. As one looks at the history of the +Ionians, Romans, Saxons, he sees unity of national character, a +continuity of idea and of work; but it appears in the midst of variety, +for while these remained ever the same to complete the economy of the +world, subordinate qualities--sentiments, ideas, actions--changed to +suit the passing hour. The nation's _course_ was laid towards a certain +point, but they stood to the right hand or the left, they sailed with +much canvas or little, and swift or slow, as the winds and waves +compelled: nay, sometimes the national ship "heaves to," and lies with +her "head to the wind," regardless of her destination; but when the +storm is overblown resumes her course. Men will carelessly think the +ship has no certain aim, but only drifts. + + * * * * * + +The most marked characteristic of the American nation is Love of +Freedom; of man's natural rights. This is so plain to a student of +American history, or of American politics, that the point requires no +arguing. We have a genius for liberty: the American idea is freedom, +natural rights. Accordingly, the work providentially laid out for us to +do seems this,--to organize the rights of man. This is a problem +hitherto unattempted on a national scale, in human history. Often +enough attempts have been made to organize the powers of priests, kings, +nobles, in a theocracy, monarchy, oligarchy, powers which had no +foundation in human duties or human rights, but solely in the +selfishness of strong men. Often enough have the mights of men been +organized, but not the rights of man. Surely there has never been an +attempt made on a national scale to organize the rights of man as man; +rights resting on the nature of things; rights derived from no +conventional compact of men with men; not inherited from past +generations, nor received from parliaments and kings, nor secured by +their parchments; but rights that are derived straightway from God, the +Author of Duty and the Source of Right, and which are secured in the +great charter of our being. + +At first view it will be said, the peculiar genius of America is not +such, nor such her fundamental idea, nor that her destined work. It is +true that much of the national conduct seems exceptional when measured +by that standard, and the nation's course as crooked as the Rio Grande; +it is true that America sometimes seems to spurn liberty, and sells the +freedom of three million men for less than three million annual bales of +cotton; true, she often tramples, knowingly, consciously, tramples on +the most unquestionable and sacred rights. Yet, when one looks through +the whole character and history of America, spite of the exceptions, +nothing comes out with such relief as this love of freedom, this idea of +liberty, this attempt to organize right. There are numerous subordinate +qualities which conflict with the nation's idea and work, coming from +our circumstances, not our soul, as well as many others which help the +nation perform her providential work. They are signs of the times, and +it is important to look carefully among the most prominent of them, +where, indeed, one finds striking contradictions. + + * * * * * + +The first is an impatience of authority. Every thing must render its +reason, and show cause for its being. We will not be commanded, at least +only by such as we choose to obey. Does some one say, "Thou shalt," or +"Thou shalt not," we ask, "Who are you?" Hence comes a seeming +irreverence. The shovel hat, the symbol of authority, which awed our +fathers, is not respected unless it covers a man, and then it is the man +we honor, and no longer the shovel hat. "I will complain of you to the +government!" said a Prussian nobleman to a Yankee stage-driver, who +uncivilly threw the nobleman's trunk to the top of the coach. "Tell the +government to go to the devil!" was the symbolical reply. + +Old precedents will not suffice us, for we want something anterior to +all precedents; we go beyond what is written, asking the cause of the +precedent and the reason of the writing. "Our fathers did so," says +some one. "What of that?" say we. "Our fathers--they were giants, were +they? Not at all, only great boys, and we are not only taller than they, +but mounted on their shoulders to boot, and see twice as far. My dear +wise man, or wiseacre, it is we that are the ancients, and have +forgotten more than all our fathers knew. We will take their wisdom +joyfully, and thank God for it, but not their authority, we know better; +and of their nonsense not a word. It was very well that they lived, and +it is very well that they are dead. Let them keep decently buried, for +respectable dead men never walk." + +Tradition does not satisfy us. The American scholar has no folios in his +library. The antiquary unrolls his codex, hid for eighteen hundred years +in the ashes of Herculaneum, deciphers its fossil wisdom, telling us +what great men thought in the bay of Naples, and two thousand years ago. +"What do you tell of that for?" is the answer to his learning. "What has +Pythagoras to do with the price of cotton? You may be a very learned +man; you can read the hieroglyphics of Egypt, I dare say, and know so +much about the Pharaohs, it is a pity you had not lived in their time, +when you might have been good for something; but you are too +old-fashioned for our business, and may return to your dust." An eminent +American, a student of Egyptian history, with a scholarly indignation +declared, "There is not a man who cares to know whether Shoophoo lived +one thousand years before Christ, or three." + +The example of other and ancient States does not terrify or instruct us. +If slavery were a curse to Athens, the corruption of Corinth, the +undoing of Rome, and all history shows it was so, we will learn no +lesson from that experience, for we say, "We are not Athenians, men of +Corinth, nor pagan Romans, thank God, but free republicans, Christians +of America. We live in the nineteenth century, and though slavery worked +all that mischief then and there, we know how to make money out of it, +twelve hundred millions of dollars, as Mr. Clay counts the cash." + +The example of contemporary nations furnishes us little warning or +guidance. We will set our own precedents, and do not like to be told +that the Prussians or the Dutch have learned some things in the +education of the people before us, which we shall do well to learn after +them. So when a good man tells us of their schools and their colleges, +"patriotic" school-masters exclaim, "It is not true; our schools are the +best in the world! But if it were true, it is unpatriotic to say so; it +aids and comforts the enemy." Jonathan knows little of war; he has heard +his grandfather talk of Lexington and Saratoga; he thinks he should like +to have a little touch of battle on his own account: so when there is +difficulty in setting up the fence betwixt his estate and his neighbors, +he blusters for awhile, talks big, and threatens to strike his father; +but, not having quite the stomach for that experiment, falls to beating +his other neighbor, who happens to be poor, weak, and of a sickly +constitution; and when he beats her at every step,-- + + "For 'tis no war, as each one knows, + When only one side deals the blows, + And t' other bears 'em,"-- + +Jonathan thinks he has covered himself "with imperishable honors," and +sets up his general for a great king. Poor Jonathan--he does not know +the misery, the tears, the blood, the shame, the wickedness, and the sin +he has set a-going, and which one day he is to account for with God who +forgets nothing! + +Yet while we are so unwilling to accept the good principles, to be +warned by the fate, or guided by the success, of other nations, we +gladly and servilely copy their faults, their follies, their vice and +sin. Like all upstarts, we pique ourselves on our imitation of +aristocratic ways. How many a blusterer in Congress,--for there are two +denominations of blusterers, differing only in degree, your great +blusterer in Congress and your little blusterer in a bar-room,--has +roared away hours long against aristocratic influence, in favor of the +"pure democracy," while he played the oligarch in his native village, +the tyrant over his hired help, and though no man knows who his +grandfather was, spite of the herald's office, conjures up some +trumpery coat of arms! Like a clown, who, by pinching his appetite, has +bought a gaudy cloak for Sabbath wearing, we chuckle inwardly at our +brave apery of foreign absurdities, hoping that strangers will be +astonished at us--which, sure enough, comes to pass. Jonathan is as vain +as he is conceited, and expects that the Fiddlers, and the Trollopes, +and others, who visit us periodically as the swallows, and likewise for +what they can catch, shall only extol, or at least stand aghast at the +brave spectacle we offer, of "the freest and most enlightened nation in +the world;" and if they tell us that we are an ill-mannered set, raw and +clownish, that we pick our teeth with a fork, loll back in our chairs, +and make our countenance hateful with tobacco, and that with all our +excellences we are a nation of "rowdies,"--why, we are offended, and our +feelings are hurt. There was an African chief, long ago, who ruled over +a few miserable cabins, and one day received a French traveller from +Paris, under a tree. With the exception of a pair of shoes, our chief +was as naked as a pestle, but with great complacency he asked the +traveller, "What do they say of me at Paris?" + +Such is our dread of authority, that we like not old things; hence we +are always a-changing. Our house must be new, and our book, and even our +church. So we choose a material that soon wears out, though it often +outlasts our patience. The wooden house is an apt emblem of this sign +of the times. But this love of change appears not less in important +matters. We think "Of old things all are over old, of new things none +are new enough." So the age asks of all institutions their right to be: +What right has the government to existence? Who gave the majority a +right to control the minority, to restrict trade, levy taxes, make laws, +and all that? If the nation goes into a committee of the whole and makes +laws, some little man goes into a committee of one and passes his +counter resolves. The State of South Carolina is a nice example of this +self-reliance, and this questioning of all authority. That little brazen +State, which contains only about half so many free white inhabitants as +the single city of New York, but which none the less claims to have +monopolized most of the chivalry of the nation, and its patriotism, as +well as political wisdom--that chivalrous little State says, "If the +nation does not make laws to suit us; if it does not allow us to +imprison all black seamen from the North; if it prevents the extension +of Slavery wherever we wish to carry it--then the State of South +Carolina will nullify, and leave the other nine-and-twenty States to go +to ruin!" + +Men ask what right have the churches to the shadow of authority which +clings to them--to make creeds, and to bind and to loose! So it is a +thing which has happened, that when a church excommunicates a young +stripling for heresy, he turns round, fulminates his edict, and +excommunicates the church. Said a sly Jesuit to an American Protestant +at Rome, "But the rites and customs and doctrines of the Catholic church +go back to the second century, the age after the apostles!" "No doubt of +it," said the American, who had also read the Fathers, "they go back to +the times of the apostles themselves; but that proves nothing, for there +were as great fools in the first century as the last. A fool or a folly +is no better because it is an old folly or an old fool. There are fools +enough now, in all conscience. Pray don't go back to prove their +apostolical succession." + +There are always some men who are born out of due season, men of past +ages, stragglers of former generations, who ought to have been born +before Dr. Faustus invented printing, but who are unfortunately born +now, or, if born long ago, have been fraudulently and illegally +concealed by their mothers, and are now, for the first time, brought to +light. The age lifts such aged juveniles from the ground, and bids them +live, but they are sadly to seek in this day; they are old-fashioned +boys; their authority is called in question; their traditions and old +wives' fables are laughed at, at any rate disbelieved; they get +profanely elbowed in the crowd--men not knowing their great age and +consequent venerableness; the shovel hat, though apparently born on +their head, is treated with disrespect. The very boys laugh pertly in +their face when they speak, and even old men can scarce forbear a +smile, though it may be a smile of pity. The age affords such men a +place, for it is a catholic age, large-minded, and tolerant,--such a +place as it gives to ancient armor, Indian Bibles, and fossil bones of +the mastodon; it puts them by in some room seldom used, with other old +furniture, and allows them to mumble their anilities by themselves; now +and then takes off its hat; looks in, charitably, to keep the mediæval +relics in good heart, and pretends to listen, as they discourse of what +comes of nothing and goes to it; but in matters which the age cares +about, commerce, manufactures, politics, which it cares much for, even +in education, which it cares far too little about, it trusts no such +counsellors, nor tolerates, nor ever affects to listen. + +Then there is a philosophical tendency, distinctly visible; a groping +after ultimate facts, first principles, and universal ideas. We wish to +know first the fact, next the law of that fact, and then the reason of +the law. A sign of this tendency is noticeable in the titles of books; +we have no longer "treatises" n the eye, the ear, sleep, and so forth, +but in their place we find works professing to treat of the "philosophy" +of vision, of sound, of sleep. Even in the pulpits, men speak about the +"philosophy" of religion; we have philosophical lectures, delivered to +men of little culture, which would have amazed our grandfathers, who +thought a shoemaker should never go beyond his last, even to seek for +the philosophy of shoes. "What a pity," said a grave Scotchman, in the +beginning of this century, "to teach the beautiful science of geometry +to weavers and cobblers." Here nothing is too good or high for any one +tall and good enough to get hold of it. What audiences attend the Lowell +lectures in Boston--two or three thousand men, listening to twelve +lectures on the philosophy of fish! It would not bring a dollar or a +vote, only thought to their minds! Young ladies are well versed in the +philosophy of the affections, and understand the theory of attraction, +while their grandmothers, good easy souls, were satisfied with the +possession of the fact. The circumstance, that philosophical lectures +get delivered by men like Walker, Agassiz, Emerson, and their +coadjutors, men who do not spare abstruseness, get listened to, and even +understood, in town and village, by large crowds of men, of only the +most common culture; this indicates a philosophical tendency, unknown in +any other land or age. Our circle of professed scholars, men of culture +and learning, is a very small one, while our circle of thinking men is +disproportionately large. The best thought of France and Germany finds a +readier welcome here than in our parent land: nay, the newest and the +best thought of England, finds its earliest and warmest welcome in +America. It was a little remarkable, that Bacon and Newton should be +reprinted here, and La Place should have found his translator and +expositor coming out of an insurance office in Salem! Men of no great +pretensions object to an accomplished and eloquent politician: "That is +all very well; he made us cry and laugh, but the discourse was not +philosophical; he never tells us the reason of the thing; he seems not +only not to know it, but not to know that there is a reason for the +thing, and if not, what is the use of this bobbing on the surface?" +Young maidens complain of the minister, that he has no philosophy in his +sermons, nothing but precepts, which they could read in the Bible as +well as he; perhaps in heathen Seneca. He does not feed their souls. + +One finds this tendency where it is least expected: there is a +philosophical party in politics, a very small party it may be, but an +actual one. They aim to get at everlasting ideas and universal laws, not +made by man, but by God, and for man, who only finds them; and from them +they aim to deduce all particular enactments, so that each statute in +the code shall represent a fact in the universe; a point of thought in +God; so, indeed, that legislation shall be divine in the same sense that +a true system of astronomy is divine--or the Christian religion--the law +corresponding to a fact. Men of this party, in New England, have more +ideas than precedents, are spontaneous more than logical; have +intuitions, rather than intellectual convictions, arrived at by the +process of reasoning. They think it is not philosophical to take a +young scoundrel and shut him up with a party of old ones, for his +amendment; not philosophical to leave children with no culture, +intellectual, moral, or religious, exposed to the temptations of a high +and corrupt civilization, and then, when they go astray--as such +barbarians needs must, in such temptations--to hang them by the neck for +the example's sake. They doubt if war is a more philosophical mode of +getting justice between two nations, than blows to settle a quarrel +between two men. In either case, they do not see how it follows, that he +who can strike the hardest blow is always in the right. In short, they +think that judicial murder, which is hanging, and national murder, which +is war, are not more philosophical than homicide, which one man commits +on his own private account. + +Theological sects are always the last to feel any popular movement. Yet +all of them, from the Episcopalians to the Quakers, have each a +philosophical party, which bids fair to outgrow the party which rests on +precedent and usage, to overshadow and destroy it. The Catholic church +itself, though far astern of all the sects, in regard to the great +movements of the age, shares this spirit, and abroad, if not here, is +wellnigh rent asunder by the potent medicine which this new Daniel of +philosophy has put into its mouth. Everywhere in the American churches +there are signs of a tendency to drop all that rests merely on +tradition and hearsay, to cling only to such facts as bide the test of +critical search, and such doctrines as can be verified in human +consciousness here and to-day. Doctors of divinity destroy the faith +they once preached. + +True, there are antagonistic tendencies, for, soon as one pole is +developed, the other appears; objections are made to philosophy, the old +cry is raised--"Infidelity," "Denial," "Free-thinking." It is said that +philosophy will corrupt the young men, will spoil the old ones, and +deceive the very elect. "Authority and tradition," say some, "are all we +need consult; reason must be put down, or she will soon ask terrible +questions." There is good cause for these men warring against reason and +philosophy; it is purely in self-defence. But this counsel and that cry +come from those quarters before mentioned, where the men of past ages +have their place, where the forgotten is re-collected, the obsolete +preserved, and the useless held in esteem. The counsel is not dangerous; +the bird of night, who overstays his hour, is only troublesome to +himself, and was never known to hurt a dovelet or a mouseling after +sun-rise. In the night only is the owl destructive. Some of those who +thus cry out against this tendency, are excellent men in their way, and +highly useful, valuable as conveyancers of opinions. So long as there +are men who take opinions as real estate, "to have and to hold for +themselves and their heirs forever," why should there not be such +conveyancers of opinions, as well as of land? And as it is not the duty +of the latter functionary to ascertain the quality or the value of the +land, but only its metes and bounds, its appurtenances and the title +thereto; to see if the grantor is regularly seized and possessed +thereof, and has good right to convey and devise the same, and to make +sure that the whole conveyance is regularly made out,--so is it with +these conveyancers of opinion; so should it be, and they are valuable +men. It is a good thing to know that we hold under Scotus, and Ramus, +and Albertus Magnus, who were regularly seized of this or that opinion. +It gives an absurdity the dignity of a relic. Sometimes these worthies, +who thus oppose reason and her kin, seem to have a good deal in them, +and, when one examines, he finds more than he looked for. They are like +a nest of boxes from Hingham and Nuremburg, you open one, and behold +another; that, and lo! a third. So you go on, opening and opening, and +finding and finding, till at last you come to the heart of the matter, +and then you find a box that is very little, and entirely empty. + + * * * * * + +Yet, with all this tendency--and it is now so strong that it cannot be +put down, nor even howled down, much as it may be howled over--there is +a lamentable want of first principles, well known and established; we +have rejected the authority of tradition, but not yet accepted the +authority of truth and justice. We will not be treated as striplings, +and are not old enough to go alone as men. Accordingly, nothing seems +fixed. There is a perpetual see-sawing of opposite principles. Somebody +said ministers ought to be ordained on horseback, because they are to +remain so short a time in one place. It would be as emblematic to +inaugurate American politicians, by swearing them on a weathercock. The +great men of the land have as many turns in their course as the Euripus +or the Missouri. Even the facts given in the spiritual nature of man are +called in question. An eminent Unitarian divine regards the existence of +God as a matter of opinion, thinks it cannot be demonstrated, and +publicly declares that it is "not a certainty." Some American +Protestants no longer take the Bible as the standard of ultimate appeal, +yet venture not to set up in that place reason, conscience, the soul +getting help of God; others, who affect to accept the Scripture as the +last authority, yet, when questioned as to their belief in the +miraculous and divine birth of Jesus of Nazareth, are found unable to +say yes or no, not having made up their minds. + +In politics, it is not yet decided whether it is best to leave men to +buy where they can buy cheapest, and sell where they can sell dearest, +or to restrict that matter. + +It was a clear case to our fathers, in '76, that all men were "created +equal," each with "Unalienable Rights." That seemed so clear, that +reasoning would not make it appear more reasonable; it was taken for +granted, as a self-evident proposition. The whole nation said so. Now, +it is no strange thing to find it said that negroes are not "created +equal" in unalienable rights with white men. Nay, in the Senate of the +United States, a famous man declares all this talk a dangerous mistake. +The practical decision of the nation looks the same way. So, to make our +theory accord with our practice, we ought to recommit the Declaration to +the hands which drafted that great State-paper, and instruct Mr. +Jefferson to amend the document, and declare that "All men are created +equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, if +born of white mothers; but if not, not." + +In this lack of first principles, it is not settled in the popular +consciousness, that there is such a thing as an absolute right, a great +law of God, which we are to keep, come what will come. So the nation is +not upright, but goes stooping. Hence, in private affairs, law takes the +place of conscience, and, in public, might of right. So the bankrupt +pays his shilling in the pound, and gets his discharge, but afterwards, +becoming rich, does not think of paying the other nineteen shillings. He +will tell you the law is his conscience; if that be satisfied, so is +he. But you will yet find him letting money at one or two per cent. a +month, contrary to law; and then he will tell you that paying a debt is +a matter of law, while letting money is only a matter of conscience. So +he rides either indifferently--now the public hack, and now his own +private nag, according as it serves his turn. + +So a rich State borrows money and "repudiates" the debt, satisfying its +political conscience, as the bankrupt his commercial conscience, with +the notion that there is no absolute right; that expediency is the only +justice, and that King People can do no wrong. No calm voice of +indignation cries out from the pulpit and the press and the heart of the +people, to shame the repudiators into decent morals; because it is not +settled in the popular mind that there is any absolute right. Then, +because we are strong and the Mexicans weak, because we want their land +for a slave-pasture and they cannot keep us out of it, we think that is +reason enough for waging an infamous war of plunder. Grave men do not +ask about "the natural justice" of such an undertaking, only about its +cost. Have we not seen an American Congress vote a plain lie, with only +sixteen dissenting voices in the whole body; has not the head of the +nation continually repeated that lie; and do not both parties, even at +this day, sustain the vote? + +Now and then there rises up an honest man, with a great Christian heart +in his bosom, and sets free a score or two of slaves inherited from his +father; watches over and tends them in their new-found freedom: or +another, who, when legally released from payment of his debts, restores +the uttermost farthing. We talk of this and praise it, as an +extraordinary thing. Indeed it is so; justice is an unusual thing, and +such men deserve the honor they thus win. But such praise shows that +such honesty is a rare honesty. The northern man, born on the +battle-ground of freedom, goes to the South and becomes the most +tyrannical of slave-drivers. The son of the Puritan, bred up in austere +ways, is sent to Congress to stand up for truth and right, but he turns +out a "dough-face," and betrays the duty he went to serve. Yet he does +not lose his place, for every dough-faced representative has a +dough-faced constituency to back him. + +It is a great mischief that comes from lacking first principles, and the +worst part of it comes from lacking first principles in morals. Thereby +our eyes are holden so that we see not the great social evils all about +us. We attempt to justify slavery, even to do it in the name of Jesus +Christ. The whig party of the North loves slavery; the democratic party +does not even seek to conceal its affection therefor. A great politician +declares the Mexican war wicked, and then urges men to go and fight it; +he thinks a famous general not fit to be nominated for President, but +then invites men to elect him. Politics are national morals, the morals +of Thomas and Jeremiah, multiplied by millions. But it is not decided +yet that honesty is the best policy for a politician; it is thought that +the best policy is honesty, at least as near it as the times will allow. +Many politicians seem undecided how to turn, and so sit on the fence +between honesty and dishonesty. Mr. Facing-both-ways is a popular +politician in America just now, sitting on the fence between honesty and +dishonesty, and, like the blank leaf between the Old and New Testaments, +belonging to neither dispensation. It is a little amusing to a trifler +to hear a man's fitness for the Presidency defended on the ground that +he has no definite convictions or ideas! + +There was once a man who said he always told a lie when it would serve +his special turn. It is a pity he went to his own place long ago. He +seemed born for a party politician in America. He would have had a large +party, for he made a great many converts before he died, and left a +numerous kindred busy in the editing of newspapers, writing addresses +for the people, and passing "resolutions." + +It must strike a stranger as a little odd, that a republic should have a +slaveholder for President five sixths of the time, and most of the +important offices be monopolized by other slaveholders; a little +surprising that all the pulpits and most of the presses should be in +favor of slavery, at least not against it. But such is the fact. +Everybody knows the character of the American government for some years +past, and of the American parties in politics. "Like master, like man," +used to be a true proverb in old England, and "Like people, like ruler," +is a true proverb in America; true now. Did a decided people ever choose +dough-faces?--a people that loved God and man, choose representatives +that cared for neither truth nor justice? Now and then, for dust gets +into the brightest eyes; but did they ever choose such men continually? +The people are always fairly represented; our representatives do +actually represent us, and in more senses than they are paid for. +Congress and the Cabinet are only two thermometers hung up in the +capital, to show the temperature of the national morals. + +But amid this general uncertainty there are two capital maxims which +prevail amongst our huxters of politics: To love your party better than +your country, and yourself better than your party. There are, it is +true, real statesmen amongst us, men who love justice and do the right, +but they seem lost in the mob of vulgar politicians and the dust of +party editors. + +Since the nation loves freedom above all things, the name democracy is a +favorite name. No party could live a twelvemonth that should declare +itself anti-democratic. Saint and sinner, statesman and politician, +alike love the name. So it comes to pass that there are two things +which bear that name; each has its type and its motto. The motto of one +is, "You are as good as I, and let us help one another." That represents +the democracy of the Declaration of Independence, and of the New +Testament; its type is a free school, where children of all ranks meet +under the guidance of intelligent and Christian men, to be educated in +mind, and heart, and soul. The other has for its motto, "I am as good as +you, so get out of my way." Its type is the bar-room of a tavern--dirty, +offensive, stained with tobacco, and full of drunken, noisy, quarrelsome +"rowdies," just returned from the Mexican war, and ready for a "buffalo +hunt," for privateering, or to go and plunder any one who is better off +than themselves, especially if also better. That is not exactly the +democracy of the Declaration, or of the New Testament; but of--no matter +whom. + + * * * * * + +Then, again, there is a great intensity of life and purpose. This +displays itself in our actions and speeches; in our speculations; in the +"revivals" of the more serious sects; in the excitements of trade; in +the general character of the people. All that we do we overdo. It +appears in our hopefulness; we are the most aspiring of nations. Not +content with half the continent, we wish the other half. We have this +characteristic of genius: we are dissatisfied with all that we have +done. Somebody once said we were too vain to be proud. It is not wholly +so; the national idea is so far above us that any achievement seems +little and low. The American soul passes away from its work soon as it +is finished. So the soul of each great artist refuses to dwell in his +finished work, for that seems little to his dream. Our fathers deemed +the Revolution a great work; it was once thought a surprising thing to +found that little colony on the shores of New England; but young America +looks to other revolutions, and thinks she has many a Plymouth colony in +her bosom. If other nations wonder at our achievements, we are a +disappointment to ourselves, and wonder we have not done more. Our +national idea out-travels our experience, and all experience. We began +our national career by setting all history at defiance--for that said, +"A republic on a large scale cannot exist." Our progress since has shown +that we were right in refusing to be limited by the past. The political +ideas of the nation are transcendant, not empirical. Human history could +not justify the Declaration of Independence and its large statements of +the new idea: the nation went behind human history and appealed to human +nature. + +We are more spontaneous than logical; we have ideas, rather than facts +or precedents. We dream more than we remember, and so have many orators +and poets, or poetasters, with but few antiquaries and general +scholars. We are not so reflective as forecasting. We are the most +intuitive of modern nations. The very party in politics which has the +least culture, is richest in ideas which will one day become facts. +Great truths--political, philosophical, religious--lie a-burning in many +a young heart which cannot legitimate nor prove them true, but none the +less feels, and feels them true. A man full of new truths finds a ready +audience with us. Many things which come disguised as truths under such +circumstances pass current for a time, but by and by their bray +discovers them. The hope which comes from this intensity of life and +intuition of truths is a national characteristic. It gives courage, +enterprise, and strength. They can who think they can. We are confident +in our star; other nations may see it or not, we know it is there above +the clouds. We do not hesitate at rash experiments--sending fifty +thousand soldiers to conquer a nation with eight or nine millions of +people. We are up to every thing, and think ourselves a match for any +thing. The young man is rash, for he only hopes, having little to +remember; he is excitable, and loves excitement; change of work is his +repose; he is hot and noisy, sanguine and fearless, with the courage +that comes from warm blood and ignorance of dangers; he does not know +what a hard, tough, sour old world he is born into. We are a nation of +young men. We talked of annexing Texas and northern Mexico, and did +both; now we grasp at Cuba, Central America,--all the continent,--and +speak of a railroad to the Pacific as a trifle for us to accomplish. Our +national deeds are certainly great, but our hope and promise far +outbrags them all. + +If this intensity of life and hope have its good side, it has also its +evil; with much of the excellence of youth we have its faults--rashness, +haste, and superficiality. Our work is seldom well done. In English +manufactures there is a certain solid honesty of performance; in the +French a certain air of elegance and refinement: one misses both these +in American works. It is said America invents the most machines, but +England builds them best. We lack the phlegmatic patience of older +nations. We are always in a hurry, morning, noon and night. We are +impatient of the process, but greedy of the result; so that we make +short experiments but long reports, and talk much though we say little. +We forget that a sober method is a short way of coming to the end, and +that he who, before he sets out, ascertains where he is going and the +way thither, ends his journey more prosperously than one who settles +these matters by the way. Quickness is a great desideratum with us. It +is said an American ship is known far off at sea by the quantity of +canvas she carries. Rough and ready is a popular attribute. Quick and +off would be a symbolic motto for the nation at this day, representing +one phase of our character. We are sudden in deliberation; the +"one-hour rule" works well in Congress. A committee of the British +Parliament spends twice or thrice our time in collecting facts, +understanding and making them intelligible, but less than our time in +speech-making after the report; speeches there commonly being for the +purpose of facilitating the business, while here one sometimes is half +ready to think, notwithstanding our earnestness, that the business is to +facilitate the speaking. A State revises her statutes with a rapidity +that astonishes a European. Yet each revision brings some amendment, and +what is found good in the constitution or laws of one State gets +speedily imitated by the rest; each new State of the North becoming more +democratic than its predecessor. + +We are so intent on our purpose that we have no time for amusement. We +have but one or two festivals in the year, and even then we are serious +and reformatory. Jonathan thinks it a very solemn thing to be merry. A +Frenchman said we have but two amusements in America--Theology for the +women and politics for the men; preaching and voting. If this be true, +it may help to explain the fact that most men take their theology from +their wives, and women politics from their husbands. No nation ever +tried the experiment of such abstinence from amusement. We have no time +for sport, and so lose much of the poetry of life. All work and no play +does not always make a dull boy, but it commonly makes a hard man. + +We rush from school into business early; we hurry while in business; we +aim to be rich quickly, making a fortune at a stroke, making or losing +it twice or thrice in a lifetime. "Soft and fair, goes safe and far," is +no proverb to our taste. We are the most restless of people. How we +crowd into cars and steamboats; a locomotive would well typify our +fuming, fizzing spirit. In our large towns life seems to be only a +scamper. Not satisfied with bustling about all day, when night comes we +cannot sit still, but alone of all nations have added rockers to our +chairs. + +All is haste, from the tanning of leather to the education of a boy, and +the old saw holds its edge good as ever--"the more haste the worse +speed." The young stripling, innocent of all manner of lore, whom a +judicious father has barrelled down in a college, or law-school, or +theological seminary, till his beard be grown, mourns over the few years +he must spend there awaiting that operation. His rule is, "to make a +spoon or spoil a horn;" he longs to be out in the world "making a +fortune," or "doing good," as he calls what his father better names +"making noisy work for repentance, and doing mischief." So he rushes +into life not fitted, and would fly towards heaven, this young Icarus, +his wings not half fledged. There seems little taste for thoroughness. +In our schools as our farms, we pass over much ground but pass over it +poorly. + +In education the aim is not to get the most we can, but the least we can +get along with. A ship with over-much canvas and over-little ballast +were no bad emblem of many amongst us. In no country is it so easy to +get a reputation for learning--accumulated thought, because so few +devote themselves to that accumulation. In this respect our standard is +low. So a man of one attainment is sure to be honored, but a man of many +and varied abilities is in danger of being undervalued. A Spurzheim +would be warmly welcomed, while a Humboldt would be suspected of +superficiality, as we have not the standard to judge him by. Yet in no +country in the world is it so difficult to get a reputation for +eloquence, as many speak and that well. It is surprising with what +natural strength and beauty the young American addresses himself to +speak. Some hatter's apprentice, or shoemaker's journeyman, at a +temperance or anti-slavery meeting, will speak words like the blows of +an axe, that cut clean and deep. The country swarms with orators, more +abundantly where education is least esteemed--in the West or South. + +We have secured national unity of action for the white citizens, without +much curtailing individual variety of action, so we have at the North +pretty well solved that problem which other nations have so often +boggled over; we have balanced the centripetal power, the government and +laws, with the centrifugal power, the mass of individuals, into +harmonious proportions. If one were to leave out of sight the three +million slaves, one sixth part of the population, the problem might be +regarded as very happily solved. As the consequences of this, in no +country is there more talent, or so much awake and active. In the South +this unity is attained by sacrificing all the rights of three million +slaves, and almost all the rights of the other colored population. In +despotic countries this unity is brought about by the sacrifice of +freedom, individual variety of action, in all except the despot and his +favorites; so, much of the nation's energy is stifled in the chains of +the State, while here it is friendly to institutions which are friendly +to it, goes to its work, and approves itself in the vast increase of +wealth and comfort throughout the North, where there is no class of men +which is so oppressed that it cannot rise. One is amazed at the amount +of ready skill and general ability which he finds in all the North, +where each man has a little culture, takes his newspaper, manages +his own business, and talks with some intelligence of many +things--especially of politics and theology. In respect to this general +intellectual ability and power of self-help, the mass of people seem far +in advance of any other nation. But at the same time our scholars, who +always represent the nation's higher modes of consciousness, will not +bear comparison with the scholars of England, France, and Germany, men +thoroughly furnished for their work. This is a great reproach and +mischief to us, for we need most accomplished leaders, who by their +thought can direct this national intensity of life. Our literature does +not furnish them; we have no great men there; Irving, Channing, Cooper, +are not names to conjure with in literature. One reads thick volumes +devoted to the poets of America, or her prose writers, and finds many +names which he wonders he never heard of before, but when he turns over +their works, he finds consolation and recovers his composure. + +American literature may be divided into two departments: the permanent +literature, which gets printed in books, that sometimes reach more than +one edition; and the evanescent literature, which appears only in the +form of speeches, pamphlets, reviews, newspaper articles, and the like +extempore productions. Now our permanent literature, as a general thing, +is superficial, tame, and weak; it is not American; it has not our +ideas, our contempt of authority, our philosophical turn, nor even our +uncertainty as to first principles, still less our national intensity, +our hope, and fresh intuitive perceptions of truth. It is a miserable +imitation. Love of freedom is not there. The real national literature is +found almost wholly in speeches, pamphlets, and newspapers. The latter +are pretty thoroughly American; mirrors in which we see no very +flattering likeness of our morals or our manners. Yet the picture is +true: that vulgarity, that rant, that bragging violence, that +recklessness of truth and justice, that disregard of right and duty, are +a part of the nation's everyday life. Our newspapers are low and "wicked +to a fault;" only in this weakness are they un-American. Yet they +exhibit, and abundantly, the four qualities we have mentioned as +belonging to the signs of our times. As a general rule, our orators are +also American, with our good and ill. Now and then one rises who has +studied Demosthenes in Leland or Francis, and got a second-hand +acquaintance with old models: a man who uses literary commonplaces, and +thinks himself original and classic because he can quote a line or so of +Horace, in a Western House of Representatives, without getting so many +words wrong as his reporter; but such men are rare, and after making due +abatement for them, our orators all over the land are pretty thoroughly +American, a little turgid, hot, sometimes brilliant, hopeful, intuitive, +abounding in half truths, full of great ideas; often inconsequent; +sometimes coarse; patriotic, vain, self-confident, rash, strong, and +young-mannish. Of course the most of our speeches are vulgar, ranting, +and worthless, but we have produced some magnificent specimens of +oratory, which are fresh, original, American, and brand new. + +The more studied, polished, and elegant literature is not so; that is +mainly an imitation. It seems not a thing of native growth. Sometimes, +as in Channing, the thought and the hope are American, but the form and +the coloring old and foreign. We dare not be original; our American pine +must be cut to the trim pattern of the English yew, though the pine +bleed at every clip. This poet tunes his lyre at the harp of Goethe, +Milton, Pope, or Tennyson. His songs might be better sung on the Rhine +than the Kennebec. They are not American in form or feeling; they have +not the breath of our air; the smell of our ground is not in them. Hence +our poet seems cold and poor. He loves the old mythology; talks about +Pluto--the Greek devil, the fates and furies--witches of old time in +Greece, but would blush to use our mythology, or breathe the name in +verse of our devil, or our own witches, lest he should be thought to +believe what he wrote. The mother and sisters, who with many a pinch and +pain sent the hopeful boy to college, must turn over the classical +dictionary before they can find out what the youth would be at in his +rhymes. Our poet is not deep enough to see that Aphrodite came from the +ordinary waters, that Homer only hitched into rhythm and furnished the +accomplishment of verse to street-talk, nursery tales, and old men's +gossip in the Ionian towns; he thinks what is common is unclean. So he +sings of Corinth and Athens, which he never saw, but has not a word to +say of Boston, and Fall River, and Baltimore, and New York, which are +just as meet for song. He raves of Thermopylæ and Marathon, with never a +word for Lexington and Bunker-hill, for Cowpens, and Lundy's Lane, and +Bemis's Heights. He loves to tell of the Ilyssus, of "smooth-sliding +Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds," yet sings not of the Petapsco, the +Susquehanna, the Aroostook, and the Willimantick. He prates of the +narcissus and the daisy, never of American dandelions and blue-eyed +grass; he dwells on the lark and the nightingale, but has not a thought +for the brown thrasher and the bobolink, who every morning in June rain +down such showers of melody on his affected head. What a lesson Burns +teaches us, addressing his "rough bur-thistle," his daisy, "wee crimson +tippit thing," and finding marvellous poetry in the mouse whose nest his +plough turned over! Nay, how beautifully has even our sweet poet sung of +our own Green river, our waterfowl, of the blue and fringed gentian, the +glory of autumnal days. + +Hitherto, spite of the great reading public, we have no permanent +literature which corresponds to the American idea. Perhaps it is not +time for that; it must be organized in deeds before it becomes classic +in words; but as yet we have no such literature which reflects even the +surface of American life, certainly nothing which portrays our intensity +of life, our hope, or even our daily doings and drivings, as the +Odyssey paints old Greek life, or Don Quixote and Gil Bias portray +Spanish life. Literary men are commonly timid; ours know they are but +poorly fledged as yet, so dare not fly away from the parent tree, but +hop timidly from branch to branch. Our writers love to creep about in +the shadow of some old renown, not venturing to soar away into the +unwinged air, to sing of things here and now, making our life classic. +So, without the grace of high culture, and the energy of American +thought, they become weak, cold, and poor; are "curious, not knowing, +not exact, but nice." Too fastidious to be wise, too unlettered to be +elegant, too critical to create, they prefer a dull saying that is old +to a novel form of speech, or a natural expression of a new truth. In a +single American work,--and a famous one too,--there are over sixty +similes, not one original, and all poor. A few men, conscious of this +defect, this sin against the Holy Spirit of Literature, go to the +opposite extreme, and are American-mad; they wilfully talk rude, write +in-numerous verse, and play their harps all jangling, out of tune. A yet +fewer few are American without madness. One such must not here be passed +by, alike philosopher and bard, in whose writings "ancient wisdom shines +with new-born beauty," and who has enriched a genius thoroughly American +in the best sense, with a cosmopolitan culture and literary skill, which +were wonderful in any land. But of American literature in general, and +of him in special, more shall be said at another time. + + * * * * * + +Another remarkable feature is our excessive love of material things. +This is more than a Utilitarianism, a preference of the useful over the +beautiful. The Puritan at Plymouth had a corn-field, a cabbage-garden, +and a patch for potatoes, a school-house, and a church, before he sat +down to play the fiddle. He would have been a fool to reverse this +process. It were poor economy and worse taste to have painters, +sculptors, and musicians, while the rude wants of the body are uncared +for. But our fault in this respect is, that we place too much the charm +of life in mere material things,--houses, lands, well-spread tables, and +elegant furniture,--not enough in man, in virtue, wisdom, genius, +religion, greatness of soul, and nobleness of life. We mistake a +perfection of the means of manliness for the end--manhood itself. Yet +the housekeeping of a Shakspeare, Milton, Franklin, had only one thing +worth boasting of. Strange to say, that was the master of the house. A +rich and vulgar man once sported a coach and four, and at its first +turn-out rode into the great commercial street of a large town in New +England. "How fine you must feel with your new coach and four," said one +of his old friends, though not quite so rich. "Yes," was the reply, "as +fine as a beetle in a gold snuff-box." All of his kindred are not so +nice and discriminating in their self-consciousness. + +This practical materialism is a great affliction to us. We think a man +cannot be poor and great also. So we see a great man sell himself for a +little money, and it is thought "a good operation." A conspicuous man, +in praise of a certain painter, summed up his judgment with this: "Why, +Sir, he has made twenty thousand dollars by his pictures." "A good deal +more than Michael Angelo, Leonardo, and Raphael together," might have +been the reply. But it is easier to weigh purses than artistic skill. It +was a characteristic praise bestowed in Boston on a distinguished +American writer, that his book brought him more money than any man had +ever realized for an original work in this country. "Commerce," said Mr. +Pitt, "having got into both houses of Parliament, privilege must be done +away,"--the privilege of wit and genius, not less than rank. Clergymen +estimate their own and their brothers' importance, not by their +apostolical gifts, or even apostolic succession, but by the value of the +living. + +All other nations have this same fault, it may be said. But there is +this difference: in other nations the things of a man are put before the +man himself; so a materialism which exalts the accidents of the +man--rank, wealth, birth, and the like--above the man, is not +inconsistent with the general idea of England or Austria. In America it +is a contradiction. Besides, in most civilized countries, there is a +class of men living on inherited wealth, who devote their lives to +politics, art, science, letters, and so are above the mere material +elegance which surrounds them. That class has often inflicted a deep +wound on society, which festers long and leads to serious trouble in the +system, but at the same time it redeems a nation from the reproach of +mere material vulgarity; it has been the source of refinement, and has +warmed into life much of the wisdom and beauty which have thence spread +over all the world. In America there is no such class. Young men +inheriting wealth very rarely turn to any thing noble; they either +convert their talents into gold, or their gold into furniture, wines, +and confectionary. A young man of wealth does not know what to do with +himself or it; a rich young woman seems to have no resource but +marriage! Yet it must be confessed, that at least in one part of the +United States wealth flows freely for the support of public institutions +of education. + +Here it is difficult for a man of science to live by his thought. Was +Bowditch one of the first mathematicians of his age? He must be at the +head of an annuity office. If Socrates should set up as a dealer in +money, and outwit the brokers as formerly the Sophists, and shave notes +as skilfully as of old, we should think him a great man. But if he +adopted his old plan, what should we say of him? + +Manliness is postponed and wealth preferred. "What a fine house is +this," one often says; "what furniture; what feasting. But the master of +the house!--why every stone out of the wall laughs at him. He spent all +of himself in getting this pretty show together, and now it is empty, +and mocks its owner. He is the emblematic coffin at the Egyptian feast." +"Oh, man!" says the looker-on, "why not furnish thyself with a mind, and +conscience, a heart and a soul, before getting all this brass and +mahogany together; this beef and these wines?" The poor wight would +answer,--"Why, Sir, there were none such in the market!"--The young man +does not say, "I will first of all things be a man, and so being will +have this thing and the other," putting the agreeable after the +essential. But he says, "First of all, by hook or by crook, I will have +money, the manhood may take care of itself." He has it,--for tough and +hard as the old world is, it is somewhat fluid before a strong man who +resolutely grapples with difficulty and will swim through, it can be +made to serve his turn. He has money, but the man has evaporated in the +process; when you look he is not there. True, other nations have done +the same thing, and we only repeat their experiment. The old devil of +conformity says to our American Adam and Eve, "Do this and you shall be +as gods," a promise as likely to hold good as the devil's did in the +beginning. A man was meant for something more than a tassel to a large +estate, and a woman to be more than a rich housekeeper. + +With this offensive materialism we copy the vices of feudal aristocracy +abroad, making our vulgarity still more ridiculous. We are ambitious or +proud of wealth, which is but labor stored up, and at the same time are +ashamed of labor which is wealth in process. With all our talk about +democracy, labor is thought less honorable in Boston than in Berlin and +Leipsic. Thriving men are afraid their children will be shoemakers, or +ply some such honorable and useful craft. Yet little pains are taken to +elevate the condition or improve the manners and morals of those who do +all the manual work of society. The strong man takes care that his +children and himself escape that condition. We do not believe that all +stations are alike honorable if honorably filled; we have little desire +to equalize the burdens of life, so that there shall be no degraded +class; none cursed with work, none with idleness. It is popular to endow +a college; vulgar to take an interest in common schools. Liberty is a +fact, equality a word, and fraternity, we do not think of yet. + +In this struggle for material wealth and the social rank which is based +thereon, it is amusing to see the shifting of the scenes; the social +aspirations of one and the contempt with which another rebuts the +aspirant. An old man can remember when the most exclusive of men, and +the most golden, had scarce a penny in their purse, and grumbled at not +finding a place where they would. Now the successful man is ashamed of +the steps he rose by. The gentleman who came to Boston half a century +ago, with all his worldly goods tied up in a cotton handkerchief, and +that not of so large a pattern as are made now-a-days, is ashamed to +recollect that his father was a currier, or a blacksmith, or a skipper +at Barnstable or Beverly; ashamed, also, of his forty or fifty country +cousins, remarkable for nothing but their large hands and their +excellent memory. Nay, he is ashamed of his own humble beginnings, and +sneers at men starting as he once started. The generation of English +"Snobs" came in with the Conqueror, and migrated to America at an early +day, where they continue to thrive marvellously--the chief "conservative +party" in the land. + +Through this contempt for labor, a certain affectation runs through a +good deal of American society, and makes our aristocracy vulgar and +contemptible. What if Burns had been ashamed of his plough, and Franklin +had lost his recollection of the candle-moulds and the composing stick? +Mr. Chubbs, who got rich to-day, imitates Mr. Swipes, who got rich +yesterday, buys the same furniture, gives similar entertainments, and +counts himself "as good a man as Swipes, any day." Nay, he goes a little +beyond him, puts his servants in livery, with the "Chubbs arms" on the +button; but the new-found family arms are not descriptive of the +character of the Chubbses, or of their origin and history--only of their +vanity. Then Mr. Swipes looks down on poor Chubbs, and curls his lip +with scorn; calls him a "parvenu," "an upstart," "a plebeian;" speaks of +him as one of "that sort of people," "one of your ordinary men;" +"thrifty and well off in the world, but a little vulgar." At the same +time Mr. Swipes looks up to Mr. Bung, who got rich the day before +yesterday, as a gentleman of old family and quite distinguished, and +receives from that quarter the same treatment he bestows on his +left-hand neighbor. The real gentleman is the same all the world over. +Such are by no means lacking here, while the pretended gentlemen swarm +in America. Chaucer said a good word long ago: + + "--This is not mine intendément + To clepen no wight in no age + Only gentle for his lineáge; + But whoso that is virtuous, + And in his port not outragéous: + When such one thou see'st thee beforn, + Though he be not gentle born, + Thou mayest well see this in soth, + That he is gentle, because he doth + As 'longeth to a gentleman; + Of them none other deem I can; + For certainly withouten drede, + A churl is deeméd by his deed, + Of high or low, as ye may see, + Or of what kindred that he be." + +It is no wonder vulgar men, who travel here and eat our dinners, laugh +at this form of vulgarity. Wiser men see its cause, and prophesy its +speedy decay. Every nation has its aristocracy, or controlling class: in +some lands it is permanent, an aristocracy of blood; men that are +descended from distinguished warriors, from the pirates and freebooters +of a rude age. The nobility of England are proud of their fathers' +deeds, and emblazon the symbols thereof in their family arms, emblems of +barbarism. Ours is an aristocracy of wealth, not got by plunder, but by +toil, thrift, enterprise; of course it is a movable aristocracy: the +first families of the last century are now forgot, and their successors +will give place to new names. Now earning is nobler than robbing, and +work is before war; but we are ashamed of both, and seek to conceal the +noble source of our wealth. An aristocracy of gold is far preferable to +the old and immovable nobility of blood, but it has also its peculiar +vices: it has the effrontery of an upstart, despises its own ladder, is +heartless and lacks noble principle, vulgar and cursing. This lust of +wealth, however, does us a service, and gives the whole nation a +stimulus which it needs, and, low as the motive is, drives us to +continual advancement. It is a great merit for a nation to secure the +largest amount of useful and comfortable and beautiful things which can +be honestly earned, and used with profit to the body and soul of man. +Only when wealth becomes an idol, and material abundance is made the +end, not the means, does the love of it become an evil. No nation was +ever too rich, or overthrifty, though many a nation has lost its soul by +living wholly for the senses. + +Now and then we see noble men living apart from this vulgarity and +scramble; some rich, some poor, but both content to live for noble aims, +to pinch and spare for virtue, religion, for truth and right. Such men +never fail from any age or land, but everywhere they are the exceptional +men. Still they serve to keep alive the sacred fire in the hearts of +young men, rising amid the common mob as oaks surpass the brambles or +the fern. + + * * * * * + +In these secondary qualities of the people which mark the special signs +of the times, there are many contradictions, quality contending with +quality; all by no means balanced into harmonious relations. Here are +great faults not less than great virtues. Can the national faults be +corrected? Most certainly; they are but accidental, coming from our +circumstances, our history, our position as a people--heterogeneous, +new, and placed on a new and untamed continent. They come not from the +nation's soul; they do not belong to our fundamental idea, but are +hostile to it. One day our impatience of authority, our philosophical +tendency, will lead us to a right method, that to fixed principles, and +then we shall have a continuity of national action. Considering the +pains taken by the fathers of the better portion of America to promote +religion here, remembering how dear is Christianity to the heart of all, +conservative and radical--though men often name as Christian what is +not--and seeing how truth and right are sure to win at last,--it becomes +pretty plain that we shall arrive at true principles, laws of the +universe, ideas of God; then we shall be in unison also with it and Him. +When that great defect--lack of first principles--is corrected, our +intensity of life, with the hope and confidence it inspires, will do a +great work for us. We have already secured an abundance of material +comforts hitherto unknown; no land was ever so full of corn and cattle, +clothing, comfortable houses, and all things needed for the flesh. The +desire of those things, even the excessive desire thereof, performs an +important part in the divine economy of the human race; nowhere is its +good effect more conspicuous than in America, where in two generations +the wild Irishman becomes a decent citizen, orderly, temperate, and +intelligent. This done or even a-doing, as it is now, we shall go forth +to realize our great national idea, and accomplish the great work of +organizing into institutions the unalienable rights of man. The great +obstacle in the way of that is African slavery--the great exception in +the nation's history; the national sin. When that is removed, as soon it +must be, lesser but kindred evils will easily be done away; the truth +which the land-reformers, which the associationists, the free-traders, +and others, have seen, dimly or clearly, can readily be carried out. But +while this monster vice continues, there is little hope of any great and +permanent national reform. The positive things which we chiefly need for +this work, are first, education, next, education, and then education, a +vigorous development of the mind, conscience, affections, religious +power of the whole nation. The method and the means for that I shall not +now discuss. + +The organization of human rights, the performance of human duties, is an +unlimited work. If there shall ever be a time when it is all done, then +the race will have finished its course. Shall the American nation go on +in this work, or pause, turn off, fall, and perish? To me it seems +almost treason to doubt that a glorious future awaits us. Young as we +are, and wicked, we have yet done something which the world will not let +perish. One day we shall attend more emphatically to the rights of the +hand, and organize labor and skill; then to the rights of the head, +looking after education, science, literature, and art; and again to the +rights of the heart, building up the State with its laws, society with +its families, the church with its goodness and piety. One day we shall +see that it is a shame, and a loss, and a wrong, to have a criminal, or +an ignorant man, or a pauper, or an idler, in the land; that the jail, +and the gallows, and the almshouse are a reproach which need not be. Out +of new sentiments and ideas, not seen as yet, new forms of society will +come, free from the antagonism of races, classes, men--representing the +American idea in its length, breadth, depth, and height, its beauty and +its truth, and then the old civilization of our time shall seem +barbarous and even savage. There will be an American art commensurate +with our idea and akin to this great continent; not an imitation, but a +fresh, new growth. An American literature also must come with democratic +freedom, democratic thought, democratic power--for we are not always to +be pensioners of other lands, doing nothing but import and quote; a +literature with all of German philosophic depth, with English solid +sense, with French vivacity and wit, Italian fire of sentiment and soul, +with all of Grecian elegance of form, and more than Hebrew piety and +faith in God. We must not look for the maiden's ringlets on the baby's +brow; we are yet but a girl; the nameless grace of maturity, and +womanhood's majestic charm, are still to come. At length we must have a +system of education, which shall uplift the humblest, rudest, worst born +child in all the land; which shall bring forth and bring up noble men. + +An American State is a thing that must also be; a State of free men who +give over brawling, resting on industry, justice, love, not on war, +cunning, and violence,--a State where liberty, equality, and fraternity +are deeds as well as words. In its time the American Church must also +appear, with liberty, holiness, and love for its watchwords, cultivating +reason, conscience, affection, faith, and leading the world's way in +justice, peace, and love. The Roman Church has been all men know what +and how; the American Church, with freedom for the mind, freedom for the +heart, freedom for the soul, is yet to be, sundering no chord of the +human harp, but tuning all to harmony. This also must come; but hitherto +no one has risen with genius fit to plan its holy walls, conceive its +columns, project its towers, or lay its corner-stone. Is it too much to +hope all this? Look at the arena before us--look at our past history. +Hark! there is the sound of many million men, the trampling of their +freeborn feet, the murmuring of their voice; a nation born of this land +that God reserved so long a virgin earth, in a high day married to the +human race,--rising, and swelling, and rolling on, strong and certain as +the Atlantic tide; they come numerous as ocean waves when east winds +blow, their destination commensurate with the continent, with ideas vast +as the Mississippi, strong as the Alleghanies, and awful as Niagara; +they come murmuring little of the past, but, moving in the brightness of +their great idea, and casting its light far on to other lands and +distant days--come to the world's great work, to organize the rights of +man. + + + + +VI. + +A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. DELIVERED AT +THE MELODEON, IN BOSTON, MARCH 5, 1848. + + +Within a few days one of the most distinguished statesmen of the age has +passed away; a man who has long been before the public, familiarly known +in the new world and the old. He was one of the prominent monuments of +the age. It becomes us to look at his life, works, and public character, +with an impartial eye; to try him by the Christian standard. Let me +extenuate nothing, add nothing, and set down nought from any partial +love or partial hate. His individuality has been so marked in a long +life, his good and evil so sharply defined, that one can scarcely fail +to delineate its most important features. + +God has made some men great and others little. The use of great men is +to serve the little men; to take care of the human race, and act as +practical interpreters of justice and truth. This is not the Hebrew +rule, nor the heathen, nor the common rule, only the Christian. The +great man is to be the servant of mankind, not they of him. Perhaps +greatness is always the same thing in kind, differing only in mode and +in form, as well as degree. The great man has more of human nature than +other men, organized in him. So far as that goes, therefore, he is more +me than I am myself. We feel that superiority in all our intercourse +with great men, whether kings, philosophers, poets, or saints. In kind +we are the same; different in degree. + +In nature we find individuals, not orders and genera; but for our own +convenience in understanding and recollecting, we do a little violence +to nature, and put the individuals into classes. In this way we +understand better both the whole and each of its parts. Human nature +furnishes us with individual great men; for convenience we put them into +several classes, corresponding to their several modes or forms of +greatness. It is well to look at these classes before we examine any one +great man; this will render it easier to see where he belongs and what +he is worth. Actual service is the test of actual greatness; he who +renders, of himself, the greatest actual service to mankind, is actually +the greatest man. There may be other tests for determining the potential +greatness of men, or the essential; this is the Christian rule for +determining the actual greatness. Let us arrange these men in the +natural order of their work. + +First of all, there are great men who discover general truths, great +ideas, universal laws, or invent methods of thought and action. In this +class the vastness of a man's genius may be measured, and his relative +rank ascertained by the transcendency of his ideas, by the newness of +his truth, by its practical value, and the difficulty of attaining it in +his time, and under his peculiar circumstances. In literature it is such +men who originate thoughts, and put them into original forms; they are +the great men of letters. In philosophy we meet with such; and they are +the great men of science. Thus Socrates discovered the philosophical +method of minute analysis that distinguished his school, and led to the +rapid advance of knowledge in the various and even conflicting +academies, which held this method in common, but applied it in various +ways, well or ill, and to various departments of human inquiry; thus +Newton discovered the law of gravitation, universal in nature, and by +the discovery did immense service to mankind. In politics we find +similar, or analogous men, who discover yet other laws of God, which +bear the same relation to men in society that gravitation bears to the +orbs in heaven, or to the dust and stones in the street; men that +discover the first truths of politics, and teach the true method of +human society. Such are the great men in politics. + +We find corresponding men in religion; men who discover an idea so +central that all sectarianism of parties or of nations seems little in +its light; who discover and teach the universal law which unifies the +race, binding man to man, and men to God; who discover the true method +of religion conducting to natural worship without limitation, to free +piety, free goodness, free thought. To my mind such are the greatest of +great men, when measured by the transcendency of their doctrine and the +service they render to all. By the influence of their idea, letters, +philosophy, and politics become nobler and more beautiful, both in their +forms and their substance. + +Such is the class of discoverers; men who get truth at first hand, truth +pertaining either especially to literature, philosophy, politics, +religion, or at the same time to each and all of them. + + * * * * * + +The next class consists of such as organize these ideas, methods, +truths, and laws; they concretize the abstract, particularize the +general; they apply philosophy to practical purposes, organizing the +discoveries of science into a railroad, a mill, a steam-ship, and by +their work an idea becomes fact. They organize love into families, +justice into a state, piety into a church. Wealth is power, knowledge is +power, religion power; they organize all these powers, wealth, +knowledge, religion, into common life, making divinity humanity, and +that society. + +This organizing genius is a very great one, and appears in various +forms. One man spreads his thought out on the soil, whitening the land +with bread-corn; another applies his mind to the rivers of New England, +making them spin and weave for the human race; this man will organize +his thought into a machine with one idea, joining together fire and +water, iron and wood, animating them into a new creature, ready to do +man's bidding; while that with audacious hand steals the lightning of +heaven, organizes his plastic thought within that pliant fire, and sends +it of his errands to fetch and carry tidings between the ends of the +earth. + +Another form of this mode of greatness is seen in politics, in +organizing men. The man spreads his thought out on mankind, puts men +into true relations with one another and with God; he organizes +strength, wisdom, justice, love, piety; balances the conflicting forces +of a nation, so that each man has his natural liberty as complete as if +the only man, yet, living in society, gathers advantages from all the +rest. The highest degree of this organizing power is the genius for +legislation, which can enact justice and eternal right into treaties and +statutes, codifying the divine thought into human laws, making absolute +religion common life and daily custom, and balancing the centripetal +power of the mass, with the centrifugal power of the individual, into a +well-proportioned state, as God has balanced these two conflicting +forces into the rhythmic ellipses above our heads. It need not be +disguised, that politics are the highest business for men of this class, +nor that a great statesman or legislator is the greatest example of +constructive skill. It requires some ability to manage the brute forces +of Nature, or to combine profitably nine-and-thirty clerks in a shop; +how much more to arrange twenty millions of intelligent, free men, not +for a special purpose, but for all the ends of universal life! + +Such is the second class of great men; the organizers, men of +constructive heads, who form the institutions of the world, the little +and the great. + + * * * * * + +The next class consists of men who administer the institutions after +they are founded. To do this effectually and even eminently, it requires +no genius for original organization of truths freshly discovered, none +for the discovery of truths, outright. It requires only a perception of +those truths, and an acquaintance with the institutions wherein they +have become incarnate; a knowledge of details, of formulas, and +practical methods, united with a strong will and a practised +understanding,--what is called a turn for affairs, tact, or address; a +knowledge of routine and an acquaintance with men. The success of such +men will depend on these qualities; they "know the ropes" and the +soundings, the signs of the times; can take advantage of the winds and +the tides. + +In a shop, farm, ship, factory, or army, in a church or a State, such +men are valuable; they cannot be dispensed with; they are wheels to the +carriage; without them cannot a city be inhabited. They are always more +numerous than both the other classes; more such are needed, and +therefore born. The American mind, just now, runs eminently in this +direction. These are not men of theories, or of new modes of thought or +action, but what are called practical men, men of a few good rules, men +of facts and figures, not so full of ideas as of precedents. They are +called common-sense men; not having too much common-sense to be +understood. They are not likely to be fallen in with far off at sea; +quite as seldom out of their reckoning in ordinary weather. Such men are +excellent statesmen in common times, but in times of trouble, when old +precedents will not suit the new case, and men must be guided by the +nature of man, not his history, they are not strong enough for the +place, and get pushed off by more constructive heads. + +These men are the administrators, or managers. If they have a little +less of practical sense, such men fall a little below, and turn out only +critics, of whom I will not now stop to discourse. + +To have a railroad, there must have been first the discoverers, who +found out the properties of wood and iron, fire and water, and their +latent power to carry men over the earth; next, the organizers, who put +these elements together, surveyed the route, planned the structure, set +men to grade the hill, to fill the valley, and pave the road with iron +bars; and then the administrators, who, after all that is done, procure +the engines, engineers, conductors, ticket-distributors, and the rest of +the "hands;" they buy the coal and see it is not wasted, fix the rates +of fare, calculate the savings, and distribute the dividends. The +discoverers and organizers often fare hard in the world, lean men, ill +clad and suspected, often laughed at, while the administrator is thought +the greater man, because he rides over their graves and pays the +dividends, where the organizer only called for the assessments, and the +discoverer told what men called a dream. What happens in a railroad +happens also in a Church, or a State. + +Let us for a moment compare these three classes of great men. Measured +by the test referred to, the discoverers are the greatest of all. They +anticipate the human race, with long steps, striding before their kind. +They learn not only from the history of man, but man's nature; not by +empirical experience alone, but by a transcendent intuition of truth, +now seen as a law, now as an idea. They are wiser than experience, and +by divination through their nobler nature know at once what the human +race has not learned in its thousands of years, kindling their lamp at +the central fire now streaming from the sky, now rushing broad-sheeted +and terrible as ground-lightning from the earth. Of such men there are +but few, especially in the highest mode of this greatness. A single One +makes a new world, and men date ages after him. + +Next in order of greatness comes the organizer. He, also, must have +great intellect, and character. It is no light work to make thoughts +things. It requires mind to make a mill out of a river, bricks, iron, +and stone, and set all the Connecticut to spinning cotton. But to +construct a State, to harness fittingly twenty million men, animated by +such divergent motives, possessing interests so unlike--this is the +greatest work of constructive skill. To translate the ideas of the +discoverer into institutions, to yoke men together by mere +"abstractions," universal laws, and by such yoking save the liberty of +all and secure the welfare of each--that is the most creative of poetry, +the most constructive of sciences. In modern times, it is said, Napoleon +is the greatest example of this faculty; not a discoverer, but an +organizer of the highest power and on the largest scale. In human +history he seems to have had no superior, perhaps no equal. + +Some callings in life afford little opportunity to develop the great +qualities above alluded to. How much genius lies latent no man can know; +but he that walks familiarly with humble men often stumbles over masses +of unsunned gold, where men proud in emptiness, looked only for common +dust. How many a Milton sits mute and inglorious in his shop; how many a +Cromwell rears only corn and oxen for the world's use, no man can know. +Some callings help to light, some hide and hinder. But there is none +which demands more ability than politics; they develop greatness, if the +man have the germ thereof within him. True, in politics, a man may get +along with a very little ability, without being a discoverer or an +organizer; were it otherwise we should not be blessed with a very large +House, or a crowded Senate. Nay, experience shows that in ordinary times +one not even a great administrator may creep up to a high place and hang +on there awhile. Few able administrators sit on the thrones of Europe at +this day. But if power be in the man, the hand of politics will draw out +the spark. + +In America, politics more than elsewhere demand greatness, for ours is, +in theory, the government of all, for all, and by all. It requires +greater range of thought to discover the law for all than for a few; +after the discovery thereof it is more difficult to construct a +democracy than a monarchy, or an aristocracy, and after that is +organized, it is more difficult to administer. It requires more manhood +to wield at will "the fierce democratie" of America than to rule England +or France; yet the American institutions are germane to human nature, +and by that fact are rendered more easy, complicated as they are. + +In politics, when the institutions are established, men often think +there is no room for discoverers and organizers; that administrators +alone are needed, and choose accordingly. But there are ideas well +known, not yet organized into institutions: that of free trade, of +peace, of universal freedom, universal education, universal comfort, in +a word, the idea of human brotherhood. These wait to be constructed into +a State without injustice, without war, without slavery, ignorance, or +want. It is hardly true that Infinity is dry of truths, unseen as yet; +there are truths enough waiting to be discovered; all the space betwixt +us and God is full of ideas, waiting for some Columbus to disclose new +worlds. Men are always saying there is no new thing under the sun, but +when the discoverer comes, they see their mistake. We want the new eye. + + * * * * * + +Now, it is quite plain where we are to place the distinguished person of +whom I speak. Mr. Adams was not a discoverer; not an organizer. He added +no truth to mankind, not known before, and even well known; he made no +known truth a fact. He was an administrator of political institutions. +Taking the whole land into consideration, comparing him with his +competitors, measuring him by his apparent works, at first sight he does +not seem very highly eminent in this class of political administrators. +Nay, some would set him down, not an administrator so much as a +political critic. + +Here there is danger of doing him injustice, by neglecting a fact so +obvious, that it is seldom seen. Mr. Adams was a northern man, with +northern habits, methods, and opinions. By the North, I mean the free +States. The chief business of the North is to get empire over nature; +all tends to that. Young men of talents become merchants, +merchant-manufacturers, merchant-traders. The object directly aimed at, +is wealth; not wealth by plunder, but by productive work. Now, to get +dominion over nature, there must be education, universal education, +otherwise there is not enough intelligent industry, which alone insures +that dominion. With widespread intelligence, property will be widely +distributed, and, of course, suffrage and civil power will get +distributed. All is incomplete without religion. I deny not that these +peculiarities of the North, come, also, from other sources, but they all +are necessary to attain the chief object thereof--dominion over the +material world. The North subdues nature by thought, and holds her +powers in thrall. As results of this, see the increase in wealth which +is signified by northern railroads, ships, mills, and shops; in the +colleges, schools, churches, which arise; see the skill developed in +this struggle with nature, the great enterprises which come of that, +the movements of commerce, manufactures, the efforts--and successful, +too--for the promotion of education, of religion. All is democratic, and +becomes more so continually, each descendant founding institutions more +liberal than those of the parent State. Men designedly, and, as their +business, become merchants, mechanics, and the like; they are +politicians by exception, by accident, from the necessity of the case. +Few northern men are politicians by profession; they commonly think it +better to be a collector or a postmaster, than a Senator, estimating +place by money, not power. Northern politicians are bred as lawyers, +clergymen, mechanics, farmers, merchants. Political life is an accident, +not an end. + +In the South, the aim is to get dominion over men; so, the whole working +population must be in subjection, in slavery. While the North makes +brute nature half intelligent, the South makes human nature half brutal, +the man becoming a thing. Talent tends to politics, not trade. Young men +of ability go to the army or navy, to the public offices, to diplomatic +posts, in a word, to politics. They learn to manage men. To do this, +they not only learn what men think, but why they think it. The young man +of the North seeks a fortune; of the South, a reputation and political +power. The politician of the South makes politics the study and work of +his whole life; all else is accidental and subordinate. He begins low, +but ends high; he mingles with men; has bland and agreeable manners; is +frank, honorable, manly, and knows how to persuade. + +See the different results of causes so unlike. The North manages the +commercial affairs of the land, the ships, mills, farms, and shops; the +spiritual affairs, literature, science, morals, education, +religion;--writes, calculates, instructs, and preaches. But the South +manages the political affairs, and has free-trade or tariff, war or +peace, just as she will. Of the eight Presidents who were elected in +fifty years, only three were northern men. Each of them has retired from +office, at the end of a single term, in possession of a fortune, but +with little political influence. Each of the five southern Presidents +has been twice elected; only one of them was rich. There is no accident +in all this. The State of Rhode Island has men that can administer the +Connecticut or the Mississippi; that can organize Niagara into a cotton +factory; yes, that can get dominion over the ocean and the land: but the +State of South Carolina has men that can manage the Congress, can rule +the North and South, and make the nation do their bidding. + +So the South succeeds in politics, but grows poor, and the North fails +in politics, but thrives in commerce and the arts. There great men turn +to politics, here to trade. It is so in time of peace, but, in the day +of trouble, of storms, of revolution like the old one, men of tall +heads will come up from the ships and the shops, the farms and the +colleges of the North, born discoverers and organizers, the aristocracy +of God, and sit down in the nation's councils to control the State. The +North made the revolution, furnished the men, the money, the ideas, and +the occasion for putting them into form. At the making of the +Constitution, the South out-talked the North; put in such claims as it +saw fitting, making the best bargain it could, violating the ideas of +the Revolution, and getting the North, not only to consent to slavery, +but to allow it to be represented in Congress itself. Now, the South +breaks the Constitution just when it will, puts northern sailors in its +jails, and the North dares not complain, but bears it "with a patient +shrug." An eastern merchant is great on a southern exchange, makes +cotton rise or fall, but no northern politician has much weight at the +South, none has ever been twice elected President. The North thinks it +is a great thing to get an inoffensive northern man as Speaker, in the +House of Representatives. The South is an aristocracy, which the +democracy of the North would not tolerate a year, were it at the North +itself. Now it rules the land, has the northern masses, democrats and +whigs, completely under its thumb. Does the South say, "Go," they +hasten; "Come," they say "Here we are;" "Do this," they obey in a +moment; "Whist," there is not a mouse stirring in all the North. Does +the South say "Annex," it is done; "Fight," men of the North put on the +collar, lie lies, issue their proclamations, enroll their soldiers, and +declare it is moral treason for the most insignificant clergyman to +preach against the war. + +All this needs to be remembered in judging of Mr. Adams. True he was +regularly bred to politics, and "to the manor born;" but he was a New +England man, with northern notions, northern habits, and though more +than fifty years in public life, yet he seems to have sought the object +of New England far more than the object of the South. Measure his +greatness by his service; but that is not to be measured by immediate +and apparent success. + + * * * * * + +In a notice so brief as this, I can say but little of the details of Mr. +Adams's life, and purposely pass over many things, dwelling mainly on +such as are significant of his character. He was born at Quincy, the +11th of July, 1767; in 1777 he went to Europe with his father, then +Minister to France. He remained in Europe most of the time, his powers +developing with rapidity and promise of future greatness, till 1785, +when he returned and entered the junior class in Harvard College. In +1787, he graduated with distinguished honors. He studied law at +Newburyport, with Judge Parsons, till 1790, and was a lawyer in Boston, +till 1794. + +That may be called the period of his education He enjoyed the +advantages of a residence abroad, which enabled him to acquire a +knowledge of foreign languages, modes of life, and habits of thought. +His father's position brought the son in contact with the ablest men of +the age. He was Secretary of the American minister to Russia at the age +of fourteen. He early became acquainted with Franklin and Jefferson, men +who had a powerful influence on his youthful mind. For three years he +was a student with Judge Parsons, a very remarkable man. These years, +from 1767 to 1794, form a period marked by intense mental activity in +America and in Europe. The greatest subjects which claim human +attention, the laws that lie at the foundation of society, the State, +the church, and the family, were discussed as never before. Mr. Adams +drew in liberty and religion from his mother's breast. His cradle rocked +with the Revolution. When eight years old, from a hill-top hard by his +house he saw the smoke of Charlestown, burning at the command of the +oppressor. The lullaby of his childhood was the roar of cannon at +Lexington and Bunker Hill. He was born in the gathering of the storm, of +a family that felt the blast, but never bent thereto; he grew up in its +tumult. Circumstances like these make their mark on the character. + +His attention was early turned to the most important matters. In 1793, +he wrote several papers in the "Centinel," at Boston, on neutral rights, +advising the American government to remain neutral in the quarrel +between France, our ally, and others; the papers attracted the attention +of Washington, who appointed the author Minister to Holland. He remained +abroad in various diplomatic services in that country, in Russia and +England, till 1801, when he was recalled by his father, and returned +home. It was an important circumstance, that he was abroad during that +time when the nation divided into two great parties. He was not called +on to take sides with either; he had a vantage ground whence he could +overlook both, approve their good and shun their evil. The effect of +this is abundantly evident in all his life. He was not dyed in the wool +by either political party,--the moral sense of the man drowned in the +process of becoming a federalist or a democrat. + +In 1802, he was elected to the Senate of Massachusetts, yet not wholly +by the votes of one party. In 1803, he was chosen to the Senate of the +United States. In the Massachusetts Legislature he was not a strict +party man; he was not elected to the Senate by a strictly party vote. In +1806, he was inaugurated as Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard +University, and continued in that office about three years. In 1808, he +resigned his place in the Senate. In 1809, he was sent by Mr. Madison as +Minister to Russia, and remained abroad in various ministries and +commissions, till 1817, when he returned, and became Secretary of State +under Mr. Monroe. This office he filled till he became President, in +1825. In 1829, failing of reëlection, he retired to private life. In +1831, he was elected as one of the Representatives to Congress from +Massachusetts, and continued there till his death, the first President +that ever sat in an American Congress. + +It will be fifty-four years the thirtieth of next May, since he began +his public career. What did he aim at in that long period? At first +sight, it is easy to see the aim of some of the conspicuous men of +America. It has obviously been the aim of Mr. Clay to build up the +"American System," by the establishment of protective duties; that of +Mr. Calhoun to establish free trade, leaving a man to buy where he can +buy cheapest, and sell where he can sell dearest. In respect to these +matters the two are exactly opposite to one another--antithetic as the +poles. But each has also, and obviously, another aim,--to build up the +institution of slavery in the South. In this they agree, and if I +understand them aright, this is the most important political design of +each; for which Mr. Calhoun would forego even free trade, and Mr. Clay +would "compromise" even a tariff. Looked at in reference to their aims, +there is a certain continuity of action in both these gentlemen. I speak +not now of another object which both have equally and obviously aimed +at; not of the personal, but the political object. + +At first sight, it does not appear that Mr. Adams had any definite +scheme of measures which he aimed to establish; there is no obvious +unity of idea, or continuity of action, that forces itself upon the +spectator. He does not seem to have studied the two great subjects of +our political economy, finance and trade, very deeply, or even with any +considerable width of observation or inquiry; he had no financial or +commercial hobby. He has worked with every party, and against every +party; all have claimed, none held him. Now he sides with the +federalists, then with the democrats; now he opposes France, showing +that her policy is that of pirates; now he contends against England; now +he works in favor of General Jackson, who put down the nullification of +South Carolina with a rough hand; then he opposes the general in his +action against the Bank; now he contends for the Indians, then for the +Negroes; now attacks Masonry, and then Free trade. He speaks in favor of +claiming and holding "the whole of Oregon;" then against annexing Texas. + +But there is one sentiment which runs through all his life: an intense +love of freedom for all men; one idea, the idea that each man has +unalienable rights. These are what may be called the American sentiment, +and the American idea; for they lie at the basis of American +institutions, except the "patriarchal," and shine out in all our +history--I should say, our early history. These two form the golden +thread on which Mr. Adams's jewels are strung. Love of human freedom in +its widest sense is the most marked and prominent thing in his +character. This explains most of his actions. Studied with this in mind, +his life is pretty consistent. This explains his love of the +Constitution. He early saw the peculiarity of the American government; +that it rested in theory on the natural rights of man, not on a compact, +not on tradition, but on somewhat anterior to both, on the unalienable +rights universal in man, and equal in each. He looked on the American +Constitution as an attempt to organize these rights; resting, therefore, +not on force, but natural law; not on power, but right. But with him the +Constitution was not an idol; it was a means, not an end. He did more +than expound it; he went back of the Constitution, to the Declaration of +Independence, for the ideas of the Constitution; yes, back of the +Declaration to Human Nature and the Laws of God, to legitimate these +ideas. The Constitution is a compromise between those ideas and +institutions and prejudices existing when it was made; not an idol, but +a servant. He saw that the Constitution is "not the work of eternal +justice, ruling through the people," but the work "of man; frail, +fallen, imperfect man, following the dictates of his nature, and +aspiring to be perfect."[12] Though a "constitutionalist," he did not +worship the Constitution. He was much more than a "defender of the +Constitution,"--a defender of Human Rights. + +Mr. Adams had this American sentiment and idea in an heroic degree. +Perhaps no political man now living has expressed them so fully. With a +man like him, not very genial or creative, having no great constructive +skill, and not without a certain pugnacity in his character, this +sentiment and idea would naturally develop themselves in a negative +form, that of opposition to Wrong, more often than in the positive form +of direct organization of the Right; would lead to criticism oftener +than to creation. Especially would this be the case if other men were +building up institutions in opposition to this idea. In him they +actually take the form of what he called "The unalienable right of +resistance to oppression." His life furnishes abundant instances of +this. He thought the Indians were unjustly treated, cried out against +the wrong; when President, endeavored to secure justice to the Creeks in +Georgia, and got into collision with Governor Troup. He saw, or thought +he saw, that England opposed the American idea, both in the new world +and the old. In his zeal for freedom he sometimes forgot the great +services of England in that same cause, and hated England, hated her +with great intensity of hatred, hated her political policy, her +monarchy, and her aristocracy, mocked at the madness of her king, for he +thought England stood in the way of freedom.[13] Yet he loved the +English name and the English blood, was "proud of being himself +descended from that stock," thinking it worth noting, "that Chatham's +language was his mother tongue, and Wolfe's great name compatriot with +his own." He confessed no nation had done more for the cause of human +improvement. He loved the Common Law of England, putting it far above +the Roman Law, perhaps not without doing a little injustice to the +latter.[14] The common law was a rude and barbarous code. But human +liberty was there; a trial by jury was there; the habeas corpus was +there. It was the law of men "regardful of human rights." + +This sentiment led him to defend the right of petition in the House of +Representatives, as no other man had dared to do. He cared not whether +it was the petition of a majority, or a minority; of men or women, free +men or slaves. It might be a petition to remove him from a committee, to +expel him from the House, a petition to dissolve the Union--he +presented it none the less. To him there was but one nature in all, man +or woman, bond or free, and that was human nature, the most sacred thing +on earth. Each human child had unalienable rights, and though that child +was a beggar or slave, had rights, which all the power in the world, +bent into a single arm, could not destroy nor abate, though it might +ravish away. This induced him to attempt to procure the right of +suffrage for the colored citizens of the District of Columbia. + +This sentiment led him to oppose tyranny in the House of +Representatives, the tyranny of the majority. In one of his juvenile +essays, published in 1791, contending against a highly popular work, he +opposed the theory that a State has the right to do what it pleases, +declaring it had no right to do wrong.[15] In his old age he had not +again to encounter the empty hypothesis of Thomas Paine, but the +substantial enactment of the "Representatives" of the people of the +United States. The hypothesis was trying to become a fact. The South had +passed the infamous Gag-Law, which a symbolical man from New Hampshire +had presented, though it originated with others.[16] By that law the +mouth of the North was completely stopped in Congress, so that not one +word could be said about the matter of slavery. + +The North was quite willing to have it stopped, for it did not care to +speak against slavery, and the gag did not stop the mouth of the +Northern purse. You may take away from the North its honor, if you can +find it; may take away its rights; may imprison its free citizens in the +jails of Louisiana and the Carolinas; yes, may invade the "Sacred soil +of the North," and kidnap a man out of Boston itself, within sight of +Faneuil Hall, and the North will not complain; will bear it with that +patient shrug, waiting for yet further indignities. Only when the +Northern purse is touched, is there an uproar. If the postmaster demands +silver for letters, there is instant alarm; the repeal of a tariff +rouses the feelings, and an embargo once drove the indignant North to +the perilous edge of rebellion! Mr. Adams loved his dollars as well as +most New England men; he looked out for their income as well; guarded as +carefully against their outgo; though conscientiously upright in all his +dealings, kind and hospitable, he has never been proved generous, and +generosity is the commonest virtue of the North; is said to have been +"close," if not mean. He loved his dollars as well as most men, but he +loved justice more; honor more; freedom more; the Unalienable Rights of +man far more. + +He looked on the Constitution as an instrument for the defence of the +Rights of man. The government was to act as the people had told how. +The Federal government was not sovereign; the State government was not +sovereign;[17] neither was a court of ultimate appeal;--but the People +was sovereign; had the right of Eminent Domain over Congress and the +Constitution, and making that, had set limits to the government. He +guarded therefore against all violation of the Constitution, as a wrong +done to the people; he would not overstep its limits in a bad cause; not +even in a good one. Did Mr. Jefferson obtain Louisiana by a confessed +violation of the Constitution, Mr. Adams would oppose the purchase of +Louisiana, and was one of the six senators who voted against it. Making +laws for that Territory, he wished to extend the trial by jury to all +criminal prosecutions, while the law limited that form of trial to +capital offences. Before that Territory had a representative in +Congress, the American government wished to collect a revenue there. Mr. +Adams opposed that too. It was "assuming a dangerous power;" it was +government without the consent of the governed, and therefore an unjust +government. "All exercise of human authority must be under the +limitation of right and wrong." All other power is despotic, and "in +defiance of the laws of nature and of God."[18] + +This love of freedom led him to hate and oppose the tyranny of the +strong over the weak, to hate it most in its worst form; to hate +American Slavery, doubtless the most infamous form of that tyranny now +known amongst the nations of Christendom, and perhaps the most +disgraceful thing on earth. Mr. Adams called slavery a vessel of +dishonor so base that it could not be named in the Constitution with +decency. In 1805, he wished to lay a duty on the importation of slaves, +and was one of five senators who voted to that effect. He saw the power +of this institution--the power of money and the power of votes which it +gives to a few men. He saw how dangerous it was to the Union; to +American liberty, to the cause of man. He saw that it trod three +millions of men down to the dust, counting souls but as cattle. He hated +nothing as he hated this; fought against nothing so manfully. It was the +lion in the pathway of freedom, which frightened almost all the +politicians of the North and the East and the West, so that they forsook +that path; a lion whose roar could wellnigh silence the forum and the +bar, the pulpit and the press; a lion who rent the Constitution, +trampled under foot the Declaration of Independence, and tore the Bible +to pieces. Mr. Adams was ready to rouse up this lion, and then to beard +him in his den. Hating slavery, of course he opposed whatever went to +strengthen its power; opposed Mr. Atherton's Gag-law; opposed the +annexation of Texas; opposed the Mexican war; and, wonderful to tell, +actually voted against it, and never took back his vote. + +When Secretary of State, this same feeling led him to oppose conceding +to the British the right of searching American vessels supposed to be +concerned in the slave-trade, and when Representative to oppose the +repeal of the law giving "protection" to American sailors. It appeared +also in private intercourse with men. No matter what was a man's +condition, Mr. Adams treated him as an equal. + + * * * * * + +This devotion to freedom and the unalienable rights of man, was the most +important work of his life. Compared with some other political men, he +seems inconsistent, because he now opposes one evil, then its opposite +evil. But his general course is in this direction, and, when viewed in +respect to this idea, seems more consistent than that of Mr. Webster, or +Calhoun, or Clay, when measured by any great principle. This appears in +his earlier life. In 1802, he became a member of the Massachusetts +Senate. The majority of the General Court were federalists. It was a +time of intense political excitement, the second year of Mr. Jefferson's +administration. The custom is well known--to take the whole of the +Governor's Council from the party which has a majority in the General +Court. On the 27th of May, 1802, Mr. Adams stood up for the rights of +the minority. He wanted some anti-federalists in the Council of +Governor Strong, and as Senator threw his first vote to secure that +object. Such was the first legislative action of John Quincy Adams. In +the House of Representatives, in 1831, the first thing he did was to +present fifteen petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District +of Columbia, though, from constitutional scruples, opposed to granting +the petitions. The last public act of his life was this:--The question +was before the House on giving medals to the men distinguished in the +Mexican war; the minority opposing it wanted more time for debate; the +previous question was moved, Mr. Adams voted for the last time,--voted +"No," with unusual emphasis; the great loud No of a man going home to +God full of "The unalienable right of resistance to oppression," its +emphatic word on his dying lips. There were the beginning, the middle, +and the end, all three in the same spirit, all in favor of mankind; a +remarkable unity of action in his political drama. + +Somebody once asked him, What are the recognized principles of politics? +Mr. Adams answered that there were none: the recognized precepts are bad +ones, and so not principles. But, continued the inquirer, is not this a +good one--To seek "The greatest good of the greatest number?" No, said +he, that is the worst of all, for it looks specious while it is ruinous. +What shall become of the minority, in that case? This is the only +principle,--"To seek the greatest good of all." + +I do not say there were no exceptions to this devotion to freedom in a +long life; there are some passages in his history which it is impossible +to justify, and hard to excuse. In early life he was evidently ambitious +of place, and rank, and political power. I must confess, it seems to me, +at some times, he was not scrupulous enough about the means of attaining +that place and power. He has been much censured for his vote in favor of +the Embargo, in 1807. His vote, howsoever unwise, may easily have been +an honest vote. To an impartial spectator at this day, perhaps it will +be evidently so. His defence of it I cannot think an honest defence, for +in that he mentions arguments as impelling him to his vote which could +scarcely have been present to his mind at the time, and, if they were +his arguments then, were certainly kept in silence--they did not appear +in the debate,[19] they were not referred to in the President's +message.[20] + +I am not to praise Mr. Adams simply because he is dead; what is wrong +before is wrong after death. It is no merit to die; shall we tell lies +about him because he is dead? No, the Egyptian people scrutinized and +judged their kings after death--much more should we our fellow-citizens, +intrusted with power to serve the State. "A lavish and undistinguishing +eulogium is not praise." I know what coals of terrible fire lie under my +feet, as I speak of this matter, and how thin and light is the coat of +ashes deposited there in forty years; how easily they are blown away at +the slightest breath of "Hartford Convention," or the "Embargo," and the +old flame of political animosity blazes forth anew, while the hostile +forms of "federalists" and "democrats" come back to light. I would not +disquiet those awful shades, nor bring them up again. But a word must be +said. The story of the embargo is well known: the President sent his +message to the Senate recommending it, and accompanied with several +documents. The message was read and assigned to a committee; the +ordinary rule of business was suspended; the bill was reported by the +committee; drafted, debated, engrossed, and completely passed through +all its stages, the whole on the same day, in secret session, and in +about four hours! Yet it was a bill that involved the whole commerce of +the country, and prostrated that commerce, seriously affecting the +welfare of hundreds of thousands of men. Eight hundred thousand tons of +shipping were doomed to lie idle and rot in port. The message came on +Friday. Some of the Senators wanted yet further information and more +time for debate, at least for consideration,--till Monday. It could not +be! Till Saturday, then. No; the bill must pass now, no man sleeping on +that question. Mr. Adams was the most zealous for passing the bill. In +that "debate," if such it can be called, while opposing a postponement +for further information and reflection, he said, "The President has +recommended the measure on his high responsibility; I would _not +consider_, I would _not deliberate_; I would _act_. Doubtless the +_President possesses such further information as will justify the +measure_!"[21] To my mind, that is the worst act of his public life; I +cannot justify it. I wish I could find some reasonable excuse for it. +What had become of the "sovereignty of the people," the "unalienable +right of resistance to oppression?" Would _not consider_; would _not +deliberate_; would _act_ without doing either; leave it all to the "high +responsibility" of the President, with a "doubtless" he has "further +information" to justify the measure! It was a shame to say so; it would +have disgraced a Senator in St. Petersburg. Why not have the "further +information" laid before the Senate? What would Mr. Adams have said, if +President Jackson, Tyler, or Polk, had sent such a message, and some +Senator or Representative had counselled submissive action, without +considering, without deliberation? With what appalling metaphors would +he describe such a departure from the first duty of a statesman; how +would the tempestuous eloquence of that old patriot shake the Hall of +Congress till it rung again, and the nation looked up with indignation +in its face! It is well known what Mr. Adams said in 1834, when Mr. +Polk, in the House of Representatives, seemed over-laudatory of the +President: "I shall never be disposed to interfere with any member who +shall rise on this floor and pronounce a panegyric upon the chief +magistrate. + + 'No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, + And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee + Where thrift may follow fawning.'" + +Yet the future of Mr. Polk was not so obvious in 1834, as the reward of +Mr. Adams in 1808. + +This act is particularly glaring in Mr. Adams. The North often sends men +to Washington who might have done it without any great inconsistency; +men, too, not so remarkable for infirmity in the head, as for that less +pardonable weakness in the knees and the neck; men that bend to power +"right or wrong." Mr. Adams was not afflicted with that weakness, and so +the more to be censured for this palpable betrayal of a trust so +important. I wish I could find some excuse for it. He was forty years +old; not very old, but old enough to know better. His defence made the +matter worse. The Massachusetts Legislature disapproved of his conduct; +chose another man to succeed him in the Senate. Then Mr. Adams resigned +his seat, and soon after was sent minister to Russia, as he himself +subsequently declared,[22] "in consequence of the support he had for +years given to the measures of Mr. Jefferson's administration against +Great Britain." But his father said of that mission of his son, +"Aristides is banished because he is too just."[23] It is easy to judge +of the temper of the times, when such words as those of the father +could be said on such an occasion, and that by a man who had been +President of the United States! When a famine occurs, disease appears in +the most hideous forms; men go back to temporary barbarism. In times of +political strife, such diseases appear of the intellectual and moral +powers. No man who did not live in those times can fully understand the +obliquity of mind and moral depravity which then displayed themselves +amongst those otherwise without reproach. Says Mr. Adams himself, +referring to that period, "Imagination in her wildest vagaries can +scarcely conceive the transformation of temper, the obliquities of +intellect, the perversions of moral principle, effected by junctures of +nigh and general excitement." However, it must be confessed that this, +though not the only instance of injustice, is the only case of servile +compliance with the Executive to be found in the whole life of the man. +It was a grievous fault, but grievously did he answer it; and if a long +life of unfaltering resistance to every attempt at the assumption of +power is fit atonement, then the expiation was abundantly made. + +About the same time, Mr. Adams was chairman of a committee of the +Senate, appointed to consider the case of a Senator from Ohio. His +conduct, on that occasion, has been the theme of violent attack, and +defence as violent. To the calm spectator, at this day, his conduct +seems unjustifiable, inconsistent with the counsels of justice, which, +though moving with her "Pace of snail," looks always towards the right, +and will not move out of her track, though the heavens fall. + +While Mr. Adams was President, Hayti became free; but he did not express +any desire that the United States should acknowledge her independence, +and receive her minister at Washington,--an African plenipotentiary. In +his message,[24] he says, "There are circumstances that have hitherto +forbidden the acknowledgment," and mentions "additional reasons for +withholding that acknowledgment." In the instructions to the American +functionary, sent to the celebrated Congress of Panama, it is said, the +President "is not prepared now to say that Hayti ought to be recognized +as an independent sovereign power;" he "does not think it would be +proper at this time to recognize it as a new State." He was unwilling to +consent to the independence of Cuba, for fear of an insurrection of her +slaves, and the effect at home. The duty of the United States would be +"To defend themselves against the contagion of such near and dangerous +examples," that would "constrain them ... to employ all means necessary +to their security." That is, the President would be constrained to put +down the blacks in Cuba, who were exercising "The unalienable right of +resistance to oppression," for fear the blacks in the United States +would discover that they also were men, and had "Unalienable rights!" +Had he forgotten the famous words, "Resistance to tyrants is obedience +to God?" The defence of such language on such an occasion is, that Mr. +Adams's eyes were not yet open to the evil of slavery. That is a good +defence, if true. To me it seems a true defence. Even great men do not +see every thing. In 1800, Fisher Ames, while delivering the eulogy on +General Washington, censured even the British government, because, "In +the wilds of Africa, it obstructed the commerce in slaves!" No man is so +wise as mankind. It must be confessed that Mr. Adams, while Secretary of +State, and again, while President, showed no hostility to the +institution of slavery. His influence all went the other way. He would +repress the freedom of the blacks, in the West Indies, lest American +slavery should be disturbed, and its fetters broke; he would not +acknowledge the independence of Hayti, he would urge Spain to make peace +with her descendants, for the same reason--"not for those new +republics," but lest the negroes in Cuba and Porto Rico should secure +their freedom. He negotiated with England, and she paid the United +States more than a million of dollars[25] for the fugitive slaves who +took refuge under her flag during the late war. Mr. Adams had no +scruples about receiving the money during his administration. An attempt +was repeatedly made by his secretary, Mr. Clay, through Mr. Gallatin, +and then through Mr. Barbour, to induce England to restore the "fugitive +slaves who had taken refuge in the Canadian provinces," who, escaping +from the area of freedom, seek the shelter of the British crown.[26] +Nay, he negotiated a treaty with Mexico, which bound her to deliver up +fugitive slaves, escaping from the United States--a treaty which the +Mexican Congress refused to ratify! Should a great man have known +better? Great men are not always wise. Afterwards, public attention was +called to the matter; humble men gave lofty counsel; Mr. Adams used +different language, and recommended different measures. But long before +that, on the 7th of December, 1804, Mr. Pickering, his colleague in the +Senate of the United States, offered a resolution, for the purpose of +amending the Constitution, so as to apportion representatives, and +direct taxes among the States, according to their free inhabitants. + +But there are other things in Mr. Adams's course and conduct, which +deserve the censure of a good man. One was, the attempt to justify the +conduct of England, in her late war with China, when she forced her +opium upon the barbarians with the bayonet. To make out his case, he +contended that "In the celestial empire ... the patriarchal system of +Sir Robert Filmer, flourished in all its glory," and the Chinese claimed +superior dignity over all others; they refused to hold equal and +reciprocal commercial intercourse with other nations, and "It is time +this enormous outrage upon the rights of human nature, and the first +principles of the laws of nations, should cease."[27] It is true, the +Chinese were "barbarians;" true, the English carried thither the Bible +and Christianity, at least their own Christianity. But, even by the law +of nations, letting alone the law of nature, the barbarians had a right +to repel both Bible and Christianity, when they came in a contraband +shape--that of opium and cannon balls. To justify this outrage of the +strong against the weak, he quite forgets his old antipathy to England, +his devotion to human freedom, and the sovereignty of the people, +calling the cause of England "a righteous cause." + +He defended the American claim to the whole of Oregon, up to 54° 40´. +He did not so much undertake to make out a title to either, by the law +of nature or of nations, but cut the matter short, and claimed the whole +of Oregon, on the strength of the first chapter of Genesis. This was the +argument: God gave mankind dominion over all the earth;[28] between +Christian nations, the command of the Creator lays the foundation of all +titles to land, of titles to territory, of titles to jurisdiction. Then +in the Psalms,[29] God gives the "uttermost part of the earth for a +possession" to the Messiah, as the representative of all mankind, who +held the uttermost parts of the earth in chief. But the Pope, as head of +the visible church, was the representative of Christ, and so, holding +under him, had the right to give to any king or prelate, authority to +subdue barbarous nations, possess their territory, and convert them to +Christianity. In 1493, the Pope, in virtue of the above right, gave the +American continent to the Spanish monarchs, who, in time, sold their +title to the people of the United States. That title may be defective, +as the Pope may not be the representative of Christ, and so the passage +in the Psalms will not help the American claim, but then the United +States will hold under the first clause in the Testament of God, that +is, in Genesis. The claim of Great Britain is not valid, for she does +not want the land for the purpose specified in that clause of the +Testament, to "Replenish the earth and subdue it." She wants it, "That +she may keep it open as a hunting-ground," while the United States want +it, that it may grow into a great nation, and become a free and +sovereign republic.[30] + +This strange hypothesis, it seems, lay at the bottom of his defence of +the British in their invasion of China. It would have led him, if +consistent, to claim also the greater part of Mexico. But, as he did not +publicly declare his opinion on that matter, no more need be said +concerning it. + + * * * * * + +Such was the most prominent idea in his history; such the departures +from it. Let us look at other events in his life. While President, the +most important object of his administration was the promotion of +internal improvements, especially the internal communication between the +States. For this purpose the government lent its aid in the construction +of roads and canals, and a little more than four millions of dollars +were devoted to this work in his administration. On the 4th of July, +1828, he helped break ground for the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, +thinking it an important event in his life. He then said there were +three great steps in the progress of America. The first was the +Declaration of Independence and the achievement thereof; the second, the +union of the whole country under the Constitution; but the third was +more arduous than both of the others: "It is," said he, "the adaptation +of the powers, physical, moral, and intellectual, of the whole Union, to +the improvement of its own condition; of its _moral_ and _political_ +condition, by wise and liberal institutions; by the cultivation of the +understanding and the heart; by academies, schools, and learned +institutions; by the pursuit and patronage of learning and the arts; of +its _physical_ condition, by associated labor to improve the bounties +and supply the deficiencies of nature; to stem the torrent in its +course; to level the mountain with the plain; to disarm and fetter the +raging surge of the ocean."[31] He faithfully adhered to these words in +his administration. + +He was careful never to exceed the powers which the Constitution +prescribed for him. He thought the acquisition of Louisiana was +"accomplished by a flagrant violation of the Constitution,"[32] and +himself guarded against such violations. He revered the God of Limits, +who, in the Roman mythology, refused to give way or remove, even for +Jupiter himself. No man was ever more conscientious on that ground. To +him the Constitution meant something; his oath to keep it meant +something. + +No great political event occurred in his administration; the questions +which now vex the country had not arisen. There was no quarrel between +freedom and slavery; no man in Congress ventured to denounce slavery as +a crime; the African slave-trade was thought wrong, not the slavery +which caused it. Party lines, obliterated under Mr. Monroe's +administration, were viewed and marked with a good deal of care and +exactness; but the old lines could not be wholly restored. Mr. Adams was +not the President of a section of the country; not the President of a +party, but of the nation. He favored no special interest of a class, to +the injury of another class. He did not reward his friends, nor punish +his foes; the party of the spoils, patent or latent at all times, got no +spoils from him. He never debauched his country by the removal and +appointment of officers. Had he done otherwise, done as all his +successors have done, used his actual power to promote his own ambition, +no doubt he might have been reëlected. But he could not stoop to manage +men in that way. No doubt he desired a reëlection, and saw the method +and means to effect that, but conscience said, "It is not right." He +forbore, lost his election, and gained--we shall soon see what he +gained. + +On the 19th of July, 1826, at a public dinner at Edgefield Court-house, +South Carolina, Mr. McDuffie said, "Mr. Adams came into power upon +principles utterly subversive of the republican system; substituting the +worst species of aristocracy, that of speculating politicians and +office-hunters, in the place of a sound and wholesome republican +democracy." When Mr. Adams retired from office, he could remember, with +the virtuous Athenian, that no man had put on mourning for him because +unjustly deprived of his post. Was an office-holder or an office-wanter +a political friend of Mr. Adams, that did not help him; a foe, that did +not hinder. He looked only to the man's ability and integrity. I wish it +was no praise to say these things; but it is praise I dare not apply to +any other man since Washington. Mr. Adams once said, "There is no +official act of the chief magistrate, however momentous, or however +minute, but it should be traceable to a dictate of duty, pointing to the +welfare of the people." That was his executive creed. + + * * * * * + +As a public servant, he had many qualities seldom united in the same +person. He was simple, and unostentatious; he had none of the airs of a +great man; seemed humble, modest, and retiring; caring much for the +substance of manhood, he let the show take care of itself. He carried +the simplicity of a plain New England man into the President's house, +spending little in its decorations--about one fourth, it is said, of the +amount of his successor. In his housekeeping, public or private, there +was only one thing much to be boasted of and remarked upon: strange to +say, that was the master of the house. He was never eclipsed by his own +brass and mahogany. He had what are called democratic habits, and served +himself in preference to being served by others. He treated all that +were about him with a marked deference and courtesy, carrying his +respect for human rights into the minutest details of common life. + +He was a model of diligence, though not, perhaps, very systematic. His +State papers, prepared while he was Minister, Secretary, or Member of +Congress, his numerous orations and speeches, though not always +distinguished for that orderly arrangement of parts which is instinctive +with minds of a high philosophical character, are yet astonishing for +their number, and the wide learning they display. He was well acquainted +with the classic and most modern languages; at home in their literature. +He was surprisingly familiar with modern history; perhaps no political +man was so thoroughly acquainted with the political history of America, +and that of Christian Europe for the last two hundred years. He was +widely read and profoundly skilled in all that relates to diplomacy, and +to international law. He was fond of belles-lettres, and commented on +Shakspeare more like a professor than a layman in that department. Few +theologians in America, it is said, were so widely read in their +peculiar lore as he. He had read much, remembered much, understood much. +However, he seems to have paid little attention to physical science, and +perhaps less to metaphysical. His speeches and his conversation, though +neither brilliant, nor rich in ideas, astonished young men with an +affluence of learning, which seemed marvellous in one all his life +devoted to practical affairs. But this is a trifle: to achieve that, +nothing is needed but health, diligence, memory, and a long life. Mr. +Adams had all these requisites. + +He had higher qualities: he loved his country, perhaps no man more so; +he had patriotism in an heroic degree, yet was not thereby blinded to +humanity. He thought it a vital principle of human society, that each +nation should contribute to the happiness of all; and, therefore, that +no nation should "regulate its conduct by the exclusive or even the +paramount consideration of its own interest."[33] Yet he loved his +country, his whole country, and when she was in the wrong he told her +so, because he loved her. This, said he, would be a good sentiment: "Our +country! May she be always successful; but, whether successful or not, +may she be always in the right." He saw the faults of America, saw the +corruption of the American government. He did not make gain by this in +private, but set an honest face against it. + +He was a conscientious man. This peculiarity is strongly marked in most +of his life. He respected the limit between right and wrong. He did not +think it unworthy of a statesman to refer to moral principles, to the +absolutely right. I do not mean to say, that in his whole life there was +no departure from the strict rule of duty. I have mentioned already some +examples, but kept one more for this place: he pursued persons with a +certain vindictiveness of spirit. I will not revive again the old +quarrels, nor dig up his hard words, long ago consigned to oblivion; it +would be unjust to the living. He was what is called a good hater. If he +loved an idea, he seemed to hate the man who opposed it. He was not +content with replying; he must also retort, though it manifestly +weakened the force of the reply. In his attacks on persons he was +sometimes unjust, violent, sharp, and vindictive; sometimes cruel, and +even barbarous. Did he ever forgive an enemy? Every opponent was a foe, +and he thrashed his foes with an iron hoof and winnowed them with a +storm. The most awful specimens of invective which the language affords +can be found in his words--bitter, revengeful, and unrelenting. I am +sorry to say these things; it hurts my feelings to say them, yours not +less to hear them. But it is not our fault they are true; it would be +mine, if, knowing they were true, I did not on this occasion point them +out in warning words. Mr. Adams says that Roger Williams was +conscientious and contentious; it is equally true of himself. Perhaps +Mr. Adams had little humor, but certainly a giant's wit; he used it +tyrannously and like a giant. Wit has its place in debate; in +controversy it is a legitimate weapon, offensive and defensive. After +one has beaten the single barley-corn of good sense out of a whole +wagon-load of chaff, the easiest way to be rid of the rubbish is to burn +it up with the lightning of wit; the danger is, that the burning should +begin before the separation is made; that the fire consume the good and +bad indifferently. When argument is edged and pointed with wit, it is +doubly effective; but when that edge is jagged with ill-will, poisoned, +too, with personal spleen, then it becomes a weapon unworthy of a man. +Sometimes Mr. Adams used his wit as fairly as his wisdom; and bags of +wind, on which Hercules might have stamped and beaten a twelvemonth, but +in vain--at a single puncture from that keen wit gave up their ghost and +flattened into nothing; a vanity to all men, but a vexation of spirit to +him who had blown them so full of his own soul. But sometimes, yes, +often, Mr. Adams's wit performs a different part: it sits as a judge, +unjust and unforgiving, "often deciding wrong, and when right from +wrong motives." It was the small dagger with which he smote the fallen +foe. It is a poor praise for a famous man, churchman, or statesman, to +beat a blackguard with his own weapons. It must be confessed, that in +controversy, Mr. Adams's arrows were sharp and deftly delivered; but +they were often barbed, and sometimes poisoned. + +True, he encountered more political opposition than any man in the +nation. For more than forty years he has never been without bitter and +unrelenting enemies, public and private. No man in America, perhaps, +ever had such provocations; surely, none had ever such opportunities to +reply without retorting. How much better would it have been, if, at the +end of that long life and fifty years' war, he could say he had never +wasted a shot; had never sinned with his lips, nor once feathered his +public arrow with private spleen! Wise as he was, and old, he never +learned that for undeserved calumny, for personal insult and abuse, +there is one answer, Christian, manly, and irrefutable--the dignity of +silence. A just man can afford to wait till the storm of abuse shall +spend its rage and vanish under the rainbow, which itself furnishes and +leaves behind. The retorting speech of such a man may be silvern or +iron; his silence, victorious and golden. + +It is easy to censure Mr. Adams for such intemperance of speech and +persecution of persons; unfortunately, too easy to furnish other +examples of both. We know what he spoke--God only what he repressed. +Who knows out of how deep a fulness of indignation such torrents gush? +Tried by the standard of other men, his fellow politicians of America +and Europe, he was no worse than they, only abler.[34] The mouse and the +fox have as great a proportionate anger as the lion, though the one is +ridiculous and the other terrific. Mr. Adams must be tried by his own +standard, the rule of right, the standard of conscience and of +Christianity; then surely he did wrong. For such a man the vulgarity of +the offence is no excuse. + +With this and the other exceptions he appears a remarkably conscientious +man in his public life. He may often have erred, as all men, without +violating his own sense of right. + +While he was President he would not consent to any "public manifestation +of honors personal to himself." He would not accept a present, for his +Bible taught him what experience continually enforces, that a gift +blinds the eyes of wise men and perverts their judgment. While at St. +Petersburg, the Russian Minister of the Interior, then an old man, felt +uneasy on account of the presents accepted during his official service, +and, calculating the value of all gifts received, returned it to the +imperial treasury. This fact made an impression on Mr. Adams, and led +to a resolution which he faithfully kept. When a bookseller sent him a +costly Bible, he kept the book, but paid its full value. No bribes, no +pensions in any form, ever soiled justice in his hands. He would never +be indebted to any body of men, lest they might afterwards sway him from +the right path. + +Because he was a conscientious man he would never be the servant of a +party, and never was. It was of great advantage to him that he was +absent while the two chief parties were forming in the United States. He +came into the Massachusetts Legislature as a federalist, but some +anti-federalists also voted for him. His first vote showed he was not +limited by the common principles of a party. He was chosen to the Senate +of the United States, not by a party vote. At first he acted mainly with +the federalists, though not always voting with his colleague; but in +1807 acted with the administration in the matter of the Embargo. This +was the eventful crisis of his life; this change in his politics, while +it gave him station and political power, yet brought upon him the +indignation of his former friends; it has never been forgotten nor +forgiven. Be the outward occasion and inward motive what they may, this +led to the sundering of friendships long cherished and deservedly dear; +it produced the most bitter experience of his life. Political men would +naturally undertake to judge his counsel by its probable and obvious +consequences, the favor of the Executive, rather than attribute it to +any latent motive of patriotism in his heart. + +While at the head of the nation he would not be the President of a +party, but of the people; when he became a representative in Congress he +was not the delegate of a party, but of justice and the eternal right, +giving his constituents an assurance that he would hold himself in +allegiance to no party, national or political. He has often been accused +of hatred to the South; I can find no trace of it. "I entered Congress," +says he, "without one sentiment of discrimination between the North and +South." At first he acted with Mr. Jackson, to arrest the progress of +nullification, for the democracy of South Carolina was putting in +practice what the federalists of New England have so often been alleged +to have held in theory, and condemned on that allegation. Here he was +consistent. In 1834, he approved the spirit of the same President in +demanding justice of France; but afterwards he did not hesitate to +oppose, and perhaps abuse him. + +He had a high reverence for religion; none of our public men more. He +aimed to be a Christian man. Signs of this have often been sought in his +habits of church-going, of reading the Bible; they may be found rather +in the general rectitude of his life, public and private, and in the +high motives which swayed him, in his opposition to slavery, in the +self-denial which cost him his reëlection. In his public acts he seems +animated by the thought that he stood in the presence of God. Though +rather unphilosophical in his theology, resting to a great degree on the +authority of tradition and the letter, and attaching much value to forms +and times, he yet saw the peculiar excellence of Christianity,--that it +recognized "Love as the paramount and transcendent law of human nature." +I do not say that his life indicates the attainment of a complete +religious repose, but that he earnestly and continually labored to +achieve that. You shall find few statesmen, few men, who act with a more +continual and obvious reference to religion as a motive, as a guide, as +a comfort. He was, however, no sectarian. His devotion to freedom +appeared, where it seldom appears, in his notions about religion. He +thought for himself, and had a theology of his own, rather +old-fashioned, it is true, and not very philosophical or consistent, it +may be, and in that he was not very singular, but he allowed others to +think also for themselves, and have a theology of their own. Mr. Adams +was a Unitarian. It is no great merit to be a Unitarian, or a Calvinist, +or a Catholic, perhaps no more merit to be one than the other. But he +was not ashamed of his belief when Unitarianism was little, despised, +mocked at, and called "Infidelity" on all sides. When the Unitarian +church at Washington, a small and feeble body, met for worship in an +upper room--not large, but obscure, over a public bathing-house--John +Quincy Adams, the Secretary of State and expecting to be President, came +regularly to worship with them. It was not fashionable; it was hardly +respectable, for the Unitarians were not then, as now, numerous and +rich: but he went and worshipped. It was no merit to think with any +sect, it was a great merit to dare be true to his convictions. In his +theology, as in politics, he feared not to stand in a minority. If there +ever was an American who loved the praise of God more than the praise of +men, I believe Mr. Adams was one. + +His devotion to freedom, his love of his country, his conscientiousness, +his religion, are four things strong and noticeable in his character. +You shall look long amongst our famous men before you find his equal in +these things.[35] + + * * * * * + +Somebody says, no man ever used all his intellectual faculties as far +as possible. If any man is an exception to this rule, it is Mr. Adams. +He was temperate and diligent; industrious almost to a fault, though not +orderly or systematic. His diplomatic letters, his orations, his reports +and speeches, all indicate wide learning, the fruit of the most +remarkable diligence. The attainments of a well-bred scholar are not +often found in the American Congress, or the President's house. Yet he +never gives proof that he had the mind of a great man. In his special +department of politics he does not appear as a master. He has no great +ideas with which to solve the riddles of commerce and finance; has done +little to settle the commercial problems of the world,--for that work +there is needed not only a retrospective acquaintance with the habits +and history of men, but the foresight which comes from a knowledge of +the nature of things and of man. His chief intellectual excellence seems +to have been memory; his great moral merit, a conscientious and firm +honesty; his practical strength lay in his diligence. His counsels seem +almost always to have come from a knowledge of human history, seldom to +have been prompted by a knowledge of the nature of man. Hence he was a +critic of the past, or an administrator of the present, rather than a +prophetic guide for the future. He had many facts and precedents, but +few ideas. Few examples of great political foresight can be quoted from +his life; and therein, to his honor be it spoken, his heart seems to +have out-travelled his head. The public affairs of the United States +seem generally to be conducted by many men of moderate abilities, rather +than by a few men of great genius for politics. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Adams wrote much. Some of his works are remarkable for their beauty, +for the graceful proportions of their style, and the felicity of their +decoration. Such are his celebrated Lectures on Rhetoric and Oratory, +which are sufficiently learned and sagacious, not very philosophical, +but written in an agreeable style, and at the present day not wholly +without value. His review of the works of Fisher Ames, I speak only of +the rhetoric, is, perhaps, the finest of his compositions. Some of his +productions are disorderly, ill-compacted, without "joints or +contexture," and homely to a fault: this oration is a growth out of a +central thought, marked by an internal harmony; that, a composition, a +piece of carpentry distinguished by only an outward symmetry of members; +others are neither growth nor composition, only a mass of materials +huddled and lumped together. Most of his later productions, with the +exception of his congressional speeches, are hard, cold, and unfinished +performances, with little order in the thoughts, and less beauty in the +expression. His extemporaneous speeches have more of both; they are +better finished than his studied orations. He could judge and speak +with fury, though he wrote with phlegm. His illustrations are usually +drawn from literature, not from nature or human life; his language is +commonly cold, derived from the Roman stream which has been filtered +through books, rather than from the deep and original well of our Saxon +home. His published letters are compact, written in a cold style, +without playfulness or wit, with no elegance, and though mostly business +letters, they are not remarkable for strength or distinctness. His +diligence appears in verse as well as prose. He wrote much that rhymed +tolerably; little that was poetical. The same absence of nature, the +same coldness and lack of inspiration, mark his poetry and prose. But in +all that he wrote, with the exceptions mentioned above, though you miss +the genial warmth, the lofty thought, the mind that attracts, embraces, +warms, and inspires the reader, you find always a spirit of humanity, of +justice, and love to God. + +Mr. Adams was seldom eloquent. Eloquence is no great gift. It has its +place among subordinate powers, not among the chief. Alas for the +statesman or preacher who has only that to save the State withal! +Washington had none of it, yet how he ruled the land! No man in America +has ever had a political influence so wide and permanent as Mr. +Jefferson; yet he was a very indifferent writer, and never made a speech +of any value. The acts of Washington, the ideas of Jefferson, made +eloquence superfluous. True, it has its value: if a man have at command +the electricity of truth, justice, love, the sentiments and great ideas +thereof, it is a good thing to be able with Olympian hand to condense +that electric fire into bolted eloquence; to thunder and lighten in the +sky. But if a man have that electric truth, it matters little whether it +is Moses that speaks, or only Aaron; whether or not Paul's bodily +presence be weak and his speech contemptible: it is Moses' thought which +thunders and lightens out of Sinai; it is Paul's idea that is powerful +and builds up the church. Of true eloquence, the best thoughts put in +the best words, and uttered in the best form, Mr. Adams had little, and +that appeared mainly in the latter part of his life. Hundreds have more. +What passes for eloquence is common in America, where the public mouth +is always a-going. His early orations are poor in their substance and +faulty in their form. His ability as an orator developed late; no proofs +of it appear before he entered the House of Representatives, at a good +old age. In his manner of speaking there was little dignity and no +grace, though sometimes there was a terrible energy and fire. He was +often a powerful speaker--by his facts and figures, by his knowledge, +his fame, his age, and his position, but most of all by his independent +character. He spoke worthily of great men, of Madison or Lafayette, +kindling with his theme, and laying aside all littleness of a party. +However, he was most earnest and most eloquent not when he stood up the +champion of a neglected truth, not when he dwelt on great men now +venerable to us all, but when he gathered his strength to attack a foe. +Incensed, his sarcasm was terrific; colossal vanity aspiring to be a +Ghenghis Khan, at the touch of that Ithuriel spear shrank to the +dimensions of Tom Thumb. His invective is his masterpiece of oratoric +skill. It is sad to say this, and to remember, that the greatest works +of ancient or of modern rhetoric, from the thundering Philippics of +Demosthenes down to the sarcastic and crazy rattle of Lord Brougham, are +all of the same character, are efforts against a personal foe! Men find +hitherto the ablest acts and speech in the same cause,--not positive and +creating, but critical and combative,--in war. + +If Mr. Adams had died in 1829, he would have been remembered for awhile +as a learned man; as an able diplomatist, who had served his country +faithfully at home and abroad; as a President spotless and +incorruptible, but not as a very important personage in American +history. His mark would have been faint and soon effaced from the sands +of time. But the last period of his life was the noblest. He had worn +all the official honors which the nation could bestow; he sought the +greater honor of serving that nation, who had now no added boon to give. +All that he had done as Minister abroad, as Senator, as Secretary, and +President, is little compared with what he did in the House of +Representatives; and while he stood there, with nothing to hope, with +nothing to fear, the hand of Justice wrote his name high up on the walls +of his country. It was surprising to see at his first attendance there, +men who, while he was President, had been the loudest to call out +"Coalition, Bargain, Intrigue, Corruption," come forward and express the +involuntary confidence they felt in his wisdom and integrity, and their +fear, actual though baseless, that his withdrawal from the Committee on +Manufactures would "endanger the very Union itself."[36] Great questions +soon came up: nullification was speedily disposed of; the Bank and the +tariff got ended or compromised, but slavery lay in the consciousness of +the nation, like the one dear but appalling sin in a man's heart. Some +wished to be rid of it, northern men and southern men. It would come up; +to justify that, or excuse it, the American sentiment and idea must be +denied and rejected utterly; the South, who had long known the charms of +Bathsheba, was ready for her sake to make way with Uriah himself. To +remove that monstrous evil, gradually but totally, and restore unity to +the nation, would require a greater change than the adoption of the +Constitution. To keep slavery out of sight, yet in existence, +unjustified, unexcused, unrepented of, a contradiction in the national +consciousness, a political and deadly sin, the sin against the Holy +Spirit of American Liberty, known but not confessed, the public secret +of the people--that would lead to suppressing petitions, suppressing +debate in Congress and out of Congress, to silencing the pulpit, the +press, and the people. + +Under these circumstances, Mr. Adams went to Congress, an old man, well +known on both sides the water, the presidential laurels on his brow, +independent and fearless, expecting no reward from men for services +however great. In respect to the subject of slavery, he had no ideas in +advance of the nation; he was far behind the foremost men. He +"deprecated all discussion of slavery or its abolition, in the House, +and gave no countenance to petitions for the abolition of slavery in the +District of Columbia or the territories." However, he acquired new ideas +as he went on, and became the congressional leader in the great movement +of the American mind towards universal freedom. + +Here he stood as the champion of human rights; here he fought, and with +all his might. In 1836, by the celebrated resolution, forbidding debate +on the subject of slavery, the South drove the North to the wall, nailed +it there into shameful silence. A "Northern man with Southern +principles," before entering the President's chair, declared, that if +Congress should pass a law to abolish slavery in the District of +Columbia, he would exercise his veto to prevent the law.[37] Mr. Adams +stood up manfully, sometimes almost alone, and contended for freedom of +speech. Did obstinate men of the North send petitions relative to +slavery, asking for its abolition in the District or elsewhere? Mr. +Adams was ready to present the petitions. Did women petition? It made no +difference with him. Did slaves petition? He stood up there to defend +their right to be heard. The South had overcome many an obstacle, but +that one fearless soul would not bend, and could not be broken. Spite of +rules of order, he contrived to bring the matter perpetually before +Congress, and sometimes to read the most offensive parts of the +petitions. When Arkansas was made a State, he endeavored to abolish +slavery in its domain; he sought to establish international relations +with Hayti, and to secure the right of suffrage for the colored citizens +of the District of Columbia. The laws which forbid blacks to vote in the +Northern States he held "in utter abhorrence." + +He saw from afar the plots of southern politicians, plots for extending +the area of slavery, for narrowing the area of freedom, and exposed +those plots. You all remember the tumult it excited when he rose in his +place holding a petition from slaves; that the American Congress was +thrown into long and disgraceful confusion. You cannot have forgotten +the uproar which followed his presenting a petition to dissolve the +Union![38] I know few speeches more noble and manly than his on the +right of petition,--occasioned by that celebrated attempt to stifle +debate, and on the annexation of Texas. Some proposed to censure him, +some clamored, "expel him," some cried out, "burn the petitions!" and +"him with them," screamed yet others. Some threatened to have him +indicted by the grand jury of the district, "or be made amenable to +_another tribunal_," hoping to see "an incendiary brought to condign +punishment." "My life on it," said a southern legislator, "if he +presents that petition from slaves, we shall yet see him within the +walls of the penitentiary." Some in secret threatened to assassinate him +in the streets. They mistook their man; with justice on his side he did +"not fear all the grand juries in the universe." He would not curl nor +cringe, but snorted his defiance in their very face. In front of +ridicule, of desertion, obloquy, rage, and brutal threats, stood up that +old man, bald and audacious, and the chafed rock of Cohasset stands not +firmer mid the yesty waves, nor more triumphant spurns back into the +ocean's face the broken billows of the storm. That New England knee bent +only before his God. That unpretending man--the whole power of the +nation could not move him from his post. + +Men threatened to increase the slave power. Said one of the champions of +slavery with prophetic speech, but fatal as Cassandra's in the classic +tale, Americans "would come up in thousands to plant the lone star of +the Texan banner on the Mexican capital.... The boundless wealth of +captured towns and rifled churches, and a lazy, vicious, and luxurious +priesthood, would soon enable Texas to pay her soldiery and redeem her +State debt, and push her victorious arms to the very shores of the +Pacific. And would not all this extend the bounds of slavery? Yes, the +result would be, that before another quarter of a century the extension +of slavery would not stop short of the Western ocean." Against this +danger Mr. Adams armed himself, and fought in the holiest cause--the +cause of human rights. + +I know few things in modern times so grand as that old man standing +there in the House of Representatives, the compeer of Washington, a man +who had borne himself proudly in kings' courts, early doing service in +high places, where honor may be won; a man who had filled the highest +office in any nation's gift; a President's son, himself a President, +standing there the champion of the neediest of the oppressed: the +conquering cause pleased others; him only, the cause of the conquered. +Had he once been servile to the hands that wielded power? No thunderbolt +can scare him now! Did he once make a treaty and bind Mexico to bewray +the wandering fugitive who took his life in his hand and fled from the +talons of the American eagle? Now he would go to the stake sooner than +tolerate such a deed! When he went to the Supreme Court, after an +absence of thirty years, and arose to defend a body of friendless +negroes torn from their home and most unjustly held in thrall; when he +asked the judges to excuse him at once both for the trembling faults of +age and the inexperience of youth, the man having labored so long +elsewhere that he had forgotten the rules of court; when he summed up +the conclusion of the whole matter, and brought before those judicial +but yet moistening eyes the great men whom he had once met there--Chase, +Cushing, Martin, Livingston, and Marshall himself; and while he +remembered them that were "gone, gone, all gone," remembered also the +Eternal Justice that is never gone,--why the sight was sublime. It was +not an old patrician of Rome who had been consul, dictator, coming out +of his honored retirement at the Senate's call, to stand in the forum to +levy new armies, marshal them to victory afresh, and gain thereby new +laurels for his brow;--but it was a plain citizen of America, who had +held an office far greater than that of consul, king, or dictator, his +hand reddened by no man's blood, expecting no honors, but coming in the +name of Justice to plead for the slave, for the poor barbarian negro of +Africa, for Cinque and Grabbo, for their deeds comparing them to +Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whose classic memory made each bosom thrill. +That was worth all his honors,--it was worth while to live fourscore +years for that. + +When he stood in the House of Representatives, the champion of the +rights of a minority, of the rights of man, he stood colossal. Frederick +the Great seems doubly so, when, single-handed, "that son of the Dukes +of Brandenburg" contended against Austria, France, England, Russia, kept +them all at bay, divided by his skill, and conquered by his might. +Surely he seems great, when measured merely by his deeds. But, in +comparison, Frederick the Great seems Frederick the little: for Adams +fought not for a kingdom, nor for fame, but for Justice and the Eternal +Right; fought, too, with weapons tempered in a heavenly stream![39] + +He had his reward. Who ever missed it? From mythological Cain, who slew +his brother, down to Judas Iscariot, and Aaron Burr; from Jesus of +Nazareth, down to the least man that dies or lives--who ever lost his +reward? None. No; not one. Within the wicked heart there dwells the +avenger, with unseen hands, to adjust the cord, to poison the fatal +bowl. In the impenetrable citadel of a good man's consciousness, unseen +by mortal eyes, there stands the palladium of justice, radiant with +celestial light; mortal hands may make and mar,--this they can mar not, +no more than they can make. Things about the man can others build up or +destroy; but no foe, no tyrant, no assassin, can ever steal the man out +of the man. Who would not have the consciousness of being right, even of +trying to be right, though affronted by a whole world, rather than +conscious of being wrong, and hollow, and false, have all the honors of +a nation on his head? Of late years, no party stood up for Mr. Adams, +"The madman of Massachusetts," as they called him, on the floor of +Congress; but he knew that he had, and in his old age, done one +work,--he had contended for the unalienable rights of man, done it +faithfully. The government of God is invisible, His justice the more +certain,--and by that Mr. Adams had his abundant reward. + +But he had his poorer and outward rewards, negative and positive. For +his zeal in behalf of freedom he was called "a monarchist in disguise," +"an alien to the true interests of his country," "a traitor." A +slaveholder from Kentucky published to his constituents that he "was +sincerely desirous to check that man, for if he could be removed from +the councils of the nation, or silenced upon the exasperating subject to +which he had devoted himself, none other, I believe, could be found +hardy enough or bad enough to fill his place." It was worth something to +have an enemy speak such praise as that: but the slaveholder was wrong +in his conjecture; the North has yet other sons not less hardy, not more +likely to be silenced. Still more praise of a similar sort:--at a fourth +of July dinner at Walterborough, in South Carolina, this sentiment was +proposed and responded to with nine cheers: "May we never want a +democrat to trip up the heels of a federalist, or a hangman to prepare a +halter for John Quincy Adams." Considering what he had done and whence +those rewards proceeded, that was honor enough for a yet greater man. + +Let me turn to things more grateful. Mr. Adams, through lack of genial +qualities, had few personal friends, yet from good men throughout the +North there went up a hearty thanksgiving for his manly independence, +and prayers for his success. Brave men forgot their old prejudices, +forgot the "Embargo," forgot the "Hartford Convention," forgot all the +hard things which he had ever said, forgot his words in the Senate, +forgot their disappointments, and said--"For this our hearts shall honor +thee, thou brave old man!" In 1843, when, for the first time, he visited +the West, to assist at the foundation of a scientific institution, all +the West rose up to do him reverence. He did not go out to seek honors, +they came to seek him. It was the movement of a noble people, feeling a +noble presence about them no less than within. When Cicero, the only +great man whom Rome never feared, returned from his exile, all Italy +rose up and went out to meet him; so did the North and the West welcome +this champion of freedom, this venerable old man. They came not to honor +one who had been a President, but one who was a man. That alone, said +Mr. Adams, with tears of joy and grief filling his eyes, was reward +enough for all that he had done, suffered, or undertaken. Yes, it was +too much; too much for one man as the reward of one life! + +You all remember the last time he was at any public meeting in this +city. A man had been kidnapped in Boston, kidnapped at noon-day, "on the +high road between Faneuil Hall and old Quincy," and carried off to be a +slave! New England hands had seized their brother, sold him into bondage +for ever, and his children after him. In the presence of slavery, as of +arms, the laws are silent,--not always men. Then it appears who are men, +who not! A meeting was called to talk the matter over, in a plain way, +and look in one another's faces. Who was fit to preside in such a case? +That old man sat in the chair in Faneuil Hall; above him was the image +of his father, and his own; around him were Hancock and the other +Adams,--Washington, greatest of all; before him were the men and women +of Boston, met to consider the wrongs done to a miserable negro slave; +the roof of the old Cradle of Liberty spanned over them all. Forty years +before, a young man and a Senator, he had taken the chair at a meeting +called to consult on the wrong done to American seamen, violently +impressed by the British from an American ship of war, the unlucky +Chesapeake; some of you remember that event. Now, an old man, clothed +with half a century of honors, he sits in the same hall, to preside over +a meeting to consider the outrage done to a single slave; a greater +outrage--alas, not done by a hostile, not by an alien hand! One was the +first meeting of citizens he ever presided over, the other was the last; +both for the same object--the defence of the Eternal Right. + + * * * * * + +But I would not weary you. His death was noble; fit ending for such a +life. He was an old man, the last that had held a diplomatic office +under Washington. He had uttered his oracles; had done his work. The +highest honors of the nation he had worthily worn; but, as his townsmen +tell us,--caring little for the President, and much for the man,--that +was very little in comparison with his character. The good and ill of +the human cup he had tasted, and plentifully, too, as son, husband, +father. He had borne his testimony for freedom and the rights of +mankind; he had stood in Congress almost alone; with a few gallant men +had gone down to the battlefield, and if victory escaped him, it was +because night came on. + +He saw others enter the field in good heart, to stand in the imminent +deadly breach; he lived long enough for his own welfare, for his own +ambition; long enough to see the seal broken,--and then, this aged +Simeon, joyful in the consolation, bowed his head and went home in +peace. His feet were not hurt with fetters; he died with his armor on; +died like a Senator in the capitol of the nation; died like an American, +in the service of his country; died like a Christian, full of +immortality; died like a man, fearless and free! + +You will ask, What was the secret of his strength? Whence did he gain +such power to stand erect where others so often cringed and crouched low +to the ground? It is plain to see: he looked beyond time, beyond men; +looked to the eternal God, and fearing Him forgot all other fear. Some +of his failings he knew to be such, and struggled with them though he +did not overcome. A man, not over-modest, once asked him what he most of +all lamented in his life, and he replied, "My impetuous temper and +vituperative speech; that I have not always returned good for evil, but +in the madness of my blood have said things that I am ashamed of before +my God!" As the world goes, it needed some greatness to say that. + +When he was a boy, his mother, a still woman, and capable, deep-hearted, +and pious, took great pains with his culture; most of all with his +religious culture. When, at the age of ten, he was about to leave home +for years of absence in another land, she took him aside to warn him of +temptations which he could not then understand. She bade him remember +religion and his God--his secret, silent prayer. Often in his day there +came the earthquake of party strife; the fire, the storm, and the +whirlwind of passion; he listened--and God was not there; but there +came, too, the remembrance of his mother's whispered words; God came in +that memory, and earthquake and storm, the fire and the whirlwind were +powerless, at last, before that still small voice. Beautifully did she +write to her boy of ten, "Great learning and superior abilities will be +of little value ... unless virtue, honor, truth, and integrity, are +added to them. Remember that you are accountable to your Maker for all +your words and your actions." "Dear as you are to me," says this more +than Spartan, this Christian mother, "Dear as you are to me, I would +much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have +crossed, or that any untimely death cross you in your infant years, +than see you an immoral, profligate, or graceless child. Let your +observations and comparisons produce in your mind an abhorrence of +domination and power--the parents of slavery, ignorance, and barbarism. +May you be led to an imitation of that disinterested patriotism and that +noble love of your country, which will teach you to despise wealth, +titles, pomp, and equipage, as mere external advantages, which cannot +add to the internal excellence of your mind, or compensate for the want +of integrity and virtue." She tells him in a letter, that her father, a +plain New England clergyman, of Braintree, who had just died, "left you +a legacy more valuable than gold or silver; he left you his blessing, +and his prayers that you might become a useful citizen, a guardian of +the laws, liberty, and religion of your country.... Lay this bequest up +in your memory and practise upon it; believe me, you will find it a +treasure that neither moth nor rust can destroy." + +If a child have such a mother, there is no wonder why he stood fearless, +and bore a charmed life which no opposition could tame down. I wonder +more that one so born and by such a mother bred, could ever once bend a +servile knee; could ever indulge that fierce and dreadful hate; could +ever stoop to sully those hands which hers had joined in prayer. It ill +accords with teachings like her own. I wonder that he could ever have +refused to "deliberate." Religion is a quality that makes a man +independent; disappointment will not render such an one sour, nor +oppression drive him mad, nor elevation bewilder; power will not dazzle, +nor gold corrupt; no threat can silence and no fear subdue. + +There are men enough born with greater abilities than Mr. Adams, men +enough in New England, in all the walks of man. But how many are there +in political life who use their gifts so diligently, with such +conscience, such fearless deference to God?--nay, tell us one. I have +not spared his faults; I am no eulogist, to paint a man with +undiscriminating praise. Let his follies warn us, while his virtues +guide. But look on all his faults, and then compare him with our famous +men of the North or the South; with the great whigs or the great +democrats. Ask which was the purest man, the most patriotic, the most +honest; which did his nation the smallest harm and the greatest good; +which for his country and his kind denied himself the most. Shall I +examine their lives, public and private, strip them bare and lay them +down beside his life, and ask which, after all, has the least of blemish +and the most of beauty? Nay, that is not for me to do or to attempt. + +In one thing he surpassed most men,--he grew more liberal the more he +grew old, ripening and mellowing, too, with age. After he was seventy +years old, he welcomed new ideas, kept his mind vigorous, and never +fell into that crabbed admiration of past times and buried institutions, +which is the palsy of so many a man, and which makes old age nothing but +a pity, and gray hairs provocative of tears. This is the more remarkable +in a man of his habitual reverence for the past, in one who judged +oftener by the history than by the nature of man. + +Times will come when men shall look to that vacant seat. But the thunder +is silent, the lightning gone; other men must take his place and fill it +as they can. Let us not mourn that he has gone from us; let us remember +what was evil in him, but only to be warned of ambition, of party +strife, to love more that large charity which forgives an enemy, and, +through good and ill, contends for mankind. Let us be thankful for the +good he has said and done, be guided by it and blessed. There is a +certain affluence of intellectual power granted to some men, which +provokes admiration for a time, let the man of myriad gifts use his +talent as he may. Such merely cubic greatness of mind is matter of +astonishment rather than a fit subject for esteem and praise. Of that, +Mr. Adams had little, as so many of his contemporaries had more. In him +what most commands respect is, his independence, his love of justice, of +his country and his kind. No son of New England has been ever so +distinguished in political life. But it is no great thing to be +President of the United States; some men it only makes ridiculous. A +worm on a steeple's top is nothing but a worm, no more able to fly than +while creeping in congenial mud; a mountain needs no steeple to lift its +head and show the world what is great and high. The world obeys its +great men, stand where they may. + +After all, this must be the greatest praise of Mr. Adams: In private he +corrupted no man nor woman; as a politician he never debauched the +public morals of his country, nor used public power for any private end; +in public and private he lived clean and above board; he taught a +fearless love of truth and the right, both by word and deed. I wish I +could add, that was a small praise. But as the times go, as our famous +men are, it is a very great fame, and there are few competitors for such +renown; I must leave him alone in that glory. Doubtless, as he looked +back on his long career, his whole life, motives as well as actions, +must have seemed covered with imperfections. I will seek no further to +disclose his merits, or "draw his frailties from their dead abode." + +He has passed on, where superior gifts and opportunities avail not, nor +his long life, nor his high station, nor his wide spread fame; where +enemies cease from troubling, and the flattering tongue also is still. +Wealth, honor, fame, forsake him at the grave's mouth. It is only the +living soul, sullied or clean, which the last angel bears off in his +arms to that world where many that seem first shall be last, and the +last first; but where justice shall be lovingly done to the great man +full of power and wisdom who rules the State, and the feeblest slave +whom oppression chains down in ignorance and vice--done by the +all-seeing Father of both President and slave, who loves both with equal +love. The venerable man is gone home. He shall have his praise. But who +shall speak it worthily? Mean men and little, who shrank from him in +life, who never shared what was manliest in the man, but mocked at his +living nobleness, shall they come forward and with mealy mouths, to sing +his requiem, forgetting that his eulogy is their own ban? Some will +rejoice at his death; there is one man the less to fear, and they who +trembled at his life may well be glad when the earth has covered up the +son she bore. Strange men will meet with mutual solace at his tomb, +wondering that their common foe is dead, and they are met! The Herods +and Pilates of contending parties may be made friends above his grave, +and clasping hands may fancy that their union is safer than before; but +there will come a day after to-day! Let us leave him to his rest. + +The slave has lost a champion who gained new ardor and new strength the +longer he fought; America has lost a man who loved her with his heart; +Religion has lost a supporter; Freedom an unfailing friend, and Mankind +a noble vindicator of our unalienable rights. + +It is not long since he was here in our own streets; three winter months +have scantly flown: he set out for his toil--but went home to his rest. +His labors are over. No man now threatens to assassinate; none to expel; +none even to censure. The theatrical thunder of Congress, noisy but +harmless, has ended as it ought, in honest tears. South Carolina need +ask no more a halter for that one northern neck she could not bend nor +break. The tears of his country are dropped upon his urn; the muse of +history shall write thereon, in letters not to be effaced, THE ONE GREAT +MAN SINCE WASHINGTON, WHOM AMERICA HAD NO CAUSE TO FEAR. + +To-day that venerable form lies in the Capitol,--the disenchanted dust. +All is silent. But his undying soul, could we deem it still hovering +o'er its native soil, bound to take leave yet lingering still, and loath +to part, that would bid us love our country, love man, love justice, +freedom, right, and above all, love God. To-morrow that venerable dust +starts once more to join the dear presence of father and mother, to +mingle his ashes with their ashes, as their lives once mingled, and +their souls again. Let his native State communicate her last sad +sacrament, and give him now, it is all she can, a little earth for +charity. + +But what shall we say as the dust returns? + + "Where slavery's minions cower + Before the servile power, + He bore their ban; + And like the aged oak, + That braved the lightning's stroke, + When thunders round it broke, + Stood up a man. + + "Nay, when they stormed aloud, + And round him like a cloud, + Came thick and black,-- + He single-handed strove, + And like Olympian Jove, + With his own thunder drove + The phalanx back. + + "Not from the bloody field, + Borne on his battered shield, + By foes o'ercome;-- + But from a sterner fight, + In the defence of Right, + Clothed with a conqueror's might, + We hail him home. + + "His life in labors spent, + That 'Old man eloquent' + Now rests for aye;-- + His dust the tomb may claim;-- + His spirit's quenchless flame, + His 'venerable name,'[40] + Pass not away."[41] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] See _Social Compact_, etc. Providence, 1848, p. 31, _et al._ + +[13] See _Address at Washington_, 4th of July, 1821. Second Edition, +Cambridge, _passim_. + +[14] Reference is made to his _speech in the House of Representatives_, +May 8th and 9th, 1840. (Boston, 1840.) It is a little remarkable, that +the false principle of the common law, on which Mr. Adams was +commenting, as laid down by Blackstone, is corrected by a writer, M. +Pothier, who rests on the civil law for his authority. See pp. 6-8, and +20, 21. + +[15] _Answer to Paine's Rights of Man_ (London, 1793), originally +published in the Columbian Centinel. The London Edition bears the name +of _John Adams_ on the title-page. + +[16] Mr. Atherton. + +[17] See _Oration at Quincy_, 1831, p. 12, _et seq._ (Boston, 1831.) + +[18] The _Social Compact_, etc., etc. (Providence, 1842). p. 24. + +[19] See Pickering's _Letter to Governor Sullivan, on the Embargo_. +Boston, 1808. John Quincy Adams's _Letter to the Hon. H. G. Otis_, etc. +Boston, 1808. Pickering's _Interesting Correspondence_, 1808. _Review of +the Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams and the late William +Cunningham_, etc. 1824. But see, also, Mr. Adams's "Appendix" to the +above letter, published _sixteen_ years after the vote on the embargo. +Baltimore, 1824. Mr. Pickering's _Brief Remarks on the Appendix_. +August, 1824. + +[20] Reference is here made to British "_Orders in Council_" of Nov. +22d, 1807. They were not officially made known to the American Congress +till Feb. 7th, 1808. They were, however, published in the National +Intelligencer, the morning on which the Message was sent to the Senate, +Dec. 18th, 1807, but were not mentioned in that document, nor in the +debate. + +[21] I copy this from the first letter of Mr. Pickering. Mr. Adams wrote +a letter (to H. G. Otis) in reply to this of Mr. Pickering, but said +nothing respecting the words charged upon him; but in 1824, in an +appendix to that letter, he denies that he expressed the "sentiment" +which Mr. Pickering charged him with. But he _does not deny the words +themselves_. They rest on the authority of Mr. Pickering, his colleague +in the Senate, a strong party man, it is true, perhaps not much disposed +to conciliation, but a man of most unquestionable veracity. The +"sentiment" speaks for itself. + +[22] Adams's _Remarks in the House of Representatives_, Jan. 5, 1846. + +[23] _Correspondence between the Hon. John Adams and the late William +Cunningham, Esq._ Boston, 1823, Letter xliii. p. 150. + +[24] March 15th, 1826. + +[25] See Mr. Adams's _Message_, Dec. 2, 1828. The exact sum was +$1,197,422.18. + +[26] See Mr. Clay's Letter to Mr. A. H. Everett, April 27th, 1825; to +Mr. Middleton, respecting the intervention of the Emperor of Russia, May +10th, and Dec. 26th, 1825; to Mr. Gallatin, May 10th, and June 19th, +1826, and Feb. 24th, 1827. _Executive Documents_, Second Session of the +20th Congress, Vol. I. + +[27] Report of Mr. Adams's _Lecture on the Chinese War_, in the Boston +Atlas, for Dec. 4th and 5th, 1841. + +[28] Genesis i. 26-28. + +[29] Psalms ii. 6-8. + +[30] See Mr. Adams's _Speech on Oregon_, Feb. 9th, 1846. Arguments +somewhat akin to this, may be found also in the oration delivered at +Newburyport, before cited. + +[31] _Address on breaking ground for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal._ + +[32] _Jubilee of the Constitution_, p. 99. + +[33] _Lecture on China._ + +[34] See his defence of this in his _Address to his Constituents at +Braintree_, Sept. 17th, 1842. Boston, 1842, p. 56, _et seq._ + +[35] In a public address, Mr. Adams once quoted the well-known words of +Tacitus (Annal VI. 39), _Par negotiis neque supra_,--applying them to a +distinguished man lately deceased. A lady wrote to inquire whence they +came. Mr. Adams informed her, and added, they could not be adequately +translated in less than seven words in English. The lady replied that +they might be well translated in five--_Equal to, not above, duty_, but +better in three--JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. + +[36] _Remarks_ of Mr. Cambreleng. + +[37] Mr. Van Buren. + +[38] See the _Debates of the House_, January 23d and following, 1837; or +Mr. Adams's own account of the matter in his _Letters to his +Constituents_, etc. (Boston, 1837.) See, too, his _Series of Speeches on +the Right of Petition and the Annexation of Texas_, January 14th and +following, 1838. (Printed in a pamphlet. Washington, 1838.) + +[39] "Acer et indomitus, quo spes, quoque ira vocasset, Ferre manum, et +nunquam temerando parcere ferro; Successus urgere suos; instare favori +Numinis; impellens quiequid sibi summa petenti Obstaret, gaudensque viam +fecisse ruina." + +[40] _Clarum et venerabile nomen._ + +[41] The above lines are from the pen of the Rev. John Pierpont. + + + + +VII. + +SPEECH AT A MEETING OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, TO CELEBRATE +THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY BY THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, APRIL 6, 1848. + + +MR. CHAIRMAN,--The Gentleman before me[42] has made an allusion to Rome. +Let me also turn to that same city. Underneath the Rome of the Emperors, +there was another Rome; not seen by the sun, known only to a few men. +Above, in the sunlight, stood Rome of the Cæsars, with her markets and +her armies, her theatres, her temples, and her palaces, glorious and of +marble. A million men went through her brazen gates. The imperial city, +she stood there, beautiful and admired, the queen of nations. But +underneath all that, in caverns of the earth, in the tombs of dead men, +in quarries whence the upper city had been slowly hewn, there was +another population, another Rome, with other thoughts; yes, a devout +body of men, who swore not by the public altars; men whose prayers were +forbidden; their worship disallowed, their ideas prohibited, their very +lives illegal. Time passed on; and gradually Rome of the Pagans +disappeared, and Rome of the Christians sat there in her place, on the +Seven Hills, and stretched out her sceptre over the nations. + +So underneath the laws and the institutions of each modern nation, +underneath the monarchy and the republic, there is another and unseen +State, with sentiments not yet become popular, and with ideas not yet +confirmed in actions, not organized into institutions, ideas scarcely +legal, certainly not respectable. Slowly from its depths comes up this +ideal State, the State of the Future; and slowly to the eternal deep +sinks down the actual State, the State of the Present. But sometimes an +earthquake of the nations degrades of a sudden the actual; and speedily +starts up the ideal Kingdom of the Future. Such a thing has just come to +pass. In France, within five-and-forty days, a new State has arisen from +underneath the old. Men, whose words were suppressed, and their ideas +reckoned illegal but two months ago, now hold the sceptre of +five-and-thirty millions of grateful citizens, hold it in clean and +powerful hands. A great revolution has taken place; one which will +produce effects that we cannot foresee. It is itself the greatest act of +this century. God only knows what it will lead to. We are here to +express the sympathy of republicans for a new republic. We are here to +rejoice over the rising hopes of a new State, not to exult over the +fallen fortunes of the Bourbons. Louis Philippe has done much which we +may thank him for. He has kept mainly at peace the fiercest nation of +the world; has kept the peace of Europe for seventeen years. Let us +thank him for that. He has consolidated the French nation, helped to +give them a new unity of thought and unity of action, which they had not +before. Perhaps he did not intend all this. Since he has brought it +about, let us thank him for it, even if his conduct transcended his +intention. But, most of all, I would thank this "Citizen King" for +another thing. His greatest lesson is his last. He has shown that +five-and-thirty millions of Frenchmen, in this nineteenth century, are +only to be ruled by Justice and the Eternal Law of Right. We have seen +this crafty king, often wise and always cunning, driven from his throne. +He was the richest man in Europe, and the embodiment of the idea of +modern wealth. He had an army the best disciplined, probably, in the +world, and, as he thought, completely in his power. He had a Chamber of +Peers of his own appointment; a Chamber of Deputies almost of his own +election. He ruled a nation that contained three hundred thousand +office-holders, appointed by himself, and only two hundred and forty +thousand voters! Who sat so safe as the citizen king on his throne, +surrounded by republican institutions! So confident was he, as the +journals tell, that he bade a friend stop a day or two, "and see how I +will put down the people!" For once, this shrewd calculator reckoned +without his host. + +Well, we have seen this man, this citizen monarch, who married his +children only to kings, rush from his place; his peers and his deputies +were unavailing; his office-holders could not sustain him; his army +"fraternized with the people;" and he, forgetful of his own children, +ignominiously is hustled out of the kingdom, in a street cab, with +nothing but a five-franc piece in his pocket. For the lesson thus +taught, let us thank him most of all. + +Men tell us it is too soon to rejoice: "Perhaps the Revolution will not +hold;" "it will not last;" "the kings of Europe will put it down." When +a sound, healthy child is born, the friends of the family congratulate +the parents then; they do not wait till the child has grown up, and got +a beard. Now this is a live child; it is well born in both senses, come +of good parentage, and gives signs of a good constitution. Let us +rejoice at its birth, and not wait to see if it will grow up. Let us now +baptize it in the crystal fountain of our own Hope. + +In a great revolution, there are always two things to be looked at, +namely, the actions, and the ideas which produce the actions. The +actions I will say little of; you have all read of them in the +newspapers. Some of the actions were bad. It is not true that all at +once the French have become angels. There are low and base men, who +swarm in the lanes and alleys of Paris; for that great city also is like +all capitals, girt about with a belt of misery, of vice and of crime, +eating into her painful loins. It was a bad thing to sack the Tuileries; +to burn bridges, and chateaux, and railroad stations. Property is under +the insurance of mankind, and the human race must pay in public for +private depredations. It was a bad thing to kill men; the human race +cannot make up that loss; only suffer and be penitent. I am sorry for +these bad actions; but I am not surprised at them. You cannot burn down +the poor dwelling of a widow in Boston, but some miserable man will +steal pot or pan, in the confusion of the fire. How much more should we +expect pillage and violence in the earthquake which throws down a king! + +I have said enough of the actions; but there was one deed too symbolical +to be passed by. In the garden of the Tuileries, before the great gate +of the palace, there stands a statue of Spartacus, a colossal bronze, +his broken chain in the left hand, his Roman sword in the right. +Spartacus was a Roman gladiator. He broke his chains; gathered about him +other gladiators, fugitive slaves, and assembled an army. He and his +comrades fought for freedom; they cut off four consular armies sent +against them; at last the hero fell amid a heap of men, slain by his own +well-practised hand. When the people took the old and emblematic French +throne, and burned it solemnly with emblematic fire, they stripped off +some of the crimson trappings of the royal seat, made a tiara thereof, +and bound it on the gladiator's brazen head! But red is the color of +revolution, the color of blood; the unconscious gladiator was an image +too savage for new France. So they hid the Roman sword in his hand, and +wreathed it all over with a chaplet of flowers! + +Let us say a word of the ideas. Three ideas filled the mind of the +nation: the idea of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Three noble words. +Liberty meant liberty of all. So, at one word, they set free the slaves, +and, if my friend's ciphers are correct, at once three hundred thousand +souls rise up from the ground disenthralled, free men. That is a great +act. A population as large as the whole family of our sober sister +Connecticut, all at once find their chains drop off, and they are free: +not beasts, but men. This may not hold. Our Declaration of Independence +was not the Confederation of '78--still less was it the Constitution of +'87. The French may be as false as the Americans to their idea of +liberty. At any rate, it is a good beginning. Let us rejoice at that. + +Equality means that all are equal before the law; equal in rights, +however unequal in mights. So all titles of nobility come at once to the +ground. The royal family is like the family of our Presidents. The +Chamber of Peers is abolished. Universal suffrage is decreed; all men +over twenty-one are voters. Men here in America say, "The French are not +ready for that." No doubt the king thought so. At any rate, he was not +ready for it. But it is not a thing altogether unknown in France. It has +been tried several times before. The French Constitution was accepted by +the whole people in 1800; Napoleon was made Consul by the whole people; +made Emperor by the whole people. Even in 1815, the "acte additionelle" +to the "Charte" was accepted by the whole people. To decree universal +suffrage was the most natural thing in the world. Those two ideas, +liberty and equality, have long been American ideas; they were never +American facts. America sought liberty only for the whites. Our fathers +thought not of universal suffrage. + +But France has not only attempted to make our ideas into facts; she has +advanced an idea not hinted at in the American Declaration; the idea of +Fraternity. By this she means human brotherhood. This points not merely +to a political, but to a social revolution. It is not easy for us to +understand how a government can effect this. Here, all comes from the +people, and the people have to take care of the government, meaning +thereby the men in official power; have to furnish them with ideas, and +tell them what application to make thereof. There all comes from the +government. So the new provisional government of France must be one that +can lead the nation; have ideas in advance of the nation. Accordingly, +it proposes many plans which with us could never have come from any +party in power. Here, the government is only the servant of the people. +There, it aims to be the father and teacher thereof; a patriarchal +government with Christian thoughts and feelings. But as an eloquent man +is to come after me, whose special aim is to develop the idea of human +brotherhood into social institutions, I will not dwell on this, save to +mention an act of the provisional authorities. They have abolished the +punishment of death for all political offences. You remember the +guillotine, the massacres of September, the drowning in the Loire and +the Seine, the dreadful butchery in the name of the law. + +Put this new decree side by side with the old, and you see why +Spartacus, though crowned by a revolution, bears peaceful blossoms in +his hand. + +But let us hasten on; time would fail me to speak of the cause or point +out the effect of this movement of the people. Only a word concerning +the objections made to it. Some say, "It is only an extempore affair. +Men drunk with new power are telling their fancies, and trying in their +heat to make laws thereof." It is not so. The ideas I have hinted at +have been long known and deeply cherished by the best minds in France. +Last autumn, M. Lamartine, in his own newspaper, for the deputy for +Macon is an editor, published the "Programme and confession of his +political faith."[43] + +Others say, "The whole thing seems rash." Well, so it does; so does any +good thing seem rash to all except the man who does it, and such as +would do it if he did not. What is rash to one is not to another. It is +dangerous for an old man to run, fatal for him to leap, while his +grandson jumps over wall and ditch without hurt. The American Revolution +was a rash act; the English Revolution a rash act; the Protestant +Reformation was a rash act. Was it safe to withstand the Revolution? Did +the king of the French find it so? Yet others say, "The leaders are +unknown," "Lamartine, you might as well put any man in the street at the +head of the nation." But when the American Revolution begun, who, in +England, had ever heard of John Hancock, President of the Congress? To +the men who knew him, John Hancock was a country trader, the richest man +in a town of ten thousand inhabitants: That did not sound very great at +London. Samuel Adams, and John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, and all the +other men, what did the world know of them? Only that they had been +christened with Hebrew names. Why, George Washington was only, as Gen. +Braddock called him, "A young Buckskin." But the world heard of these +men afterwards. Let us leave the French statesmen to make to the future +what report of themselves they can! Let me tell a story of Dupont de +l'Eure, the head of the government at this moment. He was one of the +movers of the Revolution of 1830. He dined with the citizen king, once, +in some council. At the table, he and the king differed; the king +affirmed, and Dupont denied. Said the king, "Do you tell me I lie?" Said +Dupont, "When the king says yes, and Dupont de l'Eure replies no, France +will know which to believe!" The king said, "Yes, we will put the people +down;" Dupont said, "No, you shall not put the people down;" and now +France knows which to believe. + +Again, say others yet, "War may come; royalty may come back, despotism +may come back. Other kings will interpose, and put down a republic." +Other kings interpose to put down the French! Perhaps they will. They +tried it in 1793, but did not like the experiment very well. They will +be well off if they do not find it necessary to put down a republic a +little nearer at hand; their anti-revolutionary work may begin at home. +War followed the American Revolution. It cost money, it cost men. But +if we calculate the value of American ideas, they are worth what they +cost. Even the French Revolution, with all its carnage, robbery and +butchery, is worth what it cost. But it is possible that war will not +come. From a foreign war, France has little to fear. There seems little +danger that it will come at all. What monarchy will dare fight +republican France? Internal trouble may indeed come. It is to be +expected that the new republic will make many a misstep. But is it +likely that all the old tragedies will be enacted again? Surely not; the +burnt child dreads the fire. Besides, the France of '48 is not the +France of '89. There is no triple despotism weighing on the nation's +neck, a trinity of despotic powers--the throne, the nobility, the +church. The king has fled; the nobles have ceased to be; the church +seems republican. There is no hatred between class and class, as before. +The men of '89 sought freedom for the middle class, not for all classes, +neither for the high, nor for the low. Religion pervades the church and +the people, as never before. Better ideas prevail. It is not the gospel +of Jean Jaques, and the scoffing negations of Voltaire, that are now +proclaimed to the people; but the broad maxims of Christian men; the +words of human brotherhood. The men of terror knew no weapon but the +sword; the provisional government casts the sword from its hands, and +will not shed blood for political crimes. + +Still, troubles may come; war may come from without, and, worse still, +from within; the republic may end. But if it lasts only a day, let us +rejoice in that day. Suppose it is only the dream of the nation; it is +worth while to dream of liberty, of equality, of fraternity; and to +dream that we are awake, and trying to make them all into institutions +and common life. What is only a dream now, will be a fact at last. + +Next Sunday is the election day of France; six millions of voters are to +choose nine hundred representatives! Shall not the prayers of all +Christian hearts go up with them on that day, a great deep prayer for +their success? The other day, the birthday of Washington, the calm, +noiseless spirit of death came to release the soul of the patriarch of +American statesmen. While his sun was slowly sinking in the western sky, +the life-star of a new nation was visibly rising there, far off in the +east. A pagan might be pardoned for the thought, that the intrepid soul +of that old man foresaw the peril, and, slowly quitting its hold of the +worn-out body, went thither to kindle anew the flames of liberty he +fanned so often here. That is but a pagan thought. This is a Christian +thought: The same God who formed the world for man's abode, presides +also in the movements of mankind, and directs their voluntary march. +See how this earth has been brought to her present firm and settled +state. By storm and earthquake, continent has been rent from continent; +oceans have swept over the mountains, and the scars of ancient war still +mark our parent's venerable face. So is it in the growth of human +Society: it is the child of pain; revolutions have rocked its cradle, +war and violence rudely nursed it into hardy life. Good institutions, +how painfully, how slowly have they come! + + "Slowly as spreads the green of earth + O'er the receding ocean's bed, + Dim as the distant stars come forth, + Uncertain as a vision slow, + Has been the old world's toiling pace, + Ere she can give fair freedom place." + +Let us welcome the green spot, when it begins to spread; let us shout as +the sterile sea of barbarism goes back; let us rejoice in the vision of +good things to come; let us welcome the distant and rising orb, for it +is the Bethlehem star of a great nation, and they who behold it may well +say--"Peace on earth, and good-will to men." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[42] Mr. Wendell Phillips. + +[43] See the _Courier des Etats Unis_, for Nov. 24, 1847, which contains +passages from M. Lamartine's programme, which set forth all the schemes +that the provisional government had afterwards tried to carry out. + + + + +VIII. + +SPEECH AT FANEUIL HALL, BEFORE THE NEW ENGLAND ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION, +MAY 31, 1848. + + +The design of the Abolitionists is this,--to remove and destroy the +institution of slavery. To accomplish this well, two things are needed, +ideas and actions. Of the ideas first, and then a word of the actions. + +What is the idea of the abolitionists? Only this, That all men are +created free, endowed with unalienable rights; and in respect of those +rights, that all men are equal. This is the idea of Christianity, of +human nature. Of course, then, no man has a right to take away another's +rights; of course, no man may use me for his good, and not my own good +also; of course, there can be no ownership of man by man; of course, no +slavery in any form. Such is the idea, and some of the most obvious +doctrines that follow from it. + +Now, the abolitionists aim to put this idea into the minds of the +people, knowing that if it be there, actions will follow fast enough. + +It seems a very easy matter to get it there. The idea is nothing new; +all the world knows it. Talk with men, democrats and whigs, they will +say they like freedom in the abstract, they hate slavery in the +abstract. But you find that somehow they like slavery in the concrete, +and dislike abolitionism when it tries to set free the slave. Slavery is +the affair of the whole people; not Congress, but the nation, made +slavery; made it national, constitutional. Not Congress, but the voters, +must unmake slavery; make it un-constitutional, un-national. They say +Congress cannot do it. Well, perhaps it is so; but they that make can +break. If the people made slavery, they can unmake it. + +You talk with the people; the idea of freedom is there. They tell you +they believe the Declaration of Independence--that all men are created +equal. But somehow they contrive to believe that negroes now in bondage +are an exception to the rule, and so they tell us that slavery must not +be meddled with, that we must respect the compromises of the +Constitution. So we see that respect for the Constitution overrides +respect for the inalienable rights of three millions of negro men. + +Now, to move men, it is necessary to know two things--first, What they +think, and next, Why they think it. Let us look a little at both. + +In New England, men over twenty-one years old may be divided into two +classes. First, the men that vote, and secondly, the men that choose the +Governor. The voters in Massachusetts are some hundred and twenty +thousand; the men that choose the Governor, who tell the people how to +vote, whom to vote for, what laws to make, what to forbid, what policy +to pursue--they are not very numerous. You may take one hundred men out +of Boston, and fifty men from the other large towns in the State--and if +you could get them to be silent till next December, and give no counsel +on political affairs, the people would not know what to do. The +democrats would not know what to do, nor the whigs. We are a very +democratic people, and suffrage is almost universal; but it is a very +few men who tell us how to vote, who make all the most important laws. +Do I err in estimating the number at one hundred and fifty? I do not +like to exaggerate--suppose there are six hundred men, three hundred in +each party; that six hundred manage the political action of the State, +in ordinary times. + +I need not stop to ask what the rest of the people think about freedom +and slavery. What do the men who control our politics think thereof? I +answer, They are not opposed to slavery; to the slavery of three +millions of men. They may not like slavery in the abstract, or they may +like it, I do not pretend to judge; but slavery in the concrete, at the +South, they do like; opposition to that slavery, in the mildest form, +or the sternest, they do hate. + +That is a serious charge to bring against the prominent rulers of the +State. Let me call your attention to a few facts which prove it. Look at +the men we send to Congress. There are thirty-one New England men in +Congress. By the most liberal construction you can only make out five +anti-slavery men in the whole number. Who ever heard of an anti-slavery +Governor of Massachusetts in this century? Men know what they are about +when they select candidates for election. Do the voters always know what +they are about when they choose them? + +Then these men always are in favor of a pro-slavery President. The +President must be a slaveholder. There have been fifteen presidential +elections. Men from the free States have filled the chair twelve years, +or three terms; men from the slave States forty-four years, or eleven +terms. During one term, the chair was filled by an amphibious +presidency, by General Harrison, who was nothing but a concrete +availability, and John Tyler, who was--John Tyler. They called him an +accident; but there are no accidents in politics. A slaveholder presides +over the United States forty-eight years out of sixty! Do those men who +control the politics of New England not like it? It is no such thing. +They love to have it so. We have just seen the democratic party, or +their leaders, nominate General Cass for their candidate--and General +Cass is a northern man; but on that account is he any the less a +pro-slavery man? He did oppose the South once, but it was in pressing a +war with England. Everybody knows General Cass, and I need say no more +about him. But the northern whigs have their leaders--are they +anti-slavery men? Not a whit more. Next week you will see them nominate, +not the great Eastern whig, though he is no opponent of slavery, only an +Expounder and Defender of the Constitution; not the great Western whig, +the Compromiser, though steeped to the lips in slavery; no, they will +nominate General Taylor, a man who lives a little further south, and is +at this moment dyed a little more scarlet with the sin of slavery. + +But go a step further as to the proof. Those men who control the +politics of Massachusetts, or New England, or the whole North, they have +never opposed the aggressive movements of the slave power. The +annexation of Texas, did they oppose that? No, they were glad of it. +True, some earnest men came up here in Faneuil Hall, and passed +resolutions, which did no good whatever, because it was well known that +the real controllers of our politics thought the other way. Then +followed the Mexican war. It was a war for slavery, and they knew it; +they like it now--that is, if a man's likings can be found out by his +doings, not his occasional and exceptional deeds, but his regular and +constant actions. They knew that there would be a war against the +currency, a war against the tariff, or a war against Mexico. They chose +the latter. They knew what they were about. + +The same thing is shown by the character of the Press. No "respectable" +paper is opposed to slavery; no whig paper, no democratic paper. You +would as soon expect a Catholic newspaper to oppose the Pope and his +church, for the slave power is the Pope of America, though not exactly a +pious Pope. The churches show the same thing; they also are in the main +pro-slavery, at least not anti-slavery. There are some forty +denominations or sects in New England. Mr. President, is one of these +anti-slavery? Not one! The land is full of ministers, respectable men, +educated men--are they opposed to slavery? I do not know a single man, +eminent in any sect, who is also eminent in his opposition to slavery. +There was one such man, Dr. Channing; but just as he became eminent in +the cause of freedom, he lost power in his own church, lost caste in his +own little sect; and though men are now glad to make sectarian capital +out of his reputation after he is dead, when he lived, they cursed him +by their gods! Then, too, all the most prominent men of New England +fraternize with slavery. Massachusetts received such an insult from +South Carolina as no State ever before received from another State in +this Union; an affront which no nation would dare offer another, without +grinding its sword first. And what does Massachusetts do? She +does--nothing. But her foremost man goes off there, "The schoolmaster +that gives no lessons,"[44] to accept the hospitality of the South, to +take the chivalry of South Carolina by the hand; the Defender of the +Constitution fraternizes with the State which violates the Constitution, +and imprisons his own constituents on account of the color of their +skin. + +Put all these things together, and they show that the men who control +the politics of Massachusetts, of all New England, do not oppose or +dislike slavery. + + * * * * * + +So much for what they think; and now for the Why they think so. + +First, there is the general indifference to what is absolutely right. +Men think little of it. The Anglo-Saxon race, on both sides of the +water, have always felt the instinct of freedom, and often contended +stoutly enough for their own rights. But they never cared much for the +rights of other men. The slaves are at a distance from us, and so the +wrong of this institution is not brought home to men's feelings as if it +were our own wrong. + +Then the pecuniary interests of the North are supposed to be connected +with slavery, so that the North would lose dollars if the South lost +slaves. No doubt this is a mistake; still, it is an opinion currently +held. The North wants a market for its fabrics, freight for its ships. +The South affords it; and, as men think, better than if she had +manufactures and ships of her own, both of which she could have, were +there no slaves. All this seems to be a mistake. Freedom, I think, can +be shown to be the interest of both North and South. + +Yet another reason is found in devotion to the interests of a party. +Tell a whig he could make whig capital out of anti-slavery, he would +turn abolitionist in a moment, if he believed you. Tell a democrat that +he can make capital out of abolition, and he also will come over to your +side. But the fact is, each party knows it would gain nothing for its +political purposes by standing out for the rights of man. The time will +come, and sooner too than some men think, when it will be for the +interest of a party to favor abolition; but that time is not yet. It +does seem strange, that while you can find men who will practise a good +deal of self-denial for their sect or their party, lending, and hoping +nothing in return, you so rarely find a man who will compromise even his +popularity for the sake of mankind. + +Then again, there is the fear of change. Men who control our politics +seem to have little confidence in man, little in truth, little in +justice, and the eternal right. Therefore, while it is never out of +season to do something for the tariff, for the moneyed interests of men, +they think it is never in time to do much for the great work of +elevating mankind itself. They have no confidence in the people, and +take little pains to make the people worthy of confidence. So any change +which gives a more liberal government to a people, which gives freedom +to the slave, they look on with distrust, if not alarm. In 1830, when +the French expelled the despotic king who encumbered their throne, what +said Massachusetts, what said New England, in honor of the deed? +Nothing. Your old men? Nothing. Your young men? Not a word. What did +they care for the freedom of thirty millions of men? They were looking +at their imports and exports. In 1838, when England set free eight +hundred thousand men in a day, what did Massachusetts say about that? +What had New England to say? Not a word in its favor from these +political leaders of the land. Nay, they thought the experiment was +dangerous, and ever since that it is with great reluctance you can get +them to confess that the scheme works well. In 1848, when France again +expels her king, and all the royalty in the kingdom is carted off in a +one-horse cab--when the broadest principles of human government are laid +down, and a great nation sets about the difficult task of moving out of +her old political house, and into a new one, without tearing down the +old, without butchering men in the process of removal,--why, what has +Boston to say to that? What have the political leaders of Massachusetts, +of New England, to say? They have nothing to say for liberty; they are +sorry the experiment was made; they are afraid the French will not want +so much cotton; they have no confidence in man, and fear every change. + +Such are their opinions, to judge by what they do; such the reasons +thereof, judging by what they say. + + * * * * * + +But now how can we change this, and get the idea of freedom into men's +minds? Something can be done by the gradual elevation of men, by schools +and churches, by the press. The churches and colleges of New England +have not directly aided us in the work of abolishing slavery. No doubt +by their direct action they have retarded that work, and that a good +deal. But indirectly they have done much to hasten the work. They have +helped educate men; helped make men moral, in a general way; and now +this moral power can be turned to this special business, though the +churches say, "No, you shall not." I see before me a good and an earnest +man,[45] who, not opening his mouth in public against slavery, has yet +done a great service in this way: he has educated the teachers of the +Commonwealth, has taught them to love freedom, to love justice, to love +man and God. That is what I call sowing the seeds of anti-slavery. The +honored and excellent Secretary of Education,[46] who has just gone to +stand in the place of a famous man, and I hope to fill it nobly, has +done much in this way. I wish in his reports on education he had exposed +the wrong which is done here in Boston, by putting all the colored +children in one school, by shutting them out of the Latin School and the +English High School. I wish he had done that duty, which plainly belongs +to him to do. But without touching that, he has yet done, indirectly, a +great work towards the abolition of slavery. He has sown the seeds of +education wide spread over the State. One day these seeds will come up; +come up men, men that will both vote and choose the Governor; men that +will love right and justice; will see the iniquity of American slavery, +and sweep it off the continent, cost what it may cost, spite of all +compromises of the Constitution, and all compromisers. I look on that as +certain. But that is slow work, this waiting for a general morality to +do a special act. It is going without dinner till the wheat is grown for +your bread. + +So we want direct and immediate action upon the people themselves. The +idea must be set directly before them, with all its sanctions displayed, +and its obligations made known. This can be done in part by the pulpit. +Dr. Channing shows how much one man can do, standing on that eminence. +You all know how much he did do. I am sorry that he came so late, sorry +that he did not do more, but thankful for what he did do. However, you +cannot rely on the pulpit to do much. The pulpit represents the average +goodness and piety; not eminent goodness and piety. It is unfair to call +ordinary men to do extraordinary works. I do not concur in all the hard +things that are said about the clergy, perhaps it is because I am one of +them; but I do not expect a great deal from them. It is hard to call a +class of men all at once to rise above all other classes of men, and +teach a degree of virtue which they do not understand. But you may call +them to be true to their own consciences. + +So the pulpit is not to be relied on for much aid. If all the ministers +of New England were abolitionists, with the same zeal that they are +Protestants, Universalists, Methodists, Calvinists, or Unitarians, no +doubt the whole State would soon be an anti-slavery State, and the day +of emancipation would be wonderfully hastened. But that we are not to +look for. + +Much can be done by lecturers, who shall go to the people and address +them, not as whigs or democrats, not as sectarians, but as men, and in +the name of man and God present the actual condition of the slaves, and +show the duty of the North and the South, of the nation, in regard to +this matter. For this business, we want money and men, the two sinews of +war; money to pay the men, men to earn the money. They must appeal to +the people in their primary capacity, simply as men. + +Much also may be done by the press. How much may be done by these two +means, and that in a few years, these men[47] can tell; all the North +and South can tell. Men of the most diverse modes of thought can work +together in this cause. Here on my right is Mr. Phillips, an +old-fashioned Calvinist, who believes all the five points of Calvinism. +I am rather a new-fashioned Unitarian, and believe only one of the five +points, the one Mr. Phillips has proved--the perseverance of the saints; +but we get along without any quarrel by the way. + +Some men will try political action. The action of the people, of the +nation, must be political action. It may be constitutional, it may be +un-constitutional. I see not why men need quarrel about that. Let not +him that voteth, condemn him that voteth not; nor let not him that +voteth not, condemn him that voteth, but let every man be faithful to +his own convictions. + +It is said, the abolitionists waste time and wind in denunciation. It is +partly true. I make no doubt it inspires the slaveholder's heart to see +division amongst his foes. I ought to say his friends, for such we are. +He thinks the day of justice is deferred, while the ministers thereof +contend. I do not believe a revolution is to be baptized with +rose-water. I do not believe a great work is to be done without great +passions. It is not to be supposed that the Leviathan of American +Slavery will allow himself to be drawn out of the mire in which he has +made his nest, and grown fat and strong, without some violence and +floundering. When we have caught him fairly, he will put his feet into +the mud to hold on by; he will reach out and catch hold of every thing +that will hold him. He has caught hold of Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster. He +will catch hold of General Cass and General Taylor. He will die, though +slowly, and die hard. Still it is a pity that men who essay to pull him +out, should waste their strength in bickerings with one another, or in +needless denunciation of the leviathan's friends. Call slaveholding, +slaveholding; let us tell all the evils which arise from it, if we can +find language terrible enough; let us show up the duplicity of the +nation, the folly of our wise men, the littleness of our great men, the +baseness of our honorable men, if need be; but all that with no unkind +feelings toward any one. Virtue never appears so lovely as when +destroying sin, she loves the sinner, and seeks to save him. Absence of +love is absence of the strongest power. See how much Mr. Adams lost of +his influence, how much he wasted of his strength, by the violence with +which he pursued persons. I am glad to acknowledge the great services he +performed. He wished to have every man stand on the right side of the +anti-slavery line; but I believe there were some men whom he would like +to have put there with a pitch-fork. On the other hand, Dr. Channing +never lost a moment by attacking a personal foe; and see what he gained +by it! However, I must say this, that no great revolution of opinion and +practice was ever brought about before with so little violence, waste of +force, and denunciation. Consider the greatness of the work: it is to +restore three millions to liberty; a work, in comparison with which the +American Revolution was a little thing. Yet consider the violence, the +denunciation, the persecution, and the long years of war, which that +Revolution cost. I do not wonder that abolitionists are sometimes +violent; I only deplore it. Remembering the provocation, I wonder they +are not more so and more often. The prize is to be run for, "not without +dust and heat." + +Working in this way, we are sure to succeed. The idea is an eternal +truth. It will find its way into the public mind, for there is that +sympathy between man and the truth, that he cannot live without it and +be blessed. What allies we have on our side! True, the cupidity, the +tyranny, the fear and the atheism of the land are against us. But all +the nobleness, all the honor, all the morality, all the religion, are on +our side. I was sorry to hear it said, that the religion of the land +opposed us. It is not true. Religion never opposed any good work. I know +what my friend meant, and I wish he had said it, calling things by their +right names. It is the irreligion of the land that favors slavery; it is +the idolatry of gold; it is our atheism. Of speculative atheism there is +not much; you see how much of the practical! + +We are certain of success; the spirit of the age is on our side. See how +the old nations shake their tyrants out of the land. See how every +steamer brings us good tidings of good things; and do you believe +America can keep her slaves? It is idle to think so. So all we want is +time. On our side are Truth, Justice, and the Eternal Right. Yes, on our +side is religion, the religion of Christ; on our side are the hopes of +mankind, and the great power of God. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[44] This was a sentiment offered at a public dinner given by the +citizens of Charleston, S. C., to Hon. Daniel Webster. + +[45] Rev. Cyrus Pierce, Teacher of the Normal School at Newton. + +[46] Hon. Horace Mann. + +[47] Messrs. Garrison, Phillips and Quincy. + + + + +IX. + +SOME THOUGHTS ON THE FREE SOIL PARTY AND THE ELECTION OF GENERAL TAYLOR. +DECEMBER, 1848. + + +The people of the United States have just chosen an officer, who, for +the next four years, will have more power than any monarch of Europe; +yet three years ago he was scarcely known out of the army in Florida, +and even now has appeared only in the character of a successful general. +His supporters at the North intend, by means of his election, to change +the entire commercial policy of the country, and perhaps, also, its +financial policy; they contemplate, or profess to contemplate, a great +change. Yet the election has been effected without tumult or noise; not +a soldier has drawn his bayonet; scarcely has a constable needed his +official rod to keep order withal. In Europe, at the same time, the +beginning of a change in the national dynasty or the national policy is +only attempted by violence, by soldiers with arms ready for fight, by +battle and murder. One day or another, men will be wise enough to see +the cause of this difference, and insular statesmen in England, who now +sneer at the new government in America, may learn that democracy has at +least one quality--that of respecting law and order, and may live to see +ours the oldest government in the whole Caucasian race. + +Since the election is now over, it is worth while to look a moment at +the politics and political parties of the country, that we may gain +wisdom for the future, and perhaps hope; at any rate, may see the actual +condition of things. Each political party is based on an Idea, which +corresponds to a Truth, or an Interest. It commonly happens that the +idea is represented as an interest, and the interest as an idea, before +either becomes the foundation of a large party. Now when a new idea is +introduced to any party, or applied to any institution, if it be only +auxiliary to the old doctrines incarnated therein, a regular growth and +new development take place; but when the new idea is hostile to the old, +the development takes place under the form of a revolution, and that +will be greater or less in proportion to the difference between the new +idea and the old doctrine; in proportion to their relative strength and +value. As Aristotle said of seditions, a revolution comes on slight +occasions, but not of slight causes;[48] the occasion may be obvious +and obviously trivial, but the cause obscure and great. The occasion of +the French Revolution of 1848 was afforded by the attempt of the king to +prevent a certain public dinner: he had a legal right to prevent it. The +cause of the Revolution was a little different; but some men in America +and England, at first, scarcely looked beyond the occasion, and, taking +that for the cause, thought the Frenchmen fools to make so much ado +about a trifle, and that they had better eat their _soupe maigre_ at +home, and let their victuals stop their mouths. The occasion of the +American Revolution may be found in the Stamp-Act, or the Sugar-Act, the +Writs of Assistance, or the Boston Port-Bill; some men, even now, see no +further, and logically conclude the colonists made a mistake, because +for a dozen years they were far worse off than before the "Rebellion," +and have never been so lightly taxed since. Such men do not see the +cause of the Revolution, which was not an unwillingness to pay taxes, +but a determination to govern themselves. + +At the present day it is plain that a revolution, neither slow nor +silent, is taking place in the political parties of America. The +occasion thereof is the nomination of a man for the presidency who has +no political or civil experience, but who has three qualities that are +important in the eyes of the leading men who have supported and pushed +him forward: one is, that he is an eminent slaveholder, whose interests +and accordingly whose ideas are identical with those of the +slaveholders; the next, that he is not hostile to the doctrines of +northern manufacturers respecting a protective tariff; and the third, +that he is an eminent and very successful military commander. The last +is an accidental quality, and it is not to be supposed that the +intelligent and influential men at the North and South who have promoted +his election, value him any more on that account, or think that mere +military success fits him for his high office, and enables him to settle +the complicated difficulties of a modern State. They must know better; +but they must have known that many men of little intelligence are so +taken with military glory that they will ask for no more in their hero; +it was foreseen, also, that honest and intelligent men of all parties +would give him their vote because he had never been mixed up with the +intrigues of political life. Thus "far-sighted" politicians of the North +and South saw that he might be fairly elected, and then might serve the +purposes of the slaveholder, or the manufacturer of the North. The +military success of General Taylor, an accidental merit, was only the +occasion of his nomination by the whigs; his substantial merit was found +in the fact, that he was supposed, or known, to be favorable to the +"peculiar institution" of the South, and the protective policy of the +manufacturers at the North: this was the cause of his formal nomination +by the Whig Convention of Philadelphia, and his real nomination by +members of the whig party at Washington. The men of property at the +South wanted an extension of slavery; the men of property at the North, +a high protective tariff; and it was thought General Taylor could serve +both purposes, and promote the interests of the North and South. + +Such is the occasion of the revolution in political parties: the cause +is the introduction of a new idea into these parties entirely hostile to +some of their former doctrines. In the electioneering contest, the new +idea was represented by the words "Free Soil." For present practice it +takes a negative form: "No more Slave States, no more Slave Territory," +is the motto. But these words and this motto do not adequately represent +the idea, only so much thereof as has been needful in the present +crisis. + +Before now there has been much in the political history of America to +provoke the resentment of the North. England has been ruled by various +dynasties; the American chair has been chiefly occupied by the Southern +House, the Dynasty of Slaveholders: now and then a member of the +Northern House has sat on that seat, but commonly it has been a +"Northern man with Southern principles," never a man with mind to see +the great idea of America, and will to carry it out in action. Still the +spirit of liberty has not died out of the North; the attempt to put an +eighth slaveholder in the chair of "The model republic," gave occasion +for that spirit to act again. + +The new idea is not hostile to the distinctive doctrine of either +political party; neither to free trade, nor to protection; so it makes +no revolution in respect to them: it is neutral, and leaves both as it +found them. It is not hostile to the general theory of the American +State, so it makes no revolution there; this idea is assumed as +self-evident, in the Declaration of Independence. It is not inimical to +the theory of the Constitution of the United States, as set forth in the +preamble thereto, where the design of the Constitution is declared to be +"To form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic +tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general +welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our +posterity." + +There are clauses in the Constitution, which are exceptions to this +theory, and hostile to the design mentioned above; to such, this idea +will one day prove itself utterly at variance, as it is now plainly +hostile to one part of the practice of the American government, and that +of both the parties. + +We have had several political parties since the Revolution: the +federalists, and anti-federalists,--the latter shading off into +republicans, democrats, and loco focos; the former tapering into modern +whigs, in which guise some of their fathers would scarcely recognize the +family type. We have had a protective party and an anti-protective +party; once there was a free-trade party, which no longer appears in +politics. There has been a National Bank party, which seems to have gone +to the realm of things lost on earth. In the rise and fall of these +parties, several dramas, tragic and comic, have been performed on the +American boards, where "One man in his time plays many parts," and stout +representatives of the Hartford Convention find themselves on the same +side with worshippers of the Gerrymander, and shouting the same cry. It +is kindly ordered that memory should be so short, and brass so common. +None of the old parties is likely to return; the living have buried the +dead. "We are all federalists," said Mr. Jefferson, "we are all +democrats," and truly, so far as old questions are concerned. It is well +known that the present representatives of the old federal party, have +abjured the commercial theory of their predecessors; and the men who +were "Jacobins" at the beginning of the century, curse the new French +Revolution by their gods. At the presidential election of 1840, there +were but two parties in the field--democrats and whigs. As they both +survive, it is well to see what interests or what ideas they represent. + +They differ accidentally in the possession and the desire of power; in +the fact that the former took the initiative, in annexing Texas, and in +making the Mexican war, while the latter only pretended to oppose +either, but zealously and continually coöperated in both. Then, again, +the democratic party sustains the sub-treasury system, insisting that +the government shall not interfere with banking, shall keep its own +deposits, and give and take only specie in its business with the people. +The whig party, if we understand it, has not of late developed any +distinctive doctrine, on the subject of money and financial operations, +but only complained of the action of the sub-treasury; yet, as it +sustained the late Bank of the United States, and appropriately followed +as chief mourner at the funeral thereof, uttering dreadful lamentations +and prophecies which time has not seen fit to accomplish, it still keeps +up a show of differing from the democrats on this matter. These are only +accidental or historical differences, which do not practically affect +the politics of the nation to any great degree. + +The substantial difference between the two is this: The whigs desire a +tariff of duties which shall directly and intentionally protect American +industry, or, as we understand it, shall directly and intentionally +protect manufacturing industry, while the commercial and agricultural +interests are to be protected indirectly, not as if they were valuable +in themselves, but were a collateral security to the manufacturing +interest: a special protection is desired for the great manufactures, +which are usually conducted by large capitalists--such as the +manufacture of wool, iron, and cotton. On the other hand, the democrats +disclaim all direct protection of any special interest, but, by raising +the national revenue from the imports of the nation, actually afford a +protection to the articles of domestic origin to the extent of the +national revenue, and much more. That is the substantial difference +between the two parties--one which has been much insisted on at the late +election, especially at the North. + +Is this difference of any practical importance at the present moment? +There are two methods of raising the revenue of a country: first, by +direct taxation,--a direct tax on the person, a direct tax on the +property; second, by indirect taxation. To a simple-minded man direct +taxation seems the only just and equal mode of collecting the public +revenue: thereby, the rich man pays in proportion to his much, the poor +to his little. This is so just and obvious, that it is the only method +resorted to, in towns of the North, for raising their revenue. But while +it requires very little common sense and virtue to appreciate this plan +in a town, it seems to require a good deal to endure it in a nation. The +four direct taxes levied by the American government since 1787 have been +imperfectly collected, and only with great difficulty and long delay. To +avoid this difficulty, the government resorts to various indirect modes +of taxation, and collects the greater part of its revenue from the +imports which reach our shores. In this way a man's national tax is not +directly in proportion to his wealth, but directly in proportion to his +consumption of imported goods, or directly to that of domestic goods, +whose price is enhanced by the duties laid on the foreign article. So it +may happen that an Irish laborer, with a dozen children, pays a larger +national tax than a millionnaire who sees fit to live in a miserly +style. Besides, no one knows when he pays or what. At first it seems as +if the indirect mode of taxation made the burden light, but in the end +it does not always prove so. The remote effect thereof is sometimes +remarkable. The tax of one per cent, levied in Massachusetts on articles +sold by auction, has produced some results not at all anticipated. + +Now since neither party ventures to suggest direct taxation, the actual +question between the two is not between free trade and protection, but +only between a protective and a revenue tariff. So the real and +practical question between them is this: Shall there be a high tariff or +a low one? At first sight a man not in favor of free trade might think +the present tariff gave sufficient protection to those great +manufactures of wool, cotton, and iron, and as much as was reasonable. +But the present duty is perhaps scarcely adequate to meet the expenses +of the nation, for with new territory new expenses must come; there is a +large debt to be discharged, its interest to be paid; large sums will be +demanded as pensions for the soldiers. Since these things are so, it is +but reasonable to conclude that, under the administration of the whigs +or democrats, a pretty high tariff of duties will continue for some +years to come. So the great and substantial difference between the two +parties ceases to be of any great and substantial importance. + +In the mean time another party rises up, representing neither of these +interests; without developing any peculiar views relative to trade or +finance, it proclaims the doctrine that there must be no more slave +territory, and no more slave States. This doctrine is of great practical +importance, and one in which the free soil party differs substantially +from both the other parties. The idea on which the party rests is not +new; it does not appear that the men who framed the Constitution, or the +people who accepted it, ever contemplated the extension of slavery +beyond the limits of the United States at that time; had such a +proposition been then made, it would have been indignantly rejected by +both. The principle of the Wilmot Proviso boasts the same origin as the +Declaration of Independence. The state of feeling at the North +occasioned by the Missouri Compromise is well known, but after that +there was no political party opposed to slavery. No President has been +hostile to it; no Cabinet; no Congress. In 1805, Mr. Pickering, a +Senator from Massachusetts, brought forward his bill for amending the +Constitution, so that slaves should not form part of the basis of +representation; but it fell to the ground, not to be lifted up by his +successors for years to come. The refusal of John Quincy Adams, while +President, to recognize the independence of Hayti, and his efforts to +favor the slave power, excited no remark. In 1844, for the first time +the anti-slavery votes began seriously to affect the presidential +election. At that time the whigs had nominated Mr. Clay as their +candidate, a man of great powers, of popular manners, the friend of +northern industry, but still more the friend of southern slavery, and +more directly identified with that than any man in so high a latitude. +The result of the anti-slavery votes is well known. The bitterest +reproaches have been heaped on the men who voted against him as the +incarnation of the slave power; the annexation of Texas, though +accomplished by a whig senate, and the Mexican war, though only sixteen +members of Congress voted against it, have both been laid to their +charge; and some have even affected to wonder that men conscientiously +opposed to slavery could not forget their principle for the sake of +their party, and put a most decided slaveholder, who had treated not +only them but their cause with scorn and contempt, in the highest place +of power. + +The whig party renewed its attempt to place a slaveholder in the +President's chair, at a time when all Europe was rising to end for ever +the tyranny of man. General Taylor was particularly obnoxious to the +anti-slavery men. He is a slaveholder, holding one or two hundred men in +bondage, and enlarging that number by recent purchases; he employs them +in the worst kind of slave labor, the manufacture of sugar; he leaves +them to the mercy of overseers, the dregs and refuse of mankind; he has +just returned from a war undertaken for the extension of slavery; he is +a southern man with southern interests, and opinions favorable to +slavery, and is uniformly represented by his supporters at the South, as +decidedly opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, and in favor of the extension +of slavery. We know this has been denied at the North; but the testimony +of the South settles the question. The convention of democrats in South +Carolina, when they also nominated him, said well, "His interests are +our interests:... we know that on this great, paramount, and leading +question of the rights of the South [to extend slavery over the new +territory], he is for us and he is with us." Said a newspaper in his own +State, "General Taylor is from birth, association, and conviction, +identified with the South and her institutions, being one of the most +extensive slaveholders in Louisiana, and supported by the slaveholding +interest; is opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, and in favor of procuring +the privilege to the owners of slaves to remove with them to newly +acquired territory." + +The southerners evidently thought the crisis an important one. The +following is from the distinguished whig senator, Mr. Berrien. + + "I consider it the most important Presidential election, + especially to southern men, which has occurred since the + foundation of the government. + + "We have great and important interests at stake. If we fail + to sustain them now, we may be forced too soon to decide + whether we will remain in the Union, at the mercy of a band + of fanatics or political jugglers, or reluctantly retire + from it for the preservation of our domestic institutions, + and all our rights as freemen. If we are united, we can + sustain them; if we divide on the old party issues, we must + be victims. + + "With a heart devoted to their interests on this great + question, and without respect to party, I implore my + fellow-citizens of Georgia, whig and democratic, to forget + for the time their party divisions: to know each other only + as southern men: to act upon the truism uttered by Mr. + Calhoun, that on this vital question,--the preservation of + our domestic institutions,--the southern man who is furthest + from us, is nearer to us than any northern man can be; that + General Taylor is identified with us, in feeling and + interest, was born in a slaveholding State, educated in a + slaveholding State, is himself a slaveholder; that his slave + property constitutes the means of support to himself and + family; that he cannot desert us without sacrificing his + interest, his principle, the habits and feelings of his + life; and that with him, therefore, our institutions are + safe. I beseech them, therefore, from the love which they + bear to our noble State, to rally under the banner of + Zachary Taylor, and, with one united voice, to send him by + acclamation to the executive chair." + +All this has been carefully kept from the sight of the people at the +North. + +There have always been men in America, who were opposed to the extension +and the very existence of slavery. In 1787, the best and the most +celebrated statesmen were publicly active on the side of freedom. Some +thought slavery a sin, others a mistake, but nearly all in the +Convention thought it an error. South Carolina and Georgia were the only +States thoroughly devoted to slavery at that time. They threatened to +withdraw from the Union, if it were not sufficiently respected in the +new Constitution. If the other States had said, "You may go, soon as you +like, for hitherto you have been only a curse to us, and done little but +brag," it would have been better for us all. However, partly for the +sake of keeping the peace, and still more for the purpose of making +money by certain concessions of the South, the North granted the +southern demands. After the adoption of the Constitution, the +anti-slavery spirit cooled down; other matters occupied the public mind. +The long disasters of Europe; the alarm of the English party, who feared +their sons should be "conscripts in the armies of Napoleon," and the +violence of the French party, who were ready to compromise the dignity +of the nation, and add new elements to the confusion in Europe; the +subsequent conflict with England, and then the efforts to restore the +national character, and improve our material condition,--these occupied +the thought of the nation, till the Missouri Compromise again disturbed +the public mind. But that was soon forgotten; little was said about +slavery. In the eighteenth century, it was discussed in the colleges and +newspapers, even in the pulpits of the North; but, in the first quarter +of the nineteenth, little was heard of it. Manufactures got established +at the North, and protected by duties; at the South, cotton was +cultivated with profit, and a heavy duty protected the slave-grown sugar +of Louisiana. The pecuniary interests of North and South became closely +connected, and both seemed dependent on the peaceable continuance of +slavery. Little was said against it, little thought, and nothing done. +Southern masters voluntarily brought their slaves to New England, and +took them back, no one offering the African the conventional shelter of +the law, not to speak of the natural shelter of justice. We well +remember the complaint made somewhat later, when a Judge decided that a +slave, brought here by his master's consent, became, from that moment, +free! + +But where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. There rose up one +man who would not compromise, nor be silent,--who would be heard.[49] He +spoke of the evil, spoke of the sin--for all true reforms are bottomed +on religion, and while they seem adverse to many interests, yet +represent the idea of the Eternal. He found a few others, a very few, +and began the anti-slavery movement. The "platform" of the new party was +not an interest, but an idea--that "All men are created equal, and +endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Every truth +is also a fact; this was a fact of human consciousness, and a truth of +necessity. + +The time has not come to write the history of the abolitionists,--other +deeds must come before words; but we cannot forbear quoting the +testimony of one witness, as to the state of anti-slavery feeling in New +England in 1831. It is the late Hon. Harrison Gray Otis, a former mayor +of Boston, who speaks in his recent letter. + + "The first information received by me, of a disposition to + agitate this subject in our State, was from the Governors of + Virginia and Georgia, severally remonstrating against an + incendiary newspaper, published in Boston, and, as they + alleged, thrown broadcast among their plantations, inciting + to insurrection and its horrid results. It appeared, on + inquiry, that no member of the city government [of Boston] + had ever heard of the publication. Some time afterwards it + was reported to me by the city officers, that they had + ferreted out the paper and its editor; that his office was + an obscure hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, and + his supporters a very few insignificant persons of all + colors. This information.... I communicated to the + above-named governors, with an assurance of my belief that + the new fanaticism had not made, nor was likely to make, + proselytes among the respectable classes of our people." + +Such was the state of things in 1831. Anti-slavery had "an obscure +hole" for its head-quarters; the one agitator, who had filled the two +doughty Governors of Virginia and Georgia with uncomfortable +forebodings, had a "negro boy" "for his only visible auxiliary," and +none of the respectable men of Boston had heard of the hole, of the +agitator, of the negro boy, or even of the agitation. One thing must be +true: either the man and the boy were pretty vigorous, or else there was +a great truth in that obscure hole; for, in spite of the governors and +the mayors, spite of the many able men in the South and the North, +spite, also, of the wealth and respectability of the whole land, it is a +plain case that the abolitionists have shaken the nation, and their idea +is the idea of the time; and the party which shall warmly welcome that +is destined before long to override all the other parties. + +One thing must be said of the leaders of the anti-slavery movement. They +asked for nothing but justice; not justice for themselves--they were not +Socratic enough to ask that,--but only justice for the slave; and to +obtain that, they forsook all that human hearts most love. It is rather +a cheap courage that fought at Monterey and Palo Alto, a bravery that +can be bought for eight dollars a month; the patriotism which hurras for +"our side," which makes speeches at Faneuil Hall, nay, which carries +torch-lights in a procession, is not the very loftiest kind of +patriotism; even the man who stands up at the stake, and in one brief +hour of agony anticipates the long torment of disease, does not endure +the hardest, but only the most obvious kind of martyrdom. But when a +man, for conscience' sake, leaves a calling that would insure him bread +and respectability; when he abjures the opinions which give him the +esteem of honorable men; when, for the sake of truth and justice, he +devotes himself to liberating the most abused and despised class of men, +solely because they are men and brothers; when he thus steps forth in +front of the world, and encounters poverty and neglect, the scorn, the +loathing, and the contempt of mankind--why, there is something not very +common in that. There was once a Man who had not where to lay his head, +who was born in "an obscure hole," and had not even a negro boy for his +"auxiliary;" who all his life lived with most obscure persons--eating +and drinking with publicans and sinners; who found no favor with mayors +or governors, and yet has had some influence on the history of the +world. When intelligent men mock at small beginnings, it is surprising +they cannot remember that the greatest institutions have had their times +which tried men's souls, and that they who have done all the noblest and +best work of mankind, sometimes forgot self-interest in looking at a +great truth; and though they had not always even a negro boy to help +them, or an obscure hole to lay their heads in, yet found the might of +the universe was on the side of right, and themselves workers with God! + +The abolitionists did not aim to found a political party; they set forth +an idea. If they had set up the interest of the whigs or the democrats, +the manufacturers or the merchants, they might have formed a party and +had a high place in it, with money, ease, social rank and a great name +in the party--newspapers. Some of them had political talents, ideas more +than enough, the power of organizing men, the skill to manage them, and +a genius for eloquence. With such talents, it demands not a little +manliness to keep out of politics and in the truth. + +To found a political party there is no need of a great moral idea: the +whig party has had none such this long time; the democratic party +pretends to none and acts on none; each represents an interest which can +be estimated in dollars; neither seems to see that behind questions of +political economy there is a question of political morality, and the +welfare of the nation depends on the answer we shall give! So long as +the abolitionists had nothing but an idea, and but few men had that, +there was no inducement for the common run of politicians to join them; +they could make nothing by it, so nothing of it. The guardians of +education, the trustees of the popular religion, did not like to invest +in such funds. But still the idea went on, spite of the most entire, +the most bitter, the most heartless and unrelenting opposition ever +known in America. No men were ever hated as the abolitionists; political +parties have joined to despise, and sectarian churches to curse them. +Yet the idea has gone on, till now all that is most pious in the sects, +most patriotic in the parties, all that is most Christian in modern +philanthropy, is on its side. It has some representative in almost every +family, save here and there one whose God is mammon alone, where the +parents are antediluvian and the children born old and conservative, +with no faculty but memory to bind them to mankind. It has its spokesmen +in the House and the Senate. The tide rises and swells, and the compact +wall of the whig party, the tall ramparts of the democrats, are +beginning to "cave in." + +As the idea has gained ground, men have begun to see that an interest is +connected with it, and begun to look after that. One thing the North +knows well--the art of calculation, and of ciphering. So it begins to +ask questions as to the positive and comparative influence of the slave +power on the country. Who fought the Revolution? Why the North, +furnishing the money and the men, Massachusetts alone sending fourteen +thousand soldiers more than all the present slave States. Who pays the +national taxes? The North, for the slaves pay but a trifle. Who owns the +greater part of the property, the mills, the shops, the ships? The +North. Who writes the books--the histories, poems, philosophies, works +of science, even the sermons and commentaries on the Bible? Still the +North. Who sends their children to school and college? The North. Who +builds the churches, who founds the Bible societies, Education +societies, Missionary societies, the thousand-and-one institutions for +making men better and better off? Why the North. In a word, who is it +that in seventy years has made the nation great, rich, and famous for +her ideas and their success all over the world? The answer is, still the +North, the North. + +Well, says the calculator, but who has the offices of the nation? The +South. Who has filled the Presidential chair forty-eight years out of +sixty? Nobody but slaveholders. Who has held the chief posts of honor? +The South. Who occupy the chief offices in the army and navy? The South. +Who increases the cost of the post-office and pays so little of its +expense?[50] The South. Who is most blustering and disposed to quarrel? +The South. Who made the Mexican war? The South. Who sets at nought the +Constitution? The South. Who would bring the greatest peril in case of +war with a strong enemy? Why the South, the South. But what is the South +most noted for abroad? For her three million slaves; and the North? for +her wealth, freedom, education, religion! + +Then the calculator begins to remember past times--opens the +account-books and turns back to old charges: five slaves count the same +as three freemen, and the three million slaves, which at home are +nothing but property, entitle their owners to as many representatives in +Congress as are now sent by all the one million eight hundred thousand +freemen who make the entire population of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, +Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, and have created a vast amount of +property worth more than all the slave States put together! Then the +North must deliver up the fugitive slaves, and Ohio must play the +traitor, the kidnapper, the bloodhound, for Kentucky! The South wanted +to make two slave States out of Florida, and will out of Texas; she +makes slavery perpetual in both; she is always bragging as if she made +the Revolution, while she only laid the Embargo, and began the late war +with England,--but that is going further back than is needful. The South +imprisons our colored sailors in her ports, contrary to justice, and +even contrary to the Constitution. She drove our commissioners out of +South Carolina and Louisiana, when they were sent to look into the +matter and legally seek for redress. She affronts the world with a most +odious despotism, and tried to make the English return her runaway +slaves, making the nation a reproach before the world; she insists on +kidnapping men even in Boston; she declares that we shall not abolish +slavery in the capital of the Union; that she will extend it in spite of +us from sea to sea. She annexed Texas for a slave-pasture, and then made +the Mexican war to enlarge that pasture, but the North must pay for it; +she treads the Constitution under her feet, the North under her feet, +justice and the unalienable rights of man under her feet. + +The North has charged all these items and many more; now they are +brought up for settlement, and, if not cancelled, will not be forgot +till the Muse of History gives up the ghost; some Northern men have the +American sentiment, and the American idea, put the man before the +dollar, counting man the substance, property the accident. The sentiment +and idea of liberty are bottomed on Christianity, as that on human +nature; they are quite sure to prevail; the spirit of the nation is on +their side--the spirit of the age and the everlasting right. + +It is instructive to see how the political parties have hitherto kept +clear of anti-slavery. It is "no part of the whig doctrine;" the +democrats abhor it. Mr. Webster, it is true, once claimed the Wilmot +Proviso as his thunder, but he cannot wield it, and so it slips out of +his hands, and runs round to the chair of his brother senator from New +Hampshire.[51] No leading politician in America has ever been a leader +against slavery. Even Mr. Adams only went as he was pushed. True, among +the whigs there are Giddings, Palfrey, Tuck, Mann, Root, and Julian; +among the democrats there is Hale--and a few others; but what are they +among so many? The members of the family of Truth are unpopular, they +make excellent servants but hard masters, while the members of the +family of Interest are all respectable, and are the best company in the +world; their livery is attractive; their motto, "The almighty dollar," +is a passport everywhere. Now it happens that some of the more advanced +members of the family of Truth fight their way into "good society," and +make matrimonial alliances with some of the poor relations of the family +of Interest. Straightway they become respectable; the church publishes +the banns; the marriage is solemnized in the most Christian form; the +attorney declares it legal. So the gospel and law are satisfied, Truth +and Interest made one, and many persons after this alliance may be seen +in the company of Truth who before knew not of her existence. + +The free soil party has grown out of the anti-slavery movement. It will +have no more slave territory, but does not touch slavery in the States, +or between them, and says nothing against the compromises of the +Constitution; the time has not come for that. The party has been +organized in haste, and is composed, as are all parties, of most +discordant materials, some of its members seeming hardly familiar with +the idea; some are not yet emancipated from old prejudices, old methods +of action, and old interests; but the greater part seem hostile to +slavery in all its forms. The immediate triumph of this new party is not +to be looked for; not desirable. In Massachusetts they have gained large +numbers in a very short period, and under every disadvantage. What their +future history is to be, we will not now attempt to conjecture; but this +is plain, that they cannot remain long in their present position; either +they will go back, and, after due penance, receive political absolution +from the church of the whigs, or the democrats,--and this seems +impossible,--or else they must go forward where the idea of justice +impels them. One day the motto "No more slave territory" will give place +to this, "No slavery in America." The revolution in ideas is not over +till that is done, nor the corresponding revolution in deeds while a +single slave remains in America. A man who studies the great movements +of mankind feels sure that that day is not far off; that no combination +of northern and southern interest, no declamation, no violence, no love +of money, no party zeal, no fraud and no lies, no compromise, can long +put off the time. Bad passions will ere long league with the holiest +love of right, and that wickedness may be put down with the strong hand +which might easily be ended at little cost and without any violence, +even of speech. One day the democratic party of the North will remember +the grievances which they have suffered from the South, and, if they +embrace the idea of freedom, no constitutional scruple will long hold +them from destroying the "peculiar institution." What slavery is in the +middle of the nineteenth century is quite plain; what it will be at the +beginning of the twentieth it is not difficult to foresee. The slave +power has gained a great victory: one more such will cost its life. +South Carolina did not forget her usual craft in voting for a northern +man that was devoted to slavery. + + * * * * * + +Let us now speak briefly of the conduct of the election. It has been +attended, at least in New England, with more intellectual action than +any election that I remember, and with less violence, denunciation, and +vulgar appeals to low passions and sordid interest. Massachusetts has +shown herself worthy of her best days; the free soil vote may be looked +on with pride, by men who conscientiously cast their ballot the other +way. Men of ability and integrity have been active on both sides, and +able speeches have been made, while the vulgarity that marked the +"Harrison campaign" has not been repeated. + +In this contest the democratic party made a good confession, and "owned +up" to the full extent of their conduct. They stated the question at +issue, fairly, clearly, and entirely; the point could not be mistaken. +The Baltimore Convention dealt honestly in declaring the political +opinions of the party; the opinions of their candidate on the great +party questions, and the subject of slavery, were made known with +exemplary clearness and fidelity. The party did not fight in the dark; +they had no dislike to holding slaves, and they pretended none. In all +parts of the land they went before the people with the same doctrines +and the same arguments; everywhere they "repudiated" the Wilmot Proviso. +This gave them an advantage over a party with a different policy. They +had a platform of doctrines; they knew what it was; the party stood on +the platform; the candidate stood on it. + +The whig party have conducted differently; they did not publish their +confession of faith. We know what was the whig platform in 1840 and in +1844. But what is it in 1848? Particular men may publish their opinions, +but the doctrines of the party are "not communicated to the public." For +once in the history of America there was a whig convention which passed +no "Resolutions;" it was the Convention at Philadelphia. But on one +point, of the greatest importance too, it expressed the opinions of the +whigs: it rejected the Wilmot Proviso, and Mr. Webster's thunder, which +had fallen harmless and without lightning from his hands, was "kicked +out of the meeting!" As the party had no platform, so their candidate +had no political opinions. "What!" says one, "Choose a President who +does not declare his opinions,--then it must be because they are +perfectly well known!" Not at all: General Taylor is raw in politics, +and has not taken his first "drill!" "Then he must be a man of such +great political and moral ability, that his will may take the place of +reason!" Not at all: he is known only as a successful soldier, and his +reputation is scarcely three years old. Mr. Webster declared his +nomination "not fit to be made," and nobody has any authentic statement +of his political opinions; perhaps not even General Taylor himself. + +In the electioneering campaign there has been a certain duplicity in the +supporters of General Taylor: at the North it was maintained that he was +not opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, while at the South quite uniformly +the opposite was maintained. This duplicity had the appearance of +dishonesty. In New England the whigs did not meet the facts and +arguments of the free soil party; in the beginning of the campaign the +attempt was made, but was afterwards comparatively abandoned; the +matter of slavery was left out of the case, and the old question of the +sub-treasury and the tariff was brought up again, and a stranger would +have thought, from some whig newspapers, that that was the only question +of any importance. Few men were prepared to see a man of the ability and +experience of Mr. Webster in his electioneering speeches pass wholly +over the subject of slavery. The nation is presently to decide whether +slavery is to extend over the new territory or not; even in a commercial +and financial point of view, this is far more important than the +question of banks and tariffs; but when its importance is estimated by +its relation to freedom, right, human welfare in general,--we beg the +pardon of American politicians for speaking of such things,--one is +amazed to find the whig party of the opinion that it is more important +to restore the tariff of 1842 than to prohibit slavery in a country as +large as the thirteen States which fought the Revolution! It might have +been expected of little, ephemeral men--minute politicians, who are the +pest of the State,--but when at such a crisis a great man rises,[52] +amid a sea of upturned faces, to instruct the lesser men, and forgets +right, forgets freedom, forgets man, and forgets God, talking only of +the tariff and of banks, why a stranger is amazed, till he remembers +the peculiar relation of the great man to the moneyed men,--that he is +their attorney, retained, paid, and pensioned to do the work of men +whose interest it is to keep the question of slavery out of sight. If +General Cavaignac had received a pension from the manufacturers of Lyons +and of Lisle, to the amount of half a million of francs, should we be +surprised if he forgot the needy millions of the land? Nay, only if he +did not forget them! + +It was a little hardy to ask the anti-slavery men to vote for General +Taylor; it was like asking the members of a temperance society to choose +an eminent distiller for president of their association. Still, we know +that honest anti-slavery men did honestly vote for him. We know nothing +to impeach the political integrity of General Taylor; the simple fact +that he is a slaveholder, seems reason enough why he should not be +President of a nation who believe that "All men are created equal, and +endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Men will be +astonished in the next century to learn that the "model republic," had +such an affection for slaveholders. Here is a remarkable document, which +we think should be preserved: + + DEED OF SALE. + + "JOHN HAGARD, SR. TO ZACHARIAH TAYLOR. + + "_Received for Record, 18th Feb., 1843._ + + "_This Indenture_, made this twenty-first day of April, + eighteen hundred and forty-two, between John Hagard, Sr., of + the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, of one part, + and Zachariah Taylor, of the other part, _Witnesseth_, that + the said John Hagard, Sr., for and in consideration of the + sum of _Ninety-Five Thousand Dollars_ to him in hand paid, + and secured to be paid, as hereafter stated by the said + Zachariah Taylor, at and before the sealing and delivering + of these presents, has this day bargained, sold, and + delivered, conveyed, and confirmed, and by these Presents + does bargain, sell, deliver, and confirm unto the said + Zachariah Taylor, his heirs and assigns, forever, all that + plantation and tract of land:... + + "ALSO, all the following Slaves--Nelson, Milley, Peldea, + Mason, Willis, Rachel, Caroline, Lucinda, Ramdall, Wirman, + Carson, Little Ann, Winna, Jane, Tom, Sally, Gracia, Big + Jane, Louisa, Maria, Charles, Barnard, Mira, Sally, Carson, + Paul, Sansford, Mansfield, Harry Oden, Harry Horley, Carter, + Henrietta, Ben, Charlotte, Wood, Dick, Harrietta, Clarissa, + Ben, Anthony, Jacob, Hamby, Jim, Gabriel, Emeline, Armstead, + George, Wilson, Cherry, Peggy, Walker, Jane, Wallace, + Bartlett, Martha, Letitia, Barbara, Matilda, Lucy, John, + Sarah, Bigg Ann, Allen, Tom, George, John, Dick, Fielding, + Nelson, or Isom, Winna, Shellod, Lidney, Little Cherry, + Puck, Sam, Hannah or Anna, Mary, Ellen, Henrietta, and two + small children:--Also, all the Horses, Mules, Cattle, Hogs, + Farming Utensils, and Tools, now on said + Plantation--together with all and singular, the + hereditaments, appurtenances, privileges, and advantages + unto the said Land and Slaves belonging or appertaining. _To + have and to hold_ the said Plantation and tract of Land and + Slaves, and other property above described, unto the said + Zachariah Taylor, his heirs and assigns, for ever, and to + his and to their only proper use, benefits, and behoof, for + ever. And the said John Hagard, Sr., for himself, his heirs, + executors, and administrators, does covenant, promise, and + agree to and with said Zachariah Taylor, his heirs and + assigns, that the aforesaid Plantation and tract of Land and + Slaves, and other property, with the appurtenances, unto the + said Zachariah Taylor, his heirs, and assigns against the + claim or claims of all persons whomsoever claiming or to + claim the same, or any part or parcel thereof, shall and + will warrant, and by these Presents for ever defend. + + "_In Testimony Whereof_, the said John Hagard, Sr., has + hereunto set his hand and seal, the day and year first above + written." + +If this document had been discovered among some Egyptian papyri, with +the date 1848 before Christ, it would have been remarkable as a sign of +the times. In a republic, nearly four thousand years later, it has a +meaning which some future historian will appreciate. + +The free soil party have been plain and explicit as the democrats; they +published their creed in the celebrated Buffalo platform. The questions +of sub-treasury and tariff are set aside; "No more slave territory" is +the watchword. In part they represent an interest, for slavery is an +injury to the North in many ways, and to a certain extent puts the North +into the hands of the South; but chiefly an idea. Nobody thought they +would elect their candidate, whosoever he might be; they could only +arrest public attention and call men to the great questions at issue, +and so, perhaps, prevent the evil which the South was bent on +accomplishing. This they have done, and done well. The result has been +highly gratifying. It was pleasant and encouraging to see men ready to +sacrifice their old party attachments and their private interests, +oftentimes, for the sake of a moral principle. I do not mean to say +that there was no moral principle in the other parties--I know better. +But it seems to me that the free soilers committed a great error in +selecting Mr. Van Buren as their candidate. True, he is a man of +ability, who has held the highest offices and acquitted himself +honorably in all; but he had been the "Northern man, with Southern +principles;" had shown a degree of subserviency to the South, which was +remarkable, if not singular or strange: his promise, made and repeated +in the most solemn manner, to veto any act of Congress, abolishing +slavery in the capital, was an insult to the country, and a disgrace to +himself. He had a general reputation for instability, and want of +political firmness. It is true, he had opposed the annexation of Texas, +and lost his nomination in 1844 by that act; but it is also true that he +advised his party to vote for Mr. Polk, who was notoriously in favor of +annexation. His nomination, I must confess, was unfortunate; the Buffalo +Convention seems to have looked at his availability more than his +fitness, and, in their contest for a principle, began by making a +compromise of that very principle itself. It was thought he could +"carry" the State of New York; and so a man who was not a fair +representative of the idea, was set up. It was a bad beginning. It is +better to be defeated a thousand times, rather than seem to succeed by a +compromise of the principle contended for. Still, enough has been done, +to show the nation that the dollar is not almighty; that the South is +not always to insult the North, and rule the land, annexing, plundering, +and making slaves when she will; that the North has men who will not +abandon the great sentiment of freedom, which is the boast of the nation +and the age. + +General Taylor is elected by a large popular vote; some voted for him on +account of his splendid military success; some because he is a +slaveholder, and true to the interests of the slave power; some because +he is a "Good whig," and wants a high tariff of duties. But we think +there are men who gave him their support, because he has never been +concerned in the intrigues of a party, is indebted to none for past +favors, is pledged to none, bribed by none, and intimidated by none; +because he seems to be an honest man, with a certain rustic +intelligence; a plain blunt man, that loves his country and mankind. We +hope this was a large class. If he is such a man, he will enter upon his +office under favorable auspices, and with the best wishes of all good +men. + +But what shall the free soil party do next? they cannot go +back,--conscience waves behind them her glittering wings and bids them +on; they cannot stand still, for as yet their measures and their +watchword do not fully represent their idea. They must go forward, as +the early abolitionists went, with this for their motto: "No slavery in +America." "He that would lead men, must walk but one step before them;" +says somebody. Well, but he must think many steps before them, or they +will presently tread him under their feet. The present success of the +idea is doubtful; the interests of the South will demand the extension +of slavery;[53] the interests of the party now coming into power, will +demand their peculiar boon. So another compromise is to be feared, and +the extension of slavery yet further West. But the ultimate triumph of +the genius of freedom is certain. In Europe, it shakes the earth with +mighty tread; thrones fall before its conquering feet. While in the +eastern continent, kings, armies, emperors, are impotent before that +power, shall a hundred thousand slaveholders stay it here with a bit of +parchment? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[48] [Greek: Greek: Gignontai men oun hai staseis ou peri mikrôn all' ek +mikrôn, stasiazousi de peri megalôn.]--Aristotle's _Polit._, Lib. V. +Chap. 4, § 1. + +[49] William Lloyd Garrison. + +[50] The following table shows the facts of the case:-- + +Cost of post-office in slave States for +the year ending July 1st, 1847, $1,318,541 + +Receipts from post-office, 624,380 + +Cost of post-office in free States for the +year ending July 1st, 1847, $1,038,219 + +Receipts from post-office, 1,459,631 + +So the Southern post-office cost the nation $694,161, and the Northern +post-office paid the nation $421,412, making a difference of $1,115,573 +against the South. + +[51] Mr. John P. Hale. + +[52] Hon. Daniel Webster. + +[53] The following extract, from the _Charleston Mercury_, shows the +feeling of the South. "Pursuant to a call, a meeting of the citizens of +Orangeburg District was held to-day, 6th November, in the court-house, +which was well filled on the occasion.... Gen. D. F. Jamison then rose, +and moved the appointment of a committee of twenty-five, to take into +consideration the continued agitation by Congress of the question of +slavery;... the committee, through their chairman, Gen. Jamison, made +the following report:-- + +"The time has arrived when the slaveholding States of the confederacy +must take decided action upon the continued attacks of the North against +their domestic institutions, or submit in silence to that humiliating +position in the opinions of mankind, that longer acquiescence must +inevitably reduce them to.... The agitation of the subject of slavery +commenced in the fanatical murmurings of a few scattered abolitionists, +to whom it was a long time confined; but now it has swelled into a +torrent of popular opinion at the North; it has invaded the fireside and +the church, the press and the halls of legislation; it has seized upon +the deliberations of Congress, and at this moment is sapping the +foundations, and about to overthrow the fairest political structure that +the ingenuity of man has ever devised. + +"The overt efforts of abolitionism were confined for a long period to +annoying applications to Congress, under color of the pretended right of +petition; it has since directed the whole weight of its malign influence +against the annexation of Texas, and had wellnigh cost to the country +the loss of that important province; but emboldened by success and the +inaction of the South, in an unjust and selfish spirit of national +agrarianism it would now appropriate the whole public domain. It might +well have been supposed that the undisturbed possession of the whole of +Oregon Territory would have satisfied the non-slaveholding States. This +they now hold, by the incorporation of the ordinance of 1787 into the +bill of the last session for establishing a territorial government for +Oregon. That provision, however, was not sustained by them from any +apprehension that the territory could ever be settled from the States of +the South, but it was intended as a gratuitous insult to the southern +people, and a malignant and unjustifiable attack upon the institution of +slavery. + +"We are called upon to give up the whole public domain to the fanatical +cravings of abolitionism, and the unholy lust of political power. A +territory, acquired by the whole country for the use of all, where +treasure has been squandered like chaff, and southern blood poured out +like water, is sought to be appropriated by one section, because the +other chooses to adhere to an institution held not only under the +guaranties that brought this confederacy into existence, but under the +highest sanction of Heaven. Should we quietly fold our hands under this +assumption on the part of the non-slaveholding States, the fate of the +South is sealed, the institution of slavery is gone, and its existence +is but a question of time.... Your committee are unwilling to anticipate +what will be the result of the combined wisdom and joint action of the +southern portion of the confederacy on this question; but as an +initiatory step to a concert of action on the part of the people of +South Carolina, they respectfully recommend, for the adoption of this +meeting, the following resolutions:-- + +"_Resolved_, That the continued agitation of the question of slavery, by +the people of the non-slaveholding States, by their legislatures, and by +their representatives in Congress, exhibits not only a want of national +courtesy, which should always exist between kindred States, but is a +palpable violation of good faith towards the slaveholding States, who +adopted the present Constitution 'in order to form a more perfect +union.' + +"_Resolved_, That while we acquiesce in adopting the boundary between +the slaveholding and non-slaveholding States, known as the Missouri +Compromise line, we will not submit to any further restriction upon the +rights of any southern man to carry his property and his institutions +into territory acquired by southern treasure and by southern blood. + +"_Resolved_, That should the Wilmot Proviso, or any other restriction, +be applied by Congress to the territories of the United States, south of +36 deg. 30 min. north latitude, we recommend to our representative in +Congress, as the decided opinion of this portion of his district, to +leave his seat in that body, and return home. + +"_Resolved_, That we respectfully suggest to both houses of the +legislature of South Carolina, to adopt a similar recommendation as to +our senators in Congress from this State. + +"_Resolved_, That upon the return home of our senators and +representatives in Congress, the legislature of South Carolina should be +forthwith assembled to adopt such measures as the exigency may demand. + +"The resolutions were then submitted, _seriatim_, and, together with the +report, were unanimously adopted." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional +Sermons, Volume 2 (of 3), by Theodore Parker + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SPEECHES, ADDRESSES, SERMONS (2/3) *** + +***** This file should be named 34637-8.txt or 34637-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/6/3/34637/ + +Produced by Julia Miller, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. 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