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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE
Society of the Cincinnati
Fund

BISHOP DOANE'S ORATION
BEFORE
THE CINCINNATI OP NEW JERSEY.

4!tftj(l (Robenmient a sacreti srrust front ©ot«:

THE ANNIVERSARY ORATION

THE NEW JERSEY STATE SOCIETY

THE CINCINNATI,

AT TfiENTON, JULY i, M DCCC XLV ;

THE RIGHT REV. GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, D.D., LL.D.,
mSUOP OF HEW JKHSET.

3Sui-Ifnflton:
EDMUNO Monms, imitTEIl.
1845.

Ck\5

Trenton, July 10, 1845.
Bisaop DoASE, Burlington, New Jersey;
Dear Sir : The undersigned, a Committee on behalf of the
Citizens of Trenton, would most respectfully request a copy, for publication, of
the Oration delivered by you, on the 4th, before the Society of the Cincinnati.
An earnest desire that the noble and patriotic sentiments contained in your truly
eloquent discourse should have a more extended circulation, induces this appli
cation : and trusting that you will accede to our request, we remain your obedi
ent servants, Samuel R. Hamilton, Samuel Dickinsost,
Ralpq M. Shuete, Richahd Beakdt,
John S. Laikd, William Boswell,
Lewis P. Higbee,
Committee of Arrangements,

To Samuel R. Hamilton, Esq.,
Samuel Dickinson, Esq.,
and others, a Committee on behalf of tho Citizens of Trenton;
Gentlemen : I cheerfully comply with the request conveyed to
me in your note of the 10th instant, that I would furnish for publication, a
copy of my Oration before the Society ofthe Cincinnati. I am for use; and to
be made useful is my highest aim on earth. A native Jerseyman, and one to
live and die, I desire nothing, that is human, more than the confidence and ap
probation of Jerseymen. I deeply feel, and shall fondly cherish, the kind ex
pressions you have used ; and am, most faithfully and respectfully, your friend
and servant,
G, W. DOAKE,
Siverside, 14 July, 1846.

To
THE BONOUnABLE
GARRET D. WALL,
THE FniEND OF MT FATHEH, AND MY OWN FEIENB ;
A KIND PAHISHIONEH,
A WISE AND FAITHFUL COUNSELLOR :
WITH THUE AFFECTION AND SINCERE BESPEGT.
Riverside, 14 July, mdcco ilt.

ORATION,

It was the height of plowing.^ Upon a farm of
scarce four acres,^ across the Tiber, just opposite to
where the navy-yard was afterwards, a man was at
his work. In liis shirt-sleeves,^ his long, crisp hair"*
upon his shoulders, covered with sweat and dust,^ he
was bending at the plow;* when deputies approached

•"Medium erat lempus forte sementis, quum patricium virum innixum
aratro suo, liclor in ipso opere deprehendit." — L. Anncei Flori, i. 11,
2 " Spes uriica imperii populi Romani L. Quintius trans Tiberim, contra eum
ipsum locum, ulii nunc navulia sunt, quatuor Jiifferum colebut agrum," — T.
Livii, iii. 26. " He was a frugal man, and did not care to be rich ; and his land
was on tlie other side of the Tiber, a plot of four jugera, where he dwelt with
his wife Racilia, and busied himself in the tilling of his ground." — Arnold, His-
tory of Rome, i. 204.
3 " The deputies went over the river, and came to his house, and found him
in his field, at work, without his toga or cloak." — Ai-nold, i. 204. The tunica,
Becker says, "was worn underthe toga, and was a sort of shirt." — Gallus, Zii.
Before receiving the message of the Senate, he sent to his cottage for his toga,
or outer garment. " Togam propere tugurio proferre uxorem Raciliam jubet."
— Livii, iii, 26,
4 Hence his name of Cincinnatus ; as if it were curly-headed Lucius Quinc-
tius. " This Lucius Quinctius let his hair grow, and tended it carefully ; and
was so famous for his curled and crisped locks, that men called him Cincinnatus,
or t/te crisp-haired." — Arnold, i. 204.
5 " Qua simul," (^sc. toga) " absterso pulvere ac sudore, velaius processit."
— Livii, iii. 26.
6" Hie dictator ab aratro." — FloH,i,il. See also above. Livy, however,
hesitates between digging and plowing. " Seu fossam fodiens pate innisus, seu
quum araret ; operi certe, id quod constat, agresti intentus." — iii. 26.
" Here Cincinnatus passed, his plough the while
" Left in the furrow, — Rogers, Italy, 143.

8
him, before sun-rise, from the Roman Senate,* to ap
prize him, that the Consul, with his army, was sur
rounded, in the country of the /Equi; and that he,
chosen Dictator, must march at once, with all the
force that could be levied, to their rescue. Before
the sun went down that day, his line of march was
taken up. And the slant rays of the next sunset
gilded the banners with which he entered Rome, in
triumph.^ Prevailing plowman, as the Roman an
nalist well calls him. The campaign ended, he went
back to his oxen. And with such rapidity, by all
the gods, that one might say, he hastened home, to
get his plowing done !^ — Such was the man — of such
simplicity, of such alacrity, of such integrity, modest
in peace, as he was masterly in war — whom those,
whose sweat and blood atchieved the independence
of this nation, held so high in honour, as to resolve
to follow his example, and adopt his name." Such

' " So, in the morning early, the Senate sent Deputies to Lucius." — Dr. .Ir-
nold, i. 204.
''¦ " AU was done so quickly, that he went out on one evening, and came home
the next day at evening, victorious and triumphant." — i. 208.
3 " Sic expeditione finita, rediit a J boves rursus, triumphalis agricola. Fidem
numinum ! Qua velocitate !" •' Prorsus ut feslinasse Dictator ad relictum opus
videretur." — Flori, i. 11.
4 The following minule is the best and most authentic statement ofthe origin
and piinciples ofthe Society of the Cincinnati. " Tuesday, .May 13, 1783.
" The representatives of tbe American Army being assembled, agreeably to ad
journment, the plan for establishing a society, whereof the ofBcers of the Ameri
can Army are to be m,;mbers, is accepted, and is as follows, viz :
•'It having pleased the Supreme Governor of tlie Universe, in (he dispo
sition of human affairs, to cause the separation of the colonies of North America
from the domination of Great Britain, and, after a bloody conflictof eight years

•was Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus. If there be no
bler name, for peace or war, than his, on any human
record, purer in patriotism, steadier in disasters,
cooler in trials, calmer in conquest, is it not the Cin
cinnatus of our commonwealth? Is it not George
Washington ?
Mr. President, and Gentlemen ofthe Cincinnati:
I took no second thought as to my duty in
regard to your appointment for this day. I felt no
right to do so. There is a growing tendency to se
parate between things sacred and things secular, in
point of obligation ; to run out, on the field of human
life, a line of higher, and a line of lower duties ; to
adopt a sort of "sliding scale" in morals. It is ac
cording to this fashion, that religion should become
a thing of Sundays, and of sermons, and of sacra
ments, alone; and not of every day's concern, and of
our universal life. Man seems a creature of two at
mospheres: the higher, for his soul to float in, to
wards God ; the lower, where his body is to labour,

to establi^ them Free, Independent, and Sovereign States, connected, by alli
ances founded on reciprocal advantage, with some of the great princes and
powers ofthe earth.
"To perpetuate, therefore, as well the remembrance of this vast event, as ths
mutual friendships which have been formed under the pressure of common dan
ger, and, in many instances, cemented by the blood of the parties, the ofiicers of
the American Army do, hereby, in the most solemn manner, associate, consti
tute and combine themselves into one Society of Friends, to endure as long as
they shall endure, or any of their eldest male posterity, and, in failure thereof,
the collateral branches who may be judged worthy of becoming its supporters
and members.
"The officers of the American Army having generally been taken from th*
citizens of America, posscis high Tcneration for tha character of that illuatriwu
2

10
among men. Religious men are only for the other
world : the men of this world, by an inference most
natural, without the slightest need to be religious!
Civil government confined to this life, and for men ;
a thing apart from God ! God's ministers, disfran
chised, but for heaven ; scarcely so much as citizens
of earth ! I stand against all this, as false in princi
ple, and dangerous in practice. We are brethren all,
the children of one Father. One common life, the
breathing and the blessing of His love. One com
mon home, the earth which He hath made, and gar
nished for our use. One common rule. His pure and
perfect law of righteousness and peace. One com
mon end. His glory in the mutual good of all our
kind. One common blessed hope, to be with Him
forever, as we are like Him now. It follows, by a
necessary consequence, that we are intercorporated
with each other, in inseparable union. What the
Apostle teaches of the Church, holds of our human

Roman, Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus, and being resolved to follow bis exam.
pie, by returning to their citizenship, they think they may with propriety de
nominate themselves the Society of the Cincinnati.
"The following principles shall be immutable and form the basis of the So
ciety of the Cincinnati.
"An incessant attention to preserve inviolate those exalted rights and liber
ties of human nature for which they have fought and bled, and without which
the high rank of a rational being is a curse instead of a blessing.
" An unalterable determination to promote and cherish, between the respec
tive States, that union and national honour, so essentially necessary to their
happiness, and the future dignity ofthe American empire.
"To render permanent the cordial affection subsisting among the ofBcers-
this spirit will dictate brotherly kindness in all things, and particularly extend
to the most substantial acts of beneficence, according to the ability of the So
ciety, towards those officers and their families, who unfortunately may be un^
der the necessity of receiving it."

11
kind, "we are members one of another.'" The hea
then knew it, when he said,^ "I am a man: and
have a heart for every human thing." The Chris
tian knew it, when he said; "none of us liveth to
himself, and no man dieth to himself"^ And it fol
lows, by a consequence as necessary, that our mutual
obligation, our religion, so to speak — our bounden-
ness,^ that is, to God, and to each other — must run
alike through every level, and through every line of
life, imbue them and pervade them all, fill them with
light and love and loveliness; in one word, with the
present God : as Paul, that greatest human master of
morality that ever taught, has plainly said, and with
as much of truth as plainness; "Whether, therefore,
ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God,"^ " that God in all things may be glo
rified, through Jesus Christ our Lord."° Upon these
simple dictates of my duty, I accepted your appoint
ment, as Orator, to-day. And, standing on this broad,
this high, this solid ground — broad as the field of
human life, high as the destiny of man, and solid as
the throne of God — I feel that I may claim, what I
am sure that you will grant, your candid hearing, for
that which I have chosen, from the thoughts and
themes, with which my spirit labours, as worthiest of
' Romans, xii. 4. 2 Terence. " Homo sum ; nil humani alienum mihi
puto.*' 3 Romans, xiv. 7. ¦'I Corinthians, x. 31. 5 1 Peter, iv. 11. SRe-
ligion, from the Latin religio. The most probable etymology is a religando :
the word religio seeming emphatically to express the reciprocal bond or obli
gation of man to man ; and also the obligation or duty of man to God. Sec
Richardson's English Dictionary. How can there be a better definition of it
than the Catechism furnishes 1 " What dost thou chiefly learn from these
commandments? I learn two things; my duty towards God, and my duty
towards my neighbour."

12
you, and of myself, and fittest for the presence, and
the day : Civil Government a sacred trust fr«m
God. Mr. President, Gentlemen of the Cincinnati, Fel
low Citizens —
It is an easy thing to speak in glowing terms, and
with a sounding voice, of our republic, of the nation
al independence, of civil freedom, and the like. It
is an easy and a natural thing to boast us of the spir
it which demanded for the thirteen colonies, a place
among the nations of the earth ; and of the blood
which bought it, and cemented them as one. It is
an easy and a natural thing, and most entirely to be
held to, and be had in honour, to kindle with un
wonted fire, as the day dawns, which celebrates the
going forth of those brave, burning words, to which
we now have listened,' whose echoes fill the world,
and are the battle-cry of liberty in every land ; to feel
that swelling of the heart, which only freemen know,
when first the morning drum roils out reveille, in the
ears of twenty millions ; to rally, as one man, around
the stars and stripes, when their unfolded beauty
blazes in the beams of that returning sun, to which
they owe the matchless magic of their power. But
these are symbols all, mere tokens or mere words
signs oi an inward life; which, if it be not, if it bear
not fruit, if it bestow not life and health and blessings
on mankind, godlike in glory and in goodness, has
but a name to live ; is but an outer seeming, to be-

iThe Declaration ot Independence had been read by the President of the
Cincinnati, tbe Hon. J. Warren Sootf.

13
guile and to deceive; a Sodom apple, varnish upoiH
dust;^ a hectic flush, painting the cheek on which it
preys. Do we remember what these tokens stand
for? Do we think what a nation is? Do we con
sider the origin, the nature, the uses of civil govern
ment ? A nation is a fearful thing. If there were
any thing on earth to fill God's eye, it would be that.
A mighty moral mass, immortal in mortality ! So
much of weakness to be helped. So much of igno
rance to be taught. So much of misery to be reliev
ed. Such high intelligence, so dwarfed. Such vast
capacities, so dwindled. Organizations so exquisite,
deranged. Such folly. Such madness. Such crime.
This, in beings made like God ! This, in beings for
whom God ordains enjoyment ! This, in beings for
whom God, through Jesus Christ, hath opened hea
ven ! Can there be any human measure of national
responsibility ? Can there be any thing, short of cre
ation, so pregnant in results as the national organiza
tion ? What hand, unequal to the one, could have
been trusted with the other ? Who that refers the
first to God, will, in the other, stop with man?
Where is the wisdom, short of God's, that shall de
vise ? Where are the sanctions, short of God's, that
shall authenticate ? Where is the power, short of

1 Since the above was written, I have met with what follows, in Eliot War
burton's graphic sketch, " The Crescent aiid the Cross :" — " On resuming our
desert path, we picked up some apples of Sodom, that lay strewn upon the de
sert, without apparent connection with any stem; they were of a bright gold-
green, about the size of an orange, but perfectly round and smooth : they gava
the idea of being swelled out with the richest juice, that when bitten, must gush
forth to meet the thirsty lip : you crush this plausible rind, however, and a cloncf
of fetid dust bursts forth, which leaves only a few cinders as a residue."

14
God's, that shall sustain ? The state of nature, which
men talk of, never has existed. The social compact,
which men talk of, was never entered into. When
God made man, He made him for society; and where
there is society, there must of course be government.
God is the universal Governor. The governments
that are on earth, are delegations all from Him.
There is no power but of God. Whether they
spring direct from His ordaining hand, or whether
they grow up by permission of His providence — what
ever be their form or name, a monarchy or a repub
lic; a patriarch, a king, a president — ^the powers that
be, are ordained of God. They are His ministers.
They govern in His place. They bear the sword
for Hitn. They are His ordinance for human good.
Therefore, must every soul, as he owes sovereignty
to God, " be subject unto the higher powers ;"^ ren
dering to all their dues. " The governments which
now^ are," says Bishop Horsley, "have not arisen
from a previous state of no-government, falsely call
ed the state of nature ; but from that original govern
ment under which the first generations of men were
brought into existence, variously changed and modi
fied, in a long course of ages, under the wise direc
tion of God's over-ruling providence, to suit the vari
ous climates of the world, and the infinitely varied
manners and conditions of its inhabitants. And the
principle of subjection is not that principle of com
mon honesty which binds a man to his own engage
ments, much less that principle of political honesty
which binds the child to the ancestor's engagements;

1 Romans, xiii. 1.

15
but a conscientious submission to the will of God.
The principles which I advance," he still continues,
" ascribe no greater sanctity to monarchy than to any
other form of established government; nor do they
at all involve the exploded notion that all or any of
the sovereigns of earth hold their sovereignty by vir
tue of such immediate or implied nomination on the
part of God, of themselves personally, or of the
stocks from which they are descended, as might con
fer an endless, indefeasible right on their posterity.
In contending that government was coeval with man
kind, it will readily be admitted that all the particu
lar forms of government which now exist are the
work of human policy, under the control of God's
over-ruling general providence ; that the Israelites
were the only people upon earth whose form of gov
ernment was of express divine institution, and their
kings the only monarchs who ever reigned by an in
defeasible divine title : but it is contended that all
government is in such sort of divine institution, that,.
be the form of any particular government what it
may, the submission of the individual is a principal
¦ branch of that religious duty which each man owes
to God."^ Nor does the doctrine thus laid down
leave out of sight the possibility of necessary
changes, or fail to make provision for them. " In
governments, of whatever denomination," he goes on
to say, " if the form of government undergo a change,
or the established rule of succession be set aside by
any violent or necessary revolution, the act of the
nation itself is necessary to erect a new sovereignty,
I Sermon 44, Rivington's Edition, 1824.

16
or to transfer the old right to the new possessor. The
condition of a people in these emergencies bears no
resemblance or analogy to that anarchy which has
been called the state of nature. The people become
not in these situations of government, what they
would be in that state, a mere multitude. They are
a society, not dissolved, but in danger of dissolution:
and, by the great law of self preservation, inherent in
the body politic, no less than in the solitary animal,
a society so situated has a right to use the best means
for its own preservation and perpetuity. A people
therefore, in these circumstances has a right, which
a mere multitude unassociated would never have, of
appointing, by the consent of the majority, a new
head for themselves and their posterity : and it will
readily be admitted, that, of all sovereigns none reign
by so fair and just a title as those who can derive
their claim from such public act of the nation which
they govern." " In all these cases, the act of the
people is only the means which Providence employs
to advance the new sovereign to his station. The
obligation to obedience proceeds secondarily only
from the act of man, but primarily from the will of
God, who has appointed civil life for man's condi
tion ; and requires the citizen's submission to the
sovereign whom His providence shall by any means
set over him."' "The reason why we should be
subject to magistrates," says Calvin, " is because they
are appointed by the ordinance of God. Since it has
pleased God so to administer the government of the
world, he who resists their power, strives against
' Ibidem.

17
the divine ordinance, and so fights against God. Be
cause, to disregard His providence, who is the author
of civil government, is to go to war with Him.'"
" That all lawful dominion, considered in the ab
stract," Archbishop Bramhall says, " is from God,
no man can make any doubt." But the right and
application of this power and interest, in the concrete,
to this or that particular man, is many times from
the grant and consent of the people. So God is the
principal agent ; man, the instrumental. God is the
root, the fountain of power ; man, the stream, the
bough by which it is derived. The essence of pow
er is always from God ; the existence, sometimes from
God, sometimes from man."^
Fellow citizens, however theorists may speculate,
the only safe reliance of a nation is the reference of
civil government to God, as a divine and sacred trust,
for human good. Nations are men. And men are
equals. And, of equals, none can govern. No man,
as man, can claim obedience from his fellows. The
very primal element of all authority, the first exem
plar of a government on earth, the father in his fam
ily, is only such, as he reflects the image of the great
Original of governments, the universal Parent, and
is as God to them. Whether the governors be
thought of, or the governed, this is the true idea. In
this, alone, is perfect reason. In this, alone, is per
fect right. In this, alone, is peace and liberty and
happiness. Where are the stores of water for the
world ? Not in the deepest wells. Not in the full
est fountains. Not in the leaping streams. Not in
' On Romans xiii. 1. -Serpent Salve. Archbishop Bramhall's works,
an Library of Anglo-Catholit Theology, iii,. 317.
3

18
the gushing springs. These serve their temporary
turn. These are convenient reservoirs, for common
use. But for the world's great wants — to float its na
vies, or to turn its mills, to keep its vallies like the
emerald in beauty, and to feed the cattle on its thou
sand hills — the storehouse of the rain must be poured
out from heaven. The drought will bow the world
to God. And so with man, in his religious, moral,
civil, interests. The great machinery, in which we
live, and move, and have our being, is so ingeniously
constructed, and so graciously sustained, that the
Creator's hand is never seen. The wheels, the
springs, the weights, seem all instinct with life. A
child accounts of them as living. And so proud men,
boasting of wisdom, with the very breath that proves
them fools, would leave out God from His creation,
or make a god of some created thing. But water
never flows above its source. Its utmost struggle is
to reach the level of its native summit. And, when
the broken cisterns, which the art of man has sought
to substitute for living fountains, in God's heaven,
have done their best, they miserably fail, and leave
their mad artificers, and the poor fools that follow
them, to gasp and perish in their thirst. How can it
fail to be so? Whoever set himself with safety
against a law of nature ? Who would stand still up
on the shores of Fundy, when that sweeping tide,
of sixty feet, or more, comes rolling in ? Who would
leap in, when the fierce furnace has attained its ut
most glow, to bathe him in its sea of flame ? Can
such things be, and men exist ? Will the tide make
an eddy, and sweep round the maniac, while the wa
ters stand up, as a wall, upon his right hand and his

19
left, and leave him dry ? Or will " the midst of the
furnace" be, " as it had been a moist whistling wind,'"
so that " the rushing fire-flood seem
" Like summer breeze, by woodland stream V^
It was so once, indeed, that God might prove His
laws by the one rare exception, when He went with
His people through the sea, and walked with His ho
ly children in the flame. But only madmen look for
it; and they, to perish in their madness. And shall
the laws of nature stand, and He who set them,
change ? Shall it be less safe to contend with fire
and flood, than with the God who gave them their
fierce mastery of human life ? Shall it be safer for
a nation to desert Him than a man ? If none of us
can take a step but through His power, or draw a
breath but of His goodness, can there be more of safe
ty for the multitude of helpless ones, or greater
strength in the accumulation of the weak? Surely,
an infant child, forsaken of his mother, is an unde
fended and a desolate thing. But, when a nation
casts off God, and is cast ofl" by Him, there is a des
peration in its helplessness that can present no par
allel. " The law is broken, nature is disobeyed, and
the rebellious are outlawed; cast forth and exiled
from this world of reason, and order, and peace, and
virtue, and fruitful penitence, into the antagonist
world of madness, discord, vice, confusion, and una
vailing sorrow."^
' Song of the three children, 27. ^ Keble, Christian Year, nineteenth Sun
day after Trinity. ' Mr. Burke, Eeflections on the Eevolution in France, iii,
120. Little and Brown, 1839.

20
To admit that tivil government is a divine and sa
cred trust, as it is essential and unchanging truth, so
is it, for the governors, the true idea. It is true as it
confers on them true dignity, invests them w?ith real
power, and entitles them to actual confidence. No
one has summed this up so briefly and so faithfully,
as that great moral master of mankind, the apostle
Paul : "he is the minister of God to thee for good.'"
Men aro alike, in their mortality, their misery, their
selfishness. And yet, there must be governors and
governed. The child that played with us at mar
bles, the boy that bathed with us at noon, the man
whose infirmities, whose necessities, whose errors,
whose vices, were known to us as no others but our
own could be, succeeds, by his hereditary title, or is
called, by popular suffrage, to administer the govern
ment, and govern us. Where is his right to that su
periority? In what, but in that arbitrary thing, is he
our equal? On what grounds shall we defer? To
what claim shall we submit? By what obligation
shall we obey? Is it his title to succeed his father?
But what better was his father ? Is it the suffrao-e
of the State ? But who made the State our master ?
He might be chosen by a bare majority of one. How
is that one lord over us ? There is no end to these
unsettling questions. They are the elements of in
subordination and discontent. They involve per
petual anarchy. They entail an indiscriminate con
fusion. They break up the fountains of the great
deep of self-will in man ; and they must drown the

' Romans, xiii, 4,

21
universe in tears and blood. But, no! There is a
God in heaven. He is the universal Lord. To Him
all things, in heaven, on earth, and under the ^arth,
do bow and obey. The powers that be are ordained
of Him. He putteth down one, and setteth up ano
ther. We see His face in them. Their brightness
is the shadow of His light. In reverencing them, we
reverence Him. In obeying them, we are obedient
to Him. "They are God's ministers, attending con
tinually upon this very thing.'" We render, there
fore, unto God the things which are God's, when we
render unto Csesar the things which are Ceesar's.
We are subject, not "for wrath," so much, because
we fear thetr power, as "for conscience' sake," be
cause we own His sovereignty; submitting ourselves
"to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake."^
"Considering," says the profoundly philosophic But
ler, " that civil government is that part of God's gov
ernment over the world which He exercises by the
instrumentality of men, wherein that which is op
pression, injustice, cruelty, as coming from them,8is
under His direction necessary discipline and just
punishment; considering that all power is of God, all
authority is properly of divine appointment; men's
very living under magistracy might naturally have
led them to the contemplation of authority in its
source and origin, the one supreme authority of Al
mighty God; by which He doeth according to His
will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit
ants of the earth ; which He now exerts visibly and
1 Romans, xiii, 6. 2 1 Peter, ii, 13.

22
invisibly by diff'erent instruments, in different forms
of administration, different methods of discipline and
t/uuisiiment; and which He will continue to exert
hereafter, not only over mankind, when this mortal
life shall be ended, but throughout His universal
kingdom; till, by having rendered to all according to
their works. He shall have completely executed that
just scheme of government which He has already
begun to execute in this world, by their hands, whom
He has appointed for the present punishment of evil
doers, and for the praise of them that do well.'"
And this is the true idea for governors, not merely
as it conveys, authenticates and executes their power,
but as it holds them to the most severe account. They
are God's ministers, not masters of mankind. They
are God's ministers for good, not for the increase or
the exercise of power. They are God's ministers for
others' good, and not their own. The lust for lord
ship is a natural appetite of man. It seems as if He
sought forgetfulness of his own meanness and misery,
in making others meaner and more miserable. There
cannot be conceived a thing more fearful than the
authorized conviction, in a mortal man, that he posses-
es arbitrary power. " He have arbitrary power," says
Mr. Burke, in one of the finest bursts of his indignant
rage, upon the trial of Warren Hastings, "he have ar
bitrary power ! My lords, the East India Company
have no arbitrary power to give him ; the king has
no arbitrary power to give him ; your lordships have
not; nor the Commons; nor the whole Legislature.

1 Sermon before the House of Lords, Edinburgh edition, 1883, ii. 359.

23
We have no arbitrary power to give, because arbi
trary power is a thing which neither any man can
hold, nor any man can give. No man can lawfully
govern himself according to his own will ; much less,
can one person be governed by the will of another.
We are all born in subjection, all born equally, high
and low, governors and governed, in subjection to
one great, immutable, pre-existent law, prior to all
our devices, and prior to all our contrivances, para
mount to all our ideas, and all our sensations; ante
cedent to our very existence, by which we are knit
and connected in the eternal frame of the universe,
out of which, we cannot stir. This great law does
not arise from our conventions or compacts ; on the
contrary, it gives to our conventions and compacts
all the force and sanction they can have." "All do
minion over man is the effect of the divine disposi
tion. It is bound by the eternal laws of Him that
gave it, with which no human authority can dis
pense; neither he that exercises it, nor even those
who are subject to it. And if they were mad enough
to make an express contract, that should release their
magistrate from his duty, and should declare their
lives, liberties, and properties dependent, not upon
rules and laws, but his mere capricious will, that
covenant will be void. The acceptor of it has not
his authority increased, but he has his crime doubled.
Therefore, can it be imagined, that he will suffer
this great gift of government, the greatest, the best
that was ever given by God to mankind, to be the
plaything and the sport of the feeble will of a man,
who, by a blasphemous, absurd and petulant usurpa-

34
tion, would place his own feeble, contemptible, ri
diculous will, in the place of the divine wisdom and
justice?'" But, no; it cannot be. All civil govern
ment is in the nature of a trust. The Heavenly Fa
ther makes provision for His minor children, till He
take them to Himself He leaves them here, at school.
He leaves them here, to grow and fit for heaven. But
He forsakes them. He forgets them not. He leaves
them in His world. He superintends them by His
providence. He gives them all things richly to enjoy.
He appoints trustees and guardians, for their instruc
tion and protection. He estabhshes their governors,
to be His ministers to them for good. It is a high,
a holy, a tremendous trust. It sets them on the
throne, with God. They are His vice-roys upon earth.
If they are faithful, heaven has nothing that He will
not lavish on them, through eternity. If they are
faithless, there is no pit in hell too deep and dark for
their eternal exile, from all peace, all rest, all joy.
Forever mindful, then, they should be of their sacred
trust. Forever mindful, that they hold it for God's
children upon earth. Forever mindful, that they hold
it under most severe accountability to Him. They
are to govern by the law. They are to seek no good
but theirs who are entrusted to their care; no other
glory than His, who put them thus in trust. "Law
and arbitrary power," says Mr. Burke, "are in eter
nal enmity. Name me a magistrate, and I will name
property ; name me power, and I will name protec
tion. It is a contradiction in terms ; it is wickedness

' Woiko, vii, 116, Little & Brown, 1839.

5>5
in politics; it is blasphemy in religion, to say that
any man can have arbitrary power. In every patent
of office, duty i>< included. For what else does a mag
istrate exist? To suppose, for power, is an absurdity
in idea. Judges arc guarded and governed by the
eternal laws of justice, to which we all are subject
We may bite our chains, if we will ; but we shall be
made to know ourselves, and be taught that man is
born to be governed by law : and he that will sub
stitute W27(J, in the place of it, is an enemy to God."^
To admit that civil government is a divine and sa-
fcred trust, is as much the true idea for the governed,
as it can be for the governors. Indeed, the one are
<mly for the other. And, therefore, what is true for
these, m.ust be, e.z alundanti, in an infinite propor
tion, true for those. True, as it settles and defines
their rights; true, as it settles and defines their du
ties. The Maker is the champion of mankind. His
Word is their eternal Bill of Rights. The merest
child, that is instructed in it, can run his finger all
along its lines of living light : and say to the most
overbearing tyrant that has trampled on his. race,
" hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther;" for here
the right is fixed, and God defends the right. But
people may do wrong, as well as rulers. And, when
they do, the terms ofthe great trust are broken; and
they forfeit its protection, and incur its fearful penal
ties. Resisting the power, they resist the ordinance
•of God, Using their liberty for a cloak of malicious
ness, they find it, at the last, the poisoned vest, to ago-
•pp. lis, 9.

2G
nize the body, and to kill the soul. They run from
riot to riot. They fall into the pit which they have
digged. They perish by the sword which they have
taken. For, " liberty," says one of the profoundest
thinkers, and best tempered moralists, that ever lived,
"liberty is in many other dangers from itself, besides
those which arise from formed designs of destroying
it, under hypocritical pretences, or romantic schemes
of restoring it on a more perfect plan. It is particu
larly liable to become excessive, and to degenerate
insensibly into licentiousness ; in the same manner
as liberality, for example, is apt to degenerate into
extravagance. And as men cloak their extravagance
to themselves, under the notion of liberality, and to
the world, under the name of it, so licentiousness
passes under the name and notion of liberty. Now,
it is to be observed, that there is, in some respect or
other, a very peculiar contrariety between those
vices which consist in excess, and the resemblance
whose name they aff'ect to bear ; the excess of any
thing being always to its hurt, and tending to its de
struction. In this manner, licentiousness is, in its
very nature, a present infringement upon liberty,
and dangerous to it, for the future. Yet it is treated
by many persons with peculiar indulgence, under
this very notion, as being an excess of liberty. And
an excess of liberty it is, to the licentious themselves.
But what is it to those who suffer by them, and who
do not think that amends is at all made them, by
having it left in their power to retaliate safely? When
by popular insurrections or defamatory libels, or in
any like way, the needy and the turbulent s^ocurely

¦27
Injure quiet people in their fortune or good name, so
far, quiet people are no more free than if a single ty-
I'ant used them thus. A particular man may be li--
centious without being less free ; but a community
cannot: since the licentiousness of one will unavoid
ably break in Upon the liberty of another. Civil li
berty, the liberty of a community, is a severe and re
strained thing ; implies in the notion of it, authority,
settled subordinations/ subjection and obedience; and
is altogether as much hurt by too little of this kind,
as by too much of it. And the love of liberty, when
it is indeed the love of liberty, which carries us to
withstand tyranny, will as much carry us to rever
ence authority, and support it ; for this most obvious
reason, that one is as necessary to the very being of
liberty, as the other is destructive of it. And, there
fore, the love of liberty, which does not produce this
effect, the love of liberty, which is not a real princi
ple of dutiful behaviour towards authority, is as hy
pocritical as the religion which is not productive of a
good life. Licentiousness is, in truth, such an ex
cess of liberty as is of the same nature with tyranny
For what is the difference between them, but that
one is lawless power, exercised under pretence of au
thority, or by persons invested with it ; the other,
lawless power exercised under pretence of liberty, or
without any pretence at all. A people, then, must
always be less free in proportion as thiey are more li
centious : licentiousness being not only different from
' Milton has said, " Orders and degrees
"Jar not with liberty, but well consist."

2&
liberty, but contrary to it; a direct breach upon it."
"Government, as distinguished from mere power,
free government, necessarily implies reverence, in
the subjects of it, for authority or power regulated by
laws ; and a habit of submission to the subordinations
,in! civil life, throughout its several ranks : nor is a
people capable of liberty, without something of this
kind. But, it must be observed, this reverence and
submission will at best be very precarious, if it be
not founded upon a sense of authority, being God's
ordinance; and the subordinations of life, a providen
tial appointment of things.'"
I am prepared for the suggestion, that, in this re
public, the line between the governors and governed
is scarcely a fixed line; and that so, the relations be
tween the two are scarcely to be regarded as esta
blished relations. But I find in this suggestion the
fullest confirmation of the doctrine I have sought,
from God's word, and the wisdom of the wisest men,
to teachv and to enforce. Just in proportion as the
lines which separate two classes shall be faint and
indistinct, thc difficulty of their relations must in
crease. Each may in turn sustain the functions of
the other. Each may in time do both. And there
fore each must be prepared for both. It is for us to
shew, that permanent distinctions and hereditary
ranks are not the necessary bulwarks of good order
in a nation. It is for us to shew,, that there may be
utmost liberty, that shall not run into licentiousness.
It is for us to shew, that there may be a people, fit to
be as sovereigns, all. For these things, eyes are turn-
' Bishop Butler, Sermon in the House of Lords, ii, 326— 3t29.

29
cd upon us from all the races of mankind. For these
things, we are held accountable to those who bought
this freedom for us with their blood. For these
things, we are held accountable to all the generations
that are yet to follow us, that we transmit an unim
paired inheritance. For these things, we are held
accountable to all the nations of the world, that no
example of our failure turn to their discouragement.
For these things, we are held accountable to God,
who, having set us up among the nations ofthe world,
at such a turning point of time, has made us answer
able — in extent of territory, in abundance of resources,
in a population of unrivalled skill and of indomitable
enterprise, in institutions that give utmost freedom
of development to both — for issues, in the progress of
our race, such as no poet ever dreamed of To us, I
say, so constituted, so endowed, and so accountable^
the great religious truth, that civil government is a
divine and sacred trust, is the one master truth, most
potent, and most precious. We can rely on nothing
else, as universal, permanent, and sure. Expediency
varies with the man. Self-interest is treacherous
and delusive. The good report of men is insufficient
against strong temptations. The memory of them
that shall come after, is influential only with the few.
The consciousness that we are held to answer for a
sacred trust ; the generous feeling that it is a trust
for all mankind, that are, and are to be ; the deep,
inwrought conviction, that we must give account of
it to God: in these, the strong hold must be found.
These will not fail, where any bond can stand. To
these, the moral nature that we bear, ^^as made to

tibfate and respond. These are the cords, as of a
man, by which the Maker keeps His hold upon
our race. The nation, or the man, that is alive to
this appeal, is capable of every lofty thing. The
nation, or the man, that does not feel its pov/er, and
answer to its call, is dead to duty and to glory.
It will not do for any man to say, I entered into
no such contract, and will be held by no such ob
ligation. " We have obligations to mankind at large,"
says Mr. Burke, " which are not in consequence of
any special voluntary pact. They arise from the re
lation of man to man, and the relation of man to
God; which relations are not matters of choice. On
the contrary, thc force of all the pacts which we en
ter into with any particular person or number of per
sons amongst mankind, depends upon these prior
obligations. In some cases the subordinate relations
are voluntary ; in others they are necessary ; but the
duties are all compulsive. When we marry, the
choice is voluntary, but the duties are not matter
of choice. They are dictated by the nature of the
situation. Dark and inscrutable are the ways by
which we come into the world. The instincts which
give rise to this mysterious process of our nature, are
not of our making. But, out of physical causes, un
known to us, perhaps unknowable, arise moral du-'
ties, which, as we are able perfectly to comprehend,
we are bound indispensably to perform. Parents
may not "be consenting to their moral relation ; but,
consenting or not, they are bound to a long train of
burthensome duties towards those with whom they
have never made a convention of any sort. Children

31
are not consenting to their relation, but their relation,
without their actual consent, binds them to its du
ties; or rather, it implies their consent, because the
presumed consent of every rational creature is in
unison with the predisposed order of things. Men
come in that manner into a community with the so
cial state of their parents, endowed with all the ben
efits, loaded with all the duties of their situation. If
the social ties and ligaments spun out of those physi
cal relations which are the elements ofthe common
wealth, in most cases begin, and always continue,
independently of our will; so, without any stipulation
on our part, are we bound by that relation called our
country, which comprehends (as it has been well
said) 'all the charities of all." Nor are we left with
out powerful instincts to make this duty as dear and
grateful to us, as it is awful and coercive. Our coun
try is not a thing of mere physical locality. It con-
«sists in a great measure of the ancient order into
which we were born. We may have the same geo
graphical situation, but another country; as we may
have the same country in another soil. The place
that determines our duty to our country is a civil so
cial relation."^ — Let it not be said, this is a dispropor
tionate responsibility ! In God's creation, there is no
disproportion. Newton and Kepler have traced the
laws v/hich regulate the perfect harmony of thc ma
terial universe. It is as perfect in the moral. Action
and reaction are not more perfectly reciprocal and
equal, than privilege and accountability. There is
' " Omnes omnium caritates una patria complectitur." — Cicero.
2 Appeal from the new to the old Whigs, iii.41T, 18. Liiile and Brown, 1839.

32
no disproportion in the case. What could there be,
that should not be expected of the people of this na
tion? On whom has God so showered the blessings
of His providence? When did a period, less than
three score years and ten, ever accomplish such a
progress? What is the rate that has been, to the
rate that has begun to be ? " Who can count the
dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of
Israel?'" How small a price, for blessings so trans
cendent, to hold them, as a sacred trust, a heritage
for ever, for them that shall come after ! To set them
forth in their true light and native excellence, to
charm the nations with their beauty, and win them
to participate our joy !
It would be idle to deny, that our great trust, from
God, for human kind, is set about with danger^;; or,
that utmost faithfulness and caution are needed,,
on our part, for its eff"ectual preservation and exten
sion. A word or two of earnest caution may not un
fitly close this plain discourse. The safety of this
government imperatively demands the education of
the people. I do not mean by that, the mere ability
to read and write, and keep accounts. I do not mean
the science, merely, that can map the heavens, or
navigate the air, or "put a girdle round the earth,"
in less than the ten thousandth part of Ariel's under
taking. I do not speak of intellectual improvement,
merely, or of mental acquisition ; though these de
mand, and well deserve, utmost encouragement. I
speak of that which educates, draws out, develops,

' Numbers, x.xiii, 10.

83
tends to perfect, the Divine Original, which still re*
mains to fallen human nature, and maintains it hu
man. I speak of that which lifts the heart from
grovelling on the earth, in sensual indulgence, to the
communion of all high and holy things. I speak of
that which makes the most obedient child, the most
devoted parent, the most faithful friend, the kindest
neighbour, the most patriotic citizen, the purest and
the gentlest woman, the best and bravest man. Ours
is the land for men. Men, to contend with difiicul
ties. Men, to keep pace with progress, and to urge
it. Men, to anticipate improvements. Men, to be
fearless in adversity. Men, to be constant in pros
perity. Men, like the Roman Cincinnatus, to leave
all to serve the country;^ or, like the patriot band of
'seventy-six, to pledge, for country and for freedom,
their "lives," their "fortunes," and their "sacred hon
our." This is the style of men to carry out the enter-
prize, which, nine and sixty years ago, this day, such
men, with fearless hand, and an unfaltering heart,
avouched before the world. They did it in the disre
gard of self They did it in the love of human kind*
They did it in the fear of God, and in dependence on
His blessing. These were the sources of their strength.
From these their hope derived its inspiration. For
these they suffered. And by these they overcame.
In vain do we succeed, to their inheritance, if we for
sake their principles, and lose their spirit. They
never thought of oflSce, but as a sacred trust, borne
for the common good. They never looked on war,

I « Omnia reliquit servare rempublicam," — Moito of the order of the Cia-
tinnati.

34
but as the last necessity, for self-defence, and in self-
preservation. They never hoped for victory, but as
the blessing of the God of battles on a righteous
cause. How did a little one become a thousand, and
a small one a strong nation ! How did the seed, they
sowed in tears, swell to a golden harvest? How has
the tree, they planted in the night, and watered with
their blood, spread out, and filled the land! For
abject poverty, a more than oriental wealth ! For
firowning forests, scattered hamlets, and towns im
poverished by war, fields white unto the sickle, fair
villages, in smiling beauty dotting all the land, cities
whose commerce fills the world ! For the precari
ous favour of one patronizing court, an equal place
among the proudest nations of the earth. The starry
flag, which men and women, living now, saw first set
free, to flutter in the winds of heaven; streaming on
every land, floating on every sea, bearing, wherever
it may go, the pledge of twenty millions of free men,
to the inviolable sanctuary of its protecting shadow.
This is the lot of our inheritance. Such is the load
of our responsibility. Let us stand up to it, like men.
Let us remember who they were, and what they did,
to whom we owe our nation, and our name. Let us
be like them, in the noble disregard of self Let us
be like them, in sincere desires for peace with all
mankind. Let us be like them, in the simple hom
age of true hearts to their protecting and preserv
ing God. The patriot freeman, like the Christian,
has no self. A free republic makes no foreign wars,
and stands in fear of none at home. The noblest na
ture, be it man, or be it angel, is the nature that most
freely owns, and fervently adores, the majesty of God.

35
Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Cincinnati,
It may seem that I have chosen, for this day,
a strain unwonted, of solemnity and seriousness. But
I have deeply felt it all. I have deeply felt that it
became us, as we enter now upon the seventieth year
of our republic, to look thoughtfully upon the past,
to dwell thoughtfully upon the present, to peer
thoughtfully into the future. We hold the noblest
trust that God has ever given to any nation upon
earth. We hold it at a time, when human institutions
are searched and sifted, with a fierce and fiery ordeal,
such as never sat on them before. We hold it, in the
sight of all the nations ; and to lose it, or to falter in our
grasp of it, is disappointment to the highest hopes of
man, is treachery to freedom and to truth, is death
and degradation to ourselves. This is no time for
the set phrases of a holiday oration. This is no time
for flights of fancy, and the flowers of compliment.
This is no time for self-complacency, and self-lauda
tion. We have a trust to keep. We have a mission
to accomplish. We have a work to do. It calls for se
riousness. It calls for earnestness. It calls for deep so
lemnity. Solemnity, in the examination of ourselves.
Solemnity, in trying out our principles and plans of
action. Solemnity, in urging on our fellow citizens
the duty and the privilege of their devout co-opera
tion. Solemnity, in the sacred and heartfelt com
mendation of ourselves, our common country, our
common cause, the cause of all mankind, to our pro
tecting — if need be, to our avenging, God. Surely, it
is a time for earnestness, a time for seriousness, a
time for deep solemnity.

36
Another thought has filled and weighed upon my
soul. In you. Gentlemen of the Cincinnati, I recog
nize the living link that binds the present with the
past. You represent the men of the first age of the
Republic. You personify to us the immortal band
of seventeen hundred and seventy-six. We rever
ence in you the patriots, the statesmen, the heroes,
the martyrs, of the War of Independence. You are
our Hancock, and our Franklin, and our Washing
ton. I seem to stand in the deep, dreadful presence of
those great, heroic men. I seem to feel the majesty
of their serene and awful port, as they rise up before
high heaven, and make that glorious vow, that " these
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be. Free
AND Independent States." I seem to hear the
beating of their manly hearts, as they go forth from
that august apartment, the minute-men of freedom,
the advanced-guard of mankind. Matchless, immor
tal men I We bless your memory. We boast us in
your glorious name ! Faithful, untiring, unseduced,
unterrified, we follow, where you led. Be with us, in
the wisdom of your counsels ! Be with us, in the
trumpet tones of your soul-stirring eloquence ! Be
with us, in the light of your exalted and benign ex
ample ! The God who gave you to us, be with us,
as He was with you, to guide us, and to bless us !
To keep us in His holy fear ! To fill us with His
perfect peace ! To make the light, that is in us, from
Him, shine out, forevermore, the cynosure of nations,
the lode-star of the world !

ERRATA.
Page 30; line 10; "selfishness" should be sinfulnees,

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