Missing Page 
 
CjiJiiitegiiirag fm tli? ^niu : 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 FEDERAL-STREET MEETINGHOUSE IN BOSTON, , 
 
 ON THANKSGIVING-DAY, 
 
 NOVEMBER 28, 1850. 
 
 BY EZRA S. GANNETT. 
 
 $uiilisj[ieH bs S&equest. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS, 
 111, Washington Street. 
 
 1850. 
 
BOSTON: 
 
 FEINTED BY JOHS wrLSOIf AND SON, 
 
 No. 21, Scbool-etreel. 
 
DISCOUESE. 
 
 NUMBERS, XXIV. 5. 
 HOW GOODLY AKE TKY TENTS, JACOB, AND THY TABEBNACLES, ISRAEL ! 
 
 Blessings personal and social, domestic and public, 
 civil and religious, are the themes for gratitude to 
 expand on this day of annual thanksgiving. Even 
 to glance at them all would be impossible ; for who 
 can recount the mercies of the Lord 1 In any selec- 
 tion which we may make, we must be directed by 
 private feeling or by the needs of the time. Now, we 
 may speak of the health and strength which God 
 gives us ; and now, of our intellectual endowments or 
 our moral faculties. Now it may be the delights of 
 home, and now the privileges of a wider relationship 
 to our fellow-men, from which we gather the mate- 
 rials for thankfulness. Now the providence of the 
 Heavenly Father, and now the gospel of Christ, may 
 enkindle our praise. Now we may look over the 
 
past, and now gaze into the future, to find occasion 
 for rejoicing. They are all suitable and profitable 
 topics. That which I choose to-day is one to which 
 the pulpit has usually contented itself with adverting, 
 rather than made it a subject of special remark. 
 
 There have been two reasons for this silence : first, 
 that what all are supposed to hold in admiration, we 
 do not think it necessary to treat as if any were igno- 
 rant of its worth ; and, secondly, that there are some 
 things so sacred in our estimation, that a discussion of 
 their merits, which might seem to involve or might 
 create a distrust of their excellence, is instinctively 
 avoided. For these reasons, probably, the grounds of 
 thanksgiving for our national Union have seldom 
 been exhibited at any length on this anniversary, 
 proper as the occasion might appear for such a pur- 
 pose. A few years ago, it was thought that the 
 whole country was inspired with a sentiment of 
 patriotism that would prompt every one to exclaim, 
 as he overlooked the situation of our confederate 
 tribes, in the words which were wrung from Balaam 
 by his reluctant vision of the greatness of the chosen 
 people, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy 
 tabernacles, O Israel!" Then, to inquire into the 
 value of the Union was held to be unwise, because 
 the bare fact of such an inquiry might impair the feel- 
 ing of loyal attachment. Of late, however, the value of 
 
the Union has become a subject of debate, and even 
 of denial ; and a calm consideration of its claims on 
 our regard is now demanded of us by the self-respect 
 that will not sacrifice cherished habits, except for 
 reasons the force of which it perceives. Thanksgiving 
 for the Union I still believe to be a duty; and an 
 exposition of this duty seems to me a fit office to be 
 undertaken on this day, and one which may be 
 executed in such a manner, that, if all should not 
 agree with what may be said, no one shall take 
 offence. I would show the propriety of giving thanks 
 to Almighty God for the American Union, by indicat- 
 ing the grounds on which it is entitled to our warm 
 and grateful attachment. No candid hearer will in 
 advance charge me with a misuse of the opportunity 
 which I enjoy through my occupation of the pulpit ; 
 and no such hearer, I hope, wilLbe able to say at the 
 close that I have abused my privilege. 
 
 I love the American Union for the historical and 
 biographical associations which cluster around its 
 origin. I need not narrate the circumstances of that 
 period, nor repeat the names of the men who framed 
 the Constitution of the United States. They are 
 familiar to us : may they never be forgotten ! I do 
 not go back to the days of the Revolution, where the 
 lover of peace laments over the presumed necessity of 
 securing the independence of the American Colonies. 
 
by the sword. At a later day, •nhen the Articles of 
 Confederation, adopted amidst the exigencies of the 
 war which knit the Colonies together, had been 
 found insufficient for the purposes of a permanent 
 government, a new instrument was prepared by a 
 body of delegates whose wisdom was as profound as 
 their integrity was unquestionable. They were not 
 common men. At their head was George Washing- 
 ton, whom the world has agreed to place first among 
 Pjitriots and rulers. "With him were associated those 
 who had read and thought and acted, — men of great 
 political sagacity, and, what was fai* more important, 
 of a loftiness of purpose and a breadth of comprehen- 
 sion that could not be deluded by any narrow theory 
 of freedom on the one hand, or of government on the 
 other. They were men who understood the nature of 
 civil liberty, who felt the importance of social order, 
 with whom the rights and the duties of citizenship 
 were matters of practical interest, and who poured 
 the fruits of reflection and experience into the 
 deliberations of a Convention on which devolved as 
 serious and perhaps as difficult a duty as was ever 
 entrusted to a representative body. The Constitution 
 which they drafted is the result of their good sense, 
 their large discernment, their sound culture, and their 
 generous spirit. Such men a country may honor as its 
 benefactors, while posterity continues to look back on 
 
their proceedings with mingled admiration and grati- 
 tude. I thank Heaven for the Convention which 
 sat at Philadelphia in 1787, for the character of its 
 members, and for the foundations of truth and jus- 
 tice on which they reared the superstructure of this 
 Union. 
 
 Again, I admire the Union for the history of which 
 it has been the source, through a period covering more 
 than half a century. There are passages of that his- 
 tory which I read with sorrow ; but, as a whole, it 
 has no parallel in the annals of mankind, for the evi- 
 dence which it gives of growth and prosperity. In 
 population, in territory, in wealth, in the accumula- 
 tion and development of material resources, has there 
 ever been such an example of steady and rapid 
 increase 1 Look at the United States of sixty years 
 ago, and the United States of to-day. The difference 
 would exceed belief, if it were not for the stubborn 
 facts of authentic history. A large part of the change 
 which has come over the face of half a continent 
 must be ascribed, indeed, to the energies of the 
 people, and the remarkable opportunity they have 
 enjoyed for the exercise of those energies in the 
 immense region thrown into their hands, to be 
 redeemed froin its native wildness, and converted into 
 the home of industry, comfort, civilization, and 
 Christianity. But, if the Union had not given encou- 
 
ragement and protection to those energies, this grand 
 opportunity would never have been used, nor under- 
 stood. It is as the American Union that this republic 
 has grown in two generations to be one of the first-rate 
 powers of the world, that it has become as remarkable 
 for its vigor as for its size, and that it has received 
 into its bosom, and changed into happy freemen, mil- 
 lions who forsook injustice and wretchedness in the 
 Eastern continent for the blessings which they have 
 found here. With aU that is dark in the history of 
 this republic, it has been a splendid history ; and I 
 thank God it is the history of my native land. 
 
 I farther rejoice and glory in this Union for the 
 illustration which it has given of the capacity of man 
 for self-government, and the practicability of main- 
 taining free popular institutions. The experiment, 
 which was regarded with scornful distrust by many 
 in this country, and by all but a few far in advance of 
 their age in the Old World, has been crowned with 
 entire success. Free institutions have been perpe- 
 tuated. Popular institutions have been extended. 
 The political system which it was thought would not 
 be able to bear the ordinary friction of government, 
 has borne shocks such as have prostrated thrones and 
 dynasties, and has stood unharmed while they have 
 passed away. Nothing, as it seems to me, is more 
 remarkable in the history of these States than the 
 
extreme occasions which have arisen, as if to put the 
 stability of our institutions to the test. Within 
 the present year, we have seen three examples of the 
 indestructible vitality which distinguishes them. On 
 the other side of the continent, separated from the 
 republic, not of sixty years, but of a twelvemonth ago, 
 by almost impassable mountains and inhospitable 
 deserts, a new State has grown up, prepared itself as 
 in a day to become a member of the Union, and been 
 admitted as such, without requiring the slightest 
 change in the functions of the general government. 
 Within the same period, the chief magistrate of the 
 land has been suddenly removed by death, and the 
 responsibilities of his high office have passed into 
 the hands of his constitutional successor, without the 
 disturbance of a single motion in the complicated 
 machinery of our political order. And, at a still more 
 recent date/^ an election has taken place in our Com- 
 monwealth, which has transferred the control of 
 legislation and the whole executive power to a differ- 
 ent political party from that which has held them for 
 several years ; and, whatever disappointment may be 
 felt, no one fears that the essential interests of the 
 Commonwealth will in consequence suffer damage. 
 The confidence which the people feel in the strength 
 of their institutions is equalled only by the confidence 
 which the Constitution expresses in the people. The 
 2 
 
10 
 
 whole of that remarkable instrument proceeds on 
 the idea that popular government is practicable. 
 There is not a word that betrays a suspicion of 
 failure. The people are trusted, and sixty years have 
 shown that they may be trusted, — trusted with every 
 thing ; for there is nothing behind or above the people 
 on which the country can throw itself for protection, 
 if the people be false to themselves. With the Con- 
 stitution on the one side, and revolution on the other, 
 between which they must constantly choose, there is 
 nothing to save them from the latter, if they forsake 
 the former. The more worthy of notice, then, is it 
 that, through peace and war, through changes of 
 administration and changes in the relative weight 
 of different sections of the Union, through trials and 
 perils, the principles of the Constitution have carried 
 the Union safely and triumphantly. Those princi- 
 ples, how simple and fundamental! — the principles 
 on which rest human rights and human hopes. Sim- 
 ple, and therefore mighty, therefore successful. It is 
 an instructive fact, that not the tendency alone, but 
 the effect, of our institutions from the first has been to 
 secure for the democratic or popular element in our 
 political system a fuller expression. The conservative 
 party in the country has rendered invaluable service ; 
 but, under whatever name, it has only acted as a 
 needfiil balance and check upon the more radical 
 
11 
 
 party to which it was opposed. So decisive a proof 
 has this Union presented of the practicability, effi- 
 ciency, and safety of popular government. 
 
 Such a proof could not be set before the world, 
 without producing a change in the convictions and 
 feelings of the spectators. I find a fourth cause of 
 gratitude for the existence of this Union in the in- 
 struction which it has afforded to other nations. 
 Instruction of a threefold kind this has been : first, 
 by the great political truths which it has made 
 familiar to their ears and eyes, through our books, 
 speeches, laws, and constitutions ; secondly, as we 
 have just noticed, by the practical application of these 
 truths to civU affairs ; and, thirdly, by the mistakes 
 which we have corrected or survived. Our theory 
 and our experience have been a constant study to 
 statesmen, and a constant excitement to the desire for 
 free institutions, in Europe. The effect of our esta- 
 blishment of a republican form of government was 
 seen in the history of France at the close of the last 
 century ; and, ever since, the light which this country 
 has thrown across the ocean has either awakened or 
 guided the movements that have taken place in asser- 
 tion of the rights which a prescriptive legitimacy 
 withholds from the people. It is not freedom alone 
 which this land has taught the people of the Old 
 World to desire and demand. It has taught them to 
 
12 
 
 ask for constitutional freedom. A double security has 
 been given for the advancement of the race. It is not 
 the mere exercise of popular rights that distinguishes, 
 or chiefly distinguishes, the American people ; but the 
 exercise of these rights under constitutional sanctions 
 and restraints. A veritten charter, at once the guaran- 
 tee and the limitation of the people's power, — this is 
 the great American idea which is destined to change the 
 character, not of European despotisms only, but of all 
 despotic sway in whatever quarter of the globe. That 
 admirable document, which declares in its own pre- 
 amble that it is " ordained and established " " in order 
 to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure 
 domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 
 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings 
 of liberty to the people of the United States," and 
 which also announces that it emanates from the peo- 
 ple themselves, — their own act, by which they define 
 their rights and recognize their duties, — has made 
 the nations acquainted with the meaning of a phrase 
 which even England but imperfectly understood so 
 long as she learned its force only from her Magna 
 Charta, — constitutional liberty. The exhibition of the 
 true meaning of that phrase constitutes the claim 
 which this country has on the gratitude of the world ; 
 and I account it a proper occasion of thanksgiving to 
 God that this Union has been the means of propagat- 
 
13 
 
 ing the ideas which that phrase conveys, — ideas 
 which must, in the course of time, subvert every 
 tyrannical usurpation on earth. 
 
 Now, since the American Union is regarded as the 
 exemplification of political truths, on the practical 
 acknowledgment of which in other countries the pro- 
 gress of the human race depends more than on any 
 other influence, excepting only the spread of the 
 gospel, I cannot contemplate its possible overthrow 
 but as a calamity too great for the common speech of 
 men to describe. I cling to the Union, and pray that 
 it may be preserved from dissolution, because such an 
 event would involve the disappointment of the dearest 
 hopes of the philanthropist, and put back the world, 
 that now seems to be coming to a comprehension of 
 the blessings which the Creator intended it should 
 enjoy, for I know not how many ages. I cannot fore- 
 see the extent of evil that would follow on the failure 
 of this attempt to demonstrate the worth and durar 
 bility of free institutions, — an attempt made on the 
 grandest scale and under the most favorable circum- 
 stances. I can only hear the sorrowful regrets of 
 those whose hope would be extinguished, and the 
 exultant sneer of those who begrudge the people 
 every right which they now have the power to exer- 
 cise or the courage to demand. Not freedom only, 
 but civilization, would suffer incalculable detriment. 
 
u 
 
 The progress of opinion would be arrested, the 
 sanguine would be disheartened, the energetic intimi- 
 dated, and another period of apathetic gloom — to 
 last, no one can tell for how many generations — 
 might come over the nations. If this sound to any 
 one like the language of extravagance, let him con- 
 sider the position which America now holds in the 
 regards of the civilized world, and he will be slow to 
 pronounce such anticipations visionary. 
 
 But, whatever should be the result abroad, there 
 can be no doubt respecting the consequences which 
 would ensue here upon the overthrow of our present 
 government. I, finally, cleave to the Union, both 
 theoretically and practically, because these conse- 
 quences are too dreadful to be anticipated without 
 the keenest sense of misfortune. I esteem it a fit 
 occasion for praise to the God of our fathers, that 
 they constructed a Union, the preservation of which 
 wiU prevent such terrible disasters. Should the 
 Union be dissolved, it would be on sectional grounds. 
 A geographical division would take place. The 
 North and the South would withdraw from each 
 other ; the "West would probably form one or more 
 separate governments ; an independent nation would 
 arise on the shores of the Pacific. What would be 
 the consequence 1 I wiU not speak of the financial 
 embarrassment, the commercial distress, the check 
 
15 
 
 that would be given to all industrial pursuits. These 
 inconveniences are so overshadowed by greater evUs, 
 that they scarcely deserve mention. More serious 
 calamities than these would attend the disruption of 
 the North American republic. Rival states would 
 take its place, mutually jealous and mutually hostile, 
 with causes of irritation springing out of their past 
 history, and occasions of strife continually arising out 
 of the new relations in which they would stand to one 
 another; — rival states, between which, even if an 
 amicable rupture of the bonds that now hold them 
 together were possible, war would be enkindled 
 before a year had expired, — war that would be 
 marked by the atrocities which hatred, stimulated 
 by opportunity, always begets. Border incursions 
 would ripen into prolonged warfare. It has become 
 a proverb, that they who were once nearest, when 
 estranged, make the most bitter enemies. One cause 
 of lU-wUl, especially, would gather force with every 
 day. That institution which is the principal mark 
 and ground of difference between the North and 
 South would breed perpetual mischief, as those held 
 in bondage on one side of a national boundary 
 would escape to the other side, and what is now a 
 source of vexation would then induce an immediate 
 resort to arms. There is no need of calling in an 
 exuberant imagination to describe the horrors that 
 
16 
 
 must flow from the erection of two or more independ- 
 ent governments, whatever internal form they might 
 take, out of the present United States. The dullest 
 foresight may descry evils of such magnitude that the 
 heart grows sick at their contemplation. Not only 
 the lover of constitutional liberty, but every one who 
 cares for peace or progress, for social order or indivi- 
 dual comfort, must deprecate a result so fraught with 
 miseries, as would then be witnessed, in the place of 
 those blessings which we now possess ; — possess, 
 alas ! without sufficiently appreciating their value, or 
 rendering due thanks to Hira through whose provi- 
 dence they have been bestowed. 
 
 And what would be gained as an equivalent for all 
 that would be lost ? Would the North be freer or 
 happier, more prosperous or more religious, than it 
 now is ■? Let the history of every period signalized 
 by the prevalence of evil passions and the effusion of 
 blood furnish the answer. Would the South grow 
 richer, stronger, or more worthy of respect ■? With 
 every disadvantage under which it now suffers aggra/- 
 vated, and the benefits for which it is indebted to the 
 Union withdrawn, certainly not. Would philan- 
 thropy behold the accomplishment of its wishes, or 
 oppression relax its grasp on those whom it dooms to 
 perpetual servitude? On the contrary, when both 
 the right and the opportunity of exerting some influ- 
 
17 
 
 ence For the amelioration of the evils of Slavery, 
 which the citizens of the Free States now have, 
 should cease, and the colored race should be left to 
 the interests and habits of masters who would then 
 carefully exclude alike interference and observation, 
 their condition would be more hopeless even than at 
 present. Would Slavery become extinct through the 
 speedy or gradual ruin of the Southern country, 
 which, deprived of the alliance that now sends some 
 currents of life through its languid veins, would sink 
 into poverty and imbecility 1 Even if this should be 
 the spectacle which the future would unroll, I do not 
 envy him whose prophetic eye can look on such a 
 result with satisfaction. Nothing would be gained by 
 dissolving the Union — nothing — nothing. And 
 much would be sacrificed, which, if it were possible 
 that a time should come when the members of the 
 republic thus rent in pieces would wish to restore its 
 unity, could never be recovered. God save us from 
 disunion ! I know that Slavery is a political and a 
 moral evil, a sin and curse; but disunion seems to 
 me to be treason, not so much against the country, as 
 against humanity. The curse would not be removed, 
 the evil would not be abated, no one would be benefited, 
 by it. And only the historian who should record the 
 long series of misfortunes and crimes to which it would 
 give rise could tell how much all would have lost. 
 
 3 
 
IS 
 
 Would I then maintain the integrity of the Union 
 always and for ever 1 Are there no possible circum- 
 stances that would compel us to renounce our 
 allegiance to the Constitution under which these 
 States have risen to such greatness 1 I do not say 
 this. But when I consider, on the one hand, that 
 such a necessity could arise only on an occasion which 
 would justify a people in casting themselves upon 
 that ultimate right of revolution which is never to be 
 exercised except in the last resort, and, on the other 
 band, perceive the suffering which must be entailed 
 on the actors in such a revolutionary crisis and on 
 their children, — I feel myself bound to see most 
 clearly that such a necessity exists, before I adopt any 
 measures that shall involve resistance to constitu- 
 tional authority. I shall be asked, perhaps, if I 
 would submit to every law which might find a place 
 in the legislation of my country; and my answer 
 would be in the negative. But there is a wide differ- 
 ence between refusal to comply with a law which we 
 hold to be immoral, incurring, of course, the legal pen- 
 alty of such refusal, (that we deem the law unsound is 
 not a sufficient reason even for passive disobedience,) 
 and an assault upon the institutions under which 
 unwise legislators have had an opportunity of doing 
 a wrong thing. If, now, the question be proposed, 
 which many seem to think precludes any farther 
 
19 
 
 argument, whether we are not bound by our reverence 
 for the Divine authority to disown a human govern- 
 ment that comes into conflict, or endeavors to bring 
 us into collision, with that authority, — I reply that 
 the question, simple as it appears in form, does not 
 present the actual point of difficulty. To some per^ 
 sons it may be clear that disobedience to human law 
 is obedience to the law of Heaven ; but they who 
 believe that submission to the constituted authorities 
 of a land is among- the duties prescribed by God may 
 not be able to determine in a moment whether resist- 
 ance to an odious law be or be not a part of the duty 
 which they owe to the Supreme Ruler. No one denies 
 the existence of a higher law than any which can pro- 
 ceed from human legislation. The real question at 
 issue concerns the interpretation of that higher law. 
 Does it abrogate loyalty to an earthly government, or 
 .does it add to the sentiment of loyalty the force of 
 religious obligation'? This is not a point on which 
 conscience gives one decision, while worldly interest or 
 personal cowardice gives another. There is conscience 
 on both sides. My neighbor's conscience and mine 
 may not pronounce the same sentence. Each of us 
 may act from a sense of the highest obligation, and 
 yet we may act very diff'erently. 
 
 These remarks are, of course, suggested by recent 
 occurrences, to which, however, I allude only for the 
 
20 
 
 sake of drawing two practical conclusions which it 
 appears to me we are too ready to overlook. The 
 first has, in effect, just been brought under our notice. 
 Let neither party in the controversy that is now 
 threatening harm to the political fabric which our 
 fathers constructed with so much care and skill, sup- 
 pose that all the conscientious judgment is with itself. 
 On one account I rejoice that this controversy has 
 been pushed to an extreme issue. Whatever may 
 have been true formerly, it is now a question of 
 conscience on both sides, — one party conscientiously 
 presenting and exciting opposition to a law of the 
 national Congress, regardless of the ulterior effect of 
 such opposition, or rather, perhaps, ready to bear the 
 responsibleness of the most painful consequences ; 
 the other as conscientiously standing by the Union, 
 and vindicating the authority of the Constitution as 
 the supreme law and only safeguard of the country. 
 I say I am glad that each party plants itself on the 
 high ground of principle. And believing that this is 
 the ground which ought to be taken by each and by 
 both, I draw thence my second conclusion, that as 
 candor should be exercised, so violence should be 
 avoided. That revolutionary right to which I have 
 referred may be brought into exercise, only after the 
 failure of every other means of redress. It is not an 
 indication of wisdom or patriotism to use violent 
 
21 
 
 methods, until all others have been proved to be inef- 
 fectual. It is a serious matter to adopt measures or 
 to use language the obvious meaning of which is con- 
 tempt for law and government, the only securities 
 which society has for its om'u peaceful existence. 
 That both law and government will be imperfect is 
 what we should expect ; for, though Divine in their 
 origin, they are human in their form. But shall we, 
 therefore, pour scorn and wrath upon them ? Shall 
 the inevitable frailty of man be no palliation of the 
 mistakes he may make ] Is the citizen absolved from 
 his allegiance, because the government under which 
 he lives has the taint of earth cleaving to it 1 I do 
 not so read my duty, either in the mandates of con- 
 science or on the pages of Scripture. 
 
 There is nothing, then, in the circumstances of the 
 present hour which leads me to regard the Union 
 with any other feelings than those of attachment and 
 gratitude. I honor it for the sake of the men by 
 whom the Constitution on which it stands was 
 framed. I admire it for the development it has given 
 to the resources of material prosperity that distin- 
 guish this country. I love it for the example it has 
 presented of those principles of constitutional liberty 
 which are interwoven with all hope of human pro- 
 gress. I rejoice in the influence which it has exerted 
 on opinion in the Old World. I would uphold it, 
 
22 
 
 from the dread I have of the shock that would be 
 given to the reliance of noble hearts abroad by its 
 downfall or decay. And I would preserve it from 
 violent or insidious hostility, because I tremble and 
 sicken at the prospect of the evils which would over- 
 whelm the land, should this Union crumble or be 
 shattered to pieces. I look over the wide heritage 
 which I trust will come into the possession of those 
 who are now the children of the land, to be by them 
 transmitted to their descendants ; and I exclaim, with 
 a warmth of feeling into which I hope religious grati- 
 tude is largely infused, " How goodly are thy tents, 
 
 Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel ! " On this 
 day of public thanksgiving, I hold it to be a most 
 proper theme of praise, that I am a citizen of these 
 United States ; and while from other pulpits acknow- 
 ledgments shall be made to the Infinite Father (as, 
 
 1 trust, in our hearts also) for the abundant harvest 
 with which he has laden our fields, for the homes 
 in which he permits us to shelter our affections, and 
 for the religion which he has sent us through our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, let there be at least 
 one voice that shall bless Him for the republican 
 institutions under which we live, and shall lift up in 
 the midst of the people, and with their consenting 
 thought, the fervent prayer, — God save the Union ! 
 
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