.1 >-J , -^ /m*- ■m i^i A -r P 'JU' 1 lif^ > :>'>A -J >• :;> 3» -:jm ^^^^^ z> ~) . >) _jfr -^J^ : ^ ^'^^ ,- > .:?i^:J? I ~M r-4-*'^-^ - > >y> >~^ s SS^L^ ^31 *>f'l> ^ ■_^ '-J-^^r^j^i > • > ~ > » ~i ":> >a> ^My^ vx^xxi ^i tUt Ibealagfc^i j. %^ PRINCETON, N. J. % 5/J^^ Division Section Number M t % ? ! ♦ vA_ yj tin 3 3 - "->^ :■>;:> ^^. r-^S^:> • .- .,""- ::^: ■— ^^ - , — » ""^"^ .. '" ^'-^ r*^ ^.Jtl 5 k ""~> ."^ ^^ id^ "^b 31 3 r "^ : ^ » ■ ': ;3 ^^>> -.*:> ^^ _^'3t3>'~':^ ^-^ .^^ ^ 7 ti THE IMPORTANCE OF RELIGION TO THE LEGAL PROFESSION: WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE CHARACTER OF THE LATE CHARLES CHAUNCEY, Esq. A DISCOURSE DELIVERED ON SUNDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 30tH, AND REPEATED ON SUNDAY EVENING, OCTOBER I4th, 1849, IN THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. >' By henry a. BOARDMAN, D. D PHILADELPHIA : PUBLISHED BY WM. S. MARTIEN, No. 142 Chestnut Street. 1849. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/importanceofreliOOboar ■■'% rw_,._ Philadelphia, October 15, 1S49. Rev. and Dear Sir: In pursuance of the intimation contained in our note of the first instant, the undersigned, members of your congregation, now ask the favour of a copy of the discourse repeated by you at our request and that of other gentlemen of the profession, on the fourteenth instant, for publication. The name of Charles Chauncey, so happily introduced by you in illustra- tion of the great leading object of your discourse, belongs to the whole com- munity, as well as to the legal profession. His great virtues and rare endow- ments— his talents, learning, and practical benevolence — guided withal by " that wisdom which cometh from above," cannot be too often, nor too widely commemorated. With a strong desire to cultivate the sentiments of your excellent discourse, We subscribe ourselves, your friends and servants, R. C. Grier. Chas. B. Penrose. John K. Findlay. James Ross Snowden. W. H. Dillingham. Charles Gilpin. John R. Vogdes. Wm. A. Porter. Samuel Hood. E. Spencer Miller. W. B. HiESKELL. Edw. Armstrong. To the Rev. Dr. Henrv A. Boardman. '"^ Philadelphia, October 15th, 1849. Rev. and Dear Sir: The undersigned, several of whom united with the Gentlemen of the Bar of your own congregation in the expression of a wish that you should repeat your able and eloquent discourse upon the importance of religion to the legal profession, now, with equal pleasure, join them in asking for its publication. We listened with great satisfaction to your graphic description of the charac- ter of the late Charles Chauncey, Esq., universally and justly regarded as one of the brightest ornaments of the profession. The whole discourse might well be characterized as one of the happiest efforts of clerical eloquence. We regard it as calculated to do great good, and shall be happy to see it widely disseminated. We are, very respectfully and faithfully, yours, Ed. E. Law. J. R. Ingersoll. Joel Jones. H. J. Williams. James Dundas. Wm. E. Whitman. Ferdinand W. Hubbell. Geo. Emlen. B. Gerhard. Ch. Gibbons. Samuel H. Perkins. Garrick Mallery. Edward Hopper. David Paul Brown. To the Rev, Dr. Boardman. Philadelphia, October 19th, 1849. Gentlemen: I am quite sensible that the interest excited by the discourse which you have done me the honour to request for publication, must be ascribed mainly to the subject and the occasion. The discourse was prepared from a conviction, that the death of that eminent and excellent man whom an all-wise Providence has lately taken from us, afforded a suitable opportunity for inculcating, especially upon the Legal Profession, the virtues which were so happily illustrated in his life. That this humble attempt to improve a bereavement which affects our "whole community," should have met with the approval of a body of gentlemen so honourably representing both the Bench and the Bar, is ex- tremely gratifying to my feelings. I cannot refuse a request emanating from such a source, and herewith submit the manuscript to your disposal. I am, Gentlemen, with great regard, your friend, H. A. BOAHDMAN. To the Hon. R. C. Grier, Hon. John K. Findlay, Hon. Joel Jones, and Edw. E. Law, Joseph R. Ingersoll, H. J. Williams, James Dundas, Ferdi- nand W. Hubbell, B. Gerhard, Samuel H. Perkins, Wm. E. Whitman, George Emlen, Ch. Gibbons, Garrick Mallery, Edward Hopper, David Paul Brown, Wm. H. Dillingham, John R. Vogdes, Charles B. Penrose, James Ross Snowden, Charles Gilpin, Wm. A. Porter, Samuel Hood, E. Spen- cer Miller, William B. Hieskell, Edward Arm- strong, Esquires. DISCOUUSE Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright : for the end of that MAN IS PEACE. — Psalm xxxvii. 37. We read in the Gospel of Luke, that, on a certain occa- sion, a lawyer stood up and "tempted" our Saviour, saying, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" It was a good question, though prompted by a bad motive — a question every way to be commended, whether we regard the subject to which it relates, the Being to whom it was addressed, or the individual who propounded it. It were a waste of words to undertake to prove that it must be to every individual the most momentous of all questions. And just in proportion to the gravity of the question, is it of importance that we should look well to whom we apply for an answer. For the answers it has received, and is daily receiving, are extremely various and contradictory ; and if we happen to be misled, the consequences must be disastrous, and may be irretrievable. This lawyer set us a wholesome example, not, indeed, in respect to the spirit which suggested his inquiry, but in respect to the source at which he sought information. He alone who has salvation to bestow, can teach us how it is to be obtained. If we 2 rely upon a teacher of philosophy, or a teacher of religion, however learned and exemplary, we may fall into error ; if we follow implicitly the utterances of this or that sect, or venture to lean upon what we believe to be "the Church," as an infallible guide, we may possibly rest our hopes for eternity upon a foundation as truly foreign from the real foundation, as Platonism or Buddhism is from Christianity. Life and immortality have been brought to light in the gospel : and the gospel is the only chart which can conduct us to heaven. He who takes up with any other teacher than Christ, may expect to come short of eternal life. It is not to be overlooked that the person who put this question to the Saviour was a lawyer. "We know nothing of his character beyond what is revealed in the brief ac- count of this transaction ; and he is exhibited to us here in no very prepossessing aspect. Arguing from this inter- view, we do him no injustice in supposing that he was a man too much immersed in the cares and conflicts of the world, to have given much attention to the claims of spir- itual religion. A Pharisee he might have been, and a zealous devotee in his way, but he was manifestly a stranger to genuine piety. It had been well for him, befitting both himself and his calling, had he asked in sober earnest, as he asked in subtlety, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Nor let it be deemed invidious if the remark is made, that this duty is no less incumbent upon every lawyer. I say this, not to disparage but to honour the profession. There are cogent reasons, aside from those of a private or personal nature common to the members of the legal pro- fession with all other persons, why they should be men of Christian integrity and purity — why the profession, as A BODY, SHOULD BE PERVADED WITH A SOUND RELIGIOUS SENTIMENT. The moral character of the Bar, no less than its character for learning and ability, is a matter of deep and universal concern. It is not a matter, Gentlemen of the Bar, which pertains merely to your reputation as indi- viduals, nor to the relations between yourselves and your clients. Even if it were, it might be pertinent to ask. Who are your clients ? For the purposes of this argument, the whole community are your clients. There is no citizen, however humble or however exalted, who may not at any time become your client. There is not one among our honourable and opulent merchants, among the ministers of religion, among the able and upright jurists who preside over your own courts — nay, not one among these refined and gentle females, our mothers, wives, and daughters, who make our homes the purest and the happiest homes on earth, who may not, on any day, be compelled to invoke your protection. You are the conservators of our pro- perty, of our liberty, our lives, our characters; the guar- dians of our firesides, the defenders of our altars. Have we no stake, then, in your character ? Have we no right to insist that a profession which is the depository of our most sacred earthly interests, shall omit nothing that may help to qualify them for their high trust ? that they shall not only make themselves masters of their noble science in its prin- ciples and its technicalities, but cultivate those elevated moral sentiments which alone can assure us that our confi- dence will not be misplaced? 8 Let us look at the profession in another aspect. The Bar must always, in a country like ours, be the chief avenue to civil distinction — the main road to posts of emolument and power. As such, it will embrace a large proportion of the educated and able men of the Union ; and the influence of such a body must necessarily be very great, irrespective of their strictly professional functions. How much, then, must this influence be augmented, when it is considered that they exert an immediate and powerful agency in moulding the popular will. They are usually the leaders in the collis- ions of parties, and the chief speakers even in the primary assemblies of the people. They fill the principal offices. They direct our legislation, and make the laws which it devolves upon them to administer. They shape our policy, domestic and foreign. They control our intercourse with other countries; and do more than any other class among us, to decide the relative position we are to occupy among the nations of the earth. Not to expatiate on these topics, the bare hint of them must suffice to show, that every citi- zen is implicated in the character of the Bar ; and that a profession clothed with so lofty a mission, needs, both for its own sake and for the sake of the country, to be pervaded with a wholesome religious sentiment. Piety alone will not, it is true, fit men to become jurists, diplomatists, or legislators. But piety is the basis of good morals. It makes men conscientious. It stimulates them to acquire the qualifications demanded by the stations Providence may assign them, and puts them upon using their abilities for the best ends. If evangelical Christianity were enthroned, not in our halls of justice merely, but in the hearts of all wlio serve at her altars, tlieir great influence Tvould tell, if the expression may be pardoned, far more auspiciously than it does now, upon the leading interests of the country. It would moderate the spirit of faction — the bane of all re- publics. It might repress the idolatry of mammon, and curb the lust of conquest — two of the brood of baser pas- sions which have acquired an Herculean growth in our soil. It would check the prevailing tendency to rash and hasty legislation, and teach visionary reformers that they "should approach to the faults of the State as to the wounds of a father, with pious awe and trembling solicitude."* It would be felt through all the frame-work of society, in extinguishing vice, alleviating misery, fostering education, and consolidating the institutions of Christianity. Even if the members of the Bar, then, could dispense with religion as a personal concern, the just claims of the country upon the profession, would forbid them to slight its obligations. But they cannot well dispense with it as a personal con- cern. Christianity challenges their homage, not only as revealing to them the way of salvation, but as supply- ing the most valuable aids in the practice of their profes- sion. Let us dwell for a few moments on this topic. A very little consideration will suflSce to show that an intelligent, scriptural faith, must be of great assistance in forming a just estimate of the nature and objects of the legal profession. How grossly these are misconceived, not only by many of the populace, but by no'' inconsiderable number of those who write themselves "Attorney and * Burke on the French Revolution. 10 Counsellor," must he but too -well known to every respect- able member of the profession. In the judgment of these persons, the law is not a science, but a trade — not a trade even, but a system of trickery. They come to the Bar as a gambler to his club, to be honest where it is politic to be honest, and to practice fraud and chicanery where chi- canery and fraud promise larger gains. They see nothing in a law-suit but a private dispute or quarrel, a sort of pugilistic encounter, in which it is all one to the community who beats and who is beaten. Their grovelling minds can- not expand sufficiently to take in the idea that the processes going on before their eyes in the courts, are processes in ■which we, who seldom or never enter a court-room, have an interest second only, and in some instances not second, to that of the parties litigant ; that a claim for the worth of a lamb, or a case of assault and battery between two inebri-- ates, may fairly "bristle with points of law — law that is involved in a large proportion of the common transactions, of life;" that the dollars and cents involved in any suit, though amounting to millions of money, are of as little relative value when compared Avith the principles at issue, as was the tea thrown overboard in Boston harbour, when weighed against the emancipation of a great nation. To all this, the reckless pettifoggers of the profession are blind. But there can be no occasion to remind ^ou — and if there were, it would not be decorous in the speaker to become your mentor — that "the science of Jurisprudence, the pride of the human intellect, with all its defects, redundancies and errors, is the collected reason of ages, combining the principles of original justice with the infinite variety of 11 human concerns."* You have not to learn that next to the influence of the gospel, it is the presence and pervading power of Law which distinguishes free from despotic gov- ernments, Christian from Pagan nations — that to annihi- hite law, is to extinguish all incentive to industry, and all motive to honourable ambition — that where there is no law, science will languish and the arts decay ; factories will be closed, commerce will dismantle her ships, capital will hide itself, credit, and all that is built upon it, will die, confidence between man and man will be destroyed; and in place of thrift and comfort, there will be universal suspicion and distrust, violence and misery. These views are familiar to you. In so far as they go, they are right views. And while they may undoubtedly be entertained and acted upon by individuals who are not under the control of religious principle, it is no less obvious that they are the views which a Christian lawyer must take of his profession. It is the uniform and necessary tendency of Christianity to expand and liberalize the mind, while it informs the conscience. It is the essential habit of men who live under its influence, to connect all themes, all interests, all pursuits, with the great First Cause. And such men, when called to the Bar, must belie every prin- ciple of their new nature, if, instead of framing a compre- hensive and dignified estimate of the profession, they dwarf it down into a system of legerdemain, or an arena for gla- diatorial shows. It would not be easy to exaggerate the value of personal religion in the actual practice of your profession. Whether * Mr. Burke. 12 regard be had to its temptations, its trials, or its duties, to the dangers to be shunned or the difficulties to be met ; in every view, religion must be considered as of the last importance. It will not, it is true, supply the absence of the requisite intellectual furniture; it will neither confer learning, nor genius, nor eloquence. But it will do much to correct the evil tempers, and shield from the temptations, which are so often fatal to the youthful aspirant at the Bar ; and to foster those moral qualities and habits on which respectability and success largely depend. Among these qualities are self-control, benevolence, candour, kindness of heart, and a love of truth and justice. That the characters of individuals who make no pretensions to personal religion arc sometimes graced with these attributes, is readily con- ceded ; but it is a circumstance too certain and too serious to be overlooked, that a large part of the virtue current in the world, is the virtue rather of education, of habit, of interest, of listless conformity to the prevailing usages of society, than the virtue of principle. Mr. Coleridge has expressed this thought with his customary felicity, in lan- guage which, with very little alteration, would be quite as applicable to our country as to England. " It would furnish grounds both for humility towards Providence, and for increased attachment to our country, if each individual could but see and feel how large a part of his innocence he owes to his birth, breeding, and residence in Great Britain. The administration of the laws; the almost continual preaching of moral prudence; the number and respecta- bility of our sects ; the pressure of our ranks on each other, with the consequent reserve and watchfulness of 13 demeanor in the superior ranks and the emulation in the subordinate; the vast depth, expansion, and systematic movements of our trade; and the consequent inter-depen- dence, the arterial, or nerve-like nct-tvork of property, which make every deviation from outward integrity a cal- culable loss to the individual himself from its mere effects, as obstruction and irregularity ; and, lastly, the naturalness of doing as others do : these, and the like influences, pecu- liar, some in the kind, and all in the degree, to this privi- leged Island, are the buttresses on which our foundationless well-doing is upheld, even as a house of cards, the architec- ture of our infancy, in which each is upheld by all."* It is in no censorious spirit that the opinion is expressed, that much of the "well-doing" among ourselves rests upon no firmer " buttresses" than these. Better indeed is it for society, far better, that it should be leavened with this dilute and fickle morality, than given up to the sway of rampant wickedness. But few will venture to deny, that the exigen- cies of our probationary state can be adequately met only by a morality which reposes on the impregnable basis of religion. The vicissitudes of life are too painful, its conflicts too violent, and its seductions too captivating, for unassisted humanity: man must be endowed with a celestial virtue, and sustained by an Almighty arm, if he would " keep himself unspotted from the world," and live as a ra- tional and immortal being should live. And the duties of an advocate especially involve so constant and so severe a trial of character, that even on the ground of personal reputation and peace of mind, no lawyer should be willing * Lay Sermon. 14 to dispense with tlie invaluable aid AYliich Christianity offers him. With other men, controversy is an incidental and occa- sional thing; with you, it is the business of life. Contro- versy is your vocation; and it is no ordinary degree of watchfulness that can preserve you from forming a petulant or imperious temper, the common vice of controversialists. No less open is the profession to the incursions of jealousy and "lean-faced envy." These twin-vipers haunt every Bar. They insinuate their venom not unfrequently into the most powerful minds ; and where they have once se- cured a domicil, they can be driven out, like other demons, only by prayer and fasting. Is it necessary to observe, that the only effectual antidote to these vagrant tempers is to be found in the Gospel of Christ; and that the shortest and best way to acquire the mastery of one's own spirit — that most rare and difficult achievement — is, to have every power and thought brought into subjection to the will of God? There is perhaps no sphere in which integrity is of greater value, and none where it is more rigorously tested, than at the Bar. The temptations to swerve from it are of daily recurrence, and arc sometimes clothed with a most specious garb. The profession has to do chiefly with two classes of persons — the wronged and wrong-doers. And to deal with either, as their confidential adviser, in a perfectly frank, straight-forward, and kind manner, demands a stern and lofty virtue. We know how difficult this is even in private life; and the difficulty must be greatly increased where the parties bear to each other the relation of client 15 and counsel. Among men who live by the law, who look to it for a support and for fame, the inducements must be very strong to encourage litigation. It has always been the opprobrium of the profession, that it was infested by individuals who were ready on all occasions to pander to the basest passions, and to become the instruments of the avaricious, the revengeful, and the hard-hearted in oppress- ing their victims. Such men, unhappily, rarely want for clients. For the race described by Addison is not yet extinct — a race of whom he observes, "the law of the land is their gospel, and all their cases of conscience are deter- mined by their attorney." He adds, in that tone of quiet sarcasm, so peculiar to himself, " As for such as are insen- sible of the concerns of others, but merely as they affect themselves, these men are to be valued only for their mor- tality, and as we hope better things from their heirs."* And this is just the principle which controls the sort of lawyers in question. It is neither the love of justice nor any real regard for their clients, which makes them the ready abettors of litigation. Their employers, in many instances, become their victims, and discover too late the secret of their pretended zeal for their wounded honour or damaged fortunes. What we require in the legal profession, is, men of prin- ciple— men whose rule of conduct shall be, not the conven- tional code of morals which may happen to have been adopted by their caste, but the law of God. The circum- stances in which individuals ordinarily come to you, make it a matter of the highest moment, that they should be able * Spectator, No. 456. 16 to repose entire confidence in your integrity, your discre- tion, and I may add, your delicacy of feeling. For wliat are these circumstances? They come to you smarting under real or imaginary wrongs, and burning with resent- ment— or affrighted at the thought of a prosecution they have incurred by their misconduct. They come to solicit your assistance in despoiling others of their property, or in repelling aggressions upon their own — to ask you, to ex- haust the penalties of the law in wringing the "pound of flesh" from an unfortunate debtor — to protect their defence- less and terrified families from the tyranny of the great — to shield them from the tongue of the defamer — to help them in defrauding their creditors, or in garnishing their rent and blasted characters. These, and such as these, are the errands on which men invoke your aid. They come when they are in trouble — in doubt — in danger — when they are doing wrong or suffering Avrong — consumed Avith remorse or on fire with revenge — when they are anxious and excited, and, not seldom, incapable of acting for themselves. What are you to do ? Are you to inflame still further their ex- cited feelings by expatiating on their alleged injuries ? Are you to pry open the innermost chambers of their agitated bosoms, that you may afterwards use what you have seen there to bend them to your sordid purposes? Are you to join hands with them in their schemes of detraction and dishonesty ? Are you with eager haste to assure them that the case admits of no compromise — that the law will award them full redress, and they should be satisfied with nothing less? Are you to bring the cause into court, and employ all the arts of chicanery, such as brow-beating the wit- 17 nesses, misquoting authorities, perverting the testimony, and appealing to the baser passions or the political preju- dices of the jury — to conceal the merits of the question and secure a favourable verdict? This surely is not the treat- ment your clients have a right to expect from you. The law has made you our advisers. We have no alternative when we are in trouble but to come to you ; and if we would perpetrate a wrong under colour of law, we can do it only through your agency. You are bound then — bound not merely by your relations to us, but by your paramount obligations to society — to deal honestly and kindly by us. If you think we are in error in proposing to institute a suit, it is incumbent on you to tell us so. If you believe an equitable compromise can be effected, you should suggest it. If you perceive that we have made no estimate of the con- tingent consequences of the litigation we demand, you should point them out. Instead of inflaming, you should endeavour to mollify our resentments. Instead of advising us as we may wish to be advised, you should advise us according to the truth and equity of the case. When we repair to you in the first instance, it is as counsellors, not as advocates. And it is none the less your duty to give us faithful counsel, though it may not chime in with our hopes or purposes. If a surgeon orders an amputation where his patient expected a cataplasm, he discharges his conscience whether the patient acquiesces or not. And when we come to you with a question of property, liberty, or life, we have a right to look for the same candour, however we may treat your counsel. Should you take up the cause, whether on vour own con- 18 viction or from our solicitation, it is no less due to us and to society, that you should conduct it throughout in a fair and honourable manner. It is not meant by this that a lawyer is to assume the functions of a judge, and take both parties under his protection. He stands before the court as the representative of one of the parties, and he is bound to omit no legitimate means which may promise to benefit his client. He may suggest arguments which are not con- clusive to his own mind: the court will allow them their due weight. He may seize upon technical informalities in the proceedings of the other side. He may avail himself of all the advantages which the law will allow him for vin- dicating his client and baffling his opponent. But he may not bring into the conduct of his cause a malicious or vindictive spirit. He may not needlessly blacken the cha- racter of the opposing party. He must not impugn the veracity of witnesses, whose only fault has been their modesty or their timidity. He must not seek to carry his cause by misrepresenting the facts, or by poisoning the minds of the court and jury against the antagonist client on personal or party grounds, aside from the merits of the issue on trial. These, and all similar expedients, are incompatible with that integrity which is at once the orna- ment of the Bar and the safeguard of our rights. And they will disappear just in proportion as our courts become transfused with the purity and benignity which accompany a cordial reception of the gospel. Occasions not unfrequently arise in the practice of the law, which call for a high degree of inoral courage. The most ill-assorted parties appear before the tribunals. The 19 advocate may be called upon to espouse the cause of some obscure woman against the exactions of an opulent land- lord. He may be required to enforce the law against an intractable tenant who has sought to elude the payment of his rent by raising the Agrarian cry, and getting others to raise it, of "oppression" and "persecution." It may become his duty to arraign some individual of eminent station, who has depredated upon the public purse, or employed a corporate institution for swindling purposes on a gigantic scale, with the expectation that wealth and family influence would shield him from the legal penalties of his crimes. He may be obliged to undertake the defence of a person who has made himself obnoxious both to the government and the people. The press may with one voice demand his condemnation. The populace, unwilling to await the slow process of a judicial investigation, may be panting to wreak their vengeance upon him. The Bench itself may bend before the whirlwind, and reveal by no ambiguous auguries, its purpose to abandon the victim to his fate. But the law is with him; and the blow which smites him to the earth, will shatter the pillars of the con- stitution. Shall his counsel desert him ? He cannot desert him. His own professional prospects, the very bread which is to keep his family from starvation, may be imperilled with his client; but he cannot give him up. To his eye he is the very impersonation of the law. The oflSce Provi- dence has laid upon him, is not so much the vindication of the prisoner at the bar, as the protection of the State. He stands there, the sponsor of that helpless man, to guard the rights of thousands of citizens who sit quietly by their fire- 20 sides, anxious only to hear that the jury have convicted him — nay, to defend the liberties of the infuriated multi- tude who throng the avenues of the court-room, and show by their looks and gestures how bitterly they resent this effort to deprive them of their prey. Whatever may be the consequences to himself, he will not betray his client ; and if he could stoop to that meanness, he would still have too much patriotism not to shield him, if possible, from a poignard's thrust, which could not reach him without piercing the vitals of his country. It would be claiming too much for religion to affirm that this high moral courage can exist only in connexion with personal piety. Examples to the contrary would instantly occur to the minds of my legal auditors. Among these, the name of Lord Erskine would certainly be conspicuous. Every lawyer must be familiar with the maiden speech of this great orator ; that speech which brought thirty briefs into his hands before he left Westminster Hall, and which his noble biographer characterizes as "the most wonderful forensic effort" of which there is any account in the British annals. "It was the dthut (he adds) of a barrister just called and wholly unpractised in public speaking — before a court crowded with the men of the greatest distinction, belonging to all parties in the State. He came after four eminent counsel, who might be sup- posed to have exhausted the subject. He was called to order by a venerable judge, whose word had been law in that Hall above a quarter of a century. His exclamation [when Lord Mansfield told him that Lord Sandwich, whose name he had introduced, 'was not before the court,'] 'I 21 will bring him before tlie Court,' and the crushing denun- ciation of Lord Sandwich, in which he was enabled to per- severe, from the sympathy of the by-standers, and even of the judges, who in strictness ought again to have checked his irregularity — are as soul-stirring as any thing in this species of eloquence presented to us by ancient or modern times," * In so far as strictly forensic efforts are concerned, this last remark may be allowed to pass ; but Lord Campbell might find examples of still greater intrepidity in a volume with which he must be very conversant. One of these, is the case of the three Jews at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The king summoned them before him and commanded them to worship the image he had set up, or be cast into a burn- ing fiery furnace. This was a question of life or death ; and they must decide it without hope of fame or fortune — without the support derived from the sympathy of a crowded court-room, or the ill-concealed admiration of the Bench itself — from the plaudits of a powerful press or the prospect of professional honours — in a word, without any of those collateral but invaluable aids which sustained Erskine in his sublime effort. And what was their decision? It ran thus, in words of quiet strength and majesty which even at this distance of time cannot be read by any one who is susceptible of admiration, without deep emotion. " 0 Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, 0 king. But if not, be it * Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors. 4 22 known unto thee, 0 Idng, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." (Dan. iii. 16-18.) This was the courage inspired by faith. To comment on it, would be but a poor compliment to my hearers. There is a kindred example in the New Testament — a forensic example — on a theatre no less august in Judea, than the Court of King's Bench is in England. I refer to the speech of the Apostle Peter before the great Sanhe- drim, that memorable scene in which the parties exchanged places, and the prisoner, arraigning his judges, brought home to them, in a few words of eloquent and withering rebuke, the most flagrant of all crimes, the murder of their Messiah. (Acts iv. 5-12.) This again was the intrepidity inspired by true religion. For no longer before than the evening prior to the crucifixion, this same Peter, who now stood up before the high priest and rulers of the Jews, and charged them with this atrocious wickedness, had himself denied his Master with cursing and oaths. So mighty was the transformation which the baptism of the Spirit had wrought in this ardent and affectionate but hitherto timid disciple. And a similar change is gradually effected in the characters of all who experience the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. Religion may not at once convert every lion into a lamb, nor every lamb into a lion ; but it is the true nurse as well of courage as of meekness. The fear of God is the best antidote to the fear of man. And in pro- portion as the legal profession becomes pervaded with this principle, will it be adorned with exhibitions of genuine heroism, like those we have been contemplating. 23 Some allusion has been made to the temptations "which beset the path of the advocate. The annals of almost every Bar will bear melancholy attestation to the dangers to which the profession is exposed from this source. It would be quite pertinent to the present discussion, to show that religion offers the only effectual shield against these dangers; that a firm faith is the best of all equipments to protect the members of the profession from those entice- ments to dissipation, and the more subtle enticements to dishonesty, which have proved fatal to so many of their brethren. But I have already trespassed too long upon your patience, and must waive this topic, with several others no less worthy of attention. My object has been to show the great value of personal religion, its professional value, so to speak, in the practice of the law. It is not denied that examples may be found at the Bar, of eminent moral worth and distinguished success, dissociated from real piety. But it is contended that even in cases of this sort, religion would impart an additional lustre to the character; while its influence, if dif- fused throughout the body, would be most advantageously felt in removing the prevalent vices and defects of the pro- fession, and augmenting all those virtues which make it one of the chief supports and ornaments of a refined civilization. What the profession would be if it were consecrated by the pervading power of a vital Christianity, may be inferred from the instances occasionally presented, of men who com- bine the noblest intellectual gifts, the most accurate and profound knowledge of jurisprudence, rhetorical abilities of a high order, the purest affections, and the greatest 24 amenity of manners, with an culiglitencd and unosten- tatious piety. Such an example of the theme on ■which we have been meditating, has been before the eyes of the Philadelphia Bar for the last half century. Amidst the tears of the pro- fession and the regrets of this whole community, death has lately set his irreversible seal upon it. The incorruptible virtue, the radiant example, the untarnished fame, of Charles Chavxcey, have become part of the moral trea- sure of his country. It is not for me to pronounce his eulogy: that can be done only by one of his peers. But where providence and grace conspire to form a character of so much excellence, it is due no less to the munificent Being ■who made him what he was, than to the profession he adorned, that some of his moral qualities should be held up, even though in a transient and imperfect way, to the study and imitation of his junior brethren. More than this I shall not attempt to do. I leave it for others to sketch his intellectual attributes and his legal acquii-ements : my office is to speak of him, and that briefly, as a CJin'stian. The prime quality in Mr. Chauncey's character, was his integrity. This is as much associated with his name, wherever he was known, as justice is with that of Aristides. It is impossible to speak of him without thinking of it : as it was impossible to converse with him without feeling that you had to do with a man of inflexible probity. If there are men who are honest from policy or interest— who are honest in great matters but lax in small matters — whose perceptions of right and wrong are quick and accm'ate on 25 questions affecting other people's affairs, but misty and obtuse where self is concerned — he was not one of them. He was upright on principle, and from preference. The love of truth and right was part of his being. He could not have been divested of it without destroying his identity. He carried it, therefore, into every relation and circum- stance of life. It controlled his most trivial pecuniary transactions; it presided over every scene of social enjoy- ment, even those in which he gave full play to his refined and ardent affections ; it breathed through every sentence he uttered at the bar, whether in one of those luminous and eloquent arguments with which he often captivated the court and jury, or in those incidental passages between opposing counsel — the by-play of a trial — in which truth- ful men sometimes exceed the limits of sober verity. His clients knew that the advice he gave them, was given in all sincerity and was designed for their good, however counter it might be to their wishes. The bench and the jury knew that they were listening to a man who was a stranger to deception and finesse — a man who, though liable, like all other men, to -err, could not act a part — who, when he spoke, uttered his real convictions, and believed what he was trying to make them believe. There have been law- yers whose professional has been as distinct from their personal character, as the wig and gown of an English barrister from the barrister himself; and courts and juries have instinctively, when they rose to speak, recognized their two-fold nature. But they never mistook Mr. Chaun- cey for one of this hybrid race. In him the union between the advocate and the man was not, as in the other case, a 26 mere mechanical conjunction, like that which held together the different parts of Nebuchadnezzar's image, but a che- mical combination — an intermixture of the elements of the one with the elements of the other. His speeches, there- fore, carried with them all the weight of personal convic- tion— and that, in the case of a man so eminent as well for his ability and his wisdom as for his integrity, was often more than half the battle. It were well for the younger men in the profession, to consider the great value of such a reputation for integrity, simply as a means of success. They may gain an occasional triumph by deviating from the line of strict rectitude; and the prospect of winning an important cause, may seduce them into the use of unfair weapons. But a few victories achieved in this way will ruin, or at least seriously injure, them. To a young lawyer, character is every thing. It is character, not learning, not astuteness, not eloquence, which is the basis of confidence: and "confidence," espe- cially the confidence of clients and judges and juries, is "a plant of slow growth." It is a sensitive plant too: its leaves will begin to curl and wither with the first rude breath of deceit and equivocation. The youthful advocate, flushed with an ill-gotten triumph, little divines what an impression he has made on that stern jurist on the bench, and even upon these emulous associates who throng around him with their congratulations. They may well congratu- late a rival whose ovation, like those the Venetians used to accord to their heroes, is the pledge of his early downfall. Let those who stand on the threshold of this noble profes- sion, learn from the example of that eminent, man whose 27 loss we now deplore, that virtue is the highest wisdom — that virtue, especially, which has God for its author and end, the word of God for its rule of duty, and the love of God for its animating principle. In this divine endowment, they may see one of the chief implements of his success. He has vindicated the profession from the vulgar cavil, that no strictly honest man can be a lawyer ; and shown that the Bar forms no exception to the rule, that the path of virtue is the path to honour. In some pregnant crisis of your history, when temptation proflfers you its golden fruit, "Fair to the eye, inviting to tlie taste," and you are just saying to yourselves, " What hinders then " To reach, and feed at once both body and mind ?" it may recover you from your perilous position, to recall the name of one who maintained an unspotted reputation amidst the conflicts and enticements of the Bar for up- wards of fifty years, and whose pure fame is unsullied by a single mean or dishonourable action. Mr. Chauncey was no less distinguished for his benevo- lence than his integrity. I do not allude in this remark merely to the charity which goes out in alms-giving, or in contributions to ecclesiastical and religious objects. This, when prompted by right motives, is a charity of high esteem in the sight of God: indeed, our Saviour teaches us that if we are destitute of it, we may scarcely presume to think we are Christians. But the benevolence of Mr. Chauncey in- cluded a great deal more than this. He was essentially an unselfish man. He had a heart as well as a head. And 28 his heart was hirge enough to take in some others besides his own family and immediate friends. He was always ready to employ his great powers for the relief of the poor, the injured, the helpless ; to extend to them "the charity of time, labour, and attention; the protection of those whose resources are feeble, and the information of those whose knowledge is small." This was so well understood, that there was probably no man in this community who was so much resorted to for counsel. He was so wise, so candid, so kind, and entered so readily into the circumstances and feelings of his clients, that people of all descriptions sought his advice on all sorts of subjects. Who that has entered his ante-room during his office-hours, has not been struck with the variety of characters assembled there to solicit his aid. Distinguished counsellors, young lawyers, and possibly grave judges, with their vexed questions, capitalists seeking investments, embarrassed merchants, guardians perplexed to know what to do with their wards, parents to consult him about their children, widows anxious to secure their little property, together with suitors of various kinds — such were the groups that not unfrequently met at his levees. And they went there because they knew they could confide to him domestic matters which they would scarcely breathe into the ear of another human being; and that when they had stated their case to him, he would give them judicious advice made doubly acceptable by the manner in which it was given. He might, without presumption, have appropria- ted the language of Job : "When the ear heard me, then it blessed me ; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the 29 fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The bless- ing of him that was ready to perish came upon me ; and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on right- eousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor ; and the cause which I knew not I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and I plucked the spoil out of his teeth." Among all the monumental memorials which grace our cemeteries, there is not one which might with more propriety receive these words as its epitaph, than the tomb of Charles Chauncey. Mr. Chauncey's manners, it has been intimated, partook of the kindness of his nature. Instead of that hauteur and reserve which great men sometimes assume, and which make them appear greater than they are, like objects seen through a mist, his manners presented a felicitous combina- tion of dignity and ease, with simplicity and benevolence. In this respect, as well as in the genial warmth of his affec- tions and his earnest sympathy with suffering humanity, he closely resembled that illustrious man. Dr. Chalmers. For so free was this great philosopher and divine from ostenta- tion and assumption — so perfectly accessible — so prompt t(> enter with an unaffected interest into the topics of the pass- ing hour — that his guest might, for the time, almost forget his greatness in his goodness. Am I wrong in the conjec- ture, that many a man who has hesitatingly approached Mr. Chauncey as a counsellor, has been made to feel during their first interview, that his counsellor was no less his friend? "If a man," says Lord Bacon, "be gracious and 5 30 courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them: if he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm : if he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot." These were marked traits in the character of our revered friend. And you will justify me in appropriating to him the beautiful sketch Mr. Addison has drawn of a great light* of the English law. "His life was, in every part of it, set off with that graceful modesty and reserve, which made his virtues more beautiful the more they were cast in such agreeable shades. His great humanity ap- peared in the minutest circumstances of his conversation. You found it in the benevolence of his aspect, the com- placency of his behaviour, and the tone of his voice. His great application to the severer studies of the law had not infected his temper with anything positive or litigious ; he did not know what it was to wrangle on indifferent points, to triumph in the superiority of his understanding, or to be supercilious on the side of truth. He joined the greatest delicacy of good breeding, to the greatest strength of reason. By improving the sentiments of a person with whom he conversed, in such particulars as were just, he won him over from those points in which he was mistaken; and had so agreeable a way of conveying knowledge, that w^hoever conferred with him grew the wiser, without per- ceiving that he had been instructed. His principles were * Lord Somers, 31 founded in reason and supported by virtue, and therefore did not lie at the mercy of ambition, avarice, or resent- ment." It has been intimated that no portraiture would be at- tempted, in the present service, of Mr. Chauncey's public or private life, I may be allowed to pause for a moment, before concluding this very imperfect notice of some of his prominent virtues, to remark on one or two features of his professional career. He abstained from taking an active part in politics; and with a single exception, that of his con- sentincr to sit as a member of the Convention for revising the Constitution of this State, he uniformly declined pub- lic office. It would certainly be unfortunate for the coun- try if all our ablest lawyers should adopt the same line of conduct. But the example may suggest a wholesome lesson to the junior portion of the Bar. Xo man can expect to be- come an eminent lawyer, who does not, for at least a score of years or more, confine himself rigidly to his profession. The temptation to embark in politics is very great, espe- cially under a government like ours; and it has proved fatal to the hopes of many a young lawyer of brilliant talents. The rewards of jurisprudence, like the choicest crystals of the Alps, are too remote and too difficult of access, to be secured by any precarious and inconstant exertions. The path which leads to them is narrow and rugged, obstructed with rocks and exposed to avalanches : and he who suflFers himself to be intimidated by dangers, or diverted into by-paths in quest of flowers, must make up his mind to relinquish the jewels to his competitors. — This sub- 32 ject is too large to be discussed here; but I could not refrain from making a brief allusion to it. The only other topic to which I shall advert in this con- nection, is, Mr. Chauncey's respect for the Sabbath. To his eye, the Sabbath bore the King's image and superscrip- tion : and he had no sympathy either with the presumption which would seize upon "the Lord's day" and appropriate it to private ends, or with the mock loyalty which glories in rendering to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, while it denies to God the things that are God's. Accepting in its just import that much-abused saying of our Saviour's, "the Sabbath was made for man," with his characteristic reve- rence for law, he studiously consecrated it to the purposes prescribed by its beneficent Donor — to the concerns of the soul, and the sublime realities of the life which awaits us beyond the grave. And to these well-spent Sabbaths we must look for many of the influences which contributed to mould as well his intellectual and social, as his elevated moral character. The example is instructive. There is no need of assu- ming— it would be discourteous and unjust to assume — that the Bar stands in special need of admonition on this subject. But neither will it be claimed that the Bar is quite guiltless of that disposition to secularize the first day of the week, which has infected all other professions. The temptation to do this, constitutes, in fact, one of the chief snares to which the members of the profession are exposed. Could the truth be revealed, it might be found that no inconside- rable portion of our able and rising lawyers were more or 33 less in the habit of appropriating a part of the Sabbath to the study and arrangement of their cases. They forget that there is a law in existence paramount to all earthly legislation: nor are they struck with the incongruity of preparing themselves to expound and enforce human statutes, by treading under foot the law of God. The per- nicious consequences which flow from this practice, are manifold. It weakens the moral sense. No man can habitually or frequently set at nought a Divine ordinance, without blunting his conscience and impairing his reverence for the authority of God. He who begins by taking half the Sabbath for his professional business, will be likely in the end to take the whole. And how is it possible for an individual to treat one item of the decalogue as a nullity, without lessening his respect for all its other provisions, and indeed for the whole religious system of which the two tables are the moral code? "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." For the law, though presented to us in distinct categories, is essentially one; and to violate any part of it, is really to violate the whole, just as he breaks a large mirror who only throws a pebble through one corner of it. The wilful breach of any single provision, involves, also, a contempt for that authority on which the entire law rests. And it moreover indicates a disposition which, under like provoca- tion, would set at nought any other of its enactments. The practice in question, removes a man from all the wholesome influences of the sanctuary. But not to dwell on the peril in which the neglect of the house of God puts the salvation of the soul, we can none of us afford to dis- 34 pense with the collateral benefits which flow from the due observance of the Sabbath. If any confidence is to be placed in the opinion of eminent physiologists, the Sabbath law, though a positive institute, has its foundation in the nature of man. It is no arbitrary decree, but an ordinance indispensable to the proper culture and developement of his physical and mental powers, and to his social happiness. The tendency of an uninterrupted devotion to earthly pur- suits, is, to debase the character and to induce premature exhaustion and decay. The Sabbath comes to us, as an angel of mercy, to withdraw us, at stated intervals, from the secularities with which we are engrossed — to recruit our wearied frames — to let in upon our souls and upon our concerns the light of eternity — to revive our fading im- pressions of spiritual objects — to bring us into communion with the Father of our spirits — and to remind us of what we are so prone to forget, that " 'Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die." The appeal might be safely made to gentlemen who have long stood in the very front rank at our own Bar, Avhether they have not derived the greatest advantages from the tranquilizing and refreshing influence of the Sabbath, in seasons when they have been well nigh overwhelmed with the pressure of their business. And all experience shows how keenly nature resents any attempt to despoil her of that periodic rest which is her inalienable birthright. There are doubtless exceptions, but it will generally be found that lawyers who devote the whole seven days to 35 business, pay the penalty of their error, either in a loss of health or in falling a prey to vicious indulgences. The overtasked constitution gives way under a load it was never designed to bear. Their recuperative energies are para- lysed. Physical debility is followed by mental depression. The nervous system acquires a morbid sensitiveness; and men of a serene and amiable temper and bland address, become irritable, harsh, and repulsive. Not unfrequently, stimulating drinks are invoked to inspire the strength demanded by urgent professional duties ; and by degrees, the occasional expedient becomes a daily necessity, and the victim hastens with accelerated pace to a dishonour- ed grave. In other instances, the nerves become more and more disordered until reason is dethroned; and the once gifted advocate only lives to excite the pity of the Bar he adorned, or awakens their profounder sorrow by his suicidal death. You will not require illustrations. The wrecks are scattered all along the shore you are coasting: and even those who have but just cleared the port and spread their sails to the breeze, may deem themselves happy if they have not come in sight of some of them. If I should select a single example, it would be that of an English barrister, the splendour of whose forensic abilities was enhanced by his private virtues — I mean. Sir Samuel Romilly. My legal auditors are of course familiar with the history of this eminent person and with his disastrous end. It was the opinion of his illustrious contemporary and friend, Mr. AVilberforce, that the fit of insanity in Avhich he terminated his life, 36 though immediately owing to a sad domestic bereavement, •was remotely induced by his uninterrupted devotion to busi- ness, without allowing himself even the repose of the Sab- bath. In writing to a friend, he says, "I am strongly im- pressed by the recollection of your endeavour to prevail upon the lawyers to give up Sunday consultations, in which poor Romilly would not concur." Four years after his death, Lord Castlereagh came to the same untimely end. When "VVilberforce heard of it, he exclaimed, "Poor fellow! he was certainly deranged — the effect, probably, of continued wear of mind. The strong impression on my mind is, that it is the effect of the non-observance of the Sabbath ; both as to abstracting from politics and from the constant recur- ring of the same reflections, and as correcting the false views of worldly things, and bringing them down to their true diminutiveness." "It is curious to hear the news- papers speaking of incessant application to business ; for- getting that by the weekly admission of a day of rest which our Maker has enjoined, our faculties would be pre- served from the effect of this constant strain." Being again reminded by the death of Castlereagh, of Sir Samuel Romilly, he said "If he had suffered his mind to enjoy such occasional remission, it is highly probable that the strings of life would never have snapped from over-tension." Let me dismiss this topic by quoting the testimony of one whose name has never been mentioned but with venera- tion, in either hemisphere — Lord Chief Justice Hale. " I have found by a strict and diligent observation, that a due observance of the duty of this day, [Sunday] hath ever 37 had joined to it a blessing upon the rest of my time ; and the week that hath been so begun, hath been blessed and prosperous to me ; and, on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week has been unsuccessful and unhappy to my own secular employments ; so that I could easily make an estimate of my successes in my own secular employments the week following, by the manner of my passing this day : and this I do not write lightly or inconsiderately, but upon a long and sound observation and experience." It has been implied in every line of this sketch, that Mr. Chauncey was a sincere and decided Christian. He not only received the Bible as a divine revelation, but embraced its doctrines with a cordial faith, and made its precepts the rule of his conduct. Deeply persuaded of his own partici- pation in the common ruin of the race, and of the insuflfi- ciency of any works or sacrifices of his own to propitiate a holy God, he sought salvation through the blood of the Lamb, and made the righteousness of Christ the sole ground of his hope of pardon and eternal life.* His piety was equally removed from the spurious liberality which homologates all creeds and sects, and the bigotry which confounds the door of its own narrow pale, with the only door that leads into the fold of Christ. It pervaded every part of his character, and had much to do in forming him to that wonderful symmetry — that harmony of all the powers and susceptibilities of his nature — which made him * Mr. Chauncey was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church in this city. 6 38 so compJH(\ I liad almost said, in the Inngunge of the text, so "perfect" a man. It revealed itself not so much in a specific substantive form, as by its influence upon the Avhole man ; like a light behind a beautiful transparency which, unseen itself, ilkiminates every line of the artist's cunning handiwork. It might be detected in his temper, his con- duct, his manners, in all that he did, and in all that he said. No trumpet nor phylactery was needed to announce its presence: his serene and venerable aspect, his suavity, his cheerfulness, his overflowing kindness, his prompt and generous interest in others' wants and sorrows, and the whole tone of his conversation, whether on public aff"airs or matters of personal concern — all betrayed the commerce of his soul with heaven, and awakened the feeling, " Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth." This great and good man has gone to his reward. Full of years and full of honours, in the maturity of all his powers and without any exhibition of human infirmity, he has been gathered to his fathers. Life's work was done, and well done; and we cannot doubt that he has received that crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to all them that love his appearing. I may not invade the sanctity of the domestic circle, to speak of the void his death has caused there. The time forbids me to enlarge on the public loss we have ex- perienced as a community. The legal profession have shown that they were not insensible to the greatness of their bereavement. They can best estimate their obligations to one who employed his varied talents through a long life, in maintaining the high character of the Philadelphia Bar ; 39 ami who, without (lisparagement to the living or the dead, did at least as much as any other individual, to preserve unimpaired its reputation for sound learning, superior abilities, incorruptible probity, and urbanity of manners. The trust confided to him and his contemporaries, (of some of whom who survive, delicacy forbids more to be said than that they were worthy to be his partners in such a trust,) is now, in so far as he was concerned, to be devolved on the younger members of the profession. It is an honourable distinction to be made the keepers of a deposit which has passed through the hands of such men as Ingersoll and the Tilghmans, Rawle and Chauncey. But the post of honour is always a post of responsibility. And there is but one way. Gentlemen, in which you can acquit yourselves of your high functions with dignity and success. The character of the Bar must depend on the characters of its members. Personal purity and refinement will insure professional in- tegrity and courtesy. It is the prerogative of religion to make and keep men pure, and to confer that refinement of feeling for which good breeding can only substitute a grace- ful address — in other words, to make men what good breed- ing requires them to appear to be. The morality which is divorced from godliness, however specious and captivating to the eye, is superficial and deceptive. The morality you require, "the only morality (I use the language of an eminent compeer of the venerated Chauncey, whose name and fame we instinctively associate with his own,) — the only morality that is clear in its source, pure in its pre- cepts, and efiicacious in its influences, is the morality of the Gospel. All else, at last, is but idolatry — the worship 40 of something of man's own creation, and that thing im- perfect and feeble like himself, and wholly insufficient to give him support and strength."* Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then — receive and rest upon Him as your Saviour — and you will have the best preparation for the duties and trials of this life, and the only adequate preparation for the life to come. * The Hon. John Sergeant. THE END. DISCOURSE LIFE AND CHARACTEE DANIEL WEBSTER. H. A. BOARDMAN, D.D. PHILADELPHIA: JOSEPH M. WILSON. 228 CHESTNUT STREET. 18 52. C. S n E R M A X, r R I N T E B, 19 St. James Street. CORRESPONDENCE. Phii-adelpiiia, November 26, 1852. To THE Keverend Henry A. Boardman, D.D. Rev'erend and dear Sir : — We beg leave most respectfully to ask the favour of you to fur- nish for publication a copy of your discourse, delivered on Monday evening last, upon the life and character of Daniel Webster. We think it important that this graphic and eloquent tribute to the memory of the departed Statesman should be preserved in an en- during form. It may have a salutary influence upon many aspirants for political distinction, to know that devoted and patriotic services are appreciated, after the actors have passed away; and it may comfort and strengthen the faith of the humble Christian, when he sees the efficacy of his holy religion so triumphantly illustrated in the trying hour of death. With sentiments of high respect and regard, We are your friends and fellow-citizens, R. C. Grier. Charles Gilpin. Jno. K. Kane. John A. Brown. Geo. Sharswood. James Dundas. OsAVALD Thompson. Charles Macalester. J. K. Mitchell, M.D. Hugh L. Hodge, M.D. Evans Rogers. S. F. Smith. Arthur G. Coffin. Nathaniel Chauncey. John S. Riddle. Henry D. Gilpin. Is.^AC Hazlehurst. Frederick Brown. Philadelphia, November 29, 1852. Gentlemen : — I thank you sincerely for your very kind note, requesting for publication a copy of my discourse on the life and character of Daniel Webster, and have pleasure in placing the manuscript at your disposal. I remain, Gentlemen, With great respect. Your friend and servant, H, A. BOARDMAN. To the Hon. Robert C. Grier, Hon. Charles Gilpin, Hon. John K. Kane, Hon. George Sharswood, Hon. Oswald Thompson, John A. Brown, Esq., And others. DISCOURSE. I CANNOT bring myself to believe that the theme which is now engrossing all minds, should be excluded from the pulpit. We are a smitten nation. The symbols of mourning meet the eye in our crowded cities, in our tranquil villages, in the remotest hamlets of the mountains. " A great man has fallen in Israel !" God has taken from us " the lionourable man, and the coinwellor, and the eloquent orator.''' If such a man is one of the choicest earthly gifts heaven can bestow upon a peo|)le, his removal may well be regarded as one of their greatest bereavements. We are admo- nished that the fall of a sparrow has its lesson of in- struction for us. How inexcusable would it be, should we treat an event like this with indifference. Yet while I recognise the duty upon which I am entering, I shrink from it. I have no hope of convey- ing to your minds my own sense of the magnitude of our loss. Still less can I expect to elude the strictures of those who entertain what may, perhaps, be styled the popular view of the legitimate sphere of the pulpit. But I am pressed with the feeling that I must, as a Pastor, in some way improve this dispensation : that without attempting a formal eulogy on Mr. Webster, which would be in the highest degree presumptuous. I must here record my sense of the invaluable services he has rendered to our common country and our common Christianity, and so endeavour to turn the emotions of sorrow which fill our hearts, to some use- ful account. If I can do nothing more, I must be al- lowed to cast a single flower, however transitory, upon his grave. Many eloquent tongues have already been employed in celebrating Mr. Webster's character and achieve- ments. The most distinguished men of the leading political parties have vied with each other in doing homage to his intellectual greatness, his patriotism, and his private virtues. In respect to the first of these characteristics, he has long been without a rival, the acknowledged head and crown of this nation. A mind like his is a wonderful creation — adapted beyond the sublimest exertions of the Divine power and wisdom in the physical world, to inspire reverential and ador- ing views of the moral perfections of the Deit}^ Its essential elements were comprehension, strength, sa- gacity, and symmetry. Colossal in its proportions, it was nevertheless so well poised that it awakened ad- miration no less by the harmony of its movements than by the grandeur of its several parts. The origi- nal structure of his intellect conspired with the whole current of his training, to define the mission on which Providence had sent him into the world. No other revelation was needed to show that the science of go- VERNMENT was to be the proper study of his life, and that he was ultimately, should he be spared, to take his place among that honourable assemblage — compri- sing, at the end of six thousand years, but a very small number of names — whom the world reveres as Philo- sophic Statesmen. If we except the great New Eng- land Metaphysician and Divine of the last century, Jonathan Edwards, our own country has produced but one mind comparable, in the qualities just noted, to his own ; and that, by an inscrutable Providence, was doomed to a violent extinction just when it had reached the full maturity of its powers. It is the re- cord of history, that Alexander Hamilton''' was " num- bered among statesmen at an age when in others the rudiments of character are scarcely visible ;" and that " America saw with astonishment a lad of seventeen in the rank of her advocates, at a time when her ad- vocates were patriots and sages." Mr. Webster him- self once beautifully said of him, " He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of re- venue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the public credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of Minerva from the brain of Jove, was hardly more sudden or more perfect than the financial system of the United States burst from the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton." If the genius of Webster was not signalized by so precocious a development, it was marked by no less vigour and versatility, and re- * We may fairly claim Hamilton as an American, although he was a native of the small island of Nevis, in the West Indies. sembled it in the rare and happy union of a capacity for the largest generalization, with the utmost patience and penetration in the analysis of details. Like Ham- ilton, too, he was great in the Senate and at the Bar ; his equal as a statesman, certainly not his inferior as an advocate. It has fallen to the lot of but a very few men in either hemisphere to achieve an equal dis- tinction in these two fields at the same time. Mr. Pitt and his illustrious antagonist. Fox, were pre-emi- nent as parliamentary debaters ; but politics left them neither time nor inclination for legal practice. Fox, however, is said to have excited the astonishment and admiration of the judges in arguing questions of law on the trial of Warren Hastings. Erskine, the most eloquent and successful barrister known to the British Bar, had but a second or third rate rank in the House of Commons. But of Webster it was well said by one of the leading members of our Bar, at the late town- meeting, " while the deep tones and the rich volumes of his voice were still almost echoing in the councils of the nation, they were again heard in forensic splen- dour in the highest judicial courts of the nation."* It is a remarkable and striking fact, that the supe- riority here claimed for him should have been conceded by all his contemporaries. Among the resolutions adopted by the New York Bar, on the occasion of his death, was the following : " Resolved, That in the large capacities and varied powers of his intellect, in the culture and discipline of * Josiab Randall, Esq. these powers in the highest sphere of human action and influence, in the fortune of great opportunities and the success of great achievements, Daniel Webster stands first among the men of his day and generation, and his name and his fame will be a treasured posses- sion to his country for ever." This is not an empty j)osthumous com|)liment. It was the feeling, the universal feeling, during his life. In whatsoever part of the Republic, on whatever thea- tre, he was "primus inter pares," the acknowledged chief. On the floor of the Senate, before the tribunals of justice, at public festivals or political convocations, " He above the rest, In shape and gesture proudly eminent, Stood like a tower." No one divided the primacy with him. No one contested it. No one seemed even to envy it. His very presence inspired respect. " It was enough (to borrow the words of an accomplished Enghsh noble- man* who \T.sited our country two years ago) to look on his jutting dark brow and cavernous eyes, and massive forehead, to be assured that they were the abode of as much, if not more, intellectual power than any head you perhaps ever remarked." And when he spoke, the ample promise of his majestic appear- ance was redeemed. You found yourself listening to a consummate orator. Scorning the trickery of mere, * The Earl of Carlisle. 10 declamation, he gave himself to the question in hand with a dignity and earnestness of manner, an afflu- ence and precision of language, a compactness and cogency of reasoning, and a fertility of illustration, which never failed to rivet the attention, rarely to carry conviction to the heart. A master of the Eng- lish tongue, the simplicity of his diction and the purity of his style, made him intelligible to persons of every class. Nor was it possible to listen to him without being instructed. Even in his familiar con- versation you were made to feel that his mind re- volved in a sphere above that occupied by ordinary men. And whatever the subject on which he spoke, you were certain to hear something worth carrying away. It is only an expansion of the topic we have been dwelling upon, to observe that Mr. Webster could speak to the country with an aatJiority which be- longed to none of his eminent associates. This was not the result of any assumed superiority. It was not derived from official station, for it was equally marked during the intervals of his retirement, as when he was in the Senate or the Cabinet, as decisive at Marshfield as at Washington. It was the spontane- ous tribute of his fellow-citizens of all parties to his great abilities, his wisdom, and his known devotion to the Union. Whenever a cloud came down upon our foreign relations, or a threatening crisis approached in our domestic affiiirs, the nation turned, as by a sort of common instinct, to Mr. Webster. There was no man 11 whose opinions at such junctures there was so great a desire to learn ; none Avhose utterances produced so decisive an effect upon the finance and commerce of the country. A few words from him, whether of distrust or of hopefulness, would tell upon every share of stock in Wall Street, upon every cargo of flour at Detroit, and every shipload of cotton at New Orleans. The country knew that he was, beyond any other man, conversant with all its interests and relations ; that he never spoke what he did not fully believe ; and that his words were words of careful deliberation. They relied upon his truthfulness, and this, combined with his extraordinary abilities, was a tower of strength to him. There are able and truthful men who sur- vive him ; but it is no disparagement to them to say. that there is no man living who can stand ujd and speak to the American people as Daniel Webster could, or whose opinions will be sought for in great emergencies, as his were. There was a reason for the confidence which the country at large reposed in him, paramount even to the admiration in which all classes held his trans- cendent abilities. Mr. Webster belonged to the whole country. He was no local politician. He was no mere party man. New Hampshire might boast of the small, one-story farm-house in which he was born. Massachusetts might glory in having him as one of her adopted sons. But he was no man of Massachu- setts— no man of New Hampshire, — he was an Ame- rican. He had of course his geographical ties and 12 associations ; but Warwickshire might as well attempt to monopolise William Shakspeare, or Lincolnshire Sir Isaac Newton, as for any one of our common w^ealths to challenge for itself the name and fame of Daniel Webster. Plis true position was that assigned him in a sentiment offered at a public dinner some eighteen months ago : " The Constitution, and its greatest Ex- pounder— the Union, and its ablest Defender." With a single exception, these are the most honourable titles known to American history ; and by so indisso- luble a tie has the gratitude of his countrymen bound them to his name, that they will go down to posterity with as definitive an application as that which attaches to the " Father of his Country." It is not intended by this language that Mr. Webster was not allied to a party, nor that he did not in his place advocate party measures. But he was not, and, by the necessity of his nature, he could not be a strict party man. Like Burke, whom he resembled in several particulars (his devotion to agriculture among the rest), he was a statesman as distinguished from a politician. And this, if traced to its results, Aiay help to explain why, like Burke, also, he was never (// ice are to believe everytliing loe liear) a popular favourite. If this was a fact, it was because he was too great to be popu- lar. He would not stoop to pamper the vanity and inflame the prejudices of the people. He despised the intrigue and cajolery by which small men and bad men so often rise to power. He was not a man to be bought and sold at the shambles. If the mea- 13 siires of an administration to which he was generally opposed met his approval, he had the rare indepen- dence and magnanimity to support them ; and some of his ablest speeches were made on occasions of this kind. The triumph of party was not the end he lived for. Government was with him not a paltry game of " Who icins and lolto loses,'' but a divine in- stitution, ordained for the most beneficent objects, and essentially connected with the highest happiness of individuals, and the substantial improvement of states. In his view, the problems involved in administration are among the most profound, as its functions are among the most important, which can engage the attention of the human intellect. And it is easy to imagine the secret loathing with which he must have seen these momentous interests made, as they con- stantly are, the sport of the vilest passions, and de- graded to be the very footballs of rival demagogues. The sj)ecial subject to which he applied his powers, was the Constitution of his country. You shall have his own statement on this point : " Gentlemen, to be serious, my life has been a life of severe labour in my profession, and all the portion I could spare of that labour, from the support of my family and myself, has been devoted to the considera- tion of subjects connected with the general history of the country — the Constitution of the country — the confederation out of which the Constitution arose — all the history of all the Congresses which have assembled before and since the formation of that 14 Constitution — and, in short, if I have learned any- thing, or know anything — and I agree it is very little — what I do know and what I do understand, so tar as I understand anything, is the Constitution of the United States, the history of its formation, and the history of its administration under General Wash- ington, and from that time down to this."* It is not too much to say of Mr. Webster, that he surpassed all the men of his generation in his minute familiarity with everything pertaining to the origin and working of our republican charters, and in the profound and varied knowledge, the masculine logic, and the lofty eloquence he brought to the exposition and establishment of them. " The ke}^ to his whole political course is the belief that when the Union is dissolved, the internal peace, the vigorous growth, and the prosperity of the States, and the w^elfare of their inhabitants, are blighted for ever; and that, while the Union endures, all else of trial and calamity which can befall a nation may be remedied or borne."-j- His feeling on this subject w^as so much like that of the immortal statesman with whom he has already been compared, that with two or three slight altera- tions, a passage applied by his eloquent eulogist to Hamilton, might be readily taken as designed for Webster. " He reserved himself for crises which he feared are approaching ; such crises, especially, as may affect the * Speech at Syracuse, New York, May 26th, 1851. t Mr. Everett. 15 integrity of the Union. How he was alarmed by everything which pointed at its dissolution ; how in- dignant were his feelings and language on that ungra- cious topic ; how stern and steady his hostility to every influence which only leaned toward the project, they will attest with whom he was in habits of com- munication. In every shape it encountered his repro- bation, as unworthy of a statesman, as fatal to Ame- rica, and desirable to the desperate alone. One of his primary objects was to consolidate the eftbrts of good men in retarding a calamity which, after all, they may be unable to avert ; but which no partial nor temporary policy should induce them to accele- rate. To these sentiments must be traced his hatred to continental factions; his anxiety for the federal constitution, although, in his judgment, too slight for the pressure which it has to sustain ; his horror of every attempt to sap its foundation or loosen its fabric ; his zeal to consecrate it in the affections of his fellow-citizens, that, if it fall at last, they may be pure from the guilt of its overthrow — an overthrow which may be accomplished in an hour, but of which the woes may be entailed upon ages to come."''* How much his deep solicitude for the Union gave tone and character to Mr. Webster's life and labours, must be known wherever his name is mentioned. The impress of it is upon all his speeches — his funeral eulogies — his great legal arguments. It might even * Dr. Mason's Oration before the Cincinnati, in New York, July 31st, 1804. 16 be detected in the rich tissue of his ordinary conver- sation. You could almost read it in his majestic brow, and his large lustrous, piercing eye.'^ Such had been the course of events that his very presence suggested the idea of the Union. When men saw him, their first thought was of the Constitution ; and there went forth from every breast a spontaneous tribute of veneration and gratitude toward the man who had been so instrumental, under Pr.ovidence, in preserving intact the framework of our unrivalled government."!* Nor has the extent of our obligations to him been overrated. It was his fortune to live at a most inte- resting and critical period of our history. He com- * The author of the pamphlet entitled, " Personal Memorials of Daniel Webster," (Lippincott, Grambo & Co.,) mentions that he once questioned Mr. Webster as to his personal appearance when a school-master in Maine. His reply was, " Long, slender, pale, and all eyes ; indeed, I went by the name of '■ All Eyes,' the country round." '\ In one of his addresses just quoted, he observed that it so happened that all his public services had been rendered to the General Government. But, correcting the statement, he mentioned a single exception. ''I was," said he, ''for ten days, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, and I turned my thoughts to the search of some good object in which I could be useful in that posi- tion ; and after much reflection, I introduced a bill, which, with the general consent of both houses of the Massachusetts Legislature, passed into a law, and is now a law of the State, which enacts that no man in the State shall catch trout in any other manner than with the ordinary hook and line. With that exception, I never was connected for an hour with any State government in my life." 17 menced his life almost simultaneously witli our Con- stitution, having been a boy of only five years old when the Convention which formed it assembled in this city. The difficulties and dangers which gathered around the infancy of the government, and threatened its early subversion, had been happily surmounted before he reached his maturity ; but questions of the gravest import, and fraught with momentous conse- quences to the country, arose from time to time during the entire period of his public career. These were not simply matters, of policy and expediency, Uke the tariff, the bank, the public lands, and other legislative measures, which he discussed with his usual abilit}^ ; but questions underlying all legislation, and affecting the fundamental law on which our in- stitutions rest. It was a new government ; new, not simply as a chronological fact, but in many of the essential principles which entered into its structure. History recorded no precedent for it. The world had seen nothing like it. It had required all the influence of Washington and his associates^ and all the erudi- tion, acumen, and patriotism of the authors of the " Federalist," and other distinguished writers and orators, to win the consent of the different States to a federal Union. And when the Union was once formed, the delicate relations of the general and the state governments became, as they still are, a source of embarrassment and controversy. It was a question of this sort on which Mr. Webster made his maiden 18 speech before the Supreme Court of the United States* — the celebrated Dartmouth College case. Of his argument on that occasion, it has been observed : "The logic and the law were rendered irresistible. But as he advanced, his heart warmed to the subject and the occasion. Thoughts and feelings that had grown old with his best affections, rose unbidden to his lips. He remembered that the institution he was defending was one where his own youth had been nurtured ; and the moral tenderness and beauty this gave to the grandeur of his thoughts, the sort of reli- gious sensibility it imparted to his urgent appeals and demands for the stern fulfilment of what law and justice required, wrought up the whole audience to an extraordinary state of excitement. Many betrayed strong agitation, many were dissolved in tears. Pro- minent among them was that eminent lawyer and statesman, Eobert Goodloe Harper, who came to him when he resumed his seat, evincing emotions of the highest gratification. When he ceased to speak, there was a perceptible interval before any one was willing to break the silence ; and when that vast crowd sepa- rated, not one person of the whole number doubted that the man who had that day so moved, astonished, and controlled them, had vindicated for himself a place at the side of the first jurists of the country."j- Such was the auspicious dawn of his brilliant ca- reer as an expounder of the Constitution. In subse- * A.D. 1818, in his thirty-seventh year. f Mr. Ticknor, quoted by Everett. 19 quent years still greater questions gave occasion to still greater efforts. Political heresies of the most startling character, such as no opposer of the federal compact had breathed in the earlier days of the Republic, were propagated under the sanction of distinguished names, and found able and eloquent champions within the walls of the Capitol. Principles were propounded re- specting the sovereignty of the states, which, if carried out, would have turned the bonds which hold the Union together into withs of straw, and left this glorious fabric to fall to pieces, hke the early republics, a prey to intestine feuds. The mercifi^l Providence that had brought us through so many other perils, did not aban- don us in this hour of our extremit}^ A man was found equal to the crisis. He knew that it was a crisis. He formed a just estimate of the grandeur of the occa- sion. It was in his view an issue of no less solemnity than whether this august Union was to be maintained and perpetuated, or broken up into a group of petty rival confederacies ; whether this beautiful land was still to be the abode of peace and plenty, intelligence and piety, with the freest, the happiest, and the most improving population on the globe, or to be given over to the manifold horrors of a violent dismemberment, and ultimately to the yet greater horrors of a fratrici- dal war ; whether the oppressed nations were still to draw encouragement and hope from the spectacle of a great people rising to an unexampled pitch of prosper- ity and renown, under the influence of free institu- tions, or to see the last hope of constitutional liberty 20 extinguished, and the whole globe covered again with the black pall of despotism. Such were the issues in- volved in the sublime contest to which he was called. Rarely in the course of human events has one man had so vast a burden laid upon him. Never did a man acquit himself in a great crisis more tri- umphantly. It is not my province to rehearse the details of that day's* achievement. It is still fresh in your memories. The fame of it is a part, and no tri- vial part of our country's glory. While the Union lasts, that speech will continue to be cited as one of the noblest efforts — perhaps the very noblest — of mo- dern eloquence. And should this Republic hereafter yield to the destiny of all human organizations and crumble into ruins, the oblivion that sweeps away our cities, our fortresses, and our charters, will leave Webster's reply to Hayne to be read and admired by distant generations as a memento of our greatness, no less indestructible than the monuments which Greece and Rome have respectively in the Philippics of Demosthenes and the orations of Cicero against Cataline. I have dwelt on this speech because of the pre-emi- nence which is commonly assigned to it among Mr. Webster's oratorical efforts. And yet three years af- terwards he made a speech, of which one of our most eminent jurists,*!" whose name is never pronounced but with reverence, said, in writing to him, " I had just * January 20, 1830. I The late Chancellor Kent. 21 finished the rapturous perusal of your speech on the Protest, as appearing in the Intelligencer of Saturday, when I had the pleasure of receiving it from you in a pamphlet form. I never had a greater treat than the reading of that speech, this morning. You never equalled this effort. It surpasses everything in logic — in simplicity, and beauty, and energy of diction — in clearness — in rebuke — in sarcasm — in patriotic and glowing feelings — in just and profound constitutional views — in critical severity and matchless strength. It is worth millions to our liberties." There is still another speech, too memorable to be passed over in this connexion, but too recent to re- quire more than a brief reference. We are now very much in the condition of a ship, which, after encoun- tering a terrific and protracted storm, emerges at length into a tranquil sea, the heavens so serene, the air so bland, the sense of security so perfect, that all the peril and anxiety of the hurricane are as though they had never been. It is difficult to realize as we look abroad over our peaceful and smiling land, and see the various tribes which compose our population dwelling- together in unity — no discontent, no alienation, no local jealousies, no political controversies of sufficient moment to occasion the slightest solicitude — that three years have not gone by since the whole country was convulsed for months together with angry discussions which imperilled the very existence of the Union. It was no false alarm, no cry of women and children, which startled the nation. It seemed as though all 22 the fountains of sectional bigotry had been broken up ; as though the accumulated resentments of a half cen- tury had burst forth with unheard-of fury, and poured themselves upon the ship of state with a violence which threatened to " push from its moorings the sacred ark of the common safety, and to drive this gallant vessel, freighted with everj^thing dear to an American bo- som, upon the rocks, or lay it a sheer hulk upon the ocean."* It was an emergency which appealed with irresistible pathos and energy to the patriotism of the country. And the appeal was not in vain. Our sanc- tuaries listened to unwonted and importunate prayer for the perpetuity of our beloved Union. States- men of all parties, suspending for the time their minor differences, hastened with a common loyalty to the succour of their common country. The people in their might and majesty assembled to deliberate on the crisis. And the mandate went up to the Capitol from millions of voices, like the sound of many waters, that THE Union must and should be preserved. But this sublime movement of the people was itself no less an effect than a cause. Its mainspring was at Washing- ton. The Senate-chamber was again the battle-field on which this great contest was to be decided. And it was, for the second time, the high honour of Mr. Webster to strike the decisive blow for the integrity of the Union. Other men there were, his illustrious peers, both in and out of Congress, who contributed in no mean degree to bring about the propitious result. * William Pinkney — on the Missouri Question. 23 But such were the compHcations of parties, and such his personal antecedents and existing affinities, not to add, such his thorough comprehension of every one of the pregnant questions involved in the controversy, that to him, more perhaps than to any other indivi- dual, was assigned the responsibility of determining the final issue. He accepted the trust, and planted himself in the breach. " The imprisoned winds," said he in the solemn exordium of his memorable speech on that occasion,'-' "are let loose. The East, the North, and the stormy South, combine to throw the whole ocean into commotion, to toss its billows to the skies and disclose its profoundest depths. I do not affect to regard myself, Mr. President, as holding, or as fit to hold, the helm in this combat with the politi- cal elements; but I have a duty to perform, and I mean to perform it with fidelity, not without a sense of existing dangers, but not without hope." Address- ing himself to the difficult and perilous task in this spirit, he took up the debated topics, now twisted and matted into a Gordian knot, and resolved the tangled mass, not by cutting, but by untying it. One by one the vexed questions were drawn out, defined, and ad- justed to each other, until at length a platform was constructed, honourable to the North, honourable to the South, and true to the Constitution, where men of all types might sit down under the shadow of the Union and smoke the calumet. It would be too much to say that this speech restored the country to tran- * March 7, 1850. 24 quillity. But the country instantly began to breathe more freely. There was a sort of feeling that Daniel Webster was a safe guide ; and that if he had found a path through this morass, it must be solid footing for those who chose to follow him. In the end, after months of agitation, which gave occasion to many of our ablest statesmen to signalize their devotion to the Union, the great mass of the people did follow him. By the favour of a merciful Providence, the Union was not only preserved, but cemented. It were a curious speculation, what would have been the probable result had Mr. Webster thrown himself, at this juncture, into the opposite scale ; had he, instead of advising mutual conciliation and con- cession, taken ground boldly against the Compromise, and employed his great powers in resisting that ad- justment. We have no warrant for maintaining that even this would have defeated the arrangement in question; but he knows little of the weight which Mr. Webster's name carried with it, who can doubt that it would have multiplied the obstructions to a settlement a hundred-fold. The people of this country, as a body, are not politicians. And throughout all the States north of the Potomac, there were tens of thousands of quiet, industrious citizens, who, irrespec- tive of party ties, were disposed to acquiesce in Mr. Webster's opinions on all questions properly national. Had his voice gone forth at this crisis — " These mea- sures are unjust to the North; they are subversive of the Constitution; they are unrighteous and oppres- 25 sive," — the whole country, North and South, would have reeled with excitement, and all the previous ascitation would have been but as the tremor which precedes the earthquake. We cannot doubt, it would be an ungrateful distrust of the benign Providence that has always protected us, to doubt, that even with this opposition, the nation as a body would ultimately have been conducted to some amicable solution of the difficulty. But had his influence been cast into the adverse scale, the quivering beam would have held the nation in long and intolerable suspense. From this trial the patriotism and fortitude of Mr. Webster saved us. It was a service calculated to put both these quahties to the test; but he was never found wanting where the Union was concerned. In referring to this occasion more than a year afterwards, he said,* " I thought it my duty to pursue this course, and I did not care what was to be the consequence. I felt it was my duty in a very alarming crisis, to come out ; to go for my country and my whole coun- try; and to exert any power I had, to keep that country together. I cared for nothing, I was afraid of nothing, but I meant to do my duty. Duty per- formed makes a man happy ; duty neglected makes a man unhapp}^ I, therefore, in the face of all discou- ragements and all dangers, was ready to go forth and do what I thought my country — your country — de- manded of me. And, gentlemen, allow me to say here to-day, that if the fate of John Rogers had stared * At Buffalo. 26 me in the face, if I had seen the stake, if I had heard the faggots already crackUng, by the blessing of Al- might}^ God, I would have gone on and discharged the duty which I thought my country called upon me to perform. I would have become a martyr to save that country." Such power over men as this great orator displayed on this and other occasions, is a godlike endowment ; and according to the principles by which it is con- trolled, will it spread light and joy over a land, or con- vert it into a scene of devastation. They are blessed indeed, who have grace given them to use such an endowment for the good of mankind ; and with what terrific fury will retributive justice avenge itself upon the men who prostitute these high gifts to purposes of evil. The closing sentence of the letter of Chancellor Kent, quoted a few moments ago, contains a thought that should be noted. " Your speech is ivorth millions to our liberties.'' The great battles of freedom are oftener fought in the Senate than in the field. Mr. Webster's life was consecrated to the cause of enlight- ened, constitutional liberty. He might have adopted as his own the motto of the great Selden, yrspl -jrccvTls 'rr\v eXsuSs^iav : (abovc all things, libert}^) In those elabo- rate arguments which enchained by turns an applaud- ing Senate and an admiring Court, he was strength- ening the foundations of our political edifice, and making it a safer and more comfortable home for the millions who have sought a shelter in it. All his 27 sympathies were on the side of freedom and intelli- gent progi'ess : for it was not the least of his njerits that he eluded the common fault of superior minds employed in the more recondite branches of jurispru- dence, or subjected to the capricious criticisms of the popular voice. Such men are apt to become conser- vative to an excess. They value law more than justice. They distrust and dread the people. They are jealous of enlarging their political franchises. They look with complacency upon a strong govern- ment, and read nothing but danger in the effervescence and tumult of popular gatherings, where the masses meet to do their own business in their own way. No man had clearer or sounder conceptions than this eminent statesman, of the essential conditions of national freedom. He well knew that self-govern- ment was one of the highest and most difficult func- tions, whether for individuals or for nations. He never countenanced, therefore, that delusive and fatal radicalism, which would cast all the thrones of Chris- tendom, and those who sit upon them, into one great bonfire, and replace them with democratic charters. But while he recognised the need of some preparatory training as indispensable to the success of republican institutions, he was inexorably opposed to all the maxims and traditions of arbitrary rule, and ever ready to employ his argumentative and luminous eloquence in cheering on nations which were strug- gling for their independence. Of this we have two remarkable illustrations in his speeches on the Greek 28 Revolution and the Panama Mission. The generous sentijnents so worthy of a statesman, and especially of an American statesman, which pervade these, and indeed, all his speeches, characterize also his diplo- matic papers. They are impressed on every page of that remarkable document, in allusion to which one of our own distinguished citizens, who recently adorned the second office in the Republic, so felicitously said at the late town-meeting, " Two years have not elapsed since Mr. Webster's pungent, powerful, and patriotic letter to Mr. Hulsemann resounded like the roar of ordnance throughout Europe." The Cabinets of the other hemisphere were left in no uncertainty as to the ground on which our Secretary, and the govern- ment he represented, stood. And it was a solace to the continental nations to hear their oppressors re- buked by one, who, spurning the courtly dialect in which ministers and ambassadors are accustomed to disguise their real sentiments, dared to tell them in plain, unvarnished Saxon words, which startled the whole realm of diplomacy, that America would not permit any foreign interference in her affairs ; that while they abstained from any intervention in the conflicts of Europe, " the government and people of the United States could not remain indifferent specta- tors when they beheld the people of foreign countries sjDontaneously moving towards the adoption of insti- tutions like their own ;" and that " nothing should deter them from exercising, at their own discretion, the rights belonging to them as an independent nation, 29 and of forming and expressing their own opinions freely, and at all times, upon the great political events which may transpire among the civilized nations of the earth." Happily for Mr. Webster's fame and for his country, a new edition of his works, edited by a distinguished personal friend (now his successor in the Cabinet), was 23ublished under his own eye, but a few months before his death. With the exception of his diplo- matic papers, the matter contained in these six vo- lumes, has all been spoken, and yet it savours as little of the character of mere speech-makmg, as any col- lection of orations or addresses in the language. It is the most valuable contribution which has been made to our political hterature since the era of the Fede- ralist; and no professional library wdll hereafter be deemed complete without it. It "was the singular merit of Mr. Webster, that he was able to embellish the most profound disquisitions in political science with elegant and various learning, and to enshrine them in a brilliant and majestic eloquence. The ora- tor has passed away, but the patriot — the statesman — the sage — is immortal. Open his works at random, and you will instantly feel yourself to be in commu- nion with a master-mind. Nearly all the important events in our history — the origin and essential attri- butes of our federal and state governments, the deli- cate questions growing out of the expansion of our ter- ritory and the accession of new states, the proper limitations of the powers vested in the three depart- 30 ments of the government, the conduct of our foreign relations, the services of the founders of the Repubhc, education, the mechanic arts, agriculture, Christianity as the indisj)ensable basis of free institutions — these are among the subjects he has discussed, and discussed in such a way that he appears equally at home with them all. Every theme to which he applies his impe- rial intellect, becomes transparent. Touched by his wand, the most chaotic mass of materials is reduced to intelligible forms. Complex details are classified. Principles take the place of sophisms. Declamation gives way to argument. Precedents are sifted to their last analysis. Consequences are portrayed with pro- phetic sagacity. Objections are refuted. One strong- hold of error after another is demolished. And you follow on wherever the great orator leads the way, not because he has s6 fascinated you with the sorcery of his eloquence, that you are no longer a responsible agent, but because 3^our reason is satisfied, and you have the witness within yourself that it is truth, not victory, at which he is aiming. Fascinated, indeed, you may be. Who could be otherwise in perusing those admirable performances in which there is so much to gratify the taste, to enkindle pure and generous emotions, to expand the mental vision, and inspire the soul with a profounder consciousness of its intrinsic dignity and its large capacities. And yet, in all and above all, it is your reason which is addressed and con- vinced. Mr. Webster never fell into the error of de- grading his audience beneath the proper level of hu- 31 manity, and treating them as though they were crea- tures of mere sensibihty or mere fancy, who cared only to be excited or amused. Whether it is before a crowded Senate or a Mechanics' Institute, before the first legal tribunal of the country, or a heterogeneous mass-meeting, assembled from the palaces and the workshops of a large city, he never forgets that he is a man himself and is speaking to men. He reverences, as every man who presumes to address his fellow-men in public or through the press, ought to reverence, the human understanding. He takes it for granted that you want to be reasoned with; that nothing will satisfy you but truth and argument ; and that to at- tempt to put you off, when you are eager to have some great problem of national policy or personal duty re- solved, with a bouquet of tropes or a quiver of invec- tives, would be like mocking an exhausted and gasping caravan in the desert, by rehearsing to them the tales in the Arabian Nights Entertainments. A few intro- ductory words of courtesy there may be, and then for the argument. And with such fairness and logical fidelity does he pursue the argument — clothing it with a diction so plain as to be intelligible to the humblest capacity, and so beautiful as to satisfy the most criti- cal taste — that if you go along with him at all, as you will be pretty likely to do, it will be because you feel at every step that you have firm ground under your feet, and know what you are about just as well as you do when treading the familiar rounds of your daily avocation. 32 This, in fact, is one of the characteristics of Mr. Webster's speeches which warrant us in predicting that they will be as imperishable as anything in our literature. They are full of important truth, expressed in a manner which everybody can understand. We may say of him what a profound critic has said of Mr. Fox : " For ourselves, we think we never heard any man who dismissed us from the argument on a debated topic, with such a feeling of satisfied and final convic- tion, or such a competence to tell why we were con- vinced. There was, in the view in which subjects were placed by him, something like the daylight, that simple clearness which makes things conspicuous and does not make them glare, which adds no colour or form, but purely makes visible in perfection the real colour and form of all things round ; a kind of light, less amusing than that of magnificent lustres, or a thousand coloured lamps, and less fascinating and ro- mantic than that of the moon ; but which is immea- surably preferred when we are bent on sober business, and not at leisure, or not in the disposition to wander delighted among beautiful shadows and delusions. It is needless to say that he possessed, in a high degree, wit and fancy ; but superlative intellect was the grand distinction of his eloquence ; the pure force of sense, of plain, downright sense, was so great that it would have given a character of sublimity to his eloquence, even if it had never once been aided by a happy image or a brilliant explosion. The grandeur of plain sense, 33 would not have been deemed an absurd phrase, by any man who had heard one of his best speeches." When to these considerations it is added, that the great questions discussed by Mr. Webster, can never cease to have their importance while our institutions last, we may assert with confidence, that his writings will become an indispensable text-book in the training of our future civilians. " I shall take care," said Lord Erskine, "to put the works of Mr. Burke into the hands of those whose principles a.re left to my forma- tion." With the same feeling, many an American citizen will place Mr. Webster's works in the hands of his sons. What better service, indeed, so far as their secular education is concerned, could we render them ? Where could they find a richer repository of sound political maxims, of lucid and comprehensive views concerning our national rights and duties, and of mas- terly disquisitions in constitutional jurisprudence ? What writings would do more to make them thinkers and reasoners ; to form them to a large and just esti- mate of their social and civil responsibilities ; to raise them above the littlenesses of sectional prejudice, and put the stamp of a broad nationality upon their pa- triotism ; to show them that whatever use political parties may choose to make of their honours, and to whomsoever they may see fit to vote a triumph, a truly great mind, animated by virtuous sentiments and embracing the whole country within the wide sweep of its affections, can achieve for itself a reputa- tion which no party-idolatry could confer, and no party- 34 malignity annul ; to stimulate them to seek, not the " empty blast of popular favour or the applause of a giddy multitude/' but that " true glory," which, ac- cording to the prince of Roman orators, consists " in a wide and illustrious fame of many and great benefits conferred upon our friends, our country, or the whole race of mankind;'"*' and to impress it deeply upon their minds, that " if we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religion, if we and they shall live always in the fear of God, and shall respect his com- mandments, if we and they shall maintain just moral sentiments, and such conscientious convictions of duty as shall control the heart and life, we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country ; .... but if we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. "f These are among the lessons which our young men may derive from the careful study of the works of Mr. Webster ; and no wise father would willingly deprive his sons of the benefit of them. The importance of the subject may justify us in dwelling a little longer on one of the points just indi- cated— the value to be attached to the life and writings * Oration for Marcellus. ■f Mr. Webster's Address before the New York Historical Society. 35 of this great publicist, as an auxiliary in the training of our future statesmen. There are able men amongst us whose faith in the permanency of the Union appears to be nearly as firm as their confidence in the stability of the solar system. We may certainly congratulate ourselves that, through the favour of Divine Provi- dence, our complex and beautiful scheme of government has maintained its integrity against all the assaults hitherto made upon it. But we have had warnings enough to admonish us against a blind self-confidence. Our own experience forbids us to look for any exemp- tion from those intestine broils and commotions Avith which all other nations have been agitated. In a country of such vast extent, increasing in population and resources with a rapidity which makes a new atlas necessary every five years, with the utmost diversity of climate and productions, conflicting sectional inte- rests, commercial and diplomatic relations spread all over the globe, thirty-one jealous and pow^erful state governments closely interlocked with a grand central administration, and sensitive to the slightest apparent invasion of their sovereignty, and twenty-five millions of people animated by an energetic, if it must not be said, an aggressive, Gaiixiasian spirit, — in such a coun- try, occasions for discord and alienation can never be wanting, if there are individuals at hand whose inte- rest it is to find or create them. To provide for these emergencies, and as far as possible prevent or mitigate them, we must look well to the education, mental and moral, of our youth. The church and the school- 36 house — the Bible enthroned in both — must be, under God, our first rehance. Next to this, we need states- men like him we have lost, and like some who sur- vive him. The ambition of ordinary minds cannot soar to this elevation. Nor can the most generous intellects attain it without encountering hostile influ- ences, which are generated by the natural worl^ing of our institutions. Where office depends on the popular voice, the representative will find himself under a pow- erful temptation to merge all other political obligations in his supposed duty to his immediate constituency. The claims of his district will take precedence over those of his state ; and loyalty to his state will be stronger than his loyalty to the general government. Nor is this the only adverse agency to be met. A despotism may flourish without parties ; for the dead are always still ; but no free government has ever got on without them. In itself this is an advantage ; but the prac- tical tendency of it is to dwarf men into partisans. They are apt to sink both their individuality and their patriotism in servility to a party, and to employ those powers which should have been dedicated to their countr}^, in the miserable contests of factions and sections. Here, precisely, in the ability of a man to rise above these local and party affinities — to frame his views of truth and duty on a large and candid survey of things, and then to follow out his convictions irre- spective of personal consequences — lies one of the essential insignia of the genuine patriot and states- 37 man, which distmguish him from the mere pretender. " A public man has no occasion to be embarrassed, if he is honest. Himself and his feelings should be to him as nobody and as nothing ; the interest of his country must be to him as everything ; he must sink what is personal to himself, making exertions for his country ; and it is his ability and readiness to do this which are to mark him as a great or a little man in all time to come."* This test, it must be admitted, is a very severe one. The moral courage and self-immo- lation it demands are alien from all the natural in- stincts of the human breast ; and if political honours and emoluments alone are regarded, this exalted kind of patriotism will find but too little to nourish it in the annals of our race. It is for this very reason we should seize upon every means which is placed within our reach, to foster and diffuse it. And in this view, what a legacy has the Republic . received in the ex- ample and the writings of Daniel Webster. Without challenging for this eminent man a moral perfection which his warmest friends have never claimed for him, it may be questioned whether the country will not yet reap from his services even greater advantages than those he conferred ujDon her while living. Thei-e is his public career — a study for the youth of America in all coming time. The career of a patriot-states- man, impressed throughout with characters of light and truth ; not like a huge meteor flashing fantastic fires, and startling the nations with its eccentric * Mr. Webster's speech at Funeuil Hall, September 30tb, 1842. 38 motions, but like a mountain stream, swelling by degrees into a broad, majestic river, spreading fertility along its banks, lending beauty to the landscape, ministering health and comfort and prosperity to numerous populations, and bearing on its tranquil bosom the products of many climes and countries. Is not such a career a substantial addition to the moral wealth of the nation ? Is it not a source of strength to every father who would imbue his sons with an intelligent and comprehensive love of country ; to every patriot who would extinguish, as often as they reappear, the flames of sectional jealousy ; to every constituency that may be exposed to the arts of aspiring demagogues; to the teachers of religion who value our institutions as well for their connexion with a pure Christianity, as for their secular benefits ; and to the throng of young men always ready to launch away into the rough sea of politics, who would fain adopt, before starting, some wise and just prin- ciples which might conduct them to an honourable, if not a speedy, fame ? One thing, at least, must be conceded. Mr. Webster has made it more difficult than it ever was before, to break the Union to pieces. And that, not simply by his masterly exposition of the Constitution, but by the whole influence which attached to his name while living, and which now attaches to his memory. It must tell with power upon the country for generations to come, that he, by common consent, the first American jurist, orator, and statesman of his day, was one who, throughout .39 his long and brilliant career, looked steadfastly to the prosperity of the ivIloIg country ; that he endeavoured to allay all sectional bickerings, and to suppress the misrepresentations and calumnies which engender them; that by his speeches and writings he sought to make the different portions of the confederacy better acquainted with each other, and thus to abate their mutual antipathies ; that he scorned the selfish provincial ambition which would use the passions and prejudices of well-meaning but misguided people, as a ladder to mount to place and power ; that neither wholesale slander from a venal press, nor the threat- ened displeasure of his own commonwealth, could deter him from any step which he believed to be essential to the welfare of the Union ; that no earthly consideration could tempt him to swerve from his devotion to the Constitution, "the only bulwark of our liberties and of our national character ;" that at a great crisis of our affairs, when the surges of Northern fanaticism and of Southern disunionism broke over him, as he stood up in the Senate-chamber, with a simultaneous and common fury, the only effect upon him was to make him grasp the South and the North with a firmer hand, while he poured into their ears his affectionate and eloquent remonstrance, "Let there be no strife between you, for ye are brethren ;" and that when his patriotic and beneficent career was terminated, men of all parties commingled their tears around his bier, and the entire nation mourned him as a public benefactor, the motto of whose life had 40 been that sublime sentiment, now doubly " dear to every true American heart — Liberty and Union, now AND FOR EVER, ONE AND INSEPARABLE !" Before passing to the only remaining topic I pro- pose to notice, a few words may be allowed resjoecting the private character of the deceased senator. It has been correctly observed, that " distinguished statesmen generally become what may be called technical cha- racters : the whole human being becomes shaped into an official thing, and Nature's own man, with free faculties, and warm sentiments, and unconstrained manners, has disappeared." It was not so with Mr. Webster. Nature had entrenched herself too strongly in that colossal frame, to be driven out, and he re- mained "her own man" to the end. Persons who only saw him in a transient way might suppose he was simply a man of extraordinary intellect. Those who heard him, even in his more elaborate efforts, could not fail to see that he was also a man of gene- rous sensibilities. But whoever was so fortunate as to meet him in social life, would learn that so far from being all head, he had a heart which was worthy to be the consort of that massive intellect. Nothing could obliterate — nothing even blunt his ear- nest sympathy with nature and with man. Neither his professional toils nor affairs of state, neither the applause nor the ingratitude of the public, could dis- turb the perennial freshness of his feelings. He loved the country. He delighted in the free intercourse of social life. His domestic affections were strong and 41 tender. He entered with a genial relish into the vivacity and humour of the passing hour. His gene- rosity was proverbial. He was a steadfast friend — alwo-ys frank, straight-forward, reliable — "A minister, but still a man."* It was a noble eulogium pronounced upon Mr. Clay, the second of our great triumvirate who was gathered to his fathers, when a representative from his own State said, over his remains, " If I were to write his epitaph, I would inscribe, as the highest eulogy, on the stone which shall mark his resting- place, ' Here lies a man who was in the public service for fifty years, and never attempted to deceive his countrymen !' " The inscription might with equal fidelity be inscribed ujDon the tombs of his great com- peers. Of the third of this illustrious trio, Mr. Web- ster himself said, before the Senate, on the occasion of his funeral — " He had the basis — the indispensable basis — of all high character, and that was unspotted integrity — unimpeached honour and character. If he had aspi- rations, they were high, and honourable, and noble. There was nothing grovelling, or low, or meanly selfish, that came near the head or the heart of Mr. * Of his magnanimity we have this pleasing example. Mr. Eve- rett relates, that in preparing the new edition of Mr. Webster's works for the press, he was instructed by him to obliterate from his speeches, if practicable, ''every trace of personality." 42 Calhoun". Firm in his purpose, perfectly patriotic and honest, as I am sure he was, in the principles he espoused, and in the measures he defended, aside from that large regard for that species of distinction that conducted him to eminent stations for the benefit of the Republic, I do not believe he had a selfish motive or a selfish feeling. " We shall hereafter, I am sure, indulge in it as a grateful recollection that we have lived in his age, that we have been his cotemporaries, that we have seen him, and heard him, and known him. We shall delight to speak of him to those who are rising up to fill our places. And when the time shall -come when we ourselves shall go, one after another, in succession to our graves, we shall carry with us a deep sense of his genius and character, his honour and integrity, his amiable deportment in private life, and the purity of his exalted patriotism." Mr. Webster himself might have sat for this fine portrait. It is his own character by a master-hand. If the fidelity of the sketch be doubted, there are competent witnesses to confirm it. " Mr. President," said a leading member* of the New York Bar the other day, a gentleman and a Christian; "I have long been acquainted with Mr. Webster, and from all that I know, and from all that I have seen and heard, I bear testimony here to-day, that as a public man, he was a man of the highest integrity. It always seemed to me as if he acted under the immediate * Hiram Ketchum, Esq. 43 conviction, that whatever he did was not only to be known to his own generation, but to posterity. He regarded political power in his own hands as a trust, and though always willing and desirous to gratify his friends, if he could, he never felt himself at liberty, for an instant, for any private means, to violate his great trust. I have known Mr. Webster in private circles, and in domestic life, and I bear testimony here to-day, that though I have received multitudes of letters from him which I now have, and many that have been destroyed by his orders, written in the most confidential and friendly manner — though I have had the pleasure of meeting him on many occa- sions, and at the festive board often where our ses- sions have been long — I bear testimony here to-day, that never in my life did I hear an improper thought or profane expression come from the lips of Daniel Webster; and I bear further testimony, that never, in writing or in my hearing, did he ever assail private character. No man was ever slandered — no man was ever spoken ill of by Daniel Webster. And I further bear testimony, that never in my life have I known a man whose conversation was uniformly so unexcep- tionable in its tone, and uniformly so edifying in its character. I may say further, that no man ever possessed greater tenderness of feeling. He never yet had an enemy — and we all can bear witness that he had enemies of the most malignant character — but he never yet had an enemy that if he came to him he would not have shared with him his last 44 dollar to relieve him, and mingle his sympathies with his. Mr. President, to say that these virtues were not marked with failings — to say that Daniel Webster was without them, would be to state that which was untrue ; but they have been before the public again and again, and no friend of his could regret the fact, if they had not been exaggerated." Another distinguished lawyer^ of that city said : " I knew Mr. Webster well. I had the honour of his acquaintance, and hope it is not too much to say, of his friendship, for more than a quarter of a century, and from his lips I never have heard an irreverent, a profane, or an unseemly expression, while his play- ful wit, his deep philosophy, his varied acquirements, and unrivalled powers of conversation, are among the richest treasures of my recollection." These testimonies, comprising, as they do, a minute scrutiny into the social habits of Mr. Webster for a long term of years, such as few men of any profession could bear, will do much to vindicate his reputation from the aspersions cast upon it by a malign party spirit. It is, however, the letters of great men which best reflect their personal traits ; and we must wait for his private correspondence before we can properly appreciate those generous qualities which have been attributed to him. Judging from the specimens which have been published, his letters, when collected, will not only form one of the most attractive volumes in the language, but will amply authenticate the warm- * J, Prescott Hall, Esq. 45 est encomiums his friends have pronounced upon his private virtues. Notice, for example, the strain of his reply to the letter he received two years ago from a large number of his old friends and neighbours in New Hampshire, in which he says, " I could pour out my heart in tenderness of feeling for the affectionate letter Avhich comes from 3'ou. It is like the love of a family circle ; its influences fall upon my heart as the dew of heaven." So, again, the letter on his early life, in which he describes the paternal farm, and narrates the circumstances which induced his father to send him to college, " in order," as one of his brothers used to say, " to make him equal to the rest of the children." In this letter he makes a touch- ing allusion to the dead of the household. " Looking out at. the east windows, [the letter is dated at Franklin, May 3d, 1846',] at this moment (2 p. M.) with a beautiful sun just breaking out, my eye sweeps a rich and level field of one hundred acres. At the end of it, a third of a mile off, I see plain mar- ble grave-stones, designating the places where repose my father, my mother, my brother Joseph, and my sisters, Mehi table, Abigail, and Sarah, good Scripture names inherited from their Puritan ancestors. '' My father ! Ebenezer Webster ! — born at Kingston, in the low^er part of the State, in 1739 — the hand- somest man I ever saw, except my brother Ezekiel, who appeared to me, and so does he now seem to me, the very finest human form that ever I laid eyes on. I saw him in his coffin — a white forehead — a tinged 46 cheek — a complexion as clear as heavenly light ! But where am I straying? The grave has closed upon him, as it has on all my brothers and sisters. We shall soon be all together. But this is melancholy, and I leave it. Dear — dear kindred hlood, how I Jove you all r There is another affecting allusion to these graves, in that inimitable letter written to his farmer at Frank- lin, from Washington, in March last, and beginning thus : — "John Taylor — Go ahead. The heart of the winter is broken, and before the first day of April, all your land may be ploughed." Then in the midst of minute agricultural directions, comes in this beautiful and characteristic sentence : — " Take care to keep my mothers garden in good order, even if it cost you the wages of a man to take care of it." The letter closes thus : — " John Taylor, thank God, morning and even- ing, that you were born in such a country. John Taylor, never write me another word upon politics. Give my kindest remembrances to your wife and chil- dren ; and when you look from your eastern windows upon the graves of my family, remember that he who is the author of this letter must soon follow them to another world." It is in familiar epistles like these we see the heart of the great statesman laid open : and the more fully it is unveiled, the more opulent will it be found in those affections and sympathies, which are rarely com- bined with the highest abilities, and as rarely outlast the cares and collisions of a long political career. 47 His devotion to agriculture has been hinted at : and rural occupations always have a tendency to keep up a healthful tone of feeling. But his communings were not all with nature. He was like Cowley : — " Ah, yet, ere I descend to the grave, May I a small house and large garden have ! And a few friends and many books, both true. Both wise, and both delightful too !" The ' large garden,' the ' friends/ (though not a ' few') and the ' many books,' he had ; and well did he use them. The love of books was an early passion with him. He could recite the whole Essay on Man ver- batim before he was fourteen years old. And while still a boy, he committed to memory, not as a task, but as a pleasure, Watts's Psalms and Hymns. Nor was he less fond of the sublime poetry of the Bible. These habits continued with him throu2;h life. A very competent authority has remarked, that " the celebrity of Lord Mansfield and Lord Stowell, as judges, is in no small degree owing to their having continued to refresh and to embellish their professional labours by perusing the immortal productions of poets, histo- rians, and moralists." Mr. AVebster pursued the same course and with the same results. The ancient and modern Classics were, with the Bible, his daily com- panions. His capacious mind was a store-house of useful and elegant learning, gathered from every source — from books, from careful observation of men and things, from a ripe experience and much reflec- 48 tion. Tliis various and ample knowledge was so di- gested and arranged as to be always at his command. He could employ it with equal facility to instruct and amuse the social circle, to compose, if occasion required it, a Historical Discourse, which should astonish the country at the minuteness and accuracy of his classi- cal lore, or to enrich his speeches with those graceful allusions and illustrations which are to an elaborate argument what the drapery is to the portrait, and the feather to the shaft. Let the young men of his profes- sion profit by this example. No mind can be fed exclu- sively on law, without suffering. Nature will be certain to resent the huge indignity. He who would rise above the penury of the mere pleader, must have at least a sprinkling of books in his library, which are not bound in the canonical hue — some relief to the dismal mono- tony. Lord Eldon, it is true, might be cited, as an adverse precedent : for he once astonished the Bar, it is said, by telling them that, during the long vacation, he had read " Paradise Lost.^' But it should be added that nature took her revenge even upon a Lord Chan- cellor ; since, according to Lord Campbell, towards the close of life, he could scarcely speak or write gram- matically. Whatever a man s profession, the only way in which he can elude the tendency to become a narrow, technical, stereotype character, is to go forth occasionally into regions which lie beyond his daily walks ; to talk with people of other creeds and other callings ; to make excursions into the domain of science, and to appropriate some portion of his time, even if it be 49 but its brief remnants and parentheses, to literary pur- suits. The error of those who neglect this, is only less pernicious than that which they fall into, who degrade their 'profession to a secondary place, and bestow their chief care upon other studies. We honour literature in a Lawj^er, a Physician, or a Divine ; but we cease to honour it when it becomes paramount. The noblest forensic arguments " May flow from lips wet with Castalian dews :" but Benches and Juries would be very impatient of an advocate whose speeches should sparkle with Castalian dews — and with nothing else. And, certainly, any congregation would be warranted in dismissing a pastor who should habitually substitute literary essays for the Gospel of Christ. — But it is time to return from this digression. Undoubtedly Mr. Webster had his failings; and with some minds of a peculiar cast, these may even make it a matter of doubtful expediency to comment upon his character from the pulpit. It were certainly dehghtful could we dwell on his life and services with- out making any deduction for personal defects. What- ever those defects were, they will find no vindication here. But neither shall they be exaggerated here. Exaggerated they doubtless have been, for such is the evil custom of the country. We have got it by inhe- ritance. In one of his shrewd and caustic letters from England, Voltaire observes, " So violent did I find par- 4 ties in London, that I was assured by several, that the Duke of Marlborough was a coward, and Mr. Pope a fool." If we may trust the partisan press of the Union, we seldom have a citizen nominated for any of the chief trusts of the government, who is not a fool, a coward, or a drunkard. An eminent civilian whose virtues adorn every domestic and social relation, re- marked in his place in the Senate a few months since, that when his name was before the country as a can- didate for the Presidency, he was charged with every crime except one mentioned in the decalogue. It is an indelible stigma upon the national character, that the freedom of the press should be permitted to de- generate into this intolerable licentiousness. How much of injustice the illustrious man whom Providence has taken from us, may have suffered in this way, I know not : that he encountered his full share of de- traction, will be conceded by all who are willing to judge others as they would be judged themselves. For myself, I have no sympathy with those persons who when the sun is mentioned, can think only of his spots. I can take no pleasure in dwelling on the al- leged frailties of a man like Daniel Webster. I choose rather to leave them where all our errors and delin- quencies must be left, and to dwell on those aspects of his character and life which are stamped with true ex- cellence and genuine sublimity, and which entitle him to the lasting gratitude of the American people. It is a satisfaction to me to know that the convic- tions I entertain on this point, are shared by those gen- 51 tlemen whose official pastoral relations to him give a peculiar value to their opinions. And I feel with them that the friends of religion may cherish a just pride in appealing to the numerous testimonies he has left to the truth and efficacy of the Christian system.* Any attempt, indeed, to estimate Mr. Webster's cha- racter and labours, which should omit or disparage this element, would be radically defective. He himself said with great truth and beauty, in announcing to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts the death of Jere- miah Masonf — " Religion is a necessary and indispen- sable element in any great human character. There is no living without it. Religion is the tie that con- nects man with his Creator, and holds him to his throne. If that tie be sundered, all broken, he floats * I shall violate no confidence by publishing the following para- graph from a letter I have received from my old school-fellow and valued friend, the Rev. Dr. Butler, of Washington : — " I do believe that Mr. Webster was a truly converted and religious man. He was for more than five years a communicant in my Church, and al- ways treated me, as his Pastor, with great afi"ection, attention, and respect. His conduct in church was very reverent. His interest in solemn and direct preaching was very evident; his emotions often manifest; his dislike of flummery and pretension in the pulpit in- tense; his love of clear, strong, personal, aiFectionate presentation of the most distinguishing and important truths of the Gospel, propor- tionably warm. His conversation with me was more frequently than that of most religious men, on religious subjects. He never left the Church on Communion Sundays without coming to the communion; and his participation of that sacrament was marked with a peculiar concentration and solemnity of feeling." t November 14, 1848. away, a Avorthless atom in the universe ; its proper at- tractions all gone, its destiny thwarted, and its whole future nothing but darkness, desolation, and death. A man with no sense of religious duty is he whom the Scriptures describe in such terse but terrific language, as living '' without God in the world,' Such a man is out of his proper being, out of the circle of all his duties, out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away from the purposes of his creation." These were no words of idle compliment. They were convictions inwrought in the very framework of his being. The Bible was one of the books on which his childhood had been nurtured. He continued a diligent student of it through life. He said to a friend a few years since, " I have read through the entire Bible many times. I now make a practice to go through it once a year. It is the book of all others for Lawyers as well as for Divines 5 and I pity the man that cannot find in it a rich supply of thought and of rules for his conduct : it fits man for life — it prepares him for death." This reminds one of Fisher Ames, who once said, perhaps with too little qualifica- tion : " I will hazard the assertion that no man ever did, or ever will, become truly eloquent without being a constant reader of the Bible, and an admirer of the purity and sublimity of its language." It was not, however, with either of these eminent men a mere professional exercise. It w^as one of the most potent agencies in moulding them to that robust intellectual and moral structure by which they were distinguished. A profound veneration for the Deity, blended with a cordial and generous recognition of Christianity, per- vades Mr. Webster's writings beyond those of almost any contemporaneous statesman. It is not a meagre and reluctant acknowledgment of the scheme of natu- ral religion. He well knew that this was no sufficient remedy for the evils of the fall. He regarded man as a lost sinner, in need of a Saviour ; and no system of faith could satisfy him, that did not provide a Saviour. It is the Gospel of Christ which so often reveals itself in his speeches and correspondence, as the theme of emphatic allusion or of eloquent eulogy. It is evan- gelical Christianity, as supplying at once the only solid foundation for man to rest his immortal hopes upon, and the only sure guarantee of national freedom and happiness. This point is of too much importance to be dismissed without exhibiting Mr. Webster's method of dealing with revealed religion. The following paragraphs are taken (with some abridgment) from one of his legal arguments ; and the tone of them, as indeed the tone of the whole speech, is such as must carry conviction to the mind, that it is no less the man than the advocate who is speaking : " The ground taken is, that religion is not necessary to morality ; that benevolence may be insured by habit, and that all the virtues may flourish and be safely left to the chance of flourishing, without touching the wa- ters of the living spring of religious responsibility. With him who thinks thus, what can be the value of 64 the Christian revelation ? So the Christian world has not thought, for with that Christian world, throughout its broadest extent, it has been and is held as a funda- mental truth, that religion is the only solid basis of morals, and that moral instruction, not resting on this basis, is only a building upon sand." " When little children were brought into the presence of the Son of God, his disciples proposed to send them away ; but he said, ' Suffer little children to come unto me' — unto me ; he did not send them first for lessons in morals to the schools of the Pharisees or to the unbeheving Sadducees, nor to read the precepts and lessons pliy- lacteried on the garments of the Jewish priesthood ; he said nothing of different creeds or clashing doctrines ; but he opened at once to the youthful mind the ever- lasting fountain of living waters, the only source of immortal truths ; ' Suffer little children to come unto me! And that injunction is of perpetual obligation. It addresses itself to-day with the same earnestness and the same authority which attended its first utter- ance to the Christian world. It is of force everywhere and at all times. It extends to the ends of the earth, it will reach to the end of time, always and every- where sounding in the ears of men with an emphasis which no repetition can weaken, and with an autho- rity which nothing can supersede — ' Suffer little chil- dren to come unto me.' "And not only my heart and my judgment, my be- lief and my conscience, instruct me that this great pre- cept should be obeyed, but the idea is so sacred, the 65 solemn thoughts connected with it so crowd upon me, it is so utterly at variance with this system of philoso- phical morality which we have heard advocated, that I stand and speak here in fear of being influenced by my feelings to exceed the proper line of my profes- sional duty."* In keeping with this fine passage, is that impressive announcement to the Court, of Mr. Mason's death, al- ready cited, in the course of w^hich he quotes wdth ap- probation an account of the religious exercises of the deceased jurist, such as is rarely heard in our halls of Justice. " He w^as fully aware that his end was near ; and in answ^er to the question, ^Can you now rest with firm faith upon the merits of your Divine Re- deemer ?' He said, '^ I trust I do : upon what else can I rest ?' — At another time, in reply to a similar ques- tion, he said, ' Of course, I have no other ground of hope.' " If I mistake not, there is something remarka- ble in this. It is not in the usual style of these an- nouncements. There is no censoriousness in saying that very few of the men who stand in the front rank of the Profession, would have ventured upon it. But Mr. Webster could do it without scruple or embarrass- ment. It was as natural for him to do it, as it w^ould have been for most of his associates to confine them- selves to the more cautious formularies, which custom has prescribed as the official costume of Christianity, when she enters the Forum or the Senate. It was nothing for liim to speak of a " Redeemer," and of * Argument in the Girard Will Case. 56 salvation through his blood. It was nothing for 1dm to stand up in the presence of the Massachusetts Bar, and narrate to them how one, at whose feet they would, any of them, have been willing to sit, and at whose feet many of them had sat, as learners, utterly renounced, when he came to die, all dependence upon the virtues which adorned his character, and trusted for pardon only to the merits of Christ. The religion which centres in the Cross, had not only formed the groundwork of his Puritan training, but was, as his brethren well knew, one of his favourite and familiar studies through life. Its sublime doctrines opened to him a field in which his majestic powers loved to ex- patiate. Its consolations met the moral necessities of his nature. It was congenial to the grandeur of his imagination, which it nerved for its loftiest flights. It was in sympathy with the tenderness of his heart. A rigid, or even a tolerant, casuist might not find its foot- prints just where he required them. Some important indications of its presence, it must be conceded, were not there as they ought to have been. He had not escaped — what public man does escape ? — the moth and the rust with which a political life eats in upon religious principle and religious habits.* But it does not admit of argument as to where his convictions * There are exceptions. A very signal one in our own annals was once characterized by Mr. Webster himself, in terms so beauti- ful that I cannot forbear copying the sentence : — '^ When the spot- less ermine of the judicial robe fell on John Jay, it touched nothing not as spotless as itself." 57 were, where his desires were, where his endeavours were. Looking at him as a whole, it was ajDparent that he must have grown up in a healthful moral at- mosphere— an atmosphere as fresh and bracing for his mental and moral nature, as the clear air and Alpine scenery of New Hampshire had been for his physical man. Daniel \Vebster never could have been what he was, nor anything approximating to what he was — still less could he have acquired his acknowledged as- cendency over the minds of his countrymen — had he been an infidel or even an indilBferentist in religion. Those who would discover the secret of his strength — at least one secret of his strength — will find it in his systematic, thorough, and affectionate study of the Scriptures. How it produced its effects upon his in- tellectual powers, his temper and disposition, his juris- prudence, his statesmanship, and the whole tone and cast of his public labours, not to speak of his faultless style, it might not, perhaps, be difficult to show if the time would permit. But it must suffice to observe, on one single point, that there is an obvious logical connexion between that habit of mind which fitted him to grapple with the most complex questions, and to take the most comprehensive views of every subject, and those profound meditations on the moral govern- ment of Jehovah, and the relations and destiny of the soul, with which he was so often occupied. Those who value our Constitution and who desire the perpe- tuity of the Union, have great reason to bless God that Daniel Webster Icxved and studied the Bible. And it is not the least of the glories which cluster around 58 his character, that whether before the Bar of Massa- chusetts, or the Supreme Court of the United States, whether in the august presence of the Senate, or in the midst of an excited popular assemblage, he was never ashamed to avow his belief in the Gospel of Christ. Here is one of the great lessons to be derived from his life — the greatest, indeed, of all. He is but a careless observer of society, who has not detected the encroachments of infidelity among the educated young men of the country within the last few years. It comes in a captivating form. The ribaldry of Paine and Voltaire would excite disgust. The metaphysi- cal Pyrrhonism of Hume would be too abstruse. Three other schemes are invented better adapted to the times. One is the theory of progressive development, which has been born and baptized within the Church. The second is a subtle and sjDCcious rationalism, which has been transplanted from Germany. And the third is a gorgeous Pantheism from the same hot-bed of error. These systems all breathe a complaisant lan- guage towards Christianity, while each is in its own way sapping its foundations. Without undertaking to apportion to each its specific agency in producing the result, the fact is indisputable, that many of the rising authors and professional men of the country are tinctured with a supercilious scepticism. Inflated by a spurious philosophy — " philosophy falsely so called" — they have come to regard Christianity as a sort of obsolete system, which has served its purpose, and must now be laid upon the shelf It may still enlist the sufirages of the common people, but educated 59 men demand a system less humiliating in its personal requisitions, and more in keeping with the general progress of the world ! Now is it not a pleasant thing to be able to send these Solons to a man like Daniel Webster ? Scio- lists as they often are in literature, and always in sacred learning, let them sit down to the perusal of his works, and brand with puerility or fanaticism those noble passages scattered throughout every vo- lume, in which lie bows before the majesty of a per- sonal and holy God, or extols the evangelical faith as the only hope of a lost world. They dare not do this, even though they refuse to follow in his steps. Pride or prejudice may impair the just influence of his example upon them, but it will not be lost upon others who have not yet plunged into the abyss of Atheism. Nor does Webster stand alone. It is aus- picious for the country, and honourable to their memories, that our three leading statesmen who have lately gone down to the tomb, were all arrayed on the side of Christianity. A single testimony from one of them, whose oratory rang for forty years through the country like the notes of a silver trumpet, is all it may be requisite to cite. " Man's inability," said Mr. Clay,* shortly before his death, " to secure by his own merits the approbation of God, I feel to be true. I trust in the atonement of the Saviour of men, as the ground of my acceptance, and my hope of salva- tion. My faith is feeble, but I hope in his mercy and * To Mr. Yenable. 60 trust in his promises." There is a power in utterances like these which must be felt. Christianity, it is true, stands in no need of human props. Its buttresses are strong enough to defy — as for eighteen hundred years they have defied — the assaults of malice and envy, of unsanctified learning and audacious ignorance, of kingcraft and priestcraft, and whatever other weapons earth or hell may forge against her. But it may help to arm the ingenuous youth of our country against the seductions of unbelief, to remember that such men as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster — not to cite a cloud of other witnesses from the brightest pages in our national annals, — gave their deliberate testimony through life to the Divine authority of the Christian religion, and at death committed their souls to Jesus Christ as their Redeemer. Various conflicting statements have been published respecting the closing scenes of Mr. Webster's life. From some of these it might be supposed that his mind was occupied with politics almost to the end. I am happy to have it in my power to correct these impressions. What I am about to state rests on the very best authority. Mr. Webster, then, for at least two weeks before his death, might almost be said to have made no allusion to politics whatever. He neither conversed on the subject, nor gave the slightest indication that his thoughts were directed to it. On the contrary, his whole mind and his Avhole time were given " to his affections and his duties," — to his domestic and social sympathies, and his preparation for death. 61 Beyond the circle of his family and friends, his thoughts were not of earth, but of heaven. Politics and every other temporal interest were banished, and his whole concern was with the things of eter- nity. During this period he referred to a purpose he had long entertained, of j)reparing a work on the Evidences of Christianity ; and after expressing the conviction that he ought to leave behind him some testimon}^ of this kind, he set about writing a state- ment of Ids faith in the Christian religion, icith the grounds and reasons of the same. This paper, when finished, was read over with great care, and various alterations and interlineations made by him — a confi- dential friend acting as his amanuensis. He then placed it in the breast-pocket of his dressing-gown for convenient reference, and two or three days before his death, he drew it forth, and handed it to his friend, saying, " Here is this paper ; I believe it is now as perfect as I can make it." This interesting and important document, in which the argument for Christianity is said to be presented with singular force, will in due time be published. Such were the occupations Avhich engrossed Mr. Webster's mind in the prospect of death. " A setting suu Should leave a track of glory in the skies." There icas a bright and softened ray shooting up- ward from that shrouded chamber at Marshfield, where our great statesman lay expiring. It was his humble, steadfast confession of Jesus Christ. 62 The following particulars given by Dr. Jeflfries, in a letter to the Rev. Dr. Butler, cannot fail to excite the deepest interest. "On leaving Mr. Webster for the nigbt, at 11^ o'clock, on Satur- day, October 16tb, 1852, I asked him if I sbould repeat to him a hymn at parting, to which he gave a ready assent, when I repeated the hymn which begins : " ' There is a fountain filled with blood, Dra.wn frona Immanuel's veins.' " He gave very serious attention to the recital, and at the close said, ^Amen, amen — even so come. Lord Jesus.' This was uttered with great solemnity. He afterwards asked me if I remembered the verse in one of Watts's hymns on the thought of dying at the foot of the Cross, and repeated these lines with remarkable energy and feeling : " ' Should worlds conspire to di'ive me hence, Moveless and firm this heart should lie, Resolved (for that's my last defence), If I must perish — here to die.' " He repeated the text, ' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,' and then what he had given to be inscribed upon his tombstone, which was as follows : '* 'Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.' *' ' Philosophical argument, especially that drawn from the vastness of the universe, in comparison with the apparent insignificance of this globe, has sometimes shaken my reason for the faith that is in me ; but my heart has always assured and reassured me, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a divine reality.' "'The Sermon on the Mount cannot be a merely human production. This belief enters into the very depth of my conscience. " ' The whole history of man proves it.' " ' Daniel Webster.' " On the evening before his death, he prayed in his usual voice, strong, full, and clear, and ended thus : 63 " Heavenly Father, forgive my sins, and receive me to thvself tlirou£!;li Jesus Christ." He also exclaimed, " I shall be to-night in life, and joy, and blessedness." Later in the night a faintness occurred, which led him to think that death was at hand. While in this con- dition, some expressions fell from him, indicating the hope that his mind would remain to him completely to the last. He spoke of the difficulty of the process of dying, when Dr. Jeffries repeated the verse, " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me : thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me." He said immediately, "The fact— the fact. That is what I want. Tki/ 7'od — thy rod: tliy staff — thy staff''' His last words were, " I still live !" These gleams of light which irradiated the chamber of death, now shed their lustre upon his secluded tomb. This tomb will have an interest for his countrymen and for intelligent strangers, inferior to that of no man of his generation. " Such graves as his are pilgrim-shrines, Shrines to no code or creed confined — The Delphian vales, the Palestines, The Meccas of the mind." But pilgrims need not journey to Marshfield. His memorials are all over the land. Our farms and our factories — our ships and our railways — our school- houses and our churches — our courts and our legislar tures — our domestic harmony and our honourable position among the nations — our matchless Constitu- 64 tion, stronger than ever against the paroxysms of misguided patriotism or malevolent faction, and our glorious Union, firmer than ever in the affections of the people — these are his memorials. His character and achievements have become a part of our national renown. And until the country lacks a historian, Daniel Webster cannot want a biographer. To his country, indeed, (if we may embalm his name in one of his own beautiful tributes to departed greatness — the prophetic paraphrase of his dying words) " he yet lives, and lives for ever. He lives in all that perpe- tuates the remembrance of men on earth ; in the recorded proofs of his own great actions, in the off- spring of his intellect, in the deep-engraved lines of public gratitude, and in the respect and homage of mankind. He lives in his example; and he lives emphatically, and will live in the influence which his life and efforts, his principles and opinions, now ex- ercise, and will continue to exercise, on the afiairs of men, not only in their own country, but throughout the civilized world. A superior and commanding human intellect, a truly great man, when Heaven vouchsafes so rare a gift, is not a temporary flame, burning brightly for awhile, and then giving place to returning darkness. It is rather a spark of fervent heat, as well as radiant light, with power to enkindle the common mass of human mind ; so that when it glim- mers in its own decay, and finally goes out in deathj no night follows, but it leaves the world all light, all on fire, from the potent contact of its own spirit." THE FEDERAL JUDICIARY. A THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE, BY HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. PHILADELPHIA: WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN 18G2. Philadelphia, December 8, 1862. To the Rev. Henry A. Boaedman, D. D. Dear Sir — We think that the publication of your Thanksgiving Discourse, on the Federal Judiciary, would be acceptable to the members of the Legal Profession, as well as to many others unconnected with that Profession. You are aware that on one or two of the questions embraced in the discussion, there has been a diversity of sentiment in the Profession ; and some of the undersigned might not be ready to adopt every expression you have used on those topics. We are, neverthe- less, desirous of seeing the Discourse in print, and trust that you will favour us with the manuscript for publication. Very truly and respectfully yours, HENRY C. CAREY, WILLIAM B. HIESKELL, HENRY S. HAGERT, CHARLES E. LEX, JOSEPH ABRAMS, P. CARROLL BREWSTER, SAMUEL HOOD, ARTHUR M. BURTON, WILLIAM r. JUDSON, JOHN B. GEST, THOMAS GREENBANK, CLEMENT B. PENROSE, JAMES OTTERSON, Jr. SAMUEL DICKSON, HENRY P. KING, CHARLES GIBBONS, W. H. DRAYTON, HENRY A. CONVERSE, VICTOR GUILLOU, MORTON P. HENRY, FREDERICK HEYER, P. B. CARTER, E. K. NICHOLS, JAMES W. PAUL, WILLIAM H. ARMSTRONG, (Williamsport, Pa.) R. C. GRIER, W. STRONG, JAMES THOMPSON, J. I. CLARK HARE, A. V. PARSONS, WILLIAM A. PORTER, JOHN C. KNOX, J. HILL MARTIN, w. J. Mcelroy, JOHN C. BULLITT, GEORGE W. THORN, A. S. LETCHWORTH, AMOS BRIGGS, B. GERHARD, CHARLES SERGEANT, CHARLES GILPIN. GEORGE JUNKIN, Jr. ROBERT H. McGRATH, J. F. JOHNSTON, MORTON McMlCHAEL, E. SPENCER MILLER, THEODORE CUYLER, STEPHEN COLWELL, GEORGE H. BOKER, R. C. McMURTRIE, JAMES MILLIKEN. Philadelphu, December 11th, 1862. Gentiemen — I need not say to you that the article of our Constitution which provides for the erection of a tribunal for the peaceful arbitration of differences among the various governments embraced in the Federal Union, is justly regarded as one of the highest achievements of political wisdom the world has ever seen. It was this conviction which led me, on the late Thanksgiving Day, to call attention to the Judiciary as a great national blessing, too little remembered by us. My discourse has been received, especially by the Bench and Bar, with a kindness I could not have anticipated. I feel myself honoured by your note, and cheerfully place the manuscript at your disposal. I am. Gentlemen, Very respectfully and truly yours, HENRY A. BOARDMAN. To the Hon. Robert C. Griee, Hon. W. Strong, Henry C. Caret, Esq., and others. THE JUDICIARY. 2 Chronicles xix. 5 — 7. AND HE SET JUDGES IN THE LAND THROUGHOUT ALL THE FENCED CITIES OF JUDAH, CITY BY CITY, AND SAID TO THE JUDGES, TAKE HEED WHAT YE DO, FOK YE JUDGE NOT FOR MAN, BUT FOR THE LORD, WHO IS WITH YOU IN THE JUDGMENT. WHEREFORE NOW LET THE FEAR OP THE LORD BE UPON YOU ; TAKE HEED AND DO IT : FOR THERE IS NO INIQUITY WITH THE LORD OUR GOD, NOR RESPECT OF PERSONS, NOR TAKING OF GIFTS. It has fallen to my lot, on the annual recurrence of this festival, to address you on a variety of topics connected with our public affairs. This has become so much the established and approved custom of the pulpit, that you would be disappointed, should I de- part from it to-day. I am not unwilling to respond to this feeling. But instead of dwelling upon the present state of the country, I propose to offer you some observations on a subject of national import- ance, as new to this pulpit as it must be to most of the pulpits of the land. Among the very numerous discourses that have been preached and published concerning our history and institutions, one of the three fundamental departments of the Government appears to have been overlooked. The inquiry seems never to have been raised, whether amidst the affluence of blessings bound up in our political char- ters, there was any thing to call for special thanks- giving in the Judicial System of the United States, and the characters and services of the leading men by whom it has been administered. It is not diffi- cult to account for this oversight. The Executive and Legislative departments of the State are kept constantly before the public eye. Subjected to the ever-recurring test of the ballot-box, they supply the staple of those political contests which are waged with such vehemence in every country blessed with constitutional liberty. Not only are the offices accessible to all, but they appeal with power to the ambition, and, it must be added, the cupidity of the masses. The acts of these func- tionaries, too, invite praise or censure, because, as they are without concealment, so they bear directly upon the personal interests of all who compose the body politic. The Judiciary, on the other hand, has no prizes to offer to the multitude. It is confined to the ranks of a single Profession which, in our country, embraces only about a thousandth part of the population. It moves in a secluded sphere. While we can not say of it, " There is no speech nor language ; their voice is not heard ;"* we may say, * The literal renderinp; of Psalm xix. 3. that its voices do not attract the popular ear. Ex- cept on rare occasions, people do not affect the court- rooms. And where they do, the cases which allure them are oftener those that appeal to their curiosity or their passions, than those which involve prin- ciples that concern our dearest personal rights or our public liberties. Owing to these and other causes, the Judiciary is rarely thought of, even when we are reverently medi- tating upon the signal advantages which are bound up in our form of Government. It is another illus- tration of the familiar adage, "out of sight, out of mind." We are drinking every day of the crystal streams which flow from this hidden fountain, with- out one thought of the fountain itself; and even with- out caring to know whether it is really hidden, or hidden only to our indolence. It may not be what you would prefer to listen to to-day; but if there is one of our chief temporal mercies unacknowledged, you will not chide me for venturing to remind you of it. I use the word "remind" in this last sentence advisedly. It would be great presumption in me to attempt, under any circumstances, an elaborate dis- sertation on the Jurisprudence of the United States. The present occasion calls for no such performance. All I propose is, to throw out a few suggestions, for- 8 tified by proper biographical references, which may lead to a juster appreciation of the Divine goodness to us in this department of our affairs. If I confine myself mainly in these remarks to the Federal Judiciary, it will be partly from its para- mount importance, and partly from the necessary brevity of a discourse like the present. Among the problems submitted to that assembly of great men, the Convention which framed the Con- stitution of the United States, the question of the Judiciary was found peculiarly embarrassing. As there was no precedent for such a Union as they proposed, a confederation of States on principles which consolidated the people into a single compact nation, without sacrificing the independence of the several constituent sovereignties, so history failed to supply them with any model in framing a Judicial system suited to the exigencies of so unique a poli- tical structure. It was indispensable that the Judi- cial should be made co-extensive with the Legisla- tive power. Its jurisdiction must comprehend the entire country, yet without interfering with the supremacy of the State courts in their respective spheres. More than this, it was necessary to pro- vide an umpire to whose authority the States them- selves should do homage. Collisions had occurred among them, and might occur again — as on questions of boundary, of jurisdiction, or of personal rights. They might enact laws in contravention of the fede- ral compact. In the absence of a competent tribunal to adjudicate these controversies, both parties would fly to arms, and the Union would soon perish. The embarrassment lay in the fact, that the Judicial power must be so organized as to reach and control, not individuals and corporations merely, but large and flourishing States, proud of their traditions, jealous of their rights, and restive under restraint. It must go still further. The Government might be subverted as well by its own legitimate authorities as by the action of the States. It was as needful to protect the Constitution from domestic as from for- eign invasion — from the usurpations of the legisla- tive and executive departments at the centre, as from the encroachments of the provincial governments. There must be a tribunal clothed with power to annul the formal statutes of the States and of Con- gress, and, in certain cases, to pass upon the consti- tutional validity of the acts of the Chief Magistrate. To say that other nations supplied no example of such a Judiciary, is to state but a part of the truth. No such tribunal was ever heard of Every civilized country has its high Courts of Judicature. But how- ever ample their powers, they have no mission to sit in judgment upon the acts of the Crown and the 10 Legislature. Each is supreme in its own depart- ment. Grave questions may arise as to the assumed prerogative of the throne ; or as to powers assumed by the Legislature. But it is not for the Judges to say, this is constitutional, and that is not; here the sub- ject must obey, and there he is absolved from obedi- ence. Our Constitution herein is as much a novelty in the science of government, as is the court which expounds it. It is literally our fundamental law; as binding upon the President, upon Congress, and upon the States, as it is upon the youngest midship- man of the Navy. Its essential characteristics are these two. It is the formal expression of the will of the ivhole people. As such, the States, severally and jointly, accepted and ratified it; and so, from being distinct societies, they became a single con- solidated nation, indivisible and inseparable, except at the bidding of the authority which created it, the voice of the entire population of the Union. These attributes make it our law of laws. They enthrone it within its sphere, which its own terms define, over all other powers and over all persons. To explain and apply the principles of this (shall I style it) sublime instrument, is the province of our Supreme Court of Judicature ; and no functions so august were ever before confided to a human tribunal. 11 How much we are all indebted to this arrange- ment, can be estimated only by one who is able to sum up the benefits which the Constitution of the United States has in the course of seventy years con- ferred upon our country and the world. For it ad- mits of easy demonstration, that the preservation of the Constitution, and, by consequence, of the Union and all that the Union comprehends, is due, under God, to the Judiciary. The Constitution is the depository and charter of those rights and privileges which, prior to this rebellion, had conducted our country to an unexampled pitch of prosperity and happiness ; and of the Constitution, the Judiciary has been the faithful guardian. Numerous are the in- stances in which its provisions have been violated, sometimes by acts of Congress, more frequently by the State Legislatures or the State courts. And if there had been no court of eminent jurisdiction to annul these acts and decrees, the Constitution must long ago have been scattered to the winds. It was with a deep significance that Washington, in enclos- ing to John Jay his commission as the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, addressed him as " the head of the department which must be considered as the keystone of our political fabric." Subsequent events have vindicated this comparison. That the arch did not sooner give way, was, under Providence, 12 because the keystone proved immovable. That the keystone should still preserve its poise, notwithstand- ing the frightful ruins strewn around its base, forbids us to despair of yet seeing the crumbling arch re- stored. Some general idea may be formed from these ob- servations, of the lofty position which the Judiciary holds in our political system. It will readily be seen that the duties devolving upon the magistrates who preside in this court, are no less delicate than mo- mentous. Besides the difficulties and responsibili- ties inherent in the Judicial office under ordinary circumstances, they are exposed to others of no tri- vial character. They are set to expound the Consti- tution. Representing, in this capacity, the federal authority, they stand in a sort of antagonism to the State functionaries, and to all upon whose pride, or ambition, or supposed interest, the yoke of the Con- stitution may press with any degree of rigour. The allegiance of the citizen to his own State being im- mediate and direct, and that to the general govern- ment remote, a tribunal created to uphold the supre- macy of the national authority wherever the States may presume to impugn it, must expect to be viewed with a jealous eye. The popular sympathy which so often cheers other jurists, rarely makes its way into the presence-chamber of our national Court. It is 13 their ungracious office to decide causes where the parties-litigant are, perhaps, sovereign States ; and the mandate they issue, instead of affecting a solitary individual or corporation, disappoints and vexes a million of people. To this great community they are, as it were, a foreign tribunal : and so much room do their relations to the defeated party leave, in cases of this sort, for the workings of wounded state- pride, partisan feeling, and all uncharitableness, that the general acquiescence of the nation in the deci- sions of the Supreme Court, deserves to be regarded as a signal token of God's providential care over our country. This, however, is but one class of the cases which illustrate the point before us. It devolves upon this Court, as already intimated, to sit in judgment upon the acts of the co-ordinate branches of the Govern- ment, and to interpose itself, as occasion serves, between either or both and an excited people. It must defend the Legislature against the threatening designs of the Executive. It must protect the just prerogative of the Executive against the unconstitu- tional demands of the Legislature. It must guard the right of the States from federal aggression, and the authority of the federal government from the aggressions of the States. It must, if needful, invoke the whole power of the Union to enforce its 14 decrees in the face of an inflamed populace who are disappointed of a coveted victim. And it must invoke that same power to shield even an unworthy citizen from an attempted outrage, whether on the part of a vindictive Legislature or a despotic Exe- cutive. Functions like these could be entrusted only to a Judiciary established upon the firmest possible foun- dation. The provision of the Constitution relating to this point, is in the following words: — "The Judges both of the Supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour; and shall at stated times receive for their services a com- pensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office." It is well known that the wisdom of these last days claims to have devised a better principle for the regulation of the Judiciary than the good behaviour tenure ; I refer to the plan of an elective Judici-ary for short terms. The great importance of this question must be my apology for offering a few observations on the general subject. The plan of an elective Judiciary for short terms, has been advocated chiefly upon two grounds. First, as affording the only adequate means of getting rid of incompetent or corrupt Judges. The answer to this is, that a Judge of this sort may be removed by impeachment. In some of the States the same end 15 may be reached by the less formal process of an address to the Governor by the Legislature. The other and main argument is, that it is anti-repub- lican to confer an "office for life;" and that to insure the faithful administration of justice, the Judges must be made, like Legislative and Executive offi- cers, directly responsible to the people. But the system here impugned does not create a "life-office." The tenure is, " during good behaviour." If a Judge does well, he keeps his place: if otherwise, he may be deposed. Nor is the analogy drawn from the other departments of any validity. The difference has been often pointed out. The whole power of the State is vested in the Legislative and Executive branches of the government. They make the laws. They create offices. They appoint all the officers. They dispense all the patronage. They declare war and make peace. They may embark in schemes which involve the outlay of millions of money, and the employment of whole armies of contractors, agents, and their subordinates; for all which the country must be taxed. In wielding these vast powers, they have a large discretion. They may do or not do, as they see fit. They may choose out of a variety of projects for accomplishing a certain end ; or they may reject them all, and abandon the object itself. Whatever they do or leave undone, the 16 people reap the consequences. It is on every ground proper, then, that the people should exercise a strict surveillance over these functionaries ; that they should hold them to a rigid accountability, by requiring them to return their commissions to their hands at stated and brief intervals. Now what semblance of identity is there between this case and that of the Judiciary "? The Judges have no political power. They can create no corpo- rations. They can make no contracts. They can lay no taxes. They can appoint no officers. They are simply the oracle of the law. The laws, which, it is important to note, they have no agency in making, (and none in repealing except as they may pronounce them unconstitutional,) speak through them to the people and to their rulers. The Judges are shut up to this service. They are without dis- cretion.* There is not a vagrant on the street who may not go into court and compel them to speak. A Legislature may shirk an unwelcome duty. They may decline or postpone action, where action would embroil them with their constituents. But a Judge has no such latitude. It matters not who may invoke his interposition, nor whom he may disquiet ; when the cause comes before him, his oath requires * See Mr. Sergeant's very able speeclx in the Pennsylvania Convention. 17 him to decide it. That these decisions should fre- quently give offence, is unavoidable. All the more reason is there for making the Judges independent. It is for the interest of the people that the magistrate who expounds the laws, should be in a position to fear neither their displeasure nor that of their poli- tical rulers. It is no disparagement to them to say, that they are not competent to review the proceed- ings of the courts; if they are, why not abolish the courts altogether'? Experience has shown that opinions from the Bench which at first excited popular odium, are frequently accepted after a little season as just and wise. This shows the impor- tance of a permanent Judiciary. To say that " the offices of the Judges belong, not to the incumbents, but to the people," and to urge this as a reason why the people should have a fre- quent opportunity of appropriating them, is to trifle with a very grave subject. The offices do belong to the people. And it also belongs to the people to have them filled with wise and faithful men — not for the sake of these men, but for the public good. Of what moment is it to you or to me, who the indi- vidual may be that sits in the seat of judgment I But it is of the greatest moment to us all, that we should guard the independence of the jurist who sits there, by assuring him that so long as he does well, he shall 2 18 not be molested. It is for our good, not his own, that we would have him feel that he shall not be de- prived of his bread and turned adrift upon the world, for doing his duty. In taking this ground, we are pleading the cause of the government against fac- tion ; the cause of minorities against majorities ; the cause of the helpless against the strong ; the cause of the loyal and exemplary citizen against the violence of party; the cause of popular liberty against the usurpations of arbitrary power. The whole frame- work of society is suspended upon the independence of the Judiciary. " I have always thought," says Chief Justice Marshall, " from my earliest youth till now, that the greatest scourge an angry Heaven ever inflicted upon an ungrateful and a sinning people, was an ignorant, a corrupt, or a dependent Judiciary." These solemn words occur in a speech he delivered in 1829, (he was then in his 75th year,) to the Vir- ginia Convention, his main object being to show that Judicial independence could be secured only by the good-behaviour tenure. To maintain that an upright judge has nothing to fear from a periodical reference of his commission to the contingencies of a popular vote, may be a very amiable sentiment, but it does not quite suit the sphere we happen to dwell in. This is no Arcadia, but a very matter-of-fact sort of world, with large 19 room for the play of envy, ambition, resentment, avarice, and their kindred passions; and "svith sad memorials, filling many thousands of volumes, of faithful public servants who have suffered injustice at the hands of their fellows. We cannot trust our Judges to this sort of guardianship. We do not care to expose them to such temptations. We fear the flatteries and the enmities of popular leaders. We distrust the arts of emulous rivals, and the candour of a partisan press. There is no country in the world where personal character is so mercilessly traduced at the polls, as here. No citizen who becomes a candidate for office is too good to be gibbeted as a felon in disguise. The most venerable of our living statesmen, now four-score years of age, as remarkable for the purity of his life as for his emi- nent abilities, observed in a speech before the United States Senate some years ago, that when his name was before the country in connection with the Pre- sidency, he was accused by the newspapers of every crime in the decalogue except one. I suppose the excepted sin was idolatry. Why his detractors should scruple about this charge is quite intelligible. Even party credulity was not ready to have it said, that Mr. Cass was a worshipper of Jupiter or Jugger- naut. Had there been an audience to entertain it, the libel should not have failed for lack of some one to father it. 20 It is the tax we pay for our liberties — this licenti- ousness of the tongue and the press. For this reason and no other, we tolerate it. But who wishes to see Judicial integrity cast into this seething cauldron'? Can the Judges bear it 1 Do they require it '! If it be needful to subject them to the ordeal by fire, why not go back to the approved system of the fathers, and compel them every few years to walk barefoot over nine red hot plough-shares 1 That had a cer- tain dignity about it. It was genuine sorcery. The other is a poor imitation. It lacks the solemnity of the primitive institute, — unhappily it retains the fire. But the personal relation of the Judges to this ques- tion, is of secondary importance. Let it fare with them as it may, can the people bear if? Can they aff'ord to live under a system the essential tendency of which is to make justice the sport of human pas- sions and the foot-ball of parties'? Is it for their security and happiness that the courts should be exposed to every gust that disturbs the political atmo- sphere ; and that the Judges should be placed in a position where the thought of bread for themselves and their families, may tempt them to keep one eye on the code and the other on the ballot-box 1 Will it aid in conserving their franchises to have learned and upright Judges driven from the Bench — perhaps to go to the almshouse, or to the grave — at the very 21 time when age and experience combine to make their services more valuable than ever'? It is no reply to these views to urge that many of the States, our own among them, have adopted the plan of an elective Judiciary for short terms: and that thus far it has proved satisfactory. For the time has not eome to gather the fruit of this tree. The system is yet to be tested. We may concede that in our own State it has thus far wrought no irreparable mischief. We may go further: it has given us some Judges of very high character, who deservedly enjoy the confidence of the Bar and of the public. This is cause for thankfulness. But neither our experience nor that of other common- wealths, will aid the sponsors of this new doctrine. The indications are (so it is credibly stated) that the election of Judges in the States which have repudiated the time-honoured custom of the older nations, will at no distant day sink to the level of those partisan contests, in which all concern for the fitness of candidates is merged in the one paltry idea of their "availableness." And when that day comes. Justice will fly from her desecrated tem- ples, and Liberty will not be long in following her to some happier shore.* *I have heard a very distinguished citizen of this State express his deep regret for the vote he gave in the Convention of 18o7, 22 I may be allowed to confirm these views by an authority which both the Bar and the Bench are accustomed to respect. "What guarantee is there for the Constitution itself, if you emasculate the judicial department, the only one that is a smooth, practical, wakeful, and efficient defence against invasions of the Constitution by the Legislature — the only one that can be effi- cient in a republican representative government, whose people will not bear a blow, and therefore require a guarantee whose blow is a word] A lease- hold elective tenure by the Judiciary is a frightful solecism in such a government. It enfeebles the guarantee of other guarantees — the trial by jury — the writ of habeas corpus — the freedom and parity of elections by the people — and the true liberty and responsibility of the press. It takes strength from the only arm that can do no mischief by its strength, and gives it to those who have no general intelligence to this end, in the use of it, and therefore no ability to use it for their own protection. The certainty in favour of altering the Judicial tenure. He added, with emotion, " It is my conviction that this change has put Pennsylvania back one hundred years; and so thorough is the revolution of opinion on this subject, that if the question could now be submitted to a popular vote, our State would go back to the old tenure by an overwhelming majority." I am further assured, by leading mem- bers of the Professiou, that "the Pennsylvania Bar is a unit on this question." 23 and permanence of the law depend in great degree upon the Judges ; and all experience misleads us, and the very demonstrations of reason are fallacies, if the certainty and permanence of the judicial office by the tenure of good behaviour, are not insepa- rately connected with a righteous, as well as with a scientific, administration of the law. What can expe- rience or foresight predict for the result of a system, by which a body of men, set apart to enforce the whole law at all times, whatever may be the oppo- sition to it, and whose duty is never so important and essential as when it does so against the pas- sions of a present majority of the polls, is made to depend for office upon the fluctuating temper of a majority, and not upon the virtue of their own conductr'* Thus much on the general question of the Judi- cial tenure. The argument grows cumulative when applied to the Federal Judiciary. It were quite per- tinent to refer, on this point, to the stores of learning, professional and general, which are demanded by the exigencies of that Bench. A Court which, to say nothing of Admiralty cases. Treaties, and the Law of Nations, rises to the dignity of a great "inter- national arbiter," by comprehending within its juris- diction the acts of Congress and the Legislation and *The Leaders of the Old Bar of riiiladelphia. Ey Horace Binney. 1859. 24 Jurisprudence of thirty-four sovereign States and an indefinite number of Territories, must require for the wise administration of its powers, an extent and variety of intellectual resources far beyond any Judi- cial office known to the most polished nations of Europe. How are men to be fitted for such an office without a life of study "? And what motive were there to engage in this herculean work of prepara- tion, if they were liable to be removed at the end of a few years'? But let me simply recall the views already pre- sented. Consider the vast responsibilities accumu- lated upon this Bench, the extreme delicacy of their relations to the General and State Governments and to all the inferior Courts, the powerful clients that appear at their Bar, the wide sweep of their jurisdic- tion, the momentous consequences which their deci- sions frequently draw after them in respect to our own commonwealths and our transactions with foreign Cabinets, and their peculiar liability to provoke the displeasure of suitors of all sorts, individuals, corpo- rations, and whole communities, — consider these things, 'and say whether it can be wise or just to place men in this position without making their pri- vileges indefeasible, except on due conviction of imbecility or crime. This Court has more than once given umbrage to the Federal Legislature and the 25 Executive. It has wounded the sensibility of States. It has affronted great political parties; and drawn upon itself the anathemas of popular orators and the denunciations of the press. We violate no charity in assuming that on some of these occasions it may have deserved censure : for what tribunal is infal- lible'? What one has always and entirely escaped the taint of unworthy motives'? But what then'? We are to estimate its working on the whole. And after making all due allowance for the infirmities and errors incident to such a tribunal, no candid mind will deny that it has been one of the main but- tresses of the Republic, one of the chief supports of the public safety and the public virtue. Yet it is morally certain, that if the Judges had been remo- vable at the discretion of the President or of Con- gress, or had been obliged to encounter at prescribed intervals the hazards of a heated political campaign, the personnel of the Court would have undergone frequent changes. In particular instances this might have been advantageous. But the general result must have been pernicious in a high degree. The diff'erences which arise between the Judiciary and the other branches of the Government, are now evan- escent. Under the other system, they would ripen into settled contests; and we should present to the world the unseemly spectacle of a frequent, perhaps, 26 a perpetual wrangling among the principal depart- ments of the Government. Again, the perturbation which occasionally follows an obnoxious decision of the Supreme Court, now passes off in an efferves- cence of popular feeling. Under the adverse plan, every such event would be seized as an element of political agitation, and made to bear with mis- chievous effect upon the next Judicial election. In this way, that high Court would be brought down from the serene atmosphere where it now dwells, into the turbulent region of party politics. Fre- quent changes would destroy its identity. That sense of responsibility and harmony of action which are the natural characteristics of an upright and per- manent Judiciary, would give place to the mutual jealousies which may be expected to mark a Bench composed of politicians as distinguished from a Bench composed of Jurists. And the potent influ- ence of this great Institution, which has done so much to save and bless the country, would combine with the numerous agencies already at work to poison the springs of our national life, and hasten the final catastrophe of the Government. Not to pursue this topic further, the wisdom of the plan upon which the federal courts were organ- ized, has been amply vindicated by the results. It may be asserted, without the least fear of contradic- 27 tion, that the Judiciary has continued to this day the purest branch of our government. Its integrity must often have been thrust into the crucible. The Tempter, from whose assaults neither private worth nor official station insures any immunity, would not fail to spread his toils around its council-chamber. Specious arts would be employed to subsidize it, now in the interest of some unscrupulous corporation, now in the interest of arbitrary power, and anon on behalf of some popular resentment. We have all seen the fatal effects of these insidious agencies, in the admitted moral deterioration which has, for many years, been going on in other departments of the public service, both State and National. But thus far, (let us thank God for it,) the Judiciary has not been drawn into this vortex. However its decisions may sometimes have occasioned a wide murmur of discontent, and even provoked the for- mal censure of assembled Senates, it is beyond con- troversy, that the people, as a body, have more confidence in this Court, than in any other branch of the Government. Let justice be done, however. This result is not to be wholly ascribed to the plan upon which the Judiciary is organized, nor to the tenure by which the judges hold their office. It is due, in an emi- nent degree, to the characters, personal and profes- 28 sional, of the men who liave occupied the Bench of the Supreme Court. In the list of names which grace the records of this tribunal, there are not a few which have reflected honour even upon that august station. But the hand of a beneficent Providence is especially to be recognised in the history of the Chief Justiceship. It must be regarded as a remarkable circumstance, that, during the seventy-three years which have elapsed since the organization of the Court, there have been, with an unimportant qualification, but four Chief Justices. The qualification this state- ment requires, has respect to the appointment of John Rutledge of South Carolina, to this post, in 1795, whose nomination, however, was rejected by the Senate, after he had presided for a single term ; and the appointment of William Cushing, of Mas- sachusetts, who, on the retirement of Kutledge, accepted the office, but resigned it at the end of a week, without presiding at all. On the adoption of the Constitution in 1789, Washington manifested his appreciation of the character and abilities of John Jay, by offering him a choice of the offices at his disposal. Mr. Jay preferred the Chief Justice- ship, and it was conferred upon him. Four years after, when another war with Great Britain appeared imminent, the President selected him as the most 29 suitable person to be sent as special envoy to that country. The mission was distasteful to Mr. Jay, but he sacrificed his private predilections to his patriotism, and accepted the trust. One of our late historians refers to this event in language which I quote, as supplying (so far as it goes) a faithful por- traiture of the man. " In point of Revolutionary services, only the President himself stood upon higher ground. Nor could any person, except the Vice-President, (Adams,) pretend to a place upon the same level. In lofty disinterestedness, in unyielding integrity, in superiority to the illusions of passion, no one of the great men of the Pevolu- tion approached so near to Washington. Profound knowledge of the law, inflexible sense of justice, and solidity of judgment, had especially marked him out for the office which he held. . . . The only serious objection to his appointment, (as Ambassa- dor Extraordinary,) was his judicial station. But even that gave an additional dignity to the mission ; and in a crisis so important, the objection lost much of its weight."* Of the convulsions which were occasioned by the Treaty he negotiated; how bitterly he was denounced as the betrayer of his country's independence; how copies of the Treaty were publicly burned in Boston, * Hildreth. 30 New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston; and how the two great parties marshalled their forces throughout the Union on this question, as one of honour or shame, of even life or death, to the Repub- lic, it is not for me to speak. All that concerns the present discussion is, that neither at this crisis, nor at any other juncture of our affairs, was any assault made upon Mr. Jay's personal integrity. Even the malevolence of party feeling, never more virulent than then, dared not point a single shaft at his character. That he should feel keenly the injus- tice with which his services were requited, was unavoidable. But he bore the trial with the perfect peace promised to him whose " mind is stayed on God." Any other foundation must have given way. For " the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew," with a fury to which the history of parties in our country supplies few, if any, parallels. But he was unmoved: his feet were planted on a Kock — on that Rock which sustains the pillars of the firmament. The serenity of spirit he displayed amidst this storm, found apt expression on a kin- dred occasion, when, having been defrauded, by the canvassers, of the vote which had made him Gov- ernor of New York, he wrote thus to his wife: " Having nothing to reproach myself with in rela- tion to this event, it shall neither discompose my 31 temper, nor postpone my sleep. A few years will put us all in the dust; and it will then be of more importance to me to have governed myself than to have governed the State." This incident reveals both his moral greatness and the source from which it was derived. There is no purer name known to the annals of our coun- try than that of John Jay. A man of vigorous intellect, with ample and various culture, equal to any position in the government, and actually filling several of its most elevated and responsible offices, the bosom friend of Washington, and one of the idols of that great party of which it is praise enougl! to say that it had Washington for its head, his whole character and life were transfused with the spirit of true religion. He was proof alike against calumny and against flattery. A prominent actor in most turbulent scenes, he daily "walked with God." And while nothing could be further removed from a sanctimonious carriage, he seemed ever to carry along with him an atmosphere that savoured of the "better country." Of Mr. Jay's judicial career I shall not pause to speak. But we may well record it as one of the tokens of the Divine goodness to our country, that such a man was called to preside over the Supreme Court for the first six years of its existence. 32 He was succeeded, after the brief interval already alluded to, by Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut. (March 4, 1796.) It is not from choice that I make merely a passing allusion to the labours of this dis- tinguished man. The limits prescribed by approved custom to a service like the present, only permit me to say, that the mantle of Jay contracted no stain when it fell upon his successor. A sound and able jurist, he administered his high trust in a manner satisfactory to the country, while he carried into every sphere of life the spirit of an unaffected and earnest piety. Ellsworth resigned the Chief Justiceship in 1800, and was succeeded by John Marshall, (January, 1801.) There is but one name in our history which deserves to be pronounced with greater reve- ence than this. It is the name we instinctively associate with the Supreme Court of the nation; the name through which, more than any other, that Court has established itself in the grateful affections of the American people, and secured for our Juris- prudence the respect of the Profession abroad. If the entire testimony of the Bench and Bar of the country may be relied upon as a safe guide, the munificent Providence which raised up a Washing- ton to conduct us through the Kevolution, and take the lead in organizing the government, bestowed 1 33 upon ITS a gift of scarcely less value in sending us a Marshall. For without his agency, or that of some one endowed with similar qualifications, the work achieved by Washington and his compeers must soon have come to nought. No one can believe that it would have survived the fierce political con- flicts which marked the administrations of the second, third, and fourth Presidents, The machinery of the government was all new. It had gone into operation against the energetic remonstrances of large bodies of the people, including not a few of the most influential advocates and statesmen of the country. Patrick Henry was gone; but at the period of Marshall's accession to the Bench, the echoes of his prophetic warnings were still heard in the land. It happened, singularly enough, that only a very few cases had come before Jay and Ellsworth which involved important questions of constitutional law. The Constitution was yet to be expounded. Its slumbering powers were to be evoked, and its principles applied, as well to the delicate net-work which bound the thirteen commonwealths together in a compact Union, as to questions of personal right and liberty. These proud commonwealths were waiting to hear whether, in escaping from the thraldom of one master, the Kevolution had given them another. They were waiting to be told what 3 34 rights they had relinquished for the common good ; and how far they had curtailed their own sove- reignty for the promised but, as yet, uncertain advantages of a consolidated government. The lesson was not an inviting one, and there was but one school in which it could be learned. For how- ever ample the discussions which had been elicited by the Federal Constitution; with whatever ability it had been canvassed in the Convention which formed it, in the Conventions which adopted it, by the press, and by the people at large, the country did not and could not know ivhat the Constitution really was, until it had been subjected to the keen scrutiny of the Judiciary. Its own terms vested this high prerogative in the Supreme Court; and the country was now to hear the first utterances of that oracle whose voice it had bound itself to reverence as paramount to every other except the voice of God. The formal adoption of the Consti- tution had been carried in some of the States by a bare majority; and in nearly all it encountered serious opposition. In one of the numerous elo- quent speeches with which Henry had opposed it in the Virginia Convention, he went so far as to say, " I would rather infinitely — and I am sure most of this Convention are of the same opinion — have a King, Lords, and Commons, than a government so 35 replete with such insupportable evils."* The Con- vention of North Carolina had been told that "instead of securing the rights of the States, the Constitution would melt them down into one solid empire."! New York had been told that, if not amended, " not even the shadow of liberty would be left to the States, as States.":!: Pennsylvania had been told that in adopting this government " they were laying a foundation on which might be erected as complete a tyranny as could be found in the Eastern world. "§ The lapse of twelve years had not obliterated these auguries from the public mind. The States were well aware that many of the powers of the Constitution were as yet latent ; and they waited with deep solicitude to see the seals loosed, and the book opened which was to decide their future destiny. In the wise and gracious ordering of our Heavenly Father, this high duty devolved, not exclusively — for he had able and excellent associates — but mainly, upon Chief Justice Marshall. That all-wise Provi- dence which ever prepares fit instruments for its chosen ends, had been silently training him for his great work. Gifted with extraordinary natural * Elliot's Debates, iii. 59. f Id. p. 202. X Id. ii. 386. § Id. p. 402. 36 abilities, he had been conducted through a variety of changes adapted to unfold and mature his powers, to familiarize him with our history, and to give him that personal knowledge of the wants and weak- nesses, the dangers and capacities, of the Union, which experience alone could supply. From 17T6 to 1781, he was in active service with the army of the Revolution. He was repeatedly a member of the Virginia Legislature. He sat in the Convention of that State which met to consider the Federal Consti- tution. At a later period he was sent as Envoy Extraordinary to France, and in 1799 was a member of Congress. The period here defined was one in which the public mind was stirred to its lowest depths with the earnest discussion, all over the land, of great questions of policy and jurisprudence. It will be deemed no disparagement to the other States to say, that in these discussions, Virginia took the lead. It was her Augustan age. She could have spared orators and statesmen enough to endow two or three commonwealths, without impo- verishing herself. As no other State could have supplied Washington with the military experience so indispensable to the post for which Providence designed him, so it was the only State in which Marshall could have been thoroughly trained for his mission. Not simply an observer, but a resolute and 37 prominent actor in the controversies of the day, he had mastered the true theory of our Goverment, and explored it from foundation to turret, before he was summoned to administer one of its three great departments. He must be a perverse unbeHever who is not ready to say, "The finger of God is here!" Of the manner in which he acquitted himself in this elevated and most difficult office, there can be no occasion for me to speak. Others have spoken who .are entitled to be heard. In the discourses occasioned by his lamented death in this city, (July 6, 1835,) eulogy fairly exhausted itself. And what is more remarkable, no one, it is believed, was ever heard to complain that his panegyrists had trans- cended the limits of sober truth. With such wisdom, such profound knowledge of the law in every branch of Jurisprudence, such unswerving devotion to the Constitution and to the rights as well of the States as of the general Government, such spotless integrity, such courtesy and candour, such benevolence and gentleness, had he borne the weighty and perilous honours of his position, that the feeling of the people, even of those who had never seen him, was, that nothing which the fore- most men of the nation could say, was too good to be said of the departed Chief Justice. By the 38 graces of his personal- character, he had endeared himself to all who came within the charmed sphere of his social life. His unaffected piety lent new beauty to the mellowing influence of age. A single stroke will do more to show what he was, than pages of description. His daughter relates* that she had it from his own lips, that he never went to bed without concluding his prayers with those which his mother taught him when a child, viz.. The Lord's Prayer, and Watts's cradle stanza, "Now I lay me down to sleep." Here, surely, is a spectacle to move any heart not bereft of sensibility. This man of lofty stature and of loftier station; "the Expounder of the Constitu- tion of the United States," endowed with every quality of mind and heart which could shed lustre upon his high position, and when he opened his lips to deliver an opinion, listened to by the magnates of the land with a reverence they accorded to no other human being; this man, in his green old age, with all his honours thick upon him, bowing down at his bed-side night after night before the Infinite One, and with clasped hands and gentle voice breathing into his Father's ear the sweet prayer of his childhood: * Flanders' "Lives of the Chief Justices/' ii. 548. 39 *'Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray tlie Lord my soul to keep; If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Dear old man, is it wonderful that he should have a place "in the hearts of his countrymen"] As regards the Judicial services of this great man, I shall refer to them very briefly, and in the words of our own revered and honoured townsman, (senis in coeliim redeat!) of whom it must suffice to say, that if he had been called to sit in Marshall's seat, the entire Profession would have said, "It is well." I quote a paragraph bearing upon the topics chiefly dwelt upon in this discourse, and most vitally con- nected w^ith our national welfare. The extract may serve to illustrate the estimate formed of him by William Pinkney, one of the most brilliant men that ever adorned the Federal Bar, who said of Marshall, the first time he heard him deliver an opinion, that, "he was born to be the Chief Justice of any country into which Providence should have cast him." "The day of Chief Justice Marshall's appointment will ever be regarded as an epoch in the history of the Constitution. The rules of its interpretation were still to be settled, and the meaning of its doubtful clauses to be fixed by that authority which, 40 under the Constitution, is final, and some of them regarded nothing less than the action of States and the government of a nation. To have erred, would have been to throw into disorder and convulsion the movements of the entire system. To have been sus- pected of incompetency, would have been to strike out the department from the hearts of the people, and to have left the Union without a Judiciary. What greater responsibility ever rested upon the judgments of a court] What greater triumph to human intellect and virtue, than effectually to accomplish so great a work] What nobler destiny than to be appointed and qualified for the service"? What eulogy is equal to so great a name, as that of a man, who gave the last sands of his life, to his eightieth year, in completing so much of it, and in tracing the plan of all that is to be done hereafter'? Let it not be supposed that I claim for him the exclu- sive merit. His modesty would reject it. Justice withholds it. He has had by his side men now resting from their labours like himself, and men still living to continue them, who have contributed by their talents and learning to all that has been done, and will ever be honoured for it by their country. But it is both their praise and his, that they have improved their own powers by the inspiration of his wisdom, and have been raised to their eminence, in 41 part, by the attraction of his example. In him his comitry have seen that triple union of lawyer, states- man, and patriot, which completes the frame of a great constitutional Judge ; and if we add to it " the heart of the wise man" inspired with the love of God, of country, and of mankind, and showing it in the walks of private life, as well as on the judgment- seat, while we have that which the course of the world very rarely exhibits, we have no more than, for the example of the world, has been bestowed upon our country."* Of the learned and upright jurist who succeeded Marshall, and the distinguished men associated with him, you will not expect me to speak. In selecting this unusual topic for a Thanksgiving Discourse, I have already intimated that its being "unusual" was one of the considerations which com- mended it to my choice. Not that any stress is to be laid, in a question of this sort, upon mere novelty. But here was a long-standing debt of gratitude to be paid. Here was one of our greatest national bless- ings unchronicled ; a blessing not held in fee by a single profession, but co-eval with the Government, co-extensive with the country, shared by us all, essential to us all, without which there could be ^'- Mr. Binney's Eulogy on Chief Justice Marshall, 1835. 42 neither personal security nor national progress. Even the cursory glance we have taken at our his- tory, must suffice to show that without the mild, equable, and constant pressure of the Judiciary, the old Confederation could never have been moulded into that strong and symmetrical Union which, until assailed with parricidal hands, was our joy and pride. It was, in no small degree, the firm and dis- creet action of the Supreme Court which reconciled the discontented to the change ; which convinced all classes that their rights would be better protected in the Union than out of it, and satisfied the States that the general Government, instead of despoiling them of their independence, had placed it, within its prescribed sphere, upon firmer ground, and made the interest of each to blend with the harmony and growth of all. The Judicial power, which had loomed up before the disturbed imaginations of so many able men as the very symbol of tyranny, came to be regarded, and justly so, as the stronghold of liberty. Few, if any of the States have escaped its wholesome repri- mands for their forays upon the Constitution; but this, like all domestic discipline wisely administered, has only cemented their attachment to the house- hold. Secession itself has been mute in this pre- sence. So far as I know, it has made no formal 43 attempt to extenuate its stupendous crime by appeal- ing to the records of the Supreme Court. We may even, by a pardonable anachronism, quote its own authority as exonerating this Court from all respon- sibility in the premises. In a beautiful tribute to the character of Marshall at the time of his death, the Charleston Bar made use of this striking lan- guage: "Though his authority as Chief Justice of the United States was protracted far beyond the ordinary term of public life, no, man dared to covet his place, or express a wish to see it filled by another. Even the spirit of ]3arty respected the unsullied purity of the Judge ; and the fame of the Chief Justice has justified the wisdom of the Consti- tution, and reconciled the jealousy of freedom to the independence of the Judiciary."* No testimony could go beyond this in establishing the value of the Federal Judiciary as a means of preserving our Gov- ernment. If I may seem to you to have dwelt too exclusively upon this one aspect of its powers and results, let it be noted that our Government is, under God, everything to us. If that is gone, all is gone — all that pertains to our civil and social life, and very much that concerns our Christianity, with its infinitude of blessings. Whatever contributes essentially to conserve and perpetuate it, is, to that * Yan Santvoord's "Lives of tlie Chief Justices." 44 extent, to be recognised as the shield and safeguard of our dearest rights and privileges. Let us, then, bring our thank-offerings to the altar to-day, for the Judicial system of our country, and for the great and good men who have been raised up to admin- ister it. This is one of our duties : to be thaiikful to God for our Courts of Justice. There is another duty no less obvious: ive must sustain and cherish the Judiciary. The reasons for this are interwoven with the dis- cussion in which we have been engaged. The obli- gation rests alike upon the Government and the people — upon the Governments, State and National, in their spheres, and upon the people in theirs. We have dwelt upon the beneficent influence of the Judiciary in fostering the national life and preserv- ing the Union. It was the feebleness of the Federal bond which gave the founders of the Republic more solicitude than any other subject. They would have made it stronger, but the temper of the States would not bear it. The quarter from which they appre- hended danger, was that from which all our danger has come — the weakness of the central power, exposed, as it must necessarily be, to the aggres- sions of so many independent and aspiring States. Inheriting their principles and their fears, Marshall 45 did what he could to invigorate the general Govern- ment. To this point tended the whole current of his judicial opinions, during the thirty-four years he sat upon the Bench. Had he and his learned asso- ciates adopted what is styled the "States Rights" theory of the Constitution, as the basis of their decisions, the Union, it is probable, would long ago have fallen to pieces. Perhaps the latent tenden- cies in that direction, before this war broke out, were more decided, even in some of the free States, than was imagined. The war has repressed them for the time, and the Federal power now shines forth in its splendour. But this is the effect of a great crisis, and may or may not continue. Thirty years ago, a profound philosopher and statesman, who, though a foreigner, has written the ablest work on our institutions since the Federalist, penned these remarks on the topic before us: "I am strangely mistaken if the Federal Govern- ment of the United States be not constantly losing strength, retiring gradually from public affairs, and narrowing its circle of action more and more. It is naturally feeble, but it now abandons even its pre- tensions to strength. On the other hand, I thought that I remarked a more lively sense of indepen- dence, and a more decided attachment to provincial government in the States. The Union is to subsist, 46 but to subsist as a shadow; it is to be strong in certain cases, and weak in all others; in time of warfare, it is to be able to concentrate all the forces of the nation, and all the resources of the country, in its hands; and in time of peace, its existence is to be scarcely perceptible: as if this alternate debil- ity and vigour were natural or possible So far is the Federal Government from acquiring strength, and from threatening the sovereignty of the States, as it grows older, that I maintain it to be growing weaker and weaker, and that the sove- reignty of the Union alone is in danger."* These are the words of a far-seeing man, and a true friend to our country. It cannot impair the solemnity of the warning, that it should coalesce so entirely with the teachings of Washington and Hamilton, of Jay and Marshall. In our jealous concern for the rights of the States, we must see to it that the general Government be not shorn of its just prerogatives. And if the Government itself be alive to the danger in this direction, it will neglect no suitable means for increasing the stability of the Federal Judiciary. For, if this prop gives way, the whole structure becomes a heap of ruins. Two things, in this view, devolve upon the Executive and the Legislature. * De Tocqucville. 47 111 the first place, they must exercise the utmost caution in the Judicial appointments. The Supreme Court cannot maintain its true place in our system, unless its high functions be confided to competent hands. It will not do to recruit this Bench from the second and third ranks of the Profession. Nor will it do to make it an asylum for unfortunate poli- ticians. It must be expected that vacancies will be filled from the dominant party, whatever that may be. But every one understands the distinction between a lawyer who makes his profession a hewer of wood to his politics, and a lawyer who makes his politics wait on his profession. With the entire Bar of the Union before him, it were inexcusable in a President to propose any name for this high position, which would not command the general respect of the country. We may of right insist that the men who fill those seats, shall be men of undoubted capacity and inflexible integrity. No others could be safely entrusted with a power which gives law to thirty millions of people, and which has disposed of property worth an hundred millions of dollars in a single year. The other duty which devolves upon the co-ordi- nate departments, is that of respecting the powers of the Judiciary, and enforcing its decrees. Not to do this, would be suicidal. For the Government is 48 one ; and a house divided against itself cannot stand. It matters not that the decisions of the Court may sometimes be distasteful to the Executive and the Legislature. The Constitution leaves them no alter- native but to obey its mandates. Any other course on [their part would be adapted to prostrate the authority of the Government. For so pernicious an example could not fail to spread a fatal infection through the body politic. There are not wanting instances in which States have taken it upon them- selves to contemn the opinions of the Judiciary. Pennsylvania once called out troops to resist its authority. But it was only a paroxysm of offended dignity, and the State soon bowed to the Constitu- tional edict. In a much more memorable instance, Georgia set the Court at defiance, and kept the doors of her penitentiary locked upon two faithful minis- ters of the Gospel, for eighteen months after Judge Marshall had pronounced the law under which they were condemned, null and void. More recently, a decree of this Bench has occasioned an intense popular excitement, spreading through a dozen States, and venting itself in bitter invectives against the Court: — a decree, I may add, which was received with equal astonishment and regret by many who gave no countenance to these assaults upon the personal integrity of the Judges. Examples of this 49 kind are not incompatible with the statement that the Supreme Court, on the whole, retains and deserves, in a signal degree, the confidence of the country. But they are portents which a wise man will heed. They show that this Court requires all the moral support to be derived from the cordial sympathy of the Executive and the Legislature. If they would have the people sustain it, they must not discredit it themselves. When they begin to arro- gate its powers, or to tread its opinions in the dust, they naay bespeak some one to write its epitaph — and their own.. The obligation to cherish the Judiciary, I have said, rests no less upon the people, than upon the Government. Common gratitude demands this. If we have received from the Judicial power a tithe of the benefits traced to its agency in this discourse, it has laid us under obligations we can never repay. Besides this, the solemnity and delicacy of their functions, (I am speaking of the Federal Judges,) entitle them to the generous sympathy of the public. As the arbitrators between our several systems of government, they are charged with the gravest responsibilities, and peculiarly exposed to the attacks of mortified pride and disappointed ambition. The people whom they shield from so many evils, are 4: 50 bound in honour to protect them, as far as may be, against such assaults, and to sustain them in the fearless discharge of their high duties. But they have a still stronger title to our support. We ought to cherish the Judicial power because it is the citadel of our liberties. The founders of our institutions were men deeply versed in the science of government. They had explored the hidden causes which have changed so many good govern- ments into bad ones. Experience had taught them that unless the liberty of the citizen was guarded as by " munitions of rocks," it would sooner or later be extinguished. Impressed with this conviction, they deemed it unsafe to commit this sacred deposit to the custody of either the Executive or the Legisla- ture. Commencing with a fundamental law, as already stated, they confided public and private liberty to the keeping of a Constitution, which neither the Executive nor the Legislature could dis- turb,— to which, indeed, they were themselves sub- ordinate. The prerogative of deciding whether their acts were conformed to this primal law, was vested in the Courts. Had the Courts been made dependent upon the other departments, they might have been prostituted by their masters to the worst purposes of tyranny. Our sages had seen too much of this in the Old World, and they eluded it by 51 making the Judiciary independent. By this system, it will be seen, the Judiciary becomes the conserva- tor of our liberties. It is the protecting power of all the branches of the Government, because it is the guardian of the Constitution. But for its inter- vention, the Constitution would have perished long ago, pierced with more wounds, from friends and foes alike, than Cccsar received in the Senate-house. It is no less the bulwark which protects the citizen against the Government. It is the inalienable right of every citizen to be governed according to the laws of the land, and to have those laws conformed to the fundamental pact. There is always, and every where, an inherent tendency in executive and legislative power to enlarge itself. It cannot be trusted. Our country is yet young; but it is old enough to have illustrated the prescient wisdom of its founders in creating a sanctuary for those who might suffer at the hands of arbitrary power. That sanctuary is the temple of Justice. It may share the fate of the Jewish tem- ple, the earthly tabernacle of the Most High, and be demolished by violence. If this parricidal war upon the Union, which we are contesting on a hundred battle fields, should succeed, it must of course go down into the gulf which swallows up our national being. But to every other form of assault it may 52 and should be made impregnable. We must encom- pass it with our love and gratitude. The sympa- thies, the prayers, if need be, the right arms, of all true-hearted Americans must be invoked to guard its awful shrine from desecration. No unhallowed foot must be permitted to cross that threshold. I do not say that there is any danger of this at present. Nor am I speaking of what may or may not be allowable in great crises of our affairs, when the nation's life may hang as by a single thread, and nothing but a prompt exertion of executive author- ity can save it from extinction. All I say is, that here is the sanctuary of our liberties; and that it must be held inviolate at whatever sacrifice. We must cherish the sentiment, and disseminate it among the people, and transmit it to our children, that so long as the Constitution remains what it is, there is no earthly power which may lawfully chal- lenge the supremacy of the Judiciary within its proper sphere, or contest its will. This is the doctrine of the Fathers. It is the principle which underlies the entire fabric of our Government. It pervades and illumines every page of our annals. And the day that sees the country, whether in a frenzy of passion, or in cringing servil- ity to some popular leader, assail and overwhelm it, will see a government of law supplanted by a govern- 53 ment of force, and a j^reat nation putting on the chains their own hands have forged. Gentlemen of the Bar — It would ill comport with the proprieties of this occasion — with the place where we are assembled, with this day of grateful praise, and with the sacred office I am permitted to bear — should I close this service without adverting to one other aspect of the subject which has engaged our attention. The bearing of this discussion upon your personal responsibilities, will not fail to have occurred to you. A stream cannot rise above its fountain. The Judiciary must take its character from the Bar ; and the Bar can never fill the full measure of its exalted sphere, unless it is pervaded with a becoming reverence for Him by whom " princes rule, and nobles, even all the Judges of the earth." It was the crowning distinction of those great Jurists who have passed in review before us, that they laid their lofty attainments and their honours, a willing sacrifice upon the altar of God. With whatever majesty they were enrobed in that high Court where powerful States listened with awe to their mandates, when they went into His presence, it was to bow before Him as miserable sinners, confessing their ill-desert, and pleading for mercy only through " the blood of the Lamb." The example will commend 54 itself to your reflections. The proceedings with which your lives are engi'ossed, are but a dim type of that august Jurisprudence of which Jehovah Himself is the Minister; which takes cognizance of every thought of every human heart, and will one day decide the eternal "fates of men." Before His dread tribunal we must all be gathered. The purest amongst us is not pure enough to bear its scrutiny. But even the vilest will have nothing to fear, if he have a Friend in that great Advocate who mercifully offers to appear for us. Let us put our case in His hands. Let us invoke the aid of the Divine Spirit, that so, trusting in the blood of the Crucified One, and relying upon His ever-prevalent intercession, we may find pardon and peace with God. This is His own counsel; and in that day of days, no other can avail us. "What shall I, frail man, be pleading? Who for me be interceding When the just are mercy needing? " King of majesty tremendous, Who dost free salvation send us, Fount of pity ! then befriend us I" THANKSGIVING IN WAR: A SEHMON, . PREACHED IN THE TEXTH PEESBYTEEIAN CHUECIL PHILADELPHIA, 28th Day of November, 1861. HENRY A. BOAEDMAN, D.D. PHILADELPHIA: C. SHERMAN & SON, PRINTERS. 18 61. PREFATORY NOTE. This sermon is given to the printer reluctantly ; not from any unwillingness to publish through the press that Avhich has been already published from the jiulpit, but from a conviction that the country is amply supplied with this kind of literature. The author yields his own judgment, however, to the wishes of those who, having heard the sermon, insist that its further circulation may do some good. Philadelphia, December 10, 1861. THANKSGIYING IN WAE. PSALM 89 : 30-33. "If his children forsake mt l.uv, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments ; then will i visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with STRIPES. Nevertheless, my' loving-kindness will I not utterly take FROM HIM, NOR SUFFER MY FAITHFULNESS TO FAIL." There are doubtless those to whom this " Day of Thanksgiving" will seem an unseasonable observance. " We have exchanged," they will say, " the inestimable blessings of peace for the horrors of War. Our Union is dismembered. Vast armies are marshalling for bloody conflict. A hundred hospitals are already filled with the sick and wounded. Commerce is paralyzed. On every side there is want and sufl"ering. Surely, a Day of Humiliation would better become us than a Day of Thanksgiving." — We will not deny that there is some force in this reasoning. The statement of facts, though incomplete, is accurate. We are willing to concede that the case is much stronger than it is here repre- sented. Not only are these calamities upon us, but they are sent, as we verily believe, in retribution of our sins. The hand of God is in them. He is visiting upon us the threatenings he denounced against his an- cient people, — and for a similar reason. " If his chil- dren forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments ; if they break my statutes, and keep not my command- ments ; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes." Here we may read both our sin and our punishment. We have, as a nation, forsaken God's law, and broken his statutes ; we have resisted his authority and abused his forbear- ance ; we have sinned against him so long and so auda- ciously, that his patience was exhausted : — and he is now visiting our transgression with the rod, and our iniquity with stripes. We admit, further, that our first duty in these circum- stances is repentance and humiliation. We have no ground to expect a return of the Divine favor, unless we " humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God." But we have recognized this obligation, not in words only but in deeds. The nation has had its Day of Humiliation. Our own Church had previously observed its Day of Humiliation. It is not to be questioned, that there has been much searching of heart and contrition among the Christian people of the land in their private capacity. All this must, indeed, come short of the measure of humiliation which becomes us. Our repentance ought to be much deeper and more universal. Still, the duty has not been altogether overlooked, nor will it be for the future. That, however, is not our whole duty. It might be, peradventure, if the dispensation under which we are living, were exclusively one of judgment or rebuke. But it is not. There is mercy as well as severity. Of us also our Heavenly Father has been pleased to say, "Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." We are all witnesses that this is true. He has not given us over to the full consequences of our sins. The clouds which have infolded us for the last twelve months, have been broken with gleams of sunshine. There has been no day so dark, that a spiritual eye could not dis- cern through its gloom the tokens of His " faithfulness" and " loving-kindness." — And are these mercies to go unacknowledged ^ Is it not as much a duty to praise God for his blessings, as to abase ourselves under his chastisements 1 Are we always to come before him with notes of wailing ; never with songs of praise 1 Besides, this occasion has become an annual festival. "Were the question one of instituting a Day of Thanks- giving now, there might be some room for a difference of opinion. But to omit such a service after it has made for itself a fixed place in our calendar, would be a re- proach alike to our patriotism and our piety. It would imply that a year had at length come round which brought with it no pledges of the Divine protection, no 8 fruits of his bounty, nothing to be thankful for. If there be any who feel thus respecting the past year, they will have no sympathy with this festival. For the rest of us — " O come, let us sing unto the Lord : let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms." In doing this, you will of course wish to have your thoughts directed mainly to considerations which per- tain to the state of the country. Let me advert, then, to a FEW OF THE GROUNDS OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING WHICH ARE SUGGESTED BY THE HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THIS War. One of these is, that in respect to our most valued riglits mid privileges^ the tear has not molested us. In saying this, I have no design to underrate the gravity of the contest in which we are engaged. I assent to the maxim which has become so current amongst us, that " of all wars, civil war is the worst," with a single qualification. I believe, too, that we do not exaggerate the importance of this conflict when we say, that even among the civil wars of which his- tory has preserved a record, our own may claim a sad pre-eminence, if estimated by the magnitude of the issues it involves. But there is one thing worse than civil war. You will understand me when I refer you to the annals of the Waldenses, to the martyrology of the Huguenots, and to the history of England under " Bloody Mary." Our political rights and franchises are the fruit of centuries of conflict in the senate and in the field, and we may be willing to hazard our lives in defence of them. But they are not to be weighed against religious liberty, and the hopes and consola- tions of Christianity. The war which is aimed at these, which employs dungeons and fagots to despoil a people of their spiritual hfe, and force upon them a spurious and revolting faith, has a more fiend-like ma- lignity than any assault upon charters and constitu- tions. Let ns be thankful to God that there is no element of this sort mingled in this unhappy contest ; that the rights of conscience are held sacred, and that there is no disposition in any quarter to interfere with the hberty of opinion and of worship. It is another cause for thanksgiving, that so large a portion of the Union has remained loyal to the Constitu- tion, eve7i in the face of a civil war. It must indeed be conceded, that Secession has made greater inroads upon the Union, than could have been anticipated even by its chief abettors. The strong logic of events has shown us, that the Union held no such place in the hearts of one part of the nation as we had all been wont to suppose. The ready abandon- ment of it by so many States has struck the rest of the country with astonishment. For history teaches, that the very last thing a nation can be persuaded to do is to change its government. Before a people can be 10 wrought up to this point, their government must, in ordinary cases, he perverted into an engine of tyranny, and they must have been subjected to years of injustice and oppression. But here was an effort to destroy a government the mildest, the freest, the most equitable on the face of the earth, — a government so gentle in its working, that no law-abiding citizen felt its pressure, or was ever reminded of its existence, except when he bethought himself of the eminent civil rights and privileges it conferred upon him. That several millions of people should conspire to overthrow a government like this, was a phenomenon as much without historical precedent, as it was without justice or decency. The country and the world could not but stand amazed at the revolting spectacle. But bad as the case is, it might have been worse. It is clearly an instance of a virulent moral insanity, spread- ing itself like an epidemic over a vast region of terri- tory. Having acquired such a momentum, it is nearly as great a marvel that it sliould stop where it did, as that it should have broken out at all. It is a most en- couraging sign that it left the largest portion of the Union untainted. It did not even reach the slave line. In every one of the Southern Border States, it en- countered firm resistance. Four of those five States have shown a fixed purpose to drive it from that part of their soil which it had polluted, and of the fifth, one-third of the population has testified its abhorrence of the evil by organizing a new State government. 11 The comparative value in square miles of the two sections of the Union, as thus divided, is of small moment. Enough, that in population, in manufac- tures, in commerce, in schools, and colleges, and churches, in general intelligence, thrift, and enter- prise, the immense preponderance is with the loyal States. A nation composed of these States alone, would be entitled to take its place among the leading- powers of the globe. We may well offer our thanks- givings to God, that the strength and majesty of our Union are arrayed on the side of law and righteousness. It is only presenting this thought in another aspect, to suggest that the jxttriotism of the country deserves to be celebrated with devout thanksgivings to-day. The change which has passed over us wdthin the last few months, is as much without a parallel as is this insane attempt to overthrow the government. We are not a military nation ; it is no reproach to us. The character we bear among other nations, is that of a money-loving and money-getting people. Whether it is quite mo- dest for those from whom we inherit this trait to upbraid us wdth it, we need not stop to argue. The indictment is faithfully drawn, and we plead to it by confessing its truth. Never was a people more im- mersed in trade and traffic. With a new continent to take possession of, a soil and climate favorable to health and boundless production, institutions adapted to stimulate individual industry and talent to the 12 highest degree, and fresh avenues to wealth and honor continually opening on every side, it is not to be won- dered at that we should have become a money-making nation. Let us not shrink from the admission ; this passion had gone to a discreditable extreme with us. It required all the efforts of all the men of culture, and the whole power and energy of our Christianity, to combat these grovelling tendencies, and keep the nation from stereotyping itself in a mould of sordid cupidity and arrogant pretension. No one could have imagined, that underneath this broad surface-work of eager toil and deceptive glitter, — down below the deep springs of all our mechanical and commercial activities, — the fires of patriotism were burning as brightly as they did in the War of the Revolution. But it was even so. It required only a fitting occasion to call it into action. That occasion was given by the parricidal attack upon Fort Sumter. The echoes of those traitor- ous cannon rang through the nation's heart, and its slumbering patriotism burst forth with a vehemence which swept everything before it. The army of seventy-five thousand men, which was extemporized as by some magic power for the protection of the Capi- tal, was the first emphatic, tangible proof, that the love of country was as strong and pure amongst us as ever. Decisive as the evidence was then, it is still more so now. An adversary might have suggested, that the extraordinary response which was made to the 13 President's proclamation of the 15th of xlpril, was a mere ebnllition of passion wliich wonlcl soon subside. So far from this, the sentiment which inspired that movement, though less impetuous, has been growing deeper and broader ever since. What is especially to be noted concerning it is, that it has spread through the most cautious and .^conservative classes of society. — and that by a perfectly intelligible process. For the course of events has disclosed a cumulative series of proofs, that this rebellion was concocted many years ago ; that its leaders have kept it in view as their idtimate object through all the collisions of parties, and all the changes in our public affairs ; that they ignominiously availed themselves of the very immuni- ties the Constitution afforded them, not excluding even official place and power, to plot the subversion of the Government ; and that the various alleged grievances which they put forward in newspaper articles, in legisla- tive debate, and in inflammatory appeals to their con- stituents, were mere pretexts designed to cloak their real designs and help on their consummation. It is this conviction, I say, founded upon absolute moral demonstration, which has brought the most prudent and conservative classes of society into full sympathy with this war for the defence of the Union. They feel that they have been misled and betrayed. In giving their sympathy and support for years past, to those who have become the master-spirits in this movement. 14 they supposed they were dealing with men who, like themselves, were seeking in good faith to preserve the Union. And now, that the treachery is laid open, and they see that during all this while, the one cherished object of these men was to destroy the Union, tliey have the double motive of personal wrong and public duty to inflame their zeal in behalf of the cause of their country. It may serve both as argument and illustration on this point, to refer to the financial provision made for carrying on this contest. Other tokens of patriotism may arrest the popular eye, but there is really none more signal than this. Of all the creations of Christian civilization, there is none so sensitive and timid as capital. On the first breath of danger, it flies to its secret asylums as frightened birds to their nests. And the very name of war strikes it with a horror like that of the Babylonian monarch, when he saw the hand- writing upon the wall. But here, the unwonted spec- tacle is presented to the world, of the capital of the country rushing spontaneously into the very embrace of war. The noise of battle has actually allured it from its coverts. Our rich men, even many who are threatened with the loss of their thousands and millions at the South, are laying their silver and gold at the feet of the government, while multitudes in humbler circumstances are offering the funds upon which they depend for a comfortable support. Without assuming 15 that there is no other motive concerned in these trans- actions, we may safely challenge this as an evidence of patriotism, Avhich has rarely been exceeded by any people in any age or country. But the most imposing exhibition of this sentiment is undoubtedly that presented by our army. We admit no qualification here when we assert, that the world has never before witnessed such a spectacle. Here is an army of 500,000 men raised in six months, and not a conscript among them. They are all volunteers. I do not say that they have all enlisted from pure pa- triotism, but I do say that there are tens of thousands of them whom nothing but love of country could have carried into the camp, and that they have all avowed, by the fact of their enlistment, that they are ready to hazard their lives in defence of their country. Nor is it by its numbers merely that this great force is to be estimated. Even prejudiced foreigners have put it on record, that no European army has been made up of such material. There are, of course, regiments which may not come within the scope of this remark, but taken as a whole, no people ever sent into the field so large a body of men of the same intellectual and social standing, — nor, it is safe to add, containing so many faithful Christians. Not to argue these points, let it suffice to point to the interest displayed throughout the service in public and social religious services, both on Sundays and during the week ; the universal 16 demand for books of all sorts, and the enormous army mails, which fairly groan under the weight of the letters sent home from the different camps.* These are decisive indications of the high moral and intellec- tual tone which pervades this noble army. Nor is it confined to the army. The picture has its fitting consort in the other branch of the service. This majestic fleet along our coast is, to a large extent, the recent off"spring of the same generous patriotism. It is essentially a volunteer fleet, and it promises to retrieve the damage inflicted upon the reputation of our gallant navy, by the defection of so many of its officers. Our statement, however, is still incomplete. The army and navy are, after all, under a government like ours, but exponents of the public feeling. The pa- triotism which animates them is a twin-flame of that patriotism which glows and burns throughout the nation. Undoubtedly, if there were any serious appre- hension of danger to our own homes, this sentiment would prompt to still greater activity. But there is apparent in every direction, a generous devotion to the country, and a willingness to sustain it, as God may give the ability, in this its hour of trial. Let us ofl'er our thanksgivings to-day, that the spirit of patriotism has survived our prolonged and enervating prosperity. We may find another reason for gratitude and praise, * For example, 70,000 sent from Washington in a single week, and 10,000 by the first mail from the small force lately landed at Port Royal, S. C. 17 in the stimulus this icar lias given to the humane iind Christian virtues amongst us. We arc apt to think that war is necessarily evil, and only evil, and that continually. That it does comprise more evils than any other scourge with which nations arc visited will not he denied. But even the grim visage of war has or may have some lines of light, and in the present case, these grateful lineaments are so conspicuous that no one can overlook them. It was the remark of a very eminent British writer, in commenting a few years since upon the vainited progress of the United States, that this country '• had never yet been tried ^^^ and that " it was too soon to pass upon our character until wc had been cast into the crucible by which all the older nations had been tested." That trial has now come. It bids fair to do us good. Virtue is the fruit of discipline. This war promises to arrest in a measure the extravagance and parade, the epicurism and effeminacy into which we were so fast running. It puts our young men upon a training which will nourish their manly virtues. It inculcates, as no moralist could, lessons of economy, of moderation, of patience, of self-control. It fosters genuine sym- pathy and benevolence. This half million of men in the field are linked by innumerable ties to millions at home, who attend them daily with their solicitudes and their prayers. The well-being of these soldiers lies, a cherished burden, upon the great heart of the 2 18 nation, and no nation can carry sncli a charge without having its life elevated and spiritualized. In this view, it is perhaps to be regarded rather as a mercy than a calamity, that our government was so wholly unprepared for the war. Had it been foreseen, a thousand arrangements would have been made, and a thousand agencies intrusted to officials of the go- vernment, which have now of necessity been left to private benevolence. There seems a congruity in the means to the end, — a volunteer army and navy cared for by a spontaneous and munificent kindness on the part of the people ! Even if it were possible for our brave troops to dispense with this ministration, it would still be fraught with blessing to the people. For who shall estimate the moral value of those labors which are going forward in every quarter for the relief of our volunteers'? I speak to a jury well qualified to pass upon this issue, for we happen to stand upon a spot where this beneficent spirit has wrought with an energy and a liberality not surpassed in any part of the Union. The members of that Society,* which has held its meetings in the lecture-room of this Church almost from the very day the war commenced, can bear witness to the reflex influence of their exertions upon themselves and their families. I run no hazard in saying for you that this work has brought a double blessing with it, — a blessing as well for yourselves as * "The Ladies' Aid Society," organized April 2(Jth, 18(51. 19 for the soldiers who have been the recipients of your bounty. Rarely ha^•e I looked in upon the scene of cheerful industry presented at your meetings, without the reflection, " What a harvest of good these noble- minded women must reap from the seed they are sowing here !" And the same seeding has been going on all over the land. In families, in churches, in schools, in hamlets and villages, the generous affec- tions of the heart have found full play in providing comforts, both for the sick and well, in our camps and hospitals. The women of the country have given not only their time and toil to this work, but immense sums of money also, which might, at an ordinary season, have been laid out in dress, and equipage, and amusements. It has impressed upon society, even in our large cities, a new type ; replaced its frivolities with rational occupation ; turned many a fashionable trifler into a useful woman ; and set before the young an example of patriotism and philanthropy, and a just appreciation of the true ends of life, which must tell with salutary effect upon their future charac- ters. All this is the fruit of the great trial which is upon us. It is present and palpable fruit, independent quite of that immortal reward which is bound up in those wonderful words, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me." God be praised, that even if the war is destined to open the sluices of vice upon the 20 country, it is at the same time invigorating the virtue of the people, and garnishing the land with those flowers of Paradise which never die. It were inexcusable not to mention the favoricldcli a heni(jn Providence has slioicn our cause, as one of our grounds of thankfulness to-day. It is true we have had painful reverses. Most of these, however, it must be confessed, have been attribu- table to incompetency or rashness on the part of officers. On the other hand, the sum of our reverses is very small when compared with the fruits of that wise and effi- cient policy which has secured three wavering States to the Union, and with the success which has crowned our arms in numerous instances. But even these are not the chief tokens of the Divine goodness towards us. What primarily demands our gratitude is the loyalty and patriotism of the nation upon which we have just been dilating, and which have created this vast army and navy and the means to sustain them.. Our work thus far has all been preliminary — a work of prepara- tion. And I do not know that God ever put it within the power of a threatened nation before to accomplish such results in so short a time. "With this we must as- sociate two other blessings equally signal, viz., the ex- emption of the country, and especially of the camps, from wasting epidemics, and our almost unexampled harvests. There is something so marked in our abun- dant crops the present season as contrasted with the 21 short crops of England and France ; it bears in so many ways, financial, social, and military, upon the issues of this war ; that one is compelled to believe there is a special Providence in it. Let it make us thankful and humble. There is but one other topic with which I shall de- tain you. We have the best reasons for believing that this contest will result in re-estahUsliing the Union and j)erpetuatin(j our Government; and for this priceless blessing, though yet in perspective, we may fitly offer our thanksgivings to-day. It were superfluous to specify the grounds upon which the conviction here expressed rests. The subject is open to every one's investigation ; those who do not share in the conviction that the Union is to be preserved, are of course free to entertain a different opinion. That there are prospective difficulties in the way of a re-union which now seem intractable, may be admitted. The two which overshadow all others are the slavery ques- tion, and the bitter resentments engendered by the war. We have no warrant to regard either of these as invin- cible. Other nations have survived ci^il wars without mutilation or permanent estrangement : and so may we. What is to become of the four millions of slaves at the South, is a question not now before us. Whether the Institution is to be perpetuated ; and if so, whether with any abridgment of its territorial area, or any material change in its essential conditions, are points which 22 need not be anticipated. The whole problem is likely to come up quite soon enough. And whenever it does come, it will tax the collected wisdom, patriotism, and Christianity of the country to resolve it. Let us hope that in that day, the subject may be considered without the ignorance, the uncharitableness, and the mutual hate, which have too often envenomed the discussions of the question in the years that are past.* It will be a great and beneficent effect. of the war, if it shall teach all parties of all sections, that this profound and com- plicated- evil is never to be approached except in that spirit of candor and forbearance with which it was uni- formly treated by the Saviour and his Apostles. " Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." We leave to the future what properly belongs to the future, resting only in the firm assurance that a gracious Pro- vidence will preserve and perpetuate this Union. Why we should manifest so much solicitude on this point, seems to be a marvel to the European mind. One of the leading London journals in describing the war, lately observed, " One party (the South) is fighting for independence ; the other for an idea. One strikes for liberty; the other for the Uuion." To their minds, — * Whatevei' may be the criminality of the South, it cannot change the facts of history. The record shows that the North is very far from being guiltless in this matter. Let us neither cancel nor suppress our Protest against those aggressions which Pennsylvania, at least, has for the last twenty years de- nounced as fatal to all harmony between the North and the South, and in fact subversive of the Union. 23 and this writer represents the intelKgence and rank of England, — our Uniox has no significance ! It is a mere abstraction, an " /(Zt(/," which it is both wicked and absurd to go to war about. If Scotland should propose to resume her ancient sovereignty, and set up her own throne and Parliament, these philosophers would be likely to think that " Union" might represent some- thing more than a shadow. Even Ireland, though sepa- rated from England by a broad arm of the sea, cannot lift a finger to sever the political bond which unites them, so far as to restore her ancient Parliament, with- out being threatened with the whole army and navy of Great Britain. " Union," it seems, means something on that side of the water ; on this, it is a mere bara- telle. One does not care to argue with such conceited igno- rance as this. We aU understand here, that it were just as reasonable to ask Great Britain to consent to divide herself into two kingdoms at the Tweed, or France at the Loire, as to expect our government to acquiesce in any partition of the States by a line of lati- tude. Providence has marked out this country as the heritage of one nation. Its chains of mountains and its network of lakes and rivers demand this. A glance at the map will show that there cannot be one nation at the sources and along the affluents of the Mississippi and Susquehanna, and another at their mouths ; one nation commanding a third of the coast line from jNIaine 24 to Texas, and another nation the other two-thirds. We are made one nation, too, by our descent, our language, our history, our traditions, our diversified cHmate and productions, our mutual dependence and our reciprocal interests. Our capacity for self-development and self- protection, our just position among the nations, our char- ters, our schools, our religion, all require that we shall be one nation. The dismemberment which is now at- tempted, would not simply arrest our progress, despoil us of our national prestige, and impair, if not annul, our power for good throughout the globe ; it would en- tail perpetual war and bloodshed upon our posterity. For what power short of Omnipotence could prevent this, with two rival confederacies inflamed with heredi- tary animosities, having an imaginary line of several hundred miles in length as a conterminous boundary, and one of them (as would certainly be the case) allied by a league, offensive and defensive, with some leading European monarchy 1 It is this consideration which, beyond any other, reconciles many of the wisest and best of our country- men to the war. Appalling as it is, they are convinced that it is the only alternative to something far worse — a long succession of fierce and bloody wars among those who are to come after us. They feel, as patriots and as Christians, that it would be a crime of the deepest dye to transmit such a legacy to posterity ; and sooner than consent to it, they will make any sacrifices, 25 submit to any hardships, and face any dangers. The first duty we owe, under God, to our country, to the world, and to future generations, is to retrieve and per- petuate our nationaUty. I say, " to our country," and I mean by this our wliole country. The solemn deter- mination on the part of the loyal States to re-establish the Union in its integrity, at whatever cost, is not to be interpreted as the offspring of a vindictive feeling towards the South. It has never been the sentiment of the loyal States, that the Southern people had initiated tliis war upon the Union. They regard them — even now when they have, in such masses, taken up arms against us — as having been deceived by unprincipled leaders, whose authority is already waning just because their arts are beginning to be understood. Truth is no match for falsehood on a short course; but with the world before them, truth is sure to reach the goal first. Time and patience are already opening the eyes of those deluded midtitudes to the real condition of things. And when the frenzy to which they have been wrought up has passed by, it will not be strange if they become their own avengers, and visit their betrayers with sum- mary justice. These, if I mistake not, are the prevailing sentiments of the loyal population. And when they insist upon a restoration of the Union, it is from an honest concern for the well-being, not of themselves only, but of the people of the seceded States as well. They are per- 3 26 suadecl that it is the only means by which those popu- lations can again enjoy the benefits of a wise and good government. It is a satisfaction to reflect that in the issue here contemplated, the Union will probably be handed over to our successors stronger than when it came into our hands. The Constitution will be better understood. Warned by the past, the people may guard the ark of their liberties with increased vigilance. The educated and wealthy classes, whose criminal neglect of their political obligations makes them largely responsible for the calamities which oppress us, may peradventure feel that a government like ours is worth some little time and care at their hands. Whatever contests may arise, whatever political heresies may spring up, there will at least be nothing to fear from the noxious dogma which has produced this colossal insurrection. Secession will be dead. And so far, the Union will be secure. Let the lesson be drawn here (as in a parenthesis), that neither in politics nor in morals are errors of opinion to be allowed to pass with impunity. There is nothing of which men in general are so intolerant, as any rigor on the part of religious teachers in dealing with unscriptu- ral doctrines. Immoral conduct they will not defend. " But why censure a man for a mere speculative error]" Because a speculative error may be charged with the elements of death, a thousand-fold beyond the mischief bound up in a vicious life. You must take this asser- 27 tion on trust so fur as theology is concerned. But in politics, the demonstration is before you. This war which is desolating the most prosperous country in the world, is the product of an erroneous political opinion. That opinion was drifting about for many years among the eddies of our politics, occasionally eliciting some discussion, but treated in tlie main as a harmless ab- surdity. Yet it carried in its bosom a very magazine of destruction, which needed only the fatal spark ta cover the land with these mighty ruins. Let the lesson be heeded. Error is not harmless. The charity which leads you to shelter it when propounded by a popular lecturer or a popular preacher, and which makes you stigmatize those who denounce it as bigots, is a charity which has stolen the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in. He who is Truth itself, and whose bound- less goodness has irradiated our world with the light of hope and of heaven, has suspended salvation and perdi- tion upon men's belief. ^'■Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." " He that helleveth not shall be damned." Let us have no more of that spurious charity which is ever ready to homologate truth and error, — when they lead, in politics, one to law and order, the other to anarchy and bloodshed ; and in morals, one to an eternity of glory, the other to an eternity of shame. But it is time to release your attention. Unless we 28 have gone over our subject in vain, you will feel mth me that we have ample cause to keep this festival, not- withstanding the sorrow which has gone up into so many homes, and the ensigns of war which wave from every hill and turret. You will bring your thanks- givings to God to-day, that we still have a country ; that the ancient patriotism still glows upon our altars ; that Christianity has girded herself with new strength for this day of trial ; and that our cherished Union promises, by the blessing of Heaven, to emerge from this conflict, purified by the fires, more firmly estab- lished upon its foundations, penetrated with a more humble and grateful temper, and better fitted than ever to help forward the cause of liberty, humanity, and true religion throughout the earth. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD, THE SURE AND ONLY STAY OF THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT IN OUR NATIONAL TROUBLES. A SEEMON PREACHED IN THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, SEPT. U, AND IX THE WEST SPRUCE STREET CHURCH, SEPTEMBER 28, 1862. HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. PHILADELPHIA: WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN. 1862. Philadeiphia, September 30, 1S62. Rev. Hesbt A. Boardman, D. D. Dear Sir — Your Sermon on the Reign of God, as connected with our present troubles, deserves a much larger publicity than can result from twice preaching. It ought to be read and considered, as well by those who love God and their country, as by those who are too apt to forget him. It would seem to be a vain hope to escape from our entanfrlc- ments, and to exhibit " the uprising of a great nation," until we sincerely and humbly adopt the motto, " In God is our trust." We therefore request that the manuscript may be placed at our disposal for publication. JAMES POLLOCK, JOSEPH PATTERSON, GEORGE U. STUART, S. A. MERCER, ARCHIBALD McIXTYRE, ARTHUR G. COFFIX, SAMUEL ASBURY, HEXRY D. SHERRERD, JAMES WARRIN, W. DWIQHT BELL. Philadelphia, October 2, 1S62. Gentlemen — It would be superfluous to speak to you of the tone of despondency which has for the last six months pervaded the public mind respecting the war. The sermon which you desire to publish had its origin in the prevalence of this feeling — then, I may add, at its height. Our army had just been expelled from Central Tirginia; the national forces in the South-west were resigning their dearly bought conquests; and the Northern States were threatened with invasion. On every side we encountered inquietude, distrust, and vague presentiments of fresh calamity. Every one felt the need of some sure resting- place. I felt it myself; and wrote the sermon for my own relief, and the comfort of my people. I had no thought of its going further. Your kind note assures me that it has been helpful to you, and may be to others. I shall rejoice if it prove so. For notwith- standing the recent victories with which God has been pleased to crown our arms, the cloud is not lifted from the public mind. The future lowers very darkly upon us; and there is neither peace nor hope for us except in the reflection, " The Lord eeigseth. " I cheerfully place the manuscript in your hands. Respectfully and faithfully yours, HENRY A. BOARDMAN. To the Hon. Jamxs Pollock, Joseph Patterson, Esq., and others. SEEM ON. Psalm xcvii. 1, 2. THE LORD REIGNETH: LET THE EARTH REJOICE; LET THE MULTITUDE OP ISLES BE GLAD THEREOF. CLOUDS AND DARKNESS ARE ROUND ABOUT him: RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT ARE THE HABITATION OP HIS THRONE. We have here one of the favourite themes of the sacred writers, the universal dominion of God. It is a subject they present to us in every form, whether of simple didactic statement, history, song, or prophecy. This need not surprise us. A devout spirit must dwell with habitual and grateful joy upon the reign of God. It belongs to the earliest aspirations of the new-born soul on earth; and it inspires the loftiest anthems of saints and angels in glory. If I add, that it is of all others the subject which must come home to our bosoms just now, you will every one respond to the senti- ment. For there is nothing of which we need more to be reminded in our present circumstances, than that " THE LoKD KEiGNETH ;" that cveu when " clouds 6 THE LORD REIGNETH. and darkness are round about him," and his dispen- sations are veiled in mystery, "righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne;" and that his reign is, therefore, a just cause of joy to all the earth. One of the expressions used by the Psalmist on this latter point requires a word of explanation; — "Let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof" The words " isles" and " islands," which are of such frequent occurrence in the Old Testament, do not ordinarily denote a tract of land surrounded by water. That is sometimes the mean- ing, but the Hebrews used the term so translated, to denote sea-coasts in general — any shores washed by the sea; and so, maritime countries. In several passages, the special reference is to the coasts bor- dering on the Mediterranean; while in others, it is to be taken without this limitation, and as equiva- lent to " the Gentile nations." Of this we have an early example in Gen. x. 5: "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." And in the same way we are to under- stand the text: "Let the multitude of isles — let the Gentiles of all lands — be glad thereof; let all kin- dreds and nations rejoice that the Lord reigneth." " The Lord reigneth." We have this truth THE LORD REIGNETH. 7 often repeated. " The Lord is King for ever and ever." " For the Lord most high is terrible ; he is a great King over all the earth." " Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods] Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders'?" "Our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased." " Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine: thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted above all." Testimonies like these — and the Bible is full of them — can import nothing less than that the Deity exercises an absolute control over all creatures and all events. He governs the worlds, material and immaterial. He governs brutes, and he governs men. He governs individuals, and he governs nations. He governs angels, and he governs devils. His supremacy extends to every mote that floats in the sunbeam, to every tiny globule that sparkles in the foam of the sea, to every transient emotion that flits across the breast of man or angel. Nothing exists but by his ordination. Nothing happens but as he bids or permits it to happen. The same hand which upholds the universe and keeps the stars in their courses, guides the falling sparrow. It must be so. An infinite and perfect .God must 8 THE LORD EEIGNETH. exercise an absolute and universal dominion. He must be present in every part of the universe. He must know everything that occurs. He must direct and control all things. Otherwise his own plans would be liable to interruption, and his happiness would be marred. That he has a plan, is a neces- sary sequence from his perfection. His wisdom will select the means for carrying it into effect ; and his goodness and righteousness make it certain that these means, and the plan itself, will be adapted to promote alike his own glory and the welfare of his creatures. His sovereignty, I have said, extends as well to nations as to individuals. The one includes the other. If he governs individuals he must govern nations, and vice versa. What is the Old Testament history but an illustration of this idea"? Going back to the flood, the earth is divided among the sons of Noah. The nations springing from their loins are assigned each its proper territory. After four cen- turies, Abraham is called, and then, for two thou- sand years, a single nation fills the field of vision: all other nations are treated as if of no moment, except in their relations to the chosen people. Now they are made the tributaries of the Hebrews ; and anon they are used to scourge them. To-day they fight them; to-morrow they hew their wood THE LORD REIGNETH. 9 and draw their water. But when their work is done relatively to the Jew, they disappear from the scene, and are heard of no more. Even the great empires of the globe pay the same homage, involuntary though it be, to the Divine supremacy. It is a reflection of pregnant import, that the same irresistible will which ruled over Edom and Moab, controlled Babylon, and Media, and Greece, and Rome. As if to shut the mouths of those who might be disposed to exclude his pro- vidence from the wonderful events which marked the history of the four great monarchies, their annals are written in advance by the pen of pro- phecy. God tells the world what he was going to do with these mighty empires; that when the pre- dictions were fulfilled, they might own his hand in the consummation, and confess that " the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." The argument from this source is irrefragable. The Book of Daniel, read in connection with authen- tic uninspired history, supplies a complete moral demonstration of God's control over nations and of his agency in all, even their minutest afi'airs. For it must be apparent, that if his prescribed plan had happened to omit the career of a single individufil belonging, if you will, to the Medo-Persian empire, or the most trivial measure in its public policy, that 10 THE LORD REIGNETH. oversight might have changed the whole current of its affairs, and so caused the prophecy to miscarry. When it is considered what the rise, progress, and overthrow of a nation involves — what an endless variety and complexity of interests, plans, and pas- sions; what diversified pursuits, institutions, and organizations, social, commercial, literary, political, and religious; amplified by its relations with other nations, and, still more, by having each individual of the millions who compose its successive generations left to his own free will, — when we take this view of a nation, we cannot but stand amazed at the prescience which can forecast its destiny, and the infinite intelligence and power which can shape its fortunes precisely to the appointed end. This is what we know the Deity has done in respect to the nations embraced in the fulfilled prophecies; and we are equally sure that he does it in respect to every nation. The supervision he exercises over its affairs is not remote and general; but practical and con- stant. It pervades the entire structure. It touches its every interest. It guides its every movement. He holds it as in the hollow of his hand; and without him it cannot lift a finger; it cannot even breathe. This — nothing less than this — is meant by the Scripture doctrine that "the Lord reigneth." And if this be its meaning, we are prepared to hear that THE LORD REIGNETH. 11 "clouds and darkness are round about him;" in other words, that many of his dispensations are veiled in mystery. No one who accepts the doctrine with an intelligent faith, could expect anything else. For consider, The infinitude of God. "Canst thou by searching find out God '?" The loftiest angel could not do this. The loftiest angel is but a child in knowledge here. What can we do, then, in comprehending the ways of the infinite One? Consider, again, the extent and grandeur of his domain. "VVe are no more to sever our globe from the rest of the universe, than we are to isolate one province or nation of the globe from the residue. His government is one. It comprises the various kingdoms of the earth, and it comprises, no less, the remainder of our planetary system, and all the stars and systems which adorn the skies, and every sphere that revolves in those distant fields of space which no telescope has ever brought within the reach of mortal vision. It is one realm, under "one blessed and only Potentate." He created it for a common end. He governs it according to a single plan which comprehends all its mighty interests, and makes its every grand and every trivial agency subservient to his ultimate design. To say this is to affirm that he must at times be 12 THE LORD REIGNETH. robed "in clouds and darkness." It were arrosratinsr a divine prerogative to suppose ourselves capable of grasping all the movements of a government like this. The event which confounds your wisdom and tries your faith, has relations you do not understand. You do not see all its bearings even upon our own national welfare. How can you trace its effects upon the other portions of the human family — upon Europe — upon China — upon Africa "? And if you could unravel this net-work, what could you know of its possible results in some of these distant orbs which pay allegiance to the same august Sovereign, and constitute a part of the same empire, with ourselves? This argument is enforced by the reflection, that the present is confessedly a preliminari/ dispensatioiu "Lo, these are imrts of his ways." Everything we see, is in order to something we do not see. The present is for the future. Inscrutable providences are like Scripture prophecies — their interpretation is to come. We are under a Teacher too wise to give us the problem and the key together. When his plan is completed, we shall see and confess its won- drous symmetry and beauty. That we should encounter these mysteries is fur- ther to be contemplated as a necessary part of our moral training. We are sufficiently prone to indulge pride, and self-will, and impatience, and selfishness. THE LORD REIGXETH. 13 It woidcl not abate these e^il tendencies if every- thing in God's providence were made plain to us. "We need dark and inexplicable events, to remind us that we are are in the presence of a Power greater than ourselves : to mortify our self-consequence : to foster in our breasts patience and submission: and to nourish a filial trust in God's wisdom and right- eousness, even when "his way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters." 1 have treated the text chiefly in its bearing upon nations; — God's dominion over nations: for it is this question which most deeply concerns us at this juncture. It has been shown that his government extends to nations; and that in his dispensations towards them we must expect inscrutable pro'S'idences. A cursory review of any period of the world's his- tory would supply illustrations of these topics. He has not governed the nations as we would have governed them. There are events in the history even of the chosen people which amaze us — which would certainly have amazed us had we been living when they occurred. Of these none is more remark- able than the early disruption of the nation. After the unexampled care and culture he had bestowed upon them — the wonders which marked their exodus from Egypt, their miraculous support in the desert, their victories over the heathen, and their successful 14 THE LORD REIGNETH. occupation of Canaan; after the temple was built, and their complex and imposing system of worship established, and the new epoch in their subhme career inaugurated by the brilliant reigns of David and Solomon — the natural presumption must have been that the nation would at least be preserved in its integrity for centuries. Instead of this, Solomon is scarcely laid in his tomb, before a rebellion takes place in which ten tribes combine to throw off the theocratic yoke, and thenceforward the kingdom is divided. Even to this day the breach has never been healed; and History, vigilant as it is, has failed to preserve any record of ten-twelfths of the ancient seed of Abraham. Is it possible to recall this pas- sage without feeling that "clouds and darkness are round about him" 1 So, at a later period, with the seventy years cap- tivity. No one will impugn the righteousness of this visitation, for their cup of iniquity was full. Still, when we remember his previous dealings with them, his promises, and especially the promise of a Messiah, and the overflowing wickedness of the nations at war with them, it cannot but appear mys- terious that he should suffer their land to be laid desolate, the temple itself destroyed, and the people dragged off into a distant and cruel bondage. Had THE LORD REIGNETH. 15 we lived then, our feeling would have been, "Clouds and darkness are round about him." With this feeling, indeed, we must read no incon- siderable part of modern as well as ancient history. The course of events has not been in the line which our wisdom and our sense of right would have pre- scribed. God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts; or the earth would pre- sent a very different spectacle from that which meets our eyes to-day. While we feel thus in reference to various other countries, our own trou- bles clothe the sentiment with a peculiar solemnity. This cruel war confounds us. Its first gun sent a shudder through the land. We could scarcely trust our senses that a civil war was upon us. Com- pelled to admit this, our next thought was that it must be very short; that with our vast resources we could bring it to a speedy end. But it lasts far beyond our calculations. We are bafhed, and often defeated, by a power every way inferior to us. Twenty millions of men are held at bay for eighteen months by six millions. We talk of victories; and our own capitals tremble at the tramp of invading armies. Wise men stand amazed at the current of events. Every one asks of his neighbour, AVhat does it mean'? Devout Christians are saying, "We had not thought he would deal thus with us." 16 THE LORD REIGNETH. It is something to know — it is a great deal to know — that His hand is in it all. " The Lord REIGNETH." This is really our only sure source of consolation. We have looked to earth, and it has failed us. We have turned to our rulers; we have thought with complacency of our skilful captains, of our well-appointed armies, and our invincible fleets. We have felt that with such defences the govern- ment must be safe, and this rebellion be promptly suppressed. These confidences have been shattered. Fearful and anxious, we cast around for some other and better support. And here we find it: "The Lord reigneth." "If he does "reign" — reign with that absolute and ubiquitous supremacy which has been ascribed to him — then this war has not come without him. He is in all our triumphs, and not less in all our reverses. The very causes which have brought us into our present condition; the alleged official incompetency and mismanagement, the ignorance, the jealousies, the grievous mistakes, the possible disloyalty — all are within his domain. His " reign" comprehends them all; for "none can stay his hand, or say unto him. What doest thou'?" Had it seemed good to him, this unnatural war would have been brouglit to an end within two or three months. That it is still prolonged, shows that w^hile the THE LORD REIGNETH. 17 parties to it are aiming at their ends, God has his purposes to accomplish also. And we may be sure that until they are accomplished, the work of sor- row and death will go on. If there be anything sad in this reflection, there is more of comfort. It is in fact, as already hinted, the only real comfort that is left us; the conviction that we are in his hands, and that he will order all things as he deems best. There is no agency, great or small, concerned in this war, which he does not control. He is in the council-chambers of our rulers. He is with our hosts in the field. He is with the armies that are assailing our cherished Union, and threatening to devastate our towns and cities. All are in as entire subjection to him, as are the forces which carry forward the tranquil opera- tions of the natural world. Except with his consent or by his permission, no plan can prosper, and no blow take eff"ect, whether for or against us. It were, indeed, a mockery of God to expect him to work a miracle for our help; we can only count upon his aid when we are doing all we can our- selves. But the efficiency is his; and the results are his. He can save by many or by few. Under his shield three hundred Hebrews shall vanquish the tens of thousands of Midian. And this feat may be renewed on other fields; while without his 2 18 THE LORD REIGNETH favour, a colossal army may flee before an imagi- nary danger. He who says to the turbulent sea, "Thus far shalt thou come, and no further," can say the same to an invading foe; and the submission shall be as prompt in the one case as in the other. If I iterate this thought, it is because there is no truth of so much moment to us at this crisis. The review we have taken, shows that God is dealing with us as he has dealt with other nations; that we ought to expect events which would seem dark and inexplicable; and that such events bring their lessons with them — lessons which it cannot be safe to neglect. The most serious aspect of these late reverses is that which links them with God's sovereignty. Unless we have failed entirely in our exposition of the text, these trials betoken another controversy to which we are a party, in comparison with which the conflict that engrosses us is of secondary importance; or rather, which imparts to this conflict all its signi- ficance. I refer of course to God's controversy with us. If he were reconciled to us, this war would not last long. " When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." The sentiment must be as applicable to nations as to individuals. What could any earthly power do against a people who had God on their THE LORD EEIGNETH. 19 side] What did they effect against IsraeU "When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he snffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." Psalm cv. 13 — 15. It must be because there is sin lying at our door; because we have not humbled ourselves aright under his rebukes ; and we are not brought back in love and loyalty to Him, that his hand is still stretched out against us. Absolute as is his supremacy, and inscrutable as he must be to our reason in many of his dispensations, it is nevertheless an established principle of his administration, that he Avill bless any nation which faithfully honours him, and return to the nation which penitently returns to him. "The Lord is with you while ye are with him ; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you: but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you." If pagan Nineveh found this true, no Christian people need scruple to avail them- selves of it. The ten tribes would doubtless have experienced his clemency, had they sought it. But among all their kings, there was not a single good one. There was no repentance, and therefore no restoration. But some one may ask, Why attribute these reverses to the Divine displeasure, when they are 20 THE LORD REIGNETH. clearly traceable to human agency] Why not charge them to the imbecility, and the ambition, the personal feuds, and political intrigues which have brought them upon us] I answer: 1. It is not the province of the pulpit to discuss such topics in these relations. 2. There is no intention to exonerate any one who may have had a criminal agency in causing these calamities. Let the tribunals arraign and punish them. 3. But if you could point out with unerring certainty all who have been concerned in precipitating these disastrous events upon the coun- try, it would no more exclude a Providence than you can exclude a Providence from the lightning and the earthquake. God works by agents of all kinds; as well by men's vices as by their virtues; as well by their ignorance and their ambition, as by their patriotism and their science. And we cannot suppose that he would have permitted such instru- ments to produce such effects, unless it were a part of his plan to use them in reproving the sins of this nation. If this be a proper view of the subject, our duty is plain. We must ^^ search and try our ivai/s, and turn again to the Lord." The loss of his favour will explain everything that has happened. x\nd the grand aim should be to learn how we have lost his favour, and by what means we can regain it. This THE LORD REIGNETH. 21 is too large a theme to be discussed within the com- pass of a few pages. But there is one feature of our government too closely connected with this question, and too conspicuous, to be passed by in silence. I refer, as you will readily suppose — for the topic is a familiar one — to the absence of any adequate recog- nition of the sovereignty of God, and the religion of which he is the author and object, in our Constitu- tion, and in the practical administration of our poli- tical system. It may be conceded that the spirit of Christianity is to a certain extent incorporated with our institutions. The le^al recognition of the Sab- bath, the oath on the Holy Evangelists, and the appointment of Chaplains, are, so far, an acknow- ledgment of the Christian religion. But our national charter pays no homage to the Deity. His name does not once occur in the Constitution of the United States. And, as if to confound the charity which would refer tliis omission to some accidental agency, the same atheism is repeated and perpetuated in another form no less excusable. The coinage of money is one of the inalienable prerogatives of poli- tical sovereignty. The solemnity attached to the function has been recognised by most nations, ancient and modern, Jewish and Christian, Moham- medan and Pagan. For a sort of universal instinct has consecrated the coinage of the world to religion. 22 THE LORD REIGNETH. You have but to look at the money of any people, to know at what altars they worshipped. But the comage of the United States is ivithoiit a God. The startling remark has been made by an able numis- matist amongst us, that if our nation should perish, and nothing be left of its liistory but our coins, the future antiquarian could never learn from them whether we were a Christian or a heathen people. The presumption, from the emblems impressed upon our money, (which are heathen, if they have any theological character,) would be in favour of our paganism. This is not a trivial matter. For while the Dei gratia of a currency may consort with regal and popular infidelity, the entire absence^ of all such emblems and legends from the coins of a nominally Christian nation, must be taken to indicate as much a want of reverence for the 13eity, as a want of respect for the common religious sentiment of man- kind. Is it too much to hope that this opprobrium may be wiped away \ If we have never been taught the lesson before, we are admonished of it now, that "The Lord reigneth." Has not the time come to make our formal national confession of this funda- mental truth — to impress it upon our coinage"? — to insert it (peradventure it may not be too late) as the Key-stone of our rrven and tottering Constitution'? If the country is not ready for these two simple but THE LORD REIGNETH. 23 significant steps in the direction of Christianity, we have been chastened to very little purpose. But let it not be imagined that there is nothing else to be reformed. It must be recorded to our shame, that the Christians of our country have been criminally remiss in respect to their social and poli- tical obligations: and to this neglect it is largely owing that God's authority has been so much con- temned amongst us. "There has been no time (observes an admirable writer) since our origin as a nation, when the united voices and efforts of the Christians of this country could not have accom- plished any object they desired, provided the measure was conceived in the true spirit of Christian wisdom and toleration. There has been no time when it was not the duty of the Christians of this country to consider, under the full light of that Christianity which beamed upon them undimmed from the word of God, what policy and what measures were best fitted to improve and preserve our political institu- tions, and what course of government or legislation would most improve the moral, religious, and social well-being of the whole people."* These just obser- vations have lost none of their force by reason of the lapse of ten years since they were penned. They had no reference to a "Christian party in politics;" * "Politics for American Christians." Stephen Colwell. 24 THE LORD REIGNETH. much less to that phantom of " Church and State" which has inspired the declamation of so many place- hunters. They were levelled at an evil of gigantic proportions, viz. the unfaithfulness of the Christians of our country to their political duties. Professing to regard Christianity as the paramount concern of man, and to recognise the Divine protection as the only security for nations, they have, to a great extent, abjured politics and left the management of our affairs to whoever might succeed in seizing the reins. As a general thing, they have shunned nomination to office, and taken no pains to insure the election of suitable men. They have not brought their influ- ence to bear, in any suitable degree, upon the course of legislation, so as to guard the interests of morality, and foster the healthy, conservative element in our institutions. They have too often sacrificed either to personal ease or to party, what was due to their country; and by their silence connived at that fright- ful corruption which has of late years spread like a leprosy through the whole domain of our politics. What wonder that the nation should come to deny that "THE Lord reigns," when his own people fail to acknowledge it^ What marvel that His rights should be trampled in the dust, when those to whose watch He has confided them betray the sacred trust 1 If this is strong language, the occasion will THE LORD REIGNETH. JO justify it. This desolating war compels every thoughtful man to inquire into the causes which have produced it. And one of the earliest conclu- sions forced upon us, is, that our government is racked and shattered, because the Christian men of the land, and those who are in sympathy with them, have put forth no proper exertions to take care of it: because they have been too much engrossed with other pursuits, to keep the nation, as by a united and persistent effort they might have kept it, from that fatal deterioration which follows the general denial or disparagement of God's sovereignty, as certainly as darkness follows the withdrawal of the sun. It is not meant by this that there is no real religion amongst us; nor that the churches of our country have entirely failed of their mission. Far from it ; the gospel has achieved many of its noblest triumphs here. But whether from a mistaken view of its legitimate sphere, or from other causes, the Christianity of the land has stood . so much aloof from our politics, that although, in a sort, a nation of Christians, we are, in a very qualified sense only, a Christian nation. However this war may termi- nate, we have a dismal' future before us, unless the reJiyion of the country means hereafter to make itself felt in our public affairs as it has not been during the last half century. So little, in fact, has 26 THE LORD REIGNETH. the nation been imbued with a proper religions sentiment — with the feeling, "the Lord reigneth" — that our most characteristicf sin is found in the general prevalence of a spirit which is the very opposite of this, the spirit of self-suiRciency and rude boasting. No one will ask for argument on this point. We have gloried in ourselves — in our liberty, our intelligence, our enterprise, our prowess, our constitution, our Union — until all Europe has jeered at our vanity and anathematized our arro- gance. No people except the Hebrews ever had so much to keep them mindful of the presence and the goodness of God: "for what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God has been in all things that we have called upon him forT' But the munificence of his bounty has only made us more supercilious; and while accepting and using his blessings, we have offered incense to our own superior virtue as the procuring cause of them. If there be any so blind that they have not seen this sin before, they may read it now in its punishment. God has smitten us in our most vulnerable part. Our idols are in the dust. Our glorying is turned to shame. We are beginning to learn that "the Lord reigns;" and that he is "a jealous God, who will not give his glory to another." THE LORD REIGNETH. 27 If we are learning this, we have struck tlie only trail w^hich can lead us out of this labyrinth of woes, and conduct us to an honourable peace. There must be no abatement in the measures adopted for the public defence, but rather increased energy and augmented preparations. But we must return to God. This is the vital thing. We must restore to him the sceptre we have profanely attempted to wrest from his hand. \\q must acknowledge his sovereignty, and lay our honours at his feet. We must submit in humility to his rebukes, and peni- tently plead with him to withdraw his rod. At whatever cost, through whatever depths of self- abasement, we must regain his favour. And we shall do it, if we seek him as we ought. " He hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight." This is the acknowledged design of the afflictions with which he visits .his people as individuals, to humble and purify them, and bring them nearer to himself. And we are warranted in putting a similar inter- pretation upon the calamities with which he scourges Christian nations. Whenever these afflictions have produced their proper effect upon us, we cannot doubt that our Heavenly Father will lay aside the 28 THE LORD EEIGXETH. rod with which, in such righteous seventy, he is smiting us. There are two or three obvious considerations which lend countenance to this belief. One is derived from our past history. AVe need not go into details. As was just now observed, the annals of the Hebrews excepted, there is no nation whose origin and progress have been marked by so many wonderful interpositions of God's hand. The colo- nizing of this continent, the Revolution, the organi- zation of the government, and the unexampled growth and prosperity of the nation, have too often been dwelt upon in this relation, to make it neces- sary to recite particular events here. It is not reasonable to presume that He who has built up so costly and beneficent a fxbric, will suffer it to be destroyed before it has completed its first century. For it is not simply a political structure. Even in this view we cannot be at fault in supposing that it has exerted a most benign and powerful influence upon the cause of civil liberty throughout the earth. But God has a Church in this land. In another connection I have spoken of its omissions and failures. But imperfect and unfaithful as it has been, it comprises some millions of individuals, who either profess the name of Christ, or constantly THE LORD REIGNETH. 29 celebrate his worship. This Church has not wholly neglected its work. It has done much to provide the ordinances of religion for our own expanding population. It has given the gospel to many pagan lands. It has enjoyed numerous unequivocal tokens of the Divine favour. Can we believe that He who died to ransom his Church, and who is "Head over all things to the Church," will abandon this Church] Or can we doubt that he will show himself "flivour- able to our land" for the Church's sake 1 I merely suggest these thoughts. They may prove nothing. But they forbid us to despair of our country. They reprove our unbelief, and bid us " trust in the Lord God of our fathers," even though we cani^ot pierce the clouds and darkness which are round about him. These clouds will pass away. Our beloved country will yet come forth from this baptism of blood, purified as gold that is tried in the fire; and our Father's face will again smile upon us, a wiser, meeker, and better people. • But whether these grateful anticipations are to be realized or not, let us ^'•rejoice''' that "the Lord REIGNETH." Amidst the tumult and alarm, the sor- row and suffering, which surround us, tliis one thought comes to the heart, like the dove with its 30 THE LORD REIGNETH. olive-branch across the surging waters. He who controlled those angry waves and guarded the ark, is still on the throne. "■ He sat serene upon the floods, Their fury to restrain; And He, as Sovereign, Lord, and King, For evermore shall reign." Here the Christian will find rest: his Father reigns. We may trust our country in his hands. He loves all that is good in it far more than we do. He is more the Friend of human freedom and hap- piness than we are. He knows just what this nation requires in order to prepare it for its future mission. And he will suffer nothing to happen to it which is not adapted to work out his own pur- poses, and contribute to the ultimate and universal triumph of his Church, the grand and absorbing interest of earth — for which alone the earth is preserved. I know it is easier to inculcate this trust than to exercise it. Standing where we do, sense and faith are in conflict. We would commit our country to God's keeping. We would rejoice that he reigns. But it costs a struggle. The feeling is, " Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief." But this is our THE LORD REIGNETH. 31 only resource. The issue is with him. His will must and will prevail. "The floods lift up their voice, the floods lift up their waves ; but the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." And if we cannot consent to his sovereignty, and trust him with our country's destiny, there is nothing left to us but the gloom of unbelief, and a prolonged har- vest of discontent, and terror, and bitter tears. But we can trust him. We will trust him. We know that he wdll not forsake us. With all the tribes of earth we will exult in his dominion. "The Lord REIGNETH : LET THE EARTH REJOICE; LET THE MULTI- TUDE OF ISLES BE GLAD THEREOF. ClOUDS AXD DARK- NESS ARE ROUND ABOUT HIM: RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT ARE THE HABITATION OF HIS THRONE." IIE\LI\fi WD S\LV\T1()\' FOR Oil COL'XTRV FROM COD ALOM. A SEHMON Preached in the Tenth Preshyteriax Church, Philadelphia, ON Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, 18G4. BY HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. PHILADELPHIA: WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, No. 600 Chestnut Street. 1864. Philadelphia, December 6, 1864. To the Rev. Henrt A. Boardman, D.D. Dear Sir : — The undersigned, almost all of whom had the privilege of hearing your late Thanksgiving Discourse, believing that its general circulation would both gratify and benefit many besides themselves, beg the favor of you to permit them to have the Discourse published. Should you accede to our request, please hand the manuscript to the bearer of this note, in order to publication, and oblige, Yours, very truly and respectfully, R. C. GRIKR, JOHN H.BROWN, THOMAS A. SCOTT, W. H. DRAYTON, JAMES THOMPSON, JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, WILLIAM A. PORTER, WILLIAM M. SMITH, WILLIAM B. HIESKELL, R. CRESSWELL, ROBERT PATTERSON, SAMUEL HOOD, JOS. PATTERSON, THEODORE CUYLER, II. L. SPROAT, JAMES SCHOTT, D. HAYES AGNEW, CHARLES F. HASELTINE, ROBERT U. McGRATH, SAMUEL ASBURY. Philadelphia, December 8, 1864. Gentlemen: — It was the aim of my Thanksgiving Sermon to present, in the simplest form, the one great truth which is clearly of paramount importance to us in our present troubles. I suppose there is ground here upon which Christian men of all sects and all political parties can stand together. It gratifies me to know that the Discourse met your approval; and I cheerfully place it in your hands, precisely as written and delivered. With much respect, I am faithfully your's, HENRY A. BOARDMAN. To the Hon. R. C. Grier, Major-Gen. Patterson, John H. Brown, Esq., and others. SERMON. Jeremiah xvii. 14: — "heal me, o lord, and i shall be healed: SAVE ME, AND I SHALL BE SATED: FOR THOU ART MY PRAISE." The occasion calls for a sermon of thanksgiving. To this service the day is dedicated. The sanctua- ries of the land are thrown open; and from the high seats of magistracy, the people are summoned to enter in and lay their sacrifices of praise upon the altars of the Most High. "^Ve have cause for thanksgiving. Our personal and domestic blessings are not to be numbered. The least favored amongst us are loaded with mercies. Who can review his life without exclaiming, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits"? Who can look around him without feeling that his blessings greatly exceed his trials, and immeasurably transcend his desert] The happiness of life is mostly made up of little things, — so little, that they pass, often, without being chronicled, or even noticed. A true disciple will find motives to gratitude in the pos- session of his rational faculties ; in his daily food and raiment; in his means of culture and improvement; in his business, his books, his friends; in the inter- change of social sympathies; in the opportunities of doing and receiving good; in whatever of comfort he may derive from his home. It is a great mercy that we pass so many days and months without experience of bodily pain or sickness; and that when sickness and sorrow do come, they bring so many alleviations with them. Especially ought we to be thankful for God's Holy Word; for the atone- ment of Christ; the mission of the Spirit; the Sab- bath and its ordinances; the forgiveness of our sins; reconciliation to God; the consolations of the Gospel; and the hope of everlasting felicity. These surely are mercies which may well enkindle the gratitude of every heart. With great propriety, also, have we been reminded of the exemption of the country from pestilence and famine, and foreign war. Had any one of these scourges been laid upon us, it might have brought us to the brink of ruin. That they have been averted, is to be ascribed wholly to the unmerited goodness of our Heavenly Father. Even the history of this fatal war is not without reasons for thanksgiving. It is of the Divine mercy that this rebellion has not attained its end in the overthrow of our government ; and that our people have with such unanimity come forward to the maintenance of our Constitution and Union. Vs'e must refer to His hand all the successes with which he has been pleased to crown our army and navy ; and all the progress that has been made in suppressing this most criminal revolt. We may be thankful that any Slave States have become free; and should any method of universal emancipation be devised, which, like that adopted in our own and other Northern States, shall not involve the destruc- tion of either the black or the white race, but con- duce to the amelioration and happiness of both; we shall have very great cause for gratitude to God. Another beam of light which relieves the darkness of this scene, may be found in the noble spirit of philanthropy which has been evoked by the Avar ; in the lavish contributions and generous labors applied to the relief of our sick and wounded sol- diers and sailors. Here are themes for thanksgiving ; and others might be specified. But after all, this is but one side of the picture. We need not dissemble the feeling, that the prevailing sentiment of the country is not one of praise and rejoicing. With no dis- position to surrender its birthright, the land, never- theless, is very full of sorrow. Puttino^ out of si^ht that large class to whom the war is bringing sudden wealth, and that larger class of frivolous people whose heartless merriment nothing short of the grave could extinguish ; most persons are oppressed with our national troubles. We did not look for three years and a half of war. We did not count upon the mutilation and slaughter of some hundreds of thousands of our young men. We did not expect to see death and sorrow carried into every village and hamlet of the country. We were not prepared to find ourselves, after so many frightful battles, confronted by a future as dark and impenetrable as that which now rises before us. And, therefore, while we are grateful for God's manifold mercies, the feeling which pervades the land to-day is not one purely of thanksgiving. This must be my apology for selecting a text which may, perhaps, have fallen upon your ears with an unwelcome sound " Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed ; save me, and I shall be saved : for Thou art my praise." It seems to be an ejaculation of the Prophet, who, turning from the contemplation of the judgments with which God was about visiting his country for its sins, reverently confesses his own morally diseased and helpless state, and supplicates the Divine pity. The sentiment is equally appropriate to an afflicted nation and an afflicted individual. I shall treat of it very briefly, as the prayer with which it becomes us as a nation, to appear in the presence of God. The general proposition I wish to lay down, is, that God alone can "heal" our maladies, and " SAVE " us FROM THE EVILS WHICH OPPRESS OR THREATEN US. It is not meant by this language that we can hope for deliverance, only through some direct, and, as it were, miraculous intervention of the Supreme Being ; but, simply, that He must pro- vide the means and instruments; raise up the men, and guide their counsels ; control all hearts, and overrule all events, to the furtherance of the desired ends; if the nation is to be effectually "healed" and "saved." The case is past human cure. No people can get on wisely and well, even in prosperous times, without His guiding hand; how much less a people in our circumstances. For the clearing of this point, consider, that it is God who has visited us with these calamities. You will not misunderstand this remark. Your theology recognizes a Providence — a universal Provi- dence— a Providence which comprehends all crea- tures and all events. You believe that whatever is, is by his appointment or by his permission; that, while he cannot ordain moral evil, he can permit it ; and that what he permits, is just as essential a part of his plan as what he ordains. You see his hand in the fall of the angels, in the sin of our first parents, and in all the wars which have carried sorrow and 8 carnage through the earth. You have learned from his own word, that war is as much one of his imple- ments for punishing nations, as pestilence or famine ; that it was, more than any other, the scourge he used for chastising the Hebrews ; that it was the ordinary judgment he denounced prophetically against the great pagan monarchies of antiquity; and that he everywhere challenges the same absolute authority over war, in respect to its source, its instruments, its duration, and its effects, as he does over the elements and the irrational animals. To cite extended proofs of this, would be to imply that you had never looked into your Bibles. We affirm, then, that this war which is ravaging our country, is of God. The causes, remote and proximate, which led to it, — the oppression, the fanaticism, the ambition, the cupidity, the disregard of human rights, and the invasion of constitutional rights ; the wrongs and the sins on the one side and on the other, were of his permission, as really as was the actual commencement of the war against the Union — the baleful result in which they all culminated. Not to concede this, were to suppose that here was a series of events pregnant with momentous consequences, which was independent of God's control, — a step only from handing the world over to the sway of a dismal atheism. But 9 if these things were of God, so also must have been tlie whole course of the war ; and not less, the various evils which now loom up on the hori- zon,— the natural product of the fatal contest that has been forced upon us, largely augmented by human infirmity and passion. This general view might suffice to show, that o in- only hope of deliverance is in God. If he sent these evils, he alone can remove them. He claims it as his prerogative, "I wound, and I heal." (Deut. xxxii. 39.) None can "wound" without his leave ; nor can any " heal " without his help. If this were practicable in any circumstances, it could not be in our's ; the wounds are too many and too deep. If the Great Physician do not undertake the case, it must be given over as hopeless. A little attention to details will make this appa- rent. In \\ie first place, there is the military problem. In April, 1861, this was thought to be a very simple problem. Turning back to almost any file of newspapers of that day, one will encounter a strain of confidence and self-glorying, which re- flected but too faithfully the public sentiment. Arithmetic was put to the genial task of cyphering out the military weakness of the South. A people so destitute of manufactures, sparsely diffused over 10 a broad extent of territory, and hampered by the presence of four millions of slaves who would instantly spring to arms against their masters, must soon succumb to our armies. The period fixed in the high places of the land for the duration of the war, and published to all the Cabinets of Europe, was "three months." Would to God that the prophecy had been of a loftier inspiration. The three months have become three years — and now wise men refrain from predicting when the end is to be. To review the progress of the war would be as impracticable here, as it would be useless to pro- nounce a panegyric upon our army and navy. Their patriotism, their courage, their endurance, are the theme of every tongue. They have won numerous battles. They have achieved great results. But it were puerile to pretend that all has been done which we have hoped for, and prayed for, and looked for. Powerful armies still confront our forces. And no one is so sanguine as to believe that the rebellion can or will be subdued, until we have raised new armies still. The feeling lies unuttered in many a bosom, that tens of thousands of graves may yet be added to the vast cities of the dead, peopled by this war. Have these facts no voice'? Do they not in thun- 11 der tones proclaim a God'? Do they not affirm, that " the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong;" but "the Most High ruleth in the kingdpm of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he wilU" If there are any so blinded by party-feeling, or so delirious with revenge, as to contemn these truths, the discipline of these three gloomy years has been lost upon them. While the war goes on, we must confide in our armies. But to confide in them, irrespective of the God of battles, were a huge impiety. Here, beyond a question, has been our mistake. Instead of exalting God, we have exalted man. We have glorified our own skill and prowess and numbers, without considering sufficiently that armies and nations are before God as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor. The feeling which befits us to-day is, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God." Our own skill has not availed to "heal" us. Our own bravery has not availed to "save" us. Let us go to Him who holds the reins of every war, and decides the issue of every battle, and cry, " Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be saved: for Thou art our praise." The necessity for this appeal to God will be no less apparent, if we turn, in the second place, from the military to the political problem. 12 The end to be accomplished — the end, i. e., which all parties profess to have in view — is, the restora- tion of the Union. The difficulties in the way of this result, were very formidable from the hour hostilities commenced. They have been multiplied a hundred- fold since. The question is one which reaches to the very foundations of the government; and in- volves every vital principle embodied in our Consti- tution. It comprehends, on the one hand, all the delicate problems pertaining to the relations of the Federal and State organizations; and, on the other, all the interests involved in the subject of Slavery. There is no lack of sciolists who are ready to dogma- tize on each of these topics; nor of heated partisans, who use them as vehicles for coarse vituperation. One need not spend his breath in arguing with either simpletons or madmen. Thoughtful men of all parties must feel the solemnity of these problems. Take the latter of them. Here is a system of servi- tude coeval almost with the colonizing of the South. It has grown with its growth, and strengthened with its streno^th. The whole social structure is pervaded by it: it runs through its domestic, civil, commercial, and religious life, as the arteries and veins do through the human body. That it has carried debility and disease with it; that it has produced an untold amount of evil, physical and moral, (as it 13 has, certainly, in ten thousand cases, been overruled for the good of the inferior race), only complicates the problem. In every view, it is a colossal institu- tion. We must all deplore its existence. AVe must all reprobate its agency in stimulating the leaders of this rebellion to their assault upon the Union. We must all desire the well-being of the African race. But how to meet the questions which the course of the war is beginning to force upon us, is a task for which few will feel themselves pre- pared, who are capable of comprehending these questions. I am not speaking for or against any political party ; nor for or against any line of policy. You belong to all parties. You have a common stake in the welfare of the country; and a common desire for the safety and improvement of the two races. And you must view with a common solicitude the approach (for it seems to be approaching), of a period when you are to stand face to face with the ques- tion, "What is to be done with four millions of emancipated blacks'? What will their good demand of the country 1 What provision will or can be made for their control and education] And how is the mighty convulsion which must follow the sud- den annihilation of this complex system, to be so 14 guided and mollified as to be made a savor of life, and not of death! These are topics for humane and patriotic men of all parties — as well for those who deprecate the overthrow of slavery as a misfortune to the servile race, as for those who can see in the system only unmixed evil. The single object for which they are introduced here, is to show that we need a more than mortal wisdom to conduct us through this labyrinth. The country is not without skilful statesmen and large-hearted philanthropists. But it may be doubted whether it has for centuries fallen to the lot of the philanthropists and statesmen of a nation, to deal with problems so profound and intricate as those which seem about to demand a solution here. Happily, there is one resource left us; it is the only one. "The foolishness of God is wiser than men." To His eye, this tangled maze is lighted up as by a meridian sun: this chaos is sym- metry and beauty. He knows what is best for the slave and for the master; for the South and for the North, and for both combined. If He has decreed that the system shall be annulled, He knows just how it should be done ; and how the African should be cared for; and how the issues of the crisis can all be met ; and the country " healed" of its wounds, and "saved" from its peril. And, therefore, our 15 great and urgent duty is to commend our rulers to His teaching ; to supplicate for our whole nation that divine illumination which He alone can bestow ; and to cry to him unceasingly, " Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be saved: for Thou art our praise." To the same result we should be led by consider- ing the other of the two topics just suggested, the restoration or re-construction of the Union. I state a familiar fact, when I say, that there is no question of the day upon which there is a greater diversity of opinion. In no party is there any homogene- ity of sentiment on the subject. It divides and subdivides all parties. The ablest statesmen of the country are the poles apart. The question involves, under God, the entire future of the nation. And confounding, as it does, all the wisdom of the land, how obvious, how indispensable, the duty of laying it before Him who can resolve it. If there be any method by which these States can be brought together again in a just, beneficent, and lasting Union, He must reveal it, and our place is humbly to ask him to do it. This observation brings me to the third and last of the great problems which we can hope to see •resolved only by invoking God's assistance, viz., the social problem. 16 In the judgment of very many on both sides of this fratricidal war, and of intelligent foreigners generally, the great difficulty of all lies here. The conflict of arms may be carried to a decisive issue. The political questions of slavery and re-construction may be disposed of. But can these two peoples ever again become one nation 1 If by one nation here were intended a nation in the sense that Austria is one nation — a collection of provinces inhabited by distinct races, speaking different tongues, alien from one another in all their tradi- tions, and having almost nothing in common but their allegiance to the same sovereign — there might be no Gordian knot to untie. But such a union would not answer the first conditions of our great charter. It would be little short of a grim bur- lesque upon the idea of a republic. For the pur- poses of our Constitution, we must be one nation in sentiment and sympathy — so far at least as to be able and willing to cooperate in carrying on the same government, acknowledging the same laws, and sharing the same burdens. This implies somewhat of mutual respect and confidence. But this war has alienated the two sections of the Union as much in feeling as in form. It has replaced the ancient concord with hate and (shall I say if?)* revenge. The testimonies which come to us on 17 this point from the South, and which too often salute our own eyes and ears, would seem to warrant the conclusion, that any real miion of the two populations must be for ever impossible. The pre- valent sentiment with us appears to be, that it is onlv a forced and nominal union which can be expected under the most favorable circumstances; and even to this the South is not willing to listen. Here is a difficulty which the most sanguine will concede to be of towering proportions. The sphere to which it pertains, is that, not of government and police, of manners and letters; but of thought and feeling. The task to be performed is that of allay- ing resentments, extinguishing animosities, taming enemies into friends, and obliterating from millions of hearts the memories of battles, conflagrations, hospitals and prisons, rife with unutterable sorrows. Of course, man is powerless here. What can he do in such a presence, but sit down, mute and sad in his conscious helplessness] But is the task, therefore, hopeless"? I do not know whether it will ever be accomplished. This only I know: "That with God all things are possible." He can do it. He can cause the wrongs of this war to be forgotten, and its hatreds buried. He can rekindle the fires of affection upon altars where they long ago went out. He can fuse these 2 18 discordant fragments into a homogeneous mass, instinct with the warmth of a new and genial life. He can make us again one nation — not in name and aspect merely, but in sympathy and purpose. I do not say that He will do this. I say He can do it ; because He is Omnipotent. And, further, if it be a part of his purpose (as we all humbly hope and pray) not to give us over to final dismem- berment and ruin, wc have ground to believe that, sooner or later. He will do it. And this is reason enough why we should plead with Him on this behalf; why we should cry importunately, "Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed; save us, and we shall be saved: for Thou art our praise." Not to advert to other topics, I think it has been shown that in respect to the three great preblems of our condition — the military^ the political and the social^ we must look to God for healing and deliverance. I think it has been shown that his blessing alone can crown our arms with success: that we may succeed there, and, if left to ourselves, fail disastrously in the adjustment of our political relations : and that if by his favor both of these interests could be arranged, there would still remain those wide-spread antipa- thies and estrangements which He alone can compose. It has, further, been pointed out that 19 if we desire Him to interpose for tlic healing of our maladies, we must seek this great mercy at his hands, as we do all other mercies, by earnest prayer. This implies some other things besides prayer; especially does it imply A general refor- mation AND RETURN TO GoD — at once the evidence and the fruit of the sincerity of our prayers. Here, precisely, is the work to be done, if we would see our distracted country restored to peace and unity. We watch intently the measures of our Government. We await with anxiety the daily bulletins from the field. But we have duties nearer home. Without Divine illumination our statesmen are blind. Without Divine protection our armies are impotent. These armies and magistrates are simply the representatives of the nation. It is the temper of the nation which God regards. They would not fail of a blessing, if we, as a nation, should re- turn to God. Can any one who acknowledges a Providence, doubt that this war was sent as a punish- ment for the sins of the nation; that it has been prolonged on account of our sins; and that if we should put away our sins, God would withdraw his rod? The voice which comes to us from his throne to-day, is, " Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding." Suppose the response could go up from every part of our land, which went 20 back from the chosen people : " Behold, we come unto thee: for thou are the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains : truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel." (Jer. iii. 22, 23.) Would you not look to see the land presently resting from this weary war 1 In such a reformation the Church is bound to take the lead. Of its agency, both South and North, in bringing on the war, and protracting it, it is not needful to speak. No one, it is presumed, will ven- ture to say that it is guiltless in this matter. Nor will it be denied, that it may exert a potential influ- ence in bringing about that merciful intervention of an injured God, which would speedily terminate our troubles. Not to enter into details, there are in our country several millions of persons who profess the evangeli- cal faith. They are of all classes and all occupa- tions. They are in the humblest and in the loftiest conditions. They are in daily contact with our entire population. They are doing more, whether for good or ill, to shape the destiny of the country than any other equal portion of our people. These Christians claim to be the followers of Christ. They profess to be imbued with his Spirit, and to walk in his steps. There is not one of them 21 who will not admit, that it is his paramount OBUGATIOX TO DO WHAT HE BEUEVES HIS MaSTEK WOULD DO, if He were here in his circumstances. ^Yhat. then, have we reason to believe our Sa- viour WOULD DO, if He were here during these troublous times ? He would do just what He did in Judea. It would be his meat to do his Father's will, and to promote his Father's glory. He would set an example of obedience to the laws. He would do nothing to embarrass the magistracy of the land in the legitimate exercise of its authority. He would frown upon sedition and rebellion. He would frown upon revenge. He would rebuke covetous- ness, pride, ostentation, dishonesty, hypocrisy, false- hood and intolerance. He would instruct his disci- ples to love one another, to shun all acrimony of speech, and all malevolence of temper; "not to backbite with their tongues, nor take up a reproach against their neighbor," He would say to them. "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." He would everywhere exhibit a meek, patient, forgiv- ing, benevolent spirit. He would do good to all who came within his reach. He would exhort others to the practice of forbearance, moderation, and charitv. He ^\ould render to Csesar the thin£:s 22 which are Ceesar's, and to God the things that are God's. He would do his utmost to diffuse a spirit of love and kindness, and to make His own blessed Gospel the ruling power in all our affairs, civil and military, social and ecclesiastical. I will not mock you by stopping to prove that this is the sort of life our Saviour would lead if he were here in person. Every Christian must know this. And we know just as well that we are bound to imitate His example. It is as much our duty as it would be His to cultivate the spirit that has been described. And if this were done ; if that great body of Christians who claim to have been sprinkled with His blood and baptized into His spirit, should begin thus to live up, in some good degree, to their pro- fession, and to follow him in earnest, what a "heal- ing" power would it exert upon the wounds of our suffering country. How much would it mitigate the horrors of this contest. How certainly would it bring down, as a choice blessing upon our rulers, new supplies of the wisdom and the fortitude, the integrity and the prudence, the forbearance and the courage, which they need in the discharge of their arduous and responsible duties. How effectually would it replace the uncharitableness and the dis- cord, the aversions and the divisions, which prevail among ourselves, with candor, conciliation, and 23 unanimity. With what silent energy would it act upon the public press, upon the courts and legisla- tures, and upon the whole tone of the country. How surely would it tell even upon the misguided hosts that are waging this criminal war against the Government. In a word, with what confidence might we hail it as the harbinger of some decisive interposition of a benign Providence which should arrest this sanguinary strife, constrain the revolted States to lay down their arms, and secure to us a wise, equitable, and permanent peace. Here, my Brethren, is the remedy for our dis- orders which the Bible offers us. There is no lack of catholicons. They are tendered by political par- ties and by individuals, by men in power and by men out of power, every day. The pulpits of the land overflow with them. We need not stop to compare r to sift them ; to inquire what they may comprise of truth and wisdom, and what of error and folly. Whatever may be done or left undone, one thing is certain: our deliverance must come from God, And the surest pledge and instrument of it, would be A GENERAL REVIVAL THROUGHOUT THE LAND OF THE SPIRIT AND PRACTICE OF TRUE RELIGION. There is more to be hoped for from the Church of Christ than from Cabinets and armies ; for armies and Cabinets will properly fulfil their mission only as the Church 24 fulfils tier's. Let the Church shake herself from the dust, and come out from the world, and seek a fresh baptism of the spirit of love and holiness, and give herself anew to her heavenly vocation, and cry with- out ceasing, on behalf of an humbled and penitent people, " Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed ; Save us, and we shall be saved ;" and when another Thanksgiving Day returns, our Sanctuaries will re- sound with the grateful anthem : " Glory to God in the highest ; and on earth peace, good will toward MEN," THE PEACE-MAKERS. A SERMON PREACHED IN THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, ON SUNDAY, APRIL 9, 1865, APPOINTED BY THE GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA AS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING FOR THE RECENT VICTORIES OF THE NATIONAL FORCES IN VIRGINIA. HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. PHILADELPHIA : JAMES S. CLAXTON, SUCCESSOR TO WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, No. 606 Chestnut Street. 1865. PHlLiDELPHiA, May 8, 1S65. To the Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D. D. Rev. and Dear Sir — You will confer a favor on us, if j'ou will permit the publication of the Discourse delivered by you in your church on the morning of the 9th ult. We think that its publication at this time will be useful. Very truly and respectfully, R. C. QRIER, JAMES TUOMPSON, R. PATTERSON, D. HAYES AGNEW, JAMES SCnOTT, W. C. PATTERSON, JAMES ROSS SNOWDEN, WM. A. PORTER, WM. B. HIESKELL, JOSEPH PATTERSON, THEODORE CDYLER, H. L. SPROAT, HENRY McKAY, ROBERT H. McGRATH, SAMUEL HOOD. PniLACELPHiA, May 9, 1865. Genikmen — Your kind note has taken me by surprise. The sermon for which you ask, was a sermon of THANKSGivixa. In less than a week after it was preached, our thanks- givings were turned into mourning. In the presence of our great national calamity — one of the greatest, in my opinion, which could have befallen our country — might it not be deemed unseasonable to publish a discourse prepared for so widely different an occasion? Your request shows that you do not think so. And if I defer to your judgment, it will be {inter alia) because of the absolute assurance I feel, that the aim and spirit and counsels of this sermon are in perfect accordance with the sentiments daily expressed by our de- ceased President during the closing weeks of his life. There was nothing his heart was so much set upon, as the early and thorough pacification of the country; and the magnani- mous temper in which he had set about it, was hailed by the nation at large as a pledge that he would omit nothing which might contribute to this beneficent result. Even then, however, a true peace could have been established only through the benign influence of our holy religion. This was the radical idea of the sermon you desire to publish, and which I herewith place in your hands. The subject is presented in these pages in a very partial and cursory way. Believing as I do that it is the grand necessity of our times, I hope in a few days to invite you to a further and fuller consideration of it. With respect and esteem, I am very truly yours, HENRY A BOARDMAN. To the Hon. Robert C. Griee, Hon. James Thompson, and others. SERMON. Matthew v. 9. BLESSED ARE THE PEACE-MAKERS : FOR THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OP GOD. On the last Sabbath your attention was called to one of this rich cluster of "Beatitudes;" and it now falls in my way to speak to you of another. To some of you, the theme may present itself as in strange contrast with the scenes through .which we are passing; while others may regard it rather as blending with these scenes and foreshadowing the issue to which they are tending. In either case, the reflection will be apt to force itself upon you, How immutable is the word ot God! The uni- versal law of earth, is change. With individuals, families, states, dynasties, there is nothing uniform, nothing permanent. Mutability attaches to all the works of man, even the most stable. Opinions, philosophies, policies, are perpetually varying. The Bible alone is unchangeable. Events make no 6 THE PEACE-MAKERS. impression upon it. It imbibes no coloring from surrounding objects. It sways not an iota to the tides of human interest and passion. The turbulent billows of strife and violence break over it ; but it stands firm like a granite rock amidst the waves of the sea. In cloud and in sunshine, in peace and in war, it speaks in the same calm, clear, authoritative tone, uttering the same immortal truths, and challenging, under penalty of anathema, the paramount and reverential attention of every human being. For "the word of the Lord endureth forever." If this be so, then there can be no real incon- gruity between the benediction before us, and the times which are passing over us ; that is to say, this benediction, true at all times, must be true now ; and, suited to all seasons, must be suited to the present. " Blessed are the peace-makers, for THEY SHALL BE CALLED THE CHILDREN OF GOD." I would not have you infer from these remarks that I design to treat this passage exclusively in its adaptation to our public affairs. This is not my purpose : albeit I shall not decline that use of it altogether. It has a lesson for all periods and for all persons. The crowd that first listened to these words was composed of Jews. They were imbued with an THE PEACE-MAKERS. 7 hereditary enmity to the Gentiles. They were expecting their Messiah, whenever he came, to lead them forth against their pagan oppressors. The wrongs of centuries were to be redressed, and all nations to kiss the sceptre of David. But a widely different doctrine was that which now saluted their ears; one which rebuked no less the revengeful passions of the multitude, than the pride and hypoc- risy of their ecclesiastical teachers. Their Messiah had come. And, true to his prophetic character, he came as the "Prince of Peace." But it was not such a peace as they coveted, nor to be achieved in their way. " Blessed are the Peace-makers." Who are the Peace-makers ; and the blessing pronounced upon them: — these are the points which invite our notice. I shall treat them in a very familiar and informal way. It has just been intimated that the Messiah came to establish a kingdom of peace. His grand design was to restore peace between God and man. And in doing this, he laid the foundation for peace of conscience, and peace between man and man. It is only one branch of this fruitful subject that is men- tioned in the text. But it is apparent that he who would be a peace-maker must be a man of a peaceful spirit. He must love peace; love it, not simply 8 THE PEACE-MAKERS. because it is commanded, but because it is riirlit in itself. It must have an attraction for him. His heart must be in sympathy with it. And it will be, if he has drank in freely of the spirit of the Gospel. For the essence of the Gospel is, " On earth peace, good-will towards men.'* This was the substance of the Saviour's preaching; this the tenor of his example; this the end for which he endured the cross. And this is the proper evidence and badge of discipleship. It ought to be assumed as a matter of course, that a Christian is a man of peace. Such a man will try to live at peace with others. The exhortation is, "Follow peace with all men." ^^ Follow'''' it; though the same apostle elsewhere intimates thp,t it may not be always attainable. "If it be possible, as much as lietli in you, live peace- ably with all men." I may notice this limitation hereafter. For the present, there are certain things looking in the direction of peace, which are " pos- sible," and, therefore, are obligatory. One of these, is to exercise great care about giving offence. To "follow peace," we must "follow after the things which make for peace." He fails in this, who neglects to set a close watch upon his lips. " He that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mis- chief." "Whoso keepeth his mouth and his tongue, keepeth his soul from troubles." "A froward man THE PEACE-MAKERS. 9 soweth strife, and a whisperer separatetli chief friends." Not to guard one's speech, is to contemn "the things which make for peace." That the peace should be so often broken, can excite no surprise, when it is considered how much rash talking there is; how much malicious talking; how much thought- less talking. Offence must needs be given : there is no help for it — where the tongue is under no restraint. A peaceable man will be heedful of the fe7Jipe}'s and circumstances of the persons he has to deal with. We might wish it otherwise, but the world is very full of people with untoward peculiarities. In the course of a single day you may encounter such varieties as the morose, the officious, the desponding, the deceitful, the suspicious, the irrita- ble, the revengeful, the capricious, and the prying. Many whose dispositions are really amiable, are afflicted with very unamiahle nerves, which grate harsh music both for themselves and others. And there are a very few only, who are entirely exempt from moods which make them unduly sensitive to inadvertent affronts or slights. To consider these infirmities, is one of the cha- racteristics of a man of peace. Not that they are all of a nature to merit his forbearance. But in general he will keep in mind the temper and mood 10 THE PEACE-MAKERS. of the persons he meets; and show their weaknesses as much indulgence as a good conscience will permit. To play upon people's weaknesses; to tease them because they can be teased; and incense them because they are passionate; and mortify them be- cause they are vain; and cajole them because they are suspicious; — this may sometimes afford an evanescent satisfaction, but it is a malicious satisfaction. No Peace-maker could countenance it. Such an one will find no pleasure in helping to make others unhappy, even though their own tempers be chiefly responsible for it. A humane man will not lightly apply a match to a magazine: there are too many incendiaries about already. He will much sooner stretch forth his hand to shield the train than fire it. But we cannot enter into details. Let it suffice, that a man of peace will endeavor to give his neigh- bor no just ground of ofi'ence. And, reciprocally, he will be slow to take ofi'ence. This imports that he will guard against such infirmities of temper as those we have been speaking of. We may insist upon the duty of treating them with a generous forbearance. But what right have you to cherish them'? Why should you be so sensitive — so jealous — so petulant — so churlish — so obstinate — so uncharitable? No one can deny that these are very unchristian tempers. They cause a large part of the heartburnings, the THE PEACE-MAKERS. 11 alienations, the contentions, that occur among men. It is as much our duty to be slow in taking offence, as to be cautious about giving offence. A Peace- maker will respect the. obligation in both its aspects. But we may " suffer wrongfully" — where we have neither been over-sensitive to affronts, nor done aught to provoke an injury. This, unfortunately, is a common case. It is a sore trial to flesh and blood. Nature cannot well cope with it. But grace will come to the rescue. A Christian in these circum- stances may take the needful steps to vindicate his character; for he cannot but feel keenly the injustice that is done him. But if he be animated by the Spirit of Christ, he will stifle the promptings of revenge; and try to overcome evil with good. For so his Master taught, both by precept and example. Why should any Christian marvel that he suffers from the tongue of calumny, when he recalls the history of his Lord'? If these observations be well-founded, they show that men become Peace-makers in just so far as they imbibe the spirit of genuine religion. They have an essentially peaceful temper. Their principles, their teachings, their aims, their conduct, all go to pro- mote peace. They carry with them a silent but im- pressive remonstrance against the dispositions and practices which tend to produce strife. Their lives are a rebuke to the malevolent passions which agi- 12 THE PEACE-MAKERS. tate the masses'. Cautious about giving or taking offence, where they have a difference with others, they are forward in seeking to have it removed. They are willing to accept the Saviour's rule as it stands, "If thou rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee .... go and be reconciled to thy brother." It may cost a struggle to do this; for pride and passion would hold them back. But it would be a harder struggle not to do it. They cannot sleep with a quiet conscience, until they have taken all suitable measures to win back an alienated brother. If the effort fails, as it may, they can only leave the matter in the hands of God. The sin lies not at their door. In the same temper they strive to compose divi- sions among others. These divisions frequently originate in some trifling incident — a hasty word; an oversight; the tattle of a busy-body; at most, a mis- apprehension. As regards Christians, it would be safe to assert that nine-tenths of the estrangements which occur among them, grow out of some misap- prehension. When the mischief has once taken place, they lack the humility or the resolution to seek an explanation; and so the trouble grows, as neglected weeds always grow, until the insignificant thorn-bush becomes a brawny Upas. What they need now is a Peace-maker — some discreet, large- THE PEACE-MAKERS. 13. hearted Christian, to mediate between them. And with such a days-man, how many alienated friends have been restored to each others arms. It must not be inferred from these observations, that peace — our own or that of others — is to be sought at all hazards, and at any sacrifice. It is a blessing of very great value; but we must not sacri- fice things of still greater value to secure it. The apostle glances at this in the expression already quoted, "If it be possible, live peaceably with all men." It is not always "possible." For we must heed the voice of duty. We must follow wherever truth and right lead the way. And this will some- times expose us to obloquy and contention. It was in this view, our Saviour said, " I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword ;" and he goes on to pre- dict the bitter feuds which the gospel would occasion in households. But would any one say, that Christ was not the Friend of peace? or that he should have suppressed His doctrines, because he foresaw that bad men would make them a pretext for assailing his dis- ciples? We are not to shrink from duty, even though it may offend those whom it would grieve us to offend. A good conscience in forming our opinions, and, on all proper occasions, asserting them, must be preserved at whatever cost in respect to our friendships, or our social and professional advantages. 14 THE PEACE-MAKERS. While this maxim is of general obligation, it ap- plies with peculiar force to religious convictions. Christianity is a religion of peace; but it is still more a religion of truth and holiness, — these in order to that. " The wisdom which is from above is first pure, then peaceable." To hold back the truth, as the pulpit has so often done, may promote peace; but it will be the treacherous calm which precedes shipwreck. Neither as ministers nor as private Christians, may we fail to declare what we believe to be the whole counsel of God. Times and modes are to be regarded. And we must be mindful of the tone and temper of our own hearts. But firmly, prudently, charitably, and faithfully, we must set forth the truth. If this lead to disputation, it will be no fault of our's. Jesus Christ was of old, and he is still, "a stumbling-block to the Jew, and to the Greek foolishness." Are his friends answerable for the dissensions which may follow the- preaching of Christ crucified'? Is it they who disturb the peace of the Church] Far from it. It is the formalists, who will not endure the truth. It is the bigots, who arrogate a monopoly of the truth, and hand over all "who are outside of their own narrow pale to "un- covenanted mercy." It is the teeming tribes of errorists, with and without their sectarian organiza- tions, who reject the Bible or deny some of its THE PEACE-MAKERS. 15 essential doctrines. These all are, in their measure, responsible for the discord that prevails in the reli- gious world. Very desirable it is to allay this strife : it is the standing opprobrium of the Church of Christ. But it may not be allayed at the cost of the truth. The truth is not our's to barter away. And if bar- tered, it would fail of its end. For there is no real peace except through the truth. And the only Peace- makers entitled to the benediction of the Saviour, are those who "buy the truth and sell it not;" who will, if needful, " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints;" and who will diligently use the word of God to win back an offended brother, to reconcile divided friends, and to replace the harsh polemics of the Church with Christian love and con- cord. But there is still another sphere for the sympathy and care of the Peace-makers, which you will not expect me to pass by in silence. It is too broad a subject to be discussed within the brief limits allotted to the remainder of this service : but a few thoughts may be thrown out for your consideration. The Peace-makers are the true, spiritual disciples of Christ. They are in and of the Church. They represent the Church. As a matter of order, then, we may refer to them in the aggregate, and consider the Church in its character of Pacificator. That 16 THE PEACE-MAKERS. this is its proper character, no one will deny who has ever read the New Testament. "What, then — to come at once to the question that lies just now in every one's bosom — is the true function of the Church in respect to war ? I answer, its function is threefold : (1.) If possible, to prevent war. (2.) If this be unavoidable, to attemper and miti- gate it. And (3.) to do whatever may be lawful and right, to hring ivar to an end, and to restore a just, humane, and Christian peace. 1. The Church is, if possible, to prevent war. This is involved in its nature and design. Its mis- sion, like that of its Divine Founder, is to deliver men from sin ; and to fill the earth with holiness and happiness. It must needs, then, discountenance war. For war brings in its train every form of sin and every type of sorrow. There is, perhaps, no word in human language of such comprehensive and fatal significance; none which comprises such an accumulation of wrong and suffering. That Chris- tianity should be opposed to war, is a thing of course. Many readers of the New Testament un- derstand it as forbidding even defensive war; and that, under any circumstances. Nearly four years ago I gave you the reasons why I could not acquiesce THE PEACE-MAKERS. 1 i in that view. But, assuredly, all the teachings of the New Testament, and the whole tone and genius of Christianity, are adverse to any war unless it be strictly defensive. If its lessons were universally received, war would be an impossible thing, — the more so, as it lays the axe at the root of the evil, by subduing the passions in which war usually originates. Whether the Church did its whole duty in trying to prevent the war which has desolated our country, will be a question for the historian. And yet, need we await his decision 1 Is it not patent to all the world, that if Christianity had had its just ascend- ancy amongst us, this conflict would have been averted'? Had the pulpit and the (so-called) re- ligious press. North and South, to name no other agencies, steadfastly inculcated those great lessons of obedience to law and magistracy, of truth and justice, of humanity and kindness, of forbearance and conciliation, which belong to the rudiments of the Scripture morality, this contest could never have happened. The land would have been saved this great crime of rebellion, and the untold horrors it has brought with it. That topic, however, is not before us, except in an incidental way. 2. When war actually exists, it devolves upon the Church, — composed as it is of those who are by 2 18 THE PEACE-MAKERS. profession Peace-makers, to do all that it can to limit and mitigate its evils. The inherent tendency of war is to barbarity. Unleashing as it does the strongest passions of the human heart, and setting men to destroy each other, it is scarcely to be wondered at, that uncivilized tribes should conduct their wars less like men than fiends. It must be claimed on behalf of the Chris- tian religion, that it has greatly modified the ferocity of war. Many of its worst devices are professedly abandoned by Christian nations : and if practised, are practised in derogation of the recognized code of Christendom. It will be readily admitted, too, that the Church has not been , idle during this unhappy contest in our country. Its noble activity in providing sup- plies and contributing to the comfort of the sick and wounded, friends and foes alike, has elicited the merited applause of the civilized world. It is a sublime triumph of the beneficent spirit of the Gospel, this ministration of mercy, on a colossal scale, to the sufferers of the war. Here, at least, hate has given place to love ; and the Peace-maker has found his congenial task, in binding up the wounds of combatants struck down by each other's hands. Yet it would not be difficult to show, that there THE PEACE-MAKERS. 19 are grave omissions and even transgressions to be laid to the account of the Church, as well during the progress of the war as before it commenced. Let this topic be waived, however, for one that is more grateful. 3. It was specified as another function of the Church, to exert its influence in hringing war to an end, and establishing a Just and stable peace. It is not to attempt this by arraying itself against the State. Civil government is a Divine ordinance. It is this which makes rebellion not simply a politi- cal offence, but a sin against God. And all factious opposition to government bears the taint of crimin- ality. The State is, within its legitimate sphere, entitled to the moral support of the Church ; pre- cisely as the Church may claim the protection of the State. In respect to particular measures or magis- trates, it is the privilege (in a free commonwealth) and may be the duty, of the citizen, to seek by the use of the prescribed means, to bring about a change. But he may do nothing, especially in the presence of a great rebellion, wilfully to embarrass the government in re-establishing its authority. His obligation as a Peace-maker binds him to promote whatever measures may be best adapted to insure an early and righteous peace. And it certainly requires of him, that he be importunate in pleading 20 THE PEACE-MAKERS. with the " God of peace" on behalf of his afflicted country. These obvious principles have been recognized, though not to their full extent, in the conflict from which we seem at length to be emerging. The peace for which so many prayers have gone up to God, and so many anxious hearts have been yearn- ing, appears to be dawning upon us. The honoured Chief Magistrate of our Commonwealth (who, as I learn, has just gone on another of his visits of sympathy to our wounded soldiers in Richmond*), has invited the people to unite this day " in render- ing thanks to Almighty God for all his mercies, and especially for that he hath been graciously pleased to look favorably on us, and make us the instru- ments to establish the right, to vindicate the prin- ciples of free government, and to prove the certainty of Divine justice." The response to this appeal will be general and cordial. Not only in this State, but throughout all the free States, the voice of praise and gratitude will resound to-day. On thousands of altars will sacrifices of thanksgiving be offered to the God of our fathers. There is cause for thanksgiving. Four * Governor Curtiu's generous concern for the sick and wounded Penn- sylvania soldiers throughout the whole war, have won for him the lasting gratitude of our Commonwealth. THE PEACE-MAKERS. 21 years ago, on the Sabbath after the attack upon Fort Sumter,* it fell to my lot to address you in this place. May I be allowed to quote a few sentences from the sermon delivered on that occasion — a ser- mon which (as I find) contains no thought nor word 1 should care to alter to-day. "As yet we only feel the spray of the billows breaking at our feet. But the storm is raging off the shore, and the tide is swelling, and it threatens to pour itself before long in fury over the land. It is not for man to say whether it shall be arrested. ... ft may not accord with the Divine plan that we should escape this conflict. But we may plead with Him that if war must come, it may be shorn of those atrocities which are the proverbial characteristic of civil wars. We may further plead with Him, to bring it to a speedy end. It is horrible that there should be war at all : a protracted war among brethren would embosom all the curses which have followed in the train of sin. No tongue may attempt to depict, no imagina- tion to conceive of its horrors. Let us pray that its time may be short." These prophetic apprehensions have all been re- alized. The war came. Instead of ending in a few weeks or months, it has lasted four years. And as to its "horrors," they have even exceeded all that « April 21, 1861. 22 THE PEACE-MAKERS. was then predicted. What occasion can there be to recount them"? Have they not been the burden of our daily journals; of our public assemblies; of every social gathering ; of all households, and of all hearts'? Is there any family that has not been made sick and sad in rehearsing the calamities of this war'? Is there any congregation where its thunder- bolts have not fallen, and laid the brave, the true- hearted, the loved and honored, in the dust 1 Four years of fratricidal strife! Four years of carnage! Four years of prisons and hospitals and graves! Four years of ever accumulating v/idowhood and orphanage! Oh, beloved, while we mingle our tears with the mourners, we have cause for thanksgiving to-day. We must and will rejoice that the citadel of this great revolt is .conquered, and its power broken. We must and will be thankful to God, that the sys- tem of servitude which nurtured the passions that inspired the rebellion, is passing away. That it must fall, became apparent on the morning of the 12th of April, 1861. The first gun fired at Sum- ter was its death-knell. How it was to be brought about, it was not for man to say: but there were those who felt (as I certainly did) that the issue was then and there determined. In a published sermon preached here fifteen years THE PEACE-MAKERS. 23 ago, it was said: " I have never set myself to defend slavery; and by the grace of God I never will. I concur in the estimate which is put upon it by the people of the North, and by tens of thousands of our Southern countrymen, that it is a colossal evil; and that no consummation is more devoutly to be wished and prayed for than its removal." And now its " removal" has come. Not in a way which any one then living could have anticipated. Not in the way which many amongst us believed would be the wisest and best way — either for the master or the slave, for the government or the people. But the vast stream of Providence rolls on regardless of men's plans and opinions; and he who will not yield to the cur- rent, must be swept away by it. God's purpose is accomplished. The African race is emancipated; and the land redeemed from the taint of slavery. For this let us offer our thanksgivings to God. But if there should be thoughtful Christian men who "rejoice with trembling," let your charity bear with their weakness. They only wait to see the result of this stupendous revolution. The abrupt and violent en- franchisement of four millions of ignorant slaves, is an event to which history supplies but one parallel. That transaction was under immediate and palpable supernatural direction: and even then it cost forty years of painful discipline, and the lives of an entire 24 THE PEACE-MAKERS. generation to bring the vast scheme to a successful issue. Let us pray that the Pillar of cloud and of lire may reappear for our guidance. If it should, and we have grace to follow it, this will prove a glo- rious deliverance for both races. But if we are left to the counsels of a mere mortal wisdom, it may one day turn the rejoicing of the land into mourning. It is both our duty and our privilege to hope for an auspicious result — auspicious for the black race, auspicious for the white race, auspicious for our country, and for our common Christianity. But to avert the evils which may still threaten us, and secure the advantages that may be within our reach, we must invoke an agency which the wisdom of this world has sometimes held in light esteem. " Blessed are the Peace-makers !" It is the pro- vince of the government to enforce the laws, to sup- press insurrection, to bring back revolted States to their allegiance, and to reestablish the authority of the Constitution throughout all the land. So dear are these objects to the hearts of the people, that they have counted no sacrifice too great for the accomplishment of them. They have surrendered freely their property, their business, their domestic ties. They have poured out their life's blood like water. And in our thanksgivings to-day we may not forget, that, under God, we owe the redemption THE PEACE-MAKERS. 25 of our imperilled heritage to the patriotism and courage, the skill and endurance, the toils and suf- ferings, of our army and navy. Thanks be to God for the favor with which he has crowned them, and for the events we chronicle to-day. But when the government has finished its task, and the sword is sheathed, and the turmoil of war is hushed, there will remain a work to be done which no statesmanship nor valor can eifect. The arrest of lighting is not peace. The only peace that will avail to us, is one that penetrates below the surface. To allay the resentments of this war, to lull to sleep its fiery passions, to restore mutual respect and esteem, and thus renew an actual, not a mere formal, Union, — here is an achievement which, to any eye but that of faith, must seem impossible except as by a sort of miracle. Whether it is to be, is known only to Omniscience. But our duty is plain. The hour has come for the Church to prove her loyalty, not to Caesar simply, but to her own and Caesar's Lord : to show whether she has been bap- tized with the Spirit of Christ, or with the spirit of the world. A broad field is before her; and her Master summons her to a lofty mission. Will she call down fire from heaven to consume the wrong- doers, or will she go to them and bind up their wounds'? Will she climb to the top of Gerizim with 26 THE PEACE-MAKERS. her mouth filled with blessings; or will she stand upon Ebal and utter curses from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof] Some who not only claim to be her sons but minister at her altars, have within the past week made the air ring with male- dictions which took the thoughts irresistibly to that scene, where a guiltless sufferer cried with his last breath, "Father, forgive them: for they know not what they do !" One cannot but believe that if He had been present on an occasion of this sort, he would have turned to his vindictive followers, and mildly said, " Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of: for the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Is there anything in the plaudits of a delirious crowd, that could soothe the pain of such a rebuke from those lips'? We may take a lesson even from the rigorous economy of the Old Testament. When the tribe of Benjamin had committed a grievous crime, the other tribes assembled a powerful army and marched against them. Twice were the allies defeated, losing in one battle 22,000 men, and in the other 18,000. In the third conflict, they succeeded. Benjamin lost 25,000 troops. Only six hundred survived, and the tribe seemed about to become extinct. What course did the other tribes adopt"? The provocation they had received, was immense: 40,000 of their people THE PEACE-MAKERS. 27 had been slain — enough to fill the land with mourn- ing. A single blow would exterminate the small remnant of the offending tribe. Passion would have prompted it. But natural affection, piety, and patriotism, forbade. Instead of extirpation, there occurred a scene which would have shed lustre even upon the brightest epoch in the annals of Christianity. "The people came to the house of God, and abode there till even before God, and lifted up their voices and wept sore; and said, O Lord God of Israel, ivhy is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to- day one tribe lacking in Israel?^' (Judges xxi. 2, 3.) An injured and suffering nation, in the flush of vic- tory, while yet mourning their own dead, come together to weep over the terrible but righteous retribution they had visited upon their brethren, and to plead with their covenant God to preserve the tribe from extinction. There was a moral sublimity in the spectacle enough almost to move a heart of stone. And what less can we do'? Can there be a Chris- tian here who is willing that a tribe should die out of our Israel '? God forbid. He has forbidden it. What means this long delay of victory'? Why has He kept us waiting through these four weary years, and tried us with so many reverses and sorrows, if not to teach us a lesson of deep contrition for our 28 THE PEACE-MAKERS. sins; to press home upon our hearts the conviction, that His controversy was no less with us than with our brethren; to chasten the exultation of our day of triumph ; and to bring us into a state of mind in which we might offer the petition, without invoking his anathema upon our own souls, "Forgive us our trespasses, as ive forgive those who trespass against us'l He who cannot read these lessons, running through every page of these mournful annals, is bHnd. I am not speaking, let it be noted, of the magis- tracy of the land. I meddle not with the high ques- tions which the suppression of the rebellion may force upon the attention of the government. What justice may demand at the hands of our rulers; what mercy may claim; what a sound policy may dictate, — these are points which I am content to leave where the Constitution and laws have lodged them. My business as an unworthy minister of the Gospel, is not with the government, but with individuals; and not, primarily, with the world, but with the Church. I speak of what concerns Christian men in their private capacity, when I say that it behooves them to repress in themselves and discountenance in others all malevolent feelings. Let us not mar the truth and purity of our thanksgivings to God, by blending with them imprecations upon our misguided country- THE PEACE-MAKERS. 29 men. Have they not plucked down upon themselves a ruin so awful that even in the ends of the earth every one's ears that hears of it shall tingled Is not the whole South a desolation 1 "A voice of waiUng is heard : ' How are we spoiled ! we are greatly con- founded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets !' " " All her beauty is departed : her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength, before the pursuer All her people sigh; they seek bread: they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me : He hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword I called for my lovers, but they deceived me Behold, O Lord, fori am in distress: my bowels are troubled: mine heart is turned within me ; for I have griev- ously rebelled : abroad the sword bereaveth : at home there is as death." This is the picture presented by that once beauti- ful land to-day. Superadded to poverty and want 30 THE PEACE-MAKERS and exile and wounds, their cities in ashes and their homesteads blighted, there can be scarcely a house where there is not " one dead," nor a heart that is not filled with anguish. Is not this enough 1 Can you still talk of vengeance '? Is it for the blood-bought Church to pray that these sufferers may be denied the mercy of her Lord? Be it rather her grateful office to emulate His pity; to seek out and reclaim these wanderers; to heal these fatal antipathies. The field is white to the harvest. Even here at the North the sweet charity of the gospel has been trod- den under foot. Among all sects and parties truth, candor, and Christian kindness, have been often sacri- ficed to prejudice and intolerance. Relentless passion has sundered the sacred bonds of brotherhood, and divided friends, families, and churches. The call is urgent. Let the Peace-makers go about their work. There is not one of them who may not do something either North or South, to rectify hurtful misappre- hensions, to moderate harsh judgments, to check ebullitions of rancor, to extinguish animosities, to fan the lingering spark of kindness, to encourage friendly offices towards the erring, and to difi'use the healing influence of the Gospel. Here is what our poor bleeding country needs, the sure and stable peace which flows from the cross. " Christ is our Peace." He must bestow it, or we may despair of \ THE PEACE-MAKERS. 31 seeing it. But if He speak the word ; if he simply breathe into the hearts of his professing people his own meek and lowly temper, and send them forth through the land to be Peace-makers in deed as well as in name ; we may hope, that love will achieve yet one more triumph over hate, and merge even these bitter national enmities in a sacred and lasting concord. For those who engage in this heaven-born work, there is a "blessing" provided, the grandeur of which no tongue may describe. " Blessed are the Peace- makers; for they shall be called the children of God." Blessed — for the temper that animates them carries a blessing with it which is sweeter than the plaudits of an admiring world. Blessed — for God is the Great Peace-maker; and this Spirit, which no one inherits but from Him, proves them to be His "children." Blessed — because, "if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ !" Here is a domain as wide as the universe — as lasting as eternity. It belongs to the Peace- makers. Choose ye, whether ye will have part in it. THE PEACE AVE NEED, AND HOW TO SECURE IT. A SERMON PREACHED IN THE TE^fTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, ON THE DAY OF NATIONAL HUMILIATION, JUNE 1, 18G5. HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D. D. PHILADELPHIA: JAMES S. CLAXTON, SUCCESSOR TO WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, No. 60G Chestnut Street. 1865. PHitADELPHiA, June 2, 1865. To the Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D.D., Pastor Tenth Presbyterian Church. Rev. and Dear Sir — Feeling assured that much good would result from a dissemination of the sentiments contained in your sermon delivered June 1st, the day set apart as one of " Humiliation and Prayer" by the President, we respectfully request that you furnish a eopy for publication. Truly your friends, ISAAC R. SMITH, JAMES THOMPSON, THOMAS A. SCOTT, D. HAYES AGNEW, ' JOHN STEWART, E. P. BORDEN, A. LODDON SNOWDEN, J. B. ROSS. JOHN DICKSON, JAMES SCHOTT, BENJ. MARSHALL, J. SHIPLEY NEWLIN, H. W. PITKIN. Philadelphia, June 5, 1865. Gentlemen — My sermon of Thursday, was the proper and promised sequel to that on the " Peace- Makers,'^ published a week or two ago. It gratifies me to know that you think the sentiments of the discourse suited to the present crisis; and I cheerfully commit the manuscript to your disposal. I am, very sincerely, your friend and Pastor, HENRY A. BOARDMAN. To Isaac R. Smith, Esq., Hon. James Thompson, and others. THE PEACE ¥E NEED Ephesians ii. 14. FOR HE IS OUR PEACE WHO HATH MADE BOTH ONE, AND HATH BROKEX DOWN THE MIDDLE WALL OF PARTITION BETWEEN US. What can we do for our country'? This question lies upon every heart. And the feeling will be, that no day could be more suitable for the consideration of it than the present. We are called, it is true, to mourning; summoned, in the fitting words of our President, " to humble ourselves before Almighty God," and to pray that our recent "bereavement may be sanctified to the nation." Of the greatness of this bereavement; of the character and services of our departed Chief Magistrate; of the inscrutable purpose of that Providence which permitted him to die, and that by an assassin's hand, at the very mo- ment when the rebellion was tottering to its fall, and all his powers were absorbed in devising wise and generous plans for the early pacification of the coun- try; of these and their kindred topics, I have already b THE PEACE WE NEED. spoken to you. They have been the theme of three formal religious services in this house: and nothing has been omitted which could testify our mutual respect for the memory of the dead; and our pro- found sense of the solemnity with which God is addressing us in this awful and mysterious visita- tion. It will be quite in keeping with the spirit of these past observances, if we dedicate this day to the cause in which Mr. Lincoln sacrificed his life. From the hour Richmond fell, to the evening of his foul murder, the one thought which engrossed his mind, was, " How can we best secure a just and stable peace"?" It appears to me that we can pay no better tribute to his memory, than by taking up this question, or its fair equivalent, " What can we do for our country"?" and carefully weighing it in its bearing upon our personal duty. The country will need the help of all its faithful \ do affectionately invite those who agree in these views, to meet at the church of the Rev. Mr. Kennaday, Eighth street above Race, on Tuesday afternoon next, the 8th inst. for the purpose of consulting together upon the expediency of forming a Protestant Association, and if the way shall be found prepared, proceeding to its organization : — Philadelphia, Nov. 2.1842. Rev. C. C. Cutler, D.D. Rev. H. A. Boardmax, John Chambers. C. C. Cutler, D.D. Stephen H. Tyng, D.D. JoH^ McDowell, D.D. C. C, Yanarsdale. J. Kennaday, E. Neville, T. J. Thompson, Joseph H. Kennard, John B. Dales, D. L. Carroll, D.D. William W. Spear. Richard Xev.ton. S. B. Wyi.if. D.D. S. W. Crawford. Joel Parker, D.D. A. D. Gillette, Joseph T. Cooper. George B. Ide. T.HE0PHILVS Stork, James M. Willson. Thomas H. Stockton, Henry A. Shcltz. Samiel Agnew. Joseph A. Davidson. Beside the clergymen whose names were affixed to this invita- tion there were present at this meeting the following ministers from the various denominations whose titles are annexed. Presbyterian Church (New School or Constitutional.) — Rev. Messrs. Patton, Rood, Adair, Fairchild, Converse, Ramsey, and Brown. Baptist Church. — Rev. Messrs. Burrows, Aldrich and Dodge. Methodist Episcopal Church. — Rev. Messrs. Onins, Smith, Higgins, Wiggins, Atwood, Woolson, Hagany, Coombe and Sorin. Presbyterian Church (Old School.) — Rev. Messrs. Williamson, Janeway, Lord, Hoge, Loughridge, Grier and Harned. dissociate Presbyterian Church. — Rev. Mr. Webster. Protestant Episcopal Church.— Rev. Messrs. Allen, Hooker, Quinan, Suddards, and Hirst. German Reformed Church. — Rev. Messrs. Berg and Osborne. Congregational Church. — Rev. Mr. Colton. The Rev. C. C. Cuyler D. D. of the Presbyterian Church was appointed Chairman, and the Rev. W. W. Spear of the Protestant Episcopal Church was appointed Secretary — and the meeting was opened by prayer. After a general expression of sentiment, by the clergy present, in which there was great unanimity of judgment and feeling, and an universal attestation of their sense of the importance of united action for the protection and defence of the rights and prinf^iples which distinguish tlie Protestant Churches of this coun- try, from the threatening assaults of Romanism, — it was unanimously Resolved that it is expedient now to form a Protestant Association, and that a committee of one from each denomination represented in tins meeting, be appointed to prepare a Constitution for such an Asso- ciation : — The Rev. Drs. Cuyler, Tyng, Wylie, Carroll, and Rev. Messrs. Kennaday, Vanarsdale, Stockton, Ide, Berg, Willson, Dales, Webster, and Chambers were appointed this Committee. After prayer the meeting was then adjourned to Nov. 22d. Adjourned meetings of clergymen for the same object were held Tuesday Nov 22, and December -lih. There were present in addi- tion to the clergymen before recorded, the following : — Baptist Church. — Rev. Messrs. Smith, Covell, Winter, Wil- liamrs and f^arcombes. Presbyterian (Old School.) — Rev. Messrs. Macklin, Hope, Stewart, Tudehope and Neill. Protestant Episcopal, — Rev. Messrs. Van Pelt, Trapnell and Ridgely. Methodist Episcopal, — Rev, Messrs. Ashton, Crouch, Gilroy, Merrill, Elliott, McFarlnnd, Greenbank. The Committee appointed to prepare a Constitution presented theit report, and a Constitution, which after much consideration, was adopted, and the AMERICAN PROTESTANT ASSOCIA- TION was duly organized, by the members present signing the following Constitution. Constitution* Whereas, we believe the system of Popery to be, in its principles and tendency, subversive of civil and religious liberty, and destructive to the spiritual wel- fare of men, we unite for the purpose of defending our Protestant interests against the great exertions now making to propagate that system in the United States; and adopt the following constitution : — Article I. This society shall be called the AMERICAN PRO- TESTANT ASSOCIATION. Article II. The objects of its formation, and for the attainment of which its efforts shall be directed, are — 1. The union and encouragement • Piotestant ministers' of the gospel, to irive to iheir sever„l congregations instruction on the differences between Protestantism and Popery. 2. To call attention n the necessity of a mote extensive distri- bution, and thorough study of the Holy Scriptures. 3. The circulation of books and tracts adapted to give informa- tion on the various errors of Popery in their history, tendency, and design. 4. 'I • awaken the attention of the community to the dangers which threaten the liberties, and the public and domestic institu- tions, of these United States from the assaults of Romanism. ^ Ahticle III. This Association shall be composed of all such per- sons as agree in adopting the purposes and principles of this con- stitution, and contribute to the funds by which it i? supported. Article IV. The officers of the Association shall be a President, three Vice PresidenL«, a treasurer, a corresponding secretary, a recording secretary, and two lay director* from each dciamina- 8 tion represented in the Association, to be elected annually ; to- gether with all the ministers belonging to it; who shall form a Board for the transaction of business of whom any seven, at a meeting duly convened, shall be a quorum. The stated meetings of the Board to be quarterly. Article V. The Board of managers shall, at the first meeting after their election, appoint an executive committee, consisting of a minister and layman from each of the denominations represented in the association, of which the secretaries and treasurer shall be ex-officio members. This committee to meet as often as they may find necessary for the transaction of the business committed to them, and to report quarterly to the Board of managers. Article VI. The duties of the Board shall be, to carry out, in every way most expedient in their view, the ends and purposes for which this Association is organized ; and to aid and encourage the formation of similar associations in the various parts of the United States ; and to render an annual report of their proceed- ings to the Association, at their annual meeting on the second Tuesday in November. x\rticle VII. The Board of managers shall have power to enact such by-laws as may not be inconsistent with this constitution, and to fill all vacancies that may occur between the annual meetings. Article VIII. This constitution shall be subject to amendments only at the annual meetings of the Association, by a vote of two thirds of the members present at such meeting. Rev. S. H. Tyng, D.D. Rev. H. A. Boardman. " C. C. Culler, D.D. " A. D. Gillette, " D. L. Carroll, D.D. " Kichard Newton, " J. Kennaday, ** Joseph F. Berg, " George B. Ide, " Pennell Coombe, " T. J. Thompson, *' Jacob M. Douglass, ^" William W. Spear, " J. McDowell, D.D. " John Chambers, " J. H. Kennard, •' Joseph T. Cooper, " C. Webster, " Solomon Higgins, *' William Suddards, •* Wm. a Wiggins, " John B. Dales, '' Willis Lord, '= S. B. Wylie, D.D. " Thos. L. Janeway, " Wm. H. Elliott, '* John B. Hagany, " J. H. McFarland, Rev. John D. Onins, " R. M. Greenbank, " A. TUDEHOPE, " J. A. Clark, D.D. " John B. Pinney, " M. B. Hope, , *' Pi:ter Van Pelt, - W. Neill, D.D " A. Green, D. D. " W. M. Engles,D.D. " John W. Grier, " Matthew Sorin, " W. McDowell, D.D. " Tho:\ias Hoge, *' Walter Colton, " Peter Cox, " J. L. Burrows, " J. G. Maxwell, *' S. W Cra\vford, " C. WlLLL\MSOiN, *' Thos. G. Allen, " Robert Adair, " Edward Covel, " Thos. H. Quinan, " Stephen A. Mealy, '' C. C. WlLLL\MS, " William Ramsey, '• Thos. B. Bradford, " Nathan Harned, " John Keller, " A.Helffenstein,jr. " John W. Everist, '' Ja.mes Smith, '' George Higgins, *• Joseph H. Jones, " J. W. Richards, " Samuel Aaron, " Levi Bull, " H. G. King, " E. W. Dickinson, " S. K. KcLLOCK, Rev. Anthony Atwood, " M. Hirst, " John Woolson, " J. L. Lenhart, *• John Patton, ' Herman Hooker, '* R. W. Griswold, " James Smith, " Levi Storks, " John S. Inskip, " James Y. Ashton, " John Street, " N. E. GiLROY, " Joseph Castle, " James W. Stewart, " W. Loughridge, " A. Macklin, " J.W.Yeomans,D.D. " S. Stevenson, *' T. Larcombes, '' J. B. Everts, " T. Stork, " Anson Rood, " Robert Steel, '' Wm. D. Howard, " James Neill, " Isaac R. Merrill, •' T. H. Stockton, '• Marcus E. Cross, " Truman Osborn, •• Griffith Owen, " F. Ketcham, " Wm. Latta, " J. Helffenstein, " S. D. Finckel, " Saml. Beach Jones, " John Lednum, " Valentine Gray, " C. Van Rensselaer, " F. A. Morrell, " Joseph Beldon. 2 10 The following Gentlemen were elected officers of the Association : — E. F. BACKUS, Esq. Rev. STEPHEN H. TYNG, D. D., Rev. JOHN KENNADAY, Rev. GEORGE B. IDE. CorrPS^JontTiug Srcretarp, Rev. HENRY A. BOARDMAN. Hecortrutg Srcretarp, Rev. WILLIAM W. SPEAR. STveastircr, Mb. a. H. JULIAN. Lay SAMUEL AGNEW, JOSEPH A. DAVIDSON, GEORGE W. McCLELAND, ANTHONY GREEN, FREDERICK W. PORTER, JOHN FARR, ROBERT LAMBERTON, DANIEL MURPHY, RICHARD BENSON, GEORGE STEPHENS, ROBERT HANCOCKS, WILLIAM RORER, THOMAS H. DICKSON, WM. K. HEMPHILL, EDWARD JONES, THOMAS WATSON, JOHN ALEXANDER, JOHN EVANS, A. H. BURTIS, FRANCIS MITCHELL, C. SCHRACK, WILLIAM M. HEYL, WILLIAM HINCKLE, JOHN FINN, Directors. > - Presbyterian (Old SchooL) > • Presbyterian (New School.) > - Protestant Episcopal. }■ - Associate Presbyterian. > - Methodist Episcopal. S - German Reformed. > - Associate Reformed. > - Baptist. > - Reformed Presbyterian. > - Independent. > •■ Lutheran. > Methodist Protestant. 11 At the subsequent meetings of the Board of Mana- gers at the Second Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Drs. Tyng and Carroll, and Rev Messrs. Board man, Kennaday, Gillette, Willson, Webster and Berg, were appointed a Committee to prepare an Address to be printed and distributed as the Address of the American Protestant Association, giving a view of the nature and objects of this Association and the reasons which have led to its organization. This Committee reported an Address which was adopted by the Board, and referred to the same Com- mittee to be printed. This Committee were also directed to prefix to the Address, the Constitution of the Association, and such extracts from the minutes of the Association and of the Board of Managers, as they might deem necessary. The above extracts are printed according to this direction. ADDRESS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE AMERICAN PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION. The Board of Managers of the American Protestant Association, deem it proper, in submitting their Con- stitution to the consideration of their fellow citizens, to lay before them a brief exposition of the reasons which have led to this organization and of the prin- ciples on which it is to be conducted. These will be partially understood by a reference to the objects for which the Association has been formed, as set forth in the Second Article of the Constitution. That Article is as follows : — " The objects of its formation and for the attain- ment of which its efforts shall be directed, are, 1. The union and encouragement of Protestant Ministers of the Gospel, to give to their several con- gregations, instruction on the differences between Protestantism and Popery. 2. To call attention to the necessity of a more extensive distribution and thorough study of the Holy Scriptures. 3. The circulation of books and tracts adapted to 13- give information on tlie various errors of Popery, in their history, tendency, and design. 4. To awaken the attention of the community to the dangers which threaten the liberties, and the public and domestic Institutions, of these United States, from the assaults of Romanism." It will be seen from this article, that the Associa- tion we represent, has grown out of a conviction that our civil and religious institutions are exposed to serious danger from the secret and open assaults of Popery. AVe are avv-are that, in avowing this conviction, we may find little or no sympathy among a portion of our Protestant population. The great numerical disparity between Protestants and Romanists in our country, and the general intelli- gence of our citizens, furnish us, in their view, with an adequate defence against all exertions that may be made to propagate the errors of Popery in the United States. It is the prevalence of this feeling, or rather this want of feeling, among Protestants, which chiefly excites our apprehensions. We too believe that the Popery of this country is as yet a perfectly manage- able thing. We should think as meanly of Protes- tantism as the Roman Catholics themselves do, if we questioned the plenary ability of the Protestants of this Union by moral means alone, (for all other means, in such a controversy, we abhor,) to keep Popery within narrow limits and counteract its pernicious influences. But while misapprehension, apathy, and false sympathy prevail to so great an extent among Protestants, we are free to confess that, we look with deep solicitude upon the extraordinary efforts now making by the Papal Hierarchy to obtain a firm footinor in this country. 14 Addressing, as we are, a Protestant population who have free access to the Bible and who reverence its authority, we may be permitted to remind you, that the ground on v.'hich the glorious Reformation was undertaken and achieved, was, that Popery was the great Antichrist so minutely delineated in the prophecies of Daniel, in several of the Epistles, and in the Book of Revelation ; and that this view has been not only adopted by the great body of Protes- tant Commentators and Divines, but incorporated in the Creeds and Confessions of nearly all the Reformed Churches.* We may further remind you that, ac- cording to the " sure word of prophecy," this Anti- christian power, after suffering a temporary depres- sion, (as Romanism has done since the 16th century,) is, in the * last days,' to gather up its waning strength, and, allying itself perhaps with civil despotism, to make a final onset upon Christianity — an onset surpas- sing in fury and malignity all its previous assaults, and to be attended with signal though short-lived success. With these prophecies before you, we would ask you whether there is nothing ominous of evil in the recent movements of the Church of Rome. Just as Protestants were beginning to merge their hatred of * Among the distinguished writers who have maintained the identity of Papal Rome with Antichrist, may be mentioned, in addition to all the continental and British Reformers, the names of Mede, Sir Isaac New- ton, Brightman, Cressener, Whiston, Bishops Newton and Hurd, Wil- liam Lowth, Dr. H. More, Daubuz, Jurieu, Vitringa, Pyle, Dr. S. Clarke, Dr. A Clark, and the late Bishop White. Of the Churches which have borne the same testimony in their authorized doctrinal standards, it will be sufficient to mention, the Lutheran Church, the Church of England, and its daughter the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, the Church of Ireland, the Baptist Church, the Reformed Church of Holland and Germany, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the various branches of the Presbyterian Church in Europe and America. 16 her crimes in a feeling of pity for her decrepitude, that Church has thrown off her torpor and become re-irapregnated with the energy and ambition of her earUer days. This renovation of her decaying pow- ers is probably to be ascribed, in no small degree, to the efforts of the Jesuits. This Order was originally established to oppose the Reformation. Its principles have an adequate exposition in the fact that the name of Jesuit, (notwithstanding the pains taken of late by some nominal Protestants to make it reputable,) is every where a synonym e with falsehood, chicanery and covert crime. The Order became so powerful during the last century and so dangerous to the peace of Europe, that it was expelled successively from England, Venice, Portugal, France, Spain and Sicily, and was at length, through the influence of Catholic Governments, abolished and suppressed by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773. But it was restored twenty- eight years ago, by Pius VII., for the purpose of makinor afrorressive movements agrainst Protestantism. Many of the priests, it may be added, in this country, are known to be of this fraternity, and they have several institutions here for training Jesuits.* — What- ever truth there may be in the conjecture that the revival of Popery is to be ascribed mainly to this Order the fact that Popery is reviving, is indisputable. We see it in heathen and semi-Christian lands. In Syria, in Persia, in Hindostan, on the coast of Africa, in the Sandwich Islands, and in other countries to which Christian Missionaries have gone to dispense the bread of life to the perishing, they are already tracked by Popish emissaries who are as busily scat- * See Appendix, Note A, 16 tering the seeds of death. We see it still more de- cisively in Protestant Europe. The Protestantism of the continent is of late assailed by the union of the power of Popery with anomalous and formidable com- binations of errorists ; and its rapid spread in England and Scotland, has excited a general feeling of appre- hension among the most intelligent classes of the British people. These movements in the other hemis- phere must operate powerfully here. Our connection with the British Isles especially is so intimate, that no great political or ecclesiastical changes can take place there, without being sensibly felt by our country. But the Papal See puts too high an estimate upon this country, to trust the effiicacy of mere sympathy for its subjugation. Its demonstrations are of too decisive a character, and on too grand a scale, to leave us in any doubt as to its ultimate designs. We do not indeed assent to the doctrine that our duty in this matter as American citizens, and Pro- testants, is suspended upon the right or wrong reso- lution of the question whether Popery is destined to acquire an ultimate domination in this country. Regarding it as a system which is proved by its own avowed principles, by the whole tenor of history, and by the present state of all Ptoman Catholic countries, to be ' subversive of civil and religious liberty, and destructive to the spiritual welfare of men,' we are not disposed to waive opposition to it until we are able to demonstrate its probable triumph over our free institutions. Whatever is to be the final issue of this contest, we feel called upon by what we see already, to unite for the purpose of defending from its insidious assaults, the rich inheritance of liberty and truth which by the mercy of God we have 17 received from our fathers. We see, for example, as the acknowledored leaders of the Roman Church in the United States, a large and increasing body of ecclesiastics, mostly foreigners, who have no ties of birth or blood to attach ti^m to our soil and whose Bishops are bound bv their oath of office to " defend and keep the Roman Papacy and the royalties of St. Peter ^ against all men.'** We see these ecclesi- astics attempting to drive the Holv Scriptures from our systems of public education : — and urging argu- ments (we may add) for the attainment of this object, which assume that there are fundamental and irre- ayicilabk differences between their principles and those on which our social and political institutions repose. We see them boasting that they hold the balance of political power, and, as often as their own ends are to be subserved by it, banding together their deluded followers, and exhibiting the serious and alarming character of an avowed religious party in politics — a party governed by a foreign head, g^uided by priests, the greater part of whom are not naturali- zed citizens, and impelled by sympathies at war with our republican institutions. We see the sfecular press, with a few honourable exceptions, abstaining from any censure of these bold and threatening move- ments, and frequently, in communities four fifths of which are Protestants, paying a paramount deference to the sentiments and wishes of Romanists, and lend- ing its influence in an incidental but powerful way, to the support of Popery. We see Popish Chapels multiplying throughout the Middle and Western States, and, not unfrequentlv, relying upon nominal Protestants to fill them. We see their Colleges and * S^ Appendix, Note B. IS Seminaries springing up in every part of the valley of the Mississippi, and sustained mainly by Protes- tant families. We see a powerful Association the "Leopold Foundation" organized in Austria, under the patronage of Prince Metternich, a prime friend of despotism and Popery, for the purpose of propa- gating Romanism in this country: and a similar society at Lyons sending here for the same object during the last year, the sum of 177.000 dollars. And now we see a gigantic scheme set on foot in Great Britain for disseminating Popery here by plan- ting large colonies of Papists in our Western States — a scheme whose inherent impracticability does not make it less significant of the designs which are entertained concerning that Valley at Rome. These things and many othere of a similar charac- ter convince us, that if there be any one thing certain about this revival of Popery, it is that the church of Rome has determined to spare no effort or expense for the purpose of securing a controlling influence in the Valley of the Mississippi, and thereby, a political predominance in the country at large, and an expan- sion of her power and influence which would be felt throughout the world. And yet the body of our Protestant population, whether through ignorance^ self-security, or whatever cause, remain indifferent to this subject. While Romanism is establishing its proselyting schools throughout the land, to pervert the tender minds of our youth ; and directing its efforts- to destroy the religious character and influence of public Protestant education; and organizing itself under a foreign priesthood, for direct interference with our political elections ; and publishing and circulating the most opprobrious assaults upon the doctrines of 19 our Protestant faith; and segregating its adherents into a distinct body, alien in sympathy and interest from the mass of the American people; a large portion of our Protestant citizens, who might with ease arrest the progress of these evils, seem un- willing even to be apprized of their existence, and instead of opposing them, actually contribute of their funds to maintain Popish churches, Asylums,* and Seminaries, and commit their children to the tutelage of Popish priests and nuns. It is this fact — this insensibility of Protestants — which more than any thing else, has awakened our anxiety and created the necessity for an Association like that with which we are connected. We are aware that some Protestants plead as an apology for their apathy that Popery has undergone material changes and is no longer the foe to human liberty and happiness that it once was. If all that is meant by the sentiment that Popery has changed, is, that the Romanism of the United States differs in its outward aspect from the Roman- ism of Spain, South America, and the West Indies, this is readily admitted. The time has not yet arrived in this country, when the public sentiment will tolerate hordes of mendicant priests living in open and shameless profligacy, or when American citizens will peaceably submit to be run through with the bayonets of a mercenary soldiery, for refusing to * The secular pap&rs frequently appeal to their readers to aid in supporting Roman Catholic Orphan Asylums. An orphan is an object of sympathy to every feeling heart: but are we really doing these helpless children a kindness, by assisting to train them up in the errors of Popery T and are not these very children to be hereafter employed as priests and nuns in dissemiaating Romanism 1 20 do homage to the procession of the host as it passes along their crowded thoroughfares. The system must be evolved slowly — as the country will bear it. But if it is meant that Popery has really modified its doctrines, lowered its pretensions, or become human- ized in its spirit, the opinion has no adequate found- ation. We might expose its fallacy by referring to the boast of Popery that it is 'infallible,' and there- fore unchangeable — by pointing to the condition of all thoroughly Papal countries — or by quoting the testimony of a really infallible witness, (see 2 Thess. ii, 8. and Rev. 18.) that the Church of Rome is neoer to be reformed, but is ultimately to be destroyed by the judgments of heaven. But we must be allowed to remind you, that not- withstandincT the modest oruise which that church puts on, in this and other Protestant countries, no evidence whatever has been produced, emanating froin the Papal See that it has abated its pretensions or laid aside its persecuting tenets. We are not satisfied with the disclaimers of Roman Cathohc laymen or the denials of Romish priests. We insist upon a renunciation from the only authority in the church which has the right to make one. We demand that the same power which enjoined the persecutions of former days, shall express its dissap- proval of them, and repudiate the pretended right to persecute for opinion's sake. When proof of this sort is produced, we may listen to the suggestion that Popery has put off its intolerance. — We do not, however, rest here. We have a witness at hand who will be deemed both competent and credible as to the point under consideration. This witness is Gregory XVI. the reigning Pope; and the 21 document from which we quote is his famous Encyc- lical Letter of August 15th, 1832.* " From that polluted fountain of indifference flows that absurd and erroneous doctrine, or rather raving, in favor and in defence of ' liberty of conscience^ for which most jpestilential error, the course is opened by that entire and wild liberty of opinion which is everywhere attempting the overthrow of civil and religious institutions; and which the unblushing impudence of some, has held forth as an advantage of reliorion. ******* From hence arise these revolutions in the minds of men, hence, this aggravated corruption of youth, hence this contempt among the people of sacred things, and of the most holy institutions and laws; hence, in one word, that j^e^^ of all others most to be dreaded in a State, unbridled liberty of opinion.'^ Again : " Hither tends that worst and never sufficiently to be execrated and detested liberty of the press, for the diffusion of all manner of writings, which some so loudly contend for and so actively promote." And again : " Nor can we augur more consoling consequences to religion and to government, from the zeal of some to separate the church from the state, and to burst the bond which unites the priesthood to the Empire. For it is clear that this union is dreaded by the profane lovers of liberty, only because it has never failed to confer prosperity on both." To this testimony, we append the following extracts from the theology of Peter Dens, a book which is * This Letter was published at the time in the Roman Catholic papers in this country. 22 used in the R. C. College at Maynooth, Ireland.* An edition of this work has been published at Mechlin, in the Netherlands, as recently as the year 1838. It is there distinctly asserted that : — " Baptised Infidels, such as heretics and apostates usually are, also baptized schismatics, may he com- pelled even by corporeal punishmerits to return to the Catholic faith, and the unity of the Church. " The reason is, because these by baptism have be- come subject to the Church, and therefore, the Church has jurisdiction over them, and the power of compel- ling them through appointed means to obedience, and to fulfil the obligations contracted in baptism." Again it is said by the same author : — " The rites of other Infidels, viz : pagans and heretics, in themselves considered, are not to be tolerated : because they are so bad that no truth or advantage for the good of the Church can be thence derived. Except, however, unless greater evils would follow or greater benefits be hindered." After stating that heretics are deservedly visited with penalties of exile, imprisonment, &c. this author asks : " Are heretics rightly punished with death V " St. Thomas answers (2. 2. quest. XI., art. 3., in Corp.) Yes^ because forgers of money or other dis- turbers of the state, are justly punished with death; therefore also heretics, who are forgers of the faith, and, as experience shows, grievously disturb the state, "t * The Institution in which most of the Romish priests, who come to this country, are educated. I See Synopsis of Dens' Moral Theology; Philad., Ed., 1842, pps. 107,114,117. 23 Here is documentary evidence of the highest kind to show that Popery is unchanged, to prove that the Popery of the 19th century and the Popery of the 16th are the same. We have it affirmed by a stand- ard authority in the Romish Church, that it is right TO PUT HERETICS TO DEATH. And we havc it offi- cially promulgated by the present Pope, that LI- BERTY OF CONSCIENCE, LIBERTY OF OPINION, the LIBERTY OF THE PRESS, and the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, are four of the sorest evils with which a nation can be cursed ! Both as Protestants and as American citi- zens, we count the rights which are here assailed as among our dearest franchises : and we cannot look on in silence and see the craft and power of Rome systematically and insidiously employed to subvert them. We deplore the necessity which calls for the measure; but believing as we do that patriotism and Christianity demand it, we have united, and we invite all who love our institutions to unite with us in repelling the aggressions of the Papal Hierarchy. Our contest is not with the Roman Catholics as individuals. We would not, if we could, abridge their rights and privileges in the slightest degree. We abhor persecution for opinion's sake under every form, and we recognise their right to the same free- dom of thought and action that we claim for ourselves. We leave it to the Pope to denounce ' Hberty of opinion," ' liberty of conscience,' and the ' liberty of the press,' as hostile to human happiness and dange- rous to the welfare of States. It is because the system is thus, by the accredited exposition of its * infallible' Head, at war with our most sacred rights «4 and interests, that we feel bound to oppose it. What- ever virtues may adorn the characters of individuals in that Sect, we appeal to the whole history of the Romish Church, in proof of the position, that the principles assumed in the recent Encyclical Letter have been actually carried out wherever Rome has had the power to enforce them. So, that in resisting the efforts now making to establish this system among us, we are influenced by no love of con- troversy, by no personal antipathies, by no sec- tarian or party ends, but by a grave and imperative sense of duty to our country, to posterity, and to God. We have no doubt that efforts will be made to excite popular prejudice against this movement. We are prepared to hear it alleged by Romanists and Pseudo- Protestants, that the " American Protestant As^cia- tion' ' is an ungenerous combination of the many against the few — that, possessing the numbers and the power, we are attempting to interfere with the Roman Catholics in the exercise of thdft* secular and ecclesi- astical rights : — and we very well know that Popery will grow apace, if it can get the American people to believe that it is " persecuted." Reiterating the sentiment that persecution is as much at variance with all our Protestant and American feelings as it is coincident with the genius and spirit of Popery, we respectfully remind our countrymen that it is opposition to Popery, which has secured to them an open Bible and the privilege of confessing their sins to God instead of a priest. We remind them that opposition to Popery has created the difference between our free, happy, and prosperous Republic, and the States of South America, which seem 26 doomed lo perpetual anarchy and depression. We remind them that opposition to Poperj has oriven to Europe all that she enjoys of civil and religious liberty : that the progress of the Arts and Scien- ces, the mitigation of social evils, the diffusion of knowledge, the right understanding and observance of the reciprocal duties of princes and subjectvS, magistrates and people, and the improvemeni of mankind in rational and social happiness, have for the last three centuries, gone hand in hand with opposition to Popery : and that just in proportion as the opposition to Popery has been relaxed in any Protestant country, superstition and infidelity have increased, vice has abounded, ignorance and discon- tent have prevailed among the people, and every great national interest has deteriorated. If confirmation of these statements be required, we have it in the present relative condition of the principal Protestant and Roman Catholic countries. Compare Italy with Prussia : compare Spain with England : compare Mexico and the South American Republics with the United States. The superiority of the Protestant countries is known and read of all men. To what is it owing? Not lo physical causes certainly : for in these the Roman Catholic countries have the advantage. Look at Spain, for example — luxuriant, beautiful Spain, with her vine-clad hills and her genial climate, the very garden of Europe. There was a time (under the Moorish dynasty, and immediately after its downfall) when her name was a tower of strength among the nations: now, the de- crepitude of a premature dotage is upon her, and with the little strength that remains to her, she is tearing out her own vitals. What has turned this 26 Eden into an Aceldama? What has made that once noble race, to such an extent, a nation of sensualists and gladiators ? What has spread the pall of death over all that was lovel)^ and generous, and refined, in that land of song? The answer may be given in one word, Popery. Popery persecuted the Reformation out of Spain, as it did out of Italy. It summoned to its aid the chains and dungeons, the racks and. faggots of the Inquisition, and, with fiendish fury, drove it from her soil. The martyr-blood which was then shed, has not yet ceased to cry to heaven for vengeance. Spain permitted Popery to rob her of the pure Christianity which was offered her; and God gave her up to serve the master she had chosen. There, for three hundred years he has swayed an undisputed sceptre. And the result is before us. In climate and soil, Spain is I'.nchanged ; for these it was beyond the spoiler's power to blast. Kverij thing else lie has blighted and cursed, — every thing in her morals, every thing in her thrift and industry, every thing in her literature, every thing in her laws, — his curse is in her cities and in her hamlets, in her cottages and in her palaces, — indeed, it might be supposed by one ignorant of her history, that Spain, instead of being the most loyal of all lands to the Papal See, was peopled with arch- heretics, for whose impieties all the cunses of the " greater excommunication" had been descending . npon her for three centuries. And the history of Spain is the history of all other Papal lands. Ignorance and superstition, social degradation and political op- pression, follow in the train of Popery as naturally as death follows the plague. The nation which sur- renders itself to its control, is a doomed nation. Its embrace is like the embrace of that celebrated imajre 27 of the Virgin, in the Inquisition, which clasped the wretched victim in its arms, and, folding him to its breast, transfixed him with a thousand nails at once. AVe might rest the argument here, and ask our fellow-citizens whether we are not justifiable in op- posing a system, in its hostile attempts upon our countr}^, \vhich has uniformly produced such fruits as these. But we are willing to argue the question further, and we be"^ them candidly to weigrh the fol- lowing considerations. 1. The Church of Rome is a state as well as a Church. The Pope, who impiously styles himself the " Vicar of Jesus Christ,'" claims both temporal and spiritual jurisdiction over the whole earth. In proof of this we shall cite three witnesses out of a muhitude who stand ready to confirm it. One of these is Pope Sixtus V. His Bull against Henry King of Navarre, and the Prince of Conde, begins thus : " The authority given to St. Peter and his successors, by the immense power of the Eternal King, excels all the jioivers of earthly kings and princes — it passes uncontrollable sentence on them all — and if it finds any of them resisting God's ordinance, it takes more severe vengeance of them, casting them down from their thrones, though never so puissant, and tumbhng them down to the lowest parts of the earth, as the ministers of a.spiring Lucifer." And then he proceeds — '- We deprive them and their posterity for ever of their dominions and lingdoms.''^ Our second witness shall be Pope Pius V. In his Bull against Queen Elizabeth, in which he pretends to absolve all her nobles and subjects from their allegiance to her, he affirms that God has constituted the 1 voman Pontiff, " Prince over all nations and all 28 kingdoms, that he might pluck up, destroy, dissipate, ruinate, plant, and build." Our third witness shall bo Pope Boniface VIIL There is a decree of his in the canon law running- thus : " We declare, say, detine, pronounce it to be of necessity to salcation, for every human creature to be sahject to the Raman Pontiffr-^ We have here three Popes affirming it as the doctrine of the Papal Hierarchy, that the Roman Pontiff is ihe lawful temporal sovereign of all kingdoms and nations. And that this pretension is not a mere flourish of words, is proved by the whole history of Popery down to the period at which it was deprived of its usurped dominion over the European States. 2. The general circulation of the Bible and jwpular education, are regarded by all true-hearted American citizens, as essential to the preservation of our insti- tutions : — to both of these, Popery is opposed. The 4th Rule of the Congregation of the Index, directs^ that no Catholic shall own, circulate, or read, the Holy Scriptures without permission (in writing) from a bishop or inquisitor. This mle may be practically slighted by many of that sect in this country ; but it has nearly expelled the Bible from all Popish coun- tries. As to popular education, the priesthood may find it expedient to refrain from opposing it in a coun- try like ours where the people rvill have schools. But the true spirit and tendency of the system njay be Scjen in the deplorable ignorance which prevails * See the aiilhoriiies for these quotations, in Barrow's Treatise, (introductory cha|iier) where the reader will find twenty or thirty pajjes of similar e\iracis from the decrees of Popes and the writings ot standard Romish authors. Some of these works may be found in the PliUadelphia Library. 29 among the peasantry of Italy, Spain, and .other Popish countries ; and also in the Indexes Expurga- tonj and Prohibitory of the Papal See. Can a system be otherwise than hostile to our true national inte- rests, and to the improvement of man, which prohibits the publication or reading of the works of Algernon Sydney, Addison, Lord Bacon, Chief Justice Hale, John Locke, Milton, liobertson, Cowper, Young, and others of the great names of English Literature? Such are the writers who have the honor to be reikis- tered in the Prohibitory index of Rome. Are the American people prepared to say that we are doing either a needless or an unchristian service, in resisting a system which, if it had the power, would preclude them from reading "Locke on the Human Under- standing," or "Paradise Lost" without permis- sion from a priest ? 3. We have already refuted the opinion that Popery has c/icmr/e^ ; and showed by the testimony of the present Pope that now, as ever, it insists upon doctrines which are subversive of the principles on which our civil and religious institutions rest. We beg leave in connexion with this tact and those stated in the two preceding paragraphs, to call your atten- tion to another prominent and startling feature of the system. The system has a Foreign Head. Its Bishops owe a paramount allegiance to the Pope. All ecclesiastical appointments, mcluding those of the Pastors of their churches, emanate directly or indirectly from Rome. And as the power of the Rom'sh priesthood over the laity is proverbially greit, it will be seen at once that the w hole body of Roman Catholics in this country may, on any given political or ecclesiastical question, be controlled and 30 guided by a secret mandate from the Vatican. It does not belong to us to show that this has been done in any case: it is enough that we show that it may be done. We maintain that it would be unwise to foster an organization in the bosom of our country, thus dependent upon a foreign head, even if the organization were of a purely relijj^ious character. But when we consider that the Pope is a temjwral as well as a spiritual sovereign ; tliat all his affinities are with the despotisms of the old world ; that he has even within the last twelve months presumed to declare the acts of one of the European Governments* "null and void ;" that he has officially denounced principles which are int(vrwoven with all our civil Constitutions; and thatthe subjection of the ecclesiastics, and, through them, of the mass of the laity, to him, is implicit and unquestioning, — when we consider these things, we cannot but wonder that the American people, who are usually so jealous of foreign interference, should look with such indifference upon the effi)rts of this formi- dable power to acquire a leading influence among them. 4. If an arofument af^ainst the " Protestant Associa- tion " is still drawn from the relatively small number of Roman Catholics in the United States, we might reply, tliat our controversy is with the system, not with the individuals who adhere to it; and that we have proved this system to be destructive in its tendency, to our civil ar^,d relis-ious riorhts : so that we are called upon as patriots and Christians, to defend our insti- tutions against it. It is an utter mistake, however, to suppose that our contest is merely vrith the Popery which vv-e see in the midst of us. The Pope has, upwards of one hundred millions of subji'cts. * Spain. 31 And so perfect is the mechanism of the comphcated system he controls, that he can with faciUty concen- trate the resources of this \ust empire, for an empire it really is, and apply them wherever they may be most needed. The six or seven hundred Romish ecclesiastics in this country, would deserve very little notice if their official coimexion with their foreign head, was severed. But they are of some importance when viewed as the agents through whom the money and infiuence of Papal Europe are to be employed for propagating Romanism here. This is the true issue: The Protestants of the United States vs. The Papal Hierarchy with its hundred millions of foreign subjects. And those who may attempt to awaken sympathy in behalf of Popery on the ground of its relative weakness in this country, are respect- fully requested to keep the real issue, as we have stated it, ia view. If the rich Roman Catholic nobles of Europe and their degraded vassals, are uniting in great associations for the purpose of proselyting this nation, are we to be censured for uniting to repel this rude interference of foreigners in our affairs? If they have a right to combine in this way, is our right to combine for the purpose of coun- tervailing their plans less indisputable ? If they have a right to send funds here to plant churches, and endow schools and colleges, and to use other means to make prosel) tes, is it less our right to tear the mask from their system, and to warn our countrymen against their insidious arts? And if they have a right to oppose the general dissemination of the Scriptures, and to make bon-fires of the word of God, who shall gainsay our right to circulate the Bible, and to admonish our fellow-citizens that all attempts to 32 abriclire its circulation, go to open the flood-t) a>t) Dear Sib : — I am instructed by the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge, to communicate to you the enclosed Resolutions, expressing their thanks to you, for your kindness in complying with their \dshes, in delivering the able and interesting discourse at the House of Refuge, on Sunday last, on the death of Dr. William Shippen ; and requesting of you a copy of your Sermon, for publication. Tour again acceding to the -wishes of the Managers, \dll be very gratifying to them. I remain, Reverend and Dear Sir, With great regard, Yours, James J. Barclay, Chairman, Board of Managers, House of Refuge. Rev. Henrt A. Boardmax, D.D. At a Stated Meeting of the Board o;' Managers of the HorsE of Refcge, held October 31, 1867, the following resolutions were adopted, viz : — Resolved, That the thanks of this Board be, and they are hereby cordi- ally tendered to the Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D.D., for the eloquent and impressive Sermon preached by him in compliance with the wishes of the Board, on Sunday afternoon, the 27th day of October, 1867, at the House of Refuge, on the death of Dr. William Shippen. Eesolted, That Dr. Boardman be, and is hereby requested, to furnish a copy of his Sermon for publication. G. M. Troutman, Assistant Secretary. 1311 Spruce Street, November 4, 1867. My Dear Sir — In reply to your friendly note and the very kind Resolutions of your Board, I have only to say, that my Sermon vras written without the slight- est reference to publication, but I cheerfully place the MS. at your dis- posal. I have ventured to retain certain paragraphs which were omitted in the delivery. I am, Dear Sir, with great respect. Very truly yours, H. A. BOARDMAN. James J. Barclay, Esq., Chairman, Sfc. SERMON. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one or the least of these my BRETHREN, YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME." — Matt. XXV. 40. This verse occurs in the most minute and graphic ac- count of the last Judgment to be found in the Scriptures. Tou will instantly recognize in it, the language addressed by our Saviour to the righteous who are standing at his right hand. After saying to them, " Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," He specifies various friendly offices which they have rendered him ; and to this they reply, " Lord, when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." It is not my purpose to dwell on the sublime transac- tion which this passage brings so vividly before us, ex- cept in one of its features. We may deduce from it some important information respecting The Scripture 6 Doctrine of Rewards ; and this, in turn, may aid us in disposing of questions of present duty. What, then, is the iwinciple on tvhich the rewards of the last day will he distributed^ On this question there is a very great diversity of opinion. The sentiment is a very common one that men are to be rewarded for their virtues, precisely as they are to be punished for their vices : that their good deeds are to be put in one scale, and their bad deeds in the other, and the balance struck between them. This theory assumes that men are by nature able to perform " good deeds," i.e., deeds that are " good " or holy in the sight of God. There are those who go even further than this, and maintain that renewed persons are able not only to keep the law of God perfectly, but to transcend its demands and perform works of supererogation — as though it were possible for a creature to exceed the re- quisitions of a law which runs in these terms, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." The Bible plainly teaches that we can do nothing to merit the Divine favor ; nothing to entitle ourselves to a reward at his hands. But what we are not able to win by our own performances, is be- stowed as a matter of grace. " The wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Death is not a gratuity : it is earned. It is our "wages," — the just desert of sin. But eternal life is a gratuity — the free and sovereign " gift of God." " Free and sovereign" as regards us, though conveyed to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Representative and Surety, for the benefit of his people, as the promised recompense of his sufferings. On the ground of his vicarious obe- dience and death, whereby the law was not only satisfied but magnified, the faith and love and sincere though im- perfect works of his followers, are accepted and even rewarded. " Ye are a holy priesthood to offer up spirit- ual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." "Whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward." While these rewards are conferred on the ground of Christ's merits and not for our works, they are gradu- ated according to our works. The joys and honors of the celestial state will bear a proportion to the attain- ments of his people in holiness, and their labors and sacrifices in the cause of Christ in this world. The same principle obtains here as in the pursuits of husbandry. " He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly ; and he which soweth bountifully, shall reap also bounti- fully." This does not import that there will be any re- deemed sinner in heaven who is not perfectly happy. But it implies that the redeemed will differ in their capacities of happiness, and that in this way some will reap a higher and more glorious reward than others. Paul and the thief on the cross will no more be on an equality in their rewards, than they were in their labors. The self-denying, working Christian will have a brighter crown than the timid, slothful minister who has barely gone the stereotype rounds of his pastorate, and been saved at length as by fire. The venerable mother in Israel who was gathered into the garner like a shock of corn fully ripe, will drink in libations from the river of life which must greatly exceed in volume (not in sweet- ness) those of the infant that barely alighted for a mo- ment on our sin-stricken sphere and then soared away to paradise. And the same difference will be made among Christians generally, according as they may have been characterized by high or low degrees of faith, humility, patience, liberality, active usefulness, and other attri- butes of the renewed nature. This diversity in the rewards of the righteous, the equity of which must be conceded by every one, will result, not exclusively from any arbitrary appointment, but from the very nature of the case. Not to go at large into this point, a hint or two may suffice to eluci- date it. Gratitude is a generous affection, the exercise of which always affords satisfaction. Among the ransomed, they will be most grateful to God, whom he redeemed from the greatest sins, and then honored as his chief instru- ments in consummating the purposes of his mercy. However offices of the kind may be disparaged or slighted now by many who call themselves Christians, all will then see that to have been employed in doing good to the souls of men, was a nobler distinction than to have enlarged the domain of science or governed an empire. With the enjoyment inseparable from the exercise of gratitude, will be associated that arising from the ascer- tained results of Christian fidelity. It is impracticable here to trace the consequences of our agency whether for good or for ill. " What we do is merely the kindling of a fire : how fiir it may burn we cannot tell, and, gene- rally speaking, our minds are but little occupied about it. Who can calculate the effects of a modest testimony borne to truth ; of an importunate prayer for its success ; of a disinterested act of self-denial ; of a willing contri- bution; of a seasonable reproof; of a wholesome counsel; of even a sigh of pity or a tear of sympathy ? Each or any of these exercises may be the means, in the Lord's hand, of producing that in the bosoms of individuals which may be communicated to their connections, and from them to theirs, to the end of time." It seems not improbable that in heaven the saints wOl be permitted to see, partially at least, the benificent results, near and remote, which have flowed from the trains of influence they set in motion. This will of course affect the rela- tive degrees or measures of their happiness. If a com- pany just rescued from shipwreck or from a burning house were introduced to a large assemblage, every bosom would throb with pleasurable emotions ; but none among the crowd would experience the joy of the individuals whose intrepidity and benevolence had, under Provi- dence, snatched them from the jaws of death. How much more intense will be the joy of those who see among the glorified spirits a multitude rescued from eter- 10 nal misery through their agency ! What spectacles will be presented to the eyes of men like Paul and John, Baxter and Edwards, Bunyan and Doddridge, as the in- fluence of their labors and writings upon the world comes to be disclosed. And how much will be added to the happiness of thousands of sincere Christians who cheer- fully contributed of their substance to the spread of the Gospel, or sought by personal exertions to benefit their fellow-creatures, when they discover what an unlooked- for amount of good is to be traced back to their unosten- tatious efforts. Parents who made it their aim to train up their children for God ; teachers who sought to instil the sentiments of true piety into the minds of their pupils ; men of business who amidst the traffickings of life were ever on the alert for opjoortunities of doing good; servants whose upright and consistent conduct diffused around them a savour of godliness : — these, and many others, will then learn with wonder, thankfulness, and joy, what manifold blessings were secured to their fel- low-creatures through their instrumentality. And every fresh revelation of this kind will of course go to augment their pure and elevated bliss. Other elements in the felicity of the redeemed might be cited in this connection, but enough has been said to show that the diversity in their rewards is not to be wholly ascribed to a sovereign decree of the Deity, but springs by a moral necessity from the laws of the human constitution. These principles respecting the rewards of the right- 11 ecus must be kept in view in examining the passage from which the text is taken. It is important to remember that the various charitable acts there attributed to the saints, are simply appealed to as manifestations of charac- ter^ not as being in themselves deserving of the high com- mendation bestowed upon them. This consideration is of the greatest moment as precluding the common and disastrous error, that offices like these have an intrinsic value which entitles them to a reward. Two points are indisputably clear: that faith without works is dead; and that although a man give all his goods to feed the poor and his body to be burned, if he have not charity, or the principle of Christian love in his heart, it will profit him nothing. This, it is evident, had been the ruling motive with the righteous who are crowned with such disting- uished honor by the Saviour. They are persons who had learned that lesson which is to be learned only in one school, that the true use of talents and time and property, is to employ them in doing good to our fellow-creatures. They had displayed that "love to the brethren" which is an essential badge of genuine discipleship. And the mainspring of all these beneficent activities so freighted with blessings to the children of want and sorrow, was love to Christ. Nothing could mark with more beauty and significancy the broad line which separates them from all the clans of bustling or tranquil philanthropists who are striving to mount to heaven by the ladder of their own charitable achievements, than their humble and graceftd response to the lofty panegyric pronounced on 12 them by the Judge. With unaffected modesty they dis- claim the services ascribed to them ; and feel that they have done nothing whatever to entitle them to a reward. This is Christianity. Here is the " mind which was in Christ," And no exposition could make it more appa- rent than does the simple narrative itself, that Christ put such honor upon these charitable offices because they were impregnated and sanctified by this spirit. If exer- tions designed for the relief of human suffering, however salutary in their results, must without this element, fail of acceptance with Him ; let it never be forgotten that with it, they are in His esteem of very great value. Possibly we may need a caution here. In our vivid impressions of the pre-eminent necessity of faith, and of efforts looking directly to the conversion and salvation of men, we may inadvertently disparage the humanities of the Gospel. We may be so much engrossed with its heavenward aspects, as to overlook its earthward aspects; so much occupied in caring for men's souls, as to be quite heedless of their bodies ; so assiduous in dealing with their sins, as to close our eyes to their misfortunes. The Bible will not sanction this one-sided religion ; this rude disruption of duties which it has joined together. Not only by specific precepts and by the imposing awards of the Judgment, but with yet greater emphasis, by the Saviour's constant example, has it magnified the minis- trations of Christian charity. It has taught us that the poor and the naked, the sick and the sorrowful, and all upon whom the weight of any crushing calamity has fal- 13 len, are his peculiar care, and, as such, have a claim upon our prompt and generous sympathy. It brands as in- adequate and hypocritical the religion which contents itself with Sundays and sacraments, with saying prayers and listening to sermons, while it leaves the famishing to clamor for bread in vain, and refuses to lift the unfortu- nate out of the dust. Permitting no one to make a "Saviour" of these kindly services, it exacts them of every man who expects to be saved, as the outgoing of his gratitude to God, the decisive proof of the vahdity of his hopes, and the evidence that he has a character fit- ted for heaven. It does more than this. It attaches to them, according to their purity and profusion, the un- fading honors of immortahty, precisely as though they were worthy of reward. It even clothes them with all the distinction and compensates them with aU the glory, which it would if they had been put forth to relieve the Saviour himself from misfortune, or to supply his per- sonal wants. " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Here is the impregnable basis upon which Christian- ity has established the claims of our common humanity. WeU knowing the selfishness of the heart — how invinci- ble our avarice and our sloth, our pride and our indifier- ence, might be to all inferior motives — the Saviour spurs us on to a career of thriftful and unwearied charity, by identifying Himself with every child of sorrow who solicits our aid. However we may slight it, the one- 14 ness between Himself and His people is with Him a blessed and unchangeable reality. It is neither a legal fiction nor a mere visible incorporation ; but an actual, veritable unity like that which makes the head and the members one person. Whatever is done for or against them, is therefore done for or against Him. He will re- sent the injuries they suffer as his own, and recompense the favor shown them as shown to Himself. It is an astonishing proof of the unbelief and the worldliness of the Church, that this principle, so distinctly propounded, so wonderful in itself, and so fruitful of motives to Christian activity, should so often be left to rust in the Gospel-armory. One of its obvious advan- tages is, that it is of universal and permanent applica- tion. Another is, that it imparts a sort of sacred dignity to duty, especially to every effort made for the relief of a fellow-creature. And a third is, its palpable superiority to all the ordinary incentives by which the demands of Christian benevolence are enforced. Here is a case of suffering. Our pity is appealed to. Our brotherly love is invoked. Our humanity is summoned to the rescue. If it be spiritual destitution that is to be relieved, we are reminded on the one hand of the temporal advantages, the social and civil blessings, which follow in the train of the Gospel; and on the other, of the worth of the soul and the appalling evils involved in its perdition. All this is well. These are not only legitimate, but very import- ant grounds of appeal ; and that must be a callous heart which can resist them. But how remotely do they ap- 15 proximate in strength and tenderness to the argument embraced in these words, — " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." "Unto Me!" "Unto Me!" Christ- ian, consider whose language this is — the incarnate Deity, " the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," your Surety, your Saviour, your all in all! He it is who tells us in words so wonderful that they over- power our weak faith, and we believe them as though we believed them not, that He regards the succor we send to that smitten one, as sent to Himself, and will so reward it at the last day. I know not whether there be any avenue to our hearts open ; but of this I am certain, that if any appeal can make its way to them, it must be this. And where this fails, as fail it sometimes will, the marvel has its only adequate solution in the fact that we do not credit what we hear. We feel that there must be an illusion in it ; that it is only by a rhetorical figure the Saviour can thus express himself; and that he is far from intending what his language literally imports. But "shall our unbelief make the truth of God of none effect?" Must the simple utterances of Christ be dealt with as vague hyperbole, merely because they embody a senti- ment too godlike in its condescension and too munificent in its generosity, to be compassed by our grovelling in- credulity? Away, my Brethren, with this scepticism. Let us not aggravate our unbelief, by the impiety of challenging the Saviour's veracity, or attempting to de- grade his benevolence to the standard of a mere earth- 16 born philanthropy. Every consideration of reverence and of duty bids us accept in its palpable import, the an- nouncement that He looks upon our alms, our labors, our prayers, upon everything we do and everything we at- tempt in his name for the spiritual or the temporal well- being of our fellow-creatures, as done for Himself. No one can fail to see that the introduction of this element puts a new aspect upon the entire subject of Christian benevolence. It invests the objects to which its efforts are directed, with a superhuman grandeur; and gives the whole weight of the Saviour's personal author- ity to every legitimate appeal addressed to our religious sympathies. We cease to be planning and toiling and contributing for the succor of our needy or afflicted fel- low-creatures. It is no longer the beggar at our door who asks to be clothed and fed; the poor family in the next lane that craves our kindness; the prisoner who en- treats us to hasten to his cell ; — ^it is Christ who invokes these ministrations of mercy. Societies of Christian women meet from week to week to make up garments for the households of faithful Missionaries aqiong our frontier settlements. Christ is there amidst those pri- vations and hardships, and it is for him they are plying their cheerful industry. You are expending time and money, and depriving yourselves in a measure of the sweet repose of the Sabbath, in order to gather the chil- dren of a neglected neighborhood into a Sunday-school, and implant in their rude minds the germs of heavenly truth. But do you see only those children there? Even 17 if you did, the culture of such a plantation were worthy of all the pains you are la}dng out upon it. How much more worthy must it seem to you, and what alacrity must it lend to your footsteps, when you hear the Saviour call- ing you to that spot, and bidding you regard every one of these uncaredfor little ones, as though it were himself. And the voices which reach us from abroad — the Mace- donian cry which is wafted across the ocean, — from the banks of the Ganges, — from the jungles of Ethiopia, — from the snows of Greenland, — from the beautiful islands of the Pacific, — are not these, each and every one of them, the same voice which ejaculated that wondrous prayer, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do !" Incredible as it may seem, the Saviour teUs us that in so far as there is suffering to be relieved, sor- row to be assuaged, wants to be supphed, or benefits of whatsoever kind to be conferred, these appeals are from Him. He it is who supplicates at our hands that bread of life which alone can nourish the famishing soul, and who will compensate all the kindness shown for his sake, even to the benighted heathen, as kindness extended to himself. For although the primary reference in the text is to His true disciples, the spirit of the passage warrants US in understanding it as embracing all sincere efforts for the good of our fellow-creatures, which are prompted by love to Christ. How this ennobles Christian philanthropy. That is a generous philosophy which teaches us to recognize in every man, especially in every suffering man, a brother. 18 But here is a philosophy which consecrates all suffering by impressing it with the Saviour's image ; which so identifies the Son of God with the children of want and wo, that He seems to dwell again in our world. He is among the throng in every idol-temple ; with every tribe of savages ; with the Chinese in their teeming cities, and the brutish Esquimaux in their ice-huts; with every widow and every orphan, with every blind person and every mute, with every mendicant who needs a crust of bread, and every child growing up to vagrancy and ruin. Christ himself is with them all — so with them, that it is less their misery than His love which appeals to our bounty. And however strong the claim a common humanity may give them upon our pity, the irresistible argument we have to deal with is, that Christ has made Himself one with them, and it is the Saviour that shed his blood for us, who asks our aid. Surely if this were believed and felt as it should be, the Church would present a very different aspect from that which it wears now. Hoav it would stimulate the zeal of Christians already active, and set to work the multitudes who from sloth and lukewarmness have de- clined all personal exertions for the benefit of others. How it would silence the complaints so often heard re- specting the frequency of applications for money, and enlarge a hundredfold the sums cast into the Lord's trea- sury. Where is the Christian professor — where is the man of the world, even — who would utter a complaint on this subject, or who would give with a penurious or 19 reluctant hand, if it were Christ himself who, year by year, and Sabbath by Sabbath, besought his assistance? Who would not feel it an honor and privilege to be per- mitted, if Christ were on earth and in trouble or peril, to contribute as often as might be and to the full extent of his ability, for his relief? Who would not make any pecuniary sacrifice, undertake any labor, encounter any danger, if the Saviour's personal situation required it ? But we have his own assurance, that this is virtually the question we have to deal with. In so far as our duty or our reward is concerned, it is identical with it. In His esteem, it is all one whether He solicit our help in person or by proxy. He will put the same honor upon you for having given a cup of cold water to one of his disciples, which He would had you given it to himself. If we are satisfied that an object has his approbation, we ought to do for it precisely what we would have done had he presented it in person. Not to dwell longer upon the import of the text, we happily have it in our power to illustrate the subject by an appropriate example. When I pronounce the name of William Shippen, I recall to the mind of every auditor one of the old historic families of Pennsylvania, the roots of which must be sought far back in our Colonial annals. It is high praise to say that this name was worthily borne by the friend we have lost. His commanding per- sonal presence might seem to be in keeping with the honored ancestral line from which he sprung, for it is 20 rarely we look upon a face and form of such noble sym- metry and grace — a fitting casket for the treasure it enshrined. Both by inheritance and by culture, Dr. Shippen's was a strong character. There was nothing neutral or indif- ferent in his constitution. His intellect, his affections, his passions, his will, all partook of the vigor and energy of his physical frame. Under no circumstances could he have been a cipher. Left to the sway of simply natu- ral agencies, such a character sometimes develops quali- ties which, in their exaggerated growth, savor of impe- riousness. But, informed and restrained by Divine grace, these very qualities exalt and dignify their pos- sessor. I reveal no secret when I say, that grace did not achieve its triumph over him without a stern conflict. But it did conquer. It led him a willing captive to the cross of Christ, and evermore made it his daily carol, — " 0 to grace how great a debtor !" This was his abiding feehng. The sense of obligation, infinite obhgation, to the mercy of God, was inwrought into his very being. No allusion could be made to it in private conversation, without turning the strong man into a little child ; and often have I seen his face suffused with tears, as he listened to the story of the love and pity of Christ from the pulpit. This was alike the case in his hours of assured hope and trust when he could look up and say with joyful confidence, " My Lord, and my God!" and in those seasons of deep despondency 21 when his profound consciousness of ill-desert overpowered his faith and filled him with painful doubts and misgiv- ings. In either condition his acute sensibilities were sure to respond to the name and passion of Jesus of Naza- reth. But the occasion does not call for any minute portrai- ture of Dr. Shippen's life and character. We are here to consider him in a single aspect only. On returning to this city to reside many years ago, he was at the matu- rity of his powers. His affluent endowments, and high social position, entitled him to choose his sphere of action. He might have gone into public life: our city would doubtless have been the gainer by it. He might have devoted his time and culture to the patronage of the Fine Ai*ts, — no unworthy mission. He might have added another unit to the crowd of educated men, who live only to enjoy themselves in the exercise of their refined tastes, and neither see nor care for anything outside of their immediate circle. He did none of these things. His leisure and accomplishments were dedicated to loftier uses. He was a Trustee of the College of New Jersey, the President of the Emlen Institution, a Vice-President of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, a Director of the Public Schools, of the Philadelphia Tract Society, of the Athenaeum, of the American Sunday-School Union, and of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, an Inspector of the County Prison, and one of the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge. Most of these positions he held at the time of his death. 22 The enumeration indicates on the one hand, the bent of his own predilections ; and, on the other, the estimate in which he was held by the very best portion of our com- munity. For, unquestionably, whatever lustre may at- tach to the name of Philadelphia, has been derived in a great measure from the Institutions just mentioned, and others of kindred character: and in the Boards which control these Associations, may be found the truest representation of the Christian intelligence, the social worth, and the genuine philanthropy of our city. It were no stinted praise to say of any, the foremost man amongst us, what we say of Dr. Shippen, that he worthily filled his place in the management of ten or twelve of these our choicest Institutions. The beneficent influence of a life thus spent, it is not our prerogative to measure. We have no powers to grasp the aggregate results which flow from the steady working of any great philanthropic organization. Much less can we so analyze the various elements combined in producing these results, as to as- sign his own specific agency to each individual actor. All we know — all that we or they care to know — is, that here is a body of Christian men who sit at the helm of one of these Institutions, and mould its character and shape its policy. To the administration of this trust they bring their several contributions — their wisdom, their energy, their prudence, their experience, — each according to his peculiar endowments : while all bestow upon it their time, their affectionate solicitude, and their prayers. Some tanci:ible fruits are sure to reward their 23 toil. But what they see, must, in any case, be very trivial as compared with what they do not see. Such an Institution is like a spring of living water in the desert. No eye (but One) can measure its flow; much less follow every sparkling drop on its noiseless mission, and seize upon all its benign effects, simple and complex, near and remote. In the end, the vast achievements wrought by these heaven-born agencies will be gathered up and disclosed to an assembled universe. And then he that sowed and he that reaped will rejoice together. Till that day comes, the faithful men who are doing this work, must be content to know, that their record is on high ; and that on every page of that Book of Remembrance it is written, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." You will have been impressed with the number and variety of these Institutions which shared in the active sympathies of our revered friend. Like every true phi- lanthropist, however, he had his favorite objects. Cher- ishing all the plants in his garden, there were two upon which he lavished his culture with a generous hand. These w^ere the '-^Refuge" and the ''^County Prison^ Herein he was peculiar. It is no discredit to any zeal- ous Christian, that he should select some other section of the broad field for his special care. But the Great Task-master will have every spot, even the roughest and thorniest, brought under tillage ; and so He sends a few willing laborers into the Prisons and Refuges. A " will- ing laborer" Dr. Shippen was. The County Prison 24 especially was to him what the forum is to the advo- cate ; the woods to the botanist ; the stars to the as- tronomer. He was drawn there by an irresistible attraction — ^not fitful and capricious, but calm, equable, and permanent. For ten years, it was very much his occupation to live among the prisoners. At all seasons and in all weathers, he would make his way to Moya- mensing, to prosecute his chosen work. And if at any time he was wanted at home, his family were at no loss where to find him. There is something deeply interesting in this aspect of his life. Here is a man born to the highest associations known to polite society, graced with affluent stores of information, and rich in the experiences of a long and honorable career, declining the repose and the genial fel- lowship proper to his position, and sitting down day after day with the unfortunate and the criminal in their cells, to instruct, to comfort, and, if it might so be, to re- claim them. His kindness often wins their confidence. He listens patiently to their tales. He admonishes them of their faults. He seeks to revive in their breasts the feeling of ill-desert ; the consciousness, not merely nor mainly, of having violated human law, but of having sin- ned against God. Still keeping this end in view, it is his joy and happiness to "preach Jesus" to them ; to tell them that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief:" and to point them to that pre- cious blood which cleanseth from all sin. Even the dull- est nature can appreci;ite the mornl sublimity of a 25 spectacle like this.^ Few earthly eyes look upon it. No plaudits cheer the veteran apostle in his lonely work. But is he, therefore, unnoticed? Can we doubt that white- robed angels sweeping by^ fold their pinions as they reach these prison cloisters, and encamp around the strange, unwonted group ? Are we not certain, that the Lord of angels is there by the side of his servant, as he stood by Mary at the sepulchre; and that his every word of sympathy and counsel and prayer, is chronicled, with the gracious comment — "Ye did it unto Me!" Here also where we stand to-day, did he find congenial toil. If these walls could speak, they would bear grate- ful testimony to the deep interest he took in this Insti- tution. His honored associates in this high trust, feel that they have lost one of their best counsellors and co- workers. Many a youth now or formerly an ininate here, will recall him as a true friend — one who blended with the authority of a ruler, the tenderness of a father; and who left no means untried to recover the erring, and, cheer the penitent in their efforts at well-doing. This union of firmness with kindness, is the radical principle upon which the system established here rests — the heart and core, indeed, of every Reformatory system worthy of the name. And Dr. Shippen understood it thoroughly. He loved these boys and girls too well, not to be solicit- ous to guard them against the opposite and perhaps co- equal dangers, of an undue severity and a misplaced indulgence. It is grateful to believe that his self-deny- 26 ing labors here were not wasted. Whatever palpable results may or may not have greeted his eyes, it is not to be supposed that a nature like his could be brought year by year into familiar and friendly contact with so many youthful minds, without producing some wholesome and ineradicable impressions. In the day of days, he will reap his harvest from the seed sown in this House OF Refuge. If in speaking of his position and attainments, I have been understood to intimate that these labors were un- worthy of his powers, nothing could be farther from my purpose. It is only when gauged by a very low earthly standard, that such a conclusion could be reached. In God's esteem, no ministry can be deemed insignificant which looks to the well-being of a single human soul. If this point might have been debateable before the Advent, our Saviour has decisively settled it, first, by spending much of his own time in healing, instructing, and con- soling poor and unknown persons ; and, secondly, by treating similar ofl&ces when performed by his disciples, as if done to Himself. I know of no better legend for the seal of this Institution, or any other of kindred aims, than the marvellous utterance with which we have been dealing, " Ye have done it unto Me!" In this brief sen- tence, Brethren, you have not only the highest possible sanction for your work, but a motive to patience and constancy which cannot fail to reanimate you under whatever discourao'ements. Nor can there be one at the 27 Council-Board of this Refuge, who will question that he is most honorably as well as most usefully employed, in giving his time and care to the temporal and spiritual well-being of these children. If the Master were amongst us in person, we cannot doubt that He would come and pronounce His benediction upon this Refuge. And no object deserving of His sympathy can be unworthy the attention and assistance of any, the most gifted, of His disciples. Such is the aspect of the subject God-ward. On its reverse side, we may confidently claim for the Boards which superintend these Institutions, the grati- tude of the community. It is too little considered what obligations society owes to the men who administer these trusts. Happy is it for us, that you are willing to add to your personal anxieties and duties, these weighty public burdens. The services you render the State in these relations, with no other fee or reward than the consciousness of following herein the footsteps of Him " who went about doing good," are above all price. Let us hope that as in the past, so in the future, these admirable Institutions may suffer neither from private rivalries nor from sectarian bigotry ; and especially that they may none of them be drawn into that mcelstroom of part?/ poli- tics, whose foul waters have slimed and wrecked so many hallowed interests sacred to education, to public virtue, and to Christian benevolence. You will not expect me to speak of Dr. Shippen in his domestic, social, and ecclesiastical relations. You will 28 long since have accorded your respectful sympathy to his bereaved children, and to her, (if the word may be par- doned) whose gentle presence, now veiled in the shadow of a great sorrow, irradiated, as with celestial beams, his whole pathway through life. It may be proper, however, for me to say in conclusion, that our friend was for just thirty years a member of the Church to which it is my privilege to minister : that he was long a teacher, and at one time the superintendent of its Sunday-school : and that he was alive to every thing connected with the pros- perity of real religion. The three long years which fol- lowed his accident, subjected his Christian graces to a fiery ordeal. Scarcely will you find in our city a man of three score and ten, so active, so energetic, so much upon his feet, as he was. For such a man to be led into a sick room to lie down upon his couch in feebleness and suffering, disabled for all locomotion, and after many tedious months recruiting only strength enough to com- pass the rounds of his own mansion, — you will believe that this was no ordinary trial. Flesh and blood must have rebelled or sunk under it. But it was no arm of flesh upon which he leaned. He found the promise true, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." No murmur escaped his lips. The clouds of despondency which had sometimes shut him in, were all dispersed. As his strength declined, his graces ripened. His faith in the great sacrifice was beautiful in its simplicity. His robust character softened and mellowed into symmetry and 29 gentleness. And the few friends admitted to his privacy, felt when the reaper came,* that the shock of corn was fully ripe and ready for the garner. May we all die the death of the righteous, and our last end be like his. * June 5, 1867. THE AMERICAN UXION: A DISCOURSE DELIVERED On Thursday, December 12. 1850. THE DAT OF THE ASXIAL THANKSGIVING IX PEXXSYLVAXIA, AND REPEATED OX THURSDAY. DECEMBER 19, N THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, HENRY A. BOARDMAX, D.D. SEVENTH EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. L I P P I X C O T T & C O. 1860. Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1851, bj" I, T PPIXCOTT, GUAM BO & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. C. SHERAIAN & SON, Primers S. W. Corner Seventh and Clierry Streets, Philadelphia. PREFATORY NOTE. This sermon has long been out of print. Frequent applications have been made for it, which could not be supplied. I deeply regret that any occasion should have arisen for republishing it. But it is the proper com- plement of my sermon on Thanksgiving Day; and the argument of that discourse is very incomplete without this. On referring to this pamphlet, after a long interval, I find it pervaded with a very different tone from that of the recent sermon, in respect to the triumphs and influence of Christianity in our country. I have only to say on this point, that within the last ten years, there has been a rapid develop- ment amongst us of an acrimonious theology, which has poisoned our politics, and filled the country with hatred instead of love. This may ex- plain many things of much greater moment than the dissimilarity between these two discourses. Philaullfuia, Deveiuber .3, I860. Philadelphia, December 20tb, 1830. To the Rev. Henry A. Boakdmax, D.D. Dear Sir : Your friends and immediate fellow-citizens who have listened to your discourse on the Union, are naturally desirous of sharing with the country at large the advantages of so valuable a production. The spirit of true patriotism which it breathes is especially calculated to do good, by being widely dififused at the present moment, while it is distinguished by a tone of piety that is auspicious at all times, and cannot fail to be universally acceptable. In the name of all who bad the satisfaction to witness your eloquence on this interesting occasion, we respectfully ask that you would favor us with the use of the manuscript for publication. With sincere respect and regard. Your friends and faithful servants, J. R. IxGERsoLL, G. M. Dallas, R. Pattersox, W. M. Meredith, John K. Fixdlay, Jos. Patterson, W. C. Patterson, R. M. Patterson, John W. Forney, Edward Armstrong, John S. Riddle. Philadelphia, December 20th, 1850. To the Rev. Henry A. Boardman, D.D. Reverend and Dear Sir: Cordially approving the sentiments expressed by you in your recent discourse on the American Union, and believing that a more general diffusion of these sentiments would tend to the forma- tion of a sound public opinion on this very important subject, and being desirous, moreover, individually, in some explicit and formal manner, to testify our own devout attachment to the Union, and our utter dissent from those who would subvert it, and our determination to abide by the Consti- tution and laws, and more particularly those laws of the last session of Congress known as the Compromise Acts, we, the undersigned, do most gratefully and heartily thank you for your eloquent and timely discourse on this subject, and request a copy of the same for publication. Alex. W. Mitchell, M.D., Charles B. Penrose, Wm. H. Dillingham, A. V. Parsons, Lawrence Lewis, John S. Hart, Wm. Shippen, M.D., James B. Rogers, C. B. Jaudon, Wm. Harris, M.D., Hugh Elliot, J. N. Dickson, Francis West, M.D., Smith, Murphy & Co., Wm. Goodrich, Hogan & Thompson, R. R. Bearden, J. B. Ross, Turner, Harris & Hale, James Boggs, James Imbrie, Jr., Lippincott, Grambo & Co , VI CORRESPONDENCE. Jno. 11. VOGDES, John K. Towxsend, M.D., W. H. GlLLINGHAM, M.D., a. b. cummixgs, John H. Brown, Samuel Hood, William B. Hieskell, Moses Johnson, Dale, Ross & Withers, Tuos. H. HoGE, Dun DAS T. Pratt, F. N. Buck, James Orxe, James Schott, Wm. Veitch, LiND & Brother, Taylor & Paulding, B. P. Hutchinson, Sibley, Moulton & Woodruff, David Springs & Co., R. B. Brinton & Co., James Leslie, Henry R. Peter L Ferguson, Truitt, Brother & Co., Martin & Smith, W. Kirk, Arthur A. Burt, Morris Patterson, Faust & Winehrenner, William Brown, D. B. BiRNEY, Gemmill & Creswell, J. G. Mitchell, Scott, Baker & Co., J. Anspach, Jr., Geo. C. Barber, J. W. Tilford, Jno. McArthur, RoBT. M. Slay-.maker, A. W. Slack, James Burrowes, Knorr & Fuller, De Coursey, Lafourcade & Co. Maurice A. Wurts, Davis. Philadelphia, December 23cl, 1850. Gentlemen : I cannot doubt that the favor with which mj late humble effort in behalf of the Union has been received, is to be ascribed more to the existing state of the public mind on this subject, than to the intrinsic merit of the performance itself. I do not feel at liberty, however, to decline an application emanating from a body of my fellow-citizens so honorably representing the commerce of our city and the learned pro- fessions, and comprising gentlemen whose public services have won for them the respect and gratitude of the nation, and identified their fame with that of the Union. In the hope that the discourse which you have in such flattering terms requested for publication may be made, by a good Providence, instrumental in promoting in some degree the cause which we all have so much at heart, I herewith place the manuscript at your disposal. I am, very faithfully. Your friend and fellow-citizen, H. A. BOARDMAN. To the Hon. Joseph R. Ingersoll, Major-General Patterson, Hon. George M. Dallas, Hon. Wm. M. Meredith, Hon. Charles B. Penrose, Hon. A. V. Parson.s, Alex. W. Mitchell, M.D., Wm. H. Dillingham, Esq., Professor Hart, Lawrence Lewis, Esq., and others. THE UNION. Do ye tlius requite the Lord, 0 foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father ihat hath bought thee ? hath he not made thee, and established thee ? Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations : ask thy father, and he will show thee ; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness: he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereih over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings ; So the Lord alone did lead him, and (here teas no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields ; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock ; Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. — Deut. o2 : 6-14. These words delineate with great beauty of imagery the general course of the Divine dispensations towards ancient Israel. Susceptible as they are of a ready adaptation to our own country, they suggest some of the various causes for gratitude to the Supreme Disposer of events, which should animate our hearts 8 THE UNION. as we assemble in our sanctuaries on this Day of Thanksgiving. But they also intimate (if we choose thus to approx3riate the passage to ourselves) that we are in danger of perverting and losing the munificent blessings Providence has conferred upon us. There is, I fear, but too much occasion for this warning. The pulpit should be very slow to give countenance or currency to topics calculated to excite or alarm the public mind ; but where the Union itself is in jeopardy, both patriotism and religion forbid that it should re- main silent. In the judgment of discreet and upright men of all parties, a crisis of this kind has now arrived. And, indeed, the indications of it are so palpable that he only who shuts his eyes can fail to see them. Up to a period quite within the recoUt^ction of the young men before me, the word. Disunion, was never uttered in any part of the Republic but with ab- horrence. The universal sentiment was that the Union of these States was to be maintained at all hazards — that it was not a question to be discussed — and that any individual who should presume to im- pugn its sacred obligation would be justly chargeable with moral treason, and ought to be regarded as an enemy to his country. This wholesome public senti- ment has been for several years past gradually giving way. Our ears have become familiarized to the word, Disunion. A protracted session of Congress has been consumed in discussing the thing itself One State is at this moment almost on the verge of secession. Others are threatening it. And a large and vigilant THE UNION. 9 party elsewlierc are pressing- flxvoritc measures with the full conviction that, if they succeed in carrying them, the Union must and will be riven asunder. Under these circumstances, the pulpit may no more keep silence than the press. We have the same ci\il rights as other citizens ; and we do not mean lightly to surrender them. But aside from this, the interests of religion in this country are in some sort confided to the keeping of the ministry : and Christianity — not Christianity for our own land merely, but for the world, and for all coming generations of mankind — has so much at stake in the American Union, that, if we should refuse to co-operate with our fellow-citizens in all legitimate measures for the preservation of that Union, we should be recreant to the Master we pro- fess to serve, and unfit to minister at his altar. In tlie original manuscript of Washington's Fare- well Address, there is the following paragraph par- tially erased. With the exception of the last sentence, it was rejected by him ; but no apology will be needed for citing it on an occasion like the present: " Besides the more serious causes already hinted as threatening our Union, there is one less dangerous, but sufficiently dangerous to make it prudent to be on our guard against it. I allude to the petulance of party differ- ences of opinion. It is not uncommon to hear the irritations which these excite, vent themselves in declarations that the different parts of the United States are ill affected to each other, in menaces that the Union will be dissolved by this, or that measure. 10 THE UNION. Intimations like these are as indiscreet as they are intemperate. Though frequently made with levity, and without any really evil intention, they have a tendency to produce the consequence which they in- dicate. They teach the minds of men to consider the Union as precarious ; as an object to which they ought not to attach their hopes and fortunes ; and thus chill the sentiment in its ftivor. By alarming the pride of those to whom they are addressed, they set ingenuity at work to depreciate the value of the thing, and to discover reasons of indifference towards it. This is not wise. It will be much wiser to habituate our- selves to reverence the Union as the Palladium of our National happiness; to accommodate constantly our words and actions to that idea, and to discountenance whatever may suggest a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned." It may be doubted whether this paragraph would not have been retained, could Washington have foreseen the events which are passing before our eyes. For there is a tone of remark now prevalent on this subject which indicates a wide-spread and perhaps growing disposition to calculate the value of the Union. That such a problem should in any quarter be seriously entertained, — that it should not, on being propounded, be as summarily and indignantly thrust away as the question would be, whether we shall replace our present form of government with a monarchy, — is symptomatic of a decay of that lofty patriotism which once throbbed in every Ame- THE UNION. 11 rican breast. Certain it is that those who can degrade a theme like this to the computations of a mere com- mercial arithmetic, and resolve the value of the Union as they would adjust a marine venture, or the cost of a cotton-mill, have never even begun to comprehend the extraordinary chain of events which led to the establishment of this Union, the gigantic difficulties which opposed its formation, the manifold blessings which have resulted from it, or the legionary evils which would follow its subversion. A proper dis- cussion of these several topics in a temperate and able manner might well engage the leisure of some one of our eminent statesmen at the present junc- ture, and could not fail to have a salutary influ- ence on the nation at large. I propose simply ta recall your attention to the origin of the Union, and SOME OF THE MORE OBVIOUS CONSEQUENCES WHICH WOULD BE LIKELY TO FLOW FROM ITS DISSOLUTION, that WO may the better understand what it is that certain parties are proposing to accomplish. The observation has been often made, that the whole current of events connected with the settle- ment of America, and the growth of the Colonies, re- veals a purpose on the part of Divine Providence to found, in this Western Hemisphere, a model govern- ment. They were no ordinary men who were sent here to lay the foundations of an empire in a wilder- ness tenanted by wild beasts and savages. jS'o nation can boast a more honorable ancestrv than that which 12 THE UNION. comprises the Puritans, the Huguenots, and the Qua- kers, who fled to this continent, that they might enjoy '* Freedom to worship God." The seeding of the soil gave promise of a rare and generous harvest; and amply was the pledge re- deemed. They knew not the exalted mission en- trusted to them; it was impossible, without the gift of prophecy, that they should have known it. But it is easy for us to see that, during the entire period of their Colonial state, they were preparing for the work before them. In their privations and dangers, their sicknesses and wars, their mutual rivalries and quar- rels ; in the unnatural neglect and flagrant oppression with which they were treated by the parent govern- ment; in the sagacity, enterprise, firmness, and cou- rage which their circumstances helped to develop ; and in the continual accession to their numbers of men of kindred principles, who were driven from the Old World by persecution or tyranny, — we can detect a superhuman agency, which was moulding and strength- ening them for the scenes of the Revolution, and the responsibilities involved in its successful termination. These, it is important to remember, demanded a train- ing no less peculiar than the Revolution itself It is too commonly taken for granted that, with the Peace of '83, all danger was over; that the auspicious issue of our contest with the mother country was tanta- mount to the creation of a free and powerful Republic. In a word, that, as soon as their battles were ended. THE UNION. 13 and the chains of their Colonial vassalage broken, onr fathers had but to sit down in quiet and enjoy the benign protection of that glorious Union which has, under Providence, made us the most prosperous nation on the globe. This is not only an utter misconception of the facts in the case, but it is adapted to disparage the wisdom and patriotism of the men of the Revolu- tion, and to impair our reverence for the Union itself. It is scarcely going beyond the truth to say that their work was but half accomplished with the close of their last campaign. They had severed their allegiance to the Crown ; but they had no adequate government of their own, and they were in a situation most unfavor- able for the establishment of one. The Union, that is, such a Union as their necessities demanded, was so far from evolving itself spontaneously from the chaos wiiich succeeded the war, that the wisest and best men among them entertained the most anxious apprehensions as to the possibility of effecting it at all. " It may be in me," said one of them,* a man whose comprehensive and penetrating intellect re- solved the abstrusest theorems in political science as by intuition, and who could express his profound and luminous views in a style wiiich would scarcely suffer by a comparison with that of Junius, — " It may be in me a defect of political fortitude, but I acknowledge that I cannot entertain an equal tranquillity with those who affect to treat the dangers of a long continu- * Mr. Hamilton. . 14 THE UNION. aiice in our present situation as imaginary. A nation without a national Government is an awful spectacle. The establishment of a Constitution in time of pro- found peace, by the voluntary consent of a wliole people, is a Prodigy, to the completion of which I look forward with trembling anxiety. I dread the more the consequences of new attempts, because I know that powerful individuals in this State [New York] and other States, are enemies to a general national Government in every possible shape." In a similar strain, General Washington, at an ear- lier period, two y^ears after the Treaty of Peace, wrote to Mr. Jay: "AVhat astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing ! I am told that even respect- able characters speak of a monarchical form of govern- ment without horror. From thinking proceeds speak- ing ; thence to acting is often but a single step. But liow irrevocable and tremendous ! What a triumph for our enemies to verify tlieir predictions ! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism, to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and fallacious ! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the conse- quences we have but too much reason to apprehend !" The old Confederation would have been too weak even for the purposes of war in any other hands than those of the pure and able men who were called to conduct the Ilevolution. And when the outward pressure was removed, and tlie Colonies fell back THE UNIOX. 15 under the sway of their several local usages and interests, the compact whicli united them proved to be but a rope of sand. The condition of the country waxed worse and worse, until it seemed to be on the verge of some terrible catastrophe. The war had dried up its resources. The government was encum- bered with a debt wliicli it had no means of paying. Commerce was at the lowest point of declension. The Colonies, oppressed by their necessities, and more solicitous to retrieve their own fortunes than those of the Union, refused the supplies of money which were indispensable to the efficiency of the Confedera- tion, and even to its prolonged existence. The go- vernment w^as the very picture of imbecility ; without troops, without a revenue, without credit, without power to enforce its laws at home, or to inspire respect abroad. And the reciprocal jealousies of the Colonies, reviving witli the return of peace, afforded little ground to hope that any scheme of union could be devised in which they would all, or even a major part of them, coalesce. The defects of the existing league were too palpable to be denied ; but the most discord- ant opinions prevailed as to the appropriate remedy. This may be seen in the multiform objections wdiich were made to the new Constitution when it came to be submitted to the States for their adoption. Not to speak of the monarchical party alluded to by General Washington, and which was probably very small, the following may be taken as a sample of these objections : " This one tells us that the Constitution 16 THE UNION. ought to be rejected, because it is not a Confederation of the States, but a government over individuals. Another admits that it ought to be a government over individuals to a certain extent, but not to the extent proposed. A third objects to the want of a bill of rights. A fourth would have a bill of rights, but would have it declaratory not of the personal rights of individuals, but of the rights reserved to the States in their political capacity. A fifth thinks the plan would be unexceptionable but for the fatal power of regulating the times and places of election. An objector in a large State exclaims loudly against the unreasonable equality of representation in the Senate. An objector in a small State is equally loud against the dangerous inequality in the House of Repre- sentatives. From one quarter the amazing expense of administering the new government is urged ; from another the cry is that the Congress will be but a shadow of a representation, and that the government would be far less objectionable if the number and the expense were doubled. A patriot in a State that does not import, discerns insuperable objections against the power of direct taxation. The patriotic adversary in a state of great exports and imports, is not less dissatisfied that the whole burden of taxes may be thrown on consumption. This politician discovers in the Constitution a direct and irresistible tendency to monarchy; that is equally sure it will end in aristocracy."* But it would be wearisome to * Mr. Madison. THE UNIOX. 17 go on with this catalogue, and cite tlie objections urged ajjainst the instrument as a whole, and those advanced against the specific provisions appertaining severally to the legislative, the judicial, and th(? exe- cutive departments. Enough has been said to show that the Convention which assembled to frame a Constitution had an herculean task to perform ; and that, without the special illumination of Divine Provi- dence, they must have essayed in vain to frame an instrument which should unite in its support the suffrages of a majority of the States. It is an additional consideration of great weight, bearing upon this point, that they were without a model. There was no existing government which they were willing to copy. There was no government of antiquity which would at all answer their purpose. They were, in truth, not only in advance of their own age, but of all ages, in their ideas of civil government. AVe may apply to them what Milton has said of the Hebrew prophets ; they appear — "As men divinely taught, and better teaching The solid rules of civil government, In their majestic, unaffected style, Than all ;he oratory of Greece and Rome; In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt, AVhat makes a nation happy, and keeps it so." The concise instrument drawn up and signed in the cabin of the ^lay Flower, was the charter of an embiyo Commomcealtli. It recognizes the great principle of equality, and the right and duty of the " civil body politic," into which the signers organized 18 THE UNION. themselves, to " enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordmances, acts, constitutions, and offices, as should be thought most convenient for the general good of the Colony." This germ expanded. It derived nurture from the alternate indifference and tyranny of the home government. The Colonists, not of Massachusetts only, but of Virginia and the other provinces, were compelled to act for themselves. They came to regard the '''•general ^ooJ," not the honor of a tlirone, or the aggrandizement of an aristocracy, as the proper end of government ; and '•'•just and equal laios,^'' as the legitimate means by which this end was to be promoted. Long before their difficulties with the Crown reached their crisis, these ideas had become as familiar to their minds as household words. They were very unlike the prevailing ideas in the Old World. They found no place in the constitutions of the most liberal monarchies. Political equality — popu- lar suffrage — equal laws — the right of the majority to govern — the greatest good of the greatest number as the end of government, — these were principles which, however they might be entertained by individuals, had yet for the first time to be enacted, or even re- cognized by any European monarchy. And when with these principles is combined another of no less importance, that of a representative republic, we shall search in vain for any adequate exposition of their views even among the so-called republics of ancient or modern times. It shows an extraordinary elevation of mind, and a moral courage stamped with true sub- THE UNION. 19 limity, that they should have succeeded in divesting themselves of the intolerable thraldrom of precedent and authority, and dared to lay the foundations of their new structure on principles wliich no other government had made trial of, or which had certainly never been tested in such combinations as were now contemplated. These principles alone, however, were suited to the emergency, and they applied them with a trustful fortitude and a profound wisdom which have never ceased (unless they have now ceased) to elicit the gratitude of their posterity, and the admiration of enlightened and liberal statesmen in all lands. Without stopping to illustrate these points in detail, let us advert for a moment to that great principle of a representative republic which they invoked to har- monize the conflicting rights and interests of the Colo- nies. Our minds are so familiar with this principle that we are scarcely in a position to appreciate the wisdom which guided the Convention to the discovery of it (for it was a discovery), and led them to adopt it as the core of the new Constitution. They were to create a Government or Governments for the Colonies. Putting monarchy out of the question, these plans were before them : 1st, Consolidation; the dissolution of the thirteen Provincial or State Governments, and a general amalgamation under one republican char- ter. 2dly. Consolidation in the form of a pure democracy. 3dly. The organization of thirteen en- tirely independent Governments — republican or demo- 20 THE UNION. cratic. 4tlily. A simple Confederation of thirteen sovereignties. These were the only models to be found in the annals of the world. All Governments not mo- narchical had conformed to one or another of these types: and yet the statesmen of the Revolution had the sagacity to see that they were alike either im- practicable or insufficient for their purposes. Consoli- dation was out of the question ; the Colonies would not consent to merge their individual existence in a single organization. A pure democracy was imprac- ticable even for the States as such. A democracy requires the periodical convocation of the entire body of the citizens, to conduct its legislation, and is of course admissible only in the case of States comprising a very limited territory. This was the favorite scheme of a party after the war; and to elude the difficulty just stated, they were for dividing the larger Colonies into districts of a tractable size. The creation of thirteen isolated sovereignties would have been the sure pre- cursor and occasion of dissensions and wars. Nor would a simple Confederation of such a cluster of sove- reignties, the scheme which was advocated by many of the most patriotic and influential men of the nation, have been essentially better. Such a Confederation already existed. Its inadequacy was matter of expe- rience. No modiflcation would be of any avail which came short of curing its radical vice, to wit, that of providing "legislation for States or Governments in their corporate or collective capacities, and as contra- THE UXIOX. 21 clistinguislicd from the individuals of whom they con- sist." So long as this principle was retained, the States might be bound together in a league, but there coidd be no national Union. Nor would a general govern- ment be able to enforce its decrees at home or to pro- tect its foreign interests, if the execution of its man- dates were made contingent upon the legislation of other independent sovereignties.* A new principle was, therefore needed to meet the exigencies of the case ; and it was found in that of a Representative Re- pubUc. The sovereignty of the several States was left unimpaired in respect to all matters of local jurisdic- tion, while the Federal Government, springing no less directly than the State governments from the bosom of the people, and operating no less directly upon the people, was clothed with the functions requisite for the efficient administration of all interests appertaining to the general welfare of the Republic. Thus was the great problem solved. From the confusion and distraction, the imbecility and exhaustion, the con- flicting theories and rivalries, of these emancipated provinces, emerged the Union, — clothed with majesty and honor, radiant with celestial beauty, her temples bound with a perennial olive-wreath, and lier hands filled with such blessings for the expectant people as no nation but God's chosen one had ever dreamed of. The patriots of every land hailed her advent as the rising of a second sun in the heavens. The down- * See these points argued in the Federalist. 22 THE UNION. trodden nations of Europe found life and hope even in her far-off smile. And as her magic influence penetrated their dungeons, the martyrs of liberty felt their chains lightened, and blessed God that, although their efforts had failed, one nation had at length esta- blished its freedom. It was in truth the triumph, the first great triumph, of Constitutional Liberty. The records of mankind supplied no parallel to it ; and it was a fitting occasion for a jubilee among the friends of human progress of every creed and country. This cursory glance at the difficulties which were surmounted in the formation of our Government may serve to enhance our appreciation of the Union, and to quicken our gratitude to the men who founded it. A nobler race of men, or one who have a stronger claim upon the affectionate veneration of mankind, the world has never seen. It is impossible that they should be forgotten so long as integrity, patriotism, and public virtue, have a being among men. Their names (to borrow the sublime tribute of ]3aniel Web- ster to John Hancock — a tribute which we may even now appropriate to the great orator liimself ) have a place as bright and glorious in the admiration of mankind, " as if they had been written in letters of light on the blue arch of heaven, between Orion and the Pleiades." Certain it is, that if ive ever cease to do them honor, or to cherish the work of their hands, we shall deserve the execration of all future genera- tions. For, whatever specious objections may have been urged against the Constitution at the period of TUE UNIOX. 23 its adoption, it is not with us an open question whether that immortal instrument was framed with all the wisdom which has been claimed for it, and whether it is adequate to the purposes for which it was designed. The seal of more' than sixty years is now upon it, and its residts are known and read of all men. In the cr^-pt of St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, is the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of that noble structure, and the felicitous inscription upon it runs thus : Lector, si Monumentum qitcei'is, Gircumspice ! Reader^ if you seeh Ms Monu- ment, Looh Around ! So we may say of our Constitu- tion. If you would estimate its value, look around ! " How many States, And clustering towns, and monuments of fame, And scenes of glorious deeds!" Contrast the thirteen Colonies of the Hevolution with our thirty-one States. And then contrast the Republic as a whole ^dth any other, even the most prosperous, empires of the globe. I give utterance only to one of our familiar commonplaces when I say, that whether we regard the increase of its popu- lation, the development of its resources, the augmen- tation of its wealth, its power, and its influence among the nations, or the steady progress of its people in all the arts of a refined civilization, the history of this country is unexampled in the annals of our race. Without wishing to chime in with that strain of self- complacent declamation which has made so many 24 THE UNIOX. Fourth of July orations an offence to cultivated ears, the occasion not only authorizes but compels me to say, that there is no people on the earth so free as we are ; none who possess such an affluence of all the im- munities and appliances, social and political, secular and religious, essential to the plenary enjoyment of all personal rights, and to the greatest good of the great mass of the nation. To prove this would be a work of supererogation. If any man can " look around" and doubt it, he has mistaken his country, and should transfer his domicile to a more congenial clime. Nor is the extraordinary growth of the United States in all the elements which constitute the true greatness and glory of a nation, more indisputable than is the fact, that we have been steadily opposed by most of the leading cabinets of Europe, and even by the moral influence of the British Government and press. England has scarcely yet forgiven us the Declaration of Independence. Whether it is because this Union is a standing memento of her folly and misgovernment, or because she is jealous of a daughter whose ships and spindles compete with her own in the markets of the globe, certain it is that she has been disposed to look upon us with an evil eye. No maternal pride has ever betrayed her into a spontane- ous burst of admiration at the enterprise, the intel- ligence, and the moral worth of her trans-atlantic ofl'spring. When James the Second, one of her faith- less kings, whom she drove in indignation from his throne, overlooked from the French coast the great THE UNION. 25 naval action of La Hognc, and saw the British, after putting to flight that imposing squadron with which all his hopes were embarked, pursue their enemy in boats into the very shallows, and set fl.re to the ships which would otherwise have escaped, he could not restrain his admiration of their gallantry, but cried out, " Ah, none but my brave English could do this!" But no such paroxysm of generosity has ever overcome our venerable mother in contemplating this fair country. Instead of exclaiming, as she has marked the gradual transition of this vast wilderness into a cultivated continent, covered with towns and cities, and smiling harvests, " None but my brave children could have done this !" she has too commonly detracted from our just fame, and disparaged our achievements. This has not, liowever, affected, in the slightest degree, the progress of the country. Advancing with a constantly accelerated momentum, we have now reached a position which secures to us at least the outward respect of cabinets which have no love for our principles.* Certain it is, that neither defamatory presses nor official decrees, neither standing armies nor a domi- ciliary espionage, nor all these combined, have been able to conceal the truth from the simple-minded pea- santry and the degraded operatives of Europe. Alike in their busy workshops and in their remote mountain "" It is pleasant to add, that a great and beneficent change seems to have taken pUice in the feeling of lOngland towards this conntry, within the ten years which have elapsed since this Discourse was written. 26 THE UNION. chalets, the name of the United States is a talisman to them. The salutation, "I am an American citizen," is the best passport a stranger can have to their con- fidence. Often have I seen their eyes sparkle on hearing it ; and the sight made me proud of my coun- try. It was the boast of the ancient Roman that the watchword, " I am a Roman citizen," would secure him personal respect throughout the known world. But it was the dread of the imperial eagles which insured his safety. No such sentiment protects the American abroad. It is not the inspiration of fear, but of love, which lights up the countenances of the common people at his approach. They know little of politics, and less of geography. They have read but few books. They could give no very lucid account of this country. But they have these two ideas about it inwrought into their minds, viz., that it is a free coun- try, and that the people are comfortable and con- tented. This makes it a land of hope to them. This makes them long to get here. This constitutes the subtle, mysterious influence, which has gone out from our Union into all the hamlets and all the mines and forges of Europe ; and which is drawing their tenantry towards us with an agency as irresistible as that which keeps the needle to the pole. This it was which made an honest, truthful peasant, who lived in one of those lofty valleys at the base of Mont Blanc, say to a party of Americans, a year or two since: " Not less than two hundred of my neighbors have gone from this small valley to your country, and THE UNION. 27 nothing but the want of means keeps me from fol- lowing them." I say again, I was proud to hear it. These unbought testimonies to the aU-pervacling and blessed influence of my country — testimonies picked up by the wayside, and by the cotter's hearth, and the shepherd's fold, from reapers, and wagoners, and guides, and laborers — are worth more than all the studied compliments ever bestowed upon America by courtly diplomatists. It is something to belong to a land which looms up in this way before all nations, as a land of peace and plenty, of virtue and safety — as an asylum where the oppressed may find a refuge from tyranny, and the poor the amplest scope and encouragement for frugal industry. It is something to belong to a land which is known wherever the foot of civihzed man has trod, not by her Caesars and Napoleons, not by her bloody wars and conquests, but by her Washingtons and Franklins, her civil and religious liberty, her equal laws, and her thriving populations. That such a land should draw upon the Old World is not surprising. The philosophy of the fact is suffi- ciently simple, and it was set forth by one of the illus- trious orators of the Revolution with a felicity which is equalled only by his extraordinary prophetic an- nouncement of the fact itself Immediately after the close of the Revolution, Patrick Henry delivered a speech of great power in the Assembly of Virginia, in favor of a liberal poHcy on the subject of immigration. Contrasting the expanse of our territory with the 28 THE UNION. scanty population, lie observed, " Your great want, Sir, is the want of men, and these you must have, and will have speedily, if you arc wise. Do you ask, liow are you to get them '? Open your doors. Sir, and they Avill come in ; the population of the Old World is full to overflowing ; that population is ground, too, by the oppressions of the governments under which they live. Sir, they are already standing on tiptoe upon their native shores, and looking to your coasts with a wish- ful and longing eye ; they see here a land blessed with natural and political advantages, which are not equalled by those of any other country upon earth ; a land on which a gracious Providence hath emptied the horn of abundance ; a land over which Peace hath now stretched forth her white wings, and where Content and Plenty lie down at every door ! Sir, they see something still more attractive than all this : they see a land in which Liberty hath taken up her abode ; that Liberty whom they had considered as a fabled goddess, existing only in the fancies of poets ; they see here a real divinity, her altars rising on every hand throughout these happy States, her glories chanted by three millions of tongues, and the whole region smiling under her blessed influence. Sir, let but this celestial goddess, Liberty, stretch forth her fair hand toward the people of the Old World, tell them to come, and bid them welcome; and you will see them pouring in from the north, from the south, from the east, and from the west ; your wilderness will be cleared and settled, your deserts will smile, your ranks THE UXIOX. 29 will be filled ; and you will soon be in a condition to defy the powers of any adversary." Liberty did " stretch forth her hand towards the Old World," and this eloquent prophecy glided into history. The three millions who chanted her glories have now become twenty-five millions ; and the mighty current of humanity is setting towards our shores with a depth and a majesty which are enough to awe every thoughtful beholder. There are various aspects, economical, political, and religious, in which this imposing movement may be viewed. The two- fold object for which it is cited here is to illustate, on the one hand, the unprecedented growth of our coun- try ; and, on the other, the Anta?an hold which this Union has taken upon the other hemisphere. With- out restricting the remark to this wonderful migration from the Old AVorld to the Xew, we are safe in affirm- ing that the sublime spectacle of a self-governed and well-governed nation has told with prodigious eff'ect upon the dynasties of Europe. For " the greatest engine of moral power known to human aff'airs is an organized, prosperous State. All that man in his individual capacity can do — all that he can eff'ect by his private fraternities, by his ingenious discoveries and wonders of art, or by his influence over others — is as nothing, compared with the collective, perpetuated influence on human affairs and human happiness of a well-constituted, powerful commonwealth. It blesses generations with its sweet influence. Even the barren earth seems to pour out its fruits under a system where 30 THE UNION. rights and property are secure ; whilst her fairest gar- dens are bhghted by despotism."* Such an example has been before the world for more than half a cen- tury ; and while it is impossible to trace the influences which have gone out from it upon the other hemi- sphere, all parties are agreed that it has had a most effective agency in bringing about the ameliorating changes which have taken place in the European Governments. The reforms in those governments, which have consisted essentially in raising the people from a condition of political nonentity to a substan- tive power in the State, have drawn their animating breath and derived their most eflective support, from the precedent supplied by these United States. If the Nesselrodes and Metternichs of the day are competent witnesses, this country has been the great laboratory from whence " liberal ideas " have been continually flitting across the ocean and disturbing the Dead Sea tranquillity of the venerable despotisms of Europe. The extent to which these ideas have permeated the masses there is really surprising, when one considers the vigilance and severity with which tyranny every- where guards its usurpations. Many a generous strug- gle has proved abortive, and hecatombs of brave but unfortunate patriots have been immolated to the Moloch of absolutism ; but the cause of freedom has on the whole advanced. The nations are not where they were at the commencement of this century ; and * Mr. Edward Everett. THE UNIOX. 31 unless we betray our trust, and extinguish tlic light which now allures them on to freedom, there is little likelihood that they will ever consent to resume their chains. If we guard this vestal flame upon which so many anxious eyes are turned, the pohtical renova- tion of the world must go on. Other lands will be emancipated, and the prophetic vision of the poet will be realized : " I saw the expectant nations stand, To catch the coming flame in turn ; I saw from ready hand to hand The clear, tho' struggling, glory burn. "And each, as she received the flame. Lighted her altar with its ray ; Then, smiling to the next who came. Speeded it on its sparkling way." No man who believes that there is a Providence, can take even a brief retrospect of our history, like that which has now engaged our attention, with- out discovering innumerable evidences of his benig- nant agency. He who does not see a Divine hand directing and controlling the whole course of our affairs, from the landing of the colonists at James- town and Plymouth until the present hour, would hardly have seen the pillar of fire had he been with the Hebrews in the wilderness. This Union is not of man. It is the work of God. Among the achievements of his wisdom and beneficence in con- ducting the secular concerns of the world, it must 32 THE UNION. be ranked as one of his crreatest and best works. And he wlio wonld destroy it, is chargeable with the impiety of attem]jting to subvert a structure which is eminently adapted to illustrate the perfections of the Deity, and to bless the whole family of man. There are, however, — the fact cannot be disguised, — parties actually at work, endeavoring to destroy the Union. A party at the South and another party at the North, the poles apart in their speculative views of the subject which agitates them, and inflamed with a bitter mutual hostility, have virtually joined hands for the purpose of demolishing this Government. This is not, indeed, as to one of these parties, the osten- sible object they have in view ; but it is essentially involved in that object, and they know it. They must, therefore, be held to the responsibility of aiming at a dissolution of the Union, equally with those inha- bitants of the Southern States who avow this as their aim. The subject which has occasioned this commotion is Slavery. The Southern Disunionists would secede, because Congress, at its late session, passed certain acts abridging, as they allege, the rights of the slave- holding States ; and the Northern Disunionists insist upon the repeal of a law passed at the same time, entitled the Fugitive Slave Law, even though its abrogation should involve a dissolution of the Union. My business as a Northern man, and a citizen of a free State, is with the latter of these parties, or rather THE rxiox. 33 ^yith the North generally. In the few observations I am about to make on the subject, I shall simply reitei-ate sentiments which have been so often and so eloquently expressed both in Congress and out of it, that they have become familiar to every well-informed citizen. But I may say that the man who can put the American Union, with its untold and inconceiv- able blessings into one scale, and the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law into the other, and then strike the balance in favor of the latter, is without a proto- type in the liistory of the race, until we get back to the record of that primeval tempter who said to our first mother, "• Ye shall not surely die." " She plucked, she eat ! Earth felt the wound, aud Nature from her seat, Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe, That all was lost!" In sa^inor this, I utterlv disclaim anv desisrn to be- come the champion of Slavery. I have never set my- self to defend it ; and by the grace of God I never will. I concur in the estimate which is put upon it by the people of the Xorth, and by tens of thousands of our Southern countrymen, that it is a colossal e^il ; and that no consummation is more devoutly to be wished and prayed for than its removal. But I can as httle undertake the championship of Northern agitators and fanatics as that of Slavery. I beheve they are the worst enemies of the slave, and the most efficient protectors of Slavery ; and as such, I can have no 34 THE UNION. fellowship with them. The law to which they object may be, or it may not be, defective or unjust in some of its provisions. If it is, it will no doubt at the proper time be amended ; if it is not, it will stand. But what we are called upon to discountenance, is the spirit in which this excitement is promoted — the recklessness and violence with which the uncondi- tional repeal of the obnoxious law is demanded, irre- spective of consequences — the abusive attacks which are constantly made upon the South — and the whole system of measures put in operation to alienate the two portions of the confederacy, and bring about a disruption. However the fact may be contemned by the radical Abolitionists, it behooves us all to remember, what even the cursory retrospect presented in this discourse must have made sufficiently manifest, that the Union of these States was a matter of compromise. Ob- structed as it was by the most serious impediments, it could never have been effected had not all the parties concerned been animated by a rare spirit of accom- modation. General Washington, in submitting the draft of the new Constitution to Congress, thus ex- presses himself in his official letter as the President of the Convention : "In all our deliberations on this subject, we kept steadily in our view that which ap- pears to us the greatest interest of every true Ame- rican, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, THE UNIOX. 35 seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude than might have been other- wise expected ; and thus the Constitution which we now present is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the pecu- liarity of our political situation rendered indispen- sable." In this spirit the Union originated, and in this spirit it has, under God's blessing, been preserved. On most of the important measures of the government, the country has been di\dded into two great parties. We have passed through various crises, which have tested the loyalty of one party or of the other, as the case might be, as in a fiery furnace. Take for ex- ample the following measures : Jay's Treaty — the Em- bargo— the War of 181*2 — the Missouri question — the Nullification controversy — the admission of Texas — and the IMexican War. Each of these measures was liighly offensive to a large portion of the American people. The legislation of Congress was, in some of the cases, resisted by statesmen of the most eminent abilities, as being in the face of the Constitution, and destructive to our best interests. But when the acts were passed, the law-abiding spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race began to work, and all parties acquiesced. We have a striking illustration of this in one of the most recent of the measures just mentioned, — the admission of Texas. The major part of the population in the free States regarded this, in the manner in which it 36 THE UNION. was done, as a gross invasion of the Constitution. A distinguished citizen of South CaroHna, formerly Go- vernor of that State, has remarked, in a letter recently published, that " the admission of Texas furnished a far greater provocation to the North to secede, than the admission of California does to the South, with the auxiliary stipulations incident to the former."* But we did not secede. Nobody talked of seceding, except the party who are driving at disunion now. The sober sense and enlightened patriotism of the mass of the people, fortified by sixty years' experience, have taught them the necessity of forbearance, and made them feel that it is far better to submit even to mea- sures which they believe to be wrong and hurtful, than to break up the Union. They have no notion of set- ting the ship on fire because the captain deals out some obnoxious orders. They choose rather to wait till the ship returns to port, and then, if they can, get a new captain. In this spirit the compromise measures of the last session ought to be treated. They were not party measures, for none of the recognized parties was, as such, satisfied with them. But they supplied the only platform on which men of all parties could meet ; and this is a sufficient reason why the country should acquiesce in them. That a statute respecting fugitive slaves should form a part of this series of pacificatory measures, was a thing of course. One of the chief compromises of the * General James Harailtou's Letter to the People of South Carolina. THE UNION. 37 Constitution itself relates to this very subject. The South would not come into the Union without some guarantee on this point, and the following section (Art. IV, Sect. 2) was adopted by the Convention — I believe unanimously: "No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regu- lation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the i)arty to whom such service or labor may be due." A law was enacted under Washington's administration, and with his approval, to carry this provision of the Con- stitution into effect.* This law had of late years been rendered nugatory in some of the States by local legislation, and it became necessary to replace it with another. This is the statute which is now exciting so much opposition, and the execution of which has been resisted with so much violence. These demon- strations, although professedly directed against some of the details of the act, are to a great extent levelled * It must be recorded, to the lasting honor of Pennsylvania, that she was the first of the thirteen States to abolish slavery. This was done under the administration of President Reed, in 1780. And it is a circum- stance worthy of note, that the act embraces a provision for the extradi- tion of fugitive slaves. The following is an extract from its eleventh sec- tion : " Provided always, and be it further enacted, that this act, or anything in it contained, shall not give any relief or shelter to any absconding or runaway negro, or mulatto slave, or servant, who has absented himself, or shall absent himself, from his or her owner, master, or mistress, residing in any other State or country; but such owner, master, or mistress, shall have like right and aid to demand, claim, and take away his slave or servant, as he might have had in case this act had not been hiade.'' 38 THE UNION. against its principle. We do the party concerned in them no injustice in supposing that they would be equally hostile to any adequate law designed to effect the same object. In this view, one cannot but be struck with the flexible morality which can declaim fiercely about the inalienable rights of man, while it is trampling under its feet one of the most sacred covenants which ever bound a people together. There is no difference of opinion as to the meaning of the Constitutional pro- vision on this subject. To that provision, in common with the others, our fathers assented, and we have assented. It is one of the terms of a compact into which we have, as a people, entered with one another ; and which is just as binding upon us as any other of its provisions. Our judgment may condemn it. It may be revolting to our feelings. But this is nothing to the purpose. We are under no obligation to re- main in a country which we believe to be governed by oppressive laws ; there is nothing to prevent our flying to any land which rejoices in a milder code and a more rational liberty. But as long as we continue citizens of this Union, we must abide by its Constitu- tion, and obey its laws.* And we cannot consent to take lessons in ethics from those who deny this propo- sition. The first requisite we demand in a teacher of morals, is that he be a moral man himself. And when * It is not necessary, for the purposes of the present argument, to state the limitations of this principle. THE UNION. 39 a covenant-breaker comes to expound to us our obli- gations, we feel disposed to decline his instructions and to say to him, " Your nickname, virtue ; vice, you should have spoke ; For virtue's office never breaks men's troth." To some persons this may sound very unfeeling as regards the slave. I will not reply by saying, that the Apostle Paul thought it no sin to send a fugitive back to his master. But this is a case where we are not at liberty to take counsel merely of our sympa- thies. The obligation of contracts is not made con- tingent upon men's feelings ; and if this plea was to be urged at all, it shoidd have been before the Consti- tution was adopted. We do not, however, rest our answer to the objection upon this ground only. We are not willing to concede a monopoly of all the sympathy which is entertained for the bondman, to the party which is clamoring for an unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. So far from it, we claim to be the truest friends of the slave. We believe that, as well for nations and in respect to public affairs, as for individuals, " Honesty is the best policy;" and that kindness to the colored race, no less than patriotism, demands a faithful adherence, on the part of all con- cerned, to the stipulations of the Constitution. By that instrument, the exclusive jurisdiction of slavery is reserved to the several States. We have no more right to dictate to South Carolina what she shall do with her slaves, than she has to prescribe to Pennsyl- 40 THE UNION. vania what railroads we shall construct, or what banks we shall charter. Nor does the responsibility of her system of servitude any more attach to us, than does the responsibility of the serfdom of Russia. The Northern abolitionists (I use the term in its technical sense), impressed, it would seem, with a con- viction that their proper responsibilities, sectional and national, secular and spiritual, are not commensurate with their capacities, have volunteered to shoulder by much the heaviest portion of the obligations resting upon the Southern States. The South declines the proffered civility ; but they press their attentions. The South remonstrates, on the ground that the contem- plated interference would be highly prejudicial to her tranquilhty; but her officious friends insist upon it as their right to help her manage her private affairs. The South at length puts herself in an attitude of resistance, and points to the solemn compact in the Constitution ; but they reply, with an air of triumph, that they are governed by a " Jdglier Jaw" and that under that law, it is not only their right, but their duty, to take charge of her slaves. And what have they accomplished by this Quixotic generosity? They have riveted the fetters of the slave. They have de- terred at least three States, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky, from carrying out the plans of prospective emancipation they were just entering upon when this outbreak of misguided philanthropy occurred at the North. They have scattered the seeds of discord and alienation broadcast through the Confederacy. _ J THE UNION. 41 In a word, protesting that they were the exckisive friends of the slave, they have taken him to their breasts with a hug which reminds one of the embrace of that terrific automaton of the Virgin found in the dungeons of the " Holy Inquisition," which, clasping the victim in its arms and pressing him to its bosom, transfixed him with a thousand concealed spikes and poniards. And their fitting auxiliaries in all this crusade against the South, have been British emissa- ries; tlie subjects of that crown which, in the flice of the remonstrances of some of the Colonies, planted slavery in our soil and fostered it into manhood, and which at this moment has millions of subjects at home and in its Colonies, who would- be the gainers in physical comfort, and even in spiritual privilege, by exchanging places with our Southern slaves. The failure of all past efforts at the North to ame- liorate the condition of the slave, is not more palpable than is the certainty, that the grand expedient now contemplated would prove equally abortive. For, suppose radicaUsm could achieve its purpose and split the Union to pieces, how icould this help the slave? Does any man, not a tenant of a Lunatic Asylum, beheve that Disimion would mitigate the evils of Southern servitude ] Would it bring about a relax- ation of the laws which regulate it ? Would it incline the planters to put books and pens into the hands of their slaves? Would it facilitate the flight of fugi- tives? Would it conciliate the various legislatures towards schemes of emancipation? Xo one is so 42 THE UNION, infatuated as to affirm this. The most frantic aboli- tionists must be aware, that the disruption of the Union would put a cup of gall and wormwood to the lips of every slave; that it would be a signal for the enactment of more stringent laws than have ever appeared upon the Southern statute-books; and for the institution of a system of surveillance on every plantation and in every household, the rigor of which has no parallel in the records of American bondage. In the name, then, of three millions of slaves, w^e protest against all schemes for dissolving the Union. We believe that, terrible as such a catastrophe would be to the whites, it Avould be no less so to the blacks ; that it would abridge their privileges, augment their burdens, and postpone by many years the period of their ultimate emancipation. We should be crimin- ally indifferent to their welfare, as well as faithless to those sacred bonds which have hitherto united the North and the South in an honorable and affec- tionate brotherhood, if we could remain silent when sincere but mistaken religionists and unprincipled demagogues have well-nigh precipitated the country into this frightful abyss. And we are all the more disposed to break silence, because we believe that, of the two classes of agitators just named, the latter has a great deal more to do with the present excitement than the former. There is, it is true, a settled convic- tion in the minds of the Northern people that slavery is a great evil, and there is an anxious desire to see the country rid of it. But, left to itself, this feeling I THE UNION. 43 is as still as it is strong and deep; and it never could have been lashed into the foaming surges which now break over the land, but through the systematic, crafty, and wicked exertions of political demagogues. There were men in the ancient republics whose motto it was, " Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven ;" and they cared not what became of their country, so tliey were promoted. Monsters, it has been said, cannot perpetuate their species ; but this species, if not per- petuated, has been reproduced, for we indubitably have them among ourselves. Like Erostratus, who, when put to the torture, confessed that his motive in setting fire to the temple of Diana at Ephesus, was to gain himself a name with posterity, these men appear to be intent upon attracting to themselves the attention of the world, even though it can be done only by applying the torch of civil war to this glorious Union. Let us hope that a mercifid Providence may baffle their designs ; that the upright and law-abiding people whom they have, for the time, bewitched with their enchantments, may detect the real character of their leaders ; and that these ebullitions of fanaticism may soon give place to those patriotic and conciliatory sentiments which, in every previous crisis of our history, have proved equally efficacious against do- mestic faction and foreign aggression. It would be well for all classes of our citizens, at this critical juncture, to look Disunion fairly in the 44 THE UNION. face. Its unavoidable effects upon the colored popu- lation constitute, but a tithe of the evils which would flow from it. Not to exhaust your patience by going into the question at large, let it suffice to say, that Disunion not only involves a fratricidal war, but that it would undoubtedly lead to a continued series of contentions and disruptions among the States. It seems to be taken for granted that, if we divide, we divide into two confederations. But why stop at two "? It would be quite as natural, certainly, to form four confederations as two. And how long should we pause at four ? A sense of common danger might hold the new combinations together for a season ; but this would give place, after a while, to local and more potent influences. The strength of the Union lies not in its physical, but its moral power. Its real buttresses are not its army and navy, its mines and factories, its canals and railroads — not even its writ- ten constitutions and charters, its laws and tribunals ; but its sacred traditions, the inwrought and, until lately, universal conviction of its unparalleled benefits, and that sense of its sanctity which has made the nation regard it with a reverential awe akin to that with which the Hebrews looked upon the ark of the covenant. The feeling has been that the Union was an ark of the covenant to us, — that it was the re- pository of our most precious national mementoes, the symbol of the Divine presence with us, and the pledge of his future protection. This feeling is not to be ascribed to any specific training. It is no set THE UNION. 45 lesson we have learned at school, or which has been drilled into us like a code of morals or a code of manners at home. We have inherited it from the mothers who bore us. We have inhaled it in the air of heaven. It has gathered nourishment from the scenes of our firesides, from our daily employments, from our journeys, from our sanctuaries, from our na- tional anniversaries, from all our experiences and all our associations. It has grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength, and imperceptibly become a part of our being. And this it is which, under God, has made the Union so strong ; it is be- cause its roots are struck down into our hearts, and so interlaced with the very framework of our moral being, that they seem to belong to our personal identity. Now dissolve the Union, and not only do we cease to be what we have been, as individuals, but the power of the Union over us is gone, and gone forever. You annihilate by one stroke, that feeling of its sanc- tity which has done more to preserve it than all other causes combined. And it matters not whether you merely cleave it in halves or divide it down into quarters or eighths. One pebble will spoil a mirror as well as a handful. The people will have learned, from a single rupture, that the Union can. be broken: a most fatal discovery. For when they have broken it once, they will not scruple, if occasion serves, to break it, or rather to break its fragments, again ; for it will have ceased to be the Union. We shall no longer 46 THE UNION. have a national existence. The great events of our history — the illustrious names whicli adorn our annals — the heritage of renown committed to us — can no longer be appealed to as incentives to virtuous con- duct, or as rallying-cries in seasons of peril. AVhat orator will dare allude to Bunker Hill or York- town, to Champlain or Erie 1 "What Senator will dare invoke the name of Washington — or to speak of Henry and Marshall, of Greene and Morgan, of Jack- son and Harrison, of Hull and Bainbridge"? These illustrious men toiled and bled for the UNION ; and when we shall have destroyed the work of their hands, and resolved the almost perfect government they established and defended at so great a cost, into a group of petty jarring confederacies, shame will con- spire with ingratitude in consigning their names, their honors, and their sufferings, to a speedy and an eter- nal oblivion. Nothing — if this calamity awaits us — nothing presents itself to our expectations, but a future as humiliating and disastrous, as our past has been bright and ennobling. Instead of that benefi- cent mission which we have been wont to suppose had been confided to us, of leading the nations on to freedom and happiness, we may look forward to pro- tracted scenes of anarchy and bloodshed, which will sicken and discourage the patriots of other lands, and supply the partisans of arbitrary power with a tri- umphant proof that nations require a master. We arc not at liberty to disregard this consideration. Even if we were so lost to virtue and patriotism as to THE UNION. 47 be reckless of the fate of our own countrymen, we could not elude the responsibilities which rest upon us in reference to the world at large. This Union cannot expire as the snow melts from a rock, or a star dis- appears from the firmament. When it falls, the crash will be heard in all lands. Wherever the winds of Heaven go, tiad will go, bearing sorrow and dismay to millions of stricken hearts. Not the dismay and sorrow incident to the blighting of their own pros- pects, and the breaking up of their household plans ; but the deep and inconsolable grief occasioned by a calamity so startling and so disastrous in its bearings upon the happiness of mankind, as to leave the mind no opportunity for expatiating on its own private mis- fortunes. For the subversion of this Government will render the cause of constitutional liberty hopeless throughout the world. What nation can govern itself, if this nation cannot ] What encouragement will any people have to establish liberal institutions for them- selves, if ours fail % Providence has laid upon us the responsibility and the honor of solving that problem in which all coming generations of men have a profound interest, whether the true ends of government can be secured by a popular representative system. In the munificence of his goodness, he put us in possession of our heritage, by a series of interpositions scarcely less signal than those which conducted the Hebrews to Canaan ; and He has, up to this period, withheld from us no immunities or resources which might facilitate an auspicious result. Never before was a 48 THE UNION. people so advantageously situated for working out this great problem in favor of human liberty. And it is important for us to understand that the Avorld so regards it. The argument with which Napoleon in- flamed the ardor of his troops on the eve of his great battle near Cairo, was in these pregnant words : " Sol- diers, consider that from the summits of yonder Pyra- mids, forty centuries look down upon you." What- ever the rhetoricians may say of this speech, they must at least admit that the principle to which it appeals, constitutes one of the most powerful springs of human action, and that no man is at liberty to disregard its promptings. We, certainly, are bound to remember that the nations are looking to us, not for themselves only, but for the " centuries" which are to follow, to learn whether " order and law, religion and morality, the rights of conscience, the rights of person, and the rights of property, may all be preserved and secured in the most perfect manner by a government entirely and purely elective." If, in the frenzy of our base sectional jealousies, we dig the grave of the Union, and thus decide this question in the negative, no tongue may attempt to depict the disappointment and despair which will go along with the announcement as it spreads through distant lands. It will be at once the most unlooked-for and the most irrefragable testi- mony ever given to the idea, that nations are made only to obey. It will be America, after fifty years' experience, in the course of which period she had done more to inspire the nations with a desire for THE rxiox. 49 liberal institutions, than all other popular govenmients combined could eiFect in the lapse of ages, recording her adhesion to the doctrine, that man was not made for self-government. It will be Freedom herself pro- claiming that Freedom is a chimera ; Liberty ringing her own knell all over the globe. And when the citizens or subjects of the governments which are to succeed this Union shall visit Europe, and see in some land, now struggling to cast off its fetters, the lacerated and lifeless form of Liberty laid prostrate under the iron heel of despotism, it will not much relieve the horror of the spectacle, to reflect that the blow which destroyed her was inflicted by their own countr}-. " So the struck Eagle, stretched upon the plain, No more through rolling clouds to soar again, Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart. And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart : Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel, He nursed the pinion which Impelled the steel; While the same plumage that had warmed his nest, Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast," Nor is this the only aspect in which the issues of Disunion present themselves to our contemplation. We are forced to consider them as well in respect to our spiritual, as our civil and social interests. For the most remarkable characteristic of this whole move- ment is, that the sacred name of Religion should be invoked to sanction measures adapted to destroy this government, — the Union is to be broken up for the sake of religion ! The lofty morality of the Scriptures 50 THE UNION. will not permit us to live together under a constitution which authorizes the Fugitive Slave Law; and w^e must separate. " I thought where all thy circling wiles would end : In feigned religion, smooth liypocrisy !" It needed but this ingredient to consummate the superlative madness and impiety of this scheme. For, if there is any one great national interest upon which the disruption of these States would fall with a crush- ing weight, it is our Christianity, — that interest which as much surpasses all others in importance as it will in duration. There is no land where Christianity has achieved nobler victories than it has here. Enjoying at once plenary protection from the State and the utmost free- dom, it has developed itself with a purity and an energy rarely witnessed in the Old World. It was a sublime undertaking, that of supplying, without the aid of endowments or government patronage, churches and spiritual teachers for a youthful and growing nation like this, diffused over so great an expanse of territory. And the predictions of failure were equally sanguine and universal among the adherents of the ecclesiasti- cal establishments of Europe. But these predictions have not been verified. We may venture to assert, without violating the modesty proper to the occasion, that Christianity has accomplished far more than its friends could have anticipated ; that the efficiency of the voluntary principle, as displayed here, has excited THE UNION. 51 the astonishment of its bitterest opponents ; and that we have done more by our example to refute the vicious theories of foreign statesmen and ecclesiastics, and to promote the progress of religious liberty on that side of the water, than could have been done by whole libraries of polemical divinity. The time for- bids me to go into detail. But no candid observer can survey our country, in its moral and religious features, without being impressed with the grandeur of the results already achieved here. Not to speak of the churches with which the land is dotted over ; the large body of educated and evangelical clergymen who occupy our pidpits and conduct most of the higher literary institutions ; the liberal sums spontaneously contributed for the support and propa- gation of the Gospel ; and the promptitude with which further subsidies and new laborers are sup- plied, as fresh fields demand cultivation, — look at the benign and powerful influence religion has ex- erted upon the population at large. There was a work to be done here so indispensable that the gov- ernment could not get on tranquilly without it, but which the government could not do. Religion has done it. It has been the chief agent in establishing our systems of education. It has been the main- spring of most of the humane institutions designed to alLe\'iate the wants and improve the condition of the people. It has gone down among the masses, and not only fed them and clothed them, but renovated their principles, restrained their passions, taught them their 52 THE UNION. duties, and made them value their privileges. It has received in the arms of its comprehensive charity, the myriads who land upon our wharves ; and done more by its wondrous alchemy, than all other agencies com- bined, to transmute them into good citizens, and to homologate all creeds and parties and tongues in a harmonious brotherhood. It has redoubled its exer- tions to keep pace with the tide of emigration as it has rolled over the prairies, pierced the primeval forests of the West, and poured itself down the slopes of the Rocky Mountains upon the fertile plains of Oregon and into the auriferous valleys of California. And, not satisfied with domestic conquests, though stretching from ocean to ocean, it has sent forth its peaceful cohorts to distant shores; and from Asia, from Africa, from the Isles of the Sea, ten thousand voices come back to proclaim their bloodless victories, and to assure us that the wilderness and the solitary place have been made glad for them, and the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. Now let the Union be dissolved, and how certainly will this vision pass away. For it is not possible that this event should occur, without involving religion in the general catastrophe. It is a common maxim that, in times of public distress or alarm, credit is the first thing to suffer. It is no less true that Religion sym- pathizes at such crises, not only with credit, but with every other element of prosperity. Christianity is not a tiling by itself — a mere matter of Bible-reading and church-going, of Sundays and sacraments. It is in- THE UNION. 53 terfused, as we have just seen, tlirough all our rela- tions, comprehends all our emplo^Tuents, and exerts its prerogative over the whole field of himian duty. The moment you touch the commerce or the hus- bandry of a country, you touch its Christianity. If you paralyze any branch of industr}', weaken the popular confidence in the government, excite an ex- pectation of war, or do anything else to agitate the pubHc mind, religion feels the efi'ect of it. It requires no prophet, therefore, to foresee that, in the event of a disruption, the churches would share the common fortunes of the country. Amidst despondency and terror, dissensions and war, their strength would dvrindle and their zeal dechne. With diminished resources, the money now appropriated to the mainte- nance and difl'usion of the Gospel, would be wanted to pay troops and purchase munitions of war; or, should an appeal to arms be averted, to meet the enormous taxes for civil and military purposes inci- dent to the new order of things, and the critical rela- tions amonsr the several States and Federations. It is no extravagant supposition that, if the process of dissolution once begins, it will not finally stop imtd. the Republic is chopped up into six or eight distinct Leagues, each one of which must have its own general government, with the usual symbols and implements of nationality, such as legislative and judicial tribu- nals, ambassadors, a na\"V', and, what will then be unavoidable, a cordon of camps and fortresses and a considerable standing army. The very transit from 54 THE UNION. our present condition to a state like this, would be like the passage of a fleet through the Norwegian Maelstrom. It would extinguish hundreds of feeble churches and shatter the strongest ones. Instead of keeping pace with the spiritual wants of our nomadic population, which they are barely able to do when blessed with a redundant prosperity, the various de- nominations would find it difficult to sustain them- selves at home. Foreign Missionaries would be re- called, and fields restored to paganism which have been won from it at a great outlay of money and life, and which are now " white to the harvest." The cir- cumstances of the country would be as unpropitious to the culture of sound morals as they are now favor- able. Infidelity and atheism would run riot through the land, violence and crime would superabound, and we should deteriorate in all those high moral qualities which have hitherto attested the efficacy of our Chris- tianity, and secured for us the respect of the civilized world. And all this avalanche of evil is to be brought down upon us for the sake of Religion ! We are to ex- change our present condition for alienation, insecurity, commercial prostration, the decay of our churches, and the bankruptcy of our great charities — for the sake of religion ! We are to make the Bible a nullity, and the Sabbath a day of amusement, re-open all the sluices of immorality, and deluge the land with licen- tiousness and profanity — for the sake of religion ! We are to disband our schools and churches among the ^ THE UNION. 56 heathen, and send back the multitudes now under Christian instruction, to worship in idol temples and sacrifice their children to devils, — for the sake of re- ligion ! We protest against this huge impiety. If fanatics and demagogues are resolved to destroy this Union, let them not seek to sanctify the parricidal crime by perpetrating it in the name of religion. Enough that Buddhism should crush its besotted devotees under the car of Juggernaut, in the name of religion ; that Mohammed should fertilize kingdoms with human blood, in the name of rehgion ; that a spurious Chris- tianity should keep its arsenals of chains and fagots, and slaughter whole tribes of unoffending peasants, in the name of religion. Let not Satan come hither also in the robes of an angel of light. Let not the august name of religion be invoked to hallow an enormity, which would not only shroud this land in mourning, but inflict upon religion itself the most irre- parable injury. Every consideration of \irtue not only, but of decency, forbids that Christianity should be called upon to preside at an auto-da-fe of which it is itself to be the holocaust; to consecrate a crime which would, for the time, arrest its own beneficent triumphs, give new energy to all the emissaries of evil, and be hailed with transport by those, and only those, who exult in the calamities of virtue and the victories of sin. Not to pursue this painful theme, it must be too apparent to require argument, that the dismember- 56 THE UNION. mcnt of this Union would be one of the most appal- ling calamities which could befall the world. " Other misfortunes (I use the words of the great Statesman of Massachusetts) may be borne or their effects overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation may renew it ; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it ; if it desolate and lay waste our fields, still under a new cultivation they will grow green again and ripen to future harvests. It were but a trifle even if the walls of the Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished Government '? Who shall rear again the well-proportioned columns of Constitutional liberty"? AVho shall frame together the skilful architecture which unites national sovereignty with State rights, individual security, and public prosperity "? No, if tliese columns fall, they will not be raised again. Like the Coliseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a melancholy immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them than were ever shed over the monuments of Roman or Grecian art ; for they will be the remnants of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw, — the edifice of Con- stitutional American Liberty."* But why should they fain What is it that now threatens to overwhelm * Mr. Webster's Speech at the celebration of Washington's Birth-dav, in Washington, 1832. THE UNION. 57 this Government in irretrievable rnin '? Has it become so enervated by luxury as to sink into inanition ] Arc we falling to pieces through the extraordinary and in- tractable expansion of our territory ] Is there a vic- torious army at our gates'? Are we ground down with oppressive laws for which there is no remedy but in a dissolution "? No : none of these. But Congress, in the exercise of a power never before called in question, has admitted a State into the Union Avhich refused to tolerate involuntary servitude ; and in obe- dience to an imperative requisition of the Constitu- tion, has passed a law for the reclamation of fugitive slaves ! These are the grounds on which it is pro- posed to destroy this Government. For these reasons we are called upon, in the midst of peace, plenty, and prosperity, to exchange the best Government the world has ever seen — the most affluent blessings, the most glorious reminiscences, and the most brilliant prospects a nation ever enjoyed — for dismemberment, anarchy, and carnage. Surely, if the establishment of this Union by the voluntary consent of the people was, as Mr. Hamilton declared, a " prodigy," its volun- tary destruction by that same people or their degene- rate descendants, for causes like these and after sixty years' experience of its benefits, would be a far greater prodigy. The turpitude of such a crime has nothing in history to illustrate it. Language was not made to define it. The generation which perpetrates it, will cover themselves with an infamy as deep as the abyss into which they will have plunged their country. 58 THE UNION. And the patriots of all coming generations will exe- crate the memories of the men, who betrayed the priceless heritage of Constitutional Liberty which was purchased with the blood of their fathers, and placed in their hands as trustees for mankind. Let it be our aim to do what we can to avert so fearful a catastrophe. Let us cultivate a spirit of conciliation towards all portions of the Confederacy. Let us sustain the majesty of the law. Let us invoke the blessing of Heaven upon our rulers. Let us, above all, be instant and earnest in commending our beloved country to the care of that benignant Providence, who has brought us through so many dangers, and crowned us with such unexampled prosperity. ANNIVERSARY Cj}.e IP^rclants Jfimir; KEPORT OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS, THE ADDRESS HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D. { PHILADELPHIA: I C. SHERMAN & SON, PRINTERS. 1855. The Merchants Fuxd — the title of the Association for furnishing relief to indigent mercJianis of the City of Philadelphia, especially such as are aged and infirm — was incorporated by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, January 28th, 1854. Its affairs are under the direction of a Board, consisting of a President, two Vice-Presidents, Secretary, Treasurer, and fifteen additional Managers, elected by the members ; and it is authorized to hold any real or personal estate, provided the net yearly income of the former shall not exceed twenty thousand dollars. Life memberships are constituted by payment of fifty dollars. Annual membership five dollars per annum. Subscriptions and donations received by William C. Ludwig, Treasurer, No. 28 North Third Street. The Annivei'sary of this Society was celebrated at the Musical Fund Hall, Feb. 6, 1855 ; upon which occasion the Meeting was addressed by the Rev. Dr. Boardmau. His Address, with the Report of the Board of Managers prefixed, is now published, with the hope of awakening a more general interest in the objects of the Institution. [Extract from the By-Laws.] Sect. 4th. Any member desirous of resigning, shall signify his wish in writing, addressed to the Board, and pay all dues, those of the current year included. REPORT. In presenting to the members of the Merchants Fund the state- ment of the transactions of the Society during the past year, the Managers offer their sincere congratulations upon the happy working of this plan of beneficence. Thus far, at least, it has in no degree dis- appointed our hopes, and we see nothing in the future to cloud the prospect of increasing usefulness. The receipts from all sources, as shown by the Treasurer's account, herewith submitted, have amounted to thirty-five hundi'ed dollars, and the payments to twenty-eight hundred and seventy-one dollars and nineteen cents ; leaving a balance of cash on hand, of seven hundred and twenty-eight dollars and eighty-one cents. An investment of fifteen hundred dollars has also been made in our city 6 per cent, bonds, making the present available means S2228 81. The sum of one thousand dollars has been bequeathed to the Asso- ciation by one of the late Managers, Elliott Cresson, Esq., which we may expect to receive during the current year. Mr. Cresson was one of the earliest friends of our Society, and it is another proof of the warm-hearted philanthropy, for which that gentle- man was so eminently distinguished, that he appreciated so highly its benevolent design, and so zealously aided in its establishment. The appropriations for relief have been made to seven individuals. Five of these are under the care of the Association. Two are no longer within reach of your sympathy and aid, but we are charged 4 REPORT. with the conveyance of their thanks to the patrons of the Merchants Fund for the kindness which cheered their latest hours of life. By the wise and humane provisions of our By-Laws, the bestowment of pecuniary relief is private and confidential ; but we may state that all the beneficiaries are aged men, none less than seventy years old. All wei'e esteemed through their business lives as men of integrity and honor, and who, in adversity as well as in prosperity, were without reproach. They have also, in each case, continvied to labor as they could for the support of themselves and those dependent upon them, although it is within our knowledge that, in their patient struggles to provide for the day that was passing over them, they were sometimes, and we fear often, limited to a single scanty meal for the twenty-four hours. It must be of interest to add, that of all the recipients of the donations of the Society, no one had sought its help. The informa- tion of their wants was obtained from other sources, and the assistance rendered entirely unlooked for ; but not on that account less gratefully received or less affectingly acknowledged, nor in most cases without tears. It is thus, as the almoners of your bounty, we have endeavored to fulfil the trust committed to our hands ; and we are not aware of any fair claim upon the Fund, which has not been met with prompt and suffi- cient relief In view of the necessity, of which none can doubt, of some organized plan for the solace of age, poverty, and sickness, in circumstances like these, and of the adaptation of the agency of this Society for the accomplishment of so benevolent a purpose, we bespeak for it the thoughtful attention of the Philadelphia merchants. If other professions need their beneficial associations, we more ; for without vouching for the accuracy of some statistics on this point, it is admitted by common consent, that around no other -professions do there cluster exposures to reverses of fortune so numerous or so great. The present is not the proper occasion for expatiating upon these perils which beset the merchant's path, or upon their too frequent fatal issues, but we may be permitted to remark, that for results so REPORT. 5 lamentably common, there must be a cause as general. What this is, may be readily perceived. Apart from the exposure to pecuniary reverses, arising from inex- perience, incompetent abilities, sickness, fraud, or any of the calami- tous accidents to which the merchant, in common with all others, is liable, his peculiarity is, that he is the representative and exponent of credit in this and every commercial country. His business, his for- tune, his capital, must suffer, when from any cause, or combination of causes, the monetary condition of the country is disturbed. Whe- ther this occurs from ill-adjusted tariffs, the errors of banking, the extravagant undertakings of corporations for public improvements, wars in another hemisphere, droughts on the land, or tempests on the ocean, it is the commercial profession which first feels, and must chiefly bear the shock. Against this, as a breakwater, every wave beats and expends its force ; while behind this barrier many a bark, which would otherwise be wrecked, may lie at safe and peaceful anchorage. To protect the merchant from the disasters to which he is thus exposed, or to assure to him, in his stricken fortunes, the comforts and privileges of his days of affluence, it would be vain to expect. The Merchants Fund contemplates no such visionary purpose. Its single design is to furnish relief to those of our profession who are in destitute circumstances, and who, in their sore calamities, have no other earthly help. This object will plead its own cause in the hearts of the liberal-minded merchants of Philadelphia, who, while with ready hand they are distributing to other and various charities, will not forget the peculiar claims of those of their own household. All that is necessary, all that can ever be necessary, to secure help in such a cause, in this community, is to demonstrate that the attainment of the object is, in any good degree, within the compass of private muni- ficence, and that the funds will be faithfully and judiciously bestowed. That the undertaking is one of novel character, that nowhere else 6 REPORT. has an attempt been made to provide, by a systematic organization, for the decayed merchant, should militate neither against its wisdom nor feasibility, least of all here ; as it will but add one more to the list of beneficent institutions now common with other capitals, of which Philadelphia furnished the first and bright example, and which have reflected more true honor on her name, than the most splendid works of art. These may exist and abound where the wants or woes of humanity find little sympathy or succor, and we may better spare the costliest monuments which wealth has ever reared, than the humblest instrumentality which alleviates the suffering, and promotes the true welfare of our fellow-men. John M. Atwood, President. ADDRESS. MR. PRESIDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE "MERCHANTS FUND;"— I COULD have wished that the advocacy of this cause had fallen into other and better hands. There are gentlemen among the founders and managers of the " jMerchants Fund," who are pre-eminently entitled to be heard on its behalf, and who could do plenary justice to its merits. But these gentlemen are doers, not talkers. With characteristic modesty, they content themselves with laying before you a brief Report of their transactions, and then fall back undis- tinguished among the mass of their constituency. In this way it has come to pass, that the duty of addressing you this evening is devolved upon me. Other men have labored, and I enter into their labors ; a mission I should certainly have declined, had it not been for an abiding conviction, that the merchants of Philadelphia have an equitable claim upon the services of any citizen whom they may see fit to summon to their aid in carrying forward their benevolent entei'p rises. The second section of the Charter of the "Merchants 8 ADDRESS. Fund," is in tlie following words : " The object of this Corporation is to furnish relief to indigent merchants of the City of Philadelphia, especially such as are aged and infirm." One of the first reflections suggested by the reading of this paragraph, is, that there is a principle at work here which reflects the highest honor on human nature ; or rather, should I not say, a principle which seems above nature. The universal brotherhood of mankind, has been a favorite topic with poets and pseudo-reform- ers. Every age has heard it asserted, and every coun- try has had at least its nascent "New-Harmonies." "Liberty — Equality — Fraternity:" these are the catch- words with which demagogues beguile the populace. And the practical exposition they receive, is but too com- monly like that presented in the French Revolution of '48, when bands of armed men, with these magic words inscribed upon their banners, marched through the streets of Paris, and, calling at the hotels and manufactories, demanded that all foreign artisans and servants should be peremp- torily dismissed and banished from the country* — a demon- stration sufiiciently expressive, but forgotten in the hideous spectacle which followed, when these same lying banners flaunted over a French army which was sent to slaughter * This occurred under the speaker's eyes, and at the very hotel where he was staying. ADDRESS. 9 the republicans of Italy, and replace the yoke of bondage upon that reclaiming but helpless nation. N^ot such is the brotherhood you recognize. Taught by a different Master, and imbued with a loftier sentiment, you have learned those lessons which all the arts of the schools could not discover, much less infuse into the heart, that misfortune is a sacred thing, and that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." "I remember," says the greatest of English statesmen,* "an old scholastic aphorism, that 'the man Avho lives wholly detached from others, must be either an angel or a devil.' When I see in any of these detached gentlemen of our times the angelic purity, power, and beneficence, I shall admit them to be angels. In the mean time we are born only to be men. We shall do enough if we form ourselves to be good ones. It is therefore our business carefully to cultivate in our minds, to rear to the most perfect vigor and maturity, every sort of generous and honest feeling that belongs to our nature." Your Institution, Mr. Presi- dent, supplies a happy exemplification of these remarks. Justly repudiating that selfish principle, " Am I my bro- ther's keeper ?" you see a brother in every fellow-merchant ; and he who is smitten by adversity, becomes twice a brother. So long as they arc gathering the returns of a thrifty and successful business, there may be no out-going * Mu. Burke; " Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents."' 10 ADDRESS. towards them of any special consideration ; but when you hear that one of them is lying by the roadside wounded and forsaken, then you hasten to him, and bind up his wounds, and pour into them oil and wine, and carry him to some comfortable home, and say to the inmates, "Take care of him ; and when we come again, we will repay you." Let Him who first inculcated this sublime benevo- lence, and by whom alone it can be efiectually taught, have the glory of it. What Christianity is doing here on this humble scale, it will one day do among all the tribes of men. I have quoted a familiar maxim : " It is more blessed to give than to receive:" — or, if you prefer the uninspired utterance, mercy " is twice blessed ; It blessetli liim that gives, and him that takes."' Your own experience will form no exception to this rule. Every institution like this, is fraught with good, no less to its supporters than to its beneficiaries. Modern com- merce could scarcely dispense with them (I speak now in general terms of the benevolent societies existing among merchants), even if there were less suffering to be relieved, or if it could be relieved in some other way. No intelligent and candid merchant needs to be informed, that the paths of trade fairly bristle with temptations. Even to enumerate the chief of these would be foreign to my purpose ; but it may be said without offence, that it is ADDRESS. 11 a delicate and perilous thing for a man to be all the while dealing with money; to have the acquisition of money, for the staple occupation of his life ; to have every day's trans- actions gauged by dollars and cents; to have his hopes and his fears, his anxieties and his regrets, all concentrated around his ledger ; to feel that his social position and that of his family, is likely to rise and fall with his profits ; and to look forward to retiring from business on a fortune, as the grand consummation of life. This is not said in the way of censure, but merely as indicating a danger. It were a marvel if men situated in this way, should escape the inordinate love of money: if they should not come imperceptibly to estimate values of all sorts, not excepting intellectual pursuits and moral duties, by a pecuniary standard ; if they should not even become selfish and hard- hearted. That the current sets in this direction, is beyond a question ; and every merchant must make up his mind to encounter it. That so many encounter it with success, is a fact which redounds greatly to the credit of the com- mercial body. But the most distinguished examples of this sort, are the very men who will thankfully avail them- selves of the reflex help to be derived fi-om these schemes of philanthropy. The advantages they confer are too obvious not to be seen. They take the mind out of its stereotype routine, into quite another sphere. They pre- sent to it new and elevated objects. They appeal to its best susceptibilities, and call into play its purest emotions. 12 ADDRESS. They create fresh trains of thought, and wake up generous feelings, and infuse vigor and genial warmth into the whole mechanism of the inner man, and make him realize that while money is a good thing, it is not the best thing, and that life has higher ends than to buy and sell and get gain. Supposing, then, that legal provision might be made for extending relief to the classes of persons contemplated by this and similar organizations ; it would be a positive and serious injury to the mercantile character of our city, to delegate these functions to the ministers of the law. The compulsory charity which flows from the public treasury, would be shorn altogether of those wholesome influences which invigorate and embellish the principle of sponta- neous benevolence. I do not argue now from the admitted insufiiciency of legislation to provide for very many of these contingencies. But conceding that this were practicable, and that every infirm or unfortunate merchant might be sure of receiving his quarterly stipend, through the hands of some municipal functionary, the arj-angement, as I con- tend, would be greatly to the detriment of our commercial reputation. What room were there, under such a system, for the exercise of those kindly sympathies which find nourishment and shelter in the bosom of this " Merchants Fund ?" What scope would there be for piety and hu- manity and tenderness on the one hand, or for gratitude on the other ? WTio does not see that the paying of an annual ADDRESS. 13 tax for the support of the poor, has as little to do with the finer sensibilities of the heart, as the paying of a tax for the opening of a street, or the building of a prison ? In either case, it is a simple affair of the statute-book, %vith which the affections have no appreciable concern whatever, save, indeed, as they are wont to excite an unamiable sort of repugnance to the performance of the duty. But take away this whole apparatus of jurisprudence ; annul the enactment, and withdraw the tax-gatherer, and arrest these rills from the city treasury, and bring the merchants of our metropolis, if not into immediate and palpable contact mth their smitten fellows, at least into communion with their misfortunes, — and how different an atmosphere have you thrown around them ! Now their stifled sensibilities begin to play.. Instead of coercion, there is freedom. Instead of justice, there is humanity. For the "charity ot law," there is the "charity of love." For indifference, there is sympathy. For callousness, there is commisera- tion. For the stinted exactions accorded to the tax-col- lector, there are generous contributions offered with a willing hand.* And is it fanciful to say, that in all this there is a double blessing ? that the grateful, though possi- bly unknown, recipients of this bounty, are the passive benefactors of their benefactors ? that to the full extent in which this process is going forward among your ranks, • Dr. Chalmers has discussed this topic with characteristic ability, in his " Political Economy." 14 ADDRESS. there is a corresponding amelioration of the mercantile character, and that the moral henefit which returns into your own bosoms, amounts (in your professional dialect) to a thousand per cent, on your pecuniary investment ? You could not, then, dispense with societies like this, even if there were other modes of accomplishing the benevolent objects they have in view. N^ext to a genuine and earnest faith^ they are the best antidote to the mercenary spirit which has its embryo in every human heart, the most wholesome corrective for the horde of vicious impulses and unworthy artifices which the competition of trade is so apt to generate. The "Merchants Fund," however, may claim your co- operation on grounds still more personal than this with which we have been dealing. No merch^yit in our city can have an absolute assurance that he may not, one day, need the help of this Institution. If there be a certainty that very many will escape serious disasters and end their days in afiluence, there is an equal certainty that many others will be overwhelmed by painful reverses. Who are to be the favored, and who the unfortunate ones, it is not necessary to determine. Enough, that disaster is as much an incident of trafiic, as it is of navigation : so long as ships traverse the sea, there will be occasional wrecks ; and wherever there is a great trading community, there must be bankruptcies. That there is a peculiar lia- bility to these calamities in our countiy, is a humiliating ADDRESS. 16 fact wliich no one will call in question. I say a " humi- liating fact," for when we trace it to its principal causes, we must so regard it. This is not saying that every case of failure wears a disreputable brand, or has been brought about by reprehensible means. Far from it. The annals of mercantile disaster in the United States, exhibit names as pure as the judicial ermine, and which owe their enrol- ment on that long and cheerless catalogue, to agencies which no human skill or foresight could have averted. But no casuist can extenuate the criminality of that lust of accu- mulation, which has long ago established itself as our master-passion. Its ubiquity and its power arrest the atten- tion of every intelligent foreigner who visits our shores, l^o man can look around him without meeting it. It is the grand motor which propels the colossal enginery of the country, which drives the thousand wheels of commerce, and shapes our legislation, and founds new empires in our western forests, and subjugates foreign states, and looks abroad continually with a falcon-eye, landward and sea- tvard, to discover what provinces remain to be "annexed." Diflused as an impalpable and intoxicating ether through the whole realm of trade, it inflames the passions of its crowded tenantry, captivates them with visionary schemes, enervates their moral sense, makes them call evil, good, and good, evil, and beguiles them into paths which lead to certain ruin. If it were required to name some one of these paths more seductive and fatal than the rest, it would 16 ADDRESS. be tliat of licentious speculation — speculation, especially, alien from the current of one's regular business. It has been charged, that the increased frequency of shipwrecks within the last few years, is to be attributed in no inconsi- derable degree, to our vessels deviating from the esta- blished track across the Atlantic, for the purpose of making shorter passages. It is a kindred ambition which seduces merchants from the well-tried paths of legitimate traffic, into schemes which promise larger and quicker returns. The same result follows in both cases. ^N'or does the paral- lel end here. Nearly all our marine disasters occur at one of two or three well-known points on the American and the Irish coasts. The locality of the reef on which so many of our merchants are stranded, is ascertained with equal ac- curacy. And as I mean no offence, I trust none will be taken, when I indicate this place of danger as being hard by the Stock Exchange. This is no impeachment either » of the Institution here named, or of the integrity of its current transactions. But the merest neophyte in finance knows, that this is the centre which attracts to itself the speculating propensities of a community, the neighborhood which, of all others, is spread with gins and pitfalls for the unwary. Here, among many pure-minded and upright men, you are certain to find the original of a very striking portrait drawn by an unerring limner three thousand years ago : " He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den ; he lieth in wait to catch the poor ; he doth catch the poor. ADDRESS. 17 when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones." Wliatever character this may have siisrsrested to the men of former generations, to us it is the very daguer- reotype of a reckless and unprincipled operator in stocks. Xo eifort of the imagination is needed to picture one of these marauders pursuing his vocation among the commer- cial classes — crouching around merchants and merchants' clerks, meeting them at places of secret rendezvous, put- ting on the guise of candor and fair dealing; while he baits his victims with gorgeous promises, and, when the occa- sion demands it, cautiously inciting them to borrow " for temporary use" funds which belong to their employers, or which, if employers themselves, they have no equitable right to vdthdraw from their proper business. Thus are they " drawn into his net" and ruined both in fortune and reputation. This is not given as the only form which a passion for sudden wealth assumes in the mercantile world, but simply as one of the most prolific sources of disaster. It is no less worthy of note, that the commercial classes frequently suf- fer from the efiects of this passion even where they have had no special agency in fostering it. If sound expositors are to be believed, we have an apt illustration of this at hand. You have just passed through one of those great crises, which, occurring at irregular intervals, paralyze the energies of trade and spread a dismal aspect over all its 18 ADDRESS. thoroughfares. This visitation, like most which i:»receded it, had its origin mainly in that remorseless craving for sudden wealth, of which we have been speaking. But it was on another theatre that the passion had developed itself. The demon of speculation seized in this instance not upon the mercantile, but the Railroad interest of the country; and found or made willing instruments for the achievement of his purposes. Wlien the probe came to be applied, one corporation after another was discovered to be a stupendous engine of fraud. Moving " In perfect phalanx, to the Dorian mood Of Iliites and soft recorders,"' they had carried on a scheme of swindling which aston- ished by its vastness, as much as it shocked by its atrocity. Individuals were swindled. Banks were swindled. Muni- cipal corporations were swindled. Lies were sj^oken with the same complacency as though they had been truth. Spurious certificates of stock ; fictitious vouchers ; made-up schedules of liabilities and assets ; statements which how- ever true in one sense, were false in the sense in which it was known they would be understood ; oaths emasculated by mental reservations ; the whole machinery of which these things form a part, was put in requisition, and plied with consummate tact and vigor. And when at length the bubbles burst, and the gulfs were laid open into which de- luded capitalists and helpless widows had been casting their ADDRESS. 19 money, all confidence was at end. Credit, the most sensi- tive of all creations in the realm of commerce, locked up its coft'ers and double-bolted them. The funds which you. Gentlemen, should have had for your legitimate traffic, had been usurped by others for reckless speculation or were now placed beyond your reach for safe-keeping. And the whole force of this Titanic villainy came down with a terrific crash upon your ranks who had had so little agency in nurturing it. What wonder if some should have been swept away by the avalanche ! The only marvel is, that its ravages have been so restricted. Why this is the case, might supply a subject of curious and rational inquiry, but I can notice it here oply in a cursory way. That the late extraordinary and protracted stringency in the financial world should have made so little impression upon the commercial interest of this city, can be explained only by a reference to the proverbial integrity of the Phila- delphia merchants. This is no empty compliment, got up for the occasion. The high mercantile reputation of this city has long been established on an impregnable basis. If there be a witness among ourselves, who is competent to speak on this subject, it is that great Lawyer whose forensic abilities and private virtues have for half a century shed so much lustre on the Philadelphia Bar, and whose fame be- longs, not to our city or commonwealth, but to the Union. This is his testimony : " In the course of an active pro- fessional life, I had constant opportunities to observe how 20 ADDRESS. vastly the cases of good faith among merchants and men of business in this city, outnumbered the cases of an oppo- site description, where at the same time there Avas neither formal security, nor competent proof to insure fidelity. I should say, the proportion was greater than a thousand to one."* If it has fallen to the lot of any body of merchants, in any age or country, to have a loftier eulogy than this pronounced upon them, the case has escaped my obsei-va- tion. Nor is it by any means a mere local and unsupported opinion. The sentiment here expressed, finds a cordial re- sponse among foreign manufacturers, and throughout those portions of our own country which have their trading rela- tions with this city. The feeling all over the South and the "West, is, that the merchants of Philadelphia, as a body, are upright and straightforward men — men who use words in their common signification, and whose goods answer to the labels. And this conviction it is, even more than your costly canals and railroads, which brings them here to make their purchases, and which secures your acknowledged control of the South- Western business. Let Philadelphia lose her hereditary character for old-fashioned honesty, and the bales and boxes which every spring and autumn make it so difiScult for a pedestrian to thread his way along Market Street, will gradually dwindle into very trivial obstructions. Your real strength lies in your integrity; and of that, no rivalry can dejjrive you. * The Hon. Horace Binney. ADDKESS. 21 There is, I am aware, one passage in our history, which is often cited by unfriendly writers, in derogation of these views: I refer to the failure of the "United States Bank." It may be presumptuous to venture a passing remark upon a subject which it would require volumes to discuss. But there is one aspect of this question, which, though sug- gested, has perhaps never been distinctly brought out, and which is too vital to the topic now under consideration, to be omitted. Disastrous as was the failure of the United States Bank, it differed in one most important particular from the greater part of these catastrophes of a more recent date. The mismanagement which destroyed this institu- tion, originated in errors of judgment, not in motives of private cupidity. That its officers and directors committed fatal and censurable mistakes, is admitted on all hands ; but that they did what they honestly believed would pro- mote the interests of the stockholders and the public con- venience, has never been disproved, if, indeed, it has ever been called in question. Had they been swayed by merce- nary motives, they had the amplest opportunity for enrich- ing themselves. That they did not do this, affi)rds the strongest possible presumption that they did not mean to do it. The calm judgment of posterity may discredit their wisdom : is it unreasonable to presume that it will exone- rate their intentions ? This is thrown out, with a view of repelling the imputations cast upon our city, in conse- quence of that failure. "Whatever validity the plea may 22 ADDRESS. have, the injustice of holding the mercantile interest of this city responsible for the evils which grew out of this event, is palpable and flagrant. The commercial reputation of Philadelphia was neither made by the United States Bank, nor marred by its overthrow. It had grown to a vigorous maturity before that Institution was chartered, and the convulsions in which the Bank expired, did far more to illustrate its stability than to sully its purity. The commercial integrity of our metropolis, I have said, is not a thing of yesterday. A philosophic annalist will seek its origin in the character of the men who established this commonwealth. And he must be wilfully blind, who does not detect the germ of it, in that immortal transaction which took place under the great Elm Tree in Kensington. " We meet," said William Penn to the Indian sachems, " on the broad pathway of good faith and good will ; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love. I will not call you children, for parents sometimes chide their children too severely ; nor brothers only, for brothers differ. The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain, for that the rains might rust, or a falling tree might break. We are the same as if one man's body were to be divided into two parts; we are all one flesh and blood." Thus was that famous Treaty made, of which Voltaire justly said, " It was never sworn to, and never broken." In his intercourse both with the natives and the colonists, Penn adhered to ADDRESS. 23 the apothegm he uttered, when tliat iniquitous trial was in progress, which ended in his being sent to ITewgate : " I prefer the honestly simple, to the ingeniously wicked." And well did the red men requite his confidence ; for not a drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian. Our city, then, was born in righteousness. Thanks, under a benign Providence, to the primitive Quaker colonists, they laid its foundations in truth, and peace, and honesty. It must in candor be added, that their descendants have proved themselves worthy of such an ancestry. It has been their aim to make and keep Philadelphia what William Penn designed it should be. Like all other modern cities, it has experienced seasons of great financial perplexity and distress. And it would be going too far to say, that no- thing has ever occurred at these crises, to awaken solici- tude as to its commercial integrity. But I may say, that no class of men amongst us have been more jealous for the honor of the city, than our Quaker merchants ; and that whenever the maxims engraved upon our ancient walls have begun to rust, these descendants of the early builders have been among the first to brush away the mould, and, with pious care, retouch the sacred inscrip- tions. One of them, a patriarch of more than fourscore, has lately gone down to an honored grave, amidst the regrets of this whole community. It is a great blessing, Gentlemen, to have had before you for perhaps the entire period of your business-lives, such an exemplar of the mer- 24 ADDRESS. cantile and social virtues, as Thomas P. Cope. It is no disparagement to the living to say, that his name was one which came spontaneously to every lip, when requisition was made for a genuine Philadelj)hia merchant. Will you indulge me in a little anecdote, which may illustrate a single trait of his character. A person highly recom- mended, approached him one day, and invited him to em- hark in a certain joint-stock enterprise. In a careful expo- sition of the matter, he made it appear that the scheme was likely to succeed, and that the stock would instantly run up to a liberal premium, on being put into the market. "Well," said Mr. Cope, "I am satisfied on that point; I believe it would be as thou sayest. But what will be the real value of the stock ?" "Why, as to that," answered the speculator, " I cannot say (implying by his manner what he thought) ; but that is of no moment, for all ive have to do, is to sell out and make our thirty or forty per cent, profit." "I'll have nothing to do with it: I'll have nothing to do with it:" was the prompt and indignant reply of this incorruptible merchant. "And from that day," he used to say, in relating the occurrence, " I marked that man, and shunned all transactions with him." This was the integrity of Thomas P. Cope. And to men of kindred principles with himself, both among the dead and the living, is Philadelphia mainly indebted, under God, for her enviable commercial reputation. This topic has enticed me from my proper theme. I ADDRESS, 25 must not even enlarge on the usual causes of mercantile embarrassnfents, sufficiently to place before you one of the* most fi'uitful of them all, to wit : extravagance in living. I have elsewhere* considered this subject in its bearings on mercantile success, and must waive a particular refe- rence to it here, with a single observation. Until our cities return to a more simple and becoming stv'le of living, we must expect to see frequent examples of merchants, parti- cularly of young merchants, whose domestic prodigality has precipitated them from the heights of fashionable epi- curism into the abyss of insolvency. Even the cursory survey we have now taken of the reigning spirit in the commercial world, must suffice to show the extreme liability to disaster which waits upon a mercantile life. And this may be fairly urged as a distinct argument in support of the Institution, whose anniversary we have met to celebrate. According to the provision of the charter already quoted, it is the object of this corpora- tion, to "furnish relief to indig'ent merchants, especially such as are aged and infirm." I know not how it may strike others, but to my ear, there is something very ex- pressive in this language. "WTien we hear of "an indigent merchant — aged — and infirm," the ideas usually suggested, are those of intelligence, respectability, comfort, perhaps affluence, now replaced by penury, seclusion, sickness, and • Vide ■• The Bible ix the CoixTisc-HorsE." 26 ADDRESS. despondency. There rises before the mind, the image of •a man Avho once tenanted a capacious warehouse, who daily mingled with the busy throng on 'Change, who had his seat at the council-board of a bank or an insurance company, whose vessels, possibly, whitened distant seas, and whose extended traffic was the support of numerous families. I^ow he has disappeared. He no longer crosses your paths. You miss his advertisements in your journals. Another sign hangs from his warehouse. His ships still go and come, but for other consignees. And the tumult of trade is fast obliterating every public memorial of him. What is to be done? Shall no inquiry be made about him ? Shall the great caravan keep on their way without asking what has become of their missing com- panion, or sending back a friendly messenger to look for him ? Is he to be left to his fate, like a wounded horse on the battle-field, without sympathy for his sufferings, or even a decent sepulture for his remains ? With one voice, you answer, "No!" This whole community of merchants answers, "ISTo!" And to shoAv that you mean what you say, you have instituted this Society, to give form and energy to your benevolence; to seek out this stricken associate, and tell him there are those who remember and who cape for him. They will find that he needs succor — needs it far more than multitudes who invoke it. For look at the peculiar hardship of a case like this. What can a man in these circumstances do ? Merchandise is out ADDRESS. 27 of the question : his capital and his credit are gone. He has no knowledge of the mechanical arts. He lacks strength for manual labor : — and if he did not, how long could a man live who had to drive the drays he formerly employed, or to load and unload the ships he once owned ? Added to this, there will ordinarily be something in his appearance or situation, to deprive him of the relief ex- tended to the abject poor. He has not yet sunk into the depths of pauperism. He manages to keep up a reputable appearance in his person. His very manners, and those of his family, — their refinement, and modesty, and uncom- plaining resignation, — make even benevolent people feel that they are not suitable objects of their sympathy. Be- cause there is no clamor, no rags, no parade of their trials, it is taken for granted that no help is needed. Thus they suffer on. And real suffering it is. It has passed into a proverb, that happiness is not to be estimated by outward indications. This is equally true of misery. There are people whose acute sensibilities arm misfortune with terrific power. "Within the sphere assigned to this " Merchants Fund," there must be many a household which the most rugged nature could not look in upon without emotion, were the veil to be lifted from their private his- tory. What a struggle is life with them ! "Wliat a daily conflict with wounded pride and blighted hopes ! Wliat mournful reminiscences of former days ! What pathetic conversations about the calamities which have overwhelmed 28 ADDRESS. them ! What anxious consultations as to how they shall procure a scanty support ! What a rigorous economy of food and clothing ! What a sedulous plying of every gift and talent, that each may contribute to the common welfare ! What delicacy and skill in concealing their situa- tion even from friendly eyes ! What instinctive grace and dignity in all their limited intercourse with the world! Such is not unfrequently the home of a stricken merchant. And in ordinary cases, the burden and the honor of sus- taining it, will be found to have devolved on the female portion of the family. Providence has endowed that sex with an astonishing capacity of both physical and moral endurance. When the oak falls, it does not rise again. But if the hurricane strips the vines from their trel- lis, they presently seek a fresh support; or they at least spread their rich drapery over the ground. So the day of adversity serves only to develope the strength and elasticity of the feminine constitution. When the husband and father lies prostrate, the wife and the daughter spring from the earth, and address themselves to the exigencies of their position with a fortitude and a sagacity which it is impossible not to admire. Talk you of beauty, and wealth, and intellect, and generous culture ? These are our true nobility, — these heroic women, to whose virtues misfortune is what the sun is to the flowers, and whose accomplishments, once designed to be the Corinthian capitals of their domestic state, they are now laboriously ADDRESS. 29 and cheerfully working into its shattered foundations. I know of no class of persons in society more deserving of our homage ; and the man who can refuse them this tribute, is a reproach to that humanity which they dignify and adorn. That you concur in these views, is sufficiently attested by the occasion which has convened us. You have learned how to appreciate the suffering which desolates these once happy homes, and devised a scheme of relief eminently in keeping with the end to be accomplished. Christian phi- lanthropy has rarely essayed a more delicate task, but your thoughtful kindness has triumphed over all difficulties. Your fallen brethren — fallen not in character but in fortune — do not publish their sorrows. They do not solicit relief. It is a most significant fact, that not one application has yet been made to the " Merchants Fund" for aid. You respect these feelings. So far from invading the sanctity which attaches to them, you understand that you have to deal with persons whom no money could compensate for an exposure of their necessities, and to whom public relief would be far more intolerable than secret suffering. You seek them out therefore. You go to them, some one or two of your executive officers, as friends and fellow-merchants, and claim the privilege of light- ening their burdens, and augmenting their scanty comforts. No violence is done to their self-respect. They 30 ADDRESS. are left in their own homes and in the exercise of their usual avocations. Their names do not appear upon your records ; and the contributors themselves know not who they are. Here, indeed, is a beautiful feature of this Insti- tution— the mutual confidence which obtains among its members. You place your money in the hands of your Executive Committee ; they appropriate it ; and you are satisfied. All you know, or care to know, is, that they are the medium of communication between you and some fel- low-merchants who have been overtaken by reverses. The whole arrangement is characterized by delicacy and dis- crimination. Instead of a mere fortuitous and impulsive charity, going forth in random benefactions to the deserving and the undeserving, here is a well-ordered and systematic mechanism, guided by Christian wisdom, and applying its resources only to meritorious objects. A single example will illustrate the working of the plan, much better than I could describe it. The following narrative has been handed me by one of the officers of the Society : — " The name of C. D. having been suggested as a proper object of the benefactions of the Society (for of all the bene- ficiaries of the Fund none have ever made application), he was immediately recollected by some of the Committee, as having formerly been an active and respected merchant of our city, and in circumstances of considerable affluence. Having, however, experienced severe reverses of fortune, he ADDRESS. 31 had, for many yeai*s, Leeii withdrawn from the business-world and was living in great seclusion, and, from some circum- stances, it was feared in occasional want. Upon visiting his family at their humble lodging, this apprehension was real- ized. With that shrinking from an exposure of their pov- erty which, if it be an infirmity, is the infirmity of noble minds, they have struggled on for years, earning by their united labor, the means of providing sometimes one and sometimes two meals a day. The father, of more than eighty years old, gained from thirty to thirty-five cents per day by collecting small bills, an occupation which took him from Kensington to Southwark, and from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, and in all weather. His aged partner was found at the wash-tub, washing the clothes of some mechanics, who paid her as they could aftbrd ; while of the two daughters, one earned a scantv' pittance by binding shoes, the other had been long confined to her bed from a complaint of the spine. " Upon being informed that an appropriation had been made for his benefit by the Society, he evinced great emo- tion, but said he could not conscientiously receive it ; that though at times sorely straitened, he and his family had so far been fed ; while there were doubtless others in greater need. Upon its being explained that the ' Merchants Fund' did not by any means merely contemplate relieving the extremity of suffering want, but the furnishing of the com- 32 ADDRESS. forts which age and infirmity require, to those members of the profession who, in the providence of God, were unable to procure them for themselves, he said he could not at any rate avail himself of the kind offer until one fact was made known to the Committee. A few years before, an old friend had bequeathed to him the sum of $500, with a recommendation that the principal should be touched only in case of extreme emergency. So far he had used only the income; nothing but dire necessityshould force him to con- sume the sole provision he had to leave to his aged partner and his invalid daughter. All this must be known by the Committee. "It is almost superfluous to add, that this exhibition of magnanimity — for, to abstain from an offered advantage not to be enjoyed except at the expense of a good conscience, is true moral greatness — did not lessen the desire of the Committee to extend to this well-deserving gentleman a participation in the benefits of the "Merchants Fund," which he still continues to enjoy. Upon the final action of the Committee being communicated to him, he threw his arms around the neck of the messenger and wept for joy." This touching narrative may well relieve me from tres- passing longer upon your patience. You know not who this aged man is. But you do know, that your bounty has kindled a new light in his humble dwelling ; that you are smoothing his pathway to the tomb ; that you are plucking ADDRESS. 33 some tlioriis out of the pillow of that sick daughter ; and cheerino; all their hearts with the consciousness that there are those who feel for them. I will not say that in this conviction, you have your full reward. But I am sure your own happiness is greatly increased by the reflection, that you are sending comfort and hope into every one of these afflicted households mentioned in your admirable Report. And this you are doing on a scale quite beyond the limit of your pecuniary appropriations. To the persons you are assisting, every dollar has a value which more than doubles its intrinsic worth. It comes to them as a token of sym- pathy ; as a pledge that there are those who have thoughts of kindness towards them. And, aside from the consola- tions of religion, there is nothing like this to banish the sense of desolation, and to diffuse a grateful tranquillity over the soul. Other families need the same ministration of mercy. " Many a hand is held up, and no man seeth it ; many a groan is wasted in the air ; many die in secret, and like the moments of the day, they perish and are for- gotten." Go on, then Gentlemen, with your noble charity — go on in His strength who has said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." We may congratulate each other that Phila- delphia, the native soil of so many philanthropic enter- prises, should have been the first city on the globe to origi- 34 ADDRESS. nate a "Merchants Fund." Let it be guarded and nurtured as it deserves, and it will soon take an honorable place among those beneficent Institutions which are the pride and ornament of our metropolis. Other cities will copy your example ; and the seed which j^ou have planted, may bear fruit for distant lands and the remotest genera- tions. (DffirnB for 1805, PRESIDENT. JOHN M. ATWOOD. TICE-PRESIDEXTS. WILLIAM PLATT. SINGLETON A. MERCER. TREASURER. WILLIAM C. LUDWIG. SECRETARY. THOMAS H. FENTON. John M. Atwood, James B. McFarland, William Platt, Henry White, Singleton A. Mercer, Edwin Mitchell, William C. Ludwig, James C. Hand, William H. Bacon, Francis Hoskins, Thomas Allibone, Thomas H. Fenton, John W. Claghorn, Thomas F. Brady, Arthur G. Coffin, Joseph C. Grubb, Thomas Robins, John Ashhurst, William E. Bowen, John Mason. PHTSICIANS. ROBERT P. THOMAS, M.D. ROBERT T. EVANS, M.D. No. 106 North Twelfth Street. No. 435 Chestnut Street. COUNSELLORS. St. GEORGE TUCKER CAMPBELL, BENJAMIN GERHARD. taiiMiig CommittFEH. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. THOMAS ROBINS, FRANCIS HOSKINS, JOHN W. CLAGHORN, JAMES C. HAND, JOS. C. GRUBB, WILLIAM C. LUDWIG, Treasurer. FINANCE COMMITTEE. SINGLETON A. MERCER, THOMAS ALLIBONE, JAMES B. McFARLAND, WILLIAM C. LUDWIG, Treasurer. Applications for aid should be addressed to the Executive Committee. life J&EiiibErs. AUibonc, Thomas Ashhurst, John Ashhurst, Richard Ashhurst. Lewis R. Atwood, John M. Bacon, Wm. H. Borie, Charles Bowen, Smith Bowen, Wm. E. Brady, Thos. F. Brown, S. David Carpenter, Saml. H. Coffin, Arthur G. Colwell, Stephen Claghorn, Jno. W. Clark, E. W. Craige, Seth Davis, Isaac R. Ellison, John B. Fales, George Farnum, Henry Farnum, John Fisher, C. H. Fraley, F. Fuller, Oliver Grigg, John Grubb, Jos. C. Hand, James C. Hay, Wm. Hoskins, Francis Kent, Wm. C. Kneedler, J. S. Lea, Thos. T. Leje^, Wm. R. Love, Wm. H. Lovering, Jos. S. Ludwig, William C. Maison, Peter Mason, John Medara, Jos. S. Mercer, Hall W. Mercer, Singleton A. Milne, David Moore, Marmaduke Myers, John B. McHenry, A. R. McFarland, James B. Parrish, Geo. D. Paul, Bettle Perot, EUiston Potter, Thos. E. Piatt, AVilliam Robins, Thomas Rolin, Wm. A. Sharpless, Townsend Stuart, Geo. H. Tingley, B. W. Walsh, Robt. F. Wood, Horatio C. Slnniial JtiemherB. Addicks, John E. Aertsen, James M. Altemus, Jos. B. Altemus, Saml. T. Anspach, Jr., John Antelo, A. J. Arnold, Geo. F. Ash, J. P. Ashmead, Thos. E. Ashhurst, Richard Bacon, Josiah Bacon, Edmund Berg, Leon Biddle, Robert Biddle, Wm. Canby Biddle, Henry J. Bonnaffon, A. L. Bonnaffon, Sylvester Boyd, John 0. Brady, P. Brinley, E. L. Brognard, L. N. Brown, Wm. H. Brown, T. Wister Bullock, Geo. Bunn, Sol. M. Burk, Jas. A. Caldwell, S. A. Caldwell, Thos. Cannell, J. W. Carson, H. L. Chur, A. T. Coates, Wm. C. Coates, Benjamin Cochran, Wm. ^. Conrad, Harry Cooke, Jay Cope, Francis R. Cope, Henry Cope, Alfred Creighton, Robert Croasdill, W. C. Davis, John C. Davis, Wm. M. Davis, E. M. Day, Henry Dorsey, Wm. Drexel, A. Drexel, F. A. Drexel, F. W. Dulles, Jos. H. Dulles, Jos. H., Jr. Ellis, Amos Ellison, Wm. English, Gustavus Evans, Owen Evans, Wm. R. Facon, Thos. Farnum, John A X X U A L M E -AI B E R S. RO Famum, Peter Fell, Franklin Fenton, Thos. H. Field, Benjamin Fitzgerald, Jesse Furness, J. T. Gans, Daniel Green, Anthony Grundy, Edmund Hacker, Geo. W. Hacker, Isaac Hacker, Wm. P. Hallowell, Chas. Hallowell, Josh. L. Hallowell, M. L. HaUowell, W. P. Hamlin, Wm. K. Heilman, Amos G. Hendry, John A. Heron, A. Jr. Hieskill, Colson Hinman, D. B, Hoopes, J. Ross Huston, Samuel Hutchinson, E. R, Iddings, James Imbrie, James Jones, Isaac T. Kent, Rudolphus Keyset, Daniel Lamb, C. B. Lamed, Wm. H. Lea, Joseph Leonard, Saml. Lewis, A. J. Lewis, E. J., M.D. Lewis, E. M. Lewis, Jr., Henry Lewis, John A. Levy, L. J. Lippincott, George Lippincott, Jr., Joshua Little, A. W. Lothrop, Z. Manderson, Wm. L. Marsh, Benj. Y. Martin, Wm. Massey, E. K. Mercer, J. C. Mercer, Singleton A. Miller, Charles Miller, Charles P. Miller, Daniel L. Miskey, Anthony Mitchell, Edwin Molten, Albert Moss, E. L. Mott, Edw'd T. Murphy, Jas. McCowch, Wm. McElroy, A. McKee, Wm. Newbold, Wm. H. Newbold, John L. Xewhouse, Joseph Newkirk, Matthew Oak, David E. Ogden, Chas. S. Okie, J. B. Olmstead, A. J. Oppenheimer, A. Orne, Benjamin Parry, Samuel Patterson, Morris Patterson, Jos. Peabody, Geo. F. Potter, John Pratt, Wm. E. Price, Jos. Price, Richard 40 ANNUAL MEMBERS. Ponder, John Raiguel, Augustus II. Raiguel, Henry R. Raphael, Wm. Reed, J. Earl Reed, Robt. S. Reed, Michael Reese, Geo. B. Reid, John Remington, T. P. Ritter, Abraham Richardson, Wm. C. Roberts, Geo. H. Robins, Edward Saunderson, Z. W. Scull, Alfred P. Scull, David Senat, L. D. Sexton, Jno. W. Sharp, Jos. W. Sharpless, Joseph J. Shepherd, Solomon Sherron, Jas. F. Shipley, A. B. Sill, John T. Silvis, Benj. Skillman, Wm. G. Slade, Alfred Smith, T. Smith, Solomon Snowden, Edw'd Souder, Edmund A. Spangler, C. E. Sprague, B. Steiner, Jacob Steiner, J. P. Steinmetz, Danl, Stokes, Samuel E. Stroup, James H. Tatum, Daniel 0. Tennent, James Tete, Francis Toppan, Charles Traquair, James Tunis, Thos. R. Tyndale, Hector Vezin, Chas. Wainwright, Wm. J. Wain, Lewis AValter, T. Weber, John C. Weiner, Heinrich Welling, Chas. H. Wendell, M. R. Wetherill, John Price Wharton, C. W, Wharton, D. C. Whelan, John G. White, AVm. R. White, Henry Williamson, M. Wilson, J. Withers, Jos. N. Wolfe, Nicholas Wood, Geo. H. Wray, James Wurts, Chas. S. Yarnall, Howard Young, Thomas S. SUGCtESTIONS YOUNG MEN ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS: A DISCOURSE OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF MR. ARCHIBALD SLOAN, AT THE MERCHANTS' HOTEL, PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER 9th, 1851. BY H. A. BOARDMAN, D. D. PHILADELPHIA: LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., SUCCESSOKS TO GRIGG, ELLIOT AND CO. 1851. Enteretl according- to the Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by LIPPINCOTT, GKAMBO AND CO., in the OlFice of the Clerk of the District Court in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. rniLADELPiiiA: T. K. AND p. G. COLLINS, PRINTERS. CORRESPONDENCE. Philadelphia, Kov. 1, 1851. Dear Sir: — Having listened, with great interest, to the sermon you delivered on Sunday evening last, addressed to " the Mercantile Classes," and desiring that its usefulness may be extended, by affording an op- portunity for its perusal to the community at large, we respectfully request, on our own behalf and on that of many others who heard you, that you will furnish us with a copy for publication. With much respect, your obedient servants, T. G. Moss, W. R. Casox, Geo. M. Procter, H. J. Smith. Rev. Dr. Boardman. Philadelphia, Kov. 1st, 1851. To the Rev. H. A. Boardmax, D. D. Dear Sir: — The undersigned listened with great satisfaction to the sermon delivered by you on Sunday evening the 26th ult., occasioned by the death of one of our companions, Mr. Archibald Sloan, and are deeply impressed with the belief that its publication and general circu- lation would be productive of much good in this community, more particularly to that class to which we belong, and to whom it was especially addressed. With that view, we most respectfully ask from you the manuscript for publication. Francis Squire. W. M. F. Magraw, Robert A. Crawford, C. C. Haffelfinger, Lambert Thomas, J. Allison Eyster, Alex. T. Lane, H. T. McVeigh, E. W. Davidson, Jacob Zeller, E. C. Huntington, C. D. Russell, Henry C. Laughlin, LowBER Burrows, Benjamin F. Grove, S. H. Smith, Harry A. Gleim, Geo. W. Wanamaker, Jos. S. Brown, Jos. Webster, W. M. Reckless, John C. Ralston, J. W. Whiteman, Francis A. Ferry, Wm. T. Dortch, John Jordan, A. Emslie Xewbold, Hugh P. Schetky, IV CORRESPONDENCE. 1 Wm. J. Barr, Henry Lelar, Jr. J. M. Taylor, H. A. Leavitt, Geo. S. Tobes, W. Aug's Andre^ys, Wqarton Griffitts, Harry Stiles, Wm. II. NicoLS, Alex. Omensetter, Jas. W. Veazey, James H. Cochrane, W. N. Ashman, Frank Cookman, Isaac W. Webb, RicHD. Parker, John B. Penn, George T. Heather, Saml. p. Darlington, J. M. Carskadden, E. S. Howell, L. Leavitt, Hugh B. McCauley, J. H. Meehan, David I. Haun, James AY. Wroth, Edmund B. Orbison, H. Haddock, James W. Linville, Alfred William Chaffee, J. W. Stout, Saml. II, Sterett, Chas. D. Hurlbutt, Wm. p. Rockhill, M. Jno. Moore, A. W. Nash, Geo. S. Scott, C. B. Slagle, John C. Weber, Saml. Si'arhawk, Thompson Ritchie, Edwin A. Merrick, J. P. Burroughs, Geo. W. Gill, John S. Wenner, F. C. Potter, B. A. Buck, Wm. F. Wilkins, C. W. Yard, C. W. Sydnor, Saml. Milliken, Jr. Wm. H. Gregg, D. M. Swarr, C. J. Shower, II, D. Lawrence, George C. Barber, David E. Oak, Washington Danner, Nesmitii. Philadelphia, Hov. Zd, 1851. Gentlemen: — Having been led by the lamented death of Mr. Sloan to reflect on the position and relations of the large body of Young Men in our commercial houses, the unwelcome conviction was forced upon me, that our pastors generally, myself included, had scarcely recognized them as a distinct class in the community, much less put forth any suit- able efforts for their welfare. Under the influence of this feeling, the discourse you have in such kind terms requested for publication, was written. You will need no assurance from me that it was prepared without the slightest reference to the press ; but I do not feel that this is a sufficient reason for withholding it, if, as you seem to suppose, its suggestions are adapted to be useful to those who listened to it from the pulpit. The manuscript is herewith placed at your disposal. Very truly and faithfully, yours, H. A. BOARDMAN. To Messrs. T. G. Moss, W. R. Cason, Francis Squire, W. M, F, Magraw, and others. SUGGESTIONS TO YOUTO MEN EXGAGED ly MERCANTILE BUSINESS. But seek te first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and ALL these things SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU. MaTT. VI. 33. Funeral pageants are too common in large cities to attract notice, unless they are marked by some peculiar circumstances. About two weeks since, on a mild and serene afternoon, one passed along our streets to a cemetery in the southern part of the city, which did for the time bring the eager throng in the thoroughfares to a pause, and excite at least a tran- sient feeling of interest. It was a long procession of Young Men following the remains of a friend and companion to the grave. He came here from Ten- nessee three or four years ago, as a clerk in an emi- nent commercial house. His integrity and capacity, his fidelity and diligence, his modest demeanor and high-souled, generous disposition, secured him the confidence of his employers, the cordial esteem of 6 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN his associates, and the respect of all who met with him. No one will be found to gainsay the assertion that he was a general favorite ; and that any of his contemporaries may esteem themselves happy, who are as much beloved as he was. He retired to rest of a Saturday night in his usual vigorous health — his tall athletic form and manly countenance betraying no indication of the insidious foe which had entrench- ed itself in the very citadel of life. Before the morn- ing he was seized by an impetuous and unconquerable malady which, after four brief days and nights of dreadful suffering, left him a pallid corpse. All that medical skill and faithful nursing (such nursing, per- haps, as is rarely experienced in a great hotel) could do, was done to save him. If sympathy and affec- tion could have averted the blow, the kind ministra- tions and the tears of the young men who were constantly around his bed, and who supplied as well as might be the place of relatives, must have insured a reprieve. But his hour had come. He died — died with the flush of health upon his cheek, before dis- ease had wasted his flesh, and, as it were, in the full- ness of his strength — as a noble ship, her timbers all sound, her spars complete, and all her canvass spread, has sometimes disappeared suddenly beneath the sea. The startling severity of the blow sent a thrill through many hearts. A large concourse of his companions, with many of our merchants, assembled to do honor to his remains; and as the sad cortege passed on with a slow and solemn tread to the place of sepulture, it ENGAGED IX MERCANTILE BUSINESS. < was honorable alike to the livina: and the dead to see how many hearts were touched by this spectacle — the funeral of a young man ! If God speaks to us in his providence as well as by his word, an event like this should not be treated with indifference. It is charged with a mission which it deeply behooves us to understand. We shall not, probably, misinterpret one of its lessons if we make it the occasion of considering, for a little, the position and relations of the class of young men to which our deceased friend belonged, and the importance to them of personal religion. I speak of them as a class by themselves, for such, in fact, they are. The young men in our mercantile establishments — those particularly in our ^"jobbing houses" — are, most of them, from abroad. They are neither natives of this city, nor are they here for a year or two simply as students. They have come here to reside, and are ultimately to become mer- chants themselves. This is one circumstance which marks them as a distinct class. Another is that they usually board at the hotels. Commercial ends are secured by this, which are thought to be of much importance. They have, again, a common occupation. They are in the same, or similar, kinds of business. The received methods of our inland commerce impart a substantial identity to their duties, their temptations, their pleasures, and their general mode of lifo, and 8 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN separate them, in a measure, from the rest of the community. These attributes of the class, as such, must suffice to show that their position is not altogether favorable lo the cultivation of virtue and religion. There is a great deal involved in taking a young man from his home, and setting him down to do for himself in a large city. The mere removal of a youth from a good home to any other situation — to a school or college, to the house of a friend or relative, to a shoj^ or a store — brings with it a serious trial of character. But here the case is a very strong one. Compare a modest, tranquil dwelling in a small town or hamlet of Kentucky or Tennessee, with one of our mammoth Hotels, and you will begin to understand the ordeal which some thousands of young men in our city have passed through. It is not easy to conceive of any greater social change which they could have experi- enced, than this. At a single bound they have passed from all the genial influences which sheltered, restrained, and nurtured them in such a home, into a scene which contains scarcel}^ an element of domes- tic life. Instead of sitting down at a snug family board with the same little group from month to month, they sit at a table with two or three hundred guests, and these changing everj^ day. In place of the sympathy, the tenderness, the mutual confidence and refining fellowship of a mother and sisters, they are surrounded by men — respectable and worthy per- sons, no doubt, but all men — and as such, no adequate ENGAGED IX MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 9 companions to replace the circle they have left. For an atmosphere of love, where there was some one to share in every joy, and divide every trouble ; where their every want was promptly supplied, and every indication of pain or anxiety was made the occasion for fresh offices of afifection ; they have been trans- planted into one which, though not destitute of this element, savors far more of indifference and selfish- ness. They are in a throng who are thrown together by interest or convenience, business or pleasure ; the most of whom are not stationary long enough to form any attachments ; and who sever the precarious tie which constitutes their transient bond of union, with as little feeling as they formed it. This change in their domestic relations is emble- matical of that which has taken place in their situa- tion at large. They have relinquished the seclusion and simplicity of the country, for life in a great metropolis. Everything here is widely different. The outward face of things is so unlike the country, that a vounsi; man is often bewildered when he is first dropped in the heart of a city, with its multitudinous streets and lanes, its interminable ranges of houses and shops, its imposing public buildings, the rapid succession of vehicles of every pattern which sweep along the avenues, and the endless crowds of human beings that jostle each other on the sidewalks. It is to such a youth a new world — stranger and more exciting even than it would be to an intelligent and travelled American or European, to be put down in 10 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN the streets of Pekin or Jecldo. Nor is the exchange very advantageous on the score of morals. Natural scenery, it is true, will never renew the heart. Vol- taire wrote many of his infamous libels upon Chris- tianity, and some of his most licentious tales and essays, while looking out from his villa at Ferney, upon as glorious a panorama as mortal eyes ever gazed upon. And humanity has few more degraded specimens of its handiwork to present to the sympathy of the philanthropist, than some which can be found among the most picturesque regions of the globe. Still, there is much in nature, as contrasted with a great city, that is adapted to refine and improve the character — " Scenes formed for contemplation, and to nurse The growing seeds of wisdom ; that suggest, By every pleasing image they present, Reflections such as meliorate the heart. Compose the passions and exalt the mind." It is certainly a material advantage that in the country, the objects which meet the senses speak of God, while in the city we are reminded only of man. Not only do the mountains and forests, the valleys and rivers, illustrate the wisdom and majesty of the Deity ; but " the spectacle of active nature is no less favorable to the cultivation of religious feeling than the contemplation of its passive scenes ; every bird and every animal has its habits of life independent of man; it has a sagacity which man never taught; and propensities which man could not inspire. The ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 11 growth of all the plants and fruits of the earth, depends upon laws over which man has no control : out of great cities there is everywhere around and about us a vast system going on utterly independent of human wisdom and human interference ; and man learns there the great lesson of his imbecility and dependence, not by that reflection to which superior minds alone can attain, but by those daily impres- sions upon his senses w^iich make the lesson more universal and more certain. But here everything is man, and man alone ; kings and senates command usj we talk of their decrees and look up to their pleasure; they seem to move and govern all, and to be the pro- vidence of cities; in this seat of government, placed under the shadow of those who make the laws, we do not render unto CaBsar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's; but God is forgotten, and Csesar is supreme ; all is human policy, human foresight, human power; nothing reminds us of invisible dominion and concealed omnipotence ; we do nothing but what man bids; we see nothing but what man creates; we mingle with nothing but what man commands ; it is all earth and no heaven. '"=' In the letter, this pertains to London; in its spirit it applies to all great cities. Nor does it state the whole truth. Not only have we to do here with man's works, man's laws, man's projects, with every- thing that is of man and that is fitted to fasten the * Sydney Smith. 12 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN attention upon man, but we "live and move and have our being ' amidst a crowd — and it must be a robust integrity which can stand this. We are admonished against the danger from this source on high authority. "Be not ye the servants of men." " Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil." The best of us need to have these warnings frequently sounded in our ears. And how essential are they to the class whom I am addressing ! No man can be blind to the whole- some restraints which are imposed on vice, in a city like this, nor to the powerful agencies which are here originated for the support of real religion. It is in no small measure through metropolitan capital, energy, intelligence, and piety, that the mighty conflict with sin is carried forward, which is, by the blessing of God, to result in the general diffusion of Christianity. But it cannot, on the other hand, be denied, that a perfect torrent of worldliness is perpetually pouring itself through all the streets and marts of such a city. The multitudes have their eyes fixed not on heaven but on earth. Their employments, their conversation, the motives which drive them on in the fierce race of competition, the institutions and implements of com- merce, the whole network of their daily associations, are secularizing in their tendency. And when you superadd to these influences, the fascinating amuse- ments and gilded vices which impregnate the atmos- phere with their grateful but deadly malaria, and infuse a new and most effective element into the reigning levity and hardihood of the crowd, you can- ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 13 not fail to see what imminent peril waits upon every young man who places himself within the reach of these potent seductions. The strong impulse of those who come here from the interior especially, and are severed from their homes, must be, to fall in with the current and let it bear them where it will. It is natural and easy to do as others do around us — to conform to the popular usages and fashions. Men cease to be nice casuists when they are mixed up in a crowd. The practical verdict of the multitude super- sedes their inquiries into the right and wrong of actions, and sweeps away their scruples — or, at least sweeps them away, even though their scruples re- main. The motives which induce this passive acqui- escence in the ways of the majority, may be com- mendable. It may spring from modesty, or from a dread of singularity. " Who am I, that I should set myself up as wiser and better than those around me? Why am I called upon to condemn practices and habits which have the sanction of so many older and abler men? Can that be wrong which has so general an approval? I am but an humble individual; can any harm result from my living as other people live?" With such specious sophistries as these, 3'oung men too often persuade themselves to barter their inde- pendence and their rectitude, for a listless and un- worthy subserviency to the opinions of their neighbors. On any other subject they might dare to be singular. On questions of politics, of trade, of education, of literature, they venture not only to think for them- 14 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN selves, but to utter their sentiments with manly freedom, and shape their conduct accordingly. But where morals and religion are concerned, they are either seized with a timidity which makes them sup- press their convictions, or paralyzed by an apathy which produces a servile assent, where there ought to be a fearless resistance. If we could cull a few leaves from the private journals of mercantile life, such as as are filed away, not in the pigeon-holes of an escri- toir, but in the recesses of the heart, it might appear that no small proportion of the young men of this class have brought themselves to fall in with one practice and another of the commercial Avorld, only through a tedious series of un avowed misgivings and remonstrances; while many others have been content to take things as they were, without inquiry or re- flection. It cannot be disguised that, as a body, their morals are exposed to more or less danger from the preternatural excitement which pervades the whole realm of commerce. This excitement may be detected wherever there is trafficking on a large scale ; but it has its foci in our great cities ; and these young men, like the angel in the sun, are just at the burning point. Allowing that the rivalries and conflicts which occupy them are of a generous nature, still they are a crucible to character, and it is well if they come out of them unscathed. In the customary routine of their duties, they are selling goods to men of every type, seeking customers at their hotels for the houses they represent, carrying on a large correspondence, taking ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 15 long and hazardous journeys, repelling what they regard as calumniatory statements from adverse sources, sometimes brought into immediate collision with the agents of counter interests, and tempted, not unfrequently, with a view to mere mercantile ends, to accompany strangers to places of vicious amuse- ment;— and it Avere a marvel if their principles should suffer no damage in a life like this. Let it be recorded to the lasting honor of the profession to which they have devoted themselves, that amidst these hostile influences there are constantly moulding characters of noble strength and symmetry; and that, in the aggregate, they maintain, in their projDcr sphere, the high reputation of the commercial class for candor and probity. Still, there are disasters. This is a coast where too many fine barques have been wrecked, and too many shattered, not to put us on our guard against its dangers. How these can be eluded or sur- mounted must be a question of absorbing interest with every young man engaged in mercantile pur- suits. It is a question quite too comprehensive to be answered in a single sermon. A few suggestions must, in the present service, supply the place of a formal dissertation on this subject. Nothing effective can be done in the right direction, until a young man awakes to his personal responsi- bility. So long as we move in a crowd, swayed to and fro by its eddies — like the twig entangled in a mass of rubbish on the bosom of a running stream — we cannot but miss the proper end of our being. The 16 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN servitude of caste must be broken. "We must think and act for ourselves. We must be impressed with the conviction that there is not only a fitness and an unfitness, an expediency and an inexpediency, a beauty and a deformity, in our specific actions and our general plans and aims, but also A right and a wrong ; that this is, beyond all comparison, their most import- ant relation; and that the standard by which it is to be adjusted is not usage, but the law of God. It may very well happen that your principles and life are in harmony with those of the great commercial brother- hood to which you belong, and that they justly secure to you the respect and confidence commonly awarded to such virtues as adorn your characters. But is there not another tribunal to which you are amena- ble? "With me," says the apostle Paul, "it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self . . but he that judge th me is the Lord." This is as true of each one of us as it was of Paul. We need not disparage the opinions of our fellow-men; we may, within proper limits, court their approbation. But it is a fatal error to confound their commendation with the Divine sanction, to mistake the vox ijopuli for the vox Dei, the voice of the people for the voice of God. The balances in which motives and actions are weighed, are hung high above the tumults of com- merce— beyond the reach of all those influences which beguile our consciences and bias our judgments. And he alone is likely to go on in the path of recti- ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 1 1 tudo, with an unfaltering step, who has his eye stead- fastly fixed on them, and labors to poise his motives and conduct by their unerring decisions. This cannot be done by one who lives only in the crowd. It is indispensable, if we would attain it, that we HAVE OUR SEASONS OF SELF-COMMUNION AND COM- MUNION WITH God. If our Saviour found it needful to retire frequently for prayer, how essential must secret meditation and devotion be to us ! The very circumstance of withdrawing for this j)urpose — the consciousness of being alone with God — is peculiarly adapted to foster that feeling of personal responsibility of which we have just spoken. There, in that soli- tary chamber, the noisy world shut out, the tramp and the hum of the crowd heard only as a distant murmur, the cares of business and the enticements of sin left behind — there, with your Bible open before you, and your thoughts going up to the throne of the Omniscient, you cannot well help feeling that you have an existence of your own, an individuality which cannot be merged in the activities of the surrounding multitude, but which is as complete and intransfera- ble as though you were the only rational tenant of the globe. The legitimate effect of these seasons of se- clusion is to restore those impressions of the invisible and the spiritual, which continual commerce with the world tends to efface. They supply us with a new stand-point from which to survey the world at large, and our own particular relations to it. You must sometimes have noted in travelling, how different are 18 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN the views you get of a region of country, as you stand upon a lofty ridge, and retrace your route, from those which beguiled you by the way. And the dif- ference will be far greater in the estimates you form of yourself and of the world in your own dormitory, with the Scriptures for your guide, as compared with those which have engrossed you while actually pur- suing your daily avocations. It is here you will be likely to get a fresh sight of that immutable standard of rigJit and wrong which is so often obscured or dis- torted by the mists of passion and prejudice. Here you will measure yourself, not by your fellow-worms, but by the perfect Exemplar proposed to us in the Gospel. Here you will detect the unworthy motives of some of your actions which have elicited the ap- plause of your friends, and be led to see that you have less cause to be exalted before men, than you have to be abased before God. Here, in a word, you will have those momentous themes presented to you which we are all so apt to lose sight of, and a due appreciation of which is essential both to our present comfort and our eternal well-being. Whatever is neglected, then, let provision be made in the adjustment of your time, for a daily season of devotion. From private to public devotion, the transition is easy and natural. Look again at your position. Im- mortal, accountable, and dying creatures, you are placed in circumstances where you are in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by the torrent of secu- larity which breaks upon you with all its force during ENGAGED IN 3IERGANTILE BUSINESS. 19 six days of every week. Duty, interest, happiness, your everlasting salvation, are all involved in your escaping or repelling it. What are you to do ? To breast it in your own strength would be like attempt- ing to breast the rapids of the Niagara, and must lead to a similar catastrophe. But our heavenly Father has not left us to so hard a fate. He has offered us his own Almighty arm for a support, and taught us how to avail ourselves of it. Pre-eminent among his merciful arrangements for this end, stands the Christ- ian Sabbath — an institution so fraught with blessings of every kind, that to contemn it would argue a mind dead to all sense of gratitude, and to all proper con- sideration for the improvement of the race. In your situation, the Sabbath has a value which no words can express. It comes to you with its sweet repose, to refresh you from your toil and weariness. It comes to turn the current of your associations; to repeat for you the miracle of the Red Sea, and roll back, for a few hours, the swelUng tide which threatens to sub- merge you; to take you out of the beaten track in which you are treading your ceaseless rounds, and open to you the green pastures and still waters of paradise; to change the scene for you from ware- houses and customers, merchandize and trafficking, to the house of God, the reverence and the solemnity of a worshipping assembly, the songs of Zion, and the sublime themes of revelation. An alternation like this is invaluable, in a mere intellectual view. The mind dwarfs and rusts if it is kept to a stereotype routine 20 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN of functions. To give breadth and comprehension to its powers, the subjects on which they are employed must be diversified. It were better to change some- times to trifling objects, than not to change at alL And if this principle be sound, the advantage, simply in the way of mental culture, must be incalculable, when the subjects presented for consideration are at once the most majestic and the most urgent which can engage the attention of rational beings. The time forbids me to go into this inquiry now, but the fact must be apparent to every hearer, that you render an individual a most useful service, aside from any moral benefit he may receive, when you replace, even for an hour or two, the mass of earthliness which fills his heart and monopolizes his faculties from day to day, with ideas of God and eternity, the soul and its des- tiny, redemption and perdition. You startle him from his torpor. You wake up his powers. You open to him a new creation. You send ofi* his thoughts into regions he had scarcely dreamed of. You enlarge the grasp of his faculties, and qualify him to pass with a discrimination and an acuteness previously undevel- oped, upon the common pursuits and familiar topics of life. So true is it, that " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," even taking " wisdom" in its lowest signification. But the Sabbath has a much stronger claim upon you than this, and it is insisted upon here because this is precisely the pivot upon which the career of thou- sands of clerks in our cities hinges. Tlie Sahhath is ENGAGED IX MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 21 the point in their history at which the road forhs; one track leading on to honor, success, and usefulness ; the other to ultimate ruin, and frequently to premature failure and disgrace. If you consider the matter (for I can do little more than state the fact), you will find that the proper observance of the Sabbath is affiliated with every virtue and every good habit, with all the agencies which are favorable to self-improvement and sohd happiness, and all those which go to prepare men for the felicity of heaven ; while the habitual desecra- tion or neglect of this day is as closely interlaced with the evil propensities of the heart, with vicious habits, and with those pestiferous influences which subvert men's prmciples and destroy their souls. The profa- nation of the Sabbath implies a want of reverence for the Divine authority, and of gratitude for the Divine goodness, which is itself an evil omen. There is a flaw already in the character or the conscience of the man who can permit himself to invade the sanctity of that day which Jehovah claims as his own, and upon, which He has impressed his image and superscription. This denotes an absence of that plenary integrity- to- wards God which is the best guarantee of inflexible integrity towards man. Honesty may co-exist with irreligion and with downright infidelity. But its only immutable and adequate basis is faith in Jesus Christ. A merchant who looks only to his own inter- est, and who is as indifierent to the spiritual wel- fare of his clerks as he is to the thrift of the dray- horses in the street, would nevertheless pursue a wise 22 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN policy by encouraging them to a faithful observance of the Sabbath. The more they feel their obligations to God, the more conscientious will they be in serving their employer ; for, it is one principle which puts a man upon fearing God, and upon rendering to all their dues — which makes one loyal to heaven, and upright in all that pertains to earth. The neglect of the Sab- bath involves a disreputable neglect of the Bible. It fosters a disrelish for serious things. It blunts the conscience. It promotes indolence and instability. It frequently contributes to nourish a taste for demoral- izing books. It leads to bad company — Sunday-drives — drinking — theatres — and other pernicious recrea- tions. It laj'-s men open to the subtle approaches of skeptics and scoffers. While, on the other hand, it removes from them the restraints, and deprives them of the helps which we all require in our warfare with sin, and which they certainly require who rush, unbid- den, into all these temptations, A volume would scarcely suffice to discuss this topic. But the occasion precludes my doing more than to exhort you by every motive which can be addressed to your interest, your duty, or your desire of happiness, to guard your Sab- baths from desecration. God has given you this day as your own ; " The Sabbath was made for man." The world has no right to it. Business has no lien upon it. Friends may not deprive you of it. He has bestow- ed it upon you for your own use and benefit; and, if your eyes are not holden, you will see that it is a more munificent gift than if he had made you a grant of ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 23 all the ships that float on our waters, or all the gold they have brought here for coinage. Dedicate it to its high and holy purposes — to the worship of God, to your preparation for eternity, and to philanthropic labors for your destitute or sufiering fellow-creatures. Have a place in some evangelical Church — a place which shall be your own. This will make you feel like occupying it, and take away that illusive and fatal pretext which keeps so many young men from the sanctuary, that they " have no place to go to." It will do more. By identifj'ing yourselves with a con- gregation, you become sharers in their sympathies and their prayers. You participate, more or less, in their spiritual blessings. The very relations you sustain towards them will become fresh incentives to virtu- ous conduct. You w^ll be conscious of occupying a more conspicuous, and, I may add, a more honorable position in the community; of having friendly e^'es turned upon you, and friendly expectations cherished concerning you ; all which will be wholesome props and stimulants in the race of life. Above all, this will bring you within the sound of the Gospel. It will set home upon your consciences at stated inter- vals, those lessons of our mortality and responsibility which we are all so prone to forget, keep you admon- ished that it is your duty to " seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," and supply you with the aids essential to the achievement of this gi'eat end. Let nothing, then, prevent you from attaching your- selves, not by the precarious tie of caprice or fashion, 24 SUGGESTIONS TO TOUNG MEN but by the firm bond of principle and duty, to some evangelical congregation. It will not do, however, to rest here. "The kingdom of God" must be sought until it is found. By nature and by practice we are alienated from God, and rebels against him. Our prime duty, our most urgent necessity, is to be restored to his favor, and transformed into his image. We must be par- doned through the blood of Christ, and renewed by the Divine Spirit, or we are lost forever. We require this, as already intimated, on other grounds. It were a theme well worthy of your attention — true religion as an element in the commercial character — a subject of peculiar interest, and happily illustrated in nume- rous examples around us, of accomplished merchants whose lives are transfused with the spirit of genuine piety. It would be a grateful office to trace the influ- ence of a steadfast and intelligent faith both uj)on the intellectual and the moral powers — to see how it ope- rates in imparting strength and symmetry to the cha- racter— how it fosters integrity, prudence, sagacity, and industry — how it excites to the cultivation of all the faculties — how it represses evil tendencies and wards off temptations — and how it inspires general respect and confidence. These are important bearings of personal religion as regards mercantile character and success. But we have no time to consider them in detail. To a single one of them I may be allowed to ad- vert briefly; I refer to the temptations incident to ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 25 your peculiar vocation. What these are, you know a great deal better than I can tell you. That they are neither few nor small, might be inferred from the sketches already given of your general mode of life. You have your homes in those great establishments (conducted, often, let it be said, with admirable skill and efficiency) into which steamboats and railway trains are constantly pouring crowds of travellers. Imbued with a becoming zeal for the success of your respective houses, you adopt all honorable measures to extend their business. Among the eager and shift- ing multitude with whom you are thus brought in contact, are men who are curious to see the sights of the city, and others who are bent on amusements and indulgences which the small towns and villages they reside in do not supply. Your aid is invoked as guides and companions — possibly, sometimes, tendered where it is not invoked. You will not thank me, perhaps, if I go further. But how can I do you good unless I tell you the truth ? Let me remind you, then, that this very process has brought many a promising young man to ruin. It too often conducts them to the theatre, and other places of vicious amuse- ment. It carries them out on Sunday excursions. It leads to drinking and card-playing. It makes them acquainted with gamblers and profligates — the marauders that may be seen at almost all hours of the day, lounging about some of the most conspicuous corners in our city, and who, if tolerated, will en- trench themselves in the hotels. A salesman will 26 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN vindicate this policy to his own conscience, on the ground that it is designed to subserve the interests of his principals. This it may do for a time, and in a limited degree; but it seldom works well in the end. Business may be increased at too large a cost. Gun- cotton was at first hailed as a Avonderful achievement in the arts, and one likely to be of high public utility. But it has been found that the process of preparing it is attended with imminent hazard to the operatives, and that when manufactured, it is a very dangerous tenant; the risk of it is greater than its value. Cus- tom that is got by treating and frequenting scenes of dissipation, is very like gun-cotton. It jeopards health and character to get it, and when secured, it is very apt to blow up and scatter your property to the winds.''' How can it be otherwise? No man can be an eligible customer, who is not a man of cor- rect principles and habits. If he lacks this requisite, the larger his purchases the more perilous for the house that sells to him. What reliance, then, can be placed upon a man whose morals are already so de- bauched that he spends his time while in the city, in sensual pleasures ? or upon one of so little intelligence and energy, that a bottle of wine or a complimentary * I have heard one of the most accomplished and influential sales- men in this city, say, that in the whole course of his experience, he never knew a customer secured by the course alluded to, who did not prove, in the end, a scourge to the house he dealt with. It is well that this pernicious practice is so generally frowned upon by our respectable merchants. ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 27 visit to some place of amusement, will control him in buying his goods ? It is suicidal for a house to coun- tenance cunj measure which may tend to weaken the moral sense of a customer, or foster his inferior appe- tites. How many have been inoculated in our Atlan- tic cities with the fatal virus of intemperance or gambling, who have gone back to their distant homes and indulged these propensities for a while in secret, until at length, after a few more visits to the sea- board, they have been mastered by their evil passions, and ruined in health, fortune, and character. '• Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished." There is a Providence as much in commerce as in religion : and it can excite no surprise in a reflecting mind, that a traffic which it has corrupted the morals of clerks and customers to gain, should sooner or later entail losses, if not dishonor, on all concerned in it. Let not these observations be misunderstood. They involve no impeachment of the mercantile body, as such. The character of this profession, whether in the city or the country, for general intelligence and probity is beyond reproach ; as is the reputation of the young men, as a class, who are charged with the endless subordinate (or in one sense primary) agen- cies in the world of trade. But no profession is free from unworthy members. And even if there were fewer of this sort than there are eno:aGred in mercan- tile pursuits, your situation would still be one to de- mand for you the restraints and safeguards of true religion. Not that religion would infallibly preserve 28 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN you either from error or sin. But you would be far safer with it than you can be without it. It would hold you back from many a scene of peril, and blunt the edge of many an enticement to evil. It would come to the help of your good purposes when borne down by a formidable array of numbers, or giving way under some sudden temptation. It would es- tablish your moral jDrinciples on a solid basis, and insure you those Divine succors, without which, all our strength is weakness, and our wisdom, folly. But there is the still weightier consideration to be pondered by you already mentioned. The one great alternative demands our care, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" — repentance or perdition. Here is a sufficient, an unanswerable argument why you should all "' seek the kingdom of God" without delay, viz., that this is the only way in which you can be prepared for death and eternity. Some of you have had this argument presented to you lately with a solemnity and a tenderness which the pulpit cannot emulate. Who that stood by the bed-side of the lamented Sloan, can forget his testimony ! There he lay, liis manly form writhing under paroxisms of intense suffering, and his generous nature pierced with the deeper anguish of a reclaiming conscience, and an anticipated judgment — there he lay, lamenting with bitter sorrow that he had postponed his prepara- tion for death until the hand of death was upon him. It is not for us to draw aside the curtain and learn whether those anxious prayers for mercy which en- ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 29 gaged so large a portion of the last fortj-eiglit hours of his life, received a gracious answer. V^e may hope that they did. We may cherish the alleviating thought that the confidence he expressed was well grounded, a confidence reposing not on his own works or merits, which he so emphatically disclaimed, but wholly on the true foundation, the righteous- ness of Christ. This will not abate the force of his admissions, or the urgency of his appeals. It was his dying testimony, that it is most unwise to neglect the claims of religion in the season of health. It was his earnest and affectionate admoni- tion to some of his kind and sympathizing friends, " See that you do not defer your preparation, as I have done, until you are laid upon a death-bed." What can I add to this ? If we could revoke hitn from yonder cemetery, if we could call back his im- mortal spirit from the unseen world, and he could stand for a brief space where I stand, and you could hear again the tones of that familiar voice, think you he would cancel the confessions and expostulations of his death-scene? You cannot believe this. You cannot doubt that with the experience he has now had of the eternal world, he would plead with you, trumpet-ton gued, to be reconciled to God; that he would warn 3'ou against all delays ; and entreat you with tears to " seek first the kingdom of God." Do you not owe it to his memory, as well as to your- selves, to heed this counsel ? 30 SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG MEN "Smitten friends Are angels sent on errands full of love ; For us they languish and for us they die : And shall they languish, shall they die, in vain ? Ungrateful, shall we grieve their hovering shades, Which VF.ait the revolution in our hearts ? Shall we disdain their silent, soft address; Their posthumous advice and pious prayer; Senseless, as herds that graze their hallow'd graves, Tread under foot their agonies and groans ; Frustrate their anguish, and destroy their deaths?" Under any circumstances an appeal from an indi- vidual who is just passing into eternity, must be regarded with seriousness. But in this case it derives great force and solemnity from the character of the man. It is no barren, posthumous compliment, when it is stated, that he was a man of generous impulses and untarnished honor, one who scorned all meanness and chicanery, and who would rather do no business at all, than not do it on principles of straightforward honesty.* Here, in the judgment of very many in- * Mr. Sloan's disposition may be inferred from an anecdote which I have received on unquestionable authority. Before he came to this city to reside, he had been in business in Tennessee. Ilis property was entirely absorbed in discharging the liabilities contracted by the firm of which he was a member. He went out several months since to collect some money from a person who was largely in debt to him, and returned without it. " Why did you not get your money?" said a friend to him. " Because," he replied, "I went to the house, and found them all packed up, just about removing to Texas. And when I looked at his wife and little children, and considered that if I insisted upon my claim, it might be taking the bread out of their mouths, and breaking up their plans, I couldn't do it. I chose rather to lose the money my- self; and so I turned about and came back without even mentioning the subject to him." ENGAGED IN MERCANTILE BUSINESS. 31 telligent persons, he had an adequate foundation to rest upon : " If virtues hke these do not insure salva- tion, who can hope to be saved ?" And yet, when the hour of trial came, Sloan did not feel that he could trust to this foundation. He well knew that his character was about to be subjected to the scrutiny of that immaculate Being in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and that the graceful qualities which had procured him the esteem of his fellow-men, might prove a very insufficient equipment to fit him for the presence of a holy God. His testimony on this vital point, corroborated as it is by the whole tenor of Scripture, may well put you upon a careful examination of your principles. If he could not trust to his morality, can 3^ou? If, when the icy fingers of death came to grasp his hope, it shrivelled and van- ished, what will become of yours? If he found it needful to fly to the blood of sprinkling and the righteousness of Christ for pardon, how can tou escape if you neglect this great salvation ? May that Almighty Spirit whose succor he so anxiously im- plored, seal upon your hearts his dying counsels, and lead you all to the Lamlj of God who taketh away the sin of the world ! A WORD OF FRIENDLY COUNSEL TO YOUNG MEN. A SEEMON DEATH OF GEORGE M. RAMSAUR, OF NORTH CAROLINA, DELIVERED IN THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. ON SABBATH EVENING, FEB. 24, 1856. BY HENRY A. BOARDMAN, D.D. PHILADELPHIA: HAYES & ZELL, PUBLISHERS, 193 MARKET STREET. 185 6. C. SHERMAN & SON, PRINTERS, 19 St. James Street. CORRESPOI^DENCE. Philadelphia, Feb. 26th, 1856. Kev. Henry A. Boardman, D.D. Dear Sir : The undersigned were a portion of tlie very large con- gregation who listened to your Sermon on the Death of George M. Ramsaur. Believing that it would be a source of consolation to his bereaved relatives, and that its general circulation could not but be attended with good, they respectfully solicit a copy for the purpose of publishing it in pamphlet form. They also embrace the occasion to return you their cordial thanks for an effort so kind and well directed. Very truly yours, &c., Daniel M. Zimmerman, A. T. Lane, J. S. Cummings, David Faust, R. B. Fulenwider, S. C. Hayes, George X. Allen, Samuel Stevenson, David S. Winebrener, George H. Roberts, R. H. Campbell, W. L. Springs, T. Ellwood Zell, Edward T. IMott, Jesse Lee, Peter T. Wright, Alfred Nesmitii, John M. Wilfong, Wm. Mack Haynes, E. G. Elkinton, Wm. M. Carter, John M. Richardson, Thomas Seagle, Augustus Landis, M. J. Moore, D. Jackson Justice, Charles W. Wright, S. W. Arnold, Francis Squire. Philadelphia, Feb. 2Stli, 185G. Gentlemen : As the Sermon on the Death of poor Ramsaur was preached at your special request, I feel that the manuscript properly belongs to you. The sad event appears to have awakened a great deal of sympathy even in this community, where he was so much a stranger. I shall be happy if my Discourse may serve in any degree to alleviate the sorrow of his afflicted relatives, or to impress upon the YOUNG men whom you represent, the affecting lessons of his death. I am sincerely, and faithfully yours, HENEY A. BOARDMAN. Messrs. D. M. Zimmerman, j. s. cummings, David Faust, Alfred Nesmith, and Others. . s E :r M 0 N. "'XOW M'HEX HE CAME XIGH TO THE GATE OF THE CITY, BEHOLD THERE WAS A DEAD MAX CARRIED OUT, THE OXLY SOX OF HIS MOTHER, AXD SHE WAS A WIDOW." LUKE 7 : 12. On last Wednesday fortnight two gentlemen called upon me to ask me' to go and visit a young man, a friend of theirs, about twenty-two years of age, who was dangerously ill. I followed them to his boarding- house. On entering the room, a single glance sufficed to show that the sands of life were ebbing fast, and that the scene must soon be over. His three skilful physicians, one of whom was then with him, felt that the disease was beyond their reach. Indeed, his athletic frame was already racked with convulsive throes, which revealed the presence of the last great enemy; and his excited, terror-stricken countenance disclosed but too well the anxiety which reigned within. It was one of those emergencies in which man is made to feel his utter impotence. There was no place for mere human words even of sympathy. My simple and only mission was to preach to him "Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." I tried to point him to the " Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." I reminded him that "even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ;" that " it was a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief;" that " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin f and that the Saviour had said, " Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out." He assured me of his firm belief of these precious truths, and of all that the Bible contains. He spoke with emotion of his having been reared in the bosom of a Christian family, with the advantages of a religious education. He expressed his sorrow that he had neglected to improve these advantages as he ought, and had put off attending to the concerns of his soul to a dying hour. But, in answer to my inquiries, he replied, that he did now desire to put all his trust in the Redeemer, and that he felt that he could and did rely upon Him, and commit himself into His hands for salvation. We knelt down around his bed, and commended him to the mercy and grace of God, im- ploring Him to send the Divine Spirit to renew his heart, and to enable him to trust in that Saviour who had died to take away the sting of death. Other prayers had been offered at his bedside by a Christian friend, who has kindly furnished me with the follow- ing memorandum of his interview with him : " He intimated that he would like to have some conversation on the subject of religion. At liis re- quest, communicated by a friend, I was alone with him for some time in conversation and prayer. " As I entered the room, he commenced the conver- sation, with much agitation of mind, by saying, ^I feel that I am a great sinner.' '• 0 Lord, have mercy upon me !' This last exclamation he made use of several times, both whilst I was speaking to him, and also when in prayer. I encouraged him to believe that if he sin- cerely repented of the sins of his past life there was peace and pardon for him, and if he felt himself to be a great sinner, there was also a great Saviour provided for him. " I cited to him, the best way I could, ' the thief on the cross/ the ^ prodigal son,' ^ the jailer/ and the case of the ^ publican' in the temple. " In answer to a question, he expressed great regret that he had not attended to the subject of religion as a matter of personal concern at an earlier period. " He spoke of his pious mother with much emphasis and emotion, and appeared to be troubled with the idea of the distress which the intelligence of his death would occasion her." Both before and after these interviews, he was re- peatedly heard pouring out his soul in earnest suppli- cation to God. I returned to him in the afternoon, but he was too far gone to carry on any intelligible conversation. Once more we knelt around him, and prayed that he might be washed in the blood of atone- ment, and that in this, his hour of extremity, his Moiliers God might be his God. Shortly after the flickering lamp of life went out. A day or two elapsed, and a highly respectable company of our merchants and clerks assembled in that house to celebrate his obsequies. He had come here from his home in Lincolnton, North Carolina, only a short time before, to engage in mercantile business. On approaching Baltimore, the steamer was arrested by the ice at a great distance below the city. In walking to the shore, a poor, friendless man fell through the ice into the water. No one seeming to care for him, with characteristic generosity he took off his shawl, and wrapped it around the unfortunate traveller. This exposure, it is believed, laid the foun- dation of the cold which ultimately terminated his life. It was no strange thing that the funeral occasion should have been marked by unusual manifestations of sympathy. Every one present felt how sad a thing it was for a young man like him, who seemed to carry health and vigor in every limb and feature, to be cut down with only a week's illness, and, especially, how sorrowful to die among strangers. And every one's thoughts were busied with that happy family circle in North Carolina, so unconscious of the scene which was passing here. Eyes unused to weeping were suffused with tears — with tears both for the living and the dead. And man}' hearts united in the prayer which 9 commended that bereaved mother and her children to the God of all grace and consolation. It was a cheerless day when we conveyed his re- mains to their resting-place. And as the wintry snows fell upon his grave, we thought of the still deeper desolation which must soon spread itself over that stricken household. One consolation we had, as we have still. Although earth cannot heal their wounds, there is " balm in Gilead, and a Physician there." He who has wounded, can heal them. He who has given them this cup of sorrow to drink, can enable them to say, " Thy will be done." Sach was the end of George Ramsaur. His per- sonal friends and associates, who h^d a warm appre- ciation of his virtues, have requested me to pay some public tribute to his memory. In so far as the request may have contemplated a delineation of his character and life, I cannot comply with it. In the melancholy narration to which you have just listened, you have the entire record of my acquaintance with him ; although 1 am well apprised of the honorable social position, and the moral worth, of the family to which he belonged. But there is another, and better memo- rial I can rear to him. I can, in some humble way, improve his death for the benefit of the living. This, I am persuaded, is the tribute which, of all others, he would desire, were it possible for his spirit to revisit our world : it is certainly the office to which the affect- ing circumstances of his death point me, with a direct- 10 ness which cannot be mistaken. Being dead, he yet speaketh; and the one momentous lesson which he urges upon the living, and especially upon the young MEN in the midst of us, is, that they give their instant, EARNEST, PARAMOUNT ATTENTION TO THE SUBJECT OF PER- SONAL RELIGION. It were a curious inquiry, could we, by any process, detect and analyze the emotions which an announce- ment like this must excite in the breasts of a large assemblage of young men. " Personal Religion !" There must be many here who listen to this phrase with the reverence and the candor which are the natural fruit of a Christian training, and who secretly wish that so great a blessing were their own. To others, again, brought up with fewer advantages, and quite unskilled in even the simpler teachings of the Scriptures, the expression, "Personal Religion," con- veys no very intelligible ideas, but merely a vague notion of " being good." While a third class, possibly, tinctured with skeptical doubts, repel any attempt to press the claims of religion upon tliem as a personal matter, with a feeling bordering upon contempt. We shall not err if we assume that this latter feel- ing, or something akin to it, is widely prevalent among the young men of our day, particularly those belong- ing to the educated classes. Their studies have made them familiar with the names of Voltaire, Gibbon, Hume, and other champions of infidelity ; or they have listened to the specious objections against the Bible, 11 forged in the laboratories of modern science ; and henceforth, Christianity is to be with them a myth and a fable, — a scheme of faith fit only for women and children. It might be worth while to ask the young men who espouse these opinions with so rare a fxcility, how far they have examined the system on which they venture to pronounce this grave con- demnation. Of course, in dealing with a volume which claims to be the only written revelation of the Divine will, and, as such, challenges the confidence of every human being, you have refused it your homage only after the most careful and patient investigation. You have read every page of it. You have weighed the arguments in support of its authenticity derived from its style, its originality, the harmony of its several parts, its lofty morality, the matchless character of the personage it presents to us as the Redeemer of the world, its prophecies, its miracles, its triumphs, its consolations, its beneficent effects upon society, and the salutary changes it is still producing before our eyes, in the moral condition of individuals and of nations, — all these arguments you have examined with the frankness and the thoroughness of men intent only upon ascertaining the truth. And having exhausted this ground, you have, in the same spirit, dissected the schemes with which it is proposed to replace the "exploded" system of revelation. You have gone to the Astronomer, the Geologist, the Anatomist, the Ethnologist, and the oracles of infidelity, and asked 12 them, in succession, with a profound conviction of the solemnity of the inquiry, " If I discard Christianity, whiii S2(hstitute can you furnish me? What positive information can you give me, concerning the Supreme Being, my own relations and responsibilities as an accountable creature, the destiny which awaits me after death, and the possibility of a reconciliation with that God whom I am cotiseious of having offended ?" Of course, you have taken all these precautions before severing yourselves from the common faith of Christen- dom, and enrolling your names on the long and cheer- less catalogue of unbelievers? Alas, for the integrity and fair dealing of this school of philosophic skepticism. There is, probably, not one in a thousand of them who has ever read the Bible through, or who has explored the wide range of its evidences with an ingenuous, truth-loving spirit. For the most part, they are far more conversant with the attacks upon Christianity than with its "apologies;" credulous in listening to objections, while the refuta- tions of them are unnoticed ; eager in embracing the anti-Scriptural deductions of some embryo science, and impatient of the barriers which genuine science and true learnins; have reared around the ark of the cove- nant ; in a word, anxious at heart to have Christianity proved a fraud, and as disdainful of its requisitions as a man of chivalric principles would be, if asked to. stoop to some dishonorable action. That inquiries prosecuted in this spirit should lead 13 to infidelity is unavoidable. A similar spirit would defeat its own end in any other science. Medicine, jurisprudence, political economy, all have their sciol- ists and pretenders, who deal with principles and facts very much in the style which has been described ; but they soon find their level. It is only in theology, the noblest of all sciences, that this rank injustice is tolerated. The Bible is the only book which the world will permit to be condemned without a hearing. Not to attempt a vindication of its Divine origin here (which would divert me from the main design of this discourse), it might be well to consider, before you discard the Bible, what 3^ou are to get in place of it. Unless you are prepared for the absurdities of pantheism or of annihilation, you must be looking to a conscious, personal existence in another world. Shut up your Bible, and ivhat do you hioio of that tvorld ? What do you know of God — of yourself — of retribution — of the possibility of forgiveness? You have a witness within your bosom which tells you that you are a sinner ; but what does conscience, or reason, or the light of nature, reveal concerning the pardon of sin and future happiness? Nothing, liter- ally nothing. The insatiate craving of the soul for information on this vital question ' is met only by guesses and conjectures, baseless, illusive, without authority,, and, therefore, without consolation. I was once sojourning at a. watering-place, when there came there an aged man, who had retired from 14 the bench, and was now a leading politician in a dis- tant state. A mortal disease had laid its inexorable hand upon him, and his friends saw that his days were numbered. They pressed him to see some min- ister of the Gospel, but he steadfastly refused — refused, I presume, with cursing and oaths, for he was a bitter infidel, and horribly profane. One morning, about four or five o'clock, a servant knocked at my cabin door, and called to me that Judge desired to see me. I hastened across the lawn to his room, and the scene which ensued was so appalling that I shall not venture to describe it. . . . "0 sight Of terror, foul and ugly to behold, Horrid to think, how horrible to feel \" Suffice it, that the king of terrors was there with all his hideous retinue. His wretched victim quivered with anguish in his mighty grasp, and seemed already to be anticipating the scorpion-stings of the second death. And thus, after four or five hours of excruci- ating suffering, his sun went down in midnight dark- ness. Before we committed his remains to their rude and lonely grave, in a field too desolate for any sepul- ture but one like this, I made some inquiry of the faithful servant who had waited on him respecting his conversation. He told me — and it is for this incident I have introduced the narrative here — that on the day before his death, as he was alone with him, the 15 sick man said to Lira, " What sort of a icorld is that to luhich I am going f" Will the young men before me, who may be skepti- cally inclined, do themselves the justice to ponder this utterance ? Here was a man of education and ability, who had served the cause of infidelity for, perhaps, seventy years. And now, as his clay tabernacle is crumbling to ruins, and the immortal spirit is about to be driven forth into another state of being, the irre- pressible yearning of his nature triumphs over his towering pride, and he begs a poor African servant to tell him. ^^ lohat sort of a ivorld that is to lohich he is going." Here, when of all the crises of his life he most needs a guide, his oracle is mute. It has con- ducted him to those august portals which divide the visible from the invisible world. In another moment, the ponderous gates may open to receive him. And, in helpless amazement and alarm, he cries, "What is beyond r "What is beyond ?" The earth-born philo- sophy to which he has confided his all, answers not at all, or answers with a sneer. It has extinguished the light with which Christianity irradiated the scene ; and the dim taper it substituted for the Sun of Righ- teousness, now serves only to make the gloom of eter- nity more impenetrable. Why should it be expected to do for a convert like him more than it was able to do for its great high priest, Voltaire ? When this prince of scoffers found his end approaching, all his fortitude forsook him. 16 The gorgeous fabric of unbelief which it had cost the mahgnant, hypocritical freethinker fourscore years to rear, death pressed with but a single icy finger, and it shrank as Satan did when touched by the spear of Ithuriel. Sending for the Abbe Gauthier, he besought him to administer to him the rites of the Church. His friends never came near him, but to witness their own shame. "Sirs," he said to them, "it is you who have brought me to my present state. Begone; I could have done without you all." He was alternately supplicating and blaspheming God, and crying out, "0 Christ!" "0 Jesus Christ!" And thus the wretched man expired, a terror to all around him, and an immortal witness to the true value of infidelity in a dying hour. Other witnesses might be summoned ; but I simply invoke these two to admonish you, that before you let go your hold of Christianity, it may be well to con- sider iDliat you are to get in the place of it. The obvious importance of this topic has led me to enlarge upon it; but there are other lessons more im- mediately suggested by the sad event we are com- memorating. No tinge of skepticism defaced the fair reputation of George Ramsaur. His unhappy error lay in postponing to a deathbed, that attention to the demands of religion, which he had acknowledged to be obligatory and needful. And this is, of all others, the mistake against which young men require to be guarded. You purpose to make your peace with God, 17 and enter upon a religious life, but " not yet." The intention is cherished with a tenacity which never wavers : the duty itself is remitted to an uncertain future. Could we pass around this large auditory and propose the question, seriatim, to every young man here, •' Is it your design to give your personal atten- tion to religion?" with the exception of those who may be imbued with skeptical opinions, the response would probably be a universal affirmative. But were the question added, "Are you willing to begin noio?"' it is doubtful whether we should hear a single prompt and cordial, "Aye." Various hinderances conspire to produce this result. You are,' possibly, pursuing a career of dissipation, which makes you revolt at the idea of repentance and reformation. You are immersed in the cares of busi- ness, and, as you imagine, have " no time" at present to bestow upon this subject. You are engrossed with academical or professional studies, and it would suit neither your taste nor your convenience to attempt to interweave with them, that serious consideration of the claims of religion which could alone be of any avail. You have, peradventure, a latent apprehension that to "become a Christian," might interfere with plans and hopes which are to lead you on to fame or fortune. Or, you are conscious of a sentiment which you do not care to acknowledge even to yourself, but which is neither more nor less than a shame of the Gospel, — a feeling that it is somehow " unmanly'' to 2 18 betray any solicitude about your spiritual well- being. It would require rather a volume than a sermon, to do justice to the points comprised in this summary, and others affiliated with them. But let two or three considerations be suggested, which lie upon the surface of the subject. It must occur even to the most superficial thinker, that in assuming the attitude just defined, you are but poorly requiting the goodness of God towards you. I speak to a class of whom it is eminently charac- teristic, that they abhor meanness and ingratitude. It is both an instinct and a principle with you, to honor everything in human conduct which savors of disinterestedness or magnanimity. There is not a bosom here which did not glow with admiration, when you were told how poor Ramsaur took off his shawl and wrapped it around the unfortunate stranger who fell through the ice. And had that stranger, after availing himself of this generous kindness, treated his benefactor with selfish apathy and indifference, you would with one accord have cried out against his baseness. But what has God done ? and what are you doing ? I stop not to expatiate on the relations you sustain to Him as your Creator and Preserver ; on the noble gifts with which He has endowed you ; on the boun- ties His munificent hand has showered upon you, from the hour of your birth until now ; on the sources of 19 rational enjoyment He has opened to you, all along the pathway of life ; on the motives to gratitude and loyalty, which are interlaced with the entire record of His providential dispensations towards you, down to the present moment : Let all this pass. But turn your eyes to Calvary. " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever be- lieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." " The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." ^' Even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." "He bore our sins and carried our sorrows." " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." " The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." " Who- soever will, let him take of the water of life freely." You have heard it whispered, that Christianity was rigorous in its exactions, and that the God of the Bible was a " hard Master." Weigh the full import of these utterances (and the Scriptures are replete with them), and say whether the reproach is deserved. Their "full import," did I say? That were impossible. There are depths here which " the first archangel" could not fathom. But if any spectacle in earth or heaven or hell, could rebuke the unbelief and ingrati- tude of the human heart, it must be that which the sacred writers describe as the great mystery of godli- ness, "God manifest in the flesh." This mysterious stranger, who traverses the hills and vales of Judea, attended by a small retinue of fishermen, at whose 20 word the palsied arm renews its vigor, and the pallid cheek blooms with the glow of health, and the raging waves lie down in unruffled stillness, and the fierce demoniac becomes a little child, and even the monster Death, affrighted, gives back his victims, is no other than the incarnate Deity. Touched with compassion for our race, he veiled the glories of the Godhead in a mortal form, in order to retrieve the ruins of the apostacy, and replace the crown which had fallen from our heads, and re-establish peace between earth and heaven. The miracles of mercy which embellish the thorny path he is treading; the sublime teachings which fall from His lips ; the pure example in which the high requisitions of the moral law are " Drawn out in living characters :" these are but incidents of his mission — the draper}'' which enfolds and adorns the grand purpose of his hu- miliation. " I have a baptism to be baptized with," is his language, " and how am I straitened till it be accom- plished." His errand in our world is to die — to die a malefactor's death, as one accursed. His eye is fixed upon the cross. And never does he permit himself for one moment to be diverted from it. There, at length, he consummates his mission, and dies, the just for the un- just, to bring us to God. The sins of his people are expiated. The immutable principles of truth and recti- tude on which the Divine government reposes, have received a sublime vindication. Death and hell are 21 vanquished. Life and immortality are brought to light. The Sun of Righteousness arises upon our dark world with healing in his beams. Angelic hosts come down on ministries of grace to the heirs of salvation. Messen- gers of mercy speed their way from continent to con- tinent, proclaiming liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Through all the abodes of crime, and suffering, and sorrow, there resounds the strange, unwonted invita- tion, ••'Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters I" The deadly wound of humanity is stanched. The weary and the heavy-laden find rest. Mourners dry their tears. Aliens and outcasts gather around their Father's board. Earth begins to array herself again in the bloom of Eden. Heaven throws wide open its doors to the apostate and the perishing. Around the sapphire throne myriads of ransomed sin- ners, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, sing that new song, *• L'xTO Hi3i THAT LOVED US !"" And before time has finished his majestic cycle, other myriads shall go up from our sin-stricken planet, to cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet, and to share in that •• exceeding and eternal weight of glory." To the mediation of Jesus Christ are all these wonders to be ascribed. Forgiveness, and renewal, and salvation are the purchase of his sufferings. It were something could he have tendered them to us by a simple exertion of his sovereignty. But invincible 99 obstacles forbade this. An atonement was indispensa- ble. And in his boundless love and clemency, he came down and died that we might live. From his cross radiates not only every pencil of light which illumines the path to heaven, but that peculiar reful- gence which streams through all the aisles of the celestial temples : for even the rapt worshippers in the Holy of Holies are forever reminded of the cru- cifixion, by the presence in the midst of the throne, of One who appears " as a Lamb that had been slain^ Surely it would require but the very faintest appre- ciation of love like this, to enthrone Jesus of Nazareth in every human heart. Were it not that some deep- seated malady blinds them to his glorious perfections, or indisposes them to all fellowship with Him, our YOUNG MEN would be seen hastening to him like the Magi, in joyful bands, to lay their honors at his feet, and to enrol themselves among his disciples. You would scorn to treat an earthly benefactor as you treat Him. The withholding of your homage from Him, can be no trivial sin. But this is a small part of the indignity which is heaped upon Him. It were some mitigation of the offence, if the veneration which is denied him, were bestowed upon some worthy object. But what are the objects which you permit to rival Him in your esteem, and even to exclude Him from your hearts ? Your property, your amusements, your self-indulgences, the gold that perisheth, the plaudits of the populace, the transient mirth that leaves a 23 sting behind, — nothing is too pitiful or too sordid, to be allowed to arrogate that place in your affections, which belongs to Him alone. Every secular interest must be heeded ; every claim of earth recognized ; every human benefactor loaded with the spontaneous out- pourings of a thankful heart. But when you turn to Calvary, you seem to be no longer susceptible of grati- tude. That wondrous spectacle fails to impress you even as a pageant, — still less as a sublime and touching reality. And the spot where, of all others in the uni- verse, it might be supposed the fountains of feeling in your breasts would be broken up, and your souls dis- solved in penitential joy, is the very spot where every generous impulse seems to congeal, and the heart itself turns to stone. So appalling is the devastation which sin has wrought in the human soul ; and so in- dispensable that radical transformation of character, of which the Saviour himself has affirmed, " Except a man be horn again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." You will not say, there is not one among you who will say, that the Son of God deserves this treatment. It is impossible you should recall the leading events of His life, or review the plan of redemption, without feeling astonished and selfcondemned at the ingrati- tude which has so long rejected Him. Peradventure this conviction may be brought home to your minds with so much vividness at this moment, that you are " almost persuaded" to open your hearts to Him, and 24 cry with the disciple, " My Lord, and my God !" Let me endeavor to invigorate this feeling, by briefly pre- senting the subject in another of its aspects. You are standing at the threshold of life. An un- known expanse spreads itself before you, and you are girding yourselves for its conflicts. If you have in any wise the spirit proper to your position and rela- tions, there must be moments of thoughtfulness, when your bosoms are agitated with the question, " How can I make the most of life? What acquisitions must I seek, what plans must I adopt, in order to insure the best possible results when I shall come at last to sum up the issues of my life?" A most rational and seasonable inquiry, and one which well deserves your serious consideration. In answering it, you will doubtless propose to your- selves certain principles and habits as of fundamental importance in every sphere of life. Among these, will be integrity, veracity, intelligence, industry, decision, energy, perseverance, kindness of heart, and agreeable manners. If you have in view one of the liberal pro- fessions, you will justly assign a conspicuous place to sound learning, sagacity, large powers of analysis and generalization, a ready memory, a facile command of your resources, a generous sympathy with misfortune, and that frankness of manner which inspires respect and confidence. Portraying to yourselves some such equipment as this, you may, not improbably, be look- ing forward to the distant goals around which your 25 hopes and aims are clustered. As physicians or lawyers, you would achieve an honorable fame, and inscribe your names among those which have shed lustre on these noble professions. As statesmen, you would serve your country with ability and fidelity, in any sphere to which she might see fit to call you. As merchants, you would seek the ample rewards of commerce, but only through the practice of the com- mercial virtues. As mechanics, you would emulate the fame of those artisans who have illuminated the mills and workshops of the world with the triumphs of genius, and restored to labor something of that dig- nity which it had when the primeval man was put into a garden " to dress it and to keep it." Proceeding a step further, we may now suppose that these several ends will all be accomplished ; that by some special arrangement of Divine Providence every individual among you is assured that he will, in the first instance, acquire the personal qualifications he has proposed to himself; and then that by a faith- ful exercise o!" these, he will certainly attain the object upon which his heart is set. The wealth, the exalted station, the renown, the well-earned gratitude, the general adulation, all are made sure to you. Are you satisfied? Does a scheme of life like this, even when its absolute success is guaranteed, commend itself to your sober reason ? I look through all this array of graceful accomplishments; I follow you along the thronged thoroughfares which witness and 26 applaud your triumphs ; I see you at length crowned with the civic or the martial wreaths for which you toiled, or glittering with the paraphernalia of pomp and luxury ; but nowhere do I detect the presence of a God. On every line and lineament of this glowing spectacle — all over the imposing fabric which it has been the one grand achievement of your life to rear — there is the brand of a flagitious Atheism. The scheme is one which might have been constructed in a pantheistic universe. It has its entire being — its centre and circumference — in man. The moral go- vernment of God — human responsibility — redemption — salvation — eternity — these great ideas it does not once recognise. It is a mere earthwork, of loftier pretensions and higher value, it may be, than most earthworks, but still made of the clay we tread upon, and doomed to perish whenever the earth shall be burned up. Your solution of that profoundly interesting pro- blem, " Roiv can I make the most of lifer is fatally wrong in the very first step. You hat^e omitted one element of character, without which angelic powers perpetuated through the endless duration of an angelic life, could neither qualify you for your duties nor con- fer upon you solid happiness. Until man is brought back into fellowship with his Maker, and the image of God renewed upon his heart, no affluence of gifts can redeem his character from its essential depravity, no splendor of success can satisfy his thirst for happiness. 27 The principle your characters need — the principle they must have, or sink at length, under the pressure of their accumulated corruptions, into hopeless infamy and wo — is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Convinced of sin, and penitent for sin, and anxious to be freed from the curse and from the defilement of sin, you must come and cast yourselves upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ as your only hope and refuge. Once united to the Saviour by that Almighty Spirit whose gracious office it is to renew and sanctify the heart, this Divine principle will impregnate your whole cha- racters with its ameliorating influence. It is of the nature of a genuine faith to be a controlling and most beneficent power in the human soul. You require it as a restraint upon your capricious tempers and vagrant passions, and as a counterpoise to the fascina- tions of sense and the snares of sin. You require it, to harmonize your powers, and clothe you with trae dignity of character. You require it, to pierce the veil which separates time from eternity, and disclose to you the relations you sustain to the Supreme Being, l^ou require it, that you may w^age a successful war- fare with sin, that you may enjoy communion with God, and take hold upon His strength, and grow up into His image. Y^ou require it, that you may dis- charge with wisdom and fidelity the duties proper to your several professions and occupations, and that you may successfully employ your various powers in pro- moting the glory of God and the good of your fellow- 28 creatures. You require it, that you may have an adequate sohace in affliction, and a sure support in death. You require it, that you may be accepted when you stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, and be allowed to enter with the white-robed throng into the holy city. Here, then, is the true answer to the question, " Hoiu may I 7nake the most of life f " Believe on THE Lord Jesus Christ." Come with your sins and your wants to the Saviour of the world. Consecrate yourselves to Hm, and you will not live in vain. Trust in his atoning sacrifice, and your dying hours will not be haunted with the dread of falling into the hands of an angry God. Lean upon his everlasting arm, and you will have a Friend who will never leave nor forsake you. What is your decision ? Standing here, as it were, around the grave of George Ramsaur, I press the question upon your consciences. Will you put your trust in the " Friend of Sinners," and henceforth own him as your Lord ? As I cast my eyes around this house, I find myself unable to repress the feeling, " What elements of moral power are embosomed in this crowded assemblage of YOUNG MEN ?" The buoyancy of youth, the vigor of early manhood, intelligence, indomitable energy, com- mercial tact, professional ambition, ties of consangui- nity and friendship widely reticulated through society. 29 and the noblest field ever presented for the exercise of such gifts, — what results might not be expected if you should rise up in the strength of Omnipotence, and say, as one man, "Henceforth we live for God and for eternity !" It were not extravagant to assert, that a purpose thus formed in this house to-night, and carried out in a spirit of grateful dependence upon Divine grace, might ultimately tell with a salutary effect upon the spiritual interests of millions of our race in this and other lands. And why should it not be so ? Why should you not receive Jesus of Nazareth as your Saviour, and enter at once upon that radiant career which you pic- ture to yourselves as so essential a part of your future history ? Is it possible to suggest a single considera- tion bearing upon the question of your future repent- ance, w^iich does not apply, with even a superior urgency, to the present moment ? If religion be not all-important, why attend to it at all ? If it be all- important, why not attend to it now ? Under no circumstances could you repaij the infinite debt which the love of Christ has imposed upon you. But you are now in a situation to show that you are not insensible to his kindness. He asks your confi- dence. He invites your co-operation in that sublime contest he is waging with earth and hell, for the re- demption of man from the intolerable servitude of sin. He enforces this appeal not only by motives drawn from the past — ;from his incarnation, his example, his 30 sacrificial death, — but by arguments derived from those glorious rewards of the humble Christian, in compari- son with which the noblest professional honors and the brightest of earthly diadems dwindle into insigni- ficance. Is it meet that munificence like this should be requited with the vague promise o^ future grati- tude ? Will you seek first your own gratification, and then the glory of the Redeemer ? Will you exhaust your time and your energies in pursuing the transitory distinctions and emoluments of the world, and lay upon his altar only the broken faculties and accumu- lated sins of a decrepit old age ? There cannot be a generous susceptibility of your hearts, which will not revolt at the sordid selfishness of such a policy. There is not an utterance of the law nor of the Gospel which would not brand it with the turpitude of a signal criminality. - It must not be so. Yield to the instincts of your better nature. Bow to the dictates of reason and conscience, and return to your allegiance. Be true to yourselves. Dare to be singular (if that be involved in it), and, whatever others may do, put away your sins by repentance, and lay hold upon the hope of the Gospel. In demanding your instant, undivided, per- petual homage, God exacts of you only a most reason- able service. To refuse it is to imperil your eternal well-being. To concede it, will be to secure to your- selves every needful blessing in this life, and " glory AND HONOR AND IMMORTALITY," bcyoud the grave. KOSSUTH OR WASHINGTON? THE NEW DOCTRINE INTERVENTION TRIED BY THE TEACHINGS OE WASHmCxTON: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE TENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, ON MONDAY AND TUESDAY EVENINGS, THE 23d AND 24th OF FEBKUARY, 1852. BY H. A. BOARDMAN, D. D PHILADELPHIA: LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., SUCCESSORS TO GRIGG, ELLIOT AND CO. 1852. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO AND CO., in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PHILADELPHIA : T. K. AND P. G. COLLINS, PRINTER.S. ADDRESS. In a discourse on the " True Mission of the United States in respect to the Nations and Governments OF Europe," delivered in this house, on the last Thanksgiving Day, there occurred the following pas- sage : — " Various indications show that a concerted effort is about to be made to break do^vn the principle of non-intervention, which has hitherto been funda- mental to our foreign policy, and to involve us ac- tively in the conflicts of Europe. Under these circumstances, it becomes a grave question with every citizen : ' Is this plan, or the other which has been sketched, the true way to discharge our duty to the old world ? Are we to send fleets and armies there (for this is the English of it), or are we to take care OF this Union ?' In so flir as this may be a legitimate topic for the pulpit, I could msh that my strength and your patience were equal to a brief discussion of it. I must, however, Avaive it with the citation of one or two of those solemn and monitory sentences which Washington devotes to the subject in his Fare- well Address." 6 THE NEW DOCTRINE The sermon from which this paragraph is quoted, was preached nearly a fortnight before the arrival of the Hmnholdt in December. The course of events since that steamer landed the great Hungarian at Staten Island, is familiar to all who hear me. If it had not been such as to verify in an alarming degree the prediction then hazarded, that a vigorous eifort was about to be made to revolutionize our foreign policy, the present service would have been dispensed with. It is, indeed, with unfeigned reluctance, and only under a stringent sense of duty, that I now, in the altered circumstances of the country, revert to the subject. That the discussion of it in this place will encounter more or less prejudice, is a thing of course. The common feeling will be, that it is a subject which lies beyond the proper jurisdiction of the pulpit, and the less clergymen have to say about it officially, the better. I should so judge myself, if it were not for two very grave considerations. The first is, that the influence of " the clergy" has already, in a signal manner, been put forth in favor of the movement now in progress. Wherever the Hunga- rian chief has gone, the ministers of religion have been conspicuous in their attentions to him. Not only youthful preachers, who might be carried away by the ardor of their feelings, but men venerable alike for their years, their learning, and their piety, have vied with the civil authorities in doing him honor. This is not, perhaps, surprising. M. Kossuth came to us as the representative of an interesting people, whose OF INTERVENTION. 7 wrongs had excited a sentiment of indignation in the breasts of all true American citizens. We must have forfeited all title to our own Hberties, and to the respect of mankind, if we could have seen Kussia pour her barbarous hordes down the Carpathians, and re-impose the Austrian yoke upon the Hungarians, just as they were exulting in their well-earned deliverance, with- out strong emotion. There was everything, too, in the personal character and history of our guest, to elicit sympathy. No idle spectator of his country's woes, he had vindicated her rights with surpassing- eloquence in the senate, guided the helm in the tur- moil of her revolution, commanded her armies, shared in her disasters, and, hunted from her soil, secured a shelter from the scaffold only in a Turkish prison. Then, too, he stood before the nation as a Christian who, before whatever audience, proclaimed, with a frankness too rare in our own statesmen, his attach- ment to the Bible ; as a Confessor, who had nobly re^ fused to sacrifice his faith to his personal safety ; as a Protestant, the inflexible friend of rehgious liberty, and one of a gallant race which, after repeatedly rolling- back from Europe the devastating torrent of Moham- medanism, was now compelled to see its own ancient and beloved church made the football of Jesuit intol- erance and Austrian tyranny.* When with these * " Scarcely had Russia restored the house of Hapsburg, by putting its foot on the neck of Hungary, -when the first act of that house was to spill noble blood by the hands of the hangman, and its second was to destroy the rights of the Protestant religion." [Kossuth's Sjieech in 8 THE NEW DOCTRINE attributes you combine those rare oratorical powers which elicit equal admiration from the most refined and the most uncultivated auditories, there can be no room for surprise that Kossuth should have received from the Protestant clergy the same cordial greeting which has been extended to him by all other profes- sions. But he visits us, it must be remembered, on a spe- cific errand. He comes, not as an emigrant, like Uijhazy and others of his friends, to seek a tranquil home here; not simply as an exile, to escape from danger ; not mainly as a fallen leader, to obtain need- ful succors from the benevolent and the patriotic, for his suffering countrymen. He comes (so he has elected to come) on a political mission; as an ex- pounder of international law; to get our government to incorporate in its policy a certain principle he has invented for the relief of oppressed nationalities, the adoption of which would at once change our rela- tions with all the States of Christendom, and alter the whole tone and spirit of our confederation. It is not in this aspect that the clergy have regarded him. They have not, ordinarily, made this subject promi- nent in their complimentary addresses to him. But the moral effect has been to stamp their imprimatur upon his favorite project. His answers to them show that this is the impression produced upon his own London.) There is reason enough why all the sympathies of the Romish hierarchy in Europe and America should be on the side of Austria. OF INTERVENTION. 9 miud, and there are but too many proofs that the people at large think vdth him. There can be little doubt that the Protestant ministers of the States he has traversed, are set down by the country as en- dorsing the grand object of his visit, and that this conviction has contributed essentially to the tolerance it has met with among sober-minded people. Nor will it discredit this belief, that the religious press and the pulpit should have been vigorously emplo^^ed both in lauding the man and defending his peculiar dogma. All this might be allowed to pass, if it were a question merely of to-day. It is not very probable that even the eloquence of Kossuth will bring about an abandonment of that prudent and advantageous policy which we have followed for three-quarters of a century. But if he fails, other foreigners may here- after tread in his steps. And whether they should or not, politicians of native growth will take the virus — for everything here runs into party-poHtics — and this question will reappear in our domestic elections. In this view of the case, it wovdd be extremely unfor- tunate, if the public men of the country should be left to suppose that the Protestant clergy, as a body, were friendly to the new doctrine of intervention. The consequences could not fail to be disastrous in a high degree. As one of that honorable profession, there- fore, I wish to unite with those of my brethren who, as pastors or editors, have already proclaimed their dissent from the new theory. Aware that the opin- ions of a single individual like myself can be of very 10 THE NEW DOCTRINE little moment in any direction, I still feel constrained to put on record my earnest protest, both against this theory, and against the manner it is attempted to force it upon the country. I am very far from com- plaining of what so many of my fathers and brethren have done and are doing; but I must claim the same liberty they have exercised, and resist the scheme which they have virtually sanctioned. The other ground on which the introduction of this subject into the pulpit may be vindicated, is, that the real question now before the American people, is the question of Peace or War. The furor which gathers around the eloquent Magyar, and makes his convocations like a burning prairie, may hide the truth from some eyes ; but no one who has his reason in full play, can fixil to see that War, with its ensan- guined horrors, is following in his train. If this be so, the right of the pulpit to take part in the discus- sion is not to be gainsaid. Patriotism, piety, hu- manity, forbid it to be silent. As individuals, we have the same stake in this question with our fellow- citizens ; and as ambassadors of the Prince of Peace, we should incur the guilt of a flagrant disloyalty, could we see a course of measures in progress legiti- mately tending to bring down this great calamity upon the country, without remonstrating against them. If these views are assented to, there can be no dif- ference of opinion as to the fitness of the theme to the present occasion. Among the munificent gifts of Di- OF INTERVENTION. 11 vine Providence to this Western hemisphere, the name of GEORGE WASHINGTON will be conspic- uous to the latest posterity. We owe our present position more, under God, to his instrumentality, than to that of any other individual. His character is part of our best earthly treasure : his teachings, one of our richest legacies. By a faithful adherence to his counsels, we have enjoyed an unexampled de- gree of prosperity. And there is no more suitable way in which we can manifest our reverence for his memory, and our gratitude to heaven for bestowing him upon us, than by repelling all attempts to per- vert his principles and to seduce our government from the wise policy he prescribed to it. Such at- tempts are now making with a boldness, an energy, and an apparent impression upon masses of the peo- ple, which are ominous of evil. They meet us in a form eminently adapted to excite our sympathies and disarm our opposition. A European nation, rising against its oppressors, virtually achieves its indepen- dence : a third power, interposing with an over- whelming military force, after shooting and gibbet- ing thousands of its best citizens, replaces its chains, and consigns it to a still more terrible bondage. The gifted leader of this injured people appears amongst us, and tells the tale of his country's wrongs with a pathos which penetrates the most stoical bosoms. The effect produced by his addresses might almost be compared to that which followed the appeal of Maria Theresa [A. D. 1741] when, a young and beautiful 12 THE NEW DOCTRINE queen, clad in deep mourning, with the crown of St. Stephen on her head, and girt with his sword, and holding her infant son in her arms, she appeared be- fore the Hungarian Diet, and, after reciting the dangers which threatened her kingdom, threw her- self upon her faithful Palatines for protection. The Magyar chivalry were carried by storm. In an instant every sword leaped from its scabbard, and amidst the cry, " Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa!" they swore to assert her rights, and to shed the last drop of their blood in her defence. More than one popular assembly in the United States has been wTought up to a similar pitch of enthusiasm by the solemn and touching oratory of Kossuth. And so just is the cause of his country, and so rare the ability with which he advocates it, that it seems a very thankless office to resist his demands and warn the people against his seductions. But duty loses none of its sacredness by being unwelcome ; and we must beware how we put even Hungary before our own glorious Union, or exchange the visionary specu- lations of a stranger for the tried wisdom of Wash- ington. What is it, then, that is asked of us ? You shall hear in Kossuth's own words : — "There is an international law founded upon prin- ciples ; and one of those principles must be, that every country has the right to dispose of its destinies itself, and that no foreign power can have the right to in- terfere with its domestic concerns. This principle OF INTERVENTION. ] 3 has been recognized, and by Russia. But the princi- ple or law must be carried out. Who shall carry it out ? The executive power of the international law should be exercised only by a free nation, for no other nation can have the power. Therefore, I claim this aid from the United States. The great principle of international law is the right of every nation to dispose of itself, and the United States should declare their willingness to respect that law, and to make it respected by others." [Speech in Brooklyn.) " These are the great objects for which I seek the support of the United States, to check and not permit Russian interference in Hungary; because, so that Hungary may have an opportunity to organize her strength against Russian despotism and barbarity. This is the reason that I ask the United States to be- come the executive power to recognize the right of every nation to dispose of itself. This is the only glory which is yet wanting to the list of your glorious stars. The people of the United States having suc- cessfully asserted their own independence and freedom, have scarcely any other calling than to become the assertors of freedom equally for other lands; and I confidently hope, that being your condition, that you will not deny me your generous support in carrying out that great principle of non-interference, and also of not allowing any interference in that new struggle of Hungary for freedom and independence, which is already felt in the air, and which is pointed out by the 14 THE NEW DOCTEINE finger of God himself." [Address to the Military of New Yorh.) We are asked, then, to do two things. To declare it as a principle of international law, that no nation shall interfere in the domestic concerns of another na- tion, and to constitute ourselves the executive au- thority FOR ENFORCING THIS LAW all ovcr the globe. We are to " make this law respected by other nations." We are to "check and not permit Russian interference in Hungary." We are to regard the interference of one nation with the internal affairs of another as a legitimate cause of war, and, if nothing short will an- swer, we are to unsheath the sword to prevent it. It cannot be laid to the charge of the American government or people, that they have ever been indif- ferent to the progress of liberty in other lands. We have watched the great conflict with which Europe is perpetually agitated, between prerogative and popular rights, with intense solicitude. Wherever a nation has revolted against its taskmasters, we have cheered them by our sympathy, and instructed them by our example. We have not ceased to protest against the monstrous dogmas of absolutism, that the plenitude of authority and right is vested in the crown, that society derives all its franchises from the good-will of the sovereign, and that the people have nothing to do with government but submit to its decrees, and gratefully accept such favors as may be conceded to them. Our abhorrence of these principles has been expressed, not OF INTERVENTION. 15 merely by our entire periodical press,* and in the j^ri- mary assemblies of the people, but in our gravest state papers, not excluding the annual "Messages" of the Presidents, and in the solemn enactments of our federal legislature. The despots of the world well know, and the friends of freedom in all lands know, where we stand. Our " line is gone out through all the earth, and our words unto the end of the world." Never, until we shall have sunk so low in virtue and patriotism as to be fit only for a servile yoke ourselves, can we cease to desire, and in all prudent and legitimate methods, to promote the progress of rational liberty throughout the earth. It is precisely on this ground, that the Utopian doc- trine of " intervention to prevent intervention," which now solicits our sanction, is to be condemned. It is because the recognition of it by the government of the United States would be most disastrous to the cause of liberty and enlightened progress both at home and abroad. Because it would throw the influence of this nation, hitherto the beneficent guardian of peace and happiness among the nations, into the scale of merci- less and insatiable war. I have stigmatized the doctrine as " Utopian." This is characterizing it by too mild a term. We are called upon to interpolate in the law of nations, at the point of the bayonet, if it can be done by no milder process, the provision, that, whenever one nation forcibly inter- * Some of the Romish journals excepted. 16 THE NEW DOCTRINE feres in the domestic concerns of another, this shall be deemed by other nations a justifiable cause of war, and they shall accordingly take up arms against the offending state. " Interpolated " it must be, and that "at the point of the bayonet," if this dictum is to be incorporated in the international code. It will be time enough to talk of elevating it to this high dignity, when a single leading cabinet can be found which has not "intervened" in the affairs of other nations. To speak of what the great continental powers have done and are constantly doing in this line, would be super- fluous. We are more concerned to know how England stands affected towards the rule, since it is proposed, or rather was proposed, when Kossuth was there, to associate her with ourselves in carrying it into effect. One of her own prominent journals shall supply us with the requisite information : — " The English ought to know something about in- tervention, for they have had some experience of it, and are paying dear for that experience. We inter- fered in behalf of royalty and order in France. We have interfered to deliver her and Europe from anar- chists and military adventurers. We drove the French out of Sicily, and restored it to the King of Naples. Our fleets girded the shores of Italy, and by that and other services we earned from the Pope the memora- ble declaration that George III. was the best of his subjects. We helped to drive the French out of Portu- gal and Spain. More recently, we have kept up a long course of interference in the afftiirs of the Peninsula, 1 OF INTERVENTION. 17 and have helped materially to set up two constitutional queens. Russia, Austria, Prussia, and other smaller states, have to thank us for immense subsidies, and for other assistance, to which they are greatly indebted for the respectable figure they severally make on the map of Europe. We have interfered to give liberty and independence to Greece, and bless her Avith a court and a king. We have interfered to save Turkey from being utterly swallowed up by Mehemet Ali and his son, and have restored the Holy Land to the paternal dominion of the Porte. We have interfered, first, to give Belgium to the king of Holland, and then to take it away and make it independent. Indeed, it is diffi- cult to say where we have not interfered, what govern- ment we have not thwarted or befriended, what people we have not backed up against their ruler, or what ruler we have not assisted against his subjects. But it is scarcely necessary to particularize interferences, seeing that nearly all our wars for the last sixty years have been wars of interference, viz., for the purely philanthropical object of estaljlishing order and free- dom in foreign countries, propagating constitutional ideas, adjusting the balance of power, and reforming- mankind after the model of England."* This summary will enable us to judge how far Eng- land is prepared to join with us in engrafting the pro- posed novelty upon PufFendorf and Yattel. When- * Quoted in the New York Observer, of January 15th ; a jdunial which has discussed this question, on the anti-Kossuth side, in a series of editorial articles written with much ability and candor. 18 THE NEW DOCTRINE ever she is ready to repudiate the whole course of her public policy, she will do it — and not till then. Mean- while, she will continue to provide palaces for fugitive kings; and leave popular heroes, who may reach her shores in misfortune, to such comfort as they may gather from the cheers of the people, abated by the studied indifference of the crown, the aristocracy, the established clergy, and the cabinet. Candor requires the acknowledgment that, in some of these cases of intervention, the British government has had our cordial approval. Not to specify doubt- ful examples, where is the American who did not heartily commend the joint intervention of the three allied powers in behalf of Greece? Had the new statute then been in force, the battle of Navarino had not been fought, and Greece must have fallen back under the iron rule of the Moslem. Nor is this all. If, in the face of this international compact, the allies had interfered, we and other nations must have inter- vened against them ! We must have sided with the Turk against the Greek, with the Crescent against the Cross, with the tyrant against his victims. Or, to come to a still more recent example, one of the first acts of the pseudo French republic of '48, was to issue a " Manifesto to Europe," full of inflated protestations about liberty, in which there occurred this passage : " If the independent States of Italy should be invaded ; if limits or obstacles should be opposed to their internal changes; if there should be any armed interference with their right of allying OF INTERVENTION. 19 themselves together for the purpose of consohdating an Itahan nation, the French republic would think itself entitled to take up arms in defence of those law- ful movements for the improvement and the nation- ality of States." The next thing we hear, after this sublime flourish, Italy is " invaded," " limits and ob- stacles are opposed to her internal changes," an " armed interference" represses the will of her peoj^le, and a French army, storming the " Eternal Citj'" amidst carnage and blood, subverts the infant republic, and reconstructs the throne of sacerdotal despotism. The infamy of this procedure has no archetype except in the blackest pages of European history. Sooner or later, retributive justice will avenge it upon that per- fidious nation, if, indeed, they are not already reaping the fruit of it. Suppose, now, instead of the inter- vention of this mock-republic against the Roman peo- ple, England had interposed for them ; that a British army had landed at Civita Vecchia, and protected the triumvirate in carrjdng into effect the expressed wishes of the nation for a change of government. What course would the new enactment have imposed upon the other nations, and ourselves as one of them? Why, that we should " intervene" to resist England. That we should espouse the cause of the jiriestly fu- gitive the Romans had, by common consent, deposed from his secular sovereignty, and replace in the Vati- can that double-headed tyranny which has been the scourge of Christendom for the last twelve hundred years! Such would be the practical working of the 20 THE NEW DOCTRINE principle we are seriously asked to recognize, and even compel the rest of the world to recognize, as an essential provision of international law. Without amplifying this point, the conclusions to which we are shut up are manifest. As a general proposition, the abstract right of every nation to man- age its own affairs, must be admitted. Occasions may arise, however, to justify foreign intervention. The mere fact of intervention determines nothing as to its character; it may or may not be an infringe- ment of international rights. In some cases, it sup- plies a just ground of war on the part of other nations. In other cases, it is so far from being a casus belli, that it imposes on other nations an obligation of gratitude to the " intervening" nation, as being eminently con- ducive to the interests of humanity and constitutional liberty. The rights and obligations involved in the matter are too diversified and intricate to be adjusted by sweeping, categorical canons. Cases must be dis- posed of as they arise, each on its own merits. Every cabinet must meet the question of right and the ques- tion of policy, on its own responsibility to God and the civilized world. Governments, too, must act on those common-sense principles which control individuals in analogous circumstances. No prudent man ties up his hands against all possible interference in the family quarrels of his neighbors ; still less, pledges himself to fight other people if they interfere. As a general rule, interference would be wrong in morals, and practically mischievous. But if a man learned that his nei