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THE 
 
 RENOVATION OF POLITICS: 
 
 A DISCOURSE DELIVERED IN 
 
 St. PauFs Evangelical Lutheran Church, 
 
 I.IO]!tfTIL.I^E, CHESTER COVJVTT, PA., 
 
 On thie Eveningr ot Jannary 4tli, 1801. 
 
 By rev. SAMUEL AUGHEY, A. M., 
 
 PASOR OP TUB CONGBEGATION. 
 
 WEST CHESTER: 
 E. F. JAMES, STEAM-POWER BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, 
 
 1861. 
 
'■0 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 I am much obliged to those who endeayor to traduce me for delivering this 
 Discourse: it has created a demand for the work. In three days the first edition 
 was exhausted ; and if it leads auy to more honest investigation, and more 
 rational convictions on the subject of slavery, one object in consenting to its 
 publication is accomplished. Anti-slavery men challenge investigation. The 
 truth is their most powerful weapon. I am aware that the Bible is quoted to> 
 defend "the Demon of the Black Power." The Scriptures are also tortured in- 
 to the support of polygamy. And the Devil endeavored even to seduce the Son 
 of God by garbled quotations from the Bible. Should then any one be sur- 
 prised that Satan now attempts to sustain his Black Darling in the same way? 
 My views are so well expressed by that eminent divine of the Presbyterian 
 Church, Albert Barnes, that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting his lan- 
 guage. "It is propable that slavery coiild not be sustained in this land if it 
 were not for the countenance direct and indirect of the churches. That is, if 
 all the churches should assume in regard to it the position which the society 
 ef Friends has done, and which some of the Scotch and German churches have 
 done, and simply detach themselves fiom it, it is probable that there is not pow- 
 er enough out of the church to sustain the system. • * * It is now impos- 
 sible to convince the woild that slavery is right, or is in accordance with the 
 will of God. No alleged authority of the Bible will satisfy men at large that 
 the system is not always a violation of the laws that God has enstamped on the 
 uhman soul. No apologies for it will take it out of the category of crime in the 
 estimation of mankind at large, and place it in the category of virtues. What 
 then in this state of things will be the effect of teaching that slavery is author- 
 ised by the Bible, — a professed revelation from God ? That in that revelation 
 slavery is contemplated as a permanent institution ? * * * And that men 
 who seek to carry out practically what the world has been struggling for in the 
 great battles of liberty are 'fanatics' and 'disorganisers' — are enemies of the 
 plain teaching of the Bible, and rejecters of the word of God ? On many 
 minds there can be but one result of such views. It will be so far as these are 
 regarded as the teachings of the Bible, to lead men to reject the Bible ; to con- 
 firm skeptics in infidelity ; and to furnish an argument to the rejecter of revela- 
 tion which it will not be possible to answer. * * * gee the struggles for 
 freedom in the world — all the lessons of history — go to confirm the impression 
 that a book which contains such views of human bondage — which would place 
 it among the lawful relations of life, and make provision for its being perpetual 
 — CANNOT be from God." — [See Barnes on ^'Church and Slavery" chap. II.'\ 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 Fbbruabt, 1861. 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 LioNviLLB, Penna., Jan. 21st, 1861 
 Rsv. Samuel Aughey : 
 
 Dear Sir — We, the undersigned, in behalf of our- 
 selves and many others, request the pubHcation of the Discourse which you 
 delivered on the evening of January 4th. 
 
 JOEL HAWLEY, 
 JAMES DAUMAJi, 
 JACOB ACKER, 
 SAMUEL G. SMITH, 
 WILLIAM BABE, 
 ELIAS OBERHOLTZER. 
 
 Lutheran Paesonage, Lionvillb, Pa., Jan. 28th, 1861. 
 To Messrs. Joel Hawlbx, James Dauman, and others : 
 
 Gentlemen — Im- 
 mediately after the Discourse to which you allude was preached, a copy, by 
 others, was requested for publication. I did not consent, principally because 
 during its preparation, being called away to see the sick, I was too much 
 hurried to attend to its literary execution, and I did not feel justified in cor- 
 recting and improving the language and form of the Discourse, after it was 
 delivered. I waive that objection now, for the following reasons : The po- 
 sition which I maintained is grossly misrepresented through the conmiun- 
 ity. I prefer to be judged and criticised by what I did say, rather than by 
 misrepresentations. I am convinced of the truth and justice of the doc- 
 trines maintained in this Discourse, and believe that they will coincide with 
 the verdict of posterity. I never have, and never will stultify myself by 
 withholding from those to whom I preach my convictions, as to the manner 
 in which the Gospel applies to such topics of morals and government that 
 engross public attention. As a man, and a Minister of the Gospel, I am 
 only concerned to do my duty ; the result I leave in the hands of God. I do 
 not stand alone. The request with which you honor me is itself a proof that 
 there are very many around me, who firmly maintain the God-given right of 
 free discussion, and whose political and moral convictions are parallel to my 
 own. 
 
 Truly and sincerely yours, 
 
 SAxMUEL AUGHEY. 
 
DISCOUriSEl. 
 
 "And he that tat upon the Throne said, Behold 1 make all things new.' 
 
 Rev. 21.5, 
 
 The personage here introduced ig none other than Christ, the 
 Redeemer. After he had made the atonement, and ascended od 
 high, he at once seated himself on the Throne of the Universe. 
 He is still there, and always will be. From there he issues hia 
 commands ; from there he gazes on all whom he redeemed with 
 his blood ; and from there he still continues his precious work 
 by the influence of his spirit, his truth, and his genuine follow- 
 ers. John, looking through the vail which conceals the invisi- 
 ble, saw Christ sitting upon the Throne, and heard him say : — 
 "Behold, I make all things new." He did not say, I will make 
 or I have made, but "I make." He commenced a renovating 
 work when the assurance was given that the seed of the Avoman 
 should bruise the serpent's head. All the events in the history 
 of the Jewish theocracy, the calling of Abraham, the exodus, the 
 giving of the law, building of the temple, prophecy, &c. — the in- 
 carnation, death, resurrection and ascension of Christ were only 
 successive stages in the drama of the world's redemption. When 
 John heard the language of the text, Christ was engaged in the 
 same gracious work, and will continue to be until all his enemies 
 are put under his feet, and the last of his ransomed ones are 
 gathered home to glory. 
 
 Mark, too, he does not say that he makes some things new, 
 but all. Nothing escapes his renovating power. A vast multi- 
 tude had been renewed under the old dispensation. Much pre- 
 paratory work was accomplished. And under the new dispensa- 
 tion, John, his fellow apostles and disciples, and a multitude of 
 private christians had become new creatures in Christ. But this 
 was only a drop of the ocean of good which remained to be done- 
 
The politics, the social systems, the literature and the religion m 
 the rest of mankind, remained to be renovated. And the greater 
 part of this is still to be achieved. Something has indeed on the 
 whole been accomplished during the last 1800 years. A compar- 
 atively good beginning has been made. So much has been done 
 that the full consumation looms up in the distance. This grand, 
 universal renovation will eventually be affected. Clirist says so; 
 and he is able and will perform all his promises. 
 
 Our time, on this occasion, will only permit us to apply the 
 doctrines of the text to the anomolies of our politics. 
 
 We have been accustomed betimes to regard our government 
 as a perfect system. In some respects this opinion may be cor- 
 rect. But that it is not in all, is apparent from the machinery of 
 the government, the present aspect of politics, and the legislation 
 to which freemen are compelled to submit. The landmarks which 
 our fathers set up are removed. Sectional ambition, jealousies, 
 and other causes, have alienated a few of the states from the 
 others, and the Union itself is threatened with dismemberment. 
 There is, then, something deficient in the government and laws, 
 their execution or administrators, or all together. Something 
 requires to be renovated. And the question arises what that 
 
 something is. 
 
 Many things, doubtless, have combined to produce the corrup- 
 tion, and the disunion movements in the Republic, but wliat is 
 the foundation of it all is human slavery, or property in man. 
 Our fatliers proclaimed to the world, in their declaration of 
 rights, as their conviction for the maintenance of which they 
 pledged "their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,'" that 
 "all men are born free and equal." Unfortunately for the inter- 
 ests of freedqm and humanity, when they came to form a Consti- 
 tution for all the states, they admitted into it what was inconsis- 
 tent with the principles for which the battles of liberty and in- 
 dependence were fought. They made the holders of property in 
 man the controllers of votes, in proportion to the number of their 
 slaves. They had fought for liberty, but they made provision in 
 the Constitution foi- the restoration to bondage of every slave who 
 imitated their example. Their excuse was that thoy looked to a 
 
gradual extinction of slavery. They never dreamed that it could 
 long survive in a government consecrated to freedom. 
 
 Even in 1774, the first Colonial Congress condemned slavery, 
 and the slave trade, which action was confirmed by the Southern 
 Colonies. And every Southern statesman of the time condemned 
 this dark institution. But alas, what a change has come over the 
 times I Then any and every man could condemn slavery ; could 
 call it what John Wesley called it,"the sum of all villainies'' — he 
 could do so wherever the stars and stripes floated. But let a 
 man do so now ; in the South he will be tarred and feathered, 
 or hung, and in the north he will be called an amalgamationist, 
 an abolitionist, or whatever term is regarded most hateful and 
 opprobrious. In our early history slavery was barely endured — 
 now it is embraced in the South as one of the most prized gifts 
 of God, and defended by many in the North, accomplishing in 
 fact, the celebrated theory of Pope : 
 
 "Vice is a monster of so frightful a mien, 
 
 As to be hated needs but to be seen, 
 
 But seen too oft familiar with her face, 
 
 Firat we pity, then endure, and then embrace." 
 
 In addition to beating down all prejudices against itself, this 
 abomination of desolations has been vastly extended. In 1810 
 there were 1,000,000 slaves. In 1861, there are in the United 
 States over 4,000,000. Slavery has gone over into new territory. 
 And wherever it went it has cursed the soil, and its owners. In 
 material wealth, progress and power, intelligence, learning and 
 virtue, no Slave States do or can advance, equally with the Free. 
 Let the farmers of one county be slaveholders, and those of 
 another contiguous one non-slaveholders, and the advantage is 
 altogether on the side and soil of freedom. And yet the sun 
 never shone on a more fruitful and congenial land «that embraced 
 by the Southern States, before it became blighted by slavery. It 
 not only curses the soil, and is fatal to real progress and wealth, 
 but it makes labor itself dishonorable. Those of us who are de- 
 pendent on physical labor for our support, seldom or never seek 
 a Southern home. If the force of circumstances does take us 
 there, we are most likely to settle in those regions where there 
 are the fewest possible slaves. 
 
No institittion ever invented by man, or inflicted by Satan, so 
 degrades the character as slavery. A man accustomed to driv- 
 ing and using his fellow man like a beast becomes beastly himself. 
 He becomes lordly. This is the tendency of the institution. In 
 the language of Jefferson, we can say that, "the whole commerce 
 between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most 
 boisterous passions — the most unremitting despotism on the one 
 part, and degrading submission on the other. Our children see 
 this, and learn to imitate it. ***** The 
 parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath , 
 puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose 
 rein to the worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and 
 daily exercised in tyrany, cannot but be stamped by it with odi- 
 ous peculiarities." What slavery has made the people, it has 
 made the states embracing it. The Southern States are all more 
 or less dictatorial. They are now cracking their plantation whips 
 over the Union. This is one reason why the South has so long 
 controlled the Federal Government. Southern men in Washing- 
 ton practice what they learned on the plantation — blustering and 
 driving. Northern men, terrified by their noise, have run before 
 the lash. To appease their Southern drivers the North has 
 given and given, until some of the dearest rights of freemen 
 are lost. You and I are, to-day, bound by a Congressional en- 
 actment, to do all in our power to recapture a man running to 
 gain his freedom. We may refuse, but if so, we subject ourselves 
 to confiscation of our property and imprisonment. And now the 
 South demands that slavery be made national, and freedom sec- 
 tional ; and aims at re-opening the African slave trade. A Pres- 
 ident has been constitutionally elected, who does not exactly 
 please the South, and hence the North is commanded to get down 
 on its knees, and humbly beg pardon. South Carolina secedes, 
 but has not a single reason to give in justification, of which the 
 civilized world will approve. 
 
 The enormity of slavery is still more apparent, when we reflect 
 that it is in its very nature abhorrent to God. When the Creator 
 says : "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found 
 in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." "Let the oppressed 
 
8 
 
 go free." "Froclaim liberty throughout the land, unto all the 
 inhabitants tliereof." When God uses such language, under .the 
 old economy, can He approve of slavery? Again, in the New 
 Testament we are told that, "where the spirit of the Lord is there 
 is liberty." "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith 
 Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again with the 
 yoke of bondage." "All things whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do unto you do ye even so to them." "Call no man mas- 
 ter, neither be ye called master." If there is any meaning at all 
 in language, these passages of Scripture condemn slavery — make 
 it inconsistent with the will and law of God. This is the construe, 
 tion which the best men, and the most eminent commentators in the 
 whole world put on the Bible. The voice of the christian world 
 is against slavery, and it understands the Bible to condemn the 
 institution. Only one nation on earth contains professed teachers 
 of religion who pretend to find divine authority in the Bible for 
 African slavery. That nation is our own. Some men in the 
 North, with beclouded moral senses, or in the interests of party 
 and prejudice, and vast numbers in the South, directly under the 
 lash of slavery, teach that the Scriptures justify human bondage 
 But the language, the precepts, and the principles of the Bible 
 are against them, together with the convictions and the faith of 
 the civilized and christian world. Almost all virtuous men — 
 statesmen, scholars and patriots, philanthropists and divines, from 
 Adam till now, have protested against and condemned this insti. 
 tution. It blights every thing it touches ; it demoralizes the 
 Government, and the people ; it destroys liberty of speech in the 
 South, and of action in the North ; it threatens to engulf the Free 
 with the Slave States. And yet some men, calling themselves 
 Christians, raise their hands to Heaven in holy horror at the 
 very idea of preaching against and denouncing this Hell origina- 
 ted institution. By the connivance of the Government, New 
 York has become a regular slave mart. Vessels, bearing the 
 American flag, yearly carry thousands of human beings, torn from 
 their relatives, home and country, into Southern ports, and sell 
 them into irremediable slavery. And yet these would-be pious 
 souls doubt whether it is wise and patriotic, and safe, ministerial 
 
and evangelioal to speak against slavery as a eystem of iniquity i 
 Though this cancer has eaten into the vitals of the Republic, it 
 must and will yet be torn up by the roots. He that sits upon the 
 Throne declares : "Behold, I make all things new." This age 
 may be unfaithful and unsuccessful, but if so, God will raise up a 
 better and nobler race, which will be instrumental in accom. 
 plishing this grand renovation. Are we willing to engao-e in 
 this work with the energy of men, the virtues of patriots, and the 
 humanity of philanthropists ? If we are, a political renovation 
 will not only be effected, but the liberties which we inherited 
 from our fathers will be transmitted untarnished to future times. 
 For the ages can never molt into a millenial era until the fetters of 
 human bondage are broken forever. 
 
 But in all our eflforts at political renovation, we should keep 
 perfectly cool. What is done in passion is seldom well done. 
 Passion is the source of vast misery and mischief. Those who 
 give loose reins to it in determining their political action, will in. 
 evitably be drawn into excess. Their own judgment, once sobered 
 down, will condemn them. Who has not learned the truth of 
 this from experience in the private walks of life ? The disunion. 
 ists are powerfully aided in their treachery by arousing the pas- 
 sions of the South through pictures of imaginary wrong. Let us 
 not be guilty of the same intemperance. The settlement of such 
 a momentous question as that of slavery, demands the calmness 
 of philosophy, and the piety of saints and martyrs. I am aware 
 of the exciting nature of this discussion. I know the reproaches 
 and contumely heaped upon the lovers of freedom and humanity 
 are exceedingly aggravating. But this makes calmness all the 
 more necessary and important. It requires an effort to be col- 
 lected under such circumstances, but the interests at stake and 
 the duties to be discharged imperiously demand the effort. 
 
 Neither should fear be invoked at such a crisis. The thunders 
 which roll through the political heavens are accompanied by com- 
 paratively little of the lightning which rends and destroys. The 
 noise is mostly the uproar of the Devil. Like an animal of a 
 similar nature, he squeals tremendously when stabed to his vitals 
 In battle no coward if? reliable ; he is neither trusted nor con- 
 
10 
 
 Bulted. In the grand moral and political contest before us, fear 
 should be ignored, and our eonduct wholly shaped by truth, jus- 
 tice, principle and humanity. 
 
 Such a line of conduct will lead a man to examine the facts in 
 the case. The more knowledge disseminated on the subject of 
 slavery, the better for the interests of freedom. There are many 
 prejudiced against every utterance about slavery, and its abomi- 
 nations, simply because they are accustomed to read only those 
 partisan and party journals, which constantly hold up the oppo- 
 nents of human bondage to contempt, and brand them as enemies 
 to the country, and traitors to the Government. The strong 
 holds of anti-slavery are in the strong holds of intelligence, 
 knowledge and virtue. In the very nature of the case, justice 
 could only be done by the man nursed in the school of politics 
 which treats anti-slavery men as infidels and traitors, by exam- 
 ining the facts, both sides of this question, and being governed 
 by the truth, irrespective of partizan considerations. 
 
 Hence, we also maintain that all mere party ties should be 
 ignored. I thank my Maker that I have not bound myself to 
 any party. If the organization, for whose candidates I voted at 
 the last election, should desert or change its principles, or another 
 spring up more likely to carry out my convictions, I would at 
 once abandon it. The patriot and Christian should bind himself 
 to principles, and not to parties. It is the object of unprincipled 
 men to gain the leadership of political organizations. If they 
 succeed, and the members of parties do their bidding, the public 
 good is made subservient to private interests, the laws adminis- 
 tered for selfish ends, and the country governed to defeat the 
 aims of justice. And this is the condition in which multitudes 
 are placed. There are men who would not abandon their party 
 though it constructed its platform from the maxims of Hell, and 
 nominated the Devil himself for office. This summer, on one 
 occasion, a man asked me what my politics were. I told him. 
 He denounced me for my convictions. I pointed out to him what 
 r conceived to be a false principle in the platform of his own 
 party. As he could not defend it, he declared it mattered not to 
 him whether it waa right or wrong, because it was the doctrine of 
 
11 
 
 his party. Of such bigots we can have no hope. But they are 
 others who cling to party merely from custom and habit. To 
 such we appeal, and ask them not to surrender their liberty of 
 action, because they have been identified with some particular 
 organization. We should examine the principles and the objects 
 of the parties which arise, and then unite with that one, and 
 cling only so long to it as its principles are consonant with our 
 own convictions. 
 
 It is undoubtedly the duty of all virtuous citizens, to take a 
 deep interest in polities. They should engage in it from a sense 
 of duty, and out of love to freedom, to man, and to God. The 
 politics of the country can never be renovated until this is done. 
 Many virtuous and godly men never go near a primary election. 
 They leave the selection of candidates, so far as they are concerned, 
 to rowdies, professional politicians and interested office seekers. 
 In this way men are frequently nominated and elected to office 
 M^ho are a disgrace to free institutions, and incompetent to dis- 
 charge the duties of their positions. This is sometimes the reason 
 why men are sent to Congress who misrepresent their constitu- 
 ents, and surrender the interests of freedom at the bidding of the 
 slave power. From this cause there are now incompetent, unre- 
 liable, and immoral men in office, all over the land, from the Pres- 
 ident down. Let then, every philanthropist, patriot, and chris- 
 tian, remember that our dearest interests — our freedom the main- 
 tenance of our institutions, and the hopes of the world require 
 that he should make it his business and duty to do his utmost to 
 secure the nomination and election of competent and moral men — 
 of men who will, under every conceivable circumstance, main- 
 tain the right and scorn to do wrong. 
 
 In order to renovate our country, there must also be an end to 
 compromising with slavery. All the compromises which have 
 been made are broken. Every one was to settle the question 
 forever. It would not remain settled, and never will until sla- 
 very is entirely abolished. Only in one way could the extreme 
 South be satisfied, and that is by making slavery national and 
 freedom sectional. But it is said, that if the North does not 
 obey Southern orders there will be disunion. If so, then let it 
 
12 
 
 come. I love the Union, but 1 love liberty more. If the Union 
 cannot be preserved without making us a nation of slaves, then 
 the sooner it is desolved the better. It is well said our fathers 
 fought for liberty, and not for union. And now the renovation 
 of the world imperatively requires that we once more imitate 
 their example, only with a different foe. They were opposed by 
 a foreign power. We have nursed a viper in our bosom until it 
 is knawing the very vitals of freedom. With that foe we sliould 
 grapple at once. We should say with the firmness of Christians 
 and patriots, thus far hast thou come, but no farther shalt thou 
 go. 
 
 I do not advocate legislative interference with slavery in the 
 states wliere it exists. Let every state always manage its domes- 
 tic institutions as it chooses. But we must, in obedience to the 
 commands and precepts of Christ, employ moral suasion. It is 
 sometimes said, let slavery alone and it will die out itself. Never 
 would this follow. No evil or sin ever dies out of itself. The 
 mission of Christ into the world was to destroy iniquity. There 
 is a constant warfare carried on by Christ and his followers 
 against sin, oppression and wrong of every kind. And this war- 
 fare will never cease until all things shall be made new — until 
 every man in the world lives in the enjoyment of civil and re- 
 ligious freedom. 
 
 I am aware, that in this grand renovating work, there will be 
 temporary suffering and loss. When a man violates the laws ot 
 health and sickens, the remedies employed for his restoration 
 frequently distress his pocket and his body. Our revolutionary 
 struggle produced a vast amount of misery and blood. But no 
 one now disputes the patriotism, and Ijcnign resulsts of that pro- 
 tracted contest. Xf we now firmly maintain our rights against 
 the aggressions of slavery, similar calamities may befall us. I 
 do not say that it will be so, l)ut it may. I know not the specific 
 future. I pretend to no prophetic power. All that I am certain 
 of is, that if the North performs its duty — refuses to make any 
 more compromises with slavery, and prevents its further exten- 
 sion, the highest interests of humanity will be subserved. I have 
 confidence in God, and believe if we obey him. light will emerge 
 
13 
 
 from the darkness and gloom which seems to have envelojjed the 
 nation. 
 
 We must act for the future as well as the present. We exe- 
 crate the old world for having fastened slavery upon us, during 
 our colonial state. Should the North, at this eventful period, tol- 
 erate that for which the old world is condemned? Should tliese 
 United States' permit future ages to detest them for cursing ihem 
 with this nefarious institution ? It should not he. Civilization, 
 philanthropy, humanity and religion protest against it. God and 
 nature cry out against the extension of slavery. Let its progress 
 then at once be arrested. Let not another foot of territory be 
 defaced by a race of slaves. 
 
 You all sympathize with the heroes of liberty in the old world. 
 You rejoice in the success which crowns their efforts. Why then 
 not imitate that which you commend in the patriotism of other 
 lands? There can be no mistake concerning the estimation in 
 which we are held by them. The noblest and purest minds in 
 the old world sympathize with tlie opponents of slavery here. 
 Garabaldi, Kossuth and Victor Emanuel, side with those of us 
 who are determined to stop the progress of the slavery despotism. 
 Our cause is theirs, and theirs ours. The mutual purpose which 
 actuates us, is the emancipation of men from a cruel and oppres- 
 sive bondage. And can it be, that in an age of light, of knowl- 
 edge, and of science, when the human intellect has reached an 
 elevation, and soared to realms of beauty, imagination and truth 
 never before attained, in an age when tyrany in the old world is 
 gasping for breath, and the throne of iniquity seated on the seven 
 hills of Rome is undermined, and about to fall, never more to 
 rise, in an age when freedom and equality is visiting the nations 
 of Europe, when the races, one after the other, are reaching for 
 and gaining their freedom, when even the tyrant that occupies 
 the throne of France makes concessions to liberty, 
 "When the expectant nations stand 
 To catch the coming flame in turn." 
 In such an age shall these United States alone of all people go 
 backward towards the dark ages, by making still more conces- 
 sions to slavery? Ye fathers, soldiers, patriots and statesmen 
 
14 
 
 that won our freedom and independence, forbid that this should 
 be so! Do thou, oh God of justice, love and mercy, roll back the 
 tide of slavery and despotism 1 
 
 •♦Take freedom ! take thy radient round — 
 When dimmed revive — when lost return ; 
 
 Till not a shrine through earth be found 
 On which thy glories shall not burn." 
 
 The last duty to which my time will permit me to allude is 
 that of sincere prayer'^for the preservation of our free institu- 
 tions. These are in danger from the corruption engendered by 
 the slavery despotism. Our national sins are as numerous and 
 great as those of ancient Israel. As a nation we have been guil- 
 ty of corruption, ingratitude and oppression. The North itself 
 is turned into a hunting ground of slavery. And I have no 
 doubt there are a million of slaves secretly praying that their 
 masters and the government which tolerates their bondage might 
 be cursed. The ear of God is as open to their prayers as to ours. 
 If nothing else will, these thiags should humble us. When ca- 
 lamities overtook the Israelites for their sins, their prayers were 
 not answered until they humbled themselves. We must do the 
 same, and then in answer to our sincere petitions God may avert 
 the threatening storm of ruin which is hanging over us. 
 
 The Bible requires us to pray for our enemies. No matter 
 how savagely the South conducts itself we should pray for its 
 welfare. The owners of slaves are among the most unfortunate 
 of men. They have peculiar temptations and trials. We should 
 pray to God that He would soften the hearts of the slaveholders, 
 and lead thorn to emancipate their slaves ; that He would bring 
 the South to its sober senses, and that He would induce it to re- 
 nounce passion and pride, and obey the dictates of reason and 
 justice. None of you I trust are such unbelievers as to doubt the 
 power of God to accomplish this result. If ten righteous men 
 had been found in Sodom, it would have been saved. Surely 
 there are ten righteous men in this crowded assembly. In your 
 closets then, in the prayer meeting, and in the house of God, let 
 your prayers ascend to God for the establishment of freedom, jus- 
 tice and virtue on a permanent basis. Permit yourselves to be 
 
15 
 
 made the instruments of God for the accomplishment of these divine 
 purposes. Every one of you ;s^ith a sane mind can be an agent 
 of good, and an apostle of humanity. The humblest of you by 
 hiding your lives with Christ in God, can help to move the arm 
 which moves the universe. No one therefore can say I can do 
 nothing in this crisis of my country's history. You all can do 
 something, and God will justly hold you responsible for every 
 neglect of duty. 
 
 For my part my faith does not waver as to the final issue of 
 the present political disturbances. I do not believe that you will 
 ever be summoned to bestow funeral honors upon our departed 
 glory, if the North with united hearts and counsils strengthen the 
 freedom and virtues which still remain. But I do not believe 
 that our blessings can be perpetuated in any other way than by 
 the course which I have depicted. 
 
 Let deeper convictions prevail as to the importance of virtue 
 firmness, justice and truth, and more extended and vigorous exer- 
 tions made to balance the temptations of office and place by mor- 
 al powers. Let christians everywhere cease from all contention, 
 and concentrate their energies for the maintenance of right, and 
 the spiritual and intellectual elevation of man. Let patriots and 
 statesmen see and feel that it is not commerce, power and wealth 
 purchased by giving way to the exactions of the slave power, but 
 righteousness which exalteth a nation. Let all who love truth 
 and virtue give to the work of political and moral renovation the 
 power of their example, and the impulse of their charity. Let 
 such an array of moral influence be brought to bear upon the na- 
 tion as shall be irresistable. 'The God of this world will at once 
 feel the shock of the onset and commence his retreat. Let no 
 one turn from this purpose nor cease from this work until the 
 Redeemer has made all things new.' 
 
54 W 
 

 
 
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