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 A s E R m: o isr 
 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 
 
 Day of Natioj^al Thanksgiving, 
 
 DECEMBER 7, 1865 
 
 f Ijjwoutfe (!!i;ou5)t:t0utJ0WjU (i^ltuvclj, ^ittsil>u)*()lt, ^mw'w. 
 
 Rev. henry D. MOORE, 
 
 PASTOR. 
 
 PITTSBURGH: 
 PRINTED BY W. S.v HAVEN, CORNER OF WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 
 
 18 6 6. 
 
m 
 
liloral (Sriiubtur of t^c |!r0clam;itioit of ^niimcipiitioit. 
 
 A. SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED ON THE 
 
 Day of Natioml Thanksgiving, 
 
 DECEJIBER 7, 1865, 
 
 ^lymautlt (Hiongrcgatlaual (Khuvcit, ^itt^bui^jjh, ^emi'ii. 
 
 Rev. henry D. MO 
 
 PASTOR. 
 
 PITTSBURGH: 
 PRINTED BY W. S. IIAVEX, CORNER OE WOOD AND THIRD STREETS. 
 
 18 6 6. 
 
Ca 
 
Pittsburgh, December 8tb, 1865. 
 Rev. H. D. Moore, 
 
 Dear Sir — Having listeaed vrith great pleasure to your 
 Sermon, delivered in Ihe Plymouth Congregational Church, on Thanksgiving 
 morning, and believing that its circulation would be productive of great good, 
 we respectfully solicit a copy for publication. 
 
 Very truly, yours, 
 
 JOHN A. EMERY, 
 OTIS BROWN, 
 JOEL SMITH, Jr., 
 
 Co7nmittee. 
 
 Pittsburgh, December 11th, I860. 
 Gentlemen — 
 
 Your note of the 8th in.st. was duly received. I thank you 
 for the kind and flattering terms in which you are pleased to speak of my 
 Thanksgiving Sermon. With the hope that you may not be altogether dis- 
 appointed in your design in asking the Sermon for publication, I herewith 
 place it in your hands. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 HENRY D. MOORE, 
 
 To John A. Emery, Oris Brown, Joel Smith, Jr., Committee. 
 
t 
 
SERMON. 
 
 " RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETH A NATION ; BUT SIN IS A REPROACH 
 TO ANY PEOPLE."— Proverbs 14 : 34. 
 
 The great Rebellion which for four long, weary years, 
 clouded the brightness, and hushed the songs, and checked the 
 festivities of our Annual Thanksgiving, has been crushed ; its 
 battle array broken and scattered ; its leaders branded forever, by 
 the popular voice, with the infamy of treason ; its deluded masses, 
 by the retributive fortunes of an unholy resistance to the Govern- 
 ment, reduced to waste and poverty, to political and social impo- 
 tency, and to dependence for supplies, and homes, and protection 
 upon the very arm they sought to break, and upon the very heart 
 they sought to pierce; the rebellious, chastised and still sullen chil- 
 dren, arc clinging to the mother whom they covered with tears and 
 blood, and are living upon the fountains of her breast, which flow 
 as freely toward them, as if their matricidal hands had not been 
 swift to slay her. 
 
 The great Avar is done ! The monotone of wailing which is 
 borne on every wind and from almost every home, because of loved 
 ones slain on the battle field, is now relieved of its bitter and 
 despairing significance by the full chorus of victory which is beino- 
 shouted from the mountains to the prairies, and from the lakes to 
 the sea ; while the loyal millions of the land come, to-day, with the 
 sacrifice of memory and of tears, to hallow the graves of the mar- 
 tyrs. 
 
 The great conflict of arms is ended I The noise of busy pre- 
 paration and of the armed tramp, has given place, in our ears, 
 to the hum of all the arts of industry ; and the fears of our homes, 
 and the alarm beats of our hearts, have subsided to a serene calm 
 under the gentle waving of the Olive Branch of Peace. The 
 ploughshare, which, in fulfilment of the Prophecy of Joel, was 
 
6 
 
 beaten into the sword, has been, in fulfilment of the Prophecy of 
 Isaiah, beaten back again into the ploughshare ; and the hand 
 which, at the call of patriotism, loosed its hold of the plough, and 
 grasped the sword, and with it reaped the harvest of death on the 
 battle field, has again guided the ploughshare over the broad, teem- 
 ing acres of the peaceful homestead ; and the deep furrows it has 
 turned up to the genial sun and the gentle dews, have smiled with 
 the flowering beauty, and waved with the green, and golden, and 
 grateful plenty of the harvest. The great and mighty government 
 which was shaken to its centre, while the world waited to see it 
 topple and fall, has vindicated its integrity and maintained its su- 
 premacy, and has come forth from the fiery, and bloody, and 
 terrible ordeal, mightier than ever, consecrated by the awful cere- 
 mony of blood, to holier purposes, and is marching on, beyond 
 the ranks of all the nations, to a grander destiny ; and our Flag 
 which went down at Sumter amid the silence, and tears, and 
 prayers of the bowed patriot band to receive the baptism of fire 
 and blood, has gone up again to unfold its stars in a purer heaven, 
 and to float its stripes, with added symbols of beauty and power, 
 over a broader domain, and over a happier and freer people. 
 
 For these, and the innumerable blessings which have been 
 poured with an unsparing hand upon our land and people, and 
 which have most kindly and beneficently mingled with and lighted 
 up the dark providences whose awful dispensations have lowered 
 upon us : — for these, and the innumerable blessings of our God, 
 and the God of our Fathers, who is merciful, as well as just, and 
 whose merciful kindness guided us through the paths of the four 
 long years of war — paths, which though blasted with the light- 
 nings of His wrath, were yet all overarched with the bow of 
 promise : — for these blessings, the hopes and foretastes of which 
 made us able to bear the strokes of the Almighty Hand which 
 desolated alike the Capitol mansion and the lowliest hovel of the 
 land — leveling all ranks, and laying our mighty President low in 
 death beside the humblest soldier : — for all these blessings, we are 
 to-day gathered, by the Proclamation of the Nation's Chief, to 
 render devout and hearty thanksgiving to Almighty God. In all 
 our sanctuaries throughout the land, the people are convoked Avith 
 the memories of God's unspeakable goodness clustering within 
 them, and with the voice of thanksgiving, and with grateful praise. 
 
And God sees us from His High and Holy Tabernacle, and He 
 bo^ys down His ear to hear the praises we bring to Him from om- 
 altars and our hearts ; and if our thanksgivings are mingled with 
 the tones of plaintive and sincere repentance for, and confession of 
 all our sins — if Ave praise the goodness of God, which leads us to 
 repentance — then His ear will be filled with music, to Him sweeter 
 far than when the hosts of the angels chaunt their chorals of glory 
 around His Throne in heaven. 
 
 We occupy to-day a stand point from which we can look back, 
 and around, and beyond, and we may profitably contemplate the 
 past, the present and the future, in the light of God's Holy Truth 
 — Truth which he has so thrillingly illustrated in the providences 
 with which He has visited us, in the light of the truth of this text, 
 "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any 
 people." Let us welcome and walk in the light, reveal it what, 
 and lead it whither it may. The providences of God as concern- 
 ing nations, as well as concerning individuals, are self revealino-. 
 They unfold their meanings and purposes, and they unfold and 
 disclose them to the men and the nations who stand still, and wait 
 and watch to see the salvation of God. God reigns ; and thouo-h 
 clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet still and forever 
 righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His Throne ; and 
 still and forever, light is sown for the righteous, amid whatever 
 of gloom ; and gladness is sown for the upright in heart, amid 
 whatever of sorrow. 
 
 " God's purposes are ripening fast." 
 And though 
 
 " Blind unbelief is sure to err, 
 And scan his works in vain," 
 
 Yet still and forever — 
 
 " God is His own interpreter, 
 And He will make it plain." 
 
 Let US then seek for light, that we may be guided in our duties 
 as Christian citizens. Let us meditate upon the facts and prin- 
 ciples which are disclosed to view in the history of our recent past ; 
 the origin and animus of our terrible war ; the miracles of Provi- 
 dence, of Divine Interposition, which give tone to the picture of 
 our national desolation, and which led us by an irresistible hand 
 an overruling guidance, to deal justice and equity in this broad 
 
land; and the glorious results ■which have followed, and arc still to 
 follow our national obedience to the irrevocable command, ''Break 
 ye every yoke, and let the oppressed go free!" And our medi- 
 tations upon these facts and principles involved in our recent his- 
 tory, are intended as an argument in vindication of 
 
 The Motive and Moral Grandeur of the Proclamation of 
 Emancipation, as separate and distinguished from its 
 Constitutional avarrant upon Military Necessity. 
 
 It is now evident to every candid mind — whatever may have 
 been our views and fears heretofore — that the cause of our terrible 
 war was the holding in bondage, by the sanctions and covenants 
 of the Constitution, and by the legislation and government of the 
 Congress, and of the States, of millions of our fellow beings upon 
 our soil. It is also a fact, and has passed into irreclaimable his- 
 tory, never to be glossed or margined by sophistries, that the first 
 blow of the war Avas struck in the interests of human bondage, in 
 the defence of the system and for its aggression. The Flag of 
 the Free, as it was called and hailed the world over, went down at 
 Sumter at the bidding, not so much of the defenders of Slavery — 
 for a system so well and amply defended, hardly needed defenders 
 
 as of the proud, imperious, cliivalric human bondage proijayand- 
 
 ists ' the Fla<T came down at the thunder of cannon of the 
 enemies of Liberty! For two whole years, nearly, the loyal ba- 
 talHons of the country, Avho leaped to arms at the call of the Gov- 
 ernment, were fighting for, they knew not what! While the armies 
 of the rebellion were fighting — not for the existence, nor yet for 
 the defence of Slavery, for the existence of Slavery was covenanted 
 and sanctioned, and its defence was amply guaranteed in the Con- 
 stitution and the legislation of the land — but for the supremacy 
 over this broad land of the system of human bondage ! I am sim- 
 ply and candidly repeating the facts of history, which have been 
 so recently traced 'in characters of blood — facts which have been 
 accepted by the Avorld. If the South had been fighting for the 
 defence of Slavery, under the sanctions and guarantees of the Con- 
 stitution, then the South could have appealed to the governments 
 of the Old World for help against the covenant-breakers of the 
 North, and Europe Avould have rushed to her rescue with her 
 
9 
 
 armed hosts ! But such was not the fact. The North was no cov- 
 enant breaker ! The Government was most stubbornly set against 
 any interference with the constitutional rights and guarantees of 
 the system of Slavery. So far were the North and the Govern- 
 ment from interfering with Slavery rights and guarantees, that 
 they had overlaid and interlined the broad margin of the Consti- 
 tution with interpretations, and commentaries, and compromises, 
 extending, in point of fact, over vast areas, and in point of prin- 
 ciple, over the whole country, the accursed system, and infusing 
 an unconquerable and irresistible vigor into its maddened nerves, 
 and ffxost malignant heart ! The South was fighting for no such 
 thing as the defence of Slavery ; for no such thing as the sacred- 
 ness of constitutional guarantees. The South was fighting for the 
 supremacy of the system of Human bondage. The governments 
 of Europe tried, in their hostility to the great Republic, to overlay 
 the facts, and the principles involved, with diplomatic sophistry, but 
 the stubborn things would not be overlaid, they lifted themselves 
 up and shouted, and they have passed into monumental history, 
 and are now without the shadow of controversy. When the Flag 
 went down at Sumter, the proud and haughty Southron said, and 
 for the moment it Avas true — so true, that tyrants rejoiced, and 
 freemen w^ept — the Southron said, " Freedom goes down Avith the 
 Flag, and our institution of Slavery triumphs over the land." 
 Let me here repeat the facts I have presented, for God was in 
 them, ruling and overruling them for the final overthrow of wrong, 
 and for the glorious triumph and vindication of right. First. From 
 the beginning to the end of the war, the armed hosts of the rebel- 
 lion were fighting for the supremacy of the system of Human 
 bondage — not for its existence, nor yet for its defence, for both 
 were guaranteed — but for its supremacy over the whole land, as 
 the end and the aim of the Government, and as the highest good 
 of the acres, and the men, and the homes of the land. And 
 Secondly. For nearly two whole years of the noise of war, and of 
 garments rolled in blood, the loyal armies were fighting for, they 
 knew not what ; for that, which in the clearest and best under- 
 standing of it they could get, was most indefinitely and ambigu- 
 ously stated to be the Flag and the Government. For two whole 
 years, our fathers, and sons, and brothers went out from their 
 homes to fight the bloody field, and to die for the Flag and the 
 Government. 
 
10 
 
 Let us look at this second fact, that we may show its reality and 
 learn its lessons. 
 
 The Government and the Flag were, prima facie, glorious things 
 to fight for. Our bovs sung, as they marched forth to the field, 
 
 " Rally round the Flag, boys, 
 
 Give it to the breeze ; 
 
 That's the banner we love, 
 
 Oa the land and seas." 
 
 As they went out to fight for the Flag, that was a pertinent and 
 inspiring rallying song to sing, and so they sung it, and its music 
 made our hearts leap within us, and our eyes to glisten with tears. 
 But then, the North had a conscience, and that conscience Avas 
 latently true to Liberty, and when the boys went out to fight, and 
 so many of them never to come back again, God troubled that con- 
 science. It became quick to reason, and God took care that it 
 should reason right. It became sensitive to truth. It reasoned 
 thus, " As things now stand or go, in logic and in fact, the Gov- 
 ernment means bondage, and the Flag means protection to Slavery." 
 It was a terrible conviction which thus flashed upon the Northern 
 conscience. Garrison preached it a generation ago, but our con- 
 " science is just awakened to it. We called Garrison, Ishmael and 
 Infidel, but we found out at last that he was the friend of man, 
 and his word the truth of God, only waiting to be confirmed in the 
 facts of history. The Northern conscience reasons further, and 
 says, " The Constitution is the basis of the Government and the 
 Constitution guarantees Slavery. If our armies fight agninst 
 Slavery, then, by construction and by fact, they fight against the 
 Constitution which guarantees and defends Slavery. And the 
 Flag is the protecting symbol of the Government, and is set for 
 the defence of the Constitution, wherever it waves, and therefore, 
 the Flag means protection to Slavery, and if our armies fight 
 against that which the Flag protects, then they fight against the 
 Flag." So the conscience of the loyal people reasoned, and rea- 
 soned truly. The logic was irresistible, and as appalling as irresist- 
 ible. Still the trumpet sounded forth to the war, and the men 
 trooped and tramped to the carnage, to fight, for what ? For 
 the Flag and the Government ! The North and the loyal people 
 were not fighting against Slavery, intentionally and of set purpose 
 Their blows told against Slavery, directed by the unseen sword of 
 
11 
 
 the Lord and of Gideon, but tliey did not mean it so. The re 
 bellious armies were avowedly fighting for Slavery; the "mudsills" 
 were to go under, with the Flag, and Slavery was to triumph ; 
 while the ranks and columns of the Government were not fighting 
 against it for nearly two long years of blood. Still they fought, 
 and bravely too, for something, for nothing, for this, and for that, 
 for the Flag and the Government ! And still they sung, and died 
 singing it, men and boys together — daring Generals and intrepid 
 drummer-boys — 
 
 '■' Rally round the Flag, boys, 
 Give it to the breeze ; 
 That's the banner we love, 
 On the land and seas." 
 
 And when Butler called the slaves within his lines " contraband of 
 war," the people were as much amused at the legal cunning and 
 military strategy of the General, as they were startled at his 
 daring, and its possible results ; it was a flash of farce, on the 
 tragic front of war. 
 
 But when Fremont made a practical application of the contra- 
 band doctrine, and proclaimed the slaves of rebels in his lines all 
 free, the Government rebuked him, demanded his sword, and re- 
 tired him in military disgrace. Butler's wit was amusing, though 
 in reality it was true ; but Fremont's application of it was misrule 
 and anarchy. The Constitution guarantees the largest liberty of 
 speech, and therefore Butler's "contraband of war " passes un- 
 challenged ; but the Constitution shelters no overt act of defiance, 
 or opposition, and therefore Fremont's deed is annulled and 
 branded, and the General himself accounted by the Government 
 an unprofitable servant. The President did what he, as President, 
 was required to do. It was the wrong thing done the right way, 
 while Fremont's act was the right thing done the wrong way. 
 The President said, " Fremont, you are right in motive, but your 
 act is wroDg, the Constitution being judge; my motive is as yours, 
 but I stand upon, and by my sacred oath, I administer the Con- 
 stitution." How strange this complication, and how impotent were 
 the hands of the Government ! The world saw the riddle and 
 awaited its solution ; the world saw the paradox more and more 
 startling and perplexing, and awaited the logic of events to reduce 
 it to reason. The rebellion was armed and fighting for Slavery ; 
 
12 
 
 the Government was fighting to put down the rebellion, but how 
 could the Government put down the rebellion, and not touch 
 Slavery, for which the rebellion was organized and armed ? For 
 nearly two whole years of war, the loyal people in arms struck at 
 the rebellion, while the Government spread its fostering and pecu- 
 liar care over the thing which the rebellion defended ; and slaves 
 who brought most reliable information into loyal camps, were re- 
 warded by the Government with a prompt return to their rebel 
 masters ! The Government commanded the army to strike ! Gen- 
 erals said, "What shall we strike for?" The Government an- 
 swered, "Strike for the Government and the Flag ! " The Gen- 
 erals asked, "What shall we strike at?" The Government 
 answered, "Strike at the rebellion!" The Generals and soldiers 
 said, "But the source and power of the rebellion is Slavery; shall 
 we strike at that, and break every chain, and let the oppressed go 
 free?" The Government thundered, "No! under penalty of 
 courts martial in every camp ! " And on rushed our ranks and 
 columns of brave men, to obey orders, and to strike at the re- 
 bellion ! 
 
 What a picture this is, as we now look back upon it ! And 
 what a picture it was then to many anxious and grieved eyes I 
 And no wonder I The Constitution guaranteed the system for 
 which the rebellion was armed. We do violence to our judg- 
 ment and conscience, when we attempt to evade this point. The 
 President, our beloved and lamented Lincoln, saw the dilemma, 
 and felt its crushing weight ! The Confederate leaders saw it, 
 and defied the Government, and invoked the powers of Europe to 
 their aid ! It was an awful time ! Defeat followed defeat ! The 
 Government Avavercd in its plans, and seemed almost imbecile in its 
 purposes! No wonder I Its hands Avere manacled! Statesman- 
 ship tried to untie the knot, and failed ; and when a sharp, daring 
 sword was lifted to cut it, the voice of the Government cried in 
 terror, "Hold!" and the sword paused in the air, and then fell 
 from the hand of the warrior. It was a dark and awful time ! 
 The Flag trailed in the dust and blood of battle, torn, and all its 
 stars dimmed! The world looked on — part of it with prayers and 
 tears ; part of it with indifference, and part of it with secret and 
 ill-diso-uised delight. Our armies were beaten back ; panic gave 
 the word and disaster followed ; treason ruled in the camp, and 
 
13 
 
 outrunked loyalty along the lines; traitors hid themselves safely in 
 gan-boats, and published bulletins to brave men to retreat shame- 
 fully, or lie down in swamps to die. Brave men died gallantly on 
 the battle field, but without any significant purpose to be sealed with 
 their blood ! Our Flag was flouted with the contempt of the 
 nations, and the American Eagle dimmed his eye, and drooped his 
 wings, and uttered no scream ! As the stars in their courses fought 
 against Sisera, so it seemed as if the very heavens were against us. 
 We had the men, we had the money, and humanly speaking we 
 had the power ; but neither the men, nor the money, nor the 
 power, nor all of them combined, brought success ! Something 
 was needed besides and above the men, and the money, and 
 the power which men and money bring. The element of true 
 power was wanting. One thing we lacked. We had courage, 
 bravery, endurance, the spirit of sacrifice ; but one thing was 
 lacking. It was an appalling spectacle, this tournament of death. ! 
 The contending armies consumed and swallowed each other up, 
 without the gain of vantage ground ! How great was our God in 
 these dispensations, as we now look back upon them. God was 
 mindful of us all the while, but the lesson He was teaching us we 
 were slow to learn. With us it was a question of the triumph or 
 defeat of the Government ; with God it was a question of the 
 triumph or defeat of the Truth. With us it was a question of law 
 and order ; with God it was a question of Justice and Purity. 
 With us it was a question of power ; with God it was a question of 
 equity. With us it was a question to be adjudicated by the SAvord; 
 Avith^God it was a question to be arbitrated by righteousness. God 
 was bringing us into His plans and methods, and Ave Avere loth to 
 let go our hold upon ourselves. God said, "Your wealth, and your 
 power, and your state, and your pomp of battle array, are ab- 
 horrent to me; your sacrifices of blood I will not accept. The 
 sacrifice which I will approve, and honor, and bless, is this, ' That 
 ye break every yoke and let the oppressed go free.' " The Presi- 
 dent Avas anxious and grieved, but quiet and firm. He retired to 
 pray. Light daAvncd amid the gloom. Hope gleamed its light 
 upon the night of despair. The President came forth from his 
 closet, pale, but undaunted, and like strange music to men's hearts, 
 came forth from. him the preliminary announcement of the Procla- 
 mation of Emancipation. The Nation held its breath ! The new, 
 
14 
 
 strange watchword — Freedom — Avas ■whispered in the camp and on 
 the field. In due time, on the first day of January, one thousand 
 eight hundred and sixty-three, came the Proclamation itself. It 
 was received with august reverence, as we would receive an angel, 
 in every home ; it was proclaimed at the head of the array, and the 
 Flag floated out, with conscious pride, in the new air of Freedom, 
 It struck terror into the hearts of our enemies, because it so sharply 
 defined the principles and purposes of the contending armies, and 
 the issues of the war. Some one said to the President, in view of 
 his Proclamation, " Do you think the Lord is on our side ? " He 
 answered, " I am not so much concerned as to whose side the Lord 
 is on, as I am to know if I am on the Lord's side." The right 
 hand of that great and good President, which penned in the stillness 
 of the solemn night, the Proclamation of Emancipation for four 
 millions of men, women and children, on our soil, was stronger then 
 than all our armies combined. Thereafter xhe sword was graspeci 
 by an idea, which had a heart in it ; it was the sword of the Lord 
 and of Gideon ; and the bullet whistled along the path of death 
 with a reason for it, and the victory was won ! The array of the 
 loyal armies in their mighty tramp, thundered not such fear in the 
 hearts of our enemies, as did that Proclamation by its awful whis- 
 pers of Justice, Equity and Righteousness ! The pen, writing the 
 bond of liberty, the charter of freedom, out-ran and out-thrust the 
 sword, and greeted the victory forever ! 
 
 " Beneath the rule of men entirely great, 
 The Pen is mightier than the Sword. Itself a nothing ; 
 But taking sorcery from the master hand, 
 To paralyze the CiBsars, and to strilie 
 The loud earth breathless." 
 
 A new era dawned. Men looked as if God were speaking to 
 them. Men smiled as if they heard God's voice marshalling them, 
 and promising blessings to them. The President was unyielding. 
 Treason howled at him ; traitors gnashed on him Avith their teeth. 
 The assassin lurked for him at the halloAA^ed threshold of his home 
 and at the sacred portals of the Capitol. Timid men were more 
 hesitating than ever. Statesmen tried their arts upon him in vain ^ 
 and then stood appalled at the master-stroke of a spirit they 
 could not comprehend. But the President failed not of his word. 
 
15 
 
 or his purpose, one jot or tittle. The Proclamation said, "The 
 
 slaves are free, and their freedom shall be maintained." Said one 
 
 of the Cabinet, " Say not maintained — for you know we might fail 
 
 of that." The President answered, " They are free, and their 
 
 freedom shall be maintained." The great King of Kings stood at 
 
 his right hand, and the cord which bound the hands and the feet 
 
 of the people were snapped asunder ! The soldiers were still in 
 
 the camp, and they still marched forth to the field, and they still 
 
 fought for the Government and the Flag. But now the Flag and 
 
 the Government meant something higher and nobler than before. 
 
 They still sung, but it was a new song they chaunted and chorused. 
 
 They now sung, 
 
 " Rally round the Flag, boys, rally once again, 
 Shouting the battle cry of Freedom; 
 Rally from the hill top, rally from the plain — 
 Shouting the battle cry of Freedom." 
 
 The gallant New York Seventh Regiment, composed of the 
 wealth and fashion of that great metropolis, electrified the country 
 by marching down Broadway, under the waving of flags arxd hand- 
 kerchiefs, singing — 
 
 "John Brown's bodj ies mouldering in the grave; 
 His soul is marching on." 
 
 In the darkest night of our trial, Mrs. Howe caught the inspira- 
 tion of the spirit of Justice and of Emancipation, and her "Battle 
 Hymn of the Republic " was the fore-runner of the Proclamation. 
 
 " Mine eyes have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord ; 
 He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; 
 He has loosed the fateful lightnings of His terrible swift sword — 
 For God is marching on. 
 
 I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps ; 
 We have builded Him an altar 'mid the evening dews and damps ; 
 I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps ; 
 His Truth is marching on. 
 
 I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel : 
 As you deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal ; 
 Let the Hero born of woman crush the serpent with his heel; 
 Eor God is marching on. 
 
 He bath sounded forth the trumpet, that shall never call retreat; 
 He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat ; 
 be swift my soul to answer Him, be jubilant my feet, 
 Our 6oi is njarching on. 
 
16 
 
 Mid the beauty of the lilies, Christ ■\ra? born across the soa ; 
 With a fflory in His bosom that transfigures you and me : 
 j\s He died to make men Holv, let us die to make men Free ; 
 Our God is mo,rchinpc orL.'" 
 
 The ground of the Proclamation of Emancipation was Military 
 Necessity. The President was right. The only ground upon 
 which the President could proclaim emancipation was that of 
 Military Necessity. The Constitution shut every door against him 
 but this one. The Constitution guaranteed Slavery. There was 
 the wrong. The President was sworn to keep the Constitution in- 
 violate, and to administer the Government upon it. He could not 
 evade it, nor alter it, nor amend it. The spirit of Slavery brooded 
 over and upon the beginnings of the Republic, and infused its 
 poison into the infant life of the nation. Even the Declaration of 
 Independence is shorn of its true glory, by its framers having 
 yielded to the demands of Slavery, arrogant and unyielding even 
 in that glorious period of new-fledged liberty. You remember the 
 list of usurpations and of political crimes which that instrument 
 portrayed and laid to the charge of the King of England. The 
 greatest crime, as Jefferson Avrote the Declaration, which Avas 
 charged upon George the Third, was that he enslaved men and 
 Avomen and children of Africa upon this soil ; that he countenanced 
 and authorized the buying and selling of human beings, and for so 
 doing he charges the King with committing a crime against human 
 nature itself, characterizing it as the crime of deepest die. When 
 the draft of the Declaration was reported to Congress, that clause 
 of it, referring to Slavery, was stricken out at the demand of South 
 Carolina and Georgia, who five years ago consummated their perfidy 
 by leading off in the infamous Secession acts. Thus the very be- 
 ginnings of our national life were poisoned with Slavery. The 
 Constitution ranked no higher, on this question, than the spirit of 
 its framers, who were imbued with the spirit of the men, who with 
 all their patriotism and sel.f-sacrifice, allowed the true and crowning 
 glory of the Declaration of Independence to be blighted. The 
 Constitution, with its guarantees, Avas the supreme law of the land. 
 The President could not amend it. As President he must admin- 
 ister the Government upon it. Congress alone could amend it, 
 and that by a vote of two-thirds of its members, and that again 
 subject to the ratification of the States and of the people. The 
 
17 
 
 President could not do it. He has been criticised here and blamed. 
 I think wrongfully. But if the freedom of the slave is necessary 
 to the salvation of the country, then the Constitution sanctions the 
 demands of necessity. The merchant captain on the high seas is a 
 felon, if he throw overboard, to the value of a single dollar, the 
 cargo committed to his care ; but if his vessel is on her beam ends, 
 every particle of her precious cargo may and must go to the bottom 
 of the sea, if necessary to save the ship. Necessity knows no law. 
 That is law. The Constitution most solemnly guarantees the right 
 of every citizen to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; it 
 guards the sacred rights of property, and person, and home ; but 
 if necessity require it, the Government takes the property, and the 
 person, and devotes them to its uses, and the Constitution sanctions 
 the demands of the necessity. The writ of Habeas Corpus, the fair- 
 est and best fruit of constitutional liberty, the brightest jewel in the 
 brilliants of Magna Charta, the final safeguard of the liberties of 
 the people, even that may be suspended at the demand of necessity. 
 So the freedom of the slave was needed for the Government ; his 
 bondage was in the way of the march of our armies, and the Gov- 
 ernment made him free upon the ground of Military Necessity. 
 The President was right. He was cautious and entirely constitu- 
 tional in his executive acts. His act was strictly within the limits 
 of his oath and fidelity to the Constitution. As an executive act, 
 it must be regarded as the grandest in history. It challenged dip- 
 lomatic criticism. Europe dreamed that the President had made a 
 great mistake, and awoke to find their intrigues bafiled. Palmer- 
 ston's hand was palsied as he read of it : and Louis Napoleon was 
 outreached in his cunning grasp at power by the constitutional act 
 of the rail splitter. It brought the world to its knees at the feet 
 of honest and indomitable Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 But the glory, the undying glory, the ever-increasing glory of 
 the Proclamation of Emancipation, is in the motive of it! The 
 President's warrant for the act was one thing, his motive in it was 
 another thing. His warrant for it was an incident in human legis- 
 lation, his motive in it is as eternal as the Throne of God. His 
 warrant for it will be forgotten, but the motive of it will shine and 
 flame with the fires of a perpetual glory. His warrant for the act 
 was in the letter of the Constitution, but his motive for it gives it 
 all its glory in a moral point of view. It is to this motive I now 
 2 
 
18 
 
 call your attention, in the higher view which, as Christian citizens, 
 we must take of this great act, bearing as it does, not only upon 
 this land and people, but upon all lands and peoples ; not only 
 upon this generation, but upon all generations to come ; and which 
 concerns, not only time, but reaches to eternity and to God. It 
 was not that he could play off a desperate game against our ene- 
 mies, and cry " check," as the key-note of their dismay, that he 
 proclaimed Emancipation. It was not merely that it gave our 
 armies and our cause military advantage, by securing the sym- 
 pathies of the Frecdmen, and quickening the fears of their masters, 
 that he wrote, and signed, and proclaimed the bond of Emancipa- 
 tion. These were results, but they were not the motive, the in- 
 spiration of the act. No such motive of mere policy and strategy 
 prompted the greatest deed of statesmanship that history can ever 
 record. He claims Military Necessity as the ground of his act, 
 not as the motive of it. Let us do honor to the distinction. For 
 the justification of his act, as an executive act, he appeals to the 
 Constitution ; but he does not appeal to the Constitution for the 
 justification of his motive. For the justification of his motive he 
 appeals to a higher and an eternal tribunal I 
 
 What is his motive ? It is expressed in a single line ; it blos- 
 soms out of a single W3rd of the Proclamation. We have over- 
 looked it, I fear. The President says, " UPON THIS ACT, 
 SINCERELY BELIEVED TO BE AN ACT OF JUSTICE!" 
 In that single sentence is contained the motive and the inspiration 
 which led him to this mighty deed ! EMANCIPATION ! " Sin- 
 cerely believed to be an act of Justice ! " As an act, "Warranted 
 by the Constitution upon Military Necessity," he might have ap- 
 pealed for justification only to a legitimate construction of the 
 Constitution; but as an act of Justice, he appeals for justi- 
 fication beyond the Constitution, and beyond the country, and be- 
 yond the age, and from men to God! He says, "Upon this act, 
 sincerely believed to be an act of Justice warranted by the Con- 
 stitution, upon Military Necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- 
 ment of mankind, and the Gracious Favor of Almighty God." 
 
 When the Proclamation went forth, sealed with such faith and 
 Divine assurance, and calm trust in the Right, and sanctioned by 
 such a solemn appeal to earth and heaven, to time and to eternity, 
 the Rebellion was shorn of its power; disloyal men hid their faces 
 
19 
 
 from sight, and lojal and strong men kissed each other in the 
 streets, and wept on each other's necks. It was only a question of 
 time for the advent of Peace. Every stroke of the rebellion there- 
 after, was a struggle, a vain struggle with death. Justice was 
 done, not mercy given, not favor bestowed, but Justice was done 
 at last in behalf of millions of God's children in the land. And 
 God therefore gave us the victory ! It was a righteous act, right- 
 eously performed, and Righteousness exalted the nation ! 
 
 Abraham Lincoln ! His work was then done ! He waited to 
 see the salvation of God. Nor did he wait in vain. His act, 
 under God, saved the country. And there never was an executive 
 act in all history, which, in its motives, tendencies and forever 
 accumulating results was so in the interests of Religion and of 
 Christ's kingdom, as was this act. Abraham Lincoln ! He was 
 ready to die. His death was the last blow of the rebellion, re- 
 duced to the arm of a drunken assassin. And as our martyred 
 President passed to Heaven through the wide open gates of glory, 
 the Angel of Peace kissed him welcome, and then passed out on 
 bright and swift wings to bless the land. 
 
 Military Necessity has passed away, but the Proclamation of 
 the President, the fair fruit and exemplification of Eternal Justice, 
 remains in full force. It was no mere military expediency meas- 
 ure, when Congress enacted the Constitutional Amendment, pro- 
 hibiting Slavery forever in this land ; it was solemnly done as an 
 act of Justice. And when the States ratified the act of Congress, 
 it was an act of Justice. The freedom of the slave was proclaimed, 
 and is maintained ! Our transition pangs from Slavery to Liberty, 
 were awful ; the throes of the nation were appalling ! But we are 
 redeemed ! The emphasis of the Constitution is the tone of uni- 
 versal liberty, and the waving of the Flag in every breeze, means 
 freedom for all over whom it floats ! 
 
 Emancipation prepares the way, and leads to a higher plane of 
 National life than this country has ever attained. Reconstruction 
 is a new word among us, and it has its definite and appropriate po- 
 litical meanings. But the word which truly characterizes our new 
 national life, is. Regeneration. We are born again ! Let it be 
 said — reverently — we are redeemed, not with corruptible things, 
 as silver and gold, from our vain conversation, received by tradition 
 from our fathers. We are delivered from the bondage of cor- 
 
20 
 
 ruption, into glorious liberty. Henceforth we lead a new life : 
 new principles inspire us ; a new destiny is before us. Old things 
 have passed away, behold all things have become new. 
 
 Henceforth our politics are to be projected in the plane of Mo- 
 rality and Religion. The trade of the politician is to be remem- 
 bered to be abhorred. The " meanly minded men who bartered free- 
 dom for a rich man's feast, and sold their country for a smile," 
 have gone to the moles and to the bats. Christianity asserts the 
 supremacy, and what will God do unto us if we fail to honor Christ's 
 title to dominion over this broad land ! " Be wise now, therefore,0 
 ye Kings, be instructed, ye Judges of the earth ; serve the Lord 
 with fear ; kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the 
 way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." 
 
 The National Life is essentially and immeasurably purer to-day 
 than it ever was. The days of compromises, and of the bargain 
 and sale of the National honor, are forever gone. We have done 
 Justice in behalf of millions of men, women and children on our 
 soil. Let it be thorough Justice. Better call men chattels, and 
 make them slaves, and doom them to bondage, than to call them 
 men, and withhold from them men's rights ! We ask not for mag- 
 nanimity toward a long enslaved race, only for Justice and the 
 Right. Right wrongs none ! With universal liberty, the tendency 
 is to perfect equality before the law for all the citizens of this great 
 country. Prejudices are to be overcome ; customs are to be modi- 
 fied ; and character, not wealth — character^ not color — character, 
 is to be the standard of the citizen and the glory of the state ; and 
 a man unimpeached before the law, is to stand unchallenged at the 
 ballot. We can have no politics now separate from Morality and 
 Religion. We are to be Christian citizens, true to Christ, and 
 therefore true to our country ; true to our country, and therefore 
 true to Christ. 
 
 LB My '13