ClassX^4^2L Rook X94 OUR COUNTRY'S TROUBLES. SERMON PEEACHED IN THE CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY, PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 29, 1856 BY REV. DUDLEY A. TYNG, RECTOR, PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF LAYJIEN IN BOSTON. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. CLEVELAND, OHIO: JEWETT, PROCTOR AND WORTHINGTON. NEW YORK : SHELDON, BLAKEMAN AND COMPANY. 1856. TfLf CAMBRIDGE: ALLEN AND FAKNHAM, PRINTERS. IN EXCHAIW'JP JfeN 5 ,9i7 SERMON. 1 CORINTHIANS XII. 26. Whether one biember suffer, all the members suffer with it: or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. It is a mooted question how far the Christian pulpit may, and ought to be enlisted in the consideration of current events, and the discussion of questions of pub- lic interest. It is undoubtedly a great evil when the teachers of religion forsake their appropriate themes to mingle in all the heated controversies of the day. Nothing could be more calculated to break down the influence of the ministry, and to rear up insuperable barriers of angry prejudice against the message of mercy which it is its chief business to declare. But may there not also be an opposite extreme ? May there not be silence when great principles are at stake ? May not great wrongs go unchallenged of the pulpit till there be supposed nothing in them inconsistent with re- ligion? May not the dread of offence be carried so far as to put the pulpit in bondage ? And may not the refusal to take sides in great questions of public opinion, result in the gospel's being supposed to have nothing to do with the affairs of society, and in eon- tempt on all hands for the ministry for its fear of speaking out ? Ministers have the same interest in society and its institutions as other citizens ; perhaps more so : for their happiness is peculiarly bound up in the right influence of religious and moral principles upon the community. Society can suffer in no mem- ber without a true-hearted Christian ministry suffering with it. Religion itself, moreover, is often vitally affected by events transpiring in social and ^^o^itical life. Evil principles may be at work in the social system, whose ultimate tendency is to destroy the practical influence of Christianity over the conduct of men, and to under- mine the foundations of their faith. Is the pulpit to keep silence until the adversaries of the faith, having completely invested it with intrenchments in public custom and opinion, are boldly demanding its surren- der ? Human nature is an unit. Its many interests are but one body. And the sufferings of any one of its members are felt in the vital organs. Questions of social and political economy, as well as of moral prin- ciple, may be the media of deadly wounds to the re- ligious life. In fact, Christianity enters into every interest of man. And as Christians and Christian min- isters we are interested in every thing that concerns humanity. We cannot disconnect our religion from the details of our common life. It affects or is affected by them all. " They are many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee ; nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you." "And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." Owing to the close interchange of sympathy and influence, the events of the day may assume a deep religious significance. The same events which in one aspect agi- tate commercial interests, and in another convulse the political circles, may in yet another be fraught with stirring interest for the religious communitj'. And while they awaken great contention on the plane of so- cial or political hfe, they may also, from the higher stand-point of the Christian patriot, be seen to affect the dearest rights and interests of men, and to endan- ger great principles to the support of which the pulpit is bound. At such times the Christian ministry ma}^ be criminal if it does not speak out boldly in behalf of right, carefully avoiding, indeed, the arousing of those passions which belong to the lower aspect of events, but fearlessly and dispassionately directing public sentiment by the higher principles of divine revelation. It seems to me that we have now reached such a time. Events are transpiring which bear most mo- mentously on all our rights as men, and duties as Christians. All that is most dear and valuable to us as citizens is put in jeopardy. The principles and influ- ence of Christianity, which first founded our institu- tions, can alone preserve them to us in their integrity in the present crisis. And I claim the right as a Christian minister to declare what I believe to be im- portant truth, and to do my part, small as it may be, towards tlie settlement of the difficulties which encom- pass ns. I claim a patient hearing, and a candid comparison with the jDrinciples of the Bible. If I am wrong, I am open to conviction; if I am right, the declaration of the truth will bring the responsibility of walking by its light. With this prefatory statement let me call 3'our attention, — I. To the EVILS to be deplored. For the first time in the history of this country, it is the scene of civil w^ar. Armed men, in battle array, are marching on its soil, and carrying with them all the horrors of a hostile invasion. Towns are sacked, houses pillaged, property plundered and destroyed, women and children driven in terror from their homes, and men shot down by their own doors ! Society is in confusion, public security at an end, peaceful industry interrupted, and a thriving Territory reduced to a state of nature, where the only protection is that of force, and the household cannot lie down at night without fear of the assassin. Families are driven out from lands which they have tilled and houses which they have built, and warned to leave the country or be hung. Fields lie unsown, and crops are left unploughed, because armed marauders have stolen the farmer's horses and killed his oxen, and obliged him to skulk in secret for fear of his life, or join bodies of his neighbors who have armed in defence of their homes and families. All the horrors which existed when invading armies marched with blood and desolation on our soil; all the suffering which drenched our frontiers when the warwhoop of the savage aroused the sleeping household for the tomahawk and the fagot, are now renowned in un- happy Kansas. Hardly a day passes without bring- ing telegraphic news of some new outrage, so dreadful that we can scarce realize its possibility, or arouse our- selves to feel as the occasion demands. And who are the authors of all these outrages on American citi- zens ? Not the savage Indian nor the foreign invader, but their own countrymen, citizens of our own free and happy land, imbruing their hands in brothers' blood. And what is the crime for which their brethren are thus subjected to invasion and violence ? Merely differ- ence of opinion. Merely assertion of their right to think, speak, write, and act according to their own conscience and interests in forming the institutions of a Territory into which the capital and population of the country were invited by a solemn act of the Federal Govern- ment. On the 30th of May, 1854, the Territory of Kan- sas w^as thrown open to settlers by act of Congress, and the privilege of determining the character of its insti- tutions accorded to those who should become residents of its soil. Attracted by this opening for industry and enterprise, large numbers of persons from all sections of the country emigrated to the Territory, and soon made its prairies to smile with cultivation and dotted its sur- face with towns and villages. Never country opened with brighter prospects. But how soon was this bright morn overcast. On the 29th of November, 1854, the infant Territory was to elect a delegate to appear and speak in its behalf in the National Congress. On that day more than one thousand armed men from an ad- 8 joining State invaded the Territory, drove judges and legal voters from the polls, and by fraudulent ballots elected a man of their own. On the 30th of March, 1855, the inhabitants of Kansas were to have elected their Territorial Legislature. More than four thousand armed men from the same State again invaded the Territorj-, took possession of the polls and elected their own candidates, some of them residents of their own State. The recent investigations of the Congressional Committee have proved that of five thousand five hun- dred votes cast on that day, less than one thousand were of actual residents of the Territory. Surely it was bad enough to see a Legislature imposed on them by force and fraud. But w^hat sort of laws did they pass ? Hear, and ask yourselves whether we live in the nineteenth century, and in a free and Christian re- public. They reenacted in a mass all the slave laws of Missouri, merely adding that wherever the word " State " occurs in them it shall be construed to mean " Territory." They made the non-admission of the right to hold slaves in the Territory a disqualification for sitting as juror. They enacted that to say that j^ersons have not a right to hold slaves in that Territory should be punished with two years' imprisonment at hard labor. That writing, printing, or circulating any thing against slavery should be punished with five years' imprison- ment at hard labor. That the harborino- of fuo-itive slaves should be punished with five years' imprison- ment at hard labor. That assisting slaves to escape should be punished with death. That assisting slaves to escape from any Territory, and take refuge in that Ter- 9 ritory, should be jDunished with deaih. That the print- ing or circuhation of pubUcations calculated to incite slaves to insurrection, should be punished with death. To secure these laws perpetuity, they enacted that all who do not swear to support the Fugitive Slave Law should be disqualified as voters, but that any one might vote who will pay $1.00, and swear to uphold the Fu- gitive Slave Law and the Nebraska bill. And, still further to guard against all contingencies, they ap- pointed non-residents to town and county offices for six years ahead. Thus, by one stroke of combined fraud and force, the great question of social rights, whose settlement had been pledged to the citizens themselves, w^ere decided by an invading army, whose agents established slavery against the wishes of the people, disfranchise all who oppose it, open the polls to all pro-slavery non-residents, and shut up all who speak, write, print, or circulate any thing against it with long imprisonment at hard labor. What has become of the rights of American citizens? Talk of obedience to law ! Would you, would any American, obey such laws so imposed? Where were the spirit of our Revolutionar}^ fathers, if such oppres- sion could be submitted to ? Where is our republican government, if such rights can be taken away ? But what was done in opposition? There was no armed resistance, no collision with assumed authority. The people of Kansas simply denied the legality of the enactments and the obligation of obedience, and falling back on inherent rights, went through the pre- liminaries of a State organization, and applied to Con- 10 gress for relief. That relief has not been yet afforded. And what has since transpired ? A third, fourth, and fifth armed invasion has taken place, each with increased aggravation of outrage. Pillage and plunder and mur- der have increased from day to day. Large bodies of armed men from distant and adjoining States are in the Territory, with no attempt at becoming settlers, without means of honest support, living by the pillage of those who differ from themselves in sentiment, and perpetrat- ing cruelties unknown even in war. Government troops have been used to overawe all attempts at resistance, and moved about so as to expose unprotected towns to violence. A fourfold process of oppression has been used to ruin and drive out those whose only crime is the claiming of rights guaranteed them by the very law which invited them to Kansas. First, innumerable in- dictments for imaginary crimes are made out by a corrupt judiciary against all Free State men of influ- ence, while the worst of crimes by men of opposite politics have gone unnoticed. Secondly, armed horde,s of ruffians, under pretence of maintaining "law and order," patrol the country, committing all the outrages which have been described. Thirdly, the United States dragoons are made use of by the local authorities to suppress any risings for self-defence, and kept out of the way when attacks are to be made. And lastly, "Vigilance Committees" are appointed to drive ofi^ with threats of " Lynch law," all those who, by the other methods, have not been subdued. All this has been going on for months. And recent accounts an- nounce that the sufferers themselves are driven by des- 11 peration to armed defence, and the hostile bands are now watching each other, and meeting in deadly con- flict. Civil war is begun. And where is it to end, un- less it can be suppressed at once in the place of its birth ? Let it not be said that we have no interest in this matter. Distant and feeble as she may be, Kansas is a member of our body politic. The same life-blood which nourishes our own community flows through her. And the wounds and ansruish which she endures are felt to the remotest parts of the Republic. Ties of friendship and of blood unite her suffering children to all sections of our country. And were these want- ing, a common nationality binds them in one body to us all, and the great heart of humanity enfolds them in its sympathies. "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." At the same time that these events have been transpir- ing, another scene has been enacted which has inflicted a still deeper wound on the honor and peace of our coun- try. A member of the Senate of the United States, a man honored equally for his virtue and his attain- ments, has been stricken down and beaten by a mem- ber of Congress till his blood stained the floor of the Senate, for w^ords spoken in debate. It matters not what were the words which gave offence, though it may well be supposed that language unchallenged at the time by a body whose majority were in opposition to the speaker, did not transgress the ordinary limits of parliamentary debate. It matters not wdiat were the words, nor who the speaker, nor who the assailant. It 12 was a principle which was stricken down. And that principle is one of all the pillars of onr free institutions. "Without the right of freedom of speech, neither our liberties nor our religion are secure. If the bludgeon is to be the ruling power in our country, where will be our boasted freedom and national Christianity ? If the flag of our country, and the symbols of her liberty can- not protect the members of her government within the w^alls of her Capitol, in the discharge of their official duty, what is to become of our republic? With the freedom of the press overthrown in Kansas, and the freedom of the Senate assailed in Washino-ton, how long before the freedom of the pulpit shall be also at the mercy of a popular majority or of a reckless and excitable bully ? There is not a legislator, or an editor, or a clergyman in the country, whose right to advocate what he conscientiously believes, nor a citizen whose right to representation of his sentiments, has not been assailed in the blows which laid the eloquent Sumner senseless on the Senate chamber. But the act itself is not so ominous of evil as its indorsement. To hear it defended and eulogized throughout the wdiole section represented by the assassin, by public assemblies giving votes of thanks for his iniquity, by the press almost unanimously holding it up as worthy of imitation, and by fellow-representatives who screen the offender from punishment, may well make one feel sadly appre- hensive for our country. It indicates that we are becoming unworthy of our heritage, and that the sen- timent of justice and right has rotted away in the foundation of government. Alas for our country, when 13 the makers of her laws dare not speak in defence of what they deem human right, or must go armed with deadly weapons for protection in the discharge of their duty ! God forbid that the ministers of religion should refuse to s*peak in reprobation of the evil. II. But let us look, secondly, at the impelling 'principle of these outrages. They have all one impulse, the aggressive spirit of slavery. Let it be noted and remembered that all these wrongs grow out of a deter- mination to extend the area of human bondage. Why are armed hordes now traversing Kansas with pillage and murder? Simply that they may extend over it the blight of slavery. Why are men illegally arrested, robbed, driven from home, hunted like beasts, or shot down dead in the fields ? Simj)ly because they desire to save their home and fiimily from the blight of sla- very. Why are they denied the protection of a govern- ment whose pride it is to protect its citizens to the farthest verge of the habitable globe ? Merely because they will not submit to force and fraud to be cursed with slavery. Why was Sumner assailed and beaten in the Senate ? Merely because he spoke too pointedly and plainly for their deliverance from the attempted curse of slavery. The sole impulse of all these out- rages is the desire to extend slavery. The sole crime of the sufferers is the invincible desire to be free. The blood of a Senator has stained the floor of the Senate chamber, the blood of her citizens has been poured out like water on the virgin soil of Kansas, merely that it may be made a land of bondage. The whole South is aroused and pours forth invading armies, and the whole 2 14 influence and power of the Federal Government are employed to aid them, merely because the actual resi- dents of Kansas, in the exercise of the rights guaran- teed them by the law which opened the Territory to settlers, are largely determined that it shall be free. Ignoble contest ! Where slavery is let it remain. Let it be apologized for and mitigated as it can. I am not one of those who would attack the South for the inher- itance of perplexity and shame which Northern cupid- ity was originally a joint agent in introducing. Let them mourn over the embarrassments and evils of their lot, and strive to discharge their duty as Christian mas- ters to the people they have found dependent and in servitude. Thus out of their birthright of misfortune they may work out a blessing to the subject race, and a mission of mercy for themselves. To apologize for an involuntary evil is one thing. To strive to extend and perpetuate it is another. We may regard the former with the truest charity. But as freemen and Chris- tians, what must we say of the latter ? But why are Southern men so madly resolved that Kansas shall be thrown open to slavery ? Is it because they desire themselves to be residents of the country ? Very few of them have any such idea. But it will give them, first, and increase of political power. It will wheel another State into the phalanx, and give them two more Senatorial votes for that control of the Government which the far swifter progress of the Free States has taken from them in the House of Repre- sentatives. Few among us have reflected on the po- litical power given by slavery to the few. Three fifths 15 of all the slaves are counted in with the whites as the basis of representation, largely increasing the po- litical importance of the white person at the South over the white person at the North. Of the whites, large numbers are either disfranchised by a pro2Derty qualification, or are completely under the control of their wealthier neighbors. Political honors and influ- ence are confined to a few. In the whole fifteen slave- holding States there are less than one hundred thousand persons owning more than ten slaves each. How many of these are desirous of deserting their plantations and emigrating to Kansas ? But these are the persons who control the policy of fifteen States, and by their in- fluence at home and at the North have controlled the policy and monopolized the honors of the General Gov- ernment. Is it to be wondered that they should make such desperate efforts to extend so disproportionate an importance ? And as it grows so it will grow until this whole land of liberty shall be made tributary to the perpetuation of himian bondage. The establishment of slavery in Kansas will give them, secondly, a new market for slaves. The pecu- niary value of slavery arises not from the productive- ness of slave labor. It costs much and produces little, wastes largely and wears out the soil it cultivates. Left to itself, it impoverishes, in the long run, both land and owner, and would gradually work out its own extermi- nation. But slave-breeding compensates for the expen- siveness of slave labor. To breed human beings for sale, to rear immortal souls that they may be driven like cattle to the market and sold to the highest bidder, is 16 a profitable business. Families and estates are main- tained by such breeding and sale, often of blood rela- tions. To keep up the price the market must be ex- tended. New States and Territories must have their virgin soil thrown open to slavery, and as their lauds also become impoverished, join the slave-breeding States in the ceaseless cry of the horse-leech and her daugh- ters. Kansas is uow invaded and outraged merely that it may be made a land of bondage, and that for the increase of a political power inimical to our free institu- tions, and a stimulus to the breeding of human beings for sale. And what is the pretence under which these evil deeds are covered up, and the acquiescence of the country in them is sought? It is the equal right of men of all sections of the country to go with their property into the national territory. It is said that to deny the right of slaveholders to carry their property there, is to destroy the equality of our citizens. As this is the grand plea, which is designed to, and to some extent does, impose on the public mind for excuse of all these enormities, it is essential that it should be examined. Let it be observed then, in the first place, that the claimed right of carrying one's identical property with him in removal, is an absurdity. How much prop- erty is there in its nature so local that it cannot be removed ? Who could remove his farm, or his fishery, or his water-power? Yet who ever thought of de- claiming against the injustice of Nature and Provi- dence, because he could not take them to Kansas? The proceeds of their sale he can take. And has any- 17 body ever denied to the slaveholder the right to take to Kansas the proceeds of the sale of his slaves as well as the proceeds of the sale of his plantation ? Secondly, the right of property in human beings is not a natural right, but merely the result of local laws. Outside the jurisdiction of those laws, the right does not exist. There are States where lotteries are allowed by law. A lottery interest is the property of its holder. Be- cause lotteries are proscribed in Kansas or elsewhere, has the lottery holder cause to complain of the over- throw of his constitutional rights? Shall Kansas be invaded and drenched in blood because its inhabitants will not pass the local laws which in other States have made lotteries property ? With as much reason as because they will not establish property in human flesh and blood. The property which results from local laws can be sold, where those local laws have made it valua- ble, and its proceeds taken wherever the owner may please. And is the Union to be convulsed, a peaceful Territory made the scene of war, and industrious citizens robbed and murdered, because some hotheaded individ- ual has resolved that instead of taking- his thousand dol- lars to Kansas in gold and silver, he will take it in the shape of a lottery othce or a brother man ? Let the flimsy pretext be understood. If the right of holding human beings as property results merely from local law, it is limited by the law which created it. If it be a nat- ural right it is as indefeasible in Pennsylvania as it is in Kansas. And this will be the final issue. But thirdly, it seems to be entirely forgotten that there are rights on the other side. It is a fundamental 2* 18 principle in law that one man must not, by his property, injure that of his neighbors. The welfare of the one must give way to the welflire of the many. Now if one man has property in a fellow, there are thousands of others who have more undoubted property in them- selves. If one claims the right of making the bodily labor of his fellow subserve his own comfort and advan- tage, there are thousands of others who claim a divine and indefeasible right to make their own good arms available to their own support and advancement. And these two rights conflict. For slave labor and free labor are opposed to each other. Slavery degrades bodily labor. It makes a man's bodily strength and manual skill less availing for his own profit and eleva- tion. It thus diminishes and takes away his inherent property in himself It lessens his pecuniary reward, and shuts up the door of promotion. The question is, therefore, between the right of one man to the muscles of his neighbor and the right of thousands to the full benefit of their own muscles. It is whether one man is to leave his slave behind him, or whether a thousand white citizens are to be enslaved if they go. The rights of all our laboring classes, ten thousand to one slave- holder, are invaded in the attempt at the violent subjugation of Kansas. Moreover, there are many methods of remunerative labor of more intellectual character that are available only in a free community. In fact, there is scarcely a department of ingenuity or power, which the history and present state of our coun- try do not show to be circumscribed and depreciated by tlie presence of slavery. The intellectual, literary, 19 and inventive, as well as the bodily powers of man become less available for individual and social pros- perity. Every man, therefore, who is not himself a slave-holder, is interested for himself, his children, his relatives and friends in the exclusion of slavery. His property and their property in their own minds and bodies is depreciated by the introduction of slave labor. The inalienable rights which God himself has given to him and them are arrayed against the merely local and transferable, not to say disputable, right of the slave-holder. The suffering in Kansas, the suffering of Sumner, is not in resistance of human right, but it is martyrdom in defence of the rights of the many against the aggression of a few. And the question is not whether there shall be maintained the rio;hts of a few thousand slave-holders, but whether shall be main- tained the rights of millions of freemen. III. But, thirdly, let us not lose sight of the divine agency in all the troubles which have come upon us. We are taught in Holy Scripture that the providence of God overrules the actions of men no less than the operations of nature. Every human agent is to the Lord only as the saw in the hand of him that shaketh it. No man can have any power at all against the ob- ject of his hatred or oppression, except it be given him from above. "Man proposes, but God disposes." And therefore when there is evil in a city or a country, w^e -are to look above the human instrumentalities, and .humble ourselves under the hand of God, and inquire • jhy He hath dealt so greivously with us. Especially s this the case in public calamities. For as bodies 20 politic have no existence in the world to come, their judgment and recompense, unlike that of individuals, can take place only in this world. The question which we ought to ask ourselves, therefore, is, "Wherefore hath the Lord dealt thus with His servants ? " Many are oiu' national offences. But there is ever a corre- spondence between the offence and its punishment. And .70 are to search out the sins and errors for which this special visitation has been sent. Doubtless, one sin for which we are suffering is the base spirit of truckling and pandering to sectional interests and prejudices, which has for so many years characterized the prime movers of our political ma- chinery. Politics have been a mere trade, conducted without honesty or principle for selfish aggrandizement. Vainly do we look for patriotism in the wire-working of our political parties. The whole government is administered upon the principle of the division of the spoils. There has been no prejudice so opposed to the spirit of our institutions, no sectional interest so degrad- ing, that political leaders, low and high, were not willing to sell themselves to it for votes. There has been no combination of parties too inconsistent, unprincipled, and corrupt to be entered into for the sake of office and public money. In particular, the leading political parties have for years been conducted in rivalry of subservience to the interests of slavery. The interests of the nation have been disresiraded and sacrificed in disg^raceful un- derbidding for the slave-holding vote. There was no deep so low for one party to descend into, that some " lower deep still opening wide " was not discovered by 21 the other. For more than a generation has this system of self-abasement been going on. No wonder that those who have been the objects of this soHcltation should have been educated into the idea that the whole gov- ernment of the country should be conducted for the benefit of slavery. If our unhappy country is now suffering from Southern violence, it has been brought on ns by that long and increasing selfabasement of Northern politicians. Especially is this the case with our present agitations. A new scene of commotion had been settled by new concessions, to which for the sake of peace, all parties had assented. The whole land was at rest and quiet. Slavery was demanding nothing more, and its opponents had made up their minds to acquiesce in the settlement, when, for pure party purposes and for personal aggrandizement, the time-honored barrier of freedom was overthrown as a new bid in the auction which has sacrificed the domain of the nation for the slave-holding vote. Let the authors of the iniquity be nameless here, as they deserve to be in the annals of the Republic. Insane and unprincipled ambition is the source of all the agitation and turmoil and bloodshed which has been rending the land asunder. The whole people have witnessed so tamely the successive betrayals of their interests, and voted so docilely on the issues lihey presented, that hope had been conceived of their "inlimited submission. The sectional jealousies which it has stirred up anew, and the attempt to secure, by vio- lence, wdiat slavery understood to be offered it by the measure, is its natural consequence, and the providen- oo tial punishment of the nation for the iniquity which it sanctioned and encouraged. Another poHtical sin for which the nation is thus suffering, is the neglect of poHtical duty by respect- able citizens. We have boasted much of our political rights ; but we have been sadly unmindful of our po- litical duties. How large a proportion of the most respectable and influential of our citizens have wholly abstained from the nomination and election of our rulers. The whole business of nominations has been given up to caucuses, chiefly composed of the ambitious and the vile. Assemblies in which no respectable person could appear, have brought out candidates of their own, for inferior offices, and conventions of in- terested men have long; wranded out the nomination to higher posts of those to whose election they could pin their own hopes of office to be acquired or retained. All honesty and all patriotism have quite disappeared from our political system. Politics have become a trade so low that few respectable men dare touch it. Not an election can be carried without money, and bar- gaining, and rum. And in consequence not a bill can be carried through our national legislature without bribes. Yet orderly and respectable citizens see those iniquities without troubling themselves for their correc- tion. Absorbed in their own business and comfort, they leave the rule of the country they care not to whom. And yet they boast of their political rights. But God has given no right without obligation of use. The right of self-government involves the duty of self-gov- 23 ernment, the duty of selecting and electing the rulers of our people. This sacred duty, due to ourselves, mankind, and God, has been wofully neglected, and, therefore, God has turned our neglect into our punish- ment, and chastised the land with misrule and civil war. Kindred and consequential to these has been another sin — the entire divorce of the whole system of politics from the fear of God. If respectable men, when they kept aloof from the selection of condidates for office, also threw away their allegiance to party, the evil would be less. But, by a strange confusion of moral sense, the obligation to party is made unquestionable and supreme. No matter what may be the character of its agents — no matter what may be the evil princi- ples or iniquitous measures incorporated in its action, how many good men there are for whom the single consideration, that it is the action of their own pai'ty, is enough. They ask no questions, listen to no argu- ment, recognize no higher authority. How few Chris- tian men ever think of taking counsel of God in ques- tions of public affairs, and giving religion the control of their politics. How few citizens recognize their respon- sibility to God for their political influence. How few men of principle bring their political conduct to the same tests as their ordinary intercourse. Now, let it be remembered, that the ultimate responsibility of every measure rests with the people, and in this matter, as in all others, each one must answer for himself Caucuses of the idle and dissolute may nominate whom they please, leaders of political parties may venture on what 24 iniquities tliey -svill, but to the people belongs the re- sponsibility of their adoption. Without the sanction of the people they sink into the obscurity which they de- serve. It is on this principle that God is dealing with us as a people. The American people have been charac- terized by a blind and unscrupulous adherence to party — the political morality of our country has become a by-word and a hissing — the whole people, by negli- gence or party spirit, have become partakers in the guilt of actions which, if they had not been in politics, would be a loathing to the moral sense of the commu- nity. And, therefore, God has punished the nation with the legitimate results of their own misconduct. For these national offences God has justly brought upon us disgrace and suffering, and a discord which threatens the direst disasters in the future. IV. But let us inquire, fourthly, into the irrovidcntial design of these afilictions. What lesson are they sent to teach, what practical end to secure? Why have the truckling subserviency of Northern politicians and the arrogjant afr^ressions of the slave power been allowed to proceed so far unchecked, and to bring forth such disastrous fruits? Is it not to bring back the public mind to the views of slavery which were entertained at the formation of our government, and so to open anew the way for its amelioration and ultimate removal ? A great change has come over the public sentiment in regard to slavery within the last twenty-five or thirty years. Previous to that time it found its apologists neither North nor South. It was lamented and deplored on every hand as a necessary evil. The most that 25 could be said in reg;ard to it was that livino; men were not responsible for its introduction, and that it was not yet safe to attempt its abrogation. All professed to, look forward to a time when it should cease to be. With this view all moderate men were satisfied. They blushed at it as an anomaly in the land of freedom, and mourned over it before God as an evil they would not have laid to their charge. The strengthening of liberty, the growth of civilization, and the influence of Chris- tianity, then held out the hope of approaching deliver- ance. And the feeling of many pious and excellent people is still the same. But the public aspect and expression of slavery is entirely altered. It is now claimed on the one hand, and the doctrine is assented to on the other, that it is a fundamental part of our national policy ; that our Constitution is designed for its protection, and that it is to grow and extend itself with- out limit on the national territory. All hope and idea of its removal is discarded. It is transformed into a perma- ment element of American society. The programmes of political leaders now allow no hope to the unfortu- nate slave and his no less unfortunate master. The in- herited evil is transformed into the wilful sin of the present generation. The original sin of slavery is fast becoming, through corrupt politicians, the freewill crime of the American people. This presents the matter in a very different aspect before God and the civilized world. Whatever may be said in the way of temporary exten- uation, slavery and human right, slavery and the Chris- tian law of love are in irreconcilable opposition. To do the best we can with an inherited evil, until Provi- 3 26 dence enables us to put it away, may receive blessing from the Lord. But because of some incidental advan- tages to resolve on its permanence and extension, will surely receive his curse, and bring ruin to our country. So gradually has the change of temper and purpose been introduced, that, as a nation, we were hardly aware of the sin in which we were becoming ensnared. But the recent events have given such a shock to the spirit of freedom as to arouse the nation to perceive the gulf before us. May it be made the means of a recoil of public sentiment which shall put the system of human bondage back where it was at the formation of our government. May this demonstration of its spirit and tendency prevent all tampering with it in future. Thus God will make the wrath of man to praise Him ; and then, doubtless the remainder of wrath will He re- strain. Y. It now remains that we should consider the duties of the present crisis. The time will not allo^7 more than a brief enumeration. 1. The first duty of the crisis is a right public senti- ment. Ours is a government of opinion. To public opinion every party and every coalition is compelled to bow. It is mightier than bayonets. The only diffi- culty is in bringing the national mind to a decision. There is freer circulation of news in this country than in any other, and yet there is surprising ignorance and unconcern of what is taking place in the country. Many of our countrymen have no adequate idea of what has occurred in Kansas. They know that there has been trouble and fighting, but their information is 27 most partial and incorrect. Very few of the political journals have presented a faithful report of facts. They have been advocates and not witnesses, catching up events for special pleading for party effect, instead of relating the whole truth before the tribunal of the people. Now let every person seek to inform himself and his neighbors of events as they are. Put the facts before the people. Let them know the outrages which have been committed. Let them understand the spirit which has actuated them, and the end at which they aim. Let them be taught to view the facts and prin- ciples of the present crisis, irrespective of party affini- ties. And who can doubt that the American people will condemn this imbruing of hands in brothers' blood, and tyrannizing over brethren in questions of right; rebuke the aggressor, and spread the mighty shield of public sympathy and favor over the persecuted. This cause is to be tried, not by violence, but at the bar 'of public opinion. And whenever an intelligent decision on full and impartial testimony shall be given by the tribunal, all the agitators will be powerless. Violent men, on all sides, may threaten what they please. They might as well threaten the Pacific Ocean as the resolved judgment and conscience of the nation. Our first duty is, therefore, to enlighten the public mind. Make the daily journals feel that it is their interest to spread all the facts and the testimony of all sides before their readers. Make use of the mail for distribution of documents to your acquaintance. Organize a system of political colportage, which shall leave tracts at every man's door, and through the crowds at the markets 28 send them everywhere on the wings of the wind. This is the true system of republican government, and the true way to correct a public evil. 2. A second duty of the crisis is the pecuniary relief of the sufferers in Kansas. The operations of husband- ry have been broken up by ruthless invaders. There will be no crops to nourish the inhabitants. Every de- partment of trade and labor has been so paralyzed by fear and violence that industrious men are without the means of livelihood. Behind all the other enemies of Kansas stalks famine, threatening to complete the ex- termination. Families are compelled to leave their homes and farms for want of bread. Besides which, in- satiable robbery has plundered hundreds of every thing that could be carried off. Horses, wagons, oxen, cows, sheep, provisions, clothing, money have been seized in broad daylight by roving marauders. The suffering in- habitants must return penniless to their former homes, or they must starve on the spot amidst their own fertile but desolated fields. Send them the relief which they need. Cheer their disconsolate spirits by the knowl- edo-e that there are thousands of their countrymen who sympathize wdth their misfortunes and condemn then- wrono-s. Give them food to eat and raiment to put on. Provide them with bread in the wilderness, and bid them remain and put their trust in the God of forces. The ao-encies of collection and distribution are already organized. Our brethren in other cities have already beo-un to pour in their benefactions. Let the city of the peace and liberty-loving Peun emulate their ex- ample. 29 3. The third duty of the crisis is the reinforcement of the pioneers in Kansas with Free State settlers. The organic law of the Territory has guaranteed to its act- ual settlers the right of determining their own insti- tutions. The American people will see that that right is not defeated by force or fraud. The soil was once consecrated unto freedom. It is yet pledged to free- dom, if free men have the enterprise to settle it. If four to one is not a sufficient majority to secure the pledged result, then send ten to one. If twenty thou- sand will not make it free, then pour in one hundred thousand. The law of majorities is to settle it. Let it be so large that force and fraud will be unavailing. Even armed marauders will have to yield to public opinion. Let its expression in the multiiDlication of liberty-loving settlers be overwhelming. Send men who are industrious and will work ; men who are in- telligent and know their rights ; bold, and will defend them. Send men who are peaceable and patient, who love law and order in its true sense, and have property dependent on its preservation; whose hands love the implements of labor, but who will not hesitate to take down the implements of war to repel the invaders of their household. Send them with their flocks and their herds, with their wives and their little ones, with their saw-mills and their schoolmasters and their ministers, and let them go up into this land that floweth with milk and honey, and the God who guided Israel will give them an inheritance. The question must be de- cided not by the rifle and the bowie knife, but by the axe and the ploughshare. Therefore, appeal to no war- 32 and beseech his intervention. Let us beseech Him to ameliorate sectional animosities, and to turn the hearts of the people like rivers of Avater to the common good. Let us thus remember God in our calamity, and the God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house will restore peace to our distracted coun4:ry, and estab- lish our liberties on an impregnable foundation. .