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I 
 
 GOD GREATEE THAN MAN. 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PKEAOHED JUNE IITH, 
 
 AFTER THE 
 
 ~j|ltn>iti0n 0f ^iit|0tt| §iirns, 
 
 BY JOSHUA YOUN(J, 
 
 MIKlSll'KR OF THE FIKST CON'CBKGATIONAL CUCBCH, BCRLISCTOS, VT. 
 
 " I have told 
 Britons ! my Brethren ! 1 have told 
 Most bitter truth, but without bittcrucss. 
 Nor deem my zeal or facti'jus, or mi&timcJ ; 
 For never can true courage dwell with them, 
 Who, playing tricks with conscience, dare not look 
 At their own vices." 
 
 BURLINGTON : 
 
 PLULISHEU BY SAMUEL B. NICHOLS. 
 
 Stacy & Jameson, Printers. 
 185 i. 
 
Lbiirt %j^ y-t>V)cJ^ erf vtu. 
 GOD GREATER THAN MAN. UcwTt^irx_ , 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 PREACHED JUNE IITH, 
 
 AFTER THE 
 
 RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS, 
 
 BY JOSHUA YOUNG, 
 
 MISISTER OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BURLINGTON, VT. 
 
 *' Then Peteu and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey 
 God rather than man." — Acts, hth chap. '29t/i. verse. 
 
 BURLINGTON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL B. NICHOLS. 
 
 Stacy & Jameson, Printers. 
 1854. 
 
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 . - 4|.- 
 
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 m 
 
NOTE. 
 
 This Sermon has beeu the subject of some controversy ; it is 
 submitted to the public, that it may stand, or Ml, by its own 
 merit. 
 
 It was written in the haste of the inexorable weekly preparation 
 for the common Pulpit ; that it would ever be put in type was 
 neither in the thought, nor in the desire, of the author, who can- 
 not but express his regret, that so righteous a cause should have 
 so poor an advocate. 
 
 If it have one word of Truth, one faithful word for Right and 
 Liberty, give God the praise ; if it be false and injurious, no one 
 can lament it more than the author. 
 
SERMON. 
 
 " Behold in this thou art not just ; I will answer thee, that God 
 is greater than man." — Job xxxiii : 12. 
 
 How calm and peaceful is Nature ! The sun rises 
 and sets, the tide flows and ebbs, the seasons change, 
 the planets roll, and there is no jar, no discord, no 
 confusion. Where God reigns there is peace — sweet, 
 holy peace — peace in the world, peace in the state, 
 peace in the heart. Throughout the material uni- 
 verse, what love and concord. System within system 
 plays, but no world impinges against its fellow-world ; 
 no errant comet has ever yet struck the earth. 
 
 Such regularity pervades the material creation, 
 such perfect and wise laws control the motion of the 
 planets, that long years beforehand, men foretell that 
 on such a day, hour and minute, the sun, moon and 
 earth will be in a certain position, and on that day 
 
6 
 
 and hour the Eclipse takes place ; and though clouds 
 may conceal the spectacle from actual observation, no 
 one doubts that science was right, and nature faithful. 
 God is never untrue, never unharmonious. Those 
 principles He has declared to be the guides — the con- 
 trolling powers and forces — the laws of the universe, 
 He never violates. God is never inconsistent — hence, 
 in the natural world, what order and harmony. To 
 every blade of grass is given its drop of dew ; care 
 and kindness reign ; laws of mutual dependence and 
 help prevail for each and all, and each and all fulfil 
 the eternal will. Holy, peaceful, happy nature ! thou 
 hast " no tear save the fountain, no sigh save the 
 gale." 
 
 But in the world of human kind, in the world of 
 marl's will and Avays, how different. What strife and 
 contention — what bitter, burning wrongs, oppressions, 
 slaveries ! 
 
 Last Sunday, you were without the usual ministra- 
 tions of this pulpit. In order to attend the meetings 
 of the various religious and benevolent societies that 
 celebrate their anniversaries, according to established 
 usage, during the last days of May, in the city of 
 Boston, early in the week I had left this scene of 
 
7 
 beautiful Nature — calm was the Lake, the mountains 
 solemn and grand, peacefulness was over it, and over 
 them, and from horizon to zenith, in the blue depth 
 of sky, not a cloud was seen,— for a spectacle, how 
 different ! 
 
 I felt like the ancient Hebrew, going up to Jerusa- 
 lem, to worship in the great temple, and expected to 
 return to you, refreshed and strengthened for the bet- 
 ter discharge of my duty as your minister. My in- 
 tention was to have reported to you what I heard and 
 saw, to have spoken on the various subjects that were 
 discussed, to have brought to you a summary of what 
 was doing in the Church and its kindred associations, 
 for the cause of truth and righteousness ; for the re- 
 demption of the world from sin and iniquity, the 
 establishment of Christ's kingdom in the heart andinthe 
 earth. — the dominion of Him whose advent was her- 
 alded by that sublimest chant ever sung by angels, 
 "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good 
 will to men." 
 
 Brethren, I have no such report to make. I re- 
 member only one scene. I have knowledge of only 
 one subject. Such a week I never knew before — New 
 England never knew — our country never knew. Sad 
 
8 
 
 and heart-sick, I have come back, not to tell you 
 what I have witnessed — the papers have attempted to 
 describe the scene, but it cannot be described — the 
 downcast look, the heavy heart, the pale face, the sad 
 tone, the ominous shake of the head, the thoughts and 
 feelings that would not let men sleep — oh, it was a 
 dark week ! — but I have come back to fulfil a vow I 
 then and there laid upon my soul, to plead the cause 
 of the slave — the cause of human rights and liberty, 
 with renewed zeal ; to give whatever of talent God 
 has bestowed upon me, and whatever of influence I 
 am permitted to exert, to the agitation and discussion 
 of this evil, wrong, crime against man, sin against 
 God — American Slavery ; until by its abolition, or, 
 if that calamity must be, by the dissolution of the 
 Union — a separation between the North and the 
 South— there be some part of this Western continent 
 worthy to be called the " the home of the brave, the 
 land of the Free " — one free and independent people, 
 whose religion is the gospel of Christ, not read and 
 preached to suit the oppressor, and whose God is the 
 Father, not of a portion, but of the whole human race 
 To plead the cause of the slave is to plead our own 
 cause, to vindicnte your claim and mine to the inal- 
 
9 
 
 ienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
 piness. For the decision which sent back Burns to 
 the hell of slavery, perhaps to be whipped to death 
 in some slave-pen, as poor Sims was, that, and every 
 similar decision, under the compromises of 1850, 
 has struck a fatal blow at the liberty of every citi- 
 zen of the North, at the liberty of man everywhere. 
 That great provision for the security of human liberty 
 which our English forefathers fought for, for more 
 than S^ years, and spilled their blood like water ; 
 that every man has a right to know why he is seized 
 and imprisoned — this great bulwark of all liberty, to- 
 gether with that other constitutional right, trial by 
 jury, is null and void before the affidavit of a south- 
 ern man-stealer, who may swear that you, or I, our 
 mother, wife, or sister, is his slave ! 
 
 But, leaving these aspects of the Fugitive Slave 
 Law to those who claim to have all knowledge 
 upon such subjects, this I may never hesitate to af- 
 firm, when opportunity occurs, that it is a wicked 
 law ; unjust, unrighteous, in fearful defiance of the 
 eternal will of God, an outrage upon every generous 
 impulse, and every moral sentiment of man. Nay, it 
 is fearlessly to be asserted, that it is no law, but open 
 
 *Uv^ WvJ!^rY<j2L ^ 
 
10 
 
 tyranny ; written in the statute book it may be, but 
 in no way is it binding on man's duty of oljedience 
 to the powers that be. 
 
 Brethren, our religion is vain, and our worship here 
 but solemn mockery, the first moment we depart but a 
 haii''s breadth from the great principle, that we 
 ought to obey God rather than man, and that no law 
 can possibly be obligatory upon us, by whomsoever 
 passed, or howsoever enforced, if it come in con- 
 flict with the commands of Heaven. Nay, the obli- 
 gation is to disobey such a law ; to disclaim it. It 
 may cost you your reputation, your friends, your prop- 
 erty ; it may cost you your life, but no consideration, 
 either of gain or of loss, no false hope of good results, 
 no base fear of evil consequences affects in the least 
 the morality of the course you may pursue. Du- 
 ty remains solemn, stern, unalterable ! No earthly 
 power can supercede the authority of conscience ; no 
 human statute annul the law of God. Men may blas- 
 pheme, if they will, and scout the idea as they please, 
 but there is a Power superior to Congress, a Law 
 higher than any human constitution. As the sky 
 above us is higher than the cupola of the State House 
 and the dome of the Capitol, and reaches farther than 
 
11 
 
 the boundaries of the nation, so God's government is 
 higher than man's government, and the Divine law 
 broader than human law. 
 
 IS, ot, that there is any natural, or necessary antago- 
 nism between them. The same God that created man, 
 ordained the state ; and the laws of nations, when 
 they arc wise and righteous laws, laws fit to be made, 
 are, in purpose and in spirit, but re-enactments of the 
 laws of God ; re-afdrmations of the Eternal Will. 
 That Will once known, and the inevitable obligation is 
 upon us to do it — to do it, be the consequences what 
 they may — for, the moment you doubt the expedien- 
 cy and duty of doing what is morally right, that mo- 
 ment you impugn the laws of God as unwise and un- 
 safe : laws which He has established in truth and jus- 
 tice for the moral conduct of His creatures. The mo- 
 ment you distrust the good consequences, the ultimate 
 benefit and blessedness of implicit obedience to the 
 commands of Heaven, whatever temporary evils seem 
 to threaten you or your country, as inseparable with 
 such obedience, that moment you are guilty of prac- 
 tical Atheism ; no more, no less. You deny God ; 
 you arraign His wisdom ; you impugn His goodness, 
 and enthrone little man above the Great Being who 
 
12 
 
 made him, and holds him in the hollow of His 
 hand. 
 
 As a general proposition, no sane man would ever 
 think of denying, that he is, not only politically, 
 but morally and religiously bound to obey the laws 
 under which he lives. It is plain, however, that the 
 duty of civil obedience is not, can not be absolute and 
 unconditional. If that national calamity do occur, 
 that a godless nation so far plots its own destruction as 
 to pass a law which is a gross and daring violation of 
 the moral law of God, subversive of Right, Truth and 
 Justice, — Duty, Patriotism, Morality, Religion, all 
 bid us to disclaim, to disobey the wicked statute. 
 
 When thus the requisitions of government and of 
 the higher law of God are conflicting, it is needful 
 that we exercise a strict scrutiny inta the principles 
 of our conduct. But if, upon such scrutiny, the con- 
 trariety of requisitions appear real, no room is left for 
 doubt respecting our duty, or for hesitation in per- 
 forming it. With the considerations of consequences, 
 we have no concern ; whatever they may be, our path 
 is plain before us. And rough and thorny as it may 
 be, if we hesitate or refuse to take it, we throw away 
 our manliness, trample on the nature that should be 
 
18 
 
 our pride, and declare to the world that we have no 
 faith in the God of Israel ; no faith in the living God 
 of Truth, and Righteousness ; especially as Christian 
 believers do we deny our master, afraid, or ashamed 
 to take up the Cross and bear it after him "whitherso- 
 ever obedience to His precepts of love and humanity 
 may lead us. 
 
 And, if I read aright the stars of heaven, the time 
 is coming, is even now near at hand, when the disci- 
 ple of Jesus, may be put to the test, and the noble 
 army of martyrs be increased in number. Brethren, 
 in all the solemnity of this hour, and of this subject, 
 I ask you, are you ready ? is your heart fixed ? hum- 
 bly and before God have you come to a decision ? Is 
 your voice, your heart, your whole influence — if need 
 be, your strong right arm — for Liberty ? 
 
 Lest I should be misunderstood, I say again, that 
 it is not possible to exaggerate the terrible evils that 
 may result from a growing irreverence for the 
 laws of the Land, — revolution, and all the horrors of 
 a civil, fraternal war. But, believe me, my hearers, 
 such irreverence cannot be corrected ; such fearful con- 
 sequences cannot be averted, by the exercise of intim- 
 idation, or the infliction of severe punishment, or the 
 
14 
 
 falsification of public sentiment, or by the debauch- 
 ment of the moral conscience of men. No ! the rem- 
 edy is not ingenious p(»licy, nor cunning device, nor 
 military despotism ; but, simply and only, the pass- 
 ing of such laws as men can reverence, and still be 
 men, and may feel it to be alike their honor and their 
 duty to obey. 
 
 There is not a moral writer to be found, who has 
 won any respect in the world, that does not teach the 
 principles I am defending — that (rod is greater than 
 man, that injustice and unrighteousness are never to 
 be done, by whatever power commanded, and that 
 the divine Eights of Man are superior to all human 
 enactments, to be maintained and defended at all 
 hazards. 
 
 Not only all moral writers take this position, but 
 there is not an eminent jurist that has not affirmed 
 the same. Vattel, and all writers on International 
 Law, declare that even the solemn sanctions of a 
 treaty are void, if the provisions arc opposed to nat- 
 ural justice. Blackstone says, " If any human law 
 shall allow or require us to commit a crime, we arc 
 bound to transgress that law." Fortescue says, " The 
 law of nature being coeval with mankind, and dicta- 
 
15 
 
 ted by God himself, is, of course, superior to any 
 other. No human laws have any validity if contrary to 
 this." Coke states, " that when an act of Parliament 
 is against common right, the common law will control 
 it and adjudge such an act to be void."' Littleton 
 says : " It is generally laid down that acts of Parlia- 
 ment contrary to reason, are void." Noyes says, 
 " The inferior must give place to the superior, man's 
 laws to God's laws. If therefore any statute be en- 
 acted contrary to them, it ought to be considered of 
 no authority." Hobert says: "An act of Parlia- 
 ment may be void from its first creation, as an act 
 against natural equity ; for the laws of nature are 
 immutable ; they are the laws of Imvs," and Judge 
 McLean declares that " statutes against fundamental 
 morality are void." 
 
 Before the tribunal, then, of God and of man, I 
 arraign the Fugitive Slave law, as wicked and infa- 
 mous — a dark deed of sin — an act of tyranny. And 
 this is the law, merciless, and unrighteous, and bloody, 
 whose crushing weight a great and proud nation has 
 just laid upon one poor black man, literally enforcing 
 it at the point of the bayonet, the mouth of the can- 
 non, and at an expense — for the money-argument al- 
 ways tells— of more than ^50,000 ! 
 
16 
 
 It is a law opposed to " natural justice." It is 
 an act against " natural equity." It is against 
 " fundamental morality." It is contrary to the laivs 
 of God. It is all this, because it is an enactment in 
 favor of slavery — an enactment that takes away the 
 inalienable rights of not merely one man, here and 
 there, but of more than three millions of our fellow 
 men, and extinguishes the last, forlorn hope of the 
 poor Slave, who sees no longer, in his nightly watch- 
 es, the bright North star that once guided him to the 
 near and sheltering homes of the happy and the free. 
 Now, there is no rest, no security for him, but in the 
 snows of Canada, and under the protection of the 
 British crown. 
 
 Oh ! to what more deplorable condition can man 
 be subjected, than slavery — not slavery in the abstract, 
 but American, Southern Slavery. Violating every 
 human right, it annihilates all that distinguishes man 
 from, and elevates him above, the beast. It proceeds 
 on the principle that one human being has a right to 
 the absolute control of another ; that the weaker has 
 no right to pursue, but must ever extinguish, his own 
 happiness, when it comes in competition with that of 
 the strono-er. Thus does it subvert the whole per- 
 
17 
 
 sonal liberty of man, as a physical, intellectual and 
 moral being. It makes him utterly unlike the crea- 
 ture he is, as he comes from the hand of God. The 
 accountable, reasonable man is degraded from the de- 
 nomination of person to that of thing ; he becomes a 
 mere appendage to the existence of another, is re- 
 duced to the condition of the brute, to be dumb and 
 patient like the driven ox, under the driver's goad. 
 
 The very constitution of man proves, that he is by 
 nature, a separate, distinct and complete system, adap- 
 ted to all the purposes of self-government, and re- 
 sponsible, separately, to God, for the manner in which 
 his powers are employed. With a body which 
 ministers to its own necessities, an understanding by 
 which he can discover truth, and apply it to the ob- 
 jects of life ; with passions which excite, and a will 
 which determines him to action, and a conscience to 
 guide him aright, man feels, knows, that he was born 
 for liberty ; that freedom is as absolutely necessary 
 to the true development of his various powers, as the 
 air and sunlight to the growth of the plant. 
 
 In the just use and full exercise of his liberty, how 
 does man unfold and display the image in which he 
 is made ; but reduce him to servitude, and you un- 
 
18 
 
 make him, unman him ; you chain his limbs, you 
 darken his mind, deprave his passions, annihilate his 
 will, extinguish his conscience ; you rob him of his 
 humanity ; you crush out of him the very conscious- 
 ness that he is a man. 
 
 This is the terrible wrong and enormity of slavery ; 
 this constitutes it the " sum of all villanies," that it 
 makes a Man a thing, a human being a chattel, the 
 conscious Soul a piece of merchandise, to be bought 
 and sold ; a horse to be ridden, a dog to be whipped, 
 
 "a tool 
 Or implement, a passive thing employed 
 As a brute mean, without acknowledgment 
 Of common right, or interest in the end." 
 
 If all the other inhumanities, the tremendous 
 wrongs, the horrid cruelties the system necessarily 
 and inevitably involves, were only imaginary — 
 if it were not true, as it is, that slavery violates the 
 most sacred relations in life, each and all of them ; 
 makes marriage a mockery, an alliance of shame, to 
 be formed and broken with equal indifference " giv- 
 ing the young woman no protection from licentious- 
 ness, sundering husband and wife, selling them 
 into distant regions, and then compelling them to 
 break the sacred tie and contract new alliances, in or- 
 
19 
 
 der to stock the plantation with human cattle ;" in- 
 vades the paternal relation, severing mother and 
 child, annihilating the obligations, and outraging the 
 sanctities of parentage ; if, I say, it were not true, 
 as it is, that slavery is thus cruel, thus infernal, 
 mocking at tears and heart-breaking grief, and apply- 
 ing the driver's lash to hush the sob of anguish un- 
 utterable ; if the southern slave were the happiest 
 being on the face of the earth, the great and funda- 
 mental objection to the system still remains, unmodi- 
 fied, unmitigated. Slavery does not, and can not rec- 
 ognise the greatness of Man, the dignity of human 
 nature, the ineffable worth of the immortal soul, the 
 the high, solemn fact of those Eternal relations which 
 make Man greater than the universe, the son of the 
 living God ! Its foundation is laid in falsehood, its 
 spirit is contempt ; deliberate, relentless hostiUty to 
 the expansion of every faculty that belongs to man, 
 as man, enters into — makes up the very essence of 
 slavery. 
 
 The Slave is not treated as a Man, is not looked 
 upon as a man, as a fellow being. " You may call 
 him such, but he is not to you a brother, a partaker 
 of your nature, and your equal in the sight of God. 
 
20 
 
 You view him, you treat him, you speak to him as in- 
 finitely beneath you, as belonging to another race. 
 You have a tone and a look towards him, which you 
 never use towards a man. Your relation towards him 
 demands, that you treat him as an inferior creature. 
 You cannot, if you would, treat him as a Man. That 
 he may answer your end, that he may consent to be 
 your slave, his spirit must be broken, his courage 
 crushed ; he must fear you. A feeling of deep inferi- 
 ority must be burnt into his soul. The idea of his 
 rights must be quenched in him, by the blood of his 
 lashed and lacerated body." 
 
 Brethren, in the name of Christ, at whose altar we 
 are worshipping to-day, I pronounce American Slave- 
 ry to be a monstrous wi'ong, a heinous sin before 
 High Heaven, provoking the righteous indignation of 
 God, who will come in terrible judgment upon this 
 nation, if we do not, away w4th it ! 
 
 Yet, to maintain, and continue this enormous wrong 
 and sin, we have consented — we of the North — to 
 return to all its horrors, every poor fugitive that es- 
 capes its chains, and asks our protection. And when 
 noble men, in the fear of God, in the state and in the 
 church, in the forum and in the pulpit, have dared to 
 
21 
 
 lift up their voice against it, and the compromises 
 that perpetuate it, they have been branded as fanat- 
 ics, thrown out of office, dismissed from their parish- 
 es, politically proscribed, socially ostracised ; and all 
 this, not in the South, but in the North — in New Eng- 
 land, in Massachusetts ; God forbid, I should say in 
 Vermont ! But the truth, that w^as told four years 
 ago, the present year more than confirms. Boasted 
 measures of peace have been found to be but meas- 
 ures of aggression, and of strife. Promised final- 
 ities but the beginning of evil. Are you surprised ? 
 I am not. Do men gather grapes of thorns, and figs 
 of thistles ? Is the dove born of the serpent ? Oh ! 
 when will men believe in God — believe that through- 
 out the universe, no wrong can be done which the Eter- 
 nal Justice will not ultimately, and relentlessly put to 
 shame ! 
 
 Now, we raise the cry of repeal, and ask to have 
 that undone which we never should have consented to 
 have had done. I believe we shall ask in vain. Specu- 
 latively, repeal is possible ; practically and actually, it 
 is not. Was ever the public sentiment of the North 
 more distinctly and emphatically expressed, than with- 
 in the last six months, by our remonstrances sent to 
 
22 
 
 Congress against the Nebraska bill, and were ever 
 Colonial petitions spurned from the foot of the British 
 throne with more contempt, than those remonstrances 
 have received from the American Congress ? Our 
 right of petition, our privilege of remonstrance, has 
 not been denied us, but insult and abuse are the an- 
 swers we have got. 
 
 What then remains to be done ? We have the bal- 
 lot-box. Well, brethren, if you have foith in that, 
 use your right of suffrage as men ; responsible, firstly 
 to your God, and secondly, to your country. But for 
 one, I tell you frankly, and sadly, I have lost all fliith 
 in political action, until that party rises which shall 
 take God for its leader, the Gospel of Christ for its 
 platform, and adopts for its resolutions, as embodying 
 its principles of action, the two great commandments : 
 " Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy 
 heart, and thy Neighbor as thyself." 
 
 Slavery is a moral wrong — a sin ; — we must have 
 a moral repentance — a moral reformation. The North 
 and the South must prostrate themselves together, in 
 sackcloth and ashes, before an offended God ; they 
 are both guHty. Or, if the South will not yield, 
 then must the North say :— " I abjure it all—I can- 
 
23 
 
 not longer consent to the wicked thing— I appeal to 
 the God of Justice and the God of Might, in whom I 
 trust!" 
 
 We must go back to the first and original compro- 
 mise — to the Constitution — and purge that of every 
 section and clause, which, by any possible interpreta- 
 tion, recognises the right of property in man. We 
 must confess, that our Fathers sinned when they com- 
 promised with wTong, and must pluck up that first seed, 
 root out that early planting of falsehood and of mischief 
 which has produced the whole serpent brood of compro- 
 mises since. Great and good men they were, confes- 
 sedly — the framers of the constitution — but they 
 were men, erring and fallible men ; and they did 
 wrong, when, in order to secure the white man's lib- 
 erty, they surrendered the black man's liberty ; when, 
 in order to be free themselves, they enslaved others, 
 or consented to their enslavement. To say that that 
 first compromise was necessary, is to offer an excuse 
 and a justification for every compromise since, and 
 every compromise to come, with wrong. 
 
 The disease of which this nation is dying, the can- 
 ker that is eating at its vitals, is Constitutional Idola- 
 try. The exaggerated sacreduess of the American 
 
24 
 
 Constitution, as an instrument whose wisdom is nev- 
 er, in any respect, to be called in question ; whose 
 entire and absolute perfection is never to be doubted, 
 (albeit allowing of Slavery as it does,) has done more 
 to cloud the moral perceptions of this people, to de- 
 bauch the consciences of men, than can be told. To 
 it — to the Constitution, by man made, and by man 
 expounded — we are told we must look for the highest 
 rule of action ; not to the God-made Conscience, as 
 enlightened and purified by the Gospel of Christ. We 
 are told that there is no higher law than the Consti- 
 tution ; no authority more reliable and imperative. 
 
 Confessedly, in most. regards, it is a noble docu- 
 ment ; but even the sun has spots. If it were only 
 faithful to its preamble — the noble Declaration of In- 
 dependence — it were worthy to be enclosed within the 
 lids of the Bible. But, if we would do our whole duty 
 by it, and to it ; if we would make this fountain 
 pure, whence we drinl^: our political life ; if we would 
 avert the evils that now threaten the Union, and guide 
 this great Republic to the accomplishment of that 
 destiny the wise have predicted for it, and ^the 
 good prayed for, the Constitution must he amended ! 
 We must begin at the beginning, and thus, every prop 
 
25 
 
 and support of Slavery, as a National Institution, be- 
 ing removed, it shall fall, to rise no more— unhonored 
 and unwept ! 
 
 But I must stop ; already liave I trespassed upon 
 your patience, and more than exhausted my time. I 
 have spoken long. God forgive me if I have not 
 spoken well. But beyond my utterance are the deep 
 and sad feelings of my heart, and, at such a time, and 
 for such a cause, I feel how poor and inadequate are 
 any words. 
 
 Brethren ! you know your duty. If I fail in 
 mine, or in over-zeal, exceed it, blame me, but re- 
 spect the Cause. As men, as patriots, as moral be- 
 ings, responsible to God, pledge yourselves, at this altar, 
 from this time, henceforth and forever, to its further- 
 ance — the abolition — the entire extinguishment of 
 slavery ; first. Slavery in our own country — then, 
 throughout the world ! 
 
 Our Forefathers — I have spoken of them. With 
 you all, I honor them, and revere their memory. One 
 misstep they took, and none would exhort us so ear- 
 nestly as they, to correct the error, if they were on 
 earth now. For the sake of Right, and Justice, and 
 Conscience, they " feared not to stand up against 
 
26 
 
 Kings and Nobles, and Parliament and People. Bet- 
 ter did they account it, that their lonely bark should 
 sweep the wide sea in freedom ; happier were they, 
 when their sail swelled to the storm of winter, than 
 to be slaves in palaces of ease. Sweeter to their ear 
 was the music of the gale that shrieked in their bro- 
 ken cordage, than the voice at home, that said, " Sub- 
 mit, and you shall have rest." And when they reached 
 this wild shore, and built their altar, and knelt upon 
 the frozen snow and the flinty rock to worship, they 
 built that altar to Freedom, and their noble prayer 
 was, that their children might thus be free ! Oh, let 
 us, their sons, remember the prayer of their extrem- 
 ity, and the great bequest which their magnanimity 
 has left us." 
 
 Or, if we have forgotten this, and our hearts re- 
 spond not to their noble spirit, then, let us remember, 
 with fear and with trembling, that "there is a God who 
 keeps the black man and the white, and hurls to earth 
 the loftiest realm that breaks His just, Eternal Law." 
 
 J 
 
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