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 A DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE MEETING-HOUSE 
 
 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 Novembei- Gth, 18G4, 
 
 ev, Ceorge iana goartlmain 
 
 rA-STOR,. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 RINGWALT & BROWN, STEAM-POWER BOOK PRINTERS, 
 
 111 & 110 South Fourth Street. 
 
 LS64. 
 
 rn^s) 
 
fiiivU govfrnwent, a givine ©vjtin«««. 
 
 A DISCOURSE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE MEETING-HOUSE 
 
 FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, OF PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 Novembei- Gtli, 18G-4.5 
 
 
 I'A.STOR. 
 
 #";. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 RINGWALT & BROAVN, STEAM-POWER BOOK PRINTERS, 
 K'fj^ 111 k 113 South Fourth Street. 
 
 1864. 
 
^b 
 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 PuiLADELi'HiA, November lUth, 1804. 
 Rev. (Jeorije Dana Boardman : 
 
 De.r SiR-Havi„g cnjoved the pleasure of hc.iring the loyal and patriotic sermon 
 delivered by you. on Sabbath evening, November Gth. inst.nt, and believing that 
 the sentiments therein so eloquently, forcibly and logical y enforced are calculated, 
 not only in a religions aspect, but in a national view to impress upon every citizen 
 the duty and obli|atiou of rendering obedience "to the powers that be, as well a. a 
 cheerful support to the Government in its efforts to subdue the existing rebellion, we 
 are induced to request, at your earliest convenience, a copy for publication. 
 
 Although the immediate occasion for which your discourse was ^P"'^','^^' . ° '^^ \« 
 has haiM,nv passed, yet it will, no doubt, tend to establish more firmly the faith of all 
 ATh"^o I'abored for the success of the principles you so nobly advocated. 
 
 Notwithstanding so.ie of the undersigned are not members of your church or con- 
 grel-atTon, nor identified with the Baptist denomination, and are strangers to you 
 personally, yet it is hoped you will not have any hesitation in acceding to the requLst 
 herein contained. . . 
 
 "With great respec% your friends and fellow-citizens. 
 
 WiLLiAsr D. Kei.lev, 
 (teori;e H. Crosman, 
 
 jAirES L. CLACiHORS, 
 
 JoHX Hanna, 
 Samuel H. Perkins. 
 
 .Jos. W. BlLLOCK. 
 
 B. K. Loxi.EV, 
 Jonx C. L)Avis. 
 Henry C. Howell, 
 Thomas "Wattson, 
 Washington BrT( her, 
 Charles D. Talmaoe, 
 Wm. S. Hansell. 
 
 James M. Biun. 
 Stephen A. Caldwell, 
 Edwin Hall, 
 Charles Jewell, 
 Alex. T. Lane. 
 AVm. F. Dean. 
 John M. Ford, 
 John Hartman, 
 James S. Moore. 
 AVm. Coffin. 
 Josei'H F. Page. 
 John F. Forepavgh. 
 
 I. JI. tVllARRA. 
 
 No. 1712 Vine Street, November 11, 1^04. 
 
 To the Hon. Wii.mam D. Kellev, Col. George H. Crosman, James L. Clac- 
 
 HOKN, 'Esq., John Hanna, Esq., and others. 
 
 GENTLEMEN-Your Hote of the 10th instant, requesting for publication the dis- 
 course delivered in the meeting-house of the Fir.st Baptist Church, on the evening of 
 the 6th instant, has been received. > i„ 
 
 I gratefully acknowledge the sentiments of esteem which your note so courteously 
 
 ''Xuevin" with you that the truths so imperfectly set forth on the occasion referred 
 to are of Supreme and abiding value, I cheerfully place the manuscript at your 
 
 '^'?havc taken the libertv of adding a few paragraphs, which, in consequence of the 
 extreme length of the discourse, were omitted in the delivery. ^ , , „ , , 
 
 Fevently congratulating you upon the magnificent decision of last Tuesday, by 
 which the American people declared, with a unanimity truly august that God s Ord- 
 nance of Civil Government shall be unconditionally maintained, I am, gentlemen, 
 with profound respect, 
 
 Your friend and townsman, 
 
 GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN. 
 
DISCOUKSE 
 
 We are living in a most extraordinary epoch. It is an era 
 of stupendousness in the field, stupendousness in the court, 
 stupendousness in the arena of the nation's feelings. It were 
 but a miserable, guilty aifectation of indifference for the min- 
 isters of Christ to ignore mighty national crises like the present. 
 In common with my countrymen, I have been profoundly agi- 
 tated by these sublime events, following each other with such 
 startling rapidity ; and yet, oppressed as I am with the terrible 
 catastrophe which has overtaken our land, it is very seldom that 
 I would venture to introduce into the pulpit topics, the discus- 
 sion of which seem to have a political bearing. For, the King- 
 dom of which I am an ambassador, is not of this Avorld. But, 
 ever and anon, some billow of our tempest-tossed ocean, surging 
 to an unwonted height, bears aloft the ship of state far above 
 the level of considerations merely political, into the purer re- 
 gion of Christian morals. At such times, Avhen the Almighty 
 visibly makes bare His arm, and the nation passes through some 
 sublime moral crisis, that minister is false to his trust, as the 
 prophet or spokesman of God, who does not seize the occasion 
 and turn it to a religious use. Such an occasion, I solemnly 
 believe, is the approaching Presidential election. Next Tues- 
 day, this nation is to decide whether it Avill obey God by main- 
 taining His own ordinance of Civil Government, or disobey Him 
 by ignominiously yielding it to mad insurgents. We all know 
 that there is throughout the nation more or less of misgiving as 
 to the righteousness of this war. The secret heart of the great 
 
 (5) 
 
6 
 
 Public needs assurance on this point. This is the grand ques- 
 tion which is to be decided next Tuesday. The real question, 
 stripped of whatsoever attaches itself to it incidentally, is simply 
 this: Shall we have a peace by maintaining with the sword 
 God's ordinance of civil government, or by surrendering it ? 
 Thus surveyed, the question assumes a profoundly religious 
 aspect. Accordingly, I invite your attention to some comments 
 founded on a clause in the fourth verse of the thirteenth chap- 
 ter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans : 
 
 HE BEARETH NOT THE SWORD IN VAIN. 
 
 I. The origin of Civil Government is a problem which has 
 baffled the ingenuity of the subtlest intellects in every age. The 
 principal theories concerning this matter may, however, be 
 reduced to two. The first theory — recognising Civil Govern- 
 ment as an external fact, existing independent of men's wills — 
 traces its origin back to the Paternal or Patriarchal system of 
 rule. This was the view maintained by the Tories and 
 the great body of Churchmen under the English Stuarts, 
 and on which they founded their famous doctrines of the Divine 
 right of Kings, and of Passive Obedience, or absolute non- 
 resistance. The second theory, regarding Civil Government as 
 a creature of men's Avills, represents it as a Social Contract. Just 
 as two or more men unite together for certain purposes of busi- 
 ness, and pledge themselves to obey certain rules mutually 
 agreed upon, which rules are binding so long as the contract 
 stands, so Civil Government is conceived of as a compact between 
 each and every citizen. This is the common theory. Thus 
 the Parliament which deposed James II, declared by solemn vote 
 that James had " broken the original contract between King and 
 people." Thus, also, we read in the Constitution of Massachu- 
 setts : " The body politic is formed by a voluntary association 
 of individuals. It is a social compact, by which the whole people 
 covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole 
 
people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common 
 good." Now this theory, as you perceive at once, does not 
 explain at all the origin of Civil Government. Besides, it 
 would be a difficult matter for even the astutest lawyer to ascer- 
 tain the day on which you and I, as citizens of the United 
 States, entered into any such contract, or to state the terms of 
 the contract we agreed upon, to say nothing of the fact that 
 Government has rights which no contract among the subjects 
 can confer. The theory is, as the old schoolmen would have 
 said, a simple ens rationis, or creature of reason. Yet, like some 
 other figments of law, as, for instance, " the State is a person," 
 " the King never dies," this theory, that Civil Government is a 
 social compact, has certain advantages, as being a convenient 
 form for expressing political and legal principles. 
 
 Now the Holy Scripture cuts short all these theories and 
 speculations, by positively asserting that Civil Government is of 
 Divine origin, and consequently of Divine authority, and this 
 it asserts in the broadest terms : for, while it explicitly defines 
 the duty of the subject, it does not define the nature or structure 
 of the government to which that duty is owing. This is per- 
 fectly evident from the paragraph which has supplied us with 
 our text, and on which I would now fasten your closest atten- 
 tion : * 
 
 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is 
 no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained of God. 
 
 2. Who.'iorver therefore resisteth the poicer, resisteth the ordiiianec of 
 God J and the// that 7-esist shall receive to themselves damnation. 
 
 3. For riders are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt 
 thou then not be afraid of the poiccr ? do that which is good, and thou 
 shall have p>raise of the same. 
 
 4. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou 
 do that which is evd, be afraid ; for he beareth not the sword in vain ; 
 
 * Let those whose sensibilities are shocked whenever the jireacher alludes to polities, 
 beware how their eyes fall on this political chapter of an inspired apostle. 
 
8 
 
 for lie is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath vpon him 
 that dueth evil. 
 
 5. Wherefore ye must needs he suhject, not only for irratli, hut also 
 for conscience sake. 
 
 6. For^ for this cause pay ye tribute also; for they are God's min- 
 isters, attending continually upon this very thing. 
 
 7. Render therefore to all their dues; tribute to whom tribute is 
 due; custom to trhom custom ; fear to u-hom fear ; honour to tchom 
 honour. Rom. xiii. 1-7. 
 
 In these verses St. Paul is enforcing the duty of obedience 
 to those in authority by several considerations. Let us 
 rapidly run over them. He enforces it, 
 
 1. By the consideration that Civil Government is a Divine 
 institution. " Let every soul be subject unto the Higher Poivers. 
 For there is no Poiver but of God. The Powers that be are 
 ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisfeth the Potvers, 
 resisteth the Ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive 
 unto themselves damnation.'" That is to say : Let every man 
 submit himself to the authorities of Government. For all civil 
 authority comes from God. Civil Government is a Divine Ordi- 
 nance. We must obey our rulers because Civil Government is 
 of Divine appointment. Consequently, resistance to rulers is 
 resistance to God Himself. And all -who thus resist invoke upon 
 themselves a just judgment. 
 
 2. The apostle enforces the duty of obedience to those in 
 authority, secondly, from the end or design of their (appoint- 
 ment. ^'- For ruler's are not a terror to good works, but to the 
 evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Poioer? Do that 
 which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he 
 is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that 
 which is evil be afraid. For he beareth not the sivord in vain: 
 a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.'' That 
 is to say: Magistrates are to be obeyed, not only because such 
 is the will of God, but also because they are appointed for the 
 
9 
 
 very purpose of promoting the welfare of society. Government 
 is a terror to none but evil doers. The magistrate is God's 
 steward, to whom He has entrusted the welfare of society. 
 But if the subject rebels, it is not in vain, neither is it by 
 chance, that Government is invested with authority to punish 
 him : for God has appointed Government for that very purpose. 
 3. That we may complete the apostle's view of the subject, 
 let me repeat the third consideration which he presents, why 
 we are to submit ourselves to those in authority, viz : because 
 such submission is a religious as well as civil duty. ''Where- 
 fore, ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for 
 conscience sake." That is to say: We must obey our rulers, 
 not only from fear of civil punishment, but also out of con- 
 scientious regard for God Himself. 
 
 The apostle deduces from this statement the following 
 inference: Since Civil Government is of Divine origin and 
 authority, we should cheerfully sustain it with our pecuniary 
 and moral support. ''For, for this cause pay ye tribute also : for 
 they are Crod's ministers, attending continually upon this very 
 thing. ReJider, therefore, to all their dues; tribute to whom 
 tribute; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to 
 whom honour." (See Appendix, note A, page 29.) 
 
 We see then what the Scriptural teaching concerning Civil 
 Government is. It teaches us to accept government as a 
 Divine fact, which exists as soon as, and wherever, men exist. 
 There has never been a nation so degraded that it had no 
 government. There has never been a nation so advanced that 
 it intentionally based its government on the idea of a social 
 compact, except as a figment of law. Men never have lived, 
 and men never will live, and this simply because men never can 
 live, without government. Government is a fact, just as the 
 atmosphere, or gravitation, or man himself, is a fact. God 
 established the principle of gravitation. God created the 
 
10 
 
 atmosphere. God brings man into being. God makes govern- 
 ments. We shall never be able to trace the origin or basis of 
 Civil Government further back than was done more than two 
 thousand years ago by the great philospher of Stagira : "It is 
 manifest," says Aristotle, " that the State is one of the things 
 which exist by nature, and that man, in virtue of his very being, 
 is a political animal : '"'■ a.vdpior.o:^ (f'jazc rcolczr/biJ qioov." And a 
 greater than Aristotle hath declared, as in our passage : " The 
 Poivers that he are ordained of Gfod. Whosoever, therefore, re- 
 sisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of Crod." That is to 
 say : Society and Government are not altogether creatures of 
 men's wills ; but they are Divine institutions, existing wherever 
 men exist. Those who are in authority are to obeyed within 
 their sphere, no matter how or by whom appointed ; and this 
 because Civil Government is a Divine Ordinance. The Powers 
 that be are ordained of God, not because they chance to have 
 been justly inaugurated, not because they are at present justly 
 administered, but because they are the Government, and Gov- 
 ernment is a Divine institution. And we are to be subject to 
 the PoAvers that be. And what is specially worthy of being 
 noticed in this connection is, that this was the teaching of our 
 Lord and of Ilis apostles, living though they were, under the 
 murderous despotism of the Cresars, in the crimson days of a 
 Tiberius, a Caligula, a Claudius, a Nero, and a Domitian. 
 
 But if the PoAvers that be are ordained of G('d, and if whoso- 
 ever resisteth the Powers, resisteth the Ordinance of God, how 
 then, you ask, can Revolutions ever be justified ? What redress 
 have we when tyranny becomes absolutely intolerable ? Will 
 you carry your doctrine of loyalty to the extreme of pro- 
 nouncing, for instance, the American Kevolution an act of 
 treason, rather than of patriotism ? 
 
 We will not undertake to answer these questions flippantly. 
 They are among the most momentous that history, or the possi- 
 
11 
 
 ble fortunes of our own dear land, can put to the Christian 
 patriot. Let us, therefore, survey the matter as becomes 
 thoughtful, conscientious, Christian lovers of country. 
 
 In reply to the question, whether resistance to the govern- 
 ment ever can be justifiable, we answer that the question 
 belongs to the domain of casuistry, or cases of conscience. 
 All will admit that revolutions are not the ordinary conditions 
 of society, but that they are exceptional cases. We cannot, 
 therefore, argue from them ; for it is manifestly absurd to 
 deduce a rule from an exception. Again, all Avill admit that 
 if revolutions are ever justifiable, they can be justified only on 
 the plea of necessity. If the plea of necessity holds good, it 
 holds good because " Necessity knows no law." But who is 
 to be the judge when a revolution is a necessity ? Evidently, 
 the question is one in casuistry; and questions in casuistry 
 are proverbially the most puzzling of all problems. The 
 remark is pre-eminently true of the subtleties of the law. 
 "Law," said Dr. Johnson, "is the science in which the great- 
 est powers of the understanding are applied to the greatest 
 number of facts." No formula, then, can be enunciated that 
 shall exactly apply to cases of revolution. Evidently, the line 
 which separates the patriot from the traitor is very narrow and 
 delicate. " A good action," said Lord Macauley, " is not dis- 
 tinguished from a bad action by marks so plain as those which 
 distinguish a hexagon from a square." Take the case so 
 often submitted to our juries — that of killing, when the defend- 
 ant urges the plea of self-defence. Now, if the evidence is 
 that the killing was in self-defence, the law, as you are aware, 
 recognizes the validity of the plea, and pronounces the homi- 
 cide justifiable. But what lawgiver, what jurist, will dare to 
 fix, with perfect precision, the limits of self-defence ? Will 
 you show mo the law which measures the precise amount of 
 jeopardy to which the defendant must be exposed, in order to 
 
12 
 
 justify the killing? But, because the law cannot, from the very 
 nature of the case, measure the precise amount of necessary 
 jeopardy, are we prepared to affirm that all cases of killing 
 in alleged self-defence are on the one hand justifiable homi- 
 cides, or, on the other hand, murders? Evidently, each case is 
 peculiar, and must be decided by itself, and decided, too, on an 
 exhaustive view of all the circumstances belono-ing to the 
 transaction. The general principle of these remarks may be 
 applied to cases of resistance to the government, remember- 
 ing, however, that in the latter cases the materials for our 
 decision are vastly more complicated, since no revolution is 
 justifiable till every means of constitutional redress has been 
 exhausted ; and this, as the English revolution of 1688, and 
 our own colonial struggle show, is not the work of a day or of 
 a year. Neither can any revolution be justified in which the 
 chances of success do not clearly preponderate over the chances 
 of defeat. For, civil war is a more terrible calamity than des- 
 potism ; and the same revolution, Avhich, if successful, makes 
 him who leads it a patriot, and entitles him to the patriot's 
 wreath, if unsuccessful, makes him who leads it a rebel, and 
 justly exposes him to the rebel's doom. 
 
 The question, as I have said, is one that belongs to the 
 domain of casuistry. It is very much like the question that 
 often arises, whether or not a child is ever at liberty to disobey his 
 parents. And, permit me here to remark, that I believe that the 
 relation between parent and child is a divinely ordained type 
 of the relation between the State and its subject. What the 
 parent is to the child, that the State, in many particulars, is to 
 the citizen. N'ot Avithout deep significance did the Eoman law 
 pronounce the rebel against his country a parricide. Now, the 
 parental relation, like Government itself, is a Divine institu- 
 tion. The essence and gist of the fifth article of that supreme 
 constitution which the great Lawgiver has drafted for the 
 
1 o 
 
 government of the human race, in all lands and times, Honor 
 thy father and thy mother, consists, as I understand it, in these 
 two principles : First, There is such ti thing as law ; and, 
 secondly, law must be obeyed. This commandment is not an 
 arbitrary enactment, but has its immutable foundation in the 
 very essence of the relation which subsists between parents and 
 children. We might, indeed, legitimately ground this duty on 
 the basis of expediency, or of j^sthetic propriety, or of justness, 
 or of the personal character of the parent himself. But, resist- 
 less as are the motives to filial obedience furnished by consider- 
 ations like these, I believe that our commandment rests on a 
 basis more immutable and unconditional. It is a singular fact 
 that, in many languages, the word employed to denote obedi- 
 ence to God is identical with that employed to denote obedience 
 to parents. Both the Greeks and the Romans, heathen though 
 they were, called devotion to parents ^iV<?/. What is this but 
 a sort of universal, intuitive feeling that the honoring of parents 
 partakes of the nature of an absolute religious obligation, rather 
 than of a contingent, social duty, or of an aesthetic propriety ? 
 I believe that when a son is disobedient to his parents he is 
 guilty of something more than undutifulness; and that when he 
 insults them he is guilty of something more than insolence; and 
 that when he is unkind to them he is guilty of something more than 
 cruelty; and that when he wrongs them he is guilty of something 
 more than injustice. There is in each of these actions a peculiar 
 element of wickedness perfectly distinguishable from that which 
 gives to each separate action its specific title. I think that every 
 rightminded person instinctively discriminates between the 
 infrino-ino; the ricrhts of our neicfhbors and the infrino-iner the 
 rights of our parents ; so that, while he describes the former as 
 being wicked, he spontaneously describes the latter as being 
 impious. It is not enough, then, to say that it is expedient, or 
 appropriate, or beautiful, or even just, that we honor our 
 
14 
 
 parents. But this duty, originating, as it does, outside of and 
 above the circle of conditions and contino-encies, is a thins: abso- 
 lutely and unconditionally right in itself. " Children ! obey 
 your parents in the Lord, for this is right," is the Apostolic 
 injunction. And this word here translated right, St. Paul 
 is always careful to employ when he would designate an action 
 which is right, not incidentally or relatively, but inherently and 
 unconditionally. Hence, for a son to honor his parents is not 
 merely an aesthetic propriety, or a matter of justness, but a 
 religious obligation, partaking of the nature of an elementary 
 principle. I do not know that I make myself understood. It 
 is difficult to define this conception, just as it is difficult to 
 define any other elementary principle. Perhaps I can illus- 
 trate it best by an ancient usage. The Pharisees had a custom, 
 founded on tradition, of refusing, in certain cases, to assist their 
 needy parents, on the ground that what they had to offer as 
 gifts they had already consecrated to God, and hence they 
 claimed that they were released from the duty of maintaining 
 their parents. It was enough for them to exclaim : Corban! 
 that is, already/ devoted. But the Great "Teacher pointed out 
 the impiety which lurked beneath this cloak of sanctity, by 
 affirming in substance that, while it Avas perfectly right that 
 they should contribute of their resources to the Lord's treasury, 
 nevertheless, the specific commandment. Honor thy Fatlier and 
 thy Mother, and the duty involved in it of maintaining them, was 
 of the nature of an antecedent, primary, fundamental obliga- 
 tion, and could never be dispensed with to make room for an 
 incidental contingent duty. But it often happens that parents, 
 viewed in respect to their personal characters, are unworthy of 
 being honored ; and, therefore, our idea of the fifth command- 
 ment is that, in its fullest and truest significance, it does not 
 regard the parent himself so much as it does the Parental Rela- 
 tion — not the person so much as the principle. ' 
 
15 
 
 Now, this relation between parents and children involves, 
 on the one hand, the idea of parental authority, and, on the 
 other, of filial subordination. But, is a child never at liberty 
 to disobey his parents? Suppose, for instance, a father com- 
 mands his son to do what the latter knows he ought not to 
 do, or forbids his doing what he knows he ought to do, must the 
 son obey him ? Now, concerning this, we must say what we 
 are compelled to say concerning cases of conscience generally, 
 that, in the absence of specific scriptural precepts, we must 
 govern ourselves by general principles. We must also remem- 
 ber that there can be no real conflict between moral laws ; and 
 that, if any conflict appear, the difficulty is not in the objective 
 laws themselves, but in our subjective inability to perceive their 
 harmony ; and hence, in deciding such cases, we must proceed 
 with the utmost diffidence and caution. Some of the general 
 principles which may help us in this matter are these : First, 
 it is manifestly my duty to obey both God and my parents. 
 Again, there are certain distinctly enunciated laws which lie in 
 the unchanging plane of fundamental, unconditional obligation. 
 In respect to these laws, my father and I stand on an equality 
 before God. On the other hand, there are many inferential, 
 incidental duties, which lie in the ever-shifting plane of contin- 
 gencies. In respect to these, I am to yield to the commands 
 of my father, in virtue of my own youthfulness and inexperi- 
 ence, and state of subjection to an authority which has been 
 divinely ordained. For example: If my father impose on me 
 commands which I cannot help feeling are unreasonable and 
 cruel, I think that I ought to obey him, remembering that, in 
 virtue of a divine arrangement, the responsibility in such cases 
 rests with him. But if my father command me to worship 
 graven images, or to take God's name in vain, or to steal, or to 
 bear false witness against my neighbor, I must, at all hazards, 
 refuse to obey him : for my father has no right, or power, to 
 
1(3 
 
 make or unmake moral laws ; and moral laAvs impose obliga- 
 tions antecedent and superior to any which parents may dictate. 
 
 Now let us make use of these principles in answering the 
 question, whether it can be right to refuse obedience to the 
 Government '{ Let us never lose sight of the fact that the 
 Powers that be, like the parental authority, are ordained of 
 God. Suppose, now, that some of the enactments of the State 
 are not such as accord with my ideas of reason, or justice, or 
 republicanism ? Am I at liberty to be undutiful to my civic 
 father and mother ? Because I do not like a particular laAv, am 
 I at liberty to set myself up against the law ? Who has 
 anointed me king over the legislature, and the judiciary, and 
 the executive, of my nation ? Am I to translate the grand 
 doctrine of the higher laAv, as too manj^ have translated it, into 
 the doctrine that the higher law is my own will ? Am I to 
 carry the noble doctrine of Popular Sovereignty to the extreme, 
 that, as an American citizen, I am above the laws of the land, 
 and thus illustrate, for the thousandth time, the truth of the 
 proverb, that extremes meet, by showing that there is very little 
 difference after all between the modern anarchical doctrine of 
 the Divine right of citizen sovereignty, and the old monarchi- 
 cal doctrine of the Divine right of kings ? Remember that 
 liberty, unbalanced by law, is anarchy. Liberty, like every 
 other blessing of God, not excepting even the grace of Christ's 
 Gospel, may be abused, and prove our ruin. Liberty, una- 
 bridged by law, is ever a perilous thing. Mans true freedom 
 consists, not in an unfettered license, but in a voluntary subor- 
 dination to law. And the true freedom of a nation consists, not 
 in the suicidal privileges of outlawry, but in a cheerful obedi- 
 ence to the laws which they themselves enact, and administer 
 by representatives of their own free choice. 
 
 But remember, ye heirs of immortality, that there is a law 
 higher than even the ratified enactments of the freely elected 
 
17 
 
 deputies of a free people. There is a Power more omnipotent 
 than that of the people. We enter a most solemn and earnest 
 protest against the blasphemous dogma, so frequent on the lips 
 of certain politicians, and editors, and demagogues, that the 
 voice of the people is the voice of God 1 Let their motto rather 
 be this : THE VOICE of god, let it be the voice of the people ! 
 The popular sovereignty which does not reverently bow before 
 the Theocracy, whose constitution is the Decalogue, and whose 
 interpretation is the Life of Jesus of Nazareth, is essentially an 
 Atheistic Democracy. Do you want an illustration of this ? 
 You shall have one. It shall be an appalling one. It is the 
 French Revolution. ^' The People is sufficient for itself," 
 shrieked Anacharsis Clootz, one of the haranguers of that awful 
 epoch, " the People is sufficient for itself, and will subsist for- 
 ever. Citizens ! there is no other sovereign than the human 
 race— the People-God ! To this Utopia the only obstruction is 
 Religion. Let us grind it to powder !" And in grinding it to 
 powder, they compounded for themselves that terrific, fulmina- 
 ting force, which suddenly exploded into a thousand blackened 
 fragments, the liberty, and the peace, and the virtue, and the 
 glory of France. Let a people once be seized with the idea 
 that they have no sovereign but tlieir own will, and that the 
 only curb to their freedom is physical force, and neither expe- 
 diency nor patriotism, neither reason nor mercy, can prevent 
 them from using their liberty as a cloak for a most hideous dia- 
 bolism. "0, Liberty! Liberty!" exclaimed the illustrious 
 Madame Roland, when, in the name of liberty, she was goaded 
 on to the guillotine by a frenzied horde of Parisian outlaws : "0, 
 Liberty ! Liberty ! what crimes have been perpetrated in tliy 
 
 name 
 
 But while holding these strong notions concerning the autho- 
 rity of the State, I believe that there are cases in which the 
 people are justified in resisting the Government, even though 
 
18 
 
 civil government is an institution of Divine ordination, just as 
 I believe there are cases in Avhicli the child ought to disobey his 
 parents, even though the parental authority is of Divine origin. 
 But it is not necessary that I prosecute the topic further. For, 
 however discontented a portion of our Northern community may 
 be, the great mass of the people repel with utmost abhorrence the 
 intimation that the time has come for such a resistance to the 
 National Authority as shall amount to an organized revolution. 
 I have adverted to the topic, not because it is specially perti- 
 nent to the object I have in view, but because I wished to obviate 
 the objection which might be urged that I had not surveyed the 
 matter in all its bearings. 
 
 II. Having thus considered the Origin and Authority of Civil 
 Government, we ask, secondly, whether Civil Government has 
 the right to maintain its authority with the sword ? 
 
 This question is of primary consequence. In fact, it lies at 
 the base of all other questions pertaining to this gigantic war. 
 The whole spirit of the New Testament is so benignant, and 
 war develops such terrible passions, and brings in its train such 
 unspeakable woes, that no man, least of all the Christian, 
 should dare commit himself to it thoughtlessly, without having 
 carefully scrutinized, in the light of Scripture, ever}^ inch of 
 the ground. I cave not how great provocations we may have 
 received ; I care not how imperilled our Constitution, our Union, 
 our Government, our institutions, our liberties, may be ; if, as 
 a soldier, or as a citizen required to help supply the sinews of 
 war, I have the slightest misgivings as to the Scriptural teach- 
 ings concerning war, better for me that I should let Constitu- 
 tion, Union, Government, institutions, counti'y, be given over to 
 ruin, rather than lift my hand against my fellow-man. 
 
 I wish to meet this question fairly, in the full face, without 
 reserve or subterfuge. The thoughtful, conscientious man will 
 be guided by principle rather than by impulse. This question, 
 
li^t 
 
 then, is of fundamental, decisive consequence. It becomes us, 
 then, to look at the matter calmly and as Christians. 
 
 It must be confessed that the general tenor of the New Tes- 
 tament is very decided against the use of physical force in 
 redressing injuries. Love it pronounces the grand avenger of 
 wrongs. Take, as an instance, the Sermon on the Mount. What 
 a sweet spirit of forgiveness and love runs throughout, teaching 
 us, in various phrases, to suffer wrong rather than resent it ! 
 And this is the teaching of the Epistles as well as of the Gos- 
 pels. " Dearly beloved I avenge not yourselves, but rather give 
 place unto wrath. For it js written: 'Vengeance is mine, I 
 will repay,' saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, 
 feed him ; if he thirst, give him drink. For, in so doing, thou 
 shalt heap coals of fire on his head." Certainly, this does not 
 look as if the maiming and slaying one another were accordant 
 with the peaceful spirit of the Gospel. 
 
 Now there is one very remarkable exception to this general 
 tenor of the scriptural teaching. If I remember right, it is 
 the only formal exception in the whole New Testament. But 
 it is perfectly decisive. It is the exception of our text : " He 
 Beareth not the Sword in Vain." Now, what is this 
 sword that is not borne in vain ; that is, this sword which is 
 borne authoritatively and effectively ? Why, it is none other 
 than tJie sword of Grovernment unelded to maintain its oivn 
 supremacy. This is perfectly demonstrable from the context, 
 which we have already examined. " The Powers that be are 
 ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth tRe Power, 
 resisteth the ordinance of God ; and they that resist shall 
 receive unto themselves damnation. For he heareth not the 
 sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to 
 execute wrath upon him that doeth evil." And to make the 
 case the strongest possible, remember that St. Paul penned 
 these words when living under the most merciless and nefarious 
 
20 
 
 despotism that ever cursed the earth — the despotism of the 
 Csesars. Even the Ci^sars had the right to use the sword to 
 maintain the supremacy of their own Government ; and this on 
 the basis of the universal fact, that the Power, that is, the 
 Government, is ordained of God. 
 
 The doctrine of the text, then, is this : Civil Government, 
 in virtue of the fact that it is the ordinance of God, has the 
 right, in order to maintain its own authorit}^, to use physical 
 force. This use of physical force, in the case of the single 
 rebel, is confiscation, or imprisonment, or banishment, or the 
 scaffold : in the case of many rebels, or of a rebellious district, 
 it is ivar. The New Testament, then, though it is the evangel of 
 Peace, and though it everywhere teaches the forgiveness of per- 
 sonal injuries, nevertheless justifies war, but only on this ground : 
 Civil Government, as being the ordinance of God, in order to 
 maintain its supremacy, has the right to use the sword, even 
 though millions perish. Eebels are nothing as compared with 
 an ordinance of the Almighty. 
 
 Here, then, men and brethren, Ave have a complete New 
 Testament justification of the present war, at least so far as 
 we wage it in maintenance of Government as being God's ordi- 
 nance. The New Testament nowhere justifies a war for 
 mere conquest, or acquisition of territory, as in our war with 
 Mexico. It noAvhere justifies war for the retaliation of in- 
 iuries. It nowhere justifies war for the avenging of an 
 insulted flag, unless, indeed, that flag be considered at the time 
 as the symbol of the authority conferred by an ordinance of 
 God. When I was abroad, I often heard Europeans making 
 some such remark as this : " The Americans are a curious 
 people. They are always talking about their flag — the Star- 
 spangled Banner — as though that were everything !" And 
 whenever I heard a remark like this it always filled me with 
 pride, and I more than once said to them : " I thank you for 
 
21 
 
 that tribute to America. My countrymen are so poetical that 
 with them their flag is the symbol of everything they deem 
 glorious. All that they have inherited from their fathers, all 
 that they have themselves achieved, all that makes them the 
 American people, they poetically sjanbolize in their glorious 
 Stars and Stripes." And yet, because this flag, considered 
 simply as the emblem of our glory, has been insulted and trailed 
 in the dust, this is no New Testament justification of our war. 
 But if Ave wage this war because God's ordinance of Govern- 
 ment has been assailed, and if we avenge the insult to our flag 
 because we consider it the symbol of a Divine Institution, then 
 we are not only authorized and justified, we are compelled to 
 wage this war to the bitter end, even though millions on mil- 
 lions of our countrymen perish. And if we wage the war on 
 this basis, (and I believe, before God, that this is the basis on 
 which we are waging it), then we confidently bring the debate 
 before the Court of High Heaven, and we say : " Let Jehovah, 
 the Lord of Hosts, the God of Battles, the Giver of Victories, 
 decide between you rebels against Jlis ordinance, and us, who 
 are loyal to it I Let the God of Battles weigh you and us in 
 His balance, and let the balance in which loyalty to God is 
 wanting, kick the beam I"' This is precisely the point in issue 
 in this tremendous conflict. We call it, and properly enough, 
 rebellion against the Government ; we might, with equal pro- 
 priety, call it rebellion against Jehovah's ordinance. 
 
 III. " But this war is not at present waged for maintenance 
 of Government," I hear some one saying, " It is a war for 
 emancipation." 
 
 What you say is partly true and partly false. 
 
 It is true that the Government stands committed to the 
 policy and work of emancipation. And from the very pro- 
 foundest depths of my soul do I thank and glorify my God 
 for the fact. I hail this Proclamation of Emancipation as 
 
99 
 
 God's own morning star ; the brightest promise He has 
 vouchsafed us of our National Redemption. It is a great 
 act of public justice, which the world will yet acknowledge 
 as one of its grandest eras. For, though this Proclamation is 
 based on the ground of military necessity, yet no man can help 
 feeling that its real nethermost basis is a moral one. Strip- 
 ping the question of all partisan hues, all political associations, 
 all personal prejudices and preconceptions, surveying it in its 
 moral bearings alone, I believe that it elicits a profound response 
 from the general moral sense of the community. And could 
 we get at the secret, honest feelings of the thousands who affect 
 to sneer at it, we are bold to say that, with the exception of 
 those who are utterly given over either to prejudice of color, 
 or to partisan blindness, or to secret, treacherous complicity 
 with treason — could we, I say, get at the secret, honest feelings 
 of the thousands who affect to sneer at this Proclamation, we 
 are bold to affirm that in the depths of their hearts they feel 
 that it is right ; emphatically, intensely, gloriously eight. It 
 is right that they who have risen in armed conspiracy against 
 their government, should lose their property, or what they call 
 their property, specially when that property consists in the 
 weapons with which they fought against the government. It is 
 right that that which was the primary, fundamental cause of the 
 war should be swept away forever. It is right that they who 
 have been enslaved, not because they were criminals, but because 
 they were dark-skinned and defenceless, should enjoy the rights 
 of manhood as fi-eely as you or I. 0, how my heart has 
 been pained, when I have heard respectable, high-minded gen- 
 tlemen speaking of the poor defenceless negro, in terms of 
 opprobrium, using epithets of vulgar cant, which may befit the 
 lips of barbarians, but which certainly do not befit the lips of 
 Christian gentlemen, who must one day meet these same unfor- 
 tunate fellow-men of theirs at the judgment seat of Christ. 
 
23 
 
 Yes, I hail this Prochimatlon of Freedom as a colossal stride in 
 the direction of American progress. It has changed the "whole 
 attitude of the government toward slavery; Formerly, slavery 
 ■was, as it were, a foster child of the government, and so a 
 national institution; now it is an outlaw, to be exterminated 
 with the rebel outlaws, whose idol it is. It matters not, in this 
 particular, who is elected President on the 8th inst. Retro- 
 gression now is impossible. The die is cast. Slavery is 
 doomed. I know not what is before us as a nation. I am 
 willing to trust God for our future. But if the very worst 
 should come, if He, with whom the nations of earth are but as 
 wands of gossamer, hath determined that the Union of our 
 fathers shall go down forevermore, it will be a blessed thing 
 for posterity to know, that, Avhen the American nationality 
 went down, she went down all alone, beneath the direct touch 
 of Jehovah's finger, without the weight of so much as one 
 single slave-infant dragging at her skirts ! 
 
 Therefore, let God be praised ! The American People, by 
 this act of their Constitutional Executive, stand irretrievably 
 committed to the work of Emancipation. What though the 
 proclamation itself be "but a piece of paper?" It is a glo- 
 rious thincr that at last we have a Government that dares to 
 admit, even on paper, that Freedom is not altogether a ques- 
 tion of complexion, and that wherever God has put a human 
 soul, there he has put a freeman. But this proclamation is 
 something more than a piece of paper. It is a weapon of tre- 
 mendous power, for it is borne on the points of half a million of 
 bayonets, and heralded by the whiz of ten million bullets. Ah I 
 we little know as yet Avhat that piece of paper has accom- 
 plished. AVe little know what is taking place in quietness 
 to-night on those distant Southern plantations. We little know 
 how many hearts are throbbing with wild delight beneath sable 
 skins, or how many eyes are turned heavenward in grateful joy 
 
24 
 
 from cabin and pine grove, from cottonfield and canebrake. Poor, 
 oppressed, moaning children of Africa ! Lift up your heads, 
 for your redemption draweth nigh ! The tide of Emancipa- 
 tion, God's own tide, has set in, and the world's united forces 
 cannot drive it back. The men of to-day may sneer at the 
 Proclamation ; the men of to-morrow will reverence it. 
 
 Bui the good deed, through the ages, 
 Living in historic pages, 
 Brighter grows, and gleams immortal, 
 Uuconsumed by moth or rust. 
 
 But while it is true that the Grovernment stands committed 
 to the policy and work of emancipation, it is not true that we 
 are fighting for emancipation as an end, but only as a means. 
 And God be praised for the evidences He has vouchsafed us 
 that His own ordinance of Civil Government is SAviftly march- 
 ing on to victory over the glorious highway of that other ordi- 
 nance of His, the ordinance of universal freedom. Strange, 
 passing strange, it is, that while some of the bitterest opposers 
 of the emancipation proclamation are Northern men, who have 
 no practical acquaintance with the workings of the institution of 
 slavery, the most distinguished among the Southern loyalists, 
 who, through a painful personal experience, have known its 
 paralyzing effects on their own communities, are hailing the pro- 
 clamation with a feeling approaching to ecstacy. The practical 
 m.ovements towards emancipation of such slave States as Mis- 
 souri, and Maryland, and Delaware, and portions of Virginia, 
 and Kentucky, and Tennessee, and North Carolina, and Florida, 
 and Texas, and Louisiana — States which understand experiment- 
 ally the workings of slavery, are worth more than all the theo- 
 ries and arguments ever elaborated by the human intellect. 
 Most significant of all is the intelligence wliich lias reached us 
 within the past few days, that the very men who are leaders in 
 
this atrocious conspiracy against an Ordinance of the Al- 
 mighty; the very men ^Yho deliberately inaugurated this 
 unparalleled war, for the avowed purpose of founding a new, 
 and that a slave-holding empire ; these very men are them- 
 selves vindicating the military policy of our Government, by 
 proposing to imitate that policy themselves, and proclaiming 
 emancipation to their own slaves. [See note B, page 32.] 
 What a confession this is, that the conduct of the war on our 
 part has been a transcendent success! Verily, the ruler of 
 the land hath not borne the sword in vain I And yet there are 
 those scattered through the north, who are craven enough to 
 assert that "the war is a failure." To compel these haughty 
 insurgents to cast away the very corner-stone on Avhich they 
 had vauntingly founded their unhallowed Confederacy ; to com- 
 pel these scornful task-masters to confess that Avhite men can- 
 not conquer us, but that black men may ; to storm and carry 
 the very citadel of the rebellion — and slaveholding is that 
 citadel — to extort such confessions as these from these swollen 
 Southrons; M?.s do you call "a failure?" If this be failure, 
 God send us many more like unto it ! 
 
 But this war, I repeat, is not a war for emancipation as such. 
 It is a war for God's ordinance of Government through eman- 
 cipation. It is a war for the maintenance and supremacy of 
 Government on the ground that Civil Government is God's 
 ordinance. If this war is waged for any other purpose ; if it 
 cannot be based on that loftiest of grounds, the duty of main- 
 taining God's ordinance of Civil Government, Heaven forbid 
 that I should have anything to do with it! It is not a war for 
 subjugation. It is not a war for retaliation. It is not a Avar 
 for avenging the insult to our flag, considered merely as the 
 symbol of our glory. It is not a Avar for emancipation, as 
 such. But it is a war for God's ordinance of Civil Government. 
 On this unmistakeable, lofty, Christian, Divine ground, we 
 
26 
 
 proudly take our position. Jehovah of Hosts summons us 
 forth to vindicate the majesty of one of His own institutions, 
 to re-assert and forever maintain the supremacy of a Divine 
 ordinance on which rebels with accursed heel have trodden. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to set before you, men and brethren, 
 the scriptural teaching concerning the origin and authority of 
 Civil Government. I have endeavored to show that Govern- 
 ment, in order to maintain its own authority, has the right to 
 employ physical force. I have endeavored to show that in the 
 war which is now devastating our land. Government, in seeking 
 to re-establish its supremacy, is rightfully appealing to the sword. 
 It only remains for me to make practical application of our 
 topic to the exigences of the hour. 
 
 Accordingly, I conclude as I began. Next Tuesday this 
 nation is to decide whether it Avill obey God by re-asserting His 
 own ordinance of Civil Government, or disobey Him by 
 ignominiously surrendering it to insurgents and traitors. This 
 is the real question at issue before the American people. Let 
 no man deceive you. The real question, stripped of whatsoever 
 subordinate details politicians have encumbered it with, is 
 simply, nakedly this : Shall we have peace, a true, righteous, 
 permanent peace. Heaven's own peace, by re-asserting with the 
 sword God's own ordinance of Civil Government? or shall we 
 have a false, treacherous, transient, base peace, by impiously 
 surrendering to traitors an ordinance of Almighty God ? Tltat 
 is the question. Two parties are in the field. The one party 
 virtually says : " Government, though of Divine origin and 
 authority, is unable to maintain itself. This war is a failure. 
 Let us have an armistice. Let us- ground our arms. Let us 
 temporize. Let us compromise with the Powers of Darkness. 
 Let us play the coward. It is safer than to fight. Let us 
 make peace with traitors. And let Heaven's ordinance take 
 care of itself I" The other party virtually says: " The Powers 
 
'J.i 
 
 that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth 
 the Powers, resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist 
 shall receive unto themselves damnation. For the Power beareth 
 not the sword in vain. Government has been assailed, outraged, 
 defied, trampled on. We have undertaken to re-vindicate its 
 authority, to re-assert its supremacy. God helping us, it shall 
 be done, till the last armed traitor bites the dust. Graciously 
 hath the Lord of Hosts smiled upon us. We have begun 
 re-asserting the authority of Government in the field. We 
 will finish re-asserting it at the polls. Next Tuesday Treason 
 shall die. God save the State 1" 
 
 Fellow-citizens : — I have done my duty. As the minister of 
 God I have not shunned to declare unto you His counsel as it 
 bears on this tremendous issue. I might have plied you with 
 other motives. I might have spoken of the unutterable shame 
 involved in this proposition to capitulate to the enemy in the 
 very hour of his defeat. But I have preferred to take higher, 
 more Christian grounds. As an ambassador from the Court of 
 the King of Kings, I have, on this Christ's day, in this Christ's 
 pulpit, put this question on Christ's own ground. Beware how 
 you trifle with this ordinance of the Omnipotent ! It is the 
 nation's crisis. It is the turning point in the nation's fever. 
 Life and death hang on the result of next Tuesday. It is an 
 august hour. 
 
 We are dwelling, 
 
 In a grand and awful time, 
 In an age on ages telling. 
 
 To be living is sublime. 
 Hark ! the waking up of nations, 
 
 Gog and Magog to the fray ; 
 Hark ! "What soundeth ? Is Creation 
 
 Groaning for its latter day '.' 
 
 I believe it. God hasten that bright Miilenial Day ! Mean- 
 time, let America do its part! Let the land of the Pilgrims, 
 the land of Washington, be true to God and His ordinances ! 
 
28 
 
 All will yet he ivell! 0! thou afflicted, tossed with tempest 
 and not comforted I ! land of wailing Rachels I ! land of 
 patriot-graves ! Be of good cheer ! for thus saitli the Holy One : 
 
 Behold 1 I will lay thy stones with lair colors, 
 
 And thy foundations with sapphires : 
 
 And I will make thy battlements of agates. 
 
 And thy gates of carbuncles, 
 
 And all thy borders of pleasant stones. 
 
 In Righteousness shalt thou be established. 
 
 Thou shalt be far from Oppression, 
 
 And great shall be the Peace of thy children. 
 
 For brass I will bring gold, 
 
 And for iron I will bring silver. 
 
 And for wood brass, 
 
 And for stones, iron. 
 
 I will make thine officers peace. 
 
 And thine exactors righteousness. 
 
 Violence shall no more be heard in thy land. 
 
 Wasting nor destruction within thy borders. 
 
 r.ut thou shalt call thy walls Salvation. 
 
 And thj' gates Praise. 
 
 Thy sun shall no more gc down. 
 
 Neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: 
 
 For Jehovah shalt be thine everlasting light : 
 
 And the days of thy mourning shall be ended 1 
 
 I, Jehovah, will liasten it in its time. 
 
 Weary, bleeding countrymen ! Does that time seem far 
 distant ? Lift up your eyes I Faith discerns bright portents 
 in the sky. Watchman ! What of the night ? Watchman ! 
 What of the night? The watchman saith : The morning 
 cometli 1 
 
 Hark : 
 
 Down the long future, tlirough long generations. 
 The eclujing sounds grow fainter and then cease : 
 
 And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
 I hear once more the voice of Christ say pe.\ckI 
 
 Peace I and no longer from its brazen portals 
 The blast of war's great organ shakes the skies! 
 
 But beautiful as songs of the Immortals. 
 The holy melodies of Love arise ! 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Xoto A, page 0. 
 
 In this connection, I may be pardoned for putting on record 
 some remarks I uttered on a previous occasion. 
 
 I do not ask who the Powers that be are ; it is enough for me 
 to know that the Powers that be, like the parental relation, are 
 ordained of God ; and to them, at least while they are the Pow- 
 ers that be, do I owe the profoundest reverence and obedience. 
 The honor which the child is bound to render to his parents, 
 the citizen is bound to render to his civic father and mother. 
 Honor the King is the Scriptural injunction ; not because the 
 King is this or that man, but because this or that man is the King. 
 Alas I how often is the spirit of this injunction violated in these 
 days of studied insult and defamation ! I refer now to those 
 who, in forgetfulness or ignorance of the numberless colossal diffi- 
 culties which have beset and are still besetting the rulers of the 
 land, are ever complaining, with the dreary perseverance which 
 always marks the fault-finder, of the incompetency, and despot- 
 ism, and dishonesty of the Chief Magistrate of the United 
 States. I mean no partisan allusion. God forbid it ! He who, 
 in this night of national grief and dismay, when the founda- 
 tions of government, and law, and order, and home are heav- 
 ing, thinks of parties, or mentions parties, save to spurn them, 
 is unworthy to be a man, least of all an American citizen. Men 
 and Brethren I I warn you solemnly, in the presence of 
 Almighty God, there is terrible danger 'to the North hidden in 
 these denunciations. It is not possible that any people can long 
 have a good Government who are in the habit of speaking dis- 
 paragingly of their constitutional authorities. Centuries ago 
 there was a ruler whose name has come down to us as a syno- 
 
 (29) 
 
30 
 
 njm for atrocity, -who once commanded that the most illustrious 
 orator and philosopher of his age should be smitten in the 
 mouth. The indignant hero suddenly turned upon the despot 
 T/ho had given the brutal order, and exclaimed: " God shall 
 smite thee, thou whited wall !" But the moment that he learned 
 that the man whom he had thus answered was the constitutional 
 ruler of the land, the lojal Paul apologized, saying: " I wist 
 not that it was the High Priest ; for it is written : ' Thou shall 
 not speak evil of the Riders of thy people.' " 
 
 What a lesson for us in these days of bitter insult and denun- 
 ciation ! I repeat: No people can long have a good government 
 who are in the habit of spealcing disparagingly of their Constitu- 
 tionally elected rulers. And to-day Government is in fearful 
 peril, hardly more from armed rebels in the South than from 
 thoughtless patriots in the North. And Government has done 
 wisely in stopping the mouth of more than one orator, and 
 arresting the pen of more than one editor. We can well aftbrd 
 to lose the right of habeas corpus in times of war, if by so doing 
 we can enjoy the right of habeas corpus in times of peace. I 
 believe that one of the many reasons why God has permitted 
 this war to desolate our land is, that we may learn, under the 
 terrible pressure of a military despotism, that the first element 
 of a genuine patriotism is profound loyalty to the Powers that 
 be. I speak strongly because I feel strongly. There is ter- 
 rible danger before us. We of the North are tottering on the 
 brink of a frightful precipice. So long as we are treating 
 Government, as though it were a football for any man to bandy 
 about whithersoever he pleases, we are not only insulting God's 
 ordinance of Civil Government, but we are most assuredly 
 laying the foundation for insubordination, sedition, treason, 
 anarchy, and hopeless ruin here at our very doors. Let me 
 suppose a case. Here is a noble ship, on a dangerous reef, in 
 a terrible tempest, Avith a third of her crew in open mutiny. 
 
31 
 
 What, now, Avould you think of the prudence or propriety of 
 the loyal portion of the passengers and crew, were they to keep 
 iterating and reiterating : " The captain is an imbecile ! the 
 pilot is an idiot I" Think you that such denunciations Avould 
 nerve the officers, or help the ship out of difficulty, especially 
 if one-third of her crew were already mutinous ? 0, if I did 
 not honestly believe, before God, that the chief peril of my 
 country lies here, God knows that I would not use this pulpit, 
 and the Sabbath dsij, in thus raising my warning voice. If I 
 cannot enter the field myself, I will at least stand by those who, 
 whether commander-in-chief or private, are struggling to save 
 my country and home. 
 
 I am prepared to say more than this. I feel it to be my 
 duty to state here, publicly, that in spite of all the charges of 
 weakness, and vacillation, and tyranny, which have been so 
 fiercely hurled against the present Chief Magistrate of the 
 United States, I believe that no man ever united in himself 
 tenderness and firmness, energy and prudence, together with 
 calm, far-reaching sagacity, more perfectly than the present 
 occupant of the Presidential chair — to whom God grant a 
 renewal of the Executive power. I know not the man in all 
 the world whom I would be willing to see in his place. And I 
 believe that were we admitted behind the scenes of Executive 
 determination and resolve, and could we see all the difficulties, 
 domestic, foreign, constitutional, popular; difficulties suggested 
 alike by justice and by humanity, by the present and by the 
 future, with which the President has had to grapple, and all the 
 problems which he has had to solve, (difficulties and problems of 
 the simple existence of many of which we never have dreamed,) 
 we should see the evidences of an honesty and inflexibility of 
 purpose, of an intense energy, of a consummate sagacity, and of 
 a serene dignity, unruffled as little by sneers of patriots as by 
 curses of rebels, which shall win the enthusiastic plaudits of 
 
;32 
 
 posterity. I believe that the nation will be saved if they will 
 only be worthy of the Administration which God has given 
 them. And even if I believed the Government at Washington 
 unable to grapple with the crisis, rather than give utterance 
 to the thought in this hour of sublime peril, let my hand be 
 palsied and forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the 
 roof of my mouth I If you, yourselves, would join Avith 
 Southern traitors in striking the final blow that shall murder 
 the American nationality, then insist on and keep parading 
 before the public the feebleness and imbecility of the Constitu- 
 tional authorities of your countrj'. If the American Republic 
 falls in this awful crisis, it will fall, not because the first blow 
 Avas struck by Southern conspirators, but because the final, 
 mortal stab Avas dealt her by her professed Northern friends. 
 
 N.itc H. i.ii-c 2... 
 
 Thank God ! The lament of old Philip Massinger, a contem- 
 porary of Shakspeare, and second only to liim in tragic power, 
 is no longer true. 
 
 The noble liorse, 
 That in liis liery youth, from his wiile nostrils, 
 Neighed courage to his rider, and brake through 
 Groves of opposed pikes, bearing his lord 
 Safe to triumphant victory, old and wounded, 
 Was set at liberty and freed from service. 
 The Athenian mules, that from the quarry drew 
 Marble, hewed for the temple of the gods, 
 The great work ended, were dismissed and fed 
 \t the public cost. Nay, faithful dogs have found 
 Theii' sepulchres. Cut man, to man more cruel, 
 Appoints no end to the sutFerings of his slave. 
 
 God be praised! The poet's plaint no longer finds echo 
 beneath our national ensign. In arming the slave, Avhether for 
 Government or for Rebellion, the sable warrior becomes his 
 OAvn liberator. 
 
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