E450 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DDDD1737fl31 
 
0^ o«-«^. V 4>^ .•^'•* "^. 
 
 ^' :. 
 
 C> * 
 
 :. ^. .ey^!^'. *, 
 
 
 
 •A 
 
 l**\«i^>' 
 
 '^ *'o • 
 
 jmv . o • • ^ "^in 
 
 L<^^ .. 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rC'^.^^^^ 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 W-* <c«'^\. ^•^^♦° **^\ ''WM*' 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW; 
 
 OR 
 
 A DISCUSSION 
 
 OF OUR COMPARATIVE 
 
 RESPONSIBILITY TO HOTAX AXD DIVINE GOVERMriNT: 
 
 AN APPLICATION 
 
 FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 
 
 BY 
 WM. \V. PATTON, 
 
 Pastor of the Fourth Congregational Church, Hartford, Ct. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 MARK H. NEWMAN Sc CO., 199 BRO.VDWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
 BROCKETT, FULLER &. CO., lURTFORD. 
 
 S. C. GRIGGS 6c CO., CfflCAGO. 
 
 1850. 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 It was the memorable answer of the Savior to the 
 crafty interrogation of those who sought to ensnare 
 him respecting the lawfulness of paying tribute to the 
 Roman government, "Render therefore unto Ceesar 
 the things which are Csesar's, and unto God the things 
 that are God's." The Pharisees and Herodians had 
 approached him in company as he was engaged in 
 public discourse, and proposed a question which was 
 so framed that whether an affirmative or negative 
 response was given, offence would be taken. There 
 were two parties among the Jews at this time, who 
 held opposite sentiments with reference to the pro- 
 priety of paying tribute to the Roman government. 
 The Pharisees contended that Herod, who had been 
 set over them as king by the Roman emperor, was 
 not a legitimate sovereign according to the Mosaic law, 
 and that therefore his authority should not be recog- 
 nized by the payment of the tax levied in the name 
 of the Roman emperor. The Herodians, on the other 
 hand, argued that as the Jews were a conquered 
 people, and unable to maintain a government of their 
 own according to the original plan, it was their duty 
 
D CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 to submit to those who were providentially in power. 
 The advocates of these conflicting views, animated by 
 a common hatred of the Savior, joined their forces on 
 this occasion, in order to bring upon him popular 
 odium. Concealing their purpose under a hypocritical 
 mask, they commenced with flattering encomiums of 
 his integrity and independence, by reason of which 
 qualities they professed to believe that he would not 
 hesitate in solving their difficulties. These were 
 their words: "Master, we know that thou art true, 
 and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest 
 thou for any man : for thou regardest not the person 
 of men." Having made this attempt to inflate vanity 
 and to play upon his very virtues to secure their end, 
 they propounded in a deferential manner the all- 
 important question : "Tell us therefore, What thinkest 
 thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Csesar, or not?" 
 Caesar was the name which was adopted by the em- 
 perors of Rome after the time of Julius Csesar, as an 
 imperial title, in the same manner that the successive 
 monarchs of Egypt called themselves Pharaoh. They 
 were not successful, however, in deceiving the Savior; 
 for he instantly read their hearts, and said, "Why 
 tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?" Without hesitation or 
 perplexity he told them to show him the tribute 
 money : upon which they brought him a coin called 
 a denarius, equal in value to fourteen cents of our 
 currency, having the head and name of the Roman 
 emperor stamped upon it. He then inquired, " Whose 
 is this image and superscription?" to which they re- 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 7 
 
 plied, "Caesar's." After this declaration, the Savior 
 uttered the words quoted above, "Render therefore 
 unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's ; and unto 
 God the things that are God's." This was an answer 
 which applied admirably to both the parties who had 
 appealed to him. As the Pharisees, by admitting that 
 the coin of the country was Roman, had acknowledged 
 that they were actually subject to that power, he bids 
 them render to the emperor and those who represented 
 his authority, the obedience which was due to rulers, 
 and not to think that religion exempted them from 
 civil obligations. On the other hand he directs the 
 Herodians, who were devoted to the interests of Herod 
 and were mere politicians, claiming every thing for 
 the government and making the requirements of the 
 divine law a nullity, to remember their responsibility 
 to God, and not to imagine that the human statute- 
 book was paramount to the Bible. In this way Jesus 
 utterly foiled the attack of his enemies, while he 
 made known their duty, and that, too, in so compre- 
 hensive a manner as to leave no deficiency in his 
 statement, no opportunity to derive from it limited, 
 and therefore practically false views. It is my pur- 
 pose, in the spirit of the Great Teacher, to discuss 
 our comparative responsibility to human and divine 
 government. 
 
 I call attention to this subject for two reasons: 
 first, because it has an application in our own country 
 at the present time, and if truth is ever to be pre- 
 sented, it is when men need it for their practical 
 
8 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 guidance in the affairs of life ; and secondly, because 
 a difference of opinion exists with regard to the proper 
 solution of the difficulties involved. It is written in 
 the book of Mai achi, "The priest's lips should keep 
 knowledge, and they .should seek the law at his 
 mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." 
 If this was true of the priest under the old dispensa- 
 tion, when comparatively little instruction was pro- 
 vided for the people, much more will it apply to the 
 Christian minister, whose chief work it is to commu- 
 nicate knowledge upon all moral and religious duties 
 connected with the various relations which men sus- 
 tain to one another and to God. It is his duty to 
 make the people intelligent with reference to ethical, 
 as well as doctrinal points ; and while he has no right 
 to dictate the belief of others authoritatively, after the 
 custom of the Romish church, he should freely express 
 his own views, with the reasons on which they are 
 based, that he may furnish them with the means of 
 arriving at a correct conclusion. With respect to the 
 subject before us, good men have differed in judgment, 
 and although I cannot but regard the principles involved 
 as easily explicable, and the application also, as for 
 the most part, plain, still, I am not disposed to urge 
 my opinions in an immodest and overbearing man- 
 ner. Let us reason dispassionately, candidly, and 
 thoroughly, desiring above all to ascertain the will of 
 God. In order to set forth the truth in the clearest 
 and most convincing manner, I shall state it in a 
 series of propositions. 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 9 
 
 I. Human government must be supported in the 
 exercise of all its rightful functions. — Though this 
 position may not be questioned, still, as it is funda- 
 mental in its nature, and is the basis of subsequent 
 reasoning, it needs to be well established. In support 
 of it, therefore, let it be considered, 
 
 1. That civil government is a divine institution. 
 By this, it is not meant that a particular form of it 
 has been made obligatory by divine command, such 
 as monarchy, oligarchy, or republicanism ; and much 
 less, that any particular person, family, or race, has 
 a perpetual right to supreme power. What has been 
 called the "divine right of kings" is utterly inde- 
 fensible, both in its general doctrine and in its par- 
 ticular application. God has in no manner whatever 
 declared that every nation shall be governed by a 
 king ; neither by assertion or implication in his written 
 word, nor by the necessity of the position in which he 
 has placed us: while many facts concur to prove 
 that, in a certain stage of national intelligence and 
 virtue, a monarchy is both needless and injurious. 
 But the doctrine of the divine right of government is a 
 very different matter, and teaches that all rightful 
 civil power, whatever may be the form under which 
 it is exercised, emanates from God. It is sometimes 
 said by ardent republicans that the people are the 
 source of power, and the Declaration of Independence 
 declares that "governments derive their just power 
 from the consent of the governed ;" but such expres- 
 sions, on the lips of careful thinkers, can only mean 
 
10 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 that the legitimacy of any form of government, or of 
 the rule of any individual sovereign, depends upon 
 the express or implied consent of those for whose 
 welfare the government is professedly instituted and 
 administered. The doctrine that government rests 
 upon a social compact, by which the individuals 
 composing a nation agree to surrender a part of their 
 natural liberty to secure the protection of a central 
 power, is a mere theory, unsustained by fact, and if 
 not originally advanced by infidels, has certainly been 
 eagerly embraced and propagated by them, as subser- 
 vient to their ends. However ingenious it may be in 
 some of its speculations, it must be an implied, and 
 not a historical fact, and furnishes no safe and suffi- 
 cient basis for the authority of government ; since it is 
 not in the rightful power of any number of men, of their 
 own mere will, to make a compact which shall bind 
 nie, I not consenting thereto, or even being consulted ; 
 and since even a consent on my part might afterwards 
 be witiidrawn. Such a theory leaves government 
 witliout a sanction that can bind the conscience of 
 every inhabitant. On the other hand, if we admit 
 that government is of divine appointment, that God 
 intended that it should be instituted, and has made it 
 necessary for us, conferring his own authority upon 
 it to the furtherance of its legitimate ends, we place it 
 upon a satisfactory and immovable basis. There are 
 three institutions of divine origin, upon the main- 
 tenance of which human welfare depends ; the family, 
 the church, and the state. These all rest upon the 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 11 
 
 same foundation, and are equally necessary and obli- 
 gatory. 
 
 That this is the true view of the state, is evident in 
 the first place from the nature which God has given 
 to man, and the circumstances in which he has placed 
 him. God has conferred upon us a social nature, and 
 made it necessary to our highest development and 
 happiness that we should dwell in communities. 
 Earth was not created to be a habitation of hermits 
 and eremites. A solitary condition was never pre- 
 scribed as man's lot. Its inevitable tendency is to 
 barbarism. The arts and sciences, education and 
 religion, all that constitutes civilization and refine- 
 ment, depend upon social life. The race owes its 
 past progress to this cause, and in proportion as an 
 approach has been made to individual isolation, na- 
 tions and tribes have degenerated to the savage state. 
 Thus all history, observation, and consciousness attest 
 the fact, that our constitutional tendencies lead us to 
 congregate in communities for the enjoyment of social 
 intercourse, and that our highest physical, intellectual, 
 and moral welfare, demands such an arrangement. 
 But in order to secure these advantages, civil govern- 
 ment is essential, on the ground of the evils inevitably 
 arising from human ignorance and depravity. To 
 maintain order; to define, establish, and protect ina- 
 lienable rights ; to repress and punish crime ; and to 
 encourage and assist industry, education, and virtue; 
 there must be a central and presiding power, whose 
 authority shall be acknowledged by all. God has 
 
12 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 made civil government an indispensable condition of 
 our existence on the earth, as an intelligent, virtuous, 
 and happy race. It is a prime want of our nature, as 
 plainly indicated as any other pertaining to body or 
 mind. Instead of depending on a voluntary compact, 
 it is essential to our existence with the faculties and 
 in the position which God has assigned. We might 
 as well assert that men eat and drink by reason of a 
 social compact. God made us to live under a govern- 
 ment, as much as to live on the earth surrounded by 
 an atmosphere. Hence, government has the sanction 
 of the voice of God, speaking through the very con- 
 stitution of the race. 
 
 But besides this expression of his will, which has 
 led all nations to organize themselves politically in 
 some way, however rude, God has clearly asserted 
 the truth for which I contend, on the pages of the 
 Bible. The propriety, the necessity, and the authority 
 of government, is implied and declared from the 
 beginning to the end of the Word of God. When the 
 race was established a second time, in the family of 
 Noah, the precept which was given with reference to 
 the capital punishment of murderers, was, in fact, an 
 implication and establishment of civil authority; by 
 which, in the name and by the direction of God, to 
 whom all lives belong, the life of the murderer was 
 to be taken as the due punishment of his aggravated 
 crime. Thus men were given to understand that 
 human government is in reality, as an institution, 
 part of the divine government — one way in which 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 13 
 
 God seeks to control, reward, and punish mankind, 
 accordinor to their individual deserts. This all- 
 important fact was further declared and illustrated, 
 when God set up the Jewish nation, and established 
 the theocracy, under a code of his own enactment; 
 claiming that he was the true king, the fountain of 
 authority, and that the various rulers of different 
 grades were his representatives. Thus the idea of 
 law was made sacred ; God incarnating himself, as it 
 were, in human government, to give it majesty and 
 authority. Hence, throughout the Old Testament, 
 rulers are declared to be the servants or executive 
 officers of Jehovah. When we come to the doctrine 
 of the New Testament, we find it uttering the same 
 truth, in the most explicit form, establishing the state 
 upon the appointment of God. Paul, when alluding 
 to the matter in a practical way, said, "Let every 
 soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is 
 no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained 
 of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, 
 
 resisteth the ordinance of God He is the 
 
 minister of God to thee for good he is the 
 
 minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon 
 him that doeth evil for they are God's minis- 
 ters, attending continually upon this very thing." 
 
 If, then, civil government be a divine institution, 
 ordained for the promotion of human welfare in the 
 conservation of universal rights and the encourage- 
 ment of knowledge, industry, and virtue, it ought to 
 be sustained in the exercise of all its rightful func- 
 
14 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 tions, by which it seeks to secure its lawful and 
 prescribed end. To rebel against it in such circum- 
 stances, to deny or oppose its authority, to evade the 
 duties which it imposes, is to disobey God as well as 
 man. As long as a ruler is discharging his official 
 duties for the purposes contemplated by God in the 
 institution of government, so long he is God's minister 
 and representative, and should be reverenced and 
 obeyed accordingly. This should be done, not from 
 fear of the consequences of rebellion, nor from mere 
 worldly wisdom, prudence and policy, but under a 
 sense of moral obligation, and from a love of right. 
 Flence Paul wrote, in the same connection before 
 quoted, and as an inference from his previous declar- 
 ation, " Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only 
 for wrath, but also for conscience sake," The duty 
 of obedience, and of hearty support in every appro- 
 priate form, is thus clearly deducible from the divine 
 origin of the state. 
 
 2. This duty may likewise be inferred from the 
 specific precepts of Scripture. Whatever may be the 
 origin of the state, and the basis of its authority ; 
 whether the preceding views are reasonable and 
 scriptural, or the contrary ; nothing can be more plain 
 than that for some reason, sufficient in the divine mind, 
 we are commanded to sustain rulers in the discharge 
 of their proper duties. What other meaning can be 
 put upon the injunction of the Savior? "Render 
 therefore unto Ceesar the things which are Coesar's." 
 Here is a distinct recognition of the fact, that some 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 15 
 
 tilings are properly Caesar's; or in other words, that 
 there are duties which we owe to the State, and to 
 whomsoever represents it, whether emperor, king, or 
 president in the highest office, or sheriff, constable or 
 tax<iatherer, in the lowest. Caesar, that is the ruler for 
 the time being, must be obeyed in all matters which 
 are properly under his control. Paul is uniformly 
 very explicit. "Let every soul be subject unto the 
 higher powers. Render therefore to all their dues : 
 tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom 
 custom ; fear to whom fear ; honor to whom honor." 
 To Titus he wrote with reference to his duty to those 
 who attended upon his ministry, that he should do 
 precisely what I am now attempting. "Put them in 
 mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey 
 magistrates." Peter expresses the same view. "Sub- 
 mit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the 
 Lord's sake : whether it be to the king as supreme ; 
 or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him, 
 for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of 
 them that do well. For so is the will of God, that 
 with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance 
 of foolish men." Subsequently he places two duties 
 in a very significant juxtaposition, saying, "Fear God : 
 honor the king." In these and similar passages, refer- 
 ence is made to kings, not as declaring a monarchical 
 form of government to be obligatory, but using them 
 as representatives of the idea and fact of government, 
 as the embodiment for the time being of the state. 
 No candid reader of the Bible can doubt, that it strictly 
 
16 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 enjoins obedience to magistrates in the exercise of 
 their legitimate functions. 
 
 3. This view receives additional confirmation from 
 the example of Christ, and the apostles. They uni- 
 formly respected civil government, and gave it their 
 cordial support. Christ conformed to the regulation 
 which required the Jews to contribute annually for 
 the support of the temple, and wrought a miracle in 
 order to furnish the money necessary to pay the quota 
 of Peter and himself. He was careful not to infringe 
 the laws ; so that when the Jews sought to accuse him 
 before the Roman governor, they were forced to resort 
 to falsehood and perjury, and Pilate acquitted him of 
 every charge, pronouncing him an innocent man. The 
 apostles followed in his footsteps, and were ever peace- 
 ful citizens. Paul manifested the spirit and character 
 of the whole body, when he said to Festus, "Neither 
 against the laws of the Jews, neither against the 
 temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any- 
 thing at all . . , For if I be an offender, or have com- 
 mitted any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die." 
 Thus they practised as they preached. 
 
 4. I will only add on this point that the necessity 
 of the case drives us to the same conclusion. No 
 other course is left to us but the support of govern- 
 ment in the exercise of its appropriate power, unless we 
 prefer the horrors of anarchy. All experience proves 
 that it is not too strong a declaration to make, that the 
 worst government is better than none. When in 
 consequence of rebellion, or other causes, a nation or 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 17 
 
 community has been left without the protection of law, 
 the most frightful disorders, immoralities, and crimes 
 have prevailed, till the people were ready to welcome 
 even a despotism rather than continue under lawless 
 misrule. Such is human depravity that nothing but 
 the restraints of law prevent vast numbers from grati- 
 fying their personal wishes at the expense of the 
 happiness and rights of their fellow-men. There is 
 far less principle in the world than is often supposed. 
 Custom and fear of legal consequences are much more 
 powerful than conscience in producing current 
 morality. Take away government, and the only law 
 would be that of physical force and depraved cunning. 
 Selfishness would display itself in full proportion, and 
 the results of a violent conflict of interests would soon 
 be apparent. Property, liberty, and life, would be 
 destitute of all security, mutual confidence would be 
 destroyed, society would be an impossibility, and earth 
 would quickly become a hell. That which now holds 
 us together as nations, and communities, and makes 
 happiness possible, is law. This is so obvious, and 
 its indispensability to united action is so pressingly 
 evident, that even those who renounce allegiance to 
 human governments, are forced to construct one for 
 themselves. Thus among thieves, robbers, and pirates, 
 we find regular organizations, with laws, officers, 
 subjects, and severe penalties. Without strict regula- 
 tions they could not hold together a single day. As 
 law tends to harmony and unity, so anarchy tends to 
 discord and separation, driving men asunder, making 
 2 
 
18 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 them the objects of fear and suspicion to each other, 
 and producing universal enmity. I allude to these 
 facts in this connection, not to prove the divine origin 
 of government, as seen in the constitution of the race, 
 for that was discussed at the beginning ; but to show- 
 that whatever may be the truth on that point, civil 
 law must be sustained from the very necessity of the 
 case, whether God made us, or we are the offspring of 
 chance; whether he designed us to dwell under 
 government, or placed us here irrespective of such a 
 purpose. A stern, inexorable necessity is upon us to 
 support the state in its rightful action, to obey and 
 sustain the laws in their legitimate application. We 
 must do it or allow all rights to be subverted, all inter- 
 ests to perish. The choice, so far as there is one, is 
 between prosperity and ruin; between the liberty of 
 virtue and the despotism of vice. 
 
 As the subject is one of great importance, permit 
 me before proceeding to the statement and defence of 
 two additional propositions, to draw the reader's atten- 
 tion for a moment, to three suggestions which grow 
 out of the topic which has been briefly elucidated. 
 
 1. We may infer the duty of paying all customs 
 and taxes legally imposed for the support of govern- 
 ment. Government cannot be carried on without 
 incurring expense. The legislative, executive, and 
 judicial departments involve expenditures which are 
 regular and inevitable, while numerous other branches 
 of public service make frequent and large demands 
 upon the treasury. If that be empty, the wheels of 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 19 
 
 state must stop. It is reasonable that those who enjoy 
 the protection of government in life, liberty and prop- 
 erty, should bear the pecuniary burdens of its support, 
 which should be apportioned to indivduals upon prin- 
 ciples of justice and impartiality ; though an equitable 
 adjustment of this matter is of practical difficulty. It 
 belongs to the legislative functions of government to 
 prescribe the manner in which the needful money 
 shall be raised ; whether by duties on imports, which 
 is the plan of our Federal government, or by direct 
 taxation, which is the better plan, politically and 
 morally, of .our State governments. Whichever is 
 adopted, the people should submit while it is in force, 
 and neither forcibly resist, nor secretly evade it. The 
 sum demanded in either way is a just debt, owed to 
 the state for the advantages enjoyed under the protec- 
 tion of its laws, and should be cheerfully and promptly 
 paid. All refusal or evasion of payment is really 
 dishonesty and theft, proving the person to be a bad 
 citizen, and a mean man. The Bible speaks specifi- 
 cally on this point, "For this cause pay ye tribute 
 also ; for they are God's ministers, attending contin- 
 ually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all 
 their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to 
 whom custom." The Bible therefore condemns all 
 smuggling, by which dutiable articles of greater or 
 less value are introduced secretly into the country 
 without the payment of duty. This species of fraud 
 is practised not only by merchants, but also by trav- 
 elers, who think it no harm to rob the government on 
 
20 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 a small scale. But the nature of fraud is the same on 
 every scale, and the man who would take the lawful 
 duty previous to its arrival at the treasury, would not 
 hesitate to take it after its arrival, if it could be done 
 with equal facility and security. The same is true 
 with reference to the payment of taxes : he who would 
 withhold a just tax, would plunder an equal sum from 
 the treasury, if it could be done with impunity. There 
 is a vast amount of iniquity practised, even by pro- 
 fessors of religion, in undervaluing property to the 
 assessors, in concealing it from their knowledge, or in 
 transferring it nominally to other persons. No honor- 
 able man, to say nothing of Christian principle, will 
 wish to escape the expenses which devolve upon him 
 for the support of government, any more than he will 
 wish to repudiate a debt for food or clothing ; especially 
 in this land, where taxes are comparatively light, and 
 all are permitted to exercise political power. 
 
 2. Illegal proceedings for the punishment of alleged 
 crime are worthy of the heaviest condemnation. Such 
 acts have obtained the name of Lynch law. They 
 generally occur amid extreme excitement, and are 
 justified on the ground of the tardiness and uncertainty 
 of the regular proceedings of the courts. But the 
 excuse is a worthless one. It is far better that a 
 criminal should occasionally escape deserved punish- 
 ment, than that he should receive it in an illegal way, 
 which prostrates law, and destroys all the safeguards 
 of a community. When a gross crime has been 
 committed, there is indeed a strong provocation to 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 21 
 
 administer summary justice to the supposed offender. 
 But "summary proceedings" are seldom wise or 
 right. They breathe passionate revenge rather than a 
 spirit of justice ; they are liable to punish the innocent 
 instead of the guilty ; they are usually excessive in 
 their penalties ; and they lead to the grossest abuses 
 and the wildest disorder. To-day they bring deserved 
 suffering upon the immoral, or the propagators of 
 error; but to-morrow, at the bidding of prejudice or 
 self-interest, they may be turned against the moral, and 
 the advocates of truth. They are a virtual overthrow 
 of law, even while pretending to inflict merited punish- 
 ment, and are therefore as great an enormity as any 
 which they seek to suppress. The very tardiness of 
 ordinary legal procedure has its advantages as well 
 as its evils. It allows passion to subside, favors can- 
 dor and impartiality, secures thoroughness of investi- 
 gation, guards with due caution the rights of the 
 accused, and thus promotes the ends of justice. 
 Lynch law is not the representative of the divine 
 authority, but of human wrath ; and instead of being 
 conservative of order, is but one remove from anarchy. 
 3. Whoever violates wholesome law is the enemy 
 of God and man, and also the foe of his own true 
 interest. Law, as the embodiment of justice, is the 
 friend and protector of all, and hence deserves uni- 
 versal honor and obedience. To violate it, is to strike 
 a blow at the common welfare, and to evince a 
 disregard of the general good. The law breaker is 
 in such a case arrayed against the whole community j 
 
22 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 for he has endeavored to prostrate that which consti- 
 tutes its sole defence. He is therefore to be regarded 
 and treated as a public enemy, and his evil deeds 
 should be visited with appropriate punishment by the 
 appointed officers. It matters not what the law may 
 be — whether it prohibit murder or theft, gambling or 
 the sale of liquor — if it be within the just powers of 
 those who enacted it, the violator should be considered 
 and dealt with as a criminal. It is astonishing how 
 men claim to be good citizens, and are regarded 
 as such by others, and even elevated to office, when 
 they trample upon the just laws of the community, by 
 the unlicensed sale of liquor and by similarly illegal 
 practices ! Such individuals, aside from the wicked- 
 ness of their traffic, are actually criminals, deserving 
 of reprobation and punishment for despising and 
 breaking the laws of the State, and thus making war 
 upon the welfare of the community. 
 
 Besides, whoever refuses to support government in 
 the exercise of rightful functions, commits a suicidal 
 act, since he weakens that which protects him as well 
 as others. If he may violate one precept to suit his 
 convenience, another man may violate a second on a 
 similar inducement ; and still another, a third ; and 
 thus the defence which is erected around his rights 
 may be thrown down for the selfish ends of his neigh- 
 bor. It is bad policy to pursue a course which would 
 ruin him, if all others did the same ; since he knows 
 not when they may choose to avail themselves of the 
 same liberty which he claims in his own behalf. 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 23 
 
 And then, which is worst of all, the violator of just 
 law, arrays himself against God, and incurs the 
 deserved penalty for opposing the divine rights and 
 the happiness of the universe. God governs his 
 intelligent creatures by law, which is the same in 
 essence and spirit in all worlds and between all 
 beings. Hence whoever sets himself against legiti- 
 mate human law, is as unfit to be a subject of the 
 divine as of human government ; is as unfit for heaven 
 as for earth. He has shown himself to be reckless of 
 moral obligation, to be a rebel against just authority, 
 to be a contemner of right, to be possessed of a 
 depraved and selfish spirit which values and chooses 
 personal gratification above the general welfare. God 
 will therefore treat him as an enemy of the universe, 
 and appoint his place in the prison of despair. 
 
 Let us now proceed with the main discussion, and 
 consider a different posture of affairs from that sup- 
 posed under the first proposition. 
 
 II. As a general thing, human government must he 
 suimitted to, when it oppresses and injures us. Here 
 I am aware that we come upon more debateable, or at 
 least upon more debated ground. There are those 
 who will differ from the proposition just laid down, in 
 opposite directions ; which fact may afford some pre- 
 sumptive evidence, perhaps, of its essential correct- 
 ness. Some will assert that the moment government 
 transcends its lawful boundaries a single step, it loses 
 all authority, ceases to impose the obligation of obe- 
 
24 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 dience upon its subjects, and may be violently resisted. 
 In what sense these words convey a truth, will here- 
 after be declared. Suffice it to say for the present, 
 that they require limitation, and a careful discrim- 
 ination of cases, according to principles which will 
 be soon pointed out. Others boldly declare, that gov- 
 ernment must be obeyed in all cases, by individuals 
 and by communities, whatever may be its require- 
 ments, and however oppressive and ruinous its de- 
 mands. Thus we have the two extremes of unlimited 
 passive obedience, and active, violent resistance, in 
 every case of injustice. My position accords with 
 neither ; and before proceeding to argue the matter, it 
 may be well to offer a word or two of explanation. 
 Mark well the case supposed, since every thing de- 
 pends upon a clear conception of the circumstances in 
 which we are hypothetically called to act. It is not 
 now asserted that the government requires any act to 
 be put forth hy us which is oppressive and injurious to 
 others ; but we are supposed to be in a passive or 
 recipient position, and the results are such as particu- 
 larly affect us as individuals, and that physically 
 (including body and mind) rather than morally. Our 
 rights are abridged, our privileges are curtailed, our 
 property is seized, or our happiness is in some way 
 impaired. The question is, What shall we do? Re- 
 sist these oppressive and unjust enactments by open 
 violence ? I answer as a general thing, with excep- 
 tions to be hereafter noticed. No. If we cannot or 
 choose not to escape from the sphere of their operation, 
 
C0-\SC1E.\CE AND LAW. 25 
 
 we must quietly submit and take the consequences. 
 Submit is the word which 1 have chosen, not approve, 
 or commend. We both may and should disapprove 
 of unjust laws, whether they operate upon ourselves 
 or others. When the government oppresses and injures 
 us, we have a right to condemn its procedure, and to 
 enlist the sympathies and friendly aid of our fellow- 
 citizens. But except in certain rare instances, which 
 need not affect the general rule, we must not offer 
 violent resistance. If, notwithstanding our remon- 
 strance, our prayers and our tears, the officers of law 
 proceed to enforce its severe edicts, and to bring upon 
 us loss and suffering, we must leave the case to God, 
 and submit to the unrighteous exaction or infliction. 
 Several reasons may be given for such a course. 
 
 1. It is desirable, in order to sustain a reverence for 
 law in the community. We have already seen that 
 law is the ligament which binds society together ; that 
 without it, men become barbarous and vicious; that 
 upon its sanctity the welfare of all depends ; and that 
 even a very bad government is better than none. 
 Hence it is all-important to preserve a reverence for it 
 in the minds of the people, lest right be prostrated and 
 anarchy prevail. The moment the authority of the 
 government is despised, the foundation of social order 
 and happiness is shaken ; when that authority is sub- 
 verted, the interests of society perish. While this is 
 true under every government, it is especially so where 
 republicanism exists. From the very nature of popu- 
 lar institutions, their safety and perpetuity depend 
 
26 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 upon the reverence which the people shall entertain 
 for the majesty and supremacy of law. Under a des- 
 potism or a monarchy, the government may sustain 
 itself by the strong hand of power, by resorting to a 
 standing army ; but in a republic, where tlie people 
 make the laws, and where their enforcement depends 
 upon the popular will, they are a dead letter, unless 
 the people have the highest regard for civil govern- 
 ment as clothed with divine authority, and as the 
 guardian angel of their liberties. This alone can 
 restrain popular passion, prevent strong excitement 
 from leading to riots and rebellion, and secure perma- 
 nent and just legislation. In any case, therefore, the 
 evils of oppression are far preferable to those of an- 
 archy ; while in a republic much may well be borne 
 rather than by contempt of law endanger the bless- 
 ings which are connected with free institutions. It is 
 seldom that the injuries inflicted by government are 
 equal to the advantages which it confers; so that 
 while we may find much to condemn, there may be 
 more to approve. Thus the law still has a hold upon 
 us, both in its relation to us individually, and in its 
 bearing upon the great interests of the community. 
 Though oppressive in some of its particulars, and thus 
 falsifying its own pretensions, it is our safeguard and 
 that of others in its general influence, and is conse- 
 quently so far our benefactor and the representative 
 of God.* We ought to endure great inconveniences, 
 
 * Candor compels me to admit, that the reasoning in this pas- 
 sage cannot apply to fugitive slaves who are sought to be arrested 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 27 
 
 hardships, losses, and suffering, rather than by open 
 resistance to weaken the reverence of ourselves or of 
 our fellow-citizens towards law as the embodiment of 
 necessary civil power. 
 
 2. Regard for the safety of our own persons and for 
 the peace of the community, should lead us to avoid 
 collision with such laws. Resistance on the part of 
 individuals seldom eventuates in any thing save loss 
 greater than that sought to be avoided. The civil 
 authorities cannot be repulsed by our single arm, or 
 by the combined force of a few sympathizing friends ; 
 so that opposition only entails defeat and added suffer- 
 ing, while it occasions scenes of strife, and perhaps of 
 bloodshed, in a peaceful community, by which evil 
 passions are aroused, and those who should dwell in 
 amity are arrayed in mutual hostility. As the whole 
 question is, in the case now supposed, one of personal 
 inconvenience and loss, it is proper to weigh the con- 
 sequences, and not to rush from one class of evils to 
 others still more formidable, in which we shall proba- 
 bly involve our friends also. It is better to obey, even 
 when we suffer wrong, than to disobey, and only 
 increase our difficulties. 
 
 3. Something is due also by Christians to the repu- 
 
 and returned to bondage according to our unchristian laws. It 
 would be difficult to show that they owe any thing to a govern- 
 ment which, so far from protecting them, invades their dearest 
 rights, and even reduces them to the condition of chattels. If 
 they forbear violent resistance, the obligation of meek submission 
 must be based on some other principle. 
 
28 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 tation of religion. The spirit of sacrifice and self- 
 denial, as it is emphatically inculcated in Scripture, so 
 should it be eminently characteristic of the people of 
 God. They should be willing to endure much incon- 
 venience and suffering from unwise and unjust laws, 
 rather than assume a position which will reflect dis- 
 credit upon their profession and the cause which they 
 hold dear. They should be known as law-abiding 
 men up to the utmost limits of conscience. No con- 
 siderations of personal expense or loss should lead 
 Christians to adopt a course which will needlessly 
 occasion the wicked to speak ill of religion, by placing 
 its advocates in the attitude of resistance to govern- 
 ment. There should be such a measure of caution 
 and self-control as will avoid even the appearance of 
 faction, sedition, or turbulence. It may be difficult 
 for human nature to cherish sufficient meekness to 
 perform acts which are a source of inconvenience, and 
 even of pain and loss, or to submit to legal exactions 
 which are without a shadow of justice; but grace 
 should teach us to make joyful and tearless sacrifices 
 for the honor of Christ. Hence Peter said, "For this 
 is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God 
 endure grief, suflTering wrongfully." 
 
 4. There can be but little excuse of any kind for a 
 refusal to obey the class of laws now under consider- 
 ation, in a country which possesses a constitutional 
 government and allows of popular legislation. In such 
 a land, laws grossly unjust will nearly always clash 
 with the Constitution, and will thus, on a legal trial, 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 29 
 
 be judicially pronounced null and void. The object of 
 a Constitution is, to affirm the fundamental rights of 
 the people collectively and as individuals, and to throw 
 around them such safeguards as will protect them 
 from the encroachments of the legislature and the 
 usurpations of the executive. The judiciary is estah- 
 lished for the express purpose of deciding whether the 
 laws which are enacted from time to time are in con- 
 formity with the Constitution. Hence, where such 
 institutions exist, if a law seriously interferes with our 
 rights, it can hardly fail to clash with some consti- 
 tutional provision. If this be the case, we need only 
 dispute its authority in a legal way before the proper 
 court, and the judge will rule that it cannot hold, 
 being contrary to the supreme and organic law of the 
 land. If this decision cannot be secured, or if the law 
 complained of be simply unwise and inconvenient, an 
 appeal lies open to the people to send such represent- 
 atives to the legislative body as will modify or repeal 
 it. These are peaceful and legitimate modes of pro- 
 cedure, by which we may seek protection without dis- 
 turbing the public order, abating reverence for law, 
 or doing aught to weaken the foundations of civil gov- 
 ernment. A persevering use of them can hardly fail 
 to be crowned with success in the end. 
 
 5. It is proper here to adduce the example of the 
 Savior, the apostles, and other good men, in support 
 of the views presented. They practised on the prin- 
 ciple of non-resistance and passive obedience to the 
 acts of government which oppressed them as individu- 
 
30 CONSCIENCE ANC LAW. 
 
 als. When the officers came to arrest Jesus, though 
 he was guilty of no crime, he did not resist, but yielded 
 himself into their hands. When Peter drew a sword 
 against the authorities, Jesus bade him put it up, and 
 healed the man who had been wounded, declaring that 
 they who took the sword should perish with the sword ; 
 or in other words, that when individuals sought to 
 defend their rights by physical force against govern- 
 ment, the result would be their own ruin. This was 
 the course also of the apostles and primitive Christians. 
 They were grossly injured and persecuted ; they were 
 plundered, assaulted, beaten, imprisoned, and put to 
 death ; but they offered no violent resistance. When 
 they could escape from their oppressors by flight, they 
 did so; but if they were seized, they submitted pa- 
 tiently to the inflictions of their enemies. This they 
 did both as a matter of policy and of conscience, that 
 they might exhibit the power of religion, and deprive 
 their adversaries of any occasion to reproach the gospel. 
 
 Having thus set forth, as briefly as possible, our 
 duty in the circumstances supposed, a word or two 
 may be allowed with reference to the exceptions to 
 which allusion was made. I know not as any excep- 
 tions should be conceded in the case of individuals 
 merely. It appears to me that as such they are bound 
 by the rule which has been laid down. But where 
 the government is so conducted as to oppress the whole 
 community by the subversion of their fundamental 
 rights ; where no peaceful remonstrance and opposi- 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 31 
 
 tion is of avail or can be relied on ; where, in short, 
 the government wholly or chiefly neglects the end for 
 which it was ordained of God and established by the 
 people, and becomes the enemy and destroyer of the 
 very interests which it was intended to preserve and 
 promote ; then it is the right and duty of the people, 
 as a community or nation, to rise in arms, to repel force 
 by force, and to change the rulers, alter the form of 
 government, or enforce a modification of law, as they 
 shall see needful. In order, however, to make the 
 movement legitimate, even in such an extremity, 
 there must be some reasonable prospect of success to 
 warrant the undertaking ; since it were both unwise 
 and wrong to waste treasure and blood, and to incur 
 all the terrible evils of civil war, without a rational 
 expectation of commensurate good. There must be 
 something more than the fierce expression of rage and 
 despair; even a hope of establishing a just and com- 
 petent government. This is what has been termed the 
 rifj-ht of revolution, and was exercised by our own fore- 
 fathers. It is not condemned by the passages cited 
 from the New Testament ; for they were addressed to 
 individuals in their private capacity, in which, as we 
 have seen, submission is the proper course. Besides, 
 even those injunctions of obedience seem to be based, 
 to some extent, on the supposition that the government 
 is exercising its just powers for right ends. Notice 
 the reasoning of Paul. When urging subjection to 
 rulers, he says, " For rulers are not a terror to good 
 works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid 
 
32 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt 
 have praise of the same ; for he is the minister of God 
 to thee for good." Now suppose that all this is 
 reversed as a matter of fact; that the ruler becomes a 
 terror to good works instead of evil ; that by the prac- 
 tice of right blame is secured instead of praise ; and 
 that instead of being the minister of God to us for good, 
 the ruler proves to be the minister of the devil for evil. 
 How can the argument of the apostle apply ? In no 
 way ; for the very premises on which it rests are 
 swept away. So also Peter bases his command of 
 obedience to governors on the fact that they are sent 
 "for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise 
 of them that do well." But if evil-doers are rewarded, 
 and the well-doers are punished, what becomes of the 
 conclusion? It is evident that when the whole char- 
 acter of the government is thus changed, and it has 
 become apostate to duty and profession, it is proper for 
 the community or nation^ as a body, in whom alone 
 there can be the means of success, to modify or over- 
 throw it and establish another. Let us now attend to 
 the last proposition, which claims our careful scrutiny. 
 
 III. When the government requires us to do wrong, 
 it must be disoheyed. This I affirm explicitly and 
 without qualification, under a solemn sense of duty to 
 God and the souls of my readers. The case now sup- 
 posed is entirely different from that considered under 
 the last proposition. That was where we were re- 
 quired to suffer wrong ; this is, where we are required 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 33 
 
 to do wrong. Tlie distinction between them is pre- 
 cisely that between Stephen as a martyr, and Saul as 
 a persecutor. We may often voluntarily suffer, but 
 may never 5m; no matter who commands it. This 
 is a distinction in the very nature of actions, and is 
 carefully maintained throughout the Bible, as we shall 
 presently see. If, then, human law commands a wick- 
 ed act, the law must be Iroken in its precept, while we 
 show our reverence for government by quietly suT}- 
 mitting to the penalty. The required act may be one 
 of commission or omission, and the one is as wrong as 
 the other ; for no government has a right to command 
 what God has forbidden, or to forbid what God has 
 enjoined. Nor is the case altered, whether the act 
 relate to God or our fellow-men. It is as expressly 
 required that we should love our neighbor as our- 
 selves, as it is that we should love God better than our- 
 selves. This simple statement suffices to refute the 
 sophistry of an extract from a charge of Judge Mc- 
 Lean, which has been extensively published in the 
 newspapers ; in which he declares that in matters be- 
 tween man and man, "the law, and not conscience, 
 constitutes the rule of action ;" while he admits that 
 "no earthly power has a right to interpose between a 
 man's conscience and his Maker : he has a right, an 
 inalienable and absolute right, to worship God accord- 
 ing to the dictates of his own conscience : for this he 
 alone must answer, and he is entirely free from all 
 human restraint to think and act for himself." Does 
 the venerable judge imagine that religion consists ot 
 3 
 
34 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 nothing but icorship? that God requires no acts of 
 benevolence to our fellow-men? that law must not 
 interfere with one-half of the decalogue, but has a 
 perfect right to trample on the other fialf? It cannot 
 be ; and yet such is the substance of his argument. 
 The world may applaud the sophism ; but how intelli- 
 gent Christians can do it, passes my poor comprehension. 
 It seems to be the theory of many, that national and 
 state laws, and especially the articles of the Federal 
 Constitution, are the supreme rule of conduct for all 
 who dwell in the land, notwithstanding any conflict 
 which may exist between them and the law of God as 
 contained in the Scriptures. They claim that our 
 duty is to obey the law, whatever it may he, until it is 
 repealed ; leaving the responsibility of its rightfulness 
 between the government and God. Alas! it is not so 
 easy to throw off responsibility upon the government. 
 God deals with us individually, and not in masses or 
 organically. He has placed the Bible in my hands, 
 and commanded me to take it as my sole guide in all 
 the relations of life ; and he has done the same with 
 each of you. When we stand at his judgment bar, he 
 will not say, " United States Government, come forth 
 and answer for your deeds! Federal Constitution, 
 appear and be judged for your character!" There 
 would be nobody to respond, if such a call should be 
 made. God deals with nations and governments in 
 this world, by providential events. In eternity, he will 
 deal with individuals, and call upon you and me to 
 stand forth for judgment. Before him will lie the 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 35 
 
 volume by which we must be tried. And what will 
 it be? The Revised Statutes of Connecticut? the acts 
 of Congress ? or the National Constitution ? No ; no : 
 but God's statute-book — the Bible. Said Christ, " He 
 that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one 
 that judgeth him: tJie word that I have spoken, the 
 same shall judge him at the last day.''' 
 
 Where has God declared in the Scriptures, that he 
 has constituted human enactments the highest law for 
 man on earth? Does he not style himself the "King 
 of kings, and the Lord of lords" on purpose that it 
 might be understood that he is supreme? Does he 
 not declare that rulers are his ministers for the express 
 purpose of carrying out his law in the punishment of 
 crime and the reward of virtue ; so that they belie 
 their office when they venture to enact that which 
 is wrong? The Savior has clearly intimated that 
 Gassar's claims are not to be allowed to conflict with 
 those of God. "Render, therefore, unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar's; [all the honor and obe- 
 dience which are his legitimate due ;] and [as a matter 
 of no less consequence, not to be subverted by the 
 former] unto God the things that are God's." It would 
 indeed be a strange doctrine, that God has resigned 
 his throne to civil rulers, and instructed us that his 
 law should always give place to that of men, who are 
 often both ignorant and wicked. In such case, our 
 Bibles are superfluous, and may as well be burned ; 
 for the whole of revelation might be summed up in the 
 short precept, Obey your rulers in all things. 
 
86 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 The truth is simply this : There are three insti- 
 tutions which God has ordained — the family, the 
 church, and the state. The Bible is the statute-book 
 to guide us in our relations to each of these. While 
 the child is commanded to obey his parents in the most 
 emphatic terms — " in all things," as Paul once expresses 
 it yet in another place the limitation is added, "in 
 the Lord," to show that parental authority was not 
 binding when it ran counter to the divine commands. 
 So also Christians are told to reverence ecclesiastical 
 authority, and to "obey them that have the rule over 
 them," or the proper officers of the church ; but we all 
 hold as Protestants, that they are under no obligation 
 to obey the church or its officers against their con- 
 science; and this is the scriptural doctrine, making 
 every man responsible for his individual conduct to 
 God, under the guidance of the Bible. The same 
 truth must hold equally in the state. We are to obey 
 magistrates, or as Peter expresses it, " submit ourselves 
 to every ordinance- of man" in all cases, except when 
 they require us to do that which is forbidden by the 
 law of God. Then we must obey God at all hazards, 
 statute-books and constitutions to the contrary not- 
 withstanding. That this may be still more evident, let 
 me suggest several brief but important considerations. 
 1. Such laws not only assail God, but require us to 
 do the same. A law which simply oppresses me, 
 assails God, because it is contrary to his requirements ; 
 but it does not call on me to do any thing which is 
 wrong ; and therefore I may comply with it in a spirit 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 37 
 
 of self-sacrifice, as explained in a former part of this 
 discussion. When, however, the law requires me to do 
 a wicked act, it seeks to place me, as well as itself, in 
 opposition to God. I become, by compliance, a par- 
 ticipator in the sin, and am involved in the consequent 
 guilt. Where I have the means of judging, I am 
 bound to know the nature of the deed required of me, 
 and to decide accordingly. If I would preserve my 
 soul unspotted, I must refuse to have any thing to do 
 with violations of God's law. 
 
 2. The principle of obedience to such laws involves 
 a positive contradiction. We are told that it is our 
 solemn duty to obey the law, that God requires it in 
 the Bible ; and yet the law commands a thing which 
 God has forbidden, or interdicts what God has enjoined ! 
 Thus intelligent Christian men are called upon to be- 
 lieve that God directs them to disobey himself! that 
 he makes his law our rule of conduct, and yet does 
 not impose it, but refers us to the antagonistic pre- 
 cepts of civil rulers ! that he claims to be omniscient, 
 all-wise, and perfectly holy, and has established a law 
 which he knows to be the wisest, the best, and the only 
 right one, and yet makes it our duty to be guided not 
 by it, but by the law which emanates from human 
 ignorance and sin, in opposition to his own ! Credit 
 this, who can. 
 
 3. The principle of obedience to such laws saps the 
 foundation of all morality and religion. If human 
 authority can subvert or override the divine in one 
 case, it can in another. If we are bound by a consti- 
 
38 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 tution or statute to violate one command of the deca- 
 logue, we might be similarly bound to violate a second, 
 and a third, or the entire ten. If the government must 
 be obeyed when it forbids a deed of mercy which God 
 enjoins, then it must also be obeyed when it com- 
 mands a deed of violence and wrong which God pro- 
 hibits. If it must be recognised as the supreme au- 
 thority in our relations to our fellow-men, so must it 
 also in our relations to God ; for the decalogue covers 
 both, and there is as much right for suspending one 
 part as the other. Thus the liberty of conscience is 
 destroyed, and both morality and religion are made 
 the sport of legislative caprice. If the people or their 
 rulers are wicked enough to require us, by consti- 
 tution or statute, to steal, to commit adultery, to mur- 
 der, to blaspheme, or to worship idols, we must forth- 
 with comply ! It is of no avail to plead that we are 
 not required to do such things and are not likely to be; 
 the principle which covers these cases is involved, if 
 it be maintained that we are bound by law to do any 
 wrong act, in the way of con. mission or omission. 
 Such things have been required by law in past ages, 
 and might consistently be enjoined again, if human 
 law is above conscience and the word of God. It is 
 useless to talk any longer of right and wrong; we 
 should merely speak of what is legal and illegal. 
 
 4. The doctrine of unqualified obedience is suicidal 
 to the conception of all law, human and divine. Many 
 appear never to have reflected upon the true basis of 
 law and government. They conceive of them as found- 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 39 
 
 ed upon mere will and power, both in God and man. 
 But this is a most serious mistake. No being, how- 
 ever great, has a right to command any thing irre- 
 spective of its nature. We cannot conceive of God 
 as having a right to enjoin hatred instead of love, or 
 falsehood instead of truth. Law in all worlds is 
 founded on the eternal and necessary distinction be- 
 tween right and wrong, and is simply a declaration 
 and enforcement, on the part of the proper authority, 
 of what is in the nature of things reasonable and 
 right. Flence, if God should proclaim a command to 
 hate and to lie, it v/ould not be binding upon the 
 conscience ; it would be, in fact, no law. God has 
 instituted human government as a part of his own to 
 prevent wrong ; and no acts are or can be valid, which 
 are contrary to this. Take away the idea that law is 
 to be the representative of eternal right and justice, 
 and declare it to be the representative of mere will 
 and power, and it is stripped of all majesty and 
 legitimate authority. Pages might be quoted from 
 the most distinguished writers on law to corroborate 
 this view, but there is space for only one or two brief 
 citations. Says Fortescue, "All laws derive their 
 force from the law of nature ; and those which do not, 
 are accounted as no law." Blackstone says of this 
 natural and eternal law of right, that "it being coeval 
 with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of 
 course superior in obligation to any other. It is 
 binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all 
 times : no human laws are of any validity, if contrary 
 
40 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 to this." Says the same high authority, taking mur- 
 der as a strong case to show the principles involved, 
 "If any human law should allow or enjoin us to 
 commit it, we are bound to transgress that human 
 law." It is on this ground that the Declaration of 
 Independence asserts that certain rights are "un alien- 
 able," which they could not be, if human constitutious 
 and statutes, of whatever character, are of supreme 
 authority, and binding on the conscience. The only 
 doctrine that lays a basis for law is that which I 
 advocate. To suppose that a person may do as a 
 citizen, in opposition to the divine law, what it is 
 conceded would be wicked for him to do as a man, 
 is to fall into the difficulty of the profane bishop, who 
 was also a noble, and who, being rebuked by a peas- 
 ant for his profanity, replied that he did not swear as 
 a bishop, but as a nobleman: to whom the peasant 
 proposed the puzzling inquiry, When God damns the 
 nobleman, what will become of the bishop? Thus, 
 we might ask those who think that a citizen must do, 
 in obedience to human law, what God has forbidden 
 and what eternal right condemns. When God punishes 
 the man, what will become of the citizen ? It appears, 
 then, that the only course by which to honor and 
 strengthen law, is the one which I have pointed out — 
 to render cheerful obedience to government in the 
 exercise of its legitimate functions ; to bear patiently 
 with its follies and personal oppressions, submitting 
 to inconvenience and suffering rather than to offer 
 resistance; and to disobey it when it requires us to 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 41 
 
 do wrong, treating its precepts as of no force, but 
 enduring quietly its penalties, and leaving our justifi- 
 cation to time and to God. Thus it will be perceived 
 that we hold the true idea of law sacred, while we 
 trample only on its counterfeit. 
 
 5. It is proper that I should add under this pro- 
 position, as under the others, that such was the course 
 pursued by the holy men of whom we read in Scrip, 
 ture and in secular history. They uniformly refused 
 compliance with those edicts of human government 
 which conflicted with the requirements of God. 
 Ahab and Jezebel were the sovereigns of Israel. They 
 issued a command that all the prophets of Jehovah 
 should be slain ; but Obadiah, so far from aiding in 
 the wicked work, secreted a hundred of them in a 
 cave, and fed them till the danger was past or they 
 could escape to distant parts. Nebuchadnezzar, the 
 king of Babylon, made a decree that every man 
 should worship the golden image which he had 
 erected, under penalty of being cast into a fiery 
 furnace for disobedience. Shadrach, Meshach, and 
 Abednego, refused to comply with the mandate, and 
 submitted to be cast into the furnace, v/here God 
 wrought a miracle for their deliverance, to attest his 
 approbation of their conduct and to recommend their 
 example to others. Darius, the king, in company 
 with his council, being the supreme authority, made 
 a law in the usual form, that no one should offer a 
 prayer for thirty days to any being but himself. 
 Daniel deliberatolv violated it, as a wicked enactment. 
 
42 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 and then unresistingly allowed himself to be cast into 
 the den of lions, which was the prescribed punish- 
 ment. Here, again, God testified his approval by a 
 miracle, and rescued him from death. The Sanhe- 
 drim, which was the Jewish congress, made a law 
 that no man should preach the gospel, and having 
 called the apostles before them, "commanded them 
 not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus." 
 What did the apostles reply ? Did they say, We are 
 sorry you have made such law, but since it is so, as 
 we are law-abiding citizens, and have a great rever- 
 ence for your wisdom, we will observe it? Not they. 
 They replied, "Whether it be right in the sight of 
 God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge 
 ye; for we cannot but speak the things which we 
 have seen and heard." They violated the law pub- 
 licly and continually, bearing their sufferings patiently 
 and without resistance when they were beaten and 
 imprisoned, and, after they were released, repeated 
 their disobedience. When Paul preaclied in Damas- 
 cus after his conversion, orders were issued by the 
 governor to arrest him, and all the marshals and 
 constables of the city were on the watch to seize the 
 apostle ; but the Christians, instead of betraying and 
 delivering up the fugitive, aided his escape, and let 
 him down over the wall by night in a basket. — See 
 also Acts, 18 : 13. Tiie Roman emperors made laws 
 commanding the primitive Christians to worship their 
 statues and the images of heathen deities, and to com- 
 mit other wrong acts ; which they utterly refused to do ; 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 43 
 
 but Still, when peaceful escape was impossible, 
 allowed themselves to be scourged, fined, imprisoned, 
 and put to death without resistance. So also in later 
 times, Protestants steadily disobeyed the edicts of 
 Romish governments which commanded them to dis- 
 obey God, and then yielded themselves to suffering 
 and death. Numerous were the laws which the 
 Puritans disregarded in England as interfering with 
 the requirements of God, and one of the questions 
 which was most warmly discussed between them and 
 their opponents, was, as to the duty of obeying the 
 government in all things. Down to this day the 
 Quakers in Great Britain refuse to pay military 
 taxes, believing that war is in all cases wrong, and 
 also taxes for the support of the established church 
 from which they conscientiously dissent; and they 
 allow their goods to be seized and sold at public 
 auction by the legal officers in consequence. But 1 
 need not particularize further. History abounds in 
 illustrations proving that the doctrine which I have 
 set forth has been that of godly men from the begin- 
 ning. 
 
 If it be finally objected, that this view takes away 
 a uniform rule of conduct, throws every man upon 
 his own conscience, and tends to discord and conflict ; 
 I reply, that this is the very objection which Papists 
 bring against the kindred doctrine in religion of the 
 right of private judgment. There may be incidental 
 evils, but they are unspeakably less than those which 
 attach to the opposite view. Where there is mind, 
 
44 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 there must be freedom, and freedom will of course 
 occasion differences of opinion ; but on the plan 
 suggested, there will be neither violence nor anarchy. 
 If nations will make wicked laws, and endeavor to 
 impose them upon men in whom God has placed a 
 conscience and to whom he has given a Bible, they 
 must expect collision. In proportion as constitutions 
 and laws are conformed to right, there will be less 
 and less occasion for disobedience. It is to be granted, 
 however, that we should be very cautious in deciding 
 that a law is contrary to the Word of God, inasmuch 
 as important consequences flow from the position 
 which we assume. The case ought to be clear and 
 unequivocal. Happily, our venerated Constitution 
 can be said to violate our conscience in but a single 
 exception, at most, and even there it is very doubtful 
 if any action is required of private citizens. In con- 
 clusion, suffer three practical remarks: 
 
 1. It is well to understand what is implied in an oath 
 to support the constitution. It undoubtedly pledges you 
 to comply with its provisions in all your action under 
 it, it being assumed in such action, that you consider it 
 as harmonizing with the law of God ; for it would be 
 a horrible impiety, as well as a glaring inconsistency, 
 to swear in the name of God and with an appeal to 
 him for his judgments in case of deviation, that you 
 will do what you know that he forbids. If you 
 believe that the Constitution is at war with God, then 
 you must refuse to act under the provisions which are 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 45 
 
 contradictory to his will. The utmost that good faith 
 allows to one who is conscientiously opposed to the 
 "duties" required by one or more of its provisions, is, 
 to take the oath of allegiance, with the distinct under- 
 standing, that if you act at all under it, it will be in 
 compliance with it ; but that you intend, in case 
 action should be called for in connection with the 
 unrighteous part, to resign your place rather than 
 comply. You cannot retain your place in office 
 under it, and yet refuse at the same time to fulfil 
 your oath. To be true to God does not require that 
 you should be false to men. Let your oaths and acts 
 go together, both being omitted, or, if conscience 
 permits, both being assumed. 
 
 2. My readers will be able, in view of the princi- 
 ples laid down, to decide what God calls upon them to 
 do with reference to the recent Act of Congress res- 
 pecting the delivery of fugitive slaves — an act designed 
 to " settle" a great moral agitation ; (or in other words, 
 to roll back the events of Providence and to defeat the 
 divine purposes;) but which has done more to increase 
 it than anything which has occurred for many years. 
 Happily for the consciences of all parties at the North, 
 whatever may be their opinions about slavery, and of 
 both sides in the discussion of the subject of this dis- 
 course, the new act is as unconstitutional as it is 
 
 * Many of the best lawyers in the country have declared that 
 it violates the Constitution in several important particulars, partic- 
 ularly in conferring judical power on commissioners, in denying a 
 trial by jury, and in suspending the habeas corpus. It is safe 
 then to ignore it. 
 
46 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 wicked ; it as clearly opposes the fundamental law of 
 the land, as it does that of God : though were the 
 former fact otherwise, the direction of duty would be 
 the same. After our full consideration of the general 
 principles involved, it will be needless to do more than 
 state, without argument, the course which should be 
 pursued with reference to this specific law. (1) Offer 
 to it no violent resistance : make no attempt to defend 
 or rescue the alleged fugitive by physical /orce. (2) 
 Render it no aid, lest you participate in the iniquity : 
 if you are called upon by the marshal to assist in the 
 apprehension or detention of the slave, lift not a finger, 
 stir not a foot. (3) If possible, aid the victim in a 
 quiet and peaceable escape, as Obadiah did the 
 prophets, and as the disciples in Damascus did Paul. 
 (4) Take legal measures to have the constitutionality 
 of the act tested before a judicial tribunal, by secur- 
 ing the issue of a suit of habeas corpus. (5) Labor 
 incessantly by voice, pert, press, and vote, for its speedy 
 repeal. (6) Submit unresistingly to any penalties 
 which may be laid upon you for such obedience to 
 God. Act thus, and let God take care of the conse- 
 quences. Be like the "honest man" portrayed by 
 Bishop Hall, " whose conscience overrules his provi- 
 dence (worldly prudence), so as in all things, good or 
 ill, he respects the nature of the actions, not the sequel : 
 if he see what he must do, let God see what shall 
 follow." 
 
 S. Finally, in all your civil relations, strive to honor 
 God and to promote truth and right. Remember that 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 47 
 
 liuiiiaii government, even in the happy and prosperous 
 form of our American Union, is a means and not an 
 end ; that the end is the promotion of industry, intelli- 
 gence, and virtue, by the defence of the rights and 
 happiness of all without partiality, which is the true 
 idea of democracy ; and that the end is unspeakably 
 more valuable than the means, and must be preserved 
 at all hazards, though the particular means should fail 
 and perish. Let your views be expansive and com- 
 prehensive, your principles scriptural and inflexible, 
 and your conduct such as will endure the scrutiny of 
 the last day. While you are careful to "render unto 
 Ceesar the things which are Caesar's," see to it, as you 
 value your interests for time and eternity, that you do 
 not fail likewise, to "render unto God the things that 
 are God's." 
 
 As the object of the preceding essay was to settle principles 
 rather than to discuss existing facts, but a small space was 
 devoted to the consideration of the law recently enacted by 
 Congress for the capture of fugitive slaves. To supply that defi- 
 ciency in part, a portion of three articles is annexed, written by 
 the author as editorials in the columns of the N. E. Religious 
 Herald, published at Hartford, Ct. 
 
 THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 
 
 Do our readers understand the depth of infamy to 
 which their national legislators descended during the 
 late session of Congress? Are they aware that Con- 
 gress not only surrendered to Texas thousands of 
 
48 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 square miles to which she had not the shadow of a just 
 title, paying besides ten millions of dollars for not 
 conceding a still larger territory ; not only organized 
 New Mexico and Utah without any protection against 
 slavery, and declared that they should hereafter be 
 admitted as free or slave states, as they might choose ; 
 but also enacted a new and stringent law to aid the 
 recapture of fugitives from slavery? Have they read 
 the provisions of the bill, which are enough to make a 
 freeman's blood boil within him? If not, we intend 
 to furnish a statement of its substance, and then to 
 free our minds upon the whole subject, as an Ameri- 
 can and a Christian of right may do. 
 
 The bill contains ten sections, of which the first 
 four relate to the appointment and action of United 
 States Commissioners, who shall take cognizance of 
 such cases, and who are to be designated by certain 
 courts in sufficient number "to afford reasonable 
 facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor." — The fifth 
 section makes it the duty of all marshals and deputy 
 marshals to execute all warrants issued in pursuance 
 of this bill, under a penalty of 07ie thousand dollars 
 for refusal, and a like j^enalty in case the fugitive 
 escape while in his custody, " whether with or without 
 the assent of such marshal or his deputy?" It is 
 furthermore provided, that the persons appointed to 
 execute the process, shall, in case of an attempt to 
 resist, "summon and call to their aid the bystanders 
 or posse comitatas of the proper county." The sixth 
 section describes the way in which the case is to be 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 49 
 
 brought before the commissioner by affidavit or other- 
 wise, who shall "hear and determine the case of such 
 claimant in a summary manner," and shall deliver the 
 identified fugitive to his master in legal form ; it being 
 provided that "in no trial or hearing under this act 
 shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted 
 in evidence !" The seventh section crowns the climax 
 of sin, by declaring that whoever hinders the arrest of 
 a fugitive, attempts a rescue, or assists in his escape 
 from the claimant, after notice of the facts, "shall be 
 subject to a fine not exceeding a thousand dollars and 
 imprisonment not exceeding six months," and in addU 
 Hon, shall forfeit and pay a thousand dollars to the 
 owner of the slave so lost ! Section eight prescribes 
 the pay (the devil must have his due and can't afford 
 to work for nothing, and sinful work ought to be paid 
 well, to make up for the wear and tear of conscience 
 and for incidentals in the next world,) which commis- 
 sioners, and other officers, and agents shall have; 
 wherein it is provided that the commissioner shall have 
 ten dollars if he decides against the fugitive, and but 
 five if he decides in his favor ! Section nine author- 
 izes the employment of a sufficient number of persons 
 to prevent a rescue, should one be feared. The tenth 
 and last section provides for the taking a legal descrip- 
 tion, &;c., of the person claimed, in the State from 
 which he escapes, to be used as conclusive evidence 
 in the place where he may be arrested. 
 
 And this is a specimen of legislation in the nine- 
 teenth century, not by the Czar of Russia, not by the 
 
50 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 Sultan of Turkey, not by the Bey of Tunis, not by 
 the assembled chiefs of the Fejee Islands, but by the 
 Congress of the United States of America, sitting at 
 Washington ! Let not this law be falsely described 
 in succeeding history as the work of a Mohammedan, 
 heathen, or even Romish body ; for it was the act of a 
 professedly Christian and Protestant Congress, partici- 
 pated in by the descendants of Puritans, and done 
 after due prayer by the official chaplains! It is 
 enough to reanimate the dust of old Isaiah, that stern 
 reprover of wrong, and to make him once more lift 
 up his voice in the words that rang in the ears of 
 ancient oppressors, " Woe unto them that decree un- 
 righteous decrees, and that write grievousness which 
 they have prescribed ; to turn aside the needy from 
 judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of 
 my people." How shall we hold up our head before 
 the nations of Europe ; we, the hypocritical advocates 
 o^ freedom? A few months since we were applaud- 
 ing Turkey for refusing to deliver up the fugitive 
 Hungarians to the tender mercies of Austria and 
 Russia; and now our Congress enacts, and the Presi- 
 dent from the free North coincides, that the panting 
 slave shall be seized on the way to freedom, and 
 surrendered to his enraged master! What a popular 
 man Haynau would be in this country! Plow our 
 President, with the Cabinet and the two houses of 
 Congress, would haste to honor the oppressor of Hun- 
 gary, whom even London has vomited out ! How the 
 woman-whippers at the South would grasp by the 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 51 
 
 hand the Austrian butcher, who scourged the Hunga- 
 rian females in the streets of Pesth ! Who is not 
 proud of being an American ; of dwelling in a land 
 where men are bought and sold like swine in the pens, 
 and where the Christian who ventures to aid the 
 fugitive from bondage is fined two thousand dollars 
 and imprisoned six months? 
 
 But the Constitution requires such a law, and, how- 
 ever we may regret it, nothing remains but to carry- 
 out its provisions — this is the defence set up by the 
 Northern apologists for the act. In reply we might 
 allege many things. In the language of Mr. Seward, 
 "There is a law higher than the Constitution." What 
 is the Constitution, that it should be set up as the 
 defence of wrong? Should it require idolatry as one 
 of its "compromises," does it follow that we must 
 break the second commandment? And why not the 
 second as well as the eighth, or as well as the spirit 
 which pervades the whole ? If the Constitution could 
 not make it obligatory to worship idols, to profane the 
 divine name, to break the Sabbath, or to commit 
 adultery^ how can it render us guiltless if we break 
 any other part of the divine law? Has God made a 
 distinction in his precepts, allowing some to be set 
 aside, but requiring others to be kept at all hazards ? — 
 Who will dare assert it, or who will venture to claim 
 that human governments have the power to legislate 
 God's law out of force? — We read in the Bible, 
 " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant 
 who is escaped unto thee; he shall dwell with thee 
 
52 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 even among you, in that place which he shall choose, 
 \n one of thy gates, where it liketh him best : thou 
 ihalt not oppress him." In the face of this precept, 
 which in its whole spirit is applicable to such cases 
 as we are considering, suppose the Constitution does 
 require us to surrender the fugitive slave ; let us 
 obey God rather than man. Let us as individuals 
 refuse to aid in the recapture or restoration of the 
 bondman, and risk the consequences, "taking joyfully 
 the spoiling of our goods, knowing in ourselves that 
 we have in heaven a better and an enduring sub- 
 stance." We are commanded to "remember them 
 who are in bonds as hound with them,^^ on the principle 
 of doing to others as we would have them do to us. 
 Let us place ourselves in the condition of the poor 
 fugitive. Let us imagine that we were flying from 
 bondage ; from a condition in which we were worked 
 without wages our lifelong, were denied a crumb of 
 knowledge, and were outraged in all our feelings and 
 rights as husband, father, man, and Christian. What 
 should we think of the humanity and religion of those 
 who should seize us and send us back to our living 
 death ? Oh, how agonizingly we should implore 
 mercy, and what "a covenant with death and an 
 agreement with hell," in that particular, should we 
 regard the Constitution and the enactments under it, 
 which denied us liberty and all else that men count 
 dear ! How would you reason, reader, if your own 
 freedom, or that of your wife or child, was at stake ? 
 Act, then, for the slave as you would wish others to 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 53 
 
 act for you. What does the parable of the Good Sa- 
 maritan teach? Is the fugitive slave our "neighbor?" 
 Has he emphatically "fallen among thieves," and 
 does he now appeal to us for aid? Then let the 
 words of him who said " Go, and do thou likewise," 
 sound louder in our ears than any opposing human 
 enactments, and speed us to the deliverance of the 
 oppressed. 
 
 "Angels, in your starry height. 
 
 Having worlds of worlds in view ; 
 Spirits in the world of light ! 
 
 How appears such law to you! 
 Prudence, in this world of ours. 
 
 Recommends a heart of ice : 
 Say, ye loving, heavenly powers. 
 
 Is she virtue ] is she vice ] 
 
 "Going down to Jericho, 
 
 From the sufferer shall we draw. 
 Lest, in aiding, we should go 
 
 Counter to the Levite law? 
 Shall we take the coward plan. 
 
 Never acting as we feel; 
 Helping ne'er a plunder'd man. 
 
 Lest the law should say, ' You steal ?' 
 
 " Heavenly powers, if it be true, 
 
 Help us kindly to belief. 
 That to give the robbed his due, 
 
 Is but stealing from the thief: 
 Tell us, if the truth be so. 
 
 That Samaritans now ride. 
 Going down to Jericho, 
 
 On the priest and Levite side !" 
 
54 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 But here we may well ask, Whether the North 
 alone is to be held by the Constitution ? The South 
 have violated it a thousand times in order to propagate 
 slavery; as for instance, in overriding the treaty- 
 making power of the Senate in the admission of Texas. 
 To-day, in nearly every Southern state, the first par- 
 agraph of the second section of Article IV., declaring 
 that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all 
 privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
 states," is a dead letter, and colored citizens from 
 the North are imprisoned if setting foot within the 
 slate ; while forcible measures are used to prevent any 
 appeal being taken to the Supreme Court ! We ask 
 again whether slaveholders are to violate the Consti- 
 tution at will, while the North are to be bound to its 
 last letter? The outrageous conduct of the South in 
 violating the contract, has long since freed the North 
 from any obligations on that point. 
 
 But we contend that the Constitution does not re- 
 quire such a law as has just been passed, but on the 
 contrary in several respects forbids it. Two articles 
 were plainly intended to give the right of jury-trial in 
 every case of importance. This act denies it to the 
 fugitive, in the case of all others most demanding it. 
 Another article declares that the habeas corpus writ 
 shall not be suspended except in time of rebellion and 
 invasion. This act expressly forbids its application 
 to the fugitive. The article under which fugitives are 
 claimed does not require the North to lift a finger to 
 seize the fugitive^or aid the master, but simply allows 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 55 
 
 the master to capture him. This act requires us to 
 become active cooperators in the base work. Con- 
 gress had no right to pass such a bill, and the Presi- 
 dent should have immediately vetoed it. Its passage 
 was owing to the miserably immoral compromise-spirit 
 which prevailed with the President, the Cabinet, and 
 Congress ; by which the rights of the North and the 
 interests of freedom were sold out for the admission of 
 California, and for a transitory, false and hollow peace. 
 Let the demand go forth in indignant tones from the 
 whole North for the repeal of this infamous act, and 
 in the meanwhile let it be counted a dead letter. 
 Already several fugitives have been sent back under 
 its provisions, and the poor colored men are fleeing for 
 their lives in all parts of the country. Those who 
 have dwelt for years in our midst, are forced to hide 
 and escape like criminals, "though men of worth and 
 piety. It sends the blood coursing like fire through 
 our veins to see such scenes in this land of freedom. 
 We own no allegiance to such a law, and whoever 
 else may regard it, we shall treat it as a nullity as far 
 as possible. Men of New England, it is time that the 
 slaveholder was made to know that this is no hunting- 
 ground for him — that we shall tolerate no blood-hounds, 
 human or canine, on this free soil. If the attempt is 
 made to enforce the provisions of this bill, it will lead 
 to bloodshed in some parts of our land ; but we hope 
 that such a unanimous feeling of indignation will be 
 exhibited by the North, as will suffice to shame the 
 oppressor from the pursuit of his victim. 
 
56 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 THE FUGITIVE LAW AGAIN, 
 
 Last week we gave a summary of the barbarous law 
 which our Christian and republican Congress have 
 just enacted for the capture of fugitive slaves, and 
 expressed our sentiments with reference to its consti- 
 tutionality, and especially with regard to its morality. 
 That this particular law is unconstitutional, appears 
 clearly from its denial of the privilege of the writ of 
 habeas corpus, from its subversion of the right of trial 
 by jury, and from its conferring judicial authority upon 
 persons not recognised as clothed with such power by 
 the Constitution. That any law requiring the surren- 
 der of the fugitive is immoral and wrong, and there- 
 fore not to be obeyed, is evident from the specific re- 
 quirements of the Bible to the contrary, from its con- 
 trariety to the compassion and benevolence every 
 where enjoined in the Scriptures, from its odiousness 
 to the natural sympathies of every freeman, and from 
 the fact that as a nation we refuse to surrender those 
 who flee from the oppression of the old world. 
 
 There are several minor points, however, to which 
 we did not draw particular attention last week, which 
 ought not to be passed over in silence. We desire our 
 readers to reflect upon the atrocious provisions which 
 we shall name, and which are among the mere inci- 
 dentals of the bill. It is provided that the most inter- 
 ested testimony shall be received against the person 
 claimed as a slave, while his own testimony shall be 
 utterly excluded! Could ranker injustice be pre- 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 57 
 
 scribed? A man claims a negro as having been his 
 slave. If he can obtain a decision in favor of his 
 claim, it wiU be a thousand dollars in his pocket. He 
 is allowed to come in and assert his ownership, and to 
 bring his sons, his paid agents, and other equally- 
 interested persons, as corroborative witnesses. On 
 the other hand, the man whose liberty is at stake must 
 remain silent ! Not the simplest statement of fact may 
 issue from his lips! Is this equal and impartial jus- 
 tice, or cruel and proscriptive oppression ? 
 
 But this is not enough to satisfy our Christian legis- 
 lators. After providing for such an amount of ex 
 parte testimony as almost necessarily decides the case 
 against the negro, to " make assurance doubly sure," 
 and to leave no possible chance for his escape, they 
 proceed to bribe the judge! This charge has a harsh 
 sound, but our readers shall pronounce their own ver- 
 dict when they learn the facts. The law declares that 
 if the commissioner decides in favor of the negro, he 
 shall have five dollars for his trouble ; but if he de- 
 cides in favor of the claimant, he shall have ten dollars ! 
 What shall we call such a provision, which makes a 
 direct offer of five dollars to the commissioner to induce 
 him to favor the pretended master? The English 
 language does not possess terms of condemnation suf- 
 ficiently emphatic, and we leave the fact to speak for 
 itself, and to announce its own blackness. 
 
 Another item is, that the expenses incurred in cap- 
 turing a fugitive are to be paid out of the treasury of 
 
58 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. ^ 
 
 the United States!* Can any mortal tell wliy this 
 peculiar privilege is conferred upon slave property? 
 If a man loses his horse, he may search after him and 
 catch him at his own expense ; but if he loses his 
 slave, the government pays the bills. Verily, slavery 
 is a "peculiar institution," and we have very peculiar 
 legislators. Northerners have to endure the odium 
 of belonging to a slaveholding nation, are forced to 
 accommodate slavery in all their legislation and in the 
 distribution of the offices, are dragged into unjust and 
 expensive wars at the dictation of the same power, 
 are required to stand still and see the Constitution 
 violated whenever it pleases their Southern masters, 
 are turned into hunters of flying men and women, and 
 are then coolly compelled to pay the cost ! Oh patient, 
 long-suffering race ! Let us hasten to take our proper 
 place in natural history with the class called by the 
 naturalists pachy-dermala, i.e., thick-skinned; or let' 
 us with our long-eared brother of old, meekly reply, 
 when our chivalrous rider smites us, "Are we not 
 thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since we 
 were thine!" 
 
 We know that at the North we have many who 
 are very conservative. God help them, but it is a 
 singular fancy to be conservative of insults. They 
 probably store away in their cabinets, among their 
 most precious treasures, the boot which on some 
 memorable occasion has kicked them out of a house. 
 
 * The recent ease in New York city cost the nation seventy- 
 one dollars. 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 59 
 
 They are as conservative as the whipped spaniel 
 which licks the hand that struck it. What is it to 
 them that slaveholders compel them to serve in the 
 most menial offices, and to do work which ignores 
 God and conscience? They will stand by their 
 Southern brethren and the glorious Union, and oppose 
 all fanatics; for did Herod and Pilate ever fail to be 
 friends when there was a Jesus to crucify ? For our- 
 selves, we are radically opposed to meanness and sin. 
 And this is a part of the system of measures by 
 which our modern Solons thought to "settle" the 
 slavery question! Why, it is a fire-brand thrown 
 into the magazine. If there is any one point in the 
 whole range of anti-slavery truth, on which the North 
 approaches unanimity, it is the right of the fugitive 
 slave to his hard-earned liberty; and many of the 
 slaveholders are more than half of our opinion. Said 
 one of them to a friend of ours in Nev/ York city, a 
 few years since, "If I thought I had a slave on my 
 plantation who wouldnH run away when he had the 
 chance, I'd flog him." We see through the North 
 the poor fugitives starting for Canada, to find under a 
 monarchy the rights denied by a republic. Our 
 neighbors, our fellow-citizens, our brother Christians, 
 men who have dwelt near us for years, honored for 
 their industry and loved for their piety, are fleeing as 
 for their lives, or are passing through our streets 
 armed with the deadly revolver. Already one man, 
 respected by all who knew him, and a member of the 
 Methodist church, has been seized in New York city, 
 
60 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 and without opportunity to bid farewell to his wife 
 and children, was hurried away to Baltimore to what 
 would have been hopeless bondage, had not his friends 
 ransomed him at the expense of eight hundred dollars. 
 And it is expected that these things will "^e/iZe" the 
 slavery agitation ! As well expect the fierce winds 
 to calm the agitated ocean. We warn the South that 
 the freemen of the North disown the miserable com- 
 promise of their treacherous representatives, and that 
 if this atrocious law be pressed, there will be none 
 but abolitionists this side of Mason and Dixon's line. 
 The work of conversion to anti-slavery principles and 
 measures is fast going on — a few more auxiliaries 
 will complete it for ever. — Think not, above all, that 
 New England will tamely submit to become a 
 hunting-ground for the slaveholder. 
 
 " Oh, no ; methinks from all her wild, green mountains — 
 From valleys where her slumbering fathers lie — 
 From her blue rivers and her welling fountains, 
 
 And clear, cold sky — 
 
 " From her rough coast, and isles, which hungry Ocean 
 Gnaws with his surges — from the fisher's skiff. 
 With white sail swaying to the billows' motion 
 
 Round rock and clifT — 
 
 ** From the free fireside of her unbought farmer — 
 From her free laborer at his loom and wheel — 
 From the brown smith-shop, where, beneath the hammer. 
 
 Rings the red tieel — 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 61 
 
 " From each and all, if God hath not forsaken 
 Our land, and left us to an evil choice, 
 Loud as the summer thunderbolt shall waken 
 
 A people's voice! 
 
 " Startling and stern! the northern winds shall bear it 
 Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave ; 
 And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it 
 
 Within her grave." 
 
 THE HABEAS CORPUS. 
 
 Does the recent fugitive act impugn the Constitution 
 with respect to the habeas corpus? The opinion of 
 Mr. Crittenden, the Attorney-General, has been con- 
 sidered as establishing the negative. We object to 
 such a view, 1. Because the opinion of an attorney- 
 general is not an authoritative exposition like that of 
 the Supreme Court, but may be and is disputed on 
 various points every day. 2. Because equally good 
 lawyers have decided the other way. 3. Because 
 Mr. C. is of the opposite school to strict construe- 
 tionists and of the genuine Federal tendency, and 
 could hardly be brought to believe that an act of 
 Congress could be unconstitutional. 4. Because Mr. 
 C. is in favor of the compromise of which this law 
 was a part, and is not therefore an impartial judge. 
 His opinion as a member of the present Cabinet is 
 really worth less than if he were not the Attorney- 
 
62 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 General. 5. Because he is a slaveholder, and there- 
 fore directly interested in maintaining the law; and 
 especially, 6. Because his reasons are no reasons. 
 He says that the bill does not mention the habeas 
 corpus. Certainly not. Would the framers be such 
 fools as to suspend the writ by name? Who ever 
 knew an article of the Constitution violated avowedly ? 
 His next argument is, that the bill does not suspend 
 it, because the Constitution forbids suspension ! Was 
 ever such reasoning heard before ? He assumes the 
 very point to be proved, by declaring it impossible; 
 as though Congress had never passed and never could 
 pass an unconstitutional act. A thief might as well 
 plead that he had not stolen because the law forbids 
 theft. The third and last reason of Mr. C. is merely 
 an assertion that the provisions of the bill do not 
 interfere with the habeas corpus, which he undertakes 
 to sustain by arguing quite a different point, and 
 showing that the habeas corpus could not discharge a 
 fugitive ! That may be true, but what has it to do 
 with the question whether the law permits the writ to 
 be used for any purpose in such a case ? 
 
 And now for our reasons for believing that the law 
 does suspend the writ of habeas corpus. 1. Its lan- 
 guage is clear. The certificate given to the claimant 
 "shall prevent all molestation o^ said person or persons 
 by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, 
 or other person whomsoever." The defenders of the 
 law have never pretended to show what other process 
 is referred to but the habeas corpus. None other is 
 
CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 63 
 
 possible or could have been meant. The law then 
 says, that the habeas corpus when issued shall not be 
 allowed to '•'•molest''' the claimant. Does "molest" 
 mean merely to discharge the fugitive ? That would 
 be a narrow signification of the word. It means to 
 trouble, hinder, delay, or impede the claimant — ^just 
 what the habeas corpus would assuredly do, as all 
 confess. The bill did not simply mean, (for it does 
 not say so,) that the habeas corpus may indeed be 
 served and must be heeded, but that it shall have 
 no power to discharge the fugitive when the case 
 comes to be examined. No one claims, under ordinary 
 views of the Constitution, that the writ could do any 
 thing more than to inquire whether the man was held 
 under any law. 
 
 2. This is yet more evident when we notice for 
 vjlial this clause was substituted. The original bill on 
 this subject, on which the present one was based, was 
 introduced by Mr. Butler, with amendments by Mr. 
 Mason. It is in substance the same as the present, but 
 in the connection now under discussion, used this lan- 
 guage : "which certificate shall be a sufficient war- 
 rant for taking and removing such fugitive from service 
 or labor to the State or Territory from which he or she 
 fled." This allows the habeas corpus, but declares 
 tliat the showing the certificate shall be sufficient to 
 justify the claimant when the case is examined under 
 it. If this was all that was and is desired, why were 
 not these words retained? Why were they stricken 
 out, and the clause substituted which says the certifi- 
 
64 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 
 
 cate " shall prevent all molestation . . . hy any process 
 issued by any court," &c. ? It is plain that the slave- 
 holders made a bold attempt to crush the legal rights 
 of the fugitives. 
 
 3. The same thing is clear from the liaUlities 
 otherwise pertaining to such case. If the habeas cor- 
 pus can be used in the case of fugitive slaves after the 
 claimant has received his certificate, then the master 
 may be stopped by it in every state, if not in every 
 county and town through which he passes; thus cre- 
 ating trouble, expense, and liability to lose his slave by 
 rescue or escape. It was to guard against this, that 
 the clause in question was inserted ; that the master 
 might not be '•''molested by any process issued by any 
 court," &c. 
 
 4. The actual facts of the last ten years confirm this 
 view. Slaveholders have been " molested" repeatedly 
 by the issuing of the writ of habeas corpus as they 
 were carrying back their victim, and in consequence 
 of it have sometimes lost him. It was to prevent such 
 occurrences in the future that this law was enacted. 
 
 Who, then, that studies the words of the law and the 
 circumstances in which it was passed, camdoubt what 
 it meant? It meant to deny the slave the benefit of 
 the habeas corpus, it being supposed that the country 
 would endure the denial of the right to the black man, 
 he being an exception to all constitutional provisions ! 
 * * # * # 
 
 ^ vF ^ ifF vF 
 
 THE END. 
 
 54 W 
 

 
 
 ^^- 
 
 
 y '^^ "^ ^f 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 0^ o«-«-r. "^o ^^^ .t' 
 
 ^^^ **.o' ^V^ 
 
 
 ♦ .V % 
 
 
 ^%\.,/\»* 
 
 
^^^<^ 
 
 "« - '* 0^ '^^ '^-'TTT* ' A 
 
 I ^^<i^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^> .-^ 
 
 1^ *'"^- A^ V ♦•To' .^^ 
 
 
 ^V^*-:,' 
 
 '^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i^?<9»»f. 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ '"