* 6~
7L/
A
THlANKSGIVING SE~RM~ON,
PREACHED IN THE
FIRST PRESBYTE~RIAN CHIURCHI,
TROY, N. Y., NOV. 26, 1863.
BY
REV. MARVIN R?V~AINCENT,
PASTOR.
TROY, N. Y.:
A. WV. SCRIBNEE, PRINTER, CANNON PLACE.
1863.
V ~-~ 
I 
REV. M. R. VINCENT,
])Dear Sir:
The undersigned, members of your congregation, having listened vitlh pleasure to the discourse delivered by you, on the 26th
inst., antid approving of tlhe sentiments therein contained, request you to
consent to its publication, and to furnish a copy for that purpose at your
earliest convenience. The views so distinctly expressed on the great
issues of the day, we think, are calculated to do good, and the cause of
Religion and Liberty demands its circulation.
Respectfully yours,
R. D. STARKWEATIIER,
GEO. EVANS,
E. J. HICKS,
S. B. SAXTON,
JONATHAN EDWARDS,
CHARLES A. HOLMES.
HARVEY J. KING,
N. DAVENPORT,
J. P. ALBERTSON,
WM. F. SAGE,
E. S. FULLER.
N. S. S. BEMAN,
S. K. STOW,
GILES B. KELLOGG,
DAVID COWEE,
F. S. THAYEa,
J. W. FREEMIAN,
J AMES H. HOWE,
CHARLES P. HARTT,
MARTIN I. TOWNSEND,
A. H. GRAVES,
J. SHERRY, 
TROY, November O30th, 1863.
REV. N. S. S. BEMAN, D. D., S. K. STOW, DAVID COWEE and others:
)ear Brethren:-Your request for a copy of my Thanksgiving Discourse for publication is gratifying to me as an endorsement of
the views therein presented. Fully convinced as I am of their important
bearing upon the issues of the present, I shall rejoice with you, if their
circulation shall contribute, in however small a degree, to the diffusion of
correct Christian sentiment respecting the interests of our beloved land.
I cheerfully comply, therefore, with your request, and forward you the
manuscript herewith.
Affectionately yours,
MARVIN  R. VINCENT.
4-)
4
61
TRoy, Noveinber 27, 1863..
1. 
I 
SERAMON.
JOB   XXXVi:   22.   " \WtIIO()   TEA(1'IIEI             J,; IM fiM?"
Above every other man, the Christian minister
is to "stand in the ways and see."  While he is to
be exempt from the dictation of public opinion as
to the manner in whichl he shall deal with evils
hle is to find his most telling texts and sermnons in
contemporary  meiie  and events.  Religion, if it
have no relation to such subjects, may be useful
for angels, but not for men.
The consideration of this fact cannot be omitted
firom our thloughts, on an occasion like this. Our
Thanksgiving will be deep and heartfelt in proportion as it is understanding. A child, when
informed that hle is heir to a ifortune, will be
delighted because of the beautiful objects and the
comforts which he sees it purchase for him.  His
gratitude is superficial. It will not be tempered
with serious feelings by reason of the responsibilities which come with wealth.  His mind cannot
grasp the large benefits which will accrue to him; 
6
the means of [nental training, social position, extended  culture, large  beneficence.   And if we
shall sit down this day with our minds dwelling
only on the nmore palpable and obvious motives
for thanksgiving, -  our financial prosperity,  our
well filled barns, our fireedom from  disease, our
extended business - this festival day will leave
upon our minds and hearts no deeper impression
than is left by any day in which we slhal]e off the
fetters of business, spread our tables abundantly,
and make merry with olur kindred and neighbors.
Each merely palpable blessing is a gold rock,
peering above the surface, valuable in itself, but
chliefly valuable as it points to the mine beneath.
Especially is this the case  when the palpable
grounds of thanksgiving are comparatively few in
number; when, to a superficial, and particularly
to a faithless observer, it would seem as though
there were cause for niourning rather than for
thanksgiving; and when men are found ig-norant,
as well as blasphemous enough to say, like the
arch traitor of New York on a similar occasion,
they see no cause for thlanksgiving.  All men will
share this error more or less, according as they
accustom themselves to look merely  at the outward manifestations of Providence.  Only as vwe
shall make our thanksgiving unselfish, only as we
shall consent to be lifted to a plane whlence we 
7.
may behold God's great system fulfilling its appointed round, to see our joys and afflictions,
not only as sources of pleasure or pain to us, but
as the results of forces which must touch us in
their revolution, and which have a mission far
outside the sphere of our personal feelings; only
as we shall have faith enough to see God working
in shadow, and zeal enough to study laws rather
than results, shlall we celebrate a true, Christian
thanksgiving.
We are not, it is true, to omit our thanks for
these ma'i?fest tokens of Divine favor.  For our
abundant harvests, for our unexampled prosperity amid the distractions of civil war, for our
family blessings, for the goodness vouchsafed to
our churches, for the spread of the gospel, for life,
and health, and reason, for the ten thousand mercies which have concerned the various private inr
terests of each family and of each individual,-for
all these let the nation to-day send its triumphal
Psalm up to the blue arches of H-eaven. with full
chorus of happy voices, and with the thunder of
pealing organs-" Oh! praise the Lord all ye nations: praise him all ye people! for His mercifiul
kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the
Lord endureth forever."
But after all, it is as a nation that we assemble
to-day to praise that God by whom  "kings reign 
and princes decree justice." Our thanksgiving is
oficiall/ called forth by national blessings. Themes
contemplating more than mere individual interests
nmlay, therefore, appropriately occupy our  minds,
especially since it is to the nation, its weal or woe,
its destiny, its management, that all our eyes
turn to-day with the most absorbing interest.
It is in view of these facts and principles that
I call your attention this morning to the subject
of national discipline; not to offend prejudice, not
to excite partisanship, not for the sake of idle
declamation, but that, as Christia-ns, praying for
the coming of Christ's Kingdom, and recognizing
a Christian nationality as the end of all governmental experiments, we may  be led to view the
events of the hour in their true relations to the
duty of thankfulness.  And if our thoughts shall
be occupied with the evolution of God's great
plans, if we have been watching the sweep of
the stream rather than the shape of the chips and
fragments it carries with it, if we can stop at
this point, and look back over a year, and see
that the grand design has advanced a single inch
toward its acconplishment,-that the east is more
deeply tinged with the coming sun of a glorious
fulfillment, then our thanksgiving will be worthy
a Christian nation, and our courage for the future
immeasurably strengthened.
8 
9.
National Discipline, as I understand the term,
embraces a direct and continuous supervision of
God over tile events of a nation's history, the
shaping these events to a well defined and beneficent Divine purpose, and the training of men
by his own appointed means for the accomplishmnent of that purpose
It is not necessary to argue the fact of a general Divine supervision in national History.   I
have no discussion with thlat class of philosophers
who deny it, or who evade a flat denial by the
astounding paradox that the individual is controlled by Providence and society bylaw.  We
may leave them to reconcile for themselves the
denial of Providential intervention, with the assumption of universal law, which is the highest
human expression of providential working.  But
the second proposition involves a truth of great
and universal interest. National Discipline, we
have said, includes the shaping of the events of
National  history to subserve a divine purpose;
and an examination of History will, I think, reveal a common law underlying all these developmnents, viz: that each distinct form of nationality
is guided in its growth so as to make it, sooner or
later, the exponent of a great political, social, or
moral idea.   The various streams which go to
make up the sum total of each distinct nationality,
2 
10
empty into the same great basin. All national
life is illustrative.  With nations as with men, "no
one livethl unto himself."  In God's plan, nations
exist with reference to principles: they are not
merely positive, absolute developments of culture,
or war, or political constitutions. When the page
of a nation's history is complete, God writes at
the head of it a grand, comprehensive truth as
the condensed result of its social and political
struggles,- its aggressions, its conquests, its defeats, the forces that have influenced it,- and
holds the text and sermon up to the inspection of
the world.
For illustrations of this truth (and its importance justifies us in pausing to illustrate it,) we
must go to the past rather than to the present.
There we find both the processes and the results
of national development crystallized,-  fixed for
our inspection. Regarding the field of history
from a point so distant, we lose in accuracy of
detail perhaps, but we gain in facility of generalizing. We take in at a glance that which principally concerns us, the movement of masses.
We discover great currents if we do not see
eddies.
Let us consider briefly, both as most familiar and
as most apposite, the three nationalities of Rome,
Greece, and Judea; and nothing can be clearer
*.. * 
11
than the manifestation in each of these of a distinct idea to which its national growth tended.
The whole development of Rome culminated in
the idea of organized poweri: Her very name was
strength; and as an exponent of this idea she takes
her place in the Divine scheme, and in the system
of the philosophic historian. Through all her aggressions and conquests and cruelties, we see this
appearing as her representative thought. Wherever she went, she stamped it.  Her legions never
encamped for a night without building a fort according to the best known principles of the art,
with its walls and gates and streets, constructed
with mathematical precision. Her armies revealed
the perfection of physical discipline. Social, domestic individual life were nmerged in the life of
the state. In the departments of law and forensic
oratory alone can she lay claim to originality.
The results of finer culture,-her Drama, her Poetry, her Philosophy, were but feeble reproductions
of the works of her Greek neighbor. Her language was rich in the terms of jurisprudence, and
her pandects have entered into all later legislation.
Her uniform policy with respect to a conquered
territory or province, was to merge it in the sphere
of her grand and compact organization, and by
roads and highways and every physical appliance,
to bind it to the great centre. She left this phys 
12
ical stamp, this mark of a strong external force,
everywhere; in improved administration, in severe discipline, in magnificent roads and forts
and bridges and aqueducts.  Her moral and intellectual impress was faint, as might  have been
expected firom a nation which was content to
give the world a second hand literature, and
which yielded itself a ready prey to the luxurious
corruptions of the East.
In Greece we discover an entirely different,
indeed an opposite development; - that of intellectual strength and  esthetic culture.  Her people
were less order-loving and law-abiding than their
brothers across the Tonian, prone to try new
experiments in government as well as in science,
as adventurous in politics as in maritime enterprise.  The Greek mind was clear, subtle, logical,
less reflective butt more active than the Oriental,
the perceptions quick, the aesthetic susceptibilities
exquisitely fine, the imagination vivid, the temperament enthusiastic; and the whole breathed
itself into a language which united the perfections
of grace and strength, full of natural melody,
capable of the subtlest shades of expression, alike
flexible in the mazes of philosophic discussion,
majestic in the "thunderous lilt" of the Epic, and
tender, sparkling and fuLll of passion, in the lighter
measures of lyric song. The restless and enter 
13
prising disposition of the people awakened the
spirit of colonization. They lined the shores of
Asia with their towns, and had entrenched themselves on the Italian peninsula ere the sevenhilled city had reached the zenith of its power.
But where  Rome  crushed, Greece impressed.Where Rome left only the marks of her strong and
bloody gripe, Greece pervaded the intellect, and
moulded the morals, and refined the tastes; darting the vivid rays of her thought into the golden
mists of Asiatic speculation, and mellowing even
the rude outlines of old Romnan asceticism beneath her subtle charm.
In Judea, again, we find a third nationality,
differing radically fiom both the others, yet equally
marked by one leading characteristic. Rome bore
on her front the iron crown of power. Greece
wore the chaplet of Intellect and Taste. Judea's
brow was glorified by the halo of Religion. Without the aggressive power, splendid organization
and tenacious grasp of the first, without the artistic taste and literary culture of the second, she
was a type of that which was to the others only
a variable incident. Her whole national life and
polity were religious. Her national and religious
polities touched each other at every point. The
fundamental idea of her nationality was a Divine
call and a Divine segregation. Her leaders and 
14
rulers were priests.  The very watchmen on the
temple walls, as they relieved each other's guard,
broke the stillness of the night with psalms of
praise to Jehovah.   11er language, harsh and
bacrren as the rocks of her own Sinai, unfit for
philosophic discussion or for the manifold uses of
general literature, conveyed the grand religious
dogmas which lie at the basis of all religions
belief and discussion, and their kindred themes,
with a sublime simplicity and a glowing fervor
which  Homer  and  Sophocles  never  equalled.
Alike with the Greek, the Jew developed the
spirit of enterprise which carried him eventually
to every quarter of the known world, and, even
before Christ, caused the worship of Abraham's
God to ascend, alike from the borders of the Caspian, from the interior of Syria, and from the
banks of the Nile. The national character and
the national punishment which scattered the Jewish tribes, thus co-operated in diffusing the great
idea of the worship of one, only, living and true
God, so that the fulness of time should find a soil
ready prepared for the gospel of peace.
In thus briefly reviewing the characteristics of
these three nationalities, we have said enough to
prove that the ends of their national development
were distinct; and a moment's consideration of
their relations to a single event, will show a defi 
11)
nite Divine purpose in this fact. Each of these
nations had a special purpose to subserve in bringing about the fulness of time.  We can only sum
it up briefly. The giant grasp and organizing
power of Rome gathered, and held in a temporary
political unity, the various distinct nationalities
that were to be pervaded with the spirit of the
gospel; and, by the roads which she built to bind
these to the centre, paved a highway for its messengers. As Rome furnished the material basis
for the diffusion of the gospel, Greece provided
an intellectual medium. She had not only carried
her high culture and mental discipline into other
lands, and brought them into contact alike with
the Jew, the Roman, and the Asiatic, but in the
city of the Ptolemies-Alexandria, where the peculiarities of Greek, Jewish, Roman, and Oriental life
came into intimate contact, a theological language
was formed, rich in all the phrases of the schools;
preeminently capable of that vivid word-painiting
demanded by the illustrative character of the gospel, and adequate to the subtlest distinctions and
the nicest and most precise statement; thus giving the new faith a weapon for controversy as well
as for evangelization. These, with the religious
foundation laid by the spread of Judaism, the
diffusion of those ideas which underlay no less its
own  system than the gospel,  form a threefold 
vindication of the wisdom of that God who sees
from afar the fulfilment of promise, who makes
even the wrath of man to praise him, causing the
heathen to pave the roads along which rides He
who hath on his vesture a namie written, King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, followed by the armies
which are in Heaven.
Other instances might easily be adduced; these,
which are more familiar, are sufficient to illustrate
my position, that, in every national development,
God has a distinct purpose to subserve, and designs to make it illustrative of a great idea. But
here it may be said by one who begins to anticipate my line of thought, that we are in no position
to apply such a test to our own nation; that we
cannot determine what particular idea God has
selected us to illustrate, because we are not far
enough from the events, and cannot therefore
generalize accurately. To some extent this may
be true. We cannot of course speak with the inspiration of prophets, nor can we come to a conclusion as certain as in the cases already cited,
where the processes and the results of national
growth are fixed, defined, and open to our study.
Nevertheless we can draw much more than a speculative inference. We have the advantage of being
able to start with this recognized principle, and to
refer to it each successive fact as it reveals itself.
16 
17
The nations whose rise and decay have furnished
us this key to the locks of history, not only did not
discern the direction of events, but never thought
of looking for a general direction, save perhaps
with reference to some temporary end.  We, I repeat, begin our investigations with the thought of
GOD IN HISTORY; and mysterious as are the Divine workings at times,-though His ways and
thoughts are not as ours, yet for the reverent and
careful eye of Christian study, he traces the outlines of His grand purposes so plainly as to leave
little possibility of error.  And  morever we are,
thoLugh comparatively in our national infancy, far
enough from a vast crowd of events, to enable us
to genera-lize and to draw a reasonable conclusion.
Not only has the cloud lifted from our early national struggles sufficiently for us to survey the
field, lbut the events in the history of other nations,
converging, for years previous, to the development
of this new nationality, point with a directness
and persistence which we cannot misunderstand.
\Whether, therefore, our nation is finally to exhibilit in a concentrated form the best results of all
former civilizations, and to be time's last, best gift
to the woild, or whether we are merely an incident in the grand march of human progress, or
whether we are merely to illustrate some single
idea which in its turn is to subserve some great
3 
purpose far beyond our ken-this fact will scarcely admit of contradiction, that our national development has centred round the two great ideas of
LIBERTY and RELIGION.
But I have no desire to direct your thoughts to
the ideas of liberty which have become the staple
of popular thought and popular oratory, ideas
which are no more common than they are superficial and fallacious.  We advance a very short distance toward the interpretation of the Divine dealings with us, when we talk of the "refuge for the
oppressed of every clime," which is in itself a glaring falsehood; when we sing of the " Land of the
free and the home of the brave," or when we laud
the glories of that fearfully perverted term, Democracy.  The important fact which claims our attention is the joint development of these two ideas,
Liberty and Religion. This, I assert, is the end
toward which the leadings of Providence in our
history have tended. This is the thought which
God, by his own methods of discipline, is aiming
to impress on this nation.
I draw this inference in the first place from the
foundations of our history.   Run your eye for
a moment over the leading nationalities of the
world, and you find these principles, not always in
unison, gradually taking shape among the other
developments of their history, eventually, perhaps,
18 
19
becoming controlling forces in their civilization,
one or both of them worked out from the tumult
of war, and discussion, and revolution. In England, both these ideas were results before they became mnovinIg forces.  They grew up with English
civilization, but did not for years form the distinctly recognized basis of its nationality.   Its first
ages were marked by the struggles of tribes and
races for supremacy.  Principles were not involved in their conflicts.   Rome,  with her  armed
legions and majestic galleys, led by the first warrior of the world, breaks in upon the quiet barbarism of Britain, lying passive and trembling beneath
the gripe of Druidical superstition. Saxons, Danes,
Normans, overrun it in turn, each leaving their impress, in excess of liberty, or in the spirit of foreign
aggression, or in the weakness and civil distractions of feudalism. The struggles of tribes and
races gradually gives place to the conflict of classes,-king, barons, commons, clergy, each arrayed
against the other; yet in their very disputes setting in motion the discussion of social and religious questions, and thus superseding by these
"the blind and passionate animosity which had
once separated the Norman and Saxon races," until
in the reign of the third Edward, the influence of
the commions in the constitution, now first assunming an appreciable weigllt, announced the growth 
20
of popular liberty, and the preaching of Wickliffe
began the hIistoiry of English Puritanism.   In
France, Liberty aimed to assert itself independently of Religion, and in some instances indeed, to
ignore religion.  Italy and Holland struggled for
freedom in opposition to religion, because religion
and tyranny were in their cases identical.
But in America we first see the numerous and
varied experiences of the old world beariing new
fruit in the foundation of a nationality on these
two, jointly recognized principles. Hand in hland
these sisters started fromnt Delft Haven to fulfil tile
grandest dream of the Christian Philanthropist, to
accomplish together the work which neither had
ever completed separately; and inr the pent up
cabin of that little vessel, on the rocking Atlantic,
they cemented their covenant to the chant of the
fetterless sea and untamed winds, fit choristers to
sin,g the anthemn of liberty. The interest which
follows the MIayflower along her stormy track
dwells not chiefly in those superficial thoughts to
which schoolboy declamation directs us,-thie phases of personal sorrow, the severance of national
and familv ties, the hardships of the journey, the
heroism of feeble women, the martyr spirit which
preferred hardship and exile to home and mental
bondage. All interests and individuals and incidents
are mterged in that scene in the Mayflower's cabin, 
21
when the pilgrims, in the name of God, united
themselves by solemn compact "into a body politicfor the glory of God, andfor the advancemnent of
the Chriistian faith.  " This," as the historian well
remarkls, " was the birth of popular constitutional
liberty.  The middle age had been familiar with
charters and constitutions;  but they had been
merely compacts for immunities, partial enfranchisements, patents of nobility, concessions of mLunicipal privileges, or limitations of the sovereign
power in favor of feudal institutions. In the cabin
of the Mayflower humanity recovered its rights,
and instituted government on the basis of equal
laws for the general good."*  Could the future
have been unveiled to the tyrants of the old world,
could they have read as God read it, and as we
read it to-day, the significance of that little bark
buffeting the waves, could they have known the
fireighlt which she carried, a mighty thought whose
fi'uitage should turn to ashes in the mouthls of despots, how quickly would they have sped on her
track their swiftest - winged ships; how would
clouds of incense have arisen, and prayers have
poured from the lips of cowled priests in all their
stately cathedrals, that the winds milght be made
messengers of their wrath, and the waves bury forever the germ of freedom. But no such fate was
*Baincroft, Vol. I. 
22
in store for her. Safe as the ark which bore above
the wrecks of thrones and principalities the only
remnant of an old race, and the only germ of the
new, she swept the main. The child that trod her
slippery decks, and clung to its mothber's arm as it
gazed in terror on the tumbling billows, might
have dismissed its fear; for a mightier than she
who in fable led the Trojan to the seat of Roman
Empire, even He who walked the stormy crests of
Galilee, marked out the track of that ark of Liberty,
and whispered to that devoted band "it is I, be
not afraid."
Time will not, of course, allow us to follow out
in detail all the evidences pointing to this great
fact. The whole course of American History
from Plymouth rock tends to this inference. The
idea of civil liberty was the central thought of
all our national convulsions from that time onward, our representative thought in the eyes of
other lands, the ever recurring source of their
antagonism.  The earthquakes which shook the
infant state were ever throwing this granite substratum to the surface.  It cropped  out in the
resistance to taxation, in the spirit which tore
from its pedestal the statue of England's sovereign, in the burning wrath wlichl strewed the
road from Lexington to Concord with British
dead, in the steady valor that sent British columns 
torn and bleeding down the slopes of Charlestown,
in the sturdy endurance which consecrated Valley
Forge, and in the intelligent patriotism which cast
off allegiance to human monarchies, and propounded to the world the charter of human equality.It proved itself in 1812 the same as in'76, and
thank God, it bids fair still to vindicate itself
against the fearful odds of civil rebellion, foreign
menace, and secret treason.
Side by side with  this idea of civil liberty,
wrought the idea of religion. It would be easy
to point out the peculiar adaptation of American
nationality to the spread of religious truth. Facts
point strongly to America, as the banner-bearer
of the nations in the work of Evangelization.
The  freedom  of discussion, and  the dissociation
of Church and State, acting to exhibit religious
truth in all its phases, to render conviction deep,
and faith intelligent; the elasticity of society,
the comparative ease with which classes fuse,
the absence of those strongly marked social distinctions which characterize the old world, tending
to bring men of all orders and creeds and characters into contact; the admixture of foreign elements
with our society, the attraction exerted not only
upon the laboring poor, but upon much of the intelligence of Europe; the comnmercial enterprise
which, in preparing highways for trade, opens
2c);i 
24
highways for the gospel, the marked individuality
of the American character, demanding a field for
independent development, and finding it in the
vast, unsettled territory into which the pioneer
pushes in advance of civilization, the vast system
of public education, the language, rich in religious
literature, and a vehicle at once strong and ample
for the conveyance of religious truth, the natural
assimilation of Christianity to free institutions, all
these facts and others which  might be  named,
point to religion as standing side by side with
Liberty at the centre of our national development.
The point, however, with which we are especially concerned, is the joint action of these two
ideas; the legitimate effect of which  would have
been an approach, at least, to harmony between
the principles of civil administration and of true
religion.   Nor  is it necessary to follow  them
through every stage of our history, or to trace
the progress of their divergence.  It is enough for
us to know, with sorrow, that they have diverged,
and  widely.   If the highest exhibition of the
union of these two forces be the end of our national existence, then truly we have run boldly in
the face of our destiny. Here we must drop
theorizing, here we must leave historical parallels,
and come down to the plain palpable facts of our 
25
own generation. For years past, civil admninistra tion, the expression of our national liberty, has
been conducted in defiance of religion, andc in
opposition to its fiundamental principles.  Policy
and party, not principle, have been the controlling
forces in government. We have ignored the fact
that, whoever be President, God it King,.  And
Liberty, thiius divorced firom her natural ally
which alone could show her the relations of obe dience to fileedomn, which alone could hlarmonize
the individualities she tended to develop, which
alone could teach men to be rulers by teaching
them to be submissive, exhibit the true majesty of
the law, and purify the people from whom the law
proceeds,-Liberty, I say, thous divorced, has run
into wild and brutal license, which has brought
us well niigh to the brink of anarchy.  Buit what
a spectacle have we presented before the' world!
Oh! if the King of kings were to summon  this
nation before his bar this morning, and demand
the usury of those two precious coins, bearing his
image and superscription, whmlich He committed to
our keeping on Plymouth Rock,,truly we should
stand speechless at the sigFht of our pitiable interest. It was time, I ween, that sonme force should
be applied to breach the walls of our nationality
to their foundation, to show the corruptions which
had found a hiding place in its vaults, and what
4 
fiendish malignity, and besotted ignorance were
undermining it. The emergencies of history put
representative men on trial.  Men  sit down at
such timnes to scrutinize the causes underlying the
emergency: and the acts of their leaders, which
at the time were accepted without suspicion, in
silence, or even  with approbation,  are brought
under a searching examination which often makes
the popular idol of yesterday the popular victim
of to-day. When the Syracusans, on one occasion,
desired to raise money for the prosecution of a
war, they put up the statues of their heroes, and
commanders, and legislators, at public sale; and
sentence of auction was passed upon each of them
by a majority of votes, as upon so many criminals
in court. Thus, in the light of our present emergencies, stand the men whom we ourselves, by the
voice of the majority, have for years past, and
particularly of late, placed at the helm of State.
What is the verdict upon them to-day, passed by
the quic,kened conscience of the nation?  How
many will stand the test? Have the two great
ideas of liberty and religion found expression in
the lives and administration of our rulers? Has
the moral worth of a man entered at all into the
consideration of his fitness for office? How long
is it since a leading politician declared publicly
that if the Devil were nominated as the candidate
26 
27
of his party, he would support him? Is it not a
notorious fact that, on three separate occasions, the
Empire City of this union placed in its mayoral
chair a man whom the law had branded as a thief
and swindler? What crown shall we place on the
brows of him who rewarded the confidence of the
people which had honored him with its choicest
gift, by administering the government in the interest of the southern aristocracy, and by comforting
the arch traitor of Richmond with words like these:
"WITHOUT DISCUSSING THE QUESTION OF RIGHT,
of abstract power, TO SECEDE, I have never believed
that actual disr?t])tion of the Union can occur without
blood; and f; throough the maldness of Northern Abolitionists, that dire calamity nmust come, the fighting
will not be along Afason and Dixon's line mnerely.
IT WILL BE WITHIN OUR OWN BORDERS, IN OUR OWN
STREETS, BETWEEN THE TWO CLASSES OF CITIZENS
TO WHOM I HAVE REFERRED.  THOSE  WHO  DEFY
LAW AND SCOUT CONSTITUTIONAL OBLIGATIONS, WILL,
IF WE EVER REACH THE ARBITRAMENT OF ARMS, FIND
OCCUPATION ENOUGH AT HOME."
Yours truly,
FRANKLIN PIERCE.
Where shall we find a niche in the temple of
infamy high enough to place the man who could
sit in the Executive Chair, and hear the purpose
of rebellion, and the menaces against national 
strongholds and the threats of usurpation openly
bruited about; who knew that a government fortress was threatened withi siege, yet would not lift
a finger to relieve that beleaguered garrison, or to
turn aside a cannon from its line of death?  Have
those days passed friom  your recollection when,
because the law insisted on vindicating itself, and
enforcing its enactments murder and plunder and
arson ran rampant in the streets of our chief
cities, and the Governor of thlis state, to whom
had been confided the protection of our homes,
our wives and little ones, met the incarnate demons  with their hands  red with the blood of
those murdered negroes,. and with bland smile and
courtly gesture addressed them as " myj3fii ends!
How long is it since a man on whom poured a
blaze of the most damning evidence to prove him
a traitor of blackest dye, a firiend of rebellion, a
bitter opponent of government in its efforts to
suppress it, so mean a traitor that the very friends
in whose interest he labored knew not what to do
with him, was nominated for governor of one of
the greatest States of the north; and his sympatIlizing friends held a meeting of condolence for
his arrest for treason in front of the Court House
yonder? Nor has it been safe to introduce questionls of morals into politics.  Dismission and loss
of caste have followed the ministers that dared
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exhibit the relations of the gospel to political
questions.   Hooting  mobs  have  assaulted  men
who dared to condemn an established national
institution, a system which touches the fundamental principles of the gospel, a system of indiscrirminate lust, and oppression, and cruelty, and
murder of soul and body-as a crime and a
disgiace.  A  southern ruffian has stricken down
in his seat the man  that called the nation to
account for her sin, and has received for the
cowardly act the ovations and plaudits of his constituents.  The lobbies and galleries at Albany
last winter, were packed with the very scum of
our cities, armed with pistol and knife to silence
the men who dared advocate reform arid denounce
corruption.  We sicken at the recital.  Are these
the ap)propriate exhibitions of a Christian nation?
Has religious sentiment pervaded our communities
no miore deeply than this?  Does Religion teach
patriotism? Does it tea-ch humanity? Does it
teach public faith and honor and honesty?.  Does
it teach hatred to treason, and zeal for' the majesty
of the law?  Then, alas! with all our stately
churches, and thronging congregations, and eloquent priests, religion has but partially done its
work-the nation has turned from God and followed idols. 
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To bring these two ideas, religion and freedom,
again into harmnonious and united action, is the
problem of our National Discipline. And here
let m- call attention to one important fact, that
cur great national convulsion grows out of a questionI, which perhaps above  every other, brings
these ideas jointly into its solution; they must
work together or fail. While I have no apology
to make for introducing the subject of human
slavery, I have no desire to enter into a tirade
against its horrors, or to discuss it at all, farther
than to bring out this thought.  It is a fact which
lies directly in the track of our discussion, and
which must be dealt with, in order to establish the
principles with which we set out. Nor indeed
will it be necessary todwell here at length. The
relations of this fact to the question of liberty are
obvious.   Its relations to Christianity quite  as
obvious, one would think, though so persistently
ignored by a large class. And all the political
schemes which the freest government in the world
ever devised, are powerless to touch the evil without the cooperation of moral force and Christian
sentiment. Political philosophy in this encounter,
is like Hercules in the battle with the Hydra.  It
may cut off the monster's heads, but it needs its
ally, Religion, to sear the necks, and prevent two
springing up in the place of one. We cannot 
31
escape its moral aspect. MLen who attempt its
discussion from the standpoints of ethnology or
political economy, come round inevitably into
the realm of morals and religion. It is in an
awakened moral perception that it intuitively recognizes its deadliest foe; and it is for this cause
that it tries to wrest this weapon to its own use,
and, by the most tortuous logic, the most ingenious
pleading, and an affectation of the most expansive
benevolence, seeks to pervert the gospel itself to
a defence of its atrocities, and to hold up slavery
as the great Missionary institution of the age.
Not only so, but the institution appeals to motives
which only a moral force can affect. It is the
keystone of a great social arch, and cannot be
removed without a displacement of all the other
stones. It appeals to human pride and selfishness,
and to the natural love of ease and indolence it
has tended to foster. Human lust and human
cupidity are alike interested in its maintenance.
It comes into direct contact with those fundamental
questions which are moral and not miental, which
are not matters of opinion, but absolute facts,
written by God on the great heart of humanity,
on which no man is privileged to have other than
one opinion;-the rights to person, to family, to life,
to honestly acquired property, to choice of labor,
to mental cultivation. It reaches lower still, if 
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possible, and the question it touches is still one of
morals and religion; the question whether, in the
light of the gospel precepts, or even in the light
of nature, man has a right to enslave the spirit
and the mind as well as the body, and so to dwarf
and cripple and blind them as to make them htug
their chains, or at least be content in their bondage.
Slavery is not the normal condition of men, and
it is not natural for them to be either content or
happy in Slavery; and the argument so unblushingly advanced by its advocates, that the negro
is happier and better in slavery than in freedom.
comes back with fearful force upon its advocates,
asking them who are responsible for this contentment with the life and treatment of brutes, and
what nust have been the measure of the oppression which has crushed out higher aspirations, and
weakened  the attachment to even  the natural
rights of men? Which, while God's immutable law
proclaims progress as the rule of hlumanity, limits
its application, and condemns a race to stagnation
as the means of filling its pockets and glutting
its beastly appetites.  We have tried the experiment of dealing with this question on purely
political grounds, to our heart's content. We tried
it by concessions, and compromises, and fugitive
slave bills; by allowing slaveholders to appoint
our magistrates, and to dictate terms in our coun 
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cils, to dispose of our ships and  to unman our
arsenals; and at each new political compromise
we smilingly said " all is well," until the glluns of
Sumter told us we must meet the issue fairly and
on other and broader grounds.
It now remains for us to look at some of the
results of our present sore chastisement, and to
see whether the,- furnish  us just  ground  for
thanksgiving.
On  the fact that the questions of the houri
have, to a, great extent, been raised above mere
party issues, it will not be necessary to dwell at
length. We see it and rejoice over it. The great
states of the Union have proclaimed their repentance in a thunder peal that has sent dismay to
the hearts of tyrants and schemers, and the word
which laid the axe at the root of slavery's accursed upas, has long ago sounded iii the ears of
the world.  It may be said, indeed, that such a
development as the last named, proves nothing as
to the advance of moral sentiment; that it was a
measure rendered necessary by military demands,
and that its application was not universal. I answer, I am by no means claiming complete moral
regeneration as a result of this discipline.  It is
enough for our purpose, knowing as we do that
God works slowly, to be able to discern tendencies toward regeneration. If the President was
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compelled to wait for a military necessity before lihe
could issue the proclamation of freedom, I, for one,
believe that he rejoiced at the necessity. But
whether this were so or not, one thing is palpable; that the people were abreast with the government on the expediency and propriety of this
measure when it was issued, and now are far in
advance of the popular sentiment of that hour:
and to-day the great voice of the Nation sends
back its loud AMEN! to the chairter of the African's liberty. In studying the history of nations,
as indeed in studying the acts of individuals, we
cannot always pretend to read motives; but when
a good deed is done in the face of persistent
opposition, when the sentiment of the  people
applauds it, when  that sentiment grows  daily
deeper and deeper, and sees more and more
reason to cherish the act, it is fair to assume
that there is a healthlful growth of moral sentiment somewhere.   If God has awakened men
to a sense of their error by the chastisement
of war and pecuniary loss, we have nothing to
do with that.  It corresponds with his action
in other cases. Tl:he result is thlere, the word is
spoken, the people not only acquiesce but rejoice,
not only rejoice but act, and level paerty distinctions which  seemed  iummovable, and  tear  up
prejudices which appeared ineradicable, and stand
on the broad platform of fireedom for all men.
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And that men are heard and applauded who have
in time past been hissed and stoned, and who
argue this question on purely moral grounds, as
they ever have done; that sentiments once openly
expressed and approved are now frowned upon,
that public opinion has forced men and organizations which betrayed their great and holy trust
of educating public opinion by refusing to lift up
their voice on this subject-to fall into line under
the banner of freedom, if these things indicate no
clearer moral sense, if these things point only to
a clearer apprehension of political policy, then
history is no true criterion of moral progress.
To the end of radical reformation, radical disclosure of the evil was necessary.  None could
teach us this lesson like God, and fearfully has
he taught it. For one, if there were no other
cause of gratitude for this national upheaving, I
should thank God profoundly for this. We knew
there was party corruption before, but we did not
know  how deep it was, we did not know how
thoroughly it had permeated every department of
our administration and of our society, until we
saw Presidents conniving at treason, and found the
doors of the public treasury open and the guardian vanished with the contents. We knew that
party spirit had run high, but we needed this war
to teach us how many men would abandon their 
countiv's dearest interests, and tie her hands in
the hour of her need, for the sake of party.  We
knew there was sectional disaffection before; we
knew that there might be danger fiom the disaffected element; but we did not know how deep
was the disaffection or how imminent the danger,
until the sound of rebel cannon disclosed to us a
carefully matured and long contemplated scheme
of public treason, bearing the mark of the beast
upon its front; and until the flood of discussion
thus evoked, opened our eyes to the nature and
tendencies of the system we had been petting
and courting to keep it quiet. We  knew there
was individual wickedness and selfishness among
us: but the war showed us, if we did not know it
before, that men, while these tremendous issues of
national safety, honor, existence, were hanging in
the balance, could yet take advantage of the nation's distress to fill their own pockets and could
enrich themselves at the expense of the very food
and clothing of the country's defenders.   We
knew there was moral weakness and moral cowardice which loved peace better than right, and
prosperity better than national honor; but we
knew it better, to outr sorrow, when we heard men
advocate continued concession and cowardly compromise in the face of armed aggression.  We
knew  tlhat the material interests supported by
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Southern patronage had tended to blind men to
the evil of Slavery; but we did not know  how
deeply it had corrupted even the free North, until
we heard men plead for its interests and riglits,
and advocate new guarantees of its stability after
it had clearly revealed itself as the root of all
our troubles.  We imagined perhaps that we were
true patriots.   We  adored the idea of' national
destiny. God brought the question home to us
on the two naked ideas of our national development, freedom and religion, and said to us, let us
see how deep and sincere is your devotion; and
too many found out then the terrible mistake that
they had erected an altar to an unknown God;
that they were worshipping a mere abstraction;
that theirs was a child's patriotism, finding its
fitting expression in bonfires and banners and
cannon; and not the deep sentiment that apprehended  the issues at stake, and was willing to
meet and fight them out like men, at any hazard,
and on tlhe broad ground of right.  If the knowledg(e of the disease be half the cure, thanks be to
God for the discipline that has shown us the disease.
Another iLmportant and palpable result of this
National discipline, has been the general acquaintance it has necessitated with the fiundamnental issues at stake, the confirmation of unsettled opinions, and the formation of clearly defined opinions
where none had previously existed.
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The nmovement at the South was controlled by
a few   cam, and these the capitalists and politicians, a class comprising nearly all the education,
intelligence, and influence of their country.  TI-hese
men  understood  this question fi'om its foundations.  They saw it in all its relations.  The great
questions  of climate, soil, race, the  economical
questions underlying their peculiar institution,
its tendencies, its necessities, they fully comnpreprehlended.   They knew  that extension  was a
necessity  of their existence;  that power  was
necessary to extension; that monied aristocracy
was necessary to power,  and that Slavery  was
necessary to mnonied aristocracy. On their great
movement they staked everything.  They knew
that failure meant extinction. The poor whites,
the ignorant masses, who made up so large a
portion of their armies, were not acquainted with
these profound questions. The aristocratic element of southern society was able to influence
them with a few eloquent and ingenious falsehoods, and to force them, if need were, into cooperation.   Their power  was  centralized, their
discipline inhumanly severe, their control perfect,
and they entered upon the conflict after years of
preparation.  The moving power of the North, on
the other hand, was diffused throughout the masses.
Absorbed in its material progress, it had given less 
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time to the study of social problems, and hence
did not, like the South, at once see how deepseated  were  the issues of the conflict.   The
movement of the North, was the movement of
the ])eol}le; that of the South, the movement of
a compact body of leaders. At the North, the
principles involved had not only to be diffused
over a large area, but absorbed, before the
movement assumed a vastness and force adequate
to the occasion.  The great proportion of the
men who fought her battles and furnished her
resources, were not machines, but thinkers; and
both would know why they fought and why they
spent: and so the outbreak of the rebellion found
the South like a lithe and sinewy athlete, with an
eye that had counted the cost, and measured its
adversary, with every limb trained, and a determination to conquer or die.  It found the North
like a giant half asleep, or bent on other business,
lazily confident in his strength, rejoicing in his
prosperity, eating, drinking, and making merry,
and so little conscious of the power, and will, and
dire hate of his enemy, as to think he could crush
him with one hand, while he carried his cup to his
lips with the other.  This fact is enough of itself
to account for the apathy with which we entered
upon the contest. The first blow struck by the
South was charged with the concentrated malice 
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and venom of half a, century; was struck deliberately and followed tip vigorously. Our first return
blow was the passionate, ill-aimed stroke of a man
suddenly assaulted, and startled into self defence.
And this fiact, too, points to the deeper purpose of
Providence, in the strange succession of defeats
and disasters which so startled us from our selfsecurity and conceit. The delay was needed for
this process of absorption. God meant to put a
moral power behind this movement, a deep, intellig,ent conviction of its import, which should
propel it with the resistless sweep of an Alpine
avalanche, gathering, momentum at every bound,
and should carry it on to the complete extinction
of slave tyranny.  Delay was needed to produce
conviction.  The North woLtld not move  without
conviction, and it came slowly.  Slowly the true
issues of the contest sank into the Northern mind;
slowly the depth of Southern hate, and the intensity of Southern purpose, and the radicalness of
Southern  treason, and the  horrible nature  of
Southern designs, dawned  upon the Northern
mind.  Each defeat, each vessel burned by Anglo
Rebel pirates, each Union man murdered or imprisoned for his principles, was a spark gathering
itself into the bosom of a cloud of wrath, which
is already gathering blackness, and settling portentously down on the mountains of the South, soon 
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to discharge its volleyed lightnings upon the
hordes of treason. May God send its blasting,
riving fires into the very heart of Rebellion; and
if defeat and delay have brought our soldiers to
filght, and our capitalists to pay, and parents, and
husbands, and  wives to sacrifice  their  dearest
interests from a patriotism which is a principle, the
outgrowth of understanding conviction, then thank
God for defeat and delay.
But farther, thins discipline Jas brought men to
the distinct assertion of their political principles,
(and to examine whether  they had.tny principles
or not.  ThIe great thought of the age has gone
through the land as with a lighted torcli, peering
into every corner; and it hlas bean in vain for men
to call for rocks and mountains to cover them.
MIen who regarded a political opinion as a piece
of family plate, bequeathed from their fathers, and
to be hoarded and cherished uLntouched. have been
compelled reluctantly to open the sanctuary, and
brush away the cobwebs, and see how the opinion
miet the requirements and stood the test of new
issues. A voice has gone up and down crying
"cihoose ye THIS DAY w/lo2n ye will serve."  The tests
of the hour have put doubtful, halting men-men
who shifted with the popular tide, and bowed low
to God one day, and equally low to the Devil the
lnext,-who were, in the worst possible sense,'all 
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things to all men,' into a position where they must
commit themselves to one set of principles or to
the other. Hitherto, they could run back into a
forest of paity lines, and casuistical distinctions,
and half defined principles, and by skilful evasion
and compromise, manage to preserve a respectable
character for  consistency.   A  more  dangerous
class, in church or state, does not exist; and I am
thankful that the fiery  discipline of the present
has consumed their refuge of lies, and has
brought the issues of the day down to an alternative from which there is no escape-loyalty or
disloyalty.
Nor have we been wanting in that class of
men who have no settled political opinions, and
who do not care to have any. They want only
to be "let alone." They are not interested in
politics; they dislike their adjtuncts.  They know
little or nothing of party issues or of national
questions; or, if their opinions are ever so strong,
and their acquaintance with the progress of affairs ever so intimate, they are absorbed in business or books, and are quite willing that any
party shall rule that will not interfere with their
interests. That the number of these has been
large, may be partially inferred from the character of the hands into which political machinery
has passed. For men of this class to say that 
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politics have fallen into such hands that they are
disgusted, is not a fair statement of the case.
There are more intelligent, and able, and virtuous
men in the country than there ever were; and it
is because such men have suffered themselves to
grow lukewarm; have refused to accept of public
office because of its dreary routine; have refused
to work in the political arena, because they had
to work in disagreeable company;-because of
these thiings, our public offices reek with corruption, and mobocrats and villains administer our
laws.  There is less excuse for the existence of
this class among  us than elsewhere.   Here no
man is excusable for keeping out of the sphere
of politics, for every man is a governor.   The
government and its admrinistration are each man's
personal business, and he has no right to let anythin,f so absorb him as to leave him  no time to
devote to his country.  Her institutions are to be
his study, her government his care, her interests
his own.   God has taught this class of men  a
lesson-a lesson which it is to be hoped they will
remember. This war, touching as it has every
material interest of the country, has compelled
more men to study national issues, to form opinions on national questions, and to interest themselves personally in national  movements, than
anv force that has ever operated in our history. 
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They have awaked to find, not only their public
institutions, but their homes, their personal safety
menaced. They have awaked to the fiact that,
while they have been occupied with their moneybags and their safes, giving splendid entertainments, or meditating in costly libraries, a lower
has been growing, to whose  suppression  their
wealth and influence should have been applied in
its infancy, but which has grown to proportions
which enable it to give fearful battle, and whli(h
even make its subjugation a doubtful question.
For this infusion of mental stamina; for this clear
definition of political issues and political parties,
enabling us to see who are our friends and who
are our enemies; for this discipline, that has not
only sifted, but created opinion-we thank God.
These are some of the lessons of our National
Discipline.  Their number is by no  means exhausted, and we must pause upon the very threshold.   If this discipline shall have wrought to
make us purer and better, to develop us into a;
self-reliant, dignified, national manhood, willing
to learn of other nations, but careless of their
opinion when our own rights and duty are concerned, not unduly exalted by success, nor unduly
depressed by reverse, if it shall have tended to
point out our national faults and their remedy, to
fill our citizens with a new sense of responsibility,
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to base patriotism on conviction and principle, to
fit the nation to govern itself, if it shall have
purged the land from the great blot that defaced
it, if it shall have given us higher and clearer
ideas of national morality, if it shall have given
shape to our hIeretofore v,lgue ideas of national
destiny, and arranged them round the two great
thoughts of Liberty and Religion, then thank God
for the Discipline. Thoughl the rod be applied
severely, let us kiss the hand that smites. Though
the cup be bitter, let us bless Him that puts it to
our lips.  These results, as I have already  said,
are not frilly accomplished; but we discover tendencies toward them all in the developments of
the present struggle, and if severer chastisement
will bring them out more definitely, and make
their influence felt more deeply, in God's name
let thle blow fall. We may expect farther chastisement, not only as a punishment, but as a developing force. The evils we combat, have been growing for eighty years, and are not going to disappear at our word.  They will die hard, and it is
well; for God is testing our worthiness to enjoy
the boon of liberty, by asking how much we love
it, how hard we are willing to fight for it, how
much we are willing to sacrifice for it: and if we
shall do this work like men, if we shall fall in
with God's manifest design to purge our national
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floor thoroughly, to tear up the evil by the roots,
if we sl- all finally succeed in accomplishing our
end, in  burying  slavery  forever, and  getting
national corruption  uinder our feet, a shout of
praise will go up from this people such as will
rend the very Heavens. It shall rise from the
granite hills of New  England, mingled with the
click of her busy looms, and the hum of her spindles; the valleys and rolling pastures of New
York, standing thick with corn, shall be vocal with
the acclamations of her sons; it shall roll upward
from the deep bosom of Pennsylvania, and echo
throughl the galleries of her iron and coal caverns;
and the West shall catch the song on the sparkling peaks of its grand rampart, and send it back
with an echo that shall tremble in every prairie
flower.  Aye, and the South, fair land of the sun,
so long cursed with bondage, and reaping to-day
over all its desolated plains the fruit of its dire
sin, shall not be voiceless.  Her fieed bondimen
shall make the air pulsate with their uncouth
psalm of triumph, grand as the song which swept
from Miriam's timbrel over the waves of the Red
Sea; and her own sons, awakened by their bitter
experience to the character of the tyranny that
has held them, no less than the African, in bondage,
and has striven to mount to empire on their necks,
sha,ll unite their unskilled voices in the general 
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anthem, singing with ever bolder emphasis, until
the palmetto groves, and the still lagoons, and the
snowy fields of cotton, now no longer King, shall
be stirred with the voice of thanksgiving. Aye!
methinks, when that day shall dawn, the nation's
shout might almost penetrate farther. Methinks
it might steal into the ears of those fallen heroes
who sleep on hillsides far away, and by whose
graves sorrowing hearts shall give thanks with
sobs. iMethinks it might reach them as they lie
in their cold beds at Antietarn, and Cliancellorville,
at Donelson and Vicksburgh, at Fredericksburgh,
and Chattanooga, and Bull Run, and stir their
silent  dust  with  a  throb  of thanksgiving-of
thlanksgiving, not that peace has been restored;
not that husbands, and sons, and fathers shall go
forth to battle no more; not that trade is revived
and commerce safe; but that God has led the
nation through the vale of tears, through the terrible baptism of blood and fire, to a nobler and
purer national life.
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