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PATRIOTIC 
 
 ADDRESSES 
 
 AMERICA AND ENGLAND, FROM 1850 TO 1885, ON SLAVERY, 
 
 THE CIVIL WAR, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
 
 CIVIL LIBERTY IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 BY y 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 EDITED, WITH A REVIEW OF MR. BEECHER'S PERSONALITY 
 
 AND INFLUENCE IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS, 
 / 
 
 JOHN R. HOWARD 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 NEW YORK 
 FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT 
 
 1 88 7 
 

 Copyright, 18S7, by 
 Fords, Howard, & Hulbert 
 
 Springfield (Afass.) Printing Co. , Eleflrotypers and Printers 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The "Addresses" gathered in this volume come from 
 various sources. 
 
 Some are reprinted from the files of The Independent, 
 in whose columns they originally appeared. The ser- 
 mons delivered just before the war and during its first 
 two years are taken from a volume of Mr. Beecher's 
 discourses, entitled " Freedom and War," issued under 
 the careful editorship of Mr. Frederic Beecher Perkins 
 in 1863. The speeches in England are from the re- 
 ports published by the Union and Emancipation Society, 
 Manchester, England, in 1864. Of that edition — the 
 only authorized one ever before published — the editor 
 of the present work, at Mr. Beecher's request and with 
 his cooperation, in 1872 began a revision, for the mak- 
 ing of some such volume as is here gathered; but other 
 matters intervened and the project lay in abeyance, 
 until the sad event of Mr. Beecher's death suggested 
 a more complete collection of his political contributions 
 than that earlier day could have furnished. The dis- 
 courses since the war are reprinted from the reports in 
 "Plymouth Pulpit," and some of the addresses have 
 been gathered from contemporary newspaper reports. 
 The one before the Society of the Army of the Potomac 
 is from the published minutes of that body. 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 In all cases effort has been made to secure the best 
 reports of his spoken addresses. Those delivered in 
 America were nearly all taken down by Mr. T. J. Ellin- 
 wood, who from about the year 1858 was Mr. Beecher's 
 authorized stenographer, not only in all church meetings 
 but on public occasions when there was especial desire 
 for a full record; and to his fidelity and trained accu- 
 racy we owe very much of the great legacy to be found 
 in Mr. Beecher's words. 
 
 The article by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes descriptive 
 of the English episode — "The Minister Plenipotentiary" 
 — is reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly, January, 1864, 
 by permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 
 
 The " Review of Mr. Beecher's Personality and Political 
 Influence" which prefaces the ''Addresses" was originally 
 intended to cover only his political career; but it grew, 
 almost by necessity, to a somewhat larger form by rea- 
 son of the desire to show the pure, unselfish springs of 
 his action and the steady consistency of his course. 
 
 It is proper to say that this volume has been prepared 
 under the authorization of Mr. Beecher's family repre- 
 sentatives. The undersigned alone, however, is respon- 
 sible for the opinions expressed in the "Review." 
 
 JOHN R. HOWARD. 
 
 New York, October, 1887. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 REVIEW OF MR. BEECHER'S PERSONALITY 
 AND POLITICAL INFLUENCE. 
 
 By JOHN R. HOWARD. 
 
 ■r^ -r, PAGE 
 
 1. Essential Principles u 
 
 2. Heredity, Training, and Education, .... le 
 
 3. Ten Years of Missionary Work 44 
 
 4. Plymouth Church: Personal Traits, .... 55 
 
 5. Political Career, 78 
 
 6. Strength and Weakness, ' 134 
 
 7. Conclusion, icc 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 By henry ward BEECHER. 
 I.— FREEDOM AND SLAVERY. 
 
 1. Shall We Compromise? 167 
 
 Article in TJie Independent, Feb. 21, 1850. 
 
 2. American Slavery, . 178 
 
 \ / Address before the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, New 
 
 ^^ York, May 6, 1851. ^ J' J. 
 
 3. On Which Side is Peace? 196 
 
 Article in Tlte Independent, June 26, 1856. 
 
 4. The Nation's Duty to Slavery, .... 203 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Oct. 30, 1859. 
 
 5. Against a Compromise of Principle, . . . 224 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 29, i860. 
 
 6. Our Blameworthiness 246 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Fast Day, Jan. 4, i86i. 
 
8 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 II.— CIVIL WAR. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 7. The Battle Set in Array 269 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, April 14, 1861. 
 
 8. The National Flag 289 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, May, 1861. 
 
 9. The Camp: Its Dangers and Duties, . . 304 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, May, 1861. 
 
 10. Modes and Duties of Emancipation, . . 322 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, 1S61. 
 
 11. The Success of American Democracy, . . 342 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, April 13, 1862. 
 
 12. National Injustice and Penalty, . . . 359 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Sept. 28, 1862. 
 
 13. The Ground and Forms of Government, . 382 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Nov. 22, 1S62. 
 
 14. Liberty Under Laws 403 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Dec. 28, 1S62. 
 
 15. The Minister Plenipotentiary, .... 422 
 
 By O. W. Holmes; descriptive of Mr. Beecher's speeches in En- 
 gland; reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly of January, 1864. 
 
 16. Speech in Manchester, England, . . . 437 
 
 Oct. 9, 1863. 
 
 17. Speech in Glasgow, 465 
 
 Oct. 13, 1863. 
 
 18. Speech in Edinburgh 495 
 
 Oct. 14, 1863. 
 
 19. Speech in Liverpool 515 
 
 Philharmonic Hall, Oct. i6, 1863. 
 
 20. Speech in London, 545 
 
 Exeter Hall, Oct. 20, 1863. 
 
 21. Farewell Breakfast^ London, .... 574 
 
 Radley's Hotel, Oct. 23, 1863. 
 
 22. Farewell Breakfast, Manchester, ... 594 
 
 Oct. 24, 1863. 
 
 23. Farewell Breakfast, Liverpool, . . . 625 
 
 St. James's Hall, Oct. 30, 1863. 
 
 24. Mr. Beecher's Own Account of the English 
 
 Speeches 640 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 25. Home- Reception in Brooklyn 654 
 
 Academy of Music, Nov. 19, 1863. 
 
 26. Address at Fort Sumter Flag-Raising, . . 676 
 
 Charleston (S.C.) Harbor, April 14, 1865. 
 
 III.— CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 27. Abraham Lincoln, 701 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, April 23, 1865. 
 
 28. Conditions of a Restored Union, . . . 713 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Oct. 29, 1865. 
 
 29. Reconstruction of the Southern States, . 736 
 
 The "Cleveland Letters," written in August and September, i866. 
 
 30. National Unity 750 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Nov. i8, i86g. 
 
 :^\. Centennial Review, 772 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 30, 1876. 
 
 32. Past Perils and the Peril of To-day, . . 789 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 29, 1877. 
 
 33. Address: Society OF THE Army OF THE Potomac, 809 
 
 Ninth Annual Retmion, Springfield, Mass., June 5, 1878. 
 
 34. Retrospect and Prospect, 825 
 
 Sermon in Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, 1884. 
 
 35. Eulogy on Grant 840 
 
 Address delivered in Tremont Temple, Boston, Oct. 22, 1885. 
 
List of Illustrations. 
 
 1. Henry Ward BeECHER, Frontispiece 
 
 At the age of forty-three (iSsO- 
 
 " ' ^ DDJ FACING PAGE 
 
 2. Lyman Beecher, i8 
 
 At the age of sixty. 
 
 3. William Lloyd Garrison, 50 
 
 Abolitionist; editor of T/ie Liberator; eminent Anti-Slavery agitator. 
 
 4. John C. Calhoun, 82 
 
 U. S. Senator from South Carolina; chief apostle of Secession. 
 
 5. Horace Greeley go 
 
 Founder and editor of The New York Trihme. 
 
 6. Henry Ward Beecher, 134 
 
 At the age of sixty-five (187S). 
 
 7. Henry Ward Beecher, 155 
 
 At the age of seventy-three (i8S6). 
 
 8. Henry Clay, 167 
 
 U. S. Senator from Kentucky; orator, statesman, compromiser. 
 
 9. John Charles Fremont, 196 
 
 Eminent explorer; first Republican presidential candidate; Major-Gen- 
 eral U. S. Army. 
 
 10. Charles Sumner, 200 
 
 U. S. Senator from Massachusetts; Anti-Slavery statesman and orator. 
 
 11. John Brown, 203 
 
 Abolitionist; Kansas emigrant; hanged for invasion of Virginia. 
 
 12. Abraham Lincoln, 269 
 
 From a daguerreotype taken in Washington, 1865. 
 
 13. Daniel Webster 302 
 
 U.S. Senator from Massachusetts; orator; expounder of the Constitution. 
 
 14. Salmon P. Chase, 322 
 
 U. S. Senator from Ohio ; Anti-Slavery statesman ; Lincoln's Secretary 
 of the Treasury. 
 
 15. William Henry Seward, 352 
 
 U. S. Senator from New York; Anti-Slavery statesman ; Lincoln's Sec- 
 retary of State. 
 
 16. Frederick Douglass 407 
 
 Escaped negro slave; orator; U. S. Marshal Distri(5t of Columbia. 
 
 17. Wendell Phillips, 548 
 
 Lawyer of Boston, Mass.; eminent Anti-Slavery orator. 
 
 18. Posters from the Walls of English Cities, 1863, . 652 
 
 19. Ulysses S. Grant, 676 
 
 From a photograph taken in 1865. 
 
HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 John Ruskin, in the preface to his book entitled, "The 
 Two Paths," on the importance of organic form in archi- 
 tectural decorative design, has this strong passage: — 
 
 "We are all of us willing enough to accept dead truths, or blunt 
 ones ; which can be fitted harmoniously into spare niches, or 
 shrouded and coffined at once out of the way, we holding com- 
 placently the cemetery keys and supposing we have learned 
 something. But a sapling truth, with earth at its root and 
 blossom on its branches ; or a trenchant truth, that can cut its 
 way through bars and sods ; most men, it seems to me, dislike 
 the sight or entertainment of, if by any means such guest or 
 vision may be avoided. And indeed this is no wonder ; for one 
 such truth, thoroughly accepted, connects itself strangely with 
 others, and there is no saying what it may lead to." 
 
 The central element of Henry Ward Beecher's character 
 was his sensitiveness to truth. From his youth he 
 eagerly desired it, earnestly sought it, welcomed it with 
 delight, and then poured out his whole soul in using it 
 for the good of man, — which he always believed to be the 
 cause of God. To a remarkable extent, for one who 
 worked in the midst of men and along the lines of social 
 forces, he laid his course in obedience to principle, hold- 
 ing a sturdy loyalty to it amid all the swaying passions 
 and policies by which he was surrounded. In one sense 
 this was no credit to him, since it was his natural temper- 
 ament. As he said in reference to facing the stormy 
 English meetings: "I have expressed my views in any 
 audience, and it never cost me a struggle. I never could 
 help doing it." However, now that he is gone, our 
 
12 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 inquiry does not so much take the attitude of praise or 
 blame: we are concerned only to know what the man 
 was; what were the relative points of strength and of 
 weakness in his make-up; and how these combined with 
 the movements and events around him, to bring about 
 the unquestionable resultant of a personal influence, 
 wider and more potent than that of any other American of 
 his time. If that seems a strong statement, it must be 
 considered that his influence — whatever it was — at no time 
 owed anything to the accidents of inherited station, or the 
 great leverage of public office, by which individuals may 
 wield the powers of a people, but was the immediate effect 
 of his own personality. 
 
 The special intent of this volume is to present a general 
 view of Mr. Beecher's career with reference to the great 
 political revolution which took place in the United States 
 while he was in public life. But to separate his political 
 activity from the rest of his life — domestic, social, and 
 religious — is impossible, if one would get at the real sources 
 of his conduct, the genuine secrets of his power. The 
 natural endowments of the man; the influences under 
 which he grew; the successive fields of his labor, with 
 their opportunities and limitations; the unfolding of his 
 character and capabilities; his modes of working, accumu- 
 lation of knowledges, general and special preparations, 
 tenses and moods of utterance; the gradual enlargement 
 of his influence; the social and ecclesiastical and political 
 entanglements which at times hampered his course; the 
 steady outflow of energy, of thought, of stimulating im- 
 pulse, in harmony with the humanitarian movement of the 
 age, which distinguished him to the very end of his long 
 life, — these considerations are all inseparable and essential 
 in understanding any phase of his career. 
 
 His public utterances were all the outgrowth of the one 
 grand theme of his thought and faith: The fatherhood of 
 God and the worth of man as God's child, — not only the 
 core but the very sum and substance of his teaching, 
 from beginning to end. Whatever the special topic, that 
 underlying principle was sure to be found at the bottom. 
 
ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES. 13 
 
 However variant the visible pattern — and surely few minds 
 since Shakespeare's have laid hold on such a wondrous 
 number and diversity of matters for treatment — the warp 
 and backing was that maxim of his life. Whether upon 
 his own platform in Plymouth pulpit, or lecturing on art 
 or literature or economics, making an after-dinner speech, 
 or writing a novel or a trifling paper or a letter of travel, 
 thundering through times of war and commotion, or dis- 
 cussing policies and parties in the piping times of peace, 
 — his work was all surrounded and permeated with an 
 atmosphere of the brooding love of God and the duty of 
 man to man. 
 
 An amusing instance of this characteristic is related.* At 
 the lecture he delivered in Dublin, on " The Wastes and 
 Burdens of Society," where the local magnates, although 
 desirous of hearing the celebrated American orator, were 
 in great trepidation lest he should say something about 
 religion to the distaste of Irish Catholics, or about British 
 politics, to the disturbance of civil order and governmental 
 discipline in that turbulent town, the chairman introduced 
 him as follows: — 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor to introduce to 
 you a distinguished orator from Yankeeland. Mr. Beecher is 
 not on this platform in his clerical character, so we are not to be 
 treated to any exposition of his theological sentiments. Mr. 
 Beecher is not here as a politician, and therefore we will not hear 
 from him any exposition of his political principles. [Hear, hear, 
 attd applause ?\ But Mr. Beecher is here to deliver an address of 
 more than ordinary social importance. As a well-known philan- 
 thropist, from his long experience, from the wonderful abilities 
 the Great Master has gifted him with, and from his well known 
 character as one of the most distinguished orators, we may an- 
 ticipate, I think, an address — a lecture — that shall not only be 
 instructive but delightful. I have great pleasure in introducing 
 Mr. Beecher to your notice this evening." 
 
 Mr. Beecher, on coming forward, said: — 
 
 " I have been very kindly introduced by the distinguished and 
 
 «"A Summer in England (1886) with Henry Ward Beecher." Edited 
 by James B. Pond. New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert. 
 
14 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 honorable gentleman who has accompanied me, and therefore I 
 accept the position assigned. I have not come to speak on the- 
 ology ; and you shall never know how much you have missed. 
 {Laughter?^ I have not come to speak on politics. I have enough 
 of that in my own country [laiig/iter], and even if I knew about 
 your politics, I should think it very inexpedient, as one born 
 abroad, to meddle with local affairs and local questions. I know 
 that it is not necessary for one to know much about politics in 
 order to make a good speaker; but, nevertheless, I accept the 
 delimitation, and there is nothing left of me but this — that I 
 am a man. That's enough. 'A man's a man for a' that.' And as 
 to the other things, I give them a go-by, in the hope that some 
 twenty or thirty years hence I may revisit you, and that you then 
 will be very glad to hear my opinions about those other sub- 
 jects." 
 
 Mr. Beecher gave the lecture in one of his own peculiar 
 moods, caused by the attempt to confine him v^rithin certain 
 bounds. Mr. Pond in telling the story says: "The audi- 
 ence soon had reason to believe that he had in some way, 
 perhaps unconsciously, woven a great deal of religion and 
 politics into the lecture; at least the chairman told me 
 after the lecture that he could see and feel it all through.'' 
 
 And so it was, at all times. His religion was not a mat- 
 ter for Sunday performance; it was that which filled his 
 life and thought, for which and by which — as at once an 
 aim and an inspiration — he did that which he found to do. 
 
 In a brief sketch, such as this must be, it is evident that 
 the elements of the character, training, and general career 
 of so large and effective a man must be but lightly touched 
 upon rather than thoroughly studied; yet the present 
 writer holds a consideration of them necessary to a proper 
 comprehension of Mr. Beecher's course in connection with 
 civil affairs. That it will be adequate or complete is not 
 to be expected; such is a labor for broader powers and 
 later years: but that it should be of interest, and of use in 
 understanding the essential qualities of Henry Ward 
 Beecher's great mind and greater heart, is the design and 
 hope of the writer. 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 15 
 
 II. 
 
 HEREDITY, TRAINING. AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The familiar thought that great men, however loftily 
 they may tower above their contemporaries, are yet the 
 product of their own times, has been recently applied 
 to Mr. Beecher by the London Globe, a conservative Tory 
 paper, having little sympathy with anything that he repre- 
 sented. It says: — 
 
 " He may be taken as a conspicuous illustration of the view that 
 there is such a thing as greatness of personality, as distinguished 
 from greatness in any particular capacity. ***** Henry 
 Ward Beecher was the leading type of his own people in his own 
 day ; and as such he will doubtless be remembered." 
 
 Indeed, it is as one peculiarly representing the highest 
 ideal of American theories and practical citizenship that 
 the man must be considered. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher was a type of the best American- 
 ism, by his ancestry and birthright. A widow, Mrs. Han- 
 nah Beecher, his earliest ancestor in this country, and her 
 son John, came here from Kent, England, in 1638 with 
 Master John Davenport's company at the time of the settle- 
 ment of New Haven, Connecticut; and Andrew Ward, 
 another of the same company, was his ancestor on his 
 mother's side. He himself mentions, in one of his speeches 
 in England during the war, the fact that his great-great- 
 grandmother, Mary Roberts, was a full-blooded Welsh 
 woman; and he felt that he owed no inconsiderable part of 
 himself to the Welsh blood in his veins. 
 
 John Beecher, the immigrant, and his descendants, Jo- 
 seph, Nathaniel, and David the father of Lyman, were 
 
l6 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 mighty men in stature and strength, Nathaniel and David 
 being blacksmiths. Henry Ward was the eighth child of 
 Lyman Beecher and Roxanna Foote, the latter of whom 
 was a descendant of Andrew Ward, already mentioned. 
 They were married in 1799; and Lyman Beecher, who 
 brought the combative and somewhat disputatious tem- 
 perament of his father, the blacksmith, into the profession 
 of the ministry, settled first at East Hampton, Long Island, 
 and twelve years later moved to Litchfield, Connecticut. 
 Here, on the 24th of June, 1813, Henry Ward was born. 
 
 Thus we find him, at the outset, an offshoot of the sturdy 
 English stock, infused with the highly sensitive and poetic 
 Welsh temperament, planted on a stony, breezy, sunshiny 
 hill of New England. His early years were to be spent 
 amid that characteristically Puritan people, and subject to 
 all the bracing atmospheric conditions of that time and 
 region. 
 
 The training of children in these days, in respect to both 
 their social, mental, and moral development, is so rich and 
 full of interest on every side, that it is almost impossible 
 to conceive what it was in Henry Ward Beecher's child- 
 hood. It is pitiful to look back at such a picture as Mr. 
 Beecher has drawn of his own early school-days. From 
 our point of view, it is hard to believe that children were 
 so neglected; and, on the other hand, looking forward from 
 that, it is hard to see how such a starved childhood could 
 have grown to such a glorious manhood: — 
 
 " It was our misfortune, in boyhood, to go to a district school. 
 A little, square, pine building, blazing in the sun, stood upon the 
 highway, without a tree for shade or shadow near it; without 
 bush, yard, fence, or circumstance to take off its bare, cold, hard, 
 hateful look. Before the door, in winter, was the pile of wood 
 for fuel ; and there, in summer, were all the chips of the winter's 
 wood. 
 
 " In winter we were squeezed into the recess of the furthest cor- 
 ner, among little boys, who seemed to be sent to school merely to fill 
 up the chinks between the bigger boys. Certainly we were never 
 sent for any such absurd purpose as an education. There were 
 the great scholars; the school in winter was for them, not for us 
 pickaninnies. We read and spelled twice a day, — unless something 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 17 
 
 happened to prevent, which did happen about every other day. 
 For the rest of the time we were busy in I<eeping still. And a 
 time we had of it, indeed ! Our shoes always would be scraping on 
 the floor, or knocking the shins of urchins who were also being 
 'educated.' All of our little legs together (poor, tired, nervous, 
 restless legs, with nothing to do!) would fill up the corner with 
 such a noise, that every ten or fifteen minutes the master would 
 bring down his hickory ferule on the desk with a clap that sent 
 shivers through our hearts to think how it would have felt if it 
 had fallen somewhere else ; and then, with a look that swept us 
 all into utter extremity of stillness, he would cry, 'Silence, in that 
 corner!' Stillness would last for a few minutes; but little boys' 
 memories are not capacious. Moreover, some of the boys had 
 great gifts of mischief, and some of mirthfulness, and some had 
 both together. The consequence was that, just when we were 
 the most afraid to laugh, we saw the most comical things to laugh 
 at. Temptations which we could have vanquished with a smile 
 out in the free air, were irresistible in our little corner where a 
 laugh and a stinging slap were very apt to woo each other. So, 
 we would hold on, and fill up ; and others would hold on and fill 
 up too; till, by and by the weakest would let go a mere whiffet 
 of a laugh, and, then, down went all the precautions, and one went 
 off, and another, another, touching off the others like a pack of 
 fire-crackers! It was in vain to deny it. But, as the process of 
 snapping our heads and pulling our ears went on with primitive 
 sobriety, we each in turn, with tearful eyes and blubbering lips, 
 declared 'we didn't mean to,' and that was true; and that we 
 'wouldn't do so any more,' and that was a fib, however uninten- 
 tional; for we never failed to do just so again, and that about 
 once an hour all day long. 
 
 " A woman kept the summer school, sharp, precise, unsympa- 
 thetic, keen, and untiring. Of all ingenious ways of fretting little 
 boys, doubtless her ways were the most expert. Not a tree was 
 there to shelter the house. The sun beat down on the shingles 
 and clapboards till the pine knots shed pitchy tears, and the air 
 was redolent of warm pine-wood smell. The benches were slabs 
 with legs in them. The desks were slabs at an angle, cut, hacked, 
 scratched, each year's edition of jack-knife literature overlaying 
 its predecessor, until in our day it already wore cuttings and carv- 
 ings two or three inches deep. But if we cut a morsel, or stuck 
 in pins, or pinched off splinters, the little sharp-eyed mistress was 
 on hand, and one look from her eye was worse than a sliver in 
 our foot, and one nip of her fingers was equal to a jab of a pin ; 
 — for we had tried both. 
 
lo HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 " We envied the flies — merry fellows, bouncing about, tasting 
 of that apple-skin, patting away at this crumb of bread; now out 
 of the window, then in again ; on your nose, on your neighbor's 
 cheek, off to the very schoolma'am's lips, dodging her slap, and 
 then letting off a little real round and round buzz, up, down, this 
 way, that way, and every way. O, we envied the flies more than 
 anything, except the birds! The windows were so high that we 
 could not see the grassy meadows; but we could see the tops of 
 distant trees, and the far, deep, bounteous blue sky. There flew 
 the robins; there went the blue-birds, and there went we. We 
 followed that old Polyglott, the skunk-blackbird, and heard him 
 describe the way they talked at the winding up of the Tower of 
 Babel. We thanked every meadow-lark that sung on, rejoicing 
 as it flew. Now and then a 'chipping-bird ' would flutter on the 
 very window-sill, turn its little head sidewise and peer on the 
 medley of boys and girls. Long before we knew that it was in 
 Scripture, we sighed — O, that we had the wings of a bird — we 
 would flyaway and be out of this hateful school. As for learning, 
 the sum of all that we ever got at a district school would scarcely 
 cover the first ten letters of the alphabet. One good, kind, 
 story-telling, Bible-rehearsing aunt at home, with apples and 
 ginger-bread premiums, is worth all the schoolma'ams that ever 
 stood to see poor little fellows roast in those boy-traps called dis- 
 trict schools." 
 
 Perhaps it would be hard to find anywhere a more apt 
 and complete summing up of the characteristics with which 
 this boy started life: physically strong, full of life, with 
 keenly sensitive nerves, quick to see and to feel the influ- 
 ences of nature, especially in its aspects of poetry and free- 
 dom from constraint, with a heart swiftly responsive to 
 sympathetic treatment, combustible with merriment and 
 with tears, and a soul that instinctively reached out toward 
 the beautiful and the good. That which does not appear 
 at this time, and which must have been very slow in mak- 
 ing its appearance, was the remarkable mental capacity of 
 which the man was a notable example throughout his en- 
 tire life, but which the boy seems to have shown no hint of. 
 
 What he received from his father and mother by direct 
 inheritance certainly cannot be overlooked; and it is worth 
 more than a passing glance to consider what was the do- 
 mestic atmosphere in which he grew through boyhood and 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 19 
 
 youth to early manhood, — if only to show the shallowness 
 of the small critics of our day, who because this great 
 original thinker grew out luxuriantly in all directions be- 
 yond the limits of the trellises on which their own slender 
 vines were trained, are fain to say, " He is a great talker; 
 but he knows nothing of theology; " the fact being that in 
 Henry Ward Beecher's youth, in old Connecticut, theology 
 was the food he ate, and the milk he drank, and the air 
 he breathed, and the ground he trod, from his very earliest 
 years. Theology was the only thing that he got a surfeit of, 
 and doubtless it was out of his own familiarity with it, and 
 his final perception of its barrenness for good in practical 
 labor upon the souls of men, that he so impatiently went 
 beyond it. 
 
 Dr. Lyman Beecher was a born belligerent. He was a 
 man of thorough theological training himself, under Dr. 
 Dwight of New Haven, and in the controversies and feuds 
 of the Congregational and Presbyterian and Unitarian 
 churches of his day he took no uncertain part. He was a 
 revivalist, an ardent laborer in the Temperance cause, and 
 in every direction one of the foremost clergymen of his time. 
 A sermon preached in 1810 on the killing of Alexander 
 Hamilton by Aaron Burr attracted special attention; and his 
 famous Six Sermons on Intemperance (1814) were power- 
 ful factors in the reform then moving throughout New 
 England. His family was large; his income of three hun- 
 dred dollars, after five years increased to four hundred, 
 gave even in those times a narrow margin. He was eccen- 
 tric and peculiar, and absent-minded; in everything except 
 the personal influencing of men to right living, the discussion 
 of theoretical questions in theology and practical problems 
 in morals, an eminently unpractical man. He carefully 
 thought out his sermons, but usually preached them without 
 notes, pouring them forth with great vehemence, and also 
 with great effect upon his hearers. Keenly alive to the influ- 
 ences of music, and thoroughly unconventional, so far as 
 outward appearances were concerned, he was accustomed 
 to relieve the tension of his mind and nerves after preach- 
 ing by violin-playing or, as like as not, by going to the 
 
20 HENRY WARD BEE CHER. 
 
 wood-pile and sawing wood. He was a man of tremen- 
 dous impulses, and lightning-like changes of mood; a rec- 
 ognized thinker, a powerful orator, a genius of many sides. 
 Though by no means a symmetrical character, he was an 
 eminent force for good in his day. 
 
 In spite of Dr. Beecher's musical sensibility, he was 
 curiously lacking in any perception of beauty in art, and 
 his son Henry Ward's love for all such matters in later 
 years was one of the things that he could not understand. 
 
 If the sources of impulsive power, the broad sense of 
 morality, the mental alertness, the ardent earnestness for 
 man, the lofty aspiration for Heavenly things, the rich 
 humor, the quick wit, the careless freedom from conven- 
 tionality, the subtle nerve-sensitiveness to music, and the 
 magnificent physical frame, elasticity of muscle, and per- 
 fection of organic health, came from the father, the mother 
 of Henry Ward Beecher contributed some elements with- 
 out which he would not have been the man he was. 
 
 The great men have usually risen from families unknown 
 before their advent; yet, whenever a man's career has made 
 it worth while to seek out his progenitors, it is usually 
 found that he had a mother of remarkable qualities. 
 
 Roxanna Foote was a woman of rare nature. Miss 
 Catharine Beecher, the eldest of Dr. Beecher's thirteen 
 children, in her " Educational Reminiscences " speaks of 
 certain traits in the characters of both the mother and 
 father which are worth notice. The mother, she says, had 
 "a high ideal of excellence in whatever she attempted, a 
 habit of regarding all knowledge with reference to its 
 practical usefulness, and remarkable perseverance." She 
 gives illustrations of Mrs. Beecher's esthetic taste and 
 positive artistic talent, in making and painting a car- 
 pet from a useless bale of cotton that Dr. Beecher had 
 bought for its cheapness, and in painting and decorating a 
 set of old wooden chairs, in her beautiful needlework, her 
 remarkable paintings of fruits, flowers, and birds, and her 
 miniatures on ivory, all accomplished when the young 
 mother of four or five children, a housekeeper, and a 
 teacher of a boarding school. 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 21 
 
 The father passionately loved children, but the mother, 
 though benevolent and tender, was not demonstrative. 
 The father was imaginative, impulsive, and averse to study; 
 while the mother calmly enjoyed both studying and teach- 
 ing. The father, although profuse and poetical, was a 
 trained dialectician; and yet the mother, untrained, he re- 
 garded as fully his equal in argument. She had a refined 
 and shrinking nature, but in emergencies showed a native 
 strength and power of command. 
 
 Mrs. Beecher's spiritual traits impressed themselves upon 
 her children, but she gave them also their characteristic 
 physiognomy; for the " Beecher look," so familiar to the 
 public in the faces of Dr. Edward, Miss Catharine, Henry 
 Ward, Mrs. Stowe, and others of the elder group, is not at 
 all Beecher, but distinctively Foote, and may be seen — espe- 
 cially the fine nose, the full eye, the mobile, sensitive 
 mouth, and the general contour of the mask — in many 
 members of the old Connecticut family of that name. It 
 was the Beecher power infusing the Foote refinement that 
 found its consummate products in Harriet and Henry. 
 
 Mr. Beecher once told the present writer that his father 
 was very irascible. "One day," said he, "being much an- 
 noyed by some hogs that kept getting into his garden, he 
 seized his gun and rushed to the door. My mother anx- 
 iously followed, and cried, 'Oh Father, don't shoot the 
 poor things ! ' He flashed back at her, ' Woman, go into 
 the house ! ' and when he was telling me of it years after- 
 ward he said : ' Without a word or look she turned, 
 quietly, majestically, and went in — but she didn't get in 
 before I did. I threw my arms around her in an agony of 
 self-reproach, and cried, " Forgive me — Oh forgive me ! " 
 She uttered no word, but she looked at me like a queen — 
 and smiled — and kissed my face: my passion was gone 
 and my offense forgiven.' Up to the last of his life he 
 never spoke of her but with intensest admiration and lov- 
 ing remembrance. She must have been a noble woman." 
 
 This lovely mother died when little Henry was but 
 three years old. His remembrances of her were vague, 
 but full of tender and beautiful imaginings. He seems to 
 
2 2 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 have cherished his slight memories and what he could learn 
 of her, as a beautiful ideal which, throughout his life, ap- 
 pears in many exquisite passages of writing or of speech. 
 
 In one of his sermons occurs the following: " I can 
 never say enough for women for my mother's sake, for my 
 sisters' sake, for the sake of others that gathered in the 
 days of my infancy about me, in return for what they 
 have interpreted to me of the beauty of holiness, of the 
 fullness of love, and of the heavenliness of those elements 
 from which we are to interpret Heaven itself." 
 
 So much, then, for what Mr. Beecher inherited from his 
 parents. Upon the death of his mother there came into 
 his family another person of whom the man was never 
 tired of saying beautiful things, as, for instance, this allu- 
 sion to her in his "Fruits, Flowers, and Farming," — "My 
 dear Aunt Esther, who brought me up, — a woman so good 
 and modest that she will spend ages in Heaven wonder- 
 ing how it happened that she ever got there, while the 
 angels will alwa3^s be wondering why she was not there 
 from all eternity." 
 
 This excellent and beloved woman, a sister of Dr. 
 Beecher, came to take charge of the family after Mrs. 
 Beecher's death. A close economist, an accomplished cook, 
 systematical and neat in all family arrangements, but 
 gentle, loving, and a very soul of brooding motherly kind- 
 ness, her well-ordered household moved along with Dr. 
 Beecher's impulsive nature in perfect harmony. At the 
 end of the year a second mother was brought to the 
 home, of whom Miss Catharine says that she 
 
 " Introduced a more complete and refined style of housekeep- 
 ina^, which she had acquired or observed in the families of her 
 two uncles, Gov. King, of Maine, and Rufus King, a former am- 
 bassador of the United States to England. Under her quiet and 
 lady-like rule, I again was trained to habits of system, order, and 
 neatness, entirely foreign to my natural inherited traits, as it re- 
 spects personal habits, while in the most unfavorable circum- 
 stances, she was a model of propriety and good taste. . . . She 
 had a most sweet and gentle speech, which, even in the most try- 
 ing circumstances, never became loud or harsh." 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 23 
 
 Mrs. Beecher, in writing to her former home about this 
 family into which she had come, says: — 
 
 " It seems the highest happiness of the children (the elder ones 
 especially) to have a reading circle, and they have all, I think, 
 fine capacities for learning. Edward probably will be a great 
 scholar. Catharine is a fine looking girl, and in her mind I find 
 all that I expected. Mary will make a fine woman ; will be 
 rather handsome than otherwise. The four youngest are very 
 pretty. George comes next to Mary. Harriet and Henry come 
 next, and they are always hand in hand. They are as lovely 
 children as I ever saw, — amiable, affectionate, and very bright." 
 
 Now, to add to the foregoing pictures of the family, take 
 this sentence from Miss Catharine again. Speaking of her 
 first experience in school teaching she says: "The only 
 pleasant recollection is that of my own careful and exact 
 traini^ig under my most accurate and faithful brother Ed- 
 ward, and my reproduction of it to my sister Harriet and 
 two others of my brightest pupils." 
 
 Thus, though it would appear that the early school- 
 ing of little Henry was less than nothing, the qualities 
 that he inherited from his parents, and the advantages 
 of mutual training, of intelligent conversation, of varied 
 reading in the midst of a family circle of unusual aptitude 
 and varied acquirements, gave him advantages of no mean 
 quality; while it is not at all unlikely that the early neglect 
 of his little mind gave him a chance to solidify and develop 
 that splendid physique which after all was the source of 
 much of his power. 
 
 The society in Litchfield at the time of his youth was of a 
 rather high intellectual grade, there being in the town a well 
 known law school and several other institutions of learning; 
 it was an era of what Emerson calls " plain living and high 
 thinking." This was in one respect unfavorable to the 
 development of the boy, inasmuch as it tended to separate 
 the father's intellectual sympathies from his children, 
 leaving them largely to shift for themselves. It was, how- 
 ever, but according to the temper of the time; and the con- 
 ditions of their Litchfield home resulted in an atmosphere 
 highly favorable to the growth of character, the honorable 
 
24 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 examples of life about him exerting an influence upon his 
 whole future life. He has several times expressed his 
 gratitude to God that his early life was passed without 
 knowledge of impurity or vice of any kind. He was sin- 
 gularly favored by his surroundings in that regard; and 
 his knowledge of such things, utilized in later years with 
 great dramatic power, in his " Lectures to Young Men," 
 not only, but in all his course of preaching, resulted from 
 a careful gathering of information in conversation with 
 those who knew. For instance, his apparent familiarity 
 with the modes and influences of gambling, in his Indian- 
 apolis lectures to young men, came from a series of talks 
 which he had with a gambler in that city, with whom he 
 sought an acquaintance for the express purpose of learn- 
 ing something about the facts, the bearings of which he 
 was going to discuss. So that, although he had never 
 been inside of a gambling house, and did not even know 
 one card from another, his own intuitions of human nature, 
 his quick sympathy with others and power to put himself 
 by imagination in their places, enabled him to clothe the 
 bare bones of fact with such living power that the pictures 
 were recognized as truthful and vivid to the last degree. 
 
 He says in one place: " I thank God for two things — 
 first that I was born and bred in the country, of parents 
 that gave me a sound constitution and a noble example. 
 
 I never can pay back what I owe to my parents 
 
 And I am thankful that I was brought up in circumstances 
 where I never became acquainted with wickedness." 
 And again: " I never was sullied in act, nor in thought, 
 nor in feeling, when I was young. I grew up as pure as a 
 woman. And I cannot express to God the thanks which I 
 owe my mother, and to my father, and to the great house- 
 hold of sisters and brothers among whom I lived. And 
 the secondary knowledge of those wicked things which I 
 have gained in later years in a professional way, I gained 
 under such guards that it was not harmful to me." 
 
 Combative as Dr. Beecher was, there must have been in 
 him much of the power of sweetness and self-control which 
 the son so markedly exhibited during his own season of 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 25 
 
 greatest tribulation. In a sermon on "The Moral Teach- 
 ing of Suffering," Mr. Beecher says: — 
 
 "I recollect distinctly, on one occasion, when I was not more 
 than six years old, that a man of great violence of temper came to 
 see my father, and rated him with such a scolding as I had never 
 heard. I looked at my father with amazement, as he sat perfectly 
 still and tranquil. When the man had done, and felt relieved, 
 father began, in the gentlest manner, to say to him, 'Well, if all 
 you say is true, I think you are right in the severity of your re- 
 marks ; but I suppose that if in any regard you are not correct, 
 you are willing to be set right.' ' Yes,' said the man with a growl, 
 'of course I am.' 'Well, will you allow me to make one state- 
 ment?' said father, humbling himself before the man. 'Yes.' So 
 father began with a little matter, and stated it; and then he went 
 a little further; and then a little further; until, by and by, the 
 man began to lose color, and at last broke out, ' I have been all 
 wrong in this matter; I do not understand it.' After he had gone 
 away, father said to me, in a sort of casual manner, 'Give up, and 
 beat 'em.' I got an idea of self-restraint under provocation, which 
 I never could have got by all the instruction in the world which 
 came to me merely in the form of ideas, and in picture-forms 
 and fables; I had before me the sight of my father suffering — for 
 his pride was naturally touched (though you might not think it 
 from his posterity, yet there was pride in my father to some ex- 
 tent); he felt it keenly; and under the keenness of the feeling he 
 still maintained perfect calmness and perfect sweetness. He 
 overcame the man by suffering. He suffered reproach and abuse, 
 and maintained himself under them." 
 
 It will not do in this connection to omit mention of 
 Charles Smith, an old negro who used to saw wood for 
 Dr. Beecher, and do odd "chores" about the place, and 
 to whom Mr. Beecher has frequently alluded in terms of 
 profound affection and gratitude. Little Henry occupied 
 the same room with him, and records the undying im- 
 pression made upon him by the man's genuine piety, 
 lovely character, and profound enjoyment of his religion. 
 Mr. Beecher says: "Every night he would set the candle 
 at the head of his bed and pray, and sing, and laugh, and 
 I bear record that his praying made a profound impression 
 upon my mind. I never thought whether .it was right or 
 wrong, I only thought, ' How that man does enjoy it ! 
 
26 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 What enjoyment there must be in such prayer as his.' I 
 gained more from that man of the idea of the desirableness 
 of prayer, than I ever did from my father or mother. My 
 father was never an ascetic, he had no sympathy with any- 
 thing of a monkisli tendency; and yet this poor man, 
 more than he, led me to see that there should be real 
 overflowing gladness and thanksgiving in prayer." 
 
 He was a shy and diffident boy; his natural articulation 
 was thick and indistinct; his memory was poor, and to all 
 influences except those of nature without and the affec- 
 tionate appeals of domestic love within the home circle, he 
 seems to have been rather dull than bright. When he 
 was ten years old he was put in the young ladies' school, 
 kept by his sister Catharine, in Hartford, where among 
 forty girls he was the only boy. One who knew his early 
 days writes: — 
 
 " Here his mirthfulncss began to develop very rapidly. He kept 
 the little company of thirty or forty girls in continuous roars of 
 laughter. His store of fun was exhaustless. The school was di- 
 vided into two divisions in grammar, with leaders on either side, 
 and at certain periods public examinations were held, when the 
 successful competitors were suitably rewarded. On such occa- 
 sions Henry was not wanted by either division, as he would in- 
 variably throw the whole division into convulsive merriment. 
 One day his sister took him aside to a private apartment to 
 drill him in the rules and definitions, which he found almost 
 impossible to commit to memory. 'Now, Henry,' said the 
 teacher, 'A is the indefinite article, you see, and must be used 
 only with a singular noun. You can say a man, but you can't a 
 me)i, can you ? ' ' Yes, I can sa.y A?)ie?i too,' said the mischievous 
 little rogue. ' Father always says it at the end of his prayers.' 
 ' Come, Henr3s don't be always joking; now decline he. Nomi- 
 native /te, possessive his, objective hzm. You see his is possess- 
 ive. Now, you can say his book, but you can't say him book.' 
 ' Yes, I do say hymn-book too,' said the incipient scholar, with a 
 cunning, quizzical little smile. At this point the teacher, failing 
 to contain herself any longer, burst into laughter, which pleased 
 him immensely. ' But now, Henry, seriously, do attend to the 
 active and passive voice. Now, / strike is active, you see, be- 
 cause if you strike you do something. But / am sir tick is 
 passive, because if you are struck you don't do anything, do you?' 
 'Yes I do; I strike back again.'" 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 27 
 
 After a year of Hartford he was sent to the little town 
 of Bethlehem, not far from Litchfield, to attend a school 
 kept by the Rev. Mr. Langdon, where he gained but little 
 except the further development of his love of outdoor 
 study and familiarity with the life of nature. 
 
 At twelve, he was plunged into an entirely new envi- 
 ronment, by the removal of his father to Boston, to take 
 the pastorate of the Park Street Congregational Church. 
 Here he was confined among streets and house-walls, not 
 only, but also still further imprisoned by being placed in 
 the Boston Latin School, which, although it did give him 
 the rudiments of Latin grammar, gave him but little else, 
 except a sense of restraint and an irrepressible desire of 
 outbreaking rebellion. 
 
 Boston days, however, did really give him an uplift. 
 
 " A green, healthy, country lad, with a round, full, red-cheeked 
 face, at about thirteen years of age we entered this city of mar- 
 vels. How fast our heart beat, on Sunday morning, to hear so 
 many bells clamoring all together and filling the heavens with 
 calls to worship. One solitary bell had we been used to hear; 
 one sweet bell, that rolled out its tones for a mile around and 
 more, rising and falling as the wind blew or lulled, and having 
 the whole air to itself, to make its own music in. This jangle 
 and sweet dissonance of Boston bells was among the first things 
 that touched the secret spring of fancy, and sent us up into 
 dreams and imaginings. . . . Next to Boston bells were Bos- 
 ton ships. We shall not again see anything that will so profoundly 
 affect our imagination. We stood and gazed upon the ship, and 
 smelt the sea-air, and looked far out along the water to the hori- 
 zon, and all that we had ever read of buccaneers, of naval battles, 
 of fleets of merchantmen, of explorations into strange seas, among 
 rare and curious things, rose up in a cloud of mixed and chang- 
 ing fancies, until we scarcely knew whether we were in the body 
 or out." 
 
 He mentions also the Charlestown Navy Yard, with long 
 rows of unmounted cannon; the mounted sea-batteries; 
 clambering all over the men-of-war building in the ship- 
 house, and the dismantled ships that lay against the pier 
 head. The result of all this was not only the unconscious 
 filling of his imagination with material for future use, but 
 
28 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 the arousing in him of an intense desire and firm determi- 
 nation to go to sea. 
 
 Here the father showed his tact in management by his 
 skillful dealing with the boy. He granted cheerfully the 
 lad's wish to go to sea, but said, " Of course you do not 
 want to be a common sailor ? " " No, sir, I want to be a mid- 
 shipman, and after that a commodore." " Yes, yes," an- 
 swered the father, " well, to do that you must study mathe- 
 matics and navigation, and all that." 
 
 And thus the young fellow went with cordial zest to 
 Amherst, Mass., where at the Mount Pleasant academy, 
 under the tuition of Mr. Fitzgerald, a West Point graduate 
 whose manly ways captivated him, he worked hard and 
 really made excellent progress in mathematics; and this, 
 not mechanically, but as the West Point fashion is, thor- 
 oughly, and with understanding. "You must not only 
 know, but you must know that you know," was Mr. Fitz- 
 gerald's dictum; and the boy's knowledge was frequently 
 tested controversially by his instructor, to whom, as 
 Mr. Beecher has said in later years, he felt that he owed 
 his habit of becoming well-grounded in facts for the 
 formation of his opinions, and his power to freely and 
 good-naturedly sustain his positions in the face of storm 
 and argument. 
 
 At this same school, also, he received a training of in- 
 calculable benefit at the hands of Professor John E. Lovell, 
 the elocutionist. In his "Yale Lectures on Preaching" 
 Mr. Beecher says: — 
 
 " No knowledge is real knowledge unless you can use it with- 
 out knowing it. You do not understand the truth of anything, 
 until it has so far sunk into you that you have almost forgotten 
 
 where you got it If you desire to have your voice at 
 
 its best and to make the best use of it, you must go into a drill 
 which will become so familiar that it ceases to be a matter of 
 
 thought, and the voice takes care of itself It was my 
 
 good fortune in early academical life to fall into the hands of your 
 estimable fellow-citizen. Professor Lovell, now of New Haven, and 
 for a period of three years I was drilled incessantly (you might not 
 suspect it, but I was) in posturing, gesture, and voice-culture. . . 
 . . It was the skill of that gentleman, that he never left a man- 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 29 
 
 ner with anybody. He simply gave his pupils the knowledge of 
 what they had in themselves." 
 
 In continuing the same subject with reference to his later 
 studies at the theological seminary, Mr. Beecher says: — 
 
 " There was a large grove lying between the Seminary and my 
 father's house, and it was the habit of my brother Charles and 
 myself and one or two others to make the night, and even the 
 day, hideous with our voices as we passed backward and forward 
 through the wood, exploding all the vowels from the bottom to 
 the very top of our voices. The drill that I underwent first and 
 last produced, not an oratorical manner, but a physical instru- 
 ment, that accommodated itself readily to every kind of thought 
 and every shape of feeling, and obej^ed the inward will in the 
 outward realization of the results of rules and regulations." 
 
 Now, for the first time in his life, were the young man's 
 true powers and sensibilities laid hold on by the whole- 
 some stimulus of ambition, the real aspiration of accom- 
 plishing a purpose. True, his naval fancy soon faded 
 out in the substantial enjoyment of developing his newly- 
 awakened powers; moreover, his rescue from the dis- 
 tracting excitements of the city (for simple as they were, 
 they were wild dissipation to him) and his return to the 
 more wholesome influences of country life had a most 
 favorable effect upon him, physically and spiritually; for 
 at the end of the first year, in the midst of a general revi- 
 val of interest in religion, his whole heart turned God-ward, 
 and he united with his father's church in Boston, and de- 
 lighted his father's heart by announcing his determination 
 to take up the ministry, as a profession. He spent two 
 years more at Mount Pleasant preparing for college, and 
 entered Amherst at the end of that time. 
 
 It is interesting to see how apparently slight occurrences 
 at that time entered deep into his soul, and produced ef- 
 fects that were visible during the very plenitude of his 
 power in later days; for instance, in his sermon entitled 
 " The Background of Mystery,'' preached some forty-four 
 years after the event, he gives the following incident: — 
 
 " Once, when a boy, I stood on Mount Pleasant, at Amherst, 
 and saw a summer thunder-storm enter the valley of the Con- 
 
30 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 necticut from the North. Before it was all bright; centerwise it 
 was black as midnight, and I could see the fiery streaks of light- 
 ning striking down through it; but behind the cloud — for I could 
 see the rear — it was bright again. In front of me was that mighty 
 storm hurtling through the sky; and before it I saw the sunlight, 
 and behind it I saw the sunlight; but to those that were under 
 the center of it there was no brightness before or behind it. 
 They saw the thunder-gust, and felt the pelting rain, and they 
 were enveloped in darkness and heard the rush of mighty winds; 
 while I, that stood afar off, could see that God was watering the 
 earth and washing the leaves, and preparing the birds for a new 
 outcome «|f jubilee, and giving to men refreshment and health. 
 So I conceive that our human life here, with its sorrows and 
 tears, as compared with the eternity that we are going into, is no 
 more than the breath of a summer thunder-storm ; and if God 
 sees that our experience in this world is to work out an exceed- 
 ing great reward in the world to come, there is no mystery in it 
 — to Him."* 
 
 The fact that he was the son of the foremost preacher of 
 New England and indeed of the whole country, dis- 
 tinguished young Beecher for notice among his classmates 
 at college; but he did not rest on his father's reputation, 
 for, as is learned from the reports of his classmates, he 
 made himself felt immediately and continuously among 
 them in all matters of earnest moral and religious influence, 
 of physical and athletic sports, and of general literary and 
 rhetorical effort. 
 
 Dr. Holmes, in his eloquent paper concerning Mr. 
 Beecher's English war speeches, entitled the " Minister 
 Plenipotentiary," calls him " the same lusty, warm-hearted, 
 strong-fibered, brave-hearted, bright-souled, clear-eyed 
 creature, as he was when the college boys at Amherst ac- 
 knowledged him as the chiefest among their foot-ball 
 kickers." He was interested in matters of reform, having 
 decided anti-slavery views and being a total abstainer from 
 ardent spirits; made himself a power in the class prayer- 
 meetings; and always attra.cted the attention of his fellows 
 by the ability and originality of his essay-writing and his 
 fluency and eloquence in debate and extempore speaking. 
 
 * Printed in Mr. Beecher's volume entitled, " Evolution and Religion." 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINIXG, AXD EDUCATION. 31 
 
 His fount of humor flowed constantly, and irrepressibly. 
 It was a frequent sight to see a throng about him and to 
 hear from it roars of laughter. Already he was showing a 
 peculiar combination of native powers that furnished the 
 tools for his future work. 
 
 His interest in phrenology began at this time. He says: 
 " I suppose I inherited from my father a tendency or in- 
 tuition to read man. The very aptitude that I recognize 
 in myself would indicate a pre-existing tendency. In my 
 Junior college year, I became, during the visit of Spurzheim, 
 enamored of phrenology, which has been for many years 
 [this was in 1872] the foundation on which I have worked, 
 although I have not made it a special study. Admit, if 
 you please, it is not exactly the true thing; and admit, if 
 you will, that there is little form or system in it; yet I have 
 worked with it much as the botanist worked with the Lin- 
 nsean system of botany, the classification of which is very 
 convenient, although an artificial one. There is no natural 
 system that seems to correspond to human nature so nearly 
 as phrenology does." 
 
 Mr. Beecher's use of phrenology was rather as a con- 
 venient classification and intelligible nomenclature of the 
 faculties of the mind, than as a full acceptance of the 
 phrenological theory of the physical, cerebral organs of 
 those faculties. Former writers on mind considered the 
 mental acts of attention, perception, conception, memory, 
 etc., as faculties; while the phrenologists regarded these 
 acts as merely the modes of action of the faculties, which they 
 otherwise named and classified. Mr. Beecher thus stood 
 between the two; and, as he so often did, took for his own 
 practical purposes whatever of good he found in both, 
 without committing himself fully in theory to either. 
 
 With him was interested in phrenology the late O. S. 
 Fowler, his classmate, a man who probably did more than 
 any other to spread the practical knowledge and utilization 
 of the system among the American people. It was in con- 
 nection with phrenology, also, that young Beecher first 
 began his experience as a public lecturer. 
 
 In Mr. Beecher's Statement of Belief before the Congre- 
 
32 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 gational Association of New York and Brooklyn, Oct. 13, 
 1882, he speaks of this matter and of other interesting 
 points in his college course: — 
 
 " I never undertook to preach by any system of philosophy 
 based on phrenology, but the whole nomenclature of mental phe- 
 nomena [in prevalent metaphysical philosophies] was so vague it 
 had no individuality in it, no power of individualizing; it gener- 
 alized all the way through ; while phrenology brought into view 
 as distinct qualities, conibativeness, self-esteem, pride, the love of 
 approbation, the love of praise, conscience, hope, reason— that is, 
 causal and analogical reason. It gave definite names, so that one 
 could read a man ; just as you can by taking type spell out a word, 
 so by taking the different faculties you get to know the man. 
 This working apparatus of phrenology I embraced. I analyzed 
 men's actions by it. I could say to myself what sprang from this 
 or that organ : here conscience is at work, here self-esteem, and so 
 on. I do not undertake to say it was the most accurate system; 
 but I do say it gave definiteness, it gave a man an insight into his 
 fellow-man. It told him just where to strike and just what to 
 strike with, and it was altogether a more practical, personal, and 
 usable system than any of the metaphysical systems that had 
 been in vogue. 
 
 "Then, besides that, I early studied science with enthusiasm. I 
 was a pupil of Professor Hitchcock at Amherst College. I was 
 the first two years a dull scholar [in science] because I was study- 
 ing literature, history, and belles lettres, but when I came to my 
 junior and senior years I bent myself to mental philosophy and 
 scientific studies, and I have kept along the line of the front of 
 scientific investigation ever since, and these two elements have 
 underlain and been very potent to form my theological state- 
 ments. When, therefore, I am judged I ask to be judged by my 
 philosophy, and not by a very different one which my critic may 
 hold. 
 
 "The result has been unfavorable in many cases, — that is to 
 say, unfavorable to my reputation in the community. It set good 
 men a great many times apart, by misunderstanding. It has 
 caused grief to some men that were closely connected with me. 
 I know I have their confidence as to my personal piety and as to 
 my general conduct, but they fear I am straying so far from "the 
 good old sound way" that it is a matter of mourning. I do not 
 think so; I think I am coming nearer and nearer to the good old 
 sound way. I think my views conform to Scripture a great deal 
 more than those in which I was originally educated. In regard 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 33 
 
 to scientific investigation, I see the day coming when one of the 
 most powerful arguments for the inspiration of the Bible will be 
 that it laid itself right along on the assumption of truths that 
 were unknown at the time they were written and by the person 
 by whom they were written. It is a remedial book. It lays 
 itself along the line of human development and human want in a 
 manner that no man can account for except by superintending 
 Providence. My scientific and philosophical views lead me to a 
 deeper and a deeper faith in the word of God." 
 
 During his last two years in college, he was very active, 
 — teaching in district schools, lecturing and zealously work- 
 ing in Christian enterprises, and taking finally the regular 
 care of Sunday services held in a school-house near Am- 
 herst. During this period, he says, "growing constantly 
 and warmly in sympathy with my father, in taking sides 
 with orthodoxy that was in battle in Boston with Unitari- 
 anism, I learned of him all the theology that was current 
 at that time. In the quarrels also between Andover and 
 East Windsor and New Haven and Princeton — I was at 
 home in all these distinctions. I got the doctrines just 
 like a row of pins on a paper of pins. I knew them as a 
 soldier knows his weapons. I could get them in battle 
 array." He was graduated from the college in 1834, and 
 immediately went to Cincinnati, whither his father had 
 been called, from the Park Street Church in Boston, to the 
 presidency of Lane Theological Seminary, while at the 
 same time he held the pastorate of the Second Presbyterian 
 Church. Here, of course, Mr. Beecher received the cus- 
 tomary theological training which every student in a Pres- 
 byterian theological seminary is supposed to receive, but, 
 moreover, he was drawn actively into the controversy be- 
 tween Dr. Wilson, representing the old-school doctrines of 
 what has been called "The Scotch - Irish Presbyterian 
 Calvinistic Fatalism of God's Sovereignty " on the one 
 hand, and on the other his father. Dr. Lyman Beecher, an 
 ardent partisan of the then " New School Theology " of 
 New England, pivoting on "man's free agency." 
 
 The violent opposition of Dr. Wilson to Dr. Beecher cul- 
 minated in the trial of the latter for heresy before the 
 
34 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 Presbytery. This issuing in a vindication of Dr. Beecher, 
 Dr. Wilson appealed to the Synod, where the cause was 
 tried again and with the same result. Before this came 
 about, however, the contending forces had already clashed 
 in various ways. Dr. Wilson seems to have been the 
 aggressor in every instance. 
 
 In the autobiography of Lyman Beecher* there is an 
 amusing and characteristic description written by Miss 
 Harriet E. Beecher, later known as Mrs. H. B. Stowe, of 
 the examination of her brother George before Pres- 
 bytery with the view to his ordination as a Presbyterian 
 minister. Dr. Beecher's elder sons William and Edward 
 were already in the ministry. A paragraph written by Dr. 
 Beecher in one of the circular letters which they were ac- 
 customed to send around to every branch of the family, 
 — each one adding a few lines and passing the document 
 on by mail to the nearest family station for further addi- 
 tions, — gives a glimpse at the early family life in the 
 matter of theology; which, be it remembered, is one of our 
 objective points of inquiry. Miss Beecher's lively descrip- 
 tion may be aptly prefaced by the paragraph here quoted: — 
 
 "William, why do you not write to your father? Are you not 
 my first-born son } Did I not carry you over bogs a-fishing, 
 a-straddle of my neck, on my shoulders, and, besides clothing and 
 feeding, whipping you often to make a man of you, as you are, 
 and would not have been without .-^ Don't you remember study- 
 ing theology with your father, sawing and splitting wood in that 
 wood-house in Green street, Boston, near by where you found 
 your wife ? Little do those know who have rented that tenement 
 since, how much orthodoxy was developed and imbodied there; and 
 now why should all this fruit of my labors be kept to yourself.''" 
 
 Besides William and Edward, George was now about to 
 be examined for the ministry; Henry Ward had just come 
 from Amherst College, and had entered Lane Seminary; 
 while Charles and Thomas and James were, in spite of tem- 
 porary aberrations of fancy, destined to the same high call- 
 ing. 
 
 * " Autobiograph}', Correspondence, Etc., of Lyman Beecher, D. D." 
 Edited by Charles Beecher. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1865. 
 
HEREDITY, TRAIMIXG, AND EDUCATION. 35 
 
 But to return to Miss Beecher and her Presbytery: — 
 
 "At last the moderator calls the meeting to order. They pro- 
 ceed to business. They are to examine a candidate. The candi- 
 date is Mr. George Beecher, a New School man ; but that is not 
 the worst — a Taylorite ! ! 
 
 " Do you see, in the front pew, a tall, grave-looking man, of 
 strong and rather harsh features, very pale, with a severe serious- 
 ness of face, and with great formality and precision in every turn 
 and motion.? Well, if you see him, that man is Dr. Wilson. His 
 great ivory-headed cane leans on the side of the pew by him,. and 
 in his hand he holds the Confession of Faith. 
 
 "The candidate sits on the pulpit stairs, so that he may face the 
 Presbytery, and the examining committee are called on : ' Dr. 
 Wilson, in Philosophy.' Here follows, ' Mr. Beecher, what is 
 matter and what is mind, and what is the difference 'twixt and 
 'tween, and what is Mechanics, and Optics, and Hydrostatics, and 
 what is Mental Philosophy, and what is Moral Philosophy, and 
 what is right and wrong, and what is truth, and what is virtue, 
 and what are the powers of the mind, and what is intellect, sus- 
 ceptibilities, and will, and conscience,' — and everything else, world 
 without end, amen ! After this the doctor's grave face gradually 
 relaxes into a smile, which seems like the melting of a snow-drift 
 as he says that he has 'pursued this branch of the examination as 
 far as might be deemed expedient.' 
 
 "'Mr. Moderator,' says one, 'I move that the examination be 
 sustained.' ' I second it,' says another. 
 
 "The moderator then says, ' Those who sustain this examina- 
 tion say Ay.' 
 
 " Now hark — ' Ay ! ay ! ay ! ' 
 
 '"Those of contrary mind. No.' No answer. So this is over. 
 
 " Next topic is now announced : 'Theology!' Now you may 
 seethe brethren bending forward, and shuffling, and looking wise. 
 Over in the pew opposite to us are the students of the Lane Sem- 
 inary, with attentive eyes. There is Theodore Weld, all awake, 
 nodding from side to side, and scarce keeping still a minute. 
 
 '"The examiner in Theology, Brother Gallagher.' This is the 
 tall son of Anak whom I have written of aforetime — the great 
 Goliath, whose awful brows and camp-meeting hymns used so to 
 awe and edify me. He rises very leisurely, and gives a lunge for- 
 ward, precipitating his unwieldy size into a chair without much 
 regard to graceful disposition, and with a deep, deliberate voice, 
 begins. 
 
 " The beauty of it all is that Gallagher is a warm friend to 
 
36 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 George, and of similar sentiments. The appointing him to ex- 
 amine was a friendly motion of the moderator. . . He con- 
 fined his examination merely to the broad and obvious truths 
 of Christianity, and then sat down. 
 
 " But now comes the fiery trial. The moderator announces, 
 'Any of the brethren have a right to question the candidate.' 
 You must have seen before now some of them fidgeting on their 
 seats, and waiting their turn. Then such a storm of questions ■ 
 rains in : — 
 
 " ' Mr. Beecher, do you believe in the doctrine of election } Will 
 you please to state your views on that subject.'' 'Mr. Beecher, 
 do you believe in the imputation of Adam's sin.?' 'Mr. Beecher, 
 do you believe infants are sinners as soon as they are born ? ' ' Do 
 you believe that infants have unholy natures } ' ' Do you believe 
 that men are able of themselves to obey the commandments of 
 God ? ' ' Mr. Beeeher, do you believe men are active or passive 
 in regeneration?' 'Mr. Beecher, do you make any distinction 
 between regeneration and conversion?' 'Mr. Beecher, do you 
 think that men are punished for the guilt of Adam's first sin?' 
 'Do you believe in imputed righteousness?' 
 
 " There was George — eyes flashing and hands going, turning 
 first to right and then to left. ' If I understand your question, 
 sir,' — ' I do not understand your terms, sir.' ' Do you mean by 
 nature thus and so? or so? ' ' In what sense do you use the word 
 imputation?' 'I don't exactly understand you, sir.' 'Yes, sir' (to 
 right). ' No, sir' (to left). ' I should think so, sir' (in front). 
 
 " So far I wrote when I heard George, and father, and Edward 
 coming in from meeting; for Edward is with us — poked in like 
 a ghost upon us one day just after George's examination. The 
 first that father knew of the matter was seeing him going by the 
 window, and exclaiming, 'There 's a man looks like Edward!' and 
 the next minute we were all electrified by seeing him standing 
 among us. 
 
 "To-night Edward and Professor Sturtevant, father and George, 
 have been holding a long chat. At last father and Edward •went 
 down cellar to saw wood. Don't that seem natural ? I heard the 
 word 'foreordination' through the parlor floor, so I knew what 
 they were talking about.* I have come up and left them. . . . 
 
 " Now to finish the account of Presbyter}^ The examination 
 lasted nearly two hours and a half, after which the farther con- 
 
 *This little touch reveals the theologic atmosphere in which the whole 
 Beecher family was reared as perfectly as volumes of description could do. 
 —Ed. 
 
HEREDITY, TRAIA'ING, AND EDUCATION. 37 
 
 sideration of that subject was postponed till examination had 
 taken place in other branches. The next day the Presbytery were 
 called upon to see if they had any remarks to make upon the 
 examination thus far. Then such a war of words ! 
 
 " The way of proceeding is to call over the names of the whole 
 Presbytery in order, and each one, when his name is called, has 
 the liberty of rising and speaking as long as he will. The whole 
 day was taken up in this way. I went only in the afternoon, and 
 what I heard was (apart from moral considerations) sufficiently 
 diverting. 
 
 "There are men — one or two, I mean, — whose minds have 
 been brought up in a catechetical treadmill — who will never say 
 ' Confession of Faith ' without taking off their hats, and who 
 have altogether the appearance of thinking that the Bible is the 
 next best book to the Catechism. These men are, of course, mor- 
 tally afraid of heresy — or ' hear say,' as an old woman very perti- 
 nently pronounced it — and their remarks on this subject were 
 truly lucid. . . . 
 
 "The discussion, as I have said, lasted all day. In the evening 
 we came, and they went at it again. There was quite an audi- 
 ence in the house, as preaching had been expected. All the 
 Presbytery had finished their remarks except father and Dr. Wil- 
 son, who, as the oldest, came last on the list. Father, as first 
 called on, rose, and went through a regular statement of what 
 he conceived to be the views expressed by the candidate, and a 
 regular argument to show that they were in agreement with the 
 Confession of Faith. He spoke well, clearly and persuasively, and 
 was occasionally a little humorous. He began by saying that it 
 was his belief that, however they might differ in points of opin- 
 ion, they were all honest, well-intentioned men. ' We are honest !' 
 (bringing down his fist). But then he said that there were some 
 dangers in this meeting together in Presbytery; that ministers 
 were so much accustomed to command the whole ship at home 
 that they did not always feel exactly tractable in a Presbytery ; 
 'and I hope,' said he, 'that, for the future, our elders will take 
 better care of us ' (here a general smile went round among the 
 elders). 
 
 "Toward the close of the speech he said that, if the case 
 should be carried up to the Synod, he should be prepared to 
 prove even more fully many points; 'and in that case,' said he, 
 bringing down his forefinger, ' I shall think myself happy, King 
 Agrippa, to speak more fully of this matter.' He also insinuated 
 that if Presbyteries, and Synods, and all the legislative bodies 
 
38 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 should turn out and reject all who held those sentiments, yet 
 they could not stop their progress. 'No,' said he, 'we shall still 
 live ; we shall stand on God's earth, and breathe his air, and 
 preach his Gospel as we believe it.' 
 
 "When father sat down Dr. Wilson rose up, and made a speech 
 of about Jialf an hour, in which he stated that he believed that 
 the candidate was not a Christian, and knew nothing experi- 
 mentally about Christianity, and that he firmly believed that he 
 and all those who held the same sentiments with him, ' would 
 never see the gates of eternal bliss.' 
 
 "This was abundantly courteous for Dr. Wilson, since he 
 merely shut us out of heaven this time, without pronouncing 
 sentence any more definitely. Many people say that it is 
 altogether the mildest and most temperate speech they ever 
 heard him make. After this speech the question was taken, 
 though with much difficulty and opposition ; and on calling the 
 roll, the examination was sustained by a majority of twenty- 
 three. About twelve o'clock at night we found ourselves once 
 more at home and in a state of high excitement, and sat up about 
 half an hour longer to fight over the battle to Catharine, who 
 had not been able to go out." 
 
 Of course, years of such surroundings as this, followed, 
 as were the events just related, by increasing bitterness on 
 the side of the attacking party (who, to the credit of the 
 Presbyteries concerned, seem to have got the worst of every 
 judicial combat); the studies of the course itself; the en- 
 suing trials of his father for heresy, together with the 
 lively correspondence among friends and foes, and the 
 family discussions of all these controverted points and 
 persons, kept young Beecher's mind alert in study of all 
 the close theological distinctions, and familiarized him 
 with the whole ground as no mere seminary curriculum 
 could have done. 
 
 The result of this theological warfare, however, was 
 very depressing to Henry Ward, who found less and less 
 promise of fruitfulness in such a long continued course of 
 dialectics, in which each combatant strongly held to his 
 own views, and no result was ever reached. Indeed, he 
 became convinced at that early day that men are most 
 positive in theology about things of which they know the 
 least; they are most dogmatical on what they call " funda- 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 39 
 
 mentals " for which they find least solid foundations in 
 the Holy Scriptures or in nature. He felt, already, after 
 a childhood and youth, and a young manhood, spent in 
 the atmosphere of disputatious theology, that (as he says 
 in his sermon entitled " The Golden Net ") " the question 
 is not to be with the plow and the harrow, but with the 
 harvest. The farmer that raises the best wheat in the best 
 quantity, and in the best manner, and constantly, is the 
 best farmer, no matter what his tools are." 
 
 In one of the family circular letters already alluded to, 
 written shortly after young Beecher had got at his pastoral 
 work, occurs the following passage addressed by him to this 
 same brother George, who seems to have tended toward 
 the belief in the possibility of Christian "perfection:" — 
 
 "As to perfectionism, I am not greatly troubled with the 
 fact of it in myself, or the doctrine of it in you ; for I feel sure 
 that if you give yourself time and prayer, you will settle down 
 right, whatever the right may be ; and I rejoice, on this account, 
 that your judgment has led you to forbear publishing, because, 
 after we have published, if we do not hit exactly right, there is a 
 vehement temptation not to advance but rather to nurse and 
 defend our published views. The treatises which have had influ- 
 ence in this world from generation to generation are those which 
 have been matured, re-thought, re-cast, delayed. Apples that 
 ripen early are apt to be worm-eaten, and decay early at any rate ; 
 late fruit keeps best." 
 
 His early experiences however, while they taught him 
 how easily men may be mistaken in their philosophizings 
 even while most confident that they are correct, thus made 
 him feel free all his life long to let his humor play pleas- 
 antly about the heads of those who dogmatize; and yet, 
 in the necessity of some systematic mode of regarding the 
 truths of religion he was a firm believer, and not only can 
 there be found in his works no passages inconsistent with 
 this view but those are numerous which testify to his high 
 estimate of reason in the philosophy of spiritual matters. 
 
 In his "Yale Lectures" he says: — 
 
 " It is very desirable, I think, that every preacher should have 
 not merely gone through a system, but that he should have 
 studied comparative theology. He ought to study that system 
 
40 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 on which he expects to base his ministry ; and it is also desirable 
 that he should take cross-views of differing systems of theology — 
 for a variety of reasons, You may think that you are going to 
 preach some particular system, — but most of you will not, even 
 if you try. You may take your teachers' views of theology and 
 preach them for a while, but they will not suit you long. Every 
 man who is fit to preach will, before many years, begin to have 
 an outline of his own theology very distinctly marked out. But 
 it is always necessary to know what other men have thought, to 
 practice close thinking, to be drilled in sharp and nice discrim- 
 ination, and to have a mind that is not slatternly and loose, but 
 
 which knows how to work philosophically You must 
 
 acquire the habit of thinking, of looking at truth, not in isolated 
 and fragmentary forms, but in all its relations ; and of using it 
 constantly as an instrument for producing good. You see I do 
 believe in the science of theology, though I may not give my 
 faith to any particular school of it in all points. But no school 
 can dispense with a habit of thinking according to the laws of 
 cause and effect. 
 
 " Theology is osteology, and a skeleton is a poor thing to live 
 with. But that which makes a man handsome is not being with- 
 out bones. Some people say, because I occasionally hit theology 
 a slap, that I do not believe in it. Indeed, I do believe in it ; 
 but I believe in something else besides. Theology ought to be 
 inside ; it is the frame on which you build everything. I believe 
 in the succulency and the elasticity of the nerve, and the bloom 
 and beauty of the skin that overlies it all ; but what would all 
 these things be if there were not any bones there to lay them 
 upon, and by which they could stand up and be operated .'' Men 
 would all be gelatinous ; no better than so many jelly-fish. So 
 theology has its own sphere and function." 
 
 Thus, while he had from the first a clear estimate of the 
 importance of theologic training, — of which he was getting 
 a larger share than falls to the lot of the average student, 
 — yet his soul was impatient for action. This youthful 
 David felt oppressed and encumbered by the Saul's armor 
 and weapons which he had been testing long enough 
 to feel that his preparation for the fight was to come in 
 another way. 
 
 In a letter written to Dr. John H. Raymond,* about a 
 
 *"Life and Letters of John H. Raymond, First President of Vassar 
 College." New York: Foids, Howard, & Halbert, iSSi. 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 41 
 
 year after his going East (1848), Mr. Beecher mentions a 
 theological dispute then raging over Dr. Bushnell's teach- 
 ings:— 
 
 " I see no benefit in a controversy. It will be a fierce technical 
 dispute about propositions, at the expense in the churches of 
 vital godliness. . . . Others may blow the bellows and turn 
 the doctrines in the fire and lay them on the anvil of controversy, 
 and beat them with all sorts of hammers into all sorts of shapes; 
 but I shall busy myself with using the sword of the Lord, not in 
 forging it." 
 
 This was the lesson which he learned very early. He 
 well knew the processes by which the doctrines were 
 fused and forged and changed from age to age, but he 
 felt in himself the ability for a higher craft than the 
 smith's; and how effectively he wielded his powers for 
 fifty years the world knows. 
 
 But there was another part of his course in the sem- 
 inary which was of incalculable value. He says: — 
 
 " I had the good fortune to be under Professor Stowe in my 
 theological training. Those who have gone through a course 
 with him need not be told how much knowledge he has, nor his 
 keen and crystalline way of putting that knowledge. The ad- 
 vantages which I derived from his teaching, his way of taking 
 hold of Scripture, the knowledge I got of the Bible as a whole, 
 are inestimable to me. In looking over my old note-books, 
 which I filled independently of my course there, but which were 
 partly in consequence of it and partly from teaching in the Bible 
 class, I found I had gone then very nearly through the New 
 Testament with close and careful study, and had formed an inti- 
 mate acquaintance with it, before I began to preach regularly. 
 In the early years of my ministry, I engaged in a great amount of 
 exegetical study and interpretation of the word of God, having 
 one service a week which was mainly devoted to that work. The 
 preliminary acquisition of the power to do that will abbreviate 
 your after-work more than you can tell. Do not believe that 
 your enthusiasm will be a light always burning. You must have 
 oil in your lamps. Study and patient labor are indispensable 
 even to genius." 
 
 This study of the Bible, under Professor Stowe and by 
 himself, and especially during his last term at the Semin- 
 ary while he was in charge of the Bible class, was really 
 
42 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 his salvation from the depression and condition of doubt 
 into which he had been thrown by tiie theological combats 
 just alluded to. For one of his brothers, surcharged with 
 doubts, had thrown up the ministry (although he after- 
 ward returned to it again), and Henry Ward himself during 
 the hot rage of pro-slavery rioting in Cincinnati and the 
 great anti-slavery excitement in the seminary itself, had 
 for some months been actively engaged in editing the Cin- 
 cijinati Journal, by means of which his ideas and feelings 
 were drawn to the possibility of his escaping the ministe- 
 rial life and adopting journalism as his profession. That he 
 would have been one of the country's great editors, no one 
 can doubt; yet how much would have been lost to journal- 
 ism itself, as well as to the cause of God and the up-build- 
 ing of man in the multitudinous avenues through which 
 this man's influence has been felt, had he not been drawn 
 as he was, by the inspiration imparted to him in the study 
 of the Scriptures, to the founding of his whole professional 
 life upon the broad basis of God's work in the world ! 
 
 From this close and loving study he received two lumi- 
 nous thoughts. He speaks of the time, 
 
 " When it pleased God to reveal to my wandering soul the idea 
 that it was His nature to love a man in his sins for the sake of 
 helping him out of them ; that he did not do it out of compliment 
 to Christ, or to a ' law ' or a ' plan of salvation;' but from the full- 
 ness of His great heart. . . . Time went on, and next came 
 the disclosure of a Christ ever present with me — a Christ that 
 never was far from me, but was always near me, as a companion 
 and friend, to uphold and sustain me. This was the last and the 
 best revelation of God's Spirit to my soul." 
 
 Of course it is not to be supposed that the inspiration of 
 these great ideas had now been for the first time presented 
 to young Beecher's mind, but simply this: his whole train- 
 ing and education thus far had been along the line of the 
 Calvinistic theology, involving chiefly the idea of God's 
 sovereignty and power. Aided by the controversies of the 
 time, then beginning to break away from under the mighty 
 shadow of that truth, controversies aiming to establish the 
 theory of man's free agency and consequent responsibility, 
 
HEREDITY, TRAINING, AND EDUCATION. 43 
 
 and giving to human individuality a dignity which the older 
 theology did not allow to it, — he was yet hampered and 
 obstructed by the sense of argumentation; his heart, that 
 tremendous engine of moral and spiritual power, was not 
 satisfied. But, from the time when his soul was lifted up 
 by these two great truths — God's nature as manifested by 
 Jesus the Christ to love man in his sins for the sake of help- 
 ing him out of them, and the sustaining Christ ever present 
 with individual men ("a real presence" of perennial spiritual 
 influence), — he sprang to his work with an ardor that was 
 unquenched to the end of his life. 
 
 God's love because of his fatherhood; man's worth and 
 mutual brotherhood because of his sonship to God: these 
 were the two halves of the one great theme which from 
 that time to the day of his final silence, underlay his life, 
 his words, his works. 
 
 Indeed his own playful way of putting this is as apt as 
 any could be: "I was like the man in the story, to whom 
 the fairy gave a purse with a single piece of money in it, 
 which he found always came again as soon as he had 
 spent it. I thought I had found at least one thing to 
 preach; I found it included everything." 
 
 With the close of his theological studies in 1837, young 
 Beecher married Miss Eunice White Bullard, a sister of 
 one of his classmates and a daughter of Dr. Bullard of 
 Worcester, Mass. Their betrothal had lasted faithfully 
 for seven years, and their faithful companionship in mar- 
 ried life lasted for fifty years, his death in 1887 rounding 
 the half century. 
 
 Here, then, concludes the first period of Henry Ward 
 Beecher's life. We have tried to sketch — or rather to have 
 him sketch — the inherited traits, the early influences, that 
 combined to give him his outfit. He was not one whose 
 education was finished when he left the theological sem- 
 inary. To the day of his death he learned, he grew, he 
 increased the talent committed to his charge; but on leav- 
 ing the seminary he was armed and equipped, and in- 
 spired with the best thought of his life. 
 
44 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 III. 
 
 TEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY WORK. 
 
 It is neither possible nor desirable in this place to give 
 a biography of Mr. Beecher. The object sought is sim- 
 ply to gather some memoirs going to show the main 
 sources of his power as an instructor of public thought 
 and a stimulator of public feeling, the principles from 
 which he drew his own inspiration, and the consistency 
 with which he maintained them under whatever variations 
 of the influences about him, — whether social, religious, 
 ecclesiastical, or political. 
 
 He preached for a brief time in the Presbyterian Church 
 in Covington, Kentucky, but soon received a call from 
 Lawrenceburg, Indiana, a small town about twenty miles 
 west of Cincinnati, where for two years he labored in his 
 little low wooden building, which would seat one hundred 
 and fifty people, the church membership consisting of 
 twenty members, — as he puts it, " nineteen of them were 
 women, and the other was nothing," — he and his young 
 wife living in two rooms over a provision store, with a 
 salary of two hundred and fifty dollars guaranteed by the 
 Home Missionary Society, and a possible one hundred and 
 fifty more from the parish, paid if at all in provisions. 
 Less than $i.io a day, if all was paid ! When we read 
 such figures as these and think of the self-denying labors 
 and privations of those who labor for God and man in our 
 frontier settlements, it seems clear that when, many years 
 afterwards, Mr. Beecher was trying to arouse the manliness 
 of the working-men to meet the rigors of hard times, and 
 said that if all they could get was a dollar a day they 
 
TEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY WORK. 45 
 
 should make that suflfice, he well knew what he was talk- 
 ing about. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's own pictures of these days of destitution 
 are very graphic, but we cannot stop to consider them in 
 detail; and yet these two years were among the most val- 
 uable of his training-time, bringing him face-to-face and 
 hand-to-hand with the ills and miseries of actual privation 
 and poverty as well as the hard pastoral work of a Home 
 Missionary in a malarial district among a scattered people. 
 He was blessed with health, vigor, perseverance, and 
 already an intuitive way of getting at people's hearts. 
 
 He says: — 
 
 " There lived over on the other side of the street in Lawrence- 
 burg, where first I had my settlement, a very profane man, who 
 was counted ugly. I understood that he had said some very 
 bitter things of me. I went right over to his store, and sat down 
 on the counter to talk with him. I happened in often, — day in 
 and day out. My errand was to make him like me. I did make 
 him Hke me, — and all the children too ; and when I left, two or 
 three years later, it was his house that was opened to me and all 
 my family for the week after I gave up my room. And to the 
 day of his death I do not believe the old man could mention my 
 name without crying." 
 
 Thus it was that he learned early in his career the 
 secret of winning the sympathies of the men whom he de- 
 sired to influence. He relates in one place his visit to the 
 manufacture of papier mache in Birmingham, England. He 
 was noticing the various processes from room to room, 
 until, coming to where they give the final polish, he was 
 told that they had tried everything in the world for pol- 
 ishing and at last had been convinced that there was no 
 leather or other substance that had such power to polish 
 to the very finest smoothness, as the living leather in its 
 vital state, — the human hand. " It is very much so," says 
 he, " with people. You can teach them from the pulpit 
 in certain large ways, but there are some things vou can- 
 not do except by putting your very hand upon them." 
 
 During these two years young Beecher made his mark 
 not only in the little community where he was working 
 
46 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 but also in Cincinnati, where he occasionally preached in 
 his father's pulpit, at the Second Presbyterian Church. 
 In 1839 he was called to Indianapolis, then a place of 
 about four thousand inhabitants, the capital of the State. 
 The "new school" and "old school" theological discus- 
 sions were still disturbing the churches (as when indeed 
 are they not!) and he was called to a new congregation 
 which had swarmed off from their more conservative 
 brethren. He had now a larger salary ($600 — say $1.65 
 per diem) but also larger expenses, and was compelled 
 still, although not suffering from positive poverty, to exer- 
 cise rigid economy and live in great simplicity. 
 
 As to preaching, he had, as we have seen, had consider- 
 able experience. He had practiced public speaking from 
 the time of his Sophomore year at college, — making tem- 
 perance speeches, holding conference meetings, and in 
 various ways learning to overcome his natural diffidence 
 and acquiring power to face people and to think on 
 his feet. In the little Lawrenceburg church he had 
 preached the best sermons that he knew how to get up, 
 but was constantly discouraged with his own efforts. He 
 says: "I remember distinctly that every Sunday night I 
 had a headache. I went to bed every Sunday night with 
 a vow registered that I would buy a farm and quit the 
 ministry." 
 
 But while thus slowly feeling his way toward the power 
 of setting forth truth in a way to lay hold on the minds of 
 men, he was diligently filling up his own mind. He says : — 
 
 " I read Robert South, through and through ; I saturated my- 
 self with South. I formed much of my style and my handling of 
 texts on his methods. I obtained a vast amount of instruction 
 and assistance from others of those old sermonizers, who were as 
 familiar to me as my own name. I read Barrow, Howe, Sherlock, 
 Butler, and Edwards particularly. I preached a great many ser- 
 mons while reading these old men, and upon their discourses I 
 often founded the framework of my own. After I had preached 
 them I said to myself, 'That will never do; I wouldn't preach that 
 again for the world ; ' but I was learning, and nobody ever tripped 
 me up." 
 
TEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY WORK. 47 
 
 In fact he learned slowly, in spite of his father's power 
 as a preacher and an effective mover of men, and of his 
 own facility and popularity as a speaker. He himself tells 
 us, " For the first three years of my ministry I did not make 
 a single sinner wink." He was gaining in reputation, but 
 that was not what he was aiming at; and it was not until 
 the beginning of a period of intense religious excitement, 
 which indeed grew largely out of his own efforts, that at 
 last he seems to have come to something of the power 
 which so largely abode with him from that time forward. 
 More and more constantly did he study the life and the 
 teachings of Him who spoke as never man spake, earnestly 
 seeking the secret by means of which it was that the com- 
 mon people heard Him gladly. He also gave zealous study 
 to the doings and sayings of those first Christian mission- 
 aries, the apostles, and both while at Lawrenceburg and in 
 the first portion of his Indianapolis pastorate, he did much 
 to furnish himself with the best of material and the best of 
 models for his work. He says: — 
 
 "I owe more to the Book of Acts and the writings of the 
 Apostle Paul than to all other books put together. I was sent 
 into the wilderness of Indiana to preach among the poor and 
 ignorant, and I lived in my saddle. My library was in my saddle- 
 bags ; I went from camp-meeting to camp-meeting, and from log 
 hut to log hut. I took my New Testament, and from it I got 
 that which has been the very secret of any success that I have 
 had in the Christian ministry." 
 
 And again: — 
 
 "When I had lived at Indianapolis the first year, I said, 'There 
 was a reason why when the apostles preached they succeeded, 
 and I will find it out if it is to be found out.' I took every single 
 instance in the record where I could find one of their sermons, 
 and analyzed it, and asked myself, 'What were their circum- 
 stances } Who were the people ? What did he do ? ' And I 
 studied the sermons until I got this idea: that the apostles were 
 accustomed first to feel for a ground on which the people and they 
 stood together; a common ground where they could meet. Then 
 they stored up a large number of the particulars of knowledge 
 that belonged to everybody ; and when they had got that knowl- 
 edge which everybody would admit placed in a proper form be- 
 
48 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 fore the minds of the people, then they brought it to bear upon 
 them with all their excited heart and feeling. That was the first 
 definite idea of taking aim that I had in my mind. ' Now,' said 
 I, 'I will make a sermon so.' I remember it just as well as if it 
 were yesterday. First, I sketched out the things we all know, 
 . . . and in that way I went on with my 'you all knows,' until 
 I had about forty of them. When I had got through that, I 
 turned round and brought it to bear upon them with all my 
 might; and there were seventeen men awakened under that ser- 
 mon. I nev'^er felt so triumphant in my life. I cried all the way 
 home. I said to myself, ' Now I know how to preach.' I could 
 not make another sermon for a month that was good for any- 
 thing. I had used all my powder and shot on that one. But, for 
 the first time in my life, I had got the idea of taking aiin. I 
 soon added to it the idea of analyzing the people I was preaching 
 to, and so taking aim for specialties. Of course that came grad- 
 ually and later, with growing knowledge and experience." 
 
 And again: — 
 
 " It is easier to study law and become a successful practitioner, 
 it is easier to study medicine and become a successful practitioner, 
 than it is to study the human soul all through — to know its living 
 forms, and to know the way of talking to it and coming into sym- 
 pathy with it." 
 
 We have seen (p. 24) how he had learned the lesson of 
 thoroughness, in the preparation for his " Lectures to 
 Young Men." At the time of his Indianapolis pastorate, 
 the assembling in that city of the State Legislature brought 
 together a great many people of all kinds, and as the chief 
 city of the State it was naturally alive not only with good 
 influences, but also with bad, and at one time vice seemed 
 to fairly riot there. Gambling and drinking and all forms 
 of evil flourished rankly. Seeing here an opportunity, 
 young Beecher prepared himself by a careful study of 
 facts, and then delivered that series of lectures which when 
 gathered and published (as most of his early books were, 
 for the pecuniary benefit of other people), formed his first 
 book. The venerable Dr. Leonard Bacon, contemporary 
 and friend of the older Beecher, wrote: — 
 
 " I remember admiring its force of thought and inspiration, its 
 wealth of illustration, its insight into human nature under the 
 various phases of individual character, its boldness of assault and 
 
TEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY WORK. 49 
 
 denunciation, its earnestness in warning young men against moral 
 dangers, and the electric force of its incitements to manly aspira- 
 tions and manly living. In every lecture I seemed to see sparks 
 as from the red-hot iron on the old anvil, and to hear the old 
 Boanerges thundering with a youthful voice." 
 
 These lectures produced an intense excitement in the 
 community. Many men of high social and political stand- 
 ing felt themselves aimed at, and were wrathful; but the 
 city thronged to hear them, consciences were aroused, per- 
 ceptions enlightened, hearts touched, and the result was a 
 revival of religion that shook the community. This plain 
 presentation of simple truth with a bold hand, set forth in 
 dramatic forms, followed up by moral instruction and spirit- 
 ual incitement, really struck the key-note of the man's life 
 and labor. 
 
 But it was not only boldness that he learned, but deftness 
 also was coming to his modes of management. 
 
 When he was at Indianapolis, he says: — 
 
 " Nobody was allowed to say a word on the subject of slavery. 
 They were all red-hot out there then ; and one of my elders said, 
 ' If an Abolitionist comes here I will head a mob to put him down." 
 I was a young preacher. I had some pluck ; I felt, and it grew in 
 me, that that was a subject that ought to be preached upon. . . 
 . . . The question was, how shall I do \y} I recollect one of 
 the earliest efforts I made in that direction was in a sermon on 
 some general topic. It was necessary to illustrate a point, and I 
 did it by picturing a father ransoming his son from captivity 
 among the Algerines, and glorying in his love of liberty and his 
 fight against bondage. They all thought I was going to apply it 
 to slavery; but I did not, I applied it to my subject and it passed 
 off: and they all drew a long breath. It was not long before I 
 had another illustration from that quarter, and so, before I had 
 been there a year, I had gone all over the sore spots of slavery, in 
 illustrating the subject of Christian experience and doctrine. It 
 broke the ice." 
 
 The above passage occurs in his instructions to young 
 preachers on the subject of Illustrations, and it seems worth 
 while to include another paragraph pursuing the same 
 topic: — 
 
 " You may go down to the brook under the willows and angle 
 for the trout that everybody has been trying to catch, but in vain. 
 
5© HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 You go splashing and tearing along, throwing in your line, pole 
 and all. Do you think you can catch them that way? No, in- 
 deed; you must begin afar off and quietly, if need be drawing 
 yourself along on the grass and perhaps even on your belly, until 
 you come where through the quivering leaves you see the flash 
 of the sun; and then slowly and gently you throw your line so 
 that the fly on its end falls as light as a gossamer upon the placid 
 surface of the brook. The trout will think ' That is not a bait 
 thrown to catch me: there is nobody there,' and rises to the fly, 
 takes it, — and you take him." 
 
 He earnestly strove both in spirit of life and in method 
 of labor to follow Jesus, that he might be made a fisher of 
 men. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most fruitful fields of the infinite 
 variety of illustrations used by Mr. Beecher throughout 
 his life w^as his love for nature, his profound and extensive 
 knowledge of its processes and productions, his apprecia- 
 tion of its myriad forms and sounds of beauty, the senti- 
 ments which it is capable of arousing in the human soul, 
 and the multiform similitudes which it offers to the condi- 
 tions and development of human life. His facile control 
 of this vast field of course did not come by accident. He 
 always loved and sympathized with the life of the natural 
 world from his earliest childhood, and much of his boy- 
 hood and youth was spent in the meadows and along the 
 brooks and among the woods. The cultivation of fiowers 
 and shrubs and of all manner of vegetables had been his 
 delight in youth and his necessity when life-work began. 
 During his two years at Mount Pleasant Academy, while 
 preparing for college, he had found a sympathetic instructor 
 m an old gardener, who taught him much, and he had never 
 been without a vital and practical interest in those mat- 
 ters. In his preface to the first edition of " Pleasant Talk 
 about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming," a collection of his 
 articles from the Western Farmer and Gardener, which 
 he edited while he was in Indianapolis (by way of resting 
 from his pulpit labors), he says: — 
 
 " It may be of some service to the young as showing how valu- 
 able the fragments of time may become, if mention is made of 
 the way in which we became prepared to edit this journal. The 
 
TEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY WORK. 51 
 
 continued taxation of daily preaching, extending through months, 
 and once through eighteen consecutive months without the ex- 
 ception of a single day, began to wear upon our nerves, and 
 made it necessary for us to seek some relaxation. Accordingly we 
 used, after each week-night's preaching, to drive the sermon out 
 of our heads by some alterative reading. 
 
 "In the State Library were Loudon's works— his encyclopedias 
 of Horticulture, of Agriculture, and of Architecture. We fell 
 upon them, and, for years, almost monopolized them. In our 
 little one-story cottage, after the day's work was done, we pored 
 over these monuments of an almost incredible industrj^ and read, 
 we suppose, not only every line, but much of it many times over. 
 . . . . In this way, through several years, we gradually accu- 
 mulated materials and became familiar with facts and principles, 
 which paved the way for our editorial labors. ' Lindley's Horti- 
 culture ' and ' Gray's Structural Botany ' came in as constant com- 
 panions. And when, at length, through a friend's liberality we 
 became the recipients of the London Gardener's Chronicle, edited 
 by Professor Lindley, our treasures were inestimable. Many 
 hundred times have we lain awake for hours, unable to throw off 
 the excitement of preaching, beguiling the time with imaginary 
 visits to the Chiswick Garden, and to the more than Oriental 
 magnificence of the Duke of Devonshire's grounds at Chatsworth. 
 We have had long discussions, in that little bedroom at Indianap- 
 olis, with Van Mons about pears, with Vibert about roses, with 
 Thompson and Knight about everything under the heavens in the 
 horticultural world. 
 
 " This employment of waste hours not only answered a purpose 
 of soothing excited nerves then, but brought us into such rela- 
 tions to the material world, that we speak with entire moderation 
 when we say that all the estates of the richest duke in England 
 could not have given us half the pleasure which we derived from 
 pastures, waysides, and unoccupied prairies." 
 
 There was probably no one feature of Mr. Beecher's 
 writing or speaking upon any topic whatsoever, so notice- 
 able as his accurate and apparently intuitive knowledge of 
 the natural world. But his knowledge was worked for; 
 the wonder was his power of assimilation. " Natural 
 genius," he says, " is but the soil, which, let alone runs to 
 weeds. If it is to bear fruit and harvest worth the reap- 
 ing, it must be plowed and tilled with incessant care." 
 And again: "Though a man be born to genius, a natural 
 
52 HEXRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 reader and a natural reasoner, these endowments give him 
 but the outlines of himself, and filling up means incessant, 
 painstaking study and work. ... It may be impas- 
 sioned, facile, and fruitful, remunerating him as it goes on; 
 nevertheless, there must be incessant work. Work may be 
 light, unburdensome, as full of song as the merry brook 
 that turns the miller's wheel; but no wheel is ever turned 
 without the rush and weight of the stream upon it." 
 
 And yet again: " No man can preach well except out of 
 an abundance of well-wrought material. Some sermons 
 seem to start up suddenly, soul and body; but no, they are 
 the product of years of experience. . . . It is only the 
 form, like the occasion, that is extemporaneous. No man 
 preaches except out of the stores that have been gathered 
 in him." 
 
 And now, by way of rounding up the period of his West- 
 ern ministry, — the two years at Lawrenceburg and the 
 eight at Indianapolis, — let us make one more quotation 
 illustrative of his power of adapting truth to circumstances; 
 showing his growth in the art of maintaining principles 
 which should be consistent in themselves, while presenting 
 different fronts to different winds: — 
 
 " When my ministry was in the West, what did I find ? A loose 
 and heterogeneous mass of men who had come from everywhere, 
 — the detritus from the stream of immigration. As at the delta 
 of the Mississippi is gathered refuse which floats down from the 
 region above, so in the West were gathered human beings from 
 almost every nation on the globe; and there the principle of in- 
 dividualism was the predominant one. I insisted upon the sanc- 
 tity of the Sabbath day; I insisted upon the absolute necessity of 
 churches and church forms; and I insisted upon the indispensa- 
 bleness of authority and of obedience to that authority. I 
 preached every Sunday against individualism, and in favor of 
 association. By and by I was transferred to the East ; and there 
 I found society hard-ribbed, vigorous. Men were lopped off on 
 every side to make them fit into crowded populations. Society 
 was tyrannical. And ever since I came East I have fought society, 
 and tried to get individual men to be free, independent, and large. 
 I was right both times. I did not care for abstract theories. My 
 object was to get ineit. . . . Now if I had to study the proper- 
 
TEN YEARS OF MISSIONARY WORK. 53 
 
 tions of a philosophy, I should probably study in such a way that 
 I would save my philosophy but lose my men. . . . Who cries 
 for symmetry in medicine? Symmetry in health is what we want." 
 
 Mr. Beecher's Western life was full of distresses and dis- 
 comforts, but glowing with conscious advancement in 
 inner life and in outward success in his calling. He said 
 during a visit to Indianapolis in 1876: " I went to Indian- 
 apolis in the fall of 1839 with a little sick babe in my arms 
 which showed the first symptons of recovery after eating 
 blackberries which I gathered by the way. The city had 
 then a population of four thousand [now, in 1887, one 
 hundred and fifty thousand]. With the exception of two 
 or three streets there were no ways along which could not 
 be seen the original stumps of the forest; I have bumped 
 against them in a buggy too often not to be well assured of 
 the fact. Here I preached my first real sermon; here, 
 for the first time I strove against death in behalf of a child, 
 and was defeated; here I built a house and painted it with 
 my own hands; here I had my first garden, and became 
 the bishop of flowers for this diocese; here I first joined 
 the editorial fraternity, and edited the Farmer and Gar- 
 dener ; here I had my first taste of chills and fever; here 
 for the first time, I waded to church ankle-deep in mud 
 and preached with pantaloons tucked into my boot-tops. 
 
 . . It is now a mighty city, full of foundries, manu- 
 factories, wholesale stores, and with a magnificent court- 
 house, beautiful dwellings, noble churches, wide and fine 
 streets, and railroads more than I could mention, radiating 
 to every point of the compass." He alludes in another 
 passage to " the days of sickness, cliills and fever, the 
 gardening days, my first editorial experience, my luck in 
 horses and pigs, my house-building, and not a few scrapes; 
 being stalled in the mud, half drowned in crossing rivers, 
 long, lonely forest rides, camp meetings, preachings in 
 camps, sleepings in the open air." 
 
 If the physical aspects of these days were d^rk to the 
 sturdy, vigorous, elastic preacher, to his young wife, — 
 nurtured in the serenity of a New England town, accus- 
 tomed to the conveniences and pleasant industries of a 
 
54 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 New England home, — this being plunged into the rude- 
 nesses of an almost frontier life and the drain both phys- 
 ical and mental of a rapidly increasing family of little 
 children, was darkness almost unrelieved. Her health 
 failed, her spirits were depressed, and her condition was a 
 source of the keenest anxiety to the loving husband. The 
 spring of 1847, therefore, found young Beecher in a very 
 uncertain state of mind. Vital and springy in bodily con- 
 dition; mentally active, intense, out-reaching, greedily 
 acquiring and prodigally pouring forth the treasures acces- 
 sible to him; encouraged, stimulated, conscious of grow- 
 ing power, and having a heart aflame with zeal for 
 Christ and love for man, — he was, on the other hand, 
 weighted with wearing anxiety for his dear wife, worrying 
 about his children and home, and — even in intellectual 
 matters — while craving books and art and music and the 
 means of a wider and finer culture, he was cabined, cribbed, 
 confined, by his own poverty and the scanty resources of 
 the community in which he lived. So that all causes com- 
 bined to make it a glad thing for him to receive, as he did 
 at that time, an invitation to go East with his wife to at- 
 tend what was then known as " Anniversary Week," in 
 New York City, and to deliver one of the addresses before 
 the Home Missionary Society. 
 
 As it seemed then, it was in itself the great event of his 
 life; as we see it now, it was in itself a very small affair, 
 except as being the initiative step of his real career. 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 55 
 
 IV. 
 
 PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 
 
 Congregationalism, as a denomination, had down to 
 1840 made but small progress outside of New England. A 
 movement for its extension began very actively about 
 that time. One of the very earliest efforts of that activity 
 was the founding of the Church of the Pilgrims in the city 
 of Brooklyn in 1844. Shortly after its successful inaugura- 
 tion, some of its members determined to start another Con- 
 gregational church and proceeded actively to accomplish 
 that, by purchasing the building of the Old First Presby- 
 terian Church, then just vacated for a new one. The first 
 services were held on Sunday, May 16, 1847. 
 
 Mr. Beecher, who had met with a welcome at the Anni- 
 versary meetings in New York largely on account of his 
 father and elder brothers, had made a marked impression 
 there by his own addresses. Mr. William P. Cutter, of 
 New York, who had known and admired him in the West, 
 had already mentioned him to the gentlemen who had 
 initiated the new church project; and the young preacher 
 was invited to be present at the opening services of the 
 church and preach the first sermons, which he did with 
 marked acceptability, morning and evening. The church 
 was organized on Sunday, June 13, with twenty-one mem- 
 bers. The wife of one of the promoters had suggested 
 "Plymouth Brethren" as a name, and "Plymouth Church" 
 was the title adopted. Young Beecher, who had gone on 
 to Boston after his first preaching, returned a few weeks 
 later and preached again, for two successive Sundays; 
 the consequence being that on June 14, 1847, he was 
 
56 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 unanimously invited by the church and society to become 
 their pastor. With many misgivings as to the wisdom of 
 leaving his Presbyterian associations and his well-loved 
 parish in the West, Mr. Beecher was influenced primarily 
 by the evident improvement in his wife's health and also by 
 the marked heartiness and earnestness and activity of the 
 people who had called him to work with them, and decided 
 to accept the invitation; preferring it to a position offered 
 him with the old Park Street Church in Boston (where his 
 father and his brother Edward had preceded him), because 
 in Plymouth he should be able to begin the work in his 
 own way. From that day, during the forty years which 
 intervened until his death, his history and that of Ply- 
 mouth Church are one and the same. They are known to 
 all men in America, and throughout the English-speaking 
 world more widely than those of any other man or church 
 in Christendom. It will not therefore be necessary to do 
 more than touch upon a few salient points; and those, as 
 bearing upon his personality and methods of working. 
 
 When in October, 1847, Henry Ward Beecher assumed 
 the pastorate of Plymouth Church, he was thirty-four 
 years and four months old. His compact, vigorous fig- 
 ure, five feet nine inches in height; his long dark hair; 
 broad brow; large blue eyes, — now luminous with in- 
 tensity, now twinkling with merriment; rather large, 
 straight nose; peculiarly well formed mouth, mobile with 
 feeling; ruddy complexion; and a garb decidedly uncler- 
 ical, presented an unusual appearance. 
 
 The first thing he did was to have the pulpit cut away, 
 and upon the broad platform was set a rather low ma- 
 hogany desk, open beneath. He had the natural instinct of 
 the orator, and felt that for him to get at his listeners the 
 listeners must be able to see the speaker. Throughout 
 his whole career it is rather remarkable that one so 
 apparently careless of appearances should have been, as 
 this man Avas, uniformly successful in doing the right 
 thing so far as concerned all physical carriage in his pub- 
 lic appearances. His instincts were those of a gentleman, 
 and whenever he shocked the sense of propriety of church- 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 57 
 
 goers (as he occasionally did), it was never by any ungain- 
 liness or impropriety of action, but always by some sudden 
 and unexpected turn of thought, of a kind to which peo- 
 ple were unaccustomed in Sunday services. Yet, even so, 
 those little shocks to their conventional nerves invariably 
 resulted in arousing attention and fixing the listeners' 
 mind upon the thought to be presented. They were 
 sometimes the unconscious results of his original way of 
 looking at things, and sometimes the intentional arts of 
 the orator, who sought not to exhibit himself as a model 
 clergyman but to "catch men." 
 
 To shov/ the underlying reason why he took his stand 
 upon a platform rather than in the pulpit, read this little 
 passage from his " Lectures on Preaching:" — 
 
 " It is not necessary that a man, because he may not be able to 
 stand like the statue of Apollo, should stand ungracefully. He 
 loses, unconsciously, a certain power ; for, although he does not 
 need a very fine physical figure (which is rather a hindrance, I 
 think), yet he should be pleasing in his bearing and gestures. A 
 man who is very beautiful and superlatively graceful sets people 
 to admiring him ; they make a kind of monkey god of him, and it 
 stands in the way of his usefulness. From this temptation most 
 of us have been mercifully delivered. On the other hand, what 
 we call naturalness, fitness, good taste, and propriety are to be 
 sought. You like to see a man come into your parlor with, at 
 least, ordinary good manners and some sense of propriety, and 
 what you require in your parlor you certainly have a right to ex- 
 pect in church. One of the reasons why I condemn these churns 
 called pulpits is that they teach a man bad habits ; he is heedless 
 of his posture and learns bad tricks behind these bulwarks. He 
 thinks that people will not see them. So with gestures. There 
 are certain people who will never make many gestures, but they 
 should see to it that what they do make shall be graceful and 
 appropriate. There are others who are impulsive, and so full of 
 feeling that they throw it out in every direction, and it is, there- 
 fore, all the more important that their action shall be shorn 
 of awkwardness and constrained mannerism. Now and then a 
 man is absolutely dramatic, as, for instance, John B. Gough, who 
 could not speak otherwise. It is unconscious with him. It is 
 inherent in all natural orators ; they put themselves at once, un- 
 consciously, in sympathy with the things they are describing." 
 
58 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 We shall return to this matter again when considering 
 Mr. Beecher's oratory, but meanwhile, it is significant of 
 what his life and work among the people had done for 
 him during the ten years of missionary labor in the West, 
 that his first act w^hen he found himself raised to an 
 Eastern pulpit was to get out of it nearer to his hearers. 
 
 He had accepted the responsibility of a position in the 
 city already called the " City of Churches," itself well fur- 
 nished wuth clergymen of ability and repute, and practi- 
 cally a part of that greater city, its near neighbor across 
 the East River. As to comparing himself with others or 
 worrying about his new and untried field, these unneces- 
 sary girdings were entirely foreign to his nature. He 
 worked for the love of working; the grinding sense of re- 
 sponsibility he felt to be uncongenial to the faith and 
 trust of a Christian life. He refused to entertain anxieties, 
 but put in all the forces he possessed as a farmer puts in 
 his labor and his seed; and he left the germination, like 
 the sunshine and the rain, to the providence of God. He 
 says in one place: " In general I have never performed m}- 
 work but once; whereas many others perform theirs three 
 times, — first by anticipation; then in realization; and 
 afterward by rumination." 
 
 He began as he afterward continued, and his own de- 
 scription of it will be the best. He says: — 
 
 " I have often been asked by what secret I retain health and 
 vigor under labors multiform and continuous. I owe much to a 
 good constitution inherited from my parents, not spoiled by 
 youthful excesses or weakened by over-study ; much also to an 
 early-acquired knowledge of how to take care of myself, to secure 
 invariably a full measure of sleep, to regard food as an engineer 
 does fuel (to be employed economically, and entirely with refer- 
 ence to the work to be done by the machine) ; much to the habit 
 of economizing social forces, and not wasting in needless conver- 
 sation and pleasurable hilarities the spirit that would carry me 
 through many days of necessary work ; but, above all, to the 
 possession of a hopeful disposition and natural courage, to sym- 
 pathy with men, and to an unfailing trust in God ; so that I have 
 always worked for the love of working." 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 59 
 
 With these interior impulses, and wise powers of guid- 
 ance and restraint; with a mind well stored by years of 
 studious reading and thinking; with ten years' growth in 
 the experience of working directly upon the souls of men, 
 and an original aptitude in the "art of putting things" by 
 which he had already grown facile and expert, it is not to 
 be wondered at that this man found himself instantly at 
 home in the turmoil of the great cities where thronged the 
 very game he was after — men. Lovers of the conventional 
 complained that he was not smooth, he lacked polish; which 
 perhaps was not without a certain amount of truth, for he 
 took hold like a new file. Not only individual men, but 
 the community at large, very soon felt that there was a 
 fresh and unusual kind of force at work. 
 
 The old church building was cramped and packed with 
 the throngs, and when after a few months it took fire and 
 was badly damaged, the people of the church saw that it 
 was their opportunity not to rebuild the old, but to build 
 anew ; and they reared the great broad-shouldered ampli- 
 tude of Plymouth Church as it stands to-day. 
 
 True to his intention of getting at the people, Mr. 
 Beecher had the organ, with space for a large volunteer 
 choir, set at the back of the platform, in front of the audi- 
 ence, thus thrusting the speaker well forward into the 
 midst of the throng. He did away with the broad middle 
 aisle, and filled that cold, blank space with people. The 
 pews were arranged, so far as possible, in circling fashion 
 about the platform. The galleries were about twice the 
 ordinary depth, and the seating capacity of the house about 
 twenty-seven hundred, although with the hinged aisle-seats 
 which they were soon compelled to add, the congregation 
 usually numbered about three thousand. Not a dollar was 
 spent upon unnecessary ornament, but everything was 
 plain and simple, the main object being to have a well- 
 lighted, well-ventilated, commodious audience-room, of 
 good acoustic properties, arranged to seat the people with 
 their faces convergent toward the platform, and, with the 
 great choir before them, forming a natural social circle 
 
6o HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 in which it would be easy to focalize thought and feeling, 
 whether for instruction, prayer, or praise. 
 
 Mr. Beecher recognized the danger of bareness and lean- 
 ness which always hangs over the non-liturgical churches. 
 The Roman service, and to a great extent the Episcopal 
 service, touch the devout imagination, reaching toward if 
 not actually inspiring veneration and awe, and seeking for 
 chords whose response is worship; and he felt that the 
 characteristic fault of the plainer church services was their 
 preponderance of instruction and lack of provision for the 
 element of worship. This he proposed to supp]}^ and with 
 a very grand success did supply, by means of music, and 
 especially by means of so interesting the entire audience 
 that it should not only listen and be played upon, but should 
 also take part. He was, in fact, together with that noble 
 old organist, John Zundel, the pioneer of congregational 
 singing in America. 
 
 It was not until 1S55 that he succeeded in getting his 
 " Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes " published, 
 and the people all furnished with words and music so as to 
 make Plymouth congregational singing the fine art that it 
 became shortly after that; and yet, from the very begin- 
 ning, with a large voluntary choir and a persistent urging 
 upon the congregation that they should take hold, and the 
 use of tunes that everybody knew, he did succeed in bring- 
 ing in that powerful aid, — that '* provision for the esthetic 
 feeling, the fancy and the imagination and the more facile 
 emotions, which is not provided for by any framework fur- 
 nished to the preacher, and which, according to his various 
 abilities and endowments or moods, circumstances may or 
 may not have partially provided for in him." 
 
 In his instructions ("Yale Lectures on Preaching") on the 
 relations of music to worship, he goes very carefully and 
 suggestively into the function of the organ both in open- 
 ing voluntaries and interludes and in hymn accompani- 
 ments and closing voluntaries. 
 
 And speaking of John Zundel, he says : " To make 
 music to him means worship and the organ means religion. 
 . . . . So long had he been trained, that what words 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRALTS. 6 1 
 
 are to us, notes were to him; and he expressed every 
 thought and feeling that he had, upon the instrument. In 
 his inspired moments upon the organ, it has brought tears 
 to my eyes a hundred times; I have gone in jaded and 
 unheartened, and have been caught up by him and lifted 
 so that I saw the flash of the gates. I have been com- 
 forted, I have been helped, and if I have preached to him 
 and helped him, — and I know I have, — he has preached to 
 me and helped me; and he knows not and never will know 
 how much." 
 
 Mr. Beecher then gives his ideas of the choir and of con- 
 gregational singing and of the choice of hymns on the prin- 
 ciple of co-operation with the mood of thought or feeling 
 into which he wishes to bring his auditors; which show 
 the keenest susceptibility to the power of music in himself 
 and the quickest sympathy and intuitive knowledge of its 
 effect upon a gathering of persons brought together for a 
 purpose, and a remarkable capacity for philosophizing 
 upon the facts thus gained from experience and observa- 
 tion, with a facility for reducing them to a systematic 
 practice for subserving his own aims. Nor does he make 
 any cast-iron system, but in accordance with what more 
 and more appears to have been the plan of his whole life, 
 he deduces vital principles which must receive varied ap- 
 plication according to '^arying circumstances. 
 
 It was a common remark in those days that, whereas the 
 average church congregation was made up in the propor- 
 tion of five women to one man, in Plymouth Church the 
 proportion ran the other way. Men sought him because 
 he was strong and helped them, but women and little 
 children no less were attracted by his winning qualities. 
 The church flourished; it grew strong; it multiplied rapidly; 
 its Sunday-school was thronged; it began mission work in 
 the city, and in all practical ways offered prompt evidence 
 of the genuine value of the Christian inspiration it received, 
 by giving as bountifully as it had received. Strangers 
 quickly learned to seek it out; and in its proper work as a 
 Christian church, it soon entered upon a vigorous activity. 
 
 Basing his philosophy and his practical methods of 
 
62 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 attracting men to a higher life rather upon the facts of 
 human nature, the teachings of Jesus, and the working 
 methods of the Apostles, than upon the skillfully devised 
 theological systems of the schools (not because he was 
 unfamiliar with the latter, but, because, knowing them so 
 well, he thought them less likely to be useful than the 
 methods of the earlier day) he naturally gained friends 
 faster among the common people who heard him gladly, 
 than he did among the professional members of the priest- 
 hood and conservators of the traditions of the elders. 
 
 And yet, even among those he found many firm and 
 constant friends. The broad foundation on which he 
 stood made him broadly liberal toward all beliefs which 
 accepted Christ and successfully labored to make men 
 Christ-like. Indomitable in the assertion of his own be- 
 liefs, he was no less vigorous in maintaining the rights of 
 others to theirs. One of his most characteristic sermons 
 is entitled "Other Men's 'Consciences." His church re- 
 ceived into its communion members from all the Christian 
 sects, who found there a common ground on which to 
 stand and to work. This commingling of elements gave 
 him a body of men and women knit together by the pro- 
 foundest sympathy in a simple faith and by an ardent 
 love for the man who had released them from the bonds 
 of petty sectarianism, and opened to them the larger lib- 
 erty of Christian manhood. 
 
 Among the most potent influences which Mr. Beecher 
 immediately developed in his new and peculiar church- 
 membership, was the social element. The strength of 
 associated hearts and wills and minds upon a common 
 object, the play of mutual sympathy, the possibility of 
 consentaneous purpose, was an element of human nature 
 upon which he counted much and with which he accom- 
 plished much. With the profoundest belief in the imma- 
 nence of God throughout all nature, including the spirit of 
 man, — indeed, in the direct influence of the Spirit of God 
 upon the souls of men, he was yet a sturdy believer in the 
 necessity of bringing about all effects through natural 
 causes. 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 6^ 
 
 " The gifts of the Divine Spirit," he says, " are not exceptional, 
 or capricious, without rule, without definite purpose ; but they 
 are to be just as detinitely expected as the results which the far- 
 mer seeks when he sows his seed. ... In regard to the whole 
 department of spiritual experiences, I say they are in analogy 
 with mental experiences ; not that they are on the same level, but 
 that the administration of God over the human soul is in analogy 
 with his administration over the lower or physical elements in 
 man, and the intermediate emotions of the social and the intel- 
 lectual processes. Spiritual developments are, all of them, under 
 law, administered by law, as much as any other part of nature, 
 and to be studied therefore as we study every other part of human 
 life. And in regard to the moral elements, all the graces of the 
 Spirit, and all the fruits of the Spirit are to be developed by edu- 
 cation just as much as any other part of the mind. . . . That 
 we perfect man's physical and intellectual nature by education, 
 every one knows. . . . but when we come to religion, men fiy 
 the track. They seem to think, 'Here is vagueness; here is a 
 realm too sacred to suppose that law operates in it.' And it is 
 just there that I say, in respect emphatically to revivals of re- 
 ligion, that they are conformable to law, and that that conform- 
 ableness to law lies in the foundation of knowledge and educa- 
 tion, in the production of emotion, and in the production and 
 conduct of all spiritual processes. . . . It is such statements 
 that many feel to be an upheaval of the foundations and a de- 
 parture from the faith of the fathers. ' Does not such a view as 
 this confound Nature and Grace ? Is it not bringing all gracious 
 operations down to the level of nature ? ' What is nature, then ? 
 . . . Everything that God ever organized into being or main- 
 tained is nature. . . . Wherever, along the lines of space, the 
 word of God has thrilled and something has happened, there is nat- 
 ure ; and nothing is or can be, that does not circle into that. To 
 reduce things ' to the level of nature,' then, is to reduce them to the 
 level of God, — which ought not to be a very great degradation !" 
 
 In this very same lecture, in vv^hich Mr. Beecher w^as in- 
 sisting upon the necessity of using proper means for the 
 bringing about of spiritual, as well as physical, intellect- 
 ual, and moral effects, he was asked by one of the stu- 
 dents: — 
 
 " Would it not be consistent with your view to hold that 
 prayer is more essential to the production of a revival than it is 
 essential to the product of effects in farming ? " 
 
64 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 Answer: — 
 
 " Certainly. That is to say, prayer is more nearly related to 
 the result you want to produce. Guano is better for farming 
 than prayer, but prayer is the guano of spiritual life. Pray 
 always. The praying always means that the thought, the feeling, 
 the taste, the sense of pleasure, the social gladness, all the while 
 effervesce, so that they take the upward tendency, they report 
 themselves continually through the higher feelings towards God ; 
 and that I suppose to be prayer, — communion, God with us." 
 
 With these rather uncommonly sensible views, which on 
 the one hand may be called scientific, but which on the 
 other hand were inspired by the profoundest trust in God's 
 fatherly interest, and in the uniformity of the operations 
 of the Divine Power so that its laws are discoverable, Mr. 
 Beecher made much of the prayer-meetings. 
 
 The sense of God's fatherhood and of the naturalness of 
 approach to him, was most characteristic of his entire life 
 and work. 
 
 And this same atmosphere of the naturalness of tlie spirit- 
 ual life permeated and enveloped his every activity in 
 private and in public. It was what made his prayer- 
 meetings unique in all Christendom. The simple, hearty, 
 effective singing of the throng of seven or eight hundred 
 people, led compactly and yet sympathetically by a piano 
 played with a clear, firm touch; the informal, cordial, 
 friendly, joyous way in which he taught his people to come 
 into these meetings — at once the cause and the effect of 
 the sense of fellowship; the singularly intelligible, natural, 
 effective way in which Mr. Beecher always read the Bible — 
 utterly avoiding the professional "holy tone" but develop- 
 ing the spirit and meaning of the passage (whether simply 
 narrative, or dramatic, or devotional, or instructive, or 
 hortative) precisely as he would have done a passage from 
 any other book, led people into an interest before they 
 knew it. Then, the frank, familiar style in which he would 
 state the generic truth to be found in the Scriptural pas- 
 sage, — sitting meanwhile pleasantly in his chair, as rather 
 in social converse than in formal discourse, — bringing the 
 generic into the specific and multitudinous with ready 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 65 
 
 illustration; the way in which he developed the gifts of 
 the different members by calling them out on some per- 
 sonal point of explanation, or making rapid and familiar 
 interplay of question and answer; the patience and tact he 
 showed with the inevitable bores; the variety he managed 
 to infuse from week to week, — all these things made his 
 prayer-meeting a power in the church itself, and a con- 
 stant attraction to outsiders. 
 
 In getting at the influences brought to bear upon Ply- 
 mouth Church, which made it what it was, it is necessary 
 to mention the frequent revivals of religion which took 
 place during the early years. Mr. Beecher's philosophy of 
 these occasional impulses, as already stated, was that they 
 were dependent upon regular laws, and yet that there are 
 favoring circumstances which determine times and seasons. 
 All methods are not alike wise, neither are all seasons alike 
 propitious. 
 
 "Among hundreds of revivals," he says, " I have known only 
 one that occurred in the midst of harvest ; because men cannot 
 spare the time from the harvest field. . , . Business has 
 much to do with times and seasons. For instance, sometimes 
 men are hot with speculation, and the whole air is full of it. 
 That is not a favorable time for any processes leading toward this 
 production of common moral feeling. ... As you adapt all 
 the economies of industry to the varying seasons, so you are to 
 adapt your moral culture of men to those peculiarities of God's 
 providence, which, with a little care and observation, every one 
 may discern. . . . It is not every man that plows well and 
 sows well, who gets his harvest; but still, that is the average 
 course of things, and the probability is such as to encourage 
 everybody." 
 
 And again: — 
 
 " We have occasion to bless God for these outpourings of the 
 Spirit, that come as the wind comes, we know not always whence, 
 and that go as the wind goes, we know not always whither, but 
 which, like the wind in the mariner's sail, may be so studied and 
 so used that there shall be over it a substantial control." 
 
 Mr. Beecher entered with zeal upon all these modes of 
 fertilizing his church, of calling into action its latent forces, 
 and of utilizing the forces so developed not only for the 
 
66 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 purpose of enlarging the numerical strength of the new 
 organization, but also of making it active in work, of mak- 
 ing it felt as a force for good in the community at large. 
 His wisely directed power was astonishingly successful in 
 effects. 
 
 Between 1S47 and 1856 was a period when men's minds 
 were seething and fermenting. The excitement ran largely 
 along the lines of temperance agitation, and the growth of 
 the anti-slavery sentiment as a moral political force. 
 
 None felt more profoundly than he the working of that 
 reform-leaven. He knew intuitively that he was set at a 
 focal point. Finding himself in the midst of the intensest 
 commercial activities of the country, being essentially a 
 part of New York, although not within its civic boundaries; 
 seeing that the throngs who came week after week to his Sun- 
 day preachings, and Wednesday evening lectures, and Fri- 
 day evening prayer-meetings, Avere very largely composed 
 of active business men, a great proportion of whom were 
 between twenty-five and forty years of age, and recognizing 
 that as his church grew and consolidated it was made up 
 of much of this same element, he seems to have laid out 
 for himself then the general course that he consistently 
 pursued to the end. Not that he was gifted with preter- 
 natural foresight of what the years were to bring forth, 
 but that he had the sensitive temperament which brings 
 subtle knowledge of atmospheric disturbance. And in this 
 case it was a disturbance which aroused his whole nature 
 to preparations for the coming storm. In every aspect of 
 the reform questions of the day, which on all sides were 
 dividing men's sympathies and opinions, splitting organ- 
 izations, overturning established forms, he saw not so much 
 the superficial effects, as the underlying causes. To him, 
 political parties, Bible and Tract Societies, Missionary 
 Boards, Christian sects and churches, were always means 
 and not ends. Just as he turned away in disgust from 
 theological quarrels which in the name of God and things 
 holy he had frequently seen to degenerate into the most 
 scandalous personal enmities, so too, he looked at all the 
 organized instrumentalities of moral and religious instruc- 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 67 
 
 tion among men, valuing them not for what they were called, 
 but for what they could do, and turned away from them as 
 valueless when they became the subjects of violent contro- 
 versy and bitter dissension instead of being instruments 
 for good. He judged men and institutions according to 
 that simple but searching test glVen by Jesus, "By their 
 fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 "When they said to me, 'You are not orthodox,' I replied, 
 'Very well, be it so; I am out on other business: I understand 
 that call that has been sounding down through two thousand 
 years, and I will obey it: Follow me and I will make you fishers 
 of men.' 
 
 "What about 'original sin'.^ There has been so much actual 
 transgression that I have not had time to go back on to that." 
 
 It was thus his practical manner of applying broad gen- 
 eric principles to every present condition of human life 
 that made his genius effective. 
 
 And the first thing that he did to prepare for the great 
 conrtict that had already begun and that was more and 
 more extending itself amid the various organizations of 
 the country, was to collect and to inspire with enthusiasm 
 for the fatherly God and the brotherly Saviour and the 
 needy human brotherhood, a body of men and women 
 who became a great center of power along those essential 
 practical lines. And as in regard to all other organiza- 
 tions, so in regard to Plymouth Church: while it was the 
 thing he loved best, yet it was always with him but a 
 means to the one great aim of his life. He did ^ot set 
 himself to the purpose of making a "prominent church," 
 but, recognizing the great opportunity for effective work, 
 he leaped eagerly into the field and gathered his forces 
 together. 
 
 There can be little doubt that his main and indeed only 
 thought in all his wise and earnest labors in Plymouth 
 Church in those early days, was his strong desire to "catch 
 men," yet every fiber of his being was a-tingle with the 
 electric conditions of the time. He says: — * 
 
 *Address before the London Congregational Board, Sept. 28, 1886; from 
 "A Summer in England with H. W. Beecher " (1887). 
 
68 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 " I came insensibly into connection with public questions ; I was 
 sucked into the political controversies and the moral reformations 
 of the age; and, just at that time, that question was coming up 
 which involved every principle of rectitude, of morality, of hu- 
 manity, and of religion. My father was too old; the controversy 
 came on when he was failing; he was cautious in his way; he was 
 afraid that his son Henry would get himself into difficulties. But 
 I took no counsel with man. When I came to Brooklyn, some 
 dear men who are now at rest said, with the best intention, ' You 
 have a blessed chance, and you can come to very good influence 
 if you do not throw yourself away;' and then warned me not to 
 preach on slavery and on some other topics which at that time 
 were up in the public mind. I do not know what it is in me — 
 whether it is my father or my mother or both of them — but the 
 moment you tell me that a thing that should be done is unpop- 
 ular, I am right there, every time. I fed on the privilege of mak- 
 ing men hear things, because I was a public speaker. I glorified 
 in my gifts, not because they brought praise, for they brought the 
 other thing continually; but men would come, and would hear, 
 and I rejoiced in it. . . . Jesus knows that for his sake I 
 smote with the sword and with the spear, not because I loved 
 controversy, but because I loved truth and humanity; and be- 
 cause I saw weak men flinch, and because I saw base men truckle 
 and bargain, and because I saw that the cause of Christ was likely 
 to suffer: and I will fight to the end." 
 
 It udll not be expected that this sketch can enter upon 
 the details of Mr. Beecher's active life. His teachings were 
 vital, and as he laid more stress upon the Christian art of 
 right living than the theologic science of right dying, they 
 penetrated with power into many a circle, and aroused 
 torpidity to life. The elderly were startled and shocked; 
 the young were electrified and stimulated; the mercantile 
 community were stirred with both interest and anger at 
 his bold expositions of commercial temptation and dis- 
 honest practice; respectable politicians were angered to 
 find themselves openly coupled with those whom they 
 despised but with whom they were yoked in practical 
 politics. 
 
 Gifted with all his father's quick insight and genial 
 humor and forceful aptitude in exposition, but freed from 
 the theological partisanship which had been at once the 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 69 
 
 Strength and the limitation of the elder man's career, Mr. 
 Beecher had a fresh and original way of putting things, 
 even when the underlying thought was a familiar one, 
 which instantly arrested the attention of hearers or readers; 
 for he very soon began to write as well as to speak to the 
 public. It is not at all improbable that his singular lack 
 of verbal memory, making it impossible down to the end 
 of his life for him to quote anything except the briefest 
 and most familiar passages of the Bible (and hardly those 
 with accuracy) made many of his statements seem ques- 
 tionable simply because they were not arrayed in the 
 phraseology to which the orthodox religious minds were 
 accustomed. Looking at matters from the natural and 
 reasonable, rather than from the ecclesiastical and theolog- 
 ical side, he constantly availed himself of such truth as he 
 thought he found in the old doctrines without putting 
 them into the old language, and many earnest and excellent 
 men and women who were drawn into his church and felt 
 the stimulating power of his preaching, were yet in their 
 hearts troubled, because they missed the old familiar and 
 hackneyed phrases. 
 
 One of his earliest Brooklyn friends one day asked him: 
 "Mr. Beecher, ^(? you believe in the divinity of Christ?" 
 With surprise he answered, "I know no other God." "Do 
 you believe in the influence of the Holy Spirit?" "I be- 
 lieve," said he, "in the direct impact of God upon the 
 human heart. Is it possible that you do not yet know a 
 doctrine without its old-fashioned label tied to it?" 
 
 Such misunderstandings in his very flock make it less to 
 be wondered at that his fellow-clergymen, who were soaked 
 and steeped in theologic terms, often failed to catch the 
 inner meaning of his talk because they missed the ancient 
 shibboleth. Moreover, it was not long before those keen- 
 sighted purveyors for the public taste and need — the 
 journalists — lit upon the fact that the people were inter- 
 ested in Beecher, and they began to report him in the daily 
 press. His own statement of the general result of this, as 
 made in his address before the New York and Brooklyn 
 Association of ministers and churches, in October, 1884, 
 
yo HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 while based upon the experience of many years, is yet an 
 apt putting of the case as it was from the first: — 
 
 "You must bear in mind that great as is their usefulness — and 
 I bear willing testimony to the great usefulness of the ubiquitous 
 body of reporters — they are not all apostolic in theology, they are 
 not Platos in philosophy, they are not all the most eminent dis- 
 ciples of the school of metaphysics, and they are set to do that 
 which not one man of genius even in ten thousand can do — the 
 rarest thing in the world — to put a discourse of one whole hour 
 into a reading-space of five minutes. To do that is one of the 
 supremest works of intellectual genius. But they are sent to the 
 churches as well as to other meetings, and are expected to make 
 a report that folks will read ; so they catch here and they catch 
 there shining passages, grotesque ones, or some that raise a little 
 laughter. They go over to the office and the night editor says: 
 ' I want a quarter of a column of Beecher.' ' Well, but I have got 
 a whole column.' 'Cut it down, cut it down.' And they cut it 
 here and they cut it there, and keep in things that they think will 
 attract attention, — and that is the report of my ser.mon ! Well, I 
 do not blame them ; but I tell you what I do blame. I blame the 
 want of honor in ministers and editors who live within an hour's 
 walk or an hour's postage of my house, and who could write to 
 me and say, ' I see in the papers this morning such and such 
 things are reported as having been said by you. I wish to know 
 whether that is a correct representation of your views.' Not they ! 
 They sit down and write a long critique and send it to the Con- 
 gregationalist or the Advance or somewhere else, based on my 
 'views.' If it is worth my while, and I turn around and sa3^ ' I 
 was misrepresented; I didn't say so;' they will cry, 'Oh, he is 
 backing down as usual!' So then, for more than twenty-five 
 years, there is not a man on the globe that has been reported so 
 much as I have been — in my private meetings, in my street con- 
 versations, on the platforms of public meetings, and steadily in 
 the pulpit; a great many times admirably, many times less ad- 
 mirably, and sometimes abominably. This has been going on 
 week after week, and year after year. Do you suppose I could 
 follow up all misstatements and rectify them? ... A man 
 might run around like a kitten after its tail, all his life, if he were 
 going around explaining all reports of his expressions and all the 
 things he had written. Let them go. They will correct them- 
 selves. The average and general influence of a man's teaching 
 will be more mighty than any single misconception, or misappre- 
 hension through misconception." 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 71 
 
 Thus it was that while he was constantly misappre- 
 hended, both in speech, in sentiment, and in general effect, 
 by means of these fragmentary reportings of tongue and 
 pen, nevertheless his influence constantly enlarged among 
 those who had the opportunity or the sense to apprehend 
 his meaning and follow the general trend of his teaching. 
 
 Many attempted analyses of Mr. Beecher's powers as 
 orator and preacher have been made. Perhaps the best 
 was that made by Rev. Dr. Richard S. Storrs in his Ad- 
 dress at the twenty-fifth anniversary celebration (" Silver 
 Wedding") of Plymouth Church, in 1872. The following 
 selected passages (italics being ours) give somewhat of 
 his ideas: — 
 
 " The sources of that power in him, in which, during the last 
 twenty-five years, you have been all the while rejoicing, are very 
 deep and manifold. It used to amuse and provoke me, years ago, 
 when men would speak as if his strength lay in some one thing; 
 in his voice, perhaps, or in his gesture, or his power of illustra- 
 tion, or something else. Some single element, it was now and 
 then thought, was the hair of this Samson, in which his strength 
 resided; and if he were shorn of that he would become like other 
 men. Nonsense! You know, as well as I do, that his power 
 comes from many sources. It is like a rushing, royal river, which 
 has its birthplace in a thousand springs. It is like a magnificent 
 oak, which has its grand uplift of trunk and stem, and its vast 
 sweep of branches, by reason of the multitudinous roots which 
 strike down deep, and spread through the soil in every direction. 
 These supply the mighty timbers of the battle-ship and the build- 
 ing! 
 
 " Now, if I were to go, as I shall not, into a thorough analysis 
 of his power as a preacher, I should occupy your time for a great 
 while; but there are certain elements of that power which are 
 familiar to you, and which redound, not to his praise or yours, 
 but to the praise of Him who made him what he is, and sent 
 him thither. 
 
 " First among these elements, I should put a thoroughly vital- 
 ized mind ; a mind so vitalized that its very process becomes as 
 vital as himself ; so that there is no reproduction of past proc- 
 esses; no memorizing of what has previously been in the mind. 
 His creative faculties are in play all the time. . . . 
 
 " I think I should put SQCond, i/n/ne/ise common sense ; a won- 
 derfully self-rectifying judgment, which gives sobriety and sound- 
 
72 HENRY WARD BEE CHER. 
 
 ness to all his main processes of thought. I don't know but I 
 have been more impressed by that in Mr. Beecher than by any 
 other one element of strength in him. A man who has not com- 
 mon sense, this sound, self-rectifying judgment, on which the 
 machinery of his mind is to work, flashes out very soon. . . . 
 
 " I should put next to this, I think, his quick and deep sympa- 
 thy with men ; his wonderful intuitive perception of moods of 
 mind, which makes these stand out before him like a procession 
 passing in the street. You say, 'This is genius.' Of course it is; 
 but it is the genius, you observe, not of the dramatist nor of the 
 poet; it is the genius of the great Preacher, who catches his sug- 
 gestion, his inspirations even, from the eyes or the faces, shining 
 or tearful, of the people before him. 
 
 " Then, still further, comes that mental sensibility, that emo- 
 tional responsiveness, which has made him apt and ready for 
 every occasion, that responsiveness which is called for in every 
 minister, but which has been called upon in him more than any 
 other man, perhaps, in the whole American pulpit, during the 
 last twenty-five years. He has never been found wanting in read- 
 iness for the occasion, no matter what the subject may have been, 
 or what the scene. His mind has been full of vigor, and has 
 kindled spontaneously, by collision with persons, or with themes, 
 or with circumstances, whenever the occasion has been pre- 
 sented. 
 
 "This intimate and immediate responsiveness to, and sympathy 
 with, subjects and occasions, is an immense gift — charming not 
 only, but always fertilizing, and alwa3^s refreshing. 
 
 " Then put beyond that (for certainly it properly goes beyond 
 and farther off) his wonderful ani)nal vigor, his fullness of bodily 
 power; his voice, which can thunder and whisper alike; his sym- 
 pathy with Nature, which is so intimate and confidential that she 
 tells him all her secrets, and supplies him with continual images ; 
 and, above all, put as the crown upon the whole that enthusiasm 
 for Christ to which he has himself referred this evening, and 
 which has certainly been the animating power in his ministry — 
 the impression upon his soul that he, having seen the glory of 
 the Son of God, has been set here to reflect that glory upon 
 others; to inspire their minds with it; to touch their hearts with 
 it; to kindle their souls with it, and so to prepare them for the 
 heavenly realm — put all these together, and you have some of the 
 elements of power in this great Preacher— not all of them, but 
 some, snatched hurriedly from the great treasure-house. There 
 you have a few, at any rate, of the traits and forces of him whose 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 73 
 
 power has chained you, and quickened and blessed you, during 
 all these years." 
 
 The abounding physical vigor of the man, his sunny 
 good nature, the loving spirit with which he regarded his 
 God and every work of his Father's hands down through 
 all sorts and conditions of men, and animals, and plants, 
 to the face of inanimate nature; his quick sense of humor, 
 of the incongruities not only, but of the aptitudes of life; 
 and the fresh impulse by which his mouth uttered the 
 abundance of the heart, all these elements were a part of 
 his power; but also offered one of the most frequent objec- 
 tions made to him. Very frequently the ripple of a laugh 
 would run over the face of the congregation, and when 
 after the service the new-come listener, shocked to find 
 that he had laughed in church, stopped to analyze the 
 matter, he found that it was not mere fun or a joke at 
 which he had laughed, but that he had been startled by 
 some unlooked-for, unaccustomed simile, and that it was 
 quite as much the novelty of the idea and the surprising 
 deftness of the illustration which had provoked his risibles 
 as any sense of jocosity. Still, while this was the frequent 
 case, there was indeed no lack of humor in itself — though 
 never for itself, in public ministrations. He says: — 
 
 " To preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, to have Christ so melted 
 and dissolved in you that when you preach yourself you preach 
 Him, as Paul did, to have every part of you living and luminous 
 with Christ, and thus to make use of everything that is in you, 
 your analogical reasoning, your logical reasoning, your imagina- 
 tion, your mirthfulness, your humor, your indignation, your wrath, 
 to take everything that is in you, all steeped in Jesus Christ, and 
 to throw yourself with all your power upon the congregation — 
 that has been my theory of preaching the gospel. A good many 
 folks have laughed at the idea of my being a fit preacher because 
 I laughed, and because I made somebody else laugh. I never 
 went out of my way to do it in my life; but, if some sudden turn 
 of a sentence, like the crack of a whip, sets men off, I do not think 
 worse of it for that — not a bit ! I have felt that man should con- 
 secrate every gift that he has got in him that has any relation to 
 the persuasion of men and to the melting of men — that he should 
 put them all on the altar, kindle them all, and let them burn for 
 Christ's sake." 
 
74 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 There is another point in this regard that may as well 
 be mentioned here. That is, that his humorous passages, 
 although perfectly natural and frequently unconscious, 
 were quite as often the result of intuition and intention. 
 In his " Yale Lectures," in answer to the question of one 
 of the students as to whether it was a proper thing to make 
 an audience laugli by an illustration, he replied: — 
 
 " Never turn aside from a laugh any more than you would from 
 a cry. Go ahead on your Master's business and do it well. And 
 remember this, that every faculty in you was placed there by the 
 dear Lord for his service's sake. Never try to raise a laugh for 
 the laugh's sake, or to make men merry as a piece of sensation- 
 alism, when you are preaching on solemn things; that is allow- 
 able on a picnic, but not in the pulpit, where you are preaching 
 of God and of man's destiny. But if a laugh comes up naturally 
 do not stifle it. Strike that chord; and particularly if yow want 
 to make an audience weep. If I can make them laugh, I do not 
 thank anybody for the next move; I will make them cry. Did 
 you ever see a woman carrying a pan of milk quite full, and it 
 slops over on one side, that it did not immediately slop over on 
 the other also ? 
 
 "If you quote stale jokes; if you make queer turns because 
 they will make people laugh, and to show that you have power 
 over the congregation, you will prove yourselves contemptible 
 fellows. But if, when you are arguing any question, the thing 
 comes upon you so that you see a point in a ludicrous light, 3^ou 
 can sometimes flash it at your audience, and accomplish at a 
 stroke what you are seeking to do by a long turn of argument; 
 and that is entirely allowable. In such a case do not attempt to 
 suppress laughter; it is a part of the nature God gave us, and 
 which we can use in his service. When you are fighting the 
 devil, shoot him with anything." 
 
 True to his instinct of keeping his sympathies alive to- 
 ward the people and entering into the life-conditions of 
 men whom he was trying to influence, he habituated him- 
 self to study men and seek them out. Saturday especially 
 he always made a play-day in preparation for Sunday. A 
 day of genial, pleasurable, social exhilaration, a day of 
 seeing agreeable things, of looking at pictures, of standing 
 on the street and watching the people and teams go by (he 
 was very fond of horses), of crossing the ferry and going 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 75 
 
 up into the pilot-house, where he was on friendly and famil- 
 iar terms with all the pilots, of going along the docks and 
 on to the ships, into ship-yards, into foundries and loco- 
 motive works. He liked to go to Tiffany's, where he would 
 ask, ' What are the men doing to-day ? ' And so, with some 
 member of the house he would go down to the ateliers and 
 watch the workmen silver-plating and engraving, and learn 
 to understand what they were doing, and why, and not 
 only that, but to get a sympathetic insight into their feel- 
 ings and ideas. Thus he constantly fed his heart with the 
 sympathies of humanity, refreshed his blood and nerves 
 and brain, and stored his mind with a great amount of 
 curious and interesting knowledge, which reappeared in 
 figures and illustrations and apt arguments. 
 
 In regard to his gathering of knowledge, which he was 
 diligently doing by incessant study of books and men, he 
 never did it in the formal and methodical way of having 
 each subject done up by itself, labeled and docketed and 
 filed away in its own pigeon-hole, but his broad mind re- 
 ceived facts and ideas much as the soil receives the seed, 
 and showers, and sunshine. They disappeared and became 
 a part of himself, to reappear in newer forms of vital 
 strength and beauty. 
 
 He was, and to the end of his life continued to be, a 
 great reader. He made close study of the constitutional 
 history of the United States, and was diligent in mastering 
 the ideas of great rulers. He found when he came to the 
 East great stores of intellectual and artistic wealth, which 
 opened to him new worlds. His pecuniary means were 
 already enlarged. He received at first fifteen hundred 
 dollars per annum, which was a large advance upon the 
 four hundred, and six hundred, of his Western pastorates, 
 and which, as the Plymouth society grew in wealth and 
 strength, was properly enlarged from time to time. He 
 made it a point to follow up in literature, as well as in 
 practical research, every topic that especially interested 
 him. Sometimes it was the general history of art, or the 
 special development of architecture, of painting, of sculpt- 
 ure, of engraving, of etching; and his library showed illus- 
 
76 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 trations of all those splendid lines of thought and achieve- 
 ment: and it was not upon his book-shelves and walls alone 
 but in himself that could be found unusual stores of knowl- 
 edge. Music and organ-building; soap and cosmetics; 
 pottery and porcelains; large additions to his already ex- 
 tensive knowledge of flowers, trees, and methods of culti- 
 vation; general literature, history, theology, metaphysics, 
 natural science, and especially the whole line of philosophic 
 literature which tends towards the co-ordination of these 
 great departments; physiology, anatomy, and medicine, — ■ 
 and in short a large array of books upon topics of interest 
 to all humanity, and therefore not foreign to him, bore wit- 
 ness to the incessant labor with which he stored his grow^- 
 ing mind. 
 
 These things of course began by slow degrees and en- 
 larged and accumulated more and more rapidly as the 
 years increased his pecuniary means and his power of 
 assimilating the mental stores thus gathered. But the 
 point here is to show his method, and to emphasize the 
 idea which he has in many places laid stress upon, that 
 genius is but the power of combustion, and needs fuel if it 
 is to produce light and heat. 
 
 There is always a temptation, in considering events 
 which have successively issued along a course of years, 
 to read the beginnings in the light of later developments. 
 From one point of view this is of course natural and nec- 
 essary, for we can better understand the bearings of early 
 matters when we have their consequences before us. For 
 our present purpose, however, we do not need to impute 
 undue wisdom to the mind of this young reformer, in 
 the idea that he foresaw all the wonderful crisis of his 
 first twenty-five years in Plymouth Church, but it is essen- 
 tial, as we believe, to a comprehension of his modes of 
 action and the resulting influence which he exerted, that 
 we insist from the first upon his disinterested, loyal, 
 ardent devotion to God as a poiver manifest in unselfish love 
 rather than in autocratic force; and the consistent applica- 
 tion of that belief as a guiding principle in all the affairs 
 of life. Out of this grew his intense devotion to the inter- 
 
PLYMOUTH CHURCH: PERSONAL TRAITS. 77 
 
 ests of man as God's child; his insistence upon the constant 
 need of the elevating influences of unselfishness as personi- 
 fied in Christ and the constant importance of infusing this 
 spirit into human institutions of every character, — the fam- 
 ily, the church, society,the city, the state, — all the outgrowths 
 of man's organic social tendency. If his life be followed by 
 the indications of this cardinal principle, it will be seen to 
 have been nobly persistent and earnestly steady. All 
 those variations which men have been accustomed to call 
 "inconsistency," "errors of judgment," "the great mis- 
 take of his life " (of which he committed a great many, 
 each one being "the greatest" according to the point of 
 view of the specific interests — personal, ecclesiastical, or 
 political — which he at the time opposed) will be seen to 
 have been impulses along the general line which he had 
 laid down for himself from the first, and by the inspira- 
 tion of which he builded the foundations and the super- 
 structure of Plymouth Church, that strong fortress of 
 human hearts, in which he abode and from which his 
 power went forth during forty years. 
 
78 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 V. 
 
 POLITICAL CAREER. 
 
 The portion of Mr. Beecher's work covered by this vol- 
 ume grew directly out of his nature, training, convictions, 
 and the enlargement of his powers as set forth in the fore- 
 going chapters. It includes many of his appeals to the 
 public intelligence and conscience with reference to slavery, 
 freedom, war, and the general development of civil liberty 
 in the United States. The simplest way of getting at the 
 relations and the influence of these appeals will be to 
 make a brief running account of the public affairs of the 
 time, noting especially the points accented by the addresses 
 selected for reprinting. 
 
 The time covered by these addresses has been divided 
 into three periods: I. Freedom and Slavery, 1847-1861; 
 IL Civil War, 1861-1S65; III. Civil Liberty, 1865-1885;— 
 thirty-eight years in all. 
 
 The pivot upon which the history of the L'^nited States 
 turned during the entire fifty years of Mr. Beecher's public 
 work, was unquestionably American Slavery, with its con- 
 sequences. While his relations to it were the most notice- 
 able feature of his own life, the subject itself is of course 
 too large to be entered upon here except roughly; but the 
 facts that in it was the storm-center of all those tumultu- 
 ous times, and that — while thousands of other patriotic 
 and sensible Christian men, as well as pious Christian 
 ministers, were not able to see the dangers of it — this man's 
 love for the Father-God, and his esteem and sympathy 
 for his brother-man, were outraged by the existence and 
 still more by the attempted extension of that great evil, 
 give the key-note which must be accepted in order to re- 
 solve his whole life into harmony. 
 
 He conceived it to be his duty, not only, but his neces- 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 79 
 
 sity, to think, to speak, to instruct in all the higher views of 
 their daily duty the people who were following him; their 
 duty not only towards God but also towards their fellow- 
 men, — whether in the family, or more broadly in society, 
 or in the close interplay of commercial activities, or in 
 the still higher organic relations of the city and of the 
 state and of the country at large. And thus it was that, 
 whatever line of private or public duty made demands 
 upon individuals, the moral and spiritual side of it found 
 Henry Ward Beecher promptly at work, endeavoring to 
 throw light upon the practical path of right doing. 
 
 In a sermon entitled " The Sphere of the Christian 
 Minister" (January 24, 1869) occurs the following pas- 
 sage: — 
 
 " There is a popular impression — and it seems to men like a 
 philosophical truism — that every man understands his own busi- 
 ness best ; that he need not be meddled with, at least till he asks 
 advice ; and that even then no one can counsel him so wisely as 
 one of the same craft. Complaint is often made on that ground, 
 of ministers, that they meddle with things that they do not un- 
 derstand. I think they do, too, when they preach theology.' 
 There is an amazing deal of ' wisdom ' that will be called ' rubbish ' 
 one of these days. But when ministers meddle with practical 
 life, with ethical questions and relations, they are meddling with 
 just what they do understand, — or ought to. If they do not under- 
 stand these things, they have failed to prepare themselves for one 
 of the most important functions to which they could address 
 themselves, as ministers. . . . 
 
 " There is nothing, however, more untrue than that every man 
 understands his own business best, if by that you mean that he 
 understands it in its largest relations — in its results upon the 
 general welfare ; and more particularly if you mean that he under- 
 stands his owm business best in its moral influence upon himself, 
 upon his fellows, and upon society. Usually, none understand 
 the moral bearing of a business so little as the men who are em- 
 barked in it. . . . The baker knows more about kneading 
 dough, about the time it should require to rise, and about how 
 long it should be in baking; but when it is done, and I take the 
 loaf and eat it, then I am as good a judge of bread as he is. And 
 so it is with various kinds of business. They bring out results 
 here and there, and the community is made to take the benefit 
 or damage, as the case may be. And moral teachers who stand 
 
8o HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 and look on — who have discrimination, large reflection, clear in- 
 tuition, and who, above all, judge from a moral stand-point— 
 such men are competent to be critics of everything that there is 
 in human society. . . . The moment a man so conducts his 
 profession that it touches the question of right and wrong, he 
 comes into my sphere. There I stand ; and I put God's measure, 
 the golden reed of the sanctuary, on him and his course; and I 
 am his master, if I be a true seer and a true moral teacher; and I 
 am not meddling. He has brought his business up to me the 
 moment when it comes into the sphere of right and wrong. . . 
 
 "A man may preach politics too much. A man may do it fool- 
 ishly. So a man may administer a bank foolishly, manufacture 
 foolishly, or carry on any other business foolishly; but that is no 
 reason why a bank should not be established, why a man may 
 not engage in manufacturing, or why business of any sort should 
 not be carried on. A minister may not be discreet in preaching 
 upon secular topics, but that is no reason why they should not 
 be preached upon. There have been indiscreet ministers from 
 the days of the apostles, and it would be strange if in the future 
 there should not be found here and there one that is not discreet. 
 But the duty of introducing such topics is now generally ac- 
 knowledged. I think that question is settled, for your life and 
 mine at least." 
 
 So it is; and it was settled very largely by the courage 
 and persistence, the intense moral earnestness, and the 
 large conservative wisdom of Henry Ward Beecher. Who- 
 ever will read the contents of this volume — which offers 
 examples of his newspaper writing, discourses in Plymouth 
 pulpit, political speeches pure and simple, and popular ad- 
 dresses on themes of general interest — will be struck, 
 from the point of view of the present time, with the 
 breadth and steadiness of his position in the earlier days 
 of excitement. His arguments are based on the law and 
 the constitution of the land as well as those of humanity, 
 and it is surprising to note his steadfast course, not only 
 amid the turmoil about him but also under the pressure 
 of his own interior impulsive forces. The strength of his 
 position and the wholesomeness of his advice — tempora- 
 rily enforced by his eloquence but generally justified by 
 events — went far to make his theory of the clergyman's 
 business practicable. 
 
POLiriCAL CAREER. 8 1 
 
 Division I. — Freedom and Slavery. 
 
 Just at the time when young Beecher came to Brook- 
 lyn (the autumn of 1847) the question of slavery had 
 again arisen for discussion in Congress and throughout 
 the country. The Mexican war, following on the heels of 
 the annexation of Texas in the interests of the extension 
 of slavery into new and unexhausted territory, had just 
 closed, although peace was not formally declared until 
 July 4, 1848. Florida, Iowa, and Wisconsin were shortly 
 afterward admitted as States; Texas also; gold was dis- 
 covered in California; and the admission of California 
 as a State was complicated with the attempted extension 
 of slavery into that territory as well as into Utah and New 
 Mexico. The " Free-soil Party " was organized among the 
 people in 1848, under the lead of ex-President Martin 
 Van Buren; the "Wilmot Proviso" in Congress, excluding 
 slavery from the new territories, was opposed by Mr. Cal- 
 houn's resolution limiting the right of Congress to inter- 
 fere; agitation grew hotter and hotter. Webster and Cal- 
 houn in the Senate only typified the growing excitement 
 throughout the country; for the seeds planted years before 
 by Giddings and Garrison and other heroes of conscience, 
 and wet with the tears and bloody sweat of social martyr- 
 dom, were slowly bearing their fruit, and from year to year 
 extending their harvests in the Northern soil. But the time 
 of triumph was a weary way off, — not yet to be descried 
 even by the eye of faith; nay, the fight seems to have been 
 carried on almost without hope, sustained only by a sturdy 
 love for God and mankind. 
 
 The late Senator H. S. Foote of Mississippi, in his "War 
 of the Rebellion, or Scylla and Charybdis,"* undertakes 
 to show that the " irrepressible conflict " between freedom 
 and slavery " could not have arisen but for the most un- 
 skillful and blundering management of the men in power — 
 the incessant agitation of sectional factionists, both in the 
 North and in the South, and the unwise disregard of that 
 august spirit of conciliation and compromise in which our 
 
 * New York : Harper & Brothers, 1866. 
 
82 HEXRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 complex frame of government is known to have had its 
 origin." But he miscalculates what were the necessities 
 of slavery for more territory to grow in, and ignores the 
 deep hold which the spirit of freedom, in spite of political 
 and commercial interests, had upon the Northern people. 
 Far clearer-eyed were the anti-slavery men of the North, 
 on the one hand, and on the other men like Senator John 
 C. Calhoun of South Carolina, who was doubtless what Mr. 
 Foote describes him — " one of the most intellectual and 
 pure-minded men that have ever lived," and who held 
 the view that the free States and the slave States could not 
 continue to live together harmoniously, but the latter 
 would soon find it necessary to resort to separation. 
 
 "Early in the eventful year of 1850," says Mr. Foote, " he 
 [Calhoun] avowed to me . . . his own painful and firmly 
 riveted conviction on this subject, and declared, in language of 
 extraordinary emphasis, that he regarded a peaceful withdrawal 
 from the Union as altogether practicable, provided its execution 
 should be attempted under the lead of Maryland and Virginia ; 
 making known at the same time that he had already drawn out 
 a Constitution for the new republic which he contemplated, in 
 which the slave-holding principle had been given a predominant 
 influence." 
 
 When, in 1850, after much heated discussion both in 
 Congress and throughout the country, Henry Clay, the 
 author of the Missouri Compromise of 182 1, proposed to 
 consolidate all past compromises involving slavery, — 
 covering the disputed subjects of Texas boundary, Utah 
 and New Mexico territories, California, partial abolition 
 of slavery in the District of Columbia, rendition of fugi- 
 tive slaves, and other matters — into one " Omnibus bill " of 
 thirty-nine sections, the excitement grew more intense than 
 ever. The essential element of the bill was the yielding 
 on the part of the South of the admission of California as 
 a free State, and on the part of the North the fugitive 
 slave clause, which not only allowed Southerners to re- 
 claim escaping slaves but made it the duty of Northern- 
 ers to help them. 
 
 In 1849 the Congregationalists had established in New 
 
^^..^^^:^^^ 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. §3 
 
 York the weekly religious paper called The Independent, 
 having as its editors, Dr. Leonard Bacon, Dr. Richard S. 
 Storrs, Jr., and Dr. Joseph P. Thompson. To this paper 
 Mr. Beecher was asked to contribute; and, as the growing 
 conflict between slavery and freedom was at that time the 
 motive of pretty much all political and much social and 
 commercial activity, it was inevitable that that should be 
 the line of discussion most attractive to him. His utter- 
 ances were so bold and ringing that the editors, highly as 
 they appreciated the value of his contributions, both as 
 moral forces and as journalistic attractions, did not care to 
 be held responsible for them, and so it came about that his 
 articles were usually signed with a star, or large asterisk. 
 
 Many an article on all sorts and conditions of subjects 
 went into these " Star Papers," and made its mark upon 
 the sentiment and opinions of the times ; but the paper 
 which, it may be almost said, made Henry Ward Beecher a 
 national rather than a local force was the one which stands 
 first in the "Addresses" reprinted in this volume, in the 
 division entitled " Freedom and Slavery," an article sin- 
 gling out from Mr. Clay's " Omnibus bill" its vital points, 
 and asking the question, " Shall We Compromise ?" 
 
 The Congressional agitation had been going on for 
 months. The North was profoundly stirred by the con- 
 test, discussing all the ins and outs of the complicated 
 legislative proposal. The Independent had several strong 
 articles on the situation, but when on February 21, 1850, 
 this article appeared, disregarding the artificial complica- 
 tions and setting forth in all plainness the issue — " Slavery 
 is right ; slavery is wrong. Slavery shall live ; slavery 
 shall die. Slavery shall extend; slavery shall not extend" 
 — it struck the key-note towards which succeeding events 
 toned up the North until Fort Sumter brought the great 
 outburst, and the war, begun by the South, killed slavery 
 and gave the South new life. The article was copied 
 everywhere, and cleared the atmosphere. The eyes of 
 many were opened. It penetrated to the South and ar- 
 rested the earnest attention of the dying Calhoun. Mr. 
 Beecher's position was that slavery must extend — or die; 
 
84 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 that it was both constitutional and morally right for the 
 North to refuse to consent to its extension, while it was 
 a base betrayal of the right to yield extension for the sake 
 of a temporary and fallacious peace. 
 
 But the conscience of the people grows slowly; and that 
 of their " representative " politicians and statesmen slower 
 yet. The fight in Congress went on, the Southern de- 
 mands growing higher and haughtier, until the most 
 trusted champion of the Northern views, Daniel Webster, 
 on the 7th of March lowered his banner and made the 
 famous plea for conciliation which, whatever its motive, 
 was his own final disgrace and death-blow. Calhoun, who 
 from his dying bed still sent his influence forth, had his 
 last address read in the Senate by Mr. Mason, and died on 
 the 31st of the same month. 
 
 After eight months of discussion, Mr. Clay's " Omnibus 
 Compromise" failed, but the several elements of it, in- 
 cluding the Fugitive Slave Law, passed singly, as separate 
 bills, during the ensuing summer (1850). 
 
 Of course the passage of these bills, which instead of 
 being merely a friendly arrangement of opposing policies 
 were really a compromise of moral principle, did not bring 
 peace. The year 1850 closed and 185 1 opened in the midst 
 of seething agitation. The " May Anniversaries " of the 
 various reformatory and religious societies formed a great 
 feature of those days in New York, and among the others 
 the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society was one 
 whose meetings in the old Broadway Tabernacle were al- 
 ways densely thronged, — and not always with sympathiz- 
 ers in the cause which the Society had at heart. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was from his first coming a favorite speaker 
 at those meetings, and in their turbulent audiences gained 
 much of the training that served him so well in later days. 
 In one of his speeches there, delivered May 9, 1850, he 
 had been exhibiting the necessity of slavery to keep men 
 brutal. " The slave," said he, " is made just good enough 
 to be a slave, and no more. It is a penitentiary offense to 
 teach him more." Here a person in the gallery who had 
 been one of a group frequently interrupting the proceed- 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 85 
 
 ings, exclaimed, "It's a lie ! " The audience was shocked 
 into a kind of consternation, but Mr. Beecher promptly and 
 smilingly said: " Well, whether it is a penitentiary offense 
 or not, I will not argue with the gentleman. Doubtless he 
 has been there, and ought to know." Of course the tumultu- 
 ous laughter and applause gave him the immediate control 
 of the audience again, and he proceeded. 
 
 The second of the Addresses in this volume is one de- 
 scribing the nature of "American Slavery," which was 
 delivered before the Society on May 6, 185 1. This address, 
 devoted to a discussion of American Slavery from the 
 stand-point of a Christian minister, was at once a helpful 
 impulse to all the anti-slavery workers, and a stinging 
 rebuke to the men of his own profession, who with notably 
 few exceptions systematically avoided mention of the sin 
 of those times. In one of his speeches in England, in 
 1863, Mr. Beecher said: — 
 
 " You never can understand what emasculation has been caused 
 by the indirect influence of slavery. I have mourned all my 
 mature life to see men growing up who were obliged to suppress 
 all true conviction and sentiment, because it was necessary to 
 compromise between the great antagonisms of North and South. 
 There were the few pronounced anti-slavery men of the North, 
 and the few pronounced slavery men of the South, and the Union 
 lovers (as thej^ were called during the latter period) attempting 
 to hold the two together, not by a mild and consistent adherence 
 to truth plainly spoken, but by suppressing truth and conviction, 
 and saying, ' Everything for the Union.' . . . They were at- 
 tempting to lasso anti-slavery men by this word ' Union,' and to 
 draw them over to pro-slavery sympathies and the party of the 
 South, by saying, ' Slavery may be wrong and all that, but we 
 must not give up the Union.' Not until the sirocco came, not 
 until that great convulsion that threw men as with a backward 
 movement of the arm of Omnipotence from the clutches of the 
 South and from her sorceress-breath — not until then was it, that 
 with their hundreds and thousands the men of the North stood 
 on their feet and were men again." 
 
 In this Anti-Slavery Society address may be seen others 
 of Mr. Beecher's felicitous dealings with interruptions 
 and questions from hostile hearers, put with the intent to 
 
86 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 embarrass the speaker, but always having the opposite 
 effect of giving him a chance to turn the point against his 
 attackers. 
 
 The third address is an article from the Independent con- 
 cerning the notable Presidential contest of 1856, between 
 James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, and John C. 
 Fremont, the candidate of the newly formed Republican 
 party, which had grown up, suddenly but solidly, within 
 four years. 
 
 On the admission of California as a State, in 1850, Fre- 
 mont had been sent to Washington as one of its Senators. 
 In 1843-5, ^s captain of a government exploring party, he 
 had located the passes of the Rocky Mountains, through 
 which to-day's immense railway traffic is pouring; in 1846 
 he had raised the " Bear flag " and declared the independ- 
 ence of California, and, by prompt co-operation on land 
 with Commodore Stockton by sea, had practically con- 
 quered and secured to the United States the possession of 
 that magnificent territory. He had acted for some time 
 as Military Governor, and had taken prominent part in 
 forming the Constitution, being the man by whose in- 
 fluence the phrases that forever excluded slavery from 
 the State were incorporated into that document. Events 
 moved rapidly, both among the people and in Congress. 
 In 185 1 Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" appeared, and 
 thrilled the world with the dreadful possibilities of Ameri- 
 can slavery: the effect of that book cannot be overesti- 
 mated. In 1852 died Clay and Webster, while Charles 
 Sumner entered the Senate as Webster's successor from 
 Massachusetts: the day of compromises was passing. 
 
 The administration of Pierce, 1853 to 1857, was signal- 
 ized by the appearance of a new idea, put forth by Stephen 
 A. Douglas, (Democratic) senator from Illinois, who, am- 
 bitious to reach the Presidency, proposed — as a measure 
 that should please the Democrats of both sections, North 
 and South — the Kansas-Nebraska bill, allowing the people 
 of those Territories to decide for themselves as to the exist- 
 ence or non-existence of slavery ,when they should apply for 
 admission as States. This idea, popularly called "Squatter 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 87 
 
 Sovereignty," was an express abrogation of the Missouri 
 Compromise of 182 1, as both Kansas and Nebraska lay 
 north of the line agreed upon and fixed as the permanent 
 extreme northern limit of slave-holding States. The con- 
 test was long and bitter, but the bill passed, and was signed 
 by the President in May, 1854. Then followed the horrors 
 of " bleeding Kansas," the rush of immigration thither from 
 North and from South, and the hideous turmoil of border 
 warfare. The free-soil men were determined to save the 
 territory from slavery, and the pro-slavery men equally 
 determined to inoculate it with that cancerous disease. 
 Throughout the North the free-soil ardor grew and in- 
 tensified. Money, furniture, implements of industry, arms, 
 and ammunition were contributed for the use of the immi- 
 grants, who were exhorted to defend their own lives and 
 political rights, and to secure the territory for freedom. 
 Mr. Beecher and Plymouth Church took active part in all 
 this concentration of purpose and of force for the redemp- 
 tion of Kansas. The political tangle of the time is clearly 
 outlined in Ha}'' and Nicolay's elaborate " Life of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln" {Century Magazine, 1887,) not only as to Mr. 
 Lincoln's debates with Douglas in Illinois (which did so 
 much to nationalize the name and just fame of the former), 
 but also as to the struggle in Kansas, it is shown how the 
 "border-ruffian" from Missouri was the convenient tool of 
 Southern policy to outvote and even to destroy the bona fide 
 settlers. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's activity at this time was marked and influ- 
 ential, but we have not found any single address which 
 seemed to represent his customary way of setting forth 
 the general principles of a particular crisis. 
 
 Out of the Kansas struggle came the beginning of the 
 Republican Party. The Free-soil Party had organized at 
 Buffalo under Van Buren, bolting from the Whigs, in 1848; 
 this was the germ: in 1852 the Whigs had finally gone 
 under, when Pierce was elected: in 1856 the Kansas troub- 
 les had permeated the entire North with discussion, and 
 the expression of resentment at the perfidy of the Com- 
 promise repeal took on increasingly the form of a deter- 
 
88 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 mination that slat^ery should not be extended, on any pretext, 
 into new territories. This was the heart of the declarations 
 of the new party; and John Charles Fremont, "the Path- 
 finder;" the conqueror of California; South Carolinian by 
 birth, but anti-slavery in principle; son-in-law of Senator 
 Benton of Missouri (a life-long Southern anti-slavery man, 
 and the projector of trans-continental traffic); husband 
 of the brilliant and fascinating Jessie Benton; — a man 
 combining a remarkable number of qualities, achieve- 
 ments, and associations to surround his name with a 
 halo of romance — was made the hero and the standard- 
 bearer. 
 
 The great cry of tlie Republicans was " Non-extension 
 of slavery ! " of the Democrats, " Non-interference with 
 Southern domestic institutions ! " and of a third party 
 (the "Americans," with Millard Fillmore as candidate), 
 "Peace at any price; peace and union!" Mr. Beecher, 
 with the full consent of his church, threw himself into this 
 political contest with all the force of his nature. He 
 preached and spoke and wrote, constantly and vehemently. 
 He worked throughout the State of New York, speaking 
 two and three times a week, for three hours at a time, to 
 open-air audiences of from eight thousand to ten thousand, 
 and was universally recognized as a very potent factor in 
 the rapid growth of Republican sentiment. Besides this, 
 Fremont's campaign headquarters were in the business 
 office of one of Mr. Beecher's earliest friends and parish- 
 ioners; so that Plymouth Church had a large share in the 
 formation and early direction of the Republican party. A 
 new growth out of an old stem. Republicanism was cut 
 off from the decaying Whig stock, and, planted in justice 
 and nourished with the love of freedom, it increased 
 mightily in strength and bore glorious fruit. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's article (June 26, 1856) entitled "On 
 Which Side is Peace?" (reproduced page 196), pre- 
 sents the main theme of the discussions of that cam- 
 paign, and shows how unerringly he struck at the central 
 element of every matter in question. There was great 
 fear lest the South be angered by the election of a free- 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 89 
 
 soil President, and war ensue; but Mr. Beecher's pre- 
 diction, that war was much more likely to grow out of 
 further truckling to the slave-power, in four years became 
 fact. 
 
 The success of James Buchanan (although Mr. Beecher 
 and many other leading Republicans believed that Fre- 
 mont was elected, but "counted out" in the returns from 
 Pennsylvania, a State whose large number of electors de- 
 termined that election) is well known. So also are the suc- 
 ceeding events of the next few years: Chief Justice Taney's 
 Dred Scott decision; the passing of personal-liberty laws in 
 several of the free States to counteract the Fugitive Slave 
 Law; the continued outrages and massacres of free-soil 
 settlers in Kansas; and finally the rash enterprise of old 
 John Brown of Ossawatomie, — a man always fanatical 
 and ill - balanced, and at last crazed by strife and the 
 murder of several of his family in Kansas, — who, with 
 seventeen companions, seized the United States arsenal 
 at Harper's Ferry, Va., with the hope of obtaining arms 
 and establishing an insurrectionary center for the libera- 
 tion of slaves. 
 
 It was on Sunday, October 30, 1S59, while Brown and 
 his little company lay in prison awaiting trial, that Mr. 
 Beecher preached in Plymouth Church his sermon entitled 
 "The Nation's Duty to Slavery" (page 203). Its faithful 
 assertion of the principles of liberty and the abominations 
 of slavery, combined with Christian kindness to the South 
 and the duty of wise forbearance in action, — for the sake 
 of the slave, of the master, and of the country. North and 
 South, — shows the discretion, nobleness of thought, and 
 sincerity of belief in God and the force of moral ideas, 
 which go far to explain how it was that conservative peo- 
 ple felt willing to submit themselves to the influence of 
 Mr. Beecher's eloquence. No Southerner to-day would be 
 able to dissent from his doctrine as expounded in that dis- 
 course, or could help a warming of heart toward a man 
 who, in the midst of such a tempest of popular excitement 
 along the line of principles which he himself had done so 
 much to inspire, could yet so temperately and consider- 
 
9° 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 ately and Christianly stretch forth the restraining hand of 
 wisdom. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's influence in the formative days of the Re- 
 publican party was wider than appeared on the surface. 
 He was in relations of friendly intercourse and interchange 
 of counsel with men like Horace Greeley and Henry J. 
 Raymond, the two journalists who were foremost in the 
 shaping of principles and policies, and all the leaders in 
 the reform-politics of the time looked to him not only for 
 the eloquent enforcement of courses laid out but for wis- 
 dom in preliminary councils. The newspapers reported 
 his every word, — in pulpit, lecture-room, prayer-meeting, 
 public assembly, special interview or casual street remark. 
 When we consider how constantly and mercilessly reports 
 of Mr. Beecher's utterances were put into the public prints 
 — sometimes correct, often erroneous, and even maliciously 
 perverted — and how unreservedly he poured forth at any 
 and all times his honest thought or feeling, it is amazing 
 that so much wisdom should appear in his history, and so 
 little foolishness. How many men could endure such a 
 record, — not once or twice, or during four years of a presi- 
 dential term, but for forty continuous years of public life 
 at the metropolis of the nation? No other human being 
 has ever been put to such a test. His influence, then, was 
 in some sense atmospheric; it passed from him, consciously 
 and unconsciously; it spread abroad, and permeated not 
 only the great metropolitan community in which he lived 
 but the country at large. 
 
 Those who insist on a division line between "sacred" 
 and " secular " things can hardly understand how it should 
 be that this man, to whom all lines of life and duty were 
 sacred and infused with the conscious inspiration of divine 
 and human love, could pass as he did with his church from 
 the heats of the political struggle of 1856 into a period of 
 intense spiritual and religious labor. His theories, — the 
 healthfulness of enthusiasm, provided that a proper varia- 
 tion of its objects relieved the tension of one line of facul- 
 ties by bringing others into play; the natural modes of 
 
//<^r-^ ^-[yt^^i 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 9 1 
 
 appropriation of the all-pervasive influences of the Divine 
 Spirit; and the practical strengthening effect of such 
 "seasons of refreshment" for work in the world, — seem 
 to have received justification at this time. From 1857 
 to 1859, Plymouth Church enjoyed a very high state 
 of religious activity and growth; at one time — in May, 
 1858 — as large a number as three hundred and seventy- 
 eight came into the church on the same Sunday: and the 
 works of beneficence and charity were proportionally 
 increased. 
 
 It was in October, 1859, that Abraham Lincoln was in- 
 vited to deliver a lecture in Cooper Institute, New York, 
 which he agreed to do if he might make it a discussion of 
 political questions. On February 27, i860, he made his 
 speech, and the Tribune of the following day said: "No 
 man ever before made such an impression on his first ap- 
 peal to a New York audience." Mr. Lincoln "went with 
 the multitude" to hear Beecher ; and naturally was not 
 only deeply interested in the preacher, but took pains to 
 see him, and in their social intercourse began a mutual 
 confidence and friendship that bore rich fruit for the nation. 
 Mr. Beecher became an ardent advocate of Lincoln's nom- 
 ination (which was made in Chicago, May 16, i860), was a 
 potent force in his election, and — in spite of his bombard- 
 ments of the Administration on the emancipation question 
 in the first two years of war — was one of the President's 
 most helpful supporters during his four awful years of 
 responsibility. 
 
 On Thanksgiving Day, November 29, i860, Lincoln hav- 
 ing been elected after a campaign of unparalleled intensity 
 — in which, as before, Plymouth Church and its pastor 
 were forward in active, every-day furtherance of the doc- 
 trines preached on Sundays — Mr. Beecher made a review 
 of the situation in a discourse entitled " Against a Com- 
 promise of Principle " (page 224). In it, after glancing at 
 the growth of Christ's kingdom all over the world, as 
 measured by the initiatory declaration of Jesus that he 
 came to teach, to heal, to deliver, the poor and the op- 
 pressed — the people — he rejoices at the practical national 
 
92 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 verdict against the extension of slavery as declared in Lin- 
 coln's election, and then appeals for manhood in the 
 maintenance of that position, not only in spite, but even 
 because, of the threatening storms: — 
 
 " It is always safe to be right ; and our business is not so much 
 to seek peace as to seek the causes of peace. Expedients are for 
 an hour, but principles are for the ages. Just because the rains 
 descend and winds blow, we cannot afford to build on shifting 
 sands. Nothing can be permanent and nothing safe in this ex- 
 igency that does not sink deeper than politics or money. We 
 must touch the rock, or we shall never have firm foundations." 
 
 About a month later, January 4, 1861, came a day which 
 President Buchanan appointed for national fasting and 
 humiliation and prayer, beseeching the Divine interference 
 in behalf of peace. Of course the South and its Northern 
 allies charged all the agitations to the fanatical opponents 
 of slavery. Mr. Beecher preached a sermon entitled " Our 
 Biameworthiness " (page 246), in which he showed that 
 the troubles were upon the nation because not too much but 
 too little had been done for liberty. 
 
 The winter passed; March came; Abraham Lincoln was 
 inaugurated president. The Southern leaders had already 
 found that Secession was easier to plan than to effect, for 
 throughout the South were many conservative Whig com- 
 munities, followers of the earlier teachings of Alexander 
 Stephens and his like, who sturdily held to the traditional 
 love for the old Union and distrust of their life-long po- 
 litical opponents, the Democrats. The South was not 
 "solid," at that time. But whatever forces men into mut- 
 ual association for common interest does very effectively 
 solidify their action, and, by narrowing the channels of 
 thought and feeling to a single line, unitizes their opin- 
 ions, for all practical purposes. To " fire the Southern 
 heart "and complete the severance which had been well 
 advanced, Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter were besieged, 
 fired on, and the gallant Anderson with his little force of 
 United States troops forced to lower the national flag and 
 march out. The political contest between " Freedom and 
 Slavery " was at an end. 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 93 
 
 Division II. — Civil War, 
 
 On Sunday, April 14, during the siege of Sumter, Mr. 
 Beecher preached from the text: " And the Lord said unto 
 Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me ? Speak unto the 
 children of Israel, that they go forward." — Exod. xiv. 15. 
 The discourse has been entitled "The Battle Set in Array " 
 (page 269), and introduces the second division of the Ad- 
 dresses, " Civil War." 
 
 The story of " the uprising of a great people " has been 
 well and often told. Fort Sumter did a double work: 
 it fired the Southern heart, but it also aroused the North- 
 ern soul. Men were white hot with indignation; yet Mr. 
 Beecher's discourse of that day shows a calm, rational 
 pursuit of the history of the conflict, a discriminating in- 
 quiry as to the duty of the North in this crisis, before com- 
 ing to his solemn appeal for steady determination and his 
 final trumpet-blast of inspiration to " go forward " in the 
 cause of human liberty. 
 
 After this, the reader will find a succession of discourses 
 as to men's duties during the war, the titles of which are 
 largely self-explanatory. And any man who lived through 
 the intensities of that time is to be pitied if to-day he can 
 read, in cold type, these appeals to the highest and most 
 unselfish feelings of the heart without wet eyes and a 
 bounding pulse. The discourses are as follows: "The 
 National Flag," — on presentation of colors to two Com- 
 panies of the "Brooklyn Fourteenth Regiment;" "The 
 Camp, its Dangers and Duties," — May, 1861; "Modes and 
 Duties of Emancipation," — November 26, 1861, setting forth 
 the declarations of Confederate Vice-President Stephens 
 as to Slavery being the "corner-stone " of the Confederacy, 
 and considering the condition of the thousands of escaping 
 slaves and the probable results of national emancipation; 
 "The Success of American Democracy," — April 13, 1862, 
 the anniversary Sunday of the attack on Fort Sumter, — 
 one of his felicitous tracings of the force of generic prin- 
 ciples in the development of events; " National Injustice 
 and Penalty," — September 22, 1862, just after Lincoln's 
 
94 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation and Suspension 
 of the Habeas Corpus, — in strong maintenance of the Presi- 
 dent's war-powers and gratulation that at last the Nation 
 had officially repudiated the sin which had — by inevitable 
 action of physical and moral law — evoked such terrible 
 punishment; "The Ground and Forms of Government," — 
 November 22, 1862, — a philosophical consideration of the 
 character of peoples as the soil out of which their national 
 governments must and do grow, with especial reference to 
 a maintenance of moral principle in the then pending 
 election in the State of New York; and, finally, "Liberty 
 under Laws," — December 28, 1862, while the confirmatory 
 Proclamation of Emancipation was expected from the 
 President, — a discourse showing the necessity of obedience 
 to the law of any principle, in order to make that principle 
 effective, and the responsibilities of benevolent action for 
 the freedom of other men, which are assumed by those who 
 claim liberty for themselves. 
 
 These few sermons do not begin to indicate the conti- 
 nuity and intensity of Mr. Beecher's active exertions during 
 the years mentioned. He was at all times one of the focal 
 points of heat and light, vitalizing the heart and clarifying 
 the vision of the country. In the newspapers, on the 
 platform, in his own pulpit and lecture-room, in social and 
 commercial and religious and benevolent and patriotic and 
 political gatherings he was to be found, and always at 
 work. To arouse and enlighten the public conscience and 
 drive up the official heads of the nation to emancipation, 
 and to sustain the authorities and the army in forward- 
 ing the war to that end, as the only safe and permanent, 
 because the only just, foundation for peace between North 
 and South — this was his consuming desire. In many 
 powerful articles he urged emancipation on the President, 
 whose apparent reluctance to follow this advice was not 
 then fully understood. In the light of later events, we 
 have learned, as Mr. Beecher did, that Mr. Lincoln was 
 willing and glad to go just as fast and as far as he would 
 be sustained in doing by public opinion, but no more; 
 and conscientiously believed that to be his wisest course. 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 95 
 
 Doubtless he was right; and yet it was needful that there 
 should be also such moral seers as Beecher to divine, and, 
 like flaming beacons on the headlands, to throw light upon 
 the course the people must take. 
 
 In the spring of 1863, Mr. Beecher was worn out with his 
 labors, for he had spared nothing of himself, and his physi- 
 cian and his Plymouth people pushed him off to Europe for 
 some months of recuperation. The narrative of this trip 
 in the companionship of his friend, Dr. John H. Raymond, 
 then president of Vassar College, has been told by both of 
 them, and may be found — full of beauty and interest and 
 refreshment — in Dr. Raymond's " Life and Letters " before 
 referred to (page 40). It was said at the time that Mr. 
 Beecher had been sent by the Government to try to influ- 
 ence English opinion; but that was of course untrue. He 
 went simply for rest, and in passing through England 
 refused to speak there at all, except at a complimentary 
 "Breakfast" tendered him by Congregational clergymen 
 and laymen in London. 
 
 His mind about it may be found in the following extract 
 from a private letter written at Brussels, Sept. 9, 1863, just 
 before the two friends started to leave the Continent; — 
 
 "John begins to feel homesick. His face is set toward the 
 West, Mine would be also but that I know not what I shall 
 have to do in England, and I do not wish to get up a fever of 
 returning and then find myself obliged to remain several weeks 
 longer. So I contrive not to think, except at intervals. How 
 glad I shall be if when in London I find that I need not speak! 
 In truth, my friend, I have no heart for it. England is selfish 
 and cannot be made to recognize it. Her opinion of us has very 
 little value. We do not need her, and she is in little danger of 
 going into the fight. Why should we attempt to ameliorate her 
 prejudices and to thrust Unwelcome truth down her incredulous 
 throat } I should not hesitate to pass on, refusing to speak, but 
 for one circumstance. There is a struggling band of noble men 
 who from the first have been true to us and are advocating, 
 through good report and evil report, American ideas in England. 
 Should they say to me, ' You owe it to true friends who have 
 been faithful to you in the darkest hours, to strengthen their 
 hands and give them whatever influence your presence may exert,' 
 
96 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 I do not see how I could refuse to listen, and comply. But I long 
 to get home. I am well, have escaped my catarrh, am rested, 
 and now desire to go to work again." 
 
 On his return to England he did speak, however, and all 
 the world knows how and with what effect. We have re- 
 produced, as prefatory to his speeches in England, the 
 article by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, which on Mr. 
 Beecher's return was published in the Atlantic MojitJily for 
 January, 1864. It is entitled " The Minister Plenipoten- 
 tiary," — a joke which, like most of Dr. Holmes's wit, is 
 instinct with wisdom and truth. This article (page 422) is 
 the best description of Mr. Beecher's extraordinary triumph 
 in England that has ever been published, and it shows the 
 profound effect which his unauthorized but splendidly au- 
 thenticated mission had, both abroad and at home. 
 
 The public speeches at Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, 
 Liverpool, London, and those at several farewell break- 
 fasts, follow next in the volume; and it has seemed of 
 especial interest to give also the essential portion of Mr. 
 Beecher's own account of the speeches (page 640) — not a 
 formal written document, but an off-hand talk to friends, 
 one of whom had thoughtfully provided the presence of 
 Mr. Ellinwood, for so many years, before and since, Mr. 
 Beecher's regular stenographic reporter. 
 
 Following this is his address (page 654) delivered after 
 his return at the enthusiastic home-reception by his fellow 
 citizens of Brooklyn (November 19, 1863), in which he 
 describes to them how it was that the upper classes of 
 Great Britain were adverse to the Federal cause in the War 
 and yet were restrained from unfriendly action by the 
 great heart of the common people, who, although non- 
 voting, exercised a strong influence upon the governing 
 and commercial classes. It is — like portions of his speeches 
 in England — a rational and affecting appeal to men to 
 " Put yourself in his place " and look at things from other 
 people's point of view; to see the other side; to make 
 allowances for differing circumstances and consequent 
 opinions and sentiments; and so — in consonance with his 
 theological and religious teachings — a catholic plea for 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 97 
 
 liberty of opinion with harmony of feeling. It produced 
 almost as marked an effect hn American resentment against 
 England, as his efforts on the other side of the water did 
 upon English misunderstanding and prejudice against the 
 North, during the war. 
 
 The years 1864-5 entailed less exhausting work upon Mr. 
 Beecher than had been laid on him in the foregoing years. 
 The re-election of Abraham Lincoln in 1864 enlisted his ar- 
 dent efforts; but the tide of war had turned, and moreover 
 the entire enginery of the North had now become organized 
 and was in regular operation — socially, commercially, fis- 
 cally, industrially, and in all lines of material and moral 
 force — sustaining the Government as a matter of course. 
 Side currents there were, eddies of discontent and reaction, 
 turbulent passages caused by temporary obstructions, but 
 the great fiood of life in all the Northern States flowed 
 full and strong in one direction. In March, 1864, Congress 
 revived the grade of Lieutenant-General in order to con- 
 fer it on Grant, whose continued Western successes had 
 drawn all eyes upon him, and he was brought to the East 
 and put in command of all the armies, with especial con- 
 trol of the Army of the Potomac, which, down to this time, 
 had done magnificent fighting but under generals who 
 allowed their victories to remain indecisive and fruitless. 
 
 This now was changed, and the battles of The Wilder- 
 ness, Spottsylvania, Five Forks, Petersburg, mark the 
 dreadful, bloody, but irresistible steps that led to Appo- 
 mattox and peace. On April 9, 1865, the Confederate 
 army laid down their arms, were paroled as prisoners of 
 war, and permitted to return to their homes. In the " Life 
 of Robert E. Lee" we read: " The victors were magnani- 
 mous ; they abstained from every appearance of insult 
 toward the vanquished. Abundant victuals were distrib- 
 uted to the prisoners who were dying of hunger." And 
 this was not only the official action of commanders, but 
 the Federal soldiers themselves, gallantly appreciating 
 the gallantry of their recent foes, joyfully fraternized with 
 them, offering their own rations, tobacco, and good fellow- 
 ship generally. 
 7 
 
98 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 Of men in responsibility, perhaps the two who had 
 borne the heaviest burdens of care, and who were person- 
 ally most interested in ending the rebellion, were President 
 Lincoln and General Grant. On March 28, occurred an 
 interview between the President and Generals Grant and 
 Sherman, at City Point, Virginia, at which time the two 
 soldiers thought that it would require one more severe 
 battle to compel submission. Mr. Lincoln was deeply 
 moved, exclaiming that there had been blood enough shed, 
 and asking if it could not be avoided. " That depends," 
 was the answer, "on Jefferson Davis and General Lee." 
 And to General Sherman* the President said that " all he 
 wanted for us was to defeat the opposing armies and to 
 get the men composing the Confederate armies back to 
 their homes, at work on their farms and in their shops " 
 and "to restore all the men of both sections to their 
 homes." General Grant was like-minded, and upon Lee's 
 surrender urged the disbanding and separating of the 
 rebel armies. He imposed no humiliating conditions, but 
 sent home the disbanded Southern men with food and 
 seed-corn and even allowed them to take their horses for 
 the working of their farms. Sherman's impulses were still 
 more generous in receiving the surrender of Johnston's 
 North Carolina army, and Grant was sent to modify the 
 terms granted, making them conform to those given Lee 
 at Appomattox. In short, the men who spent themselves in 
 fi^hthi^ the rebellion ivere the first and the freest in reconcilia-, 
 tion with the conquered rebels. 
 
 The whole hollow Confederacy — exhausted and emptied 
 — now fell in. Among the hitherto resistant points was 
 the city of Charleston, South Carolina, where the active 
 rebellion began; now — desolated by war and fire and 
 poverty — it was re-occupied, and preliminary to the work 
 of restoring its obstructed harbor and rebuilding the shat- 
 tered shores, the Government thought it well to signal- 
 ize the downfall of Secession and the original treason of 
 attacking the national flag, by formally raising the stars 
 
 *Memoiis of William T. Sherman. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 
 1883. 
 
• POLITICAL CAREER. 99 
 
 and stripes on the ruins of Fort Sumter, whence they had 
 been hauled down April 14, 1861, four years before. The 
 ceremonies were imposing: all departments of the gov- 
 ernment were represented, and the governors of the loyal 
 States, with many invited guests of eminent position or 
 influence. Mr. Beecher was chosen, as the natural ex- 
 ponent of the loyal North, to deliver the oration of the 
 day; Major (by that time, however, Major-General) Robert 
 Anderson, the gallant commander of Moultrie and Sumter 
 under the " baptism of fire," with his own hands hauled up 
 the identical flag that had been lowered, and a salute of 
 one hundred guns was fired — participated in "from every 
 fort and rebel battery that fired on Sumter." Mr. Beecher's 
 oration (page 676) is a grand summing up of the four 
 dreadful years — their meaning, their suffering, their achieve- 
 ments; the benefits accruing from the war to the nation at 
 large, to the North, to the South; the lessons that had 
 been taught, and the spirit in which should be undertaken 
 the new work of "rebuilding the republic." With this 
 address is fitly closed the division of "Civil War," — an era 
 of great events that developed great men, yet a period 
 during which it is fairly within the bounds of probability 
 to say that the power exerted by the heart and brain of 
 Henry Ward Beecher was not equaled by the merely 
 personal influence of any other single man. 
 
 Division III. — Civil Liberty. 
 
 On the evening of the very day in which the nation's joy 
 was thus symbolized and expressed at Sumter, President 
 Lincoln was assassinated. That was on Friday: on Tues- 
 day the steamers brought the crushing news, and early 
 the next day the sad party were speeding northward again. 
 On Sunday of the following week (April 23), Mr. Beecher 
 made a discourse on "Abraham Lincoln." Said he: — 
 
 " Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemi- 
 sphere, as the joy and the sorrow of the same week in this land. 
 The joy of final victory was as sudden as if no man had expected 
 it, and as entrancing as if it had fallen a sphere from heaven. I: 
 rose up over sobriety, and swept business from its moorings, and 
 
lOO HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 ran down through the land in irresistible course. Men embraced 
 each other in brotherhood, that were strangers in the flesh. 
 They sang, or prayed, or, deeper yet, many could only think 
 thanksgiving and weep gladness. . . . 
 
 " In one hour, under the blow of a single bereavement, joy lay 
 without a pulse, without a gleam, or breath. A sorrow came that 
 swept through the land as huge storms sweep through the forest 
 and field, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling the flowers, 
 daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and pouring blackness 
 and darkness across the land and upon the mountains. Did ever 
 so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feel- 
 ings? It was the uttermost of joy; it was the uttermost of sor- 
 row •, — noon and midnight without a space between ! " 
 
 We have selected this discourse (page 497) as the open- 
 ing address of the division entitled "Civil Liberty," be- 
 cause in it is to be found recorded the sentiment of the 
 great President in relation to the land he died for, and 
 the spirit of conservative wisdom and Christian consider- 
 ation which was shown by Henry Ward Beecher as an in- 
 structor of the people in the trying times that followed. 
 
 The salient points were: Faith in American institu- 
 tions; a determination to see slavery finally ended; and a 
 spirit of generous conciliation towards the vanquished 
 South. 
 
 " The blow, however, has signally failed. The cause is not 
 stricken; it is strengthened. This nation has dissolved — but in 
 tears only. It stands, four-square, more solid, to-day, than any 
 pyramid in Egypt. This people are neither wasted, nor daunted, 
 nor disordered. Men hate slavery and love liberty with stronger 
 hate and love to-day than ever before. The Government is not 
 weakened, it is made stronger. How naturally and easily were 
 the ranks closed! Another stepped forward, in the hour that the 
 one fell, to take his place and his mantle. . . . Republican 
 institutions have been vindicated in this experience as they never 
 were before. . . . God, I think, has said, by the voice of 
 this event, to all nations of the earth, ' Republican liberty, based 
 upon true Christianity, is firm as the foundation of the globe.' 
 
 " Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with 
 new influence. . . . Men will receive a new impulse of pa- 
 triotism for his sake, and will guard with zeal the whole coun- 
 try which he loved so well : I swear you, on the altar of his mem- 
 
FOL/r/CAL CAREER. loi 
 
 ory, to be more faithful to the country for which he has perished. 
 Men will, as they follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that 
 slavery against which he warred, and which in vanquishing him 
 has made him a martyr and a conqueror : I swear you, by the 
 memory of this martyr, to hate slavery with an unappeasable 
 hatred. Men will admire and imitate his unmoved firmness, his 
 inflexible conscience for the right; and yet his gentleness, as ten- 
 der as a woman's, his moderation of spirit, which not all the heat 
 of party could inflame, nor all the jars and disturbances of this 
 country shake out of its place: I swear you to an emulation of 
 his justice, his moderation, and his mercy." 
 
 These three articles of faith were soon to be put to the 
 test. It is hardly necessary here to enter upon a full dis- 
 cussion of the theories that arose at the end of the war as 
 to the " rebuilding of the republic," and yet some note 
 must be made of them to understand the continuity of 
 Mr. Beecher's course, and the first variance between his 
 line of action and that of the Republican party. 
 
 The elements to be harmonized at that time were many 
 and discordant. Mr. Beecher tersely says (page 736): — 
 
 " President Lincoln had been assassinated, and Johnson had as- 
 sumed his place. The statesmen whose vigor and courage had 
 carried the country through the civil war were less adapted to 
 the delicate task of restoring the discordant States to peace and 
 unity than they had been to the sudden duties of war. 
 
 "In a general way there were two parties; one counseling a 
 speedy re-adjustment, and the other, a longer probation. 
 
 " President Lincoln and Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, in 
 the last conversations which I had with them, inclined to the 
 policy of immediate restoration; and their views had great weight 
 with me." 
 
 President Johnson, a man arisen, like Lincoln, from the 
 " poor white " class of a border State, had been a sturdy 
 Tennessee Unionist throughout the war, and had suffered 
 bitterly from the rebellion. He hated secession and its 
 leaders with an almost savage hatred, and was conspicuous 
 after Lincoln's death among those who cried that "treason 
 should be made odious." He instituted the military com- 
 mission that tried the conspirators who compassed Lin- 
 coln's murder, and proclaimed large rewards for the capt- 
 
I02 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 ure of Jefferson Davis and other Confederate leaders. 
 He even wished to arrest General Lee, but General Grant 
 sturdily blocked that procedure. The President was a 
 good man for a fight, but a dangerous one for the adjust- 
 ments of a peaceful settlement. 
 
 Mr. Johnson, however, was loyal, not only to the Union, 
 but also to the plan for its restoration which his great 
 predecessor, Lincoln, had mapped out; and upon this 
 he squarely planted himself. Its chief feature was: that 
 the seceded States should be replaced as they had been, 
 except that they should first, as States, acquiesce in the 
 abolition of slavery, repudiate the rebel debt, and repeal 
 the ordinances of secession. 
 
 President Lincoln had already, a year and a half before 
 (December, 1863), issued a proclamation of pardon and 
 restoration of the rights of property (except in slaves) to 
 all rebels who should abandon their purposes and take the 
 oath of allegiance, agreeing to abide by the governmental 
 acts and proclamations concerning slavery; and, moreover, 
 providing for a reorganization of any State government 
 by not less than one-tenth of the number of voters of the 
 State. His views were positive and clear. 
 
 The Thirty-eighth Congress had closed its session a 
 month before the collapse of the rebellion, on March 3, 
 1865; Lincoln's assassination was on April 14; the next 
 Congress was not to assemble till December 4: so that 
 Mr. Johnson came into the presidency during an interval. 
 The rebellion had suddenly ceased to be; and it was neces- 
 sary to act. The constitutional provisions which made it 
 possible for the Government to move steadily forward, with- 
 out hesitation or convulsion, — even in the face of such colos- 
 sal events as the instantaneous silence of peace after four 
 clangorous years of war and the assassination of the head 
 of the nation in the midst of the protections of a great 
 capital, — were at the time the wonder and admiration of 
 the world. And it is right, in judging of the acts of a man 
 of Mr. Johnson's antecedents and nature, — strong and hon- 
 est as an ox, stubborn and vengeful as a mule, — that we 
 should consider what would naturally be the mental atti- 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 1 03 
 
 tude of one thus unexpectedly placed in position of great 
 responsibility. Mr. Lincoln — sagacious and patient, while 
 tenacious of his purposes — would probably have assembled 
 Congress in extra session; and, acting by influence rather 
 than by authority, having the gratitude of the South and 
 the confidence of the North, would perhaps have found 
 nieans of letting Congress have their say while they gave 
 him his way. But some elation after so sudden a rise was 
 natural to Mr. Johnson or the average man (Mr. Lincoln 
 was not an average man); and thus the new President 
 boldly accepted the responsibility of action and assumed 
 the power. 
 
 He issued an amnesty proclamation, excepting from it 
 all who, after having been civil or military officers of the 
 United States, had held office under the so-called Con- 
 federacy. Between May 29 and July 13 he appointed Pro- 
 visional Governors over seven States, with instructions to 
 assemble Constitutional Conventions which should form- 
 ally accept the terms and conditions above mentioned, 
 and then proceed to elect State legislators and congres- 
 sional representatives. This was all done; and the State 
 legislatures also elected their United States Senators, so 
 that nearly all were ready to enter the Thirty-ninth Con- 
 gress on its assembling, Dec. 4, 1865. 
 
 The President's plan was good, as far as it went; but, 
 first, it was incomplete, making no provision for the status 
 of the liberated slaves; and, secondly, he made the mistake 
 of acting in time of peace as if under martial law, and of 
 usurping for the Executive functions that belonged to the 
 Legislative branch of the United States government. Of 
 course this instantly bred hot dissatisfaction, and the sum- 
 mer of 1865 was filled with cries of increasing dissonance 
 throughout the North. 
 
 In October, shortly after returning to his pulpit from his 
 summer rest, Mr. Beecher preached a discourse (which will 
 be found at page 713), entitled, "Conditions of a Restored 
 Union." In this, as was usual with him, he carefully went 
 over the antecedent grounds of fact and of principle, — 
 in reference to the war, the end of the rebellion, the condi- 
 
I04 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 tion of the South and its people, white and black, the Presi- 
 dent's ideas and acts, — and then laid down the lines along 
 which he conceived that the country could best be re- 
 united, with the most equitable and therefore the most 
 secure hope of permanent stability. 
 
 A few sentences selected from successive portions of the 
 discourse, although not immediately connected, may give 
 briefiy the drift of his thought: — 
 
 " I can scarcely regard the state of mind that has existed for 
 years in the South as other than a political insanity, and I cannot 
 expect, nor ask you to expect, that in one hour they will get over 
 their enmities, their life-long prejudices and their humiliation. 
 . . . We are to remember that convalescence is often slower 
 and longer than the run of the disease itself." 
 
 " Nor are we to demand a surrender of theories and philoso- 
 phies as a condition of confidence and trust. . . . Let men 
 say that secession ought to have been allowed — if they accept the 
 fact that it is for ever disalloiucd hy the people of this continent." 
 
 " It is said that there should be a spirit of humilit}' on the part 
 of the South, . . . that God does not receive sinners back till 
 they are humbled. When you are God you need not receive your 
 brethren back till they are humbled." 
 
 " I think that he will be the wisest and most politic statesman 
 who knows how to carry them through this terrible and painful 
 transition with the least sacrifice of their pride, and with the 
 greatest preservation of their self-respect ; and if it can be done 
 by the generosity of the North, a confidence will spring up at the 
 South in the future that will repay us for the little self-sacrifice 
 that we may make." 
 
 " I am anxious that those who have hitherto been most active 
 for liberty and humanity should produce the first and deepest 
 impression on our brethren in the South by real kindness ; and I 
 am very thankful that those who have been representative men 
 in the North, in the main — Gerritt Smith, Mr. Garrison, and 
 others such as they — have been found pleading for lenity, and 
 opposed to rigor and uncharitableness." 
 
 " It is desirable, on every account, that the South should be 
 restored at the earliest practicable moment to a participation in 
 our common government. It is foreign to our American ideas 
 that men should be dispossessed of civil rights, if we expect to 
 treat them in any other way than as criminals." 
 
 " But there are some conditions precedent." 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 105 
 
 " It is right that State conventions should be required to 
 abolish slavery, and to assist in the amendment of the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States in that regard." 
 
 "And they must, in convention, not only annul their act of 
 secession, but pronounce it to have been ab initio void." 
 
 " I think that, also, before the States of the South are re-in- 
 stated, these conventions should have ascertained, and prescribed, 
 and established, the condition of the freedman. They should 
 have established, first, his right to labor, and to hold property, 
 with all its concomitants. They should have established his 
 right to labor as he pleases, where he pleases, and for whom he 
 pleases, and to have sole and undivided the proceeds of his own 
 earnings, with the liberty to do with them as he pleases, just as 
 any other citizen does. They should also have made him to be 
 the equal of all other men before the courts and in the eye of the 
 law. He should be just as much qualified to be a witness as the 
 man that assaults him. He should be under the protection of 
 the laws, with all the opportunities of availing himself of their 
 benefits which any other citizen has." 
 
 " It would have been wise, also, for these conventions to have 
 given him the right of suffrage — for it is alwaj's inexpedient and 
 foolish to deny a man his natural rights." 
 
 " I do not think it consistent with the nature of our institutions 
 for the Federal Government, in and of itself, to attempt perma- 
 nently to take care of four millions of freedmen b}'- militarv gov- 
 ernment. These men are scattered in fifteen States; they are 
 living contiguous to their old masters ; the kindness of the white 
 men in the South is more important to them than all the policies 
 of the nation out together. And the best intentions of the gov- 
 ernment will be defeated if the laws that are made touching this 
 matter are such as are calculated to excite the animosity and 
 hatred of the white people in the South toward the black people 
 there. I except the single decree of emancipation. That must 
 stand, though men dislike it. A true and wise statesmanship 
 consists in conciliating the late masters, and persuading them to 
 accept the freedmen in a spirit of kindness and helpfulness. Call- 
 ing names, suspecting motives, objurgations, will not help the 
 black man. President Johnson thinks it better that the colored 
 people should receive their rights with the consent of the South; 
 and he waits for it, and influences rather than commands ; and I 
 think he is acting with enlightened judgment." 
 
 " We are to educate the negroes, and to Christianly educate 
 them. We are to raise them in intelligence more and more, until 
 
lo6 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 they shall be able to prove themselves worthy of citizenship. 
 For, I tell you, all the laws in the world cannot bolster a man up 
 so as to place him any higher than his own moral worth and nat- 
 ural forces put him." 
 
 "We have, then, a heavy work before us. We have a work that 
 will tax our faith, and patience, and resources. But it is a work 
 which we may pursue, believing that He who hath brought us 
 thus far in it will carry us through to the end." 
 
 If this discourse be carefully read, it will be seen to con- 
 tain the essence of all the guaranties and conditions finally 
 effected after years of renewed struggle under the Recon- 
 struction Acts; but it differed from the position of the 
 political leaders of the time in that it preferred to offer 
 these conditions to the Southern people for their acceptance 
 before inviting their participation in the government, while 
 the Republican managers preferred to have Congress impose 
 them, in the guise of penalty for rebellion. Mr. Beecher 
 read human nature well. But his "magnanimity" was 
 laughed at and his position fiercely denounced as an aban- 
 donment of the blacks; his forebodings of the alternate 
 evil, however, were terribly realized in history. 
 
 For by this time the political passions of all sides were 
 aroused. The Republican leaders, fearful lest the Presi- 
 dent should commit irretrievable blunders, and bring in 
 anew a Southern element which should unite with the 
 Democratic opposition of the North and weaken their 
 power, were blind to anything good in the Johnson plan or 
 man, and the political press was wildly violent; the Anti- 
 slavery element, with the exception of some of the wisest 
 and most notable of the old-time leaders, fearful lest the 
 fruits of their long and bitter warfare for freedom should 
 be sacrificed in the very hour of victory, were with the 
 foremost in denunciation of the President and all who 
 supported him. And, on the other hand, Mr. Johnson, 
 made angry by the outcry, was not only stubborn in hold- 
 ing to what he had done but evinced his weakness by tak- 
 ing pains to show disfavor to representative Northerners, 
 and favor to Southerners, who shrewdly began to pay court 
 to him. His action was impolitic to the last degree. Yet, 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 107 
 
 inborn and inbred prejudices will tell, in spite of reason; 
 and this " poor white," whose whole life had been a deter- 
 mined struggle to rise in the social scale, could not see his 
 aristocratic fellow Southerners at his feet without feeling 
 the flattery of the situation, and yielding to it. 
 
 In December Congress reassembled; but while the South- 
 ern States had, as above stated, gone forward and made 
 their preparations subject to the conditions demanded by 
 the President, under full expectation of admission to the 
 national legislature, their representatives were met by 
 Congress with a prompt refusal of admission and referred 
 to a committee on credentials, who kept them cooling their 
 heels and heating their tempers in the lobby; the various 
 grounds of opposition to their entrance being the illegality 
 of the acts of the Constitutional Conventions, of the writs 
 under which the legislators and congressmen were elected, 
 and other proper points of technicality which President 
 Johnson and the Southern reorganizers had in their haste 
 overlooked. 
 
 Meantime the first action of Congress (Dec. 18) was the 
 admirable one of proposing the Thirteenth Amendment 
 to the Constitution, by which slavery was forever abolished 
 and Congress given power to enforce the provision by 
 appropriate legislation. This was promptly ratified by 
 the requisite two-thirds of all the States, Northern and 
 Southern. But the winter passed in strife, the point of 
 keenest discussion being the condition of the freed slaves: 
 the President demanding that the States should be ad- 
 mitted, and allowed to regulate that themselves; the major- 
 ity in Congress demanding full National protection to the 
 freedmen before any of the States should be readmitted. 
 Indeed, the contest now took on the aspect of a question 
 as to the Restoration or the Reconstruction of the Southern 
 States. 
 
 But another element was all this time rising into promi- 
 nence and increasing power, and that was the ancient race- 
 prejudice of the Southern whites towards the blacks, and 
 their dread — born of the intemperate contest between Pres- 
 ident Johnson and his opponents at the North — lest the 
 
io8 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 negro should be given political power, or, as they expressed 
 it, "the bottom rail put on top." That was, in effect, the 
 thing threatened at the North (for the protection of the 
 negro and the continuance in power of the Republican 
 party) and regarded at the South with a mingled feeling 
 of terror and unutterable detestation. 
 
 To get a candid view of the ideas and mutual miscon- 
 ceptions that this era bred in the two peoples — for the 
 South and the North had been educated, and still con- 
 tinued, on two distinct and unrelated planes of political 
 and social life — one cannot do better than read Judge 
 A. W. Tourgee's remarkable study of those times, based 
 on his own experience and observation of seventeen years' 
 residence as a Northern man at the South after the war: 
 "A Fool's Errand; By One of the Fools." Discussing the 
 plans of reconstruction, he notes the fact that none of 
 them took any account of 
 
 " That strange and mysterious influence which ranges all the 
 way from a religious principle to a baseless prejudice, according 
 to the stand-point of the observer, but always remains a most un- 
 accountable yet still stubborn fact in all that pertains to the 
 governmental organisms of the South, — the popular feeling in 
 regard to the African population of that section. That a servile 
 race, isolated from the dominant one by the fact of color and the 
 universally accepted dogma of inherent inferiority, to say noth- 
 ing of a very general belief of its utter incapacity for the civiliza- 
 tion to which the Caucasian has attained, should be looked on 
 with distrust and aversion, if not with positive hatred, as a co- 
 ordinate political power, by their former masters, would seem so 
 natural that-one could hardly expect men of ordinary intelligence 
 to overlook it. That this should arouse a feeling of very intense 
 bitterness when it came as the result of conquest, and the free- 
 dom enjoyed by the subject-race was inseparably linked with the 
 memory of loss and humiliation in the mind of the master, would 
 seem equally apparent. But when to these facts was added the 
 knowledge that whoever should advocate such an elevation of 
 the blacks, in that section, was certain to be regarded as putting 
 himself upon their social level in a community where the offender 
 against caste becomes an outlaw in fact, it seems impossible that 
 the wise men of that day should have been so blind as not to 
 have seen that they were doing the utmost possible injury to the 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 109 
 
 colored race, the country, and themselves, by propounding a plan 
 of re-organization which depended for its success upon the effect- 
 ive and prosperous administration of State governments by this 
 class [the negroes] in connection with the few of the dominant 
 race, who, from whatever motives, might be willing to put them- 
 selves on the same level with them in the estimation of their 
 white neighbors." 
 
 In view of these facts it is not strange that the rebuffed, 
 humiliated, and alarmed Southerners should in their State 
 legislatures begin to make laws for the practical subjection 
 of the freedmen, who were already talked of as not only 
 freed but to be made the equals of their late owners, and 
 who, with political power in their hands, in places where 
 they were a majority of the inhabitants, would become the 
 practical rulers. The laws made by the new Provisional 
 Southern State legislatures were in truth oppressive and 
 unjust to this unfortunate class, thus ground between the 
 upper and the nether millstone; and were in turn met in 
 Congress by the Civil Rights Bill, which not only declared 
 the blacks citizens, with equal rights before the law, but 
 provided many specifications looking to social as well as 
 political equality with the whites — which of course inten- 
 sified the feeling tenfold. The bill, vetoed by the Presi- 
 dent, was repassed over his veto (April 9, 1866), as were the 
 Freedman's Bureau and Refugees Bills. In June, Congress 
 proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
 providing: — 
 
 (i) The citizenship and equality before the law of all persons 
 born or naturalized in the United States ; (2) the apportionment of 
 representation in the Federal Congress according to the number 
 of inhabitants in each State [/. e., counting all the negroes instead 
 of two-thirds of them as heretofore, when their masters voted oti 
 them, as slaves], any abridgment of voting privileges except for 
 crime to reduce the representation proportionately [a political 
 inducemeJit not to prevent the blacks from voting] ; (3) the exclu- 
 sion of all men, who had violated an oath to support the United 
 States Constitution, from Federal or State office until relieved of 
 this disability by a two-thirds vote of Congress \^practical dis- 
 franchisement of all Southern inen of prominence] ; and (4) the 
 validity of the United States debt and invalidity of the rebel debt 
 or any claim of compensation for loss of slaves. 
 
no HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 It was two years (1868) before this amendment was 
 adopted by the requisite number of States, and meantime 
 the political iight raged. In August, 1866, the sentiment 
 of those in the North who for various reasons thought that 
 President Johnson's plan was the wiser, even though it had 
 been unwisely forwarded by him, and who believed that 
 the quickest and most natural, and therefore the most en- 
 during, road to peace and relations of mutual interest be- 
 tween the negroes and the whites (who iniist have the labor 
 of their former slaves) would come by the gradual re- 
 adjustment of industrial, social, and political conditions 
 between those elements themselves, without outside inter- 
 ference, took shape in several conventions deprecating the 
 policy of Congressional enactments on these matters. One 
 of these assemblies was convened in Cleveland, Ohio, that 
 of the "Soldiers and Sailors" (who having had active share 
 in putting down the rebellion had some opinions to offer 
 about the treatment of the rebels), and invited Mr. Beecher 
 to act as its Chaplain. He could not go, but on August 30, 
 1866, wrote a letter to the Convention, giving his views on 
 the situation. It became known as "the Cleveland Letter." 
 
 After making several points: — no place for a State under 
 our theory of government except in the Union; the in- 
 crease of complication by every month of delay; the unfit- 
 ness of the Federal Government to exercise minor police 
 and local restraint; scorn of the fear that the impoverished 
 South would again rule the land if admitted — he gave the 
 following analysis of the position of the freedmen, for 
 whose freedom it must be remembered he had spent the 
 chief power and interest of his whole previous public life. 
 
 "The sooner we dismiss from our minds the idea that the 
 freedmen can be classified and separated from the white popula- 
 tion, and nursed and defended by themselves, the better it will be 
 for them and us. The negro is part and parcel of Southern 
 society. He cannot be prosperous while it is unprospered. Its 
 evils will rebound upon him. Its happiness and re-invigoration 
 cannot be kept from his participation. The restoration of the 
 South to amicable relations with the North, the re-organization 
 of its industry, the re-inspiration of its enterprise and thrift, will 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. ill 
 
 all redound to the freedman's benefit. Nothing is so dangerous 
 to the freedman as an unsettled state of society in the South. 
 On him comes all the spite, and anger, and caprice, and revenge. 
 He will be made the scapegoat of lawless and heartless men. 
 • Unless we turn the Government into a vast military machine, 
 there cannot be armies enough to protect the freedmen while 
 Southern society remains insurrectionary. If Southern society 
 is calmed, settled, and occupied, and soothed with new hopes and 
 prosperous industries, no armies will be needed. Riots will sub- 
 side, lawless hangers-on will be driven ofi^ or better governed, and 
 a way will be gradually opened to the freedmen, through educa- 
 tion and industry, to full citizenship, with all its honors and 
 duties. . . . 
 
 " If the colored people have the stamina to undergo the hard- 
 ships which every uncivilized people has undergone in its upward 
 progress, they will in due time take their place among us. That 
 place cannot be bought, nor bequeathed, nor gained by sleight of 
 hand. It will come to sobriety, virtue, industry, and frugality. 
 As the nation cannot be sound until the South is prosperous, so, 
 on the other extreme, a healthy condition of civil society in the 
 South is indispensable to the welfare of the freedmen." 
 
 Let any man read that letter; then ponder the demoniac 
 madness developed in the South during the years that 
 followed, virhen the Ku-Klux Rebellion gradually took 
 form against what the Southerners deemed a wanton in- 
 tention to humiliate and degrade them, and, increasingly, 
 against the rise of the negroes to political power not only 
 of votes but of office, — the days when the few steadfast and 
 intelligent Unionists of Northern and Southern birth who 
 undertook to guide the movement at the South were over- 
 whelmed by the mass of ignorance and rapacity that took 
 possession of legislatures and governing positions, and 
 who made the name of the " Carpet-Bag Governments " a 
 badge of shameless robbery. Let him then read the sec- 
 ond of these "Cleveland Letters," (page 742) addressed by 
 Mr. Beecher to his church, through one of its members, 
 replying to the excited letters and protests that came 
 pouring in upon him from all about, — a letter that reaffirms 
 the first, but with more elaborate reasoning and explana- 
 tion, and with a distinct repudiation of the absurd violence 
 and " increasing indiscretions " of President Johnson, who 
 
112 HEARY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 in the mean time had been "swinging round the circle" 
 with wild speeches and almost frantic denunciations of all 
 who took the right of differing from what he called "my 
 policy." Looking at Mr. Beecher's prophetic utterances 
 and their striking verification, the reader must be struck 
 with the clear-eyed foresight of political conditions and 
 after-developments, and also with the masterly quietude of 
 a great man's spirit in the midst of turbulence and peril — 
 not physical danger, but the greater evils of disruption 
 in friendly, social, political, and ecclesiastical ties, that 
 threatened him. 
 
 As this point marks real divergence between Mr. Beecher 
 and his party — although he continued to act with them 
 because their aims and general direction were more nearly 
 his own than were those of the other party — it is worth 
 while to bring out a little more clearly his position; not 
 that it is, or was, at all questionable, if men would judge 
 him by his own utterances, but that their partisan blind- 
 ness made his critics incapable of seeing two sides to a 
 question. 
 
 In his second letter Mr. Beecher says (we italicize some 
 phrases) : — 
 
 " Upon the assembling of Congress [Dec, 1865] I went to Wash- 
 ington. I found Southern iiie/i lying prostrate before Mr. Johnson, 
 and appealing to his tender-heartedness,— for he is a man of 
 kind and tender heart, — disarming his war-rage by utter submis- 
 sion. I found Northerti men already uttering suspicions of his 
 fidelity, and, conscious of power, threatening impeachment. The 
 men who seemed alive to this danger were, unfortunately, not 
 those who had the management of affairs. Bad counsels pre- 
 vailed. The North denounced and the South sued : we see the con- 
 sequences. 
 
 " Long after I despaired of seeing the President and Congress 
 harmonious, I felt it to be the duty of all good men to leave no 
 influences untried to lessen the danger and to diminish the evils 
 which are sure to come should the President, rebounding from 
 the Republicans, be caught by those Northern men who were in 
 sympathy and counsel with the South throughout the war. I 
 shall not attempt to apportion blame where both sides erred. It 
 is enough to say that unity secured at the seat of Government 
 would be a noble achievement of leadership. 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 113 
 
 "Deeming the speedy admission of the Southern States as 
 necessary to their own health, as indirectly the best policy for 
 the freedmen, as peculiarly needful to the safety of our Govern- 
 ment, which, for the sake of accomplishing a good end, incautious 
 men are in danger of perverting, I favored, and do still favor, the 
 election to Congress of Republicans who will seek the early admis- 
 sion of the recusant States. Having urged it for a year past, I 
 was more than ready to urge it agaifi upon the Representatives to 
 Congress this fall. 
 
 " In this spirit and for this end I drew up my Cleveland letter. 
 I deem its views sound; I am not sorry that I wrote it. I regret 
 the misapprehension which it has caused, and yet more any sor- 
 row which it may have needlessly imposed upon dear friends. 
 As I look back upon my course, / see no deviation from the 
 straight line which I have jnade, without waver ittg, for now thirty 
 years in public life, in favor of justice, liberty, and the elevation of 
 the poor and ignorant." 
 
 And to show how serenely he viewed the whole affair, 
 while hundreds thought him ruined forever because he 
 dared differ from the other opinion-shapers of the party 
 and from the majority of his own friends, this paragraph 
 is apt : — 
 
 " The attempt to class me with men whose course I have opposed 
 all my life long will utterly fail. / shall choose my own place, 
 and shall not be moved from it. I have been from my youth a 
 firm, unwavering, avowed, and active friend of all that were op- 
 pressed. I have done nothing to forfeit that good name which I 
 have earned. I am not going weakly to turn away from my settled 
 convictions of the public weal for fear that bad men may praise 
 me or good men blame. There is a serious difference of judgment 
 between men as to the best polic3^ We must all remit to the 
 future the decision of the question. Facts will soon judge us." 
 
 In a private letter written by Mr. Beecher about the time 
 of the foregoing controversy, recently published in the 
 Christian Union in its report of a day of " Beecher reminis- 
 cences" held this summer (1887) in Litchfield, Connecti- 
 cut, appears the following: — 
 
 "I desire that the constitutional amendments proposed should 
 all be passed, except that of disfranchisement, which I think 
 needless, as Congress has power to reject any who are sent from 
 the South who are disloyal. To oblige the South to disfranchise 
 
114 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 their most trusted and honored men is an unnecessary humili- 
 alion ; and to use the Constitution as a mere criminal law to 
 punish men with, to foist into it provisions to meet a transient 
 exigency, is to set a dangerous example and pervert our funda- 
 mental law for no good end. ... I believe that the great 
 body of the American people of the South, who are honest and 
 have been misled, would have come back with a sense of gratitude 
 for the leniency with which they had been treated. Now, they 
 are in danger of feeling that they have been trodden down by 
 their conquerors." 
 
 In corroboration of this forecast read the words of the 
 author of " A Fool's Errand " (written and published in 
 1879), who certainly will never be charged with an undue 
 partiality for Southern views, but who does show a remark- 
 able power of understanding what he does not accept, and 
 who speaks thus of the disfranchisement of the leaders: — 
 
 " Among the peculiarities which marked the difference between 
 Northern and Southern society was one so distinct and evident, 
 one which had been so often illustrated in our political history, 
 that it seems almost impossible that shrewd observers of that his- 
 tory should for a moment have overlooked or underestimated it. 
 This is the influence of family position, social rank, or political 
 prominence. Leadership, in the sense of a blind, unquestioning 
 following of a man, without his being the peculiar exponent of an 
 idea, is a thing almost unknown at the North: at the South it 
 is a power. Every family there has its clientelage, its followers, 
 who rally to its lead as quickly, and with almost as unreasoning 
 a faith, as the old Scottish clansmen, summoned by the burn- 
 ing cross. . . . 
 
 " It [disfranchisement] was a fatal mistake. The dead leader 
 has always more followers than his living peer. Every hench- 
 man of those lordlings at whom this blow was aimed felt it far 
 more keenly than he would if it had lighted on his own cheek. 
 The king of every village was dethroned; the magnate of every 
 cross-roads was degraded. Henceforward, each and every one 
 of their satellites was bound to eternal hostility toward these 
 measures and to all that might result therefrom." . . . 
 
 "Time went on; and, twelve years from the day when Lee 
 surrendered under the apple tree at Appomattox, there was an- 
 other surrender, and the last of the governments organized under 
 the policy of reconstruction fell into the hands of those who had 
 inaugurated and carried on war against the Nation, who had 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 115 
 
 openly opposed the theory of reconstruction, had persistently 
 denied its legality or the binding nature of its promises, and had 
 finally, with secret, organized violence, suppressed and neutral- 
 ized the element on which it had depended for support." 
 
 In brief, the political power given to the blacks over the 
 heads of the whites resulted, first, in a chaos of misgovern- 
 ment; then in a new rebellion which annihilated the blacks 
 as a political element, and solidified the whites. When 
 that had been effected, came peace; not instantly but grad- 
 ually. The blacks, no longer feared, were at first tolerated, 
 then their value as an inseparable element of the commu- 
 nity began to tell, and by degrees the natural development 
 of self-interest had its opportunity in solving the question 
 of the common citizenship of the two races. 
 
 Now, at the end of twenty years, we can appreciate how 
 the processes which have latterly advanced so far in har- 
 monizing the heterogeneous elements of Southern life (to 
 quote Mr. Beecher's prophetic phrase, " occupation, new 
 hopes, prosperous industries, education,") are at last hav- 
 ing their normal effect: not perfectly, — for even the North 
 is not yet in all respects perfect in the smooth working of 
 its political, judicial, monetary, industrial, and varied cor- 
 porate organisms! — but hopefully. 
 
 Passing on, then, from this important phase of Mr. 
 Beecher's public ministrations, we may rapidly review the 
 next decade, during which the Congressional scheme of 
 Reconstruction was doing its work, for good and evil, and 
 Mr. Beecher retained his connection with the Republican 
 party, and, with the lapse of confiict (for he never was an 
 " irreconcilable," and despised controversy that had no prac- 
 tical end in fair view), regained his influence in all directions. 
 He had not, in the slightest degree, given any reason to 
 think that he wished to go over to affiliation with the pro- 
 slavery "Copperhead" Democracy of that time, but he 
 had with might and main striven to hold the Republican 
 party and the President together, and to carry out the 
 restoration of the Union according to the spirit and plan of 
 the lamented Lincoln and that which his own broad mind 
 and generous heart told him was the simpler, safer, speed- 
 
Il6 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 ter way — of consulting the facts of human nature. The 
 effort had failed, by reason of strenuous wills attempered 
 to war and incapable of sudden change to the sagacity of 
 peaceful counsels. He quietly left the arena, and held his 
 peace. He was not one who insisted that his way was the 
 only way: he recognized the patriotism, and ability, and 
 wisdom of the majority of his party's leaders, and, while he 
 felt that they were taking the longest road, he loyally ac- 
 cepted the route chosen and made the best of the good he 
 found in it. In his church his influence had not been 
 seriously shaken. His remarkable power of indignation 
 and even invective, when roused by an infraction of the 
 rights of others, was never used, or even suggested by 
 any expression or phrase, when his own liberty of action 
 was assailed. He had trained his people to independent 
 thought and expression of opinion, and, while his sensibili- 
 ties were undoubtedly hurt by many intemperate and 
 harsh words from partisans during the heat of the contest, 
 he spoke none himself, but with steady, sweet-tempered 
 dignity kept his hold both on their respect and their love. 
 And after the cloud had passed they felt a little ashamed, 
 — not of their opinions, but of the way in which they had 
 expressed them. 
 
 The next of the "Patriotic Addresses" is a discourse 
 on "National Unity,". preached in Plymouth Church, Nov. 
 i8, 1869 (Thanksgiving Day). It is a large view of the 
 possibilities of feuds and disintegration in our vast coun- 
 try; discussing the disturbing influences, — immigration, 
 religious sectarianism, long continued physical prosperity, 
 and clashing of commercial interests between various sec- 
 tions (especially Eastern and Western), and also the hope- 
 ful elements, — intelligence (and its spread by religious 
 discussion, books, and newspapers), the common-schools 
 (and the need of keeping them free, and especially the 
 growing necessity of making them unsectarian), and a sin- 
 gle political agency, the constitutional Rights of the States 
 (to secure wise local administration and maintain the 
 dignity and power of National Sovereignty). It is a noble 
 and most suggestive discourse, and in its discussion of un- 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. ii? 
 
 sectarian common-schools, and of the rights of the States, 
 shows a profound knowledge of the Constitution and of 
 the true principles of our Federal government as inter- 
 preted since then by the Supreme Court. 
 
 In 1868 General Grant had been elected President, enter- 
 ing upon his office in March, 1869, and in 1873 upon his 
 second term. In both the political campaigns of Grant's 
 election, Mr. Beecher took hearty interest and with helpful 
 eifect. The nullification of the colored vote at the South 
 resulted in the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
 proposed by Congress in 1869 and adopted by the States 
 in March, 1870, providing that the right of suffrage should 
 not be withheld from any citizen of the United States 
 "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servi- 
 tude." Political affairs at the South continued unsettled, 
 but gradually quieted down as the whites regained ascen- 
 dency. They seem to have passionately shut their eyes to 
 all consideration of growth in industrial or commercial 
 advancement, and to have retarded their own interests for 
 ten or fifteen years to accomplish that one point. It is in- 
 comprehensible to us of the North; yet so it stands. 
 
 Meanwhile new dangers were threatening the country. 
 The colossal development of moneyed interests during and 
 since the war had bred an intense spirit not only of enter- 
 prise but of speculation throughout the North. Railroad 
 building and all forms of manufacturing and of com- 
 merce were feverishly active. " Money " was plentiful, for 
 paper-mills and the Government printing-presses turned 
 out "greenbacks" bearing the name of the Dollar but 
 passing for very much less than the golden reality. 
 Congress, inflamed with the craze of the times, was in- 
 clined to perpetuate this baseless monetary system, which 
 had brought such "prosperity;" but Grant courageously 
 vetoed the bill and gave some sensible counsel. In 1873 
 the bubble burst, in an awful collapse of financial institu- 
 tions all over the land; and the lesson was a severe one. 
 In 1875 Congress patriotically and wisely passed the Re- 
 sumption Act, to take effect Jan. i, 1879, by which the 
 Government was to go back to specie payments. The day 
 
Il8 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 after Grant signed the bill the premium on gold began to 
 diminish (/. e., greenbacks began to appreciate) and, with 
 wise management by the United States Treasury, on the 
 appointed day the premium had disappeared and the Gov- 
 ernment's promises to pay were worth their face. This was 
 not accomplished without agitation, discussion, wild theo- 
 ries, passionate debate, and organized political resistance: 
 and through it all Mr. Beecher gave his constant influence 
 by pen and tongue in favor of sound currency, and sober 
 restraint of the extravagances, public and private, engen- 
 dered by the era of speculation. 
 
 On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 30, 1876, he made a "Cen- 
 tennial Review" of the nation's life (page 772), with a 
 philosophic consideration of the effects of the two great 
 wars of our history — the Revolution and the Civil War, 
 and especially the latter, on different portions of the coun- 
 try; and he says: — 
 
 " Instead of applying a rigorous ideal moral standard in form- 
 ing a judgment, let us ask what was to have been expected of our 
 people judged by the tendency of ordinary human nature in such 
 conditions as existed at the end of this war. We shall then be 
 able to judge whether this should be a fast day or a day of 
 thanksgiving." 
 
 He says some pretty severe things about both North 
 and South, but his general conclusions are most hopeful. 
 The special topic was the duty of good citizens in the midst 
 of the exciting contested Presidential-election dispute be- 
 tween the supporters of Hayes and of Tilden, the election 
 having been held some weeks previously, and the cries of 
 conflict over the result being then loud and furious. The 
 Republicans charged the Democrats with frauds at the 
 Southern polls, and the Democrats charged the Republi- 
 cans with fraud in the Southern counting of votes: both 
 claimed the election. 
 
 Mr. Beecher firmly declared his belief in the Republican 
 theory of this contest, but his counsel was for peaceful 
 submission of the matter to the legal authorities and an 
 Americanlike acceptance of the decision, whatever it 
 mio-ht be. 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 119 
 
 His historical illustrations and precedents were exceed- 
 ingly interesting, his patriotic confidence in American 
 institutions was reassuring, and the lofty plane of political 
 morality to which he raised the whole distressing and 
 alarming contest was inspiring to the thousands who heard 
 him and the tens of thousands who read his words. It was 
 a valuable lesson in the principles of civil liberty. 
 
 Among the interests that had leaped to enormous pros- 
 perity and consequent power during the recent )'ears was 
 that of silver mining. To such an extent had the output of 
 that metal increased that it began to own States and legis- 
 latures, and to send its representatives and senators to Con- 
 gress. It was, properly, looked upon as an interest of great 
 value to the land, but like every other one that by monop- 
 oly gathered strength it swelled with selfishness and conceit. 
 Silver was the great American product, and the rest of the 
 land and all the nations of the earth must bow down before 
 it. The insanity of attempting to satisfy the European 
 capitalists, who had lent us gold on our bonds and enabled 
 us to put through the war, by repaying them in our depre- 
 ciated "greenbacks" had passed; and indeed, as the bonds 
 were to be paid in "coin," could not have been seriously 
 proposed to the world. But is not silver-money " coin " ? 
 And is it not peculiarly our American coin ? So the bloated 
 bondholders should be paid in silver, although the silver 
 dollar could not be exchanged for the gold dollar, even in 
 our own land. 
 
 At the crisis when this specious dishonesty was advocated 
 throughout the country, started by selfish monopolists 
 but taken up by feather-brained theorists and managing 
 politicians, Henry Ward Beecher's voice again rang out 
 in warning. His sermon on " Past Perils and the Peril of 
 To-day" (November 29, 1877) will be found at page 789, 
 fitly exposing the dangers of this " suppressed repudia- 
 tion." 
 
 In 1878 occurred at Springfield, Massachusetts, the ninth 
 annual reunion of the " Society of the Army of the Po- 
 tomac," an association of officers banded together to keep 
 green the memory of " the brave days of old," of gallant 
 
I20 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 comrades gone, of friendships fused in the heat of war and 
 still sound and vibrant with the true ring; an organization 
 that has never demeaned itself by descending from the 
 plane of patriotism to that of "practical politics." Mr. 
 Beecher was invited to address the Reunion, and his speech 
 will be found at page 809. The value of the services of the 
 army in the trying times of Rebellion gave him a natural 
 point for passing to a consideration of the worth of mili- 
 tary training, and the maintenance of military organizations 
 and a regular army among a free people; and especially in 
 this country, where the liberty of discussion is at times likely 
 to degenerate into the violence of riotous reformers and dis- 
 turbances of the social order. He spoke of the sources of 
 danger in our rapidly increasing population, resources, and 
 political power, the development of machinery, the growth 
 of the means of transportation, the combinations of capital 
 and enormous concentrations of individual and corporate 
 wealth, the relations of money to politics and legislation, 
 the beginnings of the socialistic movements among the 
 working classes coincident with the extraordinary increase 
 of power among the classes who employ them. These and 
 other elements of the immediate future or, as he expressed 
 it, " the next score of years," served as his themes of dis- 
 course. 
 
 Ten years have passed since he uttered the words, and 
 the reader will find in them a prophetic portrait of our 
 American social, financial, and political condition, as ac- 
 curate as if made to-day. As General Hooker said, when 
 he was called on for a speech, following it: — 
 
 " That address was good enough to last a long time. Study its 
 lessons, and digest them. I doubt if more home truths can be 
 found in any discourse of the same length since the records of 
 this country began." 
 
 The next and last phase of Mr. Beecher's political activ- 
 ity that demands our attention is the presidential cam- 
 paign of 1884. That episode is too near, and its disputed 
 points are still too much questioned, for any one to hope 
 to make an impartial account of it which shall commend 
 itself to partisan readers of either side as fair and candid. 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 121 
 
 Yet it must be attempted, in justice to the general theme; 
 for, whether Mr. Beecher was wise or unwise in the part 
 he took is aside from our proposition, — namely, that his 
 career from begin/iing to end was guided by unselfish principle, 
 and was consistently that of a lover of God and of man. 
 
 Since the Reconstruction wrangle of 1865-6, eighteen 
 years had passed — more than half the life of a generation. 
 The administrations of Johnson, Grant (twice), Hayes, 
 Garfield, and Arthur had successively entered into history. 
 The Southern States were all represented in the National 
 Congress, and, since the years of Ku-Klux and Bulldozer, 
 had gone also those of the "tissue-ballot" and the skillful 
 "count" which quietly but no less effectually maintained 
 a nullification of the Reconstruction governments that had 
 given the blacks the political control. The sight of their 
 harmless voting had become little by little a familiar one, 
 and no longer aroused the old-time horror and detestation; 
 but, inevitably, intelligence ruled ignorance, and their votes 
 gave them but little power. Yet it was a wholesome thing 
 to have the rising generation at the South accustomed to 
 the idea and the fact; it was preparing for the further 
 changes that were to come. The whites were growing out 
 of their unreasoning passion; the blacks were slowly train- 
 ing for real citizenship. Their existence as men, and as 
 free industrial and political factors, was little by little rec- 
 ognized and acted upon. 
 
 The philanthropic efforts of Northern givers and teach- 
 ers were gradually regarded with less suspicion at the 
 South, and the negroes began to be taught and to learn. 
 The necessity for their labor on Southern lands grew not 
 less but greater; and by degrees they were taking their 
 places as fellow-laborers alongside of the whites — who had 
 been forced to learn the bitter lesson, " he that will not 
 work neither shall he eat." The leaven of industry was 
 permeating the entire mass of social order at the South. 
 A new generation was coming up, who had been reared 
 not in luxury but in labor. Brains among the blacks were 
 beginning to assert their power, and not only could there 
 be seen white men and negroes working side by side in 
 
122 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 the fields or at bricklaying and carpentering and other 
 trades, but colored bosses had charge of white or mixed 
 groups of laborers, and colored contractors were making 
 money and acquiring property. Common -school educa- 
 tion was making headway for both races; and even such 
 exceptional establishments as General Armstrong's Hamp- 
 ton Institute, devoted to the training of negroes and In- 
 dians, more and more won and received the kindly appre- 
 ciation of the Southern people. In a word: the imposed 
 political order having been successfully overthrown by the 
 whites, roused to fury by the insult to their fetich of white 
 supremacy, and their land "redeemed," they had subsided 
 into the condition of ordinary human beings, and the play 
 of normal elements and interests began to have its just 
 effect. As the land grew quiet its splendid natural re- 
 sources attracted enterprise and capital. Manufactures 
 began to appear and grow; crops were more varied and 
 valuable; the South began to take on new and hopeful 
 conditions. 
 
 Through all these years, however, politically, the whites 
 had been almost solidly " Democratic," simply because 
 the negroes and those who represented Reconstruction- 
 ism were solidly "Republican." All other issues were 
 "pooled" in that one. Of course it was not a healthful 
 political condition, either for the Southern communities or 
 for the nation at large; since, whatever other questions of 
 public policy were before the people — as to tariff, cur- 
 rency, bond-paying, taxation, foreign relations, or what 
 not — all, even when mentioned in the party platforms, 
 were nevertheless relegated to comparative obscurity. 
 The main question at the South was how to defeat the 
 Republican party, that had turned their communities bot- 
 tom side up; and, at the North, how to maintain in power 
 the Republican party, that had saved the Union, protected 
 the Negro, and successfully reconstructed the Southern 
 States. It was a double case of fetich. Each section 
 honestly believed that the rule of the party it opposed 
 meant the country's ruin. 
 
 It was the less reasonable, on both sides, because the 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 123 
 
 Republican party of the Civil War had been largely com- 
 posed of the loyal men from all shades and names of 
 political partisanship — not only Whigs, but also " Union- 
 ists " and "Americans," "Abolitionists" and " Free-Soil- 
 ers," "Douglas Democrats" and "Democrats" out-and- 
 out. After the war, multitudes of these men gradually 
 dropped out of the lines of the Republican organization, as 
 the issues that had united them were passed and settled, 
 and divers side-bodies of partisanship took on various 
 names as different topics — reconstruction, greenbackism, 
 silver, tariff, with the administration of President Hayes a 
 revival of the recurrent temperance reform, etc. — came one 
 by one into view. The two main camps, however, remained 
 "Republican" and "Democratic." The Republican leaders 
 had been largely men of sound principles in financial morals 
 and philanthropic statesmanship, and this fact had justly 
 maintained their army of voters in a practical major- 
 ity. Nevertheless, on other issues, the unanimity of the 
 North was dividing; the successful party had necessarily 
 attracted multitudes of shifty politicians " for revenue 
 only;" and the opposition was increasing by defections of 
 opinion. 
 
 We have spoken of the changed industrial and educa- 
 tional condition of the South ; and in several of Mr. 
 Beecher's addresses, already mentioned, will be found to 
 have been foreshadowed some new perils that lay before the 
 North and the country at large. These perhaps may all 
 be grouped under the general head of "the love of money," 
 which in its daily seen effects certainly justifies the wisdom 
 of the inspired writer who said that it was "a root of all 
 evil." 
 
 The enormous prosperity of the North under the un- 
 natural stimulus of the war-fever did undoubtedly breed 
 a " haste to be rich " that was visible in every one of the 
 evils that had to be struggled against — the craze of paper 
 money, the demand for repudiation, the debased silver 
 currency, the oppressive inequities of the war-tariff main- 
 tained through decades of peace, the swollen purse-power 
 of corporations, the bribery and corruption of elections 
 
124 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 and legislatures and departmental administration. On 
 every side was to be seen the immorality growing out of 
 this change in the money-getting power of the times. 
 
 Meantime, the great ship of state was forging ahead and 
 coming into these new waters, vexed by strange winds and 
 moved by currents unnoticed until they had grown potent 
 to swerve the nation's course. 
 
 One of the lines of political thought in which Mr. 
 Beecher took a marked interest, although it is not repre- 
 sented in this volume by any single address, was the ulti- 
 mate ideal of the free exchange of natural and artificial 
 products among nations; so that each one, although 
 limited in certain directions of nature or of art, might be 
 able, by trading for what it could produce, to get the bene- 
 fit of the fertile soils and brains and well-trained hands of 
 all the others. And, like many thinking men of the Re- 
 publican party, he looked regretfully upon the fact that 
 the abnormal taxes imposed upon imports during the war, 
 for the expressed purpose of raising unusual revenues, 
 were maintained, at first with apology, but growingly with 
 bold justification and finally even with claim of merit, by 
 the Republican leaders, as giving "protection to American 
 labor" because taxing the entrance of foreign products, 
 and thus tending to keep them out. 
 
 But, aside from the general question of this excessive 
 and oppressive tax, although connected with it, many of 
 the Republicans sympathized in dreading a new trouble 
 that had within a few years advanced with giant strides. 
 They feared the demoralizing effect of the surplus revenue 
 of $100,000,000 which every year piled up in the United 
 States Treasury — a premium on fraudulent and extrava- 
 gant attempts to get it "distributed to the people again." 
 For, " the people " did not mean those who had unnec- 
 essarily paid the tax, but the shrewd or favored ones 
 who could invent ways of spending it, and furnish " chan- 
 nels" which should retain much while distributing the rest. 
 
 Star-route mail contracts, fraudulent pension claims by 
 the thousands, payment of unearned railroad - building 
 mileage -allowances, Indian supply contracts — big and 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 1 25 
 
 little, the leeches were attracted from every side to fatten 
 on the Treasury surplus. 
 
 The party in power was not altogether chargeable with 
 this: it was inevitable that a so long-continued control of 
 vast revenues should breed demoralization and corrup- 
 tion in any party; both because the corrupt would seek 
 it for their own ends, and because human nature is tempt- 
 able. Men in power want to stay there; and they use the 
 means at hand. It was only by a strenuous effort of re- 
 form within the Republican party that this money-getting 
 peril could be purged out of it. That was the danger to 
 be fought. 
 
 But there was another. The utilization of official station 
 and influence for private purposes, instead of solely for 
 public ends, had become a crying evil. The spoils-theory 
 of office, which regards the places of public servants as 
 the property of the party in power; which makes it the 
 chief business of the higher officials to spend time and in- 
 fluence in providing places for their partisans; which re- 
 gards not fitness for the duties but efficiency in partisan 
 politics as the qualification for public office, was prevalent. 
 The salaries of officials thus favored by party leaders were 
 taxed to furnish means for continuing those leaders in 
 power; favoritism was seen to be advancing not only in 
 executive but even in legislative cliques, making public 
 laws for private profit in the sacred name of party, and by 
 natural degradation stepping down even from that low 
 plane to the still lower one of using the influence of offi- 
 cial station for the personal pecuniary gain of the officers 
 themselves. Thus the spoils-theory of office was inextrica- 
 bly entangled, indeed, systematically reticulated, with the 
 money-getting spirit of the time. 
 
 These evils were broadly recognized in both parties by 
 thinking men and moral teachers, but the chief illustrations 
 in the Federal service were necessarily furnished by the 
 party in power at Washington. Demoralization was not 
 seen at Washington alone, it was wide-spread. As Mr. 
 Beecher said in one of his sermons: "If you send a rogue 
 to Albany to represent you, he does represent you." It was 
 
126 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 not confined to politics alone; embezzlements, defalcations, 
 breaches of trust, showed an infection throughout the bus- 
 iness world. Yet Federal politics offered the opportunity 
 of dealing with the trouble in an organized form. The 
 question arose: How can the wrong tendency be righted ? 
 The "ins" naturally said, "It is a mere matter of position; 
 if the 'outs' ever get in they will do the same." And thus 
 there arose within the Republican party a strong movement 
 to commit the party, by its declaration of principles and by 
 the presidential candidate it should offer as its representa- 
 tive, to a marked divergence from the recognized extremes 
 towards which the current of the times, running in well- 
 worn and insensibly deepening channels, had borne the 
 responsible government. A reform of the tariff inequali- 
 ties and infelicities, a reform of the theory and practice of 
 the appointment to positions in the civil service: these 
 were the two points that many Republicans hoped to see 
 gained in the public commitments of the party. And they 
 had the more hope, because in response to the demand of 
 public opinion something had been begun. A committee, 
 appointed by a Republican Congress, had publicl}^ examined 
 the tariff by the aid of expert witnesses from all parts of 
 the country, and had recommended a considerable reduc- 
 tion of the import taxes. True, the Congress did not find 
 it practicable to unite all interests sufficiently to efi'ect the 
 committee's recommendation, but the public demand had 
 been recognized and the reform might be brought about. 
 The civil service movement was in like hopeful but doubt- 
 ful condition. The reform had been so urgently demanded 
 by public opinion that laws had been passed to compass 
 that end; but practically the spirit of the law was not in 
 favor among the influential leaders of the party in power; 
 and the "outs" of course, as always, had the "ins" as their 
 ever-present text of moral discourse. 
 
 The Republican Convention of June, 1884, made fair 
 enough promises on the critical points of public policy. 
 The main thing, then, was the probability of reform as 
 embodied in the Presidential candidate. Mr. James G. 
 Blaine, the candidate named by the Convention, was not 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 127 
 
 accepted by those members of the party who had been 
 publicly identified with the movements for reform as sat- 
 isfactory to their convictions of what the party and the 
 country needed. 
 
 The Democratic party held its convention about a month 
 later, in July; and while its platform, like the other, con- 
 sisted largely in denunciations of the opposing party, its 
 declarations on the subject of tariff reform and the civil 
 service, honest mone)'', restrictions of the power of corpo- 
 rations, etc., were much the same as those of the Repub- 
 licans. Both parties in their declarations recognized the 
 popular cry for reform, but both kept a wary eye on the 
 influence of vested interests. 
 
 So that the question in this case as in the other became 
 a personal one: — Who and what will be their candidate? 
 The man they nominated, Grover Cleveland, a reputable 
 lawyer of Buffalo, New York, had won his way by a pecul- 
 iarly honest and honorable and single-hearted devotion to 
 his public duties, from the shrievalty of his county to the 
 position of mayor of the city of Buffalo; and from that to 
 the station of governor of the great State of New York. 
 He was known as "the reform Governor;" as such he had 
 been elected, and as such he had admirably filled the place. 
 His creed and practice seemed to be summed up in his 
 own felicitous phrase: "Public office is a public trust." 
 
 Mr. Cleveland was accepted by his own party (although 
 the worst elements of it, typified by Tammany Hall of 
 New York, urgently opposed his nomination, and, as many 
 believe, worked against his election); and his record made 
 him acceptable to the Independent Republicans, who, not 
 seeing present encouragement for reform within their 
 party, stepped outside of it as their best hope. They 
 believed that even a temporary loss of power would be 
 better for the Republican party than the feared continu- 
 ance in the discredited methods. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was one of these. He was now an old man 
 — seventy-one years of age; but his eye was undimmed 
 (it is a curious fact that to the day of his death he never 
 needed the aid of glasses, for private or public reading) and 
 
128 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 his natural force of eloquence, though ripened, mellowed, 
 softened, was not abated. He went into the campaign, 
 not in his old-time tremendous fashion, for the issues were 
 not those of human slavery and the rights of man ; but at 
 the same time he took his position unmistakably, and 
 with power. 
 
 The party fetich, however, was the most potent influ- 
 ence evoked by the Republicans. The campaign was one 
 of unparalleled personal bitterness and cruel vilification, 
 which need not be recalled. This, with the childish dread 
 of many, that, if the Republican party was thrown out of 
 power, the country would fly to dismemberment, its indus- 
 tries be sapped, its trade ruined, its commerce wrecked ; 
 and that if the Democratic party should come in, the 
 negroes would all be remanded to slavery, the rebel debt 
 paid, the pensions to Union soldiers disallowed, free trade 
 immediately inaugurated, and all the forces of the infernal 
 regions incontinently set loose, did much to check the 
 reform-within-the-party feeling that had resulted in the 
 Independent Republican schism. 
 
 Plymouth Church had never been trained by Mr. 
 Beecher to accept him as pope. He had ruled there by 
 the law of love; the authority conferred by his position he 
 never exercised, but his influence was very powerful; his 
 opinions were often combated by his parishioners, and he 
 encouraged them to speak their minds. This had been one 
 secret of the solidarity of that great membership of two 
 thousand, in matters concerning him and his wishes. It 
 was essentially a Congregational — that is, a democratic — 
 community. On the question of breaking off, even tem- 
 porarily and for any reason, from the Republican party, a 
 large number of the members rebelled against Mr. Beecher's 
 position, and when he took active part in the campaign 
 were vehemently excited, opposing him not only in private 
 but in public, and some even, as in 1866, with bitterness. 
 
 Yet he, firm in the consciousness of right motives, 
 stood strong in the conviction of his opinions. Knowing 
 well that this great land was never made and would never 
 be unmade by any political party; seeing the issues of the 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 129 
 
 day practically narrowed to that of a choice between two 
 men — one of whom he believed to be the likelier to influ- 
 ence a carrying out of the promises made by both parties; 
 feeling that it would be more wholesome for the country 
 at large, and even for the Republican party itself, to have a 
 shifting of powers and responsibilities — a "change for the 
 sake of change;" and, with it all, urgently desirous to see 
 a closing of the old war-sores, and a chance for the recon- 
 structed South to share freely in administering the govern- 
 ment of a common country, and the introduction of new 
 issues which should split up the voters of the South on 
 some other lines than the old and irritating ones of 
 "Rebels" and "Republicans," — he stood sturdily where he 
 had placed himself. He made a few speeches, basing his 
 arguments chiefly on the tendencies of the times and the 
 comparative relations of the personal qualities of the can- 
 didates to those tendencies ; and his influence was very 
 great, especially among the young men of his own city 
 and the business men of the great metropolis, who had for 
 so many years seen him on the noble and manly side of 
 every great controversy of the past. When it was all 
 over, and the Republican party had lost the election, one 
 of the most brilliant and effective Republican workers in 
 Plymouth Church said: " It cut me to the soul that he 
 was so wrong; but when it comes to denying his influ- 
 ence, that is simply absurd. We never worked so hard in 
 our lives as we did to counteract him in this thing; but 
 the effect of his personality and his power was evident on 
 every side." 
 
 In November, 1884, on Thanksgiving Day, two weeks 
 after the elections were closed, he preached in Ph^mouth 
 Church a discourse entitled " Retrospect and Prospect " 
 (page 825), taking, as was his custom for that- national 
 festival, the land we live in, as his theme. 
 
 The general discourse is a review of the growth of the 
 land in the blessings of liberty; the war and its conse- 
 quences are briefly touched upon, and then he generously 
 commends the wisdom shown by the political leaders when 
 the war was past and on the people was rolled the difficult 
 
130 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 duty of reconstructing, without experiment or precedent, 
 the shattered fragments of the sixteen Southern States. 
 The commendation is "generous," because it recognizes 
 the value of a course which at the time he opposed in 
 certain of its notable features. Among other things he 
 says : — 
 
 "The work was inherently difficult; and I think that while 
 those to whose hands it was committed were not free from mis- 
 takes, yet they have builded well ; and their names are part and 
 parcel of American history. . . . There were great difficul- 
 ties ; human nature would not be what human nature is if there 
 had not been. There were many imprudent things done, North 
 and South. Nevertheless, we have waited patiently and coura- 
 geously until time should help; for time is God's minister of 
 mercy. . . . 
 
 " Then we have had patience given us, too, to redeem, on 
 our side, the swollen values of the distempering war. We have 
 had grace and conscience given us to redeem our finances and 
 to bring back honestly within their bounds the issues of cur- 
 rency, and have settled business on normal and solid founda- 
 tions. . . . 
 
 " But one thing more was needed, and that was to chase the 
 scowl from the Southern brow ; to revive the old friendship; to 
 clasp hands again in a vow of loving and patriotic zeal. It was 
 given to us last, because it is the greatest of God's gifts. . . . 
 
 " From the bottom of my soul, I believe in the honor and 
 integrity of thoughtful Southern men ; and when I get from them 
 such letters as I do, and hear from their lips such declarations as 
 I hear, that they feel at last that they are in and of the Union, as 
 much as we, and point to the flag, declaring, with tears, 'That is 
 now my flag,' I believe it; I should be faithless to God and to 
 providence if I did not. 
 
 "Not the least joyful element in this reconciliation is the 
 assured safety and benefit which will accrue to the colored race. 
 That has come to pass which was their only safety. Just as 
 soon as the Southern statesmen accept the perfect restoration of 
 themselves to the great body politic, and find that there is no 
 division as between Northern men and Southern men in any of 
 the honors of government ; just as soon as they are in, and a 
 part of every administration, as, thank God, they will be ; just so 
 soon of necessity that will take place which is the salvation of 
 the colored race. As long as they were a fringe upon a Northern 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 131 
 
 party, the South was condensed and solidified against it. As 
 soon as they are divided at home between the administrational 
 party and the opposition party, they will be guarded and taken 
 care of. ... I regard this now, with schools and academies 
 and various seminaries spread among them, as the final step of 
 emancipation. 
 
 " It is in these views, which have not been accepted with sym- 
 pathy by some of the dearest friends I have, that I have acted 
 [in the recent campaign] ; and in the calmest retrospect I now re- 
 joice that I was able to act so. 
 
 " The greatest mistake of my life has happened twice, as I have 
 been informed. I propose this morning now to read a portion 
 of the letters that were the first "greatest mistake of my life." 
 That was immediately after the war, in the autumn of 1866. 
 
 " I read it now that you may see how straight a line has run, 
 from the very days of the war down to this hour, in my thought, 
 philosophy, and action." 
 
 Mr. Beecher then read portions of his two Cleveland 
 letters of 1866, on the Reconstruction of the Southern States 
 (page 736), showing his view that, not by imposition from 
 without but only by the natural development of mutual 
 and common interests between the two races — "the long 
 result of time" — could white and black be brought to live 
 and work harmoniously together. And he concluded 
 thus: — 
 
 " My dear friends, if I had written that for to-day I could not 
 have written it better, and I do not think it needs to be written 
 any better. . . . And I have read these letters, in parts, so 
 far as bears more immediately on questions of to-day, that you 
 may know that God gave me the light to do one of the best 
 things I ever did when I wrote that letter ; and that he gave me 
 the grace to stand on it, without turning back for one single mo- 
 ment ; and that he has given me grace to lay my path, by sight, 
 along those two letters — hindsight and foresight — from that day 
 down to this ; and that he has given me grace to withstand the 
 impleadings of those that I love dearly, not only of my immedi- 
 ate household, but of my blood and kindred ; of those that are in 
 the church, that are to me as my own life, and those that are of 
 the political party with which I have labored thus far. 
 
 " Still seeing that luminous light, as God reveals it to me, I 
 have walked in it and toward it ; and abide in that same direction 
 to-day; and, God helping me, so will I live to the end." 
 
132 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's wisdom, in all the eventful passages of 
 his life, will probably always find men of his own genera- 
 tion to question it; because they thought, and doubtless still 
 think, differently. But the clear-eyed honesty of his con- 
 victions; the utter lack of self-consideration or ambition, 
 or any unworthy motive; the broad consistency and gen- 
 eral sagacity of his views, based on the laws of God as 
 wrought out in human nature — whether displayed in per- 
 sonal or social or political developments; and his single- 
 ness of mind and devotion to his principles, — cannot be 
 candidly denied or doubted. Those qualities were the 
 source of his long-continued and extraordinary influence 
 in the political life of his time. And there are multitudes 
 who can now look back and see how history has justified 
 him in withstanding the current political passions of his 
 day — as to slavery, compromise, disunion, peace and war, 
 the mutual relations of blacks and v.'hites at the South, 
 repudiation and national credit, sound and debased cur- 
 rency, the peaceful settlement of contested elections, and 
 numberless other matters, wherein his counsel had always 
 been freely given. He thought about everything in the 
 light of God's truth and man's benefit, and withheld noth- 
 ing of his thought, but courageously spoke it out and 
 stood to it. 
 
 How far he was right and how far wrong in his hopes 
 and aims of 1884, to see the present perils of the land 
 guarded against by a change, even if temporary, of the 
 party in power and under responsibility, only the future 
 can tell. We who are yet in the turmoil of the contest are 
 too near to judge. He did live to see the substantial 
 assurance of every other great principle that he had worked 
 for; but the latest issue arose too near the end of his life. 
 Yet experience had taught him patience; and patience, 
 hope; and, although he died without the sight, his faith 
 was strong in the self-cleansing and recuperative power of 
 the American people, and in God's guiding hand. The 
 contest over "Prohibition" is already dividing the colored 
 vote in the far South between the two parties. As their 
 manufacturing interests grow, the opposing cries of "Pro- 
 
POLITICAL CAREER. 133 
 
 tection" and "Revenue Tariff" will bring in another split- 
 ting wedge. And thus, in spite of remnants of barbarism 
 like the "Glenn bill" of Georgia, making it a crime to edu- 
 cate white and negro children together, and other evidences 
 of the stubborn race-prejudice (which shows at the North 
 as really as at the South), the great revolution is on the 
 march, and will not go backward. His faith in that regard 
 will be justified and his large wisdom will be recognized. 
 
 The final address given in this volume is Mr. Beecher's 
 " Eulogy of Grant " (page 840), which was delivered in 
 Tremont Temple, Boston, October 22, 18S5, about two 
 months after the death of that great man. It is dignified, 
 strong, impressive, containing noble tributes to the hero 
 and eloquently enforced lessons from the history in which 
 he bore so large a part. 
 
 In one of his addresses is a paragraph concerning Grant, 
 which may well be placed here at the close of this imper- 
 fect review of Mr. Beecher's political career, a fit summary 
 of his own future memory on earth: — 
 
 "As I recede, along the adjoining fields of Jersey, from the 
 great city, I speedily lose sight of the masts, of the warehouses, 
 and of the spires themselves; and yet, when I have gone so far 
 that the last glimmer of these things is lost, the towers of the 
 Brooklyn Bridge stand full and high in the air, conspicuous. As 
 time goes on we shall forget that which called down such a storm 
 of fury upon his name; and when all incidental and collateral 
 things have gone below the horizon, his name and just fame will 
 stand towering high in the air, unobscured and imperishable!" 
 
134 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 VI. 
 
 STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 
 
 One of the aptest things said about Mr. Beecher since 
 his death occurs in an article published in the Cluistian 
 Union, by Dr. R. W. Raymond, who had known him inti- 
 mately for many years. Writing of his peculiar sincerity 
 of character, Dr. Raymond says: — 
 
 " Certainly, I never met another man who was so entirely the 
 same in public and in private. . . . It is often said, by those 
 who fancy themselves critics, that he was a great actor. In the 
 most important sense this is not only not true, it is the exact op- 
 posite of truth. He could not dissemble. He could not give 
 force of expression to a feeling which was not with equal force 
 dominant for the time within him." 
 
 This trait is the complement of the one noted in our 
 first chapter (page ii) as the chief element of the man's 
 life — his sensitiveness to truth. To prevaricate, to give a 
 shifty, double-sensed answer, was something that in forty 
 years of acquaintance and twenty of close personal, lit- 
 erary, and business association with him, as his publisher, 
 I never knew him to do: nor do I believe it was possible 
 for him.* He could be silent; no man more utterly so. 
 And at times, when pursued by questions that he did not 
 wish to answer, he would pass into silence, not only, but 
 an impassibility of countenance that gave no more sign 
 of understanding or of response than the face of the 
 Sphinx. When he spoke at all, in public or in private, he 
 spoke the truth, as it was given to him to see the truth. 
 
 * In this chapter it will occasionally be simpler and more fitting for the 
 writer to speak in his own person, as the material is, to some extent, in the 
 nature of personal testimony. 
 
e^e^e^^^ju^ 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 135 
 
 This was so characteristic that it could be seen through- 
 out his life — in every element and phase. It is the ex- 
 planation of many puzzling things. When Bismarck 
 first appeared in European diplomacy, he baffled all the 
 trained diplomats of the day by the simple device of 
 speaking the truth, for they, never supposing that any 
 man in power would plainly disclose his real intentions, 
 calculated on the opposite, or on some variation, and 
 deceived themselves. It is in much the same way that 
 Henry Ward Beecher — not from shrewd forecast, but by 
 natural impulse and determinate principle a truth-lover 
 and truth-speaker — has been an enigma to many, who, see- 
 ing a man pre-eminent in so many other directions, have 
 judged his truthfulness, at times, not by his own sincere 
 utterances, but by their observations of average humanity. 
 
 And yet no one of them will say that he was otherwise 
 on the level of ordinary men. They will recognize his 
 greatness of intellect, of imagination, of heart, of physical 
 power, and of that indefinable but very positive gift which 
 they call eloquence, and which is a resultant of all the 
 other gifts; yet so weak is their faith that they cannot 
 conceive of a man having all this and the crowning graces 
 of moral and spiritual steadfastness besides. What, how- 
 ever, was the realm in which he lived and moved, and to 
 which he devoted all his strength ? What was the one 
 thing that underlay his every utterance ? It was the eleva- 
 tion of human life above the physical and temporal, to the higher 
 plane of the moral and spiritual ; and the testimony of many 
 who knew his daily " walk and conversation," in matters 
 both small and great, is that he was to a rare degree 
 one who practiced what he preached. Except in certain 
 noted matters wherein his own interests were deeply in- 
 volved, his sincerity was never doubted; yet just there is 
 where he should receive the benefit of "good character." 
 For when to the aim of fifty years of effort, open and 
 known to all men, is added the central, unmistakable char- 
 acteristic of truthfulness, it stands to reason that the words 
 of such a man are to be received as realities. 
 
 In fact, his words were realities, to him, in a sense far 
 
136 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 more actual than most men can comiprehend. So instan- 
 taneous and forcible were his processes of thought, so 
 thorouo^h were his convictions, so vivid were the concep- 
 tions of his mind and the analogies and similes with which 
 his imagination flashed them upon the perception of his 
 hearers, that they took place in him as experiences^ rather 
 than as the mere results of intellection. When he was pre- 
 paring for a public occasion he avoided any clear formula- 
 tion of his material until the time was almost at hand, be- 
 cause it was so difficult for him to follow a second time 
 over a line of thought once taken. If I may repeat a por- 
 tion of what I contributed to a chapter of Reminiscences 
 in Abbott and Halliday's " Life " of him, a remark he made 
 just previous to beginning his third series of " Yale Lect- 
 ures on Preaching " will be apt, here. The series was to 
 be on "Methods of Using Christian Doctrines," and the 
 day before he was to go to New Haven I asked him: " Do 
 you know pretty nearly the line of treatment )'ou mean 
 to take ?" — for it was a difficult and critical task, and he 
 dreaded it. 
 
 ** Yes; in a way," he answered. "I know what I am 
 going to aim at, but of course I don't get down to any- 
 thing specific. I brood it, and ponder it, and dream over 
 it, and pick up information about one point and another, 
 but if ever I think I see the plan opening up to me I don't 
 dare to look at it or put it down on paper. If I once 
 write a thing out, it is almost impossible for me to kindle 
 up to it again. I never dare, nowadays, to write out a ser- 
 mon during the week; that is sure to kill it. I have to 
 think around and about it, get it generally ready, and then 
 fuse it when the time comes." 
 
 This every one knew who was familiar with the diffi- 
 culty he always had in correcting for the press what 
 he had spoken, when it had been reported and put in type; 
 and even what he had written. The matter under revis- 
 ion was no longer in process of making, to be perfected 
 and corrected, but was a thing done, and had become an 
 outside fact, simply suggestive of new ideas. The orig- 
 inal production ran great risk of being overrun with new 
 
STRENGTH AiVD WEAKNESS. 137 
 
 growth; every joint pushed forth a fresh bud of vital ex- 
 pansion. Hence, he rarely undertook to see his speeches 
 or lectures or sermons after their delivery, until they came 
 to him printed and published. 
 
 Nor was this the case with his public utterances alone. 
 The thought tliat arose, if not suppressed altogether, was 
 apt to find instant and forceful expression. He was quite 
 as likely to burst out into splendid eloquence amid a small 
 group of chatting friends, or even to a single listener, as 
 before a vast audience, — not Macaulay-like, in artificial 
 fireworks, but with the spontaneity and friendly glow of a 
 great mass of cannel coal at the home fireside. 
 
 He was moved by his own inner forces. One would as 
 SQon suspect the Atlantic of holding back a particularly 
 grand roll of surf at Long Branch until people should come 
 down to see it, as to imagine Mr. Beecher " keeping " a 
 fine thought or a striking figure till he had an audience. 
 It was not that he despised careful preparation for public 
 speech, since his whole life was a constant gathering, — a 
 patient, painstaking, studious reading of books, and of 
 men, individually and socially; a storing of his mind with 
 multitudinous information and the results of other men's 
 thought and discovery. But all this entered into his own 
 mind and became an indivisible part of himself; and 
 when, in talk or in conversation or in public speech, an 
 idea came up for expression, it laid hold of him with 
 power, as a real thing; and it was this, together with his 
 natural gifts and cultivated modes of utterance, that made 
 such strong impression on others. 
 
 It is important to have this fact, of the native and habit- 
 ual outspeaking sincerity of the man, thoroughly stated; 
 for on it stands his life. And by way of emphasizing what 
 I have called the "reality" of his thoughts, to himself, it will 
 perhaps be worth while to claim and restate here another 
 personal reminiscence, which I have several times seen in 
 print, although I never put it there. 
 
 It was at the close of one of his patriotic Thanksgiving 
 Day sermons that, after raising his hearers with him to a 
 noble elevation of thought and sentiment, he closed with 
 
138 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 an apostrophe to Liberty, whose radiant face and form he 
 described in dazzling eloquence. A day or two later I 
 chanced to be where he was, in a family circle, and as he 
 was weary he had thrown himself down on the sofa. We 
 were speaking of a report of the sermon in one of the 
 papers: "But," said he, "how stupid of the reporter to 
 make that a diamond-j'///^Mv/ scepter ! It was a diamond 
 scepter — one flashing crystal." 
 
 " Now, Mr. Beecher, that's not likely. Whoever knew of 
 such a thing? Besides, the phonographer probably wrote 
 just what he heard, and it is my recollection that you said 
 ' diamond-studded.' " 
 
 With one bound he was on his feet. " I don't know 
 what I said, but I know what I saw." And then with ear- 
 nestness and increasing intensity as he was rekindled by 
 the remembrance, which seemed to have been an unusually 
 vivid one, he went on and told how it came about, what 
 had been the foregoing thought, and how, suddenly, the 
 vision shone upon him, and what it was. From that time 
 I never doubted that he did actually see — that his imagina- 
 tion did really " body forth " — the forms of things unknown, 
 and of known things not present to the bodily eye. 
 
 There is another such reminiscence, — not so poetical 
 or striking as to the vision, but perhaps even more to the 
 point under discussion. 
 
 In another of his sermons on Thanksgiving Day Mr. 
 Beecher was describing an imaginary interview between a 
 ship-owner of kindly Christian feeling and an old sailor 
 on one of his ships in port, which the merchant had 
 gone to look at. He indicated the superior's frank and 
 friendly way of speaking, and then the old sailor raised 
 himself slowly up from his work to reply. Mr. Beecher 
 never used tobacco; I doubt if he ever tasted it; but, 
 in the person of the old sailor, he rolled his tongue 
 around in his cheek, put up his hand, and, to clear his 
 mouth for talking, unmistakably made the movement 
 of taking out of it a large cud, and went on with his 
 reply. The conversation proceeded for perhaps a min- 
 ute. Mr. Beecher's right hand meanwhile had dropped 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 139 
 
 to his side, but it was closed, as if holding something. 
 When finally he spoke of the merchant pleasantly offering 
 his right hand to say good-by, the sailor's closed right hand 
 furtively threw away something behind hi/n, 7vas wiped off on 
 the back of his trousers, and then held out to receive the gen- 
 tleman's farewell. I had watched the hand, believing that 
 the orator all the while unconsciously felt the " moist un- 
 pleasant body " of the sailor's cud, and was proportion- 
 ately amused to see him throw it away and wipe his hand 
 sailor-fashion before taking the other's proffered palm. The 
 experience was a reality to the man who was describing it. 
 
 When I afterwards asked Mr. Beecher about it he was 
 immensely tickled with the comicality of the thing, but had 
 no recollection of the minor details at all. What he was 
 after was the illustration of his subject; the special mode 
 of doing it was something he gave no thought to. And, 
 indeed, the action was so quiet and unnoticeable that it 
 could not have been an intentional part of the picture, and 
 I doubt if it was seen by the audience at all. 
 
 But, it may be objected, this is not moral sincerity. No; 
 yet it shows the native temper and habit of the mind, 
 which has much to do with moral developments of every 
 kind. And that tendency, to speak the things that were 
 himself, may be found — nay, it is one of the most obvious 
 qualities noticeable — in all his multifarious teachings. Says 
 Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes: — * 
 
 " The way a man handles his egoisms is a test of his mastery 
 over an audience or a class of readers. What we want to know 
 about the person who is to counsel or lead us is, just what he is, 
 and nobody can tell us so well as he himself. . . . Mr. Beecher 
 has the simple frankness of a man who feels himself to be per- 
 fectly sound, in bodily, mental, and moral structure; and his 
 self-revelation is a thousand times nobler than the assumed im- 
 personality which is a common trick with cunning speakers who 
 never forget their own interests. Thus it is that wherever Mr. 
 Beecher goes, everybody feels, after he has addressed them once 
 or twice, that they know him well, almost as if they had always 
 known him ; and there is not a man in the land who has such a 
 multitude who look upon him as their brother." 
 
 * " The Minister Plenipotentiary," page 422. 
 
I40 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 In the " Beecher-Memorial " volume, compiled and pub- 
 lished by Mr. Edward W. Bok, among other interesting 
 contemporary tributes to Mr. Beecher's qualities, is one 
 from Dr. William A. Hammond. Referring to Mr. Beech- 
 er's speech at the dinner given to Herbert Spencer when 
 in New York, he says: — 
 
 " I shall never forget the effect which his ringing words pro- 
 duced upon an audience, composed as it was, of hard-headed men 
 who were not accustomed to be swayed by their emotions. They 
 rose to their feet, waved their table-napkins, and shouted them- 
 selves hoarse, not because they all approved the views which he 
 then revealed to them, but because of the astounding courage, 
 the wonderful regard for the truth as he understood it, and the 
 almost superhuman honesty by which he must have been act- 
 uated." 
 
 It was this very sincerity of self-revelation, and the 
 further fact that there was a self worthy to be revealed, 
 that was his strength. To quote Dr. Storrs again: "His 
 power has been so constant and so vast only because the 
 sources of it have been so manifold and so deep." 
 
 This same outspeaking fashion of his, however, was also 
 a source of weakness, in that it sometimes led him into 
 headlong leaps of feeling and overstrenuous or inaccurate 
 statements. In his address to the New York and Brooklyn 
 Association of Ministers and Churches, October ir, 1882, 
 when he resigned his connection with that body in order 
 that neither the Association nor any of its members should 
 feel oppressed by the sense of any responsibility for his 
 religious teachings, he said: — 
 
 " I have my own peculiar temperament ; I have my own method 
 of preaching : and my method and temperament necessitate 
 errors. I am not worthy to be related in the hundred-thou- 
 sandth degree to those more happy men who never make a mis- 
 take in the pulpit. I make a great many. I am impetuous. I 
 am intense at times on subjects that deeply move me. I feel as 
 though all the ocean were not strong enough to be the power 
 behind my words, nor all the thunders in the heavens ; and it is 
 of necessity that such a nature should at times give such intensity ■ 
 to parts of doctrine as to exaggerate them when you come to 
 bring them into connection with a more rounded and balanced 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 141 
 
 view. I know it. I know it as well as you do. I would not do 
 this if I could help it; but there are times when it is not I that is 
 talking ; when I am caught up and carried away so that I know 
 not whether I am in the body or out of the body; when I think 
 things in the pulpit that I could never think in the study, and 
 when .1 have feelings that are so far different from any that be- 
 long to the lower or normal condition that I can neither regulate 
 them nor understand them. I see things, and I hear sounds, and 
 seem, if not in the seventh heaven, yet in a condition that leads 
 me to apprehend what Paul said, — that he heard things which it 
 was not possible for a man to utter. 
 
 " I am acting under such a temperament as that. I have got to 
 use it, or not preach at all. I know very well I do not give crys- 
 talline nor thoroughly guarded views. There is often an error on 
 this side and on that ; but I cannot stop to correct them. . . . 
 The average and general influence of a man's teaching will be 
 more mighty than any single misconception, or misapprehension 
 through misconception. 
 
 The Association urould seem to have agreed with that 
 final assertion, for after the long and full statement of his 
 beliefs and teachings, which he proceeded to make, they 
 passed without a dissenting voice a resolution, recognizing 
 his magnanimity in wishing to relieve his fellows in the 
 Association of even apparent responsibility, but declaring 
 that his exposition of doctrinal views "indicates the pro- 
 priety of his continued membership in this or any other 
 Congregational Association," requesting him to withdraw 
 his resignation, and finally saying: — 
 
 " We desire to place on record, as the result of a long and 
 intimate acquaintance with Mr. Beecher, a familiar observation of 
 the results of his life, as well as his preaching and pastoral work, 
 that we cherish for him an ever-growing personal attachment as 
 a brother beloved and a deepening sense of his worth as a Chris- 
 tian minister." 
 
 Our point here, however, is that whether in public 
 or in private, whether in quiet moods, or under the stimu- 
 lus of a keen interest, or on the sweep and swing of a 
 mighty wave of feeling, he was always natural, always 
 himself, always giving forth his own interior condition, 
 honestly and frankly; and those who knew him longest 
 came by experience to know the truthfulness of his words. 
 
142 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 This is especially noticeable in his letters, whether to 
 friends, acquaintances, or strangers. With a strong sense 
 upon him of an unwillingness to read manuscript and an 
 impatience of pen-work, he was nevertheless a voluminous 
 correspondent, and wrote innumerable letters, notes, scraps 
 of memoranda, questions, answers, instructions, — every 
 conceivable size and style of epistolary communication to 
 all sorts and conditions of men. A collection of his letters 
 would be a mountain of ore-veins, with many a bonanza- 
 chimney of pure precious metal; sense and trifling non- 
 sense, fun and broad-based wisdom, affectionate and poetic 
 sentiment, tender sympathy in trouble, the noblest spirit- 
 uality — the man himself. Mr. Joseph Howard, Jr., in his 
 graphic and characteristic " Life" of Mr. Beecher, says: — 
 
 "Years hence, when the ultimate biographer and collector shall 
 have received from all sources, at home and abroad, the multitu- 
 dinous trifles which go to make the comprehensive whole, far 
 from the least of these illustrations of the greatness and goodness, 
 the weakness and the uniqueness of Mr. Beecher's character will 
 be found in letters, sent here and there, dashed off with the 
 rapidity of friendly utterance, or penned with care and thought 
 as to their effect. . . . Elsewhere in this volume will be found 
 letters written during a period of forty years to his most intimate 
 friends. . . . They are packed with sentiment. They give 
 evidence of his extraordinary and peculiar vocabulary, and are 
 brightly garlanded with choice illustrations drawn from the 
 heav^ens, from the earth, from the verdure-clad fields, from the 
 golden granaries of the West, from the heart of society, from the 
 progress of art and science, from everything which human nature 
 teaches, showing that it was his constar habit so to think and 
 so to write. . . . His letters are no more like those written 
 by ordinary men than he was like ordinary men." 
 
 The circle that furnished the letters to which Mr. How- 
 ard alludes could doubtless furnish many more, and so 
 could every group of heart-friends that in his long and 
 loving life Mr. Beecher drew to himself; so, too, could 
 lawyers, statesmen, politicians, business associates, ecclesi- 
 astical friends (and opponents), editors, young men that 
 he helped, strangers who addressed him, — there was no 
 limit to the varieties of humanity to whom he wrote, for 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 143 
 
 one reason and another. And the " infinite riches" of his 
 nature could be gathered from these writings quite as 
 effectively, if not as completely, as from his public minis- 
 trations. They are all characteristically frank; and while 
 naturally his exuberant sentiment and affection found most 
 outplay towards his nearest friends, many a distant corre- 
 spondent has been surprised and delighted to get so much 
 more of the man himself in a felicitous mood than had 
 been hoped, when addressing him. 
 
 In tracing the trait of sincerity in Mr. Beecher's charac- 
 ter, there is one point more that requires mention: his 
 trustfulness in friendship. In his " Eulogy of Grant," the 
 orator says: — 
 
 " Such was his loyalty to friendship that it must be set down 
 as a fault — a fault rarely found among public men." 
 
 This remark may be applied to Mr. Beecher himself, — 
 except that the evils flowing from his loyal belief in friends 
 never led him into errors of principle whereby the interests 
 of the public suffered. He himself took the chief injury. 
 It is true, there were occasions when his confidence in the 
 disinterestedness and judgment of some friends resulted 
 in unjust conclusions bearing upon others; but they were 
 candid mistakes, amid complicated currents, at times when 
 he felt the need of experienced and unbiased counsel and 
 believed that he had found it. When an idea took posses- 
 sion of him he held it tenaciously, and in the face of oppo- 
 sition would sometimes forward it with tremendous force 
 (under pressure of that human faculty which he himself 
 has happily describ 'd somewhere as a "conceited con- 
 science"). Yet he was not a stubborn man; and when 
 fairly convinced of error he was no laggard in acknowl- 
 edging it. A patent fact in his career was that in the 
 realm of personal friendship his powerful affection for 
 others — and especially for any whom he could help — drew 
 him into confidence in the sincere love for him of those 
 whom he loved. The honest strength of his own feeling 
 sometimes blurred his sight, when the feelings of others 
 towards him were to be discriminated. It sprang from 
 his own open and sincere nature. The special instances 
 
144 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 of this trait which plunged him into the deep and awful 
 trouble of his life need no specification here. They are 
 but too well known. 
 
 It presents an anomaly; yet the fact stands: Mr. 
 Beecher's knowledge and intuitions of human nature as. 
 shown in his published works would seem to be almost un- 
 rivaled, since the day of the master-dramatist who stands 
 above comparison; while yet his judgment in the cases of 
 actual persons was at times egregiously wrong. 
 
 His remarkable knowledge of man's nature was based on 
 incessant observation and study of men's actions and mo- 
 tives, the results of which were shot through with the light 
 of his marvelous imagination and warmed into life by his 
 human sympathy, enabling him to vitally realize what must 
 be the consciousness of others — to think their thoughts, 
 and feel their sensations, and be moved by their emotions. 
 But there was a force in him greater than knowledge, 
 loftier than imagination, more potent than generic human 
 sympathy: it was the constant outreaching of an affec- 
 tionate heart for personal friendship. Freely he received, 
 throughout his life; for who could resist or ignore the 
 friendliness of so rich, so noble a nature ? And, as he re- 
 ceived, so and much more freely did he give, bounteously, 
 unreservedly. Nothing pleased him so much as the power 
 to please or serve a friend,^unless it was a chance to do a 
 good turn for an enemy. 
 
 Yet it is not to be supposed that he gave his friendship 
 without just cause. Among the thousands who felt his per- 
 sonal influence and who bore to him an enduring personal 
 affection, the members of Plymouth Church showed that 
 their friendship was of the lasting kind, while of those who 
 at one time and another became intimate with him, the 
 element of constancy was lacking in but a pitiful few. 
 The roll would be seen to contain many noble and honored 
 names, with others quite as worthy if less known. He was 
 attracted by beautiful and generous qualities, and instinct- 
 ively repelled by low and mean ones. Of the two false 
 friends who raised the cloud of suspicion that cast so black 
 a shadow on his life, one had been a youth of noble promise 
 
• STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. MS 
 
 who had grown to maturity under his fostering kindness 
 and loving care, and who in early manhood showed many 
 winning and admirable qualities; while the other, frank and 
 attractive in demeanor, intelligent and interesting in con- 
 versation, came to him in an hour of desperation, professing 
 indeed to be moved by loyalty to his opponent, but winning 
 his confidence by free protestations of belief in him, and 
 offers to undertake the generous office of "mutual friend." 
 Complaint has been made concerning Mr. Beecher, that 
 he had the "royal trait" of accepting not only homage but 
 service and sacrifice, as no more than his due, and that he 
 was negligent of homely obligations. This is true; but it 
 is only half the truth. A man of many and important 
 functions, he was under large responsibilities, which needed 
 both service and sacrifice from many helpers. In the great 
 Congregational Council of February, 1876, — the largest in 
 the history of the denomination, — which assembled to con- 
 sider (and resulted in practically sustaining) the propriety 
 of the rules and practice of the disciplinary polity of Plym- 
 outh Church, the fact was brought out that the member- 
 ship of that church was something over two thousand 
 five hundred; and that when the whole church work was 
 considered, its parish of families, its own immense Sunday- 
 school, its Bethel and Mayflower Mission schools, etc., it 
 was seen to be the center of from 12,000 to 15,000 persons, 
 looking to it for instruction, for consolation, for moral di- 
 rection. That would be enough for almost any man to 
 carry on his soul. Yet Mr. Beecher's duties, as a sort of 
 central heart to supply and circulate spiritual life-blood, 
 were not limited by these thousands, although their needs 
 were the nearest and the most conscious. There were 
 demands upon him from every side — his neighborhood, 
 his city, his friends, various literary and business enter- 
 prises, political questions and questioners, public lect- 
 ures in all parts of the land, and other things that will 
 suggest themselves to those who knew his life; not to 
 mention the army of the poor, the sick, the afiflicted, the 
 unfortunate, the importunate, the inconsiderate, the asi- 
 nine, with all of whom and of which his patience was tire- 
 
146 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 less and his activity endless,, for good. True, as he once 
 said to a hostile audience delaying him in his speech, "We 
 have all the time there is;" but even that did not suffice 
 for the calls upon him; he had to work largely through 
 others. And as all who worked with him and under him 
 felt his inspiration, they gladly gave him service and sac- 
 rifice; and he, unconsciously, but most naturally and cor- 
 rectly, identifying himself with his work, did doubtless 
 accept this as no more than his due. 
 
 There were times when this went too far; when — espe- 
 cially under the influence of others who, more facile than 
 he in the special matters under consideration, changed the 
 relative focus of things in his sight — he failed to appre- 
 ciate the position and just rights of some of these co- 
 laborers with him. Yet as one who knew much of his way 
 for many years, I wish to record my belief — arrived at not 
 by impulse or through mere personal affection — that he 
 was never consciously unjust, but that on the contrary he 
 would far rather suffer than inflict injury. During twenty 
 years of intimate work with him, while there were often 
 passages of perplexity and even severe trials of the rela- 
 tions between us, I never received from him one impatient 
 or unkind word. And not only so, but I think it safe to 
 say that during all those years I never heard from him an 
 irritable or harsh expression about other people (except in 
 that playful extravagance which robbed it of its sting), 
 even concerning those who were most unfaithful and ven- 
 omous toward him. 
 
 He was not perfect; and he would have been the first to 
 laugh at such a claim for him. His intentness on one 
 thing would often cause him to forget another thing which 
 people were justly expecting; he was unmethodical, and 
 hard to work with because he could not be counted upon 
 as a sure element a.t the time needed; his modes of work 
 increasingly depended upon his moods of spirit and of 
 body; he moved over so large a field and was a part of so 
 many groups and interests and movements that some of 
 them at times suffered sorely: yet, he did his best. Per- 
 haps he undertook too much. 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. I47 
 
 His weak point was always his sympathetic nature as 
 regarded persons. His courage never failed, except when 
 it was necessary to do something that would displease or 
 grieve or afflict a friend; and then he was cowardly — there 
 is no other word for it. Sometimes in church affairs, some- 
 times in business matters, a certain line of action would 
 be decided on in consultation which would displace or 
 disappoint some one for whom he had a strong af- 
 fection, even perhaps on whom he had especially leaned; 
 and if it was arranged that he should convey the decis- 
 ion to the knowledge of the party interested, he would 
 postpone it, avoid it from day to day — until at length 
 the crisis was at hand, and he either left the circumstance 
 to make itself known, or took refuge from the personal 
 complication in a stern setting forth of the necessities 
 that had compelled the decision. That this was a kind of 
 moral cowardice, no candid friend of his can deny. In 
 several instances it resulted in the keenest distress and in- 
 dignation on the part of the friend whom he could not 
 bear to wound, but who was, even thereby, the more 
 sorely bruised. 
 
 It was somewhat the same in cases of bereavement, 
 although less so because he was not in any way responsi- 
 ble for the personal suffering. He would shrink like a 
 girl from announcing to a friend the death of a dear one; 
 yet, even in the most painful circumstances, when the duty 
 was brought before him of comforting the afflicted at the 
 time of burial, he quietly and strongly grasped the situa- 
 tion, and the power of his uplifting spirit was wonderful. 
 Perhaps it was because the very publicity of such occasions 
 divested them somewhat of the personal element, and 
 brought them upon that ideal or generic plane of human 
 nature, which was so familiar to his ken, and his subtle 
 sympathy with which, on the other hand, made individ- 
 uals so responsive to his touch. 
 
 There certainly seems to have been some such un- 
 derlying cause for the coupling of his almost unfailing 
 knowledge, wisdom, and courage, when things were to 
 be considered on the broad ground of general principles. 
 
148 HENRY WARD B EEC HER. 
 
 with his occasional lack of poise and correct character- 
 reading where individual friends were concerned. The 
 latter, however, although a marked defect, was at worst a 
 weakness, not a vice. It arose from his excess of what in 
 due proportion is a very noble quality — that of personal 
 sympathy; a quality which gave tone and color to his 
 entire life, which led him into nearly all his troubles, but 
 which on the other hand was the element of that outspeak- 
 ing self which, as Dr. Holmes says, drew such multitudes 
 to " look upon him as their brother." To him as a man 
 may be applied his own description of his preaching: " Not 
 crystalline [symmetrical] nor thoroughly guarded; " with 
 "often an error on this side and on that;" but his "aver- 
 age and general influence will be more mighty than any 
 single misconception," — and that certainly was upon a 
 high plane of being, and in the direction of the purest 
 and noblest aspirations. 
 
 These characteristics of Mr. Beecher have been here 
 brought together in order to be utilized with some other 
 facts, which have never to my knowledge been so grouped 
 before, in considering briefly the one great trouble of his 
 life, which for some years markedly diminished his general 
 public influence, although the richness and power of his 
 spiritual ministrations in his church were during that 
 period as markedly increased. 
 
 It was one of the difficulties inseparable from his person 
 and place that whatever related to him had to go into the 
 newspapers. He experienced the extreme of good and the 
 uttermost of evil that newspaper discussion can effect. 
 The slime of whispered scandal that his especial enemies 
 trailed about for some years reached the editors of all the 
 chief journals, but they had the manliness to let it alone. 
 The ecclesiastical discussions which arose when Tilton, and 
 afterward Mrs. Moulton, were " dropped from the roll " of 
 Plymouth Church, were fruitful occasions of partisanship 
 and prejudgment; and when Tilton published his final ac- 
 cusations (swollen, by repetitions and accretions^ from 
 impropriety to hideous crime) the positions of the parties 
 involved made newspaper discussion inevitable. The men 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 149 
 
 of Mr. Beecher's own profession, moved variously by 
 friendship and loyal trust in a man of hitherto spotless 
 life and reputation, and on the other hand by " envy, 
 hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness " in theologic dif- 
 ferences and personal jealousies, took sides, and made 
 another unusual element; while politics, religion, and 
 every other line along which he had made himself felt, 
 furnished friends or foes according to individual expe- 
 riences of his help or his hindrance in their former 
 doings. In short, the simple question of Henry Ward 
 Beecher's personal innocence or guilt of what was charged 
 against him had no fair field for settlement. 
 
 His church — a body of men and women who certainly 
 had the keenest interest possible in knowing the true 
 character of the man under whose influence they and their 
 children were living, and containing a multitude who had 
 never hesitated to oppose him and, if they could, to vote him 
 down in church affairs when they did not agree with him — 
 investigated the matter through a committee of men hon- 
 ored and trusted by the whole membership, and cleared him. 
 
 When at last the matter was brought into a court of 
 justice by a suit against him for $100,000 "damages," it 
 received as full and exhaustive an exposition as ten law- 
 yers, and a judge who gave them free range to collect and 
 bring in all possible testimony, could accomplish in a six 
 months' trial. The result was a disagreement of the jury, 
 three members of which voted finally against Mr. Beecher, 
 and nine (comprising all who were men of Christian belief) 
 for him. Without discussing the surmised or asserted rea- 
 sons for this disagreement, it is enough to say, that the ver- 
 dict of the majority, agreeing as it did with the opinion of 
 those who best knew the man, was subsequently confirmed 
 by experts in evidence whose opinions are now accessible. 
 
 The oldest and probably the most influential clergyman 
 among the Congregationalists of Great Britain is Rev. 
 Henry AUon, D.D., pastor of the Union Chapel, Islington, 
 London, and for many years editor of the British Quarterly 
 Revinv. His church and congregation are very large, 
 comprising more persons of eminent intelligence, position, 
 
150 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 wealth, and effectiveness in the community than any other 
 of the denomination, while their works of Christian charity 
 and systematic help among the poor of London offer proof 
 of their Christian orthodoxy. Dr. Allon is not an emotion- 
 al man, like his friend and Mr. Beecher's friend, Dr. Joseph 
 Parker, the great preacher of the City Temple; he is rather 
 of the more exact, intellectual type, a man of scholarly cult- 
 ure, a preacher and writer of polished vigor, of a forcible 
 yet chastened eloquence. For years before they had met, 
 Dr. Allon had been a reader and admirer of Mr. Beecher's 
 sermons (which, by the way, have been published in The 
 Christian World of London, one every week, since January, 
 1861, without a single omission, to the present time, and 
 still continue). In 1863 the men met, and from that time a 
 firm friendship had bound them. When in 1869 the first 
 volume of the "Plymouth Pulpit" sermons was issued in 
 book-form. Dr. Allon spoke of them as follows: — 
 
 "These corrected sermons of perhaps the greatest of living 
 preachers — a man whose heart is as warm and catholic as his 
 abilities are great — combine fidelity and scriptural truth, great 
 power, glorious imagination, fervid rhetoric, and vigorous reason- 
 ing, with intense human sympathy and robust common-sense." 
 
 When this trouble arose Dr. Allon was, naturally, in- 
 tensely moved; and, while believing loyally in the character 
 of his accused friend, was like many others puzzled by the 
 days of silence and by the complications of the whole affair. 
 
 When finally the civil trial came on. Dr. Allon called to 
 him several of his most trusted parishioners, some of them 
 eminent in the profession of the law, and agreed with them 
 that he and they should, each by himself, read scrupu- 
 lously every part of the case as it proceeded — speeches, 
 testimony, documents, summings up, charges, all — and get 
 as accurate a knowledge of the whole as professional 
 weighers of evidence could who did not see and hear the 
 witnesses. When it was concluded, and the muddled jury 
 rendered no verdict, this "struck jury" of experts came 
 together and, without discussion, gave their individual 
 ballots; the result being unanimous in the opinion that 
 there was no evidence to sustain the charge of the plaintiff. 
 
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS. 151. 
 
 But again: the editor of the Laiv Journal (Albany, N.Y.) 
 is Mr. John D. Parsons. In an article on Mr. Beecher's 
 death in the issue of March 19, 1887, after referring to Mr. 
 Beecher's " excessive impulsiveness and guilelessness," 
 Vifhich he regarded as " the secret of the great scandal," 
 he says: — 
 
 " We recorded our convictions about this unhappy affair at the 
 time, and should not now refer to it except to repeat the opinion 
 of the leading counsel for the plaintiff [Tilton], the late William 
 A. Beach. Mr. Beach was predisposed to believe Beecher guilty, 
 but after the trial he declared in our hearing that he believed him 
 innocent, and that his appearance and utterance when he asserted 
 his innocence on the witness-stand were the most sublime and 
 overpowering exhibition of the majesty of human nature that he 
 ever beheld. He could not understand how any one could resist 
 that solemn avowal. ' I felt, and feel now,' said he, ' that we were 
 a pack of hounds trying in vain to drag down a noble lion.' " 
 
 In the issue of April 30th, referring to some question that 
 had been raised as to the correctness of his memory of Mr. 
 Beach's remarkable statement, Mr. Parsons says: — 
 
 " The remarks which we quoted were addressed by Mr. Beach 
 to the Hon. Martin I. Townsend and ourselves, and we see in an 
 ' interview ' with Mr. Townsend, published in a Troy newspaper, 
 that he confirms our recollection of Mr. Beach's assertion that he 
 believed Mr. Beecher innocent. Mr. Beach said other things 
 which rendered it impossible that we should be mistaken as to 
 his opinion. Mr. Beach, Mr. Townsend, and ourselves were old 
 acquaintances, fellow-townsmen, near neighbors, and practiced at 
 the Troy bar together for many years. . . . We do not see 
 that Mr. Beach's 'integrity' is in the least involved. He simply 
 went on after Mr. Beecher's testimony, and made the best he 
 could of a poor case, and even his greatest admirers admitted that 
 his argument was weak, half-hearted, and unequal to his reputa- 
 tion." 
 
 And later in the same issue he adds: — 
 
 " Since writing the above we have seen the Troy Times of 
 April 25th, which, in speaking of our report of Mr. Beach's opin- 
 ion, says : ' It finds confirmation and support from acquaintances 
 of the late Mr. Beach in this locality. A resident of Lansing- 
 burgh says : " Mr. Beach had old friends and companions here. 
 He declared to them his belief in the innocence of Beecher. He 
 
152 HENRY WARD BEECH ER. 
 
 said to one of them : ' I had not been four days in the trial before 
 I was confident that he was innocent.' And he adhered years 
 after the trial to the opinion. It seems that it is worth while to 
 record the fact that Beach said so, freely and positively, as I am 
 told by one of the men to-day."' A correspondent also writes 
 from Lansingburgh to the Times in the same issue : ' It is a fact 
 that Mr. Beach, in the frankness of his intimacy with gentlemen 
 in this village, stated that he formed, and then, when he spoke, 
 long after the trial, held the opinion that Mr. Beecher was an in- 
 nocent man, and that the trial of Tiltoii v. Beecher established that 
 conviction in his viind.' " 
 
 A verdict in favor of the defendant, from the leading 
 counsel of the plaintiff, contrary to his original belief 
 when he entered the case, and established by the trial it- 
 self, ought to be enough to satisfy any really reasonable 
 mind. 
 
 If more were needed, it might be found in the subse- 
 quent friendliness of most of the others of the plaintiff's 
 counsel shown for the defendant in after years; and espe- 
 cially by the fact that Chief Justice Neilson, who presided 
 at the trial and had formerly not known Mr. Beecher, was 
 ever after his fast friend. And when, in the Brooklyn 
 Academy of Music (in 1883, eight years after the trial), 
 the fellow-citizens of the venerable clergyman assembled 
 to celebrate his seventieth birthday with testimonials of 
 respect and affection such as no other man has ever re- 
 ceived from them, Justice Neilson presided at the open- 
 ing of the meeting. 
 
 It is true that many hold themselves in doubt concern- 
 ing this sad yet triumphant passage in Mr. Beecher's life, 
 although they have never done what all the above-men- 
 tioned experts did, and conscientiously made themselves 
 masters of all the facts and testimony bearing upon it. 
 They content themselves by saying, " Upon that question 
 the tribunal of history may render a clearer judgment than 
 this generation has reached." Happy those — and in this 
 case the multitude is increasing — who do not need a forty 
 years' pilgrimage through the wilderness of collateral 
 prejudice to find the straight and simple path out of this 
 mystery! 
 
STREXGriJ AA'D WEAKNESS. 153 
 
 The characteristics of Henry Ward Beecher which form 
 the theme of this chapter are an inseparable part of his 
 political career, as that was a natural outgrowth and es- 
 sential portion of his whole life. The very elements that 
 gave his intellectual qualities such a unique power in 
 the church and the world — his love of truth, his sincerity, 
 his frank self-revelation, his sympathy, his remarkable 
 emotive force — were what led him into the shadow of his 
 great trouble, but, inspired by his singular realization of 
 the indwelling of the spirit of God in the soul of man, they 
 also led him through the darkness into the light beyond. 
 No one can comprehend the fact that he was sustained un- 
 der that crushing weight for years', and steadily, cheer- 
 fully,* and with power continued his work, showing more 
 of the wealth of his great nature than ever before, who 
 does not accept the idea that he was a pure-souled, Chris- 
 tian man, who loved his kind and absolutely trusted 
 the God he professed to serve. No other theory will 
 account for it. His sermons from 1873 to 1876 are the 
 richest and strongest that he ever preached. It was in 
 1872-3-4, in the most trying time of the trouble, that he 
 was invited to give three courses of "Lectures on Preach- 
 ing " at the Divinity School of Yale College, in the 
 " Lyman Beecher Lectureship " founded by his friend 
 Henry W. Sage; and those three series of lectures, on the 
 " Personal Elements," " Social and Religious Machinery," 
 and "Christian Doctrines," stand as perhaps the most 
 valuable of all his contributions to the education and in- 
 spiration of his time. 
 
 His general popularity at that period of course suffered 
 a severe reversion. His books, his paper, his public lectures, 
 were not wanted, and business troubles were added to his 
 burden — a burden the heavier for him, that others had to 
 suffer in consequence. There was but little wanting to his 
 pain; yet the love of loyal friends and his unfaltering trust 
 in a Father God were enough to keep his mind serene and 
 his spirit sweet and steadfast in kindness. 
 
 In 1876 he began public lecturing again. Major J. B. 
 Pond, who was his companion on all his lecturing tours 
 
154 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 from that time, says in the preface to " A Summer in 
 England with Henry Ward Beecher": — 
 
 " Excepting only Arizona and New Mexico, there was not a 
 State or Territory in the Union in which we had not traveled to- 
 gether. In sunshine and in storm ; by night, by day, by every 
 conceivable mode of travel ; on steamboats and rowboats ; by 
 stage, and on the backs of mules, I had journeyed at his side. I 
 was near him in the days of 1876-8, the time of his deepest sor- 
 row, when he was reviled and spit upon ; I saw the majestic 
 courage with which he passed through gaping crowds at railroad 
 stations, and at the entrances of hotels and public halls, — a cour- 
 age which I had not conceived mere humanity could possess. . . . 
 
 " Especially during those three darkest years was he the sub- 
 ject of my sad admiration. Often have I seen him on our enter- 
 ing a strange town hooted at by the swarming crowd, and greeted 
 with indecent salutations. On such occasions he would pass on, 
 seemingly unmoved, to his hotel, and remain there until the hour 
 for his public appearance ; then, confronted by great throngs, he 
 would lift up his voice, always for humanity and godliness. . . 
 , . . . And when he had spoken, the assemblages would 
 linger to draw near to and greet the man whom they had so 
 lately despised. How changed I have often seen the public atti- 
 tude toward him when he left a town into which he had come 
 but the day before ! . . . 
 
 " I thank God that it was my privilege to attend his fortunes 
 to the end, and to see and hear on both sides of the continent, 
 and on both sides of the ocean, demonstrations of love and con- 
 fidence that came at length in so unsullied and vast a stream, 
 from the church, his friends, his country, and his race, toward 
 him who had brought so many thousands of them so much 
 nearer than they had been to the common Master of us all." 
 
 Several of the discourses in this volume, of 1876, 1877, 
 and 1878, show how he again laid hold on public questions; 
 and as the years went by his great power was gradually 
 re-confirmed, — those who oftenest saw and heard him 
 being his staunchest supporters. 
 
 And thus, little by little, slowly but steadily, his sun 
 rose once more, through the clouds and mists, until it 
 rode high in the heavens, shining with a full and noble 
 effulgence. 
 
CONCLUSION. 155 
 
 VII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher was so large a personality, so 
 multifarious a nature, that hundreds of writers have not 
 only since his death but also during his life attempted to 
 depict him, without accomplishing more than showing, 
 each one, the phase that he himself had been able to appre- 
 ciate. The pictures are mostly truthful, but all are partial. 
 Fortunately, the theme of these chapters is not the man 
 but only a single line of his activity, and we are dispensed 
 from even the attempt to present a complete view. 
 
 It is true, in trying to find some of the more potent fac- 
 tors in his political life and influence, we have been obliged 
 to consider his principal native qualities and the condi- 
 tions of their growth and cultivation; because his political 
 activity was not an artificial addition to his regular labors, 
 but a spontaneous outgrowth of himself, and an integral 
 part of his life-work. It illustrates the man. When one 
 comprehends his acts and motives there, it is easier to see 
 the unity and beauty of his entire life. His enthusiastic and 
 unwavering love for God and for man gave him an access 
 to spiritual forces and to an answering sympathy from 
 men's hearts, that kept his power upon them vital to the 
 last. His keen perception and industry and assimilative 
 capacity provided an endless store of knowledge; and 
 when, drawing from this " things new and old," he rea- 
 soned with men, and illumined good sense with the bright- 
 ness of wit, with poetic attractiveness, and with the enno- 
 bling beauty of the moral and the spiritual, his hearers 
 had confidence in his wisdom. 
 
156 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 This was to be seen wherever he appeared, and espe- 
 cially among men of his own profession, who, however 
 much they may have assumed him to be deficient in 
 their peculiar modes of reasoning, never failed to look up 
 to him for inspiration or be glad to get his help when his 
 powerful personality was present. A distinguished au- 
 thority has spoken of seeing him " in councils and deliber- 
 ative assemblies where, when the business became intricate 
 and entangled, and things were greatly mixed, there came 
 in his clear, incisive sagacity, his persuasive eloquence, 
 and his resolute will, and pulled things straight with mar- 
 velous suddenness." 
 
 His inborn honesty and candor were evident in his im- 
 pulsive habit. Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., in an article in 
 his paper, the Christian Union, makes a statement the truth 
 and aptitude of which are so striking that I wish to cite it, 
 and bear personal witness to its correctness. It refers to 
 the goodness as one source of the greatness of Mr. 
 Beecher: — 
 
 " He was a great preacher because he was a great and good 
 man. He was pure as a pure woman ; simple as a little child ; 
 frank to a fault. His most intimate friends never heard from his 
 lips a suggestion of a salacious jest ; I never knew the man bold 
 enough to venture on one in his presence. He was incapable of 
 deceit or artifice. He could conceal, when concealment was nec- 
 essary, only by maintaining an absolutely impenetrable reserve. 
 The charges of duplicity and falsehood which a foul conspiracy 
 brought against him some years ago, were to all who knew him 
 as intellectually absurd as they were morally monstrous." 
 
 This native and habitual sincerity, and his sturdy inde- 
 pendence of opinion, strengthening him to stand always 
 foremost among the battlers of right against wrong — even 
 when his personal affiliations and sympathies acted to 
 deter him from differences with those whom he loved — 
 gained and kept for him the respect of mankind. His very 
 opponents — unless small-souled enough to be utterly 
 blinded by passion, either of personal or partisan preju- 
 dice — conceded to him a remarkable honesty in opinion 
 and in action. And in those characteristics — faith, knowl- 
 
• CONCLUSION. 157 
 
 edge, sagacity, sincerity, and independence — lay the rea- 
 sons for his influence upon the political life of this nation, 
 an influence unparalleled and unequaled by that of any 
 other unofficial American citizen in the history of the land. 
 When the length of his career is considered, and the 
 breadth of it — whether as to the number of individuals 
 affected or the variety of interests involved — his life will 
 be seen to have been an inseparable and mighty element 
 in that of the nation. 
 
 Dr. W. S. Searle, for many years Mr. Beecher's physician, 
 writes in an article in the North American Review: " His- 
 tory records no man who outranked his fellows in more 
 directions, and to a greater extent, and who fell below the 
 average in fewer elements and developments of mind and 
 soul." That is certainly a truthful, unexaggerated state- 
 ment, put in a for.m not easy to deny. And while it finds 
 illustration in every portion of Mr. Beecher's life, it stands 
 especially substantiated in his political career. His public 
 life, represented only by a few salient points in these 
 thirty-two " Patriotic Addresses," covered actively a full 
 half-century. What other name stands for so prolonged, 
 so full, so steady a power; for so few mistakes and so 
 many notable successes; for such unvaried pressure on the 
 side of moral right, of spiritual elevation, of a loyal trust 
 in God and a generous trust of man ? 
 
 His influence on the religious life of his generation was 
 of course greater than his political power, because it was to 
 the former especially that he devoted himself, even while la- 
 boring in politics, reform, or the lighter realm of literary en- 
 tertainment. This can be here only alluded to. In 1869 a 
 newspaper noticing an early volume of '' Plymouth Pulpit " 
 asserted that his influence on religious thought was greater 
 than that of all the theological seminaries put together. 
 This friendly exaggeration, however, contained a truth; 
 his teachings permeated the atmosphere and were felt 
 wherever young men, earnest to think and to learn, were 
 studying religious problems. Mr. George S. Merriam, in 
 the Christian Union, in an article of Beecher reminis- 
 cences of the time when Mr. Merriam was Mr. Beech- 
 
158 HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 er's managing editor of that paper, apropos of an allusion 
 to Plato, says: "While not naming him, of course, with 
 Plato for originality, he was essentially of Plato's type in 
 his interpretation of the universe by a lofty impassioned 
 idealism; and the serene light of the Athenian sage kindled 
 in the Christian preacher into a warmer and tenderer 
 glow." This, however, is complemented by another trait 
 no less influential, which perhaps is best set forth in a pas- 
 sage from one of Mr. Beecher's own sermons, entitled 
 " Fact and Fancy: " — 
 
 " It has been said that everybody is either a Platonist or an 
 Aristotelian — Plato standing for ideal philosophy and Aristotle 
 for the real and practical. Everybody tends, it is said, to follow 
 one or the other. No ; the perfect man unites them both, and is 
 at once Aristotelian and Platonist. His feet standing on solid 
 fact, his head goes philosophizing, and his he^rt keeps the balance 
 between them." 
 
 Dr. Abbott, again, noting the departure of the present 
 time towards a less formal and a more practical and eth- 
 ical religion than formerly, says that "in this great move- 
 ment Mr. Beecher has been the leader. His relation to it 
 is acknowledged of all men." " He has rendered his 
 generation many and great services — moral, political, so- 
 cial, theological; but his greatest service is in this, that 
 he has taught the Puritan Church that God is love." 
 
 His sermons and lecture-room talks have been for more 
 than twenty-five years published and widely read in En- 
 gland, and many a man high in ecclesiastical honors there, 
 as well as numberless students and young clergymen who 
 loved and followed his teachings, have expressed their 
 gratitude to him for the light he has shed on their path. 
 Dr. Howson, the Dean of Chester, and joint author with 
 Conybeare of the scholarly and famous " Life of St. Paul," 
 came to Plymouth Church to see the man and hear the 
 voice whose printed words had been so much to him. He 
 went home with Mr. Beecher, and they had a delightful 
 time together; and on his return to England he sent one 
 of his own books in return for one Mr. Beecher had given 
 him, inscribed, " For gold I give thee brass." 
 
CONCLUSION. 159 
 
 Dr. Joseph Parker, the eloquent London preacher, his 
 unswerving friend for twenty-three years, writes: — 
 
 " As a preacher I believe the whole pulpit of the world would 
 give him the palm. When Charles Kingsley heard him he sat and 
 wept like a child through the whole discourse, and when it was 
 concluded he said : ' Mr. Beecher has said the very things I have 
 been trying to say ever since I entered the Christian pulpit.' 
 The Dean of Canterbury said to Mr. Beecher himself: 'There is 
 one thing, Mr. Beecher, for which we must all thank you, and 
 that is for what you have taught us respecting the Fatherhood of 
 God.' When he went [in 1886] through England and Scotland he 
 was hailed on every side by ministers who bore the most grateful 
 testimony to the happy influence which his ministry had exer- 
 cised upon their spiritual life." 
 
 And this kind of evidence could be multiplied indefi- 
 nitely. If he was through all those long years thus influ- 
 encing the teachers of religion, and opening to their souls 
 an entrance into the " lofty and impassioned idealism " in 
 which his own spirit so largely dwelt, how incalculable 
 his influence upon the millions who hear and read the 
 teachings of these thousands of instructors ! Truly he 
 was a mighty man; and the marvel is that his might was 
 so unselfishly exercised for the right. 
 
 In his last notable contribution to religious teaching — 
 his sermons on " Evolution and Religion " — he simply gave 
 deliberate utterance to a line of thought which he had been 
 following, at first vaguely, afterwards with more clearness 
 and certainty, for many years. In his preface he says: — 
 
 "The universal physical fact of evolution, which a widely ac- 
 cepted philosophy of our day postulates as a theory of the Divine 
 method of creation, is one which so naturally and simply fits 
 many a puzzling lock, that it is gratefully seized by many who 
 seem to themselves to have been shut out from hope and from 
 the truth. 
 
 " For myself, while finding no need of changing my idea of the 
 Divine personality because of new light upon His mode of work- 
 ing, I have hailed the Evolutionary philosophy with joy. . . . 
 And that it will furnish — nay, is already bringing — to the aid of 
 religious truth as set forth in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ 
 a new and powerful aid, fully in line with other marked develop- 
 ments of God's providence in this His world, I fervently believe." 
 
l6o HENRY WARD BE EC HER. 
 
 In a private letter (1885) he writes: " It is the fruit of 
 my life's thinking, and has come not from books but from 
 the life of my own soul." It was a vital and helpful belief 
 to him; and, whatever may be its fate as a basis of men's 
 religious conceptions, he used it with power to help and 
 vitalize the dying faith of many a man who received it with 
 gratitude, and made it possible for many a preacher and 
 teacher to read the signs of the times in scientific thought 
 — not as a hindrance, but as a new inspiration, in the in- 
 terpretation of God's revelation in his word and in his 
 works. 
 
 Of the addresses in this volume it is not too much to say 
 that they constitute a glowing picture of the times that 
 gave them birth. Their statements, often violently disputed 
 when first set forth, have hardened into accepted truth; and 
 their matter and style — for terseness, clearness of reason- 
 ing, aptitude of illustration, keenness of wit, power of ap- 
 peal, and all the elements of effective eloquence — will 
 stand among the most enduring monuments of the orator's 
 genius. 
 
 In many a passage his words now stand as prophecy ful- 
 filled. 
 
 Lincoln, Grant, and Beecher are generally acknowledged 
 to have been the three greatest men developed by the co- 
 lossal contests of their era. Yet it is worthy of note, that 
 both the civil hero and the military hero of the War owed 
 their high eminence largely to the vast power of a Nation, 
 entrusted to their able hands in official responsibility, 
 while the power exerted by Henry Ward Beecher was sim- 
 ply that of his own individuality. His great church, his 
 extensive effect upon the religious thought and teaching of 
 his time, his wide journalistic influence, his popularity as 
 a lecturer, his general acceptability as the man to voice the 
 public feeling on all sorts of occasions, his political influ- 
 ence at home, his triumphant changing of the course of a 
 stubborn nation abroad, his eminence in so many spheres 
 of activity during so long a life, — these all grew out of the 
 magnificent forces of the man himself. 
 
CONCLUSIOX. i6i 
 
 And the man himself, therefore, is what the present 
 volume, in spite of its limited scope, will help to show. 
 Descriptions and biographies of him are but partial 
 side - lights. Real knowledge of him can be had only 
 from his own utterances, where the living flame of his 
 genius burns imperishably. He held no office; he bore 
 no professional label ; he wore no sectarian badge or 
 party collar; he was neither President, nor General, nor 
 Doctor of Divinity; but above all rank, beyond all title, 
 stands and will stand, the unadorned, yet unforgotten 
 name of Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 These preliminary pages are concluded, with a clear 
 sense of their imperfections, but in the hope that they 
 may aid the reader of the following " Addresses " to 
 appreciate the noble consistency of the life whose power 
 men hold in wonder and admiration. 
 
 John R. Howard. 
 
PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY 
 
^^. 
 
 / 
 
SHALL WE COMPROMISE? 
 
 Mr. Clay's Compromise has been violently resisted by 
 the South, and but coldly looked upon in the North. 
 
 It is not that both sides are infatuated and refuse a rea- 
 sonable settlement. But the skill of Mr. Clay has evidently 
 not touched the seat of disease. He either has not per- 
 ceived, or has not thought it expedient to meet the real 
 issue now before the people of the United States. The 
 struggle going on is a struggle whose depths lie in the 
 organization of society, in the North and South respect- 
 ively; whose causes were planted in the Constitution. 
 There are two incompatible and mutually destructive prin- 
 ciples wrought together in the government of this land. 
 Hitherto, like Esau and Jacob, they have striven together 
 in the womb. Now they are born, and that feud has begun 
 which shall drive the one or the other to the wilderness. 
 To attempt to settle a radical opposition of polity, by 
 easing off the rub here and there, leaving the great princi- 
 ples in full vigor, is as if one should hang fenders and sand- 
 bags along the side of hostile ships that come crushing 
 together, instead of putting the helm about and going 
 another tack. " Slavery is right," and " Slavery is wrong " ; 
 " Slavery shall live," " Slavery shall die" ; " Slavery shall 
 extend," " Slavery shall not extend" ; — are these conflicts 
 to be settled by any mode of parceling out certain terri- 
 tories ? Now the battle rages at one point. By and by it 
 will rage at another. These oppugnant elements. Slavery 
 and Liberty, inherent in our political system, animating our 
 Constitution, checkering our public policy, breeding in 
 
 *From T^e Independent, Feb. 21, 1850. This article was read to John C. 
 Calhoun, then on his death-bed. " Who writes that ? " he asked. The name 
 was given him. " That man understands the thing. He has gone to the 
 bottom of it. He will be heard from again." 
 
1 68 ■ PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Statesmen opposite principles of government, and making 
 our whole wisdom of public legislation on many of the great- 
 est questions cross-eyed and contradictory, these elements 
 are seeking each other's life. One or the other must die. 
 
 We give Mr. Clay sincere praise for desiring peace. We 
 think it worthy of his reputation, to have declared that he 
 would never vote for the extension of Slavery. If his 
 compromise had taken that determination as its starting 
 point, he would then have come nearer to our ideas of the 
 leader which our times and our difficulties demand. It is 
 no sportive joust upon which our nation is gazing. The 
 shield of the challenger hangs out for no blunted lance. 
 Like Ivanhoe, we should have been glad had Mr. Clay 
 struck the shield of Du Bois Gilbert with the sharp lance- 
 head, importing earnest battle. One straightforward speech 
 against the extension of Slavery, based, not upon political 
 reasons, but on the great principles of humanity and 
 justice; one glowing appeal to the whole nation to take the 
 stand, which he has personally taken, never to vote for the 
 extension of Slavery on either side of a?iy line; this would have 
 been a noble statesmanship, and crowned the last years of the 
 revered sage of Ashland with the brightest glory of his life ! 
 
 Let no man suppose that the contentions which now 
 agitate the land have sprung from the rash procedure of a 
 few men — the hot-heads either of the North or of the 
 South. We are in the midst of a collision not of men, but 
 of principles and political institutions. The inevitable 
 course of affairs has been developing the results for which 
 provision was made, first in the organization of society, 
 and then in the structure of the Constitution. No harvest 
 ever answered more closely to the husbandman's seed, than 
 do our difficulties to the original sowing. 
 
 The North, adopting the theory of democracy, organized 
 all her civil and industrial institutions upon that basis. 
 Every man, the lowest, the least, the highest and best, had 
 one common platform of rights. The South, adopting the 
 theory of aristocracy, made two platforms — the one for the 
 governed, the other for the governors. The one and the 
 other began at once to exhibit their results. In the North, 
 
SHALL WE COMPROMISE? 169 
 
 labor was voluntary, honorable, and universal; in the 
 South it was compulsory, and made disreputable by being 
 fastened upon an abject class. Of course the laborer had 
 different values. In the North, he was a citizen, capable of 
 any honor, framing his own laws, making his own rulers, 
 and so an integral element of the State. In the South, he 
 neither voted nor determined; he had no rights; he was 
 a slave. Labor and Laborers are the foundations of a 
 community. The strength, the virtue, the civilization of 
 a community must be measured by the condition of its 
 laborers, and not by the polish on its surface. 
 
 The whole structure of society conformed to these re- 
 spective foundations. 
 
 The North put honor upon its laborers; they were 
 trained in common schools; they became reading and re- 
 flecting men; shrewdness, penetration, forecast, personal 
 independence, fertile resource, marked the industrial classes. 
 Grow as rapidly as the educated and the wealthy might, 
 the distance between them and the laborer constantly 
 diminished. There never was a time when the bottom of 
 society was so near the top as now. 
 
 The South, making labor a disgraceful necessity, deny- 
 ing it education, compelling it not by those motives which 
 are ordained healthfully to develop the man, but by the 
 overseer's eye and lash, and educating only her wealthy 
 sons, has steadily widened the distance between the top 
 and bottom of society. Nothing can be more dissimilar 
 than the tone and sentiment of societies so diversely 
 formed. Liberty is a universal right — it belongs to 7)ien, 
 on the one side; it is a privilege, and belongs to a class, on 
 the other side. The North binds society together, identi- 
 fies its interests, equalizes and kneads it, causing it to grow 
 alike throughout, and makes it strong by the strength of 
 its individuals, and gives to individuals the advantage of 
 commonweal. There cannot be a commonwealth of Slavery. 
 It is class-weal and class-wealth. The South hopelessly 
 divides society; puts her honors on one side of the cleft, 
 her menial ofifices on the other. The North compacts and 
 the South stratifies. To educate the laborer is to do the 
 
 K 
 
lyo PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 whole State a benefit, in the North; to educate the laborer 
 is to strike at the foundations of society in the South. We 
 send educators to the Governor's chair and to Congress. 
 They of the South send them to the penitentiary and the 
 gibbet. 
 
 Now, does any man doubt that here are the real, vital, 
 distinguishing elements of two radically different govern- 
 ments — an Aristocracy and a Democracy ? Does any one 
 believe it possible that these respective tendencies should 
 be confined, in the respective fields, to civil affairs ? Will 
 they not determine the family institution, the usages of so- 
 ciety, public opinion, yea, the whole and very nature of 
 communities ? Can the agriculture of slaves and slavery 
 and the agriculture of freemen be the same ? Can the 
 commercial interests be the same ? the political economy 
 and the politics? Can statesmen bred in such schools have 
 common sympathies ? That the North and South have 
 many wants and many sympathies in common, is as true as 
 that all men, the most opposite, oppressor and oppressed, 
 deceiver and dupe, have great wants in common. But in 
 their foundation-ideas, their political doctrines, their State 
 policies, their conceptions of public measures, they are not 
 only different, but, for the most part, opposite and oppug- 
 nant. States so essentially different would find harmony 
 rather in separate existence than in federation. , Yet our 
 Union is composed of these oppositions. 
 
 When the Constitution was in birth, these things were 
 in the seed. Yet, even then, the repellencies were such 
 that a common Constitution was adopted only by com- 
 promise. Now if the compromises of the Constitution in 
 the matter of Slavery were adopted in the expectation that 
 slavery would soon be eradicated by the superior vitality 
 of Liberty, we can understand the wisdom of the inten- 
 tion at least. But if it was designed that one instrument 
 should inclose the spirit of two theories of government so 
 totally adverse, it was the most extraordinary blindness, 
 the most anomalous folly which honest men were ever 
 smitten with. We should as soon look for an agreement 
 by which Christ and Belial should jointly undertake to 
 
SHALL IVE COMPROMISE? 171 
 
 govern this world ! Was it thought possible to serve both 
 Liberty and Slavery — God and Mammon ? Could the 
 same mouth breathe justice and injustice? Could a Con- 
 stitution having any definite nature have two hearts, one 
 beating for liberty with vitalized blood, and the other 
 beating for slavery with black blood ? Could it organize 
 courts empowered to establish justice and systematic op- 
 pression ? — courts, with one hand to lift up the wronged 
 by speedy redress, and to beat down the wronged with the 
 other by triple blows ? We believe that the compromises 
 of the Constitution looked to the destruction of Slavery 
 and not to its establishment. 
 
 The event justified the judgment. Although incidental 
 causes conspired to give slavery a new growth, while our 
 country was swelling and coming into manhood, yet it 
 soon became apparent that both systems could not long 
 coexist. 
 
 There are good and easy souls, not perturbed by over 
 deep meditations, who think that men make all this na- 
 tional uproar. They are guiltless of supposing that our 
 institutions are the agitators, that our civil polity is the 
 fanatic whose firebrands inflame the Union. This move- 
 ment of the spirit of the age has made the men, not the 
 men it. We are its children. While the North and the 
 South inveigh against each other, and fanatics are loud- 
 mouthed against fanatics, calmer and deeper men see that 
 both North and South are drifting, and fighting as they 
 drift, in a current whose secret springs lie deeper than 
 men's volitions; whose force God hath ordained and will 
 augment, until old things are passed away, and He whose 
 right it is shall reign. Why then should we try to stop 
 the contest ? It must come to an issue, which spirit shall 
 animate our Constitution. The spirit of Bondage and the 
 spirit of Liberty, when both are living spirits, cannot dwell 
 together. Moses' rod must swallow the enchanter's, or 
 the magician's rod must swallow the prophet's. The 
 South have found out that Slavery cannot live and stand 
 still. Liberty grows the fastest; has the best roots; eats 
 out the other: and if slavery is stationary it will be 
 
172 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 speedily overrun and smothered by the rampant vine of 
 freedom. It must thrust out its roots; it must borrow 
 vigor from fresh soil. Southern men are perfectly consist- 
 ent in rejecting a compromise which only confirms old 
 rights, but positively grants no extension. 
 
 The South now demands room and right for extension. 
 She asks the North to be a partner. For every Free State 
 she demands one State for Slavery. One dark orb must 
 be swung into its orbit to groan and travail in pain, for 
 every new orb of liberty over which the morning stars 
 shall sing for joy. 
 
 On that question we hold there can be no Compromise. 
 The Constitution has come to a period of final construc- 
 tion. Every year's delay will aggravate the difficulties; an 
 earlier day had been better than this; but this is better 
 than any future day. It is time for good men and true to 
 gird up their loins and stand forth for God and for Hu- 
 manity. No Compromises can help us which dodge the 
 question; certainly none which settle it for Slavery. We 
 are told that the question is momentous and beset with the 
 most serious difficulties. Neither in the affairs of individuals 
 nor of nations is there any difficulty when men are willing 
 to do right. It is when Right is spun to so fine a thread 
 that it floats like a gossamer, changing to every breath, 
 that we lose sight of it or find it entangled in our hands. 
 There never was a plainer question for the North. It is 
 her duty openly, firmly, and forever to refuse to Slavery 
 another inch of territory, and to see that it never gets any 
 by fraud. It is her duty to refuse her hand or countenance 
 to Slavery where it now exists. It is her duty to declare 
 that she will under no considerations be a party to any 
 further inhumanity and injustice. Then the path will be 
 plain and straight. The path of Duty, though a steep 
 one, and often toilsome, is always straight and plain. 
 Those are the labyrinthine roads, which, winding through 
 sloughs and thickets or imbosked and dark, seek to find a 
 way around the rocks and steeps, and to come to the gate 
 of Success without climbing thehill of Difficulty. 
 
 Mr. Clay's compromise resolutions demand better pro- 
 
* SHALL WE COMPROMLSE? 173 
 
 vision for the recovery of fugitive slaves; and a bill is now 
 pending in the United States Senate for this purpose. Wei 
 cannot strongly enough express our profound regret at the) 
 remarks which Mr. Clay felt it his duty to make on thi^l 
 subject. On this matter, our feelings are so strong that^ 
 we confess a liability to intemperance of expression. 
 
 If the compromises of the Constitution include requisi- 
 tions which violate Humanity, I will not be bound by 
 them. Not even the Constitution shall make me unjust.^ 
 If my patriotic sires confederated in my behalf that I; 
 should maintain that instrument, so I will, to the utmost 1 
 bounds of Right. But who, with power which even God , 
 denies to himself, shall by compact foreordain me to the ! 
 commission of inhumanity and injustice ? I disown the act. ' 
 I repudiate the obligation. Never while I have breath 
 will I help any official miscreant in his base errand of re- 
 capturing a fellow man for bondage. And may my foot 
 palsy, and my right hand forget her cunning, if I ever be- I 
 come so untrue to mercy and to religion as not, by all the 
 means in my power, to give aid and succor to every man 
 whose courageous flight tells me that he is worthy of lib- 
 erty. If asked, what then becomes of the Constitution, I 
 reply by asking what becomes of God's Constitution of 
 Humanity, if you give back a slave to the remorseless maw 
 of servitude ? I put Constitution against Constitution — 
 God's against man's. Where they agree they are doubly 
 sacred. Where they differ my reply to all questioners, 
 but especially to all timid Christian scruples, is in the lan- 
 guage of Peter: " Whether it be right, in the sight of God, 
 to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." 
 
 Ought not Christians, by all the means in their power, 
 to preserve the Union ? Yes, by all means that are right. 
 But, dear as the Union is, and ought to be, whenever it 
 comes between a Christian people and their Christian integ- 
 rity it becomes a snare. The very value of our Union is to 
 be found in those principles of justice, liberty, and human- 
 ity which inspire it. But if by any infernal juggle these 
 principles must be yielded up to preserve the Union, then 
 a corpse only will be left in our arms, deflowered, lifeless, 
 
T74 PATRJOriC ADDRESSES. 
 
 worthless. A Union perpetuated by giving way to in- 
 justice — a Union maintained by obedience to the desires of 
 slavery — is but a compact of violence. We emphasize these 
 things because the long continued cries of politicians have 
 produced among sober Christian men an unquestioned 
 and undisturbed conviction that no evil can be so 
 great as the dissolution of our Union. There are many 
 evils infinitely greater. The loss of a national conscience 
 is greater. The loss of public humanity is greater. An 
 indifference to the condition of millions of miserable creat- 
 ures, whose degradation, vices, ignorance, and animalism 
 plead with our conscience in their behalf; this would be an 
 unspeakably greater evil. So long as we can maintain 
 the Union on terms which allow us to act with a free con- 
 science, with humanity unviolated, we shall count no sac- 
 rifice dear to maintain it. But religion and humanity are 
 a price too dear to pay even for the Union ! 
 
 Our Southern brethren often complain that we don't 
 understand their condition or sympathize with their real 
 difficulties. Even so, too, we complain that they do not 
 understand our situation and sympathize with our difficul- 
 ties. There are hundreds of thousands of men to whom 
 conscience is a law — a law notwithstanding the sneers of 
 those who flout at the idea of a conscience party. But 
 ^ there is a conscience party ! There is a stern and growing 
 feeling in the Free States, not yet expressed by any dis- 
 tinctive organization, that the time has come for a stand 
 against any future national inhumanity. We can bear 
 much, but we cannot and will not bear the guilt of Slavery. 
 We regard it as epitomizing every offense which man can 
 commit against man. It takes liberty from those to whom 
 God gave it as the right of all rights. It forbids all food 
 either for the understanding or the heart. It takes all 
 honesty from the conscience. Its takes its defense from 
 virtue, and gives all authority into the hands of lustful or 
 pecuniary cupidity. It scorns the family, and invades it 
 whenever desire or the want of money prevail, with the 
 same coolness with which a drover singles out a heifer, or 
 a butcher strikes down a bullock. These are not the acci- 
 
SHALL WE COMPROMISE? 175 
 
 dents of slavery. They are its legitimate fruits. They 
 are its vitality. If you stop these evils you will destroy 
 the system. Let the slave be taught; let him have, not a 
 filtered and adulterated Gospel, but that Gospel which an- 
 gels heralded, strangely filling the air with the cry, " Peace 
 on earth and good will toward men " — and it will make 
 the slaves what it made the barbarous Briton and the rude 
 Saxon — freemen and refined Christians. Take from Slav- 
 ery its right to merchandise, forbid the disruption of 
 families, the sale of slaves from the homestead where they 
 were born, and the system will stink in the nostrils of 
 Southern planters as it now does in our own. 
 
 Now we declare that into a fellowship with these mon- 
 strous evils, whose perpetration around our whole Southern 
 coast is enough to preoccupy the heavenly tribunal of 
 mercy, and to exhaust its patience on only this form of all 
 the world-wide human suffering, we have been drawn un- 
 wittingly. We did not know, or did not think, that to 
 swear fealty to the Constitution was to swear preservation 
 to Slavery. We had always understood that the compro- 
 mises of the Constitution were agreed upon in the North, 
 only that time might be given for Slavery to die out. But 
 if another construction be made, and becomes the settled 
 reading of that instrument; if the North is to have the 
 the guilt and the South the profits of Slavery; if we are 
 henceforth to understand that Slavery is federal and na- 
 tional, recognized in the all-embracing Constitution, then 
 but one course is left us. No earthly consideration shall 
 make us partners in this monstrosity. We most solemnly 
 declare, by our belief in Humanity, by our hopes in religion, 
 by our faith in Christ, that we will cut every cord of op- 
 pression whose force is derived from us. And if in so doing 
 men choose to interpose the Constitution, upon their heads 
 be the blame. Palsied be that hand and blasted those lips 
 which shall make our Constitution, ordained for freedom, 
 the instrument of bondage and cruelty! 
 
 We shall study to circumscribe Slavery where it now ex- 
 ists. We shall oppose every party that secretly or openly 
 connives at it. We shall be hostile to every measure which 
 
176 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 consults its interests. We shall not cease to stand upon 
 the brink of this dismal abyss, and over against its smoke 
 and wails to pray with agonizing earnestness, " How long, 
 O Lord, how long! " A day will come — in God's counsels 
 it is already seen advancing — when men will look back 
 upon this system as we now look at the dungeons and tri- 
 bunals of the Inquisition. In that day, many a man will 
 deny his parentage and forswear the ancestors, who either 
 forged fetters for the slave, or more meanly blew the bel- 
 lows for those who wrought at the anvil of oppression. 
 May my children to the latest generation, in looking back 
 to my example, take courage, and strike home for Liberty 
 and Humanity ! 
 
 With these views, no soothsayer is needed to interpret 
 our views of the extension of Slavery. It is not enough 
 that we do not will it. Every man consents to it who does 
 not exhaust his strength in endeavoring to prevent it. 
 
 Nor do we misunderstand the cunning cry of those who 
 ask us to leave the issues of this question in new ter- 
 ritories to chance. Nowadays chance has too many wires 
 and wire-workers to suit our ideas of luck. Chance is the 
 merest gambler. The dice are loaded. The cards are 
 marked. Only the victim dreams that there is fair play. 
 The South is to deal, the North is to take what cards are 
 flirted to its hands. Who doubts the issue? How many 
 more games than those already played are needed before 
 the dupe shall suspect foul play? No: by as much as Lib- 
 erty is dearer to us than Slavery, by so much should we be 
 more active in its behalf than its adversaries are in behalf 
 of Slavery. If they can toil night and day, dig deep 
 trenches, bear burdens cheerfully to sink the rocky foun- 
 dations for the towers of oppression, shall we have no 
 bulwarks and no towers for Liberty ? Whenever and 
 wherever a blow is struck for Slavery, then and there must 
 be a double stroke for Liberty ! 
 
 We will compromise any measures tending to prevent the 
 extension of Slavery. We will compromise as'' to the par- 
 ticulars of its death, laying out, and burial. But every 
 compromise must include the advantage of Liberty and the 
 
SHALL WE COMPROMISE? 177 
 
 disadvantage of Slavery. Compromises dictated by wily pol- 
 iticians, made to serve a pinch in party tactics; compromises 
 issuing from men whose ideas of patriotism are summed 
 up in giving their adversaries a grip and downfall, to whom 
 spoils are virtues and offices religion; or those better-in- 
 tended compromises, like Mr. Clay's, which seek for peace, 
 rather than for humanity; from such compromises, guile- 
 less though they seem, and gilded till they shine like 
 Heaven, evermore may we be delivered ! 
 
 We shall abide by the Union. No vandal outrage shall 
 our hands commit. We shall honor it by obedient lives, 
 consecrate it by our prayers, purify it from the dross of in- 
 justice, and give to it such foundations of Right as shall 
 hold it steadfast amid all the revolutionary concussions of 
 our day. If there be those who cannot abide the Union 
 because it is pure and religious, just and humane, let them 
 beware of that tumultuous scene into which they purpose 
 to leap. 
 
 But we do not believe that such an issue awaits us. The 
 pliancy of miserable scramblers for political preferment 
 has caused these violent gusts. Thus, hitherto, have vic- 
 tories been gained for Slavery. Thus they are sought 
 again. Firmness is the remedy for threats. If good men, 
 having good representatives, are but firm, the storm will 
 beat the stout oak, and rage like a demon through its 
 twisted branches, but pass on and spend itself in the 
 wilderness; meanwhile the returning sun shall find the 
 noble tree unwrecked and fast-rooted. 
 
 But if our Charter Oak is to be dismembered, God be 
 thanked that its roots were planted in the soil of freedom ! 
 There they were spread; its trunk and its mightiest 
 branches will abide. The sun and the soil that nourished 
 its infancy yet remain to repair what time and storms may 
 mutilate. Beneath its shadow the poor and oppressed shall 
 find shelter. 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY.* 
 
 I DO not forget, on appearing before you, my friends, 
 the profession to which I belong. I bear in mind that I 
 am a minister of Christ, and if I do not misapprehend the 
 complexion of this audience, the far greater number of 
 them are religious persons; most of you are either Chris- 
 tians, or at any rate educated in Christianity, and hence I 
 judge that the moral aspect of the Slavery Question will 
 be the most interesting to you. I shall not consider the 
 subject from the commercial standpoint, neither shall I 
 take the political standpoint, nor the philanthropic, sim- 
 ply as the philanthropic, but as a Christian, in its relations 
 to Christianity shall I regard it — as a man who believes 
 in God, in the immortality of the soul, in the rational 
 and accountable nature of every human being that lives; 
 as a preacher of the gospel, preaching God manifest in 
 the flesh, do I feel deeply interested in this massive, this 
 gigantic evil. 
 
 And it is interesting to knaw how and in what way it 
 has lived and thrived, how it has advanced upon us like 
 the sea breaking down dykes and sweeping inward on the 
 land. In every man there is an essential love of irrespon- 
 sible power. It is the same under all governments, and in 
 every age; for governments and institutions do not make 
 men despotic. All men love irresponsible power. Every 
 man has a king's heart beating under his ribs, yes, a pope's 
 heart beating under his ribs — I have, you have. The feel- 
 ing is, /will be master and you shall be servant; and when 
 a man gets hold of this power he holds on to it. This is 
 the way monarchies are sustained, and despotisms. The 
 power is held, and strengthened, and accumulated till it 
 
 * Speech before the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, New 
 York, May 6, i8i;i. Reprinted from report in The Independent. \\\ , . 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 179 
 
 becomes irresistible. So, after men become owners of 
 slaves they feel like holding on to them — they like the 
 power; and although slavery came upon us in our colonial 
 days against our wishes, yet, once tasted, it is not strange 
 that the power became sweet, and men desired to retain 
 it; and this is the reason, I take it, that American slavery 
 has come to be as strong as it is. But there were other 
 causes for this. There was a time at the formation of the 
 Constitution when slavery began to relax its hold, and 
 when it was thought that like the late snows in April it 
 would soon melt away; else there would have been no such 
 compromises in the Constitution as there were. But then 
 came a time when commercial profits became connected 
 with slavery; the cultivation of rice, and cotton, and sugar 
 became profitable; and then slavery became rejuvenated: 
 and although Christianity can do much to control com- 
 merce and temper commerce, and does do much, yet 
 where the gains are large, there is no power which can 
 restrain it throughout the whole community. 
 
 It was Lord Brougham, I think, who said that where the 
 slave trade was so profitable as to pay three hundred per 
 cent., not all the navies of the globe could stop it; and 
 when slavery began to pay enormous profits, not all the 
 power of Christianity could stop it, especially when min- 
 isters of the Gospel were found to step in and baptize it 
 and call it Christian. \Cheers^^ 
 
 Not only was commerce concerned in the augmentation 
 of slavery, but to-day commerce, both in the South and in 
 the North, is the bulwark of slavery; but for that no power 
 on earth could save it; but the love of money blinds the 
 eyes and stops the ears, and hardens the heart to all per- 
 suasions of truth and justice. At the time of the forma- 
 tion of the Constitution, slavery had not come to be so 
 profitable, and the Christian feeling. North and South, 
 made headway against it. 
 
 And now we come to another reason of the continuance 
 of slavery, which is to be found in the development of a 
 political element of power, whose seeds were sown in the 
 Constitution without any foresight of what the fruit would 
 
I So PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 be. For, to a great extent, the framing of laws and the 
 making of Constitutions is experimental. You cannot tell 
 beforehand how a law will work. The Constitution was 
 built in one sense as men build a steamship — they build it 
 as perfect as possible — after the best model, and yet they 
 cannot tell certainly when it is on the stocks how it will 
 sail. One ship from which the best was expected lags be- 
 hind, and another outstrips all competitors. And so the 
 framers of the Constitution could not tell how it would 
 work till it was tried — they built it after the best model — 
 but some provisions have turned out a great deal better 
 than was- expected, and some a great deal worse than was 
 expected, it is to be hoped ! But this one thing is certain, 
 that the Constitution was formed as a /^cwc? ^^^ instrument 
 of liberty. Its framers never thought that it would be 
 twisted into an instrument to build up slavery. I acquit 
 every delegate, whether he came from the North or the 
 South, of any such designs. Not a delegate from the 
 South had the first purpose of establishing slavery. This 
 just compliment I would pay to the South, and I shall 
 have other compliments to pay them before I am through. 
 
 But we are not to forget, in enumerating the unpropi- 
 tious causes of this monstrous evil, that Christianity has 
 never yet been true to its own spirit. There is a Chris- 
 tianity of the Bible, and a Christianity of the Church; but 
 the latter does not always express the fullness or spirit of 
 the former. 
 
 Christianity is like the rising of the sun — the light steals 
 up over the hills and touches the mountain tops, and moves 
 on, parallel by parallel, and latitude by latitude, till it 
 pours over the round globe. Now I say, Christianity 
 never came up so high as to deal with slavery as it ought, 
 and as I hope soon it will. [C7/^v;x] What attitude 
 ought Christianity to hold towards the colored population, 
 and this includes the African race North and South? In 
 the first place, Christianity is no respecter of persons. 
 Christ, in one sense, did not regard either Jew or Gentile, 
 bond or free, rich or poor. But in another sense he did. 
 There is a scale in society extending from the rich and 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. i8i 
 
 cultivated down to the poor and ignorant. Christ did re- 
 gard this difference, and he worked at the bottom first. 
 What is the spirit of Christianity ? Is it not a spirit of love 
 and mercy to the sinful, the helpless ? Does it not aim to do 
 the most for those who need the most ? Christ regarded the 
 poor, the most neglected, and despised, and as they really 
 had his regard, so they felt a reciprocal sympathy of hope, 
 and fiocked about him, to the joy of his heart and to the 
 unspeakable disgust of the religious purists of their day. 
 When the messengers of John came to him to inquire if He 
 was the Messiah, he replied, Tell John that the blind see, 
 the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead 
 are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached. This 
 last- — the poor have the gospel preached to them, was the 
 climax, and the great and glorious climax, which was 
 proof irresistible. 
 
 Now, have we treated the colored population as the 
 spirit of Christ enjoins ? Let us first ask the South. We see 
 there three million slaves. Their rights as men are taken 
 away — their manhood is taken away. This idea I would 
 have you feel. I would burn it into your souls. The wrong 
 of slavery is not in muscles and bones— it is not that the 
 slaves are poorly fed, or well fed, but it is that they are 
 chattels. The radical idea of slavery is that the slave, who 
 is a man, is not a man — that he is property, like a piece of 
 furniture, or a brute. 
 
 There was another system of slavery four thousand years 
 ago, called Hebrew slavery. Now I will give a challenge 
 to any man who may be present from the South, be he 
 clergyman or layman — and I would say the same in 
 Georgia if I were there, and I believe that I could say it 
 there with less interruption than I can here — or rather I 
 will make a fair compromise, as it is the day of compro- 
 mises, though they are not all fair. I will yield the point of 
 Bible slavery, and allow that there is a slavery presented 
 in the Bible, if you at the South will agree to put Southern 
 slavery on the platform of Bible slavery. 
 
 There were three forms of servitude among the Hebrews. 
 
 First, There was a servitude into which the Hebrews 
 
i82 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 themselves might come — which can be regarded but as an 
 apprenticeship. It was limited to seven years; it did not 
 take away any political right; nor did it forbid the slave 
 the ownership of property. He could buy himself if he 
 chose; or his friends had a right, at any time, peremptorily 
 to release him by purchase. 
 
 Secondly^ There was the public slavery — that of the 
 Gibeonites, who did service for the commonwealth, very 
 much as our State prison convicts do. 
 
 Thirdly, There was the Hebrew bond service, which was 
 slavery proper. But Moses did not enact this slavery; he 
 found it, and he regulated it and limited it. All the laws 
 concerning slavery were for its amelioration. 
 
 In the first place, these bond-slaves could be made only 
 among the heathen; and secondly, no one could be made 
 a slave from among them until he had been circumcised — 
 in other words, until he had been introduced into the 
 privileges of the church; and thirdly, the master was 
 obliged to give them a religious education. 
 
 Now in our modern system of education there is first 
 the family, and then the school, and the magazines, and 
 the newspapers. But then there were only five books, 
 called the Pentateuch, and the whole system of education 
 was comprised in instruction in these five books; and in 
 these every slave must be educated. If the same regula- 
 tion was carried out now, it would require the Southern 
 slave-owner to send his slave to the academy, and then put 
 him through some Northern college, and graduate him, be- 
 fore he tied him down to the plow or hoe of the plantation. 
 \_Enthusiastic cheering^ That was the Hebrew idea of 
 slavery. Then, again, if any one will enter into a calcula- 
 tion, he will find that the Hebrew slave had about one- 
 half of his time to himself. Moreover, the Hebrew slave 
 had every motive held out to him to rise. He could, un- 
 der certain circumstances, hold property — he could better 
 his condition, advance, establish himself independently. 
 All the laws of Moses were in favor of the slave — for his 
 advantage, his benefit, his encouragement, his defense. If 
 a slave was wronged or abused, he could go into a court 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 183 
 
 and get speedy and sure redress; and if he was maimed he 
 immediately became free, the injury being the warrant of 
 his liberty. There was, moreover, a standing canon, that 
 when a slave ran away he should not be forcibly returned. 
 The attempt has been made to show that this did not apply 
 to Hebrew slaves, but only to those who fled from among 
 the heathen. But it was not so — this was not so. Slavery 
 was so regulated, in fact, that it was expected that a slave 
 would never wish to run away. And if he did run away, 
 that very fact was regarded as evidence that he ought to 
 have run away. And I think that the same presumption 
 should be held now, and all the world over. [^C/ieers.^ 
 Such was the system of slavery four thousand years ago, 
 among a people who had but just shook off the dust of 
 Egyptian bondage — ^just dried their garments from the 
 waters of the Red Sea — but no ! they did not need to dry 
 their garments — I remember they came through on dry 
 ground [/ai/ghte?-] — just emerged into the dim twilight of 
 education, blest with only the first few rays of revelation. 
 
 Four thousand years have passed since that day, and 
 during this time the canon of Scripture has been com- 
 pleted, and the full blaze of Christianity has been poured 
 upon the world, and Christ has come, and there have been 
 contentions, and revolutions, and martyrs for the truth, and 
 education, and with great labor the bulwark of civil lib- 
 erty has been hewn out and built up, and schools and 
 churches have been established, and of those four thousand 
 years, two thousand have been under the dispensation of 
 the blessed Gospel, and now we have tried our hand at 
 slavery. Let us see how we have succeeded. The Hebrews 
 legislated for their slaves as men, but we make them prop- 
 erty — chattels. They are not men but brutes. Four thou- 
 sand years ago the slave enjoyed the privileges of the 
 church — the Temple worship; now we give him no re- 
 ligion. Four thousand years ago the slave enjoyed the 
 rights and privileges of the family state; now the chas- 
 tity of man and woman is no more regarded than that 
 of a dog. Four thousand years ago the laws were made 
 for the slave; now they are made for the master. Four 
 
iS4 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 thousand years ago a slave could seek redress in court; now 
 there is not a court from Mason and Dixon's line through 
 to Texas where a slave can open his mouth as a witness and 
 be believed. Ah ! if you will only bring American slavery 
 on the platform of Hebrew slavery — if you will give the 
 slave the Bible, and send him to the school, and open the 
 doors of the courts to him, then we will let it alone — it will 
 take care of itself. In old times slaves were treated as 
 children of a family — trained, nurtured, educated. Let 
 the Southern slaveholder do like this. Then would slavery 
 soon cease, for the care and expense would be greater than 
 any one could bear. 
 
 I have to work hard enough to provide for my three 
 children; but suppose I had five hundred children! what 
 should I do? \^Laughte)'^ 
 
 My friends, I have not painted up slavery in strong col- 
 ors: I have only given you the outline — I have only done 
 as the painter does before he puts in the colors — with chalk 
 marked out the design. \Cheers^ 
 
 Has Christianity in the South rebuked this system ? 
 Where has it? What pulpit does it? Yes, it has in some 
 places; a few pulpits have spoken; Christianity has in 
 some instances, perhaps in many, modified and lessened the 
 evils, but not so taking the South comprehensively. 
 
 [Mr. Beecher attempted to proceed, but being interrupted by 
 hisses, he remarked that as he had been heard uninterruptedly for 
 some time it was fair that the other side should have a chance. 
 The cheers which followed effectually drowned the hisses.J 
 
 At the South adultery among slaves is not held to be a 
 reason for church discipline. \^Hissesi\ I am glad to see 
 some sense of shame for this. \Cheers^ The public con- 
 science is being aroused. Do you know that at the South 
 in marrying slaves the minister leaves out the words, 
 " What God has joined together let no man put asunder ? " 
 It must be left out, for perhaps in a few weeks the husband 
 will be separated from the wife, and sent to another plan- 
 tation, and then if he chooses he can take another wife, and 
 if he is a member of the church it does not hurt his stand- 
 ing; and then another and another, till perhaps he may 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 185 
 
 have twenty wives, and still his letter of recommendation 
 from one church to another is as good as ever. \A voice — 
 There are men in New York who have twenty wives?[ I am 
 sorry for them. I go in for their immediate emancipation. 
 \^Great cheering?^ 
 
 And now, I do not ask whether Christian pulpits in the 
 South have not preached orthodox theology — good moral- 
 ity, obedience to their masters, and in general, kindness 
 on the part of the master to his slaves. All this, doubt- 
 less. But I ask has Christianity made itself/^//, has it taken 
 the authority of God, and the full power of Christ, and 
 risen up to assert for the slave the right of manhood, and 
 to rebuke that legal doctrine of unutterable infamy, that a 
 slave is a chattel ? Has it asserted for the slave the rights 
 of knowledge ? Has it demanded and provided for him a 
 simple religious instruction ? Above all, has it asserted for 
 the slave the right and duty of personal virtue, and re- 
 deemed women from the promiscuous lust of their mas- 
 ters ? Has it brought all the thunders of God's throne to 
 defend the sanctity of the Family State? 
 
 Or if it has not, O what a wretched Christianity is that 
 which permits, or slurs over, the profoundest ignorance, 
 the negation of manhood, the rupture and dispersion of 
 the family; the violation of chastity and virtue? What is 
 left when personal liberty, civil rights, the privileges of the 
 family state, and personal morals are all swept away? The 
 law declares a slave to be a mere chattel, and the Christian- 
 ity of the South has not indignantly redeemed him from 
 this blasphemous abuse ! 
 
 Let no one say that we represent the abuse of the sys- 
 tem. The system cannot be abused. Its very fundamental 
 principle includes every infamy which can insult manhood 
 or degrade a man ! To say to three million men, made by 
 God, Ye are not men, but, like oxen and horses, like dogs 
 and hogs, ye are Things, Property, Chattels — why to 
 talk of the abuse of a system which has this for its ele- 
 mentary principle, is as wild as it would be to talk of the 
 abuse of robbery, the abuse of murder, the abuse of 
 adultery ! 
 
1 86 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 What has the North done for its colored population ? 
 Here is a class downcast and downtrodden, among us — the 
 poor, the despised, the weak. It is the duty of the church 
 to go to them, and help them and recover them, and lift 
 them up. How is it? The doors of the schools and col- 
 leges are shut against them, and the doors of the trades 
 are shut. A mechanic thinks it a disgrace to work with a 
 slave. The odium of Southern slavery has extended over 
 the North. Has Christianity come in to aid and protect 
 and save ? No. A few States allow colored people to 
 vote, but in most the color of the skin disfranchises a 
 man. Has the church said. By the spirit of Christianity, 
 by the power of the cross, this shall not be so ! No, she 
 has said, " There's the ship, and there's Africa. You had 
 better go to Africa — colonize ! " 
 
 These remarks are not aimed at the Colonization Society. 
 I am for colonization. If any one wishes to go to Africa 
 I would give him the means of going, and for the sake of 
 the continent of Africa, colonization is the true scheme; 
 but if colonization is advocated for our sake, I say. Get thee 
 behind me, Satan, thou savorest not of the things that be 
 of God but those that be of men. Do your duty first to 
 the colored people here, educate them, Christianize them, 
 and then colonize them. [C/ztrri'.] 
 
 I have given you the dark side of the picture thus far, 
 but it is gradually growing lighter and lighter. The North 
 is becoming thoroughly aroused. This has been accom- 
 plished in a tempestuous way — in an injurious way — I wish 
 that it could have been done in a different and a better 
 way — yet I forbear — I will not speak harshly of any who 
 have labored in this great cause of human liberty. But 
 the North are looking at this matter, they wish to know 
 their duty, they are taking the Bible in their hands, and 
 Northern men are more and more rapidly coming to see 
 what their duty is. This is evident from the growing 
 sensitiveness of the South. The true way is to correct 
 public sentiment at the North first, get it right here, purify 
 and sweeten it here and let it act on the South. Every 
 curative process begins from without, and so it must be in 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. . 1S7 
 
 this case; and considering the danger my neck would be 
 exposed to at the South, I would prefer on the whole to 
 work at the North. \^Laughter^^ 
 
 The first effect of this at the South was the fear that the 
 system would perish, and hence came, first the effort to 
 extend slave territory, and then political agitation. And 
 out of this grew that worst of all unbaptized monsters, the 
 Fugitive Slave Law. Some years ago there was a progress 
 at the South towards the removal of slavery, and it was 
 checked it is said by agitation. Agitation ? what have we 
 got to work with but agitation ? Agitation is the thing in 
 these days for any good; not agitation by bayonets, but 
 agitation by brains, agitation by free thoughts and words, 
 agitation of hearts and consciences; and the day is coming 
 when moral truths will be as free as air, breathed in and 
 breathed out by every one. 
 
 Our first business is then to limit slavery within its 
 present bounds; there is nothing in the Constitution against 
 this at any rate; then, secondly, to see to it that the South 
 has not factitious help from us in the support of slavery; 
 and thirdly, not to interfere directly with slavery where it 
 is. We will all do what the sun does when it comes up 
 over the eastern hills; it looks at a mountain of ice and 
 melts it. \Cheersi\ If our missionaries want to convert 
 the Arabs, they cannot preach to them when they are on 
 horseback, for they will run away; they must make the 
 Arabs sit down and be fixed in one spot. And so must we 
 do with slavery; we must hitch her and anchor her, and 
 then begin with brotherly affection to kill her. [^Repeated 
 cheers.'] And then with our hearts warm and kind, and 
 with no hasty or hard remarks, we must preach the Bible 
 to them, and preach till we make slavery a burden to their 
 consciences and a burden to their pockets, as it is now a 
 burden on God's forbearance ! [^Cheers.] 
 
 But then came along agitation, it is said^ — O ! agitation ? 
 Who are the agitators ? Some say we are, and some say they 
 are. Now I will not remain quiet under this charge of un- 
 just and improper agitation. They are the agitators who 
 fortify and extend an evil which is a poison to liberty, in- 
 
1 88 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 fidel to religion, and hateful to God and all good men. 
 They are agitators who attempt to suppress free thought 
 and free speech. There is but one agitation that will dis- 
 solve the Union — which I love full as much as do those 
 dry-nurses of the Union, the Union Safety Committee — 
 and that is, the attempt to make free speech penal, to 
 bridle the Pulpit, muzzle the Press, and fetter the tongue ! 
 That will blow the Union to atoms. I would have such 
 agitation as Dr. Wayland and Dr. Fuller of North Carolina 
 had, the agitation of free discussion. We shall say what 
 we think and feel, and the South shall say what they think 
 and feel; and when we have joined with them in this way 
 we shall have the hip lock and throw them. \Rcpeated 
 cheering?^ 
 
 It seems as if the devil could not stay quietly in hell, but 
 must do as he always has done, wander up and down through 
 the earth, and so at last he found himself at Washington; 
 but there he came out, unfortunately with hoofs, tail, 
 horns, and all, not in the disguise of an angel of light, but 
 in the form of the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
 There is nothing, I think, that has come so near to mak- 
 ing an impassable gulf between the South and the North 
 as this Fugitive Slave Law. I am opposed to this Fugitive 
 Slave Law, in the first place, because of the inhumanity of 
 what it compels us to do. If a convict, whose time was 
 nearly out at the State Prison, should escape, I should not 
 feel exactly like catching him and sending him back, yet 
 still I might do it and not feel very badly, and I would do 
 it if I was called upon for the sake of the Union \lajigh- 
 tcr^ for I love the Union, and I do not yield to any one in 
 my love for the Union, not even to the members of the 
 Union Safety Committee ! But this law demands — what? 
 Not merely the sending back of a fugitive from unrequited 
 work — to a meager fare — to physical discomfort. Slavery 
 is a state of mental and moral bondage, worse than any 
 mere bondage of muscle possibly can be. This is a point of 
 conscience with me as a Christian. I cannot, I will not, I 
 would myself sooner die than force, or, in the most indirect 
 manner, countenance the rendition of a man back to a 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 ih'9 
 
 bondage which crushes his manhood, robs his intellect, 
 enfeebles his moral nature, and, while cheating him in re- 
 spect to Time, sends him blindfold and stumbling head- 
 long into Eternity. This law says that I must take a 
 woman, who has just escaped, panting, from slavery, who 
 has just begun to breathe the air of freedom, and send her 
 back to the shambles of lust, where men may look at their 
 slaves as they do at brutes, where there is no religion for 
 the slave, no sacred marriage, no law, no schools, no honor, 
 and no protection — back to the heated and seething waves 
 of damnation. It is this the Fugitive Slave Law asks us 
 to do, and we have ministers of the gospel who preach to 
 us that this is Christianity ! I do not say this in anger, 
 God forbid ! but in shame. God judge between them and 
 the oppressed ! 
 
 There are two ways of sending fugitives back into slav- 
 ery. Paul gives us an account of one way — the way he 
 sent back the slave Onesimus. Now if people will adopt 
 Paul's way I would not object. In the first place, he in- 
 structed him in Christianity, and led him to become a 
 Christian. Then he wrote a letter and sent it by Onesi- 
 mus. The slave was not sent off under the charge of 
 officers, but he went back alone, of his own free will, with 
 a letter and recommendation as a brother beloved. 
 
 There are venerable clergymen, old and wise men they 
 are called, — and you would presume from what they say 
 that they are very old, and I do not know as they will think 
 that, young as I am, I ought to say what I have, — who have 
 had a good deal to say about sending back this slave 
 Onesimus as an example for us. I wish it could be made 
 the example. I would like to see it followed. I would 
 like to see the marshals sitting down to convert some fugi- 
 tive slaves; and I would not speak disrespectfully of those 
 clergymen, for I have respect for them — in spots. \_Laughter^ 
 And I wish that this letter of Paul's might be published by 
 the American Tract Society, and sent all over the Union. 
 \Cheers^ 
 
 I object to the law also because it commands me to do 
 what is essentially wrong. If it is right to send back Long 
 
ipo PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and Simms it is right to send back Dr. Pennington, a 
 minister of the gospel, who has received a doctorate from 
 a German university — not that the doctorate makes him 
 any better man, for a doctorate is of about as much use as 
 a butment to a church — a man who was a member of Dr. 
 Cox's church; I say, if it is right to send Long back, it is 
 right to send Dr. Pennington back. What would Dr. Cox 
 say to this? And Dr. Cox ought to know all about this 
 great subject, for he has been on all sides of it ! I do not 
 know but that Dr. Pennington would be sent back, unre- 
 deemed as he is; and he is obliged now to stay in England, 
 protected by monarchical England from the oppression of 
 democratic America. Say, would any one send Dr. Pen- 
 nington back? \A voice., '■''I would;'' another, '''■I too" another^ 
 ^^I three."'\ Would any man in /lis senses send him back? 
 {^Great applause.^ 
 
 Thirdly, I am amazed at the Fugitive Slave Law, be- 
 cause it is so utterly unfit for the object for which it was 
 made. The old law did not send back the slaves, not one 
 V per cent, of all that escaped. No more does the new law. 
 Perhaps you are not aware, my friends, that there is an 
 underground railroad running through this city. I am 
 not a conductor on it [el/eers], but I hear of it, and I 
 understand that there are forty slaves who go up on it, to 
 one who goes back. But the fault is not in the law. The 
 old law was w^eak through the flesh, and the new one 
 proves just the same. [C//£'(?/\t.] This case is something 
 like that of fishing. Now my father is a good fisherman, 
 a very expert one, while I know nothing about it, and it 
 makes no difference whether I hold an old stick for a pole 
 with a crooked pin for a hook, or an elegant brass-feruled 
 extension rod with a fly scientifically fixed. I cannot in 
 either case catch any fish. I cannot catch any with the 
 bent pin, and it would do no good to give me the fly. So 
 it is with the law. The South could not catch their slaves 
 with the old law, and they went to work to manufact- 
 ure a new one, complete in all its parts — a perfect, elegant, 
 brass-feruled law; but after all they won't do any better 
 with the new law. The trouble is not in the law — that 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 191 
 
 was good enough before — they have a bad fishing ground ! 
 {Cheers^ If a man was sick with the cholera, and should 
 give a dose of medicine to his horse, that would not do 
 him much good. So in this case. It was the public sen- 
 timent that was sick, and they've been dosing the law. 
 S^Repeated c/ieers.'\ 
 
 My next objection to the Fugitive Slave Law is, that it 
 stirs up ill blood where we cannot afford to have it stirred 
 up. It does this by its wording. It seems as if it was 
 worded especially to insult the North. A man once, de- 
 scribing a minister at the West, said: "He preaches as 
 if he had the devil in him — why, he heaves out the prom- 
 ises of God with a pitchfork." And so this law deals — 
 and the pitchfork it uses is no common pitchfork, but one, 
 it would seem, imported from the pit below. \^Cheers.'\ 
 
 Fourthly, This law takes away or abridges the liberty 
 of freemen. We know little about the terror that it has 
 sent among the free colored population of the North — how 
 it has scattered them like partridges in the mountains be- 
 fore the shot of the hunter. Families have fled from 
 places where they were comfortably and respectably es- 
 tablished and held property. The free colored people 
 have felt no security for their liberty. They have feared 
 that they would be sent to slavery courts, before slavery 
 judges, with slavery witnesses, to be tried in regard to 
 their right to liberty. But no — I will not sneer — I take 
 that back; for it seems to me I would sooner trust a 
 Southern court than a Northern one. I think that in the 
 matter of slaves the Southern courts have generally been 
 fairer than those of the North. 
 
 And fifthly, This law obliges the citizens to do that 
 which they cannot conscientiously do. It comes to me 
 and says, Henry Ward Beecher, you must do this; if I call 
 upon you you must assist as a good citizen in returning 
 this runaway. And because last night I received into my 
 house a poor, wandering, famishing woman, and gave her 
 meat to eat, and water to drink, and a place to rest — be- 
 cause I befriended and protected her — it comes and lays 
 its strong hand on me for doing that which Christ com- 
 
192 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 \ manded; and if I am too poor to pay the fine, it throws 
 me into prison. To be sure no such cases have occurred, 
 and I pray God they may not occur, but they can occur; 
 and the man that executes the law in this point, let him 
 beware how he meets his victim at the day of judgment! 
 The law is bad enough in obliging the officers to execute 
 it, but when it comes down among the citizens, when it 
 forbids us helping a man to liberty, I say, God do so to 
 me, and more also, if I do not help him freedomward ! 
 \Grcat applause.'] I say this was not good brotherhood in 
 the South — this was not kind, the course of Christian 
 policy was not to irritate feeling. It was their duty to be 
 forbearing, it was our duty to be forbearing — for the sake 
 of the Union — and I do not say this in the miserable cant 
 of the Union Safety Committee, who are upholding a mere 
 bunion of self-interest, but I mean the glorious Union that 
 was made by our fathers for liberty, the Union for free- 
 idom, the Union for Christianity. Now this law was fired 
 right in the face of the North, in the face of the moral 
 feeling of the North — it was a bombarding of the North 
 — park after park of artillery — and the cannoneer, alas ! 
 Vv'as one who fired at his own hearthstone ! And this 
 great man, not many years ago, made a prediction at 
 Niblo's Garden. He said, in effect, that this subject of 
 slavery had arrested the religious feelings of the country, 
 that it had taken strong hold on the consciences of men, 
 that it is not to be trifled with or despised, and that any 
 attempt to coerce it into silence, to compress and confine 
 it, warm as it is, would assuredly cause an explosion, which 
 would endanger the Constitution and the Union itself. 
 Ah ! how soon has he forgotten his own great words ! It 
 was spoken as only Webster can speak; and when I re- 
 member that prediction and turn to this law, I cannot but 
 cry out in the deepest sorrow — Oh, Lucifer ! son of the 
 morning, how art thou fallen ! I would not speak harshly 
 of Daniel Webster — the time was when there was no man I 
 so much revered; and for statesman's genius, for stature 
 of understanding, there is no man on the globe, since the 
 death of Robert Peel, who is his equal. No, I would not 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 193 
 
 cast stones at him. I would rather do as did the sons of 
 Noah, and going backward cast a cloak over his nakedness. 
 And yet when, in these times, every one has to step over, 
 or through, or around Webster, I cannot but allude to him, 
 and I say that much as I revere him, much as I am proud 
 of him — and I am proud of him for his noble intellect, en- 
 cased in such a noble frame — yet Liberty is dearer. Truth 
 is dearer, Christianity is dearer. 
 
 My sixth objection is that bad laws are a treason to good 
 government. I know of nothing that has so promoted a 
 disregard of authority, and a contempt of all law, as the 
 enactment of this Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
 And I object to the law because of its sequences. Bad 
 laws always bring bad sequences; the evil does not stop 
 with the law itself or its enactment. And the first bad se- 
 quence that came of it was that impotent, empty thunder- 
 bolt of a Union Safety Committee, whose members read 
 their ledgers for their duty, and feel in their pockets for 
 their consciences. \^Great applause?^ There must be some 
 scarecrows, I suppose, in every large field, though men do 
 do not usually feel like electing themselves to that ofifice. 
 \^Laughter^ 
 
 Another objection to the law is that it brought into 
 vogue a style of reasoning that, if believed in, would over- 
 throw all human governments. The higher law — the law \ 
 of conscience, the law of God, the law upon which obedi- 
 ence to all law is based — has been cried down and scouted, 
 not by politicians only but by ministers. Ministers of Jehovah ' 
 have cast scorn on the higher law of Jehovah, and preached 
 up the lower law doctrine; and very low they have gottoo, 
 we should judge, from their sepulchral tones at present. 
 Nay, more, they have taken this opportunity to show their 
 ill-blood against rival denominations, and even to vent 
 their ill-will against individuals, mixing up private wrongs 
 with public wrongs, and personal feuds with national 
 questions. And documents teaching this doctrine have 
 been sent by tens of thousands through the groaning mails 
 all over our land, through all the valleys and over all the 
 plains and across the mountains, into towns and villages 
 
194 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and hamlets. And this doctrine, so taught and so sent, is 
 nothing else than the doctrine of kings and despots, of the 
 divine right of rulers, of non-resistance to power, however 
 oppressive. It is nothing else than a dressing up of the old 
 doctrine of Laud and the Stuarts in a modern suit. If 
 that is the doctrine to be taught and believed and adopted, 
 then there is no chance for republican institutions. Why 
 is it that France has no firm republic after all its revolutions ? 
 Why is it that Italy, — groaning Italy, — striving and strug- 
 gling for a republic, does not gain it? Why is it that 
 Hungary — bleeding, prostrate Hungary — failed in her at- 
 tempt ? It is because the common people are trodden 
 down, because they have given up their consciences to 
 priests and magistrates; and if this comes to be the custom 
 in America, then all hope of freedom is lost. Human nature 
 is a poor affair — man is but a pithy, porous, flabby substance, 
 till you put conscience into him; and as for building a re- 
 public on men who do not hold to the rights of private 
 conscience, who will not follow their own consciences 
 rather than that of any priest or public, you might as well 
 build the Custom House in Wall Street on a foundation of 
 cotton wool ! But the nation that regards conscience more 
 than anything else, above all customs and all laws, is, like 
 New England, with its granite hills, immovable and in- 
 vincible; and the nation that does not regard conscience is 
 a mere base of sand, and quicksand too, at that. If you 
 want this country to be like Turkey, or Egypt, or Algiers, 
 give up the rights of private conscience, and you will have 
 it so, soon enough. 
 
 Yes ! The time will come when, on reading the epitaph 
 of a man, which records that here lies A. B., author of a 
 learned commentary on this or that book, and defender of 
 the doctrine that the people must give up their consciences 
 to magistrates and priests, the people will lift up their 
 hands in astonishment, and exclaim, " God have mercy on 
 his soul ! " \Cheering?[ 
 
 My friends, if I have had the appearance of severity in 
 these remarks, I have not meant to be severe; I have only 
 wished to say frankly and fully what I most deeply and 
 
AMERICAN SLAVERY. 
 
 195 
 
 truly believe, and if I should meet a slaveholder in con- 
 versation, I should say just the same. He might reply, I 
 don't believe all you do, but you say what you think, and I 
 like you; you are no doughface. S^Laiighter.^ I don't ask 
 you to believe just what I say, but I do ask you to think 
 of it; think of it with the Bible in your hands, think of it 
 on your knees, think of it as patriots, as philanthropists, 
 as Christian men, as inheritors of immortality, and if you 
 will think of it, O ! if you will think of it, you will find 
 the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 
 
ON WHICH SIDE IS PEACE? 
 
 There are periods in the history of man, and of com- 
 munities, in which timid counsels are rash and dangerous. 
 When a building is on fire, and quantities of explosive ma- 
 terials are awaiting its approach, the only moderation con- 
 sists in the most intense courage and desperate daring. 
 He is the prudent man who rushes in between the flame 
 and the powder and separates them. The man who ad- 
 vises the fireman to wait — who hopes the evil will cure 
 itself — is a madman and an incendiary. We are brought into 
 a condition of national affairs in which the smooth and easy 
 road will lead to destruction, while peace lies at the end 
 of a straight but narrow way. 
 
 The North desires peace. True civilization will always 
 desire it. It is the atmosphere in which the innumerable 
 fruits of learning and refinement ripen. All the interests 
 of the North — agricultural, manufacturing, commercial, 
 social, civil, and religious — demand domestic peace. The 
 sentiment of peace pervades all classes of men, and in 
 breadth and power it approaches the dignity of a nat- 
 ural law. It holds down all repulsive influences with a 
 grasp as silent but as omnipotent as the law of gravita- 
 tion. This longing for quiet is not to be blamed. It is 
 wise and legitimate. It springs from the very nature of a 
 civilization which has much treasure to guard, and much 
 to develop. But, by as much as it is desirable, by so 
 much should wise men see to it that they follow those 
 measures which really lead to it, and avoid those which, 
 
 * Editorial article in The Independent, June 26, 1856, written during the 
 first campaign of the Republican Party, when John C. Fremont was their 
 presidential candidate (James Buchanan representing the Democratic 
 Party); and the question at issue was chiefly the policy of permitting the 
 extension of slavery into the free Territories of the United States. 
 
y^^, /£^*^^.^^^^^j^— 
 
ON WHICH SIDE IS PEACE? 
 
 197 
 
 under a specious appearance of peace, lead inevitably to 
 the most fatal commotions. 
 
 The building is on fire already. The flame is running 
 into the magazine. What is prudence? To let it alone? 
 To counsel moderation ? Or to arouse and take the ele- 
 ments into our hand, and control while yet they may be 
 controlled ? 
 
 There are fifteen States in our Union which have based 
 their social condition upon a system of involuntary servi- 
 tude. Whether right or wrong, that system is one which 
 works more mischief on the whites than upon the 
 blacks. It demoralizes not only their manners and per- 
 sonal habits, but their political ideas. For intelligence 
 among slaves would make them insubordinate. They 
 must be kept low in the scale of civilization or they 
 cannot be managed. To do this, not only must they not 
 be taught, but they must not even hear too much. Preach- 
 ing must be guarded, political speeches must be guarded, 
 conversation must be guarded, newspapers must be cir- 
 cumspect. One spark may explode a magazine, and one 
 word touch off a servile insurrection fatal alike to master 
 and slave. To keep fetters on their servants, they must 
 keep fetters on their own tongues. Every mouth is a 
 prison, every tongue is a prisoner. Liberty of speech and 
 of the press, liberty of political action, in the Slave States, 
 but especially the more southern ones, would break them 
 up. Men cannot couple liberty and monarchy together. 
 They will not work in one yoke. If slavery is taken, all its 
 sequences, guards, exclusions, and inclusions must go with 
 it. The man who lives in the South, who believes in the 
 slave system, is only consistent, having gone so far, in going 
 ■farther and putting down inflammatory speech. And as 
 all free speech or speech for freedom is inflammatory when 
 uttered amidst those who are enslaved, there is no other 
 way but to suppress it. If it is right to have slavery, it is 
 right to have its necessary defenses. Ignorance is right if 
 slavery is right. Free speech is wrong if slavery is right. 
 A system of force cannot deal with moral suasion. You 
 cannot lay the foundations of a political system upon the 
 
198 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 law of Might, and then run up its towers and spires by the 
 doctrine of Right. 
 
 Therefore it is, that if the Slave States are right in main- 
 taining their system of slavery, the South can no more help 
 being driven along the path of these doctrines of despot- 
 ism than a ship can help flying wildly over the waves when 
 omnipotent storms drive her. As a ship may be carried by 
 an unknown and unsuspected current far out of its track 
 and away from the intent of its master, so communities 
 oftentimes are carried by powerful latent tendencies, over 
 which they have no control, and whose very existence they 
 do not suspect. It is so with the South. The people of 
 the South are going upon a current which exists without 
 their volition. The tendency of things drifts men and parties. 
 One step after another is taken because a pressure is on 
 them which they cannot resist. 
 
 There is, then, no abstract repugnance to free speech in 
 the South. Very much the contrary. But there is a prac- 
 tical conviction that it will not do. Facts drive them from 
 their own doctrines. There is no theoretic disposition to 
 abridge liberty of speech in Congress. But our country is 
 now so sympathetically connected, the transmission of 
 news is so marvelously easy and quick, that Congress has 
 become a speaking trumpet. The whole nation hears its 
 speeches. Is it strange that men who stand upon a sys- 
 tem which is in perpetual danger, should object to have the 
 North put its lips to that trumpet and blow its blasts of 
 freedom all over Southern plantations? The Southern 
 man says: "With you it is not a necessity to speak; with us 
 it is a matter of necessity to have silence. You can carry 
 on all your commerce, your civic arts, your industrial pur- 
 suits, without uttering such speeches of liberty. If you are 
 silent it does you no harm. But our position is one of life 
 and death. Such utterance sets fire to the foundations on 
 which we stand. It is not fair. It is only a theoretic sen- 
 timent that impels you. It is self-existence that drives 
 us! " As a matter of fact this is true. A system of slavery 
 is imperiled by the natural conduct of a system of liberty. 
 It is the necessity of slavery to make freedom dumb. 
 
ON WHICH SIDE IS PEACE? 
 
 199 
 
 The same secret, fatal current of necessity drifts the 
 South toward the extension of slavery. While Free States 
 are growing with prodigious disproportion, there can be 
 no doubt that Slave States will become imbecile and help- 
 less in comparison. Virginia cannot grow — Pennsylvania 
 cannot stand still. The Carolinas are sinking by the nature 
 of their industry — New York is advancing prodigiously. 
 Georgia has no chance in a match with Ohio. If the Slave 
 States stand as they are, and depend upon the inherent 
 energies of their own system, they are doomed, inevitably, 
 to become the last and least. That which they lack, there- 
 fore, in intrinsic force, they are compelled to seek by <?.r/^;z- 
 sion. Arkansas supplements Virginia. When New York 
 weighs down the Carolinas, Texas is thrown in to bring up 
 the scale. That which the South ask is, the liberty of 
 carving two-thirds of the continent into States, to makeup 
 the continual disparity induced by the slave system, as 
 compared with the system of free labor. 
 
 Every Northern man should thoroughly understand that 
 the policy of the South is not one of vexatious haughtiness. 
 It is a policy the necessity of which springs from the very 
 organization of their society, from the irresistible nature 
 of their industrial system. They cannot help themselves. 
 If they would they cannot. They are on a current which 
 sweeps them whether they will or not. As long as the 
 North is left to believe that the demands of the South are 
 from excitement, that they have been provoked to violence, 
 it will seem very reasonable to expect that forbearance, 
 conciliation, and compromise will restore good temper, and 
 with returning temper, that things will grow peaceable. 
 But when it is believed that these events in the South come 
 from a law stronger than volition, from a law which under- 
 lies society, and compels its movements, and which will still 
 compel them, the question assumes a very different aspect. 
 And wise men will be called to reflect whether it is best to 
 put men who represent this system and all these tendencies 
 into the places of supreme national power; whether it will 
 be for the peace of this land that the whole government 
 shall go over to the side of slavery, and be administered for 
 
200 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the sake of giving advantage and equipoise to this perpetu- 
 ally careening and sinking system of servile industry. Shall 
 this system be permitted to control the continent for the pur- 
 pose of making up year by year its own desperate weakness ? 
 
 The men who have for twenty years been acting under 
 this slave necessity — who have been the involuntary slaves 
 of their own slave system — are seeking to retain their hold 
 upon the government. / 
 
 The men who denied the right of petition; who made 
 war on Mexico; who introduced Texas as-a Slave State; 
 who compelled the North, in 1850, to take the Compro- 
 mise, promising that it should be a finality; who broke a 
 nation's word and faith, and abolished the Missouri Com- 
 promise, promising that Kansas should be free or slave as 
 its people chose; who, before the words of promise were 
 cold, invaded Kansas with armed bands, and committed 
 on the real settlers every crime which is marked on the 
 criminal calendar; who sent thither United States troops, 
 and brought the whole force of the Government to cor- 
 roborate the civil war which the South had kindled there; 
 who, failing in intimidating free speech, assaulted with a 
 bludgeon,* in the Senate Chamber, one of the noblest na- 
 tional men, and with almost unanimous consent justified 
 the felony — this party have published a platform, and nom- 
 inated a candidate for the next four critical years in our 
 history. All those tendencies which, from time to time, 
 have broken out from the necessities of the slave system 
 are, in this platform, reduced to the form of political 
 doctrines. Upon these new and revolutionary doctrines, 
 born of the womb and nursed upon the bosom of Slavery, 
 it is proposed to shape the policy of the next Administra- 
 tion, and Mr. Buchanan has accepted the platform, and is 
 pledged, if elected, to execute the doctrines of that plat- 
 form. 
 
 * Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, while sitting at his desk in the 
 Senate Chamber, was assaulted by Preston Brooks, of South Carolina, 
 who so beat him, defenseless and held down by his desk, that his life was 
 despaired of; and in fact he died about eighteen years after (March 11, 1874) 
 from an illness proceeding from his injuries received in that assault. 
 
r/ 
 
 '^c\^-€j^ 
 
 '^i^ 
 
ON WHICH SIDE IS PEACE? 20 1 
 
 We ask every considerate man, will it be possible, with 
 such a history coming on, to avoid a conflict, compared 
 with which anything we have ever known will be child's 
 play? Is that the road to peace which proposes to turn 
 over to Southern hands, for construction and control, our 
 Constitution, our National Government, our armed forces, 
 and our whole Territory? When the arms of the South 
 shall be made strong, and her feet shall be made firm upon 
 the high places of Government, is there anything in the 
 bearing and temper of the South hitherto which may lead 
 us to hope for moderation ? Will not her necessities make 
 her as violent hereafter as heretofore? If the lion's whelp 
 is dangerous even when kenneled, will it become harmless 
 when grown to the full lion, and roving at its will in un- 
 restrained liberty? 
 
 Mr. Buchanan, in his letter of acceptance, holds out to 
 the North the ever grateful and always deceitful promise 
 of peace. His administration, he affirms, shall inure to the 
 benefit of peace at home and abroad. That he will avoid 
 foreign war is very probable, inasmuch as the South 
 mortally dreads that. But domestic peace cannot come 
 unless Mr. Buchanan violates the letter and spirit of that 
 platform on which he stands; unless he throws himself en- 
 tirely out of the current of that influence by which, if at 
 all, he is to be elected; unless he breaks himself away from 
 all those political associates who have made him their rep- 
 resentative. In short, the Cincinnati platform is a platform 
 every plank of which is made of Southern pine. It stands 
 sharply against Northern doctrines. It portends an open 
 and undisguised sweep of Southern ideas across our whole 
 continent. And unless the North has made up its mind to 
 go into the minority, to give up all the inherent advantages 
 belonging to free labor, to yield up liberty of speech, and 
 freedom of soil, and nationality of legislation, then the 
 election of Mr. Buchanan will be the beginning of an ex- 
 citement and of a warfare such as has never been dreamed 
 of hitherto. , 
 
 Every vote for him is a vote for war. No doubt Mr. 
 Buchanan may desire to administer for peace. But when 
 
202 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 a man has gone out into the rapids, what he wishes has 
 very little to do with the question of his going over the 
 falls. Elected upon that platform, he cannot choose any 
 more what he will do. It is a masked battery. It is a 
 platform bristling with artillery. It is full of shells and 
 rockets. It will sweep the country with doctrines such as 
 never have been known before. It is very silent now. The 
 platform lies before the public, as a man-of-war lies peace- 
 fully at anchor. Her sides are still. Her decks are quiet. 
 Her magazine sleeps. She is peaceful indeed, and yet she 
 is stuffed full of materials that only need a quickening, and 
 every port-hole will fly open, every cannon blaze, and the 
 whole ship belch thunder and lightning with broadsides of 
 death. 
 
 If a man wishes to put the torch to the Future, let him 
 vote for the Southern men and platform. If men wish 
 wilder times, fiercer conflicts, deadlier civil war, let them 
 vote for the Southern platform. Northern moderation 
 now will be bloodshed by and by. 
 
 The only way to peace is that way which shall chain 
 slavery to the place that it now has, and say to the Dragon, 
 *' In thine own den thou mayst dwell, and lie down in 
 thine own slime. But thou shalt not go forth to ravage 
 free territory, nor leave thy trail upon unspotted soil." 
 
 Until liberty controls the institutions of liberty, until 
 freemen rule in the land of freedom, we shall have nothing 
 but disturbance. And the sooner moderate men grow 
 bold, and take a firm and manly course, the sooner will 
 conflict and contention die out and leave this fair land to 
 prosperity. 
 
 By an ever-acting and inevitable law, the South must 
 agitate the country, until a wall is built against her aggres- 
 sion. Then the fire will spread no more, but will burn 
 within her own sphere. But it will be a purifying fire. 
 It will burn up her dross. 
 
 After a time she will find slavery intolerable, and de- 
 stroy it for her own salvation. , ' 
 

THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY/ 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old 
 paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for 
 your souls. But they said. We will not walk therein. Also I set watch- 
 men over you saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they 
 said. We will not hearken Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O con- 
 gregation, what is among them. Hear, O earth : behold, I will bring evil 
 upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not 
 hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it." — ^Jer. vi. 16-19. 
 
 This is a terrible message. It was God's word of old by 
 the mouth of his prophet, Jeremiah. The occasion of it 
 was a sudden irruption upon Judah of victorious enemies. 
 God sent the prophet to reveal the cause of this disaster. 
 The prophet declared that God was punishing his people 
 because they were selfish and unjust and covetous, and 
 because the whole Church, with its ministry, was whelmed 
 in the same sins. These mischiefs had been glossed over 
 and excused and palliated and hidden, and not healed. 
 There had been a spirit that demanded union and quiet 
 rather than purity and safety. God, therefore, threatens 
 further afflictions, because of the hardness of their hearts; 
 and then, — for such always is the Divine lenity, — as it were, 
 giving them another opportunity and alternative, he com- 
 mands them to seek after God; to look for a better way; 
 to search for the old way, the right way, and to walk in it. 
 
 *Preached October 30, 1859, while John Brown was in prison awaiting trial 
 for his doings at Harper's Ferry. John Brown's raid took j^lace while the 
 country was just organizing for the campaign which resulted in the election 
 of Mr. Lincoln. It was at once attempted to turn the occurrence against 
 the cause of liberty, by representing it as a symptom and premature de- 
 velopment of what was intended by the Republican party against the rights 
 of the South. It was necessary that the friends of liberty should be vin- 
 dicated, without at the same time taking part, or seeming to take part, 
 against those in bonds. 
 
204 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 I need not stop to point out the remarkable pertinence 
 which these things have, in many respects, to our nation in 
 the past and to our times in the present. After a long 
 silence upon this subject, I avail myself of the state of the 
 public mind to make some observations on the present 
 state of our land. 
 
 The surprise of a whole nation at a recent event is itself 
 the best evidence of the isolation of that event. A burning 
 fragment struck the earth near Harper's Ferry. If the 
 fragment of an exploding aerolite had fallen down out of 
 the air, while the meteor swept on, it would not have 
 been more sudden or less apparently connected either with 
 a cause or an effect ! 
 
 Seventeen men, white men, without a military base, with- 
 out supplies, without artillery, without organization more 
 than as a squad of militia, attacked a State, and undertook 
 to release and lead away an enslaved race! They do not 
 appear to have been called by the sufferers, nor to have been 
 welcomed by them. They volunteered a grace, and sought 
 to enforce its acceptance. Seventeen white men held two 
 thousand in duress. They barricaded themselves, and 
 waited until the troops of two States, the employes of a 
 great railway, and a portion of the forces of the Federal 
 government could, traveling briskly night and day, reach 
 them. Then, at one dash, they were snuffed out ! 
 
 I do not wonder that Virginians feel a great deal of mor- 
 tification. Everybody is sympathetically ashamed for 
 them ! It is quite natural that every effort should be made 
 to enlarge the proportions of this escapade, that they may 
 hide their weakness and incompetency behind a smartly 
 upblown horror ! No one doubts the bravery of Virginians ! 
 It needs no praising. But even brave men have panics. 
 Courage is sometimes caught at unawares. Certainly it 
 strikes us, at a distance, as a remarkable thing, that prison- 
 ers three to one more than their captors,* and two thousand 
 citizens, should have remained days and nights under the 
 fear and control of seventeen white men. Northern cour- 
 
 * Brown captured the arsenal and between forty and fifty of the principal 
 inhabitants. 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 
 
 205 
 
 age has been at a discount in the South hitherto. It 
 ought hereafter to rise in value, at least in Virginia! 
 
 The diligence which is now shown on the part of many 
 public presses to inflame the public mind and infect it with 
 fear is quite foolish. The inoculation will not take. The 
 North may not be courageous, but it certainly is not silly. 
 There is an element of the ludicrous in this transaction 
 which I think will effectually stop all panic. 
 
 Seventeen men terrified two thousand brave Virginians 
 into two days' submission, — that cannot be got over! The 
 common sense of common people will not fail to see through 
 all attempts to lifde a natural shame by a bungling make- 
 believe that the danger was really greater than it was! The 
 danger was nothing, and the fear very great, and the cour- 
 age none at all. And nothing can now change the facts ! 
 All the newspapers on earth will not make this case appear 
 any better. Do what you please, — muster a crowd of sup- 
 posed confederates, call the roll of conspirators, include the 
 noblest men of these States, and exhibit this imaginary army 
 before the people, and, in the end, it will appear that seven- 
 teen white men overawed a town of two thousand brave 
 Virginians, and held them captives until the sun had gone 
 laughing twice around the globe ! 
 
 And the attempt to hide the fear of these surrounded 
 men by awaking a larger fear will never do. It is too literal 
 a fulfillment, not exactly of prophecy, but of fable; not of 
 Isaiah, but of .^sop. 
 
 A fox having been caught in a trap, escaped with the loss 
 of his tail. He immediately went to his brother foxes to 
 persuade them that they would all look better if they too 
 would cut off their tails. They declined. And our two 
 thousand friends, who lost their courage in the presence of 
 seventeen men, are now making an appeal to this nation to 
 lose its courage too,that the cowardice of the few may be hid- 
 den in the cowardice of the whole community! It is impos- 
 sible. We choose to wear our courage for some time longer. 
 
 As I shall not recur to this epic in Virginia history again 
 to-night, I must say a word in respect to the head and 
 heart of it. For it all stood in the courage of one man. 
 
 V 
 
2o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 An old man, kind at heart, industrious, peaceful, went 
 forth, with a large family of children, to seek a new home in 
 Kansas. That infant colony held thousands of souls as 
 noble as liberty ever inspired or religion enriched. A great 
 scowling Slave State, its nearest neighbor, sought to tread 
 down this liberty-loving colony, and to dragoon slavery into 
 it by force of arms. The armed citizens of a hostile State 
 crossed the State lines, destroyed the freedom of the ballot- 
 box, prevented a fair expression of public sentiment, cor- 
 ruptly usurped law-making power, and ordained by fraud 
 laws as infamous as the sun ever saw; assaulted its infant 
 settlements with armed hordes, ravaged the fields, destroyed 
 harvests and herds, and carried death to a multitude of 
 cabins. The United States government had no marines 
 for this occasion! No Federal troops posted in the cars 
 by night and day for the poor, the weak, the grossly 
 wronged men of Kansas. There was an army there that 
 unfurled the banner of the Union, but it was on the side of 
 the wrong-doers, not on the side of the injured. 
 
 It was in this field that Brown received his impulse. A 
 tender father, whose life was in his son's life, he saw his 
 first-born seized like a felon, chained, driven across the 
 country, crazed by suffering and heat, beaten like a dog by 
 the officer in charge, and long lying at death's door! 
 Another noble boy, without warning, without offense, un- 
 armed, in open day, in the midst of the city, was shot dead! 
 No justice sought out the murderers; no United States 
 attorney was dispatched in hot haste; no marines or sol- 
 diers aided the wronged and weak! 
 
 The shot that struck the child's heart crazed the father's 
 brain. Revolving his wrongs, and nursing his hatred of 
 that deadly system that breeds such contempt of justice and 
 humanity, at length his phantoms assume a slender reality, 
 and organize such an enterprise as one might expect from a 
 man whom grief had bereft of good judgment. He goes to 
 the heart of a Slave State. One man, — and with sixteen 
 followers ! he seizes two thousand brave Virginians, and 
 holds them in duress ! 
 
 When a great State attacked a handful of weak colonists, 
 
 I 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 207 
 
 the government and nation were torpid, but when seven- 
 teen men attacked a sovereign State, then Maryland arms, 
 and Virginia arms, and the United States government 
 arms, and they three rush against seventeen men. 
 
 Travelers tell us that the Geysers of Iceland — those sin- 
 gular boiling springs of the North — may be transported 
 with fury by plucking up a handful of grass or turf and 
 throwing it into the springs. The hot springs of Virginia 
 are of the same kind! A handful of men was thrown into 
 them, and what a boiling there has been ! 
 
 But, meanwhile, no one can fail to see that this poor, 
 child-bereft old man is the manliest of them all. Bold, 
 unflinching, honest, without deceit or evasion, refusing 
 to take technical advantages of any sort, but openly 
 avowing his principles and motives, glorying in them in 
 danger and death, as much as when in security, — that 
 wounded old father is the most remarkable figure in this 
 whole drama. The Governor, the officers of the State, and 
 all the attorneys are pygmies compared with him. 
 
 I deplore his misfortunes. I sympathize with his sor- 
 rows. I mourn the hiding or obscuration of his reason, 
 I disapprove of his mad and feeble schemes. I shrink 
 from the folly of the bloody foray, and I shrink likewise 
 from all the anticipations of that judicial bloodshed, which 
 doubtless ere long will follow, — for when was cowardice 
 ever magnanimous? If they kill the man, it will not be so 
 much for treason as for the disclosure of their cowardice ! 
 
 Let no man pray that Brown be spared. Let Virginia 
 make him a martyr. Now, he has only blundered. His 
 soul was noble; his work miserable. But a cord and a 
 gibbet would redeem all that, and round up Brown's fail- 
 ure with a heroic success. 
 
 One word more, and that is as to the insecurity of those 
 States that carry powder as their chief cargo. Do you 
 suppose that if tidings had come to New York that the 
 United States armory in Springfield had been seized by 
 seventeen men, New Haven, and Hartford, and Stamford, 
 and Worcester, and New York, and Boston, and Albany 
 would have been thrown into a fever and panic in conse- 
 
2o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 quence of the event ? We scarcely should have read the 
 papers to see what became of it. We should have thought 
 that it was a matter which the Springfield people could 
 manage. The thought of danger would not have entered 
 into our heads. There would not have been any danger. 
 But in a State where there is such inflammable stuff as 
 slavery, there is danger, and the people of the South 
 know it; and they cannot help it. I do not blame them so 
 much for being afraid: there is cause for fear where they 
 have such a population as they have down at the bottom 
 of society. But what must be the nature of State and do- 
 mestic institutions which keep brave men at the point of 
 fear all their life long? 
 
 I do not propose, at this time, to express my opinion 
 upon the general subject of Slavery. I have elsewhere, 
 and often, deliberately uttered my testimony. Reflection 
 and experience only confirm my judgment of its immeasur- 
 able evils. It is double-edged evil, that cuts both ways, 
 wounding master and slave; a pest to good morals; a con- 
 sumption of the industrial virtues; a burden upon society 
 in its commercial and economic arrangements; a political 
 anomaly; and a cause of inevitable degradation in religious 
 ideas, feelings, and institutions. All other causes of trouble 
 derived from the w^eakness or the wickedness of men put 
 together are not half so mischievous to our land as is this 
 gigantic evil. 
 
 But it exists in our land, and with a wide-spread and a 
 long-established hold. The extent of our duties toward 
 the slave and toward the master is another and separate 
 question. Our views upon the nature of slavery may be 
 right, and our views of duty toward it may be wrong. 
 
 At this time it is peculiarly necessary that all good men 
 should be divinely led to act with prudence and efficient 
 wisdom. 
 
 Because it is a great sin, because it is a national curse, it 
 does not follow that we have a right to say anything or do 
 anything about it that may happen to please us. We cer- 
 tainly have no right to attack it in any manner that may 
 gratify men's fancies or passions. It is computed that there 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 209 
 
 are four million colored slaves in our nation. These dwell 
 in fifteen different Southern States, with a population of 
 ten million whites. These sovereign States are united to 
 us not merely by federal ligaments, but by vital interests, 
 by a common national life. And the question of duty 
 is not simply what is duty toward the blacks, not what 
 is duty toward the whites, but what is duty to each and to 
 both united. I am bound by the great law of love to con- 
 sider my duties toward the slave, and I am bound by the 
 great law of love also to consider my duties toward the 
 white man, who is his master ! Both are to be treated with 
 Christian wisdom and forbearance. We must seek to ben- 
 efit the slave as much as the white man, and the white man 
 as really as the slave. We must keep in mind the interest 
 of every part, — of the slaves themselves, of the white popu- 
 lation, and of the whole brotherhood of States federated 
 into national life. And while the principles of liberty and 
 justice are one and the same, always and everywhere, the 
 wisest method of conferring upon men the benefit of lib- 
 erty and justice demands great consideration, according to 
 circumstances. 
 
 How to apply an acknowledged principle in practical life 
 is a task more difficult than the defense of the principle. 
 It is harder to define what would be just in certain emergen- 
 cies than to establish the duty, claims, and authority of 
 justice. 
 
 Can any light be thrown upon this difficult path ? Some 
 light may be shed; but the difficulties of duty can never 
 be removed except by the performance of duty. Yet 
 some things may be known beforehand, and guide to prac- 
 tical solutions. 
 
 I shall proceed to show the wrong way and the right way. 
 
 I. First, we have no right to treat the citizens of the 
 South with acrimony and bitterness because they are in- 
 volved in a system of wrong-doing. Wrong is to be ex- 
 posed. But the spirit of rebuke may be as wicked before 
 God as the spirit of the evil rebuked. Simplicity and 
 firmness in truth are more powerfuf than any vehement 
 bitterness. Speaking the truth in love is the Apostle's pre- 
 
2IO PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 scription. Some men so love that they will not speak 
 painful truth, and some men utter truth so bitterly as to 
 destroy love; and both are evil-doers. A malignant speech 
 about slavery will not do any good; and, most of all, it will 
 not do those any good who most excite our sympathy, — 
 the children of bondage. If we hope to ameliorate the con- 
 dition of the slave, the first step must not be taken by 
 setting the master against him. We may be sure that God 
 will not employ mere wrath for wisdom; and that he will 
 raise up and send forth, when his day comes, fearless men, 
 who shall speak the truth for justice, in the spirit of love. 
 Therefore it is a matter not merely of political and secular 
 wisdom, but of Christian conscience, that those who have 
 at heart the welfare of the erislaved should maintain a 
 Christian spirit. This can be done without giving up one 
 word of truth or one principle of righteousness. A man 
 may be fearless and plain-spoken, and yet give evidence 
 of being sympathetic and kind-hearted and loving. 
 
 2. The breeding of discontent among the bondmen of 
 our land is not the way to help them. Whatever gloomy 
 thoughts the slave's own mind may brood, wc are not to 
 carry disquiet to him from without. 
 
 If I could have my way, every man on the globe should be 
 a freeman, and at once ! But as they cannot be, w^ill not be, 
 for ages, is it best that bitter discontent should be inspired 
 in them, or Christian quietness and patient waiting ? If rest- 
 lessness would bring freedom, they should never rest. But 
 I firmly believe that moral goodness in the slave is the 
 harbinger of liberty ! The influence of national freedom 
 will gradually reach the enslaved, it will surely inspire that 
 restlessness which precedes development. Germination is 
 the most silent, but most disturbing, of all natural processes. 
 Slaves cannot but feel the universal summer of civilization. 
 In this way they must come to restless yearnings. We can- 
 not help that, and would not if we could. It is God's sign 
 that spring has come to them. The soul is coming up. 
 There must be room for it to grow. But this is a very dif- 
 ferent thing from surly discontent, stirred up from without, 
 and left to rankle in their unenlightened natures. The 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 21 1 
 
 time is rapidly coming when the Southern Christian will 
 feel a new inspiration. We are not far removed from a 
 revival of the doctrines of Christian manhood and the divine 
 rights of men. When this pentecost comes, the slaves will 
 be stirred by their own masters. We must work upon the 
 master. Make him discontented with slavery, and he will 
 speedily take *care of the rest. Before this time comes, any 
 attempt to excite discontent among the slaves will work 
 mischief to them^ and not good. And my experience — and I 
 have had some experience in this matter — is, that men who 
 tamper with slaves and incite them to discontent are not 
 themselves to be trusted. They are not honest men, unless 
 they are fanatical. If they have their reason, they usually 
 have lost their conscience. I do not know why it is so, but 
 my experience has taught me that men who do such things 
 are crafty, and untrustworthy. Conspirators, the world 
 over, are bad men. And if I were in the South, I should, 
 not from fear of the master, but from the most deliberate 
 sense of the injurious effects of it to the slave, never by word 
 nor act do anything to excite discontent among those who 
 are in slavery. The condition of the slave must be changed, 
 but the change cannot go on in one part of the community 
 alone. There must be change in the law, change in the 
 Church, change in the upper classes, change in the middle 
 and in all classes. Emancipation, when it comes, will come 
 either by revolution or by a change of public opinion in the 
 whole community. No influences, then, are adequate to the 
 relief of the slave, which are not of a proportion and power 
 sufficient to modify the thought and the feeling of the whole 
 community. The evil is not partial. It cannot be cured by 
 partial remedies. Our plans must include a universal 
 change in policy, feeling, purpose, theory, and practice in 
 the whole nation. The application of simple remedies to 
 single spots in this great body of disease will serve to pro- 
 duce a useless irritation: it will merely fester the hand, but 
 not cure the whole body. 
 
 3. No relief will be afforded to the slaves of the South, 
 as a body, by any individual; or by any organized plan to 
 carry them off, or to incite them to abscond. 
 
212 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 The more enlightened and liberty-loving among the 
 Southern slaves bear too much of their masters' blood not 
 to avail themselves of any opening to escape. It is their 
 right; it will be their practice. Free locomotion is an in- 
 cident of slave-property, which the master must put up 
 with. Nimble legs are of much use in tempering the se- 
 verity of slavery. If, therefore, an enslaved man, acting 
 from the yearnings of his own heart, desires to run away, 
 who shall forbid him ? In all the earth, wherever a hu- 
 man being is held in bondage, he has a right to slough his 
 burden and break his yoke if he can. If he wishes liberty, 
 and is willing to dare and suffer for it, let him ! If by his 
 manly courage he achieves it, he ought to have it. I 
 honor such a man ! 
 
 Nay, if he has escaped and comes to me, I owe him shel- 
 ter, succor, defense, and God-speed to a final safety. If there 
 were as many laws as there are lines in the Fugitive Slave 
 Law, and as many officers as there were beasts in Daniel's 
 lion's den, I would disregard every law but God's, and help 
 the fugitive ! A man whose own heart has inspired a cour- 
 age sufficient to achieve what he desired, shall never come 
 to my door and not be made as welcome as my own child. 
 I will adopt him for God's sake, and for the sake of the 
 Christ who broods over the weak and perishing. Nor am I 
 singular in such feelings and purposes. Ten thousand 
 men, even in the South, would feel and do the same. A 
 man who would not help a fellow-creature flying for his 
 liberty must be either a villain or a politician. 
 
 I stand on the outside of this great cordon of darkness, 
 and every man that escapes from it, running for his life, 
 shall have some help from me, if he comes forth of his own 
 free accord; yet I would never incite slaves to run away, or 
 send any other man to do it. We have no right to carry 
 into the midst of slavery exterior discontent; and for this 
 reason: that it is not good for the slaves themselves. It is short- 
 sighted humanity, at best, and poor policy for both the 
 blacks and the whites. And I say again, I would not trust 
 a man that should do it. It would injure the blacks chiefly 
 and especially. How it would injure them will appear 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 213 
 
 when I come to speak positively of what is the right way 
 to promote the liberty of the enslaved. I may say here, 
 however, that the higher a man is raised in the scale of 
 being, the harder it will be to hold him in bondage and 
 to sell him; while the more he is like an animal, the easier 
 it will be to hold him in thrall and harness. The more 
 you make slave-holders feel that when they oppress and 
 sell a man they are oppressing and selling God's image, 
 the harder it will be for them to continue to enslave and 
 traffic in human beings. Therefore, whatever you do to 
 inspire in the slave high and noble and godlike feelings 
 tends to loosen his chains, and whatever shall inspire in 
 him base, low, and cruel feelings tightens them. 
 
 Running away is all fair for single cases. It is God's 
 remedy for all cases of special hardship. It is the natural 
 right of any slave who has manhood enough to resent even 
 tolerant bondage. We are not speaking of the remedy for 
 individuals, — but the remedy for the whole system. Four 
 million men cannot run away, until God sends ten Egyptian 
 plagues to help them. And those who go among the slaves 
 to stir up discontent will help the hundreds at the expense 
 of the millions. Those left behind will be demoralized, 
 and, becoming less trustworthy, will grow sullen under in- 
 creased severity and vigilance. 
 
 4. Still less would we tolerate anything like insurrection 
 and servile war. It would be the most cruel, hopeless, and 
 desperate of all conceivable follies, to seek emancipation by 
 the sword and by blood. And though I love liberty as my 
 own life, though I long for it in every human being, though 
 if God, by unequivocal providences, should ordain that it 
 should come again as of old, through terrible plagues on the 
 first-born, and by other terrors of ill, I should submit to the 
 Divine behest; yet, so far as human instrumentality is con- 
 cerned, by all the conscience of a man, by all the faith of a 
 Christian, and by all the zeal and warmth of a philanthro- 
 pist, I protest against any counsels that lead to insurrection, 
 servile war, and bloodshed. It is bad for the master, bad 
 for the slave, bad for all that are neighbors to them, bad 
 for the whole land, — bad from beginning to end ! 
 
214 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 The right of a race or nation to seize their freedom is not 
 to be disputed. It belongs to all men on the face of the 
 globe, without regard to complexion. A people have the 
 right to change their rulers, their government, their whole 
 political condition. This right is neither granted nor limited 
 in the New Testament. It is left, as are the functions of 
 life, and even existence itself, as a thing not requiring com- 
 mands or legislation. But, according to God's Word, so 
 long as a man remains a servant, he must obey his master. 
 The right of the slave to throw off the control of his master 
 is not abrogated. The right of the subject to do this is 
 neither defined nor limited. But the use of this right must 
 conform to reason, and not to mere impulse. The leaders 
 of a people have no right to whelm their helpless followers 
 in terrible disaster by inciting them to rebel, under circum- 
 stances that afford not the slightest hope that their rebellion 
 will rise to the dignity of a successful revolution. The 
 nations of Italy are showing great wisdom and fitness in 
 their leaders for their work, in that they are quelling fretful 
 and irregular outbreak, and holding the people steadfast till 
 success shall surely crown uprising revolution. This has 
 been the eminent wisdom of that Hungarian exile, Kossuth. 
 In spite of all that is written and said against this noble 
 man, I stand to my first full faith in him.* The uncrowned 
 hero is the noblest man, after all, in Europe ! And his 
 statesmanship has been shown in this: that his burning 
 sense of the right of his people to be free has not led 
 him to incite them to premature, partial, and easily over- 
 matched revolt. A man may give his own life rather than 
 abide in servitude, but he has no right to lead a whole 
 people to slaughter, without the strongest probabilities of 
 success. 
 
 If nations were all armed men, it would be different. Sol- 
 diers can die. But a nation is made up of other materials 
 than armed men; it includes women and children and 
 
 *In December, 1851, Louis Kossuth came to America, and Mr. Beecher 
 and Plymouth Church were among his warmest friends and most liberal 
 helpers, with what he called " material aid." 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 215 
 
 youth. These are to be considered, and not merely men 
 of muscle and knuckle and bone. 
 
 Now, if the Africans in our land were intelligent, if they 
 understood themselves, if they had self-governing power, if 
 they were able, first to throw off the yoke of adverse laws 
 and institutions, and afterwards to defend and build them- 
 selves up in a civil state, then they would have just the same 
 right to assume their independence that any nation has. 
 
 But does any man believe that this is the case? Does 
 any man believe that this vast horde of undisciplined 
 Africans, if set free, would have cohesive power enough 
 to organize themselves into a government, and main- 
 tain their independence ? If there be men who be- 
 lieve this, I am not among them. I certainly think t at 
 even slaves would be made immeasurably better by liberty; 
 but I do not believe they would be made better by liberty 
 gained by insurrection or rebellion in the peculiar circum- 
 stances which surround them at the South. A regulated lib- 
 erty; a liberty possessed with the consent of their masters; 
 a liberty under the laws and institutions of the country; a 
 liberty which should make them common beneficiaries of 
 those institutions and principles which make us wise and 
 happy, — such a liberty would be a great blessing to them. 
 Freedom, with a law and government, is an unspeakable 
 good, but without them it is a mischief. And anything that 
 tends to incite among men a vague insurrectionary spirit is 
 a great and cruel wrong to them. 
 
 If, in view of the wrongs of slavery, you say that you do 
 not care for the master, but only for the slave, I reply, that 
 you should care for both master and slave! Though you do 
 not care for the fate of the wrong-doing white man, I do! 
 But even though your sympathy were only for the slave, 
 then for his sake you ought to set your face against any- 
 thing like an insurrectionary spirit. 
 
 Let us turn from these specifications of the wrong way 
 to some considerations relating to the right way. 
 
 I. If we would benefit the African at the South, we must 
 begin at the North. This is to some men the most disagreea- 
 ble part of the doctrine of emancipation. It is very easy to 
 
2l6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 labor for the emancipation of beings a thousand miles off; 
 but the practical application of justice and humanity to 
 those about us is not so agreeable. The truths of God re- 
 specting the rights and dignities of men are just as im- 
 portant to free colored men as to enslaved colored men. 
 The lever with which to lift the load of Georgia is in New 
 York. I do not believe the whole free North can tolerate 
 grinding injustice toward the poor and inhumanity toward 
 the laboring classes, without exerting an influence unfavora- 
 ble to justice and humanity in the South. No one can fail 
 to see the inconsistency between our treatment of those 
 amongst us who are in the lower walks of life and our pro- 
 fessions of sympathy for the Southern slaves. How are the 
 free colored people treated at the North ? They are almost 
 without education, and with but little sympathy for their ig- 
 norance. They are refused the common rights of citizen- 
 ship which the whites enjoy. They cannot even ride in the 
 cars of our city railroads. They are snuffed at in the house 
 of God, or tolerated with ill-concealed disgust. Can the 
 black man be a mason in New York? Let him be employed 
 as a journeyman, and every Irish lover of liberty that carries 
 the hod or trowel would leave at once, or compel him to 
 leave ! Can the black man be a carpenter ? There is scarcely 
 a carpenter's shop in New York in which a journeyman 
 would continue to work, if a black man was employed in it. 
 Can the black man engage in the common industries of life ? 
 There is scarcely one from which he is not excluded. He is 
 crowded down, down, down, through the most menial call- 
 ings, to the bottom of society. We tax them, and then re- 
 fuse to allow their children to go to our public schools. We 
 heap upon them moral obloquy more atrocious than that 
 which the master heaps upon the slave. And, notwithstand- 
 ing all this, we lift ourselves up to talk to the Southern peo- 
 ple about the rights and liberties of the human soul, and es- 
 pecially the African soul! It is true that slavery is cruel. 
 But it is not at all certain that there is not more love to the 
 race in the South than in the North. We do not own them, 
 so we do not love them at all. The prejudice of the whites 
 against color is so strong that they cannot endure to ride or 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 217 
 
 sit with a black man, so long as they do not own him. As 
 neighbors^ they are not to be tolerated, but as property they 
 are most tolerable in the house, the church, the carriage, the 
 couch ! The African owned, may dwell in America; but un- 
 owned, he must be expatriated. Emancipation must be 
 jackal to colonization. The choice given to the African is 
 plantation or colonization. Our Christian public sentiment 
 is a pendulum swinging between owning or exporting the 
 colored poor in our midst. 
 
 Whenever we are prepared to show toward the lowest, the 
 poorest, and the most despised an unaffected kindness, such 
 as led Christ, though the Lord of Glory, to lay aside his 
 dignities, and to take on himself the form of a servant, and 
 suffer an ignominious death, that he might rescue men from 
 ignorance and bondage, — whenever we are prepared to do 
 such things as these, we may be sure that the example of the 
 North will not be unfelt at the South. Every effort that is 
 made in Brooklyn to establish schools and churches for the 
 free colored people, and to encourage them to educate them- 
 selves and to become independent, is a step toward emanci- 
 pation in the South. The degradation of free colored men 
 in the North will fortify slavery in the South ! 
 
 2. We must quicken all the springs of feeling in the Free 
 States in behalf of human liberty, and create a public senti- 
 ment, based upon truths of Christian manhood. For if we 
 act to any good purpose on the minds of the South, we must 
 do it through a salutary and pure public sentiment in the 
 North. When we have corrected our own practice, and set 
 an example of the right spirit, then we shall have a position 
 from which to exert a beneficial public influence on the 
 minds of Southern slaveholders. For this there must be 
 full, and free discussion. Under our institutions, public 
 opinion is the monarch; and free speech and debate form 
 public opinion. 
 
 The air must be vital with the love of liberty. Liberty 
 with us must be raised by religion from the selfishness of an 
 instinct to the sanctity of a moral principle! We must love 
 it for ourselves and demand it for others. Since Christ took 
 man's nature, human life has a divine sanctity. We must 
 
2l8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 inspire in the public mind a profound sense of the rights of 
 men founded upon their relations to God. The glory of in- 
 telligence, refinement, genius, has nothing to do with men's 
 rights. The rice slave, the Hottentot, are as much God's 
 children as Humboldt or Chalmers. That they are in deg- 
 radation only makes it more imperative upon us to secure 
 to them the birthright which in their ignorance they sell 
 for a mess of pottage. 
 
 These things must become familiar again to our pulpits. 
 Our children must be taught to glow again in our schools 
 over the heroic ideals of liberty. Mothers must twine the 
 first threads of their children's life with the golden threads 
 of these divine truths, and the whole of life must be woven 
 to the heavenly pattern of Liberty ! 
 
 What can the North do for the South, unless her own 
 heart is purified and ennobled ? When the love of liberty is 
 at so low an ebb that churches dread the sound, ministers 
 shrink from the topic; when book-publishers dare not pub- 
 lish or republish a word on the subject of slavery, cut out 
 every living word from school-books, expurgate life-passages 
 from Humboldt, Spurgeon, and all foreign authors or teach- 
 ers; and when great religious publication Societies, endowed 
 for the very purpose of speaking fearlessly the truths which 
 interest would let perish, pervert their trust, and are dumb, 
 first and chiefly, and articulate only in things that thousands 
 of others could publish as well as they, — what chance is 
 there that public sentiment, in such a community, will have 
 any power with the South ? 
 
 But the end of these things is at hand. A nobler spirit 
 is arising. New men, new hearts, new zeals, are coming 
 forward, led on by all those signs and auspices that God 
 foresends when he prepares his people to advance. This 
 work, well begun, must not go back. It must grow, like 
 spring, into summer. God will then give it an autumn — 
 without a winter. And when such a public sentiment fills 
 the North, founded upon religion, and filled with fearless 
 love to both the bond and the free, it will work all over 
 the continent, and nothing can be hid from the shining 
 thereof. 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 219 
 
 3. By all the ways consistent with the fearless asser- 
 tion of truth, we must maintain sympathy and kindness 
 toward the South. We are brethren; and I pray that no 
 fratricidal influences be permitted to sunder this Union. 
 There was a time when I thought the body of death would 
 be too much for life, and that the North was in danger of 
 taking disease from the South, rather than they our health. 
 That time has gone past. I do not believe that we shall 
 be separated by their act or ours. We have an element 
 of healing, which, if we are true to ourselves and our princi- 
 ples, and God is kind to us, will drive itself further and fur- 
 ther into the nation, until it penetrates and regenerates 
 every part. When the whole lump shall have been leav- 
 ened thereby, old prejudices will be done away, and new 
 sympathies will be created. 
 
 I am for holding the heart of the North right up to the 
 heart of the South. Every heart-beat will be, ere long, not 
 a blow riveting oppression, but a throb carrying new health. 
 Freedom in the North is stronger than slavery in the South. 
 We are yet to work for them as the silent spring works for 
 us. They are a lawful prey to love. I do not hesitate to 
 tell the South what I mean by loving this Union. I mean 
 liberty, I mean the decay of slavery, and its extinction. If 
 I might speak for the North, I would say to the South: 
 " We love you, and hate your slavery. We shall leave no 
 fraternal effort untried to deliver you, and ourselves with 
 you, from the degradation, danger, and wickedness of this 
 system." And for this we cling to the Union. There is 
 health in it. 
 
 4. We are to leave no pains untaken, through the Chris- 
 tian conscience of the South, to give to the slave himself 
 a higher moral status. I lay it down as an axiom, that 
 whatever gives more manhood to the slave slackens the 
 bonds that bind him, and that whatever lowers him in the 
 scale of manhood tightens those bonds. If you wish to 
 work for the enfranchisement of the African, seek to make 
 him a better man. Teach him to be an obedient servant, 
 and an honest, true. Christian man. These virtues are God's 
 step-stones to liberty. That man whom Christ first makes 
 
2 20 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 free has a better chance to be civilly free than any other. 
 To make a slave morose, fractious, disobedient, and unwill- 
 ing to work is the way to defer his emancipation. We do 
 not ask the slave to be satisfied with slavery. But, feeling 
 its grievous burden, we ask him to endure it while he must, 
 "as unto God, and not unto man;" not because he does 
 not love liberty, but because he does love Christ enough 
 to show forth His spirit under grievous wrong. Bad slaves 
 will never breed respect, sympathy, and emancipation. 
 Truth, honor, fidelity, manhood, — these things in the slave 
 will prepare him for freedom. It is the low animal condi- 
 tion of the African that enslaves him. It is moral enfran- 
 chisement that will break his bonds. 
 
 The Pauline treatment is the most direct road to liberty. 
 No part of the wisdom of the New Testament seems to me 
 more divinely wise than Paul's directions to those in slavery. 
 This is the food that servants need now at the South, every- 
 where, the world over ! If I lived in the South, I should 
 preach these things to slaves, with a firm conviction that so 
 I should advance the day of their liberty. I should feel 
 that I was carrying them further and further toward' their 
 emancipation. There is no disagreement between the true 
 spirit of emancipation and the enforcement of every sin- 
 gle one of the precepts of the New Testament respecting 
 servants. 
 
 5. The things which shall lead to emancipation are not 
 so complicated or numerous as people blindly think. A 
 few virtues established, a few usages maintained, a few 
 rights guaranteed to the slaves, and the system is vitally 
 wounded. The right of chastity in the woman, the unblem- 
 ished household love, the right of parents in their children, 
 — on these three elements stands the whole weight of so- 
 ciety. Corrupt or enfeeble these, and there cannot be super- 
 incumbent strength. Withhold these rights from savage 
 people, and they can never be carried up. They are the 
 integral elements of associated human life. We demand, 
 and have a right to demand, of the Christian men of the 
 South, that they shall revolutionize the moral condition of 
 the slaves. 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 221 
 
 I Stand up in behalf of two million women who are with- 
 out a voice, to declare that there ought to be found in 
 Christianity, somewhere, an influence that shall protect 
 their right to their own persons, and that their purity shall 
 stand on some other ground than the caprice of their mas- 
 ters ! I demand that the Christian Church, both North 
 and South, shall bear a testimony in behalf of marriage 
 among the slaves, which shall make it as inviolable as mar- 
 riage among the whites. It is not to be denied that another 
 code of morals prevails upon the plantation than that 
 which prevails in the plantation mansion. So long as hus- 
 band and wife are marriageable commodities, liable to be 
 sold apart, to form new connections, there can be no such 
 thing as sanctity in wedlock. 
 
 Let it be known in New York that a man has two wives, 
 and there is no church so feeble of conscience that they 
 will not instantly eject him; and law will promptly visit 
 him with penalties. But the communicants of slave- 
 churches not only live with a second while their first com- 
 panion is yet alive, but in succession with a third and fourth; 
 nor is it any disqualification for church-membership. The 
 Church and the State wink at it. It is the commercial 
 necessity of the system. If you will sell men, you must 
 not be too nice about their moral virtues. 
 
 A wedding among this unhappy people is but a name, — 
 a mere form to content their conscience or their love of 
 imitating their superiors. Every auctioneer in the com- 
 munity has the power to put asunder whom God has joined. 
 The bankruptcy of their owner is the bankruptcy of the 
 marriage relation in half the slaves on his plantation. 
 
 Neither is there any gospel that has been permitted to 
 rebuke these things. There is no church that I have 
 ever known in the South that bears testimony against them. 
 Neither will the churches in the North, as a body, take 
 upon themselves the responsibility of bearing witness 
 against them. 
 
 I go further. I declare that there must be a Christian 
 public sentiment which shall make the family inviolate. 
 Men sometimes say, " It is rarely the case that families are 
 
2 22 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 separated." It is false ! It is false ! There is not a slave- 
 mart that does not bear testimony, a thousand times over, 
 against such an assertion. Children are bred like colts and 
 calves, and are dispersed like them. 
 
 It is in vain to preach a gospel to slaves that leaves out 
 personal chastity in man and woman, or that leaves their 
 purity subject to another's control; that leaves out the 
 sanctity of the marriage state, and the unity and inviola- 
 bility of the family. And yet no gospel has borne such a 
 testimony in favor of them as to arouse the conscience of the 
 South ! If ministers will not preach liberty to the captive, 
 they ought at least to preach the indispensable necessity of 
 household virtue ! If they will not call upon the masters 
 to set their slaves free, they should at least proclaim a 
 Christianity that protects woman, childhood, and house- 
 hold ! 
 
 The moment that woman stands self-poised in her own 
 purity, the moment man and woman are united together 
 by bonds which cannot be sundered during their earthly 
 life, the moment the right of parents to their children is 
 recognized, — that moment there will be a certain sanctity 
 and protection of the eternal and Divine government rest- 
 ing upon father and mother and children, and the death- 
 blow of slavery will have been struck ! You cannot make 
 slavery profitable after these three conditions are secured. 
 The moment you make slaves serfs, they are no longer 
 a legal tender, and are uncurrent in the market; and fami- 
 lies are so cumbrous, so difficult to support, so expensive, 
 that owners are compelled, from reasons of pecuniary inter- 
 est, to discontinue the system. 
 
 Therefore, if you will only disseminate the truths of the 
 Gospel, if you will put timid priests out of the way, and 
 lying Societies whose cowardice slanders the Gospel which 
 they pretend to diffuse, and if you will bring a whole solar 
 flood of truth to bear upon the practical morals of the 
 slave, you will begin to administer a remedy, if God designs 
 to cure it by moral means, which will inevitably heal the 
 evil. 
 
 6. Among the means to be employed for promoting the 
 
THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 223 
 
 liberty of the slave we must not fail to include the power 
 of true Christian prayer. When slavery shall cease, it will 
 be by such instruments and influences as shall exhibit 
 God's hand and heart in the work. Its downfall will have 
 been achieved so largely through natural causes, so largely 
 through reasons as broad as nations, that it will be apparent 
 to all men that God led on the emancipation; man being only 
 one element among the many. Therefore, we have every 
 encouragement to direct our prayers without ceasing to God 
 that he will restrain the wrath of man, inspire men with 
 wisdom, overrule all evil laws, and control the commerce 
 of the globe, so that the poor may be protected, that the 
 bond may become free, that the ignorant may become wise, 
 that the master and slave may respect each other, and that 
 at length we may be an evangelized and Christian people. 
 May God, in his own way and time, speed the day ! 
 
against a compromise of 
 principle; 
 
 " And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. 
 And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was writ- 
 ten, The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
 preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
 to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, 
 to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the 
 Lord." — Luke iv. 17-19. 
 
 These words are remarkable, to-day, for their meaning 
 and for their historical position. The first sermon which 
 Christ made, upon entering his public ministry, was this 
 one at Nazareth, where he had been brought up. That he 
 chose these words in entering upon his mission — these 
 words, of all the Law, of all the Psalms, and of all the 
 Prophets — gives them peculiar significancy. And, when 
 we consider their contents, they become yet more memo- 
 rable, since they were the charter and index of his mis- 
 sion, — the text not only of his sermon, but of his life. 
 Christ came to save the world, — not laws, not govern- 
 ments, not institutions, not dynasties, but Xh^ people. The 
 fulfillment of his mission is to be looked for in the condi- 
 tion of nationalities and the character of peoples. Though 
 peace breathe balm over all the world, and every law is 
 obeyed, and every government rides among the people as 
 a man-of-war dressed for holiday upon a tranquil sea, there 
 is no reason for rejoicing if the people are ignorant and 
 their capacities are undeveloped, if they are mean and 
 sordid, and their morals, like a Chinese foot, are cramped 
 too small to walk upon. But though there be wars and 
 rumors of war, revolutions and tumults, the world is pros- 
 
 * Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1S60. 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 225 
 
 parous if by these convulsions the race is freed from op- 
 pression, thoroughly aroused, and incited to bolder enter- 
 prise and to nobler moral character. 
 
 We are, then, to study the advance of Christ's kingdom 
 in the whole aspect of the world. The Church is of the 
 people. God's Church includes the whole human race. 
 Our separate churches are but doors to the grand spirit- 
 ual interior. The good men who love God and man with 
 overruling affection, of all nations, and of every tongue, 
 are the true Church. 
 
 To-day we are assembled to give thanks for national 
 mercies. I need not remind you of the year that is closing. 
 Who knew, when January set her cold, calm face toward 
 the future, that she was the herald of such a summer ? 
 When was there ever a year so fertile ? so propitious to all 
 industry ? It has been a procession of rejoicing months, 
 flower-wreathed and fruit-laden, — a very holiday year ! 
 
 The soil awoke with new ardor; everything that lived by 
 the soil felt the inspiration. Every root, and every blade, 
 and every stem, and every bough has this year tasked it- 
 self for prodigal bounty. Except a narrow strip, this con- 
 tinent has been so blessed with husbandry as to make 
 this year memorable even among years hitherto most em- 
 inent. The meadow, the tilled fields, the grazing past- 
 ures, the garden, the vineyard, the orchard, the very fence- 
 row berry-bushes and wild wall-vines, have been clothed 
 with unexampled bounty and beauty. Nature seems to 
 have lacked messengers to convey her intents of kind- 
 ness, and the summer, like a road surprised with quad- 
 ruple freights, has not been able to find conveyance for 
 all its treasures. The seas have felt the divine ardor. 
 The fishermen never reaped such harvests from the 
 moist furrows of the ocean as this year. These husband- 
 men of the sea, who reap where they have not sowed and 
 grow rich upon harvests which they have not tilled, have 
 this year put in the crooked hook for their sickle with 
 admiring gladness for the strange and unwonted abund- 
 ance of the deep. 
 
 All the sons of God rejoice, and all good men rejoice. It 
 
2 26 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 needs but one element to complete the satisfaction. If 
 we could be sure that this is God's mercy, meant for good, 
 and tending thereto, we should have a full cup to-day. 
 That satisfaction is not denied us. The Mayor of New 
 York, in a public proclamation, in view of this prodigal 
 year, that has heaped the poor man's house with abund- 
 ance, is pleased to say that there is no occasion apparent 
 to him, for thanksgiving. We can ask no more. When 
 bad men grieve at the state of public affairs, good men 
 should rejoice. When infamous men keep fast, righteous 
 men should have thanksgiving. God reigns and the Devil 
 trembles. Amen. Let us rejoice ! * 
 
 But it is not now to these topics that I shall confine my 
 remarks. I propose to glance at other reasons for thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 I. The advantage and increasing influence of nations 
 which in the main tend to conserve human liberty, and 
 the decadence and dwindling of those nations that have 
 flourished by exaction and tyranny, is matter of gratula- 
 
 *Mayor Fernando Wood's proclamation is such a curiosit)' of wicked- 
 ness, even in the annals of New York city, that we append it : — 
 
 " Mayor's Office, New York, November 24, 1S60. 
 
 " Proclamation. — In accordance with custom and the proclamation of 
 the Governor of the State, it becomes my duty, as Mayor, to recommend 
 to the people of this city the observance of THURSDAY, the 29th inst , 
 as a day of ' Thanksgiving and Prayer.' 
 
 " While in my judgment the country, either in its political, commercial, 
 or financial aspect, presents no features for which we should be thankful, 
 we are yet called upon by every consideration of self-preservation to offer 
 up to the Father of all mercies devout and fervent prayer, for his inter- 
 position and protection from the impending evils which threaten our insti- 
 tutions and the material interests of the people. 
 
 " Therefore, acknowledging our dependence on Almighty God, and 
 deeply sensible of our own unworthiness, let the day set apart as Thanks- 
 giving be observed by the people of this city as one of humiliation and 
 supplication, — not omitting in our prayers the expression of the hope that 
 those who have, in violation of the Federal compact, unpatriotically and 
 unwisely influenced these injuries upon us, may be the only sufferers by 
 their own wickedness and folly. 
 
 " [l. s.] Given under my hand and seal, this day and year aforesaid. 
 
 " Fernando Wood, Mayor." 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 227 
 
 tion. It should make good men glad when wicked men 
 and wicked nations grow weak. 
 
 2. The emergence of the common people to that degree 
 of political power that makes it necessary now for the 
 whole of Western Europe to ask their permission for the 
 establishment of any throne or monarchy is cheering and 
 auspicious. Crowns were once made of gold beaten out 
 on the people's backs. Now the strongest crowns are 
 made of paper, — the paper votes of the common people. 
 Therein we rejoice, and will rejoice. 
 
 3. The resurrection of Italy is another memorable event of 
 the year. I see as many tokens of a Divine presence in Italy 
 as of old there were in the emancipation and conduct of the 
 Israelites from Egypt. That such a conjunction of events 
 should have taken place; that such a monarch as Victor 
 Emmanuel, who almost reconciles republicans to kings, 
 should have sat waiting; that such a consummate statesman, 
 of noblest patriotism, as Cavour, should have been prepared 
 and waiting; that such a hero, simple, true, pure, disinter- 
 ested, self-sacrificing, skillful, and lion-like, as Garibaldi, 
 should have come at the hour, are marks of the planning of 
 God. Men never devise such combinations. It would have 
 been significant had either of these men come singly. That 
 all should have come together, — a soldier to beat down the 
 old despotism, a statesman to organize the new liberty, a just 
 and patriot king to preside over the people's government, 
 and a people, divided for centuries, but now at last united, 
 — this reveals the mind and will of God. Let us rejoice ! 
 
 4. The growing moderation of the Russian monarchy, the 
 quiet improvement of the people, the emancipation of the 
 serfs, ought to engage the attention and receive the sym- 
 pathy of every Christian people. There is a great work 
 begun in Russia. This gigantic nation, the antithesis of 
 America politically and geographically, is, like her, almost 
 half a globe of herself. The end we cannot now even sus- 
 pect. Prophets are dead. God no longer tells beforehand 
 what he is going to do. But, by the clearing that has been 
 made for the foundations, by the materials that are gather- 
 ing, and by the workmen that are employed, we judge that 
 
228 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 no mean structure is about to arise to the glory of God. 
 There is an immense History now in birth. May the un- 
 measured future be for Humanity, Justice, and Piety ! 
 
 5. In the rest of the world there are signs, but more re- 
 mote, of good. Heathen nations are growing weaker, 
 Christian nations are growing stronger. The nations of 
 Heathenism are imbecile. The nations of Christianity are 
 of vigorous stock, and have a future. Already Christian 
 nations rule the world. Who may war, how long, for what, 
 with whom, depends upon the will of Christian peoples. 
 There is a Christian police around this globe ! 
 
 6. Our own land has not been behind. In this march of 
 nations our country has kept step. We know it by the vic- 
 tory of ideas, by the recognition of principles instead of 
 mere policies, by the ascendency of justice, and by the 
 ratifying rage of all who love oppression and oppressors. 
 
 To-day should not be profaned by partisan congratula- 
 tions;* but we should be ungrateful to God, who has guided 
 us through peril and darkness, and at length brought us 
 forth into illustrious victory, if we did not to-day remember, 
 with profound gratitude and devout thanksgiving, the resur- 
 rection of the spirit of liberty from the graves of our fathers! 
 
 The tree of life, whose leaves were for the healing of the 
 nations, has been evilly dealt with. Its boughs have been 
 lopped, and its roots starved till its fruit is knurly. Upon 
 its top had been set scions of bitter fruits, that grew and 
 sucked out all the sap from the better branches. Upon its 
 trunk the wild boar of the forest had whetted his tusks. 
 
 But now again it blooms. Its roots have found the river, 
 and shall not want again for moisture; the grafts of poison- 
 ous fruits have been broken off or have been blown out; 
 mighty spearmen have hunted the wild swine back to his 
 thickets, and the hedge shall be broken down no more 
 round about it. The air is fragrant in its opening buds, the 
 young fruit is setting. God has returned and looked upon 
 it, and behold, summer is in all its branches ! 
 
 To some it may seem that the light in this picture is too 
 
 *The national election of November, 1S60, had resulted in the choice of 
 Abraham Lincoln as President, practically giving the national voice for the 
 non-extension of slavery. 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 229 
 
 high, and that the background is not dark enough. I do 
 not wish you to think that the background is not dark; for 
 it is. There is excitement. There is brewing mischief. 
 The clouds lie lurid along the Southern horizon. The Car- 
 ibbean Sea, that breeds tornadoes and whirlwinds, has 
 heaped up treasures of storms portentous, that seem about 
 to break. Let them break ! God has appointed their 
 bounds. Not till the sea drives back the shore, and the At- 
 lantic submerges the Continent, will this tumult of an 
 angry people move the firm decrees of God. He who 
 came to open prison doors, to deliver captives, to loose 
 those that are bound, — he it is that is among us. We are 
 surrounded by airy hosts greater than those w^hich the 
 prophet of old saw filling the mountains. God is with us. 
 The very rage of wickedness shows his presence. 
 
 While we tremble, then, let us rejoice; not triumph, nor 
 boast, nor make invidious comparisons, nor throw fuel of 
 passions into the flames already too hot. But, with a sober, 
 temperate, and beneficent joy, let us give thanks to God, 
 that he has begun to recall this nation from a course that 
 would have wrought utter destruction; and that now, 
 though waves are beating, and the tempest is upon the 
 ship, she has changed her course, and heads right away 
 from the breakers and the sand ! 
 
 But be sure that, in these times, there can be no safe navi- 
 gation except that which clings to great universal principles. 
 Selfish interests, if they are our pilots, will betray us. Vain- 
 glory will destroy us. Pride will wreck us. Above all, the 
 fear of doing right will be fatal. But Justice and Liberty 
 are pilots that do not lose their craft. They steer by a 
 divine compass. They know the hand that holds the winds 
 and the storms. It is always safe to be right; and our busi- 
 ness is not so much to seek peace as to seek the causes of 
 peace. Expedients are for an hour, but principles are for 
 the ages. Just because the rains descend and winds blow, 
 we cannot afford to build on shifting sands. Nothing can 
 be permanent and nothing safe in this exigency that does 
 not sink deeper than politics or money. We must touch 
 the rock, or we shall never have firm foundations. 
 
230 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 I. Our prosperity had its beginning and continuance in 
 Natural Laws. God's will in nature and in human society 
 is the source of human strength and human wisdom. No 
 matter how many are with you, if your councils are in the 
 face of divine principles. Peace, regardless of equity, is a 
 treacherous sleep, whose waking is death. It is not half so 
 necessary to have a settlement as it is to have a right settle- 
 ment. In tl:e end, right political economy will work out 
 prosperous national economy; and if for want of faith in 
 the safety of rectitude you abandon sound and proved prin- 
 ciples, or let them go by default, all your good intentions 
 will not save you from national misrule and national wast- 
 ing and destruction. The mariner who should take refuge 
 in the Maelstrom, thinking it a safe harbor, would learn 
 quickly that good intentions are good follies when men run 
 against natural law. And to think that this nation has been 
 prospered merely on account of the skill, the wisdom, or 
 the arrangements and combinations of men, is the worst of 
 infidelities. While papers and parties are in full outcry, 
 and nostrums are advertised, and scared politicians are at 
 their wits' ends, (without having gone far, either,) and men 
 of weak minds are beside themselves, and imbeciles stand 
 doubting in the streets, know ye that the way of peace is 
 simple, accessible, and easy. Be still. Stand firm ! Have 
 courage to wait. Money is insane. Fear is death. Faith 
 in justice, and in rectitude, and trust in God, will work 
 out safety. The worst is over. Our Northern apathy to 
 freedom and our greed of commerce are a thousand times 
 more dangerous than Southern rage and threat. Moral 
 bankruptcy will ruin us all. No other bankruptcies will 
 harm us ! 
 
 Let us have firm courage, kindness of temper, willingness 
 to make concessions in things of mere policy, but no con- 
 cession of principles, no yielding of moral convictions, no 
 paltering with our consciences. Thirty pieces of silver 
 bought Christ and hung Judas. If you sell your convictions 
 to Fear, you give yourself to a vagabond. If you sell your 
 conscience to Interest, you traffic with a fiend. The fear of 
 doing right is the grand treason in times of danger. When 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 231 
 
 you consent to give up your convictions of justice, human- 
 ity, and liberty, for the sake of tranquillity, you are like 
 men who buy a treacherous truce of tyrants by giving up 
 their weapons of war. Cowards are the food of despots. 
 
 When a storm is on the deep, and the ship labors, men 
 throw over the deck-load; they cast forth the heavy 
 freights, and ride easier as their merchandise grows less. 
 But in our time men propose to throw overboard the com- 
 pass, the charts, the chronometer, and sextant, but to keep 
 the freight ! 
 
 For the sake of a principle our fathers dared to defy the 
 proudest nation on the globe. They suffered. They con- 
 quered. We are never tired of praising them. But when 
 we are called to stand firm for principle, we tremble, we 
 whine, we evade duty, and shuffle up a compromise, by 
 which we may sell our conscience, and save our pocket. 
 
 It is rank infidelity, and, at such a time as this, stupend- 
 ous infatuation, to suppose that the greatness of this nation 
 ever sprung from the wisdom of expediency, instead of the 
 power of settled principles. Your harbor did not make you 
 rich; you made the harbor rich. Your ships did not crea^ 
 your commerce; your commerce created your ships; and 
 you created your commerce. Your stores did not make 
 traffic. Your factories did not create enterprise. Your 
 firms, your committees, your treaties, and your legislation 
 did not create national prosperity. Our past greatness 
 sprung from our obedience to God's natural and moral 
 law. We had men trained to courage, to virtue, to wisdom. 
 And manhood, — manhood, — manhood, — exercised in the 
 fear of God, has made this nation. Men are God's vice- 
 gerents; and if they will govern as he governs, then they 
 shall be creators, too, in this world. The reason we have 
 prospered in days past is not that we have known how 
 to duck and dodge and trim; it is not that we have known 
 all the minute ways of microscopic statesmanship: it is 
 because we have known just enough to see the way in 
 which natural law and God's kingdom were going, and 
 to follow them. It is a simple thing; it is no secret; 
 and accursed be he that counsels the people to seek peace 
 
232 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and prosperity by abandoning the causes of it, and that 
 leads them into destruction by leading them into the arms 
 of a tinseled folly ! 
 
 II. Let no man be foolishly fearful of excitement. Our 
 age marks the growth of the world by this: that excite- 
 ment is now wholesome. When men low down in the scale 
 begin to be stirred, the most active part is excited, which 
 is passion. But when men have outgrown barbarism, and 
 live in moral and intellectual elements, then excitement 
 rouses up the higher nature. Among a savage people, 
 excitement works downward and rages; among a Christian 
 and civilized people, it works upward and toward peace. 
 Excitements among a thinking people tend to clearer 
 convictions, to surer intuitions, to more heroic purposes, 
 and loftier enthusiasms. Do not be afraid because the 
 community teems with excitement. Silence and death 
 are dreadful. The rush of life, the vigor of earnest men, 
 the conflict of realities, invigorate, cleanse, and estab- 
 lish truth. Our only fear should be lest we refuse God's 
 work. He has appointed this people, and our day, for one 
 of those world-battles on which ages turn. Ours is a piv- 
 otal period. The strife is between a dead past and a liv- 
 ing future; between a wasting evil and a nourishing good; 
 between Barbarism and Civilization. 
 
 The condition of the common people always measures 
 the position of any nation on the scale of civilization. 
 The condition of Work always measures the character 
 of the common people. It is not where the head is, 
 but where the feet are, that determines a nation's posi- 
 tion. By ascertaining where the working people are in 
 the North and in the South, you can determine the re- 
 spective positions of these two sections of our countr3^ 
 I need not tell you what is the relative position of these 
 two extremes and opposites on any scale of Christian civil- 
 ization. 
 
 The Southern States and the Northern alike found poi- 
 sonous seed sown in colonial days. The North chose to 
 weed it out. The South determined to cultivate it, and see 
 what it would bear. The harvest-time has now come. 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 233 
 
 We are reaping what we sowed. They sowed the wind, 
 and they are about to reap the whirlwind. Let us keep 
 in view the causes of things. Our prosperity is the fruit 
 of the seed that we sowed, and their fears, their alarms, 
 their excitements, their fevers, their tumults, and their 
 rages are the fruit of the seed that they sowed. Ours 
 is wholesome; theirs is poisonous. All, now, that we de- 
 mand is, that each side shall reap its oivn harvest. 
 
 It is this that convulses the South. They wish to reap 
 fruits of liberty from the seed of slavery. They wish to 
 have an institution which sets at naught the laws of God, 
 and yet be as refined and prosperous and happy as we are, 
 who obey these laws; and since they cannot, they demand 
 that we shall make up to them what they lack. The real 
 gist of the controversy, as between the greatest number of 
 Southern States and the North, is simply this. The South 
 claims that the United States government is bound to 
 make slavery as good as liberty for all purposes of national 
 life. That is the root of their philosophy. They are to 
 carry on a wasting system, a system that corrupts social 
 life in its very elements, to pursue a course of inevitable 
 impoverishment, and yet, at every decade of years, the 
 government is, by some new bounty and privilege, to 
 make up to them all the waste of this gigantic mistake ! 
 And our national government has been made a bribed 
 judge, sitting on the seat of authority in this land, to de- 
 clare bankruptcy as good as honesty; to declare wicked- 
 ness as good as virtue; and to declare that there shall 
 be struck, from period to period, a rule that will bring 
 all men to one common municipal and communal pros- 
 perity, no matter what may be the causes that are work- 
 ing out special evils in them. 
 
 The Southern States, then, have organized society around 
 a rotten core, — slavery: the North has organized society 
 about a vital heart, — liberty. At length both stand ma- 
 ture. They stand in proper contrast. God holds them 
 up to ages and to nations, that men may see the difference. 
 Now that there is a conflict, I ask which is to yield ? 
 Causes having been true to effects, and effects true to 
 
234 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 causes; these gradually unfolding commercial and political 
 and moral results having been developed in the two great 
 opposing extremes of this country, the time has come 
 in which they are so brought into contact that the prin- 
 ciple of the one or the principle of the other must yield. 
 Liberty must discrown her fair head; she must lay her opal 
 crown and her diamond scepter upon the altar of Op- 
 pression; or else Oppression must shrink, and veil its head, 
 and depart. Which shall it be ? Two queens are not to 
 rule in this land, one black and the other white; one from 
 below and the other from above. Two influences are not 
 to sit in culminated power at the seat of influence in this 
 nation, one dragging and pulling toward the infernal, and 
 the other drawing and exciting toward the supernal. No 
 nation could stand the strain to which it would be sub- 
 jected under such a state of things. 
 
 There is a Divine impulsion in this. Those who resist 
 and those who strive are carried along by a stream might- 
 ier than mere human volition. Whether men have acted 
 well or ill, is not now the question; but simply this: On 
 which side will you be found? This controversy will go on. 
 No matter what you do, God will carry out his own provi- 
 dences with you or without you, by you or against you. 
 You cannot hide or run away, or shift the question, or stop 
 the trial. Complaints are useless, and recriminations 
 foolish and wicked. 
 
 The distinctive idea of the Free States is Christian civ- 
 ilization, and the peculiar institutions of civilization. The 
 distinctive idea of the South is barbaric institutions. In 
 the North mind, and in the South force, rules. In the 
 North every shape and form of society in some way rep- 
 resents liberty. In the South every institution and ele- 
 ment of society is tinged and pervaded with slavery. The 
 South accepts the whole idea of slavery, boldly and con- 
 sistently. The North will never have peace till she with 
 equal boldness accepts liberty. 
 
 While liberty and slavery are kept apart, and only run 
 upon parallels, there may be peace. But there is no way 
 in which they can be combined; there is no unity made 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 235 
 
 up of these deadly antagonisms. And all devices, and cun- 
 ning arrangements, and deceitful agreements, are false and 
 foolish. 
 
 The truth that men cannot hush, and that God will not 
 have covered up, is the irreconcilable difference between 
 liberty and slavery ! Which will you advocate and defend ? 
 
 There are three courses before us: — 
 
 1. To go over to the South. 
 
 2. To compromise principles. 
 
 3. To maintain principles upon just and constitutional 
 grounds, and abide the issue. 
 
 1. Shall we, then, obliterate from our statute-books every 
 law for liberty ? Shall we rub down and efface every clear 
 and distinctive feature of liberty ? Shall we assume that 
 one is just as good as the other, — slavery and freedom? 
 Are we, for the sake of peace, to go over to the South, 
 yield our convictions, and our moral influences, and our 
 whole soul and body of teaching and conviction ? 
 
 This course is not to be thought of for a moment, what- 
 ever it may be theoretically considered. As a matter of 
 fact, you know, and I know, and everybody knows, that 
 there will be no change in the convictions of the North. 
 We have reaped too bountifully from the seed we have 
 sown, to change. Our method of moral and political til- 
 lage will be the same as heretofore. 
 
 2. Shall we then compromise? We are told that Satan 
 appears under two forms: that when he has a good fair 
 field, he is out like a lion, roaring and seeking whom he 
 may devour; but that when he can do nothing more in 
 that way, he is a serpent, and sneaks in the grass. And 
 so, it is Slavery open, bold, roaring, aggressive, or it is 
 Slavery sneaking in the grass, and calling itself Compro- 
 mise. It is the same devil under either name. 
 
 If by compromise is only meant forbearance, kindness, 
 well-wishing, conciliation, fidelity to agreements, a conces- 
 sion in things, not principles, why, then we believe in 
 compromise; — only that is not compromise, interpreted 
 by the facts of our past history! We honestly wish no 
 harm to the South or its people: we honestly wish them 
 
236 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 all benefit. We wish no harm to their commerce; none 
 to their manufactures; none to their husbandry; none to 
 their schools and colleges; none to their churches and fam- 
 ilies; none to their citizens, who are bone of our bone and 
 blood of our blood, and who are in many eminent re- 
 spects united to us in a common historic glory. We are 
 far from wishing them diminution or feebleness; so far 
 from it we most heartily and sincerely, and with much 
 more earnestness than they reciprocate, wish them rid- 
 dance of their trouble. We neither envy nor covet their 
 territory. We are not jealous of their honors. We would 
 that they were doubled, and doubly purified. All that 
 belongs to the South; all that with liberalest construction 
 was put in the original bond, shall be hers. Her own 
 institutions were made inviolate in all her States. The 
 basis of representation in the South was made broader 
 than in the North, and property, as well as citizens, sends 
 representatives to Washington. We will not complain. The 
 common revenue and the common force of the nation pro- 
 tect them against intestine revolt. Let it be so. The Con- 
 stitution gives them liberty to retake their fugitive slaves 
 wherever they can find them. Very well. Let them. But 
 when the Congress goes beyond the Constitution, and de- 
 mands, on penalty, that citizens of free States shall help, 
 and render back the flying slave, we give a blunt and une- 
 quivocal refusal. We are determined to break any law 
 that commands us to enslave or re-enslave a man, and we 
 are willing to take the penalty. But that was not in the 
 original bond. That is a parasitic egg, laid in the Con- 
 stitution by corrupt legislation or by construction. 
 
 We do not ask to molest the South in the enjoyment 
 of her own institutions. But we will not be made consta- 
 bles to slavery, to run and catch, to serve writs, and return 
 prisoners. No political hand shall rob her. We will de- 
 fend her coast; we will guard her inland border from all 
 vexations from without; and in good faith, in earnest friend- 
 ship, in fealty to the Constitution and in fellowship with 
 the States, we will, and with growing earnestness to the 
 end, fulfill every just duty, every honorable agreement. 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 237 
 
 and every generous act, within the limits of truth and 
 honor; all that, and no more, — no more, though the heav- 
 ens fall, — no more, if States unclasp their hands, — no more, 
 if they raise up violence against us, — no more! 
 
 We have gone to the end. There is no need of com- 
 promise in this matter, then. It is a plain, simple matter. 
 It is never mystified except when bad men have bad ends 
 to accomplish, and bring up a mist over it. 
 
 Let us look things right in the face, then, and speak 
 some plain truths. We are approaching times when men 
 will not hear what they will listen to now; so let us drop 
 the seed beforehand. 
 
 I. The secret intentions of those men who are the chief 
 fomenters of troubles in the South cannot in anywise be 
 met by compromise. They dread as much as we hate it. 
 What do those men that are really at the bottom of this 
 conspiracy mean ? Nothing more or less than this: South- 
 ern empire for slavery, and the re-opening of the slave- 
 trade as a means by which it shall be fed. Free commerce 
 and enslaved work is their motto. They will not yet say 
 it aloud. But that is the whispered secret of men in Caro- 
 lina, and men outside of Carolina. Their secret purpose 
 is to sweep westward like night, and involve in the cloud 
 of their darkness all Central America, and then make Af- 
 rica empty into Central America, thus changing the moral 
 geography of the globe. And do you suppose any com- 
 promise will settle that design, or turn it aside, when they 
 have made you go down on your knees, and they stand 
 laughing while you cry with fear because you have been 
 cozened and juggled into a blind helping of their mon- 
 strous wickedness ? 
 
 They mean slavery. They mean an Empire of Slavery. 
 They don't any longer talk of the evil of slavery. It is 
 a virtue, a religion ! It is justice and divine economy ! 
 Slaves are missionaries. Slave-ships bring heathen to 
 plantation - Christianity. They imagine unobstructed 
 greatness when servile hands shall whiten the plains from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific with cotton. Carolina despises 
 compromise. She means no such thing as liberty. She 
 
238 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 does not believe in the word. It is rubbed out. It is 
 gone from her constitution and from her Bible. Its spirit 
 is departed from her legislature and her church. 
 
 And do you think, poor simple peeping sparrow, that 
 you can build your poor moss and hair nest of compro- 
 mise on the face of the perpendicular cliff, that towers a 
 thousand feet high, with the blackness of storms sweeping 
 round its top, and the thunder of a turbulent ocean break- 
 ing upon its base, — and God, more terrible than either, 
 high above them, meaning Justice and Retribution ! 
 
 2. But in so far as those States are concerned that are 
 contiguous to Carolina, and do not mean these things, 
 even for them compromise can never reach, nor even any 
 longer mollify, the causes of complaint; for I hold that 
 the causes are inherent in them, not in us. And they are 
 endless. If you cure one, another will spring up in its 
 place. You cannot compromise with them except by giv- 
 ing up your own belief, your own principles, and your 
 own honor. Moral apostasy is the only basis on which 
 you can build a compromise that will satisfy the South ! 
 
 No compromise will do good that does not go back to 
 the nature of things, and change moral qualities. To be 
 of any use, compromise must make the slaves contented, 
 slavery economical, Slave States as prosperous as Free 
 States. Compromise must shut the mouth of free speech, 
 or it will send the shafts of truth vibrating into the midst 
 of slavery. Compromise must cure the intolerance of the 
 plantation, the essential tyranny of slave-owners. It must 
 make evil as prosperous as good, enforced drudgery as 
 fruitful as free labor. 
 
 What compromise can there be between sickness and 
 health ? Between violence and peace ? Between speech 
 for liberty and speech for despotism ? There may be 
 peace between opposites, but no harmony, no compromise. 
 If the South is fixed in her servile institutions, the North 
 must be equally firm in her principles of liberty. 
 
 You cannot prevent, in the present state of this land, the 
 departure of the children of oppression. You might as 
 well attempt to prevent the tides of the Atlantic ocean. 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 239 
 
 You. might as well attempt to prevent vegetation in the 
 tropics. Till the heavens be no more, and their orbs cease 
 to draw, men will aspire, and will follow aspiration. There 
 is too much light in the North, and even in the darkness 
 of the plantation, to keep men in slavery. When one man 
 gains his freedom, twenty men will know it, and to gain 
 theirs will do what he did. Every hour there will be men 
 who will take their life in their hands and risk all for lib- 
 erty. It is of no use to tell the South that it shall not 
 be so. It is of no use to whisper to them, and say, "Your 
 trouble shall cease; we will fix this matter to your satis- 
 faction." God never made brick or trowel by which to 
 patch up that door of deliverance. By night and by day 
 slaves will flee away and escape. 
 
 Compromise is a most pernicious sham. To send com- 
 promises to the South would be like sending painted 
 bombs into the camp of an enemy, which, though harm- 
 less in appearance, would blow up and destroy them. 
 Suppose you tell the people there that when their fugi- 
 tives come North they shall be surrendered ? Will you 
 not please to catch them first ? You know you cannot. 
 There are five hundred men that run through the North- 
 ern States where there is one that stops or is turned 
 back. They know it, you know it, we all know it ! The 
 radical nature of the feelings of the North is such that 
 they will hurry on the black man and trip his hunter. 
 If the managers of parties, the heads of conservative 
 committees, say to the South, " Be patient with us a little 
 longer, do not punish us yet, let down the rod and the 
 frown, spare us for a short season, and we will see that 
 your slaves are returned to you," do you suppose there 
 will be a fulfillment of the promise ? You know there will 
 not. I know there will not. I would die myself, cheer- 
 fully and easily, before a man should be taken out of 
 my hands when I had the power to give him liberty, and 
 the hound was after him for his blood. I would stand 
 as an altar of expiation between slavery and liberty, know- 
 ing that through my example a million men would live. 
 A heroic deed, in which one yields up his life for others, 
 
240 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 is his Calvary. It was the lifting up of Christ on that 
 hill-top that made it the loftiest mountain on the globe. 
 Let a man do a right thing with such earnestness that he 
 counts his life of little value, and his example becomes 
 omnipotent. Therefore it is said that the blood of the 
 martyrs is the seed of the Church. There is no such seed 
 planted in this world as good blood. 
 
 I see that my words are being reported; and as free 
 speech may get into Charleston, some men there may see 
 what I say; and let me say this to my Southern brethren: 
 We mean to observe the Constitution, and keep every 
 compact into which we have entered. There are men that 
 would deceive you. They are your enemies and ours 
 alike. They would tell lies to you, but we will not stand 
 up and indorse them. I tell you that as long as there are 
 these Free States; as long as there are hills in which men 
 can hide, and valleys through which they can travel; as 
 long as there is a loaf in the cabin, and water in the cruse; 
 as long as there is blood in the veins, and humanity in the 
 heart, — so long the fugitive will not want for sympathy 
 and help to escape ! 
 
 I say, again, that we are bound, as men of truth and 
 conscience, to look this matter in the face, and ask, " Is 
 there any benefit to be expected from compromises?" My 
 friends, we are not reasoning about a matter of which we 
 have had no experience. From the beginning we have 
 been living on compromises. Now there is a history, 
 and we can make scientific inductions from facts, and 
 know the results of certain courses. Do you suppose that 
 if, knowing what you know now, you had sat in the orig- 
 inal Convention to frame the Constitution, you would 
 have made compromises ? Persons say, "Are you wiser 
 than your fathers ? " Yes ! A man that is not wiser than 
 his father, ought not to have had such a father, if his father 
 was wise ! Our fathers, when they laid the foundations of 
 that structure, did the best that the wisdom of that time 
 would enable them to do; and they were wise men, — 
 much wiser, doubtless, for their time, than we are for ours. 
 But, nevertheless, we may know now, better than they 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRIXCIPLE. 241 
 
 did then, what their wisest course would have been. When 
 Carolina refused to come into the Confederacy except on 
 the ground of certain favors to slavery, then was the time 
 to have said to her, " Stay out." 
 
 Do you suppose that when Carolina infamously said, 
 " I will not come in unless you give me leave to traffic in 
 slaves from 1790 till 1808," — do you suppose that then it 
 was wise for our fathers to give her what she demanded ? 
 I do not blame them; they acted up to the best light they 
 had; but if we, knowing the facts that we know now, 
 had done what they did, we should have been infamous. 
 
 When, later, the compromise of 1850 was set on foot, 
 there were not wanting, as there are not wanting now, 
 men who lifted up their voices in favor of compromise; 
 and I think that very few who saw the effects of com- 
 promise at that time believe it to be a cure. They prom- 
 ised finality. They took renewed courage, and with a 
 strong arm of injustice destroyed a compromise still ante- 
 rior to theirs, — namely, the Missouri Compromise, — itself 
 a wickedness only paralleled by that which destroyed it. 
 It ought not to have been made; but after it was made, 
 it should have been removed only for purposes of liberty, 
 and not for purposes of oppression. We sold our birth- 
 right for a mess of pottage, and the pottage was then 
 stolen ! 
 
 We have had, then, a long experience of the virtues and 
 merits of compromise; and what has been the result, ex- 
 cept growing demands, growing impudence, growing wick- 
 edness, and increasing dissatisfaction, until at last excite- 
 ments that used to come once in twenty years began to 
 come at every ten, and now once in four years, and you 
 cannot elect a President strictly according to constitu- 
 tional methods, without having this nation imperiled, 
 banks shaken, stores overturned, panics created, and cit- 
 izens terrified ? You have come to that state in which 
 the whole nation is turmoiled, and agitated, and driven 
 hither and thither, on account of the evil effects of com- 
 promise. 
 
 It is asked, "What shall we do?" We should speak the 
 16 
 
242 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 truth about our feelings, and about our intentions. The 
 North should have nothing to do with half-way measures or 
 half-way men. A whole man is good if he is imperfect; but 
 a half-way man has no place in heaven, he has no place in 
 hell, and he is not wanted on earth ! We do not want half- 
 way measures, nor half-way men. We want true men, who 
 will say to the South : " The North loves liberty, and will 
 have it. We will not aggress on you. Keep your institu- 
 tions within your own bounds : we will not hinder you. We 
 will not take advantage to destroy, or one whit to abate, 
 your fair political prerogatives. You have already gained 
 advantages of us. These we wall allow you to hold. You 
 shall have the Constitution intact, and its full benefit. The 
 full might and power of public sentiment in the North shall 
 guarantee to you everything that history and the Constitu- 
 tion give you. But if you ask us to augment the area of 
 slavery; to co-operate with you in cursing new territory; if 
 you ask us to make the air of the North favorable for a 
 slave's breath, we will not do it ! We love liberty as much as 
 you love slavery, and we shall stand by our rights with all the 
 vigor with which we mean to stand by justice toward you." 
 In short, the North cannot love slavery or cease to love 
 liberty; she cannot conceal her sentiments or restrain their 
 moral power; she cannot prevent the irritating contrast be- 
 tween Free States and Slave States; she cannot prevent 
 the growing intelligence of slaves, nor their love of liberty, 
 nor their disposition to seek it, nor the sympathy that every 
 generous soul must feel, nor the humane and irresistible 
 wish that they may succeed in obtaining freedom; we can- 
 not sympathize with the hounds that hunt them, nor with 
 the miscreants employed to witness against them, nor with 
 the disgraced Federal officers that are bribed with double 
 fees to convict them : the North cannot either permit her 
 own citizens — colored men, Christians, honest and indus- 
 trious, and many of them voters a thousand times better 
 fitted for the franchise than the ignorant hordes of imported 
 white men that have cheated their way against law and 
 morals to the exercise of the vote — to be subject to seizure 
 as slaves under the odious and ruthless provisions of an in- 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 
 
 243 
 
 suiting Fugitive Slave Law, without providing for them 
 State protection; we will not assist in inflicting upon free 
 territory an evil which we abhor, and which we believe to 
 be the greatest blight that can curse a people; we will not ac- 
 cept the new-fangled and modern doctrine that slaVery is 
 national and universal instead of the doctrine of our fathers 
 of the Revolution and of the Federal Constitution, who 
 regarded slavery as local, existing not in the right of a 
 national law, but only by force of special law; certainly 
 we will not apostatize from the faith of our fathers only 
 for the sake of committing disgraceful crimes against 
 liberty ! 
 
 Let not the South listen to any man who pretends that 
 the North will look kindly or compromisingly upon slavery. 
 In every other respect we may be depended upon for all 
 sympathy, aid, and comfort. In this thing we shall give 
 the strictest and most literal obedience to those constitu- 
 tional requirements which we hate while we obey, and be- 
 yond bare and meager duty we will not go a step. 
 
 Now, can any man believe that peace can come by covi- 
 promisel It is a delusive hope. It is a desperate shift of 
 cowardice. It will begin in deceit and end in anger. Com- 
 promises are only procrastinations of an inevitable settle- 
 ment with the added burden of accumulated interest. Our 
 political managers only renew the note with compound in- 
 terest, and roll the debt over, and over, until the interest 
 exceeds the principal. It is time for a settlement. We may 
 as well have it now as ever. We shall never be better pre- 
 pared. It will never be so easy as now. It would have been 
 easier ten years ago, and yet easier ten years before that. 
 Like an ulcer, this evil eats deeper every day. Unless soon 
 cauterized or excised, it will touch the vitals, and then the 
 patient dies ! 
 
 The supreme fear of Northern cities is pecuniary. But 
 even for money's sake, there should be a settlement that 
 will stay settled. Compromises bury troubles, but cannot 
 keep down their ghosts. They rise, and walk, and haunt, 
 and gibber. We must bury our evils without resurrection. 
 Let come what will,— secession, disunion, revolted States, 
 
244 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and a ragamuffin empire of bankrupt States, confederated 
 in the name of liberty for oppression, or whatever other 
 monstrosity malignant fortune may have in store, — nothing 
 can be worse than this endless recurring threat and fear, — 
 this arrogant dragooning of the South, — this mercantile 
 cringing in the North. Every interest cries out for Rest. 
 It scarcely matters how low we begin. We have a recupera- 
 tive enterprise, a fertile industry, a wealth of resources, 
 which will soon replace any waste. Let the gates of a per- 
 manent settlement be set up in bleak and barren granite, 
 and we will speedily cover them with the evergreen ivy of 
 our industry. But perpetual uncertainty is destructive of 
 all business. That is not a settlement that only hides, that 
 adjourns, that trumps up a compromise against the known 
 feelings of both parties, and which must inevitably fall to 
 pieces as soon as the hands that make it are taken off. 
 Shall every quadrennial election take place in the full fury 
 of Southern threats? Is the plantation-whip to control our 
 ballot-boxes? Shall Northern sentiment express itself by 
 constitutional means, at the peril of punishment? Must 
 panic follow elections ? and bankruptcy follow every ex- 
 pression of liberty ? And what are the precious advantages 
 which the North reaps, which make it worth her while to 
 undergo such ignominy and such penalty ? 
 
 Every advantage that can be reckoned belongs to the 
 North. Ours is the population. Ours is free labor. Ours 
 is a common people not ashamed of toil, and able to make 
 Work a badge of honor. Ours is popular intelligence, com- 
 petitive industry, ingenuity and enterprise. We put the 
 whole realm and wealth of Freedom and Civilization 
 against Slavery and Barbarism, and ask what have we to 
 fear? If secession and separation must come, — which God 
 forbid ! — which can best bear it. Freedom or Slavery ? 
 
 The North must accept its own principles and take the 
 consequences. Manliness demands this, — Honor demands 
 it. But if we will not heed worthier motives, then Interest 
 demands it. If even this is not strong enough for com- 
 mercial pusillanimity, then Necessity, inevitable and irre- 
 sistible, will drive and scourge us to it ! 
 
AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 245 
 
 When night is on the deep, when the headlands are ob- 
 scured by the darkness, and when storm is in the air, that 
 man who undertakes to steer by looking over the side of 
 the ship, over the bow, or over the stern, or by looking at 
 the clouds or his own fears, is a fool. There is a silent 
 needle in the binnacle, which points like the finger of God, 
 telling the mariner which way to steer, and enabling him 
 to outride the storm, and reach the harbor in safety. And 
 what the compass is to navigation, that is moral principle 
 in political affairs. Whatever the issue may be, we have but 
 one thing to do, and that is to look where the compass of 
 God points, and steer that way. You need not fear ship- 
 wreck when God is the pilot. 
 
 The latter-day glory is already dawning. God is calling 
 to the nations. The long-oppressed are arousing. The des- 
 potic thrones are growing feeble. It is an age of liberty. 
 The trumpet is sounding in all the world, and one nation 
 after another is moving to the joyful sound, and God is 
 mustering the great army of liberty under his banners ! 
 In this day, shall America be found laggard ? While des- 
 potisms are putting off the garments of oppression, shall 
 she pluck them up and put them on ? While France and 
 Italy, Germany and Russia, are advancing toward the dawn, 
 shall we recede toward midnight ? From this grand pro- 
 cession of nations, with faces lightened by liberty, shall 
 we be missing? While they advance toward a brighter 
 day, shall we, with faces lurid with oppression, slide down- 
 ward toward the pit which gapes for injustice and crime? 
 
 Let every good man arouse and speak the truth for lib- 
 erty. Let us have an invincible courage for liberty. Let 
 us have moderation in passions, zeal in moral sentiments, 
 a spirit of conciliation and concession in mere material in- 
 terests, but unmovable firmness for principles; and — fore- 
 most of all political principles — for Liberty ! 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS.* 
 
 "And there arose a great stonn of wind, and the waves beat into the 
 ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, 
 asleep on a pillow, and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest 
 thou not that we perish ? And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said 
 unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great 
 calm." — Mark iv. 37-39. 
 
 At the close of a laborious day, our Saviour entered a 
 ship, upon the lake of Gennesaret, to cross to the other 
 side. Wearied by his great tasks of mercy, which had filled 
 the day, he fell asleep. Meantime, a sudden and violent 
 wind, to which that lake is even yet subject, swept down 
 from the hills, and wellnigh overwhelmed them. They 
 were not ignorant of navigation, nor unacquainted with 
 that squally sea. Like good men and true, doubtless, they 
 laid about them. They took in sail, and put out oars, and, 
 heading to the wind, valiantly bore up against the gale, 
 and thought nothing of asking help till they had exerted 
 every legitimate power of their own. But the waves over- 
 leaped their slender bulwarks, and filled the little vessel 
 past all bailing. 
 
 Then, when they had done all that men could do, but not 
 till then, they aroused the sleeping Christ and implored his 
 succor. Not for coming to him did he rebuke them, but 
 for coming with such terror of despair, saying to them, Why 
 are ye so fearful ? How is it that ye have no faith ? He out- 
 
 *During the winter of 1S59-60 the South and its Democratic allies at 
 the North were industriously charging the unhappy state of the country 
 upon the Republican party, and imputing it to excesses and fanaticisms in the 
 name of liberty. This sermon was preached January 4, 1861, the Fast 
 Day appointed by President Buchanan. It was intended to show that, 
 while the nation undoubtedly had ample reason for fasting, humiliation, and 
 confession, this reason was, not that too much had been done for liberty, but 
 too little. 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 247 
 
 breathed upon the winds, and their strength quite forsook 
 them. He looked upon the surly waves, and they hasted 
 back to their caverns. There is no tumult in the heavens, 
 on the earth, nor upon the sea, that Christ's word cannot 
 control. When it pleases God to speak, tempestuous clouds 
 are peaceful as flocks of doves, and angry seas change all 
 their roar to rippling music. 
 
 This nation is rolling helplessly in a great tempest. The 
 Chief Magistrate in despair calls us to go to the sleeping 
 Saviour, and to beseech his Divine interference. It may be 
 true that the crew have brought the ship into danger by 
 cowardice or treachery; it may be true that a firm hand on 
 the wheel would even yet hold her head to the wind, and ride 
 out the squall. But what of that? 
 
 Humiliation and prayer are never out of order. This 
 nation has great sins unrepented of; and whatever may be 
 our own judgment of the wisdom of public men in regard 
 to secular affairs, we cannot deny that in this respect they 
 have hit rarely well. Instead of finding fault with the 
 almost only wise act of many days, let us rather admire 
 with gratitude this unexpected piety of men in high places. 
 
 This government is in danger of subversion; and surely, 
 while the venerable Chief Magistrate of this nation, and all 
 the members of his Cabinet, are doubtless this day relig- 
 iously abstaining from food, according to the proclamation, 
 and humbly confessing their manifold sins, it would ill be- 
 come us to go unconcerned and negligent of such duties of 
 piety and patriotism. Nor need we be inconveniently frank 
 and critical. What if some shall say that fasting is a poor 
 substitute for courage, and prayer a miserable equivalent 
 for fidelity to duty ? What if the national authorities have 
 not only appointed the Fast, but afforded sufficient material 
 in their own conduct for observing it? It is all the more 
 necessary on that account that we should pause, and hum- 
 ble ourselves before God, and implore his active inter- 
 ference. 
 
 But however monstrous the pretense of trouble may be, 
 the danger is the same. Government is in danger of sub- 
 version. No greater disaster could befall this continent or 
 
248 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the world; for such governments fall but once, and then 
 there is no resurrection. Since there is no famine in the 
 land, no pestilence, no invasion of foreign foe, no animosity 
 of the industrial classes against each other, or against their 
 employers, whence is our danger? from what quarter come 
 these clouds, drifting with bolts of war and destruction ? 
 Over the Gulf, to the South, the storm hangs lurid ! From 
 the treacherous Caribbean Sea travel the darkness and 
 swirling tornadoes ! 
 
 What part of this complicated Government has at last 
 broken down ? Is it the legislative ? the judicial? the execu- 
 tive? Has experience shown us that this costly machine, 
 like many another, is more ingenious than practicable ? Not 
 another nation in the world, not a contemporaneous govern- 
 ment, during the past seventy-five years, can compare, for 
 regularity, simplicity of execution, and for a wise and facile 
 accomplishment of the very ends of government, with ours. 
 And yet, what is the errand of this daj' ? Why are we ob- 
 serving a sad Sabbath ? a day of humiliation ? a day of sup- 
 plication ? It is for the strangest reason that the world ever 
 heard. It is because the spirit of liberty has so increased 
 and strengthened among us, that the Government is in dan- 
 ger of being overthrown ! There never before was such an 
 occasion for fasting, humiliation, and prayer ! Other nations 
 have gone through revolutions to find their liberties. We 
 are on the eve of a revolution to put down liberty ! Other 
 people have thrown off their governments because too 
 oppressive. Ours is to be destroyed, if at all, because it is 
 too full of liberty, too full of freedom. There never was 
 such an event before in history. 
 
 But however monstrous the pretense, the danger is here. 
 In not a few States of this Union reason seems to have fled, 
 and passion rules. To us who have been bred in cooler lat- 
 itudes and under more cautious maxims, it seems incredible 
 that men should abandon their callings, break up the indus- 
 tries of the community, and give themselves up to the wild- 
 est fanaticism, at the expense of every social and civil inter- 
 est, and without the slightest reason or cause in their 
 relations to society and to the country, past or future. 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 249 
 
 Communities, like individuals, are liable to aberrations of 
 mind. Panics and general excitements seem to move by- 
 laws as definite as those which control epidemics or the 
 pestilence. And in one portion of our land such an insanity 
 now rules. Cities are turned into camps. All men are 
 aping soldiers. For almost a thousand miles there is one 
 wild riot of complaint and boasting. Acts of flagrant 
 wrong are committed against the Federal Government. 
 And these things are but the prelude. It is plainly declared 
 that this Government shall be broken up, and many men 
 mean it; and that the President elect* of this great nation 
 shall never come to the place appointed by this people. 
 Riot and civil war, with their hideous train of murders, 
 revenges, and secret villanies are gathering their elements, 
 and hang in ominous terror over the capital of this nation. 
 
 Meanwhile, we have had no one to stand up for order. 
 Those who should have spoken in decisive authority have 
 been — afraid ! Severer w^ords have been used; it is enough 
 for me to say only that in a time when God, and providence, 
 and patriotism, and humanity demanded courage, they had 
 nothing to respond but fear. The heart has almost ceased 
 to beat, and this Government is like to die for want of pul- 
 sations at the center. While the most humiliating fear 
 paralyzes one part of the Government, the most wicked 
 treachery is found in other parts of it. Men advanced to 
 the highest places by the power of our Constitution, have 
 employed their force to destroy that Constitution. They 
 are using their oath as a soldier uses his shield, to cover 
 and protect them while they are mining the foundations, 
 and opening every door, and unfastening every protection 
 by which colluding traitors may gain easy entrance and 
 fatal success. Gigantic dishonesties, meanwhile, stalk 
 abroad almost without shame. And this Puritan land, this 
 free Government, these United States, like old Rome in her 
 latest imperial days, helpless at the court, divided among 
 her own citizens, overhung by hordes of Goths and Barba- 
 rians, seems about to be swept with the fury of war. 
 
 If at such a solemn crisis as this men refuse to look at 
 
 *Abrahain Lincoln, who had been elected in the November previous. 
 
250 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 things as they are; to call their sins to remembrance; to 
 confess and forsake them; if they shall cover over the great 
 sins of this people, and confess only in a sentimental way, 
 (as one would solace an evening sadness by playing some 
 sweet and minor melody,) then we may fear that God has 
 indeed forsaken his people. But if we shall honestly con- 
 fess our real sins; if we propose to cleanse ourselves from 
 them; if we make prayer not a substitute for action, but 
 an incitement to it; if we rise from our knees this day more 
 zealous for temperance, for honesty, for real brotherhood, 
 for pure and undefiled religion, and for that which is the 
 sum and product of them all, regulated liberty to all men, 
 then will the clouds begin to break, and we shall see the 
 blue shining through, and the sun, ere long, driving away 
 the tumultuous storm, shall come back in triumph. 
 
 1. It is well, then, that every one of us make this day the 
 beginning of a solemn review of his own life, and the tend- 
 encies of his own conduct and character. A general repent- 
 ance of national sins should follow, rather than precede, a 
 personal and private conviction of our own individual 
 transgressions. For it has been found not difficult for men 
 to repent of other people's sins; but it is found somewhat 
 difficult and onerous to repent of one's own sins. We are 
 all of us guilty before God of pride, of selfishness, of 
 vanity, of passions unsubdued, of worldliness in manifold 
 forms, and of strife. We have been caught in th^ stream, 
 and swept out into an ocean of thoughts and feelings 
 which cannot bear the inquest of God's judgment-day. 
 And we have lived in them almost unrebuked. Each man 
 will find his own life full of repentable sins unrepented of. 
 
 2. We should take solemn account of our guilt in the 
 great growth of social laxity and vice and crime in our 
 great cities. We have loved ease rather than duty. Every 
 American citizen is by birth a sworn officer of state. 
 Every man is a policeman. If bad men have had impunity, 
 if the vile have controlled our municipal affairs, if by our 
 delinquencies and indolence justice has been perverted, and 
 our cities are full of great public wickedness, then we can- 
 not put the guilt away from our own consciences. We have 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 
 
 251 
 
 a partnership in the conduct of wicked men, unless we have 
 exhausted proper and permissible means of forestalling and 
 preventing it. Every citizen of such a city as this, looking 
 upon intemperance, upon lewdness, upon gambling, upon 
 the monstrous wickednesses that ferment at the bottom of 
 society, or beat in its arteries, should feel that he has some 
 occasion to repent of his own delinquency and moral indif- 
 ference. We are responsible for existing evils in such a 
 nation as ours, in as far as they might have been prevented 
 or limited by our resolute influence. 
 
 3. We may. not refuse to consider the growth of corrupt 
 passions in connection with the increase of commercial 
 prosperity. Luxury, extravagance, ostentation, and cor- 
 ruption of morals in social life have given alarming evi- 
 dence of a premature old age in a young country. The sins 
 of a nation are always the sins of certain central passions. 
 In one age they break out in one way, and in another age 
 in another way; but they are the same central sins, after 
 all. The corrupt passions which lead in the Southern States 
 to all the gigantic evils of slavery, in Northern cities break 
 out in other forms, not less guilty before God, because of a 
 less public nature. The same thing that leads to the op- 
 pression of laborers among us leads to oppression on the 
 plantation. The grinding of the poor, the advantages which 
 capital takes of labor, the oppression of the farm, the op- 
 pression of the road, the oppression of the shop, the oppres- 
 sion of the ship, are all of the same central nature, and as 
 guilty before God as the more systematic and overt oppres- 
 sions of the plantation. It is always the old human heart 
 that sins. North or South; and the natures of pride and of 
 dishonesty are universal. We have our own account to 
 render. 
 
 4. There is occasion for alarm and for humiliation before 
 God, in the spread of avarice among our people. The in- 
 tense eagerness to amass wealth; the growing indifference 
 of morals as to methods of acquisition; the gradual corrup- 
 tion of the moral sense, so that property and self-interest 
 dominate the conscience and determine what is right and 
 wrong; the use of money for bribery of electors and elected; 
 
252 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the terrible imputations which lie against many of our 
 courts, that judges walk upon gold in securing place, and 
 then sit upon gold in the judgment-seat; the use of money 
 in legislation; and the growing rottenness of politics from 
 the lowest village concern to matters of national dimension, 
 from constables to the Chief Magistrate of these United 
 States: — is this all to be confessed only in a single smooth 
 sentence? 
 
 Such is the wantonness and almost universality of ava- 
 rice as a corrupting agent in public affairs, that it be- 
 hooves every man to consider his responsibilities before 
 God in this matter. The very planks between us and the 
 ocean are worm-eaten and rotting, when avarice'takes hold 
 of public integrity; for avarice is that sea-worm, ocean- 
 bred, and swarming innumerable, that will pierce the 
 toughest planks, and bring the stoutest ships to foundering. 
 Our foundations are crumbling. The sills on which we are 
 building are ready to break. We need reformation in the 
 very beginnings and elements of society. If in other parts 
 of our land they are in danger of going down by avarice 
 in one form, we are in danger of going down by avarice 
 in another form. 
 
 Our people are vain, and much given to boasting; and 
 because they love flatteries, those deriving from them 
 honor and trust are too fond of feeding their appetite for 
 praise. Thus it comes to pass that we hear the favorable 
 side of our doings and character, and become used to a 
 flattering portrait. Men grow popular who have flowing 
 phrases of eulogy. Men who speak unpalatable truths are 
 disliked; and if they have power to make the public con- 
 science uncomfortable, they are said to abuse the liberty 
 of free speech, — for it is the liberty of fanning men to 
 sleep that is supposed to be legitimate; the liberty of 
 waking men out of sleep is supposed to be license ! And 
 yet we shall certainly die by the sweetness of flattery; or, 
 if we are healed, it must be by the bitterness of faithful 
 speech. There is tonic in the things that men do not love 
 to hear; and there is damnation in the things that wicked 
 men love to hear. Free speech is to a great people what 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 
 
 25: 
 
 winds are to malarial regions, which waft away the elements 
 of disease, and bring new elements of health. Where free 
 speech is stopped, miasma is bred, and death comes fast. 
 
 5. But upon a day of national fasting and confession, we 
 are called to consider not alone our individual and social 
 evils, but also those which are national. And justice re- 
 quires that we should make mention of the sins of this 
 nation on every side, past and present. I should violate 
 my own convictions, if, in the presence of more nearly 
 present and more exciting influences, I should neglect to 
 mention the sins of this nation against the Indian, who, 
 as much as the slave, is dumb, but who, unlike the 
 slave, has almost none to think of him, and to speak of 
 his wrongs. We must remember that we are the only 
 historians of the wrongs of the Indian, — we that com- 
 mit them. And our history of the Indian nations of this 
 country is like the inquisitor's history of his own trials of 
 innocent victims. He leaves out the rack, and the groans, 
 and the anguish, and the unutterable wrongs, and puts but 
 his own glozingview in his journal. We have heaped up the 
 account of treachery and cruelty on their part, but we have 
 not narrated the provocations, the grinding intrusions, and 
 the misunderstood interpretations of their policy, on our 
 part. Every crime in the calendar of wrong which a strong 
 people can commit against a weak one has been committed 
 by us against them. We have wasted their substance; we 
 have provoked their hostility, and then chastised them for 
 their wars; we have compelled them to peace ignominiously ; 
 we have formed treaties with them only to be broken; we 
 have filched their possessions. In our presence they have 
 wilted and wasted. A heathen people have experienced 
 at the hands of a Christian nation almost every evil which 
 one people can commit against another. 
 
 Admit the laws of race; admit the laws of advancing 
 civilization as fatal to all barbarism; admit the indocility 
 of the savage; admit the rude edges of violent men who 
 form the pioneer advance of a great people, and the intrin- 
 sic difficulties of managing a people whose notions and 
 customs and laws are utterly different from our own, and 
 
254 
 
 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 then you have only explained how the evil has been done, 
 but you have not changed the fact nor its guilt. The mis- 
 chief has been done, and this is simply the excuse. It is a 
 sorry commentary upon a Christian nation, and indeed 
 upon religion itself, that the freest and most boastfully re- 
 ligious people on the globe are absolutely fatal to any 
 weaker people that they touch. What would be thought 
 of a man who, when he became converted to Christianity, 
 was dangerous to the next man's pocket? What would be 
 thought of a man who grew dangerous in the ratio of his 
 moral excellence? And what must be the nature of that 
 Christianization which makes this Republic a most dan- 
 gerous neighbor to nations weaker than itself ? We are 
 respectful to strength, but thieves and robbers to weakness. 
 It is not safe for any to trust our magnanimity and gen- 
 erosity. We have no chivalry. We have avarice; we have 
 haughty arrogance; we have assumptive ways; and we 
 have a desperate determination to live, to think only of 
 our own living, and to sweep with the besom of destruc- 
 tion whatever occupies the place where we would put our 
 foot. 
 
 Nor is this confined to the Indian. The Mexicans have 
 felt the same rude foot. This nation has employed its gi- 
 gantic strength with almost no moral restriction. Our 
 civilization has not begotten humanity and respect for 
 others' rights, nor a spirit of protection to the weak. Nor 
 can we excuse ourselves by declaring that these wanton 
 cruelties have been inspired by Southern counsels, and 
 perpetrated by Southern influence, and that they are the 
 legitimate fruit of that unholy system of slavery which for 
 fifty years has swayed the government of this nation. 
 These facts are undoubtedly true. But we must not forget 
 that we permitted the outrages. Resistance was feeble. 
 Protests were mild. We preferred to suffer such wrongs 
 upon the weak, rather than imperil our peace and com- 
 mercial prosperity by a resolute resistance. 
 
 It is quite in vain to say that the land from which we 
 sprung did the same that we are doing. A wicked daugh- 
 ter is not excused because she had a wicked mother. We 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 255 
 
 boast of the Anglo-Saxon race; and if bone and muscle, 
 and indomitable sense of personal liberty, and a disposi- 
 tion to do what we please, are themes for Christian rejoic- 
 ing, then the Anglo-Saxon may well rejoice. There are 
 sins that belong to races; there are sins that belong to peo- 
 ples; there are sins that belong to generations of the same 
 people; and the sins that I have enumerated are sins that 
 belong to our stock. 
 
 But God never forgets what we most easily forget. 
 Either moral government over nations is apocryphal, or 
 judgments are yet to be visited upon us for the wrongs 
 done to the Indian, and to our weak and helpless neighbors. 
 
 6. But I am now come to the most alarming and most 
 fertile cause of national sin, — slavery. We are called by 
 our Chief Magistrate to humble ourselves before God for 
 our sins. This is not only a sin, but it is a fountain from 
 which have flowed so many sins that we cannot rightly 
 improve this day without a consideration of them. 
 
 In one and the same year, 1620, English ships landed 
 the Puritans in New England and negro slaves in Vir- 
 ginia, — two seeds of the two systems that were destined 
 to find here a growth and strength unparalleled in his- 
 tory. It would have seemed almost a theatric arrange- 
 ment, had these oppugnant elements, Puritan liberty and 
 Roman servitude, — (for, whatever men may say, American 
 slavery is not Hebrew slavery; it is Roman slavery. We 
 borrowed every single one of the elemental principles 
 of our system of slavery from the Roman law, and not 
 from the old Hebrew. The fundamental feature of the 
 Hebrew system was that the slave was a man, and not 
 a chattel, while the fundamental feature of the Roman 
 system was that he was a chattel, and not a man. The 
 essential principle of the old Mosaic servitude made it the 
 duty of the master to treat his servants as men and to 
 instruct them in his own religion, and in the matters 
 of his own household; while the essential principle of Ro- 
 man servitude allowed the master to treat his servants to 
 all intents and purposes as chattels, goods), — it would 
 have seemed, I say, almost a theatric arrangement had 
 
256 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 these oppugnant elements, Puritan liberty and Roman 
 servitude, divided the land between them, and, inspiring 
 different governments, grown up different nations, in 
 contrast, that the world might see this experiment fairly 
 compared and worked out to the bitter end. 
 
 But it was not to be so. The same government has 
 nourished both elements. Our Constitution nourished 
 twins. It carried Africa on its left bosom, and Anglo-Sax- 
 dom on its right bosom; and these two, drawing milk 
 from the same bosom, have waxed strong, and stand to- 
 day federated into the one republic. One side of the body 
 politic has grown fair and healthy and strong; the other 
 side has grown up as a wen grows, and a wart, vast, but 
 the vaster the weaker. We have yielded new territory to 
 this terrible disease. They have demanded, and we have 
 permitted, concessions, legislative compromises, construc- 
 tions. Peace and friendship have been the ostensible pleas. 
 The ambition of political parties and the short-sighted in- 
 terests of commerce have been the real and active motives 
 of this wicked consent ! 
 
 We who dwell in the North are not without responsibil- 
 ity for this sin. Its wonderful growth and the arrogance 
 of its claims have been in part through our delinquency. 
 As our business to-day is not to find fault with the South, 
 I am not discussing this matter with reference to them at 
 all, but only with reference to our own individual profit. 
 Because the South loved money, they augmented this evil; 
 and because the North loved money, and that quiet which 
 befits industry and commerce, she has refused to insist 
 upon her moral convictions, in days past, and yielded to 
 every demand carrying slavery forward in this nation. 
 You and I are guilty of the spread of slavery unless we 
 have exerted, normally and legitimately, every influence 
 in our power against it. If we have said, "To agitate the 
 question imperils manufacturing, imperils shipping, im- 
 perils real estate, imperils quiet and peace," and if, then, 
 we have sacrificed purity and honesty, — if we have 
 bought the right to make money here by letting slavery 
 spread and grow there, — we have been doing just the 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 
 
 257 
 
 same thing that they have. It has been one gigantic 
 bargain, only working out in different ways, North and 
 South. It is for us just as much as for them that the 
 slave works; and we acquiesce. We clothe ourselves with 
 the cotton which the slave tills. Is he scorched ? is he 
 lashed ? does he water the crop with his sweat and tears ? 
 It is you and I that wear the shirt and consume the lux- 
 ury. Our looms and our factories are largely built on the 
 slave's bones. We live on his labor. I confess I see no 
 way to escape a part of the responsibility for slavery. I 
 feel guilty in part for this system. If the relinquishment 
 of the articles which come from slave labor would tend 
 even remotely to abridge or end the evil, I would without 
 hesitation forego every one; but I do not see that it would 
 help the matter. I am an unwilling partner in the slave 
 system. I take to myself a part of the sin; I confess it 
 before God; and pray for some way to be opened by which 
 I may be freed from that which I hate bitterly. 
 
 But this state of facts makes it eminently proper for us to 
 confess our sin, and the wrong done to the slave. All the 
 wrongs, the crimes of some, the abuse of others, the neglect, 
 the misuse, the ignorance, the separations, the scourg- 
 ings, — these cannot be rolled into a cloud to overhang the 
 South alone. Every one of us has something to confess. 
 Those who have been most scrupulous, if God should 
 judge their life, their motives, and their conduct, would 
 find that they, too, had some account in this great bill of 
 slavery. The whole nation is guilty. There is not a lum- 
 berman on the verge of Maine, not a settler on the far 
 distant northern prairies, not an emigrant on the Pacific 
 shore, that is not politically and commercially in alliance 
 with this great evil. If you put poison into 5'^our system in 
 any way, there is not a nerve that is not affected by it; 
 there is not a muscle that does not feel it; there is not a bone, 
 nor a tissue, nor one single part nor parcel of your whole 
 body, that can escape it. And our body politic is pervaded 
 with this deadly injustice, and every one of us is more or 
 less, directly or indirectly, willingly or unwillingly, im- 
 plicated in it. We have a great deal to confess before we 
 
258 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 cast reproaches upon the South. And while I hold Southern 
 citizens to the full and dreadful measure of their guilt be- 
 fore God, and would, if I were settled there, tell them their 
 sin as plainly as I tell you your sin, it is for us to-day, and 
 here, to consider our own part in this matter ; and to that I 
 shall speak during the residue of my remarks. 
 
 Originally, we were guilty of active participation in 
 slavery. It seems very strange to take up the old Boston 
 books and read the history of slavery in Boston. We of 
 the North early abandoned the practice of holding slaves. 
 But it is said that ours is a cheap philanthropy; that, 
 having got quit of our slaves by selling them, we turn round 
 and preach to the South about the sin of holding theirs. 
 There is nothing more false than such a charge. There is 
 nothing more illustrious in the history of the State of New 
 York, and of the Northern States generally, than the method 
 by which they freed themselves from slavery. This State 
 decreed liberty at a certain period, making it an offense, 
 the penalty attached to which no one would willingly 
 inherit, for a man to convey away, or in any manner what- 
 soever to sell out of the State, a person held as a slave; 
 and if a man, anticipating the day of emancipation, wished 
 to make a journey to the South with his slaves, he had to 
 give bonds for their return before he went away, and an 
 account when he came back, if they did not come with 
 him. Nothing could have been more humane than the 
 provision that the slave should not be sold out of the State 
 of New York, but should be emancipated in it. And what 
 is true of New York in this respect, is true of the States 
 generally that emancipated their slaves. 
 
 But we of the North participated in the beginnings, and 
 we are in part guilty of the subsequent spread of the 
 system of slavery. When our government came into our 
 hands, after the struggle of the Revolution, we had gone 
 through such a schooling, that the head, the conscience, 
 and the heart of this nation, in the main, were right on the 
 subject of human liberties. And at the adoption of the 
 Federal Constitution, nearly seventy-five years ago, it 
 might be said that, with local and insignificant exceptions. 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 259 
 
 there was but one judgment, one wish, and one prophetic 
 expectation; namely, that this whole territory should be 
 dedicated to liberty, and that every compliance or com- 
 promise was not to be made in the interest of oppression, 
 but was to be made only to give oppression time to die 
 decently. That was the spirit and intent of every conces- 
 sion or compromise that was made. 
 
 The schools, the academies, the colleges, the intelligence, 
 the brain of this nation, at that time, were in the North, — 
 and in the North I include all the territory north of Mason 
 and Dixon's line. Churches, religious institutions, those 
 moral elements that always went with the posterity of the 
 Puritans, were then also in the North. When our Consti- 
 tution was adopted, — when the wheels of our mighty 
 Confederacy were adjusted, and the pendulum began to 
 swing, — at that time the public sentiment was in favor of 
 liberty. All the institutions were prepared for liberty, 
 and all the piablic men were on the side of liberty. And 
 to the North, because she was the brain, — to the North, 
 because she was the moral center and heart of this Con- 
 federacy, — was given this estate; for in this twenty-five or 
 thirty years the North predominated in the councils of the 
 nation, and fixed its institutions, as the South has fixed its 
 policy since. What, then, having this trust put into her 
 hands, is the account of her stewardship which the North 
 has to render ? If now, after three quarters of a century 
 have passed away, God should summon the North to his 
 judgment-bar and say, " I gave you a continent in which, 
 though there was slavery, it was perishing; I gave you a 
 nation in which the sentiment was for liberty and against 
 oppression; I gave you a nation in which the tendencies 
 were all for freedom and against slavery; I gave you the 
 supreme intelligence; I gave 5'ou the moral power in a 
 thousand pulpits, a thousand books, a thousand Bibles, and 
 said, 'Take this nation, administer it, and render up j^our 
 trust';" — if now, after three quarters of a century have 
 passed away, God should thus summon the North to his 
 judgment-bar, what would be the account which she would 
 have to render ? — the North, that was strongest in the head 
 
26o PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and in the heart, and that took as fair a heritage as men 
 ever attempted to administer? To-day liberty is dis- 
 honored and discrowned, and slavery is rampant, in this 
 nation. And do you think to creep out of the responsi- 
 bility and say, " We are not to blame ? " What have you 
 been doing with your intelligence, your books, your schools, 
 your Bibles, your missionaries, your ministers ? Where, 
 where is the artillery that God Almighty gave you, park 
 upon park, for use in this contest, provided and prepared 
 for that special emergency ? Much as I love the North, — 
 and I love every drop of Puritan blood that the world ever 
 saw, because it seems to me that Puritan blood means 
 blood touched with Christ's blood, — I take to myself part 
 of the shame, and mourn over the delinquency of the 
 North, that, having committed to it the eminent task of 
 preserving the liberties of this nation, it has suffered them 
 to be eclipsed. For to-day there are more Slave States 
 than there were States confederated when this nation came 
 together. And instead of having three or four hundred 
 thousand slaves, we have more than four millions; instead 
 of a traffic suppressed, you and I are witnesses to-day of a 
 traffic to be reopened, — of rebellion, treasonable war, 
 bloodshed, separate independence, for the sake of reopen- 
 ing the African slave-trade. So came this country into the 
 hands of the North in the beginning, and so it is going out 
 of her hands in the end. There never was such a steward- 
 ship; and if this Confederacy shall be broken up, if the 
 Gulf States shall demand a division of the country, and 
 the intermediate States shall go off, and two empires shall 
 be established, no steward that has lived since God's sun 
 shone on the earth will have such an account to render of 
 an estate taken under such favorable auspices, as the North 
 will have to render of this great national estate which was 
 committed to her trust. It is an astounding sin ! It is an 
 unparalleled guilt ! The vengeance and zeal of our hearts 
 toward the South might be somewhat tempered by the 
 reflection that we have been so faithless and so wicked. 
 
 That is not the worst. That is the material side. We 
 have stood with all the elements of power, boasting of our 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 261 
 
 influence, and really swaying, in many respects, the affairs 
 of this continent; and yet we have not only seen this tre- 
 mendous increase of slavery, but we have permitted the 
 doctrines of liberty themselves to be stricken with leprosy. 
 And to-day, to-day, to-day, if you were to put it to the vote 
 of this whole people, I do not know that you could get a 
 majority for any doctrine of liberty but this: that each 
 man has a right to be himself free. The great doctrine of 
 liberty is concisely expressed by the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence; and it is this: that all men are free, born with 
 equal political rights, of life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. And there is no true right that is not founded 
 on this doctrine : That liberty which is good for me is 
 indispensable for everybody. A right love of liberty 
 inspires a man to say, " I will have it and everybody shall 
 have it." That is a poor love of liberty that makes a man 
 a champion for the liberty of those that are capable of 
 asserting their own liberty. But I doubt whether you could 
 get a popular vote for the liberty of all men, if the Africans 
 were known to be included. Why should you? I am 
 ashamed of what I must speak. The pulpit has been so 
 prostituted, and so utterly apostatized from the very root 
 and substance of Christianity, that it teaches the most 
 heathen notions of liberty ; and why should you expect 
 the great masses of men to be better informed on this sub- 
 ject than its preachers are ? Do you believe that George 
 Washington, were he living, would now be able to live one 
 day in the city of Charleston, if he uttered the sentiments 
 that he used to hold ? He would be denounced as a traitor, 
 and swung up on the nearest lamp-post. Do you suppose 
 that one single man that signed the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, if living, could go through the South to-day 
 repeating the sentiments contained in that document? 
 The lives of the signers of the Declaration of Independence 
 would not be worth one day's lease in Alabama, Louisiana, 
 Carolina, or Florida, if they were there to say the things 
 plainly which they said when they framed this government, 
 so utterly have the South vomited up their political views; 
 so radically have they changed their notions. Was this 
 
262 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 country committed to our care ? and is such the lesson that 
 we have taught our pupils ? Shall the schoolmaster render 
 back the scholars that he undertook to teach, with their 
 minds debauched, and say that he was not responsible for 
 what they learned ? And if any part of the country was 
 responsible for the education of the whole, it was the free- 
 schooled, million-churched North. The result of our in- 
 struction is this : slavery has spread gigantically, and the 
 doctrine of liberty is so corrupted, that to-day nothing is 
 more disreputable in the high places of this nation than 
 that very doctrine. And at last, when the sleeper, long 
 snoring, having been awaked, raised himself up, and, like 
 all new zealots, somewhat intemperately made crusade for 
 liberty, the land was so agitated, and with such surprise 
 was this expression of the public sentiment of the North 
 received, that the Chief Magistrate of this nation has 
 declared that the advocates of the old colonial, original, 
 constitutional doctrines of human rights were the cause of 
 all the trouble ! 
 
 But this is not all. The most serious, the most grievous 
 charge is yet to be made upon the North. So far have we 
 been delinquent in the trust that God committed to us, 
 that from the very fountain out of which flowed, as from 
 the heart of Christ, the first drops that were to cleanse men 
 from oppressions, has been extracted in our day, and in 
 our North very largely, the whole spirit of humanity which 
 breathes freedom. 
 
 It ill becomes, I think, one profession to rail against 
 another, or the members of the same profession to rail 
 against each other. I have no accusations to make against 
 any, but I will forsake my profession, for the time being, 
 and stand as a man among men, to lift up my voice, with 
 all my heart and soul, against any man who, professing to 
 be ordained to preach, preaches out of Christ's Gospel the 
 doctrines of human bondage. If the Bible can be opened 
 that all the fiends of hell may, as in a covered passage, 
 walk through it to do mischief on earth, I say, blessed be 
 infidels ! If men can make the Bible teach me to disown 
 childhood; if men can make the Bible teach me that it is 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 263 
 
 lawful to buy and sell men, that marriage is impracticable 
 between slaves, that laws cannot permit any custom which 
 would hinder the easy sale of such property; if the Bible 
 can be made the sacred document and constitutional 
 guaranty of a system which makes it impossible that a man 
 should receive education, because intelligence is costly, and 
 swells the slave to a stature not convenient for selfish econ- 
 omy; if a man can take the Bible and lay it in the path 
 over whic4i men are attempting to walk from Calvary up 
 to the gate of heaven; — then I declare that I will do by 
 the Bible what Christ did by the Temple: I will take a whip 
 of cords, and drive out of it every man that buys and sells 
 men, women, and children; and if I cannot do that, I will 
 let the Bible go, as God let the Temple go, to the desolating 
 armies of its adversaries. And I do not wonder that, after 
 so long an experience of the world, men who bombard 
 universal humanity, men who plead for the outrage of 
 slavery, men who grope to find under crowns and scepters 
 the infamous doctrines of servitude, — I do not wonder that 
 they are pestered with the idea of man's infidelity. Why, 
 that minister who preaches slavery out of the Bible is the 
 father of infidelity ! Sometimes men become infidel to 
 the Church for the sake of fidelity to religion. The Bible 
 may be so interpreted by a besotted priesthood, that plain 
 men may be driven from the Book for their very faith in 
 its essential contents. Every abomination on earth has 
 been at one time or another justified from the Bible ! Thus 
 men learn to hate the Bible, not for what it is in reality, 
 but because it is made the bulwark of oppression; and 
 they spurn it that they may answer the call of God in 
 their own nature, — for to be free is a part of the sovereign 
 call and election that God has given to every man who has 
 a sense of his birthright and immortality. And in a com- 
 munity where the minister finds reason in the Bible for 
 slavery, you may depend upon it that one of two things 
 will take place: either there will be an inquisition to re- 
 deem the Bible from such abominable prostitution, or else 
 the Bible will be spurned and trodden under the feet of 
 men. 
 
264 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 " I came to open the prison to them that are bound," said 
 Christ; and that is the text on which men justify shutting 
 them and locking them. " To proclaim liberty to the 
 captives;" and that is the text out of which men spin 
 cords to bind men, women, and children. " To set at 
 liberty them that are bruised; " and that is the Book from 
 out of which they argue, with amazing ingenuity, all the 
 infernal meshes and snares by which to keep men in 
 bondage. It is pitiful. 
 
 Now what has been the history of the Book but this: 
 that wherever you have had an untrammeled Bible, you 
 have had an untrammeled people; and that wherever you 
 have had a Bible shut up, you have had a shut-up people ? 
 Where you have had a Bible that the priests interpreted, 
 you have had a king. Where you have had a Bible that the 
 common people interpreted; where the family has been the 
 church; where father and mother have been God's ordained 
 priests; where they have read its pages freely from begin- 
 ning to end without gloss or commentary, without the 
 church to tell them how, but with the illumination of God's 
 Spirit in their hearts; — there you have had an indomitable 
 yeomanry, a state that would not have a tyrant on the 
 throne, a government that would not have a slave or a serf 
 in the field. Wherever the Bible has been allowed to be 
 free, wherever it has been knocked out of the king's hand, 
 and out of the priest's hand, it has carried light like the 
 morning sun, rising over hill and vale, round and round 
 the world; and it will do it again ! And yet there come 
 up in our midst men that say that the Bible is in favor of 
 slavery. And as men that are about to make a desperate 
 jump go back and run before they jump, so these men 
 have to go back to the twilight of creation and take a long 
 run; and when they come to their jump, their strength is 
 spent, and they but stumble ! 
 
 It is in consideration of this wanton change which has 
 taken place (and which ought never to have been permitted 
 to take place, in view of the instruments that God put into 
 our hands, and in view of the solemn responsibility that he 
 has put upon us), — it is in consideration of this change 
 
OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS, 265 
 
 which has taken place in the moral condition of the coun- 
 try, and in the opinions of this people respecting the 
 great doctrine of liberty, and the worse change which has 
 in part corrupted the Church at its very core, that I argue 
 to-day the necessity of humiliation and repentance before 
 God. 
 
 I shall first confess my own sin. Sometimes men think 
 I have been unduly active. I think I have been indolent. 
 In regard to my duty in my personal and professional life, 
 I chide myself for nothing more than because I have not 
 been more alert, more instant in season and out of season. 
 If sometimes in intemperate earnestness I have wounded 
 the feelings of any, if I have seemed to judge men harshly, 
 for that I am sorry. But for holding the slave as my 
 brother; for feeling that the Spirit of God is the spirit of 
 liberty; for loving my country so well that I cannot bear 
 to see a stain or a blot upon her; for endeavoring to take 
 the sands from the river of life wherewith to scour white 
 as snow the morals of my times, and to cleanse them to 
 the uttermost of all spot and aspersion, — for that I have 
 no tears to shed. I only mourn that I have not been more 
 active and zealous, and I do not wish to separate myself 
 from my share of the responsibility. I am willing to take 
 my part of the yoke and burden. I will weep my tears 
 before God, and pray my prayers of sincere contrition and 
 penitence, that I have not been more faithful to liberty and 
 religion in the North and the whole land. 
 
 But be sure of one thing: He that would not come 
 when the sisters sent, but tarried, has come, and the stone 
 is rolled away, and he stands by the side of the sepulcher. 
 He has called, " Liberty, come forth ! " and, bound yet 
 hand and foot, it has come forth; and that same sovereign 
 voice is saying, '■'■ Loose him, and let him go ! " and from 
 out of the tomb, the dust, the night, and the degradation, 
 the better spirit of this people is now emerging at the 
 voice of God. We have heard his call, we know the bid- 
 ding, and Death itself cannot -hold us any longer; and 
 there is before us, we may fain believe, a new lease of life, 
 a more blessed national existence. That there will not be 
 
266 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 concussions, and perhaps garments rolled in blood, I will 
 not undertake to say : there may be some such things as 
 these; but, brethren, this nation is not going to perish. 
 This Union is not going to be broken and shivered like a 
 crystal vase that can never be put together again. We are 
 to be tested and tried; but if we are in earnest, and if we 
 stand, as martyrs and confessors before us have stood, 
 bearing witness in this thing for Christ, know ye that ere 
 long God will appear, and be the leader and captain of our 
 salvation, and we shall have given back to us this whole 
 land, healed, restored to its right mind, and sitting at the 
 feet of Jesus. 
 
 Love God, love men, love your dear fatherland; to-day 
 confess your sins toward God, toward men, toward your 
 own fatherland; and may that God that loves to forgive 
 and forget, hear our cries and our petitions which we make, 
 pardon the past, inspire the future, and bring the latter- 
 day glory through a regenerated zeal and truth, inspired 
 by his Spirit, in this nation. Amen, and amen. 
 
II 
 CIVIL WAR 
 
^^yf^^y^^^T^-A^yhy <?iu>i-uur^. 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 
 
 " And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me ? speak 
 unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." — Exod. xiv. 15. 
 
 Moses was raised up to be the emancipator of three 
 millions of people. At the age of forty, having, through 
 a singular providence, been reared in the midst of luxur)% 
 in the proudest, most intelligent, and most civilized court 
 on the globe, with a heart uncorrupt, with a genuine love 
 of his own race and people, he began to act as their eman- 
 cipator. He boldly slew one of their oppressors. And, 
 seeing dissension among his brethren, he sought to bring 
 them to peace. He was rejected, reproved, and reproached ; 
 and finding himself discovered, he fled, and, for the sake 
 of liberty, became a fugitive and a martyr. For forty 
 years, uncomplaining, he dwelt apart with his father-in- 
 law, Jethro, in the wilderness, in the peaceful pursuits of a 
 herdsman. At eighty — the time when most men lay down 
 the burden of life, or have long laid it down — he began 
 his life-work. He was called back by the voice of God; 
 and now, accompanied by his brother, he returned, con- 
 fronted the king, and, moved by Divine inspiration, de- 
 manded, repeatedly, the release of his people. The first de- 
 mand was sanctioned by a terrific plague; the second, by a 
 second terrible judgment; thethird,by a third frightful dev- 
 astation; the fourth, by a fo^urth dreadful blow; the fifth, 
 by a fifth desolating, sweeping mischief. A sixth, a seventh, 
 an eighth, and a ninth time, he demanded their release. 
 And when was there ever, on the face of the earth, a man 
 that, once having power, would let it go till life itself went 
 with it ? Pharaoh, who is the grand type of oppressors, 
 held on in spite of the Divine command and of the Divine 
 
 * Preached April 14, 1861, during the siege of Fort Sumter. 
 
270 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 punishment. Then God let fly the last terrific judgment, 
 and smote the first-born of Egypt; and there was wailing 
 in every house of the midnight land. And then, in the 
 midst of the first gush of grief and anguish, the tyrant 
 said, " Let them go ! let them go ! " And he did let them 
 go; he shoved them out; and they went pell-mell in great 
 confusion on their way, taking up their line of march, and 
 escaped from Egypt. 
 
 But as soon as the first anguish had passed away, Pha- 
 raoh came back to his old nature, — just as many men whose 
 hearts are softened and whose lives are made better by afflic- 
 tion, come back to the old way of feeling and living, as soon as 
 they have ceased to experience the first effects of the afflic- 
 tion, — and he followed on after the Israelites. As they lay 
 encamped — these three millions of people, men, women, 
 and children — just apart from the land of bondage, near 
 the fork and head of the Red Sea, with great hills on either 
 side of them, and the sea before them, some one brought 
 panic into the camp, saying, " I see the signs of an advanc- 
 ing host ! The air far on the horizon is filled with rising 
 clouds ! " Presently, through these clouds, began to be 
 seen glancing spears, mounted horsemen, and a great 
 swelling army. Such, to these lately enslaved, but just 
 emancipated people, was the first token of the coming ad- 
 versary. Surely, they were unable to cope with the disci- 
 plined cohorts of this Egyptian king. They, that were 
 unused to war, that had never been allowed to hold 
 weapons in their hands, that were a poor, despoiled people 
 not only, but that had been subjected to the blighting 
 touch of slavery, had lost courage. They did not dare to 
 be free. And there is no wonder, therefore, that they re- 
 proached Moses, and said, " Because there were no graves in 
 Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?" 
 
 I have no doubt that, if Pharaoh's courtiers had heard 
 that, they would have said, " Ah ! they do not want to be 
 free. They do not believe in freedom." 
 
 " Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us 
 away to die in the wilderness } Wherefore hast thou dealt thus 
 with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt ? " 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 271 
 
 Were these people miserable specimens of humanity ? 
 They were just what slavery makes everybody to be. 
 
 " Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, 
 Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians ? " 
 
 •They would rather have had peace with servitude, than 
 liberty with the manly daring required to obtain it. 
 
 " For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that 
 we should die in the wilderness." 
 
 That is just the difference between a man and a slave. 
 They would rather have lived slaves, and eaten their pot- 
 tage, than to suffer for the sake of liberty ; a man would 
 rather die in his tracks, than live in ease as a slave. 
 
 These, then, were the people that Moses undertook to 
 emancipate, and this was the beginning of Moses's life- 
 work. 
 
 " And Moses said unto the people. Fear ye not, stand still" — 
 
 That was wrong, but he did not know any better. 
 
 " Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, 
 which he will show you to-day : for the Egyptians, whom ye have 
 seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord 
 shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." 
 
 He was a little too fast. He was right in respect to the re- 
 sult, but wrong in respect to the means. 
 
 " And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto 
 me ? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." 
 
 They were, after all, to do something and dare some- 
 thing for their liberty. No standing still, but going for- 
 ward ! 
 
 " Lift up the rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and 
 divide it ; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground 
 through the midst of the sea." 
 
 You recollect the rest. They walked through the sea 
 that lay as a protecting wall on either side of them. They 
 reached the other side. They were divided from the camp 
 of the Egyptians by a fiery cloud, and the Egyptians could 
 not touch them. And what was the fate of the Egyptians ? 
 
272 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 They attempted to follow the children of Israel through 
 the sea, when the waters closed together, and their host 
 was destroyed. 
 
 God has raised up many men, at different periods of the 
 world, to bring his cause forth from its various exigencies. 
 Wherever a man is called to defend a truth or a principle, 
 a church or a people, a nation or an age, he may be said to 
 be, like Moses, the leader of God's people. And in every 
 period of the world God has shut up his people, at one 
 time or another, to himself. He has brought their enemies 
 behind them, as he brought the Egyptians behind the 
 children of Israel. He has hedged them in on either hand. 
 He has spread out the unfordable sea before them. He 
 has so beset them with difficulties, when they were attempt- 
 ing to live for right, for duty, and for liberty, that they 
 have been like Israel. 
 
 When men stand for a moral principle, their troubles are 
 not a presumption that they are in the wrong. Since the 
 world began, men that have stood for the right have had to 
 stand for it, as Christ stood for the world, suffering for 
 victory. 
 
 In the history which belongs peculiarly to us, over and 
 over again the same thing has occurred. In that grand be- 
 ginning struggle in which Luther figured so prominently, 
 he stood in a doubtful conflict. He was in the minority; 
 he was vehemently pressed with enemies on every side; 
 nine times out of ten during his whole life the odds were 
 against him. And yet he died victorious, and we reap the 
 fruit of his victory. 
 
 In one of the consequences of that noble struggle, the 
 assertion in the Netherlands of civil liberty and religious 
 toleration, the same thing took place. Almost the entire 
 globe was against this amphibious republic, until England 
 cared for them; and England cared for them very doubt- 
 fully and very imperfectly. All the reigning influences, 
 all the noblest of the commanding men of the Continent, 
 were against them. The conflict was a long and dubious 
 one, in which they suffered extremely, and conquered 
 through their suffering. 
 
THE BATTLE SET TV ATT AY. 273 
 
 In the resulting struggle in England, which was bor- 
 rowed largely from the Continent, — the Puritan uprising, 
 the Puritan struggle, — the same thing occurred. The 
 Puritans were enveloped in darkness. Their enemies were 
 more than their friends. The issue was exceedingly doubt- 
 ful. Their very victory began in apparent defeat. For 
 when at last, wearied and discouraged, they could no 
 longer abide the restriction of their liberty in England, 
 they fled away to plant colonies upon these shores. On the 
 sea did they venture, but the ocean, black and wild, before 
 they left it was covered with winter. 
 
 In every one of these instances darkness and the flood 
 lay before the champions of truth and rectitude. God in 
 his providence said to them, though they were without 
 apparent instrumentalities, " Go forward ! Venture every- 
 thing ! Endure everything ! Yield the precious truths 
 never ! Live forever by them ! Die with f/iein, if you die 
 at all." 
 
 The whole lesson of the past, then, is that safety and 
 honor come by holding fast to one's principles; by press- 
 ing them with courage; by going into darkness and defeat 
 cheerfully for them. 
 
 And now our turn has come. Right before us lies the 
 Red Sea of war. It is red indeed. There is blood in it. 
 We have come to the very edge of it, and the Word of 
 God to us to-day is, " Speak unto this people that they go 
 forward ! " It is not of our procuring. It is not of our wish- 
 ing. It is not our hand that has struck the first stroke, nor 
 drawn the first blood. We have prayed against it. We 
 have struggled against it. Ten thousand times we have 
 cried, " Let this cup pass from us ! " It has been overruled. 
 We have yielded everything but manhood, and principle, 
 and truth, and honor, and we have heard the voice of God 
 saying, " Yield these never ! " And these not being yielded, 
 war has been let loose upon this land. 
 
 Now, let us look both ways into this matter, that we may 
 decide what it is our duty to do. 
 
 I. There is no fact susceptible of proof in history, if it 
 be not true that this Federal Government was created for 
 
274 
 
 PA TRIO TIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the purposes of justice and liberty; and not liberty, either, 
 with the construction that traitorous or befooled heads are 
 attempting to give it, — liberty with a devil in it ! We know 
 very well what was the breadth and the clarity of the faith 
 of those men who formed the early constitutions of this 
 nation. If there was any peculiarity in their faith, it was 
 that their notion of liberty was often extravagant. But 
 there was no doubtfulness in their position. And the in- 
 struments which accompanied and preceded it, and the 
 opinions of the men that framed it, put this fact beyond 
 all controversy: that the Constitution of the United States 
 was meant to be as we now hold it, as we now defend it, 
 as we have held it, and as we have been defending it. And 
 at length even this is conceded, as I shall have occasion 
 to say further on, by the enemies of liberty in this country. 
 The Vice-President of the so-called Southern Confederacy 
 has stated recently that there was a blunder made in the 
 construction of our Constitution on this very truth of 
 universal liberty, thus admitting the grand fact that that 
 immortal instrument, as held by the North, embodies the 
 views of those who framed it; and that those views are 
 unmistakably in favor of liberty to all. 
 
 2. There can be no disputing the fact that, from com- 
 mercial and political causes, an element of slavery which 
 had a temporary refuge in the beginning in this land 
 swelled to an unforeseen and unexpected power, and for 
 fifty years has held the administrative power of the country 
 in its hands. No man acquainted with our politics 
 hesitates to say, that while the spirit of liberty first sug- 
 gested our national ideas and fashioned our national insti- 
 tutions, after that work was done the government passed 
 into the hands of the slave-power; and that that power has 
 administered these institutions during the last fifty j'ears 
 for its own purposes, or in a manner that has been antag- 
 onistic to the interests of this country. 
 
 3. Against this growing usurpation for the last twenty- 
 five years there has been rising up and organizing a proper 
 legal constitutional opposition, wishing not the circum- 
 scription or injury of any section in this land, but endeav- 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 275 
 
 oring to keep our institutions out of the hands of despotism 
 and on the side of liberty. For twenty-five years there 
 has been a struggle to see to it that those immortal instru- 
 ments of liberty should not be wrested from their original 
 intent, — that they should be maintained for the objects for 
 which they were created. 
 
 4. What are the means that have been employed to 
 maintain our institutions ? Free discussion. That, simply. 
 We have gone before the people, in every proper form. 
 For twenty years of defeat, though of growing influence, 
 we have argued the questions of human rights and human 
 liberty, and the doctrines of the Constitution and of our 
 fathers; and we have maintained that the children should 
 stand where the fathers did. At last the continent has con- 
 sented. We began as a handful, in the midst of mobs and 
 derision and obloquy. We have gone through the ex- 
 perience of Gethsemane and Calvary. The cause of Christ 
 among his poor has suffered as the Master suffered, again 
 and again and again; and at last the public sentiment of 
 the North has been revolutionized. What! revolutionized 
 away from the doctrines of the fathers? No; back to the 
 doctrines of the fathers. Revolutionized against our insti- 
 tutions? No; in favor of our institutions. We have taken 
 simply the old American principles. That is the history 
 very simply stated. The children have gone back to the 
 old landmarks. We stand for the doctrines and instru- 
 ments that the fathers gave us. 
 
 5. The vast majority of this nation are now on the side 
 of our American institutions, according to their original 
 intent. We ask only this: that our government may be 
 what it was made to be, — an instrument of justice and 
 liberty. We ask no advantages, no new prerogatives, no 
 privileges whatsoever. We merely say, " Let there be no 
 intestine revolution in our institutions, but let them stand 
 as they were made, and for the purposes for which they 
 were created." Is there anything unreasonable, anything 
 wrong in that? Is it wrong to reason? Is it wrong to 
 discuss ? Is it wrong to go before a free people with their 
 own business, and, in the field, in the caucus, in the assembly. 
 
276 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 in all deliberative bodies, to argue fairly, and express the re- 
 sult by the American means, — the omnipotence of the vote ? 
 Is that wrong ? It is what we have been doing for the last 
 few years. By the prescribed methods of the Constitution, 
 and in the spirit of liberty which it embodied and evoked, we 
 have done our proper work. Before God we cleanse our 
 hands of all imputation of designing injustice or of seek- 
 ing wrong. We have not sought any one's damage. We 
 have aimed at no invidious restrictions for any. We have 
 simply said, " God, through our fathers, committed to us 
 certain institutions, and we will maintain them to the end 
 of our lives, and to the end of time." 
 
 6. Seven States, however, in a manner revolutionary 
 not only of government, but in violation of the rights and 
 customs of their own people, have disowned their country 
 and mdde war upon it ! There has been a spirit of patriot- 
 ism in the North; but never, within my memory, in the 
 South. I never heard a man from the South speak of him- 
 self as an American. Men from the South always speak 
 of themselves as Southerners. When I was abroad, 
 I never spoke of myself as a Northerner, but always as a 
 citizen of the United States. I love our country; and it is 
 a love of the countrjr, and not a love of the North alone, 
 that pervades the people of the North. There has never 
 been witnessed such patience, such self-denial, such mag- 
 nanimity, such true patriotism, under such circumstan- 
 ces, as that which has been manifested in the North. 
 And in the South the feeling has been sectional, local. 
 The people there have been proud, not that they be- 
 long to the nation, but that they were born where the 
 sun burns. They are hot, narrow, and boastful, — for out 
 of China there is not so much conceit as exists among 
 them. They have been devoid of that large spirit which 
 takes in the race, and the nation, and its institutions, and 
 its history, and that which its history prophesies, — the pre- 
 rogative of carrying the banner of liberty to the Pacific 
 from the Atlantic. 
 
 Now, these States, in a spirit entirely in agreement with 
 their past developments, have revolutionized and disowned 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 277 
 
 the United States of America, and set up a so-called 
 government of their own. Shall we, now, go forward 
 under these circumstances? 
 
 For the first time in the history of this nation there is a 
 deliberate and extensive preparation for war, and this 
 country has received the deadly thrust of bullet and 
 bayonet from the hands of her own children. If we could 
 have prevented it, this should not have taken place. But 
 it is a fact ! It hath happened ! The question is no longer 
 a question of choice. The war is brought to us. Shall 
 we retreat, or shall we accept the hard conditions on which 
 we are to maintain the grounds of our fathers ? Hearing 
 the voice of God in his providence saying, " Go forward ! " 
 shall we go ? 
 
 I go with those that go furthest in describing the wretch- 
 edness and wickedness and monstrosity of war. The only 
 point on which I should probably differ from any is this : 
 that while war is an evil so presented to our senses that we 
 measure and estimate it, there are other evils just as great, 
 and much more terrible, whose deadly mischiefs have no 
 power upon the senses. I hold that it is ten thousand 
 times better to have war than to have slavery. I hold that 
 to be corrupted silently by giving up manhood, by degen- 
 erating, by becoming cravens, by yielding one right after 
 another, is infinitely worse than war. Why, war is resur- 
 rection in comparison w^ith the state to which we should 
 be brought by such a course. And although war is a ter- 
 rible evil, there are other evils that are more terrible. In 
 our own peculiar case, though I would say nothing to 
 garnish it, nothing to palliate it, nothing to alleviate it, 
 nothing to make you more willing to have it, nothing to 
 remove the just abhorrence which every man and patriot 
 should have for it, yet I would say that, in the particular 
 condition into which we have been brought, it will not be 
 an unmixed evil. Eighty years of unexampled prosperity 
 have gone far toward making us a people that judge of 
 moral questions by their relation to our convenience and 
 ease. We are in great danger of becoming a people that 
 shall measure by earthly rules, — b}' the lowest standard of 
 
278 
 
 PA TRIO TIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 a commercial expediency. We have never suffered for our 
 own principles. And now if it please God to do that 
 which daily we pray that he may avert, — if it please God 
 to wrap this nation in war, — one result will follow : we 
 shall be called to suffer for our faith. We shall be called to 
 the heroism of doing and daring, and bearing and suffer- 
 ing, for the things which we believe to be vital to the salva- 
 tion of this people. 
 
 On what conditions, then, may we retreat from this war, 
 and on what conditions may we have peace ? 
 
 1. We may do it on condition that two-thirds of this 
 nation shall implicitly yield up to the dictation of one- 
 third. You can have peace on that ground. Italy could 
 have had peace at the hands of Francis II. They had 
 nothing to do but to say to that tyrant, " Here is my neck, 
 put your foot on it," to obtain peace. The people of Hun- 
 gary may have peace, if they will only say to him of Vienna, 
 " Reign over us as you please; our lives are in your hands." 
 There is never any trouble in having peace, if men will 
 yield themselves to the control of those that have no busi- 
 ness to control them. Two-thirds of this nation unques- 
 tionably stand on the side of the original articles of our 
 Constitution and in the service of liberty, and one-third 
 deny and reject them. Now if the two-thirds will give up 
 to the one-third, we can have peace — for a little while. 
 
 2. We can have peace if we will legalize and establish 
 the right of any discontented community to rebel, and to 
 set up intestine governments within the government of the 
 United States. Yield that principle, demoralize govern- 
 ment, and you can have peace — for a little while. You 
 cannot yield that principle and not demoralize government. 
 And if it is right for seven States on the Gulf to secede, it 
 is the right of seven States on the Lakes. If it is the right 
 of seven States on the Lakes, it is the right of five or three 
 States on the Ohio River. If it is the right of a number 
 of States, it is the right of one State. And if it is the right 
 of any State, there is not a State, a half of a State, a 
 county, or a town, that has not the same right. It is the 
 right of disintegration. It is a right that aims at the 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 279 
 
 destruction of the attraction of governmental cohesion. 
 It is a right that invalidates all power in government. And 
 if you will grant this right; if you will consent to have 
 this government broken up; if you are willing that our 
 country should degenerate to the condition of wrangling 
 and rival States, — you can have peace — for a little while. 
 
 3. We can have peace if we will agree fundamentally to 
 change our Constitution, and, instead of maintaining a 
 charter of universal freedom, to write it out as a deliberate 
 charter of oppression. 
 
 Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the so-called Con- 
 federate States, declared, in a formal speech, that our 
 Constitution was framed on a fundamental mistake, inas- 
 much as it took it for granted that men were born for 
 freedom and equality. They have expunged the doctrine 
 of universal liberty, and put in its place the doctrine of 
 liberty for the strong and servitude for the weak. It is said 
 that the African race, by reason of their nationality and 
 savagism, are not fit for liberty, and that the white race, 
 by reason of their nationality and civilization, are fit to 
 govern them. It is merely a plea that weak persons are 
 not fit to take care of themselves, and that strong persons 
 are fit to take care of them; and it is a plea that is just as 
 applicable to any other peoples as to the Anglo-Saxons 
 and the Africans. It is simply a doctrine that might makes 
 right. It may be stated in this form: "You are weak and 
 I am strong, and I am therefore your lawful master." If 
 it is good for the Africans and the Anglo-Saxons, it is good 
 for all other races. And if it is good in reference to races, 
 it is good in reference to individuals. Therefore there is 
 not a workman, there is not a poor man, there is not a man 
 that is low in station, at the North, who is not interested in 
 this matter, who is not touched in his rights, and who is 
 not insulted by the spirit that is latent in the new Consti- 
 tution of the so-called Confederate States. It holds that 
 there is appointed of God a governing class and a class to 
 be governed, — a class that are born governors because they 
 are strong and smart and well-to-do, and a class that are 
 born servants because they are poor and weak and unable 
 
2 8o PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to take care of themselves. Now take that glorious, flam- 
 ing sentence in the Declaration of Independence, which 
 asserts the right of every man to life, liberty, and the pur- 
 suit of happiness, and which pronounces that right to be 
 alike inalienable to all, — take that and strike it out, and 
 put in its place this infernal article of the new Constitution 
 of the Southern States, and you can have peace — for a 
 little while. There is no trouble about having peace. 
 What an unreasonable people we are ! If we will only pay 
 enough for peace we can have it. 
 
 This diabolical principle is also deliberately held and 
 advocated by the churches of the South. The Southern 
 churches are all sound on the question of the Bible, and 
 infidel on the question of its contents ! They believe that 
 this is God's Book; they believe that this Book is the 
 world's charter; and they believe that it teaches the relig- 
 ion of servitude. Every sermon that I have received within 
 the last year from the South has been a various echo of 
 this one atrocious idea, held in common with all the des- 
 potic preachers of Europe. Any man that has read Robert 
 South's sermons, has read over and over again all the argu- 
 ments contained in the raw, jejune productions of Southern 
 clerical advocates for oppression. In all the discussions 
 between Milton and Salmasius, and in all the writings of 
 Roman priests that have sought to bolster up sacerdotal 
 rule, these arguments have been put forth far more ably 
 than our unscholarly Southerners have put them forth. 
 But this is the ground which has been taken by the Chris- 
 tian Church of the South: that in Christ Jesus all men are 
 not created equal, — that white masters are, but that black 
 servants are not ! 
 
 And that is not all. Not only is this new government 
 framed on this ground, and not only have all the churches 
 of the Sofith taken this ground, so that it may be said of 
 the Southern Confederacy as it was said of one of the old 
 revolted tribes, "They have a priest to their house," but 
 there has just now been raised up in the North a club of 
 the same kind, — a society for the promotion of national 
 unity, on the basis of a change of our national instruments 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 281 
 
 of government. This society proposes to restore peace to 
 this country. And how? Exactly as you restore uni- 
 formity of color in a room where some things are red, some 
 blue, and some yellow, — by blowing the light out so that 
 in darkness all things will be of the same color ! We are 
 very much divided in this land, one part believing in lib- 
 erty, and the other believing in servitude; and it is pro- 
 posed to bring these two parts together in unity, by 
 destroying the distinction between them. What is this 
 society's own statement, as contained in the letter which 
 they have put forth with their articles ? They make this 
 formal assertion: that that portion of our original Declara- 
 tion of Independence which makes all men free and equal 
 has been misinterpreted, or is false. They endeavor to 
 say it softly, but it is a thing that cannot be said softly. 
 To breathe it, to whisper it, makes it louder than thunder ! 
 Indeed, it is true that men are not physiologically equal. 
 No man ever believed that they were. They do not weigh 
 alike. They differ in respect to bone and tissue. They 
 are not the same as regards mental caliber. Their dynamic 
 forces are different. They are not capable of exerting the 
 same amount of political influence. In the nations of Europe 
 it was held that the royal head,y//';7' Divina, had privileges 
 which the nobles had not; that there belonged to the 
 nobles prerogatives which did not belong to the common- 
 alty; and that the political rights of the great common 
 people were to be graduated according to their status in 
 society. But our fathers said, God gives the same political 
 rights to all alike. The people are king, and the people 
 are nobles. They are equal in this: that they all stand 
 before the same law of justice, and that justice is to be the 
 same to one as to another. The richest and the poorest, 
 the wisest and the most ignorant, the highest and the low- 
 est, are on an equality before the law. The Declaration 
 of Independence taught simply that every man born into 
 life was born with such dignities, with such a nature con- 
 ferred upon him, that, as a child of God, he has a right to 
 confront government and legislature and laws, and say, " I 
 demand, in common with every other man, equal justice, 
 
282 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 equal protection, to life, to liberty, and in the pursuit of hap- 
 piness." And this is what our society in the North for the 
 promotion of national unity undertake, in their first article, 
 to say is a lie ! 
 
 Now, you can have your American eagle as you want it. 
 If, with the South, you will strike out his eyes, then you 
 shall stand well with Mr. Davis and Mr. Stephens of the 
 Confederate States; if, with the Christians of the South, 
 you will pluck off his wings, you shall stand well with the 
 Southern churches; and if, with the new peace-makers that 
 have risen up in the North, you will pull out his tail- 
 feathers, you shall stand well with the society for the pro- 
 motion of national unity ! But when you have stricken 
 out his eyes so that he can no longer see, when you have 
 plucked off his wings so that he can no longer fly, and 
 when you have pulled out his guiding tail-feathers so th^t 
 he can no longer steer himself, but rolls in the dirt a mere 
 buzzard, then will he be worth preserving? Such an eagle 
 it is that they mean to depict upon the banner of America ! 
 
 Now if any man is fierce for peace, and is willing to pay 
 the price demanded for it, he can have it. On those condi- 
 tions you can have peace as long as the Jews did. For three 
 guilty days they were rid of the Saviour, and then he rose 
 from the grave, with eternal power on his head, and be- 
 yond all touch of weakness or death, then ascended on 
 high to the Source of eternal power, there to live, and to 
 live forever ! 
 
 4. We must accordingly, if we go on to purchase peace 
 on these terms, become partners in slavery, and consent, 
 for the sake of peace, to ratify this gigantic evil. We can- 
 not wink at it. We are called to bear overt witness either 
 for or against it. Every State in this Union, according to 
 the new Constitution, must be open to slavery. It is the 
 design of not a few men at the North to make this the 
 issue at the next election: whether we shall not reconstruct 
 this government according to the Constitution of the Con- 
 federate States,' one feature of which is that slavery shall 
 have liberty to go wherever it pleases, — that slavery shall 
 have the right of incursion to any part of this country. If 
 
THE BATTLE SET TV ARRAY. 283 
 
 you consent to such a reconstruction as is proposed, you 
 must open every one of your States to the incoming of 
 slavery. Not only that, but every territory on this continent 
 is to be opened to slavery. We are called to take the exec- 
 utive lancet, and the virus of slavery, and lift up the arm 
 of this virgin continent and inoculate it with this terrific 
 poison. If you will do these things, you are to be per- 
 mitted to escape war. 
 
 5. Next in order must of course be silence. When we 
 have gone so far, we shall no longer have any right of dis- 
 cussion, of debate, of criticism, — we shall no longer have 
 any right of agitation, as it is called. 
 
 On these conditions we may have peace. If we reject 
 these conditions we are to have separation, demoralization 
 of government, and war. 
 
 Now are you prepared to take peace on these conditions ? 
 You will not get it on any other conditions. If you have 
 peace, you are to stigmatize the whole history of the past; 
 you are to yield your religious convictions; you are to give 
 over the government into the hands of factious revolution- 
 ists; you are to suppress every manly sentiment, and every 
 sympathy for the oppressed. Will you take peace on such a 
 ground as that? So far as I myself am concerned, I utterly 
 abhor peace on any such grounds. Give me war redder than 
 blood, and fiercer than fire, if this terrific infliction is nec- 
 essary that I may maintain my faith of God in human 
 liberty, my faith of the fathers in the instruments of liberty, 
 my faith in this land as the appointed abode and chosen 
 refuge of liberty for all the earth ! War is terrible, but that 
 abyss of ignominy is yet more terrible ! 
 
 What, then, if we will go forward in the providence of 
 God, and maintain our integrity, are the steps that are 
 before us ? 
 
 I. Instead of yielding our convictions, it is time to 
 cleanse them, to deepen them, to give them more power, 
 to make them more earnest and more religious. There is 
 no reason, now, why we should compromise. There is 
 nothing to be gained by compromising. And it is time 
 that parents should talk on the great doctrine of human 
 
284 PA TR I one ADDRESSES. 
 
 rights in the family, and indoctrinate their children with 
 an abhorrence for slavery, and a love for liberty. It is 
 time for schools to have their scholars instructed in these 
 matters. It is time for every church to make its pews 
 flame and glow witii enthusiasm for freedom, and with 
 hatred for oppression. While the air of the South is full 
 of pestilent doctrines of slavery, accursed be our com- 
 munities if we will not be as zealous and enthusiastic for 
 liberty as they are against it ! If their air is filled with the 
 storm and madness of oppression, let ours be full of the 
 sweet peace and love of liberty ! 
 
 2. We must draw the lines. A great many men have 
 been on both sides. A great many men have been thrown 
 backward and forward, like a shuttle, from one side to the 
 other. It is now time for every man to choose one side or 
 the other. We want no shufflers; we want no craven cow- 
 ards; we want men; we want every man to stand forth, 
 and say, " I am for liberty, and the Constitution, and the 
 country, as our fathers gave them to us," or else, " I am 
 against them." 
 
 Thousands, thank God, of great men have spoken to us; 
 but I think that the war-voice of Sumter has done more to 
 bring men together, and to produce unity of feeling among 
 them on this subject, than the most eloquent-tongued 
 orator. 
 
 We must say in this matter, my friends, as Christ said, 
 " He that is not for us is against us." I will have no com- 
 merce, I will not cross palms with a man that disowns 
 liberty in such a struggle as is before us ! I will not give 
 him shelter or house-room — except as a convicted sinner; 
 then I will take him, as the prodigal was taken, in his 
 rags and nakedness ! But so long as he stands up with 
 impudent face against the things that are dearest to God's 
 heart, and dearest to the instincts of this people, I shall 
 treat him as what he is, — a trait )r ! There ought to be but 
 one feeling in the North, and that ought to be a feeling 
 for liberty, which should sweep through the land like a 
 mighty wind. 
 
 3. We must not stop to measure costs, — especially the 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 285 
 
 costs of going forward, — on any basis so mean and narrow 
 as that of pecuniary prosperity. We must put our honor 
 and religion into this struggle. God is helping you; for, 
 no matter how much you deplore the state of things, you 
 cannot help yourselves. You may take counsel with your 
 Till and Safe and Bank, you may look at your accounts on 
 both sides, but your talking and looking will make no 
 difference with your affairs. The time is past in which 
 these things could be of any avail. This matter must now 
 be settled. You must have a part in settling it. The ques- 
 tion is whether that shall be a manly or an ignoble part ! 
 
 There are many reasons which make a good and thorough 
 battle necessary. The Southern men are infatuated. 
 They will not have peace. They are in arms. They have 
 fired upon the American flag ! That glorious banner has 
 been borne through every climate, all over the globe, and 
 for fifty years not a land or people has been found to scorn 
 it, or dishonor it. At home, among the degenerate people 
 of our own land, among Southern citizens, for the first 
 time, has this glorious national flag been abased, and 
 trampled to the ground ! It is for our sons reverently to 
 lift it, and to bear it full high again, to victory and national 
 supremacy ! Our arms, in this peculiar exigency, can lay 
 the foundation of future union, in mutual respect. The 
 South firmly believes that cowardice is the universal attri- 
 bute of Northern men ! Until they are most thoroughly 
 convinced to the contrary, they will never cease arrogancy 
 and aggression. But if now it please God to crown our 
 arms with victory, we shall have gone far toward impressing 
 Southern men with salutary respect. Good soldiers, brave 
 men, hard fighting, will do more toward quiet than all the 
 compromises and empty, wagging tongues in the world. 
 Our reluctance to break peace, our unwillingness to shed 
 blood, our patience, have all been misinterpreted. The more 
 we have been generous and forbearing, the more thoroughly 
 were they sure that it was because we dared not fight ! 
 
 With the North is the strength, the population, the 
 courage. There is not elsewhere on this continent that 
 breadth of courage — the courage of a man in distinction 
 
286 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 from the courage of a brute beast — which there is in the 
 free States of the North. It was General Scott who said 
 that the New Englanders were the hardest to get into a 
 fight, and the most terrible to meet in a conflict, of any 
 men on the globe. 
 
 We have no braggart courage; we have no courage that 
 rushes into an affray for the love of fighting. We have 
 that courage which comes from calm intelligence. We 
 have that courage which comes from broad moral senti- 
 ment. We have no anger, but we have indignation. We 
 have no irritable passion, but we have fixed will. We re- 
 gard war and contest as terrible evils; but when, detesting 
 them as we do, we are roused to enter into them, our 
 courage will be of the measure of our detestation. You 
 may be sure that the cause which can stir up the feelings 
 of the North sufticiently to bring them into such a conflict, 
 will develop in them a courage that will be terrific to the 
 men who have to meet it. I could wish no worse punish- 
 ment to those that decry the courage of the North, than 
 that they shall have to meet her when she is once brought 
 out and fairly in the field. 
 
 4. We must aim at a peace built on foundations so solid, 
 of God's immutable truth, that nothing can reach to un- 
 settle it. Let this conflict between liberty and slavery 
 never come up again. Better have it thoroughly settled, 
 though it take a score of years to settle it, than to have an 
 intermittent fever for the next century, breaking out at 
 every five or ten years. It is bad, you say. That has 
 nothing to do with the point. Your house is on fire, and 
 the question is, What will you do ? You are in the struggle, 
 and the question is. Will you go through it in the spirit of 
 5'our ancestors, in the spirit of Christians and patriots, in 
 the spirit that belongs to the age of the world in which 
 you live, and settle it so that it shall not be in the power 
 of mischief to unsettle it? Or will you dally ? Will you 
 delay ? I know which you will do. This question is noiv 
 going forivard to a settlement. 
 
 5. Let not our feelings be vengeful nor savage. We can 
 go into this conflict with a spirit just as truly Christian as 
 
THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 2S7 
 
 any that ever inspired us in the performance of a Christian 
 duty. Indignation is very different from anger; con- 
 science from revenge. Let tlie spirit of fury be far from 
 us; but a spirit of earnestness, of willingness to do, to 
 suffer, and to die, if need be, for our land and our princi- 
 ples, — that may be a religious spirit. We may consecrate 
 it with prayer. 
 
 All through the struggle of the Revolution, men there 
 were that preached on the Sabbath, and w^hen not preach- 
 ing went from tent to tent and performed kind offices to 
 those that were sick or wounded, cheered those that were 
 in despondency, encouraged those whose trials were severe, 
 and led or accompanied their brethren to those conflicts 
 which achieved liberty. 
 
 I believe that the old spirit will be found yet in the 
 Church; and that in that patriotism which dares to do as 
 well as teach, laymen and officers and pastors will be found 
 no whit behind the Revolutionary day. 
 
 It is trying to live in suspense, to be in the tormenting 
 whirl of rumor, now to see the banner up, and now to see 
 it trailing in the dust. Early yesterday things seemed 
 inauspicious. Toward evening all appeared calm and fair. 
 To-day disastrous and depressing rumors were current. 
 This evening I came hither sad from the tidings that that 
 stronghold which seemed to guard the precious name 
 and lasting fame of the noble and gallant Anderson had 
 been given up; but since I came into this desk I have received 
 a dispatch from one of our most illustrious citizens, saying 
 that Sumter is reinforced, and that Moultrie is the fort that 
 has been destroyed. \_Tremcndous ami prolonged applause, 
 expressed by enthusiastic cheers, clapping of hands, and waving 
 of handkerchiefs^ But what if the rising sun to-morrow 
 should reverse the message ? What if the tidings that 
 greet you in the morning should be but the echo of the old 
 tidings of disaster? You live in hours in which you are to 
 suffer suspense. Now lifted up, you will be prematurely 
 cheering, and now cast down, you will be prematurely 
 desponding. Look forward, then, past the individual steps, 
 the various vicissitudes of experience, to the glorious end 
 
2 88 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 that is coming ! Look beyond the present to that assured 
 victory which awaits us in the future. 
 
 Young men, you will live to see more auspicious days. 
 Later sent, delayed in your voyage into life, you will see 
 the bright consummation, in part at least, of that victory of 
 this land, by which, with mortal throes, it shall cast out 
 from itself all morbific influences, and cleanse itself from 
 slavery. And you that are in middle life shall seethe ulti- 
 mate triumph advancing beyond anything that you have 
 yet known. The scepter shall not depart. The govern- 
 ment shall not be shaken from its foundations. 
 
 Let no man, then, in this time of peril, fail to associate 
 himself with that cause which is to be so entirely glorious. 
 Let not your children, as they carry you to your burial, be 
 ashamed to write upon your tombstone the truth of your 
 history. Let every man that lives and owns himself an 
 American, take the side of true American principles; — 
 liberty for one, and liberty for all; liberty now, and liberty 
 forever; liberty as the foundation of government, and 
 liberty as the basis of union; liberty as against revolution, 
 liberty, against anarchy, and liberty, against slavery; liberty 
 here, and liberty everywhere, the world through ! 
 
 When the trumpet of God has sounded, and that grand 
 procession is forming; as Italy has risen, and is wheeling 
 into the ranks; as Hungary, though mute, is beginning to 
 beat time, and make ready for the march; as Poland, 
 having long slept, has dreamt of liberty again, and is wak- 
 ing; as the thirty million serfs are hearing the roll of the 
 drum, and are going forward toward citizenship, — let it not 
 be your miserable fate, nor mine, to live in a nation that 
 shall be seen reeling and staggering and wallowing in the 
 orgies of despotism ? We, too, have a right to march in 
 this grand procession of liberty. By the memory of the 
 fathers; by the sufferings of the Puritan ancestry; by the 
 teaching of our national history; by our faith and hope of 
 religion; by every line of the Declaration of Independence, 
 and every article of our Constitution; by what we are and 
 what our progenitors were, — we have a right to walk fore- 
 most in this procession of nations tov.^ard the bright future 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 
 
 " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be dis- 
 played because of the truth." — Psalms Ix. 4. 
 
 From the earliest periods nations seem to have gone 
 forth to war under some banner. Sometimes it has been 
 merely the pennon of a leader, and was only a rallying 
 signal. So, doubtless, began the habit of carrying banners, 
 to direct men in the confusion of conflict, that the leader 
 might gather his followers around him when he himself 
 was liable to be lost out of their sight. 
 
 Later in the history of nations the banner acquired other 
 uses and peculiar significance from the parties, the orders, 
 the houses, or governments, that adopted it. At length, 
 as consolidated governments drank up into themselves all 
 these lesser independent authorities, banners became sig- 
 nificant chiefly of national authority. And thus in our day 
 every people has its peculiar flag. There is no civilized 
 nation without its banner. 
 
 A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not 
 the flag, but the nation itself. And whatever may be its 
 symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag the gov- 
 ernment, the principles, the truths, the history, that belong 
 to the nation that sets it forth. When the French tricolor 
 rolls out to the wind, we see France. When the new-found 
 Italian flag is unfurled, we see resurrected Italy. When 
 the other three-colored Hungarian flag shall be lifted to 
 the wind, we shall see in it the long buried, but never dead, 
 principles of Hungarian liberty. When the united crosses 
 of St. Andrew and St. George, on a fiery ground, set forth 
 
 * Delivered to two companies of the "Brooklyn Fourteenth," many of 
 them members of Plymouth Church. The Church on that day contrib- 
 uted $3,000 to aid in the equipment of this Regiment. 
 19 
 
290 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the banner of Old England, we see not the cloth merely: 
 there rises up before the mind the idea of that great 
 monarchy. 
 
 This nation has a banner, too; and until recently wherever 
 it streamed abroad men saw day-break bursting on their 
 eyes. For until lately the American flag has been a sym- 
 bol of Liberty, and men rejoiced in it. Not another flag 
 on the globe had such an errand, or went forth upon the 
 sea carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope to 
 the captive, and such glorious tidings. The stars upon it 
 were to the pining nations like the bright morning stars of 
 God, and the stripes upon it were beams of morning light. 
 As at early dawn the stars shine forth even while it grows 
 light, and then as the sun advances that light breaks into 
 banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and 
 intense white striving together, and ribbing the horizon 
 with bars effulgent, so, on the American flag, stars and 
 beams of many-colored light shine out together. And 
 wherever this flag comes, and men behold it, they see in 
 its sacred emblazonry no ramping lion, and no fierce eagle; 
 no embattled castles, or insignia of imperial authority; 
 they see the symbols of light. It is the banner of Dawn. 
 It means Liberty; and the galley-slave, the poor, oppressed 
 conscript, the trodden-down creature of foreign despotism, 
 sees in the American flag that very promise and prediction 
 of God, — " The people which sat in darkness saw a great 
 light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of 
 death light is sprung up." 
 
 Is this a mere fancy? On the 4th of July, 1776, the Declara- 
 tion of American Independence was confirmed and promul- 
 gated. Already for more than a year the Colonies had 
 been at war with the mother country. But until this time 
 there had been no American flag. The flag of the mother 
 country covered us during all our colonial period; and 
 each State that chose had a separate and significant State 
 banner. 
 
 In 1777, within a few days of one year after the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and two years and more after the 
 war began, upon the 14th of June, the Congress of the 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 291 
 
 Colonies, or the Confederated States, assembled, and 
 ordained this glorious National Flag which now we hold 
 and defend, and advanced it full high before God and all 
 men, as the Flag of Liberty. It was no holiday flag, gor- 
 geously emblazoned for gayety or vanity. It was a solemn 
 national signal. When that banner first unrolled to the 
 sun, it was the symbol of all those holy truths and pur- 
 poses which brought together the Colonial American 
 Congress ! 
 
 Consider the men who devised and set forth this banner. 
 The Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Jays, the Franklins, the 
 Hamiltons, the Jeffersons, the Adamses, — these men were 
 all either officially connected with it or consulted concern- 
 ing it. They were men that had taken their lives in their 
 hands, and consecrated all their worldly possessions — for 
 what ? For the doctrines, and for the personal fact, of 
 liberty, — for the right of all men to liberty. They had just 
 given forth to the world a Declaration of Facts and Faiths 
 out of which sprung the Constitution, and on which they 
 now planted this new-devised flag of our Union. 
 
 If one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to 
 him, It means just what Concord and Lexington meant, 
 what Bunker Hill meant; it means the whole glorious Rev- 
 olutionary War, which was, in short, the rising up of a 
 valiant young people against an old tyranny, to establish 
 the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever 
 known, or has since known, — the right of men to their own 
 selves and to their liberties. 
 
 In solemn conclave our fathers had issued to the world 
 that glorious manifesto, the Declaration of Independence. 
 A little later, that the fundamental principles of liberty 
 might have the best organization, they gave to' this land 
 our imperishable Constitution. Our flag means, then, all 
 that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary War; it means 
 all that the Declaration of Independence meant; it means 
 all that the Constitution of our people, organizing for 
 justice, for liberty, and for happiness, meant. Our flag 
 carries American ideas, American history and American 
 feelings. Beginning with the Colonies, and coming down 
 
292 . PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insignia, 
 it has gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea: 
 Divine right of liberty in man. Every color means liberty; 
 every thread means liberty; every form of star and beam 
 or stripe of light means liberty: not lawlessness, not li- 
 cense; but organized, institutional liberty, — liberty through 
 law, and laws for liberty ! 
 
 This American flag was the safeguard of liberty. Not 
 an atom of crown was allowed to go into its insignia. Not 
 a symbol of authority in the ruler was permitted to go 
 into it. It was an ordinance of liberty by the people for 
 the people. That it meant, that it means, and, by the bless- 
 ing of God, that it shall mean to the end of time ! 
 
 For God Almighty be thanked ! that, when base and de- 
 generate Southern men desired to set up a nefarious op- 
 pression, at war with every legend and every instinct of 
 old American history, they could not do it under our 
 bright flag ! Its stars smote them with light like arrows 
 shot from the bow of God. They must have another flag 
 for such work; and they forged an infamous flag to do an 
 infamous work, and, God be blessed ! left our bright and 
 starry banner untainted and untouched by disfigurement 
 and disgrace ! I thank them that they took another flag 
 to do the Devil's work, and left our flag to^o the work of 
 God ! [Applause.] So may it ever be, that men that 
 would forge oppression shall be obliged to do it under 
 some other banner than the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 If ever the sentiment of our text, then, was fulfilled, it 
 has been in our gloriaus American banner: 
 
 " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee." 
 
 Our fathers were God-fearing men. Into their hands 
 God committed this banner, and they have handed it down 
 to us. And I thank God that it is still in the hands of 
 men that fear him and love righteousness. 
 
 " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that 
 it may be displayed." 
 
 And displayed it shall be. Advanced full against the 
 morning light, and borne with the growing and glowing 
 day, it shall take the last ruddy beams of the night, and 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 293 
 
 from the Atlantic wave, clear across with eagle flight to 
 the Pacific, that banner shall float, meaning all the liberty 
 which it has ever meant ! From the North, where snows 
 and mountain ice stand solitary, clear to the glowing 
 tropics and the Gulf, that banner that has hitherto waved 
 shall wave and wave forever, — every star, every band, 
 every thread and fold significant of Liberty ! \_Grcat ap- 
 plause^ 
 
 [The speaker paused to check the too demonstrative enthusiasm 
 of the audience, and continued:^ I do not doubt your patriot- 
 ism. I know it is hard for men that are full of feeling not 
 to give expression to it; yet excuse me if I request you to 
 refrain from demonstrations of applause while I am speak- 
 ing. It is not because I think Sunday too good a day, nor 
 the church too holy a place for patriotic Christian men to 
 express their feelings at such a time as this, and in behalf 
 of such sentiments, but because by too frequent repetition 
 applause becomes stale and common, that I make this re- 
 quest. Besides, outward expression is not our way. We 
 are rather of a silent stock. We let our feelings work in- 
 wardly, so that they may have deeper channels and fuller 
 floods. 
 
 " Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that 
 it may be displayed because of the truth." 
 
 Because of that very truth we will display it ! Not in 
 mere national pride, not in any wantonness of vanity, not 
 merely because we have been reared to honor it, not be- 
 cause we have an hereditary reverence for it, but with a 
 full intelligence of what it is and what it means, and be- 
 cause we love the truth that is written in lines of living 
 light all over it, we will advance it and maintain it against 
 all comers from earth and hell. 
 
 The history of this banner is all on the side of rational 
 liberty. Under it rode Washington and his armies, — 
 Washington, much beloved and much abused by those that 
 are his eulogists, who have described all that he was ex- 
 cept his love of liberty, which has been forgotten. But 
 Washington would be like a man without a heart, if you 
 left out of him that high, almost imperial chivalric love of 
 
294 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 liberty for every human being. Under this banner rode he 
 and his armies. Before it Burgoyne laid down his arms. 
 It waved on the highlands at West Point. It floated over 
 old Fort Montgomery, as over another Montgomery* it 
 shall float ! When Arnold would have surrendered these 
 valuable fortresses and precious legacies, his night was 
 turned into day, and his treachery was driven away, by 
 the beams of light from this starry banner. It cheered 
 our army, driven out from around New York, and in 
 their painful pilgrimages through New Jersey. Sacred 
 State of New Jersey ! small, but comely and rich and im- 
 perishable in the drops of precious blood that have re- 
 deemed her sainted soil from barrenness. In New Jersey 
 more than in almost every other State grows the trailiug- 
 arbiitus. Methinks it is sacred drops of Pilgrim blood that 
 come forth in beauteous flowers on this sandiest of soils, 
 for this sweet blossom that lays its cheek on the very snow 
 is the true Pilgrim's Mayflower / This banner streamed in 
 light over the soldiers' heads at Valley Forge and at Mor- 
 ristown. It crossed the waters rolling with ice at Trenton, 
 and when its stars gleamed in the cold morning with 
 victory, a new day of hope dawned on the despondency of 
 this nation. When South Carolina, in the Revolutionary 
 struggle, utterly forgot what she never well remembered, 
 courage and personal liberty, and yielded herself, — the 
 only one, ignominious and infamous, of all the Revolution- 
 ary band of States, that gave in an adhesion again to the 
 British government, — when she forgot courage and per- 
 sonal liberty, and yielded herself up, and made her peace, 
 solitary and alone, with British generals, then it was this 
 banner that led on the Virginia forces who conquered both 
 the British and Carolinian armies, and brought the State 
 again into our confederacy. Alas that the head should 
 become the tail ! Alas that old Virginia, that brought 
 back the recreant South Carolina, should be tied to, and 
 be dragged about the rebel camp at the tail of that same 
 South Carolina ! 
 
 *At that time Montgomery, Alabama, was the cajjital of the Southern 
 Confederacy, afterwards removed to Richmond, Virginia. 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 295 
 
 And when at length the long years of war were drawing 
 to a close, underneath the folds of this immortal banner 
 sat Washington, while Yorktown surrendered its hosts, 
 and our Revolutionary struggle ended with victory. 
 
 It waved thus over that whole historic period of struggle, 
 and over the period in which sat that immortal Conven- 
 tion that framed our Constitution. It cheered the hardy 
 pioneers who then began to go forth and explore the 
 Western wilds, in all their desperate strifes with savage 
 Indians. It was to them a memorial and symbol of com- 
 fort. Our States grew up under it. And when our ships 
 began to swarm upon the ocean, to carry forth our com- 
 merce, and, inspired by the genial flame of liberty, to carry 
 forth our ideas, and Great Britain arrogantly demanded 
 the right to intrude her search-warrants upon American 
 decks, then up went the lightning flag, and every star 
 meant liberty and every stripe streamed defiance. 
 
 The gallant fleet of Lake Erie, — have you forgotten it? 
 The thunders that echoed to either shore were over- 
 shadowed by this broad ensign of our American liberty. 
 Those glorious men that went forth in the old ship Con- 
 stitution carried this banner to battle and to victory. The 
 old ship is alive yet. The new traitors of the South could 
 not burn her; they did not sink her; and she has been 
 hauled out of the reach of hostile hands and traitorous 
 bands. Bless the name, bless the ship, bless her historic 
 memory, and bless the old flag that waves over her yet ! 
 
 The Perrys, the Lawrences, the Biddies, the McDon- 
 oughs, the Porters, and a host of others whose names 
 cannot die, — do you forget that they fought under this 
 national banner, and fought for liberty ? 
 
 How glorious, then, has been its origin! How glorious 
 has been its history? How divine is its meaning ! In all 
 the world is there another banner that carries such hope, 
 such grandeur of spirit, such soul-inspiring truth, as our 
 dear old American flag? made by liberty, made for liberty, 
 nourished in its spirit, carried in its service, and never, not 
 once in all the earth, made to stoop to despotism! Never, 
 — did I say ? Alas ! Only to that worst despotism, South- 
 
296 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ern slavery, has it bowed. Remember, every one of you, 
 that the slaveholders of the South, alone of all the world, 
 have put their feet upon the American flag ! 
 
 And now this banner has been put on trial ! It has been 
 condemned. For what? Has it failed of duty? Has 
 liberty lost color by it ? Have moths of oppression eaten 
 its folds ? Has it refused to shine on freemen and given 
 its light to despots ? No. It has been true, brave, loyal. 
 It has become too much a banner of liberty for men who 
 mean and plot despotism. Remember, citizen ! remember, 
 Christian soldier ! the American flag has been fired upon 
 by Americans, and trodden down because it stood in the 
 way of slavery ! This is all that you have reaped for your 
 long patience, for your many compromises, for your gen- 
 erous trust and your Christian forbearance ! You may 
 now see through all the South just what kind of patriotism 
 slavery breeds ! East of the mountains I suppose you might 
 travel through all Washington's State and not see one star 
 nor one stripe. Thank God, Washington is dead, and has 
 not lived to see the infamy and the disgrace that have fallen 
 upon that recreant State ! In all North Carolina I fear 
 you shall find not one American flag. In Florida you shall 
 not find one. In Georgia, I know not, except in the 
 mountain fastnesses, if there be one. With a like excep- 
 tion, there is not one in Alabama. Neither is there one in 
 repudiating Mississippi, nor in Louisiana, nor in Texas, 
 ungrateful, nor in Arkansas. In all this waste and wilder- 
 ness of States this banner has gone down, and a miserable 
 counterfeit, a poor forgery, has been run up upon the rec- 
 reant pole, to stand in the stead of the glorious old Revolu- 
 tionary, historic American flag ! And how is it in the great 
 middle brood of States ? As a star is obscured for an in- 
 stant by a passing cloud, and then shines forth again, so in 
 Maryland the flag and its stars were hid for a day, but they 
 now flame out once more. Maryland is safe. All honor to 
 Delaware; she has never flinched. In Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee and Missouri the banner is at half-mast, uncertain 
 whether it will go up or down. And of all these States I 
 can say, with all my heart and soul, in the language of the 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 297 
 
 Apocalypse: "I would thou wert cold or hot. So then be- 
 cause thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will 
 spew thee out of my mouth." God hates lukewarm patriot- 
 ism, as much as lukewarm religion; and we hate it too. 
 We do not believe in hermaphrodite patriots. We want 
 men to be men, from the crown of their head to the sole of 
 their foot, and to say No to oppression, and Yes to liberty, 
 and to say both as if thunder spoke ! 
 
 But this is not the worst, — that this banner should have 
 been lowered by the hands of recreants. It was upon these 
 streaming bars and upon these bright stars that every one of 
 that immense concentric range of guns was aimed, when 
 Sumter was lifted up in the midst, almost like another wit- 
 nessing Calvary; and that flag which Russia could not 
 daunt, nor France intimidate, nor England conquer, has 
 gone down beneath the fire of treacherous States within our 
 own Union ! And do you know that when it was fallen, in 
 the streets of a Southern city, it was trailed, hooted at, 
 pierced with swords ? Men that have sat in the Senate of the 
 United States ran out to trample upon it; it was fired on 
 and slashed by the mob; it was dragged through the mud; 
 it was hissed at and spit upon; and so it was carried 
 through Southern cities ! That our flag, which has found 
 on the ocean, in the Indian Islands, in Sumatra, in Japan, 
 in China, and in all the world, no enemies, either barbarian 
 or civilized, that dared to touch it with foul aspersion, — that 
 this flag should, in our own nation, and by our own peo- 
 ple, be spit upon, and trampled under foot, is more than 
 the heart of man can bear ! 
 
 And what is its crime ? If it had forgotten its origin, if 
 it had gone over to oppression, if it had set these stars 
 like so many blazing jewels in the tiara of imperial despot- 
 ism, I should not have wondered at its going down. If it 
 had been recreant to its trust of ideas of liberty, I should 
 have expected to see it go down. But it has not failed to 
 defend liberty. Have there been quartered on its armorial 
 bearings any bastard symbols significant of oppression ? 
 None. It is guilty of nothing but of too much liberty. 
 Its stars have too much promise in them for those that are 
 
298 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 born slaves; and its stripes stream too bright a light to 
 those that sit in darkness. That is the crime of our national 
 banner. 
 
 And now God speaks by the voice of his providence, 
 saying, " Lift again that banner ! Advance it full and 
 high ! " To your hand, and to yours, God and your 
 country commit that imperishable trust. You go forth 
 self-called, or rather called by the trust of your countrymen 
 and by the Spirit of your God, to take that trailing banner 
 out of the dust and out of the mire, and lift it again where 
 God's rains can cleanse it, and where God's free air can 
 cause it to unfold and stream as it has always floated be- 
 fore the wind. God bless the men that go forth to save 
 from disgrace the American flag ! 
 
 Accept it, then, in all its fullness of meaning. It is not a 
 painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Con- 
 stitution. It is the government. It is the free people that 
 stand in the government on the Constitution. Forget not 
 what it means; and for the sake of its ideas, rather than 
 its mere emblazonry, be true to your country's flag. By 
 your hands lift it; but let your lifting it be no holiday dis- 
 play. It must be advanced ^''because of the truths 
 
 That flag must go to the capital of this nation; and it 
 must go not hidden, not secreted, not in a case or covering, 
 but streaming abroad, displayed, bright as the sun, clear 
 as the moon, terrible as an army with banners ! For a 
 single week that disgraceful crook,* that shameful circuit, 
 may be needful; but the way from New England, the way 
 from New York, the way from New Jersey and Pennsyl- 
 vania to Washington, lies right through Baltimore ; and that 
 is the way the flag must and shall go ! \^Enthusiastic cheers^ 
 But that flag, borne by ten thousand and thrice ten thou- 
 sand hands, from Connecticut, from Massachusetts (God 
 bless the State and all her men !), from shipbuilding Maine, 
 from old Granite New Hampshire, from the Vermont of 
 Bennington and Green-Mountain-Boy patriotism, from 
 Rhode Island, not behind any in zeal and patriotism, from 
 
 * The route through Baltimore was closed, and for weeks Washington 
 was reached through Annapolis. 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 299 
 
 New York, from Ohio, from Pennsylvania and New Jersey 
 and Delaware, and the other loyal States, — that flag must 
 be carried, bearing every one of its insignia, to the sound 
 of the drum and the fife, into our national capital, until 
 "Washington shall seem to be a forest, in which every tree 
 supports the American banner ! 
 
 And it must not stop there. The country does not be- 
 long to us from the Lakes only to Washington, but from 
 the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The flag must go on. 
 The land of Washington shall see Washington's flag again. 
 The land that sits in darkness, and in which the people see 
 no light, shall yet see light dawn, and liberty flash from the 
 old American banner ! It must see Charleston again, and 
 float again over every fort in Charleston harbor. It must 
 go further, to the Alligator State, and stand there again. 
 And sweeping up through all plantations, and over all 
 fields of sugar and rice and tobacco, and every other thing, 
 it must be found in every State till you touch the Missis- 
 sippi. And, bathing in those waters, it must go across and 
 fill Texas with its sacred light. Nor must it stop when it 
 floats over every one of the States. That flag must stand, 
 bearing its whole historic spirit and original meaning, in 
 every Territory of this nation ! 
 
 Have you not had enough mischief of slavery ? Do you 
 not see what men it breeds ? It hatches cockatrice's eggs. 
 Slavery breeds traitors in the masters and miserable slaves 
 in the subjects. Slavery is the abominable poison that has 
 circulated in the body politic, and corrupted this whole 
 nation almost past healing. Blessed be God there is a 
 medicine found! 
 
 Now, having had experience, and having seen what 
 slavery does to the slave (and what it does to the slave is 
 the least part of the evil. The slave is to be envied in the 
 comparison. I would to God that the white man were 
 half as little hurt by slavery); seeing how it blights the 
 heart's core; how it corrupts the most sacred sentiments; 
 how it brings down natures born for better things to the 
 degradation of despotism, — having seen these things,can 
 you, — I ask every man that has conscience, or reason, or 
 
300 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 hope, or fear, or love in his soul, — can you meet God Al- 
 mighty's judgment, or the inquiring eye of God, if while 
 you live you permit that evil to roll unchecked three thou- 
 sand miles to the Pacific Ocean ? Let, then, this banner go 
 again into every recreant State, and float over every inch of 
 territory, saying, "Defiance to slavery; all hail to liberty!" 
 Nor is it enough that our flag shall stand and merely 
 reassert its authority. It is time now that that banner 
 shall do as much for each man in our own country as it 
 will in every other land on the globe. If I go to Con- 
 stantinople, and a mob threatens me, that banner shines 
 like lightning out of heaven, and I am safe. If I go to 
 Jerusalem, or among the Bedouin Arabs, I have but to show 
 that symbol, and I am safe. If I go to Africa, and skirt its 
 coasts among the natives, and exhibit the colors of my coun- 
 try, I am safe. I can go around the globe under the protec- 
 tion of this flag. But it is denied me to go to Washington. 
 I cannot go from my door to the capital of this nation, be- 
 cause the American flag djes not defend Americans on their 
 own soil. I cannot go to Virginia nor North Carolina, nor 
 South Carolina, nor Florida, nor Georgia, nor Alabama, 
 nor Mississippi, nor Louisiana, nor Texas, nor Arkansas, 
 nor to most of Kentucky and of Tennessee. We have not 
 had a government for fifty years that dared to do a thing 
 that slavery did not wish to have done. I suppose that 
 within the last twenty years uncounted multitudes of men 
 have been mulcted in property, mobbed, hung, murdered, 
 for whose wrongs and blood no government has ever made 
 any inquisition. It is permitted, to this hour, to one man 
 to maltreat, to murder, to rob, to strip, to destroy another 
 man, in Nashville, in Memphis, in New Orleans, in Mobile, 
 in Charleston, and even in Richmond, close up under the 
 eye of government. There has never been an hour for the 
 last twenty-five years when government would lift a voice 
 or stretch out a hand to protect Northern men against the 
 outrages committed upon them by men at the South. 
 Now I demand that, when the American flag is next un- 
 furled in South Carolina, it shall protect me there, as it pro- 
 tects a South Carolinian in New York. I demand that it 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 30 1 
 
 shall protect me in Mobile, as it protects a Mobilian here. 
 I demand that this shall be a common country, and that 
 all men shall enjoy the imperishable rights which the Con- 
 stitution guarantees to every American citizen. I demand 
 that there shall be such a victory of this flag as shall make 
 the whole and undivided land the common possession of 
 all and every one of its citizens ! 
 
 If any man asks me whether I will consent to a com- 
 promise, I reply. Yes. I love compromises; they are dear 
 to me — if I may make them. Give me a compromise that 
 shall bring peace. Let me say, *' Hang the ringleading 
 traitors; suppress their armies; give peace to their fields; 
 lift up the banner, and make a highway in which every 
 true American citizen, minding his own business, can walk 
 unmolested; free the Territories, and keep them free," — 
 that is our compromise. Give to us the doctrine of the 
 fathers, renew the Declaration of Independence, refill the 
 Constitution with the original blood of liberty, destroy 
 traitors and treason, make the doctrine of secession a by- 
 word and a hissing; make laws equal; let that justice for 
 which they were ordained be the same in Maine or Caro- 
 lina, to the rich and to the poor, the bond and the free, — 
 and thus we will compromise. 
 
 But as long as compromise means yokes on us and 
 license to them, silence for liberty and open-mouthed free- 
 dom to despotism, so long compromise is a Devil's juggle; 
 no man that is a freeman and a Christian should be caught 
 in any such snare as that. I ask for nothing except that 
 which the fathers meant. I ask for the fulfillment of Wash- 
 ington's prayer. I ask for the carrying out of the designs 
 of those sacred men that sat in conclave at Independence 
 Hall in Philadelphia, and framed our immortal Constitu- 
 tion. I ask for liberty in New York, in Carolina, in Ala- 
 bama, in every State and in every Territory. I ask for it 
 throughout the whole land. I ask no Northern advantage. 
 It is a mere geographical accident that liberty is in the 
 North. It is not because it is the North, but because 
 the North is free, that I ask for the ascendency of North- 
 ern principles. 
 
302 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 _^ Ah ! that Daniel Webster had lived to see what we do, — 
 
 Mr' .J /- I ^^^'' strong man whose faith failed him in a fatal hour of 
 
 '' \ ambition ! I will read from a speech of his better days one 
 
 of the noblest passages that ever issued from the uninspired 
 
 pen of man. It is appropriate for this hour: — 
 
 " When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, 
 the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and 
 dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dis- 
 severed, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or 
 drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! Let their last feeble and 
 lingering glance, rather, behold the gorgeous ensign of the Repub- 
 lic, now known and honored throughout the earth, still full high 
 advanced, its arms and trophies streaming in their original luster, 
 not a stripe erased or polluted, nor a single star obscured, — bear- 
 ing for its motto no such miserable interrogatory as What is all 
 this worth? nor those other words of delusion and ioWy, Liberty 
 first, and Union afterwards, — but everywhere, spread all over in 
 characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as they 
 float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind under the 
 whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every true American 
 heart, — Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and insepara- 
 ble ! " 
 
 God grant it ! God grant it ! 
 
 You live in a civilized age. You go on a sacred mission. 
 The prayers and sympathies of Christendom are with you. 
 You go to open again the shut-up fountains of liberty, and 
 to restore this disgraced banner to its honor. You go to 
 serve your country in the cause of liberty; and if God 
 brings you into conflict ere long with thqse misguided men 
 of the South, when you see their miserable, new-vamped 
 banner, remember what that flag means, — Treason, Slavery, 
 Despotism; then look up and see the bright stars and the 
 glorious stripes over your own head, and read in them 
 Liberty, Liberty, Liberty ! 
 
 And if you fall in that struggle, may some kind hand 
 wrap around about you the flag of your country, and may 
 you die with its sacred touch upon you. It shall be sweet 
 to go to rest lying in the folds of your country's banner, 
 meaning, as it shall mean, " Liberty and Union, now and 
 forever." 
 
^^^^m^ ^^^^^^ 
 
THE NATIONAL FLAG. 303 
 
 We will not forget you. You go forth from us not to be 
 easily and lightly passed over. The waves shall not close 
 over the places which you have held; but when you return, 
 — not as you go, many of you inexperienced, and many of 
 you unknown, — you shall return from the conquests of 
 liberty with a reputation and a character established for- 
 ever to your children and your children's children. It 
 shall be an honor, it shall be a legend, it shall be a historic 
 truth; and your posterity shall say: "Our fathers stood 
 up in the day of peril, and laid again the foundations of 
 liberty that were shaken; and in their hands the banner of 
 our country streamed forth like the morning star upon the 
 night." 
 
 God bless you ! 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES/ 
 
 " For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver 
 thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee ; therefore shall thy camp 
 be holy; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." 
 — Deut. xxiii. 14. 
 
 That Christian people should learn to dread the camp 
 is not strange. The evils which have gone along with 
 armies, the dangers of moral infection in military camps, 
 are not imaginary, and are perhaps not less than our 
 greatest fears would lead us to believe them to be. And 
 yet it ought not to be forgotten that these evils are vinci- 
 ble, and that, though real, they may be overcome. There 
 are no circumstances where Christian courage may not 
 gain a victory over the sharpest temptations. It should 
 not be forgotten that the world is indebted to camp life 
 for institutions which have done more to infuse order and 
 civilization among men than any legislation. God's peo- 
 ple lived in military camps for full half a century. In 
 camps Moses promulgated the Hebrew code. In the camp 
 they began to practice the matchless elements of the He- 
 brew Commonwealth. In the camp the slavish habits 
 which they had contracted were gradually worn off, their 
 idolatrous tendencies were at last repressed, and their na- 
 tional education began. Perhaps the purest, most orderly 
 and well-regulated period of the Hebrew history was that 
 of their early camp life. More brilliant periods there were, 
 under David and Solomon; but I doubt if ever there was. 
 on the whole, a more moral period. Nor will a study of 
 the rules and regulations of that life be unprofitable even 
 now. For while Moses has nothing to teach us in strictly 
 military matters, he has anticipated almost every effort of 
 
 * Preached in May, i86t. 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 305 
 
 science for health, cleanliness, order, and good civic 
 economy, striving, with imperfect means, to be sure, to do 
 that which, with more perfect instrumentalities, science is 
 now accomplishing. 
 
 Our text shows the influences upon which this effort was 
 based. Religion was brought to bear, with its appropriate 
 influences, upon camp life. 
 
 There can be no doubt that camp morals, subsequently 
 to this epoch, and in other nations, have deserved all the 
 ill repute which they have acquired. Nor can we suppose 
 camp life ever, under the most favorable circumstances, to 
 be as conducive to virtue as is the family state in civic 
 communities. 
 
 But we must not look upon it as always and necessarily 
 so great an evil as it was in the past ages of European 
 military history. Camps do not need to continue to be 
 what they have hitherto been. For the world has ad- 
 vanced. Every method of living has advanced. We know 
 better what to do, we know how to do better, and we 
 are doing better, in every element of life, than did ages 
 past. The morals of the common people, and of soldiers, 
 who spring from them, are eminently better than they 
 used to be. The circumstances under which w^ar is con- 
 ducted are much changed, and changed much for the bet- 
 ter. Experience, and the facilities for organizing and 
 supplying armies, have removed many of the temptations 
 to evil. At least, they have made it unnecessary for men 
 to be wicked. 
 
 It has been the policy of this nation to discourage stand- 
 ing armies. It is a wise policy, and it never appeared so 
 wise as now. Standing armies are always dangerous; and 
 I can hardly doubt that, had there been a hundred thou- 
 sand soldiers subject to the control of those wicked men 
 just ejected from this government, our liberties would have 
 been in peril. They would have been suppressed, to be 
 acquired again only by crossing a Red Sea of blood. We 
 owe much of our salvation to the fact that there was not a 
 military power in the hands of an Administration imbecile 
 in all but corruption. Everything else had been got ready 
 
3o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to overthrow the government but this infernal enginery of 
 a standing army. 
 
 Tlie theory of our people has been, that, as the common 
 people framed their government, administer their govern- 
 ment, and are the sources of power and of political influ- 
 ence in that government, so and in like manner the com- 
 mon people shall be their own soldiers, and do their own 
 fighting, when it is necessary. War will not be unneces- 
 sarily provoked when the men that provoke the war are 
 obliged themselves to wage it. 
 
 But with great wisdom two provisions have been made. 
 First, the common people have been enrolled as a militia, 
 and made to have some little idea of combination and drill. 
 It has not been much, it has been just enough to subject 
 them to the ridicule of professional blatterers; nevertheless, 
 it has been sufficient. And whenever the common people 
 of this land have been called upon for the defense of 
 things that were worth fighting for, they have brought the 
 conflict to a successful issue. 
 
 Next, public military academies have given the most 
 rigid and thorough education to men selected from every 
 State. And thus we have an intelligent and hardy com- 
 mon people, somewhat acquainted with the rudiments of 
 army formations, and of the duties of soldiers, for a foun- 
 dation; and for leaders, men of scientific military educa- 
 tion. 
 
 And now, when war breaks out with us, the camp is both 
 better and worse than European camps and camps of other 
 countries. It is better, or may be, because it is made up, 
 not of professional soldiers without civil sympathies, cut 
 off from pursuits of ordinary life, but of citizens, pervaded 
 with the sympathies of citizens; of men who go to war as 
 one of life's duties, alternative duties, and not as their vo- 
 cation. And such men ought to make better soldiers 
 than others, more moral and more manly. 
 
 It is worse, because in regular armies, and among sol- 
 diers trained for years, there is an education toward neat- 
 ness and order and economy of living which a body of 
 volunteers suddenly gathered together are not likely to 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 307 
 
 have. In the Mexican war, if I remember correctly, the 
 deaths by sickness in the volunteer regiments were more 
 than one hundred per cent, greater than in the regular 
 army; showing the difference beween practiced skill in 
 living and the inexperience of the volunteers. 
 
 Such, with its faults, and with possible excellences, is the 
 American military system. It is not our business now so 
 much to subject it to criticism, as to accept it with its duties 
 and responsibilities. For, in the providence of God, war is 
 upon us. It is quite immaterial whether we wish it or not, 
 whether we think it might have been avoided, or whether 
 every step on either side has been the wisest. The past is 
 past. Let the dead bury their dead. War, I repeat, is 
 upon us. The army is collecting. Vario-us camps are 
 forming. The question for the whole Christian community 
 is this: What is the duty of this country toward its camps ? 
 
 It is not enough, then, that we should simply encourage 
 men to volunteer in their country's cause, clothe them, 
 equip them, get them off, and then consider them as no 
 longer on our hands. It is a part of our duty to equip 
 them, and see that they are well fitted out, and to send 
 them off under good auspices; but we must also consider 
 ourselves responsible for the continued well-being of that 
 army which we send forth to do, not their work, but our 
 work. It is not enough for us to do some things. That 
 great army that is gathering around the government of this 
 nation, to maintain its sacred laws and principles, must be 
 adopted by all Christian men at home, and must be pro- 
 vided for, not simply in clothes and food, but in education 
 and in morals. We must see to it that physically they are 
 well equipped, and we must see to it that that moral care 
 which comes from material sources (and there is a good 
 deal of it) is provided; but when we have provisioned and 
 clothed and equipped the men, and put them beyond the 
 reach of physical want, we have but just begun to dis- 
 charge our duties toward them. 
 
 The army must feel that it is not a thing separated from 
 society, and different from it. It is only the arm of society 
 stretched out, not cut off, but joined to the body, receiving 
 
3o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 circulation from it yet, and in vital sympathy with it. 
 That we may better understand our duties, I will point out 
 some of the dangers to which our men are liable, and some 
 of the measures by which these dangers may be averted. 
 
 1. As armies are formed, it must necessarily be the case 
 that they shall come together in an ill-assorted and socially 
 unfit manner. But a young man ought to learn how to live 
 with men differing in every respect from himself. A young 
 man must learn to live with men; with men mixed and 
 various, good and bad, of all dispositions and habits; and 
 surely, if a man does not learn it in the army, it is because 
 he is not apt to learn. One can scarcely conceive of men 
 brought together with less principle of assortment than in 
 volunteer regiments. Many are ruined in learning this les- 
 son; and many are ruined that need not have been, had 
 some one taught them, warned them, and encouraged them 
 to maintain their own individuality. Old and young are 
 huddled together Some of strong will and others of an 
 impressible disposition are brought in contact with each 
 other, and you know which will receive the dent. The 
 hard and the soft are side by side. Among them are the 
 proud man, that receives no impressions from others, and 
 the approbative man, that stands on his own root by a 
 slender stem, and nods and bobs in the wind like a rush 
 or daisy. It is a good school, if it did not spoil so many 
 for the sake of making a few. But so it is. The army is 
 so formed that the first lesson, and the first danger, is that 
 of living with men who are entirely unlike themselves. 
 
 2. There is a sudden change of all the habits of life. 
 Men become their own cooks, their own chambermaids, 
 their own seamstresses, and their own washerwomen. 
 Tables, linen, china cups, and delf plates disappear. Men 
 go down to camp life to become almost savage in the sim- 
 plicity of domestic economies. No beds receive them such 
 as they have been accustomed to. No such relations of 
 table and social intercourse as they have previously enjoyed 
 are enjoyed by them now. They seem to have been 
 stripped bare of the refinements of civilized society. All 
 influences calculated to promote the exterior and physical 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 309 
 
 proprieties of life seem to be removed from them. These 
 things are apt to beget great carelessness and rudeness, and 
 even a positive barbarism, unless they are resisted and 
 counteracted. 
 
 It seems as though there were very little religious influ- 
 ence in a clean face, a clean skin, and a comely garb; but 
 there is a good deal of simple moral influence in these 
 things. When a man does not care for the neatness of his 
 person, nor for the ordinary proprieties and economies of 
 life, he is verging toward the barbarous state. It is so even 
 with men of moral stamina and settled characters; but how 
 much more, if character is unfashioned and habits un- 
 formed ! 
 
 3. The restraints, the affections, the softening influences 
 of the household, are taken away from the soldier in the 
 camp. No man can imagine the difference which this 
 makes till he has seen it and felt it. Men that at home are 
 not only moral and decorous, but who are without tempta- 
 tion or desire to be anything else, when away from home 
 do things so utterly out of character that they seem not to be 
 the same persons. There is, it may be said, a sort of mania 
 or insanity that falls on men away from home. Men that 
 at home not only do not drink, but do not want to, when 
 they go away from home and the restraints of the family 
 to reside for weeks, do drink and become intoxicated. Men 
 that at home are never subject to vagrant thoughts, almost 
 lose the power of regulated thought away from home. No 
 one imagines how much he is upheld by the moral influ- 
 ences of those about him, and how little by his own 
 will and character, till he goes abroad alone. When a man 
 goes to England, he says, " There is not a man in this 
 whole kingdom who will know what I do," and he has a 
 morbid curiosity to know how he will feel under such and 
 such circumstances, and he does things that he never did 
 before, to satisfy that curiosity. A man in Paris who 
 knows there is not another man in Paris that knows him, is 
 not the same man that he was in New York. That is to 
 say, he is subject to temptations and influences that he 
 never would have been subject to at home. When men 
 
3IO PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 that are patterns of morality in the village come to New 
 York in spring and fall, to do business, they are not always 
 patterns of morality. They seem to slough moral habits 
 for the time being. Those that deal with them know it. 
 It would not do for them to treat this or that man at home 
 as they treated him the last time they were in New York. 
 It would produce an uproar in the church, or an explosion 
 in the family ! It is not because they are hypocrites that 
 they deport themselves in one way at home and in another 
 way abroad; it is not because they are insincere; it is be- 
 cause men are stronger at home surrounded with friends, 
 responsible to a public sentiment, sustained by example 
 and social sympathies, than when they are left standing 
 alone. It is so good to the soul and to the morals to be 
 surrounded by those who bear sweet affinities and relation- 
 ships, that when a man has them he is well, and when he 
 has not he is sick or feeble. It is not surprising that young 
 men should feel as older men have felt, since the world 
 began, when removed from social restraints and domestic 
 influences. 
 
 To this must be added the almost necessary rudeness of 
 a womanless state. If God were to take the sun and moon 
 and stars out of the heavens, the chances for husbandry 
 would be what, if God were to take woman out of life, 
 would be the chances for refinement and civilization. 
 Woman carries civilization in her heart. It springs from 
 her. Her power and influence mark the civilization of any 
 country. A man that lives in a community where he has 
 the privileges of woman's society, and is subject to woman's 
 influence, is almost of necessity refined, more than he is aware 
 of; and when men are removed from the genial influence 
 of virtuous womanhood, the very best degenerate, or feel 
 the deprivation. 
 
 There is something wanting in the air when you get 
 west of the Alleghany Mountains on a sultry day of sum- 
 mer. The air east of the mountains is supplied with a 
 sort of pabulum from the salt water of the ocean, by which 
 one is sustained in the sultriest days of midsummer. Now 
 what this salt is to the air, that is woman's influence to the 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 311 
 
 virtue of a community. You breathe it without knowing 
 it. All you know is that you are made stronger and bet- 
 ter. And a man is not half a man unless a woman helps 
 him to be ! 
 
 One of the mischiefs of camp life is that women are re- 
 moved from it. The men may not know what it is that 
 lets them down to a lower state of feeling, or what that 
 subtle influence was that kept them up to a higher state of 
 refinement, but it is the absence of woman in the one case, 
 as it was the presence of woman in the other. Woman is 
 a light which God has set before man to show him which 
 way to go, and blessed is he who has sense enough to fol- 
 low it ! 
 
 4. To this must be added the evils which are liable to 
 spring out of the interplay and alternation of idleness and 
 excessive exertion in camp life. Men whose habits are reg- 
 ular are half saved to begin with. A man who has an 
 order of business which brings something to be done 
 every hour, which fills every hour with occupation, is a 
 match for the Devil. Satan finds plenty of mischief for 
 idle hands to do, and very little for busy hands. But men 
 whose calling is spasmodic, who use up their strength in a 
 few hours, and then fall back upon indolence and self- 
 indulgence, are peculiarly in danger. You shall find that 
 those workmen who are excessively taxed, — glass-blowers, 
 foundrymen, the boat hands on our Western rivers, ex- 
 pressmen, and the like, — who have, during one or two 
 hours, to do work enough for eight or ten men to each man, 
 and who are obliged to concentrate the whole energy of 
 their life and power for this brief period, and then fall back 
 upon five or six indolent hours, are the men that are most 
 in danger, and that are most apt to be reckless, wild, dar- 
 ing, and physically self-indulgent. Experience will show 
 that while regular and successive industries, which furnish 
 employment for every hour, conduce to morals, excessive 
 labor for a few hours, followed by long intervals of indo- 
 lence, is demoralizing. No man can go through the ex- 
 perience of such labor and alternate indolence and come 
 out sound and well. 
 
312 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Now this is peculiarly the experience of the camp. The 
 drill goes for nothing: that is mere play. But with camp 
 life comes the long march to-day, and the lying still for 
 three or four days; the desperate conflict, with all its ex- 
 citement for a few hours, and the rest for the ensuing 
 week; long periods of inactivity, interspersed with occa- 
 sional intensifications of activity. These things shake the 
 habits of the whole moral fabric of a man. Morbid ap- 
 petites spring up from such irregularities. The body 
 ceases to perform its normal functions, the tendencies of 
 life are different, and the whole character is changed. 
 
 5. We must remember that the aim and end of war is 
 physical violence. Now men cannot be associated with 
 objects of violence and not receive collateral moral im- 
 pressions from them. If men are educated, and if they 
 bear with them a stern will, and look upon war as a terri- 
 ble but necessary evil, they may go through it and escape 
 unharmed. Such a man as Anderson can go through the 
 most dreadful experiences of war and come out a Chris- 
 tian, a humane, a gentle man. Where a man brings a 
 heart and a faith into experiences like these he may avoid 
 harm, as they did who went through the fire without even 
 the smell of fire upon their garments; but raw, unenlight- 
 ened, untrained natures cannot but be hardened and de- 
 praved by them. A man, however, cannot tell what effect 
 they will have upon him till he is brought into the midst 
 of them. Some are cured of cruelty by the sight of blood. 
 They revolt from it with the whole force of their being. 
 Some have a natural tendency to it; and when they come 
 into the exercise of it they speedily sink into degeneracy, 
 and drag others down with them. At any rate, this living 
 for an end of violence must affect the whole moral nature. 
 A life supremely devoted to resistance, to contention, to 
 destruction, must be full of dangers. 
 
 6. We must consider the peculiar danger of camps in 
 producing intemperance. So great is this danger that we 
 might almost compromise, and say, " Give us release from 
 that, and we will run the risk of every other one." The 
 desire of excitement, for various reasons, is nowhere else, 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 313 
 
 perhaps, so great as in the camp. Where, for instance, 
 men are to prepare themselves for hard and successive 
 work, it is not unnatural that they should seek to rouse up 
 their energies with strong drink. And where men have 
 gone through severe and long continued labor, where they 
 have been deprived of their appropriate food, where they 
 have been exposed to extremes of heat or cold, where they 
 have been taxed with a harassing watch or a desper- 
 ate fight, where all their habits have been irregular, then 
 nothing is more natural than that they should seek to re- 
 pair their wasted strength by intoxicating drinks. But the 
 indulgence in the use of ardent spirits for such purposes is 
 a fatal indulgence. I think the distinction between the 
 right and wrong use of alcoholic stimulants lies simply in 
 this: The man that uses them for producing digestion, or 
 so as to promote prompt and efiicient action of the natural 
 functions of the system, is using them medicinally; but 
 the man that uses them either for the purpose of unnatu- 
 rally exciting the physical energies, or for the purpose of 
 repairing the waste of those energies by excessive exertion, 
 is using them fatally. If you use them for the sake of fit- 
 ting yourself to make a brilliant speech, you use them 
 fatally. If you use them in order that you may supply the 
 strength you want for an emergency, you use them fatally. 
 And if you use them for the purpose of making up for the. 
 strength that you have lost in any severe undertaking, 
 you use them fatally. If you use them either to create 
 power, or to compensate for the exhaustion of power, of 
 mind or body, you violate the laws of nature, and so use 
 them fatally. When Paul said to Timothy, " Use a little 
 wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities," 
 he doubtless referred to the fact that Timothy had the 
 dyspepsia, and that a little wine might help his digestion, 
 and that it was through good digestion that he was to have 
 good blood, good nerves, and good, muscles ! But if a 
 man keeps a fiery stream of stimulus pouring upon his 
 brain for the purpose of increasing its activity, he is a 
 marked man, and his name is already written down in the 
 book of death. When men are severely taxed, there is 
 
314 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 nothing more natural than that they should clutch at any- 
 thing that will afford them momentary relief. And any 
 indulgence in this practice is apt to be fatal, because when 
 spirituous liquors have been taken for one thing, they will 
 naturally be taken for others. 
 
 The dullness, the weariness, the cnimi of camp life is 
 greatly alleviated by the social festive glass. 
 
 The pernicious influence of example in the matter of 
 drinking will also be felt in the camp. The young man who 
 is not wont to drink may be led to do it because he has 
 not the moral courage to resist the temptation under which 
 he is brought. A young man in the ranks naturally wants 
 to stand well with the officers, a young officer naturally 
 wants to stand well with his superior officers, one that is 
 weak naturally wants to stand well with those that are 
 stronger than himself, and there is danger that many 
 will fall into the habit of drinking for the sake of gaining 
 favor. A man that is superior in any respect to his fellows 
 has great power of persuasion over them, and can, if he be 
 intemperate, do much toward drawing them into intem- 
 perance. 
 
 Could intoxicating drinks be kept away from camps, one- 
 half of their dangers would be obviated. And for anyone 
 that is going forth to meet the temptations of camp life, I had 
 almost said I would sum up in one simple word of re- 
 membrance a talisman of safety, — Temperance, absolute 
 temperance. There are other dangers of the camp, but 
 there are so many connected with this that we almost for- 
 get the rest, and say that you will be safe if you are strictly 
 temperate. 
 
 Why, I think war kills more after it is over than during 
 its continuance. It is not the man who comes home limp- 
 ing on one usable leg that is most damaged: it is the man 
 that comes home with two legs and two arms, and with no 
 use for them. It is not the man who comes home pierced 
 through so as to be all his life an invalid, that war most 
 damages; it is the man that, pierced through with the 
 liquid shot, comes reeling and staggering home to be worse 
 than useless. And I say to every one that has anything 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 315 
 
 to do with the camp, for the love of God, for the love of 
 man, for the sake of patriotism, and for the salvation of 
 those that are imperiled, take care of the young men, that 
 they do not become drunkards ! 
 
 7. There is an evil to be dreaded from the contagion of 
 bad men in camp life. I am not referring to gross and 
 shamelessly bad men. When a man becomes shamelessly 
 bad, he becomes comparatively harmless. It is not the 
 thing with poison scattered all over the outside that 
 endangers anybody; it is the cake that is poison, but is 
 sweetened and not seen to be poison; it is the liquor that 
 is poisoned at the bottom, and is not suspected of being 
 poisoned. I do not know, so far as my personal inspection 
 is concerned, but certain companies that have been raised 
 in New York are saints prepared for glory, but the papers 
 do represent them as being made up of quite another class 
 of men, and that they will leave New York wonderfully 
 purified when they go forth to do a patriot's duty in a 
 distant State ! But if there should be found in the volun- 
 teer force a burglar, a thief, a scoundrel, a culprit, he is not 
 the man to be very dangerous to young men. Do you 
 suppose a virtuous young man is going to learn pocket- 
 picking in the camp ? Do you suppose a young man is go- 
 ing to learn stealing there ? These things do not come by 
 contagion. They are the final results of insidious causes. 
 They are the desperate ends of fair beginnings. They are 
 the holes through which men go out of our sight into perdi- 
 tion. It is not the endings, but the beginnings, that are to 
 be guarded against. 
 
 The men that are dangerous in camps are not bloated 
 drunkards, shameless gamblers, and such as they. But an 
 accomplished officer, a brilliant fellow, who knows the 
 world, who is gentle in language, who understands all the 
 etiquettes of society, who is fearless of God, who believes 
 nothing in religion, who does not hesitate with wit and 
 humor to jeer at sacred things, who takes an infernal pleas- 
 ure in winding around his finger the young about him, 
 who is polished and wicked, and walks as an angel of light 
 to tempt his fellow-men, as Satan did to tempt our first 
 
3l6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 parents, — if there be in the camp such a one, he is the dan- 
 gerous man ! And the camp is full of such ones. The 
 worst of it is that the young do not suspect them till it is 
 too late to avoid them. There is a sort of dynamic influ- 
 ence that superior natures exert upon inferior ones. It is 
 said that a cat can fascinate a bird, and that a snake fas- 
 cinates its own victims. There is no doubt that one hu- 
 man being can fascinate another. There is no doubt that 
 one man built in a certain way has almost complete ascend- 
 ency over another man built in a different way. This fact 
 is fearfully illustrated in the camp by the contamination 
 of the young and inexperienced under the influence of bad 
 men with whom they come in contact. 
 
 I shall not mention the petty vices of lawlessness that 
 grow up in war. When men are assaulting an enemy and 
 overrunning an enemy's territory, when a town having re- 
 sisted them, they have by the strength of their right hand 
 broken through all obstacles and taken possession of it, 
 they are not apt to be too respectful of the rights of those 
 that are at their mercy. Rapine and thefts and various 
 violence grow up under such circumstances. 
 
 I shall mention but one other danger, and that only in- 
 directly has a moral bearing upon this subject, — I mean 
 the danger of neglecting to observe the laws of health. 
 I have been very much affected in seeing how men that are 
 gathered into our regiments live. You and I that live in 
 ceiled houses, and have changes of apparel for all the seasons, 
 — spring, summer, autumn, and winter, — and many of them 
 for each season, can scarcely form a conception of the pov- 
 erty and destitution of many laboring men, but particu- 
 larly foreigners, who enlist in the army. When their shoes 
 give out, they have to make a special campaign to get an- 
 other pair. When their hat gives out, they wear it still. 
 When their coat gives out, they get another if they can. 
 How little these men know of the laws of health ! How 
 little they know of the economies of life ! Now hurry a 
 thousand, or ten thousand of these men, by land and water 
 away from home, oblige them to be irregular in their 
 habits, give them poor food miserably cooked, let them 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 317 
 
 after a long, fagging day's journey go to camp so tired 
 that they can hardly see, and throw themselves down under 
 the first bush or tree, no matter whether the ground is wet 
 or dry, so that when they wake up they feel as though a 
 ramrod had been run through their arms and their legs, — 
 and is it to be wondered at that multitudes of them sicken 
 and die ? The hospitals that receive the sick from armies 
 are a commentary on the knowledge that prevails among 
 men respecting the laws of health. In ninety-nine cases 
 out of a hundred the sickness of camp life is owing to 
 the fact that men do not know how to take care of them- 
 selves. Were I a chaplain in the army, while I would 
 preach and distribute books and tracts, and do special 
 ministerial work, I would, in the main, see to it that the 
 health of the soldiers w^as not neglected. I would explain 
 to them health-laws, and urge them to observe them, and 
 watch over them as tenderly as a mother watches over her 
 child. And to any man that is going as chaplain I would 
 say, Take care of your men's health. For although health 
 is not religion, religion is very much dependent on health. 
 A candle is not a candlestick, but a candle without a candle- 
 stick is of little account. If a man is going to keep his 
 soul alight, he must have a good body to hold it in. And 
 one important duty of the sanctuary is to teach the igno- 
 rant and unknowing of these matters which are so vital to 
 their prosperity. 
 
 Thus much on that side. Allow me a few words now to 
 those who go. 
 
 There are going out in all our companies not a few who, 
 thank God, have been religiously trained, and are them- 
 selves professors of religion, and yet more who, though 
 they may not be professors of religion, are really moral and 
 virtuous men. I exhort all such that they should see 
 eye to eye; that they should find each other out; that they 
 should band together for the right. Where two men come 
 together on the ground of moral principle, there is a 
 church. Where two men associate themselves together for 
 the purpose of promoting a moral cause, there is a church. 
 An ocean is nothing but an aggregate of drops; and every 
 
3l8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 drop is a factor of that ocean. And large churches are 
 nothing but collections of multitudinous drops. But 
 where there are two men united in a Christian work there 
 is a church; and there ought to be in every regiment and 
 company and platoon* a little church. If in any regiment 
 or company or platoon there are two men that are moral 
 and good, they ought to stand out at once and take ground 
 for goodness and morality. It is a shame to see how fear- 
 lessly bad men take ground for iniquity, and how shy good 
 men are of avowing religion. There ought to be a bold 
 stand taken in favor of virtue by the good in each one of 
 the various companies. If there is not such a stand taken 
 in Company C of the Fourteenth Regiment, I shall be 
 ashamed of my preaching. We have sent out fifteen or 
 twenty young men that are distributed through the com- 
 panies of another regiment; but we have sent more in this 
 particular regiment, because they have remained later upon 
 our hands. And I expect that there will be a real moral in- 
 fluence exerted through the regiment by the young men 
 that are in it who have gone out of this church. 
 
 There ought to be in the camp a provision made to sup- 
 ply the wants of the men in the intervals of drill and con- 
 flict. I have spoken of the temptations of indolence. We 
 shall be utterly delinquent in duty if we make no provision 
 of reading for them. They have nothing to do; their 
 camp-fire is burning; the sun has just sunk below the 
 horizon; they sit in groups here and there; the story-teller 
 is in vogue; the man who has the most fluent tongue, and 
 who is the most amusing, is the man that is popular, — not 
 the man that retires to his tent, or at a little distance, to 
 commune with God; but the entertaining man, the man 
 that knows how to lessen the tedium of the hour. This 
 gives ascendency to dangerous men. But if every day 
 there was something to read, this evil would be in a great 
 measure overcome. A daily newspaper has become almost 
 as necessary to us at home as our daily food ! The want 
 will be felt in camp. We cannot eat our breakfast without 
 a morning paper; nor our supper without an evening 
 paper; and I should not be surprised if before long 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DAXGERS AND DUTIES. 319 
 
 we should think we could not get our dinner without 
 a noon paper. Of course Bibles and Testaments will go 
 with the men, but there ought to be other reading for them. 
 We have at least two Tract Societies; and it seems to me 
 that, while they send some tracts, and a few books, they 
 could not put the greater proportion of their funds to so 
 good a use as that of subscribing for good sound papers, 
 to be read by the soldiers during leisure hours, or while 
 sitting in the doors of their tents. There is a moral influ- 
 ence in such reading. Not only does it occupy their leisure 
 hours, but it takes them out of the dangers of camp life, 
 and carries them back to their homes, and leads them to 
 think of father and mother, and sisters and brothers, and 
 childhood. It abolishes distance. It annihilates separa- 
 tion. It quickens their memory and awakens their imagi- 
 nation. It prevents them from losing their identity. See 
 that the men have books and papers enough. And if the 
 great publishing houses feel as if it is not in their line to 
 give secular reading-matter, there ought to be organiza- 
 tions formed by which the camp shall be filled with news- 
 papers. The most efficacious secular book that ever was 
 published in America is the newspaper ! 
 
 In other ways there should be kept alive sympathy be- 
 tween the camp and the community; between the camp 
 and home. Ah ! the chaplain may go round and talk 
 to the men as much as he pleases, but I tell you, the 
 things that work most powerfully on them are the thoughts 
 of home and friends that pass through their minds when 
 they sit with their elbows on their knees, and with 
 their eyes shut, and say to themselves, " My mother is 
 singing," or, " My father is praying." Those golden 
 threads that go forth out of the much-weaving mother's 
 heart; those threads of love and domesticity that never 
 break by long stretching, that go around and around the 
 globe itself and yet keep fast hold, — these, after all, are the 
 things that work most powerfully on men ! 
 
 Now, let them be supplied with tokens, mementos, re- 
 membrancers, from those that are left behind. When the 
 soldier looks upon the little things that have been sent him 
 
320 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 by dear ones at home, he cannot suppress his tears. But 
 do you suppose it is because he has a few luxuries? It is 
 not the things themselves that he cares for. As likely as 
 not he gives these away to his comrades. But loving hearts 
 were prompted to send them to him, and kind hands 
 placed them in the box ! They are evidences of affection- 
 ate regard cherished for him. All these things work 
 wonders in the camp. 
 
 Let us take care of those that go out from among us. It 
 would be a shame if this Christian community, having sent 
 forth young men to fight the battles of the country, should 
 forget them. You have but just begun your duty toward 
 them. The most serious part of that duty is to take care 
 of the camp ! 
 
 My Christian friends, I have the utmost confidence, I 
 need not tell you, in the American principle of self-gov- 
 ernment. Anything on God's earth can be done by an in- 
 telligent, virtuous, self-governing people; and though 
 monarchies cannot have camps without mischief, the 
 American people can civilize and Christianize the camp. 
 I roll the responsibility of doing this upon our churches, 
 and assume my part of the responsibility. It will be a shame 
 to our civilization and Christianity if we are not able to 
 take these camps in the arms of a sanctifying faith, and 
 lift them above those corrupting tendencies which are in- 
 separable from war. I hope to see those who go from this 
 church come back, not only as good as they go, but better, 
 more manly, more fearless for the right. I do not expect 
 that there will be any castaways among them. I do not 
 believe that one of them will be a deserter from the faith. 
 I feel assured that they will all be more confirmed soldiers 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, — and they will be better soldiers 
 of him by as much as they are good soldiers of their 
 country. 
 
 Now let us acknowledge our obligations in this matter, 
 and take hold of hands and discharge those obligations. 
 While you'thank God that he has raised up so many that 
 are willing and eager to defend our country, and although 
 you have contributed liberally of your means to prepare 
 
THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 321 
 
 them to go, you must remember that your duty toward 
 them has but just begun to be performed. You must fol- 
 low them with your prayers, morning, noon, and night. 
 Not only that, you must see that their wants are provided 
 for, and, more than all other things, that their moral wants 
 are provided for. The church and camp must work to- 
 gether in this great emergency. 
 
 May God speed them that go forth ! Every morning, 
 when I have arisen, for a week or ten days past, I have 
 rushed down expecting to hear the tocsin of the battle. 
 But as some lurid days that have thunders in them will 
 not storm, but hold themselves aloof, and gather copper 
 color in the sky, because the bolt is to fall with more ter- 
 rific violence; so it seems to me that in the impressive 
 silence which prevails the storm of battle is only collect- 
 ing, and collecting, because the great conflict is coming 
 ere long like God's thunder-crack ! When it does come I 
 have not the least doubt as to where victory will issue; 
 I have not the least doubt as to which side will triumph. 
 I foresee the victory. I rejoice in it, in anticipation; not 
 because it is to be on our side, but because it has pleased 
 God, in his infinite mercy, to make liberty our side; not 
 because we are North and they are South, but because 
 we have civilization and they have barbarism, because we 
 stand on the principle of equity and liberty, and they stand 
 on the principle of slavery and injustice. It will be a moral 
 victory more than a military victory. 
 
 May God speed the day, give the victory, crown it with 
 peace, restore unity, and make it more compact and endur- 
 ing because freed from this contamination, this poison, in 
 our system ! 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCI- 
 PATION.* 
 
 "And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the 
 carcass of the lion ; and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in 
 the carcass of the lion." — Judges xiv. 8. 
 
 Samson was on an errand of love. He was interrupted 
 by a lion, which he slew; for love is stronger than any lion. 
 He gained his suit; but, alas ! everything went by con- 
 traries thereafter. The woman whose love was at first 
 sweeter to him than honey, betrayed him. She was his lion. 
 Whereas, on his way to her he found that bees had pos- 
 session of the real lion's carcass, and had filled it with 
 honey. And so, in the end, the lion was better to him 
 than his wife. 
 
 But how full of suggestions is this incident. Who would 
 have looked for honey behind a lion's paws ? While he 
 was yet roaring and striking at Samson, there seemed very 
 little likelihood of his finding a honeyed meal in him. But 
 if lions bravely slain yield such food, let them become em- 
 blems ! The bee signifies industry, among all nations; 
 and honey is the very ideal of sweetness. 
 
 To-day war is upon us. A lion is on our path. But, 
 being bravely met, in its track shall industry settle, and 
 we shall yet fetch honey from the carcass of war. You 
 will not object, then, if, to-day, I bring you honey from 
 this lion's body. 
 
 At first, and to unhopeful souls, it would seem as if no 
 day of Thanksgiving ever were so sadly planted. Nor will 
 I undertake to persuade you that there are no evils to be- 
 moan: there are many. But the evils are transient, super- 
 
 * Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1861. 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 323 
 
 ficial, and vincible; the benefits are permanent, radical, 
 and multiplying. 
 
 Not long ago we were a united nation. Our industry 
 was bringing in riches as the tides of the ocean; and no 
 man could imagine the manhood of a continent whose 
 youth was so august. 
 
 Now, a line of fire runs through from east to west, and 
 more than half a million men confront each other with 
 hostile arms. Villages are burned; farms are deserted; 
 neighbors are at bloody variance; industry stands still 
 through fifteen States, or only forges implements of war. 
 The sky at night is red with camp-fires; by day the ground 
 trembles with the tramp of armies. Yet, amid many great 
 and undeniable evils, which every Christian patriot must 
 bitterly lament, there are eminent reasons for thankfulness, 
 several of which I shall point out to you. 
 
 I. Since we must accept this war, with all its undeniable 
 evils, it is a matter for thanksgiving that the citizens and 
 their lawful government of these United States can appeal 
 to the Judge of the universe and to all right-minded men, 
 to bear witness that it is not a war waged in the interest 
 of any base passion, but, truly and religiously, in the de- 
 fense of the highest interests ever committed to national 
 keeping. It is not, on our side, a war of passion; nor of 
 avarice; nor of anger; nor of revenge; nor of fear and 
 jealousy. 
 
 We hold that the territory of these United States is com- 
 mon to all its inhabitants; and is, not simply a possession, 
 but a trust. Unless by the deliberate decision of the law- 
 fully assembled people of these United States, constitu- 
 tionally expressed, that territory may neither be aban- 
 doned, alienated, nor partitioned. We hold it in trust for 
 the Future. Is it the duty of New York to defend its ter- 
 ritory against foes without, and evil men within, from the 
 Lake to Montauk Point ? Is it the duty of each New En- 
 gland State to defend every foot within its jurisdiction ? In 
 like manner, and for the same reasons, but in greater force, 
 it is the duty of all the States collectively to maintain the 
 integrity of the national domain. It is not a question of 
 
324 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 whether we will or will not. By the appointed and appro- 
 priate methods of the Constitution that question has been 
 taken from our hands. It is not subject to our volition. 
 But we are bound, by that silent oath which every man as- 
 sumes who comes to years of maturity as a citizen, to 
 maintain inviolate the territory of these United States. 
 
 It is the duty of the citizens, also, to stand up for their 
 government; to protect its just authority; to maintain all 
 its attributes; and to see to it that its jurisdiction is not 
 restricted except by those methods which have been pre- 
 determined and agreed upon in that Constitution on which 
 it stands. 
 
 But in our particular case, the reasons for maintaining 
 the government in all its ample jurisdiction are intensified 
 beyond all measuring by the fact that the dangers which 
 are threatening it arise, confessedly and undeniably, riot 
 from a perversion of the principles of our Constitution in 
 our hands, nor from an oppressive administration of our 
 government under these principles, but because a large 
 body of men, gradually infected with new political doc- 
 trines, in their nature irreconcilable with the root principle 
 of our government, have determined to overthrow it, that 
 they may change its fundamental principles. We are not 
 left to infer this. There is this merit in Southern politi- 
 cians, that they are frank and open in the declaration of 
 their political doctrines. The best head among them is 
 that of Mr. Stephens; and he declares in the most un- 
 equivocal manner that the object of this rebellion is to in- 
 troduce new principles in government. I shall read from 
 him. 
 
 " The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating 
 questions relating to our peculiar institutions, — African slavery 
 as it exists among us, — the proper status of the negro in our form 
 of civilization." 
 
 We shall see whether it has put them at rest " forever " 
 or not. 
 
 " T/iis was the tnunediate cause of the late riiptiere and present 
 revolution. JEFFERSON, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as 
 the 'rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right. 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 325 
 
 What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But 
 whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that 
 rock stood 2Sidi stands, may be doubted, The prevailing ideas e>i- 
 tertai}ied by him, and most of t lie leading statesmen ai the time 0/ the 
 formation of the old Constitution, were, that the enslavement of the 
 African was in violation of tJie laws of nature; that it was wrong 
 in principle, socially, morally, and politically." 
 
 I thank him for that testimony. 
 
 " It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with ; but the 
 general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or 
 other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanes- 
 cent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the 
 Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time." 
 
 This, you understand, is from the Vice-President of the 
 Southern Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens. 
 
 "The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guaranty 
 to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can 
 be justly used against the constitutional guaranties thus secured, 
 because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, how- 
 ever, were fundamejit ally -wrong. They rested upon the assumption 
 of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foun- 
 dation, and the idea of a government built upon it, — when the 
 'storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' Our new government is 
 founded upon exactly the opposite ideas." 
 
 I thank him for his candor. 
 
 " Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great 
 truth that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, 
 subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal 
 condition." 
 
 What a corner-stone that is for a government ! 
 
 " This, our new government, is the first in the history of the 
 world based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral 
 truth." 
 
 And I will take the leave so far to interpolate his speech 
 as to say that it w^ill be the last ! Further on he says (it is 
 such excellent reading that I cannot deny myself the 
 pleasure of edifying you): — 
 
 "May we not therefore look with confidence to the ultimate 
 universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system 
 
326 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 rests ? It is the first government ever instituted upon principles 
 in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, 
 in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments 
 have been founded upon the principles of certain classes; but the 
 classes thus enslaved were of the same race, and in violation of 
 the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of 
 nature's laws. The negro by nature, or by the curse against 
 Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our sys- 
 tem. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the 
 foundation with the proper material, — the granite, — then comes 
 the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made 
 of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know 
 that it is the best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior 
 race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the 
 Creator. // is not for us to itiquire into the luisdoni of his ordi- 
 nances, or to question them. For his own purposes he has made 
 one race to differ from another, as he has made ' one star to differ 
 from another in glory.' The great objects of humanity are best 
 attained when conformed to his laws and decrees, in the forma- 
 tion of governments as well as in all things else. Our Confed- 
 eracy is founded upon principles in strict conformity with these 
 laws. This stone which was rejected by the first builders ' is be- 
 come the chief stone of the corner' in our new edifice." 
 
 These words, you will remember, were spoken of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, when he was set at naught and rejected 
 by the Jews, his countrymen; and this Vice-President of 
 the so-called Confederate States of America does not hesi- 
 tate to declare that slavery stands, in their new system, in 
 the place that the Lord Jesus Christ holds in the Christian 
 system! It is the soul and center of it. It is the founda- 
 tion and corner-stone. 
 
 Dr. Smyth, of South Carolina, says: — 
 
 " What is the difficulty, and what the remedy ? Not in the 
 election of Republican Presidents. No. Not in the non-execu- 
 tion of the Fugitive Bill. No. But it lies back of all these. It 
 is found in that Atheistic Red Republican doctrine of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence ! Until that is trampled under foot, there 
 can be no peace." 
 
 Until either that or its antagonist is trampled under 
 foot, truly there can be no peace ! Which is to go under 
 time will show. 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 327 
 
 This is, then, mark you, a rebellion, not against an op- 
 pressive administration, but against the fundamental right 
 of liberty in every man who has not forfeited it by crime. 
 And it is declared, without equivocation or disguise, that 
 the rebellion and the war are brought upon us because our 
 Constitution contains and our government will enforce 
 great principles of equity. The people of this nation are 
 aroused to defend their Constitution and their govern- 
 ment, not simply because they are assailed; but — as if 
 Providence meant to make this conflict illustrious in the 
 annals of the world — because they are assailed in those 
 very respects in which they embody the latest fruits of 
 Christianity and the latest attainments of modern civiliza- 
 tion. The very things that belong to our age, in distinc- 
 tion from every age before it, are the things that are 
 singled out and made the objects of attack. We would 
 defend our Constitution at any rate; but when it is 
 charged with the noblest principles as if they were crimes, 
 it appeals for its defense to every conscience and to every 
 heart in this land with a solemnity as of the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 We are contending, not for that part of the Constitution 
 which came in any way from Roman law, and expressed 
 justice as it had been developed in the iron-hearted realm; 
 but for that part which Christianity gave us, and which 
 has been working forth into laws and customs for eighteen 
 hundred years. The principle now in conflict is that very 
 one which gives unity to history: it is that golden thread 
 that leads us through the dark maze of nearly two thou- 
 sand years, and connects us with the immortal Head of 
 the Church, — the principle of man's rights based upon the 
 divinity of his origin. Man from God, God a Father, and 
 the race brothers, all alike standing on one great platform 
 of justice and love, — the principle herein expressed has 
 been the foundation of the struggle of eighteen hundred 
 years; and it has been embodied (thanks to Puritan influ- 
 ence) in our Constitution. And this the exponent of 
 Southern views plainly declares to be the point of offense 
 in our government. He says, in unmeasured terms, and 
 
32S PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 with impious boldness, that it is to put down that principle 
 that the South are up in arms to-day. 
 
 Is it no cause for thanksgiving, then, that since we must 
 war, God has called us to battle on ground so high, for 
 ends so noble, in a cause so pure, and for results so univer- 
 sal ? For this is not a battle for ourselves alone. Every 
 great deed nobly done is done for all mankind. A battle 
 on the Potomac for our Constitution, as a document of lib- 
 erty, is the world's battle. We are fighting, not merely 
 for our liberty, but for those ideas that are the seeds and 
 strength of liberty throughout the earth. There is not a 
 man that feels the chain, there is not a man whose neck is 
 stiff under the yoke, whether that man be serf, yeoman, or 
 slave, who has not an interest in the conflict that we are 
 set, in the providence of God, to wage against this mon- 
 strous doctrine of iniquity. There is honey in that lion ! 
 
 II. It is matter of thanksgiving that we have not sought 
 this war, but, by a long and magnanimous course, have 
 endured shame, and political loss, and disturbance the 
 most serious, rather than peril the Union. Indeed, I 
 am bound to say that, so strong was the national feeling 
 with us, and so weak with Southern men, that we made an 
 idol of that which they trod under foot with contempt; 
 and like idolaters we threw ourselves down at the expense 
 of our very self-respect before our idol of the Union. I do 
 not mean that it would have been wrong to have taken the 
 initiative in a cause so sacred as that which impels this 
 conflict; but if, where the end is right and the cause is 
 sacred, it can also be shown that there has been patience, 
 honest and long-continued effort to preserve the right by 
 peaceful methods, — by reasoning and by moral appeal, — 
 and that that most desperate of all remedies, war, has been 
 forced upon us (not sought, nor wished, but accepted re- 
 luctantly) by the overt act of the rebellious States, then this 
 patience and forbearance will give an added luster to our 
 cause. 
 
 I make these remarks out of respect to the Christian 
 Public Sentiment of Nations. Contiguity is raising up a 
 new element of power on the globe; and we do not hesitate 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 3^9 
 
 to pay a just respect to the opinions and expectations 
 which Christian men and philanthropists of other lands 
 have entertained. We stand up boldly before the earnest 
 peace men, the kind advisers, the yearning mediators, yea, 
 and before the body of Christ, — his Church on earth, — and 
 declare that this war, which we could not avert without 
 giving up all that Christian civilization has set us to guard 
 and transmit, cannot be abandoned without betraying every 
 principle of justice, rectitude, and liberty. We do not 
 fear search and trial before the tribunal of the Christian 
 world ! In the end, those who should have given sym- 
 pathy, but have given, instead, chilling advice and ignorant 
 rebuke, shall confess their mistake, and own our fealty to 
 God, to government, and to mankind. When it would 
 have swelled our sails, there was no breath of applause or 
 sympathy. When the gale is no longer needed, and our 
 victorious voyage is ended, we shall have incense and ad- 
 miration enough ! But, meanwhile, God has called us to 
 war upon a plane higher than feet ever trod before. 
 Though we did not seek it, but prayed against it, and with 
 long endurance sought to avoid and avert it, and reluc- 
 tantly accepted it; now that it has come, it is infinite satis- 
 faction to know that we can stand acquitted before the 
 Christianity of the globe in such a conflict as this. There 
 is honey in that lion ! 
 
 III. It is a matter of thanksgiving that this war promises 
 to solve those difficult problems which have baffled the 
 wisdom of our wisest counselors. 
 
 There stands in the Vatican at Rome a marble prophecy 
 of America, — a noble and heroic man, on either side a 
 lovely son, but all, father and sons, grasped in the coils of 
 a many-times-enfolding serpent, whose tightening hold 
 not their utmost strength can resist; and, with agonizing 
 face, Laocoon looks up, as if his anguish said, " Only the 
 gods can save, whose hate we have offended ! " 
 
 So sat America. Around this government, and around 
 the clustered States, twined the gigantic serpent of slavery. 
 But here let the emblem stop. Let us hope another history 
 than that of the fabled Greek. 
 
33° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Secret and open reasons many have made slavery a mat- 
 ter most unmanageable in our national councils. Had it 
 been desired to test to the uttermost the power of republi- 
 can institutions to sustain good government, no other con- 
 ceivable trial can be imagined that would do it as this haS' 
 done, and as it will do it. It gathered up into its coils 
 almost every one of those unmanageable elements, each 
 one of which, alone, in other lands is counted a match for 
 human wisdom. An inferior race, separated from us by 
 physiological badges the most marked, and upon whom 
 rested the added stigma of servitude; a people who com- 
 ing from a tropical land brought in the element of climate; 
 whose existence, in the relations of society and govern- 
 ment, fed every one of the fiercer passions, touched but few 
 of the moral sentiments, and these feebly, and educated 
 men to idleness, avarice, lust, and pride of dominion, — 
 these poor African bondmen, in all their helplessness and 
 weakness, were yet able to plunge this nation into troubles 
 and difficulties, of caste, of race, of condition, of climate, 
 and of ambitious wealth, which the strongest and the wisest 
 knew not how to heal or to endure. War seems likely to 
 clear up the questions that Politics could not manage. 
 
 By our organic law we were forbidden to meddle with 
 local institutions, though they were injecting the national 
 veins with poison. Though we saw that from these local 
 institutions general and national influences were going 
 forth, yet our organic principle of government would not 
 permit us to lay our hand upon them. Neither could we 
 bring to bear, for their suppression, in any ample degree, 
 the moral forces by which other evils were met. No pub- 
 lic sentiment in the North could make itself felt upon 
 slavery: partly because no public sentiment can ever be 
 transported from one section to another,— for ideas may 
 travel, but influences must be developed among the people 
 on whom they are to act,— and partly because of the igno- 
 rance that prevailed, and must always prevail, among the 
 common people where slave institutions exist. There was 
 also a sectional pride, a sensitive jealousy, that must have 
 prevented access to the South of any moral influence, un- 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 331 
 
 less it had been high, pure, and commanding. But the 
 North had no such moral sentiment. The anti-slavery 
 feeling of the North has always lacked unity. The whole 
 North, by the insidious influences of commerce, of politics, 
 and of sectarian religion, has been divided into three 
 principal sections: the lowest, composed of those that 
 were either indifferent to slavery or who favored it; the 
 next, and most numerous, composed of those who, believ- 
 ing it to be an evil, deemed themselves bound by political 
 considerations, and by commercial interests, to forbear 
 meddling with it; and the last, composed of the anti-slavery 
 men of the North. These have been so divided among 
 themselves, and so intolerant of each other's doctrine^ that 
 they may be said to have expended as much strength ' 
 against each other as they have unitedly exerted against 
 slavery itself. What public sentiment could be hoped from 
 such a condition of the community, that would have au- 
 thority, or even influence, in the South ? 
 
 And so we were drifting every year; the North, partly 
 from the force of moral considerations, but even more 
 from the amazing folly and arrogance of Southern political 
 management, growing more and more consolidated for 
 liberty; and the South, changing all its original political 
 doctrines, and carrying down, with fatal gravitation, the 
 conscience of the Church and the convictions of a feeble 
 ministry, was becoming every year more determined for 
 slavery. Thus each was having less and less influence 
 with the other. 
 
 ^ It has pleased God, by the very infatuation of this gigan- 
 tic evil, rudely to dash these two sections together. That 
 out of this conflict liberty will come triumphant we do not 
 for one moment doubt. That we see the beginning of 
 national emancipation we firmly believe. And we would 
 have you firmly to believe it, lest, fearing the loss of such 
 an opportunity, you should over-eagerly grasp at accidental 
 advantages, and seek to press forward the consummation 
 by methods and measures which, freeing you from one evil, 
 shall open the door for innumerable others, and fill our 
 future with conflicts and immedicable trouble. 
 
332 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Good men in Great Britain expect us to make a Decree 
 of Universal Emancipation. Had England, either by her 
 government, or by the unmistakable language of the Chris- 
 tian public, given the South to understand that there could 
 be no possible sympathy or help for them from slave-hating 
 England in their nefarious rebellion, we do not believe that 
 this conspiracy against human rights would ever have 
 taken its present terrible proportions. Whether England 
 meant it or not, she has influenced the South powerfully in 
 its attack against the Federal Government, and in its de- 
 termination to establish republican institutions upon the 
 principle of slavery. And this misfortune is not remedied 
 by the condition upon which good men in England have 
 been*pleased to promise their sympathy, — namely, that our 
 government, assuming and usurping the proper power of 
 the States, should pronounce a decree of universal eman- 
 cipation, and convert this struggle into a war only for lib- 
 erty to the African. It was not by England's sympathy 
 that we became independent; it was not by her advice that 
 we have grown to be her equal among the nations of the 
 world; and we shall be able to settle our present troubles 
 w^ithout her sympathy or succor. I am not so ungenerous 
 as to cherish unkind feelings against the stock from which 
 I am proud to have come. I am not surprised that the 
 English nation, seldom able to understand foreign ideas 
 and institutions, should be ignorant of the structure and 
 nature of our government. We have been prepared, unfort- 
 unately, for such a course by her past conduct. The liter- 
 ature of England has been a fountain of liberty to Europe 
 . and the world; but \h& government of England, more than 
 any other on the globe, has frowned upon nations strug- 
 gling for liberty, and subsidized the despots that were 
 seeking to crush them. It is a matter of thanksgiving to 
 God, that we are not placed in a condition where our suc- 
 cess depends upon her succor. Let England abide at home 
 and twirl her million spindles, and web the globe with her 
 fabrics. She vi^ill not be a helper, but she shallh^ a specta- 
 tor. In the quick-coming end, when all our troubles are 
 settled, she will not then ungenerously withhold from us 
 
MODES AXD DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. ZZZ 
 
 her admiration. When by actions and results we have 
 proved ourselves worthy of those doctrines of human rights 
 which God has intrusted to our advocacy and defense, in 
 common with her, she shall give us, not, as now, ignorant 
 advice, but, though late, a full measure of praise. Mean- 
 while, we shall trust in God and do without England. 
 
 It cannot be denied that this recommendation of imme- 
 diate universal emancipation falls in with the Northern 
 popular impulse. The evils of slavery have augmented 
 to such a degree, the perils which it brings around our 
 government have been now so strikingly revealed, that it is 
 not surprising that men should desire at one blow to end 
 the matter. If the Constitution of these United States, 
 fairly interpreted, gives us the power to bring slavery to an 
 end, God forbid that we should neglect such an opportu- 
 nity for its exercise. But if that power is withheld, or can 
 be exercised only with the most doubtful construction, — 
 by a construction which shall not only weaken that instru- 
 ment, but essentially change its nature, withdrawing from 
 the States local sovereignty, and conferring upon Congress 
 those rights of government which have thus been with- 
 drawn from States, — then will not only slavery be destroyed, 
 but with it our very government. How far our government, 
 by a just use of its legitimate powers under the Constitu- 
 tion, can avail itself of this war to limit or even to bring 
 slavery to an end, is matter for the wisest deliberation of 
 the wisest men. If there be in the hand of the war-power, 
 as John Quincy Adams thought there was, a right of eman- 
 cipation, then let that be shown, and, in God's name, be 
 employed ! But if there be given to us no right by our 
 Constitution to enter upon the States with a legislation 
 subversive of their whole interior economy, not all the mis- 
 chiefs of slavery, and certainly not our own impatience un- 
 der its burdens and vexations, should tempt us to usurp it. 
 This conflict must be carried on tJirough our institutions, 
 not over them. Revolution is not the remedy for rebellion. 
 The exercise on the part of our government of unlawful 
 powers cannot be justified, except to save the nation from 
 absolute destruction. 
 
334 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 The South, like an immense field of nettles, has been 
 overrun with the pestilent heresies of State rights. Be- 
 cause our hands are stinging with these poisonous weeds, 
 we shall be tempted inconsiderately to go to the opposite 
 extreme, and to gather up the diffused powers of the State 
 and consolidate and centralize them in the National Gov- 
 ernment. We must not forget that, while a government of 
 confederated States sprang up, as it were, accidentally, it 
 was yet one of those divine accidents which revealed the 
 strongest form of government yet known to the world. 
 No central government can ever take the place of State 
 governments. No central heart could ever drive life-blood 
 to the extremities of this vast empire. If all the myriad 
 necessities and ever-growing interests of this continent are 
 to be cared for; if the extremest State along the Russian 
 frontier of the Northwest, or the southernmost one that 
 neighbors Mexico, or the lacustrine States of the North, 
 are all equally and alike to experience the benefits of good 
 government, it must be by maintaining unimpaired in all 
 its beneficence the American doctrine of the sovereignty 
 of local government, except in those elements which have 
 been clearly and undeniably transferred to the Federal 
 Government. 
 
 Slavery is our present evil and danger, but it is not the 
 only danger; and we firmly believe that it has passed its 
 crisis, and is running to its end. We are not to forget that 
 Future which rises before the prophetic vision, with prom- 
 ises of millennial glory. And yet every promise has its 
 shadow. With every benefit there is a corresponding dan- 
 ger. When slavery shall have wasted away, we shall not 
 then be a nation without dangers. Foes lie concealed from 
 us, but ready to spring from unsuspected ambush. The 
 human heart is the great human enemy. Lawless passions 
 are the State's perpetual danger. Destroy slavery, and you 
 have not destroyed depravity. What is slavery but 
 one way in which lust and avarice and ambition and 
 indolence have sought to enthrone themselves? Destroy 
 this throne, and will you have destroyed the occupants ? 
 In the vast increase of States along the Pacific bounds, in 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMAiVC/PATION. 335 
 
 the numerous brood of States born in that continental in- 
 tervale which the Mississippi drains, in the older States 
 along the Atlantic coast, are there to be no more gigantic 
 strides of ambition, no factions, no infuriated military- 
 struggles, no overgrown people drunk with prosperity? 
 The ocean will sooner cease to be swept by storms, than 
 this nation to be agitated by the passions of men. And 
 while we array against these, in private, the influences of 
 religion, the forces of education, and all the ameliorating 
 influences of civilization, the nation itself will still need 
 some armor of defense. That armor is the Constitution. 
 Take that away, and this nation goes down into the field of 
 its conflicts like a warrior without armor. 
 
 This is not a plea against immediate emancipation; it is 
 but a solemn caution, lest, smarting from wrong, we seize 
 the opportunity inconsiderately to destroy one evil by a 
 process that shall leave us at the mercy of all others that 
 time may bring. 
 
 Does any one ask me whether a law or a constitution is 
 superior to the original principle of justice and of liberty? 
 No; when law and constitution necessarily violate them, 
 let them be changed; but when morality and justice and 
 liberty may be wrought out by the Constitution, be that 
 method chosen. Besides, plighted faith is itself in the 
 nature of a sacred moral principle. The Constitution of 
 these United States stands upon the plighted faith of all 
 the several States over which it has authority. When we 
 cannot abide by our promises, then in methods expressly 
 provided we must withdraw the pledge and agreements, 
 and stand apart, not only as separate peoples, but under 
 new governments. 
 
 These reasonings are all the more imperative because we 
 are not shut up to doubtful constructions or violent methods 
 for the suppression of slavery. We have seen its worst 
 periods. The strength of its evil manhood is gone. Hence- 
 forth it is a decrepit giant, growing daily more infirm. 
 That it has been stricken with infatuation is shown by that 
 war which it has provoked, and which will carry emanci- 
 pation where slavery meant to secure new strength. What 
 
336 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the pen of the legislator could not do, that the sword shall 
 do. The South have brought upon themselves what we 
 never could have thrust upon them. There never was a 
 more memorable instance of condign punishment follow- 
 ing at the heels of trangression. The torch which they 
 kindled for our destruction shall light the slaves to liberty. 
 The true policy for slavery was to have retired their system 
 from public view; but they have obtruded it, rather, with 
 singular impertinence. They should have hidden it; but 
 they have cast it before them as a very bulwark. They 
 should have shielded it; but they have made it, rather, a 
 shield for themselves, and compelled the armies of the 
 United States, in striking at rebellion, to strike through 
 the shield of slavery. Less than any other system would 
 it bear disturbance; and yet they have brought an earth- 
 quake upon it. We have not destroyed the government 
 that we might strike slavery; they have sought to destroy 
 the government that they might establish slavery; and if 
 in re-establishing again the government, the sword shall 
 strike off the shackle, it will be but one more illustration 
 of that overruling Providence by which the wrath of man 
 is made to praise God. Once more the stars on our im- 
 mortal flag are stars of liberty. Wherever our armies go, 
 emancipation goes. Confiscation is the punishment of re- 
 bellion, and when applied to men, confiscation means lib- 
 erty. 
 
 What do we behold? Men, not in scores, but in hun- 
 dreds and thousands, set free by no act of their masters, 
 and by no rescript of mere political authority, are held by 
 our government. Only six months ago these men, women, 
 and children were under the local law in the South; but 
 now they have gone out of the hands of their local mas- 
 ters, and our government holds them. And how does it 
 hold them? Are they men or chattels? Where will you 
 find a law or a constitutional clause that gives the United 
 States a right to look upon its subjects — human beings, 
 endowed with intelligence, and with immortality behind 
 that intelligence — as anything else than men ? You may 
 call them "contraband," — you may with dexterity call 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 337 
 
 them ingenious or evasive names, but the Southern law 
 that said "Slave" is broken! Slaves in the possession 
 of the government of these United States can be nothing 
 else than men. They are emancipated. There are to-day 
 thousands and thousands of emancipated men in the pos- 
 session of this government, and it is bound to treat them 
 in some sort, if not as citizens, yet as men. 
 
 And consider what will be the effect of the disturbance 
 as our armies advance; — what swarms will rise up so soon 
 as liberty is given them. In so vast a system as that of 
 slavery, so loosely compacted, and so subject to fevers 
 and inflammations, the reasons of the very disturbances of 
 it, of the interruption of the occupations of the slaves, must 
 break into their own darkened minds. The drilling of 
 them for service, the putting them to the erection of forti- 
 fications, the inuring them to work for purposes of man- 
 hood, — all these things are preparing them for freedom. 
 
 But that is not all: the South has consented to pay a 
 premium of about two hundred millions of dollars for the 
 encouragement of free-labor cotton ! Never was there such 
 liberality since the world began ! They*have said to the 
 world, " If you will only outbid us in the market, we will 
 give you the opportunity. We have made our profits out 
 of cotton, but we will agree to tie up our hands for two 
 years, and let others take the two hundred millions of dol- 
 lars, and raise the cotton." So the West Indies have 
 planted cotton; India is raising it; China is raising it; they 
 are planting cotton on the shores of Africa; and all the world 
 has become a cotton-field, because there is a premium 
 offered upon cotton that industry cannot but be interested 
 in. And the thunder that rocks us is the calm that raises 
 cotton in other lands. There seems a peculiar beauty in 
 that justice by which, since cotton on these shores invoked 
 the African from Africa, cotton on the African shores shall 
 reach out its soft white hand and strike off the shackle on 
 these shores. As cotton has made slavery, so cotton shall 
 cure it. 
 
 Let me, then, present, as another cause for the most pro- 
 found thanksgiving, the fact that, although all the steps 
 
33^ PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and details of the process by which emancipation is to be 
 accomplished are not yet apparent, we see the direction in 
 which it is coming, and towards which it is traveling. 
 War will do what peace could not; and what war leaves 
 unaccomplished must soon come to pass from commercial 
 reasons. For the first time since our Revolution, good men 
 see the end of slavery near at hand ! 
 
 Once more. When this great struggle is passed, it will 
 lay the foundations of a peace firmer than we have ever 
 had before. First, because it must extinguish that pesti- 
 lent heresy of the absolute sovereignty of individual States. 
 We are not thirty crowned sovereigns sitting in council to- 
 gether; we are thirty united States whose general union 
 and whose local independence are both alike distinct and 
 immutable. The government cannot take away the local 
 authority of the States, and the States may not usurp or 
 resist the Federal Government in its proper sphere. 
 Slavery is the burglar, but absolute State Sovereignty is 
 the crevice into which the powder was sifted that was ex- 
 pected to explode this government. The government must 
 be made burgla1"-proof by stopping up all such seams. 
 
 In the next place, this conflict, when ended, will bring 
 the North and the South into a better mutual knowledge 
 and respect. They have hitherto met chiefly in two places; 
 at the watering-place, and in Congress. The South have 
 come hither to such places as Saratoga and Newport. The 
 people who congregate at our fashionable watering-places 
 are not always the best exponents of Northern society. 
 The other place where the North and the South met was 
 in the halls of Congress; and Heaven forbid that it should 
 be thought that the men hitherto there have fairly repre- 
 sented Northern virtue or courage ! But now we have sent a 
 representative body that we are quite willing should march 
 through the South to tell them what Northern men are, 
 and what Northern men can do. By the time our army 
 has gone through the Southern States, there will be a 
 change in public opinion there, with respect to the man- 
 hood, the courage, the power, and the resources of the 
 North. They have not respected us. They have not un- 
 
MODES AA'D DUTIES OE EMANCIPATION: 339 
 
 derstood our civilization. Such is the inevitable condition 
 of the men that slavery breeds, that they cannot under- 
 stand the patience and forbearance of Christian civiliza- 
 tion; and the thing that will best inoculate them with a 
 proper appreciation of these matters is the armed hand. 
 And when they find that we are courageous, a match, and 
 more than a match, for them in arms, from that moment 
 they will respect us. And when there is more respect in 
 the South for the North, there will be a better chance for 
 peace. 
 
 There are likewise causes of rejoicing for the providen- 
 tial events that have accompanied this struggle thus far. 
 There have been years when, if this war had broken out, I 
 know not how we should have maintained it. I shudder 
 when I look back upon the condition in which the North 
 has been. If ten years ago this struggle had been forced 
 upon Us, our foes would have been of our own household. 
 But what a journey have we made in ten years ! Not the 
 distance from the Red Sea to the promised land was half 
 so long as that over which we have passed. A great 
 change has within that period taken place in the public 
 sentiment of the North, and in the unity of good men. 
 Since 1850 we have been going through a wonderful trans- 
 formation. And not until we were in some sense prepared 
 for it did God permit the evolution of the causes that 
 brought to pass this crisis. And now it is a matter of 
 thanksgiving that we are an undivided North. I do not 
 mean that there are no reptiles that lurk and hiss; but I 
 mean t^at they no sooner put their head 'above the earth 
 than they are scotched ! The North stands like the old 
 Apostle who, when he threw fuel on the fire, found a viper 
 fastened on his hand. When the spectators saw it, they 
 thought that he was only an escaped criminal, and that 
 he would die; but when he shook the serpent off, and suf- 
 fered no harm, they thought he was a god. And so the 
 North, standing by its fiery war, and casting on fuel, finds 
 upon its hand vipers; but it shakes them off and suffers no 
 harm. We are a united, infrangible, indivisible North; and 
 just as sure as the sun rises and sets, we shall be victorious. 
 
34° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Nor are we to forget that as "the stars in their courses 
 fought against Sisera," as it were prefiguring the working 
 of natural laws for God's purposes among men, so great 
 agencies of nature have been, in this conflict, co-operating 
 with us. Who of us that mourned and shuddered in the 
 commercial crisis of '57 knew that God was saying, "Take 
 in sail; put your ship in order: a great hurricane is 
 about to fall upon you?" Nevertheless, we did put the 
 ship in good condition; and now that the storm has fallen 
 we understand the warning. And never was the North so 
 well able to bear the pressure of war as now. Although 
 individual men are failing, yet never was the North so rich, 
 and so competent to carry on this conflict as now. 
 
 Nor was that all: it pleased God to say to the winds, that 
 did not know the reason; and to the rains, that knew not 
 why; and to the sun, that, traveling far and near, fulfills 
 God's purposes unknowingly, "Make the earth teem ! breed 
 corn in every clod ! " And he that made the seven years 
 of plenty to stand against the seven years of famine in 
 Egypt, made two years of superabundance in our land, — 
 for what ? To take the crown from the head of Cotton, and 
 put it on the head of Corn. And why? Because this has 
 been the peculiar boast of the South: "Cotton is king, and 
 by its power we will bring France, with her haughty Em- 
 peror, and England, with her needy mechanics, to our 
 terms; and then we will crush the North." We do not 
 know what God is saying to us. I went through the corn- 
 field, — ignorant soul that I was, — and heard the rustling of 
 the leaves. I thought it was only the wind blowing through 
 the corn, and I did not hear the messages. It was God 
 speaking in a literature that was uninterpreted to me then, 
 but which now I understand. Every field in the North 
 lifted up its long sword-blades and prefigured victorious 
 arms; and every wind that came said, "Liberty is coming; 
 Emancipation is coming; Corn shall dethrone Cotton ! " 
 For now, just when manufacturing England would have 
 required our ports to be opened, she happens to need our 
 corn more than the cotton of the Southern States. She 
 must feed her men before she gives their hands anything 
 
MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 341 
 
 to do. We come nearer to keeping them from starving 
 than the South does to clothing them. And what do we 
 see in France? The Emperor sits on his precarious seat, 
 and finds it at present expedient to lay aside his preroga- 
 tive of opening fresh budgets of expenses; and offers 
 to restrict himself, and to economize, and to save money 
 in various ways; while, if France had been in a con- 
 dition of boundless prosperity, she might have wished 
 to have a finger in matters here. Thus France is obliged 
 to cut down her army. So we have guaranties for peace 
 there, and guaranties for peace in England; and they 
 will not stir to interfere with our affairs. This fight is 
 to be fought out by ourselves. While preparations for 
 this conflict have been going on, God has poured money 
 into our coffers, and taken it away from those that might 
 use it to our harm. He is holding back France and En- 
 gland, and saying to all men and nations, "Appoint the 
 bounds ! Let none enter the lists to interfere, while those 
 gigantic warriors battle for victory ! Liberty and God, 
 and Slavery and the Devil, stand over against each other, 
 and let no man put hand or foot into the ring till they have 
 done battle unto death ! " Amen. Even so, Lord God Al- 
 mighty. It is thy decree ! And it shall stand ! And when 
 the victory shall come, not unto us, not unto us, but — in 
 the voice of thrice ten thousand, and thousands of thou- 
 sands of ransomed ones, mingling with thine earthly chil- 
 dren's gladness — unto thee shall be the praise and the 
 glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN 
 DEMOCRACY/ 
 
 " So the king of the South shall come into his kingdom, and shall return 
 into his own land. But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a 
 multitude of great forces : and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and 
 pass through : then shall he return, and be stirred up even to his fortress. 
 And the king of the South shall be moved with choler, and shall come 
 forth and fight with him, even with the king of the North : and he shall 
 set forth a great multitude ; but the multitude shall be given into his hand. 
 And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up ; 
 and he shall cast down many ten thousands ; but he shall not be strength- 
 ened by it. For the king of the North shall return, and shall set forth a 
 multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain 
 years with a great army and with much riches. And in those times there 
 shall many stand up against the king of the South ; also the robbers of thy 
 people shall e.xalt themselves to establish the vision : but they shall fall. 
 So the king of the North shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the 
 most fenced cities : and the arms of the South shall not withstand, neither 
 his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand. But 
 he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none 
 shall stand before him ; and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by 
 his hand shall be consumed. He shall also set his face to enter with the 
 strength of his whole kingdom. And equality" — or conditions of equality 
 — "shall be with him ; thus shall he do." — Dan. xi. 9-17. 
 
 I DO not use these words in any close historical sense. 
 They are a very poetic and glowing description of a con- 
 flict in which, with a singular fitness to our times, both the 
 terms North and South, and the events which were predicted, 
 are strikingly suggestive. And although a sharp exegesis 
 might destroy some parts of the seeming analogy, I shall 
 consider them as a splendid poetic imagery. As such, I 
 think you will agree with me that it is a remarkable pas- 
 sage, and that it not only describes the past with great ac- 
 
 * April 13, 1S62, the anniversary Sunday of the attack on Fort Sumter. 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 343 
 
 curacy, but throws a blazing light upon the times that are 
 to come. We are in the midst of times the most exciting; 
 times that demand faith; times in which the teachings and 
 prophecies of Scripture come with peculiar emphasis. 
 
 You will remember the scenes of one year ago. It was 
 just such a bright and beautiful day as this has been. The 
 air was full of news. These great cities boiled like cal- 
 drons. The people had learned that the guns had opened 
 upon Fort Sumter. Treason was consummated ! Our 
 hearts yearned toward the brave garrison. We hoped that 
 the leaders and their companions in arms would sustain 
 the stronghold. Our hearts felt the cold breath of horror, 
 when at last it was known that the flag of the Union had 
 been assaulted. The forts that had belched their fire upon 
 that flag had been built underneath its protection. They 
 had carried it for years upon their flag-staff. The very 
 guns that were flaming upon it had been founded and 
 forged under its flowing folds. The men that aimed them 
 had been born and reared under its protection. That flag 
 had been the honored ensign of our people in their memo- 
 rable struggle for independence. It had seen the British 
 arms laid down before it. It had been honored in every 
 land. Our men-of-war had borne it, without disgrace, to 
 every part of the world. Nor was there a port upon the 
 globe where men chose or dared to insult that national 
 emblem. That inglorious wickedness was reserved to our 
 own people ! It was by American hands that it was dis- 
 honored, slit with balls, and trailed in the dust ! 
 
 That a crime so unnatural and monstrous was then going 
 on, makes the anniversary of this day memorable above all 
 Sabbaths of our history. It was an infernal insurrection 
 against liberty, good government, and civilization, on the 
 most sacred day of the week ! We shall not soon experi- 
 ence a like excitement again. Although but a year ago, 
 it seems ten years. And, in ordinary history, ten years are 
 not so full of matter as has been this single year. It is full 
 of events visible, but yet more full of those things that do 
 not come under corporeal observation. 
 
 Such has been the intensity of public feeling, that it has 
 
344 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 seemed as if nothing was doing. We have chidden those 
 in authority, and felt that due speed had not been made. 
 But within one twelvemonth a gigantic army has been 
 raised and drilled; all its equipments created; all the ma- 
 terial of war produced and collected together. The can- 
 non that now reverberate across the continent, a twelve- 
 month ago were sleeping ore in the mountains. The cloth- 
 ing of thousands was fleece upon the backs of sheep. As 
 we look back, we can scarcely believe our own senses, that 
 so much has been done; although, at every single hour of 
 it, it seemed as if little was being done, — for all the speed 
 and all the power of this great government were not so 
 fast and eager as our thoughts and desires were. 
 
 A navy has sprung forth, almost at a word; and, stran- 
 ger still, by the skill of our inventors and naval construct- 
 ors, a new era has been inaugurated in naval warfare. It 
 is probable that forts and ships have come to the end of 
 one dispensation, and that the old is to give place here- 
 after to the new. 
 
 The history of this year is the history of the common 
 people of America. It is memorable on account of the 
 light that it throws upon them. We are fond of talking of 
 American ideas. There are such things as American ideas, 
 distinctive, peculiar, national. Not that they were first 
 discovered here, or that they are only entertained here; 
 but because more than anywhere else they lie at the root 
 of the institutions, and are working out the laws and the 
 policies, of this people. 
 
 The root idea is this: that man is the most sacred trust 
 of God to the world; that his value is derived from his 
 moral relations, from his divinity. Looked at in his rela- 
 tions to God and the eternal world, every man is so valu- 
 able that you cannot make distinction between one and an- 
 other. If you measure a man by the skill that he can ex- 
 hibit, and the fruit of it, there is great distinction between 
 one and another. Men are not each worth the same thing 
 to society. All men cannot think with a like value, nor 
 work with a like product. And if you measure man as a 
 producing creature — that is, in his secular relations — men 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 345 
 
 are not alike valuable. But when you measure men on 
 their spiritual side, and in their affectional relations to God 
 and the eternal world, the lowest nian is so immeasurable 
 in value that you cannot make any practical difference be- 
 tween one man and another. Although, doubtless, some 
 are vastly above others, the lowest and least goes beyond 
 your power of conceiving, and your power of measuring. 
 This is the root idea, which, if not recognized, is yet opera- 
 tive. It is the fundamental principle of our American scheme, 
 that is, Man is above nature. Man, by virtue of his origi- 
 nal endowment and affiliation to the Eternal Father, is 
 superior to every other created thing. There is nothing to 
 be compared with man. All governments are from him 
 and for him, and not over him and upon him. All institu- 
 tions are not his masters, but his servants. All days, all 
 ordinances, all usages, come to minister to the chief and 
 the king, God's son, man, of whom God only is master. 
 Therefore he is to be thoroughly enlarged, thoroughly em- 
 powered by development, and then thoroughly trusted. 
 This is the American idea, — for we stand in contrast with 
 the world in holding and teaching it; that men, having been 
 once thoroughly educated, are to be absolutely trusted. 
 
 The education of the common people follows, then, as a 
 necessity. They are to be fitted to govern. Since all 
 things are from them and for them, they must be educated 
 to their function, to their destiny. No pains are spared, 
 we know, in Europe, to educate princes and nobles who 
 are to govern. No expense is counted too great, in Europe, 
 to prepare the governing classes for their function. 
 America has her governing class, too; and that governing 
 class is the whole people. It is a slower work, because it 
 is so much larger. It is never carried so high, because 
 there is so much more of it. It is easy to lift up a crowned 
 class. It is not easy to lift up society from the very foun- 
 dation. That is the work of centuries. And therefore, 
 though we have not an education so deep nor so high as it 
 is in some other places, we have it broader than it is any- 
 where else in the world; and we have learned that for 
 ordinary affairs intelligence among the common people is 
 
346 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 better than treasures of knowledge among particular 
 classes of the people. School books do more for the coun- 
 try than encyclopaedias. 
 
 And so there comes up the American conception of a 
 common people as an order of nobility, or as standing in 
 the same place to us that orders of nobility stand to other 
 peoples. Not that, after our educated men and men of 
 genius are counted out, we call all that remain the common 
 people. The whole community, top and bottom and inter- 
 mediate, the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor, 
 the leaders and the followers, constitute with us the com- 
 monwealth; in which laws spring from the people, admin- 
 istration conforms to their wishes, and they are made the 
 final judges of every interest of the State. 
 
 In America there is not one single element of civilization 
 that is not made to depend, in the end, upon public opinion. 
 Art, law, administration, policy, reformations of morals, 
 religious teaching, all derive, in our form of society, the 
 most potent influence from the common people. For al- 
 though the common people are educated in preconceived 
 notions of religion, the great intuitions and instincts of the 
 heart of man rise up afterwards, and in their turn influence 
 back. So there is action and reaction. 
 
 It is this very thing that has led men that are educated, 
 in Europe, to doubt the stability of our nation. Owing to 
 a strange ignorance on their part, our glory has seemed to 
 them our shame, and our strength has seemed to them our 
 weakness, and our invincibility has seemed to them our 
 disaster and defeat. This impression of Europeans has 
 been expressed in England in language that has surprised 
 us, and that one day will surprise them. We know more 
 of it in England because the English language is our 
 mother tongue, and we are more concerned to know what 
 England thinks of us than any other nation. 
 
 But it is impossible that nations educated into sympathy 
 with strong governments, and with the side of those that 
 govern, should sympathize with the governed. In this 
 country the sympathy goes with the governed, and not 
 with the governing, as much as in the other countries it 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 347 
 
 goes with the governing, and not with the governed. And 
 abroad they are measuring by a false rule, and by ahome- 
 'bred and one-sided sympathy. 
 
 It is impossible for men who have not seen it to under- 
 stand that there is no society possible that will bear such 
 expansion and contraction, such strains and burdens, as a 
 society made up of free educated common people, with 
 democratic institutions. It has been supposed that such a 
 society was the most unsafe, and the least capable of control 
 of any. But whether tested by external pressure, or, as now, 
 by the most wondrous internal evils, an educated demo- 
 cratic people are the strongest government that can be made 
 on the face of the earth. In no other form of society is it so 
 safe to set discussion at large. Nowhere else is there such 
 safety in the midst of apparent conflagration. Nowhere 
 else is there such entire rule, when there seems to be such 
 entire anarchy. A foreigner would think, pending a presi- 
 dential election, that the end of the world had come. The 
 people roar and dash like an ocean. " No government," 
 he would say, " was ever strong enough to hold such wild 
 and tumultuous enthusiasm, and zeal, and rage." True. 
 There is not a government strong enough to hold them. 
 Nothing but j-^Z/'-government will do it: that will. Edu- 
 cate men to take care of themselves, individually and in 
 masses, and then let the winds blow; then let the storms 
 fall; then let excitements burn, and men will learn to move 
 freely upon each other, as do drops of water in the ocean. 
 Our experience from generation to generation has shown 
 that, though we may have fantastic excitements; though 
 the whole land may seem to have swung from its moorings 
 on a sea of the wildest agitation, we have only to let the 
 silent-dropping paper go into the box, and that is the end 
 of the commotion. To-day, the flames mount to heaven; 
 and on every side you hear the most extravagant prophe- 
 cies and the fiercest objurgations; and both sides know 
 that, if they do not succeed, the end of the world will have 
 come. But to-morrow the vote is declared, and each side 
 go home laughing, to take hold of the plough and the spade; 
 and they are satisfied that the nation is safe after all. 
 
348 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 And we have come to ridicule the idea of danger from 
 excitements. Where else was there ever a nation that 
 could bear to have every question, no matter how fiery or 
 how fierce, let loose to go up and down, over hill and 
 through valley, without police or government restraint 
 upon the absolute liberty of the common people ? Where 
 else was ever a government that could bear to allow entire 
 free discussion ? We grow strong under it. Voting is the 
 cure of evil with us. Liberty, that is dangerous abroad, is 
 our very safety. And since our whole future depends upon 
 our rightly understanding this matter, — the liberty of the 
 common people, and the glory of the common people, — 
 and since this government of our educated common people 
 is to be the death of slavery, and to spread over this con- 
 tinent an order of things for which in past experience there 
 is no parallel, and for which men's ideas are not prepared, 
 — we do well to take heed of this memorable year of the 
 common people. For histories will register this year of 
 1861-62 as the year of the common people of America. 
 
 I. One year ago there fell a storm upon the great heart 
 of the cornmon people, which swayed it as the ocean is 
 swayed. It has not calmed itself yet. It was that -shot at 
 the American flag that touched the national heart. No 
 one knew before what a depth of feeling was there. We 
 did not know how our people had clustered about that 
 banner all their ideas of honor and patriotism and glory. 
 We did not know how the past and future met and stood 
 together upon that flag in the imagination of every Amer- 
 ican. In an hour all this was disclosed. And what was 
 the manifestation of that hour? All things that separated 
 the common people of America were at once forgotten. 
 There rose up, with appalling majesty, the multitude of 
 the common people. The schemes of treachery, the polit- 
 ical webs that had been framed, went down in a moment; 
 and the voice of the common people it was that called the 
 government to be energetic, to take courage, and to rescue 
 the land. 
 
 But I would not have you suppose that the common peo- 
 ple gave forth merely an unreasoning zeal, — a furious burst 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 349 
 
 of patriotic emotion. The common people of the North 
 had, and they still have, a clear, comprehensive, and true 
 idea of American nationality, such as we looked for in vain 
 in many of the leaders of past times. They had taken in 
 the right view of national unity. They had a right view 
 of the trust of territory held in common by all, for all, on 
 this continent. They felt, more than any others, that Di- 
 vine Providence had given to this people, not a northern 
 part, not a middle ridge, not a southern section, but an un- 
 divided continent. They held it, not for pride, not for 
 national vanity, not to be cut and split into warring sec- 
 tions, but as a sacred trust, held for sublimest ends of 
 human happiness, in human liberty. And the instincts and 
 intuitions of the common people it was that made this, 
 not a struggle for sectional precedency, but a struggle for 
 the maintenance of the great national trust, and for the 
 establishment of American ideas over the whole American 
 continent. And our government felt that they could lean 
 back on the brave heart of the great intelligent people. 
 
 While, then, men of our own blood are ignorant and 
 blind; while even to this hour the ablest statesmen in the 
 British Parliament are declaring, though in a friendly 
 spirit in most respects, that it were better that an amicable 
 settlement and separation should take place, and that they 
 should live apart who cannot live peaceably together, our 
 common people are greater than parliaments or than min- 
 isters; and they see, and feel, and know, that God has 
 rolled upon them a duty, not of present peace, but of 
 future stability, national grandeur, and continental liberty. 
 This is the doctrine of the common people, and it will stand. 
 
 For that idea our common people are giving their sons, 
 their blood, and their treasure, and they will continue to 
 the uttermost to give them. 
 
 For this sake see what a common people can do. One 
 of the most difficult things for any people to do, for any 
 reason, is to lay aside their animosities and malignant feel- 
 ings. But this great common people have laid aside every 
 animosity, every party feeling, and all political disagree- 
 ments; and for one year they have maintained an honest 
 
35° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 unity. I a;n more proud of the substantial unity that has 
 been wrought out in the North, than of any battle that has 
 been fought. It is the noblest evidence of the strength of 
 our form of government. 
 
 The common people have given without stint their sons, 
 their substance, and their ingenuity: and they are not 
 weary of giving. They have consented patiently to the 
 interruption of their industries, and to all the burdens 
 which taxes bring. Taxes touch men in a very tender 
 place; for human nature resides very strongly in the par- 
 ticular neighborhood where taxes anchor. And if any- 
 thing takes hold of men and brings them to their bearings, 
 it is the imposition of burdens that are felt in the pocket. 
 I sometimes think that men can carry burdens on their 
 hearts more easily than on their exchequer. But they have 
 taken both the burdens of taxation and bereavements, they 
 have given both blood and money; and they are willing to 
 bear the load as long as it is necessary to secure this con- 
 tinent to liberty. 
 
 They have demanded of this Administration which they 
 themselves ordained, that it should not spare them. The 
 only thing that the people have ever been disposed to 
 blame the government for has been that it has not moved 
 fast enough; that it has not done enough. "Take more; 
 call for more; do more!" is the demand of the people 
 upon the government. 
 
 They have accepted the most unwonted and dangerous 
 violations of the fundamental usages of this land with im- 
 plicit submission. They are a proud people, jealous of 
 their rights; a proud people, the flash of whose eye is like 
 blood when they are wronged in their fundamental rights; 
 and yet, the precious writ of habeas corpus has been sus- 
 pended, and they have consented. They have been re- 
 stricted in their intercourse to a degree altogether unprece- 
 dented, and they have judged it expedient to submit. 
 
 They have submitted to the limitation of speech and 
 discussion, — a thing most foreign to American ideas. The 
 arrest of men without legal process or accusation, and their 
 imprisonment and long duress without trial, — these are 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 35 i 
 
 new in our times and in tliis land. And yet, under all 
 these interruptions of our most grave and important prin- 
 ciples and rights, the people have been calm; they have 
 trusted their government; and they have been willing to 
 wait. 
 
 These are dangerous things, even in extremity; but for 
 their sakes who control the affairs of this nation, and that 
 they might have the most unlimited power to crush the 
 rebellion, and establish liberty, the common people, with 
 magnanimous generosity, have yielded up these imperish- 
 able rights. 
 
 When the whole national heart beat with gratification at 
 the arrest of men who had been at the root of this grand 
 treachery, mark, I beseech of you, the bearing of the com- 
 mon people of America. If there was one thing about 
 which they were expected to rage like wolves, it was this. 
 Nothing in external circumstances could be more irritating 
 and aggravating than those exhibitions of foreign feeling 
 which came to our knowledge. I know that the diplomatic 
 language of the two governments was very smooth and un- 
 exceptionable; and I am informed that the tone of many 
 of the local papers of England was kind; but all the En- 
 glish papers that I saw, with one or two exceptions, were 
 of such a spirit that I will characterize them only by say- 
 ing that gooc| breeding was not common where the editors of 
 them lived. If there was one single missile more offensive 
 than another, it was eagerly sought out. Tried on the side 
 of revenge; tried on the side of national animosities; tried 
 by foreign impertinence and unkindness; tried at home in 
 the midst of treachery, in the midst of war, in the midst of 
 troubles and burdens, and in the midst of an interrupted 
 commerce, — mark the heroic conduct of this great Ameri- 
 can people. 
 
 Government pronounced its judgment against the feel- 
 ings and expectations of the common people. Slidell and 
 Mason were to be given up. There was silence instantly, 
 and thoughtfulness, throughout this land. Then came ac- 
 quiescence, full, cheerful, uncomplaining. I have yet to see 
 a single paper that seriously, after the appearance of the 
 
352 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 letter of the Secretary of State, made one complaint or ill- 
 natured remark. Such a thing was never before seen in 
 the history of the world. Mason and Slidell might have 
 been taken from Washington to Boston Harbor under the 
 care of a single officer, without molestation from the com- 
 mon people of America. These are the common people 
 that they are pleased to call the mob of America; but not 
 among the crowned heads and privileged classes, not 
 among any other people on the earth, is there such stabil- 
 ity, such order, such self-restraint, such dignity, and such sub- 
 lime nobility, as there is among the educated common people 
 of America. God bless them ! Under the terrible inflic- 
 tions of battle, under griefs innumerable, in the midst of 
 desolations that go to the very heart of families, there is 
 the same noble, patient, uncomplaining cheerfulness and 
 devotion to this great cause. 
 
 II. The history of this year has silently developed many 
 convictions based upon great truths. It has, in the first 
 place, revolutionized the whole opinion of men as to the 
 relative military power of the Free States and Slave States 
 of America. It was an almost undisputed judgment, that 
 the habits of the South bred prowess; that they werechiv- 
 alric; that their educated men were better officers than 
 ours; and that their common people, in the hour of battle, 
 would be better soldiers than the laboring classes of the 
 North. It never was our faith, it never was our belief, but 
 that the laboring and educated common people were just 
 as much better for military development, when the time 
 came, as for ordinary industrial purposes. Events have 
 justified our impressions in this regard. 
 
 Let us look, for a moment, at the line of battle. Passing 
 by the earlier conflicts prematurely brought on, in which 
 the advantage was, without good conduct on either side, 
 in favor of Southern men, what is the general conclusion 
 from that line of conflicts that subsequently followed each 
 other almost without interruption, from Hilton Head, 
 Beaufort, Roanoke, New-Berne, Fort Henry, Fort Donel- 
 son, Somerset, Nashville, Island Number Ten, Pittsburg 
 Landinor? 
 
/Kct^^i^^-.^ /'/-:;^^.-i.u-'^>c^^<yC 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 353 
 
 Without further particularizing, what have been the 
 general results of this series of conflicts ? The rebels are 
 swept out of the upper and eastern parts of Virginia. They 
 have lost one portion of North Carolina. Their seaboard 
 is almost taken from them. They have been driven from 
 Kentucky and Missouri, and in Tennessee they are close 
 pressed on Memphis itself. They are on the eve, appar- 
 ently, of losing the great metropolis of the Southwest. 
 And has there been one single field in which Northern en- 
 durance and courage have not been made to appear emi- 
 nent over Southern ? In the battle of Pittsburg Landing 
 what a disparity there was in generalship between the 
 North and the South ! That battle was won by the soldiers. 
 The Southwestern men had every advantage in military 
 skill, and on our side the only advantage was that we had 
 men who would not be beaten. Our soldiers had little help 
 of generalship. It was hands, and not brains, that con- 
 quered there. 
 
 This matter, then, will, from this time forth, stand on 
 different ground. It is not for the sake of vainglorying 
 that I make these allusions. If it were not that I have a 
 moral end in view, I should think them unseasonable; but we 
 shall never have peace until we have respect, we shall never 
 have respect so long as a boasting Southern effete popula- 
 tion think that they can overmaster Northern sturdy yeo- 
 men. When they know what Northern muscle and blows 
 mean, they will respect them; and when they respect them, 
 we shall be able to live in harmony with them: and not 
 till then. 
 
 But there are many other things that have been evolved 
 in the history of the year. There have been convictions 
 wrought in the minds of the thinking common people that 
 will not be easily worn out. There is coming to be a gen- 
 eral conviction, that men brought up under the influence 
 of slavery are contaminated to the very root, and they can- 
 not make good citizens of a republic. The radical nature 
 of slavery is such as to destroy the possibility of good citi- 
 zenship in the masses of men. Exceptions there are, 
 because even in the Slave States there are large neighbor- 
 
354 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 hoods where slavery does not exist, and where many men 
 are superior to their circumstances. But the average ten- 
 dency of slave influences is to narrow men; to make them 
 selfish; to unfit them for public spirit; to destroy that 
 large patriotism from which comes the feeling of nation- 
 ality. 
 
 I think there is a widening conviction, that slavery and 
 its laws, and liberty and its institutions, cannot exist un- 
 der one government. And I think that, if it were not for 
 the impediment of supposed constitutional restrictions 
 there would be an almost universal disposition to sweep, 
 as with a deluge, this gigantic evil out of our land. The 
 feeling of the people in this matter is unmistakable. The 
 recommendation of the President of these United States, 
 which has been corroborated by the resolution of Con- 
 gress, is one of the most memorable events of our history. 
 The fact that a policy of emancipation has been recom- 
 mended by the Chief Magistrate, and indorsed by Con- 
 gress, cannot be overestimated in importance. Old John 
 Quincy Adams lifted his head in the grave, methinks, 
 when that resolution was carried, — he that was almost 
 condemned for treason because he dared to introduce in 
 Congress a subject that looked towards emancipation. 
 Last Friday — a day not henceforth to be counted inauspi- 
 cious — was passed the memorable bill giving liberty to the 
 slave in the District of Columbia. One might almost say, 
 if the President had signed it, " Lord, now let thy servant 
 depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes 
 have seen thy salvation." It is worth living for a lifetime 
 to see the capital of our government redeemed from the 
 stigma and shame of being a slave mart. I cannot doubt 
 that the President of the United States will sign that bill. 
 It shall not shake my confidence in him, but it certainly 
 will not change my judgment that it should be signed, if 
 he does not sign it. It would have been better if it had 
 been signed the moment that it was received; but we 
 have found out by experience that though Abraham Lin- 
 coln is sure, he is slow; and that though he is slow, he is 
 sure ! 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 355 
 
 I think that it is beginning to be seen that the North, 
 for its own sake, must exert every proper constitutional in- 
 fluence, and every moral influence, to cleanse the South 
 from the contamination of slavery. What gambling- 
 houses and drinking-saloons are to the young men of a 
 neighborhood, taking hold of their animal passions, and 
 corrupting them where human nature is most temptable, 
 undermining their character, and wasting their stamina, 
 that Southern marts are to our common people. The ani- 
 mal parts of our nature come naturally into sympathy 
 with the South. The Southern institution is an academy 
 of corruption to the animal feelings of the whole people, 
 and it will continue to be throwing back into our system 
 elements of inflammation and trouble as long as it exists. 
 I dread such a settlement of this controversy as will fol- 
 low whenever all malignant passions and political machi- 
 nations shall have swept the bad men of the North and of 
 the South together again for future legislation. 
 
 We have begun, also, to suspect another thing, which 
 we shall learn more and more thoroughly; and that is, 
 that hereafter, in this nation, the North must prevail. For 
 the North is the nation, and the South is but the fringe. 
 The heart is here; the trunk is here; the brain is here. 
 The most exquisite compliment ever paid to New England 
 was in the secret scheme and machination of the leaders 
 of the rebellion, which it was supposed would be success- 
 ful. They meant to threaten secession and war, and 
 arouse a party in the North that would unite with them, 
 and then reconstruct in such a way as to leave New En- 
 gland out, and take all the rest of the nation in. Had 
 they succeeded, they would have been in the condition of 
 a man that should go to bed whole at night, and wake 
 up in the morning without his head ! For the brain of 
 this nation is New England. There is not a part that does 
 not derive its stimulus and supply from that fountain of 
 laws and ideas. Well may they wish to exclude from their 
 corrupt constitution and laws that part of this nation 
 which has been the throne of God. Well may they desire 
 to separate themselves from that portion of our country 
 
356 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 which has been the source of all that is godlike in Ameri- 
 can history. But I do not think that they will cut off our 
 head. And hereafter I think it will be felt more and more 
 that the North is the nation: not New England, but the 
 whole North from ocean to ocean, — all that is comprised 
 in the Northern loyal Free States. It is the foundation of 
 industry; it is the school of intelligence; it is the home of 
 civilized institutions; it is the repository of those princi- 
 ples which are the foundation of our political fabric; and 
 if we hope to save the government and our peculiar ideas, 
 it is the North that must save them, and not the South. 
 We may just as well say it as to disguise it. Whatever 
 may be wise or unwise, expedient or inexpedient, in times 
 of party management, I do not hesitate to say, and I re- 
 peat it again and again, that the North is this nation, and 
 that the North must govern it: not against the Constitu- 
 tion, but by the Constitution; not against law, but through 
 law; not for selfishness, but for the well-being of the 
 whole; not to aggrandize itself, but to enrich every State 
 in the Union, from the North to the South, and from the 
 East to the West. The South are prodigal sons; they are 
 wasters; they are destroyers. The North has conservative 
 forces; and now that she has come to govern, she will be 
 derelict, she will forfeit every claim to respect, and she will 
 bring the judgment of God on her head, if she hesitates 
 to take the government, and maintain it till she has car- 
 ried the principles of the American people of this conti- 
 nent triumphantly through. 
 
 Since, then, her ascendency means liberty, the thrift of 
 the common people, and the progress of civilization, the 
 North owes it to the nation itself not to yield up that as- 
 cendency. One side or the other must prevail. Let it be 
 that side that carries forward to the future the precious 
 legacies of the past. There go two principles looking to 
 the future. One is represented by our flag, and all its 
 starry folds. Liberty; democratic equality; Christianity; 
 God, the only king; right, the only barrier and restraint; 
 and then, God and right being respected, liberty to all, 
 from top to bottom, and the more liberty the stronger and 
 
THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 357 
 
 safer, — that is the Northern conception. And that is the 
 precious seed that shall pierce to State after State, rolling 
 westward her empire. What has the North done ? Look 
 at Michigan; look at Ohio; look at Indiana; look at Illi- 
 nois; look at Wisconsin; look at Iowa. These are the 
 fruits of Northern ideas. And where is the South ? Look 
 at Missouri; look at Texas. See what States she rears. 
 And which of these shall be the seed-planter of the future ? 
 Which shall carry the victorious banner ? Shall the South 
 carry her bastard bunting, bearing the pestiferous seed of 
 slavery, degradation, and national rottenness? or shall the 
 North, advancing her banner, carry with her stars and 
 stripes all that they symbolize, — God's glory in man's lib- 
 erty? I think — and I thank God for it — that the great 
 heart of this people is beginning to accept this destiny, 
 and that it is becoming the pride of their future. 
 
 There is but one other thing that I will say, for I do not 
 wish to weary you with too long a discussion of that which is 
 dear to my own heart as life itself. While there have been 
 many incidental ills and evils occasioned by the present 
 conflict, it has had one good effect in amalgamating this 
 heterogeneous people. Since we have received millions 
 from foreign lands, there have been some political jealous- 
 ies toward those belonging to other nations. I think you 
 have seen the end of that most un-American Native-Amer- 
 icanism. There is not one nation that has not contributed 
 its quota to fight the battles of liberty. The blood of 
 the Yankee has mingled with the blood of the Irishman. 
 Right beside our Curtis was the noble Sigel. Right by the 
 side of the wounded American lay the wounded German. 
 Two tongues met when they spoke the common words,Land, 
 Liberty, God, and Freedom. And now there is no foreign 
 blood among us. They are ours. They have earned their 
 birth here. Their nativity is as if our mothers bore them 
 and nursed them. America has received all her foreign 
 population, now, with a more glorious adoption, and they 
 are our kindred. God be thanked for this substantial 
 benefit. War, with all its horrors, is not without its inci- 
 dental advantages. 
 
358 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Is the year, then, that is just past, to have a parallel and 
 sequence in the year that is come ? What is to be the fut- 
 ure ? What are our prospects and hopes ? I am not a 
 prophet. I cannot lift the veil from what is before us. I 
 can only express my own judgment. Perhaps you think I 
 am sanguine. I think I am not sanguine, though I am 
 hopeful. And yet I have no other thought than that vic- 
 tory awaits us at every step. We are able to bear our share 
 of defeat. If the blessing of liberty is too great to be 
 purchased at so cheap a price, let God tell us the price, and 
 we are ready to pay it. We have more sons to give. We 
 can live lower, and on less. Our patience is scarcely drawn 
 upon. The sources of our prosperity are hardly touched. 
 And I think I may say for you, and the great American 
 common people, " We will give every dollar that we are 
 worth, every child that we have, and our own selves; we 
 will bring all that we are, and all that we have, and offer 
 them up freely; but this country shall be one, and undi- 
 vided. We will have one Constitution, and one liberty, and 
 that universal." The Atlantic shall sound it, and the 
 Pacific shall echo it back, deep answering to deep, and it 
 shall reverberate from the Lakes on the North to the un- 
 frozen Gulf on the South, — " One nation; one Constitu- 
 tion; one starry banner!" Hear it, England! — one 
 country, and indivisible. Hear it, Europe ! — one people, 
 and inseparable. One God; one hope; one baptism; one 
 Constitution; one government; one nation; one country; 
 one people, — cost what it may, we will have it ! 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY/ 
 
 " Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever and ever. 
 Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the vic- 
 tory, 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 as head above 
 all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all ; and 
 in thine hand is power and might ; and in thine hand it is to make great, 
 and to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and 
 praise thy glorious name." — i Chron. xxiic. 10-13. 
 
 This is one of the most sublime national ascriptions of 
 power and government to God that was ever made. It 
 fell from the lips of David, speaking upon one of the most 
 momentous festival occasions in the Jewish history, and 
 became, by acceptance, the sentiment of the whole people. 
 They declared their faith in God's supremacy and govern- 
 ment over the affairs, not only of individuals, but of na- 
 tions. They recognized and acknowledged, not only their 
 dependence upon God personally, but also their depend- 
 ence upon him for national prosperity and glory. It is the 
 uniform doctrine of the Bible, that God has a government 
 over this world, which includes in it both the government 
 of individuals and the government of communities of in- 
 dividuals. This doctrine is not peculiar either to Chris- 
 tianity or to Judaism. All nations that have attained any 
 degree of civilization have substantially held this great 
 truth, that the world is governed by God, and that not only 
 the affairs of individuals, but the affairs of societies also, 
 were supervised and provided for under the Divine gov- 
 ernment. But in the sacred Word the government of God 
 
 * September 28, 1862. Emancipation was proclaimed six days before ; 
 the habeas corpus suspended four days before ; Lee had retreated after An- 
 tietam, Bragg was still strong in Kentucky, and men's minds were deeply 
 exercised over the question of the President's War Powers. 
 
360 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 over nations is taught with more intelligence, with more 
 discrimination, with a clearer revelation of the principles 
 on which that government stands, than ever it was taught 
 elsewhere. All religions recognize the fact of government. 
 It is a peculiarity of the Christian faith, in its antecedents, 
 and in its own self, that it reveals the ground and methods 
 of the Divine moral government over the world. 
 
 It is important to know that the government of God over 
 nations is conducted by an administration of natural laws. 
 There are many who have thought that God governed as 
 an absolute monarch, looking at such things as pleased 
 him, and rewarding them by a direct personal volition, and 
 looking at such things a3 displeased him, and punishing 
 them by a direct personal volition. There are many who 
 revolt from the moral government of a Being of whom it 
 is taught that he interjects his own volitions upon the 
 stated laws of nature. And the progress of science reveals 
 the fact more and more plainly that there is not any in- 
 terference with natural law. It equally lays the founda- 
 tion for the better exposition of the doctrine of the Divine 
 government, — namely, that it is a government over this 
 world through natural laws, and by a Divine administra- 
 tion of them. It is said that natural laws are stated and 
 immutable. That is very well for a popular expression, 
 but it will not bear examination. For there is nothing 
 that is less immutable than a law; nothing that is adapted 
 to have more elasticity; nothing that may be more end- 
 lessly varied by the degree of intelligence that you bring 
 to bear upon it, and the advantage which you choose to 
 take of it. An ignorant and stupid man, standing in the 
 scope of a natural law, makes nothing of it. An intelli- 
 gent and wise man, by using it, makes the fields fruitful, 
 covers the hillsides with thrifty orchards, and fills the val- 
 leys with beautiful gardens. And the difference between 
 a stupid and ignorant man and a wise and intelligent man 
 is simply the difference of the control that they bring to 
 bear upon natural laws, and the use to which they put 
 them. And the difference between civilization and bar- 
 barism is the difference between knowing how to use nat- 
 
NATIOJVAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 361 
 
 ural laws and not knowing how to use them. And as men 
 grow toward manhood, they come more and more to 
 know what natural laws are, and how to use them, and 
 how, by using them, to obtain benefit. How much more, 
 then, shall He that made man know how to use natural 
 law ! It is supposed that God made laws as a machine 
 which he does not dare to put his finger into, lest he shall 
 stop the machine, or bruise his finger; and that he there- 
 fore stands behind the world, saying, " I have built this 
 world, and put laws into it, and wound it up, and I cannot 
 touch it." It is not so. God manages natural laws, 
 just as man manages natural laws, only with supreme 
 intelligence and with unerring accuracy. A govern- 
 ment of natural law is the best government on which 
 volition can be brought to bear. For the Divine scheme 
 is so large and so broad that there is not a thought 
 nor a wish to be executed that God cannot execute better 
 through changes under law than by direct, overt omnipo- 
 tence. And there is no occasion to interject volitions, and 
 set aside' natural law. 
 
 This does not diminish, it augments immeasurably, the 
 efficiency and certainty of the Divine government over 
 men. If the Divine government depended upon a single 
 being's thought and continuity of attention, it might be 
 imagined at least that there would be remissness or weari- 
 ness and slumbering, — though He that keeps Israel never 
 slumbers nor sleeps. If God's government is one of ap- 
 pointed laws that have no remission and never cease their 
 agency, if there are treasured in them great penalties and 
 great rewards, if the government of natural law is self- 
 executing, and if God gives it power to roll on and dis- 
 tribute mercies and curses, according as they are, one or 
 the other, fit and proper, then the system of administra- 
 tion is one from which there is no escape. 
 
 Now God's government over nations is a government 
 through natural laws. It is universal. It is unvarying. 
 It is immutable. It is not to be escaped. 
 
 The administration of God over nations is conducted 
 substantially upon the same great principles as that over 
 
362 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 individuals. A nation is but an aggregation of individuals. 
 There is more in national life than there is in any individ- 
 ual life; but men individually carry with them into civil 
 federation every law and necessity .that they have as individ- 
 uals. They leave nothing behind. They take on addi- 
 tional obligations, and come under some additional laws; 
 but they leave off nothing. And the administration of gov- 
 ernment that prevails over individuals prevails over them 
 as much when they are aggregated into societies as when 
 they stand alone. It is true that the conditions and the 
 methods of evolution in nations differ from those in individ- 
 ual life. The life of an individual is quickly sped. What- 
 ever takes place with regard to a man must take place in a 
 period of some eighty years. And if an individual is indolent, 
 his indolence very soon makes its penalty appear. Drunk- 
 enness in a man does not wait through many generations. 
 The penalty must appear during his life, or it cannot be a 
 penalty. The penalty of dishonesty and dishonor comes 
 quickly to a man. For the circle in which an individual 
 moves is small, and he comes to the result of his conduct 
 soon. But a nation is made up of millions of individuals, 
 that splice each other and overlap generations, so that 
 the punishment of a nation does not come, as does that of 
 an individual, during the lifetime of any one, but during 
 the lifetime of the whole nation. The period is prolonged. 
 For drunkenness cannot be produced in a nation, as in an 
 individual, to-day or to-morrow. It takes a longer time to 
 make a nation drunk than it does to make a man drunk. 
 A long process must be gone through before a nation can 
 be debauched. The space of some generations is required 
 for that. It is not until an evil habit is established that 
 the penalty begins to inure. And so in respect to national 
 dishonesty, a nation is not made dishonest, as a man is, in 
 a day. A hundred men may become dishonest, and they 
 may be steadily infecting a hundred others with dis- 
 honesty; and these may spread their desolating principles 
 to a whole generation; but it takes a great while before so 
 large a life as that of a nation, with its myriad individuals, 
 acting and counteracting, becomes so corrupted as to be- 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. l^2> 
 
 gin to reap the fruits of the great law of reward and of 
 punishment. 
 
 As a nation is complex, as it is made up of successive 
 men, as it requires long periods for the evolution of any- 
 thing, good or bad, the reward or the penalty will not be 
 immediate. The good or the evil comes to a nation ac- 
 cording to its periods of life, just as it does to an individ- 
 ual. When the time comes, the remuneration comes to the 
 nation, just as certainly as it does to the individual, al- 
 though it takes a longer time to move, because there is so 
 much more of national life than of individual life, and 
 because the adjusting processes require so much more 
 space and time in the life of a nation than in the life of 
 an individual. 
 
 A nation, like an individual, is held to responsibility for 
 its obedience to physical laws. The laws that relate to an 
 individual man's body, and that vindicate themselves in 
 the case of an individual, also relate to the physical condi- 
 tion of a race or a nation. A nation is held to responsi- 
 bility for the violation or observance of social laws, or 
 laws of intelligence, of industry, of frugality, of morals, of 
 piety. It takes longer to make a nation accountable than 
 an individual. But in its longer period a nation is held 
 accountable for just exactly the same things that an indi- 
 vidual is. For a million men have no right, because they 
 are a million, to do what each individual one of them has 
 no right to do, against a natural law. 
 
 The observance or violation of moral principles in civil 
 affairs is, if possible, even more signally rewarded or pun- 
 ished in national life than in individual life. Honor, 
 truth, justice, fairness, fidelity to obligation, moderation 
 of desire, magnanimity, — these are more in a nation than 
 in an individual. They are, therefore, more obviously re- 
 warded in a nation than in an individual, and their oppo- 
 sites more obviously punished. If this be so, nowhere so 
 much in the world as in our land ought Christian citizens 
 to be taught to consider the facts and principles that bear 
 on national life, as well as those bearing on their own indi- 
 vidual life. 
 
364 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 You are a part of a family, and you know that the wel- 
 fare of that family concerns your individual welfa're. You 
 are a part of the city or town where you live, and I need 
 not say to you that you have your dividend of the public 
 welfare, good or bad. You are members of the great civil 
 society, you are members of the body politic of this nation; 
 and while the welfare of the nation is made up in part of 
 what you contribute to it, your welfare is in part made up 
 of the nation itself. And no Christian minister that under- 
 stands his duty in America can fail to indoctrinate his 
 people in respect to their Christian duties as citizens. 
 Though as Christians you examine your own hearts and your 
 own consciences, though as Christian communicants you 
 strive to cast out evil thoughts and desires from your mind, 
 that does not fulfill your duty. You are bound, as a part 
 of your fealty to Christ, to think also of national character, 
 of national morals, and of national welfare. And as we 
 have come to a time in which, in the most signal manner, 
 God is making to appear his great retributive government 
 of nations, I propose to mark out some of those features 
 of Divine government that are now displaying themselves 
 toward this nation, and in our affairs. 
 
 If it is possible for a nation to sin, it must be when it 
 has been led systematically to violate all the natural rights 
 of a whole race or people; and American slavery, by the very 
 definition of our jurists, is the deprivation of men of every 
 natural right. For the American doctrine of slavery is no 
 analogue or derivative of the Hebrew or any mild form of 
 slavery. It is the extremest and worst form of the Roman 
 doctrine of slavery; the harshest that the world has ever 
 seen. It is a dehumanizing of men. It is the deliberate 
 taking of men, and putting them in the place of cattle or 
 chattels, and violating every one of their natural rights. 
 Now, if this was done by an individual, we might suppose 
 that that individual, in due time, would be punished. If 
 it was done by a small community, we might suppose that 
 that community would be punished. And if there is a 
 moral government, if God is just, and if he rewards or 
 punishes nations in this world, it is not possible for a na- 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 365 
 
 tion systematically to violate every natural right of four 
 millions of people, and go unpunished. If that can be 
 done, — if a nation can deny every single principle of the 
 Decalogue, and every moral canon, as applied to a whole 
 people, from generation to generation, and God take no 
 account of it, — then I do not blame men for saying that 
 there is no God. I do not stand here to say that if the Bible 
 does not condemn slavery, I will throw the Bible away. I 
 make no such extravagant declaration as that. There are 
 reasons why you cannot throw the Bible away. It clings 
 to you; it is a part of your life; it is woven into your 
 memory of father and mother, and of your childhood; and 
 you cannot, throw it away. But this I do say: that if you 
 teach that a nation of thirty millions of men may, by their 
 organic laws, systematically violate the natural rights of 
 four millions of men for twenty-five years, for fifty years, 
 for seventy-five years, for a hundred years, and no sort of 
 retribution follow, then do not blame men for saying that 
 in that case there is no moral government over the affairs 
 of this world. 
 
 Suppose a man could drink a quart of whisky before 
 breakfast, another quart before dinner, and another before 
 supper, but never reel, and do it for forty years, for sixty 
 years, and never be drunk, what headway should I make 
 with young men in impressing upon their minds the dan- 
 gers of drinking whisky? It would not be dangerous if it 
 did not make men drunk. And if men can perpetrate 
 every violation of natural law upon a whole race, from gen- 
 eration to generation, and no penalty follow, then there is 
 no testimony of God against such wickedness,- — indeed, it 
 is not wicked. 
 
 On the other hand, if they do it, and every step of doing 
 is marked either by the intimation of penalty or the actual 
 disclosure of it, and if that penalty is graded so that you 
 can trace it from step to step, and so that he that is blind 
 can feel it, if he cannot see it, then there is no casuistry 
 about slavery, or about Scripture or textual authority 
 against slavery. Then no man can get rid of the doctrine 
 of God's judgment against slavery, and that there is a 
 
366 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 moral government which makes it penal to violate the 
 rights of men. 
 
 Let us look at it a little in this light, and see if there is 
 any testimony, under God's great moral government, on 
 the subject of the sinfulness of slavery. 
 
 I. There is no right more universal, and more sacred, be- 
 cause lying so near to the root of existence, than the right 
 of men to their own labor. It is primal. But the very first 
 step of slavery is to deny that right. There are four mill- 
 ions of men, women, and children, to-day, to whom is 
 denied the right to their own labor, — the right to direct it 
 or to have the fruits of it. Now you may reason as cun- 
 ningly as you please, and tell me that it is better that it 
 should be so, and that the slaves are better off where they 
 are, and I will point to every State where slavery has de- 
 nied to the slave the right to his own labor, and will show 
 that in that very spot God has blighted and cursed the soil. 
 Every Slave State that has had exacted and enforced labor 
 has itself felt the blight and curse of slavery in its agricul- 
 ture. What is the land in Virginia worth to-day? It is 
 worn out and abandoned. If it were not for slave-breeding, 
 old slave-tilled Virginia would not now be a Slave State. 
 It is not on account of her tobacco, it is not on account of 
 her cereals, it is because Virginians sell their own blood in 
 the market, that she is a Slave State. It is only by doing 
 that, that she can make profit on slaves now. Her agricul- 
 ture is killed. Her soil is wasted. You may track slavery 
 through North Carolina, through South Carolina, through 
 Georgia, through Alabama, through Mississippi, through 
 Louisiana; and I do not tell any secret, or state that which 
 any man doubts, when I say that the agriculture of slavery 
 is an exhausting agriculture, and that it wears out every 
 part of the country that it touches. The work of the slave 
 carries the punishment of the master. The master takes 
 away his right to his labor, and the slave turns round and 
 says, "I curse the soil." The soil is cursed, and it is a wit- 
 ness of God. 
 
 2. Slavery violates the social and family rights of men. 
 For the law of slavery is that every man in slavery is his 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 3^7 
 
 master's, and not his own. Of course, therefore, every 
 woman follows the same law. And there is no such a thing 
 as the right of marriage. There is a form of marriage 
 which is observed with more or less decency under differ- 
 ent circumstances; but there is neither the doctrine nor 
 the impression, throughout slavery, that, when a man is 
 once married, his wife is sacred to him forever. Sale is 
 divorce; and the general law is that, when a man is sold 
 ten miles from the plantation where his wife is owned, he 
 is frefe to take another. The Church never thinks of dis- 
 ciplining him if he does, nor the woman if she takes a sec- 
 ond or a third husband. 
 
 Now if anything is fundamental in this world, it is mar- 
 riage; but if anything is violated systematically and 
 inevitably, it is the right of marriage in men that do not 
 own either their wives or their children in any way what- 
 ever. Is there any testimony on this subject? Has God 
 visited such a monstrous violation of natural and moral 
 law with any punishment ? Yes, in destroying the sacred- 
 ness of the family relation. The virtue of the family estate 
 is sapped throughout the South. I know what I speak. It 
 is not a matter into which you can go in detail; but the 
 great sanctities and purities of wedded life are universally 
 violated in the South. Talk about amalgamation as one 
 of the hateful abolitionist doctrines ! Amalgamation is 
 never unpopular until it has been made lawful; and then 
 men hate it like perdition. But just so long as it is concu- 
 binage, adultery, and fornication, it is the most popular 
 doctrine in the whole South. And I know that the very 
 foundation of the virtue of the young men throughout the 
 South is perpetually sapped and undermined. I believe 
 that nowhere are women more virtuous than there; and 
 nowhere do they suffer more than there. And in God's 
 great revealing day, when the anguish of wives' hearts 
 and mothers' hearts, when all that they have been made to 
 suffer by the contaminations which they have seen brought 
 by slavery into their families, shall be revealed, O how 
 dreadful will then appear God's witness and punishment 
 of that vile system ! Those who take away from the slave 
 
368 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the fundamental right of matrimony, and of the family, are 
 punished by the undermining of the virtue and purity of 
 their own households. 
 
 3. Slavery makes ignorance indispensable to the slave; 
 because where there is knowledge, every faculty is a w^heel 
 set in motion. The more complex the machinery of a 
 man's mind is, the more needful it is to have a skillful en- 
 gineer to manage and keep it in repair, and the more fuel 
 it requires to run it; while the less complex it is, the nearer 
 the man is to an animal, the easier it is to manage it and keep 
 it in repair, and supply its wants. As long as man lives 
 only in bone and muscle, he asks nothing but pork and 
 corn-meal. As long as he is an ox, he chews ox-fodder. 
 When he becomes a man, he eats man's food. And the 
 difference between a slave and a man is the difference be- 
 tween fodder and food. The moment you give a man a 
 heart, he must have something for his heart; the moment 
 you give him imagination, he must have some opportunity, 
 some scope, some leisure, for his imagination; the moment 
 you give him reason, he must have food for his reason; and 
 as you augment a man in civilization, and make more and 
 more of him, there must be a larger space, more room, for 
 him. And so, when you give slaves intelligence, you make 
 them so voluminous that a man cannot afford to provide 
 for a hundred of them; and it is not safe to let them provide 
 for themselves. The only way, therefore, to make slavery 
 profitable, is to keep the slave ignorant. 
 
 Now, is there no punishment for this wrong? If a man 
 shuts the door of knowledge against his fellowman, is 
 there no testimony of God against it? Is it no sin to rob 
 manhood of knowledge? Is it no crime to take from man 
 the liberty of being what God made him to be ? I hold 
 that there is no other crime in the calendar to be compared 
 with that. The man that robs a bank in New York commits a 
 slight offense compared with that which he commits who 
 robs a human being of the right to open his own mind be- 
 fore God and man. And what is the punishment of that? 
 The white man says to the slave, " You shall not know 
 anything"; and the slave says to the white man, " Massa, 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 369 
 
 you shall not know anything," — and he does not ! For the 
 great mass of the white men of the South are profoundly ig- 
 norant, and must remain ignorant, for the reason that you 
 cannot have schools where there is a legalized system of 
 ignorance. Where there is a system of enforced ignorance 
 that deprives four millions of men of knowledge, you can- 
 not also have a system of forced intelligence that shall 
 diffuse knowledge among the remainder of the population, 
 as the free schools of the North do among our population. 
 The necessity of keeping the slave ignorant is the necessity 
 of keeping the major part of the white people at the South 
 ignorant. They are ignorant, and ignorant they will re- 
 main while slavery remains; and God bears witness that 
 he punishes this exclusion of knowledge from the slave. 
 
 4. Slavery, taking away from man his rights, and degrad- 
 ing him to be a thing of bargain and sale, avenges itself by 
 making human life unsacred wherever slavery prevails. It 
 begins by lowering the idea of manhood, and by making 
 slave-life of no account, except for purposes of traffic. 
 The punishment is that, in lowering the idea of manhood, 
 and making life of no account in respect to four millions 
 of men, it does the same things in respect to all mankind. 
 And where is life so cheap, and where can a man be killed 
 so easily and with so little disturbance of society, as in the 
 Southern States ? And where slavery is the most rancorous, 
 not only are duels, riots, assassinations, and bloody broils 
 most frequent, but the whole of social life is low and bar- 
 barous. And it is reasonable that life should be cheaper 
 there than in civilized communities, because it is a great 
 deal more to kill a virtuous, noble-minded man than a bar- 
 barian ! There are some men such that if you kill one, you 
 kill a thousand men; and there are some men of whom 
 you might kill a thousand, and then not kill more than 
 one. Influences proceed together by elective affinities; 
 and thus a system that for the sake of slavery lowers the 
 doctrine of manhood, lowers it about all men. Thus it 
 punishes itself, and carries the penalty in its own nature. 
 
 5. Yet more terrible is another aspect. Slavery, while 
 admitted to be an evil, and regretted, might consist with 
 
37° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 correct civil ideas. It did in the beginning. Till within 
 my remembrance, Christian men and statesmen in the 
 South admitted that slavery was an evil, deprecated its ex- 
 istence, and hoped for its decline and its extinction; and it 
 was quite compatible with the existence of slavery that 
 these men held right doctrines about men and government. 
 But a change came, and the doctrine that now exists 
 throughout the South on the subject of slavery is, that 
 slavery is right, and that it is the right of the strong and 
 the intelligent to take away from the weak and the igno- 
 rant every civil right, and every personal right, and to 
 subject and subdue them to their own will. That is now 
 claimed by the South as a right. Well, what has been the 
 penalty ? The assumption of the right to denude four 
 millions of men of their rights has avenged itself by rolling 
 back and corrupting every political theory and every polit- 
 ical idea throughout the South. Every thinking man 
 there has been corrupted to the core by this doctrine of 
 slavery. And I aver without fear of contradiction, that 
 the South have set themselves free from democracy and 
 republicanism. They are neither republican nor demo- 
 cratic. They are aristocratic, and are verging close upon 
 monarchy. And slavery has punished them. As an in- 
 strument in the hand of God, it has been turned upon 
 them for their punishment. They have been punished as 
 with a whip of scorpions. They have held a doctrine that 
 justified them in taking every civil and every natural right 
 away from their fellow-men, and God has punished them 
 by turning them back to the barbaric periods, and driving 
 them upon the waste and now abandoned doctrines of 
 Europe. And the States of the South, — you know where 
 they are. They are four hundred years back of where you 
 stand, and they are going back. They have already got 
 the other side of the Reformation, and they are on the 
 way to the Red Sea, and God will thrust them in ! 
 
 6. As with States, so with the Federal government. I 
 might cite innumerable instances of penalty that have ac- 
 companied the opening progress of this system of slavery. 
 The Federal government has tolerated slavery, and it has 
 
NATIOXAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 371 
 
 experienced, and is experiencing, punishment therefor. In 
 the inception of this government, when independent States 
 were being persuaded to coalesce, and to form one great 
 nation, the dread of weakness was so great that men con- 
 sented to act by sight, and not by faith. 
 
 A cooper goes to work to make a wine-cask. He pre- 
 pares the staves, and begins to set them up. This one is 
 sound, and he sets it up; that one is sound, and he sets 
 that up; he runs around the circle, till he comes to the 
 last three or four staves, when he takes them up, and finds 
 that they are worm-eaten and bored in every direction. 
 He says, " I am afraid that I shall not make my barrel if I 
 do not put them in: I know they are poor, that the wine 
 will leak out, and that I shall have a terrible time to save 
 it, but I must make up my barrel, and these are all that I 
 have." So he puts them in, and drives down the hoops; 
 and when the wine is put in it runs out, and then follows 
 a system of tinkering, and driving in a chip here, and a 
 sliver there. But in spite of all that he can do, the wine 
 leaks away. And, after infinite trials and vexations, he 
 finds that the wine is all gone, and that the barrel is good 
 for nothing. What should he have done? He should have 
 thrown out those worm-eaten staves, and made the barrel 
 smaller. 
 
 Now, because they were afraid that South Carolina — 
 that rottenest of rotten staves — would not come in, the 
 framers of our government admitted slavery, the worm- 
 eaten devastation of this country. Suppose they had said, 
 " We will have a Union and have freedom in it, and only 
 those that consent to the exclusion of slavery shall be ad- 
 mitted," — suppose they had said this, and made their 
 barrel smaller, and made it sound, is there any doubt as to 
 what the issue would have been ? But they were so afraid 
 of weakness that they wished to make the barrel large, and 
 they put in worm-eaten staves; and the result is that there 
 has not been one single weakness in this government that 
 has not followed directly from the mischief of slavery in 
 it. We were a homogeneous people. We had opportuni- 
 ties on this continent, and elements of prosperity, such as 
 
372 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 no nation ever possessed. There never was launched such 
 a people on such a sphere as this. And the great and only 
 cause of weakness and trouble in the Federal government 
 has been slavery. And the agitations and disturbances 
 and sufferings through which we have passed have been so 
 many penalties and punishments which God has infixed 
 upon the wickedness that included slavery in this govern- 
 ment. We have had a head full of sound teeth. Slavery 
 is the only tooth that has ached. Every other one has 
 been true to its function. 
 
 It has been said that resistance to slavery has been the 
 cause of all our national troubles. That is as if a wise 
 physiologist should say that the resistance of the principle 
 of health in a man's body to disease was the cause of 
 fevers, and that the way not to have fevers was to lie down 
 and let the disease go through its course. Yes, there has 
 been conscience enough to make resistance, thank God. 
 If it had not been for that, we should have been corrupted 
 through and through, and the very marrow would have 
 been rotten before this time. 
 
 For a period of fifty years, on pleas of national peace, 
 for the sake of harmony and prosperity, the loyal and free 
 States have declined to maintain the policy of liberty, and 
 have permitted slavery to augment from an acknowledged 
 evil to a dominant power, — from a thing permitted to a 
 despotic influence. We have, for a period of fifty years, 
 had a race of statesmen, bribed and corrupted, who have 
 perpetually said, " Let us not disturb the prosperity of this 
 great nation." O, how they have laughed at and scorned 
 the men that sounded out God's denunciations and woes 
 against such monstrous iniquity ! and how they have ut- 
 tered in the ears of a credulous public the declaration, 
 " This nation, this Government, this Constitution, — are 
 they not more precious than the isinsoi the abolitionists?" 
 In other words, when God's law demanded justice, they 
 have said, " Commercial prosperity is more than God's 
 law." When once a man, that never, I fear, will say so 
 good a thing again, said that there was a higher law than 
 legislators ever passed, the whole nation — not excepting 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 373 
 
 ministers in pulpits, who have, I hope, learned better 
 things by this time — derided the idea that there could be a 
 higher law. And such has been the state of things in the 
 midst of which politicians in this country have been 
 trained, and which has brought the original principles of 
 justice and equity to contempt. The ruling spirit of the 
 nation has been a commercial spirit, and that in its lowest 
 forms. 
 
 Has there been any penalty? What has been the result 
 of the last fifty years of peace-making? Go to Sharps- 
 burg; go into Virginia, where battles have been fought; 
 go along the swamps of the Chickahominy; go through 
 Kentucky and Missouri, where war like a sirocco has des- 
 olated everything; go where the land rocks and reels with 
 earthquakes and convulsions, — and read the lessons of 
 peace that we have been taught. For in these days we are 
 reaping what we have sowed. These things are the fruit 
 of the seed that we have planted. You would have peace, 
 and you see what you have got. If you had stood up be- 
 fore, manfully, and listened betimes, and resisted the evil 
 that threatened the very life of the nation, you would not 
 have come to this pass. You were warned, you were ex- 
 horted, innumerable witnesses foretold what the result 
 must be, and behold it has come upon you ! 
 
 I beg you still further to take notice of some remarkable 
 facts. 
 
 If there is any State in this Union that has suffered more 
 severely than another, it is Virginia. If there is any State 
 that has sinned against light and knowledge, it is Virginia. 
 She knew better; and she has been desolated, skinned, 
 peeled, stripped bare. Famine now sweeps with outspread 
 wings over her plains, and desolation grins in her valleys, 
 that a few months ago were as lovely as paradise. 
 
 Virginia was dragooned out of the nation. When the 
 convention was elected, it was elected by the people in 
 favor of the Union. They assembled in Richmond. 
 There was a conspiracy of slave-traders, who, in connec- 
 tion with some desperate politicians, instituted a terrorism; 
 and that convention was dragooned to a secret vote that 
 
374 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 took the State out of the Union, by that corruptest, guilt- 
 iest, and most accursed class of men, slave-traders, who 
 are hated of men, of God, and the devil. And that State, 
 which was the keystone of the arch, and which permitted 
 herself to fall out, has had the most terrible punishment. 
 Is there no lesson in that ? Is that an accidental fact ? 
 
 Consider, again, the strange part that has been played 
 in this conflict by Southern women. A woman always 
 goes with her whole heart, whether for the good or for the 
 bad. Women are the best and the worst things that God 
 ever made ! And they have been true to their nature in 
 this conflict. Southern men have been tame and cool in 
 comparison with the fury of Southern women. Now, ad- 
 mit that they were blinded. A man that steps off from a 
 precipice is not saved because he is blindfolded. A man 
 that walks in fire is not saved because he thought it was 
 water. I suppose that of the male population of the South 
 between the ages of fifteen and fifty, a majority will be 
 utterly cut off before this war ends. To a great extent, 
 Southern households are to be stripped of those that are 
 their heads, and the South is to be a realm in which 
 woman shall be deprived of her natural protector, and 
 bear unutterable woes of poverty and sorrow and murder 
 and rapine. She has taken such an unfortunate position 
 in this war, for slavery, and she has sinned against such 
 great light, that God is bringing down upon her condign 
 punishment. 
 
 We, too, are suffering in the North, and in the same way 
 that we ought to. I accept the punishment. It is meas- 
 ured with an even hand all over the country. Every man 
 that should have voted right, and did not, is having, or is 
 yet to have, a part in the sufferings caused by this strug- ' 
 gle. Every State that, for the sake of its manufactories, 
 has refused to do the right thing, has suffered, and shall 
 suffer. For I call you more especially to take notice, that 
 the North has suffered to the extent to which she has 
 winked at slavery for the sake of commerce. Why is it 
 that the State of Connecticut — my State — the State in which 
 I was born and bred, which I love with an unfaltering love, 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 375 
 
 and of which I have been so often ashamed — has been so 
 servile, so radically Democratic, in the sense of that De- 
 mocracy which means pandering to slavery, — why is it, but 
 that she has established petty manufactories along the 
 shore, and that her great market has been South? Why 
 has the manufacturing North been so largely pro-slavery? 
 Why has the policy of freedom been so often betrayed and 
 paralyzed by the merchants of New York and Philadelphia, 
 and Boston and Pittsburgh ? Commerce has bribed them. 
 And what is the result? You have been making money 
 out of slavery. A part of my support comes out of slavery. 
 I do not deny this. I know that I eat sugar and wear cot- 
 ton that have been produced by the unrequited labor of 
 slaves. I know that this evil of slavery has gone through 
 every fiber of the whole North. And while I blame the 
 North, I take part of the blame on my own head. I put 
 part of it on your head. I distribute it to every State. 
 I am not making complaint against the South distinctively, 
 but against the Nation. And by the time you have paid 
 two thousand million dollars of taxes, and have but just 
 begun, I think that the Lord will have got back pretty 
 much all that the North has made out of slavery ! God is a 
 great tax-gatherer: he is out now on that errand; and he 
 will have a prosperous time ! 
 
 I call you still further to take notice, that every nation 
 and people on the globe that has had any political or pecu- 
 niary connection with this monstrous evil is being made to 
 suffer. God is pouring out the vial of his wrath; and bear- 
 ing witness, tremendous witness, by war, against slavery, 
 and against the cruel wickedness of men that perpetuate 
 it. The South suffers, the North suffers, and, next to this 
 nation, England suffers, because, next to this nation, she is 
 guilty. England ? why, there is not a better-tongued peo- 
 ple in the world. England ? I honor her old history; I 
 honor her struggles for liberty; I honor her stalwart valor 
 in the present day. And yet the commercial classes in 
 England have thriven, and made their wealth and built 
 their palaces, out of slave labor. And to-day there is 
 mourning in the factories of England, there is famine in 
 
376 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 her streets, and the commercial classes are demanding that 
 the ports of the South shall be opened. And now that 
 government, which has already winked at wickedness on 
 account of the necessity of obtaining cotton, is yielding, 
 and is considering whether it is not necessary for her to 
 commit another monstrous wickedness. God punishes 
 England, because England has had to do with slavery. 
 And he is punishing France. France suffers less, but 
 France is suffering. Find me a nation whose welfare has 
 depended on cotton or sugar, and I will find you a nation 
 that is suffering in consequence of this war. 
 
 Are these facts accidental ? The condition of the South, 
 of the North, and of foreign countries, in their relations to 
 the war, — are these accidental ? Is there any such thing 
 as a divine witness ? Are there any such things as indica- 
 tions of a moral government, and of punishments accruing 
 from the transgression of moral laws ? 
 
 What then, I ask, in conclusion, is infidelity in our day? 
 It is refusing to hear God's voice, and to believe God's tes- 
 timony in his providence. There are plenty of men who 
 believe in Genesis, and Chronicles, and the Psalms, and 
 Isaiah, and Daniel, and Ezekiel, and Matthew, and the 
 other Evangelists, and the rest of the New Testament, 
 clear down to the Apocalypse; there are plenty of men 
 who believe in the letter of Scripture; and there are plenty 
 of men who believe everything that God said four thou- 
 sand years ago; but the Lord God Almighty is walking 
 forth at this time in clouds and thunder such as never 
 rocked Sinai. His voice is in all the land, and in all the 
 earth, and those men that refuse to hear God in his own 
 time, and in the language of the events that are taking 
 place, are infidels. And the infidelity is greater in your 
 case than it could be in the case of any other people; be- 
 cause to believe in slavery, to refuse to believe in liberty, 
 and to be unwilling to believe that God rewards liberty and 
 punishes slavery, against your education, against your his- 
 toric ideas, against all the canons of your political struct- 
 ure, against the natural sympathies of the heart, — that is a 
 monstrous infidelity. No man can be such an infidel by 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 377 
 
 disbelieving the Bible as you can by standing and looking 
 upon the current events of this age, and refusing to be- 
 lieve that God is bearing witness against oppression and 
 in favor of liberty. Take care ! You are in more danger 
 on that point, just now, than on any other. Because 
 things are coming to a crisis. We are about to move in 
 gigantic force in one way or the other; and it is necessary 
 that we should fall back on some great principle. Hence- 
 forth, let us refuse to take guidance and direction from 
 the counsels of cunning men or weaving politicians. It is 
 time for us to fall back from the counsels of men, and 
 strike some great immutable principle of God. 
 
 What, then, is to be our policy for the future? What 
 are we to do ? One class of men will say, " The remedy 
 for all these evils is to gather together about twenty seces- 
 sionists, and about twenty abolitionists, and hang them ! " 
 But I will tell you what hanging abolitionists will do. It 
 will do just exactly what would be done if, when a terrible 
 disease had broken out on a ship, the crew should kick the 
 doctors overboard, and the medicine after them. The 
 disease would stay on board, and only the cure would go 
 overboard. You may rage as much as you please, but the 
 men who labor to bring back the voices of the founders of 
 this Union; the men whose faith touches the original prin- 
 ciples of God's Word; the men that are in sympathy with 
 Luther; the men that breathe the breath that fanned the 
 flame of the Revolution; the men that walk in the spirit of 
 the old Puritans; the men that are like the first framers of 
 this model republic, — they are the men, if there be any 
 medicine yet, by whose hand God will send a cure. Hang 
 them ? that was the medicine that the Jews had when 
 they crucified Christ. The Lord of glory was put upon an 
 ignominious tree, and they thought that they would have 
 peace in Jerusalem ! And where is Jerusalem ? Where are 
 the Jews ? They are a by-word and a hissing to the earth. 
 And you, the children of men that came here for liberty; 
 you, that heard only the doctrines of liberty from your 
 mother's lips, and drank it with her milk; you, in whose 
 make every thread and every fiber was spun from the 
 
378 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 golden fleece of liberty, — can you stand in any doubt as to 
 what the remedy is for such times as these ? It is to repent 
 of past days, to break away from the past and to call God 
 to witness that in time to come we will consecrate, individ- 
 ually and nationally, every energy to repair the mischief 
 of slavery, to do it away utterly, and to establish the reign 
 of universal liberty. That is the path of safety. And 
 blessed be God, he has sent a porter. He has opened the 
 door by the hand of the President. He has lifted the silver 
 trumpet of liberty, and the blast is blown that rolls 
 through the forest, and goes along the mountain-side, and 
 spreads wide over the prairies. It is known on the hither 
 ocean, and on the thither; and the waves of the Pacific, and 
 the waves of the Atlantic, lift themselves up, and sound 
 together notes of gladness because that policy is enun- 
 ciated which. cannot be taken back. As long as it was a 
 question whether the President meant to declare emanci- 
 pation, as Commander-in-chief of the army and navy of 
 the United States, as a military necessity, — as long as 
 there was any doubt on this subject, the North was in 
 danger of being divided into two parties, one attempting 
 to make him proclaim liberty, and the other attempting to 
 make him stand up for slavery. He has taken his choice 
 between them. And there can be but two parties in the 
 North, one of which shall go for liberty, the government, 
 and the President, and the other for the South, for treach- 
 ery, and for slavery. The foundation of all opposition is 
 knocked out. 
 
 I know it is said that the President is not the govern- 
 ment; that the Constitution is the government. What ! a 
 sheepish parchment a government ! I should think it was 
 a very fit one for some such men as I often see and hear ! 
 What is a government in our country ? It is a body of liv- 
 ing men, ordained by the people, who administer public 
 affairs according to the laws that are written in the Consti- 
 tution and the statute-books. The government consists of 
 living men that are administering, in a certain method, the 
 affairs of the nation. It is not a dry writing, or a book. 
 President Lincoln and his Cabinet, the heads of the execu- 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 379 
 
 tive departments, are the government. And men must take 
 their choice whether they will go against their government 
 or go with it. Mouthing traitors will pretend to go with 
 the government while they are undermining it, and honest 
 men will go with it, — and you know that the honest men 
 in the North are yet a large majority. I thank God that 
 the lines are drawn. There is nothing so demoralizing as 
 equivocal neutrality, and nothing so bad. And since the 
 President has taken ground, since the administration and 
 government are now fixed on the side of liberty, the old 
 original wisdom of our Constitution, and the doctrine of 
 our fathers, we are going to have the Union as it never 
 was, but as it was meant to be. The Union as it was 
 meant to be, and not the Union as it was, is to be our doc- 
 trine; because the Union as it was, was a monstrous out- 
 rage on your rights, and on mine. The Union as it was 
 guaranteed me the right of speech, to be paid for by my 
 life in Virginia and Carolina and Georgia and Alabama 
 and Mississippi and Louisiana and Arkansas and Missouri. 
 I could not have gone to either of those States and spoken the 
 words that I have spoken to-night without praising God to- 
 morrow morning in another world. Am I to celebrate the 
 Union as it was, which was a practical violation of the great 
 canons of the Constitution, of the great principles of the 
 Bills of Rights, and of the great doctrines of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence ? Slavery had corrupted it, and made 
 it to be practically an abominable thing in many of its 
 usages. But the Union as it was to be, the Union as it was 
 in the intent of the framers of it, — let that come back; and, 
 so far as it is twisted out of shape, let the twists be taken 
 out, so that it shall stand just exactly plumb to the line of 
 the Constitution. Then we shall have the Union that is to 
 be, and the Union that we want. 
 
 And now, my Christian friends, if the whole Church of 
 the Christian North and the loyal North, if the ministers 
 and the members of the churches, and all that are religiously 
 inclined throughout the North, will be pleased to make 
 this a matter of religious conviction, and if they will as- 
 sume that God has come to judgment with this nation, and 
 
380 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 will for their future policy ask, not, " Mr. Seward, what wilt 
 thou have me to do ? " nor, " Mr. Seymour, what wilt thou 
 have me to do?" nor even, "Mr. Lincoln, what wilt thou 
 have me to do ? " but, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do?" — if the Christian public of the North will settle their 
 duty in the light of eternity, and according to the princi- 
 ples of God's Word, and if they will take the slave and 
 bear him to Calvary, and lay him down under the cross of 
 Him that gave his life for the poor and the wretched, and 
 if then, as the sacred drops fall from the w^ounded side 
 upon his beaten and bruised body, kneeling down, they 
 will say, "Jesus, what wilt thou have me to do for this in- 
 jured and oppressed one ?" and will settle it there, and un- 
 der that intiuence, I have no fear. 
 
 We shall see struggles, and go through deep and bitter 
 trials yet; but the future is bright. For where Christ sits 
 is daylight and morning. And if the v^hole Christian pub- 
 lic of the North set their faces toward God, and move 
 toward him, they will move away from night, and toward 
 the day, — a day that, when it shall once have arisen on this 
 continent, shall know no setting, — a day of Christian lib- 
 erty, — the harbinger of universal freedom to a world regen- 
 erated. God grant it ! 
 
 And as for me, I am determined, by that same help that 
 has been vouchsafed to me from the beginning, to preach 
 a Gospel of liberty among you, and to bear witness for lib- 
 erty, as founded in religion, to all this nation. I will not 
 be intimidated. I shall not be persuaded. Come weal or 
 come woe, — whether we are defeated and cast back again, 
 or whether we go forward immediately to the prosperity of 
 an ascertained and settled liberty, — as long as I have life 
 and health, and strength and breath, I will use them first 
 and last, and chiefly and only, for the enunciation of that 
 Gospel which brings release to the captive, and liberty to 
 man. There is no power even in hell, though you bring its 
 legions and its monstrosities upon the earth, that for one 
 single moment will hinder or turn back this testimony that 
 God made man to be free. I will preach it for the sewing- 
 woman; I will preach it for the poor day laborer; I will 
 
NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 381 
 
 preach it for the white man and for the black man; I will 
 preach it for all in this land; I will preach it for the oppressed 
 of other lands, — for the Irishman, for the Dane, for the En- 
 glishman, for the Frenchman, for the struggling Italian, 
 and for the Hungarian; I will preach it for every man. For 
 God hath made all nations of one blood, and to dwell to- 
 gether. I own the brotherhood. I accept every man as 
 my brother, inheriting my right. And as long as I claim 
 for myself liberty, I will assert it for other men, I will live 
 for it, and I will die for it. 
 
 I see that this is not my own individual inspiration. I am 
 moved to this because it is in the public heart, because it is 
 the public sentiment of States and communities. I am 
 but the mouthpiece of millions of men; and I say to those 
 that meditate treachery and tyranny, Beware ! God has 
 come to judgment, but he has come to a judgment by 
 which he will purify his people, and make them a peculiar 
 people, zealous of good works. We shall see a glorious 
 Union. We shall see a restored Constitution. We shall 
 see a liberty in whose bright day Georgia and Massachu- 
 setts shall shake hands that never shall be separated again. 
 There is love yet to be raked open. Now there is fierce- 
 ness of hatred; but there shall come concord, fellowship, 
 and union, that no foreign influence can break, and no 
 home trouble shall ever mar again. We shall live to see 
 a better day. 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF 
 GOVERNMENT/ 
 
 " That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." — Job 
 xxxiv. 30. 
 
 The whole context from the seventeeth verse is worthy 
 of reading. 
 
 " Shall even he that hateth right govern ? and wilt thou con- 
 demn him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art 
 wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to 
 him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the 
 rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands." 
 
 God is the greatest democrat in the universe. He does 
 not regard ranks, nor conditions, nor degrees; and he says 
 that the highest rich man is just like the lowest poor 
 man, and that a king is no better than the humblest of his 
 subjects. They are all alike before the throne of God. 
 As you go toward heaven, you go toward the true divine 
 democracy. 
 
 " In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled 
 at midnight, and pass away : and the mighty shall be taken away 
 without hand. For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he 
 seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, 
 where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves " — from God. 
 " For he will not lay upon man more than right, that he should 
 enter into judgment with God. He shall break in pieces mighty 
 men without number, and set others in their stead. Therefore 
 he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night, 
 so that they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in 
 the open sight of others ; because they turned back from him, 
 and would not consider any of his ways : so that they cause the 
 cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the 
 afflicted. When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble ? 
 
 * November 22, 1S62. 
 
THE GROUXD AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 383 
 
 and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him ? whether 
 it be done against a nation, or against a man only : that the hypo- 
 crite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." 
 
 It is afifirmed that Job was written at some period be- 
 tween Abraham and Moses. It is the oldest portion, or at 
 least one of the oldest portions, of the sacred writings. 
 And yet, old as it is, the world-long controversy whether 
 God governed the world by a moral law, with rewards 
 and penalties, had begun when it was written. The whole 
 passage read is a fine assertion of the fact of Divine gov- 
 ernment, and with shades and applications that would 
 seem to make it the transcript of God's procedure in our 
 own time. 
 
 The fault of all expectations and arguments as to the 
 existence of a moral government over human affairs is apt 
 to be that men seek for the evidences of a moral govern- 
 ment where these are not most evident. For the Divine 
 government is distributed through many different depart- 
 ments of life. A part of it appears in the individual. A 
 part of it follows him into the family. A part of it be- 
 longs to his commercial, and a part of it to his civil life. 
 And we are to gather the results of any moral course, not 
 alone in an individual fate, but in the collective fate of all 
 the individuals represented in the household, in their bus- 
 iness, and in their civil estate. And the results of God's 
 moral administration appear partly in the individual, 
 partly in the household, partly in the affairs of commerce, 
 and partly in national histories. But man's life, taken 
 comprehensively, bears witness to nothing, if not to the 
 moral government of God, which rewards right conduct, 
 truth, honor, virtue, manhood, and duty, and punishes the 
 reverse. And history has been written in vain, if history 
 has not taught this. But it has not been written in vain, 
 and it does teach this. A man in civil government is just 
 as much a subject of the divine moral government as a 
 man in his individual relations. 
 
 Civil governments are said to be of God. All govern- 
 ment is ordained of God; and civil governments are so, 
 not as by revelation and ordination, but because the nature 
 
384 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of man necessitates government. God did not create man, 
 and then command a government over him, but he created 
 man with a necessity and instinct of government, and then 
 left that instinct and necessity to develop themselves. God 
 made men to need clothes, but he never cut out a pattern 
 for them to make their clothes by. He left them to choose 
 their own raiment. God made appetite, but he never 
 made a bill of fare. He left men to pick out their own 
 food. God made man's necessity for government, and 
 then let him alone, and that necessity of government 
 wrought out civil governments. 
 
 There has been a law, also, in these; for governments 
 are not accidental. Governments are always the legiti- 
 mate outworkings of the condition of those governed; 
 and there cannot, for any prolonged period, be a govern- 
 ment that is not, in the nature of things, adapted to those 
 under it. If there is an absolute monarchy, it is an indi- 
 cation that there is a state of the people that requires an 
 absolute monarchy. If there is an intermediate, or aristo- 
 cratic government, it is an indication that the state of the 
 people is such as to necessitate that government. If there 
 is a continuous and strong republican government, or self- 
 government in any form, it is because there was a condi- 
 tion of the people that wrought it out. For governments 
 are not arbitrary. They are the effect of which the moral 
 state of the people is the cause. Therefore we are not to 
 rail against any form of government, as if it were itself a 
 monstrous wrong. Governments are shadows that na- 
 tions and peoples themselves cast; and they usually meas- 
 ure in some degree the proportions of the peoples or 
 nations that cast them. 
 
 The lowest conditions of men always induce strong gov- 
 ernments; they always induce governments of force rather 
 than of motive; and for the reason that men in an unde- 
 veloped and ignorant state are unsusceptible of motive. 
 They do not think much. Their moral sense is inchoate, 
 and you cannot address many motives to it. That part of 
 their life is superstitious rather than religious, and it leads 
 to the introduction of superstitious motives into govern- 
 
THE GROUND AA'D FORMS OF GOVERNMEA'T. 385 
 
 ment. And in proportion as men are in condition like an- 
 imals, you must harness and whip them as you do animals. 
 You cannot govern them in any other way. We act upon 
 this principle in our households; for the little child, before 
 it has learned to use its reason and its moral sense, is gov- 
 erned through the skin. And just in proportion as it is 
 redeemed from animalism, and carried up toward intelli- 
 gence and moral sense, a moral and intellectual govern- 
 ment is introduced in the place of a physical government. 
 You cannot govern a child of four years as you can a man 
 of forty, simply because those motives which influence the 
 developed nature of the man have no effect on the unde- 
 veloped nature of the child. And so it is in governments. 
 While rneh are low and brutal and savage, while they have 
 possession of but a part of themselves, it is not possible 
 to govern them in any way except with reference to their 
 condition. 
 
 The middle state will result in government by orders 
 and classes. It will emancipate such as are strong and in- 
 telligent, and leave the ignorant yet under strong govern- 
 ment. When all men are ignorant, you will have absolute 
 monarchies; when a part are intelligent and the rest are 
 ignorant, you will have aristocracies; and when the whole 
 are intelligent, you will have democracies, or republican 
 governments. One of these three is inevitable. The peo- 
 ple determine what the government shall be. If they are 
 brutal, there will be tyrannies; if they are partly civilized 
 and partly uncivilized, there will be aristocracies; if they 
 are wholly civilized, there will be democracies. Govern- 
 ments necessitate themselves, and adapt themselves to the 
 people. 
 
 Let us look a little at this order of government as 
 founded upon the character of the people. 
 
 Strong governments belong to the undeveloped and 
 weak. It is so of necessity, and it is so by right. If it is 
 wrong to have monarchies when they are required, it is 
 still more wrong to have people that can be governed by 
 nothing but monarchies. So long as people are crude and 
 undeveloped, you can govern them in no other way than 
 
386 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 by strong and compulsory means. There were attempts 
 made early at self-governments but they all failed igno- 
 miniously, for the reason that the people were not prepared 
 to govern themselves. The Jewish nation has been called 
 a commonwealth. That there were in its legislation ele- 
 ments of a commonwealth, there can be no doubt; but in 
 point of fact the government of the Jewish people never 
 did amount to anything more than a strong government. 
 It was either a government of chiefs over tribes, or a gov- 
 ernment of priests, under the name of theocracy. And it 
 was a strong government, whatever the form might be. 
 
 Just as far as ignorance and passion and rudeness exist 
 in a community, they impede self-government, or even 
 make it impossible. And where the people are not pre- 
 pared or qualified to govern themselves, absolute govern- 
 ments are just as certain now as ever before. Government 
 is not a thing to be chosen, except so far as necessity is 
 itself choice. Adaptation is a kind of generic choice. It 
 is supposed that we have outgrown monarchical govern- 
 ments. We have been taught, since the days of the spell- 
 ing-book and the old " Columbian Orator," that this nation 
 could not be governed by a monarchy. It depends upon 
 how ignorant and how wicked you are. Large portions of 
 this nation cannot be governed by anything but a mon- 
 archy now, and there is danger that ere long such will be 
 the case with the whole nation unless there is a change. 
 For as ignorance disappears, so disappear monarchies; and 
 as ignorance comes back, so inevitably come back mon- 
 archies. August laughs at the idea of March, and says, 
 " We have no frost; we have warm nights and glowing 
 days, and there shall be no more frosts." And September 
 says it, only with a fainter voice. And October begins to 
 feel pinching frosts. And as the days grow shorter, and 
 the nights grow longer, and November and December 
 come in, the reign of winter again ensues. And there is 
 a January to every August, as there is an April to every 
 January. And there are just such revolutions in the his- 
 tory of the world. You can have Pharaohs again, if you 
 want them, — though I pray God that there may be a Red 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 387 
 
 Sea for every one of them ! You can have dynasties again 
 through just letting the people become adapted to them 
 by ignorance, by unvirtue, by a want of self-restraint, by 
 pampered self-indulgence, or by pride growing out of 
 monstrous prosperity. Every step toward declension from 
 moral character is a written invitation for tyranny to come 
 back, — and it never lingers long nor hesitates when invited. 
 
 Whenever, from any cause, large portions of any com- 
 munity become barbarous, they necessitate monarchies, and 
 the prevailing governments must either grow strong, or 
 fail entirely; for there can be no self-government except 
 where there is virtue, intelligence, and moral worth. 
 
 Strong governments, then, belong to the first conditions 
 of the world, to the lowest states of human life; and they 
 are not good as compared with better governments, but 
 good as compared with nothing at all. 
 
 The process of civilization, with all its manifold powers, 
 acts first, of course, upon the strongest natures. In strong 
 governments there will be, if they be at all good, a ten- 
 dency to improve. This tendency usually shows itself first, 
 not in masses, but in single instances; and when educating 
 influences begin to bear upon a community, the most sus- 
 ceptible are first affected; the men with the strongest 
 minds, with the most intellection, with the richest natures, 
 with the best parts, are earliest developed. The word 
 aristocracy comes from the Greek, and signifies government 
 by the best. And in the progress of the development of 
 national life the first men that are educated, and that begin 
 to have the power that comss from education, are by orig- 
 inal endowment the best men, the most intellectual men. 
 the men of the most brain and substance. 
 
 The second result is that such men become incapable of 
 enduring an arbitrary government. As long as men are 
 ignorant, and deficient in will, they are incompetent to re- 
 sist a strong government, and, like the masses around them, 
 they submit to it; but as they begin to think, and have 
 will-power, they begin to resist the government, and it 
 slides off, and begins to distribute its power, and an aristoc- 
 racy comes in as the first transition from an absolute gov- 
 
388 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ernment, so that there will be a monarch, with a class, as 
 in England, or a class without a monarch, as in some of 
 the ancient nations. Under such circumstances, the gov- 
 ernment is called the government of the best men over the 
 masses, or of the few over the many. And this is a nat- 
 ural and inevitable transition state from strong govern- 
 ment to self-government. It holds a middle place between 
 a government over the people and a government from the 
 people. It includes, in some degree, the elements of both. 
 And the same reason that compels the crown to divide its 
 power with the higher classes will go on steadily, compell- 
 ing these higher classes to admit fresh sections into their 
 upper circle. There is a tendency in governments to work 
 toward the republican form. That is to say, where gov- 
 ernments are wisely and efficiently administered, men more 
 and more learn the art and acquire the capacity of govern- 
 ing, and become themselves depositaries of governmental 
 power. 
 
 In all Europe there is a steady progress toward the last 
 great form of civil government, — namely, republican gov- 
 ernment, or government of the people by the people. I 
 know it is said that the English government is the best 
 government on the earth. Very likely it may be the best 
 in the intermediate period; but it is not standing still in 
 that period. If there is one thing more certain than an- 
 other, it is that, as the popular element increases, that gov- 
 ernment recedes from aristocracy and monarchy toward 
 republicanism. There may be a nominal king. I do not 
 object to that. Names do not change anything. I would 
 as lief have a man or a woman (I would rather have a 
 woman, on an average !) to be called king or queen as to have 
 a man to be called president. And as to the class of nobility, 
 there have been periods when they, or when the nobility 
 combined with the monarch, were adapted to the condi- 
 tions of the people; but as the people are themselves be- 
 coming intelligent, they are tending toward a state of 
 things that will inevitably make them partners of the great 
 governing power. England is working toward self-govern- 
 ment. 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 389 
 
 The republican form of government is the noblest and 
 the best, as it is the latest. It is the latest because it 
 demands the highest conditions for its existence. Self- 
 government by the whole people is the teleologic idea. It 
 is to be the final government of the world. As to whether 
 the world is ripe enough to develop such a government, 
 which shall be able to maintain itself through any consid- 
 erable number of generations, it is useless to speculate. 
 
 But the process of developing a good and stable re- 
 publican government may go through ages. It is not a 
 settled fact at all, that, because we have come into a re- 
 publican government, this nation is going to live and be 
 perfected in it; because it is often the case that one govern- 
 ment rises up and works out one or two elements of the 
 great scheme which God is developing in this world, and 
 then dissolves, and that the next government takes up and 
 carries forward that which the first began. It may be that 
 the work which we have begun is to be taken up and car- 
 ried forward by a government that is to succeed this. Yet 
 there is a counter analogy to this, — the fadt that God is 
 giving to nations that have declined, and well-nigh lost 
 their national life, rejuvenescence. We see what was never 
 before seen, — a nation, after having died, come to life 
 again. Italy has found resurrection, and is growing strong. 
 Spain has been resuscitated, and is growing strong. Even 
 Austria is coming up from senility, and seems to be grow- 
 ing strong. Nations now seem to have a recuperative 
 power. And two things are possible in respect to our own 
 people. Having taken the first steps in the demonstration 
 of the great doctrine of the government of the people by 
 the people, our whole national life may collapse, and new 
 nations may come up and carry on that doctrine in its later 
 development; or, having gone through one period of our 
 growth, we may renew our youth, and go on again in the 
 same grand and divine experiment of government which 
 we have wrought out thus far. 
 
 And let me say here, that republican governments cannot 
 be had by any mere legislation. They must be the effect 
 of compelling causes. Government is an outworking of 
 
39° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the spirit of the people, and it holds a constant relation to 
 their actual condition. 
 
 If men are ignorant, or morally low, even under re- 
 publics, they will cease to be self-governing. They will be 
 led by cunning men, who will gain power over them by 
 courting their passions, and lead them, not according to 
 the decisions and judgments of the masses, but according 
 to the schemes and plans of those who acquire a surrepti- 
 tious influence over them. 
 
 This is the meaning of our text, " That the hypocrite 
 reign not, lest the people be ensnared." Under republican 
 governments it is possible for men to be ensnared by 
 cunning men, and, while they seem to be controlling their 
 own destinies, to be themselves absolutely controlled and 
 guided and governed. 
 
 There will always be large classes of men whose spirit 
 and training will cause them to be antagonistic to self- 
 government. Proud and haughty natures are the perpet- 
 ual enemies of republicanism. There are institutions in 
 society — some of them religious institutions— that nourish 
 the spirit of governing. Even the teaching of God's 
 supremacy, and of a certain delegation of Divine author- 
 ity to those who teach it, comes to be an inculcation of 
 government in such a sense as to train men to the love of 
 governing. Always, in every republican government, there 
 are large elements which tend away from that government 
 toward a strong government. 
 
 Yet, in spite of all delays and retrocessions and plot- 
 tings, unquestionably the human race are developing right 
 on toward this final and best form of government. In 
 every generation tyranny contracts its sphere; and now we 
 see the beginnings of the preparation for a higher type of 
 government. Despotisms are becoming constitutional 
 monarchies, constitutional monarchies are becoming aristoc- 
 racies, and aristocracies are becoming republican govern- 
 ments. And the tendency of the whole world at present, 
 in every one of its departments, is to develop the common 
 people. Almost every influence that is working in the 
 world now, judging it from hundred years to hundred 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 391 
 
 years, is flowing in one direction; and that direction is 
 toward the emancipation and elevation and education and 
 empowering of the great mass of mankind. 
 
 The tendency of rehgion is in this direction. It has 
 worlied out one vein, and liierarchies have had their day. 
 It is taking on more democratic forms, and it will take 
 them on from this time forth. 
 
 The spirit of missions has had an important and unsus- 
 pected democratic influence. The attempt of Christian 
 nations, at a vast expense, and with great trouble, to civil- 
 ize poor, miserable barbarians, has been itself a testimony 
 to the worth of poor, miserable barbarians. It has had a 
 tendency to increase in the popular estimation the value 
 of a man without regard to his accidents, without regard 
 to his condition or circumstances. Man, merely as a 
 creature of God and an heir of immortality, has risen in 
 the market. Before Christianity was revealed, do you 
 suppose any nation on earth were such fools as to spend 
 millions of annual dollars to civilize barbarians ! Before 
 the time of Christ, it was an offense punishable with slavery 
 or death to be a foreigner. If a mariner was shipwrecked 
 upon a foreign coast, he was put to death or made a slave, 
 on the charge of being a foreigner. Clear down to the 
 days of the Apostles, to be a foreigner was to be nothing at 
 all. The Greeks did not recognize human existence ex- 
 cept as Greek existence. They counted all the rest of the 
 world as trash, literally and truly. They learned no lan- 
 guages but their own. The Greek tongue prevailed in 
 Greece, and there was not another language spoken there. 
 The Greeks scorned to learn any language but their own. 
 They called other languages noises. The Greek tongue 
 was considered a language articulate, having sense and 
 philosophy and reason, and all other nations besides the 
 Greeks were said to inake noises, in distinction from speak- 
 ing. And their contempt of other peoples, previous to the 
 setting forth of the Gospel, — how does it stand in con- 
 trast with the spirit of modern Christian nations ! For 
 England and France and Germany and America are send- 
 ing out, every year, scores and scores of men elected and 
 
392 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 consecrated to the work of evangelization abroad. They 
 give their lives freely to that work, and countless treasures 
 are raised at home for their sustenance while they are 
 ministering to barbarians in other lands. What a witness 
 is this to the value of man ! What a thing is worth, is to 
 be measured by what men will do and suffer for it. And 
 silently, imperceptibly, "and unconsciously, missions have 
 become democratic, and have raised in the estimation of 
 the world the worth of man; — not this man or that man; 
 not a man of this nation, or a man of that nation; not a 
 civilized man; not a man of genius; not a man of skill; 
 not a man of learning; but man, with just the original at- 
 tributes that God gave him. Religious influences, for two 
 thousand years, have been meliorating laws and policies 
 and governments so as to bring them more on the side of 
 the people. 
 
 And now, at last, almost all the great causes of human 
 conduct are working in that direction. If you examine 
 the tendency of inventions and mechanic arts, you shall 
 find that, although they work for all men, they do not 
 work half so much for the rich, the strong, and the wise, 
 as they do for the poor, the weak, and the ignorant. 
 When steam was invented, it was the poor man's invention; 
 for it has elevated the poor man ten degrees where it has 
 the rich man one. Now the poor man can travel the 
 world over. Once, only the rich man could do it; but 
 steam has made them equal. The rich man always could 
 wear fine fabrics. The poor man could not, till steam 
 made manufacturing cheap. The rich man always could 
 have luxuries. The poor man could not, till art and science 
 were applied to domestic institutions and common life; 
 and then he could. Now the poor man has better food 
 than the rich man used to have, and he knows better how 
 to cook it than the rich man once did. There is not a 
 truckman in New York that does not live better than 
 Alexander lived. There is not a seamstress that does not 
 have on her table things that would have made Queen 
 Elizabeth stare. Take the bill of provender, I was going 
 to say, of Shakespeare's time. You might almost call it 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 393 
 
 fodder, it was so coarse, and so much like animals' food. 
 We should think ourselves treated worse than the prison- 
 ers at Sing Sing, if we had to live as the royalty did three 
 or four hundred years ago. They would have been glad 
 to live as our poor people live now, who are clothed better 
 than they were, who have better houses than they had, 
 and whose instruments of labor necessitate less drudgery 
 than theirs did. For every machine, although when first 
 invented it seems to supersede the laborer, has the effect 
 to raise the laborer one step higher. Every time an iron 
 muscle is invented, it gives emancipation to human muscle. 
 Every time you enslave a machine, — a slave that you have 
 a right to hold in bondage,— you set free ten thousand 
 slaves, that ought not to be held in bondage. And these 
 are revolutionizing forces that you cannot get around. 
 You might as well undertake to change the course of the 
 Gulf Stream as to undertake to arrest their tendency. 
 
 And that which is true of art is also true of literature. 
 If you go back to the time of Sterne and Swift, you shall 
 not find, I had almost said, a single generous, humanita- 
 rian sentiment in their writings. One thing is certain, — 
 that down to the time of Cowper, the English literature 
 (that part which comprised the poems particularly) was 
 filled with a supercilious contempt for the common people. 
 The boors, the peasants, the yeomen, were considered as 
 mats on which fine people might rub their feet and clean 
 their shoes; as good for nothing in themselves, and serv- 
 iceable only by reason of their relation to the upper classes. 
 And the spirit of humanity, the appreciation of human 
 worth under a rough exterior, and, above all, the desire 
 for the welfare of every man, — these sprang up within the 
 last hundred years. Our literature has been growing 
 purer. Nor is it so with ours alone; for the French litera- 
 ture has improved as well as ours. I do not know that the 
 French have as many Tract Societies as we have. But if 
 it is religious to aim to develop the poor, and to create a 
 powerful tendency toward humanity and self-sacrifice and 
 purity, then such writers as Victor Hugo are religious 
 writers. They are not spiritual writers, but they- are relig- 
 
394 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ious, in that they are aiming toward the evangelization 
 of the masses of men. And the literature of the globe 
 to-day is humane, at least, if it is not spiritual. 
 
 If you go from literature to art, you find this still more 
 remarkably illustrated. The days are waning in which 
 royalty, aristocrats, and rich men can be said to be the 
 chief patrons of art; and he that would be exalted as an 
 artist must humble himself, and accept the divine idea of 
 the grandeur of the common people, and not disdain their 
 sympathy and their patronage. I do not object to those 
 who painted the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus; but I 
 think the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus are more to us 
 than they were to those that painted them. What are 
 they to us ? Mother and child. Mary and Jesus were for 
 a particular age. Mother and child are universal. They 
 are something that comes home to every household and 
 every heart. And the Madonna and her child are more to 
 us, I say, than they were to those that painted them. And 
 though I do not object to the painting of antique subjects, 
 the subjects of past days, unquestionably the living schools 
 are to be the schools that feel themselves called to work 
 for the common people, and in the direction of true and 
 Christian democracy. 
 
 Once a picture was significant of almost royal posses- 
 sions. It is becoming less and less significant of wealth. 
 Indeed, I think that pictures are less apt to be found where 
 there is sudden wealth, than where there is real culture 
 and good taste in comparative poverty. More and more 
 every year pictures are coming to be owned by persons of 
 moderate and slender means, because they have an appe- 
 tite for beauty, and must have beauty to feed it. One 
 flower in the room of a seamstress who looks at it every 
 other stitch, is worth more than the garden of a king which 
 he disdains to walk in. So there is a love of art begin- 
 ning to develop in the common people. And all things are 
 tending to make it possible for the common people to grat- 
 ify their taste in this direction. 
 
 Once nobody could own a book unless he had a fortune. 
 Now a man that cannot afford to own a book ought to die; 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 395 
 
 he is too poor to live ! It is the cheapest thing there is. 
 Rum and reading are the two cheapest commodities of the 
 globe ! 
 
 Take one single invention, — photography. The world 
 will never die after this. It will live in shadow. We shall 
 have our uncles and aunts, our fathers and mothers, our 
 children, and our children's children in every year's stage; 
 and we can keep them. What a shadowy army is marching, 
 in the shape of photographic portraits, to the next genera- 
 tion ! O that it could have been so in days past ! My 
 mother died when I was but a small child, and I do not re- 
 member to have ever seen her face. And as there was no 
 pencil that could afford to limn her, I have never seen a 
 likeness of her. Would to God that I could see some pict- 
 ure of my mother ! No picture that hangs on prince's 
 wall, or in gallery, would I not give, if I might choose, for 
 a faithful portrait of my mother. Give me that above all 
 other pictures under God's canopy. My children are richer 
 than I wras when I was a child. The child of the poorest 
 man in this congregation is richer than the child of the 
 richest man was then. 
 
 And not only is photography enabling us to preserve our 
 friends but it is bringing the whole world to a man's door. 
 You can look upon the monuments of Egypt, and at the 
 same time toast your feet at your own fire. All the palaces 
 of the globe are brought to you, as are also the mountains 
 and rivers of distant countries. The very battle-field of 
 Antietam was here almost as soon as the news of the battle 
 reached us; and before the dead were buried, we had por- 
 trayed their mangled and swollen forms. 
 
 And not only is photography taking representations of 
 all the natural and artificial wonders of the globe, so that 
 the poorest man can have the portrait of everything 
 on earth; but it is taking even the secrets of the sun and 
 moon. 
 
 And these are but single instances of elements which are, 
 as we see, working to make rich and strongmen richer and 
 stronger, to be sure, but working ten thousand times more 
 to make the poor and the weak rich and strong. 
 
396 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 And as in respect to these elements, so in respect to 
 learning and education. Always the rich have been able 
 to educate their children. Not always have the poor been 
 able to do it. But now everything is working toward the 
 education of the common people. 
 
 So that at this time, while governments are ameliorating, 
 while absolute monarchies are changing to constitutional 
 monarchies, while constitutional monarchies are becoming 
 aristocracies, while aristocracies are more and more diffus- 
 ing themselves, and sharing their power with the masses, 
 while all tendencies are toward self-government in polit- 
 ical forms, — at this time, while these things are taking 
 place, religion and art and learning and science and inven- 
 tions are co-operating. There is one direction to all these 
 forces. God's hand, like a sign-board, is pointing toward 
 democracy, and saying to the nations of the earth, " This is 
 the way: walk ye in it." The road is very muddy in some 
 spots, and the march will be slow, but the march will be 
 one way; and though it may be like the march into sum- 
 mer out of winter, or like the march of Israel out of Egypt 
 into the promised land, summer and the promised land — 
 self-government — will at last be reached. 
 
 Let us look, then, in the light of these remarks, at some 
 of the relations of our own times to this tendency. 
 
 The first thing to which I will call your attention is that 
 extraordinary contrast which exists between this country 
 and the other countries of the world, — the most extraor- 
 dinary, I think, that was ever exhibited under the sun. 
 Europe, starting from a point of abject despotism, has, for 
 the last two hundred years, been steadily unfolding, and 
 throwing off its cerements, and working its limbs, and pre- 
 paring its feet for marching. Nay, it has begun to march. 
 And though its way is through revolutions and through 
 blood, though it is held back by reactions and retroces- 
 sions, yet, on the whole, judged by long periods of time, 
 the progress of Europe has been from barbarism to Chris- 
 tian civilization; from absolute monarchies, up through 
 constitutional monarchies and aristocracies, toward gov- 
 ernments by the people. And all tendencies, however much 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 397 
 
 they may have seemed to thwart these things, have really 
 worked for them. Europe began at the point of despot- 
 ism, and she has gone toward republicanism until she has 
 all but grasped it. 
 
 How was it with America ? We began at the point of 
 Christian democracy. There never was so democratic a 
 people as we were. There never was a nation with such 
 developments of republican ideas. And we have steadily 
 marched in the opposite direction. We have gone right 
 away from democracy toward aristocracy. We have tended 
 more and more to deny the natural rights of man, and set 
 the strong over the weak (the white strong over the black 
 weak), and to found a new dynasty, most hateful and 
 odious, until we are poisoned in the very veins of our na- 
 tional life, in every part of our governmental polic3^ 
 
 And while Europe has been going in one direction, we 
 have met her, going in the other, she bearing the dark em- 
 blem of despotism, which has grown brighter and brighter 
 until it has almost emerged into the glorious light of lib- 
 erty, and we bearing a blazing torch kindled from the very 
 altar of God, which has grown dimmer and dimmer till it 
 has almost sunk into Egyptian darkness. There never was 
 another such contrast. 
 
 That tendency has been met, and, in so far as the free 
 Northern States are concerned, turned back, but oniy just 
 in time for their redemption. But the attempt to recover 
 ourselves has led to a conflict between these opposite ele- 
 ments such as never before raged. For this war is a war 
 of ideas; it is a war of fundamental principles; it is a war 
 of absolute influences; it is a war between the spirit of 
 absolute government as developed by the necessities of a 
 servile society, and the spirit of self-government as de- 
 veloped by the condition of an intelligent population. 
 
 Now there can hardly be a doubt as to the final issue. 
 God's intention is too plainly indicated to leave any doubt 
 as to the ultimate state of the world. But whether that 
 state is to exist in our day, in our children's time, or in re- 
 mote ages, no man can tell. We know which side, after 
 tumultuous struggles, shall have the victory, but whether 
 
398 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 that victory shall be delayed through generations, or 
 whether it shall be achieved at once, we do not know. 
 
 Yet, let us take a hopeful view. Let us hope that we 
 shall be found adequate to the exigencies which have come 
 upon us. Let us not be bribed nor betrayed. There is no 
 question but that the right is with us. Every principle of 
 justice and humanity that has been developed in the past 
 cries out to us of the North to go forward. Every analogy 
 of God's providence calls out to us to advance coura- 
 geously. Every aspiration of the human soul urges us, who 
 are on the side of universal liberty, the liberty of all men, 
 not to yield, not to compromise, but to maintain our stand 
 to the bitter end, and to the glorious victory therein. 
 
 I believe that this nation will not flinch, and that it will 
 stand. Yet I do not know the power of the Devil. His 
 minions, his hypocritical agents, are abroad. I do not dis- 
 guise my opinion on this subject, any more than on any 
 other. I believe the opposition that has arisen against the 
 administration and the government is the meanest and 
 most hypocritical that ever existed. I would sooner pluck 
 off my right arm than give countenance to it in any way. 
 There was a time when I felt that all party spirit was being 
 laid aside, and that all parties were being united to sustain 
 the administration in the prosecution of this glorious war 
 in the cause of universal humanity. I was in favor of 
 sinking all political considerations, and standing by those 
 men that best stood by the government. But since the 
 enemy has sown tares among us, and an opposition has 
 been formed, God do so to me, and more also, if I strike 
 hands except with him who is openly and avowedly for 
 liberty, and liberty for every man. I would denounce my 
 own brother, I would denounce my own father, if he were 
 ranged on the side of these enemies of their country and 
 of freedom. I love my God and my fellow-men more than 
 any man that carries my blood in his veins. And however 
 much men may have been my friends, however much I 
 would have been glad to help men into places of power, 
 once let them stand on the side of those detestable hypo- 
 crites who are undermining with specious pretenses the 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 399 
 
 cause of liberty, and who, by infamous guises, are feign- 
 ing friendship for an administration wliich they mean to 
 destroy, God do so to me, and more also, if I touch them, 
 except with the besom or with the rod of destruction. 
 
 But, although in the main I hope, let us be prepared for 
 the worst. We have materials for a terrible conflict among 
 ourselves. It is not the fault of those who invite them 
 that we have not revolutionary outbreaks in our midst. 
 I have no doubt that there are men in New York who 
 would inaugurate blood, murder, and revolution, if they 
 dared. The only thing which holds them back is a sneak- 
 ing prudence. But for that we should have another era of 
 massacre such as Paris saw in the days of the French 
 Revolution. There are men in our midst who are so 
 wicked that they do not need to go to hell ! They carry 
 it with them; it is in them; and they are their own devil ! 
 And these are the men, unquestionably, that are first and 
 foremost as plotters in that specious, sinuous friendship 
 that would go to the administration, and say, " How art 
 thou, my brother?" while it plunges the dagger under the 
 fifth rib. Be not found in their counsels. O my soul, 
 come not into their secrets. It is not a safe thing for a 
 man that keeps well to his God and his country to keep 
 such company. Take care whom you go with. And when 
 you go to vote, vote so strong for liberty that there shall 
 not be any danger in your vote.* Throw it as far as 
 you can toward God's throne, toward God's providence, 
 toward the destiny of the race, toward the final results of 
 Christianity. Throw it away from glozing, deceitful, self- 
 ish man. Go with the stanchest principles. Go back to 
 the days when we had Franklins and Jeffersons and Wash- 
 ingtons, and take their utterances, and follow their pre- 
 cepts. The only way for us to escape troubles innumera- 
 ble, I think, is to fight out this battle which we have 
 entered upon, with courage and energy, and to the very 
 last. You never will have another war so cheap as this. 
 Suppose you should make peace with the South by sliding 
 these unprincipled and subtle politicians into power, — 
 
 *The reference is to the then pending State election of New York. 
 
400 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 suppose you should compel the weak hands of the govern- 
 ment to yield to a compromise with the South, — do you 
 suppose that would bring peace in your day? 
 
 From the moment that they get on their feet again, every 
 election in the North will turn upon whether one State or 
 another shall not go over to the Southern interest; and 
 there will be a fight between Northern and Southern in- 
 terests, and you will have to vote under the menace of 
 arms, and hold your ground by force, or go down before 
 threats. And when it comes to threatening, the South is 
 worth a hundred of you. When it comes to knuckling, 
 you are worth a hundred of the South ! You are on your 
 feet now, and I advise you to keep there. Your hands are 
 out, with your hearts behind them, and I advise you to 
 keep them out. There has never been a sight more despi- 
 cable than that of Northern doughfaces in the presence of 
 Southern slave-drivers; and now that Northern manhood 
 is emancipated, and you are standing up, I beseech of you 
 in the name of God and humanity, do not put yourself 
 again into bondage and servility. 
 
 Money, — will that buy you ? Then stand for liberty. A 
 slave made free will purchase a hundred dollars' worth at 
 your factory where a slave in bondage will purchase one 
 dollar's worth. What does a slave want ? How many 
 combs will he buy? How many mirrors? How much 
 glass ? How many pianos ? How many harps ? How 
 many books ? How many harnesses ? How many whips ? 
 One in the hands of a single man is enough for forty 
 slaves. Freedom will diminish exports immensely. Why? 
 Because, when the slaves were slaves, they lived on the 
 least conceivable quantity of everything, and there was a 
 great surplus for exporting. But the moment you make 
 them free, they will become consumers to a much greater 
 degree than they have been. If you must have a money 
 motive, I advocate freedom on this ground. Freedom 
 promotes commerce and manufactures. There is not a 
 farmer to whom, if his plough could speak, it would not 
 say, " Go for freedom, — it will make me bright;" there is 
 not a mechanic to whom his every tool, if it could speak, 
 
THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 401 
 
 would not say, " Vote for freedom, — it will make me 
 lively;" there is not a ship-builder to whom every ship in 
 his yard, if it could speak, would not say, " Work for free- 
 dom, — it will make me merry on the wave;" there is not 
 a manufacturer to whom his machinery, if it could speak, 
 would not say, " Encourage freedom, — it will make me 
 musical." 
 
 All the factories in New England, if they could vote, 
 would vote for freedom, — except cat-o'-nine-tail factories; 
 I believe they would vote for slavery. No; they would 
 turn about and go to making horsewhips, and, on second 
 thought, vote for freedom ! Every interest of agriculture, 
 commerce, and manufactures, every industrial interest of 
 the North, will be abundantly profited by a policy of lib- 
 erty. As civilization increases among men, it makes them 
 more, and multiplies their necessities. When a man is a 
 savage, he has but one or two faculties to feed; but when 
 he becomes civilized, he has a great many more mouths 
 open and calling for food. For the more the human mind 
 is developed, the more numerous are its wants which must 
 be supplied. And blessed is that nation which has to sup- 
 ply the wants of a civilized people. They are great con- 
 sumers. 
 
 It is supposed that the natural state of a man is simplic- 
 ity. No, it is complexity. The natural state of a man is 
 like that of a tree. And what is the last state of an oak, 
 but to divide and subdivide, and spread out infinite 
 branches on every side ? The first state of a man, like the 
 first state of a tree, may be simplicity, and he may be, as 
 it were, a single whip; but as he begins to grow he will 
 throw out branches, and these branches will throw out 
 other branches, and those will throw out others, and he 
 will take in more by root and leaf. Every interest that 
 makes money and intelligence pleads for a policy of 
 liberty. 
 
 And since there is a necessity for it, since by the voice 
 of the highest officer of the nation it has been declared 
 that emancipation is a military necessity, let us stand by 
 that which we have got. Let us not fall back one single 
 
402 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Step in this great conflict, in which thus far God has so 
 gloriously led us. For if this nation falls to pieces in your 
 day, or in your child's day, will it come together again ? 
 No hand has ever yet restored the Phidian marbles. No 
 architect has ever rebuilt Athens. The Acropolis is 
 disheveled and rent, a monument of her death, and a 
 memorial of her past glory. But it is easier to bring to- 
 gether shattered temples than it will be to bring together 
 the shattered principles of this great temple of liberty 
 which has been reared in our country, if you permit it to 
 be rent. It is a doctrine of devils, this doctrine of divis- 
 ion. While you have the power, hold the nation together. 
 Weld it. Secure the unity of this people, voluntary at the 
 North, and compelled at the South. One government, 
 one Constitution, one political doctrine which makes all 
 men free and equal, — that shall be the glory of the conti- 
 nent; that shall be the prophecy of the future; that shall 
 bring down the blessing of God, against which all the 
 machinations of the Devil shall not prevail. 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS.* 
 
 " For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty : only use not liberty 
 for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." — Gal. v. 13. 
 
 It has been said, usually, that this and like passages 
 were metaphorical and signified simply spiritual liberty. 
 They include that; but they neither begin nor end with it. 
 
 The Apostle is not discussing, either, the question of 
 personal liberty. That is but an inference and special ap- 
 plication of a larger right than even civil and political lib- 
 erty, — a right that lies back of all society and all individual 
 volition, and depends in nothing upon men's opinions or 
 arrangements, but stands in the Divine arrangement, in the 
 creative decree. 
 
 What, then, is liberty, — the source or fountain of which all 
 other liberties are but streams or defluctions ? 
 
 There can be no such thing as absolute liberty, — that is, 
 the liberty of acting according to our own wishes, without 
 hindrance and without limitation; for man is created to 
 act by means of certain laws. Above all creatures on earth, 
 man is placed under many and exacting laws. He is sur- 
 rounded, he is walled in, he is domed and circuited by 
 laws; and every one of them is imperative. And it is the 
 law of the animal creation, that, as you augment being, 
 you augment law. For there is no power, there is no 
 faculty, in man, that is not relative to some law which it 
 represents outside of him. And all laws of matter external 
 to his own self are imperative upon him. And there is no 
 such thing as liberty, in the largest sense, in the physical 
 world. You are at liberty to go where you please, pro- 
 
 * December 28, 1862, while the Emancipation Proclamation was ex- 
 pected. 
 
404 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 vided you please to go where natural laws will let you; but 
 if a man, on the top of one mountain, pleases to walk 
 through the air to the next one, can he ? He is at liberty 
 to try; but he will fall over the precipice below if he under- 
 takes it. Has a man liberty to do as he pleases ? Let him 
 walk on water. He has no such liberty. Our liberty is 
 hedged in by natural law. There is no step that you can 
 take without asking permission of laws, — and how many 
 there are of them ! How many of them touch us at every 
 point ! I am a focal center; and laws of light, laws of 
 electricity, laws of gravitation, and social laws are running 
 in on me perpetually, from every direction; and I am the 
 creature of them all, and I am obliged to submit to them 
 all. I cannot help myself. There is no such thing as 
 real and absolute liberty in this regard. 
 
 All laws of our physical body, of every organ of that 
 body, must be observed. Thus, the eye has its law; and a 
 man has liberty of sight only through obedience to that 
 law. The ear has its law; the tongue has its law; the 
 heart has its law; the lungs have their law. There is a 
 law that belongs to each particular function of the phys- 
 ical organization. And there is no liberty in a man except 
 in obedience to those laws. Every faculty of the mind is 
 a definite power, moving within fixed limits toward ends 
 that cannot be varied. Thus, you cannot feel with the 
 faculty that is made for thinking, and you cannot think 
 with the faculty that is made for feeling, any more than 
 you can digest food with the lungs, and breathe with the 
 stomach. You cannot transpose functions from one faculty 
 to another. You have received your mind, with its faculties, 
 each of which has its inward law, impressed upon it of God; 
 and the liberty that you have is a liberty which is obliged to 
 take into account, not only the laws of the physical world, but 
 also the laws of 3'^our body, and of all the faculties of your 
 body. And the laws of society itself, as well as the laws 
 developed through experience, are as binding and im- 
 perative as the laws of nature, expressed in the material 
 world, or in us. No creature is so harnessed by imperative 
 and absolute laws as man; and therefore, than this vague 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 405 
 
 but popular idea that liberty means doing just what you 
 please, nothing can be further from the truth. No creature 
 that God made on the earth has so little liberty to do what 
 he pleases as man. You cannot use your arm except ac- 
 cording to its muscles. You cannot use your foot except 
 according to its organization. You cannot use any organ 
 of the body except within the circuit of its appointed nat- 
 ural law. You cannot use the mind nor the affections ex- 
 cept according to their own laws. There is no liberty 
 except inside of certain boundaries. 
 
 The only liberty, then, that a man has, is the liberty to 
 use himself, in all his powers, according to the laws which 
 God has imposed on those powers. The only liberty in 
 this world is the liberty to be unhindered in obeying nat- 
 ural laws. Our directions, our tendencies, and therefore 
 our duties, are all expressed in the laws that God has 
 made; and when we come to those laws we are bound to 
 obey them; and if anybody hinders us, then our liberties 
 begin. As toward God, liberty means obedience to laws; 
 and it is only when we are disputed in the right of this 
 obedience by men, that we begin to get an idea of liberty. 
 We have a right to obey God, whether he speaks on Sinai, 
 or in muscle or bone or faculty, or any other way. It is 
 our liberty to unfold natural laws, and to follow them. 
 
 This may seem but a very narrow possession. It is so only 
 in words, not in reality. It seems as though a man were 
 shut up when you say that he can do nothing but obey a 
 fixed natural law. The first thought suggested by the 
 statement is that the liberty just to obey a law is a liberty 
 so restricted as to be almost no liberty at all. That de- 
 pends upon what the law includes. Take an example or 
 two. You can do nothing in vision except what the laws 
 of vision allow you to do; but how much there is that can 
 be done in obedience to those laws. In a whole lifetime you 
 cannot see all that there is to be seen. You must, if you 
 use your ear, do it according to the acoustic law; and yet, 
 in obeying that law, what a. liberty is opened up ! A man 
 would need to be far older than Methuselah to exhaust 
 sound in all its varieties and combinations. 
 
4o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 This, then, is the sovereignty of man. It is the doctrine 
 of the individual upon a Christian basis. It is the right of 
 every man over liis own mind, heart, and body; over his 
 time, movements, and relations to the physical world. It 
 is the sovereignty of every man over himself. It is his 
 right to have and hold and use himself according to the 
 laws that God made. That is his liberty; and if any one 
 attempts to take it away from him, he attempts to deprive 
 him of so much of his liberty. If he does not know how 
 to use himself thus, he loses by his ignorance so much of 
 his liberty. 
 
 This sovereignty has seldom been exercised by, or even 
 revealed to, the mass of men in the world. Man has been 
 rigidly hindered and hampered by civil and secular im- 
 positions as to his body. Men have not been allowed to 
 exercise their natural physical capacities according to the 
 law of their own development. It has been in this respect 
 as it was in Egypt in respect to business. It was ordained 
 what calling a man should follow. If he was born of a 
 priest, he had a right only to be a priest. If he was born 
 of a mechanic, he was bound to be a mechanic. He 
 could not elect, according to the formal law of adap- 
 tation, what pursuit he would engage in, where he would 
 go, or what he would be. Laws have divided men, cut 
 them up into classes, and set apart to some much, to 
 others less, to others still less, and to others almost 
 nothing except the crumbs that fall from the table of the 
 more favored. And it is no small thing to say to every 
 human being on the earth, " God gave you the right to 
 develop your body, and all that pertains to it, according to 
 the law that is in you, and not according to the law that 
 happens to be in the civil society where you are." 
 
 You have that liberty. Do you not like the practice of 
 law ? You can preach, if you please, and if you are com- 
 petent. Do you not like the pulpit ? Nothing hinders 
 you from turning to the store. Are you a turner? and do 
 you find that you are thrown into a business that does not 
 suit you ? Go to the forge, if you like. Nobody stands in 
 the way of your doing it. Are you at the forge ? and do 
 
RTrv^cixrKA. (^ ^mL^. 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 4°? 
 
 you say, " I am better adapted for a seaman " ? Then why 
 do you not go on the deck ? Are you on deck ? and do you 
 say, " Farming is that to which I am best suited " ? Then 
 there is no authority or custom to prevent you from going 
 on a farm. Do you say, *' I am too far north " ? Then go 
 to the tropics: they are free to you. Or if you say, " I am 
 too near the equatorial zone of unhealth," then it is your 
 privilege to go to the frigid zone, if you choose. 
 
 It seems a small thing to say that a man has a right to 
 develop his bodily life according to the laws of the body; 
 but that declaration in Georgia or Alabama would work a 
 revolution in less than twenty-four hours. There are some 
 four millions of men that, if you should say to them, " You 
 have a right to develop your body according to natural 
 law," would inaugui^te a servile revolution in a moment. 
 For we are in such an exquisite state in this country, that 
 to fall back on Divine law and original equity is to over- 
 throw civil law. And yet against civil law, and by the au- 
 thority of the Gospel, I declare to every man that lives on 
 the face of the earth, " You are called to liberty." And as 
 long as the Bible is held in the hands, not of priests, but 
 of freemen, just so long it will be interpreted so as to 
 sound a trumpet-call to every living man on earth, saying: 
 " You have a right to go wherever the laws of your being 
 permit you to go, and to do whatever those laws permit you 
 to do." Though a man be born black as midnight, — though 
 his face is as if all the stars of darkness had kissed him, — 
 still, if he is born with the tongue of an orator, he has God's 
 permission and God's ordination to be an orator; and no- 
 body has a right to say to him, "You shall not." If a man 
 has an artificer's skill in his hand, he has a right to cut and 
 carve, whether it be machinery or statue or what not; and 
 nobody has a right to say to him, " You shall not follow 
 out the law that is infixed in your organization and your 
 constitution." And this is what I consider to be the most 
 atrocious thing in that most atrocious, heaven-abhorred and 
 hell-beloved system of slavery. What ? that it gives a man 
 coarse clothes ? John wore camel's hair and a leathern 
 girdle, and he was well enough off. Is it because it gives 
 
4o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 a man coarse food ? Thousands of you would be better 
 off if you ate coarse food. Is it because in its workings 
 men are underfed or underclothed ? Or, are they happy 
 because they are overclothed and overfed ? Why, my 
 pigs are happy, that have the liberty to grunt as much as 
 they please, that have all they want to eat, and that have 
 plenty of straw to lie on. And men defend slavery on the 
 ground that the black men of the South are well fed and 
 clothed, and are apparently happy in their condition; but 
 the fact that they have enough to eat and to wear, and that 
 they can sing, is no evidence that they have all the rights 
 of their manhood. I say that they have a right to listen 
 to the voice of God in their faculties and organization, and 
 to follow out the laws that God has wrought in them. And 
 that we have four millions of men before whom we stand 
 in all the majesty of local and national law, and say: " You 
 shall not come up into yourself; you shall not have the lib- 
 erty to be what God made you able to be; you shall not 
 be free to obey the laws of your being," — this is to go at 
 right angles to Divine decrees; it is to contravene God's 
 creative idea. 
 
 Man has been robbed, likewise, of his mind, — that is, of 
 his education. An uneducated mind is like undug ore. 
 Iron on my farm is nothing. When I have dug it out, and 
 smelted it, and purified it, and when it has been made into 
 a sword, into knives, into utensils or machinery of any sort, 
 then the mineral has been educated. Now a man is noth- 
 ing but a mine of undug faculties. The first step in edu- 
 cation consists in digging them out in the rough, prepar- 
 atory to bringing them to their perfect form. When a man 
 is first born, he is like an acorn. But in an acorn — that is, 
 in its possible future — there is timber. In a bushel of 
 acorns there are ships, there are dwellings, there are 
 curiously carved cornices and statues. And when men are 
 born, they are born into philosophers, into statesmen, into 
 orators, into patriots, into wise men, — provided that, being 
 born, they are planted, and developed, and given an op- 
 portunity to grow to that which God thought of when he 
 created them. But the belief of the human race has been 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 409 
 
 that the man who knew much was a very dangerous creat- 
 ure. The heresy of five thousand years out of six, and of 
 five hundred more, and of a hundred more besides, has been 
 that knowledge was dangerous for the common people. 
 
 There are walking-sticks that are made for seats as well 
 as walking-sticks. When they are shut up, they are like 
 walking-sticks, and they cannot stand of themselves; but 
 if you open them, there sprout out legs, that enable them 
 not only to stand, but to support a man's weight. An un- 
 educated man is like an unopened walking-stick of this 
 kind. He cannot stand alone. He needs to lean on some 
 king or government. It is not until he has been taken and 
 educated and expanded that he can hold himself up. And 
 it is this idea of developing that which God has put in 
 every man, so that he can stand alone, that is the founda- 
 tion of self-government, — the only divine government in 
 this world. There are in each individual man all the 
 faculties that are necessary, if they are balanced and co- 
 ordinated, to make him a perfect being in his social organ- 
 ization; and education means merely the opening up of a 
 man, and giving him all his legs to stand on, and all his 
 hands to help himself with. Those who govern others, and 
 who maintain themselves by governing them, want men to 
 need some one to lean on, and to take care of them; and 
 therefore they do not want them opened up. Just that 
 which they do not like is to have every man capable of 
 standing of himself; for their interest demands a state of 
 things in which one head shall think for a million heads, 
 and one hand shall rule for a million hands. And it has 
 been, since time began, the heresy that education was to be 
 feared. Priests have been afraid, and prime ministers and 
 princes and kings have been afraid, of education. And 
 yet to every man belongs the liberty of having the fullest 
 development of all that God put into the making of the 
 human mind. We are called to liberty. It is a part of the 
 design of that system which lies under the foundations of 
 society, that every man has a right to the full use of every 
 faculty of his mind according to the law that God estab- 
 lished in that faculty. 
 
41 o PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 But man has been yet worse robbed in soul than even in 
 body and mind. He has had presented to him false gods 
 of every kind for his worship. And by the most rigorous 
 despotism and the most fearful threatenings, he has been for- 
 bidden to find his own way to God, and compelled to accept 
 the gods that were fashioned for him. And when the true 
 God has been revealed at length, after many generations, 
 the way to the true God has been hedged up, and worship 
 and obedience have been prescribed, and men have had 
 no liberty of going their own way, but have been obliged 
 to walk the priests' and the church's way. Thus man's 
 whole ethical life has been framed and imposed upon him 
 without his consent, and without appeal from it. And al- 
 though much of the religion and ethics that has been 
 taught has belonged to the true system, much of it has not. 
 And nowhere else has man been so trained to be a coward 
 as in maintaining his right to fashion his own ethical life, 
 to worship and to find God in his own way; while nowhere 
 else has sounded out so loudly the sweet voice of the Gos- 
 pel, saying, "Ye are called unto liberty." 
 
 I think men in this world, for the most part, have been 
 much like orphans, to whom has been bequeathed a large 
 estate, but whose fraudulent executor or guardian has kept 
 them ignorant of their parents, their possessions, and their 
 rights, and bound them out in every direction to ignomin- 
 ious callings. God's great brood of orphan children have 
 been in the hands of the Devil as their executor; and he 
 has kept them from knowing anything of their Father, or 
 of their inheritance, or of the liberty that belongs to them. 
 Now the Gospel has come in to rip up the old settlement, 
 expose the fraud, and bring the orphans back to their 
 property and privileges again. And the voice of our text, 
 the voice of the providence of God, to-day, is, " Ye are 
 called to liberty." 
 
 Let us, then, see how this call of the Gospel acts. Christ 
 brought liberty to men. That is, in the first instance, he 
 established man's true place in creation as a child of God; 
 he told him what he was, and treated him as if he was such. 
 While the humiliation of Christ, — not merely his being 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 411 
 
 born in the likeness of a man, but his selecting for his 
 parentage the lowest class in society, and his being born 
 under circumstances indicative of the most impoverished 
 condition, — while this certainly illustrates the design of 
 God, and was meant to, and to do still more that is left out 
 of sight, it determines man's place in creation. Christ came 
 into the world among men that had no adventitious value. 
 There was not, of those with whom he mingled during the 
 first ten years of his earthly life, a man that could be proud 
 on account of his clothes, his grounds, his house, his privi- 
 leges, his honors, or his titles. Christ was born in the 
 midst of men, and he lived for thirty years among men, that 
 had absolutely nothing but their own individual selves. He 
 associated with men, not because they were wise, educated, 
 large men, not because they were privileged or titled men, 
 but simply because they were men. For he wished to 
 teach us that the lowest man on earth is a child of God. 
 And if this is true of the lowest, how much more eminently 
 is it true of everything higher than the lowest! He began 
 at the bottom of life, and stuck close to the bottom of life, 
 where there was simply man, and nothing else. And he 
 bore witness by every word that he spoke, and by every 
 deed that he performed, that man, low, base, undeveloped, 
 least and lowest, is yet God's child. He is a child of eter- 
 nity. He came hither from thence, and he goes thither 
 again. He was God-wrought, and he feels a yearning for 
 his parentage, and seeks again the source from which 
 he came. Nor can he be measured by anything in this 
 world. No latitudes drawn from the earth's surface can 
 gird a man, and no longitudes can belt him. Take the 
 lines of infinity, and measure him with them; take God's 
 dwelling-place, and measure him by its instruments; meas- 
 ure him by nothing else than these. Take the meanest, 
 the most imbruted creature; take the blackest slave that, 
 overworked and outworked, is kicked out to die under the 
 frosty hedge, and whose bones even the crows do not wait 
 to pick, and there is not a star that nightly blazes in the 
 heavens, and speaks of God, that shall not burn to the 
 socket and go out, before the spirit in that poor, low, mis- 
 
412 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 erable, brutish thing shall cease to flame up bright as God's 
 own crown. The poorest creature, the lowest creature, the 
 meanest creature, is immortal, is an eternal heir of God, 
 and bears a spark of divinity within him. This revelation 
 of what a man is, in and of his own nature, without any re- 
 gard to his circumstances, is the key-note of civilization, 
 and the key-note of the liberties of states and of communi- 
 ties that shall be permanent and normal and philosophical. 
 It is no small thing for a man to know that. Why, a 
 slave that knows it and sings it, a slave that dreams of 
 heaven and chants of Christ, is richer than is the richest 
 master that has no god but the Devil, and stands higher 
 in the sight of angels than he. For as angels come with 
 God's blessings down to men, methinks they fly but a little 
 way before they reach the spirits of some of those sainted 
 old slaves, and that then they descend 
 
 " Nine times the space that measures day and night 
 To mortal men," 
 
 and at last come to the master. And the difference lies in 
 the simple fact that the former have in them Christ, the hope 
 of glory. And the man who has that has done his march, 
 and is ready to enter into his rest, and to ascend the throne 
 which he has inherited. 
 
 You know the story of Williams, the missionary among 
 the Indians, who, it was supposed, was a kidnaped Bour- 
 bon, sent off by some usurper of the throne, and who after- 
 wards found out that he was of the stock of royalty, and 
 spent part of his life in trying to collate the facts and 
 make the chain of evidence complete that he was descended 
 from the loins of kings, and was the rightful heir to the 
 throne of France. It was not so, I presume; but suppose 
 it had been so, think how, when the idea dawned upon him 
 in his forest travels; how, when he came to take fact after 
 fact, and put them together, and prove that he was of royal 
 blood, and a monarch entitled to all the treasures of the 
 empire, how he must have felt a heart-swell, though he 
 might have deemed it best to continue a missionary ! I 
 know not how it would have been with him, but I know how 
 it would have been with me. If I had learned that I was 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 413 
 
 born to human titles, and to all those regalities, and if I had 
 chosen to be a missionary, I would have been a royal mis- 
 sionary, and I would have given the people among whom 
 I moved to understand that a king stooped when I stooped. 
 
 Now Christ comes and whispers in the ears of men, say- 
 ing: "You are an exiled child of royalty; you are an heir, 
 through Jesus Christ, to an eternal inheritance, and thrones 
 and dominions and crowns are yours." He says it to the 
 poorest, the meanest, and the lowest, and fixes a man in 
 the knowledge of his Father, his titles, his dignity, and his 
 destiny. And what a liberty is there ! 
 
 Christ restores and enforces the right of a man to use all 
 his nature according to the law which God has fixed in 
 every part of that nature, without hindrance from without. 
 He does this by his Gospel; and I am entitled to preach 
 that Gospel. But suppose I undertake to preach the Gos- 
 pel in Georgia, in full, — not the letter which kills, but the 
 spirit which makes alive ? Men want me to do it. I am 
 frequently asked why I do not do it. They exhort me, 
 with a" fidelity and a pathos that do not fail to touch me, 
 to preach the Gospel ! And I have made up my mind 
 that I will. And to-day I begin by declaring, in the words 
 of this passage, '■'■ Ye have been called zmto liberty. " Hear it, 
 every Calmuck, every Tartar, every Chinaman, every Jap- 
 anese, every Italian, every Austrian, every Russian serf, 
 every Frenchman; hear it, among the mountain fastnesses 
 of Norway and Sweden, through England, and along the 
 German coast; hear it in the islands of the sea; hear it, ye 
 denizens of the forests of America; hear it, ye slaves on 
 every plantation throughout the bounds of the land; every- 
 where, in all the earth, hear the Gospel, — " Ye have been 
 CALLED UNTO LIBERTY ! " And if you ask me, " What is 
 that liberty ? " I declare that it is the right of every man 
 who is born unto this world to use every power, every 
 faculty of his being, according to the law that God has 
 fixed in that power and in that faculty, and not according 
 to any external imposition of man. This is the liberty to 
 which you are called. And do you want me to preach the 
 Gospel any more ? [ Voices: Amen ! Amen .''] "And let all the 
 
414 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 people say, Amen." The time is coming when these truths 
 of Christ shall flame out, and when men shall understand 
 that preaching the Gospel does not mean preaching genu- 
 flexions and days and ordinances and abstract doctrines, 
 but that there is a truth of the Gospel that carries emanci- 
 pation through and through, right to the soul, right to the 
 heart, and that makes every man that lives on the globe a 
 son of God, and therefore impossible to be a slave. 
 
 But, more in detail, Christ has given to every one of us 
 liberty of thought and liberty of belief. It is not irrespon- 
 sible liberty of thought that we are called to. We have 
 no liberty of thinking that disdains the laws of thinking. 
 There is no liberty that does not involve the observance of 
 law. Nevertheless, you have, every man has, as much 
 right as I have to read God's Word, to think what truths 
 are in that word, and to use every part of the mind in 
 reasoning upon those truths. Sometimes men say that 
 faith requires us to lay aside our reason. I beg your par- 
 don, it never does. I will tell you what I think about faith 
 and reason. It is about these as it is about birds that 
 both run and fly. A turkey that runs around in the woods 
 never rises suddenly. It first runs on the ground till it 
 gains sufficient momentum to enable it to rise and fly. 
 Now I think that reason is like legs that run on the ground; 
 and as soon as you have come to the end of the earth, if 
 you need more, and you have faith, lift your wings, and 
 you can fly. But one follows the other. Faith never can 
 be said to be coincident with reason. Reason is that fac- 
 ulty which knows things so far as they can be known; and 
 up to the point to which they can be found out, you are 
 free to use it; and, when you get to the end of knowing, 
 if you have faith, then fly. All beyond is the region of 
 faith. Faith is that which takes cognizance of things that 
 are not within the sphere of knowing. And a part of 
 Christian liberty is the right of free thinking and free be- 
 lieving. 
 
 If there are infidels here that have been accustomed to 
 carp at religion, and that say that they have a right of free 
 investigation, I beg to inform them that they have not that 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 415 
 
 right any more than every Christian has it. You have the 
 liberty to thinlc: we have the liberty to think. We are 
 responsible for the laws of thought: you are responsible 
 for the laws of thought. We all stand on one ground in 
 that regard. And as far as the liberty of believing is con- 
 cerned, we all have that. You may frame a doctrine dif- 
 ferent from mine, and you have a right to your doctrine, 
 and I have a right to mine. You have a right to use your 
 liberty of believing, though I do not always respect the 
 way in which men use their liberty of believing. You 
 have a right to investigate, to think, to believe, and to 
 frame doctrines; but you are bound to do these things ac- 
 cording to certain laws of investigation, of thought, of 
 belief, and of doctrine, that have been unfolded and estab- 
 lished. 
 
 A word more, perhaps, is required respecting this decla- 
 ration that you have a right to use every part of your 
 mind. There are old castles and old mansions that have 
 some rooms that the children are not allowed to go into. 
 They are "haunted" rooms. The children have lived ten 
 or fifteen years without ever having entered those rooms, 
 except, perhaps, occasionally at broad noonday. They 
 would not go into them at night for all the world, because 
 they are "haunted." 
 
 Now the mind has haunted rooms; and on Sunday I 
 reason in this place, with my causality, my comparison, my 
 analogical powers, without disturbing anybody; but the 
 moment that, in reasoning, I with mirth drive right toward 
 a great truth, filled full of benignity toward men, and 
 reverence toward God, men hear sounds proceeding from 
 those rooms. If I am largely endowed with the organ of 
 mirthfulness, what did God put it into mg" for but that it 
 might be a help to me in reasoning? But the moment I 
 begin to use it, men look toward the haunted rooms, and 
 say, " I positively heard sounds that seemed like laugh- 
 ter;" and they begin to exclaim against the desecration of 
 the Sabbath ! 
 
 Now, I declare the liberty of God's people to use every 
 faculty of their mind on Sunday as well as on week-days. 
 
41 6 FA TRIO TIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 A man has as much right to smile on Sunday as on Mon- 
 day. He has as much right to laugh, if he has a good 
 reason for laughing, in the church as out of it. It is 
 foolish to laugh in either without a good reason; and if 
 you have a good reason, it is foolish not to laugh ! It is 
 every person's liberty to use every faculty that God put 
 into his mind according to its laws, for a good purpose. 
 
 The like is true in respect to imagination. Because this 
 has been employed so much in the service of sin, men think 
 that it is not fit to be employed in the service of God. But 
 if it has been perverted, we must consecrate it, and lift it up 
 to higher uses. And how blessed is that liberty from God 
 to the human mind of using every one of the faculties ac- 
 cording to the law that is in it ! 
 
 There is also the liberty of worship which Christ has re- 
 stored to us; and that is absolute. Why, you may be a 
 Quaker; God is willing, and I am willing, if you are. Do 
 not you want to be one ? Well, you may be a Presbyterian, 
 if your conscience wants it, and your heart wants it; I am 
 willing, and God is willing. Do not you like it? Then you 
 may be a Methodist. If you do not like that, you may be 
 a Baptist. If you do not like that, you may come here and 
 be all together. If you do not want any of these nor all 
 of them, what do you want? You are at liberty to choose 
 the denomination that suits you best. 
 
 When you are grown to manhood, and when, conscious 
 of the purity of your intent, when, full of honor — when, 
 revering moral sentiment as if it were a religion, you at 
 last find one that is to be your companion for life, and 
 when, drawing near, your heart would speak to her, who 
 shall give a liturgy or ritual in which to utter the words of 
 love? Who shail prescribe to you the mode of expressing 
 devotion ? Your soul finds its own channel, and employs 
 its own words; and no man may step between you and her 
 whom you love to say, " Speak thus, and only thus." 
 
 And if it be so when we meet our mere companions and 
 equals, how much more is this royalty of liberty when the 
 soul goes rolling back toward God, and would fain express 
 its sense of love and gratitude in the presence of divine 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 417 
 
 realities ! Who shall tell the soul how to speak to God ? 
 Who shall tell my child how to come and throw its arms 
 about me? What tyrannic schoolmaster shall stand in the 
 door when my daughter would rush to me after a long 
 separation, with sobs and silence to say, " I love ; " or 
 with laughter and glee to say, " I love; " or with words well- 
 measured and outpoured to say, "I love"? The soul asks 
 no interpreter; it is its own interpreter; and no man may 
 stand in its way and say to God what it wants to say. 
 This would be an intrusion. If men ask your help in mat- 
 ters of this kind, you may give it; but your help must not 
 be their tyrant. 
 
 There is also in this same gift of religion the liberty of 
 beauty and of taste. A great many persons have felt that 
 it was wicked for a Christian to dress beautifully. Do not 
 misunderstand me. You have a right to use your rights 
 and liberties as you please, when you please to subordinate 
 them to others' benefits. Then it is perfectly right. And 
 if, in accordance with this condition, a man in his own 
 judgment says, "I do love beauty, and I will have it in 
 my dwelling and on my person," in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ I rebuke those who pronounce it to be wicked, 
 and I say to them, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an 
 offense unto me; for thou savorest not of the things that be 
 of God." There is a royal liberty of all to follow every faculty 
 in their mind according to the law that God put into that 
 faculty, and not according to the law of society or of public 
 sentiment. Of course there are many ethical questions of 
 how far or how much; and these are legitimate questions; 
 but that persons may enjoy beauty, robe themselves in it, 
 surround themselves by it, and adorn their houses with it, 
 I maintain. Though every man, in his own place and cir- 
 cumstances, must determine how much of that liberty he 
 shall dispense with or retain for the sake of others, the lib- 
 erty is there; and no man can call you to account for it. 
 And not only are men to allow you to enjoy that liberty, 
 but they are bound to respect your employment of it, and 
 they have no right to point to you and say, " He is a Chris- 
 tian, and yet he dresses in those jewels and feathers and 
 
41 8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 trappings." It is because you are a Christian that you 
 have a right, if you can afford it, to dress in silks and satins 
 and diamonds. You have a riglit to do what you please in 
 this regard, subject to God, and not to men. 
 
 The time is coming when men must learn this. The 
 first lesson of Christianity was a lesson of self-denial. 
 Heretofore men have been obliged to learn how to live in 
 abnegation. But the world is not always going to be in a 
 state in which this will be necessary. The day is rapidly 
 coming when intelligence, art, and abundance will every- 
 where exist. And men must learn how to be rich, and be 
 Christians too. They must learn how to be the admirers 
 and creators and dispensers of beauty, and yet be Chris- 
 tians. And although there is a royal sphere of Christian 
 life in self-denial which we never shall be done with, in one 
 place and another, — though there will be abnegation in 
 every Christian life, — yet intelligence and art and abun- 
 dance will belong to Christian life, and men must learn to 
 be Christians in these things. And when a man says to 
 me, " I cannot understand how it is that you, being a Chris- 
 tian, possess yourself of so many things that are beautiful, 
 and merely beautiful, while around about you is a world 
 lying in wickedness," I reply that it is because I choose to 
 raise up a higher idea for men to aim at in social life. If the 
 notions of some men were carried out on this subject, we 
 should dress, as John did, in camel's hair, and live in wil- 
 dernesses and caves, and have insects for food. 
 
 And that which is true of beauty and taste is also true of 
 art, of music, of wealth, and of the occupations and pur- 
 suits of life. 
 
 But mark, that this is not the liberty of doing just as a 
 man pleases as between himself and God. It is just the 
 contrary. Every man, as between himself and God, is 
 bound to do the things that are indicated by the law that 
 he has received in himself, and outside of himself. But as 
 respects your fellow-men around about you, it is your lib- 
 erty, so far as they interfere with you, and attempt to hin- 
 der you, to carry out the law of God as it has been mani- 
 fested to you, to the fullest extent. 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 419 
 
 It is this obedience to law that makes such liberty safe, 
 and gives society such benefits from it. If it was a liberty 
 that gave a man the right to do anything that he pleased, it 
 might be dangerous. It would then be what is in the 
 Bible called licentiousness. But where it consists in the 
 right of a man to follow out divine laws as they are written 
 in him, then the more broad that liberty is, the more per- 
 fectly regulated and ordered and safe will the man's life 
 be. A little liberty in men may be dangerous. Then give 
 them more. It is said that a little learning is dangerous. 
 Yes, a little learning is; but a little intelligence is not. 
 There is a great difference between intelligence and learn- 
 ing. A little intelligence is safe; a little more is safer yet; 
 a little more is still safer; and the more a man has of it the 
 better he is. For intelligence does not consist in the facts 
 that a man knows. It consists in the power of knowing. 
 It is the educated faculty in man. And so it is in respect 
 to liberty. Liberty is meant for man, and man is meant 
 for liberty; and the more you can make him understand 
 the law of God that is in him, the more you can drive him 
 up to a full obedience to, and to a complete use of, the law 
 that is written in him, the more safe he will be. A man 
 will be a better father, a better husband, a better brother, 
 a better neighbor, a better citizen, and a better Christian, 
 the more liberty he has. Liberty is the breath of the soul. 
 It is that by which God meant that we should live. Men 
 live just in proportion as they are free; and they come 
 short of true living just in proportion as they are cramped 
 and confined and imprisoned. And how few there are that 
 live, in the large sense of the term! Nevertheless, we are 
 called to the royal gift of liberty in Jesus Christ. 
 
 But remember that there is something more. " Only use 
 not liberty for an occasion to the flesh." Do not think that 
 this liberty is for your own profit and benefit. Do not be 
 stingy because you have the riches of liberty; " but by love 
 serve one another," — become slaves to each other. By 
 compulsion, no man should be a slave; but without com- 
 pulsion, and under the drawings of love, every man should 
 be. Do you want to see a slave ? Do not go down to 
 
420 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 those paradisiacal lying places in the South, to see the 
 happy slave. I will point you to one. 
 
 The day is drawing to a close. Through all the hours 
 of it a slave has been moving about the house; and now, 
 as twilight comes on, hear the slave singing a hymn. And 
 what is it that this angelic choir is singing to? It is a little 
 nothing, called a baby. And who is this slave, fit to be an 
 angel in royalty of gifts, and in richness of cultivation ? 
 Why, it is Mrs. Browning, the poetess, noble in understand- 
 ing, versed in the lore of ages, deep in nature, full of treas- 
 ure such as no king, no court, and no palace ever had. 
 She sings. And when the little child is uneasy she serves 
 it. When the child tires of the pillow and the cradle, it 
 makes a pillow of her. And when she is weary, if the 
 child does not wish to go, she still holds it. And when at 
 last it will lie down, she still wakes for fear that the child 
 will awake. And in every single hour of the night she 
 hears its call. Not a whimper or sound from the child es- 
 capes her notice. And she is up before the morning star. 
 And, though weary, all day again this slave serves that little 
 baby, — that little uncrowned despot of the heart ! 
 
 Ah ! there is no slave out of heaven like a loving woman; 
 and of all loving women there is no such slave as a mother. 
 And how royal, next to God himself, are slaves ! But re- 
 member what kind they must be. " By love serve one an- 
 other." That is the coin that buys them. It is love, and 
 it is giving one's self for another's benefit and to another's 
 life in the fullness of love, that makes true slavery. How 
 beautiful are those slaves that are slaves through love ! 
 Not the Greek Slave could be compared with them. No 
 ideal that we can form can approach to the glory of their 
 nature. No measure can be found by which to estimate 
 the value of one that is a slave through love to another's 
 uses. 
 
 It is a serious responsibility *hat goes with liberty; if 
 you have it, you must use it in the fear of God for the good 
 of others as well as for your own good. 
 
 May God give us liberty, all of us, in Jesus Christ, and 
 may he teach us to use that liberty as Christ himself used 
 
LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 421 
 
 it, " who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery 
 to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, 
 and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made 
 in tlie likeness of men; and, being found in fashion as a 
 man, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, 
 even the death of the cross." And then may God highly 
 exalt us as he exalted him, and give us, as he gave him, a 
 name which is above every name, because our liberty has 
 been used for others, and not for ourselves alone. 
 
THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY.' 
 
 BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. 
 
 Mr. Henry Ward Beecher went to Great Britain al- 
 ready well known at home as the favorite preacher of a large 
 parish, an ardent advocate of certain leading reforms, one of 
 the most popular lecturers of the country, a bold, out- 
 spoken, fertile, ready, crowd -compelling orator, whose 
 reported sermons and speeches were fuller of catholic 
 humanity than of theological subtilties, and whose sympa- 
 thies were of that lively sort which are apt to leap sectarian 
 fold and find good Christians in every denomination. He 
 was welcomed by friendly persons on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, partly for these merits, partly also as " the son 
 of the celebrated Dr. Beecher" and "the brother of Mrs. 
 Beecher Stowe." 
 
 After a few months' absence he returns to America, hav- 
 ing finished a more remarkable embassy than any envoy 
 who has represented us in Europe since Franklin pleaded 
 the cause of the young Republic at the Court of Versailles. 
 He kissed no royal hand, he talked with no courtly diplo- 
 matists, he was the guest of no titled legislator, he had no 
 official existence. But through the heart of the people he 
 reached nobles, ministers, courtiers, the throne itself. He 
 whom the " Times " attacks, he whom " Punch " carica- 
 tures, is a power in the land. We may be very sure, that, 
 if an American is the aim of their pensioned garroters and 
 hired vitriol-throwers, he is an object of fear as well as of 
 hatred, and that the assault proves his ability as well as his 
 love of freedom and zeal for the nation to which he be- 
 longs. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's European story is a short one in time, but 
 
 * Reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly oi January, 1864, by permission 
 of the iDublishers, Messrs. Houghton, Mififlin & Co., Boston. 
 
THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 423 
 
 a long one in events. He went out a lamb, a tired clergy- 
 man in need of travel; and as such he did not strive nor 
 cry, nor did any man hear his voice in the streets. But in 
 the den of lions where his pathway led him he remembered 
 his own lion's nature, and uttered his voice to such effect 
 that its echoes in the great vaulted caverns of London and 
 Liverpool are still reaching us, as the sound of the wood- 
 man's axe is heard long after the stroke is seen, as the 
 light of the star shines upon us many days after its depart- 
 ure from the source of radiance. 
 
 Mr. Beecher made a single speech in Great Britain, but 
 it was delivered piecemeal in different places. Its exor- 
 dium was uttered on the ninth of October at Manchester, 
 and its peroration was pronounced on the twentieth of the 
 same month in Exeter Hall. He has himself furnished us 
 an analysis of the train of representations and arguments 
 of which this protracted and many-jointed oration was 
 made up. At Manchester he attempted to give a history 
 of that series of political movements, extending through 
 half a century, the logical and inevitable end of which was 
 open conflict between the two opposing forces of Freedom 
 and Slavery. At Glasgow his discourse seems to have 
 been almost unpremeditated. A meeting of one or two 
 Temperance advocates, who had come to greet him as a 
 brother in their cause, took on, "quite accidentally," a po- 
 litical character, and Mr. Beecher gratified the assembly 
 with an address which really looks as if it had been in 
 great measure called forth by the pressure of the moment. 
 It seems more like a conversation than a set harangue. 
 First, he very good humoredly defines his position on the 
 Temperance question, and then naturally slides into some 
 self-revelations, which we who know him accept as the 
 simple expression of the man's character. This plain 
 speaking made him at home among strangers more imme- 
 diately, perhaps, than anything else he could have told 
 them. " I am born without moral fear. I have expressed 
 my views in any audience, and it never cost me a struggle. 
 I never could help doing it." 
 
 The way a man handles his egoisms is a test of his mas- 
 
424 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 tery over an audience or a class of readers. What we want 
 to know about the person who is to counsel or lead us is 
 just what he is, and nobody can tell us so well as himself. 
 iJEvery real master of speaking or writing uses his person- 
 (jality as he would any other serviceable material; the very 
 ' moment a speaker or writer begins to use it, not for his 
 main purpose, but for vanity's sake, as all weak people 
 are sure to do, hearers and readers feel the difference in a 
 moment. Mr. Beecher is a strong, healthy man, in mind 
 and body. His nerves have never been corrugated with 
 alcohol; his thinking-marrow is not brown with tobacco- 
 fumes, like a meerschaum, as are the brains of so many 
 unfortunate Americans; he is the same lusty, warm- 
 blooded, strong-fibered, brave-hearted, bright-souled, clear- 
 eyed creature that he was when the college boys at Am- 
 herst acknowledged him as the chiefest among their 
 football-kickers. He has the simple frankness of a man 
 who feels himself to be perfectly sound in bodily, mental, 
 and moral structure; and his self-revelation is a thousand 
 times nobler than the assumed impersonality which is a 
 common trick with cunning speakers who never forget 
 their own interests. Thus it is, that, wherever Mr. Beecher 
 goes, everybody feels, after he has addressed them once or 
 twice, that they know him well, almost as if they had al- 
 ways known him; and there is not a man in the land who 
 has such a multitude that look upon him as if he were 
 their brother. 
 
 Having magnetized his Glasgow audience, he continued 
 the subject already opened at Manchester by showing, in 
 the midst of that great toiling population, the deadly in- 
 fluence exerted by Slavery in bringing labor into contempt, 
 and its ruinous consequences to the free workingman 
 everywhere. In Edinburgh he explained how the Nation 
 grew up out of separate States, each jealous of its special 
 sovereignty; how the struggle for the control of the united 
 Nation, after leaving it for a long time in the hands of the 
 South, to be used in favor of Slavery, at length gave it into 
 those of the North, whose influence was to be for Free- 
 dom; and that for this reason the South, when it could no 
 
THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 425 
 
 longer rule the Nation, rebelled against it. In Liverpool, 
 the center of vast commercial and manufacturing interests, 
 he showed how those interests are injured by Slavery, — 
 " that this attempt to cover the fairest portion of the earth 
 with a slave-population that buys nothing, and a degraded 
 white population that buys next to nothing, should array 
 against it the sympathy of every true political economist 
 and every thoughtful and far-seeing manufacturer, as 
 tending to strike at the vital want of commerce, — not the 
 want of cotton, but the want of customers." 
 
 In his great closing effort at Exeter Hall in London, Mr. 
 Beecher began by disclaiming the honor of having been a 
 pioneer in the anti-slavery movement, which he found in 
 progress at his entry upon public life, when he " fell into 
 the ranks, and fought as well as he knew how, in the ranks 
 or in command." He unfolded before his audience the 
 plan and connection of his previous addresses, showing 
 how they were related to each other as parts of a consecu- 
 tive series. He had endeavored, he told them, to enlist 
 the judgment, the conscience, the interests of the British 
 people against the attempt to spread Slavery over the con- 
 tinent, and the rebellion it has kindled. He had shown that 
 Slavery was the only cause of the war, that sympathy with 
 the South was only aiding the building up of a slave-em- 
 pire, that the North was contending for its own existence 
 and that of popular institutions. 
 
 Mr. Beecher then asked his audience to look at the 
 question with him from the American point of view. He 
 showed how the conflict began as a moral question; the 
 sensitiveness of the South; the tenderness for them on the 
 part of many Northern apologizers, with whom he himself 
 had never stood. He pointed out how the question grad- 
 ually emerged in politics; the encroachments of the South, 
 until they reached the Judiciary itself; he repeated to 
 them the admissions of Mr. Stephens as to the preponder- 
 ating influence the South had all along held in the Govern- 
 ment. An interruption obliged him to explain that ad- 
 justment of our State and National governments which 
 Englishmen seem to find so hard to understand. Nothing 
 
426 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 shows his peculiar powers to more advantage than just 
 such interruptions. Then he displays his felicitous facility 
 of illustration, his familiar way of bringing a great ques- 
 tion to the test of some parallel fact that everybody before 
 him knows. An American state-question looks as mys- 
 terious to an English audience as an ear of Indian corn 
 wrapt in its sheath to an English wheat-grower. Mr. 
 Beecher husks it for them as only an American born and 
 bred can do. He wants a few sharp questions to rouse 
 his quick spirit. He could almost afford to carry with him 
 his picadorcs to sting him with sarcasms, his cJiulos to flap 
 their inflammatory epithets in his face, and his banderilleros 
 to stab him with their fiery insults into a plaza de toros, — 
 an audience of John Bulls. 
 
 Having cleared up this matter so that our comatose 
 cousins understood the relations of the dough and the 
 apple in our national dumpling, — to borrow one of their 
 royal reminiscences, — having eulogized the fidelity of the 
 North to the national compact, he referred to the action 
 of "that most true, honest, just, and conscientious magis- 
 trate, Mr. Lincoln," — at the mention of whose name the 
 audience cheered as long and loud as if they had descended 
 from the ancient Ephesians. 
 
 Mr. Beecher went on to show how the North could not 
 help fighting when it was attacked, and to give the reasons 
 that made it necessary to fight, — reasons which none but a 
 consistent Friend or avowed non-resistant can pretend to 
 dispute. His ordinary style in speaking is pointed, stac- 
 caioed.^ as is that of most successful extemporaneous speak- 
 ers; he is "short-gaited "; the movement of his thoughts 
 is that of the chopping sea, rather than the long, rolling, 
 rhythmical wave-procession of phrase-balancing rhetori- 
 cians. But when the lance has pricked him deep enough, 
 when the red flag has flashed in his face often enough, 
 when the fireworks have hissed and sputtered around him 
 long enough, when the cheers have warmed him so that 
 all his life is roused, then his intellectual sparkle becomes 
 a steady glow, and his nimble sentences change their form, 
 and become long-drawn, stately periods. 
 
THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 427 
 
 " Standing by my cradle, standing by my hearth, stand- 
 ing by the altar of the church, standing by all the places 
 that mark the name and memory of heroic men who 
 poured their blood and lives for principle, I declare that in 
 ten or twenty years of war we will sacrifice everything we 
 have for principle. If the love of popular liberty is dead 
 in Great Britain, you will not understand us; but if the 
 love of liberty lives as it once lived, and has worthy suc- 
 cessors of those renowned men that were our ancestors as 
 much as yours, and whose example and principles we in- 
 herit to make fruitful as so much seed-corn in a new and 
 fertile land, then you will understand our firm, invincible 
 determination — deep as the sea, firm as the mountains, but 
 calm as the heavens above us — to fight this war through 
 at all hazards and at every cost." 
 
 When have Englishmen listened to nobler words, fuller 
 of the true soul of eloquence ? Never, surely, since their 
 nation entered the abdominous period of its existence, 
 recognized in all its ideal portraits, for which food and 
 sleep are the prime conditions of well-being. Yet the old 
 instinct which has made the name of Englishmen glorious 
 in the past was there, in the audience before him, and 
 there was " immense cheering," relieved by some slight 
 colubrine demonstrations. 
 
 Mr. Beecher openly accused certain " important organs " 
 of deliberately darkening the truth and falsifying the 
 facts. The audience thereupon gave three groans for a 
 paper called the " Times," once respectably edited, now 
 deservedly held- as cheap as an epigram of Mr. Carlyle's 
 or a promise to pay dated at Richmond. He showed the 
 monstrous absurdity of England's attacking us for fight- 
 ing, and for fighting to uphold a principle. " On what 
 shore has not the prow of your ships dashed ? What land 
 is there with a name and a people where your banner has 
 not led your soldiers? And when the great resurrection- 
 reveille shall sound, it will muster British soldjers from 
 every clime aifd people under the whole heaven. Ah! but 
 it is said this is war against your own blood. How long' 
 is it since you poured soldiers into Canada, and let all your 
 
42 8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 yards work day and night to avenge the taking of two men 
 out of the Trent ?" How ignominious the pretended hu- 
 manity of England looked in the light of these questions ! 
 And even while Mr. Beecher was speaking, a lurid glow 
 was crimsoning the waters of the Pacific from the flames 
 of a great burning city, set on fire by British ships to 
 avenge a crime committed by some remote inhabitant of 
 the same country, — an act of wholesale barbarity unap- 
 proached by any deed which can be laid to the charge of 
 the American Union in the course of this long, exasperat- 
 ing conflict ! 
 
 Mr. Beecher explained that the people who sympathized 
 with the South were those whose voices reached America, 
 while the friends of the North were little heard. The first 
 had bows and arrows; the second have shafts, but no bows 
 to launch them. 
 
 " How about the Russians ? " 
 
 Everybody remembers how neatly Mr. Beecher caught this 
 envenomed dart, and, turning it end for end, drove it through 
 his antagonist's shield of triple bull's-hide. "Now you 
 know what we felt when you were flirting with Mr. Mason 
 at your Lord Mayor's banquet." A cleaner and straighter 
 " counter " than that, if we may change the image to one 
 his audience would appreciate better, is hardly to be found 
 in the records of British pugilism. 
 
 The orator concluded by a rather sanguine statement of 
 his change of opinion as to British sentiment, of the as- 
 surance he should carry back of the enthusiasm for the 
 cause of the North, and by an exhortation to unity of action 
 with those who share their civilization and religion, for the 
 furtherance of the gospel and the happiness of mankind. 
 
 The audience cheered again, Professor Newman moved 
 a warm vote of thanks, and the meeting dissolved, wiser 
 and better, we hope, for the truths which had been so boldly 
 declared before them. 
 
 What is the net result, so far as we can see, of Mr. 
 Beecher's voluntary embassy? So far as he is concerned, 
 it has been to lift him from the position of one of the most 
 popular preachers and lecturers, to that of one of the most 
 
THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 429 
 
 popular men in the countr}^ Those who hate late phi- 
 lanthropy admire his courage. Those who disagree with 
 him in theology recognize him as liaving a claim to the 
 title of Apostle quite as good as that of John Eliot, whom 
 Christian England sent to heathen America two centuries 
 ago, and who, in spite of the singularly stupid question- 
 ings of the natives, and the violent opposition of the 
 sachems and powwows, or priests, succeeded in reclaiming 
 large numbers of the copper-colored aborigines. 
 
 The change of opinion wrought by Mr. Beecher in En- 
 gland is far less easy to estimate; indeed, we shall never 
 have the means of determining what it may have been. 
 The organs of opinion which have been against us will 
 continue their assaults, and those which have been our 
 friends will continue to defend us. The public men who 
 have committed themselves will be consistent in the right 
 or in the wrong, as they may have chosen at first. To know 
 what Mr. Beecher has effected, we must not go to Exeter 
 Hall and follow its enthusiastic audience as they are swayed 
 hither and thither by his arguments and appeals; we must 
 not count the crowd of admiring friends and sympathizers 
 whom he, like all personages of note, draws around him: 
 the fire-fly calls other fire-flies about him, but the great 
 community of beetles goes blundering round in the dark 
 as before. Mr. Cobden has given us the test in a letter 
 quoted by Mr. Beecher in the course of his speech at the 
 Brooklyn Academy. " You will carry back," he says, "an 
 intimate acquaintance with a state of feeling in this coun-- 
 try among what, for [want of] a better name, I call the 
 ruling class. Their sympathy is undoubtedly strongly for 
 the South, with the instinctive satisfaction at the prospect 
 of the disruption of the great Republic. It is natural 
 enough." " But," he says, " our masses have an instinctive 
 feeling that their cause is bound up in the prosperity of 
 the States, — the United States. It is true that they have 
 not a particle of power in the direct form of a vote; but 
 when millions in this country are led by the religious mid- 
 dle class, they can go and prevent the governing class from 
 pursuing a policy hostile to their sympathies." 
 
43 O PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 This power of the non-voting classes is an idea that gives 
 us pause. It is one of those suggestions, like Lord Brou- 
 gham's of the "unknown public," which, in a single phrase, 
 and a sentence or two of explanation, tell a whole history. 
 This is the class John Bunyan wrote for before the bishops 
 had his Allegory in presentable calf and gold-leaf, — before 
 England knew that her poor tinker had shaped a pictured 
 urn for her full of such visions as no dreamer had seen 
 since Dante. This is the class that believes in John Bright 
 and Richard Cobden and all the defenders of true Ameri- 
 can principles. It absorbs intelligence as melting ice ren- 
 ders heat latent; there is no living power directly generated 
 with which we can move pistons and wheels, but the first 
 step in the production of steam-force is to make the ice 
 fluid. No intellectual thermometer can reveal to us how 
 much ignorance or prejudice has melted away in the fire 
 of Mr. Beecher's passionate eloquence, but by-and-by this 
 will tell as a working-force. The non-voter's conscience 
 will reach the Privy Council, and the hand of the ignorant, 
 but Christianized laborer trace its own purpose in the let- 
 ters of the royal signature. 
 
 We are living in a period, not of events only, but of 
 epochs. We are in the transition-stage from the miocene 
 to the pliocene period of human existence. A new heaven 
 is forming over our head behind the curtain of clouds 
 which rises from our smoking battle-fields. A new earth is 
 shaping itself under our feet amidst the tremors and con- 
 vulsions that agitate the soil upon w^hich we tread. But 
 there is no such thing as a surprise in the order of Nature. 
 The kingdom of God, even, cometh not with observation. 
 
 The visit of an overworked clergyman to Europe is not 
 in appearance an event of momentous interest to the world. 
 The fact that he delivered a few speeches before British 
 audiences might seem to merit notice in a local paper or 
 two, but is of very little consequence, one would say, to 
 the British nation, compared to the fact that Her Majesty 
 took an airing last Wednesday, or of much significance to 
 Americans, by the side of the fact that his Excellency, 
 Governor Seymour, had written a letter recommending the 
 
' THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 431 
 
 Union Fire Company always to play on the wood-shed 
 when the house is in flames. 
 
 But, in point of fact, this unofficial visit of a private 
 citizen — in connection with these addresses delivered to 
 miscellaneous crowds by an envoy not extraordinary and 
 a minister rmllip.otentiary, for all that his credentials showed 
 — was an event of national importance. It was much 
 more that this; it was the beginning of a new order of 
 things in the relations of nations to each other. It is but 
 a little while since any graceless woman who helped a 
 crowned profligate to break the commandments could light 
 a national quarrel with the taper that sealed her billets- 
 doux to his equerries and grooms, and kindle it to a war 
 with the fan that was supposed to hide her blushes. More 
 and more, by virtue of advancing civilization and easy in- 
 tercourse between distant lands, the average common sense 
 and intelligence of the people begin to reach from nation 
 to nation. Mr. Beecher's visit is the most notable expres- 
 sion of this movement of national life. It marks the nisus 
 formativus which begins the organization of that unwritten 
 and only half spoken public opinion recognized by Mr. 
 Cobden as a great underlying force even in England. It 
 needs a little republican pollen-dust to cause the evolution 
 of its else barren germs. The fruit of Mr. Beecher's visit 
 will ripen in due time, not only in direct results, but in 
 opening the way to future moral embassies, going forth 
 unheralded, unsanctioned by State documents, in the sim- 
 ple strength of Christian manhood, on their errands of 
 truth and peace. 
 
 The Devil had got the start of the clergyman, as he very 
 often does, after all. The wretches who have been for 
 three years pouring their leperous distillment into the ears 
 of Great Britain had preoccupied the ground, and were 
 determined to silence the minister, if they could. For this 
 purpose they looked to the heathen populace of the nom- 
 inally Christian British cities. They covered the walls 
 with blood-red placards, they stimulated the mob by in- 
 flammatory appeals, they filled the air with threats of riot 
 and murder. It was in the midst of scenes like these that 
 
432 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the single, solitary American opened his lips to speak in 
 behalf of his country. 
 
 The danger is now over, and we find it hard to make 
 real to our imagination the terrors of a mob such as 
 swarms out of the dens of Liverpool and London. We 
 know well enough in this country what Irish mobs are. 
 The Old Country exports them to us in pieces, ready to 
 put together on arriving, as we send houses to California. 
 Ireland is the country of shillalahs and broken crowns, of 
 Donnybrook fairs, where men with whisky in their heads 
 settle their feuds or work off their sprightliness with the 
 arms of Nature, sometimes aided by the least dangerous 
 of weapons. But England is the land of prize-fights, of 
 scientific brutality, which has flourished under the patron- 
 age of her hereditary legislators and other " Corinthian " 
 supporters. The pugilistic dynasty came in with the 
 House of Brunswick, and has held divided empire with 
 it ever since. The Briton who claims Chatham's language 
 as his mother-tongue may appropriate the dialect of the 
 ring as far more truly indigenous than the German-French 
 of his every-day discourse. Of the three Burkes whose 
 names are historical, the orator is known to but a few hun- 
 dred thousands. The prize-fighter, with his interesting 
 personal infirmity, is the common property of the mill- 
 ions, and would have headed the list in celebrity, but for 
 that other of the name who added a new invention to the 
 arts of industry and enriched the English language with a 
 term which bids fair to outlive the reputation of his illus- 
 trious namesake. Around the professors and heroes of 
 the art of personal violence are collected the practitioners 
 of various callings less dignified by the manly qualities 
 they demand. The Gangs of Three that waylay the soli- 
 tary pedestrian, — the Choker in the middle, next the vic- 
 tim who is to be strangled and cleaned out, — the larger 
 guilds of Hustlers who bonnet a man and beat his breath 
 out of him and empty his pockets before he knows what 
 is the matter with him, — the Burglars, with their "jim- 
 mies " in their pockets, — the fighting robbers, with their 
 brass knuckles, — the whole set in a vast thief-constituency. 
 
THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 433 
 
 thick as rats in sewers, — these were the disputants whom 
 the emissaries of the Slave Power called upon to refute 
 the arguments of the Brooklyn clergyman. 
 
 It was not pleasant to move in streets where such human 
 rattlesnakes and cobras were coiling and lying in wait. 
 Great cities are the poison-glands of civilization every- 
 where; but the secretions of those hideous crypts and 
 blind passages that empty themselves into the thorough- 
 fares of English towns are so deadly, that, but for her 
 penal colonies, England, girt by water, as the scorpion 
 with flame, would perish, self-stung, by her own venom. 
 The legates of the great Anti-Civilization have colonized 
 England, as England has colonized Botany Bay. They 
 know the venal ruffianism of the fist and bludgeon, as well 
 as that of the press. Fortunately, they are short of funds, 
 or Mr. Beecher might have disappeared after the manner 
 of Romulus, and never have come to light, except in the 
 saintly fashion of relics, — such as white finger-rings and 
 breast-pins, like those which some devotees of the South- 
 ern mode of worship are said to have been fond of wear- 
 ing. 
 
 From these dangers, which he faced like a man, we wel- 
 come him back to a country which is proud of his courage 
 and ability and grateful for his services. The highest and 
 lowest classes of England cannot be in sympathy with the 
 free North. No dynasty can look the fact of successful, tri-l 
 umphant self-government in the face without seeing al 
 shroud in its banner and hearing a knell in its shouts ofj 
 victory. As to those lower classes who are too low to be 
 reached by the life-giving breath of popular liberty, we 
 cannot reach them yet. A Christian civilization has suf- 
 fered them, in the very heart of its great cities, to sink 
 almost to the level of Du Chaillu's West-African quadru- 
 mana. But the thoughtful, religious middle class of Great 
 Britain, with their enlightened leaders and their conscien- 
 tious followers among the laboring masses, have listened 
 and will always listen to the voice of any true and ade- 
 quate representative of that new form of human society 
 now in full course of development in Republican North 
 
434 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 America. They have never listened to a nobler and more 
 thoroughly national speaker than the minister, clothed 
 with full powers from Nature and bearing the authentic 
 credentials from his Divine Master, to whom, on his return 
 from his successful embassy, we renew our grateful wel- 
 come. 
 
SPEECHES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Reports, Published by the Union and Emancipation 
 Society, Manchester, in 1863. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 [Prefacing the Original Volume.] 
 
 I HAVE been asked to revise the speeches recently deliv- 
 ered by me in Great Britain, and to allow them to be 
 published together. 
 
 In compliance with that request, I have partially revised 
 the speeches delivered in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 
 in the City Hall, Glasgow, and in the Free Church Assem- 
 bly Hall, Edinburgh; the others not at all. 
 
 I must leave them with all the imperfections incidental 
 to speeches delivered under circumstances, in several cases, 
 not favorable to literary excellence or reportorial correct- 
 ness. 
 
 To avoid any mistake hereafter, I specify those speeches 
 which, in addition to the above, I permit to be published; 
 and this I deem necessary on account of one of my morning 
 addresses having been so inaccurately reported (uninten- 
 tionally, I believe) as to misrepresent what I did say and 
 attribute to me that which I did not say. 
 
 The speech in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, I leave 
 as a curiosity. It may relieve the reading of the others, to 
 follow the course of a speech delivered under difficulties. 
 
 The speeches delivered in Exeter Hall, and at the several 
 Breakfast Meetings in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, 
 must remain as they are published in the newspapers, only 
 with the caution that they are not verbatim reports. 
 
 H. W. BEECHER. 
 
 Liverpool, October 30, 1863. 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 
 
 October 9, 1863. 
 
 On Friday evening, October 9th, 1863, a meeting was held in 
 tile Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England, according to an- 
 nouncement, " to welcome the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher on his 
 public appearance in this country." The hall was crowded, and 
 there were probably 6,000 persons present. It was supposed, from 
 the paper war of placards for the previous fortnight, that the 
 meeting might be disturbed by partisans of the Confederate cause. 
 Arrangements had, therefore, been made for the prompt suppres- 
 sion of disorder; and notices to that effect were posted about the 
 room. The chair was taken, at half-past six, by Mr. Francis 
 Taylor. At the same time the entrance of Mr. Beecher, accom- 
 panied by Mr. Bazley, M. P., and some prominent members of the 
 Union and Emancipation Society, was the signal for enthusiastic 
 and repeated cheering. 
 
 After the reading of sundry letters of regret from Mr. John 
 Bright and others, and some apt remarks by the chairman, a wel- 
 coming Address by the Society was read, supported handsomely 
 by Mr. Thomas Bazley, M. P., and seconded by Mr. J. H. Est- 
 court, a gentleman to whose earnest friendship and untiring ef- 
 forts Mr. Beecher owed much during this visit to England, in 
 organized arrangements for' several of his addresses and a con- 
 stant personal loyalty and advocacy. In the course of his brief 
 remarks Mr. Estcourt said : 
 
 He was reminded by the peculiar sounds in different parts of 
 the hall, that other than friends were in attendance, and as the 
 city had been placarded with bills containing an invitation to the 
 citizens to attend this meeting in large numbers and give our es- 
 teemed guest a "disgusting reception," he judged that the dis- 
 cordant noises were the acknowledgment of these publicly invited 
 persons that they had responded to the call, and were prepared to 
 show the refinement of their manners by giving to a stranger to 
 them, but a friend to humanity, the polite but novel reception, 
 characterized by themselves as "disgusting"; he trusted, however, 
 that those gentlemen would see that it would be better to avoid 
 
438 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 giving that sort of reception. He had no hesitation in saying 
 that those on the other side of the Atlantic who were now fight- 
 ing for constitutional government, and free speech, and personal, 
 civil, social, political, and religious freedom, ought to have the 
 moral support, and he believed they had, of every intelligent and 
 well informed Englishman. [Loud applause^ He could not say 
 how long it would take to convert and enlighten the unenlightened 
 and uninformed portion of the community, who, in establishing 
 the Southern Slav'eholding Association, had publicly acknowl- 
 edged one of their objects to be to obtain " correct information ; " 
 but inasmuch as the Union and Emancipation Society was estab- 
 lished for the very purpose of supplying such information, he 
 promised to all applicants that which they sought, and hoped 
 they would be diligent in the acquisition of knowledge, and he 
 sincerely trusted that before the year was out this class of the 
 community would be sailing with them in one boat, in an intelli- 
 gent English career, in favor of a liberty which was the un- 
 doubted right of every man. [Loud applause] The meeting was 
 not asked to indorse every word Mr. Beecher had said, but to 
 manifest by its welcome, that everything he had done in promot- 
 ing the extension of the broad principles of liberty, had its hearty 
 approval. [Applause.] The mode of doing this must be left to 
 Mr. Beecher himself, and he [Air. Estcourt] was quite sure there 
 was not an Englishman in that crowded hall who did not sym- 
 pathize and whollyapproveof a manly, moral, good man, wherever 
 he was found, whether he be an American, an Englishman, or the 
 citizen of any other nation. [Applause?^ He therefore, believing 
 Mr. Beecher to be such a man, with the greatest pleasure seconded 
 the adoption of the address. 
 
 The Chairman then put the resolution, and thousands of hands 
 were thrust up high above the heads of the dense audience. 
 After an interval of loud cheers, the Chairman put the contrary, 
 and amidst peals of derisive laughter and cheers a few hands were 
 held up. 
 
 The Chairman : I declare the resolution carried by an over- 
 whelming majority. 
 
 Mr. Beecher then turned to the audience to speak, but for sev- 
 eral minutes he was prevented by deafening cheers, followed by 
 a few hisses, which only provoked a renewed outburst of applause. 
 
 Mr. Beecher then spoke: — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, the address which 
 you have kindly presented to me contains matters both 
 personal and national. \l7iterruption^ My friends, we will 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 439 
 
 have a whole night session but .we will be heard. \_Loud 
 cheers?^ I have not come to England to be surprised that 
 those men whose cause cannot bear the light are afraid of 
 free speech. \Cheers^ I have had practice of more than 
 twenty-five years in the presence of tumultuous assemblies 
 opposing those very men whose representatives now at- 
 tempt to forestall free speech. \IIear^ Little by little, I 
 doubt not, I shall be permitted to speak to-night. [ZT-jar.] 
 Little by little I have been permitted in my own country 
 to speak, until at last the day has come there, when noth- 
 ing but the utterance of speech for freedom is popular. 
 
 You have been pleased to speak of me as one connected 
 with the great cause of civil and religious liberty. I covet 
 no higher honor than to have my name joined to the list 
 of that great company of noble Englishmen from whom 
 we derived our doctrines of liberty. \Cheers7[ For al- 
 though there is some opposition to what are here called 
 American ideas, what are these American ideas ? They 
 are simply English ideas bearing fruit in America. We 
 bring back American sheaves, but the seed-corn we got in 
 England — [/lear]; and if, on a larger sphere, and under cir- 
 cumstances of unobstruction, we have reared mightier 
 harvests, every sheaf contains the grain that has made Old 
 England rich for a hundred years. ^Great c/iecring.'\ I am 
 also not a little gratified that my first appearance to speak 
 on secular topics in England is in this goodly town of 
 Manchester, for I would rather have praise from men who 
 understand the quality praised, than from those who speak 
 at hazard and with little knowledge of the thing praised. 
 [^Hear.^ And where else, more than in these great central 
 portions of England, and in what town more than Man- 
 chester, have the doctrines of human rights been battled 
 for, and where else have there been gained for them nobler 
 victories than here ? \_Cheei-s.'\ It is not indiscriminate 
 praise therefore: you know what you talk about. You have 
 had practice in these doctrines yourselves, and to be praised 
 by those who are illustrious is praise indeed. \^Cheers.'\ 
 
 Allusion has been made by one of the gentlemen — a cau- 
 
44° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 tionary allusion, a kind of deference evidently paid to some 
 supposed feeling — an allusion has been made to words or 
 deeds of mine that might be supposed to be offensive 
 to Englishmen. \Hear?[ I cannot say how that may be. 
 I am sure that I have never thought, in the midst of this 
 mighty struggle at home, which has taxed every power 
 and energy of our people — ["6>/;," and cheers\ — I have 
 never stopped to measure and to think whether my words 
 spoken in truth and with fidelity to duty would be liked 
 in this shape or in that shape by one or another person 
 either in England or America. \Checrs^ I have had one 
 simple, honest purpose, which I have pursued ever since I 
 have been in public life, and that was with all the strength 
 that God has given to me to maintain the cause of the 
 poor and of the weak in my own country. [C/ieers.] And 
 if, in the height and heat of conflict, some words have been 
 over sharp, and some positions have been taken heedlessly, 
 are you the men to call one to account ? [//car.] What 
 if some exquisite dancing master, standing on the edge of 
 a battle, where Richard Coeur de Lion swung his axe, 
 criticised him by saying that " his gestures and postures 
 violated the proprieties of polite life." [Lai/g/ifer.] When 
 dandies fight they think how they look, but when men 
 fight they think only of deeds. [C/ieers.] 
 
 But I am not here either on trial or on defense, [//ear, 
 hear.'] It matters not what I have said on other occasions 
 and under different circumstances. Here I am before you, 
 willing to tell you what I think about England, or any 
 person in it. [Cheers.] Let me say one word, however, in 
 regard to this meeting, and the peculiar gratification 
 which I feel in it. The same agencies which have been at 
 work to misrepresent good men in our country to you, 
 have been at work to misrepresent to us good men here; 
 and when I say to my friends in America that I have 
 attended such a meeting as this, received such an address, 
 and beheld such enthusiasm, it will be a renewed pledge 
 of amity. [Cheers.] I have never ceased to feel that war, 
 or even unkind feelings between two such great nations, 
 would be one of the most unpardonable and atrocious 
 
♦ SPEECH nv MANCHESTER. 441 
 
 offenses that the world ever beheld — \cheers\ — and I have 
 regarded everything, therefore, which needlessly led to 
 those feelings out of which war comes, as being in itself 
 wicked. \Cheers^^ The same blood is in us. [C/ieers.] 
 We are your children, or the children of your fathers and 
 ancestors. You and we hold the same substantial doc- 
 trines. We have the same mission amongst the nations of 
 the earth. Never were mother and daughter set forth to 
 do so queenly a thing in the kingdom of God's glory as 
 England and America. [67/^t7x] Do you ask why we are 
 so sensitive, and why have we hewn England with our 
 "tongue as we have ? I will tell you why. There is no man 
 who can offend you so deeply as the one you love most. 
 [Loud cheers.~\ Men point to France and Napoleon, and 
 say he has joined England in all that she has done, and 
 why are the press of America silent against France, and 
 why do they speak as they do against England? It is be- 
 cause we love England. [C/icers.'\ 
 
 I well remember the bitterness left by the war of our 
 Independence, and the outbreak of the flame of 1812 from 
 its embers. To hate England was in my boyhood almost 
 the first lesson of patriotism; but that result of conflict 
 gradually died away as peace brought forth its proper 
 fruits: interests, reciprocal visits, the interchanges of 
 Christian sympathy, and co-operative labors in a common 
 cause lessened and finally removed ill-feelings. In their 
 place began to arise affection and admiration. For when 
 we searched our principles, they all ran back to rights 
 wrought out and established in England; when we looked 
 at those institutions of which we were most proud, we be- 
 held that the very foundation stones were taken from the 
 quarry of your history; when we looked for those men 
 that had illustrated our own tongue, orators, or eloquent 
 ministers of the gospel, they were English; we borrowed 
 nothing from France, but here a fashion and there a ges- 
 ture or a custom: while what we had to dignify humanity 
 — that made life worth having — were all brought from 
 Old England. [Cheers.'] And do 5^ou suppose that under 
 such circumstances, with this growing love, with this 
 
442 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 growing pride, with this gladness to feel that we were 
 being associated in the historic glory of England, it was 
 with feelings of indifference that we beheld in our midst 
 the heir-apparent to the British throne? \Cheers^ There 
 is not reigning on the globe a sovereign who commands 
 our simple, unpretentious, and unaffected respect, as does 
 your own beloved Queen. \^Loud cheers^ I have heard 
 multitudes of men say that it was their joy and their 
 pleasure to pay respect to the Prince of Wales, even if he 
 had not won personal sympathy, that his mother might 
 know that through him the compliment was meant to her. 
 [Loud cheers.^ It was an unarranged and unexpected" 
 spontaneous and universal outbreak of popular enthusiasm; 
 it began in the colonies of Canada, the fire rolled across 
 the border, all through New England, all through New 
 York and Ohio, down through Pennsylvania and the 
 adjacent States; nor was the element quenched until it 
 came to Richmond. I said, and many said — the past of 
 enmity and prejudice is now rolled below the horizon of 
 memory: a new era is come, and we have set our hand and 
 voices as a sacred seal to our cordial affection and co- 
 operation with England. {^Chcers.^ Now (whether we 
 interpreted it aright or not, is not the question) when we 
 thought England was seeking opportunity to go with the 
 South against us of the North, it hurt us as no other 
 nation's conduct could hurt us on the face of the globe; 
 and if we spoke some words of intemperate heat, we 
 spoke them in the mortification of disappointed affection. 
 [C/ieers-l It has been supposed that I have aforetime 
 urged or threatened war with England. Never ! This I 
 have said — and this I repeat now, and here — that the 
 cause of constitutional government and of universal lib- 
 erty as associated with it in our country was so dear, so 
 sacred, that rather than betray it we would give the last 
 child we had — that we would not relinquish this conflict 
 though other States rose, and entered into a league with 
 the South — and that, if it were necessary, we would main- 
 tain this great doctrine of representative government in 
 America against the armed world — against England and 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 443 
 
 France. \Great cheering, followed by some disturbance, i?i ref- 
 erence to which the Chairman rose and cautioned an individual 
 wider the gallery whom he had observed persisting in interrup- 
 tion?^ 
 
 Let me be permitted to say then, that it seems to me the 
 darker days of embroilment between this country and 
 America are past. \Cheers?\ The speech of Earl Russell 
 at Blairgowrie, the stopping of those armed ships, and the 
 present attitude of the British government [renewed cheer- 
 ing'] will go far towards satisfying our people. Understand 
 me; we do not accept Earl Russell's doctrine of belligerent 
 rights nor of neutrality, as applied to the action of the 
 British government and nation at the beginning of our 
 civil war, as right doctrine, but we accept it as an accom- 
 plished fact. We have drifted so far away from the time 
 when it was profitable to discuss the questions of neu- 
 trality or belligerency, and circumstances with you and 
 with us are so much changed by the progress of the war, 
 that we now only ask of the government strict neutrality 
 and of the liberty-loving people of England moral sym- 
 pathy. Nothing more ! We ask no help, and no hin- 
 drance. \Resumed cheers.] If you do not send us a man, 
 w^e do not ask for a man. If you do not send us another 
 pound of powder, we are able to make our own powder. 
 [Laughter.] If you do not send us another musket nor 
 another cannon, we have cannon that will carry five miles 
 already. [Laughter.] We do not ask for material help. 
 We shall be grateful for moral sympathy; [cheers] but if 
 you cannot give us moral sympathy we shall still endeavor 
 to do without it. All that we say is, let France keep 
 away, let England keep hands off; if we cannot manage 
 this rebellion by ourselves, then let it be not managed at 
 all. [Cheers.] 
 
 We do not allow ourselves to doubt the issue of this 
 conflict. It is only a question of time. For such inesti- 
 mable principles as are at stake, — of self-government, of 
 representative government, of any government at all, of 
 free institutions rejected because they inevitably will bring 
 liberty to slaves unless subverted; — of national honor, and 
 
444 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 fidelity to solemn national trusts, — for all these war is 
 waged, and if by war these shall be secured, not one drop 
 of blood will be wasted, not one life squandered. The 
 suffering will have purchased a glorious future of incon- 
 ceivable peace and happiness ! Nor do we deem the result 
 doubtful. The population is in the North and West. The 
 wealth is there. The popular intelligence of the country 
 is there. There only is there an educated common people. 
 [C/ieers.] The right doctrines of civil government are with 
 the North. [C/teers, and a voice, " IV/iere's l/ie justice ?"] It 
 will not be long, before one thing more will be with the 
 North — Victory. [Lond and enthusiastic rounds of c/ieers.'\ 
 Men on this side are impatient at the long delay; but if 
 we can bear it, can't you? \^Laughter.'\ You are quite at 
 ease \^^ Not yet "\, we are not. You are not materially 
 affected in any such degree as many parts of our own land 
 are. \^Cheers.'\ But if the day shall come in one year, 
 in two years, or in ten years hence, when the old stars and 
 stripes shall float over every State of America, — \_loud 
 cheers, and some disturbance from one or two'\ — O, let him \the 
 chief disturber^ have a chance. {^Laughter ^ I was saying, 
 when interrupted by that sound from the other side of the 
 hall, that if the day shall come, in one or five or ten years, , 
 in which the old honored and historic banner shall float 
 again over every State of the South; if the day shall come 
 when that which was the accursed cause of this dire and 
 atrocious war — slavery — shall be clone away — \cheers\, if 
 the day shall have come, when through all the Gulf States 
 there shall be liberty of speech, as there never has been — 
 {cheers^ — when there shall be liberty of the press, as there 
 never has been; when men shall have common schools to 
 send their children to, which they never have had in the 
 South; if the day shall come when the land shall not be 
 parceled into gigantic plantations, in the hands of a few 
 rich oligarchs — \loud cheers\, but shall be divided to honest 
 farmers, every man owning his little — \_rene7ved cheers\, in 
 short, if the day shall come when the simple ordinances, 
 the fruition and privileges, of civil liberty, shall prevail in 
 every part of the United States; — it will be worth all the 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 445 
 
 dreadful blood, and tears, and woe. \_Loud cheers.l You 
 are impatient; and yet God dwelleth in eternity, and has 
 an infinite leisure to roll forward the affairs of men, not to 
 suit the hot impatience of those who are but children of a 
 day, and cannot wait or linger long, but according to the 
 infinite circle on which He measures time and events ! He 
 expedites or retards as it pleases him; and yet if He heard 
 our cries or prayers, not thrice would the months revolve 
 but peace would come. Yet the strong crying and prayers 
 of millions have not brought peace, but only thickening 
 war. We accept the Providence; the duty is plain. 
 [^Cheers and interruption^ 
 
 I repeat, the duty is plain. \Cheers?[ So rooted is this 
 English people in the faith of liberty, that it were an 
 utterly hopeless task for any minion or sympathizer of the 
 South to sway the popular sympathy of England, if this 
 English people believed that this was none other than a 
 conflict between liberty and slavery. // is just that. \^Loud 
 cheers^ The conflict may be masked by our institutions. 
 Every people must shape public action through their laws 
 and institutions. We often cannot reach an evil directly, 
 but only circuitously, through the channels of law and 
 custom. It is none the less a contest for liberty and 
 against slavery, because it is primarily a conflict for the 
 Union. It is by that Union, vivid with liberty, that we have 
 to scourge oppression and establish liberty. Union, in the 
 future, means justice, liberty, popular rights. Only slavery 
 has hitherto prevented Union from bearing such fruit. 
 
 Slavery was introduced into our country at a time, and in 
 a manner, when neither England nor America knew well 
 what were the results of that atrocious system. It was igno- 
 rantly received and propagated on our side; little by little it 
 spread through all the thirteen States that then were: for 
 slavery in the beginning was in New England, as really as 
 now it is in the Southern States. But when the great strug- 
 gle for our independence came on, the study of the doctrines 
 of human rights had made such progress that the whole 
 public mind began to think it was wrong to wage war to 
 defend our rights, while we were holding men in slavery. 
 
446 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 depriving them of theirs. It is an historical fact, that all 
 the great and renowned men that flourished at the period 
 of our revolution were abolitionists. Washington was; 
 so was Benjamin Franklin; so was Thomas Jefferson; so 
 was James Monroe; so were the principal Virginian and 
 Southern statesmen, and the first abolition society ever 
 founded in America was founded not in the North, but in 
 the Middle and a portion of the Southern States. Before 
 the War of Independence, slavery was decaying in the 
 North, from moral and physical causes combined. It 
 ceased in New England with the adoption of our constitu- 
 tion [1787]. It has been unjustly said that they sold their- 
 slaves, and preached a cheap emancipation to others. Slav- 
 ery ceased in Massachusetts as follows : When suit was 
 brought for the services of a slave, the Chief Justice laid 
 down as law, that our Declaration of Independence, which 
 pronounced all men "equal," and equally entitled to "life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," was itself a bill of 
 emancipation, and he refused to yield up that slave for 
 service. At a later period New York passed an Emanci- 
 pation Act. It has been said that she sold her slaves. No 
 slander was ever greater. The most careful provision was 
 made against sale. No man traveling out of the State of 
 New York after the passing of the Emancipation Act was 
 permitted to have any slave with him, unless he gave 
 bonds for his re-appearance with him. As a matter of 
 fact the slaves were emancipated without compensation on 
 the spot, to take effect gradually class by class. But after 
 a trial of half a score of years the people found this grad- 
 ual emancipation was intolerable. \Hear, hear.^ It was 
 like gradual amputation. They therefore, by another act 
 of legislation, declared immediate emancipation [/tear] and 
 that took effect; and so slavery perished in the State of 
 New York. [C/ieers.] Substantially so it was in New 
 Jersey, and in Pennsylvania; never was there an example 
 of States that emancipated slaves more purely from moral 
 conviction of the wrong of slavery. 
 
 I know that it is said that Northern capital and Northern 
 ships were employed in the slave trade. To an extent it 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 447 
 
 was so. But is there any community that lives, in which 
 there are not miscreants who violate the public conscience ? 
 \Chee)■s^^ Then and since, the man who dared to use his 
 capital and his ships in this infamous traffic hid himself, 
 and did by agents what he was ashamed to be known to 
 have done himself. \^Hea)\\ Any man in the North who 
 notoriously had part or lot in a trade so detested, would 
 have been branded with the mark of Cain. \Cheers?^ It is 
 true that the port of New York has been employed in this 
 infernal traffic, but it was because it was under the influence 
 either of that "Democratic" party that was then unfortu- 
 nately in alliance with the Southern slavery — \Jiear, hear] — ■ 
 or because it was under the dark political control of the 
 South itself. For when the South could appoint our mar- 
 shals, — could, through the national administration, control 
 the appointment of every Federal officer, our collectors, 
 and every custom-house officer, — how could it be but that 
 slavery flourished in our harbors ? For years together New 
 York has been as much controlled by the South, in matters 
 relating to slavery, as Mobile or New Orleans ! But, even 
 so, the slave trade was clandestine. It abhorred the light: 
 it crept in and out of the harbor stealthily, despised and 
 hated by the whole community. Is New York to be blamed 
 for demoniac deeds done by her limbs while yet under pos- 
 session of the devil ? She is now clothed, and in her right 
 mind. [^Cheers.] There was one Judas; is Christianity 
 therefore a hoax ? \^Hear.] There are hissing men in this 
 audience; are you not respectable? \^Cheers and /atighter.] 
 The folly of the few is that light which God casts to 
 irradiate the wisdom of the many. l^Hea/'.] 
 
 And let me say one word here about the Constitution of 
 America. It recognizes slavery as a fact; but it does not 
 recognize the doctrine of slavery in any way whatever. It 
 was a fact; it lay before the ship of state, as a rock lies in 
 the channel of the ship as she goes into harbor; and be- 
 cause a ship steers round a rock, does it follow that that 
 rock is in the ship ? [^Hear, hear.] And because the Con- 
 stitution of the United States made some circuits to steer 
 round that great fact, does it follow that therefore slavery 
 
448 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 is recognized in the Constitution as a right or a system ? 
 [iV(?.] See how carefully that immortal document worded 
 itself. In the slave laws the slave is declared to be — what ? 
 Expressly, and by the most repetitious phraseology, he is 
 denuded of all the attributes and characteristics of man- 
 hood, and is pronounced a " chattel." \^Shame^ Now, you 
 have just that same word in your farming language with 
 the // left out, " cattle." {^Hear, hear?^ And the difference 
 between cattle and chattel is the difference between quad- 
 ruped and biped. \^Laiightcr^ So far as animate property 
 is concerned, and so far as inanimate property is concerned, 
 it is just the difference between locomotive property and 
 stationary property. [ZTmr, hcari\ The laws in all the 
 Slave States stand on the radical principle that a slave is not 
 for purposes of law any longer to be ranked in the category 
 of human beings, but that he is a piece of property, and is 
 to be treated to all intents and purposes as a piece of prop- 
 erty; and the law did not blush, nor do the judges blush 
 nowadays who interpret that law. \^Hear^ But how 
 does the Constitution of the United States, when it speaks 
 of these same slaves, name them ? Does it call them chat- 
 tels or slaves ? Nay, it refused even the softer words serf 
 and servitude. Conscientiously aware of the dignity of man, 
 and that service is not opposed to the grandeur of his nat- 
 ure, it alludes to the slaves barely as persons (not chattels) 
 held to service (not servitude). \^Hear and cheer s.'\ Go to 
 South Carolina, and ask what she calls slaves, and her laws 
 reply " They are things;'' but the old capitol at Washington 
 sullenly reverberates, "No, persons!" [Cheers.] Goto 
 Mississippi, the State of Jefferson Davis, and her funda- 
 mental law pronounces the slave to be only a " thing; " 
 and again, the Federal Constitution sounds back, "Per- 
 sons!" Go to Louisiana and its constitution, and still that 
 doctrine of devils is enunciated — it is " chattel," it is 
 "thing." Looking upon those for whom Christ felt mortal 
 anguish in Gethsemane, and stretched himself out for death 
 on Calvary, their laws call them "things" and "chattels;" 
 and still in tones of thunder the Constitution of the United 
 States says " Persons! " The Slave States, by a definition. 
 
♦ SPEECH IN MA A'C HESTER. 449 
 
 annihilate manhood; the Constitution, by a word, brings 
 back the slave to the human family. \^C/ieers.'\ 
 
 What was it then, when the country had advanced so far 
 towards universal emancipation in the period of our na- 
 tional formation, that stopped this onward tide? Two 
 things, commercial and political. First, the wonderful de- 
 mand for cotton throughout the world, precisely when, 
 from the invention of the cotton gin, it became easy to 
 turn it to service. Slaves that before had been worth from 
 three to four hundred dollars began to be worth six hun- 
 dred dollars. That knocked away one-third of adherence 
 to the moral law. Then they became worth seven hundred 
 dollars, and half the law \vtnt[^c/ieers and lan.g/itcr'\\ then 
 eight or nine hundred dollars, and then there was no such 
 thing as moral law {^c/iceis and laughter^ ; then one thou- 
 sand or twelve hundred dollars, and slavery became 
 one of the beatitudes. SjOheers ami laiig/ifer.^ The other 
 cause, which checked the progress of emancipation that 
 had already so auspiciously begun, was political. It is 
 very singular, that, in what are called the "compromises" 
 of the Constitution, the North, while attempting to prevent 
 advantage to slavery, gave to the slave power the peculiar 
 advantage which it has had ever since. In Congress the 
 question early arose. How should the revenue be raised in 
 the United States? For a long time it was proposed, and 
 there was an endeavor, to raise it by a tax upon all the cul- 
 tivated land in the different States. When this was found 
 unjust and unequal, the next proposal was to raise taxes 
 on the " polls," or heads of the voters, in the different 
 States. That was to be the basis of the calculation upon 
 which taxes should be apportioned. Now when that ques- 
 tion came up, it was said that it was not right to levy Fed- 
 eral taxes upon the Indians in Georgia, who paid no taxes 
 to the Georgian state exchequer. So the North consented; 
 but in making up the list of men to be taxed, and exclud- 
 ing the Indians, it insisted that the slaves should, neverthe- 
 less, be included. That is to say, if Georgia was to pay to 
 the Federal exchequer in proportion to her population, it 
 was the interest of the North that her population should 
 
45° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 be swelled by counting all her slaves. There was a long 
 debate on this subject; and not to detain you with all the 
 turns on this matter, the two things were coupled together 
 at last — representation and taxation. \^Hcar?^ Their eyes 
 being fixed solely upon the assessment of taxes, it was 
 agreed that five slaves should count as three men, and that 
 it was supposed would give some advantage to the North 
 against slavery. But in a very few years the government 
 ceased to raise taxation by " poll," and raised it by tariff. 
 Thenceforward, as representatives had to be chosen in the 
 same way, and as five slaves counted as three white men, 
 the South has had the advantage; and it has come to this 
 point, that while in the North representatives represent 
 men, in the South representatives stand for men and prop- 
 erty together. 
 
 I want to drop a word as an egg for you to brood over. 
 It will illustrate the policy of the South. The proposition 
 to make a government undeniably National, as distinct 
 from a mere Confederacy, came from Virginia and South 
 Carolina. The North, having more individuality, was 
 jealous of yielding up the rights of the separate States; 
 but the South, with the love of power characteristic of the 
 Normans, wanted to have a National government in dis- 
 tinction to a Union of several states. In result, when the 
 national government was established, the South came into 
 power; and for fifty years everything that the South said 
 should be done has been done, and whatever she said 
 should not be done has not been done. The institutions of 
 America were shaped by the North; but thcpoiicy of her gov- 
 ernment, for half a hundred years, by the South. All the 
 aggression and filibustering, all the threats to England and 
 tauntings of Europe, all the bluster of war which our gov- 
 ernment has assumed, have been under the inspiration and 
 under the almost monarchical sway of the Southern oli- 
 garch)'". \^Loud cheering.'] And now, since Britain has been 
 snubbed by the Southerners, and threatened by the South- 
 erners, and domineered over by the Southerners — ["iV^c"] 
 — yet now Great Britain has thrown her arms of love 
 around the Southerners and turns from the Northerners. 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 45 1 
 
 ["A^f."] She don't ? \CheersP\^ I have only to say that she 
 has been caught in very suspicious circumstances. \_Laugh- 
 ter?[ I so speak, perhaps as much as anything else, for 
 this very sake— to bring out from you this expression — to 
 let jiw/ know whatzct' know, that all the hostility felt in my 
 country towards Great Britain has been sudden, and from 
 supposing that you sided with the South, and sought the 
 breaking up of our country; and I want you to say to 
 me, and through me to my countrymen, that those irrita- 
 tions against the North, and those likings for the South, 
 that have been expressed in your papers, are not the feel- 
 ings of the great mass of your nation. \Grcat cheering^ 
 the audience rising?^ Those cheers already sound in my ears 
 as the coming acclamations of friendly nations — those 
 waving handkerchiefs are the white banners that sym- 
 bolize peace for all countries. \Cheers?^ Join with us then, 
 Britons. \Chcers^ From you we learnt the doctrine of 
 what a man was worth; from you we learnt to detest all 
 oppressions; from you we learnt that it was the noblest 
 thing a man could do to die for a right principle. 
 \Cheers^ And now, when we are set in that very course, 
 and are giving our best blood for the most sacred princi- 
 ples, let the world understand that the common people of 
 Great Britain support us. \Chcers^ 
 
 You have been pleased to say in this address that I have 
 been one of the "pioneers." No. I am only one of their 
 eldest sons. The Birneys, the Baileys, the Rankins, the 
 Dickeys, the Thoms of the West, the Garrisons, the 
 Quincys, the Slades, the Welds, the Stewarts, the Smiths, 
 the Tappans, the Goodalls of the East, and unnamed hun- 
 dreds more, these were indeed pioneers. I unloosed the 
 shoe-latchets of the pioneers, and that is all: I was but 
 little more than a boy: I bear witness, that the hardest 
 blows and the most cruel sufferings were endured by men, 
 before I was thrust far enough into public life to take any 
 particular share; and I do not consider myself entitled to 
 rank amongst the pioneers. They were better men than I. 
 Those noble men did resist this downward tendency of 
 the North. They were rejected by society. To be called 
 
452 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 an abolitionist excluded a man from respectable society 
 in those days. To be called an abolitionist blighted any 
 man's prospects in political life. To be called an aboli- 
 tionist marked a man's store,— his very customers avoided 
 him as if he had the plague. To be called an abolitionist 
 in those days shut up the doors of confidence from him in 
 the church; where he was regarded as a disturber of the 
 peace. Nevertheless, the witnesses for liberty maintained 
 their testimony. \^Loud cheersi\ Little by little, they reached 
 the conscience, — they gained the understanding. And as, 
 when old Luther spoke, thundering in the ears of Europe 
 the long buried treasures of the Bible, there were hosts 
 against him, yet the elect few gathered little by little, and 
 became no longer few; just so did many a Luther among 
 ourselves thunder forth a long buried truth from God, the 
 essential right of human liberty; and these were followed 
 for half a score of years, until they began to be/iumerous 
 enough to be an influential party in the state elections. 
 [C//<?rrj-.] In 1848, I think it was, that the Buffalo platform 
 was laid. It was the first endeavor in the Northern States 
 to form a platform that should carry rebuke to the slave- 
 holding ideas in the North. 
 
 Before this, however, I can say that, under God, the 
 South itself had unintentionally done more than we, to 
 bring on this work of emancipation. \^Hear, hear.'\ First 
 they began to declare, after the days of Mr. Calhoun, that 
 they accepted slavery no longer as a misfortune, but as a 
 divine blessing. Mr. Calhoun advanced the doctrine, which 
 is now the marrow of secession, that it was the duty of 
 the general government not merely to protect the local 
 States from interference but to make, slavery equally fia- 
 tional with liberty ! In effect, the government was to see 
 to it, that slavery received equivalents for every loss and 
 disadvantage, which, by the laws of nature, it must sustain 
 in a race against free institutions. \Cheers^ These mon- 
 strous doctrines began to be the development of future 
 ambitions. The South, having the control of government, 
 knew from the inherent weakness of their system, that, if 
 it were confined, it was like huge herds feeding on small 
 
SPEECH EV MANCHESTER. 453 
 
 pastures, that soon gnaw the grass to the roots, and must 
 have other pasture or die. \^C7ieers.^ Slavery is of such a 
 nature, that if you do not give it continual change of feed- 
 ing ground, it perishes. \^Renewed c/weriiig.^ And then 
 came one after another from the South assertions of rights 
 never before dreamed of. From them came the Mexican 
 war for territory; from them came the annexation of Texas 
 and its entrance as a slave state; from them came that or- 
 ganized rowdyism in Congress that browbeat every North- 
 ern man who had not sworn fealty to slavery; that filled 
 all the courts of Europe with ministers holding slave doc- 
 trines; that gave the majority of the seats on the bench to 
 slave-owning judges; and that gave, in fact, all our chief 
 offices of trust either to slave-owners, or to men who licked 
 the feet of slave-owners. \^Loiid cheers^ Then came that 
 ever- memorable period when, for the very purpose of 
 humbling the North, and making it drink the bitter cup of 
 humiliation, and showing to its people that the South was 
 their natural lord, was passed the Fugitive Slave Bill. 
 \^Loud hisses?\^ There was no need of that. There was al- 
 ready existing just as good an instrument for so infernal a 
 purpose as any fiend could have wished. Against that in- 
 famy my soul revolted, and these lips protested, and I 
 defied the government to its face and told them " I will 
 execute none of your unrighteous laws; send to me a fugi- 
 tive who is fleeing from his master, and I will step between 
 him and his pursuer." \^Loiid and p7-olonged cheers?^ Not 
 once, nor twice, have my doors been shut between oppres- 
 sion and the oppressed; and the church itself over which 
 I minister has been the unknown refuge of many and many 
 a one. \Chcers^^ 
 
 But whom the devil entices he cheats. Our promised 
 " peace " with the South, which was the thirty pieces of 
 silver paid to us, turned into fire and burnt the hands 
 that took it. For, how long was it after this promised 
 peace that the Missouri compromise was abolished in an 
 infamous disregard of solemn compact.? \_Loud cheers^ It 
 never ought to have been made; but having been made, it 
 ought never to have been broken by the South. [C/ieers.] 
 
454 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 And with no other pretense than the robber's pretense that 
 might makes right, they did destroy it, that they might 
 carry slavery far North. That sufficed. That alone was 
 needed to arouse the long reluctant patriotism of the 
 North. [C/ieers.^ In hope that /ime would curb and de- 
 stroy slavery, that forbearance would lead to like forbear- 
 ance, the North had suffered insult, wrong, political 
 treachery, and risk to her very institutions of liberty. By 
 the abolition of this compromise another slave state was 
 immediately to have been brought into the Union to bal- 
 ance' the ever growing free territories of the Northwest. 
 Then arose a majesty of self-sacrifice that had no parallel 
 before. Instead of merely protesting, young men and 
 maidens, laboring men, farmers, mechanics, sped with 
 a sacred desire to rescue free territory from the toils of 
 slavery; and emigrated in thousands, not to better their 
 own condition, but in order that, when this territory should 
 vote, it should vote as a free state. \^Loiid cheers.^ Never 
 was a worse system of cheating practiced than the perjury, 
 intimidation, and prostituted use of the United States 
 army, by which the South sought to force a vile institu- 
 tion upon the men who had voted almost unanimously for 
 liberty and against slavery in Kansas. [Utar.] But at 
 last the day of utter darkness had passed, and the gray 
 twilight was on the morning horizon. At length (for the 
 first time, I believe, in the whole conflict between the South 
 and the North) the victory went to the North, and Kansas 
 became a free state. [C/ieers.^ 
 
 Now I call you to witness, that in a period of twenty- 
 five or thirty years of constant conflicts at every single 
 step the South gained the political advantage, with the 
 single exception of Kansas. What was the conduct of the 
 North? Did it take any steps for secession ? Did it threaten 
 violence? So sure were the men of the North of the ulti- 
 mate triumph of that which was Right, p7-ovided free speech 
 %vas left to combat error and wrong, that they patiently 
 bided their time. By this time the North was cured alike 
 of love for slavery and of indifference. By this time a new 
 conscience had been formed in the North, and a vast ma- 
 
 I 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 455 
 
 jority of all the Northern men at length stood fair and 
 square on anti-slavery doctrine. [C/ieers.] 
 
 We next had to flounder through the quicksands of four 
 infamous years under President Buchanan, in which sena- 
 tors, sworn to the constitution, were plotting to destroy that 
 constitution; — in which the members of the cabinet, who 
 drew their pay month by month, used their official posi- 
 tion, by breach of public trust and oath of allegiance, to 
 steal arms, to prepare fortifications, and make ready dis- 
 ruption and war. The most astounding spectacle that the 
 world ever saw was then witnessed — a great people paying 
 men to sit in the places of power and office to betray them. 
 [J/ear, //£ar.] During all those four years what did we ? 
 We protested and waited, and said: "God shall give us 
 the victory. It is God's truth that we wield, and in his 
 own good time, He will give us the victory." \^Great cheer- 
 ingi\ In all this time we never made an inroad on the 
 rights of the South. \Cheel's^^ We never asked for retali- 
 atory law. We never taxed their commerce, or touched 
 it with our little finger. We envied them none of their 
 manufactures; but sought to promote them. We did not 
 attempt to abate, by one ounce, their material prosperity; 
 we longed for their prosperity. \Chee7's.^ Slavery we 
 always hated; the Southern men never. \Cheers^ They 
 were wrong. And in our conflicts with them we have felt 
 as all men in conflict feel. We were jealous, and so were 
 they. Wc were in the right cause; they in the wrong. 
 We were right, or liberty is a delusion; they were wrong, 
 or slavery is a blessing. \Chcers?[ We never envied them 
 their territory; and it was the faith of the whole North, 
 that, in seeking for the abatement of slavery, and its final 
 abolition, we were conferring upon the South itself the 
 greatest boon which one nation — or part of a nation — 
 could confer upon another. That she was to pass through 
 difficulties in her transition to free labor, I had no doubt; 
 but it was not in our heart to humble her, but rather to 
 help and sympathize with her. I defy time and history to 
 point to a more honorable conduct than that of the free 
 North towards the South during all these days. 
 
456 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 In i860, Mr. Lincoln was elected. \Cheers?^ I ask you 
 to take notice of the conduct of the two sides at this point. 
 For thirty years we had been experiencing sectional defeats 
 at the hands of the Southerners. For thirty years and 
 more we had seen our sons proscribed because loyal to lib- 
 erty, or worse than proscribed — suborned and made sub- 
 servient to slavery. \Cheers?^ We had seen our judges 
 corrupt, our ministers apostate, our merchants running 
 headlong after gold against principle; but we maintained 
 fealty to the law and to the constitution, and had faith in 
 victory by legitimate means. But when, by the means 
 pointed out in the constitution, and sanctified by the usage 
 of three-quarters of a century, Mr. Lincoln, in fair open 
 field was elected President of the United States, did the 
 South submit ? \Cries of "iW;," and cheers^ No offense 
 had been committed — none threatened; but the allegation 
 was, that the election of a man known to be pledged against 
 the extension of slavery was not compatible with the safety 
 of slavery as it existed. On that ground they took steps for 
 secession. Every honest mode to prevent it, all patience 
 on the part of the North, all pusillanimity on the part of 
 Mr. Buchanan, were anxiously employed. Before his suc- 
 cessor came into office, he left nothing undone to make 
 matters worse, did nothing to make things better. The 
 North was patient then, the South impatient. Soon came 
 the issue. The question was put to the South, and with the 
 exception of South Carolina, cilery State in the South gave a pop- 
 ular vote against secession; and yet, such was the jugglery of 
 political leaders, that before a few months had passed, they 
 had precipitated every State into secession. That never 
 could have occurred had there been in the Southern States 
 an educated common people. But the slave power cheats the 
 poor whites of intelligence, in order to rob the poor blacks. 
 This is important testimony to the nature and tendency of 
 the Union and Government of the United States; and re- 
 veals clearly, by the judgment of the very men who of all 
 others best know, that to maintain the Union is, in the end, 
 to destroy slavery. It justifies the North against the slan- 
 ders of those'who declare that she is not fighting for liberty. 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 457 
 
 but only for the Union — as if that were not the very way 
 to destroy slavery and establish freedom ! The government 
 of the United States is such that, if it be administered 
 equitably, in the long run it will destroy slavery; and it 
 was the foresight of this which led the South to its precip- 
 itate secession. \Chcers?\ 
 
 Against all these facts, it is attempted to make England 
 believe that slavery has had nothing to do with this war. 
 You might as well have attempted to persuade Noah that 
 the clouds had nothing to do with the flood; it is the most 
 monstrous absurdity ever born from the womb of folly. 
 \Chcers?[ Nothing to do with slavery ? It had to do with 
 nothing else. \Checrs?[ Against this withering fact — 
 against this damning allegation — what is their escape ? 
 They reply — the North is just as bad as the South. Now 
 we are coming to the marrow of it. If the North is as bad 
 as the South, why did not the South find it out before you 
 did ? If the North had been in favor of oppressing the 
 black man, and just as much in favor of slavery as the 
 South, how is it that the South has gone to war against 
 the North because of their belief to the contrary ? Gen- 
 tlemen, I hold in my hand a published report of the speech 
 of the amiable, intelligent and credulous President, I be- 
 lieve, of the (English) Society for Southern Independence. 
 YLaiighteri\ There are some curiosities in it. \^Laught€r^^ 
 That you may know that Southerners are not all dead yet, 
 I will read a paragraph: — 
 
 The South had labored hitherto under the imputation, and it 
 had constantly been thrown in the teeth of all who supported 
 that struggling nation, that they by their proceedings were tend- 
 ing to support the existence of slavery. This was an impression 
 which he thought they ought carefully to endeavor to remove — 
 [cheers a7id laughter] — because it was one which was injurious to 
 their cause — [cheers'] — not only among those who had the feeling 
 of all Englishmen — of a horror of slavery — but, also, because strong 
 religious bodies in this country made a point of it, and felt it very 
 strongly indeed. 
 
 \^C7ieers.'\ I never like to speak behind a man's back — I like 
 to speak to men's faces what I have to say — and I could 
 wish that the happiness had been accorded to me to-night 
 
458 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to have Lord Wharncliffe present, that I might address 
 to him a few simple Christian inquiries. \Cheers^ For 
 there can be no question that there is a strong impression 
 that the South has "supported the existence of slavery." 
 \Chcers7[ Indeed, on our side of the water there are many 
 persons that affirm it. \_Laughter and cheers^ And, as his 
 lordship thinks that it is the peculiar duty of the new as- 
 sociation to do away with that sad error, I beg to submit to 
 it, that in the first place it ought to do away with four 
 million slaves in the South; for there are uncharitable men 
 living who think that a nation that has four million slaves 
 has at least some " tendency " to support slavery. \Cheers^ 
 And when his lordship's association has done that, it might 
 be pertinent to suggest to him, instantly to revise the new 
 " Montgomery Constitution " of the South, which is changed 
 from the old Federal Constitution in only one or two points. 
 The most essential point is that // for the first time intro- 
 duces and legalizes slavery as a national institution, and makes 
 it unconstitutional ever to do it away. Now, I submit, that 
 this wants polishing a little. \Cheers?^ Then I would also 
 respectfully lay at his lordship's feet — more beautifully 
 engrossed, if I could, than is this address to me — the speech 
 of Vice-President Stephens \Jiear, hcar\ in which he de- 
 clares that all nations have been mistaken, and that to 
 trample on the manhood of an inferior race is the only 
 proper way to maintain the liberty of a superior; in which 
 he lays down to Calvary a new lesson; in which he gives 
 the lie to the Saviour himself, who came to teach us, that 
 by as much as a man is stronger than another, he owes 
 himself to that other. \^Loud cheers^ Not alone are Christ's 
 blood-drops our salvation, but those word-drops of sacred 
 truth, which cleanse the heart and conscience by precious 
 principles, these also are to us salvation; and if there be in 
 the truths of Christ one more eminent than another, it is, 
 " He that would be chief, let him be the servant of all." But 
 this audacious hierarch of an anti-Christian gospel, Mr. 
 Stephens, — in the face of God, and to the ears of all man- 
 kind, in this day of all but universal Christian sentiment, 
 pronounces that for a nation to have manhood, it must 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 459 
 
 crush out the liberty of an inferior and weaker race. And 
 he declares ostentatiously and boastingly that the founda- 
 tion of the Southern republic is on that corner stone. 
 \^Loud cheers, ''''No^ no," and renewed cheers.^ When next Lord 
 Wharncliffe speaks for the edification of this English peo- 
 ple \Jai(g/ifer'\ I beg leave to submit that this speech of 
 Mr. Stephens's requires more than a little polishing; in fact, 
 a little scouring, cleansing, and flooding. \^Applause.'\ And 
 if all the other crimson evidences that the South is uphold- 
 ing slavery are to be washed pure by the new association, 
 not Hercules in the Augean stable had such a task before 
 him as they have got. yLoud e//eers.~\ Lord Wharncliffe 
 may bid farewell to the sweets of domestic leisure and to 
 the interests of state. All his amusement hereafter must 
 be derived from the endeavor to purge the Southern cause 
 of the universal conviction that, " by their proceedings, 
 they are tending to support the existence of slavery." 
 [Land e/ieers.~\ But there is another paragraph that I will 
 read: — 
 
 He believed that the strongest supporters of slavery were the 
 merchants of New York and Boston. He always understood, 
 and had never seen the statement contradicted, that the whole of 
 the ships fitted out for the transport of slaves from Africa to 
 Cuba were owned by Northerners. 
 
 His lordship, if he will do me the honor to read my speech, 
 shall hear it contradicted in most explicit terms. There 
 have been enough Northern ships engaged, but not by any 
 means all, nor the most. Baltimore has a preeminence in 
 that matter; Charleston, and New Orleans, and Mobile, all 
 of them. And those ships fitted out in New York were 
 just as much despised, and loathed, and hissed by the hon- 
 orable merchants of that great metropolis, as if they had 
 put up the black flag of piracy. \^Loud cheers.'] Does it 
 conduce to good feeling between two nations to utter 
 slanders such as these ? His lordship goes on to say that — 
 
 In the Northern States the slave is placed in even a worse 
 position than in the South. He spoke from experience, having 
 visited the country twice. 
 
460 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 I am most surprised, and yet gratified, to learn that Lord 
 Wharncliffe speaks of the suffering of the slave from ex- 
 perience. l^Lai/ghter and cheers.^ I never was aware that 
 he had been put in that unhappy situation. Has he toiled 
 on the sugar plantation ? Has he taken the night for his 
 friend, avoiding the day? Has he sped through cane 
 brakes, hunted by hounds, suffering hunger, and heat, and 
 cold by turns, until he has made his way to the far North- 
 ern States ? [C/ieers.] Has he had this experience ? It is 
 the word experience I call attention to. If his lordship says 
 that it is his observation, I will accept the correction. 
 
 I continue: — 
 
 In railway carriages and hotels, the negroes were treated as 
 pariahs and outcasts and never looked upon as men and brothers, 
 but rather as dogs. \Cheers.\ 
 
 In all railway cars where Southerners travel, in all hotels 
 where Southerners' money was the chief support, this is 
 true. But I concede most frankly, that there has been oc- 
 casion for such a statement: there has been a vicious prej- 
 udice in the North against the negro. It has been part of 
 my duty for the last sixteen years to protest against it. No 
 decently dressed and well-behaved colored man has ever 
 had molestation or question on entering my church, and 
 taking any seat he pleases; not because I had influence 
 with my people to prevent it, but because God gave me a 
 people whose own good sense and conscience led them 
 aright without me. But from this vantage ground it has 
 been my duty to mark out the unrighteous prejudice from 
 which the colored people have suffered in the North; and 
 it is a part of the great moral revolution which is going 
 on, that the prejudices have been in a great measure van- 
 quished, and are now well nigh trodden down. In the city 
 of New York there is one street railroad where colored 
 people cannot ride, but in the others they may, and in all the 
 railroads of New England there is not one in which a col- 
 ored man would be questioned. I believe that the colored 
 man may start from the line of the British dominions in 
 the North and traverse all New England and New York 
 till he touches the waters of the Western lakes and never 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 461 
 
 be molested or questioned, passing on as any decent white 
 man would pass. But let me ask you how came there to 
 be these prejudices? They did not exist before the War 
 of Independence. How did they grow up ? As one of 
 the accursed offshoots of slavery. Where you make a race 
 contemptible by oppression, all that belong to that race 
 will participate in the odium, whether they be free or 
 slave. The South itself, by maintaining the oppres- 
 sive institution, is the guilty cause of whatever insult the 
 free African has had to endure in the North. How next 
 did that prejudice grow strong ? It was on account of the 
 multitude of Irishmen who came to the States. \Cheers 
 and interruption^^ I declare my admiration for the Irish 
 people, who have illustrated the page of history in every 
 department of society. It is part of the fruit of igno- 
 rance, and, as they allege, of the oppression which they 
 have suffered — that it has made them oppressors. I bear 
 witness that there is no class of people in America, who 
 are so bitter against the colored people, and so eager for 
 slavery, as the ignorant, the poor, uninstructed Irishmen. 
 ["6^//," and ^^Hear," and '^ Three cheers for old IrclandT^ 
 
 But although there have been wrongs done to them in 
 the North, the condition of the free colored people in the 
 North is unspeakably better than in the South. They 
 own their wives and children. \^Hear^ hear.'\ They have 
 the right to select their place and their kind of labor; 
 their rights of property are protected just as much as ours 
 are. The right of education is accorded to them. There 
 is in the city of New York more than ten million of dol- 
 lars of property owned by free colored people. \^Hear.'\ 
 They have their own schools; they have their own churches; 
 their own orators, and there is no more gifted man, and 
 no man whose superb eloquence more deserves to be lis- 
 tened to, than Frederick Douglass. [^Loiid cheers.'] Further: 
 after the breaking out of this war, the good conduct of 
 the slaves at the South and of the free colored people at 
 the North has increased the kind feelings of the whites 
 towards them; and since they have begun to fight for their 
 lights of manhood, a popular enthusiasm for them is aris- 
 
462 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ing. \Loud cheers^ I will venture to say, that there is no 
 place on the earth where millions of colored people stand 
 in a position so auspicious for the future, as the free col- 
 ored men of the North and the freed slaves of the South. 
 \Chcers.^ 
 
 I meant to have said a good deal more to you than I 
 have said or than I shall have time to say. ["6^<? c-*;/."] I 
 have endeavored to place before you some of the facts 
 which show that slavery was the real cause of this war, and 
 that if it had to be legally decided whether North or South 
 were guilty in this matter, there could be no question be- 
 fore any honorable tribunal, any jury, any deliberative 
 body, that the South, from beginning to end, for the sake 
 of slavery, has been aggressive, and the North patient. 
 Since the war broke out, the North has been more and 
 more coming upon the high ground of moral principle, 
 until at length the government has decreed emancipation. 
 It has been said very often in my hearing, and I have read 
 it oftener since I have been in England — the last reading I 
 had of it was from the pen of Lord Brougham — that the 
 North is fighting for the Union, and not for the emancipa- 
 tion of the African. Why are we fighting for the Union, 
 but because we believe that the Union and its government, 
 administered noiv by Northcrti men, will work out the eman- 
 cipation of every living being on the continent of America? 
 \_Loitd cheering.^ If it be meant that the North went into 
 this war with the immediate object of the emancipation of 
 the slaves, I answer that it never professed to do that ; but 
 it went into war for the Union with the distinct and ex- 
 pressed conviction on both sides, that, if the Union were main- 
 tained, slavery could not live long. [^C/ieers.'\ Do you sup- 
 pose that it is wise to separate the interest of the slave from 
 the interest of the other people on the continent, and to 
 inaugurate a policy which takes in him alone? He must 
 stand or fall with all of us, [^liear, Aear,] and the only 
 sound policy for the North is that which shall benefit the 
 North, the South, the blacks and the whites. [C/ieers.] We 
 hold that the maintenance of the Union as expounded in 
 its fundamental principles by the Declaration of Independ- 
 
SPEECH IN MANCHESTER. 463 
 
 ence and the Constitution, is the very best way to secure to 
 the African ultimately his rights and his best estate. The 
 North was like a ship carrying passengers, tempest tossed, 
 and while the sailors were laboring, and the captain and 
 officers directing, some grumblers came up from amongst 
 the passengers and said, " You are all the time working to 
 save the ship, but you don't care to save the passengers." 
 I should like to know how you would save the passengers 
 so well as by taking care of the ship. 
 
 [At this point the Chairman read to the meeting a telegram 
 relative to the seizure and detention by the Government of the 
 rams prepared for the Southerners at Liverpool. The effect was 
 startling. The audience rose to their feet, while cheer after cheer 
 was given.] 
 
 Allow me to say this of the colored people, our citizens 
 (for in New York colored people vote, as they do also in 
 Massachusetts and in several other Northern States — 
 Lord Wharncliffe notwithstanding): it is a subject of 
 universal remark, that no men on either side have carried 
 themselves more gallantly, more bravely, than the colored 
 regiments that have been fighting for their government 
 and their liberty. My own youngest brother is colonel of 
 one of those regiments, and from him I learn many most 
 interesting facts concerning them. The son of one of the 
 most estimable and endeared of my friends in my congre- 
 gation was the colonel of the regiment which scaled the 
 rampart of Fort Wagner. Colonel Shaw fell at the head 
 of his men — hundreds fell — and when inquest was made 
 for his body, it was reported by the Southern men in the 
 fort that he had been "buried with his niggers;" and on 
 his gravestone yet it shall be written, " The man that dared 
 to lead the poor and the oppressed out of their oppression, 
 died with them and for them, and was buried with them." 
 \Cheeys?^ On the Mississippi the conduct of the Federal 
 colored regiments is so good, that, although many of the 
 officers who command them are Southern born, and until 
 recently had the strongest Southern prejudices, those prej- 
 udices are almost entirely broken down, and there is no 
 difficulty whatever in finding officers, Northern or South- 
 
464 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ern, to take command of just as many of these regiments 
 as can be raised. It is an honorable testimony to the good 
 conduct and courage of these long-abused men, whom God 
 is now bringing by the Red Sea of war out of the land of 
 Egypt and into the land of promise. \Chcersi\ 
 
 I have said that it would give me great pleasure to an- 
 swer any courteous questions that might be proposed to 
 me. If I cannot answer them I will do the next best 
 thing, — tell you so. \^Hear^ The length to which this 
 meeting has been protracted, and the very great con- 
 viction that I seem to have wrought by my remarks on 
 this Pentecostal occasion in yonder Gentile crowd — \loud 
 lai/g/itcr~\ — admonish me that we had better open some 
 kind of "meeting of inquiry." \_Reneived laughter^ It will 
 give me great pleasure, as a gentleman, to receive ques- 
 tions from any gentleman — \Jiear, hear^ — and to give such 
 reply as is in my power. 
 
 Mr. Beecher remained standing for a few moments, as if to give 
 the opportunity of interrogation, but no one rising to question 
 him, he sat down amidst great cheers. The speech lasted nearly 
 two and a quarter hours. 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 
 
 October 13, 1863. 
 
 The hour appointed for the opening of proceedings was seven 
 o'clock, and long before that time the hall was filled to excess by 
 a crowd that waited in silence till the entrance of the speaker of 
 the evening on the platform, accompanied by Bailie Govan, chair- 
 man, and a number of clergymen and city councilors. 
 
 After brief introductory remarks by Bailie Govan and 
 the Rev. Dr. Anderson, Mr. Beecher spoke: — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen: No one who has 
 been born and reared in Scotland can know the feeling 
 with which, for the first time, such a one as I have visited 
 this land, classic in song and in history. I have been reared 
 in a country whose history is brief. So vast is it, that one 
 might travel night and day for all the week, and yet 
 scarcely touch historic ground. Its history is yet to be 
 written; yet to be acted. But I come to this land, which, 
 though small, is as full of memories as the heaven is of 
 stars, and almost as bright. \^App/ai/st\~\ There is not the 
 most insignificant piece of water that does not make my 
 heart thrill with some story of heroism, or some remem- 
 bered poem; for not only has Scotland had the good fort- 
 une to have had men that knew how to make heroic his- 
 tory, but she has reared those bards who have known 
 how to sing her fame. ^Applause.'] And every steep and 
 every valley, and almost every single league on which my 
 feet have trod, have made me feel as if I was walking in a 
 dream. I never expected to feel my eyes overflow with 
 tears of gladness, that I had been permitted in the prime 
 of life to look upon dear old Scotland. [^AppIause.'] For 
 your historians have taught us history, your poets have 
 been the charm of our firesides, your theologians have en- 
 riched our libraries; from your philosophers — Reid, Brown, 
 
466 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and Stewart — we have derived the elements of our phi- 
 losophy, and your scientific researches have greatly stim- 
 ulated the study of science in our land. I come to Scot- 
 land, almost as a pilgrim would to Jerusalem, to see those 
 scenes whose story had stirred my imagination from my 
 earliest youth; and I can pay no higher compliment than 
 to say that having seen some part of Scotland I am satis- 
 fied; and permit me to say that if, when you know me, you 
 are a thousandth part as satisfied with me as I am with 
 you, we shall get along very well together. \^Applaiisei\ 
 
 And yet, although I am not of a yielding mood \a 
 laitgJi\ nor easily daunted, I have some embarrassment in 
 speaking to you to-night. I know very well that there are 
 not a few things which prevent me doing a good work 
 among you. I differ greatly from many of you. I re- 
 spect, although I will not adopt, your opinions. I can 
 only ask as much from you for myself. I am aware that 
 a personal prejudice has been diligently excited against 
 me. There is also the vastness of the subject on which I 
 am about to speak, and the dissimilar institutions of the 
 two countries, which stand in my way. There are also 
 those perplexities which arise from conflicting statements 
 made to you. There is also a supposed antagonism be- 
 tween British and American interests. Now I shall not 
 consider any of these points to-night except the first. It 
 is not a pleasant avenue to a speech for a man to walk 
 through himself. \^Laughtcr?^ But since every pains is 
 taken to misrepresent me, let me once for all deal with 
 that matter. 
 
 In my own land I have been the subject of misrepre- 
 sentation and abuse so long, that when I did not receive 
 it, I felt as though something was wanting in the atmos- 
 phere. \_Laughter and applause. ~\ I have been the object of 
 misrepresentation at home, simply and only because I have 
 been arrayed ever since I had a voice to speak and a heart 
 to feel — body and soul, I have been arrayed, without re- 
 gard to consequences and to my own reputation or my 
 own ease, against that which I consider the damning sin 
 of my country and the shame of human nature — slavery. 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 467 
 
 \Great applause?^ I thought I had a right, when I came to 
 Great Britain, to expect a different feception; but I found 
 that the insidious correspondence of men in America had 
 poisoned the British mind, and that representations had 
 been made which predisposed men to receive me with dis- 
 like. And, principally, the representations were that I 
 had indulged in the most offensive language, and had 
 threatened all sorts of things, against Great Britain. Now 
 allow me to say that, having examined that interesting lit- 
 erature, so far as I have seen it published in British news- 
 papers, I here declare that ninety-nine out of one hundred 
 parts of those things that I am charged with saying I 
 never said and never thought — they are falsehoods wholly, 
 and in particular. \Great applause.~\ Allow me next to say 
 that I have been accustomed freely, and at all times, at 
 home to speak what I thought to be sober truth both of 
 blame and of praise of Great Britain, and if you do not 
 want to hear a man express his honest sentiments fear- 
 lessly, then I do not want to speak to you. \^Applaus:?^ 
 If I never spared my own country \hear, hear\ if I never 
 spared the American church, nor the government, nor my 
 own party, nor my personal friends, did you expect I 
 would treat you better than I did those of my own coun- 
 try? \Applause?^ For I have felt from the first that I hold 
 a higher allegiance than any I owe to man — to God, and 
 to that truth which is God's ordinance in human affairs; 
 and for the sake of that higher truth, I have loved my 
 country, but I have loved truth more than my country. 
 \_Applaiisc^^ I have heard the voice of my Master, saying, 
 "If any man come unto me and hate not father, and 
 mother, and brother, and sister, yea, and his own life also, 
 he is not worthy of me." When therefore the cause of 
 truth and justice is put in the scale against my own coun- 
 try, I would disown country for the sake of truth; and 
 when the cause of truth and justice is put in the scale 
 against Great Britain, I would disown her rather than be- 
 tray what I understood to be the truth. \^AppIa'jse?[ 
 
 We are bound to establish liberty, regulated Christian liberty, 
 as the law of the American Continent. This is our destiny, this 
 
468 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 is that towards which the education of the rising genera- 
 tion has been more and more assiduously directed as the 
 peculiar glory of America — to destroy slavery, and root it 
 out of our land, and to establish in its place a discreet, in- 
 telligent, constitutional, regulated, Christian liberty. We 
 have accepted this destiny and this task: and if in accom- 
 plishing this a part of our own people opposes us, we shall 
 go right against our people to that destiny. \^ApplauseP\ 
 If France undertakes to interfere, and to say "You shall 
 not," much as we would regret to be at war with any na- 
 tion on the globe, or with France in particular, who be- 
 friended us in our early struggles and trials, still the cause 
 of liberty is dearer to us than any foreign alliance, and we 
 shall certainly say "Stand off, this is our work, and must 
 not be hindered." If they bring war to us, they shall have 
 war: for no foreign nation shall meddle with impunity 
 with our domestic struggle. If Great Britain herself, tied 
 to us by so many interests, endeared by so many historic 
 associations, — to whom we can never pay the debt of love 
 we owe her for those men who wrought out, in fire and 
 blood, those very principles of civil liberty for which we 
 are now contending, — yet, if even Britain shall openly or 
 secretl}^ seek the establishment on our national territory of 
 an independent slaveholding empire, we will denounce 
 her word and deed; — and, terrible and cruel as will be the 
 necessity, we will, if we must, oppose arms to arms. If 
 Great Britain is for slavery, I am against Great Britain. 
 \Checrsl\ If Great Britain is true to her instincts, and the 
 interests of her illustrious history, and to her own docu- 
 ments, laws, and institutions; if she is yet in favor of lib- 
 erty, as she has always been here and everywhere in the 
 world, I am for Great Britain; and shall be proud of my 
 blood and boast that I have a share in your ancestral 
 glory. My prayer shall be that Great Britain and America, 
 joined in religion and in liberty, may march shoulder to 
 shoulder in the great enterprise of bearing the blessings 
 of religion and liberty around the globe. [C//<'^r.y.] 
 
 The Slave States may be divided into two classes — the 
 Farming States and the Plantation States. The farm- 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 469 
 
 ing States are Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, 
 Missouri, and parts of Tennessee and North Carolina. 
 The lands there are devoted to a mixed husbandry, such 
 as of corn (or maize), wheat, oats, grass, tobacco, and the 
 grazing of herds of cattle. The farms generally are not 
 large. In those States slave-labor is not profitable, and 
 cannot be so. Slave-breeding is profitable, but not the 
 labor of slaves. The plantation States are South Carolina, 
 Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 
 and Arkansas — eight. These States do not pursue a 
 mixed husbandry. They raise principally cotton, sugar, 
 rice, and tobacco, but chiefly the two great staples — cot- 
 ton and sugar. They buy the principal part of their food, 
 and almost all manufactured products. The pails they 
 carry their water in are made in New England; their 
 broom handles, their pins, glass, stone, iron, and tinware, 
 and all their household furniture, are the manufacture of 
 the North. There are some local exceptions, but what I 
 state is substantially true of the slave States of the extreme 
 South. Now, consider some facts. The labor of slaves in 
 the farming States does not pay. Why? Because mixed 
 farming requires much more skill than slaves have. Slave 
 labor must always be applied to the production of rude 
 and raw material. You cannot go much farther than that. 
 Slave labor is rarely ever skilled labor; that would require 
 too much brain, and its development is not consistent 
 with the condition of the slave. Moreover, slaves are too 
 costly. In the farming States they are better off, and 
 therefore they are more expensive; for a man is expensive 
 just in proportion as he rises in the scale of civilization, as 
 I shall show you more at length in a moment. The object 
 of slavery therefore in the more northerly slave States is 
 not the production of tobacco, or corn, or maize, or wheat, 
 or cattle, or dairy products; — the whole profit of slavery in 
 the Northern slave States is in breeding slaves. [Hear, hear, 
 a7id sensation^ Virginia has raised as much as {^24, 000, 000 
 a year for slaves sold South. I will read you the testimony 
 of a gentleman from the slave States. The editor of the 
 Virginia Times, in 1836, made a calculation that 120,000 
 
470 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 I 
 
 slaves went out of the State during the year, that 80,000 of 
 them went with their owners who removed, leaving 40,000 
 who were sold, at an average price of $600, amounting to 
 $24,000,000. You cannot understand anything about slavery 
 until you are admitted into the secrets of raising slaves as 
 colts and calves are raised for market, and begin to see 
 the inside of this, the most detestable and infernal system 
 that the sun ever shone upon. 
 
 But you may say that this is so only in Virginia. I ask 
 your attention to the words of Heniy Clay. In 1829 he 
 said before the Colonization Society, " It is believed that 
 nowhere in the farming portions of the United States 
 would slave-labor be generally emploj^ed if the proprietors 
 were not tempted to raise slaves by the high prices of the 
 Southern market." That is Mr. Clay's testimony, a Ken- 
 tuckian, a slaveholder; and certainly he ought to know. 
 Political reasons also help to keep up slavery in these 
 States, and some personal reasons of which I shall not 
 speak. These Northern slave States would emancipate 
 their slaves if it were not that the cotton States give them 
 a market. Gentlemen, you abhor the African slave trade. 
 Let me tell you that the domestic slave trade of America 
 is unspeakably worse. Bred amidst churches, refinements, 
 and comparative civilization, they are capable of a thou- 
 sand pangs more of suffering at ruthless separations than 
 if they were yet but savages. I call your attention to a 
 few propositions then, in reference to slavery as it exists 
 in the extreme Southern States. 
 
 And first, the system of slavery requires ignorance in the 
 slave, and not alone intellectual but moral and social ig- 
 norance. Anybody who is a slaveholder will find that 
 there are reasons which will compel him to keep slaves in 
 ignorance, if he is going to keep them at all. Not because 
 intelligence is more difficult to govern; for with an intelli- 
 gent people government is easier. The more you develop 
 a man's intellect, the more you make him capable of self- 
 government; and the more you keep him in ignorance, the 
 more is he the subject of arbitrary government. Virtue 
 and intelligence compel leniency of government; but ig- 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 471 
 
 norance and vice compel tyranny in government. These 
 things follow a natural law. The slave would not be less 
 easily governed, if he were educated. If the slaveholder 
 taught him to read and write, if he made him to know 
 what he ought to know as one of God's dear children, the 
 South would not be so much endangered by insurrection 
 as she is now. There is nothing so terrible as explosive 
 ignorance. Men without an idea, striking blindly and 
 passionately, are the men to be feared. Even if the slaves 
 were educated, they would be better slaves. What is the 
 reason then that slaves must be kept in ignorance ? The 
 real reason is one of expense. In order to make slave-labor 
 profitable, you must reduce the cost of the slave; for the 
 difference between the profit and the loss turns upon the 
 halfpenny per pound. If the price of slaves goes up, and cot- 
 ton goes down a shade in price, in ordinary times the plant- 
 ers lose. The rule is therefore, to reduce the cost of the 
 man; and the slave to be profitable must be simply a work- 
 ing creature. What does a man cost, that is a slave ? Just a 
 little meal and a little pork, a small measure of the coarsest 
 cloth and leather, that is all he costs. Because that is all 
 he needs — the lowest fare and the scantiest clothing. He 
 is a being with two hands and two feet, and a belly. That 
 is all there is of a profitable slave. But every new develop- 
 ment within him which religion shall make — the sense of 
 fatherhood, the wish for a home, the desire to rear his 
 children well, the wish to honor and comfort his wife, every 
 taste, every sentiment, every aspiration, will demand some 
 external thing to satisfy it. His being augments. He de- 
 mands more time. He strives to organize that little kingdom 
 in which every human being has a right to be king, in which 
 love is crowned, — the family ! It is this that makes an 
 educated slave too expensive for profit. Profitable slave- 
 holding requires only so much intelligence as will work 
 well, and only so much religion as will make men patient 
 under suffering and abuse. More than that — more con- 
 science, more ambition, more divine ideas of human nature, 
 of men's dignity, of household virtue, of Christian refine- 
 ment, only make the slave too costly in his tastes. 
 
472 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Not only does the degradation of the slave pass over to 
 his work, but it affects all labor, even when performed by 
 free white men. Throughout the South there is the most 
 marked public disesteem of honest homely industry. It is 
 true that in the mountainous portions of the southwest, 
 North Carolina, Northern Georgia, Eastern Tennessee, and 
 Western Virginia, where slaves are few, and where a hardy 
 people for the most part perform their own agricultural 
 labors, there is less discredit attached to homely toil than 
 in the rich alluvial districts where sugar and cotton cult- 
 ure demand exclusive slave labor. But even in the most 
 favored portions of the South, manual labor is but barely 
 redeemed from the taint of being a slave's business, and 
 nowhere is it honored as it is in the great and free North. 
 Whereas, in the richer and more influential portions of the 
 South, labor is so degraded that men are ashamed of it. 
 It is a badge of dishonor. The poor and shiftless whites, 
 unable to own slaves, unwilling to work themselves, live 
 in a precarious and wretched manner, but a little removed 
 from barbarism, relying upon the chase for much of their 
 subsistence, and affording a melancholy spectacle of the 
 condition into which the reflex influence of slavery throws 
 the neighboring poor whites. Having turned their own 
 industry over to slaves, and established the province and 
 duties of a gentleman to consist in indolence and politics, 
 it is not strange that they hold the people of the North in 
 great contempt. The North is a vast hive of universal in- 
 dustry. Idleness there is as disreputable as is labor in 
 the South. The child's earliest lesson is faithful industry. 
 The boy works, the man works. Everywhere through all 
 the North men earn their own living by their own industry 
 and ingenuity. They scorn to be dependent. They revolt 
 at the dishonor of living upon the unrequited labor of 
 others. Honest labor is that highway along which the 
 whole body of the Northern people travel towards wealth 
 and usefulness. From Northern looms the South is 
 clothed. From their anvils come all Southern implements 
 of labor; from their lathes all modern ware; from their 
 lasts Southern shoes. The North is growing rich by its 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 473 
 
 own industry. The small class of slaveholders in the 
 South have precarious wealth, but at the expense of the 
 vast body of poor whites, who live from hand to mouth all 
 their days. No wonder then, that Southerners have been 
 wont to deride the free workmen of the North. Governor 
 Hammond only gave expression to the universal contempt 
 of Southern slaveholders for 7vork and workmen, when he 
 called the Northern laborer the " tnudsill of society," and 
 stigmatized the artisan as the " greasy mechanic." The 
 North and the South alike live by work; the North by 
 their own work, the South by that of their slaves ! Which 
 is the more honorable ? I have a right to demand of the 
 workmen of Glasgow that they should refuse their sym- 
 pathy to the South, and should give their hearty sympathy 
 to those who are, like themselves, seeking to make work 
 honorable, and to give to the working man his true place 
 in society. Disguise it as they will, distract your attention 
 from it as they may, it cannot be concealed, that the 
 American question is the working mans question, all over 
 the world ! The slave master's doctrine is that capital 
 should own labor — that the employers should own the em- 
 ployed. This is Southern doctrine and Southern practice. 
 Northern doctrine and Northern practice is that the 
 laborer should be free, intelligent, clothed with full cit- 
 izen's rights, with a share of the political duties and 
 honors. The North has from the beginning crowned 
 labor with honor. Nowhere else on earth is it so honora- 
 ble. The free States of the North and West, in America, 
 are the paradise of laborers. One of the predisposing 
 causes of the present conflict was the extraordinary con- 
 trast of the riches of the North and the unthriftiness of 
 the South, resulting from their respective doctrines of 
 labor and the laborer ! 
 
 It would seem as if Providence had demonstrated the 
 wastefulness and mischiefs of every kind of despotism in 
 church and in state, save one — despotism of work. For a 
 grand and final contrast between the sin and guilt of 
 labor-oppression, and the peace and glory of free-labor, he 
 set apart the Western continent. That the trial might be 
 
474 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 above all suspicion, to the right he gave the meager soil, 
 the austere climate, short summers, long and rigorous 
 winters. To the wrong he gave fair skies, abundant soils, 
 valleys of the tropics teeming with almost spontaneous 
 abundance. The Christian doctrine of work has made 
 New England a garden, while Virginia is a wilderness. 
 The free North is abundantly rich, the South bankrupt ! 
 Every element of prosperous society abounds in the 
 North, and is lacking in the South. There is more real 
 wealth in the simple little State of Massachusetts than in 
 any ten Southern States. In the free States everything 
 flourishes, in the slave States everything languishes. I 
 point to the North and say, behold the testimony of Prov- 
 idence for free labor ! I point to the South, and say, be- 
 hold the legitimate results of slave-labor ! Oppression is 
 as accursed in the field as it is upon the throne. It is as 
 odious before God under the slave-driver's hat, as under 
 the prince's crown, or the priest's miter. All the world 
 over, slavery is detestable, and bears the curse of God 
 everywhere ! 
 
 The South has complained bitterly of this indisputable 
 superiority of the North in the elements of national wealth 
 and general prosperity. It has been charged to class legis- 
 lation, to Yankee shrewdness at the expense of honesty, 
 and to downright advantage taken by Northern commerce. 
 The facts, are, however, that the legislation of the country 
 has been controlled for fifty years by Southern influence. 
 No class legislation was possible except in her own favor. 
 The North, so far from cheating the South, has itself been 
 obliged largely to make up the wastes and squanderings 
 of the improvident slave-system. Southern bankruptcies 
 have every ten years carried home to Northern creditors 
 the penalty of complicity with slave-labor. Besides this, 
 the South has contributed less and received more from the 
 Federal Government, than the North. The peculiar nature 
 of society under such industry and institutions made the 
 functions of Government oppressive and expensive. Yet, 
 with every partiality and favor of Government, and with 
 the North for fifty years almost submissive to her will in 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 475 
 
 public matters, the statesmen of the South beheld with 
 dismay the mighty growth of the free States and the rela- 
 tive weakness of the slave States. To maintain equipol- 
 lence, new territory must be acquired, and new States 
 brought into the Union, that the fatal weakness resulting 
 from slavery in the older States might be compensated by 
 the extent of the South, and by the number of votes in the 
 Congress, — controlling legislation in their interest. 
 
 Out of this radical conflict of free labor and slave -labor, 
 have sprung naturally the elements of this war. In the 
 race, slavery has crippled itself. It therefore seeks to 
 escape from institutions and influences that expose its 
 folly, that reveal its degradation and poverty, and would 
 inevitably, in due time, revolutionize and destroy it. Not 
 only is it true that the workipgmen of England have an 
 interest in this conflict, as a political struggle; but, as a 
 conflict between the two grand systems — Slave labor and 
 Free labor — it addresses itself to every laboring man on the 
 globe. If the North succeed and slavery be crushed, labor- 
 ing men, all the world over, will be benefited. The Amer- 
 ican conflict is but one form of that contest which is going 
 on in all nations. Men that live by the sweat of their 
 brow are aspiring to more education, to a larger sphere of 
 influence, to some share of political power, to some joint 
 fruition of that wealth which they help to create. They 
 ought to know their fellows. They ought to recognize in 
 every land who are striving for them and who against. It 
 is monstrous that British workmen should help Southern 
 slaveholders to degrade labor. Are there not enough 
 already to crush the poor and helpless laborers of the 
 world, without English workingmen, too, joining the rebel 
 gang of oppressors ? Every word for the South is a blow 
 against the slave ! Every stroke aimed at the slave re- 
 bounds upon the European laborer ! Join the slave-owner 
 in making labor compulsory and dishonorable, and the 
 slave-owner will unite with European extortioners in grind- 
 ing the poor operatives here ! The North is truly fighting 
 the battle of the laborer everywhere. The North honors 
 work. When the laborer is educated, all doors are open 
 
476 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to him, and it depends on his own powers and disposition 
 whether he shall be a drudge or an honored citizen. It 
 will be a burning shame for British workmen to side 
 against their own friends ! 
 
 Consider now, for a moment, what were our respective 
 divisions when this war broke out which has fused all par- 
 ties into one in the North and one in the South. We are 
 not to expect parties formed methodically to suit any phi- 
 losophical or ethical theory. Such arrangements never 
 happen in a land so large, so diverse in population, so free 
 in the operation of opinions, and swayed by so many mo- 
 tives. Slavery had long exerted a grave influence upon 
 the condition of the country before it was recognized in 
 politics. Indeed, the first sign of the entrance of this vexed 
 question into active politics was seen in the anxious en- 
 deavors of all parties to exclude it. The early anti-slavery 
 men found themselves shut out from all parties, from 
 ecclesiastical bodies, from every organization of society. 
 They gathered adherents outside of all moral and civil 
 institutions. But nothing could long keep out a topic 
 which was forced upon the North by the unwise and arro- 
 gant legislation of the South. At length the subject took 
 complete possession of politics, and divided the whole 
 public into parties. But I shall consider the division of 
 opinions, rather than of parties, which are seldom homo- 
 geneous. 
 
 There were three degrees of opinion. At the close of 
 the war for independence the term Abolitionist was applied 
 to such men as Franklin, John Jay, and others, who united 
 in societies for promoting the abolition of slavery. These 
 societies died out, and the name was almost forgotten, till 
 revived about 1830, and applied, then and since, exclusively 
 to Mr. Garrison and his school. These reformers regarded 
 slavery as so established, and the institutions of the country 
 as so controlled by its advocates, that all remedy was hope- 
 less, and they urged an utter separation from the South, as the 
 only way of freeing the North from the guilt and contam- 
 ination of slavery. There was no political difference be- 
 tween Mr. Garrison's disunion and Mr. Davis's secession. 
 
SPEECH IX GLASGOW. All 
 
 But the moral difference was world wide. The disunionists 
 of the Garrison and Wendell Phillips school were seeking 
 to promote liberty and to weaken slavery. Mr. Davis and 
 his followers are seeking to strengthen slavery and to 
 restrict liberty. But the Abolitionists, though a herpic 
 band, sought a right thing by a wrong method. Their 
 party was never large, but their direct and indirect influ- 
 ence was great. 
 
 Another section was represented by the great body of 
 moral and intelligent men in the North who held that 
 slavery should be limited to its present territory; that, since 
 it existed by State laivs and not by national laws, it should 
 be restricted to those States in which it was found de facto; 
 that Congress should leave it where it was, but defend the 
 Territories from its incursions; that the Government should 
 be put into the hands of men who loved liberty more than 
 slavery; that our courts should be purged of judges ap- 
 pointed to serve Southern interests. It was believed, and 
 I was of this faith myself, that, were slavery rigorously 
 confined to existing bounds, and the institutions of the 
 nation arrayed on the side of liberty, gradually natural 
 laws, with commercial changes and the exigencies of polit- 
 ical economy, would work out a system of emancipation. 
 These views were held by the North both in a latent and 
 an active form, by men who were widely different in pol- 
 itics, and who sought different and even conflicting methods 
 of enforcing them. 
 
 The third section was represented by that class of men 
 which exists in every land without moral convictions in 
 public affairs, who regard politics as a game, and who look 
 only at interest as the end of parties. To such were added 
 vast numbers of ignorant immigrants. With a partial and 
 honorable exception in favor of the Germans, it must be 
 said that the great body of immigrants flying from foreign hard- 
 ships and oppression joined the pro-slavery party in America, 
 and arranged themselves against the negro. This has 
 been the peculiar and chief difficulty of the North in polit- 
 ical efforts. We owe to Europe, but chiefly to Great 
 Britain, those hindrances that so long paralyzed political 
 
478 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 effort, and divided the action of the North. It will be seen 
 by this brief view, that the Northern movement proposed 
 no violence nor any precipitate action. We relied on the 
 inherent superiority of free labor to develop our embryo 
 territories, and hoped that, with time and patience, moral 
 inAuences, following the operation of great natural laws, 
 would waste away slavery, without violence or revolution, 
 and with benefit to both the bond and the free. The key- 
 note of Northern policy was No more Slave States — 
 No MORE legislation IN FAVOR OF SLAVERY. Let it die by 
 its own inherent diseases ! 
 
 Now let me speak of the South. What have been the 
 divisions of the South ? There have been two tendencies 
 there; a more moderate and a more extreme party. The 
 former attempted to maintain the South on the basis of 
 slavery; by the multiplication of new States; by the ac- 
 quisition of territories, and so directing the Government 
 as to fortify slavery till it should stretch across the conti- 
 nent from ocean to ocean. That has been the object of the 
 earlier and main party of the South. The second was the 
 South Carolina party, who date from Mr. Calhoun's time. 
 This party meant to break off from the Union as soon as 
 they were strong enough. Just as long as anything was 
 to be gained by staying, so long they meant to stay; but 
 as soon as nothing m.ore was to be gained, they meant to 
 go. They included the former plan, but more also. They 
 designed, first, separate national existence as the ultimate 
 aim of the Southern States; and secondly, the inclusion of 
 the tropics of America in a gigantic cotton-growing slave 
 empire. They meant, ere long, to seize Mexico and Cen- 
 tral America; to include the vast central American trop- 
 ical Oceanica, and spread slavery over all. They proudly 
 said — Cotton is king ! and if we have cotton and the means 
 of raising it, we can control the destiny of the globe ! 
 They meant also to re-open the African slave-trade for the 
 purpose of cheapening negroes, who are the most expen- 
 sive item of labor. In South Carolina this scheme was 
 unblushingly and openly advocated: and if I had lived in 
 the South and been a slaveholder, I should have been of 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 479 
 
 that party. What ! an advocate of the African slave- 
 trade ? Yes, I should ! The day that I make up my mind 
 to keep slaves, I shall have to keep them ignorant; and if 
 I live in the cotton States, I am not likely to pay Virginia, 
 under a home-tariff, a thousand dollars for a slave that I can 
 import from Africa for three hundred dollars. The fact is, 
 the law that makes the foreign slave-trade piracy is nothing 
 but a high tariff in favor of the slave-breeding States; and 
 the States that do not breed slaves, say, — That tariff must 
 be taken off; if Africa can produce the material cheaper 
 than Virginia, we must have the advantage of it. I de- 
 clare too, that the inter-state slave-trade of America is in 
 many most important respects more cruel than the rough- 
 est part of the African slave-trade. To bring up men un- 
 der the gospel; to bring up women with some of the tender 
 susceptibilities of womanhood, and more than half their 
 blood white blood, — to rear them in your household, and 
 then, — if bankruptcy threatens, or exigencies press, to call 
 out your valuable slaves from a Virginian plantation and 
 sell them to the slave-master, to manacle them, — to drive 
 in gangs men reared under the sound of the bell of the 
 Christian Church, — who have acquired something of re- 
 finement in their masters' families — to carry them down 
 South in droves of fifties and hundreds, as is done on every 
 great street and road of the northern line of Slave States, 
 — is, I say, more infernal, more wicked, by as much as these 
 northern-bred slaves are more tender, susceptible, and in- 
 telligent, than the poor half-imbruted African. If God 
 sends one bolt at the ship that brings slaves from Africa, 
 double-shotted thunders are aimed at every gang-master 
 that drives them from the Northern slave States to the 
 Southern. \Applaiise^ It was perfectly natural that South 
 Carolina should include in its project of aggrandizement 
 the opening of the African slave-trade; and every freeman 
 in Great Britain that goes for the South, really goes for the 
 opening of that trade. \Cheers and hisses^ When you put 
 a drunken engineer to drive a train, you may not mean to 
 come to any harm, but when you are in that train you 
 cannot help yourselves. It is just the same here. You do 
 
4 So PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 not mean the slave-trade, but they do; and all that they ask 
 of you is — " Be blind." \^Laughter and applause?^ 
 
 This Southern plan thus includes the opening of the 
 slave-trade for the sake of cheapening negroes, and the 
 secession threw the control of the whole South into the 
 hands of these extremists. You may not be aware that 
 when secession was proposed, after the election of Lincoln, 
 every State by its popular vote went against secession, 
 except South Carolina. Well, that might have seemed a 
 fatal obstacle. Not at all. The leaders of this extreme 
 party immediately began to work upon the legislatures 
 either to call conventions or to act as conventions, and pass 
 secession acts. The States were carried out of the Union 
 into secession notwithstanding the vote of the people not 
 many months before. How was it that Tennessee was 
 carried out ? — how was Alabama carried out ? — how was 
 even such a State as Georgia carried out against such a 
 man as Mr. Stephens, the vice-president of the Confederacy 
 — a man who, though on the wrong side, is the best man, I 
 think, in the whole Southern States of America \applaiise\ 
 and — if it were not for the accursed surrounding of slavery 
 — is as true and far sighted a statesman as we have ever had 
 in America. How did they carry out these States by their 
 legislatures ? They said to the members of the legislatures 
 throughout the South, " The North never stood in a fair 
 stand-up fight. It was always anxious about its mills and 
 stores and its money. They will rouse up at first, but 
 whenever it comes to the last, and we threaten fire and 
 bloodshed, they always knuckle under." Well, I am 
 ashamed to say there was too much truth in this. Com- 
 mercial interest on one side, and a desire for peace and 
 love of the Union on the other, had always led the North 
 to yield to Southern threats. But that was ended. A new 
 spirit had arisen. The North notv for the first time thor- 
 oughly believed that the South aimed to nationalize slavery. The 
 North never had believed that it was worth while to agi- 
 tate the controversy, until the outrageous conduct of the 
 South in Kansas brought the North to its consciousness. 
 Since then it has been true as steel. Well, the South said, 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 481 
 
 " The North will not willingly see us go out of the Union 
 — that is a mere ruse on our part: we will go out by ' seces- 
 sion,' and say, We will come back if you give us new 
 guaranties. Even if they will not do that, there will be no 
 war; for the North will not fight us." With these argu- 
 ments the legislatures were won, and the secession was 
 accomplished in the greater number of the Slave States. 
 The upper classes thought that secession was only a polit- 
 ical trick, through which they were to go back into a re- 
 constructed Union, with new guaranties inserted for the 
 nationalization of slavery and for its extension all over the 
 continent. 
 
 But at this time there happened to be more or less of 
 conference between friends in the North and friends in 
 the South, and it seemed as if the consummation would 
 be prevented. Virginia had refused persistently to pass 
 the secession ordinance. The convention that was by 
 the popular vote elected in Virginia was known to be 
 immensely in favor of remaining in the Union. It was 
 necessary that something should be done to prevent Vir- 
 ginia standing out with the North; and it was done. The 
 gang of slave-drivers in Richmond intimidated the mem- 
 bers of the convention. When the history shall be written, 
 the fact will appear, that numbers of convention members 
 were made afraid for their lives. They were told almost 
 in so many words, " You shall never leave Richmond 
 alive, if you fail to vote secession." It was voted, but 
 secretly, and it was not known in Virginia for weeks. I 
 was myself a fellow-passenger with one man, who was 
 making a circuitous journey throughout the North to get 
 home alive to his farm in the Western part of V^irginia, be- 
 cause he had been true, and refused to vote for secession, 
 even secretly. It was to commit the South, to fire the 
 wavering, and arouse the sectional blood, that orders were 
 sent by telegraph from Washington by the Southern con- 
 spirators who were lurking there — " Open your batteries 
 on Fort Sumter." And they fired at that glorious old 
 flag, which had carried the honor of the American name 
 round the globe, in ordier that they might take Virginia 
 
482 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 out of the Union, and compel the North to submit either 
 to a degrading compromise, or to the independence of the 
 South. -That is the history of the matter. yApplallse^^ 
 
 Now let me speak of the North. O, how I wish you 
 could have seen the North ! I have stood on the summit 
 of the noblest mountains in Switzerland: I have seen 
 whatever that country had to show me of mountain peak, 
 of more than royal mountains of clouds, of glaciers: I 
 have seen the beauties of Northern Italy: I have seen the 
 glories of the ocean: I have seen whatever Nature has to 
 show of her sublimity on land and on sea: but the grand- 
 eur of the uprising of the Northern people, when the 
 thunder of the first cannon rolled through their valleys 
 and over their hills, was something beyond all these; nor 
 do I expect, till the judgment day fills me with wondering 
 awe, to see such a sight again. There had been a secret 
 agreement with a portion of the Democratic leaders in the 
 North, that they were to side with the South, and paralyze 
 Northern resistance. But with stern unanimity the public 
 voice denounced complicity with the South as a treason 
 worthy of death. The astounding outburst of patriotic 
 feeling terrified even such men as the two Woods, and 
 they made haste to join the rolling tide. No rainbow was 
 ever so decked with color as was Broadway with flags. 
 Bunting went up in the market. \^Laughter^ High and 
 low, rich and poor, " Democratic " and " Republican," men 
 that had been for the South, and men that had been for 
 the North, found themselves in company. It is said that 
 misery makes one acquainted with strange bedfellows, but 
 patriotism makes even stranger transformations. I found 
 men that were ready to mob me yesterday for my anti- 
 slavery agitations, were ready to denounce me to-day be- 
 cause I was not anti-slavery enough. Propelled by this 
 universal feeling, the Government of the United States 
 began — to do what ? To defend the laws and the consti- 
 tution. If they fiad failed to do this, if when the Govern- 
 ment and the country was threatened by this rebellion 
 they had faltered, not Judas, not the meanest traitor that 
 has ever been execrated through all time, would have sur- 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 483 
 
 passed them in ignominy. [C/ieers.^ I have been asked, 
 would it not have been better to negotiate ? What ! with 
 cannon balls firing right into your midst ! [Hear, hear.~\ 
 The other side was using powder and balls, and you pro- 
 pose to us wad and paper ! The day for talking was gone 
 by forever. They had talked too much already. It was 
 then the day for action. [C/wers.] 
 
 Men in England, Scotland, or Ireland, ask me, Why did 
 you not consent to let them go, since the whole Southern 
 economy is so opposed to Northern ? Only on the single 
 matter of s/ave/y is there any antagonism. If that were 
 to be an increasing and perpetual evil, many men would 
 assent to separation who now do not. But we believe it 
 to be a removable evil. The nature of our institutions is 
 against it. The laws of nature are against it. The con- 
 science of the nation, the public sentiment of Christendom, 
 are against it. The real and general interest of the South 
 itself is opposed to it. Free labor in place of slave labor 
 would be the greatest boon that could be conferred upon 
 the Southern States. Men that profit by slavery are but a 
 handful; all the rest suffer from its deadly, wasting nat- 
 ure. If then a limit can be placed to its growth, and it 
 can be subjected to the unobstructed influences of natural, 
 moral, and civil laws, it will quickly begin to decay and 
 give place to a healthier system. Already the tendency had 
 in many sections been established; and, as it was this fer- 
 vent hope of a peaceful ending of slavery that disinclined 
 thousands of conscientious men in the North to meddle 
 with it, so now it is the same wish to see slavery ended 
 that leads them to refuse their consent to a separation, 
 which not only dismembers the nation, but gives a new 
 lease of life to slavery, and opens for it a dark empire full 
 of sorrow and tears and blood within, of quarrels and wars 
 without, an empire of belligerent mischiefs to all. When 
 I am asked, Why not let the South go ? I return for an 
 answer a question. Be pleased to tell me what part of the 
 British Islands you are willing to let go from under the 
 crown when its inhabitants secede and set up for independ- 
 ence ? If you say ten or fifteen States, with twelve millions 
 
484 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of inhabitants, are not to be compared to the county of 
 Kent, — I say, they are to be compared to Kent. For that 
 county bears a greater proportion to the square miies of 
 the British Islands than the rebellious States do to the 
 whole territory of the Union. But the right or wrong of 
 such rebellions are not questions in arithmetic. Numbers 
 do not change civil obligations. Secession was an appeal 
 from the ballot to the bullet. It was not a noble minority 
 defying usurpation or despotism in the assertion of funda- 
 mental rights. It was a despotism, which, when put to 
 shame by the will of a free people, expressed through the 
 ballot-box, rushed into rebellion as the means of perpetu- 
 ating slavery. Northern sentiment, and great natural 
 laws, were preparing the way for the emancipation of four 
 million of slaves: thereupon eight million whites broke 
 allegiance and withdrew from a free government in order 
 to maintain this slave system; and that is praised, in 
 Great Britain, as a heroic struggle for independence ! 
 Whose independence, the white man's or the black man's ? 
 Unreflecting men are deceived by the instances of colonics 
 in the past, such as the American colonies, breaking off 
 from the parent Government, and asserting their independ- 
 ence. A remote colony, an outlying and separate territory, 
 whose autonomy is already practically established, and 
 whose connection with the home government is not inti- 
 mate, territorial, adjacent, but only political, — is not to 
 be compared with home territory, geographically touching 
 the country along its whole line. This is not cutting off a 
 foot, or a hand. It is cutting across the body right under 
 the heart. The line of fracture proposed by the South is 
 not a stone's throw from the national capital. France 
 might consent to let Algiers go, but would she let a north 
 and south line be run touching the city of Paris on the 
 east, and separating all the territory east from her domin- 
 ions? Great Britain might suffer the Canadas to secede 
 from the crown; but would she suffer an east and west 
 line to be run along the edge of London, and all the terri- 
 tory south of it to pass into hostile hands? Yet this is 
 the very case of America. Secession accomplished will 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 485 
 
 leave Washington toppling on the edge of the Southern 
 abyss, in whose lurid future loom the elements of quarrel, 
 collision, and terrific war. In asserting the integrity of 
 our territory under the national Government, we shut that 
 door, through which threaten to come just such storms as 
 have for hundreds of years past deluged Europe with 
 blood. Better a single gigantic struggle now than a 
 hundred years of intermittent wars, ending in treacherous 
 truces, and breaking out again at every decade in fierce 
 conflict. 
 
 I shall now refer to the astonishing pretense made in 
 England that this war has nothing to do with slavery ! 
 Never has the South asserted this. The interest of slavery 
 was the very ground alleged for rebellion, and the justifi- 
 cation put in for it. Slavery having been adopted as the 
 central principle of Southern political economy, — her poli- 
 tics having for thirty years avowedly and indisputably 
 moved around that center, — all her quarrels with the 
 North having been about slavery, directly or indirectly, — 
 the issues of the last Presidential election having been 
 issues made upon this very question of slavery, — all her 
 principal statesmen having made interferences with slavery 
 wrongs at the hands of the North (wrongs in the past or 
 feared in the future), the very reason of rebellion, — the 
 whole interior history of America for seventy years hav- 
 ing been wound up on this spool, — what amazing impu- 
 dence do they manifest, who, calculating on the ignorance 
 of the British public, dare to affirm, that slavery has nothing 
 to do with this war ! Slavery has been the very alphabet 
 of the war. Every letter of its history has been taken 
 from the font of slavery. The whole black literature or 
 the war has been drawn from slavery ! To be sure there 
 is a division of opinion in America, whether the fire-eaters 
 of the South, or the Abolitionists of the North, are most 
 to blame for making slavery the occasion of the war; but 
 not a sane man on our whole continent can be found deny- 
 ing that slavery is the root of it ! You cannot point to a 
 war either in ancient or modern times, that has turned so 
 much upon fundamental principles as this one between 
 
486 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the North and the South. There is the South with her 
 gigantic system of slavery, and there is the North with 
 her freedom, her free soil, free labor, free speech, and her 
 free press; and the question is, 7uhich of these two shall 
 govern the American continents \^Applause?^ The North pre- 
 ferred to settle this question by discussion, by moral in- 
 fluence, by legal and constitutional means; but the South 
 threw down the gauntlet, refused a convention, and fired 
 on the old flag; and now her minions are whining and cry- 
 ing in England because the North will make war ! If they 
 did not like blows, why did they strike them ? I will ad- 
 mit that the South are as gallant a people as ever lived; I 
 will admit that when they shall come back to the Union, 
 as they will — [applause, and cries of ^^JVever," and ivaving of 
 handkerchiefs^ — they will come back — \a voice, '■^Never."'\ — ■ 
 Perhaps you will not, but — \laughter'\ — they will. \^'' Never." 
 A voice, ''''They are Anglo-Saxon and will never come back."^ 
 Why, if I thought that this thing was to be fought out here, I 
 would say it over and over again till daylight broke; but not 
 your breath denying or mine affirming will alter the issue. 
 The Grants, the Rosecranses, the Bankses, must do that. 
 [Hisses.'\ But when the South shall come back into the 
 Union \^^JVever"'\, we shall honor them more than ever 
 we did, for their good management and courage. [Ap- 
 plause.^ There are some things that men may pay too 
 much to find out; but if the South, by paying the blood 
 of thrice ten thousand of her sons, finds out that liberty is 
 better than slavery, she will not have paid a drop too 
 much. [Applause.'\ 
 
 The triumph of the North in this conflict will be the 
 triumph of free institutions, even if the Northern people 
 and Government could be proved to have been delinquent, 
 in every individual and in every public officer. Large as 
 is our country, independent in opinions, and hitherto di- 
 vided in sentiment about slavery, — never was any people 
 so sincere, so religiously earnest, as is now the North. 
 But, what if its people were insincere, its president a 
 trickster, his emancipation proclamation a hollow pre- 
 tense ? What if the North were as cruel to colored peo- 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 487 
 
 pie as slavery is ? All that would not change the inevita- 
 ble fact, that the triumph of the North carries with it her 
 free institutions all over the continent ! // is awar of PHji- 
 ciples and of Institutions. The victory will be a victory of 
 Principles and of Institutions. This is avowed by the 
 South as well as by us. If the North prevails, she carries 
 over the continent her pride of honest work, her free pub- 
 lic schools, her homestead law, which gives to every man 
 who will occupy it a hundred and sixty acres. of land; her 
 free press, her love and habit of free speech, her untiring 
 industry, her thrift, frugality, and morality, and above all 
 her democratic ideas of human rights, and her Old En- 
 glish notions of a commonwealth, transmitted to her from 
 Sydney, Hampden, Vane, Milton; and not least, her free 
 churches with their vast train of charities and beneficences ! 
 These results do not depend upon the will of individuals. 
 They go with the society, the civilization, the ineradicable 
 nature of those Northern democratic institutions which 
 are in conflict with Southern despotic institutions. If then 
 any one says, I cannot give my sympathy to the Northern 
 cause, because the people of the North are just as bad as 
 the people of the South, I first utterly deny the fact, but 
 next, for the sake of argument, I for a moment yield it, 
 and reply that the institutions of the North are not so bad 
 as the institutions of the South, even if the people are. 
 This is a war of institutions, not simply of races. It is 
 not necessary to look into the motives of her individual 
 citizens. Look into the spirit and structure of Northern 
 society. Look at her history and see in the vast Western 
 States what is the result of the ascendency of her ideas. 
 Look into those great natural laws which have generated 
 and controlled her civilization ! 
 
 But I return to the shameless and impudent assertion 
 that the North is not sincere in this conflict. True, the 
 North has her own ways of managing her own affairs. 
 She is guided by the genius of her own institutions, and 
 not by the whims of unsympathizing critics three thou- 
 sand miles off, ignorant of her ideas, history, institutions, 
 emergencies, and difficulties. But there has never before. 
 
488 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 since time began, been a spectacle like that in America. A 
 million men have been on foot in the army and navy, every 
 man a volunteer, the best blood of the North, her workmen, 
 her farmers and artisans, her educated sons, lawyers, doc- 
 tors, ministers of the gospel, young men of wealth and 
 refinement, side by side with the modest sons of toil, and 
 every man a volunteer! They have come, not like the Goths 
 and Huns from a wandering life or inclement skies, to seek 
 fairer skies and richer soil; but from homes of luxury, 
 from cultivated farms, from busy workshops, from literary 
 labors, from the bar, the pulpit, and the exchange, throng- 
 ing around the old national flag that had symbolized lib- 
 erty to mankind, all moved by a profound love of country, 
 and firmly, fiercely determined that the mother-land shall 
 not be divided, especially not in order that slavery may 
 scoop out for itself a den of refuge from Northern civili- 
 zation, and an empire to domineer over all the American 
 tropics ! It is this sublime patriotism which, on every 
 side, I hear stigmatized as the mad rush of national am- 
 bition ! Has then the love of country run so low in Great 
 Britain, that the rising of a nation to defend its territory, 
 its government, its flag, and all the institutions over which 
 that has waved, is a theme for cold aversion in the pulpit, 
 and sneers in the pew? Is generosity dead in England, 
 that she will not admire in her children those very quali- 
 ties which have made the children proud of the memories 
 of their common English ancestors? 
 
 But, it is asked, since the South is so utterly discordant 
 with the North, why not let her go, and have peace ? Go ! 
 But it is to STAY that they are fighting ! If their white 
 population would but go and leave to us and to the negroes 
 a peaceful territory, we might be willing; but it is a rebell- 
 ious population asking leave to organize political inde- 
 pendence within the United States for the sake of threat- 
 ening the peace of the whole future ! Our trouble is, that 
 if we give them leave to go, they will stay. \^Laitghteri\ 
 No mountains divide the North from the South — they run 
 the other way. No cross rivers divide them — they run the 
 other way. No latitudes or climates divide the one from 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 489 
 
 the other. Don't you know that God has affianced the tor- 
 rid and the temperate zones in America one to the other, 
 and that they are always running into each other's arms ? 
 The Gulf-streams of population are constantly interchang- 
 ing in such a continent as ours. There is no division line 
 that you can make, except a merely arbitrary one. There 
 is a line of twelve hundred miles, east and west, which you 
 propose in your division to make the fiery line of a slave 
 empire. Do you ask us to such a bequest of peace as that ? 
 A Southern boundary of twelve hundred miles long, charged 
 with the flames and thunder of war, ready to explode on 
 any occasion? Well, may be — may be — you could lie down 
 on a powder magazine, with a thousand tons of powder in 
 it, and a fire raging within an inch of it, but / could not ! 
 Will so much as one cause of quarrel be taken out of the 
 way ? Will there be anything that will stop slaves run- 
 ning across, and the South being irritated because we har- 
 bor them ? Of course we should harbor them, as you do 
 in Canada. No law could stop it then. \Chccrs?[ The 
 only thing that ever gave to the Fugitive Slave Law a 
 shadow, a vestige of power, was that for the sake of peace 
 many in the North consented, somehow or other, to get 
 rid of their consciences. I never did. \^Applaitsc^ I hated 
 the law. I trod it underfoot; and I declared, to the face 
 of the magistrates and the government, that I would break 
 it in every way I could. And I did. \Cheersl\ Now say, 
 if it were so, when there were motives of patriotism to 
 maintain such an obnoxious law, what would it be when 
 the sections were rent asunder? If separated, would the 
 contrast of free labor and slave-labor be less exciting? 
 Would our press be less bold in its proclamation of doc- 
 trines of liberty? Would not parties in secret league with 
 Southern parties torment the border States with new di- 
 visions, and make impossible that peace by which we are 
 to be bribed to cease this war? Cruel as the war is, yet to 
 stop it until slavery has its death-wound, would be even 
 more cruel ! When the surgeon has cut half the cancer 
 out, is that man the friend of the patient, who, seeing the 
 blood and hearing the groans, should persuade him to 
 
49° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 leave the operation half performed, and bind up the can- 
 cered limb ? But, you ask, How long shall we carry vio- 
 lence into the South? I will ask you a question in reply. 
 If in the purlieus of vice in old Glasgow, there should be 
 a ward of which a confederation of burglars and thieves 
 had taken possession, how long would you invade it with 
 your police ? \Laug/iter?^ Would Glasgow give up to them 
 or would they have to give up to Glasgow? 
 
 We may now understand what Southern rebellion means. 
 There seems a need of information on this point in high 
 places. Earl Russell, in replying to Mr. Sumner's argu- 
 ments upon rebellion, reproached him with inconsistency 
 in such a horror of rebellion, America being the child of 
 two rebellions ! Were they rebellious against liberty to 
 more despotism; or against oppression to more freedom? 
 The English rebellion and the American rebellion were 
 both toward greater freedom of all classes of men. This 
 rebellion is for the sake of holding four million slaves with 
 greater security, and less annoyance from free institutions! 
 And now observe ! The South, expressly in order to hold 
 fast her four million slaves, makes war against what the 
 Confederate vice-president, Mr. Stephens, in dissuading 
 secession, pronounced to be "the best, freest, justest, most 
 lenient Government that the sun ever shone upon." He 
 declared that the South had no grievances; and since 
 secession, he has glorified the new Confederation, as estab- 
 lished with " slavery as its corner-stone." On this is writ- 
 ten in lurid letters of infernal light, " The only foundation 
 of our liberty is to own the laborer and to oppress the 
 slave." W^hen such a body of insurgents comes to ask you 
 to recognize its independence, do you think it just and 
 humane — is it according to the instinct — is it according to 
 the conscience of Great Britain to say " That nation ought 
 to have its independence " ? 
 
 And now let me say one word more; for I am embold- 
 ened by your courtesy. You now see what it means to 
 give your aid and succor to the South. [C/ieers.~\ Why 
 were you in favor of giving the Hungarians their liberty ? 
 Because they said, The yoke of Austria is heavier than we 
 
SPEECH IN GLASGOW. 491 
 
 can bear; and you sympathized with them because it was a 
 step toward larger liberty. When Greece complained, why 
 did the nations interfere ? It was to give her more liberty, 
 not less. When Italy asked help, why did France — then 
 guided by her better genius — give her armies to beat back 
 the Austrians and give Italy her sway in the Northern part 
 of that beautiful peninsula ? It was because Italy sighed 
 for the sweets of liberty — that which is the right of every 
 people on the globe. Why to-day does every man wish 
 that the Czar may be baffled, that he may be sent back to 
 the frozen fastnesses of the North, and that Poland may 
 stand erect in her nationality? [C//^67x] Why? It is 
 because Poland is under a despotism and is struggling for 
 independence and liberty. \_Applause^ You know now 
 what I think about sending clothes, arms, powder, ships, 
 and all the muniments of war, or supplies of any kind, to 
 the South. I do not stop to discuss whether it is legal or 
 illegal. I do not discuss this as a question of technical law 
 at all. I lift it up and put it on the ground of moral law. 
 Between two parties, one of whom is laboring for the integ- 
 rity and sanctity of labor, and the other is for robbery, the 
 degradation of labor, and the integrity of slavery, — I say 
 that the man that gives his aid to the Slave Power is allied 
 to it, and is making his money by building up tyranny. 
 \Hear^ and cheers?^ Every man that strikes a blow on the 
 iron that is put into those ships for the South, is striking a 
 blow and forging a manacle for the hand of the slave. 
 \Applause and hisses^ Every free laborer in old Glasgow 
 who is laboring to rear up iron ships for the South, is labor- 
 ing to establish on sea and on land the doctrine that cap- 
 ital has a right to own "labor." \Cheers and hisses.'] You 
 are false to your own principles, to your own interests, to 
 mankind, and to the great working classes. You have no 
 right, for the sake of poor pitiful pelf, to go against the 
 great toiling multitudes of Europe that are lifting up their 
 hands for more education and more liberty. You have no 
 right to betray that cause by allying yourselves with des- 
 pots who, in holding slaves, establish the doctrine that 
 might makes right. \_Applausc.'] It is not in anger that I 
 
492 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 speak, it is not in pettishness or in vehemence. It is the 
 Day-of-Judgment view of the matter. O ! I would rather 
 than all the crowns and thrones of earth to have the sweet, 
 assuring smile of Jesus when he says, " Come, welcome; 
 inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, ye did it unto 
 me." And I would rather face the thunderbolt than stand 
 before him when he says on that terrible day, " Inasmuch 
 as ye did it not unto the least of these my little ones, ye 
 did it not unto me." You strike God in the face when you 
 work for slaveholders. Your money so got and quickly 
 earned will be badly kept, and you will be poor before you 
 can raise your children, and dying you will leave a memory 
 that will rise against you at the day of judgment. By the 
 solemnity of that judgment — by the sanctity of conscience 
 — by the love you bear to humanity — by your old heredi- 
 tary love of liberty; — in the name of God and of mankind, 
 I charge you to come out from among them, to have noth- 
 ing to do with the unclean and filthy lucre made by pander- 
 ing to slavery. 
 
 One word more. I protest, in the name of all that there 
 is in kindred blood, against Great Britain putting herself 
 in such a position that she cannot be in cordial and ever- 
 during alliance with the free republic in America. \^Ap- 
 plaiisc.\ I declare to you that it is a monstrous severance 
 of your only natural alliance, for Great Britain to turn 
 aside from free America and seek close relations with des- 
 potism ! You owe youselves to us, and we owe ourselves 
 to you. You ought to live at peace with France — you 
 ought to study their reciprocal interest and they yours. 
 But after all, while you should be in Christian peace with 
 France, I tell you it is unnatural for England to be in 
 closer alliance with France than America. [^Hear, and dis- 
 approbation.'] Nevertheless, like it or dislike it, so it is ! On 
 the other hand, it is truly unnatural for America, when she 
 would go into a foreign alliance to seek her alliance with 
 Russia. \^Hear, and applause.'] O, why don't you hiss now ? 
 [Laughter.] I declare that America should study the pros- 
 perity of Russia, as of every nation of the globe; but 
 when she gives her heart and hand in alliance, she owes it 
 
SPEECH IX GLASGOW. 493 
 
 to Great Britain. \^Applaiisc?^ So ! you want to hear that ! 
 And when Great Britain turns to find one that she can lean 
 on — can go to with all her heart — one of her own — we are 
 her eldest-born, strongest — to us she must come. \_Ap- 
 plaiise.'\ A war between England and America would be 
 like murder in the family — unnatural — monstrous beyond 
 words to depict. Now, then, if that be so, it is our duty to 
 avoid all cause and occasion of offense. \^Hear, /icar.~\ But 
 remember — remember— remember — icc are carrying out our 
 dead. Our sons, our brothers' sons, our sisters' children — 
 they are in this great war of liberty and of principle. We 
 are taxing all our energies. You are at peace; and if in the 
 flounderings of this gigantic conflict we accidentally tread 
 on your feet, are we or you to have most patience ? When 
 the widowed mother sits watching the shortening breath 
 of her child, hovering between life and death, — it may be 
 that the rent has not been paid, — it may be that her fuel 
 has not yet been settled for; but what would you think of 
 that landlord or of that provision dealer who would send 
 a warrant of distress when the funeral was going out of 
 the door, and arrest her when she was walking to the grave 
 with her first-born son. Even a brute would say, "Wait — 
 wait ! " Yet it was in the hour of our mortal anguish, that 
 when, by an unauthorized act, one of the captains of our 
 navy seized a British ship for which our Government in- 
 stantly oft'ered all reparation, that a British army was 
 hurried to Canada. I do not undertake to teach the law 
 that governs the question; but this I do undertake to say, 
 and I will carry every generous man in this audience with 
 me, when I affirm that if between America, bent double 
 with the anguish of this bloody war, and Great Britain, 
 who sits at peace, there is to be forbearance on either side, 
 it should be on your side. YAppIause.l 
 
 Here then I rest my cause to-night, asking every one of 
 you to unite with me in praying that God, the arbiter of 
 the fates of nations, would so guide the issue that those who 
 struggle for liberty shall be victorious; and that God, who 
 sways the hearts of nations, may so sway the hearts of 
 Great Britain and America that not to the remotest period 
 
494 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of time shall there be dissension, but golden concord be- 
 tween them, for their own sakes and for the good of the 
 whole world. \Great cheering^ 
 
 Several questions having been put and answered, the Rev. Dr. 
 George Jefifery moved and Councilor Alexander seconded a reso- 
 lution expressive of approbation of Mr. Beecher's able and un- 
 compromising advocacy of the rights of the slave to freedom, and 
 thanking him for the very admirable and eloquent address de- 
 livered that evening, which was carried amid great and prolonged 
 cheering. 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 October 14, 1863. 
 
 Long before the hour fixed for the meeting, all the entrances 
 to the hall were besieged by large masses of people ; and the rush 
 for places was so great that a few minutes after the opening of the 
 doors every available seat was taken possession of. Crowds of 
 people still continued to pour into the hall, and the passages be- 
 came crammed. As the time arrived for the entrance of the 
 chairman and Mr. Beecher, it became a serious question how 
 they were to gain admission to the hall. After some time, how- 
 ever, they managed to reach the platform, and were received with 
 loud and prolonged cheers. Some of the gentlemen for whom 
 seats had been reserved on the platform also gained admission — 
 some by the passage, and others by climbing to the Moderator's 
 gallery and walking along the ledge. 
 
 The Chairman, Mr. Duncan M'Laren, said: "Ladies and Gen- 
 tlemen : May I entreat as a great favor that the utmost quietness 
 be preserved, because I have often observed that it is those in a 
 large meeting who, with the best intentions in the world, cry 
 ' Peace,' that practically make all the noise. Since I have been 
 made Chairman, every one, I have no doubt, will be quite dis- 
 posed to give up a little of his personal liberty to my dictation to- 
 night. You know what the meeting is about. The advertisement 
 tells you honestly what the object is in calling you together, and 
 therefore there is no person here present who has any right to 
 take offense at anything that is said within the four quarters of the 
 hall. The objects of the meeting are twofold — the first is to hear 
 the Rev. Mr. Henry Ward Beecher. That means that we are to 
 hear him express his own opinions; and whether or no these opin- 
 ions may be in unison with your opinions or with mine, that is a 
 matter of which the meeting has, I apprehend, no right to com- 
 plain. We are greatly indebted to him, I think, for responding 
 to the call. He has been toiling night and day, I may say, in 
 Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, and other towns ; and he has 
 come here on a very short notice, and your anxiety to hear him 
 
496 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 has been such that you almost excluded him I feel 
 
 that in this question, which has been so keenly contested in this 
 country, there may be great difference of opinion on the part of 
 the persons who are here present. I entreat that whatever differ- 
 ence of opinion may exist, every one may be heard fairly and 
 courteously, and if the resolution which is proposed to the meet- 
 ing be disapproved of, and any gentleman comes forward to the 
 platform to move an amendment, I will do as much to give him a 
 hearing for his speech, if within the scope of the resolution, as I 
 would do to any other gentleman. [Loud c/n'c-rs.] I am most 
 anxious that everything should be done in such a straightforward 
 manner as will commend itself to all lovers of fair play. [Ckccrs.] 
 I may just state, in addition, this one fact, that from other cir- 
 cumstances we have been honored in this city with the presence 
 of many distinguished foreigners, and among these three or four 
 gentlemen who were to have gone by the six o'clock train to- 
 night in order to get to Paris to-morrow morning. They kindly 
 agreed to testify their detestation of slavery by attending at this 
 meeting, in order to say a few words in unison with what I have 
 no doubt will be said by Mr. Beecher. These are M. Garnier 
 Pages, M. Desmarest, and M. Henri Martyn, the distinguished 
 historian of France." [App/aitse.] Mr. M'Laren concluded by 
 introducing Mr. Beecher to the meeting. 
 
 Mr. Beecher, on coming forward, was received with loud and 
 prolonged cheers and some hissing. When silence had been re- 
 stored, he spoke : — 
 
 I should regret to have my associations of this, the most 
 picturesque city of the world, disturbed as they would be 
 if I thought that you needed so much preparatory plead- 
 ing to persuade you to hear me. \^I^oud applause and laugh- 
 ter^ I have lived in a very stormy time in my own land, 
 where men who did not believe in my sentiments had 
 pecuniary and political interests in disturbing meetings, 
 but neither in East, nor West, nor in all the Middle States, 
 have I thought it necessary to ask an audience to hear me 
 — not even in America, the country, as we have lately been 
 informed, of mobs ! \^Loud cheers and laughter l\ I am not 
 to-night a partisan seeking for proselytes. I have no other 
 interests to serve but those which are common to all good 
 men — the interests of truth, of justice, of liberty, and of 
 good morals. If I differ with you in the way in which they 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 497 
 
 are to be promoted, what then ? Cannot you hear opin- 
 ions that you do not believe ? I am so firm in my convic- 
 tions that I can bear to hear their opposites. \Chcers^^ It 
 is not then so much to persuade you to my views, though 
 I should be glad to do that, as it is to give a full and frank 
 expression of them, supposing that there are many here 
 that would be interested in a statement of affairs, as they 
 are now proceeding on the continent of America, — if for 
 no other reason, at least for the philosophic interest there 
 must be in these passing phenomena. It may be to you 
 but a simple question of national psychology; it may be to 
 some of you a matter of sympathy; but whether it be phil- 
 osophic interest or whether it be humanitarian and moral 
 interest, it shall be my business to speak, for the most 
 part, of what I know, and so to speak that you shall be in 
 no doubt whatever of my convictions. \_Loud cheers and 
 laughter^ 
 
 America has been going through an extraordinary revo- 
 lution, unconsciously and interiorly, which began when 
 her present national form was assumed, which is now de- 
 veloping itself, but which existed and was in progress just 
 as much before as now that it is seen. The earlier 
 problem was how to establish an absolute iiidependeuce in 
 States from all external control. Next (and this is the 
 peculiar interest of the period which formed our Constitu- 
 tion), how, out of independent States to form a Nation, 
 yet without destroying local sovereignty. The period o^ 
 germination and growth of the Union of the separate col- 
 onies is threefold. The first colonies that planted the 
 American shores were separate, and jealous of their sep- 
 araterjess. Sent from the mother country with a strong- 
 hatred of oppression, they went with an intense individ- 
 ualism, and sought to set up, each party, its little colony, 
 where they would be free to follow their convictions and 
 the dictates of conscience. [Loi/d applause.'\ And nothing 
 is more characteristic of the earlier politics of the colonists 
 than their jealous isolation, for fear that even contact 
 would contaminate. Two or three efforts were made 
 
 within the first twenty or twenty-five years of their exist- 
 32 
 
498 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ence to bring them together in Union. Delegates met and 
 parted, met again and parted. Indian wars drove them 
 together. It became by external dangers necessary that 
 there should be a Union of those early colonies, but there 
 was a fear that in going into Union they would lose some- 
 thing of the sovereignty that belonged to them as colo- 
 nial States. The first real Union that took place was 
 that of 1643, between -the colonists of what is now New 
 England. It is a little remarkable, I may say in passing, 
 that the fugitive slave clause of our Constitution is 
 founded almost in so many words on the first Articles of 
 Federation that were made in 1643 between these little 
 New England colonies. This earliest Union was the type 
 and model of later ones. With various alternations of 
 fortune the country grew, but maintained a kind of irregu- 
 lar Union as exigencies pressed upon it. It was not until 
 1777, a year and a half after the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, and while the colonies were at full war with the 
 mother country, that what is called the Articles of Fed- 
 eration were adopted; and this was the second period of 
 Union, when the Southern States, the Middle States, and 
 the States of New England came together in Federation, 
 which was declared, in the preamble, to be perpetual. 
 \Cheei's?^ But about ten years after these articles were 
 framed, they were found to be utterly inadequate for the 
 exigencies of the times; and in 1787 the present Constitu- 
 tion of the United States was adopted by convention, and, 
 at different dates thereafter, ratified by the thirteen States 
 that first constituted the present Union. 
 
 Now, during all this period of the first Union of 1643, 
 the second Union of 1777, and the third or final Union — 
 the present one — of 1787, there is one thing to be re- 
 marked, and that is, the jealousy of State independence. 
 The States were feeling their way towards nationality; 
 and the rule and measure of the wisdom of every step was, 
 how to maintain individuality with nationality. That was 
 their problem. It never had been found out for them. 
 They had some analogies, but these were only analogies. 
 In that wilderness, for the first time, the problem was 
 
SPEECH IX EDINBURGH. 499 
 
 about to be solved — How can there be absolute independ- 
 ence in local government with perfect nationality ? Sla- 
 very was only incidental during all this long period; but in 
 reading from contemporaneous documents and debates 
 that took place in conventions both for Confederation and 
 for final Union, it is remarkable that the difficulties which 
 arose were difficulties of representation, difficulties of tax- 
 ation, difficulties of tariff and revenue; and, so far as we 
 can find, neither North nor South anticipated in the 
 future any of those dangers which have overspread the 
 continent from the black cloud of slavery. The dangers 
 they most feared, they have suffered least from: the 
 dangers they have suffered most from, they did not at all 
 anticipate, or but little. But the Union was formed. The 
 Constitution, defining the national power conferred by the 
 States on the Federal Government, was adopted. Thence- 
 forward, for fifty years and more, the country developed 
 itself in wealth and political power, until, from a con- 
 dition of feeble States exhausted by war, it rose to the 
 dignity of a first class nation. 
 
 We now turn our attention to the gradual and uncon- 
 scious development within this American nation of two 
 systems of policy, antagonistic and irreconcilable. Let us 
 look at the South first. She was undergoing unconscious 
 transmutation. She did not know it. She did not know 
 what ailed her. She felt ill — \Jai(ghtc7-\ — put her hand on 
 her heart sometimes; on her head sometimes; but had no 
 doctor to tell her what it was, until too late; and when 
 told she would not believe. \_Laug/ifer and cheers^ For it 
 is a fact, that when the colonies combined in their final 
 Union, slavery was waning not only in the Middle and 
 Northern States but also in the South itself. When there- 
 fore they went into this Union, slavery was perishing, 
 partly by climate in the North, and still more by the con- 
 victions of the people, and by the unproductive character 
 of farm-slavery. Slavery is profitable only by breeding 
 and on plantations. In the North it never was very 
 profitable, though somewhat convenient as a household 
 matter; for if you can get a good chambermaid and a 
 
500 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 good cook, it is worth while to keep them. \^Laitghter?^ 
 There was for the most part in New England only the 
 shadow of slavery — household slavery. The first period of 
 the South was the wane and weakness of slavery. Never- 
 theless it existed. The second period is the increase of 
 slavery, and its apologetic defense; for, with the invention 
 of the cotton gin, an extraordinary demand for cotton 
 sprang up. Slave labor began to be more and more in 
 demand, and the price of slaves rose; but still there was a 
 number of years within my remembrance — and I am not a 
 patriarch — in which men said, " Slavery is among us; we 
 don't know how to get rid of it; we accept it as an evil; 
 we wish we had a better system, but it is a misfortune and 
 not a fault." I remember the apologetic period. Then 
 came the next period, one of revolution of opinion as to 
 the inferior races of the South, a total and entire change 
 in the doctrines of the South on the question of human 
 rights and human nature. It dates from Mr. Calhoun. 
 From the hour that Mr. Calhoun began to teach, there 
 commenced a silent process of moral deterioration. I call 
 it a retrogression in morals — an apostasy. Men no longer 
 apologized for slavery: they learned to defend it; to teach 
 that it was the normal condition of an inferior race; that 
 the seeds and history of it were in the Word of God; that 
 the only condition in which a republic can be prosperous, 
 is, where an aristocracy owns the labor of the community. 
 That was the doctrine of the South, and with that doctrine 
 there began to be ambitious designs, not only for the 
 maintenance but the propagation of slavery. This era 
 of propagation and aggression constitutes the fourth and 
 last period of the revolution of the South. They had 
 passed through a whole cycle of changes. These changes 
 followed certain great laws. No sooner was the new 
 philosophy set on foot, than the South recognized its 
 legitimacy and accepted it with all its inferences and 
 inevitable tendencies. They gave up wavering and mis- 
 givings, adopted the institution — praised it, loved it, de- 
 fended it, sought to maintain it, burned to spread it. 
 During the last fifteen years, I believe you cannot find a 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 501 
 
 voice, printed or uttered, in the cotton States of the South, 
 which deplored slavery. All believed in and praised it, 
 and found authority for it in God's Word. Politicians 
 admired it, merchants appreciated it, the whole South 
 sang paeans to the new found truth, that man was born to 
 be owned by man. \^Loud cheers.^ This change of doc- 
 trine made it certain that the South would be annoyed 
 and irritated by a Constitution which, with all its faults, 
 still carried the God-given principle of human rights, 
 which were not to be taken by man except in punishment 
 for crime. That Constitution, and the policy which went 
 with it at first, began to gnaw at, and irritate, and fret the 
 South, after they had adopted slavery as a doctrine. How 
 could they live in peace under a Constitution that all the 
 time declared the manhood of men and the dignity of 
 freedom ? It became necessary that they should do one 
 of two things: either give up slavery, or appropriate the 
 government to themselves, and in some way or other 
 drain out of the Constitution this venom of liberty, and 
 infuse a policy more in harmony with Southern ideas. 
 They took the latter course. They contrived to possess 
 themselves of the government; and for the last fifty years 
 the policy of the country has been Southern. Was a 
 tariff wanted ? It was made a Southern tariff. Was a 
 tariff oppressive ? The Southerners overthrew it. Was a 
 tariff wanted again ? The Southern policy declared it to 
 be necessary, and it was passed. Was more territory 
 wanted ? The South must have its way. Was any man 
 to obtain a place ? If the South opposed it, he had no 
 chance whatever. For fifty years most of the men who 
 became judges, who sat in the Presidential chair and in 
 the Courts, had to base their opinions on slavery or on 
 Southern views. All the filibustering, all the intimidations 
 of foreign Powers, all the so-called snubbing of European 
 Powers, happened during the period in which the policy 
 of the country was controlled by the South. May I be 
 permitted to look on it as a mark of victorious Christianity, 
 that England now loves her worst enemy, and is sitting 
 with arms of sympathy round her neck ? \_Loud cheers.'\ 
 
502 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 There was at the same time a revolution going on in 
 the North unconsciously. The first period of revolution 
 begun in the North was what might be called the founda- 
 tion-laying. Material wealth began to be amassed, manu- 
 facturing and farm-labor flourished, schools were multi- 
 plied, colleges were rising. It was a period in which the 
 North was developing and consolidating its power. Then, 
 for many years — and it is a count of about thirty years 
 ago — the North began to be assailed by bold prophets of 
 the truth, and a crusade was commenced against slavery. 
 [C/ieers.^ I was then a boy, but old enough to be a spec- 
 tator and a sj^mpathizer. Those men, for the most part, 
 have gone down into their graves — their names not yet 
 honored as they will be; for the day is coming, when 
 round their names, and the names of all who have been 
 faithful to the sacred cause of liberty, there will be hung 
 garlands, and they shall be clothed with honor; but around 
 the brows of those who have betrayed their countr}'^ to 
 despotism shall shine lurid light in flame that shall con- 
 sume. \^C/ieers.] The man who was an abolitionist when 
 I was twenty-one years of age might bid farewell to any 
 hopes of political advancement; and the merchant who 
 held these opinions was soon robbed of customers. As 
 far as I remember, there was nothing in the world that so 
 ruined a man — not crime itself was so fatal to a man's 
 standing in the country — as to be known to hold abolition 
 sentiments. The churches sought to keep the question of 
 slavery out; so did the schools and colleges; so did synods 
 and conventions; but still the cause of abolition pro- 
 gressed; and still, as is always the case with everything 
 that is right, though the men who held those sentiments 
 were scoffed at, though such men as Garrison were dragged 
 through the streets with halters round their necks, yet, the 
 more it was spoken of and canvassed, the more the cause 
 prospered, because it was true. iC/ieers.^ The insanity at 
 last abated; for the command came from on high, sajnng 
 to the evil spirit concerning the North: "I command thee 
 to come out of her." Then the nation wallowed on the 
 ground, and foamed at the mouth; but the unclean spirit 
 
SPEECH IN EDIXBURGH. 503 
 
 passed out, and she became clean. The more some people 
 wanted to keep down this subject and keep out the air, the 
 more God forced the subject on their minds. If you let a 
 steam engine, when it is full of steam, hiss at the rivets, 
 with the scape valve open, it cannot explode; but if the 
 steam is shut up, and the valve closed, it will be still for a 
 moment, and then, like thunder, it will go off ! So it was 
 in regard to this subject. Those who discussed it, became 
 convinced of its truth; but those who would not permit it 
 to be spoken of, and shut it up, brought on explosion. 
 \^Laiighter and c/ieers.^ 
 
 About this time the South began to take such steps as 
 more and more brought the North into a rightful frame of 
 mind. The first conflict that arose between the South and 
 the North was in regard to the admission of the new State 
 of Missouri in 1818. \^Hear.'\ The North contended that 
 there should be no more slave States — the doctrine that is 
 now reviving as the doctrine of the Republican Party. It 
 was the original doctrine and conviction that slavery might 
 be tolerated where it was, but that no more States should be 
 admitted. When Missouri knocked at the door, there were 
 those who opposed its admission as a slave State, but by 
 Southern management and intimidation Henry Clay per- 
 suaded the North to a compromise. Now when there is 
 no difference in principle, but only conflicting interests, a 
 compromise is honorable and right, but when antagonistic 
 principles are in question, I believe compromises to be 
 bargains with the devil, — who is never cheated. \^Loud 
 laughter and cheers^ The North gave up her principles and 
 admitted the Missouri State with slavery as an exception, 
 and by the compromise obtained a line of latitude that 
 should limit slavery. Above the latitude of 36° 30'' all 
 States, except Missouri, were to be free; south of that line 
 there might be slave States. By this concession, however, 
 they gave up the whole principle, as such compromises 
 always must. 
 
 Then came the next conflict. The policy of the North 
 and the policy of the South again jarred against each 
 other. The North was striving, according to the spirit 
 
504 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of the Constitution and the expressed convictions of the 
 fathers of the country, the founders of the Union, to carry 
 out the doctrines of liberty. The South became ambi- 
 tious, and having possession of the Government, aimed to 
 enforce their ideas of slavery upon the whole continent. 
 Hence, admission of Texas and the war with Mexico for 
 the sake of territory. Next were seized the regions of 
 New Mexico and California. These were added to the 
 Union not by the North, but by the South. Then came 
 the compromise measures of 1850, and the Fugitive Slave 
 Bill, which the North accepted finally, as children take med- 
 icine, when the silver spoon is forced into their teeth, and 
 they are almost choked to make them take it. \^Laughter?^ 
 Then came the only abolition that I ever heard the South 
 were in favor of — the abolition of the Missouri Compro- 
 mise. What that was, I have just been telling you. But 
 now the South suddenly found out that the compromise 
 was unconstitutional and void. They claimed to abolish 
 the compromise and have slave States north of the line of 
 36° 30^ The North, although incensed and indignant, 
 yet from love for the Union of the States, gave up their 
 own convictions and their proper line of duty. After the 
 abolition of the Missouri Compromise it was declared by 
 the South that the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty should 
 be established — a doctrine to the effect that when the ad- 
 mission of a State was determined on, it should come in a 
 slave State or a free State, according to the vote of its 
 population. The South carried this measure, and the mo- 
 ment they carried it they attempted to get Kansas intro- 
 duced as a slave State; but the Northern men were too 
 quick for them \Jaiightcr and applausc\ for they sent such a 
 superabundant population into Kansas, that they soon 
 lifted the white banner without a black star upon it. 
 \Chee)■s^^ The instant this was done, the South turned 
 round and said, " Popular sovereignty is not constitu- 
 tional or expedient. \^LaiigJitcr and applause^ The States 
 applying for admission shall not have the liberty of saying 
 whether they will come in free or slave." This was the 
 work of Mr. Slidell \Jiisses\ now Minister for the Southern 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 505 
 
 States in Paris. \^Hisscs and slight applause.^ I wish he were 
 in this hall to hear you hissing. [C//dWx] 
 
 By this time the North had become thoroughly roused 
 and indignant. They had at length opened their eyes, and 
 reluctantly began to see that the South meant nothing short 
 of forcing slavery over the whole continent. The North 
 thereupon grew firmer, and in 1856 nominated Fremont, 
 for the purpose of showing that they were no longer to 
 be browbeaten by slavery. He failed of election; but 
 failed in the noblest way, by the cheats of his opponents. 
 The State that gave us Buchanan to be a burden for four 
 3'^ears, was the State in which the cheating took place. 
 Then came the last act of this revolution of feeling in the 
 North — the election of Mr. Lincoln. \^Loud and protracted 
 ihecring.'] The principle that was laid down as a distinct 
 feature of the platform on which Mr. Lincoln was elected, 
 was, that there should be no more slave Territories — in 
 other words, the breathing hole was stopped up, and 
 slavery had no air; it was only a question of time how 
 long it would last before it would be suffocated. \^Laug/i- 
 ter and cheers^ The North respected the doctrine of State 
 rights, when Georgia said that slavery was municipal and 
 local, and that the government of the United States had 
 no right to touch slavery in Georgia. The North accepted 
 the doctrine. It was true, that they could not touch slavery 
 in the States; yet the North had a right, in connection with 
 the Middle States, to say, " Although in certain States 
 slavery exists beyond our political reach, yet the territory 
 that is free and is 7iot beyond Federal jurisdiction shall not 
 be touched by the foot of a slave. \Loud cheers?^ That was 
 the spark which exploded, and this is the war that followed; 
 for the South knew perfectly well, — and there is no place 
 where logic is better understood than in the South, — that 
 if limits were set to the Slave States, if the territory could 
 be no further extended, the prosperity of the slaveholders 
 was at an end. They determined that that doctrine should 
 be broken up, and they went into the Secession war for 
 that very purpose. 
 
 All these were conflicts between the North and the 
 
5o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 South, about the growth of slavery, and in all but one of 
 them the South had its own way. \^Hear?^ The States had 
 been charging each other with guilt, and with infidelity to 
 obligations, but it was now collision. It was the attraction 
 of great underlying influences that moved both South and 
 North. The principle which had been operating in the 
 North for many years was the principle of free labor, while 
 the principle which had impregnated all Southern minds 
 was the principle of slave labor. The result is this: the 
 South is exhausting the whole life of the States in defense 
 of slavery. This is historical now. The great cause of 
 the conflict — the center of necessity, round which the 
 cannons roar and the bayonets gleam, — is the preservation 
 of slavery. Beyond slavery, there is no difference between 
 North and South. Their interests are identical, with the 
 exception of work. The North is for free work — the South 
 is for slave work; and the whole war in the South, though 
 it is for independence, is, nevertheless, expressly in order 
 to have slavery more firmly established by that independ- 
 ence. \^Hcar, hear; c/icers, and some hissesi\ On the other 
 hand, the whole policy of the North, now at last regen- 
 erated, and made consistent with their documents, their 
 history, and real belief — the whole policy of the North, as 
 well as the whole work of the North, rejoicing at length to 
 be set free from antagonism, bribes, and intimidations, — is 
 for liberty; liberty for every man in the world. \Cheers?^ 
 I wish you to consider for a moment what is the result 
 of this state of things in the North. There never was so 
 united a purpose as there is to-day to crush the rebellion. 
 We have had nearly three years of turmoil and disturb- 
 ance, which not only has not taken away that determina- 
 tion, but has increased it. In the beginning of this conflict 
 we were peculiarly English. What do I mean by that ? 
 Well, if I have observed aright, England goes into wars to 
 make blunders at first, always — \Jiisscs and c/icers] — but you 
 must be aware, that in the end it is not England that has 
 blundered. I have noticed, in the course of my study of 
 the Penisular war under Wellington, that the first whole 
 year was a series of blunders and fraudulent squandering 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 507 
 
 \cheers\\ but, if I recollect aright, at last the same Well- 
 ington drove his foes out of the Peninsula. \Cheers^ And 
 so it is with us. We have so much English blood in our 
 veins, that when we began this war we blundered and 
 blundered; but we are doing better and better every step. 
 \^Loud c/iccriiig.'\ There has been time enough for mere 
 enthusiasm to have cooled in the North. That has passed 
 away. Enthusiasm is like the vapor, just enough con- 
 densed to let the sun striking upon it fill it with gorgeous 
 colors; but when still further it condenses, and falls in 
 drops for the thirsty man to drink, or carries the river to 
 the cataract, then it has become useful and substantial. 
 Enthusiasm, at first, is that airy cloud; but when it has be- 
 come a principle in the hearts of the people, then it becomes 
 substantial; and such is the case in the North. Enthu- 
 siasm has changed its form, and is now become substantial 
 moral principle. [^C/ieers.'\ The loss of our sons in battle 
 has been grievous; but we accept it as God's will, and we 
 are determined that every martyred son shall have a repre- 
 sentative in one hundred liberated slaves. \^Loud c/ieers.~\ 
 Never was such a unity of Christian men in the North as 
 there is to-day. I have in my possession some two hun- 
 dred resolutions, passed by different Christian churches 
 and denominations in America, saving the Roman Catho- 
 lics. In every form of language they express themselves 
 alike resolute for the maintenance of the government and 
 the crushing of the rebellion. I may say that there is no 
 seam in the garment that binds us together. We are one. 
 \_C/icers.'\ The Peace-Democrats have tried three times to 
 put a stop to the war, and every time they tried it, it be- 
 came evident that the only platform in America, on which 
 this subject can be discussed, is this — that the war must 
 be carried on till the Union is re-established. \_Loud chee?-s.^ 
 The Americans are a practical people. They know their 
 own business. \Hcar, hear.'] No one so well able as they 
 are, to judge what they want; and when they have delib- 
 erately arrived at a firm resolve, they surely are to be re- 
 garded, at least with respect, if not with sympathy. 
 \_C/ieers.~\ This much we expect, that when a people twenty 
 
5o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 millions strong, intelligent, moral, and, as you know, thrifty 
 — when people of this sort, after three years of delibera- 
 tion, are fixed on one purpose, they at least demand cour- 
 tesy, if not respect. \Loud cJieers^ 
 
 We are told that we are breaking our constitutional ob- 
 ligations by the measures we have taken; but we were 
 forced to adopt those measures, and the reasons are abun- 
 dant and plain. How ? When a fire first breaks out, the 
 engineer goes down and plays upon the fire, thinking that 
 he will be able to save the furniture and the neighboring 
 houses; but, as the devouring element increases, and 
 threatens destruction to all around, the engineer says, 
 " Bring me powder," and he blows up the neighboring 
 house, then the next, and then the next, until a sufficient 
 gap is made to prevent the spread of the conflagration. 
 \Cheers^ When he began, he did not think that he would 
 require to sacrifice so much: and so it is with us. When 
 this rebellion commenced, we thought to put it down, and 
 to maintain, at the same time, the rights of the States; but, 
 when the war assumed such proportions as seemed to 
 threaten the destruction of the nation and its constitutional 
 Government, it became a question whether the President 
 should put in practice the powers he possessed of saving 
 the Union at all hazards. \Cheers^^ Long he paused, I know; 
 for I assisted in bombarding him. \^Laughtcr and chcers.\ 
 For months, and months, and months, I both pleaded 
 and inveighed against the dilatory policy at Washington, 
 and at last the President issued a proclamation, declaring 
 that the rebellion had assumed such proportions, that, for 
 the sake of saving the country, he intended to exercise the 
 power he possessed, and to confiscate the total " property " 
 of the South, the whole of the slaves being included, 
 for the sake of saving the Union and the Constitution. 
 \Checrs^ 
 
 But some men speak to me, and say, " O, I am tired of 
 waiting; when is this little quarrel of yours on the other side 
 to be settled ? " {^Laughter ^ A little quarrel — \laughtcr\ 
 — with 1,200 miles of a base line — a little quarrel that com- 
 menced only seventy-five years ago ! You ask how ? The 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 509 
 
 smouldering fire that by some means or other has caught 
 a rafter between the ceilings is not known of at first; but 
 after two or three days it bursts out, and the whole build- 
 ing is consumed. The fire did not begin when it became 
 visible to the eyes; it began some time before. In the 
 same way this war did not begin three years ago. It be- 
 gan when this Constitution was adopted — a Constitution 
 for liberty with a policy for slavery — \j:heers\ — and it is as 
 impossible to tell when it will come to a termination as it is 
 to foretell the conclusion of any great matter affecting the 
 welfare of thirty millions of people, contingent partly on 
 great laws and partly on interfering politicians. It might 
 close next year; it might close in three years; it might 
 close in five. We have lost many sons, we have spilled 
 much blood. This is the operation by which the cancer is 
 to be severed from our system; the operation is now far 
 advanced, and woe be to the man who interferes with it 
 before the last bit of virus is removed. \CJieers^ But, let 
 me say, even a servant who will bear a blow cannot bear 
 to be beaten and preached at both together. If you insist 
 on groaning over the tediousness of the war, you must not 
 aid to prolong it. Either do not ask us when it will end, 
 or else do not send ships and guns to the rebels in the 
 South. If you want to sympathize with us, do so; and if 
 you must assist the rebels, do so; but do not attempt both 
 things at once. \^Hear, hear; and applause^ 
 
 I thank Earl Russell for his speech at Blairgowrie. It is 
 a speech that has brought comfort and gladness to the 
 hearts of our American friends. \Hear^ hcari\ A friend 
 of mine in New York has written to me, stating that the 
 whole feeling there has been changed since the intelligence 
 of Earl Russell's speech. We do not want to quarrel; we 
 do not want animosity between Great Britain and America. 
 No man has spoken of Great Britain words of praise and 
 blame with more honest heart than I have. \Cheers and 
 some hisses^ That man is not your friend who dares not 
 speak of your faults to your face. The man that is your 
 friend tells you when he thinks you are wrong; and whether 
 I am right or wrong, I assert, that in giving moral sym- 
 
5IO PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 pathy largely to the South, and above all, in allowing the 
 infamous traffic of your ports with the rebels, thus strength- 
 ening the hands of the slaveholders, — and that, without 
 public rebuke, — you have done wrong. I have said this, 
 because, dear as your country is to us, precious as were the 
 legacies given to us of learning and religion, and proud as 
 we have been for years past to think of our ancestry and 
 common relationship to you — yet so much dearer to us 
 than kindred is the cause of God, that, if Great Britain 
 sets herself against us, we shall not hesitate one moment 
 on her account, but shall fulfill our mission ! [C//^^/-^.] 
 
 Earl Russell was, however, pleased to say that this was 
 a conflict for territory on the one part, and for independ- 
 ence on the other. You know just as well as I, that the 
 North has been adverse to the acquisition of territory. It 
 was the South that brought in Texas, that brought in the 
 whole of the Louisiana tract by purchase; it was the South 
 that went to war with Mexico, and added New Mexico, 
 and the whole of California; and it was the South that 
 sent Walker, the filibusterer, to Cuba. The South would 
 have territory. It is not the North that has been avaricious 
 of land, but the South that needed the land for the exten- 
 sion of their slave system. Now, we are striving for the 
 territory that belongs to the Union. \^Hear, hear.'] Let 
 me see that man who dares to say here that he believes in 
 the kind of patriotism that would let every citizen sit still 
 while their territory was dismembered, and never raise a 
 hand or lift a sword ? If that is your idea of patriotism, it 
 is not mine. I have taught my people, and I have prac- 
 ticed the doctrine myself as far as necessary, that it was 
 the duty of every Christian to defend his house, and if any 
 robber broke into his house, that he was bound to resist, 
 and recover any goods that might have been carried off. 
 Now that which is true of the householder, I declare to be 
 true of the nation. The love of country means this, to 
 defend every part and particle of the country from unjust 
 alienation. \^Loi/d applause.] It amounts then to just this, 
 that we are trying to get back our own; though Lord 
 John Russell— I beg his pardon. Earl Russell — \_/ai/g/iter'] — 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 511 
 
 says that we were ambitious of territory ! Well, here come 
 two men before a Justice of the Peace, the one with the 
 other by the coat. The one says: " I found this man in my 
 house carrying off my wife's silks, finery, and jewels." 
 Suppose the Justice to remonstrate with the complainant, 
 and reprimand him for avarice, and blandly let the thief 
 go without a word ! What would become of a community 
 in which the victim of robbery was scolded and the robber 
 set free ? \^Applause^ Now the territory in question was 
 paid for by the money of the Union, and we swore by as 
 solemn an oath as people can swear to hold it for the good 
 of the nation. Because we are striving to keep our oath, 
 I do not see how that can make us ambitious of territory. 
 \Hear, hear; and applaitsei\ On the other side. Earl Russell 
 says the South are contending for independence. Yes they 
 are, and I would to God that so much gallantry had a 
 better cause. It needs but that, to be illustrious to the end 
 of time. [C/ieers.] Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to 
 say, that we have not in that Western Continent degen- 
 erated from your British blood. There is high spirit yet 
 in America just as much as there is here. [App/ause.] 
 
 Yet, Southern independence^ — what is it ? When they 
 seceded and went to Montgomery to frame a Constitution, 
 what did they do ? They made one or two little alterations 
 in the old Constitution. They lengthened the term of the 
 Presidency, and made a few alterations in the forms of 
 procedures in the Congress; but substantially they took 
 the same Constitution that they had just escaped from. 
 [^Hear, hear.] The only material clause they added was 
 the one that made slavery perpetual, and declared it to 
 be illegal to undertake to abolish it. What then is South- 
 ern independence ? It is the meteor around the dark body 
 of slavery. King Bomba of Naples wanted to be inde- 
 pendent, and his idea of independence was, that he should 
 be let alone whilst he was oppressing his subjects. This 
 very idea of independence has been the same, since the 
 days when Nimrod hunted men. \^Laiighter and cheers.] 
 This is the only independence the South is fighting for. 
 
 But it is said, that the North is just as bad as the South 
 
512 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 in its hatred for the negro. At one time I admit that there 
 was a prejudice against the black man, arising out of the 
 poHtical condition of things; but I can bear witness that 
 this prejudice has almost entirely passed away, in so far as 
 the native population is concerned. \Cheersi\ I shall not 
 say who are the bitterest enemies of the black men, because 
 you would hiss me if I did so. \^Loiid cries of " Speak out," 
 and a voice, '■''The Irishmen'' — another voice, '■'■ The Irish Ro- 
 man Catholics."^ There is no doubt that the Irish have a 
 strong prejudice against the negroes, but it arises simply 
 from this, that they have been led to believe by the ene- 
 mies of the North, that, were the slaves freed, they would 
 dispute the field of labor with them; whereas everybody 
 who knew anything of their disposition could tell, that, 
 were they freed, the Northern negroes would flock to the 
 South, leaving the North for Northern laborers. 
 
 The statement has been made that the Americans are 
 seeking to destroy the Anglo-Saxons for the sake of a few 
 millions of negroes. I contend, that, although the freedom 
 of the negroes will no doubt result from this war, yet we 
 are fighting for the good of all mankind — black, white, and 
 yellow \Jaiighter'\, for men of all nations — to save represent- 
 ative government and universal liberty. It is also said, 
 that the proclamation by the President was not sincere — 
 that he had issued it merely as an official, and that it did 
 not express his personal convictions. All I need to reply, 
 is, that the President, whatever his own feelings, is bound 
 to act as an official and discharge the duties of his office. 
 He is bound to administer the Constitution of the country. 
 It was the President and not the man who spoke; and it 
 was the country, and not the President, that was respon- 
 sible for the proclamation. At the same time I affirm, that 
 the manner in which all these proclamations have been 
 carried out is a sufficient test of their sincerity. The Pres- 
 ident was very loath to take the steps he did; but, though 
 slow, Abraham Lincoln was sure. A thousand men could 
 not make him plant his foot before he was ready; ten 
 thousand could not move it after he had put it down. This 
 national crisis in my own country is a spectacle worthy of 
 
SPEECH IN EDINBURGH. 513 
 
 the admiration of the world, and I can only hope that when 
 next the Social Science Congress assembles, this great con- 
 flict will have gone so far towards an issue, that it may be 
 found consistent with duty to inaugurate its meeting with- 
 out sneering at a neighboring nation. \Great checri/ig and 
 /lisses.^ 
 
 I have a closing word to speak. It is our duty in Amer- 
 ica, by every means in our power, to avoid all cause of 
 irritation with every foreign nation, and with the English 
 nation most especially. On your side it is your duty to 
 avoid all irritating interference, and all speech that tends 
 to irritate. Brothers should be brothers all the world over, 
 and you are of our blood, and we are of your lineage. May 
 that day be far distant when Great Britain and i\merica 
 shall turn their backs on each other, and seek an alliance 
 with other nations. \^Loud cries of '^^ Russia."^ The day is 
 coming when the foundations of the earth will be lifted 
 out of their places; and there are two nations that ought 
 to be found shoulder to shoulder and hand in hand for the 
 sake of Christianity and. universal liberty, and these nations 
 are Great Britain and America. [Loud and prolonged cheer- 
 
 At the close of Mr. Beecher's address Dr. Alexander came for- 
 ward and was received with loud applause. He said: "Ladies 
 and gentlemen, the resolution which I have had put into my 
 hands is the following : — 
 
 "'That this meeting most earnestly and emphatically protests against 
 American slavery in all its ramifications, as a system which treats immortal 
 and redeemed human beings as goods and chattels, which denies them the 
 rights of marriage and of home, which consigns them to ignorance of the 
 first rudiments of education, and exposes them to the outrages of lust and 
 passion; and that this meeting is therefore of opinion that it should be 
 totally abolished; and, further, that this meeting, rejoicing in the progress 
 which has already been made in America towards this end, desires to en- 
 courage, with their cordial sympathy, the earnest Abolitionists in that 
 country in the noble efforts they are making.' 
 
 " I do not think that it is necessary that I should offer any 
 observations in support of this resolution. After the magnificent 
 oration to which we have just listened, I do not feel myself in- 
 clined at all to intrude in the way of speaking upon this question, 
 33 
 
514 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and I presume the meeting is not at all inclined to hear anything 
 I might be disposed to say. I do not think the motion which has 
 been put into my hands requires very much to be said in support 
 of it. I think it is exceedingly moderate, rather more moderate 
 than perhaps I should have expressed it, had it been in my own 
 words. [Applause.^ I think it pledges us to nothing but what 
 we may heartily agree to [loud applause], from our abhorrence of 
 slavery, our desire to see that feeling acknowledged, and our sym- 
 pathy with those who are trying to abolish it in America. Some 
 may perhaps think that in the resolution we might directly sym- 
 pathize with the Federals in their struggle, but that might prob- 
 ably lead to a division in the meeting. I would venture' to sug- 
 gest that our esteemed friend has gone very far to show that the 
 Northerners, as such, are Abolitionists. Those who think that 
 he has made out that point might interpret the latter part of this 
 resolution to mean the whole of the Federals as a body ; and those 
 who do not think that might restrict it in their own minds to suit 
 their views." [Laiig/iter.'\ 
 
 Dr. George Johnston then came forward amid loud cheers, and 
 said : " It is not necessary that I should say one word in second- 
 ing the motion. I am quite satisfied that this meeting is perfectly 
 unanimous in accepting the sentiments expressed in the motion, 
 and why, therefore, should I occupy more time. [Applause.] Just 
 let me say this one word, that I apprehend that the magnificent 
 speech of our friend Mr. Beecher Stowe — [loud laugJiter] — I mean 
 Mr. Ward Beecher — has removed some prejudices [hear, hear], 
 has given some information which, if rightly used, will guide us 
 to the same conclusion to which I long ago came — viz., that the 
 North is banded together to maintain the liberties of mankind." 
 [Loud applause.] 
 
 A show of hands was then taken, when only three were held 
 up against the resolution, which was carried amidst loud and 
 prolonged cheering. 
 
SPEECH IN THE PHILHARMONIC 
 HALL, LIVERPOOL. 
 
 October i6, 1863. 
 
 The hall was crowded in every part. Immediately upon the 
 doors being opened the hall was filled, and the aspect of the 
 audience showed that the proceedings were anticipated with no 
 little eagerness. Mr. Charles Robertson was the chairman of the 
 evening. 
 
 On the entrance of Mr. Beecher, preceded by the chairman, a 
 vast shout of mingled welcome and disapprobation was imme- 
 diately raised. Placards had been posted throughout the town 
 inciting the people of Liverpool to give the lecturer a hostile re- 
 ception ; and it soon became evident that a determined minority 
 of the meeting were present with that intention. The extent to 
 which their exertions, which were sedulously continued through- 
 out, interfered with the proceedings, will be perceived by the re- 
 port. 
 
 Charles Robertson, Esq., on rising to introduce the lecturer, 
 was received with loud cheers and hisses. After obtaining si- 
 lence he said : " Ladies and gentlemen, we are met here to- 
 night to hear an address from the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 
 [Cheers and hisses?[ I hope, gentlemen, this is an assembly of 
 Englishmen [hear, hear], and that everybody will be heard with 
 calmness and impartiality. [Hear, hear.] Well, gentlemen, we 
 are met together this evening to receive such information from 
 Mr. Beecher as he has it in his power to communicate to us re- 
 specting the present state of the contest now going on in the 
 United States of America, and its bearing on that most impor- 
 tant question which has so powerfully stirred the hearts of En- 
 glishmen, the question of the emancipation of the negro race. 
 [Loud applause and hisses.] I need not say to you, gentlemen, it 
 is that aspect of the question which has induced many of us to 
 take a part in this meeting. It is because we believe that this is 
 a contest which has a most important bearing on the emancipa- 
 tion of the negro race, and the introduction, to a larger portion 
 
5l6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of the population of the Southern States, of those rights and 
 hberties which, as men, they ought to possess — that we have 
 taken a deep interest in this struggle, believing that the success 
 of the Northern States will lead to the emancipation of the slave. 
 \" No, no," hisses and cheers?[ .... It is with no unfriendly 
 feelings to the South that I say these things. They are our own 
 kinsmen as well as the people of the North. We have admired 
 their courage and unflinching devotedness to what they believe a 
 right cause. {Applause?^ But we are equally convinced that 
 their cause is wrong. [Loud cries of " No, no," and "Hear, /lear."] 
 If there is a righteous God in Heaven, we believe that cause can- 
 not prosper." [Renewed interritptio7i?^ The chairman concluded 
 by asking the respectful attention of the audience to Mr. Beecher's 
 address, adding that that gentleman was perfectly prepared to 
 answer any questions that might be addressed to him after the 
 lecture, provided they were put in writing, with the name of the 
 writer attached, and handed up to the chairman. \;' Oh, oh."\ 
 
 Mr. Beecher then rose, and, advancing to the front of the plat- 
 form, was greeted with mingled cheers, hisses, and groans. A 
 considerable proportion of the audience stood up, waving hats 
 and handkerchiefs, and cheering. A man in the gallery called 
 for "Three cheers for the Southern States," which created much 
 laughter and some uproar. Mr. Beecher proceeded to say — 
 " Ladies and gentlemen," when the uproar again commenced, and 
 efforts were made to eject one noisy individual from the body of 
 the hall. 
 
 The chairman said : " A fair opportunity will be afforded to 
 express approval or dissent at the close of the lecture, but if any 
 one interrupts the meeting by disorderly conduct, I shall be 
 obliged to call in the aid of the police." [Cheers?\ 
 
 Mr. Beecher then spoke: — 
 
 For more than twenty-five years I have been made per- 
 fectly familiar with popular assemblies in all parts of my 
 country except the extreme South. There has not for the 
 whole of that time been a single day of my life when it 
 would have been safe for me to go south of Mason's and 
 Dixon's line in my own country, and all for one reason: 
 my solemn, earnest, persistent testimony against that w^hich 
 I consider to be the most atrocious thing under the sun — 
 the system of American slavery in a great free republic. 
 \Cheers?[ I have passed through that early period, when 
 right of free speech was denied to me. Again and again 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. $iy 
 
 I have attempted to address audiences that, for no other 
 crime than that of free speech, visited me with all manner 
 of contumelious epithets ; and now since I have been in En- 
 gland, although I have met with greater kindness and 
 courtesy on the part of most than I deserved, yet, on the 
 other hand, I perceive that the Southern influence prevails 
 to some extent in England. \^AppIaiise and uproar.'\ It is 
 my old acquaintance ; I understand it perfectly \Jai/ghter\, 
 and I have always held it to be an unfailing truth that 
 where a man had a cause that would bear examination he 
 was perfectly willing to have it spoken about. \^Applause.'\ 
 And when in Manchester I saw those huge placards, "Who 
 is Henry Ward Beecher?" \laughter, cries of ''^ Quite right,'' 
 and applause^ — and when in Liverpool I was told that 
 there were those blood -red placards, purporting to say 
 what Henry Ward Beecher had said, and calling upon 
 Englishmen to suppress free speech — I tell you what I 
 thought. I thought simply this — " I am glad of it." \^Laugh- 
 ter.] Why ? Because if they had felt perfectly secure, 
 that you are the minions of the South and the slaves of 
 slavery, they would have been perfectly still. {Applause 
 and uproar.'\ And, therefore, when I saw so much nervous 
 apprehension that, if I were permitted to speak [/lisses and 
 applause^ — when I found they were afraid to have me speak 
 y/iisses, laughter, and ^^No, no "], — when I found that they con- 
 sidered my speaking damaging to their cause \applause'\ — 
 when I found that they appealed from facts and reasonings 
 to mob law {applause and uproar\ I said: No man need 
 tell me what the heart and secret counsel of these men 
 are. They tremble, and are afraid. {Applause, laughter, 
 hisses, ^'No, no, "and a voice: ^'JVew York mob."^ Now, per- 
 sonally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me 
 whether I sf^eak hereto-night or not. {Laughter and cheers.] 
 But, one thing is very certain — if you do permit me to 
 speak here to-night you will hear very plain talking. {Ap- 
 plause and hisses.'] You will not find a man {^interruption], 
 — you will not find me to be a man that dared to speak 
 about Great Britain three thousand miles off, and then is 
 afraid to speak to Great Britain when he stands on her 
 
5l8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 shores. [^Iiiinicnse applause and /nsses.'\ And if I do not mis- 
 take the tone and the temper of Englishmen, they had 
 rather have a man who opposes them in a manly way [ap- 
 plause from all parts of the hall^ than a sneak that agrees 
 with them in an unmanly way. [Applause and "Bravo^^ If 
 I can carry you with me by sound convictions, I shall be 
 immensely glad [applause'] ; but if I cannot carry you with 
 me by facts and sound arguments, I do not wish you to 
 go with me at all; and all that I ask is simply fair play. 
 [Applause, and avoiee: ''''You shall have it, loo."] Those of 
 you who are kind enough to wish to favor my speaking — 
 and you will observe that my voice is slightly husky, from 
 having spoken almost every night in succession for some 
 time past — those who wish to hear me will do me the kind- 
 ness simply to sit still and to keep still; and I and my 
 friends the Secessionists will. make all the noise. [Laugh- 
 ter.] 
 
 There are two dominant races in modern history. The 
 Germanic and the Romanic races. The Germanic races 
 tend to personal liberty, to a sturdy individualism, to civil 
 and to political liberty. The Romanic race tends to absolu- 
 tism in government; it is clannish; it loves chieftains; it 
 develops a people that crave strong and showy govern- 
 ments to support and plan for them. The Anglo-Saxon 
 race belongs to the great German family, and is a fair ex- 
 ponent of its peculiarities. The Anglo-Saxon carries self- 
 government and self-development with him wherever he 
 goes. He has popular government and popular industry; 
 for the effects of a generous civil liberty are not seen a 
 whit more plain in the good order, in the intelligence, and 
 in the virtue of a self-governing people, than in their amaz- 
 ing enterprise and the scope and power of their creative 
 industry. The power to create riches is just as much a 
 part of the Anglo-Saxon virtues as the power to create 
 good order and social safety. The things required for 
 prosperous labor, prosperous manufactures, and prosper- 
 ous commerce are three. First, liberty; second, liberty; 
 third, liberty. [Hear, hear.] Though these are not merely 
 the same liberty, as I shall show you. 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 519 
 
 First, there must be liberty to follow those laws of busi- 
 ness which experience has developed, without imposts or 
 restrictions, or governmental intrusions. Business simply 
 wants to be let alone. \^Hear, hear.'\ Then, secondly, 
 there must be liberty to distribute and exchange products 
 of industry in any market without burdensome tariffs, 
 without imposts, and without vexatious regulations. 
 There must be these two liberties — liberty to create wealth, 
 as the makers of it think best according to the light and 
 experience which business has given them; and then lib- 
 erty to distribute what they have created without unneces- 
 sary vexatious burdens. The comprehensive law of the ideal 
 industrial condition of the world is free manufacture and 
 free-trade. \^Hear, hear; a voice: " The Morrill tariff." 
 Another voice: "Monroe."'\ I have said there were three 
 elements of liberty. The third is the necessity of an in- 
 telligent and free race of customers. There must be free- 
 dom among producers; there must be freedom among the 
 distributers; there must be freedom among the customers. 
 It may not have occurred to you that it makes any differ- 
 ence what one's customers are; but it does, in all regular 
 and prolonged business. The condition of the customer 
 determines how much he will buy, determines of what sort 
 he will buy. Poor and ignorant people buy little and that 
 of the poorest kind. The richest and the intelligent, having 
 the more means to buy, buy the most, and alwaj^s buy the 
 best. Here then are the three liberties — liberty of the pro- 
 ducer; liberty of the distributer; and liberty of the con- 
 sumer. The first two need no discussion, they have been 
 long thoroughly and brilliantly illustrated by the political 
 economists of Great Britain, and by her eminent states- 
 men; but it seems to me that enough attention has not 
 been directed to the third; and, with your patience, I will 
 dwell on that for a moment, before proceeding to other 
 topics. 
 
 It is a necessity of every manufacturing and commercial 
 people that their customers should be very wealthy and in- 
 telligent. Let us put the subject before you in the familiar 
 light of your own local experience. To whom do the 
 
520 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 tradesmen of Liverpool sell the most goods at the highest 
 profit? To the ignorant and poor, or to the educated and 
 prosperous ? \A twice : " To the Southerners." Laughterl\ 
 The poor man buys simply for his body; he buys food, he 
 buys clothing, he buys fuel, he buys lodging. His rule is 
 to buy the least and the cheapest that he can. He goes to 
 the store as seldom as he can, — he brings away as little as 
 he can, — and he buys for the least he can. \^Mnch laugh- 
 ter^ Poverty is not a misfortune to the poor only who 
 suffer it, but it is more or less a misfortune to all with 
 whom they deal. On the other hand, a man well off, — 
 how is it with him ? He buys in far greater quantity. He 
 can afford to do it; he has the money to pay for it. He 
 buys in far greater variety, because he seeks to gratify not 
 merely physical wants, but also mental wants. He buys 
 for the satisfaction of sentiment and taste, as well as of 
 sense. He buys silk, wool, flax, cotton; he buys all metals 
 — iron, silver, gold, platinum; in short he buys for all 
 necessities and of all substances. But that is not all. He 
 buys a better quality of goods. He buys richer silks, finer 
 cottons, higher grained wools. Now, a rich silk means so 
 much skill and care of somebody's that has been expended 
 upon it to make it finer and richer; and so of cotton, and 
 so of wool. That is, the price of the finer goods runs back 
 to the very beginning, and remunerates the workman as 
 well as the merchant. Indeed, the whole laboring com- 
 munity is as much interested and profited as the mere 
 merchant, in this buying and selling of the higher grades 
 in the greater varieties and quantities. The law of price 
 is the skill; and the amount of skill expended in the work 
 is as much for the market as are the goods. A man comes 
 to the market and says, " I have a pair of hands," and he 
 obtains the lowest wages. Another man comes and says, 
 " I have something more than a pair of hands; I have 
 truth and fidelity; " he gets a higher price. Another man 
 comes and says, " I have something more; I have hands 
 and strength, and fidelity, and skill." He gets more than 
 either of the others. The next man comes and says, " I 
 have got hands and strength, and skill, and fidelity; but 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 521 
 
 my hands work more than that. They know how to create 
 things for the fancy, for the affections, for the moral senti- 
 ments; " and he gets more than either of the others. The 
 last man comes and says, " I have all these qualities, and 
 have them so highly that it is a peculiar genius; " and 
 genius carries the whole market and gets the highest 
 price. \^Loud applause.'] So that both the workman and 
 the merchant are profited by having purchasers that de- 
 mand quality, variety, and quantity. Now, if this be so in 
 the town or the city, it can only be so because it is a 
 law. This is the specific development of a general or uni- 
 versal law, and therefore we should expect to find it as 
 true of a nation as of a city like Liverpool. I know it is 
 so, and you know that it is true of all the world; and it is 
 just as important to have customers educated, intelligent, 
 moral, and rich, out of Liverpool as it is in Liverpool. \_Ap- 
 plaiise.] They are able to buy; they want variety, they 
 want the very best; and those are the customers you want. 
 That nation is the best customer that is freest, because 
 freedom works prosperity, industry, and wealth. Great 
 Britain then, aside from moral considerations, has a direct 
 commercial and pecuniary interest in the liberty, civiliza- 
 tion, and wealth of every people and every nation on the 
 globe. \Loud applause^ You have also an interest in this, 
 because you are a moral and a religious people. ["6>/z, 
 <?//," laughter., aud applause^ You desire it from the highest 
 motives; and godliness is profitable in all things, having 
 the promise of the life that is, as well as of that which is to 
 come; but if there were no hereafter, and if man had no 
 progress in this life, and if there were no question of moral 
 growth at all, it would be worth your while to protect civili- 
 zation and liberty, merely as a commercial speculation. 
 To evangelize has more than a moral and religious import 
 — it comes back to temporal relations. Wherever a nation 
 that is crushed, cramped, degraded under despotism, is 
 struggling to be free, you, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, 
 Paisley, all have an interest that that nation should be 
 free. When depressed and backward people demand that 
 they may have a chance to rise — Hungary, Italy, Poland 
 
522 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 — it is a duty for humanity's sake, it is a duty for the 
 highest moral motives, to sympathize with them; but be- 
 side all these there is a material and an interested reason 
 why you should sympathize with them. Pounds and pence 
 join with conscience and with honor in this design. 
 
 Now, Great Britain's chief want is — what? They have 
 said that your chief want is cotton. I deny it. Your 
 chief want is consumers. [Applause and hisses^ You have 
 got skill, you have got capital, and you have got ma- 
 chinery enough to manufacture goods for the whole popu- 
 lation of the globe. You could turn out fourfold as much 
 as you do, if you only had the market to sell in. It is not 
 therefore so much the want of fabric, though there may 
 be a temporary obstruction of that; but the principal and 
 increasing want — increasing from year to year — is, where 
 shall we find men to buy what we can manufacture so 
 fast? [^Interruption, and a voice, '■''The Morrill tariff" and 
 applauseA^ Before the American war broke out, your ware- 
 houses were loaded with goods that you could not sell. 
 \_Applause and hisses.^^ You had over-manufactured; what 
 is the meaning of over-manufacturing but this, that you 
 had skill, capital, machinery, to create faster than you had 
 customers to take goods off your hands ? And you know 
 that, rich as Great Britain is, vast as are her manufact- 
 ures, if she could have fourfold the present demand she 
 could make fourfold riches to-morrow; and every political 
 economist will tell you that your want is not cotton pri- 
 marily, but customers. Therefore the doctrine How to 
 make customers, is a great deal more important to Great 
 Britain than the doctrine How to raise cotton. It is to 
 that doctrine I ask from you, business men, practical men, 
 men of fact, sagacious Englishmen — to that point I ask a 
 moment's attention. \^Shouts of " Oh, oh," hisses, and 
 applausel\ 
 
 There are no more continents to be discovered. \^Hear, 
 hear.^ The market of the future must be found — how? 
 There is very little hope of any more demand being 
 created by new fields. If you are to have a better market 
 there must be some kind of process invented to make the 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 523 
 
 old fields better. \A voice, ^^Tell us something new,'' shouts 
 of " Order" and interruption^ Let us look at it, then. You 
 must civilize the world in order to make a better class of 
 purchasers. ^Interruption^ If you were to press Italy- 
 down again under the feet of despotism, Italy, discour- 
 aged, could draw but very few supplies from you. But 
 give her liberty, kindle schools throughout her valleys, 
 spur her industry, make treaties with her by which she 
 can exchange her wine, and her oil, and her silk for your 
 manufactured goods; and for every effort that you make 
 in that direction there will come back profit to you by in- 
 creased traffic with her. \^Loud applause.'] If Hungary 
 asks to be an unshackled nation — if by freedom she will 
 rise in virtue and intelligence, then by freedom she will 
 acquire a more multifarious industry, which she will be 
 willing to exchange for your manufactures. Her liberty 
 is to be found — where ? You will find it in the Word of 
 God, you will find it in the code of history; but you will 
 also find it in the Price Current \^iiear, hear]; and every 
 free nation, every civilized people — every people that rises 
 from barbarism to industry and intelligence, becomes a 
 better customer. A savage is a man of one story, and that 
 one story a cellar. When man begins to be civilized, he 
 raises another story. When you Christianize and civilize 
 the man, you put story upon story, for you develop 
 faculty after faculty; and you have to supply every story 
 with your productions. The savage is a man one story 
 deep; the civilized man is thirty stories deep. [App/ajtse.] 
 Now if you go to a lodging-house, where there are three 
 or four men, your sales to them may, no doubt, be worth 
 something; but if you go to a lodging-house like some of 
 those which I saw in Edinburgh, which seemed to contain 
 about twenty stories — ["Oh, oh," and interruption] — every 
 story of which is full, and all who occupy buy of you — 
 which is the best customer — the man who is drawn out, or 
 the man who is pinched up ? [Laughteri] 
 
 There is in this a great and sound principle of political 
 economy. [" Yah ! yah ! " from the passage outside the hall, 
 and loud laughter^ If the South should be rendered inde- 
 
524 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 pendent — \at this juncture mingled cheering and hisses became 
 immense; half the audience rose to their feet, waving hats and 
 handkerchiefs, and in every part of the hall there zuas the great- 
 est commotion and uproar. Mr. Beecher quietly and sinilingly 
 waited until quiet ivas restored, and then proceeded^ Well, you 
 have had your turn; now let me have mine again. \Loud 
 applause and laughter.'\ It is a little inconvenient to talk 
 against the wind; but, after all, if you will just keep good- 
 natured — I am not going to lose my temper; will you watch 
 yours ? [^Applause.^ Besides all that, — it rests me, and gives 
 me a chance, you know, to get my breath. \^Applause and 
 hisses.'l And I think that the bark of those men is worse 
 than their bite. They do not mean any harm — they don't 
 k no w any better. \^Loud laughter, applause, hisses, and continued 
 uproarl\ I was saying, when these responses broke in, that 
 it was worth our while to consider both alternatives. What 
 will be the result if this present struggle shall eventuate in 
 the separation of America, and making the South — \loud ap- 
 plause, hisses, hooting, and cries of '■'■Bravo !"\ — a slave terri- 
 tory exclusively — \cries of '■'No, no" and laughter^ — and the 
 North a free territory; what will be the first result ? You 
 will lay the foundation for carrying the slave population 
 clear through to the Pacific Ocean. That is the first step. 
 There is not a man who has been a leader of the South 
 any time within these twenty years, that has not had this 
 for a plan. It was for this that Texas was invaded, first 
 by colonists, next by marauders, until it was wrested from 
 Mexico. It was for this that they engaged in the Mexican 
 war itself, by which the vast territory reaching to the 
 Pacific was added to the Union. Never have they for a 
 moment given up the plan of spreading the American in- 
 stitution, as they call it, straight through towards the West, 
 until the slave, who has washed his feet in the Atlantic, 
 shall be carried to w^ash them in the Pacific. \Cries of 
 "Question," and jproar.'] There ! I have got that statement 
 out, and you cannot put it back. {^Laughter and applause?^ 
 Now, let us consider the prospect. If the South become 
 a slave empire, what relation will it have to you as a cus- 
 tomer? \^A voice: "Or any other man." Laughter^ It 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. . 525 
 
 would be an empire of twelve millions of people. Of these, 
 eight millions are white and four millions black. S^A voice: 
 ''How many Jiave you got? " — applause and laughter. Another 
 voice: ''Free your oic/i slaves."^ Consider that one-third of 
 the whole are the miserably poor, unbuying blacks. [^Cries 
 of "No, 710,'" " Yes, yes," and interruption.^ You do not man- 
 ufacture much for them. [^Plisses, "Oh!" "No."^ You 
 have not got machinery coarse enough. \_Laughter, and 
 " iV(?."] Your labor is too skilled by far to manufacture 
 bagging and linsey-woolsey. [.4 Southerner : " JVe are 
 S[oing to free them every one."^ Then you and I agree ex- 
 actly. [Laughter.] One other third consists of a poor, 
 unskilled, degraded white population; and the remaining 
 one-third, which is a large allowance, we will say, intelli- 
 gent and rich. Now here are twelve millions of people, 
 and only one-third of them are customers that can afford to 
 buy the kind of goods that you bring to market. [Inter- 
 ruption and uproar.] My friends, I saw a man once, who 
 was a little late at a railway station, chase an express 
 train. He did not catch it. [Laughter.] If you are going 
 to stop this meeting, you have got to stop it before I 
 speak; for after I have got the things out, you may chase 
 as long as you please — you will not catch them. [Laughter 
 and interruption^^ But there is luck in leisure; I'm going 
 to take it easy. [Laughter i\ Two-thirds of the population 
 of the Southern States to-day are non-purchasers of En- 
 glish goods. [A voice: "No, they are ?wt;" "No, no," and 
 uproar^ You must recollect another fact — namely, that 
 this is going on clear through to the Pacific Ocean; and if 
 by sympathy or help you establish a slave empire, you 
 sagacious Britons — [" Oh, oh," and hooting] — if 3'ou like it 
 better, then, I will leave the adjective out — [laughter, hear, 
 and applause] — are busy in favoring the establishment of 
 an empire from ocean to ocean that should have fewest 
 customers and the largest non-buying population. [Ap- 
 plause, "No, no." A voice: " I thought it was the happy people 
 that populated fastest."] 
 
 Now, for instance, just look at this, the difference be- 
 tween free labor and slave -labor to produce cultivated 
 
526 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 land. The State of Virginia has 15,000 more square miles 
 of land than the State of New York; but Virginia has only 
 15,000 square miles improved, while New York has 20,000 
 square miles improved. Of unimproved land Virginia has 
 about 23,000 square miles, and New York only about 10,- 
 000 square miles. These facts speak volumes as to the 
 capacity of the territory to bear population. The smaller 
 is the quantity of soil uncultivated, the greater is the 
 density of the population — \Jiear, hear]; — and upon that, 
 their value as customers depends. Let us take the States 
 of Maryland and Massachusetts. Maryland has 2,000 
 more square miles of land than Massachusetts; but Mary- 
 land has about 4,000 square miles of land improved, Mas- 
 sachusetts has 3,200 square miles. Maryland has 2,800 
 unimproved square miles of land, while Massachusetts has 
 but 1,800 square miles unimproved. But these two are 
 little States, — let us take greater States : Pennsylvania 
 and Georgia. The State of Georgia has 12,000 more 
 square miles of land than Pennsylvania. Georgia has only 
 about 9,800 square miles of improved land, Pennsylvania 
 has 13,400 square miles of improved land, or about 2,300,- 
 000 acres more than Georgia. Georgia has about 25,600 
 square miles of unimproved land, and Pennsylvania has 
 only 10,400 square miles, or about 10,000,000 acres less of 
 ?//Hm proved land than Georgia. The one is a Slave State 
 and the other is a Free State. I do not want you to for- 
 get such statistics as those, having once heard them. 
 \^Langhfer.'] Now, what can England make for the poor 
 white population of such a future empire, and for her slave 
 population ? What carpets, what linens, what cottons can 
 you sell to them ? What machines, what looking-glasses, 
 what combs, what leather, what books, what pictures, what 
 engravings? \^A voice: ^^ J Veil sell them ships."] You may 
 sell ships to a few, but what ships can you sell to two- 
 thirds of the population of poor whites and blacks ? {^Ap- 
 plause.] A little bagging and a little linsey-woolsey, a few 
 whips and manacles, are all that you can sell for the slave. 
 {Great applause, and uproar.] This very day, in the Slave 
 States of America there are eight millions out of twelve 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 527 
 
 millions that are not, and cannot be your customers from 
 the very laws of trade. \A voice: " Then how are they 
 clothed "i " a?id continued interruptionl\ 
 
 The chairman finally said : If gentlemen will only sit down, 
 those who are making the disturbance will be tired out. 
 
 Mr. Beecher resumed: There are some apparent draw- 
 backs that may suggest themselves. The first is that the 
 interests of England consist in drawing from any country 
 its raw material. \^A voice: '''■ We have got over that."'\ There 
 is an interest, but it is not now the chief interest of England. 
 The interest of England is not merely where to buy her cot- 
 ton, her ores, her wool, her linens, and her flax. When she 
 has put her brains into the cotton, and into the linen and 
 flax, and it becomes the product of her looms, a far more 
 important question is. What can be done with it ? En- 
 gland does not want merely to pay prices for that which 
 brute labor produces, but to get a price for that which brain 
 labor produces. \IIear., hear., and applause^ Your interest 
 lies beyond all peradventure in customers; therefore, if you 
 should bring ever so much cotton from the slave-empire — 
 [" Yah^ yah "] — you cannot sell back to the slave-empire. \^A 
 voice: '"''Go on with your subject; we know all about £ngiand."^ 
 Excuse me, sir, I am the speaker, not you; and it is forme 
 to determine what to say. [^Hear, hear.] Do you suppose I 
 am going to speak about America except to convince En- 
 glishmen ? I am here to talk to you for the sake of ulti- 
 mately carrying you with me in judgment and in thinking 
 — [" Oh ! oh ! "]— however, as to this logic of cat-calls, it is 
 slavery logic, — I am used to it. \_Applause, hisses and 
 cheers.] Now, it is said that if the South should be 
 allowed to be separate there will be no tariff, and England 
 can trade with her; but, if the South remains in the 
 United States it will be bound by a tariff, and English 
 goods will be excluded from it [^interruption']. Well, I am 
 not going to shirk any question of that kind. In the first 
 place, let me tell you that the first tariff ever proposed in 
 America was not only supported by Southern interests and 
 votes, but was originated by the peculiar structure of 
 Southern society. The first and chief difficulty — after the 
 
528 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Union was formed under our present Constitution — the 
 first difficulty that met our fathers was, how to raise taxes 
 to support the government; and the question of represen- 
 tation and taxes went together; and the difficulty was, 
 whether we should tax the North and South alike, man 
 for man per caput, counting the slaves with whites. The 
 North having fewer slaves in comparison with the number 
 of its whites; the South, which had a larger number of 
 blacks, said, " We shall be overtaxed if this system be 
 adopted." They therefore proposed that taxes and repre- 
 sentation should be on the basis of five black men counting 
 as three white men. In a short time it was found impossi- 
 ble to raise these taxes in the South, and then they cast about 
 for a better way, and the tariff scheme was submitted. 
 The object was to raise the revenue from the ports instead 
 of from the people. The tariff therefore had its origin 
 in Southern weaknesses and necessities, and not in the 
 Northern cities \loud opplausc\ Daniel Webster's first 
 speech was against it; but after that was carried by South- 
 ern votes (which for more than fifty years determined the 
 law of the country). New England accepted it, and saying. 
 "It is the law of the land," conformed her industry to it; 
 and when she got her capital embarked in mills and 
 machinery, she became in favor of it. But the South, be- 
 ginning to feel, as she grew stronger, that it was against 
 her interest to continue the system, sought to have the 
 tariff modified, and brought it down; though Henry Clay, 
 a Southern man himself, was the immortal champion of 
 the tariff. All his life-time he was for a high tariff, till such 
 a tariff could no longer stand; and then he was for moder- 
 ating the tariffs. But there has not been for the whole of 
 the fifty years a single hour when any tariff could be passed 
 without the South. The opinion of the whole of America 
 was, Tariff, high tariff. I do not mean that there v/ere none 
 that dissented from that opinion, but it was the popular and 
 prevalent cry. I have lived to see the time when, just be- 
 fore the war broke out, it might be said that the thinking 
 men of America were ready for free-trade. There has been 
 a steady progress throughout America for free-trade ideas. 
 
SPEECH /A' LIVERPOOL. 529 
 
 How, then, came this Morrill tariff ? The Democratic 
 administration, inspired by Southern counsels, left millions 
 of millions of unpaid debt to cramp the incoming of 
 Lincoln; and the government, betrayed to the Southern 
 States, found itself unable to pay those debts, unable to 
 build a single ship, unable to raise an army; and it was the 
 exigency, the necessity, that forced them to adopt the Mor- 
 rill tariff, in order to raise the money which they required. 
 It was the South that obliged the North to put the tariff 
 on. \Applause ami uproar^ Just as soon as we begin to 
 have peace again, and can get our national debt into a 
 proper shape as you have got yours — \laughter\ — the same 
 cause that worked before will begin to work again; and 
 there is nothing more certain in the future than that 
 America is bound to join with Great Britain in the world- 
 wide doctrine of free-trade. \Applause and inten-iiption?[ 
 
 Here then, so far as this argument is concerned, I rest 
 my case, saying that it seems to me that in an argument 
 addressed to a commercial people it was perfectly fair to 
 represent that their commercial and manufacturing inter- 
 ests tallied with their moral sentiments; and as by birth, 
 by blood, by history, by moral feeling, and by everything, 
 Great Britain is connected with the liberty of the world, 
 God has joined interest and conscience, head and heart; 
 so that you ought to be in favor of liberty everywhere. 
 \Gj-eat appiause.'\ There ! I have got quite a speech out 
 already, if I do not get any more. [^Hisses ami appiausei\ 
 
 Now then, leaving this for a time, let me turn to some 
 other nearly connected topics. It is said that the South is 
 fighting for just that independence of which I have been 
 speaking. \^Hear, hear.'] But the South is divided on that 
 subject. \_'' -iVo, no.'"] There are twelve millions in the 
 South. Four millions of them are asking for their liberty. 
 ["iVi?, «(?," hisses, ^' Ves," appiause and interruption^ Four 
 millions are asking for their liberty. [^Continued interrup- 
 tion, and renewed applause^ Eight millions are banded 
 together to prevent it. Y^No, no,'' hisses, and appiause.] 
 That is what they asked the world to recognize as a strike 
 for independence. \^H'ear, hear, and iaughter.] Eight 
 
530 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 million white men fighting to prevent the liberty of four 
 million black men. challenging the world. \^Uproar, hisses, 
 applause, and continued interruption^ You cannot get over 
 the fact. There it is; like iron, you cannot stir it. \Up- 
 roar.] They went out of the Union because slave-property 
 was not recognized in it. There were two ways of reaching 
 slave-property in the Union: the one by exerting the direct 
 Federal authority: but they could not do that, for they 
 conceived it to be forbidden. The second was by indirect 
 influence. If you put a candle under a bowl it will burn 
 so long as the fresh air lasts, but it will go out as soon as 
 the oxygen is exhausted; and so, if you put slavery into a 
 State where it cannot get more States, it is only a question 
 of time how soon it will die. By limiting slave territory 
 you lay the foundation for the final extinction of slavery. 
 [Applause.] Gardeners say that the reason why crops will 
 not grow in the same ground for a long time together, is 
 that the roots excrete poisoned matter which the plants 
 cannot use, and thus poison the grain. Whether this is 
 true of crops or not, it is certainly true of slavery, for slav- 
 ery poisons the land on which it grows. Look at the old 
 Slave States, — Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, 
 Tennessee, and even at the newer State of Missouri. 
 What is the condition of slavery in those States ? It is not 
 worth one cent, except to breed. It is not worth one cent 
 so far as productive energy goes. They cannot make 
 money by their slaves in those States. The first reason 
 with them for maintaining slavery is, because it gives polit- 
 ical power; and the second, because they breed for the 
 Southern market. I do not stand on my own testimony 
 alone. The editcrf- of the Virginia Times, in the year 1836, 
 made a calculation that 120,000 slaves were sent out of the 
 State during that year; 80,000 of whom went with their 
 owners, and 40,000 were sold at the average price of 600 
 dollars, amounting to 24,000,000 dollars in one year out of 
 the State of Virginia. Now, what does Henry Clay, him- 
 self a slave-owner, say about Kentucky ? In a speech before 
 the Colonization Society, he said: "It is believed that 
 nowhere in the farming portion of the United States would 
 
• SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 53 1 
 
 slave-labor be generally employed, if the proprietary were 
 not compelled to raise slaves by the high price of the 
 Southern market," and the only profit of slave property in 
 the northern farming slave States is the value they bring. 
 \^A voice: " Then if the Norther?iers breed to supply the South, 
 whafs the difference ? "] So that if you were to limit slavery, 
 and to say, it shall go so far and no further, it would be 
 only a question of time when it should die of its own intrin- 
 sic weakness and disease. This was the Northern feeling. 
 The North was true to the doctrine of constitutional rights. 
 The North refused, by any Federal action within the 
 States, to violate the compacts of the Constitution, and left 
 local compacts unimpaired; but feeling herself unbound 
 with regard to what we call the Territories, — free land 
 which has not yet State rights, — the North said there 
 should be no more territory cursed with slavery. \^Ap- 
 plause.^ With unerring instinct the South said, " The gov- 
 ernment administered by Northern men on the principle 
 that there shall be no more slave-territory, is a govern- 
 ment fatal to slavery," and it was on that account that 
 they seceded ["A^i;?, 7W," " Yes, yes,'' applause, hisses, and 
 uproar\ — and the first step which they took when they as- 
 sembled at Montgomery, was, to adopt a constitution. 
 What constitution did they adopt ? The same form of con- 
 stitution which they had just abandoned. What changes did 
 they introduce? A trifling change about the Presidential 
 term, making it two years longer; a slight change about 
 some doctrine of legislation, involving no principle what- 
 ever, but merely a question of policy. But by the consti- 
 tution of Montgomery they legalized slavery, and made it 
 the organic laiv of the land. The very Constitution which 
 they said they could not live under when they left the 
 Union they took again immediately afterwards, altering it 
 in only one point, and that was, making the fundamental 
 law of the land to be slavery. \^Hear, hear.l^ Let no man 
 undertake to say in the face of intelligence — let no man 
 undertake to delude an honest community — by saying that 
 slavery had nothing to do with the Secession. Slavery is 
 the framework of the South; it is the root and the branch 
 
532 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of this conflict with the South. Take away slavery from 
 the South, and she would not differ from us in any respect. 
 There is not a single antagonistic interest. There is no 
 difference of race, no difference of language, no difference 
 of law, no difference of constitution; the only difference 
 between us is, that free labor is in the North, and slave 
 labor is in the South. \^Loud applause.^ 
 
 But I know that you say, you cannot help sympathizing 
 with a gallant people. \^Hear, hear.'\ They are the weaker 
 people, the minority; and you cannot help going with the 
 minority who are struggling for their rights against the 
 majority. Nothing could be more generous, when a weak 
 party stands for its own legitimate rights against impe- 
 rious pride and power, than to sympathize with the weak. 
 But who ever yet sympathized with a weak thief, because 
 three constables had got hold of him ? {^Hear, /lear.] 
 And yet the one thief in three policemen's hands is the 
 weaker party; I suppose jou would sympathize with him! 
 [Hear, hear, laughter, and applausel] Why, when that in- 
 famous king of Naples, Bomba, was driven into Gaeta by 
 Garibaldi with his immortal band of patriots, and Cavour 
 sent against him the army of Northern Italy, who was the 
 weaker party then? The tyrant and his minions; and the 
 majority was with the noble Italian patriots, struggling 
 for liberty. I never heard that Old England sent deputa- 
 tions to King Bomba, and yet his troops resisted bravely 
 there. [Lai/ghfer and interruption^ To-day the majority 
 of the people of Rome are with Italy. Nothing but French 
 bayonets keeps her from going back to the Kingdom of 
 Italy, to which she belongs. Do you sympathize with the 
 minority in Rome or the majority in Italy ? \A voice: 
 " IVith Italy."^ To-day the South is the minority in 
 America, and they are fighting for " independence ! " For 
 what? [Uproar. A voice: ''Three cheers for independence," 
 and hisses.'l I could wish so much bravery had had a 
 better cause, and that so much self-denial had been less 
 deluded; that that poisonous and venomous doctrine of 
 State Sovereignty might have been kept aloof; that so 
 many gallant spirits, such as Stonewall Jackson, might 
 
SPEECH IX LIVERPOOL. 533 
 
 Still have lived. \Grcat applause and loud cheers, again and 
 again renewed.^ The force of these facts, historical and in- 
 controvertible, cannot be broken, except through diverting 
 attention by an attack upon the North. It is said that the 
 North is fighting for Union, and not for emancipation. 
 The North is fighting for Union, for that insures emancipa- 
 tion. \^Loud cheers, '■^Oh,oh,'" ^'■No,no," and cheers.'\ A great 
 many men say to ministers of the Gospel: " You pretend 
 to be preaching and working for the love of the people ? 
 Why, you are all the time preaching for the sake of the 
 church." What does the minister say ? " It is by means 
 of the church that we help the people," and when men 
 say that we are fighting for the Union, I too say we are 
 fighting for the Union. [ZT^'^r, hear, and a voice: ^'That's 
 right."'\ But the motive determines the value; and why 
 are we fighting for the Union ? Because we never shall 
 forget the testimony of our enemies. They have gone off 
 declaring that the Union in the hands of the North was 
 fatal to slavery. [Loud applause.] There is testimony in 
 court for you! [A voice: ''''See that," and laughter?^ 
 
 We are fighting for the Union, because we believe that 
 preamble, which explains the very reason for which the 
 Union was constituted. I will read it. " We " — not the 
 States — " We, the People of the United States, in order to 
 form a more perfect Union" \uproar] — I don't wonder you 
 don't want to hear it \laughter\ — " in order to form a more 
 perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tran- 
 quillity [uproar] — provide for the common Defense, pro- 
 mote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of 
 Liberty ["6>//, ^//"] — to ourselves and our posterity, do or- 
 dain and establish this Constitution for the United States 
 of America." \A voice: ^'' How many States?"] It is for the 
 sake of that justice, that common welfare, and that liberty 
 for which the National Union was established, that we fight 
 for the Union. [Interruption?^ Because the South believed 
 that the Union was against slavery, they left it. [Reneiued 
 interruption^ Yes. [Applause, and '■'■ No, no."] To-day, how- 
 ever, if the North believed that the Union was against lib- 
 erty, they would leave it. ["(?//, oh," and great disturbance?] 
 
534 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Gentlemen, I have traveled in the West ten or twelve 
 hours at a time in the mud knee-deep. It was hard, 
 toiling my way, but I always got through my journey. I 
 feel to-night as though I were traveling over a very muddy 
 road; but I think I shall get through. [C/icers.] 
 
 Well, next it is said, that the North treats the negro race 
 worse than the South. [Aj>J>/ause, cries of "Bra7'of" and 
 uproar^ Now, you see I don't fear any of these disagree- 
 able arguments. I am going to face every one of them. 
 In the first place I am ashamed to confess that such was 
 the thoughtlessness — \inter7-itptwn\-~-^\xc\\ was the stupor 
 of the North — \rene%vcd interruption^ — you will get a word 
 at a time; to-morrow will let folks see what it is you don't 
 want to hear — that for a period of twenty-five years she 
 went to sleep, and permitted herself to be drugged and 
 poisoned with the Southern prejudice against black men. 
 \_Applause and uproar^ The evil was made worse, because, 
 when any object whatever has caused anger between 
 political parties, a political animosity arises against that 
 object, no matter how innocent in itself; no matter what 
 were the original influences which excited the quarrel. 
 Thus the colored man has been the football between the 
 two parties in the North, and has suffered accordingly. I 
 confess it to my shame. But I am speaking now on my 
 own ground, for I began twenty-five years ago, with a 
 small party, to combat the unjust dislike of the colored 
 man. \^Loud applause, dissension, and tproar. The interrup- 
 tion at this point became so violent that the friends of Mr. 
 Beecher throughout the hall rose to their feet, waving hats and 
 handkerchiefs, and renewing their shouts of applause. The in- 
 terruption lasted some minutes.^ Well, I have lived to see a 
 total revolution in the Northern feeling — I stand here to 
 bear solemn witness of that. It is not my opinion; it is 
 my knowledge. \^Great uproar?^ Those men who under- 
 took to stand up for the rights of all men — black as well 
 as white — have increased in number; and now what party 
 in the North represents those men that resist the evil 
 prejudices of past years ? The Republicans are that 
 party. [^Loud applause.^ And who are those men in the 
 
SPEECH nV LIVERPOOL. 535 
 
 North that have oppressed the negro ? They are the Peace 
 Democrats; and the prejudice for which in England you are 
 attempting to punish me, is a prejudice raised by the men tvho 
 have opposed me all my life. These pro-slavery Democrats 
 abused the negro. I defended him, and they mobbed me 
 for doing it. Oh, justice ! [^Loud laughter, applause, and 
 hissesJ^ This is as if a man should commit an assault, 
 maim and wound a neighbor, and a surgeon being called 
 in should begin to dress his wounds, and by and by a 
 policeman should come and collar the surgeon and haul 
 him off to prison on account of the wounds which he was 
 healing. 
 
 Now, I told you I would not flinch from anything. I 
 am going to read you some questions that were sent after 
 me from Glasgow, purporting to be from a working man. 
 [Great interruption.'\ If those pro-slavery interrupters think 
 they will tire me out, they will do more than eight millions 
 in America could. \_Applause and reneived interruption^ I 
 was reading a question on your side, too. 
 
 "Is k not a fact that in most of the Northern States laws exist 
 precluding negroes from equal civil and political rights with the 
 whites } That in the State of New York the negro has to be the 
 possessor of at least two hundred and fifty dollars worth of prop- 
 erty to entitle him to the privileges of a white citizen? That in 
 some of the Northern States the colored man, whether bond or 
 free, is by law excluded altogether, and not suffered to enter the 
 State limits, under severe penalties ? and is not Mr. Lincoln's 
 own State one of them ; and in view of the fact that the $20,000,- 
 000 compensation which was promised to Missouri in aid of eman- 
 cipation was defeated in the last Congress (the strongest Repub- 
 lican Congress that ever assembled), what has the North done 
 towards emancipation ? " 
 
 Now, then, there's a dose for you. [A voice: '^Answer //."] 
 And I will address myself to the answering of it. 
 
 And first, the bill for emancipation in Missouri, to which 
 this money was denied, was a bill which was drawn by 
 what we call " log-rollers," who inserted in it an enormously 
 disproportioned price for the slaves. The Republicans 
 offered to give them $10,000,000 for the slaves in Missouri, 
 and they outvoted it because they could not get $12,000,- 
 
536 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 000. Already half the slave-population had been "run" 
 down South, and yet they came up to Congress to get 
 $12,000,000 for what was not worth ten millions, nor even 
 eight millions. 
 
 Now as to those States that had passed " black " laws, 
 as we call them, they are filled with Southern immigrants. 
 The Southern part of Ohio, the Southern part of Indiana, 
 where I myself lived for years, and which I knew like a 
 book, the Southern part of Illinois, where Mr. Lincoln lives 
 \s;reat nproa)-\ these parts are largely settled by immigrants 
 from Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and North 
 Carolina, and it was their votes, or the Northern votes pan- 
 dering for political reasons to theirs, that passed in those 
 States the infamous "black" laws; and the Republicans 
 in these States have a record, clean and white, as having 
 opposed these laws in every instance as " infamous." 
 
 Now as to the State of New York, it is asked whether a 
 negro is not obliged to have a certain freehold property, 
 or a certain amount of property, before he can vote. It is 
 so still in North Carolina and Rhode Island for white* ioWiS 
 — it is so in New York State. [J/r. Beechers voice slightly 
 failed him here, and he was interrupted by a person who tried 
 to i?nitate him; cries of '■'■Shame" and '■'■Turn him out."'\ I 
 am not undertaking to say that these faults of the North, 
 which were brought upon them by the bad example and 
 influence of the South, are all cured; but I do say that they 
 are in a process of cure which promises, if unimpeded by 
 foreign influence, to make all such odious distinctions van- 
 ish. 
 
 " Is it not a fact that in most of the Northern States laws 
 exist precluding negroes from equal civil and political 
 rights with the whites ? " I will tell you. Let us compare 
 the condition of the negro in the North and the South, 
 and that will tell the story. By express law the South 
 takes away from the slave all attributes of manhood, and 
 calls him "chattel," which is another word for "cattle." 
 {^Hear, hear, and hisses.^ No law in any Northern State 
 calls him anything else but a person. ^Applause.'] The 
 South denies the right of legal permanent marriage to the 
 
SPEECH AV LIVERPOOL. 537 
 
 slave. There is not a State in the North where the mar- 
 riage of the slave is not as sacred as that of any free white 
 man. \^Immense cheering.^ Throughout the South, since 
 the slave is not permitted to live in anything but in con- 
 cubinage, his wife, so called, is taken from him at the will 
 of his master, and there is neither public sentiment nor 
 law that can hinder most dreadful and cruel separations 
 every year in every county and town. There is not a State, 
 county, or town, or school district in the North, where, if 
 any man dare to violate the family of the poorest black 
 man, there would not be an indignation that would over- 
 whelm him. \^Loud applause. A voice: '•''How about the New 
 York riots V'\ Pro-slavery Irishmen made that. \Laughter?^ 
 In the South by statutory law it is a penitentiary offense to 
 teach a black man to read and write. In the North not 
 only are hundreds and thousands of dollars of State money 
 expended in teaching colored people, but they have their 
 own schools, their own academies, their own churches, their 
 own ministers, their own lawyers. \Cheers and hisses^ In 
 the South, black men are bred, exactly as cattle are bred 
 in the North, for the market and for sale. Such dealing is 
 considered horrible beyond expression in the North. In 
 the South the slave can own nothing by law \interruptiou\ 
 but in the single city of New York there are ten million 
 dollars of money belonging to free colored people. \^Loud 
 applause?^ In the South no colored man can determine 
 \_uproar'\ — no colored man can determine in the South 
 where he will work, nor at what he will work; but in the 
 North — except in the great cities, where we are crowded 
 by foreigners, — in any country-part, the black man may 
 choose his trade and work at it, and is just as much pro- 
 tected by the laws as any white man in the land. \Applausc.^^ 
 I speak with authority on this point. \Cries of "7V^^."] 
 When I was twelve years old, my father hired Charles 
 Smith, a man as black as lampblack, to work on his farm. 
 I slept in the same room with him. [" Oh, oh."] Ah, that 
 don't suit you! [Uproar.] Now, you see, the South comes 
 out. [Loud latighter.] I ate with him at the same table; I 
 sang with him out of the same hymn-book ["Good."]; I 
 
53^ r A TRIO TIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 cried, when he prayed over me at night; and if I had seri- 
 ous impressions of religion early in life, they were due to 
 the fidelity and example of that poor humble farm-laborer, 
 black Charles Smith. \^Treinendous uproar a?id cheers?[ In 
 the South, no matter what injury a colored man may re- 
 ceive, he is not allowed to appear in court nor to testify 
 against a white man. \^A voice: ^^ That's fact^^ In every 
 single court of the North a respectable colored man is as 
 good a witness as if his face were white as an angel's robe. 
 \^Applaiise and laughter^ I ask any truthful and considerate 
 man whether, in this contrast, it does not appear that, 
 though faults may yet linger in the North uneradicated, 
 the state of the negro in the North is not immeasurably 
 better than anywhere in the South ? \Applause.\ And 
 now, for the first time in the history of America \great 
 interruption], — for the first time in the history of the United 
 States a colored man has received a commission under the 
 broad seal and signature of the President of the United 
 States. \^Loud applause.] This day \^re?iewed interruption^ 
 — this day, Frederick Douglass, of whom you all have heard 
 here, is an officer of the United States [^loud applause], a 
 commissioner sent down to organize colored regiments on 
 Jefferson Davis's farm in Mississippi. [ Uproar and applause, 
 and a voice, " You put them in the front of the battle too."] 
 
 There is another fact that I wish to allude to — not for 
 the sake of reproach or blame, but by way of claiming 
 your more lenient consideration — and that is, that slavery 
 was entailed upon us by your action. S^Hcar, hear.] 
 Against the earnest protests of the colonists the then Gov- 
 ernment of Great Britain — I will concede, not knowing 
 what were the mischiefs — ignorantly, but in point of fact, 
 forced slave traffic on the unwilling colonists. \Great 
 uproar, in the midst of which one individual was lifted ip and 
 carried out of the room amidst cheers and hisses?^ 
 
 The Chairman : If you would only sit down no disturbance 
 would take place. 
 
 The disturbance having subsided, Mr. Beecher proceeded : — 
 I was going to ask you, suppose a child is born with he- 
 reditary disease; suppose this disease was entailed upon 
 
SPEECH IJV LIVERPOOL. 539 
 
 him by parents who had contracted it by their own mis- 
 conduct, would it be fair that those parents, that had 
 brought into the world the diseased child, should rail at 
 that child because it was diseased ? Y'-No, na."] Would 
 not the child have a right to turn round and say, " Father, 
 it was your fault that I had it, and you ought to be pleased 
 to be patient with my deficiencies." \_Applause and hisses, 
 and cries of ^^Ordery^ 
 
 Great interruption and great disturbance here took place on 
 the right of the platform ; and the chairman said that if the per- 
 sons around the inifortunate individual who had caused the dis- 
 turbance would allow him to speak alone, but not assist him in 
 making the disturbance, it might soon be put an end to. The 
 interruption was continued until another person was carried out 
 of the hall. 
 
 Mr. Beecher continued: — 
 
 I do not ask that you should justify slavery in us now 
 because it was wrong in you two hundred years ago; but 
 having ignorantly been the means of fixing it upon us, now 
 that we are struggling with mortal struggles to free our- 
 selves from it, we have a right to your tolerance, your 
 patience, and charitable construction. 
 
 I am every day asked when this war will end. yinter- 
 ruption?[ I wish Icould tell you; but remember, slavery is 
 the cause of the war. [Hear, hear, applause, ""Yes," "iVt'."] 
 Slavery has been working for more than one hundred 
 years, and a chronic evil cannot be suddenly cured; and 
 as war is the remedy, you must be patient to have the con- 
 flict long enough to cure the inveterate hereditary sore. 
 \^Hisses, loud applause, and a voice: " IVell stop //."] But of 
 one thing I think I may give you assurance — this war 
 won't end until the cancer of slavery is cut out by the 
 roots. \^Loiid applause, hisses, and tremendous uproar. '\ I will 
 read you a word from President Lincoln. [Renewed 
 uproar^ It is a letter from Theodore Tilton. [Hisses and 
 cheers.~\ Won't you hear what President Lincoln thinks ? 
 ["iV(?, no."'] Well, you can hear it or not. It will be 
 printed whether you hear it or hear it not. [Hear, and 
 cries of ^'■Read, read."^ Yes, I will read. "A talk with 
 
54° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 President Lincoln revealed to me a great growth of wis- 
 dom. For instance, he said he was not going to press the 
 colonization idea any longer, nor the gradual scheme of 
 emancipation, expressing himself sorry that the Missouri- 
 ans had postponed emancipation for seven years. He 
 said, ' Tell your anti-slavery friends that I am coming out 
 all right.' He is desirous that the Border States shall 
 form free constitutions, recognizing the proclamation, and 
 thinks this will be made feasible by calling on loyal men." 
 YA voice: " What date is that letter 1" and interruption.^ 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I have finished the exposition of 
 this troubled subject. \^Renewcd and continued interruption^ 
 No man can unveil the future; no man can tell what revo- 
 lutions are about to break upon the world; no man can 
 tell what destiny belongs to France, nor to any of the 
 European powers; but one thing is certain, that in the 
 exigencies of the future there will be combinations and re- 
 combinations, and that those nations that are of the same 
 faith, the same blood, and the same substantial interests, 
 ought not to be alienated from each other, but ought to 
 stand together. ^Immense cheering and hisses?[ I do not 
 say that you ought not to be in the most friendly -alliance 
 with France or with Germany; but I do say that your own 
 children, the offspring of England, ought to be nearer to 
 you than any people of strange tongue. \^A voice: ^^Degen- 
 erate sons," applause and hisses; another voice: " What about 
 the Trent 1 "] If there have been any feelings of bitterness 
 in America, let me tell you they have been excited, rightly 
 or wrongly, under the impression that Great Britain was 
 going to intervene between us and our own lawful strug- 
 gle. \^A voice: "No" and applause.l^ With the evidence 
 that there is no such intention all bitter feelings will pass 
 away. • \^.4pplause.~\ We do not agree with the recent doc- 
 trine of neutrality as a question of law. But it is past, and 
 we are not disposed to raise that question. We accept it 
 now as a fact, and we say that the utterance of Lord Rus- 
 sell at Blairgowrie [applause, hisses, and a voice: " IVhat 
 about Lord Brougham 2 "] — together with the declaration 
 of the government in stopping war-steamers here [great 
 
* SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 541 
 
 uproar, and applausc\-\^^^ gone far towards quieting 
 every fear and removing every apprehension from our 
 minds. lUproar and shouts of applause:] And now m 
 the future it is the work of every good man and patriot 
 not to create divisions, but to do the things that will make 
 for peace. ["(9/^ oh;' and laughter.-] On our part it 
 shall be done. {Applause and hisses, a?id "No, no."] On 
 vour part it ought to be done; and when in any of the 
 convulsions that come upon the world, Great Britain finds 
 herself struggling single-handed against the gigantic 
 powers that spread oppression and darkness {applatise, 
 hisses, and uproar], there ought to be such cordiality that 
 she can turn and say to her first-born and most illustrious 
 child, " Come ! " [Hear, hear, applause, tremendous cheers, 
 and uproar.] I will not say that England cannot again, as 
 hitherto single-handed, manage any power [applause and 
 ,,proar]—hnt I will say that England and America together 
 for religion and liberty [a voice: ''Soap, soap," uproar, and 
 great applause-] — ar& a match for the world. [Applause; 
 a voice: ''They don't zmnt ajiy more soft soap."] 
 
 Now, gentlemen and ladies — [a voice: "Sam Slick;" and 
 another voice: "Ladies and geiitlemen, if you please"]— ^\^^rv I 
 came I was asked whether I would answer questions, and 
 I very readily consented to do so, as I had in other places; 
 but I will tell you it was because I expected to have the 
 opportunity of speaking with some sort of ease and quiet. 
 [A voice- "So you have."] I have for an hour and a half 
 spoken against a storm [hear, hcar] — ^.x^^ you yourselves 
 are witnesses that, by the interruption, I have been obliged 
 to strive with my voice, so that I no longer have the power 
 to control it in the face of this assembly. [Applause:] And 
 although I am in spirit perfectly willing to answer any 
 question, and more than glad of the chance, yet I am by this 
 very unnecessary opposition to-night incapacitated physic- 
 ally from doing it. [A voice: " Why did Lincoln delay the proc- 
 lamation of slavery so long 2 "—another voice: "Habeas Corpus." 
 A piece of paper was here handed tip to Mr. Beecher.] 
 
 I am asked a question. I will answer this one. " At the 
 auction of sittings in your church, can the negroes bid on 
 
542 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 equal terms with the whites?" [Cries of '■^No, z/^*."] Per- 
 haps you know better than I do. [Hear, hear.^ But I 
 declare that they can. [Hear, hear, and applause.^ I de- 
 clare that, at no time for ten years past — without any rule 
 passed by the trustees, and without even a request from 
 me — no decent man or woman has ever found molestation 
 or trouble in walking into my church and sitting where he 
 or she pleased. [Applause.^ " Are any of the office-bearers 
 in your church negroes?" No, not to my knowledge. 
 Such has been the practical doctrine of amalgamation in 
 the South that it is very difficult nowadays to tell who is 
 a negro. [Hear, hear, and ''''No, no."^ Whenever a major- 
 ity of my people want a negro to be an officer, he will be 
 one; and I am free to say that there are a great many 
 colored men that I know, who are abundantly capable of 
 honoring any office of trust in the gift of our church. 
 [App/ause.^ But while there are none in my church there 
 is in Columbia county a little church where a negro man. 
 being the ablest business man, and the wealthiest man in 
 that town, is not only a ruler and elder of the church, but 
 also contributes about two-thirds of all the expenses of it. 
 [Hear, hear, and a voice: '''That is the exception, not the ru/e.''^ 
 I am answering these questions, you see, out of gratuitous 
 mercy: I am not bound to do so. 
 
 It is asked whether Pennsylvania was not carried for Mr. 
 Lincoln on account of his advocacy of the Morrill tariff, 
 and whether the tariff was not one of the planks of the Chi- 
 cago platform, on which Mr. Lincoln was elected. I had a 
 great deal to do with that election; but I tell you that 
 whatever local — 
 
 Here the interruptions became so noisy, that it was found im- 
 possible to proceed. The chairman asked how they could expect 
 Mr. Beecher to answer questions amid such a disturbance. When 
 order had been restored, the lecturer proceeded : — 
 
 I am not afraid to leave the treatment I have received at 
 this meeting to the impartial judgment of every fair-play- 
 ing Englishman. When I am asked questions, gentlemanly 
 courtesy requires that I should be permitted to answer 
 them. [A voice from the further end of the room shouted 
 
SPEECH IN LIVERPOOL. 543 
 
 something about the inhabitatits of Liverpool?^ I know that it 
 was in the placards requested to give Mr. Beecher a recep- 
 tion that should make him understand what the opinion 
 of Liverpool was about him. ^^'■No.,no;" and ''''Yes., yesT^ 
 There are two sides to every question, and Mr. Beecher's 
 opinion about his treatment by Liverpool citizens is just 
 as valid as your opinion about Mr. Beecher. Let me say, 
 that if you wish me to answer questions you must be still; 
 for, if I am interrupted, that is the end of the matter. 
 \Hear, hear, a?id "^rai'o."^ 
 
 I have this to say, that I have no doubt the Morrill tariff, 
 or that which is now called so, did exercise a great deal of 
 influence, not alone in Pennsylvania, but in many other 
 parts of the country; because there are many sections of 
 our country — those especially where the manufacture of 
 iron or wool are the predominating industries — that are 
 yet very much in favor of protective tariffs; but the think- 
 ing men and the influential men of both parties are be- 
 coming more and more in favor of free-trade. 
 
 " Can a negro ride in a public vehicle in New York with 
 a white man?" I reply that there are times when politi- 
 cians stir up the passions of the lower classes of men and 
 the foreigners, and there are times just on the eve of an 
 election when the prejudice against the colored man is 
 stirred up and excited, in which they will be disturbed in 
 any part of the city; but taking the course of the year 
 throughout, one year after another, there are but one or 
 two of the city horse-railroads in which a respectable col- 
 ored man will be molested in riding through the city. It 
 is only on one railroad that this happened, and it is one 
 which I have in the pulpit and the press always held up to 
 severe reproof. At the Fulton Ferry there are two lines of 
 omnibuses, one white and the other blue. I had been ac- 
 customed to go in them indifferently; but one day I saw a 
 little paper stuck upon one of them, saying, "Colored peo- 
 ple not allowed to ride in this omnibus." I instantly got 
 out. There are men who stand at the door of these two 
 omnibus lines, urging passengers into one or the other. I 
 am very well known to all of them, and the next day, when 
 
544 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 I came to the place, the agent asked, "Won't you ride, 
 sir?" "No," I said, "I am too much of a negro to ride in 
 that omnibus." \Laughter^^ I do not know whether this 
 had any influence, but I do know, that after a fortnight's 
 time I had occasion to look in, and the placard was gone. 
 I called the attention of every one I met to that fact, and 
 said to them, "Don't ride in that omnibus, which violates 
 your principles, and my principles, and common decency 
 at the same time." I say still further, that in all New 
 England there is not a railway where a colored man can- 
 not ride as freely as a white man. \^Hcar, /imr.] In the 
 whole city of New York, a colored man taking a stage or 
 railway will never be inconvenienced or suffer any dis- 
 courtesy. 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you good evening. 
 
 Mr. Beecher's resuming his seat was the signal for another out- 
 burst of loud and prolonged cheers, hisses, groans, cat-calls, and 
 every conceivable species of expression of approbation and 
 disapprobation. Three cheers were proposed for the lecturer from 
 the galleries, and enthusiastically given. 
 
 The Rev. C. M. Birrell then came forward and said it would 
 have been very unlike the fairness of Englishmen if that assembly 
 had not given to a distinguished stranger [/i/sses] a fair and im- 
 partial hearing; and it would have been as unlike a free American 
 to demand of Englishmen that they should accept his opinions 
 merely because they were his. But, since Mr. Beecher had given 
 to them, under circumstances of great difficulty, and with mar- 
 velous courtesy and patience \Jiear, hear], an elaborate, temperate, 
 and most eloquent lecture, he called upon them to render him a 
 cordial vote of thanks. {Hear, hear, and renewed hisses^ He 
 expected that that vote would be joined in by all the representa- 
 tives of the American slaveholders in that assembly, considering 
 that they had had more instruction that night than they had 
 apparently received during all the previous part of their lives. 
 [" Oh, oh," cheers and laughter^ 
 
 Mr. W. Crossfield, in seconding the resolution, said, as an in- 
 habitant of Liverpool, he had been ashamed at the conduct of 
 that meeting — an assembly of gentlemen, or those who professed 
 to be gentlemen. For himself he most cordially thanked Mr. 
 Beecher for the very interesting lecture they had had. 
 
 The vote was carried with loud and prolonged cheering amid the 
 waving of hats. 
 
SPEECH IN EXETER HALL, LONDON. 
 
 October 20, 1863. 
 
 Under the auspices of the Emancipation Society and the 
 London Committee of Correspondence on American Affairs, a 
 meeting was held in Exeter Hall to hear an address from Mr. 
 Beecher. Exeter Hall, on the Strand, London, holds about 3000 
 people. It was built in 1831, and has been the regular gathering- 
 place of religious assemblies, the " May meetings " of reform 
 societies, etc. 
 
 Long before the hour of meeting the great hall was densely 
 packed by as many human beings as could find sitting or stand- 
 ing room in any part of the edifice, however inconvenient or per- 
 ilous the position. They were both patient and good-humored 
 while waiting for the appearance of Mr. Beecher, who found great 
 difficulty in forcing a way through the enormous mass of people, 
 which, in the Strand and Exeter street, literally beleaguered the 
 place of meeting. On presenting himself to the audience, accom- 
 panied by many of the leading supporters of the Emancipation 
 movement, he was welcomed by long and reiterated plaudits; 
 which were again and again repeated, the audience rising eii 
 fnasse. The friends of Secession had endeavored to stir up some 
 personal feeling against the lecturer by inflammatory placards, 
 which covered every blank wall in the metropolis ; but the result 
 only exhibited their own weakness and the total absence of pop- 
 ular sympathy with their cause. 
 
 The chair was taken shortly after seven o'clock, by Benjamin 
 Scott, Esq., Chamberlain of London.* 
 
 * Mr. James B. Pond, in his volume entitled "A Summer in England 
 (1886) with Henry Ward Beecher " [New York: P'ords, Howard, & Hul- 
 bert, 1S87], says : " It was in this same hall that Mr. Beecher had spoken 
 last in England, at the close of his previous visit, during our American Civil 
 War. At that time our Union was so greatly misunderstood that it was 
 extremely difficult to find in all London a person willing to preside at the 
 hall. Now all was changed. I believe scarcely a clergyman or minister in 
 the city would have declined the honor. But Mr. lieecher said to me : 
 ' Pond, when I spoke here in 1863, and was having hard work to find some 
 35 
 
546 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 The Chairman said: " Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to inform 
 you the crowd outside the building is so dense that Mr. Beecher 
 has not been able to force his way punctually. It has been with 
 the greatest difficulty that I and some other members of the com- 
 mittee have found our way here. You will, therefore, I am sure, 
 make all allowance for Mr. Beecher if he should yet be a few min- 
 utes behind time. [Cheers?^ . . . Our object to-night is to afford 
 an opportunity to a distinguished stranger [c/iec^rs] — to address 
 us on that absorbing topic — a gentleman who is entitled, what- 
 ever opinions we may hold, to our profound respect. [Great 
 cheering.] Whether we regard Henry Ward Beecher as the son 
 of the celebrated Dr. Beecher [/icar~\ — or as the brother of Mrs. 
 Beecher Stowe [c/ieers]— or a stranger visiting our shores — 
 whether we regard him as a gentleman or a Christian minister, 
 and as the uncompromising advocate of human rights [/oiid 
 cheers] — he is entitled to our respectful and courteous attention. 
 \Chcers.] I am quite sure that this assembly of Englishmen and 
 English women will support me in securing for him a respectful 
 hearing. ... I shall myself abstain advisedly from entering 
 upon the subject of to-night's address. I wish merely to take 
 this opportunity of saying how much I esteem the man person- 
 ally, and because he has been the uncompromising advocate for 
 twenty-five years, in times of peace and before the war, of the 
 emancipation of the enslaved and oppressed. He was one of the 
 few thinking men who were the noble pioneers of freedom on 
 the American continent. He was so when it was neither fash- 
 ionable nor profitable to be so. He took his stand, not on the 
 shifting sands of expediency, but on the immovable rock of 
 principle. [Cheers.] He had put his hand to the plough, and 
 would never turn back. Some people had allowed their ears to 
 be stuffed with cotton [laughter and cheers], some were blinded 
 by gold dust, and some had allowed the gag of expediency to be 
 
 one to preside, Mr. Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the city of London, 
 volunteered his services. See if you can find him ; I want him to take the 
 chair to-night.' I did find him, still Chamberlain of the city. He very 
 modestly referred me to others who he said would gladly preside and would 
 lend more honor to the occasion than he could ; but at length he kindly 
 consented to serve for this second time. A large audience of ladies and 
 gentlemen packed the great hall ; and when Mr. Scott appeared, the mem- 
 ory of his earlier action still green, the burst of applause grew as it continued, 
 the audience finally rising, waving handkerchiefs and cheering. Mr. Scott 
 briefly referred to the meeting in the hall twenty-three years ago. He had 
 never regretted occupying the position filled on that occasion, and now 
 Mr. Beecher had asked him to be present again." 
 
* SPEECH IN LONDON. 547 
 
 put in their mouths to quiet them. \Cheers?\ But Henry Ward 
 Beecher stood before the world of America, and for some time 
 stood almost alone, and called things by their right names. 
 \Cheers.\ He had no mealy-mouthed expressions about 'pecul- 
 iar institutions,' 'patriarchal institutions,' and 'paternal institu- 
 tions,' \hear, hear, and laiighter\ — but he called slavery by the 
 old English name of Slavery. [Loud cheers.^ And he charged 
 to the account of that crime cruelty, lust, murder, rapine, piracy. 
 \Loitd cheers^ He minced not his terms or his phrases. He 
 looked right ahead to the course of duty which he had selected, 
 and, regardless of the threats of man or the wrath of man, 
 although the tar-pot was ready for him and the feathers were 
 prepared — although the noose and the halter were ready and al- 
 most about his neck — he went straight onward to the object; and 
 now he has converted — as every man who stands alone for the 
 truth and right will eventually convert^a large majority of those 
 who were originally opposed to him. \Cheers.\ What the hum- 
 ble draper's assistant, Granville Sharpe, did in this country, 
 Henry Ward Beecher and two or three like-minded men have 
 done on the continent of America. When he heard Christian 
 ministers — God save the mark ! — standing in their pulpits with 
 the Book of Truth before them, and stating that the institution 
 of slavery was Christian, he did not mince the matter— he 
 affirmed that it was bred in the bottomless pit. [Loud cheers. \ I 
 honor and respect him for his manliness. He is every inch a 
 man. He is a standard by which humanity may well measure 
 itself. [Loud cheers?^ Would to God we had a hundred such 
 men. [Cheers?^ I will now call upon Mr. Beecher [great cheer- 
 ing'] — but allow me to say that we shall only prolong our meeting 
 in this heated atmosphere by not affording the speakers a fair 
 opportunity of addressing you." [Loud applause.'] 
 
 Mr. Beecher advanced to the front of the platform amidst the 
 most enthusiastic demonstrations of applause. The whole audi- 
 ence stood up: hats and handkerchiefs were waved, and for some 
 minutes the most exciting manifestations of hearty English good 
 feeling were extended to the American advocate of freedom. As 
 the uproarious greeting subsided, a few hisses rose up from the 
 middle of the room, as if a body of serpents had somehow or other 
 found their way into the assembly, and were adding their pro- 
 longed tribute to the general display. Mr. Beecher then addressed 
 the audience as follows, speaking distinctly and deliberately : — 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, the very kind introduction that 
 I have received requires but a single word from me. I 
 
548 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 should be guilty if I could take all the credit which has 
 been generously ascribed to me, for I am not old enough 
 to have been a pioneer. And when I think of such names 
 as Weld, Alvin Stewart, Gerritt Smith, Joshua Leavitt, 
 William Goodell, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, William Lloyd 
 Garrison \loiid applause] — and that most accomplished 
 speaker of the world, Wendell Phillips \_renczved applause] 
 — when I think of multitudes of that peculiar class of 
 Christians called Friends — when I think of the number of 
 men, obscure, without name or fame, who labored in the 
 earliest days at the foundation of this reformation — and 
 when I remember that I came in afterwards to build on 
 their foundation — I cannot permit in this fair country the 
 honors to be put upon me and wrested from those men 
 that deserve them far more than I do. [^C/ieers.] All I can 
 say is this, that when I began my public life I fell into the 
 ranks under the appropriate captains, and fought as well 
 as I knew how, in the ranks or in command. ^Loud cheers.^ 
 As this is my last public address upon the American 
 question in England, I may be permitted to glance briefly 
 at my course here. \^Hear, hear.] At Manchester I at- 
 tempted to give a history of the external political move- 
 ment for fifty years past, so far as it was necessary to 
 illustrate the fact that the present American war was only 
 an overt and warlike form of a contest between liberty and 
 slavery that had been going on politically for half a cent- 
 ury. [^Hear, /lear.] At Glasgow I undertook to show the 
 condition of work or labor necessitated by any profitable 
 system of slavery, demonstrating that it brought labor into 
 contempt, affixing to it the badge of degradation, and that 
 a struggle to extend servile labor across the American con- 
 tinent interests every free working man on the globe. 
 ^Cheers.] For my sincere belief is that the Southern cause 
 is the natural enemy of free labor and the free laborer all 
 the world over. \_Loud cheej-si] In Edinburgh I endeavored 
 to sketch how, out of separate colonies and States intensely 
 jealous of their individual sovereignty, there grew up and 
 was finally established a Nation, and how in that nation 
 of united states two distinct and antagonistic systems 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 549 
 
 were developed and strove for the guidance of the national 
 policy; which struggle at length passed, and the North 
 gained the control. Thereupon the South abandoned the 
 Union simply and solely because the Government was in 
 future to be administered by men who would give their 
 whole influence to freedom. \Loiid cheers^ In Liverpool 
 I labored, under difficulties \laughter and cheers\—to show 
 that slavery in the long run was as hostile to commerce 
 and to manufactures all the world over, as it was to free 
 interests in human society \chcers\ — that a slave nation 
 must be a poor customer, buying the fewest and poorest 
 goods, and the least profitable to the producers \_hcar, 
 hear'] — that it was the interest of every manufacturing 
 country to promote freedom, intelligence, and wealth 
 amongst all nations [^cheers'] — that this attempt to cover 
 the fairest portion of the earth with a slave-population 
 that buys nothing, and a degraded white population that 
 buys next to nothing, should array against it every true 
 political economist and every thoughtful and far-seeing 
 manufacturer, as tending to strike at the vital want 
 of commerce — which is not cotton, but rich customers. 
 [C/iecrs.] I have endeavored to enlist against this flagi- 
 tious wickedness, and the great civil war which it has 
 kindled, the judgment, conscience, and interests, of the 
 British people. \^C7iccrs.] 
 
 I am aware that a popular address before an excited 
 audience more or less affected by party sympathies is not 
 the most favorable method of doing justice to these mo- 
 jnentous topics; and there have been some other circum- 
 stances which made it yet more difficult to present a care- 
 ful or evenly balanced statement; but I shall do the best I 
 can to leave no vestige of doubt, that slavery was the 
 cause — the only cause — the whole cause — of this gigantic 
 and cruel war. [^Cheers.] I have tried to show that sym- 
 pathy for the South, however covered by excuses or soft- 
 ened by sophistry, is simply sympathy with an audacious 
 attempt to build up a slave -empire pure and simple. 
 ^Hear, /leai-.'] I have tried to show that in this contest the 
 North were contending for the preservation of their Gov- 
 
55° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ernment and their own territory, and those popular insti- 
 tutions on which the Vv^ell-being of the nation depended. 
 YHear, kear.'\ So far, I have spoken to the English from an 
 English point of view. To-night I ask you to look to this 
 struggle from an American point of view, and in its moral 
 aspects. \^Hear, hear.^ That is, I wish you to take our 
 stand-point for a little while [cheers] — and to look at our 
 actions and motives, not from what the enemy says, but 
 from what we say. [Cheers.] When two men have dis- 
 agreed, you seldom promote peace between them by at- 
 tempting to prove that either of them is all right or either 
 of them is all wrong. [Hear, hear.] Now there has been 
 some disagreement of feeling between America and Great 
 Britain. I don't want to argue the question to-night which 
 is right and which is wrong; but if some kind neighbor 
 will persuade two people that are at disagreement to con- 
 sider each other's position and circumstances, it may not 
 lead either to adopting the other's judgment, but it may 
 lead them to say of each other, " I think he is honest and 
 means well, even if he be mistaken." [Loud cheers.] You 
 may not thus get a settlement of the difficulty, but you will 
 get a settlement of the quarrel. [Hear, hear.] I merely ask 
 you to put yourselves in our track for one hour, and look 
 \ at the objects as we look at them [cheers] — after that, form 
 your judgment as you please. [Cheers.] 
 
 The first and earliest mode in which the conflict took 
 place between North and South was purely moral. It was 
 a conflict simply of opinion and of truths by argument; and 
 by appeal to the moral sense it was sought to persuade the 
 slaveholder to adopt some plan of emancipation. [Hear, 
 hear.] When this seemed to the Southern sensitiveness 
 unjust and insulting, it led many in the North to silence, 
 especially as the South seemed to apologize for slavery 
 rather than to defend it against argument. It was said, 
 "The evil is upon us; we cannot help it. We are sullied, 
 but it is a misfortune rather than a fault. [Cheers.] It is 
 not right for the North to meddle with that which is made 
 worse by being meddled with, even by argument or ap- 
 peal." That was the earlier portion of the conflict. A 
 
SPEECH IN LONDOX. 551 
 
 great many men were deceived by it. I never myself 
 yielded to the fallacy. As a minister of the gospel preach- 
 ing to sinful men, I thought it my duty not to give in to 
 this doctrine; their sins were on them, and I thought it 
 my duty not to soothe them, but rather to expose them. 
 \Cheers^ The next stage of the conflict was purely polit- 
 ical. The South were attempting to extend their slave sys- 
 tem into the Territories, and to prevent free States from 
 covering the continent, by bringing into the Union a slave 
 State for every free State. It was also the design and 
 endeavor of the South not simply to hold and employ the 
 enormous power and influence of the Central Executive, 
 but also to engraft into the whole Federal Government a 
 slave State policy. They meant to fill all offices at home 
 and abroad with men loyal to slavery — to shut up the road 
 to political preferment against men who had aspirations for 
 freedom, and to corrupt the young and ambitious by oblig- 
 ing them to swear fealty to slavery as the condition of suc- 
 cess. I am saying what I know. I have seen the progressive 
 corruption of men naturally noble, educated in the doctrine 
 of liberty, who, being bribed by political offices, at last 
 bowed the knee to Moloch. The South pursued a uniform 
 system of bribing and corrupting ambitious men of North- 
 ern consciences. A far more dangerous part of its policy 
 was to change the Constitution, not overtly, not by external 
 aggression — worse, to fill the courts with Southern judges 
 \shame\ — until, first by laws of Congress passed through 
 Southern influence, and secondly, by the construction and 
 adjudication of the courts, the Constitution having become 
 more and more tied up to Southern principles, the North 
 would have to submit to slavery, or else to oppose it by 
 violating the law and constitution as construed by servile 
 judges. S^Hear, hear.\ They were, in short, little by little, 
 injecting the laws, constitution, and policy of the country 
 with the poison and blood of slavery. \Cheers?^ I will 
 not let this stand on my own testimony. I am going to 
 read the unconscious corroboration of this by Mr. Stephens, 
 now the Vice-President of the present Confederacy — one, 
 to his credit be it said, who at one time was a most sincere 
 and earnest opponent of Secession. It is as follows: — 
 
552 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 " This step [of Secession] once taken, can never be recalled; and all the 
 baleful and withering consequences that must follow will rest on the con- 
 vention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our 
 lovely South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will 
 inevitably invite and call forth ; when our green fields of waving harvests 
 shall be trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war 
 sweeping over our land ; our temples of justice laid in ashes ; all the hor- 
 rors and desolation of war upon us ; who but this convention will be held 
 responsible for it ? and who but him who shall have given his vote for this 
 unwise and ill-timed measure, as I honestly think and believe, shall be 
 held to strict account for this suicidal act by the present generation, and 
 probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all coming time, for the 
 wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you now pro- 
 pose to perpetrate ? Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment 
 what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer 
 moments — what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the calam- 
 ity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the nations of 
 the earth to justify it.'' They will be the calm and deliberate judges in the 
 case ; and what cause or one overt act can you name or point on which to 
 rest the plea of justification .-' What right has the A^orth assailed? What 
 interest of the South has been invaded.'' What justice has been denied? 
 and what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld.'' Can 
 either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and 
 pur]3osely done by the Government of Washington, of which the South has 
 a right to complain ? I challenge the answer. While, on the other hand, 
 let me show the facts (and believe me, gentlemen, I am not here the advo- 
 cate of the North ; but I am here the friend, the firm friend and lover of 
 the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus plainly and 
 faithfully, for yours, mine, and every other man's interest, the words of 
 truth and soberness), of which I wish you to judge, and I will only state 
 facts which are clear and undeniable, and which now stand as records au- 
 thentic in the history of our country. When we of the South demanded the 
 slave-trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, 
 did they not yield the right for twenty years.? When we asked a three- 
 fifths representation in Congress for our slaves was it not granted .'' When 
 we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the re- 
 covery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorjjorated 
 in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened in the Fugitive 
 Slave Law of 1850 .' But do you reply that in many instances they have 
 violated this compact and have not been faithful to their engagements.'' 
 As individual and local communities they may have done so; but not by 
 the sanction of Government ; for that has always been true to Southern 
 interests. Again, gentlemen, look at another fact, W'hen we have asked 
 that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution 
 of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, 
 Florida, and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, and ample 
 territory for four more may be added in due time if you by this unwise and 
 
SPEECH IN LOXDON. 553 
 
 impolitic act, do not destroy this hope, and perhaps by it lose all, and 
 have your last slave wrenched from you by stern military rule, as South 
 America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive decree of a universal eman- 
 cipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow. But, again, gentle- 
 men, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our relation to the 
 general Government? We have always had the control of it, and can yet, 
 if we remain in it and are as united as we have been. We have had a 
 majority of the Presidents chosen from the South ; as well as the control and 
 management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty 
 years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the ex- 
 ecutive department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had 
 eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North ; although nearly 
 four-fifths of the judicial business has arisen in the Free States, yet a 
 majority of the court has always been from the South. This we have re- 
 quired so as to guard against any interpretation of the Constitution un- 
 favorable to us. In like manner we have been equally watchful to guard 
 our interest in the legislative branch of Government. In choosing the pre- 
 siding Presidents {pro tctn.) of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their 
 eleven. Speakers of the House we have had twenty-three, and they twelve. 
 While the majority of the representatives, from their greater population, 
 have always been from the North, yet we have so generally secured the 
 Speaker, because he, to a greater extent, shapes and controls the legislation 
 of the country. Nor have we had less control in every other department 
 of the general Government. Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, 
 while the North have had but five. Foreign ministers we have had eighty- 
 six and they but fifty-four. While three-fourths of the business which de- 
 mands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free States, from 
 their greater commercial interests, yet we have had the principal embassies, 
 so as to secure the world's markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar on 
 the best possible terms. We have had a vast majority of the higher offices 
 of both army and navy, while a larger proportion of the soldiers and sailors 
 were drawn from the North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and comp- 
 trollers filling the executive department, the records show for the last fifty 
 years that of the three thousand thus employed, we have had more than 
 two-thirds of the same, while we have but one-third of the white popula- 
 tion of the Republic. Again, look at another item, and one, be assured, in 
 which we have a great and vital interest; it is that of revenue, or means of 
 supporting Government. From official documents we learn that a fraction 
 over three-fourths of the revenue collected for the support of the Govern- 
 ment has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now, while you 
 can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important 
 items. Leaving out of view, for the present, the countless millions of dol- 
 lars you must expend in a war with the North ; with tens of thousands of 
 your sons and brothers slain in battle, and offered up as sacrifices upon 
 the altar of your ambition — and for what ? we ask again. Is it for the 
 overthrow of the American Government, established by our common 
 ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and blood, and founded on 
 
554 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the broad principles of right, justice, and humanity? And, as such, I must 
 declare here, as I have often done before, and which has been repeated by 
 the greatest and wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, 
 that it is the best and freest Goz'erninent — the most equal in its rights, the most 
 jnst ill its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its 
 principles to elevate the race of men, that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. 
 Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under 
 which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a century — in which 
 we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety 
 while the elements of peril are around us, with peace and tranquillity ac- 
 companied with unbounded prosperity and rights unassailed — is the height 
 of i/iadncss, folly, and wickedness, to whicli I can neither lend my sanction 
 nor my vote." 
 
 Was there ever such an indictment unconsciously laid 
 against any people ! [C//cers.] Here Mr. Stephens, talk- 
 ing to people in Georgia, quite unconscious that his 
 speech would be reported, that it would appear in the 
 Northern press, and be read in Exeter Hall to an English 
 audience — tells you what has been the plan and what have 
 been the effects of Southern domination on the national 
 policy, on the Government, and on the courts during the 
 last fifty years. The object of Southern policy, early com- 
 menced and steadily pursued, was to control the Govern- 
 ment and to establish a slave-influence throughout North 
 America. Now, take notice first, that the North, hating 
 slavery, having rid itself of slavery at a great cost, and 
 longing for its extinction throughout America, was unable 
 until this war to touch slavery directly. The North could 
 only contend against slave -f>o/icy — not directly against 
 slavery. Why ? Because slavery was not the creature of 
 national law, and therefore not subject to national jurisdic- 
 tion, but of State law, and subject only to State jurisdic- 
 tion. A direct act on the part of the North to abolish 
 slavery would have been revolutionary. [A voice : " We 
 do not understand you. ''^ You will understand me before I 
 have done with you to-night. \Checrs?[ Such an attack 
 would have been a violation of a fundamental principle of 
 State independence. This peculiar structure of our Gov- 
 ernment is not so unintelligible to Englishmen as you may 
 think. It is only taking an English idea on a larger scale. 
 We have borrowed it from you. A great many do not un- 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 555 
 
 derstand how it is that there should be State independence 
 under a national Government. Now I am not closely ac- 
 quainted with your affairs, but the Chamberlain can tell 
 you if I am wrong, when I say, that there belong to the old 
 city of London certain private rights that Parliament can- 
 not meddle with. Yet there are elements in which Parlia- 
 ment — that is, the will of the nation — is as supreme over 
 London as over any town or city of the realm. Now, if 
 there are some things which London has kept for her own 
 judgment and will, and yet others which she has given up 
 to the national will, you have herein the principle of the 
 American Government [tV/^'^rx] by which certain local 
 matters belong exclusively to the local jurisdiction, and 
 certain general matters to the national Government. I will 
 give you another illustration that will bring it home to 
 you. There is not a street in London, but, as soon as a 
 man is inside his house, he may say, his house is his castle. 
 There is no law in the realm which can lay down to that 
 man how many members shall compose his family — how 
 he shall dress his children — when they shall get up and 
 when they shall go to bed — how many meals he shall have 
 a day, and of what those meals shall be constituted. The 
 interior economy of the house belongs to the members of 
 the house, yet there are many respects in which every 
 householder is held in check by common rights. They 
 have their own interior and domestic economy, yet they 
 share in other things which are national and governmental. 
 It may be very wrong to give children opium, but all the doc- 
 tors in London cannot say to a man that he shall not drug 
 his child. It is his own business, and if it is wrong it can- 
 not be interfered with. I will give you another illustration. 
 Five men form a partnership of business. Now, that part- 
 nership represents the national Government of the United 
 States; but it has relation only to certain great commercial 
 interests common to them all. Yet each of these five men 
 has another sphere — his family — and in that sphere the 
 man may be a*drunkard, a gambler, a lecherous and in- 
 decent man, but the firm cannot meddle with his morals. 
 It cannot touch anything but business interests that belong 
 
556 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to the firm. Now, our States came together on this doc- 
 trine — that each State, in respect to those rights and insti- 
 tutions that were local and peculiar to it, was to have un- 
 divided sovereignty over its own affairs; but that all those 
 powers, such as taxes, wars, treaties of peace, which belong 
 to one State, and which are common to all States, went into 
 the general Government. The general Government never 
 had the power — the power was never delegated to it — to 
 meddle with the interior and domestic economy of the 
 States, and it never could be done. 
 
 You understand, then, that it was only that part of 
 slavery which escaped from the State jurisdiction, and 
 which entered into the national sphere, which formed the 
 subject of ante-bellum controversy. We could not justly 
 touch the Constitution of the States, but only the policy 
 of the national Government, that came out beyond the 
 State and appeared in Congress and in the Territories. 
 \Chtcrs?j^ We are bound to abide by our fundamental law. 
 Honor, fidelity, integrity, as well as patriotism, required us 
 to abide by that law. The great conflict between the South 
 and North, until this war began, was, which should control 
 the Federal or central Government, and what we call the 
 Territories; that is, lands which are the property of the whole 
 Union, and have not yet received separate State rights. 
 [C/ieers.] That was the conflict. It was not " Emancipation" 
 or "No Emancipation;" Government had no business with 
 that question. Before the war, the only thing on which 
 politically the free people of the North and South took 
 their respective sides was, " Shall the National policy be 
 free or slave ? " And I call you to witness that forbear- 
 ance, though not a showy virtue — fidelity, though not a 
 shining quality — are fundamental to manly integrity. 
 {Cheers?^ During a period of eighty years, the North, 
 whose wrongs I have just read out to you, not from her 
 own lips, but from the lips of her enemy, has stood faith- 
 fully to her word. With scrupulous honor she has re- 
 spected legal rights, even when they were #ierely civil and 
 not moral rights. The fidelity of the North to the great 
 doctrine of State rights, which was born of her — her for- 
 
SPEECH IN LOXDON. 557 
 
 bearance under wrong, insult; and provocation — her con- 
 scientious and honorable refusal to meddle with the evil 
 which she hated, and which she saw to be aiming at the 
 life of Government, and at her own life— her determina- 
 tion to hold fast pact and constitution, and to gain her 
 victories by giving the people a new National policy — will 
 yet be deemed worthy of something better than a con- 
 temptuous sneer, or the allegation of an "enormous na- 
 tional vanity." \Chccrs?[ The Northern forbearance is 
 one of those themes of which we may be justly proud 
 ["(9/^," and cheers] — a product of virtue, a fruit of liberty, 
 an inspiration of that Christian faith, which is the mother 
 at once of truth and of liberty. [^C/ieers.] I am proud to 
 think that there is such a record of national fidelity as 
 that which the North has written for herself by the pen of 
 her worst enemies. Now that is the reason why the North 
 did not at first go to war to enforce emancipation. She 
 went to war to save the National institutions; [r/^i^vv-^'] 
 — to save the Territories; to sustain those laws, which 
 would first circumscribe, then suffocate, and finally destroy 
 slavery. [^Cheers.] That is the reason why that most 
 true, honest, just, and conscientious magistrate, Mr. Lin- 
 coln — 
 
 The announcement of Mr. Lincoln's name was received with 
 loud and continued cheering. The whole audience rose and 
 cheered for some time, and it was a few minutes before Mr, 
 Beecher could proceed. 
 
 From having spoken much at tumultuous assemblies I 
 had at times a fear that when I came here this evening my 
 voice would fail from too much speaking. But that fear 
 is now changed to one that your voices will fail from too 
 much cheering. \^Lai/g/iter.] 
 
 How then did the North pass from a conflict with the 
 South concerning a general slave policy, to a direct attack 
 upon the institutions of slavery itself ? Because, according 
 to the foreshadowing of that wisest man of the South, Mr. 
 Stephens, they beleaguered the national Government and 
 the national life with the institution of slavery — -obliged a 
 sworn President, who was put under oath not to invade 
 
558 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 that institution, to take his choice between the safety and 
 life of the Government itself, or the slavery by which it 
 was beleaguered. [CV/twi'.] If any man lays an obstruc- 
 tion on the street, and blocks up the street, it is not the 
 fault of the people if they walk over it. As the funda- 
 mental right of individual self-defense cannot be with- 
 drawn without immorality — so the first element of national 
 life is to defend life. ' As no man attacked on the highway 
 violates law, but obeys the law of self-defense — a law in- 
 side of the laws — by knocking down his assailant; so, 
 when a nation is assaulted, it is a right arfd duty, in the 
 exercise of self-defense, to destroy the enemy, by which 
 otherwise it will be destroyed. \Hear^ As long as the 
 South allowed it to be a moral and political conflict of 
 policy, we were content to meet the issue as one of policy. 
 But when they threw down the gauntlet of war, and said 
 that by it slavery was to be adjudicated, we could do noth- 
 ing else than take up the challenge. \^Loud cJieers?[ The 
 police have no right to enter your house as long as you 
 keep within the law, but when you defy the laws and en- 
 danger the peace and safety of the neighborhood they 
 have a right to enter. So in our constitutional Govern- 
 ment; it has no power to touch slavery while slavery re- 
 mains a State institution. But when it lifts itself up out 
 of its State humility and becomes banded to attack the 
 Nation, it becomes a national enemy, and has no longer 
 exemption. [C/z^vri-.] 
 
 But it is said," The President issued his proclamation after 
 all for political effect, not for humanity." \Cries of hear, 
 /icar.'] Of course the right of issuing a proclamation. of 
 emancipation was political, but the disposition to do it was 
 personal. [Lo/ui c/ieers.] Mr. Lincoln is an officer of the 
 State, and in the Presidential chair has no more right than 
 your judge on the bench to follow his private feelings. [Aj>- 
 plause?[ He is bound to ask, "What is the law ?" not "What 
 is my sympathy ? " \^Hcar, hear7[ And when a judge sees 
 that a rigid execution or interpretation of the law goes along 
 with primitive justice, with humanity, and with pity, he is 
 all the more glad because his private feelings go with his 
 
♦ SPEECH IN LONDON. 559 
 
 public office. \Chcers?f^ Perhaps in the next house to a 
 kind and benevolent surgeon is a boy who fills the night 
 with groans, because he has a cancerous and diseased leg. 
 The surgeon would fain go in and amputate that limb and 
 save that life; but he is not called in, and therefore he has 
 no business to go in, though he ever so much wish it. 
 \Hear, hear.^ But at last the father says to him, " In the 
 name of God, come in and save my child;" and he goes 
 in professionally and cuts off the leg and saves the life, to 
 the infinite disgust of a neighbor over the way, who says, 
 " Oh, he would not go in from neighborly feeling and cut 
 the leg off." \_Loiid applaiisei\ I should like to know how 
 any man has a right to cut your leg or mine off except 
 professionally \laiighter and cheers\ — and so a man must 
 often wait for official leave to perform the noblest offices 
 of justice and humanity. Here then is the great stone of 
 stumbling. At first the President could not touch slavery, 
 because in time of peace it was a legal institution. How 
 then can he do it now ? Because in time of war it has 
 stepped beyond its former sphere, and is no longer a local 
 institution, but a national and public enemy. \_Applause.\ 
 Now I promised to make that clear: have I done it? 
 [^Hear, hear, and applause.^ 
 
 It is said, " Why not let the South go ? " [^Hear, hear, 
 and cheers?^ "Since they won't be at peace with you, why 
 do you not let them separate from you ? " Because they 
 would be still less peaceable tvhen separated. \^Hear, hear.^ 
 Oh, if the Southerners only would go ! \^La lighter.'] They 
 are determined to stay — that is the trouble. [^Hear, hear.] 
 We would furnish free passage to all of them if they would 
 go. But we say. The land is ours. [^Cheers.] Let them 
 go, and leave to the nation its land, and they will have our 
 unanimous consent. [^Renewed cheers.] 
 
 But I wish to discuss this more carefully. It is the very 
 marrow of the matter. I ask 3^ou to stand in our place for 
 a little time, and seeing this question as we see it, afterwards 
 make up your judgment. [^Hear, hear.] 
 
 And first, this war began by the act of the South — firing 
 at the old flag that had covered both sections with glory 
 
560 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and protection. \^Applausei\ The attack made upon us 
 was under circumstances which inflicted imrnediate severe 
 humiliation and threatened us with final subjugation. 
 The Southerners held all the keys of the country. They 
 had robbed our arsenals. They had made our treasury 
 bankrupt. They had possession of the most important 
 offices in the army and navy. They had the vantage of 
 having long anticipated and prepared for the conflict. 
 \Hear, heari\ We knew not whom to trust. One man 
 failed, and another man failed. Men, pensioned by the 
 Government, lived on the salary of the Government only 
 to have better opportunities to stab and betray it. There 
 was not merely one Judas, there were a thousand in our 
 country. [Zr<'<7r, hear.^ and hisses^ And for the North 
 to have lain down like a spaniel — to have given up the 
 land that every child in America is taught, as every child 
 in Britain is taught, to regard as his sacred right and his 
 trust — to have given up the mouths of our own rivers and 
 our mountain citadel without a blow, would have marked 
 the North in all future history as craven and mean. \^Loiid 
 cheers and some /lisscs.^^ 
 
 Second, the honor and safety of that grand experiment, 
 self-government by free institutions, demanded that so 
 flagitious a violation of the first principles of legality 
 should not carry off impunity and reward, thereafter 
 enabling the minority in every party conflict to turn and 
 say to the majority, " If you don't give us our way we 
 will make war." Oh, Englishmen, would you let a minor- 
 ity dictate in such a way to you ? S^Loiid cries of '•''No, 
 no, never! " and cheers^^ Three thousand miles off don't 
 make any dift'erence, then ? \^''No, no."] The principle 
 thus introduced would literally have no end — would carry 
 the nation back to its original elements of isolated States. 
 Nor is there any reason why it should stop with States. 
 If every treaty may be overthrown by which States have 
 been settled into a Nation, what form of political union 
 may not on like grounds be severed ? There is the same 
 force in the doctrine of Secession in the application to 
 counties as in the application to States; and if it be right 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 561 
 
 for a State or a county to secede, it is equally right for a 
 town and a city. \Cheersi\ This doctrine of Secession is 
 a huge revolving millstone that grinds the national life to 
 powder. \Cheers^ It is anarchy in velvet, and national 
 destruction clothed in soft phrases and periphrastic ex- 
 pressions. [C/icers.] But we have fought with that devil 
 " Slavery," and understand him better than you do. [Loud 
 c/ieers.l No people with patriotism and honor will give 
 up territory without a struggle for it. [C/ieers.l Would 
 you give it up ? [Loud cries of "iV^c?."] It is said that the 
 States are owners of their territory ! It is theirs to use, 
 not theirs to run away with. We have equal right with 
 them to enter it. Let me inform you that when those 
 States first sat in convention to form a Union, a resolution 
 was introduced by the delegates from South Carolina and 
 Virginia, " That we now proceed to form a National Gov- 
 ernment." The delegate from Connecticut objected. The 
 New Englanders were State-right Wien, and the South, in 
 the first instance, seemed altogether for a National Gov- 
 ernment. Connecticut objected, and a debate took place 
 whether it should be a Constitution for a mere Confeder- 
 acy of States, or for a nation formed out of those States. 
 [A voice: "JV/ien was thatV'\ It was in the Constitutional 
 Convention of 17S7. 
 
 He wants to help me. [Laughter^ I like such interrup- 
 tions. I am here a friend amongst friends. [Cheersi\ 
 Nothing will please me better than any question asked in 
 courtesy and in earnest to elucidate this subject. I am not 
 afraid of being interrupted by questions which are to the 
 point. [Cheers^ 
 
 At this convention the resolution of the New England 
 delegates that they should form a Confederacy instead of 
 a Nation was voted down; and never came up again. 
 [Cheers^^ The first draft of the preamble contained these 
 words: "We, the people of the United States, for the pur- 
 pose of forming a Nation; " but as there was a good deal 
 of feeling between the North and South on the subject, 
 when the draft came to the committee for revision, and 
 
 they had simply to put in the proper phraseology, they put 
 
 36 
 
562 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 it " for the purpose of forming a Union." When, later, the 
 question whether the States were to hold their autocracy 
 came up in South Carolina — it was called the Carolina 
 heresy — that too was put down; and never lifted its head 
 up again until this Secession, when it was galvanized to jus- 
 tify that which has no other pretense to justice. \Chee)■s^^ 
 I would like to ask those English gentlemen who hold that 
 it is right for a State to secede when it pleases, how they 
 would like it, if the county of Kent should try the experi- 
 ment. l^Hear, hcar^ The men who cry out for Secession 
 of the Southern States in America would say, "Kent se- 
 ceding? Ah, circumstances alter cases!" \Chcers and 
 laughter?^ The Mississippi, which is our Southern door 
 and hall to come in and to go out, runs right through the 
 territory which they tried to rend from us. The South 
 magnanimously offered to let us use it; but what would 
 you say if, on going home, you found a squad of gypsies 
 seated in your hall, who refused to be ejected, saying, 
 " But look here, we will let you go in and out on equitable 
 and easy terms." \Cheers and laughter^ 
 
 But there was another question involved — the question 
 of national honor. If you take up and look at the map 
 that delineates the mountainous features of that continent, 
 you will find the peculiar structure of the Alleghany ridge, 
 beginning in New Hampshire, running across the New 
 England States through Pennsylvania and West Virginia, 
 stopping in the Northern part of Georgia. S^Hear, hear^ 
 Now, all the world over, men that live in mountainous 
 regions have been men for liberty \chcers\ — and from the 
 first hour to this hour the majority of the population of 
 Western Virginia, which is in this mountainous region, the 
 majorit)?- of the population of Eastern Tennessee, of West- 
 ern Carolina, and of North Georgia, have been true to the 
 Union, and were urgent not to go out. They called to the 
 National Government, "We claim that, in fulfillment of 
 the compact of the Constitution, you defend our rights, 
 and retain us in the Union." \Chee7's^ We would not 
 suffer a line of fire to be established one thousand five 
 hundred miles along our Southern border from which, in 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 563 
 
 a coming hour, there might shoot out wars and disturb- 
 ances, with such a people as the slaveholding South, that 
 never kept faith in the Union, and would never keep faith 
 out of it. They have disturbed the land as old Ahab of 
 accursed memory did \cheers and hisses\ and when Elijah 
 found this Ahab in the way, Ahab said, " It is Elijah that 
 has disturbed Israel." \^A lai/g/i.^^ Now we know the nature 
 of this people. We know that if we entered into a truce 
 with them they would renew their plots and violences, and 
 take possession of the continent in the name of the devil 
 AND SLAVERY. \^C/ieers.'\ 
 
 One more reason why we will not let this people go is 
 because we do not want to become a military people. A 
 great many say America is becoming too strong; she is 
 dangerous to the peace of the world. But if you permit 
 or favor this division, the South becomes a military nation, 
 and the North is compelled to become a military nation. 
 Along a line of 1,500 miles she must have forts and men to 
 garrison them. These 250,000 soldiers will constitute the 
 national standing army of the North. Now any nation 
 that has a large standing army is in great danger of losing 
 its liberties. ["iW, no."'\ Before this war the legal size of 
 the national army was 25,000; that was all. The actual 
 number was 18,000, and those were all the soldiers we 
 wanted. The New York Tribune and other papers repeat- 
 edly said that even these were useless in our nation. But 
 if the country were divided, then we should have two great 
 military nations taking its place, and instead of a paltry 
 18,000 soldiers, there would be 250,000 on one side and 
 100,000 or 200,000 on the other. And if America, by this 
 ill-advised disruption, is forced to have a standing army, 
 like a boy with a knife, she will always want to whittle 
 with it. \^Laughter and cheers?^ It is the interest, then, of 
 the world, that the nation should be united, and that it 
 should be under the control of that part of America that 
 has always been for peace \cheers^ and cries of ''''No., no "], 
 that it should be wrested from the control and policy of that 
 part of the nation that has always been for more territory, 
 for filibustering, for insulting foreign nations. \Cheers.'\ 
 
564 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 But that is not all. The religious-minded among our 
 people feel that in the territory com.mitted to us there is a 
 high and solemn trust — a national trust. We are taught 
 that in some sense the world itself is a field, and every 
 Christian nation acknowledges a certain responsibility for 
 the moral condition of the globe. But how much nearer 
 does it come when it is one's own country ! And the 
 Church of America is coming to feel more and more that 
 God gave us this country, not merely for material ag- 
 grandizement, but for a glorious triumph of the Church 
 of Christ. \Checrsi\ Therefore we undertook to rid the 
 territory of slavery. Since slavery has divested itself of 
 its municipal protection, and has become a declared public 
 enemy, it is our duty to strike down the slavery which 
 would blight this fair western land. When I stand and 
 look out upon that immense territory as a man, as a citi- 
 zen, as a Christian minister, I feel myself asked, " Will you 
 permit that vast country to be overclouded by this curse ? 
 Will you permit the cries of bondmen to issue from that 
 fair territory, and do nothing for their liberty ? " What 
 are we doing ? Sending our ships round the globe, carry- 
 ing missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, to the islands of 
 the Pacific, to Asia, to all Africa. And yet, when this 
 work of redeeming our continent from the heathendom of 
 slavery lies before us, there are men who counsel us to 
 give it up to the devil, and not try to do anything with it. 
 Ah ! independent of pounds and pence, independent of 
 national honor, independent of all merely material consid- 
 erations, there is pressing on every conscientious Northern- 
 er's mind this highest of all considerations — our duty to 
 God to save that country from the blast and blight of 
 slavery. \Cheers^ Yet how many are there who up, down, 
 and over all England are saying, "Let slavery go — let 
 slavery go " ? It is recorded, I think, in the biography of 
 one of the most noble of your own countrymen, Sir. T. 
 Fowell Buxton \cheers\ that on one occasion a huge 
 favorite dog was seized with hydrophobia. With wonder- 
 ful courage he seized the creature by the neck and collar, 
 and against the animal's mightiest efforts, dashing hither 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 565 
 
 and thither against wall and fence, held him until help 
 could be got. If there had been Englishmen there of the 
 stripe of the Times, they would have said to Fowell Buxton, 
 "Let him go;" but is there one here who does not feel 
 the moral nobleness of that man, who rather than let the 
 mad animal go down the street biting children and women 
 and men, risked his life and prevented the dog from doing 
 evil ? Shall we allow that hell hound of slavery, mad, 
 mad as it is, to go biting millions in the future? \Cheers.\ 
 We will peril life and limb and all we have first. These 
 truths are not exaggerated — they are diminished rather 
 than magnified in my statement; and you cannot tell how 
 powerfully they are influencing us unless you were stand- 
 ing in our midst in America; you cannot understand how 
 firm that national feeling is which God has bred in the 
 North on this subject. It is deeper than the sea; it is 
 firmer than the hills; it is serene as the sky over our head, 
 where God dwells. \Chcers?^ 
 
 But it is said, "What a ruthless business this war of ex- 
 termination is ! I have heard it stated that a fellow from 
 America, purporting to be a minister of the gospel of 
 peace, had come over to England, and that that fellow had 
 said he was in favor of a war of extermination." Well, 
 if he said so he will stick to it; \checrs\ — but not in the 
 way in which enemies put these words. Listen to the 
 way in which I put them, for if I am to bear the respon- 
 sibility it is only fair that I should state them in my own 
 way. We believe that the war is a test of our institu- 
 tions; that it is a life-and-death struggle between the two 
 principles of liberty and slavery — \chcers\—XhsX it is the 
 cause of the common people all the world over. ^Re- 
 nnued c/iecis.'] We believe that every struggling nation- 
 ality on the globe will be stronger if we conquer this odious 
 oligarchy of slavery, and that every oppressed people in 
 the world will be weaker if we fail. \^C/ieers.^^ The sober 
 American regards the war as part of that awful yet glori- 
 ous struggle which has been going on for hundreds of 
 years in every nation between right and wrong, between 
 virtue and vice, between liberty and despotism, between 
 
566 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 freedom and bondage. It carries with it the whole future 
 condition of our vast continent — its laws, its policy, its 
 fate. And standing in view of these tremendous realities 
 we have consecrated all that we have — our children, our 
 wealth, our national strength — we lay them all on the 
 altar and say, " It is better that they should all perish than 
 that the North should falter and betray this trust of God, 
 this hope of the oppressed, this Western civilization." 
 \Cheers^ If we say this of ourselves, shall we say less of 
 the slaveholders ? If we are willing to do these things, 
 shall we say, " Stop the war for their sakes " ? If we say 
 this of ourselves, shall we have more pity for the rebell- 
 ious, for slavery seeking to blacken a continent with its 
 awful evil, desecrating the social phrase, '' National Inde- 
 pendence " by seeking only an independence that shall 
 enable them to treat four millions of human beings as 
 chattels 1 [C//c'tvx] Shall we be tenderer over them than 
 over ourselves ? Standing by my cradle, standing by my 
 hearth, standing by the altar of the church, standing by all 
 the places that mark the name and memory of heroic men 
 who poured out their blood and lives for principle, I de- 
 clare that in ten or twenty years of war we will sacrifice 
 everything we have for principle. [C/iecrs.] If the love 
 of popular liberty is dead in Great Britain you will not 
 understand us; but if the love of liberty lives as it once 
 lived, and has worthy successors of those renowned men 
 that were our ancestors as much as yours, and whose ex- 
 ample and principles we inherit as so much seed corn in 
 a new and fertile land, then you will understand our firm, 
 invincible determination — to y?t,''/// t/i/s war through, at all 
 hazards and at every cost. ^Immense cheering, accompanied 
 with a few hisses.^ 
 
 I am obliged for this little diversion; it rests me. 
 
 Against this statement of facts and principles no public 
 man and no party could stand up for one moment in 
 England if it were permitted to rest upon its own merits. 
 It is therefore sought to darken the light of these truths 
 and to falsify facts. I will not mention names, but I will 
 say this, that there have been important organs in Great 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 567 
 
 Britain that have deliberately and knowingly spoken 
 what is not the truth. \^Applaiise, and loud cries of '■''The 
 Times!" ''^ Three groans for the Times ! "^ It is declared 
 that the North has no sincerit5^ It is declared that the 
 North treats the blacks worse than the South does. \Hear, 
 hear.^ A monstrous lie from beginning to end ! It is de- 
 clared that emancipation is a mere political trick — not a 
 moral sentiment. It is declared that this is the cruel 
 unphilanthropic squabble of men gone mad with national 
 vanity. [^Cheers and hisses.^ Oh, what a pity that a man 
 should "fall nine times the space that measures day and 
 night " to make an apostasy which dishonors his closing 
 days, and to wipe out the testimony for liberty that he 
 gave in his youth ! But even if all this monstrous lie 
 about the North — this needless slander — were true, still it 
 would not alter the fact that Northern success will carry 
 liberty — Southern success, slavery. [^Cheers.] For when 
 society dashes against society, the results are not what 
 the individual motives of the members of society would 
 make them — the results are what the institutions of society 
 make them. When your army stood at Waterloo, they 
 did not know what were the vast moral consequences that 
 depended on that battle. It was not what the individual 
 soldiers meant or thought, but what the British empire — 
 the national life behind, and the genius of that renowned 
 kingdom which sent that army to victory — meant and 
 thought. \^Hear, hear~\. And even if the President were 
 false — if every Northern man were a juggling hypocrite — 
 that does not change the Constitution; and it does not 
 change the fact that if the North prevails, she carries 
 Northern ideas and Northern institutions with her. 
 \_Checrs.^ 
 
 But I hear a loud protest against war. \^Hear, hear.'] 
 Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Chairman, — there is a small 
 band in our country and in yours — I wish their number 
 were quadrupled — who have borne a solemn and painful 
 testimony against all wars, under all circumstances; and 
 although I differ with them on the subject of defensive 
 warfare, yet when men that rebuked their own land, and 
 
568 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 all lands, now rebuke us, though I cannot accept their 
 judgment, I bow with profound respect to their consist- 
 ency. [^Hear, hear, and cheers.'] But excepting them, I 
 regard this British horror of the American war as some- 
 thing wonderful. [^Reneiucd cheers and laughter.'] Why, it 
 is a phenomenon in itself ! On what shore has not the 
 prow of your ships dashed ? \Hear, hear.] What land is 
 there with a name and a people, where your banner has 
 not led your soldiers? \^Hear, hear.] And when the great 
 resurrection reveille shall sound, it will muster British 
 soldiers from every clime and people under the whole 
 heaven. [^Cheers.] Ah! but it is said. This is a war against 
 your own blood. \^Hear, hear.] How long is it since you 
 poured soldiers into Canada, and let all your yards work 
 night and day to avenge the taking of two men out of the 
 Trent ? \^Loiid applause^ Old England shocked at a war of 
 principle ! She gained her glories in such wars. \Cheers^ 
 Old England ashamed of a war of principle ! Her national 
 ensign symbolizes her history — the cross in a field of blood. 
 \Cheers?}^ And will you tell us — who inherit your blood, 
 your ideas, and your high spirits [cheers], that we must not 
 fight? [Cheers.] The child must heed the parents, until 
 the parents get old and tell the child not to do the thing 
 that in early life they whipped him for not doing. And 
 then the child says, " Father and Mother are getting too 
 old; they had better be taken away from their present 
 home and come to live with us." [Cheers and hisses.] Per- 
 haps you think that the old island will do a little longer. 
 [Jft'sses.] Perhaps you think there is coal enough. Per- 
 haps you think the stock is not quite run out yet; but 
 whenever England comes to that state that she does not 
 go to war for principle, she had better emigrate and we 
 will give her room. [Laughter.] 
 
 I have been very much perplexed what to think about 
 the attitude of Great Britain in respect to the South. I 
 must, I suppose, look to the opinion of the majority of the 
 English people. I don't believe in the Z/'wifi-. [Groans /or 
 the '''' Times;" groans for the '''' Telegraph."'] You cut my poor 
 sentence in two, and all the blood runs out of it. [Laugh- 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 569 
 
 ter^ I was just going to say that like most of you I don't 
 believe in the Times, but I always read it. \Laughter^^ 
 Every Englishman tells me that the Times is no exponent 
 of English opinion, and yet I have taken notice that when 
 they talk of men, somehow or other their last argument is 
 the last thing that was in the Times. \_Laug/iter.^ I think 
 it was the Times or Fast that said, that America was sore, 
 because she had not the moral sympathy of Great Britain, 
 and that the moral sympathy of Great Britain had gone 
 for the South. ["iW, no."^ Well, let me tell you, that 
 those who are represented in the newspapers as favorable 
 to the South are like men who have arrows and bows strong 
 enough to send the shafts 3,000 miles; and those who feel 
 sympathy for the North are like men who have shafts, but 
 have no bows that could shoot them far enough. [^Hea}-.^ 
 The English sentiment that has made itself felt on our 
 shores is the part that slandered the North and took part 
 with the South; and if you think we are unduly sensitive, 
 you must take into account that the part of English senti- 
 ment carried over is the part that gives its aid to slavery 
 and against liberty. [^Ilear, /lear.] I shall have a different 
 story to tell when I get back. 
 
 The assembly rose, and for a few moments hats and handker- 
 chiefs were waved enthusiastically amidst loud cheering. [A 
 voice: "What about the Riissiiuis?" Hear, hear.'] 
 
 A gentleman asks me to say a word about the Russians 
 in New York harbor. As this is a little private confidential 
 meeting \^[ai/ghter'\, I will tell you the fact about them. 
 \^Laug/tter.^ The fact is this — it is a little piece of coquetry. 
 \^Lai/ghter.^ Don't you know that when a woman thinks 
 her suitor is not quite attentive enough, she takes another 
 beau, and flirts with him in the face of the old one? 
 \^Laughier.'\ New York is flirting with Russia, but she has 
 got her eye on England. [Cheers.^ Well, I hear men say, 
 this is a piece of national folly that is not becoming on the 
 part of people reputed wise, and in such solemn and im- 
 portant circumstances. It is said that when Russia is now 
 engaged in suppressing the liberty of Poland it is an inde- 
 cent thing for America to flirt with her. I think so too. 
 
57° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 \^Loud cheers^ Now you know what we felt when you were 
 flirting with Mr. Mason at your Lord Mayor's banquet. 
 \Chcers7^ Ladies and gentlemen, it did not do us any hurt 
 to have you Englishmen tell us our faults. I hope it don't 
 do you Britishers any hurt to have us tell you some of 
 yours. \^A laugh.^ Let me tell you my honest sentiments. 
 England, because she is a Christian nation, because she 
 has the guardianship of the dearest principles of civil and 
 religious liberty, ought to be friendly with every nation 
 and with every tongue. But when England looks out for 
 an ally she ought to seek for her own blood, her own lan- 
 guage, her own children. \^Cheers.^ And I stand here to 
 declare that America is the proper and natural ally of 
 Great Britain. [^Cheers.^ I declare that all sorts of alli- 
 ances with Continental nations as against America are 
 monstrous, and that all flirtations of America with pan- 
 doured and whiskered foreigners are monstrous, and that 
 in the great conflicts of the future, when civilization is to 
 be extended, when commerce is to be free round the globe, 
 and to carry with it religion and civilization, then two flags 
 should be flying from every man-of-war and every ship, 
 and they should be the flag with the cross of St. George 
 and the flag with the stars of promise and of hope. 
 
 Now, ladies and gentlemen, when anybody tells you that 
 Mr. Beecher is in favor of war you may ask, " In what way 
 is he in favor of war ? " And if any man says he seeks to 
 sow discord between father and son and mother and 
 daughter you will be able to say, " Show us how he is 
 sowing discord." If I had anything grievous to say of 
 England I would sooner say it before her face than behind 
 her back. I would denounce Englishmen, if they were 
 maintainers of the monstrous policy of the South. How- 
 ever, since I have come over to this country you have told 
 me the truth, and I shall be able to bear back an assurance 
 to our people of the enthusiasm you feel for the cause of 
 the North. And then there is the very significant act of 
 your Government — the seizure of the rams in Liverpool. 
 [^Loud cheers^ Then there are the weighty words spoken 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 571 
 
 by Lord Russell at Glasgow, and the words spoken by the 
 Attorney-General. \Cheers?^ These acts and declarations 
 of policy, coupled with all that I have seen, and the feeling 
 of enthusiasm of this English people, will warm the heart 
 of the Americans in the North. If we are one in civiliza- 
 tion, one in religion, one substantially in faith, let us be 
 one in national policy, one in every enterprise for the 
 furtherance of the gospel and for the happiness of man- 
 kind. \Cheers?\^ 
 
 I thank you for your long patience with me. [" Go on ! "] 
 Ah ! when I was a boy they used to tell me never to eat 
 enough, but always to get up being yet a little hungry. I 
 would rather you go away wishing I had spoken longer 
 than go away saying, "What a tedious fellow he was !" 
 \^A laughj] And therefore if you will not permit me to 
 close and go, I beg^ you to recollect that this is the fifth 
 speech of more than two hours' length that I have spoken, 
 on some occasions under difficulties, within seven or eight 
 days, and I am so exhausted that I ask you to permit me 
 to stop. [^Great cheering^ 
 
 Professor Newman then rose and moved the following resolu- 
 tion : — 
 
 ^'Resolved, That this meeting presents its most cordial thanks to the 
 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher for the admirable address which he has deliv- 
 ered this evening, and expresses its hearty sympathy with hi« reprobation 
 of the slaveholders' rebellion, -his vindication of the rights of a free Gov- 
 ernment, and his aspirations for peace and friendship between the English 
 people and their American brethren ; and as this meeting recognizes in JMr. 
 Beecher one of the early pioneers of negro emancipation, as well as one of 
 the most eloquent and successful of the champions of that great cause, it 
 rejoices in this opportunity of congratulating him on the triumph with 
 which the labors of himself and his associates have been crowned in the 
 anti-slavery policy of President Lincoln and his cabinet." 
 
 After some earnest words by Professor Newman, Rev. Newman 
 Hall, and Mr. G. Thompson, the motion was then carried amidst 
 loud cheers, only three hands being held up against it. 
 
 Mr. Beecher briefly acknowledged the vote of thanks. 
 
 The Rev. W. M. Bunting moved, and Sir Charles Fox seconded, 
 a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which was unanimously passed, 
 and the proceedings then terminated. 
 
572 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 OUTSIDE THE HALL. 
 
 The scene outside Exeter Hall that evening was of an extraor- 
 dinary description. The lecture had been advertised to com- 
 mence at seven o'clock, and it was announced that the hall doors 
 would be opened at half-past six. The crowd, however, began to 
 assemble as early as five o'clock, and before six o'clock it be- 
 came so dense and numerous as completely to block up, not 
 only the footway, but the carriage way of the Strand ; and the 
 committee of management wisely determined at once to throw 
 open the doors. A great rush took place, and the hall, in every 
 available part, became filled to overflowing in a few minutes. No 
 perceptible diminution, however, was made in the crowd, and at 
 half-past six there were literally thousands of well-dressed per- 
 sons struggling to gain admission, in spite of the placards exhib- 
 ited announcing the hall to be " quite full." The policemen and 
 hall-keepers were powerless to contend against this immense 
 crowd, who ultimately filled the spacious corridors and staircases 
 leading to the hall, still leaving an immense crowd both in the 
 Strand and Burleigh Street. At ten minutes before seven o'clock 
 Mr. B. Scott, the City Chamberlain, and the chairman of the 
 meeting, accompanied by a large body of the committee of the 
 Emancipation Society, arrived, but were unable to make their 
 way through the crowd, and a messenger was dispatched to the 
 Bow Street Police station for an extra body of police. About 
 thirty of the reserve men were immediately sent, and those aided 
 by the men already on duty at last succeeded in forcing a passage 
 for the chairman and his friends. 
 
 Mr. Beecher at this time arrived, but was himself unable to 
 gain admittance to the hall until a quarter of an hour after the time 
 appointed for the commencement of his address. He bore his 
 detention in the crowd with great good humor, and was rewarded 
 with a perfect ovation, the crowd pressing forward in all direc- 
 tions to shake hands with him. He was at last fairly carried into 
 the hall on the shoulders of the policemen, and the doors of the 
 hall were at once closed, and guarded by a body of pofice, who 
 distinctly announced that no more persons would be admitted, 
 whether holding tickets or not. This had the effect of thinning 
 to some extent the crowd outside ; but some two thousand or 
 more people still remained eager to seize on any chance of ad- 
 mission that might arise. At a quarter-past seven a tremendous 
 burst of cheers from within the building announced that Mr. 
 
SPEECH IN LONDON. 573 
 
 Beecher had made his appearance on the platform. The cheer- 
 ing was taken up by the outsiders, and re-echoed again and 
 again. 
 
 The bulk of the crowd had now congregated in Burleigh Street, 
 which was completely filled, and loud cries were raised for some 
 member of the Emancipation Committee to address them. The 
 call was not responded to. But several impromptu speakers 
 mounted upon the shoulders of some workingmen addressed the 
 people in favor of the policy of the North, and their remarks 
 were received with loud cheering from the large majority of 
 those present. One or two speakers raised their voices in sym- 
 pathy with the South, but these were speedily dislodged from 
 their positions by the crowd, whose Northern sympathies were 
 thus unmistakably exhibited. Every burst of cheers that re- 
 sounded from within the hall was taken up and as heartily re- 
 sponded to by those outside. Indeed, they could not have been 
 more enthusiastic had they been listening to the lecturer himself. 
 This scene continued without intermission until the close of 
 the meeting. When Mr. Beecher and his friends issued from 
 the building they were again received with loud cheers. A call 
 for a cheer for Abraham Lincoln was responded to with genuine 
 English heartiness. During the evening a large number of pla- 
 cards denouncing in strong language the President, the North, 
 and its advocates were posted in the neighborhood of the hall. 
 A strong body of police were stationed in the Strand and Bur- 
 leigh Street, but no breach of the peace occurred calling for their 
 interference. 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 
 
 October 23, 1863. 
 
 Between two and three hundred gentlemen, chiefly ministers of 
 various denominations, met Mr. Beecher at breakfast, at Radley's 
 Hotel, upon the invitation of the Committee of Correspondence 
 on American Affairs, for the purpose of wishing him farewell 
 prior to his departure to the United States. The chair was oc- 
 cupied by the Hon. and Rev. Baptist W. Noel. 
 
 The Chairman said that they were met to express their sympa- 
 thy with the country of which their guest was a citizen, with the 
 Government which he upheld, and with the great movement of 
 which he was an ardent supporter. Mr. Beecher had been for 
 many years a brave advocate of the oppressed, a manly patriot, 
 and he had shown during his stay in England a boldness not easily 
 daunted, and a good temper that no provocation could disturb. 
 \Applause:\ 
 
 Dr. F. Tomkins, the secretary of the Committee of Correspond- 
 ence, read several letters from gentlemen who were unable to be 
 present, but who wished to express their sympathy with the ob- 
 jects of the meeting. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Waddington read an Address, portions of which 
 are here given : — 
 
 To the Clu'istian Church under the pastoi-al care of the Rev. Henry Ward 
 Beecher. 
 
 Dear Brethren,— At a very numerous assembly of ministers and other 
 Christian gentlemen, held this morning, to bid your beloved pastor an af- 
 fectionate farewell, it was desired by an unanimous vote of the meeting 
 that we should forward to you the subjoined copy of an address given on 
 the occasion. . . . 
 
 The following is the address adopted at the meeting : — 
 
 " Sir, — I am requested by the Committee of Correspondence on Amer- 
 ican Affairs, to give a brief hut full exi:iression of the sentiments of fraternal 
 regard we cherish toward our distinguished guest, the Rev. Henry Ward 
 Beecher, and to the deep sympathy we feel for his countrymen, now suf- 
 fering the innumerable calamities of civil war. . . . 
 
 " We tender to Mr. Beecher our warmest acknowledgments for the serv- 
 ice he has rendered to the cause of truth, of right, and of liberty by his 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 575 
 
 manliness, high moral courage, admirable temper, clear intelligence, sound 
 argument, and, above all, by the kindliness of his spirit. 
 
 " It is known to us that even those who are opposed to war under all 
 circumstances, frankly acknowledge that the tendency of Mr. Beecher's 
 public speeches in Manchester, in Glasgow, in Edinburgh, in Liverpool, 
 and pre-eminently in London, has been to produce in the highest degree 
 international good will. 
 
 " He has sought not to irritate but to convince. He has administered 
 rebuke with mingled fidelity and affection. He has been courteous without 
 servility. He has met passion with patience, prejudice with reason, and 
 blind hostility with glowing charity. He has cast the seed of truth amidst 
 the howling tempest with a clear eye and a steady hand — the effect will, 
 we doubt not, be seen after many days. . . . 
 
 " In this cause we recognize in Mr. Beecher a faithful witness and a true 
 soldier. From the time that he stood up as a youth to plead in Indian- 
 apolis for the liberation of those who are in worse than Egyptian bondage, 
 until he confronted his opponents in Liverpool, he has evinced the sternest 
 fidelity, the most unfaltering courage, with the most consummate skill. Our 
 estimate of the services he has rendered, is enhanced by the remembrance 
 of his forbearance and moderation at many a critical juncture. He urged 
 the claim of the negro years ago against the selfishness of those who would 
 exclude him from the labor market in New York — and no man has spoken 
 in more conciliatory terms of the misguided men of the South, so long as 
 the attempt at reconciliation, without the sacrifice of principle, seemed to be 
 possible. If the energy of Mr. Beecher is terrible in the hour of conflict, 
 no one knows better than himself that 'calmness hath great advantage.' 
 
 " In the openness of the rebukes uttered by Mr. Beecher in this country, 
 we have the guaranty that he will at home stand to his testimony as to 
 what is sound in the heart of Old England. ... ' 
 
 " We know that when the telegraph signals his arrival in American 
 waters thousands will go out to bid him welcome, and in their joyful salu- 
 tations they will not regard our testimony as impertinent when we say, that 
 no man could have served the cause we love better, and that he has said 
 nothing we could wish him to retract. We adopt in conclusion his own 
 words on the memorable 20th of October: 'Let there be one alliance — if 
 not in form — yet of heart, sympathy, and love between parent and child — 
 for civil liberty — for Christian civilization — for the welfare of the world 
 which yet groans and travails in pain, but whose redemption draweth nigh.' 
 
 " With sentiments of fraternal sympathy and the most affectionate 
 Christian regard, 
 
 " We are, dear Brethren, faithfully yours, 
 
 " In the name and on behalf of the Meeting, 
 "BAPTIST W. NOEL, M. A., Chairman. 
 
 "BENJAMIN SCOTT, F.R.A.S., Chamberlain of London, Treasurer. 
 "FREDK. TOMKINS, M.A., D.C.L., Secretary. 
 "JOHN WADDINGTON, D.D , Mover of the Address. 
 
 "Radley's Hotel, London, Oct. 23d, 1863." 
 
576 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 The Address was carried by acclamation, the company standing. 
 Mr. Beecher, whose rising was the signal for protracted and 
 enthusiastic cheering, replied to the address as follows : — 
 
 Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, — I propose this morning 
 to say a good many things on a good many subjects, and 
 I am influenced in the direction in which I shall begin by 
 the request of the esteemed brother who has been pleased 
 to honor me this morning, and to confer a favor upon me 
 which I shall never forget. [C//cr;x] In conversation 
 with our chairman I made some statements which he said 
 would have weight with you, and I therefore consented to 
 make them again. That, gentlemen, is my introduction. 
 \Chcersi\ 
 
 Now I wish it to be understood as a matter of fact that 
 this Secession is rebellion, even judged according to the 
 principles and professions of the South hitherto. Let me 
 then go back and state generally that the South as a whole 
 never has believed in Secession. On the contrary, it has 
 been condemned again and again in all the Southern 
 States but one, and has been only held by a small section 
 throughout the country. Until this rebellion, in fact, it 
 has never been held that the Constitution gives the right 
 to a State to secede. When the Convention of 1787 came 
 together to amend the Articles of the Constitution, the 
 first thing they had to do was to ascertain what their own 
 power was, and what was the province of their action, and 
 the question arose whether they could proceed to institute 
 a national Government. That, I believe, was almost the 
 first question brought before them. After a good deal of 
 debate it was determined, almost unanimously, that they 
 should proceed to make a national Government as dis- 
 tinguished from a perpetual Confederation. And what is 
 remarkable is this, that the proposition for a National as 
 distinguished from a Confederated Government was made 
 by the delegates from Virginia and South Carolina, and it 
 was opposed by Connecticut and some others — I forget 
 which — of the Northern States. It was debated thor- 
 oughly, and the Northern proposition that we should con- 
 tinue a mere Confederation in perpetuity was voted down 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, L.OA'DON. 577 
 
 by an immense majority, and it was voted in express 
 terms — though it does not appear so verbally in our Con- 
 stitution — that they should proceed to form a National 
 Government in distinction from a Confederated Govern- 
 ment. After the resolution was passed it was put — like 
 all the other resolutions — into the hands of what was 
 called the revising committee, and they, as a kind of ver- 
 bal compromise, introduced the present phraseology, put- 
 ting the words " Union " and " United States " in the place 
 of " Nation." The change was unfortunate, but it was 
 purely the work of the committee of revision, whereas the 
 Convention themselves had voted the word " Nation." 
 And there never was any change in that until Mr. Cal- 
 houn's day; but Mr. Calhoun's doctrine was repudiated in 
 Virginia and Georgia, and, if I do not mistake, in every 
 one of the Southwestern States it was in a minority. It 
 was also repudiated by our courts, and by the national 
 Government itself it was judged that nullification was 
 itself a nullity. [C/icers.'\ Therefore, the South in going 
 into rebellion has not been following out a doctrine held 
 by it from the first, but has suddenly reversed its own 
 principles, gone against the records of its own parties, and 
 dragged in this alleged right of a State, to secede, as a 
 mere excuse, against the spirit of the Constitution of the 
 United States. [Ifear, hear.'] I have the right therefore 
 to say to you as ministers of the Gospel, as men who be- 
 lieve in the powers that be, and in the legitimacy of unop- 
 pressive governments, that this is nothing more or less 
 than a rebellion. So much for that. \^Cheers.^ 
 
 And now, my Christian brethren, I feel I have freedom 
 here. l^Reneiued c/u'ers.'\ There are some things, you know, 
 that one can say in a lecture-room that one cannot say in 
 the pulpit, and there are things which a man can sa}'^ in a 
 ^social festival meeting of this kind that he cannot say on a 
 platform before a mingled audience, where he is liable to 
 have a sentiment cut in two by a hoot or a hiss. [^Lai/gh- 
 ter.'] Now I want to introduce some matters here that 
 would not well suit a public meeting. I wish to acknowl- 
 edge the many kind providences which have attended me 
 
578 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 at every step since I have been in England. I go home, not 
 for the first time believing in a special Providence, but to 
 be once more a witness to my people to the preciousness 
 and truth of the doctrine " God present with us." In 
 ways unexpected, and as if the very voice of God had 
 sounded in my ears, I have been frequently assisted 
 during my sojourn in this country. When I returned 
 from the Continent I had not spoken in public during the 
 previous twenty weeks. I began my course by addressing 
 about six thousand people in Manchester. I then went to 
 Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool. The reception I met 
 with at the latter town was very different from the "Wel- 
 comes " of the other centers of commerce. I did not feel 
 the slightest animosity towards the people of Liverpool. 
 I saw that those who opposed me were merely partisans. 
 [C7/(^i'/-j'.] I knew that the people of Liverpool were on the 
 right side. I remember that in the midst of the wild up- 
 roar at the Liverpool meeting I felt almost as if a door had 
 been thrown open, and a wind had swept by me. I never 
 prayed more heartily in my life than I prayed for my op- 
 ponents in the midst of that hurricane of interruption. 
 But it so affected my voice that a reaction came upon 
 me on Saturday and Sunday, and I was almost speechless 
 on Monday. I felt all day on Monday that I was coming 
 to London to speak to a public audience but my voice was 
 gone; and I felt as though about to be made a derision to 
 my enemies — to stand up before a multitude, and be un- 
 able to say a word. It would have been a mortification to 
 anybody's natural pride. I asked God to restore me my 
 voice, as a child would ask its father to grant it a favor. 
 But I hoped that God would grant me His grace, to enable 
 me, if it were necessary for the cause, that I should be put 
 to open shame, to stand up as a fool before the audience. 
 When I got up on Tuesday morning, I spoke to myself to_^ 
 try whether I could speak and my voice was quite clear. 
 \Cheers?^ Many might say this was because I slept in a 
 wet jacket, but I prefer to feel that I had a direct interpo- 
 sition in my favor. \Chcers^ 
 
 Last night I was saying to myself, " I am going among 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 579 
 
 Christian ministers, and I sliould wish to represent to them 
 the state of things in New York," when my servant 
 brought to me a letter from America, from the superin- 
 tendent of my Sabbath-school — my dear friend Mr. Bell, 
 of Scotland, by the by, '[laugJiter\ but he is a good man 
 notwithstanding. \^Laughter^^ He said, " It may be that 
 you will have occasion to refer to the report of the com- 
 mittee who inquired into the case of the colored people 
 who suffered from the riots," and so he forwarded their re- 
 port to me. A gentleman who has been my opponent for 
 the last sixteen years — a gentleman who, because he 
 thought I was opposed to the best interests of America, 
 hated me with Christian fervor — \laiighter-\ — was appointed 
 on the committee. The testimony that he gave to the 
 committee as to that riot was that, with the exception of a 
 few leaders, it was the work of Irishmen. The papers, for 
 prudential reasons, did not put that forward in New York. 
 It was no more an American riot than if it had taken place 
 in Cork or Dublin. Therefore, when misinformed per- 
 sons in England say this riot is a specimen of what Amer- 
 icans can do, I say it is a specimen of what can be done by 
 foreigners, and by ignorance and misrepresentation. Some 
 of the most eminent names in New York are on' the com- 
 mittee — many of them devoted members of the Democratic 
 party, strongly opposed to the Republican party move- 
 ment. They collected upwards of $47,000 for the imme- 
 diate relief of these poor blacks. The men, women, and 
 children who were relieved amounted to some 12,000. A 
 committee was appointed at once among the lawyers of 
 New York, who gratuitously offered their services to make 
 out the claims of all property of the blacks that was de- 
 stroyed. There were 2,000 claimants who appeared, and 
 their case was put into legal train without any expense to 
 themselves. \C}Lecrs^^ The aggregate of their claims in 
 the city of New York was $145,000. The committee's re- 
 port contains the following account of the martyrdom of a 
 poor black child during the riots: — 
 
 " Early in the month of May a boy of some seven summers presented him- 
 self for admission to the Sunday-school of the Church of the Mediator in 
 
580 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 this city. From the first Sunday he was the object of special interest on 
 the part of both his pastor and teacher. Always punctual in his attend- 
 ance, tidy in appearance, and eager to learn, he soon won the affection of 
 all his fellows in the infant class to which he belonged. But though comely, 
 he was black. The prejudice which his color e.xcited amongst those of 
 meaner mold he quickly disarmed by his quiet, respectful, Christian man- 
 ner. He was a child-Christian. What more lovely is there on earth! 
 What more highly esteemed is there in heaven! Little did those who thus 
 casually met him from Sunday to Sunday imagine the witness of suffering 
 God had purposed to perfect in him ! At the time of the late riot he was 
 living with an aged grandmother and widowed mother at No. — , East 
 28th street. On Wednesday morning of that fearful week a crowd of ruf- 
 fians gathered in the neighborhood, determined on a work of ])lunder and 
 death. They stole everything they could carry with them, and, after threat- 
 ening and affrighting the inmates, set fire to the house. The colored peo- 
 ple, who had the sole occupancy of the building, were forced in confusion 
 into the midst of the gathering crowd. And then the child was separated 
 from his guardians. He was alone among lions. But ordinary humanity, 
 common decency, had exempted a child so young anywhere from brutality. 
 But no. No sooner did they see his unprotected, defenseless condition 
 than a company of fiendish men surrounded him. They seized him in their 
 fury, and beat him with sticks, and bruised him with heavy cobble-stones. 
 But one, ten-fold more the servant of Satan than the rest, rushed at the 
 child, and with the stock of a pistol struck him on the temple and felled 
 him to the ground. A noble young fireman — God bless the firemen for 
 their manly deeds — a noble young fireman by the name of M'Govern in- 
 stantly came to the rescue, and single-handed held the crowd at bay. 
 Taking the wounded and unconscious boy in his arms, he went to the house 
 of an American citizen close by and asked to have him received. But on 
 her knees the woman begged him not to leave the dying sufferer with her 
 'lest the mob should tear her to pieces.' It was a suffering Saviour in the 
 person of His humblest child. Naked and wounded, and a stranger, they 
 took him not in. But a kind-hearted German woman made him a sharer of 
 her poverty. With more than a mother's care did she nurse the forsaken one. 
 A physician was called, and both night and day she faithfully watched over 
 the bed of him outcast from his brethren. Our hearts bless her for her 
 goodness to our child. By name she is as yet unknown, but by her deeds 
 well known and well beloved. His distracted mother found her cherished 
 boy in these kind hands. And when she saw him in the earnest simplicity 
 of her spirit she kneeled in prayer to thank God for the fulfillment of His 
 promise. ' God hath taken him up.' The lad lingered until Thursday 
 evening, when the Saviour released him from his sufferings; and 'the child 
 was caught up to God and the throne.' This is the pastor's memorial to 
 little Joseph Reed, a martyr by the brutality and inhumanity of men, to the 
 cause of law, and order, and right. A tablet to his memory shall be placed 
 on the walls of the Sunday-school room to which he loved to come. Those 
 who were kind to him we count as benefactors to us. May the God of all 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LOA'DON. 581 
 
 grace richly reward them with the blessings of His love. Buried on earth 
 without prayer, but with praises welcomed in Heaven, the chosen loved 
 child of the family, ' Joseph, is not.' " 
 
 The colored people sent in their thanks to the committee. 
 There are blacks who can write as beautiful English as the 
 white people of America, and amongst the blacks there 
 are men as high-minded as any to be found among white 
 men. Some people have said that blacks are the con- 
 necting link between monkeys and white men. Well, 
 if monkeys have endowments such as I have seen in black 
 men, all I can say is, that it is time to begin preaching the 
 Gospel to monkeys. \^Lai/ghter.'\ Take as an example of 
 their intelligence the following address: — 
 
 "Gentlemen, we have learned that you have decided this day to bring to 
 a close the general distribution of the funds so liberally contributed by the 
 merchants of New York and others for the relief of the colored sufferers 
 of the late riots, which have recently disgraced our city. We cannot in 
 justice to our feelings permit your benevolent labors to terminate, even 
 partially, without offering some expression of our sincere gratitude to the 
 Universal Father for inspiring your hearts with that spirit of kindness of 
 which we have been the recipients during the severe trials and persecutions 
 through which we have passed. When in the pursuit of our peaceful and 
 humble occupations we had fallen among thieves, who stripped us of our rai- 
 ment and had wounded us, leaving many of us half dead, you had compassion 
 on us. You bound up our wounds, and poured in the oil and wine of 
 Christian kindness, and took care of us. You hastened to e,\press your sym- 
 pathy for those whose fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers had been tortured 
 and murdered. You also comforted the aching hearts of our widowed sis- 
 ters, and soothed the sorrows of orphan children. We were hungry and 
 you fed us. We were thirsty and you gave us drink. We were made as 
 strangers in our own homes and you kindly took us in. We were naked 
 and you clothed us. We were sick and you visited us. We were in prison 
 and you came to us. Gentlemen, this generation of our people will not, 
 cannot, forget the dreadful scenes to which we allude, nor will they forget 
 the noble and spontaneous exhibition of charity which they excited. The 
 former will be referred to as one of the dark chapters of our history in the 
 Empire State and the latter will be remembered as a bright and glorious 
 page in the records of the past. In the light of public opinion we feel our- 
 selves to be among the least in this our native land, and we therefore 
 earnestly pray that in the last great day the King may say to you and to all 
 who have befriended us, ' Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the 
 least of these my brethren you have done it unto me ; come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
 
582 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the world.' But as great as have been the benefits tliat we have received 
 from your friendly and unlocked for charity, they yet form but the smaller 
 portion of the ground of our gratitude and pleasure. We have learned by 
 your treatment of us in these days of our mental and physical affliction 
 that you cherished for us a kindly and humane feeling of which we had no 
 knowledge. You did not hesitate to come forward to our relief amid the 
 threatened destruction of your own lives and property. You obeyed the 
 noblest dictates of the human heart, and by your generous moral courage 
 you rolled back the tide of violence that had well nigh swept us away. 
 This ever memorable and magnanimous exhibition of heroism has had the 
 effect to enlarge in our bosoms the sentiment of undying regard and esteem 
 for you and yours. In time of war or peace, in prosperity or in adversity, 
 you and our great State and our beloved country may count us among 
 your faithful friends, and the proffer of our labors and our lives shall be 
 our pleasure and our pride. If in your temporary labors of Christian 
 philanthropy, vou have been induced to look forward to our future destiny 
 in this our native land, and to ask what is the best thing we can do for the 
 colored people — this is our answer. Protect us in our endeavors to obtain 
 an honest living. Suffer no one to hinder us in any department of well- 
 directed industry, give us a fair and open field, and let us work out our own 
 destiny, and we ask no more. We cannot conclude without expressing our 
 gratification at the manner in which the arduous and perplexing duties of 
 your office have been conducted ; we shall never forget the Christian and 
 gentlemanly bearing of your esteemed secretary, Mr. Vincent Colyer, who 
 on all occasions impressed even the humblest with the belief that he knew 
 and felt he was dealing with a crushed and heart-broken people. We also 
 acknowledge the uniform kindness and courtesy that has characterized the 
 conduct of all the gentlemen in the office in the discharge of their duties. 
 We desire likewise to acknowledge the valuable services contributed by the 
 gentlemen of the legal profession, who have daily been in attendance at the 
 office to make out the claims of the sufferers free of charge. In the name of 
 the people we return thanks to all. In conclusion, permit us to assure you 
 that we will never cease to pray to God for your prosperity, and that of 
 every donor to the Relief Fund. Also for the permanent peace of our 
 country, based upon liberty, and the enjoyment of man's inalienable rights, 
 for the preservation of the American Union, and for the reign of that right- 
 eousness in the hearts of the people that saves from reproach and exalteth 
 the nation." 
 
 Let this document be an answer to the harsh things that 
 some people have said of the colored people in New York. 
 I regard my reception of this document last night as provi- 
 dential, because it reached me just in time to read to this 
 meeting. [C/ieers.~\ I should have wished, had the time 
 permitted, to make a statement respecting what is doing 
 for the freed colored people in South Carolina, and in and 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 583 
 
 about Norfolk. I have a son in the army, who has had 
 an opportunity of seeing something in that respect. In 
 schools, attended by thousands of colored people, adult 
 and young, education is given without fee or reward by 
 highly educated and pious men and women. My son has 
 narrated to me many beautiful testimonies of the piety of 
 the old colored people who attend these schools, and the 
 great interest they take in the education of the young 
 colored people. One old colored saint with wdiite hair 
 made some remarks to him which struck me very much. 
 He said, " We shall never get any good by this education, 
 massa; we expect to suffer as long as we live; but our 
 children will get the benefit of this education." Now, 
 think of this old saint having passed his life in slavery, 
 and being in a position in which, had his master lived, he 
 would have had a refuge for his old age. Think of him 
 now thrown out in his old age, in a state of liberty, it is 
 true, but with powers ill qualified to use it, saying, " We 
 have been praying for this all our lives, and now our chil- 
 dren are going to get it." \Chcersl\ 
 
 I cannot go into details respecting the state of the freed- 
 men along the valley of the Mississippi; but I may say 
 this comprehensively, that the churches of the North are 
 taking up their burden and awakening to their duty. 
 They understand what is required of them, and are deter- 
 mined not to let the men come out of slavery and feel that 
 they are worse off than when they were in it. I don't pre- 
 tend to say that our people have not made mistakes and 
 blunders; but, judging by the ordinary manner in which 
 persons in difficult circumstances conduct themselves, I do 
 say that the Christian churches in America of all denomi- 
 nations are stirred up by the spirit of their Master to do 
 their duty to the colored men of the North and South. 
 
 I now proceed to another topic that is very pleasant to 
 me. I want you to see how American Christians and 
 ministers have felt during the whole of this war. I have 
 here an immense amount of matter — [spreading out a 
 number of printed sheets and cuttings from newspapers on 
 
584 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the table] — and if you don't believe me, I will read it all 
 to you. \^Laiighter^ I shall first read extracts from the 
 reports of various ecclesiastical bodies in America in 1861, 
 the first year of the war. I have not packed or garbled 
 them — indeed, they have not been put together by me, but 
 by a friend in Manchester. I may read perhaps those 
 which are least to the point; but I want you to see what 
 has been the feeling of our Christian churches. I also 
 want to show you another thing. Many of you are op- 
 posed to war. \^Hear, /lear.] Now I must say that for any 
 Englishmen to be opposed on principle to war is a greater 
 mark of sincerity and frankness than anything I know" of. 
 [Lai/g/iU'r.'\ You Englishmen are always fighting. Why, 
 you have two wars on hand now, and I hardly know the 
 time when you have not had one. The testimony there- 
 fore of those of you who are opposed to war is worthy of 
 double attention. [Hear, and laughter^ But really you 
 talk to us in America about war as though it were just as 
 pleasant to us as a summer by the sea-side; as though it 
 were nothing to us to have our sons killed, or brought 
 home wounded or maimed, or to have a widow coming 
 home to her father's house with her helpless children. 
 Some people seem to think that the North is in such a sav- 
 age fury, that nothing tickles them more than to hear of the 
 slaughter of 3,000 or 4,000 men. Oh, gentlemen, war is 
 more terrible by far than anything which comes home to 
 you. [Hear, hear.'\ You, who send armies to China to 
 fight, or to the Continent, do not see what war is. Let 
 war ravage your own island, — let it come upon London, 
 and penetrate into your own homes, while the wounded and 
 maimed are lying around you on every side, or brought 
 into your houses, — then you will realize what war is. Do 
 you suppose, brethren, that we love the war for itself ? Do 
 you suppose that anything but the very strongest principle 
 could lead us to submit to it ? [Hear, hear.'] I do not wish 
 you to accept these statements on my testimony, but will 
 read to you a few extracts which will show you how these 
 matters were talked about in 1861. The following is from 
 the report adopted by Ripley Presbytery: — 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 585 
 
 " More than two hundred jears have passed away since the buying and 
 selling of human beings as property commenced in this country, and the 
 slave trade was allowed to be continued twenty years after the formation 
 of the National Constitution. What a system of murder! What multi- 
 tudes have been murdered in procuring slaves in Africa! How vast the 
 number that died in the passage to this country ! How much death has 
 been occasioned by change of climate, by excessive labor, by starvation, and 
 by direct violence and cruel scourging ! Have not millions of human be- 
 ings suffered death in the most horrible forms, under the operation of the 
 system of slavery in this country during the last 200 years ? Does not the 
 blood of millions lie upon this nation ? " 
 
 The report goes on to make an attack on the Fugitive 
 Slave Law, and to enunciate the obligation of the Gov- 
 ernment TO PROTECT the four millions or more of colored 
 people, and to secure their rights in accordance with the 
 spirit of the Constitution. It then says: — 
 
 " We now enter our s,o\emn protest agntJisf all coinprotnises with the moii- 
 strot/s system of oppression existing in the slaveholding States, and the enforce- 
 ment of the barbarous Fugitive Slave Law, and the giving of aid in any 
 form to the system of slavery." 
 
 The following is from the report of the Maine Confer- 
 ence in May, 1861 (after Mr. Lincoln's call for armed sup- 
 port): — 
 
 '■^Resolved, That we will not cease to pray that Divine wisdom mav guide 
 our rulers — that the Lord God of Sabaoth may give success to our arms 
 and establish the right — that our sons and brothers who have so nobly re- 
 sponded to the call of their country in this hour of peril, may be under His 
 peculiar care — that we will supplicate God to interpose, to overrule, that 
 these trying events may speedily result ia permanent peace — the liberation 
 of the enslaved, and the ' opening of the prison to them that are bound.' " 
 
 I turn now to the session of the General Association 
 held in Indianapolis, my old home. I will give only one 
 resolution: — 
 
 "Resolved, That as Christian men, having a living faith in the superin- 
 tending providence of Almighty God, we recommend the churches to be 
 more instant in prayer for the maintenance of the Government, the integrity 
 oi ihe. \]n\on,i\\e perpeticity of those principles of liberty upon which it is 
 founded, not forgetting those in bonds as bound with them, and especially 
 for the preservation and spiritual welfare of those who have volunteered in 
 defense of their country." 
 
 Now I turn to the General Association of Congrega- 
 tional churches of Illinois: — 
 
586 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 "Resolved, That as the war is but the ripe and bitter fruit of slavery, vve 
 trust the American people will demand that it shall result in relieving our 
 country entirely and forever of that sin and curse, that the future of our 
 nation may never again be darkened by a similar night of treason." 
 
 Then follows a resolution urging the churches to attend 
 to the spiritual wants of the army. Here is a resolution 
 from the Welsh Congregational Churches: — 
 
 "Resolved, That we hope and pray that God in His wise and beneficent 
 providence may overrule the present disturbances in our country to hasten 
 the overthrow of slavery, which disgraces our land and threatens the exist- 
 ence of our Government." 
 
 One from Pennsylvania: — 
 
 "Resolved, That we regard the war in which our country is now engaged 
 as a cojiflict l)dt2ueen freedoj?i and slavery, antl the advocates of slavery have 
 tendered the issue, and it is the duty of the friends of liberty both in the 
 Church and in the State, to accept the issue directly and give it the promi- 
 nence before God and the world that rightfully belongs to it." 
 
 These resolutions, you will mark, 7vcre all passed before 
 the pyoclaiiiation of einaticipatioii. The following is from the 
 General Association of Congregational Churches in New 
 York:— 
 
 "Whereas, the immediate occasion of this rebellion and its fomenting 
 spirit was the determination of its leaders to secure and perpeticate the system 
 of slavery; and, whereas, there can be no guaranty of peace and prosperity 
 in the Union while slavery e.xists, — therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That we rejoice in every act and declaration of the Govern- 
 ment that brings freedom to any of the enslaved, and earnestly hope for 
 some definite and reliable measure for the abolition of slaveiy as the conclu- 
 sion of this great conflict for the support of the Government and the Union. 
 
 "Whereas, in His good providence God has opened the way for the eman- 
 cipation of the enslaved in this land, either by the instructions of the Gov- 
 ernment to military commanders to enfranchise all slaves within their 
 several districts, or by general proclamation of the President, or by Act of 
 Congress under the state of war, — therefore, 
 
 "Resolved, That it is our duty as Christian patriots in all proper ways 
 to urge this measure upon the attention of the Government, and to pray for 
 its consummation, lest the condemnation of those who knew their duly to 
 the poor and oppressed, and did it not, should be visited upon the nation." 
 
 I read this to show you that while, on the one hand, they 
 were conscious of their obligations to the Government and 
 nation, they had also their convictions of humanity towards 
 the oppressed. \^Hear, hear.l In 1862, these deliverances 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 5S7 
 
 became stronger and clearer throughout the length and 
 breadth of the land. Then we come to 1863, and first I will 
 refer to the report of the Dutch Reformed Church — the 
 most immovable church in the world. They come out, 
 however, in a most unmistakable manner. The Methodist 
 Church has covered itself with perpetual honor — thanks 
 be to God for their fidelity. Page after page of their re- 
 ports is made up of resolutions on the subject full of clear 
 instructions as to Christian duty. Here is the testimony 
 of the American Baptist Missionary Union: — 
 
 '■'■Resolvsd, That the developments of the year since elapsed, in connec- 
 tion with this attempt to destroy the best government on earth, have tended 
 only to deepen our conviction of the truth of the sentiments which we then 
 expressed, and which we now and here solemnly reiterate and re-affirm. 
 
 '■^Rcsolvjdy That the atit/iors, aiders, and abettors, of this slaveholders' re- 
 bellii)ii, in their desperate efforts to nationalize the institution of slavery, and 
 to extend its despotic sway throughout the land, have themselves inflicted on 
 that institution a series of most terrible and fatal and suicidal blows, from 
 whicli we believe it can never recover, and they have themselves thus fixed 
 its destiny and hastened its doom; and that, for thus overruling what ap- 
 peared at first to be a terrible national calamity, to the production of re- 
 sults so unexpected and glorious, our gratitude and adoration are due to 
 that wonder-working God, who still 'maketh the wrath of men to praise 
 him, while the remainder of that wrath he restrains.' — Psalm 76, verse 10." 
 
 And there is much more to the same purpose. Then I 
 have one from Vermont, and one from Maine, which is 
 scarcely cold yet. [//ear, hear^ It is a most honorable utter- 
 ance, drawn up I think by Dr. Dwight, of Portland, a de- 
 scendant of the honorable and well-known Dr. Dwight. 
 But I will not read all these documents, which are, however, 
 quite at your service, if you wish to inspect them. I have 
 not counted them, but it seems to me that there are two hun- 
 dred of them, and if you read them all you would say there 
 were a thousand. [Laiig;htcr and cheers.'] I seek by this 
 not so much to make an argument as, what is better a 
 great deal, to produce in you the moral conviction that 
 the American churches, under great difficulties, having 
 been involved in a trying crisis, have come to the conclu- 
 sion, through their representatives, that this rebellion 
 ought to be crushed, and that slavery should be destroyed 
 with the rebellion. I have not seen Dr. Massie, but I 
 
588 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 know that now he has been to America, and seen there 
 things with his own eyes, he is prepared to come to the 
 same conclusion. I know that he is an honest man, and I 
 am sure that an honest man could come to no other. 
 \^Hear, hear^ 
 
 And now it is not a question with us whether this war 
 should stop. We are not going to stop this war, whatever 
 you do. You have not — let me say — stood up for us so 
 strongly for the last two or three years that you can influ- 
 ence us now to stop the war. \^Hear, and laughter.^ I 
 don't pretend to say that, considering your own difficulties, 
 you have not taken the right path. \^Hear, /iear.'\ I see a 
 great many things in your internal affairs here in England 
 that I was not aware of before. We thought that you were 
 all well-informed on this question, and that you sat in your 
 ease and arrogance — allow me to say what I would say in 
 the States — and that having thus settled your principles 
 you refused to make an application of them to the States 
 which needed them more than any other country in the 
 world. \^C/icers.^ Now, I, find that you are far from well- 
 informed, and it is a great comfort to me to know that 
 your conduct has not all arisen from depravity. I shall go 
 back and say, " You must not think that England simply 
 refused to bear witness to her own principles. She is yet 
 in the battle herself about this question, not as to slavery, 
 but as to her own institutions, and if she had borne wit- 
 ness, as some of her people would have done, it would have 
 created a party movement." I shall not discuss whether 
 there was not higher ground to take than this, and whether 
 England should not have risen in the providence of God 
 and occupied it, but you are men, and we are men, and we 
 are glad to find a reason for not being angry with you. 
 \^Chee>-s.'\ This has been our feeling in the past, and it has 
 been unlike a common national feeling. Generally speak- 
 ing, the uneducated and passionate men have their preju- 
 dices and bitternesses, while the intelligent classes have 
 their better opinions and judgments. But it has been the 
 reverse with us. Those that have felt the most grief and 
 indignation with England have been just the educated and 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON. 589 
 
 Christian public, who have felt, with scarcely an exception, 
 that England has been selfishly cold and cruel. I don't 
 intend to say whether that has been your state or not. I 
 am not here to make a case against you. I am a Christian 
 amongst Christians. I am for doing what will unite us, if 
 we have not been united before, \cheers\ and what will keep 
 our countries together in Christian fellowship. [^Renewed 
 cheers.^ And somebody ought to tell you this; a great 
 many would think it, and would not have grace to say it 
 plainly to you. \^IIear.^ But God has strengthened me 
 to speak my mind to you, dear Christian brethren, and to 
 tell you, that, so far as your influence has gone hitherto, it 
 has all been against liberty and for slavery. I do not mean 
 that that is what you meant, but I do say that was the 
 effect of your conduct in America. From one cause or 
 another, unfortunately, the moral influence of Christians 
 in England, with individual exceptions which I live to re- 
 member, has been on the side of slavery and against those 
 who were struggling to put it down. Now I know that in 
 such an hour as this, and in the presence of Christ, who is 
 in our midst, you will receive such a statement from me in 
 the same spirit as I make it. [^Cheers.^ I know that you 
 will give this subject your consideration, — that you will 
 revise your opinions, if need be, and not allow yourselves 
 to be influenced by a commercial bias, nor by unscrupulous 
 papers. \Hear, hear.^ I wish you to understand how much 
 harm has been done on our side, too, by "the copper- 
 smith." [^Ht'a>; /lear.] I beg of you to examine this ques- 
 tion of duty to God's people — of duty to God. Yea, I will 
 humble myseff for Christ's sake, and for the fellowship of 
 the body of Christ, and beg of you for your sakes to ex- 
 amine this fairly. We wish not to be separated from the 
 English people. [Loud c/ieers.] We want to see the old 
 links rubbed brighter. [Renewed cheers^ 
 
 Let me tell you, however, we cannot stop this war — not 
 if you were to line our shores with fleets, which I know 
 you will not do; not if you were to fill Canada with your 
 armies, which I know you will not; not if you remain still 
 indifferent or adverse. That would make no difference; 
 
59° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 but is there not to be unity between the Christians of 
 England and America? [C7/tv;-j-.] You say that we have 
 retorted upon you, and said bitter things. Do you recollect 
 that wonderful passage in Scott's "Antiquary," where a 
 certain hero had lost his son and was next morning found 
 by the Antiquary engaged in a work on which, having met 
 with insuperable difficulties, he vented his grief and rage, 
 although it, of course, was in no respect to blame? \Hear, 
 and laughter?^ How natural a thing it is to vent our impa- 
 tience and grief upon our own property or upon our own 
 friend. And when we had seen our children slaughtered — 
 Oh! what noble children have fallen in this war — what tears 
 have fallen from us day and night, — and when we found 
 treachery in the Government and on every side, Ave did 
 hope to have received some sympathy; but instead of that, 
 the w^ind that came from England was as cold as Green- 
 land; and if, when we were disappointed, we said bitter 
 things of England, because we loved her and expected her 
 to support freedom, may God forgive us! [C/zav-.?.] 
 
 You will ask me what can be done. Well, in the first 
 place, let me say, dear Christian brethren, that I thank you 
 very much for the kind things you have said and done for 
 me. But I certainly would feel it to be a thousand times 
 better, if every Christian minister and Christian brother 
 would consent, as the result of my importunity, to open 
 this matter on his knees before God. I have great faith in 
 the guiding spirit of God. I do not believe he will allow 
 his dear people of England to go wrong on this question. 
 Then, next, I ask you to remember us in your prayers. I 
 do not mean in those circuitous ubiquitie? that take in 
 everybody and everything. But I ask you to pray for the 
 North as for those that you believe to be doing a great 
 work for God. Pray for the North as you would have 
 prayed for the Covenanters, for the old Nonconformists, 
 for the old Puritans, for Christians in any age whose duty 
 it became to resist unrighteousness, corruption, and wrong. 
 Pray for them as for men in that dark trouble in which 
 God frequently leaves His people before the daylight comes 
 and the glory of victory is showered down upon them. 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LONDON: 591 
 
 \Cheers?^ But when the trumpet sounds for peace, and 
 what are left of us are gathered together, and there are to 
 be congratulations, and, as it were, divisions of God's 
 spoils, I do not want that you should be left out. I desire 
 that whatever may have been the misinformation regarding 
 this conflict 3,000 miles off, for the future there may be no 
 possible mistake — that there will be eye to eye, heart to 
 heart, and hand to hand. We of the North represent your 
 civilization. In the South, now seeking to become inde- 
 pendent, there is not a point of sympathy that can attach 
 her to England. \^Ii[ear, hear.^ If the North prevail in this 
 conflict, and the Union be restored, there is not one single 
 point of religion and civilization in the whole cyclopoedia 
 of English attainments honorable, noteworthy, and world- 
 renowned, which would not find something corresponding 
 thereto among us. 
 
 This train of remark might be indefinitely continued, but 
 it is unnecessary. I shall go home certainly with a much 
 lighter heart than if I had not spoken in England, and had 
 not through my labor here — too brief for my own comfort 
 — been permitted to see so much of the interior and better 
 feeling of so many Christians in England. Before I sit 
 down let me say that I would name all those honorable 
 names — John Stuart Mill, Professors Cairnes, Goldwin 
 Smith and Newman, Baptist Noel, Newman Hall, and 
 other well-known and honored names — I would name them 
 all but that there are so many whom I would wish to 
 thank, whose names I either do not know or have forgotten, 
 that if I were to try and enumerate those who have done 
 us good and Christian service, I should do injustice to 
 many. And for the same reason I will not mention the 
 papers and magazines that have been towers of strength 
 to us. Yet we will remember them; and the day will ar- 
 rive, I trust, when those who have labored for us in ad- 
 versity will come to our shores, and we will treat them so 
 well that you never shall see them back again. \_Lond 
 ami prolonged applause^ 
 
 Several of the gentlemen present made brief and cordial re- 
 marks, when Mr. Beecher said that a question in writing had 
 
592 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 been handed up to him from a highly esteemed minister to this 
 effect, " What is to be the end of this ; is it to be a war of exter- 
 mination?" "Now," said Mr. Beecher, "I am glad of this ques- 
 tion. So long as there is a fraction of hope on the part of the 
 South that the core cannot be reached, it will form a center of 
 cohesion ; but as soon as the conviction enters their mind that 
 slavery imtst come to an end, they will dissolve in that very hour. 
 We have to go on fighting, until this conviction is produced. 
 You talk of extermination ! Well, the South has lost two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand out of a population of five millions of 
 white men. You might as well say that a father is killing his son 
 when he strikes him one or two blows as a punishment. The 
 North is not trying to carry moral conviction by force, but it is 
 trying to uphold the Government and to put down a wild attempt 
 to destroy it. We are trying by legitimate warfare to produce an 
 impression that the struggle on behalf of slavery is hopeless ; and 
 let me say, that when men here cry ' Stop the war,' when such 
 cry reaches America, it means ' Let the South have its own way.' " 
 {Hear, hear?\ 
 
 Another written question, the purport of which was whether 
 the tariff was no ground of Secession, was handed to Mr. Beecher, 
 who replied, " Certainly not ; if any man in American were to 
 say that the tariff had anything to do with this Secession we 
 should put him in a lunatic asylum." {Cheers and laughter ?[ 
 
 After other interesting interchanges and remarks, Mr. George 
 Thompson moved the following resolution : — 
 
 " That this meeting of Christian ministers and Christian laymen, as- 
 sembled to testify their respect, admiration, and esteem for the character 
 and anti-slavery labor of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, having listened 
 with the deepest interest to his important statements, and wise and weighty 
 counsel, desire to tender to him their warmest thanks for the faithfulness, 
 affection, and fervor with which he has addressed them. They would 
 testify to the importance and timeliness of his recent public speeches, and 
 while regretting that he cannot remain to render additional service to the 
 cause of truth and freedom in this country, would wish him God-speed on 
 his return to his native land, and would assure him that they in future will 
 cherish an affectionate remembrance of his short but truly friendly and 
 most useful visit." 
 
 He felt peculiar pleasure in submitting that resolution. He had 
 been permitted on three occasions to listen to their guest, and he 
 had each time learned something with regard to the merits of the 
 question which he did not know before. He was, perhaps more 
 than any living Englishman, an American; and though he had 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LOXDON. 593 
 
 had, in years past, to say some faithful things there, and had suf- 
 fered personally in consequence, when the hour of her trial came 
 he felt towards her only as a faithful friend. He regretted that 
 those whose duty it was to lead public opinion in this country did 
 not in all respects do their duty, but he could confirm the state- 
 ments of his friend Mr. Wilks, that every Englishman who really 
 understood America had given a sound and true utterance upon 
 this great question. . . . With regard to America, it must 
 gladden the hearts of all to notice the wonderful change that had 
 come over the country on the slavery question during the last three 
 years. For one thing especially he begged to thank Mr. Beecher — 
 that whether in his own pulpit or on an English platform, he had al- 
 ways generously, nobly, justly labored in the field so bravely oc- 
 cupied by his father before him, bearing his testimony on behalf 
 of truth and liberty. [Loud applause.\ 
 
 The Rev. J. Graham seconded the motion, which was carried 
 by acclamation, the company standing. 
 
 38 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 
 
 October 24, 1863. 
 
 The Union and Emancipation Society entertained Mr. Beecher 
 at a public breakfast, on Saturday, thie 24th of October, 1863, and 
 there was a very large attendance. In the absence of T. B. Pot- 
 ter, Esq., the President, Mr. George L. Ashworth, the Mayor of 
 Rochdale, occupied the chair. 
 
 After the initiatory services had been fulfilled by the Rev. Dr. 
 Parker and the Rev. T. G. Lee, Mr. Edwards, one of the secreta- 
 ries, read extracts from letters of regret for non-attendance from 
 Messrs. John Bright, W. E. Forster, and other members of Par- 
 liament and prominent men. 
 
 The Chairman said they were met together not so much to 
 make speeches as to show by their presence their sympathy for 
 the distinguished gentleman who had honored them with his 
 company. They were met together to give the lie to that which 
 had for some time been current in the country, namely, that the 
 people of England had no sympathy with the principles and 
 cause which their guest had so long and so manfully espoused, 
 and which they were now met to show they were prepared to 
 defend and maintain. \Applause?\ He deemed it a matter of the 
 deepest humiliation that there was in this country even a small 
 section of our countrymen who were prepared publicly to avow 
 the slightest amount of sympathy with that atrocious and wicked 
 system of slavery; and whatever faults we might have to find 
 with the Government of this country — and I am one who thinks 
 it is far from perfection — still on the question of maintaining a 
 strict neutrality with America, on the whole it deserved our 
 warmest support and sympathy. \Cheers?[ It would have been 
 impossible for Mr. Beecher to have selected a time more appro- 
 priate and opportune for visiting this country than the present 
 juncture, in order to render, throughout the length and breadth 
 of the land, an opportunity to Englishmen — at least a vast ma- 
 jority of them — of expressing their honest sympathy with the 
 cause of the North. The speeches which Mr. Beecher had de- 
 livered in the more important cities of this great country, had 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 595 
 
 gone a long way towards enlightening us on many points on 
 which great ignorance prevailed. These speeches had dispelled 
 much that has deceived and misled us, and he (the mayor) be- 
 lieved, in the language of one of the letters just read, that there 
 would be a rapidly increasing number of people in England who 
 would rally round the standard of liberty, and show to the North- 
 ern portion of the States that they have our sympathies, and that 
 slavery to-day was with us just what it had been in times past, a 
 thing we viewed with the utmost abhorrence. {Loud c/icet-s.] 
 We could not look upon that struggle now going on in America 
 with feelings other than those of the strongest sorrow. We could 
 not contemplate the vast sacrifices of life and blood without feel- 
 ing the deepest commiseration. But if, in this mighty and 
 gigantic struggle, the result was what he hoped and believed it 
 would be — the entire and permanent abolition of slavery, then 
 terrible and vast as the sacrifices had been, that result would 
 compensate for all. \C/icers?^ Let there be no mistake on this 
 subject. Let us render all the moral support we can to the Fed- 
 eral Government, and show them by our prayers, sympathies, and 
 kindly expressions of aflfection that we feel for them in their 
 present fearful conflict, and let us uphold the hands of our Gov- 
 ernment in maintaining a strict and impartial neutrality. \Lottd 
 cheers.\ 
 
 Mr. Francis Taylor said he had been requested to move a reso- 
 lution which was a speech in itself, and which would render it 
 quite unnecessary that he should detain them with any length- 
 ened remarks. The resolution was : " That we tender our thanks 
 to the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, for the able, eloquent, and 
 manly addresses he has delivered to thousands of our fellow 
 countrymen, on the present national crisis in the United States 
 of America ; and express our belief that the majority of the in- 
 telligent men in this kingdom unmistakably sympathize with the 
 friends of freedom in America, and approve of every effort made 
 to maintain free and constitutional government. We further ex- 
 press our desire that he may be spared to reach his native land in 
 health and strength ; and we assure him he will take with him 
 the friendship of many on this side the Atlantic, who will honor 
 his name and remember him with affection." YCheers?\ This 
 resolution certainly required no words of his to recommend it to 
 the hearty approval of the company, and he was equally sure 
 that Mr. Beecher, the gentleman referred to in the resolution, 
 needed no compliment either from the mover of the resolution 
 or from any other person. Certainly had not Mr. Beecher estab- 
 
596 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 lished for himself a reputation which would endure for all time, 
 before he visited our shores, the addresses he had delivered to 
 crowded audiences since his arrival would have secured for him 
 our most hearty approval, and have entitled him to every ex- 
 pression which the resolution contained. There was one point in 
 the resolution to which for a moment he (Mr. Taylor) wished to 
 refer. It stated that " the majority of the intelligent people of 
 this country unmistakably sympathized with the friends of free- 
 dom in America, and approved of every effort to maintain free 
 and constitutional government." \Cheers?\ Since Mr. Beecher 
 addressed the audience in our Free-trade Hall, and in various 
 other places in the kingdom, comments had been made on 
 these meetings by various newspapers throughout the coun- 
 try. It was asserted by the Ti'/nes, and by its humble fol- 
 lower in Manchester \Iai{ghtcr\, that notwithstanding all the en- 
 thusiasm expressed at these meetings, they really meant nothing 
 at all; that Mr. Beecher would make a great mistake if he 
 assumed that in consequence of large attendances at these meet- 
 ings, public opinion in this country sympathized with his friends 
 on the other side of the Atlantic. All he (Mr. Taylor) had to 
 say was this : Let Mr. James Spence in the advocacy of the 
 Southern cause in England, try the experiment; let him go round 
 to the large cities in this country and call public meetings, at 
 which all who choose might attend ; and let him thus test public 
 opinion and see whether it went with the South. [Loud cheers, 
 and a voice: "Let hz'm take Liverpool first. "^ 
 
 When he (Mr. Taylor) presided at the meeting in the Free- 
 trade Hall, he stated before Mr. Beecher addressed the assembly 
 that if any person wished to ask Mr. Beecher any questions after 
 the proceedings had terminated that person would be at perfect 
 liberty to do so, and Mr. Beecher would be ready to answer the 
 questions so put to him. Mr. Beecher himself made a similar 
 oflfer in the course of his speech but not one person presented 
 himself to ask any question. [C/ieers.} It appeared however that 
 some gentleman calling himself " a traveler"— whether he was at 
 the meeting or not was not known — if he were, probably he was 
 one of the bellowing bulls that disturbed the back settlements of 
 the hall. [Loud cheers.] Well, this person instead of availing 
 himself of the opportunity of putting his questions in person, 
 sneaked of? to the columns of a sympathizing newspaper in Man- 
 chester and said " it was impossible to get a straightforward 
 answer from Mr. Beecher respecting the treatment of colored 
 people in the North." Now, if this gentleman had appeared on 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 597 
 
 the platform at the Free-trade Hall to put these questions, he 
 would have found no difficulty in getting a straightforward 
 answer, and no doubt Mr. Beecher would so far notice this ques- 
 tion as to give during the remarks he was about to make an 
 answer that would satisfy every one. [Loud cheers.'] He had 
 much pleasure in moving the resolution he had read. 
 
 Mr. John Patterson, of Liverpool, said that man must be very 
 ill informed indeed upon an important subject, if he had not heard 
 of the life labors as well as " Life Thoughts " of Mr. Henry Ward 
 Beecher. [Applause.] Among the glorious chapters which 
 adorned the page of humanity was a chapter which recorded the 
 life and labors of the " fanatical abolitionists " of America. He 
 for one gladly embraced the opportunity now afforded to him in 
 this assembly of " fanatical abolitionists " \laiightcr] — to tender 
 his thanks to Mr. Beecher not only for what that gentleman had 
 done in England, but for what he and his friends had done in 
 America during the past twenty-five years. During the few 
 weeks of the past summer which he spent in America he had the 
 pleasure of being introduced to Mr. Beecher at his own church, 
 and of telling him that the people in England believed that 
 America was much indebted to him and men like him for having 
 the courage to stand up before the world and rebuke the inatten- 
 tions and presumptions of one of the basest and foulest Con- 
 federacies that ever disgraced humanity. [Loud cheers?^ It was 
 important that we in England should speak out unmistakably, 
 as well as be spoken to by the eloquent mouthpiece of American 
 abolitionists. ... In England we were now pretty much as 
 we always were — the minority only possessed of power and priv- 
 ilege. But education was being now more generally diffused, 
 although many men had it forced down their throats. Some only 
 desired that the people should be so much educated as to make 
 them subservient to selfish purposes, while the men who repre- 
 sented the really educated intelligence of the country desired that 
 the people of England should not be merely what Beresford 
 Hope wished, a "well fed, well clothed church peasantry" [loud 
 laughter]— -hnX. rather a free, intelligent, industrious, and self- 
 elevating people. \Cheers?\ We owed great thanks and obliga- 
 tions to the men who came to us with not only " 40-parson " but 
 500-parson power across the Atlantic and who spoke words of 
 truth, soberness, and logical demonstration, although opposed by 
 the Times, Telegraph, and Alanchesler G2(ardlan. [Laughter and 
 hisses?\ Many persons would say that the opposition given to 
 Mr. Ward Beecher demonstrated the futility of his endeavoring 
 
598 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to speak to the men of England. It showed rather the force with 
 which he has spoken to them, and he (Mr. Patterson) stood 
 there, a Liverpool man, to say that the reception Mr. Beecher 
 met with in Liverpool, exhibiting as it did all the vileness that 
 still clung around them — all the miserable tradition of an intol- 
 erant Toryism that pervaded a portion of the community; yet it 
 showed still further how high the intelligence of Liverpool had risen 
 — how amazingly its middle class had risen, and how, if Liverpool 
 men were true to themselves, they could trample under foot that 
 ancient and rotten tradition. [Loud cheers.] That meeting in 
 Liverpool was open as the day. It had been stated that it was 
 packed. It was untrue. Every opportunity was given to any 
 man to attend; and pains were taken by their opponents to enlist 
 men to come there for the purpose of opposition. But a lament- 
 able failure the opposition was. [Cheers.] Not one-seventh of 
 that audience held up their hands in opposition to the vote. 
 Whilst he thoroughly sympathized with Mr. Beecher, and felt an- 
 noyed that a gentleman in his position and from such a distance 
 should be obliged to contend with the wild beasts at Ephesus 
 \loiid laughter], yet he rejoiced for the sake of liberty that the 
 meeting was held. [Cheers^^ Many meetings have been held, but 
 the people of Liverpool had pronounced by tremendous major- 
 ities in favor of the North. [Loud chet^rs.] 
 
 The resolution was supported by several speakers, and passed 
 with acclamation. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher rose to return thanks, and was 
 enthusiastically cheered. He said : — 
 
 Mr. Chairman and gentlemen — I wish I could say ladies 
 and gentlemen. But I begin again — Mr. Chairman and 
 gentlemen — [A voice: The ladies are represented by the gentle- 
 men.^ No man can ever represent a woman. ^Boisterous 
 laughter and cheers.^ It gives me great pleasure this morn- 
 ing to avow myself in some sense a convert. While I have 
 seen, and still see in England, even more perhaps than you 
 will admit of prejudice and misconception, I have been 
 made aware of some prejudices and much misconception 
 in myself, and in other honest men whom I may fairly be 
 said to represent; and it is not the smallest triumph of this 
 short course of two weeks during which I have been per- 
 mitted to remain in England, that I have gained the vic- 
 tory over my own past impressions and am prepared to 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCLJESTER. 599 
 
 admit some things that I have stoutly denied to English- 
 men of my own congregation, who used to say to me, 
 grieved but not angered at the things I said about En- 
 gland, " You do not know Old England." I used as 
 sturdily to say, " I do." But now I shall say to them, very 
 humbly, "I did not." \C]lccrs^^ 
 
 I have been called to speak on a question which is very 
 broad, very intricate, and multitudinous in its contents, 
 because the question of America is simply the total ques- 
 tion of human society. It begins at the top and goes to 
 the bottom, and back again from the bottom to the top; 
 from the circumference to the center, and from the 
 center to the circumference; for there is nothing in 
 political economy, philosophy, human right, or what- 
 ever can spring out of this wonderful being — man — 
 in society, that is not involved directly or indirectly in this 
 great American struggle. And in speaking upon a ques- 
 tion so broad, it was quite impossible to speak exhaustive- 
 ly : the only thing that I have exhausted has been myself. 
 \^Laughte)■^^ It has been quite impossible under the cir- 
 cumstances, a stranger in a strange community, not alto- 
 gether cognizant of the prejudice or the wants or shades 
 of thought in a community, to speak upon this large ques- 
 tion so as always to meet the requisitions of my audience. 
 I shall not dwell upon the interruption, which I have taken 
 very kindly — which even in its worst form at Liverpool, I 
 do them the justice to say, was rather an exhibition of 
 party feeling than of personal malignity \cheers\\ — and 
 although it made my work very hard, God is my witness it 
 did not excite in my mind the slightest animosity towards 
 them, still less towards that very noble community which 
 they misrepresented on that occasion. 
 
 There is another matter I wished to speak of ; and that 
 is, that the reports of my speeches are not authoritative, 
 nor can they be so, until they have passed under my re- 
 vision. And I wish to say that no man here is so much 
 indebted to a class of men much abused and very little 
 understood, but to whom I owe lasting obligations — I mean 
 reporters for newspapers. They are young men who are 
 
6oo PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 generally sent out into meetings of all kinds, where men 
 are divided, and where questions are discussed with warmth 
 and excitement at untimely hours; and who, usually 
 crammed into the most inconvenient situations, are obliged 
 to take down either the whole or a part of what is spoken 
 upon arguments on which they have not been thoroughly 
 read, exercising at the same time an immediate judgment 
 as to what should be omitted, or what the wants of their 
 newspaper oblige them to produce. Then they are hur- 
 ried back in the midnight hour to write out that which is 
 so lately taken, and often because it is not presented next 
 morning as some would wish, men blame them, and impute 
 ill motives. \^Loiid laiighter and cheers.^ Now, I am a news- 
 paper man myself, and have been made familiar with the 
 life and difficulties which beset the corps of reporters. I 
 have followed the reports of my speeches in England, but 
 have never in a single speech seen that which led me to 
 believe that any reporter had intentionally misrepresented 
 what I had said. I have, however, seen the editorial col- 
 umn, where I know that the editor, thinking he was sup- 
 porting a certain party, misrepresented both my facts and 
 principles. [^Cheers.'] And, if there are reporters present, 
 I desire to express through them my sense of the obliga- 
 tion under which I lie to their kindness and fidelity in this 
 visit. [Cheers.'] Yet, for reasons I have stated, my 
 speeches generally occupying more than two hours, and 
 passing generally very rapidly over many great topics, and 
 all having naturally to appear next morning, when the 
 paper could not afford to put in a verbatim report, the 
 reports, while presenting the general tenor of my speeches, 
 have had such inevitable imperfections as to make them 
 not exactly the things upon which to base an attack upon 
 me. [Cheers.] 
 
 I wish now, in the opening remarks which I shall make, 
 to explain to you precisely the thing v/hich I have at- 
 tempted to do in England. I have attempted — it is the 
 keynote — the inward keynote of my whole progress here — 
 I have attempted to use my information, and the position 
 which you have been kind enough to secure for me, to 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 60 r 
 
 promote a better understanding and a lasting peace be- 
 tween these two great nations. \^Loiid cheers?^ There have 
 been therefore a great many things I anight have said, and 
 feelings I might have expressed, which I have not. But I 
 have endeavored to bring all things to the bar of a manly- 
 judgment, and to say those things which would draw closer 
 the bonds of amity. \Cheers^ Even in the cases where I 
 have brought up matters on which your judgment and 
 mine have differed, and still differ, it was not so much to 
 go back and argue them upon the merits of the question 
 as it was to put you in possession of the American stand- 
 point, that you might see, if we did err, what was the reason 
 of our erring. \Cheers^ I wish, for instance, to illustrate 
 it by one single case, and that was the Trent difficulty. I 
 think it was in Manchester I mentioned the strong feeling 
 that existed in America upon this point. And the London 
 Daily Neius — a paper to which I should be glad to express 
 the great obligations of American citizens \chcers\ — if I 
 were not afraid it might be employed against it to dimin- 
 ish its influence with Britons [" No, no,"'\ — I say that 
 paper in a friendly spirit criticised my utterances, and 
 said that it would damage my testimony with English peo- 
 ple to be so far wrong and mistaken in facts about that 
 question; and that it would damage my testimony amongst 
 English people on questions with which I was better in- 
 formed. They did not specify, however, what was my 
 mistake. Now, I want just to specify to you how we 
 Americans looked at that transaction, not for the purpose 
 of putting ourselves right and you wrong, but to ask you 
 as I shall, when I have made my statement, if you had 
 been in our situation, and things looked to you as they 
 did to us, would you not have felt as we did ? Is not that 
 fair ? [Cheers.] 
 
 You will recollect, then, that an American naval vessel 
 by accident — if there be such things as accidents — over- 
 hauled an English mail steamer and took from it two men 
 who represented themselves as ambassadors from the so- 
 called Confederate Government to the courts of England 
 and France respectively. I remember very well, when the 
 
6o2 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ship came from Europe — and the tidings spread across 
 America as quick as lightning could flash, that for a day 
 or two the universal feeling was, " Here's a stupendous 
 joke." Everybody laughed. It struck the comical feeling 
 of the nation that these two men should have started off to 
 represent the Confederates at St. James's, and in Paris, 
 and instead, had found themselves in Fort Lafayette. 
 \_Laiighter?[ And there was a feeling of immense good 
 nature, and even jollity. Then, after two or three days, 
 some lawyer-men began to inquire in the papers, " What 
 is the law on this subject ? It may be a very good joke, 
 but what says the law?" We began to draw down our 
 faces and say, " Sure enough there is an England, and she 
 will have a word to say. What then is the law ? " Then 
 began to be quoted what the English doctrine was; our 
 papers began to be filled with English precedents and En- 
 glish conduct, and there was a universal feeling that we 
 had acted according to English precedent. \Cheersi\ That 
 conviction is yet unchanged; and never wiii be changed, because it 
 was the fact. [Cheers.^ 
 
 But I had the opportunity of knowing from my position, 
 both as preacher, lecturer, and editor, that the feeling of 
 the people was, " We are going to do what is right now, 
 whatever it is. If we are in the wrong, we shall concede 
 this matter; but if we are in the right, we will not budge 
 an inch, neither by bullying nor intimidation." And the 
 moment the information came to our shores of these facts, 
 Mr. Seward addressed a confidential communication to 
 Mr. Adams, instructing him to read the same to Earl 
 Russell, the purport of which was, that this had been done 
 without the privity or assent of the American Government, 
 who were prepared, on the statement of England's wishes, 
 to settle this matter amicably. Mr. Adams read that to 
 Earl Russell, and it lay nine or ten days quiet. The letter 
 being confidential, Mr. Adams scrupulously avoided speak- 
 ing of it: but it leaked out nevertheless that there had 
 been a communication from the American Government to 
 the English, and everybody was asking what was its nature. 
 This communication having been read, I think, on the 19th 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 603 
 
 of December, it would be about the 29th that your Morn- 
 ing Post — ^which is supposed to be a semi-official organ — 
 declared that there had been a communication from the 
 American Government, but that it had nothing to do with 
 the Trent affair. And, whereas it was a communication 
 expressly on that and nothing else, to this hour that paper 
 has never explained nor retracted that malicious and de- 
 liberate falsehood. From that point, I believe, compli- 
 cation began. But there was something before that. 
 [C/ieers.] Even before that message came from Washing- 
 ton, and before the British Government had heard what 
 we had to say, orders had issued that British troops should 
 repair to Canada, and the navy and dockyards were put 
 on double labor. England lias never shown want of 
 promptness and spirit; but I believe you can find no other 
 case in English history in which a misunderstanding be- 
 tween ships of two nations has been treated with similar 
 precipitancy, not waiting to hear explanations, but prepar- 
 ing w^ar, or threatening war, before you could possibly 
 have the real facts. 
 
 As to what took place on the other side, I am alleged to 
 have been all wrong when I said the American Govern- 
 ment showed instant disposition to make reparation; be- 
 cause, on the other hand we heaped honors on Captain 
 Wilkes all through the nation. When we thought we were 
 right, we did; but after we found out by the declaration 
 of our own Government that we were wrong, point me to 
 one instance, in which even the slightest popular assembly 
 undertook to traverse the decision of our Government by 
 showing attention to Captain Wilkes ? As to whether we 
 did not use all possible speed, let us see what were the 
 facts. Mr. Seward wrote to the English Government say- 
 ing we were prepared to settle the matter satisfactorily to 
 them, and awaited their demands. Many say: we ought 
 not to have waited their demands, but given up the men 
 instantly. But there were conflicting doctrines as to the 
 rights of Governments over contraband of war in neutral 
 vessels. There was the British doctrine and there was the 
 American doctrine. From 1807 certainly to 1813, and I 
 
6o4 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 know not how much longer, the British doctrine was that 
 you had a right to condemn a neutral vessel without bring- 
 ing her into a prize court. That was the British doctrine 
 and practice down to within a few years. I think the last 
 recognized case — I won't undertake to say it is the last 
 case — is that in which England acted upon the American 
 doctrine, when they took a Bremen vessel and condemned 
 her in an English court because she was bringing the crew 
 of a wrecked Russian vessel home from Japan. She was 
 condemned by a prize court, and that is the first instance I 
 know of the American doctrine being acted on by the En- 
 glish Government or navy. Now, when Mr. Seward wrote 
 to Mr. Adams he said thus: Here is the old British doc- 
 trine, which they have never given up technically, and here 
 is the American. Which of the two is the British Govern- 
 ment going to take with respect to Mr. Mason and Mr. 
 Slidell ? If their own, we have committed no offense, and 
 there is nothing more to be said; if our doctrine, evi- 
 dently we must wait for them to make their own election. 
 I ask you, then, was that not a courteous and just reason 
 for waiting till the overture should proceed from the En- 
 glish Government instead of from ours, as to what should 
 be done in the case of these men ? \Checrs^ 
 
 Now, all these facts are perfectly known to our people, 
 and I ask you not to renew this old subject. It is past for 
 good, I hope, and it rests in peace. But then, I want you 
 so far to review these facts as that when men say, " The 
 Americans have shown an arrogant and intemperate spirit 
 towards Great Britain, without reason, in that Trent af- 
 fair," — I want you then to say, " Every man, and I for 
 one if I had been an American, should have felt just as 
 they felt." \Cheersi\ But I want to say one thing more, 
 and it is this: that we were all very much surprised when 
 Mr. Seward issued his decision. So it was and so it 
 stands. I make these explanations in the furtherance of a 
 better understanding between us, so that there may be no 
 unpleasant memory, and no coal that has not gone out in 
 the embers and ashes of this old question. \^Loud cheers?^ 
 
 Also I wish to revert to a certain topic, because I am in- 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 605 
 
 formed that I have been destroyed by several papers, body 
 and soul, honor and reputation, because of gross and in- 
 tentional misstatements made in Edinburgh. I cannot tell 
 the paper that has originated it, nor would I if I could. 
 I am informed that my statements made respecting the 
 circulation of money were totally at variance with the fact. 
 Now all I can say is, if these statements were not correct, 
 I certainly should be guilty of ignorance, though not in- 
 tentionally. Let me then state to you, availing myself of 
 this opportunity, what I understand about the condition 
 of the North fiscally, and of material prosperity in this 
 time of war. My venerable and excellent friend, Dr. 
 Massie, is present \cheers\ — and I speak as before one 
 who knows the truth, and although I have never till this 
 morning seen him — may I see him a thousand times here- 
 after — though I, of course, know nothing of his opinions, 
 yet I know he is an honest man, and I know what an 
 honest man must say in respect of certain points in our 
 American affairs. I say he will not rebuke me for saying 
 there never was a time of such material or moral prosper- 
 ity as in the North at this time. Burdened as we are with 
 war, there never was a time when husbandry was carried 
 on with more alacrity or success, when every conceivable 
 form of productive industry, and of manufacturing through 
 its whole range, was more pressed by demand. It is not 
 as it was in Manchester just before this war, when you had 
 manufactured far beyond the consumption of your custom- 
 ers. It is not speculative. There never was a time when 
 monetary affairs were so easy, and I think so healthy, not- 
 withstanding the contrary opinion of the editor of the 
 Times' money articles. You say, we shall come to a crash. 
 It may be we shall, though we are going to it by a very 
 pleasant way. \Laiighter?\^ 
 
 But are we doing this upon an inflated paper currency, 
 without a proper basis and proper security ? Paper must 
 represent convertible property. Is there more paper in 
 circulation in the North than there is actual and available 
 property in the North which it represents ? On that sub- 
 ject I declare it makes no difference whether paper is is- 
 
6o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 sued by State banks, or individual brokers, or the National 
 Government; if there is never more paper than is needed, 
 all then is safe, for there is no more paper than they have 
 means to convert. Again, you may always issue more 
 paper than you can convert in any one day. Three bills 
 to one pound of bullion is a safe measure. The exact state 
 of affairs in the North was, that this uprising so deranged 
 business that it compelled a universal settlement. I don't 
 know how it is in England; but in America we need a 
 financial judgment day once in ten years, and we get it. 
 These crashes, although in one way of looking at them 
 they are unfavorable, in another are always beneficial. A 
 new country must have credit. As countries grow old and 
 rich, they can contract it more and more, but a new coun- 
 try, that has its resources to develop, requires credit, and 
 with it you must have the attendant evils of intense stimu- 
 lation of hopeful and sanguine natures. Once in ten years 
 you work out, so that the thing comes clear round. There 
 is a kind of miscellaneous crash, in which every man picks 
 up his own. The bubble is broken — the paper is gone; 
 and the property remains. The man that yesterday said, 
 This is my house, does not say so to-morrow: but the com- 
 munity is not hurt; the property is there — the difference is 
 that the owners have shifted. YLaughterl\ Now, what of 
 these commercial reverses? It is said they are unhealthy, 
 but it is not of that kind of unhealthiness that many political 
 economists have believed; and these periodical settlements 
 are always salutary. We had a settlement in 1857, and 
 there was the less at the beginning of this war to be set- 
 tled. But what there was, we swept out of the way. And 
 since the day when the infant colony of Plymouth Bay had 
 to pay fifty percent, for money loaned to her in England, I 
 do not believe there has ever been so sound a state of busi- 
 ness in the North as to-day. And your business men in 
 Manchester will see that these reasons work that way. 
 One thing more: the thing does not stop there. As there 
 is more or less of uncertainty in the commercial world, 
 men will no longer go on the credit system as before. 
 They are buying for cash; then going home and selling for 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 607 
 
 cash. Some of you in Manchester can say whether it is 
 not the case here to an extent never before known, that 
 American merchants are buying for cash. The business is 
 talcing that direction; certainly it is in America. Not that 
 there may not be facts the other way, but this is in the main 
 true. Suppose there come by and by further financial 
 difficulties, how are you going to bankrupt a nation which 
 has no foreign debts ? You recollect the story of the 
 Frenchman in Boston. He had got money enough and 
 goods enough, but thought a man ought to fail when he 
 could not collect his debts. We may fail so, but I don't 
 see any other form of bankruptcy awaiting us. 
 
 Our Government is issuing bonds that are largely be- 
 coming the basis of the whole banking system of the North. 
 The Government bonds become the securities of our State 
 banks. They issue Government notes as their circulation, 
 and although there is an immense amount of Government 
 notes in circulation they are taking the place of the individ- 
 ual State bank notes we have been driving in. I do not pro- 
 fess to be fully informed, but my impression is, there is no 
 more paper money in circulation now than there has been 
 at many periods in American history, only it is not a circu- 
 lation of individual banks, nor of States; it is a circulation 
 of the total United States: and whereas before these bills 
 had the security of what was in the vault of the individual 
 bank or of the State, now the guaranty of these bills with 
 the same circulation is the guaranty of the credit and total 
 property of the United States. \^Hear^ Neither can I state 
 (as I should have done if I had supposed I was to be called 
 on for these facts) exactly how much has been invested; 
 but probably four or five hundred millions of the capital 
 of the North, not invested already in business, has been 
 invested in what are called Government securities, which 
 are just your "consols" over again. Our people feel two 
 things — first, that our Government must stand ; and, 
 secondly, that it will stand, and it is safe to invest in it. 
 \Cheersi\ Our savings banks, insurance companies, trust- 
 fund commissioners, and men who have in charge the 
 money of widows and orphans — old men who wish to se- 
 
6o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 cure themselves against contingencies and bankruptcies, 
 men who have sums in hand and are looking about for in- 
 vestment, are showing that of all securities none seems to 
 them so sound as the faith and credit of the Government 
 of the United States. \^Loiid cheers^ And hundreds of 
 millions of dollars have been invested in that way; so that 
 I may say the Government of the United States has a lien 
 upon all the inoperative capital of the North and West, 
 and it has become the interest of every business man 
 and every moneyed man in the whole Northern States, 
 to maintain the Government as the way to maintain 
 himself. 
 
 If it be said (as it has been) that I have stated that the 
 Government paper had been issued as only three to one of 
 bullion, I reply that I never made any statement on that 
 question at all. But since the Central Government issued 
 this paper — since it represents not only what has been paid 
 in for these bonds as invested, but represents also the total 
 available property of the Federation itself, it is a better cir- 
 culation thaji that of local banks, which do issue three papers to 
 one pound of bullion: that is what I meant to say at Edin- 
 burgh, whether I said it or not. And it is what I say in 
 this great capital of business in England. I cannot, of 
 course, speak authoritatively in this matter. I am not a 
 financier, I am not a banker, but a clergyman and a patriot 
 only. If you were to get hold of a man who knew a great 
 deal more, he would state the matter still more strongly. 
 YApplausel\ If there is anything I have inadvertently omitted 
 to notice on this fiscal question, I shall be ready to attend 
 to any question that may be put to me now. [J/r. Beecher 
 paused, and then resumed?^ I may presume, then, that you 
 are satisfied. \^Applause^ 
 
 Now there is some art in speaking so as to relieve one 
 subject against another, and, having given you a few words 
 upon currency, and a sound state of business in the North, 
 I will turn to that letter in one of your local papers, to 
 which my friend Mr. Taylor referred, containing those 
 three questions, which the writer says have never received 
 straightforward answers. I will endeavor to show you 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 609 
 
 what a straightforward answer is. The first question is, 
 " Do colored persons ever attend your church in Brook- 
 lyn ? " Yes, by scores and hundreds. \Cheers?^ Second, 
 " If so, where do they sit ? " Wherever they can get a seat. 
 \Cheers and laiighteri\ Allow me to say our church will 
 hold but three thousand, and it is extremely difficult for 
 any one to get a seat. I have said humorously, in ex- 
 postulating with our people, that they are sometimes im- 
 patient of having so little use of their own pews, for which 
 they pay an inordinate rent, " Gentlemen, you know very 
 well when you rent pews here what it means; you pay 
 three hundred dollars for a pew for the sake of sitting in 
 the aisle, and you knew it when you bought your pew." 
 It is expressly stipulated that if a man is not in his pew to 
 occupy it within a certain number of minutes before the 
 service begins, he forfeits his right to sit there. It is in his 
 article of sale. We have from sixteen to twenty-five active 
 and enterprising men whose sole business is to seat people 
 in our church; and sometimes, when there is a public ques- 
 tion involving great interests, the entrances to the church 
 are thronged for hours before the doors are open. Well; 
 when our own pewholders have to bustle for their own 
 seats, because strangers may come an hour beforehand; 
 when this has been going on for sixteen continuous years 
 — if you ask me whether we take colored people by pla- 
 toons, and walk them up and seat them on a platform — 
 why, no; we don't treat them any better than white folks. 
 \^Loud laughter and cheers.'\ We treat them just as we do white 
 folks. \Cheers.'\ Now, let me say this: I have never exerted 
 any direct influence on this subject; it has only been the 
 Christian feeling and good sense of my own parishioners 
 that have led them to determine their line of action to- 
 wards colored people within the body of the church. And 
 what does it mean ? I have never yet known an instance 
 in which a colored man was refused a seat, if he were 
 properly dressed, well behaved, and modestly asked for a 
 seat. I have myself invited Frederick Douglass and other 
 colored men to sit in my own pew. Sometimes one says 
 
 to me, — " I would come, but I am afraid." But I give him 
 
 39 
 
6 TO PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 a note to one of my friends and then he finds no trouble. 
 To make so much of it, would seem as if I was boasting of 
 the liberality of our people. It is just a matter of course, 
 of Christian common sense. If my answer is not straight- 
 forward, it is because I had to go round to get all this. 
 \^Cheers and laugJitcr^ Third, " Have 3^ou ever seen any 
 (that is, colored people) amongst your congregation; and 
 would they be allowed to sit in any pew of your church, 
 or intermingle with your white hearers ? " If my people 
 were like the man who wrote this letter, they would not be 
 permitted to sit a moment there. \Cheers^^ That is not a 
 mere jibe. I will tell you in a moment why I make that 
 remark. But I have seen them, not once or twice, or fifty, 
 but hundreds of times. I tell you the truth, gentlemen, 
 though we are not better than hundreds of other churches. 
 We have been led by acquiescence in those great truths 
 preached in Plymouth Church: — that man is not what he is 
 on account of title, education, or wealth, but because God 
 made him and loves him, and God will redeem him to im- 
 mortality and glory. \Cheers?^ And that broad ground 
 has led us to feel insensibly, more and more, that a man in 
 the house of God is to be treated as we would treat that 
 man on the threshold of the judgment day. And now, 
 these words will go back to America, and I shall have them 
 set down to me there, and I shall stand to every word I 
 have said on America. 
 
 The close of the letter, containing these queries, is as 
 follows: " I could multiply instances to almost any extent 
 of brutality towards the colored people in the North, 
 and of kindness and indulgence towards them in the 
 South, which I witnessed during a long and protracted 
 tour through the States. Though my original antipathy 
 to slavery was never eradicated, I came to this conclusion, 
 — that a Slave in the South was a far gayer and happier 
 creature than a free black in the North." There you have 
 it. Ah ! there never was a serpent yet that was taught to 
 speak in human language that first or last the sibilation 
 did not come out. Whenever I find a man undertake to 
 tell me, that any human creature, considered in the totality 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 6ii 
 
 that makes up a man, in his body and soul — in his loves, 
 independence, and purities^in his relation to time and 
 eternity — is a better man in slavery than he is out of it, I 
 say, "Thou son of the devil, get thee behind me." \_Loud 
 cheering.^ On the other side, let me say pointedly, that the 
 treatment of the blacks in the North wras bad — that we 
 imbibed prejudice from the South — that the poison of 
 slavery in every fiber of our body wrought out bad laws 
 and usages; nevertheless, the party now predominant throughout 
 the North, though once a small minority, has fought up against 
 that prejudice and wrong, until at last it is in ascendency: and 
 Englishmen are asked noiu to strike us, who have been martyrs 
 for freedom, because of the prejudices which came from the men 
 who are nozv in rebellion. [Great cheering.^ And I avow, there 
 is a good deal of work yet to be done. We do not appear 
 before you as a saintlike people; we are, just like you, in 
 the midst of struggles where all sorts of influences are in 
 combination. We have fought so far with complete suc- 
 cess -thanks to God; but it is not done yet. There are 
 many things we need to change, and are trying to change. 
 All we ask is, that when our faces are as it were turned 
 towards Jerusalem, you will not stop us. [Loud cheers.] 
 
 And I say stil4 further, that in respect to that riot which 
 took place in New York, and so much used adversely to 
 us, I here, and accountable for what I say, declare my con- 
 viction that that riot was nothing in the world but the sore 
 made by a foreign blister put on our body. The rioters 
 were as a body unquestionably Irishmen. [Cheers.] But 
 you must not think I am saying this in any ill-will to them. 
 These Irish laborers come to us poor and uneducated creat- 
 ures, easily led by more intelligent men, men who work 
 through their passions. By corrupt Americans, I am 
 ashamed to say, they have been assiduously taught that 
 the emancipation of the slave would take away from them 
 the market of labor, and that emancipation would bring 
 the whole South Northward; which is just the opposite to 
 the truth, that it is likely to take the whole colored North 
 Southward. But they have been stuffed with falsehood in 
 the most offensive forms, for the purpose of making them 
 
6i2 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 mischievous; hence with the sting of the draft just about 
 to be put on them, there was a wild furious uprising of the 
 Irish immigrants. It was very cruel and wicked, but so 
 cruel and wicked a thing was never done with so mucli 
 excuse for the wicked actors as this. They were blind, 
 ignorant, misled creatures, who thought they were fight- 
 ing not so much against the blacks as for themselves. I 
 make these excuses for them therefore, and I say this riot 
 was an Irish riot, just as much as if it had occurred in 
 Dublin or Cork, instead of New York. \^Hear, /lear.] 
 When Archbishop Hughes was called upon to address 
 them and stop it, the street before the Archiepiscopal res- 
 idence was alive with the crowded thousands; his speech 
 was reported, and he never intimated that he thought any- 
 body else was engaged but Irishmen. He took it for 
 granted it was they; he never excused them in any way 
 by the oppression they had suffered in Old Ireland. From 
 beginning to end it is taken for granted it was the work of 
 Catholic Irish, and he was blaming them in his very 
 maternal and gentle way for doing such naughty things. 
 [LaiigA^er.l But what was the conduct of the city of New 
 York? Between forty and fifty thousand dollars were sub- 
 scribed to relieve the wants of those suffering colored peo- 
 ple in a few days. A large committee was appointed from 
 the most respectable merchants, men of the highest busi- 
 ness integrity, and of the utmost honor and purity in 
 private life. I marked every one of them as the men who 
 have been my opponents from the beginning of this agita- 
 tion for sixteen years — men who are intensely conservative, 
 or as we call them, " Old Hunkerish." [LaugAter and 
 chee?-s.^ But these men had their eyes so opened by the 
 riot, that they followed their noble and generous instincts, 
 so as not only to give their money, but to avow as plainly 
 as words can say: " It has come to this. If the colored 
 people are thus violently treated, we will put ourselves be- 
 tween them and their assailants, and they shall, as long as 
 we live, have the right to labor in freedom." \^Loud cheers?^ 
 A body of lawyers volunteered to receive and put into 
 legal form the complaints of every colored man who had 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MAATNESTER. 613 
 
 lost property: according to our law, the municipality is 
 responsible for every cent of property damaged in the 
 riot; and there have been 145,000 to 150,000 dollars* in- 
 volved in the complaints already made, or making; and 
 legal proceedings have cost the colored people not a cent. 
 \^Cheers.~\ The letter of thanks they wrote, which I believe 
 will appear in the papers, is a composition of the most 
 poetical English, and consummate Christian kindness, 
 showing what the grace of God can make appear in the 
 hearts of outcast men. [CAeers.] Read that letter in the 
 report of the committee which has just reached this coun- 
 try, and the reply of Mr. McKenzie, and see how an Old 
 Hunker can speak. When I get back, I mean, the first 
 thing, to go to Mr. McKenzie's store and ask him to honor 
 me by shaking hands. 
 
 Are there any other questions about these blacks ? 
 
 Mr. Haughton, of Dublin: "Are we to understand that the 
 practice in your own church is the universal practice in America; 
 that the black man is as respected in other churches as in yours.?" 
 
 No, sir, I cannot say that it is. Many of our churches 
 are filled with men who are the first merchants of New 
 York, or are politicians. The position of the black man is 
 regulated mainly by the fact that he is the football ban- 
 died between side and side; to treat him with public atten- 
 tion has been to abandon one political party, and seem to 
 show confidence in the other side. In many churches of 
 New York — I cannot speak positively, but my impression 
 is — they would not be received except in a particular pew; 
 but a tendency has now been established, and is every 
 week increasing, to receive them when they come into the 
 churches. It is a process begun. Dr. Massie confirms my 
 statement. I do not want to make out our case any better 
 than it is. We do not move in perfection as the saints in 
 glory do; all you can ask of men is. Are they in the right 
 direction, and making progress ? [C/ieers.] 
 
 I want now to add a word or two with respect to some 
 questions proposed to me last week. A Mr. David M'Crae, 
 
 *The total amount that the city of New York had to pay for property 
 destroyed in that riot was about )^2,ooo,ooo. 
 
6 14 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 I think, of Glasgow, proposed a question as to the Consti- 
 tution which I did not then quite understand. The gist 
 of it, as far as I remember, is this: Speaking of tlie 
 fugitive slave clause of the Constitution — his question 
 was, Are you fighting for the Constitution with that clause 
 in it ? If you are, how do you pretend that you are fight- 
 ing for liberty ? Secondly, if you are fighting for Eman- 
 cipation, you are fighting against that Constitution, and 
 how do you condemn the seceded States ? I will answer 
 by a statement of facts, and leave you to settle the logic. 
 
 What is the relation of our Constitution to slavery ? It 
 contains two clauses: one is the fugitive slave clause; the 
 other is the three-fifths representation clause. I will take 
 the last first. That clause does not legalize slavery. It 
 merely says (as if the founders of the Constitution recog- 
 nized it as a fact, but not a doctrine or principle), " five 
 men other than free whites shall count for three votes." 
 Now what is the origin of that ? When we first formed 
 our present Constitution, having had ten years' trial of 
 what was called Articles of Confederation, the difficulty 
 that struck the Government, as it strikes every Govern- 
 ment, was, " How can you raise funds to carry on the Gov- 
 ernment?" First, taxes were laid on the lands in all the 
 country. But it was found impossible to obtain the sta- 
 tistics which were requisite for levying the tax justly, and 
 therefore they must change their system. It was then pro- 
 posed they should tax the people per capita. Then came 
 the question: as the vast majority are white and free in 
 the North, and as an immense proportion in the South are 
 slaves, if you should tax according to the free whites, the 
 North would pay nineteen-twentieths of the taxes, and the 
 South only one-twentieth part, having the monopoly of 
 wealth. Therefore the North said, in assessing the taxes 
 you must call every able bodied black, as well as white 
 man, one. The South said, " No, we are willing to count 
 four as one." That was the extreme position taken on that 
 side, and you see just how it was. It was on a question 
 of raising mone}'-, whether the tax should be raised on the 
 whole black population or not, or whether it should be 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 615 
 
 raised on a white voting population, excluding Indians and 
 slaves. And it was Mr. Madison who proposed a middle 
 term as the compromise. He said, " Five shall count three 
 instead of one counting one, or four counting one." So it 
 was settled that in laying taxes on the South, there should 
 be three men taxed where there are five black men in the 
 South. But in settling the basis for taxation, they settled 
 at the same time the basis for representation. A few years 
 afterwards we ceased to raise our revenue by taxation at all, 
 and the very thing on which this compromise had been 
 made ceased to exist. Then came in the unexpected opera- 
 tion of this clause on representation, which was a shadoiuy 
 sequence scarcely understood at first to be of much impor- 
 tance, but had become of prime importance v^\i&n the North 
 was represented in Congress by a representation of men 
 (voters) alone, while the South was represented both in the 
 number of men and the amount of property. The South 
 is represented both in property and in men; the North sim- 
 ply in men, and not in property. This clause thus became, 
 by an unforeseen accident, of strength to the South. To- 
 morrow, if slavery totally ceased, that Constitution would 
 not have to be changed in a single letter in that regard. 
 There is nothing that guarantees or perpetuates it, or car- 
 ries the consequence along with it as inevitable. 
 
 The other clause on slavery in the Constitution, concern- 
 ing rendition of fugitives, appeared in our history first 
 when New England, which was just as much slave-owning 
 as the South, formed the first rudimental Union. So 
 jealous were the States of their individual sovereignty, that 
 nothing but external wars and difficulties drove them to- 
 gether, and they passed the substance of this fugitive slave 
 clause. It did not appear in the Articles of Confederation 
 in 1777, but in 1787 the present Constitution took away 
 from each State the right to pass laws in contravention of 
 laws existing in other States; that is to say, no man held 
 to service in one State shall be discharged therefrom by 
 another State into which he may go. It was a law for the 
 peace of the whole Union, taking away the power of one 
 State to nullify the laws of another State. Congress and 
 
6i6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the Federal Power are not even alluded to in the clause. 
 Then it went on to provide that such persons shall, upon 
 proper proof, be rendered up again to their claimants, on 
 whom the proof was purposely left. That is the fugitive 
 slave clause. In the convention where it was adopted, it 
 was attempted to include this clause in the one that in our 
 present Constitution precedes it, namely, in Section 2 of 
 Article IV.: ''A person charged in any State with treason, 
 felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be 
 found in another State, shall, on demand of the executive 
 authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up 
 to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the 
 crime." The State executive can only have conference 
 with the executive of another State, so where there were 
 crimes and felonies, the Article requires that the executive 
 of one State shall demand of the executive of another to 
 deliver the criminal up. And it was attempted to intro- 
 duce into this the words, "and persons held to servitude; " 
 but this was unanimously voted down, on the ground that 
 there was no more reason to constrain the Government to 
 return any slave, than to ask them to return any ox or ass, 
 and they would not push the States to that indignity. 
 Then the next clause is the following: " No person held to 
 service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escap- 
 ing 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 party to whom 
 such service or labor may be due." When it was first in- 
 troduced, the terms were " any person held to servitude, 
 or in servitude." The first attempt was to reject that. 
 Why ? Because it was declared that the Constitution of 
 the United States should not recognize slavery. Mr. 
 Madison has left his impartial and unquestionable au- 
 thority on the subject, that the day was anticipated when 
 slavery should cease; and the builders of the Constitution 
 so framed it, that while it knew how to steer round slavery 
 while it existed, it should be whole and perfect when 
 slavery ceased. [C/iecrs.^ The Northern view, in reference 
 to the operation of this, was that if a slave escaped from 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 617 
 
 Maryland into Pennsylvania, and the master found his 
 slave there, and brought proof before magistrate and jury 
 that it was his beast of burden, he should take it back if 
 he could. Thus it left the man to manage his own prop- 
 erty without being hindered or obstructed. What, then, 
 is the objection we take to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 
 (not a part of the Constitution, but a law of the Federal 
 Congress)? That to please the South it was laid doum to be a 
 duty of the whole United States to hunt the slave down without 
 PROOF, and, at the mere summons of the claimant, to deliver up 
 the persoti claimed and saddle the costs on the population of the 
 United States. I answer then, in respect to this whole sub- 
 ject, that if to-morrow slavery should cease by the force 
 of arms, the Constitution is not touched, nor is a right 
 that is guaranteed by this Constitution impaired; for as 
 long as slavery exists there is an article which gives a man 
 the right to go and find his slave and take him back with- 
 out molestation, and that is bad enough; but if to-morrow 
 slavery ceases to exist, what change is there to be made ? 
 For our courts have construed that the term "persons held 
 to service " includes all apprentices under indenture, and 
 that a slave is included in that, not as a slave, but by 
 virtue of the fact that he is held to service. 
 
 Are we then, by maintaining the Constitution, maintaining 
 slavery ? No, not at all — slavery does not exist in the Con- 
 stitution, nor by virtue of it. It has been settled a hun- 
 dred times by the lawyers of every slave State that slavery 
 is a local (State) institution, and can exist only by local 
 statutes. Nay, the very conflict between the South, under 
 Mr. Douglas, and the nascent Republican party, was 
 whether slavery should be local and municipal, or na- 
 tional. They tried to make it national; that was the last 
 form of the political conflict between North and South — 
 they seeking to show that the Constitution did indorse 
 slavery, and we saying the Constitution never did, and 
 never shall. I don't know whether Mr. M'Crae will think 
 I have answered his question, but I am sure I have tried to 
 give you grounds and facts on which every man can an- 
 swer it for himself. [^Cheers.^ 
 
6i8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Mr. Haughton asked— "Is it not the case that William Lloyd 
 Garrison and his party have invariably maintained that the Con- 
 stitution is in favor of slavery; have not the judges of your land 
 so interpreted the Constitution, and has not your Supreme Court 
 decided that the black man has no rights which the white man is 
 bound to respect?" 
 
 No questions could be more pertinent. We all admit 
 that slavery existed as a fact when the present Constitution 
 was adopted; that two clauses were introduced to meet 
 certain practical difficulties arising out of local slavery in 
 its relation to federal government. The framers of the 
 Constitution undertook to recognize the bare political fact 
 of slave -property then existing in some States. They 
 undertook to form a Constitution which should in the 
 widest scope represent liberty, yet should not abruptly de- 
 stroy slavery, but should neither encourage nor help it. 
 Now, in every slave State that has given a definition of 
 slavery, it is declared to be the condition in which a man 
 ceases to be a man and becomes a chattel — a thing, not a 
 being or person. With this definition before them, when 
 the Constitution was in formation, after debate and full 
 explanation of what they meant, they declared they would 
 not put into the Constitution a description or allusion to 
 slavery that should characterize it by its technical term, but 
 only by terms that brought it out of " chattelhood " into 
 mere " subordination." Therefore in our Constitution 
 slaves are called " persons," always. This was no acci- 
 dent — no indiscriminate use of words. \Cheei's^ It was 
 done by men who said among themselves, " Not many 
 years can pass before slavery will cease;" and what they 
 tried to do was to have a Constitution that could hold 
 together and keep us afloat for the moment, but yet should 
 not give countenance to slave- doctrines. When a man 
 undertakes to steer a ship he does not necessarily include 
 in his ideas of successful shipbuilding all the shoals and 
 sand-banks that may impede its voyage; and when the 
 Constitution of the United States was formed, the formers 
 merely made two provisions in order that local State rights 
 might be divested of their power of general mischief. 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 619 
 
 Now, as to public sentiment. There has been recently a 
 small body of men who held that our Constitution did not 
 recognize slavery as doctrine or fact. I differ with them: 
 it does recognize it as fact, but not as doctrine. Other 
 people say, " No matter whether the Constitution does or 
 does not; courts that bind us have declared that it does; 
 therefore let us break the Union in two to clear ourselves 
 from complicity with it." That was the party of Mr. Gar- 
 rison, and Mr. Wendell Phillips. The great middle-class 
 have said this: " Slavery is dying, bound to die; free men 
 made a Constitution for liberty, and made it so that while 
 slavery was dying the Constitution need not be wrecked 
 by running on it." 
 
 As to the decisions of the judges, allow me to say that 
 our Federal courts have been packed by Southerners; 
 while the North has had either to accomplish this change 
 by revolutionary process, or to do it by peaceable methods, 
 such as are organized in the Constitution itself. We knew 
 perfectly well it was part of the plan of the South by pack- 
 ing the courts, and by process of construction, to transmute 
 liberty into slavery in our laws, and in the fundamental 
 law of the land. That was what we believed and prophe- 
 sied. We warned the nation, and they would not be 
 warned. That declaration was construed into slander of 
 the courts and of men in authority, when I made it, up and 
 down through the land, and said, "The South are taking 
 away your Constitution by dry-rot [rZ/rtv-^] — but give us 
 time, and we will by popular discussions reverse this policy, 
 and fill Congress and the courts with different men, and 
 then we will reconstrue it back again, and we will find yet 
 the voice of liberty that shall stand by the Constitution, 
 and say unto the bondsman, ' Come forth,' and he shall 
 come forth, and stand among living men, a man again." 
 \Cheers^ This was my doctrine as distinguished from 
 that of Mr. Phillips and Mr. Garrison. I have said, " Give 
 us time; there are in our Constitution and in our nation 
 those elements which will bring back to us liberty in the 
 Constitution itself." The South knew it just as well as 
 the North. \Checrs^^ But they lay in wait and watched. 
 
620 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and the moment that discussion had produced a majority 
 for us and Mr. Lincoln was elected, they rebelled. What- 
 ever else you may say about Southern men, it must be 
 said that they are as sagacious as children of darkness. 
 \Chcers^ And we said: "So long as our courts are cor- 
 rupted and construe the Constitution adverse to liberty, 
 we cannot help ourselves. Wherever they do wrong to us, 
 we will bear the wrong; but when they command us to do 
 wrong to others, we will not; we will take a remedy; it is 
 only a question of time when we put this thing right." We 
 said, "Wait — there is liberty in patience:" they said, 
 " There is safety only in rebellion;" so they rebelled. \_Ap- 
 plausei\ 
 
 \Another inquiry was here addressed to Mr. Beecher as to 
 the Dred Scott decision^ The friends of the judge who 
 made that decision have thought it convenient to deny that 
 he ever used the words imputed to him, that the black 
 man has no rights which whites are bound to respect; but 
 whether he did or not, it is universally conceded by our 
 lawyers that it was not the point before the court, but an 
 extra-judicial opinion. He was a Maryland slaveholding- 
 judge: the very instrument by which the South meant to 
 transmute our institutions. But what he said was his own 
 opinion, not a legal decision. 
 
 \Another questioner asked if the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 
 was still par-t of the Constitution?^ It never was part of the 
 Constitution. In England your Constitution is what your 
 Parliament determines to be law; in America our Consti- 
 tution is what was originally written. There is a marked 
 distinction between law founded on written principles, and 
 those written principles, that we call the Constitution, to 
 which all laws must conform; so that if your Parliament 
 had passed a Fugitive Slave Law, it would become part and 
 parcel of the British Constitution, but with us the State Con- 
 stitution and the National Constitution stand unchanged by 
 legislation. If the Constitution is contravened by laws, State 
 or Federal, based on other than the principles it enunciates, 
 the courts set them aside. The Fugitive Slave Law is simply 
 a law, not a part of the Constitution ; which we hold to be an 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 621 
 
 outrage, yet inoperative, as having no power beyond the 
 year in which it was passed. It is just as dead now, and 
 has been the last eight or nine years, as the snake's skin 
 that was sloughed ten years ago. It is said we ought to 
 have abolished it. When Congress came together they 
 passed so many reformatory laws that it was thought 
 seriously they should abolish this; but they said — we are 
 charged with coming together for revolutionary purposes, 
 and to destroy the local municipal power of the States, 
 and we must not do anything in our national legislation 
 that shall countenance the doctrine that we are revolution- 
 izing State rights. 
 
 \A gentleman asked how the great religious associations 
 in America regarded the anti-slavery qtiestion.'\ There are 
 two parties — one is very small and able, and is called 
 Abolitionist ; the other comprises all the rest of the North, 
 and is called Anti-slavery. The distinction is not one of 
 doctrine, but of method. Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips said 
 the North must save itself by disunion ; the great body of 
 those who hated slavery said, we cannot consent to that. 
 I was one among the latter, from first to last, and that 
 paragraph in the newspapers which says I once said "there 
 could be no getting rid of slavery under the Constitu- 
 tion " is a total and absolute falsehood. [Cheers.^ I would 
 not burn a barn in order to get rid of the rats. [Great 
 laughter^ We have always said, the thing is bad enough, 
 but not so bad but we can cure it by moral means. I have 
 avowed over and over again to Southern slaveholders : 
 " You shall not go off. We will hold you in the bosom of 
 liberty until your slavery is dead." \Cheers^ This is the 
 point which you English are liable to misunderstand. A 
 great many good men seem to you to have paltered and 
 connived ; but you should recollect it belongs to the nat- 
 ure of free discussion and moral suasion to take time and 
 patience. You cannot convert a whole nation as you may 
 one man, by sitting down and talking to him. Prejudices 
 melt slowly, but we have always had such faith in the 
 ultimate victory of Liberty over Slavery that we have 
 said, "With God on our side we can fight and shall win," 
 
62 2 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 [C/ieers.] Those slavery-haters who were opposed to any 
 decisive and summary remedy as too dangerous, were 
 called Anti-slavery men ; those who were in favor of im- 
 mediate disruption, as the summary and necessary remedy, 
 were called Abolitionists: that was the distinction. But 
 now there is no distinction at all. Mr. Garrison and Mr. 
 Phillips are both of them my personal friends. I would 
 not for all the world say a word in England that should 
 carry back pain to their hearts; and although I have dif- 
 fered from them all my life long, I have never failed to see 
 that men more heroic in asserting a great principle never 
 existed in the world. Mr. Garrison has said at a public 
 meeting, that when he declared that the Constitution in- 
 volved slavery, he never expected to see the Emancipa- 
 tion Proclamation of the President of the United States. 
 [C/ieers.] I can tell you there is no more welcome speaker 
 in any part of the United States, than that man of genuine 
 senatorial nature, of polished scholarship, of exquisite 
 gentlemanly manners, of most truly Christian feelings and 
 sentiments, even if sometimes over excited, — Mr. Wendell 
 Phillips. But we are all one to-day. There are now but 
 two parties in the North. An overwhelming majority say: 
 " Since they have taken the sword, let slavery perish by 
 the sword." [C/i^ers.l True! there is a small party that 
 lives in crevices and cracks, — a small malignant party 
 called "Peace Democrats," with that thrice-rotten Catiline 
 Wood at the head of it, whom your Times newspaper is 
 accustomed to hold up as the exponent of American peace 
 doctrine. Him I have heard praised by the lips of Chris- 
 tian men, who, if they could know his crimes, vices, and 
 Satanic wickedness, would blow him from their parlors, 
 as you do Sepoys from the mouths of your cannon. \Great 
 cheering?^ 
 
 Mr. Robertson asked Mr. Beecher's attention to two clauses in 
 the Constitution, frequently quoted to demonstrate that it was 
 pro-slavery, — the clause where Congress legalized the slave-trade 
 until 1808, and the clause requiring the Executive to lend assist- 
 ance to any State Government in case of domestic insurrection. 
 A third argument was the New England States repealing the 
 Personal Liberty Bill, and recognizing the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, MANCHESTER. 623 
 
 If you ask me whether I think what was then done was 
 ineffably wicked, I say yes; but that it has no force now, 
 everybody admits. When this Constitution was made, the 
 question was, how much the separate States would give 
 up, in order to endue the central Federal Government 
 with authority — how much of sovereignty the Federal Govern- 
 ment should receive from the States that had thus far held the 
 whole sovereignty. They proposed to give the Government 
 in Congress the power to abolish the slave-trade, but they 
 would not let them have that power till 1808. It was then 
 not a question of the Constitution at all, but of the conven- 
 tion of these sovereign States, and they refused to put into the 
 hands of the Federal Government until such a date the poiver 
 which after that date the Government was to have. In all 
 these stages, it was the opinion of every man who had part 
 in founding the Constitution, that slavery was dying, and 
 they did not feel as you and I would have felt, but said: 
 " Ease it off in every way." Slavery was like some brigand 
 brought into an Alpine convent, where he was given a 
 room and a place to prepare to die in, decently. On the 
 contrary, the old brigand did not die, but called in his 
 confederates, and domineered over the very hospital where 
 he was being nursed for Christian burial. As to the pre- 
 vention of rebellion in any State, the National Govern- 
 ment is of course bound to exert its whole power to save 
 any State from the intestine mischiefs of insurrection. If 
 this covers slavery as much as liberty, yet because it is a 
 principle born of liberty, slavery gets the benefit of it. 
 Every nation must undertake this duty; the hand to which 
 you give the national sword must defend every part of the 
 nation from internal disorder. The repealing of the Lib- 
 erty Bill took place in only one or two States. 
 
 I wish to say that I feel convinced that, when Dr. Massie 
 issues his report of his visit, he will be able to say he 
 found the educated, intelligent, and religious-minded peo- 
 ple of the North, wherever he went, settled down to the 
 conclusion as final and irremovable, that this war must be 
 supported till rebellion shall be crushed, and that rebell- 
 ion cannot be crushed till slavery has been destroyed. I 
 
624 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 do not mean merely what you mean here by the *' intelli- 
 gent classes." The phrase with us includes farmers, me- 
 chanics, the very bulk of our people. For it is the legitimate 
 effect of democratic instruction, that no line can be drawn 
 between the college-educated man at the top, and the com- 
 mon-school-educated man at the bottom. A thoroughly 
 ed'ucated common people, with collegiate men to be their 
 leaders and mouthpieces, in sympathy with them, — all 
 moving together, — is better than any society where the 
 bottom is ignorant, and the top is educated. \Cheers^ 
 
 With some further remarks Mr. Beecher concluded, having 
 
 spoken nearly two hours. 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 
 
 October 30, 1863. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was entertained by the members of the Liverpool 
 Emancipation Society at a public breakfast in the St. James's 
 Hall, Lime street, prior to his return to America. A party of 
 about two hundred ladies and gentlemen sat down at ten o'clock 
 to the repast. The chair was occupied by Mr. Charles Wilson, 
 president of the Society. 
 
 The Chairman said : " It gives me great pleasure to preside, 
 as I have no doubt it also gives you great pleasure to be present 
 on this, which may be the last, occasion on which Mr. Beecher 
 will ever address an English audience ; and I feel that I may 
 thank him in your name, in my own, and in the name of the 
 friends of Emancipation and of Union generally, for the ability, 
 the power, the kindly good-will, with which he has advocated the 
 cause of liberty during his stay in England. [Hear, /icar.] He 
 has stated publicly that his desire is to draw closer the bonds of 
 amity and good fellowship between his country and ours [cheers] 
 — and if I have one wish above another it is to do what little I can 
 to promote kind and generous feeling ' between the two great 
 nations which speak the English language, and which are alike 
 entitled to the English name.' [Cheers.'] I have lived in both 
 countries, and I can never forget the kindness and the hospitality 
 which I and my family experienced when in America ; and I bear 
 this testimony, that there is more kindly feeling in the Americans 
 towards England and the English than there is here towards 
 America and the Americans. [Hear, hear, and applause^^ It is 
 not unnatural that it should be so. They have ties and affections 
 towards the land of their forefathers which we cannot have to- 
 wards any new country. This island contains the ashes of their 
 ancestors. She is the place from whence they sprung. To them 
 she is ever their mother-country — their dear Old England. They 
 claim her as well as we. Every American who conies to England 
 makes, as it were, a pilgrimage to the old home of his family. 
 . . . As Earl Russell said the other day, they have our lan- 
 guage, our literature, our laws, our early history is also theirs. 
 40 
 
626 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 These appeal to the understanding and the intellect ; but those 
 quiet spots, the homes and the graves of their kindred, bind their 
 very hearts to England. O, let us cherish, and seek to return 
 the love that ever flows towards us with the Atlantic wave. 
 
 " Now, let me congratulate you, Mr. Beecher, on the success 
 which has attended your recent efforts. \CIleers^^ In the capital 
 of Scotland you had the opportunity of addressing perhaps the 
 most learned, the most scientific, the most critical [/war, hcar\ — 
 and, at that particular juncture, the most philanthropic assembly 
 which could be got together in this kingdom. I understand that 
 there was not one dissentient voice. [C/icers.] In the capital of 
 England no room could be found large enough to contain one- 
 half of those who flocked to hear and support you. [Hear, hear.l 
 You have had large and influential meetings in other great towns 
 and cities ; and, sir, you have fought with beasts at Ephesus 
 [hear, hear] — but, even here, the closing scenes must have con- 
 vinced you how impotent were the bellowings and bowlings, the 
 occasional bleatings and cacklings of the Southern hirelings to 
 stifle the voice of Liverpool for freedom. \Applause?\ You will 
 relate these things when you go home." The chairman con- 
 cluded by further congratulations to Mr. Beecher on the success 
 which had attended his labors in England. 
 
 Mr. C. E. Rawlins, Jr., read a formal congratulatory Address 
 from the Society to their guest, and the motion was unanimously 
 adopted with a display of enthusiastic feeling. 
 
 Mr. Beecher, responded as follows: — 
 
 Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, although this is a 
 festive scene, it is rather with feelings of sadness and solem- 
 nity that I stand in your midst; for the hours are num- 
 bered that I am to be with you, and the ship is now wait- 
 ing that I trust will bear me safely to my native land. If 
 already I have to the full those sentiments of reverence 
 and even romantic attachment to the memories, to the 
 names, to the truths, and to the very legends of Old En- 
 gland which have been so beautifully alluded to by the 
 chairman on this occasion — if I had already that prepara- 
 tion, how much, working on that predisposition, do you 
 suppose has been the kindness, the good cheer, the help- 
 fulness, which I have received from more noble English 
 hands and hearts than I can name or even now remember. 
 I have to thank them for almost everything, and I have 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LLVERFOOL. 627 
 
 almost nothing to regret in my personal intercourse with 
 the English people; for I am too old a navigator to think 
 it a misfortune to have steered my bark in a flood or even a 
 storm, and what few waves have dashed over the bows and 
 wetted the deck did not send me below whining and cry- 
 ing. \HearJiear,and laitgJiteri\ It was a matter of course. 
 I accepted it with good nature at the time. I look back 
 on it, on the whole, with pleasure now; for storms, when 
 they are past, give us on their back the rainbow, and now 
 even in those discordant notes I find some music. \_Ap- 
 plause.'\ I had a thousand times rather that England should 
 be so sensitive as to quarrel with me than that she should 
 have been so torpid and dead as not to have responded at 
 a stroke. [C/ieers.~\ I go back to my native land; but be 
 sure, sir, and be sure, ladies and gentlemen that have 
 kindly presented to me this address, that though I needed 
 no such spur I shall accept the incitement of it to labor 
 there for a better understanding and for an abiding peace 
 between these two great nations. [Hear, and cheers.^ 
 
 I do not know that my hardest labor is accomplished on 
 this side. [Hear, hear.^ I know not what is before me — 
 what criticisms may be made upon my course. I think it 
 likely that many papers that never have been ardent ad- 
 mirers of mine will find great fault with my statements, 
 will controvert my facts, will traverse my reasonings. I do 
 not know but that men will say that I have conceded too 
 much; and that, melting under the influence of England, I 
 have not been as sturdy in my blows here as I was in my own 
 land. [Laughter.^ One thing is very certain, that while, before 
 I came here, I always attempted to speak the words of truth, 
 even if they were not of soberness [laiighte?-'] — so here I have 
 endeavored to know only that which made for truth first — 
 love and peace next. \_Cheers.'\ Of course I have not said 
 everything that I knew. So to do, would have been to 
 talk in season and out of season, and fail to promote the 
 sublimest ends that a Christian man or a patriot can con- 
 template — the welfare of two great allied nations. [Cheers.l 
 I should have been foolish if I had left the things which 
 made for peace and dug up the things that would have 
 
628 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 made offense. \^Rcneived cheers?^ Yet the peaceful course 
 was not inconsistent with frankness, with fidelity, and 
 with a due statement of that blame which we have felt 
 attached to the course of England in this conflict. [//<'«;-, 
 hear^ 
 
 I shall go back to represent to my own countrymen on 
 fitting occasions what I have discovered of the reasons for 
 the recent antagonism of England to America. And I shall 
 have to say primarily that the mouth and the tongue of En- 
 gland have been to a very great extent as were the mouth and 
 the tongue of old of those poor wretches that were pos- 
 sessed of the devil, — not in their own control. \^Laiighter 
 and applause?^ The institutions of England — for England 
 is pre-eminently a nation of institutions — the institutions 
 of England have been very largely controlled by a limited 
 class of men; and, as a general thing, the organs of ex- 
 pression have gone with the dominant institutions of the 
 land. Now it takes time for a great unorganized, and to 
 a certain extent unvoting, public opinion, underneath in- 
 stitutions, to create that grand swell that lifts the whole 
 ark up \Jiear., hea}\ and cliccrs\\ and so it will be my prov- 
 ince to interpret to them that there may have been 
 abundant, and various, and widespread utterances antag- 
 onistic to us, and yet that they might not have been the 
 voices that represented, after all, the great heart of En- 
 gland. \^Hear, hear, and applaiise7\ 
 
 But there is more than that. Rising higher than party 
 feeling, endeavoring to stand upon some ground where 
 men may be both Christians and philosophers, and looking 
 upon the two nations from this higher point of view, one 
 may see that it must needs have been as it has been, for it 
 so happens that England herself, or Great Britain I should 
 say — I mean Great Britain when I say England, always 
 \loud cheers\ — Great Britain is herself undergoing a process 
 of gradual internal change. \Hear,hear?t^ All living nations 
 are undergoing such changes. No nation abides fixed in pol- 
 icy and fixed in institutions until it abides in death \J1ea7', 
 heai'\\ for death only is immovable in this life, and life is 
 a perpetual process of supply. Assimilation, excretion, 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 629 
 
 change, and sensitiveness to the causes of change, are the 
 marks of Hfe. \^Applaiise^ And England is undergoing a 
 change, and must do so so long as she is vital; and when 
 you shall have put that round about England which pre- 
 vents further change, you will have put her shroud around 
 her. \^Ht'ar, hear, and cheering.^ Now changes cannot be 
 brought to pass amongst a free, thinking people as you 
 can bring about changes in agriculture or in mechanics, 
 or upon dead matter by the operation of natural laws. 
 Changes that are wrought by the will of consenting men 
 imply hesitation, doubt, difference, debate, antagonisms; 
 and change in the final stage before which always has been 
 the great conflict, which conflict itself, with all its mischiefs, 
 is also a great benefit, since it is a quickener and a life- 
 giver; for there is nothing so hateful in life as death; and 
 among a people nothing so terrible as dead men that walk 
 about and do not know they are dead. \^Laiighter and 
 cheersi\ It therefore comes to pass that in the normal 
 process of a change such as is taking place in England, 
 there will be parties, there will be divided circles, and 
 cliques, and all those aspects and phenomena which belong 
 to healthy national progress and change for progress. 
 But it so came to pass that America too was undergoing 
 a change, more pronounced ; and since, contrary to our hope 
 and expectation, it was a change that went on under the 
 form of revolution and war, in its latter period, it at first 
 addressed England only by her senses; for when the re- 
 bellion broke out and the tidings rolled across the ocean, 
 everybody has said, " England was for you at first." \Hear, 
 hear.'\ I believe so: because before men had time to weigh 
 in the balances the causes that were at work on our side; 
 before the patrician had had time to study, — "What might 
 be the influence of this upon my class ? " and the church- 
 man, — " What will be the influence of these principles on 
 my position?" and the various parties in Great Britain, — 
 "What will be the influence of these American ideas, if 
 they are in the ascendency, on my side and on my posi- 
 tion ? " — before men had time to analyze and to ponder — 
 they were for the North and against the South; because, 
 
630 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 although your anti-slavery feeling is hereditary and legend- 
 ary, there was enough vitality in it, however feeble, to 
 bring you on to the side of the North in the first instance. 
 Much more would it have done, had it been a really liv- 
 ing and quickening principle. 
 
 It is said that up to the time of the trouble of the Trent, 
 England was with us, but from that time she went rapidly 
 over the other way. That was merely the occasion, but 
 not the cause. I understand it to have been this — that 
 there were a great many men and classes of men in En- 
 gland that feared the reactionary influences of American 
 ideas upon the internal conflicts of England herself \Jiea}\ 
 hea/-]; and a great deal of the offense has arisen, not 
 so much from any direct antagonism between Englishmen 
 and Americans, as from the feeling of Englishmen that 
 the way to defend themselves at home was to fight their 
 battle in America [//mr, /leat-] and that therefore there has 
 been this strange, this anomalous and ordinarily unex- 
 plained cause of the offense and of the difficulties. 
 
 Let us look a little at it. I will not omit to state, in 
 passing, that there has been here a great deal of igno- 
 rance and of misconception. [Hear, /lear.] But that was 
 to be expected. We are not to suppose — it would be 
 supreme egotism for an American to suppose — that the 
 great mass of the English people should study American 
 institutions and American policy and American history as 
 they do their own; and when to that natural unknovving- 
 ness by one nation of the affairs of another are added the 
 unscrupulous and wonderfully active exertions of Southern 
 emissaries here, who found men ready to be inoculated, 
 and who compassed sea and land to make proselytes and 
 then made them tenfold more the children of the devil 
 than themselves [ap/>/ai(se], when these men began to prop- 
 agate one-sided facts, suppressing — and suppression has 
 been as vast a lie in England as falsification [/lear, //ear] — 
 perpetually presenting every rumor, every telegram and 
 imperfect dispatch from the wrong point of view, and forget- 
 ting to correct it w/ien the rest came [//ear, //ear], finding, I say, 
 that through emissaries and easy convei'ts, the South has 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 631 
 
 propagated an immense amount of false information 
 throughout England, — we are to take this into account. 
 
 But, next, consider the antagonisms which there are sup- 
 posed to be between the commercial interests of North 
 America and of England. We are two great rivals. Ri- 
 valry, gentlemen, is simply in the nature of a pair of scissors 
 or shears; you cannot cut with one blade, but if you are 
 going to cut well you must have one rubbing against the 
 other. \Hea)\ hear, and laieg/itcr.'\ One bookstore cannot 
 do as much business in a town as two, because the rivalry 
 creates demand. [^Hear, /lear.] Everywhere the great 
 want of men is people to buy, and the end of all com- 
 merce should be to raise up people enough to take the 
 supplies of commerce. [Hear, /tear.] Now, where in any 
 street you collect one, five, ten, twenty booksellers or dry 
 goods dealers, you attract customers to that point; and so 
 far from being adverse to each other's welfare, men clus- 
 tering together in rivalry, in the long run and comprehen- 
 sively considered, are beneficial to each other. There 
 are many men who always reason from their lower facul- 
 ties, and refuse to see any questions except selfishly, en- 
 viously, jealously. It is so on both sides the sea. [Hear, 
 /lear.] Such men will attempt always to foster rivalry and 
 make it rancorous. They need to be rebuked by the hon- 
 orable men of the commercial world on both sides of the 
 ocean, and put in their right place — underfoot. [Aj>J>/ause.'] 
 Against all mean jealousies, I say, there is to be a com- 
 merce yet on this globe, compared with which all we have 
 ever had will be but as the size of the hand compared 
 with the cloud that belts the hemisphere. [Applause.] 
 There is to be a resurrection of nations; there is to be a 
 civilization that shall bring up even that vast populous 
 continent of Asia into new forms of life, with new de- 
 mands. There is to be a time when liberty shall bless the 
 nations of the earth and expand their minds in their own 
 homes; when men shall want more and shall buy more. 
 There is to be a supply required, that may tax every loom 
 and every spindle and every ship that England has or shall 
 have when they are multiplied fourfold. [Applaitse.] In- 
 
632 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Stead therefore of wasting energy, peace, and manhood in 
 miserable petty jealousies, trans-Atlantic or cis-Atlantic, 
 the business of England, as of America, should be to 
 strike those keynotes of liberty, to sound those deep 
 chords of human rights, that shall raise the nations of the 
 earth and make them better customers because they are 
 broader men. \Great cheerini:;?\ 
 
 It has also been supposed that American ideas reacting 
 will have a powerful tendency to dissatisfy men with their 
 form of government in Great Britain. This is the sincere 
 conviction of many. Ladies and gentlemen, England is 
 not perfect. England has not yet the best political instru- 
 ments any more than we have; but of one thing you may 
 be certain, that in a nation which is so conservative, which 
 does not trust itself to the natural conservatism of self- 
 governing men, but even fortifies itself with conservatism 
 by the most potent institutions, and gives those institu- 
 tions mainly into the hands of a conservative class, or- 
 dained to hold back the impetuosity of the people — do 
 you think that any political change can ever take place in 
 England until it has gone through such a controversy, 
 such a living fight, as shall have proved it worthy to be re- 
 ceived ? And will any man tell me that, when a principle 
 or a truth has been proved worthy, England will refuse to 
 receive it, to give it house-room, and to make any changes 
 that may be required for it ? [^Hear, Acar.] If voting ziiva 
 voce is best, fifty years hence you will be found voting in 
 that manner. If voting by the ballot is best, fifty years 
 hence you will have here what we have in America, the 
 silent fall of those flakes of paper which come as snow 
 comes, soundless, but which gather, as snow gathers on the 
 tops of the mountains, to roll with the thunder of the 
 avalanche, and crush all beneath it. \^Loud applause?^ But 
 it is supposed that it may extend still further. It is sup- 
 posed that the spectacle of a great nation that governs it- 
 self so cheaply will react in favor of those men in Europe 
 who demand that monarchical government shall be con- 
 ducted cheaply. \^Hear, /tear.] For men say. Look at the 
 civil list — look at the millions of pounds sterling required 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 633 
 
 to conduct our Gov^ernment, and see thirty millions of 
 men governed on that vast continent at not one-tenth part 
 of the expense. \^Heai\ /icar.l^ Well, I must say that if 
 this report comes across the sea, and is true, and these facts 
 do excite such thoughts, I do not see how it can be helped. 
 [Hear, hear, and laughter. ^ I do not say that our American 
 example will react to the essential reconstruction of any 
 principles in your edifice. I have not in my own mind 
 the belief that it will do more than re-adapt your economy 
 to a greater facility and to more beneficence in its applica- 
 tion; but that it will ever take the crown from the king's 
 head, or change the organization of your aristocracy, I 
 have not a thought. [Cheers.] It is no matter what my 
 own private opinion on the subject is. Did I live or had I 
 been born and bred in England, I have no question that I 
 should feel just as you feel, for this I will say: that ia no 
 other land that I know of under the sun are a monarchy 
 and an aristocracy holding power under it, standing around 
 as the bulwark of the throne — in not another land are 
 there so many popular benefits accruing under the Gov- 
 ernment; and if you must have an aristocracy, where in any 
 other land can you point out so many men noble politically, 
 but more noble by disposition, by culture, by manliness, 
 and true Christian piety ? [Loud and reiterated chee?-ing.] 
 I say this neither as the advocate nor as the adversary of 
 this particular form of government, but I say it simply 
 because there is a latent feeling that American ideas are 
 in natural antagonism with aristocracy. They are not. 
 American ideas are merely these — that the end of govern- 
 ment is the benefit of the governed. [Hear, hear, and 
 cheers.] If that idea is inconsistent with your form of gov- 
 ernment, how can that form expect to stand ? And if it 
 only requires some slight re-adjustment from generation 
 to generation, and if that idea is consistent with monarchy 
 and aristocracy, why should you fear any change ? 
 [Cheers.] I believe that monarchy and aristocracy, as they 
 are practically developed in England, are abundantly con- 
 sistent with the great doctrine that government is for the 
 benefit of the governed. [Hear, hear.] 
 
634 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 There has also been a feeling that the free church of 
 America, while it might perhaps do in a rough-and-tumble 
 enterprise in the wilderness, is not the proper form of 
 church for Great Britain. Well, you are the judges, gen- 
 tlemen, about that, not we; and if it is not the proper form 
 for Great Britain, you need not fear that Great Britain 
 will take it. If it is, then it is only a question of time; you 
 will have to take it. \Cheersi\ For I hold, sturdy as you 
 are, strong as your will is, persistent as you may be for 
 whatever seems to you to be truth, you will have, first or 
 last, to submit to God's truth. YApplause?^ 
 
 When I look into the interior of English thoughts, and 
 feelings, and society, and see how in the first stage of our 
 conflict with your old anti-slavery sympathies you went for 
 the North; how there came a second stage, when you be- 
 gan .to fear lest this American struggle should react upon 
 your own parties; I think I see my way to the third stage, 
 in which you will say, " This American struggle will not 
 affect our interior interests and economy more than we 
 choose to allow; and our duty is to follow our own real 
 original opinions and manly sentiments. \Cheers?[ I know 
 of but one or two things that are necessary to expedite 
 this final judgment of England, and that is, one or two 
 conclusive Federal victories. \^AppIause.\ If I am not 
 greatly mistaken, the convictions and opinions of England 
 are like iron wedges; but success is the sledge hammer 
 which drives in the wedge and splits the log. \Hear, hear, 
 attd cheers.l Nowhere in the world are people so apt to 
 succeed in what they put their hand to as in England, and 
 therefore nowhere in the world more than in England is 
 success honored; and the crowning thing for the North, in 
 order to complete that returning sympathy and cordial 
 good will is to obtain a thorough victory over the South. 
 \^Cheers.'\ There is nothing in the way of that but — the 
 thing itself. [^Laug/iter and cheers?[ 
 
 Allow me to say, therefore, just at this point and in that 
 regard, that, whilst looking at it commercially, and whilst 
 looking at it sentimentally, the prolongation of this war 
 seems mischievous, it is more in seeming than reality, for 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 635 
 
 the North is itself being educated by this war. The 
 North was like men sent to sea on a ship that was but half 
 built as yet; just enough built to keep the water out of 
 the hull: but they had both to sail on their voyage and to 
 build up the ship as they went. We were precipitated into 
 this war at a civil crisis in which there were all manner of 
 complications at all stages of progress in the right direc- 
 tion, and the process of education has had to go on in 
 battle-fields, in the drill-camps, and at home amongst the 
 people, while they were discussing, and taxing their energies 
 for the maintenance of the war. And there never was so 
 good a schoolmaster as war has been in America. Terrible 
 was the light of his eye, fearful the stroke of his hand; but 
 he is turning out as good a set of pupils as ever came from 
 any school in this world. Now every single month from 
 this time forward that this struggle is delayed unitizes the 
 North — brings the North on to that ground which so many 
 have struggled to avoid: "Union and peace require the 
 utter destruction of slavery." \^Loud cheering^ There is 
 an old proverb, " There's luck in leisure." Let me trans- 
 mute the proverb, and say, " There is emancipation in de- 
 lay." \^Loud cheers^ And every humane heart, yea, every 
 commercial man that takes any comprehensive and long- 
 sighted instead of a narrow view of the question — will say, 
 " Let the war thus linger until it has burnt slavery to the 
 very root." S^Rencwed cheers.^ 
 
 While it is, however, a great evil and a terrible one, — I 
 will not disguise it, — for war is dreadful to every Christian 
 heart, — yet, blessed be God, we are not called to an un- 
 mixed evil. There are many collateral advantages. While 
 war is as great, or even a greater evil than many of you 
 have been taught to think, it is wrong to suppose that it is 
 evil only, and that God cannot, even by such servants as 
 war, work out a great moral result. The spirit of patriot- 
 ism diffused throughout the North has been almost like 
 the resurrection of manhood. [C//^^;x] You never can 
 understand what emasculation has been caused by the in- 
 direct influence of slavery. \^Heai',hearl\ I have mourned 
 all my mature life to see men growing up who were 
 
636 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 obliged to suppress all true conviction and sentiment, be- 
 cause it was necessary to compromise between the great 
 antagonisms of North and South. There were the few pro- 
 nounced anti-slavery men of the North, and the few pro- 
 nounced slavery men of the South, and the Union lovers 
 (as they were called during the latter period) attempting 
 to hold the two together, not by a mild and consistent ad- 
 herence to truth plainly spoken, but by suppressing truth 
 and conviction, and saying, " Everything for the Union." 
 Now during that period I took this ground, that if "Union" 
 meant nothing but this — a resignation of the national 
 power to be made a tool for the maintenance of slavery — 
 Union was a lie and a degradation. \Great cheering^ All 
 over New England, and all over the State of New York, 
 and through Pennsylvania, to the very banks of the Ohio, 
 in the presence of hisses and execrations, I held this doc- 
 trine from 1S50 to i860 — namely, " Union is good if it is 
 Union for justice and liberty; but if it is Union for slavery, 
 then it is thrice accursed." \Loud cheering?^ For they 
 were attempting to lasso anti-slavery men by this word 
 " Union," and to draw them over to pro-slavery sympathies 
 and the party of the South, by saying, " Slavery may be 
 wrong and all that, but we must not give up the Union," 
 and it became necessary for the friends of liberty to say, 
 " Union for the sake of liberty, not Union for the sake of 
 slavery." \Cheers^ Now we have passed out of that 
 period, and it is astonishing to see how men have come to 
 their tongues in the North \Jie.ar, hear, and laughter^ — 
 and how men of the highest accomplishments now say 
 they do not believe in slavery. If Mr. Everett could 
 have pronounced in 1850 the oration which he pronounced 
 in i860, then might miracles have flourished again. 
 \^Hear, hear?[ Not until the sirocco came, not until that 
 great convulsion that threw men as with a backward 
 movement of the arm of Omnipotence from the clutches of 
 the South and from her sorcerer's breath — not until then 
 was it, that with their hundreds and thousands the men of 
 the North stood on their feet and were men again. \^G>'^(it 
 cheering?^ More than warehouses, more than ships, more 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 637 
 
 than all harvests and every material form of wealth is the 
 treasure of a nation in the ma u hood of her men. [Great 
 applause^ We could have afforded to have had our stores 
 of wheat burnt — there is wheat to plant again. We could 
 have afforded to have had our farms burnt — our farms can 
 spring again from beneath the ashes. If we had sunk our 
 ships — there is timber to build new ones. Had we burnt 
 every house — there is stone and brick left for skill again to 
 construct them. Perish every material element of wealth, 
 but give me the citizen intact: give me the man that fears 
 God and therefore loves men, and the destruction of the 
 mere outside fabric is nothing — nothing; \cheers\ — but 
 give me apartments of gold, and build me palaces along 
 the streets as thick as the shops of London; give me rich 
 harvests and ships and all the elements of wealth, yet cor- 
 rupt the citizen, and I am poor. [^Immeiise cheering, during 
 which the audience rose and enthusiastically reiterated the ap- 
 plause^ 
 
 I will not insist upon the other elements. I will not 
 dwell upon the moral power stored in the names of those 
 young heroes that have fallen in this struggle. I cannot 
 think of it but my eyes run over. They were dear to me, 
 many of them, as if they had carried in their veins my own 
 blood. How many families do I know, in which once was 
 the voice of gladness, where now father and mother sit child- 
 less ! How many heirs of wealth, how many noble scions 
 of old families, well cultured, the heirs to every apparent 
 prosperity in time to come, flung themselves into their 
 country's cause, and died bravely fighting for it. \Cheers^ 
 And every such name has become a name of power, and 
 whoever hears it hereafter shall feel a thrill in his heart — 
 self-devotion, heroic patriotism, love of his kind, love of 
 liberty, love of God! \_Rcnetved applause.'] 
 
 I cannot stop to speak of these things; I will turn my- 
 self from the past of England and of America to the future. 
 It is not a cunningly devised trick of oratory that has led 
 me to pray to God and his people that the future of En- 
 gland and America shall be an undivided future, and a 
 cordially united one. \Hear, and cheers.] I know my friend 
 
638 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Punch thinks I have been serving out "soothing syrup " to 
 the British Lion. \_La lighter?)^ Very properly the picture 
 represents me as putting a spoon into the lion's ear instead 
 of his mouth; and I don't wonder that the great brute turns 
 away so sternly from that plan of feeding. ^Laughter^ If 
 it be an offense to have sought to enter your mind by your 
 nobler sentiments and nobler faculties, then I am guilty. 
 \Hear, hear ^ and cheersi\ \ have sought to appeal to your 
 reason and to your moral convictions. I have, of course, 
 sought to come in on that side in which you were most 
 good-natured. I knew it, and so did you, and I knew that 
 you knew it; and I think that any man with common sense 
 would have attempted the same thing. I have sacrificed 
 nothing, however, for the sake of your favor \cheers\ — and 
 if you have permitted me to have any influence with you, 
 it was because I stood apparently a man of strong convic- 
 tions, but with generous impulses as well. It was because 
 you believed that I was honest in my belief, and because I 
 was kind in my feelings towards you. [Applause.^ And 
 when I go back home I shall be just as faithful with our 
 *' young folks " as I have been with the " old folks " in En- 
 gland [hear, hear, and cheers] — I shall tell them the same 
 things that I have said to their ancestors on this side. I 
 shall plead for union, for confidence. [Cheers.] For the 
 sake of civilization; for the sake of those glories of the 
 Christian Church on earth which are dearer to me than 
 all that I know; for the sake of Him whose blood I bear 
 about, a perpetual cleansing, a perpetual wine of strength 
 and stimulation; for the sake of time and for the glories of 
 eternity, I shall plead that mother and daughter — England 
 and America — be found one in heart and one in purpose, 
 following the bright banner of salvation, as streaming 
 abroad in the light of the morning, it goes round and 
 round the earth, carrying the prophecy and the fulfillment 
 together, that "The earth shall be the Lord's, and that his 
 glory shall fill it as the waters fill the sea." [Loud afid pro- 
 longed cheering.] 
 
 And now my hours are moments, but I linger because it 
 is pleasant. You have made yourselves so kind to me that 
 
FAREWELL BREAKFAST, LIVERPOOL. 639 
 
 my heart clings to you. I leave not strangers any longer 
 — I leave friends behind. [^Loud cheers.^ I shall probably 
 never, at my time of life — I am now fifty years of age, and 
 at that time men seldom make great changes — I shall prob- 
 ably see England no more; but I shall never cease to see 
 her. I shall never speak any more here, but I shall never 
 cease to be heard in England as long as I live. \^C/ieers.^ 
 Three thousand miles is not as v^ide now as your hand. 
 The air is one great sounding gallery. What you whisper 
 in your closet, is heard in the infinite depths of heaven. 
 God has given to the moral power of his church something 
 like his own power. What you do in your pulpits in En- 
 gland, we hear in America; and what we do in our pulpits, 
 you hear and feel here; and so it shall be more and more. 
 Across the sea, that is, as it were, but a rivulet, we shall 
 stretch out hands of greeting to you, and speak words of 
 peace and fraternal love. Let us not fail to hear " Amen " 
 and your responsive greeting, whenever we call to you in 
 fraternal love for liberty — for religion — for the Church of 
 God. Farewell ! 
 
MR. BEECHER'S OWN ACCOUNT OF THE 
 SPEECHES IN ENGLAND. 
 
 [Without giving here the whole of the narrative fa short-hand 
 report of an account given to friends), the story being suffi- 
 ciently told elsewhere, we reproduce only Mr. Beecher's reason 
 for speaking at all in England (which he had resolved not to do) 
 and his account of the speeches themselves. 
 
 One point to be noticed is the inadequacy of such interpolated 
 phrases as " {Interruption^ " in, for instance, the report of the Man- 
 chester speech, to represent the uproar and confusion which Mr. 
 Beecher describes as having reigned at that place — until he sub- 
 dued it. And from that point may be imagined something of the 
 mild impossibility of type to express the foaming madness of his 
 Liverpool audience. 
 
 He had been through England to the Continent, and now had 
 returned. — Ed.] 
 
 I CAME over to England again and was met in London 
 by the same gentlemen who had urged me to make ad- 
 dresses. I said, " No; I am going home in September. 
 I don't want to have anything to do with England." But 
 their statement made my resolution give way and changed 
 my programme entirely. It was this: " Mr. Beecher, we 
 have been counted as the ofT-scouring, because we have 
 taken up the part of the North. We have sacrificed our- 
 selves in your behalf, and now if you go home and show 
 us no favor or help, they will overwhelm us. They will 
 say, ' Even your friends in America despise you,' and we 
 shall be nowhere, and we think it is rather a hard return. 
 Besides," said the}^, "there is a movement on foot that is 
 going to be very disastrous, if it is not headed off." To 
 my amazement I found that the unvoting English pos- 
 sessed great power in England; a great deal more power, 
 in fact, than if they had had a vote. The aristocracy and 
 
ACCOUXT OF THE EXGLISH SPEECHES. 641 
 
 the government felt: "These men know that they have 
 no political privileges, and we must administer with the 
 strictest regard to their feelings or there will be a revolu- 
 tion." And they were all the time under the influence of 
 that feeling. Parliament would at any time for three 
 years have voted for the South against the North, if it had 
 not been for the fear of these common people who did not 
 vote. A plan, therefore, was laid to hold great public 
 meetings during all that autumn and early winter among 
 the laboring masses, to change their feeling, and if that 
 atmospheric change could be brought about. Parliament 
 would very soon have done what it was afraid to do but 
 wanted to do all the time — declare for the Southern Con- 
 federacy. The committee said, " If you can lecture for us 
 you will head off this whole movement." 
 
 Those considerations were such that I finally yielded. I 
 consented at first to speak at Manchester; and very soon 
 it was arranged that I was to speak at Liverpool also, and 
 out of that grew an arrangement for Glasgow and Edin- 
 burgh, and then for London. There was a plan for Bir- 
 mingham that failed. 
 
 Dr. John Raymond could not stay and went home, and 
 I was left alone; I think I never was so lonesome and 
 never suffered so much as I did for the week that I was in 
 London before my tour began. I had been making the 
 tour of Scotland, and came down to Manchester just one 
 or two days in advance of the appointment. The two men 
 that met me were Mr. John H. Estcourt and young Watts; 
 his father was Sir Something Watts, and had the largest 
 business house in Central England. He was a young man 
 just recently married, and Estcourt was the very beait ideal 
 of a sturdy Englishman, with very few words, but plucky 
 enough for a backer against the whole world. They met 
 me at the station, and I saw that there was something on 
 their minds. Before I had walked with them twenty steps, 
 Watts, I think it was, said, " Of course you see there is a 
 great deal of excitement here." The streets were all pla- 
 carded in blood-red letters,* and my friends were very 
 *See pages at the end of this Account. 
 
642 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 silent and seemed to be looking at me to see if I would 
 flinch. I always feel happy when I hear of a storm, and I 
 looked at them and said, " Well, are you going to back 
 down?" "No," said they, "we didn't know how you 
 would feel." " Well," said I, "you'll find out howl am 
 going to feel. I'm going to be heard; and if not now I'm 
 going to be by and by. I won't leave England until I have 
 been heard ! " You never saw two fellows' faces clear off 
 so. They looked happy. 
 
 I went to my hotel, and when the day came on which I 
 was to make my first speech, I struck out the notes of my, 
 speech in the morning; and then came up a kind of hor- 
 ror — " I don't know whether I can do anything with an 
 English audience — I have never had any experience with 
 an English audience. My American ways, which are all 
 well enough with Americans, may utterly fail here, and a 
 failure in the cause of my country now and here is horri- 
 ble beyond conception to me ! " I think I never went 
 through such a struggle of darkness and suffering in all 
 my life as I did that afternoon. It was about the going 
 down of the sun that God brought me to that state in 
 which I said, " Thy will be done. I am willing to be an- 
 nihilated; I am willing to fail if the Lord wants me to." 
 I gave it all up into the hands of God, and rose up in a 
 state of peace and of serenity simply unspeakable, and 
 when the coach came to take me down to Manchester Hall 
 I felt no disturbance nor dreamed of anything but success. 
 
 We reached the hall. The crowd was already beginning 
 to be tumultuous, and I recollect thinking to myself as I 
 stood there looking at them, " I will control you ! I came 
 here for victory, and I will have it, by the help of God ! " 
 Well, I was introduced, and I must confess that the things 
 that I had done and suffered in my own country, according 
 to what the chairman who introduced me said, amazed me. 
 The speaker was very English on the subject, and I 
 learned that I belonged to an heroic band, and all that sort 
 of thing, with abolitionism mixed in, and so on. By the 
 way, I think it was there that I was introduced as the Rev. 
 Henry Ward Beecher Stowe. But as soon as I began to 
 
ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH SPEECHES. 643 
 
 speak the great audience began to show its teeth, and 
 I had not gone on fifteen minutes before an unparal- 
 leled scene of confusion and interruption occurred. No 
 American that has not seen an English mob can form any 
 conception of one. I have seen all sorts of camp-meetings 
 and experienced all kinds of public speaking on the stump; 
 I have seen the most disturbed meetings in New York 
 City, and they were all of them as twilight to midnight 
 compared with an English hostile audience. For in En- 
 gland the meeting does not belong to the parties that call 
 it, but to whoever chooses to go, and if they can take it 
 out of your hands it is considered fair play. This meeting 
 had a very large multitude of men in it who came there 
 for the purpose of destroying the meeting and carrying it 
 the other way when it came to a vote. 
 
 I took the measure of the audience and said to myself, 
 "About one-fourth of this audience are opposed to me, 
 and about one-fourth will be rather in sympathy, and my 
 business now is not to appeal to that portion that is op- 
 posed to me nor to those that are already on my side, but 
 to bring over the middle section." How to do this was a 
 problem. The question was, who could hold out longest. 
 There were five or six storm-centers, boiling and whirling 
 at the same time: here some one pounding on a group 
 with his umbrella and shouting, "Sit down there;" over 
 yonder a row between two or three combatants; some- 
 where else a group all yelling together at the top of their 
 voice. It was like talking to a storm at sea. But there 
 were the newspaper reporters just in front, and I said to 
 them, " Now, gentlemen, be kind enough to take down 
 what I say. It will be in sections, but I will have it con- 
 nected by and by." I threw my notes away, and entered on 
 a discussion of the value of freedom as opposed to slavery 
 in the manufacturing interest, arguing that freedom every- 
 where increases a man's necessities, and what he needs he 
 buys, and that it was, therefore, to the interest of the man- 
 ufacturing community to stand by the side of labor through 
 the country. I never was more self-possessed and never 
 in more perfect good temper, and I never was more deter- 
 
644 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 mined that my hearers should feel the curb before I got 
 through with them. The uproar would come in on this 
 side and on that, and they would put insulting questions 
 and make all sorts of calls to me, and I would wait until 
 the noise had subsided, and then get in about five minutes 
 of talk. The reporters would get that down and then 
 up would come another noise. Occasionally I would see 
 things that amused me and would laugh outright, and the 
 crowd would stop to see what I was laughing at. Then I 
 would sail in again with a sentence or two. A good many 
 times the crowd threw up questions which I caught at and 
 answered back. I may as well put in here one thing that 
 amused me hugely. There were baize doors that opened 
 both ways into side-alleys, and there was a huge, burly 
 Englishman standing right in front of one of those doors 
 and roaring like a bull of Bashan; one of the policemen 
 swung his elbow around and hit him in the belly and 
 knocked him through the doorway, so that the last part of 
 the bawl was outside in the alley-way; it struck me so 
 ludicrously to think how the fellow must have looked 
 when he found himself "hollering" outside that I could 
 not refrain from laughing outright. The audience imme- 
 diately stopped its uproars, wondering what I was laugh- 
 ing at, and that gave me another chance and I caught it. 
 So we kept on for about an hour and a half before they 
 got so far calmed down that I could go on peaceably with 
 my speech. They liked the pluck. Englishmen like a 
 man that can stand on his feet and give and take; and so 
 for the last hour I had pretty clear sailing. The next 
 morning every great paper in England had the whole 
 speech. I think it was the design of the men there to 
 break me down on that first speech, by fair means or foul, 
 feeling that if they could do that it would be trumpeted 
 all over the land. I said to them then and there, " Gen- 
 tlemen, you may break me down now, but I have regis- 
 tered a vow that I will never return home until I have 
 been heard in every county and principal town in the King- 
 dom of Great Britain. I am not going to be broken down 
 nor put down. I am going to be heard, and my country 
 
ACCOUXT OF THE ENGLISH SPEECHES. 645 
 
 shall be vindicated." Nobody knows better than I did 
 what it is to feel that every interest that touches the heart 
 of a Christian man and a patriotic man and a lover of lib- 
 erty is being assailed wantonly, to stand between one 
 nation and your own and to feel that you are in a situation 
 in which your country rises or falls with you. And God 
 was behind it all; I felt it and I knew it, and when I got 
 through and the vote was called off you would have 
 thought it was a tropical thunder-storm that swept through 
 that hall as the ayes were thundered, while the noes were 
 an insignificant and contemptible minority. It had all 
 gone on our side, and such enthusiasm I never saw. I 
 think it was there that when I started to go down into the 
 rooms below to get an exit, a big, burly Englishman in 
 the gallery wanted to shake hands with me, and I could 
 not reach him, and he called out, " Shake my umbrella ! " 
 and he reached it over; I shook it, and as I did so he 
 shouted, " By Jock ! Nobody shall touch that umbrella 
 again ! " 
 
 I went next to Glasgow. Glasgow was the headquarters 
 of a ship-building interest that was running our blockade. 
 I gave liberty for questions everywhere, promising to 
 answer any question that should be written and sent up, 
 provided it was a proper one. They were to go into the 
 hands of the presiding officer of the meeting, who would 
 hand them to me and I would answer them. In Glasgow I 
 discussed the question of the relation of slavery to working- 
 men the world over, carrying along with it the history of slav- 
 ery in this country. The interruption at that meeting was 
 very bad, but not at all equal to the tumult in Manchester; 
 but after they were once stilled you would have thought 
 we were in a revival. I demonstrated the unity of labor 
 the world around, and discussed the relations of the labor- 
 ing man to government and to the aristocratic classes, 
 showing the power of wealth, and how slavery had made 
 labor disreputable, and how it was their bounden duty to 
 make labor honorable everywhere, and how it was a dis- 
 grace to them to be building ships to put down the laborers 
 of America, and to cast shame and contempt on themselves 
 
646 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and on every man on earth that earned his living by the 
 sweat of his brow. I told them they were driving nails 
 into their own coffins. My interruptions lasted about an 
 hour there, and the rest of the time was fair weather and 
 smooth sailing. The questions that were put to me there 
 were the shrewdest of all that I encountered in England. 
 They included constitutional questions as well as others. 
 There was one question that was very significant and re- 
 vealed the difficulties that honest men felt there. 
 
 Q. " You say this war is a war in the interest of lib- 
 erty?" A. "Yes." Q. " How, then, is it that your Presi- 
 dent, in writing to Mr. Greeley, says that if slavery per- 
 mitted will maintain the Union, slavery will continue, and 
 if the destruction of slavery is necessary to the maintenance 
 of the Union, then it shall be destroyed; the Union is 
 what we want?" It threw me upon the necessity of prov- 
 ing the honor of the North, and showing its ethical diffi- 
 culty in maintaining its Federal obligations under the Con- 
 stitution to all the States of the Union, not trespassing upon 
 their guaranteed rights and prerogatives, and our moral re- 
 lation to freedom and to the workingmen of all the world. 
 
 From there I went to Edinburgh, where I discussed the 
 effect upon literature and learning and institutions of 
 learning and general intelligence of the presence of slavery, 
 on the basis again of the history of slavery in America, 
 and the existing state of things. I thought I had seen a 
 crowd before I went there, but when I went through the 
 lower hall and tried to get into the assembly-room the 
 people were wedged in there so tight that you might just 
 as well try to find a passage through the wall, and I was 
 finally hoisted over their heads and passed on by friendly 
 hands and up to the gallery, and down over the front of 
 the gallery on to the platform, in order to get to the posi- 
 tion where I was to speak. There I had less commotion 
 than anywhere else. There was a different audience there; 
 there was an educated and moral element in it. 
 
 I went from there to Liverpool. If I supposed I had had 
 a stormy time, I found out my mistake when I got there. 
 Liverpool was worse than all the rest put together. My life 
 
ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH SPEECHES. 647 
 
 was threatened, and I had had communications to the effect 
 that I had better not venture there. The streets were pla- 
 carded with the most scurrilous and abusive cards, and I 
 brought home some of them and they are in the Brooklyn 
 Historical Society now. It so happened, I believe, that the 
 Congregational Association of England and Wales was in 
 session there, and pretty much all of the members were 
 present on the platform. I suppose there were five hundred 
 people on the platform behind me. There were men in the 
 galleries and boxes who came armed, and some bold men 
 on our side went up into those boxes and drew their knives 
 and pistols and said to these young bloods, "The first man 
 that fires here will rue it." I heard a good many narra- 
 tives of that kind afterward, though I knew nothing of it at 
 the time. But of all confusions and turmoils and whirls I 
 never saw the like. I got control of the meeting in about 
 an hour and a half, and then I had a clear road the rest of 
 the way. We carried the meeting, but it required a three 
 hours' use of my voice at its utmost strength. I sometimes 
 felt like a shipmaster attempting to preach on board of a 
 ship through a speaking trumpet with a tornado on the sea 
 and a mutiny among the men. By this time my voice was 
 pretty much all used up, and I had yet got to go to Exeter 
 Hall in London. 
 
 I went down to London, and by this time all London 
 and all the clubs had seen my speeches, four of which had 
 been fully reported. It is said that a man who has made 
 the conversation of a club over night and had a report of 
 one speech in the London Times is famous. I had had four 
 speeches, occupying three or five columns each, reported, 
 and had been incessantly talked about in the clubs. So I 
 was famous. When I first went to London I stopped at 
 the "Golden Cross," and they put me in a little back room 
 right under the rafters. When I came back from the Con- 
 tinent there had been considerable said, and they received 
 me much more politely at the "Golden Cross," and put me 
 in a third-story front room. On the third visit I was re- 
 ceived by the landlord and his servants in white aprons, 
 and was bowed in and put in the second story, and had a 
 
648 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 front parlor and bedroom and everything beautiful. As 
 the cards came in and gentlemen of distinction called, I 
 grew in the eyes of the servants every moment. " But 
 Naaman was a leper, though he stood the highest in his 
 master's favor." I had had a successful career under diffi- 
 culties, but had talked and strained my voice so much, that 
 when I went to bed the night before the day I was to 
 speak, I could not be heard aloud, and here I had come to 
 London to close my course by speaking on the moral aspect 
 of the question, and appealing to the religious feeling of 
 the English people. It was the climax — and my voice was 
 gone I I said, " Lord, Thou knowest this. Let it be as 
 Thou wilt." The next morning I woke up in bed, and as 
 soon as I came to myself fairly, and thought about my 
 voice, I didn't dare to speak for fear I should find I could 
 not; but by and by I sort of spoke, and then I would not 
 say another word for fear I should lose it. Otherwise I 
 was well and strong; but the huskiness of my voice was 
 such that when I did speak there was no elasticity. There 
 seemed to be one little rift that I spoke through, and if I 
 went above or below it I broke. Then came to me Dr. 
 Waddington and Brother Tompkins, most excellent and 
 devout men they were, and very faithful to our cause. 
 They called on me, and seeing that I was in bonds they 
 cheered me and said, " No matter, you have done your 
 work. What you have already done is sufficient, so it is 
 no matter, if you only make your appearance and bow." 
 They prayed with me and it lifted me right out of my 
 despondency. 
 
 So I plucked up courage and went to the hall that even- 
 ing, and the streets of London were crowded. I could not 
 get near the hall except by the aid of a policeman. And 
 when I got around to the back door, I felt a woman throw 
 her arms around me — I saw they were the arms of a 
 woman, and that she had me in her arms — and when I 
 went through the door she got through, too, and on turning 
 around I found it was one of the members of my church. 
 She had married and gone to London, and she was deter- 
 mined to hear that speech, and so took this way to accom- 
 
ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH SPEECHES. 649 
 
 plish an apparently impossible task. She grasped and held 
 me until I had got her in. I suppose that is the way a great 
 many sinners get into heaven finally. Well, I had less 
 trouble and less tumult in London than anywhere else. 
 The battle had been fought, and m^y address there was a 
 good deal more of a religious address than anywhere else, 
 though I discussed in all these places very thoroughly the 
 whole subject of slavery. But the way was broken and 
 the storm had passed away, and the cause was triumphant. 
 That which I had had in mind was effected. The idea of 
 now raising lecturers, under Spence & Co., to go through 
 England and turn the common people away from the 
 North and toward the South was now abandoned. The 
 enthusiasm of the whole country ran strongly in the other 
 direction. And here let me say that everywhere the 
 weavers, the laborers, that were by the famine of cotton 
 thrown out of employment and into the greatest distress, 
 were staunch and true to the right instincts of the labor- 
 ing man. They never flinched, and our cause was success- 
 ful in England by reason of the fidelity of the great, 
 working, common people of England. 
 
 Then came a series of breakfasts. They were all given 
 by friendly men, and by men who were really in earnest to 
 know all about the facts of the case. I had to discuss 
 the questions of taxation, the issue of such an enormous 
 quantity of greenbacks, and the ability and the willingness 
 of our people to pay; and I had to go into finance a good 
 deal, and what little knowledge I had came wonderfully 
 handy. When you stand up at a breakfast-table and are 
 questioned by shrewd men who do understand these things, 
 the intellectual ordeal is much severer than the physical 
 exhaustion in the night speeches. There were five of 
 these breakfasts in all; by the time I was through I was 
 very glad of it. It was now coming on toward November. 
 They wanted to publish the speeches I had made, and I 
 went down to Liverpool to Charley Duncan's house, and 
 the proof sheets were sent to me there, and I worked on 
 them to get them ready until about the middle of Novem- 
 ber, I think, and then I took ship for home. 
 
650 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Now, as there was no telegraph under the sea, and there 
 had been no time for me to hear anything about my 
 speeches, and as I never had been treated with very great 
 luxury at home in the debates on slavery and the war, 
 but had been set upon in the public press, I hadn't the 
 slightest idea what the result of my labors in England 
 would be. I had the consciousness that I had not reserved 
 one single faculty nor one single particle of strength there. 
 I had worked for my country, God himself being witness, 
 with the concentrated essence of my very being. I ex- 
 pected to die. I did not believe I should get through it. 
 I thought at times I should certainly break a blood-vessel 
 or have apoplexy. I did not care. I was as willing to die 
 as ever I was when hungry or thirsty to take refreshment, 
 if I might die for my country. Nobody knows what his 
 country is until he is an exile from it and sees it in peril 
 and obloquy. I was sick all the way home. My passage 
 was seventeen days from Liverpool to New York. It was 
 fifteen days to Halifax, and during that time I was never 
 off my back after leaving Queenstown until we entered 
 the Halifax Bay. It was then nine or ten o'clock at night, 
 and I was up on deck as soon as we got into smooth water, 
 and was walking the deck when a man met me and said, 
 "Is this Mr. Beecher?" I started and said, "Yes." Said 
 he, " I have a telegram from your wife." It seemed like a 
 vision — that I had got where a telegram would reach me. 
 I had touched American shores ! You cannot imagine the 
 ecstasy of the feeling. The telegram of my wife simply 
 announced that she would come to meet me at New York. 
 The ship in which I came over was the Asia. She was 
 loaded down to her gunwales with warlike stores and con- 
 traband goods that were to go to Bermuda, and was full 
 of the bitterest of Southern men and partisans. It made 
 no difference to me, because I was on my back in my cabin 
 and cared nothing about it. 
 
 From there to Boston was a pleasant trip — the only two 
 days I was ever on the sea when I was not sea-sick. We 
 were off Boston Harbor about seven in the evening, but 
 the tide was not right, and we did not get in till about 
 
ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH SPEECHES. 651 
 
 twelve o'clock. We reached our landing, but could not 
 get into our slip until the next morning. I was on deck. 
 I could not sleep. I saw the lights all over Boston, and 
 there came again at midnight a man who turned out to be 
 a Custom House officer. After watching me he said, " Is 
 this Mr. Beecher ? " " Yes." " Well, we are very glad to 
 see you home safely. Some of your friends in Boston 
 wrote down to us telling us what we were to do; as if we 
 didn't know how to treat a gentleman decently ! It is a 
 pity she has come in Saturday night. To-morrow is Sun- 
 day." " Why ?" said I. " Because, if you had come in on 
 a week day we were ready to give you a reception that 
 would make things hum." That was the first I had heard 
 — I did not know whether the papers were down on me or 
 not. I felt ashamed to ask him further; but I said I had 
 not heard anything from home, and was not aware how 
 the news of my labors abroad had been received by my 
 countrymen. "Well," said he, "you'll find out." So with 
 that assurance he chalked my baggage and got me on 
 shore. I got into a hack and drave to the Parker House 
 about four o'clock Sunday morning. I asked the clerk if 
 I could have a room. "No," said he, "we are full." "I 
 suppose I can have a bed in one of the parlors, can't I ? " 
 said I. "No," said he, "all the parlors are full." "Can't 
 I bunk on the floor anywhere ?" " No," again, " all full." 
 He asked me my name, and when I told him he said, 
 "Why, there's a room here ior youT Said I, " I think not, 
 I just came from England." "There is," said he. "All 
 right," said I, " let me have a lamp. I won't dispute you. 
 If any one gets in after I do I shall think he is a smart fel- 
 low." I found out that the passengers' names were tele- 
 graphed from Halifax to Boston to Mr. Parker, who is a 
 friend of mine, and he had said, " Mr. Beecher will be around 
 in about so many days and will want a room," and he had 
 set it apart for me. About eight o'clock in the morning, 
 Bang! came on my door. I said, "What do you want?" 
 It was a committee who had come to see if I would lecture' 
 before a social club. I got rid of them, and arrived home 
 at last safe and sound. 
 
SOME OF THE POSTERS FROM THE WALLS OF ENGLISH CITIES, 1863. 
 
 Liverpool Poster ; size, 20x30 inches. 
 REV. 
 
 H. W. BEECHBR 
 
 AT 
 
 THE PHILHARMONIC HALL 
 
 THE TRENT AFFAIR. 
 
 [Rev. H. \V. Beecher in the A'eiv York Independent^ 
 " Should the President quietly yield to the present necessity (viz. : the 
 delivering up of Messrs. Mason and Slidell) as the lesser of two evils and 
 bide our time with England, there will be a sense of wrong, of national 
 humiliation so profound, and a horror of the unfeeling selfishness of the 
 English Government, iir the great emergency of our affairs, such as will 
 inevitably by and by break out in flames, and will only be extinguished by 
 a deluge of blood! We are not living the whole of our life to-day. There 
 is a future to the United States in which the nation will right any injustice 
 of the present hour." 
 
 The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at a meeting held in New York at a time 
 when the Confederate Envoys, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, had been sur- 
 rendered bv President Lincoln to the English Government, from whose 
 vessel (the Royal Mail Steamer Trent ) they were taken, said — 
 
 "That the best blood of England must flow for the outrage England had 
 perpetrated on America." 
 
 THIS IS THE NIAN 
 
 Who Proposes to address the People of Liverpool 
 
 AT THE PHILHARMONIC HALL, 
 ON KRIDA.Y EVENING, OCTOBER letli. 
 
 Let Englishmen see that he gets 
 
 THE WELCOME HE DESERVES. 
 
 Liverpool Poster ; size, 20x30 inches. 
 
 TO THE 
 
 INDEPENDENT AND INDUSTRIAL CLASSES 
 
 OK LIVERFOOL. 
 
 An individual of the name of Henry Ward Beecher, who, when at home, 
 Brooklyn, New York, is called a Baptist minister, has come over to this 
 country as a political emissarv from Abraham Lincoln to stir up strife and 
 ill-will among you. and for that purpose will hold a meeting at the Philhar- 
 monic Hall, Hoi^e Street, this evening. This same Henry Ward Beecher 
 it was who recommended London to be sacked and this town destroyed, 
 and this godly man, bear in mind, is a preacher of the Gospel and good- 
 will towards all men. As there will be an amendment proposed at the 
 meeting, you must attend and show by vour hearts and hands that the in- 
 dustrious classes in this town are opposed to the bloody War which Abra- 
 ham Lincoln is now waging against his brother in the South, and the das- 
 tardly means he is resorting to in employing such tools as Henry Ward 
 Beecher, a minister of the Gospel. 
 
 Friday, i6th October, 1863. 
 
SOME OF THE POSTERS FROM THE WALLS OF ENGLISH CITIES, 1863. 
 
 Manchester Poster ; size, 20x29 inches. 
 THE 
 
 WAR CHRISTIANS! 
 
 THEIR DOCTRINES. 
 
 At a Jubilee Demonstration in New York, in January last, 
 REV. JOHN J. RAYMOND, 
 The appointed Chaplain of the meeting, in his opening prayer, said : " We 
 thank thee, O God, that thou hast seen fit to raise up one, ABRAHAM, 
 surnamed Lincoln. . . . He is a man whom GOD SHOULD bless, 
 and the people delight to honor." 
 
 UNITED STATES SENATOR LANE, 
 
 In his Address to the Great Union Meeting at Washington, said: " I would 
 like to live long enough to see every white man now in SoulhCaroIinainHeJl." 
 
 REV. H. WARD BEECHER, 
 In his Address in Glasgow, last Monday, said: "They (alluding to the 
 NORTH) rose like ONE MAN, and with a voice that reverberated 
 throughout the whole world, cried — LET IT (alluding to the South), with 
 all its attendant horrors, GO TO HELL." 
 
 Erom the Manchester Giiai-dimt^s Correspondence : 
 Is this the same Reverend Mr. Beecher, who, at a meeting in America, 
 during the discussion of the "Trent Affair," said : "That the best blood of 
 England must flow as atonement for the outrage England committed on 
 America " } 
 
 Manchester Poster; size, 25x38 inches. 
 
 WHO IS 
 
 Hy. Ward Beecher.^ 
 
 He is the man who said the best blood of England must be shed to 
 atone for the Trent affair. 
 
 He is the man who advocates a War of Extermination with the South, — 
 says it is incapable of " re-generation," but proposes to re-people it from 
 the North by "generation." — See "Times." 
 
 He is the friend of that inhuman monster. General BUTLER. He is 
 the friend of that so-called Gospel Preacher, CHEEVER, who said in one 
 of his sermons — " Fight against the South till Hell Freezes, and then con- 
 tinue the battle on the ice." 
 
 He is the friend and supporter of a most debased Female, who uttered 
 at a public meeting in America the most indecent and cruel language that 
 ever polluted female lips — See "Times." 
 
 MEN OF MANCHESTER, ENGLISHMEN! 
 
 What reception can you give this wretch, save unmitigated disgust and 
 contempt.' His impudence in coming here is only equaled by his cruelty 
 and impiety. Should he, however, venture to appear, it behooves all right- 
 minded men to render as futile as the first this second attempt to get up a 
 public demonstration in favor of the North, which is now waging War 
 against the South with a vindictive and revengeful cruelty unparalleled in 
 the history of any Christian land. 
 
 Cave & Senn, Printers by Steam Power, Palatine Building, Manchester. 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was formally welcomed home from his English 
 trip by his fellow citizens in Brooklyn on the evening of Novem- 
 ber 19, 1863, in the Academy of Music, which was crowded, 
 though the admission fee (for the benefit of the Sanitary Com- 
 mission) was one dollar. 
 
 At eight o'clock Mr. Beecher was escorted upon the stage by a 
 large number of the well known men of the city, and was received 
 with the warmest manifestations of applause. 
 
 Mr. A. A. Low introduced the Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs as the presid- 
 ing officer of the meeting, and that gentleman briefly but feel- 
 ingly welcomed Mr. Beecher to his home. When he took his 
 hand in behalf of the two thousand people who were gathered to 
 greet him, the whole audience rose, and for several minutes made 
 the house resound with their cheers and plaudits. When the ap- 
 plause had subsided, Mr. Beecher said : — 
 
 I WILL not attempt to disguise the deep feeling with 
 which your generous kindness, expressed in the words of 
 my brother, affect me. I am the more touched and more 
 stirred by this sympathy than by all I have seen, and by 
 all I have experienced in the whole of my travel abroad, 
 and I speak the simple truth which has a witness in your 
 hearts, that it is here in this city more than anywhere 
 else that I desire to be so greeted, for, as when I was in 
 England it was my pride to be an American, so when I am 
 in America it is my pride to be a citizen of Brooklyn, and 
 I accept your generous confidence and this affecting testi- 
 monial of it, in so far as it relates to me personally, with 
 profound sensibility, and with deep gratitude. I thank 
 you. 
 
 And yet I should be vain if I supposed that this was 
 meant for me simply. I am myself the effect of American 
 institutions; I am made by them; and if I have done any 
 service to the public worthy of your regard, I owe to this 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 655 
 
 very American public and the institutions which enrich 
 it, the power to do it any service; and I am glad that it is 
 so, so deep are my feelings of patriotism, so profoundly 
 am I impressed with the grandeur of this latest and ripest 
 development of civil life. I am more than willing to be 
 sunk myself, if my decadence and disappearance would 
 add anything to the glory of my country; I would fain be 
 the oil of the lamp, that gives its life that the light may 
 be bright which consumes it. This is my feeling and it is 
 your feeling, and I know I bear your sympathy with me 
 in this simple and artless expression of my feelings. I am 
 glad you asked me to be present to-night; and I am proud 
 that, when I came back to America, having witnessed as I 
 could in Europe for the truth of our cause, the first place 
 to greet me was my own home, where I am best known. 
 That is indeed a wreath which I shall wear, none the less 
 because it is invisible. 
 
 I went abroad, as you know, as a private citizen. It was 
 tauntingly asked me on my arrival in England why, in the 
 very height and paroxysm of our national agony, did I 
 abandon the field to go to Europe. I did not answer; but 
 now I do answer. I foresaw that the autumn and winter 
 would require labors even greater than any period previous; 
 and while the excitements and the excessive labors of the 
 two and a half or three years preceding had not destroyed 
 my health nor undermined my constitution, yet certainly I 
 was jaded, and I feared to go into the autumn and winter, 
 which require the best powers of every man, without my 
 full strength; and since I had nothing to do in the sum- 
 mer, which was the time for arms — not speech — I took that 
 opportunity, upon the generous invitation of my own peo- 
 ple, and went abroad to rest: and I am come back to labor 
 more assiduously. And allow me to say, this generosity of 
 my own people was a comfort to me everywhere, and in 
 my pride — not because I disesteemed English kindness, 
 not because I undervalued their hospitality, but because 
 I cherished with gratitude and pride the home bounty 
 — I refused to receive their hospitality or in the remotest 
 degree compensation in any form. I said to them, My 
 
656 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 own people sent me abroad, and it is their pleasure that I 
 shall stand upon them for my support, and I will not take 
 one penny from the hand of an Englishman. You will 
 not misunderstand me — it was not because I disdained 
 their kindness, but because I valued yours. 
 
 It was also said that I had come abroad, sent by our Gov- 
 ernment. That would have spoiled it all. I had no official 
 character, and would not have had one. I went simply as 
 a private citizen — merely and only as an American citizen; 
 and when, unsought, and, indeed, against my feelings if not 
 my judgment, I entered upon the labor of the last few weeks 
 of my sojourn in England, I assumed the responsibility, 
 I cannot say with trembling — for I am not accustomed 
 much to tremble — but with the gravest sense of what it 
 was. I have felt the inspiration of nationality often, but 
 I never before was placed between two such great peoples, 
 when I saw them both in perspective, both in their present 
 relations and in their future, and I never before felt so 
 much as I felt all the time, waking or dreaming, night or 
 day, what it was to stand to plead for the unity of these 
 two great Christian nations for the sake of struggling 
 mankind; it was at once an incitement to me and a great 
 support. 
 
 But, after all, I did not know how my countrymen would 
 regard my efforts. If you had yourselves disapproved, I 
 should have been sorry that you disapproved, but not sorry 
 for what I had done. I did the best I knew how to do, 
 every time, everywhere, disinterestedly, for the love I bore 
 to the cause and to the principles that underlie it. But I 
 had no word, and could not have, from home. Whether 
 my representations of policy, and fact, and history, and of 
 the tendency of things would accord with yours or not^ 
 whether I should be caught up in the whirl of conflict of 
 party and my reasons traversed and my facts contradicted, I 
 knew nothing about this until I landed in Boston, or rather, 
 until I was in the harbor — not one whisper; and then I 
 learned, for the first time, that my services had been ac- 
 cepted by my countrymen. And to-night I greet you, a 
 citizen returned among his friends, profoundly thankful 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 657 
 
 that the labor and the service which I attempted for the 
 public good has the seal of their approbation. 
 
 It is my purpose not to trespass further upon your time 
 upon matters personal to myself — I know that you will 
 not thank me even for what I have said. I desire now this 
 evening to speak upon that which you have all come to 
 hear, namely, my impressions and experience in respect 
 to the condition of things in Great Britain as they relate 
 to this struggle in this country. 
 
 Among the wise things said by that wisest of modern po- 
 litical writers, De Tocqueville, is this, that it is impossible 
 to judge of the affairs of one country by applying to them 
 the experiences and the rules of another one. There are 
 many reasons why one would have presumed beforehand 
 that it was easy for us to understand British feeling and 
 British policy; there was a similarity of institutions, and 
 a sameness of radical principles. But that very similarity, 
 since it begets by different institutions and vehicles differ- 
 ent policies, in the end is likely to deceive us, and we are 
 liable to leap too quickly to conclusions, because upon the 
 face things look like those to which we are accustomed at 
 home. I myself have experienced that. If I had judged 
 of the condition of England from the impressions produced 
 upon me by my first four weeks' tarry there in the early 
 summer, I should have judged very wrongly, — as measured 
 by my present convictions. Nor do I feel myself adequate 
 even now to analyze and state with confidence either the 
 causes or the results of the English feeling. I am quite 
 aware that I am imperfect in my views in many directions. 
 Nor can I presume even to say that I present to you opin- 
 ions. My nature gives intensity to my expressions; and 
 yet I wish beforehand to ask you to consider that the state- 
 ments I make are impressions — impressions liable to mis- 
 take, subject to corrections that may afterward be made in 
 them. With these preliminary remarks, I will tell you 
 what I saw and found. 
 
 You are aware that the original expectation of our peo- 
 ple was almost universally that in Great Britain we should 
 find a sympathizer ready and prepared. One thing we 
 
658 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 counted sure, and that was, if all the other nations of the 
 world stood aloof, there was one that would stand by us 
 in the hour of our trial, and that was Great Britain. And 
 the sharpness of our retaliatory complaints was stimulated 
 by that very disappointment of an over-confident convic- 
 tion. When I was asked in Great Britain why the Amer- 
 ican press so severely inveighed against England, and was 
 almost silent in respect to France, I said to them, Because 
 we, in our deepest hearts, care for England, and not much 
 for France; because under anger, lower down than preju- 
 dice, when you strike the deeper feelings of Americans, 
 no doubt they have an English origin, and they are proud 
 of their history when it gets back further than the present 
 generation. And it was this growing affection and sym- 
 pathy in the best natures, and in the best part of the best 
 natures — it was this that made the disappointment of pub- 
 lic expectation so sharp and so hard to be borne when 
 Great Britain failed our expectations and gave us no sym- 
 pathy. We never asked for help. We never asked that 
 nation to lend us anything or stretch out so much as the 
 little finger of her right hand. We did ask, simply a gen- 
 erous confidence, a generous moral sympathy. That was 
 all; but that we did not get, and we felt it sharply. The 
 conduct of England, and the expression of their public 
 feeling had the effect of throwing her moral weight against 
 the North and for the South. So I told them. I carefully 
 discriminated between the intention and the result. What 
 men intend has much to do in judging of their moral char- 
 acter; but what men do does not always depend upon their 
 intentions. When, therefore, the British people disclaimed 
 sympathy with the South, or the disposition to go against 
 their own principles as represented by the North, I said to 
 them, "What your intentions are you can best judge; but 
 what the effect of your attitude is, we upon the other side 
 can best judge: and we know that the moral influence of 
 Great Britain has substantially gone for more than two 
 years to help the rebellion of the slavocracy of the South, 
 and to hinder the progress of free institutions in the North. 
 If there is rescue and relief, if there is redemption and 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 659 
 
 victor}^, Great Britain must stand aside, and it must be 
 said, The nation tliat boasted of her free institutions and 
 her sovereign sympathy with the welfare of the common 
 people, has had no part or lot in this great work. 
 
 The denial of moral sympathy in Great Britain was ac- 
 companied by the most active exertions of certain parts 
 of the British people in behalf of the South; so much so, 
 that I think it will scarcely be doubted by any man that if 
 the ship-yards, the foundries, the looms, and the shops of 
 Great Britain, had refused their succor to rebellion, the 
 rebellion would have died out in the nation long ago. And 
 I said in private, what it did not seem altogether judicious 
 to say in public then, that in some sense I might bring this 
 war and lay it at the feet of the British people, and say, 
 " Not that you intended it, but the course of conduct you 
 pursued, legal or illegal, was such that but for you the 
 rebellion would have perished almost in the beginning of 
 it; no man but knows that." There was also the extraor- 
 dinary spectacle in England of men who, from sheer hatred 
 of war, by misjudgment and mistake, were left to foment 
 it. With unfeigned horror of slavery, a large party of 
 theirs were contributing directly in the interests of slavery. 
 There never was a misposition more signal than that of 
 the British public, as represented in their leading intelli- 
 gent classes, in this conflict. There never was a case 
 where a nation, by its upper classes, went so unquestion- 
 ably in favor of an evil, at the same time that they occu- 
 pied themselves in the intensest denunciation of that evil. 
 They went against free society at the very time that they 
 were proudly praising free society, and arrogating to them- 
 selves its highest honors. 
 
 Under such circumstances we were drifting, you recol- 
 lect, right toward an international war. I told the British 
 people that war was not our choice; and yet, terrible and 
 cruel as it was, there was something in this struggle so 
 dear to us, and so indispensable to national life, that rather 
 than that there should be separation — rather than that 
 there should be disruption, and dismemberment — rather 
 than that we should fail in this republic, and free govern- 
 
66o PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ment should fail, we would stand war with Great Britain 
 and France, or with Europe. It would have been difficult 
 to say this without the appearance of threat; but that dif- 
 ficulty was solved for me by the iterated and reiterated 
 charges brought against me of having been bellicose in 
 my own country, and having threatened all manner of 
 desolation to Great Britain; and my reply was this, that I 
 felt part, and a full part in proportion, of that deep indig- 
 nation which my own people felt against Great Britain; 
 that I had never desired war, but abhorred it; that I 
 thought the great principles of free, republican govern- 
 ment to be so precious that we would not give them up, 
 not even at the threat, or at the infliction of war, no mat- 
 ter who brought it upon us. 
 
 This, then, being the cruel disappointment which we ex- 
 perienced in our expectations of sympathy from Great 
 Britain, you will ask me, What did you find to be the facts 
 and the condition of things? I found, in the first place, 
 upon going there, that every man that I met was a South- 
 ern man; not literally born in the South, but this is the 
 division they have themselves made, and these are the 
 terms applied. They are Southerners or Northerners, even 
 more than we are here. I found that on the railways, on 
 the boats, in the hotels, wherever there was a traveling 
 public, there was a public that sympathized with the South 
 and was adverse to the North. It was not an uncommon 
 thing to hear gentlemen talk freely and kindly with me 
 upon other matters, saying, as the news was discussed, 
 " Bad news we have got by the last steamer." " What is 
 the news?" I asked, a little troubled. "I understand 
 Meade has driven Lee entirely out of Pennsylvania." 
 "God send us much more bad news then!" said I. Com- 
 ing from communities enthusiastic and almost homo- 
 geneous in their feelings upon this subject, at least, it was 
 strange to my ear to hear well-dressed and well-bred men, 
 of ordinary intelligence, congratulate themselves upon the 
 disasters of the North, and rejoice in the successes of the 
 South. But such was the case. Nor will there return to 
 your city one young man that has been traveling who will 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 66 1 
 
 not bring back substantially this account, that wherever 
 he went almost every man that he met, with scarcely an 
 exception, was against the North and in favor of the 
 South. You will well imagine the impression made under 
 such circumstances. A man's first impression would be: 
 There is no question about this matter; these old English 
 people, this old British nation, are all against us; go where 
 you will, up or down, you will find it all the same. That 
 was the effect produced upon my mind. 
 
 Upon still further inquiry I was disappointed to find that 
 those I supposed I should have a right to lean upon were 
 not to be leaned upon — I mean the body of Dissenting 
 Christians. That denomination to which I myself belong, 
 the Congregationalist, known in England as Independents, 
 I had supposed, since they were sending out their testi- 
 mony for freedom, would have been arrayed almost inva- 
 riably on the side of the people struggling to sustain their 
 liberties. I had supposed I should find them right. I did 
 not. I do not mean that there is not a very large part of 
 that body that perhaps are right; for they will be included 
 under a head which I shall mention by and by; but I am 
 sorry to say that I did not find an influential and leading 
 clergyman of that denomination, nor an influential and 
 leading layman on our side. They said that they sympa- 
 thized with liberty. Yes, they sympathized with liberty 
 exactly as an icicle sympathizes with sunlight in summer; 
 it chills you to go near it. And I said to them. We want no 
 such frigid sympathy; we want nothing if it cannot come 
 from more glowing, from more enthusiastic hearts, than 
 this. It does us no good, and we don't want it. 
 
 I found also the most profound ignorance of our affairs 
 and all the provisions of our institutions, and that, too, in 
 quarters where I had a right to expect more intelligence. 
 I found the most active and unscrupulous efforts made by 
 Southern men to stir up animosity and war. And let me 
 say, a bad cause was better served than a good one there, 
 as to some extent it has been in our own land. I am sure 
 that the South, for a bad cause, has more nearly put forth 
 its entire strength here than we for a good cause. So 
 
662 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 abroad; where we send one man to England to influence 
 public opinion, they send a score. Where we print one 
 book of information, they a library. Where we touch one 
 spring, they a hundred. They seemed to pervade England, 
 and they seemed, with the unerring instinct of selfishness 
 and despotism, to know just where to undermine the 
 generous and better feelings, just where to invite the cloud 
 of ignorance, just where to touch a man so that principle 
 should fall and profit take its place. 
 
 You will then imagine the surprise and skepticism with 
 which I received the assurances of the friends who were on 
 our side that the great heart of the British nation was on 
 our side. I had found nobody except the confidential 
 friends of emancipation, in whose society I was thrown, — 
 almost nobody, — that spoke kindly of us, or that seemed 
 to be in sympathy with us; and yet my ears rung with the 
 assurance, day and night, " You are mistaken — mistaken; 
 this great English people are sound at heart." And I said: 
 "Where under heaven do the English people keep their 
 hearts? " So that if I had spoken in my early visit to En- 
 gland in June, I could not have spoken as I now do or 
 shall. Neither on my first return from the Continent in 
 September, could I have understood and felt what I un- 
 derstand now. In some measure, I entirely believe that 
 they were right, and that, after all, the great heart of the 
 British nation is with us at the North. Let me take up 
 then one part of society after another, and state what I 
 understood to be the facts. 
 
 First, there is the great commercial class of England; 
 those that are making money, and those that have made it. 
 If you please, call them the Plutocracy — they are against us. 
 Then, in the same general grade, there is a large class of 
 men that are actively employed in supplying the South 
 with all its necessities — except principle — and they are 
 making, or suppose that they are making, large fortunes. 
 We cannot doubt which side they take. The next is a very 
 large class of men who, for precisely the opposite reason, 
 somehow are opposed to the North and in favor of the 
 South; namely, those that have been accustomed to make 
 
« RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 663 
 
 money and find that the interrupting war has stopped their 
 profits— the men that want to make money and don't. 
 They are opposed to us. Between those two classes lies 
 the great intermediate one, of men that are bewildered 
 and perplexed, and they see that business is more or less 
 affected — as it is — over the whole of Europe from its sympa- 
 thetic relations with this continent; and they say, " Let this 
 war end ;" and as the offensive war is now from the Northern 
 side they feel that whenever the North will stop aggressing 
 upon the South, the war will stop: and so they are against 
 us. And it may be laid down that while there are very 
 noble exceptions here and there through England, men 
 that stand out against their class and above it, yet, speaking 
 comprehensively, the commercial classes are against the 
 North and in favor of the South. 
 
 I have spoken of the religious people. It is very difficult 
 for me to analyze the causes that have on the whole turned 
 both the Establishment and the Dissenters against us, in 
 respect of most of their influential men. The influential lay- 
 men, and most of the influential clergymen, I am informed, 
 are as a body against us. The ground usually taken is, 
 that the North is not sincere; and, secondly, that war is a 
 great sin. Nowhere else in the world is there so tender a 
 conscience on the subject of war as England has — when 
 she is not waging it. She has only three wars, I believe, 
 now on hand — in Japan, China, and New Zealand, Aus- 
 tralia, or somewhere — and the rest of her leisure she occu- 
 pies with a profound regret at war. If it was for a ship 
 on the sea, she was ready to go to war with us; if it was 
 for a territory on the Antarctic Ocean, she was ready to go 
 to war with the savages; if to open trade, she had no ob- 
 jection to burn down a town of a hundred thousand inhab- 
 itants: but when a people are making war for their own life, 
 for everything that dignifies humanity, England stands 
 wondering at God's patience for men that will make war. 
 I am sorry to say that aside from the friends who have al- 
 ways maintained and given their countrymen a consistent 
 testimony against war, those men who were most querulous 
 against our war were men who had no particular objection 
 
664 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 to the Crimean war, the opium war, and wars if not al- 
 ready on their hands, at least on the tips of their fingers; 
 and I told them at Exeter Hall that there was not a land 
 on the globe against which they had not dashed their 
 prows, and that their flag was a symbol of it — a cross on a 
 field of blood. 
 
 The English nobility as a class are against us. I shall read 
 you some noble exceptions, but as a class they are against 
 us, and for the most obvious reasons. We are not accus- 
 tomed to estimate the effect of our example upon Euro- 
 pean institutions. When he takes his walk abroad, it is 
 not the elephant that weighs and measures his own gravity 
 as he treads on the field-mouse's tail. It is the mouse that 
 meditates. And for such a gigantic nation as this, on such 
 a continent as this, while we are treading the steps of ac- 
 complishing history, we do not feel the jar we ourselves 
 make; but those that have thrones and aristocratic priv- 
 ileges do, and they are the best interpreters of the reaction- 
 ary influences of American ideas and American institutions. 
 It was The Saturday Revieiv, that scholarly, keen, brilliant, 
 unprincipled paper of England, that had the frankness to 
 say that the Americans must not think their remarks were 
 because they disliked us, but because they found our ideas 
 and our examples working in Great Britain; and they were 
 obliged, in order to defeat those ideas in England, to at- 
 tack us in America. They are fighting their own home 
 battles — for they have an unerring instinct. They have 
 this feeling: if Government be so efficient on such a 
 continent, and so ludicrously cheap, how can we maintain 
 so expensive and complicated a Government on our side ? 
 And, lest they should not think of it themselves, millions 
 of the common people there, who were being taxed, per- 
 petually suggested it to them. Do you know that the 
 effect of our Revolution was to send revolution all through 
 Europe ? Being prepared, it was the torch of our Revolu- 
 tionary War that set fire to that train which burned all 
 over Europe, and they do not forget it. Such prosperity, 
 such power, and at so little expense, and with so few mo- 
 nopolies and prerogatives to the favored classes! And, 
 
RECEPTION EV BROOKEYN. 665 
 
 therefore, when they oppose us, it is not to be construed 
 as wanton opposition; it is nothing but a manifestation of 
 self-love; and if you had been born with a coronet on your 
 head, you would have been just so. In Parliament, I sup- 
 pose, if a vote could be taken to-day, in accordance with 
 the private wishes of the members, they would be five to 
 one against the North. It is believed that the Government 
 have been entirely in favor of a rupture with the North, 
 and had they dared they would have brought it about. It 
 is the impression, however, that the Sovereign of Great 
 Britain has been from the first our judicious and unflinching 
 friend. It is believed, and was so represented to me, that 
 the never rightly-estimated and lamented Prince Consort 
 was our fast friend, and that among the last acts of his life 
 were those which erased from documents presented to him 
 sentences and sentiments that would have inflamed the 
 growing anger. He died with the blessing upon his head, 
 " Blessed are the peacemakers." And although in the 
 British Government as at present constituted I shall read 
 you the names of several that are known to be warm and 
 disinterested in their regard, yet there are others in the 
 Government that, it is well understood, would not hesitate 
 to plunge England into a war for the sake of disrupting 
 this nation. 
 
 If you ask me, then, what is the great underlying influ- 
 ence that has been at work among the upper classes in 
 England, I answer in these words: First, commercial inter- 
 est, and rivalry therein; secondly, class power, and the fear 
 of the contagion of American ideas; and thirdly — I know 
 not how I shall say it so that it shall be least offensive to 
 our friends on the other side, but you have not come to 
 the bottom of the ideas of our friends in Great Britain 
 until you touch that delicate and real foundation — we are 
 too large and too strong a nation. This is, in my judgment, 
 the root of the whole matter. A distinguished clergyman 
 of London, personally kind and friendly to me, said to 
 me, " Mr. Beecher, you may just as well have it said; you 
 have been growing so strong that we have felt for a good 
 many years that we had got to take you down, and we 
 
666 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 were very glad when the job was taken off our hands by 
 your own people." When Mr. Roebuck, whose speech it 
 was my great privilege to hear, declared that fact in Par- 
 liament, it was cheered immensely, but reprobated in TJie 
 Times and the other presses that represented the South — 
 not because he had not spoken the truth, but because it 
 was a truth that it was not best to speak. I have the 
 paper, and meant to have brought it to read to-night. It 
 was stated in one of the recent issues, in commenting upon 
 my speeches there. They very frankly said that this had 
 been the growing impression, — that we were a rancorous, 
 bellicose, arrogant set of men; that we were proud of our 
 sudden growth; and it was even said that Mr. Beecherwas 
 regarded as a specimen of what they should have to deal 
 with in the nation. I was supposed to be a man breathing 
 out slaughter and threats. Now, when they made a mis- 
 take so manifest as to suppose that such a peaceful man 
 as I am was dangerous, you cannot wonder about the mis- 
 take they made in regard to the nation. It is the sun that 
 makes seeds grow, it is the light and the stimulating influ- 
 ences that makes seeds grow; but, after all, it is the dung- 
 hill that makes the hot-bed under them that starts them to 
 grow; and it is just exactly that hot-bed that has worked 
 upon English feeling, and made predisposing causes which 
 have affected the sympathies of Great Britain; it is just 
 that underlying influence that has prepared them for this, 
 that, and the other prejudice or misinformation. 
 
 With this state of facts, you will ask. How is it, then, 
 that this English people have been restrained ? How is it 
 that they have not gone into overt belligerency ? The no- 
 bility, as a class, are against us — at least, the Government 
 is divided, one part being against us; the Plutocracy is 
 against us; and I think I may say that while the brains 
 that represent progress in Great Britain are in our favor, 
 yet the conservative intelligence in Great Britain is against 
 us. All that there is upon the surface of society, repre- 
 senting its dignities and its power and its intelligence, is 
 anti- American; and the question that I propose to you is: 
 How — with the papers, and the magazines,, and the uni- 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 667 
 
 versities, how — with their titled estates and their Govern- 
 ment and all their powers against us, — how is it that they 
 have been restrained as they have been ? It is the influence 
 of the unwealthy , and, to a very great extent, the unvoting En- 
 glishma7i that restrains them. And that was what I could not 
 understand. I learned in England what surprised me — 
 that the men that couldn't vote, when everywhere united 
 and determined, had the power of controlling the men that 
 did vote. That is not an anomaly. It would be in our 
 institutions, but it is not in their English institutions; and 
 among other reasons because in a nation where one class 
 has permanent privilege, and the underlying class none at 
 all, the instinct of self-preservation teaches the upper class 
 not to goad this underlying class to madness. Everything 
 stands on their patience, and there is always that dragon of 
 revolution coiled up that they dare not rouse; and therefore 
 it is that when the underlying class are determined upon 
 any poifit they carry their point. Men whose fortunes are 
 made, as a general thing, are against us; men that have 
 very little in the present that they care for, that are strug- 
 gling for a better future for themselves and for their chil- 
 dren, that class is on our side. But they are a class that 
 have not much voice and very little expression, and there- 
 fore they are but little heard from. Their report is not 
 wafted across the sea, but their influence is felt in their own 
 land. And it seems to me peculiarly beautiful and fitting 
 that we, who are the representatives of the common peo- 
 ple, should find that our real allies have been the convnon 
 people of Great Britain. 
 
 The result has been that the Government has more and 
 more modified its policy, until now it has come to that 
 condition in which I believe we all feel satisfied, in the 
 main. England has determined that ships of war shall 
 not be built in her yards, nor sent out from her ports to 
 harry our commerce on the seas. The action of Lord 
 John Russell in this has met with some few dissentient 
 voices, yet it has carried the assent of the great mass of 
 the British public, and the Government was reinforced, 
 and will undoubtedly stand upon that platform. There is 
 
668 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 a growing and enlightened sympathy throughout the 
 realm; there is more publishing, there are more men 
 lecturing, more meetings being held — all disseminating 
 knowledge of the truth about our great conflict — now than 
 ever before. When men say that they doubt the English 
 feeling, I refer to this fact, that the English Parliament, 
 which is known to be adverse to the North, dare not vote 
 against it; I advert to this fact, that not more than twelve 
 or fifteen meetings out of four or five hundred, in which 
 our affairs have been discussed and voted on, have been 
 carried against the North. It is a challenge which stands 
 open and recorded, that of some eight or ten public meet- 
 ings that have been held in Liverpool, there has never been 
 one that has been carried against the North. In that great 
 meeting which it was my privilege to attend there the vote 
 was at least five to one in favor of the North. The noise 
 and the tumult with which the meeting was conducted had 
 given expectations of something very different, but when 
 it came to the vote the noisy ones were about one in five, 
 and the men of peace and quiet were four out of five. 
 
 I hold in my hand a letter from Richard Cobden. He 
 says: "You will carry back an intimate acquaintance with 
 the state of feeling in this country. Among what, for 
 want of a better name, I call our ruling class, the sympathy 
 is undoubtedly strongly for the South, with an instinctive 
 satisfaction at the prospect of the disruption of the Great 
 Republic. This is natural enough, but do not forget that 
 we have in this case, for the first time in our history, seen 
 the masses of the British people taking the side of a for- 
 eign Government against its rebellious citizens. In every 
 other instance, whether in the case of the Poles, Italians, 
 Hungarians, Corsicans, Greeks, or South Americans, the 
 popular sympathy of this country has always leaped to the 
 side of the insurgents the moment a rebellion has broken 
 out. In the present case, our masses have an instinctive 
 feeling that their cause is bound up in the prosperity of the 
 people of the United States. It is true that they have not 
 much power in the direct form of a vote; but when the 
 millions of this country are led by the religious middle 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 669 
 
 class, they can together prevent the Government from pur- 
 suing a policy hostile to their sympathies. Under these 
 circumstances, I think you will agree with me that we may 
 consider the great middle class of Englishmen as on the 
 side of the North. The upper classes, as they are called, 
 are on the side of the South." 
 
 I put no immoderate estimate upon my services in En- 
 gland. I believe that I did some good wherever I spoke. 
 But it should be remembered that a single man, and a 
 stranger in a community, would be eaten up with vanity 
 if he supposed that he did all the good that was done, for 
 there must have been a preparation; he merely came in to 
 touch the train which had already been laid. When in 
 October you go to a tree and give it a jar, and the fruit 
 rains down all round about you, it is not you that ripened 
 and sent down that fruit; the whole summer has been do- 
 ing that. It was my good fortune to be there when it was 
 needed that some one should jar the tree; the fruit was 
 not of my ripening. It is supposed by many of my friends 
 that I shall form an unwarrantable estimate of my work 
 there. No; my accustomed modesty will stand me yet. 
 I see in a letter in the New York Times of yesterday some 
 friendly hand writes: — 
 
 "The sympathy of England was never stronger for the South — 
 her hatred never so bitter for the North. If Mr. Beecher thinks 
 otherwise, he has been deceived by the crowd of Abolition par- 
 tisans about him." 
 
 And then he makes some personal statements, which I 
 will not read: 
 
 " I cannot now remember the name of one distinguished and 
 really influential person who gave him countenance and sup- 
 port." 
 
 That is a fact. 
 
 " He was surrounded by dissenting ministers, and members of 
 the Emancipation Society." 
 
 Pretty nearly so. 
 
 " The nobility, the clergy of the Established Church, members 
 of Parliament, &c., were wanting." 
 
 They were. 
 
670 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 " Brougham, Wilberforce, Buxton, the great names identified 
 with the Anti-Slavery cause in England, were opposed to him, as 
 they are opposed to the cause he advocated." 
 
 I will admit that there were no Broughams, no Wilber- 
 forces, no Buxtons in audiences that I addressed, and the 
 reason was that there are no such men in England. There 
 is something that they call "Lord Brougham" left; it is 
 not glorious old Harry Brougham; it is Lord Brougham. 
 There is a Wilberforce; for the sake of the father we will 
 yet courteously honor the name in the son. There is a 
 Buxton — the name. And it is perfectly true that if En- 
 gland is to be judged by her dignitaries, by her nobility, 
 by her more eminent names, England is not with us; but 
 if England is to be judged by her middle class — if you 
 please to say it, by her influential classes — she is with us. 
 At any rate I am not deceived, for I never supposed that 
 any other part of England was with us. And that I may 
 give some more reliable intelligence allow me to read. 
 Among the members of the Government known to be favor- 
 able to the Federal cause are the following: The Duke of 
 Argyle (who married a daughter of the Duchess of Suther- 
 land); Lord Granville; the Right Hon. Charles Pelham Vil- 
 liers; Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. James Stansfield, Mr. Charles 
 Gilpin, Members of Parliament. Messrs. John Bright; — 
 \cheers\ I told him it would be just so; — Richard Cobden; 
 — \cheers\ you know your friends, I see; — W. E. Forster, less 
 known but just as firm and steady a friend; E. A. Leatham; 
 Guildford Onslow; James White; P. A. Taylor; F. Doul- 
 ton; W. Williams, the O'Donnahue; E. Baines, Thomas 
 Carnes, W. E. Baxter, James Caird, Samuel Gurney, 
 George Hanfield, Grant Duff, James Kershaw, Wilfred 
 Lawson. Among the newspapers and magazines favorable 
 to the cause are the following: The Morning Star, the 
 organ of the advanced Liberal party, managing proprietor 
 and editor, Mr. Samuel Lucas; The Daily News, another 
 Liberal organ, edited by Mr. Walker, a paper which, if a 
 man wants to take The Times without its venom and 
 wickedness, he can have. It is just as able as The Times, 
 and a thousand times more principled. The evening edi- 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 671 
 
 tions of the above journals, respectively named The Even- 
 ing Star and The Express, The Spectator, weekly, edited by 
 Mr. Hutton, one of the oldest and most influential of the 
 weeklies and distinguished by its calm and philosophical 
 tone; Lloyd's Weekly News, edited by Blanchard Jerrold, 
 with a circulation of 400,000 weekly — the great hebdoma- 
 dal organ of the working classes; The Beehive, organ of the 
 trades, miners; The Nonconformist (all sorts of Dissenters); 
 The British Standard, Dr. Campbell (Congregationalist) ; 
 The Freeman (Baptist); Macmillans Magazine, edited by 
 Prof. Masson of Cambridge University; The Dial, weekly 
 journal of The Morning Star; The British Ensign (Congre- 
 gationalist); The Westminster Review, the quarterly organ 
 of English Radicalism; The Observer, the Ministerial 
 weekly organ; The Reader, one of their principal literary 
 journals. The most popular and widely circulated jour- 
 nals in both the metropolis and the country support the 
 Northern cause. The aggregate circulation is at least a 
 million each issue. Among the leading provincial newspa- 
 pers may be mentioned the following: The Manchester Ex- 
 aminer, circulating through the manufacturing districts; 
 The Newcastle Chronicle; Livei-pool Daily Post; Birminghatn 
 Daily Post; Leeds Mercury ; Preston Guardian ; Dundee Adver- 
 tiser; Caledonian Mercury, Edinburgh; Northern Daily Whig, 
 Belfast; Carlisle Examiner; Kendal Merciay, the paper of 
 the Lake District; Hampshire Lndependent, Southampton; 
 Bradford Advertiser, in which General Perrmet Thompson 
 writes weekly; Bedford Mercury; The Lrishman, an organ of 
 the Meagher and O'Brien party in Ireland; The Bucks Ad- 
 vertiser. Among men distinguished in science and litera- 
 ture are the following: Lord Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant of 
 Ireland; Lord Houghton, better knows as Monckton 
 Milnes, author and poet; Sir Charles Lyell, the eminent 
 geologist \cheers\ ; John Stuart Mill, the greatest of En- 
 glish philosophers in the present day \applause\ ; Sir 
 Stephen Lushington, judge of the Admiralty Court, and 
 one of the great leaders in the English struggle against 
 Slavery and the slave-trade; Goldwin Smith, the Professor 
 of Modern History in the University of Oxford; Prof. 
 
672 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES^ 
 
 Cairnes, Professor of Political Economy in Belfast Uni- 
 versity \cheeriiig\\ Prof. F. W. Newman, the eminent 
 Professor of Latin and English literature ; Gen. Perrmet 
 Thompson, the founder of the Westminster Review, first 
 Governor of Sierra Leone, and author of " The Anti-Corn 
 Law Catechism " Yapplause'\ ; Dr. Chapman, the present 
 editor of the Westminster Review; Mr. Thomas Hughes, the 
 author of " Tom Brown's School Days," the most popular 
 work in England next to "Uncle Tom's Cabin;" Mr. 
 Edward Small, leader of the English Nonconformists; 
 George Wilson, Chairman of the Anti-Corn Law League; 
 George Thompson, fellow-laborer with Wilberforce, Clark- 
 son, and Brougham in the Anti-Slavery struggle; Prof. 
 Nichol, of Glasgow University; Dr. Foster, Chairman of 
 the Religious Liberation Society; Prof. Beesly, Professor 
 of Political Economy in University Hall; James Taylor, Jr., 
 founder of the freehold land movement; Dr. Lees, the 
 eminent temperance lecturer; W. tJ. Fox, the late member 
 for Oldham; Washington Wilks and Henry Vincent, well 
 known as popular leaders or writers; Mr. Scott, the Chair- 
 berlain of London; the Mayors of Manchester, Birming- 
 ham, Rochdale, and Faversham. Among the clergymen 
 and ministers are; Dr. French, Dean of Westminster; Drs. 
 Candlish and Grothrie, the leaders of the Free Church of 
 Scotland; the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, the Rev. New- 
 man Hall, the Rev. William Brock, the Rev. Dr. Halley, 
 President of the New College, the Rev. Dr. Angus, Presi- 
 dent of Regent's Park College; the Rev. Dr. John Cairns, 
 Berwick-on-Tweed; the Rev. Dr. James Begg, Edinburgh; 
 the Rev. Dr. Lindsay Alexander, Edinburgh; the Rev. 
 Canoh Robinson of York Cathedral; the Rev. Professor 
 Maurice, London; the Rev. George Gilfillan, Dundee; the 
 Rev. Dr. Anderson, Glasgow; the Rev. Dr. Campbell, Lon- 
 don; the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, London; the Rev. Mr. Batch- 
 elor, Glasgow. These are only a few of the thousands of 
 names of men who are our friends, but these are better 
 known, and have signalized their friendship by signal lit- 
 erary services in the cause of freedom and of the North. 
 I ask you, fellow-citizens, whether, upon the facts I have 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 673 
 
 Stated, there is not reason to believe that after all we have 
 been misinformed, and that there is a great undertone in 
 England of friendliness and fidelity to us and to our 
 cause ? 
 
 I will not attempt repeating the grounds which I took 
 in England; I merely wish to add to this statement of facts 
 respecting that country a few words as to why we should 
 seek by all honorable means to maintain sympathy and 
 peaceful relations with England. 
 
 This is not our own struggle, it is the world's battle we 
 are fighting; we are set to do the work, but the whole 
 world is to enjoy the fruit of our victories; we are strug- 
 gling for the rights of the common people, but not of this 
 country only. Therefore we ought not to ignore the com- 
 mon people of any nation, still less of that nation from 
 which we spring, and whose language we still speak — and 
 I sometimes think we speak it with more purity than they 
 themselves. \_Laughter and cheers.^ If the great underly- 
 ing population of England, that is struggling for intelli- 
 gence and large political rights; if that great under-class 
 are on our side, for t/icir sake we ought to be at peace with 
 England, avoiding every cause of offense. For their sake 
 who are our friends, let us be patient and reach out cor- 
 dial hands, if not to those who should have been our friends 
 at the top — to those that are our friends, and who have 
 signalized their friendship through famine, hunger, sick- 
 ness and suffering untold, without betraying their fidelity 
 — for all those men of Lancashire, her starving weavers, are 
 fast and firm friends of the North. We are laboring on this 
 side with just the difficulties under which the generous, 
 just, and enlightened men of Europe are laboring on the 
 other side. If they have not precisely the same internal 
 difficulties we have, we have felt that we were checked by 
 the power of wealth, by the perverse prejudices of classes 
 and aristocracies established in this country, or formino-^ 
 and we have found whenever we attempted to move, even 
 at the North, that we moved against the same impediments 
 in our own midst; whatever battle we have fought has 
 been a moral battle at home. And so, when our friends 
 
674 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 have experienced the same difficulties abroad, we are to 
 take into consideration their difficulties, and not be impa- 
 tient; and if from let and hindrance at home they fail to 
 come up to the measure of enthusiasm which we desire 
 and which we had prescribed for them; more than ever, it 
 seems to me, in hope, patience, generosity, and magna- 
 nimity, it becomes us to set an example to them and to the 
 nations of the world. We have a better Government, we 
 think, than any other nation has. Let us prove it by the 
 fruit it brings forth in the citizen. If Lord Brougham — 
 who is not, I think, any longer responsible for what he says 
 — should say that the American people is a mob, let it be 
 ours to show that an American mob is more decent than 
 British aristocracy. We are proud of our common schools; 
 we are proud of the citizens they make. Let it not be 
 mere vanity on our part; let us manifest all the attributes 
 of fidelity to our convictions; let us have more patience 
 with our friends and more magnanimity to our enemies; 
 and particularly let us show to the world one thing more, 
 that with our free institutions and common people, who 
 can quarry more wealth out of the same earth than 
 other people, we have and can maintain a Government 
 more cheaply and have it more efficient than any other on 
 the face of the earth. While we have the power to daunt 
 all foreign enemies and to subdue the most terrific intes- 
 tine feuds that ever afflicted any people, let us not be exhib- 
 iting mere pride; let us also show to the world that no 
 crowns, no coronets, no aristocracies, no educating influ- 
 ences, can show another class of people on the globe so 
 temperate, so self-restrained, so just and generous in their 
 sentiments toward the common people as the great mass of 
 common citizens in America. The day is coming when 
 nations are to feel each other's hearts more and more 
 nearly; when more and more the themes coming up for 
 national discussion are those of the moral sentiments; 
 when nations are ready to come together with common 
 ideas and common feelings, and to know each other. I do 
 not hesitate to say, what I did not say in Great Britain, 
 that not for any material reason, but for a moral reason, 
 
RECEPTION IN BROOKLYN. 675 
 
 we need her; and I say more than that, for moral reasons 
 she needs us. For the sake of man, for the cause of God, 
 for the hope of civilization, the two great nations of the 
 earth, carrying on a civilization which is derived from and 
 which carries with it the common people and their uplift- 
 ing in civilization — these two great Christian nations — 
 God forbid that they should ever have to cross hands in 
 strife and struggle ! But while other nations are begin- 
 ning, though slow in their steps, to look toward the rising 
 sun, while even in Russia the frosts begin to glitter in 
 that light that ere long shall mold them, then let not 
 these former nations that have stood to witness for lib- 
 erty and the blessings of free Government fall out by 
 the way, but shoulder to shoulder, heart to heart, bear- 
 ing and forbearing with each other, loving, or hoping 
 to love by and by, — let these stand together to pour out to 
 every part of the earth the influence of Christianity, civili- 
 zation, and human liberty. 
 
 Mr. Low offered a series of resolutions of welcome and compli- 
 ment to Mr. Beecher, which, being seconded by Mr. S. B. Chit- 
 tenden, were unanimously adopted. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Storrs — "There is no more to come after the 
 King." 
 
 The meeting then adjourned. 
 
ADDRESS AT THE RAISING OF THE 
 UNION FLAG OVER FORT SUMTER, 
 
 April 14, 1865. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen: — On this solemn and joyful 
 day, we again lift to the breeze our fathers' flag, now again 
 the banner of the United States, with the fervent prayer that 
 God would crown it with honor, protect it from treason, 
 and send it down to our children, with all the blessings of 
 civilization, liberty, "and religion. Terrible in battle, may 
 it be beneficent in peace. Happily, no bird or beast of 
 prey has been inscribed upon it. The stars that redeem 
 the night from darkness, and the beams of red light that 
 beautify the morning, have been united upon its folds. As 
 long as the sun endures, or the stars, may it wave over a 
 nation neither enslaved nor enslaving. Once, and but once, 
 has treason dishonored it. In that insane hour, when the 
 guiltiest and bloodiest rebellion of time hurled their fires 
 upon this fort, you. Sir [turning to General Anderson], and 
 a small heroic band, stood within these now crumbled 
 walls, and did gallant and just battle for the honor and de- 
 fense of the nation's banner. 
 
 In that cope of fire this glorious flag still peacefully 
 waved to the breeze above your head, unconscious of harm 
 as the stars and skies above it. Once it was shot down. 
 A gallant hand, in whose care this day it has been, plucked 
 it from the ground, and reared it again, — " cast down but 
 not destroyed." After a vain resistance, with trembling 
 hand and sad heart, you withdrew it from its height, 
 closed its wings, and bore it far away, sternly to sleep 
 amid the tumults of rebellion and the thunder of battle. 
 
 The first act of war had begun. The long night of four 
 years had set in. While the giddy traitors whirled in a 
 
/^^^^/^^^^eyt^tyi^ 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 677 
 
 maze of exhilaration, dim horrors were already advancing, 
 that were ere long to fill the land with blood. 
 
 To-day you are Returned again. We devoutly join with 
 you in thanksgiving to Almighty God, that he has spared 
 your honored life, and vouchsafed you the honors of this 
 day. The heavens over you are the same; the same shores; 
 morning comes, and evening, as they did. All else, how 
 changed ! What grim batteries crowd the burdened 
 shores ! What scenes have filled this air and disturbed 
 these waters ! These shattered heaps of shapeless stone 
 are all that is left of Fort Sumter. Desolation broods in 
 yonder sad city — solemn retribution hath avenged our dis- 
 honored banner ! You have come back with honor, who 
 departed hence, four years ago, leaving the air sultry with 
 fanaticism. The surging crowds, that rolled up their 
 frenzied shouts as the flag came down, are dead, or scat- 
 tered, or silent; and their habitations are desolate. Ruin 
 sits in the cradle of treason. Rebellion has perished. But 
 there flies the same flag that was insulted. With starry 
 eyes it looks all over this bay for the banner that sup- 
 planted it, and sees it not. You that then, for the day, 
 were humbled, are here again, to triumph once and for- 
 ever. In the storm of that assault this glorious ensign was 
 often struck; but, memorable fact, not one of its stars was 
 torn out, by shot or shell. It was a prophecy ! 
 
 It said: " Not one State shall be struck from this nation 
 by treason ! " The fulfillment is at hand. Lifted to the 
 air, to-day it proclaims, after four years of war, " Not a 
 State is blotted out ! " 
 
 Hail to the flag of our fathers, and our flag ! Glory to 
 the banner that has gone through four years black with 
 tempests of war, to pilot the nation back to peace without 
 dismemberment ! And glory be to God, who, above all 
 hosts and banners, hath ordained victory, and shall ordain 
 peace ! 
 
 Wherefore have we come hither, pilgrims from distant 
 places ? Are we come to exult that Northern hands are 
 stronger than Southern ? No, but to rejoice that the hands 
 of those who defend a just and beneficent government are 
 
678 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 mightier than the hands that assaulted it ! Do we exult 
 over fallen cities ? We exult that a nation has not fallen. 
 We sorrow with the sorrowful. We sympathize with the 
 desolate. We look upon this shattered fort, and yonder 
 dilapidated city, with sad eyes, grieved that men should 
 have committed such treason, and glad that God hath set 
 such a mark upon treason that all ages shall dread and 
 abhor it. 
 
 We exult, not for a passion gratified, but for a sentiment 
 victorious; not for temper, but for conscience; not as we 
 devoutly believe that our will is done, but that God's will 
 hath been done. We should be unworthy of that liberty 
 entrusted to our care, if, on such a day as this, we sullied 
 our hearts by feelings of aimless vengeance; and equally 
 unworthy, if we did not devoutly thank Him who hath 
 said. Vengeance is mine, I 7vill repay, saith the Lord, that he 
 hath set a mark upon arrogant Rebellion, ineffaceable 
 while Time lasts ! 
 
 Since this flag went down on that dark day, who shall 
 tell the mighty woes that have made this land a spectacle 
 to angels and men ? The soil has drunk blood, and is 
 glutted. Millions mourn for millions slain; or, envying 
 the dead, pray for oblivion. Towns and villages have 
 been razed. Fruitful fields have turned back to wilderness. 
 It came to pass, as the prophet said: The sun was turned to 
 darkness, and the moon to blood. The course of law was 
 ended. The sword sat chief magistrate in half the nation; 
 industry was paralyzed; morals corrupted; the public 
 weal invaded by rapine and anarchy; whole States ravaged 
 by avenging armies. The world was amazed. The earth 
 reeled. When the flag sank here, it was as if political 
 night had come, and all beasts of prey had come forth to 
 devour. 
 
 That long night has ended ! And for this returning day 
 we have come from afar, to rejoice and give thanks. No 
 more war ! No more accursed secession ! No more slav- 
 ery, that spawned them both ! 
 
 Let no man misread the meaning of this unfolding flag ! 
 It says, "Government hath returned hither." It pro- 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 679 
 
 claims in the name of vindicated government, peace and 
 protection to loyalty; humiliation and pains to traitors. 
 This is the flag of sovereignty. The Nation, not the States, 
 is sovereign. Restored to authority, this flag commands, 
 not supplicates. 
 
 There may be pardon, but no concession. There may 
 be amnesty and oblivion, but no honeyed compromises. 
 The nation to-day has peace for the peaceful, and war for 
 the turbulent. The only condition of submission, is, to 
 submit ! There is the Constitution, there are the laws, 
 there is the Government. They rise up like mountains of 
 strength that shall not be moved. They are the condi- 
 tions of peace. 
 
 One nation, under one goziernment, without slavery, has been 
 ordained, and shall stand. There can be peace on no other 
 basis. On this basis reconstruction is easy, and needs 
 neither architect nor engineer. Without this basis no en- 
 gineer or architect shall ever reconstruct these rebellious 
 States. 
 
 We do not want your cities nor your fields. We do not 
 envy you your prolific soil, nor heavens full of perpetual 
 summer. Let agriculture revel here; let manufactures 
 make every stream twice musical; build fleets in every 
 port; inspire the arts of peace and genius second only to 
 that of Athens; and we shall be glad in your gladness, and 
 rich in your wealth. 
 
 All that we ask is unswerving loyalty, and universal lib- 
 erty. And that, in the name of this high sovereignty of 
 the United States of America, we demand; and that, with 
 the blessing of Almighty God, 7ve will have ! 
 
 We raise our fathers' banner that it may bring back bet- 
 ter blessings than those of old; that it may cast out the 
 devil of discord; that it may restore lawful government, 
 and a prosperity purer and more enduring than that which 
 it protected before; that it may win parted friends from 
 their alienation; that it may inspire hope, and inaugurate 
 universal liberty; that it may say to the sword, " Return 
 to thy sheath," and to the plow and sickle, " Go forth;" 
 that it may heal all jealousies, unite all policies, inspire a 
 
68o PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 new national life, compact our strength, purify our princi- 
 ples, ennoble our national ambitions, and make this people 
 great and strong, not for aggression and quarrelsomeness, 
 iDut for the peace of the world, giving to us the glorious 
 prerogative of leading all nations to juster laws, to more 
 humane policies, to sincerer friendship, to rational, insti- 
 tuted civil liberty, and to universal Christian brotherhood. 
 
 Reverently, piously, in hopeful patriotism, we spread this 
 banner on the sky, as of old the bow was planted on the 
 cloud; and, with solemn fervor, beseech God to look upon 
 it, and make it the memorial of an everlasting covenant 
 and decree that never again on this fair land shall a deluge 
 of blood prevail. 
 
 Why need any eye turn from this spectacle ? Are there 
 not associations which, overleaping the recent past, carry us 
 back to times when, over North and South, this flag was 
 honored alike by all ? In all our colonial days, we were 
 one; in the long Revolutionary struggle; and in the scores 
 of prosperous years succeeding. When the passage of the 
 Stamp Act in 1765 aroused the colonies, it was Gadsden of 
 South Carolina that cried with prescient enthusiasm: "We 
 stand on the broad common ground of those natural rights 
 that we all feel and know as men. There ought to be no 
 New England man, no New Yorker, known on this conti- 
 nent, but all of us," said he, "Americans." That 7vas the 
 voice of South Carolina: that sliall be the voice of South 
 Carolina. Faint is the echo; but it is coming. We now 
 hear it sighing sadly through the pines; but it shall yet 
 break upon the shore — no North, no West, no South, but 
 one United States of America. 
 
 There is scarcely a man born in the South who has 
 lifted his hand against this banner, but had a father who 
 would have died for it. Is memory dead ? Is there no his- 
 toric pride? Has a fatal fury struck blindness or hate into 
 eyes that used to look kindly toward each other; that read 
 the same Bible; that hung over the same historic pages 
 of our national glory; that studied the same Constitution ? 
 
 Let this uplifting bring back all of the past that was 
 good, but leave in darkness all that was bad. 
 
" FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 68l 
 
 It was never before so wholly unspotted; so clear of all 
 wrong; so purely and simply the sign of Justice and Lib- 
 erty. Did I say that we brought back the same banner 
 that you bore away, noble and heroic Sir ? It is not the 
 same. It is more and better than it was. The land is free 
 from slavery since that banner fell. 
 
 When God would prepare Moses for Emancipation, he 
 overthrew his first steps, and drove him for forty years to 
 brood in the wilderness. When our flag came down, four 
 years it lay brooding in darkness. It cried to the Lord, 
 " Wherefore am I deposed ? " Then arose before it a 
 vision of its sin. It had strengthened the strong, and for- 
 gotten the weak. It proclaimed liberty, but trod upon 
 slaves. 
 
 In that seclusion it dedicated itself to liberty. Behold, 
 to-day, it fulfills its vows ! When it went down, four 
 million people had no flag. To-day it rises, and four 
 million people cry out, " Behold our banner ! " Hark ! 
 they murmur. It is the Gospel that they recite in sacred 
 words: "It is a Gospel to the poor, it heals our broken 
 hearts, it preaches deliverance to captives, it gives sight to 
 the blind, it sets at liberty them that are bruised." , Rise 
 up, then, glorious Gospel Banner, and roll out these mes- 
 sages of God. Tell the air that not a spot now sullies thy 
 whiteness. Thy red is not the blush of shame, but the 
 flush of joy. Tell the dews that wash thee that thou art 
 as pure as they. Say to the night, that thy stars lead to- 
 ward the morning; and to the morning, that a brighter 
 day arises with healing in its wings. And then, O glorious 
 flag, bid the sun pour light on all thy folds with double 
 brightness, whilst thou art bearing around and round the 
 world the solemn joy — a race set free ! a nation redeemed ! 
 
 The mighty hand of Government, made strong in war 
 by the favor of the God of Battles, spreads wide to-day 
 the banner of liberty that went down in darkness, that 
 rose in light; and there it streams, like the sun above it, 
 neither parceled out nor monopolized, but flooding the 
 air with light for all mankind. Ye scattered and broken, 
 ye wounded and dying, bitten by the fiery serpents of op- 
 
682 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 pression, everywhere, in all the world, look upon this sign 
 lifted up, and live ! And ye homeless and houseless slaves, 
 look, and ye are free ! At length you, too, have part and 
 lot in this glorious ensign, that broods with impartial love 
 over small and great, the poor and the strong, the bond 
 and the free ! In this solemn hour, let us pray for the 
 quick coming of reconciliation and happiness, under this 
 common flag ! 
 
 But we must build again, from the foundations, in all 
 these now free Southern States. No cheap exhortation 
 " to forgetfulness of the past, to restore all things as they 
 were," will do. God does not stretch out his hand, as he 
 has for four dreadful years, that men may easily forget the 
 might of his terrible acts. Restore things as they were ? 
 What, the alienations and jealousies ? The discords and 
 contentions, and the causes of them ? No. In that solemn 
 sacrifice on which a nation has offered up for its sins so 
 many precious victims, loved and lamented, let our sins 
 and mistakes be consumed utterly and forever. 
 
 No, never again shall things be restored as before the 
 war. It is written in God's decree of events fulfilled, 
 " Old- things are passed away." That new earth, in which 
 dwelleth righteousness, draws near. 
 
 Things as they were ? Who has an omnipotent hand to 
 restore a million dead, slain in battle, or wasted by sick- 
 ness, or dying of grief, broken-hearted ? Who has omnis- 
 cience, to search for the scattered ones ? Who shall re- 
 store the lost to broken families ? Who shall bring back 
 the squandered treasure, the years of industry wasted, and 
 convince you that four years of guilty rebellion, and cruel 
 war, are no more than dirt upon the hand which a mo- 
 ment's washing removes, and leaves the hand clean as be- 
 fore ? Such a war reaches down to the very vitals of so- 
 ciety. 
 
 Emerging from such a prolonged rebellion, he is blind 
 who tells you that the State, by a mere amnesty and 
 benevolence of Government, can be put again, by a mere 
 decree, in its old place. It would not be honest, it would 
 not be kind or fraternal, for me to pretend that Southern 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 683 
 
 revolution against the Union has not reacted, and wrought 
 revolution in the Southern States themselves, and inaugu- 
 rated a new dispensation. 
 
 Society is like a broken loom, and the piece which Re- 
 bellion put in and was weaving, has been cut, and every 
 thread broken. You must put in new warp and new woof 
 — and, weaving anew, as the fabric slowly unwinds, we 
 shall see in it no gorgon figures, no hideous grotesques of 
 the old barbarism, but the figures of vines and golden 
 grains, framing in the heads of Justice, Love, and Lib- 
 erty ! 
 
 The august Convention of 1787 set forth the Constitu- 
 tion with this memorable preamble: " We, the people of 
 the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, 
 establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for 
 the common defense, promote the general welfare, and se- 
 cure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our poster- 
 ity, do ordain this Constitution for the United States of 
 America." 
 
 Again, in the awful convention of war, the people of 
 the United States, for the very ends just recited, have de- 
 bated, settled and ordained certain fundamental truths, 
 which must henceforth be accepted and obe5^ed. Nor is 
 any State or any individual wise who shall disregard them. 
 They are to civil affairs what the natural laws are to health 
 — indispensable conditions of peace and happiness. 
 
 What are the ordinances given by the people, speaking 
 out of fire and darkness of war, with authority inspired by 
 that same God who gave the laws from Sinai amid 
 thunders and trumpet voices ? 
 
 First, that these United States shall be one and indivisi- 
 ble. 
 
 Second, that States are not absolute sovereigns, and 
 have no right to dismember the republic. 
 
 Third, that universal liberty is indispensable to repub- 
 lican government, and that slavery shall be utterly and 
 forever abolished. 
 
 Such are the results of war ! These are the best fruits 
 of the war. They are worth all they have cost. They are 
 
684 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the foundations of peace. They will secure benefits to all 
 nations, as well as to us. 
 
 Our highest wisdom and duty is to accept the facts as 
 the decrees of God. We are exhorted to forget all that 
 has happened. Yes, the wrath, the conflict, the cruelty, 
 but not those overruling decrees of God, which this war 
 has pronounced. As solemnly as on Mount Sinai, God 
 says, "Remember ! Remember ! '' Hear it, to-day. Under 
 this sun, under that bright child of the sun, our banner, 
 with the eyes of this nation and of the world upon us, we 
 repeat the syllables of God's providence, and recite the 
 solemn decrees: 
 
 No MORE Disunion ! 
 
 No MORE Secession ! 
 
 No more Slavery ! 
 
 Why did this civil war begin ? 
 
 We do not wonder that European statesmen failed to 
 comprehend this conflict, and foreign philanthropists were 
 shocked at a murderous war, that seemed to have had no 
 moral origin, but, like the brutal fights of beasts of prey, 
 to have sprung from ferocious animalism. This great na- 
 tion, filling all profitable latitudes, cradled between two 
 oceans, with inexhaustible resources, with riches increas- 
 ing in an unparalleled ratio, by agriculture, by manufact- 
 ures, by commerce, with schools and churches, with books 
 and newspapers, thick as leaves in our own forests, with 
 institutions sprung from the people, and peculiarly adapted 
 to their genius; a nation not sluggish, but active, used to 
 excitement, practiced in political wisdom, and accustomed 
 to self-government, and all its vast outlying parts held to- 
 gether by a federal government, mild in temper, gentle in 
 administration, and beneficent in results, — we do not won- 
 der that it is not understood abroad. 
 
 All at once, in this hemisphere of happiness and hope, 
 there came trooping clouds with fiery bolts, full of death 
 and desolation. At a cannon shot upon this fort, all the 
 nation, as if they had been a trained army lying on their 
 arms, awaiting a signal, rose up and began a war which, 
 for awfulness, rises into the first rank of bad eminence. 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 685 
 
 The front of battle, going with the sun, was twelve hun- 
 dred miles long; and the depth, measured along a merid- 
 ian, was a thousand miles. In this vast area, more than 
 two million men, first and last, for four years, have in 
 skirmish, fight and battle, met in more than a thousand 
 conflicts; while a coast and river line, not less than four 
 thousand miles in length, has swarmed with fleets, 
 freighted with artillery. The very industry of the country 
 seemed to have been touched by some infernal wand, and 
 with one wheel, changed its front from peace to war. The 
 anvils of the land beat like drums. As out of the ooze 
 emerge monsters, so from our mines and foundries uprose 
 new and strange machines of war, iron-clad. 
 
 And thus, in a nation of peaceful habits, without exter- 
 nal provocation, there arose such a storm of war as black- 
 ened the whole horizon and hemisphere. What wonder 
 that foreign observers stood amazed at this fanatical fury, 
 that seemed without divine guidance, but inspired wholly 
 with infernal frenzy ? 
 
 The explosion was sudden, but the train had long been 
 laid. We must consider the condition of Southern society, 
 if we would understand the mystery of this iniquity. So- 
 ciety in the South resolves itself into three divisions, more 
 sharply distinguished than in any other part of the nation. 
 At the base is the laboring class, made up of slaves. Next 
 is the middle class, made up of traders, small farmers, and 
 poor men. The lower edge of this class touched the slave 
 and the upper edge reached up to the third and ruling 
 class. This class were a small minority in numbers, but in 
 practiced ability they had centered in their hands the gov- 
 ernment of the South, and had mainly governed the whole 
 country. 
 
 Upon this polished, cultured, exceedingly capable and 
 wholly unprincipled class, rests the whole burden of this 
 war. Forced up by the bottom heat of slavery, the ruling 
 class, in all the disloyal States, arrogated to themselves a 
 superiority not compatible with republican equality nor 
 with just morals. They claimed a right of pre-eminence. 
 An evil prophet arose who trained these wild and luxuri- 
 
686 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ant shoots of ambition to the shapely form of a political 
 philosophy. 
 
 By its re-agents they precipitated drudgery to the bot- 
 tom of society, and left at the top what they thought to be 
 a clarified fluid. In their political economy, labor was to 
 be owned by capital. In their theory of government, a 
 few were to rule many. They boldly avowed, not alone 
 the fact that under all forms of government the few rule 
 the many, but their right and duty to do so. Set free 
 from the necessity of labor, they conceived a contempt for 
 those who felt its wholesome regimen. Believing them- 
 selves fore-ordained to supremacy, they regarded the pop- 
 ular vote, when it failed to register their wishes, as an in- 
 trusion and a nuisance. They were born in a garden, and 
 popular liberty, like freshets, overswelling their banks, but 
 covered their dainty walks and flowers with slime and mud 
 — of democratic votes. 
 
 When, with shrewd observation, they saw the growth of 
 the popular element in the Northern States, they instinct- 
 ively took in the inevitable events. It must be controlled, 
 or cut off from a nation governed by gentlemen ! Con- 
 trolled, less and less, could it be, in every decade; and 
 they prepared secretly, earnestly, and with wide conference 
 and mutual connivance to effect the separation. 
 
 We are to distinguish between the pretenses, and means, 
 and causes of this war. 
 
 To inflame and unite the great middle class of the South 
 who had no interest in separation, and no business with 
 war, they alleged grievances that never existed, and em- 
 ployed arguments which they better than all other men 
 knew to be specious and false. Slavery itself was cared 
 for only as an instrument of power, or of excitement. 
 They had unalterably fixed their eyes upon empire, and all 
 was good which would secure that, and bad which hin- 
 dered it. 
 
 Thus, the ruling class of the South, an aristocracy as 
 intense, proud, and inflexible as ever existed, not limited 
 either by customs or institutions, not recognized and ad- 
 justed in the regular order of society and playing a recip- 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 687 
 
 rocal part in its machinery, but secretly disowning its own 
 existence, baptized with ostentatious names of Democracy, 
 obsequious to the people for the sake of governing them; 
 this nameless, lurking aristocracy, that ran in the blood of 
 society like a rash not yet come to the skin; this political 
 tape-worm, that produced nothing, but lay coiled in the 
 body, feeding on its nutriment, and holding the whole 
 structure but a servant set up to nourish it — this aristoc- 
 racy of the plantation, with firm and deliberate resolve, 
 brought on the war that they might cut the land in two; and 
 clearing themselves from incorrigible free society, set up 
 a sterner, statelier empire, where slaves should work that 
 gentlemen might live at ease. Nor can there be any doubt 
 that though, at first, they meant to erect the form of re- 
 publican government, this was but a device; a step neces- 
 sary to the securing of that power by which they should 
 be able to change the whole economy of society. 
 
 That they never dreamed of such a war, we may well be- 
 lieve. That they would have accepted it, though twice as 
 bloody, if only thus they could rule, none can doubt that 
 knows the temper of these worst men of modern society. 
 But they miscalculated. They understood the people of 
 the South; but they were totally incapable of understand- 
 ing the character of the great working classes of the loyal 
 States. That industry which is the foundation of inde- 
 pendence, and so of equity, they stigmatized as stupid 
 drudgery, or as mean avarice. That general intelligence 
 and independence of thought which schools for the com- 
 mon people and newspapers breed, they reviled as the 
 incitement of unsettled zeal, running easily into fanati- 
 cism. 
 
 They more thoroughly misunderstood the profound sen- 
 timent of loyalty; the deep love of country which pervaded 
 the common people. If those who knew them best had 
 never suspected the depth and power of that love of coun- 
 try which threw it into an agony of grief when the flag 
 was here humbled, how should they conceive of it, who were 
 wholly disjoined from the people in sympathy ? The whole 
 land rose up, you remember, when the flag came down, as 
 
688 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 if inspired unconsciously by the breath of the Almighty 
 and the power of omnipotence. It was as when one pierces 
 the banks of the Mississippi for a rivulet, and the whole 
 raging stream plunges through with headlong course. 
 There they calculated, and w/Vcalculated ! 
 
 And more than all, they miscalculated the bravery of 
 men who have been trained under law, who are civilized, 
 and hate personal brawls, who are so protected by society 
 as to have dismissed all thought of self-defense, the whole 
 force of whose life is turned to peaceful pursuits. These 
 arrogant conspirators against government, with Chinese 
 vanity believed that they could blow away these self- 
 respecting citizens as chaff from the battle-field. Few of 
 them are left alive to ponder their mistake ! 
 
 Here, then, are the roots of this civil war. It w^as not a 
 quarrel of wild beasts; it was an inflection of the strife of 
 ages between power and right, between ambition and 
 equity. An armed band of pestilent conspirators sought 
 the nation's life. Her children rose up and fought at 
 every door, and room and hall, to thrust out the murder- 
 ers, and save the house and household. It was not legiti- 
 mately a war betiueeii the common peoples of the North and of 
 the South. The war was set on by the ruling class, the aris- 
 tocratic conspirators, of the South. They suborned their 
 own common people with lies, with sophistries, with cruel 
 deceits and slanders, to fight for secret objects which they 
 abhorred, and against interests as dear to them as their 
 own lives. 
 
 I charge the whole guilt of this war upon the ambitious, 
 educated, plotting, political leaders of the South. They 
 have shed this ocean of blood. They have desolated the 
 South. They have poured poverty through all her towns 
 and cities. They have bewildered the imagination of the 
 people with phantasms, and led them to believe that they 
 were fighting for their homes and liberty, whose homes 
 were unthreatened, and whose liberty was in no jeopardy. 
 
 These arrogant instigators of civil war have renewed 
 the plagues of Egypt, not that the oppressed might go 
 free, but that the free might be oppressed. A day will 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 689 
 
 come when God will reveal judgment, and arraign at his 
 bar these mighty miscreants; and then every orphan that 
 their bloody game has made, and every widow that sits 
 sorrowing, and every maimed and wounded sufferer, and 
 every bereaved heart in all the wide regions of this land, will 
 rise up and come before the Lord to lay upon these chief 
 culprits of modern history their awful testimony. And 
 from a thousand battle-fields shall rise up armies of airy 
 witnesses, who, with the memory of their awful sufferings, 
 shall confront these miscreants with shrieks of fierce accu- 
 sation; and every pale and starved prisoner shall raise his 
 skinny hand in judgment. Blood shall call out for ven- 
 geance, and tears shall plead for justice, and grief shall 
 silently beckon, and love, heart-smitten, shall wail for 
 justice. Good men and angels will cry out, "How long, 
 O Lord, how long, wilt thou not avenge ! " 
 
 And, then, these guiltiest and most remorseless traitors, 
 these high and cultured men with might and wisdom, 
 used for the destruction of their country; these most ac- 
 cursed and detested of all criminals, that have drenched a 
 continent in needless blood, and moved the foundations 
 of their times with Mdeous crimes and cruelty, caught up 
 in black clouds full of voices of vengeance and lurid with 
 punishment, shall be whirled aloft and plunged downward 
 forever and forever in an endless retribution; while God 
 shall say, "Thus shall it be to all who betray their country;" 
 and all in heaven and upon the earth will say, "Amen ! " 
 
 But for the people misled, for the multitudes drafted 
 and driven into this civil war, let not a trace of animosity 
 remain. The moment the willing hand drops the musket, 
 and they return to their allegiance, then stretch out your 
 own honest right hands to greet them. Recall to them the 
 old days of kindness. Our hearts wait for their redemp- 
 tion. All the resources of a renovated nation shall be ap- 
 plied to rebuild their prosperity, and smooth down the 
 furrows of the war. 
 
 Has this long and weary period of strife been an un- 
 
 mingled evil ? Has nothing been gained ? Yes, much. 
 
 This nation has attained to its manhood. 
 44 
 
690 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Among Indian customs is one which admits young men 
 to the rank of warriors only after severe trials of hunger, 
 fatigue, pain, endurance. They reach their station, not 
 through years, but ordeals. Our nation has suffered, and 
 now is strong. 
 
 The sentiment of loyalty and patriotism, next in impor- 
 tance to religion, has been rooted and grounded. We have 
 something to be proud of; and pride helps love. Never 
 so much as now did we love our country. 
 
 But four such years of education in ideas, in the knowl- 
 edge of political truth, in the lore of history, in the geog- 
 raphy of our own country, almost every inch of which we 
 have probed with the bayonet, have never passed before. 
 There is half a hundred years' advance in four. 
 
 We believed in our institutions and principles before; but 
 now we knoiv their power. It is one thing to look upon 
 artillery, and be sure that it is loaded; it is another thing 
 to see its discharge. We believed in the hidden power 
 stored in our institutions; we had never before seen this 
 nation thundering like Mount Sinai at all those that wor- 
 shiped the calf at the base of the mountain. 
 
 A people educated and moral are Competent to all the 
 exigencies of national life. A vote can govern better than 
 a crown. We have proved it. A people intelligent and 
 religious are strong in all economic elements. They are 
 fitted for peace and competent to war. They are not 
 easily inflamed; and when justly incensed, not easily ex- 
 tinguished. They are patient in adversity, endure cheer- 
 fully needful burdens, tax themselves for real wants more 
 royally than any prince would dare to tax his people. 
 They pour forth, without stint, relief for the sufferings of 
 war, and raise charity out of the realm of a dole, into a 
 munificent duty of beneficence. 
 
 The habit of industry among free men prepares them to 
 meet the exhaustion of war with increase of productive- 
 ness commensurate with the need that exists. Their habits 
 of skill enable them at once to supply such armies as only 
 freedom can muster, with arms and munitions such as only 
 free industry can create. Free society is terrible in war. 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 691 
 
 and afterwards repairs the mischief of war with a celerity 
 almost as great as that with which the ocean heals the 
 seams gashed in it by the keel of a plowing ship. 
 
 Free society is fruitful of military genius. It comes 
 when called: when no longer needed it falls back as waves 
 do to the level of the common sea, that no wave may be 
 greater than the undivided water. With proof of strength 
 so great, yet in its infancy, we stand up among the nations 
 of the world asking no privileges, asserting no rights, but 
 quietly assuming our place, and determined to be second 
 to none in the race of civilization and religion. 
 
 Of all nations we are the most dangerous, and the least 
 to be feared. We need not expound the perils that wait 
 upon enemies that assault us. They are sufficiently under- 
 stood. But it is not because we are warlike that we are a 
 dangerous people. All the arrogant attitudes of this na- 
 tion, so offensive formerly to foreign governments, were 
 inspired by Slavery, and under the administrations of its 
 minions. Our tastes, our habits, our interests, and our 
 principles, incline us to the arts of peace. 
 
 This nation was founded by the common people, for the 
 common people. We are seeking to embody in public 
 economy more liberty with higher justice and virtue, than 
 have been organized before. By the necessity of our doc- 
 trines, we are put in sympathy with the masses of men in 
 all nations. It is not our business to subdue nations, but 
 to augment the powers of the common people. The vul- 
 gar ambition of mere domination, as it belongs to uni- 
 versal human nature, may tempt us; but it is withstood by 
 the whole force of our principles, our habits, our prece- 
 dents, and our legends. 
 
 We acknowledge the obligation which our better po- 
 litical principles lay upon us to set an example more tem- 
 perate, humane, and just, than monarchical governments 
 can. We will not suffer wrong, and still less will we in- 
 flict it upon other nations. Nor are we concerned that so 
 many ignorant of our conflict, for the present, misconceive 
 the reasons of our invincible military zeal. " Why con- 
 tend," say they, "for a little territory that you do not 
 
692 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 need?" Because it is ours ! Because it is the interest of 
 every citizen to save it from becoming a fortress and ref- 
 uge of iniquity. This nation is our house, and our 
 father's house; and accursed be the man who will not de- 
 fend it to the uttermost ! More territory than we need ? 
 England, that is not large enough to be our pocket, may 
 think that it is more than we need; but we are better 
 judges of what we need than they are ! 
 
 Shall a philanthropist say to a banker who defends him- 
 self against a robber, '* Why do you need so much money ? " 
 But we will not reason with such questions. When any 
 foreign nation willingly will divide their territory and give 
 it cheerfully away, we will answer the question why we are 
 fighting for territory ! 
 
 I now pass to the consideration of benefits that accrue 
 to the South in distinction from the rest of the nation. 
 At present the South reaps only suffering; but good seed 
 lies buried under the furrows of war, that peace will bring 
 to harvest. 
 
 1. Deadly doctrines have been purged away in blood. 
 The subtle poison of secession was a perpetual threat of 
 revolution. The sword has ended that danger. That 
 which reason had affirmed as a philosophy, the people have 
 settled as a fact. Theory pronounces, " There can be no 
 permanent government where each integral particle has 
 liberty to fly off." Who would venture upon a voyage on 
 a ship, each plank and timber of which might withdraw at 
 its pleasure ? But the people have reasoned by the logic 
 of the sword and of the ballot, and they have declared 
 that States are inseparable parts of national government. 
 They are not sovereign. State rights remain; but so7'er- 
 eignty is a right higher than all others; and that has been 
 made into a common stock for the benefit of all. All 
 further agitation is ended. This element must be cast out 
 of our political problems. Henceforth that poison will not 
 rankle in the blood. 
 
 2. Another thing has been learned: the rights and duties 
 of minorities. The people of the whole nation are of more 
 authority than the people of any section. These United 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISING. 693 
 
 States are supreme over Northern, Eastern, Western, and 
 Southern States. It ought not to have required the awful 
 chastisement of this war to teach that a minority must sub- 
 mit the control of the nation's government to a majority. 
 The army and the navy have been good political school- 
 masters. The lesson is learned. Not for many genera- 
 tions will it require further illustration. 
 
 3. No other lesson will be more fruitful of peace than 
 the dispersion of those conceits of vanity, which, on either 
 side, have clouded the recognition of the manly courage 
 of all Americans. If it be a sign of manhood to be able to 
 fight, then Americans are men. The North certainly are 
 in no doubt whatever of the soldierly qualities of South- 
 ern men. Southern soldiers have learned that all latitudes 
 breed courage on this continent. Courage is a passport 
 to respect. The people of all the regions of this nation 
 are likely hereafter to cherish a generous admiration of 
 each other's prowess. The war has bred respect, and re- 
 spect will breed affection, and affection peace and unity. 
 
 4. No other event of the war can fill an intelligent 
 Southern man of candid nature with more surprise than 
 the revelation of the capacity, moral and military, of the 
 black race. It is a revelation, indeed. No people were 
 ever less understood by those most familiar with them. 
 They were said to be lazy, lying, impudent, and cowardly 
 wretches, driven by the whip alone to the tasks needful to 
 their own support, and the functions of civilization. They 
 were said to be dangerous, blood-thirsty, liable to insur- 
 rection; but four years of tumultuous distress and war 
 have rolled across the area inhabited by them, and I have 
 yet to hear of one authentic instance of the misconduct of 
 a colored man. They have been patient and gentle and 
 docile in the land, while the men of the South were away 
 in the army, they have been full of faith and hope and 
 piety; and when summoned to freedom they have emerged 
 with all the signs and tokens that freedom will be to them 
 what it was to be — the swaddling band that shall bring 
 them to manhood. And after the Government, honoring 
 them as men, summoned them to the field, when once they 
 
694 PATRIOTJC ADDRESSES. 
 
 were disciplined and had learned the art of war, they 
 proved themselves to be not second to their white brethren 
 in arms. And when the roll of men that have shed their 
 blood is called in the other land, many and many a dusky 
 face will rise, dark no more, when the light of eternal 
 glory shall shine upon it from the throne of God. 
 
 5. The industry of the So*uthern States is regenerated 
 and now rests upon a basis that never fails to bring pros- 
 perity. Just now industry is collapsed; but it is not dead. 
 It sleepeth. It is vital yet. It will spring like mown 
 grass from the roots, that need but showers and heat and 
 time to bring them forth. Though in many districts not a 
 generation will see wanton v/astes of self-invoked war re- 
 paired, and many portions may lapse again to wilderness; 
 yet, in our life-time we shall see States, as a whole, raised 
 to a prosperity, vital, wholesome, and immovable. 
 
 6. The destruction of class interests, working with a 
 religion which tends towards true democracy in proportion 
 as it is pure and free, will create a new era of prosperity 
 for the common laboring people of the South. Upon them 
 has come the labor, the toil, and the loss of this war. 
 They have fought blindfolded. They have fought for a 
 class that sought their degradation, while they were made 
 to believe that it was for their own homes and altars. 
 Their leaders meant a supremacy which would not long 
 have left them political liberty, save in name. But their 
 leaders are swept away. The sword has been hungry for 
 the ruling classes. It has sought them out with remorse- 
 less zeal. New men are to rise up; new ideas are to bud 
 and blossom; and there will be men with different ambi- 
 tion and altered policy. 
 
 7. Meanwhile, the South, no longer a land of planta- 
 tions, but of farms; no longer tilled by slaves, but by free- 
 men, will find no hindrance to the spread of education. 
 Schools will multiply. Books and papers will spread. 
 Churches will bless every hamlet. There is a good day 
 coming for the South. Through darkness, and tears, and 
 blood she has sought it. It has been an unconscious Via 
 Dolorosa. But, in the end, it will be worth all it has cost. 
 
FORT SUMTER FLAG-RAISIXG. 695 
 
 Her institutions before were deadly. She nourished death 
 in her bosom. The greater her secular prosperity, the 
 more sure was her ruin. Every year of delay but made 
 the change more terrible. Now, by an earthquake, the 
 evil is shaken down. Her own historians, in a better 
 day, shall write that from the day the sword cut off the 
 cancer she began to find her health. 
 
 What, then, shall hinder the rebuilding of this republic ? 
 The evil spirit is cast out: why should not this nation 
 cease to wander among tombs, cutting itself ? Why should 
 it not come, clothed and in its right mind, to "sit at the 
 feet of Jesus " ? Is it feared that the Government will op- 
 press the conquered States ? What possible motive has 
 the Government to narrow the base of that pyramid on 
 which its own permanence stands ? 
 
 Is it feared that the rights of the States will be with- 
 held ? The South is not more jealous of their State rights 
 than the North. State rights, from the earliest colonial 
 days, have been the peculiar pride and jealousy of New 
 England. In every stage of national formation, it was 
 peculiarly Northern, and not Southern, statesmen that 
 guarded State rights as we were forming the Constitution. 
 But, once united, the loyal States gave up forever that 
 which had been delegated to the National Government. 
 And now, in the hour of victory, the loyal States do not 
 mean to trench upon Southern States' rights. They will 
 not do it, or suffer it to be done. There is not to be one 
 rule for high latitudes, and another for low. We take 
 nothing from the Southern States that has not already 
 been taken from Northern. The South shall have just 
 those rights that every Eastern, every Middle, every West- 
 ern State has — no more, no less. 
 
 We are not seeking our own aggrandizement by im- 
 poverishing the South. Its prosperity is an indispensable 
 element of our own. We have shown, by all that we have 
 suffered in war, how great is our estimate of the impor- 
 tance of the Southern States of this Union, and we will 
 measure that estimate, now, in peace, by still greater ex- 
 ertions for their rebuilding. 
 
696 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Will reflecting men perceive, then, the wisdom of ac- 
 cepting established facts; and, with alacrity of enterprise, 
 begin to retrieve the past ? 
 
 Slavery cannot come back. It is the interest therefore 
 of every man to hasten its end. Do you want more war ? 
 Are you not yet weary of contest? Will you gather up 
 the unexploded fragments of this prodigious magazine of 
 all mischief, and heap them up for continued explosion ? 
 Does not the South need peace ? And, since free labor is 
 inevitable, will you have it in its worst forms or its best ? 
 Shall it be ignorant, impertinent, indolent ? or, shall it be 
 educated, self-respecting, moral, and self-supporting? 
 Will you have men as drudges, or will you have them as 
 citizens ? Since they have vindicated the Government, 
 and cemented its foundation stones with their blood, may 
 they not offer the tribute of their support to maintain its 
 laws and its policy? It is better for religion; it is better 
 for political integrity; it is better for industry; it is better 
 for money — if you will have that ground motive — that you 
 should educate the black man; and, by education, make him 
 a citizen. They who refuse education to a black man, would 
 turn the South into a vast poor-house, and labor into a pen- 
 dulum, necessity vibrating between poverty and indolence. 
 
 From this pulpit of broken stone we speak forth our 
 earnest greeting to all our land. 
 
 We offer to the President of these United States our 
 solemn congratulations that God has sustained his life and 
 health under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings of 
 four bloody years, and permitted him to behold this aus- 
 picious consummation of that national unity for which he 
 has waited with so much patience and fortitude, and for 
 which he has labored with such disinterested wisdom. 
 
 To the members of the Government associated with him 
 in the administration of perilous affairs in critical times; 
 to the Senators and Representatives of the United States 
 who have eagerly fashioned the instruments by which the 
 popular will might express and enforce itself, we tender 
 our grateful thanks. 
 
FORT SUMTEK FLAG-RAISING. 697 
 
 To the officers and men of the army and navy, who have 
 so faithfully, skillfully, and gloriously upheld their coun- 
 try's authority, by suffering, labor, and sublime courage, 
 we offer here a tribute beyond the compass of words. 
 
 Upon those true and faithful citizens, men and women, 
 who have borne up with unflinching hope in the darkest 
 hour, and covered the land with the labors of love and 
 charity, we invoke the divinest blessing of Him whom 
 they have so truly imitated. 
 
 But chiefly to Thee, God of our fathers, we render 
 thanksgiving and praise for that wondrous providence 
 that has brought forth, from such a harvest of war, the 
 seed of so much liberty and peace. 
 
 We invoke peace upon the North. Peace be to the 
 West. Peace be upon the South ! 
 
 In the name of God, we lift up our banner, and dedicate 
 it to Peace, Union, and Liberty, now and forevermore. 
 Amen. 
 
Ill 
 
 CIVIL LIBERTY 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of 
 Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord 
 shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the 
 land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the ut- 
 most sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of 
 palm trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land 
 which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will 
 give it unto thy seed : I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou 
 shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in 
 the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord." — Deut. xxxiv. 1-5. 
 
 There is no historic figure more noble than that of 
 the Jewish lawgiver. After so many thousand years, the 
 figure of Moses is not diminished, but stands up against 
 the background of early days distinct and individual as if 
 he had lived but yesterday. There is scarcely another 
 event in history more touching than his death. He had 
 borne the great burdens of state for forty years, shaped 
 the Jews to a nation, filled out their civil and religious 
 polity, administered their laws, guided their steps, or dealt 
 with them in all their journeyings in the wilderness; had 
 mourned in their punishment, kept step with their march, 
 and led them in wars until the end of their labors drew 
 nigh. The last stage was reached. Jordan, only, lay be- 
 tween them and "the promised land." The Promised 
 Land ! O, what yearnings had heaved his breast for that 
 divinely foreshadowed place ! He had dreamed of it by 
 night, and mused by day; it was holy and endeared as 
 God's favored spot. It was to be the cradle of an illustri- 
 ous history. All his long, laborious, and now weary life, 
 
 * Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, Sunday Morning, April 23, 1865, the week 
 following President Lincoln's assassination. 
 
702 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 he had aimed at this as the consummation of every desire, 
 the reward of every toil and pain. Then came the word 
 of the Lord to him, " Thou mayest not go over. Get thee 
 up into the mountain; look upon it; and die ! " 
 
 From that silent summit the hoary leader gazed to the 
 north, to the south, to the west, with hungry eyes. The 
 dim outlines rose up. The hazy recesses spoke of quiet 
 valleys between hills. With eager longing, with sad resig- 
 nation, he looked upon the promised land. It was now to 
 him a forbidden land. This w^as but a moment's anguish, 
 he forgot all his personal wants, and drank in the vision of 
 his people's home. His work was done. There lay God's 
 promise fulfilled. There was the seat of coming Jerusa- 
 lem; there the city of Judah's King; the sphere of judges 
 and prophets; the Mount of sorrow and salvation; the nest 
 whence were to fly blessings innumerable to all mankind. 
 Joy chased sadness from every feature, and the prophet laid 
 him down and died. 
 
 Again a great leader of the people has passed through 
 toil, sorrow, battle, and war, and come near to the prom- 
 ised land of peace, into which he might not pass over. 
 Who shall recount our martyr's sufferings for this people ! 
 Since the November of i860, his horizon has been black 
 with storms. By day and by night he trod a way of 
 danger and darkness. On his shoulders rested a govern- 
 ment dearer to him than his own life. At its integrity 
 millions of men at home were striking: upon it foreign 
 eyes lowered. It stood like a lone island in a sea full of 
 storms; and every tide and wave seemed eager to devour it. 
 Upon thousands of hearts great sorrows and anxieties have 
 rested, but not on one, such, and in such measure, as upon 
 that simple, truthful, noble soul, our faithful and sainted 
 Lincoln. Never rising to the enthusiasm of more impas- 
 sioned natures in hours of hope, and never sinking with 
 the mercurial in hours of defeat to the depths of despond- 
 ency, he held on with unmovable patience and fortitude, 
 putting caution against hope that it might not be prema- 
 ture, and hope against caution that it might not yield to 
 dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly, through four 
 
 \ 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 703 
 
 black and dreadful purgatorial years, wherein God was 
 cleansing the sins of his people as by fire. 
 
 At last the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the coun- 
 try. The mountains began to give forth their forms from 
 out of the darkness; and the East came rushing toward us 
 with arms full of joy for all our sorrows. Then it was for 
 him to be glad exceedingly, that had sorrowed immeasura- 
 bly. Peace could bring to no other heart such joy, such 
 rest, such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he looked 
 upon it as Moses looked upon the promised land. 
 
 Then the wail of a nation proclaimed that he had gone 
 from among us. 
 
 Not thine the sorrow, but ours, sainted soul ! Thou 
 hast indeed entered into the promised land, while we are 
 yet on the march. To us remain the rocking of the deep, 
 the storm upon the land, days of duty and nights of watch- 
 ing; but thou art sphered high above all darkness and fear, 
 beyond all sorrow and weariness. Rest, O weary heart ! 
 Rejoice exceedingly, thou that hast enough suffered ! 
 Thou hast beheld Him who invisibly led thee in this great 
 wilderness. Thoil standest among the elect. Around thee 
 are the royal men that have ennobled human life in every 
 age. Kingly art thou, with glory on thy brow as a diadem. 
 And joy is upon thee forevermore. Overall this land, over 
 all the little cloud of years that now from thine infinite hori- 
 zon moves back as a speck, thou art lifted up as high as a 
 star is above the clouds, that hide us but never reach it. 
 In the goodly company of Mount Zion thou shalt find that 
 rest which thou hast sorrowing sought here in vain; and thy 
 name, an everlasting name in heaven, shall flourish in fra- 
 grance and beauty as long as men shall last upon the earth, 
 or hearts remain, to revere truth, fidelity, and goodness. 
 
 Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemi- 
 sphere, as the joy and the sorrow of the same week in this 
 land. The joy of final victory was as sudden as if no man 
 had expected it, and as entrancing as if it had fallen a 
 sphere from heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and swept 
 business from its moorings, and ran down through the 
 land in irresistible course. Men embraced each other in 
 
704 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 brotherhood that were strangers in the flesh. They sang, 
 or prayed, or, deeper yet, many could only think thanks- 
 giving and weep gladness. That peace was sure; that our 
 government was firmer than ever; that the land was 
 cleansed of plague; that the ages were opening to our 
 footsteps, and we were to begin a march of blessings; that 
 blood was staunched, and scowling enmities were sinking 
 like storms beneath the horizon; that the dear fatherland, 
 nothing lost, much gained, was to rise up in unexampled 
 honor among the nations of the earth, — these thoughts, and 
 that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and hopes, and 
 desires, and yearnings, that filled the soul with tremblings 
 like the heated air of midsummer days, — all these kindled 
 up such a surge of joy as no words may describe. 
 
 In one hour, under the blow of a single bereavement, joy 
 lay without a pulse, without a gleam, or breath. A sorrow 
 came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep 
 through the forest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, 
 disheveling the flowers, daunting every singer in thicket 
 or forest, and pouring blackness and darkness across the 
 land and upon the mountains. Did ever* so many hearts, 
 in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feelings ? It 
 was the uttermost of joy; it was the uttermost of sorrow; 
 — noon and midnight without a space between ! 
 
 The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so terrible 
 that at first it stunned sensibility. Citizens were like men 
 awakened at midnight by an earthquake, and bewildered 
 to find everything that they were accustomed to trust 
 wavering and falling. The very earth was no longer solid. 
 The first feeling was the least. Men waited to get straight 
 to feel. They wandered in the streets as if groping after 
 some impending dread, or undeveloped sorrow, or some one 
 to tell them what ailed them. They met each other as if 
 each would ask the other, " Am I awake, or do I dream ? " 
 There was a piteous helplessness. Strong men bowed 
 down and wept. Other and common griefs belonged to 
 some one in chief; this belonged to all. It was each and 
 every man's. Every virtuous household in the land felt as 
 if its firstborn were gone. Men were bereaved, and walked 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 705 
 
 for days as if a corpse lay unburied in their dwellings. 
 There was nothing else to think of. They could speak of 
 nothing but that; and yet, of that they could speak only 
 falteringly. All business was laid aside. Pleasure forgot 
 to smile. The great city for nearly a week ceased to roar. 
 The huge Leviathan lay down and was still. Even avarice 
 stood still, and greed was strangely moved to generous 
 sympathy and universal sorrow. Rear to his name monu- 
 ments, found charitable institutions, and write his name 
 above their lintels; but no monument will ever equal the 
 universal, spontaneous, and sublime sorrow that in a 
 moment swept down lines and parties, and covered up ani- 
 mosities, and in an hour brought a divided people into 
 unity of grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish. 
 
 For myself, I cannot yet command that quietness of 
 spirit needed for a just and temperate delineation of a 
 man whom goodness has made great. Leaving that, if it 
 please God, to some other occasion, I pass to some consid- 
 erations aside from the martyr President's character which 
 may be fit for this hour's instruction. 
 
 And first, let us not mourn that his departure was so 
 sudden, nor fill our imagination with horror at its method. 
 Men, long eluding and evading sorrow, when at last they 
 are overtaken by it seem enchanted and seek to make their 
 sorrow sorrowful to the very uttermost, and to bring out 
 every drop of suffering which they possibly can. This is 
 not Christian, though it may be natural. When good men 
 pray for deliverance from sudden death, it is only that they 
 may not be plunged without preparation, all disrobed, into 
 the presence of their Judge. When one is ready to depart 
 suddenness of death is a blessing. It is a painful sight to 
 see a tree overthrown by a tornado, wrenched from its foun- 
 dations, and broken down like a weed; but it is yet more 
 painful to see a vast and venerable tree lingering with vain 
 strife against decay, which age and infirmity have marked 
 for destruction. The process by which strength wastes, 
 and the mind is obscured, and the tabernacle is taken 
 down, is humiliating and painful; and it is good and grand 
 when a man departs to his rest from out of the midst of 
 
 45 
 
7o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 duty, full-armed and strong, with pulse beating time. For 
 such an one to go suddenly, if he be prepared to go, is but 
 to terminate a most noble life in its most noble manner. 
 Mark the words of the Master: — 
 
 " Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning ; and 
 ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will 
 return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, 
 they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants 
 whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching." 
 
 Not they that go in a stupor, but they that go with all 
 their powers about them, and wide-awake, to meet their 
 Master, as to a wedding, are blessed. He died watching. 
 He died with his armor on. In the midst of hours of labor, 
 in the very heart of patriotic consultations, just returned 
 from camps and counsels, he was stricken down. No fever 
 dried his blood. No slow waste consumed him. All at 
 once, in full strength and manhood, with his girdle tight 
 about him, he departed; and walks with God. 
 
 Nor was the manner of his death more shocking, if we 
 divest it of the malignity of the motives which caused it. 
 The mere instrument itself is not one that we should 
 shrink from contemplating. Have not thousands of sol- 
 diers fallen on the field of battle by the bullets of the 
 enemy ? Is being killed in battle counted to be a dreadful 
 mode of dying? It was as if he had died in battle. Do 
 not all soldiers that must fall ask to depart in the hour of 
 battle and of victory? He went in the hour of victory. 
 
 There has not been a poor drummer-boy in all this war 
 that has fallen for whom the great heart of Lincoln would 
 not have bled; there has not been one private soldier, with- 
 out note or name, slain among thousands and hid in the 
 pit among hundreds, without even the memorial of a sepa- 
 rate burial, for whom the President would not have wept. 
 He was a man from the common people that never forgot 
 his kind. And now that he who might not bear the march, 
 and the toil, and the battle with these humble citizens has 
 been called to die by the bullet, as they were, do you not 
 feel that there was a peculiar fitness to his nature and life 
 that he should in death be joined with them in a final 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7°; 
 
 common experience to whom he had been joined in all his 
 sympathies ? 
 
 For myself, when any event is susceptible of a higher 
 and nobler garnishing, I know not what that disposition is 
 that should seek to drag it down to the depths of gloom, 
 and write it all over with the scrawls of horror or fear. I 
 let the light of nobler thoughts fall upon his departure, 
 and bless God that there is some argument of consolation 
 in the matter and manner of his going, as there was in the 
 matter and manner of his staying. 
 
 Then, again, this blow was but the expiring rebellion. 
 As a miniature gives all the form and features of its sub- 
 ject, so, epitomized in this foul act, we find the whole nat- 
 ure and disposition of slavery. It begins in a wanton 
 destruction of all human rights, and in a desecration of all 
 the sanctities of heart and home; and it is the universal 
 enemy of mankind, and of God, who made man. It can 
 be maintained only at the sacrifice of every right moral 
 feeling in its abettors and upholders. I deride him who 
 points me to any one bred amidst slavery, believing in it, 
 and willingly practising it, and tells me that he is a man. I 
 shall find saints in perdition sooner than I shall find true 
 manhood under the influences of so accursed a system as 
 this. It is a two-edged sword, cutting both ways, violently 
 destroying manhood in the oppressed, and insidiously 
 destroying manhood in the oppressor. The problem is 
 solved, the demonstration is completed in our land. 
 Slavery wastes its victims, and it destroys the masters. It 
 kills public morality, and the possibility of it. It corrupts 
 manhood in its very center and elements. Communities 
 in which it exists are not to be trusted. They are rotten. 
 Nor can you find timber grown in this accursed soil of 
 iniquity that is fit to build our Ship of State, or lay the 
 foundation of our households. The patriotism that grows 
 up under this blight, when put to proof, is selfish and brit- 
 tle; and he that leans upon it shall be pierced. The honor 
 that grows up in the midst of slavery is not honor, but a 
 bastard quality that usurps the place of its better, only to 
 disgrace the name of honor. And, as long as there is con- 
 
7o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 science, or reason, or Christianity, the honor that slavery- 
 begets will be a by-word and a hissing. The whole moral 
 nature of men reared to familiarity and connivance with 
 slavery is death-smitten. The needless rebellion; the 
 treachery of its leaders to oaths and solemn trusts; their 
 violation of the commonest principles of fidelity, sitting 
 in senates, in councils, in places of public confidence only 
 to betray and to destroy; the long, general, and unparal- 
 leled cruelty to prisoners, without provocation, and utterly 
 without excuse; the unreasoning malignity and fierceness, 
 — these all mark the symptoms of that disease of slavery, 
 which is a deadly poison to soul and body. 
 
 I do not say that there are not single natures, here and 
 there, scattered through the vast wilderness which is cov- 
 ered with this poisonous vine, who escaped the poison. 
 There are; but they are not to be found among the men 
 that believe in it, and that have been molded by it. They 
 are the exceptions. Slavery is itself barbarity. That na- 
 tion which cherishes it is barbarous; and no outside tinsel 
 or glitter can redeem it from the charge of barbarism. 
 And it was fit that its expiring blow should be such as to 
 take away from men the last forbearance, the last pity, and 
 fire the soul with an invincible determination that the 
 breeding-ground of such mischiefs and monsters shall be 
 utterly and forever destroyed. 
 
 We needed not that he should put on paper that he be- 
 lieved in slavery, who, with treason, with murder, with 
 cruelty infernal, hovered around that majestic man to de- 
 stroy his life. He was himself but the long sting with 
 which slavery struck at liberty; and he carried the poison 
 that belonged to slavery. As long as this nation lasts, 
 it will never be forgotten that we have had one martyred 
 President — never ! Never, while time lasts, while heaven 
 lasts, while hell rocks and groans, will it be forgotten that 
 slavery, by its minions, slew him, and in slaying him made 
 manifest its whole nature and tendency. 
 
 But another thing for us to remember is that this blow 
 was aimed at the life of the government and of the na- 
 tion. Lincoln was slain; America was meant. The man 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 709 
 
 was cast down; the government was smitten at. It was 
 the President who was killed. It was national life, breath- 
 ing freedom and meaning beneficence, that was sought. 
 He, the man of Illinois, the private man, divested of robes 
 and the insignia of authority, representing nothing but his 
 personal self, might have been hated; but that would not 
 have called forth the murderer's blow. It was because he 
 stood in the place of government, representing govern- 
 ment and a government that represented right and liberty, 
 that he was singled out. 
 
 This, then, is a crime against universal government. It 
 is not a blow at the foundations of our government, more 
 than at the foundations of the English government, of the 
 French government, of every compacted and well-organ- 
 ized government. It was a crime against mankind. The 
 whole world will repudiate and stigmatize it as a deed 
 without a shade of redeeming light. For this was not the 
 oppressed, goaded to extremity, turning on his oppressor. 
 Not even the shadow of a cloud of wrong has rested on 
 the South, and they know it right well. 
 
 In a council held in the city of Charleston, just preced- 
 ing the attack on Fort Sumter, two commissioners were 
 appointed to go to Washington; one on the part of the 
 army from Fort Sumter, and one on the part of the Con- 
 federates. The lieutenant that was designated to go for 
 us said it seemed to him that it would be of little use for 
 him to go, as his opinion was immovably fi.xed in favor of 
 maintaining the government in whose service he was 
 employed. Then Governor Pickens took him aside, de- 
 taining, for an hour and a half the railroad train that was 
 to convey them on their errand. He opened to him the 
 whole plan and secrets of the Southern conspiracy, and 
 said to him, distinctly and repeatedly (for it was needful, 
 he said, to lay aside disguises), that the South had never 
 been wronged, and that all their pretenses of grievance in 
 the matter of tariffs, or anything else, were invalid. " But," 
 said he, " we must carry the people with us; and we allege 
 these things, as all statesmen do many things they do not 
 believe, because they are the only instruments by which 
 
7IO PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the people can be managed." He then and there declared 
 that it had simply come to this: that the two sections of 
 country were so antagonistic in ideas and policies that 
 they could not live together; that it was foreordained that, 
 on account of differences in ideas and policies, Northern 
 and Southern men must keep apart. This is testimony 
 which was given by one of the leaders in the Rebellion, 
 and which will probably, ere long, be given under hand 
 and seal to the public. So the South has never had wrongs 
 visited upon it except by that which was inherent in it. 
 
 This was not, then, the avenging hand of one goaded 
 by tyranny. It was not a despot turned on by his victim. 
 It was the venomous hatred of liberty wielded by an 
 avowed advocate of slavery. And, though there may 
 have been cases of murder in which there were shades of 
 palliation, yet this murder was without provocation, with- 
 out temptation, without reason, sprung from the fury of a 
 heart cankered to all that was just and good, and corrupted 
 by all that was wicked and foul. 
 
 The blow, however, has signally failed. The cause is not 
 stricken; it is strengthened. This nation has dissolved — 
 but in tears only. It stands, four-square, more solid, to- 
 day, than any pyramid in Egypt. This people are neither 
 wasted, nor daunted, nor disordered. Men hate slavery 
 and love liberty with stronger hate and love to-day than 
 ever before. The Government is not weakened, it is made 
 stronger. How naturally and easily were the ranks closed! 
 Another stepped forward, in the hour that the one fell, to 
 take his place and his mantle ; and I utter my trust that 
 he will be found a man true to every instinct of liberty ; 
 true to the whole trust that is reposed in him ; vigilant of 
 the Constitution ; careful of the laws ; wise for liberty in 
 that he himself, through his life, has known what it was to 
 suffer from the stings of slavery, and to prize liberty from 
 bitter personal experiences. 
 
 Where could the head of government in any monarchy 
 be smitten down by the hand of an assassin, and the funds 
 not quiver nor fall one-half of one per cent.? After a long 
 period of national disturbance, after four years of drastic 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7H 
 
 war, after tremendous drafts on the resources of the coun- 
 try, in the height and top of our burdens, the heart of 
 this people is such that now, when the head of govern- 
 ment is stricken down, tlie public funds do not waver, but 
 stand as the granite ribs in our mountains. Republican 
 institutions have been vindicated in this experience as 
 they never were before; and the whole history of the last 
 four years, rounded up by this cruel stroke, seems now in 
 the providence of God to have been clothed with an illus- 
 tration, with a sympathy, with an aptness, and with a sig- 
 nificance, such as we never could have expected or imag- 
 ined. God, I think, has said, by the voice of this event, 
 to all nations of the earth, " Republican liberty, based 
 upon true Christianity, is firm as the foundation of the 
 globe." 
 
 Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed 
 with new influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now 
 willingly hear what before they refused to listen to. Now, 
 his simple and weighty words will be gathered like those 
 of Washington, and your children and your children's 
 children shall be taught to ponder the simplicity and deep 
 wisdom of utterances which, in their time, passed, in the 
 party heat, as idle words. Men will receive a new im- 
 pulse of patriotism for his sake, and will guard with zeal 
 the whole country which he loved so well: I swear you, 
 on the altar of his memory, to be more faithful to the 
 country for which he has perished. Men will, as they 
 follow his hearse, swear a new hatred to that slavery 
 against which he warred, and which in vanquishing him 
 has made him a martyr and a conqueror: I swear you, 
 by the memory of this martyr, to hate slavery with an 
 unappeasable hatred. Men will admire and imitate his 
 unmoved firmness, his inflexible conscience for the right; 
 and yet his gentleness, as tender as a woman's, his mod- 
 eration of spirit, which not all the heat of party could 
 inflame, nor all the jars and disturbances of this country 
 shake out of its place: I swear you to an emulation of 
 his justice, his moderation and his mercy. 
 
 You I can comfort; but how can I speak to that twilight 
 
712 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 million to whom his name was as the name of an angel of 
 God ? There will be wailing in places which no ministers 
 shall be able to reach. When, in hovel and in cot, in wood 
 and in wilderness, in the field throughout the South, the 
 dusky children, who looked upon him as that Moses whom 
 God sent before them to lead them out of the land of bond- 
 age, learn that he has fallen, who shall comfort them ? Oh, 
 thou Shepherd of Israel, that didst comfort thy people of 
 old, to thy care we commit the helpless, the long wronged, 
 and grieved ! 
 
 And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march,* 
 mightier than when alive. The nation rises up at every 
 stage of his coming. Cities and states are his pall-bearers, 
 and the cannon beats the hours with solemn progression. 
 Dead-^dead — dead — he yet speaketh ! Is Washington 
 dead ? Is Hampden dead ? Is David dead ? Is any man 
 dead that ever was fit to live ? Disenthralled of flesh, and 
 risen to the unobstructed sphere where passion never 
 comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life now is 
 grafted upon the Infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly 
 life can be. Pass on, thou that hast overcome ! Your 
 sorrows, O people, are his peace ! Your bells, and bands, 
 and muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. Wail and 
 weep here; God makes it echo joy and triumph there. 
 Pass on, thou victor ! 
 
 Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an 
 untried man, and from among the people; we return him 
 to you a mighty conqueror. Not thine any more, but the 
 nation's; not ours, but the world's. Give him place, ye 
 prairies ! In the midst of this great Continent his dust 
 shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who shall make pil- 
 grimage to that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patri- 
 otism. Ye winds, that move over the mighty places of the 
 West, chant his requiem ! Ye people, behold a martyr, 
 whose blood, as so many articulate words, pleads for 
 fidelity, for law, for liberty ! 
 
 *The funeral journey, conveying Lincoln's body from Washington to Illi- 
 nois, was fourteen days in progress. He was buried on May 4, 1865. 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION.* 
 
 " Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and 
 called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." 
 — I Sam. vii. 12. 
 
 I READ, as a part of the opening services, a portion of the 
 history from which I have selected this memorable sen- 
 tence. 
 
 For twenty years the ark of the covenant had been 
 removed from Israel, and was in captivity. Then, by sig- 
 nal interpositions of divine providence, it was recovered, 
 and with victories which quite broke the power of the ene- 
 mies of the ark and its God. The prophet and judge of 
 Israel then declared, setting up a memorial and witness, 
 " Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." It was a devout 
 recognition of the interposition of God's providence in 
 their behalf. 
 
 If ever a people had occasion to say that, we ourselves 
 now have ; and it would be a fitting thing for us if we were 
 to set up again the corner-stone of the edifice of our lib- 
 erty, and, making it a witness and a memorial, to write 
 upon it " Eben-ezer " — Hitherto the Lord hath helped us. 
 
 And that word was not only a grateful recognition of the 
 past, but a hopeful view of the future. It was designed 
 by the prophet to inspire hope and trust in the future by 
 the witness of God's fidelity in the past. So also Christian 
 men in this land ought to recognize God's hand in the past 
 by a cheerful trust in regard to our future. Our difficulties 
 are not ended. As long as nations or individuals live, there 
 
 *Preached in Plymouth Church, October 29, 1S65, in the early stages of 
 the debates over the restoration or reconstruction of the Southern States 
 lately in rebellion, Andrew Johnson having been six months in the presi- 
 dential chair as the successor of the murdered Lincoln. 
 
714 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 will be obstacles to be contested — and it is almost indis- 
 pensable to vitality that it should be so. But what are our 
 difficulties as compared with those through which we 
 have triumphantly passed, — compared with those of four 
 years ago; of three years ago; of two years ago; of even 
 one year ago ? 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that at no period hitherto has any 
 statesman or leader appeared among us who, in view of 
 coming dangers, has been able to lay down a plan, or a 
 course of action. From the first, our whole horizon stood 
 darkened by thick troubles. Question upon question, like 
 ranks of trees in the forest, rose beyond each other; and 
 there was no man who, before we reached them, could give 
 a probable solution to them. Nor do I remember a single 
 one of them that was solved in advance. Yet, it is a 
 memorable fact that, as we drew near to one after another 
 of these great difficulties which environed our people, we 
 began to see specially, in each instance, how to overcome 
 it. One by one our troubles were easily surmounted and 
 left behind us. And as it has been in days past, so we 
 have a right to believe it will be in days to come. We do 
 not need to ask for a prophet's glass, that we may sweep 
 the whole horizon and descry some way of escape. It is 
 better to look back and see that to this people day by day 
 has brought its difficulties and day by day has brought its 
 deliverances. He that hath been our Help hitherto will be 
 our Help in time to come; and it is unbecoming in us, in- 
 dividually, and as a nation, after God's great manifesta- 
 tions of mercy toward us, to indulge in one moment's 
 doubt, or fear, or despondency. For despondency is in- 
 gratitude, and hope in God is worship. 
 
 I am impressed not only with the duty of hope and trust 
 in God for the future, but with the duty of good-will 
 toward men. Now that war has ceased from out of our 
 midst, nothing can better crown its victories than a gener- 
 ous and trustful spirit on the part of the citizens of this 
 nation toward those that have been in error. And if I have 
 not in past days been delinquent in the duty of defending 
 liberty against the assaults of men; if I have not failed to 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 715 
 
 be stern and persistent in my denunciations of that which 
 was threatening and wrong; so now I am glad, on the 
 other hand, to be early and equally persistent in advocating 
 lenity, charity, sympathy, and, as far as I may in consist- 
 ence with duty, forgetfulness. Hitherto, when slavery was 
 a power in the land, and when the government was in the 
 hands of men who hated its fundamental principles, true 
 men in the North were obliged to be stern and unflinch- 
 ing. There was no room permitted us for charity. Every 
 single overture of charity was employed as an instrument 
 for our destruction, and a witness for slavery. Now it is 
 different; circumstances have changed; and if we are wise, 
 we shall make haste to adapt ourselves to the new state of 
 things, and perform now, though in a reverse manner, the 
 duties which we sought hitherto to perform — then by op- 
 position to the South; now by kindness toward them, and 
 concord with them. 
 
 In the first place, I cannot expect, nor ask you to expect, 
 those that have been swept by this insanity (for I can 
 scarcely regard the state of mind that has existed for years 
 in the South as other than a political insanity) — I cannot 
 expect, nor ask you to expect, that in one hour they will 
 get over their enmities, their life-long prejudices and their 
 humiliation. It would be easy for us to forgive men who 
 were all that is lovely and beautiful; but when we infancy 
 call them citizens and brothers, how often is our zeal of 
 reconciliation checked by reading in the papers some hate- 
 ful speech, or an account of some misbecoming conduct ! 
 And how often do we find ourselves drawing back from 
 the kindness that we had proposed to ourselves ! Now we 
 are to remember that convalescence is often slower and 
 longer than the run of the disease itself; and where men 
 have been turmoiled, and torn, and revolutionized, it is 
 demanding miracles to ask that in an hour, or a few days, 
 they will sit clothed in their right mind at the feet of Jesus. 
 And if there is to be anything like magnanimity, generos- 
 ity, and true overtures of friendship, we must take men as 
 they are. If we wait to have them become what we would 
 have them to be, we shall wait in vain. Circumstances 
 
7i6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 will now compel Southern citizens to a course which will 
 be safe for the Republic. They may act angrily; they 
 may express ill-will; but they are now brought into a con- 
 dition in which natural laws, stronger than human volitions 
 or prejudices, will bend or overrule their wills. 
 
 Nor are we to demand a surrender of theories and 
 philosophies as a condition of confidence and trust. I per- 
 ceive that men are dissatisfied because prominent leaders 
 of the Rebellion are forgiven before they have shown any 
 evidence of having relinquished the heresy of secession. 
 I should have had less faith in them if they had. Under 
 such circumstances it would have been said of them, 
 "They were insincere in professing faith in their State doc- 
 trines ; " or else it would have been said, " It was in the 
 power of the sword to change their convictions " — neither 
 of which would have been compatible with true manhood. 
 All we have to ask is that they shall accept the fact and 
 the future policy of Union. Let men say that secession 
 ought to have been allowed — if they accept the fact that it 
 is forever disallowed by the people of this continent. A 
 man who believed in Calhoun's theories, and still believes 
 them, may be a good citizen — just as one in England may 
 be obedient to monarchical institutions, though he believes 
 republican to be better. These theories, if let alone, will 
 die out. The age and country is against them. The 
 course of events refutes them. Old men may cherish 
 them, but the young and ambitious will accept better doc- 
 trines and wiser policies. 
 
 Nor do I think it wise or Christian for us to distrust the 
 sentiments of those in the South that profess to be desir- 
 ous, once again, of concord and of union. It is said that 
 they wish to get back to their old privileges and power, 
 and that, when once they are reinstated, they will do as 
 they please. But how do you propose to remedy that 
 matter ? What kind of probation will you put States upon 
 which will render it certain that, when they come back to 
 the participation of national power, they will not do as 
 they please ? You make a condition which in the nature 
 of things cannot be fulfilled. Somewhere men are to be 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 717 
 
 believed and trusted, or all possibility of co-operative gov- 
 ernment is at an end. 
 
 But it is said that we should receive guaranties for the 
 future before we receive back men who have arrayed them- 
 selves against the laws of the land. What guaranties ? 
 How are we to secure them ? I think the best guaranty 
 that can be given is the utter destruction of slavery. Men 
 may make as many promises as they please, but they are 
 under the influence of organic laws. Those great uncon- 
 scious influences that are subtly touching men's interests, 
 and the springs of thought and feeling — these are the 
 things that in the long run determine conduct. Why was 
 the North valid, healthful ? Because her laws and institu- 
 tions promoted freedom and the doctrines of liberty. It 
 was not because we were by nature more virtuous than the 
 people of the South ; but we were under the influence of 
 great organic laws that were inciting us to conduct which 
 was wiser and better than we individually knew or pur- 
 posed. We were dependent upon the wisdom of our 
 great political institutions for making us what we were. 
 And they of the South, on the other hand, were uncon- 
 sciously under the influence of great organic laws which 
 sprang from radically vicious institutions. They were 
 made what they were by certain theories of political 
 economy, carried out practically. So that they answered 
 logically to the influences of those institutions under 
 which they were reared, as we answered logically to the 
 influences of those institutions under which we were 
 reared. It was the antagonism which existed between 
 their institutions and ours that brought us in perpetual 
 collision with them. The giving to all men equal rights, 
 and the holding men in slavery, could not harmonize. 
 Free labor meeting slave-labor ; free speech meeting muz- 
 zled speech; a free press meeting a hampered press, could 
 not but lead to conflict. It was the necessities of Southern 
 institutions which collided with the necessities of Northern 
 institutions. The people of the South were what they 
 were, not by reason of voluntary wickedness, but by reason 
 of the institutions that were behind them, and that pushed 
 
7l8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 them forward, as tides push ships; and our excellence was 
 attributable not so much to ourselves as to the pressure of 
 the great laws and institutions under which we were 
 acting. 
 
 Now, slavery being destroyed, the cause of collision is 
 removed; and, though a longer or shorter time may be re- 
 quired to readjust the state of things, once let labor stand 
 free in the South, once let there be no necessity for muz- 
 zling speech, once let there be no need for hampering the 
 press, once let commerce be unrestricted, once let the 
 heathen laws on Southern statute-books be destroyed, and 
 what guaranty do you want that free men, pursuing free 
 labor, will not fight other free men pursuing free labor ? 
 The only cause of antagonism was slavery; and, now that 
 slavery is destroyed, there is no ground for conflict. We 
 do not come into collision with Canada, although she is 
 under a crown. Still less do we come into collision with 
 the States of the West. And why should we come into 
 collision with the States of the South, except on account 
 of differences between their institutions and ours? Thus 
 the taking away of difference is everything that we want. 
 Of all guaranties for the future harmony of the North and 
 the South, the best is the effectual extermination of slavery. 
 A guaranty of words may be very well, but a guaranty of 
 facts is better. 
 
 It is said that there should be a spirit of humility on the 
 part of the South, that there should be the appearance of 
 their having been convinced of the error of their ways, be- 
 fore we receive them back. It is said that God does not 
 receive sinners back till they are humbled. 
 
 When you are God you need not receive your brethren 
 back till they are humbled. But I take it that you are not 
 in the place of God. There are many who desire to see 
 the South humbled. For my own part, I think it to be the 
 great need of this nation to save the self-respect of the 
 South. I think that he will be the wisest and most politic 
 statesman who knows how to carry them through this ter- 
 rible and painful transition with the least sacrifice of their 
 pride, and with the greatest preservation of their self-re- 
 
COXDITWNS OF A RESTORED UNION. 7^9 
 
 spect; and if it can be done b)'- the generosity of the North, 
 a confidence will spring up at the South in the future that 
 will repay us for the little self-sacrifice that we may make. 
 As for me, I would go backward and throw the mantle over 
 their nakedness, and extend to them trust and help, till 
 they should recover themselves and again stand erect in 
 the full manhood of a common American citizenship. I 
 do not wish to see the South humbled any more than War 
 has humbled them. Stripped, peeled, they have been. But 
 that is not all. Oh, what woe is theirs ! Not a father or 
 mother among them can mourn for a slain son, not a wife 
 can mourn for a husband slain, not a sister can mourn for 
 a brother, not a man or woman can mourn for a friend, 
 with any other feeling than this: "He threw away his 
 life for nothing ! " Thrice ten thousand loved ones have 
 we sacrificed; but they were martyrs for liberty, and their 
 names and deeds are fragrant in our memory, and we glory 
 in our sorrow ! But the wailing of the people of the South 
 concerning those that they sacrificed is, " They perished in 
 a cause that itself perished, and there is no memorial of 
 them ! " Their property is gone, their States are in 
 anarchy, their firesides are left desolate; and do I hear 
 men saying, " Before we receive them back let them be 
 still further humbled ? " Oh, my brother, you know not 
 what manner of spirit you are of ! 
 
 I am anxious that those who have hitherto been most 
 active for liberty and humanity should produce the first 
 and deepest impression on our brethren in the South by 
 real kindness; and I am very thankful that those who have 
 been representative men in the North, in the main — Gerritt 
 Smith, Mr. Garrison, and others such as they — have been 
 found pleading for lenity, and opposed to rigor and un- 
 charitableness. That is as it should be. And I shall be 
 greatly rejoiced if those men who have been in favor of 
 liberty, and in conflict with the South, shall be the first, in 
 the interest of liberty and humanity, to express toward the 
 Southern people sympathy and generous trust. On the 
 other hand, I shall regard it as peculiarly unfortunate if it 
 shall take place that the patriotic and good shall stand 
 
720 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 coldly waiting, or sternly demanding justice, while those 
 men that for five years have betrayed both the North and 
 the South, make haste to hold out warm hands of greet- 
 ing, and produce the impression that they are alone the 
 friends of the South. Let the true men find the Southern 
 heart, and let traitors be disallowed by both parties. 
 
 I cannot read except with disapprobation much that is 
 written now in regard to the condition of things in the 
 South. An honest statement of facts is fair: but biting 
 criticisms on men and their actions cannot but produce evil 
 results. I have deemed unwise the many criticisms that 
 were passed upon General Lee when he assumed the 
 Presidency of Washington College. When his history is 
 impartially written, it can never be covered up that in an 
 hour of great weakness he committed himself wickedly to 
 the cause of rebellion. This is a blemish on his name that 
 cannot well be effaced. But I cannot deny that since that 
 time his course and career, from his stand-point, have been 
 almost void of reproach. The great crime of rebellion re- 
 mains; but, it being assumed that he was conscientiously 
 convinced that that was his duty, where can you find aught 
 to criticise in his general conduct ? And when the war 
 ceased, and he laid down his arms, who could have been 
 more modest, more manly, more true to his own word and 
 honor than he was ? And when he was called to the presi- 
 dency of a college, must he not accept it ? Must he not 
 do something for a living ? Might he not attempt to teach 
 the minds of the South in the radical elements of educa- 
 tion ? And was it wise and befitting that we at the North 
 should raise caviling objections to his availing himself of 
 this opportunity that was offered him of gaining an honor- 
 able livelihood ? The real question is not of his fitness, 
 but whether it is wise for us to deny to Virginians the 
 risfht to select their own teachers. As far as I am con- 
 cerned, I was glad that he accepted the position; and I 
 have reason to believe that the young men who are grad- 
 uated under him, even though they were deficient on some 
 points of political education, will be true and faithful to 
 the government that they are to live under. Robert Lee 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 721 
 
 is the last man in the South ever again to rebel or incite 
 rebellion. And I tell you we are not making friends, nor 
 helping the cause of a common country, by raising the 
 names of eminent Southern men, one after another, into 
 the place of bitter criticism. It is not generous. We are 
 the stronger party; we have been successful: and if there 
 is to be magnanimity anywhere, we are the men to show it. 
 
 The two great questions which now are unfolding into 
 practical policies, and which attract the thoughtful regard 
 of all men that think upon public affairs, are: first, the ad- 
 mission of Southern States a-gain to the participation in 
 our national government; and, secondly, the complete and 
 permanent restoration to the black men of our country of 
 their rights. 
 
 Let us look, then, at these two main questions of the 
 future. 
 
 I. It is desirable, on every account, that the South should 
 be restored at the earliest practicable moment to a partici- 
 pation in our common government. It is best for us; it is 
 best for them. It is foreign to our American ideas that 
 men should be dispossessed of civil rights, if we expect 
 to treat them in any other way than as criminals. If we 
 expect to make citizens of them, and useful citizens, it is 
 part and parcel of our American habits and doctrine that 
 they shall be made so by an active participation in public 
 affairs, which we hold to be not a luxury, but an education 
 and a duty. 
 
 But there are some considerations precedent. For it is 
 not right that, in a moment, and without any sort of pledge 
 or preparation or qualification, the men who were yester- 
 day pointing the sword at the very throat of the govern- 
 ment should have control of that government, or should be 
 allowed to participate in its control. 
 
 In the first place, the cause of our trouble must be de- 
 stroyed; that which made the Southern States hate certain 
 features of the Constitution and Government, and which 
 brought them into perpetual collision with the free States, 
 must be destroyed, as a part of their preparation for par- 
 ticipation in the privileges which that Constitution and 
 46 
 
722 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 that Government confer. It is right that State conventions 
 should be required to abolish slavery, and to assist in the 
 amendment of the Constitution of the United States in 
 that regard, so that any State that might try to rejuvenate 
 slavery should under the Constitution be unable to do it. 
 I think this to be a sound and wise condition of their re- 
 habilitation. 
 
 Whatever may be done in the case of individuals, com- 
 munities cannot be permitted to participate in the affairs 
 of the government till they renounce forever their right to 
 destroy it. For, stripped of all words, secession means the 
 right of a part of the people living under a government to 
 destroy that government. The South are now, by the 
 fates of war, brought to our feet; and they ask to be our 
 equals again, and to be allowed again to participate with 
 us in the administration of the government; and certainly 
 we have a right to say to them, " If you are to administer 
 the government with us, you must swear not to attempt to 
 destroy it." That is not humbling, and not very operose. 
 And they must, in convention, not only annul their act of 
 secession, but pronounce it to have been ah initio void. 
 Thus must be set at rest all possibility of future secession 
 and disunion. 
 
 I think that, also, before the States of the South are re- 
 instated, these conventions should have ascertained, and 
 prescribed, and established, the condition of the freedman. 
 They should have established, first, his right to labor, and 
 to hold property, with all its concomitants. They should 
 have established his right to labor as he pleases, where he 
 pleases, and for whom he pleases, and to have sole and un- 
 divided the proceeds of his own earnings, with the liberty 
 to do with them as he pleases, just as any other citizen 
 does. They should also have made him to be the equal of 
 all other men before the courts and in the eye of the law. 
 He should be just as much qualified to be a witness as the 
 man that assaults him. He should be under the protec- 
 tion of the laws, with all the opportunities of availing 
 himself of their benefits which any other citizen has. It 
 is one of the legitimate results of his emancipation that 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 723 
 
 he should be put under the protection of the laws, and 
 that he should have access to the courts, the same as any 
 other man. 
 
 I hold that it would have been wise, also, for these con- 
 ventions to have given him the right of suffrage — for it is 
 always inexpedient and foolish to deny a man his natural 
 rights. And I yet stand on the ground that suffrage in 
 our community is not a privilege, or a prerogative, but a 
 natural right. That is to say, if there is any such thing as 
 a natural right, a man has a natural right to determine the 
 laws that involve his life, and liberty, and property. He 
 has a right to have a voice in the election of those magis- 
 trates who have to do with his whole civil prosperity. If 
 the right to determine the laws and magistracies under 
 which one exists is not a natural right, I know not what a 
 natural right is. It is not giving the colored man a priv- 
 ilege to allow him to vote: it is developing a long dor- 
 mant natural right. He has a right to citizenship be- 
 cause he is a man, unless he has forfeited it by crime. 
 And I think it would have saved the land great prospective 
 trouble to have promptly declared the right of the freed- 
 men to labor and all its avails, to law and all its remedies, 
 to citizenship and all its privileges. In our land liberty 
 means citizenship. It is the right to self, to property, to 
 law, and government, in each man and in all equally and 
 alike. 
 
 It is said that a declaration of the rights of citizenship 
 is a declaration of social equality. You might as well say 
 that the granting citizenship to a foreigner implies his 
 right to share the property of those whose fellow-citizen 
 he becomes. Declaring the colored man's right to citizen- 
 ship in this country does not make him your equal socially. 
 Do you suppose that you are all equal to each other in a 
 social sense? Do you suppose that the Irishman who has 
 just landed on our shores, who becomes a citizen, but to 
 whom our ideas are foreign, instantly becomes our equal 
 in a social point of view ? That is to say, the moment a 
 man has the right to plead and be impleaded in our courts, 
 the right to the fruits of his own labor, and the right to 
 
724 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 vote, do I rush into his arms and beg him to become my 
 son-in-law, whether I like him or not ? What phantasies 
 fill the brains of men ! How absurd is the idea, because I 
 claim for the black man the right to be a man, the right to 
 hold his earnings, the right to be a witness in our courts, 
 and the right to vote, that therefore I am bound to like 
 him, and to like him so much better than I like others as 
 to make him my inseparable companion; and that I deem 
 it wise and best for him to intermarry with the whites ! I 
 have never seen the time when I desired black people and 
 white people to intermarry. True, I have said, time and 
 time again, that, if there was to be any intermingling, it 
 ought to be under marriage, and not under concubinage; 
 but that doctrine pro-slavery men have hitherto hated. 
 They are not opposed to practical miscegenation. Their 
 blood is disseminated on every plantation in the Southern 
 States, as a result of the actual application of their doc- 
 trine. The difference between them and us is, that they 
 hold that there may be miscegenation, if only it is adulter- 
 ous; while we declare that adultery is abhorrent to God, 
 whether it be among whites or blacks, or both; and if 
 there is to be intermingling, it should at least be wedlock. 
 At the same time, we hold that it would better not be; and 
 have held so from the beginning. Therefore, because I 
 advocate the right of a black man to be free, to hold prop- 
 erty, to claim the protection of the law, and to vote, I do 
 not by any means hold that he is socially on a level with 
 the man that is educated and refined, he not being edu- 
 cated or refined. And there is nothing more preposterous 
 than the confounding of these most obvious distinctions. 
 With these provisions made by the conventions of the 
 several States, guaranteeing the rights and the citizenship of 
 the black man, I think that the difficulties would all speedily 
 disappear, and that there would be no more questions 
 to divide the people of the North and the South, so far as 
 this subject is concerned. Without such provisions, much 
 mischief will probably arise. It will be a trouble, how- 
 ever, that will mainly affect the South. These four million 
 men are not in our midst. For the most part, they are in 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 725 
 
 the South; and I may say that we are disinterested in 
 pleading for their complete emancipation and enfranchise- 
 ment; for, if they are wronged, and there are consequent 
 uprisings and strifes, it will be there that those things will 
 take place — not here. In their own bowels will be the 
 cramps and colics — not in ours ! 
 
 In regard to this matter, I do not know what the Presi- 
 dent's* mind is — if he knows it himself ! Much complaint 
 has been made of his reticence. But it is one of the best 
 things that can be said of a man, that, when he has noth- 
 ing to say, he says nothing. I apprehend, however, in the 
 light of certain things that he said in his conference with 
 the committee from the convention of South Carolina — 
 South Carolina, a State which, whatever you may say of 
 it, must always be considered as a State singularly diffi- 
 dent and modest ! — the State that, before she had been re- 
 ceived back into the Union, before she knew that she stood 
 on her feet at all, unwashed, uncombed, and unrobed, sent 
 a committee to advise the government what to do, thus af- 
 fording a striking illustration of that itch of ruling to 
 which she has been subject; — I apprehend, in the light of 
 certain things that he said in his conference with this com- 
 mittee, that the President has given the key to his policy. 
 You will recollect this remark, which he made in that in- 
 terview: "We must be practical, and come up to the 
 surrounding circumstances." He does not weave theories 
 or propound general principles; he takes the facts as they 
 come to him, one by one, and determines each of them on 
 its own merits. 
 
 Of all the men that have occupied the presidential 
 chair, not one, it seems to me, has displayed more wisdom 
 in the solution of practical questions when brought before 
 him, than has President Johnson thus far; and lam willing 
 to trust him for the rest. I believe that, as one after 
 another question comes up, he will be no less wise in solv- 
 ing each than he has been in solving those that have al- 
 ready presented themselves to him for solution. And the 
 
 * Andrew Johnson. 
 
726 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 fact that he thinks many of the questions that arise had 
 better be settled by Congress than by himself does not 
 lessen my confidence in this wise magistrate. When you 
 complain that many things should be precedent to the re- 
 admission into the Union of the States of the South, you 
 are to recollect that, while the President may advise and 
 caution the Southern people, it is Congress that is to take 
 the decisive steps. And it is better that the responsibility 
 should be divided, than that the President should arrogate 
 to himself the power of a czar, and determine questions 
 absolutely and arbitrarily. 
 
 Moreover, if on this subject of negro rights and suffrage 
 he has done wrong, and the people of the South have done 
 wrong — that is to say, if they have neglected that which 
 is right, in connection with the conventions that have been 
 held — we have a right to criticise their action, and to point 
 out their faults; but I must admit that we of the North 
 are not precisely in the attitude to rebuke the South in 
 respect to the rights of the colored man. I do not think 
 that our humanity has been such as to fit us to give un- 
 qualified advice to our Southern brethren in that direction. 
 When black men can ride without being insulted and 
 ejected from our street-cars; when they can sit undisturbed 
 in our sanctuaries; when they can work in shops with for- 
 eigners without being vomited out; when they can vote as 
 white men do, without any property or other qualification 
 — then the Northern States may assume to rebuke the 
 South on this subject. But I confess that, if I were to go 
 South and preach to the people there of this duty, I should 
 be obliged to preach in a very mild and general way, and 
 not with severe criticism and objurgation, lest they should 
 turn and say to me, " In what State were you born, 
 sir ? " and I, with shame and confusion of face, should be 
 obliged to say, " In Connecticut ! " 
 
 As I have gone so far in speaking of the President, al- 
 low me to go further and express my gratitude to God for 
 that singular succession by which, after we had been led 
 by Lincoln for four years through the great and terrible 
 ordeal of war, and that martyred and noble man was 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 727 
 
 taken suddenly, as it were by translation, God appointed, 
 almost without our knowledge or forethought, one so well 
 fitted to take up the work where it was left, and carry it 
 on, without break or hindrance, to a successful accom- 
 plishment. And, although I cannot undertake to say (it 
 would be presumption in me to say it) that I endorse Mr, 
 Johnson; although it is not safe for anyone to run before, 
 and to promise much for the future; although I reserve 
 my right to differ from him, and to criticise anything that 
 may be hereafter developed in his policy, as any citizen 
 may; yet, thus far, I do not now remember a single act of 
 his administration which does not seem to me to have been 
 wise, and just, and beneficial. The time when he was 
 called to stand at the head of the nation was a most try- 
 ing one. Perplexing questions were to be settled. Diffi- 
 cult knots were to be untied. But he has taken up and 
 untangled thread after thread of our national affairs; and, 
 with a firm purpose, a skillful hand, and a clear head, he 
 has gone on weaving that garment which is yet to cover 
 the body of these States in a common brotherhood. I 
 thank God for the eminent services and auspicious wisdom 
 of Mr. Johnson. 
 
 Nor can I point to anything that is more remarkable 
 than that extraordinary unity of feeling which exists in 
 the nation in respect to the general wisdom of the Presi- 
 dent's course. That those citizens who called him from 
 his relative obscurity because he was true to the cause of 
 his country; that those who voted for him, and placed him 
 in the position which he now occupies — that they should 
 have confidence in him is not surprising. No man that 
 voted for Mr. Johnson can well be otherwise than proud, 
 in the main, of that man who was his candidate for Vice- 
 President, and who now is President of the United States. 
 But that which calls forth my admiration, and which ex- 
 cites in me the profoundest gratitude, is that the men who 
 hated him, and cursed him, and voted against him, are all 
 converted, and have all adopted Mr. Johnson as their Presi- 
 dent, and his policy as their policy ! So we are all one 
 again ! There are no party lines now dividing the coun- 
 
728 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 try ! There is one great party and only one ! It is a mira- 
 cle, and a miracle wrought in such a direction as to fill us 
 with unqualified marvel, and with thanksgiving. I hope — 
 I hope that these converts will not fall from grace ! 
 
 I think I perceive in the President's mind a belief that 
 all measures instituted under the Act of Emancipation for 
 the blacks, in order to be permanently useful, must have 
 the cordial consent of the wise and good citizens of the 
 South. If it be so, I regard this judgment as indicative 
 of the most sagacious statesmanship. I hold that it is not 
 possible for us of the North, except in a remote way, to 
 affect the condition of the black man in the South. We 
 can send him material relief; we can give him the means 
 of education; but in respect to his immediate condition, 
 we cannot, removed at arm's-length, as we are, do much 
 for him. And I do not think it consistent with the nature 
 of our institutions for the Federal Government, in and of 
 itself, to attempt permanently to take care of four millions 
 of freedmen by military government. These men are 
 scattered in fifteen States; they are living contiguous to 
 their old masters; the kindness of the W'hite men in the 
 South is more important to them than all the policies of 
 the nation put together. And the best intentions of the 
 Government will be defeated if the laws that are made 
 touching this matter are such as are calculated to excite 
 the animosity and hatred of the white people in the South 
 toward the black people there. I except the single degree 
 of emancipation. That must stand, though men dislike it. 
 A true and wise statesmanship consists in conciliating the 
 late masters, and persuading them to accept the freedmen 
 in a spirit of kindness and helpfulness. Calling names, 
 suspecting motives, objurgations, will not help the black 
 man. President Johnson thinks it better that the colored 
 people should receive their rights with the consent of the 
 South; and he waits for it, and influences rather than com- 
 mands; and I think he is acting with enlightened judgment. 
 
 This view I found upon another part of his remarks 
 which were addressed to the modest committee from South 
 Carolina: — 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 729 
 
 "The President thought many of the evils would disappear if 
 they inaugurated the right system. Pass laws protecting the 
 colored man in his person and property, and he can collect his 
 debts. He knew how it was with the South. The question, when 
 first presented, of putting a colored man on the witness stand, 
 made them shrug their shoulders. But the colored man's testi- 
 mony was to be taken for what it was worth by those who ex- 
 amined him, and the jury who heard it. After all, there was not 
 so much danger in this as was supposed. Those coming out of 
 slavery cannot do without work ; they cannot lie down in dissipa- 
 tion ; they must work ; they ought to understand that liberty 
 means simply the right to work and enjoy the products of labor, 
 and that the laws protect them. That being done, and when we 
 come to the period to feel that men must work or starve, the 
 country will be prepared to receive a system applicable to both 
 white and black — prepared to receive a system necessary to the 
 case. A short time back you could not enforce the vagrant law 
 on the black, but could on the white man. But get the public 
 mind right, and you can treat both alike. Let us get the general 
 principles right, and the details and collaterals will follow." 
 
 Is not that wise ? Ts not that sound ? Many men feared 
 that the President, being a Southern-born man, would be 
 warped toward the South. I thank God that he is a 
 Southern-born man. It is just such a man that we need, 
 if we are going to reconstruct. You cannot build up 
 confidence as you can masonry. The work is not one in 
 which all that is required is stone here, and mortar there. 
 He that manages the human heart has, it may be, to work 
 against ignorance, and against ten thousand prejudices; 
 and he must himself have a sensitive heart. And a New 
 England man in the President's chair, even if he were 
 wiser than Mr. Johnson, would not have that natural sym- 
 pathetic feeling for the Southern people which would fit 
 him, as President Johnson is fitted, for the peculiar duties 
 which devolve upon the Chief Magistrate of the nation at 
 this time. He is of the South. He knows the weaknesses 
 of the Southern people, and their good qualities; and he 
 will be tender and kind with them. I am not afraid that 
 he will betray one single Christian principle on account of 
 this sympathy. So far from that, his sympathy will get 
 
73° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 hold of the hearts of the white men of the South, in a 
 manner that will go far toward winning them back to a 
 better way. It is the period of winning and conciliation. 
 War has done its work: and now we are to deal with men 
 by the affections, by reason, and by conscience; and I think 
 God has ordained this man to do that much needed work. 
 On the whole, I believe in him. 
 
 II. I must say a few words in respect to the black man, 
 and his condition, and our duties toward him. For this 
 is the great question which is unrolling itself, and which 
 God, in his providence, is giving us to consider. 
 
 I never was more surprised than in reading the speech 
 of a late member of the Cabinet with regard to the dispo- 
 sition of the black race. Looking at it in the light of the 
 present times, and of the nature of the doctrines of our 
 government, this in many respects acute, ingenious, and 
 certainly patriotic man can find but one solution for this 
 great question. What does he propose to do ? He pro- 
 poses to take four millions of men and tear them up by 
 the roots, and transport them out of the country, and so 
 get rid of them. He declares that it is impossible for the 
 blacks and whites to live together, and that there is no 
 way of meeting the difficulty but by appropriating terri- 
 tory to which they shall be sent and left to govern them- 
 selves. Now, you may carry vagrant tribes of Indians 
 from one place to another. They are venatorial in their 
 habits. They are not agricultural. Nor have they such 
 social connections as the colored people have in the South. 
 It is possible to put Indian tribes on a certain territory, 
 and keep them there. But the African is entirely different 
 from the Indian — as different as the vine is from the bam- 
 boo. A bamboo grows without a tendril from top to bot- 
 tom, and does not touch anything; and that is the way the 
 Indian grows. The vine, as it grows, throws tendrils out 
 on every side, at every point, and in every direction. It 
 clasps and leans upon everything that it can reach. And 
 so it is with the Africans. They do not live in tribes or 
 communities by themselves. They clasp the white people. 
 They like to live in white families. They are so inter- 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 731 
 
 mingled with the whites that if, according to Mr. Blair, 
 you attempt to root up the tares, you will root up the 
 wheat also. You cannot empty the South of this African 
 element without destroying it from the foundation. 
 
 And is this a time, when the great want of the South is 
 laborers, and when she is asking Sweden and Denmark, 
 and Germany, and France, and England, and Ireland, to 
 pour their laboring population into her desolated States — 
 is this a time for her to take her own practiced and 
 healthy laborers in her pestilential morasses, and banish 
 them to the Western prairies ? It is one of the most pre- 
 posterous theories ever announced outside of a lunatic 
 asylum. And think of this proposition being made to a 
 Christian people ! When we are called, in the providence 
 of God, to instruct these poor, despised creatures in whose 
 behalf Christ was born, to bear their burdens, and to raise 
 them l)y the refining power of Christianity to the level of 
 a true manhood, the counsel that comes to us from Mary- 
 land is, " Sneak out of your duties; shirk your cross; say 
 to these heathen among you, Begone ! Tramp ! Get 
 out ! " Such is the fulfillment of duty that is held up be- 
 fore us ! And it is proposed to American citizens ! Why, 
 I believe that even our foreign citizens would resent an 
 appeal like this, though they are the worst disposed of our 
 population toward the colored race. 
 
 What, then, is our Christian duty ? We are, as far as in 
 us lies, to prepare the black man for his present condition, 
 and for his future, in the same way that we prepare the 
 white man for his. And I think it should be a joint work. 
 I do not think it would be wise for the North to pour min- 
 isters, and colporteurs, and schoolmasters into the South, 
 making a too marked distinction between the black people 
 and the white. We ought to carry the Gospel and educa- 
 tion to the whites and blacks alike. Our heart should be 
 set toward our country and all its people, without distinc- 
 tion of caste, class, or color. It is our business to use our 
 wealth to meet the present emergencies and exigencies of 
 the South, to supply it with food and raiment; but we are 
 also to do in respect to it as we do in respect to ourselves. 
 
732 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Where we are personally concerned, we never trust any- 
 thing to accident or chance. We hold that the only way 
 to keep society from retrograding is to preserve our in- 
 stitutions; we hold that nothing can keep us from running 
 to waste but the common-school, the academy, the college, 
 the church, and the family; and we are to carry the com- 
 mon-school, the academy, the college, and the church to 
 every State in the South. We are to educate the negroes, 
 and to Christianly educate them. We are to raise them 
 in intelligence more and more, until they shall be able to 
 prove themselves worthy of citizenship. For, I tell you, 
 all the laws in the world cannot bolster a man up so as to 
 place him any higher than his own moral worth and nat- 
 ural forces put him. You may pass laws declaring that 
 black men are men, and that they are our equals in social 
 position; but, unless you can make them thoughtful, in- 
 dustrious, self-respecting, and intelligent; unless, in short, 
 you can make them what you say they have a right to be, 
 those laws will be in vain. 
 
 We have, then, a heavy work before us. We have a 
 work that will tax our faith, and patience, and resources. 
 But it is a work which we may pursue, believing that 
 He who hath brought us thus far in it will carry us 
 through to the end. We raise our Eben-ezer, and say, 
 "The Lord hath helped us." And as he has helped us in 
 the past by war, in respect to this great people that were 
 in bondage, and laden with its vices and sins, so he will 
 help us still in our Christian work of preparing them for 
 that liberty which has been so strangely brought to their 
 very door. And I am satisfied that, while we ought to 
 claim for the colored man the right to the elective fran- 
 chise, you never will be able to secure it and maintain it 
 for him, except by making him so intelligent that men 
 cannot deny it to him. You cannot long, in this country, 
 deny to a man any civil right for which he is manifestly 
 qualified. And if the colored man is industrious, and ac- 
 cumulates property, and makes a wise use of that prop- 
 erty, you cannot long withhold from him his civil rights. 
 We ought to demand universal suffrage, which is the 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 733 
 
 foundation element of our American doctrine; yet I de- 
 mand many things in theory which I do not at once ex- 
 pect to see realized in practice. I do not at once expect 
 to see universal suffrage in the South; but if the Southern 
 people will not agree to universal suffrage, let it be under- 
 stood that there shall be a property and educational quali- 
 fication. Let it be understood that men who have acquired 
 a certain amount of property, and can read and write, 
 shall be allowed to vote. I do not think that the posses- 
 sion of property is a true condition on which to found the 
 right to vote; but as a transition step I will accept it, when 
 I would not accept it as a final measure. It is a good 
 initial, though not a good final. 
 
 Further than that, I hold that no government that has 
 self-respect, and no people that have humanity, can ever 
 call three hundred thousand men to shoulder the musket 
 and bare their bosom to death, and can be saved by the 
 sprinkling of these men's blood, and then say to them, 
 when the danger is past, " We have no further need of your 
 services; go back again to your degradation." I believe, 
 with Sherman, that the man who carries a musket in the 
 defense of this government has a right afterward to carry 
 a ballot. And it will be a shame, a burning shame, if this 
 people permit those colored soldiers who fought for the 
 maintenance of the integrity of this nation to go without 
 the privilege of the ballot. I would be willing, for a 
 beginning, to compromise on the ground of giving every 
 soldier that served the cause of his country the right to 
 vote. That right is given to foreigners now. And let the 
 law give it to every soldier who is not a citizen, without 
 distinction of color. And what will be the result? Give 
 ten colored men in a parish at the South the right to vote, 
 and equal suffrage will be a mere question of time. That 
 will be the entering wedge. We want a beginning; and I 
 would be willing, not as a finality, but as a stepping-stone 
 to what I hope to get by and by, to take the suffrage for 
 those colored men who bore arms in our late war for the 
 salvation of this government. Now, I would like to see 
 the man that professes to be a Democrat who is opposed to 
 
734 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 a soldier's voting. Where is the man who can look in the 
 face of that black hero who has risked his life in the 
 thunder of battle to preserve this country, and say, "You 
 do not deserve to vote ? " The man who could do that is 
 not himself fit to vote. He lacks the very first element of 
 good citizenship. 
 
 I know that there are many to whom this subject is un- 
 welcome, and who say, " It seems as though there never 
 would be an end of this negro agitation." There are many 
 that say, " Ever since I was born I have breakfasted, and 
 dined, and supped upon this Negro. He is in the pulpit, 
 in conventions, in caucuses, everywhere ! " 
 
 Well, why do you not suppress him ? I tell you, you 
 will have to breakfast and dine and sup on this negro 
 until you do him justice. Just as quick as you are willing 
 to trust your own American principles, just as quick as you 
 put in practice your own American doctrine that a// men 
 are born free and equal, and have inalienable rights, he will sink 
 out of notice as a vexation. He will not any longer obtrude 
 himself in the pulpit, in conventions, or in caucuses. Just 
 as quick as you will do right you will be delivered from 
 the haunting of the negro; but as long as you will not, he 
 will haunt you. 
 
 But on another ground I have no sympathy with those who 
 would fain have rest and quiet from such questions. I be- 
 lieve that life is worth just what it effects. I believe that 
 that man's life is valuable who produces results, and that 
 that man's life is worthless who produces no results. And 
 it is the way of God to agitate communities. There may be 
 wrong agitations, or agitations may be out of proportion 
 to the objects that they are designed to accomplish; but 
 in every age, if there is wholesomeness, soundness, true 
 life, God rolls questions on men that they are obliged to 
 wake up to consider. Somnolent disciples, men that think 
 of God as a great Soother, who fans them with the sweet 
 perfumed gales of grace, while they snooze in the sanc- 
 tuary, and sleep in their citizen's duties — such men have 
 no part nor lot in God's real kingdom. For he holds a 
 spear, and he pierces and penetrates with divine fervor 
 
CONDITIONS OF A RESTORED UNION. 735 
 
 every one whom he toucheth. His fan is in his hand, and 
 he will purge his floor, and preserve the wheat and burn 
 the chaff; and the man that does not choose to be exer- 
 cised, that is unwilling to work — let him die and go out of 
 life; because this is a world of work, and the Christian's 
 life is a line of duty. 
 
 Enter upon your task, take up your cross, follow your 
 Christ; and if you would rest, work; and if then you 
 would rest, work again; and if then you would rest, die 
 and rise to nobler work, in that land where there is no 
 sleeping, where there is activity that knows no rest, when 
 we have quit this mortal coil, and are pure spirits that 
 have risen to the industries of God himself. 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE 
 SOUTHERN STATES. 
 
 Two Letters, Written in 1866, upon being Invited to 
 
 ACT AS Chaplain of the Soldiers' and Sailors' 
 
 Convention held at Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 Published, with aft Introductory Postscript, in 1884, in 
 pamphlet for?n. 
 
 [POSTSCRIPT OF 1884.] 
 
 I desire to give a permanent form to the two letters which were 
 published in the autumn of 1866, or about eighteen years ago. 
 The question of reconstruction of the seceding States was under 
 discussion, and feeling ran high, not alone on account of the 
 nature of the work to be done, but also by reason of the dis- 
 turbed relations between President Johnson and Congress. 
 
 President Lincoln had been assassinated, and Johnson had as- 
 sumed his place. The statesmen whose vigor and courage had 
 carried the country through the civil war were less adapted to 
 the delicate task of restoring the discordant States to peace and 
 unity than they had been to the sudden duties of war. 
 
 In a general way there were two parties; one counseling a 
 speedy readjustment, and the other, a longer probation. 
 
 President Lincoln and Governor Andrew of Massachusetts, in 
 the last conversations which I had with them, inclined to the 
 policy of immediate restoration ; and their views had great 
 weight with me. It was in the interest of such a policy that a 
 convention of Soldiers and Sailors was called, known by the 
 name of the city where it was held as "The Cleveland Conven- 
 tion." I was invited to act as its Chaplain, and the first- letter 
 was my reply. 
 
 Not many days after the convention, President Johnson began 
 that ill-favored journey, known as "swinging around the circle," 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STA TES. 737 
 
 during the progress of which his temper, attitude, and injudi- 
 cious speeches thoroughly alarmed the community. 
 
 It was believed that he was betraying the country, and that all 
 that had been gained by the war was about to be lost by the 
 treachery of the President. 
 
 The public mind was greatly inflamed, and my Cleveland letter 
 was received with violent protests. Many personal friends and 
 members of Plymouth Church were greatly exercised. To allay 
 excitement by giving a fuller view of the ground of my first let- 
 ter and to confute the idea that I had abandoned the Republi- 
 can Party, I wrote the second letter, assuming the same position, 
 but with explanatory reasoning. 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 Brooklyn, December, 1884. 
 
 LETTER TO THE CONVENTION. 
 
 Peekskill, N. Y., August 30, 1866. 
 
 Chas. G. Halpine, Brevet Brig.-Gen., \ 
 
 H. W. Slocum, Major-Gen., \ Committee. 
 
 Gordon Granger, Major-Gen., ) 
 
 Gentlemen : I am obliged to you for the invitation 
 which you have made to me to act as Chaplain to the Con- 
 vention of Sailors and Soldiers about to convene at Cleve- 
 land. I cannot attend it, but I heartily wish it and all 
 other conventions, of what party soever, success, whose 
 object is the restoration of all the States late in rebellion 
 to their federal relations. 
 
 Our theory of government has no place for a State ex- 
 cept in the Union. It is justly taken for granted that the 
 duties and responsibilities of a State in federal relations 
 tend to its political health and to that of the whole nation. 
 Even Territories are hastily brought in, often before the 
 prescribed conditions are fulfilled, as if it were dangerous 
 to leave a community outside of the great body-politic. 
 
 Had the loyal Senators and Representatives of Tennes- 
 see been admitted at once on the assembling of Congress, 
 47 
 
738 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 and, in moderate succession, Arlcansas, Georgia, Alabama, 
 North Carolina, and Virginia, the public mind of the 
 South would have been far more healthy than it is, and 
 those States which lingered on probation to the last would 
 have been under a more salutary influence to good con- 
 duct than if a dozen armies had watched over them. 
 
 Every month that we delay this healthful step compli- 
 cates the case. The excluded population, enough unset- 
 tled before, grows more irritable; the army becomes in- 
 dispensable to local government and supersedes it; the 
 Government at Washington is called to interfere in one 
 and another difficulty, and this will be done inaptly, and 
 sometimes with great injustice; for our Government, wisely 
 adapted to its own proper functions, is utterly devoid of 
 those habits, and unequipped with the instruments, which 
 fit a centralized government to exercise authority in re- 
 mote States over local affairs. Every attempt to perform 
 such duties has resulted in mistakes which have excited 
 the nation. But whatever imprudence there may be in 
 the method, the real criticism should be against the requi- 
 sition of such duties of the General Government. 
 
 The Federal Government is unfit to exercise minor po- 
 lice and local government, and will inevitably blunder 
 when it attempts it. To keep a half score of States under 
 Federal authority, but without national ties and responsi- 
 bilities; to oblige the central authority to govern half of 
 the territory of the Union by Federal civil officers and by 
 the army, is a policy not only uncongenial to our ideas 
 and principles, but pre-eminently dangerous to the spirit 
 of our Government. However humane the ends sought 
 and the motive, it is, in fact, a course of instruction, pre- 
 paring our Government to be despotic; and familiarizing 
 the people to a stretch of authority which can never be 
 other than dangerous to liberty. 
 
 I am aware that good men are withheld from advocat- 
 ing the prompt and successive admission of the exiled 
 States by the fear, chiefly, of its effect upon the freedmen. 
 
 It is said that, if admitted to Congress, the Southern 
 Senators and Representatives will coalesce with Northern 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STA TES. 739 
 
 Democrats and rule the country. Is this nation, then, to 
 remain dismembered, to serve the ends of parties ? Have 
 we learned no wisdom by the history of the past ten years, 
 in which just this course of sacrificing the nation to the 
 exigencies of parties plunged us into rebellion and war? 
 
 Even admit that the power would pass into the hands 
 of a party made up of Southern men and the hitherto dis- 
 honored and misled Democracy of the North, that power 
 could not be used just as they pleased. The war has 
 changed, not alone institutions, but ideas. The whole 
 country has advanced. Public sentiment is exalted far 
 beyond what it has been at any former period. A new 
 party would, like a river, be obliged to seek out its chan- 
 nels in the already existing slopes and forms of the con- 
 tinent. 
 
 We have entered a new era of liberty. The style of 
 thought is freer and more noble. The young men of our 
 times are regenerated. The great army has been a school, 
 and hundreds of thousands of men are gone home to 
 preach a truer and nobler view of human rights. All the 
 industrial interests of society are moving with increasing 
 wisdom toward intelligence and liberty. Everywhere, in 
 churches, in literature, in natural science, in physical in- 
 dustries, in social questions, as well as in politics, the na- 
 tion feels that the winter is over and a new spring hangs 
 in the horizon and works through all the elements. In 
 this happily changed and advanced condition of things 
 no party of the retrograde can maintain itself. Every- 
 thing marches, and parties must march. 
 
 [I hear with wonder and shame and scorn the fear of a 
 few that the South, once more in adjustment with the 
 Federal Government, will rule this nation ! The North is 
 rich, never so rich ; the South is poor, never before so 
 poor. The population of the North is nearly double that 
 of the South. The industry of the North, in diversity, in 
 forwardness and productiveness, in all the machinery and 
 education required for manufacturing, is half a century in 
 advance of the South. Churches in the North crown 
 every hill, and schools swarm in every neighborhood; 
 
74° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 while the South has but scattered lights, at long dis- 
 tances, like light-houses twinkling along the edge of a 
 continent of darkness. In the presence of such a contrast 
 how mean and craven is the fear that the South will rule 
 the policy of the land ! That it will have an influence, 
 that it will contribute, in time, most important influences 
 or restraints, we are glad to believe. But if it rises at 
 once to the control of the Government it will be because 
 the North, demoralized by prosperity and besotted by 
 groveling interests, refuses to discharge its share of polit- 
 ical duty. In such a case the South not only will control 
 the Government, but it ought to do so. 
 
 It is feared, with more reason, that the restoration of 
 the South to her full independence will be detrimental to 
 the freedmen. The sooner we dismiss from our minds the 
 idea that the freedmen can be classified and separated 
 from the white population, and nursed and defended by 
 themselves, t4ie better it will be for them and us. The 
 negro is part and parcel of Southern society. He cannot 
 be prosperous while it is unprospered. Its evils will re- 
 bound upon him. Its happiness and re-invigoration can- 
 not be kept from his participation. The restoration of 
 the South to amicable relations with the North, the re- 
 organization of its industry, the re-inspiration of its en- 
 terprise and thrift, will all redound to the freedman's ben- 
 efit. Nothing is so dangerous to the freedman as an un- 
 settled state of society in the South. On him comes all 
 the spite, and anger, and caprice, and revenge. He will 
 be made the scapegoat of lawless and heartless men. Un- 
 less we turn the Government into a vast military ma- 
 chine, there cannot be armies enough to protect the freed- 
 men while Southern society remains insurrectionary. If 
 Southern society is calmed, settled, and occupied, and 
 soothed with new hopes and prosperous industries, no 
 armies will be needed. Riots will subside, lawless hang- 
 ers-on will be driven off or better governed, and a way 
 will be gradually opened to the freedmen, through educa- 
 tion and industry, to full citizenship, with all its honors 
 and duties. 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STA TES. 741 
 
 Civilization is a growth. None can escape that forty 
 years in the wilderness who travel from the Egypt of igno- 
 rance to the promised land of civilization. The freedmen 
 must take their march. I have full faith in the results. 
 If they have the stamina to undergo the hardships which 
 every uncivilized people has undergone in its upward 
 progress, they will in due time take their place among us. 
 That place cannot be bought, nor bequeathed, nor gained 
 by sleight of hand. It will come to sobriety, virtue, in- 
 dustry, and frugality. As the nation cannot be sound 
 until the South is prosperous, so, on the other extreme, a 
 healthy condition of civil society in the South is indispen- 
 sable to the welfare of the freedmen.] 
 
 Refusing to admit loyal Senators and Representatives 
 from the South to Congress will not help the freedmen. 
 It will not secure for them the vote. It will not protect 
 them. It will not secure any amendment of our Consti- 
 tution, however just and wise. It will only increase the 
 dangers and complicate the difficulties. Whether we re- 
 gard the whole nation or any section of it or class in it, 
 the first demand of our time is entire reunion ! 
 
 Once united, we can, by schools, churches, a free press, 
 and increasing free speech, attack every evil and secure 
 every good. Meanwhile, the great chasm which rebellion 
 has made is not filled up. It grows deeper and stretches 
 wider ! Out of it rise dread specters and threatening 
 sounds. Let that gulf be closed, and bury in it slavery, 
 sectional animosity, and all strifes and hatreds ! 
 
 It is fit that the brave men who, on sea and land, faced 
 death to save this nation, should now, by their voice and 
 vote, consummate what their swords rendered possible. 
 
 For the sake of the freedmen, for the sake of the South 
 and its millions of our fellow-countrymen, for our own 
 sake, and for the great cause of freedom and civilization, 
 I urge the immediate reunion of all the parts of this 
 Union which rebellion and war have shattered. 
 I am truly yours, 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
742 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 II. 
 
 LETTER TO A PARISHIONER. 
 
 Peekskill, Saturday, Sept. 8, 1866. 
 
 My dear : I am obliged to you for your letter. 
 
 I am sorry that my friends and my congregation are grieved 
 by my Cleveland letter. 
 
 This feeling, however, has no just grounds, whatever 
 may be the seeming. I have not left, and do not propose 
 to leave, or to be put out of, the Republican party. I am 
 in sympathy with its aims, its great principles, and its army 
 of noble men. But I took the liberty of criticising its 
 policy in a single respect, and to do what I could to secure 
 what I believed, and still believe, to be a better one. 
 
 I am, and from the first have been, fully of opinion that 
 the amendment of the Constitution, proposed by Congress, 
 equalizing representation in Northern and Southern States, 
 was intrinsically just and reasonable, and that it should be 
 sought by a wholesome and persistent moral agitation. 
 
 But, from the present condition of the public mind, and 
 from the President's attitude, I deemed such a change to 
 be practically impossible in any near period, by political 
 action. And a plan of reconstruction based upon that 
 seems to me far more like a plan of adjourning reconstruc- 
 tion for years, at least, with all the liabilities of mischief 
 which are always to be expected in the fluctuations of pol- 
 itics in a free nation. 
 
 [It is not the North that chiefly needs the restoration of 
 government to its normal sphere and regular action. 
 Either the advantages of Union are fallacious, or the con- 
 tinuous exclusion of the South from it will breed disorder, 
 make the future reunion more difficult, and especially sub- 
 ject the freedmen to the very worst conditions of society 
 that can well exist. No army, no government, and no 
 earthly power can compel the South to treat four million 
 men justly, if the inhabitants (whether rightly or wrongly) 
 
RECONSTRUCTION dp SOUTHERN STA TES. 743 
 
 regard these men as the cause, or even the occasion, of 
 their unhappiness and disfranchisement. But no army or 
 government or power will be required when Southern 
 society is restored, occupied, and prospering in the renewed 
 Union. Then the negro will be felt to be a necessity to 
 Southern industry, and interest will join with conscience 
 and kindness in securing for him favorable treatment from 
 his fellow-citizens. 
 
 We that live at a distance may think that the social re- 
 construction involved in the emancipation of four million 
 slaves is as simple and easy as it is to discourse about it. 
 But such a change is itself one of the most tremendous 
 tests to which industry and society can be subjected, and 
 to its favorable issue is required every advantage possible. 
 The longer, therefore, the South is left in turmoil, the 
 worse it will be for the negro. If there were no other rea- 
 son; if the white population were not our fellow-citizens; 
 if we had lost all kindness and regard for them and all 
 pride for the Union, as in part represented by Southern 
 States, and confined our attention exclusively to the negro, 
 the case would be strong beyond my power of expression 
 for an early resumption of federal relations with all the 
 States. If this is to disregard the negro, then all social 
 and natural laws have been studied in vain.] 
 
 Neither am I a "Johnson man" in any received mean- 
 ing of that term. I accept that part of the policy which 
 he favors, but with modification. I have never thought 
 that it would be wise to bring back all the States in a body, 
 and at once, any more than it would be to keep them all 
 out together. One by one, in due succession, under a 
 special judgment, rather than by a wholesale theoretic 
 rule, I would have them re-admitted. I still think a mid- 
 dle course between the President's and that of Congress 
 would be wiser than either. But^with this my agreement 
 with the President ends. I have long regretted his igno- 
 rance of Northern ideas and sentiments, and I have been 
 astonished and pained at his increasing indiscretions. Un- 
 consciously the President is the chief obstacle to the re- 
 admission of Southern States. It is enough that he is 
 
744 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 known to favor a measure to set the public mind against 
 it. This is to be deplored. But it is largely owing to his 
 increasing imprudent conduct. I believe him to be honest, 
 sincere in desiring what he regards as the public good, but 
 slow and inapt in receiving help from other minds. Proud 
 and sensitive, firm to obstinacy, resolute to fierceness, in- 
 telligent in his own sphere, — which is narrow, — he holds his 
 opinions inflexibly. He often mistakes the intensity of his 
 own convictions for strength of evidence. 
 
 Such a man has a true sphere in periods of peril, when 
 audacious firmness and rude vigor are needed. But in the 
 delicate tasks of adjustment which follow civil war, such 
 a nature lacks that tact and delicacy and moral intuition 
 which constitute the true statesman. 
 
 Mr. Johnson's haste to take the wrong side at the atro- 
 cious massacre of New Orleans was shocking. The per- 
 version and mutilation of Sheridan's dispatches need no 
 characterization. I do not attribute this act to him. Yet 
 it was of such a criminal and disgraceful nature that not to 
 clear himself of it by the exposure and rebuke of the offend- 
 ing party amounted to collusion with crime after the fact. 
 What shall I say of the speeches made in the wide recent cir- 
 cuit of the Executive ? Are they the ways of reconciliation ? 
 
 Yet Mr. Johnson is to be our President for nearly three 
 years to come, clothed with a power that belongs to few 
 thrones. Besides the honor which a people owe to him 
 as the Chief Magistrate, we must, as Christian citizens, 
 credit him with his real excellencies — his original horror 
 of secession, his bold resistance to treachery, his persistent 
 and self-denying heroism in the long, dark days of Ten- 
 nessee. We must not forget that he has jealously resisted 
 a centralization of power in the Federal Government; that 
 he has sought to dignify and secure a true " State-rights; " 
 that he has maintained simplicity of manners and a true 
 sympathy with the common people. It is our duty, like- 
 wise, to forestall and prevent, as much as possible, by 
 kind but faithful criticism of his errors on the one hand, 
 and by sympathy and kindness on the other, those dan- 
 gers to which he is liable, under attacks which he is pecul- 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STATES. 745 
 
 iarly unable to bear with calmness, and those dangers of 
 evil counselors, which more and more gravitate toward 
 him. So long as it was possible, I have been silent upon 
 Mr. Johnson's faults, and now speak so plainly, only lest I 
 seem to approve or cloak them. 
 
 And now allow me to express some surprise at the turn 
 which the public mind has taken on my letter. If I had 
 never before spoken my sentiments, I can see how friends 
 might now misapprehend my position. But for a year 
 past I have been advocating the very principles of the 
 Cleveland letter in all the chief Eastern cities — in Boston, 
 Portland, Springfield, Albany, Utica, Rochester, Buffalo, 
 Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, and Brooklyn (at the 
 Academy of Music, last winter). These views were re- 
 ported, discussed, agreed to or differed from, praised and 
 blamed abundantly. But no one thought, or at least said, 
 that I remember, that I had forsaken the Republican party 
 or had turned my back upon the freedman. My recent 
 letter but condenses those views which for twelve months 
 I have been earnestly engaged in urging upon the atten- 
 tion of the community. I am not surprised that men dis- 
 sent. But this sudden consternation and this late dis- 
 covery of the nature of my opinions seem sufficiently 
 surprising. I could not ask a better service than the re- 
 printing of that sermon of last October, which first brought 
 upon me the criticisms of the Tribune and Independent^ 
 
 I foresaw that, in the probable condition of parties and 
 the country, we could not carry suffrage for the freedman 
 by immediate political action. When the ablest and most 
 radical Congress of our history came together, they refused 
 to give suffrage to negroes, even in the District of Colum- 
 bia; and only in an indirect way, not as a political right, 
 but as the hoped-for result of political selfishness, did they 
 provide for it by an amendment of the Constitution. What 
 was prophecy with me, Congress has made history. Re- 
 linquishing political instruments for gaining ^he full en- 
 franchisement of men, I instantly turned to moral means; 
 and enunciating the broadest doctrine of manhood suf- 
 
 *" Conditions of a Restored Union," page 713. 
 
746 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 frage, I gave the widest latitude to that, advocating the 
 rights of black and white, of men and women, to the vote. 
 If any man has labored more openly, on a broader princi- 
 ple, and with more assiduity, I do not know him. More 
 ability may have been shown, but not more directness of 
 purpose or undeviating consistency. 
 
 I attribute the recent misunderstanding, in part, to the 
 greater excitement which now exists, to the narrowing of 
 the issues, and to the extreme exacerbation which Mr. 
 Johnson's extraordinary and injudicious speeches have 
 produced. To this may be added my known indisposition 
 to join in criticism upon the President, and the fact that I 
 urged a modified form of that policy which he, unfortu- 
 nately for its success, holds. 
 
 Upon Mr. Johnson's accession I was supremely impressed 
 with the conviction that the whole problem of reconstruc- 
 tion would practically pivot on the harmony of Mr. John- 
 son and Congress. With that we could have secured 
 every guaranty and every amendment of the Constitution. 
 Had a united Government said to the South, promptly 
 backed up as it would have been by the united North, 
 " With slavery we must take out of the Constitution 
 whatever slavery put in, and put in whatever slavery for 
 its own support left out," there can scarcely be a doubt 
 that long before this the question would have been settled, 
 the basis of representation in the South conformed to that 
 in the North, and the principle, the most fundamental and 
 important of all, might have been established in the Consti- 
 tution, viz.: that manhood and full citizenship are identical. 
 
 Such great changes required two things, viz.: prompt- 
 ness, and unity of counsels. To secure these I bent my 
 whole strength. I urged the purgation of the Constitu- 
 tion. I reasoned against mutual distrust, and pleaded for 
 unity of governmental action. I did all that I knew how 
 to do to confirm the President in his war-begotten zeal 
 against slavery; to prevent such suspicions and crimina- 
 tions as would tend to revive in his mind old prejudices, 
 and bring on a relapse into his former hatred of Northern 
 fanatics. I thought I understood his nature, and the ex- 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STA TES. 747 
 
 treme dangers, at such a critical time, of irritating a proud, 
 sensitive, and pugnacious man of Soutiiern sympathies, 
 little in sympathy with Northern feelings or ideas, and 
 brought into the very leadership of those men and that 
 train of principles which he had all his life hated and de- 
 nounced. That he was sincere and tenacious would make 
 the case all the more difficult. I thought I foresaw that a 
 division between him and Congress would be the worst 
 disaster that could befall us; that the practical test of true 
 statesmanship just then was not to be found in theories and 
 philosophies, however sound, but in securing and confirm- 
 ing Mr. Johnson in his then disposition. 
 
 Upon the assembling of Congress I went to Washington. 
 I found Southern men lying prostrate before Mr. Johnson, 
 and appealing to his tender-heartedness, — for he is a man 
 of kind and tender heart, — disarming his war-rage by utter 
 submission. 
 
 I found Northern men already uttering suspicions of his 
 fidelity, and, conscious of power, threatening impeach- 
 ment. The men who seemed alive to this danger were, 
 unfortunately, not those who had the management of affairs. 
 Bad counsels prevailed. The North denounced and the 
 South sued; we see the consequences. 
 
 Long after I despaired of seeing the President and Con- 
 gress harmonious, I felt it to be the duty of all good men 
 to leave no influences untried to lessen the danger and to 
 diminish the evils which are sure to come should the Pres- 
 ident, rebounding from the Republicans, be caught by 
 those Northern men who were in sympathy and counsel 
 with the South throughout the war. I shall not attempt 
 to apportion blame where both sides erred. It is enough 
 to say that unity secured at the seat of Government would 
 have been a noble achievement of leadership. 
 
 Deeming the speedy admission of the Southern States 
 as necessary to their own health, as indirectly the best 
 policy for the freedmen, as peculiarly needful to the 
 safety of our Government, which, for the sake of accom- 
 plishing a good end, incautious men are in danger of 
 perverting, I favored, and do still favor, the election to 
 
748 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Congress of Republicans who will seek the early admis- 
 sion of the recusant States. Having urged it for a year 
 past, I was more than ready to urge it again upon the 
 Representatives to Congress this fall. 
 
 [In this spirit and for this end I drew up my Cleveland 
 letter. I deem its views sound; I am not sorry that I 
 wrote it. I regret the misapprehension which it has 
 caused, and yet more any sorrow which it may have need- 
 lessly imposed upon dear friends. As I look back upon 
 my course, I see no deviation from the straight line which 
 I have made, without wavering, for now thirty years in 
 public life, in favor of justice, liberty, and the elevation of 
 the poor and ignorant. 
 
 The attempt to class me with men whose course I have 
 opposed all my life long will utterly fail. I shall choose 
 my own place, and shall not be moved from it. I have 
 been from my youth a firm, unwavering, avowed, and act- 
 ive friend of all that were oppressed. I have done nothing 
 to forfeit that good name which I have earned. I am not 
 going weakly to turn away from my settled convictions of 
 the public weal for fear that bad men may praise me or 
 good men blame. There is a serious difference of judg- 
 ment between men as to the best policy. We must all re- 
 mit to the future the decision of the question. Facts will 
 soon judge us. 
 
 I feel most profoundly how imperfect my services have 
 been to my country, compared with its desert of noble 
 services. But I am conscious that I have given all that I had 
 to give, without fear or favor. Above all earthly things is 
 my country dear to me. The lips that taught me to say 
 "Our Father" taught me to say " Fatherland." I have 
 aimed to conceive of that land in the light of Christianity. 
 God is my witness, that with singleness of heart I have 
 given all my time, strength, and service to that which shall 
 make our whole nation truly prosperous and glorious. 
 Not by the luster of arms, even in a, just cause, would I 
 seek her glory, but by a civilization that should carry its 
 blessings down to the lowest classes, and nourish the very 
 roots of society by her moral power and purity, by her 
 
RECONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN STA TES. 749 
 
 public conscience, her political justice, and by her intelli- 
 gent homes, filling up a continent, and rearing a virtuous 
 and noble citizenship. 
 
 By night and by day this is the vision and dream of my 
 life, and inspires me as no personal ambition ever could. 
 I am not discouraged at the failure to do the good I meant, 
 at the misapprehension of my course by my church, nor 
 the severity of former friends. Just now those angry 
 voices come to me as rude winds roar through the 
 trees. The winds will die, the trees will live. As soon 
 as my health is again restored, I shall go right on in the 
 very course I have hitherto pursued. Who will follow or 
 accompany, it is for others to decide. I shall labor for the 
 education of the whole people; for the enfranchisement of 
 men without regard to class, caste, or color; for full de- 
 velopment among all nations of the liberty wherewith 
 Christ makes men free. In doing this I will cheerfully 
 work with others, with parties, — any and all men that seek 
 the same glorious ends. But I will not become a partisan. 
 I will reserve my right to differ and dissent, and respect 
 the same right in others. Seeking others' full manhood and 
 true personal liberty, I do not mean to forfeit my own. 
 
 Better days are coming. These throes of our day are 
 labor pains. God will bring forth ere long great blessings. 
 In some moments which it pleases God to give me, I think 
 I discern beyond the present troubles, and over the other 
 side of the abyss in which the nation wallows, that fair 
 form of Liberty, — God's dear child, — whose whole beauty 
 was never yet disclosed. I know her solemn face. That 
 she is divine, I know by her purity, by her scepter of jus- 
 tice, and by that atmosphere of Love that, issuing from 
 her, as light from a star, moves with her as a royal at- 
 mosphere. In this, too, I know her divinity, that she shall 
 bless both friends and enemies, and yield the fullest frui- 
 tion of liberty to those who would have slain her; as once 
 her Master gave his life for the salvation of those who 
 slew him.] 
 
 I am your true friend and pastor, 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 
 
 " And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the 
 outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the 
 four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and 
 the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, 
 and Judah shall not vex Ephraim." — Isaiah xi. 12, 13. 
 
 The feuds and separations of the tribes of Israel caused 
 their ultimate destruction. Ephraim, lying midway, and 
 covering the territory subsequently known as Samaria, and 
 Judah, lying on the southern part, two of the strongest 
 tribes, had rivalries of ambition; and each sought to in- 
 crease its own strength by dividing the strength of its 
 antagonist. In like manner Greece was internally weak- 
 ened by the strife of its little states. It was one of the signs 
 and promises of the latter-day glory, that a time should 
 come when contiguous tribes would vex and harass each 
 other no more, and would study union and not division. 
 
 The world and the race stand, to our modern thought, 
 as Israel stood to the thought of the devout Jew. This 
 passage has, therefore, a striking application to our land. 
 The gathering together here of the outcasts of nations will 
 not have escaped your attention. Neither will the dangers 
 of alienation and of quarrel; nor again, the promises of 
 unity. All of them have, or may be made to have, direct 
 application to our own nation, and to our own times. I 
 do not propose to consider in symmetrical fullness the 
 dangers of disintegration, nor to suggest all, nor even all 
 of the important, remedial influences. The shortness of 
 the time justifies me in sketching in a few studies rather 
 than in elaborating the whole picture. 
 
 * Preached in Plymouth Church, Nov. 18, 1869. 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 75 1 
 
 Let me begin by mentioning the disturbing influences 
 which are coming upon us through the great movement 
 hither of immigrants from all the world. 
 
 As the Nile, in its great annual rise, brings down some- 
 thing of the soil of every formation through a thousand 
 miles, and deposits it as slime for the sun to turn to soil 
 and fruitfulness; as the Mississippi, with its great tribu- 
 tary, the Missouri, carries to the fat regions around its 
 delta a tribute gathered from almost every point of lati- 
 tude and longitude on the continent, so upon these United 
 States, with annual deposit, come the immigrating freshets 
 of the world. It falls upon us like mud. It shall be our 
 richest soil. When it is aerated, and when intelligence and 
 religion and liberty shall have penetrated it, it will be 
 most precious. Its trouble is all now, and at the first. Its 
 bounty and reward shall go on with increasing abundance 
 to the very end. Can this nation survive, however, the 
 chill and fever of malarial influence engendered by this 
 new soil, until by culture the vast mass of new deposit 
 shall, by the sun, the air, and the plow, be sweetened, and 
 become as wholesome for men as it is fertile for grain ? 
 
 Men change their country, their national dress, their 
 laws and governments; but their personal habits, their re- 
 ligious beliefs, their domestic traits, their manners and 
 customs, their pleasures and amusements, they cannot 
 easily change. They bring hither with them their uncon- 
 scious conflicts. Things that at home are most innocent, 
 they find here to be pugnacious. Nor do they know 
 whence the conflict springs. 
 
 There is the everlasting conflict of religious ideas, and 
 the organizations to which they give rise. We import vast 
 material of spiritual welfare. The Catholic sect is a 
 valiant fighter; and it grows apace among us, as it has a 
 right to do. It has its own genius, which it must attempt 
 to spread abroad. It brings hither the ark of the Middle 
 Ages, and thunders at the world which will not walk back- 
 ward into it. Swarming about it are all forms of infidel- 
 ity — for infidels are the legitimate children of superstition: 
 and by "superstition" I mean simply all religious impulse 
 
752 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 from which the element of free individual reason is left 
 out. Besides these come the minor sects; all sects swarm 
 and multiply in the atmosphere and summer of liberty. 
 
 The mingling together of these strange materials will 
 give rise to quite enough of jarring and of activity; but 
 we perceive still another element of discord in the conflict 
 of social customs. Our Puritan fathers made channels, 
 and Europe is furnishing the water that flows in them. 
 We see that the landmarks are going. We see that under 
 foreign influences our channels are becoming too narrow, 
 and too straight. We perceive laws overwhelmed, sacred 
 ideas rudely overborne, and the venerable Lord's day 
 given up to festive songs, to dances and to bibulous hilar- 
 ity. Many are alarmed, and think that the end of the 
 world hath come. Nay, not by some space yet ! 
 
 We should reflect, in regard to this, how differently the 
 native-born citizen and the European immigrant have 
 been related to this question of amusements. In America, 
 so free have we been, so large an outlet has been given to 
 our religious liberty, so large has been the expression of 
 every political want, so free has industry been and so re- 
 munerative, that our people have not felt the need of 
 amusements. These have seemed like moths to our in- 
 dustry. We have found rest and exhilaration in other 
 things. And to-day we urge amusements upon our peo- 
 ple chiefly on moral and esthetic and not at all upon po- 
 litical grounds. 
 
 But in Europe political liberty is mostly unknown, and 
 religious liberty is a pinched dwarf. A crowded popula- 
 tion have but slender hopes of wealth from industry. 
 Human nature would explode if there were not some vent 
 given to it. Not free on the side of religion, not free on 
 the side of politics, and not free on the side of industry, 
 somewhere the window must be opened to let the air in. 
 This, alike, the hierarch and the monarch saw. Govern- 
 ments therefore fostered popular amusements. In these, 
 almost only, the common people of Europe found them- 
 selves at liberty to do what they pleased. Amusements 
 are the safety-valves of Europe. 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 753 
 
 Now, a people who have had the chief happiness of their 
 lives clustering about amusements, come to a land where 
 exceeding freedom has left almost no place for such things. 
 We have liberty in association with politics, with religion, 
 and with business; they with amusements only. With the 
 German on the one side, and with the Yankee on the other, 
 is the same instrument of liberty, and for the most part it 
 plays the same tunes; but that instrument in the hand of 
 the Yankee is set four notes higher than it is in Europe. 
 It plays business and commerce, and government and re- 
 ligion, here. There it plays amusements. And liberty 
 discords with liberty, because the instruments are not set 
 to the same key. And when immigration brings all the 
 pipers together, it is not surprising that the music clashes. 
 It is next in mellifluous strains to the bagpipe; and that 
 is the instrument that was made to express what was left 
 of sound after other instruments had used up all smooth- 
 ness and harmony ! 
 
 For the rest, immigration brings strength. On the 
 whole, it is intelligent — not exactly in our way, but never- 
 theless, intelligent. The Dane, the Swede, the German 
 certainly, add to the cerebral power of the nation. The 
 Irish add to its activity. They bring large actual wealth. 
 They bring indomitable industry, which is the father of 
 wealth. This is true of the mass. But to the educated 
 men and women who come we owe a greater debt. They 
 bring to us a culture, a means of culture, in art, in science, 
 in classic instruction, which lays us under solid obligations 
 to them. 
 
 There are, however, other dangers of disintegration upon 
 this great nation, besides those which come from the con- 
 flict of old peoples moving among new ones. It is the 
 general tendency of human nature to degenerate in the 
 midst of great and long continued physical prosperity. 
 Our institutions are the best if they are the best served; 
 but the poorest if poorly served. Republican institutions 
 demand energetic and virtuous citizens. Compared with 
 oars, what great advantage has the steam engine ! But 
 
 if for want of steam you attempt to work the engine by 
 48 
 
754 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 men's hands, it becomes far inferior to oars. Steam-engines 
 require steam. Superior institutions require superior mo- 
 tive power, or they are worse than the governments of 
 primitive force. And nowhere else is government subject 
 to so much attrition, and so easily made feeble, as where 
 it is republican. 
 
 The immense extent of our country, too, gives bold op- 
 portunity to the development, in its remote sections, of 
 antagonisms which might in times of heat and violence 
 break up the nation into combative fragments. The re- 
 cent failure of such an attempt ought not to breed undue 
 security. Few know how near it came to success. It 
 was an attempt, however, founded upon bad grounds, 
 odious to the moral sense of the world. It had bad coun- 
 selors, and it followed a course of events which tended to 
 arouse and unite the nation in behalf of union to a greater 
 extent than before seemed possible. 
 
 But should the Pacific States, in another generation, for 
 strong commercial reasons, developed without slavery as 
 an underlying cause, undertake a separation, the issue would 
 probably be very different. Our late success, then, must 
 not argue its like on every subsequent occasion; and the 
 failure of the late attempt must not lead us to suppose 
 that no more attempts will be made. If now, with slavery 
 gone, these very Southern States that lie exhausted tem- 
 porarily, waiting a few generations, should on the ground 
 of mere political economy and of good government again 
 demand separation, the issue is not to be prophesied from 
 the experience of the recent struggle. It is not wise, it is 
 presumptuous to rest down in the belief that the question 
 of union is settled forever. For, in the growths of the 
 future, great regions of this nation will be so large and so 
 vastly populous, that while they may be prevented from 
 rupture by reason of transient passion or sudden anger, 
 they can never be prevented from separation if their real 
 interest lies in separation. 
 
 We cannot too deeply ponder this truth, that national 
 unity cannot be secured except by making it the interest 
 of each section to remain in unity. For, so vast are the 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 755 
 
 outlying members of this nation, that there is no power, 
 even in all that remains, to hinder any one of them by and 
 by if it clearly sees its interest in leaving the national or- 
 ganization. 
 
 Rhode Island may not be able to withdraw alone, nor 
 New Jersey, nor Connecticut, nor South Carolina even, 
 nor any single State; but the whole South, the whole 
 Southwest, or the vast Pacific slope, move on different planes 
 from single States. And that which might be prevented 
 in a nook or corner, cannot be prevented on a quarter of a 
 continent. 
 
 It was from peculiar reasons not likely to occur again, that 
 military power was successful lately. Hereafter only moral 
 power remains to us. That, or nothing ! For myself, 
 while I long with intense patriotism for the continued 
 unity of this nation, I by no means regard the future 
 friendly separation of its parts with such repugnance and 
 detestation as I did the late attempt. If four great repub- 
 lics, homogeneous, civilized, and not in antagonism, but 
 friendly, should be created out of the one, I should fear 
 no such evils as if vast fragments were to break off and 
 organize governments of reaction, rear up a monarchy — 
 or a servile aristocracy — and infix principles of mutual an- 
 tagonism into the organic structures of the separated 
 parts. Yet, absolute political union of the whole conti- 
 nent is better, so far as we now can see. Separation will 
 not be fatal. At the same time, unity is so much better 
 that it is the duty of every Christian patriot to lay wise 
 plans, long forecasting, to maintain the present happy 
 union, and to maintain it remembering that there is no 
 band or strap of iron strong enough, that there is no polit- 
 ical force so great, no sword so sharp, and no artillery so 
 multitudinous, as to have power to hold together long the 
 unwilling parts of so vast a republic as this; that if we 
 are to maintain national unity, it is to be by common con- 
 sent founded upon common interest. The arrogance of 
 any part, whether it be the arrogance of intellect, or the 
 arrogance of wealtfi, or the arrogance of skill, or the arro- 
 gance of political power, would tend to disaffect and drive 
 
75^ PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 off other parts of this great nation. There must be not 
 simply conciliation, but organic working toward common 
 moral, intellectual, physical, and political interests. In 
 that, and in that alone, we shall have stability in unity. 
 
 When it is once understood that our only hope of con- 
 tinued unity is to be found in the exertion of influence 
 rather than of force, it will give a new impetus, it is to be 
 hoped, to all the moral energies of Christian men. 
 
 Let us look at some few of the hopeful and potential 
 elements by which we may prevent attrition, disintegra- 
 tion, and final separation. 
 
 First, we will consider the spread of intelligence. 
 Knowledge is that which a man knows. Intelligence is 
 that which knows it. Knowledge bears the same relation 
 to intelligence which invested wealth does to that spirit of 
 enterprise which creates wealth. One is the active cause; 
 the other is the product or effect of that cause. Mere 
 knowledge will not save men. Intelligence is a preserva- 
 tive force. 
 
 American institutions have been criticised as not pro- 
 ducing knowledge of the highest kind, nor full symmetric 
 culture; but all things in their order! The problems of an 
 old society and of a new one are not the same. Intelli- 
 gence is of more value to us than high culture, though 
 high culture may be more valuable to an old monarchy 
 than general intelligence; and of more value to us, by and 
 by, than just now. It is giving eyes to the whole people 
 to give them intelligence. It gives them training enough, 
 at any rate, to guide them safely in their paths. It gives 
 them a certain instrument by which to resist the outburst 
 of passion, and the warpings and bias of undue selfishness 
 and interest. The eye of the engineer, the eye of the 
 trained scientist, may be better than the eye of mere intel- 
 ligence; but for the whole people, till such time comes in 
 the millennial day, that all may be engineers in eye and 
 scientists in eye, general intelligence in all is better than 
 high training and fine culture in a few. , 
 
 This intelligence is to be produced* largely by the free- 
 dom of religious discussion in the land. For, of all things 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 757 
 
 that are dangerous, nothing is more so than that unity 
 which means stupidity — the mere not resisting or not dis- 
 cussing — the condition of inactivity, or torpid swallowing 
 and deglutition. That which men most feel in religious 
 discussion is that which is vital to it, and that which makes 
 it an element of salvation. It is that it is fire, and men can- 
 not have fire put on them and sit still. It is that it comes 
 from life in earnest, and wakes life in- earnest again. And 
 life is the one great necessary quality in national existence. 
 
 It is right here that patriotism and Romanism are rad- 
 ically and irreconcilably in antagonism. There might be 
 some agreement in respect to symbols and worship — 
 though we cannot hope for much approximation. There 
 might be some coming together on doctrines; but there 
 can be no such thing as agreement on the question of the 
 submission of men's religious understanding to an order of 
 men appointed to think for them. Our people will never 
 think by proxy — and that is the vital point of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. "Authority" it is called; but authority 
 on the one side is non-independence on the other. 
 
 If Pere Hyacinthe had denied transubstantiation, a way 
 of forgiveness might have been found. If he had denied 
 the infallibility of the Pope, he might still have been par- 
 doned. If he had even denied orders in the priesthood, 
 there might have been some escape. But for him to deny 
 that superiors had a right to think for their inferiors; for 
 him to stand in front of Europe, and dare to say, " I think 
 my own thoughts, though my own order and my superior 
 think another way " — that is a treason that never can be 
 cleansed, either by baptism or by blood. 
 
 The highly organized animals — the birds and beasts of 
 the upper rank — select their own food, and reject what 
 they dislike. They range the air or the earth, find, take, 
 or leave, as it pleases their tongue. It is the round clam 
 that lies still, and lets the water bring him what it will. It 
 is the round clam — that pattern of devotion! which opens, 
 eats, shuts, and is a clam still. And the clam ranks not a 
 degree higher on the scale because the whole ocean is so 
 big, that brings in his food to him. He is but a clam. 
 
758 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 So, though the church of two thousand years may roll 
 in its waves upon the individual, if the individual only 
 •opens, takes, shuts, eats, digests, and opens, takes, shuts, 
 eats, digests, it is but a clam spiritual. And Protestants 
 are not clams. They are winged and legged. They wan- 
 der wide, and fly far, and select diversely. 
 
 Many men may be fascinated by the poetry in the hier- 
 archy; many may be juggled by its casuistry; many may 
 be philosophically scared by its doctrine; but when it 
 comes to that which is the spinal marrow of the question 
 — the submission of individual liberty of thought to the 
 authority of an organized class of thinkers — that will 
 never " go down " in America — or rather it will go down ! 
 
 But the conflicts which go on between sect and sect — 
 between the greatest of all sects and the numerous minor 
 sects — whatever they may have of mischief in their bitter- 
 ness, have also much of education. And it is far better 
 that religion, with all the mischiefs of division, be subdi- 
 vided thus, if it keeps men alive and awake and at work, 
 than that there should be one supreme unity without 
 vitality. 
 
 I might mention, also, the distribution of intelligence, 
 the progression of thought through books and news- 
 papers; but time will not permit me to dwell upon that 
 head, as I have other things in store. 
 
 I mention next, the ministration of the free common- 
 school, as vital to the hope of a great united republic cov- 
 ering a whole continent. The free common-school gives 
 to every child the one indispensable element, intelligence. 
 Not only does it teach him by the master, but the scholars 
 are all masters to each other. There is an atmosphere of 
 intelligence in the school, and a public sentiment of intelli- 
 gence among the young and rising generation around the 
 school house. Intelligence becomes, where common-schools 
 abound, one of the signs and tests of manhood. The ques- 
 tion is no longer, " Who can throw the heaviest weight 
 furthest ? " or " Who can run and leap the most like a deer, 
 or hug most like a bear ? " Another test of manhood is 
 introduced; and it is no longer mere muscle thatf makes the 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 759 
 
 man, but nerve, and brain — the father of nerve. Intelligence 
 becomes popular in the district and in the village, and 
 manliness goes up a grade, where common-schools abound. 
 
 Thus it equalizes, too. For human life is incessantly 
 creating diversity. And if such diversity were to be car- 
 ried on, some men, or classes of men, would grow mount- 
 ain-high, and the less favored would lie valley-low. And 
 so, a kind of aristocracy would follow classification. Classi- 
 fication inheres in nature, but it ought not to reign except 
 throughout the generation where it asserts itself. Aris- 
 tocracy is individual. It does not belong to classes in 
 perpetuity. As an attribute of individual excellence and 
 power, it is divine, and carries with it aspiration, and am- 
 bition, and lordly success. But if human life permits 
 itself, by institutions, to hold these elevations for the pros- 
 perity of other individuals than those that have earned 
 them, you have instantly classified human society into an 
 artificial aristocracy and a low-lying common-people. 
 
 Now, Brain is master and owner in this world. Men 
 may make resolutions, and form combinations, and devise 
 plans; but as long as God keeps his original decrees un- 
 changed, so long brain will be found to own and to govern. 
 And they that have it will be masters. They that have it 
 not will be servants — with protest and rebellion, but under 
 the decree of God. And the true equity which comes 
 with an ideal democracy, must be that equity which gives 
 to every man an equal share of brain culture. He that 
 has it not is made, by that very deprivation, lower than 
 his fellow who has it. Democracy does not mean a uni- 
 versal level. It does not mean compulsory equality. It 
 means equitable opportunity. No government has a right 
 to thrust a strong man down to the level of weakness. No 
 institution has a right to force a weak man up to the level 
 of the strong. Organized society will always be graded. 
 True equity classifies men into superior and inferior. All 
 that can be rightfully demanded is, that all men shall have 
 education, for their full development; opportunity, for the 
 use of their powers; protection, from the grasp and greed 
 of unjust passions in their fellow men. After that, men 
 
760 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 must find their own level. The liberty of becoming all 
 that God gave to a man the power of being, is all a true 
 philosophy can derpand. 
 
 The common-school, by beginning early in the child's 
 life, by giving a new ideal of life, by affording the primal 
 stimulus, not only, but by opening the eyes so that a man 
 can avail himself of all the other stimuli which by and by 
 he will meet, is keeping up a true democratic equality, by 
 giving all men their own proper chance of brain power. 
 
 It is democratic in another sense, because it is bringing 
 back to a common level again the irregularities produced 
 by active life. Knowledge, riches, skill, I have said, create 
 classes, and so inequalities. If, in the spring, you should 
 look along a level cultivated field where corn grew the 
 previous year, you would see ridges that remain. Now 
 comes the plow to turn over the soil, and all the old hill- 
 ocks go down, and lie level again for the next crop. The 
 common-school is the plow that levels each generation of 
 human life. All the children, without regard to superi- 
 orities or excellencies of parentage, have to come together 
 and stand on a common dead-level in the school-house. 
 The schoolmaster does not call the roll of the boys by 
 their parents' altitudes, but by the alphabet; and if A is a 
 poor man's son, and B is a rich man's son, B comes after 
 A, notwithstanding. And the rich man's dunce stands be- 
 low the poor man's smart boy — and must. In this little 
 germinant republic of the common-school, the boys whose 
 parents live in vastly different mansions, and with vastly 
 different customs, are brought down to the fellowship and 
 brotherhood and communion of a common humanity; 
 they are obliged to mix together, and they frame laws 
 with each other. There is a public sentiment of the school 
 which is just as real, and as vital, and as despotic even, as 
 the public sentiment of the great community; and it is 
 a good thing to bring down to the original starting point 
 all the elevations and inequalities which the various forces 
 of active life produce, and to say to all the boys, '' Your 
 feet must stand on one level: now shoot your heads as 
 high as you please ! " Liberty of growth and equality at 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. jSl 
 
 the start, is the law of true democratic life; and this is 
 what the common-school gives. 
 
 Under no excuse, then, let it be suffered to go to waste. 
 It is not simply the knowledge that it gives, but the capac- 
 ity to get knowledge which it breeds; it is not merely the 
 intelligence which it puts in the way of the youth, but the 
 fellowship and the common feeling which grows up among 
 the boys of different families, that makes the common- 
 school valuable. And it is to the last degree desirable, not 
 only that it should be common, but that it should be 
 free; and not only that it should be free, but that it should 
 be superior. No community can afford to let a primary 
 private school be better than their free common-school. 
 No academy should be permitted to be better than the 
 district common-schools. You cannot anywhere else so 
 ill afford to be parsimonious, and call it economy, as in 
 the administration of your common-schools. Secure more 
 buildings, larger buildings, better furniture, more teachers, 
 with ampler support (for the support of common-school 
 teachers, especially of women teachers, is a shame and dis- 
 grace to our civilization), with more capacity, bringing 
 hither the noblest men and the noblest women. This is 
 political wisdom. And nowhere is wisdom so squandered, 
 and folly so regnant, as where men are unwilling to be 
 taxed, and are parsimonious in those revenues which go 
 to maintain free common-schools for all the children of 
 the whole community. The rich and the proud, the aris- 
 tocratic and the arrogant, may be unwilling to send 
 their children with the "common herd;" but their chil- 
 dren need it. It is one of the best things of their whole 
 education; and they should be compelled to do it, — not by 
 law, but by the fact that they cannot find a private school 
 that is as good as the public school. 
 
 These schools should not only be free and common, but 
 they should be unsectarian. If it be needful that the teach- 
 ing of technical religion should be excluded from our 
 common-schools for the sake of maintaining their univer- 
 sality, I vote to exclude it. If it be needful that the Bible 
 should not be read in the common-schools in order to main- 
 
762 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 tain their universality, their freedom and their common- 
 ness, I should vote not to read it. 
 
 Because I disesteem it? I, the son of a Puritan, and a 
 Puritan myself; I, that would have burned at Oxford, and 
 fought with Cromwell — I disesteem the Bible ? Most ven- 
 erable is it of all the memorials that have come down 
 through all time to our day. More joy is in it for the 
 common people, more comfort has it for the afflicted, than 
 any other book. It is the very home of a true democ- 
 racy. It is the very temple of liberty in this world. I re- 
 gard the Bible as being that which stands between aggres- 
 sive power and organized selfishness, and the welfare of 
 the great mass of the common people. It is the common 
 people's book; and there is no class of people that need 
 to read it so much as the children of the poor and the 
 needy. Therefore I would be glad if every immigrant's 
 child, and every home-born child, of every faith, not only 
 had the Bible, but had the opportunity to read it every 
 single day. And yet, I would not force it upon any. And 
 if the reading of the Bible obliges us to forego our prin- 
 ciples of toleration, I shall maintain our principles of tol- 
 eration. It was because they would not suffer others to 
 impose their faith upon them, that our fathers came 
 hither; and shall we, now that the power is with us, take 
 the ground that we may impose our faith upon those who 
 do not believe as we do, because they are in the minority? 
 Shall we, after a hundred years, with all the glowing light 
 and knowledge which has come down to us on this sub- 
 ject, commit the fatal blunder that sent the Pilgrims across 
 the sea in winter, to lay the foundations of this noble re- 
 public? We believe in the freedom of religion, and do 
 not believe in forcing one man's faith upon another man. 
 And this being so, how can you organize the common- 
 school, which is supported by the public funds, in such a 
 way as to force the Bible on the Jews, who do not believe 
 in the New Testament, or upon skeptical men who do not 
 believe in either the Old Testament or the New? This is 
 manifestly inconsistent with the great principles of Chris- 
 tian toleration in which we 'believe, and which we love. 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 763 
 
 To say that a Christian nation has a right to have Chris- 
 tianity taught in its schools, even if it be distasteful to 
 the minority, is to put forth a formula for any religious 
 sect as soon as it is in the majority. Put the term " Cath- 
 olic " in the place of the word "Christian" in the forego- 
 ing sentence, and how would the logic suit a Protestant ? 
 
 "What ! " says the Catholic, with real fear and conscien- 
 tious earnestness, "Do you propose to bring up the 
 children of the community a nest of infidels?" No, I pro- 
 pose no such thing. You might as well say, "Do you pro- 
 pose to bring up these boys in school a lazy set?" because 
 husbandry is not taught in the common-schools. We do 
 not teach the mechanic arts in the common-school. There 
 are a hundred things that society needs which are not 
 taught there. 
 
 In proportion to civilization, work is divided and sub- 
 divided. There is one kind of instrument for one func- 
 tion, and another kind of instrument for another function. 
 Early in the primitive times, when a dozen functions clus- 
 tered around one instrument, the teacher used to teach 
 religion, the Bible and the catechism, as well as the spell- 
 ing-book and the arithmetic; but in our day of general 
 intelligence we divide the functions of society, letting the 
 church teach dogma and social religion, letting the family 
 teach personal religion, and letting the common-school 
 perform the task of teaching intelligence. And because 
 we take out of the common-school the special function 
 of teaching religious dogma and religious history, do we 
 therefore take away religion from education ? Is there no 
 other religion but that? We teach the child to read; we 
 teach him to seek knowledge as a means of manhood; we 
 give him the impulse to learn; and we say, "If we may 
 not give religious instruction in the school, there is all the 
 more reason why we should bring upon the Christian 
 household the responsibility of greater fidelity." Build 
 up Sunday-schools in greater numbers. See to it that the 
 church becomes a true teacher of the whole community. 
 Let religion be taught, without which a man is not a man 
 in his whole nature, and is not fully equipped for this life 
 
764 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 or the life which is to come; but let us not forswear our 
 own principles of toleration and oppress the conscience of 
 the Jew, the skeptical minded man, the Chinaman, the 
 Buddhist, or any person of any belief, or nation, or class. 
 Let us not impose our religious books as a yoke upon 
 others because we happen to have the majority and the 
 power. That would be giving to power the charter of 
 universal tyranny. 
 
 But are there no other ways of giving religious instruc- 
 tion ? Do you suppose religion is all given to men when 
 you have read the Bible to them, or taught them the cate- 
 chism ? If a man can say the catechism — the Lesser 
 catechism, or the Greater catechism, the Westminster cate- 
 chism, the Episcopal catechism, or the Lutheran catechism 
 — without stumbling, from beginning to end, he is a saint? 
 Is religion all taught through such instrumentalities ? By 
 no means. If the teacher that stands in the school is 
 an example of justice; if justice as represented by the 
 teacher is sweetened by lenity; if the teacher is full of 
 sympathy, and goes down to the dull and stupid, and 
 with infinite tenderness lifts them up, and supplies their 
 want, is not that teacher better than any catechetical in- 
 struction ? You cannot help having religion taught in 
 the school if you have a 7nan or a tvoman there. But it 
 need not be dogma. It need not be instruction in the 
 philosophy of religion. It is not theological doctrine alone 
 which will teach religion. It is not anything that belongs 
 to the sects, as sects. It is that which is given to all. For 
 I say that " whatsoever things are true," and " honest," 
 and "just," and "pure," and "lovely," and "of good re- 
 port," are esteemed by men outside of the sects as really 
 as by men inside of them. The things which you and I 
 believe to be essential elements of religion — the all-inspir- 
 ing love-power, with its train of justice, and purity, and 
 true sympathy — with those graces which it creates in the 
 individual, those virtues of universal good report which 
 dwell in every Christian bosom — these things all men be- 
 lieve in. Men believe in practical religion, though they 
 may not believe in religious doctrines or institutions. 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 765 
 
 I therefore say, let your common-schools take care of 
 that for which they were instituted — namely, universal in- 
 struction for the children of the community in the first 
 elements of intelligence. Make the children readers. Give 
 them such knowledge and training that they may become 
 thereafter their own instructors. This is the function of 
 the common-school. And you cannot tax too heavily nor 
 too often to secure the fulfillment of that function. The 
 wisest expenditure a State can make is for the support of 
 common -schools. For, every time you educate a child, 
 you stop up a hole at the bottom of the ship of the Com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 You will of course expect me to speak not only of in- 
 telligence, but also of religion, as one of the indispensa- 
 ble elements in producing unity and in maintaining the 
 integrity of our national life. 
 
 The spirit of religion is reconciling and peace-bearing; 
 but religion developed into a philosophy, or religion in the 
 form, of an institution, is pugnacious, and divisory; and 
 always has been. The spirit of dogma is not useless: 
 nevertheless, it is combative and divisive. The propaga- 
 tion of the Church has always been a conflict. This is 
 not to be reckoned a fault; but it shows that religion in 
 this world passes through stages of development depend- 
 ent upon the condition of the hearts upon which it is 
 acting. While it works upon the lower portions of the dis- 
 position in the individual, and yet more strikingly in com- 
 munities, we find it to be a disturbing force. But when 
 by disturbance and strife, when by fermentation, human 
 nature is at last brought to a higher condition, and com- 
 munities are brought under the constant control of the 
 higher reason, and of the moral feeling, then there is a 
 true ripening and sweetening influence in religion. In 
 other words, that which religion does at first, divides and 
 shatters; but after a time, when, going through the neces- 
 sary developments, religion comes to its last work, that 
 will be " peace on earth, and good will to men." 
 
 It is true that the religion of to-day is doing an incal- 
 culable work of softening, smoothing, and reconciling; 
 
766 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 but it is in the smaller organizations of society, and not 
 in governments and in whole communities, that its chief 
 work is doing. Religion is enriching the household. It 
 is making the relationships of the family far more pure 
 and far nobler than ever they were before upon so broad 
 a surface of population. It is refining social life, not 
 simply by the progress of elegance, but by a larger good 
 will and a truer fellowship than ever before existed. It is 
 developing in individuals purity, self-denial, benevolence, 
 and true moral heroism. It is at work in society, restrain- 
 ing the outrage of passions, inspiring indolence with ac- 
 tivity and enterprise, building up schools, cleansing the 
 ways of business, and producing an intelligent morality. 
 
 This work is constantly going on. It is engaged still in 
 its primary tasks. It is a fire, a sword, a war-trumpet. 
 The music belongs to the future. As apples grow in their 
 sourness, all summer long, and find their sweetness as 
 they ripen in autumn, so the fruit of religion in its insti- 
 tuted life yet puckers the mouth with its acrid bitterness 
 of immaturity. By and by it will ripen to sweetness. In- 
 stead of unity, it now creates division. A hundred sects 
 there are, and each one thinks itself to be the spiritual 
 navel of the universe. All of them alike cry, " Come to 
 me ! " Every sect in Christendom, from the oldest — the 
 Greek and the Roman — down to the last and latest, which 
 is proudly Christian on the ground of disowning Christ, 
 is in its organic spirit selfish and intolerant. The spirit of 
 the sects, whether in the Catholic, the Greek, or the Prot- 
 estant Churches, is exclusive, dictatorial, divisive. The 
 membership is often far more Christian than the organiza- 
 tion to which it belongs. At present, and especially in the 
 relations of the sects to each other, it may be said that 
 the combative conscience is the nerve of the church. In- 
 stitutional religion has bred divisions, and it is its nature 
 to do so. Sects are but the splinters and fragments 
 which fly off by explosive violence of the moral sense of 
 warrior Christians. 
 
 This is just as true of the Roman Church as of the 
 Protestant, though the boastful and arrogant affirmation 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 767 
 
 is widely prevalent to the contrary. The boasted unity of 
 the Catholic Church is only the unity of a tenement house 
 filled with quarreling families. The Protestant sects quar- 
 rel out of doors. The Catholic sects quarrel inside of the 
 house. Twenty families pecking at each other in a tene- 
 ment house — that is the Roman Church. Twenty families 
 pecking at each other in separate houses of their own — 
 that is the Protestant Church. There is no difference be- 
 tween them so far as division is concerned. Protestants 
 bring forth sects and carry their young with them exter- 
 nally. The Catholic Church is marsupial. Like the opos- 
 sum and the kangaroo, it brings forth its young; but it 
 has a pouch into which they run, and where they nestle 
 and quarrel. There is as much quarreling in the pouch 
 as there is outside on the back. 
 
 I do not speak this to the prejudice of the Catholic 
 Church. Though it will not be owned by them, I speak 
 it to their credit. It is an honorable sign; because it is a 
 sign of vitality. The age of unity has not come. We are 
 living in the age of attrition, of division, of vitality by 
 excitement. Many generations beyond us there will be a 
 better time; but to-day vitality comes with agitation and 
 division. So vastly predominant yet, in the individual 
 and in the community, is the coarse and belluine element, 
 that for a long time religion must be in conflict. A re- 
 ligion without conflict is dead. 
 
 Our past history is an illustration of the fact that relig- 
 ious institutions do not tend to national unity, or to any 
 considerable power. The civil war was not checked by 
 the spirit of the churches. The Presbyterian Church di- 
 vided into the North and the South; the Methodist Church 
 divided into the North and the South; and then the Epis- 
 copal Church divided into the North and the South. In- 
 deed all national churches were split, and the halves stood 
 in mutual oppugnation. The Baptist and Congregational 
 Churches having no national form, by their very nature 
 could not divide ecclesiastically; but the churches of the 
 North and those of the South were morally separated as 
 much as were the two halves of the national churches. 
 
768 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Neither do we perceive that the work of cohesion, unity 
 and homogeneity, as it was not favored by religion in its 
 sectarian forms, will be much helped by religious bodies, 
 now that they are reunited; for as hitherto, in this dis- 
 tressed world, it will so require men's religion to maintain 
 the organic life and separateness of each sect, that they 
 will have little to spend beyond that. The Catholic sect 
 is busy with converting Protestants, and Protestants are 
 busy with protesting against being converted. Calvin 
 pursues Arminius, and Arminius pursues Calvin. John 
 the Baptist is still at the Jordan immersing. The enginery 
 of a hundred sects is brilliant, and all proclaim the lapse 
 of others, and their own divinity. Meantime, Religion, 
 descending as a dove, rests silently upon a myriad souls, 
 comforts sorrows, purifies love, overcomes fear, and visits 
 men in prisons, at sick beds, in houses of poverty, amid 
 trials and sufferings, saying, " Peace, my peace, I give 
 unto you." 
 
 In the unity of the nation, and in the reduction of its 
 materials, we hope much from religion; very little from 
 sectarian churches; much from the Spirit of God blessing 
 the truth of his Word to the hearts of individual men; 
 much from individual men that are nobler than their sect; 
 much from free men whose adhesion to forms and cere- 
 monies is the least part of their existence; much from re- 
 ligion as it exists in its higher forms in individual natures 
 and in public sentiment; very little from dogmas; very 
 little from theology, as such. 
 
 And yet, if it could be understood by them, here is a 
 new call to the sects, not to disband, but to hold each 
 other in true fellowship; to act in harmony, if not in 
 unison. The prevalence of gross immorality; the conti- 
 nental proportions of infidelity; the waste of the stock 
 notions in religion that is going on through tendencies 
 generated by material science; the vast work of civilization 
 and Christianization which opens, impossible to quarrel- 
 ing sects, but not difificult to harmonious and co-ordinated 
 denominations, each working and suffered to work in its 
 own way, and suffering all others to work — these are prov- 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 769 
 
 idential calls to the great body of Christian men and 
 women to truce; to new leagues of amity; to co-operation 
 and to harmony. 
 
 We ask not that any should cast down their altar, but 
 that they should permit us, on the other hand, to worship 
 unharmed at ours. We ask not that any shall revamp 
 their creed, but that it may not be considered a crime for 
 us to maintain ours. We ask none to let the full sunlight 
 pour through their windows, instead of shutting it out by 
 colored and grotesque panes. If they prefer their win- 
 dows let them have them; and let them permit us to have 
 ours. Let us look for a true humanity, let us look for the 
 true fruit of religion, not in the associated body of tliis or 
 that denomination, but in the majesty and power of love 
 in the individual hearts of those who are gathered into 
 sects. Let us look no more into books, merely. Let men 
 be the living epistles in which we shall read what the Spirit 
 of the Lord hath to teach in any sect. Here, in the out- 
 pouring life, where religion means vital power, power of 
 conscience, power of love, power of faith, power of benefi- 
 cence, power of sympathy — here let there be co-operative 
 harmony and true union. And, if it please God, with a 
 civilization which comes from commerce, which comes by 
 intelligence, which comes by schools, which comes by the 
 peculiar position of all parts of this land — if it please God, 
 with this, at length to give us a religion that will teach 
 men to love one another, then we shall be saved; our na- 
 tion will be maintained by bonds made and riveted in 
 heaven, which no instrument yet formed can cut or sun- 
 der. 
 
 Until men's reciprocal interests upon the higher plane 
 of moral ideas shall be better understood, until religion 
 shall be a uniting and not a divisive element, we must with 
 more eagerness than ever look to the harmonizing influ- 
 ence of men's reciprocal interests upon the lower plane of 
 commercial and industrial life. So wide-spread is this na- 
 tion, that it has within itself almost all the elements of 
 prosperity which other nations seek beyond their own bor- 
 ders. The far North and the extreme South work for 
 
 49 . 
 
770 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 different products, but in difference they find reciprocal 
 advantage. If legislation be hindered from making im- 
 pertinent interference and restriction of our home and 
 foreign commerce, if industry be left free to find its own 
 laws and channels, we shall have in commerce a force 
 drawing together into undisseverable unity the vast dis- 
 tricts of this continent, and binding them, we are ashamed 
 to say, with a force which cannot yet be found in moral or 
 social influences. For human nature is as yet riper and 
 wiser at the bottom than at the top. Self-interest has 
 more power in promoting peace and unity, than justice, 
 humanity, and religion. 
 
 I shall advert to but a single political agency in the 
 maintenance of National Unity, and that is the sacred and 
 jealous maintenance of the rights of the States, and the 
 vital local governments of States, as distinguished from the 
 Federal National Government. New England, from her 
 earliest colonial days, with a fervor and intensity that have 
 never been surpassed, preserved inviolate the one political 
 doctrine which will enable this vast nation, if anything will 
 enable it, to maintain Federal Unity; and that doctrine is, 
 the rights of the States. When the wholesome doctrine of 
 States Rights reappeared in the South, it had in those 
 warm latitudes undergone fermentation, and had passed 
 into a new thing, viz.: States Sovereignty. There can 
 never be more than one sovereignty in a political body. 
 The Nation alone is Sovereign. It is, to be sure, a limited 
 sovereignty. The metes and bounds have been fixed. 
 All within them is Federal, all without belongs to the in- 
 dividual States. Within their own spheres, however, the 
 self-jurisdiction of the States is absolute. It cannot be 
 meddled with or usurped by the general government. 
 Things belonging to any single State alone, and not to all 
 the States in common, must be under the supreme disposal 
 of that State. This simple doctrine of State Rights — not 
 State Sovereignty — will carry good government with it 
 through all the continent. No central government could 
 have sympathy and wise administrative adaptation to the 
 local peculiarities of this huge nation, couched down be- 
 
NATIONAL UNITY. 771 
 
 tween two oceans, whose Southern line never freezes, and 
 whose Northern border never melts. 
 
 The States are so many points of vitality. The nation, 
 like a banyan tree, lets down a new root where each new 
 State is established, and when centuries have spread this 
 gigantic commercial tree over a vast space, it will be found 
 that the branches most remote from the center do not 
 draw their vitality through the long intricate passages 
 from the parent trunk, but each outlying growth has roots 
 of its own, and draws straight from the ground by organ- 
 isms of its own, all the food it wants, without dissociating 
 its top from the parent branches ! 
 
 The dignity and power of National Sovereignty will be 
 secured by maintaining unimpaired the local Rights of the 
 States. 
 
 Let us then all labor for the unity of the nation by 
 working for the education of its citizens, for the spread of 
 virtue and true morality, for the promotion of an industry 
 which shall redeem the poor from servile and sordid 
 drudgery, for the freedom of its commerce, for a more 
 just and generous sympathy between all its races and 
 classes, for a more benignant spirit to its religion; and 
 finally, let us implore the God of our fathers, by his own 
 wise providence, to save us from our wanton passions, 
 from impertinent egotism, from pride, arrogance, cruelty, 
 and sensual lusts, that as a nation we may show forth his 
 praises in all the earth ! 
 
'j-j-u 
 
 CENTENNIAL REVIEW.' 
 
 In the momentary disturbance which just now alarms 
 the timid and inflames the partisan, men are liable to 
 forget the whole field, and form evil auguries on account 
 of a few distempered spots. It is now twelve years since 
 the great civil war closed. Let us consider the facts which 
 that war left upon our hands, and the history of those 
 facts down to this hour, and instead of applying a rigor- 
 ous ideal moral standard in forming a judgment, let us 
 ask what was to have been expected of our people judged 
 by the tendency of ordinary human nature in such condi- 
 tions as existed at the end of this war. We shall then be 
 able to judge whether this should be a fast day or a day 
 of thanksgiving. 
 
 The War of Independence, in 1776, broke off our ex- 
 ternal allegiance to Great Britain without materially 
 changing the internal condition of this people. It did not 
 directly affect their condition. The laws remained the 
 same. The general policy remained the same. Political 
 economy was precisely the same. Under different names 
 the very civil government carried out the substantial 
 principles of liberty which existed in the British Constitu- 
 
 * Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 30,1876. Lesson: Psa. cxlv. 
 Preached shortly after the Presidential election, in which R. K. Hayes was 
 the candidate of the Republican, and Samuel J. Tilden that of the Demo- 
 cratic party. Fraud was charged ])y both sides, and the result disputed, 
 especially as to the votes in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, fiom 
 each of which States were forwarded two sets of certificates of election. 
 The Republicans charged the Democrats of fraud at the Southern polls ; 
 the Democrats accused the Rejiublicans of fraud in the Southern count 
 of votes. The question was finally decided, after several months of gen- 
 eral excitement, by an Electoral Commission appointed by Congress for 
 the purpose, which rendered its decision on March 2d, by awarding the 
 election to Mr. Hayes, the Republican candidate. He was duly inaugu- 
 rated on March 5th, 1877. 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 773 
 
 tion. How to confederate into one nation thirteen States, 
 thus organizing thirteen nations into one nation, without 
 destroying the local autonomy of the separate States — 
 this was a very difficult task; it was a task of the greatest 
 magnitude and importance, then and since; but it did not 
 touch the vital sources of prosperity; and the War of the 
 Revolution simply left us to go forward along the lines 
 already marked down, which we have had no occasion to 
 crook or change since that day. 
 
 But the Civil War of 1861 was probably the most con- 
 firmatory and revolutionary war that ever was waged — 
 confirmatory toward the ideas of our Northern, and rev- 
 olutionary toward those of our Southern, populations. The 
 effect of this war upon the North cannot be stated in de- 
 tail, it can scarcely be stated in outline, in the time which 
 is allowed us. 
 
 The Civil War changed no institutions of the country 
 upheld by Northern opinion. It disturbed no civil law of 
 the government. It interrupted no industry. Still less 
 did it subvert any. It changed the relations of citizens in 
 the state in no respect, one toward another or toward the 
 government. It impoverished no State. What it did was 
 to confirm the great principles of internal liberty on which 
 the frame-work of government was founded by the Fathers. 
 It was a testimony to their doctrines of the rights of men. 
 It ratified our history, and illumined it. It made the old 
 paths broader, more honorable, and safer. It sent for- 
 ward our people with renewed impetus. In no respect, 
 then, was it revolutionary. No theory of government was 
 changed. No practice founded on the philosophy of State 
 Rights or of industrial economy was modified. Every 
 great element of civic and social life was left unaltered 
 except in being made clearer, stronger, and more lustrous. 
 Capital flowed in. Enterprise was stimulated. Inven- 
 tions multiplied on every hand. Every form of industry 
 was augmented by machinery. Factories increased in 
 number, and improved in methods, until they have ena- 
 bled cotton men, at least, to beat Great Britain in her 
 own markets. From the beginning, or within the last 
 
774 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 twenty years, some forty thousand miles of railroad have 
 been established and completed, some of the most im- 
 portant lines since the activity started by the w^ar. Col- 
 leges were endowed. Debts were liquidated. Mortgages 
 were wiped out. Churches and schools were lit up along 
 the whole line of advancing emigration. The last tweniy- 
 five years in America — from 1850 to 1876 — have been a 
 marvel in the history of the human race. The heart and 
 the brain of our people were stimulated by the discussion 
 of the fundamental question of manhood in society, and, 
 fertilized by this divine enriching, brought forth on every 
 hand an unexampled harvest of thought, of skill, of in- 
 vention, of industrial wealth, of happiness and of piety. 
 
 Now turn to the South. It is hardly possible for us to 
 conceive of the revolutionary results of the Civil War 
 upon the Confederate States, — especially upon those that 
 lie along the ocean edge and the Gulf of Mexico. It took 
 from the hands of a proud and imperious people their 
 whole political control. For nearly fifty years, or during 
 the founding of our institutions and the formulating of our 
 principles, the North, and chiefly New England, bore rule; 
 but no sooner were our principles formulated and our in- 
 stitutions put in full operation, than the South assumed 
 control; and for the past fifty years and more the policy 
 of this nation has been dictated wholly by the South. 
 The North was busy with business: the South with gov- 
 ernment. We worked; they ruled. 
 
 Now, at the close of the Civil War, there are no South- 
 ern influences exerted upon our government; for five years 
 her men had not appeared in our Congress; and when 
 they re-entered they were no longer the men of old, — 
 imperious, brilliant, willful, united, and locally selfish. 
 Strangers came, one by one, — impoverished, worn, wasted, 
 as men that had just escaped from the fire. The reins 
 had fallen from their hands; and they who once drove 
 this magnificent chariot of a continent, now hung on be- 
 hind, walking. 
 
 The war had also introduced into citizenship a million 
 colored voters, so that at home the old Southern element 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 775 
 
 found itself swamped with this, to them, odious compan- 
 ionship at tlie polls. Human imagination can hardly con- 
 ceive of a trial greater than for such men as Wade Hamp- 
 ton to go about among his late slaves canvassing for their 
 votes. The question before that was, "Are they men or 
 monkeys ?" Politics was the very nerve-system of South- 
 ern gentlemen. No humiliation conceivable could be 
 greater than that which befell them afte'r the war, to find 
 themselves going to the polls with their ex-slaves, and in 
 a helpless minority at that. Always, before, the whites 
 had voted not only in their own persons, but in proportion 
 to their slave property; but now, their property, standing 
 on two legs, was voting against the masters. For years 
 large multitudes of Southern men were utterly disenfran- 
 chised; and when they were suffered at length to vote 
 again, they moved under a shadow to the polls. 
 
 Then, consider that, aside from this utter revolution in 
 political government and in methods, there was taking 
 place at the same time an equally striking, and if possible 
 more odious, civil revolution. Severe as was their polit- 
 ical change, their social change was still more intolerable. 
 The general equality of citizenship is not so hard to bear 
 by those who always held to democratic equality; but in 
 the South the colored man was always put outside the 
 line of mankind, as well as of citizenship. The law was 
 the Roman law; and the Roman law held that the slave 
 was not a human being, but a chattel; and this was the 
 decision even of Southern judges, who spoke with the ut- 
 most indignation of the necessity which compelled them 
 to say such things of men. For twenty years at the South 
 it had been the business of ministers of the Gospel, of 
 professors in colleges, of political economists, of many 
 scientific men, and of politicians, to prove the inferiority 
 of the African; and they had crowded him back almost 
 to his Darwinian ancestors. It was a sore retribution 
 that this despised race should be suddenly advanced al- 
 most to a perfect equality with his white neighbors. The 
 position which the whites had occupied for years was not 
 calculated to fit them for welcoming these outcasts. 
 
776 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 These things are not to be fully appreciated by descrip- 
 tion. One must measure the irritation of this change by 
 actual experience. Considering what human nature is, 
 and what Southern human nature is, is it not a wonder 
 that there has been so little outbreak, and that the South 
 has been as quiet as she has ? 
 
 But even more significant has been the change of the 
 whole industrial 'system of the South. Those that were 
 rich have become impoverished. They were rich in slaves; 
 they do not now own one. ■ They were rich on account of 
 the plantation-system, which robs one class to make an- 
 other class excessively rich; but after the war, not only 
 were the slaves not theirs, but their plantations were not 
 a source of wealth to them. Those who owned the land 
 could not work it, and those who could work the land did 
 not own it, and could not buy it; and so there was a land- 
 lock. Free labor in the place of enforced labor brought 
 in not only a new principle, in Southern industry, but a 
 revolutionary and antagonistic one. 
 
 It is the necessity of every man to work out his own 
 support. Now, in the South that necessity carries in it 
 the divine blessing, and an unexampled prosperity; for I 
 foresee a South that yet one day may out of her radiant 
 height look down upon the North and challenge compari- 
 son in every element of civilization and of social comfort; 
 and I foresee that the South will dig it out in this hard 
 mine in which she is now working with sweat, and tears, 
 and complaint. The necessity of working, in order that 
 every man shall earn his own living by the sweat of his 
 brow, is a moral revolution as well as an industrial one. 
 Men may say what they please, but the moment a man 
 works for his living, new influences get hold of him. I 
 care not who the leaders are, what the prevailing philoso- 
 phy is, or what men's religious sectarianism may be, the 
 moment the whole body of men in society are obliged to 
 work for their own living a new state of things comes 
 upon them which will in the end control them. Under 
 such circumstances a man measures society by a difterent 
 standard. Skill, industry, good management and the like. 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 777 
 
 begin to be things sought and admired by him. Formerly 
 dogs, horses, dances, and sprees, were the delight of the 
 elegantly idle, and they marked the difference between 
 those that worked and the society gentleman; but that 
 which is now becoming the question with the gentlemen 
 is, whether he can pay his board, and whether he knows 
 how to work. "Do you know how to be tastefully idle ?" 
 asked the old regime in the South; "then step into society." 
 " Do you know how to earn a living ? " asks the new state 
 of things in the South. And work is a necessity which 
 no man there can escape from — thanks to the bravery and 
 perseverance of the South in the war. They burned up 
 their property, and stood on barren ground again; and 
 no man of them can exempt himself from this universal 
 and primal necessity of working. Work to-day, through- 
 out the South, is doing gradually and silently what work 
 did for the North in times gone by. Work quickens 
 the flow of sympathy, and the worker learns to "conde- 
 scend to men of low estate," when he is obliged to seek 
 his living in the soil, and in the shop, and on the ship, 
 and in all the thoroughfares of industry. This change of 
 political economy, of wealth-producing methods, pene- 
 trates every pore, and pervades every interest in the 
 South. It is universal and continuous throughout so- 
 ciety. You may send philosophers to teach, ministers to 
 preach, and schoolmasters to educate; but I tell you the 
 plow and the hammer will do more to educate the South 
 into new life than all of these put together. 
 
 No greater wrench could be given to a state than a rev- 
 olution of its whole wealth-producing economy within a 
 period of two or three years; and when this takes place 
 by force, amidst the desolations of war, among an im- 
 poverished people, standing in the ashes of their former 
 riches, defeated, stripped of power and influence, and 
 humiliated, it taxes human nature to the utmost bound of 
 endurance, and tasks our imagination to conceive of it. 
 And yet the South has stood the strain; and I think in 
 that regard has gained more glory by her well-doing since 
 the war than in all her past history, and is greater in her 
 
778 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. , 
 
 misfortune even in spite of all the mistaken outbreaks that 
 have occurred, than ever she was on the battle-field, or in 
 the council chamber. 
 
 To all this must be added the first periods of the new 
 governments in the South under the new regime. Two 
 things were certain: first, that many of the most important 
 offices in the reconstructed states would fall to the lot of 
 Northern citizens, for the reason that the offices must 
 be filled, and yet the public sentiment in the South for- 
 bade the native to execute the duties of certain offices at 
 certain times, in a way which should be suited to the new 
 condition. They ejected themselves from the offices; yet 
 these had to be filled. It was a pity; it was a great evil; 
 but not to fill them was a greater evil — and that is what 
 can be said in behalf of " carpet-baggers." This great 
 evil sprang not from the North, but from the temper and 
 spirit of the South — a spirit and temper which should not 
 surprise us, which we should expect, and which very likely 
 we ourselves, under like circumstances, would manifest in 
 even a stronger manner; but causes and effects have no 
 respect to such considerations. There was the fact, and 
 there was the way in which the fact compelled circum- 
 stances. 
 
 It also was inevitable that in many States the newly en- 
 franchised citizen should become the legislator, and that 
 by reason of his inexperience and ignorance he should 
 carry out a policy destructive to the best interests of peace 
 and prosperity; and would you expect that men who had 
 been under the heel all their days, and were suddenly 
 thrown up into the liberty of manhood and citizenship, 
 and had changed by reason of their majorities in elections 
 the whole legislation and judicial economy of the States, 
 — would you expect that they could administer wisely ? 
 Slavery would not be the devil that it is if its victims could 
 be used with so little injury, that immediately on becom- 
 ing freemen they could manage popular affairs with discre- 
 tion. It was the folly of Southern States that brought on 
 revolution; it was part and parcel of the legitimate re- 
 sults of the war that the legislatures of those States 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 779 
 
 should come into the hands of unwise and inexpert men; 
 and it was to be expected that they would be afflicted 
 with most desolating legislation. It was the necessity 
 of the case. When South Carolina precipitated this na- 
 tion into war, she established that logic of events which 
 has wrought the disasters that are now goading her to 
 desperation. She sowed the wind, and is reaping the 
 whirlwind. She says that it is a wind set in from the 
 North: I say that it is a wind from above, falling down 
 from the seat of justice. 
 
 Upon this broad exposition of facts, let us set forth cer- 
 tain considerations which may in their issue befit this day. 
 
 First, the evils of the South are of her own procur- 
 ing. They are not Northern inflictions. They are the 
 logical sequences of those actions against which the North 
 protested, which she bore long with resentment, and which 
 she resisted by the sword only when they threatened to sub- 
 vert the very foundation of the national government. The 
 South took her chances, and must abide by the issues of 
 those chances, — issues which had not run out and expended 
 themselves the moment that peace was declared. You can 
 make a wound in a moment which you cannot heal in a 
 year. The Southern people could by a vote in a few 
 months bring on secession; but from it have flowed on and 
 on a long series of disasters that have been filling the 
 South with complaint. Poverty; the loss of position; the 
 dissemination of her population; the interposition of a 
 foreign magistracy upon her affairs; a military force, — all 
 these were a part of the risks taken. When she declared 
 war, she substantially declared that she was willing to take 
 the issues. The very sharpest pinch, therefore, of Southern 
 trouble, she should bear in mind evermore, is of her own pro- 
 ducing. General Gordon [of Georgia] is very loud in his 
 denunciations when the white man suffers; he cannot bear 
 to see the heels of the white man touched by the toes of 
 the United States soldiers. Thousands of black men were 
 driven from the polls, scores of hundreds of them were 
 maltreated and killed, whole counties were brought under 
 anarchy, and he had no telegrams filling Northern papers; 
 
78o PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 but when for the simple preservation of order the United 
 States soldiers, at the request of the Governor of the State 
 of South Carolina, stand at the State-house doors, he and 
 men like him send forth a wail of despair; and their North- 
 ern partisans sit in sackcloth, in the valley of desolation, 
 and mourn over the wrongs of the poor Southern people ! 
 
 Notice, too, that upon the two States which were the 
 most vicious and insubordinate (thorns in the side of 
 Peace, from their very origin, and the sections where Slav- 
 ery exhibited its worst features) have fallen most severely 
 the troubles of reconstruction, — South Carolina and Lou- 
 isiana. It is as if God had said, " I will make slavery the 
 punishment of slave-holders, so that all the earth shall see 
 and know that I, the Lord, delight in justice, and hate op- 
 pression, and make the oppressor drink of the cup which 
 he himself has mingled." 
 
 Second, taking the Southern States collectively, blame 
 them as much as you will, I cannot but say that, consid- 
 ering their accumulated sufferings; considering their 
 strangely altered conditions, for which they are at fault, 
 since the war, with its distress and its exhaustion; in view 
 of their poverty, which has come upon them like an armed 
 man, and their social disintegration, which has gone on 
 step by step, and their new industrial organization, and 
 their humiliating political condition, — considering these 
 things, I cannot but say that in spite of all outbreaks and 
 errors and complaints, their general conduct ought to ex- 
 tort admiration from all men whose expectations were 
 founded on the average of nations. It is not in human 
 nature to bear every conceivable afifliction and kiss the rod 
 — and the South never were given to kissing the rod. For 
 fifty years they were supreme. They said to one man 
 "Go," and he went; and they said to another man 
 " Come," and he came — not on the rice or cotton planta- 
 tion alone, but on the larger plantations of politics; and 
 when you consider how their eyes stood out with fatness, 
 when you consider what unbounded wealth belonged to 
 the South, though poverty belonged to the poor whites, 
 and when you consider how totally their social condition has 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 781 
 
 been reorganized, how all their old paths have been rubbed 
 out, and how they who sat under the shadow of the mag- 
 nolia are sitting under the shadow of the thistle and the 
 nettle, is it strange that they rub? Is it strange that they 
 do not seem to enjoy the luxury of their desolation ? And 
 yet, /'// the main, with what vigor have they prosecuted their 
 industries ! In the main their tendencies are all whole- 
 some. Of the fact that there is a class of whites who are 
 uncontrollable by the wiser and more cultured of the 
 Southern people, no man is ignorant; and that these tur- 
 bulent spirits have often bubbled and broken forth like 
 boiling springs, we know; but it seems to me that no one 
 could expect less. And taking Virginia, and North Caro- 
 lina, and South Carolina, and Georgia, and Florida, and 
 Alabama, and Mississippi, and Louisiana, and Texas, and 
 Arkansas, and Missouri, and Tennessee — taking them all 
 together, how have they adapted themselves to their 
 changed circumstances ! I never feel so sure of the tri- 
 umph of the cardinal principles of liberty under a republi- 
 can government, and I never feel so proud of the stock to 
 which I belong, reckoning the South with the North, as 
 when I take a comprehensive view of the conduct of the 
 South, under the disasters that she has brought upon her- 
 self. There have been some outbreaks and outrages; in 
 many States systematic wrongs have been done; there 
 have been numerous threats and much cruelty; but taking 
 the people throughout all the Southern States, they de- 
 mand and deserve credit for the conduct they have pur- 
 sued. 
 
 This leads me, next, to call to your mind the criticisms 
 which have been urged in every form, and with the most 
 fiery intemperance, upon that great political division of 
 our people who have had control of this government for 
 the last fifteen years. How many men do I hear to-day 
 finding fault with presidents, with secretaries, with promi- 
 nent leaders in the Republican party ! It would seem as 
 if they thought that all that has taken place in the time 
 that has gone by was as simple as the raising of a harvest 
 on a Northern farm. It would seem as though they 
 
782 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 thought that it was only to be reaped by appropriate meth- 
 ods, and threshed out with an appropriate machine, and 
 garnered in a proper manner, and sent to a regulation 
 mill, and converted into food; it would seem as if they 
 thought it was all very easy. But was there ever any- 
 where an administration which had such intrinsic difficul- 
 ties to settle ? That they have come short, no man denies; 
 that they have fallen into many errors, everybody will 
 admit; but they were walking in a path that had never 
 been explored. They were doing things for which there 
 had never been a pattern nor a hint. They were perform- 
 ing duties without any illumination from experience, 
 which were unknown to the past, and which were intrin- 
 sically almost impossible. To turn five million slaves 
 into citizens — is that an easy thing ? To give them citizen- 
 ship right in the midst and presence of those who yester- 
 day owned them and had them under their feet, and to 
 maintain peace between the two classes — was that easy ? 
 To see to it that these enfranchised men should have some 
 opportunity for gaining intelligence, and some chance for 
 self-earning, while, at the same time, the whites should be 
 perfectly protected — was that easy ? To bring this great 
 horde of men — who were made citizens, not on moral con- 
 siderations, but merely for self-protecting political reasons, 
 — into the administration of government throughout the 
 whole bounds of the South; and yet, to preserve equal 
 justice everywhere without any jar of local self-govern- 
 ment, with a minimum of physical force among a people 
 chafed by defeat and impoverished, and sore in their pov- 
 erty, and seeing from the very ground the dirt rise up to 
 equality with them; and to hold them back from violence, 
 and carry them safely from year to year without collision 
 and attrition to a final and a perfectly restored and recipro- 
 cal love and confidence, — never was there put in the hands 
 of any government such a task as this ! And are we to 
 forget it, in measuring administrations ? 
 
 It is said that some high officials have stolen; it is said 
 there has been some profligacy in the Treasury. As if 
 this were the first time that government officials ever stole ! 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 783 
 
 As if there had ever been a nation whose Treasury was 
 not a red-hot infernal' den of temptation to every one 
 around about it ! When you come to compare the amount 
 of money that has passed through the hands of the fiduci- 
 ary agents of our government during the last twelve or 
 fifteen years with the amourit that passed through the 
 hands of the government under President Washington, you 
 find that the percentage of fraud is vastly less now than 
 it was during the administration of this government in its 
 earlier periods. Look at it whichever way you will, mul- 
 tiply the mistakes which have been made as much as you 
 please (I care not, except to have them remedied), by and 
 by, when the excitement of the present is all past, and they 
 stand in history against the background of justice, then 
 the lives of these men who have assisted in the reforma- 
 tion of this land will stand higher than the heroes who 
 framed our Constitution, and brought in the primitive 
 days of liberty. 
 
 And let me say one word more: that when that reckon- 
 ing shall be made, not far from the side of the Martyrs 
 will stand the illustrious Warriors; and that the man* who 
 brought peace, at last, by his sword, and who, for eight 
 years has administered this government by singular silence 
 and singular disinterestedness, will stand second only to 
 Lincoln. 
 
 The question now arising on every side, especially among 
 the timid, the fearful, and the unknowing, — that is, among 
 almost all men, — is whether the conditions in which we 
 find ourselves at this period of the reconstructive history 
 of this country, whether the strain that is brought upon it 
 by the peculiar exigencies of to-day, are not going to be a 
 tension greater than it can bear ? 
 
 If I read aright, we are contending with difficulties in 
 South Carolina, in Florida and in Louisiana; and those 
 difficulties, as I shall show in a moment, take hold high 
 up; and the question is. Can this government endure a 
 pressure like that which is brought to bear upon it ? The 
 
 * General U. S. Grant, who was now nearing the end of his second presi- 
 dential term. 
 
784 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 safety of law, of government, and of public weal, under 
 free institutions is every day made" more apparent by the 
 parallel drawn between the strong governments in Eu- 
 rope, with a minimum of liberty in them, and the republi- 
 can government on this side of the water, with a maxi- 
 mum of liberty in it. '" 
 
 Nothing is more justly dreaded in Europe than a dis- 
 puted succession to the throne; and it is justly dreaded, as 
 you know from what has taken place there. What wars 
 have deluged France; what convulsions have shaken Italy; 
 what turmoils there have been in the German Empire and 
 in Russia; what storms have burst forth in Great Britain, 
 filling the land with confusion, on account of royal succes- 
 sion ! But there have been fifteen Presidents within a 
 hundred years in these United States; there have been 
 twenty-two elections here during the same period; the 
 question of succession has been debated with fiery zeal 
 before this great people, and settled without sword or 
 bayonet, twenty-two times, and I am not afraid to put 
 alongside of the experience of Europe this record of a free 
 people under free institutions. 
 
 But the strain which this nation bears every four years 
 is not its only strain, though that is a great one. This is a 
 thorough-bred nation; and the place where other horses 
 break down is the place where the thorough-bred horse 
 comes out victorious — the point where the strain comes. 
 
 If it comes to that, it is better for us to sit patiently under 
 a wrong, rather than invoke tumult. In 1844, when Henry 
 Clay was defeated in his race for the Presidency and Louisi- 
 ana cast her electoral vote for Polk, it was not a question 
 of doubt that the Plaquemine frauds robbed Clay of the 
 vote of Louisiana. It is not certain that he would have 
 been elected if he had received the vote of that State; that 
 is fairly open to doubt; but that the whole Whig party 
 honestly and firmly believed that Clay had been fairly 
 elected, and that the Presidential office was withheld from 
 him by gross fraud, there can be no doubt. What hap- 
 pened ? What did the great Whig party do under the 
 sting and outrage of losing by fraud what they had gained 
 
CENTENiVIAL REVIEW. 785 
 
 by votes ? They made no riots, no revolution, and no civil 
 war. They yielded to necessity, and saved law, even when 
 it was corrupted, and appealed to the future for redress. 
 
 The same strain was brought on our State of New York. 
 John Jay was fairly elected governor, and George Clinton 
 was counted in by indisputable fraud. What did the citi- 
 zens do? They submitted to the form of law out of which 
 it was designed that equity should spring, and then, at the 
 next election, triumphantly overthew their adversary, and 
 elected Jay. 
 
 Consider the struggle between the North and the South 
 that grew out of slavery; consider the usurpation of office 
 by Southern men; consider how courts were in the hands 
 of biased judges; consider the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise; consider the needless and useless insult to 
 the North by the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law; con- 
 sider the gross outrages that were perpetrated in Kansas; 
 consider the refusal of the South to accept the arbitrament 
 of the vote when Lincoln was elected. And what did the 
 North do ? It bore every strain, and sought relief by legal 
 and moral, and not by physical force. 
 
 The violence which brought forth the war was Southern, 
 and not Northern. It was South Carolina that assailed the 
 flag of this nation, and the hand that smote the flag was 
 itself smitten with paralysis. 
 
 Whatever may be the formal decision respecting the Pres- 
 idency in this great exigency, whatever the justice of the case 
 may be, the North, by both of its great parties, will accept 
 that decision. They will abide by the declaration of the 
 legal judges of election, whatever suspicion or conviction 
 there may be of fraud, and they will look to the future for 
 redress. The South certainly will not offer violence to the 
 final decision. She has no blood left. She is pale yet 
 from the wounds of war. 
 
 Besides, — Buchanan is not President to-day ! 
 
 Lastly, can we, at this point of our history, afford to 
 
 have the whole machinery by which the will of the people 
 
 is made manifest to the Government vitiated by fraud ? 
 
 We cannot — we cannot ! Let me say to you that though 
 
 50 
 
7S6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 the danger of this people springing from riches is great, it 
 is not the greatest. Though the danger springing from a 
 corrupt luxury is great, it is not the greatest. Though 
 the danger springing from the vast and complicated ap- 
 paratus of this Government that rules a continent, and 
 that is the most complicated government in the world — 
 though this is great, it is not the greatest of our dangers. 
 The danger that hangs over the vote is the most imminent 
 peril that threatens our liberty; for while there is around 
 about almost every act of men a sense of right, a con- 
 science, there has come to be, to a large extent, no 
 conscience, no sense of right, among American citizens as 
 to their duty in regard to the vote. It is bought and sold 
 shamelessly in the market. Capitalists and corporations 
 find it more economical to trade by wholesale than by 
 retail. They find that it is cheaper to buy the representa- 
 tive who is sent to the legislature, than to buy all of those 
 who send him there; and our courts are presided over and 
 our public economy is determined, largely, by men who 
 are under the influence of those who buy and sell votes; 
 and if this fraud which corrupts and destroys the integrity 
 of the vote in small spheres, advances from neighborhoods 
 to States, and from States to larger sections, rising till it 
 touches the sacred height of the chief Executive of this 
 nation, from that moment we shall be no better than 
 Mexico, and our greatness will be the measure of the 
 pangs that we shall suffer in coming disorganizations and 
 revolutions. No, we cannot afford to have a President 
 who sits in Washington placed there upon a fraudulent 
 counting of votes. 
 
 I know, and you do know, that if there had been a fair 
 election permitted in South Carolina, in Florida, in Lou- 
 isiana, and in Mississippi, there would have been an over- 
 whelming majority given for the Republican candidate; I 
 know, and you do know that, not by fraud in counting, 
 but by physical force and intimidation, men were denied 
 their rights at the ballot-box, and that majorities were 
 rolled up which in this respect were fraudulent, that they 
 did not represent the will of the whole people freely ex- 
 
CENTENNIAL REVIEW. 787 
 
 pressed, but represented the will of those who seized the 
 power, and by threat or actual bloodshed wrought a 
 change in the result of the political campaign. 
 
 What then ? Wholesale fraud on one side does not 
 justify fraud on the other side; and if there is to be a 
 President sitting in Washington by fraud, in the name of 
 heaven, let not the emancipating party, that has con- 
 ducted this nation through war to settled peace, be tainted 
 with the irredeemable corruption of that fraud! Better a 
 thousand times that your antagonist should be in the 
 Presidential chair than that your chosen friend should be 
 there, if you put him there by one single tainted vote; for 
 we cannot afford to set a bad precedent. When good men 
 set bad precedents bad men use them; and rather than 
 that the Republican party should hold the reins of power 
 by putting a President in the chair at Washington who 
 goes there by one vote that prudent and honest men have 
 reason to believe is tainted, better, far better would it be 
 that that party should retire, and give place to the other 
 side. Therefore it is my hope and wish that if Governor 
 Hayes should have reason to believe that there has been 
 unfairness in the count in Louisiana, or Florida, or South 
 Carolina, and that the reported electoral vote does not 
 represent the actual vote, though the fraud in the vote 
 itself is on the other side — it is my hope and wish that 
 under such circumstances he should say, and make himself 
 forever illustrious by saying, " I will not sit in Washing- 
 ton's seat unless I can sit there with Washington's purity." 
 
 Meanwhile, dismiss from your minds all thought of lurid 
 war and social disorganization and distress. These are 
 but the fireballs with which political parties illumine their 
 campaign. The country is safe. A part of the road from 
 Egypt through the desert has been passed, and the rest of 
 that road is to be gone over. Forty years in the wilder- 
 ness is the inevitable necessity. If the Republican party 
 have the administration of the government I hope they 
 will abbreviate the period in which the remnant of conflict 
 will be ended. If they are thrust out, and the other side 
 come in, they, in the end, will bring about the same result; 
 
788 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 by a longer road, by a more circuitous route, and with 
 more vexation and suffering; but surely, in the end. 
 Whether one side or the other go to Washington, the free 
 citizens of this whole nation have in charge the liberty 
 and prosperity of the nation, and these will be preserved. 
 A glorious future is before us. The difference lies in this: 
 Shall it be brought in easily, and speedily, and justly, or 
 must it come by roundabout ways, with more pain and 
 tears ? That // will come, I have no doubt whatsoever. 
 
 Therefore, I call on all men, and on you especially, 
 to join with me in thanksgiving and praise to God this 
 day, that, while we have harvests and health and essential 
 peace throughout the nation, and an abundant chance of 
 prosperity in the future, a revolution has taken place by 
 which five million slaves became five million freemen; by 
 which men leagued for oppression were smitten and over- 
 thrown in thirteen States; by which the whole economy 
 of those States was reorganized; by which all their social 
 relationships and political policy were changed; and by 
 which there have been laid again new foundations in 
 righteousness, with the promise that when the tears are 
 done, and the sighs and groans are past, they shall have a 
 future that never could have dawned on them if they had 
 remained intact in their old economies. And the day will 
 speedily come when your children and mine, and the chil- 
 dren of Southern men, shall sit down together in amity 
 and speak of the deeds of their fathers, forgetting the 
 furor, the irritation, the anger, and the bloodshed, when 
 their interests shall be not merely identical, but reciprocal, 
 and this whole land shall be Immanuel's land. 
 
 Never in my life have I stood to exhort you to thanksgiv- 
 ing with a more profound sense of our obligations to God, 
 and of gratitude in especial for that guidance by which 
 we have been brought through a peril that seldom comes 
 to any nation, and that never before came to a nation so 
 large and difficult of administration as this. 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF 
 TO-DAY.* 
 
 " Samuel said unto the people, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and 
 Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now 
 therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the 
 righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers." — i 
 Sam. xii. 6, 7. 
 
 The Hebrew literature is colored with intense patriot- 
 ism. The events of their history — their origin, their 
 fathers, their bondage, their release, their wanderings, 
 their final settlement in Palestine, their wars, their laws, 
 their captivities, their restorations — are the staple of their 
 sacred books, and became the types upon which their 
 prophets and sweet singers fashioned an ideal future. 
 This whole human life on earth was to them the symbol 
 of the wanderings of "strangers and pilgrims;" and when, 
 at length, a clear conception of another life dawned, they 
 called Heaven the New Jerusalem. Thus the heaven' and 
 the earth, time and eternity, were dressed out in the robes 
 of their national history. 
 
 It was a wholesome practice. It harvested every great 
 deed and achievement of their race, and made it seed-corn 
 for the future; it trained their children to heroism, to 
 patriotism, and to a religion which enshrined them both. 
 
 I propose, this morning, a retrospect of American his- 
 tory, from a single point of view — namely, its eminent 
 Periods of Peril. I do this within the hour — that is to 
 say, I do it in outline. 
 
 The vital nerve which runs through and connects the 
 whole history of these United States is the power of in- 
 
 *Sermon in Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 29, 1877 • 
 preached when it was proposed to pay the United States Bonds in silver. 
 
79° PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 telligence, of rectitude, of patience, and of liberty to achieve 
 every great end needed for national prosperity. Physical 
 force has had less part in the vast results achieved in 
 national life in this country than in the results achieved in 
 any other national life of such magnitude and duration. 
 
 I. The first Period is the Colonial; the settlement, the 
 intermediate, and the revolutionary, are its three divisions. 
 
 The fermentations of Europe had so far perfected the 
 wine of principle that our fathers brought hither no 
 doubtful mixture. There were certain definite faiths, in 
 part derived from old English liberty and in part from the 
 new Reformation, — they were principles, and not theories, 
 that they brought. They had no Utopian schemes, no Pla- 
 tonic Republics, no phalansteries or communistic dreams. 
 They believed in the sacredness of manhood by reason of 
 its alliance with Christ and immortality. They believed 
 in that liberty which consists in taking on law. Men are 
 free in proportion to the number of spheres of obedience 
 that they can fill. Laws are not shackles to impede, but 
 tools and harnesses to assist human force. The peculiar- 
 ity of our early ancestry was not that they loved liberty — 
 everything in heaven, on earth, and in the sea does that; 
 but they discerned the royal fact, which others had missed 
 who threw off law to find liberty, that by taking on laiv men 
 are juade free. Obedience to God's law is the highest lib- 
 erty to which humanity may ever reach. 
 
 With these rational principles not yet quite ripe in their 
 hands, to be somewhat more developed through mistakes 
 and suffering, the special peril of the colonial period was 
 in its gestation and birth of the institutions of liberty. 
 
 Liberty is but a vapor without its appropriate engines. 
 As a disembodied principle, it wanders up and down the 
 earth, seeking rest and finding none. It needs a body. 
 In other days that body has been sometimes a shapeless 
 giant, or a dwarf, or some monster form. In our colonies 
 it pleased God to give to it such a shapely body as 
 suited its merit. The church, the state, the legislatures, 
 the courts, the executive, the body of wise laws all re- 
 volving within well defined spheres — these were the prod- 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 79 1 
 
 ucts of that long colonial history, which, because it 
 threw up no auroral glow upon the heavens, seems to 
 many of little importance. 
 
 In the New Testament, the life of Mary after the an- 
 nunciation retires from sight; but in that obscurity was 
 silently forming the Saviour of the world. The whole 
 history of America lay in silent shadow in the early and 
 middle colonial periods. Our fathers were incarnating 
 principles in institutions. For the purposes of rom.ance, 
 their straitness, their rigorous life, their seclusion upon the 
 hard soil in a hard climate, were not full of interest; but 
 for great practical uses these were elements of good fort- 
 une. When the army of fowls prepare for their young, 
 they do not sit down upon the fat marshes of the south, or 
 on the sedgy edges of southern rivers. They lift them- 
 selves into the heavens and sail to the Arctic circle, and 
 there, upon rocks, under the edge of ice, find security for 
 their young. 
 
 New England was the breeding -ground of America. 
 Her seclusion and her hard ways were mercies. It was 
 not in soft places and amidst Egyptian leeks and onions 
 and melons and cucumbers that Israel planned the He- 
 brew commonwealth, but under the crags of Sinai, and 
 along the sands of the wilderness. The pitiable part of 
 colonial history is the best part of it, and its glory. 
 
 II. The second Period of Peril was that of transition 
 from dependence to a free and independent national life. 
 All republics have been short lived, perishing from the 
 weakness of their political system, or, more often, the want 
 of morality in their citizens. At the bottom of every en- 
 during system must lie a principle of universal rectitude. 
 " Righteousness exalteth a nation." That is the ledge out 
 of which every nation must quarry foundation stones. 
 This was the cry of Israel through ages; but Israel did not 
 know how to build upon this sure foundation. 
 
 Now New England was the point in time where in 
 mental development Palestine and Greece met. In New 
 England were Socrates and Moses, Isaiah and Plato. 
 There was for New England no art. Phidias and his 
 
792 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 brethren had perished in the Red Sea of time. But the 
 profound moral sentiment, the passionate yearning for 
 righteousness, the feeling after God, which centered in the 
 old Hebrew, came down into New England. The Greeks 
 could bring no conscience. There was never enough 
 moral sense in Greece long to hold a government together. 
 Iron was wanting in their blood. But the Greek brought 
 to New England the keen intellect, the speculative genius, 
 the hunger for ideas; and the typical New Englander 
 may say, " Greece was my father, and Palestine was my 
 mother." Jonathan Edwards stands forth as the best type 
 of this extraordinary union. 
 
 When the war burned the cords that held the colonies to 
 the throne there was an hour of perplexity. "I have 
 taken off my coat, and how shall I put it on again ? " was 
 the sentiment of the time. Then it was that Virginia 
 kindled her light at the altars of New England; in whose 
 public assemblies, called in times of peril to consider the 
 general welfare, in whose bills of rights, in whose town- 
 ships, and in whose minor colonial unions for temporary 
 purposes, were found the motives and sketch-forms of that 
 great Constitution which stands without a parallel among 
 institutions of human formation. If you say that Virginia 
 led our republic in the revolutionary period, and in the 
 primitive period of our Constitution, I answer. Yes; hers 
 was the root and stock, but New England gave the scions 
 that were grafted in, and that formed the top and fruit. 
 
 But that after times had something to add and some- 
 thing to change does not take away from the grandeur 
 of that great instrument which has for nearly one hun- 
 dred years proved itself adequate to the conservation of 
 liberty and of power. The perils through which it came 
 to strength are largely hidden by the glow of its abun- 
 dant prosperity. 
 
 The foundation of those great piers* that stand over 
 against each other, on our river, are forever hidden. Men 
 see, and will see, only the majesty of the accomplished 
 
 * Of the East River suspension bridge, between New York and 
 Brooklyn. 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 793 
 
 work; but few remember the darkness, the perils, the un- 
 matched difficulties of the caisson in the beginning. 
 
 New applications and larger developments have been 
 given to the elements of the Constitution, and some impost- 
 humes have been cleansed from it, and some weak spots 
 have been removed by the strong hand of war; yet the hun- 
 dred years have but rounded out and finished the great 
 work exactly planned and framed by the fathers. Forty 
 free States are held together in one sovereignty, and fifty 
 millions of people move in a safe liberty under a system 
 that touches the nation as summer touches the Continent; 
 with a pressure that enforces growth and develops strength, 
 but oppresses nothing. 
 
 III. Now comes the third Period of Peril, from fungoid 
 growth. It befalls men, sometimes, to carry about a fun- 
 goid growth, which, feeding on juices elaborated in the 
 body, is steadily sucking out that very life upon which it 
 is feeding. Such was Slavery. Its cancerous roots had 
 spread to every department of life and government. It 
 had suborned the legislation and politics of the country. 
 It had thrown its filmy net of "construction" around the 
 courts. It had full possession of the executive govern- 
 ment. It had filled the channels of commerce with its ill- 
 gotten wealth. It had fascinated the free laborer, who, 
 like a bird charmed by a serpent, fluttered and chirped 
 before the very mouth that was opening to swallow him. 
 It had benumbed the conscience of the church, and priests 
 and preachers were chanting lullaby to this Devil's brood. 
 The voice of liberty was heard as the voice of one crying 
 in the wilderness. Even brave men had some revelations 
 of despair. They knew not the riches of God's resources. 
 Like the traitor of old, who hanged himself and all his 
 bowels gushed out, so this traitor to liberty destroyed 
 itself by its own audacity and judicial blindness. A little 
 policy, a show of courtesy, and the golden yoke of pros- 
 perity would yet have been easily borne upon the servile 
 merchant's and manufacturer's neck. It might have won 
 with smiles that which it could not gain with frowns. It 
 might by courtesy and kindness and some appearance of 
 
794 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 compliance have ruled half a hundred years longer; but it 
 had grown impudent, arrogant, domineering, and su- 
 premely foolish. 
 
 And yet, as one recalls the condition of parties when 
 the fuse was kindled at Sumter, there were fearful chances 
 against liberty. No man by the mere force of ideas would 
 have dared to take the chances. They were in favor of 
 continued Southern supremacy. A united South and a 
 divided North, with all the accustomed political enginery 
 in secret agreement to paralyze the Northern conscience 
 and the Northern hand, gave promise of a short outbreak 
 and a quick peace of despotism. When I look back upon 
 that period I feel as he felt who had traveled in the 
 darkness of the night across a bridge, when he learned 
 what a risk he had run. When he reached the house 
 of the gate-keeper he was saluted with exclamations of 
 amazement, and asked how he came over. In the morn- 
 ing he was taken out to look at the bridge. Every plank 
 had been stripped off from it, only the stringer in the 
 middle remained, and below was a chasm a hundred feet 
 deep with a roaring torrent rushing through it; and along 
 that single beam his sagacious and sure-footed horse had 
 walked, in the dead of night, and borne him safely across. 
 
 So came we over the great abyss and peril of that early 
 period of the war. 
 
 No man could have anticipated that heaven-sent freshet, 
 that flood of popular patriotism, that came from no man 
 knows where, rolling in upon the Pharaohs of the day. It 
 was this, of which there were no prognostications, no 
 calculations, and no expectations, that saved us. The 
 arrangements of that perilous opening of the war were 
 such as to give every promise of success to the conspirators 
 of slavery. 
 
 There were, even down to within a year of the close of 
 the struggle, such despondencies, at times, that, had the 
 South been wise, she could have asked a truce, and laid 
 down her arms upon conditions that would have renewed 
 her power substantially, and for a long period held liberty 
 paralyzed in the arms of compromise. That the South 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 795 
 
 believed in its cause was our safety. Had Southern men 
 had less faith that they were right they would have given 
 up earlier, and given up before their property was wasted, 
 voluntarily, on conditions such that this nation would 
 have been stranded on sand-bars at the mouth of the 
 river, instead of sailing as now full and free on the fathom- 
 less ocean. From this peril we were delivered by the 
 tenacity of Southern leaders for the cause which did not 
 seem to us right; and they were made tenacious by a love 
 of their own liberty and independence, although it seemed 
 to us that they were standing for the slavery of others. 
 This was one of those instances of the concentric working 
 of Providence in which the exterior sphere seems to be 
 human and the interior divine. 
 
 IV. The Fourth Period was that of the close of the war, 
 which brought three pre-eminent perils — that of the army, 
 first; that of reconstruction, second; and that of taxation, 
 third. The experience of the world would have led men 
 to prophesy, as they did prophesy, a series of disasters of 
 the most dangerous kind upon the dispersion of a million 
 and a half of men who had learned their lessons of morals 
 and politics in the camp. It was supposed that there would 
 be great violence breaking out on every side from men who 
 lacked occupation, who had been broken off from honor- 
 able industries, who had been supplanted by others that 
 had taken their places, and who should come home in 
 great multitudes to suffer want. Insubordination under 
 civic rule, on the part of those who had been accustomed to 
 look with indifference upon magistrates and with respect 
 only upon military officers — who despised men without 
 swords and worshiped warriors — this might have been ex- 
 pected. Dissoluteness and vagabondage we had a right to 
 fear. But, so far from the realization of such fears, I aver 
 that there never was an instance of the subsidence with so 
 little disorder of an army that had possessed such great 
 power, and had dominated a continent, headed by in- 
 numerable leaders not lacking in ambition. As the rains 
 which fall upon the mountains melt the snow, dissolving 
 the avalanche, and each drop, confluent, finds its own 
 
796 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 channel down the mountain-side to water the meadows 
 below and bring summer harvests; so this great army 
 found its way back again without one riot, without a single 
 uproar, without a solitary recorded trouble. It gave us 
 exceeding trouble to gather this million and a half of 
 men; but to disband them and send them home, many of 
 them maimed, many of them poor, and many of them 
 workless, cost not a proclamation nor an edict! 
 
 Military officers, in whom it is supposed resides a per- 
 petual ambition for power, have been our very exemplars 
 of peace. Our first President and our last were elected 
 from the fields of war. Washington, though a man of war, 
 is less thought of to-day in this nation as the commander 
 of our armies than as the man who taught us peace. And 
 Grant, who by his skill and indomitable courage wrought 
 for us final deliverance, sat in the Presidential chair, not 
 without some mistakes — for he was human — but without 
 one single tendency to military rule, and with as absolute 
 respect for civil law as has been manifested by any Presi- 
 dent from the time of Washington down to this day. 
 
 As I recede, along the adjoining fields of Jersey, from 
 the great city, I speedily lose sight of the masts, of the 
 warehouses, and of the spires themselves; and yet when I 
 have gone so far that the last glimmer of these things is 
 lost, the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge stand full and high 
 in the air, conspicuous. As time goes on we shall forget 
 that which called down such a storm of fury upon the 
 name of Grant; and when all incidental and collateral 
 things have gone below the horizon, his name and just 
 fame will stand towering high in the air, unobscured and 
 imperishable! 
 
 There was not a single military riot. There was scarcely 
 a suspicion of military ambition. There was not a sus- 
 picion of the purport of meetings multitudinous. The 
 Army of the Tennessee, the Army of the Potomac, and 
 Divisions of every name, meet from year to year, and 
 neither the papers of the one side nor those of the other 
 have ever charged them with coming together for pur- 
 poses of ambition. The Grand Army of the Republic, 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 797 
 
 without a banner, a rifle, or a sword, camping down in the 
 field of peace, has not brought upon itself any suspicion of 
 military aspirations; and yet, what people ever acquitted 
 themselves more bravely in war ? What people, on both 
 sides, ever hung up more trophies in the halls of memory? 
 What deeds of heroism have been recorded to be remem- 
 bered as long as history shall last! And there is no sus- 
 picion that those on the side either of the North or the 
 South have learned the nefarious arts of Catiline, or 
 plotted any conspiracy against liberty. Nay, the reaction 
 has been so extreme that I fear gratitude to the soldier is 
 in danger of being left out, forgotten. The man without 
 an arm, standing before the government, has less chance 
 than he who has two arms. The man who has lost a 
 foot cannot travel so fast after place and support as the 
 man who has two feet. The thunder of battle is dead, 
 and the sense of safety is swallowing up our gratitude to 
 the soldier-boy that comes crippled home, and is obliged 
 to ask his fellow citizens for opportunity to earn a liveli- 
 hood, having given to his country the substance and mar- 
 row of his life. 
 
 Next to the military period of danger, on the subsidence 
 of the war, came the danger of reconstruction — a danger 
 so great that persons not accustomed to the usages and 
 the temper of a free and intelligent people prophesied un- 
 mitigated mischief. Their prophecies happily have all 
 perished on their utterance. The first great peril arising 
 from this source was the condition of the blacks through- 
 out the South. Four millions of men had been suddenly 
 uprooted from a state of slavery. The South had felt that 
 its industry rested upon the shoulders of the blacks. The 
 welfare of innumerable families in the South was made 
 dependent upon ownership of these people. Therefore, 
 to give them liberty was to plow and subsoil the whole 
 South. It was to turn over its fences, bury its orchards, 
 destroy its houses, so to speak, introduce a new political 
 economy, and change the whole means of support of the 
 Southern people. Was that a thing easy to do, trying the 
 future by any lesson that has been taught us by the past ? 
 
798 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 It was a thing that could not be risked upon any vaticina- 
 tion. It found its own way out, however. A supreme act 
 of justice set the slaves free; but no counsel or wisdom of 
 man alone has made their freedom so harmless to them- 
 selves and so harmless to their late masters as it has been. 
 That nature which hath God in it hath done this. Meas- 
 uring by abstract rectitude and justice, you may blame this, 
 that, and the other act on the part of the South; but on 
 the whole, considering the difficulties which arose, the 
 multitudes that were concerned, the state in which the 
 war left citizenship, the revolutionized condition of things, 
 in the light of ordinary human nature, or of the expecta- 
 tions which men found on human nature — considering 
 these things, the conduct of the great mass of black people 
 in the South has been without a parallel for industry and 
 for general kindliness. Regard, too, the conduct of the 
 whites who were recently their masters! When I put one 
 over against the other I hardly know on which side my 
 wonder preponderates. If there have been mischiefs, cru- 
 elties, and oppressions, look for the perpetrators of them 
 not to the men that owned slaves and controlled public 
 sentiment at the South; look, rather, to "the poor white 
 trash" that never owned slaves, and that were but a little 
 above the colored man, being degraded and brutalized by 
 the necromancy of the accursed system of slavery itself ! 
 
 Much work is yet to be done in the South. Much 
 cruelty is yet to be looked for there. He who expects 
 Israel to come out of the hands of Pharaoh and go into 
 the promised land inside of forty years expects without 
 knowledge and without good reason. I do not expect the 
 blacks ever to come to their full possession of liberty and 
 civility until they have had the equivalent of the Jews' forty 
 years of pilgrimage. For saying so ten years ago I was 
 held in derision and contempt by the Republican press at 
 large; but we shall have, at our leisure, time to revise all 
 such judgments as that. Whenever you can construct 
 human nature by a vote, or change it by legislation; when- 
 ever you can handle men as the potter handles clay, then 
 you may by an edict convert slaves into intelligent men 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 799 
 
 instantly, blowing them, as you would soap-bubbles, into 
 objects of beauty ! But human nature is the toughest 
 thing that man ever works on. To take four million men of 
 an inferior race, educated in the school of slavery, and, by 
 a constitutional vote of the people, make them as if they 
 had never been ignorant slaves, is impossible; and if men 
 have expected it, it only shows to what overfed enthusiasm 
 they were led. 
 
 Men grow ; and of all growths there is nothing that 
 grows so slowly as manhood. The reason why it grows 
 so slowly is that there is so much of it, that it is so subtle, 
 and that it is so precious in its results — for the best things 
 are the scarcest, and are the longest in coming to perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 Then, next, was the peril arising from the anomalous 
 position of the rebellious States themselves. After such 
 rude embraces as they had experienced, after such ruinous 
 conflicts as they had gone through, and after such intense 
 bitterness as had been aroused, men said, " It contravenes 
 every canon of experience to suppose that you can have 
 more than provinces at the South to be governed by im- 
 perial rulers." Certainly it was necessary, in their anoma- 
 lous condition, that they should be made to respect the 
 government by the power of the military; but were there 
 ever before so many high-spirited provinces held in quiet- 
 ness by so few men ? Caesar could send to Gaul an army of 
 trained veterans, and slay an hundred thousand men, and 
 have peace; but there were not enough soldiers in all the 
 South to constitute the fraction of an army; and those that 
 were there were there not for the sake of overawing the pop- 
 ulation, but simply to give that part of the population who 
 earnestly meant peace and obedience to the national law 
 advantage over the rude men at the bottom of society 
 ready for any turbulence. I bear witness that the leading 
 men of the South, as a general thing, were men who kept 
 faith. When they made covenants they stood upon those 
 covenants; and whatever have been their sufferings — and 
 no people have gone through more — the Southern people 
 themselves, being the victims of the system of slavery 
 
8oo PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 which led them into a career of war and ruin, have carried 
 themselves with a gallantry, with a courage, yes, and often- 
 times with a chivalry, which has not been surpassed by 
 any other people, and which might have given us patterns 
 of self-devotion worthy of our following. Their prospects 
 have been ruined; their homes and houses have been 
 burned; their property and money were thrown into the 
 throat of war; their slaves were not only liberated, but 
 were in many cases placed over their heads with their 
 votes by which they turned everything bottom side up; 
 States were furrowed and subsoiled. Where have ever 
 been found so many people, as high spirited as they, who 
 have borne such things with a patience and self-govern- 
 ment more creditable to human nature than they? Bear 
 me witness, that so long as they tampered with the Con- 
 stitution, so long as they were enemies of the working 
 man, so long as they sought to undermine justice, so long 
 as they undertook to poison the conscience of the North 
 ■ — so long, without fear or favor, I denounced their course; 
 but now the great wheel of God's providence has turned 
 around, and those evils are swept away never to appear 
 again, in this generation at any rate, I look out upon the 
 South, and my heart turns to them, not only with that love 
 which I bear to every other heart in this land of mine, but 
 with a zeal and admiration which I never felt before; and 
 I say that the conduct of leading Southern men since the 
 war has largely redeemed their misconduct before the war. 
 
 But that peril of reconstruction has passed. Some med- 
 ication, some surgery, there has been, I admit; legislation 
 and constitutional amendments have performed a needed 
 task; but the great forces of nature, I assert, have done far 
 more for the reconstruction of the South than our legislation has. 
 
 When, by some accident, a man's leg has been splintered, 
 he calls surgeons to attend him, and they all agree that 
 the parts shall be put together as speedily as possible; but 
 whether the leg shall be afterwards treated by homoeopa- 
 thy or hydropathy or allopathy they are divided in opin- 
 ion, and a dispute is waged over the man that lies suffering. 
 Meanwhile, nature takes things into her own hand, and 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 8oi 
 
 knits the bones, and heals the limb; and by the time the 
 doctors have come to an agreement the man is able to rise 
 and kick them all out ! 
 
 There was even a more perilous danger in connection 
 with the period of reconstruction — the danger of infamous 
 dishonesty. So sure was it thought to be that this great 
 nation, which came out of the war bearing an absolute 
 burden of more than four thousand million dollars, the 
 interest on which was to be paid by a universal taxation, 
 would flinch, and refuse to bend its shoulders to the work, 
 that certain men rushed to the front with theories of what 
 was substantially "greenback" repudiation; and rushed 
 to find no following ! In the earlier periods of recon- 
 struction the question arose as to whether the bonds that 
 had been given by this government for the maintenance 
 of our armies should be paid, and paid in full. That was 
 the question which came before this country in the North- 
 west, in the far West, clear to the Pacific Ocean, in the great 
 intermediary valleys, and on these shores where people 
 who pinched their money first pinched the rocks to get it; 
 and in every quarter, North, South, East, and West, there 
 was but one substantial result. The voices of the men 
 who favored repudiation, like the sound of an evil bird 
 retreating into the depths of the forest, piped softer and 
 softer, and finally died away in the distance; while the 
 voice that thundered forth from the nation was: "The 
 promises of the Government by which it has maintained 
 unity and liberty must be kept." And for that result we 
 are as much indebted to our foreign population as to our 
 native population. To their honor and credit I say that 
 our foreign citizens, or those who have become citizens 
 here, having been born in other lands, stood by the honor 
 of the republic, and saved the nation from the disgrace of 
 a shameless dishonesty ! 
 
 Ten thousand mishaps may flow from their coming 
 among us; but the benefits which arise from the presence 
 here of those who have come from old countries and are 
 settled among us are a hundred to one to the mishaps and 
 inconveniences that result from their mingling with us. 
 
8o2 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 And there should be a monument, if it would not be an 
 imputation upon their honesty, to commemorate the fact 
 that they stood up for the integrity of the' nation when 
 they knew that every dollar paid for taxes would be so 
 wrung by the sweat of their brow out of the fields that 
 they tilled. 
 
 So, then, when you take those three dangers, the danger 
 of repudiation, the danger of reconstruction, and the dan- 
 ger arising from the anomalous condition of the people of 
 the South, — were there ever three such great problems 
 brought forward to be solved at such a time, involving so 
 many appeals to the bad side of human nature, at a time of 
 transition, always a time of disorder, — were there ever 
 three such great problems so peacefully solved ? It was 
 not the zeal of senators, or of scholars, nor was it the 
 voice of the pulpit, but it was the sound moral instincts 
 in the great thinking mass of the common people, that 
 developed those grand results which have followed the 
 war ! 
 
 I emphasize this because I wish to make the point of 
 this discourse, that it is safe to give liberty to an intelli- 
 gent common people. They form a parliament before 
 which the weightiest and most transcendent questions of 
 ethics may be safely brought for adjudication. 
 
 V. The Perils of the Hour are the last that I shall men- 
 tion — and they are the least. Whatever may betide the 
 questions that are now at issue, they will result in nothing 
 worse than simple transient mischief, moral, political, and 
 civil. The foundations are settled. The future policy of 
 this nation, whichever hands undertake to hold the helm, 
 is assured. I would rather that the nation, which has been 
 rescued by the great Republican party, and borne through 
 all the shoals and whirls and troubles of the reconstruct- 
 ive period, for which they are now receiving more curses 
 than kindnesses, and whose mistakes are multiplied before 
 the eyes of men, while their wisdom is little thought of — 
 I would rather that this nation should remain in their 
 hands, if they are worthy to hold the helm; but if not, 
 give me a hand that can hold the helm, whosesoever it is. 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DA Y. 803 
 
 If their light is extinguished along the coast, and they 
 have no longer power to guide the ship of state to a safe 
 harbor, let other lights be kindled. We cannot afford to 
 wait for any party. The nation is more important than 
 any party. It is not, then, any particular peril of a change 
 of Administration that is to be feared. I look upon that 
 with interest, but still with equanimity. 
 
 But there is a danger from suppressed repudiation. 
 When children have the measles, and when after an appro- 
 priate time saffron and all the other drinks fail to bring 
 them out, the doctors shake their heads and call them 
 suppressed measles; and the measles suppressed are more 
 dangerous than when brought out. And suppressed re- 
 pudiation is all the more dangerous than any open and 
 avowed repudiation. Whenever, in any nation, there is 
 such an attempt to tamper with standards that the moral 
 sense of men is bewildered, and liberty is given to unprin- 
 cipled men at large to cheat, to be unfaithful to obliga- 
 tions, to refuse the payment of honest debts — wherever 
 that takes place, it is all the worse if done with the per- 
 mission of law ! I hate the devil riding on a law worse 
 than I do the devil riding v^^ithout a law under him. Who- 
 ever tampers with established standards tampers with the 
 very marrow and vitality of public faith. 
 
 What would become of this land if all standards were 
 tampered with ? What if the legislature this year should 
 ordain that a foot should consist of only ten inches, and 
 next year, the power being taken out of their hands by 
 the other party, it should be ordained that a foot should 
 measure fourteen inches; and so every three or five years 
 the standard should be changed on which immense and 
 innumerable contracts were based, it being necessary for 
 such contracts to follow the alteration, sometimes damag- 
 ing and sometimes unjustly favoring the contractors, and 
 enabling men, under the shield of party and of law, to 
 commit fraud as if it were an equity ? What if the pound 
 weight should be tampered with, and it should be or- 
 dained now that a pound is ten ounces, now that it is 
 twelve, and now that it is fifteen ? What if the quart and 
 
8o4 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 pint should be tampered with, and made to differ to-mor- 
 row from what they are to-day ? What if the yard- 
 measure should be tampered with ? What if all the 
 standards on which business is conducted should be sub- 
 ject to fluctuations and caprice, so that no man could tell 
 what was right or just, and so that ethical questions, with 
 all their casuistry, should swarm as mosquitoes in summer 
 about a swamp, or insects in a country tavern ? What 
 chance would there be for honesty, for integrity, or for 
 solid prosperity ? 
 
 The danger into which we are running is hidden under 
 the mystery of finance and the currency. All money is 
 but a representative of property. As now, by facility of 
 intercourse, all the world is one open market, the need of 
 one and the same standard of money, uniform, universal, 
 and unalterable, becomes imperious ! Gold is the world's 
 standard. Gold is the universal measure of value. Other 
 kinds of money there are — silver, copper, paper — but they 
 all must conform to gold and be measured by it, and be 
 interchangeable with it, in fixed and definite proportions. 
 Gold is king in commerce. All other money must repre- 
 sent gold. No vote of legislature can change the nature 
 of commerce, the nature of property, the nature of its 
 representative in money, or the relative superiority or in- 
 feriority of different currencies. Gold came to its suprem- 
 acy as a representative of property by the long established 
 consent of mankind. Congress cannot change it for the 
 world, nor even for this nation except upon past transac- 
 tions. It may give impunity to men to cheat confiding 
 creditors, but it cannot rule the value of currency in all 
 future transactions. The crime of paying a debt in a 
 currency inferior in value to that in which it was con- 
 tracted, base at all times and anywhere, has a deeper guilt 
 and a baser infamy in our case. When in our mortal 
 struggle capitalists were solicited to lend their money to 
 us on the faith of the nation, we were too glad, most 
 grateful for their aid. Then they were not grasping and 
 swollen usurers. O, no; they were benefactors ! We re- 
 joiced in their bounty, and gave thanks for their confiding 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DA Y. S05 
 
 faith in our national honesty. Now, our dangers past, we 
 revile them, finding no epithets too violent, and strive to 
 pay them, not gold for the gold they lent our misery, but 
 in a dishonest measure of an inferior metal. In the court 
 of the commercial world's conscience we shall be con- 
 victed of endeavoring to cheat the men who came to our 
 rescue in the dark day. This Congress would not have 
 existed, nor any government of the United States, but for 
 the strength given to our armies by foreign capitalists; and 
 now to return their aid by a base treachery is to deserve 
 an infamy as deep as the lowest depths of hell. 
 
 But woe to those men, bull-headed, without eyes, who 
 are attempting to undermine the integrity and simplicity 
 of the nation by locating discussion in that most difficult 
 point for ordinary men to understand — in finance; in the 
 history and meanings of currency ! I do not care what 
 width and liberty you give to greenbacks or metallic cur- 
 rency; only, there is a congress of time, and a congress of 
 the world; and at the present, and for the future, gold, in 
 certain definite proportions, has been made the standard; 
 and it is the standard in Asia, in Europe, in Africa, and in 
 America, north, south, east, and west; and it is so, not be- 
 cause Congress voted it, and courts adjudicated it, but 
 because the human race are united on this one point: that 
 gold represents property, and that it is a universal, un- 
 changing standard. 
 
 Now put whatever else you will as subsidiary, collateral, 
 auxiliary, but do not change that standard, either by a 
 suppressed assault upon the thing itself, or by attempting 
 to equalize with it that which is not equal to it. No act of 
 Congress can ever make one pound equal to two pounds. 
 No act of Congress can ever make a thing inferior equal to a 
 superior. Silver coin must be made proportionate to the 
 value of gold, as determined in the open markets of the 
 world ! All paper currency must be convertible into gold. 
 Any other course is to teach men to cheat by law ; it is to 
 teach honest men to cheat without knowing that they 
 cheat ; it is to teach' fraud by legislation ; it is a high 
 crime and misdemeanor; and if men in Congress do not 
 
8o6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 know it, what are they there for? When the blind are 
 leading the blind, and they all fall into the ditch together, 
 it will not help them to find that the ditch is silver-lined. 
 
 The attempt to cheat capitalists by paying bonds in 
 silver coin of less value than gold is hardly worse than the 
 other attempt to derange and poison business by a re- 
 newal of the plague of greenbacks. No paper currency 
 has any intrinsic value: no government can give it lawful 
 power. Gold is its only basis. It is worth what it can 
 command in gold — the royal metal ! 
 
 How pitiable is the plea, that if greenbacks were good 
 enough for war they are good enough for peace ! That if 
 they bought munitions, paid debts, purchased lands, 
 cleared farms, built railroads, and carried the business of 
 a continent through a continued and desperate peril, they 
 are good enough now. Is it true, then, that the medicine 
 that carries a man through his sickness is good enough 
 for food after he gets well ? Shall a man walk on crutches 
 all his days because they helped him while lame ? An in- 
 convertible paper has its value in the promise of gov- 
 ernment to pay its face in gold as soon as it is able. It is 
 the reasonableness of that hope that gives it value. As 
 the hope of speedy payment in gold receded, the green- 
 back depreciated. As soon as prosperity gave promise 
 that the government would soon pay in gold, dollar for 
 dollar, greenbacks appreciated, until now they are worth 
 nearly their face in gold. A debased or enfeebled cur- 
 rency may be the desperate necessity of war, but it is the 
 infatuation of ignorance, or an insanity of dishonesty, to 
 pour out inconvertible paper in peace, or to attempt to 
 make short-legged silver keep step with gold ! 
 
 Every father who has a family to bring up, and who 
 therefore has a greater interest in integrity than in every- 
 thing else on earth; every mother that has a child to rear, 
 who represents the stand-point of supremest wisdom, and 
 who looks upon the universe as merely an instrument for 
 rearing that child; every teacher that has under his care 
 the young, whose minds are to be developed; every young 
 man whose ambitions are honorable, every man who loves 
 
PAST PERILS AND THE PERIL OF TO-DAY. 807 
 
 his country more than his own estate; every editor whose 
 heart throbs with patriotism, — every such person ought to 
 stand up in open and unequivocal testimony against the 
 infamy of this suppressed repudiation which is tending to 
 destroy honesty in our land. Not because it will work a 
 great while; not because it is going to make such a differ- 
 ence in the long run with silver and gold — that is not 
 worthy of consideration: but because such a nation as 
 this, with such an ancestry and such a history; that has 
 been carried through such an illustrious career in the 
 formation of institutions and in the maintenance of them; 
 that is a beacon light to the world, and whose example is 
 emancipating France and transforming England; that has 
 gone through a war and come out of it with such clean, 
 unambitious hands, and is seeking to cement its people 
 more and more firmly together, — ought not to be thus be- 
 trayed by miscreant men to do an act which will make it a 
 scoffing and a by-word all over the world to the end of 
 time. 
 
 It is not a question, therefore, which belongs to ordinary 
 politics: it belongs to the national conscience; it belongs to 
 mankind. There ought to be a dividing line running be- 
 tween man and man; and from this time forth the cry 
 should be, "Who is on the side of honesty and integrity?" 
 This is a time for lauding with enthusiasm those who are 
 in favor of truth and uprightness, and for thundering 
 indignation against those who would overthrow national 
 integrity. I do not care greatly for crops, for cattle, for 
 merchandise, for houses, or for lands, but I do care for the 
 reputation of my country; I care for my kind; I care for 
 the memory of our fathers who have left us this fair herit- 
 age; I care for my God. 
 
 We shall go through this struggle. God who has de- 
 livered us in so many perils will also deliver us in this. 
 Have faith in God. 
 
 Do not give way to the folly of despondency. The peo- 
 ple are to be trusted; but in order to be trusted they must 
 be instructed. A people of integrity and intelligence are 
 competent to anything which is necessary in the life of 
 
8o8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 nations. A free, educated, and religious people are the 
 surest in peace, the bravest in war, the most enterprising 
 in business, and the strongest in morality, with more en- 
 thusiasm, more wisdom, more sovereignty — and that, too, 
 for emergencies — than crowns or aristocracies have. The 
 history of this nation is a voice that ought to carry cheer 
 to all the struggling nations of the earth. You are not 
 seeking for an illusory thing when you are seeking for a 
 free republic — only remember that enduring republics 
 must be based on rectitude, on intelligence, and on pa- 
 tience; and must be maintained not by the hand, except 
 in the direct exigencies, but by the head and the heart. 
 
 In all these great opportunities our nation has gone 
 right; and the nation will go right. Like a ship against 
 which storms are leagued, it rolled heavily, it was dashed 
 upon by overwhelming waves, only to rear up its unharmed 
 hull, and, in darkness or in light, against the elements to 
 hold on its way, taking no counsel of storm or of dark- 
 ness, but of the compass that lay silent before it, an unerr- 
 ing guide. The Word of God and the righteousness 
 thereof have been our compass, and have borne us through 
 storms and troubles, and will still bear us safely; for a free 
 people, standing on foundations of religious liberty, are 
 strong enough to brave Time and the World ! 
 
 Let us not, therefore, have any such war cries by the 
 way as, " Liberty, equality, fraternity"; but let our war 
 cry be, " Integrity, Intelligence, Liberty." With that 
 legend we will fight the World and Time, and win all right 
 things. 
 
ADDRESS BEFORE THE SOCIETY OF THE 
 ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,* 
 
 Springfield, Mass., June 5, 1878. 
 
 Mr. President and Gentlemen: Before I utter a word 
 of that which I have prepared, allow me to respond in 
 one single particular to the remarks that have just fallen 
 from General Slocum [the President of the Society, who in 
 introducing Mr. Beecher had spoken of his speeches in 
 England]. He is right in saying that the weight of the 
 English nation was against us in the war: but he inad- 
 vertently phrased it wrong when he said that the common 
 people of England were opposed to us. It was just they 
 that held the government of England in check. But for 
 the great mass of the common people of England, we 
 should have been involved in foreign difficulties which, 
 added to our other difficulties, might have sunk us — though 
 I do not believe that this Union would have gone down, 
 even with the South and England on top of us. \^Greai 
 applause^ Of the weavers, of the day-laborers, in all 
 central England, I bear this witness : that while the can- 
 non were shutting up their doors and bringing the unwel- 
 come wolf in at the window, they stood in poverty and 
 almost starvation, loyal to the North and faithful to the 
 very end. ^Renewed applause^ To the industrial classes 
 of England we owe it that Great Britain's hand was not 
 added to the treacherous hand of the South in destroying 
 the great Union of this land. 
 
 I return my thanks to you, gentlemen, for the honor 
 conferred in my appointment to address you upon this oc- 
 casion. I do not belong to the number who have forgot- 
 ten the weary days of war. There was an early day when 
 
 * At the Ninth Annual Reunion of the Society. 
 
8io PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 our countrymen in the North looked upon military parades 
 as so many masquerades, and upon officers walking the 
 streets in uniforms as gay butterflies. There came another 
 day and another feeling. We saw our streets filled with 
 swift-moving regiments, and cheered their departure to the 
 field with profound gratitude and boundless enthusiasm. 
 Year by year an officer returned from the field was honored, 
 and privates were lauded as brave defenders of their country. 
 The wounded and maimed were objects of active sympathy. 
 
 Who will forget the eagerness of each day in the long 
 peril, the sickening suspense, the almost heart-breaking, 
 the shame and sorrow, the joy and glorious tumult of 
 gratulation which accompanied the long history of the 
 Army of the Potomac, its disasters, its bloody drawn-bat- 
 tles, its delays, its slowly-earned honors, its final victories ? 
 The names of Scott, McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside, 
 Hooker, Meade and Grant ^prolonged and enthusiastic ap- 
 plaiise\ are more than names of men — they are the symbols 
 of periods in our war history. 
 
 When the war was over, and its heroic men came back 
 to civil life, there were no places too good for them, no 
 honors too bright. But new growths are pushing up from 
 the bottom of society, and the generation that knew you 
 is fast passing away. The scenes are growing dim in the 
 past and already men are courting popularity by doing 
 despite to the army and to the men that saved this nation. 
 I am not of their number. \^Applause^ To-day I do 
 homage to the heroic men who have saved the Constitu- 
 tion, the unity of the States, the honor and power of the 
 nation; who have revolutionized the industry and political 
 economy of the continent, saved the age from the corrup- 
 tions of slavery, secured for labor a noble career, and 
 given to the rights of men — of common men, of laboring 
 men, the world over — an impulse and guaranty unknown 
 before. 
 
 It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword. That 
 depends on circumstances, gentlemen. \^Laughter^ Some- 
 times the pen, sometimes the sword is mightier: but there 
 come times when both together do the work which neither 
 
AA'MV OF THE POTOMAC. 8ii 
 
 of them can effect alone. If it was the pen that sharpened 
 our swords before the war, it has been the sword that has 
 sharpened the pen since. \_Applause^ 
 
 It was yours, gentlemen, to belong to a period in which 
 we were like to lose all the fruits of civilization. That 
 which the school, the pulpit, the forum, had sown, the pen 
 could not reap. Then was fulfilled gloriously the prophecy 
 of old, and the sword became a sickle, and reaped the 
 harvests that were ready to perish ! 
 
 The desire to heal the wounds of war, the wish to con- 
 ciliate and reunite those who have been at strife, is both 
 humane and patriotic. But the spirit of reconciliation 
 may not be wisely guided. It certainly will not be if it 
 glozes over the criminality of those who led the country 
 into this conflict; if it forgets, or calls by any soft name, 
 the crime of disruption and disunion. \^Applaiise?\ The 
 virtue and rectitude of the endeavor to maintain unity and 
 law must never be forgotten. The value to America and to 
 universal civilization of the results of the war must not be 
 softened or hid away. \Renezved applause^ It began as a 
 war for the union of the United States; it ended as a war 
 for emancipation and liberty. It began on the Southern 
 part as a war in defense of a civilization based upon slavery; 
 it ended as a war for free labor and the laboring man. The 
 internal policy of this country was undergoing a change 
 fatal to humanity. You have restored it to health ! The 
 constitution was wasting away with consumption. Black 
 blood was circulated through it. By your surgery the 
 danger has passed. Our lungs breathe pure air. Our 
 hearts send vitalized blood to every member. Health and 
 vigor are restored. The recognition of these truths ought 
 not to be, must not be, a cause of offense to anybody. 
 \^Applaiise^ Taunts, vainglorious comparisons, deprecia- 
 tion of the vigor and bravery of the enemy, and whatever 
 springs from hatred, revenge, or selfishness, should be 
 buried. But honest truth should be fearlessly spoken. 
 The South, however, gentlemen, was wrong. \^Loud cheers, 
 swinging of hats, and waving of handkerchief s.\ The North 
 was right. [^Renewed cheers, swinging of hats, and waving 
 
8l2 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 of handkerchiefs^ This must stand out as clear as the sun, 
 henceforth and forevermore. \_Great applause?^ YVe admit 
 the bravery of Southern men; the gallantry of their offi- 
 cers; the skill and genius of their great generals. But it 
 was bravery, skill, and genius exerted in a bad cause. 
 
 We admit that, to the men of the South, their cause 
 seemed to be that of liberty — that they were sincere and 
 honest. But sincerity does not change facts. If their 
 minds were darkened to the reality of underlying tenden- 
 cies, it is all the more important that history should dis- 
 close them. We willingly accredit them with great military 
 virtues. But we deny to their leaders, to their cause, all 
 political wisdom. The South from 1840 sought wrong 
 ends by wrong methods. The war was the result of South- 
 ern heresies. In the whole history of human procedure 
 there were nevermore blunders committed than by South- 
 ern statesmen. The conduct of kings and nobles preceding 
 the great French revolution was not more unwise, more 
 fatal to their own interests, than the steps taken by the 
 South for a quarter of a century before the war. 
 
 These things are of such importance to mankind that 
 we cannot afford to let them lie unheeded. We shall not 
 reap the fruits of victory if we suffer these things to be 
 forgotten. We shall wrong the memory of the dead if we 
 admit the equality of those who fell in a good cause and those 
 who fell in a bad. \_Applausc^ Personally, one may have 
 been as good as another. But, as representatives of a 
 great principle, one fought for darkness, and the other for 
 light: one strove for slavery, and the other for liberty. 
 \^Renewed applause. '\ Admit that they thought themselves 
 soldiers of freedom, that does not change the nature of 
 things. Men may believe that they are sailing for a safe 
 harbor, while great undercurrents are driving them right 
 upon the rocks. Whatever was the personal rectitude, 
 sincerity, heroism, of the individuals of the Southern army, 
 they were swept on by the great under influences of evil 
 which overruled their will, and made them the unconscious 
 soldiers of despotism. 
 
 We dishonor our dead when we make no distinction be- 
 
A/?AIV OF THE POTOMAC. 813 
 
 tween those who died for liberty and those who died for 
 slavery. \_Applause^ Reconciliation purchased by rubbing 
 out the whole meaning of the war, the moral significance 
 of its results, the grandeur to mankind of its influences, 
 is not a compromise, but surrender. If it brings peace, it 
 is the ignominious peace of death. I am willing to strew 
 flowers upon the graves of Southern soldiers as men, and 
 at appropriate times, under the influence of that generous 
 sympathy which we cherish for all mankind; but not as 
 soldiers, not as the defenders of a lost cause that was 
 rightly lost; not on the same day with the fallen cham- 
 pions for liberty ! \^Loud and long continued applause?^ Not 
 with my right hand chaplets for soldiers of freedom, and 
 my left chaplets for soldiers of disruption, rebellion and 
 slavery! S^Tremendous shouts and cheers^ Is it becoming 
 that we should by such actions testify to the world that 
 the whole difference between slavery and liberty is only 
 the difference of the left and right hands — a mere differ- 
 ence of degree and not of kind? 
 
 It is for you, gentlemen of the Army of the Potomac, 
 to resist such criminal folly: to lift up the true meaning 
 of the war so high that no cloud should obscure it; and, as 
 by your heroic service you have become an example to 
 our youth in courage and self-devotion, so you should be 
 their instructors in the everlasting principles of truth, 
 equity, and liberty which underlay the war, and without 
 which it was not a grand sacrifice, but a gigantic butchery. 
 It was gloriously right for you and for the great slumber- 
 ing brotherhood of your fallen companions to proffer all 
 for the constitution, for the unity of national life; sternly 
 refusing to Europeanize this continent, and split it up 
 into a swarm of stinging, quarreling States with boundary 
 lines that never cooled, with strife forever inflammatory 
 and incendiary! The North was bound by the highest rec- 
 titude, when the divine opportunity came, to wipe out 
 slavery, and by emancipation here to lift the condition of 
 labor over the whole world. This is not a matter to be 
 muffled up and softened, by us at any rate. \Applause?^ 
 It would consign us justly to everlasting contempt to be 
 
8l4 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ashamed of or indifferent to the brightest page of modern 
 history. No war of all time was so needless as that on the 
 part of the South, and none so indispensable and honor- 
 able as that on the part of the North. 
 
 When Prussia shifted the center of the German Empire 
 no great change was wrought in the condition of man- 
 kind. The imperial crown of Germany, before in Austria, 
 went over to Prussia. That was all. Laws, policies, gov- 
 ernments, remained the same. But our great war revolu- 
 tionized the affairs of half a continent to the very founda- 
 tions. The South was aristocratic. It must inevitably be 
 democratic. It had a false system of servile labor. It 
 has changed it to free labor. Its whole organization of 
 society was affected by its heretical political economy. 
 That is regenerated. The springs are changed. The fount- 
 ains out of which its life was flowing were poisonous. 
 The prophet has thrown salt therein, and they now flow 
 with life and health. On these new foundations we greet 
 the rising South, and with cordial confidence and fra- 
 ternal sympathy rejoice to see her sons again in the halls 
 of legislation, and to join with her in a generous emula- 
 tion for the future glory and strength of our Union undi- 
 vided and indivisible. \^Applause?^ 
 
 With these remarks I dismiss the past, and turn to the 
 present and to the future. I have already spoken of the 
 changed feeling of the public toward soldiers. It may be 
 called the decay of the military spirit in the North. The 
 fire which flamed forth for a few years has well-nigh 
 burned out. We have returned to our looms, our plows, 
 our ships. Our young men are becoming engrossed in 
 the arts of peace; and since military life is not profitable 
 in the market, nor popular just now in politics, it is dying 
 out of our favor and out of public thought. This is 
 greatly to be deplored. Some one should speak. Clergy- 
 men will not, because they are the messengers of peace. 
 Politicians will not, because just now it will lose votes to 
 either party that advocates the army; for the slight symp- 
 toms of socialistic fever which are creeping upon the labor 
 party raise an apprehension that the chief functions of an 
 
AA'J/y OF THE POTOMAC. 815 
 
 army hereafter will be to defend the order of society 
 against the violence of riotous reformers, and against 
 tumultuous strikes that interrupt internal commerce and 
 carry confusion to ever}/' form of business. But these are 
 the very reasons why some one should call public atten- 
 tion to the danger of suffering the military spirit of the 
 North to decay. 
 
 The history of armies and wars in Europe inspired 
 our fathers with a just fear of large standing armies. 
 They are dangerous alike in monarchies and in democra- 
 cies; but it is by an abuse of a good and necessary thing. 
 Things are dangerous in the proportion in which they are 
 good. Weakness never alarms men: it is power that 
 makes them afraid; and in this world there is nothing 
 good that has not power within it. Armies are good; but 
 they are powers capable of the utmost evil. 
 
 So long as society is made up of large multitudes of ig- 
 norant men who dwell in the sphere of appetite and 
 passion, and who are not sensitive to reason and moral 
 influence, it must be prepared to deal with such men by 
 the motive which they can feel — physical force. If men 
 will keep the road by their eye, all the better. If they are 
 blinded, or they will not see, then the thorn-hedge must 
 be planted on each side of the road, that they may know 
 when the-y are stepping off. S^Laughter and applause?\^ 
 
 The world is not yet Christian enough to trust the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount as our only policy. If men will not 
 respect each other's property, liberty, and rights by moral 
 suasion, they must be compelled to do so by physical sua- 
 sion. The existence of a well-regulated army stands upon 
 the same grounds as the existence of a municipal police, 
 or a rural constabulary force. 
 
 [Mr. Beecher, in reading this sentence, substituted "moral" 
 for "rural," but immediately discovered his mistake, and said, 
 "Moral is not exactly the word to put before constabulary force;" 
 and then repeated the sentence with the right word in the right 
 place, the audience being greatly amused by the coolness and 
 readiness with which he extricated himself from what to some 
 persons would have been an embarrassing predicament.] 
 
8l6 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 To withdraw all physical force from society would leave it 
 a prey to lawless and violent men and would bring on a 
 carnival of crime. But to secure the best effects of a 
 military organization it should be surrounded with a mil- 
 itary public spirit. Every soldier should be a citizen, 
 every citizen should be a soldier. An army ought not to 
 be a body foreign to the community in which it exists, but 
 sprung Trom it, belonging to it, and continually returning to 
 it, and penetrating it with its own spirit. The citizen ought 
 not to go far to become a soldier. If it could be done, it 
 would be a wholesome education to require every young 
 man to spend two years of his early life in the camp under 
 rigorous military education. \_Applause^ Health, regular- 
 ity, subordination, prompt obedience, a facile carriage of 
 the body, beside the knowledge of military affairs, would, 
 in the long run, repay for the abstraction of so much time 
 from business. If that may not be thought of in our land, 
 then military drill should constitute a part of our whole 
 academic system. Every college and every large academy 
 should give to its students the knowledge and discipline 
 which military life requires. It ought not to be optional. 
 It should be a part of duty enforced. There was hope 
 at the close of the civil war that this was to be secured. 
 Officers of experience were assigned to many of our colleges, 
 and arms provided. But it is to be feared that the zeal has 
 cooled, and military drill languishes. 
 
 There is to be no more war. This is the thought of men; 
 and I believe there will be no more war between the North 
 and the South, in this generation. \^Applause?^ If there 
 is, you may be sure that it will not be brought on by 
 Southern men. \^Latighter and applaiisei\ You may be sure 
 that it will not be brought on by Northern soldiers. 
 YRcncivcd applause^ You may be sure that it will not be 
 brought on by any man who ever did go into the field or 
 who ever wants to. \Loiid cheers^ And the feeling of men 
 is that there will be no more war. The Indians are far 
 away. Not even the biennial armies of the Fenians hover- 
 ing along our Northern boundary arouse our fears. Our 
 security is assured, and military drill is burdensome. 
 
A/iA/y OF THE POTOMAC. 817 
 
 The State military system deserves to be more thor- 
 oughly developed. For, though it will never secure a pro- 
 fessional education of officers and men, it will secure the 
 materials out of which, should war come, might be built 
 up an efficient army. 
 
 The rise and spread of tastes for manly and vigorous 
 exercise of every kind is a matter for gratulation. What- 
 ever shall bring men out of dissolving ease, out of routine 
 industry, fire their ambition, tighten their muscle, and 
 cleanse their brain, should be encouraged. A robust 
 and vigorous generation of men will furnish the proper 
 material for armies should the times require them; and 
 though aptness in the use of weapons, facility in rid- 
 ing, and skill in all athletic exercises are not of themselves 
 a sufficient training, they yield a preparation by means of 
 which military organization can quickly produce good sol- 
 diers. 
 
 In the important respect of military training we may 
 draw lessons of wisdom from the Southern States. They 
 are doing their duty. In almost every Southern State, 
 if not in every one, excellent military academies are 
 established, and are flourishing. In many the system of 
 education will compare favorably with our government 
 academy, or with any foreign school for military training. 
 For this they are to be commended, and for neglecting it 
 we of the North are to be blamed. 
 
 If these views shall seem to any to be an inculcation of a 
 warlike spirit, inconsistent with modern civilization and at 
 discord with the whole genius of Christianity, I reply that 
 in America military education is more likely to prevent 
 fighting than to produce it. To prepare for war is often 
 the way to prevent war. Those who most ardently long for 
 peace — and we count ourselves foremost amongst them — 
 will best secure it by cultivating the military spirit. With 
 bad and ignorant men impunity is opportunity. 
 
 Wars are among the most grievous burdens which man- 
 kind bear. By every just means their frequency should be 
 diminished and their scope limited. But wars are inevita- 
 ble until justice prevails, until ignorance is enlightened, 
 
8l8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 until the brutal forces of society are purged out, until in- 
 dustry is freed from unjust restraints; and to decry war 
 without raising human nature above the animal line is to 
 oust the surgeon and leave the cancer. 
 
 We are to bear in mind that as this nation increases 
 in population, in resources, and in political power, the 
 sources of danger multiply and demand of our people a 
 corresponding energy in government, within constitu- 
 tional bounds. 
 
 We are approaching a period in which men must con- 
 sider the duties and limits, as well as the rights, of prop- 
 erty. The wealth of the future is to be without parallel. 
 The skies, the sea, the soil, under the discoveries of science, 
 are, as it were, recreated. The development of machinery 
 has, in effect, multiplied the population ten thousand fold. 
 Fortunes are to be amassed, by multitudes of men, of fab- 
 ulous magnitude. The combinations of capital are to go 
 on beyond the power which we have to foresee and predict. 
 Insensibly we are rearing up, under names of commerce, 
 vast forces which must become political forces. The rail- 
 way system of the United States is one of the grandest de- 
 velopments of modern civilization in its relation to con- 
 venience and wealth. In its reflex influence it has aug- 
 mented, enlarged, the scale of human life. Our feet have 
 become wings. We each have the hundred hands of 
 Briareus. Time has been augmented. If a penny saved 
 is a penny earned, how much more hours, days, and 
 months ! The final results, however, are not doubtful. 
 
 But mediately society is developing new problems; it 
 is moving through untried ways. Many evils will arise. 
 Mistake is the mother of wisdom. We are jealous of po- 
 litical power. We will not suffer any man, nor any combi- 
 nation of men, to gain and wield all the political power of 
 which they are capable. We stop men short of their 
 capacity. We compel them to walk between walls, and 
 limit their liberty for the sake of greater average liberty. 
 But, shall we permit the development of wealth, in few 
 hands, especially in the hands of artificial individuals, in 
 corporations, or in allied families, without jealousy and 
 
, • ARAfV OF THE POTOMAC. 819 
 
 without limit ? Minor corporations are hel(J in check by 
 salutary laws. But, are continental corporations, the vast 
 railways, with enormous capital, liable to exert no dan- 
 gerous influence ? At present the rival interests and con- 
 flict of these roads are a sufficient check. But will it 
 always be so ? The combined capital of four roads run- 
 ning westward from the Atlantic must be a thousand 
 million dollars. The relation of this gigantic sum to the 
 States through which the roads run, to their army of em- 
 ploye's, to the Legislatures, and even, indirectly, to the 
 constitution of courts and appointment of judges, is but a 
 small part of their possible power. The possession of the 
 federal government becomes every year more and more an 
 object not alone of ambition but of commercial impor- 
 tance. 
 
 The days are near at hand when money is to bear a re- 
 lation to politics scarcely yet suspected, notwithstanding 
 our recent experiences of corruption. If it were in the 
 interest of these four vast corporations that a certain policy 
 should be pursued, and that certain men should be put in 
 power to execute them, their concentrated councils and 
 their enormous wealth and influence would go far to coun- 
 terbalance all resistance. I do not assail the system of the 
 general management of railroads. They are young, they 
 are lion cubs; and it is wise to consider, while we play 
 with them as kittens, what they will do when their nails 
 and teeth are grown and their haunches are strong ! \_Ap- 
 plause and laughter^ 
 
 While the developments of enterprise and. wealth are 
 giving extraordinary force to the top of society, there has 
 already set in a movement below, of the great mass of 
 workingmen, which cannot at present be calculated. We 
 may be sure of two general results: (i) That these social- 
 istic movements will not, in the end, secure those radical 
 changes in society which they are now avowedly seeking; 
 and (2) that they will become a disturbing force, both in 
 the realm of industry and of politics, in the vain endeavor 
 which they will make to secure those ends. 
 
 The movement, which is variously denominated commun- 
 
820 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ism, socialism, or the labor party, or workingmen's party, is 
 not of American origin. It was born in European coun- 
 tries, and there it is wide-spread. At present in America it 
 is in the hands largely of our immigrant population. But 
 it has behind it, in Europe, a vast sympathetic force. It 
 has the vigor of youth and the intensity of fanaticism on its 
 side. It has more. It seeks some ends that ought to be 
 gained. It aims at some wrongs that ought to be re- 
 dressed. There are changes in society which selfishness 
 will resist, but which must inevitably take place. In these 
 respects it has strength. Its social philosophy, if the crude 
 theories may be dignified with the name, is its weakest 
 point. 
 
 The attempt to reorganize industry, commerce and gov- 
 ernment, not by gradual unfolding, but upon a general 
 theory, involving a radical reconstruction, is an absurdity 
 only this side of insanity. There is no danger in the final 
 results; but intermediately there is great danger. The 
 movement is likely to draw to itself the indolent, the cor- 
 rupt, the industrious poor, not enlightened, the laboring 
 men by whom the great manufacturing interests of the 
 world are conducted, and who are without real estate or 
 capital. It will tend to organize labor as distinguished 
 from capital in an antagonistic spirit. It will seek to resist 
 the established methods of industry and commerce, by 
 strikes, by unions, whose interior will embody the most 
 absolute despotism known to mankind — for labor-unions 
 are the worst forms of despotism that ever were bred by 
 the human mind. \^Applause?^ It will bring to bear upon 
 parties an influence which will corrupt political doctrines, 
 breed demagogues like the frogs of Egypt, enfeeble the 
 laws and emasculate the administration of government. 
 Should times grow prosperous, it seems likely that these 
 tendencies will for a while subside. But with every period 
 of general distress these tendencies will break out. 
 
 In much that is involved in this great movement I have 
 profound sympathy. Society is far from perfect. The 
 old leaven is to be purged out, and the new leaven put in. 
 I recognize the right of the champions of industry, even 
 
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 821 
 
 the extremists, to discuss their philosophy, and to empty 
 all the instruments of persuasion and conviction which we 
 employ in resisting them. 
 
 But, gentlemen, it is easy to foresee, in the light of what 
 has already happened, that the nation for the next score of 
 years, at least, is liable to pass through stormy times, and 
 that the law will need not only a wise head, but a strong 
 hand, that disorder may not run to riot, and that the pas- 
 sions of men may not destroy the peace and welfare of 
 society. 
 
 In the first instance, each State will employ its police 
 and constabulary force; then it will fall back upon its 
 volunteer soldiery. But there may again come times in 
 which an enraged mob will submit to the regular army of 
 the United States when the militia would only enrage it 
 the more. Indeed, if soldiers are to be employed at all in 
 aid of civil administration, the trained soldiers of the fed- 
 eral army, under regular officers, are in every way better 
 than militia, be they ever so good. \^Applause.'\ They are 
 likely to be more skillful, more self-possessed, more humane, 
 more efficient than the extemporized soldiers of the State. 
 
 Those who quake with dread at the mention of a stand- 
 ing army are under the influence of old prejudices, based 
 upon European experience. Standing armies in the hands 
 of ambitious monarchs, in the midst of a multitude of 
 contiguous and jealous nations, are not to be the types of 
 American armies. In the whole history of our govern- 
 ment there has never been a disturbance or even a threat 
 or suspicion of danger from the profession of arms in the 
 regular army. Our most eminent officers have been pro- 
 found lovers of peace. There has never been an accusa- 
 tion of plot or plan to augment their power or to usurp 
 any function of government. We have had a boiling and 
 bubbling caldron often, and our private citizens have 
 brought fuel to it; our demagogues have roared, our poli- 
 ticians have plotted, our statesmen have plunged the coun- 
 try into blunders and whelmed it in war; but the army 
 and the great generals whose names are our glory have 
 never brought on a disturbance; have always counseled 
 
82 2 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 for peace; have extricated the country from its embarrass- 
 ments and dangers; and have, by their uniform and uni- 
 versal prudence, respect for law, and good fellowship, 
 proved themselves to be safer guides than have been our 
 civil leaders. \^Great applause \ Since the founding of this 
 government, I challenge the production of a single mis- 
 chief-making military man. If any names are recalled of 
 generals who have been rash and dangerous, in every in- 
 stance they will be found to be extemporized generals, 
 made out of professional politicians. \_Laitghtcy ami ap- 
 plause?^ Officers and soldiers are the very men who are 
 above all others friends of peace. Caucus and Congress 
 are bellicose; the army it is that is a national peace so- 
 ciety. 
 
 And yet no class of men of equal attainments and char- 
 acter and general ability are as severely criticised, as in- 
 tentionally underrated, as unceremoniously crippled and 
 abused, as our soldiers. 
 
 This nation is indebted to the West Point Military Acad- 
 emy for as noble a band of graduates as the world can 
 produce. \^Applause?\ The standard of honor is nowhere 
 higher. Respect and reverence for law and liberty are 
 nowhere more profound. Scrupulous fidelity to duty is 
 nowhere more nearly a religion, and the honor of honesty, 
 the Jionor of honesty, the Honor of Honesty, is nowhere so 
 signally illustrated as in the graduates of the West Point 
 Military Academy. What university, what college, what 
 theological seminary, can point to its two thousand grad- 
 uates and say, "There has never been an instance of dis- 
 honesty in the administration of public moneys".'' The 
 only institution in this country that can say this is that 
 academy. And yet this noble cradle of noble men has 
 never been pampered and dandled. Funds have been 
 grudgingly voted for its bare subsistence; improvements 
 have been resisted; it has been treated with suspicion and 
 prejudice; and it has wrought out its unexampled results, 
 not by abundance of means, but by the devotion of its 
 corps of professors and teachers under the rigor of a 
 financial system which has carried economy to stinginess. 
 
A/iA/V OF THE POTOMAC. 823 
 
 What, then, is the attitude of the United States army- 
 to-day? The smallest in proportion to the population 
 and the territory which it guards of any army on the 
 globe ! It has been in the field almost without rest for 
 twenty years. It is scattered along a vast frontier, in 
 small companies, watching night and day Mexican thieves, 
 or fighting savages; marching through trackless wastes, 
 in severest winter storms, or scorched by summer on arid 
 plains; yielding up its Canbys and its Custers. \_Prolongcd 
 applause^ It has been made the scapegoat of bad men. 
 And all this while it is assailed in the rear by hounding 
 politicians, who care nothing for its honor, who would re- 
 trench its numbers, diminish its revenues, and make hard 
 and bitter the lives of men who have served their country 
 at pains and perils which would have appalled the stoutest 
 heart of the self-denying heroes of caucus and Congress. 
 
 Gentlemen of the Army of the Potomac: You repre- 
 sent but one army of that great host that delivered this 
 land from slavery and disorder and restored peace to all 
 our borders. You have earned your honors by the highest 
 services which a citizen can render to his country. 
 
 This is the one illustrious day of the year that is wholly 
 yours. Again you are soldiers of the Republic. The past 
 revisits you. It reveals its hidden meaning. You stand 
 ens*hrined in memories that are sacred. You recall the 
 multitudes that were, but are not, for God hath taken 
 them. If life has dealt hardly with you, to-day you will 
 forget it. If sometimes, in pain and poverty, you are 
 tempted to think yours a hard lot and men ungrateful, 
 you will to-day rise above these weaknesses, and with 
 cleansed eye will see the heritage of honor and glory laid 
 up for y^ou. But you are not forgotten by thousands of 
 sincere souls over all the land, that mention your names 
 in the most sacred place on earth — the place of household 
 prayer. Maimed, impoverished, neglected, you are not 
 lame, nor poor, nor lost to memory. 
 
 In the light of this day I behold the genius of our coun- 
 try, casting upon you the calm light of the future, and 
 
824 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 pointing you to clouds of witnesses, heroes who have 
 dared to offer their lives for their country and their kind, 
 and who feel for you the eternal sympathy of heroes for 
 heroes. The long campaign is almost closed. The march 
 draws near to its end. When from afar your ear shall 
 catch, what no other in your darkened tent may hear, the 
 last long roll, then advance. Overthrow the last enemy, 
 which is Death. Then hear from the lips of the eternal 
 God the words that crown you with glory and immor- 
 tality — " Hail, and welcome ! " 
 
 At the close of Mr. Beecher's oration there were loud calls for 
 General Hooker, who said : — 
 
 "Mr. President, Comrades, Audience: I am sorry to disap- 
 point you ; but if you expect that I will say one syllable after the 
 address you have just listened to, you are very much mistaken. 
 That address was good enough to last a long time. Study its 
 lessons, and digest them, I doubt if more home truths can be 
 found in any discourse of the same length since the records of 
 this country began." 
 
 General Henry A. Barnum here rose, and said : — 
 
 "I propose that the wise and timely address of Henry Ward 
 Beecher shall be recognized in some special manner beyond our 
 glad applause: and I move, Mr. President, that every member of 
 the Society of the Army of the Potomac, and every loyal person 
 present, rise to his feet and, upon a signal from you, in a unan- 
 imous and quiet voice say, ' I thank you.' " \Applause?[ 
 
 In accordance with this motion the whole audience rose, and 
 in an impressive manner said, "I thank you;" after which Mr. 
 Beecher came forward and said : 
 
 "I have the advantage of you all; I have three thousand 
 thanks, and there is on my part but one 'I thank you' to divide 
 among so many. But may it be like the Scripture loaf; that 
 started five, but it held out for five thousand." 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT.* 
 
 "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the 
 face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the 
 bounds of their habitation ; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they 
 might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of 
 us." — Acts xvii. 26, 27. 
 
 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is 
 neither male nor female: for ye are ail one in Christ Jesus." — Gal. iii. 28. 
 
 The unity of the human race is one of the themes of 
 transcendent importance, not neglected yet never empha- 
 sized according to its merit. We are one, absolutely one, 
 with whatever varieties and differences there may be in 
 structure and mentality. By physical likeness man ap- 
 pears to be one; for every variation in feature, in com- 
 plexion, is superficial, none is characteristic, while in funda- 
 mental structure, attitude, organ, and function, men are 
 one — one in brain, in nerve, in lung, in liver, in heart, in 
 stomach, so that a physician in New York would be a 
 physician the world over. The works, as in a clock or 
 watch, might change cases, yet keep time. It is hardly 
 conceivable that there should have sprung up in the infinite 
 chances of evolution even two, still less many, creatures 
 so alike in qualities and functions of reason, affection, moral 
 
 *Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27, 1S84. Lesson : Habakkuk 
 iii. 2-19. Hymn : "America." 
 
 Preached at the close of the Congressional and Presidential political 
 campaign, in which, from considerations of the relative attitudes of the two 
 parties towards the South and the civil service, and reasons connected with 
 what he believed to be the relative fitness of the two presidential candi- 
 dates for the duties of the position to be occupied, Mr. Beecher had heartily 
 advocated the election of the Democratic candidate (Grover Cleveland, 
 then Governor of the State of New York). And for the first time since the 
 election of 1856, the Democratic party was placed in essential control of 
 the Government. 
 
826 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 sense, imagination, and will, that they could perfectly har- 
 monize, mutually understand, act together, mingle in mar- 
 riage, comprehend in each other likenesses and differences, 
 read the same drama, gloat over the same poetry, reason 
 by like syllogisms, use the same arithmetic and geometry. 
 African, Asiatic, European, American, at the seat of intel- 
 ligence they are the same; with different expansions, with 
 more or less variation of appetite, by the development of 
 one or the other part; yet it is impossible to conceive of 
 so vast a multitude as lie within the circuit of the races, as 
 having come from different origins, when they are thus 
 held together by a common relation of all social functions, 
 all the sciences, all the literature and thought of the globe. 
 Antiquity is modern when we read it. 
 
 Finally, the test is that mankind are capable, by reason 
 of their common origin and substantial likeness, of inter- 
 affiliating and dwelling together — and in unity. That is 
 the consummation of Christianity. Its aim, its business, 
 is to teach men the sublime art of living together harmoni- 
 ously. To do this in a schooling which will enable men to 
 dwell together in this life is the mode of preparing them 
 to dwell together in another life; for this world is prac- 
 tice-ground. 
 
 Harmony, then, is the end of the gospel. Through dis- 
 cords, through wide-gaping intervals, at last the sym- 
 phony of human life is to rise up into a grand choral 
 unity. Of one blood, of one destiny, the human family 
 lives in a sublime disseverance, nation after nation seeking 
 themselves in order that they may seek their fellows. 
 
 The progress toward a real union and harmony ought 
 to be the highest, as it really is, of all our aspirations. 
 The most transcendent interest is that which marks the 
 progress of mankind from conflicting, fighting beasts to 
 loving and harmoniously uniting men. 
 
 Material prosperity is not without its interest in looking 
 at this question. I am, to-day, to look at the whole ques- 
 tion as it relates to America; excluding the other lands, not 
 as worthless, but because there must be some metes and 
 bounds. I do not disdain the moral and social relations 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 827 
 
 of material prosperity; and yet we are perpetually warned 
 and advertised by jjhilosophic friends from abroad, by 
 pulpit preachers at home, that we are in danger of going 
 toward animal conditions, and that the might of our soil, 
 the might of our heavens, and the skill and industry of 
 our people, are yielding such an abundance of bodily 
 blessings as no nation ever knew in any age, and that we 
 are in danger of being corrupted by it. All blessings carry 
 danger, just as all substances carry shadows. True, we 
 are in danger every day; but there is nothing that should 
 especially awaken our fears at this period; and one of the 
 themes of thanksgiving to-day is this, that in the provi- 
 dence of God there have been raised up great counter- 
 poising influences, which hold in check, and rather sanc- 
 tify, the abundant physical blessings of our time. 
 
 The family is not disintegrated; for, although here and 
 there, as there always were, there are tendencies of evil 
 and of mischief, yet, taking our land comprehensivel}^ the 
 sanctity of the family, the moral foundations on which it 
 must needs stand, its luminous happiness, were never more 
 eminent, never so eminent, as to-day. 
 
 Never was there a time when men brought into the 
 household so much of art, of beauty, of rational enjoyment, 
 of virtue, for the sake of happiness, as to-day. Once the 
 most rigorous economy shut out art. To-day, almost 
 without economy, so multitudinous are the resources of 
 art for the great popular refinement of this land that the 
 poor man's house shines, and articles of beauty are a part 
 of his daily fare. He feeds his eyes, as well as his mouth. 
 
 That there may be universal intelligence, the common- 
 school system of America has spread, not alone shining in 
 the midst of the older States. It is doubtful, in my judg- 
 ment, whether in Connecticut, in Massachusetts, and in the 
 whole New England tribe, there is as much (certainly 
 there is not any more) enthusiasm for common -schools 
 and popular education as there is in the Western States — 
 in Indiana, in Illinois, in Missouri, yea, in Wyoming itself, 
 and the provinces beyond, clear to the Pacific Ocean. 
 The pride of the common people is in our common-schools. 
 
82 8 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 And this whole land is being provided with the light of 
 that knowledge which belongs primarily to the common 
 people. 
 
 More than this. Academies were never so many nor so 
 well endowed. Colleges and universities spring up in 
 every direction. Some are yet in youth; some are ragged 
 and in desolate regions; and some are in great strength 
 and abounding prosperity, or thitherward tending; never- 
 theless, the academy, the college, and the university are 
 almost universally diffused throughout this land. The 
 theological seminaries are multitudinous. Law schools 
 are everywhere. Medical schools are abundant. All 
 the institutions which first develop the mind itself, and 
 then lead it along the lines of separate occupations, flourish 
 without sign of decadence, with every sign of yet being in 
 their youth, and reaching up to their maturity. 
 
 Churches and missions have neither diminished in num- 
 ber, nor grown lukewarm, nor in anywise lost their grasp, 
 but in many ways are manifesting a vigorous manhood. 
 The many methods of churches, these summer associa- 
 tions, these universities of the forest and of the field, these 
 Chautauquas, are on every side enlarging the range of 
 social Christian life, of common kindness, of growing unity 
 among denominations, and of larger wealth in Christian 
 literature and learning. 
 
 In connection with all these fundamental facts, I call you 
 to take notice, with gratitude, of the fact that the wealth, 
 the fullness, of the sea, of the forest, and of the field, is 
 being, to a very large extent, moralized and Christianized. 
 There are many properties that are yet to be managed, dis- 
 cussed, and controlled; there are many ways in which 
 wealth may threaten peace and liberty; but these are, 
 comparatively speaking, few; whereas the general aspect 
 of wealth, in our day, is that it is working towards refine- 
 ment, virtue, and public service. 
 
 Look how it is rearing, in every direction, more beautiful 
 structures for home life. The hut for the savage; the 
 hovel for the lowest forms of civilization; the home, as you 
 go on upward; the mansion at last. On every line of travel, 
 
RETKOSrECT AND PROSPECT. 829 
 
 in every State, and in every direction, you shall find that 
 instead of the miserly hoarding of money, it is reappearing 
 in structures of rare beauty, to enshrine within them the 
 family. 
 
 Not only are we spending largely in architecture, do- 
 mestic; but we are planting our houses in gardens of 
 Eden, — and mostly without any serpents in them. Land- 
 scape gardening has become a living profession, and it is a 
 glorious thing for a man to know how to frame a picture 
 out of living trees and streams; how, with no colors, no 
 palette, no small brush of the ever-stippling artist, to take 
 God's great elements of beauty, and bring them together 
 in such landscape-pictures, and plant down a house within 
 so that one shall think, indeed, that he is living in the 
 Garden of Eden. 
 
 Galleries of pictures, museums, public and private col- 
 lections, everywhere, are indicating the directions which 
 wealth is taking. Parks are springing up in every direc- 
 tion. Men are learning how to live better. Better food, 
 better clothing, more enjoyments, and more wholesome 
 ones — these are part and parcel of the growing public sen- 
 timent; and it is to the hand of wealth that we are in- 
 debted for these things. Wealth is not yet corrupted nor 
 corrupting. 
 
 When the New York and Brooklyn parks shall be joined 
 together by a bridge over Blackwell's Island, not in the 
 whole world shall there be such a driveway as there will 
 then be in these two substantially connected cities, that lie 
 like one vast metropolis with a stream passing in the midst. 
 
 The noble sums given by men of great riches are not 
 unworthy of our thought. The donations to Harvard, to 
 Amherst, to Dartmouth, and to Yale; the princely gifts 
 that are crowning Princeton; the million that Vanderbilt 
 gave to Nashville University; the half million, given re- 
 cently by his son to royally endow the medical schools of 
 New York; the large gifts of our own townsman, Mr. 
 Seney, whose name I speak with reverence and affection, — 
 these, and such as these, are our reply to those ravens who 
 croak over the danger of luxury and riches. 
 
830 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 All these are a set-off and answer to those who fear that 
 America will be ruined by mere material riches. In all these 
 things our land is doing not occasional good deeds; it is 
 in the atmosphere. It runs with the public sentiment. It 
 tends to increase. It portends a future vastly greater and 
 more glorious than the present — a future such as never was 
 developed in any other age or nation. 
 
 Alas, that there should be a single seeming exception ! 
 When the generous and sentimental gift of the French 
 people to America, the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the 
 World, shall arrive, it is likely to find no place to stand on. 
 If it cannot stand upon a noble pedestal, casting its light 
 afar off, the last light to the tearful eyes of those leaving 
 home, the home flame to greet pilgrims returning, the morn- 
 ing star to immigrants, though shining in the West, — then 
 this great gift of a generous people had better be turned 
 end for end, so that it stand upon its head, that the torch 
 may be quenched. Has the golden shower rained every- 
 where but upon this luminous gift of the great republic 
 across the sea? What a monument for some man to 
 associate his name with ! As it is, it seems likely to be a 
 monument of the stinginess of the common people.* 
 
 After these general views, let us specialize a little as to 
 the condition of our people. Since it is included in our 
 common-schools and in our family conditions, I will not 
 ask your thought about the pains taken to rear children; 
 but I would say. Look, for instance, at the efforts that are 
 making already to gather together Nobody's children, — the 
 waifs, the homeless, the beggars. Look at that church of 
 the children, the Children's Aid Society, both of New York 
 and Brooklyn, as well as of sister cities, that sweep the 
 streets and gather up the waste, as in great manufacturing 
 establishments the dust of the gold is caught upon floors, 
 swept up, prepared, cleaned, and smelted again. Thus they 
 are gathering up the very refuse of the streets in which is 
 the unspeakably precious gold of human life, and are car- 
 ing: for it. 
 
 *The money for the pedestal was duly raised, the pedestal and statue 
 reared, and the whole inaugurated in the autumn of 1SS6. 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 831 
 
 We are attempting to combat with some success, though 
 slowly, the general repugnance to foreigners. I remem- 
 ber when the Irish were obnoxious to our prejudices, and 
 subject to our contempt. I have lived to see the day when 
 they are universally regarded as citizens most excellent 
 and desirable, partly because they can vote, but more be- 
 cause great numbers of them have developed into moral 
 and civic worth. To-day there are men who scorn the 
 Chinese, some because they are competitors in the labor 
 market, some because to do it will win them votes, and 
 some because of the old bestiality of human nature that 
 allies it to the animal kingdom, and causes the newcomer 
 to feel the horns of the old residents of the barnyard. For 
 all these reasons what a howl and an outcry there has been 
 about the immigration of Chinamen ! Stop your noise, or 
 stop your missions. If, when Chinamen are brought into 
 America, amid her churches, her schools, and all her relig- 
 ious establishments, they are not tolerated, but are followed 
 down the streets with violence, and mobbed, do not send 
 such Christianity to the Chinese empire. I do not wonder 
 that Chinamen refuse the Christian religion. They have 
 got a better; that is to say, a better than that part of the 
 Christian religion that enlightens them. I will not say 
 these things, however, for in San Francisco, in Denver, and 
 in every city between the Pacific and the Atlantic, faithful 
 men and women have gathered up these poor creatures 
 from our midst, and in schools by night and with churches 
 and classes, are bringing them to a nobler reception and a 
 better life. I mark this as one of the points of wholesome- 
 ness and growth towards a true idea of liberty in the 
 minds of the people. If these foreigners would but leave 
 their own garments at home and put on our sort, they 
 would find their way a great deal easier. The Japanese do 
 this, and they are welcome everywhere, in all society for 
 which they are fitted. They wear our clothes, they accept 
 our civilization and manners, and we accept them, as well 
 for these as for higher reasons of their intrinsic worth; for 
 no better population could be brought into these United 
 States than the educated Japanese. Indeed, they are prac- 
 
832 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 tically brought in now. They are teachers in our schools; 
 for, as Oriental art has almost wholly changed our Occi- 
 dental art, adding, at any rate, large elements of beauty to 
 it, so Oriental artists are becoming teachers in our schools 
 to show us how to design, to draw, and to color as they do. 
 The Indians, also, upon this continent, have not been 
 neglected. We have been a long time in learning what to 
 do with them. We have never tried letting them alone, 
 much. We have tried shooting them, imprisoning them, 
 hanging them, cheating them, and all such ways. The 
 gospel method of civilization we have never made much 
 of. But now, at last, we are indebted to the Army of the 
 United States, and the generals of it. The educated 
 officers of our armies have been our peace-messengers for a 
 hundred years. Never have they incited one intrigue, never 
 one political organization, never one single element that 
 tended toward war or the supremacy of the armed hand 
 everywhere. Always, the educated officers of the American 
 Army have been humane men; men of peace, studying 
 civilization. And since they have had so largely to do with 
 the Indians, and since the polity of educating them was 
 adopted — not alone of educating their children in Eastern 
 schools, but of bringing them together and teaching them 
 the civilized arts — there has been an amelioration steadily 
 going on; and when once we shall take a single step in 
 advance, and give to the Indians, in severalty, farms that 
 they may own just as white men own theirs, and are thus 
 put into the school of agriculture, we shall have touched 
 at last that foundation on which civilization must always 
 be built. You cannot civilize a hunting and fishing popula- 
 tion; you cannot civilize a pastoral people, wandering about 
 hither and thither. The rolling stone gathers no moss. You 
 cannot treat with a barbaric people in any way until you 
 first bring them on to the basis of agriculture. From that 
 will spring up manufactures, and from them commercial 
 interests; and then you will have full-fledged civilization. 
 Upon that basis you may build institutions of learning, 
 refinement, and religion. This is the tendency to-day. I 
 hail it as one of the auspicious signs of that growing wis- 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 833 
 
 dom which God is sending to us in the treatment of human 
 nature. 
 
 Even the outcast Mormons are not neglected. Heroic 
 women there are who have dedicated themselves to the 
 cause of Mormon education and made themselves knights 
 errant, nobler, purer, and sublimer than any that figure in 
 mediaeval history; and in their faith that intelligence and 
 religion are adequate to every need of the human race, 
 they have gone down into Mormon territories and are 
 kindling love for common-schools, and are preaching the 
 pure gospel — and that not without effect. 
 
 It is with all such efforts as it is with the grain. The 
 seed cannot live until it has died. It hides itself until it 
 sprouts, and then it runs through its several stages to ma- 
 turity. The efforts that are being made in that direction 
 may not yet be producing fruit as we expected, but they 
 are germinating, they are growing. Something may be 
 done by Government, but this is the fundamental cure for 
 all such errors and evils as Mormonism. If this subject 
 can once be kept aloof from politics, it may be, as it were, 
 helped by the auxiliary influence of legislation, by the 
 power of knowledge and of religion, and the evil will be 
 abated and stayed; but if it be made a foot-ball between 
 two great parties, it will be like a very sick man with a 
 room full of quarreling doctors. The man will die, and 
 the quarrelers will divide all that is left. That was the 
 power of Slavery — a political power. That gave it vital- 
 ity. When its political power was destroyed, it went soon 
 after. It will be a crowning reputation to any adminis- 
 tration to abate this nuisance; and it will be another tes- 
 timony to the self-redeeming power of a free people from 
 dangerous internal maladies. Under absolute monarchies 
 remedies spring from without, and are enfixed and en- 
 forced upon the people. In an enlightened republican de- 
 mocracy, the cure begins within and works outward. 
 
 Finally, the cycle of history in the great modern drama 
 of American life has well-nigh completed itself. First we 
 had slavery, then disruption, then wars; and now we have 
 peace. That has taken place without which perfect recon- 
 
834 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ciliation could not have been produced, and without which 
 it could never have existed between the North and the 
 South. The statesmen of sixteen former slave States are 
 to be admitted to a participation in the administration of 
 the national government; and I thank God.* It is the last 
 step. We have need of them. It is for our good as much 
 as for their own that they have come. The temper of the 
 South befits this final reconciliation. It was the glory of 
 our nation that there was a conscience against the dynasty 
 of slavery. We should have been worthy thrice over of 
 stripes and chains had we not resented and resisted it. 
 Yet the whole North, as I am witness, was opposed to any 
 interference with slavery. It must not be spoken of in 
 the prayer-meeting, it must not be touched on in the pul- 
 pit. It would disturb trade, it would destroy industry, 
 peace, and quiet. We heard that on every side; but there 
 was a swelling up underneath, and God's spirit was the 
 reason why conscience would not abide in peace while so 
 mighty a system of injustice existed, and was striking its 
 bad influences through all the members of this great com- 
 monwealth. When courage was given to men to speak 
 and make themselves heard, God sent great delusions 
 upon the minions of slavery. Terrific was the blunder 
 that they made; and then God gave courage to men 
 to confront the dragon, fiery-mouthed and threatening. 
 When the price of patriotism was war, from every hill, 
 and from every vale, and throughout the whole North, 
 the cry was: " Let it be war; but it shall be Justice and 
 Union ! " 
 
 I thank God that he gave wisdom and courage to men 
 to meet that greatest exigency of our times. It was well 
 met, and successfully met. Then wisdom was given to 
 
 * At the November elections of 1884 the Democratic party carried a 
 large number of the Congressional contests, and from the South chiefly 
 Southern -born representatives were sent to Congress. At the same time 
 Grover Cleveland, the Democratic candidate, having been elected Presi- 
 dent, the South generally hailed that as an indication of a relaxing of the 
 war-grudges at the North, and the reopening of broader possibilities for 
 Southern men in the common commercial and political life of the nation. 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 835 
 
 US, too, when the war was past and on us was rolled the 
 duty, most difficult, along the road of darkness, without 
 experiment or any precedent, to reconstruct the shattered 
 fragments of the sixteen disinherited States. 
 
 That mistakes were made, cannot be doubted; or that 
 sometimes the pressure was too strong, sometimes too 
 light, or that things which experience has rejected were 
 at the time supposed to be vital. But the work was in- 
 herently difficult; and I think that though those to whose 
 hands it was committed were not free from mistakes, yet 
 they have builded well; and their names are part and 
 parcel of American history. God gave us patience, not 
 only to redeem the slave from bondage, but, after the shat- 
 tering of all Southern influences and institutions, and the 
 destruction of their wealth, — the actual subversion of so- 
 ciety, so that the white masters were at the bottom, and 
 the colored slaves were at the top, — to wait. There were 
 great difficulties; human nature would liot be what human 
 nature is if there had not been. There were many impru- 
 dent things done. North and South. Nevertheless, we have 
 waited patiently and courageously until time should help; 
 for Time is God's minister of mercy. 
 
 Then we have had patience given us, too, to redeem, on 
 our side, the swollen values of the distempering war. We 
 have had grace and conscience given us to redeem our 
 finances and to bring back honestly within their bounds 
 the issues of currency, and have settled business on nor- 
 mal and solid foundations. We have had patient men 
 who knew how to take the thread and draw it out of the 
 snarl of our financial affairs, until now it is wound upon 
 the spool, safe and usable. 
 
 But one thing more was needed, and that was to chase 
 the scowl from the Southern brow; to revive the old 
 friendship; to clasp hands again in a vow of loving and 
 patriotic zeal. It was given to us last, because it is the 
 greatest of God's gifts. There never has been such a 
 scene since the earth was born; there never has been such 
 a rupture, never such a conflict, never such a victory, never 
 such a reconstruction, never such restoration of integrity 
 
836 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 in business, never such a reconciliation and gladness be- 
 tween good men on both sides as come to us to-day. As 
 yet the eyes of many are holden, and they cannot see how 
 great a blessing God has brought to our unbelieving eyes 
 and timid hands. From the bottom of my soul, I believe 
 in the honor and integrity of thoughtful Southern men; 
 and when I get from them such letters as I do, and hear 
 from their lips such declarations as I hear, that they feel 
 at last that they are in and of the Union, as much as we, 
 and point to the flag, declaring, with tears, " That is now 
 my flag," I believe it; I should be faithless to God and to 
 providence if I did not. I believe it with an enthusiasm 
 of faith, and with a longing heart of love; for I think 
 they are above hypocrisy or insincerity; and that if we 
 choose, the last cloud will rise from between us and then 
 pass away forever. 
 
 Moses, after forty years of toil, was allowed to see the 
 promised land from afar off only. Less worthy, yet more 
 blessed, I am spared to go over with the rejoicing tribes 
 into the land flowing with milk and honey. What am I, 
 or my father's house, that to me should be given the priv- 
 ilege of laboring in all this drama, and seeing it end nobly 
 thus ! The discipline is complete, and to the end of time 
 this great epic of liberty, our struggle with slavery, will 
 shine like the sun. 
 
 Not the least joyful element in this reconciliation is the 
 assured safety and benefit which will accrue to the colored 
 race. That has come to pass which was their only safety. 
 Just as soon as the Southern statesmen accept the perfect 
 restoration of themselves to the great body politic, and 
 find that there is no division as between Northern men 
 and Southern men in any of the honors of government; 
 just as soon as they are in, and a part of every adminis- 
 tration, as, thank God, they will be; just so soon of neces- 
 sity that will take place which has taken place everywhere, 
 in every community; there will be the party of adminis- 
 tration, the "ins," and the party opposed to them, the op- 
 position, the "outs." The moment you have these two 
 parties, each party has a sentinel watching it. In the 
 
RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 837 
 
 South that will take place which is the salvation of the 
 colored race. As long as they were a fringe upon a 
 Northern party, the South was condensed and solidified 
 against it. As soon as they are divided at home between 
 the administrational party and the opposition party, they 
 will be guarded and taken care of. The administration 
 party will not allow its voters to be injured; the opposi- 
 tion party will not allow its voters to be injured. They 
 will be distributed as they should be, and the strength of 
 each party in the South will be the safeguard of the in- 
 termediate voters. I regard this now, with schools and 
 academies and various seminaries spread among them, as 
 the final step of emancipation. 
 
 It is in these views, which have not been accepted with 
 sympathy by some of the dearest friends I have, that I 
 have acted;* and in the calmest retrospect I now rejoice 
 that I was able to act so. 
 
 The greatest mistake of my life has happened twice, as 
 I have been informed. I propose this morning now to 
 read a portion of the letters that were the first " greatest 
 mistake of my life." That was immediately after the war, 
 in the autumn of 1866, while the question of reconciliation 
 was still pending, and is in the now somewhat famous 
 "Cleveland letter" — not Governor Cleveland, but the city 
 of Cleveland. Twice I have stumbled on Cleveland ! 
 
 I was in 1866 invited to act as Chaplain to the Conven- 
 tion of the Soldiers and Sailors of our Army and Navy, 
 called at the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The object of that 
 convention was to so shape our Northern politics as to 
 bring the Southern States back immediately, or as soon as 
 possible; and in that general tendency I sympathized: and 
 this is the letter, or part of it only, which I shall read, and 
 which expressed my ideas at that time. 
 
 I read it now that you may see how straight a line has 
 run, from the very days of the war down to this hour, in 
 my thought, philosophy, and action. 
 
 * Referring to the part he had taken in the political campaign of i5 
 just closed. 
 
iiT;8 PATRIOTIC ADDRI.SSES. 
 
 [Mr. Beecher here read the passages from the " Letter to the 
 Convention," which are enclosed in brackets, to be found on 
 pages 739-741 ■] 
 
 My own friends were very hot. Some dove into news- 
 papers; some into letters, which flew thick and fast all 
 around about me. Neighboring ministers thought that I 
 was unseated and disrupted forever. In the midst of it all 
 I knew I was right, and that if I had patience others would 
 find that I was right. And they did; though they still 
 talk about that greatest blunder of my life, " the Cleveland 
 Letter." I am going to send down that document to my 
 children as one of the most glorious things that I ever did 
 in my life. But such was the excitement and clamor that 
 I thought it wise to alleviate the fear and trouble of my 
 people; and so I wrote to a private friend, then, a letter to 
 be read to the church, giving a fuller view of the grotind of 
 my first letter; maintaining the same position, but with 
 explanatory reasoning. I will extract a few words from 
 that. 
 
 [Mr. Beecher here read from the " Letter to a Parishioner" the 
 bracketed portion on pages 742-743. "Then," he said, " I had in 
 the letter a long discourse about President Johnson, whom I 
 tried, very hard, to hold in the harness, but who kicked out. 
 This portion of it is not relevant to the present issue, and I will 
 not read it. The letter then proceeds:" and he read the final 
 bracketed portions, on pages 748-749.] 
 
 My dear friends, if I had written that for to-day I could 
 not have written it better, and I do not think it needs to be 
 written any better. I stand on that, and I have read it 
 this morning not only because inspired by the parallelism, 
 but because it has been represented that my Cleveland let- 
 ter was the greatest blunder of the day; and then, worse 
 than that, that I backed down from it and retracted it. 
 And I have read both letters, in parts, so far as bears more 
 immediately on questions of to-day, that you may know that 
 God gave me the light to do one of the best things I ever did 
 when I wrote that letter; and that he gave me the grace 
 to stand on it without turning back for one single moment; 
 and that he has given me grace to lay my path, by sight, 
 
KETROSPECT AXD PROSPECT. 839 
 
 along those two letters — hindsight and foresight — from 
 that day down to this; and that he has given me grace to 
 withstand the impleadings of those that I love dearly, not 
 only of my immediate household, but of my blood and 
 kindred; of those that are in the church, that are to me as 
 my own life, and those that are of the political party with 
 which I have labored thus far. 
 
 Still seeing that luminous light, as God reveals it to me, 
 I have walked in it and toward it; and abide in that same 
 direction to-day; and, God helping me, so will I live to the 
 end. 
 
EULOGY ON GENERAL GRANT.* 
 
 Another name is added to the roll of those whom the 
 world will not willingly let die. A few years since storm- 
 clouds filled his heaven, and obloquy, slander, and bitter 
 lies rained down upon him. 
 
 The clouds are all blown away; under a serene sky he 
 laid down his life; and the Nation wept. The path to his 
 tomb is worn by the feet of innumerable pilgrims. The 
 mildewed lips of Slander are silent, and even Criticism 
 hesitates lest some incautious word should mar the history 
 of the modest, gentle, magnanimous Warrior. 
 
 The whole Nation watched his passage through humili- 
 ating misfortunes with unfeigned sympathy; the whole 
 world sighed when his life ended. At his burial the un- 
 sworded hands of those whom he had fought lifted his 
 bier and bore him to his tomb with love and reverence. 
 
 Grant made no claim to saintship. He was a man of 
 like passions, and with as marked limitations as other 
 men. Nothing could be more distasteful to his honest, 
 modest soul while living, and nothing more unbecoming 
 to his memory, than lying exaggerations and fulsome flat- 
 teries. 
 
 Men without faults are apt to be men without force. A 
 round diamond has no brilliancy. Lights and shadows, 
 hills and valleys, give beauty to the landscape. The faults 
 of great and generous natures are often overripe good- 
 ness, or the shadows which their virtues cast. 
 
 Three elements enter into the career of a great citizen: 
 
 That which his ancestry gives; 
 
 That which opportunity gives; 
 
 That which his will develops. 
 
 Grant came from a sturdy New England stock; New 
 
 *Delivered at Tremont Temple, Boston, Oct, 22, 1885. 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 84 1 
 
 England derived it from Scotland; Scotland bred it, at a 
 time when Covenanters and Puritans w^ere made— men of 
 iron consciences hammered out upon the anvil of adversity. 
 From New England the stream flowed to the Ohio, where it 
 enriched the soil till it brought forth abundant harvests of 
 great men. When it was Grant's time to be born, he came 
 forth without celestial portents, and his youth had in it no 
 prophecy of his manhood. His boyhood was wholesome, 
 robust, with a vigorous frame. With a heart susceptible 
 of tender love, he yet was not social. He was patient and 
 persistent. He loved horses, and could master them; 
 that is a good sign. 
 
 Grant had no art of creating circumstances; opportunity 
 must seek him, or else he would plod through life without 
 disclosing the gifts which God hid in him. The gold in the 
 hills cannot disclose itself. It must be sought and dug. 
 / A sharp and wiry politician, for some reason of Provi- 
 dence, performed a generous deed in sending young Grant 
 to West Point. He finished his course there, distinguished 
 as a skillful and bold rider, with an inclination to mathe- 
 matics, with but little taste for the theory and literature 
 of war, but with sympathy for its external and material 
 developments. In boyhood and youth he was marked by 
 simplicity, candor, veracity, and silence. 
 
 After leaving the academy he saw military service in 
 Mexico, and afterward in California, but without conspic- 
 uous results. 
 
 Then came a clouded period, a sad life of irresolute vi- 
 bration between self-indulgence and aspiration, through 
 intemperance. He resigned from the army, and at that 
 time one would have feared that his life would end in 
 eclipse. Hercules crushed two serpents sent to destroy 
 him in his cradle. It was later in his life that Grant de- 
 stroyed the enemy that " biteth like a serpent and stingeth 
 like an adder." 
 
 At length he struck at the root of the matter. Others 
 agree not to drink, which is good; Grant overcame the 
 wish to drink — which is better. But the cloud hung over 
 his reputation for many years, and threatened his ascend- 
 
842 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 ency when better days came. Of all his victories, many 
 and great, this was the greatest, that he conquered him- 
 self. His will was stronger than his passions. ^ 
 
 Poor, much shattered, he essayed farming. Carrying 
 wood for sale to St. Louis did not seem to be that for 
 which he was created; neither did planting crops, or rais- 
 ing cattle. 
 
 Tanning is an honorable calling, and to many, a road to 
 wealth. Grant tried that, but found no gold in the tan vat. 
 
 Then he became a listless merchant — a silent, unsocial, 
 and rather moody waiter upon petty traffic. 
 
 He was a good subaltern, a poor farmer, a worse tanner, 
 a worthless trafficker. Without civil experience, without 
 literary gifts, too diffident to be ambitious, too modest to 
 put himself forward, too honest to be a politician, he was 
 of all men the least likely to attain eminence, and abso- 
 lutely unfitted, apparently, for pre-eminence; yet God's 
 providence selected him. 
 
 When the prophet Samuel went forth to anoint a suc- 
 cessor to the impetuous and imperious King Saul, he caused 
 all the children of Jesse to pass before him. He rejected 
 one by one the whole band. At length the youngest, called 
 from among the flock, came in, and the Lord said to Samuel, 
 " Arise, this is he,'' and Samuel took the horn of oil and 
 anointed him in the midst of his brethren, and the spirit of 
 the Lord came upon him from that day forward, (i Sam. 
 xvi.) 
 
 Ordained was Grant with the ointment of war — black 
 and sulphurous. 
 
 Had Grant died at the tan-yard, or from behind the 
 counter, the world would never have suspected that it had 
 lost a hero. He would have fallen as an undistinguishable 
 leaf among the millions cast down every year. His time 
 had not come. It was plain that he had no capacity to 
 create his opportunity. // must find him out, or he would 
 die ignoble and unknown ! 
 
 It was coming ! Already the clouds afar off were gather- 
 ing. He saw them not. No figures were seen upon the 
 dim horizon of the already near future. 
 
EULOGY ON GKAXT. 843 
 
 The insulted flag; the garments rolled in blood; a mill- 
 ion men in arms; the sulphurous smoke of battle; gory 
 heaps upon desperate battle-fields; an army of slowly mov- 
 ing crippled heroes; grave-yards populous as cities; they 
 were all in the clouded horizon, though he saw them not ! 
 
 Let us look upon the scene on which he was soon to 
 exert a mighty energy. 
 
 This continent lay waiting for ages for the seed of civil- 
 ization. At length a sower came forth to sow. While he 
 sowed the good seed of liberty and Christian civilization, 
 an enemy, darkling, sowed tares. They sprang up and 
 grew together. The Constitution cradled both Slavery and 
 Liberty. While yet ungrown they dwelt together in peace. 
 They snarled in youth, quarreled when half grown, and 
 fought when of full age. The final catastrophe was inevita- 
 ble. No finesse, no device or compromise could withstand 
 the inevitable. The conflict began in Congress; it drifted 
 into commerce; it rose into the very air, and public senti- 
 ment grew hot, and raged in the pulpit, the forum, and in 
 politics. 
 
 The South, like a queenly beauty, grew imperious and 
 exacting; the North, like an obsequious suitor, knelt at her 
 feet only to receive contempt and mockery. 
 
 Both parties, Whig and Democrat, drank of the cup of 
 her sorcery. It killed the Whig party. The Democrat was 
 tougher, and was only besotted. A few, like John the Bap- 
 tist, were preaching repentance, but, like him, they were 
 in the wilderness, and seemed rude and shaggy fanatics. 
 
 If a wise moderation had possessed the South, if they 
 had conciliated the North, if they had met the just scruples 
 of honest men, who, hating slavery, dreaded the dishonor 
 of breaking the compacts of the Constitution, the South 
 might have held control for another hundred years. It 
 was not to be. God sent a strong delusion upon them. 
 
 Nothing can be plainer than that all parties in the State 
 were drifting in the dark, without any comprehension of 
 the elemental causes at work. Without prescience or sa- 
 gacity, like ignorant physicians, they prescribed at random; 
 they sewed on patches, new compromise upon old garments; 
 
cS44 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 sought to conceal the real depth and danger of the gather- 
 ing torrent by crying, Peace, Peace, to each other. In short, 
 they were seeking to medicate volcanoes and stop earth- 
 quakes by administering political quinine. The wise states- 
 men were bewildered and politicians were juggling fools. 
 
 The South had laid the foundation of her industry, her 
 commerce, and her commonwealth upon slavery. It was 
 slavery that inspired her councils, that engorged her phi- 
 lanthropy, that corrupted her political economy and the- 
 ology, that disturbed all the ways of active politics; broke 
 up sympathy between North and South. As Ahab met 
 Elijah with, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel ? " so slavery 
 charged the sentiments of freedom with vexatious med- 
 dling and unwarrantable interference. 
 
 The South had builded herself upon the rock of Slavery. 
 It lay in the very channels of civilization, like some flood 
 rock lying sullen off Hell Gate. The tides of controversy 
 rushed upon it and split into eddies and swirling pools, 
 bringing incessant disaster. The rock would not move. 
 It must be removed. It was the South itself that fur- 
 nished the engineers. Arrogance in council sunk the 
 shaft, violence chambered the subterranean passages, and 
 infatuation loaded them with infernal dynamite. All was 
 secure. Their rock was their fortress. The hand that 
 fired upon Sumter exploded the mine, and tore the for- 
 tress to atoms. For one moment it rose into the air like 
 spectral hills — for one moment the waters rocked with 
 wild confusion, then settled back to quiet, and the way of 
 civilization was opened ! 
 
 The spark that was kindled at Fort Sumter fell upon 
 the North like fire upon autumnal prairies. Men came 
 together in the presence of this universal calamity with 
 sudden fusion. They forgot all separations of politics, 
 parties, or even of religion itself. It was a conflagra- 
 tion of patriotism. The bugle and the drum rang out in 
 every neighborhood, the plow stood still in the furrow, 
 the hammer dropped from the anvil, book and pen were 
 forgotten, pulpit and forum, court and shop, felt the 
 electric shock. Parties dissolved and reformed. The 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 845 
 
 Democratic party sent forth a host of noble men, and 
 swelled the Republican ranks, and gave many noble 
 leaders and irresistible energy to the hosts of war. The 
 whole land became a military school, and officers and men 
 began to learn the art and practice of war. 
 
 When once the North had organized its armies, there 
 was soon disclosed an amiable folly of conciliation. It 
 hoped for some peaceable way out of the war; generals 
 seemed to fight so that no one should be hurt; they saw 
 the mirage of future parties above the battle-field, and 
 anxiously considered the political effect of their military 
 conduct. They were fighting not to break down rebell- 
 ion, but to secure a future presidency — or governorship. 
 The South had smelted into a glowing mass. It believed 
 in its course with an infatuation that would have been 
 glorious if the cause had been better ! It put its whole 
 soul into the struggle, and struck hard ! 
 
 The South fought for slavery and independence. The 
 North fought for Union, but for political success after the 
 war. Thus for two years, not unmarked by great deeds, 
 the war lingered. Lincoln, sad and sorrowful, felt the 
 moderation of his generals, and longed for a man of iron 
 mould, who had but two words in his military vocabulary. 
 Victory or Annihilation. 
 
 He was coming ! He was heard from at Henry and 
 Donelson. 
 
 Three great names were rising to sight — Sherman, 
 Thomas, Sheridan; and larger than either. Grant ! With 
 his advent the armies, with some repulses, went steadily 
 forward, from conquering to conquer. Aside from all 
 military qualities, he had one absorbing spirit — the Union 
 must be saved, the rebellion must be beaten, the Confed- 
 erate armies must be threshed to chaff as on a summer 
 threshing floor. He had no political ambition, no imag- 
 inary reputation to preserve or gain. A great genius for 
 grand strategy, a comprehension of complex and vast 
 armies, caution, prudence and silence while preparing, an 
 endless patience, an indomitable will, and a real, down- 
 right fighting quality. 
 
846 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Thus at length Grant was really born ! He had lain in 
 the nest for long as an infertile egg. The brooding of 
 war hatched the ^^%, and an eagle came forth ! 
 
 It is impossible to reach the full measure of Grant's 
 military genius until we survey the greatness of this most 
 extraordinary war of modern days, or it may be said of 
 any age. 
 
 For more than four years there were more than a mill- 
 ion men on each side, stretched out upon a line of be- 
 tween one and two thousand miles, and a blockade rigor- 
 ously enforced along a coast of an equal extent. During 
 that time, counting no battle in which there were not five 
 hundred Union men engaged, there were fought more than 
 two thousand engagements — two thousand two hundred 
 and sixty-one of record. 
 
 Amid this sea of blood, there shot up great battles, that 
 for numbers, fighting, and losses, will rank with the great 
 battles of the world. 
 
 In 1862 the losses by death, wounds, and missing, on 
 each side, as extracted from Government Records, were: — 
 
 UNION. CONFED. TOTAL. 
 
 1. Shiloh 13.500 10,699 24,199 
 
 2. Seven Pines and Fair Oaks, . . 5,739 7.997 13.736 
 
 3. 7 Day Retreat and Malvern Hill, . 15,249 17.583 32,832 
 
 4. 2d Bull Run 7,800 3,700 11,100 
 
 5. Antietam, 12,469 25,899 38,367 
 
 6. Fredericksburg 12,353 4-576 16,929 
 
 7. Stone River, 11,578 25,560 37,138 
 
 1863. 
 
 8. Chancellorsville 16,030 12,281 28,311 
 
 9. Gettysburg, 23,186 31,621 54,807 
 
 10. Chickamauga 15.851 17,804 33,655 
 
 11. Chattanooga, 5,616 8,684 
 
 1864. 
 
 12. Wilderness 37.737 11,400 49.137 
 
 13. Spottsylvania, . ". 26,421 9,000 35.421 
 
 14. Cold Harbor 14.931 1.700 16,700 
 
 15. Petersburg 10,586 28,000 38,586 
 
 16. Chattanooga to Atlanta 37,i99 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 847 
 
 Over 26,000 Northern soldiers died in prison, in cap- 
 tivity. If we reckon all who perished by violence and by 
 sickness on both sides, nearly a million died in the War of 
 Emancipation. 
 
 The number must be largely swelled if we add all who 
 died at home, of sickness and wounds received in the cam- 
 paign. 
 
 The Secretary of War, in his report, dated November 
 22, 1865, makes the following remarks, which show rnore 
 than anything else the spirit animating the people of the 
 loyal States: "On several occasions, when troops were 
 promptly needed to avert impending disaster, vigorous 
 exertion brought them into the field from remote States 
 with incredible speed. Official reports show that after 
 the disasters on the Peninsula, in 1862, over eighty thou- 
 sand troops were enlisted, organized, armed, equipped, 
 and sent into the field in less than a month. Sixty thou- 
 sand troops have repeatedly gone to the field within four 
 v^^eeks. Ninety thousand infantry were sent to the armies 
 from the five States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and 
 Wisconsin, within twenty days. When Lee's army sur- 
 rendered, thousand of recruits were pouring in, and men 
 were discharged from recruiting stations and rendezvous 
 in every State." 
 
 Into this sulphurous storm of war Grant entered almost 
 unknown. It was with difficulty that he could obtain a 
 command. Once set forward, Doueison, Shiloh, Vicksburg, 
 Chickamai/ga, The Wilderness^ Spotisylvania, Petersburg, Ap- 
 pomattox, these were his footsteps. In four years he had 
 risen, without political favor, from the bottom to the very 
 highest command — not second to any living commander 
 in all the world ! 
 
 His plans were large, his undiscouraged will was patient 
 to obduracy. He was not fighting for reputation, nor for 
 the display of generalship, nor for a future Presidency. 
 He had but one motive, and that as intense as life itself — 
 the subjugation of the rebellion and the restoration of 
 the broken Union. He embodied the feelings of the com- 
 mon people. He was their perfect representative. The 
 
848 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 war was waged for the maintenance of the Union, the 
 suppression of armed resistance, and, at length, for the 
 eradication of slavery. Every step, from Donelson to Ap- 
 pomattox, evinced with increasing intensity this his one 
 terrible purpose. He never wavered, turned aside, or dal- 
 lied. He waded through blood to the horses' bridles. 
 
 In all this career he never lost courage or equanimity. 
 With a million men, for whose movements he was respon- 
 sible, he yet carried a tranquil mind, neither depressed by 
 disasters, nor elated by success. Gentle of heart, famil- 
 iar with all, never boasting, always modest — Grant came 
 of the old self-contained stock, men of a simple force of 
 being, which allied his genius to the great elemental forces 
 of Nature, silent, invisible, irresistible. When his work 
 was done, and the defeat of the Confederate armies was 
 final, this dreadful man of blood was as tender toward his 
 late adversaries as a woman toward her son. He imposed 
 no humiliating conditions, spared the feelings of his an- 
 tagonists, sent home the disbanded Southern men with 
 food and with horses for working their crops, and when a 
 revengeful spirit in the Executive Chair showed itself, and 
 threatened the chief Southern generals. Grant, with a 
 holy indignation, interposed himself, and compelled his 
 superior to relinquish his rash purpose. 
 
 There have been men — there are yet — for stupidity is 
 long-lived — who regard Grant as only a man of luck. 
 Surely he was ! Is it not luck through such an ancestry 
 to have had conferred upon him such a body, such a dispo- 
 sition, such greatness of soul, such patriotism unalloyed by 
 ambition, such military genius, such an indomitable will, and 
 such a capacity for handling the largest armies of any age? 
 
 For four years and more this man of continuous luck, 
 across a rugged continent, in the face of armies of men 
 as brave as his own, commanded by generals of extraor- 
 dinary ability, performed every function of strategy in 
 grand war, which Jomini attributes to Napoleon and his 
 greatest marshals, and Napier to Wellington. Whether 
 Grant could have conducted a successful retreat will 
 never be known. He was never defeated. 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 849 
 
 Grant has been severely criticised for the waste of life. 
 War is not created for the purpose of saving life, but by 
 a noble spending of blood to save the Commonwealth. 
 The great end which he achieved would have been cheaply 
 gained, at double the expense. 
 
 After the Battle of the Wilderness he was styled the 
 Butcher. 
 
 But we are not to forget the circumstances under which 
 the conduct of the last great campaign was committed to 
 him. For four years the heroic and patient Army of the 
 Potomac had squandered blood and treasure without 
 measure, and had gained not a step. With generals 
 many, excellently skilled in logistics, skillful in every- 
 thing but success, they fought — and retreated; they dug, 
 they waded, they advanced — and retreated. They went 
 down to Richmond and looked upon it — and came back to 
 defend Washington. 
 
 Their victories were fruitless. Antietam was ably 
 fought, but weakly followed up. Gettysburg, with hide- 
 ous slaughter, sent Lee back unpursued, undestroyed, 
 though he waited three or four days, helpless, cooped-up, 
 and surely doomed had Sheridan or Grant been in Meade's 
 place. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac needed a general who knew 
 how to employ their splendid bravery, their all-enduring 
 pluck. They had danced long enough; they had led ofif 
 — changed partners — chassed — they had gone into cam- 
 paigns with slow and solemn music, but returned with 
 quicksteps. They seemed desirous of making war so as 
 not to exasperate the South. 
 
 Do not men know that nothing spends life faster than 
 unfighting war? Disease is more deadly than the bullet. 
 In all the war, but one out of every forty-two that died 
 was slain by the bullet, and one out of every thirteen by 
 disease. Six million men passed through the hospitals 
 during the war; over three million with malarial diseases. 
 
 It seemed doubtful whether the Government was put- 
 ting down rebellion, or whether Lee was putting down 
 the Government. An eminent critic says: "The fire and 
 
850 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 passion, downright earnestness and self-abandon that the 
 South threw into the struggle at the outset and main- 
 tained for two full years, had, it must be admitted, so 
 far impaired the morale of the Union forces, that while 
 courage was nowhere wanting, self-confidence had been 
 seriously diminished. This was especially true of the de- 
 voted and decimated Army of the Potomac, whose com- 
 manders, after the first battle of Bull Run, always ap- 
 peared to be afraid of exasperating the enemy. Driving 
 Lee to extremities was the one thing that they were all 
 loath to do. They would fight to the last drop of blood 
 to defend Washington, to hold their own, to preserve the 
 Union, but to corner the enemy, to drive him to despera- 
 tion, to make him shed the last drop of his own blood, 
 was the one thing they would not do, and no amount of 
 urging could make them do it. It was this arriere pensee 
 that held the hand of McClellan and of Meade after An- 
 tietam and Gettysburg. Both of these engagements were 
 victories for the Army of the Potomac, and both were 
 robbed of their fruits by a lurking fear of the lion at bay. 
 'They are shooing the enemy out of Maryland,' said Lin- 
 coln, with his peculiar aptness and homeliness." 
 
 When Grant came to the Army of the Potomac, he re- 
 versed the methods of all who preceded him. Braver sol- 
 diers never were, and valiant commanders; but the gen- 
 erals had not learned the art of fighting with deadly in- 
 tent. Peace is very good for peace, but war is organized 
 rage. It means destruction or it means nothing. 
 
 At the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant stripped his com- 
 missary train of its guards to fill a gap in the line of bat- 
 tle. When expostulated with for exposing his army to the 
 loss of all its provisions, his reply was: — 
 
 " When this army is whipped, it will not want any provisions." 
 
 All summer, all the autumn, all the winter, all the spring, 
 and early summer again, he hammered Lee, with blow on 
 blow, until, at Appomattox, the great, but not greatest, 
 Southern general went to the ground. 
 
 Grant was a great fighter; but not a fighter only. 
 
 His mind took in the whole field of war — as wide and 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 851 
 
 complex as any that ever Napoleon knew. He combined 
 in his plans the operations of three armies, and for the 
 first time in the war, the whole of the Union forces were 
 acting in concert. 
 
 He had the patience of Fate, and the force of Thor. If 
 he neglected the rules of war, as at Vicksburg, it was to 
 make better rules, to those who were strong enough to 
 employ them. 
 
 Counselors gave him materials. He formed his own 
 plans. Abhorring show, simple in manner, gentle in his 
 intercourse, modest and even diffident in regard to his own 
 personality, he seems to have been the only man in camp 
 who was ignorant of his own greatness. Never was a 
 commander better served, never were subordinates more 
 magnanimously treated. The fame of his generals was as 
 dear to him as his own. Those who might have been ex- 
 pected to be his rivals, were his bosom friends. While 
 there were envies and jealousies among minor officers, the 
 great names, Thomas, Sherman, Sheridan, give to history 
 a new instance of a great friendship between great war- 
 riors. 
 
 Some future day a Napier will picture the final drama: 
 the breaking up of Lee's right wing at Five Forks; Lee's 
 retreat; Grant's grim, relentless pursuit; Sheridan, like a 
 raging lion, heading off the fleeing armies, that were 
 wearied, worn, decimated, conquered; and, at the end, 
 the modesty of the victorious general; the delicacy with 
 which he treated his beaten foe; the humanity of the terms 
 given to the men: sent away with food, and horses for 
 their farms: — all this will form a picture of War and of 
 Peace. 
 
 He never forgot that the South was part of his country. 
 The moment that the South lay panting and helpless upon 
 the ground, Grant carried himself with magnanimous and 
 sympathetic consideration. After the fall of Richmond he 
 turned aside, and returned to Washington without entering 
 the conquered capital. 
 
 When Johnston surrendered upon terms not agreeable to 
 Lincoln, Stanton, like a roaring lion fearing to lose its 
 
852 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 prey, sent Grant to overrule him. He loved Sherman, 
 and was unwilling to enter his camp lest he should 
 seem to snatch from him the glory of his illustrious cam- 
 paign. From a near town he enabled Sherman to recon- 
 struct his terms, and accept General Johnston's surrender. 
 When Lincoln was dead, Vice-President Johnson be- 
 came President; a man well fitted for carrying on a fight, 
 but not skilled in peace; with a morbid sense of justice, 
 he determined that the leaders of rebellion should be made 
 to suffer as examples; as if the death of all the first-born, 
 the desolation of every Southern home, the impoverished 
 condition and bankruptcy of every citizen, were not exam- 
 ple enough ! He ordered Lee to be arrested. Grant 
 refused. When Johnson would have employed the army 
 to effect his purposes. Grant, with quick but noble rebell- 
 ion, refused obedience to his superior, and, arranging to 
 take from his hands all military control, repressed the 
 President's wild temper and savage purpose of a dishonor- 
 ing justice. 
 
 Having brought the long and disastrous war to a close, 
 in his own heart Grant would have chosen to have rested 
 upon his laurels, and lived a retired military life. It was 
 not to be permitted. He was called to the Presidency by 
 universal acclaim, and it fell to him to conduct a campaign 
 of Reconstruction even more burdensome than the war. 
 
 It would seem impossible to combine in one, eminent 
 civil and military genius. To a certain extent they have 
 elements in common. But the predominant element in 
 war, is organized Force; of civil government. Influence. 
 Statesmanship is less brilliant than generalship, but re- 
 quires a different and a higher moral and intellectual 
 genius. God is frugal in creating great men — men great 
 enough to hold in eminence the elements of a great gen- 
 eral and of a great ruler. Washington was eminent in 
 statesmanship — but then he was not a great general. At 
 any rate, he had no opportunity to develop the fact. 
 
 Alexander was a mere brutal fighter. 
 
 Caesar as Emperor differed from Caesar as General only 
 as a sword sheathed differs from a sword unsheathed. 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 853 
 
 Frederick the Great was simply a military ruler. 
 
 Napoleon came near to combine the two elements in the 
 earlier period of his career, but the genius of force gradu- 
 ally weakened that sense of right and justice on which 
 statesmanship must rest. 
 
 Grant had in him the element of great statesmanship; but 
 neither his education, nor his training, nor the desperate 
 necessities of war, gave it a fair chance of development in a 
 condition of things which bewildered the wisest statesmen. 
 
 The tangled skein of affairs would have tasked a Cavour 
 or a Bismarck. The period of reconstruction is yet too 
 near our war-inflamed eyes to be philosophically judged. 
 
 First came the disbanding of the army. That was so 
 easily done that the world has never done justice to the 
 marvel. The soldiers of three great armies dropped their 
 arms at the word of command, dissolved their organiza- 
 tions, and disappeared. To-day the mightiest force on 
 earth; to-morrow they were not ! As a summer storm 
 darkens the whole heavens, shakes the ground with its 
 thunder, empties its quiver of lightning, and is gone 
 in an hour, as if it had never been, so was it with both 
 armies. Neither in the South nor in the North was there 
 a cabal of officers, nor any affray of soldiers — for every 
 soldier was yet more a citizen. 
 
 In this resumption of citizen life, Grant, accompanied by 
 his most brilliant generals, led the way. He hated war, 
 its very insignia, and in foreign lands refused to witness 
 military pageants. He had had enough of war. He loved 
 peace. 
 
 When advanced to the Presidency, three vital questions 
 were to be solved. 
 
 1. The status of the four million emancipated slaves. 
 
 2. The adjustment of the political relations of the dis- 
 located States. 
 
 3. The restraint and control of that gulf-stream of 
 finance which threatened to wash out the foundations of 
 honest industry, and which brought to the nation more 
 moral mischief than had the whole war itself. We are in 
 peril from golden quicksands yet. 
 
854 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 Grant was eminently wise upon this question. His veto 
 saved the country from a vitiated and corrupting circula- 
 tion. 
 
 The exaltation of the domestic African to immediate 
 citizenship was the most audacious act of faith and fidelity 
 that ever was witnessed. 
 
 Their fidelity to the duties of bondage had been most 
 Christian. In all the war, knowing that their emancipation 
 was to be gained or lost, there never was an insurrection, 
 nor a recorded instance of cruelty or insubordination. This 
 came not from cowardice; for, when, in the later periods 
 of the war, they were enlisted and drilled, they made sol- 
 diers so brave as to extort admiration and praise from 
 prejudice itself. They deserved their liberty for their good 
 conduct. 
 
 Yet, were they prepared for citizenship? The safety of 
 our civil economy rests upon the intelligence of the citi- 
 zen; but the slaves in mass were greatly ignorant. 
 
 It was a political necessity to arm them with the ballot 
 as a means of self-defense. 
 
 In many of the Southern States a probationary state 
 would have been wiser, but in others it would have re- 
 manded them to substantial bondage. 
 
 In this grand department of statesmanship General 
 Grant accepted the views of the most eminent men of the 
 Republican party, — Stanton, Chase, Sumner, Thad. Stevens, 
 Fessenden, Sherman, Garfield, Conkling, Evarts, and all of 
 the great leaders. 
 
 In the readjustment of the political relations of the 
 South he was wise, generous, and magnanimous in his 
 career. Not a line in letter, speech, or message can be 
 found that would wound the self-respect of Southern citi- 
 zens. 
 
 When the dangerous heresy of a greenback currency 
 had gained political power, and Congress was disposed to 
 open the flood-gates of a rotten currency, his veto, an act 
 of courage, turned back the deluge and saved the land 
 from a whole generation of mischief. Had he done but 
 this one thing, he would have deserved well of history. 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 855 
 
 The respects in which he fell below the line of sound 
 statesmanship — and these are not a few — are to be attrib- 
 uted to the influence of advisers whom he had taken into 
 his confidence. Such was his loyalty to friendship that it 
 must be set down as a fault — a fault rarely found among 
 public men. 
 
 Many springs of mischief were opened which still flow. 
 When it was proposed to nominate Grant for a third term, 
 the real objections to the movement among wise and dis- 
 passionate men was not so much against Grant as against 
 the staff which would come in with him. 
 
 On the whole, if one considers the intrinsic difficulty of 
 the questions belonging to his administration, the stormy 
 days of politics and parties during his eight years, it must 
 be admitted that the country owes to his unselfish dispo- 
 sition, to his general wisdom, to his unsullied integrity, if 
 not the meed of wisest yet the reputation of one who, pre- 
 eminent in war, was eminent in administration, more per- 
 haps by the wisdom of a noble nature than by that intel- 
 ligence which is bred only by experience. Imperious 
 counselors and corrupt parasites dimmed the light of his 
 political administration. 
 
 We turn from Grant's public life to his unrestful private 
 life. After a return from a tour of the world, during 
 which he met on all hands a distinguished reception, he 
 ventured upon the dangerous road of speculation. The de- 
 sire of large wealth was deep-seated in Grant's soul. His 
 early experience of poverty had probably taken away 
 from it all romance. Had wealth been sought by a legiti- 
 mate production of real property, he would have added 
 one more laurel to his career. But, with childlike sim- 
 plicity of ignorance, he committed all he had to the wild 
 chances of legalized gambling. But a few days before 
 the humiliating crash came, he believed himself to be 
 worth three millions of dollars ! What service had been 
 rendered for it ? What equivalent of industry, skill, produc- 
 tiveness, distribution or convenience ? None. Did he 
 never think that this golden robe, with which he designed 
 to clothe his declining years, was woven of air, was in its 
 
856 PATRIOTIC ADDRESSES. 
 
 nature unsubstantial, and not reputable ? His success was 
 a gorgeous bubble, reflecting on its brilliant surface all 
 the hues of heaven, but which grew thinner as it swelled 
 larger. A touch dispelled the illusion, and left him poor. 
 
 It is a significant proof of the impression produced 
 upon the public mind of the essential honesty of his mind, 
 and of the simplicity of his ignorance of practical busi- 
 ness, that the whole nation condoned his folly, and be- 
 lieved in his intentional honesty. But the iron had en- 
 tered his soul. That which all the hardships of war, and 
 the wearing anxieties of public administration could not 
 do, the shame and bitterness of this great bankruptcy 
 achieved. 
 
 The resisting forces of his body gave way. A disease 
 in ambush sprang forth and carried him captive. Pa- 
 tiently he sat in the region and shadow of death. A mild 
 heroism of gentleness and patience hovered about him. 
 The iron will that' had upheld him in all the vicissitudes 
 of war, still in a gracious guise sustained his lingering 
 hours. 
 
 His household love, never tarnished, never abated, now 
 roused him to one last heroic achievement — to provide for 
 the future of his family. No longer were there golden 
 hopes for himself. The vision of wealth had vanished. 
 But love took its place, and under weakness, pain, and 
 anguish, he wrought out a history of his remarkable 
 career. A kindly hand administered the trust. It has 
 amply secured his loved household from want. 
 
 When the last lines were written, he lay back upon his 
 couch and breathed back his great soul to God, whom he 
 had worshiped unostentatiously after the manner of his 
 fathers. 
 
 A man he was without vices, vi\X\\ an absolute hatred of 
 lies and an ineradicable love of truth, of a perfect loyalty 
 to friendship, neither envious of others nor selfish for 
 himself. With a zeal for the public good, unfeigned, he 
 has left to memory only such weaknesses as connect him 
 with humanity, and such virtues as will rank him among 
 heroes. 
 
EULOGY ON GRANT. 857 
 
 The tidings of his death, long expected, gave a shock 
 to the whole world. Governments, rulers, eminent states- 
 men, and scholars from all civilized nations gave sincere 
 tokens of sympathy. For the hour, sympathy rolled as a 
 wave over all our own land. It closed the last furrow of 
 war, it extinguished the last prejudice, it effaced the last 
 vestige of hatred, — and cursed be the hand that shall bring 
 them back ! 
 
 Johnston and Buckner [of the Confederates] on one side 
 of his bier, Sherman and Sheridan [of the Federals] upon 
 the other, he has come to his tomb a silent symbol that 
 liberty had conquered slavery, patriotism rebellion, and 
 peace war. 
 
 He rests in peace. No drum or cannon shall disturb 
 his slumber. 
 
 Sleep, hero, until another trumpet shall shake the 
 heavens and the earth. Then come forth to glory in im- 
 mortality !