With respects ot A. II. ItlTI.IAH'K. 
 
 A 
 
 S E R M 0 N 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 (feeeutibe anti fegislatibe Departments 
 
 OF THE 
 
 OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ANNUAL ELECTION 
 
 WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6 , 1864 . 
 
 BY 
 
 W M . A . STEARNS, I) . D . 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WHIG H T & POTTER, STATE F R I N T E R S , 
 No. 4 Spring Lane. 
 
 1 8 6 4 . 
 
/ 
 
A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 
 fecntibe anfr legislative departments 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 ANNUAL ELECTION, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, Jan. 6, 1864. 
 
 BY 
 
 W M. A. STEARNS, D. D. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, 
 No. 4 Spring Lane. 
 
 1 8 6 4 . 
 
9 
 
 73 . 7 
 
 Ju 
 
 \ 
 
 ) 
 
 
 House of Representatives, State House, ) 
 Boston, January 12,1864. ) 
 
 Dear Sir, —Pursuant to an Order, unanimously adopted, the undersigned were 
 appointed a Committee to present to you the thanks of the House for your able and 
 instructive Discourse, delivered before the Government of the Commonwealth on the 
 6th inst., and to request a copy of the same for the press. 
 
 It gives us pleasure to communicate to you the action of the House, and we trust it 
 will be both agreeable and convenient for you to comply with the request at an 
 early day. 
 
 Most respectfully yours, 
 
 M. S. UNDERWOOD, 
 JOSEPH ALLEN, 
 CHARLES BEECHER, 
 
 Committee. 
 
 To the Rev. Pres. Stearns, Amherst, Mass. 
 
 Amherst College, January 18, 1864. 
 
 Gentlemen,— Your note of January 12th, requesting, in behalf of “the House of 
 Representatives,” a copy of the Sermon recently preached “before the Government 
 of the Commonwealth,” came duly to hand. Have the goodness to express my 
 acknowledgments to that honorable body, and inform them that a copy of the 
 Discourse is at their disposal. 
 
 Respectfully and truly, I am, gentlemen, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 W. A. STEARNS. 
 
 Messrs. M. S. Underwood, Joseph Allen and Charles Beecher. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates 
 
 https://archive.org/details/sermondeliveredbOOstea 
 
House of Representatives, January 23, 1864. 
 
 The Committee on Printing, to whom was referred the Order from the Special 
 Committee on the Election Sermon of Rev. Prof. Stearns, of Amherst, providing for 
 the printing of five thousand copies thereof, have considered the same, and report 
 that, in their opinion, the importance of the topics so ably discussed by one w r ho has 
 been called by the casualties of war to endure a most painful sacrifice, the extraor¬ 
 dinary interest felt by the people of the Commonwealth in the principles involved, 
 and the desirableness of a wide dissemination of the patriotic sentiments inculcated 
 therein, fully justify the printing of the extra number of copies proposed. 
 
 They therefore recommend that said Order, as reported, be adopted by the House 
 
 For the Committee, 
 
 CHAS. W. PALFRAY, Chairman. 
 
 House of Representatives, January 21,1864. 
 
 Ordered, That five thousand copies of the Discourse delivered by the Rev. Dr. 
 Stearns before the Executive and Legislative Departments of the State Govern¬ 
 ment, on the 6th inst., be printed for the use of the Legislature. 
 
 W. S. ROBINSON, Clerk. 
 
1 
 
SERMON. 
 
 2 Samuel, x. 12. 
 
 BE OF GOOD COURAGE, AND LET US PLAY THE MEN FOR OUR PEOPLE, AND FOR 
 THE CITIES OF OUR GOD: AND THE LORD DO THAT WHICH SEEMETH HIM 
 GOOD. 
 
 Thank God we have still a country. We have a 
 country which treason, rebellion and the opinion of 
 foreign nations notwithstanding, gives at this moment 
 brighter promise of perpetuity and ultimate noble¬ 
 ness, than it has given for a quarter of a century 
 before; a country whose prospects, compared even 
 with a year ago, are as the broad-breaking dawn to 
 the dark night of tempest which preceded it. The 
 steadily waning power of the rebellion ; the remark¬ 
 able contraction of the area which it dominates; the 
 great victories which electrified the country in mid¬ 
 summer, and those which have recently crowned our 
 arms; the marked progress which has been secured 
 in the military measures of emancipation, and the 
 improved sentiment and intelligence of the people 
 
8 
 
 in reference to that much abused race who are the 
 innocent occasion of this strife; the change which 
 has taken place in some foreign nations, from adverse 
 dispositions and acts towards a real neutrality, if 
 not co-operative sympathy; the trial and growing 
 strength of the Constitution, evincing its wisdom and 
 power in proportion to the strains which are put 
 upon it; the new confidence inspired in our repub¬ 
 lican governments by the calmness and strength 
 with which they have put down domestic insubordi¬ 
 nation and executed wholesome laws ; the manifesta¬ 
 tion of suppressed patriotism in seceded States, and 
 of the returning loyalty of thousands, perhaps 
 millions, whom the rebellion had swept into its 
 frightful vortex; the healthful condition of our 
 public finances and the wonderful prosperity of the 
 loyal people generally, together with their ever¬ 
 growing determination to maintain the integrity of 
 the nation, however great may be the sacrifices, 
 and however protracted the struggle;—all these 
 facts and considerations are adapted to inspire us 
 with courage, and call out our gratitude. On this 
 early day of January, 1864, at this first assembling 
 again of the legislature of our honored Common¬ 
 wealth, it is right and becoming that we express 
 our united thanks to Almighty God for his goodness, 
 
9 
 
 and greet one another with a courageous “ Happy 
 new year.” 
 
 But though gratitude and courage are seemly, 
 we have no time for glorying—hardly time for 
 rejoicing. We must address ourselves to more 
 serious thoughts and undertakings. When the life 
 of a nation is at hazard; when political earthquake 
 has shaken the government and its foundations are 
 still trembling; when hundreds of thousands of 
 peaceful citizens, summoned from their occupations, 
 are marching everywhere in military array; when 
 precious blood is flowing, and aceldemas spot the 
 land, and homes are draped in mourning, and tears 
 are dropping, and all hearts are throbbing with 
 anxieties;—solemn thinking and earnest working 
 demand our attention; nor can I properly select any 
 subject for consideration on an occasion like the 
 present, not connected with the condition of the 
 times, and the circumstances in which we are 
 placed. 
 
 It will be the business of the hour to reflect on 
 some of the problems of social prosperity, and 
 especially to inquire what we can do to defend, 
 perpetuate, and enlarge the life of the nation. 
 
 First of all, we must prosecute this terrible war 
 to its righteous results. The rebellion must be 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 put down. It must be put down, if there were no 
 other reasons for it, because it is rebellion. Govern¬ 
 ment is a nullity so far as it is impotent against or 
 tolerates rebellion. Would any of the great Powers 
 of the earth—would England, or France, or Russia, 
 for any cause — tolerate rebellion within their 
 dominions 1 And shall we for no cause X Never. 
 
 But what we call rebellion, the insurgents call 
 secession, and justify as a right. There is no such 
 right. Secession has no foundation to rest upon. 
 Its assumed basis is the idea of independent 
 sovereignty in the States. But no State ever had 
 such sovereignty; no, not for a moment. From 
 the beginning, and always, the States have been 
 clusters of population, suspended from and nourished 
 by some common vine. Originally they were British 
 dependencies. The Declaration of Independence 
 was not the declaration of separate colonies, but 
 of a National Congress, which represented the colo¬ 
 nies and expressed their unity. The 44 Articles of 
 Confederation” adopted in 1781, were not the terms 
 of an original league, so much as the principles of 
 a union already existing. They declared, however, 
 the unity to be perpetual , and they confirmed the 
 declaration by irrevocable conditions, especially by 
 the surrender and acceptance of territories, for 
 
11 
 
 the general good. When it came to be known, 
 through the tests of experience, that the written 
 compact intended to express and strengthen the 
 pre-existing union was operating rather to limit its 
 power and hinder its usefulness, the nation set itself 
 to the construction of a National Constitution. It 
 was framed and adopted by “ the people of the 
 United States,” and was intended not to originate 
 a union, but to make the existing union more 
 intelligible and more perfect. When adopted, it 
 was adopted not merely by the States as States, but 
 more expressly by “ the people ” of the States as a 
 people. It gave, expressed and everywhere implied, 
 all the powers requisite for its perpetuity, and none 
 whatever for its destruction. From that day the 
 nation’s life has been a constitutional and inviolable 
 unity. As a unity, it has not only carried on the 
 usual operations of government, but it has purchased 
 territory, and conquered territory, and annexed ter¬ 
 ritory, and divided territory into new States, and 
 admitted States, and been a Body “joined together 
 and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, 
 making increase unto the edifying of itself.” Nor, 
 whatever may be said of disturbing elements always 
 within it, is there a nation on the face of the earth 
 whose parts have so intergrown, complicated them- 
 
12 
 
 selves with each other, and compacted themselves 
 into one as our own. Secession, then, is rebellion, 
 and rebellion must be put down. 
 
 It is not necessary to present a further reason for 
 overthrowing it. But it is well to keep always before 
 us the consequences which would follow from its 
 triumph. We should not only admit a principle of 
 national disintegration into the body politic, and 
 introduce years, perhaps centuries, of anarchy, shame 
 and misery, but we should suffer a terrible and odious 
 despotism to rise and domineer at our side. This 
 fact has not yet been sufficiently pondered. A 
 Southern confederacy, were it possible for such a 
 monstrosity to exist, from the character of its popu¬ 
 lation and the nature of its institutions, as well as the 
 disposition of its leaders, would be a great war- 
 power on our borders. It would consist chiefly of 
 three principal estates:—an oligarchy of large slave¬ 
 holders ; a great working class of African bondmen, 
 indefinitely increased by the foreign slave-trade; and 
 a vast standing army, constituted chiefly of what are 
 now called “ poor whites.” Such an army would be 
 necessary. It would be necessary to keep down the 
 slaves; to defend a mighty wrong against the adverse 
 sentiment and action of the civilized world; to make 
 aggressions upon neighboring territory, for slavery, 
 
13 
 
 like the “ daughters of the horse-leech,” will forever 
 “ cry, give, give ; ” and dually, as a standing menace 
 and power of violence against any free State or 
 nation around it. The material of the army must 
 be what I have described; for it is available, and 
 adapted to the purpose, and there is no other position 
 for it in a slaveholding confederacy. The poor 
 whites in such a community, too proud and too 
 indolent to labor, too ignorant and impotent to rule, 
 without schools, without the functions of high citizen¬ 
 ship, without the means of bettering their condition 
 which the working classes of the North possess, 
 would become soldiers. They would be the great 
 fighting class of the South ; and the great and only 
 great fighting class, as a class, on the continent. 
 We are addicted to the arts of peace, and, though we 
 can fight and have fought with indomitable courage 
 and persistency, our employments and our tastes 
 dispose us to peace. But should a Southern confed¬ 
 eracy, by any possibility, be established, we should 
 be compelled to fight in self-defence, and that too 
 from generation to generation, until it should be 
 destroyed, or we ourselves go under. 
 
 Some imagine that the rebellion needs coaxing 
 and compromising, and that then it will subside. 
 We coaxed it and compromised with it before it 
 
14 
 
 fairly broke out. We almost gave up our manli¬ 
 ness to appease it. But it never would down. Our 
 alternative is submission to its extremest demands, 
 the degradation of ourselves and our posterity, the 
 surrender of our birthrights of freedom, or its subjec¬ 
 tion by force. What has any Northern man to 
 expect from its success, from giving it any measure 
 of sympathy, from withholding denunciation, from 
 keeping back the sword? We may or may not 
 sympathize with a particular administration, we may 
 or may not approve of all its acts and policies, we 
 may belong to this school of politics or to that; we 
 may even believe that the terrible issue now upon 
 us, by wiser counsels might have been avoided ; but 
 circumstances being as they are, what have any of us 
 to hope for in the triumph of the rebellion, or of the 
 principles which sustain it? We may crouch and 
 fawn before it, but it will despise us. We may 
 betray our country to it, as Iscariot sold his Master, 
 but when, in remorse, we throw down the price of 
 blood, the response will be, “ What is that to us ? ” 
 and we shall have no alternative but the shame 
 and despair of him who went away and hanged 
 himself. Apologies for treason, irresolution, half¬ 
 way measures, soft words, are all just now out of 
 place. What we need is blows, and hard blows> 
 
15 
 
 and blows all the time, till rebellion submits itself. 
 Would you have even the respect of the enemies of 
 your country, you must conquer them. Nay, would 
 you have a country, you must conquer its enemies. 
 
 Foreign nations may cry out against us, and profess 
 to be shocked by the terribleness of this war, as 
 though their own histories were immaculate, and 
 they were not at this moment drawing the sword. 
 But they know as well as we, that if we are not 
 the most degenerate and the meanest of the nations, 
 we shall prosecute this war to a righteous close. 
 Let treason and mad ambition rend us asunder, when 
 sacrifices and efforts might have saved us, and their 
 own future historians would write of us, that in 
 an age when Italy, “ the land of political earthquakes 
 and volcanoes,” after desperate struggles, rose in 
 power and bound itself into the unity of a mighty 
 people, America, the freest, the happiest, the basest 
 of the nations, went down ingloriously, and was 
 buried in imbecility and shame. No, God helping 
 us, we shall perform our terrible duty; we shall 
 triumph; freedom fought out for man will triumph; 
 humanity will triumph; and a multitude of the 
 heavenly host will praise God again, and cry, “ Glory 
 to God in the highest, for on earth there is peace 
 and good-will towards men.” 
 
16 
 
 We must, in the next place, take higher views 
 of the value of a nation, and especially of our own 
 nation, than was common among us before the 
 war. What is a nation? It is a great community 
 of people, held together by common bonds, under 
 one government, and compacted into a living organic 
 whole. It is distinguished by its unity in one body 
 politic from other communities of people, organized 
 and held together among themselves in a similar 
 way. The diversity of races and interests; the 
 number and character of populations ; configuration 
 of the earth’s surface, divided as it is by seas, and 
 continents, and mountains and rivers, with that 
 depravity and selfishness of man which induces the 
 larger and stronger communities to oppress the 
 weaker,—make divisions into nations a necessity. 
 Human necessities are Divine decrees. What natural 
 theology thus teaches, revealed religion confirms. 
 There is a King of kings, and an administration 
 above administrations. “ The Lord is governor 
 among the nations.” “ The Most High divideth 
 to the nations their inheritance.” “ He hath made 
 of one blood all nations, and hath determined the 
 bounds of their habitation.” A nation is thus a 
 vast and divinely-quickened organism—a million- 
 handed and million-hearted life—everywhere sensi- 
 
17 
 
 tive, everywhere throbbing with vitality. It wraps 
 up in its own being the most precious interests of 
 the human race. It inspheres and protects great 
 histories, examples, ideas, principles; the ashes of 
 ancestors, monuments of by-gone days ; the activities 
 of great populations,—in cities, in towns, in villages, 
 —thronging in masses, scattered in solitudes, covering 
 banks of rivers, spreading up the sides of mountains 
 and down along the shores and harbors of the ever- 
 sounding sea; the germs, too, of coming growths 
 and the welfare of hundreds of millions thronging 
 upon our imagination from the future. Institutions, 
 churches, schools, homes, souls more than can be 
 numbered, are involved in its destiny. It comes 
 down from the past, and is the offspring of the 
 centuries. It looks towards the future, and is 
 fraught with good or ill to unborn generations. It 
 has relations to all the other organized populations 
 of the earth. It is one of the family of great 
 organic lives, which divide among them and possess 
 the globe. Its prosperity throws sunshine into 
 countless homes; its adversity blights the hopes 
 and joys of vast communities. Millions tremble 
 when it is agitated; millions stagger with faintness 
 when it is heavily struck; and when it falls, its 
 dying groans sometimes terrify all the habitations 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 of men. Whoever strikes at a nation strikes at 
 an immense life, involving immense interests, and 
 he that lifts a parricidal arm against it, commits a 
 crime, the enormity of which can be measured only 
 by infinities. 
 
 What greater study, then, for statesmen and 
 patriots than the study of nations ? We should 
 study them in their rise, in their greatness, in their 
 fall. We should study their organizations, their 
 weaknesses, their powers ; we should study their 
 convulsions and their revolutions, their relations to 
 contemporaries, their position in the world’s progress, 
 their special missions for mankind, and their contri¬ 
 butions to human advancement. We should study 
 them in their relations to Him, who, in the faith 
 of all Christendom, is the centre of human history, 
 and towards the glory of whose kingdom all that 
 went before was preparing, and all that follows 
 will contribute. 
 
 Especially should American citizens study their 
 own nation. They should study and comprehend 
 it. They should comprehend the nation in its 
 history, in its institutions, in its industries, in its 
 sections and prejudices, in its spirit and tendencies, 
 in its resources and capacities, in its geographical 
 conformations, in its dangers. They should compre- 
 
19 
 
 hend the nation, as one among the great family 
 of nations, and as belonging to the present period 
 of the world’s life. They should comprehend' the 
 stars in their individualities, and in their relations to 
 each other, and in the unity of the constellation 
 which inshrines them. They should honor the nation 
 as one of those great public lives which cannot be 
 destroyed or injured, without imperilling the welfare 
 of millions. They should love the nation, not only 
 as philanthropists and patriots, but as members of 
 a vast fraternity, embarked in the same ship of State, 
 with their affections, and hopes, and interests all on 
 board. They should sacredly perform their duties to 
 the nation as its citizens, and, by consultations, by 
 the honest expression of opinions and reasons, 
 by suffrage, by administration when called to it, 
 strengthen and adorn it. They should esteem it 
 honorable to live for the nation—more honorable, 
 if necessary, to die for the nation. 
 
 We must also take higher views of civil govern¬ 
 ment, especially of the importance of our own 
 government as adapted to us. Government is the 
 principle of order, so enforced that the movements 
 of the many shall be harmonized, and the best 
 good of the individual and of the whole secured. 
 
20 
 
 In this respect, it resembles gravitation, by which 
 Deity directs the onrushing spheres through their 
 myriad orbits, prevents collisions and saves creation 
 from the return of chaos. 
 
 Government has its foundation in the perfections 
 of God—especially in those eternal laAvs of right by 
 which He would direct the conduct of men in their 
 relations to each other, and in that goodness of the 
 common Father, which seeks the welfare of all. 
 Government is made necessary to men by the circum¬ 
 stances in which they are placed. Necessities are 
 divine. Government is therefore of divine origin, 
 and a divine ordinance. The old dogma, “ the 
 divine right of kings,” is only a perversion of 
 the divine right, or rather, the divine duty of 
 government. God ordained it. Order is alike 
 the law of His being, and a condition of 
 human happiness. In the lofty language of Mil- 
 ton, “ He that hath read with judgment of 
 nations and commonwealths, of cities and camps, 
 of peace and war, sea and land, will agree that 
 the flourishing and decaying of all human societies, 
 all the moments and turning of human occasions 
 are moved to and fro upon the axle of discipline. 
 Yea, the angels themselves, in whom no discord 
 is feared, as the apostle who saw them in his rapture 
 
21 
 
 describes, are distinguished and quarternioned into 
 their celestial princedoms and satrapies, according 
 as God himself has writ his imperial decrees 
 through the great provinces of heaven.” 
 
 Government, then, is not designed for the advan¬ 
 tage of one or a few over others, but for the good 
 of all. It was not only ordained by Him who is alike 
 the Father of all, but for men who are alike His 
 offspring, and brethren of each other. Nor is there 
 any reason why, in this great family of children, 
 one should assume to crowd down another and exalt 
 himself. I would not say that if the one or the few 
 were pre-eminent in wisdom and goodness, and would 
 wield power for the benefit of all, it might not be 
 desirable to place it in their hands. Nor would I 
 say that all men are in all respects equal; they 
 are not. But it is the right of all alike that govern¬ 
 ment should be wielded for their benefit, and that 
 each should have equal privileges with others, modi¬ 
 fied only by the necessity of the circumstances in 
 which they are placed. 
 
 What, then, is that form of government which 
 God has ordained for man? Some will expect me 
 to say at once—the democratic or republican form. 
 That is not my answer. I believe in republics, but 
 it follows from the principles laid down, that the 
 
22 
 
 normal form of government for a given people is that 
 which is best adapted to promote most impartially 
 the highest good of the individual and the whole. 
 It may be a patriarchate, autocracy, oligarchy, limited 
 monarchy, or limited democracy, or some mixed 
 form; if it is best adapted to the good of a people, 
 and been established, it is the form divinely ordained 
 for them. Why need we, as Americans, contend 
 with England, France or Russia as to their modes of 
 government, till we have settled the question that 
 democracy would make them each a better, happier, 
 wiser nation l What is best for one community 
 might not be for another. It is not certain that any 
 of the great nations of Europe are yet capable of 
 self-government. Besides, existing governments can 
 rarely be changed without revolutions. Revolutions 
 are evils, though in exceptional cases they may 
 ultimate in good. Hence that principle of inter¬ 
 national law as well as Christianity, that “ the powers 
 that be are ordained of God; ” and hence the 
 apostle’s exhortation “ to pray for kings and for all 
 that are in authority, that we may lead quiet and 
 peaceable lives in godliness and honesty.” 
 
 And yet I hesitate not to say, that for communities 
 which are capable of it, a republican or representa¬ 
 tive government is the divinely ordered form. The 
 
23 
 
 rational natures of men, their common paternity, 
 their brotherhood, make it evident. 
 
 But the logical consequence of this position, 
 some will say, is democracy, not republicanism. 
 By no means. If all were absolutely equal, conve¬ 
 nience would still demand representation. But when, 
 as matter of fact, there are diversities of ability and 
 adaptation to govern, should not a wise people 
 appoint its best qualified men to the management 
 of its affairs ? And what is this but delegated self= 
 government ? and what is delegated self-government 
 but republicanism ? 
 
 Consider now our government as approximating 
 the best standard. It is representative throughout. 
 It derives all its powers in all its departments, directly 
 or indirectly from the people, and restores those 
 powers, after limited periods, to the people again. 
 The completeness with which the representative 
 principle is carried out distinguishes our American 
 constitutions both from the ancient democracies and 
 the freest monarchies of modern times. Nothing 
 can be better in theory , if the people are equal to 
 it in practice. 
 
 Our republicanism, also, is the result of intelli¬ 
 gence and virtue, illumined by thousands of years 
 of political experiment. The course of progress 
 
24 
 
 among the historical nations has always been from 
 the Orient westward. The civilization of Europe 
 is far higher than the civilization of Asia. And 
 the advance nations of Europe, at this day, are 
 those which approach nearest in locality to America. 
 It was not till antiquity had perished, and mediaeval 
 centuries had rolled away, that our western continent 
 was revealed. Meanwhile, He who appoints the 
 bounds of human habitations, was preparing a people 
 to settle it. In the new world, every thing was 
 new. The germ of its institutions was started under 
 providential necessities, in the Mayflower, as she 
 ploughed her perilous way through the Atlantic 
 towards unpromising landing-places on this side 
 the deep. Very early in New England, and to some 
 extent at the South, the two great problems of our 
 civilization offered themselves for discussion;—the 
 proper forms of government for the Church, and 
 the proper forms of government for the State. 
 These questions were investigated by free and 
 superior minds, in communities untrammelled by 
 the past, and under circumstances most favorable to 
 their solution. The question of the Church was 
 settled first; the question of the State, illumined 
 by that of the Church, hastened on to a similar con¬ 
 clusion. The result was civil and religious liberty. 
 
25 
 
 When the British yoke was broken, the spirit, habits 
 and necessities of the people determined the method 
 of their local institutions, while a Divine Providence, 
 signally manifested, in a course of overruling events, 
 constrained the formation of a national government. 
 The Convention which constructed the Constitution 
 was composed of remarkable men. They were 
 selected from the peerage of the race. Washington, 
 Hamilton, Franklin, Randolph and their associates, 
 constituted an assemblage which for wisdom and 
 patriotism was never equalled. In high appreciation 
 of their difficulties and responsibilities, they bowed 
 reverently before the Father of lights, praying daily 
 that He would 44 illuminate their understandings,” 
 confessing that 44 God governs in the affairs of men, 
 and that if a sparrow cannot fall without his notice, 
 an empire cannot rise without his aid.” The political 
 fabric they erected, its approval by the people, 
 and the peaceful revolution which established its 
 supremacy, can be regarded by the Christian states¬ 
 man familiar with those perilous times, only with 
 adoring wonder and gratitude. Taking all the 
 circumstances into consideration, it was a stupen¬ 
 dous, not to say miraculous success. Not that the 
 Constitution was perfect; perfection does not belong 
 to the finite. But it is difficult even now to see 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 how so many and such conflicting interests could 
 have been harmonized on any principles or compro¬ 
 mises essentially different. Nor can I doubt that on 
 the whole, it had the Divine sanction. God is 
 eminently practical in His administrations. In His 
 management of great communities, the best conceiv¬ 
 able gives place to the best practicable. As human 
 activities enter into His plans, He seems to consider 
 circumstances, opinions, customs and prejudices even, 
 as facts, and to deal with them accordingly. Hence 
 He often tolerates and regulates what, in the abstract, 
 He never approves. On this principle, I believe our 
 Constitution the best which the whole nation could 
 bear, and had it been administered always in its 
 spirit and design, the nation, as such, would have 
 escaped the judgments of Heaven, though some 
 of the States might have suffered for great evils 
 embodied in them. As it is, though corruption 
 has bred civil pestilence, though political depravity 
 has outrun horsemen, though a monstrous ambition 
 has defied the heavens, and hands black with perjury 
 have grasped the pillars of the State to overthrow it, 
 I believe that no government on the globe is better 
 fitted, not only for the happiness of its subjects 
 generally, but to put down rebellion and work out 
 
27 
 
 those terrible problems which are rocking the 
 nation. 
 
 Let us, then, accept our own government and 
 sustain it. Constructed by men who knew how to 
 avail themselves of the experience of all ages, formed 
 in the vast and free spaces of a new country where 
 no antiquated corruptions had grown into it, adopted 
 by a population which had struggled up into freedom 
 against hereditary prestige and oppression, and, 
 outgrowing the period of colonial pupilage, had 
 achieved independence, it was a government for 
 the people. If any of the chief fathers of the 
 Revolution had the smallest leaning towards mon¬ 
 archy, every one of them agreed that nothing but 
 republicanism was desirable, was possible for 
 America. The republican spirit has been gaining 
 strength for generations. The masses will die for 
 it. Let no man suggest a monarchy for us. An 
 extreme democracy is an American possibility ; so, 
 perhaps, is a military despotism; but not a constitu¬ 
 tional monarchy. The materials for it are wanting. 
 We have neither the great wealth of an aristocratic 
 clergy, nor the “ immense interests of a secular 
 nobility” to sustain it. The British constitution for 
 England, the emperor for France, if you please, but 
 Europe should know, above all we ourselves should 
 
28 
 
 know, that republican institutions are not only the 
 highest forms of government, but to us they are 
 necessities. 
 
 Let the American people, as well as statesmen, 
 study the government. We should study it in our 
 colleges and common schools, and by our firesides, 
 as well as in Congress and our legislatures. We 
 should study government in its broadest principles, 
 and its application to nations, but most of all the 
 government under which, as free citizens, we are 
 sheltered. 
 
 There is one lesson respecting government which 
 we need most of all to learn, and that is obedience . 
 Obedience to government because it is government. 
 The proper ground of obedience to law is not 
 ordinarily its reasonableness, or its equity, but its 
 imposition by rightful authority. This doctrine had 
 always been accepted in the army, in the navy, and 
 to some extent in our merchant ships; the nature 
 of the service in these cases made the necessity of it 
 obvious. But in our pulpits, our schools, our homes, 
 and our political teachings, the ideas of rightful 
 authority and unquestioning obedience were becom¬ 
 ing obsolete. Men were learning to reason about 
 laws, as though the question of obedience should 
 turn, not on the fact of then: being laws, but on their 
 
29 
 
 propriety. A doctrine of nullification, according to 
 private judgment, was surreptitiously creeping in. 
 It was undermining the foundations of our civil 
 government, North as well as South, and the idea 
 of government as government was passing away. 
 
 The times demand a higher teaching. Insist on 
 abstract right, as eloquently as you will, but let 
 government be paramount in its sphere. A constitu¬ 
 tional government should be absolute within the 
 limits of the constitution, and the extent of those 
 limits is not a question for private judgment, but 
 for the public tribunals. The quality of badness 
 in laws is a reason for changing, not for disobeying 
 them. All laws are to be obeyed while they are 
 laws. Governments take the moral as well as the 
 political responsibilities of administration upon them¬ 
 selves. Private responsibility is satisfied, when the 
 individual, by his suffrage and the full power of his 
 influence, has done his duty as a citizen. If there 
 are extreme cases which justify rebellion,—and I 
 do not deny that there may be,—they are only such 
 extremes as strengthen the rule, and are to be dealt 
 with as extremes and exceptions, and not elevated 
 into principles. Conscience, to be sure, must have 
 supremacy; but the supremacy of an enlightened 
 conscience requires obedience to the laws. An 
 
30 
 
 enlightened conscience will teach that it is right 
 to do some things in obedience to law which it 
 would not be right to do, if there were no law. Let 
 extraordinary cases, like that of Daniel when idolatry 
 was law, like the old martyrs when blasphemy was 
 law, be excepted; but any general setting up of 
 private judgments against authorized tribunals would 
 destroy law, and introduce anarchy and destruction. 
 Our human instincts, if unperverted, recognize and 
 demand the supremacy of government. Men fly 
 from anarchy to despotism for the sake of it. We 
 ourselves, when for a time it seemed as if we had 
 no government, began to estimate aright the miseries 
 into which we were plunging. And when, at length, 
 the voice of legitimate authority came thundering 
 forth from the Capitol, nineteen millions recognized 
 it as authority, and sent up a great shout of exulta¬ 
 tion. From that moment, the entire people began 
 to have new conceptions of government. Obedience 
 was accepted as a duty, and loyalty became a virtue. 
 From this vantage-ground, we must re-establish the 
 authority of government. While we sacredly guard 
 all the liberties of the people, we must show them 
 that liberty is not license—that in human as well 
 as in the Divine government, perfect liberty is found 
 only in the line of obedience to rightful authority. 
 
31 
 
 And the rising as well as the risen generation must 
 be made to understand the meaning of that almost 
 obsolete imperative, obey. 
 
 We must take higher views than heretofore of the 
 office and importance of military organizations in 
 sustaining free governments, and that not only during 
 the present war but in coming years. We have made 
 great mistakes both in theory and practice on this 
 subject. Our custom of business, our peace-loving 
 dispositions, our geographical position at a distance 
 from the warlike nations, our sentiment and habit 
 of protest against military ambition and despotic 
 violence, our philanthropy, our Christianity wrongly 
 interpreted, all helped to lead us astray. Force, 
 constraint, punishment were put at discount. The 
 idea of justice went down before that of a mistaken 
 benevolence. The soldier belonged to history or to 
 foreign tyrannies, or to some national gala-day, or 
 vanity fair. Love, persuasion, moral influences 
 were the motive powers to lift society. I have no 
 word against peace. I believe in peace. I believe 
 in the apostolic exhortation, “ If it be possible, as 
 much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men.” 
 Infinitely beautiful is the sentiment of mercy. But 
 the attribute of justice, if it should seem less 
 
32 
 
 amiable to any, is no less to be reverenced. 
 Justice is at the foundation of the moral order of 
 the universe. Practical truth is often the resultant 
 of extreme, conflicting theoretical principles. It is 
 found, in this case, not in justice alone, nor in mercy 
 alone, but where “ mercy and truth meet together, 
 and righteousness and peace embrace each other.” 
 
 Let us applaud the disposition for peace. Persua¬ 
 sion is admirable, but the moral universe is not 
 constructed on that principle alone. As in nature, 
 so it is in revelation. He who wept over Jerusalem, 
 denounced desolation upon it, and the gospel which 
 records, “ Blessed are the peacemakers,” commends 
 civil government “ as the terror of evil doers.” 
 
 So far had our peace principles carried us, that 
 when the war broke out we were almost as defence¬ 
 less as children. And even now, I suppose, that 
 out of our great cities, there is scarcely a community 
 in Massachusetts which could protect itself from an 
 insurrection. God forbid that any necessity should 
 make of us a military, much more, a war-loving 
 nation. But we must have a different practice and 
 a different teaching on the questions of self-defence. 
 Innocence is not sufficient for protection. Imbecility 
 invites aggression. Christians must be men, citizens 
 must be soldiers, magistrates must bear the sword, 
 
33 
 
 and bear it not in vain. Let the schools, let the 
 churches teach justice, then, as well as benevolence, 
 —nay, teach justice as the highest form of benevo¬ 
 lence. Let the young men be taught, let the govern¬ 
 ment arm and train them, to uphold justice. Law, 
 order must be sustained. Rebellion, anarchy, vio¬ 
 lence put down. Let the soldier look upon himself 
 not as his country’s mercenary; not as the mere 
 circumstance and ornament of authority ; not, most 
 of all, as a great public murderer; but as an officer 
 of justice called by God and his country to the high 
 duty of sustaining government, and by his own 
 strong heart and hand, protecting the welfare of the 
 people—his mission that of a destroying angel, who, 
 though destroying, is an angel still. 
 
 We must also gather up the lessons of the times, 
 and forward the purposes of Providence as revealed 
 in them. We read the lessons and learn the pur¬ 
 poses in results already attained or foretokened, and 
 in the necessities brought clearly to view. What 
 has the war done for us ? It has developed in all 
 our free States an intense and almost universal 
 patriotism. It has set forth the idea and stimulated 
 the sentiment of loyalty. It has brought up the 
 notion of government as such, and begun to 
 
 6 
 
34 
 
 enthrone it again on the hearts of the people. It 
 has put appropriate honor upon the eternal attribute 
 of justice and shown the importance of penalty, both 
 human and divine. It has given a death-blow to 
 that mawkish philanthropy which expended its 
 unhealthful sympathies, not in punishing crime and 
 protecting innocence, but in sheltering criminals 
 from retribution, and which was emasculating the 
 people of all manliness and moral power. It has 
 settled the question of the great strength of repub¬ 
 lican governments. It has given the people an 
 unbounded confidence in free institutions. It has 
 taught self-sacrifice, and that there is something 
 to live for outside of self. It has taught patience, 
 moderation, persistency in the right under discour¬ 
 agements, and self-possession under calumny. It 
 has taught self-knowledge, and helped to remove 
 something of an immense conceit from the popular 
 head. It has taught humility, and impressed the 
 old belief that God governs the nations. It has 
 taught one doctrine, partially, and but partially, 
 understood before—the Divine abhorrence of slavery. 
 While it was practiced as a necessity ; while it was 
 allowed as an evil and a wrong, as soon as possible 
 to be corrected,—the Judge of all men looked on 
 with forbearance, and seemed to require us to do 
 
35 
 
 the same. But when it came to be accepted as 
 64 the fundamental doctrine of civilization,” the 
 normal basis of free institutions ; when ministers 
 of the gospel had come to declare it right, and good 
 and desirable—a God-blessed arrangement, revealed 
 in the sacred Scriptures, and to be defended by 
 them; when Christian men joined in the shout, 
 slavery everywhere and slavery forever;—then the 
 heavens began to thunder. From that day it was 
 manifest, as Mr. Jefferson said, that 44 there is no 
 attribute in the character of God which can take 
 sides with it; ” from that day it began to be apparent 
 that the time of visitation had come. The war 
 also has taught respecting slavery, that never again 
 must this great republican government be wielded 
 for its extension and perpetuity. Never again must 
 its unchristianizing and uncivilizing influences be 
 allowed to predominate on this continent. The war 
 is terrible. But the war has taught us—waged as 
 it is on one part to crush the slaveholders’ conspiracy 
 and to put down the slaveholders’ rebellion, a con¬ 
 spiracy and a rebellion started and carried on against 
 any limitation of that accursed institution which has 
 been the cause of all our troubles from the beginning 
 —never to ask, never to suffer a peace, till slavery 
 has received a blow which will insure its destruction, 
 
36 
 
 in time. That dark spirit of evil—it has breathed 
 moral pestilence over the land, and plotted the 
 destruction of all freedom in it. Not satisfied with 
 perverting justice, corrupting the people, making 
 us ashamed before the world, it struck at the govern¬ 
 ment, it rent the nation, it insulted our flag, it 
 slaughtered our sons, and as God is true, it shall 
 never he forgiven. Let it go down, peacefully if 
 it may, in blood and fire if it must. 
 
 Meanwhile, you have no call to rashness. I would 
 be the last man to encourage that reckless spirit 
 which overrides compacts and violates oaths of office. 
 Though regarding slavery with abhorrence, and 
 always praying for its overthrow, I have been 
 accustomed to feel that its continued existence was 
 not the special responsibility of the free States; 
 that it could not be directly assailed by our govern¬ 
 ment without violation, of the Constitution, and 
 such rivers of blood as are now flowing among us. 
 And still I say, let the pledges of the Constitution, 
 whether expressed or implied, be maintained till 
 they are constitutionally amended. All that ought 
 to be done, can be done, is doing by the civil or the 
 military power which the Constitution affords. God 
 is in the heavens. 44 He that believeth shall not 
 make haste.” When His time comes, we shall 
 
37 
 
 know it. Opinions, inspirations of the public heart, 
 circumstances which no mortal man can bend, will 
 reveal it. Meanwhile, events are disclosing the 
 Divine intentions. Eighteen months ago, in a public 
 discourse, I had the honor to say: “We can see 
 the hands on the horologe of the centuries passing 
 up to the hour when the doom of slavery is to be 
 struck.” Since these words were uttered, from the 
 great clock of human history has the awful peal 
 rung out, and while the sound echoes and re-echoes 
 over the country and reverberates among the nations, 
 the angels of destiny have put down the record— 
 the death-blow of slavery and rebellion, in the year 
 of time, January 1st, 1863. 
 
 I was intending to speak also of a duty which now 
 is, and soon will be more strongly upon us, viz.: 
 the duty of our statesmen and citizens to assist in 
 forming the character of the nation. We live in 
 an age of the world when there is opportunity for a 
 new kind of national eminence and power. Which¬ 
 ever of the great nations would distinguish itself before 
 the world, for magnanimity and justice in all its 
 foreign relations, so as deservedly to secure the 
 confidence of mankind, might not only obtain the 
 smiles of Providence, and become the noblest of 
 
38 
 
 nations in itself, but have a real though moral 
 supremacy over them all. If any here may have 
 been predestined to a higher statesmanship than 
 that to which most of us have yet attained, I would 
 ask them to remember this among the observations 
 of the hour, and do something to lift the government 
 they may help to administer out of the miserable 
 duplicities and circumventions of diplomacy; out 
 of that spirit of quick resentment and imperious, 
 not to say insulting demand, which provokes and 
 predisposes to war, and bring it to conduct like an 
 open, honorable, fair-minded man. AVhy should not 
 an intelligent republic, conscious of greatness, stand 
 more on its dignity? Why should we be so easily 
 exasperated by opprobrium from abroad? Let 
 the jealous or the ill-natured say what they will, 
 self-possession and repose become a people w 7 ho 
 understand their position. Call not these ideas chim¬ 
 erical. If virtue and moderation are elements of 
 greatness in individuals, so they are in nations. If it 
 is difficult to quarrel with a strong, magnanimous, 
 just and kindly man, so it would be difficult for any 
 hostile power to quarrel or officiously intermeddle 
 with a nation of such characteristics. Look at our 
 own condition. There is a power in this land hardly 
 second to that of an immense army. It is the wis- 
 
39 
 
 dom and honesty, and the reputation of it inspiring 
 confidence at home and abroad, which belong to 
 the character of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 I hasten to one remaining topic. It will be our 
 special duty as republican patriots, to educate the 
 people. The importance of education is confessed. 
 But public sentiment, on this subject, is still incom¬ 
 mensurate with the urgencies of the case. Whoever 
 observes the ignorance, obscenity, profaneness which 
 the drag-net of a popular enrolment sometimes 
 collects, has materials enough for political despair. 
 But still lower down, if possible, are those terrible 
 populations which in periods of insurrectionary 
 excitement sometimes rise to view. The remedy 
 is not despotism, but education. Mere utilitarianism 
 demands it. Education excites to enterprise. Enter¬ 
 prise furnishes bread, and bread helps contentment. 
 We boast of our culture ; and many a poor man 
 is a nobleman. But can you not find voters in almost 
 every town, and sometimes by the hundred, whose 
 ignorance and passion fit them better for the violences 
 of the mob than for the responsibilities of citizens \ 
 Not natural disposition so much as lack of advantages 
 has been their bane. Let them, at least let their 
 children, be educated. Compulsory education, where 
 
40 
 
 compulsion is needed, is alike a charity and a law 
 of liberty. Let them be taught the rudiments in 
 schools, always remembering, however, that reading 
 and writing are not all. Knowledge is well, but 
 wisdom is better. Right motives must be inculcated, 
 and right feelings inspired. Our youth must be 
 habituated to reflection, self-control, and the exercise 
 of judgment. The virtues of industry, frugality, 
 public spirit and justice ; the sentiments of honor, 
 self-respect and kindness ; the duties of loyalty to 
 government and obedience to the laws, and the 
 greatness of living and dying for country,—should 
 be enforced upon them. They should be taught 
 reverence—in which democracies are proverbially 
 deficient—and that true dignity which is an attribute 
 of good character, in the humblest as well as in 
 the highest. The moral nature should be specially 
 cultivated, conscientiousness should be developed, 
 and a regard for truth and honesty made laws of 
 life. 
 
 I am proud for what the old Bay State has been 
 doing for her youth, from the beginning. I am 
 proud of a Commonwealth which inserted in her 
 Bill of Rights, almost a century ago, such a sentence 
 as this: “A constant adherence to the principles 
 of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry 
 
41 
 
 and frugality, are absolutely necessary to preserve 
 the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free 
 government; ” and which recognizes all these virtues 
 in her Constitution, and requires the elected rulers 
 to bestow them, through education, upon the people. 
 I am proud to be the citizen of a State which 
 expends money so liberally upon her schools, 
 which appreciates her university and her colleges as 
 fountains of liberty and fortresses of defence. I 
 would gladly speak with honor of those truly great 
 men among us,—benefactors of the race,—who, 
 uniting high character with property, have so liber¬ 
 ally cultivated good learning, and established endow¬ 
 ments for the promotion of knowledge and virtue 
 in the present and coming generations. But we 
 have no time for commendations. There is work 
 to be done. The grandeur of Massachusetts will 
 
 \ 
 
 never rest on the extent of her domains. If 
 knowledge is power, her influence will increase in 
 proportion as she educates her people. 
 
 This education must be given to the country. It 
 
 must be given not only in schools and colleges, but 
 
 through every possible way of influence; through 
 
 wise and liberal legislation; by sermons, lectures, 
 
 addresses, speeches; by newspaper articles, reviews, 
 
 and the varied powers of the press; by home 
 6 
 
42 
 
 instruction and by Sabbath schools. Educated men 
 must educate others. Those who are up must lift 
 up those who are down. God has placed some on 
 eminences, not to glorify themselves on the heights, 
 but to raise others to their sides. Socrates among 
 the ancients, and Dr. Arnold in our times, are 
 examples for us. There is but one brighter than 
 these in history, and that is the Great Teacher. He 
 sympathized with the masses, and associated with 
 them to elevate them. We must do the same. We 
 are all of one family , and we have our choice to 
 make the humbler members of it good and respect¬ 
 able, or live annoyed by their ignorance, and imper¬ 
 illed and perhaps ruined by their want of principle. 
 Christ chose the former alternative. He came down 
 to men, that He might lift them up by his religion. 
 Christianity, while it saves and blesses all who 
 believe, especially regards and elevates the masses. 
 
 And this brings me to say emphatically, and what 
 is among the deepest convictions of my heart, that 
 you cannot educate a people for high citizenship 
 without religion. Look over the earth; Christian 
 nations tower like mountains above others, and those 
 are highest in which Christianity has most power. 
 But I will dwell here only on one point. In order 
 to a moderate religious influence in a community, 
 
43 
 
 there must be an immense religious power in portions 
 of it. A cool inculcation of Christian moralities 
 upon the mass, is not enough; there must be enthu¬ 
 siasm somewhere. The rivers will dry up when 
 the rains are stayed, unless there are. fountains to 
 feed them. So if you would influence communities 
 by religious motives, you must be assisted by those 
 deep experiences in many persons which belong to 
 the highest types of godliness. The patriot who 
 thinks he can educate the people in schools, without 
 the churches; the Christian who thinks that the 
 churches can be powerful without an intense 
 Christian life among some of its members,—have 
 never learned the laws of influence. As in every 
 human being there must be a strongly pulsating 
 heart in order to vigor in the limbs, so there must 
 be vast numbers of devoted Christian people—a 
 strong central religious life—if you would have a 
 general religious life, or expect to restrain and 
 guide a community by a sense of religion. 
 
 Not only as a Christian minister, but as a patriot, 
 I would urge on all good citizens the wisdom of 
 encouraging an earnest Christianity, in all the 
 religious denominations of the State. This sentence 
 from the Farewell Address of the Father of his 
 Country should never be forgotten: “ Whatever 
 
44 
 
 may be conceded to the influence of refined educa¬ 
 tion on minds of peculiar structure, reason and 
 experience both forbid us to expect that national 
 morality may prevail in exclusion of religious 
 principle.” 
 
 To His Excellency the Governor, I respectfully 
 turn, with confident assurance that by him, and 
 the distinguished gentlemen immediately associated 
 with him, the leading sentiments of this discourse 
 will not be disowned. The patriotism, the patronage 
 of education, the energy, and most of all the 
 humanity which mark the administration of the 
 preceding year, add strength to our faith when 
 we pray, God save the Commonwealth of Massa¬ 
 chusetts.” 
 
 Gentlemen, Legislators of the Commonwealth, I 
 cannot lose this opportunity of commending to your 
 regard the interests of our country, though it may 
 be sufficiently dear to you. Patriotism is a charac¬ 
 teristic of noble minds. The rustic Bard of Ayr 
 turned aside his weeding-plough and spared the 
 rough burr-thistle “ for dear old Scotia’s sake ”— 
 and one far greater than bard or statesman wept 
 for his country, when he foretold the evils which 
 
45 
 
 were coming upon it. And shall not the American 
 citizen love his native land ? 
 
 “ Land where our fathers died, 
 
 Land of the Pilgrims’ pride, 
 
 Sweet land of Liberty.” 
 
 Some among us have thought it pleasant and 
 becoming to die for it; shall not we who survive 
 most earnestly live for it ? As you look upon your 
 country, “ the strong staves broken and the beautiful 
 rods,” let me say to each of you, gentlemen, in 
 higher words than human, “ Behold thy mother.” 
 She asks the help of her sons. Of you, among 
 the chosen rulers, she asks wisdom in legislation, 
 integrity of intention, patriotism, devotiion. “ Be 
 of good courage, and let us play the men for our 
 people and for the cities of our God,” and His 
 providence will smile upon us. The war will be 
 brought to a righteous close. Liberty and law will 
 be established, and we may hope for the time when 
 the whole nation will become what Milton said a 
 Commonwealth ought to be—“ One huge Christian 
 
 PERSONAGE, ONE MIGHTY GROWTH AND STATURE OF AN 
 HONEST MAN.” 
 

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