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T H E
LOW VALUE
SET UPON
HUMAN LIFE
IN THE UNITED STATES:
24      isrn it rs
DELIVERED ON THANKSGIVING-DAY,
NOVEMIBER  24th, 1853,
BY
H. A. BOARDMAN, D.D.
PHILADELPHIA:
JOSEPHI M. WILSON.
228 CI-IESTNUT STREET.
1853. 
C. SHERBIAN, PRINTER.
I
.
~   e. 
PHILADELPHIA, November 28th, 1853.
REVEREND AND DEAR SIR:  We beg leave very respectfully to request a copy of your Discourse on the
late Thanksgiving-Day for publication. The subject is of the deepest interest
to the whole country; and, fully concurring, as we do, in the sentiments so ably
expressed by you, we should much regret if the important lessons iniclcited
in this Discourse were confined to those who had the satisfaction of heartig it.
With the highest regard and esteem, we are
Your friends and obedient servants,
CHARLES B. PENROSE.
JOHN R. VOGDES.
R. C. GRIER.
R. PATTERSON.
LYMAN COLEMAN.
FREDERICK BROWN.
WINTHROP SARGENT.
WILLIAM HARRIS.
To the Rev. HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D.
91 - in 3  
PHILADELPHIA, November 30th, J 853.
GENTLEMEN:  It is not without some hesitation and reluctance that I accede to the request
with which I am honored in your note of the 28th instant.   The facts adverted
to in my Thanksgiving Discourse are sufficiently familiar, but the subject is
comparatively new. The causes of that disparaging estimate of human life,
which has well-nigh become one of our national characteristics, are much less
obvious than the evil itself. I have ventured to suggest two or three of them,
omitting others altogether, and barely glancing at one which I believe to be
of radical efficiency, to wit, our defective systems of education.  The discussibl is ~very incomplete; and, apart from my desire to comply with any request
p)ro eeding from the gentlemen whose signatures I have before me, there is
only one consideration which makes me willing to send this Discourse to the
press. It is, in nay opinion, the duty of every good citizen to do what he can
to arrest this wholesale destruction of human life, and to reform the vicious
public sentiment which shelters and virtually encourages it.   I place my
manuscript at your disposal, in the hope that it may promote, in some humble
degree, these important objects.
I remain, Gentlemen,
With great respect,
Your friend and fellow-citizen,
HENRY A. BOARDMAN.
To the Hon. CHARLES B. PENROSE,
JOHN R. VOGDES, Esquire,
Hon. ROBERT C. GRIER,
Major-General PATTERSON,
and others. 
DISCOURSE.
AND YE SHALL TAKE NO SATISFACTION FOR HIM THAT IS FLED TO THE CITY OF IIIS
REFUGE, THAT HE SHOULD COME AGAIN TO DWELL IN THIE LAND, UNTIL THE
DEATH OF THE PRIEST.-NUIMBERS XXXV. 32.
IT is both natural and becoming to make this annual
festival an occasion for reviewing our mercies, and expatiating on the goodness of God to our beloved country.
Where this is done to invigorate our gratitude and stimulate us to duty, it is eminently useful. But it is a great
abuse of such a retrospect, to convert it into food for our
national vanity. We are so much accustomed to the
language of self-eulogy, and our condition is so manifestly superior, in many particulars, to that of most other
nations, that we are apt to overlook those features in
our social or religious state, which are adapted rather to
humble than exalt us. It will not, I hope, be deemed
inappropriate to the occasion, if I select one of these
characteristics for our consideration this morning-especially as it has a vital connexion with our true prosperity.
I propose, then, to offer a few observations on THE LOW
VALUE SET UPON HUMAN LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES.
The very announcement of the theme may awaken
emotions of surprise in some quarters. You may think 
6
of our numerous and learned Medical Profession, and
the liberality with which it is supported; of the well-endowed hospitals and asylums which adorn our cities;
of the great army of philanthropists, male and female,
who are perpetually carrying forward their ministrations
of mercy among the sick and the suffering; of the general benevolence of feeling and amenity of manners, you
meet with in the intercourse of society; and you may
be ready to ask, how, in the face of facts like these, the
imputation can be laid upon us, of "setting a low value
upon human life." This, however, is more specious
than solid: it certainly proceeds upon a very partial
view of the case. Without attempting to deny the
statements just cited, or to weaken their legitimate
force, it must still be maintained that we are open to
the grave allegation in question. There are notorious
and decisive facts in support of this charge, embodied in
the records of our public conveyances. It is scarcely a
figure to say that the history of many a steamboat and
railroad line, in the Union, has been written in blood.
The statistics would probably show, that a greater number of travellers perish by these agencies in our country,
than in all the rest of the civilized world combined.
An accident which destroys a single human being, or
three or four, is nothing thought of. Even those which
involve the destruction of scores of lives, produce but a
temporary ripple in the current of public feeling, and
are  presently forgotten.   Men  are allowed  to erect
buildings which may tumble down of their own frailty,
and bury a crowd of inmates beneath  their  ruins. 
7
Steamboats are permitted to navigate our tempestuous
lakes and dangerous sea-coast, of such fragile construction, that there is less to wonder at when we hear that
they have gone down into the abyss, with a load of passengers, than when they survive a storm of ordinary
violence. Conductors and engineers may whirl their
crowded trains into other trains, down precipices, and
into drawbridges; and superintendents and boards of
management may so frame their arrangements as almost
to insure the frequent occurrence of these disasters,
without exposing themselves to any adequate penalties.
Homicides are rapidly multiplying; but, with occasional
exceptions, justice is slow in securing the murderers,
and slower still in convicting and punishing them. Society has so far reverted towards its primitive condition,
that even in our older States, the practice has become
common of carrying deadly weapons, and avenging
affronts, real or imaginary, with instant death. The
generation of young men now coming forward in our
cities, seem to think it manly to wear dirks and pistols,
and to use them on the slightest provocation. Approximating to savages in their equipment, they resemble
them no less in the value they put upon human life.
And if matters proceed much further in this direction,
the shooting of a man will soon come to be looked upon
as very little more than the shooting of a beast. If
these practices were properly rebuked-if the force of
law and of public sentiment were adequately employed
to repress them- it might be inapposite to cite them in
this connexion. But they meet with a degree of tole 
8
rance which indicates anything but a just appreciation
of their enormity, on the part of the community.
As the natural result of these things, the feeling of
personal insecurity has become very general. The un avoidable hazards of travelling are so multiplied, that a
journey is a source of incessant anxiety, from its com mencement to its close, both to the travellers them selves, and to their friends and families. Even in tra versing the streets of a metropolis, people feel that they
are liable to plunge inadvertently, into some unprotected
pitfall, or to be crushed by having building-materials or
bales of merchandise precipitated upon them from above.
Nor can thoughtful parents rid themselves of solicitude
for the safety of their sons, lest they may some day be
brought home to them " in their blood," victims to that
fashionable code which makes every man the avenger of
his own wrongs, and converts into a "wrong" every
hasty utterance or passionate gesture.
That this insensibility to the true value of life,. is a
mark of our imperfect civilization, is a humiliating truth
which it were quite useless to deny. If there is any
gauge by which the progress of a people from barbarism
to refinement can be tested, it lies in THE ESTIMATE THEY
ATTACH TO IIUMAN LIFE, and the pains which are taken
to preserve and prolong it. If a nation fails in this
point, the defect is one which admits of no compensation.  It is idle to talk of its arts and arms, its literature
and religion, its wise laws, its schools, its contented and
thriving populations,-if it holds human life at a cheap
rate, the less it boasts of its cultivation the better. 
9
Other nations, certainly, will concede to it nothing
beyond a second or third rate type of civilization, while
it is disfigured by one of the radical characteristics of
barbarism.
If we inquire into the CAUSES which have impressed
this stigma upon our national character, we shall find it
traceable, in no small degree, to the peculiar circumstances
of our country.  Hlowever we may be disposed to resent
the intimation, it cannot be denied that there are large
portions of the confederacy, which are very immature
in their social organization,-and for obvious reasons.
Within the memory of persons now living, the territory
comprising a considerable part of the Union, was the abode
of wild beasts and savages. This immense domain has
been settled with a rapidity unprecedented, it is believed,
in the annals of the race. The older States have poured
their tens of thousands into the valley of the Mississippi.
This majestic tide has been swelled by an uninterrupted
stream of European immigration. The colonizing of the
country has outstripped its means of personal and social
improvement. The attention of communities like these,
would be chiefly occupied with their physical wants.
The clearing of the ground, the seeding of the soil, the
erection of suitable dwellings, and other urgent objects,
would engross their time. School-houses, churches, welldigested legislation, and a sound and effective jurisprudence, would be postponed to earlier and more pressing exigencies.   Unchastened by culture, and unrestrained by legal or military authority, the bad passions
of humanity would ferment; frequent outbreaks and 
10
violences would occur, and summary crimes would meet
with as summary a retribution. People would vindicate
their own rights. Popular convocations would arrogate
the supreme judicial power; injuries would be redressed
with rifles and bowie-knives; and signal transgressions
would be honored with the form of a legal trial, and the
reality of an execution, after that inflexible Draconian
code, entitled'1 Lynch Law," which never tries but to
convict, and never convicts but to burn or hang.
To say that all this has been verified on our own soil,
is simply to state a familiar fact. That there are nurnerous facts of a different kind, which enter into the history of our new States, and reflect the highest credit
upon them, is indisputable. If they have not made all
the provision which was desirable for the moral and
intellectual wants of the people, they have accomplished
far more in this way, than could have been anticipated.
Many things in the condition of our country have excited the astonishment of the nations; but nothing has
produced a profounder impression upon them, than to
see commonwealth after commonwealth springing up
on the bosom of our great prairies, and from the heart
of our primeval forests, and putting on, with a magic
celerity, the aspect of well-ordered communities, replenished not only with the appliances of physical comfort,
but with the ordinances of Christianity, and efficient systems of common school instruction. Still, the irresistible
course of events has been such as to concentrate in these
new organizations, the most heterogeneous and intractable elements, which have, to the present day, occa 
11
sioned frequent outrages and convulsions, like those just
recited. The effect has been to familiarize the population with the shedding of blood. They are too conversant with assassinations and fatal street-fights, and
Lynch-law executions, to be horrified by them.  And
we, onl this side of the mountains, scarcely less conversant with them, through the medium of the newspaper
press, read of these massacres with little emotion. Surprise is out of the question. Transactions of this sort
have become too much a part of the staple material of
our journals, to awaken surprise in any quarter. And
where homicides are so frequent as to be looked for as a
matter of course, and read about with composure, there
can be no just appreciation of the value of human life.
I am not speaking simply of our frontier States. I am
speaking of our own State, and of the entire Union.
And I assert, not without shame and sorrow, that these
atrocities, so abundant, and so often unpunished, have
had a most debasing influence upon our national character, in a point of the hi,lghest moment: that is to say,
they have contributed to weaken our sense of the worth
of a human being, and to blind us to the enormity of
sending such an one prematurely into eternity.
Nearly allied to this source of the evil we are considering, may be mentioned tlhe doiminant spirit of the
couintry,-the animnus which pervades the entire nation,
and distinguishes us, characteristically, from other
nations. This cannot be defined by any single phrase.
The words, progress, excitement, money-making, restlessness, self-satisfaction, all belong to the subject.  The 
nation is not only in its youth, and, therefore, imbued
with the buoyancy and energy of youth, but all its antecedents and its present circumstances, conspire to stiminulate these qualities to their utmost possible activity. If
one wished to convey to a foreigner, some idea of the
country, he might do it, not inaptly, by telling him that
1 the Americans were a people all alive." Look at our
legislative halls, our elections, our commercial marts,
our railroads and canals, our manufacturing districts
new towns and cities springing up in every direction,
crowds of young men flocking to the cities to engage in
business, other crowds abandoning their homes, to seek
their fortunes in Texas, in Iowa, in California, the
intense competition of trade, the - hankering after sudden wealth, the universal discontent with the present
and grasping after something better, the noise and rush
on every side, the unceasing stir and strife of a nation
c all alive."  Why, it is in strict logical harmony with
this state of things that human life should be but little
cared for. There is no time to care for it. People are
otherwise occupied. There is an office to be secured.
There is a fortune to be made. And there must be no
delay.  The train is in motion, and they must go on.
If a passenger falls overboard and gets crushed, they are
"very sorry" for his misfortune, but stopping to pick him
up, could not restore him to life, and "1 business" might
suffer by the detention. It is better to acquiesce in the
dispensation, and let the survivors learn a lesson of prudence from it. This is the feeling: business is of more
importance than life, and speed is better than safety.
12 
13
Avarice is at the bottom. The country is crazed with
the love of money. Hence we have unstable and precarious railroads, a single track, often, on our greatest
thoroughfares, fragile cars, incompetent conductors and
engineers, unfaithful or overworked attendants, no adequate signals, no systematic inspection of machinery and
running-gear at the stopping-places; steamboats like eggshells, worthless boilers, cabins constructed with a single
outlet, by a narrow and spiral staircase, for two or three
hundred passengers, moveable lamps and candles in the
hands of servants and children at pleasure, reckless captains, intemperate pilots, racing, audacious tempting of
storms, everything in the way of comfort and safety
sacrificed to speed and a paltry economy. And the
public tolerate all this.  Not unfrequently passengers
are more foolhardy than the owners and officers of these
conveyances; they are not only willing to run risks, but
angry if they are prevented from running risks. And
where disasters occur (such, at least has been the case
until within a recent period), they are prompt, if
they themselves are uninjured, to excuse or justify the
parties by whose neglect or rashness the mischief has
been brought about. Of course these things could not
occur, if either travellers (a term which is, in the United
States, nearly synonymous with the population at large),
or the proprietors and managers of the conveyances on
our leading thoroughfares, had any just sense of the
sacredness of human life.   But they have not.  This
sentiment is swallowed up in the lust of gain or some
kindred passion. If life can be protected without dimi 
14
nishing profits or retarding business, it should be; but
of the two evils, it is better that life should be exposed
to additional hazards, than that the process of large and
speedy accumulation should be impeded.
The commercial spirit has a powerful auxiliary in
depreciating the value of life; it is the spirit ofpartisanship and political ambition.  The general course of legis
lation in this country, betrays a strange and criminal
indifference to the most important interest committed
to its custody.   For of what moment are agriculture,
commerce, finance, corporate rights, foreign relations,
any of the confessedly great subjects confided to our lawmakers, when compared with human life? Yet it constantly happens, when bills appertaining to this matter
are introduced into our legislative assemblies, state or
national, that they are thrust aside for other measures.
Whole sessions are wasted in frivolous speech-making,
while acts designed to insure protection against reckless
daring or wicked improvidence, are laid upon the table.
Many years must elapse, and thousands of lives must be
sacrificed, before a law can be procured supplying even
a partial safeguard against these evils. And I speak of
this as a Estrange" circumstance, because it proves that
our legislators do not put even their own lives into the
scale against the partisan debates of a session.
Nor is it necessary to restrict this censure to enactments bearing upon the safety of travellers; it applies,
in all its force, to dangers of other sorts, which imperil
life. What, for example, is more fatal to human life,
than intemperance?   Our locomotives  and steamboats
I 
15
have acquired some distinction as slaughtering-machines,
but they are inert and tame, when compared with the
grog-shop. The cholera and yellow fever burst forth at
times, and shroud the land in mourning; but where
these slay their thousands, strong drink slays its ten
thousands. Its ravages are patent to every eye. There
is no representative in any legislative assembly of the
Union, who is not familiar with them.  They have all
seen so much of drunkenness in its causes and its consequences,-they have seen so many young men of promise blasted by it, so many rich men impoverished, so
many fathers and husbands converted into fiends, so
many widows and orphans overwhelmed with sorrow
and misery, so many graves opened to receive the vic
tims of this terrific curse, that they would deem it an
impertinence if you should attempt to instruct them on
these points.   But as to suppressing this vice-as to
throwing the aegis of a wise and paternal legislation over
their constituents, and protecting them from the monster, that is another question; and ordinarily, it is a
question which has to give way, no less to the most trivial enactments and the most profitless debates, than to
matters of real importance.
That all this indicates a humiliating disparagement of
human life, must be evident to any one who will take
the trouble to interpret it. There are probably States
in this confederacy, where, if all the victims intemperance has slain since the American Revolution, could be
brought together, the representatives vwho live furthest
off could walk every step of the way from the Capitol to 
16
their homes, upon their dead bodies; and where this
appalling manslaughter is still going forward with accelerated energy. Will it be denied that the supreme authorities in these States, have, virtually, given the whole
weight of their sanction to the idea, that human life is
of little value? And is it fanciful to suggest, that if
this sentiment finds countenance in the current tone of
our legislation, and goes forth from those elevated seats
to which the people are accustomed to look, as well for
counsel as for protection, it will by degrees impregnate
the public mind? Is it to be expected that the masses
will value what their rulers contemn? that the accidental or violent death of an individual or two, will produce any impression upon a community whose lawmakers can see hundreds and thousands prematurely
cut off, without trying to save them?
The transition is but too natural here, from the hall
of legislation to the forum. Just in proportion as a
nation confides in the wisdom and integrity of its judicial tribunals, will the decisions of these tribunals mould
its lineaments and determine its opinions. In this view,
it is of some moment to learn whether the jurisprudence
of this country has tended, on the whole, to enhance or
to impair the popular reverence for human life. And here
we encounter a very ominous demonstration.   We find
a numerous body of citizens, belonging to various sects
and political parties, and not deficient in talent or zeal,
who are laboring (and in some of the States not without
success) to effect a repeal of the law inflicting capital
punishment.   The oldest statute on this subject,-a 
17
statute which antedates the Levitical dispensation more
than eight hundred years, and which was addressed to
the second progenitor of the race, runs in these words:
"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed; for in the image of God made He man."-Gen. ix. 6.
Our philanthropists deny the obligation of this command,
and are bold in maintaining that the murderer ought
not to be put to death. With the arguments by which
they would subvert the authority of this Divine statute,
and replace it with a mere dictum of expediency (expediency, as we contend, falsely so called), I am  not now
concerned; I have to deal only with the fact, that there
is a powerful and vigilant party in the country, having
the control of numerous pulpits and presses, who are
perpetually iterating the cry, that the worst assassins
" have done nothing worthy of death," and that the execution of a convicted and confessed homicide, is itself
" a judicial murder."  The legitimate effect of this, is,
to awaken sympathy in behalf of murderers, and to
obliterate all proper concern for the fate of their victims.
It tends (I do not say it is so designed) to mitigate the
atrocity of murder; to foster the feeling that it is not,
after all, so flagitious a crime to deprive a fellow-creature
of life. In other words, the whole drift of this outcry
against capital punishment, is, to rob life of its sanctity,
and degrade it to a level with, at least, some other possessions.
The mischievous effect of this upon the administration of justice, may be seen in the extreme difficulty
with which, in some parts of the country, capital con                           2 
18
victions can be obtained, even on plenary evidence.
Nor is this the only result. Whatever abates the general horror of murder, must contribute to lessen the reprobation with which we naturally regard unintentional
homicide occasioned by ignorance or carelessness. If a
wilful murderer has not forfeited his life, it would be
cruelty to deprive the conductor or pilot, whose recklessness has hurried a score of persons into eternity, of
his liberty.   If killing people by design, merits  no
penalty but imprisonment, killing them "by accident,"
as the courtly phrase is, must deserve something less
than the penitentiary. And, as a matter of fact, it
generally goes unpunished. With every disposition to
sustain the legal tribunals, intelligent and patriotic citizens find it impossible to sanction the results usually
reached in investigations of this kind. No verdicts can
invalidate the settled conviction of the public mind, that
these wholesale slaughters on our thoroughfares are the
fruit of wicked and inexcusable carelessness or rashness;
that the moral turpitude of manslaughter attaches to
them; and that to acquit the agents who perpetrate
them, indicates a culpable indifference to the worth of
human life, in some quarter. It is of no avail to reply
that the charge of "manslaughter" cannot, ordinarily,
be made out; or that there is a difficulty in determining
the relative responsibility of the several parties implicated. This only transfers the blame from the courts
to the legislatures. If human life were rated at its true
value, these meshes would be better woven. Justice
would not be baffled by mere technicalities; or rather, 
19
new definitions would be framed, which should refer
these acts to their appropriate place in the category of
crimes.  And we should cease to have our humnanity,
our love of justice, and our common sense, confounded
by such verdicts as those which usually follow these
catastrophes.
Another cause, no doubt, contributes to this result-I
allude to the composition of juries.   Trial by jury is
esteemed by every nation enjoying a constitutional
government, as one of its greatest bulwarks against oppression, one of the chief supports and ornaments of its
civilization. But institutions, like individuals, differ
widely, often, in theory and in practice. Theoretically,
the twelve men who sit in yonder jury-box, are men,
not only of integrity, but of intelligence and discrimination, free from all vicious habits, and every way competent to issue the cause they have sworn to decide according to the testimony presented to them. Practically, those twelve jurors, or a majority of them, may
happen to be men whose meagre intellectual furniture is
exceeded only by the penury of their moral endowments.  The genius of our government may require that
all voters should be eligible as jurymen; but for myself,
I am no believer in this doctrine.  I utterly eschew it
as romantic and pernicious. In its practical working, it
is hostile to our institutions. It embarrasses the courts.
It increases litigation. It is oppressive to the citizen. It
corrupts the fountains of justice.  It impairs the popular
respect for the judiciary. It is fruitful of evil, and has,
in so far as I know, nothing to recommend it. To make 
20
this great institute what it should be, and what, in all
the fine declamation of our orators about it, it is assumed
to be, jurors must be men, not necessarily of wealth, nor
of liberal culture, but of character and average information. The incongruity of submitting causes involving
large amounts of property, or still more, personal liberty,
and even life, to the arbitrament of such personages as
frequently appear on the panel, is so gross as to seem
absolutely ludicrous. Here, it cannot be doubted, we
have the key to many of the verdicts alluded to, in capital cases, and deaths by so-called "accidents."  And I
cite it with confidence, as one of the reasons why human
life has so insufficient a valuation put upon it by the
tribunals.
Candor requires that we should go a step further in
this direction.  Judges and juries may discharge their
duty, and executive clemency may turn their labors to
nought. The facility with which pardons are procured,
is one of the crying evils of the day. It is currently
reported that this has even become a function of the
legal profession; that there are unworthy members of the
fraternity in our cities, who make it a part of their
regular business to procure pardons for such convicts as
can command liberal fees. Of the policy usually pursued in these cases, it is not for me to speak. But it is
reasonable to presume, that the petitions put in circulation, are sustained by plausible misrepresentations; that
the daily press is induced, whenever practicable, to lend
its columns to the object; that the whole machinery of
pseudo-philanthropy is set in motion; and that the ex 
21
ecutive authority is at length approached with a demonstration which makes the liberation of the culprit simply
a becoming concession to a supposed "public sentiment."
If there be a system of this sort in operation, it is high
time it should be suppressed. All persons will agree,
that convictions may occur which will justify and even
demand a remission of the legal penalties. But the
facile exercise of this lofty prerogative, is a capital
offence against the spirit of the social compact. It is
due, no less to the supreme magistracy in our commonwealths, than to society, that the same publicity should
attach to a pardon, which attaches to a conviction; that
as every step of the process by which a man is brought
into condemnation, is open to the world, so the community
which has so vital a stake in the question, should be
allowed to inspect the entire proceedings by which a
condemned man is absolved from punishment and set at
liberty. That community should have a legal, as it has
a moral right, to know who are interceding for the
pardon of a prisoner, and upon what grounds the executive compassion is invoked. This would at once protect
the executive against fraudulent applications, and shield
the country from the numerous evils incident to the
abuse of this delicate, and, under some circumstances,
dangerous power. It is not the least of these evils that
the frequent absolution extended to murderers, has
tended to paralyse the arm of justice, and to lend the
highest sanction known to our charters to the pernicious
sentiment, that the destruction of human life is but a
venial offence. 
22
Without insisting unduly upon this explanation of the
fact, no one will controvert the fact itself, that life is
disparaged, as well in the established working of our
judicial system, as in the current routine of our legislation. To ascertain what influence this has had upon
the popular estimate of life, let the supposition be made,
that from this time forth, the policy of our courts and
legislatures on this subject, should be reversed; that
every commonweath should enact a body of laws for the
protection of life and the punishment of offences against
life, of the most discriminating, comprehensive, and
stringent character; that Congress should follow this
example; that the entire magistracy, from the humblest
police justice up to the highest criminal tribunals should
set themselves to the enforcement of these statutes with
exemplary industry and firmness; that under this course
of administration, capital crimes should receive their
righteous desert, and stupidity and carelessness occasioning a loss of life, their desert; that it should come to be
understood that every instance of death occurring otherwise than by the usual course of nature, would be
thoroughly investigated, and the responsibility of it, so
far as possible, fastened upon the proper parties; in a
word, that our governments, state and national, should
begin to treat human life as their most inviolable deposit, and the guardianship of it as their noblest function.  What would be the effect upon the public mind?
Can it be doubted, that corresponding sentiments would
be generated throughout the Republic; that life would
be regarded with more reverence; that murders and 
assassinations would awaken greater abhorrence; that
an increased attention to personal safety would disclose
itself in all the processes of the mechanical arts; that
amusements which imperil life would be regulated, and
altercations more rigorously repressed; that individuals
and companies eng,aged in the carrying of passengers,
would cast away their worthless stock, frame  better
rules, look more to the competency of their officials and
agents, and exercise a more jealous supervision over
them; that in every department of society there would
be an abatement of the heedlessness and impetuosity
now so prevalent and so mischievous; in fine, that there
would be a gradual and beneficent amelioration in that
sordid estimate of life which has hitherto scandalized
us? If these and similar results might be expected
from (a clhange of policy on the part of our constituted
authorities, then are we warranted in specifying the
past and (with some honorable local exceptions) present policy of these authorities, as one of the chief
agencies in degrading human life almost to a par with
the lives which are bought and sold at the shambles.
Various other causes might be enumerated as having
contributed to fix this reproach upon us, but I am adinonished of the danger of protracting this discussion
beyond reasonable limits. Whatever may be thought
of this attempt to solve the problem, it is of manifest
and urgent importance, that the country should awake
to very different views of the destruction of human life,
fromn those which now prevail.
The wrong done to the individual, in every example
*;:.
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of this sort, is the greatest of all wrongs. Life is not a
blessing to be compared with anything else. The simplest
statement about it, is the most impressive that can be
made. When you have said of a man, " He is dead!"
you have said everything.   Illustrations and analogies
but weaken its force. You may talk of affluence ending
in beggary, of domestic unhappiness, of pining sickness,
of treacherous friends, of calumny, of persecution, of
exile, of imprisonmnent; and you may accumulate all
these in the experience of a single individual; how little
do they weigh against that terse and awful sentence,
"He is dead!"  You have all felt this.  You know what
your emotions were, when you watched at the bedside
of a beloved relative or friend, until, after days or weeks
of unavailing conflict with the destroyer, you caught the
last sigh received the last look of recognition, felt the fa  iniliar hand grow cold in yours saw the lamp of life go out,
and heard some tremulous voice at your side utter those
dreadful words, " He is gone!"  And as you gazed upon
that pallid corpse, which returned your friendly gaze no
more, and thought of what he had been and what he was,
and recalled the hopes that were crushed, and the ties
that were sundered, and the hearts that were riven by this
stroke, you felt that every other calamity was tolerable
when compared with death.  Nor were you mistaken.
The estimate you put upon death in that hour of gloom
and anguish, was just and fitting. It is all that you felt
it to be; and life has all the untold value which you
then ascribed to it.  "Life," I say,-not the life, only,
which you saw go out, and the extinction of which
...:.
en*  
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25
pierced you with such sorrow, but human life, as such.
The life of every murdered man, the life of every child
that is run over in our streets, the life of every laborer
who falls a victim to the crude and penurious appointments of his employer, the life of every stoker who
perishes in doing the bidding of an incompetent engineer,
the life of every traveller who is precipitated over a cliff
by an intoxicated stage-driver, the lives of all those
passengers who are swept into eternity by railroad and
steamboat disasters,-every one of them was of " untold
value." Had they died a natural death, the same spectacle would, with many of them, have been presented,
which occurred in your dwelling. And even had there
been none to mourn for them, as you have mourned,
their lives would have had the same inherent value, and
death would have been the same unutterable evil. I do
not mean to say that all lives are of equal value; but I
mean, that in any and all cases, life derives its paramount value from the vital principle itself, not from its
concomitants and circumstances. These are as diversified as men's talents and relations, their employments
and conditions; and they affect the relative importance
of different lives; but this is very subordinate to the
intrinsic value attached to the vital principle, which
they hold as a common possession. The great, irreparable, universal evil which death involves, is, not that
it strips men of their adventitious distinctions; not, even,
that it dissolves the tenderest earthly relations; but
that it extinguishes the principle of life.  In so far as
this world is concerned, the man ceases to be.   It is as 
26
though he had never been.   This embosoms all minor
evils; and we do well to consider those evils, in estimating the extent of the calamity.   It is proper to
embrace in our survey, the whole field of a man's relations and duties, his endowments, his occupation, his
possessions, his family, his influence, all the hopes and
all the interests that were bound up in his life, and all1
the losses and trials that are incident to his untimely
death.
And here, if the time would permit, it might be pertinent to show, that every instance of death caused by
design or by criminal carelessness, is no less a flagrant
assault upon the righets of society, than the greatest of all
possible wrongs (in so far as this world is concerned) to
the individual; but I waive all reference to the politicoeconomical aspects of the question, to advert, for a
moment, to a still higher and more pregnant view of its
personal bearings.
It is impossible to frame any suitable conception of
the value of life, or of the criminality of abridging its
duration, without viewing man as an immortal being.
The moment this idea is admitted into the inquiry, it
overshadows everything else. The pains of dissolution,
the pang of parting, the blighted hopes, the sorrows of
widowhood and orphanage, the destruction of the vital
spark, and whatever of grief and woe we may be accustomed to associate with the name of death considered
simply as a temporal event-all becomes insignificant
when we think of its future issues. It is the dismission
of an individual from time into eternity. It is the send
h,  
ing him to the bar of his Maker.   It is a terminating of
all his opportunities for repentance and reformation. He
is, thenceforth, done with the Bible and the throne of
grace, with Sabbaths and sermons, with offers of pardon
and tenders of reconciliation, with the Saviour's invitations and the Spirit's strivings,-all these are finished.
HIe goes to appear before the " great white throne," and
to receive his award of everlasting life, or of shame and
everlasting contempt.
The responsibility of producing this change in the
situation of a fellow-being, is tremendous. Words are as
inadequate to define it, as they are to describe the change
itself. But this is the responsibility of the wilful homicide, and, in his measure, of every one who causes death
by sinful improvidence or presumption.   If it were felt
as it should be, life would not be so often sacrificed to
passion and to folly. But it is not felt. This is a view
of death which scarcely enters into the popular conception of it, as connected with these too familiar casualties.
The record runs, that so many persons have been killed,
or so many drowned, or so many burned to death in a
steamboat. But how few there are who enter at all into
the full import of such an announcement; who, though not
insensible to its minor relations and mere secular bearings, are mainly impressed with it as a record, that so
many accountable beings, some or all of them, possibly,
" Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd,"
have been dismissed in the twinkling of an eye, into
the presence of a holy God! To every believer in
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28
Christianity, it is this consideration which must impress
upon death its deepest solemnity, and upon life its
highest value.  Let it be lodged effectually in the public conscience, and interlaced, as it deserves to be, with
all the ligaments of the social fabric, and human life,
from being cast out as a thing of nought, will have the
whole community keeping watch over it with sleepless
and affectionate vigilance.
I have spoken of death (in the modes so frequently
mentioned in this discourse) as being the greatest wrong
which can be inflicted upon the individual and upon
society.  It only remains to be said, that it is a most
daring and wicked invasion of tihe Divine preroyative.
There is nothing over which the Deity has reserved
to himself a more implicit control than life and death.
" The Lord killeth and maketh alive; he bringeth down
to the grave and bringeth up."' I kill and I make
alive; I wound and I heal." As He alone can give life,
so no creature may take it away without His permission.
The wilful destruction of it, He has not only forbidden
in the decalogue, but marked with His special abhorrence, by requiring every murderer to be put to death.
And, as if to set forth in a yet more emphatic way, His
estimate of the sacredness of life, and of the enormity of
extinguishing it, he required even the involuntary homicide, among the Hebrews, to be tried; and if proved
innocent, he was still treated as a quasi-prisoner, and
prohibited, on pain of death, from quitting the city of
refuge during the life of the high-priest.  If further
proof were wanting of the value He sets upon life, it 
29
offers itself to us on every side, in the various and inexhaustible provision He has made for its nurture and protection; in the antidotes He has prepared to the diseases
sin has introduced; and above all, in the infinite love
He has displayed towards our race in sending His beloved Son into the world to redeem us.
These are all His mercies. We are responsible to
Him for the use we make of them.  It is for Him to
say how long, and under what circumstances, we shall
enjoy them.  Upon  our  conduct here, "everlasting
things" are suspended. This is our probation; heaven
and hell hang upon it. Nor is this all. We are so implicated with one another, that we are all helping to
determine each other's characters and destiny. Our life
or death may seriously affect, for good or ill, the welfare
of a nation, or the prosperity of the church. Nay, we
are even allowed to say, that the glory of God Himself,
the ever-blessed and incomprehensible Jehovah, may
have some connexion with our longer or shorter continuance here.
These are sublime interests, if earth has any interests
which can be called sublime. And the more they are
pondered, the more apparent will it become that God
must retain the power of life and death in His own
hands; that it would be a surrender of His prerogative
to transfer it to His creatures. Yet this august prerogative is usurped by every murderer; and it is virtually
impugned by every one whose recklessness precipitates
a fellow-man into eternity. The most solemn and
eventful thing which occurs in this world, is, the termi
I..-.:
XX.e
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30
zatingq a nai's p)robation.  This is a proper function of
the Deity. It would be safe in no other hands. But
multitudes dare to seize and wield it as if they were
heaven's vicegerents. They would shrink from laying
the weight of a finger upon the lever which guides a
piece of massive enginery. But they have no proper
horror of the inadvertence or the passionate impulse
which may prove the instrument of destroying the wondrous mechanism of the human frame, and sending its
terror-stricken tenant to the judgment-seat without a
moment's warning. Whatever else may be understood,
there is no just sense of the temerity of cutting short
the probation of a being whose life, if extended to fourscore years and ten, would be brief enough for the great
work to be accomplished here. And, perhaps, the most
serious and startling view which can be taken of this
revolting indifference to the value of life, is, the irreverence and impiety involved in it. It is not simply an
irreparable injury to the victim, and an aggravated
wrong to society, but a direct assault upon the moral
government of God-an  audacious arrogating of His
sovereignty. In this aspect, it is not to be "lamented"
merely, but to be abhorred. The community which
tolerates this low appreciation of life, is chargeable not
simply with a defective civilization, but with deep criminality. The guilt of a most aggravated and inexcusable
sin lies at its door; and every member of that community who is not exerting himself for its removal, is,
in some degree, responsible for its existence.
We are called upon, then, as a nation, to wash our
.... 
31
hands of this great iniquity.  HIumanity and piety unite
their remonstrances, and bid us stay this effusion of
innocent blood. Victims enough have been sacrificed.
Families enough have been shrouded in mourning. But
for our remissness, peradventure, useful lives might have
been spared, and many a household might have found
this a festival of joy, to whom it is now only a memento
of their bereavements.
Undoubtedly it is a difficult task which we have to
accomplish. It is hard to revolutionize the habits of a
people, but much harder to change their principles; and
it has well-nigh become a principle with this nation, that
human life is a possession of but trivial value. But the
work is not hopeless, and, by the blessing of God, it
can be achieved. The reformation must begin where
the evil has originated in the nursery. Our children
must be governed as well as instructed. Filial reverence
must take the place of filial insubordination. Our systems
of education must be so modified, as to lay more restraint
upon the passions, to inculcate the sinfulness of revenge
and of all ungoverned tempers, and to inspire a profound
veneration for human life. The pulpit must seek to
imbue the public mind with more enlightened and
scriptural views of this momentous subject. The press
must lend its potential influence to the same beneficent
reform.   The legislatures must manifest their appreciation of life, by throwing around it every possible
defence.   The courts must enforce the laws, as well
against fatal carelessness, as against deliberate murder,
with inflexible firmness and rectitude.   And  execu 
tive magistrates must forbear the too frequent display of
that well-meant but mistaken lenity, which so often
defeats the ends of justice, and secures the immunity of
criminals at the cost of the public safety.
Let these and other kindred agencies be brought to
bear upon this subject, and with the favor of a benignant
Providence, human life in the United States, may be
restored to the sphere for which the Creator designed it,
and become, once more, a SACRED THING.
THE END.
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