Yale University Library

39002001204685

'^'^'i'
YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

SPEECHES,

LECTURES, Al^D LETTERS.

-.€f«*v

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SPEECHES,

CTURES, AND LETTERS.

WENDELL PHILLIPS.

Boston :
JAMES REDPATH, Publisher,
221 Washington Street.
1863.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
WENDELL PHILLIPS,
in the Clerk's Oflace of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.

SECOND EDITION.

University Press:
Welch, Bigelow, and Compant,
Cambridge.

PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT.

THESE Speeches and Lectures have been collected
into a volume at the earnest and repeated requests
of the personal friends and the followers of Mr. PhiUips.
In committing them to the Publisher, he v^rote : —
" I sei^d you about one half of my speeches which have
been reported during the last ten years. Put them into
a volume, if you think it worth while. Four or five of
them ('Idols,' 'The Election,' 'Mobs and Education,'
'Disunion,' 'Progress,') were delivered in such circum
stances as made it proper I should set down before
hand, substantially, what I had to say. The preserva
tion of the rest you owe to phonography ; and most of
them to the unequalled skill and accuracy, which almost
eveiy New England speaker living can attest, of my
friend, J. M. W. Yerrinton. The first speech, relating to
the murder of Lovejoy, was reported by B. F. Hallett,
Esq. As these reports were made for some daily or
weekly paper, I had little time for correction. Giving
them such yerbal revision as the interval allowed, I left
the substance and shape unchanged. They will serve,
therefore, at least, as a contribution to the history of our
Antislavery struggle, and especially as a specimen of the

iv PUBLISHER'S ADVERTISEMENT.
method and spirit of that movement vsrhich takes its name
from my illustrious friend, William Llotd Gaeeison."
The only liberty the Pubhsher has taken with these
materials has been to reinsert the expressions of approba
tion and disapprobation on the part of the audience, which
Mr. Phillips had erased, and to add one or two notes from
the newspapers of the day. This was done because they
were deemed a part of the antislavery history of the times,
and interesting, therefore, to every one who shall read
this book, — not now only, but when, its temporary pur
pose having been accomplished by the triumph of the
principles it advocates, it shall be studied as an Ameri
can classic, and as a worthy memorial of one of the ablest
and purest patriots of New England.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
.The Mukder op Lovejoy . . . .1
¦ Woman's Rights . . . 11
Public Opinion . . . . . 35
SUKKENDEK OF SlMS . . ... 55 "
Sims Anniversary . . . . . . . 71"
Philosophy of the Abolition Movement . . . HS'
Removal of Judge Loring . ... 134'
-The Boston Mob . . . 213
The Pilgrims . . . 228
Letter to Judge Shaw and President Walker . .237
Idols . .... 242
¦ Harper's Perry ... . 263
^Burial of John Browi* .... 28.i
"Lincoln's Election ... . 294
¦ Mobs and Education  . 31U
¦-Disunion . . .... . 343
Progress .  371
Under the Flag .... .... 396
The War for the Union .... . 415
• The Cabinet  .448
Letter to the Tribune ... ... 464
-Totr^sAiNT l'Ouvbrture  • 468
A Metropolitan Police  • 495
-The State of thb Country  524

THE MURDER OF LOYEJOY.

On November 7, 1837, Eev. E. P. Lovejoy was shot by a mob at Alton,
Illinois, while attempting to defend his printing-press from destruction. \
When this was known in Boston, William EUery Channing headed a
petition to the Mayor and Aldermen, asking the use of Faneuil Hall
for a public meeting. The request was refused. Dr. Channing then
addressed a very impressive letter to his fellow-citizens, which resulted
in a meeting of influential gentleman at the Old Court Koom. Keso-
lutions, drawn by Hon. B. F. Hallett, were unanimously adopted, and
measures taken to secure a much larger number of names to the peti
tion. This call the Mayor and Aldermen obeyed.
The meeting was held on the 8th of December, and organized, with
the Hon. Jonathan Phillips for Chairman.
Dr. Channing made a brief and eloquent address. Kesolutions,
drawn by him, were then read and offered by Mr. Hallett, and sec
onded in an able speech by George S. Hillard, Esq.
The Hon. James T. Austin, Attorney-General of the Commonwealth,
followed in a speech of the utmost bitterness, styled by the Boston
Atlas a few days after "most able and triumphant." He compared
the slaves to a menagerie of wild beasts, and the rioters at Alton to
the "orderly mob" which threw the tea overboard in 1773, — talked
of the " conflict of laws " between Missouri and Elinois, — declared
that Lovejoy was " presumptuous and imprudent," and " died as the
fool dieth " ; in direct and most insulting reference to Dr. Chan
ning, he asserted that a clergyman with a gun in his hand, or one
" mingling in the debates of a popular assembly, was marvellously
out of place."
The speech of the Attorney-General produced great excitement
t; 'Mghout the Hall. Wendell Phillips, Esq., who had not expected

2 ' THE MUEDEK OF LOVEJOY.
to take part in the meeting, rose to r. ply. That portion of the assem
bly which sympathized with Mr. Austin now became so boisterous, that
Mr. Phillips had difficulty for a while in getting the attention of the
audience.

M^

— We have met for the freest dis
cussion of these resolutions, and the events which
gave rise to them. [Cries of " Question," " Hear him,"
" Go on," " No gagging," etc.] I hope I shall be per
mitted to express my surprise at the sentiments of the last
speaker, — surprise not only at such sentiments from such
a man, but at the applause they have received within these
walls. A comparison has been drawn between the events
of the Revolution and the tragedy at Alton. "We have
heard it asserted here, in Faneuil Hall, that Great Britain
had a right to tax the Colonies, and we have heard the
mob at Alton, the drunken murderers of Lovejoy, com
pared to those patriot fathers who threw the tea over
board ! [Great applause.] Fellow-citizens, is this Faneuil
Hall doctrine ? ["No, no."] Thejnob at Alton wp.rp rnpt
to wrest from a citizenjiis justrights, — met to resist the
laws. We have been told that our fathers did the same :
and the glorious mantle of_E.e3zalutiflnarY precedent hf,^L
hQsa-ihxQvm over the_jiixib%^our_da^ To make out
their title to such defence, the gentleman 'says that the
British Parliament had a right to tax these Colonies. It is
manifest that, without this, his parallel falls to the ground ;
for Lovejoy had stationed himself within constitutional bul
warks. He was not--OBly-defen(ling-tlT<»--fa^^:aai:t)._nf _tb£„
press, butjie_was' under Jiis owruroof, in arms with the
sanction oTthe civil authority. The men who assailed
him went againsL-an4-ever-4he-Jaws"." TFe" jno&^~as "the
gentleman terms it, — mob, forsooth! certainly W sons
of the tea-spillers are a marvellously patient generationV -,

THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOT. 3
the " orderly mob " which assembled in the, Old South to
destroy the tea were met to resist, not the Jases, but illegal^
enactions. Shame on the American who calls the tea-tax
and stamp-act laws ! Our fathersresisted, not the King^
prerogative, but the King^s usurpation^ TcTfind any other
account, you must read our Revolutionary history upside
dovtTi. Our State archives are loaded with arguments of
John Adams to prove the taxes laid by the British Parha-
ment unconstitutional, — beyond its power. It was not
till this was made'out that the men of New England rushed
to arms. The arguments of the Council Chamber and the
House of Representatives preceded and sanctioned the
contest. Tojlraw the conduct of-jgur— a.ncestors int(^F
precedent for mobs, for a right to resist. Jaws-we-Xmrselve^'
have^enacted, is an insult_to,ilieir-jaie-mory.'^ The differ
ence between the excitements of those days and our own,
which the gentleman in kindness to the latter has over
looked, is simply this : the_HieiL_of that day went for the
right, as secflmi_byi_the laws. They_were the people
rising to sustain the laws and constitution of the Province.
The rioters of QU£_day go for their own wills, right or
wrongj. Sir, when I heard the gentleman lay down prin^
ciples which place the murderers of Alton side by side
with Otis and Hancock, with Quincy and Adams, Ij
thought those pictured lips [pointing to the portraits in
the Hall] would have broken into voice to rebuke the
recreant American, — the slanderer of the dead. [Great
applause and counter applause.] The gentleman said that
he should sink into insignificance if he dared to gainsay
the principles of these resolutions. ^(Sir,^for the sentimaois-
he has utteyed, on soil consecrated_bxlIi£_pra;^a£s of Puri-
tans and the blood of patriots, the earth should have
yawned and swallowed him up. ' ~~-
[Applause and hisses, with cries of " Take that back." The uproar
became so great that for a long time no one could be heard. At length

4 THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY.
the Hon. William Sturgis came to Mr. Phillips's side at the front of the
platform. He was met with cries of " Phillips or nobody," " Make him
take back ' recreant,' " " He sha'n't go on till he takes it back." When
it was understood that Mr. Sturgis meant to sustain, not to interrupt,
Mr. Phillips, he was listened to, and said : " I did not come here to
take any part in this discussion, nor do I intend to ; but I do entreat
you, fellow-citizens, by everything you hold sacred, — I conjure you
by every association connected with this Hall, consecrated by our
fathers to freedom of discussion, — that you listen to every man who
addresses you in a decorous manner.'' Mr. Phillips resumed.]
Fellow-citizens, I cannot take back my words. Surely
the Attorney-General, so long and well known here, needs
not the aid of your hisses against one so young as I am, —
my voice never before heard within these walls !
Another ground has been taken to excuse the mob, and
throw doubt and discredit on the conduct of Lovejoy and
his associates. Allusion has been_jnade to whaLiawjZBrs
understaiid very well, — the " conflict of laws." We are
told that nothing but the Mississippi River rolls between
St. Louis and Alton ; and the conflict of laws somehow or
other gives the citizens of the former a right to find fault
with the defender of the press for publishing his opinions
so near their limits. Will the gentleman venture that
argument before lawyers ? How the laws of the two
States could be said to come into conflict in such circum
stances I question whether any lawyer in this audience
can explain or understand. No matter whether the line
that divides one sovereign State from another be an im
aginary one or ocean-wide, the moment you cross it the
State you leave is blotted out of existence, so far as you
are concerned. The Czar might as well claim to control
tlie_d£liberations of Faneuil Hall, a.aJ-.W.-U-wc-H^-ji^igg^^i
demand reverence, or thf. shadow of obedience, fivmi_an
inhabitant of Illinois.
1 must find some fault with the statement which has
been made of the events at Alton. It has been asked

THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY. 5
why Lovejoy and his friends did not appeal to the execu
tive, — trust their defence to the police of the city. It has
been hinted that, from hasty and ill-judged excitement, the
men within the building provoked a quarrel, and that he
fell in the course of it, one mob resisting another. Recol
lect, Sir, that they did act with the approbation and sanction
of the Mayor. In strict truth, there was no executive to
ajDpeal to for protection.' TheTIaybr acknowledgeqLihat
he could not protect them. They asked him if it was
lawful for them to defend themselves. He told them^it
was, and sanctioned their assembling in arms to do so.
They were not, then, a mob ; they were not merely citizens
defending their own property ; they were in some sense
the posse co?mtatm, adopted for the occasion into the police
of the city, acting under the order of a magistrate. It
was civil _authority resisting lawless violence. Where,
then, was the imprudence ? Is the-^'ctrine to be sus-
tainedhere, that it is imprudent for men to aid magis
trates in executing the, laws ?
Men are continually asking each other. Had Loyejox-a.
right_to_resist ? Sir, I protest against the question, instead
of answering it. Lovejoy did not resist, in the sense they
mean. He did not throw himself back on the natural right
of self-defence. He did not cry anarchy, and let slip the
dogs of civil war, careless of the horrors which would follow.
Sir, as I understand this affair, it was not an individual
protecting his property ; it was not one body of armed men
resisting another, and making the streets of a peaceful city
run blood with their contentions. It did not bring back the
scenes in some old Italian cities, where family met family,
and faction met faction, and mutually trampled the laws
under foot. No ; the men iri that house were regulaijx
enrolled, under the sanction of the Mayor. There being no
militia in Alton, about seventy men were enrolled with the
approbation of the Mayor. These relieved each other every

6 THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY.
other night. About thirty men were in arms on the night
of the sixth, when the press was landed. The next even
ing, it was not thought necessary to summon more than
half that number; among these was Lovejoy. Jt was,
therefore, you perceive, Sir^jhejpolice of the city resisting
rioters, -^;^ciyiLgavemmeat breasting itself to the shock-of
lawless men.
¦ — Hgj^^inV^j^riestion about the righi nf self-defence. It
is infact simply this : Has the civil magistrate a right to
put_doffin_a-ciot ?
Some persons seem to imagine that anarchy existed at
.Alton from the commencement of these disputes. Not at
jail. " No one of us," says an eyewitness and a comrade
of Lovejoy, " has taken up arms during these disturbances
ut at the command of the Mayor." Anarchy did not
ettle down on that devoted city till Lovejoy breathed
is last. Till then the law, represented in his person,
sustained itself against its foes. WJisilJib— fell, civil
lauthority was trampled under foot. He had " pknted
himself on his constitutional rights," — appealed totEe
lawiT-— claimedTlhejrotecti^ —
talten refrige under " the broad shield of the Constitu-
jtion. When through that he was pierced and fell, he fell
jpiinme sufferer in a common catastrophe." _He took
efuge under the banner of libertyj^^i^amid its folds : and .
h£n-iie-&li54ts-^lorieus--sta*s--and_sJmpeSijth^^ of
ee institutbnSj^TOuncLghicT^ cluster so many heart-stir-
|ing memories, jpre Hnttfid Qut in thp martyr'.^ bl'>"d.
/It has been stated, perhaps madvertently, that Lovejoy
v6r his comrades fired first. This is denied by those who
have the best means of knowing. Guns ffiar£ first fired_._
by thejnob. After being twice fired on, those within the
building consulted together and deliberately returned the
fire. But suppose they did fire first. They had a right
so to do ; not only the right which every citizen has to

' THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY. T
defend himself, but the further right whiA every civil
officer has to resist violence. Even if Lovejoy fired the
first gun, it would not lessen his claim to our sympathy, or
destroy his title to be considered a martyr in defence of a
free press. The question now is. Did he act within the
Constitution and the laws ? The men who fell in State
Street on the 5th of March, 1770, did more than Lovejoy
is charged with. They were the first assailants. Upon
some slight quarrel they pelted the troops with every mis
sile withui reach. Did this bate one jot of the eulogy
with which Hancock and Warren hallowed their mem
ory, hailing them as the first martyrs in the cause of
American liberty ?
If, Sir, I had adopted what are called Peace principles, I
might lament the circumstances of this case. But all you
who believe, as I do, in the right and duty of magistrates
to execute the laws, join with me and brand as base hypoc
risy the conduct of those who assemble year after year on
the 4th of July, to fight over the battles of the Revolution,
and yet " damn with faint praise," or load with obloquy,
the memory of this man, who shed his blood in defence
of life, liberty, property, and the freedom of the press ! |
Thynnghnnt that terrible night I J.rd nnthing tn regrpt
hut_thisj_that within the limits of our country, civil author-/
ity should have been soprostrated as to oblige a citizen^tj

arm in his own defence, and to arm in vain. The gentl
man says Lovejoy was presumptuous and imprudent, — lie
" died as the fool dieth." And a reverend ^ergvman of
the city * teUs us thatji£jcitizenjlias_ajright to publis

~3jsagreeable to the community ! If any r
follows such publication, on him rests its guilt ! He vav^i '
wait, forsooth, tUl the people come up to it and agree with
* See Rev. Hubbard Winslow's discom-se on Liberty ! in which he defines
" republicaji liberty " to be " liberty to say and do what the prevailing voice
and will of the brotherhood will allow and protect. "

8 THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY.
j him ! This lobel on liberty goes on to say that the want
iof right to speak as we think is an evil inseparable from
trepublican institutions ! If this be so, what are they
worth ? Welcome the despotism_a£- tlie__Sjxltani__where_
one knows what he may publish and what he may not.
rather than thejfcyranny of this -many-heade^-measteft -the
mob, where we know not what we may do or say, till
some fellow-citizen has tried it, and paid for the lesson
iwithhis_liffi  This clerical abanrdity-ch-ooses-as-a-chack
for the abuses of the press, not the law, but the dread of
a mob. By_so doingtJL_deprives not only the individual
and the minority of their rights, but the majority also,
)|since the expression of their opinion may sometimes pro-
(yoke disturbance from the minority. A few men may
m£ke a mob as well as many. The majority, then, have
no right, as Christian men, to utter their sentiments, if by
any possibility it may lead to a mob ! Shades of Hugh '
Peters and John Cotton, save us from such pulpits ! •
li Imprudent to defend the liberty of the press ! Why j*
pecause the defence was unsuccessful ? Does success
gild crime into patriotism^ and the w.a.nt of it change
heroic self-devotiofi to imprudence ? Was Hampden im
prudent when he "drew the sword and threw away the
scabbard ? Yet he, judged by that smgle hour, was un-
successfiil. After a short exile, the race, he hated sat
again upon the throne.
Imagine yourself present when the first news of Bunker
Hill battle reached a New England town. The tale would
have run thus : " The patriots are routed, — the red
coats victorious, — Warren lies dead upon the field." With
what scorn would that Tory have been received, who
should have charged Warren with imprudence ! who should
have said that, bred a physician, he was " out of place " in
that battle, and " died as the fool dieth " ! [Great applause.]
How would the intimation have been received, that War-

THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY. 9
ren and his associates should have waited a better time ?
But if success be indeed the only criterion of prudence,
Respice finem, — wait till the end.
Presumptuous to assert the fi'eedom of the press on
American groundl is the assertion of such freedom be
fore the age ? So much before the age as to leave one no
right to make it because it displeases the community ?
Who invents this libel on his country ? It is this very
thing which entitles Lovejoy to greater praise. .The dis-

puted right wliich_ provoked the Revolution — taxatioi|

without representation — is far beneath that for which he

died;__[Here there was a strong and general expressior
of disapprobation.] One word, gentlemen. As much ai

thought is better than money, so much is the cause <iT '

which Lovejoy died nobler thap a, mere question of taxes

James Otis thundered in this Hall when the King die
but touch his pocket. Imagine, if you can, his indignanl|
eloquence, had England offered to put a gag upon his
lips. [Great applause.]
The question that stirred the Revolution touche'd our
civil interests. This concerns us not only as citizens, but
as immortal beings. Wrapped up in its fate, saved or lost
with it, are not only the voice of the statesman, but the
instructions of the pulpit, and the progress of our faith. .^
The clergy " marvellously out of place " where free
speech is battled for, — Hberty of speech on national sins ?
Does the gentleman remember that freedom to preach was
first gained, dragging in its train freedom to print ? I thank
the clergy here present, as I reverence their predecessors,
who did not so far forget their country in their immediate
profession as to deem it duty to separate themselves from
the struggle of '76, — the Mayhews and Coopers, who re
membered they were citizens before they were clergymen.
]\Ir. Chairman, from the bottom of my he^rt T thank that
brave little bandat^Alton for resisting. We must remem-

10 THE MUEDEE OF LOVEJOY.
her that Lovejoy had fled from city to -city. — suffer. ^
the^e struction of three presses patiently. At length I ]
took counsel with friends, men of character, of tried intejg
lfity71)rwide views, of Christian principle. They though
l(he crisis had come : it was fall tinie to assert the laws.
rhey saw around them, not a community like our own, of
(fixed habits, of character moulded and settled, but one "in
the gristle, not yet hardened into the bone of manhood."
The people there, childreA of our older States, seem to have
-jrgotten the blood- tried principles of their fathers the
KOment tney lost sight of our New England hUls. Some-
thjflj;-waa_kLbe_done to show them the priceless value ^f
the freedom of the press, tojjring back and set right their
wandering and confused ideas. He^and his advisers looke^d
put on a community, staggering like H, dmnken iTignjJndjf-
ferentto their rights an'^ fnnfiigprl in tlipjr fep]iTi^S;__pQ3f
to argument, haply they might be stunned into sobriety,
irEey'saw that^ which we cannot judge, the^necessitt/ of
resistance. Insulted law called for it. Public opinion,
fast hastening on the downward course, must be arrested.
Does not the event show they judged rightly? Ab-
sorbeJ in 'aT'thousaiid trifles, "how has the nation all at
once come to a stand ? Men begin, as in 1776 and 1640,
to discuss principles, to weigh characters, to find out where
;nfey are. Haply we may awake before we are borne
over the precipice.
I am glad. Sir, to see this crowded house. It is good
for us to be here. When Liberty is in danger, Faneuil
pBall has the right, it is her duty, to strike the key-note
for these United States. I am glad, for one reason, that
Itemarks such as those to which I have alluded have been
uttered h^-e. The passage of these resolutions, in spite
of this opposition, led by the Attorney-General of the
Commonwealth, will show more clearly, more decisively,
the deep indignation with which Boston regards this
outrage.

WOMAN'S RIGHTS

Tms speech was made at a Convention held at Worcester, on the
15th and 16th of October, 1851, upon the following resolutions, which
were offered by Mr. Phillips : —
" 1. Resolved, That, while we would not undervalue other methods,
the right of suffrage for women is, in our opinion, the corner-stone
of this enterprise, since we do not seek to protect woman, but rather
to place her in a position to protect herself.
" 2. Resolved, That it will be woman's fault if, the ballot once in her
hand, all the barbarous, demoralizing, and unequal laws relating to
marriage and property do not speedily vanish from the statute-book ;
and while we acknowledge that the hope of a share in the higher pro
fessions and profitable employments of society is one of the strongest
motives to intellectual culture, we know, also, that an interest in
political questions is an equally powerful stimulus ; and we see, beside,
that we do our best to insure education to an individual, when we put
the ballot into his hands; it being so clearly the interest of the com
munity that one upon whose decisions depend its welfare and safety
should both have free access to the best means of education, and be
urged to make use of them.
•' 3. Resolved, That we do not feel called upon to assert or establish
the ecjuality of the sexes, in an intellectual or any other point of view.
It is enough for our argument that natural and political justice, and
the axioms of English and American liberty, alike determine that
rights and burdens, taxation and representation, should be co
extensive ; hence women, as individual cit!izens, liable to punishment
for acts which the laws call criminal, or to b'e taxed in their labor and
property for the support of government, have a self-evide^iit and indis
putable right, identically the same right that men have, to a direct
voice in the enactment of those laws and tlie formation of that govern
ment. " 4. Resolved, That the democrat, or reformer, who denies suffrage to

12 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
women, is a democrat only because he was not born a noble, and one
of those levellers who are willing to level only down to themselves.
" 5. Resolved, That while political and natural justice accord civil
equality to woman ; while great thinkers of every age, from Plato to
Condorcet and Mill, have supported their claim; while voluntary
associations, religious and secular, have been organized on this basis, —
there is yet a favorite argument against it, that no political community
or nation ever existed in which women have not been in a state of
political inferiority. But, in reply, we remind our opponents that the
same fact has been alleged, with equal truth, in favor of slavery ; has
been urged against freedom of industry, freedom of conscience, and
the freedom of the press ; none of these liberties having been thought
compatible with a well-ordered state, until they had proved their pos
sibility by springing into existence as facts. Besides, there is no diffi
culty in understanding why the subjection of woman has been a uniform
custom, when we recollect that we are just emerging from the ages in
which might has been always right.
" 6. Resolved, That, so far from denying the overwhelming social and
civil influence of women, we are fully aware of its vast extent ; aware,
with Demosthenes, that ' measures which the statesman has meditated
a whole year may be overturned in a day by a woman ' ; and for this
very reason we proclaim it the very highest expediency to endow her
with full civil rights, since only then will she exercise this mighty influ
ence under a just sense of her duty and responsibility ; the history of
all ages bearing witness that the only safe course for nations is to add
open responsibility wherever there already exists unobserved power.
" 7. Resolved, That we deny the right of any portion of the species
to decide for another portion, or of any individual to decide for another
individual, what is and what is not its 'proper sphere'; that the
proper sphere for all human beings is the largest and highest to which
they are able to attain ; what this is cannot be ascertained without
complete liberty of choice ; woman, therefore, ought to choose for her
self what sphere she will fill, what education she will seek, and what
employment she will follow ; and not be held bound to accept, in sub
mission, the rights, the education, and the sphere which man thinks
proper to allow her.
" 8. Resolved, That we hold these truths to be self-evident : ' That all
men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness ; that, to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed'; and we charge that man with gross dishonesty or iguo-

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 1-3
ranee who shall contend that ' men,' in the memorable document from
which we quote, does not stand for the human race ; that ' life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness ' are the ' inalienable rights ' of half
only of the human species ; and that, by ' the governed,' whose con
sent is affirmed to be the only source of just power, is meant that half
of mankind only who, in relation to the other, have hitherto assumed
the character oi governors.
" 9. Resolved, That we see no weight in the argument, that it is neces
sary to exclude women from civil life because domestic cares and polit
ical engagements are incompatible ; since we do not see the fact to be
so in the case of man ; and because, if the incompatibility be real, it
will take care of itself, neither men nor women needing any law to
exclude them from an occupation when they have undertaken another
incompatible with it. Second, we see nothing in the assertion that
women themselves do not desire a change, since we assert that super
stitious fears, and dread of losing men's regard, smother all frank
expression on this point ; and further, if it be their real wish to avoid
civil life, laws to keep them out of it are absurd, no legislator having
ever yet thought it necessary to compel people by law to follow their
own inclination.
" 10. Resolved, That it is as absurd to deny all women their civil
rights because the cares of household and family take up all the time
of some, as it would be to exclude the whole male sex from Congress,
because some men are sailors, or soldiers, in active service, or mer
chants, whose business requires all their attention and energies."

IN drawing up some of these resolutions, I have used,
very freely, the language of a thoughtful and profound
article in the Westminster Review. It is a review of the
proceedings of our recent Convention in this city, and
states with singular clearness and force the leading argu
ments for our reform, and the grounds of our claim in
behalf of woman.
I rejoice to see so large an audience gathered to con
sider this momentous subject. It was well described by
Mrs. Rose as the most magnificent reform that has yet
been launched upon the world. It is the first organized

14 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
protest against the injustice which has brooded over the
character and the destiny of one half of the human race.
Nowhere else, under any circumstances, has a demand
ever yet been made for the liberties of one whole half of
our race. It is fitting that we should pause and consider
so remarkable and significant a circumstance ; that we
should discuss the question involved with the seriousness
and deliberation suitable to such an enterprise. It strikes,
indeed, a great and vital blow at the whole social fabric of
every nation ; but this, to my mind, is no argument
against it. The time has been when it was the duty of
the reformer to show cause why he appeared to disturb
the quiet of the world. But during the discussion of the
many reforms that have been advocated, and which have '
more or less succeeded, one after another, — freedom of
the lower classes, freedom of food, freedom of the press,
fi-eedom of thought, reform in penal legislation, and a
thousand other matters, — it seems to me to have been
proved conclusively, that government commenced in
usurpation and oppression ; that liberty and civilization,
at present, are nothing else than the fragments of rights
which the scaffold and the stake have wrung from the
strong hands of the usurpers. Every step of progress the
world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and
from stake to stake. It would hardly be exaggeration to
say, that all the great truths relating to society and gov
ernment have been first heard m the solemn protests of
martyred patriotism, or the loud cries of crushed and
starving labor. The law has been always wrong. Gov
ernment began in tyranny and force, began in the feudal
ism of the soldier and bigotry of the priest ; and the ideas
of justice and humanity have been fighting their way,
like a thunder-storm, against the organized selfishness
of human nature. And this is the last great protest
against the wrong of ages. It is no argument to my

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 15
mind, therefore, that the old social fabric of the past is
against us.
Neither do I feel called upon to show wnat woman's
proper sphere is. In every great reform, the majority
have always said to the claimant, no matter what he
claimed, " You are not fit for such a privilege." Luther
asked of the Pope liberty for the masses to read the Bible.
The reply was, that it would not be safe to trust the
common people with the word of God. " Let them try ! "
said the great reformer ; and the history of three centuries
of development and purity proclaims the result. They
have tried ; and look around you for the consequences.
The lower classes in France claimed their civil rights, —
the right to vote, and to direct representation in the gov
ernment ; but the rich and lettered classes, the men of
cultivated intellects, cried out, " You cannot be made
fit." The answer was, "Let us try." That France is
not, as Spain, utterly crushed beneath the weight of a
thousand years of misgovernment, is the answer to those
who doubt the ultimate success of this experiment.
Woman stands now at the same door. She says, " You
tell me I have no. intellect : give me a chance. You tell
me I shall only embarrass politics : let me try." The
only reply is the same stale argument that saiel to the Jews
of Europe, " You are fit only to make money ; you are
not fit for the ranks of the army or the halls of Parha-
ment." How cogent the eloquent appeal of Macaulay, —
" What right have we to take this question for granted ?
Throw open the doors of this House of Commons, throw
open the ranks of the imperial army, before you deny
eloquence to the countrymen of Isaiah or valor to the
descendants of the Maccabees." It is the same now with
us. Throw open the doors of Congress, throw open those
court-houses, throw wide open the doors of your colleges,
and give to the sisters of the Motts and the Somervilles

16 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
the same opportunities for culture that men have, and let
the result prove what their capacity and intellect really
are. When, I say, woman has enjoyed, for as many
centuries as we have, the aid of books, the discipline of
life, and the stimulus of fame, it will be tune to begin tlie
discussion of these questions, — "What is the intellect
of woman ? " " Is it equal to that of man ? " Till then,
all such discussion is mere beating of the air.
While it is doubtless true that great minds, in many
cases, make a way for themselves, spite of all obstacles,
yet who knows how many Miltons have died " mute and
inglorious " ? However splendid the natural endowment,
the discipline of life, after all, completes the miracle. The
abihty of Napoleon, — what was it ? It grew out of the
hope to be Cassar or Marlborough, — out of Austerlitz and
Jena, — out of his battle-fields, his throne, and all the
great scenes of that eventful hfe. Open to woman the
same scenes, immerse her in the same great interests and
pursuits, and ff twenty centuries shall not produce a
woman Charlemagne or Napoleon, fair reasoning will then
allow us to conclude that there is some distinctive pecu
liarity in the intellects of the sexes. Centuries alone can
lay any fair basis for argument. I believe that, on this
point, there is a shrinking consciousness of not being ready
for the battle, on the part of some of the stronger sex, as
they call themselves ; a tacit confession of risk to this
imagined superiority, if they consent to meet their sisters
in the lecture-hall or the laboratory of science. My proof
of it is this : that the mightiest intellects of the race, from
Plato down to the present time, some of the rarest minds
of Germany, France, and England, have successively
yielded their assent to the fact that woman is, not per
haps identically, but equally, endowed with man in all
intellectual capabihties. It is generally the Second-rate
men who doubt, — doubt, perhaps, because they fear a
fair field : —

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 17
" He cither fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
Who fears to put it to the touch,
To gain or lose it all."
But I wish especially to direct your attention to the
precise principle which this movement undertakes to urge
upon the community. We do not attempt to settle
what shall be the profession, education, or employment of
woman. We have not that presumption. What we ask
is simply this, — what all other classes have asked before :
Leave it to woman to choose for herself her profession,
her education, and her sphere. We deny to any portion
of the species the right to prescribe to any other portion
its sphere, its education, or its rights. We deny the right
of any individual to prescribe to any other individual his
amount of education, or his rights. The sphere of each
man, of each woman, of each individual, is that sphere
which he can, with the highest exercise of his powers,
perfectly fill. The highest act which the human being
can elo, that is the act which God designed him to do.
All that woman asks through this movement is, to be
allowed to prove what she can do ; to prove it by liberty
of choice, by liberty of action, the only means by which it
ever can be settled how much and what she can do. She
can reasonably say to us : "I have never fathomed the
depths of science ; you have taught that it was un-
¦ womanly, and have withdrawn from me the means of sci
entific culture. I have never equalled the eloquence of
Demosthenes ; but you have never quickened my ener
gies by holding up before me the crown and robe of glory,
and the gratitude which I was to win. The tools, now,
to him or her who can use them. Welcome me, hence
forth, brother, to your arena ; and let facts — not theo
ries — settle my capacity, and therefore my sphere."
We are not here to-night to assert that woman will

18 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
enter the lists and . conquer ; that she will certainly
achieve all that man has achieved ; but this we say,
"Clear the lists, and let her try." Some reply, "It
will be a great injury to feminine delicacy and refine
ment for woman to mingle in business and politics." I
am not careftil to answer this objection. Of all such ob
jections, on this ,and kindred subjects, Mrs. President, I
love to dispose in some such way as this : The broadest
and most far-sighted intellect is utterly unable to foresee
the ultimate consequences of any great social change.
Ask yourself, on all such occasions, if there be any ele
ment of right and wrong in the question, any principle of
clear natural justice that turns the scale. If so, take your
part with the perfect and abstract right, and trust God to
see that it shall prove the expedient. The questions,
then, for me, on this subject, are these : Has God made
woman capable — morally, intellectually, and physically —
of taking this part in human affairs ? Then, what God
made her able to do, it is a strong argument that he in
tended she should do. Does our sense of natural justice
dictate that the being who is to suffer under laws shall
first personally assent to them ? that the being whose
industry government is to burden should have a voice
in fixing the character and amount of that burden ?
Then, while woman is admitted to the gallows, the jail,
and the tax-list, we have no right to debar her from the
ballot-box. " But to go there will hurt that delicacy of
character which we have always thought peculiarly her
grace." I cannot help that. Let Him who created her
capable of politics, and made it just that she should have
a share in them, see to it that these rights which he has
conferred do not injure the being he created. Is it for
any human being to trample on the laws of justice and
hberty,Trom an alleged necessity of helping God govern
what he has made ? I cannot help God govern his world

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 19
by telling lies, or doing what my conscience deems unjust.
How absurd to deem it necessary that any one should do
so ! When Infinite Wisdom established the rules of right
and honesty, he saw to it that justice should be always
the highest expediency.
The evil, therefore, that some timid souls fear to the
character of woman, froni the exercise of her political
rights, does not at all trouble me. " Let education form
the rational and moral being, and nature will take care of
the woman." Neither do I feel at all disturbed by those
arguments addressed to us as to the capacity of woman.
I know that the humblest man and the feeblest has the
same civil rights, according to the theory of our institu
tions, as the most gifted. It is never claimed that the
humblest shall be denied his civil right, provided he be
a man. No. Intellect, even though it reach the Alpine
height of a Parker, — ay, setting aside the infamy of his
conduct, and looking at him only as an instance of intel
lectual greatness, to the height of a Webster, • — gets no
tittle of additional civil right, no one single claim to any
greater civil privilege than the humblest individual, wlio
knows no more than the first elements of his alphabet,
provided that being is a man (I ought to say, a white
man). Grant, then, that woman is intellectually inferior
to man, — it settles nothing. She is still a responsible,
tax-paying member of civil society. We rest our claim
on the great, eternal principle, that taxation and repre
sentation must be coextensive ; that rights and burdens
must correspond to each other ; and he who undertakes
to answer the argument of this Convention must first
answer the whole course of English and American history
for the last hundred and fifty years. No single principle
of liberty has been enunciated, from the year 1688 until
now, that does not cover the claim of woman. The State
has never laid the basis of right upon the distinction of

20 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
sex ; and no reason has ever been given, except a religious
one, — that there are in the records of our religion com
mands obliging us to make woman an exception to our
civil theories, and deprive her of that which those theories
give her.
Suppose that woman is essentially inferior to man, —
she still has rights. Grant that Mrs. Norton never could
be Byron ; that Elizabeth Barrett never could have
written Paradise Lost ; that Mrs. Somerville never could
be La Place, nor Sirani have painted the Transfiguration.
What then ? Does that prove they should be deprived of
all civil rights ? John Smith never will be, never can be,
Daniel Webster. Shall he, therefore, be put under guar
dianship, and forbidden to vote ?
Suppose woman, though equal, to differ essentially in
her intellect from man, — is that any ground for disfran
chising her ? Shall the Fultons say to the Raphaels,
" Because you cannot make steam-engines, therefore you
shall not vote " ? Shall the Napoleons or the Washing-
tons say to the Wordsworths or the Herschels, " Because
you cannot lead armies and govern states, therefore you
shall have no civil rights " ?
Grant that woman's intellect be essentially different,
even inferior, if you choose ; still, while our civilization
allows her to hold property, and to be the guardian of her
children, she is entitled to such education and to such
civil rights — voting, among the rest — as will enable her
to protect both her children and her estate. It is easy to
indulge in dilettanti speculation as to woman's sphere and
the female intellect; but leave dainty speculation, and
come down to practical life. Here is- a young widow;
she has children, and ability, if you will let her exercise it,
to give them the best advantages of education, to secure
them every chance of success in life ; or, she has property
to keep for them, and no friend to rely on. Shall she

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 21
leave them to sink in the unequal struggles of life ? Shall
she trust their all to any adviser money can buy, in order
to gratify your taste, and give countenance to your nice
theories ? or shall she use all the powers God has given
her for those he has thrown upon her protection ? If we
consult common sense, and leave theories alone, there is
but one answer. Such a one can rightfully claim of soci
ety all the civil privileges, and of fashion all such liberty
as will best enable her to discharge fully her duties as a
mother. But woman, it is said, may safely trust all to the watch
ful and generous care of man. She has been obliged to
do so hitherto. With what result, let the unequal and
unjust legislation of all nations answer. In Massachusetts,
lately, a man married an heiress, worth fifty thousand
dollars. Dying, about a year after his marriage, he made
this remarkably generous and manly will. He left these
fifty thousanel dollars to her so long as she should remain
his wielow ! [Loud laughter.] These dollars, which he
owed entirely to her, which were fairly hers, he left to
her, after twelve months' use, on this generous condition,
that she should never marry again ! Ought a husband
to have such unlimited control over the property of his
wife, or over the property which they have together
acquired ? Ought not woman to have a voice in deter
mining what the law shall be in regard to the property of
married persons ? Often by her efforts, always by her
economy, she contributes much to the stock of family
wealth, arid is therefore justly entitled to a voice in the
control and disposal of it. Neither common sense nor past
experience encourages her to trust the protection of that
right to the votes of men. That
" Mankind is ever weak,
And little to be trusted ;
If self the wavering balance strike,
It 's rarely right adjusted," —

22 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
is true between the sexes, as much as between indi
viduals. Make the case our own. Is there any man here willing
to resign his own right to vote, and trust his welfare and
his earnings entirely to the votes of others ? Suppose any
class of men should condescendingly offer to settle for us
our capacity or our calling, — to vote for us, to choose our
sphere for us, — how ridiculously impertinent we should
consider it ! Yet few have the good sense to laugh at the
consummate impertinence with which every bar-room
brawler, every third-rate scribbler, undertakes to settle
the sphere of the Martineaus and the De Staels ! With
what gracious condescension little men continue to lec
ture and preach on " the female sphere " and " female
duties " !
This Convention does not undertake the task of pro
tecting woman. It contends that, in government, every
individual should be endowed, as far as possible, with the
means of protecting himself. This is far more the truth
when we deal with classes. Every class should be en
dowed with the power to protect itself. Man has hitherto
undertaken to settle what is best for woman m the way
of education and in the matter of property. He has set
tled it for her, that her duties and cares are too great to
allow her any time to take care of her own earnings, or to
take her otherwise legitimate share in the civil government
of the country. He has not undertaken to say that the
sailor or the soldier, in active service, when he returns
from his voyage or his camp, is not free to deposit his
vote in the ballot-box. He has not undertaken to say
that the manufacturer, whose factories cover whole town
ships, who is up early and lies down late, who has to
borrow the services of scores to help him in the manage
ment of his vast estate, — he does not say that such a man
cannot get time to study politics, and ought therefore to

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 23
be deprived of his right to vote with his fellow-citizens.
He has not undertaken to say that the lawyer may not
vote, though his whole time is spent in the courts, until he
knows nothing of what is going on in the streets. O no !
But as for woman, her time must be all so entirely filled
in taking care of her household, her cares must be so
extensive, that neither those of soldiers nor sailors nor
merchants can be equal to them ; she has not a moment
to qualify herself for pohtics ! Woman cannot be spared
long enough from the kitchen to put in a vote, though
Abbott Lawrence can be spared from the counting-house,
though General Gaines or Scott can be spared from the
camp, though the Lorings and the Choates can be spared
from the courts. This is the argument : Stephen Girard
cannot go to Congress ; he is too busy ; therefore, no man
ever shall. Because General Scott has gone to Mexico,
and cannot be President, therefore no man shall be. Be
cause A. B. is a sailor, gone on a whaling voyage, to be
absent for three years, and cannot vote, therefore no male
inhabitant ever shall. Logic how profound ! how con
clusive ! Yet this is the exact reasoning in the case of
woman. Take up the newspapers. See the sneers at
this movement. " Take care of the children," " Make
the clothes," " See that they are mended," " See that
the parlors are properly arranged." Suppose we grant it
all. Are there no women but housekeepers ? no women
but mothers ? O yes, many ! Suppose we grant tliat
the cares of a household are so heavy that they are greater
than the cares of the president of a college ; that he who
has tlie charge of some hundreds of youths is less op
pressed with care than the woman with three rooms and
two children ; that though President Sparks has time for
politics, Mrs. Brown has not. Grant that, and stiU we
claim tliat you should be true to your theory, and allow to
single women those rights which she who is the mistress

24 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
of a household and mother of a family has no time to
exercise. " Let women vote ! " cries one. " Why, wives and
daughters might be Democrats, while their fathers and
husbands were Whigs. It would never do. It would,
produce endless quarrels." And the self-satisfied objec
tor thinks he has settled the question.
But, if the principle be a sound one, why not apply it
in a stiU more important, instance ? Difference of religion
breeds more quarrels than difference in politics. Yet we
allow women to choose their own religious creeds, although
we thereby run the risk of wives being Episcopalians while
their husbands are Methodists, or daughters being Cath
olics while their fathers are Calvmists. Yet who, this
side of Turkey, dare claim that the law should compel
women to have no religious creed, or adopt that of their
male relatives ? Practically, this freedom in religion has
made no difficulty ; and probably equal freedom in politics
would make as little.
It is, after all, of little use to argue these social ques
tions. These prejudices never were reasoned up, and,
my word for it, they will never be reasoned down. The
freedom of the press, the freedom of labor, the freedom of
the race in its lowest classes, was never argued to success.
The moment you can get woman to go out into the high
way of life, and show by active valor what God has created
her for, that moment this question is settled forever. One
solid fact of a woman's making- her fortune in trade will
teach the male sex what woman's capacity is. I say,
therefore, to women, there are two paths before you in
this reform : one is, take all the laws have left you, with a
confident and determined hand ; the other is, cheer and
encourage, by your sympathy and aid, those noble women
who are willing to be the pioneers in this enterprise. See
that you stand up the firm supporters of those bold and

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 2.5
fearless ones who undertake to lead their sisters in this
movement. If Elizabeth Blackwell, who, trampHng under
foot the sneers of the other sex, took her maiden reputa
tion in her hand, and walked the hospitals of Europe,
comes back the accomplished graduate of them, to offer
her services to the women of America, and to prove that
woman, equally with man, is qualified to do the duties and
receive the honors and rewards of the healing art, see to
it, women, that you greet her efforts with your smiles.
Hasten to her side, and open your households to her
practice. Demand to have the experiment fairly tried,
before you admit that, in your sickness and in your dan
gers, woman may not stand as safely by your bedside as
man. If you will but be true to each other, on some of
these points, it is in the power of woman to settle, in a
great measure, this question. Why ask aid from the other
sex at all ? Theories are but thin and unsubstantial air
against the solid fact of woman mingling with honor and
profit in the various professions and industrial pursuits of
life. Would women be true to each other, by smoothing
the pathway of each other's endeavors, it is in their power
to settle one great aspect of this question, without any
statute in such case made and provided. I say, take
your rights ! There is no law to prevent it, in one half
of the instances. If the prejudices of the other sex and
the supineness of your own prevent it, there is no help for
you in the statute-books. It is for you but to spealv, and
the doors of all medical hospitals are open for the women
by whom you make it known that you intend to be served.
Let us have no separate, and therefore necessarily inferior,
schools for women. Let us have no poor schools, feebly
endowed, where woman must go to gather what help she
may, from second-rate professors, in one branch of a pro
fession. No ! Mothers, daughters, sisters ! say to hus
band, father, brother, " If this hfe is dear to you, I intend

26 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
to trust it, in my hour of danger, to a sister's hand. See,
to it, therefore, you who are the guides of society and
heads of those institutions, if you love your mother, sister,
wife, daughter, see to it that you provide these chosen
assistants of mine the means to become disciplined and
competent advisers in that momentous hour, for I will
have no other." When you shall say that, Harvard Uni
versity, and every other university, and every medical
institution, will hasten to open their doors. You who long
for the admission of woman to professional life and the
higher ranks of intellectual exertion, up, and throw into
her scale this omnipotent weight of your determination to'
be served by her, and by no other ! In this matter, what
you decide is law.
There is one other light in which this subject is to be
considered, — the freedom of ballot ; and with a few words
upon that, I will close these desultory remarks. As there
is no use in educating a human being for nothing, so the
thing is an impossibility. Horace Mann says, in the letter
which has been read here, that he intends to write a lec
ture on Woman ; and I doubt not he will take the stand
which he has always done, that she should be book-taught
for some dozen years, and then retire to domestic life, or
the school-room. Would he give sixpence for a boy who
could only say that he had been shut up for those years in
a school ? The unfledged youth that comes from college,
— what is he ? He is a man, and has been subjected to
seven years' tutoring ; but man though he is, until he has
walked up and down the paths of life, until he receives his
education in the discipline of the world, in the stimulus of
motive, in the hope of gain, in the desire of honor, in the
love of reputation, he has got, in nine cases out of ten, no
education at all. Profess to educate woman for her own
amusement ! Profess to educate her in science, that she
may go home and take care of her cradle ! Teach her the

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 27
depths of statesmanship and political economy, that she
may smile sweetly when her husband comes home ! " It
is not the education man gets from books," it was well
said by your favorite statesman, " but the lessons he
-learns from life and society, that profit him most highly."
" Le monde est le livre des femmes." Of this hook you
deprive her. You give her nothing but man's little
printed primers ; you make for her a world of dolls, and
then complain that she is frivolous. You deprive her of
all the lessons of practical out-door life ; you deprive her
of all the stimulus which the good and great of all nations,
all societies, have enjoyed, the world's honors, its gold,
and its fame, and then you coolly ask of her, " Why are
you not as well disciplined as we are ? " I know there
are great souls who need no stimulus but love of truth
and of growth, whom mere love of labor allures to the
profoundest investigations ; but these are the exceptions,
not the rule. We legislate, we arrange society, for the
masses, not the exceptions.
Responsibility is one instrument — a great instrument —
of education, both moral and intellectual. It sharpens the
faculties. It unfolds the moral nature. It makes the care
less prudent, and turns recklessness into sobriety. Look
at the young wife suddenly left a widow, with the care of
her children's education and entrance into life thrown upon
her. How prudent and sagacious she becomes ! How
fruitful in resources and comprehensive in her views !
How much intellect and character she surprises her old
friends with ! Look at the statesman bold and reckless in
opposition ; how prudent, how thoughtful, how timid, he
becomes, the moment he is in office, and feels that a na-
tion"'s welfare hangs on his decisions ! Woman can never
study those great questions that interest and stir most
deeply the human mind, until she studies them under the
•mingled stimulus and check of . this responsibihty. And

28 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
until her intellect has been tested by such questions, stud
ied under such influences, we shall never be able to decide
what it is.
One great reason, then, besides its justice, why we would
claim the ballot for woman, is this : because the great school
of this people is the jury-box and the ballot-box. De
Tocqueville, after travelling in this country, went away
with the conviction that, valuable as the jury trial was for
the investigation of facts and defence of the citizens, its
value even in these respects was no greater than as it was
the school of civil education open to all the people. The
education of the American citizen is found in his interest
in the debates of Congress, — the earnest personal interest
with which he seeks to fathom political questions. It is
when the mind, profoundly stirred by the momentous stake
at issue, rises to its most gigantic efforts, when the great cri
sis of some national convulsion is at hand, — it is then that
strong political excitement lifts the people up in advance
of the age, heaves a whole nation on to a higher platform
of intellect and morality. Great pohtical questions stir
the deepest nature of one half the nation ; but they pass
far above and over the heads of the other half. Yet, mean
while, theorists wonder that the first have their whole
nature unfolded, and the others will persevere in being
dwarfed. Now, this great, world-wide, practical, ever-
present education we claim for woman. Never, until it
is granted her, can you decide what will be her ability.
Deny statesmanship to woman ? What ! to the sisters of
Elizabeth of England, Isabella of Spain, Maria" Theresa
of Austria ; ay, let me add, of Elizabeth Heyrick, who,
when the intellect of all England was at fault, and wan
dering in the desert of a false philosophy, — when Brougham
and Romilly, Clarkson and Wilberforce, and all the xither
great and philanthropic minds of England, were at fault
and at a dead-lock with the West India question and negro

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 29
slavery, — wrote out, with the statesmanlike intellect of
a Quaker woman, the simple yet potent charm, — Imme
diate, Unconditional Emancipation, — which solved the
problem, and gave freedom to a race ! How noble the
conduct of those men ! With an alacrity which does honor
to their statesmanship, and proves that they recognized the
inspired voice when they heard it, they sat down at the
feet of that woman-statesman, and seven years under her
instruction did more for the settlement of the greatest social
question that had ever convulsed England, than had been
done by a century, of more or less effort, before. O no !
you cannot read history, unless you read it upside down,
without admitting that woman, cramped, fettered, excluded,
degraded as she has been, has yet sometimes, with one ray
of her instinctive genius, done more to settle great ques
tions than all the cumbrous intellect of the other sex has
achieved. It is, therefore, on the ground of natural justice, and on
the ground again of the highest expediency, and yet again
it is because woman, as an immortal and intellectual being,
has a right to all the means of education, — it is on these
grounels that we claim fo? her the civil rights and privileges
which man enjoys.
I will not enlarge now on another most important aspect
of this question, the value of the contemplated change in a
physiological point of view. Our dainty notions have made
woman such a hot-house plant, that one half the sex are
invalids. The mothers of the next generation are invalids.
Better that our women, like the German and Italian girls,
should labor on the highway, and share in the toil of har
vest, than pine and sicken in the in-door and sedentary
routine to which our superstition condemns them. But I
leave this sad topic for other hands.
One word more. We heard to-day a very profound
and eloquent address as to the course which it is most

30 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
expedient for woman to pursue in regard to the inadequate
remuneration extended to her sex. The woman of do
mestic life receives but about one third the amount paid
to a man for similar or far lighter services. The woman
of out-door labor has about the same. The best female
employments are subject to a discount of some forty or fifty
per cent on the wages paid to males. It is futile, if it
were just, to blame uidividuals for this. We have all
been burdened long by a common prejuehce and a common
ignorance. The remeely is not to demand that the manu
facturer shall pay his workmen more, that the employer
of domestics shall pay them more. It is not the capitalist's
fault. We inveigh against the wealthy capitalist, but it is
not exclusively his- fault. It is as much the fault of society
itself. It is the fault of that timid conserva,tism, which
sets its face like flint against everything new ; of a servile
press, that knows so well, by personal experience, how
much fools and cowards are governed by a sneer. It is
the fault of silly women, ever holding up their idea of
what is " lady-like " as a Gorgon head to frighten their
sisters from earning bread, — themselves, in their folly,
the best answer to a weak pr^udice they mistake for
argument. It is the fault of that pulpit which declares it
indecorous in woman to labor, except in certain occupa
tions, and thus crowds the whole mass of working-women
into two or three employments, making them rivet each
other's chains. Do you ask me the reason of the low
wages paid for female labor ? It is this. There are about
as many women as men obliged to rely for bread on their
own toil. Man seeks employment anywhere, and of any
kind. No one forbids him. If he cannot make a living
by one trade, he takes another ; and the moment any trade
becomes so crowded as to make wages fall, men leave it,
and wages will rise again. Not so with woman. The
whole mass of women must find employment in two or

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. ' 31
tliree occupations. The consequence is, there are more
women in each of these than can be employed ; they kill
teach other by competition. Suppose there is as much
sewing required in a city as one thousand hands can do.
If the tailors could find only five hundred women to sew,
they would be obliged to pay them whatever they asked.
But let the case be, as it usually is, that there are five
thousand women waiting for that work, unabk to turn to
any other occupation, and doomed to starve if they fail to
get a share of that ; we see at once that their labor, being
a drug in the market, must be poorly paid for. She can
not say, as man would, " Give me so much, or I will seek
another trade." She must accept whatever is offered, and
often underbid her sister, that she may secure a share.
Any article sells cheap, when there is too much of it in
the market. Woman's labor is cheap because there is too
much of it in the market. All women's trades are over
crowded, because they have only two or three to choose
fi'om. But open to her, now, other occupations. Open
to her the studio of the artist, — let her enter there ; open
to her the office practice, at least, of the lawyers, — let
her go there ; open to her all in-door trades of society, to
begin with, and let women monopolize them. Take from
the crowded and starved ranks of the needlewomen of
New York spme for the arts of design, some for the coun
ter, some to minister in om' public libraries, some for our
public registries, some to keep merchants' accounts, and
some to feel the pulse ; and the consequence will be, that,
like every other independent laborer, like their male breth
ren, they may make their own terms, and will be fairly
paid for their labor. It is competition in too narrow lists
that starves women in our cities ; and those lists are drawn
narrow by superstition and prejudice.
Woman is ground down, by the competition of her
sisters, to the very point of starvation. Hea^¦ily taxed,

32 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
ill-paid, m degradation and misery, is it to be wondered at
that she yields to the ' temptation of wealth ? It is the
same with men ; and thus we recruit the ranks of vice by
the prejudices of custom and society. We corrupt the
whole social fabric, that woman may be confined to two
O]' three employments. How much do we suffer through
the tyranny of prejudice ! When we penitently and
gladly give to the energy and the intellect and the enter
prise of woman their proper reward, their appropriate
employment, this question of wages wiU settle itself; and
it will never be settled at all until then.
This question is intimately connected with the great
social problem, — the vices of cities. You who hang your
heads in terror and shame, in view of the advancing de
moralization of modern civilized life, and turn away with
horror-struck faces, look back now to these social preju
dices, which have made you close the avenues of profitable
employment in the face of woman, and reconsider the
conclusions you have made ! Look back, I say, and see
whether you are surely right here. Come up with us and
argue the question, and say whether this most artificial
delicacy, this childish prejudice, on whose Moloch altar
you sacrifice the virtue of so many, is worthy the exalted
worship you pay it. Consider a moment. From what
sources are the ranks of female profligacy recruited ? A
few mere giddiness hurries to ruin. Their protection
would be in that character and sound common-sense which
a wider interest in practical life would generally create.
In a few, the love of sensual gratification, grown over-
strong, because all the other powers are dormant for want
of exercise, wrecks its unhappy victim. The medicine for
these would be occupation, awaking intellect, and stirring
their highest energies. Give any one an earnest interest
in life, something to do, something that Idndles emulation,
and soon the gratification of the senses sinks into proper

WOMAN'S EIGHTS. 38
subordination. It is idle heads that are tempted to mis
chief : and she is emphatically idle half of whose nature is
unemployed. Why does man so much oftener than
woman surmount a few years or months of sensual grati
fication, anel emerge into a worthier Iffe ? It is not solely
because the world's judgment is so much harder upon her.
Man can immerse himself in business that stirs keenly all
his faculties, and thus he smothers passion in honorable
cares. An ordinary woman, once fallen, has no busy and
stirring life in which to take refuge, where intellect will
contend for mastery with passion, and where virtue is
braced by high and active thoughts. Passion comes back
to the " empty,'''' though " swept and garnished " cham
bers, bringing with him more devils than before. But,
undoubtedly, the great temptation to this vice is the love
of dress, of wealth, and the luxuries it secures. Facts will
jostle theories aside. Whether we choose to acknowledge
it or not, there are many women, earning two or three
dollars a week, who feel that they are as capable as their
brothers of earning hundreds, if they could be permitted
to exert themselves as freely. Fretting to see the coveted
rewards of life forever forbidden them, they are tempted
to shut their eyes on the character of the means by which
a taste, however short, may be gained of the wealth and
luxury they sigh for. Open to man a fair field for his
industry, and secure to him its gains, and nine hundred
and ninety-nine men out of every thousand will disdain to
steal. Open to woman a fair field for her industry, let
her do anything her hands find to do, and enjoy her gains,
and nine hundred and ninety-nine women out of every
thousand will disdain to debase themselves for dress or ease.
Of this great social problem — to cure or lessen the vice
of cities — there is no other solution, except what this
movement offers you. It is, to leave woman to choose
her own employments for herself, responsible, as we are,
3

34 WOMAN'S EIGHTS.
to the common Creator, and not to her fellow-man. I
exhort you, therefore, to look at this question in the spirit
in which I have endeavored to present it to you. It is no
fanciful, no superficial movement, based on a few indi
vidual tastes, in morbid sympathy with tales of individual
suffering. It is a .great social protest against the very
fabric of society. It is a question which goes down — we
admit it, and are willing to meet the issue — goes down
beneath the altar at which you worship, goes down be
neath this social system in which you live. And it is true
— no denying it — that, if we are right, the doctrines
preached from New England pulpits are wrong ; it is true
that all this affected horror at woman's deviation from her
sphere is a mistake, — a mistake fraught with momentous
consequences. Understand us. We blink no fair issue.
We throw down the gauntlet. We have counted tlie
cost; we know the yoke and burden we assume. We
know the sneers, the lying frauds of misstatement and
misrepresentation, that await us. We have counted all ;
and it is but the dust in the balance and the small dust in
the measure, compared with the inestimable blessing of
doing justice to one half of the human species, of curing
this otherwise immedicable wound, stopping this over
flowing fountain of corruption, at the very source of
civiHzed life. Truly, it is the great question of the age.
It looks all others out of countenance. It needs little aid
from legislation. Specious objections, after all, are not
arguments. We know we are right. We only ask an
opportunity to argue the question, to set it full before the
people, and then leave it to the intellects and the hearts
of our country, confident that the institutions under
which we live, and the education which other reforms
have already given to both sexes, have created men and
women capable of solving a problem even more difficult,
and meeting a change even more radical, than this.

PUBLIC OPINION.*

MR. PRESIDENT:— I have been thinking, while
sitting here, of the different situations of the Anti-
slavery cause now and one year ago, when the last anni
versary of this Society was held. To some, it may seem
that we had more sources of interest and of public excite
ment on that occasion than we have now. We had with us,
during a portion, at least, of that session, the eloquent ad
vocate of our cause on the other side of the water.f We
had the local excitement and the deep interest which the
first horror of the Fugitive Slave Bill had aroused. We
had, I believe, some fugitives, just arrived fi'om the house
of bondage. It may seem to many that, meeting as we do
to-day robbed of all these, we must be content with a ses
sion more monotonous and less effectual in arousing the
community. But when we look over the whole land ;
when we look back upon what has taken place in om' own
Commonwealth, at Christiana, at Syracuse ; look at the
passage through the country of the great Hungarian ; at
the present state of the public mind, — it seems to me that
no year, during the existence of the Society, has presented
more encouraging aspects to the Abolitionists. The views
which our friend (Parker Pillsbury) has just presented
are those upon which, in our most sober calculation, we
* Speech before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, at the Melodeon,
Wednesday evening, January 28, 1852.
t George Thompson.

36 PUBLIC OPINION.
ought to rely. Give us time, and, as he said, talk is all-
powerful. We are apt to feel ourselves overshadowed in
the presence of colossal institutions. We are apt, in com
ing up to a m'eeting of this kind, to ask what a few hun
dred or a few thousand persons can do against the weight
of government, the mountainous odds of majorities, the
influence of the press, the power of the pulpit, the organi
zation of parties, the omnipotence of wealth. At times, to
carry a favorite purpose, leading statesmen have endeav
ored to cajole the people into the idea that this age was
like the past, and that a " rub-a-dub agitation," as ours is
contemptuously styled, was only to be despised. The time
has been when, as our friend observed, from the steps of
the Revere House — yes, and from the depots of New
York railroads — Mr. Webster has described this Anti-
slavery movement as a succession of lectures in school-
houses, — the mere efforts of a few hundred men and
women to talk together, excite each other, arouse the
pubhc, and its only result a little noise. He knew better.
He knew better the times in which he lived. No matter
where you meet a dozen earnest men pledged to a new
idea, — wherever yon have met them, you have met the
beginning of a revolution. Revolutions are not made :
they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an
oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid
far back. The child feels ; he grows into a man, and
thinks ; another, perhaps, speaks, and the world acts out
the thought. And this is the history of modern society.
Men undervalue the Antislavery movement, because
they imagine you can always put your finger on some
illustrious moment in history, and say, here commenced
the great change which has come over the nation. Not so.
The beginning of great changes is like the rise of the Mis
sissippi. A child must stoop and gather away the pebbles
to find it. But soon it swells broader and broader, bears

PUBLIC OPINION. 37
on its ample bosom the navies of a mighty repubhc, fills
the Gulf, and ehvides a continent.
I remember a story of Napoleon that illustrates my
meaning. We are apt to trace his control of France to
some noted victory, to the time when he camped in the
Tuileries, or when he dissolved the Assembly by the
stamp of his foot. He reigned in fact when his hand was
first felt on the helm of the vessel of state, and that was
far back of the time when he had conquered in Italy, or
his name had been echoed over two continents. It was
on the day when five hundred irresolute men were met in
that Assembly which called itself, and pretended to be, the
government of France. They heard that the mob of Paris
was coming the next morning, thirty thousand strong, to
turn them, as was usual in those days, out of doors. And
where did this seemingly great power go for its support and
refuge ? They sent Tallien to seek out a boy lieutenant, —
the shadow of an officer, — so thin and pallid that, wlien he
was placed on the stand before them, the President of the
Assembly, fearful, if the fate of France rested on the
shrunken form, the ashy cheek before him, that all hope
was gone, asked, " Young man, can you protect the As
sembly ? " And the ashen lips of the Corsican boy parted
only to reply, " I always do what I undertake." Then
and there Napoleon ascended his throne ; anel the next
day, from the steps of St. Roche, thundered forth the
cannon which taught the mob of Paris, for the first time,
that it had a master. That was the commencement of the
Empire. So the Antislavery movement commenced un-
heedeel in that " obscure hole " which Mayor Otis could
not find, occupied by a printer and a black boy.
In working these great changes, in such an age as ours,
the so-called statesman has far less infiuence than the many
little men who, at various points, are silently maturing
a regeneration of jrablic opinion. This is a reading and

38 . PUBLIC OPINION.
thinking age, and great interests at stake quicken the gen
eral intellect. Stagnant times have been when a great
mind, anchored in error, might snag the slow-moving cur
rent of society. Such is not our era. Nothing but Free
dom, Justice, and Truth is of any permanent advantage to
the mass of mankind. To these society, left to itself, is
always tending. In our day, great questions about them
have called forth all the energies of the common mind.
Error suffers sad treatment in the shock of eager intellects.
" Everybody," said Talleyrand, " is cleverer than any
body " ; and any name, however illustrious, which links
itself to abuses, is sure to be overwhelmed by the impetu
ous current of that society which (thanks to the press and
a reading public) is potent, always, to clear its own chan
nel. Thanks to the Printing-Press, the people now do
their own thinking, and statesmen, as they are styled, —
men in office, — have ceased to be either the leaders or the
clogs of society.
This view is one that Mr. Webster ridiculed in the
depots of New York. The time has come when he is
obliged to change his tone ; when he is obliged to retrace
his steps, — to acknowledge the nature and the character
of the age in which he lives. Kossuth comes to this coun
try, penniless, and an exile ; conquered on his own soil ;
flung out as a weed upon the waters ; nothing but his voice
left ; — and the Secretary of State must meet him. Now,
let us see what he says of his " i-ub-a-dub agitation,"
which consists of the voice only, — of the tongue, which
our friend Pillsbury has described. This is that " tongue "
which the impudent statesman declared, from the drunken
steps of the Revere House, ought to be silenced, — this
tongue, which was a " rub-a-dub agitation " to be despised,
when he spoke to the farmers of New York.
He says, " We are too much inclined to underrate the
power of moral influence." Who is ? Nobody but a Re-

PUBLIC OPINION. 39
vere House statesman. " We are too much inclined to
underrate the power of moral influence, and the influence
of public opinion, and the influence of the principles to
which great men — the lights of the world and of the pres
ent age — have given then- sanction. Who doubts that,
in our struggle for liberty and independence, the majestic
eloquence of Chatham, the profound reasoning of Burke,
the burning satire and irony of Colonel Barre, had influ
ences upon our fortunes here in America ? They had
influences both ways. They tended, in the first place,
somewhat to diminish the confidence of the British minis
try in their hopes of success, in attempting to subjugate an
injured people. They had influence another way, because
all along the coasts of the country — and all our people in
that day lived upon the coast — there was not a reading
man who chd not feel stronger, bolder, and more deter
mined in the assertion of his rights, when these exhilarat
ing accents from the two Houses of Parhament reached
him from beyond the seas."
" I tlianli thee, Jew ! " This " rub-a-dub agitation," then,
has influence both ways. It diminishes the confidence of
the Administration in its power to execute the Fugitive
Slave Law, which it has imposed so insolently on the
people. It acts on the reading men of the nation, and in
that single fact is the whole story of the change. Wher
ever you have a reading people, there every tongue, every
press, is a power. Mr. Webster, when he ridiculed in
New York the agitation of the Antislavery body, sup
posed he was living in the old feudal times, when a states
man was an integral element in the state, an essential
power in himself. He must have supposed himself speak
ing in those ages when a great man outweighed the
masses. He finds now that he is Kving much later, in an
ao-e when the accumulated common-sense of the people
outwei'dis the greatest statesman or the most influential

40 PUBLIC OPINION.
individual. Let me illustrate the difference of our times
and the past in this matter, by their difference in another
respect. The time has been when men cased in iron from
head to foot, and disciplined by long years of careful in
struction, went to battle. Those were the days of nobles
and knights ; and in such times, ten knights, clad in steel,
feared not a whole field of unarmed peasantry, and a hun
dred rhen-at-arms have conquered thousands of the com
mon people, or held them at bay. Those were the times
when Winkelried, the Swiss patriot, led his host against
flie Austrian phalanx, and, finding it impenetrable to the
thousands of Swiss who threw themselves on the serried
lances, gathered a dozen in his arms, and, drawing them
together, made thus an opening in the close-set ranks of
the Austrians, and they were overborne by the actual mass
of numbers. Gunpowder came, and then any finger that
could pull a trigger was equal to the highest born and the
best disciplined ; knightly armor, and horses clad in steel,
went to the ground before the courage and strength that
dwelt in the arm of the peasant, as well as that of the
prince. What gunpowder did for war, the printing-press
has done for the mind, and the statesman is no longer clad
in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his
judge. Every thoughtful man, the country through, that
makes up an opinion, is his jury to which he answers, And the
tribunal to which he must bow. Mr. Webster, therefore,
does not overrate the power of this " rub-a-dub agitation,"
which Kossuth has now adopted, " stealing our thunder."
[Laughter and applause.] He does not overrate the power
of this " rub-a-dub agitation," when he says, " Another
great mistake, gentlemen, is sometimes made. [Yes, in
Bowdoin Square !] We think nothing powerful enough
to stand before despotic power. There is something strong
enough, quite strong enough ; and if properly exerted, it
will prove itself so ; and that is, the power of intelligent

PUBLIC OPINION. 41
pubhc opinion." "I thank thee, Jew!" That opinion
is formed, not only in Congress, or on hotel steps ; it is
made also in the school-houses, m the town-houses, at the
hearth-stones, in the railroad-cars, on board the steam
boats, in the social circle, in these Antislavery gatherings
which he despises. Mark you : Tliere is nothing powerful
enough to stand before it ! It may be a self-styled divine
institution ; it may be the bank-vaults of New England ;
it may be the mining interests of Pennsylvania ; it may
be the Harwich fishermen, whom he told to stand by the
Union, because its bunting protected their decks ; it may
be the factory operative, whom he told to uphold the
Union, because it made his cloth sell for half a cent
more a yard; it may be a parchment Constitution, or
even a Fugitive Slave Bill, signed by Millard Fillmore ! ! I
— no matter, all ar& dust on the threshing-floor of a read
ing public, once rouseel to indignation. Remember this,
when you would look down upon a meeting of a few hun
dreds in the one scale, and the fanatic violence of State
Street in the other, that there is nothing, Daniel Webster
being witness, strong enough to stand against public opin
ion, — and if the tongue and the press are not parents of
that, what is ?
Napoleon said, " I fear three newspapers more than a
hundred thousand bayonets." Mr. Webster now is of the
same opinion. " There is not a monarch on earth," he
says, " whose throne is not liable to be shaken by the
progress of opinion and the sentiment of the just and
intelligent part of the people." " I thank thee, Jew ! "
We have been told often, that it was nothing but a morbid
sentiment that was opposed to the Fugitive Slave Bill, —
it was a sentiment of morbid philanthropy. Grant -it all.
But take care, Mr. Statesman ; cure or .change it in time,
else it will beat all your dead institutions to dust. Hearts
and sentiments are alive, and we all know that the gentlest

42 PUBLIC OPINION.
of Nature's growths or motions will, in time, burst asunder
or wear away the proudest dead-weight man can heap
upon them. If this be the power of the gentlest growth,
let the stoutest heart tremble before the tornado of a
people roused to terrible vengeance by the sight of long
years of cowardly and merciless oppression, and oft-
repeated instances of selfish and calculating apostasy.
You may build your Capitol of granite, and pile it high
as the Rocky Mountains ; if it is founded on or mixed up
with iniquity, the pulse of a girl will in time beat it down.
" There is no monarch on earth whose throne is not liable
to be shaken by the sentiment of the just and intelligent
part of the people." What is this but a recantation, —
doing penance for the impudence uttered in Bowdoin
Square ? Surely this is the white sheet and lighted torch
which the Scotch Church imposed as penance on its erring
members. Who would imagine, that the same man who
said of the public discussion of the Slavery question, that it
must be put down, could have dictated this sentiment, —
" It becomes us, in the station which we hold, to let that
public opinion, so far as we form it, have free course " ?
What was the haughty threat we heard from Bowdoin
Square a year ago ? " This agitation must be put down."
Now, " It becomes us, in the station which we hold, to let
that public opinion have free course." Behold the great
doughface cringing before the calm eye of Kossuth, who
had nothing but "rub-a-dub agitation" with which to
rescue Hungary from the bloody talons of the Austrian
eagle !
This is statesmanship ! The statesmanship that says to
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to-day, " Smother
those prejudices," and to-morrow, " There is no throne on
the broad earth strong enough to stand up against the
sentiment of justice." What is that but the " preju
dices " of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against

PUBLIC OPINION. 43
man-hunting ? And this is the man before whom the
press and the pulpit of the country would have had the
Abolitionists bow their heads, and lay their mouths in the
dust, instead of holding fast to the eternal principles of
justice and right !
It would be idle, to be sure, to base any argument on
an opinion of Mr. Webster's. Like the chameleon, he
takes his hue, on these subjects, from the air he breathes.
He has his " October sun " opinion, and his Faneuil
Hall opinions. But the recantation here is at least notice
able ; and his testimony to the power of the masses is
more valuable as coming from an unwilling witness. The
best of us are conscious of being, at times, somewhat awed
by the colossal institutions about us, which seem to be
opposing our progress. There are those who occasionally
weary of this moral suasion, and sigh for something tangi
ble ; some power that they can feel, and see its operation.
The advancing tide you cannot mark. The gem forms
unseen. The granite increases and crumbles, and you can
hardly mark either process. The great change in a na
tion's opmion is the same. We stand here to-day, and if
we look back twenty years, we can see a change in public
opinion ; yes, we can see a great change. Then the great
statesmen had pledged themselves not to talk on this sub
ject. They have been made to talk. These hounds
have been whipped into the traces of the nation's car, not
by three newspapers, which Napoleon dreaded, but by one.
[Cheers.] The great parties of the country have been
broken to pieces and crumbled. The great sects have
been broken to pieces. Suppose you cannot put your
finger upon an individual fact ; still, in the great result,
you see what Webster tells us in his speech : " De
pend upon it, gentlemen, that between these two rival
powers, — the autocratic power, maintained by arms and
force, and the popular power, maintained by opinion, —

44 PUBLIC OPINION.
the former is constantly decreasing ; and, thank God ! the
latter is constantly increasing. Real human hberty is
gaming the ascendant; — [he must feel sad at that !] — and
the part which we have to act in all this great drama
is to show ourselves in favor of those rights ; to Uphold
our ascendency, and to carry it on, until we shall see it
culminate in the highest heaven over our heads."
Now I look upon this speech as the most remarkable
Mr. Webster has ever made on the antislavery agitation
to which we are devoted, — as a most remarkable confes
sion, under the circumstances. I read it here and to you,
because, in the circle I see around me, the larger propor
tion are Abolitionists, — men attached to the movement
which this meeting represents, — men whose thoughts are
occasionally occupied with the causes and with the effects
of its real progress. I would force from the reluctant lips
of the Secretary of State his testimony to the real power
of the masses. I said that the day was, before gunpowder,
when the noble, clad in steel, was a match for a thousand.
Gunpowder levelled peasant and prince. The printing-
press has done the same. In the midst of thinking people,
in the long run, there are no so-called "great" men.
The accumulated intellect of the masses is greater than
the heaviest brain God ever gave to a single man. Web
ster, though he may gather into his ovyn person the
confidence of parties, and the attachment of thousands
throughout the country, is but a feather's weight in the
balance against the average of public sentiment on the
subject of slavery. A newspaper paragraph, a county
meeting, a gathering for conversation, a change in the
character of a dozen individuals, — these are the several
fountains and sources of public opinion. And, friends,
when we gather, month after month, at such meetings as
these, we should encourage ourselves with considerations
of this kind : — that we live in an age of democratic

PUBLIC OPINION. 45
equalitjr ; that, for a moment, a party may stand against
the age, but in the end it goes by the board ; that the
man who launches a sound argument, who sets on two
feet a startling fact, and bids it travel from Maine to
Georgia, is just as certain that in the end he will change
the government, as if, to destroy the Capitol, he had
placed gunpowder under the Senate-chamber. Natural
philosophers tell us, that, if you will only multiply the
simplest force into enough time, it will equal the greatest.
So it is with the slow intellectual movement of the masses.
It can scarcely be seen, but it is a constant movement : it
is the shadow on the dial ; never still, though never seen
to move ; it is the tide, it is the ocean, gaining on the
proudest and strongest bulwarks that human art or
strength can build. It may be defied for a moment, but
in the end Nature always triumphs. So the race, if it
cannot drag a Webster along with it, leaves him behiiiel
and forgets him. [Loud cheers.] The race is rich
enough to afford to do without the greatest intellects God
ever let the Devil buy. Stranded along the past, there are
a great many dried mummies of dead intellects, which the
race found too heavy to di-ag forward.
I hail the almighty power of the tongue. I swear
allegiance to the omnifiotence of the press. The people
never err. " Vox populi, vox Dei," — the voice of the
people is the voice of God. I do not mean this of any
single verdict which the people of to-day may record. In
time, the selfishness of one class neutralizes the selfishness
of another. The interests of one age clash against the
interests of another ; but in the great result the race
always means right. The people always mean right, and
in the end they will have the right. I believe in the
twenty millions — not the twenty millions that live now,
necessarily — to arrange this question of slavery, which
priests and politicians have sought to keep out of sight.

46 PUBLIC OPINION.
They have kept it locked up in the Senate-chamber, they
have hidden it behind the communion-table, they have
appealed to the superstitious and idolatrous veneration for
the State and the Union to avoid this question, and so
have kept it from the influence of the great democratic
tendencies of the masses. But change all this, drag it
from its concealment, and give it to the people ; launch it
on the age, and all is safe. It will find a safe harbor. A
man is always selfish enough for himself. The soldier
will be selfish enough for himself; the merchant will be
selfish enough for himself; yes, he will be willing to go to
hell to secure his own fortune, but he will not be ready to
go there to make the fortune of his neighbor. No man
ever yet was willing to sacrifice his own character for the
benefit of his neighbor ; and whenever we shall be able to
show this nation that the interests of a class, not of the
whole, the interests of a portion of the country, not of the
masses, are subserved by holding our fellow-men in bond
age, then we shall spike the guns of the enemy, or get
their artillery on our side.
I want you to turn your eyes from institutions to men.
Tlie difficulty of the present day and with us is, we are
bullied by institutions. A man gets up in the pulpit, or
sits on the bench, and we allow ourselves to be bullied by
the judge or the clergyman, when, if he stood side by side
with us, on the brick pavement, as a sunple individual, his
ideas would not have distiarbed our clear thoughts an hour.
Now the duty of each antislavery man is simply tliis, —
Stand on the pedestal of your own individual independence,
summon these institutions about you, and judge them.
The question is deep enough to require this judgment of
you. This is what the cause asks of you, my friends ; and
the moment you shall be willing to do this, to rely upon
yourselves, that moment the truths I have read from the
lips of one whom the country regards as its greatest states-

PUBLIC OPINION. 47
man will shine over your path, assuring you that out of
this agitation, as sure as the sun shines at noonday, the future
character of the American governriient will be formed.
If we lived in England, if we lived in France, the phi
losophy of our movement might be different, for there
stand accumulated wealth, hungry churches, and old
nobles, — a class which popular agitation but slowly
affects. To these public opinion is obliged to bow. We
have seen, for instance, the agitation of 1848 in Europe,
deep as it was, seemingly triumphant as it was for six
months, retire, beaten, before the undisturbed foundations
of the governments of the Continent. You recollect, no
doubt, the tide of popular enthusiasm which rolled from
the Bay of Biscay to the very feet of the Czar, and it
seemed as if Europe was melted into one republic. Men
thought the new generation had indeed come. We
waited twelve months, and " the turrets and towers of old
institutions — the church, law, nobility, government —
reappeared above the subsiding wave." Now there are no
such institutions here ; — no law that can abide one moment
when popular opinion demands its abrogation. The gov
ernment is wrecked the moment the newspapers decree
it. The penny papers of this State in the Sims case did
more to dictate the decision of Chief Justice Shaw, than
the Legislature that sat in the State-House, or the statute-
book of Massachusetts. I mean what I say. The penny
papers of New York do more to govern this country than
the White House at Washington. Mr. Webster says we
live under a government of laws. He was never more
mistaken, even when he thought the antislavery agita
tion could be stopped. We live under a government of
men — and morning newspapers. [Applause.] Bennett
and Horace Greeley are more really Presidents of the
United States than Millard Fillmore. Daniel Webster
himself cannot even get a nomination. Why ? Because,

48 PUBLIC OPINION.
long ago, the ebbing tide of public opinion left him a
wreck, stranded on the side of the popular current.
We live under a government of men. The Constitu
tion is nothing in South Carolina, but the black law is
everything. The law that says the colored man shall sit
in the jury-box in the city of Boston is nothing. Why ?
Because the Mayor and Aldermen, and the Selectmen of
Boston, for the last fifty years, have been such slaves of
colorphobia, that they did not choose to execute this law
of the Commonwealth. I might go through the statute-
book, and show you the same result. Now if this be
true against us, it is true for us. Remember, that the
penny papers may be starved into antislavery, whenever
we shall put behind them an antislavery public senti
ment. Wilberforce and Clarkson had to vanquish the
moneyed power of England, the West India interest, and
overawe the peerage of Great Britain, before they con
quered. The settled purpose of the great middle class .
had to wait till all this was accomplished. The moment
we have the control of public opinion, — the women and
the children, the school-houses, the school-books, the litera-,
ture, and the newspapers, — that moment we have settled
the question.
Men blame us for the bitterness of our language and.the
personality of our attacks. It results from our position.
The great mass of the people can never be made to stay
and argue a long question. They must be made to feel it,
through the hides of their idols. When you have launched
your spear into the rhinoceros hide of a Webster or a Ben
ton, every Whig and Democrat feels it. It is on this
principle that every reform must take for its text the
mistakes of great men. God gives us great scoundrels for
texts to antislavery sermons. See to it, when Nature
has provided you a monster like Webster, that you exhibit
him — himself a whole menagerie — throughout the coun-

PUBLIC OPINION. 49
try. [Great cheering.] It is not often, in the wide world's
history, that you see a man so lavishly gifted by nature,
and called, in the concurrence of events, to a position like
that which he occupied on the seventh of IMarch, surrender
his great power, and quench the high hopes of his race.
No man, since the age of Luther, has ever held in his
hand, so palpably, the destinies and character of a mighty
people. He stood like the Hebrew prophet betwixt the
living and the dead. He had but to have upheld the cross
of common truth anel honesty, and the black chshonor of
two hundred years would have been effaced forever. He
boweel his vassal head to the temptations of the fiesh and
of lucre. He gave himself up into the lap of the Delilah
of slavery, for the mere promise of a nomination, and the
greatest hour of the age was bartered away, — not for a
mess of pottage, but for the promise of a mess of pottage,
— a promise, thank God ! which is to be broken. [En
thusiastic applause.] I say, it is not often that Providence
permits the eyes of twenty millions of thinking people to
behold the fall of another Lucifer, from the very battle
ments of Heaven, down into that " lower deep of the
lowest deep " of hell. [Great sensation.] On such a
text, how effective should be the sermon !
Let us see to it, that, in spite of the tenderness of Amer
ican prejudice, in spite of the morbid charity that would
have us rebuke the sin, but spare the sinner, in spite of
this effeminate Christianity, that Avould let millions pine,
lest one man's feelings be injured, — let us see to it, friends,
that we be " harsh as truth and micompromising as jus
tice " ; remembering always, that every single man set
against this evil may be another Moses, every single
thought you launch may be the thunders of another Na
poleon from the steps of another St. Roche ; remembering
that we live not in an age of individual despotism, when a
Charles the Fifth could set up or put down the slave-trade,
4 D

50 PUBLIC OPINION.
but surrounded by twenty millions, whose opinion is om
nipotent, — that the hundred g«ithered in a New England
school-house may be the hundred who shall teach the rising
men of the other half of the continent, and stereotype Free
dom on the banks of the Pacific ; remembering and wor
shipping reverentially the great American 'idea of the
omnipotence of "thinking men," of the "sentiment of
justice," against which no throne is potent enough to
stand, no Constitution sacred enough to endure. Remem
ber this, when you go to an antislavery gathering in a
school-house, and know that, weighed against its solemn
purpose, its terrible resolution, its earnest thought, Web
ster himself, and all huckstering statesmen, in the opposite
scale, shall kick the beam. Worshijjping the tongue, let
us be willing, at all times, to be known throughout the
community as the all-talk party. The age of bullets is
OYQr. The age of men armed in mail is over. The age
of thrones has gone by. The age of statesmen — God be
praised! smc^ statesmen — is over. The age of thinking
men has come. With the aid of God, then, every man I
can reach I will set thinking on the subject of slavery.
[Cheers.] The age of reading men has come. I will try
to imbue every newspaper with Garrisonianism. [Loud
applause.] The age of the masses has come. Now,
Daniel Webster counts one. Give him joy of it! — but
the " rub-a-dub agitation " comits at least twenty, — nine
teen better. Nineteen, whom no chance of nomination
tempts to a change of opinions once a twelvemonth ; who
need no Kossuth advent to recall them to their senses.
What I want to impress you with is, the great weight
that is attached to the opinion of everything that can call
itself a man. Give me anything that walks erect, and can
read, and he shall count one in the millions of the Lord's
sacramental host, which is yet to come up and trample all
oppression in the dust. The weeds poured forth in na-

PUBLIC OPINION. 51
ture's lavish luxuriance, give them but time, and their tiny
roots shall rend asunder the foundations of palaces, and
crumble the Pyramids to the earth. We may be weeds
in comparison with these markeel men ; but in the lavish
luxuriance of that nature which has at least allowerl us to
be "thinking, reading men," I learn, Web.ster being my
witness, that there is no throne potent enough to stand
against us. It is morbid enthusiasm this that I have.
Grant it. But they tell us that this heart of mine, which
beats so unintermittedly in the bosom, if its force could be
directed against a granite pillar, would wear it to dust in
the course of a man's life. Your Capitol, Daniel Webster,
is marble, but the pulse of every humane man is beating
against it. God will give us time, and the pulses of men
shall beat it down. [Loud and enthusiastic cheering.]
Take the mines, take the Harwich fishing-skiffs, take
the Lowell mills, take all the coin and the cotton, still
the day must be ours, thank God, for the hearts- — the
hearts are on our side !
There is nothing stronger than human prejudice. A
crazy sentimentalism like that of Peter the Hermit hurled
half of Europe upon Asia, and changeel the destinies of
kingdoms. We may be crazy. Would to God he would
make us all crazy enough to forget for one moment the
cold deductions of intellect, and let these hearts of ours
beat, beat, beat, under the promptings of a common hu
manity ! They have put wickedness into the statute-book,
and its destruction is just as certain as if they had put
gunpowder under the Capitol. That is my faith. That
it is which turns my eye from the ten thousand news
papers, from the forty thousand pulpits, from the millions
of Whigs, from the millions of Democrats, from the might
of sect, from the marble government, from the iron army,
from the navy riding at anchor, from all that we are accus
tomed to deem great and potent, — turns it back to the
simplest child or woman, to the first murmured protest

52 PUBLIC OPINION.
that is heard against bad laws. I recognize in it the great
future, the first rumblings of that volcano destined to over
throw these mighty preparations, and bury in the hot lava
of its full excitement all this laughing prosperity which now
rests so secure on its side.
All hail. Public Opinion ! To be sure, it is a dangerous
thing under which to live. It rules to-day in the desu'e to
obey all kinds of laws, and takes your life. It rules again
in the love of liberty, and rescues Shadrach from Boston
Court-House. It rules to-morrow in the manhood of him
who loads the musket to shoot down — God be praised ! —
the man-hunter, Gorsuch. [Applause.] It rules in Syra
cuse, and the slave escapes to Canada. It is our interest
to educate this people in humanity, and in deep reverence
for the rights of the lowest and humblest individual that
makes up our numbers. Each man here, in fact, holds his
property and his life dependent on the constant presence
of an agitation like this of antislavery. Eternal vigi
lance is the price of liberty : power is ever stealing from
the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must
be gathered each day, or it is rotten. The living sap of
to-day outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand
intrusted with power becomes, either from human deprav
ity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people.
Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be
prevented fi-om hardening into a despot : only by uninter-
niitted agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake
to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material
prosperity. All clouds, it is said, have sunshine behind
them, and all evils have some good result ; so slavery, by
the necessity of its abolition, has saved the freedom of the
white race from being melted in the luxury or buried be
neath the gold of its own success. Never look, therefore,
for an age when the people can be quiet and safe. At
such times Despotism, hke a shrouding mist, steals over
the mirror of Freedom. The Dutch, a thousand years

PUBLIC OPINION. 53
ago, built against the ocean their bulwarks of willow and
mud. Do they trust to that ? No. Each year the patient,
industrious peasant gives so much time from the cultivation
of his soil and the care of his children to stop the breaks
and replace the willow which insects have eaten, that he
may keep the land his fathers rescued from the water, and
bid defiance to the waves that roar above his head, as if
demanding back the broad fields man has stolen from their
realm. Some men suppose that, in order to the people's govern
ing themselves, it is only necessary, as Fisher Ames said,
that the " Rights of Man be printed, and that every citizen
have a copy." As the Epicureans, two thousand years
ago, imagined God a being who arranged this marvellous
machinery, set it going, and then sunk to sleep. Republics
exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated. The
antislavery agitation is an important, nay, an essential
part of the machinery of the state. It is not a disease
nor a medicine. No ; it is the normal state, — the normal
state of the nation. Never, to our latest posterity, can wc
afford to do without prophets, like Garrison, to stir up thr
monotony of wealth, and reawake the people to the great
ideas that are constantly fading out of their minds, — to
trouble the waters, that there may be health in their flow.
Every government is always growing corrupt. Every
Secretary of State is, by the very necessity of his position,
an apostate. [Hisses and cheers.] I mean what I say.
He is an enemy to the people, of necessity, because the
moment he joins the government, he gravitates against
that popular agitation which is the life of a republic. A
republic is nothing but a constant overflow of lava. The
principle's of Jefferson are not up to the principles of to
day. It was well said of Webster, that he knows well
the Hancock and Adams of 1776, but he does not know
the Hancocks and Adamses of to-day. The republic that
smks to sleep, trusting to constitutions and machinery, to

54 PUBLIC OPINION.
politicians and statesmen, for the safety of its liberties, never
will have any. The people are to be waked to a new
effort, just as the Church has to be regenerated, in each
age. The antislavery agitation is a necessity of each age,
to keep ever on the aiert this faithful vigilance, so con
stantly in danger of sleep. We must live, like our Pu
ritan fathers, who always went to church, and sat down
to dinner, when the Indians were in their neighborhood,
with their musket-lock on the one side and a drawn sword
on the other.
If I had time or voice to-night, I might proceed to a
further development of this idea, and I trust I could make
it clear, which I fear I have not yet done. To my con
viction, it is Gospel truth, that, instead of the antislavery
agitation being an evil, or even the unwelcome cure of a
disease in this government, the youngest child that lives
may lay his hand on the youngest child that his gfay hairs
may see, and say: "The agitation was commenced
^vhen the Declaration of Independence was signed ; it
took its second tide when the Antislavery Declaration
was signed in 1833, — a movement, not the cure, but the
diet of a free people, — not the homoeopathic or the allo
pathic dose to which a sick land has recourse, but tlie
daily cold water and the simple bread, the daily diet
and absolute necessity, the manna of a people wander
ing in the wilderness." There is no Canaan in politics.
As health lies in labor, and there is no royal road to it but
through toil, so there is no republican road to safety but
in constant distrust. " In distrust," said Demosthenes,
" are the nerves of, the mind." Let us see to it that these
sentinel nerves are ever on the alert. If the Alps, piled
in cold and still sublimity, be the emblem of Despotism,
the ever-restless ocean is ours, which, girt within the
eternal laws of gravitation, is pure only because never
still. [Long-continued applause.]

SURRENDER OF SIMS.*

MR. PRESIDENT : I do not feel disposed to talk
about Colonization to-night, and I am glad to think
that, after the remarks already submitted to us, it is un
necessary anything more should be said on that topic. I
mean, the colonization of black men to Africa. I have
been colonized myself from this liall for some time ; and
in getting here again, I prefer to go back to the old note,
and try to get the " hang of this school-house." [Laugh
ter.] You know Baron Munchausen says, in one of his
marvellous stories, that it was so cold one day in Russia,
when he began to play a tune on his trumpet, that half of
it froze in the instrument before it could get out ; and a
few months afterwards, he was startled, in Italy, to hear,
of a sudden, the rest of the tune come pealing forth. We
were somewhat frozen up a while ago in this hall, with
George Thompson on the platform ; now we want the
rest of the tune. [Laughter and cheers.]
The Mail of this morning says that we have no right
to this hall, because it was refused to the greatest states
man in the land, — to Daniel Webster. I believe this is
a mistake. The Mayor and Aldermen went to him, meta
phorically, on their knees, and entreated the great man to
make use of the old walls. It was the first time Faneuil
* Speech before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, at Faneuil Hall,
Friday evening, Januaiy 30, 1852.

56 SUKEENDEE OF SIMS.
Hall ever begged anybody to enter it ; but Daniel was
pettish, and would not come. Very proper in him, too ;
it is not the place in which to defend the Fugitive Slave
Bill. He did right when he refused to come. Who
built these walls ? Peter Faneuil's ancestors were them
selves fugitives fi-om an edict almost as cruel as the
Fugitive Slave Law ; and only he whose soul and body
refuse to crouch beneath inhuman legislation has a right
to be heard here, — nobody else. [Cheers.] A Hugue
not built this hall, who was not permitted to live on the
soil of his own beautiful France, and it may naturally be
supposed that he dedicated it to the most ultra, outside
idea of liberty. It is a place for the running slave to find
a shelter, — not for a recreant statesman. [Deafening
cheers.] This hall has never been made ridiculous but once ;
never was made the laughing-stock of Ncav England but
once. That was about nine months ago, when the " Sims
brigade " were left soundly asleep here, in the gray of the
morning, while the awkward squad of Marshal Tukey
stole down State Street with Thomas Sims, not deigning
to ask their permission or their aid, and leavmg them to
find out, the next morning, that the great deed had been
done, without their so much as " hearing a noise." Sol
diers asleep in Faneuil Hall, while mischief was doing so
near as State Street ? O what gallant soldiers they must
have been ! [Loud laughter and cheers.]
Times have changed since we were here before. The
last time I stood on this platform, there sat beside me a
heroine worthy to sit in the hall of the old Huguenot, —
one Ehzabeth Blakeley, a mulatto girl, of WUmington,
N. C, who, loving freedom more than slavery, concealed
herself on board a Boston brig, in the little narrow pas
sage between the side of the vessel and the partition that
formed the cabin, — two feet eight inches of room. There.

SUEEENDEE OF SIMS. 57
she lay while her inhuman master, almost certain she was
on board the vessel, had it smoked with sulphur and
tobacco three times over. Still she bore it. She came
North, half frozen, in the most inclement month of the
year, — this month. She reached Boston just able to
crawl. Where did she come ? O those were better
times then ! She came here. Just able to stand, fresh
from that baptism of suffering for liberty, she came here.
We told her story. And with us that night — within
ten feut of where I stand — sat Fredrika Bremer, the
representative of the literature of the Old World ; and her
humane sympathies were moved so much, that the rose
bud she held in her hand she sent (honoring me by
sending it by my hand) to the first representative of
American slavery she had seen. It was the tribute of
Europe's heart and intellect to a heroine of the black race,
in Faneuil Hall. Times have changed since. Not to
speak of the incense which Miss Bremer has, half igno-
rantly, I hope, laid on the demon altar of our land, it would
not be safe to put that Betsey Blakeley on this platform
to-night ; it would not be safe for her to appear in a public
meeting. What has changed this public opinion ? I wish
it was some single man. I wish it was some official of the
city, that so we could make him the scapegoat of public
indignation, let him carry it forth, and thus the fair fame
of our city be freed. This, Mr. President, brings me to
my subject. The resolutions I wish to speak to are these.
I tliink they ought to be read in Faneuil Hall, at this, the
first meeting the Abolitionists have held here since the
foul deed of April 12th disgraced the city. I feel that
these peddling hucksters of State and Milk Streets owe
me full atonement for the foul dishonor they have brought
upon the city of my birth.
" Resolved, That, as citizens of Boston and the Commonwealth,
we record our deep disapprobation and indignant protest against

58 S-JEEENDEE OF SIMS.
the surrender of Thomas Sims by the city, its sanction of the
cowardly and lying policy of the police, its servile and volunteer
zeal in behalf of the man-hunters, and its deliberate, wanton, and
avowed violation of the laws of the Commonwealth, for the
basest of all purposes, — slave-trading, seUing a free man into
bondage, that State Street and Milk Street might make money.'*
Next we come to that man [John P. Bigelow] who
stood at yonder door, looking on, while George Thompson
was mobbed from this platform ; who, neither an honorable
Mayor nor a gentleman, broke at once his oath of office and
his promise as a gentleman to give us this hall for certain
eighty dollars to be paid him, and when he had stood by
and seen us mobbed out of it, thought he mended his
character by confessing his guilt, in not daring to send in
a bill !
" Resolved, That the circumstances of the case wiU not allow us
to beheve that this infamous deed was the act of the City Gov
ernment only ; and then, as Boston-born men, some of us, com
forting ourselves in the reflection that the fawning sycophant
who disgraced the Mayor's chair was not born on the peninsula
whose fair fame he blotted ; but all the facts go to show, that in
this, as in all his life, he was only the easy and shufiling tool of
the moneyed classes, and therefore too insignificant to be remem
bered with any higher feeling than contempt.
" Resolved, That we cherish a deep and stern indignation
towards the judges of the Commonwealth, who, in personal
cowardice, pitiful subserviency, utter lack of official dignity, and
entire disregard of their official oaths, witnessed in silence the
violation of laws they were bound to enforce, and disgraced the
Bench once honored by the presence of a Sedgwick and a
Sewall." I do not forget that the Church, all the while this
melancholy scene was passing, stood by and upheld a
merciless people in the execution of an inhuman law,
accepted the barbarity, and baptized it " Christian duty."

SUEEENDEE OF SIMS. 59
O no, I do not forget this ! But I remember that, in an
enterprising, trading city like ours, the merchants are full
as much, if not more, responsible for the state of public
opinion, than the second-rate men who rather occupy
than fill our pulpits, and who certainly seldom tempt the
brains of their hearers to violate the command of the
Jewish Scriptures, " Thou shalt not do any work on die
Sabbath day."
Do you ask why the Abolitionists denounce the traders
of Boston ? It is because the merchants chose to send
back Thomas Sims, — pledged their individual aid to "^
Marshal Tukey, in case there should be any resistance ;
it is because the merchants did it to make money. Thank
God, they have not made any ! [Great cheering.] Like
the negro who went to hear Whitefield, and rolled in the
dust in the enthusiasm of his religious excitement, until
they told him it was not Whitefield, when he picked him
self up, crying out, " Then I dirty myself for nothing,"
so they dirtied themselves for nothing ! [Tremendous
cheering.] If only slave-hunting can save them, may
bankruptcy sit on the ledger of every one of those fifteen
hundred scoundrels who offered Marshal Tuliey their aid !
[Tumultuous applause.]
There is one thing to be rejoiced at, — it is this: the
fact that the police of this city did not dare even to arrest
a fugitive slave, calling him such. The dogs of Marshal
Tukey that arrested Thomas Sims in Richmond Street
had to disguise themselves to do it, — dressed in the
costume and called themselves watchmen ; and told a lie,
— that the arrest was for theft, — in order to keep peace
in the street, while they smuggled him mto a carriage.
Claim, for the honor of Boston, that, when her police
became man-hunters, they put their badges in their pockets,
and lied, lest their prey should be torn from their grasp,
in the first burst of popular indignation. It was the first

60 SUEEENDEE OF SIMS.
time in Boston — I hope it will be the last — that the laws
were obliged to be executed by lying and behind bayonets,
in the night. So much, though it be very little, may still
be said for Boston, — that Sims was arrested by lying and
disguised policemen ; he was judged by a Commissioner
who sat behind bayonets ; and was carried off in the gray
of the morning, after the moon set, and before the sun
rose, by a police body armed with swords. She was dis
graced, but it was by force ; while, the reverse of the
Roman rule, cedant arma toga, the robe gave way to the
sword. The law was executed ; but it was behind bayo
nets. Such laws do not last long. [Loud cheers.]
Courts that sit behind chains seldom sit more than once.
[Renewed cheering.]
[A Voice : " The Whigs defend it."]
O, I know that Mr. Choate has been here, — I heard
him, and before a Whig caucus, defend the poKcy of the
Fugitive Slave Bill. He told us, while I sat in yonder
gallery, of the " infamous ethics," — the '¦'¦ infamous ethics,
that fi-om the Declaration of Independence and the Ser
mon on the Mount deduced the duty of immediate eman
cipation." The sentiment was received, I am thankful to
say, with a solemn silence, though Rufus Choate uttered it
to an assembly of Webster Whigs. I heard it said to-day,
that the Abolitionists had done nothing, because a fugitive,
within the last twelve months, had been taken out of
Boston. They have done a great deal since, sixteen or
seventeen years ago, Peleg Sprague, standing on this
platform, pointed to this portrait, [the portrait of Wash
ington,] and called him "that slaveholder." It is not
now considered a merit in Washington that he held
slaves; men apologize for it now. I stood in this hall,
sixteen years ago, when " Abolitionist " was linked with
epithets of contempt, in the sflver tones of Otis, and all
the charms that a divine eloquence and most felicitous

SUEEENDEE OF SIMS. 61
diction could throw around a bad cause were given it ;
the excited multitude seemed actually ready to leap up
beneath the magic of his speech. It would be something,
if one must die, to die by such a hand, — a hand somewhat
worthy and able to stifle antislavery, if it could be stifled.
The orator was worthy of the gigantic task he attempted ;
and thousands crowded before him, every one of their
hearts melted by that eloquence, beneath which Massa
chusetts had bowed, not unworthily, for more than thirty
years. I came here again last fall, — the first time I had
been here, in a Whig meeting, since listening to Otis. I
found Rufus Choate on the platform. Compared with the
calm grace and dignity of Otis, the thought of which came
rushing back, he struck me like a monkey in convulsions.
[Roars of laughter and cheers.] Alas ! I said, if the party
which has owned ]\Iassachusetts so long, which spoke to
me, as a boy, through the lips of Quincy and Sullivan, of
Webster and Otis, has sunk down to the miserable sophis
try of this mountebank ! — anel I felt proud of the city of
my birth, as I looked over the murmuring multitude be
neath me, on whom his spasmodic chatter fell like a wet
blanket. [Great laughter and cheering.] Pie did not dare
to touch a second time on the Fugitive Slave Bill. He
tried it once, with his doctrine of "infamous ethics," and
the men were as silent as the pillars around them. Ah !
thought I, we have been here a little too often ; and if we
have not impressed the seal of our sentiments very deeply
on the people, they have at least learned that immediate
emancipation, though possibly it be a cfream, is not " in
famous ethics " ; and that such doctrine, the Declaration
of Independence and the Sermon on the Mount, need
more than the flashy rhetoric of a Webster retainer to
tear them asunder. [Great cheering.]
The judges of the Commonwealth, — the judges of the
Commonwealth, — I have something to say of them. I

62 SUEEENDEE OF SIMS.
wish sometimes we lived in England, and I will tell you
why. Because John Bull has some degree of self-respect
left. There is an innate, dogged obstinacy in him, that
would never permit the successors of a Hale, a BuUer, a
Mansfield, or a Broughahi, to stoop beneath any chain that
a city constable could put round Westminster Hall. I
was once a member of the profession myself, but glad I am
so no longer, since the head of it has bowed his burly per
son to Francis Tukey's , chain. [Cheers.] Dirl he not
know that he was making history that hour, when the
Chief Justice of the Commonwealth entered his own
court, bowing down like a criminal beneath a chain four
feet from the soil ? Did he not recollect he was the
author of that decision which shall be remembered when
every other case in Pickering's Reports is lost, declaring
the slave Med a free woman the moment she set foot on
the soil of Massachusetts, and that he owed more respect
to himself and his own fame than to disgrace the ermine
by passing beneath a chain ? There is something in em
blems. There is something, on great occasions, even in
the attitude of a man. Chief Justice Shaw betrayed the
bench and the courts of the Commonwealth, and the
honor of a noble profession, when for any purpose, stiU
less for the purpose of enabling George T. Curtis to act
his melancholy farce in peace, he crept under a chain into
his own court-room. And, besides, what a wanton and
gratuitous insult it was ! What danger was there, with
two hundred men inside the court-house, and three hun
dred men around it on the sidewalk ? Near five hundred
sworn policemen in and around that building, — what need
for any chain ? It was put there in wanton insult to the
feelings of the citizens of Boston, — nothing else ; in wan
ton servility to the Slave Power, — nothing else ; in wanton
flattery to Daniel Webster. Yes, it was the gratuitousness
of the insult that makes it all the more unbearable ! And

SUEEENDEE OF SIMS. 68
the " old chief," as we loved to call him, made himself, in
timid servility, party to the insult and the degradation.
How truly American ! Ah, our slave system by no means
exists only on Southern plantations !
We are said to be unreasonable in this manner of criti
cising the institutions, laws, and men of our country. It
is thought that, as little men, we are bound to tune our
voices and bow our heads to the great intellects, as they
are called, of the land, — Mr. Webster and others. He
tells us, that there are certain important interests con
cerned' in this question, which we are bound to regard,
and not abstract theories about the equality of men, and
the freedom of humble individuals. Well, all I say to
that is, when dollars are to be discussed, let him discuss
them with Franklin Haven, in the directors' room of the
Merchants' Bank. Let him discuss them over the bursting
ledgers of Milk Street, — that is the place for dollar talks.
But there is no room for dollars in Faneuil Hall. The
idea of liberty is the great fundamental principle of this
spot, — that a man is worth more than a baiik- vault.
[Loud cheers.]
I know Mr. Webster has, on various occasions, intimated
that this is not statesmanship in the United States ; that
the cotton-mills of Lowell, the schooners of Cape Cod, the
coasters of Marblehead, the coal and iron mines of Penn
sylvania, and the business of Wall Street are the great
interests which this government is framed to protect. He
intimated, all through the recent discussion, that property
is the great element this government is to stand by anel
protect, — the test by which its success is to be appreci
ated. Perhaps it is so ; perhaps it is so ; and if the mak
ing of money, if ten per cent a year, if the placing of one
dollar on the top of another, be the highest effort of human
skill ; if the answer to the old Puritan catechism, " What
is the chief end of man ? " is to be changed, as, according

64 SUEEENDEE OF SIMS.
to modem state craft it ought to be, why, be it so.
Nicholas of Russia made a catechism for the Poles, in
which they are taught that Christ is next below God, and
the Emperor of all the Russias is next below Christ. So,
judging by the tenor of his recent speeches, Daniel has got
a new catechism, " What is the chief end of man ? " The
old one of the Westminster divines, of Selden and Hugh
Peters, of Cotton and the Mathers, used to answer, " To
glorify God and enjoy him forever " ; that is Kane-treason,
now. The " chief end of man " ? — why, it is to save the
Union !
A Voice. — " Three cheers for the Union ! "
Me. Phillips. — Feeble cheers those ! — [Great ap
plause] — and a very thankless office it is to defend the
Union on that lay. Did you ever read the fable of the
wolf and the house-dog ? The one was fat, the other gaunt
and famine-struck. The wolf said to the dog, " You are
very fat." "Yes," replied the dog, "I get along very
well at home." " Well," said the wolf, " could you take
me home ? " " 0, certainly." So they trotted along
together ; but as they neared the house, the wolf caught
sight of several ugly scars on the neck of the dog, and,
stopping, cried, " Where did you get those scars on your
neck? they look very sore and bloody." " 0," said the
dog, " they tie me up at night, and I have rather an incon
venient iron collar on my neck. But that 's a small matter ;
they feed me well." " On the whole," said the wolf, " tak
ing the food and the collar together, I prefer to remain in
the woods." Now, if I am allowed to choose, I do not
like the collar of Daniel Webster and Parson Dewey, and
there are certain ugly scars I see about their necks. I
should not like. Dr. Dewey, to promise to return my
mother to slavery ; and, Mr. Webster, I prefer to be
lean and keep my " prejudices," to getting fat by smoth
ering them. I do not like your idea of the Yankee char-

SURKEXDER OF SDIS. 65
acter, which seems to be too near that of the Scotchman,
of whom Dr. Johnson said, that, if he skw a dollar on the
other side of hell, he would make a spring for it at the
risk of falling in. [Laughter.] Under correction of these
great statesmen and divines, I cannot think this the heau
ideal of human perfection. I do not care whether the
schooners of Harwich, under slaveholding bunting, catch
fish and keep them or not ; I do not care whether the
mills of Abbott Lawrence make him worth two millions or
one, whether the iron and coal mines of Pennsylvania are
profitable or not, if, in order to have them profitable, we
must go down on our marrow-bones and thank Daniel
Webster for sa-^dng his Union, call ilayor Bigelow an
honorable man and Mayor, and acknowledge Francis
Tukey as Chief Justice of the Commonwealth. I prefer
hunger and the woods to the hopeless task of maintaining
the sincerity of Daniel Webster, or bending under the
chain of Francis Tukey. [Tremendous cheering.]
Sir, I have something to say of this old Commonwealth.
I went up one day into the Senate-chamber of Massachu
setts, in which the Otises, the Quincys, and the Adamses,
Parsons and Sedg^vick, Sewall anel Strong, have sat and
spoke in times gone by, — in which the noblest legislation
in the world, on many great points of human concern, has
maele her the noblest State in the world, — the good old
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, — and I stood there to
see this impudent City Marshal tell the Senate of Massa
chusetts that he knew he was trampling on the laws of
the Commonwealth, and that he intended to do so, as
Maj-ors told him to ! And there was not spirit enough
in the Free Soil party, — no, nor in the Democratic
party, — there was not self-respect enough in the very
Senators who were sworn to maintain these laws, to de
fend them against this insolent boast of a citv constable.
Now, fellow-citizens, you may, and probably do, think
5

66 SUEEENDEE OF SIMS.
me a fanatic ; till you judge men and things on different
principles, I do not care much what you think me ; I
have outgrown that interesting anxiety : but I tell you
this, if I see the Commonwealth upside down, I mean
to keep my neck free enough from collars to say so ; and
I think it is upside down when a city constable dictates
law in the Senate-chamber of Massachusetts. [Loud
cheers.] Mr. President, let me add one thing more. For Francis
Tukey I have no epithet of contempt or of indignation.
He may, and does, for aught I know, perform his duties
as City Marshal efficiently and well. I know he would,
had he been present, have done his duty, and his deputy
stood ready to do it that night in George Thompson's
presence, if we had really had a Mayor, and not a lackey
in the Mayor's chair. [Great laughter and cheering.] I
find little fault, comparatively, with the City Marshal of
Boston, that he did the infamous duty which the merchants
of Boston set him. The fault that I rather choose to note
is, that the owner of the brig Acorn can walk up State
Street, and be as honored a man as he was before ; that
John H. Pearson walks our streets as erect as ever, and
no merchant shrinks from his side. But we will put the
fact that he owned that brig, and the infamous uses he
made of it, so blackly on record, that his children — yes.
His CHILDREN — will gladly, twenty years hence, forego
all the wealth he will leave them to blot out that single
record. ' [Enthusiastic applause.] The time shall come
when it will be thought the unkindest thing in the world
for any one to remind the son of that man that his father's
name was John H. Pearson, and that he owned the Acorn.
[Renewed cheering.]
[At this point a voice called out, " Three cheers for John H. Pear
son." After what had been said from the platform, such a call was
not likely to be very warmly responded to ; but one or two voices
were raised, and Mr. Phillips continued.]

SURRENDER OF SIMS. 67
Yes, it is fitting that the cheer should be a poor one,
when, in the presence of that merchant [pointing to the
portrait of John Hancock], of that merchant who led the
noblest movement for civil liberty ever made on this side
the ocean, — when in his presence you attempt to cheer
this miserable carrier of slaves, who calls himself, and alas !
according to the present average of State Street, has a
right to call himself, a Boston merchant.
I want to remark one other change, since we were shut
out of Faneuil Hall. It is this. Within a few months, I
stood in this hall, when Charles Francis Adams was on
the platform; — a noble representative, a worthy son, let
me say in passing, of the two Adamses that hung here
above him. While here he had occasion to mention the
name of Daniel Webster, as I have once or twice to-night,
and it was received with cheer on cheer, four, five, and
six times repeateel during the course of his speech. In fact,
he could hardly go on for the noisy opposition. That was
at a time when some men were crazy enough to think that
Daniel would yet be nominated for the Presidency ; but
those gaudy soap-bubbles have all burst. [" Three cheers
for Daniel Webster."] Yes, three cheers for Sir Pertinax
M'Sycophant, who all his life long has been bowing down
to the Slave Power to secure the Presidency ; willing to
sacrifice his manhood for the promise of a mess of pottage,
and destined to be outwitted at last. [Cheers.] Three
cheers for the man who, after "many great and swelling
words " against Texas, when finally the question of the
Mexican war was before the Senate, did not dare to vote,
but dodged the question, afraid to be wholly Southerner
or Northerner, and striving in vain to outdo Winthrop in
facing both ways. [Cheers.] Three cheers for the man
who went into Virginia, and, under an " October sun " "f
the Old Dominion, pledged himself — the recreant New-
Englander ! — to silence on the slave question ; a pledge

68 SUEEENDEE OF SIMS.
infamous enough in itself, but whose infamy was doubled
when he broke it only to speak against the slave on the
7th of March, 1850. Three cheers for him ! [They were
given, but so faintly, that a shout of derision went up from
the whole audience.] Three cheers for the statesman who
said on the steps of the Revere House that "this agitation -
must be put down," and the agitationists have entered
Faneuil Hall before him. [Great applause.] Three
cheers for the man who could afford no better name to
the Abolitionists than " rub-a-dub agitators," till Kossuth
found no method but theirs to chain the millions to him
self; and then this far-sighted statesman discovered that
" there were people inclined to underrate the influence of
public opinion." [Laughter.] Three cheers for the man
who gave the State a new motive to send Horace Mann
back to Washington, lest we should be thought guilty
abroad of shocking bad taste in the old imperial tongue
of the Romans. [Laughter.] Three cheers for the man —
(O, I like to repeat the Book of Daniel !) — three cheers
for " the Whig, the Massachusetts Whig, the Faneuil
Hall Whig," who came home to Massachusetts, — his own
Massachusetts, the State he thought he owned, body and
soul, — who came home to Massachusetts, and lobbied so
efficiently as to secure the election of Charles Sumner to
the Senate of the United States. [Loud cheers.]
[A voice : " Three cheers for Charles Sumner.'' Overwhelming
applause. " Three cheers for Webster." Mr. Phillips continued : — ]
Faintly given, those last; but I do not much care,
Mr. Chairman, which way the balance of cheers goes in
respect to the gentleman whose name has just been
mentioned [Mr. Webster]. It is said, you know, that
when Washington stood before the surrendering army
of Comwallis, some of the American troops, as Corii-
walUs came forward to surrender his sword, began, in very
bad taste, to cheer. The noble Virginian turned to them

SUEEENDEE OF SIMS. 69
and said, " Let posterity cheer for us " ; and they were
silent. Now, if Daniel Webster has done anything on
the subject of slavery which posterity will not have the
kindness to forget, may he get cheers for it, fifty years
hence, and in this hall ; using my Yankee privilege, how
ever, " I rather guess " some future D'Israeli will be able
to put that down in continuation of his grandfather's
chapter of " events that never took place." I much, I
very much doubt, whether, fifty years hence, jNIassachu-
setts will not choose men with back-bones to send to Wa.sh-
ington ; not men who go there to yield up to the great
temptations, social and political, of the capital, the interests
and the honor of Massachusetts and New England. I be-
lieve, no matter whether the Abolitionists have done much
or little, that the average of political independence has
risen within the last ten or fifteen years. I know that
strange sounds have been heard from the House of Rep
resentatives and the Senate within the last ten or fifteen
years : that the old tone so often breathed there of North
ern submission has very much changed since John Quincy
Adams vinelicated free speech on the floor of that House.
I read just now a speech worthy, in some respects, of
Faneuil Hall, from the lips of Robert Rantoul, in rebuke
of a recreant Abolitionist from the banks of the Connecti
cut (George T. Davis). I know not what may be the
future course of Mr. Rantoul on this question ; I know
not how erect he may stand hereafter ; but I am willing
to give him good credit in the future, so well paid has
been this his first bill of exchange. [Great cheering.]
He has done, at least, his duty to the constituency he
represented. He looked North for his instractions. The
time has been ¦ when no Mass.achusetts representative
looked North ; we saw only their backs. They have
always looked to the Southern Cross ; they never turned
their eyes to the North Star. They never looked back to

70 SUEEENDEE OF SIMS.
the Massachusetts that sent them. Charles Allen and
Horace Mann, no matter how far they may be from the
level of what we call antislavery, show us at least this
cheering sign. While speaking, they have turned their
faces toward Massachusetts. They reflect the public opin
ion of the State they represent. They look to Faneuil
Hall, not to " the October sun of the Old Dominion."
Now, Mr. Chairman, if we can come to this hall, year
after year ; if we can hold these meetings ; if we can
sustain any amount of ridicule for the sake of antislavery ;
if we can fill yonder State-House with legislative action
that shall vindicate the old fame of the State ; if we can
fill every town-house and school-house in the State with
antislavery agitation, — then the eyes of every caucus and
every political meeting, and of Congress, will all turn
North, and, God vrilling, they shall see a North worth
looldng at. We will have better evidence than the some
what apocryphal assurance of Mr. Websterj at Marsh-
field, in '48, that the North Star is at last discovered.
There will not only be a shrine^ but worshippers.
[Cheers.] I have not the voice to detain this meeting any longer.
I am rejoiced to find myself again in Faneuil Hall. I am
glad it has so happened that the very first meeting of the
¦Massachusetts Antislavery Society since, April 12th, 1851,
has been within thfese walls, and that, the first note of their
rebuke of the city government, and of the Milk Street
interest whose servant it stooped to be, has been fi-om the
platform of Faneuil Hall. [Applause.]

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. •

M

R. CHAIRMAN: There is a resolution on your
table to this effect : —

" Resolved, Therefore, That we advise all colored persons,
liable to these arrests, to leave the United States, unless they
are fully resolved to take the life of any officer who shall attempt,
under any pretext, to seize them ; and we urge the formation in
every town of vigilance committees, prepared to secure to every
person claimed as a slave the fullest trial possible, and to avail
themselves fearlessly, according to their best judgment, of all the
means God and Nature have put into their hands, to see that
substantial justice be done."
To this Mr. Garrison moves as an amendment the
following : — -
" Resolved, That if ' resistance to tyrants,' by bloody weapons,
' is obedience to God,' and if our Revolutionary fathers were justi
fied in wading through blood to freedom and independence, then
every fugitive slave is justified in arming himself for protection
and defence, — in taking the life of every marshal, commissioner,
or other person who attempts to reduce him to bondage ; and the
millions who are clanking their chains on our soil find ample
warrant in rising en masse, and asserting then- right to liberty, at
whatever sacrifice of the fife of their oppressors.
" Resolved, That the State in ¦ which no fugitive slave can
remain in safety, and from which he must flee in order to secure
* Speech at tlie Melodeon, on the First Anniversary of the Rendition of
Thomas Sims, April 12, 1852.

72 SIMS ANNIVERSAEY.
his hberty in another land, is to be held responsible for all the
crimes and horrors which cluster about the slave-system and the
slave-trade, — and that State is the Commonwealth of Massa
chusetts." I incline to the first form, rather than to that suggested
by my friend, though such is my conviction of the sound
ness of his judgment and his rare insight into all the bear
ings of our cause, that I distrust my own dehberate judg
ment, when it leads me to a different conclusion fi-om his.
I am, however, strongly impressed vnth. the conviction,
that the friends of the cause and the fugitives among us
need some advice ; and that we cannot make a better use
of this occasion than to discuss what that advice shall be.
Mr. Garrison's amendment seems to me too ambiguous ;
it contents itself with announcing an important principle,
but suggests nothing, and advises nothing.
Why, Mr. Chairman, do we assemble here on such a
melancholy occasion as the present ? This, instead of last
Thursday, should be our Fast Day, if there were any
reason for us to fast at all, — for on this day, twelve
months ago, the Abolitionists of the Commonwealth suf
fered a great, a melancholy defeat. On that day, unex
pectedly to many, a man was carried back to slavery from
the capital of the State. It was an event which surprised
some of our fellow-citizens, and all the rest of New Eng
land, which relied too fondly on the reputation Massachu
setts had won as an antislavery community. Either the
flavor of our old religion, or some remnant of the spirit of
1649 afid 1776, had made the city of the Puritans a house
of refuge to the fugitive. They had gathered here, and
in our neighborhood, by hundreds: There are traditions
of attempts to seize one now and then, — sometimes of
trials in open court ; and it is possible that, in the general
indifference, a few may have been carried back quietly by
some underling official, though we have no certain knowl-

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 73
edge of any case where the victim was not finally saved.
Thomas Sims is the first man that the city of Boston ever
openly bound and fettered, and sent back to bondage. I
have no heart to dwell on so horrible an outrage: — that
sad procession, in the dim morning, through our streets, — ¦
the poor youth, — his noble effort to break his chains, —
mocked with one short hour of freedom, and then thrust
back to the hell he had escaped, by brother men, in the
prostituted names of justice and religion. We sit down
with the single captive, and weep with him as the iron
enters into his soul, — too sad to think, for the moment,
of the disgrace of our city, or even the wickedness of its
rulers. Pity swallows up indignation. We might be for
given if for the moment we mistook our sadness for despair,
and even fancied the event disastrous to others than the
victim. But not so. Liberty knows nothing but victories.
In a cause hke ours, to which every attribute of the Most
High is pledged, " everything helps us." Selfish com
merce, huckstering politics, and the mocking priest, might
turn from such a scene and congratulate each other, say
ing, " Our mountain stands strong " ; but we knew that
emotions were stronger than statutes, more lasting than
ledgers, and not to be fi-ozen down even by creeds, and
that all New England would erelong gather itself to
answer the last sad question of this hapless victim, as he
stepped on the piratical deck of the Acorn, — " Is this
Massachusetts liberty?"
What, then, is the use of such a celebration as this ? It
seems to me the only possible use that could, in any cir
cumstances, be made of such an occasion, would be to record
our protest against the deed, with an indignant rebuke of
its perpetrators, and to direct our eyes forward to see what
we can now do for men in like jeopardy with Sims. Our
protest and our rebuke have been already uttered. It is
needless to repeat them. The individuals who so infa-

74 SIMS ANNIVERSAEY.
mously misused their little brief authority have, some of
them, faded from the public eye, — melted back into the
mass of their fellow-slaves. Their names are not worth
recalling, for they are not of mark enough to point a moral.
Let them pass, all of them ; — the judge who stood head
and shoulders above the rest in brutal bearing and the arts
of a demagogue ; the commissioner, whom the atmosphere
of noble enthusiasm about him never betrayed, during all
that eventful week, into even the semblance of an honora
ble emotion ; the counsellor who pledged a word, till then
undoubted, to that lie for which no guaranty but his could
have won even a momentary credence, and the belief of
which snapped the last- tiny thread of hope that bound
the hapless victim to the altar of Massachusetts criminal
law. Yes, let them pass. The few whom charity may hope
sinned, unable to " discern between their right hand and
their left hand," and the many who did just right enough
to prove they knew their duty, but wallowed in the wrong
so greedily as to show how much they loved it. Let His
tory close the record. Let her allow' that " on the side of
the oppressor there was power," — power " to frame mis
chief by a law " ; that on that side were all the forms of
law, and behind those forms, most of the elements of con
trol : wealth, greedy of increase, and anxious for order, at
any sacrifice of principle, — priests prophesying smooth
things, and arrogating to themselves the name of Chris
tianity, — ambition, baptizing itself statesmanship, — and
that unthinking patriotism, child of habit and not of rea
son, which mistakes government for liberty and law
for justice. And, on the other hand, let her allow that,
though the Abohtionists were heedful of the hour, and
fearless against the prelates of the Church,
" to plead her cause,
And from our judges vindicate the laws," —

SIMS ANNIVERSAEY. (0
while they " did not spare the tyrant one hard word," —
they were strictly law-abiding citizens. While judges
and executives deserted their posts, the Abolitionists vio
lated no law. They begged for nothing but the law, —
they wearied themselves to obtain the simple legal rights
guaranteed to them and to all by the State. The city
government, in direct defiance of the statute of 1843,
aided, both directly and indirectly, in the arrest and deten
tion of a person claimed as a slave. To effect this purpose,
they violated the commonest rights of the citizens, — shut
them out of their own court-house, — subjected them from
day to day to needless, illegal, and vexatious arrests.
Judges were " Artful Dodgers," and sheriffs refused all
processes. The Abolitionists exhausted every device, be
sieged every tribunal, implored the interference of every
department, to obtain the bare execution of the law of the
Commonwealth. And let History say beside, that mean
time they fearlessly declared that resistance would be
better than submission ; while not so absurd as to throw
one man, or a score of men, against a goveriiment in arms,
they proclaimed that they would have been glad to see the
people rise against the law, — that nothing which a hand
ful of men could do for such an end was wanting, — that
they denounced the church sanctioning the deed as " a
synagogue of Satan," and the law, whether constitutional
or not, as mere tyranny and wickedness, its executioners
worse than murderers, — that, knowing the value of a true
law audi real order, they said and believed, that rather
than one man should be sent back to slavery, better, far
better, human laws should be trampled under foot, and the
order of society broken every day.
^Vhen the pulpit preached slave-hunting, and the law
bound the victim, and society said, " Amen ! this will make
money," we were "fanatics," — "enthusiasts," — "sedi
tious, — " disorganizers," — " scorners of the pulpit," —

76 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
" traitors." Genius of the Past ! drop not from thy tablets
one of these honorable names. We claim them all as our
surest title-deeds to the memory and gratitude of mankind.
We indeed thought man more than constitutions, humanity
and justice of more worth than law. Seal up the record !
If Boston is proud of her part, let her rest assured we are
not ashamed of ours I
All this has been said so often, that it is useless to dwefl
on it now. The best use that we can now make of this
occasion, it seems to me, is to look about us, take our
bearings, and teU the fugitives, over whom yet hangs this
terrible statute, what course, in our opinion, they should
pursue. And, in the first place, it is neither frank nor honest to
keep up the delusive idea that a fugitive slave can be pro
tected in Massachusetts. I hope I am mistaken ; I shall
be glad to be proved incorrect ; but I do not believe there
is any such antislavery sentiment here as is able to protect
a fugitive on whom the government has once laid its hand.
We were told this afternoon, from this platform, that there
were one hundred and fifty men in one town ready to
come with their muskets to Boston, — all they waited for
was an invitation. I heard, three weeks before the Sims
case, that there were a hundred in one town in Plymouth
County pledged to shoulder their muskets in such a cause.
We saw nothing of them. I heard, three weeks after the
Sims rendition, that there were two hundred more in the
city of Worcester ready to have come, had they been
invited. We saw nothing of them. On such an occasion,
from the nature of the case, there cannot be much previous
concert ; the people must take their own cause into their
own hands. Intense earnestness of purpose, pervading
large classes, must instinctively perceive the crisis, and
gather all spontaneously for the first act which is to organ
ize revolution. When the Court was in pursuit of John

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 77
Hampden, we are not told that the two thousand men who
rode up to London the next morning, to stand between
their representative and a king's frown, waited for an
invitation. They assembled of their own voluntary and
individual purpose, and found themselves in London.
Whenever there is a like determination throughout Mas-
sachusetts, it will need no invitation. When, in 1775,
the British turned their eyes toward Lexington, the same
invitation went out from the Vigilance Committee of ~Sl&-
chanics in Boston, as in our case of April, 1851. Two
lanterns on the North Church steeple telegraphed the fact
to the country : Revere and Prescott, as they rode from
house to house in the gray light of that April morning,
could tell little what others woulel do, — they flung into
each house the startling announcement, " The red-coats
are coming ! " and rode on. None that day issued orders,
none obeyed aught but his own soul. Though Massachu
setts rocked from Barnstable to Berkshire, when the wires
flashed over the land the announcement that a slave lay
chained in the Boston court-house, there was no answer
from the antislavery feeling of the State. It is sad, there
fore, but it seems to me honest, to say to the fugitive in
Boston, or on his way, that, if the government once seize
him, he cannot be protected here. I think we are bound,
in common kindness and honesty, to tell them that there •
are but two ways that promise any refuge from the hor
rors of a return to bondage : one is to fly, — to place
themselves under the protection of that government,
which, Avith all her faults, has won the proud distinction
that slaves cannot breathe her air, — the fast-anchored isle
of empire, A^'here tyrants and slaves may alike find refuge
from vengeance and oppression. And this is the couese
I would advise EVEKY man TO ADOPT. ThIS, UNLESS
THEEE AEE, in his PARTICULAK case, IMPERATIVE REASONS
TO THE CONTRARY, IS HIS DUTY. If this course be impos-

78 SIMS ANNIVERSAEY.
sible, then the other way is to arm himself, and by resist
ance secure in the Free States a trial for homicide, — trust
ing that no jury will be able so far to crush the instincts
of humanity as not to hold him justified.
But some one may ask. Why countenance, even by a
mention of it, this pubhc resistance, — you, whose whole
enterprise repudiates force ? Because this is a very
different question from that great issue, the abolition of
slavery. On that point, I am willing to wait. I can be
patient, no matter how often that is defeated by treach
erous statesmen. The cause of three millions of slaves,
the destruction of a great national institution, must pro
ceed slowly ; and, like every other change in public senti
ment, we must wait patiently for it, and there the best,
policy is, beyond all question, the policy of submission ; for
that gains, in time, on public sympathy. But this is a
different case. Who can ask the trembling, anxious fugi
tive to stop and submit patiently to the overwhelming
chances of going back, that his fate may, in some indirect
manner, and far-off hour, influence for good the destiny
of his fellow-millions ? Such virtue must be self-moved.
Who could stand and ask it of another ? True, Thomas
Sims returned is a great public event, calculated to make
Abolitionists ; but the game sickens me when the counters
are living men. We have no right to use up fugitives
for the manufacture of antislavery sentiment. There are
those who hang one man to beneflt another, and to create
a wholesome dread of crime. I shrink from using human
life as raw material for the production of any state of pub
lic opinion, however valuable. I do not think we have a
right to use up fugitive slaves in this pitiless way, in order
to extend or deepen an antislavery sentiment. At least, I
have no right to use them so, without their full consent.
It seems to me, therefore, we are bound to tell those
who have taken refuge under the laws of Massachusetts,

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 70
what they must expect here. The time was when we
honestly believed they might expect protection. That
time, in my opinion, has passed by. I do not certainly
know that there will be any taken this year or next. T
do not know when they may choose again to take another
man from Boston. But I do know, that just so soon as
any other miscreant Webster [hisses and cheers] shall
think it necessary to lay another fugitive slave on the altar
of his Presidential chances, just so soon will another be .
taken fr-om the streets of Boston. I note those hisses.
Do not understand me that Mr. Webster himself will ever
find it worth while again to ask this act of vassal service
from his retainers. O no ! wait a few months, and his
fate will be that of Buckingham : —
" wicked but in mil, of means bereft,
He left not faction, but of that was left."
But even though he die or be shelved, the race of traitors
will not be extinct ; and it is a sickening dread for these
two or three hundred men and women to live with this
law, worse than the sword of Damocles, hanging over
their heads. I believe the Abolitionists of the country
owe it to their brethren to tell them what policy should
rule their conduct in the present crisis. To be sure, you
may ask them to stay, and, when they are taken, to sub
mit, and let the fact appeal to the sympathies of the coun
try, which win result in kindling public indignation ; and
if they choose, from deep religious convictions, to make
themselves thus the food of antislavery growth, God bless
them for the heroic self-sacrifice which dictates such a
course. But I cannot ask of a poor, friendless, broken
hearted fellow-creature such a momentous sacrifice. I do
say, in private, to every one that comes to me, " But one
course is left for you. There is no safety for you here ;
there is no law for you here. The hearts of the judges
are stone ; the hearts of the people are stone. It is in

80 SIMS ANNIVERSAEY.
vain that you appeal to the Abohtionists. They, may be
ready, maybe able, ten years hence." But the "brace
of Adamses," to which our friend [Theodore Parker]
alluded this morning, if they had mistaken 1765 for 1775,
would have ended at the scaffold instead of the Declara
tion of Independence and the treaty of 1783. We must
bide our time, and we must read, with anointed eyes, the
signs of our time. If public opinion is wrong, we want to
know it ; know it, that we may remodel it. We will our
selves trample this accursed Fugitive Slave Law under
foot. [Great cheering.] But we are a minority at pres
ent, and cannot do this to any great practical effect ; we
are bound to suggest to these unfortunates who look to us
for advice, some feasible plan. This, in my view, should
be our counsel: "Depart if you can, — if you have
time and means. As no one has a right to ask that you
stay, and, if arrested, submit, in order that your case may
convert men to antislavery principles ; so you have no
right, capriciously, to stay and resist, merely that your
resistance may rouse attention, and awaken antislavery
sympathy. It is a grave thing to break into the bloody
house of life. The mere expectation of good conse
quences will not justify you in taking a man's life. You
have a perfect right to live where you choose. No one
can rightfully force you away. There may be important
and sufficient reasons, in many cases, why you should stay
and vindicate your right at all hazards. But in common
cases, where no such reasons exist, it is better that you sur
render your extreme right to live where you choose, than
assert it in blood, and thus risk injuring the movement
which seeks to aid your fellows. Put yourselves mider
the protection of the British flag ; appeal to the humanity
of the world. Do not linger here." Does any friend of
the cause exclaim, " You take away the great means of
antislavery agitation ! The sight of a slave carried back to

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 81
bondage is the most eloquent appeal the antislavery cause
can make to the sympathies of the public." I know it !
but the gain is all too dear when it is bought by the sacri
fice of one man, thrust back to the hell of American bond
age. Still, circumstances may prevent flight, imperative
reasons may exist why he should remain here : he may be
seized before he succeeds in escaping. I say to him, then.
There is a course left, if you have the courage to face it.
There is one appeal left, which has not yet heen tried ; it
may avail you ; I cannot insure you even that. It has
now reached that pass when even the chance of a Boston
gibbet may be no protection from a Georgia plantation ;
but if I were in your place, I would try ! [Tremendous
cheering.] The sympathies of the people will gather
round you, if put on trial for such an act. The mortal
hatred which would set the hounds of the law, thirsty
for our blood, on keener scent, if we stood charged with
legal offences, would not reach you. I do not know that
'the state-prison would be any refuge from the jail at
Savannah or Charleston ; but there may be something
in an appeal to a Massachusetts jury impanelled to try a
man's inalienable right to liberty, the pursuit of happi
ness, and to protect himself ; and I hope — I dare not
hope much, but I do hope — that there is still humanity
enough to bring you in " not guilty." There is another
point. I really believe if a jury of Boston merchants
should steel themselves to a verdict of guilty, that a Gov
ernor sitting in the seat of Samuel Adams or Henry Vane
would never dare to sign the warrant, until he had secured
a passage on board a Cunard steamer. I think, therefore,
that it is possible an appeal to the criminal jurisdiction of
the State might save a man. Perhaps it might be just
that final blow which would stun this drunken nation into
sobriety, and make it heed, at last, the claims of the slave.
Mark me ! I do not advise any one to take the life of

82 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
his fellow, — to brav-e the vengeance of the law, and run
the somewhat, after all, unequal risk of the hard tech
nical heart of a Massachusetts jury. Such an act must be,
after all, one's own impulse. To burst away from all
civil relations, to throw one's self back on this great primal
rio-ht of self-protection, at all hazards, must be the growth
of one's own thought and purpose. I can only tell the
sufferer the possibilities that lie before him, — tell him
what I would do in his case, — tell him that what I would
do myself I would countenance another in doing, and aid
him to the extent of my power.
The antislavery cause is a wonder to many. They
wonder that it does not succeed faster. We see Wilham
Cobbett, with his Political Register, circulating seventy
thousand copies per week, appeal to the workingmen of
Great Britain, and in a few years he carries his measm-es
over the head of Parliament. Cobden talks the farmers of
England, in less than ten years, out of a tyranny that had
endured for generations. The difference is, we have no such
selfish motives to appeal to. We appeal to white men,
who cannot see any present interest they have in the
slave question. It is impossible to stir them. They must
ascend to a level of disinterestedness which the masses
seldom reach, before we can create any excitement in
them on the question of slavery. I do not know when
that point will be gained. If we shall ever be able to
reach, through the press, the millions of non-slaveholding
white men in the Southern States, I think we shall have
a parallel then to the course of Enghsh agitation ; for we
can then appeal to the selfish interest of white men, able
to vote, to speak, and to act on this subject. But at
present we have to make men interested, indignant, en
thusiastic for others, not for themselves. The slave ques
tion halts and lingers, because it cannot get the selfishness
of men on its side ; and that, after all, has been the lever

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 83
by which the greatest political questions have been car
ried. There is one other motive ; that is, fear. Cobbett and
his fellows gathered the people of Great Britain in public
meetings of two hundred thousand men ; and though the
Duke of Welhngton ordered his Scotch Greys to rough-
grind their swords, as at Waterloo, he feared to order
them drawn in the face of two hundred thousand English-
men. That gathering was for their own rights. Cross the
Channel, and you come to the Irish question. How was
that dealt with ? By fear. When Ireland got no sym
pathy from the English people, she so ordered her affairs
that the dread of anarchy, anchored so close to Liverpool
anel Bristol, forced the government to treat the question,
and they treated it by submission.
Now, I read my lesson in the light of this historical
experience. I cannot yet move the selfishness of the
white man to help me. On this question I cannot get it
on my side. It is just possible that the ftigitive slave,
taking his defence into his own right hand, and appealing
to the first principle of natural law, may so excite the
sympathy of some and the fears of others, as to gain the
attention of all, anel force them to grapple with this problem
of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Bill. The time may come
when Massachusetts may not be vrilling to have her cities
scenes of bloodshed, in order that one over-ambitious man
may gain his point, and smooth his path to the Presidency ;
or that a human being should be hurried into bondage,
that rich men may add field to field and house to house.
I have striven to present this point as slowly, as fully,
as eleliberately as possible, because I know it is an impor
tant one. It is, in some sense, the launching of a new
measure in the antislavery enterprise, to countenance the
fugitive, who has tried in vain every avenue of escape, in
standing even at last at bay, and protecting himself. But

84 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
I know of no pledge of the antislavery cause against it.
Our enterprise is pledged to nothing but the abolition of
slavery. When we set out, we said we would do our
work under the government and under the Church. We
tried it. We found that we could not work in either
way ; we found it necessary to denounce the Church
and withdraw from the government. We did what we
could to work through both. We saw that it was expe
dient to work through them both, if we could. Finding
it impossible, we let experience dictate our measures.
We came out. Consistency — consistency bade us come
out. Consistency, — we cannot always sail due east,
though our destination be Europe. It is no violation of
consistency, therefore, (if that were of any consequence,)
for us to adopt a measure like this, though it was not at
first contemplated.
I go further. I do not believe that, if we should live to
the longest period Providence ever allots to the life of a
human being, we shall see the total abolition of slavery,
unless it comes in some critical conjuncture of national
affairs, when the slave, taking advantage of a crisis in the
fate of his masters, shall dictate his own terms. How did
French slavery go down ? How did the French slave-
trade go down ? When Napoleon came back fi-om Elba,
when his fate hung trembling in the balance, and he
wished to gather around him the sympathies of the liberals
of Europe, he no sooner set foot in the Tuileries than he
signed the edict abolishing the slave-trade, against which
the Abolitionists of England and France had protested for
twenty years in vain. And the trade went down, because
Napoleon felt that he must do something to gild the dark
ening hour of his second attempt to clutch the sceptre of
France. How did the slave system go down ? When, in
1848, the Provisional Government found itself in the HS-
tel de ViUe, obliged to do something to draw to itself

SIMS ANNIVERSAEY. 85
the sympathy and hberal feehng of the French nation,
they signed an edict — it was the first from the nascent
Republic — abolishing the death-penalty and slavery.
The storm which rocked the vessel of state almost to
foundering, snapped forever the chaui of the French slave.
Look, too, at the history of Mexican and South American
emancipation ; you will find that it was, in every instance,
I think, the child of convulsion.
Tlie hour will come — God hasten it ! — when the
American people shall so stand on the deck of their Union,
" built i' th' eclipse, and rigged with curses dark." If I
live to see that hour, I shall say to every slave. Strike
now for Freedom ! [Long-continued and deafening
cheers.] The balance hangs trembling ; it is uncertain
which scale shall kick the beam. Strain every nerve,
wrestle with every power God and nature have put into
your hands, for your place among the races of this Western
world " ; and that hour will free the slave. The Aboli
tionist who shall stand in such an hour as that, and keep
silence, will be recreant to the cause of three million
of his fellow-men in bonds. I believe that probably is
the only way in which we shall ever, any of us, see the
downfall of American slavery. I do not shrink from the
toast with which Dr. Johnson flavored his Oxford Port, —
" Success to the first insurrection of the blacks in Ja
maica ! " I do not shrink from the sentiment of Southey,
in a letter to Duppa, — " There are scenes of tremendous
horror which I could smile at by Mercy's side. An insur
rection which should make the negroes masters of the
West Indies is one." I believe both these sentiments are
dictated by the highest humanity. I know what anarchy
is. I know what civil war is. I can imagine the scenes
of blood through which a rebellious slave-population must
march to their rights. They are dreadful. And yet, I
do not know that, to an enlightened mmd, a scene of civil

86 SIMS ANNIVERSAEY.
war is any more sickening than the thought of a hundred
and fifty years of slavery. Take the broken hearts, the
bereaved mothers, the infant wrung from the hands of
its parents, the husband and wife torn asunder, every
right trodden under foot, the bhghted hopes, the imbruted
souls, the darkened and degraded millions, sunk below
the level of intellectual life, melted in sensuality, herded
with beasts, who have walked over the burning marl of
Southern slavery to their graves, and where is the battle
field, however ghastly, that is not white — white as an
angel's wing — compared with the blackness of that dark
ness which has brooded over the Carolinas for two hundred
years ? [Great sensation.] Do you love mercy ? Weigh
out the fifty thousand hearts that have beaten their last
pulse amid agonies of thought and suffering fancy faints to
think of, and the fifty thousand mothers who, with sicken
ing senses, watch for footsteps that are not wont to tarry
long in their coming, and soon find themselves left to tread
the pathway of life alone, — add all the horrors of cities
sacked and lands laid waste, — that is war, — weigh it
now against some young, trembling girl sent to the auction-
block, some man like that taken from our court-house and
carried back into Georgia ; multiply this individual agony
into three millions ; multiply that into centuries ; and that
into all the relations of father and child, husband and
wife ; heap on all the deep moral degradation both of the
oppressor and the oppressed, — and tell me if Waterloo or
Thermopylse can claim one tear from the eye even of the
tenderest spirit of mercy, compared with this daily system
of hell amid the most civilized and Christian people on
the face of the earth !
No, I confess I am not a non-resistant. The reason
why I aelvise the slave to be guided by a policy of peace
is because he has no chance. If he had one, — if he had
as good a chance as those who went up to Lexington

SIMS ANNIVERSAEY. 87
seventy-seven years ago, — I should call him the basest
recreant that ever deserted wife and child if he did not
vindicate his liberty by his own right hand. [Cheers.]
And I am not by any means certain that Northern men
would not be startled — would not be wholesomely star
tled — by one or two such cases as a scoundrel Busteed
shot over his perjured affidavit. If a Morton or a Curtis
could be shot on the commissioner's bench by the hand
of him they sought to sacrifice, I have no doubt that it
would have a wholesome effect. [Great applause.] Is
there a man here who would, if he had arms in his
hands, either himself go to Georgia, or let any one near
and dear to him go there, without sending somebody
before him to a lighter and cooler place than a Geor
gian plantation ?
I am not dealing with the cause of three mdhons of
slaves. I am not dealing with the question of a great sin
and wrong existing among us. I believe I understand the
philosophy of reform. I understand the policy of waiting.
I know that, in reforming great national abuses, we cannot
expect to be in haste ; that the most efficient protection
for the three million of slaves is to eradicate the prejudice
of the twenty millions of whites who stand above them.
I have learnt all that. But, Mr. Chairman, the question
to which I speak is a very different one. It is this. " I,
William Crafts, an independent, isolated individual in my
self, am no more called to secure the safety of three million
of slaves than you are. I, Wilham Crafts, have succeeded
in getting to Boston. I have reached what is called free
territory. It happens that there are strong and sufficient
reasons why I cannot leave these shores, or cannot yet
leave them. I have got possession of arms. I have in
quired of the most intelligent men, and they tell me that
the laws afford me no protection. I have asked of the
highest authorities on government my duty in this emer-

88 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
gency, and they tell me, one and all, from Grotius down
to Lord Brougham, that when government ceases to pro
tect, the citizen ceases to owe allegiance.* Very well.
My case stands by itself It is for me to decide to-night
whether I will go back to Georgia to-morrow. It is no
special comfort to assure me that, half a century hence,
somebody will go down to Faneuil Hall, — some Robert
C. Winthrop, perhaps, converted for the occasion, — and
pronounce an oration on the jubilee of American freedom.
It is no answer to tell me that, in order to this, it is con
sidered by some people to be a great thing that the fugitive
should go willingly and quietly back to slavery. There
comes up to me a man who says he is an officer, and has a
parchment warrant in his pocket. Somebody has given
him authority to seize me. I am not to be bullied by
institutions. I am not to be frightened by parchments.
Forms and theories are nothing to me. Majorities are
nothing. You have outlawed me from your law. You
have exiled me from your protection. I am a descendant
of Esau, — every man's hand against me, my hand against
every man. I have no time or means of escape, no de
fence, except I make it. If I make it, I secure the hour
of liberty and escape. I decide to make it. I shoot the
miscreant, and thus gain time to pass from the spot where
I was to have been arrested, to freedom under the flag of
England or on the deck of a vessel." Let him who fully
knows his own heart and strength, and feels, as he looks
down into his child's cradle, that he could stand by and
* " Protection, your Lordships are aware, affording security of person and
property, is the iirst law of the state. The Legislature lias no right to claim
obedience to its laws, the Crown has no right to demand allegiance from its
subjects, if the Legislature and the Crown do not afford, in return for both,
protection for person and property. Without protection, the Legislatm-e
would abdicate its functions, if it demanded obedience ; without protection,
the Crown would be a usurper of its right to enforce allegiance." — Lord
Brougham's Debate on the Irish Coercion Bill, 1833.

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 89
see that little nestling one borne away, and submit, — let
him cast the. first stone. But all you whose blood is wont
to stir over Naseby and Bunker Hill will hold your peace,
unless you are ready to cry, with me. Sic semper tyrannis !
So may it ever be with slave-hunters !
Mr. Chairman, it seems to me that the man who is not
conscientiously a non-resistant, is not only entitled, he is
bound, to use every means that he has or can get to resist
arrest in the last resort. What is the slave, when he is
once surrendered ? He goes back to degradation worse
than death. If he has children, they are to perpetuate
that elegradation. He has no right to sacrifice himself or
them to that extent. These are considerations which it is
just as well to state, and to bring before the community.
I know my friend, Mr. Garrison, differs from me on this
question. You will listen to him. I shall not quarrel
if you agree with his judgment, and leave me alone. I
am talking to-night to the men who say they were ready
to take up then- muskets in defence of Thomas Sims, or
Shadrach, or somebody else. It is very well for fiction
— for a Harriet Beecher Stowe — to paint a submissive
slave, and draw a picture that thrills your hearts. You
are very sensitive over "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Your
nerves are very sensitive ; see that your consciences are
as sensitive as your nerves. If your hearts answered
instead of your nerves, you would rise up every one of
you Abolitionists, ready to sacrifice everything rather
than a man should go back to slavery. Let me see that
effect, and then I will reckon the value of the tears that
have answered to the wand of this magician ; but till
then, they are but the tears of a nervous reader under
high excitement. Would those tears could crystallize into
sentiment, crystallize into principle, — into Christian prin
ciple, out of which the weapon of antislavery patience and
perseverance and self-sacrifice is to be wrought ! Guard

90 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
yourselves, friends, against the delusive idea, that the
tears and sad eyes you see about you are harbingers of a
better hour for Massachusetts than this day twelve months
saw darken over her fame. It may be so ; but there is
no certainty that it will. We are to speak to practical
Massachusetts. I do not shrink from going before the
farmers, the mechanics, and the workingmen, — the
thinking men of Massachusetts, — and urging upon them
the consideration that the State, by solemn act, has
proclaimed to every one that her soil is not holy enough
to protect the fugitive, and that, so far as she is concerned,
the only thing left, the only possibility, the oaly chance
remaining for the fugitive, lies in his own courage and
good right arm. The city of John Hancock has proved
that her soil is not holy enough to protect the fugitive ;
Faneuil Hall, where " still the eloquent air breathes,
burns," with Otis and Adams, is not holy enough to
shelter the fugitive ; Bunker Hill, red with the blood
of the noblest men that ever fell in the cause of civil
liberty, is not too sacred for fettered feet ; the churches,
planted, as we have been told to-day, in tears, in prayers,
and in blood, have no altar-horns for the fugitive ; the
courts, even that which first naturalized Lord Mansfield's
decision, drawing a nice distinction between slaves hrougU
and slaves escaping, — judges loving humanity so well,
even in the humblest suitor, that, like their noble pre
decessors in the great case of DeVere, they "caught
hold of a twig or a twine thread to uphold it " ; — that,
too, has shut its doors on the fugitive, — yes, against
that very child Med, should she again be seized, in whose
behalf they settled this proud rule. I would say all this
to the men about me, and add, — There is one gleam
of hope. It is just possible that the floor of the State's
prison may have a magic charm in it. That may save
the fugitive, if he can once entitle himself to a place

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 91
there. When, therefore, the occasion shall demand, let
us try it ! [Great cheering.] It is a sad thought, that
the possibflity of a gibbet, the chance of imprisonment
for life, is the only chance which can make it prudent for
a fugitive to remain in Massachusetts.
You will say this is bloody doctrine, — anarchical doc
trine ; it will prejudice people against the cause. I know
it will. Heaven pardon those who make it necessary !
Heaven pardon the judges, the merchants, and the clergy,
who make it necessary for hunted men to turn, when
they are at bay, and fly at the necks of their pursuers !
It is not our fault ! I shrink from no question, however
desperate, that has in it the kernel of possible safety
for a human bemg hunted by twenty millions of slave-
catchers in this Christian republic of ours. [Cheers.]
I am willing to confess my faith. It is this : that the
Christianity of this country is worth nothing, except it
is or can be made capable of dealing with the question
of slavery. I am wilhng to confess another article of
my faith : that the Constitution and government of this
country is worth nothing, except it is or can be made
capable of grappling with the great question of slavery.
I agree with Burke : " 1 have no idea of a liberty un
connected with honesty and justice. Nor do I believe that
any good constitutions of government or of freedom can
find it necessary for their security to dootn any part of the
people to a permanent slavery. Such a constitution of
freedom, if such can be, is in effect no more than another
name for the tyranny of the strongest faction ; and factions
ui republics have been and are full as capable as monarchs
of the most cruel oppression and injustice." That is the
language of Edmund Burke to the electors of Bristol ;
I agree with it I [Applause.] The greatest praise gov
ernment can win is, that its citizens know their rights,
and dare to maintain them. The best use of good laws
is to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.

92 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
On these principles, I am wilhng to stand before the
community in which I was born and brought up, — where
I expect to five and die, — where, if I shall ever win any
reputation, I expect to earn and to keep it. As a sane
man, a Christian man, and a lover of my country, I am
willino- to be judged by posterity, if it shall ever remember
either this meeting or the counsels which were given in
its course. I am willing to stand upon this advice to the
fugitive slave — baffled in every effort to escape, or bound
here by sufficient ties, exiled fi-om the protection of the
law, shut out from the churches — to protect himself,
and make one last appeal to the humane instincts of his
fellow-men. Friends, it is time something should be said
on these points. Twenty-six cases — twenty-six slave
cases, under this last statute, have taken place in the
single State of Pennsylvania. I do not beheve one man
in a hundred who hears me supposed there were half a
dozen cases there. So silently, so much a matter of
course, so much without any public excitement, have
those slaves been surrendered ! Should the record be
made up for the other States, it would probably be in
proportion. Recollect, beside, the cases of kidnapping,
not by any means unfrequent, which are so much facil
itated by the existence of laws like this. For slaves to
stay among us and be surrendered may excite commiser
ation ; but remember, and this is a very important con
sideration, familiarity with such scenes begets indifference ;
the tone of public sentiment is lowered ; soon cases pass
as matters of course, and the community, burnt over with
previous excitement, is doubly steeled against all active
sympathy with the sufferers. What was usui-pation yes
terday is precedent to-morrow. When we asked the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts to interfere in Sims's
behalf, on the ground that the law of 1850 was uncon
stitutional, they decHned. because the law was much the

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 93
same as that of 1793, and that was constitutional, because
so HELD and submitted to. Surely, tyranny should have
no such second acquiescence to plead. Yet that public
feeling, so alert, so inelignant at the outset, already droops
and grows cold. Government stands ever a united, pow
erful, and organized body, always in session, its tempta
tions creeping over the dulled senses, the wearied zeal, or
the hour of want. The sympathies of a people for the
down-trodden and the weak are scattered, evanescent,
now excited, now asleep. The assembly which is red-hot
to-day has vanished to-morrow. The indignation that
lowers around a court-house in chains is scattered in a
month. The guerilla troops of reform are now here, and
now crumbled away. On the other hand, permanently
planted, with a boundless patronage, which sways every
thing, stands government, with hands ever open, and
eyes that never close, biding cunningly its time ; always
concentrated ; and, of course, too often able to work its
will, for a time, against any amount of popular indignation
or sympathy.
Do not misunderstand me. I know the antislavery
cause will triumph. The mightiest intellects, the Web-
sters and the Calhouns of the Whig and Democratic
parties, — they have no more effect upon the great mass
of the public mind, in the long run, than the fly's weight
had on the chariot-wheel where he lighted. But that is
a long battle. I am speaking now of death or life, to be
dealt out in a moment. I am dealing with a family about
to be separated, standing, as many of you have been called
again and again to do, by the hearth, or at the table,
where that family circle were never to assemble again ;
broken and scattered to the four winds ; the wife in
agony, her husband torn from her side, her children
gathering around, vainly asking, " Where are we to go,
mother ? " Open those doors ! How many of them

94 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
might you open in these Northern States within the last
two years ! How many of these utterly indescribable
scenes might you have witnessed within that brief period !
This law has executed itself. Twenty-six have been sent
back from Pennsylvania ; only one from Boston ; only a
dozen, perhaps, from New York. Yes ; but, in the mean
time, the dread that they might be seized has broken up
haiich-eds of happy families. It has been executed : and
when I remember that Northern traitor who made its
enactment possible, I sometimes think that the vainest
man who ever lived never dreamed, in the hour of his
fondest self-conceit, that he had done the human race as
much good as Daniel Webster has wrought it sorrow and
despair. [Great applause.] I do not think you fully
appreciate the state of dread in which the colored popula
tion has lived for months.
Mark, too, the infamous characteristics of these cases !
It is not their frequency, after all, that should cause the
most apprehension, but the objectional incidents and very
dangerous precedents they establish. It is not that the
slave act is law. That is not half the enormity of the
fact. It is, that not only is the slave statute held to be
law, but that there is really no law beside it in the Free
States, — to execute it, all other laws are set aside and
disregarded. The commonest and best settled principles
have been trodden under foot. Almost all these persons
have been arrested by a lie. Sims was, — Long was, —
Preston was. In the case at Buffalo, the man was ar
rested by a bloodthirsty attack, — knocked down in the
streets. The atrocious haste, the brutal haste of Judge
Kane, in the case of Hannah Kellam, language fails in
describing, — indignation stands dumb before the cold and
brutal wickedness. Many of these cases have been a
perversion, not only of all justice, but of all law. Take a
single and slight instance. The merciful and safe rule

SIMS ANNIVERSARY. 95
has always been, that an officer, arresting any one wrong
fully, shall not be permitted to avail himself of his illegal
act for the service of a true warrant while he has the man
in custody. This would be not only a sanction, but an
encouragement, of illegal detention. But, in several of
these cases, the man has been seized on some false pre
tence, known to be a sham, and then the authorities al
lowed those having him in custody to waive the prosecu
tion of the pretended claim, and serve upon him the real
warrant. The same disgraceful proceeding was alloweel
in the Latimer case in this city, his master arresting him
as a thief, and afterwards dismissing that process, and
claiming him as a slave. This dangerous precedent has
been followed in many of these late cases. The spirit of
the rule, and in some cases its letter, would have set the
prisoner free, and held void all the proceedings.
Amid this entire overthrow of legal safeguards, this
utter recklessness of all the checks which the experience
of ages has invented for the control of the powerful and
the protection of the weak, it is idle to dream of any col
ored person's being safe. They stand alone, exposed to the
whole pelting of this pitiless storm. I wish there existed
here any feeling on this subject adequate to the crisis.
Is there such ? Do you point me to the past triumphs
of the antislavery sentiment of Massachusetts ? The list
is short, we know it by heart. Yes, there has been
enough of feeling and effort to send Charles Sumner to
the Senate. Let us still believe that the event will justify
us in trusting him, spite of his silence there for four long
months, — silence when so many ears have been waiting
for the promised words. There is an antislavery senti
ment here of a certain kind. Test it, and let us see what
it is worth. There is antislavery sentiment enough to
crowd our Legislature with Free-Soilers. True. Let us
wait for some fruit, correspondent to their pledges, before
we rejoice too loudly. Heaven grant us the sight of

96 SIMS ANNIVERSARY.
some before we be forced to borrow from our fathers a
name for these legislative committees of Free-Soilers. In
1765 there were certain Parliamentary committees, to
whom were referred the petitions of the Colonists, and
many good plans of relief, and that was the last heard
of either petition or plan. Our fathers called them
" committees of oblivion." I hope we may never need
that title again ; and wherever we find the untarnished
name of Sewall, we need have no apprehension.
Yes, there is antislavery sentiment sufficient to put
many persons on their good behavior, — sufficient to
bring Orville Dewey to his knees, and make him at
tempt to lie himself out of a late delicate embarrassment.
[Great applause.] That, to be sure, is the only way for
a true-bred American to apologize I Some men blame us
for the personality of our attacks, — for the bad taste of
actually naming a sinner on such a platform as this.
Never doubt its benefits again. Did not the reverend
doctor " go to and fro in the earth, and walk up and
down in it," offering to return his own mother into
slavery for our dear Union ; and was he not rewarded
by our national government with a chaplaincy in the na
vy, — as most men thought to secure him a trip to the
Mediterranean, and repose his wearied virtue ? Where
could public rumor more appropriately send him than to
that very spot on the Naples coast, where his great and
only exemplar, Nero, devoted his mother to a kinder fate
than this Christian imitator designed for a " venerable
relative " ! Could he have passed his life at Bauli, the
genius of the place would have protected her well-deserving
son, and all had been well. But here a certain " rub-
a-elub agitation " had done so much mischief, that even
the Unitarian denomination could not uphold its eminent
leader till he had explained that he did not mean his " ven
erable relative," he only meant his son I How clear the
lesson to that son not to treat others as they treat him, —

SIMS ANNTVERS.ARY. 97
since then he might be led to do what even his father
deems inhuman, namely, return his " venerable relative "
into slavery to save a Union ! Does Dr. Dewey indeed
think it " extravagant and ridiculous to consent " to re
turn one's mother to slavery ? On what principle, then,
it has been well asked, does he demand that every colored
son submit patiently to have it deme ? Does his Bible
read that God did not make of one blood all nations ?
Yes, we have antislavery feeling and character enough
to humble a Dewey ; we want more, — want enough to
save a Sims, — to give safe shelter to Ellen Crafts. "Hide
the outcast, bewray not him that wandereth," is the
simplest lesson of common humanity. The Common
wealth, which, planted by exiles, proclaimed by statute
in 1641 her welcome to " any stranger who might fly to
her from the tyranny or oppression of their persecutors," —
the State which now seeks " peace in liberty," should
not content herself with this : her rebuke of the tyrant,
her voice of welcome to the oppressed, should be uttered
so loud as to be heard throughout the South. It should
not be necessary to hide the outcast. It ought not to be
counted merit now that one does not lift hand against
him. O no ! fidelity to ancient fame, to present honor,
to duty, to God, demands that the fugitive from the op
pressions of other lands should be able to go up and down
our highway in peace, — tell his true name, meet his
old oppressor face to face, and feel that a whole Common
wealth stands between him and all chance of harm.
" God save the Commomvealth of Massachusetts ! "
How coldly, often, does the old prayer fall from careless
lips ! How sure to reach the ear of Him, who heareth
the sighing of the prisoner, when it shall rise, in ecstasy
of gratitude, from the slave-hut of the Carolinas, or from
the bursting heart of the ftigitive, who, after deadly peril,
rests at last beneath the shadow of her protection I
7

PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT.

MR. CHAIRMAN : I have to present, from the busi
ness committee, the following resolution : —
''Resolved, That the object of this society is now, as it has
always been, to convince our countrymen, by arguments ad
dressed to their hearts and consciences, that slaveholding is a
heinous crime, and that the duty, safety, and interest of all
concerned demand its immediate abolition, without expatria
tion." I wish, Mr. Chairman, to notice some objections that
have been made to our Course ever since Mr. Garrison
began his career, and which have been lately urged again,
with considerable force and emphasis, in the columns of
the London Leader, the able organ of a very respectable
and influential class in England. I hope. Sir, you will
not think it waste of time to bring such a subject before
you. I know these objections have been made a thousand
times, that they have been often answered, though we
generally submitted to them in silence, willing to let
results speak for us. But there are times when justice
to the slave will not allow us to be silent. There are
many in this country, many in England, who have had
their attention turned, recently, to the antislavery cause.
They are asking, "Which is the best and most efficient
* Speech before the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, at the Melodeon,
Boston, January 27, 1853.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 99
method of helping it ? " Engaged ourselves in an effort
for the slave, which time has tested and success hitherto
approved, we are very properly desirous that they should
join us in our labors, and pour into this channel the full
tide of their new zeal and great resources. Thoroughly
convinced ourselves that our course is wise, we can hon
estly urge others to adopt it. Long experience gives us a
right to advise. The fact that our course, more than all
other efforts, has caused that agitation which has awakeneel
these new converts, gives us a right to counsel them.
They are our spiritual chilelren : for their sakes, we would
free the cause we love and trust from every seeming de
fect and plausible objection. For the slave's sake, we reit
erate our explanations, that he may lose no tittle of help
by the mistakes or misconceptions of his fi-iends.
All that I have to say on these points will be to you,
Mr. Chairman, very trite and familiar ; but the facts may
be new to some, and I prefer to state them here, in Bos
ton, where we have lived and worked, because, if our
statements are incorrect, if we claim too much, our asser
tions can be easily answered and disproved.
The charges to which I refer are these : that, in deal
ing with slaveholelers and their apologists, we indulge in
fierce denunciations, instead of appealing to their reason
and common sense by plain statements and fair argument ;
— that we might have won the sympathies and support of
the nation, if we would have submitted to argue this ques
tion with a manly patience ; but, instead of this, we have
outraged the feelings of the community by attacks, unjust
and unnecessarily severe, on its most valued institutions,
and gratified our spleen by indiscriminate abuse of leading
men, who were often honest in their intentions, however
mistaken in their views ; — that we have utterly neglected
the ample means that lay around us to convert the nation,
submitted to no discipline, formed no plan, been guided by

100 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
no foresight, but hui-ried on in childish, reckless, blind, and
hot-headed zeal, — bigots in the narrowness of our views,
and fanatics in our blind fury of invective and malignant
judgment of other men's motives.
There are some who come upon our platform, and give
us the aid of names and reputations less burdened than
ours with popular odium, who are perpetually urging us to
exercise charity in our judgments of those about us, and to
consent to argue these questions. These men are ever
parading their wish to draw a line between themselves and
us, because they must be permitted to wait, — to trust more
to reason than feeling, — to indulge a generous charity, —
to rely on the sure influence of simple truth, uttered in
love, &c., &c. I reject with scorn all these implications
that oMr judgments are uncharitable, — that we are lacking
in patience, — that we have any other dependence than on
the simple truth, spoken with Christian frankness, yet with
Christian love. These lectures, to which you. Sir, and aU
of us, have so often listened, would be impertinent, ff they
were, not rather ridiculous for the gross ignorance they
betray of the community, of the cause, and of the whole
course of its friends.
The article in the Leader to which I refer is signed
" loN," and may be found in the Liberator of December
17, 1852. The writer is cordial and generous in his recog
nition of Mr. Garrison's claim to be the representative of
the antislavery movement, and does entire justice to his
motives and character. The criticisms of " Ion " were
reprinted in the Christian Register, of this city, the organ
of the Unitarian denomination. The editors of that paper,
with their usual Christian courtesy, love of truth, and fair-
dealing, omitted all "Ion's" expressions of regard for Mr.
Garrison and appreciation of his motives, and reprinted
only those parts of the article which undervalue his saga
city and influence, and indorse the common objections to

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 101
his method and views. You will see in a moment, Mr.
President, that it is with such men and presses " Ion "
thinks Mr. Garrison has not been sufficiently wise and
patient, in trying to win their help for the antislavery
cause. Perhaps, were he on the spot, it would tire even
his patience, and puzzle even his sagacity, to make any
other use of them than that of the drunken Helot, — a
warning to others how disgusting is mean vice. Perhaps,
were he here, he would see that the best and only use to
be made of them is to let them unfold their own charac
ters, and then show the world how rotten our politics and
religion are, that they naturally bear such fruit. " Ion "
quotes Mr. Garrison's original declaration, in the Liber
ator : —
" I am aware that many object to the severity of my language ;
but is there not cause for severity ? I will be as harsh as truth,
and as uncompromising as justice. I am in earnest, — I will not
equivocate, — I will not excuse, — I wiU not retreat a single
inch,  AND I WILL BE HEARD.
" It is pretended that I am retarding the cause of emancipation
by the coarseness of my invective and the precipitancy of my
measures. The charge is not true. On this question, my influ
ence, humble as it is, is felt at tliis moment to a considerable
extent, and shall be felt in coming years, — not pei-niciously. but
beneficially, — not as a curse, but as a blessing ; and posterity
will bear testimony that I was right. I desire to thank God that
he enables me to disregard ' the fear of man, which bringeth a
snare,' and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power.''
" Ion " then goes on to say : —
" This is a defence which has been generally accepted on this
side of the Atlantic, and many are the Abolitionists among us
whom it has encouraged in honesty and impotence, and whom it
has converted into conscientious hinderances 
" We would have Mr. Garrison to say, ' I will be as harsh as
progress, as uncompromising as success.' If a man speaks for his
own gratification, he may be as ' harsh ' as he pleases ; but if he

102 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
speaks for the down-trodden and oppressed, he must be content
to put a curb upon the tongue of hohest passion, and speak only
as harshly as is compatible with the amelioration of the evil he
proposes to redress. Let the question be again repeated: Do
you seek for the slave vengeance or redress ? K you seek retaH-
ation, go on denouncing. But distant Europe honors Wilham
Lloyd Garrison because it credits him with seeking for the slave
simply redress. We say, therefore, that ' uncompromising ' policy
is not to be measured by absolute justice, but by practical ameli
oration of the slave's condition. Amehoration as fast as you can
get it, — absolute justice as soon as you can reach it."
He quotes the sentiment of Confticius, that he would
choose for a leader " a man who would maintain a steady
vigilance in the direction of affairs, who was capable of
forming plans, and of executing them," and says : —
" The philosopher was right in placing wisdom and executive
capacity above courage ; for, down to this day, our popular move
ments are led by heroes who fear nothing, and who win noth
ing 
" There is no question raised in these articles as to the work
to be done, but only as to the mode of really doing it. The plat
form resounds with announcements of principle, which is but
asserting the right, while nothing but contempt is showered on
policy, which is the realization of right. The air is filled with
all high cries and spirited denunciations ; indignation is at a pre
mium; and this is called advocacy  But to calculate,
to make sure of your aim, is to be descried as one who is too cold
to feel, too genteel to strike."
Fm-ther on, he observes : —
" If an ai-tillery officer throws shell after shell which never
reach the enemy, he is replaced by some one with a better eye
and a surer aim. But in the artiUery battle of opinion, to mean
to hit is quite sufficient ; and if you have a certain grand indifier-
ence as to whether you hit or not, you may count on pubhc ap
plause 
" A man need be no less. militant, as the soldier of facts, than

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 103
as the agent of swords. But the arena of argument needs dis
cipline, no less than that of arms. It is this which the anti-
slavei-y party seem to me not only to overlook, but to despise.
They do not put their valor to drill. Neither on the field nor
the platform has courage any inherent capacity of taking care
of itself."
The writer then proceeds to make a quotation from Mr.
Emerson, the latter part of which I will read : —
" Let us withhold every reproachful, and, if we can, every
indignant remark. In this cause, we must renounce our temper,
and the risings of pride. If there be any man who thinks the
ruin of a race of men a small matter compared with the last
decorations and completions of his own comfort, — who would
not so much as pait with his ice-cream to save them from rapine
and manacles, — I think I must not hesitate to satisfy that man
that also his cream and vanilla are safer and cheaper by placing
the negro nation on a fair footing, than by robbing them. If the
Virginian piques hhnself on the picturesque luxury of his vas
salage, on the heavy Ethiopian manners of his house-servants,
their silent obedience, their hue of bronze, their turbaned heads,
and would not exchange them for the more intelligent but pre
carious hired services of wliites, I shall not refuse to show him
that, when their free papers are made out, it will still be their
interest to remain on his estates ; and that the oldest planters
of Jamaica are convinced that it is cheaper to pay wages than
to own slaves.''
The critic takes exception to Mr. Garrison's approval of
the denunciatory language in which Daniel O'Connell
rebuked the giant sin of America, and concludes his article
with this sentence : —
"When William Lloyd Garrison praises the great Celtic
monarch of invective for this dire outpouring, he acts the part
of the boy who fancies that the terror is in the war-whoop of the
savage, unmindful of the quieter muskets of the civihzed infantry,
whose unostentatious execution blows whoop and tomahawk to
the Devil."

104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
Before passing to a consideration of these reniarks of
" Ion," let me say a word in relation to Mr. Emerson. I
do not consider him as indorsing any of these criticisms
on the Abolitionists. His services to the most radical
antislavery movement have been generous and marked.
He has never shrunk from any odium which lending his
name and voice to it would incur. Making fair allowance
for his peculiar taste, habits, and genius, he has given a
generous amount of aid to the antislavery movement, and
never let its friends want his cordial " God-speed."
" Ion's " charges are the old ones, that we Abolitionists
are hurting our own cause, — that, instead of waiting for
the community to come up to our views, and endeavoring
to remove prejudice and enlighten ignorance by patient
explanation and fair argument, we fall at once, hke chil
dren, to abusing everything and everybody, — that we
imagine zeal will supply the place of common sense, —
that we have never shown any sagacity in adapting our
means to our ends, have never studied the national char
acter, or attempted to make use of the materials which lay
all about us to influence public opinion, but by blind,
chilchsh, obstinate fury and indiscriminate denunciation,
have become " honestly impotent, and conscientious
hinderances." These, Sir, are the charges which have uniformly been
brought against all reformers in all ages. " Ion " thinks
the same faults are chargeable on the leaders of all the
" popular movements " in England, which, he says, " are
led by heroes who fear nothing and who win nothing."
If the leaders of popular movements in Great Britain for
the last flfty years have been losers, I should be curious to
know what party, in " Ion's " opinion, have won ? My
Lord Derby and his friends seem to think Democracy has
made, and is making, dangerous headway. If the men
who, by popular agitation, outside of Parliament, wrung

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 105
from a powerful oligarchy Parliamentary Reform, and the
Abolition of the Test Acts, of High Post Rates, of Catholic
Disability, of Negro Slavery and the Corn Laws, did " not
win anything," it would be hard to say what winning is.
If the men who, without the ballot, made Peel their tool
and conquered the Duke of Wellington, are considered
unsuccessful, pray what kind of a thing would success be ?
Those who now, at the head of that same middle class,
demand the separation of Church and State, and the
Extension of the Ballot, may well guess, from the fluttering
of Whig and Tory dove-cotes, that soon they will " win "
that same "nothing." Heaven grant they may enjoy the
same ill success with their predecessors ! On our side of
the ocean, too, we ought deeply to sympathize with the
leaders of the temperance movement in their entire want
of success ! If " Ion's " mistakes about the antislavery
cause lay as much on the surface as those I have just
noticed, it would be hardly worth while to reply to him ;
for as to these, he certainly exhibits only " the extent and
variety of his misinformation."
His remarks upon the antislavery movement are, how
ever, equally inaccurate. I claim, before you who know
the true state of the case, — I claim for the antislavery
movement with which this society is identified, that, look
ing back over its whole course, and considering the men
connected with it in the mass, it has been marked by
sound judgment, unerring foresight, the most sagacious
adaptation of means to ends, the strictest self-discipline,
the most thorough research, and an amount of patient and
manly argument addressed to the conscience and intellect
of the nation, such as no other cause of the kind, in Eng
land or this country, has ever offered. I claim, also, that
its course has been marked by a cheerful surrender of
all individual claims to merit or leadership, — the most
cordial welcoming of the slightest effort, of every honest

106 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
attempt, to lighten or to break the chain of the slave. I
need not waste time by repeating the superfluous con
fession that we are men, and therefore do not claim to be
perfect. Neither would I be understood as denying that
we use denunciation, and ridicule, and every other weapon
that the human mind knows. We must plead guilty, if
there be guilt in not knowing how to separate the sin from
the sinner. With all the fondness for abstractions at
tributed to us, we are not yet capable of that. We are
fighting a momentous battle at desperate odds, — one
against a thousand. Every weapon that ability or igno
rance, wit, wealth, prejudice, or fashion can command, is
pointed against us. The guns are shotted to their lips.
The arrows are poisoned. Fighting against such an array,
we cannot afford to confine ourselves to any one weapon.
The cause is not ours, so that we might, rightfully, post
pone or put in peril the victory by moderating our de
mands, stifling our convictions, or filing down our rebukes,
to gratify any sickly taste of our own, or to spare the
delicate nerves of our neighbor. Our clients are three
millions -of Christian slaves, standing dumb suppliants at
the threshold of the Christian world. They have no
voice but ours to utter their complaints, or to demand
justice. The press, the pulpit, the wealth, the htera-
ture, the prejudices, the political arrangements, the
present self-interest of the country, are all against us.
God has given us no weapon but the truth, faithfully
uttered, and addressed, with the old prophets' directness,
to the conscience of the individual sinner. The elements
which control pubhc opinion and mould the masses are
against us. We can but pick off here and there a man
from the triumphant majority. We have facts for those
who think, arguments for those who reason ; but he who
cannot be reasoned out of his prejudices must be laughed
out of them ; he who cannot be argued out of his selfish-

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 107
ness must be shamed out of it by the mu-ror of his hateful
self held up relentlessly before his eyes. We live in a
land where every man makes broad his phylactery, in
scribing thereon, "All men are created equal," — "God
hath made of one blood all nations of men." It seems to
us that in such a land there must be, on this question of
slavery, sluggards to be awakened, as well as doubters to
be convinced. Many more, we verily believe, of the first
than of the last. There are far more dead hearts to be
quickened, than confused intellects to be cleared up, —
more dumb dogs to be made to speak, than doubting
consciences to be enhghtened. [Loud cheers.] We
have use, then, sometimes, for something beside argu
ment. What is the denunciation with which we are charged?
It is endeavoring, in our faltering human speech, to de
clare the enormity of the sin of making merchandise of
men, — of separating husband and wife, — taking the
infant from its mother, and selling the daughter to pros
titution, — of a professedly Christian nation denying, by
statute, the Bible to every sixth man and woman of its
population, and making it illegal for " two or three " to
meet together, except a white man be present ! What
is this harsh criticism of motives with which we are
charged ? It is simply holding the intelligent and delib
erate actor responsible for the character and consequences
of his acts. Is there anything inherently wrong in such
denunciation or such criticism ? This we may claim, —
we have never judged a man but out of his own mouth.
We have seldom, if ever, held him to account, except for
acts of which he and his own friends were proud. AU
that we ask the world and thoughtful men to note are
the principles and deeds on which the American pulpit
and American public men plume themselves. We always
allow our opponents to paint their own pictures. Our

108 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
humble duty is to stand by and assure the spectators that
what they would take for a knave or a hypocrite is really,
in American estimation, a Doctor of Divinity or Secretary
of State.*
The South is one great brothel, where half a million of
women are flogged to prostitution, or, worse stiU, are
degraded to believe it honorable. The public squares
of half our great cities echo to the wail of famUies torn
asunder at the auction-block ; no one of our fair rivers
that has not closed over the negro seeking in death a
refuge from a life too wretched to bear; thousands of
fugitives skulk along our highways, afraid to tell their
names, and trembling at the sight of a human being;
free men are kidnapped in our streets, to be plunged into
that hell of slavery ; and now and th6n one, as if by mh-
* A paragraph from the New England Fanner, of this city, has gone the
rounds of the press, and is generally believed. It says : —
" We learn, on reliable authority, that Mr. Webster confessed to a warm
political friend, a short time before his death, that the great mistake of his
life was the famous Seventh of March Speech, in which, it will be remem
bered, he defended the Fugitive Slave Law, and fully committed himself to
the Compromise Measures. Before taking his stand on that occasion, he is
said to have corresponded mth Professor Stuart, and other eminent divines,
to ascertain how far the religious sentiment of the North would sustain
him in the position he was about to assume."
Some say this " warm political friend " was a clergyman ! Consider a
moment the language of this statement, the form it takes on every lip and
in every press. " The great mistake of his life " ! Seventy years old,
brought up in New England churches, with all the culture of the world at
his command, his soul melted by the repeated loss of those dearest to
him, a great statesm.an, with a heart, according to his admirers, yet tender
and fresh, — one who bent in such agony over the death-bed of his first
daughter, — he looks back on this speech, which his friends say changed the
feelings of ten millions of people, and made it possible to enact and exe
cute the Fugitive Slave Law. He sees that it flooded the hearth-stones of
thousands of colored men with wretchedness and despair, — crazed the
mother, and broke the heart of the wife, — putting the virtue of woman
and the liberty of man in the power of the vilest, — aud all, as he at least

THE ABOLITION JIOVEMENT. 109
acle, after long years, returns to make men aghast with
his tale. The press says, "It is all right"; and the
pulpit cries, " Amen." They print the Bible in every
tongue in which man utters his prayers ; and get the
money to do so by agreeing never to give the book, in
the language our mothers taught us, to any negro, free or
bond, south of Mason and Dixon's line. The press says,
" It is all right " ; and the pulpit cries, " Amen." The
slave lifts up his imploring eyes, and sees in every face
but ours the face of an enemy. Prove to me now that
harsh rebuke, indignant denunciation, scathing sarcasm,
and pitiless ridicule are wholly and always unjustifiable ;
else we dare not, in so desperate a case, throw away any
weapon which ever broke up the crust of an ignorant
prejudice, roused a slumbering conscience, shamed a
proud sinner, or changed, in any way, the conduct of a
now saw, for nothing. Yet one who, according to his worshippei-s, was
" the grandest growth of our soil and our institutions," looked back on
such an act, and said — what? With one foot in the grave, said what of it 7
" I did wrong " 1 "X committed a foul outrage on my brother man " 1
" I sported too carelessly with the welfare of the poor " ? Was there no
moral chord in that heart, " the grandest growth of our soil and our insti
tutions " 1 No ! He said, " I made a mistake ! " Not, " I was false in
my stewardship of these great talents and this high position ! " No !
But on the chess-board of the political game, I made a bad move ! I
threw away my chances ! A gambler, I did not understand my cards !
And to whom does he offer this acknowledgment "> To a clergyman ! the
representative of the moral sense of the community ! What a picture !
Wo laugh at the lack of heart in Talleyrand, when he says, "It is worse
than a crime, a blunder." Yet all our New-Englander can call this mo
mentous crime of his life is — a mistake 1
Whether this statement be entirely true or not, we all know it is
exactly the tone in which all about us talk of that speech. If the state
ment be true, what an entire want of right feeling and moral sensibihtv it
shows in Mr. Webster I If it be unfounded, still the welcome it has re
ceived, and the ready belief it has gained, show the popular appreciation
of him, and of such a crime. Such is the public with which Abohtionists
have to deal.

110 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
human being. Our aim is to alter public opinion. Did
we five in a market, our talk should be of dollars and
cents, and we would seek to prove only that slavery was
an unprofitable investment. Were the nation one great,
pure church, we would sit down and reason of "right
eousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Had
slavery fortified itself in a college, we would load our
cannons with cold facts, and wing our arrows with argu
ments. But we happen to live in the world, — the world
made up of thought and impulse, of self-conceit and self-
interest, of weak men and wicked. To conquer, we must
reach all. Our object is not to make every man a Chris
tian or a philosopher, but to induce every one to aid in
the abolition of slavery. We expect to accomplish our
object long before the nation is made over into saints or
elevated into philosophers. To change public opinion, we
use the very tools by which it was formed. That is, all
such as an honest man may touch.
All this I am not only ready to allow, but I should be
ashamed to think of the slave, or to look into the face of
my fellow-man, if it were otherwise. It is the only thing
that justifies us to our own consciences, and makes us
able to say we have done, or at least tried to do, our duty.
So far, however you distrust my philosophy, you will
not doubt my statements. That we have denounced and
rebuked with unsparing fidelity wUl not be denied. Have
we not also addressed ourselves to that other duty, of ar
guing our question thoroughly ? — of using due discretion
and fair sagacity in endeavoring to promote our cause?
Yes, we have. Every statement we have made has been
doubted. Every principle we have laid down has been
denied by overwhelming majorities against us. No one
step has ever been gained but by the most laborious
research and the most exhausting argument. And no
question has ever, since Revolutionary days, been so thor-

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. Ill
oughly investigated or argued here, as that of slavery.
Of that research and that argument, of the whole of it,
the old-fashioned, fanatical, crazy Garrisonian antislavery
movement has been the author. From this band of men
has proceeded every important argument or idea which
has been broached on the antislavery question from 1830
to the present time. [Cheers.] I am well aware of the
extent of the claim I make. I recognize, as fully as any
one can, the ability of the new laborers, — the eloquence
and genius with which they have recommended this cause
to the nation, and flashed conviction home on the con
science of the community. I do not mean, either, to
assert that they have in every instance borrowed from our
treasury their facts and arguments. Left to themselves,
they would probably have looked up the one and origi
nated the other. As a matter of fact, however, they have
generally made use of the materials collected to their
hands. But there are some persons about us, sympathiz
ers to a great extent with " Ion," who pretend that the
antislavery movement has been hitherto mere fanaticism,
its only weapon angry abuse. They are obliged to assert
this, in order to justify their past inelifference or hostility.
At present, when it suits their purpose to give it some at
tention, they endeavor to explain the change by alleging
that now it has been taken up by men of thoughtful
minds, and its claims are urged by fair discussion and able
argument. My claim, then, is this : that neither the char
ity of the most timid of sects, the sagacity of our wisest
converts, nor the culture of the ripest scholars, though all
have been aided by our twenty years' experience, has yet
struck out any new method of reaching the public mind,
or originated any new argument or train of thought, or
discovered any new fact bearing on the question. When
once brought fully into the struggle, they have found it
necessary to adopt the same means, to rely on the same

112 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
arguments, to hold up the same men and the same meas
ures to public reprobation, with the same bold rebuke and
unsparing invective that we have used. All their con
ciliatory bearing, their painstaking moderation, their con
stant and anxious endeavor to draw a broad line between
their camp and ours, have been thrown away. Just so
far as they have been effective laborers, they have found,
as we have, their hands against every man, and every
man's hand against them. The most experienced of them
are ready to acknowledge that our plan has been wise, our
course efficient, and that our unpopularity is no fault of
ours, but flows necessarily and unavoidably from om- posi
tion. " I should suspect," says old Fuller, " that his
preaching had no salt in it, if no galled horse did wince."
Our friends find, after all, that men do not so much hate
us as the truth we utter and the light we bring. They
find that the community are not the honest seekers after
truth which they fancied, but selfish politicians and secta
rian bigots, who shiver, like Alexander's butler, whenever
the sun shines on them. Experience has driven these
new laborers back to our method. We have no quarrel
with them, — would not steal one wreath of their laurels.
All we claim is, that, if they are to be comphmented as
prudent, moderate. Christian, sagacious, statesmanlike re
formers, we deserve the same praise ; for they have done
nothing that we, in our measure, did not attempt before.
[Cheers,] I claim this, that the cause, in its recent aspect, has put
on nothing but timidity. It has taken to itself no new
weapons of recent years ; it has become more compromis
ing) — that is all ! It has become neither more persua
sive, more learned, more Christian, more charitable, nor
more effective than for the twenty years preceding. Mr.
Hale, the head of the Free Sod movement, after a career
in the Senate that would do honor to any man, — after a

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 113
six years' course which entitles him to the respect and
confidence of the antislavery public, — can put his name,
within the last month, to an appeal from the city of
Washington, signed by a Houston and a Cass, for a monu
ment to be raised to Henry Clay ! If that be the test of
charity and courtesy, we cannot give it to the world.
[Loud cheers.] Some of the leaders of the Free Soil
party of ^lassachusetts, after exhausting the whole capa
city of our language to paint the treachery of Daniel
Webster to the cause of liberty, and the evil they thought
he was able and seeking to do, — after that, could feel it
in their hearts to parade themselves in the funeral proces
sion got up to do him honor ! In this we allow we cannot
follow them. The deference which every gentleman owes
to the proprieties of social life, that self-respect and re-
garel to consistency which is every man's duty, — these, if
no deeper feelings, will ever prevent us from giving such
proofs of this newly-invented Christian courtesy. [Great
cheering.] We do not play politics ; antislavery is no
half-jest with us ; it )= a terrible earnest, with life or death,
worse than life or death, on the issue. It is no lawsuit,
where it matters not to the good feeling of opposing coun
sel which way the verdict goes, and where advocates can
sliake hands after the decision as pleasantly as before.
"\'\''hen we think of such a man as Henry Clay, his long
life, his mighty influence cast always into the scale against
the slave, — of that irresistible fascination with which he
moulded every one to his will ; when we remember that,
his conscience acknowledging the justice of our cause,
and his heart open on every other side to the gentlest im-
])ulscs, he could sacrifice so remorsely his convictions and
the welfare of millions to his low ambition ; when we
think how the slave trembled at the sound of his voice,
and that, from a multitude of breaking hearts there went
up nothing but gratitude to God when it pleased him to
s

114 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
call that great sinner from this world, — we cannot find it
in our hearts, we could not shape our lips to ask any man
to do him honor. [Great sensation.] No amount of
eloquence, no sheen of official position, no loud grief of
partisan friends, would ever lead us to ask monuments or
walk in fine processions for pirates ; and the sectarian zeal
or selfish ambition which gives up, deliberately and in full
knowledge of the facts, three million of human beings to
hopeless ignorance, daily robbery, systematic prostitution^
and murder, which the law is neither able nor undertakes
to prevent or avenge, is more monstrous, in our eyes, than
the love of gold which takes a score of fives with merciful
quickness on the high seas. Haynau on the Danube is no
more hateful to us than Haynau on the Potomac. Why
give mobs to one, and monuments to the other ?
If these things be necessary to courtesy, I cannot claim
that we are courteous. We seek only to be honest men,
anel speak the same of the dead as of the living. If the
grave that hides their bodies could swallow also the evil
they have done and the example they leave, we might
enjoy at least the luxury of forgetting them. But the
evil that men do lives after them, and example acquires
tenfold authority when it speaks from the grave. His
tory, also, is to be written. How shall a feeble minority,
without weight or influence in the country, with no jury
of millions to appeal to, — denounced, vilified, and con
temned, — how shall we make way against the over
whelming weight of some colossal reputation, if we do
not turn from the idolatrous present, and appeal to the
human race ? saying to your idols of to-day, " Here we
are defeated ; but we will write our judgment with the
iron pen of a century to come, and it shaU never be
forgotten, if we can help it, that you were false in your
generation to the claims of the slave ! " [Loud cheers.]
At present, our leading men, strong in the support of

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 115
large majorities, and counting safely on the prejudices of
the community, can afford to despise us. They know
they can overawe or cajole the Present ; their only fear
is the judgment of the Future. Strange fear, perhaps,
considering how short and local their fame ! But however
little, it is their all. Our only hold upon them is the
thought of that bar of posterity, before which we are all
to stand. Thank God ! there is the elder brother of the
Saxon race across the water, — there is the army of hon
est men to come ! Before that jury we summon you.
We are weak here, — out-talked, out-voted. You load
our names with infamy, and shout us down. But our
words bide their time. We warn the living that we have
terrible memories, and that their sins are never to be for
gotten. We will gibbet the name of every apostate so
black and high that his children's children shall blush to
bear it. Yet we bear no malice, — cherish no resentment.
We thank God that the love of fame, " that last infirmity
of noble mind," is shared by the ignoble. In our neces
sity, we seize this weapon in the slave's behalf, and teach
caution to the living by meting out relentless justice to
the dead. How strange the change death produces in the
way a man is talked about here ! While leading men
live, they avoid as much as possible all mention of slavery,
from fear of being thought Abolitionists. The moment
they are dead, their friends rake up every word they ever
contri\'od to whisper in a corner for liberty, and parade it
before the world ; growing angry, all the while, with us,
because we insist on explaining these chance expressions
by the tenor of a long and base life. While drunk with
the temptations of the present hour, men are willing to
bow to any Moloch. When their friends bury them, they
feel what bitter mocke.ry, fifty years hence, any epitaph
will be, if it cannot recorel of one living in this era some
service rendered to the slave ! These, Mr. Chairman,

116 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
are the reasons why we take care that "the memory of
the wicked shall rot."
I have claimed that the antislavery cause has, from the
first, been ably and dispassionately argued, every objection
candidly examined, and every difficulty or doubt anywhere
honestly entertained treated with respect. Let me glapce
at the literature of the cause, and try not so much, in a
brief hour, to prove this assertion, as to point out the
sources from which any one may satisfy himself of its
truth. I will begin with certainly the ablest and perhaps the
most honest statesman who has ever touched the slave
question. Any one who will examine John Quincy
Adams's speech on Texas, in 1838, will see that he was
only seconding the full and able exposure of the Texas
plot, prepared by Benjamin Lundy, to one of whose
pamphlets Dr. Channing, in his " Letter to Henry Clay,"
has confessed his obligation. Every one acquainted with
those years will allow that the North owes its earliest
knowledge and first awakening on that subject to Mr.
Lundy, who made long journeys and devoted years to
the investigation. His labors have this attestation, that
they quickened the zeal and strengthened the hands of
such men as Adams and Channing. I have been told
that Mr. Lundy prepared a brief for Mr. Adams, and
furnished him the materials for his speech on Texas.
Look next at the right of petition. Long before any
member of Congress had opened his mouth in its defence,
the Abolition presses and lecturers had examined and
defended the limits of this right with profound historical
research and eminent constitutional ability. So thor
oughly had the work been done, that all classes of the
people had made up their minds about it long before
any speaker of eminence had touched it in Congress.
Tlie politicians were little aware of this. When Mr.

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 117
Adams threw 'himself so gallantly into the breach, it is
said he wrote anxiously home to know whether he would
be supported in Massachusetts, little aware of the outburst
of pojDular gratitude which the Northern breeze was even
then bringing him, deep and cordial enough to wipe away
the old grudge Massachusetts had borne him so long.
Mr. Adams himself was only in favor of receiving the
petitions, and advised to refuse their prayer, which was
the abolition of slavery in the District. He doubted the
power of Congress to abolish. His doubts were examined
by Mr. William Gooelell, in two letters of most acute
logic, and of masterly ability. If Mr. Adams still re
tained his doubts, it is certain at least that he never
expressed them afterward. When Mr. Clay paraded
the same objections, the whole question of the power
of Congress over the district was treated by Theodore
D. Weld in the fullest manner, and with the widest
research, — indeed, leaving nothing to be added: an ar
gument which Dr. Channing characterized as " demon
stration," and pronounced the essay " one of the ablest
pamphlets from the American press." No answer was
ever attempted. The best proof of its ability is, that
no one since has presumed to doubt the power. Law
yers and statesmen have tacitly settled down into its
full acknowledgment.
The influence of the Colonization Society on the wel
fare of the colored race was the first question our move
ment encountered. To the close logic, eloquent appeals,
and fully sustained charges of Mr. Garrison's Letters on
that subject no answer was ever made. Judge Jay fol
lowed with a work full and able, establishing every charge
by the most patient investigation of facts. It is not too
much to say of these two volumes, that they left the Col
onization Society hopeless at the North. It dares never
show its face before the people, and only lingers in some

118 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
few nooks of sectarian pride, so secluded from the influ
ence of present ideas as to be almost fossil in their char
acter. The practical working of the slave system, the slave
laws, the treatment of slaves, their food, the duration of
their lives, their ignorance and moral condition, and the
influence of Southern public opinion on their fate, have
been spread out in a detail and with a fulness of evidence
which no subject has ever received before in this country.
Witness the works of Phelps, Bourne, Rankin, Grimke, the
" Antislavery Record," and, above all, that encyclopaedia
of facts and storehouse of arguments, the " Thousand Wit
nesses " of Mr. Theodore D. Weld. He also prepared
that full and valuable tract for the World's Convention
called " Slavery and the Internal Slave-Trade in the
United States," published in London, 1841. Unique in
antislavery literature is Mrs. Child's " Appeal," one of
the ablest of our weapons, and one of the finest efforts
of her rare genius.
The Princeton Review, I believe, first challenged the
Abolitionists to an investigation of the teachings of the
Bible on slavery. That field had been somewhat broken
by our Enghsh predecessors. But in England, the pro-
slavery party had been soon shamed out of the attempt to
drag the Bible into their service, and hence the discussion
there had been short and somewhat superficial. The pro-
slavery side of the question has been eagerly sustained
by theological reviews and doctors of divinity without
number, from the half-way and timid faltering of Way-
land up to the unblushing and melancholy recklessness of
Stuart. The argument on the other side has come wholly
from the Abolitionists; for neither Dr. Hague nor Dr.
Barnes can be said to have added anything to the wide
research, critical acumen, and compr^Jhensive views of
Theodore D. Weld, Beriah Green,' J. G. Fee, and the
old work of Duncan.

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 119
On the constitutional questions which have at various
times arisen, — the citizenship of the colored man, the
soundness of the " Prigg " decision, the constitutionahty
of the old Fugitive Slave Law, the true construction of
the slave-surrender clause, — nothing has been added,
either in the way of fact or argument, to the works of
Jay, Weld, Alvan Stewart, E. G. Loring, S. E. Sewall,
Richard Hildreth, W. I. Bowditch, the masterly essays
of the Emancipator at New York and the Liberator at
Boston, and the various aeldresses of the Massachusetts
and American Societies for the last twenty years. The
idea of the antislavery character of the Constitution, —
the opiate with which Free Soil quiets its conscience for
voting under a proslavery government, — I heard first
suggested by Mr. Garrison in 1838. It was elaborately
argued that year in all our antislavery gatherings, both
here anel in New York, and sustained with great ability
by Alvan Stewart, and in part by T. D. Weld. The
antislavery construction of the Constitution was ably
argued in 1836, in the " Antislavery Magazine," by Rev.
Samuel J. May, one of the vei-y first to seek the side of
Mr. Garrison, and pledge to the slave his life and efforts. —
a pledge which thirty years of elevoted labors have nobly
redeemed. If it has either merit or truth, they are due
to no legal learning recently adeled to our ranks, but to
some of the old and well-known pioneers. This claim
has since received the fullest investigation from Mr. Ly-
sander Spooner, who has urged it with all his unrivalled
ingenuity, laborious research, and close logic. He writes
as a lawyer, and has no wish, I believe, to be ranked with
any class of antislavery men.
The influence of slavery on our government has re
ceived the profoundest philosophical investigation from
the pen of Richard Hildreth, in his invaluable essay on
"Despotism in ^Vmerica," — a work which deserves a

120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
place by the side of the ablest political disquisitions of
any age.
Mrs. Chapman's survey of " Ten Years of Antislavery
Experience," was the first attempt at a philosophical dis
cussion of the various aspects of the antislavery cause, and
the problems raised by its struggles with sect and party.
You, Mr. Chairman, [Eelmund Quincy, Esq.,] in the elab
orate Reports of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society
for the last ten years, have followed in the same path,
making to American literature a contribution of the high-
est value, and in a department where you have few rivals
and no superior. Whoever shall write the history either
of this movement, or any other attempted under a re
publican government, will find nowhere else so clear an
insight and so full an acquaintance with the most difficult
part of his subject.
Even the vigorous minel of Rantoul, the ablest man,
without doubt, of the Democratic party, and perhaps the
ripest politician in New England, added little or nothing
to the storehouse of antislavery argument. The grasp of
his intellect and the fulness of his learning every one
will acknowledge. He never trusted himself to speak on
any subject till he had dug down to its primal granite.
He laid a most generous contribution on the altar of the
antislavery cause. His speeches on our question, too short
and too few, are remarkable for their compact statement,
iron logic, bold denunciation, and the wonderful light
thrown back upon our history. Yet how little do they
present which was not famihar for years in our antislavery
meetings !
Look, too, at the last great effort of the idol of so many
thousands, Mr. Senator Sumner, — the discussion of a great
national question, of which it has been said that we must
go back to Webster's Reply to Hayne, and Fisher Ames
on the Jay Treaty, to find its equal in Congress, — praise

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 121
which we might perhaps qualify, if any adequate report
were left us of some of the noble orations of ^idams.
No one can be blind to the skilful use he has made of his
materials, the consummate ability with which he has mar
shalled them, and the radiant glow which his genius has
thrown over all. Yet, with the exception of his reference
to the antislavery debate in Congress, in 1817, there is
hardly a train of thought or argument, and no single fact
in the whole speech, which has not been familiar in our
meetings and essays for the last ten years.
Before leaving the halls of Congress, I have great pleas
ure in recognizing one exception to my reniarks, ili-. Gid-
dings. Perhaps he is no real exception, since it would not
be difficult to establish his claim to be considered one of
the original Abolition party. But whether he would
choose to be so considered or not, it is certainly true that
his long presence at the seat of government, his whole-
souled devotedness, his sagacity and unwearied industry,
have made him a large contributor to our antislavery
resources. The relations of the American Church to slavery, and
the duties of private Christians, — the whole casuistry of
this portion of the question, so momentous among descend
ants of the Puritans, — have been discussed with great
acuteness anel rare common-sense by Messrs. Garrison,
Goodell, Gerritt Smith, Pillsbury, and Foster. They have
never attempted to judge the American Church by any
standard except that wdiicli she has herself laid down, —
never claimeel that she should be perfect, but have con
tented themselves by demanding that she shoulel be con
sistent. They have never judged her except out of her
own mouth, and on facts asserted by her own presses and
leaders. The sundering of the Methodist and Baptist de
nominations, and the universal agitation of the religious
world, are the best proof of the sagacity with which their

122 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
measures have been chosen, the cogent arguments they
have used, and the indisputable facts on which their
criticisms have been founded.
In nothing have the Abolitionists shown more sagacity
or more thorough knowledge of their countrymen than in
the course they have pursued in relation to the Church.
None but a New-Englander can appreciate the power
which church organizations wield over all who share the
blood of the Puritans. The influence of each sect over its
own members is overwhelming, often shutting out, or con
trolling, all other influences. We have Popes here, all
the more dangerous because no triple crown puts you on
your guard. The Methodist priesthood brings the Cath
olic very vivielly to mind. That each local church is in
dependent of all others,^we have been somewhat careful to
assert, in theory and practice. The individual's mdepeii-
dence of all organizations which place themselves between
him and his God, some few bold minds have asserted in
theory, but most even of those have stopped there.
In such a land, the Abolitionists early saw, that, for a
moral question like theirs, only two paths lay open : to
work through the Church, — that failing, to join battle
with it. Some tried long, like Luther, to be Protestants,
and yet not come out of Catholicism ; but their eyes were
soon opened. Since then we have been convinced that,
to come out from the Church, to hold her up as the bul
wark of slavery, and to make her shortcomings the main
burden of our appeals to the religious sentiment of the
community, was our first duty and best policy. This
course alienated many friends, and was a subject of fre
quent rebuke from such men as Dr. Channing. But
nothing has ever more strengthened the cause, or won it
more influence ; and it has had the healthiest effect on the
Church itself British Christians have always sanctioned
it, whenever the case has been fairly presented to them.

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 123
Mr. John Quincy Aelams, a man far better acquainted
with his own times than Dr. Channing, recognized the
soundness of our policy. I do not know that he ever
uttered a word in public on the delinquency of the
churches ; but he is said to have assured his son, at the
time the Methodist Church broke asunder, that other
men might be more startled by the eclat of political suc
cess, but nothing, in his opinion, promised more good, or
showed more clearly the real strength of the antislavery
movement, than that momentous event.*
In 1838, the British Emancipation in the West Indies
opened a rich field for observation, and a full harvest of
important facts. The Abolitionists, not willing to wait
for the official reports of the government, sent special
agents through those islands, whose reports they scattered,
at great expense and by great exertion, broadcast through
the land. This was at a time when no newspaper in the
country would either lend or sell them the aid of its
columns to enlighten the nation on an experiment so
vitally important to us. And even now, hardly a press
in the country cares or dares to bestow a line or com
municate a fact toward the history of that remarkable
revolution. The columns of the Antislavery Standard,
Pennsylvania Freeman, and Ohio Bugle have been for
years full of all that a thorough and patient advocacy
of our cause demands. And the eloquent lips of many
whom I see around me, and whom I need not name
here, have done their share toward pressing all these
topics on public attention. There is harelly any record
of these labors of the living voice. Indeed, from the
nature of the case, there cannot be any adequate one.
Yet, unable to command a wide circulation for our
* Henry Clay attached the same importance to the ecclesiastical influence
and divisions. See his " Interview with Rev. Dr. Hill, of Louisville, Ky.,"
AidiJamij Standard, July 14, 1 860.

124 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
books and journals, we have been obliged to bring our-,
selves into close contact with the people, and to rely
mainly on public addresses. These have been our most
efficient instrumentahty. For proof that these addresses
have been full of pertinent facts, sound sense, and able
arguments, we must necessarily point to results, and
demand to be tried by our fr-uits. Within these last
twenty years it has been very rare that any fact stated
by your lecturers has been disproved, or any statement of
theirs successfully impeached. And for evidence of the
soundness, simplicity, and pertinency of their arguments
we can only claim that our converts and co-laborers
throughout the land have at least the reputation of
being specially able " to give a reason for the faith that
is in them."
I remember that when, in 1845, the present leaders of
the Free Soil party, with Daniel Webster m their com
pany, met to draw up the Anti-Texas Address of the
Massachusetts Convention, they sent to Abolitionists for
antislavery facts and history, for the remarkable testi
monies of our Revolutionary great men which they
wished to quote. [Hear ! hear !] When, many years
ago, the Legislature of Massachusetts wished to send to
Congress a resolution affirming the duty of immediate
emancipation, the committee sent to William Lloyd Gar
rison to draw it up, and it stands now on our statute-book
as he drafted it.
How vigilantly, how patiently, did we watch the Texas
plot from its commencement ! The politic South felt that
its first move had been too bold, and thenceforward
worked underground. For many a year, men laughed
at us for entertaining any apprehensions. It was impos
sible to rouse the North to its peril. David Lee Child
was thought crazy, because he would not beheve there
was no danger. His elaborate "Letters on Texan An-

THE ABOLITION MOVEJIENT. 125
nexation " are the ablest and most valuable contribution
that has been made towards a history of the whole plot.
Though we foresaw and proclaimed our conviction that
annexation would be, in the end, a fatal step for the
South, we did not feel at liberty to relax our opposition,
well knowing the vast increase of strength if would give,
at first, to the Slave Power. I remember being one of
a committee which waited on Abbott Lawrence, a year
or so only before annexation, to ask his countenance to
some general movement, without distinction of party,
against the Texas scheme. He smiled at our fears,
beggeel us to have no apprehensions ; stating that his cor
respondence with leading men at Washington enabled him
to assure us annexation was impossible, and that the
¦ South itself was determined to defeat the project. A
short time after. Senators and Representatives from Texas
took their seats in Congress !
Many of these services to the slave were done before I
joined his cause. In thus referring to them, do not sup
pose pie merely seeking occasion of eulogy on my prede
cessors and present co-laborers. I recall these things only
to rebut the contemptuous criticism which some about us
make the excuse for their past neglect of the movement,
and in answer to "Ion's" representation of our course as
reckless fanaticism, childish impatience, utter lack of good
sense, anel of our meetings as scenes only of excitement,
of reckless and indiscriminate denunciation. I assert that
every social, moral, economical, religious, political, and
historical aspect of the question has been ably and pa
tiently examined. And all this has been done with an
industry and ability which have left little for the profes
sional skill, scholarly culture, and historical learning of the
new laborers to accomplish. If the people are still in
doubt, it is from the inherent difficulty of the subject, or a
hatred of light, not from want of it.

126 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
So far from the antislavery cause having lacked a manly
and able discussion, I think it will be acknowledged here
after that this discussion has been one of the noblest con
tributions to a literature really American. Heretofore,
not only has our tone been but an echo of foreign culture,
but the very topics discussed and the views maintained
have been too often pale reflections of European politics
and European philosophy. No matter what dress we
assumed, the voice was ever " the voice of Jacob." At
last we have stirred a question thoroughly American ; the
subject has been looked at from a point of view entirely
American ; and it is of such deep interest, that it has
called out all the intellectual strength of the nation. For
once, the nation speaks its own thoughts, in its own
language, anel the tone also is all its own. It will hardly
do for the defeated party to claim that, in this discussion,
aU the ability is on their side.
We are charged with lacking foresight, and said to
exaggerate. This charge of exaggeration brings to my
mind a fact I mentioned, last month, at Horticultural
Hall. The theatres in many of our large cities bring out,
night after night, all the radical doctrines and all the
startling scenes of " Uncle Tom." They preach imme
diate emancipation, and slaves shoot their hunters to loud
applause. Two years ago, sitting in this hall, I was
myself somewhat startled by the assertion of my fi-iend,
Mr. Pillsbury, that the theatres would receive the gospel
of antislavery truth earlier than the churches. A hiss
went up from the galleries, and many in the audience
were shocked by the remark. I asked myself whether I
could indorse such a statement, and felt that I could not.
I could not believe it to be true. Only two years have
passed, and what was then deemed rant and fanaticism,
by seven out of ten who heard it, has proved true. The
theatre, bowing to its audience, has preached immediate

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 127
emancipation, and given us the whole of " Uncle Tom " ;
while the pulpit is either silent or hostile, and in the
columns of the theological papers the work is subjected to
criticism, to reproach, and its author to severe rebuke.
Do not, therefore, friends, set down as extravagant every
statement which your experience does not warrant. It
may be that you and I have not studied the signs of the
times quite as accurately as the speaker. Going up and
down the land, coming into close contact with the feelings
and prejudices of the community, he is sometimes a better
judge than you are of its present state. An Abolitionist
has more motives for watching and more means of finding
out the true state of public opinion, than most of those
careless critics w^ho jeer at his assertions to-day, anel are
the first to cry, " Just what I said," when his prophecy
becomes fact to-morrow.
Mr. " Ion " thinks, also, that we have thrown away
opportunities, and neeellessly outraged the men anel par-
tics about us. Far from it. The antislavery movement
was a patient and humble supphant at every door whence
any help could possibly be hoped. If we now repudiate
and denounce some of our institutions, it is because we
have faithfully tried them, and found them deaf to the
claims of justice and humanity. Our great Leader, when
he first meditated this crusade, did not
" At once, like a sunburst, his banner unfurl."
0 no I he soundeel his way warily forward. Brought up
in the strictest reverence for church organizations, his first
effort was to enlist the clergymen of Boston in the support
of his views. On their aid he counted confidently in his
effort to preach immediate repentance of all sin. He did
not go, with malice prepense, as some seem to imagine, up
to that " attic " where Mayor Otis with difficulty found
him. He did not com-t hostility or seek exile. He
did not sedulously endeavor to cut himself off from

128 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
the sympathy and countenance of the community about
him. 0 no ! A fervid disciple of the American Church,
he conferred with some of the leading clergy of the
city, and laid before them his convictions on the sub
ject of slavery.* He painted their responsibility, and
tried to induce them to take from his shoulders the bur
den of so mighty a movement. He laid himself at their
feet. He recognized the colossal strength of the Church ;
he knew that against their opposition it would be almost
desperate to attempt to relieve the slave. He entreated
them, therefore, to take up the cause. But the Church
turned away from him ! They shut their doors upon him !
They bade him compromise his convictions, - — smother
one half of them, and support the colonization movement,
making his own auxiliary to that, or they would have none
of him. Like Luther, he said : " Here I stand ; God
help me ; I can do nothing else ! " But the men who
joined him were not persuaded that the case was so
desperate. They returned, each to his own local sect,
and remained in them until some of us, myself among the
number, — later converts to the antislavery movement, —
thought they were slow and faltering in their obedience
to conscience, and that they ought to have cut loose
* " The writer accompanied Mr. Garrison, in 1829, in calling upon u,
number of prominent ministers in Boston, to secure their co-operation in
this cause. Our expectations of important assistance from them were, at that
time, very sanguine." — Testimony of William Goodell, in a recent work
entitled " Slavery and Antislavery.''
In an address on Slavery and Colonization, dehvered by Mr. Garrison
in the Park Street Church, Boston, July 4, 1829, (which was subsequently
pubhshed in the National Philanthropist,) he said : "I call on the ambas
sadors of Christ, everywhere, to make kno-\vn this proclamation, ' Thus
saith the Lord God of the Africans, Let this people go, that they may
serve me.' I ask them to ' proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound.' I call on the churches of the living
God to LEAD in this great enterprise."

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 129
much sooner than they did. But a patience, which old
sympathies would not allow to be exhausted, and associa
tions, planted deeply in youth, and spreading over a large
part of manhood, were too strong for any mere argument
to elislodge them. So they still persisted in remaining in
the Church. Their zeal was so fervent, and their labors
so abundant, that in some towns large societies were
forme-d, led by most of the clergymen, and having almost
all the church-members on their lists. In those same
towns now you will not find one single Abolitionist, of
any stamp whatever. They excuse their falling back by
alleging that we have injured the cause by our extrava
gance anel denunciation, and by the various other ques
tions with which our names are associated. This might
be a good reason why they should not work with us, but
does it excuse their not working at all ? These people
have been once awakened, thoroughly instructed in the
momentous character of the movement, and have acknowl
edged the rightful claim of the slave on their sympathy
and exertions. It is not possible that a few thousand per
sons, however extravagant, could prevent devoted men
from finding some way to help such a cause, or at least
manifesting their interest in it. But they have not only
left us, they have utterly eleserted the slave, in the hour
wlien the interests of their sects came across his cause.
Is it uncharitable to conjecture the reason ? At the early
period, however, to which I have referred, the Church
was much exercised by the persistency of the Abolitionists
in nut going out from her. When I joined the antislavery
ranks, sixteen years ago, the voice of the clergy was :
" Will these pests never leave us ? Will they still remain
t(i tKinble us ? If you do not like ns, there is the door ! "
When our friends had exhausted all entreaty, and tested
the f'liristianity of that body, they shook off the dust of
their feet, and came out of her.

130 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
At the outset, Mr. Garrison called on the head of the
Orthodox denomination, — a man conipared with whose
influence on the mind of New England that of the states
man whose death you have just mourned was, I think,
but as dust in the balance, — a man who then held the
Orthodoxy of Boston in his right hand, and who has since
taken up the West by its four corners, and given it so
largely to Puritanism, — I mean the Rev. Dr. Lyman
Beecher. Mr. Garrison was one of those who bowed to
the spell of that matchless eloquence which then fulmined
over our Zion. He waited on his favorite divine, and
urged him to give to the new movement the incalculable
aid of his name and countenance. He was patiently
heard. He was allowed to unfold his plans and array his
facts. The reply of the veteran was, " Mr. Garrison, I
have too many irons in the fire to put in another." My
friend said, " Doctor, you had better take them all out and
put this one in, if you mean well either to the religion or
to the civil liberty of our country." [Cheers.]
The great Orthodox leader did not rest with merely
refusing to put another iron in his fire ; he attempted to
hmit the irons of other men. As President of Lane
Theological Seminary, he endeavored to prevent the stu
dents from investigating the subject of slavery. The
result, we all remember, was a strenuous resistance on
the part of a large number of the students, led by that re
markable man, Theodore D. Weld. The right triumphed,
and Lane Seminary lost her character and noblest pupils
at the same time. She has languished ever since, even
with such a President. Why should I foUow Dr. Beecher
into those ecclesiastical conventions where he has been
tried, and found wanting, in fidelity to the slave ? He
has done no worse, indeed he has done much better, than
most of his class. His opposition has always been open
and manly.

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 131
But, Mr. Chairman, there is something in the blood
which, men tell us, brings out virtues and defects, even
when they have lain dormant for a generation. Good and
evil qualities are hereditary, the physicians say. The
blood whose warm currents of eloquent aid my friend so
licited in vain in that generation has sprung voluntarily
to his assistance in the next, — both from the pulpit
and the press, — to rouse the world by the vigor anel
pathos of its appeals. [Enthusiastic cheers.] Even on
that great triumph I would say a word. Marked and un
equalled as has been that success, remember, in explana
tion of the phenomenon, — for "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is
rather an event than a book, — remember this : if the old
antislavery movement had not roused the sympathies of
Mrs. Stowe, the book had never been written ; if that
movement had not raised up hundreds of thousands of
hearts to sympathize vt^ith the slave, the book had never
been read. [Cheers.] Not that the genius of the author
has not made the triumph all her own ; not that the unri
valled felicity of its execution has not trebled, quadrupled,
increased tenfold, if you please, the number of readers ;
but there must be a spot even for Archimedes to rest his
lever upon, before he can move the world, [cheers,] and
this effort of genius, consecrated to the noblest purpose,
might have fallen dead and unnoticed in 1835. It is the
antislavery movement which has changed 1835 to 1852.
Those of us familiar with antislavery literature know
well that Richard Hildreth's " Archy Moore," no^ " The
"\^^hite Slave," was a book of eminent ability ; that it
oweel its want of success to no lack of genius, but only to
the fact that it was a work born out of due time ; that the
antislavery cause had not then aroused sufficient num
bers, on the wings of ^\'hose enthusiasm even the mo-.t
delightful fiction could have risen into world-wide influ
ence and repute. To the cause which liael changed 1S?5

132 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
to 1852 is due somewhat of the influence of " Uncle
Tom's Cabin."
The Abolitionists have never overlooked the wonderful
power which the wand of the novelist was yet to wield in
their behalf over the hearts of the world. Fredrika Bre
mer only expressed the common sentiment of many of
us, when she declared that " the fate of the negro is the
romance of our history." Again and again, from my ear
liest kiio\\dedge of the cause, have I heard the opinion,
that in the debatable land between Freedom and Slavery,
in the thrilling incidents of the escape and sufferings of
the fugitive, and the perils of his friends, the future Wal
ter Scott of America would find the " border-land " of
his romance, and the most touching incidents of his " sixty
years since " ; and that the literature of America would
gather its freshest laurels from that field.
So much, Mr. Chairman, for our treatment of the
Church. We clung to it as long as we hoped to make it
useful. Disappointed in that, we have tried to expose its
paltering and hypocrisy on this question, broadly and with
unflinching boldness, in hopes to purify and bring it to our
aid. Our labors with the great religious societies, with
the press, with the institutions of learning, have been as
untiring, and almost as unsuccessful. , We have tried to
do our duty to every public question that has arisen, which
could be made serviceable in rousing general attention.
The Right of Petition, the Power of Congress, the Inter
nal Slave-Trade, Texas, the Compromise Measures, the
Fugitive Slave Law, the motions of leading men, the
tactics of parties, have all been watched and used with
sagacity and effect as means to produce a change in public
opinion. Dr. Channing has thanked the Abolition party,
in the name of all the lovers of free thought and free
speech, for having vindicated that right, when all others
seemed ready to surrender it, — vindicated it at the cost

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 133
of reputation, ease, property, even hfe itself The only
blood that has ever been shed, on this side the ocean, in
defence of the freedom of the press, was the blood • of
Lovejoy, one of their number. In December, 1836, Dr.
Channing spoke of their position in these terms : —
" Whilst, in obedience to conscience, they have reframed from
opposing force to force, they have stdl persevered, amidst menace
and insult, in bearing their testimony against wrong, in giving
utterance to their deep convictions. Of such men, I do not hes
itate to say, that they have rendered to freedom a more essential
service than any body of men among us. The defenders of
freedom are not those who claim and exercise rights which no
one assails, or who -ndn shouts of applause by well-turned com
pliments to Liberty in the days of her triumph. They are those
who stand up for rights which mobs, conspiracies, or single
tyrants put in jeopardy ; who contend for hberty in that particu
lar form which is tlu-eatened at the moment by the many or the
few. To the Abolitionists this honor belongs. The first sys
tematic efi'ort to strip the citizen of freedom of speech they have
met with invincible resolution. From my heart I thank them.
I am myself their debtor. I am not sure that I should this mo
ment write in safety, had they shrunk from the conflict, had they
shut their lips, imposed silence on their presses, and hid them
selves before their ferocious assailants. I know not where these
outrages would have stopped, had they not met resistance from
their first destined victims. The newspaper press, with a few
exceptions, uttered no genuine indignant rebuke of the wrong
doers, but rather countenanced by its gentle censures the reign
of force. The mass of the people looked supinely on this new
tyi'unny, under which a portion of their fellow-citizens seemed to
be sinking. A tone of denunciation was beginning to proscribe
all discussion of slavery ; and had the spirit of violence, which
selected associations as its first objects, succeeded in this prejiai--
atory enterprise, it might have been easily tui-ned against any
and every individual, who might presume to agitate the unwel
come subject. It is hard to say to what outrage the fettered
press of the counti-y might not have been reconcded. I tliank

134 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
the Abohtionists that, in this evU day, they were true to the
rights which the multitude were ready to betray. Their pur
pose to suffer, to die, rather than surrender their dearest liberties,
taugh^ the lawless that they had a foe to contend with whom it
was not safe to press, whilst, like all manly appeals, it called
forth reflection and sympathy in the better portion of the
community. In the name of freedom and humanity, I thank
them.'' No one, Mr. Chairman, deserves more of that honor
than he whose chair you now occuiDy. Our youthful city
can boast of but few places of historic renown ; but I
know of no one which coming time is more likely to keep
in memory than the roof which Francis Jackson offered
to the antislavery women of Boston, when Mayor Lyman
confessed he was unable to protect their meeting, and
when the only protection the laws could afford Mr. Garri
son was the shelter of the common jail.
Sir, when a nation sets itself to do evil, and all its lead
ing forces, wealth, party, and piety, join in the career, it
is impossible but that those who offer a constant opposi
tion should be hated and maligned, no matter how wise,
cautious, and well planned their course may be. We are
peculiar sufferers in this way. The community has come
to hate its reproving Nathan so bitterly, that even those
Avhom the relenting part of it is beginning to regard as
standard-bearers of the antislavery host think it unwise
to avow any connection or sympathy with him. I refer
to some of the leaders of the political moveinent against
slavery. They feel it to be their mission to marshal and
use as effectively as possible the present convictions of the
people. They cannot afford to encumber themselves with
the odium which twenty years of angry agitation have
engendered in great sects sore from unsparing rebuke,
parties gaUed by constant defeat, and leading men pro
voked by unexpected exposure. They are willing to con-

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 135
fess, privately, that our movement produced theirs, and
that its continued existence is the very breath of theit
life. But, at the same time, they would fain walk on the
road without being soiled by too close contact with the
rough pioneers who threw it up. They are wise and hon
orable, and their silence is very expressive.
When I speak of their eminent position and acknowl
edged ability, another thought strikes me. Who con
verted these men and their distinguished associates ? It
is said we have shown neither sagacity in plans, nor
canelor in discussion, nor ability. Who, then, or what,
converted Burlingame and Wilson, Sumner and Adams,
Palfrey and Mann, Chase and Hale, and Phillips and
Giddings ? Who taught the Christian Register, the Daily
Advertiser, and that class of prints, that there were such
things as a slave and a slaveholder in the land, and so
gave them some more intelligent basis than their mere
instincts to hate William Lloyd Garrison ? [Shouts and
laughter. 1 What magic wand was it whose touch made
the toadying servility of the land start up the real demon
that it was, and at the same time gathered into the slave's
service the professional ability, ripe culture, and personal
integrity which grace the Free Sod ranks ? We never
argue ! These men, then, were converted by simple
denunciation ! They were all converted by the " hot,"
" recldess," "ranting," "bigoted," "fanatic" Garrison,
who never troubled himself about facts, nor stopped to
aro-ue with an opponent, but straightway knocked him
down ! [Roars of laughter and cheers.] My old and
valued friend, Mr. Sumner, often boasts that he was a
reader of the Liberator before I was. Do not criticise
too much the agency by which such men were converted.
That blade has a double edge. Our reckless course, our
eni]ity rant, our fanaticism, has made Abolitionists of some
of the best and ablest men in the land. We are inclined

136 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
to go on, and see if even with such poor tools we cannot
make some more. [Enthusiastic applause.] Antislavery
zeal and the roused conscience of the " godless come-
buters " made the trembling South demand the Fuo-itive
Slave Law, and the Fugitive Slave Law "provoked"
Mrs. Stowe to the good work of " Uncle Tom." That is
something ! [Cheers.] Let me say, in passing, that you
will nowhere find an earlier or more generous apprecia
tion, or more flowing eulogy, of these men and their
labors, than in the columns of the Liberator. No one,
however feeble, has ever peeped or muttered, in any quar
ter, that the vigilant eye ,of the Pioneer has not recog
nized him. He has stretched out the right hand of a
most cordial welcome the moment any man's face was
turned Zionward. [Loud cheers.]
I do not mention these things to praise Mr. Garrison ;
I do not stand here for that purpose. You will not deny
— ff you do, I can prove it — that the movement of the
Abohtionists converted these men. Their constituents
were converted by it. The assault upon the right of
petition, upon the right to print and speak of slavery, the
denial of the right of Congress over the District, the
annexation of Texas, the Fugitive Slave Law, were meas
ures which the antislavery movement provoked, and the
discussion of which has made all the Abohtionists we
have. The antislavery cause, then, converted these men ;
it gave them a constituency ; it gave them an opportunity
to speak, and it gave them a public to listen. The anti-
slavery cause gave them their votes, got them their
offices, furnished them their facts, gave them their audi
ence. If you tell me they cherished all these principles
in their own breasts before Mr. Garrison appeared, I can
only say, ff the antislavery movement did not give them
their ideas, i,t surely gave the courage to utter them.
In such circumstances, is it not singular that the name

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 137
of William Lloyd Garrison has never been pronounced on
the floor of the United States Congress linked with any
epithet but that of contempt! No one of those men who
owe their ieleas, their station, their audience, to him, have
ever thought it worth their while to utter one word in
grateful recognition of the power which called them into
being. When obliged, by the course of their argument, to
treat the question historically, they can go across the water
to Clarkson and Wilberforce, — yes, to a safe salt-water
distance. [Laughter.] As Daniel Webster, when he was
talking to the farmers of Western New York, and wished
to contrast slave labor and free labor, did not dare to com
pare New York with Virginia, — sister States, under the
same government, planted by the same race, worshipping
at the same altar, speaking the same language, — identi
cal in all respects, save that one in which he wished to
seek the contrast ; but no ; he compared it with Cuba, —
[cheers and laughter,] — the contrast was so clo.se ! [Re
newed cheers.] Catholic — Protestant ; Spanish — Sax
on ; elespotism — municipal institutions ; readers of Lope
de Vega and of Shakespeare ; rautterers ,of the Mass —
children of the Bible ! But Virginia is too near home !
So is Garrison ! One would have thought there was
something in the human breast which would sometimes
break through policy. These noble-hearted men whom I
have named must surely have found quite irksome the
constant practice of what Dr. Gardiner used to call " that
despicable virtue, prudence " ! [Laughter.] One would
ha\e thought, when they heard that name spoken with
contempt, then- ready eloquence would have leaped from
its scabbard to avenge even a word that threatened him
with insult. But it never came, — never! [Sensation.]
I do not say I blame them. Perhaps they thought they
should serve the cause better by eh-awing a broad black
line between themselves and him. Perhaps they thought

138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
the Devil could be cheated ; — I do not think he can.
[Laughter and cheers.]
We are perfectly willing — I am, for one — to be the
dead lumber that shall make a path for these men into the
light and love of the people. We hope for nothing better.
Use us freely, in any way, for the slave. When the tem
ple is finished, the tools will not complain that they are
thrown aside, let who will lead up the nation to " put on
the topstone with shoutings." But while so much re
mains to be done, while our little camp is beleaguered ail-
about, do nothing to weaken his influence, whose sagacity,
more than any other single man's, has led us up hither,
and whose name is identified with that movement- which
the North still heeds, and the South still fears the most.
After all, Mr. Chairman, this is no hard task. We know
very well, that, notwithstanding this loud clamor about
our harsh judgment of men and things, our opinions differ
very little from those of our Free Soil friends, or of intel
ligent men generally, when you really get at them. It
has even been said, that one of that family which has
made itself so infamously conspicuous here in executing
the Fugitive Slave Law, a judge, whose earnest defence
of that law we all heard in Faneuil Hall, did himseff, but
a little while before, arrange for a fugitive to be hid-tiU
pursuit was over. I hope it is true, — it would be an
honorable inconsistency. And if it be not true of him,
we know it is of others. Yet it is base to incite others to
deeds, at which, whenever we are hidden from public
notice, our own hearts recoil ! But thus we see that
when men lay aside the judicial ermine, the senator's
robe, or the party collar, and sit down in private life, you
can hardly distinguish their tones from ours. Their eyes
seem as anointed as our own. As in Pope's day, —
" At all we laugh they laugh, no doubt ;
The only difference is, we dare laugh oat."

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 139
Caution is not always good policy in a cause like ours.
It is said that, when Napoleon saw the day going against
him, he used to throw away all the rules of war, and
trust himself to the hot impetuosity of his soldiers. The
masses are governed more by impulse than conviction ;
and even were it not so, the convictions of most men are
on our side, and this will surely appear, ff we can only
pierce the crust of their prejudice or indifference. I ob
serve that our Free Sod friends never stir their audience
so deeply as when some individual leaps beyond the plat
form, and strikes upon the very heart of the people. Men
listen to discussions of laws and tactics with ominous pa
tience. It is when Mr. Sumner, in Faneuil Hall, avows
his determination to disobey the Fugitive Slave Law, and
cries out, " I was a man before I was a Commissioner," —
when Mr. Giddings says of the fall of slavery, quoting
Adams, " Let it come ; if it must come in blood, yet I say
let it come ! " — that their associates on the platform are
sure they are wreckmg the party, — • while many a heart
beneath beats its first pulse of antislavery life.
These are brave words. When I compare them with
the general tone of Free Soil men in Congress, I distrust
the atmosphere of Washington and of pohtics. These
men move about, Sauls and Goliaths among us, taller by
many a cubit. There they lose port and stature. Mr.
Sumner's speech in the Senate unsays no part of his
Faneuil Hall pledge. But, though discussing the same
topic, no one would gather from any word or argument
that the speaker ever took such ground as he did in
Faneuil Hall. It is aU through, the law, the manner of
the surrender, not the surrender itself, of the slave, that
he objects to. As my friend Mr. Pillsbm-y so forcibly
says, so far as anything in the speech shows, he puts the
slave behind the jury trial, behind the habeas corpus act,
and behind ihe new interpretation of the Constitution, and

140 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
says to the slave claimant : " You must get through all
these, before you reach him ; but ff you can get through
all these, you may have him I " It was no tone hke this
which made the old Hall rock ! Not if he got through
twelve jury trials, and forty habeas corpus acts, and con
stitutions built high as yonder monument, would he per
mit so much as the shadow of a little finger of the slave
claimant to touch the slave ! [Loud applause.] At least,
so he was understood. In an elaborate discussion, by the
leader of the political antislavery party, of the whole
topic of fugitive slaves, you do not find one protest against
the surrender itself, one frank expression on the con
stitutional clause, or any indication of the speaker's final
purpose, should any one be properly claimed under that
provision. It was under no such uncertain trumpet that
the antislavery host was originally marshalled. The tone
is that of the German soldiers whom Napoleon routed.
They did not care, they said, for the defeat, but only that
they were not beaten according to rule. [Laughter and
cheers.] Mr. Mann, ni his speech of February 15, 1850,
says : " Tlie States being separated, I would as soon re
turn my own brother or sister into bondage, as I would
return a fugitive slave. Before God, and Christ, and aU
Christian men, they are my brothers and sisters." What
a condition ! from the lips, too, of a champion of the
Higher Law ! Whether the States be separate or united,
neither my brother nor any other man's brother shall, with
my consent, go back to bondage. [Enthusiastic cheers.]
So speaks the heart, — Mr. Mann's version is that of the
politician. Mr. Mann's recent speech in August, 1852, has the
same non-committal tone to which I have alluded in Mr.
Sumner's. While professing, in the most eloquent terms,
his loyalty to the Higher Law, Mr. Sutherland asked:
" Is there, in Mr. Mann's opinion, any conflict between

THE ABOLITION JIOVEMENT. 141
that Higher Law and the Constitution ? If so, what is
it ? If not so, why introduce an irrelevant topic into the
debate ? " Mr. Mann avoided any reply, anel asked not
to be interrupted ! Is that the frankness which becomes
an Abolitionist ? Can such concealment help any cause ?
The design of Mr. Sutherland is evident. If Mr. Mann
had allowed there was no conflict between the Hio-her
Law and the Constitution, all his remarks were futile and
out of order. But if he asserted that any such conflict
existed, how ehd he justify himself hi swearing to support
that instrument ? — a question our Free Sod friends are
slow to meet. Mr. Mann saw the dilemma, and avoided
it by silence !
The same speech contains the usual deprecatory asser
tions that Free-Soilers have no wish to interfere with
slavery in the States ; that they " consent to let slavery
remain where it is." If he means that he, Horace JNIann,
a moral and accountable being, " consents to let slavery
remain where it is," all the rest of his speech is sound and
fury, signifying nothing. If he means that he, Horace
Mann, as a politician and party man, consents to that, but,
elsewhere and otherwise, will do his best to abolish this
" all-comprehending wickedness of slavery, in which every
wrong and every crime has its natural home," then he
should have plainly said so. Other\vise, his disclaimer is
unworthy of him, and could have deceived no one. He
must have known that all the South care for is the action,
not in what capacity the deed is done.
Mr. Gidchngs is more careful in his statement ; but,
judged by his speech on the " Platforms," how little does
he seem to understand either his own duty or the true
philosophy of the cause he serves ! He says : —
" We, Sir, would drive the slave question from discussion in
this hall. It never had a constitutional existence here. Sep
arate this government from all mterference with slavery ; let

142 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
the Federal power wash its hands from that institution ; let us
purify ourselves from its contagion ; leave it with the States,
who alone have the power to sustain it, — then, Sir, -mil agita
tion cease in regard to it here ; then we shall have nothing more
to do with it ; our time wUl be no more occupied with it ; and,
like a band of freemen, a band of brothers, we could meet here,
and legislate for the prosperity, the improvement of mankind,
for the elevation of our race."
Mr. Sumner speaks in the same strain. He says : —
" The time will come when courts or Congress will declare,
that nowhere under the Constitution can man hold property in
man. For the republic, such a decree will be the way of peace
and safety. As slavery is banished from the national jurisdic
tion, it will cease to vex our national politics. It may hnger in
the States as a local institution, but it will no longer endanger
national animosities when it no longer demands national sup
port  For himself, he knows no better aim under the
Constitution than to bring the government back to the precise
position which it occupied " when it was launched.
This seems to me a very mistaken strain. Whenever
slavery is banished from our national jurisdiction, it will
be a momentous gain, a vast stride. But let us not mis
take the half-way house for the end of the journey. I
need not say that it matters not to Abolitionists under
what special law slavery exists. Their battle lasts while
it exists anywhere, and I doubt not Mr. Sumner and Mr.
Giddings feel themselves enlisted for the whole war. I
will even suppose, what neither of these gentlemen states,
that their plan includes, not only that slavery shall be
abolished in the District and Territories, but that the slave
basis of representation shall be struck from the Constitu
tion, and the slave-surrender clause construed away. But
even then, does Mr. Giddings or Mr. Sumner really be
lieve that slavery, existing in its fuU force in the States,
" wiU cease to vex our national pohtics " ? Can they

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 143
pohit to any State where a powerful oligarchy, possessed
of immense wealth, has ever existed, without attempting to
meddle in the government ? Even now, do not manufac
turing, banking, and commercial capital perpetually vex
our politics ? Why should not slave capital exert the
same influence ? Do they imagine that a hunelred thou
sand men, possessed of two thousand millions of doUars,
which they feel the spirit of the age is seeking to tear
from their grasp, will not eagerly catch at all the support
they can obtain by getting tlie control of the govern
ment ? In a land where the elollar is almighty, " where
the sin of not being rich is only atoned for by the effort
to become so," elo they eloubt that such an oligarchy will
generally succeed ? Besides, banking and manufacturing
capital are not urged by despair to seek a controlling in
fluence in politics. They know they are about equally
safe, whichever party rules, — that no party wishes to
legislate their rights away. Slave property knows that its
being alloweel to exist depends on its having the virtual
control of the government. Its constant presence in pol
itics is dictated, therefore, by despair, as well as by the
wish to secure fresh privileges. Money, however, is not
the only strength of the Slave Power. That, indeed,
were enough, in an age when capitalists are our feudal
barons. But, though driven entirely from national shelter,
the slaveholders would have the strength of old associa
tions, and of peculiar laws in their own States, which
gives those States wholly into their hands. A weaker
prestige, fewer privileges, and less comparative wealth,
have enabled the British aristocracy to rule England for
two centuries, though the root of their strength was cut
at Naseby. It takes ages for deeply-rooted institutions to
die ; and driving slavery into the States will hardly be our
Naseby. Whoever, therefore, lays the flattering unction
to his soul, that, while slavery exists anywhere in the

144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
States, our legislators will sit down " like a band of broth
ers," — unless they are all slaveholding brothers, — is
doomed to find himself wofuUy mistaken. Mr. Adams,
ten years ago, refused to sanction this doctrine of his
friend, Mr. Giddings, combating it ably and eloquently in
his well-known reply to IngersoU. Though Mr. Adams
touches on but one point, the principle he lays down has
many other applications.
But is Mr. Giddings willing to sit down with slave
holders, "like a band of brothers," and not seek, knowing
all the time that they are tyrants at home, to use the
common strength to protect their victims ? Does he not
know that it is impossible for Free States and Slave States
to unite under any form of Constitution, no matter how
clean the parchment may be, without the compact re
sulting in new strength to the slave system ? It is the
unimpaired strength of Massachusetts and New York,
and the youthful vigor of Ohio, that, even now, enable
bankrupt Carolina to hold up the institution. Every
nation must maintain peace within her limits. No gov
ernment can exist which does not fulfil that function.
When we say the Union will maintain peace in Carolina,
that being a Slave State, what does "peace " mean ? It
means keeping the slave beneath the heel of his master.
Now, even on the principle of two wrongs making a right,
if we put this great weight of a common govermnent into
the scale of the slaveholder, we are bound to add some
thing equal to the sla,ye's side. But no, Mr. Giddings is
content to give the slaveholder the irresistible and organic
help of a common government, and bind himself to utter
no word, and move not a finger, in his civil capacity, to
help the slave ! An Abolidonist would find himself not
much at home, I fancy, in that " band of brothers " !
And Mr. Sumner " knows no better aim, under the
Constitution, than to bring back the government" to

THE ABOLITION MOVEJIENT. 145
where it was in 1789 ! Has the voyage been so very
honest and prosperous a one, in his opinion, that his only
Avish is to start again with the same ship, the same crew,
and the same sailing-orders ? Grant all he claims as to
the state of public opinion, the intentions of leading men,
and the form of our institutions at that period ; still, with
all these checks on wicked men, and helps to good ones,
here we are, in 1853, according to his own showing, ruled
by slavery, tainted to the core with slavery, and binding the
infamous Fugitive Slave Law like an honorable frontlet
on our brows ! The more accurate and truthful his glow
ing picture of the public virtue of 1789, the stronger my
argument. If even all those great patriots, and all that
enthusiasm for justice and liberty, did not avail to keep us
safe in such a Union, what will ? In such desperate cir
cumstances, can his statesmanship elevise no better aim
than to try the same experiment over again, under pre
cisely the same conditions ? What new guaranties does
he propose to prevent tlie voyage from being again turned
into a piratical slave-trading cruise ? None ! Have sixty
years taught us nothing ? In 1660, the Enghsh thought,
in recalling Charles II., that the memory of that scaffold
¦^^'hic]l had once darkened the windows of Whitehall
would be guaranty enough for his good behavior. But,
spite of the spectre, Charles II. repeateel Charles I., and
James outdid him. Wiser by this experience, when the
nation, in 1689, got another chance, they trusted to no
guaranties, but so arranged the very elements of their
government that William III. could not repeat Charles I.
Let us profit by the lesson. These mistakes of leaehng
men merit constant attention. Such remarks as those I
have quoted, uttered from the high places of political life,
however carefully guarded, have a sad influence on the
rank and file of the party. The antislavery awakening
has cost too many years and too much labor to risk letting
10

146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
its energy be turned into a wrong channel, or balked by
fruitless experiments. Neither the slave nor the country
must be cheated a second time.
Mr. Chairman, when I remember the grand port of
these men elsewhere, and witness this conftision of ideas,
and veiling of their proud crests to party necessities, they
seem to me to lose in Washington something of their old
giant proportions. How often have we witnessed this
change ! It seems the inevitable result of political life
under any government, but especially under ours ; and
we are surprised at it in these men, only because we
fondly hoped they would be exceptions to the general rule.
It was Chamfort, I think, who first likened a republican
senate-house to Milton's Pandemonium ; — another proof
of the rare insight French writers have shown in criticising
republican institutions. The Capitol at Washington al
ways brings to my mind that other Capitol, which in Mil
ton's great epic " rose like an exhalation " " from the
burning marl," — that towering palace, " with starry
lamps and blazing cressets" hung, — with " roof of fretted
gold " and stately height, its hall " like a covered field."
You remember. Sir, the host of archangels gathered round
it, and how thick the airy crowd
" Swarmed and were straitened ; tiU, the signal given,
Behold a wonder ! They but now who seemed
In bigness to surpass earth's giant sons.
Now less than smallest dwaifs, in narrow room
Throng numberless, like that pygmean race
Beyond the Indian mount ; or fairy elves,
Whose midnight revels, by a forest side
Or fountain, some belated peasant sees.
Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms
Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large,
Though without number still, amid the haU
Of that infernal court."
Mr. Chairman, they got no further than the hall!

THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 147
[Cheers.] They were not, in the current phrase, " a
healthy party " .' The healthy party — the_ men who
made no compromise in order to come under that arch —
Milton describes further on, where he says :
" But far within,
And in their own dimensions, like themselves,
The great seraphic lords and cherubim.
In close recess and secret conclave, sat ;
A thousand demigods on golden seats
Frequent and full."
These were the healthy party ! [Loud applause.] These
are the Casses and the Houstons, the Footes and the
Soul(3s, the Clays, the Websters, and the Douglases, that
bow no lofty forehead in the dust, but can find ample
room and verge enough under the Constitution. Our
friends go down there, and must be dwarfed into pygmies
before they can find space within the lists ! [Cheers.]
It would be superfluous to say that we grant the entire
sincerity and true-heartedness of these men. But in
critical times, when a wrong step entails most disastrous
consequences, to " mean well " is not enough. Sincerity
is no shield for any man from the criticism of his fellow-
laborers. I do not fear that such men as these will take
offence at our discussion of their views and conduct.
Long years of hard labor, in which we have borne at least
our share, have resulted in a golden opportunity. How
to use it, friends differ. Shall we stand courteously silent,
and let these men play out the play, when, to our think
ing, their plan will slacken the zeal, balk the hopes, and
waste the efforts of the slave's friends ? No ! I know
Charles Sumner's love for the cause so well, that I am
sure he will welcome my criticism whenever I deem his
counsel wrong ; that he will hail every effort to serve our
common chent more efficiently. [Great cheering.] ^ It is
not his honor nor mine that is at issue ; not his feeling nor
mine that is to be consulted. The only question for either

148 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
of US is. What in these golden moments can be done ?
where can the hardest blow be struck ? [Loud applause.]
I hope I am just to Mr. Sumner ; I have known him long,
and honor him. I know his genius, I honor his virtues ;
yet if, from his high place, he sends out counsels which I
think dangerous to the cause, I am bound to raise my
voice against them. I do my duty in a private communi
cation to him first, then in public to his friends and mine.
The friendship that will not bear this criticism is but the
frost-work of a winter's morning, which the sun looks
upon and it is gone. His friendship will survive all that
I say of him, and mine will survive all that he shall say
of me ; and this is the only way in which the antislavery
cause can be served. Truth, success, victory, triumph
over the obstacles that beset us, — this is all either of us
wants. [Cheers.]
If all I have said to you is untrue, if I have exag
gerated, explain to me this fact. In 1831, Mr. Garrison
commenced a paper, advocating the doctrine of immediate
emancipation. He had against him the thirty thousand
churches and all the clergy of the country, — its wealth,
its commerce, its press. In 1831, what was the state of
things ? There was the most entire ignorance and apathy
on the slave question. If men knew of the existence of
slavery, it was only as a part of picturesque Virginia life.
No one preached, no one talked, no one wrote about it.
No whisper of it stirred the surface of the political sea.
The Church heard of it occasionally, when some coloniza
tion agent asked funds to send the blacks to Africa. Old
school-books tainted with some antislavery selections had
passed out of use, and new ones were compiled to suit the
times. Soon as any dissent fi-om the prevailing faith ap
peared, every one set himself to crush it. The pulpits
preached at it ; the press denounced it ; mobs tore down
houses, threw presses into the fire and the stream, and

shot the editors ; religious conventions tried to smother it ;
parties arrayed themselves against it. Daniel Webster
boasted in the Senate, that he had never introduced the
subject of slavery to that body, and never would. Mr.
Clay, in 1839, makes a speech for the Presielency, in
which he says, that to discuss the subject of slavery is
moral treason, and that no man has a right to introduce
the subject into Congress. Mr. Benton, in 1844, laid
down his platform, and he not only denies the right, but
asserts that he never has and never wUl discuss the sub
ject. Yet Mr. Clay, from 1839 down to his death, hardly
made a remarkable speech of any kind, except on slavery.
Mr. Webster, having indulged now and then in a little
easy rhetoric, as at Niblo's and elsewhere, opens his mouth
in 1840, generously contributing his aid to both sides, and
stops talking about it only when death closes his lips. ]\lr.
Benton's six or eight speeches in the United States Senate
have all been on the subject of slavery in the Southwestern
section of the country, and form the basis of whatever
claim he has to the character of a statesman, and he owes
his seat in the next Congress somewhat, perhaps, to anti-
slavery pretensions ! The Whig and Democratic parties
pledged themselves just as emphatically against the anti-
slavery discussion, — against agitation and free speech.
These men said : " It sha'n't be talked about, it won't be
talked about!" These are your statesmen! — men who
understand the present, that is, and mould the future !
The man who understands his own time, and whose genius
moulds the future to his views, he is a statesman, is he
not ? These men devoteel themselves to banks, to the
tariff, to internal improvements, to constitutional and
financial questions. They said to slavery : " Back ! no
entrance here ! We pledge ourselves against you." And
then there came up a humble printer-boy, who whipped
them into the traces, and made them talk, like Hotspur's

150 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
starling, nothing but slavery. He scattered all these
gigantic shadows, — tariff, bank, constitutional questions,
financial questions, — and slavery, like the colossal head in
Walpole's romance, came up and fiUed the whole pohtical
horizon ! [Enthusiastic applause.] Yet you must remem
ber he is not a statesman ; he is a " fanatic." He has no
discipline, — Mr. "Ion" says so ; he does not understand
the " discipline that is essential to victory " ! This man
did not understand his own time, — he did not know what
the ftiture was to be, — he was not able to shape it, — he
had no " prudence," — he had no " foresight " ! Daniel
Webster says, " I have never introduced this subject, and
never wiU," — and died broken-hearted because he had
not been able to talk enough about it. Benton says, "I
will never speak of slavery," and lives to break with
his party on this issue ! Mr. Clay says it is " moral trea
son " to introduce the subject into Congress, and lives to
see Congress turned into an antislavery debating-society,
to suit the purpose of one " too powerful individual " !
These were statesmen, mark you ! Two of them have
gone to their graves covered with eulogy ; and our na
tional stock of eloquence is all insufficient to describe how
profound and far-reaching was the sagacity of Daniel
Webster ! Remember who it was that said, in 1831, " I
am in earnest, — I will not equivocate, — I will not
excuse, — I will not retreat a single inch, — and I will ie
heard!" [Repeated cheers.] That speaker has lived
twenty-two years, and the complaint of twenty-three
millions of people is, " Shall we never hear of anything
but slavery ? " [Cheers.] I heard Dr. Kirk, of Boston,
say in his own pulpit, when he returned from London, —
where he had been as a representative to the " Evangeli
cal Alliance," — "I went up to London, and they asked
me what I thought of the question of immediate emancipa
tion. They examined us all. Is an American never to

travel anywhere in the world but men wiU throw this
troublesome question in his face ? " Well, it is aU his
fault [pointing to Mr. Garrison]. [Enthusiastic cheers.]
Now, when we come to talk of statesmanship, of sagacity
in choosing time and measures, of endeavor, by proper
means, to right the public mind, of keen insight into the
present and potent sway over the future, it seems to me
that the Abolitionists, who have taken — whether for good
or for ill, whether to their discredit or to their praise —
this country by the four corners, and shaken it until you
can hear nothing but slavery, whether you travel in rad-
roael or steamboat, whether you enter the hall of legisla
tion or read the columns of a newspaper, — it seems to me
that such men may point to the present aspect of the
nation, to their originally avowed purpose, to the pledges
and efforts of all your great men against them, and then
let you determine to which side the credit of sagacity and
statesmanship belongs. Napoleon busied himself, at St.
Plelena, in showing how Wellington ought not to have
conquered at Waterloo. The world has never got time
to listen to the explanation. Sufficient for it that the
Allies entered Paris. In like manner, it seems hardly
the province of a defeated Church and State to deny the
skill of measures by which they have been conquered.
It may sound strange to some, this claim for Mr. Garri
son of a profound statesmanship. Men have heard him
styled a mere fanatic so long, that they are incompetent to
judge him fah-ly. " The phrases men are accustomed,"
says Goethe, " to repeat incessantly, end by becoming
convictions, and ossify the organs of inteUigence." I
cannot accept you, therefore, as my jury. I appeal from
Festus to Cajsar ; from the prejudice of our streets to the
common sense of the world, and to your children.
Every thoughtftil and unprejudiced mind must see that
such an e\'il as sla^'ery wfll yield only to the most radical

152 THE PHILOSOPHY OF
treatment. If you consider the work we have to do, you
will not think us needlessly aggrefesive, or that we dig
down unnecessarily deep in laying the foundations of our
enterprise. A money power of two thousand millions of
dollars, as the prices of slaves now range, held by a small
body of able and desperate men ; that body raised into a
pohtical aristocracy by special constitutional provisions ;
cotton, the product of slave labor, forming the basis of our
whole foreign commerce, and the commercial class thus
subsidized; the press bought up, the pulpit reduced to
vassalage, the heart of the common people chilled by a
bitter prejudice agahist the black race ; our leading men
bribed, by ambition, either to silence or open hostility ; —
in such a land, on what shall an Abolitionist rely ? On
a few cold prayers, mere hp-service, and never from the
heart ? On a church resolution, hidden often in its rec
ords, and meant only as a decent cover for servility in
daily practice ? On political parties, with their superficial
influence at best, and seeking orduiarily only to use ex
isting prejudices to the best advantage ? Slavery has
deeper root here than any aristocratic institution has in
Europe ; and politics is but the common pulse-beat, of
which revolution is the fever-spasm. Yet we have seen
European aristocracy survive storms which seemed to
reach down to the primal strata of European life. Shall
we, then, trust to mere politics, where even revolution
has failed ? How shall the stream rise above its foun
tain ? Where shall our church organizations or parties
get strength to attack their great parent and moulder, the
Slave Power ? Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it. Why hast thou made me thus ? The old jest
of one who tried to lift himself in his own basket, is but a
tame picture of the man who imagines that, by working
solely through existing sects and parties, he can destroy
slavery. Mechanics say nothing but an earthquake.

strong enough to move all Egypt, can bring down the
Pyramids. Experience has confirmed these views. The Aboh
tionists who have acted on them have a " short method "
with all unbelievers. They have but to point to their
own success, in contrast with every other man's failure.
To waken the nation to its real state, and chain it to the
consideration of this one duty, is half the work. So much
we have done. Slavery has been maele the question of
this generation. To startle the South to madness, so that
every step she takes, in her blindness, is one step more
toward ruin, is much. This we have done. Witness
Texas and the Fugitive Slave Law. To have elaborated
for the nation the only plan of redemption, pointed out the
only exodus from this " sea of troubles," is much. This
we claim to have done in our motto of iMMEDi.iTB, Un
conditional Emancipation on the Soil. The closer
any statesmanlike mind looks into the question, the more
favor our plan finds with it. The Christian asks fairly
of the infidel, " If this religion be not from God, how elo
you explain its triumph, and the history of the first three
centuries? " Our question is similar. If our agitation has
not been wisely planned and conducted, explain for us the
history of the last twenty years ! Experience is a safe
light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects
success in future from the same means which have secured
it in times past.

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.*

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: The peti
tions offered you on any one topic are usuaUy aU in
the same words. On the present occasion, I observe on
your table twelve or fourteen different forms. This is
very significant. It shows they do not proceed from a
central committee, which has been organized to rouse the
Commonwealth. They speak the instinctive, irrepressible
wish of all parts of the State. It is the action of persons
of different parties, sects, and sections, moving indepen
dently of' each other, but seeking the same object. Some
persons have sneered at these petitions because women are
found among the signers. Neither you. Gentlemen, nor
the Legislature, will maintain that women, that is, just
one half of the Commonwealth, have no right to petition.
A civil right, which no one denies even to foreigners, will
not certainly be denied to the women of Massachusetts.
And is there any one thoughtless enough to affirm that
this is not a proper occasion for women to exercise their
rights ? These petitions ask the removal of a Judge of
Probate. Probate judges are the guardians of widoM's
and orphans. Women have a peculiar interest in the
character of such judges. He chooses an exceedingly bad
occasion to laugh, who laughs when the women of the
* Argument before the Committee on Federal Relations of the Massa
chusetts Legislature, in Support of the Petitions for the Removal of Edward
Greely Loring from the Office of Judge of Probate, February 20, 1855.

Commonwealth ask you to remove a Judge of Probate,
who has shown that he is neither a humane man nor a
good lawyer. In the whole of my remarks. Gentlemen, I
beg you to bear in mind that we, the petitioners, are ask
ing you to remove, not a judge merelj% but a Judge of
Probate. A magistrate who is, in a peculiar sense, the
counsellor of the widow and the fatherless.
The family, in the moment of terrible bereavement and
distress, must first stand before him. To his discretion and
knowledge are committed most delicate questions, large
amounts of property, and very dear and vastly important
family relations. Surely, that should not be a rude hand
which is thrust among chords that have just been sorely
wrung. Surely, he should be a wise and most trustworthy
man who is to settle questions on many of which, from the
nature of the case, there can, practically, be no appeal.
His court is not watched by a jury. It is silent and
private, and has little publicity in its proceedings. He
should be, therefore, most emphatically a magistrate able
to stand alone ; whose rigid independence cannot be over
awed or swayed by cunning or able individuals about him ;
one skilful in the law, and who, while he holds the scales
of justice most exactly even, has a tender and humane
heart ; one whose generous instincts need no prompting
from without.
Some object that this petition asks you to elo an act fa
tal, they say, to the independence of the juehciary. The
petitioners are asked whether they do not know the value
and importance of an independent judiciary. Mr. Chair
man, we are full}^ aware of its importance. We know as
well as our fellow-citizens the unspeakable value of a high-
minded, enlightened, humane, independent, and just judge ;
one whom neither " fear, favor, affection, nor hope of re
ward " can turn from his course. It is because we are
so fully impressed with this, that we appear before you.

156 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Taking our history as a whole, we are proud of the Bench
of Massachusetts. You have given no higher title than
that of a Massachusetts Judge to Sewall, to Sedgwick, to
Parsons. Take it away, then, from one who volunteers,
hastens, to execute a statute which the law as well as
the humanity of the nineteenth centui-y regards as infa
mous and an outrage. We come before you, not to attack
the Bench, but to strengthen it, by securing it the only
support it can have under a government like ours, — the
confidence of the people. You cannot legislate judges
into the confidence of the people. You cannot preach
them into it ; confidence must be earned. To make the
name of judge respected, it must be worthy of respect, —
must never be borne by unworthy men. It never wiU be
either respected or respectable while this man bears it.
I might surely ask his removal in the names of the Judges
of Massachusetts, who must feel that this man is no fit
fellow for them. The special reasons why we^ deem him
an unfit judge, I shall take occasion to state by and by.
At present, I will only add, that it is not, as report says,
merely because he differs from us on the question of slav
ery, that we ask his removal. It is not for an honest or
for any other difference of opinion that we ask it; but,
as we shall presently take occasion to state, for far other
and very grave reasons.
I do not know. Gentlemen, what course of remark the
remonstrant, or his counsel, may adopt ; but I have
thought it necessary to say so much, in order that they
may understand our position, and thus avoid any needless
enlargement upon our want of respect for the function, or
appreciation of the value, of an independent, high-minded
judiciary. You will see, in the course of my remarks,
that it is because this incumbent has sinned in that very
respect that we appear here.
Gentlemen, these petitions, though variously worded,

all ask you to " talse proper steps for the removal of Edward
Greely Loring from office," — ''proper steps." It is for
the Legislature to decide what the " proper steps " are.
In offering some remarks on the proper method of pro
cedure in this case, you wiU bear in mind that I ^neces
sarily, perhaps, go over more ground than the progress of
this discussion may show to have been necessary ; because,
of course, I must be entirely ignorant what ground the
remonstrant, or his counsel, will take. I must, therefore,
cover all the ground.
You are of course aware. Gentlemen, that, originally, all
juelges were appointed by the king, and held their offices
as long and on such conditions as he pleased to prescribe.
Some helel as long as they behaved well, — during good
behavior, as our Constitution translates the old law Latin,
quamdiu se bene gesserint; others held during the pleasure
of the king, — durante bene placito, as the phrase is. This,
of course, made the judges entirely the creatures of the
king. To prevent this, and secure the independence of
the judges, after the English Revolution of 1689, it was
fixed by the Act of Settlement, as it is called, that the
Idng should not have the power to remove judges, but that
they sliould hold their offices " during good behavior."
They were still, however, removable by the king, on ad
dress from both Houses of Parliament.
Ilallam, in his Constitutional History, states very tersely
the exact state of the English law, and it is precisely the
law of this Commonwealth also, in these words : " No
judge can be dismissed from office except in consequence
of a conviction for some offence, or the address of both
Houses of Parliament, which is tantamount to an act of
Legislature." (Const. Hist., Am. edit., p. 597.)
To come now to our Commonwealth. There are, as I
just intimated, two waj^s of removing a judge kno-^vn to
the Constitution : one is, by impeachment ; and the other

158 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
is, by address of the Legislature to the Governor. A
judge who commits a crime, whether in his official capa
city or not, may be punished by indictment, precisely as
any other man may, — this principle may be left out of
the question. A judge, who, sitting on the bench, trans
gresses the laws in his official capacity, may be impeached
by the House of Representatives before the Senate, as a
Court of Impeachment, and removed. (Const. Mass.,
Chap. I. Sec. 2, Art. 8.)
The petitioners do not ask you to impeach Judge Lo
ring. Why ? Because they do not come here to say that
he has been guilty of official misconduct. To render a
judge hable to impeachment, he must be proved to have
misconducted in his official capacity. I shall not go into
the niceties of the law of impeachment. One would sup
pose, fi-om the arguments of the press at the present time,
and their comments on Mr. Boring's remonstrance, that a
judge could not be impeached unless he had violated some
express law. This is not so. It has been always held,
that a judge may be guilty of official misconduct, and liable
to impeachment, who had not violated any positive statute.
It is enough that the act violates the principles of the
common law. All authorities agree in this, and some
would seem to lay down the rule still more broadly. (See
Story on the Const., Bk. III. ch. 10, §§ 796-798, and
Shaw's argument when counsel against Prescott, Prescott's
Trial, p. 180.) As the Constitution confines the process
of impeachment to cases of official misconduct, and as we
do not pretend that Mr. Loring, sitting as a Judge of Pro
bate, has been guilty of any such, I pass from this point.
But the Constitution provides another form, which is,
that a judge may be removed from office by address of
both Houses to His Excellency the Governor. In the
first place. Gentlemen, let me read to you the source of
this power. " AU judicial oflficers, duly appointed, com-

missioned, and sworn, shall hold their offices during good
behavior, excepting such concerning whom there is a dif
ferent provision made in this Constitution : Provided,
nevertheless, the Governor, with consent of the Council,
may remove them upon address of both Houses of the
Legislature." (Const, of Mass., Chap. III. Art. 1.)
" Provided, nevertheless, the Governor, with consent of the
Council, may remove them upon the address of both Houses
of the Legislature." Now, Gentlemen, looking on the face
of this, it would be naturally inferred that, notwithstanding
his " gooel behavior," and without alleging any violation of
it, a judge could, nevertheless, be removed by adelress ;
that an " address " need not be based on a charge of official
misconduct, — that an " address " need not be based on a
charge of illegal conduct, in any capacity. This seems so
clear, that I should have left this point without further
remark, if Mr. Loring had not placed upon your files a
remonstrance against the prayer of these petitioners, which
remonstrance (I shall not occupy your time by reading it)
is based upon the principle, that it would be a hard and
unjust procedure if either house should address the Gov
ernor against him, seeing that he has not violated any
State law, or done anything that was illegal, or that was
prohibited by the laws of Massachusetts, and alleging that
he has only acted in conformity with the official oath of all
officers of the State to support the Constitution of the
United States. The defence of the remonstrant, as far as
we are informed of it, is, that he ought not to be removed,
because he has violated no law of Massachusetts. To that
plea. Gentlemen, I shall simply reply : the method of re
moving a judge by " address " does not require that the
House or Senate should be convinced that he has violated
any law whatever. Grant all Mr. Loring states in his
remonstrance, — that he has broken no law, that he
stands legally impeccable before you ; which, in other

160 REMOVAL OF .lUDGE LORING.
words, is simply to say that he cannot be indicted. If he
had violated a law, he could be indicted ; he comes to this
house and says, in effect, " Gentlemen, I cannot be in
dicted ; therefore, I ought not to be removed." The reply
of the petitioners is, A man may be unfit for a judge long
before he becomes fit for the state-prison. Their reply is,
(leaving for the time all question of impeachment,) It is
not necessary that a judge should render himself liable to
indictment, in order to be subject to be removed by " ad
dress." He can be removed (as my brother who preceded
me [Seth Webb, Jr., Esq.] has well said) for any cause
which the Legislature, in its discretion, thinks a fitting
cause for his removal. Even if he has not violated any
law of the Commonwealth, written or unwritten, stUl he
may be removed, if the Legislature thinks the public in
terest demands it. The matter is entirely within your
discretion. My proof of this is, first, the language of the
Constitution. The Constitution says : " The Senate shall
be a court with full authority to hear and determine all
impeachments made by the House of Representatives
against any officer or officers of the Commonwealth, for
misconduct and mal-administration in their offices."
(Chap. I. Sec. 2, Art. 8.) Now, suppose it true, as some
claim, that such misconduct must amount to a violation of
positive law, that nothing short of that will justify impeach
ment; the mere fact that the Constitution provides an
other way would be prima facie evidence that it meant to
lay a broader foundation for removal ; else, why tivo
methods ? If, in his office, he had outraged the laws of
the State, he could be impeached. Is not one remedy
sufficient ? Why does the Constitution provide another ?
Because the people, through their Constitution, meant to
say, " We will not have judges that cannot be removed
unless they have violated a statute. We will provide,
that in case of any misconduct, any unfitting character.

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 161
any incapacity or loss of confidence, the supreme power
of the Legislature may intervene and remove them." If
impeachment applies only to official misconduct, expressly
prohibited by statute, as seems to be claimed, then, from
the existence of another additional method in the Consti
tution, one would naturally infer that this other power
referred to misconeluct not official, and not expres.sly pro
hibited by statute. In adehtion to the mere letter of the
Constitution, and the inference fi-om the flict of two pow
ers being granted, we have the action of the Common
wealth in times past. I have not time for historical de-
tads, but the power of address, whenever it has been used
in this Commonwealth, has been used to remove judges
¦who had not violated any law. Juelge Bradbury was re
moved, I think, for mental incapacity, resulting from
aelvancing age. Of course, intellectual inefficiency is not
impeachable ; it is not such " misconeluct or mal-administra
tion " as renders a man liable to impeachment; but the Con
stitution, in order to cover the whole ground, has left with
the Legislature the power to remove an inefficient judge,
— a judge who has grown too old to perform his duties.
But it happens that this clause of the Constitution has
been passed upon, — not, indeed, by the Supreme Court,
but I may say by equally high authority. It has been
expoundeel by some of the ablest men the Commonwealth
ever knew, and in circumstances which preclude the idea
of prejudice or passion. It is fortunate for these petition
ers, in regard to this claim of tlie power of the Legislature
(which it is said Mr. Loring's friends intend to deny, and
which his remonstrance does practically deny), — it is
fortunate for them, that in the Constitutional Convention
of Massachusetts, in 1820, this clause of the Constitution
was eleliberately discussed. It was discussed. Gentlemen,
not when there was a case before the Commonwealth,
when men were divided into pai'ties, when personal sym-
u

162 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LOEIKG.
pathy or antipathy might bias men's judgments, but when
the debaters were in the most unimpassioned state of
mind ; — statesmen, endeavoring to found the laws of the
Commonwealth on the best basis. The discussion was
long and able. I shall read you the sentiments of differ
ent gentlemen who took part in that discussion, for this
purpose, — to show you that this Legislature has an un
limited power of removal for any cause, — whether the
law has been violated or not, — whether acts were done
by a judge in his official capacity or any other. Allow me
to remind you. Gentlemen, that there are two questions
you are bound to ask. The first is. Can we remove a
judge who is not guilty of any official misconduct, of any
violation of statute law, in any capacity ? The second is.
If we have the power, ought we to exercise it in the
present case ? 1st. Have we this power ? 2d. Ought we
to exercise it ?
I propose to read you extracts from the speeches in the
Massachusetts Convention of 1820, to show that the
Legislature has, in the judgment of our ablest lawyers and
statesmen, an unlimited authority to ask the removal of
judges whenever it sees fit, and for any cause the Legis
lature thinks sufficient ; that the People, the original
source of all power, have not parted with their sovereignty
in this respect, — did not intend to part with it, and did
not part with it. When I have convinced you, if I shall
succeed in convincing you, that you have this authority,
I shall, with your permission, say a few words to enforce
the other point, that you ought to exercise it according to
the prayer of the petitioners.
In the first place, I read the clause of the Constitution :
" The Governor, with consent of the CouncU, may remove
them [judicial oflScers] upon the address of both houses
of the Legislature." The Constitutional Convention,
which met in 1820, appointed a committee to take this

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. IGo
clause into consideration. That committee consisted of
Messrs. Story of Salem (Judge Story, of the Supreme
Court of the United States), John Phillips of Boston
(Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Massachusetts, and
President of the Senate), Martin of Dorchester, Cum-
mings of Salem (Judge of the Common Pleas), Levi
Lincoln of Worcester (afterwards Judge of our Supreme
Court and Governor of the Commonwealth), Andrews
of Newburyport, Holmes of Rochester, Hills of Pittsfield,
Austin of Charlestown (High Sheriff of Mieldlesex Coun
ty), Leland of Roxbury (afterwards Judge of Probate
for Norfolk County), Kent of West Springfield, Shaw of
Boston (present Chief Justice of the Commonwealth),
Marston of Barnstable, Austin of Boston (since Attorney-
General of the Commonwealth), and Bartlett of Meelford,
— a committee highly respectable for the ability and
position of its members. Permit me to read a section of
their Report (p. 136) : —
" By the first article of the Constitution, any judge may be
removed from his office by the Governor, with the advice of the
Council, upon the address of a bare majority of both Houses of
the Legislature. The committee are of opinion that this pro
vision has a tendency materially to impair the independence of
the judges, and to destroy the efficacy of the clause which declares
they shall hold their offices during good behavior. The tenure
of good behavior seems to the committee indispensable to guard
judges, on the one hand, from the effects of sudden resentments
and temporary prejudices entertained by the people, and, on the
other hand, from the influence which ambitious and powerful
men naturally exert over those who are dependent upon their
good-will. A provision which shoukl at once secure to the
people a power of removal in cases of palpable misconduct or
incapacity, and at the same time secure to the judges a reason
able permanency in their olfices, seems of the greatest utility ;
and such a provision will, in the opinion of the committee, be
obtained by requiring that the removal instead of being upon

164 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
the address of a majority, shall be upon the address of two thirds
of the members present of each House of the Legislature."
The committee, you see. Gentlemen, acknowledge that
there is unlimited power ; they think that power danger
ous ; they advise that it should be hmited — how ? Ob
serve, even this committee, although they say they think
it dangerous, do not aelvise it should be stricken out ; but
they advise it should be limited by requiring a two-thirds
vote, and this is all.
Remember, Gentlemen, that I read the following ex
tracts, not to show the opinion of this Convention as to the
value or the danger of this power ; I merely wish to show
you that, in the opinion of the ablest lawyers of the State,
the Constitution, as it then stood, (and it stands now pre
cisely as it stood then,) gave to this Legislature unlunited
authority to remove juelges, for any cause they saw fit;
and that, while all the speakers were fully aware of its
liability to abuse, no speaker denied its unlimited extent,
or proposed to strike the power from the Constitution.
After that report had been put in, the Convention pro
ceeded to take it up for discussion.
The first gentleman who joins, to any purpose, in the
debate, is Samuel Hubbard, Esq., perhaps, beyond all
comparison, the fairest-minded as well as one of the ablest
lawyers of the Suffolk bar ; and let me add, that, after a
life passed in the most responsible practice of his profes
sion, he finished it on the bench of the Supreme Court.
His testimony is the more valuable, because Mr. Hubbard
thought this provision eminently dangerous. But he
says : —
" The Constitution was defective in not sufficiently securing
the independence of judges. He asked if a judge was free when
the Legislature might have him removed when it pleased. ....
The tenure of office of judges was said to be during good be
havior. Was this the case, when the Legislature might deprive

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. , 165
them of their office, although they had committed no crime ? . . . .
No justice of the peace was allowed to be deprived of his office
without a hearing, but here the judges of the highest court might
be dismissed without an opportunity of saying a word in their
defence." Then conies Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw : —
" The general principle was, that they should be independent
of the other persons during good beha\'ior. What is meant by
good behavior ? The faithful discharge of the duties of the
office. If not faithful, they were liable to trial by impeachments.
But cases might arise when it might be desirable to remove a
judge from office for other causes. He may become incapable
of performing the duties of the office mthout fault. He may
lose his reason, or be otherwise incapacitated. It is the theory
of our government, that no man shall receive the emoluments of
office without performing the services, though he is incapacitated
by the providence of God. It is necessary, therefore, that there
should be provision for this case. But in cases when it applies,
the reason will be so manifest as to command a general assent.
It must be known so as to admit of no doubt, if a judge has lost
his reason, or become incapable of performing his duties. As it
does not imply misbehavior, if the reason cannot be made mani
fest so as to conunand the assent of a great majority of the Legis
lature, of two thirds at least, there can be no necessity for the
removal. By the Constitution as it stands, the judges hold their
offices at the will of the majority of the Legislature. He con
fessed with pride and pleasure that the power had not been
abused. But it was capable of being abused. K so, it ought to
be guarded against. That could be done by requiring the voice
of two thirds of each branch of the Legislature."
Then comes WUliam Prescott, a name well known here
and' the world over. He was a man of English make ;
taciturn, of few words, no diffuse American talker. He
spoke little, but each word was worth gold. His rare ci-sd
virtues, great ability, and eminently judicial mind aelded
lustre to a name that was heard m the van of Bunker
Hid fight.

166 , REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
" What security have they [judges] by the Constitution ?
They hold their offices as long as they behave weU, and no
longer. They are impeached when guilty of misconduct. It is
the duty of the House of Representatives, constituting the grand
inquest of the Commonwealth, to make inquiry, — for the Senate
to try, and, if guUty, to remove tliem from office. There may be
other cases in which they ought to be removed, when not guilty
of misconduct in office, but for infirmity. Provision is made for
these cases, that the two branches of the Legislature, concurring
with the Governor and Conned, may remove judges from office.
He did not object to this provision, if it was restrained so as to
preserve the independence of the judges. They should he inde-
jDcndent of the Legislatm-e and of the Governor and Council.
But now there is no security. The two other departments may
remove them without inquu-y, — without putting any reason on
record. It is in their power to say that the judges shall no
longer hold their offices, and that others more agreeable shaU be
put in their places. He asked, was this independence ? "
There may be " other cases " in which they ought to
be removed when not guilty of misconduct in office, but
from infirmity. Is not that exactly what the petitioners
claim ? There being no misconduct in office, no violation
of the precise statutes of the Commonwealth, comes the
case described by Mr. Prescott, where a judge ought to
be dismissed for "infirmity" ; for we maintam that there
was here a cruel " infirmity." " He did not object to this
provision" if properly restrained, (that was the old Feder
alist ; the man who never was inclined to trust the people
too far ; the man who was in favor of a strong govern
ment !) — " he did not object to this provision " ; aU he
asked was a two-thirds vote.
Then comes Mr. Daniel Davis of Boston. You may
not have known him. Gentlemen ; but those of us who are
older remember him as the Solicitor-General for the Com
monwealth of Massachusetts. He says : —
"If the resolutions were before the committee in a form

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 167
which admitted of amendment, he would propose to alter it in
such manner that the officer to be removed should have a right
to be heard. No reason need now be given for the removal of a
judge, but that the Legislature do not like him."
He did not deny the power, did not question its utility ;
all he wanted was, that the officer should be heard. " No
reason need be given, but that the Legislature do not hke
him." Is not this unhmited power? The claim of Mr.
Loring is, substantially, that you abuse your power, unless
you charge, and prove, that he has offended against a
statute "in such case made and provided." Mr. Daniel
Davis says : " No reason need be given for the removal
of a judge, but that the Legislature do not like him."
That is his idea of the power of this Legislature.
Then comes Mr. Henry H. Chdds of Pittsfield. I do
not know his history. He did not want the Constitution
changed at all ; he did not ask even the two-thirds vote.
Mr. Childs says : —
" It was in violation of an important principle of the govern
ment, that the majority of the Legislature, together with the
Governor, should not have the power of removal from office.
This power was in accordance with the principle of the Bill of
Rights. It was imperative in the advocates of this resolution to
sliow that it was necessary to intrench this department of the
government for its security. They had not shown it ; on the
contrar}', we were in the full tide of successful experiment. The
founders of the Constitution intended to put the judiciary on the
footing of the fullest independence consistent with their respon
sibility. "
" This power was in accordance with the provisions of
the BiU of Rights." What are these ? Section V. of
the Bill of Rights reads thus : —
" All power residing originaUy in the people, and being de
rived from them, the several magistrates and officers of govern
ment, vested with authority, whether legislative, executive, or

168 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
judicial, are their substitutes and agents, and are at all times
accountable to them."
Mr. Loring knew under what condition he was taking
office. He knew this provision in the Declaration of
Rights, that the people retain all power, and that all
magistrates " vested with authority, whether legislative,
executive, or judicial, are their substitutes and agents,
and are at all times accountable to them," — in office and
out of it. Section VIII. says further : —
" In order to prevent those who are vested with authority
from becoming oppressors, the people have a right, at such
periods and in such manner as they shall estabhsh by their frame
of government, to cause their pubhc officers to return to private
life ; and to fill up vacant places by certain and regular elections
and appointments."
No man has a right to criticise here the manner in
which the removal is effected. Let them go elsevrhere
than to this tribunal, if they say it is a bad power. The
people retain the right, at such periods and in such man
ner as they shall establish by their fi-ame of government,
to cause their public officers to return to private life.
This is the principle of our Declaration of Rights.
Mr. Childs says : " The founders of the Constitution
intended to put the judiciary on the footing of the fullest
independence consistent with their responsibility." Mr.
Chairman, I beseech you, in the progress of this discus
sion, if the remonstrant shall ring changes on the neces
sity of maintaining the independence of the judiciary, to
remember this remark, that " the founders of the Consti
tution intended to put the judiciary on the footing of the
fullest independence consistent with their responsibility,"
— no more.
Then Mr. Cummings of Salem, afterwards Judge, rose.
He says : —
" In this State, they cannot be removed on address of tht

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LOEESIG. 169
Legislature, but with the consent of the Council. Was not this
a sufficient guard ? Another part of the Constitution protects
them when acused of crimes. This provision is not intended to
embrace cases of crime, — it is only for cases when they become
incompetent to discharge their duties. May not the people, by a
majority, determine whether judges are incompetent ? "
Mr. Loring says, " Show me my crime ! " Mr. Cum
mings says, " This provision is not inteneled to embrace
cases of crime."
Levi Lincoln of Worcester comes next. He was then
a Democrat, — since Governor, and Judge :
" He was entirely satisfied with the Constitution as it was.
lie had never heard till now, and was now surprised to hear,
that there was any want of independence in the judiciary. He
had heard it spoken of in charges, sermons, and discourses in the
streets, as one of the most valuable features of the Constitution,
that it estabhshed an independent juehciary. He inquired, Was
it dependent on the Legislature ? It was not on the Legislature
nor on the Executive. No judge could be removed but by the
concurrent act of four co-ordinate branches of the government, —
the House of Representatives, the Senate, with a different or
ganization from the House, the Governor, and the Council.
Was it to be supposed that all these should conspire together to
remove a useful judge ? But it was argued that future Legisla
tures might be corrupt. Tliis was a monsti-ous supposition. He
would rather suppose that a judge might be corrupt. It was
more natural that a single person should be corrupt than a nu
merous body. The proposed amendment was said to be similar
to provisions of other governments. There was no analogy,
because other governments are not constituted like ours. It was
said that judges have estates in their offices, — he did not agree
to tliis doctrine. The office was not made for the judge, nor the
judge for the office ; but both for the people. There was
another tenure, — the confidence of the people. It was that
which had hitherto occurred here. Have we, then, less reason
to confide in posterity than our ancestors had to confide in
us?"

170 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Then follows Mr. Daniel Webster. He had recently
come to the State. Joining in the debate, he says : —
" As the Constitution now stands, all judges are hable to be
removed from office by the Governor, with the consent of the
Council, on the address of the two Houses of the Legislature.
It is not made necessary that the two Houses should give any
reasons for their address, or that the judge should have an oppor
tunity to be heard. I look upon this as against common right,
as well as repugnant to the general principles of the govern
ment 
" If the Legislature may remove judges at pleasure, assigning
no cause for such removal, of course it is not to be expected that
they would often find decisions against the constitutionality of
their own acts."
These are Webster's words ; and you will remember,
Mr. Chairman, that the Constitution stands, in 1855, just
as it stood when Webster was speaking. I cite the lan
guage to show what Mr. Webster understood to be the
Constitution of Massachusetts, — that you could remove
a judge without giving any reason, " at your pleasure,"
without hearing him. Now, what does he propose to do ?
Does he propose to strike out that provision ? No, Sir !
He does not even propose a two-thirds vote.
" In Pennsylvania, the judges may be removed, ' for any rea
sonable cause,' on the adchess of two thirds of the two Houses.
In some of the States, three fourths of each House is required.
The new Constitution of Maine has a provision, with which I
should be content ; iwhich is, that no judge shall be liable to be
removed by the Legislature till the matter of his accusation has
been made known to him, and he has had an opportunity of
being heard in his defence."
He says that the Constitution gives you the power to
remove, and all he asks is, that, before doing it, you should
allow the judge an opportunity to be heard.
The fact is. Gentlemen, you have, according to Mr.
Webster, the power to shut that door, and, without assign-

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 171
ing any reason whatever, vote a judge out of office, and
send him word that he is out, — the Constitution does not
guarantee him anything else than that. Webster wanted
it amended ; the Convention submitted a proposition for
amendment ; but the people declined to accept it. This
absolute sovereignty of Massachusetts, which, ever since
the Colonies, had been held on to by the people, — of that
they were unwilling to yield a whit.
The debate continues, and Mr. Childs again joins in it.
" The object in giving the power to the Legislature was, that
judges might be removed when it was the universal sentiment
of the community that they were disqualified for the office al
though they could not be convicted on impeachment."
Can you ask anything more definite than that ? No
body denied it. " The object in giving this power to the
Legislature was, that judges might be removed, when it
was the universal sentiment of the community that they
were disqualified for the office, although they could not be
convicted on impeachment."
Gentlemen, I would not weary your patience with long
extracts ; I am giving you only the general current of the
discussion. The next speaker is James Trecothick Aus
tin, — the name of one who will not be suspected of being
too favorable to the rights of the people ; it is not often
that I have an opportunity to quote him on my side.
" Nobody objects to this provision," said Mr. Austin.
There sat Prescott, Shaw, Webster, Story, Lincoln, —
the men whom you look up to as the lights of this Com
monwealth ; but — " nobody objects to this provision " !
" Ncibody objects to this provision. The House of Represent
atives is the grand inquest, — they are tried by the Senate, and
have the right of being heard. But the Constitution admits that
there may be cases in which judges may be removed without
supposing a crime. But how is it to be done by this resolution ?
There are to be two trials, when for the greater charge of a

172 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
high crime he has only one. It so obstructs the course of pro
ceeding, that it will never be used. He would suppose the case,
not of mental disability, but the loss of pubhc confidence. He
knew that such cases were not to be anticipated. But he would
look to times when the principle might be brought into operation,
when the judge, by indulging strong party feelmgs, or from any
other cause, should so far have lost the confidence of the commu
nity that his usefulness should be destroyed. He ought m such
cases to be removed ; but if witnesses were to be summoned to
prove specific charges, it would be impossible to remove hhn. A
man may do a vast deal of mischief, and yet evade the penalty
of the law, — a judge may act in such a manner that an intelh-
gent community may think their rights in danger, and yet com
mit no offence against any written or unwritten law. Men are
more likely to act in such manner as to render themselves un
worthy to be trusted, than so as to subject themselves to trial.
The great argument for the amendment is, that it is necessary to
secure the independence of the judiciary. He was in favor of
the principle, but it had its limitations. While we secure the in
dependence of the judges, we should remember that they are but
men, and sometimes mere partisans."
The remonstrant here says, I have not touched a
statute. Mr. Austin says, No matter whether you
have or not ; "a man may do a vast deal of mischief, and
yet evade the penalty of the law." Then he says he has
heard a great deal of the weakness of the judiciary. He
says the judiciary is not weak. Should you chance to see
the remonstrant appear here, attended by eminent legal
relatives anel friends, you will remember this : —
" The court were besides attended by a splendid and powerful
retinue, — the bar. They have great influence from their talents,
learning, and esprit de corps, and as an appendage to the court,
they give them a great and able support. He did not admit
that the judiciary was a weak branch of the government, but, on
the contrary, it was a strong branch."
Then comes Judge Story. If anybody ever was, I

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 173
may say, a little crazy on the subject of the independence of
the judges, it Avas the late able and learned Judge Story, —
at least during the last half of his life. What does he say ?
He says : —
" The Governor and Council might remove them [judges] on
the address of a majority of the Legislatm-e, not for crimes and
misdemeanors, for that was provided for in another manner, but
for no cause whatever, — no reason was to be given. A power
ful individual, who has a cause in court which he is unwilling to
trust to an upright judge, may, if he has influence enough to ex
cite a momentary prejudice, and command a majority of the
Legislature, obtain his removal. He does not hold the office by
the tenure of good behavior, but at the will of a majority of the
Legislature, and they are not bound to assign any reason for the
exercise of their power. Sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione
voluntas. (Thus I wish it ; thus I order : let my will stand for
a reason.) This is the provision of the Constitution, and it is
only guarded by the good sense of the people. He had no fear
of the voice of the people, when he could get their dehberate
voice, — but he did fear from the Legislature, if the judge has no
right to be heard."
That is the opinion of the learned Judge Story as to
the power of the Legislature. " I have no fear of the
voice of the people," says Judge Story. All he pro
posed was, that the judge should have an opportunity to
be heard.
What was the result of this discussion ? The Conven
tion proposed to the people — what ? That no judge
should ever be removed without notice. The people voted
on that amendment, voted nat, and declined to insert it in
the Constitution.
Now, Gentlemen, what is my argument? Here is a
debate on this clause, not by men heated with passion, not
by men with party purposes to serve, but by men acting
as statesmen, in the coolest, most deliberate, anel temperate
mood, — men of various parties. Whig and Democratic,-

174 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
and every one of them asserts, without a dissenting voice,
that this provision is inserted for the purpose of giving the
Legislature the power to remove a judge, when he has not
violated any law of the Commonwealth. In addition to
this. Gentlemen, I will fead the remark of Chief Justice
Shaw, when he was counsel for the House against Judge
Prescott, of Groton, who was removed on impeachment,
you will recoUect, in 1821. On that occasion. Judge
Shaw was counsel for the House of Representatives, and
made some comments on this provision, which, as his opin
ion has a deserved weight in matters of constitutional law,
it is well to read here. He says : —
" It is true, that, by another course of proceeding, warranted
by a different provision of the Constitution, any officer may be
removed by the Executive, at the will and pleasure of a bare
majority of the Legislature ; a will which the Executive in
most cases would have little power and inclination to resist.
The Legislature, without either allegation or proof, has but to
pronounce the sic volo, sic juheo, and the officer is at once de
prived of his place, and of all the rank, the powers and emolu
ments, belonging to it. And yet, perhaps, this provision (whether
wise or not I will not now stop to consider) is hardly sufficient
to justify the extraordinary alarm which has been so eloquently
expressed for the hberty and security of the people, or to affix
upon the Constitution the charge of containing features more
odious and oppressive than those of Turkish despotism. The
truth is, that the security of our rights depends rather upon the
general tenor and character, than upon particular provisions of
our Constitution. The love of freedom and of justice, — so
deeply engraven upon the hearts of the people, and interwoven
in the whole texture of our social institutions, — a thorough and
intelligent acquaintance with their rights, and a firm determi
nation to maintain them, — in short, those moral and intellectual
quahties without which social liberty cannot exist, and over
winch despotism can obtain no control, — these stamp the char
acter and give security to the rights of the free people of this

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 1/0
Commonwealth. So long as such a character is maintained, no
danger perhaps need be apprehended fi-om the arbitrary course
of proceeding, under the provision of the Constitution, to which I
have alluded. But, Sir, we have never for a moment imagined
that the proceedings on this impeachment could be influenced or
affected by that provision. The two modes of proceeding are
altogether distinct, and, in my humble apprehension, were de
signed to effect totally distinct objects. No, Sir ; had the House
of Representatives expected to attain their object by any means
short of the allegation, proof, and conviction of criminal miscon
duct, an address, and not an unpeachment, would have been the
course of proceeding adopted by them."
These well-considered and weighty sentences of Chief
Justice Shaw show his idea of the extent of your power,
and will reheve your minds of any undue apprehension as
to the danger of its exercise.
The people of Massachusetts have always chosen to
keep their judges, in some measure, dependent on the
popular will. It is a Colonial trait, and the sovereign
State has preserved it. Under the King, though he
appointed the judges, the people jealously preserved
their hold on the bench, by keeping the salaries ' year
by year dependent on the vote of the popular branch
of the Legislature. This control was often exercised.
When Judge Oliver took pay of the King, they im
peached him. (See Washburn's Judicial History of
Massachusetts, 139, 160.) When the Constitution was
framed, the people chose to keep the same sovereignty
in their own hands. Independence of judges, there
fore, in Massachusetts, Gentlemen, means, in the words
of Mr. Childs, " the fullest independence consistent with
their responsibility."
The opinions I have read you derive additional weight
from the fact, that all the speakers were aware of the
gi'a\e nature of this power, and some painted in glowing

176 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
colors how liable to abuse it was. StiU not one proposed
to take it from you. The most anxious only asked to
check it by requiring a two-thirds vote. This proposition
the Convention refused to accept; the utmost the Con
vention would recommend to the people was, that the
judge should have notice and liberty to defend himself.
Even this limitation on your power the people refused
to adopt. They were fully warned, and deliberately, on
mature reflection, decided that it was safe and wise to
intrust you with unlimited discretion in this respect. With
such a page in our history, it is not competent for the press
or the friends of Judge Loring to argue that no such power
ought to have been given you, and that it is too dangerous
to be used. The people alone have the right to decide
that question, and they have decided it. When, after fuU
deliberation, they gave you the power, they said, in effect,
that occasions might arise requiring its exercise, and on
such fltting occasions they wished it exercised. Doubt
less, Gentlemen, this is a grave power, and one to be used
only on important occasions. We are bound to show you,
not light and trifling reasons for the removal of Judge
Loring, but such grave and serious reasons, such weighty
cause, as will justify your interference, and make this use
of your authority strengthen rather than weaken the proper
independence of the bench.
Indeed, the power is in itself a wise, good, and necessary
one, and should be lodged somewhere in every govern
ment. The Boston papers, in all their arguments on this
point, take it for granted that the people are to be always
under guardianship, — that government is a grand Probate
Court to prevent the people — the insane and always
under-age people — from wasting their own property and
cutting their own throat. Not such is the theory of re
publican institutions. The true theory is, that the people
came of age on the fourth day of July, 1776, and can be

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 177
trusted to manage their own affiiirs. The people, with
their practical common-sense, instinctive feeling of right
and wrong, and manly love of fair play, are the true con
servative element in a just government. It is true, the
people are not always right ; but it is true, also, that the
people are not often wrong, — less often, surely, than their
leaders. The theory of our government is, that the purity
of the bench is a matter which concerns every individual.
Whenever, therefore, guilt, recklessness, or incapacity
shield themselves on the bench, by technical shifts and
evasions, against direct collision with the law, it is meant
that the reserved power of the people sliaU intervene, and
save the State from harm.
It is eas-y to conceive many occasions for the exercise of
such a power. How many men among us, by gross mis
conduct in railroad or banking companies, have incurred
the gravest disapprobation, and yet avoided legal convic
tion ? Suppose such men had been at the same time
judges, will any one say they should have been continued
on the bench ? Yet, on the remonstrant's theory, it would
be an "abuse of power" to impeach or "address" them
off the bench ! Suppose a judge by great private immo
rality incurs utter contempt, — is drunk every day in the
week except Probate Court day, — shall he, because he is
cunning enough to evade statutes, still hide himself under
the ermine ? Suppose a Judge of Probate should open
his court on the days prescribed by the statute, and close
it in half an hour, as your Juelge Loring did when he shut
up the Probate Court of Suffolk on Monday, the 29th of
May, to hurry forward the kidnapping of Anthony Bhrns.
Suppose some judge should thus keep his court open only
five minutes each probate day the w^hole year through.
He violates no statute, though he puts a stop to all busi
ness ; yet, according to the arguments of the press and the
remonstrant, it would be a gross abuse of power to impeach
12

178 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
him, or address the Governor for his removal, since he has
violated no law !
Not such was the good old doctrine. In the Prescott
case. Judge Shaw went so far as to contend that a judge
might not only be removed by address, but hnpeached
" for misconduct and mal-administration in office, 
of such a nature that the ordinary tribunals would not
take notice of or punish them, in their usual course of pro
ceedings, and according to the laws of the land, and for
which, therefore, the offender would not be indictable."
(Prescott's Case, p. 180.)
You may think. Gentlemen, that I have occupied too
much time in proving the unlimited extent of your power.
But it seemed necessary, since the press which defends the
remonstrant, and he also, though they do not in words
deny your unlimited authority, do so in effect. They
claim that you destroy the independence of the bench,
and abuse your power, if you exercise it in any case but a
clear violation of law. This is a practical annihilation of
the power. This claim loses sight of the very nature and
intent of the power, which is weU stated by Mr. Austin,
when he says that a judge who has lost the confidence
of the community ought to be removed, though you can
prove no specific charges against him, — though he may
have violated no law, written or unwritten. Or, in words
said to have been used by Mr. Rufus Choate in a recent
case, " A judicial officer may be removed if found in
tellectually incapable, or if he has been left to commit
some great enormity, so as to show himself morally de
ranged." This unhmited power, then. Gentlemen, is one that you
undoubtedly possess. It is one that the people deliber
ately planned and intended that you should possess. It is
one which the nature of the government makes it neces
sary you should possess, and .that, on fitting occasion, you

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 179
should have the courage to use. True, it is a grave
power. But what is all government but the exercise of
grave powers ? " When the sea is calm, aU boats alike
show mastership in floating." The merit of a government
is, that it helps us in critical times. All the checks and
ingenuity of our institutions are arranged to secure for us
in these halls men wise and able enough to be trusted
with grave powers, and bold enough to use them when
the tunes require. Let not, then, this bugbear of the
liability of this power to abuse, deter you from using it at
all. Lancets and knives are dangerous instruments. The
usefulness of surgeons is, that, when lancets are needed,
somebody may know how to use them and save life.
Has, then, a proper case occurred for the exercise of
this power ? In other words, ought you now to exercise
it ? The petitioners think you ought, and for the follow
ing reasons.
First. When Judge Loring issued his warrant in the
Burns case, he acted in defiance of the solemn convictions
anel settled purpose of Massachusetts, — convictions and
purpose officially made known to him, with all the solem
nity of a statute.
In order to do him the fullest justice on this point, allow
me to read a sentence from his remonstrance : —
" And I respectfully submit, that when (while acting as a Com
missioner) I received my commission as Judge of Probate, no ob
jection was made by the Executive of the Commonwealth, or by any
other branch of the government, to my further discharge of the
duties of a Commissioner; nor at the passage of the act of 1850,
when the jurisdiction aforesaid was given to the Commissioners
of the Circuit Courts of the United States, nor at any time since,
was I notified that the government of Massachusetts, or either
the executive or legislative branch thereof, regarded the two
offices as incompatible, or were of opinion that the same qualities
and experience which were employed for the rights and interests
of our own citizens should not be employed for the protection of

180 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
all legal rights of alleged fugitives from service or labor under
the United States act of 1850.
" I make these latter remarks only for the pui-pose of bringing
respectfully to the notice and clear apprehension of your honor
able bodies the extreme injustice and want of equity that would
be involved in the removal of a judge from office, for the past
discharge of other official duties, not by law made incompatible
with his duties as judge, against his exercise of which no official
objection had ever been raised, and which were created and im
posed on him by that law of the land which is the supreme law
of Massachusetts."
Gentlemen, this is a mere evasion. He was made
Judge of Probate in 1847. He then knew, as well as you
and I do, that Massachusetts did regard the conduct of any
one of her magistrates in aiding in the return of a fugitive
slave as something disgraceful and infamous. He had
solemn and official intimation of this. My proof is the
statute of March 24, 1843, entitled, " An Act further to
protect personal liberty " : —
" Sect. 1. No judge of any court of record of this Common
wealth, and no justice of the peace, shall hereafter take cogni
zance or grant a certificate in cases that may arise under the
third section of an act of Congress, passed February twelfth,
seventeen hundred and ninety-three, and entitled, ' An Act re
specting fugitives from justice, and persons escaping from the
service of their masters,' to any person who claims any other
person as a fugitive slave within the jurisdiction of the Common
wealth. " vSect. 2. No sheriff, deputy sheriff, coroner, constable, jailer,
or other officer of this Commonwealth shall hereafter arrest or
detain, or aid in the arrest or detention or imprisonment, in any
jail or other building belonging to this Commonwealth, or to any
county, city, or town thereof of any person, for the reason that
he is claimed as a fugitive slave.
" Sect. 3. Any justice of the peace, sheriff, deputy sheriff,
coroner, constable, or jailer, who shall offend against the provis
ions of this law, by in any way acting, directly or indirectly,

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 181
under the power conferred by the third section of the act of Con
gress aforementioned, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one thou
sand dollars for every such offence, to the use of the county where
said offence is committed, or shall be subject to imprisonment not
exceedhig one year in the county jail." (Approved, March 24,
1843.) The intent of that statute is clear and unmistakable.
It expresses the determined will of the Commonwealth,
that no magistrate of hers shall accept from the United
States any authority, or take any part, directly or in
directly, in returning fugitive slaves to their masters. It
means to set a stigma on slave-catching in this Common
wealth. It thunders forth its command, that no officer
shall hold the broad seal of the State in one hand, and
reach forth the other for a slave-catcher's fee. Tliis is
the heart and gist of the statute. He that runneth may
read. Technically construed, it may be said only to forbid
that a judge, acting as a judge, should issue a slave war
rant ; and it may be claimed that Mr. Loring ehd not
transgress it, since he issued his warrant, not as a judge,
but as a slave commissioner. Technically speaking, this
may be so, and an inferior com-t of justice would be bound
so to regard it. But you are not sitting as nisi p>rius
lawyers, bound by quiddling technicalities ; you are states
men, looking with plain, manly sense at the essence of
things. Have you any doubt what Massachusetts in
teneled when she enacted that statute ? Have you any
doubt that Mr. Loring knew what Massachusetts meant ?
AVhy does the Constitution give you this power of remov
ing judges by address ? To meet just such cases as this ;
when some individual has violated the spirit and essence
of a law, but cannot be technically held by impeachments.
Remember what Mr. Austin says, describing just this case
in the extract I have twice quoted from his speech in the

182 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Convention. If you allow yourselves to be diverted from
the exercise of the power by such technicalities, you forget
the very purpose for which it was given, and practically
annihilate it.
It is not true, then, as Mr. Loring claims, that, when he
received his commission, " no objection was made by the
Executive of the Commonwealth, or of any other branch
of the government, to his further discharge of the duties
of a Commissioner," — meaning the duty of catching slaves.
The statute of 1843, then in full force and effect, was
clear and official notice to him what " objection " the
Commonwealth had to the returning of slaves.
But it is said the statute was passed in 1843, and only
prohibited officers from acting under the slave act of 1793 ;
it cannot have any reference to the slave act of 1850, since
this was not in existence in 1843, and Mr. Loring's action
in the Burns case was under the act of 1850.
This is another technical evasion, but not as good even
as the first ; because, in the Sims case, (7 Gushing, 285,)
which Mr. Loring cites. Judge Shaw holds the act of 1850
constitutional, because it is so precisely like the act of 1793 ;
and Mr. Loring, in his Burns judgment, takes the same
view. Now, if the two acts are so precisely alike that the
constitutionality of one proves the constitutionality of the
other, then they are such twins as to be both within the
meaning and intent of our statute of 1843.
When the counsel of Sims and Burns wished to argue
the unconstitutionality of the act of 1850, on the ground
that it went far beyond anything judicially recognized in
the act of 1793, then Judges Shaw and Loring find the
two acts so much alike that the argument is unnecessary.
When Mr. Loring's friends would defend him, then these
two acts are so different, that our law of 1843 can apply
only to the first 1 To plunge an innocent and free man like
Burns into slavery, against law and evidence, these stat-

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 183
utes are just alike ; to save Judge Loring ft-om the act
of 1843, they are different as white and black ! *
But even this technicality is of no avail. The official
action of the State has forever closed this door of escape.
While Congress was discussing the Fugitive Slave Bill,
which was finally passed September 18, 1850, our Legis
lature passed the following resolutions, which the Gov
ernor approved. May 1, 1850 : —
" Resolved, That the sentiments of the people of Massachusetts,
as expressed in their legal enactments, in relation to the deliver
ing up of fugitive slaves, remain unchanged ; and inasmuch as
the legislation necessary to give effect to the clause of the Con
stitution relative to this subject is within the exclusive jurisdic
tion of Congress, we hold it to be the duty of that body to pass
such laws only in regard thereto as wiU be sustained by the
public sentiment of the Free States, where such laws are to be
enforced, and which shall especially secure to all persons, whose
surrender may be claimed as having escaped from labor and ser
vice in other States, the right of having the validity of such claim
determined by a jury in the State where such claim is made.
" Resolved, That the people of Massachusetts, in the mainte
nance of these their well-known and invincible principles, expect
that all their officers and representatives will adhere to them at
all times, on all occasions, and under aU circumstances." (Ap
proved, May 1, 1850.)
* I might have pushed this argument further. The act of 1 850 is styled
" An Act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled ' An Act respect
ing Fugitives,' &c., approved Feb. 12, 1793." It is, then, properly a part
of the act of 1793, and acting under it is not only substantially within the
prohibition of our statute of 1843, but perhaps is, in strict law, included in
lliat prohibition. At any rate, how do the statutes of 1793 and 1850 differ?
lu 1793, Congress enacted that certain State officers should he ex officio slave-
catchers. Massachusetts, in 1843, forbade her magistrates to accept the au
thority. In 1850, Congress makes it ncfcssni-y that a man should have a
separate commission to entitle him to catch slaves. Massachusetts reiterates
her orders. In defiance of tliese. Judge Loring accepts a commission. Is
the case not suljstanrially within the meaning of the act of 1843 >

184 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Observe, the Commonwealth reaffirms the principle of
her former legal enactments, — that is, the act of 1843 ;
and expects all her " officers to adhere to them at all times,
on all occasioyis, and under all circumstances."
What shall we say now to Mr. Loring's claim, that
neither when he received the commission as Judge of
Probate, nor at any tune since, was he notified " by the
government of Massachusetts, or by the executive or
legislative branch thereof," that slave-catching and bear
ing office under Massachusetts were mcompatible ! Are
not these resolutions substantially a re-enactment of the
statute of 1843, distinctly applying to the Fugitive Slave
Bill of 1850, and officially warning all officers that the
State expected them to abstain from taking 'part in the
execution of that act, as much as of the act of 1793 ?
Look at the case. Gentlemen. A sovereign State issues
her mandate, that no magistrate of hers shall aid in catch
ing slaves. Seven years later, she solemnly reiterates the
order, and directs her officers to remember it on all occa
sions. In open, contemptuous, defiance of all this, one of
her judges adjourns his own court to hold one that dooms
a man to, bondage. The Legislature meet and talk of re
moving him. But the judge, in a tone of indignant inno
cence, exclaims : " What ! turn me out for a mere differ
ence of opinion ! Have I not evaded the law ? If you
remove such an innocent and law-abiding judge as I am,
you wUl destroy the independence of the bench ! " Yes,
truly ; that sort of independence which consists in defying
the State in order to serve a party, or minister to the
ambition of friends.
Some men allege that the same reasoning would con
demn Judge Shaw for refusing to set Sims free, by habeas
corpus, from the grasp of the claimant. But surely he
must be stone bhnd who sees no difference between a judge
like Shaw, who, thinking he has no power to arrest the

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 185
Slave Act when once set in motion, refuses to interfere,
and a judge like Loring, who actuaUy sets the Slave Act
in motion, and personally executes it ! The statute of
1843 only orders our officers not to aid in catching slaves.
It does not order them to prevent everybody else ft-om
catching slaves. Loring actually hunted a slave, and sent
him to Virginia. Shaw only declared himself unauthorized
to prevent George T. Curtis from hunting fugitive slaves.
Surely, there is some slight difference here.
In consenting, then, to act as a Slave Commissioner,
while holding the office of a Probate Judge, Mr. Loring
defied the well-known, settled, religious convictions of the
State, officially made known to him. The question was
one of vital, practical morality of the gravest importance ;
one where justice was on one side and infamy on the
other. He cannot complain if you consider this heedless
or heartless choice of the infamous side, this open de
fiance, on so momentous a matter, sufficient cause for his
removal. My second reason, is, that the very method of the trial
of Anthony Burns shows Mr. Loring unfit to be continueel
longer on the bench. I am not now dealing with the
point that he did act ; I have said that his mere acting in
the case was a defiance of the Commonwealth ; but I
now say, that the manner of his acting is another ground
for which he ought to be removed, and shows him to be
unfit for the office of a juelge. " W-..
Anthony Burns was arrested at eight o'clock on Wed
nesday evening. He was hurried to the court-house,
and concealed there within four walls. He was not al
lowed to see anybody but the slave claimant, the Marshal,
and the police. At nine o'clock on Thursday morning,
our Juelge of Probate, Mr. Edward G. Loring, the Slave
Commissioner, appeared in his court-room, with the slave
claimant anel his witnesses, the alleged fugitive, the Mar-

186 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
shal, and the pohce. He proceeded to trial. Trembling,
ignorant, confused, astounded, ft-iendless, not knowing
what to say or where to look, that unhappy man, Burns,
sat, handcuffed, with a pohceman on each side. The
Commissioner proceeded to try him. By accident, Mr.
Richard H. Dana, Jr. had heard that such a trial was to
be held, and had reached the court-room. By accident,
another learned counsel, who sits by my side (Charles M.
Elhs, Esq.), heard that such a scene was enacting, and
hurried to the court-house. I heard of it in the street.
Mr. Theodore Parker was notified, and we went to the
court-room. We found Robert Morris, Esq., already
there. Mr. Morris, a member of the bar, had attempted
to speak to Burns, — the policemen forbade him. The
melancholy farce had proceeded for about half an horn-.
In two hours more, so far as any one could then see, the
judgment would have been given, the certificate signed,
the victim beyond our reach. There sat the Judge of
Probate, clothed with the ermine of Massachusetts ; be
fore him coAvered the helpless object of cruel legislation,
— the crushed victim of an inhuman system. Mr. Dana
had moved the court before to defer the trial ; but the
Commissioner proceeded to examine the witness. After a
short time, Mr. Dana rose, (he had no right to rise,
technically speaking, — he rose as a citizen merely, not as
counsel,) and I read you what he said : —
" May it please your Honor : I rise to address the court as
amicus curice, for I cannot say that I am regularly of counsel for
the person at the bar. Indeed, from the few words I have been
enabled to hold mth him, and frbm what I can learn from othei-s
who have talked wdth him, I am satisfied that he is not in a
condition to determine whether he wiU have counsel or not, or
whether or not and how he shall appear for his defence. He
dechnes to say whether any one shall appear for him, or whether
he will defend or not.

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORDJG. 187
"Under these circumstances, I submit to your Honor's judg
ment, that time should be allowed to the prisoner to recover him
self from the stupefaction of his sudden arrest, and Ids novel and
distressing situation, and have opportunity to consult with friends
and members of the bar, and determine what course he wdl pur
sue 
" He does not know what he is sajdng. I say to your Honor,
as a member of the bar, on my personal responsibihty, that from
what I have seen of the man, and what I have learnt from others
who have seen him, that he is not in a fit state to decide for him
self what he will do. He has just been arrested and brought into
tlus scene, with this immense stake of freedom or slavery for life
at issue, surrounded by strangers, — and even if he should plead
giulty to the chum, the court ought not to receive the plea under
such circumstances.
" It is but yesterday that the court at the other end of the
building refused to receive a plea of guilty from a prisoner. The
court never wiU receive this plea in a capital case, without the
fullest proof that the prisoner makes it deliberately, and under
stands its meaning and his own situation, and has consulted with
his friends. In a case involving freedom or slavery for life, this
court wiU not do less 
" I know enough of tliis tribunal to know that it will not lend
itself to the hurrying off a man into slavery to accommodate any
man's personal convenience, before he has even time to recover
his stupefied faculties, and say whether he has a defence or not.
Even without a suggestion from an amicus ctirits, the court would,
of its own motion, see to it that no such advantage was taken.
" The counsel for the claimant says, that, if the man were out
of his mind, he would not object. Out of his mind ! Please your
Honor, if you liad ever reason to fear that a prisoner was not in
full possession of his mind, you would fear it in such a case as
this. But I have said enough. I am confident your Honor will
not decide so momentous an issue against a man without counsel
and without opportunity."
Again, in his argument, alluding to the same scene, Mr.
Dana says : —

188 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
" Bums was arrested suddenly, on a false pretence, coming
home at nightfall from his day's work, and hurried into custody,
among strange men, in a strange place, and suddenly, whether
claimed rightfully or claimed wrongfully, he saw he was claimed
as a slave, and his condition burst upon him in a flood of terror.
This was at night. You saw him, Sir, the next day, and you
remember the state he was then in. You remember his stupefied
and terrified condition. You remember his hesitation, his timid
glance about the room, even when looking in the mild face of
justice. How little your kind words reassured him. Sir, the
day after the arrest, you felt obhged to put off his trial two days,
because he was not in a conedtion to know or decide what he
would do."
Mr. Elhs rose also, and protested against the trial.
Gentlemen, what a scene ! A man clothed in the ermine
of Massachusetts has before him a helpless man, — in the
words of Mr. Dana, "terrified, stupefied, intimidated," —
and begins to try him. If the Chief Justice of the Com
monwealth should find the veriest vagrant from the
streets indicted for murder by twenty-three jurors, and
solemnly and legally set before him, he would not take
upon himself to proceed to trial without the man had
counsel, — every lawyer knows this. And yet this man,
who ought to have shown the discretion and humanity of
a judge, was proceeding in a trial so enormous and fear
ful, that counsel coming in by accident felt urged to rise
in their places and interrupt him, protesting, as citizens of
Massachusetts, that this mockery of justice should not go
on. You have a Judge of Probate who needs to have
accident fiU his court-room with honest men, to caU him
back to his duty. The petitioners say that such a man is
not fit to sit upon the Bench of Massachusetts. Do we
exaggerate the importance of the occasion ? Let me read
a single sentence ft-om Dr. Channing : —
" This Constitution was not established to send back slaves to

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 189
chains. The article requiring this act of the Free States was
forced on them by the circumstances of the times, and submitted
to as a hard necessity. It did not enter into the essence of the
instrument ; whilst the security of freedom was its great, living,
all-pervading idea. , We see the tendency of slavery to warp the
Constitution to its purposes, in the law for restoring the flying
bondman. Under this, not a few, having not only the same nat
ural but legal rights with ourselves, have been subjected to the
lash of the overseer.
" But a higher law than the Constitution protests against the
act of Congress on this point. According to the law of nature,
no greater crime against a human being can be committed than
to make him a slave 
" To condemn a man to perpetual slavery is as solemn a sen
tence as to condemn him to death. Before being thus doomed,
he has a right to all the means of defence which are granted to a
man who is tried for his life. All the rules, forms, solemnities,
by which innocence is secured from being confounded with guilt,
he has a right to demand. In the present case, the principle is
eminently applicable, that many guilty should escape, rather than
that one innocent man should suffer ; because the guilt of running
away from an ' owner ' is of too faint a color to be seen by some
of the best eyes, whilst that of enslaving the free is of the darkest
hue." Dr. Channing would have all the forms and solemnities
of justice, usual in cases where life hangs on the issue,
rigidly observed, when a slave case is to be determined.
Your Judge of Probate arrests a man at night ; no one
knows of it ; at the earliest hour in the morning that a
court ever sits, he opens his court; this poor, trembling,
friendless victim, who hardly dared to look up and meet
his eye, is brought before him, and he proceeds to try
him. Strangers come in and say, he is too stupefied to be
tried. Still the judge goes on, and they sit awhile, their
blood boiling within them, till they feel compelled to rise,
and solemnly protest against this insult to all the forms of

190 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
justice ; and the court, after the repeated protests of two
members of the bar, at length consents to put off that trial,
aUow the unhappy man to recover himself, consult with
friends, and decide what course to pursue.
Why, Gentlemen, ff a man has committed murder, and
has been indicted by a jury, the statute provides that he
shall have time aUowed him to prepare for his defence,
have a copy of his indictment, and a fist of the witnesses
against him ; and when it is all done, the Supreme Court
would not touch the case until they had assigned him
counsel. They would fear to draggle their ermine in
blood. But here is a Massachusetts Judge of Probate with
whom it is but the accident of an accident, but the impu
dence of counsel, so to speak, that prevents such an
outrage as Mr. Dana's protest describes. Now, yom- peti
tioners ask, in the name of Massachusetts, for a judge
who can be safely trusted in a private chamber with an
innocent man.
I recall the scene in that court-room, whUe our hope
that the judge would postpone that case hung trembling
in the balance. We were none of us sure that even the
indignant, unintermitted protests of these members of the
bar would secure the postponement of that trial. Think
of the difference in this case ! You are trying Mr. Loring
for continuance in his office. He comes here with all the
advantages of education, wealth, social position, profes
sional discipline, everything on his side, and can choose
when he wdl be tried. Around him are troops of friends.
Influential journals defend his rights. But that poor vic
tim — what a contrast! According to Dr. Channing, it
was as much as life that hung in the balance. The old
Enghsh law says that the judge is counsel for the prison
ers. There were no such promptings here as led the
judge to say, "I shaU not try that man unless he has
counsel, and all the safeguards and checks of a judicial

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 191
examination." The hapless victim, too ignorant at the
best to know his own rights or how to defend them, was
then stunned by the overwhelming blow, — by the arrest,
and the sight of the horrible pit into which he was to be
plunged. Over his prostrate body this Massachusetts
judge of the fatherless and widow opens his com-t, and
begins to hold the mockery of a trial ! If you continue
him in office, you should appoint some one, — some "flap
per," as Dean Swift says, — some humane man, to wait
upon his court, and for the honor of the State remind
him when it will be but decent to remember justice and
mercy, for he is not fit to go alone.
Do you ask us what course Mr. Loring should have
adopted ? We answer, the same course that any merely
decent judge would adopt in such a case. Here was a
man arrested some twelve hours before on a false pre
tence, and kept shut up from all his friends. All this
Mr. Loring knew, or was bound to know, since such has
been the constant practice in all slave cases, here and else
where. The first duty of a just judge was to tell the
man, truly and plainly, what he was arrested for, — see
that his friends had free access to him, and fix some future
day to commence his trial, leaving time sufficient to con
sult and prepare a defence. This is what the statutes of
every civdized state ordain, in cases where even ten dol
lars are in ehspute. The first word that William Brent,
the witness, was allowed to speak on the stand in such cir
cumstances was the death-knell to any claim ]Mr. Loring
might have to be thought a humane man, a good lawyer,
or a just judge. A statute which the whole civdized
world regards as the most infamous on record is executed
by men who claim to be lawyers, judges, and Christians,
with a violence and haste which doubles its mischief.
These slave commissioners, while constantly prating of
the "painful duty" their allegiance to law entads on them,

192 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
contrive to add by their haste to the brutality and cruelty
even of the Slave Act. Knowing the cruel nature of the
statute he was executing, and the routine of hes and close
confinement always found in slave cases, Mr. Loring's first
duty, after his court was open, was to adjourn it for three
days, at least, taking measures that Burns should mean
time see friends and counsel, to consult on his defence.
All Mr. Loring's friends can say for him is, that he was
only acting as all other slave commissioners act, and that
no harm was done, since the Abolitionists came in and
secured Burns a trial ! As if the infamous slave-prisons
of Curtis and Ingraham were precedents for any court to
follow ! As if any man was proved fit to be a judge by
alleging that strangers prevented his doing all the mischief
he intended !
The case was adjourned to Saturday.
Where do we next meet this specimen of Massachusetts
humanity and judicial decorum ?
It was necessary some one should see Burns to ar
range for his having counsel. The United States Mar
shal refused us admission to the cell. On Friday I
went to Mr. Loring at Cambridge, where he was Law
Lecturer in Harvard College, and asked him for an
order directing the Marshal to allow me to see the
prisoner. He sits down and writes a letter, authoriz
ing me to cross that barrier and see Burns ; and as he
hands it to me, he says : " Mr. PhiUips, the case is so
clear, that I do not think you wdl be justified in placing
any obstacles in the way of this man's going back, as he
PROBABLY will"!! What right had he to think Burns
would go back ? He had heard only one witness ; yet he
says, " Tlie case is so clear, that I do not think you will be
justified in placing any obstacles in the way of this man's
going back, as he probably will"!!!
Suppose, Mr. Chairman, that, in the case of Dr. Web-

removal of judge LORING. 193
ster, after he had been indicted, but before he had been
put on trial, the Chief Justice of the Commonwealth had
said to jMr. Soliier, or any other of the counsel : " Sir, I
do not think you will be justified in placing any obstacles
in the way of this man's being hung, as he probably will!"
What would be thought of the judge who should proceed
to try a man for his life, after expressing such an opinion
on the case to be brought before him ? Yet such was the
mood of minel of this Judge of Probate, that, without
hearing argument or testimony, — only the disjointed story
of a single witness, interrupted by the protests of Messrs.
Dana and Ellis, — the mere disjecta membra of a trial, —
nothing, — he had so far made up his mind, that he could
warn me from attempting to do anything to save the man
from the doom to which he was devoted, on the ground of
the probability of his being given up ! "A judge who
proceeels on half evielence will not do quarter justice," says
an old English essayist. What proportion, then, of jus
tice may we expect from a judge who decides on no
evidence at all ?
I ask (I was going to say) the judges of the Common
wealth of Massachusetts, — men of fair fame and judicial
reputation, — whether a person of that temper of mind is
fit to sit by their side ? I ask any man who loves the
honor of the Bench, who desires to see none but high-
minded, conscientious, humane, just judges, whether the
petitioners who ask for the removal of such an individual
are attacking or supporting the honor of the Bench of
^Massachusetts, — its real strength and independence ? It
seems to me that we are cutting off a corrupt member,
and securing for the rest the only souirce of strength, the
confidence of the Commonwealth. The Bench is not
weakened when we remove a bad judge, but when we
retain him.
Gentlemen, it is not in the power of this Legislature —
13

194 removal of judge loring.
respectfully be it said — it is not in the power of this
Legislatm-e to command the respect of this Common
wealth for a Bench on which sits Edward Greely Loring.
You may refuse to remove him ; but you cannot make the
people respect a Bench upon which he sits. If any man
here loves the judiciary, and wishes to secure its indepen
dence and its influence with the people, let him aid us to
cut off the offending member.
Thirdly. Gentlemen, where is your Judge next heard
of? He is next heard of at midnight, on Saturday, the
27th of May, drawing up a bdl of sale of Anthony
Burns, which now exists in his own handwriting ! Be
fore the trial was begun, he sits down and writes a bill
of sale : —
" Khow all men by these presents, — That I, Charles F. Suttle,
of Alexandria, in Virginia, in consideration of twelve hundred
dollars, to me paid, do hereby release and discharge, quitclaim
and convey to Antony Byrnes, his liberty ; and I hereby manu
mit and release him from all claims and services to me forever,
hereby giving him his hberty to all intents and effects forever.
" In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my hand and seal,
this twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord eighteen
hundred and fifty-four."
Gentlemen, suppose, while Dr. Webster sat in the dock,
before the trial commenced. Chief Justice Shaw had sum
moned Mrs. Webster to his side, and said, " I advise you
to get a petition to the Governor to have your husband
pardoned ; I think he will be found guilty ! " Why, he
would have been scouted from one end of the Common
wealth to the other. Suppose a deed of land was in
dispute, and before the case began, the judge should call
one of the claimants before him and say, " I advise you to
compromise this matter, for I think your deed is not worth
a straw ! " Who would trust his case to such a judge ?
But here is a man put before a judge to be tried on an

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 195
issue which Dr. Channing says is as solemn as that of life
or death, and the judge is found at midnight, with the
pregnant intimation that that man must be bought, or he
is not safe ! What right had he to say that ? Mr. Chair
man, the case may have been so clear even then, before it
was half begun, that every man in the Commonwealth,
save one, would have been obliged to say that Burns was
a fugitive ; but there was one pair of lips that honor and
official propriety ought to have sealed, and those were the
lips of the judge who was trying the case. Yet he is the
very man who is found babbling ! He seemed to be utterly
lost to all the proprieties of his position. Colonel Suttle
selling Burns on the 27th of May ! What even legal right
in Burns had Colonel Suttle then to convey ? None. No
law knew of any. Yet the very judge trying the case vol
unteers to suppose a title based on his own decision, which
ought then to have been unknown, even to himself. Suf
folk Court-House is turned into a slave-auction block ;
and the Slave Commissioner, the trial hardly commenced,
jumps upon the stand, — not needing to lay aside what
ever judicial robes a Slave Commissioner may be supposed
to wear !
Fourthly. The Commissioner knew how general was
the opinion among lawyers, that a writ of replevin might
be served after his judgment and before the affidavit of
the claimant was made. He knew the anxiety of the
ft-iends of Burns to test the possibOity of thus legally se
curing his release by Massachusetts law. But in the Com
missioner's hot haste and obstinate determination to have
every law except those of this Commonwealth obeyed to
the letter, he arranged and conspired with Colonel Suttle
and the United States Marshal to have all the papers exe
cuted in such secrecy, and so exactly at the same moment,
as to deprive Burns of all chance from this measure.
How eminently worthy such plotting as this of a jMassa-

196 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
chusetts judge ! — of one who assures you that he has
scrupulously obeyed the laws of Massachusetts!
Well, Gentlemen, it is said, — I cannot state it on any
thing but rumor, — that, as the crowning act of his unju
dicial conduct, he communicated his decision to one party
twenty hours before he communicated it to the other, so
that Messrs. Smith, Hallett, Thomas, Suttle, & Co. had
time to send down into Dock Square and have bullets cast
for the soldiers who were to be employed to assist the
slave-hunter ; had time to inform the newspapers in the
city what they intended to do ; — while Messrs. Dana and
Ellis, counsel for the prisoner, were allowed to go to their
homes in utter ignorance whether that decision would be
one way or another. Where can you find, in the whole
catalogue of judicial enormities, an instance when a judge
revealed his decision to one party and concealed it from
the other ? If he thought it necessary, on any grounds of
public security or from private reasons of propriety, to
inform them what his decision was to be, he should have
said : " Gentleman, I can meet you only in open court,
in the presence of counsel on both sides. I cannot speak
to you, Mr. Thomas, unless Mr. Dana or Mr. Elhs is
here. Call them, and then I will tell you what my decis
ion is to be." At four o'clock on Thursday, the Com
missioner made known his decision to the slave-claimant's
counsel ; on Friday, at nine o'clock, to Messrs. Dana and
Ellis, and the world I !
What a picture ! Put aside that it was a slave case ;
forget, if you wdl, for a moment, that he was committing
an act which the Commonwealth says is ipso facto infa
mous, and declares that no man shall do it and hold office.
The old law of Scotland declared that a butcher should
not sit upon a jury ; he was incapacitated by his profession.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by the statute of
1843, says that any Slave Commissioner is unfit to sit

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 197
upon the bench. Mr. Loring cannot see it, ¦ although it
was written and signed, re-enacted and signed again, —
although he was doing an act which the butchers of our
city, to their honor be it said, would not sanction, two
days afterwards. He puts this man into a room, bewil
dered, terrified, unfriended, — so unfit for trial, that stran
gers deem it their duty repeatedly to protest against tlie
proceedings of the court. Having gone through that
mockery of half an hour's trial, he takes occasion to ex
press his deliberate opinion of what the result is to be to
counsel. Having done that, he makes his conduct still
more flagrant by drawing up a bill of sale of the man who
was still on trial before him. There was but one man in
the State of Massachusetts who could not have drawn that
bill of sale, as I before said ; yet he was the man to draw
it! After that, he proceeds to collogue, to conspire, with
one party, and tell them his decision, twenty hours before
he informs the other. Gentlemen, I submit to you, as a
citizen of Massachusetts, that this is conduct unfitting for
the bench ; that there is, not to speak of inhumanity, an
utter unfitness to try questions of any kind, an utter reck
lessness of judicial character and regard for propriety in
such conduct, which might cause the very stones in the
street to rise and plead for the majesty of the laws against
such a judge. The petitioners say to you, that such a
man is not fit to wear the ermine of the CommonAvealth
of Massachusetts. Do they say too much ? I am to die
in this city ; many of the petitioners are to die here. Our
wills are to go into his hands. Our children and widows
are to go before him. We cannot trust him ; and we ask
you to remove him, under that provision of the Constitu
tion which gives you unlimiteel power to remove a judge
who is unfit for the duties of his office.
It is not necessary, ]\Ir. Chairman, that I detain you
long on the charge that Mr. Loring " wrested the laM' to

198 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
the support of injustice, tortured evidence to help the
strong against the weak, and administered a merciless
statute in a merciless manner." You have in your hands
the able arguments of Messrs. Ellis and Dana, as weU as
that remarkable " Decision which Judge Loring might
have given," originally published in the Boston Atlas.
These make it needless for me to enlarge on the law
points. Allow me, however, a few brief remarks.
1st. To use my own statement prepared for another
occasion, " the Fugitive Slave Act leaves the party claim
ant his choice between two processes ; one under its sixth
section ; the other under the tenth.
" The sixth section obhges the claimant to prove three
points : (1.) that the person claimed owes service ; (2.)
that he has escaped ; and, (3.) that the party before the
court is the identical one alleged to be a slave.
" The tenth section makes the claimant's certificate con
clusive as to the first two points, and only leaves the iden
tity to be proved.
" In this case, the claimant, by offering proof of service
and escape, made his election of the sixth section.
"Here he failed, — failed to prove service, failed to
prove escape. Then the Commissioner aUowed him to
swing round and take refuge in the tenth, leaving iden
tity only to be proved ; and this he proved by the pris
oner's confession, made in terror, if at all ; wholly denied
by him, and proved only by the testimony of a witness
of whom we know nothing, but that he was contradicted
by several witnesses as to the only point to which he
affirmed, capable of being tested."
2d. As to the point of identity. Colonel Suttle proved
that the person at the bar was his Anthony Burns by the
testimony of one witness. Of this witness, it may be em
phatically said, we knew nothing. He was never in the
State before, and we hope he never will be again. He

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 199
swore that Burns escaped from Riclimond, March 24,
1854. To contradict him, six witnesses volunteered their
testimony. They were not sought out ; they came acci
dentally or otherwise into court, and offered, unsolicited,
their testimony, that they had seen the man at the bar in
Boston for three or four weeks before the day of alleged
escape. These were witnesses of whose daily life and un-
impeached character ample evidence existed. Everybody
knew them. Six to one ! They were Boston mechan
ics and bookkeepers ; one a city policeman, one an officer
in the regiment, and member of the Common Conned.
Surely, it was evident, either that the record was wrong,
that the Virginia witness was wrong, or that this prisoner
was not the man Colonel Suttle claimed as his slave.* Out
of either door, there was chance for the judge to find his
way to release Burns. At any rate, there was reasonable
doubt, and the person claimed was therefore entitled to his
release. But no ; Mr. Loring lets one unknown slave-
hunter outweigh six w^ell-known and honest men, tramples
on the rule that in such cases all doubts are to be held
in favor of the prisoner, and surrenders his victim to
bondage. Observe, Gentlemen, in this connection, the exceeding
importance of granting time to prepare for trial, the omis
sion of which, on the part of Mr. Loring, I liave com
mented on. If this case had been finished on Thursday,
as it would have been but for the interference of others,
these Avitnesses would not have been heard of till after
Burns was out of the State. But after the two efforts of
his counsel had succeeded in getting delay till Monday,
the facts of the case became known through the city, and,
* After the surrender of Burns, it was discovered that the statements of
these six witnesses were exactly correct. Bums came to Boston early in
February, and Suttle's witness made u, mistake of a month in the date of
Burns's exit from Virginia.

200 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
having heard them, these witnesses volunteered their tes
timony. Now, ff the ascertaining of pertinent facts be the
purpose of a trial, which it surely is in all courts, except
those of slave commissioners, the consideration I have
stated is a very unportant one. Though Mr. Loring chose
to disregard this evidence, it was due to the law and to
the satisfaction of the community, that, even in his court,
it should be heard.
3d. But as to the sole point to be proved, under the
tenth section, identity, the evidence Mr. Loring relies on
is the confession of the poor victim when first arrested.
No confession is admissible when made in terror.
This confession was made at night ; and even twelve
hours after, Mr. Loring was forced himself to admit that
the prisoner was so stupefied and terrified, he was in no fit
state to be tried. Yet he admitted his confessions made in
a still more terrified hour ! The only witness, also, to this
alleged confession, was this same unknown slave-hunter,
unless we count one of the ruffians who guarded Burns.
But if the confession be taken at all, the whole must be
taken. Now, in this confession, sworn to by Colonel Sut
tle's own witness. Burns saiel he did not run away, but fell
asleep on board a ship, where he was at work with his
master's permission, and was brought away. This state
ment being brought in by Colonel Suttle's own witness,
must be taken by this claimant as true. He cannot be
allowed to doubt or contradict it. If it be true, then
Burns was not a fugitive slave, and so not within the
Fugitive Slave Law provisions. Our own Supreme Court
has decided (see 7 Gushing, 298) that a slave on board a
national vessel with his master, by express permission of
the Navy Secretary, who had been landed in Boston in
consequence of Navy orders, against the wish of the mas
ter, and of course by no action of the slave, could not be
reclaimed. To be brought from a Slave State is no

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 201
escape, within the meaning of the law. If taken at all,
the whole confession must be taken. If the whole be
taken, then the claimant himself has proved that his
alleged slave did not escape. If not taken in the whole,
then it cannot be taken at all, not even under the tenth
section, anel then there is no evidence as to identity ; and
the whole case falls to the ground.
Surely somewhere among all these wide gaping chasms
in the claimant's case, this poor judge, who pleads he was
obliged to do infamous work and accept the case, might
have found chance of escape, if he were a learned and
humane man !
Mr. Loring contends that he was obhged to issue the
warrant in consequence of the oath he took when ap
pointed Judge of Probate, to support the Constitution of
the United States. He says : —
" When I was appointed Judge of Probate, I was, by the au
thority of the people of Massachusetts, bound by an official oath
to support the Constitution of the United States ; this is to be
done only by fulflhing the provisions of the Constitution, and of
those laws of the United States which are constitutionally made
to carry the Constitution into effect. And on the authority of
the Supreme JucUoial Court of Massachusetts, I confidently claim
that, in my action under the United States Act of 1850, 1 exactly
comphed with the official oath imposed on me by the authority
of the people of Massachusetts."
A simple illustration will show the absurdity of this
claim. If the " official oath " to the Constitution of the
United States, which he says Massachusetts required him
as Judge of Probate to take, really binds him to execute
aU the laws of the Union, in every capacity, then such
execution becomes a part of his official duty, .since it was
as a Judge of Probate, and only as such, that he took the
" official oath." It follows, then, that if Marshal Freeman
should direct Judge Loring to aid in catching a slave, and

202 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
he should refuse, the House of Representatives could im
peach him for official misconduct. I think no one but a
Slave Commissioner wdl maintain that this is law.
Mr. Loring contends that he was bound to issue the
warrant, holding as he did the office of Commissioner!
Who obliged him to hold the office ? Could he not have
resigned, as many — young Kane of PhUadelphia, and
others — did, when first the infamous act made it possible
that he should be insulted by an application for such a
warrant ? There was a time when all of us would have
deemed such an application an insult to Edward G. Lo
ring. Could he not have resigned when the application
was made, as Captain Hayes of our police did, when called
on to aid in doing the very act which Mr. Loring had
brought like a plague on the city ? Could he not have
declined to issue the warrant or take part in the case, as
B. F. Hallett was reported to have done in the case of
William and Ellen Crafts ?
But whether he could or not matters not to you, Gen
tlemen. Massachusetts has a right to say what sort of
men she will have on her bench. She does not complain
if vile men will catch slaves. She only claims that they
shall not, at the same time, be officers of hers. Mr. Lo
ring had his choice, to resign his judgeship or his commis-
sionership. He chose to act as Commissioner, and, of
course, took the risk of losing the other office whenever
the State should rise to assert her laws. Nobody can
complain that he is not allowed to hold a Probate Court
one hour and a Slave Court the next. Certainly, it is not
too much to claim for Massachusetts the poor right to say,
that when the " legalized robber," " the felonious slave-
trader," (these are Channing's words,) comes here, he
shall not be able to select agents for his merciless work from
those sitting on our bench and clothed in our ermine.
One single line of this remonstrance goes far to show

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 203
the hoUowness of all the rest : " In this conviction, the
Commissioners, refusing all pecuniary compensation, have
performed their duties to the Constitution and the law."
If the " pieces of silver" are clean, and have no spot of
blood, why do all our Commissioners refuse to touch them ?
And why, when accused of executing this merciless stat
ute, (all men seem to think it an accusation,) does each
one uniformly plead in extenuation or atonement that he
refused the fee ? Is it any real excuse for doing an in
famous act, that one did it for nothing ? There is some
thing strange in this. Ah, Gentlemen, not all the special
pleading in the world, not "all the perfumes of Arabia,
can sweeten " that accursed gold.
There is one paragraph in this remonstrance which de
serves notice, as showing either great ignorance or great
heedlessness in one who claims to sit on a judicial bench.
Mr. Loring says : —
" In the year 1851, the Act of Congress of 1850 was declared,
by the unanimous opinion of the Justices of the Supreme Judicial
Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to be a constitu
tional law of the United States, passed by Congress in execution
of the fourth article of the Constitution of the United States, and
as such the supreme law of Massachusetts (7 Cush. Rep. 285) ;
and in exposition of the subject, after reference to the nature of
the Constitution of the United States, as a compromise of mutual
rights, creating mutual obligations and duties, it was declared
(page 311)) : ' In tlus spirit and with these views steadily in
prospect, it seems to be the duty of all judges and magistrates to
expound and apply these provisions in the Constitution and laws
of the United States, and in this spirit it behooves all persons
bound to obey the laws of the United States to consider and re
gard them.' And this authoritative direction as to the duties of
the magistrates and people of Massachusetts was given in direct
reference to the fourth article of the Constitution of the United
States, the United States Act of 1850, and the laws of ]Massa-
chusetts, as they then were and have ever since been."

204 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Observe the language: "It was declared," by the
court, of course, and it is an " authoritative direction as to
the duties of magistrates." You conclude. Gentlemen,
as every reader would, and would have a right to con
clude, that this sentence, quoted from the 319th page of
Cushing's Reports, is part of a decision of our Supreme
Court. Not at all. Gentlemen ; it is only a note to a de
cision, written, to be sure, by Judge Shaw, but on his
private responsibility, and no more an " authoritative di
rection " to magistrates and people than any casual remark
of Judge Shaw to his next-door neighbor as they stand
together on the sidewalk. In his decision in the Burns
case, Mr. Loring refers to the Sims case, above cited, (7
Gushing, 285,) " as the unanimous opinion of the judges
of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts," and then quotes
this same sentence as part of the opinion, terming it " the
wise words of our revered Chief Justice in that case."
Could this important mistake, twice made, on solemn occa
sions, be mere inadvertence ? If he knew no better, he
seems hardly fit for a judge. If any of his friends should^
claim he did know better, then, surely, he must have in
tended to deceive, and that does not much increase his
fitness for the bench.
Mr. Chairman, there is one view of the Burns case
which has not, I believe, been suggested. It is this.
Massachusetts declares that the fugitive slave is constitu
tionally entitled to a jury trial. It is the general conviction
of the North. Mr. Webster had once prepared an amend
ment to the Fugitive Slave Act securing jury trial. A
Commissioner of humane and just instincts would be
careful, therefore, to remember that the present act,
on the contrary, made him both judge and jury. Now
does any man in the Commonwealth believe that a
jury would have ever sent Burns into slavery with six
witnesses against one as to his identity, and his confession

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 205
as much in his favor as against him ? Mr. Loring knows,
this day, that he sent into slavery a man whom no jury
that could be impanelled in Massachusetts would have
condemned. I might add, whom no judge but himself,
now on our bench, would have condemned on the same
evidence. The friends of Mr. Loring, in the streets, tell us it is
hard to hold him accountable for this decision ; that all the
world knows he did not make it, — powerful relatives and
friends dictated it to him. Gentlemen, the apology seems
worse even than our accusation. A man whose own heart
does not lead him to be a slave-catcher allow himself to
be made the tool of others for such business ! Besides,
does this excuse prove him so very fit, after all, to sit on
the Probate Bench ? What if he should allow able rela
tives to dictate his decisions there also ?
Gentlemen, I have not enlarged, as I might have done,
on the general principle that, without alleging special mis
conduct, the mere fact of Mr. Loring's consenting to act
at all as a Slave Commissioner is sufficient cause for his
removal from the office of a Massachusetts judge. To con
sent actively to aid in hunting slaves here and now shows
a hardness of heart, a merciless spirit, a moral blindness, an
utter spiritual death, which totally unfit a man for the judi
cial office. No such man ought or can expect to preserve
the confidence of the community, which is essential to
his usefulness as a judge. Neither can Mr. Loring claim
that he had not full warning such would be the case. To
our shame we must confess, that the State has submitted
to the execution of the Slave Act within her hmits. But,
thank God ! we are justified in claiming that she submitted
in sad, reluctant, suUen silence ; that while she offered no
resistance to the law, as such, she proclaimed, in the face
of the world, her loathing and detestation of a slave-hunter.
In the words of Channing : —

206 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
" The great difficulty in the way of the arrangement now pro
posed is the article of the Constitution requiring the surrender
and return of fugitive slaves. A State, obeying this, seems to
me to contract as great guilt as if it were to bring slaves fi-om
Africa. No man, who regards slavery as among the greatest
wrongs, can in any way reduce his fellow-creatures to it. The
flying slave asserts the first right of a man, and should meet aid
rather than obstruction  No man among us, who values his
character, would aid the slave-hunter. The slave-hunter here
would be looked on with as little favor as the felonious slave-
trader. Those among us who dread to touch slavery in its own
region, lest insurrection and tumults should follow change, stiff
feel that the fugitive who has sought shelter so far can breed no
tumult in the land which he has left, and that, of consequence,
no motive but the unhallowed love of gain can prompt to his pur
suit; and when they think of slavery as perpetuated, not for
pubhc order, but for gain, they abhor it, and would not lift a
finger to replace the flying bondsman beneath the yoke."
The Legislature, the press, the pulpit, the voice of
private life, every breeze that swept from Berkshire to
Barnstable, spoke contempt for the hound who joined that
merciless pack. Every man who touched the Fugitive
Slave Act was shrunk from as a leper. Every one who de
nounced it was pressed to our hearts. Political sins were
almost forgotten, if a man would but echo the deep relig
ious conviction of the State on this point. When Charles
Sumner, himself a Commissioner, proclaimed beforehand
his determination not to execute the Fugitive Slave Act,
exclaiming, in Faneuil Hall, " I was a man before I was a
Commissioner ! " aU Massachusetts rose up to bless him,
and say. Amen! The other Slave Commissioner who
burdens the city with his presence cannot be said to have
lost the respect and confidence of the community, seeing
he never had either. But slave-hunting was able to sink
even him into a lower depth than he had before reached.
The hunting of slaves is, then,' a sufficient cause for

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 207
removal from a Massachusetts bench. Indeed, I should
blush for the State if it were not so. I am willing this
case should stand forever as a precedent. Let it be con
sidered as settled, that when a judge violates the well-
known, mature, religious conviction of the State on a grave
and vital question of practical morality, having had full
warning, such violation shall be held sufficient cause for
his removal. This principle will do no shadow of harm to
the independence of the bench. Mr. Chairman, as I have
before remarked, the bench is weakened when we retain a
bad judge, not when we remove him.
I am glad that the facts of this case are such that we
can remove Mr. Loring without violating in the least tittle
the proper independence of the judiciary ; that Massachu
setts can fix the seal of her detestation on the Slave Act
by so solemn a deed, without danger to her civil polity.
But, Mr. Chairman, I frankly confess that, if the case had
been otherwise, if it had been necessary to choose between
two alternatives, (while I value as highly as any man can
an independent judge,) better, far better, in my opinion,
to have for judges dependent honest men, than indepen
dent slave-catchers.
Dr. Channing, sitting in his study, says that " no man
among us who values his character would aid the slave-
hunter." We ask you to remove from judicial office the
man who has done it, — done it unnecessarily, done it in hot
haste, done it against law. We ask you not to have slave-
hunters on the bench of our old Commonwealth. Read
Channing's last, dying words : —
" There is something worse than to be a slave. It is to make
other men slaves. Better be trampled in the dust than trample
on a feUow-creature. Much as I shrink from the evils inflicted
by bondage on the miUions who bear it, I would sooner endure
them than inflict them on a brother. Freemen of the moun
tains ! as far as you have power, remove from yourselves, from

208 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
our dear and venerable mother, the Commonwealth of Massachu
setts, and from all the Free States, the baseness and guhi of
ministering to slavery, of acting as the slaveholder's police, of
lending him arms and strength to secure his victim 
Should a slave-hunter ever profane these mountainous retreats by
seeking here a flying bondman, regard him as a legalized robier.
Oppose no force to him ; you need not do it. Your contempt
and indignation wiU be enough to disarm the ' man-stealer ' of
the unholy power conferred on him by unrighteous laws."
This is the picture of a slave-hunter, which a dispas
sionate man leaves as his legacy to his fellow-citizens.
Gentlemen, we assert that such a man is not fit to sit upon
the bench. We have a right to claim that you shall give
us honorable, just, high-minded, conscientious judges, —
men worthy the respect and confidence of the community.
You cannot have such, if you have men who consent to
act as United States Slave Commissioners. You never
can enact a United States Commissioner into respect.
You may pile your statutes as high as Wachusett, they
wdl suffice to disgrace the State, they cannot make a
Slave Commissioner a respectable man.
We have, it seems to us, a right to ask of Massachusetts
this act, — it being clearly within her just authority, — as
a necessary and righteous expression of the feehng of the
State. The times are critical. South Carolina records
her opinion of slavery in a thousand ways. She violates
the United States Constitution to do it, expeUing Mr.
Hoar from her borders, and barring -him out with fine and
imprisonment. Young Wisconsin makes the first page of
her State history glorious by throwing down her gauntlet
against this slave-hunting Union, in defence of justice and
humanity. Some of us had hoped that our beloved Com
monwealth would have placed that crown of oak on her
own brow. Her youngest daughter has earned it first.
God speed her on her bright pathway to success and un-

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 209
mortal honor ! Shall Massachusetts alone be mute, when
the world gathers to this great protest against a giant sin,
to this holy crusade of humanity ?
Say not, we claim something extreme and fanatical.
We say only, what the State enacted in 1843 and reiter
ated in 1850, that to be a Massachusetts magistrate and a
slave-hunter are incompatible offices. Surely, public opin
ion has not gone back since 1850. Surely, the Nebraska
outrage has not reconciled you to the Slave Power. We
dare be as much opposed to slavery and slave-hunting
now as we were before that insult. TeU the nation that
Massachusetts throws no sanction around the Slave Law
by allowing her officers to join in executing it. She marks
her sense of its merciless nature by refusuig her broad
seal to any one who upholds it.
Juilgc Loring says, " I only obeyed the United States
law in returning the fugitive." Let Massachusetts say to
him, " Do it ! do it freely ! do it as often as you please !
Return a fugitive slave every day ! But, when you do,
remember you shall skulk through the streets like a leper
from whose side every man shrinks. Remember, you
shall hold no commission of mine. No, the humblest work
that the lowliest official performs, since it is honest, is too
holy to be polluted by you. We do not deny your right.
It is, unfortunately, your right, as a citizen of the United
States, to take your part in slave hunts ; but the Common
wealth has also, we thank God, still the right to say that
her judges shall be decent men, at least. Make your
choice ! You wish to be United States Commissioner ? —
be it ; but no longer be officer of mine ! " What ! shall
our judges be men whose names it makes one involuntarUy
shudder to meet in our public journals ? — whose hand
many an honest man would blush to be seen to touch in
the streets ?
Indeed, Mr. Chairman, I do not exaggerate. Grant that
u

210 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Burns was Colonel Suttle's slave, and what are the facts ?
A brave, noble man, born, unhappily, in a Slave State, has
shown his fitness for freedom better than most of us have
done. At great risk and by great effort obtained he this
freedom ; but we were only free born. He hides himself
in Boston. By hard work he earns his daily bread.
With patient assiduity, he sits at the feet of humble teach
ers, in school and pulpit, and tries to become really a man.
The heavens smile over him. He feels that all good men
must wish him success in his blameless efforts to make
himself more worthy to stand at their side. Weeks roll
on, and the heart which stood still with terror at every
lifting of the door-latch begins to grow more calm. He
has finished his day's work ; and, under the free stars,
wearied, but full of joyful hope that words could never
express, he seeks his home, — happy, however humble, as
it is his, and it is free. In a moment, the cup is dashed
from his lips. He is in fetters, and a slave. The dear
hope of knowledge, manhood, and worthy Christian hfe
seems gone. To read is a crime now, marriage a mock
ery, and virtue a miracle. Who shall describe the horrible
despair of that moment? How the world must have
seemed to shut down over him as a living tomb ! What
hand dealt that terrible blow? This poor man, against
mountain obstacles, is struggling to climb up to be more
worthy of his immortality. What hand is it, that, in this
Christian land, starts from the cloud and thrusts him back?
It is the hand of one whom your schools have nurtured
with their best culture, sitting at ease, surrounded with
wealth ; one whom your commission appoints to protect
the fatherless, and mete out justice between man and man.
Men ! Christians ! is there one of you who would, for
worlds, take upon his conscience the guilt of thus crushing
a hapless, struggling soul? Is the man who could, in
obedience to any human law, be guilty of such an act, fit
to be judge over Christian people ?

REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING. 211
Gentlemen, the petitioners have no feeling of revenge
toward Mr. Edward G. Loring. Let the general gov
ernment reward him with thousands, ff it will. To us he
is only an object of pity. There was an hour when one
man trembled before him, — when one hapless victim,
with more than life at stake, trembled before this man's
want of humanity and ignorance of law. That hour has
passed away. To-day he is but a weed on the great
ocean of humanity. To us he is nothing ; but we, with
you, are the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ; and for
the honor of the State, for the sake of justice, in the name
of humanity, we claim his removal. We have a right to
a judiciary worthy of the respect of the community. We
cannot respect him. Do not give us a man whose judicial
character is made up of party bias, personal predilection,
bad law, and a reckless disregard of human rights, anel
whose heart was too hard to melt before the mute elo
quence of a hapless and terrified man, — do not commit to
such a one the widows and orphans of the Commonwealth !
Do not place such a man on a bench which only able and
humane and Christian men have occupied before ! Do
not let him escape the deserved indignation of the com
munity, by the technical construction of a statute ! The
Constitution has left you, as the representatives of the
original sovereignty of the people, the power to remove a
judge, when you think he has lost the confidence and
respect of his constituents. Exercise it ! Say to the
United States, " The Constitution allows the return of
fugitive slaves. Find your agents where you will ; you
shall not find them on the Supreme or any inferior Bench
of i\lassachnsetts. You shall never gather round that in
famous procedure any respectability derived from the mag
istracy of the Commonwealth. If it is to be done, let it
be done by men whom it does not harm the honor or the
interest of ^Lissachusetts to have dishonored and made
infamous ! "

212 REMOVAL OF JUDGE LORING.
Mr. Chairman, give free channel to the natural instincts
of the Commonwealth, and let us — let us be at liberty to
despise the slave-hunter, without feeling that our chil
dren's hopes and lives are prejudiced thereby ! When
you have done it, — when you have pmnounced on this
hasty, reckless, inhuman court its proper judgment, the
verdict of official reprobation, — you will secure another
thing. The next Slave Commissioner who opens his court
will remember that he opens it in Massachusetts, where a
man is not to be robbed of his rights as a human being
merely because he is black. You will throw around the
unfortunate victim of a cruel law, which you say you
cannot annul, all the protection that Massachusetts inci-
dentaUy can. And, doing this, you wdl do something
to prevent seeing another such sad week as that of last
May or June, in the capital of the Commonwealth. Al
though you cannot blot out this wicked clause in the
Constitution, you will render it impossible that any but
reckless, unprincipled, and shameless men shall aid in its
enforcement. Such men cannot long uphold a law in this
Commonwealth. The petitioners ask both these things ; claiming espe
cially to have proved that you can do this work, and that,
if you love justice or mercy, you ought to do it.

THE BOSTON MOB.*

MR. PRESIDENT : I feel that I have very little
right on this platform to-day. I stand here only
to express my gratitude to those who truly and properly
occupy it, for what we all owe them — the women and
the men — who stood by our honor, and so nobly did our
duties, when we forgot it and them twenty years ago.
At this hour, twenty years ago, I was below in the
street ; — I thank God I am inside the house now ! I
was not in the street as one of the mob, but as a spectator.
I had come down from my office in Court Street to see
what the excitement was. I did not understand antislav
ery then ; that is, I did not understand the country in
which I lived. We have all learned much since then ;
learned what antislavery means, — learned what a repub
lican government really is, — learned the power of the
press and of money, which I, at least, did not know then.
I remember saying to the gentleman who stood next to
me in the street : " Why does not the Mayor call out the
regiment ? " (I belonged to it then.) " We would cheer
fully take arms in such a case as this. It is a very shame
ful business. Why does he stand there arguing ? Why
does he not call for the guns ? " I did not then know
that the men who should have borne them were the
* Speech before the Antislavery Meeting held in Stacy Hall, Boston, on
the Twentieth Anniversai-y of the Mob of October 21, 1835.

214 THE BOSTON MOB.
mob ; that all there was of government in Boston was in
the street ; that the people, our final rehance for the exe
cution of the laws, were there, in " broadcloth and broad
daylight," in the street. Mayor Lyman knew it ; and
the only honorable and honest course open to him was, to
have said, " If I cannot be a magistrate, I will not pretend
to be one."
I do not know whether to attribute the Mayor's dis
graceful conduct to his confused notion of his official du
ties, or to a cowardly unwillingness to perform what he
knew well enough to be his duty. A superficial observer
of the jiress and pulpit of that day would be inclined to
consider it the result of ignorance, and lay the blame at
the door of our republican form of government, which
thrusts up into important stations dainty gentlemen' like
Lyman, physicians never allowed to doctor any body but
the body politic, or cunning tradesmen who have wriggled
their slimy way to wealth, — men who in a trial hour not
only know nothing of their own duties, but do not even
know where to go for advice. And for the preachers, I
am inclined to think this stolid ignorance of civil rights
and duties may be pleaded as a disgraceful excuse, leaving
them guilty only of meddling in matters far above their
comprehension. But one who looks deeper into the tem
per of that day wdl see plainly enough that the Mayor
and the editors, with their companions "in broadcloth,"
were only blind to what they did not wish to see, and
knew the right and wrong of the case well enough, only,
like aU half-educated people, they were but poorly able to
comprehend the vast importance of the wrong they were
doing. The mobs which followed, directed against others
than Abolitionists, the ripe fruit of the seed here planted,
opened their eyes somewhat.
Mr. Garrison has given us specimens enough of the
press of that day. There was the Daily Advertiser, of

THE BOSTON MOB. 215
course on the wrong side, — respectable when its oppo
nents are strong aud numerous, and quite ready to be
scurrilous when scurrility is safe and will pay, — behind
whose editorials a keen ear can always catch the clink of the
dollar, — entitled to be called the Rip Van Winkle of the
press, should it ever, like Rip, wake up ; the Advertiser
condescended, strangely enough, to say, that it was not
surprised (!) that papers abroad considered the meeting
of mobocrats in the street below a riot (!) ; but the wiser
Advertiser itself regarded it " not so much as a riot as the
prevention of a riot " .' It " considered the whole transaction
as the triumph of law over lawless violence, and the love of
order over riot and confusion " .' .' Dear, dreamy Van
Winkle ! and he goes on to " rejoice " at the exceechng
" moderation " of the populace, that they did not murder
I\Ir. Garrison on the spot ! And this is the journal which
Boston hterature regards as its organ, and which Boston
wealth befools itself by styling "respectable" !
Next came the scurrilous Gazette, which, it is said, re
pented of its course when it found that Northern subscrib
ers fell off and Southerners continued to despise it as be
fore ; and which, outliving public forbearance and becoming
bankrupt, earned thus the right to be melted into the Daily
Advertiser. With them in sad alliance marched the Courier, —
always strong and frank, whichever side it took, and even
of whose great merit and bravery between that time and
this, it is sufficient praise to say, that it was enough to
outweigh its great wrong in 1835, and its vile servihty
now. With rare daring, the Christian Register, the organ of
the Unitarians, snatched the palm of infamy. In a mo
ment of forgetful frankness, remembering, probably, the-
coward course of its own sect, it counselled hypocrisy;
suiting manner to matter, it hints to the Abolitionists, that

216 THE BOSTON MOB.
they should imitate the example, as, with laughable iglio-
rance, it avers, of the early Christians of Trajan's . day,
and meet in secret, if the "vanity" of the ladies would
allow ! The coward priest forgot, if he ever knew, that
the early Christians met in secret beneath the pavements
of Rome, only to pray for the martyrs whose crosses lined
the highways, whose daring defied Paganism at its own
altars, and whose humanity stopped the bloody games of
Rome in the upper air ; that they met beneath the ground,
not so much to hide themselves, as to get strength for
attacks on wicked laws apd false altars.
Infamy, however, at that day, was not a monopoly of
one sect. Hubbard Winslow, a Pharisee of the Pharisees,
strictly Orthodox, a bigot in good and regular standing,
shortly after this preached a sermon to Ulustrate and de
fend the doctrine, that no man, under a republican gov
ernment, has a right to promulgate any opinion but such
as " a majority of the brotherhood would allow and pro
tect " ; and he is said to have boasted that Judge Story
thanked him for such a eUscourse !
The Mayor played a most shuffling and dishonorable
part. For some time previous, he had held private con
ferences with leading Abolitionists, urging them to dis
continue their meetings, professing, all the while, entire
friendship, and the most earnest determination to protect
them in their rights at any cost. The Abolitionists treated
him, in return, with the utmost confidence. They yielded
to his wishes, so far as to consent to do nothing that would
increase the public excitement, with this exception, that
they insisted on holding meetings often enough to assert
their right to meet. Yet, while they were thus honorably
avoiding everything which would needlessly excite the
public mind, going to the utmost verge of submission and
sdence that duty permitted, — while the Abolitionists, with
rare moderation, were showing this magnanimous forbear-

THE BOSTON MOB. 217
ance and regard to the weakness of public authority and
the reckless excitement of the public, — the Mayor himself,
in utter violation of official decorum and personal honor,
accepted the chair of the public meeting assembled In
Faneuil Hall, and presided over that assembly, — an as
sembly which many intended should rouse a mob against
the Abolitionists, and which none but the weak or wilfully
blind could avoid seeing must lead to that result. In Ins
opening speech to that factious meeting, the Mayor, under
oath at that moment to protect every citizen in his rights,
and doubly bound just then by private assurances to these
very Abolitionists, forgot all his duty, all his pledges, so
far as to publicly warn them of the danger of their meeting,
— a warning or threat, the memory of which might well
make him tremblingly anxious to save Garrison's life, since
of any blood shed that day, every law, divine and human,
would have held the Mayor guilty.
Such was the temper of those times. The ignorant were
not aware, and the wise were too corrupt to confess, tliat
the most precious of human rights, free thought, was at
stake. These women knew It, felt the momentous char
acter of the issue, and consented to stand In the gap.
Those were trial hours. I never think of them without
my shame for my native city being swallowed up In grati
tude to those who stood so bravely for the right. Let us
not consent to be ashamed of the Boston of 1835. Those
howling wolves in the streets were not Boston. These
brave men and women were Boston. We will remember
no other.
I never open the statute-book of Massachusetts with
out thanking Ellis Gray Loring and Samuel J. May,
Charles FoUen and Samuel E. SewaU, and those around
me who stood with them, for preventing Edward Everett
from blackening It with a law making free speech an in-
ehctable offence. And we owe it to fifty or sixty women.

218 THE BOSTON MOB.
and a dozen or two of men, that free speech was saved, in
1835, in the city of Boston. Indeed, we owe it mainly to
one man. If there is one here who loves Boston, who
loves her honor, who rejoices to know that, however fine
the thread, there is a thread which bridges over that dark
and troubled wave, and connects us by a livmg nerve with
the freemen of the Revolution, — that Boston, though be
trayed by her magistrates, her wealth, her press, and her
pulpits, never utterly bowed her neck, let him remember
that we owe it to you. Sir, [Mr. Francis Jackson,] who of
fered to the women not allowed to meet here, even though
the Mayor was in this haU, the use of your house ; and
one sentence of your letter deserves to be read whenever
Boston men are met together to celebrate the preservation
of the right of free speech in the city of Adams and Otis.
History, which always loves courage, wdl write it on a page
whiter than marble and more incorruptible than gold.
You said. Sir, In answer to a letter of thanks for the use
of your house : —
" If a lai-ge majority of this community choose to turn a deaf
ear to the wrongs which are inflicted upon their countrymen in
other portions of the land, — if they are content to turn away
from the sight of oppression, and ' pass by on the other side,' —
so it must be.
" But when they undertake in any way to impair or annul my
right to speak, write, and pubhsh upon any subject, and more
especially upon enormities which are the common concern of
every lover of his country and his kind, — so it must not be, —
so it shall not be, if I for one can prevent it. Upon this great
right let us hold on at aU hazards. And should we, in its exer
cise, be driven from public halls to private dwelUngs, one house
at least shall be consecrated to its preservation. And if, in de
fence of this sacred privilege, which man did not give me, and
shall not (if I can help it) take from me, this roof and these walls
shaU be levelled to the earth, — let them fall, if they must
They cannot crumble in a better cause. They will appear of

THE BOSTON MOB. 219
very little value to me, after their owner shaU have been whipped
into silence."
This was only thirty days after the mob. I need not
read the remainder of that letter, \Miich is in the same
strain. We owe it to one man that a public meeting was held,
within a month, by these same women, in the city of Bos
ton. But to their honor be it rememembered, also, — a
fact which Mr. Garrison omitted to state, — that when
Mayor Lyman urged them to go home, they left this hall
in public procession and went "home" to the house of
Mrs. M. W. Chapman, In West Street, to organize and
finish their meeting that very afternoon. To Mrs. Chap
man's pen we owe the most living picture of that whole
scene, and her able, graphic, and eloquent reports of the
proceedings of the Female Antislavery Society, and spe
cially of this day, have hung up to everlasting contempt
the " men of property and standing," — the "respectable"
men of Boston.
Let us open, for a moment, the doors of the haU which
stood here, and listen to the Mayor receiving his lesson m
civU duty from the noble women of this society.
Mr. Ltmax. — Go home, ladies, go home.
President. — What renders it necessary we should go
home ?
Mr. Lyman. — I am the Mayor of the city, and I cannot
now explain ; but will call upon you this evening.
President. — If the ladies will be seated, we wdl take the
sense of the meeting.
Mr. Lyman. — Don't stop, ladies, go home.
President. — Will the ladies listen to a letter addi-essed to
the Society, by Francis Jackson, Esq. ?
Mr. Ly.man. — Ladies, do you ^vish to see a scene of blood
shed and confusion ? If you do not, go home.
One of tub Ladies. — Mr. Lyman, your personal friends

220 THE BOSTON MOB.
are the instigators of this mob ; have you ever used your per
sonal influence with them ?
Mr. Lyman. — I know no personal friends ; I am merely
an official. Indeed, ladies, you must retire. It is dangerous to
remain. Lady. — If this is the last bulwark of freedom, we may as
well die here as anywhere.
There is nothing braver than that in the history of the
Long Parliament, or of the Roman Senate.
At that Faneuil Hall meeting, one of " the family " was
present, — one of that family which was never absent when
a deed of infamy was to be committed against the slave, — a
family made up mostly of upstart attorneys, who fancy them
selves statesmen, because able to draw a writ or pick holes
in an indictment. Mr. Thomas B. Curtis read the resolu-,
tions ; and then foUowed three speeches, by Harrison Gray
Otis, Richarel Fletcher, and Peleg Sprague, unmatched for
adroit, ingenious, suggestive argument and exhortation to
put down, legally or violently, — each hearer could choose
for himself, — all public meetings on the subject of slavery
in the city of Boston. Everything influential in the city
was arrayed against this society of a few women. I could'
not but reflect, as I sat here, how immortal principle is.
Rev. Henry Ware, Jr. read the notice of this society's
meeting from Dr. Channing's pulpit, and almost every,
press in the city woke barking at him next morning for
what was called his "impudence." He is gone to his,
honored grave ; many of those who met in this haU In
pursuance of that notice are gone likewise. They died,
as Whittier so well says,
" their brave hearts breaking slow,
But, self-forgetful to the last.
In words of cheer and bugle glow,
Their breath upon the darkness passed."
In those days, as we gathered round their graves, and

THE BOSTON JIOB. 221
resolved that, the "narrower the circle became, we would
draw the closer together," we envied the dead their rest.
Men ceased to slander them In that sanctuary ; and as we
looked forward to the desolate vista of calamity and toil
before us, and thought of the temptations which beset us
on either side from worldly prosperity which a slight sacri
fice of principle might secure, or social ease so close at
hand by only a little turning aside, we almost envied the
dead tlie quiet sleep to which we left them, the harvest
reaped, and the seal set beyond the power of change.
And of those who assaulted them, many are gone. The
i\Iayor so recreant to his duty, or so lacking in knowledge
of his office. Is gone ; the Judge before whom Mr. Gar
rison was arraigned, at the jail, the next day after the
mob. Is gone ; the Sheriff who rode with him to the jad is
gone ; the city journals have changed hands, being more
than once openly bought and sold. The editor of the
Atlas, whose zeal In the cause of mob violence earned it
the honor of giving its name to the day, — " the Atlas
mob" many called It, — Is gone; many of the prominent
actors In that scene, twenty years ago, have passed away ;
the most eloquent of those whose voices cried " Havoc ! " at
FaneuU Hall has gone, — ]Mr. Otis has his wish, that the
grave might close over hhn before it closed over the
Union, which God speed In his good time ; — but the
same principle fills these same halls, as ft-esh and. vital to-
elay, as self-fixed and resolute to struggle against pulpit
and press, against wealth and majorities, against denuncia
tion and unpopularity, and certain In the end to set its
triumphant foot alike on man and everything that man has
made. Here stands to-day the man whom Boston wealth and
Boston respectability went home, twenty years ago this
night, and gloried in having crushed. The loudest boast
ers are gone. He stands to-day among us, these very

222 THE BOSTON MOB.
walls, tliese Ideas which breathe and burn around us, say
ing for him, "I still live." If, twenty or twice twenty
years hence, he too shall have passed away, may It not be
till his glad ear has caught the jubilee of the emancipated
millions whom his life has been given to save !
This very Female Antislavery Society which was met
here twenty years ago did other good service but a few
months after, in getting the Court of Massachusetts to
recognize that great principle of freedom, that a slave,
brought into a Northern State, Is free. It was In the well-
known Med case. We owe that to the Boston Female
Antislavery Society. To-day, Judge Kane, and the
Supreme Court, which alone e^n control him, are endeav
oring to annihilate that principle which twenty years ago
was established. How far and how soon they may he
successful, God only knows.
Truly, as Mr. Garrison has said, the intellectual and
moral growth of antislavery has been great withui twenty
years ; but who shall deny that, in the same twenty years,
the political, the organic, the civil growth of slavery has
been more than equal? We stand here to-day with a
city redeemed — how far ? Just so far as this meeting
commemorates, — the right of free speech is secured.
Thank God ! in twenty years, we have proved that an
antislavery meeting Is not only possible, but respectable,
in Massachusetts, — that is all we have proved. Lord
Erskine said a newspaper was stronger than government.
We have got many newspapers on our side. Ideas wdl,
in the end, beat down anything ; — we have got free
course for ideas.
But let us not cheer ourselves too hastily, for the gov
ernment, the wealth, the public opinion, of this very city in
which we meet, remain to-day almost as firmly anchored
as ever on the side of slavery. Amid all the changes of
twenty years, the Daily Advertiser has not changed a whit,

THE BOSTON MOB. 223
— not a whit. The same paper that spoke doubtful words
before October 21st, hoped the meeting would be stopped,
and afterwards could not quite decide whether there was a
mob or not, but was glad the ladies were not allowed to
hold their meeting, — that same paper would doze through
the same shameless part to-day. That paper, which repre
sented then so well the mobocrats in broadcloth, has passeel
from a father wearied in trying to hold Massachusetts
back, to his son, — whose accession, to reverse James the
First's motto, "no day followed," — and It Is published
to-day with the same spirit, represents the same class,
actuated exactly with the same purpose. If there is
strength outside the city, in the masses, enough to rebuke
that class and that pi-ess and that purpose, anel give the
State of Massachusetts more emphatically to some kind of
antislavery, it is still a struggle. I would not rejoice,
therefore, too much. We must discriminate. " To break
your leg twice over the same stone is your own fault,"
says the Spanish proverb.
I came here to-day to thank God that Boston never
wanted a person to claim his inalienable right to utter his
thoughts on the subject of slavery, nor a spot upon which
he could do it ; — that is all my rejoicing to-day. And
in that corner-stone of Individual daring, \of fidelity to con
science, I recognize the possibility of the emancipation of
three mdlions of slaves. But that possibility is to be made
actual by labors as earnest and unceasing, by a self-devo
tion as entire, as that which has marked the twenty years
we have just passed.
I find that these people, who have made this day
famous, were accused in their own time of harsh language
aixl over-boldness, and great disparagement of dignities.
These were the three charges brought against the Female
Antislavery Se)ciety in 1835. The women forgot their
homes, it was said, in endeavoring to malie the men do

224 THE BOSTON MOB.
their duty. It was a noble lesson which the sisters and
mothers of that time set the women of the present day, —
I hope they wIU foUow it.
There was another charge brought against them, — It
was, that they had no reverence for dignitaries. The
friend who sits here on my right (Mrs. Southwick) dared
to rebuke a slaveholder with a loud voice, in a room just
before, if not then, consecrated by the presence of Chief
Justice Shaw, and the press was astonished at her bold
ness. I hope, though she has left the city, she has left
representatives behind her who will dare rebuke any
slave-hunter, or any servant of the slave-power, with the
same boldness, fi-ankness, and defiance of authorities, and
contempt of parchment.
Then there was another charge brought against then-
meetings, that they indulged in exceedingly bold language
about pulpits and laws and wicked magistrates. That Is
a sin which I hope will not die out. God grant we may
inherit that also.
I should like to know very much how many there are
in this hall to-day who were out in the street, as actual
mobocrats, twenty years ago. I know there are some
here who signed the various petitions to the City Govern
ment to prevent the meeting from being held ; but it would
be an interesting fact to know how many are here to-day,
actually enlisted under the antislavery banner, who tore
that sign to pieces. I wish we had those rehcs ; the piece
of that door which was long preserved, the door so coolly
locked by Charles Burleigh, — it was a touching rehc.
We ought to have a portion of that sign which the Mayor
threw down as a tub to the whale, hoping to save some
semblance of his authority, — hoping the multitude would
be satisfied with the sign, and spare the women in this
haU, — forgetting that a mob is controUed only by its fears,
not by pity or good manners.

1 tit, 15U0 1 Ui\ IVIUC.

But, Mr. President, it is a sad story to think of. Anti-
slavery Is a sad history to read, sad to look back upon.
What a miserable refuse public opinion has been for the
past twenty years ! — what a wretched wreck of all that
republican education ought to have secured ! Take up
that file of papers which Mr. Garrison showed you, and
think. Republicanism, a Protestant pulpit, free schools, the
model government, had existed In our city for sixty years,
and this was the result ! A picture, the very copy of that
which Sir Robert Peel held up in the British Parliament,
within a month after the mob, as proof that republicanism
could never succeed. It is a sad picture to look back
upon. The only light which redeems it is the heroism
that consecrated this hall, and one house in HoUis Street,
places which Boston will yet make pilgrimages to honor.
The only thing that Americans (for let us be Ameri
cans to-day, not simply Abolitionists), — the only thing
for which Americans can rejoice, this day, is, that everything
was not rotten. The whole head was not sick, nor the
whole heart faint. There were ten men, even .in Sodom !
And when the Mayor forgot his duty, when the pulpit
prostituted Itself, and when the press became a pack of
hounds, the women of Boston, and a score or two of men,
remembered Hancock and Adams, and did their duty.
And if there are young people who hear me to-day, let us
hope that when this special cause of antislavery effort is
past and gone, when another generation shall have come
upon the stage, and new topics of dispute have arisen,
there wdl be no more such scenes. How shall we ever
learn toleration for what we do not believe ? The last
lesson a man ever learns is, that liberty of thought and
speech is the right for all mankind; that the man who
denies every article of our creed is to be allowed to preach
just as often and just as loud as we ourselves. We have
learned this, — been taught It by persecution on the ques-
15

226 THE BOSTON MOB.
tion of slavery. No matter whose the lips that would
speak, they must be free and ungagged. Let us always
remember that he does not really believe his own opinions,
who dares not give free scope to his opponent. Persecution
Is reaUy want of faith in our creed. Let us see to it, my
friends, Abohtionists, that we learn the lesson the whole
circle round. Let us believe that the whole of truth can
ri°^-er do harm to the whole of virtue. Trust it. And
remember, that, in order to get the whole of truth, you
must allow every man, right or wrong, freely to utter his
conscience, and protect him in so doing.
The same question was wrought out here twenty years
ago, as was wrought in the protest of fifty or a hundred
Abolitionists, when an infidel (Abner Kneeland) was sent
to Boston jad for preaching his sentiments. I hope that
we shall all go out of this hall, remembering the highest
lesson of this day and place, that every man's conscience
is sacred. No matter how good our motives are In try
ing to gag him ! Mayor Lyman had some good motives
that day, had he only known what his office meant, and
stayed at home, if he felt himself not able to fill It. It Is
not motives. Entire, unshackled freedom for every man's
lips, no matter what his doctrine ; — the safety of free
discussion, no matter how wide its range ; — no check on
the peaceful assemblage 'of thoughtful men ! Let us con
secrate our labors for twenty years to come in doing better
than those who went before us, and widening the circle of
their principle Into the full growth of its actual and proper
significance. Let me thank the women who came here twenty years
ago, some of whom are met here to-day, for the good they
have done me. I thank them for all they have taught me.
I had read Greek and Roman and English history ; I had
by heart the classic eulogies of brave old men and martyrs ;
I dreamed, in my folly, that I heard the same tone in my

THE BOSTON MOB. V^-Zl
youth fi-om the cuckoo lips of Edward Everett ; — these
women taught me my mistake. They taught me that down
in those hearts which loved a principle for itself, asked no
man's leave to think or speak, true to their convictions, no
matter at what hazard, flowed the real blood of '76, of 1640,
of the hemlock-drinker of Athens, and of the martyr-saints
of Jerusalem. I thank them for it ! My eyes were sealed,
so that, although I knew the Adamses and Otises of 1776,
and the Mary Dyers and Ann Hutchlnsons of older times,
I could not recognize the Adamses and Otises, the Dyers
and Hutchlnsons, whom I met in the streets of '35. These
women opened my eyes, and I thank them and you [turn
ing to ]Mrs. Southwick and Miss Henrietta Sargent, who
sat upon the platform] for that anointing. May our next
twenty years prove us all apt scholars of such brave in
struction !

THE PILGRIMS.*

MR. PRESIDENT: History teUs us that the Pil
grims at this season of the year 1622 were very
hungry, almost starving ; but certainly their descendants
must be far more Insatiable than they then were, if, after
all the noble things they have heard to-day, they can ask
for more. It seems to me we are in the condition of that
man whom Ohver Wendell Holmes describes in one of his
lectures. You remember he says the lyceum-lecturers
held a meeting, and found, as a matter of universal expe
rience, that at a certain period in every lecture a man
went out, and each one assigned a different reason for ^t.
One thought it was business, another the heat, and a third
fancied it was some offensive sentiment uttered by the
speaker. But Holmes, being a physician, performed an
autopsy, and found the man's brain was full. [Loud
laughter and applause.] Now, Sir, I certainly think I
may claim that reason for sitting down. After that elo
quent and profound oration, and all we have listened to
since, surely our brains must be full.
Why, who can do anything but repeat what we have
heard ? Do you not remember. Sir, when we were littie
boys, and followed the martial music, our steps keepmg
* Speech at the dinner of the Pilgrim Society, In Plymouth, December
21, 1855, in response to the following toast : —
" Tlie Pilgrim Fathers, — Their fidelity, amid hardships and perils, to truth
aud duty, has secured to their descendants prosperity and peace.''

inn riijetiiiMS.

time, street after street, till we came to some broad way
that our fears or our mothers forbade us to enter ; and
when the music turned away, our tiny feet kept time long
afterwards ? Can we get away from the spell which took
possession of us In yonder church ? I can only think In
that channel. Who can get his mind away from the deep
resounding march with which the speaker carried us from
century to century, and held up the torch, and pointed
out the significance of each age ? All we can do is to
utter some little reflection, — something suggested by that
train of thought.
How true it is that the Puritans originated no new
truth ! How true it is, also, Mr. President, that it is not
truth which agitates the world ! Plato in the groves of
the Academy sounded on and on to the utmost depth of
philosophy, but Athens was quiet. CalUng around him
the choicest minds of Greece, he pointed out the worth-
lessness of their altars and the sham of pubhc hfe, but
Athens was quiet, — it was all speculation. When Socra
tes walked the streets of Athens, and, questioning every
day life, struck the altar till the faith of the passer-by
faltered. It came close to action, and immediately they
gave him hemlock, for the city was turned upside down.
I might find a better illustration in the streets of Jerusa-
lem. What the Puritans gave the world was not thought,
but ACTION. Europe had ideas, but she was letting 'I
dare not wait upon I would,' like the cat in the adage.
The Puritans, with native pluck, launched out Into the
deep sea. Men, who called themselves thinkers, had been
creeping along the Mediterranean, from headland to head
land. In their timidity ; the Pilgrims launched boldly out
into the Atlantic, and trusted God. [Loud applause.]
That Is the claim they have upon posterity. It was
ACTION that made them what they were.
No, they did not originate anything, but they planted ;

230 THE PILGRIMS.
and the answer to all criticism upon them is to be — the
OAK. [Cheers.] The Edinburgh Reviewer takes up that
acorn, the good ship Mayflower, and says, " I do not see
stalwart branches, I do not see a broad tree here." Mr.
President, we are to show it to him. The glory of the
fathers is the chUdren. Mr. Winthrop says the pens of
the Puritans are then- best defence. No, the Winthrops
of to-day are to be the best defence of the Winthrops
of 1630 ; they are to write that defence in the broad, legi
ble steps of a life whose polar star is Duty, whose goal
is Liberty, and whose staff is Justice. [Enthusiastic ap
plause.] The glory of men Is often, not what they actually
produce, so much as what they enable others to do. My
Lord Bacon, as he takes his proud march down the centu
ries, may lay one hand on the telegraph and the other on
the steamboat, and say, " These are mine, for I taught
you to invent." And the Puritan, wherever he flnds a
free altar, free lips, ay, and a free famdy, may say,
" These are mine ! " No matter for the stain of bigotry
which rests upon his memory, since he taught us these.
I think, Mr. President, that the error in judging of the
Puritans has been that which the oration of to-day sets
right. We are to regard them in posse, not in esse, — in
the possibilities which were wrapped up in that day, 1620,
not in what poor human boelies actuaUy produced at that
time. Men look back upon the Carvers and Bradfords
of 1620, and seem to think, if they existed in 1855, they
would be clad in the same garments, and walking in the
same identical manner and round that they did In 1620.
It is a mistake. The Pilgrims of 1620 would be, in 1855,
not In Plymouth, but in Kansas. [Loud cheers.] Solo
mon's Temple, they tell us, had the best system of light
ning-rods ever invented, — he anticipated Franklin. Do
you suppose, if Solomon lived now, he would stop at light
ning-conductors ? No, he would have telegraphs without

ititj rii,eriiims.

wires, able to send messages both ways at the same time,
and where only he who sent and he who received should
know what the messages were.
Do you suppose that, if Elder Brewster could come up
from his grave to-day, he would be contented with the
Congregational Church and the flve points of Calvin ?
No, Sir ; he would add to his creed the Maine Liquor
Law, the Underground Railroad, and the thousand Sharpe's
Rifles, adelressed "Kansas," and labelled "Books." [En
thusiastic and long-continued applause.] My idea Is, If he
took his staff in his hand and went off to exchange pulpits,
you might hear of him at the Music Hall of Boston [where
Rev. Theodore Parker preaches] and the Plymouth
Church at Brooklyn [Rev. Henry Ward Beecher' s].
[Renewed applause.]
We should bear in mind development when we criticise
the Pilgrims, — where they would be to-day. Indeed, to
be as good as our fathers, we must be better. Imitation is
not discipleship. When some one sent a cracked plate to
China to have a set made, every piece in the new set had
a crack in it. The copies of 1620 and 1787 you com
monly see have the crack, and very large, too. Tliee and
thou, a stationary hat, bad grammar and worse manners,
with an ugly coat, are not George Fox in 1855. You will,
recognize him in any one who rises from the lap of artificial
life, flings away Its softness, and startles you with the sight
of a MAN. Neither do I acknowledge. Sir, the right of
Plymouth to the whole rock. No, the rock underlies all
America; It only crops out here. [Cheers.] It has cropped
out a great many times In our history. You may recognize
it always. Old Putnam stood upon It at Bunker Hill, when
he said to the Yankee boys, "Don't fire till you see the
whites of their eyes." Ingraham had It for baUast when
he put his little sloop between two Austrian frigates, and
threatened to blow them out of the water, if they did not

232 THE PILGRBMS.
respect the broad eagle of the United States, in the case
of Koszta. Jefferson had it for a writing-desk when he
drafted the Declaration of Independence and the " Statute
of Religious Liberty" for Virginia. Lovejoy rested his
musket upon It when they would not let him print at Al
ton, and he said, " Death or free speech ! " I recognized
the clink of it to-day, when the apostle of the " Higher
Law" came to lay his garland of everlasting — none a
better right than he — upon the monument of the Pil
grims. [Enthusiastic cheering.] He says he Is not a
descendant of the Pilgrims. That Is a mistake. There Is
a pedigree of the body and a pedigree of the mind. [Ap
plause.] He knows so much about the Mayflower, that,
as they say in the West, I know he was " thar." [Laugh
ter and applause.] Ay, Sir, the rock cropped out again.
Garrison had it for an Imposing-stone when he looked In
the faces of seventeen millions of angry men and printed
his sublime pledge, " I wdl not retreat a single inch, and
I will be heard." [Great cheering.]
Sir, you say you are going to raise a monument to the
Pdgrlms. I know where I would place it, if I had a
vote. I should place one corner-stone on thS rock, and
the other on that level spot where flfty of the one hun
dred were burled before the winter was over. In that
touching, eloquent, terrific picture of what the Pllgi-ims
passed through, rather than submit to compromise, which
the orator sketched for us to-day, he omitted to mention
that one half of their number went down into the grave ;
but the remainder closed up shoulder to shoulder, as firm,
unflinching, hopeful as ever. Yes, death rather than the
compromise of Ehzabeth. [Loud applause.] I would
write on their monument two mottoes : one, " The Right
is more than our country ! " and over the graves of the
fifty, " Death, rather than Compromise ! " Mr. Presi
dent, I detest that word. It is so dangerous, I would not

TUJi riLGKLMS. Z60
have it even in matters of expediency. As the Irishman
said in Jefferson's day, when the " true-blue " Democrats
took him from the emigrant ship, naturalized him at once,
then hurried to the ballot-box, urging him to vote the
true Democratic, government ticket, " The government ! I
never knew a government which was not the devil. Give
me the opposition ! " [Laughter.] The very word Is
misleading, — out with it ! I would never have a com
promise for anything.
My friend. Governor Boutwell, says the Puritans had
no taste In architecture. I remember the first vote passed
after they landed ; it was, that each man build his own
house. [Cheers.] I am for having each man build his
own mental house now, without having too much uni
formity In the architecture, and, at any rate, keeping clear
of compromises and smothering phrases, and all shams and
delusions. What did the Pilgrims do ? Why, Sir, It was a great
question at that day which course to take. Cromwell and
Hampden stood on one side. Carver and Bradford on the
other. Which would best reform the English government,
staying at home or going away ? History answers which
effected the most. Which has struck the heaviest blows
at the English aristocracy, the efforts of those who stood
nearest, or the sight and example of America, as she
loomed up In gigantic proportions ? Mr. President, they
say that Michael Angelo once entered a palace at Rome
^^ here Raphael was ornamenting the ceiling, and as An
gelo walked round, he saw that all the figures were too
small for the room. Stopping a moment, he sketched on
one side an immense head proportioned to the chamber;
and when his friends asked him why, his reply was,
" I criticise by creation, not by finding fault." Carver
and Bradford did so. They came across the water,
created a great model state, and bade England take

234 THE PILGRIMS.
warning. The Edinburgh Reviewer may be seen running
up and down the sides of the Pilgrims, and taking their
measure, — where does he get his yardstick ? He gets it
from the very institutions they made for him. [Applause.]
He would never have known how to criticise, if their
creations had not taught him.
Mr. President, I have already detained you much
longer than I would. Surely to-day the Puritans have
received their fit interpreter. We know them. Their
great principles we are to carry with us ; that one idea,
persistency, — that was their polar star, and it Is the key
to all their success. They never lost sight of it. They
sometimes talked for Buncombe ; they did It when they
professed allegiance to Elizabeth. Our fathers did it when
they professed allegiance to George III., — it was only for
Buncombe ! [Laughter.] But, concealed under the vel
vet phrase, there was the stern Puritan muscle, which held
on to individual right.
The Puritans believed that institutions were made for
man. Europe established a civilization, which, like that
of Greece, made the state everything, the man nothing.
The man was made for the institutions ; the man was
made for the clothes. The Puritans said, " No, let us go
out and make clothes for the man ; let us make institutions
for men ! " That Is the radical principle. It seems to me,
which runs through all their history. You could not
begude them with the voice of the charmer, " charm he
never so wisely"; but down through all the weary years
of colonial history to the period of the Revolution, the
Puritan pulse beat in unquaihng, never-faltering allegiance
to this principle of the sacredness of man. Let us l^old on
to it ; it is to be our salvation.
Mr. President, the toast to which you called upon me
to respond says our fathers have secured prosperity and
peace. Yes, " secured " It. It is not here ; we have not

THE PILGRIMS. 1150
yet got it, but we shall have It. It is all " secured," for
they planted so wisely, it will come. They planted their
oak or pine tree in the broad lines of New England, and
gave it room to grow. Their great care was, that it should
grow, no matter at what cost. Goethe says, that, if you
plant an oak in a flower-vase, either the oak must wither
or the vase crack : some men go for saving the vase. Too
many now-a-days have that anxiety : the Puritans would
have let it crack. So say 1. If there is anything that
cannot bear free thought, let it crack. There is a class
among us so conservative, that they are afraid the roof
Avill come down If you sweep off the cobwebs. As Doug
lass Jerrold says, " They can never fully relish the new
moon, out of respect for that venerable institution, the old
one." [Great merriment and applause.]
Why, Sir, the first constitution ever made was framed
in the Mayflower. It was a very good constitution,
parent of all that have been made since, — a goodly
family, some bad and some good. The parent was laid
aside on the shelf the moment the progress of things re
quired it. I hope none of the children have grown so
strong that they can prevent the same event befalling
themselves when necessity requires. Hold on to that Idea
with true New England persistency, — the sacredness of
individual man, — and everything else wdl evolve from It.
The Phillipses, Mr. President, chd not come from Ply
mouth ; they made their longest stay at Andover. Let me
tell you an Andover story. One day, a man went Into a
store there, and began teUing about a fire. " There had
never been such a fire," he said, " in the county of Essex.
A man going by Deacon Pettingill's barn saw an owl
on the ridge-pole. He fired at the owl, and the wadding
some how or other, getting into the shingles, set the hay
on fire, and it was all destroyed, — ten tons of hay, six
head of cattle, the finest horse in the country," &c. The

236 THE PILGRIMS.
Deacon was nearly crazed by it. The men in the store
began exclaiming and commenting upon it. " What a
loss ! " says one. " Why, the Deacon will weUnigh break
down under It," says another. And so they went on,
speculatmg one after another, and the conversation drifted
on in all sorts of conjectures. At last, a quiet man, who
sat spitting in the fire, looked up, and asked, " Did he
hit the owd ? " [Tumultuous applause.] That man was
made for the sturdy reformer, of one idea, whom Mr.
Seward described.
No matter what the name of the thing be ; no matter
what the sounding phrase is, what tub be thrown to the
whale, always ask the politician and the divine, " Did he
hit that owl ? " Is hberty safe ? Is man sacred ? They
say. Sir, I am a fanatic, and so I am. But, Sir, none of
us have yet risen high enough. Afar off, I see Carver
and Bradford, and I mean to get up to them. [Loud
cheers.]

LETTER
TO JUDGE SHAW AND PRESIDENT WALKER.*

To LEMUEL SHAW, Chief Justice of Massachusetts, and
JAMES WALKER, President of Harvard University.
GENTLEMEN: Now that the press has ceased its
ridicule of your homage to Morpliy at the Revere
House, — a criticism of little Importance, — I wish to pre
sent the scene to you In a different light.
You, Mr. Chief Justice, represent the law of the Com
monwealth ; to you, Mr. President, is committed the
moral guardianship of the young men of her University.
Yet I find you both at a table of revellers, under a roof
whose chief support and profit come fi-om the illegal sale
of intoxicating drink, and which boasts itself the champion
and head of an organized, flagrant, and avowed contempt
of the laws of the Commonwealth. No one was surprised
to see at your side a Mayor who owes his office to the
votes of that disorderly band whose chief is the Revere
House. Few wondered at the presence of a Professor
placed by private munificence to watch over the piety and
morals of your College, Mr. President; though a manly
protest against fashionable vice might do something to re-
* The hotels of Boston, with the connivance of the City Government,
refuse to obey the Maine Liquor Law of Massachusetts. The Eevei-e House,
the most fashionable of our hotels, was chosen to offer a public dinner to
Morphy, at which were present Judge Shaw, President Walker, the Mayor,
Professor Huntington, and other dignitaries.

238 LETTER TO JUDGE SHAW
deem the office from seeming only an eaves-dropping spy
on the opinions and manners of young men.
But you, Mr. Chief Justice, know that' three quarters,
if not four fifths, of all crime result from habits of intoxica
tion ; that nine tenths, at least, of all the murderers you
have sent to the gallows had never been murderers had
they not first been di-unkards. You can look round you,
and back for fifty years, and see places at the bar and on
the bench, once filled by genius and hope, now vacant, —
their tenants in drunkards' graves. You know how fear
ful the perd which modern civilization, and especially
popular institutions, encounter from the cheapness of liquor,
and the habits of indulgence In all our great cities ; you
know the long and earnest labors of noble men, for fifty
years, in both hemispheres, against this evil, and the mo
mentous experiment they are trying of legal prohibition to
arrest it, resulting here in a stringent law against the sale
of intoxicating drinks. You know also that the Revere
House Is the insolent leader of that heartless and selfish
faction which, defeated before the people, seeks, by un
blushing defiance of law, to overbear opinion and statute.
And you, Mr. President, the moral guardian of the
young men of our University, well know its venerable
statutes and unceasing efforts to prevent the use of wine
within its waUs. You know how many, often the bright
est, names on your catalogue, too early marked v\dth the
asterisk of death, owe their untimely end to wine. Both
of you know that the presence of men holding such offices
as yours goes as far as recreant office and reputation can
to make a bad roof respectable.
Yet I find you both at a midnight revel, doing your
utmost to give character to a haunt which boasts its open
and constant defiance of the moral sense of the State, sol
emnly expressed in its statutes. '
No one denies. Gentlemen, your right to indulge what

social habits you please in the privacy of your own dweU-
ings ; or. In travelling, to use the customary accommoda
tions of an inn, even though Intoxicating drink is sold on
its premises. Few will care to criticise, if, choosing some
decent roof, you join your fellows and mock the moral
sentiment of the community by a public carousal. But
whde you hold these high offices, we, the citizens of a
Commonwealth whose character you represent, emphati
cally deny your right to appear at illegal revels In a gdded
grog-shop, which, but for the sanction of such as you, had
long ago met the indictment It deserves. How can we
e.xpect the police to execute a law upon which the Chief
Justice pours contempt by his example ? How shall the
grand jury Indict the nuisance of which the Supreme
Bench has, for an hour, made a part ? We, the citizens,
have a right to claim that, should public opinion, by oirr
labors, reach the point of presenting these gorgeous grog
shops at the criminal bar, we shall not find their frequent
ers on the bench.
Again and again, Mr. Chief Justice, have I heard you,
at critical moments, in a voice whose earnest emotion half
checked Its utterance, remind your audience of the sacred
duty resting on each man to respect and obey the law ;
assuring us that the welfare of society was bound up In
this individual submission to existing law. How shall the
prisoner at the bar reconcile the grave sincerity of the
magistrate with this heedless disregard by the man of most
important laws ? If, again, the times should call you to
bid us smother justice and humanity at the command of
statutes, we may remind you v^dth what heartless indiffer
ence you treated the law you were sworn and paid to
uphold, and one on which the hearts of the best men in
the State were most strongly set. Was It not enough that
you let History paint you bowing beneath a slave-hunter's
chain to enter your own court-room ? but must you also

240 LETTER TO JUDGE SHAW
present yourself in public, Iffting to your lips the wine-
cup, which, by the laws of the State over whose courts
von preside. It Is an Indictable offence and a nuisance to
sell you ?
And let me remind you, Mr. President, that even your
young men sometimes pause amid scenes of temptation, or
in our streets, where every tenth door opens to vice, —
pause at some chance thought of home or rising regard for
the sentiment of the community. And, Sir, should such
frail purpose of even one youth falter before the sight of
his President In a circle of wine-bibbers, and that fall lead
to an unhonored grave, you will be bound to remember
that, in the check and example you promised and were
expected and set to hold upon him, you wholly failed;
that in the most impressible moments of his hfe he saw the
virtue of the State struggling with its sensual indulgence,
its lust of dishonorable gain. Its base pandering to appetite,
already too strong ; and in that struggle he saw your
weight ostentatiously thrown into the scale of open and
contemptuous disregard of the moral sense of the State.
I remember well when, from a pulpit constantly boasting
that Its new creed had thrown away a formal and lioUow
faith and brought in the wholesome doctrine of works,
you painted, so vividly, how hard it Is for young men to
say "No." Is this. Sir, the method you choose to illus
trate the practical value of the new faith, and this the help
you extend to the faltering virtue of your pupils, giving
the sanction of your character and office to the prince of
rumsellers and law-breakers, and flinging Insult on one
of the noblest reforms of the age ?
I admit the right and duty of minorities to disregard Im
moral or unconstitutional laws. But no one ever thought
the prohibitory law immoral, and you, Mr. Chief Justice,
have affirmed its constitutionality. Neither do I now ar
raign you. Gentlemen, for your private habit of wine-drink-

AND PRESIDENT WALKER. 241
ing. I do not complain that a judge, who sees so much
crime come from it, still gives it his countenance ; that a
clergyman — the chief apostle of whose faith declared he
would eat no meat while the world stood, if so doing made
his brother to offend — still throws that stumbling-block
in the way of his pupils. But I arraign the Chief Justice
of Massachusetts, and the President of Harvard Univer
sity, because, when the rum interest of the State is mar
shalling its strength to beat down a good and constitutional
law by gross, open, and avowed disobedience, they are
found lending their names, character, and office to give re
spectability to the grog-shop whose wealth enables it to
lead that dishonorable and disloyal effort. As a citizen, I
claim that you disgraced your places, if not yourselves ;
and I hope the day will come when such insult by such
high officers to any statute of the Commonwealth, much
more to one representing its highest moral purpose, will
be deemed cause enough to remove the one and Impeach
the other. WENDELL PHILLIPS.
August 1, 1859.

16

IDOLS.*

MR. PRESIDENT AND LADIES AND GENTLE
MEN : I feel half mcllned to borrow a little wit
from an article in a late number of the Atlantic Monthly,
— "My Double, and how he undid me," — and say, "I
agree entirely with the gentleman who has just taken his
seat." [Laughter.] " So much has been said, and so
well said, that I feel there is no need of my occupying
your attention." [Renewed laughter.] But then I should
lose the hearty satisfaction it gives me to say with what
delight I stand upon this platform, and how sincerely I
appreciate the honor you do me, Mr. Chan-man, by allow
ing me to aid In opening this course of lectures. I know,
Sir, that you hoped, as I did, that this post would be filled
by our great Senator, who seeks health on a foreign soil.
No one laments more sincerely than I do that he felt it
impossible and inconsistent with his other duties to be
here. It is not too much to say that the occasion was
worthy of a word even from Charles Sumner. [Hearty
applause.] Appreciating the lyceum system as I do, looking upon
it as one of the departments of the national school, truly
American in Its origin, and eminently republican in its
character and end, I feel how eloquently his voice would
have done it justice. For this is no common evening, Mr.
President. The great boast of New England Is liberal
* Eraternity Lecture delivered in Boston, October 4, 1859.

mOLS. i:43
culture and toleration. Easier to preach than to practise !
Many lyceums have opened their doors to men of different
shades of opinion, and some few have even granted a fair
amount of hberty In the choice of subject, and the expres
sion of individual opinion. None of us can forget, on such
an occasion as this, the eminently catholic spirit and brIUiant
success of that course of Antislavery Lectures in the winter
of 1854 and 1855, which we owed chiefly to the energy
and to the brave and liberal spirit of Dr. James W. Stone.
But you go. Gentlemen, an arrow's flight beyond all ly
ceums ; for, recognizing the essential character of clvdlza-
tlon, you place upon your platform the representatives of
each sex and of both races. Yes, Ladles and Gentlemen,
you will listen to consummate eloquence, never heard in
Boston before from the lyceum platform, because "guilty
of a skin not colored hke our own." [Applause.] And
you will listen, besides, to woman, gracefully stanehng on
a platform which boasts itself the source of national educa
tion. For decent justice has not been done to woman, m
regard to her Influence, either upon literature or society ;
and I welcome with Inexpressible delight the Inauguration
of a course of lectures national and American in the
j)roper sense of the words.
There are men who prate about " nationality," and " the
empire," and "manffest destiny," — using brave words,
when their minds rise no higher than some petty mass of
white States making money out of cotton and corn. My
idea of American nationality makes it the last best growth
of the thoughtful mind of the century, treading under foot
sex and race, caste and condition, and collecting on the
broad bosom of what deserves the name of an empire,
under the shelter of noble, just, and equal laws, all races,
all customs, all religions, all languages, all literature, and
all ideas. I remember, a year or two ago, they told us of
a mob at Milwaukle that forced a man to bring out the

244 IDOLS.
body of his wife, born in Asia, — which, according to the
custom of her forefathers, he was about to burn, — and
compelled him to submit to American funeral rites, which
his soul abhorred. The sheriff led the mob, and the press
of the State vindicated the act. This is not my idea of
American civilization. They wiU show you at Rome the
stately column of the Emperor Trajan. Carved on Its
outer surface is the triumphal march of the Emperor,
when he came back to Rome, leading all nations, all
tongues, aU customs, all races. In the retinue of his con
quest ; and they traced It on the eternal marble, circling
the plUar from base to capital. Just such is my Idea
of the empire, broad enough and brave enough to admit
both sexes, all creeds, and all tongues in the triumphal
procession of this great daughter of the west of the At
lantic. [Loud applause.] That is the reason why I had
this step in Boston, — the brain of the Union, — saying
to the negro and to woman, " Take your place among the
teachers of American Democracy." [Applause.]
I said justice had never been done to woman for her
mfluence upon literature and society. Society Is the nat
ural outgrowth of the New Testament, and yet nothing
deserving of the name ever existed in Europe untd, two
centuries ago, in France, woman called It Into being. So
ciety, — the only field where the sexes have ever met on
terms of equahty, the arena where character is formed
and studied, the cradle and the realm of public opinion,
the crucible of ideas, the world's university, at once a
school and a theatre, the spur and the crown of am
bition, the tribunal which unmasks pretension and stamps
real merit, the power that gives government leave to
be, and outruns the lazy Church in fixing the moral
sense of the age, — who shaU fitly describe the lofty
place of this element in the history of the last two centu
ries ? Who shaU deny that, more than anything else, it

IDOLS. 245
deserves the name of the most controlling element in the
history of the two centuries just finished ? And yet this
Is the realm of woman, the throne which, like a first con
queror, she founded and then filled.
So with literature. The literature of three centuries
ago is not decent to be read: we expurgate it. Within
a hundred years, woman has become a reader, and for that
reason, as much or more than anything else, literature has
sprung to a higher level. No need now to expurgate all
you read. Woman, too. Is now an author ; and I under
take to say that the literature of the next century will be
richer than the classic epochs, for that cause. Truth is
one forever, absolute ; but opinion Is truth filtered through
the moods, the blood, the disposition, of the spectator.
Man has looked at creation, and given us his impressions.
In Greek literature and English, one-sided, half-way, all
awry. Woman now takes the stand to give us her views
of God's works and her own creation ; and exactly in pro
portion as woman, though equal. Is eternally different from
man, just in that proportion will the literature of the next
century be doubly rich, because we shall have both sides.
You might as well plant yourself In the desert, under the
changeless gray and blue, and assert that you have seen
all the wonders of God's pencil, as maintain that a male
literature, Latin, Greek, or Asiatic, can be anything but a
half part, poor and one-sided ; as well develop only mus
cle, shutting out sunshine and color, and starving the flesh
from your angular limbs, and then advise men to scorn
Titian's flesh and the Apollo, since you have exhausted
manly beauty, as think to stir all the depths of music with
only half the chords. [Applause.] The diapason of hu
man thought was never struck till Christian culture sum-
moned woman Into the repubhc of letters ; and experience
as well as nature tells us, " what God hath joined, let not
man put asunder." [Applause.]

246 IDOLS.
I welcome woman, therefore, to the platform of the
world's teachers, and I look upon the world. In a very
important sense, as one great school. As Humboldt said,
ten years ago, " Governments, religion, property, books,
are nothing but the scaffolding to buUd a man. Earth
holds up to her Master no fruit but the finished man."
Education Is the only interest worthy the deep, control
ling anxiety of the thoughtful man. To change Bryant a
little : " The hills,
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,
The venerable woods, rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green, and, poured round all
Old Ocean's gray and melancholy waste.
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great school of man."
It is In this light and for this value that I appreciate the
lyceum. We have four sources of education in this coun
try, — talk, literature, government, religion. The lyceum
makes one and the most important element of each. It is
a church, without a creed, and with a constant rotation of
clergymen. [Applause.] It teaches closer ethics than
the pulpit. Let lyceum committees debate whether they
shall invite Theodore Parker, or theological papers scold
because Beecher stands on your platform, and out of such
debate the people will pick a lesson of toleration better,
more real, and more impressive than Locke's Treatise or
a dozen sermons could give them. Responsibility teaches
as nothing else can. That is God's great motor power.
When your horse cannot move his load, throw a sack of
grain on his back and he draws easily on. He draws by
weight, not by muscle. Give the masses nothing to do,
and they wdl topple down thrones and cut throats ; give
them the government, as here, and they wUl make pulpits
useless and colleges an impertinence. It is the best part

IDOLS. 247
of literature, too, for it is the only part that Is vital. I
value letters. I thank God that I was taught for many
years ; enough to see inside the sham.
The upper tier of letters is mere amateur ; does not
understand its own business. William H. Prescott would
have washed his hand twice, had Walker the filibuster
grasped it unwittingly ; but he sits down in his study and
writes the history of filibusters, respectable only because
they died three hundred years ago ! He did not know
that he was the mere annalist of the Walkers and Jeffer
son Davlses of that age. [Applause.]
[In this connection, Mr. Phillips referred to Bunyan and
to Shakespeare, by way of illustrating his point that the
literature which is of use is the literature that is not hon
ored as such when it Is written.]
So It Is with goveniment. Government arrogates to It-
self that it alone forms men. As well might the man down
here in the court-house, who registers the birth of children,
imagine that he was the father of aU the children he regis
ters. [Loud laughter.] Everybody knows that govern
ment never began anything. It is the whole world that
thinks and governs. Books, churches, governments, are
what we make them. France is Catholic, and has a pope ;
but she is the most tolerant country in the world In mat
ters of religion. New England is Protestant, and has
toleration written all over her statute-book ; but she has a
pope In every village, and the first thing that tests a boy's
courage Is to dare to differ from his father. [Applause.]
Popes ! why, we have got two as signal popes as they had
in Europe three centuries ago, — there is Bellows at
Avignon and Adams at Rome. [Great merriment, fol
lowed by loud applause.] So with government. Some
think government forms men. Let us take an example.
Take Sir Robert Peel and Webster as measures and
examples ; two great men, remarkably alike. Neither of

248 IDOLS.
them ever had an original idea. [Laughter.] Neither
kept long any Idea he borrowed. Both borrowed from
any quarter, high or low, north or south, friend or enemy.
Both were weathercocks, not winds ; creatures, not crea
tors. Yet Peel died England's idol, — the unquestioned
head of the statesmen of the age ; Webster the disgraced
and bankrupt chief of a broken and ruined party. Why ?
Examine the difference. Webster borrowed free trade of
Calhoun, and tariff of Clay ; took his constitutional prin
ciples from Marshall, his constitutional learning from
Story, and his doctrine of treason from Mr. George Tick-
nor Curtis [laughter] ; and he followed Channing and
Garrison a little way, then turned doughface In the wake
of Douglas and Davis [applause and a few hisses] ; at
first, with Algernon Sidney (my blood boils yet as I think
how I used to declaim It), he declared the best legacy he
could leave his children was free speech and the example
of using it ; then of Preston S. Brooks and Legree he
took lessons In smothering ellscusslon and huntuig slaves.
In 1820, when the world was asleep, he rebuked the slave-
trade ; in 1850, when the battle was hottest, he let
Everett omit from his works all the best antislavery ut
terances !
Sir Robert Peel was just like him. He " changed
every opinion, violated" (so says one of the Reviews)
" every pledge, broke up every party, and deserted every
colleague lie ever had," yet his sun went down in glory.
Why ? Because his step was ever onward ; he lived to
learn. Every change was a sacrifice, and he could truly
use, in 1829, the glorious Latin Webster borrowed of him,
" Vera pro gratis," — "I tell you unwelcome truth." But
Webster's steps, crab-like, were backwards. [Applause
and hisses.] Hisses ! weU, " Because thou art virtuous,
shaU there be no more cakes and ale ? " Because you
have your prejudices, shaU there be no history written ?

IDOLS. z-iy
Oiir task Is unlike that of some recent meetmgs, — History,
not flattery. [Applause.] Webster moved by compul
sion or calculation, not by conviction. He sunk from free
trade to a tariff; from Chief Justice Marshall to jMr.
George TIcknor Curtis ; from Garrison to Douglas; from
Algernon Sidney to the slave overseets. I read in this
one of the dangers of our form of government. As De
Tocqueville says so wisely, " The weakness of a Democ-
ra(-y is that, unless g-uarded, it merges In despotism."
Such a life Is the first step, and half a dozen are the
Niagara carrying us over.
But both "budded better than they knew." Both
fin-ced the outward world to think for itself, and become
statesmen. No man, says D'Israeli, ever weakened gov
ernment so much as Peel. Thank Heaven for that ! — so
much gained. Changing every elay, their admirers were
forced to learn to think for themselves. In the country
once I lived with a Democrat who never had an opinion
on the day's news till he had read the Boston Post.
[Laughter.] Such close imitation is a little too hard.
Webster's retainers fell off Into the easier track of doing
their own thinking. A German, once sketching a Mid
dlesex County landscape, took a cow for his fixed point of
perspective ; she moved, and his whole picture was a mud-
elle. Following Peel and Webster was a muddle ; hence
came the era of outside agitation, — and those too lazy to
think for themselves at least took a fixed point for their
political perspective, — Garrison or Charles Sumner, for
instance. [^Ir. Phillips continued by remarldng that all the peo
ple had ever asked of government was, not to take a step
ahead, not to originate anything, but only to undo its mis
takes, to take its foot from off Its victim, take away its
custom-houses, abedlsh its absurd and wicked legislation
and free the slave. Pie then proceeded to urge upon his

250 rooLS.
hearers the importance of free individual thought, — the
questioning of whatever came before us, with an honest
desire and effort to reach truth.] He said : —
We shall have enough to do if we do our duty. The
world is awake, — some wholly, and some only half
Men who gather their garments scornfully and close about
them when their feUows offer to express sympathy for the
bravest scholar and most Christian minister the liberal
New England sects know, — these timid little souls make
daily uproar in the market-place, crying for a Broad
Church, a Broad Church, — and one who lives by ven
turing a bold theory to-day, and spending to-morrow in
taking it back, finding that he has been
" Dropping buckets into empty wells,
And growing old in drawing nothing out,"
assures you that it is not cowardice, but lack of candles
and of a liturgy, that makes him useless ; and, kind-souled
man, he apologizes, and begs us not to be startled with his
strange new views, having lived so long in the thin air of
his own vanity that he does not know we have had a broad
Church for fifteen years, — broad enough for all races and
colors, all sects, creeds, and parties, for heads and hearts
too ; broad enough to help the poor, teach the ignorant,
shield the weak, raise the fallen, and lift the high higher,
to honor God and earn the hate of bad men, — ministered
to by one whose broad diocese is bounded on the north by
the limits of habitable land, runs west with civilization,
and east with the Enghsh language, and on the south
stretches to the line where men stop thinking and live
only to breathe and to steal. [Loud applause.]
This Broad-Church reformer knows his place so httle,
that he sneers at spiritualism and socialism, as "vices
entitled to no terms." One, an honest effort, however
mistaken, to make all men wholly and really brothers in
life, property, and thought ; and the other, that reaching

IDOLS. . 251
into the land of spirit which has stirred the heart and
roused the brain of the best men of all ages, and given to
literature Its soul. Does he give no heed to that profound
maxim of Coleridge, — " There are errors which no wise
man will treat with rudeness while there is a probability
that they may be the refraction of some great truth stiU
below the horizon " ?
Yes, this " Broad Church " ! — humanity would weep
if It ever came, for one of its doctrines Is, that the statute-
book is more binding than the Sermon on the Mount, and
that the rights of private judgment are a curse. Save us
from a Church not broad enough to cover woman and the
slave, all the room being kept for the grog-shop anel the
theatre, — provided the one will keep sober enough to
make the responses, and the other will lend its embroid
ered rags for this new baby-house. [Laughter and ap
plause.] The honors we grant mark how high we stand, and
they educate the future. The men we honor, and the
maxims we lay down in measuring our favorites, show the
level and morals of the time. Two names have been In
every one's mouth of late, and men have exhausted lan
guage in trying to express their admiration anel their
respect. The courts have covered the grave of Mr.
Choate vidth eulogy. Let us see what is their Idea of a
gi-eat lawyer. We are told that " he worked hard,"
" he never neglected his client," " he flung over the
discussions of the forum the grace of a rare scholarship,"
" no pressure or emergency ever stirred him to an
unkind word." A ripe scholar, a profound lawyer, a
faithful servant of his client, a gentleman. This is a good
record surely. May he sleep In peace ! What he earned,
God grant he may have ! But the bar that seeks to claim
for such a one a place among great jurists must itself be
weak Indeed ; for this is only to make him out the one-eyed

252 IDOLS.
monarch of the blind. Not one high moral trait specified ;
not one patriotic act mentioned ; not one patriotic ^service
even claimed. Look at Mr. Webster's idea of what a
lawyer should be in order to be called great. In the sketch
he drew of Jeremiah Mason, and notice what stress he
lays on the religious and moral elevation, and the glorious
and high purposes which crowned his life ! Nothing of
this now ! I forget. Mr. Hallett did testify for Mr.
Choate's religion [laughter and applause] ; but the law
maxim is, that a witness should be trusted only in matters
he understands, and that evidence, therefore, amounts to
nothing. [Merriment.] Incessant eulogy ; but not a
word of one effort to lift the yoke of cruel or unequal
legislation ft-om the neck of its victim ; not one attempt to
make the code of his country wiser, purer, better ; not one
effort to bless his times or breathe a higher moral purpose
into the community ; not one blow struck for right or
for hberty, while the battle of the giants was going on
about him ; not one patriotic act to stir the hearts of his
idolaters ; not one public act of any kind whatever about
whose merit friend or foe could even quarrel, unless when
he scouted our great charter as a " glittering generality,"
or jeered at the philanthropy which tried to practise the
Sermon on the Mount ! When Cordus, the Roman Sen
ator, whom Tiberius murdered, was addressing his feUows,
he began : " Fathers, they accuse me of dlegal words ;
plain proof that there are no dlegal deeds with which to
charge me." So with these eulogies, — words, nothing
but words ; plain proof that there were no deeds to
praise. The divine can tell us nothing but that he handed a
chair or a dish as nobody else could [laughter] ; In poli
tics, we are assured he did not wish to sail outside of
Daniel Webster ; and the Cambridge Professor teUs his
pupils, for their special Instruction, that he did not dare to

think in rehglon, for fear he should differ from South-side
Adams ! [Loud laughter and applause.] The Professor
strains his ethics to prove that a good man may defend a
bad man. Useless waste of labor ! In Egypt, travellers
tell us that the women, wholly naked, are very careful to
veil their faces. So the Professor strains his ethics to
cover this one fault. Useless, Sir, while the whole heael
is sick and the whole heart faint.
Yet this Is the model which Massachusetts offers to the
Pantheon of the great jurists of the world !
Suppose we stood in that lofty temple of jurisprudence,
— on either side of us the statues of the great lawyers of
every age and clime, — and let us see what part New
England — Puritan, educated, free New Englanel — would
bear in the pageant. Rome points to a colossal figure anel
says, " That Is Papinlan, who, when the Emperor Cara-
calla murdered his own brother, and ordered the lawyer
to defend the eleed, went cheerfully to death, rather than
sully his lips with the atrocious plea ; and that Is Ulpian,
who, aiding his prince to put the army below the law, was
massacred at the foot of a weak, but virtuous throne."
And France stretches forth her grateful hands, crying,
" That is D'Aguesseau, worthy, when he went to f ice an
enraged king, of the farewell his wife addressed him, —
' Go ! forget that you have a wife and chddren to ruin,
and remember only that you have France to save.' "
England says, " That Is Coke, who fiung the laurels of
eighty years In the face of the first Stuart, In defence of
the people. This is Selden, on every book of whose library
you saw written the motto of which he lived worthy,
' Before everytiiing, lAberty ! ' That is Mansfield, sdver-
tongued, who proclaimed,
' Sla\-cs cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs
Ecc-ciN-c our air, that moment they are free.'
This is Romilly, who spent life trying to make law synony-

254 IDOLS.
mous with justice, and succeeded in making life and prop
erty safer in every city of the empire. And that Is Erskine,
whose eloquence, spite of Lord Eldon and George III.,
made it safe to speak and to print."
Then New England shouts, " This Is Choate, who made
it safe to murder ; and of whose health thieves asked before
they began to steal."
Boston had a lawyer once, worthy to stand In that Pan
theon ; one whose untiring energy held up the right arm
of Horace Mann, and made this age and all coming ones
his debtors ; one whose clarion voice and life of consistent
example waked the faltering pulpit to its duty in the cause
of temperance, laying on that altar the hopes of his young
ambition ; one whose humane and incessant efforts to make-
the penal code worthy of our faith and our age ranked his
name with Mcintosh and RomlUy, with Bentham, Beccaria,
and Livingston. Best of all, one who had some claim to
say, with Selden, "Above all things, lAberty," for in the
slav-e's battle his voice was of the bravest, — Robert Ran
toul. [Prolonged and hearty plaudits.] He died crowned
with the laurels both of the Forum and Senate-house. The
Suffolk Bar took no note of his death. No tongue stirred
the air of the courts to do him honor. " When vice Is
useful, it is a crime to be virtuous," says the Roman prov
erb. Of that crime. Beacon Street, State Street, and
Andover had judged Rantoul guilty.
The State, for the second time in her history, offers a
pedestal for the statue of a citizen. Such a step deserves
thought. On this let us dare to think. Always think
twice when saints and sinners, honest men and editors,
agree In a eulogy. [Laughter.] AU wonders deserve
investigation, specially when men dread It.
No man criticises when private friendship moulds the
loved form In " Stone that breathes and struggles,
Or brass that seems to speak."

Let Mr. Webster's friends crowd their own halls and
grounds with his bust and statue. That is no concern of
ours. But when they ask the State to join in doing him
honor, we are natives of Massachusetts, and claim the
right to express an opinion.
It Is a grave thing when a State puts a man among her
jewels, — -especially one whose ft-iends frown on discus
sion, — the glitter of whose fame makes doubtful acts look
heroic. One paper, a tea-table critic, warns a speaker not
born In the State to cease his criticism of the Webster
statue. I do not know why Massachusetts may not im
port critics as well as heroes ; for, let us be thankful,
Webster was no Boston boy. But be sure you exercise
your right to think now.
His eulogy has tasked the ripest genius and the heartiest
zeal. Some men say his eulogist has no heart. That Is a
mistake and cruel injustice ! As the French wit said of
Fonteiielle, he " has as good a heart as can be made out of
brains." [Laughter.] No matter what act Webster did,
no matter how foul the path he trod, he never lacked some
one to gllel It with a Greek anecdote, or hide it in a blaze
of declamation ! I do not say the deed was always whit
ened, but surely it was something that the eulogist shared
the stain. They say in England that when Charles X., an
exile in England, hunted there, others floundered through
mud and water as they could, but the exiled king was fol
lowed by a valet who flung himself down in his path and
Charles walked over him as Indifferently as if he had really
been a plank. How clean the king kept, I do not know.
The valet got very muddy. A striking picture of Web
ster and his eulogists !
His bronze figure stands on the State-House Green.
Standing there, it reminds me of some lines, written In an
album by Webster, when asked to place his name under
that of John Adams : —

256 . IDOLS.
" If by his name I write my own,
'T will take me where I am not known ;
The cold salute will meet my ear, —
' Pray, stranger, how did you come here 1 ' "
In the printed speech of Mr. Everett, you will find three
feet, — exactly one yard, — by newspaper measurement,
about the Northeastern Boundary map ivith a red line on it!
but not a line, or hardly one, relating to the great treason
of the 7th of March, 1850. The words he dared to speak,
his friends dare not repeat ; the life he dared to hve, his
friends dare not describe, at the foot of his statue ! To
mention now what he thought his great achievement wdl
be deemed unkind !
Mr. Everett's silence was wise. He could not blame ;
nature denied him the courage. He was too wary to
praise, for he recollected the French proverb, " Some
compliments are curses." So he obeyed the English
statesman's rule, " When you have nothing to say, be
sure and say nothing."
But that is the printed speech. It seems some meddle
some fellow stood within reach of the speaker, and actu
ally circulated. It is said, petitions for the removal of the
statue from the public grounds. Then the orator forgot
his caution, and Interpolated a few unpremeditated sen
tences, " very forcible and eloquent," says the press, spe
cially intended for this critic ; terming this impudent med
dler " Mr. Immaculate," and quoting for his special benefit
the parable of the Pharisee and Publican, — " God be
merciful to me a sinner! " Singular eulogy, to make out
his idol a miserable " sinner" ! [Laughter.] Is this the
usual method, Mr. Chairman, of proving one's right to a
statue ? The Publican repented, and was forgiven ; but
is a statue, ten feet high, cast in bronze, a usual element
of forgiveness ? And, mark, the Publican repented. When
did Mr. Webster repent, either in person or by the proxy

IIJULS. Z.J /
of ^Ir. Edward Everett ? We have no such record. The
sin is confessed, acknowledged, as a mistake at least ; but
there 's no repentance !
Let us look a little Into this doctrine of statues for sin
ners. Take Aaron Burr. Tell of his daring In Canada,
his watch on the Hudson, of submissive juries, of his
touching farewell to the Senate. " But then there was
that indiscretion as to Hamilton." WeU, Mr. Immacu
late, remember " the Publican." Or suppose we take
Benedict Arnold,- — -brave in Connecticut, gallant at Que
bec, recklessly daring before Burgoyne ! " But that httle
peccadillo at West Point!" Think of "the Publican,"
Islv. Immaculate. Why, on this principle, one might claim
a statue for Milton's Satan. He was brave, faithful to his
party, eloquent, shrewd about many a map " with a red
line on It" ! There 's only that trifle of the apple to for
give and forget In these generous and charitable days !
No, if he wants an Illustration, with due humility, I can
give the orator a great deal better one. Sidney Smith
had a brother as witty as himself, anel a great hater of
O'Connell. " Bobus Smith " (for so they called him)
had one elay marshalled O'Connell's faults at a dinner-
talk, when his opponent flung back a glowing record of
the great Irishman's virtues. Smith looked down a mo-
ment. "Well, such a man, — such a mixture; the only
way woulel be to hang him first, and then erect a statue to
him uneler the gallows." A disputed statue rising out of
a sea of angry contempt, half-hearted aelmiration, and apol
ogetic eulogy, reminds me of the Frenchman tottering up,
at elghtv years old, to vote for Louis Bonaparte. " Why,
he Is a scoundrel," said Victor Plugo. " True, — very
true, — but he is a necessary scoundrel."
Ah, as the Greek said, " many men know how to flat
ter, few men know how to praise." These Cambridge
Professors and fair-weather eulogists have no ability to
17

258 IDOLS.
measure Webster, — either his capacity or his faults.
They were dazzled blind by the splendor of his endow
ments, they were lost in the tumult of his vices. Theo
dore Parker's estimate is the truest ever made. History
wdl adopt it as her verdict. His head and heart were the
only ones large enough to grasp the subject, and brave
enough to paint it truly. [Enthusiastic applause.] The
real admirer of Webster turns from these French daubs to
find there the cool, truthful tone of Raphael, and feels
that the statesman has met there his kindest critic, and the
man his most appreciating judge. Accuse us not If we
award him blame as well as praise. As I said just now,
our task is history, not flattery. I know well that every
statesman must compromise ; but, as Macaulay says, " A
public man Is often under the necessity of consenting to
measures he dislikes, to save others he thinks important.
But the historian Is under no such necessity. On the
contrary, it is one of his most sacred duties to point out
CLEARLY the errors of those whose general conduct he
approves." If this be true of " errors," how stdl more
sacred this duty when the question is one of treachery to
Liberty herself !
Blame me not that I again open the record, Mr. Chair
man. His Injudicious friends will not let him die. In
deed, the heavy yoke he laid on innocent and friendless
victims frets and curses them yet too keenly to allow him
to be forgotten. He reaps only what he sowed. In the
Talmud, the Jews have a story that Og, King of Bashan,
lifted once a great rock, to hurl it on the armies of Judah.
God hollowed It in the middle, letting it slip over the
giant's neck, there to rest whUe he lived. This man hfted
the Fugitive-Slave Bill to hurl it, as at Syracuse, on the
trembling and hunted slave, and God has hung it like
a millstone about his neck forevermore. [Applause.]
While the echoes of Everett's periods still lingered in our

IDOLS. zoy
streets, as I stood with the fresh-printed sheet of his eulogy
in my hand, there came to me a man, successful after
eight attempts, in flying from bondage. Week after week
he had been in the woods, half starved, seeking in vain a
shelter. For months he had pined in dungeons, waiting
the sullen step of his master. At last God blessed his
eighth effort, and he stood in Boston, on his glad way Irom
the vulture of the States to the safe refuge of English law.
He showed me his broad bosom scarred all over with the
branding-iron, his back one mass of record how often the
lash had tortured him for his noble efforts to get free. As
I looked at him, the empty and lying eulogy dropped from
my nerveless hand, and I thanked God that statue and
eulogy both were only a horrid nightmare, and that there
were still roofs in Boston, safe shelter for these heroic
children of God's right hand. [Prolonged cheering.]
But you and I, Mr. Chairman, were born in Massachu
setts, and we cannot but remember that the character of
the State is shown by the character of those it crowns.
A brave old Englishman tells us the Greeks " had officers
who did pluck down statues if they exceeded due symme
try and proportion. We need such now," he adds, " to
order monuments according to men's merits." Indeeel we
do ! Daniel Webster said, on Bunker Hill, in one of his
most glorious bursts of eloquence : " That motionless shaft
will be the most powerful of speakers. Its speech will be
of civd and religious liberty. It wdl speak of patriotism
and of courage. It will speak of the moral improvement
and elevation of mankind. Decrepit age wiU lean against
its base, and ingenuous youth gather round it, speak to
each other of the glorious events with which it is con
nected, and exclaim, ' Thank God I also am an Ameri
can ! ' " It is a glorious lesson, and the noble old shaft
tells it daily.
But when ingenuous youth stand at his pedestal, what
shall they say ? " Consummate jurist ! Alas that your

260 IDOLS.
latest effort was to sneer at a ' higher law ' ! Most able
and eloquent advocate ! could you find no other cause to
plead than that of our lowest instincts against our highest
and holiest sentiments ? Alas that your last and ablest
argument was the duty of hunting slaves ! Sagacious
statesmen ! Fated to die not very old, and yet hve long
enough to see all the plans of your manhood become
obsolete ideas, except just those you had abandoned !
Surely you were a great party leader ! for you found the
Whig party strong, spent life in Its service, and died
prophesying its annihilation ; found it decent, at least in
profession, left it despicable in utter shamelessness ; found
It the natural ally of free labor and free speech, stirred It
to a contest with its rival in servile bidding for South
ern fellowship, and left it despicable for the attempt, and
still niore despicable and ridiculous for its failure ! The
curses of the poor have blighted your laurels. You were
mourned in celled houses and the marts of trade ; but the
dwellers In slave-huts and fugitives along the highways
thanked God, when you died, that they had one enemy
the less. Wherever that terrible face turned, it carried
gloom to the bondman. On how many a humble hearth
did it cost the loftiest Christian principle to forbear calhng
down curses on your head !
" And yet your flatterers tell us this was the ' grandest
growth of our soil and institutions ! ' this the noblest
heart Massachusetts can offer to the world for a place
beside the Phoclons and the Hampdens, the Jays and the
Fayettes ! Thank God, then, we are not Massachusetts
men ! "
When I think of the long term and wide reach of his
influence, and look at the subjects of his speeches, — the
mere shells of history, drum-and-trumpet declamation,
dry law, or selfish bickerings about trade, — when I
think of his bartering the hopes of four mUlion of bondmen
for the chances of his private ambition, I recall the criti-

IDOLS. iltjl
cism on Lord Eldon, — " No man ever did his race so
much good as Eldon prevented." Again, when I remem
ber the close of his life spent in ridiculing the antislavery
movement as useless abstraction, moonshine, " mere rub-
a-dub agitation," because It did not minister to trade and
gain, methinks I seem to see written all over his statue
De Tocqueville's conclusion from his survey of French
and American Democracy, — " The man luho seeks freedom
for anything but freedom's self, is made to be a slave ! "
]\Ionuments, anniversaries, statues, are schools, Mr.
Webster tells us, whose lessons sink deep. Is this man's
life a lesson which the State can commend to her sons ?
Professor Felton, as usual, embalmed his Idol In a Greek
anecdote. It is a good storehouse. Let us open it. In
that great argument which gave us the two most consum
mate orations of antiquity, the question was whether
Athens should grant Demosthenes a crown. He had fled
from battle, and his counsels, though heroic, brought the
city to ruin. His speech is the masterpiece of all elo
quence. Of the accusation by JEschlnes, it Is praise
enough to say that It stands second only to that. In It
^schlnes warns the Athenians that in granting crowns
they judgeel themselves, anel were forming the characters
of their chilelren. His noble burst —
To Se ^eytarov, iav iir€pojTa>a-tv vjjus oi veSrepoi Trpbs ttoIov ^pi] Trana-
8eiyp.a, &C. —
Is worth translating : —
" Most of all, fellow-citizens, if your sons ask whose example
they shall imitate, what will you say ? For you know weU it is
not music, nor the gymnasium, nor the schools that mould young
men ; it is much more the public proclamations, the public exam
ple. If you take one whose life has no high purpose, one who
mocks at morals, and crown him in the theatre, every boy who
sees it is corrupted. When a bad man suffers his desei-ts, the
people learn, — on the contrary, when a man votes against ichat
is noble and just, [how exactly he describes this case !] and then

262 IDOLS.
comes home to teach his son, the boy will very properly say,
' Your lesson is impertinent and a bore.' Beware, therefore,
Athenians, remembermg posterity wiU rejudge your judgment,
and that the character of a city is determined by the character of
the men it crowns."
I recommend this page of JEschines to Mr. Felton.
Has the State, then, no worthier sons, that she needs
import such poor material? Within her bosom rests the
dust of Horace Mann, whose name hundreds of thousands
of children on Western prairies, looking up to Massachu
setts teachers, learn to bless. He bears the sceptre of
Massachusetts influence to the shores of the Pacific.
When at the head of our Normal School, a colored girl
was admitted, and the narrow prejudice of Newton closed
every door against her, " Come to my table ; let my
roof, then, be your home," said Mr. Mann. [Hearty ap
plause.] Antioch College staggered under $ 60,000 debt.
One, bearing the form of a man, came to its President, and
said, " I wdl pay one sixth. If you will promise me no negro
shall enter its halls." " Let it perish first," was Horace
Mann's reply. [Renewed and enthusiastic applause.] The
Legislature are asked to put his statue opposite Webster's.
O no. When the Emperor makes his horse a consul,
honest men decline a share in the consulship. While that
iU-used Iron stands there, our State is in bad odor to offer
statues to anybody.
At Reval, one of the Hanse towns, they wIU show you,
in their treasury, the sword which, two hundred years
ago, beheaded a lawless Baron for daring to carry off his
fugitive slave from the shelter of the city walls. Our
great slave-hunter is beyond the reach of man's sword ;
but if any noble soul in the State wUl stir our mother
Massachusetts to behead his Image, we will cherish the
name of that true Massachusetts boy as sacredly as they
keep the brave old sword at Reval. [Loud and prolonged
applause.]

HARPER'S FERRY.*

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : Of course I do not
expect — speajiing from this platform, and to you — -
to say anything on the vital question of the hour which
you have not already heard. But, when a great question
divleles the community, all men are called upon to vote,
and I feel to-night that I am simply giving my vote. I am
only saying " ditto " to what you hear from this platform
day after day. And I would willingly have avoided. La
dies and Gentlemen, even at this last moment, borrowing
this hour from you. I tried to do better by you. Like
the Irishman in the story, I offered to hold the hat of
Hon. Thomas Corwin of Ohio, [enthusiastic applause,] if
he would only make a speech, and, I am sorry to say,
he declines, most unaccountably, this generous offer.
[Laughter.] So I must fulfil my appointment, and de
liver my lecture myself.
" The Lesson of the Hour ? " I think the lessoiLJjf.
tbeljfmg— ^ inimri-ectiou.. [Sensation.] Insurrection of
'^on^^^-«biva,ys precedes the insurrection of arms. The
Tast twenty years have been an insurrection of thought.
We seem to be entering on a new phase of this great
American struggle. It seems to me that we have never
* A Lecture delivered at Brooklyn, N. Y., Tuesday Evening, November
1,1859. Mr. Phillips was advertised to speak on "The Lesson of the
Hour," in Henry Ward Beecher's Chm-ch. Hon. Thomas Corn-in, with
others, was on the platform.

264 HARPER'S FERRY.
accepted, — as Americans, we have never accepted our
own civdization. We have held back from the inference
which we ought to have drawn from the admitted princi
ples which underlie our hfe. We have aU the timidity of
the Old World, when we think of the people ; we shrink
back, trying to save ourselves from the Inevitable might
of the thoughts of the mdUons. The Idea on the othefl
side of the water seems to be, that man Is created to be
taken care of by somebody else. God did not leave him
fit to go alone ; he Is In everlasting pupUage to the '
wealthy and the educated. The religious or the comfort- j
able classes are an ever-present probate court to take care
of him. The Old World, therefore, has always distrusted
the average conscience, — the common sense of the mIl-\
lions. It seems to me ..the idea of out- civilization, underlying
all American life, is, that men do iiQt nee,d.„any^ardlan.
We need no safeguard. Not only the Inevitable, but"tlii7.
best power this side of the ocean, is the unfettered^ ayer^_.
agejjgmmon sensejof^ the masses^ Institutions, as we are
accustomed to call them, are__butpasteboard, and Intended
to be, against the thought of the street! Statutes are mere, 
milestones, telling how far yesterday's thought had trav —
elled ; and the talk of the sidewalk to-day is the law of the
-Jand. You may regret this ; but the fact stands ; and
if our fathers foresaw the full effect of their principles,
they must have planned and expected It. With us. Law
is nothing unless close behind it stanels a warm, living, 
public opinion. Let that die or grow indifferent, and stat-
utes^afe" waste paper, lack all executive force. You may
frame them strong as language can make ; but once change
public feeling, and through them or over them rides the
real wish of the people. The_goo(i_sense and conscience
of the mSSSBs— arre-our only title -tie'eds-and. police TTn-ce.
The Temperance cause, the antislavery movement, ar.d

tiAtLir t^ti, a ttji-itii.

your Barnburner party prove this. You may sigh for a
strong government, anchoreel In the convictions of past
centuries, and able to protect the minority against the
majority, — able to defy the ignorance, the mistake, or the
passion, as well as the high purpose, of the present hour ;
you may prefer the unchanging terra firma of despotism ;
but still the fact remains, that we are launched on the
ocean of an unchained democracy, with no safety but In
those laws of gravity which bind the ocean in its bed, — ^ the_
instinctive love of right in the popular heart, — the divine
sheet-anchor, that the race gravitates towards right, and
that the right Is always safe and best.
Somewhat briefly stated, such is the idea of American
civilization ; uncompromising faith — in__the_a£tira.ge-.sel£»-.
ishness, ifi..yiiu, -cltQose_ — of all classes, neutralizing each
.Qjjier, and tenehng towards that fair play which Saxons
love. But It seems to me that, on all questions, we dread
thought ; we shrink behind something ; . we acknowledge
ourselves unequal to the sublime faith of our fathers ; and
the exhibition of the last twenty years and of the present
state of public affairs Is, that Americans dread to look their
realjTositiajLduJJie face. ,
They say In Ireland that every Irishman thinks he was
born sixty days too late, [laughter,] and that the world
owes him sixty days. The consequence is, when a traeler
says such a thing Is so much for cash, the Irishman thinks
cash means to him a bill for sixty days. [Laughter.] So
it is with Americans. They have no idea of absolute
right. They were born since 1787, and absolute right
means the truth eliluted by a strong decoction of the
Constitution of '89. They breathe that atmosphere ; they
do not want to sail outside of it ; they do not attempt to
reason outside of it. Poisoned with printer' s-ink, or
chokeel with cotton-dust, they stare at absolute riglit as
the elream of madmen. For the last twenty years there

266 HARPER'S FERRY.
has been going on, more or less heeded and understood in
different States, an insurrection of ideas against this lim
ited, cribbed, cabined, isolated American civdization, an
insurrection to restore absolute right.^^f you said to an

American, for instaiice7~anyTMn'g " in regard to temper
ance, slavery, or anything else, in the course of the last
twenty years, — anything about a principle, — he ran back
instantly to the safety of such a principle, to the possibility
of Its existing with a particular sect, with a church, with a
party, with a constitution, with a law. He had not yet
raised himself to the level of daring to trust justice, which
is the preliminary consideration to trusting the people ; for
whether native depravity be true or not, It is a truth,
attested by all history, that the race gravitates towards
justice, and that, making fair allowance for differences of
opinion, there is an inherent, essential tendency to the
great English principle of fair play at the bottom of our
natureg. [Loud applause.] The Eniper6T''?fT»l4elasr-it^s
said, ordered his englneei-s to lay down for him a railway
from St. Petersburg to Moscow, and presently the en
gineers brought him a large piece of card-paper, on which
was laid down, like a snake, the designed path for the iron
locomotive between the two capitals. " What 's that ? "
said Nicholas. " That 's the best road," was the reply.
" What do you make it crooked for ? " " Why, we turn
this way to touch this great city, and to the left to reach
that immense mass of people, and to the right again to
suit the business of that district." " Yes." The Em
peror turned the card over, made a new dot for Mos
cow, and another for St. Petersburg, took a ruler,
made a straight line, and said, " Build me that road."
[Laughter.] " But what wiU become of this depot of trade ? of
that town?" "I don't know; they must look out for
themselves." [Cheers.] And inteUigent democracy

HARPER'S FERRY. 267
says of slavery, or of a church, " This is justice, and
that Iniquity ; the track of God's thunderbolt is a straight
line from one to the other, and the church or state that
cannot stand it must get out of the way." [Cheers.]
Now our object for twenty years has been to educate the
mass of the American people up to that level of moral
life which shall recognize that frejg, speech carried to this
extent .is_ GocTs normal school, educating the American
mind, throwing upon It the grave responsibdity of deciding
a great question, and by means of that responsibility lift
ing it to a higher level of intellectual and moral life.
Respaosiljiljty £dufi|,tes, and, politics .is,_ but another name
for GoeFs way of teaching the masses ethics,, under the
responsibility of great present Interest. To educate man
is God's ultimate end and purpose In all creation. Trust
the people with the gravest questions, and In the long run
you educate the race ; whde, in the process, you secure,
not perfect, but the best possible institutions. Now
scholarship stands on one side, and, hke your Brooklyn
Hagle, says, " This Is madness'! " Well, poor man, he
thinks so ! [Laughter.] The very difficulty of the ^\hole
matter is, that he does think so, and this normal school
that we open is for him. His seat Is on the lowest eiiel of
the lowest bench. [Laughter and applause.] But he
only represents that very chronic distrust which pervades
all that class, specially the timid educated mind of these
Northern States. Anacharsis went into the forum at
Athens, and heard a case argued by the great minds of
the day, and saw the vote. He walked out into the
streets, and somebody said to him, " What think you of
Athenian hberty ? " "I think," said he, " wise men ar
gue causes, and fools decide them." Just what the timid
scholar two thousand years ago said in the streets of
Athens, that which calls itself the scholarship of the Unit
ed States says to-day of popular agitation, that it lets wise

268 HARPER'S FERRY.
men argue questions, and fools decide them. But that
unruly Athens, where fools decided the gravest questions
of polity and right and wrong, where It was not safe to
be just, and where property, which you had garnered up
by the thrift and industry of to-day, might be wrung from
you by the caprices of the mob to-morrow, — that very
Athens probably secured the greatest human happiness
and nobleness of its e^ra, invented art, and sounded for us
the depths of phdosophy : God lent to It the noblest Intel
lects, and it flashes to-day the torch that gilds yet the
mountain-peaks of the Old World ; while Egypt, the hun
ker conservative of antiquity, where nobody dared to dif
fer from the priest, or to be wiser than his grandfather, —
where men pretended to be alive, though swaddled in the
grave-clothes of creed and custom as close as their mum
mies in linen, — Is hid In the tomb it inhabited ; and the
intellect which Athens has created for us digs to-day
those ashes to find out what hunkerism knew and did.
[Cheers.] NowjnjLidea-of American civUizatiffliJs,Jhat ,
it is a second part, a repetition of that same subUme_confi-
dence in the public conscience and the public thought
which made the groundwork of Grecian Democracy. _
We have been carrying on this Insurrection of thought
for thirty years. There have been various evidences of
growth In education: I will tell you of one. The first
evidence that a sinner, convicted of sin, and too blind or
too lazy to reform, the first evidence he gives that his
nature has been touched, is, that he becomes a hypocrite ;
he has the grace to pretend to be something. Now the first
evidence the American people gave of that commencing
grace of^- hypocrisy was this: in 1831, when we com
menced tdiB'antislavery agitation, the papers talked about
slavery, bondage, American slavery, boldly, frankly, and
bluntly. In a few years it sounded hard ; It had a grating
eftect ; the toughest throat of the hardest Democrat felt it

HARPER'S FERRY. 269
as It came out. So they spoke of the " patriarchal Insti
tution," [laughter,] then of the " domestic institution,"
[continued laughter,] and then of the "jpecuhar institu-_,
tioUj"- [laughter,] and in a year or two It got beyond that.
Mississippi published a report ft-om her Senate, in Avhich
she went a stride further, and described it as " economic
subordination," and baptized it by statute " warranteelsm."
[Renewed laughter.] A Southern Methodist bishop was
taken to task for holeling slaves In reality, but his Metho
dist brethren were not courageous enough to say. " slaves "
right out in meeting, and so they aelvised the bishop to get
rid of his "impediment" [louel laughter] ; and the late
Mr. Rufus Choate, In the last Democratic canvass of my
own State, unelertaking anel obliged to refer to the instltu-
tions of the South, and unwdllng that his old New Eng
land lips, which had spoken so many glorious free truths,
should foul their last days with the hated word, phrased it
"a different type of industry." Now, hypocrisy — why,
"It Is the homage that Vice renders to Virtue." When
men begin to weary of capital punishment, they banisli
the gallows inside the jail-yard, and let nobody see It
without a special card of invitation from the sheriff. And
so they have banished slavery into pet phrases and fancy
flash-words. If, one hundred years hence, you should dig
our Egyptian Hunkerism up from the grave Into which It
is rapidly sinking, we should need a commentator of the
true German blood to find out what all these queer, odd,
peculiar imaginative paraphrases meant In this middle
of the nineteenth century. This is one evidence of
progress. I believe In moral suasion. The age of bullets is over.
The age of ideas Is come. I think that is the rule of our
age. The old Plindoo elreamed, you know, that he saw
the human race led out to its varied fortune. First, he
saw men bitted and curbed, and the reins went back to an

270 HARPER'S FERRY.
iron hand. But his dream changed on and on, until at
last he saw men led by reins that came from the brain,
and went back into an unseen hand. It was the type of
governments ; the first despotism, palpable, iron ; and the
last our government, a government of brains, a govern
ment of Ideas. I believe in it, — In public, opinion.
Yet, let me say, in passing, I think you can make aUet-
ter use of iron than forging it into chains. If you must
have the metal, put it Into Sharpe's rifles. It is a great
deal better used that way than in fetters ; types are better
than bullets, but bullets a thousand times rather than a
clumsy statue of a mock great man, for hypocrites to kneel
down and worship in a State-House yard. [Loud and
renewed cheers, and great hissing.] I am so unused to
hisses lately, that I have forgotten what I had to say.
[Laughter and hisses.] I only know I meant what I
did say.
My idea is, public opinion, literature, education, as
governing elements.
Some men seem to think that our institutions are neces
sarily safe, because we have fi-ee schools and cheap bpoks^
and a public opinion that controls. But that Is no evi
dence of safety. India and China had schools for fifteen
huneh-ed years. And books. It is said, were once as cheap
in Central and Northern Asia as they are In New York.
But they have not secured liberty, nor a controlling pub
lic opinion to either nation. Spain for three centuries had
municipalities and town governments, as independent and
self-supporting, and as representative of thought, as New
England or New York has. But that did not save Spain.
De Tocqueville says that, fifty years before the great rev
olution, public opinion was as omnipotent in France as It
is to-day, but it did not make France free. Yon cannot
save men by machinery. What India and -Fiance- and
Spain wanted was hve men, and that is what we want

HARPER'S FERRY. 271
to-elay ; men who are willing to look their own destiny,
and their own responsIhllTties, in the face. " Grant me to
see, and Ajax asks no more," was the prayer the great
poet put Into the lips of his hero in the darkness which
overspread the Grecian camp. All we want of American
citizens is the opening of their own eyes, and seeing things
as they are. The intelligent, thoughtful, and determined
gaze of twenty millions of Christian people there is noth
ing, — no institution wicked and powerful enough to be
capable of standing against it. In Keats's beautiful poem
of " Lamia," a young man had been led captive by a
phantom girl, and was ^the slave of her beauty, until the
old teacher came in and fixed his thoughtful eye upon the
figure, and it vanished.
You see the great Commonwealth of Virginia fitly
represented by a pyramid standing upon its apex. A
C^^^^Connecticut-borfT mafl entered at one corner of her do
minions, and fixed his cold gray eye upon the government
of Virginia, and It almost vanished In his very gaze. For
it seems that Virginia, for a week, asked leave " to be "
of John Brown at Harper's Ferry. [Cheers and ap
plause.] Connecticut has sent out many a schoolmaster
to the other thirty States ; but never before so grand a
teacher as that Litchfield-born schoolmaster at Harper's
Ferry, writing as it were upon the Natural Bridge, In the
face of nations, his simple copy, — " ResistancaJxL tyrants ,
is_jQbsdien<3e-4o;;Gk)d."— [Loud cheers.]
I said that the lesson of the hour was insurrection. I
ought not to apply that word to John Brown of Osawa-
tomie, for there was no Insurrection in his TTase. It is a
^reatmistake to call him an insurgent. This principle
that I have endeavored so briefly to'open to you, of ab
solute right and wrong, states what ? Just this : " Com-
monwealth ofJV'irginIa ! " There is no such thing. Law
less, brutal force is no basis of a government, in the true

272 HARPER'S FERRY.
sense of that word. Qucb est enim civitas ? asks Cicero.
Omnis ne conventus etiam ferorum et immanium ? Omnis
ne etiam, fugitivorum ac latronum congregata unum in
locum multitudo? certe negabis. No clvd society, no
government, can exist except on the basis of the willing
submission of all its citizens, and by the performance of
the duty of rendering equal justice between man andTnaffi^
Whatever calls itself a government, and refuses Hiat~
duty, or has not that assent. Is no govemmentT"^ it is^ oiiLy^
a pirate ship. Virglniay-th^ Commonwealth of Virginia !
She Is only a chronic insurrection. I mean exactly wdiat
I say. I am weighing my words now. She Is a pirate
ship, and John Brown sails the sea a Lord High Admirals
of the Almighty, with his commission to sink every pirate^
he meets on God's ocean of the nineteenth century.
[Cheers and applause.] I mean literaUy and exactly^
what I say. In God's world there are no.- maji3,i-itieSj_
no minorities ; one, on God's side, is a majority. You
have often heard here, doubtless, and I need not tell you,
the ground of morals. The rights of that one man are as

sacred as those of the mlscaUed Gpmmon wealth _QfJVir=^
ginla. Virginia Is only another Algiers. \ The barbarous
horde who gag each other, imprison women for teaching
children to read, prohibit the Bible, sell men on the auc
tion-block, abolish marriage, condemn half their women to
prostitution, and devote themselves to the breeding of Jiu-
man beings for sale. Is only a larger and blacker Algiers.
The only prayer of a true man for such is, " Gracious
Heaven ! unless they repent, send soon their Exmouth
and Decatur." John Brown has twice as much^righ^iQ-
hang Governor Wise, as Governor Wise has tQ-hang-him.
[Cheers and hisses.] You see I am talkjng_of_that^bsq-_
lute essence of things which lives in the sight of the^Eter^
nal and the Inflnite ; not as men judge It in the rotten
morals of the nineteenth century, among a herd of States

HARPER'S FERRY. 273
that caUs itself an empire, because it raises cotton and sells
¦slaves. What I say is this : Harper's Ferry was the only
government In that vicinity. Look at the trial. Virginia,
true to herself, has shown exactly the same haste that the
pirate does when he tries a man on deck, and runs him up
to the yard-arm. Unconsciously she is consistent. Now
you do not think this to-day, some of you, perhaps.
But I tell you what absolute History shall judge of these
forms and phantoms of ours. John Brown began his life,
his_ public; life, in Kansas. The South planted that seed ;
it reaps the first finiit now. Twelve years ago, the great
men In Washington, the Websters and the Clays, planted
the Mexican war ; and they reaped their appropriate fruit
in General Taylor and General Pierce pushing them from
their statesmen's stools. The South planted the seeds of
violence in Kansas, and taught peaceful Northern men
familiarity with the bowie-knife and revolver. They
planted nine hundred and ninety-nine seeds, and this is the
first one that has flowered ; this Is the first drop of the
coming shower. People do me the honor to say. In some
of the Western papers, that this is traceable to some
teachings of mine. It is too much honor to such as me.
Gladly, if it were not fulsome vanity, would I clutch this
laurel of having any share in the great resolute daring of
that man who flung himself against an empire in behaff of
justice and liberty. They were not the bravest men who
fought at Saratoga and Yorktown, in the war of 1776. O
no ! it was rather those who flung themselves at Lexlng-
ton,_J&Hi_and feeble, against the embattled ranks of an
empire, till then thought irresistible. Elderly men, in
powdered wigs and red velvet, smoothed their ruffles, and
cried, " Madmen ! " Full-fed custom-house clerks said,
" A pistol-shot against Gibraltar ! " But Captain Ingra
ham, under the stars and stripes, dictating terms to the
fleet of the Cassars, was only the echo of that Lexington
18

274 HARPER'S FERRY.
gun. Harper's Ferry is the^Lesipgto.a.of to-day. Up to
this moment. Brown's life has been one unmixed success.
Prudence, skill, courage, thrift, knowledge of his time,
knowledge of his opponents, undaunted daring, — he had
all these. He was the man who could leave Kansas, and
go Into Missouri, and take eleven men, give them lib
erty, and bring them off on the horses which he carried
with him, and two which he took as tribute from their
masters In order to facilitate escape. Then, when he had
passed his human protegSs from the vulture of the United
States to the safe shelter of the English lion, this is the
brave, frank, and sublime truster in God's right and abso
lute justice, who entered his name In the city of Cleveland,
" John Brown, of Kansas," advertised there two horses
for sale, and stood In front of the auctioneer's stand, noti
fying all bidders of — what some would think — the defect
in the title. [Laughter.] But he added, with noncha
lance, when he told me the story, " They brought a very
excellent price." [Laughter.] This Is the man who, in
the face of the nation, avowing his right, and laboring with
what strength he had in behalf of the wronged, goes down
to Harper's Ferry to follow up his work. Well, men say
he failed. Every man has his Moscow. Suppose he did
fail, every man meets his Waterloo at last. There are
two kinds of defeat. Whether in chains or in laurels.
Liberty knows nothing but victories. Soldiers caU Bun
ker Hill a defeat ; but Liberty dates from it, though War
ren lay dead on the field. Men say the attempt did not
succeed. No man can command success. Whether it
was well planned, and deserved to succeed, we shaU be
able to decide when Brown is free to teU us aU he knows.
Suppose he did fail, in one sense, he has done a great deal
stdl. Why, this is a decent country to live in now.
[Laughter and cheers.] ActuaUy, in this Sodom of cure,
twenty-two men have been found ready to die ToFan idea.

HARPER'S FERRY. 275
God be thanked for John Brown, that he has discovered
or "created them! [Cheers.] I should feel some pride,
if I was in Europe now, in confessing that I was an
American. [Applause.] We have redeemed the long
infamy of sixty years of subservience. But look back a
bit. Is there anything new about this ?_- Nothing at all.
It Is the' natural result of antislavery teaching. For one,
I accept it ; I hoped for it. I cannot say that I prayed
for It ; I cannot say that I expected it. But at the same
time, no sane man has looked upon this matter for twenty
years, and supposed that we could go through this great
moral convulsion, the great classes of society crashing and
jostling against each other like frigates in a storm, and
that there would not come such scenes as these.
In 1835 it was the other way. Then it was my bull
that gored your ox. Then ideas came in conflict, and
men of violence, men who trusted In their own right
hands, men who believed in bowie-knives, — such sacked
the city of Philadelphia ; such made New York to be gov
erned by a mob ; Boston saw Its mayor suppliant and
kneeling to the chief of a broadcloth mob in broad day
light. It was all on that side. The natural result, the
first result of this starting of ideas, is like people who get
half awaked, and use the first weapons that lie at hand.
The first show anel unfolding of national life were the mobs
of 1835. People said it served us right ; we had no right
to the luxury of speaking our own minds ; it was too ex
pensive ; these lavish, prodigal, luxurious persons walking
about here, and actually saying what they think. Why
it was like speaking loud In the midst of the avalanches.
To say " Liberty " in a loud tone, the Constitution of
1789 might come down, — it would not do. But now
thiiT'-s have chanirecl. We have been talkins: thirtv A'ears.
Twenty years we have talked everywhere, under all cir
cumstances ; we have been mobbed out of great cities.

276 HARPER'S FERRY.
and pelted out of little ones ; we have been abused by
great men and by little papers. [Laughter and applause.]
What is the result ? The tables have been turned ; it Is
your bull that has gored my ox now. And men who stdl
believe In violence, the five points of whose faith are the
fist, the bowie-knife, fire, poison, and the pistol, are ranged
on the side of Liberty, and, unwilling to wait for the slow
but sure steps of thought, lay on God's altar the best they
have. You cannot expect to put a read_Puri_tan_JP££sfey--
terian, as John Brown is, — a regular Cromwelhan dug
up from two centuries, — in the midst of our New England
civilization, that dares not say its soul is its own, nor pro
claim that it is wrong to sell a man at auction, and not
have him show himself as he is. Put a hound in the
presence of a deer, and he springs at his throat if he is a
true bloodhound. Put a Christian jiLthe presence of a
sin, and he will spring at its throat if . he js a true ilhris-
tian. Into an acid we may throw white matter, but unless
it is chalk, it will not produce agitation. So if in a world
of sinners you were to put American Christianity, it would
be calm as oil. But put one Christian, like John Brown
of Osawatomie, and he makes the' whole crystallize mto
right and wrong, and marshal themselves on one side or
the other. God makes him the text, and all he asks of
our comparatively cowardly lips is to preach the sermon,
and say to the American people that, whether that old
man succeeded in a worldly sense or not, he stood a rep
resentative of law, of government, of right, of justice, of
religion, and they were a mob of murder-ers who gathered
about him, and sought to wreak vengeance by taking his
life. The banks of the Potomac, doubly dear now to
history and to man ! The dust of Washington rests
there ; and history will see forever on .that river-side the
brave old man on his pallet, whose dust, when God caUs
him hence, the Father of his Country would be proud to

HARPER'S FERRY. 277
make room for beside his own. Bu^if Virginia tyrants
dare hang him, after this mockery of a trial, it will take two
niqre Washingtons at least to make the name of the State
anything hut abominable In time to come. [Applause and
hisses.] Well, I say what I really think. [Cheers, and
cries of " Good ! good ! "] George Washington was a great
man. Yet I say what I really think. And I know. Ladies
and Gentlemen, that, educated as you have been by the
experience of the last ten years here, you would have
thought me the sUliest as well as the most cowardly man
in the world, if I should have come, with my twenty
years behind me, and talked about anything else to-night
except that great example which one man has set us on
the banks of the Potomac. You expected, of course, that
I should teU you my real opinion of it.
I value this element that Brown has introduced into
American politics. The South is a great power, — no
cowards in Virginia. [Laughter.] It was not cowardice.
[Laughter.] Now, I try to speak very plain, but you
wdl misunderstand me. There is no cowarchce in Vir
ginia. The South are not cowards. The lunatics in the
Gospel were not cowards when they said, " Art thou
come to torment us before the time ? " [Laughter.]
They were brave enough, but they saw afar off. They
saw the tremendous power which was entering into that
charmed circle ; they knew its inevitable victory. - Virginia
did not tremble_ at an -old. gray-headed man at Hai-per's
Ferry ; they trembled at a John Brovrai in every man's
own conscience. He had been there many years, and,
like that terrific scene which Beckford has drawn for us in
his Hall of Ublis, where the crowd runs around, each man
with an incurable wound In his bosom, and agrees not to
speak of it ; so the South has been running up and down
its political and social life, and every man keeps his right
hand pressed on the secret and incurable sore, with an

278 HARPER'S FERRY.
miderstood agi-eement, in church and state, that it never
shall be mentioned, for fear the great ghastly fabric shall
come to pieces at the tallsmanic word. Brown uttered it ;
cried, " Slavery is sin ! come, all true men, help puU it
down," and the whole machinery trembled to its very
base. I value this movement for another reason. Did you
ever see a blacksmith shoe a restless horse ? If you have,
you have seen him take a small cord and tie the upper hp.
A.sk him what he does it for, he will teU you to give the
beast something to think of. [Laughter.] Now, the
South has extensive schemes. She grasps with one hand
a Mexico, and with the other she dictates terms to the
Church, she imposes conditions on the state, she buys up
Webster with a httle or a promise, and Everett with noth
ing. [Great laughter and applause.] John Brown has
given her something else to think of. He has turned her
attention inwardly. He has taught her that there has
been created a new element in this Northern mind ; that
it is not merely the thinker, that it is not merely the
editor, that it is not merely the moral reformer, but the
idea has pervaded all classes of society. Call them mad
men if you wIU. f Hard to tell who 's mad^ The world
says one man is mkff. JoKh Brown said the same of the
Governor. You remember the madman in Edinburgh.
A friend asked him what he was there for. "Well,"
cried he, " they said at home that I was mad ; and I said
I was not; but they had the majority." [Laughter.]
Just so it Is in regard to John Brown. The nation says
he is mad. I appeal from Phdip drunk to PhUIp sober ; I
appeal from the American people, drunk with cotton, and
the New York Observer, [loud and long laughter,] to the
American people fifty years hence, when the light of civ-
ihzatlon has had more time to penetrate, when self-interest
has been rebuked by the world rising and giving its ver-

HARPER'S FERRY. 279
diet on these great questions, when it is not a small band
of Abolitionists, but the civilization of the twentieth cen
tury. In all its varied forms, interests, and elements, which
undertakes to enter the- arena, and discuss this last great
reform. When that day comes, what will be thought of
these first martyrs, who teach us how to live and how
to die ?
Has the; slave a right to resist his master ? I wiU not
argue that question to a people hoarse with shouting ever
since July 4, 1776, that all men are created equal, that
the right to liberty is inalienable, and that " resistance to
tyrants is obeelience to God." But may he resist to blood
— wTth rifles ? What need of provuig that to a people
who load down Bunker Hill with granite, and crowd their
public squares with images of Washington ; ay, worship
the sword so blindly that, leaving their oldest statesmen
idle, they go down to the bloodiest battle-field in Mexico
to drag out a President? But may one help the slave
resist, as Brown did ? Ask Byron on his death-bed in the
marshes of Mlssolonghi. Ask the Hudson as Its waters
kiss your shore, what answer they bring from the grave
of Kosciusko. I hide the Connecticut Puritan behind
Lafayette, bleeding at Brandywine, in behalf of a nation
his rightful king forbade him to visit.
But John Brown violated the law. Yes. On yonder
desk lie the Inspired words of men who died violent deaths
for breaking the laws of Rome. Why do you listen to
them so reverently ? Huss and Wickliffe violated laws ;
why honor them ? George Washington, had he been
caught before 1783, would have died on the gibbet, for
breaking the laws of his sovereign. Yet I have heard
thafTiian" praised within six months. Yes, you say, but
these men broke bad laws. Just so. It is honorable, then,
to break bad laws, and such law-breaking history loves
and God blesses ! Who says, then, that slave laws are

280 HARPER'S FERRY.
not ten thousand times worse than any those men resisted?
Whatever argument excuses them, makes John Brown a
saint. ""
Suppose John Brown had not stayed at Harper's Perry.
Suppose on that momentous Monday night, when the
excited imaginations of two thousand Charlestown people
had enlarged him and his little band into four hundred
white men and two hundred blacks, he had vanished, and
when the gallant troops arrived there, two thousand strong,
they had found nobody ! The mountains would have been
peopled with enemies ; the AUeghanies would have heaved
with insurrection ! You never would have convinced
Virginia that all Pennsylvania was not armed and on the
hills. Suppose Massachusetts, free Massachusetts, had not
given the world the telegraph, to flash news like sunlight
over half the globe. Then Tuesday would have roUed
away, whde slow spreading through dazed Virginia crawled
the news of this event. Meanwhile,-a.hundred men having
rallied to Brown's side, he might have marched across the
quaking State to Richmond and pardonedjG£vemor Wise.
Nat Turner's success, in 1831, shows this would have been
possible. Free thought, mother of invention, not Virginia,
baffled Brown. But ft-ee thought, in the long run, stran
gles tyrants. Virginia has not slept sound since Nat
Turner led an insurrection in 1831, and she bids fan:
never to have a nap now. [Laughter.] For this is not
an insurrection; this is the penetration of a different
element. Mark you, it is not the oppressed race rismg.
Recollect history. There never was a race held In actual
chains that vindicated its own liberty but one. There
never was a serf nor a slave- whose own sword cut offTilr
own chain but one. Blue-eyed, Ught-haired-Angla5aimr
it was not our race. We were serfs for-threa centuries,
and we waited tiU commerce and Christianity and a differ
ent law had melted our fetters. We were crowded" down

HARPER'S FERRY. 281
into a vlUanage which crushed out our manhood so thor
oughly that we had not vigor enough left to redeem
ourselves. Neither France nor Spain, neither the North
ern nor the Southern races of Europe have that bright spot
on their escutcheon, that they put an end to their own
slavery. -Blue-eyed, haughty, confemptuous Anglo-Sax
ons, it was the black, — the only race In the record of his
tory that ever, after a century of oppression, retained the
vigor to write the charter of its emancipation with Its own
hand in the blood of the dotnlnant race. Despised, calum
niated, slandered San Domingo is the only Instance in
history where a t-ace, with indestructible love of liberty,
after bearing a hundred years of oppression, rose up under
their own leader, and with their own hands wrested chains
from their own limbs. Wait, garrulous, ignorant, boast
ing Saxon, till you have done half as much, before you
talk of tfie cowardice of the black race !
The slaves of our country have not risen, but, as in
most other cases, redemption will come from the inter
ference of a wiser, higher, more advanced civilization on
its exterior. It Is the almost universal record of history,
and ours is a repetition of the same drama. We have
awakened at last the enthusiasm of both classes, — those
that act from impulse and those that act from calculation.
It is a libel on the Yankee to think that it includes the
whole race, when you say that if you put a dollar on the
other side of hell, the Yankee will spring for it at any risk
[laughter] ; for there is an element even In the Yankee
blood which obeys Ideas ; there Is an Impulsive, enthusiastic
aspiration, something left to us from the old Puritan stock ;
that which made England what she was two centuries ago ;
that which is fated to give the closest grapple with the
Slave Power to-day. This is an invasion by outside
power. CIvihzatlon in 1600 crept along our shores, now
planting her foot, and then retreating ; now gaining a foot-

282 HARPER'S FERRY.
hold, and then receding before barbarism, till at last came
Jamestown and Plymouth, and then thirty States. Har
per's Ferjiy- Is^perhaps one of Raleigh's or Gosnold's
colonies, vanishing and to be swept away ;_by and^by-wiU
come the immortal one hundred, and Plymouth Rock,
with "manifest deStint" written by God's hand on
their banner, and the right of unlimited " annexation "
granted by Heaven itself.
It is the lesson of the age. The first cropping out of It
is In such a man a,sJ[QhiiJBxDjym Grant that he did not
measure his means; that he was not thrifty as to his
method ; he did not calculate closely enough, and he was
defeated. What is defeat? Nothing but education, —
nothing but the first step to something better. All that Is
wanted Is, that our public opinion shall not creep round
like a servile, coward, corrupt, disordered, insane public
opinion, and proclaim that Governor Wise, because he
says he is a governor, is a governor ; that Virginia is a
State, because she says she Is so.
Thank God, I am not a citizen. You will remember,
all of you, citizens of the United States, that therewas not
a Virginia gun fired at John Brown. Hundreds of well-
armed Maryland and Virginia troops rushed to Harper's
Ferry, and — went away ! You shot him ! Sixteen ma
rines, to whom you pay eight dollars a month,^^— your
own representatives. When the disturbed State could not
stand on her own legs for trembling, you went there and
strengthened the feeble knees, and held up the palsied
hands. Sixteen men, with the vulture of the Union above
them, [sensation,] your representatives ! It was the cov
enant with death and agreement with heU, which you call
the Union of thirty States, that took the old man by the
throat with a pirate hand ; and it wiU be the disgrace of
our civdization if a gallows Is ever erected in Virginia that
bears his body. "The most resolute man I ever saw,"

HARPER'S FERRY. 283
says Governor Wise, " the most daring, the coolest. I
would trust his truth about any question. The. sincerest !."
Sincerity, courage, resolute daring, beating In a heart that
feared God, and dared all to help his brother to liberty, —
Virginia has nothing, nothing for those qualities but a
scaffold ! [Applause.] In her broad dominion she can
finly afford him six feet for a grave ! God help the Com
monwealth which bids such welcome to the noblest qualities
that can grace poor human nature ! Yet that is the acknowl
edgment of Governor Wise himself! I will not dignify
such a horde with the name of a despotism ; since despot
ism is sometimes magnanimous. Witness Russia, covering
Schamyl with generous protection. Compare that with
mad Virginia, hurrying forward this ghastly trial.
They say it cost the officers and persons in responsible
positions more effort to keep hundreds of startled soldiers
from shooting the five prisoners sixteen marines had made,
than It cost those marines to take the armory Itself. Sol
diers and civilians, — both alike, — only a mob fancying
itself a government ! And mark you, I have said they
were not a government. They not only are not a govern
ment, but they have not even the remotest Idea of what a
government Is. [Laughter.] They do not begin to have
the faintest conception of what a civdized government is.
Here Is a man arraigned before a jury, or about to be.
The State of Virginia, as she calls herself. Is about to try
him. The first step in that trial is a jury ; the second Is a
judge ; and at the head stands the Chief Executive of the
State, wdio holds the power to pardon murder ; and yet
that very Executive, who, according to the principles of
the sublimest chapter in Algernon Slelney's immortal book,
is bound by the very responsibility which rests on him
to keep his mind impartial as to the gudt of any person
arraigned, hastens down to Richmond, hurries to the plat
form, and proclaims to the assembled Commonwealth of

284 HARPER'S FERRY.
Virginia, " The man is a murderer, and ought to be hung,"
Almost every lip In the State might have said it except '
that single Up of its Governor ; and the moment he had
uttered these words, in the theory of the Enghsh law. It
was not possible to Impanel an Impartial jury in the Com
monwealth of Virginia; it was not possible to get the
materials and the machinery to try him, according to even
the ugliest pattern of English jurisprudence. And yet the
Governor does not know that he has written himseff down
non compos, and the Commonwealth that he governs sup
poses itself stdl a Christian polity. They have not the
faintest conception of what goes to make up a government.
The worst Jeffries that ever. In his most drunken hour,
climbed up a lamp-post in the streets of London, would
not have tried a man who could not stand on his feet.
There Is no such record in the blackest roll of tyranny.
If Jeffries could speak, he would thank God that at last
his name might be taken down from the gibbet of History,
since the Virginia bench has made his worst act white,
set against the blackness of this modern infamy. [Ap
plause.] And yet the New York press daily prints the
accounts of the trial. Trial ! In the names of Holt and
Somers, of Hale and Erskine, of Parsons, Marshall, and
Jay, I protest against the name. . 2V(a?JqrJIfe, in,Aiiglo::___
Saxon dialect, has a proud, historic meaning. ___It^ includes
indictment by impartial peers ; a copy of such Indictment
and a list of witnesses furnished the prisoner, with ample
time to scrutinize both ; liberty to choose, and time to
get counsel ; a sound body and a sound mind to arrange
one's defence ; I need not add,__ajudge and juji^i^impartial
as the lot of humanity wUl admit ; honored bulwarks and
safeguards, each one the trophy and result of a century's
struggle. Wounded, fevered, lying half unconscious on
his paUet, unable to stand on his feet, the trial half finished
before his first request for aid had reached his friends, —

HARPER'S FERRY. 285
no fist of witnesses or knowledge of them till the crier,
caUing the name of some assassin of his comrades, wakes
him to consciousness ; the judge a tool, and the prosecutor
seeking popularity by pandering to the mob; no decent
form observed, and the essence of a fair trial wholly want
ing, our history and law alike protest against degrading
the honored name of Jury Triad by lending it to such an
outrage as this. The Inquisition used to break every
other bone in a man's body, and then lay him on a pallet,
giving him neither counsel nor opportunity to consult one,
and wring from his tortured mouth something like a con
fession, and call it a trial. But it was heaven-robed inno
cence compared with the trial, or what the New York press
call so, that has been going on In crazed and maddened
Charlestown. I wish I could say anything worthy of thfi,_great_deed
vidncla, has-~taken-place -in our -day, — the opening_j3£ the
^.^gixth seal, the pouring out of the last vial but one on a
corrupt and giant institution. I know that many men will
deem me a fanatic for uttering this wholesale vituperation,
as it will be called, upon a State, and this indorsement of
a maelman. I can only say that I have spoken on this
antislavery question before the American people thirty
years ; that I have seen the day when this same phase of
popular feeling — rifles and force — was on the other side.
You remember the first time I was ever privileged to
stand on this platform by the magnanimous generosity of
your clergyman, when New York was about to bully and
crush out the freedom of speech at the dictation of Cap
tain Rvnders. Fronj that day to this, the same braving
of public thought has been going on from here to Kansas,
until it bloomed in the events of the last three years. It
has changed the whole face of the sentiment in these
Northern States. You meet with the evidence of It
everywhere. When the first news from Harper's Ferry

286 HARPER'S FERRY.
came to Massachusetts, if you were riding in the cars. If
you were walking in the streets, if you met a Democrat
or a Whig or a Republican, no matter what his politics. It
was a singular circumstance that he did not speak of the
guilt of Brown, of the atrocity of the deed, as you might
have expected. The first Impulsive expression, the first
outbreak of every man's words was, " JKbat a pity he_did
not__siieee-ed,-! [Laughter.] What a fool he was for not
going off Monday, when he had all he wanted ! How
strange that he did not take his victory, and march away
with it ! " It indicated the unconscious leavening of a
sympathy with the attempt. Days foUowed on ; they
commenced what they called their trial ; you met the
same classes again ; no man said he ought to be hung ; no
man said he was gudty ; no man predicated anything of
his moral position ; every man voluntarily and inevitably
seemed to give vent to his indignation at the farce of a
trial, indicative again of that unheeded, potent, uncon
scious, but wide-spread sympathy on the side of Brown.
Do you suppose that these things mean nothing ? What
the tender and poetic youth, as Emerson says, dreams to
day, and conjures up with inarticulate speech. Is to-morrow
the vociferated result of public opinion, and the day after
is the charter of nations. The American people have
begun to feel. The mute eloquence of the fugitive slave
has gone up and down the highways and byways of the
country ; It will annex itself to the great American heart
of the North, even In the most fossd state of its hunkerism,
as a latent sympathy with its right side. This blow, like
the first gun at Lexington, " heard around the world," —
this blow at Harper's Ferry reveals men. Watch those
about you, and you wdl see more of -the- temper, andjin-^
conscious purpose and real moral position of men than you
would imagine. This Is the way nations are toTiejudged.
Be not In a hurry ; action will come soon enough from

HARPER'S FERRY. 287
this sentiment. We stereotype feeling into Intellect, and
then into statutes, and finally into national character. We
have now the first stage of growth. Nature s live growths
crowd out and rive dead matter. Ideas strangle statutes.
Pulse-beats wear down granite, whether piled in jails or
capltols. The people's hearts are the only title-deeds, after
all. Your Barnburners said, " Patroon titles are un
righteous." Judges replied, " Such is the law." Wealth
shrieked, " Vested rights ! " Parties talked of Constitu
tions ; stIU, the people said, " Sin." They shot a sheriff.
A parrot press cried, "Anarchy!" Lawyers growled,
" Murder ! " — still, nobody was hung, if I recollect '
aright. To-day, the heart of the Barnburner beats in the
statute-book of your State. John Brown's movement
against slavery is exactly the same. Wait awhile, and
you '11 all agree with me. What is fanaticism to-day is
the fashionable creed to-morrow, and trite as the multiph-
cation-table a week after.
John Brown has stirred those omnipotent pulses, —
Lydia Maria Child's is one. She says, " That dungeon
is the place for me," and writes a letter in magnanimous
appeal to the better nature of Governor Wise. She says
in It : " John Brown is a hero ; he has done a noble deed.
I think he was all right ; but he is sick ; he is wounded ;
he wants a woman's nursing. I am an Abohtionlst ; I
have been so thirty years. I think slavery is a sin, and
John Brown a saint ; but I want to come and nurse him ;
and I pledge my word that if you will open his prison
door, I will use the privilege, under sacred honor, only to
nurse him. I enclose you a message to Brown ; be sm-e
and deliver it." And the message was, " Old man, God
bless you ! You have struck a noble blow ; you have
done a mighty work ; God was with you ; your heart was
in the right place. I send you across five hundred miles
the pulse of a woman's gratitude." And Governor Wise

288 HARPER'S FERRY.
has opened the door, and announced to the world that she
may go In. John Brown has conquered the pirate. [Ap-^
plause.] Hope ! there is hope everywhere. It is only
the universal history : —
" Eight forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne ;
But that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unkno-wn
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own."

BURIAL OF JOHN BROWN.*

How feeble words seem here ! How can I hope to
utter what your hearts are full of? I fear to dis
turb the harmony which his life breathes round this home.
One and another of you, his neighbors, say, " I have
known him five years," " I have known him ten years."
It seems to me as if we had none of us known him. How
our admiring, loving wonder has grown, day by day, as he
has unfolded trait after trait of earnest, brave, tender.
Christian life ! We see him walking with radiant, serene
face to the scaffold, and think what an iron heart, what
devoted faith ! We take up his letters, beginning " My
dear wife and children, every one," — see hlm__ stoop on
his wayjtq_the ^scaffold and kiss that negro child, — and
this iron heart seems all tenderness. Marvellous old man !
We have hardly said it when the loved forms of his sons,
in the bloom of young devotion, encircle him, and we
remember he is not alone, only the majestic centre of a
group. Your neighbor farmer went, surrounded by his
household, to tell the slaves there were stdl hearts and
right arms ready and nerveel for their service. From this
roof four, from a neighboring roof two, to make up that
score of heroes. How resolute each looked into the face
of Virginia, how loyally each stood at his forlorn post,
meeting death cheerfully, till that master-voice said, " It is
* Delivered at the grave of John Brown, at North Elba, December 8,
1859. 19

290 BURIAL OF JOHN BROWN.
enough." And these weeping chddren and widow seem
so hfted up and consecrated by long, single-hearted devo
tion to his great purpose, that we dare, even at this
moment, to remind them how blessed they are in the
privilege of thinking that in the last throbs of those brave
young hearts, which lie burled on the banks of the Shen
andoah, thoughts of them mingled with love to God and
hope for the slave.
He has abolished slavery in Virginia. You may say
this Is too much. Our neighbors are the last men we
know. The hours that pass us are the ones we appreciate
the least. Men walked Boston streets, when night fell
on Bunker's HiU, and pitied Warren, saying, "Foolish
man ! Thrown away his hfe ! Why did n't he measure his
means better? " Now we see him standing colossal on that
blood-stained sod, and severing that day the tie which.
bound Boston to Great Britain. That night George HI.
ceased to rule in New England. History will date Vir-_
gmia Emancipation from Harper's Ferry. True, the slave ^
is still there. So, when the tempest uproots a pine on your
hills, it looks green for months, — a year or two. StiU, it
is timber, not a tree. John Brown has loosened.the roots
of the slave system ; it only breathes, — it does not live, —
hereafter. Men say, " How coolly brave ! " But matchless courage
seems the least of his rnerits. How gentleness gracedlttj'
When the frightened town wished to bear off the body of
the Mayor, a man said, "I will go, Miss Fowke, under
their rifles. If you will stand between them and me." He
knew he could trust their gentle respect for womaji. He
was right. He went in the thick of the fight and bore off
the body in safety. That sarue girl flung herself between
Virginia rifles and your brave young Thompson. They
had no pity. The pitiless bullet reached hlin,^ spite of
woman's prayers, though the fight had long been over.

BURIAL OF JOHN BROWN. 291
How God has blessed him ! How truly he may say, " I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course."
Truly he has finished, — done his work. God granted
him the privdege to look on his work accomplished. He
said, " I will show the South that twenty men can take
possession of a town, hold It twenty-four hours, and carry
away all the slaves who wish to escape." Did he not do
it ? On Monday night he stood master of Harper's Ferry,
— could have left unchecked with a score or a hundred
slaves. The wide sympathy and secret approval are
shown by the eager, quivering lips of lovers of slavery,
asking, " 0, why did he not take his victory and go
away?" Who checked him at last? Not startled Vir
ginia. Her he had conquered. The Union crushed, —
seemed to crush him. In reality God said, " That work
is done ; you have proved that a Slave State Is only fear In
the mask of despotism ; come up higher, and baptize by
your martyrdom a. million hearts into holler life." Surely
such a life Is no fadure. How vast the change in men's
hearts ! Insurrection was a harsh, horrid word to millions
a month ago. John Brown went a whole generation be
yond it, claiming the right for white men to help the slave
to freedom by arms. And now men run up and down,
not disputing his principle, but trying to frame excuses
for Virginia's hanging so pure, honest, high-hearted, and
heroic a man. Virginia stands at the bar of the civilized
world on trial. Round her victim crowd the apostles anel
martyrs, all the brave, high souls who have said, " God is
God," and trodden wicked laws under their feet. As I
stood looking at his grandfather's gravestone, brought here
from Connecticut, telling, as it does, of his death in the
Revolution, I thought I could hear our hero-saint saying,
" My fathers ' gave their swords to the oppressor, — the
slave still sinks before the pledged force of this nation. I
give my sword to the slave my fathers forgot." If any

292 BURIAL OF JOHN BROWN.
swords ever reflected the smile of Heaven, surely it was
those drawn at Harper's Ferry. Lf our God is eveFlRe
Lord of Hosts, making one man chase a thousand, surely
that little band might claim him for their captain. Har
per's Ferry was no single hour, standing alone, — taken
out from a common life, — it was the flowering out of fifty
years of single-hearted devotion. He must have hved
wholly for one great Idea, when these who owe their being
to him, and these whom love has joined to the circle,
group so harmoniously arqund him, each accepting serenely
his and her part.
I feel honored to stand under such a roof. Hereafter
you will tell children standing at your knees, " I saw John
Brown burled, — I sat under his roof." Thank God for
such a master. Could we have asked a nobler representa
tive of the Christian North putting her foot on the ac
cursed system of slavery? As time passes, and these
hours float back Into history, men will see against the clear
December sky that gallows, and round it thousands of
armed men guarding Virginia from her slaves. On the
other side, the serene brow of that calm old man, as he
stoops to kiss the child of a forlorn race. Thank God for
our emblem. May he soon bring Virginia to blot out hers
in repentant shame, and cover that hateful gaUows and
soldiery with thousands of broken fetters.
What lesson shall those lips teach us ? Before that stih,
calm brow let us take a new baptism. How can we stand
here without a fresh and utter consecration ? These tears !
how shaU we dare even to offer consolation ? Only lips
fresh from such a vow have the right to mingle then-
words with your tears. We envy you your nearer place
to these martyred chdch-en of God. I do not behe-v&-s.lasi:
ery wiU go down In blood. Ours is the age of thouglit.
Hearts are stronger than swords. That last fortnight!
How sublime its lesson ! the Christwn one of conscience,

BURIAL OF JOHN BROWN. 293
— of truth. Virginia Is weak, because each man's heart
said amen to John Brown. His words, — they are stronger
even than his rifles. These crushed a State. Those have
changed the thoughts of mlUIons, and wIU yet crush slav
ery. Men said, " Would he had cUed in arms ! " God
ordered better, and granted to him and the slave those
noble prison hours, — that single hour of death ; granted
him a higher than the soldier's place, that of teacher ; the
echoes of his rifles have died away In the hills, — a mdlion
hearts guard his words. God bless this roof, — make It
bless us. We dare not say bless you, children of this
home ! you stand nearer to one whose lips God touched,
and we rather bend for your blessing. God make us all
worthier of him whose dust we lay among these hdls he
loved. Here he girded hhnself and went forth to battle.
Fuller success than liis heart ever dreamed God granted
him. He sleeps In the blessings of the crushed and the
poor, and men believe more firmly In virtue, now that
such a man has lived. Standing here, let us thank God
for a firmer faith and fuller hope.

LINCOLN'S ELECTION.*

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: If the telegraph
speaks truth, for the first time in our history the
slave has chosen a President of the United States.
[Cheers.] We have passed the Rubicon, for Mr. Lin
coln rules to-day as much as he vrill after the 4th of
March. It is the moral effect of this victory, not any
thing which his administration can or wdl probably do,
that gives value to this success. Not an Abolitionist,
hardly an antislavery man, Mr. Lincoln consents to rep
resent an antislavery idea. A pawn on the political
chessboard, his value is In his position ; with fair effort,
we may soon change him for knight, bishop, or queen,
and sweep the board. [Applause.] This position he
owes to no merit of his own, but to lives that have roused
the nation's conscience, and deeds that have ploughed
deep Into its heart. Our childish eyes gazed with wonder
at Maelzel's chess-player, and the pulse almost stopped
when, with the pulhng of wires and creaking of wheels,
he moved a pawn, and said, " Check ! " Our wiser fathers
saw a man In the box. There was great noise at Chicago,
much pulling of wires and creaking of wheels, then forth
steps Abraham Lincoln. But John Brown was behind
the curtain, and the cannon of March 4th wdl only echo
the rifles at Harper's Ferry. Last year, we stood looking
* Ei-aternity Lecture, dehvered in Tremont Temple, Boston, November
7, I860.

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 295
sadly at that gibbet against the Virginia sky. One turn
of the kaleidoscope, — It Is Lincoln in the balcony of the
Capitol, and a million of hearts beating welcome below.
[Cheers.] Mr. Seward said, in 1850 : " You may slay the Wilmot
Proviso In the Senate-Chamber, and bury it beneath the
Capitol, to-elay ; the dead corse, in complete steel, will
haunt your legislative halls to-morrow." They slew the
martyr-chief on the banks of the Potomac ; we buried his
dust beneath the snows of North Elba ; and the statesman
Senator of New York wrote for his epitaph, " Justly hung,"
while party chiefs cried, " Amen ! " but one of those dead
hands smote to ruin the Babylon which that Senator's am
bition had budded, and the other hfts into the Capitol the
President of 1861. [Applause.]
The battle has been a curious one, mixed and tossed in
endless confusion. The combatants, in the chaos, caught
up often the weapons of their opponents, and dealt the
deadliest blows at their own ranks.
The Democratic party, agitating fiercely to put down
agitation, break at last Into a general quarrel in their effort
to keep the peace ! [Laughter.] They remind one of
that .sleepy crier of a New Hampshire court, who was ever
dreaming, in his dog-naps, that the voice of judge or law
yer was a noisy interruption, and always woke shouting,
"Silence!" Judge LIvermore said once, "Mr. Crier, you
are the noisiest man In court, with your everlasting shout
of ' Silence ' ! " [Laughter.] The Abolitionists ought to
be very sorry to lose Mr. Douglas from the national arena.
[Applause.] But the Bell-Everett party have been the comfort of
the canvass, the sweet-oil, the safety-valve, the locomotive
buffer, which, when collision threatened, broke the blow,
and the storm exploded in a laugh. [Great merriment.]
They played Sancho Panza to Douglas's Don Quixote.

296 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
[Renewed laughter.] We can afford to thank them. It
Is but fair, however, to confess that they differ from that
illustrious Spaniard. His chief anxiety was about his din
ner ; their distress rose higher than loaves and fishes, —
they trembled for our glorious Union. [Laughter.] The
passions of men were all on fire, — the volcano in fuU
activity. They confessed they did not know what to do ;
but they determined not to do they knew not what. Theirs
was the stand-still policy, the cautious statu quo of the old
law. Now, Whately says there are two ways of being burned.
The rash moth hurries into the flame, and is gone. The
cautious, conservative horse, when his stable is on fire,
stands stock-still, and is burnt up all the same. The
Everett party chose the horse policy when their stable
took fire. [Applause.] Don't you hear the horse's ad
dress : " In this stall my father stood in 1789. Methinks
I hear his farewell neigh. How agitated the crowds seem
outside there ! I 'U have no platform but that my father
had in '89," — and so he dies. Yet the noble animal risked
only his own harm. His mistakes drag none else to ruin.
Four millions of human beings saw their fate hanging on
this do-nothing, keep-silent, let-evll-alone party. Then
their appeals to us to keep silent, to cease criticising chains
and slave-auctions, hangings and burnings of men for free
speech ; their kindly assurances that, if we would only be
still, no harm would come, — the whole trouble was our
noise ; they implored us not to cherish this dislike to these
constitutional and necessary measures ! Like the viper-
pedler in Spain, who exhibited his stock to the inn guests
all the evening, descanting on their life and vigor, and
when at night, in the utter dark, one traveller felt some
thing cold crawling on his face, cried out : " It is only my
vipers, they are all loose ; but if you 'U only he perfectly
still and quiet, they won't hurt you the least." [Ap
plause.]

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 297
But Republicanism has triumphed. [Loud applause.]
The Democrat may forget his quarrels, and prepare to die
with decency. For the Bell-Everett party, one egg has
given a chicken. Mr. Appleton is elected. Beacon Street
and Ann Street have fused. [Merriment.] As his con
stituents could not be admitted to Mr. Appleton's house,
— there not being police enough to watch them, [great
merriment,] — the speeches were made outside, and we
got all the secrets. Mr. Stevenson thinks the election of
jNIr. Appleton " the most Important that has taken place
since the adoption of the Constitution." I observed, last
summer, in the country, that the geese always bowed
when they entered a barn, for fear of hitting their heads.
[Laughter.] Mr. Burlingame needs no praise of mine.
He stood, like Hancock and Adams, the representative of
an idea, and the city that rejected him disgraced only her
self. [Applause.] As an old English judge saiel of a
sentence he blushed to declare, " In this I seem to pro
nounce sentence not on the prisoner, but on the law Itself."
It is Boston, not Burlingame, that has cause to blush to
day. [Cheers.] I do not envy Mr. Appleton his seat.
You remember Webster painted Washington leaning one
great arm on Massachusetts, and the other on South
Carolina. Methinks I see our merchant prince entering
Congress. One hand rests familiarly on the shoukler of
Beacon Street, the other on a cambric handkerchief, twice
doubled, to save the possibility of his touching the shoulder
of Ann Street. [Laughter and applause.] What is his
first act when seated, — he, the representative of the fag-
ends of half a dozen parties, — the broken meat of the
political charity-basket ? He speak the voice of Boston,
the home of Sam Adams, in this glorious hour I What
will it be ? When Sherman Is named for Speaker, he
says "No," while the heart of Boston says " Yes." And
wliat is his second and last act ? To gather round his

298 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
table Davis and Mason, — men who gloried in the blow
which exiled Sumner from the Senate for four years, and
made Christendom tremble for his life, — men who come
for his wine, and not for his wit, — and Boston, in his
person, sinks to be their associate, — no, their lackey. I
affirm, he does not represent Boston. [Cheers.] Look
at Its Lincoln vote ! I appeal from Phdip drunk to
Phdip sober, from Ann Street, cozened by old fogies,
to Ann Street under guidance of her native instincts.
[Loud applause.] Mr. Appleton represents neither the
merchants of Boston nor its grog-shops, though his friends
boast of having carried him by their aid. They are both
too good for him.
But the Bell-Everett party cannot say, with Francis I.
at Pavia, when he addressed the first lady by position in the
State, "Madam, we have lost all but honor," since the sore
ness of expected defeat led them to insult an invited guest,
a lady, and that lady, like the mother of Francis, the first
by position in the State. [Loud applause.] Of the first
Governor of Massachusetts (unless we count Endlcott,
and then call Winthrop our second Governor), the last
historian writes : " The qualities that denote the gentle
man were eminently his. Cordial and ready to every
expression of respect and courtesy, he gave all their
due, whether In great or little things." Good and bad
qualities, they tell us, are inherited, — pass down with the
blood. To be sure, now and then they lie latent for one
generation. Can ours be the generation of eclipse ? It
must be so, for surely the ignorance of good manners
which offers an insult is trivial, compared with the sdence
of those who know better than their lackeys, are as re
sponsible for the act, and refuse acknowledgment or pro
test. [Applause.]
Well, the battle is ended. What have we gained?
Let us. Ladles and Gentlemen, who care nothing for men

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 299
or for offices, whose only Interest Is justice and the great
future of the Republic, look round and weigh the spoils.
Everybody speculates, the pulpit affirms, the merchant
guesses, and the oracular press lays down the law. Why
should not the lyceum be in the fashion ? To begin, then,
at home. For the first time within my memory we have
got a man for Governor of Massachusetts, a frank, true,
whole-souled, honest man. [Cheering.] That gain alone
is worth all the labor. But the office is not the most Im
portant in the Commonwealth ; only now and then It
becomes commanding ; in a sad Burns week, for instance,
when Mr. Washburn was masquerading as Governor,
and when, as Emerson said, " if we had a man, and
not a cockade, in the chair, something might be done " ; or,
later, when the present Chief Mag-Istrate pushed Judge
Loring, on false pretences, from his stool. Such occasions
remind us we have a Governor. But in common times,
the Chief Justiceship is far more commanding, — is the
real Gibraltar of our State contests. John A. Andrew
should have been Chief Justice. [Applause.] You re
member they made the first William Pitt Earl of Chatham,
and he went into eclipse in the House of Lords. Some
one asked Chesterfield what had become of Pitt. " He
has had a fall up-stairs," was the answer. Governor
Andrew or Judge Andrew sounds equally well. But
I like the right man in the right place. The chief jus
ticeship belongs to the party of progress. Their Sparta
can point to many sons worthy of the place, — Sewall,
Hoar, Dana, or we might have offered another laurel for
the brow of our great Senator, were it only to show him
that the profession he once honored still remembers her
truant son. [Great applause.] The outgoing administra
tion, which entailed that office on talents, however respect
able, that belong to the party of resistance, placed itself
by the side of Arnold seUing West Point to the British.

300 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
Such an appointment was the Parthian arrow of a traitor
and a snob.
Then we have Lincoln for President [applause], — a
"VVhig, — a Revolutionary Whig, — a freedom-loving Whig,
— a Whig in the sense that Jefferson, Hamilton, and
Washington were Whigs. How much is that worth ? I
said we had passed the Rubicon. Caesar crossed the Rubi
con, borne in the arms of a people trodden into poverty
and chains by an oligarchy of slaveholders ; but that oli
garchy proved too strong even for Caesar and his legions.
Judged by its immediate success, Caesar's life was a failure
as much as John Brown's ; the Empire rotted into the
grave which slavery digs for all its victims. What better
right have we to hope ? Let us examine. The Repub
lican party says now what Mr. Sumner said In 1852, that
it " knows no better aim, under the Constitution, than to
bring back the government " to where it stood in 1789.
That is done. The echo of cannon from ocean shore to
the Rocky Mountains proclaims It accomplished.
How much is such success worth ? I suppose you will
not claim that Mr. Lincoln Is better than Washington.
As only Abolition telescopes have dared to discover any
spots on that sun, certainly, while Mr. Everett lives and
the Ledger is printed, no one will presume to say there
can be a better President than Washington. Indeed, Mr.
Seward asks in great contempt of any man who undertakes
to improve the Constitution, " Are you more just than
Washington, wiser than Hamilton, more humane than
Jefferson ? " Well, then, Washington, pursuing the very
policy which Mr. Lincoln proposes to follow, launched the
ship of state on seas white with the fervor of the Revolu
tionary love of liberty, and made shipwreck. Every ad
ministration grew worse than Its predecessor, and at last
slavery, having wound its slimy way to the top of the
Capitol, " Hangs hissing at the nobler man below."

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 301
The whole argument of the canvass has been, that the
experiment of self-government under this Constitution,
began by the best of men, has been a fadure. " The
country is wrecked ; take us for pilots, or you are lost," —
has been the cry of the Republicans. Mr. Sumner has
drawn the sad picture so well and so often that I need not
attempt It. Our Presidents tools of the Slave Power,
our army used to force slavery on our own Territories
and neighbor-nations, free speech punished with death in
one half the Union, and met with insult and starvation in
the other, the slave-trade reopened, and our most dis
tinguished scholar telegraphing apologies when his son sits
at school beside a colored boy, and exjdaining his own
indiscreet freedom of speech as the sad result of anodynes.
[Applause.] Surely Mr. Seward, seeing all this, was
right in confessing, at Rochester, In 1858, " Thus far our
course has not been according to the humane hopes and
expectations of our fathers." And, in 1860, "Not over
the face of the whole world Is there to be found one repre
sentative of our country who is not an apologist of the
extension of slavery." And again. In Kansas, a month
ago, " Our fathers thought slavery would cease before
now ; but the people became demoralized ; the war went
back, back, back, until 1854, until all guaranties of free
dom In every part of the United States were abandoned,
 and the flag of the United States was made the
harbinger, not of freedom, but of human bondage."
At Rochester, he went on to paint the picture of our
national wreck so darkly, that his own feelings led him, in
conclusion, to declare, that. If the final battle goes against
him, he will leave America, shake the dust off his feet, and
find " a more congenial home ; for where Liberty dwells,
there is my country."
But Mr. Seward closes that speech In hope, — hope
grounded on this, that the Republican party has arisen.

302 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
" It Is a party of one idea ; an idea that fills and expands
all generous souls ; the idea of equality, — the equality of
all men before human tribunals, as they are all equal be
fore the Divine tribunal and laws."
That is his rainbow of hope. It is a noble idea, —
equality before the law, — a mark which an old Greek
declared, two thousand years ago, distinguished freedom
from barbarism. Mark it, and let us question Mr. Lin
coln about it.
Do you believe, Mr. Abraham Lincoln, that the negro
is your political and social equal, or ought to be ? Not a
bit of it.
Do you believe he should sit on juries ? Never.
Do you think he should vote ? Certainly not.
Should he be considered a citizen ? I tell you frankly,
no. Do you think that, when the Declaration of Independ
ence says, " All men are created equal," It intends the
political equality of blacks and whites ? No, sir.
If this " idea that fills all generous minds " be equality,
surely Mr. Lincoln's mind Is as yet empty. If this is the
only hope of our being able to achieve what our fathers
failed to do, mount those Arab horses, Mr. Seward, and
fly to the desert ! But you can't fly with me, as the song
goes ; first, because, if we are defeated, I mean to die in
the last ditch [applause] ; and, secondly, notwithstanding
the emptiness of Mr. Lincoln's mind, I think we shall yet
succeed in making this a decent land to live in. [Cheers.]
May I tell you why ? Place yourselves at the door of
the Chicago Convention. Do you see Mr. Lincoln ? He
believes a negro may walk where he wishes, eat what he
earns, read what he can, and associate with any other who
is exactly of the same shade of black he is. That Is all he
can grant. Well, on the other side is Mr. Seward. He
believes the free negro should sit on juries, vote, be eligi-

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 303
ble to office, — that 's all. So much he thinks he can
grant without hurting the Union.
Now raise your eyes up ! In the blue sky above, you
will see Mr. Garrison and John Brown ! [Prolonged
cheering.] They believe the negro, bond or free, has the
same right to fight that a white man has, — the same claim
on us to fight for him ; and as for the consequences to the
Union, who cares ? Liberty first, and the Union after
wards, is their motto. [Cheers.] Liberty first, and, as
the Scotch say, " Let them care who come ahind."
That Convention selected Lincoln for their standard-
bearer. Enough gain for once. " First the blade, then
the ear, then the full corn in the ear." [Loud cheers.]
Dr. Windship began with a dumb-bell of ten pounds ; after
four years, he raises two hundred and fifty pounds In each
hanel. The elephants, when crossing a river, send the
smallest first. Don't mount those Arab steeds yet, Mr.
Sewarel! "Wait a little longer." Who knows whether
that Liberator, whose printing-office Mayor Otis could not
find in 1835, may not be issued from the eastern room
of the White House In 1873, and Mr. Seward himself,
Instead of saying that John Brown was "justly hung,"
may dare then to declaim, as Charles O'Connor does now,
In the Supreme Court at Albany : —
" A man who knows that the law under which he lives violates
the first principles of natural justice  is bound to strive, by
all honorable means, to break down and defeat that law. Among
these honorable means is the right of armed resistance, ^ the
sacred right of revolution  This is the higher law which
sanctified the revolt of George Wasldngton against the consti
tuted authorities then existing in this country  The laurel-
wreath of victory surrounds the name of Washington. Hi-suc
cess, defeat, overthrow, and death, in an ignominious form, might
have been his fate. Such -n'as the fate of many -n'ho, in this re
spect, perhaps, were as pure and virtuous as he. AVe revere the

304 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
name of Emmett ; we revere the name of Wallace,  of
every virtuous man who has perished in unsuccessful attempts to
achieve the independence of his country 
" And therefore, if negro slavery be a thing so unjust and so
wicked as my friends and their associates esteem it, I must admit
that -we cannot consistently refuse the same tribute to the recent
abolition martyr, John Brown. He fell ! So have many illus
trious champions of justice. He failed ! So chd Emmett, and
so did Wallace. His means were inadequate ! So were theirs :
the event proved it. He struggled indeed for the liberty of a
distant people, who were not his kinsmen, who were not of his
color, who had few claims upon his sympathy, and none upon his
affections. That may be an argument against him with those
who think that heroism and virtue should never be disinterested ;
but it has no real weight.
" We have not been in the habit of withholding our meed of
praise from Kosciusko, Pulaski, De Kalb, or Lafayette, all of
•nhom fought, and two of whom perished for us. We withheld
not our tribute of admiration from Lafayette when, in his old
age, he visited our country. No one asserted that he should
have stayed at home, instead of coming in aid of a remote and
distant people, and imperilling his life for their emancipation.
No ! we received him as the people's guest, and the whole
American nation, from one end of our repubhc to the other,
bowed down in heartfelt homage to his virtue.
" How can my learned friends, with their avowed principles,
¦withhold from John Brown the tribute of their admiration, or
from his deeds the sanction of their approval ? "
That is the opinion of Charles O'Connor, the head of
the New York Bar, the new-fledged orator of Democracy,
and the counsel for Virginia in the Lemmon case.
I expect to five to hear that sentence quoted In 1872,'
under the very dome of the Capitol, by some Senator
anxious for a Presidential nomination ! [Applause.] Do
you doubt it? Why, it Is not impossible that Virginia
herself, clothed and in her right mind, may yet beg of

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 305
New York the dust of John Brown for some mausoleum
at Richmond, as repentant Florence, robed in sackcloth,
begged of Ravenna the dust of that outlawed Dante, whom
a century before she ordered to be burned alive. [Great
cheering.] You think me a fanatic, perhaps '! Well, I
have been thought so once or twice before. [Laughter.]
j\Iay I tell you the reason of the faith that is in me ? It
eloes not hang on President Lincoln or any other Presl-
elent. Certainly not while he Is checkmated by both
House and Senate. I think little of the direct Influence
of governments. I think, with Guizot, that "it is a gross
delusion to believe In the sovereign power of political ma
chinery." To hear some men talk of the government,
you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravita
tion, and kept the planets in their places. IMr. Webster
sneered at the antislavery and kindred movements as
" rub-a-dub agitations." Judge Story jJumes himself on
our government abolishing the slave-trade In 1808, as if
In that It was not the servant of Clarkson and Wilberforce,
Beiiezet and Woohnan !
I never take up a paper full of Congress squabbles,
reported as if sunrise elepended upon them, without think
ing of that idle English nobleman at Florence, whose
brother, just arrived from London, happening to mention
the House of Commons, he languidly asked, "Ah ! Is that
thing going still ? " [Great merriment.] Did you ever see
on Broadway — you may in Najjles — a black figure grind
ing choceilate in the windows ? He seems to turn the
wheel, but in truth the wheel turns him. [Laughter.]
Now such Is the President of the LTnlted States. He seems
to govern ; he only reigns. ^Vs Lord Brougham said In a
similar case, — Lincoln is in place. Garrison In power.
[Applause.] " Rub-a-dub agitation,^' forsooth ! as if Mr.
Webster could have a Whig party, or anything else. In
these reading davs, without that agitation which calls into
20

306 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
being and sustahis the press, which melts and moulds the
popular wIU and heart. What would the Tribune be
without the antislavery movement ? Let progressive men
be mum, and the Tribune would starve. We could better
do without it, than It without us. This talk of politicians
about quieting agitation, and yet expecting progress, or
even life. Is like the present Shah of Persia, (not one of
whose subjects In fifty thousand can read, and not one in
a hundred thousand can write,) exclaiming, when Slr
Gore Ousely told him of the large revenue from the
British post-office, " I 'U have a post-office to-morrow."
[Loud applause.] You might as well have jury trials in
TImbuctoo. [Laughter.] It is worse than making bricks
without straw ; it is making bricks without clay.
Observe, I do not depreciate statesmanshq). It requires
great ability to found states and governments, but only
common talent to carry . them on. It took Fulton and
Watt to create the steam-engine ; but a very ordinary
man can engineer a train from Boston to Albany.
Some critics sneer at old histories for recording only
what government did. They should remember how
much, in old times, governments covered the whole field
of human life, — trade, letters, religion, and Industry.
The annals of a dynasty were then, to a great extent, the
history of the times. We call for different histories, be
cause the times have so much changed. At present, it is
not cabinets, but art, science, literature, opinion, fashion,
and trade that mould national character and purpose.
These, the London Times confessed, a dozen years ago,
were infinitely more than statutes or parties. The late
canvass was worth a dozen LIncolns. The agitation was
a yeomanly service to liberty. It educated the people.
One such canvass makes amends for the cowardice of our
scholars, and consoles us under the infliction of Harvard
CoUege. [Laughter and applause.] Indeed, government

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 307
is only a necessary evil, like other go-carts anel crutches.
Our need of It shows exactly how far we are stdl children.
All governing over-much kills the self-help and energy of
the governed. Compare the last century with this, or the
European with the Yankee. Every narrowing of the
sphere of government proves growth in the people, and is
the seed of further growth.
Civilization dwarfs political machinery. Without doubt,
the age of Fox' and Pitt was one In which the prejudices
of courts and the machinery of cabinets had large sway.
But how absurd to say even of Pitt and Fox that they
shapeel the fate of Englanel. The inventions of Watt and
Arkwrlght set free millions of men for the ranks of Wel
hngton ; the wealth they created clothed and fed those
hosts ; the traele they estabhshed necessitated the war, if
it was at all or ever necessary. Berlin and Milan decrees
would have smothered every man In England. The very
goods they manufactured, shut out from the continent,
would have crowded the inhabitants off their little island.
It was land monopoly that declared war with France, and
trade fought the battle. Napoleon was struck down by
no eloquence of the House of Commons, by no sword of
Wellington. He was crushed and ground to powder In
the steam-engines of James Watt.
Cobden and O'Connell, out of the House of Commons,
were giants ; In it, dwarfs. Sir Robert Peel, the cotton-
spinner, was as much a power as Sir Robert Peel, the
Prime Minister. We went to stare at the Lord Chancel
lor, not for' his seals and velvet bag, but because he was
Harry Brougham of the Edinburgh Review. Rowlanel
Hill and Adam Smith, Granville Sharpe and Pilgrim's
Progi-ess, the London Times and the Stock Exchanoe,
outweigh a century of Cannings and Palmerstons, Glad
stones, LIverpools, and Earls Grey.
Weighed against the New England Primer, Lyman

308 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
Beecher, and Franklin, against the New York Tribune
and Herald, all our thirteen Presidents kick the beam.
The pulpit and the steamboat are of Infinitely more mo
ment than the Constitution. The South owes the exist
ence of slavery to-day to the cunning of a Massachusetts
Yankee, Eli Whitney ; and Fulton did more to perpetuate
the Union than a Senate-Chamber of Websters. I wIU
not say that Mr. Banks, at the head of the Illinois Railway
(if he ever gets there), will be a more Influential man than
whde Governor of this State, but I will say that the found
ers and presidents of our railways are a much more
influential boely than the Senate of the Union.
Stdl, though I think little of pohtical machinery, I value
the success of the Republican party ; not so much as an
instrument, but as a milestone. It shows how far we have
got. Let me explain. [Laughter.] You know that
geologists tell us that away back there, before Moses
[laughter], the earth hung a lurid mass of granite, hot,
floating in thick carbonic acid gas for an atmosphere, —
poison, thick gas. Gradually the gi-anite and choke-
damp, as miners call it, united and made limestone ; then
more choke-damp was absorbed, and sandstone came ;
more still, and coal appeared. By this time, the air had
parted with all Its poison, and was pure enough to breathe.
Then came man ! Just such has been our progress. Our
government hung a lurid, floating mass in the poisonous
atmosphere of New York Observers and Heralds, Tract
Societies, pro-slavery pulpits. Union meetings, Calhouns,
Everetts, Websters, and Halletts, slave-hunters, Curtises.
The chemical process began. They were partially ab
sorbed. We had Whig parties, anti-Texas meetings, and
Free-soil factions. Tlie change went on, and finally we
have a party that dares to say slavery is a sin — in some
places ! The air begins to grow almost pure enough to
breathe. [Applause.]

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 309
Scientific men think that electricity did much to hasten
the coming of limestone and coal, and the disappearance
of poison gas. In oi]r case, too, electricity, — by which I
mean the Garrison *^rtj [loud laughter and ajiplause], —
fiashing through ar'd through and all over the lazy heav
ens, quickened on ^cliange also. But the growth will be
a great deal quloker in time to come. [Loud applause.]
One great evil "of politics — one that almost outweighs
the help It indirectly gives to education — Is the chains it
puts On able men. Those chains are much looseneel now.
Listen to Mr. Sewarel on the prairies ! Notice how free
and eloquent he has been since the Chicago Convention !
And this change is not due to age. You know, I am apt
to say, among other impertinent things, that you can
always get the truth from an American statesman after he
has turneel seventy, or given up all hope of the Presi
dency. [Applause.] I should like a law that one third
of our able men shoulel be Ineligible to that office ; then
every third man would tell us the truth. The last ten
years of John Quincy Adams were the frankest of his life.
In them, he poured out before the people the treason and
indignation which formerly he had only written in his
diary. And Josiah Quincy, the venerable, God bless
him ! has told us more truth since he was eighty, than he
ever did before. [Applause.] They tell us that until
this year they have not been able to survey IMouiit Wash
ington ; its iron centre warped the compass. Just so with
our statesmen before they reach seventy, their survey of
the state is ever false. That great central magnet at
Washington deranges all their instruments.
Let me take the speeches of Mr. Seward as an illustra
tion of American statesmen. I take him, because he Is a
live man, and a worthy sample. [Applause.] I agree
with the doctors' rule, — Medicamenta non agunt in cadaver,
— " Dead bodies are no test of drugs." But he Is a fair

310 LINCOLN'S ELECTION
test, — a real live statesman ; not one^of those petty poli
ticians who hang on agitation for what/they can pick up, as
I have seen birds, in summer, watch j-ound a horse's feet
for the insects his tread disturbs. Niluhe is a statesman.
In 1848, at Cleveland, Mr. Sewar'l^Aald : "We of New
York are gudty of slavery stdl by wlfcdiolding the right
of suffrao-e from the race we have emaj-.-;Ipated. You of
Ohio are guilty in the same way by a sys&m of black laws
still more aristocratic and odious  It is written in
the Constitution of the United States, in violation of the
Divine law, that we shall surrender the fugitive slave
who takes refuge at our fireside from his relentless pur
suers." Mark the confession ! the Constitution he stands sworn
to support violates the Divine law ! Does he advise his
hearers to obey It ? O no ! He goes on : " Extend a
cordial welcome to the fugitive who lays his weary limbs
at your door, and defend him as you would your paternal
gods." This Is one of his methods of " an effective ag
gression on slavery." That sounds well. No twaddle
about non-extension. No wonder Senator Mason sum
moned such a bloody fanatic before the Harper's Ferry
Committee !
Well, In the Senate, in 1850, he declares that " the law
of nature, written on the hearts and consciences of free
men, repudiates the fugitive slave clause"; that "we
cannot be either true Christians or true freemen. If we
impose on another a chain that we defy all human power
to fasten on ourselves " ; and he " thinks it wrong to hold
men In bondage, at any time, and under any circum
stances." But yet, at the same time, having counseUed
Ohio to resist the slave clause, and denounced it as a " com
pact no Christian nation would ever make," he goes on to
pledge himself to use only " constitutional and peaceful
means " to resist slavery, all about the paternal gods to

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 311
the contrary notwithstanding ! You need not summon
him, Mr. Mason ! He won't do any harm ! In 1860,
just after Harper's Ferry, he tells the South, that, ff their
sovereignty Is assailed, within or without, no matter on
what pretext, or who the foe, he will defend It as he would
his own ! You see, peaceful measures against slavery ;
guns and bayonets for it !
Do these words mean that ? 0 no ! Go with me to
Madison, in September, and stand before that beautiful
Capitol between the three lakes, and you will hear these
same lips saying : —
" It has been by a simple rule of interpretation I have studied
the Constitution of my country. That rule has been simply this :
that by no word, no act, no combination into which I might
enter, should any one human being of all the generations to
which I belong, much less any class of human beings of any
nation, race, or kindred, be oppressed and kept down in the least
degree in their efforts to rise to a higher state of liberty and hap*
piness. Amid all the glosses of the times, amid all the essays
and discussions to which the Constitution of the United States
has been subjected, this has been the simple, plain, broad light in
which I have read every article and every section of that great
instrument. Whenever it requires of me that this hand shall
keep down the humblest of the human race, then I will lay down
power, place, position, fame, everything, rather than adopt such a
construction or such a rule. If, therefore, in this land there are
any who would rise, I say to them, in God's name, good speed !
If there are in foreign lands people vt'ho would improve their
condition by emigration, or if there be any here who would go
abroad in search of happiness, in the improvement of their con
dition, or in their elevation toward a higher state of dignitj' and
happiness, they have always had, and they always shall have, a
cheering word, and such efforts as I can consistently make in
their behalf" [Cheers.]
That is good ! It sounds like Kossuth ! Now, then,
we understand him fully. He wIU ne-\'er help a slave-

312 LINCOLN'S ELECTION. '
holder, and believe all races equal. Not quite. Is he in
favor of complete equality, social and all ? Is the coun
try as open to the black man as the white ? 0 no !
In February last, he declared that the man who said so
libelled the Republican party ! And at St. Paul, in Sep
tember, he bade them remember this was the country of
the white man ! and lets them understand that the Re-
j)ubllcan party opposes only the extension of slavery. In
1850, he declared " this violation of the Divine law,"
which he calls " the Constitution," — this " compact
which no Christian state would ever make," and no
Christian man could ever obey, — " the only just and
equal government that ever existed ! no other govern
ment ever could be so wise, just, free, and equal ! " And
he affirms that no time or change could ever produce one
more beneficent ! Last Friday, in New York, he said
that whoever doubts that this Constitution (" this viola
tion of the Divine law") will " last forever, has no faith
In reason, no faith in justice, no faith in truth, no faith
in virtue " ! If this be so, then " violations of the Divine
law" seem about as eternal as the Divine law itself; and
the Italian who prayed, " Good Lord, good Devd," was
a sensible man, and was only laying a very prudent and
necessary anchor to the windward ! [Laughter and
applause.] At Washington, in February, he thought John Brown
" was misguided and desperate," and "justly hung." He
talks of " social horrors " and " disunion," and irons his
face out to portentous length and sadness. [Laughter.]
But at Chicago, In September, John Brown, he says,
" was the only one man [when the Missouri Compromise
was repealed] who hoped against the prevailing demor
alization, and cheered and sustained me [Mr. Seward]
through it ! " And at St. Paul, he snaps his fingers at
disunion, and, amid shouts of derisive laughter, cries out,
"Who's afraid?"

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 313
They exhibited at the Crystal Palace, in 1851, a Da
mascus blade, so flexible that It could be placed in a sheath,
coiled like a snake. Something hke It seems Mr. Seward's
conscience, only the blade boasted It could bend. Seward,
after coiling In and out, insists on our believing that he
never bent a whit !
But hear him now, since the nomination at Chicago !
See the lion toss his free limbs on the prairie ! Standing
in Kansas, with the spirit of John Brown hovering over
him, his name written on every hill-top, hear the old Gov
ernor proclaim, " All men shall have the ballot or none ;
all men shall have the bullet or none." Crossing into
Missouri, he says, the principle that every man should
own the soil he tills, and the head and hands he works
with, "is going through; It is bound to go through";
when a by-stander said, " Not here," he retorted, " Yes,
here. As it is has gone through eighteen States of the
Union, it is bound to go through the other fifteen. It Is
bound to go through all of the thirty-three States of the
Union, for the simjile reason that it is going through the
world." [Prolonged applause.]
That smacks of good old-fashioned John Brown and
Garrison Abolition, — not non-extension ! I know ]Mr.
E\'erett will deem such words very indiscreet. [Laugh
ter.] I knew an old lady to whom a friend had given a
nice silk umbrella. She had kept it standing In a corner
twenty years, when one day her grandson seized it to go
out. " You 're not going to take that out in the wet ! "
she exclaimed. "Never, while I live!" This Is just
like Mr. Everett's free speech, always laid up in cotton !
[Laughter and applause.]
They say. If you stand on the prairie of an August night
at full moon, you can hear the corn grow, so quick are
nature's processes out there. Had you been by Governor
Seward that day, you might have heard him grow. [Loud
applause.]

314 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.
And as Seward grows, so grow miUions of others, and
so the world moves. "The sword," says Victor Hugo,
"is but a hideous flash In the darkness, — Right is an
eternal ray." Wait ! Be patient ! In 1760, what Bos
ton rebel boys felt, James Otis spoke, George Washington
achieved, and Everett praises to-day. The same routine
will go on. What fanatics feel. Garrison prints, some
future Seward wUl achieve, and, at the safe distance of
half a century, some courtly Everett wdl embalm in
matchless panegyrics. [Cheers.]
You see exactly what my hopes rest upon. Growth !
The Republican party have undertaken a problem, the
solution of which will force them to our position. Not
Mr. Seward's " Union and Liberty," which he stole and
poisoned from Webster's " Liberty and Union."' No;
their motto wdl soon be, "Liberty first," a long pause,
then " Union afterwards." [Applause and a sohtary
hiss.] In 1842, LIndley had finished the railway at Hamburg,
and was to open It, when the great fire broke out. The
self-satisfied citizens called the Englishman to see how well
their six-penny squirts and old pails could put out the fire.
But it raged on, tdl one quarter of the city was In ruins.
" Mynherr LIndley, what shaU we do ? " cried the fright
ened Senators of Hamburg. " Let me blow up a couple
of streets," he answered. " Never, never, never." An
other day of flames. " Mynherr LIndley, blow up the
streets and welcome, only save us." " Too late," replied
the engineer. " To do that, I must blow up the Senate-
House itself" They debated an hour, and then said,
" Mynherr LIndley, save us In your own way." In one
hour, the Senate-House was in ruins, and the flre ceased.
" Be quiet, Mr. Garrison," said 1830. " Don't you see
our six-penny Colonization Society, and our old-fashioned
pails of church resolves, nicely copied and laid away in

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. '6ib
vestries ? See how we 'U put out this fire of slavery."
But it burned on fiercer, fiercer. " What shall we do
now ? " asked startled Whiggery. " Keep the new States
free, abolish slavery in the District, shut the door against
Texas." "Too much," said ' Whiggery ; "we are busy
aiow making Webster President, and proving that Mr.
Everett never had an antislavery idea." But the flames
roll on. Republicanism proposes to blow up a street or
two. No, no ; nothing but to blow up the Senate-House
will do ; and soon frightened Hamburg will cry, " Myn
herr Garrison, Mynherr Garrison, save us on your own
terms ! " [Loud applause.]
You perceive my hope of freedom rests on these rocks :
1st, mechanical progress. First man walked, dug the earth
with his hands, ate what he could pick up ; then he sub
dues the horse, invents the plough, and makes the water
float him down stream ; next come sails, wind-mdls, and
water-power ; then sewing-machines lift woman out of
torture, steam marries the continents, and the telegraph
flashes news like sunlight over the globe. Every step
made hands worth less, and brams worth more ; and that
is the death of slavery. You can make apples grow one
half pippin and the other half russet. They say that the
Romans could roast one half of a boar, and bod the other
side. [Laughter.] But I am sure you cannot make a
nation with one half steamboats, sewing-machines, and
Bibles, and the other half slaves. Then another rock of
my hope Is these Presidential canvasses, — the saturnalia
of American life, — when slaves like Seward are unchained
from the Senate-House, as of old In Rome, and let loose
on the prairies, to fling all manner of Insult on their mas
ters. He may veil it all hereafter In dignified explana
tions, but the praiiies give back an hundred-fold for all
seed dropped there. [Applause.] Then the ghost of
John Brown makes Vu-ginia quick to calculate the profit

316 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.'
and loss of slavery. Beside this, honest men, few, but the
salt of the times, and school-houses and pulpits, and now
and then a stray prince, who, looking down South, de
clines to venture among a barbarous people, lest, unlike
St. Paul's case, they show him very little kindness. So,
with trade, art, letters, conscience, fashion, now and then
a college redeemed from old fogies, now and then a saint,
and now and then a hero lent us by heaven, we may
come at last to be as wise as Napoleon, and beheve
" there is no power without justice " ; we may grow to
be as good Christians as Cicero, and hold that " baseness
can never be expedient " ; we may be as good Protes
tants as Tocqueville, and declare that " whoever loves
freedom for anything but freedom's self. Is made to be a
slave." It is indeed cheering to notice the general tone of
speaking in this canvass ; — the much nobler tone of Mr.
Seward, for Instance, in speaking of the Union on the
prairies, than it used to be. I recollect a striking picture
he drew in 1850 of the value of the Union, and every hue
was dollars! "Amplitude of territory," increase of popu
lation, " fields, workshops, ships, mines, the plough, loom,
anvil, canals, railways, steamboats," and the "navy," —
all earthborn. Now he cries. Whoever says trade is the
cement of the Union, libels the idea of American civiliza
tion. That Is good ! [Applause.]
The saddest thing in the Union meetings of last year
was the constant presence, in all of them, of the clink of
coin, — the whir of spindles, — the dust of trade. You
would have Imagined it was an insurrection of pedlers
against honest men. [Laughter.] Mr. Everett at Fan
euil Hall, when he sought for the value of the Union,
could only bewail the loss of our " commercial inter
course," the certainty of " hostde tariffs," and danger to
the "navy" ! And this Is literally all the merits of the

LINCOLN'S ELECTION. 317
Union which he catalogues ! No ; I do him injustice.
He eloes ask, trembling, in case of chsunion, " Where, 0
where, wdl be the fiag of the United States ? " Well, I
think the Historical Society had better take It for their
Museum. [Laughter and applause.]
Mr. O'Connor, too, who gave the key-note to the New
York meeting. The only argument he has for the Union
Is his assurance that, if we dissolve, there 'U be no more
" marble store fronts " on Broadway, and no brown-stone
palaces in the Fifth Avenue ! Believe me, this Is literally
all he named, except one which Mr. Everett must have
been under the influence of an anodyne to have forgotten,
but \\'hicli, perhaps. It is better, on the whole, for Mr.
O'Connor, being an Irishman, to recollect. It Is this : in
case of dissolving, we shall no longer own the grave of
Washington, which, Mr. Everett having paid for, the
New York peddling orator finds it hard to lose ! And so
it strikes me !
But I must confess, those pictures of the mere industrial
A'alue of the Union made me profoundly sad. I look, as,
beneath the skilful pencil, trait after trait leaps to glowing
life, and ask at last. Is this all ? Where are the nobler
elements of national purpose and life ? Is this the whole
fruit of ages of toil, sacrifice, and thought, — those cunning
fingers, the overflowing lap, labor vocal on every hillside,
and commerce whitening every sea, — all the dower of
one haughty, overbearing race? The zeal of the Puritan,
the faith of the Quaker, a century of Colonial health, and
then this large civilization, does it result only In a work
shop, — fops melted In. baths and perfumes, and men grim
with toil ? Raze out, then, the Eagle from our banner,
and paint Instead Niagara used as a cotton-mill !
0 no ! not such the picture my glad heart sees when I
look forward. Once plant deep In the nation's heart the
love of right, let there grow out of it the firm purpose of

318 LINCOLN'S ELECTION.!
duty, and then from the higher plane of Christian man
hood we can put aside on the right hand and the left these
narrow, childish, and mercenary considerations.
" Leave to the soft Campanian
His baths and his perfumes ;
Leave to the sordid race of Tyre
Their dyeing-vats and looms ;
Leave to the sons of Carthage
The rudder and the oar ;
Leave to the Greek his marble nymphs,
And scrolls of wordy lore " ; —
but for us, the children of a purer civdization, the pioneers
of a Christian future, it is for us to found a Capitol whose
corner-stone is Justice, and whose top-stone is Liberty;
within the sacred precincts of whose Holy of Holies dwell-
eth One who is no respecter of persons, but hath made of
one blood all nations of the earth to serve him. Crowding
to the shelter of its stately arches, I see old and young,
learned and ignorant, rich and poor, native and foreign.
Pagan, Christian, and Jew, black and white. In one glad,
harmonious, triumphant procession !
" Blest and thrice blest the Roman
Who sees Home's brightest day ;
Who sees that long victorious pomp
Wind down the sacred way,
And through the bello-mng Eorum,
And round the supphant's Grove,
Up to the everlasting gates
Of Capitolian Jove ! "

MOBS AND EDUCATION.

" On Sunday forenoon,'' says the Liberator of December 21, 1860,
" the Twenty-Kighth Congregational Society (Theodore Parker's Fra
ternity) held their usual Sunday meeting in Music Hall. It having
been rumored for several days previous, that Mr. Phillips was likely
to be mobbed and assaulted, a large detachment of police was in
attendance at the hall, at an early hour. Before the services com
menced, large numbers of the police were stationed in two small
rooms adjoining the platform. Others were stationed in various parts
of the hall, and building. Members of the detective police force were
also present 
" The regular religious exercises of the day were conducted in the
usual manner."

/

I WAS present here last Sunday, and noticed that some
of the friends of the speaker expressed their sympathy
with his sentiments by applause. You will allow me to
request that to-day, at least, we preserve the usual deco
rum of this place and this hour, and listen — even if you
should like anything particularly — In silence.
About a fortnight ago, — on the 3d of this month, —
certain men, supported by the Mayor, broke up an anti-
slavery meeting. I propose to consider that morning, as
dlustrating American education. Some of you may thmk
that e\ei-ybody talks, now, of slavery, free speech, and the
negro. That is true ; and I am not certain that the long
est liver of you all will ever see the day when It wdl not

320 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
be SO. The negro for fifty, or thirty, years has been the
basis of our commerce, the root of our pohtics, the pivot
of our pulpit, the inspiration of almost all that is destined
to live in our literature. For a hundred years, at least,
our history will probably be a record of the struggles of a
proud and selfish race to do justice to one that circum
stances have thrown Into its power. The effects of slavery
will not vanish In one generation, or even in two. It
were a very slight evil. If they could be done away with
more quickly.
Fredrika Bremer said, the fate of the negro Is the ro
mance of our history. It will probably be a long whde, a
very long whde, before the needle of our politics wdl float
free from this disturbance, before trade will cease to feel
the shock of this agitation, before the pulpit can throw
off vassalage to this prejudice and property, before letters
take heart and dare to speak the truth. A bitter preju
dice must be soothed, a blooely code repealed, a huckster
ing Constitution amended or made way with, social and
industrial life rearranged, and ministers allowed to take
the Bible, instead of the Stock List, as the basis of their
sermons. Meanwhile, you must expect that every shock
and oscdlation of the stormy elements will stir up the
dregs of society, lewd fellows of the baser sort, to deeds
of anger and outrage ; and meanwhile every honest and
earnest man will speak, and every such man wdl be glad
to hear, as occasion calls, of this the great duty that Provi
dence has placed in our hands.
I bate no jot of trust that this noble trial of self-govern
ment will succeed. Heirs of a glorious past, we have
manhood enough to be the benefactors of the future, and
to hand down this hard-earned fabric, freed ft-om Its great
est, perhaps its only, danger.
The planting of these states always amazed the casual
observer, and has been a subject of the deepest Interest to

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 321
thoughtftil men. " The wddest theories of the human
reason were reduced to practice by a community so hum
ble that no statesman condescended to notice it, and a legis
lation without precedent was proeluced off-hand by the
instincts of the people." The profoundest scholar of that
day said, " No man is wiser for his learning," — a sentiment
which Edmund Burke almost echoed ; and it seems as if
our comparatively unlettered fathers proved it. Tliey
framed a government which, after two hundred years, is
still the woneler and the study of statesmen. It was only
another proof that governments are not made, they grow,
that the heart is the best logician, that character, which is
but cousin to instinct. Is a better guide than philosophy.
Wordsworth said, of a similar awakening :
" A few strong instincts, and a few plain rules.
Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought
More for mankind, at this unhappy day.
Than all the pride of intellect and thought."
That sunrise has colored the whole morning of our his
tory. It Is the cardinal principle of our national life, that
God has given every man sense enough to manage his
own affairs. Out of that, by a short process, come uni
versal suffrage and the eligibility of every man to office.
The majority rules, and law rests on numbers, not on
Intellect or virtue. A sound rule, and. If not the only one
consistent with freedom and progress, at least the one that
best serves these. But the harm Is, that, while theoreti
cally holding that no vote of the majority can authorize
injustice, we practically consider public opinion the real
test of what is true and what Is false ; and hence, as a
result, the fact which Tocquevdle has noticed, that prac
tically our institutions protect, not the interests of the
whole community, but the interests of the majority.
Every man knot's best how to manage his own affairs.
Simple statement, perfectly sound; but we mix It up
21

322 3I0BS AND EDUCATION.
somehow with that other rule, that every man is eligible
to office, and then we hurry on to the habit of considering
every man competent for everything. Does a man achieve
success in some particular point, we hail him a universal
Crichton, and endow him with a genius for aU work. A
mechanic invents a new stitch in a carpet-web ; straight
way he is named for Congress. Does a man edit a re
spectable daily to bankruptcy, we put him on a commission
to choose for us water not fit to drink, or let him carry a
railroad half-way to ruin, by paying dividends that were
never earned. That militia colonel survived a Western
brawl, — call It a battle and a victory, and choose him
President at once. This man is a brilliant historian, —
send him Ambassador to England. Another has argued
ably an india-rubber case, — send him to fade out in the
Senate. Does a man fail utterly, — a bankrupt poet or
office-seeker, — he edits a newspaper. We lack, entirely,
discrimination. Because a man is entitled to draw upon
us for fifty dollars, we put a thousand to his credit. That
a man edits the Tribune so as to pay, ^ no very high
order of talent, — is no proof that he knows better than
other men who should be President of the United States.
Bayard Taylor majr be a genius and a traveller, without
the least trace of patriotism or the least spark of a gentle
man. A hundred years ago, you must have served an
apprenticeship of seven years to make a shoe ; now talk
seven months on the right side, you may be Governor of a
State. I said that, in spite of the heedlessness and good nature
of this mistake, the rule that every man should be eligible
to office Is the best rule you can have. Our large measure
of national success, in spite of this heedlessness, shows how
truly the Swede spoke when he said, QUantula sapientia
regitur mundus, — "How little wit it takes to hold office ! "
But, though life be long and sunny, one fit of severe dl

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 323
ness Is a great evd. It Is quite true, that routine Incapa
city stumbles along very well at common times ; but there
come hours when we need a pdot, and then we suffer.
Such an hour we have just passed through.
Certain men, who seem utterly ignorant of the principle,
that only by letting each man speak exactly what he sees
fit, at the time he chooses, can the progress of truth be
secured, attempted to put down certain other men, assem
bled to discuss the abolition of slavery. I want to look at
that attempt as Illustrating the ignorance of the actors, the
Ignorance of the press, and the incapacity of the city gov
ernment. And I take this subject specially because it
enables me to lay before you a correct account of the
course of events that morning, which no journal of the
city has bestirred Itself to procure. And I seize this, the
first opportunity given me, to do justice to both parties,
— the assailants and the assailed.
Look first at the press. With the exception of The
Atlas and Bee, no one of the daily papers has uttered one
word of hearty, fitting rebuke of the mob. They have all
serious objections to mobs In the abstract, but none at all
to mobs in the street, none to this particular mob. This
was not a case of virtuous men refusing to obey a bad law,
of whom it has been well said, " They do not dispute the
right of the majority to command, they only appeal from
the sovereignty of the nation to the sovereignty of man
kind." But this was a blow at the right of free speech, a
right which no sane man in our age and land denies. Yet
you have still to read the first word of fitting, fearless,
hearty rebuke, from the Boston daily press, of a mob,
well elressed. met to crush fi-ee speech. I have known
Boston for thirty years. I have seen many mobs. With
one exception, I have yet to see the first word of honest
rebuke, from the daily press, of a well-dressed mob met to
crush honest men ; and that exception was the Boston

324 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
Daily Advocate of Mr. Hallett, In 1835 and 1837. Let
me say, in passing, that it is a singular result of our insti
tutions, that we have never had in Boston any but well-
dressed mobs. Still they are dangerous precedents, —
well-dressed men hire hungry mechanics to mob free
speech. Beware ! such men may " better the instruc
tion." The " flour mobs " followed close on the pro-
slavery mobs in New York. But such a press, — what
a tool, what a despicable tool !
The press wdl think me unjustifiable, perhaps, for they
affect to have discovered that there was no mob, only the
majority taking rightful possession of a public meeting.
We will consider that by and by.
The press says the mob was composed of " Boston gen
tlemen." A very natural mistake for a press which does
not know a mob when it sees it. But can we let that
description stand ? Broadcloth and fine linen do not make
a gentleman ! Ill manners and ignorance do not make
one. Earning a right to twelve months in the House of
Correction does not make one. [Laughter.] Resisting
the laws to help the stock market does not. Running,
before you are sent, with volunteer haste, to do the dirty
work of base men, does not make one. And yet these are
the only colors by which men before unseen made them
selves visible that day on the surface of affairs. One must
be born again Into the Kingdom of Mammon, before he
thinks such men gentlemen. And as the ringleaders were
not born In Boston, let us save the dear old town from the
disgrace of having them called Boston gentlemen. The
gossip of the street says they were excusable on account
of pecuniary losses, — they were men out of employ. The
ringleader said he came there to save his property. Let
us examine of what material the mob was really made.
We have a right to inquire, it is Important we should
know, who make up this Chamber of Inquisitors, this new

MOBS AND EDUCATION. '6'Zb
Star-Chamber, which undertakes to tell us, as Archbishop
Laud and Charles Stuart told our fathers, what creed we
shall hold, and what pubhc meetings we shall attend.
Who were they?
Weak sons of moderate fathers, dandled into effeminacy,
of course wholly unfit for business. But overflowing trade
sometimes laps up such, as It does all obtainable instru
ments. Instead of fire-engines, we take pails and dippers.
In times of sore need. But such the first frost nips into
idleness. Narrow men, ambitious of office, fancying that
the inheritance of a million entitles them to political ad
vancement. Bloated distdlers, some rich, some without
wit enough to keep the money they stole. Old families
run to seed in respectable dulness, — fruges consumer e
nati, — born only to eat. Trading families, in the thirel
generation, playing at stock-jobbing to lose in State Street
what their fathers made by smuggling in India. Sweep
in a hundred young rogues, the grief of mothers and the
disgrace of their names, good as naughts to fill up a place
in what is called "society," and entitled as such to shrink
from notice, — but the motes we do not usually see get
looked at when they trouble our eyes. Snobbish sons of
fathers lately rich, anxious to show themselves rotten be
fore they are ripe. [Hitherto there had been no demon
strations from the hearers, except occasional suppressed
laughter at the speaker's sarcasms. The laughter here
was received with hisses by a portion of the audience.]
These, taking courage from the presence of bolder rogues,
some from jail and others whom technical skill saved
therefrom, — the whole led by a third-rate lawyer broken
down to a cotton-ederk [hisses], borrowing consequence
from married wealth, — not one who ever added a doUar,
much less an idea, to the wealth of the city, not one able
to give a reason or an excuse for the prejudice that is In
him, — these are the men, this is the house of nobles,

326 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
whose leave we are to ask before we speak and hold meet
ings. These are the men who tell us, the children of the
Pilgrims, the representatives of Endlcott and Winthrop,
of SewaU and Quincy, of Hancock and Adams and Otis,
what opinions we shaU express, and what nieetings we
shall hold ! These are the men who, the press tells us,
being a majority, took rightful possession of the meeting
of the 3d of December, [applause and cries of " Good,"]
and, " without violating the right of fi-ee speech," organized
it, and spoke the sober sense of Boston !
I propose to examine the events of that morning. In
order to see what idea our enlightened press entertain of
the way in which " gentlemen " take possession of a
meeting, and the fitness of those "gentlemen" to take
possession of a meeting.
On the 3d of December, certain gentlemen — Rev. J.
Sella Martin, James Redpath, Mr. Eldridge, Mr. O'Con
nor, Mr. Le Barnes — hired the Temple for a Convention
to assemble at their request. The circular which they
issued a month before, in November, invited the " leaders
and representatives of all the antislavery bodies, and those
who have done honor to their own souls by the advocacy
of human freedom," to meet them in convention. Cer
tainly the fops and the clerks of Boston could not come
under that description. The notice published the day
before proclaimed that the convention " was not met for
debate, that each speaker should confine himself to giving,
briefly, his views on the question, ' How shall American
slavery be abolished ? ' " Does Mr. Fay, or any one of his
associates, dare to say, in the presence of the citizens of
Boston, that he entered that hall to join in good faith in
any such Investigation ? The temper and quality of the
meeting was shown by the statement of that notice, that
it chose the anniversary of the "martyrdom" of John
Brown as the day for its meeting, and mentioning his

MOBS AND EDUCATION. '6Zi
death as " too glorious to need defence or eulogy." If
any one of Mr. Fay's associates entered that hall with
written resolutions in then- pockets, denouncing John
Brown and expressing " horror for his piratical, bloody,
and nefarious attempt," by what claim, as gentlemen, do
they justify their presence there ?
But waive that, and grant that they were rightfidly
present. When a convention assembles at the call of a
committee of gentlernen. It is a well-recognized and settled
right and custom of the callers to organize that conven
tion through a committee, or otherwise to appoint officers
for the body. If the committee report a list, it is some
times put to vote, and sometimes not. When a vote is
taken, It is mere form ; for all well-disposed men, if they
contest a convention, uniformly leave it the right to or
ganize itself, and meet it, if anywhere, on the passage of
its resolutions. In conformity with this custom, the Rev.
J. Sella Martin took the floor as temporary Chairman.
He appointed a committee to appoint officers. That com
mittee reported a list, with Mr. Sanborn of Concord as
Chairman. Mr. Martin announced him, as he had an en
tire, well-recognized right to do, as the Chairman of that
meeting. But suppose the Convention chose to Insist on its strict
right, and to organize Itself without regard to Its callers.
Then it was perfectly in order for any member to address
the temporary chair, and make a motion to that effect. Did
any one do it ? No. On the contrary, one person, who
seems to shrink from having his name known, nominated
Mr. Richard S. Fay as chairman [" Good ! " cheers and
hisses], and put the motion. This anonymous skulker
does not seem to know parliamentary law enough to re
member that he should address the chair, or that he
should wait to have his motion seconded ; but without
that, and \\ithout any call for the nays, Mr. Fay assumes

328 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
to be Chairman. There having been, then, in the eye of
strict parliamentary law, no motion, — for all the books lay
it down that " no motion can be made without addressing
the chair," — there having been no motion, no seconding,
no call for the nays, there being no announcement of the
vote, either by the Chairman or by Mr. Anonymous, when
Mr. Richard S. Fay walked to that platform and assumed
to be Chairman, he announced himseff the ringleader of a
mob [applause, and one cry of " No ! "] by the strictest
letter of parliamentary law. Journals which undertake to
know, style him the rightftd Chairman. And when Mr.
Douglass, in common courtesy, handed him a glass of
water, Mr. Fay says, " This acknowledges me as Chair
man ! " Profound logician, this Mr. Fay ! A glass of
water is his title to office, and Mr. Frederick Douglass Is
authorized to confer it.
And then commences an exhibition of his wonderful
powers as a presiding officer. The moment a chairman
takes his seat, the first duty Is the call for the appointment
of secretary and other officers. This wonderful meeting
had no officer, except its equally wonderful Chairman.
Unburdening himseff of his coat, he was not self-possessed
enough to find in his pocket the scroll of resolutions which
every one saw protruding from it, — whereupon he said.
" I thought I had got among honest men." Some by
standers thought this insolence. I am rather inclined to
believe it possible, that, having escaped from the mob to
our platform, he was congratulating himself upon having
gotten for once among honest men. [Much laughter.]
He then undertakes to read the resolutions, and offer them
to the Convention, ignorant again — Ignorant again —
that there was just one man In that meeting, and only one,
who had no right to offer a resolution, and that was him
self, on his own theory ; for every boy knows, except this
young cotton-clerk, that no presiding officer is entitled to
offer a resolution.

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 35^9
FoUowing, then, the example of Mr. Anonymous, who
nominated him, he does not wait to have the resolutions
seconded, he does not call for the nays, but he declares
them carried. This could not have been fright, for al
though he was observed to tremble and grow pale when
hundreds cried out " Shame ! " at the reading of his
third and fourth resolves, yet some one saying, " Don't
be frightened, we won't hurt you," had considerably re
assured him. [Laughter.] Then somebody makes a mo
tion to adjourn. Mr. Fay puts It. While he is doing so,
Mr. Frederick Douglass addresses him. He turns, intro
duces Mr. Douglass to the audience, and gives him the
floor. Ignorant again — Ignorant again — that a motion to
adjourn is not debatable. Some one in the audience,
while Mr. Douglass is speaking, reminds him there is a
motion before the house. This vigdant Chairman waves
the speaker aside, puts the motion to adjourn, declares it
carried, and then introduces Mr. Douglass again to this
adjourned Convention, and bids him remember the rule of
the call, to speak briefly, and to the point ! [Great laugh
ter.] And then this adjourned Chairman of a dead Con
vention sits and listens half an hour to a speech from Mr.
Douglass. Whereafter, another man makes a motion to
adjourn ; he puts it, declares It carried, and then, — on
the poet's principle, "twice he slew the slain," — recog
nizing, I suppose, that even his mob, twice adjourned, is
done with, takes his hat and vanishes, — - this orderly Chau--
man !
Common chairmen, before quitting their conventions,
appoint a committee of finance, to see that the expenses
are paid ; but this opulent and magnanimous. Union-loving
Chairman, [cheers and some hisses,] having announced
that he came to the hall to save his property, does it by
leaving his victims to pay the expenses. [Laughter.]
And when Mr. Hayes reminded him, during the pendency

330 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
of the motion to adjourn, that he must not do so until he
had arranged for the payment for the hall, this representa
tive of State Street defied Mr. Hayes to compel him to
pay for the hall he had used. I blush, even for State
Street, under such a fact. And the gallant men who
followed him — O shame even to Boston dandles ! — were
heard encouraging each other with cries of " The pohce
are with us, — the other side pay for them, and we use
them!" Some men assert that Mr. Fay really came to that hall
to put down free speech by violence. As it was said that
no man was ever so wise as Lord Thurlow looked, so these
citizens think no honest man was ever so ignorant as Mr.
Fay appeared. I am inclined to believe that he came
there designing to crush that Convention in a parliamen
tary way, but did not know how to do it. Like the captain
of the Maine schooner caught In our harbor narrows [here
a youth in the gallery raised the cry of "All up," which
failed, however, to produce any sensation], who, when
some one asked, " Who captains this schooner ? " called
back, " I undertook to captain her, but find it rather too
much for me"; — so Mr. Fay undertook to captain a par
liamentary mob, but found it rather too much for him.
Being fully eletermined, however, to crush the Convention,
and finding the quiet and trained friends of It able to out
wit and outgeneral him, he took refuge In violence. He
challenged his opponent to a duel, then knocked him over
the head with the but of his pistol while his back was
turned. Lord George Bentlnck leaped from the sporting-
field anel the race-course to the leadership of the House
of Commons. Perhaps Mr. Fay thought he could do as
much. After the kid-gloved mobocrat had left the haU, Mr.
Sanborn, quietly requesting the real friends of order to
remain seated whde the mob foUowed Its leader, showed

ntyjua Aixu t.iJ\j\^A liyjvt:

them that all their labor had been in vain. Then Mr. J.
Murray Howe, without any ffimsy veil of parliamentary
pretext, a bully girdled by bullies, fading to excite any
violent resistance, urged or incited the police to arrest all
whom his followers struck, on the ground of removing the
cause of the disturbance. And the shameless Mayor closed
the scene [hisses] , — the plot unmasked by the quiet dis
cipline of the friends of order was disclosed, and the City
Government succored Its defeated accomplices by clearing
the hall in the prostituted names of law and order. [Loud
cheers and some hisses.]
I have named only the leaders of this mob, and described
the pitiful quality of their followers. You will ask me. How
did such a mass influence the Mayor ? I am sorry to say,
that among that crowd were men influential by wealth and
position, men seldom seen in an antislavery meeting, whose
presence there at that unusual hour, — ^ten o'clock in the
morning, — sitting in sdence, was an encouragement to
their personal friends, the mob. You may see, still look
ing down on Washington Street, the gilded names of Law
rence and Dickinson, and, side by side, the proud motto,
" The Union, the Constitution, the Enforcement of the
Laws." [Cheers.] One of those names, which the city
has hitherto loved to honor, was present in that crowd, in
a class of meetings where he Is seldom seen, — never at
ten o'clock In the morning, — while his personal friends
resisted, with the encouragement of his unusual presence,
the enforcement of the most .sacred of all laws, that of free
speech. Need I explain any otherwise the servility of the
Mayor ?
Some men say that free speech was really crushed out
on that occasion. 0 no ! that same day, that same meet
ing held a session, addressed by the most hated of its
speakers, expressing their opinions on slavery and the
scene of the morning. The exact, literal truth is, that

332 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
Mr. Richard S. Fay stole the Tremont Temple from those
who had hired it. Let us hope he will pay his debts with
out going through court. Those men whom he fought can
say they were never sued yet for any hall they had used ;
he cannot say as much to-day. Doubtless they intended
to crush free speech ; but do not let us dignify Jack Shep-
pard and Dickens's Fagin Into Cromwells and Bonapartes.
These mobocrats Intended to be Cromwells. So did the
two tailors who undertook to tear down the throne of
George III., and issued the famous proclamation, " We,
the people of England." History does not record that
they succeeded ; neither did their imitators on the 3d of
December. Still, these angry and misguided men in
curred very grave responsibility. Stealing a hall is not
very bad in men who hardly know what they are about.
Violating the rights of your neighbors may be forgiven,
when the parties offending will soon repent, and those
rights are no more affected than the sun by the cloud that
passes over him. But when Mr. Fay had housed himself
in luxury and quiet, at night, that lawless and coward
spirit which he had stirred up and let loose broke into the
houses of our hated and friendless colored people, pursued
any one of them It dared follow, finding him alone, cruelly
beat, almost to death, several, and ill-treated many of them.
If any one of those mangled men had died of his wounds,
Richard S. Fay, In the sight of God and all honest men,
if not of the law also, had been a murderer. The atone
ment he owes to our city which he has disgraced, is a pub
lic acknowledgment of his crime. The compensation he
owes to those men pillaged and beaten by his foUowers, is
to see that, so far as gold can, their sufferings are allevi
ated. Let us hope that the wealth and the influence
which countenanced his wrong wdl move to aid him In his
repentance. The picture is one of men undertaking work for which

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 333
their education never fitted them, — a common mistake of
American life. There are thousands among us engaged
in mechanical routine whose souls have large grasp, and
take in the universe. Critical hours unveil the lustre of
such spirits. Our self-made men are the glory of our in
stitutions. But this is a case of men undertaking to join
In public debate and preside over public meetings, whose
souls are actually absorbed In pricing calico and adding up
columns of figures. It is a singular sight. White men,
having enjoyed the best book education, to see them strug-
hng with two colored men, whose only education was op
pression and the antislavery enterprise ! But In that con
test of parliamentary skdl, the two colored men never made
a mistake, while every step of their opponents was folly
upon folly. Of course, upon the great question of moral
right, there is no comparison. History gives us no closer
paraUel than the French Convention of Lafayette and
MIrabeau assailed by the fish-women of the streets.
Let us turn now to the part of the City Government.
Every man eligible to office, — but with a race hke ours,
fired with the love of material wealth, with a continent
given us by God to subdue and crowd it with cities, to
unite the oceans with rails, — In such an age and with
such a race, trade must absorb all the keenest energies of
each generation. The consequence is, that politics takes
up with small men, men without grasp enough for large
business ; with leisure, therefore, on their hands ; men
popular because they have no positive opinions, — these
are the men of politics. The result is, as TocqueviUe
has hinted, that our magistrates never have more edu
cation than we give to the mass, that they have no
personal experience of their own. Such men do very
well for ordinary occasions, when there Is nothing to
do. Common times only try common men. In a calm
sea all boats alike show mastership in floating. On the

b

334 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
3d day of the month, we might have supposed every man
to know that a meeting was to be protected against a
mob, that the duty'of the police was not to settle disputed
questions and motions, but only to see that they were
argued out without violence, — that they were there to
arrest any man who committed an assault. The absurdity
of turning the Convention out of doors to quiet its tumult,
is the method of a quack who stabs his patient in order
to cure the disease.
But our Mayor, poor as he is, did know all this. He
was awed out of his duty by the social position of the
mobocrats. The individual policemen were respectable
and orderly, evidently disposed to enforce order, had they
been allowed. No complaint can be made of them. But
we know neither them nor their chief. For us, the Mayor
represents the City Government. I hold him, single and
alone, responsible for the success of the mob. [Slight
hissing.] Abolitionists are the best judges ; they have
been through many such a scene. They assert that. If
they could have been left alone, they could have quelled
that mob, unaided. [Derisive laughter.] Mr. Hayes, of
the Temple, the most competent witness in the city,
offered the Mayor, on the spot, to keep order within the
building if he could be aUowed six men ; and he has
publicly avowed his belief, that, had the chief simply an
nounced, from the platform, his purpose to keep order im
partially, order would have reigned ; but the mob knew that
the pohce. In spite of their individual feelings, must obey
orders, and were therefore, of course, on the mob side.
The rioters were constantly boasting, " The pohce are ah
right," " They are with us," " Three cheers for the po
lice ! " [Cheers and hisses.]
To the courtesy and forbearance of the Abolitionists the
Chief of Police has borne public witness. They were the
only persons assaulted, yet they were the only persons

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 335
arrested. They were the only persons knocked down,
and they were the only persons carried from the hall by
the police. The chief says that Inchvidual Abolitionists
were removed by mistake. Singular that this mistake
should never have happened to those who were using their
canes and their fists, and should have taken place only in
regard to persons conspicuous for their courtesy and for
bearance !
The friends of the Mayor urge that the mob was too
strong for the whole force of the government. Let him
show that he spoke one word, that he lifted one finger,
that he remonstrateel with one rioter, and we will grant
him that excuse. But the pilot who says the storm is too
strong for him must show that he put his hand once, at
least, upon the helm, to see whether it would obey the
hold. Our present Mayor is not singular ; he does not stand
alone. We have not had a decent Mayor for ten years.
[Sensation, and vehement hisses.] Vassals of the grog
shop, and mortgaged to State Street, what could you
expect from them ? Of course Smith and Bigelow are
beneath notice, — mere hounds of the slave-hmit, ahand's-
breadth ahead of the pack. But these other degenerate
magistrates finel here and there a predecessor to keep
them In countenance ; indeed, all the IMayors on the
Atlantic coast are their models, with one or two noble
exceptions. That mob which Messrs. Fay and Howe
inaugurated spent the night among our colored citizens'
dwellings, beating, kicking, and stabbing all whom they
met. The police were on special duty in those streets in
the night. The morning opened, the courts assembled,
the magistrate took his seat. The only person arrested
for that night's disorder is one black boy, fourteen years
old, who had defended himself against -bullies !
I do not remember precisely the mob against the Irish

336 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
ill Broad Street, but I am told that the same Is true of that
riot, that none but those assaulted were arrested. I have
known three cases of magistrates quelling mobs. One was
Neal Dow, in Portland, — not necessary, some thought,
to fire. But let us grant Portland her fame, — she has
quelled a mob. Providence, also, under a magistrate,
whose name I wish I could remember, (G-overnor Arnold,
I am told,) quelled her mob with bullets ; and last year.
Mayor Henry, of Philadelphia, — a name that ought to be
written in letters of gold, — taught purse-proud ignorance
and brutality to obey the laws. The wealth of Philadel
phia petitioned him not to allow Mr. Curtis to lecture.
One of the petitioners waited on him and said, " Sir, do
you know the treasonable sentiments of Mr. Curtis ? "
"No, sir," was the answer; "I know only that it is my
duty to protect him." "Do you know, sir, that the
wealthiest houses have petitioned you to stop the meet
ing ? " " Yes, sir." " What shall you do if they appear,
and put a stop to the lecture ? " " Send them to the
watch-house." [Applause.] Mr. Curtis lectured, and
Mayor Henry was re-elected. While such men live, I
am opposed to rotation in office. [Laughter.]
It is a long while since we have had such a Mayor.
Your magistrates have always needed twenty-four hours,
and closetings with Inehgnant citizens, before they learned
their duties. In 1835, Mayor Lyman, — a lawyer, a
scholar, a gentleman, — Instead of protecting Mr. Garri
son, or dying In front of him, spent the critical hour of
the mob's existence In vain intercessions with his personal
friends, in pitiful appeals to drunken broadcloth, [slight
hissing-,] and went home to realize the noble opportunity
he had lost of endearing his memory to law, liberty, and
the good name of the city, to realize the grave duty he
had faded to meet, and to spend his after life In bitter and
unavaUing regret over that disgraceful and wicked hour of

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 337
his magistracy. But he lived, — he lived to repent ; and
later services did endear his name to the Commonwealth.
There is no evidence that our more recent Mayors know
even enough to be ashamed.
The men of that day lived to beg pardon of the very
persons they had mobbed. All Boston glorified them,
that month ; they walked State Street in pride. But
you would think me cruel, to-day, if I gibbeted their
names. The hour is near, it knocks at yonder door, when
whoever reminds an auehence that Richard S. Fay and
Mayor Lincoln broke up an antislavery meeting will be
considered, even by State Street and the Courier, bitter
and uncharitable, [hisses,] as eminently unchristian. In
reminding the disgraced and the forgotten of their sins.
What was the meeting thus assailed ? It was a meeting
met to discuss slavery, — a topic which makes the repub
lic tremble, the settlement of which Is identical with the
surviving of our government, — a topic upon which every
press, every legislature, every magistrate, south of Mason
and Dixon's line, flings defiance at the Union, amid the
plaudits of Mr. Fay and his friends. What day was it ?
The anniversary of the martyrdom of the only man whose
name stirs the pulses of Europe in this generation. [De
risive laughter.] English statesmen confess never to have
reael a line of Webster. You may name Seward in
Munich and Vienna, in Pesth or in Naples, and vacant
eyes wiU ask you, "Who is he?" But all Europe, the
leaders and the masses, spoke by the lips of Victor Hugo,
when he said, " The death of Brown is more than
Cain Idlling Abel ; it is Washington slaying Spartacus."
[Laughter from some parts of the hall, and from others
applause.] What was the time of this meeting ? An hour when
our Senators and Representatives were vindicating the
free speech of Massachusetts in Washington, in the face
22

338 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
of armed men. Are we to surrender it In the streets at
home, to the hucksters and fops of the Exchange ? This
day on which I speak, a year ago, those brave young
hearts which held up John Brown's hands faced death
without a murmur, for the slave's sake. In the light of
their example, God forbid we should give up free speech !.
Whom is it proposed to silence ? Men who for thirty
years, from the ocean to Kansas, sacrificing reputation,
wealth, position, seeing their houses pillaged, their friends
mobbed in the streets, have forced this question on reluc
tant senates and statesmen, until at last, all other issues
driven out of the arena, God chains this age to the re
demption of the slave. Victors In such a fight, after such
a field, after having taught this nation, at such woftd cost,
the sacredness of free discussion, who are these traders
that weigh their gold against our rights ? Who is this
boaster parading his two hundred thousand dollars, and
telling us he will spend every one of them to " put down
this agitation " ? He " put down this agitation " ! That
attempt was announced before, from the steps of the Re
vere House. The unhappy statesman, defeated, heart
broken, sleeps by the solemn waves of the Atlantic.
" Contempsi Catilince gladios, non tuos pertimeseam." The
half omnipotence of Webster we defied; who heeds this
pedler's empty wind ?
How shall we prevent such insolent attempts for the
future ? Educate the future Fays more thoroughly.
Teach them the distinction between duties and doUars.
Plant deep In the heart of the masses the conviction of
the utter sacredness of the right of free speech. Our
fathers made their sons hate the Pope so thoroughly, that
hatred of Popery is no longer an intellectual conviction,
but has become a constituent element of Yankee blood
and bone. Put the sacredness of free speech Into the
same condition. Carve in letters of gold in every

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 339
school-house J;his letter of our loved Governor elect, —
the best word a Massachusetts Governor has said since
the first Winthrop gave his fine definition of civd hb
erty. Mr. Andrew says : —
" ' The right to think, to know, and to utter,' as John Mdton
said, is the dearest of all hberties. Without tlus right, there can
be no liberty to any people ; with it, there can be no slavery."
And Mr. Andrew goes on : —
" I care not for the truth or error of the opinions held or
uttered, nor for the wisdom of the words or time of their at
tempted expression, when I consider this great question of fun
damental significance, this great right which must first be secure
before free society can be said to stand on any foundation, but
only on temporary or capricious props.
" Rich or poor, white or black, great or small, wise or foohsh,
in season or out of season, in the right or in the wrong, whosoever
will speak, let him speak, and whosoever will hear, let him hear.
And let no one pretend to the prerogative of judging another
man's liberty. In this respect there is, and there can be, no
superiority of persons or privileges, nor the slightest pretext for
any." Thank God for such a Governor to come ! [Applause.]
Make that Massachusetts, and then we may stop a boy In
the streets and make him Mayor, sure that, without need
of thought or consultation, he will gird himself to protect
unpopular free speech, and put down fashionable riot, in
stead of lazily protecting fashionable riot, and putting down
unpopular free speech.
I have used strong words. But I was born In Boston,
and the good name of the old town is bound up with every
fibre of my heart. I dare not trust myself to describe the
insolence of men who undertake to dictate to you and me
what we shall say in these grand old streets. But who
can adequately tell the sacredness and the value of free
speech ? Who can fitly describe the enormity of the

340 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
crime of its violation ? Free speech, at once the instru
ment and the guaranty and the bright consummate flower
of all liberty. Free speech In these streets, once trod by
Henry Vane, its apostle and champion. Free speech. In
that language which holds the dying words of Algernon
Sidney, Its martyr. As Everett said, near forty years
ago: —
" I seem to hear a voice from the tombs of departed ages, from
the sepulchres of nations that died before the sight. They exhort
us, they adjure us, to be faithful to our trust. They implore us,
by the long trials of strugghng humanity, by the awful secrets of
the prison-house where the sons of Freedom have been immured,
by the noble heads which have been brought to the block, by the
eloquent ruins of nations, they conjure us not to quench the hght
that is rising on the world. Greece cries to us by the convulsed
lips of her poisoned, dying Demosthenes, and Rome pleads with
us in the mute persuasion of her mangled Tully."
Let us listen to the grave and weighty words of the
nephew of Charles James Fox, Lord Holland, in his pro
test when British Tories tried to stop the discussion of
Catholic Emancipation, — words of which Macaulay says,
" They state a chief article of the political creed of the
Whigs with singular clearness, brevity, and force."
" We are," Lord Holland says, " weU aware that the privileges
of the people, the rights of free discussion, and the spirit and
letter of our popular institutions, must render — and they are in
tended to render — the continuance of an extensive grievance,
and of the dissatisfaction consequent thereupon, dangerous to the
tranquilhty of the country, and ultimately subversive of the au
thority of the state. Experience and theory aldte forbid us to
deny that effect of a free constitution : a sense of justice and a
love of liberty equally deter us from lamenting it. But we have
always been taught to look for the remedy of such disorders in the
redress of the grievances which justify them, and in the removal
of the dissatisfaction from which they flow ; not in restraints on

MOBS AND EDUCATION. 341
ancient privileges, not in inroads on the right of public discussion,
nor in violations of the principles of a free government."
Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities.
The loved and the rich need no protection, — they have
many friends and few enemies. We have praised our
Union for seventy years. This is the first time it is
testeel. Has it educated men who know their rights, and
dare to maintain them ? Can it bear the discussion of a
great national sin, anchored deep in the prejudices and
interests of millions ? If so, it deserves to live. If not,
the sooner it vanishes out of the way the better.
The time to assert rights Is when they are denied ; the
men to assert them are those to whom they are denieel.
The community which dares not protect its humblest and
most hated member hi the ft-ee utterance of his opinions,
no matter how false or hateful, is only a gang of slaves.

" At the conclusion of the exercises, Mr. Phillips's friends flocked
upon the platform to congratulate him. After a while, Mr. PhiUips lefl
the platform, accompanied by several friends, who were joined, in the
lower entry, by some twenty in number. As the party emerged from
the building to the avenue leading from the hall to Winter Street, a
large crowd was found collected there, who set up various cries, such
as ' There he is ! ' ' Crush him out ! ' ' Down with the Abolition
ists ! ' ' Bite his head oflF ! ' ' All up ! ' &c., and surged toward
Mr. Phillips, with the manifest purpose of preventing his egress. In
this, however, they were balked by the resolute front of his friends
and the energy of the police, who forced the crowd to give way.
" On entering Winter Street, the mob, which almost blockaded the
street, yelled and hissed, and gave vent to their impotent rage by
such cries as those given above ; but the party proceeded down the
street, and up Washington Street, surrounded by a strong detachment
of police, and followed by an immense throng of people, many of
them, however, friends of Mr. Phillips, and determined to protect
him from injury. No demonstrations of violence, happily, were made.
The singular procession excited the attention of people living on the

342 MOBS AND EDUCATION.
route largely, and the windows looking on the street were crowded
with faces expressing wonder and curiosity. Arrived at his house in
Essex Street, Mr. Phillips entered, with a few of his friends, when
three cheers were given by some of those present, which were an
swered by hisses from the other side. Deputy-Chief Ham then re
quested the crowd to disperse, which they did, though somewhat
slowly, and with manifest reluctance. So ended the disgraceful scene."
— Liberator.

DISUNION.*

THE office of the pulpit is to teach men their duty.
Wherever men's thoughts influence their laws, it is
the duty of the pulpit to preach politics. If it were pos
sible to conceive of a community whose opinions had no
influence on their government, there the pulpit would
have no occasion to talk of government. I never heard
or knew of such a community. Though sheltered by
Roman desjiotlsm, Herod and the chief priests abstained
from this and that because they "feared the people."
The Sultan dared to murder his Janizaries only when
the streets came to hate them as much as he did. The
Czar, at the head of a government whose constitution
knows no check but jiolson and the dagger, yet feels the
pressure of public opinion. Certainly, where pews are
full of voters, no question but the sermon should be full
of politics.
" The Lord reigneth ; let the earth rejoice." " The
covenant with death " is annuUed ; " the agreement
with hell " is broken to pieces. The chain which has
held the slave system since 1787 Is parted. Thirty years
ago. Southern leaders, sixteen years ago. Northern Aboli
tionists, announced their purpose to seek the dissolution of
the American Union. Who dreamed that success would
come so soon ? South Carolina, bankrupt, alone, with a
* Lecture delivered in the Music Hall, January 20, 1861, — a large part of
tlie Hall and the avenues to it occupied by the mob.

344 DISUNION.
hundred thousand more slaves than whites, four blacks to
three whites, within her borders, ffings her gauntlet at the
feet of twenty-five millions of people In defence of an Idea,
to maintain what she thinks her right. I would New
England could count one State as fearless among her six !
Call it not the madness of an engineer who stands in front
of his cannon at the moment of discharge ; call it rather
the forlorn hope of the mariner, seizing plank or spar in
the fury of the storm. The mistake of South Carohna is,
she fancies there is more chance of saving slavery outside
of the Union than inside. Three States have followed her
example. Probably the rest of the Slave States, or many
of them, will find themselves unable to resist the infection,
and then the whole merciless conspiracy of 1787 Is ended,
and timid men will dare to hate slavery without trembling
for bread or life.
Let us look at the country, — the North, the South,
and the government. The South divided Into three sec
tions : — 1st. Those who hold slaves exactly as they do
bank-stock or land, — and of course love the Union, which
enables them to treat man as property, — timid wealth
shrinking from change, but so timid as to stand dumb.
2d. Those who have ruled the nation sixty years, monop
olizing Presidents' chairs and Embassies ; defeated now,
these plan, in earnest sincerity, for another nation with
Presidencies and Embassies all to themselves. 3d. A class
made up from these two, who cling to the Union in their
hearts, but threaten loudly, well knowing the loudest
threats get the best bargain.
The object of the South is a separate confederacy, hop
ing they can stand long enough for the North to ask for
annexation on their terms.
Then comes the government, so called, — In reahty a
conspiracy against justice and honest men ; some of Its
members pilferers and some traitors, the rest pilferers and

1^10 UIMC/IN.

traitors too. Like all outgoing administrations, they have
no wish to lessen the troubles of their successors by cur
ing the nation's hurt, — rather aggravate it. They have
done all the mischief In their power, and long now only to
hear the clock strike twelve on the fourth day of March.
Then look at the North, divided into three sections : —
1st. The defeated minority, glad of anything that troubles
their conquerors. 2d. The class of Repubhcans led by
Seward, offering to surrender anything to save the Union.
[Applause.] Their gospel Is the Constitution [applause],
and the slave clause is their Sermon on the Mount.
[Laughter and applause.] They think that, at the judg
ment-day, the blacker the sins they have committed to
save the Union, the clearer will be their title to heaven.
3d. The rest of the Republicans, led by the Tribune —
all honor to the Tribune, faithful and true! — who con
sider their honor pledged to fulfil in office the promises
made in the canvass. Their motto is : " The Chicago
platform, every inch of It ; not a hair's-breadth of the
Territories shall be surrendered to slavery." [Applause.]
But they, too, claim the cannon's mouth to protect forts,
defend the flag, and save the Union. At the head of this
section, we have every reason to believe, stands Mr.
Abraham Lincoln.
All these are the actors on the stage. But the founda
tion on which all stand ehvides only into two parts : those
who like slavery, and mean It shall last ; those who hate
it, and mean it shaU die. In the boiling gulf goes on the
perpetual conflict of acid and alkali ; all these classes are
but bubbles on the surface. The upper millstone Is right,
and the lower wrong. Between them, governments and
parchments, parties and compromises, are being slowly
ground to powder.
Broadly stated, the South plans a Southern Confederacy
to uphold slavery, — the North clings to the Union to

346 DISUNION.
uphold trade and secure growth. Without the Union,
Mr. Seward teUs us we can neither be safe, rich, strong,
nor happy. We used to think justice was before thrfft,
and nobleness better than happiness. I place no great
reliance on that prudent patriotism which is the chdd of
interest. The Tribune, unusually frank, pre-eminently
honorable and lofty as has been its tone of late, still
says, " Be it the business of the people everywhere to
forget the negro, and remember only the country."
[Applause.] After drifting, a dreary night of thirty years, before the
hurricane, our ship of state is going to pieces on the lee
shore of slavery. Every one confesses that the poison of
our body pohtic Is slavery. European critics, in view of
it, have pronounced the existence of the Union hitherto a
" fortunate accident." Orators floated into fame on one
inspired phrase, " irrepressible conflict." Jefferson died
foreseeing that this was the rock on which we should split.
Even Mr. Webster, speaking with bated breath, in the
cold chdl of 1850, still dared to be a statesman, and offered
to meet the South on this question, suggesting a broad
plan for the cure of our dread disease. But now, with
the Union dropping asunder, with every brain and tongue
active, we have yet to hear the first statesman-word, the
first proposal to consider the fountain and origin of all oiu-
ills. We look in vain through Mr. Seward's speech for
one hint or suggestion as to any method of dealing with
our terrible hurt. Indeed, one of his terrors of disunion
is, that It will give room for " an European, an uncompro
mising hostdity to slavery." Such an hostihty — the
Irrepressible conflict of right and wrong — William H.
Seward, in 1861, pronounces " fearful " ! To describe
the gi-eat conflict of the age, the first of American states
men, in the year of Garibaldi and Italy, can find no
epithet but " fearful."

DISUNION. 347
The servile sdence of the 7th of March, 1850, is out
done, and to New York Massachusetts yields the post of
infamy which her great Senator has hitherto filled. Yes,
of all the doctors bending over the patient, not one dares
to name his elisease, except the Tribune, which advises
him to forget It ! Throughout half of the great cities of
the North, every one who touches on it is mobbed into
silence ! This is, indeed, the saddest feature of our times.
Let us, then, who, unlike Mr. Seward, are not afraid to
tell, even now, all and just what we wish, — let us look at
the real nature of the crisis in which we stand. The
Tribune says we should " forget the negro." It seems to
me that all our past, all our present, and all our future
command us at this moment to think of nothing but the
negro. [Slight laughter derisively.]
Let me tell you why. Mr. Seward says, " The first
object of every human society is safety " ; I think the first
duty of society is justice. Alexander Hamilton said,
" Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil
.society." If any other basis of safety or gain were honest,
it would be impossible. "A prosperous iniquity," says
Jeremy Taylor, " Is the most unprofitable condition in the
world." The nation which, in moments when great moral
questions disturb its peace, consults first for Its own safety,
is atheist and coward, and there are three chances out of
four that it will end by being knave. We were not sent
into the world to plant cities, to make Unions or save
them. Seeing that all men are born equal, our first civil
duty Is to see that our laws treat them so. The convul
sion of this hour is the effort of the nation to do this. Its
duty, while politicians and parties strive to balk it of its
purpose. The nation agonizes this hour to recognize man
as man, forgetting color, condition, sex, and creed.
Our Revolution earned us only independence. What
ever our fathers meant, the chief lesson of that hour was

348 DISUNION.
that America belongs to Americans. That generation
learned it thoroughly ; the second inherited it as a preju
dice ; we, the third, have our bones and blood made of it.
When thought passes through purpose into character, it
becomes the unchangeable basis of national life. That
Revolutionary lesson need never be learned again, and
wdl never die out. Let a British fleet, with admirals of
the blue and red, cover our Atlantic coast, and in ten
days Massachusetts and Carolina will stand shoulder to
shoulder ; the only rivalry, who shall die nearest the foe.
[Loud applause, with cries of " Good."]
That principle Is all our Revolution directly taught us.
Massachusetts was hide-bound In the aristocracy of classes
for years after. The bar and the orthodox pulpit were our
House of Lords. A Baptist clergyman was little better
than a negro. The flve points of Massachusetts decency
were, to trace your lineage to the Mayflower, graduate at
Harvard College, be a good lawyer or a member of an
orthodox church, — either would answer [laughter], — pay
your debts, and ft-ighten your child to sleep by saying
" Thomas Jefferson." Our theological aristocracy went
down before the stalwart blows of Baptist, Unitarian, and
Freethinker, — before Channing and Abner Kneeland.
Virginia slaveholders, making theoretical democracy then-
passion, conquered the Federal Government, and emanci
pated the working-classes of New England. Bitter was
the cup to honest Federalism and the Essex Junto. To
day, Massachusetts only holds to the lips of Carolina a
beaker of the same beverage I know no man who has
analyzed this passage in our history so weU as Richard
Hildreth. The last thirty years have been the flowering
out of this lesson. The Democratic principle, crumbling
classes Into men, has been working down ft-om pulpits and
judges' seats, through shop-boards and shoe-benches, to
Irish hodmen, and reached the negro at last. The long

DISUNION. 349
toil of a century cries out, Eureka ! — "I have found It ! "
— the diamond of an immortal soul and an equal manhood
under a black skin as truly as under a white one. For
this, Leggett labored and Lovejoy died. For this, the
bravest soul of the century went up to God from a Vir
ginia scaffold. [Hisses and applause.] For this, young
men gave up their May of youth, and old men the honors
and ease of age. It went through the land writing his-
tory afresh, setting up and pulling down parties, riving
sects, mowing down colossal reputations, making us veil
our faces in shame at the baseness of our youth's idols,
sending bankrupt statesmen to dishonored graves.
We stand to-day just as Hancock and Adams and Jef
ferson stood when stamp-act and tea-tax, Patrick Henry's
eloquence and the massacre of March 5th, Otis's blood
and Bunker Hill, had borne them to July, 1776. Suppose
at that moment John Adams had cried out, " Now let the
people everywhere forget Independence, and remember
only ' God save the King ' ! " [Laughter.] The toil of
a whole generation — thirty years — has been spent In ex
amining this question of the rights and place of the negro ;
the whole earnest thought of the nation given to It ; old
parties have been wrecked against it, new ones grown out
of it ; it stifles all other questions ; the great interests of
the nation necessarily suffer, men refusing to think of any
thing else but this ; It struggles up through all compro
mises, asserting its right to be heard ; no green withes of
eloquence or cunning, trade, pulpit. Congress, or college,
succeed In binding this Samson ; the business of the sea
board begs It may be settled, no matter how ; the whole
South is determined to have it met, proclaiming that she
does not secede because of personal liberty laws or a Re
publican President, but because of the state of Northern
feeling of which these are signs. It is not Northern laws
or officers they fear, but Northern conscience. Why, then.

350 DISUNION.
should not the North accept the issue, and try to settle the
question forever ? You may run the Missouri fine to the
Pacific, but Garrison still lives ; and whde he does. South
Carolina hates and fears Massachusetts. [Applause.] No
Congressional resolves can still our brains or stifle our
hearts ; tiU you do, the slaveholder ffeels that New Eng
land Is his natural foe. There can therefore be no real
peace till we settle the slave question. If thirty years
of debate have not fltted us to meet it, when shall we
be able ?
But the most honest Republicans say a State has no
right to secede ; we will show flrst that we have a gov
ernment, and then, not before, settle eUsputed questions.
Suppose a State has no right to secede, of what conse
quence is that ? A Union is made up of willing States,
not of conquered provinces. There are some rights, quite
perfect, yet wholly incapable of being enforced. A hus
band or wife who can only keep the other partner within
the bond by locking the doors and standing armed before
them, had better submit to peaceable separation. [Ap
plause.] A firm where one partner refuses to act has a
ftdl right to his services, but how compel them ? South
Carolina may be punished for her fault in going out of the
Union, but that does not keep her in it. Why not rec
ognize soberly the nature and necessity of our position ?
Why not, like statesmen, remember that homogeneous
nations like France tend to centralization ; confederacies
like ours tend inevitably to dismemberment ? France Is
the slow, still deposit of ages on central granite ; only the
globe's convulsion can rive it ! We are the rich mud of
the Mississippi ; every fiood shifts It from one side to the
other of the channel. Nations like Austria, victim states,
held under the lock and key of despotism, — or like our
selves, a herd of States, hunting for their food together, —
must expect that any quarrel may lead to disunion. Be-

DISUNION. 351
side. Inter arma, silent leges, — armies care nothing for
constables. This is not a case at law, but revolution.
Let us not, however, too anxiously grieve over the
Union of 1787. Real Unions are not made, they grow.
This was made, like an artificial waterfall or a Connecticut
nutmeg. It was not an oak which to-day a tempest shat
ters. It was a wall hastily built, in hard times, of round
boulders ; the cement has crumbled, and the smooth
stones, obeying the law of gravity, tumble here and there.
Why should we seek to stop them, merely to show that
we have a right and can ? That were only a waste of
means and temper. Let us build, like the Pyramids, a
fabric which every natural law guarantees; or, better still,
plant a Union whose life survives the ages, and quietly
gives birth to Its successor.
Mr. Seward's last speech, which he confesses does not
express his real convictions, denies every principle but one
that he proclaimed in his campaign addresses ; that one —
which, at Lansing, he expressly said " he was ashamed to
confess " — that one is this : Everything is to be sacrificed
to save the Union. I am not aware that, on any public
occasion, varied and wide as have been his discussions and
topics, he has ever named the truth or the virtue which he
would not sacrifice to save the Union. For thirty years,
there has been stormy and searching discussion of profound
moral questions ; one, whom his friends call our only states
man, has spoken often on all ; yet he has never named the
sin which he does not think would be a virtue, if it con
tributed to save the Union.
Remembering this element of his statesmanship, let us
listen to the key-note of his late speech : " The first ob
ject of every human society is safety or security, for
which, if need be, they will and they must sacrifice every
other." I wdl not stop to say that, even with his explanation.

352 DISUNION.
his principle is equivocal, and, if unlimited, false ; that,
unqualified, it justifies every crime, and would have pre
vented every glory of history ; that by it, James II. and
Bonaparte were saints ; under one sense, the Pdgrims
were madmen, and under another, the Puritans did right
to hang Quakers. But grant it. Suppose the Union
means wealth, culture, happiness, and safety, man has no
right to buy either by crime.
Many years ago, on the floor of Congress, Kentucky
and Tennessee both confessed that " the dissolution of the
Union was the dissolution of slavery." Last month. Sen
ator Johnson of Tennessee said : " If I were an Abolition
ist, and wanted to accomplish the abohtion of slavery in
the Southern States, the first step I would take would be
to break the bonds of this Union. I believe the continu
ance of slavery depends on the preservation of this Union,
and a compliance with all the guaranties of the Constitu
tion." In September last (at La Crosse), Mr. Seward
himself said, " What are they [the Southern States] in for
but to have slavery saved for them by the Federal Union ?
Why would they go out, for they could not maintain and
defend themselves against their own slaves ? " In this
last speech, he tells us It is the Union which restricts the
opposition to slavery within narrow limits, and prevents it
from being, like that of Europe, a " direct and uncompro
mising " demand for abolition.
Now, if the Union created for us a fresh Golconda every
month, if it made every citizen wise as Solomon, blameless
as St. John, and safe as an angel In the courts of Heaven,
to cling to It would stdl be a damnable crime, hateful to
God, while its cement was the blood of the negro, — while
it, and It alone, made the crime of slaveholding possible in
fifteen States.
Mr. Seward Is a power in the state. It is worth while
to understand his course. It cannot be caprice. His

DISUNION. 353
position decides that of millions. The instinct that leads
him to take it shows his guess (anel he rarely errs) what
the majority Intend. I reconcde thus the utter difference
and opposition of his campaign speeches, and his last one.
I think he went West, sore at the loss of the nomination,
but with too much good sense, perhaps magnanimity, to
act over again Webster's sullen part when Taylor stole
his rights.
Still, jMr. Seward, though philosophic, though keen to
analyze and unfold the theory of our politics, is not cun
ning in plans. He is only the hand and tongue ; his brain
lives In private hfe on the Huelson River side. Acting
under that guielance, he thought Mr. Lincoln not likely to
go beyond, even If he were able to keep, the whole Chi
cago platform. Accordingly, he said : " I will give free
rein to my natural feelings and real convictions, till these
Abolitionists of the Republican ranks shall cry, ' O what a
mistake ! We ought to have nominated Seward ; another
time we will not be balked.' " Hence the hot eloquence
and fearless tone of those prairie speeches. He returns to
Washington, finds Mr. Lincoln sturehly insisting that his
honor Is pledged to keep in office every promise made in
the platform. Then Mr. Seward shifts his course, saying :
" Since my abolitionism cannot take the wind from my
rival's sails, I 'U get credit as a Conservative. Accepting
the premiership, I will forestaU public opinion, and do all
possible to bind the coming administration to a policy
which I originate." He offers to postpone the whole Chi
cago platform, in order to save the Union, — though last
October, at Chicago, he told us postponement never settles
anything, whether it Is a lawsuit or a national question ;
better be beat and try again than postpone.
This speech of Mr. Seward I regard as a declaration of
war against the avowed policy of the Incoming President.
If Lincoln were an Andrew Jackson, as his friends aver,
23

354 DISUNION.
he would dismiss Mr. Seward from his Cabinet. The In
coming administration. If honest and firm, has two enemies
to fight, — Mr. Seward and the South.
His power Is large. Already he has swept our Adams
into the vortex, making him offer to sacrifice the whole
Repubhcan platform, though, as events have turned, he
has sacrificed only his own personal honor. Fifteen years
ago, John Quincy Adams prophesied that the Union would
not last twenty years. He little thought that disunion,
when it came, woulel swallow his son's honor in Its gulf*
At such hours. New England Senators and Representa
tives have, from the very Idea of their ultraism, little or no
direct weight in Congress. But while New England is
the brain of the Union, and therefore foreshadows what
will be public opinion in the plastic West five years
hence, it is of momentous consequence that the people
here should make their real feelings known ; that the
pulpit and press should sound the bugle-note of utter de
fiance to slavery itself, — Union or no Union, Constitution
or no Constitution, freedom for every man between the
oceans, and from the hot Gulf to the frozen pole ! You
may as well dam up Niagara with bulrushes as bind our
antislavery purpose with Congressional compromise. The
South knows it. While she holds out her hand for Sew
ard's offer, she keeps her eye fixed on us, to see what we
think. Let her see that we laugh it to scorn. Sacrifice
anything to keep the slaveholding States in the Union ?
God forbid! we will rather budd a bridge of gold, and
pay their toll over it, — accompany them out with glad
noise of trumpets, and " speed the parting guest." Let
them not " stand on the order of their going, but go at
once " ! Let them take the forts, empty our arsenals and
* Since this was said, Mr. Adams has had his reward, — winning high
office by treachery to his party, as his father did before, and as his grand
father tried to do and failed.

DISUNION. 355
sub-treasuries, and we wdl lend them, beside, jewels of
gold and jewels of sdver, and Egypt be glad when they
are departed. [Laughter and applause.]
But let the world distinctly understand why they go, —
to save slavery ; and why we rejoice In their departure, —
because we know their declaration of independence is the
jubilee of the slave. The eyes of the world are fixed on
us as the great example of self-government. When this
Union goes to pieces, it Is a shock to the hopes of the
struggling millions of Europe. All lies bear bitter fruit.
To-day is the' inevitable fruit of our fathers' faithless com
promise In 1787. For the sake of the future. In freedom's
name, let thinking Europe understand clearly why we
sever. They saw Mr. Seward paint, at Chicago, our
utter demoralization. Church and State, government and
people, all classes, educated and uneducated, — all brought
by the Slave Power, he said, to think slavery a blessing,
and do anything to save it. So utter did he consider this
demoralization, that he despaired of native Americans, and
trusted to the hunted patriots and the refuse of Europe,
which the emigrant-trains bore by his house, for the salva
tion of the valley of the Mississippi. To-day, they see that
very man kneeling to that Slave Power, and begging her
to take all, but only consent to grant him such a Union,
— Union with such a power ! How, then, shall Kossuth
answer, when Austria laughs him to scorn ? Shall Eu
rope see the slaveholder kick the reluctant and kneeling
North out of such a Union ? How, then, shall Gari
baldi dare look in the face of Napoleon ? If, therefore,
it were only to honor self-government, to prove that it
educates men, not pedlers and cowards, let us proclaim
our faith that honest labor can stand alone ; Its own right
hand amply able to earn its bread and defenel its rights
[applause] ; and, if it were not so, our readiness at any
cost to welcome disunion when it comes bringing freedom

356 DISUNION.
to four mdhon of hapless slaves ! [Applause.] What a
sad comment on free Institutions, that they have produced
a South of tyrants, and a North of cowards ; a South,
ready to face any perU to save slavery, and a North un
willing to risk a dollar to serve freedom ?
Why do I set so little value on the Union ? Because
I consider It a failure ; certainly, so far as slavery is con
cerned, it is a failure. If you doubt me, look at the pic
ture of its effects which Mr. Seward painted at Chicago.
Look at our history. Under It, 700,000 slaves have
increased to 4,000,000. We have paid $800,000,000
directly to the support of slavery. This secession wIU
cost the Union and business 1200,000,000 more. The
loss which this disturbing force has brought to our trade
and Industry, within sixty years, it would be safe to caU
$ 500,000,000. Is the Union a pecuniary success ? Un
der It, Slavery has been strong enough to rule the nation
for sixty years, and now breaks it to pieces because she
lean rule no longer. Under it, public morals have been so
lowered, that while, at its outset, nine men out of ten were
proud to be called Abolitionists, now nine out of ten
would deem It not only an insult, but a pecuniary injury,
(to be charged with being so. Ever since it existed. Its
friends have confessed that, to save the Union,- If was
necessary and proper to crush free speech. Witness John
Adams's sedition laws. Witness mobs of well-dressed
merchants In every Northern city now. Witness one
half of the Republican party lamenting free speech, this
hour, throughout the North.
Mr. Seward confessed, at Chicago, that neither free
speech nor free suffrage existed in one half of the States.
No Northern man can trade, live, or talk there. For
twenty years, men have been mobbed, robbed, lynched,
hung, and burned there, solely for loving liberty ; and
while the Federal Government never lifted a finger to

DISUNION. 357
prevent or punish It, the very States whose citizens have
been outraged have been too Indifferent even to remon
strate. Massachusetts, who once remonstrated, saw her
own agent mobbed out of Charleston with her full con
sent. Before the Union existed, Washington and Jefferson
uttered the boldest antislavery opinions ; to-day they
would be lynched in their own homes ; and their senti
ments have been mobbed this very year In every great
city of the North. The Fugitive Slave Bill could never
have been passed nor executed In the elays of Jay. Now
np man who hopes for office dares to insist that it Is un
constitutional. Slavery has turned our churches of Christ
to churches of commeirce.
John Quincy Adams, the child of our earlier clvlhzation,
said the Union was worthless, weighed against that liberty
it was meant to secure. Mr. Seward, the chdd of the i
Union, says there are few men, and there ought to be few,
who would not prefer saving the Union to securing free- I
dom ; and standing to-elay at the heael of nineteen millions |
of ft-eemen, he confesses he does not deem it prudent to
express his " most cherished convictions " on this subject,*
while every honest man fears, and three fourths of Mr.
Seward's followers hope, that the North, In this conflict of
right and wrong, will, spite of Horace Greeley's warning,
" Love liberty less than profit, dethrone conscience, and
set up commerce in its stead." You know it. A Union
* Mr. Seward said, at St. Paul, last September : " I do not believe there
has been one day, since 1787, until now, when slavery had any power in tins
government, except what [t derived from buying up men of weak -virtue, no
principle, and great cupidity, and terrifying men of weak nerVe, in the Free
Stiitos  Fellow-citizens, either in one way or the other, whether you
agree with me in attributing it to the interposition of Divine Providence or
not, this battle has been fought, this victory has been won. Slavery to-day
is, for the first time, not only powerless, but without influence in the Ameri
can repubhc  For the first time in the history of the repubhc, the

358 DISUNION.
whose despotism is so cruel and searching that one half
our lawyers and one half our merchants stifle conscience
for bread, — in the name of Martin Luther and John Md
ton, of Algernon Sidney and Henry Vane, of John Jay
and Samuel Adams, I declare such a Union a failure.
It is for the chance of saving such a Union that Mr.
Seward and Mr. Adams break in Washington aU the
promises of the canvass, and countenance measures which
stifle the conscience and confuse the moral sense of the
North. Say not that my criticism Is harsh. I know
their pretence. It is, we must concihate, compromise,
postpone, practise finesse, make promises or break them,
do anything, to gain time and concentrate the North
against slavery. Our fathers tried that policy in 1787.
That they miserably failed Is proved by a Capitol filled
with knaves and traitors, yet able to awe and ruin honest
men. It was tried in 1821, and faded. It was tried In
1850, and failed. Who Is audacious enough to ask an
other trial ? The Republicans say : " Conciliate, use soft
language, organize — behind the door — bands of volun
teers ; and when we have saved Washington, we may
dare speak out." That is good pohcy for midnight con
spirators. But If we are a government, if we are a nation,
we should say : " Tell the truth ! If coercion is our pol
icy, tell the truth. Call for volunteers in every State,
and vindicate the honor of the nation in the light of the
sun ! " [Applause.]
Slave Power has not even the power to terrify or alarm the fi-eeman so as
to make him submit, and scheme, and coincide, and compromise. It rails
now with a feeble voice, as it thundered in our ears for twenty or thirty years
past. With a feeble and muttering voice, they cry out that they will tear the
Union to pieces. Who 's afraid ? They complain that, if we will not sur
render our principles, and our system, and our right — being a majority —
to rule, and if we will not accept their system and such rules as they -will
give us, they will go out of the Union. Who 's afraid ? Nobody 's afraid ;
nobody can be bought." (Yet now Mi-. Seward himself trembles !)

DISUNION. 359
The cunning which equivocates to-day. In order to se
cure a peaceful inauguration on the 4th of March, will
yield up all its principles before the 1st of July. Beside,
when opiate speeches have dulled the Northern conscience,
and kneeling speeches have let down its courage, who can
be sure that even Seward's voice, if he retain the wish,
can conjure up again such a North as stands face to face
with Southern arrogance to-elay ?
The Union, then, is a fadure. What harm can come
from disunion, and what good ?
The seceding States will form a Southern Confederacy.
We may judge of its future from the history of Mexico.
The Gulf States intend to reopen the slave-trade. If
Kentucky and Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and North
Carolina secede, the opening of that trade will ruin them,
and thev will gravitate to us, free. Louisiana cannot
secede, except on paper ; the omnipotent West needs her
territory, as the mouth of its river. She must stay with
us as a State or a conquered province, and may have her
choice. [Laughter.] Beside, she stands on sugar, and
free-trade bankrupts her. Consider the rest of the Slave
States as one power, how can it harm us ? Let us see
the ground of Mr. Seward's fears. Will it increase our
expenses or lessen our receipts ? No ; every one of those
States costs the Union more than it contributes to It.
Can It harm us by attacks ? States without commerce or
manufactures, and with an army of four millions of natural
enemies encamped among them, have given bonds to keep
the peace. Wdl they leave us so small and weak by going
that we cannot stand alone ? Let us see. There Is no
reasijii to suppose that the Free States, except California,
wdl not cling together. Idem velle, idem nolle, — to like
and dislike the same things, says the Latin proverb, is
friendship. When a great number of persons agree in a
great number of things, that insures a union ; that Is not

360 DISUNION.
the case with the North and South, therefore we separate ;
that Is the case with the whole North, therefore we shall
remain united. How strong shall we be ? Our territory
will be twice as large as Austria, three times as large as
France, four times as large as Spain, six times as large as
Italy, seven times as large as Great Britain. Those na
tions have proved, for a considerable period, that they had
sufficient land to stand on. Our population will be about
nineteen miUions, — more than the Union had in 1840. I
do not think we were much afraid of anybody m 1840.
Our blood Is largely Yankee, a race that saved Carolina
from her own Tories, in the Revolution. [Laughter.]
Without that hinderance, we could fight now, certainly, as
well as we did then ; and then, with three million men
only, we measured swords with the ablest nation of Eu
rope, and conquered. I think, therefore, we have no
reason to be very nervously anxious now. Indeed, Mr.
Seward's picture of the desolation and military weakness
of the divided States, if Intended for the North, is the
emptiest lie in his speech. I said lie ; I meant it. I will
tell you why. Because one AVilliam H. Seward said, last
fall, at Lansing : " We are maintaining a standing army at
the heavy cost of one thousand dollars per man, and a
standing navy, — for what ? to protect Michigan or Massa
chusetts, New York or Ohio ? No ; there is not a nation
on the face of the earth which would dare to attack these Free
States, or any of them, if they were even disunited. We
are doing it in order that slaves may not escape from Slave
States into the Free, and to secure those States from
domestic insurrection ; and because. If we provoke a for
eign foe, slavery cries out that it is in danger." Surely
the speaker of those words has no right to deny that our
expenses and danger wdl be less, and our power to meet
both greater, when the Slave States are gone.
Indeed, everybody knows this. And this trembling

DISL^'ION. 361
dread of losing the Union, which so frightens the people
that, in view of it, Mr. Seward, as a practical man, dares
not now tell, as he says, what he reaUy thinks and wishes.
Is the child of his and Webster's insincere idolatry of the
Union. To serve party and personal ambition, they made
a god of the Union ; and to-day their Invention returns to
plague the inventors. They made the people slaves to a
falsehood ; and that same deluded people have turned
their fetters into gags for Mr. Seward's lips. Thank God
for the retribution !
But the Union created commerce ; disunion wdl kill it.
The Union the mother of commerce ? I doubt It. I
question whether the genius and energy of the Yankee
race are not the parent of commerce and the fountain of
wealth, much more than the Union. That race, in Hol
land, first created a country, and then, standing on piles,
called modern commerce into being. That race, in Eng-
land, with territory just wide enough to keep its eastern
and western harbors apart, monopolized, for centuries, the
trade of the world, and annexed'continents only as coffers
wherein to garner its wealth. Who shall say that the
same blood, with only New England for its anchorage,
could not drag the wealth of the West Into its harbors ?
Who shall say that the fertile lands of Virginia and the
Mississippi enrich us because they will to do so, and not
because they are compelled ? As long as New England
Is made of granite, and the nerves of her sons of steel,
she will be, as she always has been, the brain of North
America, united or disunited ; and harnessing the ele
ments, steam and lightning, to her car of conquest, she
will double the worth of every prah-ie acre by her skill,
cover ocean with her canvas, and gather the wealth of the
Western hemisphere into her harbors.
Despite, then, of Seward's foreboding, our confederacy
will be strong, safe, and rich. Honest it wdl be, and

362 DISUNION.
therefore happy. Its nobleness will be, that, laughing at
prophets, and scorning chances, it has taken the prop fi-om
the slave system, and in one night the whole fabric wdl
tumble to pieces. Disunion is abolition ! That is aU the
value disunion has for me. I care little for forms of gov
ernment or extent of territory ; whether ten States or
tliirty make up the Union. No foreign state dare touch
us, united or disunited. It matters not to me whether
Massachusetts is worth one thousand millions, as now, or
two thousand mdUons, as she might be. If she had no
Carohna to feed, protect, and carry the mails for. The
music of disunion to me is, that at its touch the slave
breaks into voice, shouting his jubUee.
What supports slavery? Northern bayonets, calming
the masters' fears. Mr. Seward's words, which I have
just quoted, teU you what he thinks the sole use of our
army and navy. Disunion leaves God's natural laws to
work their good results. God gives every animal means
of seff-protection. Under God's law, insurrection is the
tyrant's check. Let us stand out of the path, and aUow
the Divine law to have free course.
Next, Northern opinion Is the opiate of Southern con
science. Disunion changes that. Public opinion forms
governments, and again governments react to mould opin
ion. Here is a government just as much permeated by
slavery as China or Japan is with idolatry.
The Republican party take possession of this govern
ment. How are they to undermine the Slave Power?
That power is composed, 1st, of the inevitable Influence
of wealth, 12,000,000,000, — the worth of the slaves in
the Union, — so much capital drawing to it the sympathy
of all other capital ; 2d, of the artificial aristocracy created
by the three-fifths slave basis of the Constitution ; 3d, by
the potent and baleful prejudice of color.
The aristocracy of the Constitution ! Where have you

DISUMON. 363
seen an aristocracy with half its power ? You may take a
small town here In New England, with a busy, active
population of 2,500, and three or four such men as Gov
ernor Aikin, of South Carolina, riding leisurely to the
polls, and throwing in their visiting-cards for ballots, wdl
blot out the entire influence of that New England town in
the Federal Government. That is your Repubhcanism !
Then, when you add to that the element of prejudice,
which Is concentrated in the epithet that spells negro with
two "gg's," you make the three-strand cable of the Slave
Power, — the prejudice of race, the oumipotence of money,
and the almost irresistible power of aristocracy. That is
the Slave Power.
How is Mr. Lincoln to undermine it while in the
Union ? Certainly, by turning every atom of patronage
and pecuniary profit In the keeping of the Federal Gov
ernment to the support of freedom. You know the con
trary policy has been always acted upon ever since Wash
ington, and been openly avowed ever since Fillmore. No
man was to receive any office who was not sound on the
slavery question. You remember the debate in the Sen
ate, when that was distinctly avowed to be the policy of
Mr. Fillmore. You remember Mr. Clay letting it drop
out accidentally, in debate, that the slaveholders had
always closely watched the Cabinet, and kept a majority
there, in order to preserve the ascendency of slavery.
This is the policy which, in the course of fifty years, has
built up the Slave Power. Now, how Is the Republican
jiarty ever to beat that power down ? By reversing that
policy. In favor of freedom. Cassius Clay said to me, five
years ago : " If you will allow me to have the patronage
of this government five years, and exercise It remorse
lessly, down to New Orleans ; never permit any one but
an avowed Abolitionist to hold office under the Federal
Government, I will revolutionize the Slave States them-

364 DISUNION.
selves in two administrations." That is a scheme of effi
cient politics. But the Republican party has never yet
professed any such policy.
Mr. Greeley, on the contrary, avowed, in the Tribune,
that he had often voted for a slaveholder willingly, and he
never expected the time would come when he should lay
down the principle of refusing to vote for a slaveholder to
office ; anel that sentiment has not only been reiterated
by others of the Republican party, but has never been
disavowed by any one. But suppose you could develop
politics up to this Idea, that the whole patronage of the
government should be turned in favor of abolition ; It
would take two or three generations to overthrow what
the Slave Power has done in sixty years, with the strength
of aristocracy and the strength of prejudice on its side.
With only the patronage of the government in its- control,
the Republican party must work slowly to regenerate the
government against those two elements in opposition,
when, with them in Its favor, the Slave Power has been
some sixty years in bringing about such a result as we see
around us. To reverse this, and work only with the
patronage of the government. It would take you long to
effect the cure. In my soul, I believe that a dissolution
of the Union, sure to result speeddy in the abolition of
slavery, would be a lesser evil than the slow, faltering,
diseased, gradual dying-out of slavery, constantly poison
ing us with the festering remains of this corrupt pohtical,
social, and literary state. I believe a sudden, conclusive,
definite disunion, resulting in the abolition of slavery, in
the disruption of the Northern mind from all connection
with it, all vassalage to it, immediately, would be a better,
healthier, and more wholesome cure, than to let the Re
publican party exert this gradual infiuence through the
power of the government for thirty or sixty years.
We are seeking the best way to get rid of a great

DISUNION. Hijb
national evil. Mr. Seward's way is to take the Union
as a " fixed fact," and then educate politics up to a certain
level. In that way we have to live, like Sinbad, with
Gushing and Hillard and Hallett and O'Connor and
Douglas, and men like them, on our shoulders, for the
next thirty or forty years ; with the Deweys and Presi
dent Lords, and all that class of men, — and all this timid
servility of the press, all this lack of virtue and manhood,
all this corruption of the pulpit, all this fossil hunkerism,
all this selling of the soul for a mess of pottage. Is to
linger, working In the body politic for thirty or forty
years, and we are gradually to eliminate the disease !
What an awful future ! What a miserable chronic dis
ease ! What a wreck of a noble nation the American
Republic Is to be for fifty years !
And why ? Only to save a piece of parchment that El-
bridge Gerry had instinct enough to think did not deserve
saving, as long ago as 1789 ! Mr. Seward would leave
New York united to New Orleans, with the hope (sure to
be balkeel) of getting freer and freer from year to year. I
want to place her, at once. In the same relation towards
New Orleans that she bears to Liverpool. You can do It,
the moment you break the political tie. What will that
do ? I will tell you. The New York pulpit Is to-day one
end of a magnetic telegraph, of which the New Orleans
cotton-market is the other. The New York stock-market
Is one end of the magnetic telegraph, and the Charleston
Mercury Is the other. New York statesmanship ! Why,
even in the lips of Seward, it is sealed, or half sealed, by
considerations which take their rise in the canebrakes and
cotton-fields of fifteen States. Break up this Union, and
the ideas of South Carolina will have no more influence
on Seward than those of Palmerston. The wishes of
New Orleans would have no more Influence on Chief
Ju-^tice Bigelow than the wishes of London. The threats

366 DISUNION.
of Davis, Toombs, and Keitt wdl have no more influenc
on the Tribune than the thunders of the London Time
or the hopes of the Chartists. Our Bancrofts will n
longer write history with one eye fixed on Democrati
success, nor our Websters Invent " laws of God " t
please Mr. Senator Douglas. We shall have as clos
connection, as much commerce ; we shaU still have a com
mon language, a common faith, and common race, th
same common social life ; we shall intermarry just thi
same ; we shall have steamers running just as often am
just as rapidly as now. But what cares Dr. Dewey fo
the opinion of Liverpool ? Nothing ! What cares he fo
the opinion of Washington ? Everything ! Break th'
link, and New York springs up like the fountain rellevei
from a mountain load, and assumes her place among de
cent cities. I mean no special praise of the English courts
pulpit, or press by these comparisons ; my only wish Is t
show that, however close the commercial relations migh
continue to be between North and South, and In spite o1
that common faith and common tongue and common his
tory, which would continue to hold these thirty States to
gether, still, as In the case of this country and England
wedded still by those ties, the mere sundering of a pohtica
union would leave each half free, as the disunion of 1771
did, from a large share of the corrupt influence of the other
That is what I mean by disunion. I mean to take Mas
sachusetts, and leave her exactly as she Is, commercially
She shall manufacture for the South just as Lancashln
does. I know what an influence the South has on thi
manufacturers and clergy of England; — that Is Inevitable
In the nature of things. We have only human nature ti
work with, and we cannot raise it up to the level of angels
We shaU never get beyond the sphere of human selfish
ness, but we can lift this human nature up to a highe
level, if we can but remove the weight of that politics

DISUNION. 367
relation which now rests upon it. What I would do with
Massachusetts Is this : I would make her. In relation to
South Carolina, just what England is. I would that I
could float her off, and anchor her in mid-ocean !
Severed from us. South Carolina must have a govern
ment. You see now a reign of terror, — threats to raise
means. That can only last a day. Some system must
give support to a government. It is an expensive luxury.
You must lay taxes to support it. Where will you levy
your taxes ? They must rest on productions. Produc
tions are the result of skdled labor. You must educate
your laborer, if you would have the means for carrying on
a government. Despotisms are cheap ; free governments
are a elear luxury, — the machinery is complicated and
expensive. If the South wants a theoretical republic, she
must pay for it, — she must have a basis for taxation.
How will she pay for it ? Why, Massachusetts, with a
million workmen, — men, women, and children, — the
little feet that can just toddle bringing chips from the
wood-pde, — Massachusetts only pays her own board and
lodging, and lays by about four per cent a year. And South
Carolina, with one half idlers, and the other half slaves, —
a slave doing only half the work of a freeman, — only one
quarter of the population actually at work, — how much do
you suppose she lays up ? Lays up a loss ! By all the
laws of political economy, she lays up bankruptcy ; of
course she does ! Put her out, and let her see how shel
tered she has been from the laws of trade by the Union !
The free labor of the North pays her plantation patrol ;
we pay for her government, we pay for her postage, and
for everything else. Launch her out, and let her see If
she can make the year's ends meet ! And when she tries,
she must educate her labor in order to get the basis for
taxation. Educate slaves ! ilake a locomotive with its
furnaces of open wire-work, fill them with anthracite coal.

368 DISU^NION.
and when you have raised It to white heat, mount and
drive it through a powder-magazine, and you are safe,
compared with a slaveholding community educating its
slaves. But South Carolina must do It, in order to get
the basis for taxation to support an independent govern
ment. The moment she does it, she removes the safe
guard of slavery. What is the contest In Virginia now ?
Between the men who want to make their slaves mechan
ics, for the increased wages it will secure, and the men
who oppose, for fear of the influence It wdl have on the
general security of slave property and white throats. Just
that dispute will go on, wherever the Union is dissolved.
Slavery comes to an end by the laws of trade. Hang up
your Sharpe's rifle, my valorous friend ! The slave does
not ask the help of your musket. He only says, like old
Diogenes to Alexander, " Stand out of my light ! " Just
take your awkward proportions, you Yankee Democrat
anel Republican, out of the light and heat of God's laws
of political economy, and they will melt the slave's chains
away !
Indeed, I much doubt whether the South can maintain
her cotton cultm-e at all, as a separate, slaveholding gov
ernment. Cotton is only an annual in the United States.
In St. Domingo and the tropics it is a tree lasting from
five to twenty years. Within the Union it is, then,
strictly speaking, a forced product ; or at least it touches
the highest northern belt of possible culture, only possible
there under very favorable circumstances. We all know-
how hard and keen Is the competition of this generation ;
men clutching bread only by restless hands anel brains.
Expose now our cotton to the full competition of India,
Africa, and the tropics ; burden it by taxes with the full
cost of a slaveholding government, necessardy an expen
sive one, • — a tax It has never yet felt, having shirked
it on to the North ; quicken other cotton-fields Into

DISUNION. 369
greater activity by the unwiUingness of France and Eng
land to trust their supply to States convulsed by political
quarrels ; — and then see if. In such circumstances, the
price of cotton in the markets of the world will not rule so
low, that to raise It by slovenly slave-culture will not be
utter loss, — so utter as to drive it wholly from our States,
at least while they remain Slave States.
Indeed, the Gulf States are essentially in a feudal con
dition, an aristocracy resting on slaves, — no mideUe class.
To sustain government on the costly model of our age
necessitates a middle class of trading, manufacturing en
ergy. The merchant of the nineteenth century spurns to
be a subordinate. The Introduction of such a class will
create in the Gulf States that very Irrepressible conflict
which they leave us to avoid, — which, ahve now in the
Border States, makes these unwilling to secede, — which
once created will soon undermine the aristocracy of the
Gulf States and bring them back to us free.
Take your distorted Union, your nightmare monster,
out of the light and range of these laws of trade and com
petition ; then, without any sacrifice on your part, slavery
will go to pieces ! God made it a law of his universe, that
villany should always be loss ; and if you will only not at
tempt, with your puny efforts, to stand betwixt the inevit
able laws of God's kingdom, as you are doing to-day, and
have done for sixty years, by the vigor that the Industrj^
of sixteen States has been able to infuse into the sluggish
veins of the South, slavery will drop to pieces by the very
influence of the competition of the nineteenth century.
That is what we mean by Disunion !
That is my coercion ! Northern pulpits cannonading the
Southern conscience ; Northern competition emptying its
pockets ; educated slaves awaking Its fears ; civilization
and Christianity beckoning the South Into their sisterhood.
Soon every breeze that sweeps over Carolina will bring to
24

370 DISUNION.
our ears the music of repentance, and even she will eari
on her Palmetto, " We hold this truth to be self-eviden
— that all men are created equal."
All hail, then. Disunion ! " Beautiful on the mountah
are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that pubhsl
etli peace, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." Tl
sods of Bunker Hill shall be greener, now that their gres
purpose Is accomplished. Sleep in peace, martyr of Hai
per's Ferry ! — your life was not given in vain. Rejoic(
sjilrits of Fayette and Kosciusko ! — the only stain upo
your swords is passing away. Soon, throughout aU Amei
ica, there shall be neither power nor wish to hold a slave

PROGRESS.*

" And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage
are an hundred and thirty years : few and evil have the days of the years of
my hfe been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the hfe of
my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."
ri"^HUS spoke a prince who had won from his elder
-L brother both birthright and blessing ; who had seen
" the angels of God ascending and descending " ; was able
to say, " With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and
now I am become two bands " ; who had seen God face to
face, and still lived; to whom was pledged the Divine
promise, " I will make of thee a great nation, in thy seed
shall all the families of the earth be blessed" ; whose ears
had just dxunk in the glad tidings of his favorite son,
" Joseph is yet alive ; he is governor over all the land of
Egypt." Thus timid and disconsolate gray hairs bewail
their own times. To most men, the golden age is one
hnig past.
But Nature is ever growing. Science tells us every
change is improvement. This globe, once a mass of
molten granite, now blooms almost a paradise. So in
man's life and history. One may not see It in his own
short day. You must stand afar off to judge St. Peter's.
The shadow on the dial seems motionless, but it touches
/
* Address delivered before the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society in
Music Hall, Boston, Sunday forenoon, February 17, 1861 : the mob, as be
fore, filling many pai-ts of the Hidl aud the avenues leading to it.

372 PROGRESS.
noon at last. Place the ages side by side, and see how
they differ. Three quarters of the early kings of France
died poor and in prison, by the dagger or poison of their
rivals. The Bonapartes stole large fortunes and half the
thrones of Europe, yet all died natural deaths in their
beds, and though discrowned, kept their enormous wealth.
When the English marched from Boston to Concord,
they fired Into half the Whig dwellings they passed.
When Lane crossed Kansas, pursuing Missouri ruffians,
he sent men ahead to put a guard at every border-ruffian's
door, to save Inmate and goods from harm. When Golel-
smlth reminded England that " a heart buried in a dun
geon Is as precious as that seated on a throne," there
were one hundred and sixty-nine crimes punished with
death. Now not only England, but every land governed
by the English race, is marked by the mildness of its
penal code, only one, two, or three classes of offenders
being now murdered by law.
It is not yet fifteen years since the first Woman's
Rights Convention was held. The first call for one in
Massachusetts, a dozen years ago, bore a name heard
often in manful protest against popular sins, — that of
Waldo Emerson. But In that short fifteen years, a dozen
States have changed their laws. One New York statute,
a year old, securing to married women control of then-
wages, will do more to save New York City from being
grog-shop and brothel than a thousand pulpits could do.
When Kansas went to Topeka to frame a Constitution,
one third of the Convention were in favor of giving
women the right to vote. Truly, the day breaks. If
time served, I could find a score of famihar instances. It
is enough to state the general pruiciple, that civilization
produces wants. Wants awaken intellect. To gratify
them disciplines Intellect. The keener the want, the
lustier the growth. The power to use new truths in

PROGRESS. '6 16
science, new Ideas In morals or art, obliterates rank, and
makes the lowest man useful or necessary to the state.
Popes and kings no longer mark the ages ; but Luther
and Raphael, Fulton and Faust, Howard and Rousseau.
A Massachusetts mechanic, Eli Whitney, made cotton
king; a Llassachusetts printer, WiUiam Lloyd Garrison,
has undermined its throne. Thus civilization insures
equality. Types are the fathers of democrats.
It is not always, however, ideas or moral principles that
push the world forward. Selfish interests play a large
part In the work. Our Revolution of 1776 succeeded be
cause trade and wealth joined hands with principle and
enthusiasm, — a union rare In the history of revolutions.
Northern merchants fretted at England's refusal to allow
them direct trade with Holland and the West Indies.
Virginia planters, heavily mortgaged, welcomed anything
which would postpone payment of their debts, — a motive
that doubtless avails largely among Secessionists now. So
merchant and planter joined heartily with hot-headed
Sam Adams, and reckless Joseph Warren, penniless John
Adams, that brilliant adventurer Alexander Hamilton,
and that young scapegrace Aaron Burr, to get hidepen-
dence. [Laughter.] To merchant. Independence meant
only direct trade, — to planter, cheathig his creditors.
Present conflict of interests is another instrument of
progress. Religious persecution planted these States ;
commercial persecution brought about the Revolution ;
John Bull's perseverance in a seven-years war fused us
into one nation ; his narrow and Ill-tempered effort to gov
ern us by stealth, even after the peace of 1783, drove us
to the Constitution of 1789.
I think it was Coleridge who said. If he were a clergy
man in Cornwall, he should preach flfty-two sermons a
year against wreckers. In the same spirit, I shall find the
best Illustration of our progress in the history of the slave
question.

874 PROGRESS.
Some men sit sad and trembling for the future, because
the knell of this Union has sounded. But the heavens are
almost all bright ; and if some sable clouds linger on the
horizon, they have turned their sdver linings almost wholly
to our sight. Every man who possesses his soul in pa
tience sees that disunion is gain, disunion is peace, disunion
is virtue.
Thomas Jefferson said : " It is unfortunate that the ef
forts of mankind to recover the freedom of which they
have been deprived should be accompanied with violence,
with errors, and even with crime. But while we weep
over the means, we must pray for the end."
We may see our future in the glass of our past history.
The whole connection of Massachusetts Colony with Eng
land was as much disgrace as honor to both sides. On the
part of England, it was an attempt to stretch principles
which were common sense and justice applied to an Island,
but absurd and tyrannical applied across the ocean. It
was power without right, masked in form. On the side
of the Colony, It was petty shifts, quibbles, equivocations,
cunning dodges, white lies, ever the resource of weakness.
While England was bulldog, Massachusetts was fox.
Whoever cannot take his right openly by force, steals
what he can by fraud. The Greek slave was a liar, as all
slaves are. Tocqueville says, " Men are not corrupted by
the exercise of power, nor debased by submission ; but by
the exercise of power they think illegal, and submission
to a rule they consider oppressive." That sentence Is a
key to our whole colonial history. When we grew strong
enough to dare to be frank, we broke with England.
Timid men wept ; but now we see how such disunion was
gain, peace, and vu-tue. Indeed, seeming disunion was
real union. We were then two snarling hounds, leashed
together ; we are now one in a true marriage, one in
blood, trade, thought, rehglon, history, in mutual love and

l-KUGKESB. Slf)
respect ; where one then filched sdver from the other,
each now pours gold into the other's lap ; our only rivalry,
which shall do most honor to the blood of Shake.speare and
Milton, of Franklin and Kane.
In that glass we see the story of North and South since
1787, and I doubt not for all coming time. The people of
the States between the Gulf and the great Lakes, yes,
between the Gulf and the Pole, are essentially one. We
are one in blood, trade, thought, religion, history ; nothing
can long divide us. If we had let our Constitution grow,
as the English did, as oaks do, we had never passeel
through such scenes as the present. The only thing that
ehvides us now, is the artificial attempt, in 1787, to force
us Into an unripe union. Some lawyers got together and
wrote out a constitution. The people and great interests of
the land, wealth, thought, fashion, and creed, immediately
laid it upon the shelf, and proceeded to grow one for them
selves. The treaty power sufficed to annex a continent,
and change the whole nature of the government. The
war power budds railroads to the Pacific. Right to regu
late commerce builds observatories and dredges out lakes.
Right to tax protects manufactures ; and had we wanted a
king, some ingenious Yankee would have found the right
to have one clearly stated in the provision for a well-regu
lated militia. [Laughter.] All that is valuable in the
United States Constitution is a thousand years old. What
is good is not new, and what is new is not good. That
vaunted statesmanship wdiich concocts constitutions never
has amounted to anything. The English Constitution,
always found equal to any crisis, is an old mansion, often
repaired, with quaint additions, and seven gables, each of
different pattern. Our Constitution is a new clapboard
house, so square and sharp it almost cuts you to look at
it, staring with white paint and green blinds, as if dropped
in the landscape, or come out to spend an afternoon.
[Laughter.]

376 PROGRESS.
The trouble now Is, that, in regard to the most turbu
lent question of the age, our pohticlans and a knot of-
privileged slaveholders are trying to keep the people In
side of this parchment band. Like Lycurgus, they would
mould the people to fit the Constitution, Instead of cutting
the Constitution to fit the people. Goethe said, " If you
plant an oak in a flower-vase, one of two things wdl hap
pen, — the oak wIU die, or the vase break." Our acorn
swelled; the tuiy leaves showed themselves under the
calm eye of Washington, and he laid down in hope. By
and by the roots enlarged, and men trembled. Of late,
Webster and Clay, Everett and Botts, Seward and Adams,
have been anxiously clasping the vase, but the roots have
burst abroad at last, and the porcelain is in pieces. [Sen
sation.] All ye who love oaks, thank God for so much !
That Union of 1787 was one of fear ; we were driven into
it by poverty and the commercial hostility of England.
As cold masses up all things, — sticks, earth, stones, and
water into dirty Ice, — heat first makes separation, and
then unites those of the same nature. The heat of sixty
years' agitation has severed the heterogeneous mass ; wait
awhile, it will fuse together all that is really one.
Let me show you why I think the present so bright,
and why I believe that disunion is gain, peace, and honor.
Why is the present hour smishine ? Because, for the
first time in our history, we have a North. That event
which Mr. Webster anticipated and prophesied has come
to pass. In a real, true sense, we have a North. By
which I do not mean that the North rules ; though, politi
cally speaking, the crowned and sceptred North does,
indeed, take her seat In that conned where she has thus
far been only a tool. But I mean that freemen, honest
labor, makes itself heard In our State. The North ceases
to be fox or spaniel, and puts on the lion. She asserts and
claims. She no longer begs, cheats, or buys.

PKOGKKSS. a ( i
Understand me. In 1787, slave property, worth, per
haps, two hundred mlHIon of dollars, strengthened by the
sympathy of all other capital, was a mighty power. It
was the Rothschdd of the state. The Constitution, by its
three-fifths slave basis, made slaveholders an order of nobles.
It was the house of Hapsburg joining hands with the
house of Rothschdd. Prejudice of race was the third
strand of the cable, bitter and potent as Catholic ever bore
Huguenot, or Hungary ever spit on Moslem. This fear
ful trinity won to Its side that mysterious omnipotence
called Fashion, — a power which, without concerted ac
tion, without either thought, law, or religion on Its side,
seems stronger than all of them, and fears no foe but
wealth. Such was slavery. In Its presence the North
always knelt and whispered. When slavery could not
bully, it bubbled its victim. In the convention that
framed the Constitution, Massachusetts men said, as
Charles Francis Adams says now, " What matters a piti
ful three-fifths slave basis, and guaranty against insurrec
tion, to an institution on Its death-bed, — gasping for Its
last breath ? It may conciliate, — is only a shadow, —
nothing more, — vvhy stand on words? So they shut
their eyes, as he does, on realities, and chopped excellent
logic on forms.
But at that moment, the Devil hovered over Charles
ton, with a handful of cotton-seed. [Applause.] Dropped
Into sea-island soil, and touched by the magic of Massa
chusetts brains, it poisoned the atmosphere of thirty
States. That cotton fibre was a rod of empire such as
Caesar never wielded. It fattened Into obedience pulpit
and rostrum, court, market-place, and college, and leashed
New York and Chicago to Its chair of state. Beware,
]\Ir. Adams, " he needs a long spoon who sups with the
Devil." In the kaleidoscope of the future, no statesman
eye can foresee the forms. God gives manhood but one

378 PROGRESS.
clew to success, — utter and exact justice : that he guaran
tees shall be always expediency. Deviate one hair's-
breadth, — grant but a dozen slaves, — only the tiniest
seed of concession, — you know not how "many and taU
branches of mischief shall grow therefrom." That hand-
ftil of cotton-seed has perpetuated a system which, as
Emerson says, "impoverishes the soil, depopulates the
country, demoralizes the master, curses the victim, en
rages the bystander, poisons the atmosphere, and hinders
civilization." I need not go over the subsequent compromises in de
tail. They are always of the same kind: mere words.
Northern men assured us, — barren concessions. " Phys
ical geography and Asiatic scenery " hindered any harm.
But the South was always specially anxious to have these
barren " words," and marvellously glad when she got
them. Northern politicians, in each case, were either
bullied or cheated, or feigned to be bullied, as they are
about to do now. And the people were glad to have It so.
I do not know that the politicians are a whit better now
than then. I should not be willing to assert that Seward
and Adams are any more honest than Webster and Win
throp, and certainly they have just as much spaniel in
their make.
But the gain to-day Is, we have a people. Under their
vigilant eyes, mindful of their sturdy purpose, sustained
by their determination, many of our politicians act much
better. And out of this popular heart is growing a Con
stitution which will wholly supersede that of 1787.
A few years ago, while Pierce was President, the Re
publican party dared to refuse the appropriations for sup
port of government, — the most daring act ever ventured
In a land that holds Bunker HIU and Brandywine. They
dared to persevere some twenty or thirty days. It seems
a trifle ; but It is a very significant straw. Then for weeks

PROGRESS. 379
when Banks was elected, and a year ago, again, the whole
government was checked till the Republicans put their
Speaker in the chair. Now the North elects her Presi
dent, the South secedes. I suppose we shall be bargained
away Into compromise. I know the strength and virtue
of the farming West. If is one of the bright spots that
our sceptre tends there, rather than to the seaboard.
Four or eight years hence, when this earthquake will
repeat itself, the West may be omnipotent, and we shall
see brave things. It is not the opinion of the absolute
majority which rules, but that amount of public opinion
which can be brought to bear on a particular point at a
given time. Therefore the compact, energetic, organized
Seaboard, with the press In its hand, rules, spite of the
wide-spread, Inert, unorganized West. While the agri
cultural frigate Is getting Its broadside ready, the commer
cial clipper has half finished its slave voyage.
In spite of Lincoln's wishes, therefore, I fear he will
never be able to stand against Seward, Adams, half the
Republican wire-pullers, and the Seaboard. But even
now, if Seward and the rest had stood firm, as Lincoln,
Sumner, Chase, Wade, and Lovejoy, and the Tribune
have hitherto done, I believe you might have polled the
North, and had a response, three to one : " Let the Union
go to pieces, rather than yield one inch." I know no
sublimer hour in history. The sight of these two months
is compensation for a life of tod. Never let Europe taunt
us again that our blood is wholly cankered by gold. Our
people stood, willing their Idolized government should go
to pieces for an Idea. True, other nations have done so.
England in 1640, — France in 1791, — our colonies in
1775. Those were proud moments. But to-day touches
a nobler height. Their idea was their own freedom. To-
day, the idea, loyal to which our people willingly see their
Union wrecked, is largely the hope of justice to a depen-

380 PROGRESS.
dent, helpless, hated race. Revolutions never go back
ward. The live force of a human pulse-beat can rive the
dead lumber of government to pieces. Chain the Helles
pont, Mr. Xerxes-Seward, before you dream of balking
the Northern heart of its purpose, — freedom to the slave !
The old sea never laughed at Persian chains more haugh
tily than we do at Congress promises.
I reverently thank God that he has given me to see
such a day as this. Remember the measureless love of
the North for the Union, — Its undoubting faith that dis
union Is ruin, — and then value as you ought this last three
months. If Wilberforce couli say on his death-bed, after
fifty years' tod, "Thank God, I have lived to see the day
that England is willing to give twenty million sterling for
the abolition of slavery," what ought our gratitude to be
for such a sight as this ? Twenty millions of people wdl-
ing, would only their leaders permit, to barter their gov-
nient for the hope of justice to the negro ! And this
result has come in defiance of the pulpit, spite of the half
omnipotence of commerce, with all the so-called leaders of
public opinion against us, — literature, fashion, prejudice
of race, and present interest. It is the uprising of com
mon sense, the protest of common conscience, the un
taught, instinctive loyalty of the people to justice and
right. But you will tell me of dark clouds, mobs in every
Northern city. Grant it, and more. When Lovejoy was
shot at Alton, lUinois, whde defending his press, and his
friends were reftised the use of Faneud HaU, WiUiam
EUery Channing, William Sturgis, and George Bond, the
saints and merchants of Boston, rallied to the defence of free
speech. Now we hold meetings only when and how the
Mayor permits [hisses and great applause], yet no mer
chant prince, no pulpit hero, rallies to our side. But raise
your eyes from the disgraced pavements of Boston, and

PROGRESS. 381
look out broader. That same soil which drank the blood
of Lovejoy now sends his brother to lead Congress In Its
fiercest hour ; that same prairie lifts his soul's son to crush
the Union as he steps into the Presidential chair. Sleep
in peace, martyr of Alton, good has come out of Nazareth I
The shot which turned back our Star of the West from the
waters of Charleston, and tolled the knell of the Union, was
the rebound of the bullet that pierced your heart.
When Lovejoy died, men used to ask, tauntingly, what
giiod has the antislavery cause done? what changes has it
wrought ? As well stand over the cradle, and ask what
use is a baby ? He will be a man some time, — the anti-
slavery cause is now twenty-one years olel.
This hour is bright ft-om another cause. Since 1800,
our government has been only a tool of the Slave Power.
The stronghold of antislavery has been the sentiment of
the people. We have always prophesied that our govern
ment would be found too weak to bear so radical an agita
tion as this of slavery. It has proved so ; the government
is a wreck. But the people have shown themselves able
to deal with It, — able to shake this sin from their lap as
easily as the lion does dew-drops from his mane.
Slark another thing. No Northern man a^IU allow you
to charge him with a willingness to extend slavery. No
matter what his plan, he is anxious to show you it Is not a
compromise ! and wdl not extend slavery one inch ! ilr.
Dana is eloquent on this point, Mr. Adams positive, Mr.
Seward cunning, Thurlow Weed indignant. [Laughter.]
Virtue is not wholly discrowned, whde hypocrisy is the
homage laid at her feet. With such progress, why should
we compromise ?
Everybody allows — North and South — that any com
promise will only be temporary relief. The South knows
it Is a lie, meant to tide over a shadow spot. The North
knows It, too. The startled North, In fact, now says :

382 PROGRESS.
" Yes, I '11 continue to serve you till my hair be grown,
then I 'U bring down the very temple itself" That Is
what a compromise really means. The progress Is seen In
this. The South always has said: "Yes, give me so much;
I will not keep my part of the bargain, but hold you to
yours, and get more the moment I can." Hitherto, the
North has said yes, and her courage consisted in skulking.
Seward would swear to support the Constitution, but not
keep the oath. I use his name to illustrate my idea. But
it Is always with the extremest reluctance I bring myself
to see a spot on the fame of that man, who, at his own
cost, by severe toil, braving fierce odium, saved our civili
zation from the murder of the idiot Freeman.
But you may also ask, If compromise be even a tempo
rary relief, why not make it ?
1st. Because it is wrong. o
2d. Because it is suicidal. Secession, appeased by com
promise. Is only emboldened to secede again to-morrow,
and thus get larger concessions. The cowardice that yields
to threats invites them.
3d. Because it delays emancipation. To-day, England,
horror-struck that her five miUion operatives who hve on
cotton should depend on States rushing Into anarchy, is
ransacking the world for a supply. Leave her to tod under
that lash, and in five years. South Carolina wUl be starved
into virtue. One thousand slaves are born each day.
Hurry emancipation three years, and yon raise a miUIon
human beings into freeborn men.
4th. Compromise demorahzes both parties. Mark ! the
North, notwithstanding all its progress, does not now quit
the South. In the great religious bodies and the state. It
is the sinners who kick the virtuous out of the covenant
with death ! Mr. Dana, in his recent speech, does not
secede because unwilling to commit the three constitu
tional sins. The South secedes from him because he wdl
not commit one more.

rrvucrivr.aD.

5th. Compromise risks Insurrection, the worst door at
which freedom can enter. Let universal suffrage have
free sway, and the ballot supersedes the bullet. But let
an arrogant and besotted minority curb the majority by
tricks like these, and when you have compromised away
Lincoln, you revive John Brown. On this point of insur
rection, let me say a word.
Strictly speaking, I repudiate the term " insurrection."
The slaves are not a herd of vassals. They are a nation,
four millions strong ; having the same right of revolution
that Hungary and Florence have. I acknowledge the
right of two million and a half of white people In the seven
seceding States to organize their government as they
choose. Just as freely I acknowledge the right of four
mdlion of black people to organize their government, and
to vindicate that right by arms.
Men talk of the peace of the South under our present
government. It is no real peace.. With the whites, it is
only that bastard peace which the lazy Roman loved, — ut
se apricaret, — that he might sun himself. It is only safe
idleness, sure breeder of mischief. With the slave, it is
only war in disguise. Under that mask is hid a war
keener In Its pains, and deadlier in its effects, than any
open fight. As the Latin adage runs, — mars gravior sub
pace latet, — war bitterer for its disguise.
Thirty years devoted to earnest use of moral means
show how sincere our wish that this question should have
a peaceful solution. If your idols — your AVebsters,
Clays, Calhouns, Sewards, Adamses — had done their
duty, so it would have been. Not ours the gudt of this
storm, or of the future, however bloody. But I hesitate
not to say, that I prefer an insurrection which frees the
slave in ten years to slavery for a century. A slave I
pity. A rebellious slave I respect. I say now, as I said
ten years ago, I do not shrink from the toast with which

384 PROGRESS.
Dr. Johnson flavored his Oxford Port, " Success to the
first insurrection of the blacks In Jamaica!" I do not
shrink from the sentiment of Southey, in a letter to
Dupp : " There are scenes of tremendous horror which I
could smde at by Mercy's side. An Insurrection which
should make the negroes masters of the West Indies is
one." I believe both these sentiments are dictated by
the highest humanity. I know what anarchy Is. I know
what civil war Is. I can imagine the scenes of blood
through which a rebellious slave population must march to
their rights. They are dreadful. And yet, I do not
know, that, to an enlightened mind, a scene of civil war
is any more sickening than the thought of a hundred and
fifty years of slavery. Take the broken hearts ; the be
reaved mothers ; the Infant, wrung from the hands of its
parents ; the husband and wife torn asunder ; every right
trodden under foot; the blighted hopes, the imbruted
souls, the darkened and degraded millions, sunk below the
level of Intellectual life, melted In sensuality, herded with
beasts, who have walked over the burning marl of South
ern slavery to their graves ; and where is the battle-field,
however ghastly, that is not white, — • white as an angel's
wing, — compared with the blackness of that darkness
which has brooded over the Carolinas for two hundred
years ? Do you love mercy ? Weigh out the fifty thou
sand hearts that have beaten their last pulse amid agonies
of thought and suffering fancy faints to think of; and the
fifty thousand mothers, who, with sickening senses, watch
for footsteps which are not wont to tarry long In their com
ing, and soon find themselves left to tread the pathway of
life alone ; add all the horrors of cities sacked and lands
laid waste, — that is war; weigh it now against some
trembling young girl sent to the auction-block, some man,
like that taken from our court-house and carried back into
Georgia; multiply this Individual agony into four mil-

PROGRESS. 385
lions ; multiply that into centuries ; and that into all the
relations of father and child, husband and wife ; heap on
all the deep, moral degradation, both of the oppressor and
the oppressed, and tell me if Waterloo or Thermopylse
can claim one tear from the eye even of the tenderest
spirit of mercy, compared with this daily system of hell
amid the most civilized and Christian people on the face
of the earth ! *
No, I confess I am not a non-resistant. The reason
why I have advised the slave to be guided by a pohcy of
peace is because he has had, hitherto, no chance. If he
had one, if he had as good a chance as those who went up
to Lexington years ago, I should call him the basest rec
reant that ever deserted wife and chdd, if he did not
vindicate his liberty by his own right hand.
Mr. Richard H. Dana, Jr., says, in such a contest his
sympathies would be with his own race.f Mine would be
* Since I said this, ten years ago, I find that Macaulay makes the same
comparison between a short civil war and long despotism, — putting into
Milton's mouth the following : " For civil war, that it is an evil I dispute
not. But that it is the greatest of evils, that I stoutly deny. It doth indeed
appear to the misjudging to be a worse calamity than bad government, be
cause its miseries are collected together within a short space and time, and
may easily, at one view, be taken in and perceived. But the misfortunes of
nations i-uled by tyrants, being distributed over many centuries and many
places, as they are of greater weight and number, so they are of less dis-
play." t The following is the paragraph in Mr. Dana's address referred to by
Mr. Phillips : —
" An appeal to arms is a war of the races. They meet on the equahty of
the battle-field, and the victory goes to the strongest ; and I confess that,
when I consider what the white race is, and what the black race is, what
civilization is, and what the white race is and always has been, and what the
black race is and always has been, — and this doctrine of the races has im
pressed itself on my mind much more than before, from what I have seen of
all races during the last year and a half, — I confess that, in a contest hke
that, my duty and my sympathies would go with my own race. I know it
is a contest for freedom, but it is a contest for hfe and for freedom on both
25

386 PROGRESS.
with the right. " The Almighty has no attribute which
can take sides with us In such a contest," says Jefferson,
speaking of a struggle in which the black race " is to go
up," and his own, the white race, is "to go down." Let
me advise Mr. Dana to learn Christianity of this infidel,
and Justice of this slaveholder. I feel bound to add my
doubt whether a slave insurrection would be a bloody one.
In all revolutions, except the French, the people have
always shown themselves mercfful. Witness Switzerland,
St. Domingo, Hungary, Italy. Tyranny sours more than
suffering. The Conservative hates the Abolitionist more
than we do him. The South hates the North. The
master speaks ten bitter words of the slave, where the
slave speaks five of the master. Refuse, then, all compro
mise, — send the Slave States out to face the danger of
which they are fully aware, — announce frankly that we
welcome the black race to liberty, won in battle, as cor
dially as we have done Kossuth and Garibaldi, and proba
bly there will never be an Insurrection. Prudent and
masterly statesmanship wdl avert it by just concession.
Thus Disunion is Peace, as well as Liberty and Justice.
But I was speaking of compromise. Compromise de
grades us, and puts back freedom in Europe. If the
North manfully accepts the Potomac for her barrier,
avows her gladness to get rid of tyrants, her wdllngness
and her ability to stand alone, she can borrow as much
money in Europe as before, and will be more respected.
Free Institutions are then proved breeders of men. If,
mstead of this, the North belittles herself by confessing
her fears, her weakness, her preference for peace at any
sides, because slavery is to end when war begins. One race is to go np, and
one to go dovra. It is a question of extermination, or banishment, or subju
gation, or all three. And I have not arrived at that degree of philanthropy,
that I desire to see the black race controlling all that vast country, and our -
o-wn white civihzed race driven out, subjugated, or exterminated."

PROGRESS. 387
price, what capitalist will trust a rope of sand, — a people
which the conspiracy of Buchanan's Cabinet could not
disgust, nor the guns of Carolina arouse ?
Will compromise eliminate all our Puritan blood, —
make the census add up against us, and In favor of the
South, — write a new Bible, — blot John Brown from his
tory, — make Connecticut suck its idle thumbs like a baby,
and South Carolina Invent and save like a Yankee ? If it
will, it will succeed. If It will not, Carolina don't want
it, any more than Jerrold's duck wants you to holel an
umbrella over him In a hard shower. Carolina wants sep
aration, — wants, like the jealous son, her portion, and
must waste it In riotous madness before she return a re
pentant prodigal.
Why do I think disunion gain, peace, and virtue ?
The Union, even If it be advantageous to all the States,
is surely indispensable only to the South.
Let us rise to the height of our position. This Is revo
lution, not rebellion.
Suppose we welcome disunion, manfully avow our real
sentiment, "liberty and equality," and draw the hue at
the Potomac. We do not want the Border States. Let
them go, be welcome to the forts, take the Capital with
them. [Applause and hisses.] What to us Is a hot-house
city, empty streets, and useless marble ? Where Mac-
gregor sits Is the head of the table. Active brains, free
lips, and cunning hands make empires. Paper capitals
are vain. Of course, we must assume a right to buy out
Maryland and Delaware. Then, by running our line at
the Potomac, we close the irrepressible conflict, and have
homogeneous institutions. Then we part friends. The
Union thus ended, the South no longer hates the North.
Cuba she cannot have. France, England, and ourselves
forbid. If she spread over Central America, that will
bring no cause of war to a Northern confederacy. We

388 - PROGRESS.
are no filibusters. Her nearness to us there cannot hai
us. Let Kansas witness that while Union fettered h(
and our national banner clung to the flagstaff hea
with blood, we still made good George Canning's boa
" Where that banner is planted, foreign dominion shall n
come." With a government heartily on his side, and th
flag floating In the blessings of twenty million of freeme
the loneliest settler in the shadow of the Rocky Mou
tains will sleep fearless.
Why, then, should there not be peace between tv
such confederacies ? There must be. Let me show yc
why : —
1st. The laws of trade will bind us together, as th(
now do all other lands. This side of the ocean, at leas
we are not living in feudal times, when princes make w
for ambition. We live in days when men of commt
sense go about their daily business, while frightened kin,
are flying along the highways. Leave neighborhood ai
trade alone to work their usual results, and we shall be
peace. Observe, only Northerners are lynched at tl
South now. Spaniards, French, Scotch are safe. Whe
Enghsh Captain Vaughan is tarred and feathered, ti
Mayor offers a reward, and the grand jury indict. Aft
a fair, sensible disunion, such as I have described, a Bo
ton man wdl be as well off as Captain Vaughan. Fa
treaties are better security than sham constitutions.
At any rate, disunion could not make the two sectloi
any more at war than they are now. Any change in th
respect would be an Improvement. If the North ar
Mexico had touched boundaries, would they ever hai
quarrelled? Nothing but Southern fillbusterlsm, whk
can never point North, ever embroded us with Mexic
To us In future the South wdl be another Mexico ; v
shall not wish to attack her ; she wUl be too weak, t<
intent on her own broils, to attack us.

rnueiKtss. ooy

Even If the Border States do not secede, let us, for the
slave's sake, welcome the schism between them and the
Gulf States, which that very difference of conduct wdl be
sure to cause. A house divided against itself cannot
stand. Only twenty-three out of every hundred Inhab
itants are slaves in the Border States, — twenty-three
slaves to seventy-seven freemen. A worn-out sod, fear of
loss by fugitives, dread of danger to a hated institution,
thus weak In proportion to Northern enemies, will urge
slaveholders to push their slaves southward. Another
census may find the Border States with only ten or fifteen
slaves out of one hundred Inhabitants, — ten slaves to
ninety freemen. Reduced to such compass, slavery is
manageable ; we shall soon see plans of emancipation,
compensation, and ft-eedom. On the contrary, the Gulf
States now have forty-six slaves in every hundreel inhabi
tants, — forty-six slaves to fifty-four freemen. Strength
ened by this tendency of the slave population southward,
and the opening of the slave-trade, we may soon see the
black race a majority, and either as a nation of mixed
races, or as black republics, the Gulf States will gravitate
back to us free.
The South cannot make war on any one. Suppose the
fifteen States hang together a year, — which is almost an
impossibility, —
1st. They have given bonds in two thousand mdlions of
dollars — the value of their slaves — to keep the peace.
2d. They will have enough to do to attend to the irre
pressible conffict at home. Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri,
will be their Massachusetts ; Winter Davis, Blair, and
Cassius Clay, their Seward and Garrison.
3d. The Gulf States will monopolize all the offices. A
man must have Gulf principles to belong to a healthy
party. Under such a lead, ehsfi-anchised Virginia, in op
position, wdl not have much heart to attack Pennsylvania.

390 PROGRESS.
4th. The census shows that the Border States are push
ing their slaves South. Fear of their free Northern neigh
bors will quicken the process, and so widen the breach
between Gulf and Border States by making one constantiy
more and the other less Slave States. Free trade In sugar
bankrupts Louisiana. Free trade in men bankrupts Vir
ginia. Free trade generally lets two thirds of the direct
taxation rest on the numerous, richer, and more comfort
able whites of the Border States ; hence further conflict.
Such a despotism, with every third man black and a foe,
will make no wars.
Why should it attack us ? We are not a cannon thun
dering at its gates. We are not an avalanche overhang
ing its sunny vales. Our influence, that of freedom, is
only the air, penetrating everywhere ; like heat, permeat
ing all space. The South cannot stand isolated on a glass
cricket. The sun will heat her, and electricity convulse.
She must outwit them before she can get rid of ideas. A
fevered chdd in July might as well strike at the sun, as
the South attack us for that, the only annoyance we can
give her, — the sight and influence of our nobler civdiza
tion. Disunion ,Is gain. I venture the assertion, in the face
of State Street, that of any five Northern men engaged
in Southern trade, exclusively, four will end in bankrupt
cy. If disunion sffts such commerce, the North wdl lose
nothing. I venture the assertion, that seven at least of the South
ern States receive from the government more than they
contribute to It. So far, their place will be more profitable
than their company.
The whole matter of the Southern trade has been grossly
exaggerated, as well as the importance of the Mississippi
River. Freedom makes her own rivers of iron. Facts
show that for one dollar the West sends or brings by the

riiuuKtss. asi
river, she sends and brings four to and from the East by
wagon and rad.
If, then, Mississippi and Louisiana bar the river with
forts, they will graciously be allowed to pay for them,
while Northern railroads grow rich carrying behind steam
that portion of wheat, bacon, silk, or tea, which would
otherwise float lazily up and down that yellow stream.
The Cincinnati Press, which has treated the subject with
rare ability, asserts that, excepting provisions which the
South must, in any event, buy of the West, the trade of
Cincinnati with Southern Indiana alone Is thrice her trade
with the whole South. As our benevolent societies get
about one dollar in seven south of Mason and Dixon's
line, so our traders sell there only about one dollar in flve.
Such trade. If cut off, would ruin nobody. In fact, the
South buys little of us, and pays only for about half she
buys. [Laughter and hisses.]
Now we build Southern roads, pay Southern patrol,
carry Southern letters, support, out of the nation's treas
ures, an army of Southern office-holders, waste more
money at Norfolk in building ships which -will not float, than
is spent in protecting the five Great Lakes, which bear up
mdlions of commerce. These vast pensions come back to
us In shape of Southern traders, paying on the average
one half their debts. Dissolve the Union, and we shall
save this outgo, and probably not sell without a prospect
of being paid. While the laws of trade guarantee that
even if there be two nations, we shall have their carrying-
trade and manufacture for them just so long as we carry
and manufacture cheaper than other men.
Southern trade is a lottery, to which the Union gives all
the prizes. Put it on a sound basis by chsunion, and the
North gains. If we part without anger, the South buys,
as every one does, of the cheapest seller. We get her
honest business, without being called to fiU up the gap of

392 PROGRESS.
bankruptcy which the wasteful system of slave-labor must
occasion. In this generation, no Slave State In the Union
has made the year's ends meet. In counting the wealth
of the Union, such States are a minus quantity. Should
the Gulf States, however, return, I have no doubt the
United States treasury wdl be called on to pay all these
secession debts.
Disunion is honor. I wiU not point to the equivocating
hypocrisy of all our Northern leaders. 1 will not count
up all the bankrupt statesmen, — blighted names, — skele
tons marking the sad path of the caravan over our desert
of seventy years, — they are too famdiar. As years roll
on, history metes out justice. But take the last Instance,
— take Mr. Richard H. Dana, Jr., as example, a name
historic for generations, a scholar of world-wide fame.
He finds in the Constitution the duty of returning fugitive
slaves, all alike, " the old and the ignorant, the young and
the beautiful," to be surrendered to the master, whether
he be man or brute. Mr. Dana avows his fuU readiness
to perform this legal duty. All honor at least to the
shameless effrontery with which he avows his willingness.
Most of our public men, hke the English Tories of 1689,
are " ashamed to name what they are not ashamed to do."
He paints the hell of slavery In words that make the blood
cold, and then boasts, this Massachusetts scholar, — gen
tleman, his friends would call him, — boasts that no man
can charge him with having ever said one word against
the surrender of fugitive slaves ! Counsel In all the Bos
ton slave-cases, he " never suffered himself to utter one
word which any poor fugitive negro, or any friend of his,
could construe Into an assertion that a fugitive slave should
not be restored" !
He unblushlngly claims merit for himself and Massa
chusetts, — I doubt if, in the scornful South, he wIU have
"his claim allowed," — that he and Massachusetts have

r tnjyjt^tjoo.

constantly executed laws which " offended their sense of
honor, and ran counter to their moral sentiments," which
he considers a "painful duty." To be sure, Mr. Dana
has discovered, in his wide travels and extensive voyages, a
" peculiar " class of people, narrow-minded, very little read
in Greek, who think, poor simpletons, that this slave-hunt
ing Is a sin. But then, Aristotle did not look at things In
this light. He took broader views, and proves conclusively
that three virtues and one sin exactly make a saint, and
Mr. Dana Is too good a churchman to dispute with Aris
totle. He sees no reason why, notwithstanding this clause,
as to forcing our fellow-men back into hell, " a conscien
tious man " should not swear to obey the Constitution, and
actually obey It. Now Mr. Seward and Mr. Joel Parker,
who both believe in the fugitive-slave clause, and willingly
swear to enforce it, have each given public notice they will
not enforce it. Mr. Dana will swear, and perform too.
They will swear, but not perform. Their guilt is perjury ;
his Is man-stealing. On the whole, I should rather be
Seward than Dana ; for perjury is the more gentlemanly
vice, to my thinking. Perjury only filches your neigh
bor's rights. Man-stealing takes rights and neighbor too.
After all this, Mr. Dana objects to the Crittenden com
promise. Something short of that he can allow, because
he does not call these other offers, Adams's and such like,
"compromises"! It seems he objects more to the word
than the thing. But the Crittenden proposal he Is set
against, for a reason which may strike you singular in a
man willing to return slaves ; but then we are bundles of
inconsistencies, all of us. But this slave-hunter cannot
abide Crittenelen, because, hsten ! because he thinks " an
Investment In dishonor is a bad investment ! . An invest
ment in infidelity to the principles of liberty is a bad in
vestment ! " Hunt slaves? Yes, It is a duty. Give some
territory to slavery, and perd the Republican party ?

394 PROGRESS.
Never, it Is a " bad Investment " ! De Quincey says :
"If once a man indulges In murder, very soon he comes
to think little of robbing ; fi-om robbing he comes next to
drinking, and from that to ill manners and procrastination.
Once enter this downward path, and you know not where
you 'U stop." Mr. Dana has, however, taken warnmg,
and stops at man-stealing.
Some of you will call this personality. I will tell you
some time, when the hour serves, why I use personality.
Enough now to remind you his clients are wealth, culture,
power, and white blood. Mine are four million of human
bemgs, standing dumb suppliants on the threshold of
Christianity and civilization, and hundreds of fugitives
trembling at every motion of the door-latch. Whoever
perils their safety, or holds back the day of their redemp
tion by ingenious sophistry, base word, or base act, shall
always find In me a critic. Let no man call me harsh ; I
only repeat with emphasis words such men are not ashamed
to speak. Southern Legrees can plead, if not an excuse,
yet some extenuation. But when a Massachusetts Repub
lican, a Massachusetts lawyer, a Massachusetts scholar,
avows such sentiments, he puts himself below the Le
grees. Blame not this plainness of speech. I have a
hundred friends, as brave souls as God ever made, whose
hearths are not as safe after honored men make such
speeches. Faneuil Hall, too, kneels patient for Its burden, and by
its President that meeting says to the South, — Only name
your terms, that is all we wdl trouble you to do. Like
Luther's priest, who, when Catholics told him to pray one
way and Protestants another, ended by repeating the al
phabet, and begging God to frame a prayer agreeable to
himself, so our Boston orator offers the South carte blanche,
the whole bundle of compromises, — Wdl she only conde
scend to Indicate her preference ?

rivucirijuoo.

Mr. Dana is a man above the temptations of politics.
The President of the Faneuil Hall meeting has no politi
cal aspirations, an indepenelent merchant. Such speeches
show how wide the gangrene of the Union spreads. Mr.
Dana's speech was made, he says. In the shadow of Bun
ker's Hill, in sight of the spot where Washington first
drew his sword. The other speech was borne to the roof
of Faneuil Hall by the plaudits of a thousand merchants.
Surely, such were not the messages Cambridge and our
old Hall used to exchange ! Can you not hear Warren
and Otis crying to their recreant representatives : " Sons,
scorn to be slaves ! Believe, for our sakes, we did not
fight for such a government. Trample it under foot. You
cannot be poorer than we were. It cannot cost you more
than our seven years of war. Do it, if only to show that
we have not lived in vain " ?

UNDER THE FLAG.*

" Therefore thus saith the Lord : Ye have not hearkened unto me in pro
claiming liberty every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor :
behold, I proclaim a hberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pes
tilence, and to the famine." — Jek. xxxiv. 17.
MANY times this winter, here and elsewhere, I have
counselled peace, — urged, as well as I knew how,
the expediency of acknowledging a Southern Confederacy,
and the peaceful separation of these thirty-four States.
One of the journals announces to you that I come here
this morning to retract those opinions. No, not one of
them ! [Applause.] I need them all, — every word I
have spoken this winter, — every act of twenty-five years
of my hfe, to make the welcome I give this war hearty
and hot. Civil war is a momentous evil. It needs the
soundest, most solemn justification. I rejoice before God
to-day for every word that I have spoken counselling peace ;
but I rejoice also with an especially profound gratitude,
that now, the first time in my antislavery life, I speak
under the stars and stripes, and welcome the tread of
Massachusetts men marshalled for war. [Enthusiastic
cheermg.] No matter what the past has been or said;
to-day the slave asks God for a sight of this banner, and
counts it the pledge of his redemption. [Applause.]
Hitherto it may have meant what you thought, or what I
* A Discourse delivered in the Music Hall, Boston, April 21, 1861, before
the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society, the platform profusely decorated
with the Stars and Stripes.

UNT)ER THE FLAG. 397
did ; to-day it represents sovereignty and justice. [Re
newed applause.] The only mistake that I have made,
was In supposing Massachusetts wholly choked with cotton-
dust and cankered with gold. [Loud cheering.] The
South thought her patience and generous willingness for
peace were cowardice ; to-day shows the mistake. She
has been sleeping on her arms since '83, and the first
cannon-shot brings her to her feet with the war-cry of the
Revolution on her lips. [Loud cheers.] Any man who
loves either liberty or manhood must rejoice at such an
hour. [Applause.]
Let me tell you the path by which I at least have trod
my way up to this conclusion. I do not acknowledge the
motto, in its full significance, " Our country, right or
wrong." If you let it trespass on the domain of morals,
it is knavish. But there Is a ftdl, broad sphere for loyal
ty ; and no war-cry ever stin-ed a generous people that
had not in It much of truth and right. It Is sublime, this
rally of a great people to the defence of "what they think
their national honor ! A " noble and puissant nation
rousing herself like a strong man from sleep, and shaking
her invincible locks." Just now, we saw her " reposing,
peaceful and motionless ; but at the call of patriotism, she
ruffies, as it were, her swelling plumage, collects her scat
tered elements of strength, and awakens her dormant
thunders." But how elo we justify this last appeal to the God of
battles ? Let me tell you how I do. I have always be-
lieveel in the sincerity of Abraham Lincoln. You have
heard me express my confidence in it every time I have
spoken from this desk. I only doubted sometimes whether
he were really the head of the government. To-day he
is at any rate Commander-in-chief.
The delay in the action of government has doubtless
been necessity, but policy also. Traitors within and with-

398 UNDER THE FLAG.
out made it hesitate to move tUl it had tried the machuie
of government just given it. But delay was wise, as it
matured a public opinion definite, decisive, and ready to
keep step to the music of the government march. The
very postponement of another session of Congress till July
4th plainly invites discussion, — evidently contemplates
the ripening of public opinion In the interval. Fairly to
examine public affairs, and prepare a community wise to
co-operate with the government, is the duty of every
pulpit and every press.
Plain words, therefore, now, before the nation goes mad
with excitement, is every man's duty. Every pubhc
meeting in Athens was opened with a curse on any one
who should not speak what he really thought. " I have
never defiled my conscience from fear or favor to my
superiors," was part of the oath every Egyptian soul was
supposed to utter in the Judgment-Hall of Osiris, before
admission to heaven. Let us show to-day a Christian
spirit as sincere and fearless. No mobs in this hour of
victory, to silence those whom events have not converted.
We are strong enough to tolerate dissent. That flag
¦which floats over press or mansion at the bidding of a
mob, disgraces both victor and victim.
All winter long, I have acted with that party which
cried for peace. The antislavery enterprise to which I
belong started with peace written on its banner. We
imagined that the age of bullets was over ; that the age
of ideas had come ; that thirty millions of people were
able to take a great question, and decide it by the conflict
of opinions ; that, without letting the ship of state foun
der, we could lift four millions of men into Liberty and
Justice. We thought that if your statesmen would throw
away personal ambition and party watchwords, and devote
themselves to the great issue, this might be accomphshed.
To a certain extent it has been. The North has answered

UNDER THE FLAG. 6\)\)
to the call. Year after year, event by event, has indi
cated the rising education of the people, — the readiness
for a higher moral life, the calm, self-poised confidence
in our own convictions that patiently waits — like master
for a pupd — for a neighbor's conversion. The North
has responded to the call of that peaceful, moral, intel
lectual agitation which the antislavery idea has initiated.
Our mistake. If any, has been that we counted too much
on the intelligence of the masses, on the honesty and
wisdom of statesmen as a class. Perhaps we did not give
weight enough to the fact we saw, that this nation is made
up of different ages ; not homogeneous, but a mixed mass
of chfferent centuries. The North thinks, — can appreci
ate argument, — is the nineteenth century, — hardly any
struggle left in it but that between the working class and
the money-kings. The South dreams, — it is the thir
teenth and fourteenth century, — baron and serf, — noble
and slave. Jack Cade and Wat Tyler loom over its
horizon, and the serf, rising, calls for another Thierry to
record his struggle. There the fagot still burns which the
Doctors of the Sorbonne called, ages ago, " the best light
to guide the erring." There men are tortured for opin
ions, the only punishment the Jesuits were wdling their
pupils should look on. This is, perhaps, too flattering a
picture of the South. Better call her, as Sumner does,
"the Barbarous States." Our struggle, therefore, is be
tween barbarism and civUization. Such can only be set
tled by arms. [Prolonged cheering.] The government
has waited until its best friends almost suspected its
courage or its integrity ; but the cannon shot against Fort
Sumter has opened the only door out of this hour. There
were but two. One was compromise ; the other was
battle. The integrity of the North closed the first ; the
generous forbearance of nineteen States closed the other.
The South opened this with cannon-shot, and Lincoln

400 UNDER THE FLAG.
shows himself at the door. [Prolonged and enthusiastic
cheering.] The war, then, is not aggressive, but in seff-
defence, and Washington has become the Thermopylse of
Liberty and Justice. [Applause.] Rather than surren
der that Capital, cover every square foot of it with a hving
body [loud cheers] ; crowd it with a mdhon of men, and
empty every bank vault at the North to pay the cost.
[Renewed cheering.] Teach the world once for all, that
North America belongs to the Stars and Stripes, and
under them no man shall wear a chain. [Enthusiastic
cheering.] In the whole of this conflict, I have looked
only at Liberty, — only at the slave. Perry entered the
battle of the Lakes with " Don't give up the ship ! "
floating from the masthead of the Lawrence. When
with his fighting flag he left her crippled, heading north,
and, mounting the deck of the Niagara, turned her bows
due west, he did all for one and the same purpose, — to
rake the decks of the foe. Steer north or west, acknowl
edge secession or cannonade it, I care not which; but
"Proclaim liberty throughout aU the land unto aU the
inhabitants thereof." [Loud cheers.]
I said, civil war needs momentous and solemn justifica
tion. Europe, the world, may claim of us, tnat, before we
blot the nineteenth century by an appeal to arms, we
shall exhaust every concession, try every means to keep
the peace ; otherwise, an appeal to the God of battles is
an insult to the civilization of our age ; it is a confession
that our culture and our religion are superficial, ff not a
failure. I think that the history of the nation and of the
government both is an ample justification to our o-wn
times and to history for this appeal to arms. I think the
South is aU wrong, and the administration is all right.
[Prolonged cheering.] Let me teU you why. For thu:ty
years the North has exhausted conciliation and compro
mise. They have tried every expedient, they have relin-

UNDER THE FLAG. 401
quished every right, they have sacrificed evei-j' interest,
they have smothered keen sensibility to national honor,
and Northern weight and supremacy In the Union ; have
forgotten they were the majority in numbers and in
wealth, in education and strength ; have left the helm of
government and the dictation of policy to the Southern
States. For all this, the conflict waxed closer and hotter.
The administration which preceded this was full of trai
tors and thieves. It aUowed the arms, ships, money,
military stores of the North to be stolen with impunity.
Mr. Lincoln took office, robbed of all the means to dtjfend
the Constitutional rights of the government. He offered
to withdraw from the walls of Sumter everything but the
flag. He allowed secession to surround it with the strong-
est forts which military science could build. The North
offered to meet in convention her sister States, and ar
range the terms of peaceful separation. Strength and right
yielded everything, — they folded their hands, waited
the returning reason of the mad insurgents. Week after
week elapsed, month after month went by, waiting for the
sober second-thought of two miUions and a half of people.
The world saw the sublime sight of nineteen millions of
wealthy, powerful, united citizens, allowing their flag to be
insulted, their rights assailed, their sovereignty defied and
broken in pieces, and yet waiting, with patient, brotherly,
magnanimous' kindness, until Insurrection, having spent Its
fury, should reach out its hand for a peaceful arrangement.
Jlen began to call It cowardice, on the one hand ; and we,
who watched closely the crisis, feared that this effort to
be magnanimous would demoralize the conscience and the
e-durage of the North. We were afraid that, as the hour
went by, the virtue of the people, white-heat as It stood
on the fourth day of March, woulel be cooled by the temp
tations, by the suspense, by the want and suffering which it
was feared would stalk from the Atlantic to the valley of
26

402 UNDER THE FLAG.
the Mississippi. We were afraid the govemment would
wait too long, and find at last, that, instead of a united
people, they were deserted, and left alone to meet the foe.
AU this time, the South knew, recognized, by her own
knowledge of Constitutional questions, that the govem
ment could not advance one Inch towards acknowledging
secession ; that when Abraham Lincoln swore to support
the Constitution and laws of the United States, he was
bound to die under the flag on Fort Sumter, If necessary.
[Loud applause.] They knew, therefore, that the caU on
the administration to acknowledge the Commissioners of
the Confederacy was a delusion and a swindle. I know
the whole argument for secession. Up to a certain ex
tent, I accede to it. But no administration that is not
traitor can acknowledge secession until we are hopelessly
beaten in fair fight. [Cheers.] The right of a State to
secede, under the Constitution of the United States, — it is
an absurdity ; and Abraham Lincoln knows nothing, has a
right to know nothing, but the Constitution of the United
States. [Loud cheers.] The right of a State to secede,
as a revolutionary right, is undeniable ; but it is the nation
which Is to recognize that ; and the nation offered, at the
suggestion of Kentucky, to meet the question In full con
vention. The offer was declined. The government and
the nation, therefore, are all right. [Applause.] They
are right on constitutional law ; they are right on the
principles of the Declaration of Independence. [Cheers.]
Let me explain this more fully, for this reason ; because
— and I thank God for it, every American should be
proud of it — you cannot maintain a war in the United
States of America against a constitutional or a revolution
ary right. The people of these States have too large brains
and too many Ideas to fight blindly, — to lock horns like a
couple of beasts In the sight of the world. [Applause.]
Cannon think In this nineteenth century ; and you must

UISLIllK lilH, l<LAli. '±\jri
put the North In the right, — wholly, undeniably, in
side of the Constitution and out of it, — before you can
justify her in the face of the world ; before you can pour
Massachusetts like an avalanche through the streets of
Baltimore, [great cheering,] and carry Lexington on the
19th of April south of Mason and Dixon's line. [Re
newed cheering.] Let us take an honest pride in the
fact that our Sixth Regiment made a way for itself
through Baltimore, and were the first to reach the threat
ened Capital. In this war Massachusetts has a right to be
the first in the field.
I said I knew the whole argument for secession. Very
briefly let me state the points. No government provides
for its own death; therefore there can be no constitutional
right to secede. But there is a revolutionary right. The
Declaration of Independence establishes, what the heart
of every American acknowledges, that the people — mark
you, THE people! — have always an Inherent, paramount,
inalienable right to change their governments, whenever
they think — whenever they think — that it wdl minister
to their happiness. That is a revolutionary right. Now,
how did South Carolina and Massachusetts come into the
Union ? They came Into it by a convention representing
the people. South Carolina alleges that she has gone out
by convention. So far, right. She says that when the
people take the State rightfully out of the Union, the right
to forts and national property goes with it. Granted. She
says, also, that it is no matter that we bought Louisiana of
France, and Florida of Spain. No bargain made, no money
paid, betwixt us and France or Spain, could rob Florida or
Louisiana of her right to remodel her government when
ever the people found it would be for their happiness. So
far, right. The people, — mark you! South Carolina
presents herself to the administration at Washington, and
says, " There is a vote of my convention, that I go out of

404 UNDER THE FLAG.
the Union." " I cannot see you," says Abraham Lincoln.
[Loud cheers.] "As President, I have no eyes but con
stitutional eyes; I cannot see you." [Renewed cheers.]
He could only say, like Speaker Lenthal before Charles the
First, " I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but
as the Constitution Is pleased to direct me, whose servant I
am." He was right. But iladlson said, Hamilton said,
the Fathers said, in 1789, " No man but an enemy of lib
erty will ever stand on technicalities and forms, when the
essence is in question." Abraham Lincoln cotild not see
the Commissioners of South Carolina, but the North could;
the nation could ; and the nation responded, " If you want
a Constitutional secession, such as you claim, but which I
repudiate, I wdl waive forms : let us meet In convention,
and we will arrange It." [Applause.] Surely, while one
claims a right within the Constitution, he may, without
dishonor or inconsistency, meet In convention, even if
finally reftising to be bound by It. To decline doing so
is only evidence of intention to provoke war. Everything
under that instrument is peace. Everything under that
instrument may be changed by a national convention.
The South says, " No ! " She says, " If you don't allow
me the Constitutional right, I claim the revolutionary
right." The North responds, " When you have torn the
Constitution Into fragments, I recognize the right of the
people of South Carolina to model their government.
Yes, I recognize the right of the three hundred and
eighty-four thousand white men, and four hundred and
eighty-four thousand black men to model their Constitu
tion. Show me one that they have adopted, and I wdl
recognize the revolution. [Cheers.] But the moment
you tread outside of the Constitution, the black man Is
not three fifths of a man, — he is a whole one." [Loud
cheering.] Yes, the South has the right of revolution;
the South has a right to model her government ; and the

UNDER THE FLAG. 405
moment she shows us four million of black votes thrown
even against it, and balanced by five miUion of other
votes, I wdl acknowledge the Declaration of Independence
is comphed with [loud applause], — that the people
south of Mason and Dixon's line have remodelled their
government to suit themselves; and our fmiction Is
only to recognize It.
Further than this, we should have the right to remind
them, in the words of our Declaration of Independence,
that " governments long established are not to be changed
for hght and transient causes," and that, so long as gov
ernment fulfils the purposes for which It was made, — the
liberty and happiness of the people, — no one section has
the right capriciously to make changes which destroy joint
interests, advantages bought by common tod and sacrifice,
and which division necessarily destroys. Indeed, we should
have the right to remind them that no faction. In what has
been recognized as one nation, can claim, by any law, the
right of revolution to set up or to preserve a system
which the common conscience of mankind stamps as wicked
and infamous. The law of nations is only another name
for the common sense and average conscience of mankind.
It does not allow itself, like a county court, to be hood
winked by parchments or confused by technicalities. In
its vocabulary, the right of revolution means the right of
the people to protect themselves, not the privdege of ty
rants to tread under foot good laws, and claim the world's
sympathy in riveting weakened chains.
I say the North had a right to assume these positions.
She did not. She had a right to Ignore revolution until
these conditions were complied with ; but she did not.
She waived it. In obedience to the advice of Madison, to
the long history of her country's forbearance, to the mag
nanimity of nineteen States, she waited ; she advised the
government to wait. Mr. Lincoln, in his inaugural, Indi-

406 UNDER THE FLAG.
cated that this would be the wise course. Mr. Seward
hinted It in his speech in New York. The London Times
bade us remember the useless war of 1776, and take warn
ing against resisting the principles of popular sovereignty.
The Tribune, whose unflinching fidelity and matchless
abihty make It in this fight "the white plume of Na
varre," has again and again avowed its readiness to waive
forms and go Into convention. We have waited. We
said, "Anything for peace." We obeyed the magnani
mous statesmanship of John Quincy Adams. Let me
read you his advice, given at the " Jubilee of the Consti
tution," to the New York Historical Society, in the year
1839. He says, recognizing this right of the people of a
State, — mark you, not a State: the Constitution in this
matter knows no States ; the right of revolution knows no
States : it knows only the people. Mr. Adams says : —
" The PEOPLE of each State In the Union have a right
to secede from the confederated Union itself.
" Thus stands the right. But the Indissoluble link of
union between the people of the several States of this
confederated nation is, after all, not in the right, but in
the heart.
" If the day should ever come (may Heaven avert It !)
when the affections of the people of these States shall be
alienated from each other, when the fi-aternal spirit shall
give way to cold inehfference, or collisions of interest shall
fester Into hatred, the bands of political association will not
long hold together parties no longer attracted by the mag
netism of conciliated interests and kindly sympathies ; and
far better will it be for the people of the disunited States
to part in friendship from each other, than to be held to
gether by constraint. Then will be the time for reverting
to the precedents which occurred at the formation and
adoption of the Constitution, to form again a more perfect
union, by dissolving that which could no longer bind ; and

ux^iyuiv i. Xi.ij P UIWJ.

to leave the separated parts to be reuniteel by the law of
political gravitation to the centre."
The North said " Amen " to every word of it. They
waited. They begged the States to meet them. They
were silent when the cannon-shot pierced the fiag of the
Star of the West. They said " Amen " when the govern
ment offered to let nothing but the bunting cover Fort
Sumter. They said "Amen" when Lincoln stood alone,
without arms. In a defenceless Capital, and trusted him
self to the loyalty and forbearance of thirty-four States.
The South, if the truth be told, cannot wait. Like all
usurpers, they dare not give time for the peojile to criticise
their power. War and tumult must conceal the irregular
ity of their civil course, and smother discontent and criti
cism at the same time. Besides, bankruptcy at home can
live out its short term of possible existence only by con
quest on land and piracy at sea. And, further, only by
war, by appeal to popular frenzy, can they hope to delude
the Border States to join them. War is the breath of
their life.
To-day, therefore, the question is, by the voice of the
South, " Shall Washington or Montgomery own the con
tinent ? " And the North says, " From the Gulf to the
Pole, the Stars and Stripes shall atone to four millions of
negroes whom we have forgotten for seventy years ; and,
before you break the Union, we will see that justice is
done to the slave." [Enthusiastic and long-continued
cheers.] There is only one thing those cannon-shot In the har
bor of Charleston settled, — that there never can be a
compromise. [Loud applause.] We Abolitionists have
doubted whether this Union really meant justice and lib
erty. \^^e have doubted the intention of nineteen mil
lions of people. They have said. In answer to our criti
cism : " We believe that the Fathers meant to establish

408 UNDER THE FLAG.
justice. We believe that there are hidden In the armory
of the Constitution weapons strong enough to secure it.
We are willing yet to try the experiment. Grant us
time." We have doubted, derided the pretence, as we
supposed. During these long and weary weeks we have
waited to hear the Northern conscience assert Its purpose.
It comes at last. [An Impressive pause.] Massachusetts
blood has consecrated the pavements of Baltimore, and
those stones are now too sacred to be trodden by slaves.
[Loud cheers.]
You and I owe It to those young martyrs, you and I owe
It, that their blood shall be the seed of no mere empty tri
umph, but that the negro shall teach his children to bless
them for centuries to come. [Applause.] When Massa
chusetts goes down to that Carolina fort to put the Stars
and Stripes again over its blackened walls [enthusiasm],
she wdl sweep from its neighborhood every institution
which hazards their ever bowing again to the palmetto.
[Loud cheers.] AU of you may not mean It now. Our
fathers did not think in 1775 of the Declaration of Inde
pendence. The Long Parliament never thought of the
scaffold of Charles the First, when they entered on the
struggle ; but having begun, they made thorough work.
[Cheers.] It is an attribute of the Yankee blood, —
slow to fight, and fight once. [Renewed cheers.] It
was a holy war, that for Independence : this is a holler
and the last, — that for Liberty. [Loud applause.]
I hear a great deal about Constitutional liberty. The
mouths of Concord and Lexington guns have room only
for one word, and that is Liberty. You might as well
ask Niagara to chant the Chicago Platform, as to say how
far war shall go. War and Niagara thunder to a music of
their own. God alone can launch the lightnings, that they
may go and say. Here we are. The thunderbolts of His
throne always abase the proud, lift up the lowly, and exe
cute justice between man and man.

UNT)ER THE FLAG. 409
Now let me turn one moment to another consideration.
What should the government do? I said "thorough"
should be its maxim. When we fight, we are fighting for
justice and an Idea. A short war and a rigid one is the
maxim. Ten thousand men in Washington ! It is only a
'V bloody fight. Five hundred thousand men in Washington,
and none dare come there but from the North. [Loud
cheers.] Occupy St. Louis with the millions of the West,
and say to Missouri, " You cannot go out ! " [Applause.]
Cover Maryland with a million of the friends of the ael-
mlnlstration, and say : " We must have our capital within
reach. [Cheers.] If you need compensation for slaves
taken from you In the convulsion of battle, here it is.
[Cheers.] Government is engaged in the fearful struggle
to show that '89 meant justice, and there is something
better than life, holier than even real and just property,
in such an hour as this." And again, we must remember
another thing, — the complication of such a struggle as
this. Bear with me a moment. We put five hundred
thousand men on the banks of the Potomac. Virginia Is
held by two races, white and black. Suppose those black
men flare in our faces the Declaration of Independence.
What are we to say ? Are we to send Northern bayonets
to keep slaves under the feet of Jefferson Davis ? [Many
voices, "No!" "Never!"] In 1842, Governor Wise
of Virginia, the symbol of the South, entered into argu
ment with Quincy Adams, who carried Plymouth Rock to
Washington. [Applause.] It was when Joshua Giel-
dings offered his resolution stating his constitutional doc
trine that Congress had no right to interfere, in any event,
in any way, with the slavery of the Southern States.
Plymouth Rock refused to vote for It. IMr. Adams said
(substantiallj-) : " If foreign war comes, if civil war comes,
if Insurrection comes, Is this beleaguered capital, is this
besieged government, to see millions of its subjects in arms.

410 UNDER THE FLAG.
and have no right to break the fetters which they are
forging into swords ? No ; the war power of the govem
ment can sweep this institution into the Gulf." [Cheers.]
Ever since 1842, that statesman-like claim and warning
of the North has been on record, spoken by the lips of
her wisest son. [Applause.]
When the South cannonaded Fort Sumter the bones
of Adams stirred in his coffin. [Cheers.] And you
might have heard him, from that granite grave at Quincy,
proclaim to the nation : " The hour has struck ! Seize
the thunderbolt God has forged for you, and annihilate
the system which has troubled your peace for seventy
years ! " [Cheers.] Do not say this is a cold-blooded
suggestion. I hardly ever knew slavery go down in any
other circumstances. Only once, in the broad sweep of
the world's history, was any nation lifted so high that she
could stretch her imperial hand across the Atlantic, and
lift by one peaceful word a million of slaves into liberty.
God granted that glory only to our mother-land.
You heedlessly expected, and we Abolitionists hoped,
that such would be our course. Sometimes it really
seemed so, and we said confidently, the age of bullets is
over. At others the sky lowered so darkly that we felt
our only exodus would be one of blood ; that, like other
nations, our Bastile would fall only before revolution.
Ten years ago I asked you. How ehd French slavery go
down ? How did the French slave-trade go down ?
When Napoleon came back from Elba, when his fate
hung trembling in the balance, and he wished to gather
around him the sympathies of the liberals of Europe, he
no sooner set foot in the Tuderles than he signed the
edict abolishing the slave-trade, against which the Aboh
tionists of England and France had protested for twenty
years in vain. And the trade went down, because Napo
leon felt he must do something to gdd the darkening

UNDER THE FLAG. 411
hour of his second attempt to clutch the sceptre of France.
How did the slave system go down ? When, in 1848, the
Provisional Government found itself in the HQtel de Vllle,
obliged to do something to draw to itself the sympathy
and liberal feeling of the French nation, they signed an
edict — It was the first from the rising republic — abolish
ing the death-penalty and slavery. The storm which
rocked the vessel of state almost to foundering snapped
forever the chain of the French slave. Look, too, at the
history of Mexican and South American emancipation ;
you will find that it was in every instance, I think, the
chdd of convulsion.
That hour has come to us. So stand we to-day. The
Abolitionist who will not now cry, when the moment
serves, " Up, boys, and at them ! " is false to liber
ty. [Great cheering. A voice, " So is every other
man."] Yes, to-day Abolitionist is merged in citizen, —
in American. Say not it is a hard lesson. Let him who
fully knows his own heart and strength, and feels, as he
looks down into his child's cradle, that he could stand and
see that little nestling borne to slavery, and submit, — let
him cast the first stone. But all you, whose blood Is wont
to stir over Naseby and Bunker Hill, will hold your peace,
unless you are ready to cry with me, — Sic semper tyran
nis ! " So may it ever be with tyrants ! " [Loud ap
plause.] Why, Americans, I believe In the might of nineteen
mdlions of people. Yes, I know that what sewing-ma
chines and reaping-machines and ideas and types and
school-houses cannot do, the muskets of Illinois and Mas
sachusetts can finish up. [Cheers.] Blame me not that
I make everything turn on liberty and the slave. I be
lieve in Massachusetts. I know that free speech, free tod,
school-houses, and ballot-boxes are a pyramid on its broad
est base. Nothing that does not sunder the solid globe can

412 UNDER THE FLAG.
disturb It. We defy the world to disturb us. [Cheers.]
The little errors that dwell upon our surface, we have
medicine in our institutions to cure them all. [Ap
plause.] Therefore there is nothing left for a New England
man, nothing but that he shall wipe away the stain which
hangs about the toleration of human bondage. As Web
ster said at Rochester, years and years ago : " If I thought
that there was a stain upon the remotest hem of the gar
ment of my country, I would devote my utmost labor to
wipe It off." [Cheers.] To-day that call is made upon
Massachusetts. That is the reason why I dwell so much
on the slavery question. I said I believed in the power
of the North to conquer ; but where does she get it. I do
not believe in the power of the North to subdue two mil
lions and a half of Southern men, unless she summons jus
tice, the negro, and God to her side [cheers] ; and in that
battle we are sure of this, — we are sure to rebuild the
Union down to the Gulf. [Renewed cheering.] In that
battle, with that watchword, with those allies, the thirteen
States and their children will survive, — in the light of the
world, a nation which has vindicated the sincerity of the
Fathers of '87, that they bore children, and not pedlers, to
represent them in the nineteenth century. [Repeated
cheers.] But without that, — without that, I know also
we shall conquer. Sumter annihilated compromise. Noth
ing but victory will blot from history that sight of the Stars
and Stripes giving place to the palmetto. But without
justice for inspiration, without God for our ally, we shall
break the Union asunder; we shall be a- confederacy,
and so will they. This war means one of two things, —
Emancipation or Disunion. [Cheers.] Out of the smoke
of the conflict there comes that, — nothing else. It is Im
possible there should come anything else. Now, I believe
In the future and permanent union of the races that cover

UNDER THE FLAG. 413
this continent from the pole down to the Guff. One In
race, one in history, one in religion, one in industry, one
In thought, we never can be permanently separated.
Your path. If you forget the black race, wdl be over the
gulf of Disunion, — years of unsettled, turbulent, Mexican
and South American civdization, back through that desert
of forty years to the Union which is sure to come.
But I believe in a deeper conscience, I believe in a
North more educated than that. I divide you Into four
sections. The first Is the ordinary mass, rushing from
mere enthusiasm to
" A battle whose great aim and scope
They little care to know.
Content, like men-at-arms, to cope
Each with his fronting foe."
Behind that class stands another, whose only Idea In
this controversy Is sovereignty and the flag. The sea
board, the wealth, the just-converted hunkerism of the
country, fill that class. Next to it stands the third ele
ment, the people ; the cordwalners of Lynn, the farmers
of Worcester, the dwellers on the prairie, — Iowa and
Wisconsin, Ohio and Maine, — the broad surface of the
people who have no leisure for technicalities, who never
studied law, who never had time to read any further Into
the Constitution than the first two lines, — " Establish
Justice and secure Liberty." They have waited long
enough ; they have eaten dirt enough ; they have apolo
gized for bankrupt statesmen enough ; they have quieted
their consciences enough ; they have split logic with their
Abolition neighbors long enough ; they are tired of trying
to find a place between the forty-ninth and forty-eighth
corner of a constitutional hair [laughter] ; and now that
they have got their hand on the neck of a rebellious aris
tocracy. In the name of the people, they mean to strangle
it. That I believe Is the body of the people itseff. Siele

414 under the FLAG.
by side with them stands a fourth class, — small, but active,
— the Abolitionists, who thank God that he has let them
see his salvation before they die. [Cheers.]
The noise and dust of the conflict may hide the real
question at Issue. Europe may think, some of us may,
that we are fighting for forms and parchments, for sover
eignty and a flag. But really the war is one of opinions :
It Is Civilization against Barbarism : it is Freedom against
Slavery. The cannon-shot against Fort Sumter was the
yell of pirates against the Declaration of Independence ;
the war-cry of the North Is the echo of that sublime
pledge. The South, defying Christianity, clutches its vic
tim. The North offers its wealth and blood In glad atone
ment for the selfishness of seventy years. The result is as
sure as the throne of God. I believe In the posslbdity of
justice. In the certainty of union. Years hence, when
the smoke of this conflict clears away, the world will see
under our banner all tongues, all creeds, all races, — one
brotherhood, — and on the banks of the Potomac, the
Genius of Liberty, robed In light, four and thirty stars for
her diadem, broken chains under feet, and an olive-branch
in her right hand. [Great applause.]

THE WAR FOR THE UNION.*

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : It would be Impossi
ble for me fitly to thank you for this welcome ; you
will allow me, therefore, not to attempt It, but to avail
myself of your patience to speak to you, as I have been
invited to do, upon the war.
I know. Ladies and Gentlemen, that actions — deeds,
not words — are the fitting duty of the hour. Yet, still,
cannon think In this day of ours, and it Is only by putting
thought behind arms that we render them worthy. In any
degree, of the civdization of the nineteenth century. [Ap
plause.] Besides, the government has two thirds of a
million of soldiers, and it has ships sufficient for its pur
pose. The only question seems to be, what the govem
ment Is to do with these forces, — in what path, and how
far It shall tread. You and I come here to-night, not to
criticise, not to find fault with the Cabinet. We come
here to recognize the fact, that in moments like these the
statesmanship of the Cabinet Is but a pine shingle upon the
rapids of Niagara, borne which way the great popular
heart and the national purpose direct. It is In \'ain now,
with tliese scenes about us, in this crisis, to endeavor to
create public opinion ; too late now to educate twenty
miUions of people. Our object now Is to concentrate and
to manifest, to make evident and to make Intense, the ma
tured purpose of the nation. We are to show the world,
* Lectm-e delivered in New York and Boston, December, 1861.

416 the war for the union.
If It be Indeed so, that democratic institutions are strong
enough for such an hour as this. Very terrible as Is the
conspiracy, momentous as is the peril. Democracy wel
comes the struggle, confident that she stands like no eleli-
cately-poised throne In the Old World, but, like the Pyra
mid, on its broadest base, able to be patient with national
evds, — generously patient with the long forbearance of
three generations, — and strong enough when, after that
they reveal themselves in their own inevitable and hideous
proportions, to pronounce and execute the unanimous ver
dict, — Death !
Now, Gentlemen, it is In such a spirit, with such a pur
pose, that I come before you to-night to sustain this war.
Whence came this war ? You and I need not curiously
Investigate. While Mr. Everett on one side, and Mr.
Sumner on the other, agree, you and I may take for
granted the opinion of two such opposite statesmen, — the
result of the common sense of this side of the water and
the other, — that slavery is the root of this war. [Ap
plause.] I know some men have loved to trace It to dis
appointed ambition, to the success of the Republican party,
convincing three hundred thousand nobles at the South,
who have hitherto furnished us the most of the presidents,
generals, judges, and ambassadors we needed, that they
would have leave to stay at home, and that twenty millions
of Northerners would take their share In public affairs. I
do not think that cause equal to the result. , Other men be
fore Jefferson Davis and Governor Wise have been disap
pointed of the Presidency. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster,
and Stephen A. Douglas were more than once disappointed,
and yet who believes that either of these great men could
have armed the North to avenge his wrongs? Why, then,
should these pigmies of the South be able to do what the
giants I have named could never achieve ? Simply be
cause there is a radical difference between the two sec-

• the war for the union. 417
tions, and that difference is slavery. A party victory may
have been the occasion of this outbreak. So a tea-chest
was the occasion of the Revolution, and It went to the
bottom of Boston harbor on the night of the 16th of De
cember, 1773 ; but that tea-chest was not the cause of the
Revolution, neither Is Jefferson Davis the cause of the re
bellion. If you wdl look upon the map, and notice that
every Slave State has joineel or tried to join the rebeUion,
and no Free State has done so, I think you wdl not doubt
substantially the origin of this convulsion.
Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, you know me — those of
you who know me at aU — simply as an Abohtionlst. I
am proud and glad that you should have known me as
such. In the twenty-five years that are gone, — I say it
with no wish to offend any man before me, — but in the
quarter of a century that has passed, I could find no place
where an American could stand with decent self-respect,
except in constant, uncontrollable, and loud protest against
the sin of his native land. But, Ladies and Gentlemen,
do not imagine that I come here to-night. to speak simply
and exclusively as an Abeditionlst. ]\Iy interest in this
war, simply and exclusively as an Abolitionist, is about as
much gone as yours In a novel where the hero has won
the lady, and the marriage has been comfortably celebrated
in the last chapter. I know the danger of political prophe
cy, — a kaleidoscope of which not even a Yankee can guess
the next combination, — but for all that, I venture to offer
my opinion, that on this continent the system of domestic
slavery has received its death-blow. [Loud and long-con
tinued applause.] Let me tell you why I think so. Leav
ing out of view war with England, which I do not expect,
there are but three paths out of this war. One is, the
North conquers ; the other is, the South conquers ; and
the third is, a compromise. Now, if the North conquers,
or there be a compromise, one or the other of two things
27

418 the war for the union.
must come, — either the old'Constitutlon or a new one. I
believe that, so far as the slavery clauses of the Constitution
of '89 are concerned, it is dead. It seems to me impossible
that the thrifty and painstaking North, after keeping six
hundred thousand men Idle for two or three years, at a cost
of two million dollars a day ; after that flag lowered at
Sumter ; after Baker and Lyon and Ellsworth and Win
throp and Putnam and Wesselhoeft have given then- lives
to quell the rebellion ; after our Massachusetts boys, hur
rying from ploughed field and workshop to save the capital,
have been foully murdered on the pavements of Baltimore,
— I cannot believe In a North so lost, so craven, as to put
back slavery where it stood on the 4th of March last.
[Cheers.] But If there be reconstruction without those
slave clauses, then In a little while, longer or shorter, slav
ery dies, — indeed, on any other basis but the basis of
'89, she has nothing else now to do but to die. On the
contrary, if the South — no, I cannot say conquers — my
lips will not form that word — but if she balks us of vic
tory, the only way she can do it Is to write Emancipation
on her own banner, and thus bribe the friends of liberty
in Europe to allow its aristocrats and traders to divide the
majestic republic whose growth and trade they fear and
envy. Either way, the slave goes free. ' Unless England
flings her fleets along the coast, the South can never spring
into separate existence, except from the basis of negro
freedom ; and I for one cannot yet believe that the North
will consent again to share his chains. Exclusively as an
Abolitionist, therefore, I have little more interest In this
war than the frontiersman's wife had in his struggle with
the bear, when she did n't care which whipped. But be
fore I leave the Abolitionists, let me say one word. Some
men say we are the cause of this war. Gentlemen, you
do us too much honor ! If It be so, we have reason to be
proud of it ; for in my heart, as an American, I believe

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 419
this year the most glorious of the Republic since '76.
The North, craven and contented until now, like ]Mam-
mon, saw nothing even in heaven but the golden pave
ment ; to-day she throws off her chains. We have a
North, as Daniel Webster said. This is no epoch for
nations to blush at. England might blush in 1620, when
Englishmen trembled at a fool's frown, and were silent
when James forbade them to think ; but not In 1649,
when an outraged people cut off his son's head. Massa
chusetts might have blushed a year or two ago, when an
Insolent Virginian, standing on Bunker Hill, insulted the
Commonwealth, and then dragged her citizens to Wash
ington to tell what they knew about John Brown ; but
she has no reason to blush to-day, when she holds that
same impudent Senator an acknowledged felon in her
prison-fort. In my view, the bloodiest war ever waged
is infinitely better than the happiest slavery which ever
fattened men into obedience. And yet I love peace.
But It is real peace ; not peace -such as we have had ;
not peace that meant lynch-law in the Carolinas and mob-
law in New York; not peace that meant chains around
Boston Court-House, a gag on the lips of statesmen, and
the slave sobbing himself to sleep in curses. No more
such peace for me ; no peace that is not born of justice,
and does not recognize the rights of every race and every
man. Some men say they would view this war as white men.
I condescend to no such narrowness. I view it as an
American citizen, proud to be the citizen of an empire
that knows neither black nor white, neither Saxon nor
Indian, but holds an equal sceptre over all. [Loud
cheers.] If I am to love my country. It must be lovable ;
if I am to honor it. It must be worthy of respect. What
is the function God gives us, — what is the breadth of re
sponsibility he lays upon us ? An empire, the home of

420 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
every race, every creed, every tongue, to whose citizens
is committed, if not the only, then the grandest system of
pure self-government. Tocqueville tells us that all na
tions and all ages tend with Inevitable certainty to this
result ; but he points out, as history does, this land as the
normal school of the nations, set by God to try the experi
ment of popular education and popular govemment, to
remove the obstacles, point out the dangers, find the best
way, encourage the timid, and hasten the world's progress.
Let us see to it, that with such a crisis and such a past,
neither the Ignorance, nor the heedlessness, nor the cow
ardice of Americans forfeits this high honor, won for us by
the toils of two generations, given to us by the blessing of
Providence. It is as a citizen of the leadmg State of this
Western continent, vast in territory, and yet Its territory
nothing when compared with the grandeur of its past and
the majesty of its future, • — it is as such a citizen that I
wish, for one, to find out my duty, express as an indi
vidual my opinion, and- aid thereby the Cabinet in doing
its duty under such responsibdity. It does not he In one
man to ruin us, nor In one man to save us, nor in a dozen.
It lies in the twenty millions, in the thirty millions, of
thirty-four States.
Now how do we stand? In a war, — not only that,
but a terrific war, — not a war sprung from the caprice
of a woman, the spite of a priest, the flickering ambition
of a prince, as wars usuaUy have ; but a war inevitable ;
in one sense, nobody's fault ; the Inevitable result of past
training, the conflict of Ideas, millions of people grappling
each other's throats, every soldier in each camp certain
that he is fighting for an idea which holds the salvation
of the world, — every drop of his blood In earnest. Such
a war finds no parallel nearer than that of the Catholic
and the Huguenot of France, or that of Aristocrat and
Repubhcan in 1790, or of Cromwell and the Irish, when

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 421
victory meant extermination. Such Is our war. I look
upon It as the commencement of the great struggle be
tween the disguised aristocracy and the democracy of
America. You are to say to-day whether it shall last ten
years or seventy, as it usually has done. It resembles
closely that struggle between aristocrat and democrat
which began In France in 1789, and continues still.
Whde it lasts. It will have the same effect on the nation
as that war between blind loyalty, represented by the
Stuart family, and the free spirit of the English Constitu
tion, which lasted from 1660 to 1760, and kept Englanel
a second-rate power almost all that century.
Such is the era on which you are entering. I wdl not
speak of war in Itself, — I have no time ; I will not sav,
with Napoleon, that It Is the practice of barbarians ; I will
not say that It is good. It is better than the past. A
thing may be better, and yet not good. This \A-ar is better
than the past, but there is not an element of good In It.
I mean, there Is nothing in it which we might not have
gotten better, fuller, and more perfectly in other ways.
And yet it is better than the craven past, infinitely better
than a peace which had pride for its father and subser
viency for Its mother. Neither will I speak of the cost of
war, although you know that we never shall get out of this
one without a debt of at least two or three thousand mil
lions of dollars. For if the prevalent theory prove correct,
and the country comes together again on anything like the
old basis, we pay .leff Davis's debts as well as our own.
Neither will I remind you that debt Is the fatal disease of
republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine
government and corrupt the people. The great debt of
England has kept her back in civd progress at least a
hundred years. Neither will I remind you that, when we
go out of this war, we go out with an Immense disbanded
army, an intense military spirit embodied In two thirds of

422 THE WAR FOE THE UNION.
a million of soldiers, the fruitful, the Inevitable source
of fresh debts and new wars. I pass by all that ; yet lying
within those causes are things enough to make the most
sanguine fi-iends of free institutions tremble for our future.
I pass those- by. But let me remind you of another ten
dency of the time. You know, for instance, that the writ
of habeas corpus, by which government Is bound to render
a reason to the judiciary before it lays its hands upon a
citizen, has been called the high-water mark of English lib
erty. Jefferson, in his calm moments, dreaded the power
to suspend it In any emergency whatever, and wished to
have It In " eternal and unremitting force." The present
Napoleon, In his treatise on the English Constitution, calls
it the gem of English institutions. Lieber says that habeas
corpus, free meetings like this, and a free press, are the
three elements which distinguish liberty from despotism.
All that Saxon blood has gained in the battles and toils of
two hundred years are these three things. But to-day,
Mr. Chairman, every one of them — -habeas corpus, the
right of fi-ee meeting, and a free press — is annihilated in
every square mile of the Republic. We live to-day,
every one of us, under martial law. The Secretary of
State puts into his bastile, with a warrant as Irresponsible
as that of Louis, any man whom he pleases. And you
know that neither press nor lips may venture to arraign
the government without being silenced. At this moment
one thousand men, at least, are "bastded" by an authority
as despotic as that of Louis, — three times as many as
Eldon and George III. seized when they trembled for his
throne. Mark me, I am not complaining. I do not say
it Is not necessary. It is necessary to do anything to save
the ship. [Applause.] It is necessary to throw every
thing overboard in order that we may float. It is a mere
question whether you prefer the despotism of Washington
or that of Richmond. I prefer that of Washington. [Loud

THE WAR FOE THE UNION. 423
applause.] But, nevertheless, I point out to you this ten-
dencj^ because it is momentous in its significance. We
are tending with rapid strides, you say inevitably, — I do
not deny It ; necessarily, — I do not question it ; we are
tending toward that strong govemment which frightened
Jefferson ; toward that unlimited debt, that eneUess army.
We have alreaely those alien and sedition laws which, in
1798, wrecked the Federal party, and summoned the
Democratic into existence. For the first time on this
continent we have passports, which even Louis Napoleon
pronounces useless and odious. For the first time In our
history government spies frequent our great cities. Anel
this model of a strong government, if you reconstruct it on
the old basis, is to be handed Into the keeping of whom ?
If you compromise It by reconstruction, to whom are you
to give these delicate and grave powers ? To compro
misers. Reconstruct this government, and for twenty
years you can never elect a Republican. Presidents must
be so wholly without character or principle, that two
angry parties, each hopeless of success, contemptuously
tolerate them as neutrals. Now I am not exaggerating
the moment. I can parallel it entirely. It is the same
position that England held in the times of Eldon and Fox,
when Holcroft and Montgomery, the poet. Home Tooke
and Frost and Hardy, went Into dungeons, under laws
which Pitt executed and Burke praised, — times when Fox
said he despaired of Enghsh liberty but for the power of
insurrection, • — times which Sidney Smith said he remem
bered, when no man was entitled to an opinion who had
not £ 3,000 a year. Why ! there Is no right — do I ex
aggerate when I say that there Is no single right ? — which
government is scrupulous and finds itself able to protect,
except the pretended right of a man to his slaves ! Every
other right has faUen now before the necessities of the
hour.

424 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
Understand me, I do not complain of this state of
things ; but it Is momentous. I only ask you, that out of
this perd you be sure to get something worthy of the crisis
through which you have passed. No government of free
make could stand three such trials as this. I only paint
you the picture, in order, like Hotspur, to say : " Out of
this nettle, danger, be you right eminently sure that you
pluck the flower, safety." [Applause.] Standing In
such a crisis, certainly it commands us that we should
endeavor to find the root of the difficulty, and that now,
once for all, we should put It beyond the posslbdity of
troubling our peace again. We cannot afford, as Repub
licans, to run that risk. The vessel of state, — her tim
bers are strained beyond almost the possibility of surviving.
The tempest is one which it demands the wariest pilot to
outlive. We cannot afford, thus warned, to omit anything
which can save this ship of state from a second danger of
the kind.
What shall we do ? The answer to that question comes
partly from what we think has been the cause of this con
vulsion. Some men think — some of your editors thmk
— many of ours, too — that this war Is nothing but the
disappointment of one or two thousand angered politicians,
who have persuaded eight millions of Southerners, against
their convictions, to take up arms and rush to the battle
field; — no great compliment to Southern sense ! [Laugh
ter.] They think that, if the Federal army could only
appear in the midst of this demented mass, the eight
millions will find out for the first time in their lives that
they have got souls of their o^vn, tell us so, and then we
shaU all be pdoted back, float back, drift back Into the
good old times of Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan.
[Laughter.] There is a measure of truth in that. I
believe that if, a year ago, when the thing first showed
itself, Jefferson Davis and Toombs and Keitt and Wise,

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 425
and the rest, had been hung for traitors at Washington,
and a couple of fi-igates anchored at Charleston, another
couple in Savannah, and half a dozen in New Orleans,
with orders to shell those cities on the first note of resist
ance, there never would have been this outbreak [ap
plause], or It would have been postponed at least a dozen
years ; and if that interval had been used to get rid of
slavery, we never should have heard of the convulsion.
But you know we had nothing of the kind, and the con
sequence is, what ? Why, the amazed North has been
summoned by every defeat and every success, from Its
workshops and its factories, to gaze with wide-openeel eyes
at the lurid heavens, until at last, divided, bewildered,
confounded, as this twenty millions were, we have all of us
fused Into one idea, that the Union meant justice, — shall
mean justice, — owns down to the Gulf, and we will have
it. [Applause.] What has taken place meanwhile at the
South ? Why, the same thing. The divided, bewddered
South has been summoned also out of her divisions by
every success and every defeat (and she has had more of
the first than we have), and the consequence is, that she
too is fused into a swelling sea of State pride, hate of
the North, — " Unconquerable will.
And study of revenge, immortal hate.
And courage never to submit nor yield."
She Is in earnest, every man, and she is as unanimous
as the Colonies were in the Revolution. In fact, the South
recognizes more Intelligibly than we do the necessities of
her position. I do not consider this a secession. It Is no
secession. I agree with Bishop-General Polk, — it is a
conspiracy, not a secession. There Is no wish, no inten
tion to go peaceably and permanently off. It is a con
spiracy to make the government do the will and accept
the policy of the slaveholders. Its root Is at the South,

426 THE WAR FOE THE UNION.
but It has many a branch in Wall Street and in State
Street. [Cheers.] It is a conspiracy, and on the one
side is every man who still thinks that he that steals his
brother Is a gentleman, and he that makes his living is not.
[Applause.] It is the aristocratic element which survived
the Constitution, which our fathers thought could be safely
left under it, and the South to-day is forced into this war
by the natural growth of the antagonistic principle. You
may pledge whatever submission and patience of Southern
institutions you please, it is not enough. South Carolina
said to Massachusetts in 1835, when Edward Everett was
Governor, "Abolish free speech, — It is a nuisance."
She is right, — from her stand-point It Is. [Laughter.]
That is, it is not possible to preserve the quiet of South
Carolma consistently with free speech ; but you know the
story Sir Walter Scott told of the Scotch laird, who said
to his old butler, " Jock, you and I can't hve under this
roof." "And where does your honor think of going?"
So free speech says to South Carolina to-day. Now I say
you may pledge, compromise, guarantee what you please.
The South well knows that it Is not your purpose, — it Is
your character she dreads. It Is the nature of Northern
institutions, the perilous freedom of discussion, the flavor
of our Ideas, the sight of our growth, the very neighbor
hood of such States, that constitutes the danger. It Is
like the two vases launched on the stormy sea. The Iron
said to the crockery, " I won't come near you." " Thank
you," said the weaker vessel; "there is just as much
danger in my coming near you." This the South feels ;
hence her determination ; hence. Indeed, the Imperious
necessity that she should rule and shape our government,
or of saUIng out of it. I do not mean that she plans to
take possession of the North, and choose our Northern
Mayors ; though she has done that In Boston for the last
dozen years, and here tlU this fall. But she conspires and

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 427
aims to control just so much of our policy, trade, offices,
presses, pulpits, cities, as is sufficient to Insure the undis
turbed existence of slavery. She conspires with the full
intent so to mould this govemment as to keep it what It has
been for thirty years, according to John Quincy Adams,
— a plot for the extension and perpetuation of slavery.
As the world advances, fresh guaranties are demanded.
The nineteenth century requires sterner gags than the
eighteenth. Often as the peace of Virginia Is In dangei-,
you must be willing that a Virginia Mason shall drag your
citizens to Washington, and Imprison them at his pleasure.
So long as Carolina needs it, you must submit that vour
ships be searched for dangerous passengers, and every
Northern man lynched. No more Kansas rebellions. It
is a conflict between the two powers. Aristocracy anel
Democracy, which shall hold this belt of the continent. You
may live here. New York men, but it must be in submis
sion to such rules as the quiet of Carolina requires. That
is the meaning of the oft-repeated threat to call the roll of
one's slaves on Bunker Hill, and dictate peace in Faneuil
Hall. Now, in that fight, I go for the North, — for the
Union. In order to make out this theory of " irrepressible con
flict," It Is not necessary to suppose that every Southerner
hates every Northerner (as the Atlantic 3IuntJily urges).
But this much is true : some three hundred thousand slave
holders at the South, holding two thousand millions of so-
called property in their hands, controlling the blacks, and
befooling the seven millions of poor whites into bemg their
tools, — into believing that their interest Is opposed to ours,
— this order of nobles, this privileged class, has been able
for forty years to keep the government In dread, dictate
terms by threatening disunion, bring us to Its verge at
least twice, and now almost to break the Union in piec-es.
A power thus consolidated, which has existed seventy

428 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
years, setting up and pulling down parties, controlling the
policy of the government, and changing our religion, and
Is emboldened by uniform success, will not burst like a
bubble in an hour. For all practical purposes, it Is safe
to speak of it as the South ; no other South exists, or wdl
exist, till our policy develops it into being. This Is what
I mean. An aristocracy rooted in wealth, with its net
work spread over all social life, its poison penetrating
every fibre of society, is the hardest possible evil to de
stroy. Its one influence. Fashion, is often able to mock
at Religion, Trade, Literature, and Politics combined.
One half the reason why Washington has been and Is In
perd, ¦ — - why every move is revealed and checkmated, —
is that your President is unfashionable, and Mrs. Jefferson
Davis Is not. Unseen chains are sometimes stronger than
those of iron, and heavier than those of gold.
It is not in the plots, it is In the inevitable character of
the Northern States, that the South sees her danger. And
the struggle is between these two ideas. Our fathers, as
I said, thought they could safely be left, one to outgrow the
other. They took gunpowder and a lighted match, forced
them into a stalwart cannon, screwed down the muzzle,
and thought they could secure peace. But it has resulted
differently ; their cannon has exploded, and we stand among
fragments. Now some Republicans and some Democrats — not But
ler and Bryant and Cochrane and Cameron, not Boutwell
and Bancroft and Dickinson, and others — but the old set
— the old set say to the Republicans, " Lay the pieces care
fully together In their places ; put the gunpowder and the
match In again, say the Constitution backward instead of
your prayers, and there wdl never be another rebeUIon ! "
I doubt it. It seems to me that like causes will produce
like effects. If the reason of the war Is because we are
two nations, then the cure must be to make us one nation.

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 429
to remove that cause which divides us, to make our Insti
tutions homogeneous. If It were possible to subjugate the
South, and leave slavery just as it is, where Is the security
that we should not have another war In ten years ? In
deed, such a course invites another war, whenever dema
gogues please. I believe the policy of reconstruction is
impossible. And If It were possible. It would be the great
est mistake that Northern men could commit. [Cheers.]
I will not stop to remind you that, standing as we do to
day, with the full constitutional right to abolish slavery, —
a right Southern treason has just given us, — - a right, the
use of which Is enjoined by the sternest necessity, — if,
after that, the North goes back to the Constitution of '89,
she assumes, a second time, afresh, unnecessarily, a crimi
nal responsibility for slavery. Hereafter no old excuse
will avail us. A second time, with open eyes, against our
highest interest, we clasp bloody hands with tyrants to
uphold an acknowdedged sin, whose fell evil we have fully
proved. But that aside, peace with an unchanged Constitution
would leave us to stand ld<:e Mexico. States married, not
matched ; chained together, not melted Into one ; foreign
nations aware of our hostdity, and interfering to embrod,
rob, and control us. We should be what Greece was
under the intrigues of Philip, and Germany when Louis
XIV. was in fact her dictator. We may see our likeness
in Austria, every fretful province an addition of weakness ;
in Italy, twenty years ago, a leash of angry hounds. A
Union with unwIlUng and subjugated States, smarting
with defeat, and yet holding the powerful and dangerous
element of slavery in it, and an army disbaneled Into
laborers, food for constant disturbance, would be a stand
ing invitation to France and England to-Insult and dictate,
to thwart our policy, demand changes in our laws, and
trample on us continually.

430 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
Reconstruction is but another name for the submission
of the North. It is her subjection under a mask. It is
nothing but the confession of defeat. Every merchant. In
such a case, puts everything he has at the bidding of Wig-
fall and Toombs in every cross-road bar-room at the
South. For, you see, never tiU now did anybody but a
few Abolitionists believe that this nation could be mar
shalled one section against the other in arms. But the
secret is out. The weak point Is discovered. Why does
the London press lecture us like a schoolmaster his seven-
year-old boy ? Why does England use a tone such as
she has not used for half a century to any power ? Be
cause she knows us as she knows Mexico, as all Europe
knows Austria, — that we have the cancer concealed in
our very vitals. Slavery, left where it is, after having
created such a war as this, would leave our commerce and
all our foreign relations at the mercy of any Keitt, Wig-
fall, Wise, or Toombs. Any demagogue has only to stir
up a proslavery crusade, point back to the safe experiment
of 1861, and lash the passions of the aristocrats, to cover
the sea with privateers, put In jeopardy the trade of
twenty States, plunge the country Into mdlions of debt,
send our stocks down fifty per cent, and cost thousands
of lives. Reconstruction is, but making chronic what now
is transient. What that is, this week shows. What that
is, we learn from the tone England dares to assume
toward this divided republic. I do not believe recon
struction possible. I do not believe the Cabinet Intend it.
True, I should care little if they did, since I believe the
administration can no more resist the progress of events,
than a spear of grass can retard the step of an avalanche.
But if they do, allow me to say, for one, that every dollar
spent In this war is worse than wasted, every life lost is a
public murder, and that any statesman who leads these
States back to reconstruction wdl be damned to an infamy

IHii WAR 1-UR THE UNION. 4iSi
compared with which Arnold was a saint and .James Bu
chanan a public benefactor. [Slight disturbance in the
rear part of the hall ; cries of " Put him out ! " etc.] No,
do not put him out ; his is the very mind I wish to reach.
I said reconstruction is not possible. I do not believe It Is,
for this reason ; the moment these States begin to appear
victorious, the moment our armies do anything that
evinces final success, the wily statesmanship and uncon
querable hate of the South will write " Emancipation " on
her banner, and welcome the protectorate of a European
power. And if you read the European papers of to-day,
you need not doubt that she will have it. Intelligent
men agree that the North stands better with Palmerston
for minister, than she would with any minister likely to
succeed him. And who Is Palmerston ? While he was
Foreign Secretary, from 1848 to 1851, the British press
ridiculed every effort of the French Republicans, —
sneered at Cavaignac and Ledru Rolhn, Lamartine and
Hugo, — while they cheered Napoleon on to his usurpa
tion ; and Lord Normanby, then Minister at Paris, early
in December, while Napoleon's hand was still wet with
the best blood of France, congratulated the despot on his
victory over the Reds, applying to the friends of Liberty
the worst epithet that an Englishman knows. This last
outrage lost Palmerston his place ; but he rules to-day, —
though rebuked, not changed.
The value of the English news this week is the indica
tion of the nation's mind. No one doubts now, that, should
the South emancipate, England would make haste to recog
nize and help her. In ordinary times, the government and
aristocracy of England dread American example. They
may well admire and envy the strength of our government,
when, instead of England's impressment and pinched levies,
patriotism marslials six hundred thousand volimteers in six
months. The English merchant Is jealous of our growth ;

432 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
only the liberal middle classes really sympathize with us.
When the two other classes are divided, this middle class
rules. But now Herod and Pilate are agreed. The aris
tocrat, who usually despises a trader, whether of Manchester
or Liverpool, as the South does a negro, now Is Secession
ist from sympathy, as the trader is from Interest. Such
a union no middle class can checkmate. The only danger
of war with England is, that, as soon as England declared
war with us, she would recognize the Southern Confed
eracy Immediately, just as she stands, slavery and all, as a
military measure. As such, in the heat of passion. In the
smoke of war, the English people, all of them, would allow
such a recognition even of a slaveholding empire. War
with England insures disunion. When England declares
war, she gives slavery a fi-esh lease of fifty years. Even
if we have no war with England, let another eight or ten
months be as little successful as the last, and Europe will
acknowledge the Southern Confederacy, slavery and all,
as a matter of course. Further, any approach toward
victory on our part, without freeing the slave, gives him
ft-ee to Davis. So far, the South is sure to succeed, either
by victory or defeat, unless we anticipate her. Indeed,
the only way, the only sure way, to break this Union, Is
to try to save It by protecting slavery. " Every moment
lost," as Napoleon said, " is an opportunity for misfortune."
Unless we emancipate the slave, we shall never conquer
the South without her trying emancipation. Every South
erner, fi-om Toombs up to Fremont, has acknowledged it.
Do you suppose that Davis and Beauregard, and the rest,
mean to be exiles, wandering contemned in every great
city of Europe, In order that they may maintain slavery
and the Constitution of '89? They, like ourselves, wdl
throw everything overboard before they wIU submit to
defeat, — defeat from Yankees. I do not believe, there
fore, that reconcdiation is possible, nor do I believe the

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 433
Cabinet have any such hopes. Indeed, I do not know
where you will find the evidence of any purpose in the
administration at Washington. [Hisses, cheers, and laugh
ter.] If we look to the West, ff we look to the Potomac,
what Is the policy ? If, on the Potomac, with the aid of
twenty Governors, you assemble an army, and do nothing
but return fugitive slaves, that proves you competent and
efficient. If, on the banks of the Mississippi, unaided, the
magic of your presence summons an army into existence,
and you eh-Ive your enemy before you a hundred miles
farther than your second in command thought it possible
for you to advance, that proves you Incompetent, and
entitles your second in command to succeed you. [Tre
mendous applause, and three cheers for Fremont.]
Looking In another direction, you see the government
announcing a policy in South Carohna. What is it?
Well, Mr. Secretary Cameron says to the general in
command there : " You are to welcome into your camp all
comers ; you are to organize them into squads and com
panies ; use them any way you please ; — but there is to
be no general arming." That is a very significant excep
tion. The hint Is broad enough for the dullest brain.
In one of Charles Reade's novels, the heroine flies away
to hide from the hero, announcing that she never shall
see him again. Her letter says : " I will never see you
again, David. You, of course, won't come to see me
at my olel nurse's dear little cottage [laughter], be
tween eleven in the morning and four In the afternoon,
because I sha'n't see you." [Laughter.] So Mr. Cam
eron says there Is to be no general arming, but I suppose
there is to be a very particular arming. [Laughter.] But
he goes on to add : " This is no greater interference with
the institutions of South Carolina than is necessary, —
than the war will cure." Does he mean he will give the
slaves back when the war is over ? I don't know. All I
28

434 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
know is, that the Port Royal expedition proved one thing,
— it laid forever that ghost of an argument, that the blacks
loved their masters, — It settled forever the question
whether the blacks were with us or with the South. My
opinion Is, that the blacks are the key of our position. [A
Voice, " That is it."] He that gets them wins, and he
that loses them goes to the wall. [Applause.] Port
Royal settled one thing, — the blacks are with us, and not
with the South. At present they are the only Unionists.
I know nothing more touching in history, nothing that art
will immortalize and poetry dwell upon more fondly, — I
know no tribute to the Stars and Stripes more Impressive
than that incident of the blacks coming to the water-side
with their little bundles, in that simple faith which had
endured through the long night of so many bitter years.
They preferred to be shot rather than driven fi-om the
sight of that banner they had so long prayed to see. And
if that was the result when nothing but General Sherman's
equivocal proclamation was landed on the Carolinas, what
should we have seen if there had been eighteen thousand
veterans with Fremont, the statesman-soldier of this war,
at their head [loud applause], and over them the Stars
and Stripes, gorgeous with the motto, " Freedom for all !
freedom forever! " If that had gone before them, in my
opinion they would have marched across the Carolinas, and
joined Brownlow in East Tennessee. [Applause.] The
bulwark on each side of them would have been one hun
dred thousand grateful blacks ; they would have cut this
rebellion in halves, and while our fleets fired salutes across
New Orleans, Beauregard would have been ground to
powder between the upper millstone of McClellan and
the lower of a quarter-million of blacks rising to greet the
Stars and Stripes. [Great cheering.] McClellan may
drdl a better army, — more perfect soldiers. He will
never marshal a stronger force than those grateful thou-

rnji wAit tuti itm UNION. 435
sands. That is the way to save insurrection. He Is an
enemy to civil liberty, the worst enemy to his own land,
who asks for such delay or perversion of government
policy as is sure to result in Insurrection. Our duty is to
save these four millions of blacks from their own passions,
from their own confusion, and eight millions of whites
from the consequences of It. [" Hear, hear ! "] And in
order to do it, we nineteen millions of educated. Christian
Americans are not to wait for the wdl or the wisdom of a
single man, — we are not to wait for Fremont or McClel
lan: the government is our dictator. It might do for
Rome, a herd of beggars and soldiers, kept quiet only by
the weight of despotism, — it might do for Rome, In mo
ments of danger, to hurl all responsibdity Into the hands
of a dictator. But for us, educated, thoughtful men, with
institutions modelled and matured by the experience of two
hundred years, — it is not for us to evade responsibility by
deferring to a single man. I demand of the government a
policy. I demand of the government to show the doubt
ing infidels of Europe that democracy is not only strong
enough for the trial, but that she breeds men with brains
large enough to comprehend the hour, and wills hot enough
to fuse the purpose of nineteen miUions of people into one
decisive blow for safety and for Union. [Cheers.] You
will ask me how it is to be done. I would have it done
by Congress. We have the power.
When Congress declares war, says John Quincy Adams,
Congress has all the powers Incident to carrying on war.*
* " Sir, in the authority given to Congress by the Constitution of the
United States to declare war, all the powers incidental to war are, by neces
sary implication, conferred upon the government of the United States 
There are two classes of powers vested by the Constitution of the United
States in their Congress and executive government : the powers to be exe
cuted in time of peace and the powers incident to war. That the powers of
peace are limited by provisions within the body of the Constitution itself ;
but that the powers of war are hmited and regulated only by the laws and

436 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
It is not an unconstitutional power, — it is a power con
ferred by the Constitution ; but the moment it comes into
play it rises beyond the hmit of constitutional checks. I
know it is a grave power, this trusting the government
with despotism. But what is the use of government, ex
cept just to help us In critical times ? AU the checks and
ingenuity of our Institutions are arranged to secure for us
men wise and able enough to be trusted with grave pow
ers, — beild enough to use them when the times require.
Lancets and knives are dangerous instruments. The use
of surgeons is, that, when lancets are needed, somebody
may know how to use them, and save Iffe. One great
merit of democratic institutions is, that, resting as they
must on educated masses, the government may safely be
trusted, in a great emergency, -with despotic power, with
out fear of harm, or of wrecking the state. No other
form of government can venture such confidence without
usages of nations, and are subject to no other limitation  I do not
admit that there is, even among the peace powers of Congress, no such au
thority ; but in war, there are many ways by which Congress not only have the
authority, but are bound to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States.
 When the Southern States are the battle-field between Slavery and
Emancipation, Congress may sustain the institution by war, or perhaps
abolish it by treaties of peace ; and they will not only possess the constitu
tional power so to interfere, but they will be bound in duty to do it, by the ex
press provisions of the Constitution itself From the instant the slaveholding
States become the theatre of a war, civil, servile, or foreign, from that instant
the war powers of Congress extend to interference loith the institution of slavery in
every way by which it can be interfered with  With a call to keep down
slaves, in an insurrection and a civil war, comes a full and plenary power to
this Souse and to the Senate over the whole subject. It is a war power.
Whether it be a war of invasion or a war of insm-rection, Congress has
power to carry on the war, and must carry it on, according to the laws of
war : and by the laws of war an invaded countiy has all its laws and muni
cipal institutions swept by the board, and martial law takes the place of them.
This power in Congress has, perhaps, never been called into exercise under the
present Constitution of the United States." — Speeches of John Quincy Adams
in the U. S. House of Representatives, 1836 - 1842.

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 43"
risk of national ruin. Doubtless the war power Is a very
grave power ; so are some ordinary peace powers. I will
not cite extreme cases, — Louisiana and Texas. We ob
tained the first by treaty, the second by joint resolutions ;
each case an exercise of power as grave and despotic as
the abohtion of slavery would be, and, unlike that, plauily
unconstitutional, — one which nothing but stern necessity
and subsequent acquiescence by the nation could make
valid. Let me remind you that seventy years' practice
has Incorporated It as a principle In our constitutional law,
that what the necessity of the hour demands, and the con
tinued assent of the people ratifies, is law. SlaA'cry has
established that rule. We might surely use it in the cause
of justice. But I will cite an unquestionable precedent.
It was a grave power, in 1807, In time of peace, when
Congress abolished commerce ; when, by the embargo of
Jefferson, no ship could quit New York or Boston, and
Congress set no limit to the prohibition. It annihilated
commerce. New England asked, " Is it constitutional ? "
The Supreme Court said, " Yes." New England sat down
and starved. Her wharves were worthless, her ships rot
ted, her merchants beggared. She asked no compensa
tion. The powers of Congress carried bankruptcy from
New Haven to Portland ; but the Supreme Court said,
" It is legal," and New England bowed her head. We
commend the same cup to the Carolinas to-day. We say
to them that, in order to save the government, there re
sides somewhere despotism. It is in the war powers of
Congi-ess. That despotism can change the social arrange
ments of the Southern States, and has a right to do it.
Every man of you who speaks of the emancipation of the
negroes allows it would be decisive If It were used. You
allow that, when it is a mUItary necessity, we may use it.
What I claim is, in honor of our institutions, that we are
not put to wait for the wisdom or the coui-age of a

438 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
general. Our fathers left us with no such miserable plan
of government. They gave us a government with the
power, in such times as these, of doing something that
would save the helm of state in the hands of its citizens.
[Cheers.] We could cede the Carolinas ; I have some
times wished we could shovel them into the Atlantic.
[Applause and laughter.] We can cede a State. We
can do anything for the time being ; and no theory of gov
emment can deny its power to make the most unlimited
change. The only alternative is this : Do you prefer the
despotism of your own citizens or of foreigners ? That Is
the only question in war. [Cheers.] In peace no man
may be deprived of his life but " by the judgment of his
peers, or the law of the land." To touch life, you must
have a grand jury to present, a petit jury to indict, a judge
to condemn, and a sheriff to execute. That is constitu
tional, the necessary and invaluable bulwark of liberty. In
peace. But in war the government bids Sigel shoot Lee,
and the German is at once grand jury, petit jury, judge,
and executioner. That, too, is constitutional, necessary,
and invaluable, protecting a nation's rights and Iffe.
Now this government, which abolishes my right of
habeas corpus, — which strikes down, because it Is neces
sary, every Saxon bulwark of liberty, — which proclaims
martial law, and holds every dollar and every man at the
wdl of the Cabinet, — do you turn round and tell me that
this same government has no rightful power to break the
cobweb — It is but a cobweb — which binds a slave to
his master, — to stretch Its hands across the Potomac, and
root up the evil which, for seventj'- years, has troubled its
peace, and now culminates In rebellion ? I maintain,
therefore, the power of the government itseff to inaugu
rate such a policy ; and I say, in order to save the Union,
do justice to the black. [Applause.]
I would claim of Congress — m the exact language of

THE W.\E FOB THE UNION. 4-:.y
Adams, of the •• government " — a seilemn act abolishing
slaverv tliroughout the L'nion, securing compensation to
loval ?Iaveholders. As the Constitution firbids the States
TO make and allow nobles. I would now, by equal au-
thoritv. forbid them to make slaves or aUow slaveholders.
This has been the usual course at such times. Nations.
convolsed and broken by too powerful elements or insti-
tntions. have used the first moment of assured power —
the firs: moment that they clearly saw and fully appreci
ated the evil — to cut up the dangerous tree by the roots.
So France expeUed the Jesuits, and the Middle Ages the
Templars. Si-> England, in her great rebeUion. abeihshed
nobility and the Established Church ; and the French
Revolution did the same, anel finaUy gave to each chUd an
equal share in his deceased father's lands. Fur the same
purpose, England, in 1745. abohshed clanship in Scotland,
the rt>0T >.¦{ the Stuart faction ; and we. in "TO. abohshed
nobles and aU tenure of estates savoring eif privileged
classes. Such a measure supphes the Sjuih just what she
needs, — capital. That sum which the North gives the
loyal sla^ eholder. not as acknowledging his property in
the slave, but a measure of concihation, — perhaps an
acknowledgment of its share of the guUt, — -ndU caU mills.
ships, agriculture, into being. Tiie free negro wiU redeem
to use lands never touched, whose ferrihty laughs Hiinois
to scorn, and finds no rival but Egy]u. And remember,
besiaes, as Montesquieu savs. -• The yield e^f land depends
less on its fertditv than on the freedom of its inhabitants.
Such a measure bincb the negro to us by the inlh^soluble
tie of gratitude ; the loyal slaveholder, by strong seU-inter-
est. — our bonds are all his property ; the other whites,
by prosperity. — thev are hfted in the scale vt civiliza
tion and activitv, educated and enriched. Our insti
tutions are then homogeneous. We grapple the Union
togeilier with hooks e.f steel, — make it as lastuig as the
granite which underhes the continent.

440 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
People may say this is a strange language for me, — a
DIsunionlst. Well, I was a DIsunionist, sincerely, for
twenty years. I did hate the Union, when Union meant
lies in the pulpit and mobs in the street, when Union
meant making white men hypocrites and black men slaves.
[Cheers.] I did prefer purity to peace, — I acknowledge
it. The child of six generations of Puritans, knowing well
the value of union, I did prefer disunion to being the
accomplice of tyrants. But now, when I see what the
Union must mean in order to last, when I see that you
cannot have union without meaning justice, and when
I see twenty millions of people, with a current as swift
and as mevltable as Niagara, determined that this Union
shall mean justice, why should I object to it ? I endeav
ored honestly, and am not ashamed of it, to take nineteen
States out of this Union, and consecrate them to liberty,
and twenty millions of people answer me back, " We like
your motto, only we mean to keep thirty-four States under
it." Do you suppose I am not Yankee enough to buy
union when I can have It at a fair price ? I know the
value of union ; and the reason why I claim that Caro
lina has no right to secede is this : we are not a partner
ship, we are a marriage, and we have done a great many
things since we were married m 1789 which render it
unjust for a State to exercise the right of revolution on
any ground now aUeged. I admit the right. I acknowl
edge the great principles of the Declaration of Indepen
dence, that a state exists for the liberty and happiness of
the people, that these are the ends of government, and
that, when government ceases to promote those ends, the
people have a right to remodel their institutions. I
acknowledge the right of revolution in South Carolina,
but at the same time I acknowledge that right of revolu
tion only when government has ceased to promote those
ends. Now we have been married for seventy years.

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 441
We have bought Florida. We rounded the Union to the
Gulf We bought the Mississippi for commercial purposes.
We stole Texas for slave purposes. Great commercial
interests, great interests of peace, have been subserved by
rounding the Union Into a perfect shape ; and the money
and sacrifices of two generations have been given for this
pm-pose. To break up that Union now, is to defraud us
of mutual advantages relating to peace, trade, national se
curity, which cannot survive disunion. The right of rev
olution is not matter of caprice. " Governments long
estabhshed," says our Declaration of Independence, "are
not to be changed for light and transient causes." When
so many important Interests and benefits, in their nature
indivisible and which disunion destroys, have been secured
by common toils and cost, the South must vindicate her
revolution by showing that our government has become
destructive of its proper ends, else the right of revolution
does not exist. Why did we steal Texas ? Why have
we helped the South to strengthen herself? Because she
said that slavery within the girdle of the Constitution
would die out through the influence of natural principles.
She said : " We acknowledge it to be an evil ; but at the
same time it will end by the spread of free principles and
the Influence of free institutions." And the North said:
" Yes ; we will give you privileges on that account, and
we wiU return your slaves for you." Every slave sent
back from a Northern State Is a fresh oath of the South
that she would not secede. Our fathers trusted to the
promise that this race should be left under the influence
of the Union, until, in the maturity of time, the day should
arrive when they would be lifted into the sunlight of God's
equality. I claim It of South Carolina. By virtue of that
pledge she took Boston and put a rope round her neck in
that infamous compromise which consigned to slavery An
thony Burns. I demand the fulfilment on her part even of

442 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
that infamous pledge. Untd South Carolina aUows me aU
the influence that nineteen mdlions of Yankee lips, asking
infinite questions, have upon the welfare of those four mil
lions of bondsmen, I deny her right to secede. [Applause.]
Seventy years has the Union postponed the negro. For
seventy years has he been beguiled with the promise, as
she erected one bulwark after another around slavery,
that he should have the influence of our common institu
tions. I claim It to-day. Never, with my consent, while
the North thinks that the Union can or shall mean justice,
shall those four hundred thousand South Carolina slaves
go beyond the influence of Boston ideas. That Is my
strong reason for clinging to the Union. This Is also one
main reason why, unless upon most imperative and mani
fest grounds of need and right. South Carolina has no
right of revolution ; none tdl she fiilflls her promise in
this respect.
I know how we stand to-day, with the frowning cannon
of the English fleet ready to be thrust out of the port-holes
against us. But I can answer England with a better an
swer than William H. Seward can write. I can answer
her with a more statesmanhke paper than Simon Cameron
can indite. I would answer her with the Stars and Stripes
floating over Charleston and New Orleans, and the itiner
ant Cabinet of Richmond packing up archives and wearing-
apparel to ride back to Montgomery. There is one thing,
and only one, which John Bull respects, and that is suc
cess. It is not for us to give counsel to the govemment
on points of diplomatic propriety ; but I suppose we may
express our opinion ; and my opinion is, that, if I were the
President of these thirty-four States, whde I was, I should
want Mason and SUdeU to stay with me. I say, then,
first, as a matter of justice to the slave, we owe it to him ;
the day of his deliverance has come. The long promise
of seventy years is to be fulfiUed. The South draws back

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 443
from the pledge. The North is bound, in honor of the
memory of her fathers, to demand its exact fulfilment, and
in order to save this Union, which now means justice and
peace, to recognize the rights of four millions of its vic
tims. This is the dictate of justice ; — justice, which at
this hour is craftier than Seward, more statesmanlike than
Cameron ; justice, which appeals from the cabinets of
Europe to the people ; justice, which abases the proud
and hfts up the humble ; justice, which disarms England,
saves the slaves from insurrection, and sends home the
Confederate army of the Potomac to guard Its own
hearths ; justice, which gives us four mllhons of friends,
spies, solehers in the enemy's country, planted each one
at their very hearth-sides ; justice, which inscribes every
cannon with " Holiness to the Lord ! " and puts a North
ern heart behind every musket ; justice, which means
victory now and peace forever. To all cry of demagogues
asking for boldness, I respond vrith the cry of " Justice,
immediate, absolute justice ! " And if I dared to descend
to a lower level, I should say to the merchants of this
metropolis. Demand of the govemment a speedy settle
ment of this question. Every hour of delay Is big with
risk. Remember, as Governor Boutwell suggests, that
our present financial prosperity comes because we have
corn to export in place of cotton ; and that another year,
should Europe have a good harvest and we an ordinary
one, while an inflated currency tempts extravagance and
large imports, general bankruptcy stares us in the face.
Do you love the Union ? Do you really think that on the
other side of the Potomac are the natural brothers and
customers of the manufacturing ingenuity of the North ?
I tell you, certain as fate, God has written the safety of
that relation in the same scroll with justice to the negro.
The hour strikes. You may win him to your side ; you
may anticipate the South ; you may save twelve miUions

444 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
of customers. Delay it, let God grant McClellan victory,
let God grant the Stars and Stripes over New Orleans,
and it Is too late.
Jeff Davis wdl then summon that same element to his
side, and twelve millions of customers are added to Lan
cashire and Lyons. Then commences a war of tariffs,
embittered by that other war of angered natlonahties,
which are to hand this and the other Confederacy down
for twenty-five or thu-ty years, divided, weakened, and
bloody with intestine struggle. And what will be our
character ? I do not wholly agree with Edward Everett,
in that very able and eloquent address which he delivered
in Boston, in which, however, he said one thing pre
eminently true, — he, the compromiser, — that If, in
1830 - 31, nuUificatlon, under Jackson, had been hung
instead of compromised, we never should have had Jeff
Davis. [Loud applause.] I agree with him, and hope
we shaU make no second mistake of the kind. But I do
not agree with him in the conclusion that these nine
teen States, left alone, would be of necessity a second-rate
power. No. I beheve in brains ; and I know these
Northern men have more brains in their right hands than
others have in their heads. [Laughter and cheers.] I
know that we mix our soil with brains, and that, con
sequently, we are bound to conquer. Why, the waves
of the ocean might as well rebel against our granite coast,
or the wdd bulls of the prairies against man, as either
England or the South undertake to stop the march of the
nineteen Free States of this continent. [Applause.]
It is not power that we should lose, but it Is character.
How should we stand when Jeff Davis had turned that
corner upon us, — abolished slavery, won European sym
pathy, and established his Confederacy? Bankrupt in
character, — outwitted in statesmanship. Our record
would be, as we entered the sisterhood of nations, —

THE WAR FOR THE LTaON. 445
"Longed and struggled and begged to be admitted Into
the partnership of tyrants, and they were kicked out ! "
And the South would spring into the same arena, bearing
on her brow, — " She fiung away what she thought gain
ful and honest. In order to gain her independence ! " A
record better than the gold of Calffornia or aU the brains
of the Yankee.
Righteousness is preservation. You who are not Aboli
tionists do not come to this question as I did, — from an
interest In these four mdlions of black men. I came on
this platform from sympathy with the negro. I acknowl
edge it. You come to this question from an idolatrous
regard for the Constitution of '89. But here we stand.
On the other side of the ocean is England, holding out,
not I think a threat of war, — I do not fear it, — but
holding out to the South the intimation of a wilhngness,
if she will but change her garments, and make herself
decent, [laughter,] to take her In charge, and give
her assistance and protection. There stands England,
the most selfish and treacherous of modem governments.
[Loud and long-continued cheers.] On the other side of
the Potomac stands a statesmanship, urged by personal
and selfish interests, which cannot be matched, and be
tween them they have but one object, — it Is In the end
to divide the Union.
Hitherto the negro has been a hated question. The
Union moved majestic on its path, and shut him out,
eclipsing him from the sun of equality and happiness. He
has changed his position to-day. He now stands between
us and the sun of our safety and prosperity, and you and
I are together on the same platform, — the same plank,
— our object to save the institutions which our fathers
planted. Save them In the service of justice, in the ser
vice of peace, in the service of liberty ; and in that service
demand of the government at Washington that they shall

446 THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
mature and announce a pm-pose. That flag lowered at
Sumter, that flight at Bull Run, wdl rankle in the heart
of the repubhc for centuries. Nothing wIU ever medicine
that wound but the government announcing to the world
that it knows well whence came its trouble, and Is deter
mined to effect its cure, and, consecrating the banner to
liberty, to plant it on the shores of the Gulf. [Applause.]
I say in the service of the negro ; but I do not forget the .
white man, the eight miUions of poor whites, thmking
themselves our enemies, but who are really our ft-iends.
Their interests are identical with our own. An Alabama
slaveholder, sitting with me a year or two ago, said : —
" In our northern counties they are your friends. A man owns
one slave or two slaves, and he eats with them, and sleeps in the
same room (they have but one), as much as a hired man here
eats with the farmer he serves. There is no difference. They
are too poor to send theh- sons North for education. They have
no newspapers, and they know nothing but what they are told by
us. If you could get at them, they would be on your side, but
we mean you never shall."
In Paris there are one hundred thousand men whom
caricature or epigram can at any time raise to barricade
the streets. Whose fault is it that such men exist ? The
government's ; and the government under which such a
mass of ignorance exists deserves to be barricaded. The
government under which eight mdlions of people exist, so
ignorant that two thousand politicians and a hundred thou
sand aristocrats can pervert them into rebellion, deserves
to be rebelled against. In the service of those men I
mean, for one, to try to fulfil the pledge my fathers made
when they said, " We wdl guarantee to every State a
republican form of government." [Applause.] A privi
leged class, grown strong by the help and forbearance of
the North, plots the establishment of aristocratic govem
ment in form as weU as essence, — conspires to rob the

THE WAR FOR THE UNION. 447
non-slaveholders of their civil rights. This is just the
danger our national pledge was meant to meet. Our
fathers' honor, national good faith, the cause of fi-ee in
stitutions, the peace of the continent, bid us fulfil this
pledge, — insist on using the right it gives us to preserve
the Union.
I mean to fulfil the pledge that free institutions shall be
preserved in the several States, and I demand It of the
government. I would have them, therefore, announce to
the world what they have never yet done. I do not won
der at the want of sympathy on the part of England with
us. The South says, "I am fighting for slavery." The
-North says, " I am not fighting against it." Why should
England interfere ? The people have nothing on which
to hang their sympathy.
I would have government announce to the world that
we understand the evil which has troubled our peace for
seventy years, thwarting the natural tendency of our in
stitutions, sending ruin along our wharves and through
our workshops every ten years, poisoning the national
conscience. We know well its character. But Democ
racy, unlike other governments, is strong enough to let
evils work out their own death, — strong enough to face
them when they reveal their proportions. It was In this
sublime consciousness of strength, not of weakness, that
our fathers submitted to the well-known evd of slavery,
and tolerated it until the viper we thought we could safely
tread on, at the touch of disappointment, starts up a fiend
whose stature reaches the sky. But our cheeks do not
blanch. Democracy accepts the struggle. After this for
bearance of three generations, confident that she has yet
power to execute her will, she sends her proclamation
down to the Gulf, — Freedom to every man beneath the
Stars, and death to every Institution that disturbs our
peace or threatens the future of the repubhc.

THE CABINET.*

o

I QUITE agree with the view which my friend (Rev.
M. D. Conway) takes of the present situation of the
country, and of our future. I have no hope, as he has not,
that the Intelligent purpose of our government wdl ever
find us a way out of this war. I think, if we find any
way out of it, we are to stumble out of it by the gradual
education of the people, making their own way on, a great
mass, without leaders. I do not think that anything
which we can call the government has any purpose to get
rid of slavery. On the contrary, I think the present pur
pose of the government, so far as It has now a purpose, is
to end the war and save slavery. I believe Mr. Lincoln
is conducting this war, at present, with the purpose of
saving slavery. That is his present line of policy, so far
as trustworthy indications of any policy reach us. The
Abolitionists are charged with a desire to make this a po
litical war. All civil wars are necessarily political wars,
— they can hardly be anything else. Mr- Lincoln is In
tentionally waging a political war. He knows as well as
we do at this moment, as well as every man this side of a
lunatic hospital knows, that. If he wants to save lives and
money, the way to end this war is to strike at slavery. I
do not believe that McCleUan himself is mad or idiotic
enough to have avoided that idea, even if he has tried to
* Speech at Abington, in the Grove, August 1, 1862.

THE CABINET. 449
do SO. But General McCleUan Is waging a political war ;
so Is Mr. Lincoln. When General Butler ordered the
women and children to be turned out of the camps at New
Orleans, and one of the colonels of the Northwest remon
strated, and hid himself In his tent, rather than witness the
misery which the order occasioned, — when tlie slavehold
ers came to receive the women and children who were to
be turned out of the camps, and the troops actuaUy
charged upon them with bayonets to keep them out of
the line, — General Butler knew what he was doing. It
was not to save rations, it was not to get rid of individ
uals ; it was to conciliate New Orleans. It was a political
move. When Mr. Lincoln, by an equivocal declaration,
nullifies General Hunter, he does not do It becau.se he
doubts either the justice or the efficiency of Hunter's
proclamation ; he does It because he Is afraid of Kentucky
on the right hand, and the Daily Advertiser on the left.
[Laughter.] He has not taken one step since he entered
the Presidency that has been a purely military step, and
he could not. A civil war can hardly be anything but a
political war. That is, aU civil wars are a struggle be
tween opposite Ieleas, and armies are but the tools. If
Mr. Lincoln believed In the North and In Liberty, he
would let our army act on the principles of Liberty. He
does not. He believes In the South as the most efficient
and vital instrumentality at the present moment, therefore
defers to it. I had a friend who went to Port Royal,
went among the negro huts, and saw the pines that were
growino- between them shattered with shells and cannon-
balls. He said to the negroes, "When those balls came,
were you here ? " " Yes." " Did n't you run ? " " No,
massa, we knew they were not meant for us." It was a
sublime, chddlike faith In the justice, the providence, of
the Almio-hty. E\"ery Southern traitor on the other side
of the Potomac can say of JlcClellan's cannon-ball, if he
29

450 THE CABINET.
ever fires one, " We know it is not meant for us." For
they know he is fighting a political war, as all of us must ;
the only question is. In the service of which political idea
shaU the war be waged, — In the service of saving the
Union as It was, or the Union as it ought to be ? Mr.
Lincoln dare not choose between these two phrases. He
Is waging a war which he dare not describe, in the service
of a political idea that he dare not shape into words. He
is not fighting vigorously and heartily enough even to get
good terms in case of a treaty, — not to talk of victory.
All savages call clemency cowardice ; they respect noth
ing but force. The Southern barbarians mistake clem-
ency for cowardice ; and every act of Lincoln, which he
thinks is conciliation, they take for evidence of his cow
ardice, or his distrust. I do not say that McClellan is a
traitor, but I say this, that If he had been a traitor from
the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he could not
have served the South better than he has done since he
was commander-ill-chief [applause] ; he could not have
carried on the war in more exact deference to the politics
of that side of the Union. And almost the same thing may
be said of Mr. Lincoln, — that If he had been a traitor, he
could not have worked better to strengthen one side, and
hazard the success of the other. There is more danger
to-day that Washington will be taken than Richmond.
Washington is besieged more truly than Richmond is.
After fifteen months of war, such Is the position of the
strongest nation on the globe ; for the nineteen Northern
States, led by a government which serves their ideas, are
the strongest nation on the face of the globe. Now, I
think, and if I were in the Senate I should have said to
the government, that every man who under the present
policy loses his life in the swamps of the South, and every
dollar sent there to be wasted, only prolongs a murderous
and wasteful war, waged for no purpose whatever. This

THE CABINET. 451
Is my meaning. In this war, mere victory on a battle
field amounts to nothing, contributes little or nothlno-
toward ending the war. If our present policy led to de
cisive victories, therefore, (which It does not,) It would be
worth little. The war can only be ended by annihllatlno-
that oligarchy which formed and rules the South and
makes the war, — by annihilating a state of society. No
social state is really annihilated, except when It is replaced
by another. Our present policy neither aims to annihilate
that state of things we call " the South," made up of
pride, idleness, ignorance, barbarism, theft, and murder,
nor to replace it with a substitute. Such an aimless war
I call wasteful and murderous. Better that that South
should go to-day, than that we shoulel prolong such a war.
To keep 500,000 men In the field, we must have 560,000
men on the rolls, for there are 58,000 or 60,000 men
necessarily invalid In an army of half a million ; and to
keep that 560,000 good, you must have a fresh recruiting
every year of 123,000 men. This nation Is to give, year
by year, while this war lasts, 123,000 men to the army,
and that number are to fall out of the ranks, according to
the experience of the last sixteen months, by death either
from disease or the sword ; or, if not death, then wounds
so serious as to make a man's life only a burden to him
self and the community. A hundred and twenty-three
thousand men a year, and, I suppose, a million of doUars
a day, and a government without a purpose !
You say, " Why not end the war ? " We cannot.
Jefferson said of slavery, " We have got the wolf by
the ears ; we can neither hold him nor let him go." That
was his figure We have now got the South — this wolf
— by the ears ; we must hold her ; we cannot let her go.
There is to be no peace on this continent, as I believe,
untd these thirty States are united. You and I may hve
to be seventy years old ; we shall never see peace on tins

452 THE CABINET.
continent until we see one flag fi-om the Lakes to the
Gulf, and we shaU never see it until slavery is eliminated
from the institutions of these States. Let the South go
to-morrow, and you have not got peace. Intestine war
here, border war along the line, aggression and intrigue
on the part of the South ! She has lived with us for
seventy years, and kept us constantly In turmoil. Exas
perated by suffering, grown haughty by success, the mo
ment .she goes off, is such a neighbor likely to treat us any
better, with our Imaginary line between us, than she has
treated us for seventy years while she held the sceptre ?
The moment we ask for terms, she counts it victory, and
the war In another shape goes on. You and I are never
to see peace, we are never to see the possibility of putting
the army of this nation, whether It be made up of nine
teen or thirty-four States, on a peace footing, until slavery
Is destroyed. A large army, immense expenses, a foreign
party encamped among us, a despotic government, using
necessarily despotic war powers, — that Is the future until
slavery Is destroyed. As long as you keep a tortoise at
the head of the government, you are digging a pit with
one hand and filling it with the other. The war means
digging a pit with your two hands, and filling it up with
the lives of your sons and the accumulations of .your
fathers. Now, therefore, until this nation announces. In
some form or other, that this is a war, not against Jeffer
son Davis, but against the system ; until the whole nation
indorses the resolution of the New York Chamber of
Commerce, " Better every rebel die than one loyal
soldier," [applause,] and begs of the government, de
mands of the government, to speak that word which is
victory and peace, — until we do that, we shall have no
prospect of peace.
I do not believe In the government. I agree entirely
with Mr. Conway. I do not believe this government has

THE CABINET. 453
got either vigor or a purpose. It drifts with events. If
Jefferson Davis is a sane man. If he is a sagacious man,
and has the power to control his army, he will never
let it take Washington ; for he knows as well as we do,
that shelling the dome of that Capitol to ashes, that the
Capitol In flames or surmounted with the rebel flag, would
be the flery cross to melt the North into unity, and to
demand emancipation. [Applause.] We are paying a
million of dollars a day for soldiers to dig ditches In the
Chlckahominy swamps, but the best expense we could be
put to would be to lose the marble Capitol under the shells
of Beauregard ; for the very telegraph that flashed tiic
news North and West woulel go back laden with the
demand that if. In the providence of God, Lincoln had
survived the bombardment of Washington, and Hamlin
was not President, — which I wish he were, — he shoulel
proclaim emancipation. Possibly that would make even
him over into an Abolitionist. I do not believe that Jef
ferson Davis, while he is able to control his forces, will
ever allow them to take Washington. He wants time.
If we float on until the 4th of March, 1863, England
could hardly be blamed If she did acknowledge the South.
A very fair argument could be urged, on principles of
international law, that she ought to do It. The South
wdl have gone far to prove her right to be acknowdedged.
She will have maintained herself two full years against
such efforts as no nation ever made. Davis wants to tide
over to that time, without rousing the North. He does
not wish any greater successes than will just keep us
where we are, and allow Europe to see the South strong,
vigorous, and the North only her equal. One such move
as that on Washington, and the South would kick the
beam. He knows it. If any man has light enougl: on
the ftiture to pray God to do any particular thing, I advise
him to pray for an attack on Washington and Its capture.

454 THE CABINET.
for nothing less than that seems likely, within a few
months, to wake up these Northern States to the present
emergency. But for these considerations, I see not why
Jefferson Davis should not throw all his troops upon
Washington, first informing General McClellan of the
proposed attack, and demanding of him enough Federal
troops to protect the rebel property at Richmond during
Beauregard's absence.
The President, judged by both proclamations that have
followed the late confiscation act of Congress, has no mind
whatever. He has not uttered a word which gives even a
twdight glimpse of any antislavery purpose. He may be
honest, — nobody cares whether the tortoise is honest or
not ; he has neither insight, nor prevision, nor decision.
It Is said in Washington streets that he long ago wrote a
proclamation abolishing slavery in the State of Virginia,
but McClellan bullied him out of it. It is said, too, —
what is extremely probable, — that he has more than
once made up his mind to remove McClellan, and Ken
tucky bullied him out of it. The man who has been
beaten to that pulp in sixteen months, what hope can we
have of him ? None. There is no ground for any ex
pectations from this government. We are to pray for
such blows as will arouse the mass of the people into
systematic, matured. Intelligent interference In the action
of the government. When I was here a year ago, I said
I thought the President needed the advice of great bodies
of prominent men. That has taken a year. The New
York Chamber of Commerce, the Common Councd, and
the Defence Committee, have just led the way. Some of
the Western Councils have followed, it is said. Let us
hope that they may have decisive effect at Washington ;
but I do not believe they wdl. I do not beheve there is
in that Cabinet — Seward, Chase, Stanton, Wells, or the
President of the country — enough to make a leader. If

THE CABINET 455
McCleUan should capitulate in his swamp, if Johnston
should take Washington, If Butler should be driven out of
New Orleans, if those ten fabulous Iron ships ft-om Eno--
land at Mobile could be turned into realities, and Palm
erston acknowledge the Confederacy, I should have hope ;
for I do not believe these nineteen millions of people mean
to be beaten ; and if they do, I do not believe they can
afford to be beaten. I think, when we begin to yield,
the South will demand such terms as even the Boston
Courier cannot get low enough to satisfy them. [Laugh
ter and applause.] You do not know the sublime impu
dence and haughtiness of the tyrants of the South. You
have not yet measured the terms which Jefferson Davis
wdl impose upon the North, when, if ever, it proposes
accommodation. The return of fugitives, the suppression
of antislavery discussion, monopoly of the Mississippi, sur-
reneler of some Border States, — a thousand things that
would make the yoke too heavy to be borne. I never did
believe in the capacity of Abraham Lincoln, but I do
believe In the pride of Davis, In the vanity of the South,
in the desperate determination of those fourteen States ;
and I believe in a sunny future, because God has driven
them mad ; and their madness is our safety. They will
never consent to anything that the North can grant ; and
you must whip them, because, unless you do, they will
grind you to powder.
This war Is to go on. There will be drafting in three
months or six. The hunker, when he is obhged to go to
war, will be like the man of whom Mr. Conway told us,
who was willing to sit by a negro In the cars rather than
stand all night, — he will be willing that the negro shall
fight, with him or without him. That is a part of the logic
of events which will be very effective ; but even that will
not make Lincoln declare for emancipation. We shall wait
one year or two. If we wait for him, before we get It. In

456 THE CABINET.
the mean time what an expense of blood and treasure each
day ! It is a terrible expense that democracy pays for its
mode of government. If we lived In England now, if we
lived In France now, a hundred men, convinced of the
exigency of the moment, would carry the nation here or
there. It is the royal road, short, sharp, and stern, like
the 2el of December, with Napoleon's cannon enfilading
every street In Paris. Democracy, when It moves, has to
carry the whole people with it. The minds of nineteen
millions of people are to be changed and educated. Min
isters and politicians have been preaching to them that the
negro will not fight, that he Is a nuisance, that slavery Is
an ordination of God, that the North ought to bar him out
with statutes. The North wakes up, its heart poisoned. Its
hands paralyzed with these ideas, and says to its tortoise
President, " Save us, but not through the negro ! " You
do not yet believe in the negro. The papers are accumu
lating statistics to prove that the negro will work, and
asking whether he wdl fight. If he will not fight, we are
gone, that is all ! If he will not work without the lash,
the Union is over. If the hunker theory Is correct, there
can be no peace nor union on this continent, except under
the heel of a slaveholding despotism. It is not the South
we have to conquer ; it is the Egypt of the Southern half
of Illinois ; it Is the Devil In the editor's chair of the Boston
Courier [merriment] ; It is the lump of unbaked dough,
with no vitality except hatred of Charles Sumner, which
sits In the editorial chair of the Daily Advertiser [ap
plause] ; it Is the man who goes down to Virginia with
the army, and thinks he goes there to watch the house
of General Lee, and make the slaves work for him, while
the master has gone to Corinth or to Richmond. These
are the real enemies of the republic ; and if Lincoln could
be painted, as Vanity Fair once painted him, hke Sinbad
with the Old Man of the Sea on his shoulders, it should be

THE CABINET. 457
these conservative elements weighing down the heart and
the purpose of your President that the limner should pre
sent. If we go to the bottom. It will be because we have,
m the providence of God, richly deserved It. It Is the
pro-slavery North that is her own greatest enemy. Lin
coln would act, if he believed the North wanted him to.
The North, by an overwhelming majority, is ready to have
him act, wdl indorse and support anything he does, yes,
hopes he wdl go forward. True, It Is not yet ripe enough
to demand ; but it is fully wdling, indeed waits, for action.
With chronic Whig distrust and ignorance of the people,
Lincoln halts and fears. Our friend Conway has fairly
painted him. He is not a genius ; he Is not a man like
Fremont, to stamp the lava mass of the nation with an
idea ; he Is not a man like Hunter, to coin his experience
into ideas. I will tell you what he is. He is a first-rate
second-rate man. [Laughter.] He Is one of the best
specimens of a second-rate man, and he Is honestly wait
ing, like any other servant, for the people to come and
send him on any errand they wish. In ordinary times,
when the seas are calm, you can sail without a pdot, —
almost any one can avoid a sunken ledge that the sun
shows him on his right hand, and the reef that juts out
on his left ; but it is when the waves smite heaven, and
the thunder-clouel makes the waters ink, that you need a
pilot; and to-day the nation's bark scuds, under the tem
pest, lee-shore and maelstrom on each side, needing no
holiday captain, but a pilot, to weather the storm. Mr.
Conway thinks we are to ride on a couple of years, and
get one. I doubt It. Democracy Is poisoning Its fangs.
It is making its way among the ballot-boxes of the
nation. I doubt whether our next Congress will be as
good as the last. That is not saying much. I doubt
whether there will be such a weight of decided Repub
hcanism in it as there was in the last Congress. I

458 THE CABINET.
should be afraid to comnut to the nation to-day the choice
of a President. What we want is some stunning misfor
tune ; what we want is a baptism of blood, to make the
aching and bereaved hearts of the people cry out for Fre
mont, for an idea, at the head of the armies. [Applause.]
Meanwhde, we must wander on in the desert, wasteful
murderers. Every life lost In that swamp is murder by
the Cabinet at Washington. Every doUar spent is stolen
from the honest toil of the North, to pamper the conceited
pride of the South In her own institution. Whose fault ?
Largely ours, — not wholly Lincoln's. He is as good as
the average North, but not a leader, which is what we
need. In yonder grove, July after July, in years just past,
the Whigs of this Commonwealth lavished their money
to fire guns once every minute to smother the speeches
that were made on our platform. You remember it. The
sons of those men are dying in the South because their
fathers smothered the message whieih, heeded, might have
saved this terrible lesson to the nation. [Sensation.] Who
shall say that God is not holding to their lips the cup which
they poisoned ? That Massachusetts is to be made over
again, and, under competent leaders, huiled as a thunder
bolt against the rebellion. We are not to shrink from the
idea that this is a political war : it must be. But Its poli
tics is a profound faith in God and the people, in justice
and liberty, as the eternal safety of nations as well as of
men. [Applause.] It is of that Lincoln should make his
politics, planting the corner-stone of the new Union in the
equality of every man before the law, and justice to all
races. [Renewed applause.] If military necessity did
not call for a million of blacks in the army, civil necessity
would dictate It. Slavery, instead of being a dreaded
perplexity, something we are to wail over, is a God-given
weapon, a glorious opportunity, a sword rough-ground by
God, and ready every moment for our use. The nation.

THE CABINET. 459
. the most stupid in It, — all but the traitors, — know and
confess that to abolish it would end the rebeUion. Thus,
therefore, God gives us knowledge, keeps for us the weapon ;
all we need ask for is courage to use it. I say, there
fore, as Mr. Conway did, cease believing In the Cabinet ;
there is nothing there for you. Pray God that, before he
abandons this nation, he wdl deign to humble it by one
blow that shall make it spring to its feet, and use the
strength It has. Beseech him to put despair Into the
hearts of the Cabinet. If we are ever called to see an
other President of the United States on horseback flying
fi-om his Capital, waste no tears ! He will return to that
Capital on the arms of a mdlion of adult negroes, the sure
basis of a Union which will never be broken. [Applause.]
I like some of the signs of the times. I like the resolu
tions of the New York Chamber of Commerce. I like
the article, from Wilkes's Spirit of the Times, bidding us
criticise j\IcClellan, and no longer believe that Napoleons
are made of mud. [Laughter.] I think the two poles of
popular influence have been struck ; the young men, the
sporthig men, the fast men, the dissipated men, the New
York Herald's constituency, and the commercial class, the
merchants and bankers of the great metropolis. The thirty
thousand copies of Wdkes which are circulated every week
have a mighty influence. When its readers begin to be
lieve that McClellan is made of mud, it is a bright sign.
Do not look to the Capital. We did think there was some
thing In Stanton ; there may be ; but he Is overslaughed,
he Is eclipsed, he has gone Into retirement behind Seward.
The policy which prevails at Washington is to do nothing,
and wait for events. I asked the lawyers of Illinois, who
had practised law with Mr. Lincoln for twenty years, " Is
he a man of decision, is he a man who can say no ? " They
all said : " If you had gone to the Illinois bar, and selected
the man least capable of saying no, it would have been

460 THE CABINET.
Abraham Lincoln. He has no stiffness in him." I sal
to the bankers and the directors of railroads In Chlcage
"Is McClellan a man who can say no?" and they said
" Banks we had only a few months ; we don't thinl
much of him ; but to every question you asked, he wouli
say ves or no in sixty minutes. McClellan never answerei
a question while he was here. If there was one to h
decided, he floated until events decided it. He was hen
months, and never decided a single question that came u]
in the management of the Illinois Central." These an
the men we have put at the head of the Union, and fo:
fourteen months they have been unable to say yes or no
But that is the fault of the nation. We should have beei
five hundred miUions of dollars richer, and sixty-three thou
sand lives more populous, if even Banks had been Com
mander-in-Chlef instead of McClellan. [Applause.] '.
do not believe that Banks knows how to handle an army
as we all know he has no ideas, but I believe he woulc
have pressed that army on and against something, anc
that is all it needed. I had a private letter from a captaii
in McClellan's army in the Peninsula, in which he said
" We have had five chances to enter Richmond ; we migh
have done It after Yorktown, after Williamsburg, and aftei
Seven Pines, just as well as not ; no troops in front of us
we ourselves in full condition for an advance. Instead of
that, we sat down and dug."
The most serious charge I have against the President
the only thing that makes a film upon his honesty, — foi
I believe him as honest as the measure of his Intellect anc
circumstances of his life aUow, — Is this: that, whUe I d(
not believe that In his heart he trusts McClellan a whi
more than I do, from fear of the Border States and North
ern conservatism he keeps him at the head of the army
which loses two thousand men by disease every week, anc
spends from sixty to seventy thousand doUars a day ; anc

THE CABINET. 461
if, twenty years hence, he renders up an account of his
stewardship to his country, you that live, mark me ! will
see him confess that this whole winter he never believed
in McClellan's ability. That is the sore spot In the char
acter of an otherwise honest officer, and that is where this
fear of conservatism sends him. Mr. Wickliffe of Ken
tucky and Mr. Davis of Kentucky put their feet down
and say, " Do this, and the Border States leave you."
There is not a Repubhcan at the North who will be al
lowed to say it. Governor Andrew lisped It once, in his
letter to Secretary Stanton, and how few, except the
Abolitionists, dared to stand by him, even in Massachu
setts ! There Is no public opinion that would support J\Ir.
Sumner, with a loyal Commonwealth behind him, in mak
ing such a speech, once in the winter, as Garrett Davis
made every day, with a Commonwealth behind him which
has to be held in the Union by the fear of Northern bay
onets. It is because Conservatism Is bold and Republi
canism is coward [" Hear ! "] that Abraham Lincoln
has to stand where he does to-day. There will be no
mystery if this nation goes to pieces. It will be God
punishing It according to the measure of Its sins. Ten
years ago the Whig party could have educated It, and so
postponed or averted this convulsion. It was left to pass
on in its career, and the South finds it divided In senti
ment, servde in purpose ; our soldiers the servants of
rebels ; our officers, with shoulder-straps, on the soil of a
rebeUious State like Virginia, more sycophantic to the
slaveholder who comes to their camp, than Webster was
in the Senate when Clay threatened him with the lash of
Southern insolence, fifteen years ago. If this rebellion
cannot shake the North out of her servility, God will keep
her in constant agitation until he does shake us into a self-
respecting, courageous people, fit to govern ourselves.
[Applause.] This war wdl last just long enough to make

462 THE CABINET.
US over into men, and when it has done this, we shall
conquer with as much ease as the lion takes the tiniest
animal In his gripe. If Mr. Lincoln could only be wak
ened to the idea which Mr. Conway has expressed, that
God gives him the thunderbolt of slavery with which to
crush the rebellion ; that there was never a rebellion
arranged by Providence to be put down so easily, so com
pletely, so beneficially as this ; that, unlike the aristocracy
of France and England, rooting itself underneath the
whole surface of society, slavery almost makes good the
prayer of the Roman tyrant, "Would that the people had
one neck, and I could cut it!" — if Mr. Lincoln could
only understand this, victory would be easy. God has
massed up slavery into three hundred thousand hands.
He has marked It by the black color, so that the most
ignorant cannot err, so that the blindest shall see enough
to strike at this central figure which holds the life-blood of
the rebellion. [Applause.] Let us do our duty, and
feel, however long the war, however fatal and disastrous
the experience, that we have left no stone unturned, no
word unspoken, which can save a mighty nation from the
greatest sufferings God ever Inflicted on an age.
My friend says he would say to the tyrants of the Old
World, " Come on ! " That is a fearful taunt. The
collision of two such nations as the England of this side
the Atlantic, and the England of the other, would shake
the globe. No such war has been known since Christ.'
Half of all the old wars massed into one would not equal
it. We should sweep the commerce of the mio-htiest
commercial nation from the ocean. We should send
starvation into Lancashire and Lyons, and she would
make our coast a desolation, and send anguish into md
Uons of homes. The ingenuity of one race divided into
two nations, which has reached an almost superhuman
acuteness, would be all poured into the channel of the

THE CABINET. 463
bloodiest war ; and behind It would be the Saxon deter
mination, which, like that of the bull-dog. Its type, will
die in the death-grapple before it yields. Old national
hate, fresh-edged and perpetuated, — untold wealth de
stroyed, — millions of lives lost, lives of the most culti
vated nations, — the progress of the race stopped, — chaos
come again over the fairest portion of Christendom, —
fifty millions of people, dealing such death-blows across
the Atlantic In the nineteenth century, — It is a burden
which we are to pray God he wdl not call upon us to bear,
— a curse from which he will graciously save civilization
and the race. On the contrary, let us hope that Southern
success may be so rapid and abundant, that a blow Id^e
that which stuns the drunkard Into sobriety may stun our
Cabinet into vigor, and that nineteen millions of people,
putting forth their real strength in the right direction,
may keep peace outside our borders until we make peace
within. [Loud applause.]

LETTER TO THE TRIBUNE.

To THE Editor of the New York Tribune : —
SIR : You misrepresent me when yoti say that I dis
courage enlistments In the Union armies ; though, for
aught I know, the garbled extracts and lying versions of
New York papers may make me do that and many other
things I never thought of. You know, by experience,
that the American press. In general, neither tries nor
means to speak truth about Abolitionists of any tyjDc. I
have never discouraged enlistments. In the Union army
are my kindred and some of my dearest friends. Others
rest in fresh and honorable graves. No one of these ever
heard a word from me to discourage his enlisting. I had
the honor, last March, to address the Fourteenth Massa
chusetts at Fort Albany, and, this very week, the Thirty-
third Massachusetts at Camp Cameron. No man in either
regiment heard anything from my lips to discourage his
whole-souled service of the Union.
Allow me to state my own position. From 1843 to
1861, I was a DIsunionist, and sought to break this Union,
convinced that disunion was the only righteous path, and
the best one for the white man and the black. I sought
disunion, not through conspiracy and violence, but by
means which the Constitution itself warranted and pro-^
tected. I rejoice in those efforts. They were wise and
useful. Sumter changed the wdiole question. After that,

LETTER TO THE TRIBUNE. 465
peace and justice both forbade disunion. I now believe
three things : —
1. The destruction of slavery is inevitable, whichever
section conquers in this struggle.
2. There never can be peace or union till slavery Is
destroyed. 3. There never can be peace tdl one government rules
fi-om the Gulf to the Lakes ; and having wronged the
' DO
negro for two centuries, we owe him the preservation of
the Union to guard his transition from slavery to freedom,
and make It short, easy, and perfect.
Beheving these three things, I accept Webster's senti
ment, "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and
inseparable." Gladly would I serve that Union, — giving
it musket, sword, voice, pen, — the best I have. But
the Union which has for twenty-five years barred me
from its highest privileges by demanding an oath to a pro-
slavery Constitution, still shuts that door in my face ; and
this administration still clings to a pohcy which, I think,
makes every life now lost in Virginia, and every dollar
now spent there, utter waste. I cannot conscientiously
support such a Union and administration. But there Is
room for honest difference of opinion. Others can support
It. To such I say. Go ; give to the Union your best
blood, your heartiest support.
Is there, then, no place left for me ? Yes. I believe
in the Union. But government and the Union are one
thing. This administration Is quite another. Whether
the administration wdl ever pilot us through our troubles,
I have serious doubts : that it never will, unless It changes
Its present policy, I am quite certain. Where, then. Is my
place under a republican government which only reflects
and executes public opinion ? I believe in getting through
this war by the machinery of regular government, not by
any CromweU stalldng into the Senate-Chamber or the
30

4t3tJ LETTER TO THE TRIBUNE.
White House. Where, then, is my post, especiaUy under
an administration that avowedly sits waiting, begging to
be told what to do ? I must educate, arouse, and mature
a public opinion which shall compel the administration to
adopt and support It in pursuing the policy I can aid.
This I do by frankly and candidly criticising its present
policy, civd and mihtary. However "inapt and objec
tionable " you may think my "means," they are exactly
described In your own words : " The good citizen may
owe his government counsel, entreaty, admonition, to
abandon a mistaken policy, as well as force to sustain It in
the discharge of its great responsibilities." No adminis
tration can demand of a citizen to sacrifice his conscience,
and the limits within which he is bound to sacrifice his
opinion are soon reached. If the press had not systemati
cally eulogized a general, whom none knew, and few
really trusted, we should have saved twelve months, five
hundred millions of dollars, and a hundred thousand lives.
In my opinion, had the Tribune continued, last August,
to do Its duty and demand vigor of the government, you
would have changed or controlled the Cabinet in another
month, and saved us millions of dollars, thousands of lives,
and untold disgrace. Such criticism is always every
thinking man's duty. War excuses no man from this
duty : least of all now, when a change of public sentiment,
to lead the administration to and support it in a new
policy, is our only hope of saving the Union. The Union
belongs to me as much as to Abraham Lincoln. What
right has he or any official — our servants — to claim that
I shall cease criticising his mistakes, when they are drag
ging the Union to ruin ? I find grave faults In President
Lincoln ; but I do not believe he makes any such claim.
I said on the 1st of August, that, had I been in the
Senate, I should have refused the administration a dollar
or a man untd it adopted a right policy. That I repeat.

LETTER TO THE TRIBUNE. 467
Had I been, in that way, a part of the government, I
should have tried so to control Its action. You were bound
as a journalist, I think, to have Impressed that duty on the
Republican party which holds the administration. Such
a course is right and proper under free governments.
But when Congress has decided, and under its authority,
or by his own, the President demands soldiers, the hour
for such effort or protest Is gone. We have no right now
to "discourage enlistments," as a means to change public
opinion, or to influence the administration. Our remedy
Is different. If we cannot actively aid, we must submit to
the penalty, and strive meanwhile to change that public
thought which alone can alter the action of government.
That duty I try to do In my measure. j\Iy criticism is
not, like that of the traitor presses, meant to paralyze the
administration, but to goad It to more activity and vigor,
or to change the Cabinet. I claim of you, as a journalist
of broad Influence, that you resume the post which I think
you deserted last summer, and hasten the ripening of that
necessary public purpose by constant and fearless criticism
of the whole pOhcy of the administration, civil and mili
tary, hi order to avert years of war, to save thousands of
lives, to guard the industry of the future from grinding
taxes, to secure speedy and complete justice for the negro,
and to put the Union beyond hazard.
Respectfully yours,
WENDELL PHILLIPS.
August 16, 1862.

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.*

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I have been re
quested to offer you a sketch made some years since,
of one of the most remarkable men of the last generation,
— the great St. Domingo chief, Toussaint I'Ouverture,
an unmixed negro, with no drop of white blood in his
veins. My sketch is at once a biography and an argu
ment, — a biography, of course very brief, of a negro
soldier and statesman, which I offer you as an argument
in behalf of the race from which he sprung. I am about
to compare and weigh races ; indeed, I am engaged to
night in what you will think the absurd effort to convince
you that the negro race, instead of being that object of
pity or contempt which we usually consider It, Is entitled,
judged by the facts of history, to a place close by the side
of the Saxon. Now races love to be judged in two ways,
— by the great men they produce, and by the average
merit of the mass of the race. We Saxons are proud of
Bacon, Shakespeare, Hampden, Washington, Franklin,
the stars we have lent to the galaxy of history ; and then
we turn with equal pride to the average merit of Saxon
blood, since it streamed from Its German home. So,
again, there are three tests by which races love to be
tried. The first, the basis of all, is courage, — the ele
ment which says, here and to-day, " This continent is
* Lecture delivered in New York and Boston, December, 1861.

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 469
mine, from the Lakes to the Gulf : let him beware who
seeks to divide it ! " [Cheers.] And the second is the
recognition that force Is doubled by purpose ; liberty
regulated by law Is the secret of Saxon progress. And
the third element is persistency, endurance ; first a pur
pose, then death or success. Of these three elements Is
made that Saxon pluck which has placed our race in the
van of modern civilization.
In the hour you lend me to-night, I attempt the Quix
otic effort to convince you that the negro blood. Instead of
standing at the bottom of the list, is entitled, ff judgeel
either by Its great men or its masses, either by Its courage,
its purpose, or its endurance, to a place as near ours as
any other blood known in history. And, for the purpose
of my argument, I take an island, St. Domingo, about the
size of South Carolina, the third spot in America upon
which Columbus placed his foot. Charmed by the mag
nificence of Its scenery and fertility of its soil, he gave it
the fondest of all names, Hispanlola, Little Spain. His
successor, more pious, rebaptized it from St. Dominic, St.
Domingo ; and when the blacks. In 1803, cfrove our white
blood from its surface, they drove our names with us, and
began the year 1804 under the old name, Haytl, the land
of mountains. It was originally tenanted by filibusters,
French and Spanish, of the early commercial epochs, the
pirates of that day as of ours. The Spanish took the
eastern two thirds, the French the western third of the
island, and they gradually settled into colonies. The
French, to whom my story belongs, became the pet colony
of the mother land. Guarded by peculiar privileges,
enriched by the scions of wealthy houses, aided by tiie
unmatched fertility of the sod, it soon was the richest gem
in the Bourbon crown ; and at the period to which I call
your attention, about the era of our Constitution, 1789,
its wealth was almost incredible. The effeminacy of the

470 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
white race rivalled that of the Sybarite of antiquity, whde
the splendor of their private life outshone Versailles, and
their luxury found no mate but In the mad prodlgaUty of
the Caesars. At this time the island held about thirty
thousand whites, twenty or thirty thousand mulattoes,
and five hundred thousand slaves. The slave-trade was
active. About twenty-five thousand slaves were im
ported annually ; and this only sufficed to fill the gap
which the murderous culture of sugar annually pro
duced. The mulattoes, as with us, were chddren of
the slaveholders, but, unlike us, the French slaveholder
never forgot his child by a bondwoman. He gave him
everything but his name, — wealth, rich plantations,
gangs of slaves ; sent him to Paris for his education,
summoned the best culture of France for the instruc
tion of his daughters, so that in 1790 the mulatto race
held one third of the real estate and one quarter of the
personal estate of the island. But though educated and
rich, he bowed under the same yoke as with us. Sub
jected to special taxes, he could hold no public office, and,
if convicted of any crime, was punished with double
severity. His son might not sit on the same seat at school
with a white boy ; he might not enter a church where a
white man was worshipping ; if he reached a town on
horseback, he must dismount and lead his horse by the
bridle ; and when he died, even his dust could not rest In
the same soil with a white body. Such was the white
race and the mulatto, — the thin film of a civilization be
neath which surged the dark mass of five hundred thou
sand slaves.
It was Over such a population, — the white man melted
in sensuality ; the mulatto feeling all the more keenly his
degradation from the very wealth and culture he enjoyed ;
the slave, sullen and indifferent, heeding not the quarrels
or thj changes of the upper air, — it was over this popu-

TOTSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 471
lation that there burst. In 1789, the thunder-storm of the
French Revolution. The first words which reached the
Island were the motto of the Jacobin Club, — "Liberty,
Equahty." The white man heard them aghast. He had
read of the streets of Paris running blood. The slave
heard them with ' Indifference ; It was a quarrel In the
upper air, between other races, which did not concern
him. The mulatto heard them with a welcome which no
dread of other classes could quell. Hastily gathered Into
conventions, they sent to Paris a committee of the whole
body, laid at the feet of the National Convention the free
gift of six millions of francs, pledged one fifth of their
annual rental toward the payment of the national debt,
and only asked in return that this yoke of civil and social
contempt should be Iffted from their shoulders.
You may easily imagine the temper In which MIrabeau
and Lafayette welcomed this munificent gift of the free
mulattoes of the West Indies, and in which the petition
for equal civil rights was received by a body which had
just resolved that all men were equal. The Convention
hastened to express Its gratitude, and issued a decree which
commences thus : " All freeborn French citizens are equal
before the law." Og^ was selected- — the friend of La
fayette, a lieutenant-colonel In the Dutch service, the son of
a wealthy mulatto woman, educated In Paris, the comrade
of aU the leading French Republicans — to carry the decree
and the message of French Democracy to the island. He
landed. The decree of the National Convention was laid
on the table of the General Assembly of the island. One
old planter seized it, tore it in fragments, and trampled it
under his feet, swearing by all the saints In the calendar
that the island might sink before they would share their
rights with' bastards. They took an old mulatto, worth a
million, who had simply asked for his rights under that
decree, and hung him. A white lawyer of seventy, who

472 TOUSSAINT L'0UVERTU1|E.
drafted the petition, they hung at hi?) side. They took
Ogl, broke him on the wheel, ordered him to be drawn
and quartered, and one quarter of his body to be hung up
in each of the four principal cities of thcj Island ; and then
they adjourned.
You can conceive better than I can describe the mood
in which MIrabeau and Danton received the news that
their decree had been torn In pieces and trampled under
foot by the petty legislature of an island colony, and their
comrade drawn and quartered by the orders of its Gov
ernor. Robespierre rushed to the tribune and shouted,
" Perish the Islands before we sacrifice one tittle of the
rights of French citizens ! " The Convention reaffirmed
their decree, and sent it out a second time to be executed.
But it was not then as now, when steam has married the
continents. It took months to communicate ; and while
this news of the death of Og^ and the defiance of the Na
tional Convention was going to France, and the answer
returning, great events had taken place in the island itself.
The Spanish or the eastern section, perceiving these divis
ions, invaded the towns of the western, and conquered
many of its cities. One half of the slaveholders were
Republicans, in love with the new constellation which had
just gone up In our Northern sky, seeking to be admitted
a State in this Republic, plotting for annexation. The
other half were loyalists, anxious, deserted as they sup
posed themselves by the Bourbons, to make alliance with
George III. They sent to Jamaica, and entreated Its
Governor to assist them in their intrigue. At first, he
lent them only a few hundred soldiers. Some time, later.
General Howe and Admiral Parker were sent with sev
eral thousand men, and finally General Maltland (after
wards the Admiral who carried Napoleon to St. Helena)
landed with four thousand Englishmen on the north side
of the island, and gained many successes. The mulattoes

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 473
were in the mountains, awaiting events. They distrusted
the government, which a few years before they had assisted
to put down an insurrection of the whites, and which had
forfeited its propilse to grant them civil privileges. De
serted by both Sections, Blanchelande, the Governor, had
left the capital, and fled for refuge to a neighboring citv.
In this state of affairs, the second decree reached the
island. The whites forgot their quarrel, sought out
Blanchelande, and obliged him to promise that he never
would publish the decree. Affrighted, the Governor con
sented to that course, and they left him. He then began
to reflect that in reality he was deposed, that the Bour
bons had lost the sceptre of the island. He remembered
his successful appeal to the mulattoes, five years before, to
put down an Insurrection. Deserted now by the whites
and by the mulattoes, only one force was left him in the
island, — that was the blacks : they had always remembered
with gratitude the code noir, black code, of Louis XIV.,
the first Interference of any power In their behalf. To
the blacks Blanchelande appealed. He sent a deputation
to the slaves. He was aided by the agents of Count
d'ArtoIs, afterward Charles X., who was seeking to do in
St. Domingo what Charles II. did in Virginia, (whence
its name of Old Dominion,) institute a reaction against
the rebelhon at home. The two joined forces, and sent
first to Toussaint. Nature made him a Metternich, a di
plomatist. He probably wished to avad himself of this
offer, foreseeing advantage to his race, but to avail himself
of it so cautiously as to provide against failure, risking as
little as possible till the intentions of the other party had
been tested, and so managing as to be able to go on or
withdraw as the best interest of his race demanded. He
had practised weU the Greek rule, " Know thyself," and
thoroughly studied his own part. Later in life, when criti
cising his great mulatto rival, Rigaud, he showed how

474 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURK.
weU he knew himseff. " I know Rigaun," he said ; " he
drops the bridle when he gallops, he shcR's his arm when
he strikes. For me, I gallop also, butiknow where to
stop : when I strike I am felt, not seen.j Rigaud works
only by blood and massacre. I know liovir to put the peo
ple In movement: but when I appear, all must be calm."
He said, therefore, to the envoys, "Where are your
credentials ? " " We have none." " I will have nothing
to do with you." They then sought Francois and Bias-
sou, two other slaves of strong passions, considerable intel
lect, and great influence over their fellow-slaves, and said,
" Arm, assist the government, put down the English on
the one hand, and the Spanish on the other " ; and on the
21st of August, 1791, fifteen thousand blacks, led by
Francois and Biassou, supplied with arms from the arsenal
of the government, appeared in the midst of the colony.
It Is believed that Toussaint, unwilling himself to head the
movement, was still desirous that it should go forward,
trusting, as proved the case, that it would result in benefit
to his race. He is supposed to have advised Francois in,
his course, — savmg himself for a more momentous houi'.
This is what Edward Everett calls the Insurrection of
St. Domingo. It bore for Its motto on one side of its ban
ner, " Long live the King " ; and on the other, " We
claim the Old Laws." Singular mottoes for a rebellion !
In fact. It was the posse comitatus ; it was the only French
army on the Island ; It was the only force that had a right
to bear arms ; and what it undertook, it achieved. It put
Blanchelande In his seat ; it put the island beneath his
rule. When it was done, the blacks said to the Governor
they had created, " Now, grant us one day in seven ; give
us one day's labor ; we wdl buy another, and with the two
buy a third," — the favorite method of emancipation at
that time. Like the Blanchelande of five years befcJre,
he refused. He said, " Disarm ! Disperse ! " and the

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 475
blacks answered, " The right hand that has saved you, the
right hand that has saved the Island for the Bourbons, may
perchance clutch some of our own rights " ; and they stood
still. [Cheering.] This Is the first insurrection, if any
such there were in St. Domingo, — the first determined
purpose on the part of the negro, having saved the govern
ment, to save himself.
Now let me stop a moment to remind you of one thing.
I am about to open to you a chapter of bloody history, —
no doubt of it. Who set the example ? Who dug up
from its grave of a hundred years the hideous punishment
of the wheel, and broke Ogd, every bone, a living man ?
Who flared In the face of indignant and astonished Europe
the forgotten barbarity of quartering the yet palpitating
body ? Our race. And if the black man learned the les
son but too well, it does not lie In our lips to complain.
During this whole struggle, the record is, — - written, mark
you, by the white man, — the whole picture from the pen
cil of the white race, — that for one life the negro took in
battle. In hot and bloody fight, the white race took, in the
cool malignity of revenge, three to answer for It. Notice,
also, that up to this moment the slave had taken no part
in the struggle, except at the bidding of the government ;
and even then, not for himself, but only to sustain the
laws. At this moment, then, the island stands thus : The
Spaniard is on the east triumphant; the Englishman is
on the northwest Intrenched ; the mulattoes are in the
mountains waiting; the blacks are In the valleys victo
rious; one half the French slaveholding element Is re
publican, the other half royalist; the white race against
the mulatto and the black ; the black against both ; the
Frenchman against the Enghsh and Spaniard ; the Span
iard against both. It is a war of races and a war of
nations. At such a moment Toussamt I'Ouverture ap
peared.

476 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
He had been bom a slave on a plantation in the north
of the island, — an unmixed negro, — his father stolen from
Africa. If anything, therefore, that I say of hirii to-night
moves your admiration, remember, the black race claims
it aU, — we have no part nor lot in it. He was fifty years
old at this time. An old negro had taught him to read.
His favorite books were Epictetus, Raynal, Mdltary Me
moirs, Plutarch. In the woods, he learned some of the
qualities of herbs, and was village doctor. On the estate,
the highest place he ever reached was that of coachman.
At fifty, he joined the army as physician. Before he
went, he placed his master and mistress on shipboard,
freighted the vessel with a cargo of sugar and coffee, and
sent them to Baltimore, and never afterward did he forget
to send them, year by year, ample means of support.
And I might add, that, of all the leading negro generals,
each one saved the man under whose roof he was born,
and protected the family. [Cheering.]
Let me add another thing. If I stood here to-night to
tell the story of Napoleon, I should take it from the lips
of Frenchmen, who' find no language rich enough to paint
the great captain of the nineteenth century. Were I here
to tell you the story of Washington, I should take It from
your hearts, — you, who think no marble white enough on
which to carve the name of the Father of his Country.
[Applause.] I am about to tell you the story of a negro
who has left hardly one written line. I am to glean it
from the reluctant testimony of Britons, Frenchmen,
Spaniards, — men who despised him as a negro and a
slave, and hated him because he had beaten them in many
a battle. All the materials for his biography are from the
lips of his enemies.
The second story told of him is this. About the time
he reached the camp, the army had been subjected to two
insults. First, their commissioners, summoned to meet

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 477
the French Committee, were Ignominiously and Insult
ingly dismissed; and when, afterward, Francois, their
general, was summoned to a second conference, and went
to it on horseback, accompanied by two officers, a young
lieutenant, who had known him as a slave, angered at
seeing him in the uniform of an officer, raised his riding-
whip and struck him over the shoulders. If he had been
the savage which the negro is painted to us, he had only
to breathe the insult to his twenty-five thousand soldiers,
and they would have trodden out the Frenchmen In blood.
But the Indignant chief rode back in silence to his tent,
and it was twenty-four hours before his troops heard of
this insult to their general. Then the word went forth,
" Death to every white man ! " They had fifteen hun
dred prisoners. Ranged In front of the camp, they were
about to be shot. Toussaint, who had a vein of religious
fanaticism, like most great leaders, — like jMohammeel, like
Napoleon, like Cromwell, like John Brown [cheers], —
he could preach as well as fight, — mounting a hillock, and
getting the ear of the crowd, exclaimed : " Brothers, this
blood will not wipe out the Insult to our chief; only the
blood In yonder French camp can wipe It out. To shed
that is courage ; to shed this Is cowardice and cruelty be
side " ; — anel he saved fifteen hundred lives. [Applause.]
I cannot stop to give in detail every one of his efforts.
This was In 1793. Leap with me over seven years ;
come to 1800 ; what has he achieved ? He has driven
the Spaniard back into his own cities, conquered him
there, and put the French banner over every Spanish
town ; and for the first time, and almost the last, the island
obeys one law. He has put the mulatto under his feet.
He has attacked Maltland, defeated him in pitched battles,
and permitted him to retreat to Jamaica ; and when the
French army rose upon Laveaux, their general, and put
him in chains, Toussaint defeated them, took Laveaux out

478 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
of prison, and put him at the head of his own troops. The
grateful French in return named him General-in-Chief
Cet homme fait I'ouverture partout, said one, — " This man
makes an opening everywhere," — hence his soldiers
named him L'Ouverture, the opening.
This was the work of seven years. Let us pause a
moment, and find something to measure him by. You
remember Macaulay says, comparing Cromwell with Na
poleon, that Cromwell showed the greater military genius.
If we consider that he never saw an army till he was forty ;
while Napoleon was educated from a boy in the best mili
tary schools In Europe. Cromwell manufactured his own
army ; Napoleon at the age of twenty-seven was placed
at the head of the best troops Europe ever saw. They
were both successful ; but, says Macaulay, with such dis
advantages, the Englishman showed the greater genius.
Whether you allow the inference or not, you will at least
grant that It Is a fair mode of measurement. Apply it to
Toussaint. Cromwell never saw an army till he was
forty ; this man never saw a soldier till he was fifty.
Cromwell manufactured his own army — out of what ?
Englishmen, — the best blood in Europe. Out of the
middle class of Englishmen, — the best blood of the island.
And with It he conquered what? Englishmen, — their
equals. This man manufactured his army out of what ?
Out of what you call the despicable race of negroes, de
based, demoralized by two hundred years of slavery, one
hundred thousand of them imported into the island within
four years, unable to speak a dialect intelligible even to
each other. Yet out of this mixed, and, as you say, des
picable mass, he forged a thunderbolt and hurled it at
what ? At the proudest blood in Europe, the Spaniard,
and sent him home conquered [cheers] ; at the most war
like blood In Europe, the French, and put them under his
feet ; at the pluckiest blood in Europe, the English, and

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 479
they skulked home to Jamaica. [Applause.] Now if
Cromwell was a general, at least this man was a soldier.
I know it was a small territory ; it was not as large as the
continent ; but It was as large as that Attica, which, with
Athens for a capital, has fiUed the earth with its fame for
two thousand years. We measure genius by quality, not
by quantity.
Further, — Cromwell was only a soldier ; his fame stops
there. Not one line In the statute-book of Britain can be
traced to Cromwell ; not one step In the social life of
England finds its motive power In his brain. The state
he founded went down with him to his grave. But this
man no sooner put his hand on the helm of state, than the
ship steadied with an upright keel, and he began to evince
a statesmanship as marvellous as his military genius. His
tory says that the most statesmanlike act of Napoleon was
his proclamation of 1802, at the peace of Amiens, when,
believing that the indelible loyalty of a native-born heart
is always a sufficient basis on which to found an empire,
he said : " Frenchmen, come home. I pardon the crimes
of the last twelve years ; I blot out its parties ; I found
my throne on the hearts of all Frenchmen," — and twelve
years of unclouded success showed how wisely he judged.
That was in 1802. In 1800 this negro made a proclama
tion ; it runs thus : " Sons of St. Domingo, come home.
We never meant to take your houses or your lands. The
negro only asked that liberty which God gave him. Your
houses wait for you ; your lands are ready ; come and
cultivate them " ; — and from Madrid and Paris, from Bal
timore and New Orleans, the emigrant planters crowded
home to enjoy their estates, under the pledged word that
was never broken of a victorious slave. [Cheers.]
Again, Carlyle has said, " The natural king is one wdio
melts aU wiUs Into his own." At this moment he turned
to his armies, — poor, ill-clad, and half-starved, — and

480 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
said to them : Go back and work on these estates you
have conquered ; for an empire can be founded only on
order and Industry, and you can learn these virtues only
there. And they went. The French Admiral, who wit
nessed the scene, said that In a week his army melted
back into peasants.
It was 1800. The world waited fifty years before, in
1846, Robert Peel dared to venture, as a matter of prac
tical statesmanship, the theory of free trade. Adam
Smith theorized, the French statesmen dreamed, but no
man at the head of affairs had ever dared to risk It as a
practical measure. Europe waited till 1846 before the
most practical intellect in the world, the English, adopted
the great economic formula of unfettered trade. But in
1800 this black, with the instinct of statesmanship, said to
the committee who were drafting for him a Constitution :
" Put at the head of the chapter of commerce that the
ports of St. Domingo are open to the trade of the world."
[Cheers.] With lofty indifference to race, superior to all
envy or prejudice, Toussaint had formed this committee
of eight white proprietors and one mulatto, — not a sol
dier nor a negro on the list, although Haytian history
proves that, with the exception of Rigaud, the rarest
genius has always been shown by pure negroes.
Again, it was 1800, at a time when England was poisoned
on every page of her statute-book with rehgious Intoler
ance, when a man could not enter the House of Commons
without taking an Episcopal communion, when every
State in the Union, except Rhode Island, was full of the
Intensest religious bigotry. This man was a negro. You
say that is a superstitious blood. He was uneducated.
You say that makes a man narrow-minded. He was a
Catholic. j\Iany say that is but another name for Intoler
ance. And yet — negro. Catholic, slave — he took his
place by the side of Roger Williams, and said to his com-

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 481
mittee : " Make It the first line of my Constitution that I
know no difference between religious belief's." [Ap
plause.] Now, blue-eyed Saxon, proud of your race, go back
with me to the commencement of the century, and select
what statesman you please. Let him be either American
or European ; let him have a brain the result of six gen
erations of culture ; let him have the ripest training of
univers-ity routine ; let him add to It the better education
of practical life ; crown his temples with the silver of
seventy years ; and show me the man of Saxon lineage
for whom his most sanguine admirer will wreathe a laurel
rich as embittered foes have placed on the brow of this
negro, — rare military skill, profound knowledge of human
nature, content to blot out all party distinctions, and trust
a state to the blood of Its sons, — anticipating Sir Robert
Peel fifty years, and taking his station by the .side of
Roger Williams before any Englishman or American had
won the right ; — and yet this Is the record which the
history of rival states makes up for this inspired black of
St. Domingo. [Cheers.]
It was 1801. The Frenchmen who lingered on the
Island described Its prosperity and order as almost Incred
ible. You might trust a child with a bag of gold to go
from Samana to Port-au-Prince without risk. Peace was
in every household ; the valleys laughed with fertility ; cul
ture climbed the mountains ; the commerce of the world
was represented in Its harbors. At this time Europe
concluded the Peace of Amiens, and Napoleon took his
seat on the throne of France. He glanced his eyes acro>s
the Atlantic, and, with a single stroke of his pen, reduced
Cayenne and Martinique back into chains. He then said
to his Council, " What shall I do with St. Domingo ? "
The slaveholders said, " Give it to us." Napoleon turned
to the Abb<^ Gregoire, " What is your opinion ? " " I
31

482 TOUSSAINT L-OUVERTURE.
think those men would change their opinions, if they
changed then: skins." Colonel Vincent, who had been
private secretary to Toussaint, wrote a letter to Napoleon,
in which he said : " Sire, leave it alone ; it is the happiest
spot in your dominions ; God raised this man to govern ;
races melt under his hand. He has saved you this Island ;
for I know of my own knowledge that, when the Repub
lic could not have lifted a finger to prevent it, George
III. offered him any title and any revenue if he would
hold the Island under the British crown. He refused, and
saved It for France." Napoleon turned away from his
Council, and Is said to have remarked, " I have sixty
thousand Idle troops ; I must find them something to do."
He meant to say, " I am about to seize the crown ; I dare
not do it In the faces of sixty thousand republican soldiers :
I must give them work at a distance to do." The gossip
of Paris gives another reason for his expedition against St.
Domingo. It Is said that the satirists of Paris had chrls-
tened Toussaint, the Black Napoleon ; and Bonaparte hated
his black shadow. Toussaint had unfortunately once ad
dressed him a letter, " The first of the blacks to the first
of the whites." He did not like the comparison. You
would think It too slight a motive. But let me remind
you of the present Napoleon, that when the epigrammatists
of Paris christened his wasteful and tasteless expense at
Versailles, Soulouquerie, from the name of Soulouque, the
Black Emperor, he deigned to Issue a specific order for
bidding the use of the word. The Napoleon blood Is very
sensitive. So Napoleon resolved to crush Toussaint from
one motive or another, from the prompting of ambition,
or dislike of this resemblance, — which was very close.
If either Imitated the other, it must have been the white,
since the negro preceded him several years. They
were very much alike, and they were very French, —
French even in vanity, common to both. You remember

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 483
Bonaparte's vainglorious words to his soldiers at the Pyr
amids : " Forty centuries look down upon us." In the
same mood, Toussaint said to the French captain who
urged him to go to France in his frigate, " Sir, your ship
is not large enough to carry me." Napoleon, you know,
could never bear the mdltary uniform. He hated the
restraint of his rank ; he loved to put on the gray coat
of the Littie Corporal, and wander in the camp. Tous
saint also never could bear a uniform. He wore a plain
coat, and often the yellow Madras handkerchief of the
slaves. A French lieutenant once called him a maggot
in a yellow handkerchief Toussaint took him prisoner
next day, and sent him home to his mother. Like Napo
leon, he could fast many days ; could dictate to three sec
retaries at once ; could wear out four or five horses. Like
Napoleon, no man ever divined his purpose or penetrated
his plan. He was only a negro, and so, in him, they called
it hypocrisy. In Bonaparte we style it diplomacy. For
instance, three attempts made to assassinate him all failed,
from not firing at the right spot. If they thought he was
in the north in a carriage, he would be in the south on
horseback ; ff they thought he was in the city In a house,
he would be In the field in a tent. They once riddled his
carriage with bullets ; he was on horseback on the other
side. The seven Frenchmen who did it were arrested.
They expected to be shot. The next day was some saint's
day ; he ordered them to be placed before the high altar,
and, when the priest reached the prayer for forgiveness,
came down from his high seat, repeated it with him, and
permitted them to go unpunished. [Cheers.] He had
that wit common to all great commanders, which makes
its way in a camp. His soldiers getting disheartened, he
fiUed a large vase with powder, and, scattering six gi-ains
of rice in it, shook them up, and said : " See, there Is the
white, there is the black; what are you afraid of?" So

484 TOUSSAMT L'OUVERTURE.
when people came to him in great numbers for office, as
It is reported they do sometimes even in Washington, he
learned the first words of a Cathohc prayer In Latin, and,
repeating It, would say, "Do you understand that?"
" No, sir." " What ! want an office, and not know Latin ?
Go home and learn it ! "
Then, again, like Napoleon, — like genius always, —
he had confidence in his power to rule men. You re
member A^hen Bonaparte returned from Elba, and Louis
XVIII. sent an army against him, Bonaparte descended
fi-om his carriage, opened his coat, offering his breast to
their muskets, and saying, " Frenchmen, it is the Em
peror ! " and they ranged themselves behind him, his sol
diers, shouting, " Vive I'Fmpereur!" That was in 1815.
Twelve years before, Toussaint, finding that four of his
regiments had deserted anel gone to Leclerc, drew his
sword, flung it on the grass, went across the fleld to them,
folded his arms, and said, " Chddren, can you point a bay
onet at me ? " The blacks fell on their knees, praying
his pardon. His bitterest enemies watched him, and none
of them charged him with love of money, sensuality, or
cruel use of power. The only instance in which his
sternest critic has charged him with severity is this.
During a tumult, a few white proprietors who had re
turned, trusting his proclamation, were killed. His
nephew. General Moise, was accused of Indecision In
quelling the riot. He assembled a court-martial, and, on
its verehct, ordered his own nephew to be shot, sternly
Roman in thus keeping his promise of protection to the
whites. Above the lust of gold, pure in private life, gen
erous in the use of his power. It was against such a man that
Napoleon sent his army, giving to General Leclerc, the
husband of his beautiful sister Pauline, thirty thousand
of his best troops, with orders to reintroduce slavery.
Among these soldiers came aU of Toussalnt's old mulatto
rivals and foes.

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 485
Holland lent sixty ships. England promised by special
message to be neutral ; and you know neutrality means
sneering at freedom, and sending arms to tyrants. [Loud
and long-continued applause.] England promised neu
trality, and the black looked out on the whole civilized
world marshalled against him. America, full of slaves,
of course was hostile. Only the Yankee sold him poor
muskets at a very high price. [Laughter.] Mounting
his horse, and riding to the eastern end of the island,
Samana, he looked out on a sight such as no native had
ever seen before. Sixty ships of the line, crowded by the
best soldiers of Europe, rounded the point. They were
soldiers who had never yet met an equal, whose tread,
hke Cesar's, had shaken Europe, — soldiers who had
scaled the Pyramids, and planted the French banners on
the walls of Rome. He looked a moment, counted the
flotilla, let the reins fall on the neck of his horse, and,
turning to Chrlstophe, exclaimed : " All France Is come
to Haytl ; they can only come to make us slaves ; and we
are lost ! " He then recognized the only mistake of his
life, — his confidence in Bonaparte, which had led him to
disband his army.
Returning to the hdls, he issued the only proclamation
which bears his name and breathes vengeance : " My
children, France comes to make us slaves. God gave us
liberty ; France has no right to take it away. Burn the
cities, destroy the harvests, tear up the roads -with cannon,
poison the wells, show the white man the hell he comes to
make " ; — and he was obeyed. [Applause.] When the
great William of Orange saw Louis XIV. cover Holland
with troops, he said, " Break do^vn the dikes, give Hol
land back to ocean " ; and Europe said, " Sublime ! "
When Alexander saw the armies of France descend upon
Russia, he said, " Burn Moscow, starve back the Invad
ers " ; and Europe said, " Sublime ! " This black saw aU

486 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
Europe marshalled to crush him, and gave to his people
the same heroic example of defiance.
It is true, the scene grows bloodier as we proceed.
But, remember, the white man fitly accompanied his
infamous attempt to reduce freemen to slavery with every
bloody and cruel device that bitter and shameless hate
could invent. Aristocracy is always cruel. The black
man met the attempt, as every such attempt should be
met, with war to the hilt. In his first struggle to gain his
freedom, he had been generous and mercfful, saved lives
and pardoned enemies, as the people in every age and
clime have always done when rising against aristocrats.
Now, to save his liberty, the negro exhausted every
means, seized every weapon, and turned back the hateful
invaders with a vengeance as terrible as their own,
though even now he refused to be cruel.
Leclerc sent word, to Chrlstophe that he was about to
land at Cape City. Chrlstophe said, " Toussaint is gov
ernor of the island. I will send to him for permission.'
If without it a French soldier sets foot on shore, I will
burn the town, and fight over its ashes."
Leclerc landed. Chrlstophe took two thousand white
men, women, and chddren, and carried them to the moun
tains In safety, then with his own hands set fire to the
splendid palace which French architects had just finished
for him, and In forty hours the place was in ashes. The
battle was fought in its streets, and the French driven
back to their boats. [Cheers.] Wherever they went,
they were met with fire and sword. ' Once, resisting an
attack, the blacks. Frenchmen born, shouted the Mar-
selUes Hymn, and the French soldiers stood still; they
could not fight the Marsedlalse. And it was not tlU then-
officers sabred them on that they advanced, and then
they were beaten. Beaten In the field, the French then
took to hes. They Issued proclamations, saying, " We do

TOUSSAINT LOUVERTURE. 487
not come to make you slaves; this man Toussaint tells
you lies. Join us, and you shall have the rights you
claim." They cheated every one of his officers, except
Chrlstophe and Dessallnes, and his own brother Pierre,
and finally these also deserted him, and he was left alone.
He then sent word to Leclerc, " I will submit. I could
continue the struggle for years, — could prevent a single
Frenchman from safely quitting your camp. But I hate
bloodshed. I have fought only for the liberty of my race.
Guarantee that, I will submit and come In." He took
the oath to be a faithful citizen ; and on the same crucifix
Leclerc swore that he should be faithfully protected, and
that the Island should be free. As the French general
glanced along the line of his splendidly equipped troops,
and saw, opposite, Toussalnt's ragged. Ill-armed followers,
he said to him, " L'Ouverture, had you continued the
war, where could you have got arms?" "I would have
taken yours," was the Spartan reply. [Cheers.] He
went down to his house in peace ; it was summer. Le
clerc remembered that the fever months were coming,
when his army would be In hospitals, and when one mo
tion of that royal hand would sweep his troops Into the
sea. He was too dangerous to be left at large. So they
summoned him to attend a council ; and here Is the only
charge made against him, — the only charge. They say he
was fool enough to go. Grant It ; what was the record ?
The white man lies shrewdly to cheat the negro. Knight-
errantry was truth. The foulest insult you can offer a
man since the Crusades is. You lie. Of Toussaint, Her-
mona, the Spanish general, who knew him well, said,
" He was the purest soul God ever put Into a body." Of
him history bears witness, " He never broke his word."
Maitland was travelling in the depths of the woods to
meet Tous.saint, when he was met by a messenger, and
told that he was betrayed. He went on, and met Tons-

488 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
saint, who showed him two letters, — one from the French
general, offering him any rank if he would put Maitland
in his power, and the other his reply. It was, " Sir, I
have promised the Englishman that he shall go back."
[Cheers.] Let it stand, therefore, that the negro, truth
ful as a knight of old, was cheated by his lying foe.
Which race has reason to be proud of such a record ?
But he was not cheated. He was under espionage.
Suppose he had refused: the government would have
doubted him, — would have found some cause to arrest
him. He probably reasoned thus : " If I go willingly, I
shall be treated accordingly " ; and he went. The moment
he entered the room, the officers drew their swords, and
told him he was prisoner ; and one young lieutenant who
was present says, " He was not at all surprised, but seemed
very sad." They put him on shipboard, and weighed an
chor for France. As the Island faded from his sight, he
turned to the captain, and said, " You think you have
rooted up the tree of liberty, but I am only a branch ; I
have planted the tree so deep that all France can never
root it up." [Cheers.] Arrived In Paris, he was flung
into jail, and Napoleon sent his secretary, Caffarelli, to
him, supposing he had burled large treasures. He lis
tened awhile, then replied, " Young man, it is true I have
lost treasures, but they are not such as you come to seek."
He was then sent to the Castle of St. Joux, to a dungeon
twelve feet by twenty, built wholly of stone, with a nar
row window, high up on the side, looking out on the snows
of Switzerland. In winter. Ice covers the floor ; in sum
mer, it is damp and wet. In this living tomb the chdd of
tiie sunny tropic was left to die. From this dungeon he
wrote two letters to Napoleon. One of them ran thus : — .
" Sire, I am a French citizen. I never broke a law. By the
grace of God, I have saved for you the best island of your reahn.
Sire, of your mercy grant me justice."

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 489
Napoleon never answered the letters. The command
ant allowed him five francs a day for food and fuel. Na
poleon heard of it, and reduced the sum to three. The
luxurious usurper, who complained that the Enghsh gov
ernment was stingy because it allowed him only six thou
sand dollars a month, stooped from his throne to cut down
a dollar to a half, and stIU Toussaint did not die quick
enough. This dungeon was a tomb. The story Is told that. In
Josephine's time, a young French marquis was placed
there, and the girl to whom he was betrothed went to the
Empress and prayed for his release. Said Josephine to
her, " Have a model of It made, and bring it to me."
Josephine placed It near Napoleon. He said, " Take It
away, — it is horrible ! " She put it on his footstool, and
he kicked It from him. She held it to him the third time,
and said, " Sire, In this horrible dungeon you have put a
man to die." " Take him out," said Napoleon, and the
girl saved her lover. In this tomb Toussaint was buried,
but he did not die fast enough. Finally, the commandant
was told to go into Switzerland, to carry the keys of the
dungeon with him, and to stay four days ; when he re
turned, Toussaint was found starved to death. That im
perial assassin was taken twelve years after to his prison at
St. Helena, planned for a tomb, as he had planned that of
Toussaint, and there he whined away his dying hours In
pitiful complaints of curtains and titles, of dishes and rides.
God grant that when some ftiture Plutarch shall weigh
the great men of our epoch, the whites against the blacks,
he do not put that whining child at St. Helena Into one
scale, and Into the other the negro meeting death like a
Roman, without a murmur, m the solitude of his Icy
dungeon !
From the moment he was betrayed, the negroes began
to doubt the French, and rushed to arms. Soon every

490 TOUSSAMT L'OUVERTURE.
negro but Maurepas deserted the French. Leclerc sum
moned Maurepas to his side. He came, loyally bringing
with him flve hundred soldiers. Leclerc spiked his epau
lettes to his shoulders, shot him, and flung him into the
sea. He took his five hundred soldiers on shore, shot
them on the edge of a pit, and tumbled them In. Des
sallnes from the mountain saw it, and, selecting five hun
dred French officers from his prisons, hung them on
separate trees in sight of Leclerc's camp ; and born, as I
was, not far from Bunker HIU, I have yet found no reason
to think he did wrong. [Cheers.] They murdered
Pierre Toussalnt's wife at his own door, and after such
treatment that It was mercy when they killed her. The
maddened husband, who had but a year before saved the
lives of twelve hundred white men, carried his next thou
sand prisoners and sacrificed them on her grave.
The French exhausted every form of torture. The
negroes were bound together and thrown into the sea ;
any one who floated was shot, — others sunk with cannon-
balls tied to their feet ; some smothered with sulphur
fumes, — others strangled, scourged to death, gibbeted ;
sixteen of Toussalnt's officers were chained to rocks in
desert islands, — others in marshes, and left to be de
voured by poisonous reptiles and insects. Rochambeau
sent to Cuba for bloodhounds. When they arrived, the
young girls went down to the wharf, decked the hounds
with ribbons and flowers, kissed their necks, and, seated
in the amphitheatre, the women clapped their hands to see
a negro thrown to these dogs, previously starved to rage.
But the negroes besieged this very city so closely that
these same girls. In their misery, ate the very hounds they
had welcomed.
/ Then flashed forth that defying courage and sublime
endurance which show how alike aU races are when tried
in the same furnace. The Roman wife, whose husband

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 491
faltered when Nero ordered him to kill himself, seized the
dagger, and, mortally wounding her own body, cried,
" Poetus, it is not hard to die." The world records It
with proud tears. Just In the same spirit, when a negro
colonel was ordered to execution, and trembled, his wife
seized his sword, and, giving herself a death-wound, said,
" Husband, death is sweet when liberty Is gone."
The war went on. Napoleon sent over thirty thousand
more soldiers. But disaster stdl followed his efforts.
What the sword did not devour, the fever ate up. Le
clerc died. Pauline carried his body back to France.
Napoleon met her at Bordeaux, saying, " Sister, I gave
you an army, — you bring me back ashes." Rochambeau
— the Rochambeau of our history — left In command of
eight thousand troops, sent word to Dessallnes : " When
I take you, I will not shoot you like a soldier, or hang you
like a white man ; I will whip you to death like a slave."
Dessallnes chased him from battle-field to battle-field,
from fort to fort, and finally shut him up in Samana.
Heating cannon-balls to destroy his fleet, Dessallnes learned
that Rochambeau had begged of the British admiral to
cover his troops with the English flag, and the generous
negro suffered the boaster to embark undisturbed.
,' Some doubt the courage of the negro. Go to Haytl,
and stand on those fifty thousand graves of the best sol
diers France ever had, and ask them what they think of
the negro's sword. And If that does not satisfy you, go
to France, to the splendid mausoleum of the Counts of
Rochambeau, and to the eight thousand graves of French
men who skulked home under the English fiag, and ask
them. And if that does not satisfy you, come home, and
if It had been October, 1859, you might have come by
way of quaking Virginia, and asked her what she thought
of negro courage.
You may also remember this, — that we Saxons were

492 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
slaves about four huneh-ed years, sold with the land, and
our fathers never raised a finger to end that slavery.
They waited till Christianity and civilization, till commerce
and the discovery of America, melted away their chains.
Spartacus in Italy led the slaves of Rome against the Em
press of the world. She murdered him, and crucified
them. There never was a slave rebeUion successful but
once, and that was in St. Domingo. Every race has
been, some time or other, in chains. But there never
was a race that, weakened and degraded by such chattel
slavery, unaided, tore off its own fetters, forged them into
swords, and won its liberty on the battle-field, but one,
and that was the black race of St. Domingo. God grant
that the wise vigor of our government may avert that
necessity from our land, — may raise into peaceful liberty
the four million committed to our care, and show under
democratic institutions a statesmanship as far-sighted as
that of England, as brave as the negro of Haytl !
So much for the courage of the negro. Now look at
his endurance. In 1805 he said to the white men, " This
island is ours ; not a white foot shall touch it." Side by
side with him stood the South American republics, planted
by the best blood of the countrymen of Lope de Vega and
Cervantes. They topple over so often that you could no
more daguerrotype their crumbling fragments than you
could the waves of the ocean. And yet, at their side, the
negro has kept his Island sacredly to himself It Is said
that at first, with rare patriotism, the Haytlen government
ordered the destruction of all the sugar plantations remain
ing, and discouraged its culture, deeming that the tempta-
tioil which lured the French back again to attempt' then-
enslavement. Burn over New York to-night, fill up her
canals, sink every ship, destroy her railroads, blot out
every remnant of education from her sons, let her be
ignorant and pennUess, with nothing but her hands to

TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 493
begin the world again, — how much could she do In sixty
years? And Europe, too, would lend you money, but
she will not lend Haytl a elollar. Haytl, [from the ruins
of her colonial dependence. Is become a civilized state, the
seventh nation In the catalogue of commerce with this
country, inferior In morals and education to none of the
West Indian Isles, f F'oreign merchants trust her courts
as wdlingly as they do our own. Thus far, she has foiled
the ambition of Spain, the greed of England, and the
malicious statesmanship of Calhoun. Toussaint made her
what she is. In this work there was grouped around him
a score of men, mostly of pure negro blood, who ably
seconded his efforts. [^They were able in war and skilful
In civil affairs, but not, like him, remarkable for that rare
mingling of high qualities which alone makes true great
ness, and Insures a man leadership among those otherwise
almost his equals. Toussaint was indisputably their chief.
Courage, purpose, endurance, — these are the tests. He
did plant a state so deep that all the world has not been
able to root it up.
I would call him Napoleon, but Napoleon made his
way to empire over broken oaths and through a sea of
blood. This man never broke his word. " No Retalia
tion " was his great motto and the rule of his life ; and
the last words uttered to his son In France were these :
" My boy, you will one day go back to St. Domingo ; for
get that France murdered your father." I would call
him Cromwell, but Cromwell was only a soldier, and the
state he founded went down with him Into his gi-ave. I
would call him Washington, but the great Virginian held
slaves. This man risked his empire rather than permit
the slave-trade in the humblest village of his dominions.
You tiiink me a fanatic to-night, for you read history,
not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But fifty
years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the ]\Iuse of His-

494 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
tory will put Phocion for the Greek, and Brutus for the
Roman, Hampden for England, Fayette for France, choose
Washington as the bright, consummate flower of our ear
lier civilization, and John Brown the ripe fruit of our noon
day [thunders of applause], then, dipping her pen in the
sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the
name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint
L'Ouverture. [Long-continued applause.]

A METROPOLITAN POLICE.*

I HAVE been requested to speak to you to-day on
the subject of a Metropolitan Police. That plan has
already been presented, two or three years ago, to this
community, and, of late, very elaborately and eloquently
argued before a committee of the Legislature, by Edward
L. Peirce, Esq., and still more comprehensively and in
detail by Charles J\L Ellis, Esq. ; but It Is one of vital
importance to the welfare and progress of our city, and,
untd the object be achieved. It can never be too frequently
considered and urged. Other cities have led the way in
this path, years ago. The capital of the civilized world,
London, many years ago, found herself utterly unable to
contend with the evils of accumulated population, — found
municipal machinery utterly inadequate for the security
of life or property in her streets ; and the national gov
ernment, by the hand of Sir Robert Peel, assumed the
police regidatlon of that cluster of towns which we com
monly call London, though the plan does not include the
city proper. New York, on our continent, about six
years ago, followed the example ; Baltimore and Cincin
nati have done likewise to a greater or less extent, and so
also have some of the other Western cities. The experi
ence of all great accumulations of property and population
* A Discourse dehvered before the T-wenty-eighth Congregational Society,
in the Melodeon, Boston, April 5, 1863.

496 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
reads us a lesson, that the execution of the laws therein
demand extra consideration and peculiar machinery. The
self-organized Safety Committees of San Francisco and
other cities prove the same fact. Indeed, great cities are
nests of great vices, and It has been the experience of re
publics that great cities are an exception to the common
rule of self-governed communities. Neither New York,
nor New Orleans, nor Baltimore — none of the great
cities — has found the ballot-box of its Individual voters
a sufficient protection, through a pohce organization.
Great cities cannot be protected on the theory of re
pubhcan Institutions. We may like it or not, — seventy
years have tried the experiment, and, so far. It Is a fad
ure ; and if there is no resource outside of the city limits,
then a self-governed great city Is, so far as my experience
goes, the most uncomfortable which any man who loves
free speech can live in. It Is no surprise, therefore, that
we ask you no longer to let the police force represent the
voters of Boston. Hitherto, the police regulations In the
city of Boston have been modelled on those of a small
town ; that Is, the Inhabitants themselves have called Into
existence a body of constables, in fact, to execute the laws
of the State and the by-laws of the city. Our text, in
presenting this subject to you. Is this : in Boston, as every
where else, where large numbers are brought together
and great masses of property are found, a police force ap
pointed by the voters of the place cannot be relied on to
execute the laws ; and. In order to secure their full and
Impartial execution, it has been found necessary else
where, and I shall attempt to show you that It Is neces
sary here, to put the control of the police force into other
hands than those of the voters of the place. That is our
claim, — that the men of the peninsula, like those of other
great cities, are not to be trusted with the execution of the
State laws, but that executive power must be based on

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 4y (^
broader foundations. Such a course Is no uncommon ma
chinery In democratic institutions. We put the Inter
pretation of the laws — the judiciary — not Into the hands
of any local municipal body, but the interpretation of the
State laws is in the hands of persons appointed by the
whole State. I Invoke the same principle for their exe
cution, — foUowing old republican precedents, as I shall
sliortiy show.
In order to sustain this claim before you, I ought to
show three or four things. First, that In important par
ticulars — important particulars — the law has failed of
execution ; that good and vitally Important laws have
failed of execution. Secondly, I ought to show you that
this fadure is due to the machinery which the city puts in
motion for the execution of the laws. Thirdly, that a bet
ter machinery may be found. . And, fourthly, that It Is
important for the welfare of the State that the attempt to
find a better machinery should be made.
My first point is to show you that in important particu
lars, where great and grave Interests are involved, the laws
have failed of execution. You perceive that this involves.
In fact, an Indictment against the city government. It is,
in reality, arraigning the government of the city for failure
to do its duty. Before I pass to it, therefore, let me make
one protest. I do not come here to find fault with indi
vidual policemen. I think our body of police is as good,
on the average, as that of any great city I know. I think
upon all trying occasions they have done their duty, as far
as they have been permitted, and have always shown full
capacity to do their whole duty. Neither do I come here
to arraign the individuals of the city government ; not,
however, on account of the same excuse, but because I
deem It unnecessary. They are mere puppets, fluttering
before us for a little while ; they are only victims of a
great system, which they did not originate and cannot con-
32

498 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
trol. Looking over the last dozen years, considering that
the Mayor and Aldermen during those years have been,
in the aggregate, only a standing committee appointed by
the grog-shops of the peninsula, it has been no honor, but
a shame, to hold one of those offices. No man with a full
measure of self-respect could accept such an office. All
politics necessitates questionable compliances ; but this
serfdom touches a base depth. It is not however neces
sary, and certainly not within my plan to-day, to arraign in
dividuals. I am merely criticising a system which throws
up into unfitting places and undue importance men who
have no real right to the power which they are wholly
unable or unwilling to use.
To return now to my first point, I am to show you that,
in many Important particulars, the laws have failed of exe
cution. I shall take. In the first place, temperance. Some
men look upon this temperance cause as whining bigotry,
narrow asceticism, or a vulgar sentimentality, fit for little
minds, weak women, and weaker men. On the contrary,
I regard it as second only to one or two others of the pri
mary reforms of this age, and for this reason. Every race
has its peculiar temptation ; every chme has Its specific sin.
The tropics and tropical races are tempted to one form
of sensuality; the colder and temperate regions, and our
Saxon blood, find their peculiar temptation in the stimulus
of drink and food. In old times our heaven was a drunken
revel. We relieve ourselves from the over-weariness of
constant and exhausting toil by intoxication. Science has
brought a cheap means of drunkenness within the reach
of every Individual. National prosperity and free institu
tions have put into the hands of almost every workman the
means of being drunk for a week on the labor of two or
three hours. With that blood and that temptation, we
have adopted democratic Institutions, where the law has
no sanction but the purpose and virtue of the masses. The

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 499
statute-book rests not on bayonets, as in Europe, but on
the hearts of the people. A drunken people can never be
the basis of a free government. It is the corner-stone
neither of virtue, prosperity, nor progress. To us, there
fore, the title-deeds of whose estates and the safety of
whose lives depend upon the tranqudlity of the streets,
upon the virtue of the masses, the presence of any vice
which brutalizes the average mass of mankind, and tends
to make It more readily the tool of intriguing and corrupt
leaders. Is necessarily a stab at the very Iffe of the nation.
Against such a vice Is marshalled the Temperance Refor
mation. That my sketch is no mere fancy picture, every
one of you knows. Every one of you can glance back
over your own path, and count many and many a one
among those who started from the goal at your side, with
equal energy and perhaps greater promise, who has found
a drunkard's grave long before this. The brightness of
the bar, the ornament of the pulpit, the hope and blessing
and stay of many a family, — you know, every one of you
who has reached middle life, how often on your path you
set up the warning, " Fallen before the temptations of
the streets ! " Hardly one house in this city, whether it
be full and warm with all the luxury of wealth, or whether
it find hard, cold maintenance by the most earnest econ
omy, no matter which, — hardly a house that does not
count, among sons or nephews, some victim of this vice,
The skeleton of this warning sits at every board. The
whole world is kindred in this suffering. The country
mother launches her boy with trembling upon the tempta
tions of city life ; the father trusts his daughter anxiously
to the young man she has chosen, knowing what a wreck
intoxication may make of the house-tree they set up.
Alas ! how often are their worst forebodings more than
fulfilled! I have known a case — and probably many of
you can recall some almost equal to it — where one worthy

500 - A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
woman could count father, brother, husband, and son-in-
law, aU drunkards, — no man among her near kindred,
except her son, who was not a victim of this vice. Like
all other appetites, this finds resolution weak when set
against the constant presence of temptation. This is the
evil. How are the laws relating to it executed in this
city ? Let me tell you.
First, there has been great discussion of this evil, —
wide, earnest, patient discussion, for thirty-five years.
The whole community has been stirred by the discussion
of this question. Finally, after various experiments, the
majority of the State decided that the method to stay this
evil was to stop the open sale of Intoxicating drink. They
left moral suasion still to address the individual, and set
themselves as a community to close the doors of tempta
tion. Every man acquainted with his own nature or with
society knows that weak virtue, walking through our
streets, and meeting at every tenth door (for that is the
average) the temptation to drink, must fall ; that one
must be a moral Hercules to stand erect. To prevent
the open sale of intoxicating liquor has been the method
selected by the State to help Its citizens to be virtuous ;
In other words, the State has enacted what is called the
Mame Liquor Law, — the plan of refusing all licenses to sell,
to be drunk on the spot or elsewhere, and allowing only
an official agent to sell for medicinal purposes and the
arts. You may drink in your own parlors, you may make
what Indulgence you please your daily rule, the State does
not touch you there ; there you Injure only yourself, and
those you directly influence ; that the State cannot reach.
But when you open your door and say to your fellow-citi
zens, " Come and indulge," the State has a right to ask,
" In what do you invite them to indulge ? Is it in something
that helps, or something that harms, the community?"
I will try to show you, in a moment, on what grounds

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 501
the State decided that these numberless open doors harmed
the community, and tiiat the method to be adopted was to
shut them up. The majority, after full argument In dis
trict school-houses, the streets, and the State-House, from
pulpits, lyceum platforms, and everywhere else, decided
that prohibition of the traffic was the only effective method.
The law was put upon the statute-book. A reluctant mi
nority went to the Legislature, and endeavored to repeal
or amend it, alleging that this was not a good law ; and
they, were voted down. Again they went, — were voted
down. A third time they went, — and were voted down.
They then appealed to the courts, and said, " This Is not a
constitutional law." The courts said, " It Is." If anything
ever had the decided, unmistakable sanction of a majority
of the people of this Commonwealth, the Maine Liquor Law
has it. After a quarter of a century of discussion, it was
enacted ; three times assailed, it was maintained ; subjected
to the crucible of the court, it came out pure gold. We
have a right to say that it is the matured, settled purpose
of the majority of the Commonwealth ; if the majority have
a right to govern, that law is to govern. Is It not so ? If
not, let the minority assail again the Gibraltar of the statute.
But meanwhile it, like all other laws not immoral, is to be
obeyed. I have not, therefore, to argue to-day whether
the law is good or not, whether it is wise or not. That is
settled. It is good and wise in the opinion of the Com
monwealth. The era of public opinion is finished, that of
law has commenced. This is the history of all legislation.
Do not find fault with us for enacting, in due time, pubhc
opinion into a statute. Where did all statutes come from?
Hundreds of years ago, men argued the question, " Shall
one man own a separate piece of land ? " They argued
it, and settled that he should. That became a statute.
They then began to argue the question, " Shall he trans
mit to his children by will ? " They argued that for cen-

502 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
turies, then said, " Yes," and enacted it. Nobody now
goes behind those statutes. Hundreds of years ago, our
race argued the question, "Shall a man have one wife' or
three ? " We settled that he should have but one ; it is
the law of the Commonwealth.
The era of discussion and opinion is over ; the era of
legislation has come, — the time when the minority sits
down and obeys. With all great questions, covering im
portant Interests, there is a time when public opinion
stereotypes Itseff into statutes. Land, harvests, marriage,
the laws against burglary and theft, settled themselves
years ago. If I raise a harvest. It is mine ; that Is the
law of the land. There was a time when it was a ques
tion ; It is not a question now. So with temperance and
the Maine Liquor Law. Time was when the question
whether a man had a right to sell liquor openly, licensed
or not, was discussed ; we have passed that point, and
reached the time when the majority — in other words, the
State — decrees that these shops shall be shut.
Now let me show you. In a few words, why it should
decree that. In order more clearly to show this, let me
go back a little, and ask how did the Mayor and Alder
men, the City, meet this Maine Liquor Law ? They said,
"You may decree it if you please, we won't execute it.
You say we shall not license anybody, but we wdl effect
the same thing, for we wdl let everybody sell, except just
those whom we should not have licensed." These are
the exact words of the order to the police some years
ago. The Chief of Police replied to a question from the
Massachusetts Temperance Society, " We have directions
never to prosecute a llquor-seUer, unless he be one who
would not have received a license under the old license
act." In other words, the State says, " On mature con
sideration, I prohibit the sale." The City says, " I shall
allow It, — help yourself!" Those whom it would not

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 503
have licensed are " nuisances," as It calls them; — houses
vulgar, noisy, disorderly ; kept, as the Dogberry of the
Board of Aldermen told us at the State House, by
"Imbecde old men and ancient women," — as the con
stable of Shakespeare's play arrested all "vagrom men."
That Is the position of the city. The law is Intentionally
and avowedly set aside. The city govei-nment announces
that it does not intend to obey it ; makes no effort, and
never has made any, to enforce it. What Is the result ?
The result Is, that there are at least three thousand places
In the city where liquor is publicly and continually sold.
These consist partly of dram-shops, partly of gambling
saloons, partly of houses of prostitution. They number In
all more than three thousand. I am ghdng an under esti
mate of an average for two or three years. What are the
results of these three thousand places of sale ? Six million
dollars' worth of liquor Is sold to the retailers of this city
annually ; and three mlUion dollars' worth is annually re-
taded on the peninsula. With what result ? With this.
They produce poverty and crime to this extent : — We
arrest for drunkenness alone, on an average for the last
three years, about seventeen thousand persons annually ;
that is, a little less than one tenth of the population.
There are between twenty-five and thirty thousand per
sons relieved for poverty by overseers of the poor, and by
the Provident Association, — poverty caused by intemper
ance. That Is, every seventh man in the city Is a pauper,
helped by the community ; every tenth man hi the city Is
a criminal, arrested by the police. Let us look at that a
moment. I say every seventh man Is a pauper, relieved
by the help of the community. Poverty, \vholesome
poverty. Is no unmixed evil ; It is the motive power that
throws a man up to guide and control the community ; it
is the spur that often wins the race ; it is the trial that
calls out, like fire, all the deep, great qualities of a man's

504 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
nature. That poverty is no evil, — at least, it is no un
mixed evil ; but poverty which is caused by drunkenness,
— for I am only taking, in these twenty-five thousand
"^^iftrsons, the poverty that Is traceable to Intemperance, —
the poverty that Is caused by drunkenness has what
history ? The father Is a drunkard ; the mother often
imitates him ; the self-respect of the family is lost ; the
home is gone ; it Is a scene of quarrel and degradation ;
the children are thrown neglected on the streets, with no
food, no education, no moral sense developed, — the fright
ful and fruitful source of every vice known to the civil
code. This feeds the gallows, fills the street with Im
purity, makes thieves and burglars. Out of such houses
flows a constant supply for all forms of crime. Without
the open and continued sale of drink, almost every hell
of the gambler would be closed ; he would have few vic
tims. He would flnd few men In the mood to be victim
ized. Without open places for the sale of liquor, the
houses of prostitution could not be maintained; that is
the testimony of all experience in every city. To that
shameless pit woman seldom sinks, except when betrayed
by drink, and, even when once ruined, could not bear
such a life unless nature was daily stupefied by intoxica
tion. Nine tenths of those sent to the House of Industry
are common drunkards. Intemperance is one of the most
productive of all causes of insanity. " Truancy " finds its
" cause of causes " in intemperance. Said the Chief of
Police, three or four years ago, " Intemperance is the
direct origin of more poverty, more crime, and consequent
suffering, than all other causes combined." Twenty-five
thousand men reduced to poverty in a year, or at least
every year relieved by the public.
Now let me go to the schools. Twenty-five thousand is
an average estimate of the children who attend our public
schools. The city pours out a quarter of a mdlion a year

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 505
to mould those young souls, step by step, to virtue, to
make them good citizens. Twenty-five thousand with
one hand It lifts up ; with the other. It tempts twenty-five
thousand Into pollution and crime. It spends four huneh-ed
and seventy-seven thousand dollars a year to do it ; for
that Is the cost of our police force, of our Overseers of the
Poor, of our Lunatic Asylums (a large portion of whose
inmates are rendered insane by intemperance), our House
of Correction and House of Industry. You might as well
take a third of a million of dollars, and toss It off the end
of Long Wharf, — we should be richer at the end of the
year. Leave all the children idle In the streets, shut up
the grog-shops, shut up the schools, throw a third of a
mdhon into the water, and the city would be better off on
the thirty-first day of December than she Is now.
The Mayor and Aldermen, to whom you choose to give
the pohce, take with one hand two hundred and fifty
thousand doUars of your money and mine to educate twen
ty-five thousand children, and with the other they tear out
a law from the statute-book in order to ruin twenty-five
thousand adults. The Inefficiency of the Mayor and Alder
men makes It exactly the same as if the cost of our school
system 'were thrown mto the dock from the end of Long
Wharf. We know just as well what educates drunkards
as what educates a school-boy. The Parker House, the
Tremont House, the Revere House, and the Howard
Saloon educate intemperance exactly as the Latin School
educates youth. One educates for heaven, the other for
hell ; and the city government says it shall be so.
I am perfectly serious on this ground. I know the
value of the common schools of Massachusetts. It makes
my house worth a thousand dollars more to-day ; it makes
my right of free speech doubly valuable ; It makes my life
safer ; It makes it happier and more honorable to live in
tlus Commonwealth. That is the value of the common-

506 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
school system, which at great expense educates the chil
dren of the State. By its side stands your State system
for breaking up the intemperance of the city. I do not
say that the Ma}'X)r or the Aldermen could prevent it all.
I know well the difficulties. I only ask of any man an
honest effort ; I only ask for evidence that the first step is
taken in that direction, — that there Is a wdllngness, a
disposition, to do it. A great deal could be prevented.
The mob which broke up our Tremont Temple meeting,
two years ago, reeled into it from the gorgeous grog-shops
vi'hlch surround the Temple. Where do they get their
unblushing shamelessness and so-called respectability ?
They get it ft-om the fact that your Governors, your
Judges, your Senators, your lawmakers, meet week after
week, and month after month. In these very places, to
violate the law which they have placed upon the statute-
book. No wonder they are ashamed to execute the laws
which they break before the very sun and noonday of
Massachusetts. Such is the cost of intemperance. One half the crim
inals of the State are found in the city of Boston. We
have one sixth of the population, and yet we have more
than one half the criminals. We have one sixth of the pop
ulation, but we pay about one haff of the crimmal expenses
of the State of Massachusetts, — just three times our proper
proportion. What does it come from ? I am not to charge
it on any particular corporation ; I am to charge it to a
system. It is the massing up of one third of the capital of
the State, and one sixth the population on this peninsula.
That makes a new order of things, one calling for a new
machinery to check crime, — a hot-bed, where all the ten
dencies to crime become doubled and trebled, where the
dangerous classes of the community get undue power. It
is because of this peculiarity that we need a different sys
tem from what the country does. Up to a certain point

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. ¦ 607
our city government has always acknowledged this. For
instance, in a small country town of a few thousand inhab
itants they have two or three constables. Nobody knows
who they are. You might visit half a dozen houses, and
they could not tell you. Only once or twice in a year, on
some festive or other occasion, a town meeting, a picnic,
or something of the kind, is he ever seen or needed. He
may execute a writ once In a while. If there is any disor
der In the town, a citizen takes notice of it, reports it to a
justice of the peace, and the difficulty Is cured. That Is a
sufficient machinery for a small town. But when you
have a large and dense population, great wealth Invested
in certain dangerous and tempting forms, you cannot trust
the execution of the laws to the volunteer efforts of the
-citizens ; you must have a large body of police constantly
in the streets, ever on the alert, with grave and extraor
dinary powers, to watch criminals and follow them up.
That has been found necessary. Now the question Is
whether something further is not necessary also. The
returns for ten years show that forty-two per cent of
the average population of this county was arrested for
crime, while, in other counties, the number arrested was
only one, two, or three per cent. Why this difference ?
Because a city necessarily Induces greater temptations,
greater dangers, and more frequent crimes. It needs,
therefore, a more stringent machinery to execute the laws.
Instead of that, in regard to this temperance law, the
city government defy it. They themselves pay — or
chcl pay till within a year or two, I wdl not speak of the
present year, for I have not consulted the reports — about
a thousand dollars a month out of the city treasury for the
Indulgences of the Board of Aldermen and Common-Coun-
cdmen at an illegal Uquor-shop, which no one of them had
a right to see without presenting it to the courts wlthia
twenty-four hours. In that disgraceful Anthony Burns

508 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
and Sims experience of the city, upon which I am shortly
to speak, one of the melancholy features of city sin that
day was, that the men illegally called out to defy the State
laws contracted a bill, within sight of the Supreme Court,
within sight of City Hall, of between one and two thou
sand dollars, for liquor and food furnished them at an
illegal grog-shop, by order of the city.
Let me leave this question a moment, and turn to an
other, — free speech. Free speech Is so vital an element
of civil life, so important a privdege, that the framers of
our government were not willing to leave it to the law, —
they enshrined it In the Constitution. It was so funda
mental, that it could not be left to annual legislation ; It
was grouted and dovetailed into the very first stratum of
the foundation of the State. Now, the class of men who
have had the ordering of city affairs have never, for the
last twenty years, attempted to protect free speech on this
peninsula. Let me tell you what I mean. If a man like
the editor of the Boston Post, like the Hon. Edward Ev
erett, like Mr. Sumner, any popular person in the com
munity, wished to hold a meeting on this peninsula, he
could always do it ; but If any set of men who are unpop
ular wanted to hold a meeting here, it depended entirely
upon the mood of the mob that month whether they could
hold it or not. These very walls could testify, if they had
voice, how many dozen times they have seen their occu
pants, paying an honest price for a day's use of them,
disturbed hour after hour, and finally, perhaps, in some
instances, the meeting broken up, by a crowd of boys
that the right hand of one policeman could have quelled ;
and when individuals, the very lessees of this hall, would
take one of these disturbers to the courts, he was set free,
and the persons who interfered threatened with a suit.
You know that the trustees of the hall from which you
have just removed for a season sat on one occasion until

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 509
midnight, to decide whether they would dare to risk their
property when the Mayor of the city had let It be known
that he did not Intend to defend it against the mob of the
streets. You know too, or you might know, that the
same anxious scene of consultation went on among the
trustees of the Tremont Temple, again and again, whether
they would dare to risk their building, when the city au
thorities had unblushlngly and publicly declared that they
would not protect free speech. You know also, that,
when the Massachusetts Antislavery Society was mobbed
out of Its hall by the Mayor of the city, the members of
the Legislature refrained from offering the Society the use
of the State-House, though wishing to do so, because the
Executive informed them that he had no means to pro
tect the State's property against the grog-shops of the
peninsula. Macaulay says, speaking of James the Sec
ond's disturbed reign : " On such occasions. It will ever be
found that the human vermin, which, neglected by minis
ters of state and ministers of religion, — barbarians in the
midst of civilization, heathen In the midst of Christianity,
— who burrow among all physical and moral pullution in
the cellars and garrets of great cities, will rise at once into
terrible Importance." It was when that class of the com
munity found that the Mayor was willing to lead them,
and that they could riot in the most fashionable drlnking-
saloons ft-ee of expense, that your Governor dared not
frust the State-House to an orderly and legal assemblage
of the citizens of Massachusetts. It was at a time when
one of the most efficient of the Chiefs of Police said,
" Give me thirty men, and an order, and I will quell that
mob at once." The difficulty was not that It could not be
quelled. That class which Macaulay describes never faces
the law untd it has bribed it. The moment the court
turns its determined countenance upon them, they retire
to cellars and garrets again. One of the Aldermen of the

510 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
city said recently. In the State-House, that these mobs
were only "watermelon frolics, — the pounding of men
with the soft side of a cushion " ; but it was a cushion
that the Governor dared not trust to touch the State-
House ; it was a mob which the Mayor said, in excuse
for inefficiency, that he had not force enough to control.
Perhaps it would not be disrespectful to ask that these
several city dignitaries would arrange beforehand, and
make their lame excuses at least consistent. There Is a
class of whom an old proverb affirms that It needs to have
" long memories."
Fellow-citizens, for the last flve years, I have been able
to make in New York, in perfect quiet, with the unso
licited protection of the police, the same speech which I
could not make to you without being surrounded by fifty
armed friends. Again and again have I proved this, dur
ing the last five years. In the city of New York, the
common sewer of the continent, where wealth Is massed
up by uncounted millions, where the criminals of all na
tions take refuge, any man could speak his mind for the
last five years ; and If the journals threatened him with
violence, he need not go begging to the City Hall, as
we vainly used to do here ; the authorities would take
notice unsolicited, and see to it that he was protected.
But at the same time, in our own city, of one quarter
part of the Inhabitants, it was impossible, without the aid
of armed friends, to utter the same words. Why Is this ?
It is no fault of individuals, as I said before. Three thou
sand places where drink is sold ! Do I exaggerate wdien
I say, that each one of those places represents a voter ?
i\Ir. Ellis has said, with great force, that every one of
those places represents at least ten men whom It Influ
ences, which would make thirty thousand, — and doubt
less his estimate understates the fact ; but I am not going
to speak of those whom those places influence. I am

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 511
going to speak of the voters which they send to the polls,
and I certainly shall not exaggerate If I say, that each one
of them Influences one voter, — the owner of the shop,
the keeper, the tender, or the frequenter of It. Such
hquor-sellers are generally voters. If not, every one has
a father, brotiier, servant, barkeeper, landlord, men of
whom he buys his supplies, frequenters of his bar. Cer
tainly, I do not make too large an estimate when I say
that, on an average, each one of these places controls one
vote. There are three thousand voters, — indeed, I
should not exaggerate if I said five thousand. About
fifteen thousand voters on this peninsula usually go to the
polls, sometimes twenty-two thousand, though very rarely.
Now, three thousand voters could always hold the balance
In such a constituency, — Republican, Democratic, Catho
lic, Protestant, — crumbled up as an Independent commu
nity necessarily Is. With all these inevitable varieties of
opinion and purpose, three thousand men, bound together
by one idea, one Interest, with one purpose In view, and
demanding one thing, and nothing more, who know what
they want, stand together for it, and throw their whole
weight to secure It, can always hold the balance. There
never was a city election which that number of votes
massed together could not control. I say, therefore, with
out the slightest wish to be personally offensive, that the
liquor-shops of Boston choose our Mayors. What is the
result ? The result is, that it is as much a bargain as if it
were recorded in the registry of deeds, that the promi
nent aspirants for city office shall not execute the laws
against the liquor-shops. I make no special charge against
the Mayor and Aldermen, — they are as good as most of
us. They want votes ; It is the American failing, — most
men want votes. One man wants to be Mayor, another
man wants to be Alderman, a third wants to be Sheriff,
and a fourth wants to be Common-Councilman. Very

512 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
well ; here stand the party that want something, and
there stand the party that have soinething to sell. They
have their votes to give. It Is understood that they wdl
give them to the man who will do the least to execute the
Maine Law. The bargain is not acknowledged before a
justice of the peace, nor recorded In the registry of
deeds ; but every sensible man in the city knows of Its
existence ; and these men walk into office because those
wdl that they shall. The liquor-dealers say, " This is
the condition : shut your eyes upon us ! " The conse
quence Is, that both parties, all parties, are obliged to bow
their necks to that yoke, and, with rare exceptions, there
cannot be an Alderman nor a Mayor of the city elected,
who Is not understood to be willing to shut his eyes to
that crime, and leave the law of the State unexecuted.
It has been so, it always must be so w^hlle these elements
of civic strength exist, and are thus tempted to exert
themselves. The reason why the law is not executed in favor of free
speech Is germane and sister to this ; It is, that the men
who are Interested in these drinklng-shops, and the men
whose votes they can command, are of the class which
hates progress and freedom, — is naturally antagonistic to
them ; and any designing leader can stir up such a mass,
and fling It at virtue and order and liberty. Hence these
consequences. Their agents, of their own natural bias,
run greedily to do such agreeable work.
For the last ten or thirteen years, this has been the
character of the city government. They have said to
the State, " We wdl not execute your law." Now, law
consists of four things, — a statute, a pohceman to arrest
the offender, a jury to try him, and a judge to sentence
him. The Constitution says, we shall have judges as
" impartial as the lot of humanity admits." We have
them. Appointed, how ? By the State. The other end

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 513
of tiie telegraph Is a man to bring the offender before the
judge. What Is the use of a judge ? He cannot move
of himself; he Is powerless if you do not bring the crimi
nals before him. But the city government of Boston,
chosen by this machinery I have spoken of, says to its
police officers, " Don't you furnish that judge with any
criminals ; shut your eyes upon them ! " Then, again, if
one is arrested, by any accident, wdiat more ? Why, this :
the statute says that our jurymen shall be drawn from a
box. In which the names of citizens of good moral charac
ter and sound judgment, free from all legal exceptions, are
put. The city weeds out the jury-box on another plan.
In all trials that had antislavery or temperance In them,
you might be certain of one thing, — you would never see
an Abolitionist nor a temperance man on the jury. If he
got there, it was an accident, and there were always
enough to neutralize him. It is just like the black ele
ment. We have several thousand black men In our
community ; you have never seen a black man on a jury
but once, and that was an accident, and he was not allowed
to sit, though he had been regularly drawn. Many of
them are of good moral character, but their names never
get into the box ; or, if they get In, never come out. So
of a man known distinctively as an Abolitionist ; if his
name goes in, it never conies out. So of a man known as
a temperance man ; rarely does his name come out. But
liquor-dealers have always been abundant on juries ; no
jury was trusted alone without them. If the State furnishes
good judges, and the city, at the other end, furnishes no
criminals, or, when one is by chance caught, fortifies him
with a jury that will disagree on his side, how Is the law
to be executed ? As long as the city government is chosen
by men whose interest Is on that side, how can It be other
wise ? Hmv is the law to be executed, when you have
intrusted Its execution to men who do not wish or mean
33

514 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
to execute it, — who were elected expressly not to exe
cute it, and have the strongest motive not to do so ? No
matter how good individual policemen are, while such men
rule them. You know when Bailie Nicol Jarvie, in Scott's
immortal novel, let Rob Roy out of jail, — he was an
alderman, a bailie, and let him out, — he said to Rob,
" If you continue to be such a thief, you ought to have a
doorkeeper In every jail in Scotland." " 0 no. Bailie,"
replied Rob, " it is just as weel to have a bailie in Ilka
borough." It answers the same purpose to have a servile
and complacent Mayor and Aldermen as to have a base
policeman, because they arrange the juries, and they fetter
and command the police. The consequence has been, that
there has been no effort to execute the law. The defence
put in is, "We cannot execute the law." The Mayor
said of the riots of 1860-61, " We can't put them down."
The reply of his own policemen was, " Thirty of us wdl
put them down. If you will allow us." The reply of the
Abolitionist was, " When did you ever make an effort to
put them down ? The only time you ever stood on
Tremont Temple platform and Issued an order. It was
obeyed ; the mob recognized you as their leader." But
men say at the State-House, in reply to the eloquent argu
ment of :Mr. Ellis, — Mr. Healy, Alderman Amory, said,
" We cannot execute an unpopular law." Indeed !
Indeed ! I can remember when Marshal Tukey put a
chain round your Court-House to execute a law that was
hated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts full as bit
terly as Beacon Street hates the Maine Liquor Law ; and
I can remember when he went up to a legislative com
mittee appointed to examine into his conduct, and Inquire
why a policeman of the city of Boston was acting in that
dlegal manner, against the statute of the State, and
answered Mr. Keyes, " Sir, I know it is lUegal, but I
mean to do It. Help yourself ! "

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 515
In 1843, Latimer was arrested by a policeman with a
lie in his mouth. In 1851, Sims was surrendered by
policemen acting UlegaUy, and avowing their defiance.
In 1854, Burns was sent back, and his claimants were
aided by the police, contrary to the statute. Unpopular
laws ! The city can execute anything it wishes to, un
popular or popular. The city executes every one of Its
own by-laws perfectly. No man steals with Impunity ; no
man violates Sunday with impunity; no man sets up a
nuisance with Impunity. As the Grand Jury said, sev
eral years ago, of these grog-shops, " The municipal au
thorities can remove this nuisance, or at least abate It,
whenever they will. It is as much in their power as the
offal in the sewers or the dirt In the streets."
Tell one hundred and eighty thousand Yankees that
they cannot execute a law when they wish to ! Once, by
happy accident, our Mayor left the city, and an exceptional
hut most unexceptionable Alderman, Mr. Otis Clapp, took
his place, — no trouble that day in quelling the mob.
Deputy Chief Ham did it in thirty minutes. It Is only
the presence of grog-shop Mayors that makes mobs om
nipotent. But suppose Mayors cannot execute the laws,
— what then ? If Berkshire should say, " We want,
every one of ns, to have two wives," and practise that
plan, sending word up to Boston, " We cannot execute
the other law," do you think we should sit down quietly,
and let it go ? How long ?
Boston has five or six trains of railroads, — one to the
Old Colony, one to Pro-vidence, one to Worcester, one to
Lowell, one to Fitchburg, one to the eastern counties. All
of them run locomotives where they wish to. Suppose
that, on the Fitchburg Railroad, one locomotive, for a year,
never got farther than Groton, — what do you think the
Directors of that road would do ? Would they take up
the rails be^^ond Groton, or would they turn out the en-

516 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
gineer ? There is a law of the Commonwealth of Massa
chusetts, thoroughly executed In every county but ours ;
and here the men appointed to execute it not only do not
want to, but you cannot expect them to. They were
elected not to execute it, and they say they can't execute
it. Shall we take up the rails, or change the engineer ? —
which ?
Men say, to take the appointment of the pohce out of
the hands of the peninsula is anti-democratic. Why, from
1620 down to witlihi ten years, the State always acted on
that plan. The State makes the law. Who executes it?
The State. For two hundred years, the Governor ap
pointed the sheriff of every county, and the sheriff ap
pointed his deputies, and they executed the laws. The
constables of the towns were allowed merely a subsidiary
authority to execute by-laws, and help execute the State
law. The democratic principle is, that the law. shall be
executed by an executive authority concurrent with that
which makes it. That is democracy. The State law,
naturally, democratically, is to be executed by the State.
We have merely. In deference to convenience, changed
that of late In some particulars, and we may reasonably
go back to the old plan If we find that. In any particular
locality, the new plan fads. Why not? In all other
matters of State concern, as Mr. Ellis has well shovm, —
Board of Education, Board of Agriculture, and all the
various boards, — the State has the control. You per
ceive this " anti-democratic " argument can be carried out
to an absurdity. Suppose the Five Points of New York
should send word to the Fifth Avenue, " We don't like
your police ; we mean to have one of our own, and it will
be very anti-democratic for you to take the choice of our
own constables out of our own hands." Suppose North
Street should send word to the City Hall, " We have
concluded to turn every other house Into a grog-shop, or

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 517
something almost as bad, and to appoint our own police ;
please instruct your police to keep out of our ward." We
should not say this was democratic. We should say, that
as far as the interest of a community in a law extends, just
so far that community has a right to a hand in the execu
tion of it. Now the State of Massachusetts feels an In
terest in the execution of the Maine Liquor Law. We
have a sixth of the population and a third of the wealth of
the State. Do the influences of these stop with the people
who sleep on this peninsula ? Does not our influence
radiate In every direction ? Do not twenty thousand men
do business here, but not sleep here ? A third of the
wealth ! Who owns it ? We that sleep here ? Not at
all. These costly railroad depots, these rich banks, these
large aggregates of property, who owns them ? Why, the
men that live ten, twenty, thirty miles outside of the city
limits, and come in here in crowds the first of January,
April, July, and October, to get their dividends. Men
who have millions invested on this peninsula no Interest In
knowing whether the streets are safe ! Sending their sons
into our streets, — no interest In their bemg morally whole
some ! Trusting their Uves here, — no Interest In their
being safe !
A fortnight ago, a woman, a teacher in a country town
within twenty miles of Boston, missed her father, — an
honest, temperate farmer, though not a teetotaler. He
came to the city to sell cattle, and had received five hun-
' dred dollars. He had been gone a week, and she came
down to the city to hunt him up. She traced him from
spot to spot, and finally found that the grog-shops had
got hold of him, made him drunk, taken his money,
kept him drunk three days, so that a convenient police
man might see him that number of times and complain
of him as a common drunkard, and he had gone to the
House of Correction for three months. Has that town

518 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
no Interest in the streets of Boston ? Let me tell you
again a story that I have told you once or twice before,
for it holds a grave moral. A few years ago, one sprmg
afternoon, when I left the city to deUver a lectui-e, I ahght-
ed from the raUroad car at the foot of a hUl, whose sweU
ing side bore the most magnificent of country dwellings.
Architecture and horticulture had exhausted their art. It
was so unhke anything about it, I was led to ask how it came
there. The man who was driving me said it was built by
a viUage boy, who wanted to show how much money he
had made in Boston in fifteen years. " He left here with
out a cent," said the young man; "went to Boston, be
came a distiller, returned with two hundred thousand dol
lars, — that is his residence." Do you suppose there was
a Yankee boy within sight of that hillside who was not
tempted to repeat this Boston experience, of rapid and
easy wealth ? I rode on fourteen miles, and was set down
opposite one of those village homes which Dr. Holmes
describes, — a square house of the Revolutionary period,
— old elms hung over the lawn before it. The same
driver said, " In that front room lies dying the grandson
of the man who built that house. Grandfather and father
died drunkards, — lay about the streets of the village
drunk. That boy and I started together in life. He
•n^ent with me to Lowell. We went through the mdls
and a mechanic trade. Never did one drop of intoxicat
ing liquor pass his lips. Social frolic. Increase of means,
friendly entreaty, laughing taunts, gay hours, never tempt
ed him. Until thirty, he stood untouched, guarded by an
Iron resolution. Having gathered a few thousands, he was
tempted to Boston for a wider trade. He went there, —
stayed six years ; came home penndess and a drunkard, to
lie in the very streets where his father and grandfather
had lain before. He could stand up against every temp
tation, except Boston streets. There he lies dying, as his

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 619
grandfather and father before him." Do you say that the
people of these country towns have no Interest In the
streets of Boston ? You tempt the virtue, melt the resolu
tion and corrupt the morals of the Commonwealth, as far
as your Influence extends.
No interest ! Let me go a little way off, and be less
invidious. New York has one fifth of the population of
the State on Manhattan Island. Recently, in a great
national convulsion, the city stirred herself to checkmate
the State. For Wadsworth, the candidate of order, of
liberty, of government, the country counties flung twenty
thousand majority. The demons of discord stirred up the
purlieus of the city, and fiung thirty thousand against him.
Ten thousand, the ultimate majority, carried their candi
date to Albany. What was his first blow ? Seymour's
first act, when he assumed the Governorship, what was
it ? He fulfilled his bargain. He hurled his defiance at
the Metropolitan Police, which kept him and his allies,
conspirators, from carrying the Empire State into the
hands of the Confederacy. These are the times when, as
Macaulay says, " The vermin burrowing in garrets and
cellars show themselves of terrible importance." Who
knows that such times may not come upon us ?
I have seen the day, in that city of New York, when
Rynders dictated law to the Chief of Pohce, and Matsell
obeyed him. For twenty years I have seen In your city
the mob rule when they pleased. I have seen your Mayor
order his police. In Faneuil Hall, to take off their badges
and join the mob which clamored down free speech In that
consecrated hall. You saw, two years ago, the State gov
ernment reeling before the victims of the Tremont House
and Parker House. The Governor complained then, as I
am told he does now, that in the whole county he had not
one single officer whom he could command to execute the
law. Who shall say that It Is not for the interest, for the

520 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
peace, for the prosperity, of the State to make this great
centre of wealth and population indepefldent of such base
control ? We too may have a Fernando Wood, — who
knows ? Our sixth part of the population of the State
may attempt. In the interest of hquor and despotism, to
defy the Commonwealth. It is too important a machinery
to be left In the hands of the dangerous classes. We want
to take It out of the hands of the dangerous classes, and
put it into the hands of the Commonwealth, — nothing
else. One of two things Is necessary. The law is bad, —
repeal It ; or the law is good, — keep It. No other county
would be allowed to defy the law, — why this ?
The Mayor says he cannot execute it. Take him at
his word. Undoubtedly, he cannot, for he was specially
chosen not to do so ; but the question is. Can it be exe
cuted? What do the temperance majority of the Com
monwealth claim? One trial, — nothing more. We have
funded twenty-five years of discussion, any amount of toil
and labor. In that statute. It never has had one trial yet
on this peninsula. May we not ask simply one trial ?
The locomotive has never attempted to go beyond Groton.
Why take up the rails yet ? If Berkshire should say,
" We can't execute your law against polygamy," what
should we do ? Why, appoint fresh sheriffs, not repeal
the law. So in this case, let not Massachusetts kneel and
say, " I too am a slave to the grog-shops of the penin
sula." We do not claim that drunkenness can be wholly rooted
out. But we do claim that this law can be executed as
perfectly as other laws are, if its execution be intrusted to
competent and faithful hands. No crime is wholly pre
vented. Our crowded prisons prove that. No law is
perfectly executed. But there is nothing in the Maine
Liquor Law that distinguishes it from other statutes. No
man claims that the use of intoxicating drink can be wholly

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 521
Stopped. But it is Idle and ridiculous to say that the pub
lic sale of it cannot be stopped, as much as the indiscrimi
nate keeping of gunpowder, or the opening of shops on
Sunday, or the firing of muskets In crowded streets,
whenever magistrates shall reaUy wish and mean to do
their duty.
A metropolitan police has been necessary in London,
and now its streets are the safest in the world. In New
York it has saved the city from convulsion and bloodshed.
One of Its prominent citizens said to me a short time ago,
" You do not know how near we have been to an outbreak
in this very street. But for our police, the attempt would
have been made to surrender us to Southern dictation."
That same civil disorder may Impend over us. What Is
the remedy ? Let the State hold her hand on the vices
of the peninsula, — claim her old democratic right to exe
cute the laws she has made, — to execute them if the city
cannot, or if, by her constitution of government, she will
not try to execute them faithfully.
Our plan Is to have Commissioners — three or five —
appointed by the Governor or by the Legislature, which
ever seems best. Let them hold their offices for three or
five years ; they appoint, rule, and remove the members
of the police force. Such a Commission would be re
moved, as far as anything In our civil system is or ought
to be, from the control of party pohtics, and would be
largely independent of the " dangerous classes." This
peninsula needs It Immediately, — the neighboring towns
and cities will need It soon. The members of such a po
lice force should hold their places during good behavior,
and be removed only on charges stated in writing, to
which they may have a chance of replying. Now, every
fall, the liquor-dealer or other criminal, whom an honest
policeman has troubled, holds up his warning finger to the
Alderman of that ward, — " Remove tiiat policeman, or

522 A METROPOLITAN POLICE.
don't expect my vote." What officer can be expected
to do his duty in such circumstances ? Fellow-citizens,
during the two or three months preceding our city elec
tions, we have, practically, no police, — none that dares
execute a law disagreeable to any influential class.
The moment the liquor interest of the city see that
their mixing in city elections will not secure a police force
in their interest, they will probably leave the election of
Mayor and Aldermen to the natural action of ordinary
pohtics, as they did in New York, and then we shall have
as good officers as our system will secure, with the present
level of education. Such Mayors and Aldermen will,
probably, no longer prostitute the jury-box to defend rum
and shield mobs. They will have no interest to do so.
They cannot so wholly corrupt the jury-box as to protect
the liquor-seller. The liquor once poured Into the street,
according to the statute, by an honest policeman, he must
be sued by its owner before a jury of the county. No
Mayor could make up a jury wholly of liquor-dealers.
Two or three honest men on it suffice to disagree, and no
verdict, in that case, is in effect a verdict for the officer.
Disagreement of juries now, which a servde Mayor
arranges for, protects the indicted grog-seller ; then, to use
a common proverb, " the boot would be on the other leg,"
and disagreement of juries executes the law. But If this
change be not an entire relief, we must press forward, and
find a remedy for that. I have full faith in democratic
institutions. Work on, and we shall yet lift them up to
much higher perfection. The future is sure. Honest
men rule In the end. Only show them their interest and
duty, and. In due time, they wIU rally to do it. Ten years
ago, I made an antislavery speech, painting Southern des
potism, and demanding that the North should rouse her
self against her tyrants. The next day, meeting the
oldest statesman of the Commonwealth, he said to me,

A METROPOLITAN POLICE. 523
" Your speech was all true. I knew it thirty years ago.
But wdiat can you do about it ? They won't listen." I
answered, " I mean to protest, — claim my rights, and de
nounce those who assaU them, whether they listen or not."
The policy has been somewhat successful. Agitate ! and
we shall yet see the laws of Massachusetts rule even
Boston.

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.*

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I understand this is
a ward meeting, — the Sixteenth Ward of New
York, the banner ward for radical Republicanism. [Ap
plause.] A very good-sized meeting for a ward meet
ing. [Laughter.] I am glad, for the first time In my life,
to be adopted into the politics of New York city, and to
address a ward meeting in behalf of justice and liberty.
The text of my address is. Patience and Faith. Possess
your souls in patience, not as having already attained, not
as ff we were already perfect, but because the whole na
tion, as one man, has for more than a year set its face
Zionward. Ever since September 22d of last year, the
nation has turned its face Zionward; and ever since Burn-
side drew his sword In Virginia, we have moved toward
that point. [Cheers.] Now, a nation moving, and mov
ing in the right path, — what reason is there for doubt ?
what occasion for despair ? We have found out at last the
method, and we are In earnest. Patience, all the passion
of great souls, makes victory certain ; when the human
heart is once capable of this greatest courage, no matter
what clouds may be on the horizon, now and then God
lifts the cloud so as to show ns the blue sky behind ; no
* Substance of Speeches in New York, January 21 and May 11, 1863, —
the last as one of a series of Lectures before the Sixteenth Ward Eepublicau
Association.

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 525
matter how dark political mistake or treachery may lower,
the moment comes when the North says that it is all a
phantasmagoria, and behind, the great heart of the nation
beats true to Its destiny. [Cheers.] When I stood on
this platform five months ago, men said : " You must not
be surprised ff blood flows in the streets. Traitors are
trying to take the great Capital of the North out of our
arms, and the Democratic party of the State Is behind
them." But one fine morning there was prudent hesita
tion in the leading Democrat of Albany, and the Mayor
of New York defeated him on his first move. [Cheers.]
When the counties came to be represented, the leaders
found an army with officers and no rank and file. And
the Goliath of Connecticut Copperheads has been killed,
not by a stripling, but by a girl. [Applause.] Or If we
must add to her merits that of General Hamilton of Texas,
the eloquent champion of the Union, then we can almost
say that out of the mouths of girls and slaveholders God Is
perfecting liberty. [Applause.] Now I neither doubt nor
despair. Gradually, one after another, the shams of the
North fall away. It is to be a long fight, no local strug
gle, — only one part of the great fight going on the world
over, and which began ages ago, — only one grand di
vision, one army corps doing its duty in the great battle
between free institutions and caste institutions, the world
over. Freedom and Democracy against the institutions
that rest upon classes. We may be the centre or only the
outskirts of that straggle, but wherever caste lives, -wher
ever class power exists, whether It be on the banks of the
Thames or the Seine, whether by the side of the Ganges
or the Danube, there the South has an ally, just as the
surgeon's knife gives pain when it touches the living fibre.
[Cheers.] And against this mighty marslialling of every
thing tiiat is strong In human selfishness the democracy
of the North does battie. Some of our friends are anxious

526 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
that able and earnest men shall go to England, make the
real state of the case known there, and so, they think,
avert national coUIsIon. Instinct, Mr. Chairman, is a
great matter. The ruling classes of England understand
our quarrel only too well. They feel that victory for the
North Is ultimate ruin for them. The more of the truth
you show them, the more their hearts lean to the South
ern side, — their side.
Every proud man who hates his brother is our enemy,
every idle man too lazy to think is our enemy, every
loafer who seeks a living without working for it is our
enemy. [Applause.] Every honest man, asking only
for his own, and wilhng fairly to do his part, is our ally,
whether he eats rice on the banks of the Ganges or is,
enrolled in- the army under Hooker: never till honest
men realize this can there be peace or union. Till that
time union means a submission to the old slavocracy, as
bitter and more relentless than ever. The South counted
on two allies in the ranks of her Northern enemy : one
was hatred of the negro, — the other Copperhead Demo
cratic sympathy with the aristocracy of the South. She
counted confidently on these allies, but found she had
reckoned without her host. We have been accustomed
to say on this platform, for the last ten years, that ff cir
cumstances should ever rouse to an antislavery purpose
the rank and file of the Democracy, the victory for free^
dom would be as sure as the existence of God. The
Abolitionists have always claimed that they had an invin
cible aUy in that democratic prejudice against wealth and
rank, and the ineradicable love which man has at the core
for the rights of his feUow-man. [Applause.] When
the war broke out, the first blow the South aimed at the
Union, as if according to chemical law, crystallized that
level of democracy into an antislavery mould, and from
that hour to this it is the sheet-anchor of the Union, and

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 527
while it holds the future is certain. The only reason why
this element did not grope Its way at once to victory was
because It was led by men who did not intend to conquer.
Our statesmen were only ready for the shibboleth, " Free
dom, If necessary to save the Union " ; It was a contin
gent freedom, — not freedom for itself and In any event.
No one of them welcomed the war as a God-given oppor
tunity to do justice, and secure for the nation lasting,
immutable peace. Under that sort of leadership we went
to battle. The generals and the Cabinet meant no more
than to play a part in the great drama of justice for which
their hearts were not ready. Lucian tells us of an exhi
bition in Rome in which monkeys had been trained to
take part in a play. They played their parts perfectly,
for a while, before an audience composed of the beauty and
fashion of the city, but In the midst of the performance
some Roman wag flung upon the stage a handful of nuts,
and immediately the actors were monkeys again. Our
statesmen went to Washington monkeys in human attire,
determined to compromise if possible ; the South flung
nuts among them for eighteen months, and they were on
all fours for the temptation. [Laughter and applause.]
That epoch is ended. As in CromweU's day they
sloughed off such effete elements as Essex and Fairfax,
we should slough off generals and statesmen ; and never
can we be successful till routine West Point and rotten
Whiggery have been made to put on decent attire, or
sent back to private life, and those put In their places who
believe in absolute, uncompromising war.
This real democratic element in the North is strong
enough, were It one and united, to have crushed all its
foes on this continent in ninety days. There never was a
time since the commencement of the struggle when, if the
North had been a unit, the war might not have been ended
in three months ; and, so ended, it would have left slavery

528 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
where it found It. But the North has never been a unit.
With the North as a unit, democratic, intelligent, resolved,
in earnest, the South never would have risked the strug
gle. But she knew that the North was divided into three
great parties. One was routine. West Point, too lazy to
think. [Great applause.] I resolve hunkerism Into in
dolence and cowardice, too lazy to think, and too timid to
think. The man of the past is the man who got his Ideas
before he was twenty, and had rather think as his father
thought than take the labor of thinking himself: he is a
hunker, and he will probably die such. [Laughter.]
And the North had a second element, negrophobia, the
Saxon contempt for a black skin, disgust with the question
of the negro, hatred of him as another race, contempt for
him as a slave, and weariness of the question. Outside of
that was the democrat of the North, in the good sense of
the term, — the man who believes in the manhood of his
brother the world over, and Is willing he should have his
rights. Against such a North the South rebelled, — one
of our hands tied up by negro hatred, and the other by
constitutional scruples, and West Point on our shoulders.
Against such a North the South rebelled. You remem
ber it well, — the North that never dared to apply the
line and the plummet to the ethics of its civdization, —
that never dared to have a logic which would know no
black, no white, when It studied Its duties, — the North
that, both In pulpit and in civil Iffe, beUeved and obeyed
the old proverb : " When the monkey reigns, let every
man dance before him." [Laughter.] As long as a
wicked, contemptible institution had honors and wealth
and fashion to bestow, so long the pregnant knee was
crooked before It. That North the South met In battle, and
she mistook, as we Abolitionists did, (that is, the Issue will
show whether we did mistake, we hope it is so,) how far
the canker had gone, how great hold this routine of hun-

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 529
kerlsm had on the body of the people : that North rallied
for the struggle, poured out her money like water, and
her sons with ever-growing wdllngness for the great battle
betwixt democracy and slavery, betwixt God and the
Devil, for the world and the century. The go-^-ernment
was equally In the dark, equally undecided, equally uncer
tain what course to pursue, and for a long time we stum
bled together. We have learned of events, and claim to
know our times. The government seems neither to learn
nor to forget anything. Why ? Well, I think, because
our rulers were educated as Whigs. The old ^\^hlg party,
gooel as It was In many respects, virtuous in many of Its
impulses, correct In certain of Its aspirations, had one great
defect : it had no confidence In the people, no trust In the
masses ; It did not believe in the conscience or the Intelli
gence of the million ; it looked, indeed, upon the whole
world as In a probate court, in which the educated and
the wealthy were the guardians. And so, when our rulers
entered on the great work of defending the nation In Its
utmost peril, they dared not fling themselves on the bosom
of the million, and trust the country to the hearts of those
that loved it. Your President sat hi Washington, doubtful
what he ought to do, how far he might go. Month after
month, stumbling, faithless, uncertain, he ventured now a
little step, and now another, surprised that at every step
the nation were before him, ready to welcome any word
he chose to say, and to support any policy he chose to sub
mit ; so that matters of vexed ehspute, matters of earnest
doubt, the moment the bugle gave a certain sound, have
passed into dead issues. You know that when the rebel
lion first broke forth no man dared speak out touching tiie
negro. The South fought to sustain slavery, and the
North fought not to have it hurt. But Butier pronounced
tiiat magic word "contraband," and summoned the negro
into the arena. [Applause.] It was a poor word. Some
34

530 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
doubt — I do not — whether It is sound law. Lord Chat
ham said, " Nullus liber homo" is poor Latin, but it is
worth all the classics. Contraband is a bad word, and may
be bad law, but just then it was worth all the Constitution
[applause] ; for In a moment of critical emergency it sum
moned saving elements into the arena, and it showed the
government how far the sound fibre of the nation extended.
When Fremont [loud and long-continued applause] —
why won't you ever let me go on when I name Fremont ?
[Laughter.] I say, when he pronounced that word Eman
cipation on the banks of the Mississippi, the whole North,
except the government, said Amen. [Applause.] The
government doubted tdl the 22d of September, 1862.
But the moment the govemment pronounced the word, it
floated into a dead Issue, and nobody worth minding now
doubts or debates about the emancipation of slaves. [Ap
plause.] It only shows you how strong the government
is. If it will only act ; how certain the heart of the people
is to support it, ff the government will only trust. If Mr.
Lincoln could only be made to accept the line of the old
huntsman song, —
" Sit close in the saddle and give him his head,"
he could carry twenty millions of people with him over
every barrier to victory and peace. [Loud applause.] I
beheve, therefore. In ultimate success, because every act
of the government Is more than indorsed by the intelh-
gence and virtue of the people, — ^ the virtue of the people.
That Is the only point at Issue. To-day, your city roars
with the tumult of welcome for returning soldiers. Those
soldiers will find here not a Virginia eaten over with bar
renness, not starving people, not empty treasuries ; they
wdl find a North untouched, — so much money that we
have not to go abroad to borrow any [applause] , so much
wheat that we could feed the world, such ample munitions
of war that your traitor merchants smuggle them to Caro-

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 531
Una [sensation], — a traveller might journey through haff
the North, and if he neither spoke nor read Enghsh, he
would never dream there was a war in any part of the
nation, — an untouched North, while the South, muster
ing all her white men and all her sympathizers the world
over, has not yet reached the garnered treasure of North
ern strength. We have not yet put forth the first begin
ning of our power. In Scripture phrase, " Truly there
has been a hiding of our power." If we fad, it wdl be
because we deserve to, because we have not virtue enough
to prefer the end to the means. There is no question but
of the conscience and Intelligence of the North. Now, I
believe in that, because thus far the government has never
asked for anything, nor ventured anything, that the readi
ness of the people has not both given and indorsed. There
is my ground of hope.
I do not believe in Souttiern exhaustion. There may
be starving men at the South, starving households, dl-clad
soldiers, but there is no such exhaustion as approaches de
spair. The South has not yet begun to play her last card.
The moment she feels exhaustion she wiU proclaim liberty
to the negro. The moment her cause touches Its dovmfall
in the judgment of its leaders, she wUl call the black into
her ranks, — caU him by some proclamation of gradual
emancipation, which wiU gather to her side the heartiest
sympathy of the Enghsh aristocracy. England never was
an antislavery nation. Her ruling classes never accepted
emancipation on any basis. England herself never ac
cepted immediate abolition on any basis. As O'ConneU
weU said, the scheme of immediate emancipation was car
ried over Parliament by the conscience of the middle
classes, and they do not usually rule In England. To-day,
that party in the contest which offers England gradual
emancipation wdl offer her all that her judgment approves.
Before the South permits her flag to stagger, she wdl

632 THE STATE OF THE COUNTR'T.
write on it gradual emancipation, and bring the House of
Commons to her side. Ten men In the South will submit
to be colonists of England where one would submit to Lin
coln. General Hamilton goes to Boston, a slaveholder,
and says on our platform, " I am glad that my slaves are
gone If it saves the Union." If loyal men will surrender
their slaves and save the Union, do you not suppose dis
loyal men wdl surrender theirs to save the Confederacy ?
Do you suppose the South will stop before she puts on to
her banner Emancipation ? The moment she utters that
word, I shall admit that she feels weak In the knees, —
never till then. There is no exhaustion yet that touches
a traitor. The men that rebelled are the slaveholders, —
rebelled under the pretence of slavery, with the real pur
pose of killing republican institutions and founding aristo
cratic institutions in their place. Slavery was the point to
be protected, and the pretence that rallied the rebellion.
But, now that it is afoot. Its leaders throw off the mask,
and, without concealment, avow at home that their object
is to put this belt of the continent under the control of
aristocratic institutions, for the perpetuation of that sys
tem, among others, which they love. That element has
yet felt no exhaustion, — it boasts, justly, of rare military
skill, and of as large armies as ordinary men can handle, — •
and with that element I have no plea of conciliation. I
am for conclllatlqn, but not for conciliating the slaveholder.
Death to the system, and death or exile to the master. Is
the only motto. [Applause.] There Is a party for whom
I have ever the right hand of conciliation, and whenever
the foot of mdltary despotism is lifted from that party, I
believe that in the South itself we shall be surprised at the
weight, strength, and number of the men who still love
the Union. There Is a party for whom I have conciliation,
and this [taking by the hand a beautiful littie girl of five
years old, with a fair complexion and light auburn ring-

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 533
lets] Is its representative. In the veins that beat now In
my right hand runs the best blood In Virginia's white
races and the better blood of the black race of the Old
Dominion [apjjlause], — a united race, to whom, in its
virtue, belongs In the future a country, which tlie toil and
labor of Its ancestors redeemed from nature and gave to
civilization anel the nineteenth century. [Applause.] Fcjr
that class I have ever an open door of concdiation, — the la
bor, the toil, the muscle, the virtue, the strength, the democ
racy, of the Southern States. This blood represents them
all, — the poor white, a non-slaveholder, deluded Into re
bellion for a system which crushes him, — some equally
cleluded and some timid and gagged masters, — the slave
restored to his rights, when nf)W, at last, for the first time
in her history, Virginia has a government, and is not a
horde of pirates masquerading as a State. No, the South
has not yet felt the first symptom of exhaustion. Get no
delusive hope that our success Is to come from, any such
source. This war will never be ended by an event. It will
never come to a conclusion by a gi-eat battle. It is too
deep in its sources ; It Is too wide In Its Influence for
that. The great struggle In England between democracy
and nobdity lasted from 1640 to 1660, taking a king's life
in Its progress, and yet failed for the time. The great
struggle between the same parties In France began In
1789, and It Is not yet ended. Our own Revolution began
in 1775, and never, tdl the outbreak of the French Revo
lution concentrated the attention of the monarchies of
Europe, was this country left in peace. And it wdl take
ten or twenty years to clear off the scar of such a strug
gle. Prepare yourself for a life-long enlistment. God
has launched this Union on a voyage whose only port is
Liberty ; and whether the President relucts, or whether

534 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
the cabin-boys conspire, it matters not, — absolute justice
holds the helm, and we never shall come into harbor until
every man under the flag is free. [Applause.] Why do
I say this ? I will tell you. We are accustomed to use
the words North and South familiarly. They once meant
the land toward the pole and the land toward the sun.
They have a deeper significance at present. By the North
I mean the civilization of the nineteenth century, — I mean
that equal and recognized manhood up to which the race
has struggled by the toils and battles of nineteen centuries,
¦ — I mean free speech, free types, open Bibles, the wel
come rule of the majority, — I mean the Declaration of
Independence ! [Applause.] And by the South, I mean
likewise a principle, and not a locality, an element of civil
life In fourteen rebellious States. I mean an element
which, like the days of Queen Mary and the Inquisition,
cannot tolerate free speech, and punishes it with the stake.
I mean the aristocracy of the skin, which considers the
Declaration of Independence a sham, and democracy a
snare, — which believes that one third of the race is
born booted and spurred, and the other two thirds ready
saddled for that third to ride. I mean a civilization which
jjrohlblts the Bible by statute to every sixth man of Its
community, and puts a matron in a felon's cell for teach
ing a black sister to read. I mean the intellectual, social,
aristocratic South, — the thing that manifests Itself by
barbarism and the bowie-knife, by bullying and lynch-
law, by Ignorance and Idleness, by the claim of one man
to own his brother, by statutes making it penal for the
State of Massachusetts to bring an action in her courts,
by statutes, standing on the books of Georgia to-day,
offering five thousand doUars for the head of WiUiam
Lloyd Garrison. That South is to be annihdated. [Loud
applause.] The totality of my common sense — oi what
ever you may caU It — Is this, all summed up in one

THE BIAIE OF THE COUNTRY. 535
word : This country will never know peace nor union
until the South (using the words In the sense I have de
scribed) is annihilated, and the North is spread over it. I
do not care where men go for the power. They may find
it in the parchment, — I do. I think, witii Patrick Henry,
with John Quincy Adams, with General Cass, we have
ample constitutional powers ; but if we had not, it would
not trouble me In the least. [Laughter and applause.]
I do not think a nation's life is bound up in a parchment.
I think this Is the momentous struggle of a great nation
for existence and perpetuity. Two elements are at war
to-day. In nineteen loyal and fourteen rebellious States
those two elements of civilization which I have described
are fighting. And It Is no new thing that they are fight
ing. They could not exist side by side without fighting,
and they never have. In 1787, when the Constitution
was formed, James Madison and Rufus King, followed by
the ablest men In the Convention, announced that the dis
sension between the States was not between great States
and little, but between Free States and Slave. Even
then the conflict had begun. In 1833, Mr. Adams said,
on the floor of Congress : " Whether Slave and Free
States can cohere Into one Union is a matter of theoretical
.speculation. We are trying the experiment." In June,
1858, Mr. Lincoln used the language : " This country is
half slave and half free. It must become either wholly
slave or wholly free." In October of the same year, Mr.
Seward, in his great " Irrepressible conflict " speech at
Rochester, said : " The most jiregnant remark of Napo
leon Is, that Europe Is half Cossack and half republican.
The systems are not only Inconsistent, they are incom
patible ; they never did exist under one go^'ernment.
They never can." " Our fathers," he goes on to say,
" recognized this truth. They saw the conflict develoj)ii.g
when they made the Constitution. And whde tender-

536 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
conscienced and tender-hearted men lament this strife
between slavery and antislavery, our fathers not only
foresaw, but they initiated It." They knew that these
two systems would fight. But they thought under the
parchment of the Constitution they could fight It out by
types ; they could discuss it to a peaceful solution ; ballots
and parties, types and free speech, would make brother
States and sister States, — settle the confilct between two
irreconcilable civilizations. What is the history of our
seventy years ? It Is the history of two civilizations con
stantly struggling, and always at odds except lohen one or
the otJier rules. So long as the South ruled, up to 1819,
we had uniform peace. The Missouri Compromise was
the first solemn protest of rising Northern civilization
against the Southern. It was an unsuccessful protest.
The South put it under her feet, but she did not kill it.
It continued alive through the stormy days of Texas, and
showed Its head above water in the Compromise in 1850.
Anel again it was strangled and put under the heel of
fourteen States. But it culminated again by the irrepres
sible power of God's own lavs^s, and In 1861 wrote the
name of Abraham Lincoln on the topmost wall of the Re
public. This was not victory. Not victory, but the her-
rald of victory. It was seventeen hundreel thousand
ballots recording the strength of the rising North against
the Soutii. And the statesmanship of the South read
correctly this record. She said, " I can for four or eight or
twelve years buy this man, and bribe that, and bully the
other. But that Is a poor and beggarly existence. There
Is another way open to me. I agreed at the outset to
abide the Issue of ft-ee discussion, and I put my system on
trial against Massachusetts free speech."
Seventy years ago the North flung down the gauntiet
of the printing-press, and said, " I will prove that my sys
tem — freedom — Is the best." The South accepted the

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 537
Constitution of the United States, securing a free press,
and took the risk. She said : " There is my slavery. I
believe it wIU abide discussion. I am willing to put it into
the caldron." And Massachusetts put in her land and
character and brains, and we made a " hodge-podge," as
the English law says, a general mess, a bowl of punch
[laughter], of all the Institutions of the nation, and we
said, " There Is the free press, untrammeUed, for one ele
ment, and whatever cannot bear that must be thrown
away." [Applause.] For two generations, the experi
ment went on ; and when Lincoln went to Washington.
South Carolina saw the handwriting on the wall, — the
handwriting as of old, — that the free press had conquered,
and that slavery was sinking, like a dead body, to the bot
tom ; and she said, practically : " I know I made the
bargain, but I cannot abide it. I know I agreed to put
myself into the general partnership, and now comes the
demand for my submission to the great laws of human
progress, — I cannot submit." So she loaded her guns,
and turned them, shotted to the lips, against the Federal
Government, saying, " There is a fortification behind the
printing-press, — it is the INIinle rifle." "All well," said
the North ; " now we will try that. [Applause.] I offered
you the nineteenth century, — books ; you chose to go
back to the fifteenth, — armies ; try it ! " The Soutli
flung clown the gauntlet ; the North raised It, and has
flung It back Into the Guff. [Applause.] Beaten In both
ways, conquered on both Issues, our civilization triumphant
in brains, and still more emphatically triumphant In bullets
[applause], the question now comes up. Which shall rule
this one and Indivisible country ? The South said, " I
load my cannon In order that I may annihilate Massachu
setts." " I accept It," said the Bay State, and, her can
non being the largest anel the strongest, she annlhdates the
South instead. [Renewed applause.] That is the argu-

638 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
ment. We should have gone to the wall had she beaten.
One nation ! — she goes to the wall when we beat. That
is common sense ; that is fair, sound policy.
We have been planted as one nation ; the normal idea
of our existence is that it is to be one and indivisible. We
are one nation. That being taken for granted at the out
set. In this battle of civilizations, which is to govern ?
The best. I do not think we have any claim to govern
this country on the ground that we have more cannon,
more men, and more money than the South. That is a
bald, brutal superiority. The claim of the North to govern
must be founded on the ground that our civilization is bet
ter, purer, nobler, higher, than that of the South.
The two ideas have always contended for mastery, till
now by argument, by types ; — now, with bullets. Our
war is only an appeal from the nineteenth century of free
dom and ballots to the system of the sixteenth century.
The old conflict, — a new weapon, that is all. The South
thought because once, twice, thrice, the spaniel North had
gotten down on her knees, that this time, also, poisoned
by cotton-dust, she would kiss her feet. [A voice, " No
go this-time ! " and applause.] But instead of that, for the
first time In our history, the North has flung the insult
back, and said : " By the Almighty, the Mississippi is
mine, and I wdl have it." [Applause.] Now, when
shall come peace ? Out of this warlike conffict, when
shall come peace ? Just as it came in the conflict of par
ties and discussion. Whenever one clvlhzation gets the
uppermost positively, then there wdl be peace, and never
till then. There is no new thing under the sun. The
light shed upon our future is the light of experience.
Seventy years have not left us ignorant of wdiat the aris
tocracy of the South means and plans, if it has left the
Secretary of State ignorant. [Laughter and applause.]
The South needs to rule, or she goes by the board. She

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 539
is a wise power. I respect her for it. She knows that
she needs to rule. What does Mr. Jefferson Davis plan ?
Do you suppose he plans for an imaginary line to divide
South Carohna from New York and Massachusetts ?
What good would that do ? An imaginary line will not
shut out Ideas. But she must bar out those ideas. That
Is the programme in the South. He imagines he can
broaden his base by allying himself with a weaker race.
He says : " I will join marriage with the weak races of
Mexico and the Southwest, and then, perhaps, I can draw
to my side the Northwest, with Its Interests as an agri
cultural population, naturally allied to me, and not to the
Northeast, with its tariff set of States. And he thinks
thus, a strong, quiet slaveholchng empire, he will bar New
England and New York out in the cold, and will have
comjiaratlve peace. But if he bar New England out in
the cold, what then ? She is still there. [Laughter.]
And give It only the fulcrum of Plymouth Rock, an idea
¦wiU upheave the continent. Now, Davis knows that better
than we do, — a great deal better. His plan, therefore,
is to mould an empire so strong, so broad, that it can con
trol New England and New York. He is not only to
found a slaveholding despotism, but he is to make it so
strong that, by traitors among us, and hemming us in by
power, he is to cripple, confine, break down, .the free dis
cussion of these Northern States. Unless he does that he
is not safe. He knows it. Now I do not say he will suc
ceed, but I tell you what I think is the plan of a states
manlike leader of this effort. To make slavery safe, he
must mould Massachusetts, not into being a slaveholding
Commonwealth, but into being a silent, unprotesting Com
monwealth ; that Maryland and Virginia, the Carolinas,
and Arkansas, may be quiet, peaceable populations. He
is a wise man. He knows what he wants, and he wants it
with a will, like Julius CiEsar of old. He has gathered

540 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
every dollar and every missile south of Mason and Dixon's
line to hurl a thunderbolt that shall serve his purpose.
And if he does achieve a separate confederacy, and shall
be able to bribe the West into neutrality, much less alli
ance, a dangerous time, and a terrible battle will these
Eastern States have. For they will never make peace.
The Yankee who comes out of CromweU's bosom will
fight his Naseby a hundred years, if it last so long, but he
will conquer. [Applause.] In other words, Davis wdl
try to rule. If he conquers, he is to bring, in his phrase,
Carohna to Massachusetts. And ff we conquer, what Is
our policy ? To carry Massachusetts to Carolina. In
other words, carry Nortliern civdization all over the South.
It is a contest between civilizations. Whichever conquers
triumphs over the other.
I may seem tedious in this analysis. But it seems to
me that the simple statement includes the whole duty and
policy of the hour. It is a conflict which will never have
an end until one or the other element subdues its rival.
Therefore we should be, like the South, penetrated with
an idea, and ready with fortitude and courage to sacrifice
everything to that Idea. No man can fight Stonewall
Jackson, a sincere fanatic on the side of slavery, but John
Brown, an equally honest fanatic on the other. [Ap
plause.] They are the only chemical equals, and will
neutralize each other. You cannot neutralize nitric acid
with cologne-water. You cannot hurl William H. Sew
ard at Jeff Davis. [Great applause and laughter.] You
must have a man of ideas on both sides. Otherwise the
elements of the struggle are unequal.
Our object is to subdue the South. What right has
our civihzation to oust out the other ? It has this right :
We are a Union, — not a partnership, — a marriage.
We put our Interests all together In 1787. We joined
our honor and our wealth. This question Is not to be

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 541
looked at like a technical lawyer dotting his I's and cross
ing his t's, and making his semicolons into colons. It Is to
be looked at In the broad light of national statesmanship.
Our fathers, if they were honorable men, as we believe,
accepted slavery as a part of their civil constitution on the
ground that It was put Into a common lot with freedom,
with progress, with wealth, with education. If it stood its
own, well ; If it went by the board, so. It was an intelli
gible, if not an honest, bargain. They consented to be
disgraced by the toleration of slavery ; they consented to
let the fresh blood of the young, vigorous free labor of
many States build it up Into longer and firmer life, only
on condition that it shoulel take its chances with all the
other great national interests. It was with this funda
mental understanchng that the nation commenced, and the
great special Interests of the country are based upon it.
For instance, the Illinois farmer, when he bought of the
Union a thousand acres In the Northwest, he did not
buy a thousand acres isolated In the Northwest ; he
bought a thousand acres with New Orleans for his port of
entry and New York for his counting-house. And it was
as much a part of the deed as if it had been so written.
Now, If South Carolina can show that lUinois and New
York have broken the deed, she has a right of revolution ;
that Is, she has a right to reject It. But until she can
show that they have broken the deed, she is a swindler.
lUInoIs owns New Orleans as much as Chicago, in a na
tional sense. So the negro who sat down and waited
when Samuel Adams, who thought slavery a crime, and
your Gouverneur Morris, who thought It a disgrace and
a sin, said, " Wait, the time wdl come when the constant
waves of civilization or the armed right hand of the war
power wdl strike off your fetters," and tiie slave sat down
and waited. In 1819, — the Missouri Compromise, —
when the time had come, as John Randolph said the time

542 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
would come, when the master would run away from his
slave, the slave arose and said, " Fulfil the pledge ; I
have invested a generation of submission." We beggeel
him still to wait, and he sat down in the darkness of de
spair. God alone counted the moments of his agony. At
last the gun sounded at Sumter, and the slave cried,
" New York and Massachusetts, fulfil the pledge of your
fathers in the name of God and justice." [Cheers.] We
are a nation by all these considerations. To-day, the
question Is, not merely whether the negro shall be free ;
not, certainly, whether New York and Massachusetts shall
dictate to sister States ; but It is, whether the free lips of
New York and Massachusetts shall be protected by the
laws of the nation wherever the stars and stripes float ;
whether this great, free, model state, the hope of the na
tions and their polar star, this experiment of self-govern
ment, this normal school of God for the education of the
masses, shall survive, free, just, entire, in full force, a
strength and a blessing, at home and abroad, buoyant with
life, and rejoicing, like a strong man, to run its beneficent
race. Mr. Jefferson Davis has two hundred thousand men in
arms to-day. I do not believe he ever had over three
hundred thousand. Great Is brag, and they have bragged
three hundred thousand Into six, and wooden guns Into
iron ones. He has got two hundred thousand in arms to
day. Before this body retreats Into Mexico, — before, like
his great father In the Gospel, he goes " violently down a
steep place into the sea" [loud laughter and applause], — he
wdl fight great battles somewhere. Let me grant you that
we crush that army out, scatter it, demoralize It, conquer
it, — where is it to go? What wUl become of its mate
rials ? What brought it together ? Hatred of us. WUl
being beaten make them love us ? Is that the way to
make men love you ? Can you whip a man into loving

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 543
you ? You whip him into a bitterer hate. Where will
that army go ? Into a state of society more cruel than
war, — whose characteristics are private assassination, burn
ing, stabbing, shooting, poisoning. The consequence Is,
we have not only an army to conquer, which, being beaten,
wiU not own it, but we have a state of mind to annlhdate.
You know Napoleon said, the difficulty with the German
armies was, they did n't know when they were beaten.
We have a worse trouble than that. The South wdl not
only not believe Itself beaten, but the materials which
make up its army will not retire back to peaceful pursuits.
Where are they going to retire ? They don't know how
to do anything. You might think they would go back to
trade. They don't know how to trade ; they never bought
nor sold anything. You might think they would go back
to their professions. They never had any. You might
think they would go back to the mechanic arts. They
don't know how to open a jackknife. [Great merriment.]
There is nowhere for them to go, unless we send them
half a million of emancipated blacks, to teach them how to
plant cotton. To the North, war is a terrible evil. It
takes the lawj^er, the merchant, the mechanic, from his
Industrious, improving, inspiring occupation, and lets him
down into the demoralization of a camp; but to the South,
war is a gain. The young man, melted In sensuality,
whose face was never lighted up by a purpose since his
mother looked Into his cradle, — the mere wreck of what
should have been a man, — with neither Ideas nor Inspira
tions nor aspirations, was lifted by the war to a higher
level. Did you ever look Into the beautiful faces of those
Roman young men, whose ideas were bounded by coffee
and the opera, — till Garibaldi's bugle waked them to hfe,
— beautiful, because human stiU? WeU, that was the
South. Over those wrecks of manhood breathed the
buo-le-note of woman and politics, calling upon them to

544 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
rally and fight for an idea, — Southern Independence. It
lifted them, for the moment, into something which looked
like civdization ; it lifted them into something that was a
real life ; and war to them is a gain. They go out of It,
and they sink down a hundred degrees in the scale of
civilization. They go back to bar-rooms, to corner-gro
ceries, to plantation sensuality, to chopping straw, and
calling it politics. [Laughter.]
Now, that South, angry, embittered, having arms in Its
hands, what Is it going to do ? Shoot, bum, poison, vent
its rage on every side. Guerilla barbarities are but the
first drops of the shower, — the first pattering drops of the
fiood of barbarism which will sweep over those Southern
States, unless our armies hold them. When England con
quered the Highlands, she held them, — held them until
she could educate them ; and it took a generation. That
is just what we have to do with the South ; annihilate the
old South, and put a new one there. You do not annihi
late a thing by abolishing it. You must supply the vacancy.
In the Gospel, when the chambers were swept and gar
nished, the devds came back because there were no angels
there. And if we should sweep Virginia clean, Jeff Davis
would come back with seven other devils worse than him
self. If he could find them, and occupy it, unless you put
free institutions there. Some men say, begin it by export
ing the blacks. If you do, you export the very fulcrum
of the lever ; you export the very best material to begin
with. Something has been said about the AUeghanies
moving toward the ocean as the symbol of colonization.
Let me change it. The nation that should shovel down
the AUeghanies, and then build them up again, would be
a wise nation compared with the one that should export
four million blacks, and then import four million of Chinese
to take their places. To dig a hole, and then fill it up
again, to build a wall for the purpose of beating out your

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 545
brains against it, would be Shakespearian wisdom compared
with such an undertaking. I want the blacks as the very
basis of the effort to regenerate the South. They know
every Inlet, the pathway of every wood, the whole coun
try is a map at night to their instinct. When Bumside
unfurled the Stars and Stripes In sight of Roanoke, he
saw a little canoe paddling off to him, which held a single
black man ; and in that contraband hand, victory was
brought to the United States of America, led by Burn-
side. He came to the Rhode Island general, and said :
" This Is deep water, and that Is shoal ; this is swamp, that
is firm land, and that Is wood ; there are four thousand
men here, and one thousand there." The whole country
was mapped out, as an engineer could not have done It in
a month, in the memory of that man. And Bumside was
loyal to humanity, and believed him. [Applause.] Dis
loyal to the Northern pulpit, disloyal to the prejudice of
his race, he was loyal to the Instincts of our common na
ture, knew that man would tell him the truth, and obeyed
him. The soldiers forded where the negro bade them,
the vessels anchored In the deep waters he pointed out,
and that victory was planned, if there was any strategy
about it, in the brain of that contraband [applause] ; and
to-day he stands at the right hand of Burnside, clad In
uniform, long before Hunter armed a negro, with the
pledge of the General that, as long as he lives and has
anything to eat, the man who gave him Roanoke shaU
have half a loaf [Enthusiastic applause.] Do you sup
pose, that if I multiply that instance by four million, the
American people can afford to, give up such assistance?
Of course not. We are to take military possession of the
territory, and we are to work out the great problem of
unfolding a nation's life. We want the four million of
blacks, — a people instinctively on our side, ready and
skUled to work; the only element the Scuth has which
35

646 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
belongs to the nineteenth century. You never can mis
take them. It used to be said, in old antislavery times,
that If a fugitive negro saw a Quaker coat, his heart beat
easy, — he knew he was safe. I think the Stars and
Stripes can float lazily down and kiss the standard, all
over the South, when a black face is In sight.
But I am not speaking for the negro ; I am not asking
now for his rights ; I am asking for the use of him. I
want him for the ftiture. We have to make over the
State of South Carolina, and we are not sure there Is a
white man in it who is on our side. Do you remember
that significant telegram of McClellan from Yorktown, —
and it was only the repetition of a dozen telegrams that
preceded it, substantially this : — " To the Secretary of
War : Sir, we have taken Yorktown ; only one single
white man in it." He does not think it necessary to say
there were some thousands of negroes. Of course there
were. They stayed where liberty was coming, and ideas,
and civilization, and men who worked with their hands
and their brains, as they themselves did. They recog
nized in the Yankee a brother mechanic. [Laughter and
applause.] They said : " Here are men who don't know
how to do anything but eat, and they are going. The
people who are coming are men who know how to manu
facture, to create, and we, the creators of the South, stay
to welcome the creators of the North." [Applause.] But
that one poor solitary white man, who always remains
[laughter,] — just like " The last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone,''
[great merriment,] — he Is only suggestive of that other
kindred and friendly race which never ffies.
Colonize the blacks ! A man might as well colonize his
hands ; or when the robber enters his house, he might as
well colonize his revolver. What we want is systematic,

IHE SIATE UF IHE CJOUN'l'RY. 041
national action. Confiscate those lands. Colonize them.
Sell them with the guaranty of the government to the
loyal Massachusetts man or New Yorker. Say to him,
" There is a deed as good as the Union. Carry there your
ploughshares, seeds, schools, sewing-machines." Carry free
labor to that soil, and you carry New York to Virginia,
and slavery cannot go back. I want to supply the va
cancy which this war must leave in every Slave State it
subdues. The Slave States, to my mind, are men and
territory, and nothing else. The rebellion has crushed
out all civd forms. New government Is to go there. It
seems to me the Idlest national work, childish work, for
the President, In bo-peep secrecy, to hide himself in the
White House and launch a proclamation at us on a first
day of January. The nation should have known It sixty
days before, and should have provided fit machinery for
the reception of three million bondmen Into the civil state.
If we launch a ship, we build straight well-oiled ways
upon which it may glide with facility into its native ele
ment. So when a nation is to be born, the usual aid of
government should have been extended to prepare a path
way through which to step upon the platform of civil
equality. It Is nonsense without. We cannot expect in
hours to cover the place of centuries. It Is a great probr
lem before us. We must take up the South and organize
it anew. It is not the men we have to fight, — It is the
state of society that produces them. He would be a fool
who, having a fever, scraped his tongue and took no
medicine. Killing Davis is only scraping the tongue ;
killing slavery Is taking a wet-sheet pack, destroying the
very disease. But when we have done it, there remains
behind the still greater and more momentous problem,
whether we have the strength, the balance, the vu-tue,
the civilization, to absorb six mdlions of ignorant, embit
tered, bedeviled Southerners, and transmute them into

648 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
honest, decent, educated, well-behaved. Christian mechan
ics, worthy to be the brothers of New England Yankees.
[Applause.] That is the real problem. To that this
generation should address itself. You know men take
their fioating capital, and fund it In a permanent invest
ment. Now the floating virtue of forty thousand pulpits,
the floating wealth of these nineteen miUions of people,
the floating result, big or little, of Tract Societies, Is to be
funded, — like sensible heat, is to be transformed into in
visible, latent heat ; it Is to pass away into the Southern
capacity of being educated. The water is to sink to its
level. Harvard College, whose men can think, — though
so often on the wrong side, — is to go down half way,
and meet South Carolina, saying her A, B, C. That is
what you are to do.
It will take time undoubtedly. The nation is able to do
it. The vigor and good sense and strength of endurance
of these Northern classes Is equal to the achievement, if
we can only have leaders ; but we have none.
The government looks to the people for Its Initiative.
Lord Lyons said (substantially) In his dispatch to Earl
Russell : " The Republican government dare not initiate
a policy ; it looks outward and asks what its opponents will
consent to." That is now the condition of the govern
ment. Hence the necessity of outspoken, perpetual,
constant education of public opinion. I do not believe in
the government at Washington. I believe In the nation,
I believe In events, I beheve In the inevitable tendency of
these coming ten years toward liberty and Union. But It
is to be done as England did it in 1640, by getting rid
gradually, man by man, of those who don't believe in
progress, but live and mean to live in the past. And as
man by man of that class retfres, and we bring to the front
men who are earnest in the present, victory, strength, and
peace are to be the result. Now, for the present, I beheve

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 649
in Hooker. [Loud applause.] Men say he has faults, —
faults which some of his predecessors did not have.
[Laughter.] Perhaps he has, but in my opinion a dia
mond with a flaw is better than a pebble without. [Ap
plause.] I do not set one defeat against him. I think,
as Lord Bacon says, that a soldier's honor should be of a
strong web which slight matters will not stick to. I be
lieve Hooker's is of that kind. He means to fight ; he
knows how to fight ; and those two are new elements at
the head of the army. On the other side there are three
elements. Lee means to fight, and knows how to fight,
and he is deadly In earnest. We have had men who
neither knew how to fight, nor meant to fight, — of no
ability. Now "we have abdity to match the other side.
We yet lack earnestness, ideas, a willingness to sacrifice
everything, a readiness to accept the issue, courage and
industry In thinking. We have now two Commanders-in-
chief. They both live In Washington. The sad news
reaches us to-day that one means to take the field.
[Laughter.] Lincoln and Halleck, — they sit in Wash
ington, commanders-in-chief, exercising that disastrous
influence which even a Bonaparte would exercise on a
battie, if he tried to fight It by telegraph a hundred miles
distant. But now it is said one of them means to take the
field. Heaven forbid ! [Applause.] The difference be
tween Halleck and Fremont Is just this : one has not
learned anything since he gi-aduated at West Point, and
does not wish to. As long as he rules, West Point, dead
lumber, rules. An old adage says, " A fool Is never a
great fool tdl he has learned Latin." And so a man is
never utterly incorrigible till he graduates at 'West Point.
[Laughter.] General Halleck does not mean to under
take the labor of thinking. He Is too indolent to go about
to examine a new idea. It Is enough for him that it was
not in the text-books when he graduated. [Laughter.]

550 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
Battles were not fought so when he was taught, and if he
is beaten according to the book, he Is willing to be beaten.
[Laughter.] The German commanders complained of
Napoleon, when he first launched into the battle-field,
that he violated aU the rules. Now his Missouri rival
occupied the nineteenth century, and thought out the
issues for himself, — had the labor of meeting a new con
tingency. He went to the head of the army a living man,
— not a dead book. I am beyond likes and dislikes. The
day is too serious for antipathies or Uklngs. All these
men are nothing but dead lumber, to be thrown Into the
gulf, that the nation, over the path their bodies make, may
march like an army with banners to liberty and peace.
[Applause.] But never will this rebellion be put down
while West Point rules at Washington. [Applause.] It
does rule. That second Commander-in-chief cuts off
everything which outgoes his own Toutlne. There are
two great classes in the army and in the state : one is,
such a man as Halleck, who hates negroes, spums novel
ties, distrusts ideas, rejects everything but red tape. The
others are Hamilton, Butler, Phelps, and Fremont [loud
applause], Sigel, who mean that this Union shall mean
justice at any rate, and that if it does not mean justice it
shall not exist ; who know no nation except one that
secures liberty. [Applause.] These are the men who
are to shape the policy and g-uide the thunclerbolts of the
government. [Applause.] The cook takes an onion and
peels off layer after layer till she gets to the sweet, sound
vegetable. So you will have to peel off Seward and Hal
leck, Blair and Chase [laughter], till you get to the sound
national element of civil and mdltary purpose, the earnest
belief, the single-hearted, intense devotion to victory, the
entire behef in justice, which can cope with Stonewall
Jackson. [Applause.] Never tdl then .shall we succeed.
I have compared General Halleck and General Fremont.

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 651
You may take another parallel. One is Seward, and
another is Butler. Seward does not believe In war, but
in diplomacy or compromise. He has prophesied again
and again that this war, like the divisions of former times,
could be quieted In sixty or ninety days. He thought so ;
if he had not, he never would have risked his fame as a
statesman upon the prophecy. He said by the voice of a
regular army officer in the cabin of that ship which went
down to dismantle Norfolk, when foreign-bred soldiers
begged the American officers to stop and give them three
hundred men to save two thousand cannon from the
armies of the Confederates, and guaranteed to take that
place and hold it three or six months, with two hundred
men, — one of his class took a gentleman Into the cabin
and said, " You don't understand this thing ; this Is not a
war. It is a quarrel : we have had a dozen of them ; we
shall get over It In sixty days." Seward believes It yet ;
he receives commissioners ; he sends Frenchmen to Rich
mond to note terms ; he sends letters abroad dealing with
rebels as equals In fact. Butler is the first man who
ever hung a rebel [loud applause], — and it ought to be
recorded on his gravestone. If I were a politician and a
general, I would not live an hour until I was his twin.
[Laughter.] Let it go down to history, that one third of
the nation burst into Insurrection, and there was but one
man, and he a Democrat, who dared to hang a felon.
[Loud applause.] A government In arms against crimi
nals ^vho have wasted its treasures and filled two hundred
and fifty thousand martyred patriot graves, —rebels, not
beUigerents. Now in the two distinctions between Hal-
leek, routine, and Fremont, Phelps, Butler, realities, is
the change needed for the future in mUItary affairs ; in
the difference between Seward, the politician, and Butier,
the government, is the change needed In civil affairs. If
Seward is a Republican, God grant us a Democratic sue-

552 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
cesser. [Laughter.] I want somebody to occupy the
Presidential chair who believes in the government and in
the people, — who will act without casting his eyes over
his shoulders to see how far the people will support him.
We need some one who believes in God and the people, —
in justice and the masses. The Democrat believes in the
masses ; the Whig is neither one nor the other. We
want leaders that initiate, — that actuaUy lead. Friends,
my belief Is, that you and I are bound to create an exact
ing, imperative public opinion which shall compel the gov
ernment to the adoption of such measures and such men.
I say such men, because, though I believe in events, which
are stronger than cabinets, and are bearing us onward
whether we will or not, I believe also in men as harmo
nizing the issue of events. Let me make the Generals, and
I don't care who makes the proclamations. Only let me
put at the head of the advancing columns of the Union
certain men that I could name, and the Cabinet at Wash
ington may shut themselves up and go to sleep with Rip
Van Winkle tdl 1872. [Laughter.] For I know those
one blast of whose bugle-horns were worth a mlUion
men, — only put them in the heart of the rebeUion, where
our armies ought to be. I do not like to fight on the rim
of the wheel and let the enemy rest on the hub. [Laugh
ter.] I am no anaconda fancier. [Laughter.] I would
be at the hub. I would put men, whose names you know
too well, among the black masses of the Carolinas and
Mississippi, and fight outward, grinding the rebellion to
powder. To hurt the rebeUion by bringing the negro into
the war, does not mean merely troops ; it means localities.
When we bring the negro into the war, we fight in his
home, in the Gulf States, where he ought to fight. The
heart of the rebellion is where the negro is. It is there
where our army should stand ; if victorious, the bottom of
the tub is out. And you know whose name the slave

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 653
cherishes hke a household word in every hovel, and at
whose bidding he will rise to the Stars and Stripes. Wdl
the slave fight ? Well, If any man asks you, tell him no.
Wdl he work ? If any man asks you, tell him no. But
ff he asks you whether the negro wdl fight, tell him yes.
[Applause.] If he asks you whether the negro will work,
tell him yes, — work even for patriotism without wages,
as he has worked at Fortress Monroe, the United States
promising him 1 10 a month, keeping the first f 3 for any
stray contrabands who might join him, taking the second
1 4 for clothing the contraband himself, and the other $ 3
Uncle Sam keeps. [Laughter.]
But men say, " This is a mean thing ; nineteen millions
of people pitched against eight millions of Southerners,
white men, and can't whip them, and now begin to call on
the negroes." Is that the right statement ? Look at It.
What is the South's strength ? She has eight millions of
whites. She has the sympathy of foreign powers. She
has the labor of four millions of slaves. What strength
has the North ? Divided about equally — that Is a very
poor statement for your side — into Republicans and Dem
ocrats ; the Republicans willing to go but half way, and
the Democrats not willing to go at all. [Laughter.] I
will tell you what it is. It is like two men fighting. We
will call them Jonathan and Charles. Jonathan is the
North. His right hand, the Democratic party, he holds
behind him. His left hand, his own tenderness of con
science uses to keep the slaves down. That Is how he Is
to fight. No, that is not all. Upon his shoulders is
strapped the West Point Academy, like a stone of a hun
dred weight. [Laughter.] The South stands with both
hands, holcUng loaded revolvers, and, lest she should lose
any time, John Bull is behind with additional pistols to
hand the moment she needs them. Those are the two
powers which are fighting this battle. Now the question

554 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
is, whether in this great conflict, — not a boy's play be
tween A and B, but the great struggle for the control of
this continent in behalf of fi-ee labor, — is it not the duty
of wise men to use every means within their reach ? This
is a contest between slaveholders and free labor, — nothing
fiaore ; and in that contest the people, as in every contest
against an aristocracy, are bound In their own right, in the
right of their children, in the right of the great interests
of the world which hang upon their success, to bestir
themselves to understand, and to use the moment they see
it, every weapon within their reach. I contend, therefore,
that it is both constitutional and rightful, and, more than
that, that it is absolutely, necessary, that this govemment
should, in the hour of its peril, call upon the four millions
of blacks to aid it In a struggle which means liberty to
them. I am not speaking now as an Abolitionist. I hold
the hour to be a momentously serious one. Deeply in
debt, with a terrible loss of blood, having fixed foul shame
upon the cause of democracy by our indecision or delay,
with a future before us complexed by every variety of
dangers, the question Is how we shall pilot the ship of
state, the hope of the world, through this storm. The
sdver lining of the dark cloud that overhangs us Is the
irradicable loyalty of four millions of bondmen who hold
the scale in their hands.
Throw aside all these idle quibbles : a mighty work is
before us ; welcome every helper. Cease to lean on the
govemment at Washington. It Is a broken reed. If not
worse. We are lost unless the people are able to ride out
this storm without captain or pdot. Yes, in spite of some
thing worse at the helm. "The President is an honest
man ; that is, he is Kentucky honest, and that is neces
sarily a very different thing from Massachusetts or New
York honesty. A man cannot get above the atmosphere
in which he is bom. Did you ever see the Life of Luther

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 555
in four volumes of seven hundred pages each ? The first
volume contains an account of the mineralogy of his native
country, the trees that grow there, the flowers, the aver
age length of human life, the color of the hair, how much
rain falls, the range of the thermometer, &c., and In the
second volume Luther is born. That was lajdng the
foundation of Luther's character. Lincoln was born in
Kentucky, and laid the foundation of his honesty In Ken
tucky. He Is honest, with that allowance. He means to
do his duty, and within the limit of the capacity God has
given him he has struggled on, and has led the people
struggling on, up to this weapon, partial emancipation,
which they now hold glittering in their right hand. But
we must remember the very prejudices and moral callous
ness which made him in 1860 an available candidate, when
angry and half-educated parties were struggling for vic
tory, necessarily makes him a poor leader, — rather no
leader at all, — in a crisis like this. I have no confidence
in the counsels about him. I have no confidence In the
views of your son of York who stands at his right hand
to guide the vessel of state in this tremendous storm.
[Hisses.] That is right. I honor every man who ex
presses his opinion. I express mine ; I would have every
man express his dissent. I am saying nothing of the mo
tives of Mr. Seward, nothing. When a man is dying, an
honest mistake in the medicine is as bad as poison. The
question is whether his is the statesmanship of the hour,
and ff it is not, then, on every theory of parliamentary
government, he is bound to retire from his position and
let another man occupy it. He has never uttered a
prophecy which events have not falsified, nor initiated
a pohcy which he has not himself been obhged to forego.
If the hope of the nation rested on the Cabinet he
leads, I should despair; but our government is not at
Washington, neither the brains nor the vigor of Wash-

to

556 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
ington guide the people. It only blocks the path of the
real government, — the people, — the people whose sub
stratum purpose, underlying all honest parties and cliques,
is to save the Union by doing justice and securing liberty
to all. At least, if all do not consciously plan this, the
vast majority are willing for It. I know there are those
standing to-day among us who would stretch their hands
over two hundred thousand martyr graves and clasp hands
with the rebels. That element is to be put under our
feet, with the declaration that the helm is ours, by party
right, by natural right, by the right of absolute justice ;
and while God gives us the power, we will use It boldly in
the service of freedom and the Union. [Applause.] The
whole social system of the Slave States is to be taken to
pieces ; every bit of It. General Butler tells us that in
Louisiana it has gone to pieces. [Great applause, fol
lowed by an attempt at cheering for Butler, not fully
understood.] He deserves a better cheer than that [three
cheers for General Butler called for, and enthusiastically
responded to] for this reason : he is almost the only gen
eral in our service who acts upon the principle that we
are all right and the traitors all wrong. [Renewed ap
plause.] Most of our other generals act upon the princi
ple that the rebels are half right, and we are half wrong.
When Butler was at New Orleans last summer, he assem
bled some fifty slaveholders in the parlors of the St.
Charles Hotel, and said to them : " Don't you Indulge the
idea that there is a Democratic party in the North making
a bridge back to Washington. I am a Democrat, and
shall always be a Democrat; and I tell you I will burn
every house in the State of Louisiana, and put every
negro's right hand upon every master's throat, before I
take down that banner and go home." [Loud and long
cheering.] Why is General Butler idle ? Who can
tell ? Abraham Lincoln can't ; he says he knows nothing

inji siAin vt inii cuuJNiici:. 00 <
about It. [Laughter.] General Halleck can't ; he says
he knows nothing about it. WiUiam H. Seward can't ;
he says he knows nothing about it. And the best general
in the service, the man who held the third city In the
empire in his right hand like a lamb, that man comes
home to the Capital, and cannot find a man in the Cabinet
who will take the responsibility of saying, " I advised his
recall," or will tell him the reason why he was recalled.
[Three more cheers for Butler.] Why Is he, one of the
ablest of the very few able men this war has thrown to
the surface, — why is he Idle ?
General Hamilton had the promise of the government at
Washington, over and over agahi, that he might go and
shut the back door of the rebeUion, Texas, out of which
the traitors mean to fiy when they are beaten, and through
which Vicksburg gets her strength to-day. Why has he
not gone ? Your own great fellow-citizen goes to Washing
ton under the pledge of the President, too much In a hurry
to allow him to leave Washington for six hours, stays for a
week, and comes back without a commission. Why ? Be
cause Abraham Lincoln Is not President of the United
States, or because he too ardently longs and plans to be so
again. Either because the war Is henceforth suborchnate
to a policy dictated by the next Presidential canvass, or
because behind President Lincoln, curbing his purpose,
making conditions which balk his designs, making him
doubt the purpose and the strength of the North, standing
round him in cIvU and mihtary positions, are men who do
not mean that this battle shall be bravely and gallantly
fouo-ht through. The worst rebelhon in the land Is the
rebelhon of the Cabinet and Generals against common
sense and justice. CromweU never succeeded untd the
Long Parilament sloughed off every man who believed in
the House of Lords, and left nothing but democrats be
hind. We shaU never succeed untd we slough off every-

658 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
thing that believes in the past, and bring to the front
everything that beheves there is but one remedy, — that
is, to save the Union on the basis of liberty. [Cheers.]
I beheve that the President may do anything to save the
Union. He may take a man's houses, his lands, his bank-
stock, his horses, his slaves, — anything to save the Union ;
the government may make every slave a free man, no
matter where he is, Kentucky or Louisiana, now or to
morrow, with compensation or without. We need one
step ffurther, — an act of Congress abolishing slavery
wherever our flag waves. The same war power and mil
itary necessity which made the proclamation constitutional
authorizes this act as much. There is but one thing the
government can't do to save the nation, and that is to
make a free man into a slave ; everything else Is within
its power.
I doubted somewhat when I heard the news from the
Rappahannock, until I saw that reverses had taught
the nation where its strength lay. God grant us so
many reverses that the government may learn Its duty.
God grant us that the war may never end till it leaves
us on the solid granite of impartial liberty and justice.
[Cheers.] The government which has had two years
of experience, of warning, and of advice, without profit
ing by it, must abide the consequences. In the words
of the old proverb, " He that won't be ruled by the rud
der must be ruled by the rock." [Applause.] If they
will not be ruled by wise counsels, they must abide dis
aster ; if they won't hear advice, they must expect re
verses. What we have to teach Washington is, that such
is the full purpose of the millions, and under it and In it is
the certainty of success, — the millions, not the leaders.
In my judgment, unless the sky soon clears, the Republi
can party has proved its own Incapacity, — written Icha-
bod on its own brow. Judging by the past, whose will

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 009
and ^-it can we trust? None of them, — I am utterly
impartial, — neither President nor Cabinet nor Senate.
Peel off Seward, peel off HaUeck, peel off Blair, peel off
Sumner, — yes, Massachusetts Senators as weU as others.
No, I wdl not say peel off our Massachusetts Senators ;
but I wiU say their recent action has verj' materiallv less
ened my confidence in their inteUigence and fidelity. I
wdl tell you why. When the government called on New
England for a negi-o regiment, and we went from county
to county urging the blacks to enhst, one Massachusetts
Colonel dared to say, down in South Carohna, in the face
of the enemy, that he had rather be whipped without
negroes than conquer at their side, — a ^lassachusetts
Colonel, in that hour of emergencv and critical issue.
His case within twenty days went before the Senate of
the United States, and the very week that his apology
was filed In the War Office at Washington, ^Massachusetts
Senators begged their reluctant brothers to make hhn a
Brigaeher-General. Yes, Massachusetts Senators, thor
oughly informed and put upon their guard, against the
repeated remonstrance of then- fellow-Senators, insisted
on rewarehng the mutineer. [" Shame, shame. '] A
private. Ignorant, uneducated, just mustered into the ser-
^•ice, mutinied In the streets of Boston, and Colonel Lowell
shot him rightfully. [Cheers.] A Massachusetts Colonel
mutinied in the face of the enemy, and a Massachusetts
Senator made him a Brigadier-General. Such Repubh
canism wdl never put down the rebelhon.* [Cheers.]
* Colonel Stevenson said he had rather be whipped with white men
than conquer with black men ; and General Hunter took away his sword.
When Adjutant-General Thomas went to the Southwest to muster negroes
Into onr ranks, he lifted his index linger, and, pointing to Washington,
said, " The wind blows Nonh there," and from Brigadier to Lieutenant
everv man closed his lips and denied all prejudice against color. Necro
phobia stabs nearer the heart of the govemment, has more power to wound,
than Davis has. There will be none of it in our army ai least, the moment

660 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
Spite of these sad, sad short-comings, I have hope.
Iron, they say, cannot be made to sink in the current
of Niagara. The Cataract tosses it hke a chip, and bears
it onward. The Cabinet Is unredeemed inefficiency, —
heavy as molten and doubly-hammered Iron ; but In the
Niagara of 1863 it is tossed onward like a chip. No
thanks to It, but to the Niagara which will not be re
sisted. Neither the calculating or stupid stand-stUl-ism
of the Cabinet, nor the weakness nor the blunders of
our own best leaders, can long delay us. In time they
will punish the Colonel who treads on a negro as se
verely as if he had wronged a college graduate, whose
home was on Beacon Street or the Fifth Avenue. The
South Is not strong In herself. AU her strength con-
government lets its will be unmistakably known. That is the chief reason
why I blame our Massachusetts Senators for conferring on Colonel Steven
son the honor of Brigadier-Generalship just at the moment he defied and
denounced the policy of the government. Gross insubordination existed
in General Hunter's department, — arising out of this among other causes,
— the soldiers, taking courage from the temper and talk of their officers,
had inflicted terrible outrages on the negroes there ; at the North we were
appeahng to the negro to enlist. All over the land men tried to penetrate
the real purpose of government in respect to the negro ; — its friends, in or
der to help it ; the negro, that he might more cheerfully do his duty. We
were calhng, in our peril, on a wronged race, which had been cheated of its
rights again and again in every national emergency, and begging them now
to trust and to help us, obliged to tell them they would have no commis
sions, but must serve under white officers. " Will they be men whose hearts
are with us f " we were constantly asked by the negro. We trembled while
we answered, " We hope so, we believe so." At this crisis. Colonel Ste
venson, standing at Hunter's side, spits on the government's movements.
It was a moment and an act which, fixed the attention of the nation. It was
an act which, so far as one man could, perilled a great and necessary move
ment. It deserved, therefore, severe rebuke. It was an act which gave the
administration the very best opportunity to show the world its purpose be
yond a doubt. One right, decisive word from the Senate, and no officer in
the service would afterwards mistake the purpose of the administration, or
dare to misuse a negro. That word was, " Colonel Stevenson, for your

THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 661
sists In our unwdllngness to strike ? Why this unwiU
ingness to strike? Because we do not yet see John
Hancock under a black skin ; and until we do see him,
we shall never wage an honest and utter battle. No
man who does not grant to the negro his just place is fit
to be enlisted In the army of the Union, or to stand in its
Senate, If that Union means liberty ; or ff that Is an exag
gerated statement, certamly no man has a right to lead
our Senate or our army who does not carry that Idea in
his heart. [Applause.]
Never until we welcome the negro, the foreigner, all
races as equals, and, melted together in a common nation
ality, hurl them all at despotism, wdl the North deserve
triumph or earn it at the hands of a just God. [Applause.]
services and j'our apology we overlook your fault ; but stay a Colonel till
by faithful and hearty co-operation in the new movement you earn the na
tion's confidence, and let every officer take warning by your fate." Such
was the measure we urged the Senate to send to the mutineer. Instead of
that, Massachusetts Senators reward the mutineer to concihate hunker trea
son. Thus we see high-handed defiance of the government's policy enter the
Senate a Colonel and come out a Brigadier. What rule for its conduct
could the army take from such an example t Spit on the govemment,
and expect promotion, — trample on the negro, and be sure of employ
ment ! Sigel, Fremont, Butler, Hamilton, Phelps, and a host of others idle,
yet a negro-hater promoted on the plea of necessity to get good officers !
When Mr. Sumner let personal feelings lead him to such a step, he betrayed
the negro. If, as his friends allege, he allowed Hunter or Bumside — one
a new convert, the other not converted at all — to dictate such a course, he
forgot that we chose him, not them, our Senator, and trusted him, not them,
ivith these grave powers. But I have the best authority for saying that
General Hunter never asked of any Senator to promote Colonel Stevenson.
I have the best reason for beheving that he, like myself, looks on that act of
the Senate as a grave error. This is only one case of a single and soon-for
gotten individual, but it tests statesmen as much as large matters. Massa
chusetts Senators must reform on these points altogether if they expect trust
in future. Let them see to it, lest, while they think they are using others
for good ends, they may themselves be made tools for biise ones.
36

662 THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY'.
But the North will triumph. I hear it. Do you remem
ber in that disastrous siege in India, when the Scotch girl
raised her head from the paUet of the hospital, and said to
the sickening hearts of the English, " I hear the bagpipes,
the Campbells are coming," and they said, " Jessie, it is
delirium." " No, I know it ; I heard it far off." And in
an hour the pibroch burst upon their glad ears, and the
banner of England floated in triumph over their heads.
So I hear in the dim distance the first notes of the jubdee
rising from the hearts of the millions. Soon, very soon,
you shall hear it at the gates of the citadel, and the Stars
and Stripes shall guarantee liberty forever from the Lakes
to tlie Gulf. [Continued applause.]

THE END.

Ciimbridge : Stereotyped and Printed by Welch, Bigelow, it, Co.

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