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THE APPEAL OF RELIGION TO MEN IN POWER. 
 
 SERMON 
 
 ON OCCASION OF THE LATE CALAMITY AT 
 WASHINGTON. 
 
 / 
 BY REV. ORVILLE DEWEY, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH IN NEW YORK. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 C. S. FRANCIS AND COMPANY. 
 
 1844. 
 
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PREFACE 
 
 The following discourse was delivered the Sunday after 
 tidings were received of the sudden death, by the bursting of 
 a gun on board the Steam Frigate Princeton, of the Secretary 
 of State, the Hon. Abel P. Upshur, the Secretary at War, the 
 Hon. Thomas W. Gilmer, the Hon. Yirgil Maxcy, late Ameri- 
 can Minister at the Hague, Commodore Kennon, and the Hon. 
 David Gardiner, lately a member .of the Senate of the State 
 of New York. 
 
 I need not say that in the course of remark to which I have 
 been led in this sermon, no reflection is designed upon the dis- 
 tinguished members of the Government, who have fallen vic- 
 tims to this terrible disaster. If I had thought that their 
 characters rendered them liable to moral censure, as political 
 or private men, I should not have preached this sermon. It 
 gives me great pleasure to record the testimonies which I hear 
 on every hand, to their unblemished worth. 
 
 Nor is it to be inferred from what I have written, that I re- 
 gard our own Government as worse than others — worse than 
 the best of those which exist in other countries. It was not 
 my business in this discourse, to draw any parallel of this 
 nature. I conceive that political affairs everywhere, are sep- 
 arated to a lamentable extent from that conscience and sense 
 of the divine authority which ought to govern them. 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 Nor, once more, is the moral bearing of this discourse affec- 
 ted in any degree by the question, whether there is any great 
 decline and degeneracy in our political morality. In some 
 respects, I believe there is. In others, I am told, and am willing 
 to believe that things are improving. I do believe that there 
 is a public conscience awaking and arising in this country ; 
 and it is to lend my humble aid to its elevation that this dis- 
 course is published. 
 
SEEM ON. 
 
 Jeremiah, chapter ii, part of verses 21, 22, and 23. 
 
 " A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and suppli- 
 cations of the children of Israel. Behold we come unto thee, for 
 thou art the Lord our God. Truly in the Lord our God, is the 
 salvation of Israel." 
 
 The awful event, of which tidings have been brought 
 to us from the Capitol since the last Sabbath, has ar- 
 rested the public attention, and it seems to demand some 
 recognition from the pulpit. Well may it move us to 
 deep meditation. Though we recognize no special pro- 
 vidence in this event, yet there is a providence over 
 all ; and that which hath spread dismay and sorrow in 
 the high places of the land, should come down upon 
 the heart of the people with some peculiar instruction. 
 
 It is not my part on this occasion, to address words 
 of consolation to the immediate mourners in this dread 
 catastrophe ; yet I am sure that I may truly express 
 our heartfelt sympathy, and that of the whole nation, 
 in their deep bereavement. May God comfort them, 
 and may he give power to their spiritual guides and to 
 their many friends, as far as human power can go, to 
 console them in their great sorrow ! 
 
 But it is to us all, a solemn and heart-rending stroke 
 of calamity. What attributes more awful could ever 
 accompany the visitation of death ? On the deck of 
 the proud ship, armed with death-dealing engines ; on 
 that deck turned for the hour from its fated use, to bear 
 a party of pleasure ; gaiety and smiles and womanly 
 beauty taking place for the time, of the dread array of 
 
war ; there, while pouring forth from the dread est en- 
 gine of destruction the volleyed thunder ; there, in an 
 unexpected moment, in a time unlooked for, comes the 
 awful recoil, and its blow falls not upon common 
 men — but upon the high and powerful ; upon men who 
 stood upon that deck in the full flush and pride and 
 hope of earthly honor ! 
 
 But it were vain and useless for me to dwell upon 
 the circumstances of this event, or upon the horror it 
 has spread through the whole country ; and I turn to 
 consider its uses to ourselves. I am moved by it to say 
 something to you upon a theme too little considered 
 among us, I fear ; upon a theme that has as yet obtain- 
 ed no just place in our spiritual teachings ; I mean the 
 appeal of religion and conscience to men in power ; and 
 that, not merely to the highest, but to all men who are 
 put in trust for the common weal. 
 
 The subject is proper for us to consider, and the oc- 
 casion I think properly suggests it. The sudden and 
 tragical death of two public officers, presiding over 
 most important departments of State, with that of oth- 
 er distinguished persons, seems to bring the call of re- 
 ligion into the sphere of government. It is proper too 
 for us to consider ; for we are all, if not the possessors, 
 the creators of power ; and we all, by our opinions re- 
 ligious or irreligious, are exerting an influence upon the 
 power we create. We live in a land where the gen- 
 eral sentiment, where the general conscience or w r ant 
 of conscience, makes itself to be felt in the administra- 
 tion of the Government. And the failure to entertain 
 a serious and religious consideration of this matter of 
 Government is, to my mind, at this moment, one of the 
 most alarming aspects in the state of the public mind. 
 We must be aroused, the whole country must be arous- 
 ed, to a new consideration of this subject. And if I 
 could speak to the pulpit of the country, I would im- 
 plore it to awake to the duty of pouring a new life, a 
 new conscience into all the forms and departments of 
 
political action. What might it not do, if it would on- 
 ly conceive that this function belongs to it ! What 
 might it not do, if it would speak out, to break up the 
 too prevailing apathy, on the tremendous subject of 
 public pecuniary default, which is now pressing upon 
 the conscience of the people ! What might it not do 
 to impart a higher character to the duties of voters and 
 jurors, and legislators and magistrates; and to send up 
 voices from our ten thousand churches, that should be 
 collected and reverberated in tones of awful admoni- 
 tion, beneath the dome of the Capitol ! 
 
 This humble pulpit at least, shall utter its voice ; not 
 harshly, not irreverently, I trust, either to God or man ; 
 but humbly, as if the graves of the mighty dead were 
 opened by its side. This day, in humiliation, in sor- 
 row, with entreaty, will I speak to you; and while the 
 wail of a great public calamity fills the air, and makes 
 it heavy with sighs, I would ask you, and I would fain 
 ask the wise and great of the land, to bow before the 
 providence of Almighty God ; before that Being who 
 lifts up and strikes down ; who doeth according to his 
 will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants 
 of the earth ; and to whom no mortal eye shall dare to 
 look up, and say, what doest thou ? 
 
 Yes, my friends, religion, by this event, is brought 
 nigh to power. The pride of greatness is smitten to 
 the dust ; and, with the eloquent preacher, who ex- 
 claimed on another and less moving occasion, we may 
 say, " God alone is great ! " The bright day of pleas- 
 ure and of pomp has sunk in sudden darkness. The 
 war-deck, proudly trodden one moment ; lo ! in an in- 
 stant it is a blood-stained altar ; and prayers of mingled 
 terror and agony go up to heaven from it. 
 
 And now when a stricken and reverent people gath- 
 er around that altar, what shall we say to them ? We 
 will speak to them of God, as the Governor of the 
 world, of Him as the high and mighty one, from whom 
 all rightful authority proceeds, and to whom all rulers, 
 
magistrates and ministers of State must give account. 
 We will speak in other words of the religion of Office, 
 the religion of Government ; of the veneration due to 
 Almighty God, from those who stand in the place of 
 God on earth. 
 
 Must we not say, in the first place, that in these mod- 
 ern times, this connection is, to a fearful extent, over- 
 looked and disregarded? Nay, and is not this a pe- 
 culiar and alarming tendency of our own institutions ? 
 In the most ancient times, the king was also the priest 
 of his people. In later days, under monarchical forms, 
 Religion has been closely associated with the State; 
 nay, has been made dependent on the State. We have 
 thou ah t it wise to break this bond. But in setting Re- 
 lio-ion free from the Government, have we not set it 
 loose in our thoughts, from the great presiding order 
 of the State ? We have thought of Government as 
 an exclusively political instrument. Since it shall not 
 support or control religion, it shall have nothing to do 
 with religion ; and we have imagined, I fear, that it 
 can go on prosperously without religion in any sense. 
 Who ever thinks of asking concerning the candidate 
 for office, whether he is a devout man ; whether he 
 looks up to heaven for light and guidance ; whether he 
 cares for the will of God ; whether he venerates that 
 power above, in the fear of which alone, can there ever 
 beany safe and just Government? Is it then to be 
 thought strange or surprising, if the arena of our poli- 
 tics is utterly bare and barren of that high influence ; 
 if verdure and flowers from the mountain-side were as 
 soon to be looked for in our beaten and dusty streets ; 
 if the seat of Government is, during the session of 
 Congress, a scene of stupendous immorality ; if the 
 very idea of religion and sanctity there, meets but with 
 the sneers and ridicule of a whole people ? I say not 
 whatjustice or injustice there is in this estimate. I would 
 fain believe that it is not the true one. I say not how 
 much or how little religion there is in the hearts of our 
 
rulers ; I leave that to their conscience and their God; 
 I know there are those among them who feel a sense 
 of their sacred responsibility. But I complain — in grief 
 and bitterness of sorrow I complain — of this state of 
 mind among the people. I am struck with amazement 
 and horror at this severance in the common idea of re- 
 ligion from politics. It seems to me at times as if all 
 faith in political morality and religion, had gone out 
 from the heart of this nation. When we pray, as we 
 do on the Sabbath days, that our rulers may be men, 
 fearing God ; when we pray for our Congress, that 
 God would breathe into the hearts of its members a 
 true conscience and a sacred piety ; is there any pray- 
 er that we ever offer in the sanctuary, which we so 
 completely despair of having answered ? Oh ! my 
 brethren has it come to this ? Are we in such utter 
 despair of having conscientious and God-fearing legis- 
 lators- and rulers, that we will not believe that Almighty 
 God himself can make them such ? Would that this 
 might be a monitory, a startling thought in the purlieus 
 of the halls of debate ! Would that this thought might 
 go into secret chambers, and say in some conscious 
 hearts, "the great people whom we represent, even 
 when on bended knees before God, pray in despair 
 when they pray for us ! " I speak not this irrever- 
 ently of our rulers; I speak it not indiscriminately; I 
 say it with deference for their place; but out of this 
 dread apprehension we feel, and I might say out of very 
 agony, I must speak. There are interests involved 
 here — of millions of beings, and of coming millions 
 yet unborn — which will not permit us to keep silence ; 
 which might open the lips of death to speak. We our- 
 selves are parties to this high compact of Government ; 
 and we cannot permit any man, because invested with 
 office, to escape from this great bond. And I do say 
 moreover, whatever be the truth, that this admitted 
 severance of politics from religion and conscience, this 
 
 •7 
 
10 
 
 terrible distrust which has settled upon the heart of the 
 nation, is such a calamity that we might well sit down 
 this day, in sackcloth and ashes, to mourn over it. The 
 wail that has risen from the late awful catastrophe, is 
 not so mournful as this dark cloud of despondency be- 
 neath which we are sitting. We can part with emi- 
 nent men ; we must have parted with them in the course 
 of nature ; but that which we are now considering, 
 strikes a wider blow ; it strikes at a nation's life. 
 
 I say, at a nation's life ; for unless this government is 
 administered in a true conscience and in the fear of 
 God, it bodes evil to us ; we have no right to expect 
 good from it ; and it will never work out the good re- 
 sults which we profess to expect from a free State. 
 This is the second consideration which I wish to lay 
 before you. 
 
 I am willing to admit that in speaking of the divorce 
 of religion from politics, I have used strong language. 
 I have done so, not because this is the only instance of 
 such fearful and fatal mistake. Religion is divorced 
 also, and that too, alas ! by much of our religious teach- 
 ings, from trade, from labor, from amusement, from so- 
 ciety, from the whole of life. But I have represented 
 this fact strongly in regard to office, because I think 
 that religious principles are considered as having less 
 to do with the administration of government than with 
 any other department of life. And I have done so, 
 too, because I believe that these principles are more 
 important in this relation, if possible, than in any oth- 
 er ; and because I hold also, contrary to the common 
 opinion, that no man is so much bound to reverence an 
 authority above him, as he who is on earth the repre- 
 sentative and image of that authority. 
 
 I say then that this reverence for God in the seats of 
 power, is especially needful. What else can restrain 
 the powerful but religion ? They are lifted above 
 other men. In proportion as their power is great and 
 their place is honorable, may they stand in selfish pride 
 
11 
 
 and in scornful disregard of other men. They can 
 injure and oppress, with greater impunity than others 
 The insolence of power is proverbial. In all ages its 
 hand has been heavy upon the poor and weak. Their 
 cry cannot reach it. Office is an elevation towards 
 heaven ; in proportion as it is raised high, have men 
 less hold upon it ; and if heaven do not restrain it, what 
 shall prevent it from using its very elevation to hurl 
 down mischief and misery upon those below 1 It is 
 one thing to vote for a war, in some lofty council-cham- 
 ber ; unchallenged greatness there speaks the word and 
 thence it issues the mandate, that cuts down millions 
 with a blow ; but it would be a different thing to utter 
 the dread sentence from the bosom of the great com- 
 munity, where the pulses of human sympathy are beat- 
 ing all around it. It is one thing to impose a burden- 
 some tax, in the high Parliament or Congress ; but it 
 would be another thing to ordain it in the humble abodes 
 where it is grinding the poor to the dust. Power, alas ! 
 has always been a lofty, cold and unsympathizing func- 
 tion. In theory we should conceive of it as the very 
 heart in the great system of public welfare, holding 
 living ties with all around, and feeling to the quick, the 
 vital interests of every part ; but in fact it is not so. 
 Power I fear is the last thing in the world, that is to 
 come under the christian law. Power, I say — power 
 to influence the happiness of millions that lie in dark 
 and undistinguished masses beneath it — I should not 
 dare to trust it with any thing but with the fear of 
 God. 
 
 It is a perilous trust ; there is danger in high station ; 
 danger to incumbent. The power of office, at once to 
 fascinate and corrupt the mind, has been celebrated by 
 the philosophers and satirists of all times. I confess 
 that I do not altogether understand in what its fascina- 
 tion consists. But certain it is that it exists. Office is 
 sought with. an eagerness almost insane ; and there is no 
 reputation so lofty — though a step from it to the seat of 
 
12 
 
 highest magistracy would be a step downward — but its 
 possessor is supremely anxious to take that step. The 
 homage of one's fellows is doubtless grateful ; and the 
 homage to office comes in a visible and tangible form ; 
 and it reassures the natural modesty of superior minds 
 to have their claims acknowledged and bodied forth in 
 some visible form of grandeur. The drop of sweet- 
 ness, perhaps at the bottom of the cup, is power ; pow- 
 er to make and unmake, to appoint and ordain, to speak 
 the word and it shall be done. But so it is, whatever 
 be the cause, that around the high places of office, the 
 contest of human life rages the fiercest. Just in that 
 proportion are these places dangerous to the mind's 
 equanimity, fairness and truth. Just in that propor- 
 tion are the loftiest principles necessary to sustain it. 
 Singular as the declaration mav be thought, the eleva- 
 tion to office is a distinct call to piety, to prayer. The 
 elected man should be upon his knees rather than upon 
 the car of triumph. It ought to be accounted a brutish 
 thing to step to the high seats of legislation and mag- 
 istracy without an uplifted eye to Him, by whom kings 
 reign and princes decree justice. So did not the pa- 
 triarch kings of the elder world mount to their thrones. 
 So did not the great Alfred account of his office. Eight 
 hours each day did he give to study, meditation and 
 prayer. Beautiful is the story of Solomon's call to 
 preside over the people. " In Gibeon the Lord ap- 
 peared to him in a dream by night, and God said, ask 
 what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, thou hast 
 showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mer- 
 cy, according as he walked before thee in truth and in 
 righteousness and in uprightness of heart with thee ; 
 and thou has kept for him this great kindness, that thou 
 hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this 
 day; and now, Lord my God, thou hast made thy 
 servant king instead of David my father ; give there- 
 fore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy 
 people that I may discern between good and bad. And 
 
13 
 
 the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked 
 this thing. And God said unto him, because thou hast 
 asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long- 
 life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast ask- 
 ed the life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself 
 understanding to discern judgment; behold I have 
 done unto thee according to thy words ; lo ! I have 
 given thee a wise and an understanding heart ; so that 
 there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee 
 shall any arise like unto thee." 
 
 I have said that in high official station there is peril 
 to the incumbent. There are indeed two situations in 
 life, beyond all others, dangerous. One is to sink into 
 the mass of city life, unknown, unregarded ; out of 
 sight of the watching eyes of friendship and society. 
 This it is that makes great cities to many, at once so wel- 
 come, and so fatal to their virtue. The other is, to be 
 placed above the range of the ordinary inspection and 
 moral judgment of society. And although we hold 
 strongly here, to the doctrine of responsibility to the 
 people, yet it is responsibility to a partisan, rather than 
 a moral judgment ; and it is true moreover, that office 
 removes many from the immediate inspection of their 
 friends and families. In this age of excitement too, 
 and of change and peril, the burthen of office presses 
 upon many with harrassing and almost overwhelming 
 weight ; and it is found that not a few persons distin- 
 guished in modern statesmanship, are resorting to oc- 
 casional stimulants to supply a feverish strength to the 
 overtasked body and mind. 
 
 But the peril to the official man, of which I have 
 been speaking as an argument for high and sacred 
 principles, is not confined to him. Nay, it spreads it- 
 self in infinite diffusion over the whole welfare of the 
 people. 
 
 It is the peril of example to the people. If the great 
 are corrupt, vicious, dissolute, with what terrible effect 
 must all this come upon the morals of a nation ! With 
 
14 
 
 what terrible effect, especially, when through our low 
 and corrupted maxims of judging, it is found that a 
 man may be self-indulgent, licentious, unprincipled, and 
 yet a great man still ; lauded in the public prints, lifted 
 to the highest distinctions, attended by worshipping 
 crowds, trusted with the care of the public weal. I 
 know of no invasion of a people's virtue like that. 
 What will the tempted young man say, when he looks 
 upon such a spectacle ? Will he not say that vice is a 
 mere accident — no vital thing, no damning evil — but 
 only something high or low, as it wears the robe of 
 grandeur or beggary ? Alas ! the very judgment of 
 society is despoiled of half its moral power, by this 
 fatal separation between public dignity and private 
 honor and sanctity. 
 
 It is a peril to the interests of a people. This comes 
 in the form of legislation. If no high principle pre- 
 sides over it, we shall have class legislation, sectional 
 legislation, selfish legislation ; no broad and generous 
 view to the public welfare. Compromises, not of sep- 
 arate interests, but of selfish parties ; combinations and 
 collusions to secure this point and that point of party 
 advancement, and strifes and divisions that prevent the 
 passage of wholesome laws ; long debates that hinder 
 business, and help no man's wise decision — these will 
 characterize the course of our legislative proceedings. 
 One true prayer, in humble reverence for God, in dis- 
 interested seeking of the public weal, one such surren- 
 der of the heart to truth and right, one deep and lowly 
 conviction that life is passing away, that soon other ac- 
 tors are to come upon the stage to suffer or to rejoice 
 for our doing — this, I say, would avail more to settle 
 great questions in Congress, than days of wordy strife. 
 Does the late awful visitation of God, inspire no such 
 conviction? And without this, on what can we rely ? 
 If passion is to lay its violent hand upon the great in- 
 terests of this Republic ; if passion only is to utter its 
 voice upon the momentous and agitating questions that 
 
15 
 
 are rising before us, where are we to look for safety 1 
 Why is it that we are anxious about the tariff question, 
 Oregon, annexation of Texas, possible war with Eng- 
 land, or the very Union itself, but for this reason main- 
 ly — that we fear that no thoughts of responsibility to 
 God, no solemn conscience, no deep calmness and con- 
 sideration, no single regard to the general good, will 
 enter into these high matters of public debate ? There 
 are difficulties pertaining to these subjects, no doubt ; 
 but the great difficulties are not intrinsic ; they do not 
 lie in the questions themselves, but they lie in us, in our 
 legislators and rulers. 
 
 I am attempting to bring the feeling of conscience 
 and religion into our political relations ; to show you 
 that the sense of God's authority, as it should come 
 every where, should come here also, and here pre-emi- 
 nently. It is true that I am not speaking to rulers or 
 men high in office. But I think it is meet to set up in 
 our own minds, a just idea of what it behoves them to 
 be. We are the electors of such. Our opinions speak 
 to them, if we have no other means of audience. Our 
 Government represents the public feeling. Let me 
 purify the sentiments and maxims of the people, and I 
 will purify the Government. I can conceive of a peo- 
 ple so pure, that bad men could not be their Governors. 
 No violence need be used. A simple, moral, majestic 
 influence going up from the great bosom of the people, 
 would enthrone itself in the seats of power. 
 
 What then are the principles that are to govern us 
 in the election and treatment of men in office ? 
 
 I lay it down as a principle, then in the first place, 
 that we should elect none but good men to office. 
 There is a pernicious and fatal distinction between 
 moral and political virtue, between private and public 
 virtue, which ought to be done away. This terrible 
 solecism by which a man may be great and lauded as 
 a public man, and faithless and unprincipled as a pri- 
 vate man, must be brought to an end. You will not 
 
16 
 
 trust a dishonest man with the management of your 
 estate, nor a licentious man with the guardianship of 
 your children. Will you then commit to such men, 
 the care and guardianship of the Republic 1 It is ut- 
 ter, moral infidelity to do so. It is a shame to a moral 
 people to do this. We have no respect for ourselves, 
 we have no respect for virtue, we have no reverence for 
 God, when we elevate notorious or known bad men to 
 power. We have no right to expect God's blessing 
 upon such a Government. It is to desecrate all au- 
 thority, and to blight all reverence in the State. It is 
 as if we set up an image of vice in one of our public 
 places. In Geneva they have so erected a statue to 
 Rousseau. I wonder not that they have outbreaks and 
 disorders among the people there, which tend to bring 
 distrust and contempt upon all free Governments. 
 
 Do we consider what a contradiction there is be- 
 tween our actions and our professed aims, when we 
 elect bad men to office 1 We professedly aim, we real- 
 ly must wish, that the Government should be well ad- 
 ministered. We wish that there may be calmness and 
 wisdom in debate, justice and disinterestedness in legis- 
 lation, truth and honor in all our public engagements, 
 and fidelity and dignity in the discharge of every high 
 trust. We wish, we long, for all this, Never was 
 there such a jubilee, such a deep and blessed satisfac- 
 tion in this nation, as such a spectacle would draw 
 forth. And yet we choose for this purpose, passionate, 
 selfish, unprincipled, vicious, irreligious men. 1 say 
 not, that we choose all such. But I say that we mind 
 little in the selection of our candidate, whether he be 
 such a man or not. We have really come to consider 
 it, I fear, a matter of little consequence. 
 
 I do not deny that there may be some difficulty at 
 first, in adjusting the true principle to the guidance of 
 our personal conduct. It will avail little for me to cast 
 my vote for a good man, if nobody else will vote for 
 him. But I assert the true theory of political morality. 
 
17 
 
 And I do so, as knowing that the first step of the true 
 theory towards practice, is the assertion of it. Let 
 the people think of it ; this is all that we can expect 
 now. Let them begin to take the right view, and learn 
 to speak the right word. The right word will spread 
 itself. Some people, some presses, and more and more 
 of both, will cry shame upon the proposal to elect a 
 bad man to office. Nor when I speak of bad men in 
 private, do I mean to assert that they will certainly be 
 bad men in public. But they will be, on sufficient temp- 
 tation. They cannot be relied on ; to say nothing of 
 the evil and demoralizing example. They cannot be 
 relied on; for that scripture is true; "he that offends 
 in one point, is guilty of all ; " he shows a want of prin- 
 ciple that makes him unworthy of trust everywhere. 
 
 On the whole, I care not in this matter of office for 
 mere talent ; I care not for shining gifts, tarnished by 
 private vices ; let them all be swept clean out from the 
 seats of legislation and magistracy ; we can afford to 
 part with them ; there are enough good men and true, 
 in this country, to carry on the Government. Let the 
 people say, " the man who importunes us for our vote, 
 with no merit but his necessity, and no motive but his 
 interest ; the man who defrauds us of our dues, or vio- 
 lates the sanctity of our homes; the man who surren- 
 ders conscience to base passion, in any of the walks of 
 private life ; that man we. will not trust in a public sta- 
 tion. No matter what his talents be, or knowledge, or 
 skill ; integrity we cannot dispense with ; and we will 
 not fool ourselves with the expectation that he will be 
 true or just in the Capitol, who is not true or just at 
 home." 
 
 One more word, and I will close. Is the time never 
 to come, when a great moral appeal can be made to 
 men high in station ? Is the very idea of such an 
 appeal to be treated as a sort of moral Quixotism, 
 whose arrows must fall harmless upon the hide of Le- 
 3 
 
18 
 
 viathan power ; and is he who aims them, to be noted 
 by the by-standers only with a shrug of pity, or a shout 
 of laughter, at the simple and weak assailant 1 O, my 
 country ! will not God have mercy upon thee, and 
 send down his dread angel to vindicate the righteous 
 cause among this people 1 What man, of all men upon 
 earth, shall be held amenable to the loftiest adjuration 
 that ever proceeded from mortal lips, if not he who 
 stands in the awful place of power — heaven-delegated 
 power — power for the welfare or woe of a whole 
 mighty people ! Sirs, I would say, — though it is but 
 a humble man that speaks the truth to you, yet by 
 God's truth ye shall answer it, — if ye flout the majesty 
 of the public weal, if ye scorn the sanctity of God's 
 oath upon you, if ye spot the ermine of justice, or 
 trample on the dignity of legislation, or turn the admin- 
 istration of a nation's welfare into wiles and intrigues 
 for yourselves, the sorrows of millions, suffering through 
 you, shall yet make inquisition for the wrongs you have 
 done ! What ! is every man answerable to heaven, 
 and not those who spread the sway of their influence 
 over ten thousand homes ? Have Presidents and 
 Cabinet-ministers and Congress-men got leave to do 
 their pleasure, without answering to God ? Have 
 theij devised a mail, or hide-bound a shield against the 
 great judgment 1 
 
 Pardon me, my friends, I am transcending perhaps 
 the bounds of calm discourse ; but there are thoughts 
 in this connexion that move me ; and there are thoughts 
 too that move me in a different manner. Why — I have 
 often said with myself — O ! why do not the hearts of 
 millions, elevating a few to seats of power, send pene- 
 trating sympathies into those seats beyond all other 
 places on earth ? Why are they as impenetrable as 
 the icy thrones of the Alps ? Why does not a thought 
 from the great bosom of the people — the anxiety, the 
 asking desire, the prayer poured out in all churches for 
 those that bear rule — why does it not touch them with 
 
19 
 
 a sense of the sacredness of their place — touch them 
 with some gentle consideration, some living sympathy, 
 some paternal regard for the people they govern ? 
 Why is it that public office, instead of binding upon its 
 possessor the sense of responsibility as the very gar- 
 ment in which he walks, seems to cut him on even 
 from the duties and behests that press upon ordinary 
 men in ordinary life 1 It is, in part, because this de- 
 partment of morality has hardly yet come into the gen- 
 eral account. It is because people do not expect public 
 men to be pure. It is because the national conscience 
 does not, with strict inquisition, look into these matters. 
 Therefore it is that I have thought it my especial duty 
 to draw your attention to this subject. And this is my 
 apology, if any be needed, for having spoken strongly 
 and plainly as I have done. 
 
 My Brethren, I have now addressed you on themes 
 that I deem to be of great moment. In the brief sea- 
 son that has elapsed since I have recovered myself 
 from the shock of this awful intelligence, that has 
 reached us from the Capitol, I have had time but for a 
 very inadequate preparation ; but I have spoken to you 
 as I could. Say not to me that I have wandered out 
 of my proper sphere. I have not entered upon the 
 domain of party politics. I have not trenched upon 
 the ground of the politician or the statesman. I have 
 only advocated the building up in this country of a 
 great national conscience — a conscience for the people 
 — a conscience for their rulers. I have only attempted 
 to bring the authority of God to preside over all the 
 high functions and sovereign powers of the State. 
 
 The occasion seemed to me to demand such notice. 
 Never, I think, did an event occur in this country, 
 fraught with such startling and awful monitions. It is 
 a voice of God to this people. It is a voice of God to 
 their rulers. It has brought a solemn pause amidst the 
 strifes and intrigues of public office. It has spread an 
 awful shadow over the domes of the Capitol, and ought 
 
20 
 
 to consecrate it henceforward to humble wisdom, to 
 serious deliberation, to the fear of God. It has scatter- 
 ed the visions of ambition from the paths of the great, 
 and shown them " what shadows they are, and what 
 shadows they pursue." Even now it is difficult to be- 
 lieve that Upshur, Gilmer, and Maxcy are dead ! But 
 they are gone ! gone, in one awful moment, from the 
 cares of public station below, to the retributions of 
 mingled justice and mercy on high ! 
 
 Will not this dread event carry home the appeal of 
 religion to the hearts of men in power ? while the slow 
 funereal procession has passed through the mourning 
 streets of the Capitol, has not a deeper thought touched 
 them, of life, and death and a judgment to come ? 
 There is another procession that is passing ; the pro- 
 cession of successive generations over this broad land. 
 Labors and toils, busy commerce and bustling activity 
 are in it ; but it is passing ! Gaieties and pleasures, 
 household joys and marriages and feastings are in it ; 
 but it is passing ! Ambition to be great ; strivings for 
 place and power, intrigues of party, plottings and com- 
 binations and conventions are in it ; but it is passing ! 
 May the leaders in it know the grandeur, the solemni- 
 ty, the responsibility of their great office ! May they 
 remember that if they prove false to their trust, they 
 will lead these uncounted multitudes to the grave of 
 this glorious Empire ! 
 
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