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THE RIGHTS OF MAN
IN AMERICA

The Rights of Man
in America

BY

THEODORE PARKER

EDITED WITH A PREFACE
BY
F. B. SANBORN

BOSTON
AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION
25 Beacon Street

Copyright, 1911
American Unitarian Association

EDITOR'S PREFACE
In editing this volume in the long series of Theo
dore Parker's writings, the present writer has some
advantage over the editors ' of previous volumes.
With two exceptions, Wentworth Higginson and
Rufus Leighton, they had no special acquaintance
with the man, Parker; their knowledge of him is de
rived from books or from hearsay; to some extent
from his biographies. But I knew the man person
ally for six or eight years, and for most of that time
was in close and often daily intimacy with him. After
years of this intimacy, he selected me, one of the
youngest of his hearers and associates, as his literary
executor, — an office which circumstances elsewhere ex
plained, forbade me to perform. When, therefore, I
have heard him described with cool misunderstanding,
or evident prejudice, I have had only to recur to the
memory of my long association with him, to correct the
false impressions thus conveyed by persons who never
knew him. Especially is this true of his relation to
the national sin and curse, negro slavery, against
which every great and wise American protested by
voice or example, and which no truly sagacious fel
low-countryman ever defended for any length of time.
Many good men apologized for it, some who, like Jef
ferson, portrayed with searching acuteness its evils
and dangers, may afterwards have seemed to excuse
it ; but only because they could not see the way clearly
to its abolition in their day.
With Parker the course of opinion and action, as
with Emerson, was the reverse of this. Called, as both

EDITOR'S PREFACE
these leaders of opinion were primarily, to other du
ties in the work of social reform, they were at first
averse to engaging warmly in a political contest.
Both were originally of the party which called itself
" Whig," and of which the leaders were John Quincy
Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and Abraham
Lincoln; and in Massachusetts this party declared
itself in 1838 (when Parker was a young and obscure
Unitarian pastor), as opposed to negro slavery, and
in favor of its removal by national legislation. This
fact has been forgotten or overlooked in the flood of
subsequent events, and the recession of some eminent
Whigs from the position then officially taken. But in
March, 1852, Henry Wilson, who in 1838 was one of
the younger Whigs, as Parker was, told the story in a
speech in the State Senate (replying to my old friend
Judge Warren), which is worth quoting: —
" In 1838 Judge Warren represented Bristol county
in this Senate. A series of resolutions was reported here
by James C. Alvord, declaring that Congress has (1)
the power to abolish slavery in the territories; (2) the
power to abolish the slave-trade in the District of Co
lumbia, and ought to exercise that power; (3) the power
to abolish the slave-trade between the States, and ought
to exercise it; (4) the power to prevent the admission of
any more slave States, and to abolish slavery in the Dis
trict, and ought to exercise both powers. Judge War
ren himself moved the resolution for emancipation in the
District of Columbia, in the following words, — ' That
Congress ought to take measures to effect the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia.' These resolu
tions, pledging Massachusetts and the Whig party to the
agitation of the slavery question were passed by the
unanimous vote of this Senate. Finding the Whig partyi
committed to the cause of liberty by these resolutions,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
I joined the ranks of that party, and voted with them in
the election of 1838."
Wilson was then twenty-six, and Parker twenty-
eight, and they voted together as Whigs. In 1852
they were still together as political anti-slavery
men ; while Warren, Webster, Choate and other party
leaders had changed their ground entirely and were
supporting the Fugitive Slave Law, and trying to sup
press all discussion of slavery as a national sin. Par
ker, however, does not seem to have preached specific
ally against negro slavery until 1841, and in 1842
he declined, for special reasons, to join in the excite
ment occasioned by the effort to send Latimer, a fugi
tive slave, back into bondage. It was not that he
hated slavery less, but that other questions interested
him more. His anti-slavery life had four distinct
phases, — the general disgust at slavery which most
of the Massachusetts Whigs had, from 1838 to 1844, —
the special opposition to Texas annexation and the
Mexican War, from 1844 to 1850, — the movement
against the execution of the Fugitive Slave Law from
1850 to 1855, — and finally, the movement to protect
Kansas from the curse of slavery, to render Judge
Taney's infamous Dred Scott decision inoperative,
and to support John Brown's active warfare against
slavery in Missouri and Virginia. The chapters in
this volume, and in that edited by Mr. Hosmer, relate
to all these phases of the great dispute, but particu
larly to the last three. Parker regarded the last stage
of the fourth phase, — the John Brown warfare, — as
the most important of all, — for he did not live to
see the outbreak of the Civil War, except as com
menced in its prehminary skirmishes in Kansas and
Missouri. On all these phases I shall have something

EDITOR'S PREFACE
to say; having discussed them for years with Parker
and his intimate friends, and heard them debated by
others at his house in Exeter Place and elsewhere.
Before commenting on particular chapters in this vol
ume, a few general remarks should be made to correct
false impressions and loose statements concerning Par
ker's position in the long warfare against slavery of
which he predicted the end by emancipation, during
the nineteenth century, — one of the few who ventured
to make that confident prophecy before 1860.
Theodore Parker was never a disunionist; nor were
John Brown, Gerrit Smith, Dr. Howe or the present
writer. Their friends sometimes advocated disunion,
as Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and for a short time
Wentworth Higginson did. In writing to Higginson,
who had signed a call for a meeting at Worcester to
debate disunion, Parker thus declared himself (Jan
uary 18, 1857):
" I am glad to see any sign of manhood in the North.
But I do not myself desire a dissolution of the Union.
The North is 17,000,000 strong, and the South contains
11,000,000, whereof four are slaves and four millions
are " poor whites.' I don't think it quite right for the
powerful North to back out of the Union, and leave the
' poor whites * and the slaves to their present condition,
with the ghastly consequences which are sure to follow.
Men talk a great deal about the ' compromises of the
Constitution,' but forget the guarantees of the Constitu
tion. ' The United States shall guarantee a republican
form of government to every State.' I would perform
that obligation before I dissolved the Union. . . .
But if you will make dissolution the basis of agitation, I
think much good will come of it. I would say, Freedom
shall take and keep (1) the land east of Chesapeake
Bay; (2) all that is north of the Potomac and the Ohio,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
— all that is west of the Mississippi, that is, the entire
States of Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, with the part
of Louisiana west of the Mississippi. I think the North
will not be content with less than this; nay, I am not
sure that, in case of actual separation, Virginia and
Kentucky would not beg us to let the amputating knife
go clear down to North Carolina and Tennessee and cut
there; for I think there is too much freedom yet in the
northernmost slave States, to consent to be left to perish
with the general rot of the slave limbs."
In opposition to the Texas scheme to extend the
area of slavery, and to the needless Mexican War,
Webster and Parker were for some years side by side.
I have seen the manuscript in Webster's own hand,
which he wrote for the anti-Texas convention in Jan
uary, 1845, and of which, in the speech just quoted,
Henry Wilson renders this account:
" In the winter of 1845, when the Texas question was
pending before Congress, a State convention was called
in Faneuil Hall, without party distinction. Mr. Webster
united in the convention with William Lloyd Garrison, Ed
ward Quincy, Joshua Leavitt, Mr. Sewall, Charles Allen,
John G. Palfrey, Stephen C. Phillips, Charles Francis
Adams. Mr. Webster consulted with and assisted
Stephen C. Phillips, Charles Allen and Charles Francis
Adams, in preparing the address of convention — an ad
dress filled with noble sentiments of hostility to slavery
domination. The day I left Boston for the Whig conven
tion of 1848, I met in Court Street one of Mr. Webster's
friends, who informed me that several of those friends
were assembled in Mr. Webster's office and were anxious
to see me. I accompanied him to the office where I found
various members of the Webster Club, among them Mr.
Burlingame and Mr. Webster's son. They wished to
know what I and the ' conscience Whigs,' with whom I

EDITOR'S PREFACE
acted, intended to do. I told them I had written to Mr.
Webster, that I could not vote for Mr. Webster if he used
his influence directly or indirectly to aid Taylor's nomi
nation. These gentlemen assured me that Mr. Webster
had said that he ' would never recommend the people to
support for President an ignorant, swearing, frontier col
onel ' — they assured me ' Mr. Webster was with us.'
" I left the office and went directly to Philadelphia
where I found a note from Mr. Webster, giving me am
ple assurances. Having received assurance from Mr.
Webster, I voted for him; although I knew then as now,
that his chances were desperate.
" In 1 848, Gen. Taylor was nominated as the Whig
candidate for President on the 9th of June; on the 28th
one of the largest conventions ever assembled in Massa
chusetts met at Worcester. There and then the organiza
tion of the Free-soil party was begun, and their principles
were proclaimed. Many of Mr. Webster's friends at
tended — among them his son. They urged us to speak
kindly of Mr. Webster, assuring us that he was with us.
The convention expressed confidence in him, and called
upon him to lead the friends of freedom. A few days
after I called on Mr. Webster at his own request, at his
office. He expressed his cordial assent to the principles
of the convention, and said if we would make a public
sentiment that would sustain public men in being true to
the sentiments of the North, we should accomplish every
thing, for we had always been beaten by the treachery
of Northern men."
There is no doubt that the events here related by
Mr. Wilson did occur. I remember them well, as they
were then reported in the newspapers; and it was be
lieved for months that Webster would not support the
nomination of Taylor, which he had declared to be
" a nomination not fit to be made." Why he changed
his mind may be matter of opinion and dispute ; but

EDITOR'S PREFACE
those at the time who knew Mr. Webster's habit of re
ceiving money in connection with his political course,
had much reason to believe that it was in the interest
of his pocket and his political ambition that he added
his own example to the long list of what he called
" the treachery of Northern men."
Taylor was elected, but, contrary to the expectation
of his slaveholding supporters, he refused to be a
party to any schemes for disunion. The occasion is
well known, and the words of President Taylor have
been quoted by three persons to whom he uttered them,
— Hamlin of Maine, then a Democrat ; Thurlow Weed
of New York, a Whig, and Gen. Pleasonton, an army
officer who had served under Taylor in Mexico.
The last-named called on his chief, then President,
late in June, 1850, when under orders to join the army
in New Mexico. Then followed these remarks by
Taylor: " I am glad you are going to New Mexico; I want
officers of judgment and experience there. These South
ern men in Congress are trying to bring on civil war.
They are now organizing a military force in Texas, for
the purpose of taking possession of New Mexico and an
nexing it to Texas. I have ordered the troops in New
Mexico to be reinforced, and have directed that no armed
force from Texas be permitted to go into that territory.
Tell Colonel Monroe there that he has my full confidence ;
and if he has not force enough to support him," (his
features assuming the firmest expression) " I will be with
you myself. I will be there before those people shall
go into that country, or have a foot of that territory. The
whole business is infamous, and must be put down."
About the same time, Senator Hamlin, having oc
casion to call on the President, met Stephens, after-

EDITOR'S PREFACE
wards vice-president of the Southern Confederacy,
and Toombs of Georgia, coming out of the President's
room, much excited. Entering himself, he found
Taylor pacing up and down, " like an enraged lion
in his cage." Still pacing across the room, he said,
" Mr. Hamlin, what are you doing in the Senate with
that bill? " The senator replied, that the pro-slavery
bill was wrong in principle, and that he was doing
what he could to defeat it. To which the President
instantly rejoined : " Stand firm ! don't yield ! it means
disunion; and I am pained to learn that we have dis
union men to contend with. Disunion is treason ; and
if they try to carry out their schemes while I am Pres
ident, they shall be dealt with as by law they deserve,
and be executed."
As Mr. Hamlin came down the steps of the White
House, he met Mr. Weed going in and told him he
would find the President much excited. Mr. Weed
had just before met Stephens, Toombs and Clingman
of North Carolina, coming away from their interview.
As he entered the room, Gen. Taylor said to him, —
" Did you meet those damned traitors? They came
to talk with me about my policy, and when I told them
I would approve any constitutional bill Congress might
pass, and would execute the laws, they began to
threaten a dissolution of the Union."
He further said that he told those disunionists,
that, if necessary, he would take command of the Union
army in person, and if they were themselves taken in
rebellion, he would hang them with less reluctance
than he had seen deserters and spies hanged in Mexico.
Becoming less agitated, the old soldier told his friend
Weed that these traitors presumed on his being a
Kentuckian and a slaveholder; that before he looked

EDITOR'S PREFACE
into the question as chief magistrate he had expressed
opinions to his son-in-law, Jefferson Davis, that he was
ready to stand with the South in maintaining all the
guarantees of the Constitution. But now, having
looked carefully into the merits of the long-standing
controversy, he had found that the exactions and aims
of the South were intolerant and revolutionary. He
added that Davis seemed to be the chief conspirator
in the scheme which Toombs, Stephens and Clingman
(all claiming to be Whigs) had revealed to him. This
was more than ten years before Davis became the
leader of the rebellion which, in 1850, Taylor had
told them he would put down by arms, as Lincoln
afterward did.
Where then did Daniel Webster stand in this well-
known conspiracy of Davis and the disunionists of
1850? He had, three months before, given in his ad
hesion to the permanence of slavery, in his famous
speech of March 7, and he was soon to become part of
the administration of the slavery-protecting Fillmore,
who succeeded to the Presidency by the untimely death
of Taylor in July. In the same month of 1850 Web
ster became the Secretary of State under President
Fillmore, and lent his aid in that position to the advo
cates of slavery, while still professing, as he had elo
quently declared many times in his earlier career, that
he regarded slavery as wrong, and would gladly see
it abolished. But while making these professions,
largely from the force of habit (as he continued to
indulge too freely in the use of ardent spirits, for the
same habitual reason), all his influence was given to
the support of the slaveholders' policy. Under the
administration of which he was the most distinguished
and the ablest member, fugitive slaves were captured,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
kidnapped and returned to slavery from Pennsylva
nia, Ohio and Massachusetts. He went about the
country lecturing in favor of the Compromises of
1850, and denouncing both the abolitionists, and the
higher law, which they had declared was sure to pre
vail, and ought to prevail. Webster denied that there
is any law higher than the statutes of men; and he
carried on at the same time, through his many friends,
an active campaign for the Presidency, but could never
secure the confidence of the people sufficiently to war
rant them in giving him their highest elective office,
the Presidency.
All through the remaining two years of his ever busy
life, he spent his energies in maintaining the institu
tion of negro slavery where it already existed, — the
same serfdom he had spent the more active years of
his life in denouncing. The change of opinion was
so marked and so extreme that it is no wonder people
were surprised at the betrayal of the mission they had
confided to him, and revolted rather than to follow
him in his crooked course. At the first opportunity
they voted against Webster's friends, and their repre
sentatives in the next year, elected Charles Sumner to
fill Webster's seat in the Senate. Webster survived
this rejection of him by Massachusetts a little more
than a year, and died too early to cast his ballot for
his lifelong political opponent, Franklin Pierce* —
having already abandoned his own Whig party because
it did not sufficiently oppose emancipation and favor
the extension of negro slavery.
In what Parker said publicly and privately of Web
ster, and the men who clustered round him and ap
plauded the unhappy and disgraceful last years of his
disappointed life, he had the facts all about him, and

EDITOR'S PREFACE
within his daily observation. He left little to infer
ence, and he withheld from his public utterances much
that was privately known to him. He had grown up
in admiration of Webster, had often listened to his
grander passages of oratory, and seen him manage
his cases in court with that mixture of ability and ar
rogance which had from the first made him noted in
his prosecutions, defenses and general practice at the
bar. Parker had hoped much from him in the great
est of all his cases, the contest over negro slavery be
tween the North and the South, — between the ideas of
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the selfish
institutions of South Carolina and the later Virginia.
Even in 1848, when the presidential election threw
Webster for a few months out of relation with his own
political party, as had been the case in 1841—43, when
a member of Tyler's Cabinet, — Parker, like many
anti-slavery men, hoped and trusted that the most
powerful oratory in New England would be on the
side of freedom, as, up to that time Webster's had
been, at least nominally. He had never, as Everett
had done in 1826, volunteered a defense of slavery,
nor quoted Scripture in its favor; he had resisted
strenuously the secessionist movement of Calhoun and
Hayne in Carolina, and with full knowledge that be
hind that frustrated effort lay the determination of
the slavemasters to extend and strengthen the area of
negro slavery. But in 1849 the temptations of moneys
and power were too much for his feeble moral sense,
long weakened by habits of self-indulgence and pe
cuniary recklessness. He opposed the honest soldierly
determination of Taylor as President, to follow Jack
son's course in dealing with disunion; he had surren
dered to the South, after parleying for months, in his

EDITOR'S PREFACE
7th of March speech, and he soon became the most vio
lent denouncer of the practical anti-slavery men, as
well as of the few disunionist abolitionists. Contrary
to his natural character, which was arrogant rather
than crafty, with flashes of generosity which endeared
him to his friends, Webster now stooped to duplicity.
He had consulted (as Henry Wilson says, and as Mr.
Giddings of Ohio wrote to Parker in a letter now in my
possession) " with J. R. Giddings, Thaddeus Ste
vens, and other anti-slavery members of Congress,
touching his course of action; had given them to un
derstand that he would sustain by speech and vote their
doctrine of opposition to slavery extension and dom
ination, and had received assurances from them that
they would gladly follow his lead." Mr. Giddings
adds, " He even submitted the skeleton of Ins speech
to the inspection of one or more leaders of that party,
who pronounced it satisfactory." Mr. Giddings was
himself one of the leaders, and spoke from positive
knowledge. Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, a well-
known Boston physician of high standing, says in his
autobiography :
" At the time of preparing his 7th of March speech,
Webster wrote to his intimate friend, J. T. Stevenson, to
know how far he could go ' in behalf of freedom and be
sustained by the North.' The reply was ' Take the high
est ground in behalf of freedom.' When the hour came
for Mr. Webster to speak, Stevenson said to my brother,
J. I. Bowditch, at his office in State Street, ' Oh, how
Webster is giving it now to Southern insolence ! ' So en
tirely had Webster deceived and wheedled even his best
friends." The correspondence with Stevenson was known to
Parker at the time through Miss Hannah Stevenson,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
his sister, who was then an inmate of the household at
Exeter Place. It was indeed the common talk of
Boston, where the speech, in its final half, pledging
Webster's support to slave-hunting at the North,
shocked and disgusted many of his own friends. The
Fugitive Slave Bill, which Mason of Virginia had in
troduced by way of menace and experiment, rather
than with the expectation of passing it, was carried
through both houses, largely by Webster's influence,
— for he was then Secretary of State under Fillmore,
and his successor in the Senate, R. C. Winthrop, voted
against the bill. Neither Webster nor Clay voted for
it, and twenty-one senators, including Benton of Mis
souri, abstained from voting. When Horace Greeley,
soon after (according to Clay's grandson, in the
latest biography of that statesman) remonstrated with
his political leader against " the asperities of the
Fugitive Slave Law," Clay said he " sincerely regret
ted them, and would have fought to exclude them, if
he had not been absent at Newport when the bill was
passed by the Senate."
At first the new slave-hunting law was coldly re
ceived in Boston — even by the friends of Webster
and the pro-slavery Democrats, like Judge Woodbury
and Hallett. The first slave-catchers who appeared in
Boston under Mr. Webster's law were two low char
acters from Macon in Georgia, John Knight and
William Hughes, — the first a mechanic or " poor
white," and the other the jailer at Macon. They ar
rived in Boston just about a month after the passage
of the bill, which was September 19, 1850. Giving
an angry account of his attempt and its failure,
Hughes wrote in the Macon Telegraph the following
December as follows :

EDITOR'S PREFACE
" I reached Boston the 19th day of October. I began
operations within ten minutes, as soon as I could find the
gentleman to whom I carried letters. I called on Judge
Woodbury, who advised me to see Mr. (George) Lunt,
U. S. district attorney; whom I should pronounce to
be a disgrace to his country, his profession and his of
fice; for he deliberately stated to me as a reason for de
clining, that he had a recent case, and the excitement was
so great that he would not undertake another. . . .
My next visit was to Mr. B. F. Hallett, another United
States commissioner, and this legal phenomenon replied
that the law did not authorize the warrants to be issued,
and that it was my duty to arrest the negroes without a
warrant, and bring them before him. ... I may mis
construe his character; some of my friends seem to think
Mr. Hallett a happy combination of the knave and fool.
. . . My next visit was to Judge (Peleg) Sprague,
another judge on the supreme bench. This personage
strongly reminded me of the celebrated Dutch judge who
would never hear but one side of a case, because the two
sides always confused him. Here we had re-enacted the
same tortuous, twisting, shuffling, contemptible evasion of
a poor pettifogging lawyer, and it makes me wonder by
what legerdemain so poor a creature was placed in an
honorable and responsible office. I next turned my face
on Mr. Curtis, another commissioner, and a worthy Bos-
tonian; who, from a slowness of comprehension or a want
of familiarity with his duties, desired time to conquer this
abstruse and difficult subject. After great unnecessary
delay, those judges and commissioners, who had refused
to issue the warrants because they were not the proper
persons, did meet and issue them in open court. . . .
The judges, in my opinion, soil the ermine with an in
famy as deep, as damnable and as durable as ever stained
the name of Jeffreys. As for the commissioners, they
want only opportunity to become notable and famous
Dogberries. . . . Could I have obtained the warrants

EDITOR'S PREFACE
(which honorable officials would have issued) I think it
not only probable, but very certain I could have been more
than half way to Georgia before a mob could have inter
fered. . . . By great secrecy and despatch I could
have stolen the negroes from Boston. But I could have
stolen them j ust as well before the ' Slave Bill ' as after, —
and probably a little better. This bill was to prevent the
necessity of stealing our own property. ... In Bos
ton the law cannot be executed by the public authorities,
and a man must recover his own by stealing, — and that
before they can find him out, — or, probably, murder him
in open day."
Without approving the language of this Georgian's
statement, I must say it was in substance true, so great
was the abhorrence of the Bostonians to slave-catching
in their free city. This, with a little party-fencing
between Woodbury and Hallett, Democrats, and Lunt
and Curtis, Webster Whigs, accounts for the reluc
tance of these four worthies to mix themselves up with
a slave case.
Now who were these despised " niggers " whom
Hughes and Knight had come a thousand miles to
kidnap, under cover of Webster's " Slave Bill"? As
it happened, they were parishioners of Theodore Par
ker, and as it also happens, I knew them some fifteen
years after, when they returned to Boston from Eng
land, where Parker and his friends had sent them,
in order to keep them out of the hands of Mr. Web
ster's friends in Boston. They were handsome and
every way respectable colored persons, largely of
white blood, — William and Ellen Craft by name, —
who had earned their right to freedom if any Algerian
captive or Dartmoor-prisoned New England sailor
ever did, by a daring and successful flight. No man

EDITOR'S PREFACE
or woman with a human heart, who knew their ro
mantic story, ever begrudged them their well-earned
liberty ; the ignorant and the knavish alone turn slave-
hunters for such as these two. Ellen was so nearly
white, — her parentage being what my friend Hosmer
defines as " an evil out of which good may come," —
that in her journey of four days from Macon to
Philadelphia she passed successfully as a young slave
holder traveling North with his body-servant (her
husband). William had bought his own freedom over
and over, by the wages he had paid his master, who
seems to have been a Dr. Robert Collins, and had
earned the money for it by working along with the
" poor white," John Knight, in a Macon cabinet shop.
He was pursuing the same honest calling in a Boston
shop, and supporting his family by his labor. I now
quote from the Journal of Parker for 1850, which lies
before me:
"(Saturday, Oct. 26.) It seems a miserable fellow by
the name of Knight came here to Boston from Macon in
Georgia, sent out by the former owner of the Crafts. He
used to work in the cabinet shop with William, but was
dull and imbecile, so that his chief function was to wait
upon the rest. There came with him one Mr. Hughes,
who is the jailer at Macon. Last Tuesday, the 22nd,
Knight called on Craft at his shop, expressed pleasure to
see him, etc. Craft asked him if he came on alone.
' Yes, there's nobody with me.' But he wanted William
to go round with him, to show him the streets and the
curiosities of Boston. No, — William was on his guard, —
was 'busy,' 'had work to attend to' and could not go
The next day he came again; wanted William to go round
the Common with him. No, he could not go then. Told
William, ' Perhaps you would like to come to the
United States Hotel and see me; your wife might like to

EDITOR'S PREFACE
come also, to talk about her mother. If you will write,
I will take the letter home."
All this time Hughes was at the hotel under the
false name of William Hamilton, by which he regis
tered, and was described in the warrant which the four
reluctancies had finally issued. William declined to
call at the hotel, or to write the decoy letter. Knight
then wrote as follows:
"Boston, Oct. 22, 1850, 11 o'clk. P. M.
" Wm. Craft — Sir — I have to leave so Eirley in the
moring that I could not call according to promis, so if
you want me to carry a letter home with me, you must
bring it to the united States Hotel, to morrow, and leave
it in Box 44, or come yourself to morro Eavening after
tea and bring it. let me no if you come yourself by
sending a note to Box 44 U. S. Hotel, so that I may
no whether to wate after tea or not, by the Bearer. If
your wif wants to see me you cold bring her with you
if you come yourself. John Knight.
" P. S. I shall leave for home eirley a Thursday
moring." Parker's Journal goes on:
" The lad who brought the letter informed William of
the other person who came with him (Knight), told his
name, etc.
" Finding this failed, Hughes applied to the court and
got a warrant. ... I saw William Craft this morn
ing about a quarter past eleven. He was at Lewis Hay-
den's (a fugitive from Kentucky), seemed cool and reso
lute. I told him I thought it no use to put the matter
off, and cut off the dog's tail by inches. If he was to
take the bull by the horns, he had better do it to-day
rather than to-morrow. So he thought. I inspected his
arms, a good revolver with six caps on, a large pistol,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
and small ones; a large dirk and a short one. All was
right. " Meeting of the Legal Committee of the Vigilance
Committee at half-past twelve. Richard H. Dana, Jr.,
in the chair. Writs are out against Knight and Hughes,
— one for slander against Craft, one for carrying dan
gerous weapons with intent to commit an assault on Craft.
Also a habeas corpus is ready for William in case of
need. But I think he has a non habeas corpus in his
pocket. " Went out in the afternoon to Brookline, and saw
Ellen Craft. She is now at Ellis Gray Loring's. She
seems composed, and we assured her that her husband
would not be carried off.
"(Monday, Oct. 28.) Went down to the U. S. Hotel
at half-past seven to see the slave-hunters. Bowditch
breakfasted with them, but they slipped off and we could
not catch them again. Heard that Ellen Craft was at
the table at Loring's; so went out to Brookline in a
coach with Miss Stevenson and (Rev.) John Parkman.
Went to Loring's; Ellen not there; to (Samuel) Phil-
brick's; found her and William. Brought them into
town. I wanted Ellen to stay with us till all is safe and
slave-hunters crushed. The Vigilance Committee is in
permanent session. We met at seven p. m. again. Sent
a committee of twelve with Robert E. Apthorp as chair
man, to see Spooner, keeper of the U. S. Hotel. He
says the slave-hunters are satisfied they cannot arrest
Craft or carry him off. (Tuesday, 29th.) (Charles)
Sumner and Apthorp have both seen Spooner to-day. He
was much impressed by the other committee on Monday
night. (Francis) Jackson and (C. F.) Hovey saw him on
Sunday night. Lobdell, a baker and treasurer of the ho
tel, told Jackson he would ' carry out the law if it was to
apply to my own daughter.' No doubt; perhaps it does.
But suppose it came to his dividends, — ce serait autre
chose."

EDITOR'S PREFACE
So the campaign went on till on Wednesday after
noon, at 2 :30 p. m., the slave-hunters took the New
York train at Newton and returned to Georgia.
Knight, who was incapable of writing it, signed a
statement dated at Macon, November 11, in which he
seemed to say:
" Mr. Hughes applied to three separate commission
ers, who sent him from one to another. The last one
refused till he could get all the judges and commissioners
together. In this way the business was deferred until
Thursday night (Oct. 24), when the meeting was held.
At this our business and the names of the parties for
whom the warrant was demanded leaked out. Friday
morning Judge Woodbury issued the warrant about nine
o'clock, in open court. It was at once known, and the
negroes and abolitionists began to assemble about the
court-house and to watch us. Every few minutes a negro
lawyer would peep into the marshal's office to see what
was going on. The excitement was great; nothing was
done; marshal said if he could be convinced that Craft
was in Cambridge Street, he would go and arrest him;
but seemed timid and inclined to back out."
As this marshal was then Charles Devens, after
wards a Civil War general, judge of the State Supreme
Court, and member of President Hayes's cabinet, ti
midity could hardly be alleged of him ; but he knew he
was in a base business, and was very glad when he
got out of it after Webster's death, and had for a suc
cessor Watson Freeman, one of whose last official acts
was trying to get paid for a night-attempt to kidnap
me in my own house at Concord, and carry me to
Washington to testify before Senator Mason's com
mittee, in April, 1860. He was as unlucky then as
he had been lucky in carrying Antony Burns off from

EDITOR'S PREFACE
Boston in June, 1854, — an achievement instantly fol
lowed at the November election by the defeat and
disintegration of Webster's Whig party in Massa
chusetts. Knight, the " poor white," went on :
" Wednesday, Oct. 30, very early, Rev. Theodore
Parker came to our room, followed by fifty or sixty per
sons, greatly excited; said he had suppressed a mob
twice, — came as a Christian, a servant of the Lord, and
a friend, to request us to leave the city instantly; not to
wait for the cars, but to take a carriage; did not think
he could suppress the mob any longer. We refused; told
him that we should treat the committee with perfect con
tempt; would leave when the mob dispersed and our con
venience suited, but not before. In the evening came to
New York, by advice of counsel, in order to get further
instructions, and to allow the excitement to die away.
During this time Craft and wife were reported to be
locked up in the house of a white man, whose name I
forget." (It was, of course, Parker's four^story house in
Exeter Place, hardly a good rifle-shot from the hotel
where these actors in Webster's fugitive-slave drama
were going through the prologue to its six years' per
formance. )
William Craft's fellow-workman at Macon, exalted
by his experiences into a sage forecaster of the next
few years in Boston, then delivered himself thus in the
Macon newspaper:
" I am convinced that public opinion in Boston is un
dergoing a change. It is true the abolitionists and
negroes are very numerous, and apparently have things
very much their own way at present. The business men
and men of property with whom I conversed, generally
took but little interest in the matter; but said the law

EDITOR'S PREFACE
ought to be executed, that they wished to get rid of the
negroes, and that, if it came to a trial of strength, the
negroes and abolitionists would be put down. This,
however, will take time. I believe that Mr. Hughes will
ultimately succeed in getting the negroes."
On November 7, Parker remarried these brave
fugitives, at a boarding house. His record says :
" Married William and Ellen Craft; they are fugitive
slaves; their history is well known; they have long been
married. But their marriage lacks the solemnity of law;
so yesterday they got a certificate, and this day I married
them. I told him his duty was to protect the life, liberty
and limbs of his wife, at all manly hazards; that he was
to do it though it dug his own grave, and the graves of
a thousand men. Still I counseled mildness and Chris
tian feelings, but by all means liberty. After the mar
riage I put a short dagger in his hands, as a symbol
of one kind of work, and a Bible as a symbol of another
sort of work. I gave him the Bible with the record of
his marriage. At half-past two p. m. this day, they are
to go to Portland (by rail) and at night take a steamer
for St. Johns, then a steamer for Windsor, stages to
Halifax, and then the steamer for England. So I am
obliged to send my parishioners to that country for free
dom, whence our fathers fled for it."
Parker never saw Ellen Craft again until the sum
mer of 1859, when, passing through England on his
way to meet Sumner in Paris, he and his family were
called upon by her in London, where they were receiv
ing the calls and hospitalities of John Bright, of Mar-
tineau, of Frances Power Cobbe, of Thoreau's ad
mirer, Thomas Cholmondeley, and hosts of friends,
old and new. No visit gave him greater pleasure than
hers ; and he noticed, as I did, six or eight years later,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
when the Crafts returned to Boston, that a few years
of freedom had done more for the education and civ
ilization of their race than two centuries of " civiliz
ing " slavery.
The next fugitive slave case in Boston was more
provoking to Webster and his slave-hunting friends,
there and in Washington; but not a whit more suc
cessful. A poor fellow named Shadrach was laid hold
of the next winter by Marshal Devens, about February
15, shut up for safe-keeping in the court-house in
Court Square, and was about to be delivered over to
the slave-catchers by George T. Curtis, the slave-law
commissioner, when a few negroes moved a sudden
stay of proceedings, and Shadrach found himself that
night at my neighbor Bigelow's in Concord, on his
way to Leominster, and thence to Canada. That part
of his story is told in the Life of Dr. Howe by Mrs.
Richards ; he was aided with carriages and drivers by
some white friends ; but the actual rescue is related by
Dr. Bowditch, in a manner I have never heard dis
puted. He says:
" The news came to a poor, but quiet, industrious
negro, working for my friend John L. Emmons, that the
boy who had grown up under his own eye at Norfolk,
Va., and who, like himself, had fled from slavery, had
been arrested, and was then before Commissioner Curtis.
The hour, as he told me, had come: he was doomed to
rescue his friend or die. Accordingly, being faithful in
all things, he said to his master that he felt he must go
and see if the story was true. Emmons bade him God
speed, and the truth was soon proved by sight; he saw his
friend seated between two officers. He returned and said
to his master, ' Farewell, — you may never see me again,'
and returned to the court-house. He found a number

EDITOR'S PREFACE
around the door; they were laughing and jeering, and
his heart sank within him. ' My friends,' said he, ' this
is not the time for laughing or talking, but for acting;
will you follow me and rescue him?' 'Wait a little,'
said they. ' So it has always been with you ; now is the
time. Let us go.' Finally he succeeded in getting two
or three to promise to follow; yet they had no plans.
They had, however, a leader who was quiet and calm
and full of faith; unarmed, he felt that he was to lose his
life or rescue his friend; the means would come as he
wanted them. At length the court was adjourned till
Monday, and the slave remanded to the custody of the
deputy marshal, Pat Riley. The company was about de
parting; one of the lawyers was leaving, when the door
was suddenly burst open, and in rushed the negroes in
numbers, our friend taking the lead. Riley seized him
and two more fell upon him. They wrestled together;
the negro was victorious, and seeing the marshal's sword
lying in a chair, he drew it, and, beckoning to the pris
oner said, ' Fly, this moment ! ' The poor wretch stood
motionless, his knees quivering. ' Depart, — go this way,'
motioning with the sword, and keeping off the officers
with it. ' Give me my sword,' said the marshal. ' Stand
off ! ' said our hero, again waving off his antagonists.
Others having come to the rescue, Shadrach was dragged
into liberty by his victorious friends. Our poor hero was
the last to leave the room, and finally got his young friend
down into Court Square. Then leaving him in the care
of friends, he quietly entered a neighboring shop, laid
the sword on the counter, and asked the man to let it
remain until called for by its owner. Then he followed
the crowd, saw Shadrach safely out of town, and quickly
returned to work as if nothing had happened. I saw the
man this evening. We hired a cab, and now he is out of
reach of the tools of the diabolical Fugitive Slave Law."
This view of the case was naturally not that taken
by Pat Riley, by George Lunt, the district attorney,

EDITOR'S PREFACE
nor entirely by Charles Devens. Riley appealed to
the public through the newspapers, and blamed the
city mayor and city marshal for not bringing the po
lice to his aid, when he was vanquished by his own
sword. The Boston Courier, quoting Riley, went on
to say:
" The rescue was at a time when more than forty city
policemen were assembled in Marshal Tukey's office, not
a hundred paces from the scene of riot. That Mr. Riley
did all that he could to execute the law, nobody will deny.
His defense, when attacked by the mob, was as able as
his circumscribed means would permit. Had the rioters
who assembled near the court-house been driven away
by the chief of police, this outrage upon the laws would
not have been perpetrated on Saturday."
President Fillmore and his secretary, Webster, took
care that Marshal Tukey was in his duty at the next
slave-catching, in the following April, — that of
Thomas Sims, sufficiently described in the copious text
of Parker; and they called in United States soldiers
to force the odious statute upon the freemen of Mas
sachusetts. By force and in contempt of constitu
tional law, Sims was carried away into slavery on
April 19, 1851. The next week, the election of
Charles Sumner, which had been delayed for three
months by the friends of slavery, was completed, and
he was sent to take Webster's place in the Senate at
Washington, with more than Webster's influence, and
by a lif e tenure ; for he died in that office thirty-three
years afterward, and there witnessed and helped bring
about the complete abolition of negro slavery. In this
election, and in the support of Sumner so long as
Parker lived, the Boston preacher had great influ
ence ; and it was his friends and Sumner's friends who
emancipated the slave.

EDITOR'S PREFACE
Parker's sermon on Webster, though violently at
tacked by that statesman's personal and political
friends, was approved in its substance by the more
impartial among his contemporaries. Perhaps the
most significant among the comments which it called
forth at the time (the late autumn of 1852) were the
letter of Senator Seward in that year (Dec. 27, 1852)
and that of an older Whig, James Kent, the son of
Chancellor Kent, six years later. Mr. Seward said:
" Webster never rose to the moral majesty of Milton
or Burke, — lacking the moral quality suited to his intel
lectual greatness. . . . While he was for ' Union and
Liberty,' he was for Union more than for Liberty. So he
was a statesman for Britain rather than for our country;
for the past rather than for our own times. Beyond all
doubt, his great infirmity was timidity. His great of
fense was not his surrender of the Wilmot Proviso, nor
even his supporting the Fugitive Slave Law, but his at
tempt to suppress and silence debate and speech on slav
ery; yet his greatest offense was timidity. I give you
my sincere thanks for the copy of your sermon on the
death of Webster. I am sure that all the world will agree
that it is executed with a masterly force, and with a
severe study of truth and justice."
Judge Kent was more specific in his comment on
the sermon, — all the more noteworthy because he was,
like Webster in his youth, a member of the old Fed
eral party of Napoleon's time, and, Hke Webster, soon
joined, or naturally adopted the creed of that Hamil-
tonian party. But before quoting his searching anal
ysis of Webster's character and abilities, I will give
the statement of Dr. J. G. Palfrey, eminent as clergy
man, congressman and historian, on receiving (March
21, 1853) Parker's Webster sermon:

EDITOR'S PREFACE
" I have taken time to read your masterly discourse on
Mr. Webster, and have read it with new admiration of
your powers of analysis, of expression and illustration;
of your freedom in exhibiting a morbid anatomy, and your
generous feeling for what was lovable and pitiable in
your subject. You, with others of your time, are incor
porating a new era in biography. It will assume a vastly
more beneficent function than heretofore. It will be made
immensely to serve the cause of humanity, by enforcing
upon the weak and wicked great a restraining sense of the
doom which an earthly futurity is to pronounce."
Judge Kent, of Fishkill, N. Y., to whom Parker was
introduced in 1858, by their common friend, Joseph
Lyman (like Kent the son of an old Federalist) wrote
to him a few weeks later (Sept. 21, 1858) thus:
" I left Fishkill this morning in the train with your
volume containing the Webster discourse. I was enchained
by it, buried in it, — insensible to the jarrings and the
shrieking of the engine; lost to everything but the magic
power of the orator. It is a wonderful oration. Daniel
Webster never in life produced a speech comparable to it
in depth of thought, richness of imagery and eloquence
of expression. I write under the fresh influence of the
eloquence, but with perfect sincerity. In some respects
Webster's fame will be indebted to you for this very
speech. You will give to future times a more impressive
view of this extraordinary man than his works will con
vey. But do you not overestimate his mental powers?
His writings are, after all, pretty dull reading. When
you call him the greatest orator who has spoken the Eng
lish tongue, do you not go too far? Is he superior to
Burke, from whom he took several of his happiest
rhetorical figures? Indeed, is not Burke superior to
Webster in everything except in mere logical reasoning?
Webster was not a great lawyer. Some of his arguments,
especially on constitutional questions, are very fine. But

EDITOR'S PREFACE
of black-letter law he knew little, and he despised it;
and from the constitution of his mind he did not pursue,
and perhaps was scarcely able to follow the subtile threads
of thought which lawyers like Charles Austin and Har-
grave delighted in.
" Where in all his speeches was a great philosophic
thought exhibited? What truth of universal application
has he declared? What great sophistry has he unveiled?
What discovery in politics or morals has he made? His
style is singularly clear, vigorous and impressive; but
what expressions of his have become incorporated in the
common language? I have sometimes thought that his
immense personal influence was to be ascribed to his face
and figure; for there was truth in the saying of Charles
Fox concerning Thurlow, that ' he must be an impostor,
since nobody could be so wise as Thurlow looked.' "
These were the queries and opinions of a good law
yer, contemporary with Webster, though twenty years
younger; but one a little outside the circle in which
Webster dazzled and was adored.
In revising the Webster sermon (which I heard)
for the final edition, Parker took great pains, and
seldom made a mistake in fact. The true statement
(questioned by some) that in 1815 " Webster sought
the office of attorney-general of New Hampshire "
rested with Parker on the authority of Judge C. E.
Potter of Manchester, N. H., one of the best anti
quaries of his time, who wrote the fact to Parker, and
his letter is before me. John Taylor Gilman of Ex
eter was then governor of New Hampshire, and was
to be succeeded by a Democrat, William Plumer of
Epping. Judge Potter wrote (March 28, 1853) :
" Mr. Webster was an applicant for the office of attor
ney-general in 1815, after he discovered that the Feder-

EDITOR'S PREFACE
alists were in a minority in New Hampshire, and that
he could not be continued in Congress. The appoint
ment was made December 15, 1815: Mr. Webster was an
applicant and Gov. Gilman intended that he should be
appointed. The three Democrats in the council (which
numbers five) were determined he should not be appointed,
— his anti-war course in Congress having embittered the
Democrats against him. On the day named, Gov. Gilman
nominated Mr. Webster, and was supported by the two
Federalists in the council, — the three Democrats oppos
ing and defeating the nomination. The afternoon of the
same day, Gen. Pierce of Hillsborough, father of our
President, proposed George Sullivan (son of Gen. John
Sullivan) for the office, was supported by the other two
Democrats, and Gov. Gilman confirmed the nomination.
Mr. Webster thus defeated, and seeing his political fate
was sealed in New Hampshire, forthwith determined to
remove to Boston, and did so the following year, 1816."
These are the recorded facts in the case, which never
rested on gossip, but on the well-known course of poli
tics in the State. It was the son of the old Revolu
tionary soldier, afterwards Governor Pierce, whom
Webster was favoring for the Presidency at the time
of his death in 1852. It was not true, however, that
he " continued as congressman."
Up to the position finally taken by Mr. Webster,
Parker had been an admirer of his genius, and gen
erally a supporter of his national policy, though re
gretting his well-known laxity of morals, and his oc
casional lapses from political morality in his public
career. But when Webster cooperated with the dis
unionists of the South, Mason of Virginia, Davis of
Mississippi, Stephens and Toombs of Georgia, and
their associates, in passing the Fugitive Slave Bill of
September, 1850, Parker, who had previously confined

EDITOR'S PREFACE
his attacks on slavery to sermons and speeches, be
came (in 1850) an active protector of his parishioners
and others, who were subject to kidnapping under
that infamous legislation, enforced as it soon was by
some of the basest and meanest of the Bostonian pop
ulation, as well as by others of higher social standing.
As we have seen, he brought William and Ellen Craft,
courageous fugitives from Southern slavery, to his
own house and sheltered them from the slave-hunters,
whom he also persuaded to leave Boston. In the next
important case, that of Shadrach, Parker took part to
the extent of writing, as I suppose, the " Proclama
tion " against Caphart, who had caused Shadrach's
arrest, and in other ways he had opposed the execution
of Webster's law in Massachusetts. The facts con
cerning the Crafts (whom I knew after their return
from England to emancipated America) are set forth
in this and a preceding volume ; but since the inter
esting facts in the Shadrach case are not so well
known, I have made them the subject of one of the sec
tions of this volume.
The whole history of Parker's connection with the
revolt against the Fugitive Slave Bill and the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise (for the express purpose
of introducing slavery into Kansas and Colorado),
will be found in the extracts made from Parker's un
spoken but published " Defense " against the mon
strous and futile indictment of him and others in 1854 ;
an action and an extraordinary sequence of events,
which the uprising of the North against the Kansas-
Nebraska Act prevented from being as injurious to
the opponents of Webster and of his pro-slavery meas
ures as it had been judicially determined in advance
those arrests and indictments should be. The judicial

EDITOR'S PREFACE
history of the dismal period from the autumn of 1850
to the decision of Taney in 1857, finds one of its best
chapters in Parker's book.
In reading the anti-slavery sermons and speeches
of Parker, if they are read with an open mind, and
not through the spectacles of old prejudice, which
some of the present survivors cannot lay aside, one
is struck with the profound political philosophy they
disclose, and with the prognostication, based on in
duction and insight, which appears here and there,
especially in the later years, and after he had ceased
to publish much. The late Dr. William T. Harris,
an early disciple of Parker in German philosophy
and in politics, said to me in the last conver
sation I had with him, in September, 1909, " I regard
Theodore Parker as the most profound political phi
losopher America has yet had; he went to the root of
the matter, and reasoned, as few of our statesmen
did, from first principles." In this respect, although
with slower steps, Abraham Lincoln followed him, and
Harris added that apparently Lincoln was much in
fluenced in his anti-slavery views by what he read of
Parker in sermons and speeches, with which his part
ner Herndon supplied him, as well as reading to him
the letters he received from Parker in the years
1854-58. The "house divided against itself" came
out in Parker's published words, long before Lincoln
adopted that strong figure and gave it universal cur
rency. I have often had occasion to think that persons of
my own and later times who write and speak so glibly
about Parker, have never read him carefully, and have
no conception of the depth of principle and the vast
collection of contemporary facts on which he based

EDITOR'S PREFACE
his inductions and predictions. No American of his
time had a wider correspondence, or intercourse with
a more varied circle of acquaintances than Theodore
Parker, as I have reason to know from the many vol
umes of his correspondence long in my hands by the
bequest of Mrs. Parker, and from which I have drawn
in editing this volume. Few historical students have
seen these volumes, or have any clear idea of their
contents. Those portions printed by Weiss in his
two-volume Life, give some conception of this mass,
but a very imperfect one. Many of the letters never
came into his hands, and he did not always understand
the connection of those which he printed. The same
is true to some extent of Parker's journals, all now in
my possession.
An effort is sometimes made by persons (as Lowell
said) " mole-blind to the soul's make and style," to
place Webster and Abraham Lincoln on the same plat
form as to slavery. Nothing could be further from
the fact. Clay was the admiration of young Lincoln,
but he had even a greater aversion to negro slavery
than Clay had. Lincoln was the most humble of great
men ; Webster the most arrogant ; Lincoln the most un
selfish, Webster the most self-indulgent. Lincoln was
always meditating on justice and the moral sanctions ;
Webster seems to have had no general principles, and
to have rated law above justice. There was in fact
much congeniality of sentiment between Lincoln and
Parker, and their political philosophy was much the
same. Parker stated his principles with more method,
but Lincoln arrived at the same results by a concise
logic of his own. He was for years an eager reader
of Parker's sermons and speeches, furnished to him by
his law-partner, Herndon, whose correspondence with

EDITOR'S PREFACE
Parker has this year been published in Iowa by Rev.
Joseph Newton, to whom I made over the manuscripts
early in 1909. Of Lincoln, after reading his speeches
in the Douglas debate of 1858, and some earlier
speeches of 1856, Parker had high hopes as a leader
of anti-slavery opinion ; and in 1860 preferred him to
Seward, whom he had long favored as a presidential
candidate. Had Parker lived a year longer, he would
have voted for Lincoln, and would have commended
his courageous policy, as he had in 1858, when Lin
coln and his friends, Trumbull and Herndon, held
Illinois in the Republican party, instead of turning it
over to Senator Douglas, as Seward, Greeley and
Henry Wilson eagerly advocated. On this point the
Parker-Herndon correspondence is very illuminating.
The anxiety of Lincoln on the subject of the in
creasing spread of slavery, from 1854 to 1859, is
marked, and in sharp contrast to the subservience of
Webster in 1850—52 to the plans of the slaveholders.
Both were lovers of the Union ; but with Lincoln the
controlling wish was for a Union without chattel slav
ery ; with Webster the wish was for Union first and
liberty afterwards, if at all. He had deserted his
early position, and seems to have despaired of seeing
slavery abolished; while Lincoln, and more strongly
Parker, foresaw that it must go down before the
spirit of the nineteenth century, which, Parker de
clared, would witness the emancipation of the slaves
that Lincoln effected. The disastrous self-destruction
of Webster's reputation, which Parker more than once
characterized as it deserved, was more philosophically
censured by Emerson, who, like Parker, but even more
intimately, had been bred in the admiration of that
man's attitude and eloquence. Thoreau said of John

EDITOR'S PREFACE
Brown, " He could not be tried by his peers, — for
they did not exist." But in all the attributes of in
tellect and in the more subtile charms of oratory, Em
erson was the peer of Webster ; and what was his ver
dict? He said at New York, March 7, 1854, when
the evil fruits of Webster's betrayal of his trust were
glaringly manifest in the movement to repeal the Mis
souri Compromise:
" Four years ago to-night, on one of those high critical
moments in history when great issues are determined,
when the powers of right and wrong are mustered for
conflict, and it lies with one man to give a casting vote, —
Mr. Webster, most unexpectedly, threw his whole weight
on the side of slavery, and caused by his personal and
official authority the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill.
It is remarked of the Americans that they value dexterity
too much and honor too little. Whether this defect be
national or not, it is the defect and calamity of Mr.
Webster. He decided for slavery; and that when the
aspect of that institution was no longer doubtful, — no
longer feeble and apologetic, and proposing soon to end
itself, — but strong, aggressive, and threatening an il
limitable increase. Here was the question; Are you for
man and for the good of man, or are you for the hurt
and harm of man? It was the question whether the
negro shall be, as the Indians were in Spanish America,
a piece of money; whether this system, which is a kind
of factory for converting men into monkeys, shall be up
held and enlarged. And Mr. Webster and the country
went for the application to these poor men of quadruped
law. . . . Angry parties went from bad to worse,
and the decision of Webster was accompanied with
everything offensive to freedom and good morals. He
did as immoral men usually do; made very low bows to
the Christian Church, and went through all the Sunday
decorums; but when allusion was made to the question

EDITOR'S PREFACE
of duty and the sanctions of morality, he very frankly
spoke, at Albany, of ' some higher law, something existing
somewhere between here and the Third Heaven, — I do
not know where.' And this wretched atheism found some
laughter in the company."
Such were the terms of just indignation in which
Emerson, like Parker, spoke of the hurtful closing
years of Webster's life. But in his private journal
he wrote down the stinging epigram, only made public
since Emerson's death, —
Why did all manly powers in Webster fail?
He wrote on Nature's noblest brow, ' For Sale.'
Not wholly unlike this analysis of Webster by Em
erson was the judgment of Calhoun upon him in 1832 :
" Mr. Webster will never be President. He lacks the
qualifications of a leader; he has no faith in his own
convictions ; he can never be the head of a party. Su
perior in intellect to Mr. Clay, he lacks Clay's moral
courage and his strong convictions. Hence Clay will
always be the head of the party, and Webster will
follow." This age, at the end of a century from his birth, is
still too near Theodore Parker, this great scholar and
brave champion of every good cause, to appreciate him
rightly. The men of his own time knew him or mis
conceived him; he was intensely loved and virulently
hated; but the men of genius in each age know and
describe their contemporaries better than the next gen
eration or two usually can. Of all his contemporaries,
Emerson, who knew him intimately for a quarter-cen
tury, at his death passed the best judgment upon Par
ker, which time will only confirm, when the loves and
hates of threescore years have died away:

EDITOR'S PREFACE
" 'Tis plain to me that he has achieved a historic im
mortality here; that he has so woven himself into the
history of Boston in these few years, that he can never
be left out of your annals. It will not be in the Acts of
city councils, nor of obsequious mayors; nor in the State-
house the proclamations of governors, with their failing
virtue, — failing them at critical moments, — that coming
generations will study what really befell; but in the plain
lessons of Theodore Parker in this Music Hall, in Faneuil
Hall, or in legislative committee-rooms, that the true tem
per and authentic record of these days will be read. The
next generation will care little for the chances of elections
that govern governors now; it will care little for fine gen
tlemen who behaved shabbily; but it will read very in
telligently in his rough story, fortified with exact anec
dotes, precise with names and dates, what part was taken
by each actor; who threw himself into the cause of hu
manity and came to the rescue of civilization at a hard
pinch, and who blocked its course.
" His ministry fell on a political crisis ; on the years
when Southern slavery broke over its old banks, made
new and vast pretensions, and wrung from the weakness
or treachery of Northern people fatal concessions in the
Fugitive Slave Bill and the repeal of the Missouri Com
promise. Two days, bitter in the memory of Boston, the
days of the rendition of Sims and of Burns, made the
occasion of his most remarkable discourses. He kept
nothing back. In terrible earnest he denounced the pub
lic crime, and meted out to every official, high and low,
his due portion. It was his great service to freedom.
He took away the reproach of silent consent that would
otherwise have lain against the indignant minority, by
uttering, in the hour and place wherein these outrages
were done, the stern protest.
" Ah, my brave brother ! it seems as if, in a frivolous
age, our loss were immense, and your place cannot be
supplied. But you will already be consoled in the trans-

EDITOR'S PREFACE
fer of your genius, knowing well that the nature of the
world will affirm to all men, in all times, that which for
twenty-five years you valiantly spoke; that the winds of
Italy murmur the same truth over your grave, — the winds
of America over these bereaved streets ; that the sea which
bore your mourners home affirms it, the stars in their
courses, and the inspirations of youth; whilst the polished
and pleasant traitors to human rights, with perverted
learning and disgraced graces, rot and are forgotten with
their double tongue, saying all that is sordid for the cor
ruption of man."
F. B. Sanborn.

Volume XL of this edition, entitled The Slave
Power, contains eleven of the earlier addresses of The
odore Parker on anti-slavery themes.
Five later addresses on anti-slavery themes by
Theodore Parker, with notes by Mr. Sanborn, will
be found in the last volume (XIV.) of this edition of
his works, entitled Miscellanies. The addresses bear
the following titles : " A New Lesson for the Day,"
" The Aspect of Slavery in America," " The Effect
of Slavery on the American People," " Parker's In
dictment and the Fugitive Slave Cases." " The John
Brown Campaign."

CONTENTS Page
I. The Mexican War  1
II. The Administration of President Polk . 48
III. The State of the Nation  92
IV. The Like and the Different .... 182
V. The Fugitive Slave Law  143
VI. An Anti-slavery Address  153
VII. The Progress of America  196
VIII. The New Crime against Humanity . . 250
IX. The Rights of Man in America . . 333
X. The Present Aspect of the Anti-slavery
Enterprise  397
XI. The Present Crisis in American Affairs 430

THE MEXICAN WAR
1848
Soon after the commencement of the war against
Mexico, I said something respecting it in this place.
But while I was printing the sermon, I was advised
to hasten the compositors in their work, or the war
would be over before the sermon was out. The advice
was like a good deal of the counsel that is given to a
man who thinks for himself, and honestly speaks what
he unavoidably thinks. It is now more than two years
since the war began ; I have hoped to live long enough
to see it ended, and hoped to say a word about it
when over. A month ago, this day, the 25th of May,
the treaty of peace, so much talked of, was ratified
by the Mexican Congress. A few days ago, it was
officially announced by telegraph, to your collector in
Boston, that the war with Mexico was at an end.
There are two things about this war quite remarka
ble. The first is, the manner of its commencement.
It was begun illegally, without the action of the con
stitutional authorities; begun by the command of the
President of the United States, who ordered the Amer
ican army into a territory which the Mexicans claimed
as their own. The President says, " It is ours ; " but
the Mexicans also claimed it, and were in possession
thereof until forcibly expelled. This is a plain case;
and, as I have elsewhere treated at length of this mat
ter,* I will not dwell upon it again, except to mention
* In the Massachusetts Quarterly Review, Vol. I., Art. I. See
also the paper on the administration of Mr. Polk, in Vol. III.,
Art. VIII.

g THE RIGHTS OF MAN
a single fact but recently divulged. It is well known
that Mr. Polk claimed the territory west of the Nueces
and east of the Rio Grande, as forming a part of
Texas, and therefore as forming part of the United
States after the annexation of Texas. He contends
that Mexico began the war by attacking the American
army while in that territory and near the Rio Grande.
But, from the correspondence laid before the American
Senate, in its secret session for considering the treaty,
it now appears that on the 10th of November, 1845,
Mr. Polk instructed Mr. Slidellto offer a relinquish
ment of American claims against Mexico, amounting
to $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 for the sake of having the
Rio Grande as the western boundary of Texas; yes,
for that very territory which he says was ours with
out paying a cent. When it was conquered, a mili
tary government was established there, as in other
places in Mexico.
The other remarkable thing about the war is, the
manner of its conclusion. The treaty of peace which
has just been ratified by the Mexican authorities, and
which puts an end to the war, was negotiated by a man
who had no more legal authority than any one of us
has to do it. Mr. Polk made the war, without con
sulting Congress, and that body adopted the war by
a vote almost unanimous. Mr. Nicholas P. Trist made
the treaty, without consulting the President ; yes, even
after the President had ordered him to return home.
As the Congress adopted Mr. Polk's war, so Mr. Polk
adopted Mr. Trist's treaty ; and the war illegally begun
is brought informally to a close. Mr. Polk is now in
the President's chair, seated on the throne of the
Union, although he made the war ; and Mr. Trist, it is
said, is under arrest for making the treaty.

THE MEXICAN WAR 3
When the war began, there was a good deal of talk
about it here; talk against it. But, as things often
go in Boston, it ended in talk. The newsboys made
money out of the war. Political parties were true to
their wonted principles, or their wonted prejudices.
The friends of the party in power could see no in
formality in the beginning of hostilities ; no injustice
in the war itself; not even an impolicy. They were
offended if an obscure man preached against it of a
Sunday. The political opponents of the party in
power talked against the war, as a matter of course.;
but, when the elections came, supported the men that
made it with unusual alacrity — their deeds serving as
commentary upon their words, and making further
remark thereon, in this place, quite superfluous. Many
men — who, whatever other parts of Scripture they
may forget, never cease to remember that " money
answereth all things," — diligently set themselves to
make money out of the war and the new turn it gave
to national affairs. Others thought that " glory " was
a good thing, and so engaged in the war itself, hoping
to return, in due time, all glittering with its honors.
So what with the one political party that really
praised the war, and the other who affected to oppose
it, and with the commercial party, who looked only
for a market — -this for merchandise, and that for
" patriotism " — the friends of peace, who seriously
an'd heartily opposed the war, were very few in num
ber. True, the " sober second thought " of the peo
ple has somewhat increased their number; but they
are still few, mostly obscure men.
Now peace has come, nobody talks much about it;
the newsboys have scarce made a cent by the news.
They fired cannons, a hundred guns on the Common,

4 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
for joy at the victory of Monterey; at Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Washington, New York, men illuminated
their houses in honor of the battle of Buena Vista, I
think it was ; the custom-house was officially il
luminated at Boston for that occasion. But we hear
of no cannons to welcome the peace. Thus far, it
does not seem that a single candle has been burnt in
rejoicing for that. The newspapers are full of talk,
as usual; flags are flying in the streets; the air is a
little noisy with hurrahs; but it is all talk about the
conventions at Baltimore and Philadelphia; hurrahs
for Taylor and Cass. Nobody talks of the peace.
Flags enough flap in the wind, with the names of rival
candidates; but nowhere do the stripes and stars bear
" Peace " as their motto. The peace now secured is
purchased with such conditions imposed on Mexico,
that while every one will be glad of it, no man that
loves justice can be proud of it. Very little is said
about the treaty. The distinguished senator from
Massachusetts did himself honor, it seems to me, in
voting against it on the ground that it enabled us to
plunder Mexico of her land. But the treaty contains
some things highly honorable to the character of the
nation, of which we may well enough be proud, if
ever of anything. I refer to the twenty-second and
twenty-third articles, which provide for arbitration
between the nations, if future difficulties should occur ;
and to the pains taken, in case of actual hostilities,
for the security of all unarmed persons, for the pro
tection of private property, and for the humane treat
ment of all prisoners taken in war. These ideas, and
the language of these articles, are copied from the
celebrated treaty between the United States and Prus
sia, the treaty of 1785. It is scarcely needful to

THE MEXICAN WAR 5
add that they were then introduced by that great
and good man, Benjamin Franklin, one of the nego
tiators of the treaty. They made a new epoch in
diplomacy, and introduced a principle previously un
known in the law of nations. The insertion of these
articles in the new treaty is, perhaps, the only thing
connected with the war which an American can look
upon with satisfaction. Yet this fact excites no at
tention. Mr. Trist introduced these articles without hav
ing instructions to do so ; the honor, therefore, is
wholly due to him. There were some in the Senate
who opposed them.
Still, while so little notice is taken of this matter,
in public and private, it may be worth while for a
minister, on Sunday, to say a word about the peace ;
and, now the war is over, to look back upon it, to
see what it has cost, in money and in men, and what
we have got by it; what its consequences have been,
thus far, and are likely to be for the future ; what
new dangers and duties come from this cause inter
polated into our nation. We have been long prom
ised " indemnity for the past, and security for the
future ; " let us see what we are to be indemnified for,
and what secured against. The natural justice of
the war I will not look at now. I
First, then, of the cost of the war. Money is the
first thing with a good many men; the only thing
with some, and an important thing with all. It is a lit
tle difficult to determine the actual cost of the war, thus
far — even its direct cost — for the bills are not all
in the hands of government; and then, as a matter
of political party-craft, the government, of course,
is unwilling to let the full cost become known be-

6 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
fore the next election is over. So it is to be ex
pected that the government will keep the facts from
the people as long as possible. Most governments
would do the same. But truth has a right of way
everywhere, and will recover it at last, spite of the
adverse possession of a political party. The indi
rect cost of the war must be still more difficult to
come at, and will long remain a matter of calcu
lation, in which it is impossible to reach certainty.
We do not know yet the entire cost of the Florida
War, or the late war with England; the complete
cost of the Revolutionary War must forever be un
known. It is natural for most men to exaggerate what
favors their argument; but when I cannot obtain
the exact figures, I will come a good deal within the
probable amount. The military and naval appropri
ations for the year ending in June, 1847, were $40,-
865,155.96; for the next year, $31,377,679.92; the
sum asked for the present year, till next June, $42,-
224,000; making a whole of $114,466,835.88. It is
true that all this appropriation is not for the Mex
ican War, but it is also true that this sum does not
include all the appropriations for the war. Esti
mating the sums already paid by the government,
the private claims presented, and to be presented, the
$15,000,000 to be paid Mexico as purchase-money
for the territory we take from her, the $5,000,000
or $6,000,000 to be paid our own citizens for their
claims against her, — I think I am a good deal within
the mark when I say the war will have cost $150,000,-
000 before the soldiers are at home, discharged, and
out of the pay of the State. In this sum I do not
include the bounty lands to be given to the soldiers

THE MEXICAN WAR 7
and officers, nor the pensions to be paid them, their
widows and orphans, for years to come. I will esti
mate that at $50,000,000 more, making a whole of
$200,000,000 which has been paid or must be. This
is the direct cost to the Federal Government, and of
course does not include the sums paid by individual
States, or bestowed by private generosity, to feed and
clothe the volunteers before they were mustered into
service. This may seem extravagant ; but, fifty years
hence, when party spirit no longer blinds men's eyes,
and when the whole is a matter of history, I think it
will be thought moderate, and be found a good deal
within the actual and direct cost. Some of this cost
will appear as a public debt. Part of this war debt
is funded already, part not yet funded. When the
outstanding demands are all settled, and the treas
ury notes redeemed, there will probably be a war
debt of not less than $125,000,000. But, not to exag
gerate, let us call it only $100,000,000.
It will, perhaps, be said, Part of this money, all
that is paid in pensions, is a charity, and therefore
no loss. But it is a charity paid to men who, except
for the war, would have needed no such aid; and,
therefore, a waste. Of the actual cost of the war,
some three or four millions have been spent in extrav
agant prices for hiring or purchasing ships, in buying
provisions and various things needed by the army,
and supplied by political favorites at exorbitant rates.
This is the only portion of the cost which is not a
sheer waste ; here the money has only changed hands ;
nothing has been destroyed, except the honesty of
the parties concerned in such transactions. If a
farmer hires men to help him till the soil, the men
earn their subsistence and their wages, and leave, be-

8 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
sides, a profit to their employer; when the season is
over, he has his crops and his improvements as the
return for their pay and subsistence. But for all
that the soldier has consumed, for his wages, his
clothes, his food and drink, the fighting tools he has
worn out, and the ammunition he has expended, there
is no available return to show; all that is a cleai1
waste. The beef is eaten up, the cloth worn away,
the powder is burnt, and what is there to show for it
all? Nothing but the " glory." You sent out sound
men, and they come back, many of them, sick and
maimed; some of them are slain.
The indirect pecuniary cost of the war is caused,
first, by diverting some 150,000 men, engaged in the
war directly or remotely, from the works of productive
industry, to the labors of war, which produce noth
ing ; and, secondly, by disturbing the regular business
of the country, first, by the withdrawal of men from
their natural work; then, by withdrawing large quan
tities of money from the active capital of the nation;
and, finally, by the general uncertainty which it causes
all over the land, thus hindering men from undertaking
or prosecuting successfully their various productive
enterprises. If 150,000 men earn on the average but
$200 apiece, that alone amounts to $30,000,000. The
withdrawal of such an amount of labor from the com
mon industry of the country must be seriously felt.
At any rate, the nation has earned $30,000,000 less
than it would have done if these men had kept about
their common work.
But the diversion of capital from its natural and
pacific direction is a greater evil in this case. America
is rich, but her wealth consists mainly in land, in
houses, cattle, ships, and various things needed for

THE MEXICAN WAR 9
human comfort and industry. In money, we are poor.
The amount of money is small in proportion to the
actual wealth of the nation, and also in proportion
to its activity, which is indicated by the business of
the nation. In actual wealth, the free States of Amer
ica are probably the richest people in the world; but
in money we are poorer than many other nations.
This is plain enough, though, perhaps not very well
known, and is shown by the fact that interest, in
European States, is from two to four per cent, a
year, and in America from six to nine. The ac
tive capital of America is small. Now in this
war a national debt has accumulated, which probably
is or will soon be $100,000,000 or $125,000,000. All
this great sum of money has, of course, been taken
from the active capital of the country, and there has
been so much less for the use of the farmer, the man
ufacturer, and the merchant. But for this war, these
150,000 men and these $100,000,000 would have been
devoted to productive industry; and the result would
have been shown by the increase of our annual earn
ings, in increased wealth and comfort.
Then war produced uncertainty, and that distrust
amongst men. Therefore many were hindered from
undertaking new works, and others found their old
enterprises ruined at once. In this way there has been
a great loss, which cannot be accurately estimated.
I think no man, familiar with American industry,
would rate this indirect loss lower than $100,000,000 ;
some, perhaps, at twice as much ; but to avoid all pos
sibility of exaggeration, let us call it half the small
est of these sums, or $50,000,000, as the complete
pecuniary cost of the Mexican War, direct and in
direct.

10 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
What have we got to show for all this money ? We
have a large tract of territory, containing, in all,
both east and west of the Rio Grande, I am told.
between 700,000 and 800,000 square miles. Accounts
differ as to its value. But it appears, from the recent
correspondence of Mr. Slidell, that in 1845 the Pres
ident offered Mexico, in money, $25,000,000 for that
territory, which we now acquire under this new treaty.
Suppose it is worth more, suppose it is worth twice
as much, or all the indirect cost of the war ($50,000,-
000), then the $200,000,000 are thrown away.
Now, for this last sum, we could have built a suffi
cient railroad across the Isthmus of Panama, and an
other across the continent, from the Mississippi to
the Pacific. If such a road with its suitable equip
ment cost $100,000 a mile, and the distance should
amount to 2,000 miles, then the $200,000,000 would
just pay the bills. That would have been the great
est national work of productive industry in the world.
In comparison with it, the Lake Moeris and the Pyra
mids of Egypt, and the Wall of China, seem but the
works of a child. It might be a work to be proud
of till the world ends; one, too, which would advance
the industry, the welfare, and general civilization of
mankind to a great degree, diminishing the distance
round the globe; saving millions of property and
many lives each year ; besides furnishing, it is thought,
a handsome income from the original outlay. But,
perhaps, that would not be the best use which might
be made of the money; perhaps it would not have
been wise to undertake that work. At any rate, two
Pacific railroads would be better than one Mexican
War. We are seldom aware of the cost of war. If
a single regiment of dragoons cost only $700,000 a

THE MEXICAN WAR 11
year, which is a good deal less than the actual cost,
that is considerably more than the cost of twelve
colleges like Harvard University, with its schools for
theology, law, and medicine; its scientific school, ob
servatory, and all. We are, taken as a whole, a very
ignorant people ; and while we waste our school-money
and school-time, must continue so.
A great man, who towers far above the common
heads, full of creative thought, of the ideas which
move the world, able to organize that thought into
institutions, laws, practical works ; a man of a million,
a million-minded man, at the head of a nation, putting
his thought into them; ruling not barely by virtue
of his position, but by the intellectual and moral
power to fill it; ruling not over men's heads, but in
their minds and hearts, and leading them to new fields
of toil, increasing their numbers, wealth, intelligence,
comfort, morals, piety — such a man is a noble sight ;
a Charlemagne, or a Genghis Khan, a Moses leading
his nation up from Egyptian bondage to freedom and
the promised land. How have the eyes of the world
been fixed on Washington ! In darker days than ours,
when all was violence, it is easy to excuse such men
if they were warriors also, and made, for the time,
their nation but a camp. There have been ages when
the most lasting ink was human blood. In our day,
when war is the exception, and that commonly need
less, such a man, so getting the start of the majestic
world, were a far grander sight. And with such a
man at the head of this nation, a great man at the
head of a free nation, able and energetic, and en
terprising as we are, what were too much to hope? As
it is, we have wasted our money, and got the honor of
fighting such a war.

12 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Let me next speak of the direct cost of the war in
men. In April, 1846, the entire army of the United
States consisted of 7,244 men; the naval force of
about 7,500. We presented the gratifying spectacle
of a nation of 20,000,000 strong, with a sea-coast of
3,000 or 4,000 miles, and only 7,000 or 8,000 soldiers,
and as many armed men on the sea, or less than 15,-
000 in all! Few things were more grateful to an
American than this thought, that his country was so
nearly free from the terrible curse of a standing army.
At that time the standing army of France was about
480,000 men ; that of Russia nearly 800,000. Most
of the officers in the American army and navy, and
most of the rank and file, had probably entered the
service with no expectation of ever shedding the blood
of men. The navy and army were looked on as in
struments of peace; as much so as the police of a
city. The first of last January there was, in Mexico, an
American army of 23,695 regular soldiers, and a
little more than 50,000 volunteers, the number can
not now be exactly determined, making an army of
invasion of about 75,000 men. The naval forces, also,
had been increased to 10,000. Estimating all the
men engaged in the service of the army and navy;
in making weapons of war and ammunition; in pre
paring food and clothing ; in transporting those things
and the soldiers from place to place, by land or sea,
and in performing the various other works incident
to military operations, it is within bounds to say that
there were 80,000 or 90,000 men engaged indirectly
in the works of war. But not to exaggerate, it is
safe to say that 150,000 men were directly or indi
rectly engaged in the Mexican War. This estimate

THE MEXICAN WAR 13
will seem moderate, when you remember that there
were about 5,000 teamsters connected with the army
in Mexico.
Here, then, were 150,000 men whose attention and
toil were diverted from the great business of productive
industry to merely military operations, or prepara
tions for them. Of course, all the labor of these men
was of no direct value to the human race. The food
and clothing and labor of a man who earns nothing
by productive work of hand or head, is food, cloth
ing, and labor thrown away — labor in vain. There
is nothing to show for the things he has consumed.
So all the work spent in preparing ammunition and
weapons of war is labor thrown away, an absolute
loss, as much as if it had been spent in making
earthen pitchers and then in dashing them to pieces.
A country is the richer for every serviceable plough
and spade made in it, and the world the richer; they
are to be used in productive work, and when worn
out, there is the improved soil and the crops that
have been gathered, to show for the wear and tear of
the tools. So a country is the richer for every in
dustrious shoemaker and blacksmith it contains ; for
his time and toil go to increase the sum of human
comfort, creating actual wealth. The world also is
better off, and becomes better through their influence.
But a country is the poorer for every soldier it main
tains, and the world poorer, as he adds nothing to
the actual wealth of mankind; so is it the poorer for
each sword and cannon made within its borders, and
the world poorer, for these instruments cannot be
used in any productive work, only for works of de
struction. So much for the labor of these 150,000 men ; labor

14 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
wasted in vain. Let us now look at the cost of life.
It is not possible to ascertain the exact loss suffered
up to this time, in killed, deceased by ordinary dis
eases, and in wounded; for some die before they are
mustered into the service of the United States, and
parts of the army are so far distant from the seat of
government that their recent losses are still unknown.
I rely for information on the last report of the Sec
retary of War, read before the Senate, April 10,
1848, and recently printed. That gives the losses of
parts of the army up to December last ; other accounts
are made up only till October, or till August. Re
cent losses will of course swell the amount of destruc
tion. According to that report, on the American
side there had been killed in battle, or died of wounds
received therein, 1,689 persons; there had died of
diseases and accidents, 6,173 ; 3,743 have been wounded
in battle, who were not known to be dead at the date
of the report.
This does not include the deaths in the navy, nor
the destruction of men connected with the army in
various ways, as furnishing supplies and the like. Con
sidering the sickness and accidents that have hap
pened in the present year, and others which may
be expected before the troops reach home, I may
set down the total number of deaths on the American
side, caused by the war, at 15,000, and the number
of wounded men at 4,000. Suppose the army on the
average to have consisted of 50,000 men for two
years, this gives a mortality of fifteen per cent, each
year, which is an enormous loss even for times of war,
and one seldom equaled in modern warfare.
Now, most of the men who have thus died or been
maimed were in the prime of life, able-bodied and

THE MEXICAN WAR 15
hearty men. Had they remained at home in the works
of peace, it is not likely that more than 500 of the
number would have died. So then 14,500 lives may
be set down at once to the account of the war. The
wounded men are of course to thank the war, and
that alone, for their smart, and the lifelong agony
which they are called on to endure.
Such is the American loss. The loss of the Mex
icans we cannot now determine. But they have been
many times more numerous than the Americans ; have
been badly armed, badly commanded, badly trained,
and besides, have been beaten in every battle; their
number seemed often the cause of their ruin, making
them confident before battle, and hindering their re
treat after they were beaten. Still more, they have
been ill provided with surgeons and nurses to care for
the wounded, and were destitute of medicines. They
must have lost in battle five or six times more than
we have done, and have had a proportionate number
of wounded. To " lie like a military bulletin " is a
European proverb; and it is not necessary to trust
reports which tell of 600 or 900 Mexicans left dead
on the ground, while the Americans lost but five or six.
But when we remember that only twelve Americans
were killed during the bombardment of Vera Cruz,
which lasted five days ; that the citadel contained more
than 5,000 soldiers and over 400 pieces of cannon,
we may easily believe the Mexican losses, on the whole,
have been 10,000 men killed and perished of their
wounds. Their loss by sickness would probably be
smaller than our own, for the Mexicans were in their
native climate, though often ill-furnished with clothes,
with shelter, and provisions ; so I will put down their
loss by ordinary diseases at only 5,000, making a

16 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
total of 15,000 deaths. Suppose their number of
wounded was four times as great as our own, or 20,-
000 ; I should not be surprised if this were only half
the number.
Put all together, and we have in total Americans
and Mexicans, 24,000 men wounded, more or less, and
the greater part maimed for life; and we have 30,-
000 men killed on the field of battle, or perished by
the slow torture of their wounds, or deceased of dis
eases caused by extraordinary exposure; 24,000 men
maimed; 30,000 dead!
You all remember the bill which so hastily passed
Congress in May, 1846, and authorized the war pre
viously begun. You perhaps have not forgot the pre
amble, " Whereas war exists by the act of Mexico."
Well, that bill authorized the waste of $200,000,000 of
American treasure, money enough to have built a rail
road across the Isthmus of Panama, and another to
connect the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean; it de
manded the disturbance of industry and commerce all
over the land, caused by withdrawing $100,000,000
from peaceful investments, and diverting 150,000
Americans from their productive and peaceful works ;
it demanded a loss yet greater of the treasure of Mex
icans ; it commanded the maiming of 24,000 men for
life, and the death of 30,000 men in the prime and
vigor of manhood. Yet such was the state of feel
ing, I will not say of thought, in the Congress, that out
of both houses only sixteen men voted against it. If
a prophet had stood there he might have said to the
representative of Boston, " You have just voted for
the wasting of 200,000,000 of the very dollars you
were sent there to represent; for the maiming of
24,000 men and the killing of 30,000 more — part by

THE MEXICAN WAR 17
disease, part by the sword, part by the slow and
awful lingerings of a wounded frame ! Sir, that is
the English of your vote." Suppose the prophet, be
fore the votes were taken, could have gone round and
told each member of Congress, " If there comes a war,
you will perish in it ; " perhaps the vote would have
been a little different. It is easy to vote away blood,
if it is not your own !
Such is the cost of the war in money and in men. Yet
it has not been a very cruel war. It has been con
ducted with as much gentleness as a war of invasion
can be. There is no agreeable way of butchering
men. You cannot make it a pastime. The Ameri
cans have always been a brave people ; they were never
cruel. They always treated their prisoners kindly —
in the Revolutionary War, in the late war with Eng
land. True, they have seized the Mexican ports, taken
military possession of the custom-houses, and collected
such duties as they saw fit ; true, they sometimes made
the army of invasion self -subsisting, and to that end
have levied contributions on the towns they have taken ;
true, they have seized provisions which were private
property, snatching them out of the hands of men
who needed them ; true, they have robbed the rich and
the poor ; true, they have burned and bombarded towns,
have murdered men and violated women. All this must
of course take place in any war. There will be the
general murder and robbery committed on account of
the nation, and the particular murder and robbery
on account of the special individual. This also is
to be expected. You cannot set a town on fire
and' burn down just half of it, making the
flames stop exactly where you will. You cannot take
the most idle, ignorant, drunkenj and vicious men out
XIII— 2

18 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
of the low population in our cities and large towns,
get them drunk enough or foolish enough to enlist,
train them to violence, theft, robbery, murder, and
then stop the man from exercising his rage or lust
on his own private account. If it is hard to make a
dog understand that he must kill a hare for his master,
but never for himself, it is not much easier to teach a
volunteer that it is a duty, a distinction, and a glory
to rob and murder the Mexican people for the nation's
sake, but a wrong, a shame, and a crime to rob or
murder a single Mexican for his own sake. There
have been instances of wanton cruelty, occasioned by
private licentiousness and individual barbarity. Of
these I shall take no further notice, but come to such
as have been commanded by the American authorities,
and which were the official acts of the nation.
One was the capture of Tabasco. Tabasco is a
small town several hundred miles from the theater of
war, situated on a river about eighty miles from the
sea, in the midst of a fertile province. The army did
not need it, nor the navy. It did not lie in the way
of the American operations ; its possession would be
wholly useless. But one Sunday afternoon, while the
streets were full of men, women, and children, en
gaged in their Sunday business, a part of the naval
force of America swept by; the streets running at
right angles with the river were enfiladed by the hos
tile cannon, and men, women, and children, unarmed
and unresisting, were mowed down by the merciless
shot. The city was taken, but soon abandoned, for
its possession was of no use. The killing of those
men, women, and children was as much a piece of
murder as it would be to come and shoot us to-day,
and in this house. No valid excuse has been given

THE MEXICAN WAR 19
for this cold-blooded massacre; none can be given.
It was not battle, but wanton butchery. None but
a Pequod Indian could excuse it. The theological
newspapers in New England thought it a wicked thing
in Dr. Palfrey to write a letter on Sunday, though he
hoped thereby to help end the war. How many of
them had any fault to find with this national butchery
on the Lord's day ? Fighting is bad enough any day ;
fighting for mere pay, or glory, or the love of fight
ing, is a wicked thing; but to fight on that day when
the whole Christian world kneels to pray in the name
of the Peacemaker; to butcher men and women and
children, when they are coming home from church,
with prayer-books in their hands, seems an aggravation
even of murder; a cowardly murder, which a Hessian
would have been ashamed of. " But, 'twas a famous
victory." One other instance, of at least apparent wanton
ness, took place at the bombardment of Vera Cruz.
After the siege had gone on for awhile, the foreign
consuls in the town, " moved," as they say, " by the
feeling of humanity excited in their hearts by the
frightful results of the bombardment of the city," re
quested that the women and children might be allowed
to leave the city, and not stay to be shot. The Amer
ican general refused ; they must stay and be shot.
Perhaps you have not an adequate conception of
the effect produced by bombarding a town. Let me
interest you a little in the details thereof. Vera Cruz
is about as large as Boston was in 1810; it contains
about 30,000 inhabitants. In addition, it is protected
by a castle, the celebrated fortress of St. Juan d'Ulloa,
furnished with more than 5,000 soldiers and over 400
cannons. Imagine to yourself Boston as it was forty

20 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
years ago, invested with a fleet on one side and an
army of 15,000 men on the land, both raining cannon-
balls and bomb-shells upon your houses; shattering
them to fragments, exploding in your streets, churches,
houses, cellars, mingling men, women, and children in
one promiscuous murder. Suppose this to continue
five days and nights ; imagine the condition of the city ;
the ruins, the flames; the dead, the wounded, the wid
ows, the orphans ; think of the fears of the men antici
pating the city would be sacked by a merciless soldiery ;
think of the women ! Thus you will have a faint no
tion of the picture of Vera Cruz at the end of March,
1847. Do you know the meaning of the name of
the city? Vera Cruz is the True Cross. " See how
these Christians love one another." The Americans
are followers of the Prince of Peace; they have more
missionaries amongst the " heathen " than any other
nation, and the President, in his last message, says,
" No country has been so much favored, or should
acknowledge with deeper reverence the manifestations
of the Divine protection." The Americans were fight
ing Mexico to dismember her territory, to plunder her
soil, and plant thereon the institution of slavery, " the
necessary background of freedom."
Few of us have ever seen a battle, and without that
none can have a complete notion of the ferocious pas
sions which it excites. Let me help your fancy a little
by relating an anecdote which seems to be very well au
thenticated, and requires but little external testimony
to render it credible. At any rate, it was abundantly
believed a year ago ; but times change, and what was
then believed all round may now be " the most im
probable thing in the world." At the battle of Buena
Vista, a Kentucky regiment began to stagger under

THE MEXICAN WAR 21
the heavy charge of the Mexicans. The American
commander-in-chief turned to one who stood near him,
and exclaimed, " By God, this will not do. This is
not the way for Kentuckians to behave when called
on to make good a battle. It will not answer, sir."
So the general clenched his fist, knit his brows, and
set his teeth hard together. However, the Kentuckians
presently formed in good order and gave a deadly fire,
which altered the battle. Then the old general broke
out with a loud hurrah. " Hurrah for old Kentuck,"
he exclaimed, rising in his stirrups ; " that's the way
to do it. Give 'em hell, damn 'em," and tears of ex
ultation rolled down his cheeks as he said it. You find
the name of this general at the head of most of the
Whig newspapers in the United States. He is one of
the most popular candidates for the Presidency. Can
nons were fired for him, a hundred guns, on Boston
Common, not long ago, in honor of his nomination
for the highest office in the gift of a free and Christian
people. Soon we shall probably have clerical certifi
cates, setting forth, to the people of the North, that
he is an exemplary Christian. You know how Faneuil
Hall, the old " Cradle of Liberty," rang with " Hurrah
for Taylor," but a few days ago. The seven wise men
of Greece were famous in their day ; but now nothing
is known of them except a single pungent aphorism
from each, " Know thyself," and the like. The time
may come when our great men shall have suffered
this same reduction, descending, all their robes of glory
having vanished save a single thread. Then shall
Franklin be known only as having said, " Don't give
too much for the whistle ; " Patrick Henry for his
" Give me liberty or give me death ; " Washington for
his " In peace prepare for war ; " Jefferson for his

22 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
" All men are created equal ; " and General Taylor
shall be known only by his attributes " rough and
ready," and for his aphorism, " Give 'em hell, damn
'em." Yet he does not seem to be a ferocious man,
but generous and kindly, it is said, and strongly op
posed to this particular war, whose " natural justice "
it seems he looked at, and which he thought was wicked
at the beginning, though, on that account, he was none
the less ready to fight it.
One thing more I must mention in speaking of the
cost of men. According to the report quoted just
now, 4,966 American soldiers had deserted in Mexico.
Some of them had joined the Mexican army. When
the American commissioners, who were sent to secure
the ratification of the treaty, went to Queretaro, they
found there a body of 200 American soldiers, and
800 more were at no great distance, mustered into
the Mexican service. These men, it seems, had served
out their time in the American camp, and notwith
standing they had, as the President says in his mes
sage, " covered themselves with imperishable honors,"
by fighting men who never injured them, they were
willing to go and seek a yet thicker mantle of this im
perishable honor, by fighting against their own coun
try ! Why should they not? If it were right to kill
Mexicans for a few dollars a month, why was it not
also right to kill Americans, especially when it pays
the most? Perhaps it is not an American habit to in
quire into the justice of a war, only into the profit
which it may bring. If the Mexicans pay best, in
money, these 1,000 soldiers made a good speculation.
No doubt in Mexico military glory is at a premium,
though it could hardly command a greater price just
now than in America, where, however, the supply
seems equal to the demand.

THE MEXICAN WAR 23
The numerous desertions and the readiness with
which the soldiers joined the " foe," show plainly the
moral character of the men, and the degree of " patri
otism " and " humanity " which animated them in go
ing to war. You know the severity of military dis
cipline; the terrible beatings men are subjected to
before they can become perfect in the soldier's art;
the horrible and revolting punishments imposed on
them for drunkenness, though little pains were taken
to keep the temptation from their eyes, and for dis
obedience of general orders. You have read enough
of this in the newspapers. The officers of the volun
teers, I am told, have generally been men of little edu
cation, men of strong passions and bad habits ; many
of them abandoned men, who belonged to the refuse of
society. Such men run into an army as the wash of
the street runs into the sewers. When such a man
gets clothed with a little authority, in time of peace,
you know what use he makes of it ; but when he covers
himself with the " imperishable honors " of his official
coat, gets an epaulet on his shoulder, a sword by his
side, a commission in his pocket, and visions of
" glory " in his head, you may easily judge how he
will use his authority, or may read in the newspapers
how he has used it. When there are brutal soldiers,
commanded by brutal captains, it is to be supposed
that much brutality is to be suffered.
Now, desertion is a great offense in a soldier; in
this army it is one of the most common; for nearly
ten per cent, of the American army has deserted in
Mexico, not to mention the desertions before the army
reached that country. It is related that forty-eight
men were hanged at once for desertion; not hanged
as you judicially murder men in time of peace, pri-

24 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
vately, as if ashamed of the deed, in the corner of a
jail, and by a contrivance which shortens the agony,
and makes death humane as possible. These forty-
eight men were hanged slowly ; put to death with pain
ful procrastinations, their agony wilfully prolonged,
and death embittered by needless ferocity. But that
is not all: it is related, that these men were doomed
to be thus murdered on the day when the battle of
Churubusco took place. These men, awaiting their
death, were told they should not suffer till the Amer
ican flag should wave its stripes over the hostile walls.
So they were kept in suspense an hour, and then slowly
hanged one by one. You know the name of the officer
on whom this barbarity rests : it was Colonel Harney, a
man whose reputation was black enough and base
enough before. His previous deeds, however, require
no mention here. But this man is now a general, and
so on the high road to the Presidency, whenever it
shall please our Southern masters to say the word.
Some accounts say there were more than forty-eight
who thus were hanged. I only give the number of
those whose names lie printed before me as I write.
Perhaps the number was less ; it is impossible to obtain
exact information in respect to the matter, for the
government has not yet published an account of the
punishments inflicted in this war. The information
can only be obtained by a " resolution " of either house
of Congress, and so is not likely to be had before the
election. But at the same time with the execution,
other deserters were scourged with fifty lashes each,
branded with a letter D, a perpetual mark of infamy
on their cheek, compelled to wear an iron yoke,
weighing eight pounds, about their neck. Six men
were made to dig the grave of their companions,

THE MEXICAN WAR 25
and were then flogged with two hundred lashes
each. I wish this hanging of forty-eight men could have
taken place in State Street, and the respectable citi
zens of Boston, who like this war, had been made to
look on and see it all; that they had seen those poor
culprits bid farewell to father, mother, wife, or child,
looking wistfully for the hour which was to end their
torment, and then, one by one, have seen them slowly
hanged to death; that your representative, ye men of
Boston, had put on all the halters ! He did help put
them on ; that infamous vote — I speak not of the
motive, it may have been as honorable as the vote
itself was infamous — doomed these eight and forty
men to be thus murdered.
Yes, I wish all this killing of the 2,000 Americans
on the field of battle, and the 10,000 Mexicans; all
this slashing of the bodies of 24,000 wounded men ;
all the agony of the other 18,000, that have died of
disease, could have taken place in some spot where the
President of the United States and his Cabinet, where
all the Congress who voted for the war, with the Bal
timore conventions of '44 and '48, and the Whig con
vention of Philadelphia, and the controlling men of
both political parties, who care nothing for this blood
shed and misery they have idly caused, could have
stood and seen it all; and then that the voice of the
whole nation had come up to them and said, " This is
your work, not ours. Certainly we will not shed our
blood, nor our brothers' blood, to get never so much
slave territory. It was bad enough to fight in the
cause of freedom. In the cause of slavery — God
forgive us for that ! We have trusted you thus far,
but please God we never will trust you again."

26 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Let us now look at the effect of this war on the
morals of the nation. The Revolutionary War was
the contest for a great idea. If there were ever a
just war it was that — a contest for national exist
ence. Yet it brought out many of the worst qualities
of human nature on both sides, as well as some of
the best. It helped make a Washington, it is true,
but a Benedict Arnold likewise. A war with a pow
erful nation, terrible as it must be, yet develops the
energy of the people, promotes self-denial, and helps
the growth of some qualities of a high order. It had
this effect in England from 1798 to 1815. True,
England for that time became a despotism, but the
self-consciousness of the nation, its self-denial and
energy, were amazingly stimulated; the moral effect
of that series of wars was doubtless far better than
of the infamous contest which she has kept up against
Ireland for many years. Let us give even war its
due: when a great boy fights with an equal, it may
develop his animal courage and strength — for he
gets as bad as he gives ; but when he only beats a
little boy that cannot pay back his blows, it is cow
ardly as well as cruel, and doubly debasing to the
conqueror. Mexico was no match for America. We
all knew that very well before the war began. When
a nation numbering 8,000,000 or 9,000,000 of people
can be successfully invaded by an army of 75,000 men,
two-thirds of them volunteers, raw and undisciplined;
when the invaders with less than 15,000 can march
two hundred miles into the very heart of the hostile
country, and with less than 6,000 can take and hold
the capital of the nation, a city of 100,000 or 200,000
inhabitants, and dictate a peace, taking as much ter
ritory as they will — it is hardly fair to dignify such

THE MEXICAN WAR 27
operations with the name of war. The little good
which a long contest with an equal might produce in
the conqueror, is wholly lost. Had Mexico been a
strong nation, we should never have had this con
flict. A few years ago, when General Cass wanted a
war with England, " an old-fashioned war," and de
clared it " unavoidable," all the men of property trem
bled. The Northern men thought of their mills and
their ships ; they thought how Boston and New York
would look after a war with our sturdy old father over
the sea ; they thought we should lose many millions of
dollars and gain nothing. The men of the South, who
have no mills and no ships, and no large cities to be
destroyed, thought of their " peculiar institutions ; "
they thought of a servile war; they thought what
might become of their slaves if a nation which gave
$100,000,000 to emancipate her bondmen should send a
large army with a few black soldiers from Jamaica;
should offer money, arms, and freedom to all who
would leave their masters and claim their inalienable
rights. They knew the Southern towns would be burnt
to ashes, and the whole South from Virginia to the
Gulf, would be swept with fire ; and they said, " Don't."
The North said so, and the South ; they feared such a
war with such a foe. Everybody knows the effect
which this fear had on Southern politicians in the be
ginning of this century, and how gladly they made
peace with England soon as she was at liberty to turn
her fleet and her army against the most vulnerable
part of the nation. I am not blind to the wickedness
of England more than ignorant of the good things she
has done and is doing; a paradise for the rich and
strong, she is still a purgatory for the wise and the
good, and the hell of the poor and the weak. I have

28 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
no fondness for war anywhere, and believe it needless
and wanton in this age of the world — surely needless
and wicked between Father England and Daughter
America; but I do solemnly believe that the moral ef
fect of such an old-fashioned war as Mr. Cass in 1845
thought unavoidable, would have been better than that
of this Mexican War. It would have ended slavery ;
ended it in blood, no doubt, the worst thing to blot out
an evil with; but ended it, and for ever. God grant
it may yet have a more peaceful termination. We
should have lost millions of property and thousands
of men, and then, when peace came, we should know
what it was worth; and as the burnt child dreads the
fire, no future President, or Congress, or convention,
or party, would talk much in favor of war for some
years to come.
The moral effect of this war is thoroughly bad. It
was unjust in the beginning. Mexico did not pay her
debts ; but though the United States, in 1783, acknowl
edged the British claims against ourselves, they were
not paid till 1803 ; our claims against England, for her
depredations in 1793, were not paid till 1804; our
claims against France, for her depredations in
1806-13, were not paid us till 1834. The fact that
Mexico refused to receive the resident minister whom
the United States sent to settle the disputes, when a
commissioner was expected — this was no ground of
war. We have lately seen a British ambassador or
dered to leave Spain within eight-and-forty hours, and
yet the English Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lord Pal-
merston — no new hand at diplomacy — declares that
this does not interrupt the concord of the two nations !
We treated Mexico contemptuously before hostilities
began ; and when she sent troops into a territory which

THE MEXICAN WAR 29
she had always possessed, though Texas had claimed
it, we declared that that was an act of war, and our
selves sent an army to invade her soil, to capture her
cities, and seize her territory. It has been a war of
plunder, undertaken for the purpose of seizing Mexi
can territory, and extending over it that dismal curse
which blackens, impoverishes, and barbarizes half the
Union now, and swiftly corrupts the other half. It
was not enough to have Louisiana a slave territory;
not enough to make that institution perpetual in
Florida ; not enough to extend this blight over Texas
— we must have yet more slave soil, one day to be
carved into slave States, to bind the Southern yoke
yet more securely on the Northern neck; to corrupt
yet more the politics, literature, and morals of the
North. The war was unjust at its beginning; mean
in its motives, a war without honorable cause; a war
for plunder ; a quarrel between a great boy and a little
puny weakling who could not walk alone, and could
hardly stand. We have treated Mexico as the three
Northern powers treated Poland in the last century —
stooped to conquer. Nay, our contest has been like
the English seizure of Ireland. All the justice was on
one side, the force, skill, and wealth, on the other.
I know men say the war has shown us that Amer
icans could fight. Could fight? Almost every male
beast will fight, the more brutal the better. The long
war of the Revolution, when Connecticut, for seven
years, kept 5,000 men in the field, showed that Amer
icans could fight; Bunker Hill and Lexington showed
that they could fight, even without previous discipline.
If such valor be a merit, I am ready to believe that the
Americans, in a great cause like that of Mexico, to
resist wicked invasion, would fight as men never fought

30 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
before. A republic like our own, where every free
man feels an interest in the welfare of the nation, is
full of the elements that make soldiers. Is that a
praise? Most men think so, but it is the smallest
honor of a nation. Of all glories, military glory, at
its best estate, seems the poorest.
Men tell us it shows the strength of the nation, and
some writers quote the opinions of European kings
who, when hearing of the battles of Monterey, Buena
Vista, and Vera Cruz, became convinced that we were
a " great people." Remembering the character of
these kings, one can easily believe that such was their
judgment, and will not sigh many times at their fate,
but will hope to see the day when the last king, who
can estimate a nation's strength only by its battles, has
passed on to: impotence and oblivion. The power of
America — do we need proof of that? I see it in the
streets of Boston and New York ; in Lowell and in
Lawrence ; I see it in our mills and our ships ; I read it
in those letters of iron written all over the North, where
he may read that runs ; I see it in the unconquered en
ergy which tames the forest, the rivers, and the ocean ;
in the school-houses which lift their modest roof in
every village of the North; in the churches that rise
all over the freeman's land: would God that they rose
higher, pointing down to man and to human duties,
and up to God and immortal life ! I see the strength
of America in that tide of population which spreads
over the prairies of the West, and, beating on the
Rocky Mountains, dashes its peaceful spray to the
very shores of the Pacific sea. Had we taken 150,000
men and $200,000,000, and built two railroads across
the continent, that would have been a worthy sign of
the nation's strength. Perhaps those kings could not

THE MEXICAN WAR 31
see it ; but sensible men could see it and be glad. This
waste of treasure and this waste of blood is only a
proof of weakness. War is a transient weakness of
the nation, but slavery a permanent imbecility.
What falsehood has this war produced in the execu
tive and legislative power; in both parties, Whigs and
Democrats! I always thought that here in Massa
chusetts the Whigs were the most to blame ; they tried
to put the disgrace of the war on the others, while the
Democratic party coolly faced the wickedness. Did
far-sighted men know that there would be a war on
Mexico, or else on the tariff, or the currency, and pre
fer the first as the least evil?
See to what the war has driven two of the most fa
mous men of the nation : one wished to " capture or
slay a Mexican ; " the other could encourage the vol
unteers to fight a war which he had denounced as need
less, " a war of pretexts," and place the men of
Monterey before the men of Bunker Hill; each could
invest a son in that unholy cause. You know the rest :
the fathers ate sour grapes, and the children's teeth
were set on edge. When a man goes on board an emi
grant ship, reeking with filth and fever, not for gain,
not for " glory," but in brotherly love, catches the
contagion, and dies a martyr to his heroic benevolence,
men speak of it in corners, and it is soon forgot ; there
is no parade in the streets ; society takes little pains to
do honor to the man. How rarely is a pension given
to his widow or his child ; only once in the whole land,
and then but a small sum. But when a volunteer offi
cer — for of the humbler and more excusable men that
fall we take no' heed, war may mow that crop of " vul
gar deaths " with what scythe he will — falls or dies
in the quarrel which he had no concern in, falls in a

32 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
broil between the two nations, your newspapers extol
the man, and with martial pomp, " sonorous metal
blowing martial sounds," with all the honors of the
most honored dead, you lay away his body in the
tomb. Thus is it that the nation teaches these little
ones that it is better to kill than to make alive.
I know there are men in the army, honorable and
high-minded men, Christian men, who dislike war in
general, and this war in special ; but such is their view
of official duty, that they obeyed the summons of bat
tle, though with pain and reluctance. They knew not
how to avoid obedience. I am willing to believe there
are many such. But with volunteers, who, of their
own accord, came forth to enlist, men not blinded by
ignorance, not driven by poverty to the field, but only
by hope of reward — what shall be said of them?
Much may be said to excuse the rank and file, ignorant
men, many of them in want — but for the leaders,
what can be said? Had I a brother who, in the day
of the nation's extremity, came forward with a good
conscience, and periled his life on the battle-field, and
lost it " in the sacred cause of God and his country,"
I would honor the man, and when his dust came home,
I would lay it away with his fathers' ; with sorrow in
deed, but with thankfulness of heart that, for con
science' sake, he was ready even to die. But had I
a brother who, merely for his pay, or hope of fame,
had voluntarily gone down to fight innocent men, to
plunder their territory, and lost his life in that feloni
ous essay — in sorrow and in silence, and in secrecy,
would I lay down his body in the grave; I would not
court display, nor mark it with a single stone.
See how this war has affected public opinion. How
many of your newspapers have shown its true atrocity ?

THE MEXICAN WAR 33
how many of the pulpits? Yet, if any one is ap
pointed to tell of public wrongs, it is the minister of
religion. The governor of Massachusetts is an offi
cer of a Christian church; a man distinguished for
many excellencies, some of them by no means com
mon : it is said he is opposed to the war in private, and
thinks it wicked; but no man has lent himself as a
readier tool to promote it. The Christian and the
man seem lost in the office, in the governor ! What a
lesson of falseness does all this teach to that large class
of persons who look no higher than the example of
eminent men for their instruction. You know what
complaints have been made by the highest authority in
the nation, because a few men dared to speak against
the war. It was " affording aid and comfort to the
enemy." If the war party had been stronger, and
feared no public opinion, we should have had men
hanged for treason, because they spoke of this national
iniquity ! Nothing would have been easier. A " gag
law " is not wholly unknown in America.
If you will take all the theft, all the assaults, all the
cases of arson, ever committed in time of peace in the
United States, since the settlement of Jamestown in
1608, and add to them all the cases of violence offered
to woman, with all the murders, they will not amount
to half the wrongs committed in this war for the plun
der of Mexico. Yet the cry has been, and still is,
" You must not say a word against it ; if you do, you
' afford aid and comfort to the enemy.' " Not tell
the nation that she is doing wrong? What a miser
able saying is that ; let it come from what high author
ity it may, it is a miserable saying. Make the case
your own. Suppose the United States were invaded
by a nation ten times abler for war than we are, with a
XIII— 3

34 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
cause no more just, intentions equally bad ; invaded for
the purpose of dismembering our territory and mak
ing our own New England the soil of slaves; would
you be still ? would you stand and look on tamely while
the hostile hosts, strangers in language, manners, and
religion, crossed your rivers, seized your ports, burnt
your towns? No, surely not. Though the men of
New England would not be able to resist with most
celestial love, they would contend with most manly
vigor; and I should rather see every house swept clean
off the land, and the ground sheeted with our own
dead; rather see every man, woman, and child in the
land slain, than see them tamely submit to such a
wrong. And so would you. No ; sacred as life is,
and dear as it is, better let it be trodden out by the
hoof of war, rather than yield tamely to a wrong.
But while you were doing your utmost to repel such
formidable injustice, if in the midst of your invaders,
men rose up and said, " America is in the right, and,
brothers, you are wrong ; you should not thus kill men
to steal their land: shame on you!" how should you
feel towards such? Nay, in the struggle with Eng
land, when our fathers periled everything but honor,
and fought for the inalienable rights of man, you all
remember, how in England herself there stood up noble
men, and with a voice that was heard above the roar
of the populace, and an authority higher than the
majesty of the throne, they said, " You do a wrong;
you may ravage, but you cannot conquer. If I were
an American, while a foreign troop remained in my
land, I would never lay down my arms; no, never,
never, never! "
But I wander a little from my theme, the effect of
the war on the morals of the nation. Here are 50,000

THE MEXICAN WAR 35
or 75,000 men trained to kill. Hereafter they will be
of little service in any good work. Many of them
were the offscouring of the people at first. Now,
these men have tasted the idleness, the intemperance,
the debauchery of a camp ; tasted of its riot, tasted of
its blood ! They will come home before long, hirelings
of murder. What will their influence be as fathers,
husbands? The nation taught them to fight and plun
der the Mexicans for the nation's sake; the governor
of Massachusetts called on them in the name of " pa
triotism " and " humanity " to enlist for that work :
but if, with no justice on our side, it is humane and
patriotic to fight and plunder the Mexicans on the
nation's account, why not for the soldier to fight and
plunder an American on his own account? Aye, why
not? — that is a distinction too nice for common
minds ; by far too nice for mine.
See the effect on the nation. We have- just plun
dered Mexico ; taken a piece of her territory larger
than the thirteen states which fought the Revolution,
a hundred times as large as Massachusetts ; we have
burnt her cities, have butchered her men, have been
victorious in every contest. The Mexicans were as un
protected women ; we, armed men. See how the lust
of conquest will increase. Soon it will be the ambi
tion of the next President to extend the " area of free
dom " a little further south ; the lust of conquest will
increase. Soon we must have Yucatan, Central Amer
ica, all of Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Hayti, Jamaica
— all the islands of the Gulf. Many men would
gladly, I doubt not, extend the " area of freedom " so
as to include the free blacks of those islands. We
have long looked with jealous eyes on West Indian
emancipation — hoping the scheme would not succeed.

36 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
How pleasant it would be to re-establish slavery in
Hayti and Jamaica, in all the islands whence the gold
of England or the ideas of France have driven it out.
If the South wants this, would the North object? The
possession of the West Indies would bring much money
to New England, and what is the value of freedom
compared to coffee and sugar and cotton?
I must say one word of the effect this war has had
on political parties. By the parties I mean the leaders
thereof, the men that control the parties. The effect
on the Democratic party, on the majority of Con
gress, on the most prominent men of the nation, has
been mentioned before. It has shut their eyes to truth
and justice; it has filled their mouths with injustice
and falsehood. It has made one man " available " for
the Presidency who was only known before as a sa
gacious general, that fought against the Indians in
Florida, and acquired a certain reputation by the use
of bloodhounds, a reputation which was rather unen
viable, even in America. The battles in northern
Mexico made him conspicuous, and now he is seized
on as an engine to thrust one corrupt party out of
power, and to lift in another party, I will not say less
corrupt, I wish I could; it were difficult to think it
more so. This latter party has been conspicuous for
its opposition to a military man as ruler of a free
people; recently it has been smitten with sudden ad
miration for military men, and military success, and
tells the people, without a blush, that a military man
fresh from a fight which he disapproved of, is most
likely to restore peace, "because most familiar with
the evils of war!" In Massachusetts the prevalent
political party, as such, for some years, seems to have
had no moral principle; however, it had a prejudice

THE MEXICAN WAR 37
in favor of decency : now it has thrown that overboard,
and has not even its respectability left. What are its
" resolutions? " Some men knew what they were
worth long ago ; now all men can see what they are
worth. The cost of the war in money and men I have tried
to calculate, but the effect on the morals of the people,
on the press, the pulpit, and the parties, and through
them on the rising generation, it is impossible to tell.
I have only faintly sketched the outline of that. The
effect of the war on Mexico herself, we can dimly see
in the distance. The Government of the United States
has wilfully, wantonly broken the peace of the conti
nent. The Revolutionary War was unavoidable; but
for this invasion there is no excuse. That God, whose
providence watches over the falling nation as the fall
ing sparrow, and whose comprehensive plans are now
advanced by the righteousness and now by the wrath
of man ; He who stilleth the waves of the sea and the
tumult of the people, will turn all this wickedness to
account in the history of man — of that I have no
doubt. But that is no excuse for American crime. A
greater good lay within our grasp, and we spurned it
away. Well, before long the soldiers will come back, such
as shall ever come — the regulars and volunteers, the
husbands of the women whom your charity fed last
winter, housed and clad and warmed. They will come
back. Come, New England, with your posterity of
States, go forth to meet your sons returning all " cov
ered with imperishable honors." Come, men, to meet
your fathers, brothers. Come, women, to your hus
bands and your lovers; come. But what! is that the
body of men who a year or two ago went forth so full

38 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
of valor and of rum? Are these rags the imperish
able honors that cover them? Here is not half the
whole. Where is the wealth they hoped from the spoil
of churches? But the men — "Where is my hus
band?" says one; "And my son?" says another.
" They fell at Jalapa, one, and one at Cerro Gordo ;
but they fell covered with imperishable honor, for
'twas a famous victory." " Where is my lover? "
screams a woman whom anguish makes respectable,
spite of her filth and ignorance ; — " And our father,
where is he? " scream a troop of half -starved children,
staring through their dirt and rags. " One died of
the vomit at Vera Cruz. Your father, little ones, we
scourged the naked man to death at Mixcoac."
But that troop which is left, who are in the arms of
wife and child, they are the best sermon against war;
this has lost an arm and that a leg; half are maimed
in battle or sickened with the fever; all polluted with
the drunkenness, idleness, debauchery, lust, and mur
der of a camp. Strip off this man's coat, and count
the stripes welted into his flesh, stripes laid on
by demagogues that love the people — " the dear
people ! " See how affectionately the war-makers
branded the " dear soldiers " with a letter D, with a
red-hot iron, in the cheek. The flesh will quiver as
the irons burn; no matter: it is only for love of the
people that all this is done, and we are all of us cov
ered with imperishable honors ! D stands for deserter
— aye, and for demagogue — yes, and for demon too.
Many a man shall come home with but half of himself,
half his body, less than half his soul.
" Alas ! the mother that him bare,
If she could stand in presence there,
In that wan cheek and wasted air,
She would not know her child."

THE MEXICAN WAR 39
" Better," you say, " for us better, and for them
selves better by far, if they had left that remnant
of a body in the common ditch where the soldier finds
his ' bed of honor ; ' better have fed therewith the vul
tures of a foreign soil than thus come back." No ;
better come back, and live here, mutilated, scourged,
branded, a cripple, a pauper, a drunkard, and a felon ;
better darken the windows of the jail, and blot the gal
lows with unusual shame, to teach us all that such is
war, and such the results of every " famous victory,"
such the imperishable honors that it brings, and how
the war-makers love the men they rule !
O Christian America! O New England, child of
the Puritans ! Cradled in the wilderness, thy swad
dling garments stained with martyrs' blood, hearing
in thy youth the war-whoop of the savage and thy
mother's sweet and soul-composing hymn:
" Hush, my child, lie still and slumber,
Holy angels guard thy bed;
Heavenly blessings, without number,
Rest upon thine infant head."
Come, New England, take the old banners of thy
conquering host, the standards borne at Monterey,
Palo Alto, Buena Vista, Vera Cruz, the " glorious
stripes and stars " that waved over the walls of Churu-
busco, Contreras, Puebla, Mexico herself, flags black
ened with battle and stiffened with blood, pierced by
the lances and torn with the shot ; bring them into thy
churches, hang them up over altar and pulpit, and let
httle children, clad in white raiment and crowned with
flowers, come and chant their lessons for the day.
" Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.

40 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
" Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God."
Then let the priest say, " Righteousness exalteth a
nation, but sin is a reproach unto any people. Blessed
is the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to
war, and my fingers to fight. Happy is that people
that is in such a case. Yea, happy is that people
whose God is the Lord, and Jesus Christ their Sav
iour." Then let the soldiers who lost their limbs and the
women who lost their husbands and their lovers in the
strife, and the men — wiser than the children of light
— who made money out of the war : let all the people,
like people and like priest, say, " Amen."
But suppose these men were to come back to Bos
ton on a day when, in civil style, as having never
sinned yourself, and never left a man in ignorance and
want to be goaded into crime, you were about to hang
three men — one for murder, one for robbery with
the armed hand, and one for burning down a house.
Suppose, after the fashion of " the good old times,"
you were to hang those men in public, and lead them
in long procession through your streets, and while you
were welcoming these returned soldiers and taking
their officers to feast in the " Cradle of Liberty," they
should meet the sheriff's procession escorting those
culprits to the gallows. Suppose the warriors should
ask, "Why, what is that?" What would you say?
Why, this : " These men, they broke the law of God,
by violence, by fire and blood, and we shall hang them
for the public good, and especially for the example,
to teach the ignorant, the low, and the weak." Sup
pose those three felons, the halters round their neck,
should ask also, "Why, what is that?" You would

THE MEXICAN WAR 41
say, " They are the soldiers just come back from war.
For two long years they have been hard at work,
burning cities, plundering a nation, and butchering
whole armies of men. Sometimes they killed a thou
sand in a day. By their help, the nation has stolen
seven hundred thousand square miles of land ! " Sup
pose the culprits ask, " Where will you hang so
many ? " " Hang them ! " is the answer, " we shall
only hang you. It is written in our Bible that one
murder makes a villain, millions a hero. We shall
feast these men full of bread and wine ; shall take their
leader, a rough man and a ready, one who by perpetual
robbery holds a hundred slaves and more, and make
him a king over all the land. But as you only burnt,
robbed, and murdered on so small a scale, and without
the command of the President or the Congress, we
shall hang you by the neck. Our governor ordered
these men to go and burn and rob and kill; now he
orders you to be hanged, and you must not ask any
more questions, for the hour is already come."
To make the whole more perfect — suppose a na
tive of Loo-Choo, converted to Christianity by your
missionaries in his native land, had come hither to
have " the way of God " " expounded unto him more
perfectly," that he might see how these Christians love
one another. Suppose he should be witness to a scene
like this!
To men who know the facts of war, the wickedness
of this particular invasion and its wide-extending con
sequences, I fear that my words will seem poor and
cold and tame. I have purposely mastered my emo
tion, telling only my thought. I have uttered no de
nunciation against the men who caused this destruc
tion of treasure, this massacre of men, this awful

42 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
degradation of the moral sense. The respectable men
of Boston — " the men of property and standing "
all over the State, the men that commonly control the
politics of New England — tell you that they dislike
the war. But they re-elect the men who made it. Has
a single man in all New England lost his seat in any
office because he favored the war? Not a man. Have
you ever known a Northern merchant who would not
let his ship for the war, because the war was wicked
and he a Christian? Have you ever known a North
ern manufacturer who would not sell a kernel of pow
der, nor a cannon-ball, nor a coat, nor a shirt for the
war? Have you ever known a capitalist, a man who
lives by letting money, refuse to lend money for the
war because the war was wicked? Not a merchant,
not a manufacturer, not a capitalist. A little money
— it can buy up whole hosts of men. Virginia sells
her negroes ; what does New England sell? There was
once a man in Boston, a rich man too, not a very
great man, only a good one who loved his country, and
there was another poor man here, in the times that
tried men's souls ; but there was not money enough in
all England, not enough promise of honors, to make
Hancock and Adams false to their sense of right. Is
our soil degenerate, and have we lost the breed of
noble men?
No, I have not denounced the men who directly
made the war, or indirectly egged the people on. Par
don me, thou prostrate Mexico, robbed of more than
half thy soil, that America may have more slaves ; thy
cities burned, thy children slain, the streets of thy capi
tal trodden by the alien foot, but still smoking with
thy children's blood ; pardon me if I seem to have for
gotten thee ! And you, ye butchered Americans, slain

THE MEXICAN WAR 43
by the vomito, the gallows, and the sword; you, ye
maimed and mutilated men, who shall never again join
hands in prayer, never kneel to God once more upon
the limbs He made you; you, ye widows, orphans of
these butchered men, far off in that more sunny South,
here in our own fair land; pardon me that I seem to
forget your wrongs! And thou, my Country, my
own, my loved, my native land, thou child of great
ideas and mother of many a noble son, dishonored now,
thy treasure wasted, thy children killed or else made
murderers, thy peaceful glory gone, thy government
made to pimp and pander for lust of crime; forgive
me that I seem over-gentle to the men who did and do
the damning deed which wastes thy treasure, spills thy
blood, and stains thine honor's sacred fold! And you,
ye sons of men everywhere, thou child of God, man
kind, whose latest, fairest hope is planted here in this
New World, — forgive me if I seem gentle to thy ene
mies, and to forget the crime that so dishonors man,
and makes this ground a slaughter-yard of men —
slain, too, in furtherance of the basest wish!- I have
no words to tell the pity that I feel for them that did
the deed. I only say, " Father, forgive them, for they
know full well the sin they do ! "
A sectarian church could censure a general for
holding his candle in a Catholic cathedral ; it was " a
candle to the pope ; " yet never dared to blame the
war. While we loaded a ship of war with corn, and
sent off the Macedonian to Cork, freighted by private
bounty to feed the starving Irishman, the State sent
her ships to Vera Cruz, in a cause most unholy, to
bombard, to smite, and to kill. Father! forgive the
State ; forgive the Church. It was an ignorant State.
It was a silent Church — a poor, dumb dog, that dared

44 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
not bark at the wolf who prowls about the fold, but
only at the lamb.
Yet ye leaders of the land, know this, — that the
blood of thirty thousand men cries out of the ground
against you. Be it your folly or your crime, still
cries the voice, " Where is thy brother? " That thirty
thousand — in the name of humanity I ask, " Where
are they? " In the name of justice I answer, " You
slew them ! "
It was not the people who made this war. They
have often enough done a foolish thing. But it was
not they who did this wrong. It was they who led the
people; it was demagogues that did it. Whig dema
gogues and demagogues of the Democrats ; men that
flatter the ignorance, the folly, or the sin of the people,
that they might satisfy their own base purposes. In
May, 1846, if the facts of the case could have been
stated to the voters, and the question put to the whole
mass of the people, " Shall we go down and fight
Mexico, spending two hundred millions of dollars,
maiming four-and-twenty thousand men, and butcher
ing thirty thousand; shall we rob her of half her ter
ritory ? " — the lowest and most miserable part of the
nation would have said as they did say, " Yes ; " the
demagogues of the nation would have said as they did
say, "Yes;" perhaps a majority of the men of the
South would have said so, for the humanity of the na
tion lies not there ; but if it had been brought to the
great mass of the people at the North, — whose indus
try and skill so increase the national wealth, whose
intelligence and morals have given the nation its char
acter abroad, — then they, the great majority of the
land, would have said, " No. We will have no war !
If we want more land, we will buy it in the open mar-

THE MEXICAN WAR 45
ket, and pay for it honestly. But we are not thieves,
nor murderers, thank God, and will not butcher a na
tion to make a slave-field out of her soil." The people
would not have made this war.
Well, we have got a new territory, enough to make
one hundred States of the size of Massachusetts. That
is not all. We have beaten the armies of Mexico, de
stroyed the little strength she had left, the little self-
respect, else she would not so have yielded and given
up half her soil for a few miserable dollars. Soon
we shall take the rest of her possessions. How can
Mexico hold them now — weakened, humiliated, di
vided worse than ever within herself. Before many
years, all of this northern continent will doubtless be
in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon race. That of itself
is not a thing to mourn at. Could we have extended
our empire there by trade, by the Christian arts of
peace, it would be a blessing to us and to Mexico ; a
blessing to the world. But we have done it in the
worst way, by fraud and blood ; for the worst purpose,
to steal soil and convert the cities of men into the
shambles for human flesh ; have done it at the bidding
of men whose counsels long have been a scourge and
a curse — at the bidding of slaveholders. They it is
that rule the land, fill the offices, buy up the North
with the crumbs that fall from their political table,
make the laws, declare hostilities, and leave the North
to pay the bill. Shall we ever waken out of our
sleep? shall we ever remember the duties we owe to the
world and to God, who put us here on this new conti
nent? Let us not despair.
Soon we shall have all the southern part of the con
tinent, perhaps half the islands of the Gulf. One
thing remains to do — that is, with the new soil we

46 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
have taken, to extend order, peace, education, religion ;
to keep it from the blight, the crime, and the sin of
slavery. That is for the nation to do ; for the North
to do. God knows the South will never do it. Is
there manliness enough left in the North to do that?
Has the soil forgot its wonted faith, and borne a dif
ferent race of men from those who struggled eight
long years for freedom? Do Ve forget our sires, for
get our God? In the day when the monarchs of Eu
rope are shaken from their thrones ; when the Russian
and the Turk abolish slavery; when cowardly Naples
awakes from her centuries of sleep, and will have free
dom ; when France prays to become a republic, and in
her agony sweats great drops of blood; while the
Tories of the world look on and mock and wag their
heads ; and while the Angel of Hope descends with
trusting words to comfort her, — shall America extend
slavery? butcher a nation to get soil to make a field
for slaves? I know how easily the South can buy of
fice-hunters ; Whig or Democrat, the price is still the
same. The same golden eagle blinds the eyes of each.
But can she buy the people of the North? Is hon
esty gone, and honor gone, your love of country gone,
religion gone, and nothing manly left — not even
shame? Then let us perish; let the Union perish!
No ; let that stand firm, and let the Northern men
themselves be slaves ; and let us go to our masters and
say, " You are very few, we are very many ; we have
the wealth, the numbers, the intelligence, the religion
of the land, but you have the power; do not be hard
upon us ; pray give us a little something, some humble
offices ; or if not these, at least a tariff, and we will be
content." Slavery has already been the blight of this nation,

THE MEXICAN WAR 47
the curse of the North and the curse of the South. It
has hindered commerce, manufactures, agriculture.
It confounds your politics. It has silenced your
ablest men. It has muzzled the pulpit, and stifled the
better life out of the press. It has robbed three mil
lion men of what is dearer than life ; it has kept back
the welfare of seventeen millions more. You ask, O
Americans, where is the harmony of the Union? It
was broken by slavery. Where is the treasure we
have wasted? It was squandered by slavery. Where
are the men we sent to Mexico? They were mur
dered by slavery ; and now the slave power comes for
ward to put her new minions, her thirteenth President,
upon the nation's neck ! Will the North say " Yes " ?
But there is a Providence which rules the world —
a plan in His affairs. Shall all this war, this aggres
sion of the slave power, be for nothing? Surely not.
Let it teach us two things: Everlasting hostility to
slavery; everlasting love of justice and of its eternal
right. Then, dear as we may pay for it, it may be
worth what it has cost — the money and the men. I
call on you, ye men — fathers, brothers, husbands,
sons — to learn this lesson, and, when duty calls, to
show that you know it — know it by heart and at your
fingers' ends ! And you, ye women — mothers, sis
ters, daughters, wives — I call on you to teach this
lesson to your children, and let them know that such a
war is sin, and slavery sin, and, while you teach them
to hate both, teach them to be men, and do the duties
of noble, Christian, and manly men ! Behind injustice
there is ruin, and above man there is the everlasting
God.

II

THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT
POLK 1849
The administration of Mr. Polk took place at an
important period in the affairs of the nation; it is
connected with some of the most remarkable events
which have happened in America since the adoption of
the Constitution — events which will deeply and long
affect the welfare of the people. The time has not
yet come when the public, or any person, can fully
appreciate the causes then put or kept in action. But
the administration was so remarkable, the events con
nected with it so new in our history, and so important,
that it seems worth while to pause a moment and study
this chapter in American politics, with such light as
we now possess. It becomes the more important to do
this just as a new Congress is about to assemble, 'while
the government is connected with a new President not
very well tried in political affairs. In judging the
contemporary events of our country it would be ridic
ulous in us to pretend the same coolness and impartial
ity which it is easy to have in studying the politics of
times a thousand years gone by ; still, we think we have
no prejudice against Mr. Polk or his administration,
or in favor thereof ; certainly we do not look through
the partisan eyes of a Democrat, a Whig or a Free-
soiler, but are ready to praise or blame an idea, a
measure, or an act, on its own account, without asking
what political family it belongs to.
The materials for the history of this administration
48

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 49
are abundant and accessible. We make no pretensions
to a knowledge of the secrets of either party; they
would be of small value if known. The volumes of
private and confidential letters of some New York
politicians, of which so much talk was made a few
years ago, contain much matter for gossip, some even
for scandal, little for history, and for political philos
ophy nothing at all. We neither seek nor welcome
information from such quarters. In politics, as in all
science, the common and obvious facts are of the
greatest value. With the secret history of the Balti
more Convention, of the Congress, or the Cabinet, we
have nothing to do, only with their public acts. Our
information will be drawn chiefly from public docu
ments. Politicians are as honest as the majority of men
would be, exposed to the same temptations, under the
same circumstances. The misdeeds of other men are
done on a small scale or in an obscure way, while the
private character of a politician becomes public, his
deeds appear before the sun. If the transactions of
State Street and Wall Street were public as the acts
of Congress, men would not think more highly, per
haps, of mercantile honor than now of political in
tegrity. A little acquaintance with political doings
shows that while each party is, consciously or blindly,
led forward by its idea, and so helps or hinders the
progress of mankind, under similar circumstances, the
one has about as much patriotism and political hon
esty as the other. In point of deeds the party that
has been long in power is certainly more corrupt than
the opposite party, who are limited by their position to
longings and intentions. So the apples which have
long been exposed for sale in a huckster's basket get
XIII— 4

50 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
bruised with the huckster's attempts to show only their
fair sides, and with frequent handling by the public,
and begin to rot sooner than other apples from the
same branch, but kept out of sight in the barrel, which
otherwise resemble them " as much as one apple is like
another." The party that is full and the party that
is hungry seldom differ much in their political honesty.
In estimating the administration of men like Jeffer
son and Jackson, men of decided thoughts or decided
deeds, the personal character and opinions of the Pres
ident are important elements to be considered. But
Mr. Polk was remarkable neither for thought nor ac
tion ; he had no virtues or vices to distinguish him from
the common run of politicians, who swim with the
party tide, up or down, in or out, as it may be. His
character seems to have had no weight in the public
scale, and does not appear to have given the balance
a cast to either side. He might follow a multitude,
in front or rear — he could not lead. God never gave
him " the precious gift " of leading. For his office,
no qualities marked him more than a thousand other
men in the land. Like Mr. Harrison and Mr. Tyler,
he was indebted for the Presidency to " the accident
of an accident." So the god Apis was selected from
other bullocks for some qualities known only to the
priests; though to laical eyes he was nothing but a
common stot, distinguished by no mark and likelihood ;
soon as selected he became a god, and had the homage
of his worshipers. The nomination of the Apis might
be one " not fit to be made," but when clerically made
it always had the laic confirmation, and no Apis was
ever found too brute to receive worship.
It was said in 1848, that it was not of much conse
quence who was President if he were only a Whig ; it

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 51
did not require much ability to fill the office ; much ac
quaintance with the philosophy of politics, nor even
much knowledge of the facts of politics ; nay, not any
eminence of character. Mr. Polk was not the first or
the last attempt to demonstrate this by experiment.
His private life was marred by no unusual blemish,
and set off by no remarkable beauty. He kept the
Ten Commandments very much as other men; was
sober, temperate, modest in his deportment ; what seems
latterly rather unusual for a President, he did not
swear profanely. On his death-bed he " professed
justifying faith in the Lord Jesus Christ," " relying
alone for salvation on the great doctrine of atone
ment," and " received the ordinance of baptism ; " thus
he secured that good name in the churches, not yet
accorded to Franklin and Washington. Estimating
him by the ordinary standard about him (the true way
to judge such a man), he has been set down as an ex
emplary man, using his opportunities with common
fidelity. Some official acts of his were purely official.
His friends, since his death, claim but little for him.
Eulogies are not supposed to limit themselves to tell
ing the truth, or to extend themselves to telling the
whole truth. Still they are a good test of public opin
ion. Burr got none; General Jackson had many;
those on Mr. Polk were chiefly official, and their tem
perature, for official panegyrics, was uncommonly low,
plainly intimating that little could be made of such a
subject. Mr. Polk was hardly susceptible of rhetorical
treatment after death. While in power he could
easily be praised. Excepting some of the eminent
leaders, almost any prominent man in the Democratic
party, if made President under such circumstances,
would have done very much as Mr. Polk did; would

52 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
have been merely a portion of the party machine.
Last year the Whigs said, also, it was not very im
portant what the personal opinions of the President
were. After eliminating these elements, the matter becomes
quite simple: we have only to deal with the ideas of
the administration, — the measures proposed as an
expression thereof, — and the acts in which these ideas
took a concrete form. These, of course, will be com
plicated with the adverse ideas and measures of the
other party. Such is the theme before us.
However, it is necessary to look a moment at the
state of the nation when Mr. Polk came to power. In
our foreign relations all was serene except in the Eng
lish and Mexican quarter. In the one the weather
seemed a little uncertain ; in the other there were de
cided indications of a storm.
In 1842, Mr. Webster, for a short time dignifying
the office of Secretary of State, had performed the
most valuable public service he has yet rendered his
country. He had negotiated the treaty of Washing
ton by which the north-eastern boundary was settled.
That was a very important matter, and Mr. Webster
deserves the lasting gratitude of both nations for the
industry, courtesy, and justice with which he man
aged that complicated, difficult, and vexatious affair.
He is often celebrated as the defender of the Constitu
tion, but his services in that work, when looked at with
impartial eyes, diminish a good deal, and perhaps will
not be much spoken of when a few years have dispelled
the mists which hang over all contemporary greatness.
It was a real dignity and honor to negotiate the treaty.
Certainly there were few men, perhaps not another in
the nation, who could have done it. We do not mean

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 53
to say that a board of civil engineers, or three good,
honest men could not as well settle questions in them
selves more difficult. But such was the state of feeling
in England and America, that none but a distin
guished politician could be trusted with the matter,
and none possessed the requisite qualities in so eminent
a degree as Mr. Webster.
There still remained another affair to be settled
with England: we refer to the boundaries of Oregon.
That question was purposely made difficult by small
politicians who exasperated the public on both sides
of the water. The cry was raised " Oregon or fight ; "
" The whole of Oregon or none ; " " 54, 40." The
legislature of Maine went a little further north, and
shouted " 54, 49." Some men, whose names are by
no means forgotten, made a great outcry, and egged
the ignorant headlong towards dangerous measures,
threatening " war with England ; " men who, like
frogs in the spring just escaping from their winter
of obscurity, for their own purposes, made a great deal
of noise with very little sense. The intrinsic difficulty
of the case was very small. England made large pre
tensions ; so did we ; both desiring a wide margin of
oscillation before they settled down on a permanent
boundary. But England was pacific, though firm, and
not foolish enough to wish to fight with one whose
peace was so profitable. A war between England and
America is, on each side, a quarrel with a good cus
tomer. That is the mercantile aspect of the case.
An administration which should seek honestly to settle
the Oregon question would find no difficulty; had Mr.
Webster remained a year more in the Cabinet, we doubt
not this affair, also, would have been amicably set
tled.

54 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Affairs certainly looked threatening in the neigh
borhood of Mexico; there were troubles past, present,
and to come. Americans had excited the revolution
in Texas; fought her battles, and fomented her in
trigues. Texas had just been annexed, or, as the
phrase originally was, rtf-annexed. Texas and Mexico
had been long at war ; though not actively fighting at
the time of annexation, the war was not ended. We
took Texas with a defective title, subject to the claims
of Mexico. If she did not prosecute those claims it
was because she was too feeble, not that she had relin
quished them. That was not all — we had insulted
Mexico and deeply injured her; not by accident, but
with our eyes open, and of set purpose. We had
wronged Mexico deeply, and then added new insults
to old injuries. What made our conduct worse, we
were powerful and Mexico defenseless. The motive
which lay at the bottom of all makes this accumulated
baseness still more detestable ; it was done to establish
a bulwark for American slavery.
To this origin of the Mexican War we will now
add a few words respecting the scheme of annexation.
In 1803, Mr. Jefferson purchased Louisiana of
France, a vast territory west of the Mississippi, for
$15,000,000. He thought he transgressed the Con
stitution in doing so, and expected an " act of indem
nity " by the people, to justify the deed. The Senate
thought otherwise. Slavery was already established
in Louisiana. In 1812, the present State of Louisiana
was admitted to the Union with a constitution author
izing slavery. In 1820, a new State was formed from
what had been the more northern portion of Louisiana.
Should it be a slave State, or free? The South, " on
principle," favored slavery ; the North, " on princi-

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 55
pie," opposed it. But both parties laid aside their
" principles " and made a compromise, such as Mr.
Clay and Mr. Clayton so much admire. Slavery was
allowed only south of Mason and Dixon's line, 36 40'
of north latitude. This was the famous Missouri
Compromise. But only a small part of Missouri lay
south of the line. All the new territory, therefore,
could make only two slave States, Louisiana and Ar
kansas. In 1836, Arkansas was admitted into the
Union. Florida territory alone remained to be made
into slave States. Thus the territorial extension of
the slave power was at an end, while vast regions were
left into which the stream of Northern enterprise con
tinually poured itself. The North rapidly increased
in numbers, in wealth, and in the political power which
wealth and numbers give ; the rapid rise of new States
was to the South a fearful proof of this.
The North has always been eminently industrial,
particularly eminent in the higher modes of industry,
work that demands the intelligent head. The South
has always been deficient in industry, especially in the
higher modes of industry. The North has an abun
dance of skilled labor; the South chiefly brute labor.
This industrial condition of the South is to be ascribed
to the institution of slavery, though perhaps some
thing must be allowed for the climate, and for the in
ferior character and motives of the original colonists
who settled that part of the country. But while the
North is industrial, the South is political; the North
sends its ablest men to trade, the South to politics.
The race for public welfare and political power was
to be run by those two competitors, " not without dust
and heat." After the Revolution, the opposite char
acteristics of the North and South appeared more

56 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
prominently than before. The North increased rap
idly in numbers, and outpeopled the South. The Rev
olution itself showed the comparative military power
of the " Southern chivalry " and the hardy industry
of the North. After the adoption of the Federal Con
stitution, the North increased with still greater rapid
ity, and began to show a decided superiority to the
South. This is partly the result of the industry of
the North; but in part the result of our navigation
laws, which gave American bottoms a great national
privilege. Most of the ships belonged, as they still
do, to the North ; they were the fruits of her industry.
Did the Constitution guarantee slavery to the South,
it protected the ships of the North. The South got
a political advantage, and the North a commercial
privilege, whose value in dollars has been greater than
that of all the slaves in the United States. In all con
tests about money, the North carries it over the South ;
in all contests for immediate political power the South
over the North.
Some thirty years later, the nation changed its
policy. It had taken pains to encourage commerce,
and had a revenue tariff. Now it took pains to re
strict trade, and established a protective tariff; so the
North engaged in manufactures to a greater degree
than before. The South could not do this : the slaves
were too ignorant, and must remain so as long as they
are slaves, otherwise they could not be kept together
in the large masses which manufacturing purposes re
quire; the whites were too indolent and too proud.
The South continued to increase constantly in numbers
and in wealth, but compared with the North, she did
not increase. It soon became plain that the political
center of gravity was traveling northwards continu-

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 57
ally, and with such swiftness that the South before long
would lose the monopoly of the government, which she
had long enjoyed by reason of her political character,
and which the North cared little for so long as money
could be made without it. The prosperity of the
North rests on an industrial basis, that of the South
on a political basis.
So the South must contrive to outweigh the North.
How? Not by industry, which creates wealth directly,
and indirectly multiplies men, but by politics. The
North works after its kind, and is satisfied with the
possession of commerce and manufactures ; the South,
after its kind, rejoices in slavery, and thinks to outwit
the laws of nature by a Httle juggling in politics. Be
hold the results. To balance the North, the South
must have new slave States to> give her power in the
Federal Government. New territory must be got to
make them of.
Texas lay there conveniently near. It had once
been a part of Louisiana, as far west as the Nueces.
In 1819, James Long went from Natchez in Louisiana
to Nacogdoches in Texas', and, on the 23rd of June,
declared the independence of the republic of Texas.
About two years later, Mr. Austin and his colony
went thither from Mississippi, carrying their slaves
with them. In 1826, another insurrection took place,
under Benjamin W. Edwards, and another declaration
of independence followed. At that time the American
Government did not interfere nor much covet the ter
ritory. Texas was a convenient neighbor, and not a
dangerous one ; slaveholders could migrate thither with
their slaves. But in 1824, the Mexicans forbade the
introduction of slaves, and declared all free as soon
as they were born ; Mexico refused to surrender up f ugi-

58 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tive slaves. In 1827, Texas and Coahuila were united
into one State with a constitution which allowed no
new slaves, born or brought thither, and in 1829 Mex
ico emancipated all her slaves.
As Mexico made advances toward emancipation, the
American Government began to covet Texas. In
1827, under the administration of Mr. Adams, an at
tempt was made to purchase Texas, $1,000,000 were
offered. In 1829, Mr. Benton desired " the retroces
sion." His reasons are instructive : — we have now
" a non-slaveholding empire in juxtaposition with the
slaveholding Southwest ; " and " five or six new slave-
holding States may be added to the Union." Yes,
" nine States as large as Kentucky." A Charleston
newspaper desired it because " it would have a favor
able influence on the future destinies of the South, by
increasing the votes of the slaveholding States in the
United States Senate. In 1829, in a Virginia con
vention, Judge Upshur said the annexation of Texas
" would raise the price of slaves, and be of great ad
vantage to the slaveholders of that State ; " in 1832,
Mr. Gholson, in the Virginia legislature, thought " it
would raise the price of slaves fifty per cent, at least."
To sharpen the public appetite for Texas, in 1829 the
cry was raised that " England wanted Texas ; British
merchants had offered to loan Mexico $5,000,000 if
she would place Texas under British protection." This
trick was frequently resorted to, but the apprehension
was groundless. The same year, the first of Gen.
Jackson's administration, our minister offered $5,000,-
000 for Texas; the offer was rejected. He then of
fered a loan of $10,000,000, taking Texas as collateral
security; that, also, was rejected. He tried also, but
in vain, to obtain a treaty for the surrender of fugi
tive slaves.

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 59
By 1840, the State of Texas had made large grants
of land to various persons, some of which had been
bought up by Americans. So in addition to the gen
eral desire of the slaveholders, the owners of Texan
lands had a special motive to stimulate them. Joint-
stock companies were formed in the United States;
there were the " Galveston Bay and Texas Company ; "
the " Arkansas and Texas Company ; " the " Rio
Grande Company." These had their headquarters at
New York. Then there was the " Union Land Com
pany," and the " Trinity Land Company," and others.
In Mississippi and Arkansas, attempts were publicly
made to excite the people of Texas to revolt. In
1830, candidates for Congress in Mississippi were pub
licly catechised as to their opinion of annexation.
The same year Samuel Houston got up his expedition
to wrest Texas from Mexico. In 1832, Mexico was
obliged to withdraw her troops from Texas, to sup
press disturbances in other quarters; emigrants con
tinually went with their slaves from the United States.
In 1833, Texas organized as a separate State ; Mexico
refused her assent, and sent troops which were re
pulsed. Texan agents traversed the United States,
addressing public meetings, enlisting troops, and
despatching military supplies to the revolted province.
On the 2nd of March, 1836, the insurgents issued
their declaration of independence, and fifteen days af
ter adopted a constitution establishing perpetual slav
ery. Of the fifty-seven signers to this declaration,
fifty were emigrants from the slave States, and only
three Mexicans by birth. The constitution prohibited
the importation of slaves except from the United
States; but every negro in Texas, or who might come
there, was declared a slave !

60 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
During the war between Mexico and Texas, the
American Government took little or no pains to pre
vent our citizens from aiding the Texans ; vessels were
openly fitted out in our harbors, and sent to war on a
friendly power, yet the Secretary of State had the
hardihood to say that the President (General Jack
son) " took all the measures in his power to prevent
it ; " Mr. Van Buren said the same thing. Yet he al
lowed the brigadier-general of the Texan army pub
licly to advertise for volunteers for that army, in
North Carolina, and to enlist soldiers. The Mexican
minister protested; it was all in vain. The President
sent General Gaines with an army to lie on the Texan
frontier, ready to further the designs of our citizens
against Mexico. He was ordered to advance as far
as Nacogdoches, if needful, and Mr. Forsyth told
the Mexican minister " our troops might, if necessary,
be sent into the heart of Mexico." Our government
tried to force Mexico into a war with us. American
troops were on the soil of Mexico; her minister com
plained, and requested that they might be withdrawn,
the answer is " No." Two days after (Oct. 15th,
1836), the Mexican minister demands his passports
and goes home.
Mexico was too feeble to fight. Neither our in
fraction of a treaty, nor the insults added to that
injury, could provoke her to a war. Other measures
were to be tried; the American Government got up its
" claims " on Mexico — fifteen in number.
On the 1st of March, 1837, the Senate acknowl
edged the independence of Texas ; a minister was sent
and one was received. In August, 1837, General
Hunt, the Texan minister, proposed annexation. Mr.
Van Buren was then President : he has been called " the

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 61
Northern man with Southern principles," though he
deserves the title rather less than some others not so
stigmatized. The offer of annexation was declined:
Mexico was still at war with Texas ; the legislatures of
New York, Pennsylvania, and all the New England
States had protested against annexation. In regard
to Texas Van Buren did not " follow in the steps of his
illustrious predecessor." During his administration
little was done to promote annexation, nothing by the
government. The third non-slaveholding President
did not desire to extend the area of bondage.
In 1841, the Whigs came into power with the shout
of " Tippecanoe and Tyler too ; " as Mackay, an Eng
lish traveler, has said, " Log cabins with their songs
and speeches, their orgies on bacon and hard cider,
had more to do with the election of General Harrison,
than had less exceptionable means." The
Whigs then gave the Democrats an opportunity, much
needed, to turn themselves out of office. The nomina
tion of Mr. Tyler for the Vice-Presidency was char
acteristic of the party. What followed would once
have been regarded as " judicial," a " direct interven
tion of God " to punish an artifice. Mr. Tyler, be
coming President, was true to his former character
and conduct. He set about the work of annexation
in good earnest. Commodore Jones was sent with a
fleet to lie on the western shore of Mexico — to be
ready in case of any outbreak with America. His
conduct shows the expectation and design of our gov
ernment. Mr. Upshur, Tyler's Secretary of State, is
a good exponent of the policy of the administration.
In Sept., 1843, he says " few calamities could befall
this country [the United Sates] more to be deplored
than the establishment of a predominant British in-

62 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
fluence [of which there was not the least danger], and
the abolition of domestic slavery im Texas! " General
Lamar, once president of Texas, had written to his
friends in Georgia that without annexation " the anti-
slavery party m Texas wiU acquire the ascendency
and may abolish slavery. . . . The ma
jority of the people of Texas are not owners of
slaves." In October, 1843, Mr. Upshur took the initiative
and proposed annexation to* the Texans ; he told them,
(16th Jan., 1844), that without annexation "they
cannot maintain that institution [slavery] ten years ;
probably not half that time." If Texas is not an
nexed, he says again, " the people of the Southern
States will not run the hazard of subjecting their slave
property to the control of a population who are anx
ious to abolish slavery." Mr. Upshur was not so
crafty as Mr. Murphy, his agent at Texas, who said,
" Take this position on the side of the Constitution
and the laws, and the civil, political, and religious lib
erties of the people of Texas secured thereby (saying
nothing about abolition), and all the world will be
with you ; " say " nothing which can offend even our
fanatical brethren of the North ; let the United States.
espouse at once the cause of civil, political, and re
ligious liberty in this hemisphere." A treaty was
made, but " our fanatical brethren of the North " were
offended, and on the 8th of June, 1844, the Senate re
jected it by a vote of 35 to 16.
" The immediate annexation of Texas " was now
the favorite measure of the slave power. They had
little fear but that, in the next presidential term, they
could repeal the tariff of '42, but felt doubtful of the
success of annexation. Mr. Upshur feared New Eng-

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 63
land ; had he lived at Boston, and known the influences
then controlling New England, he would have seen
there was no reason for fear. A presidential election
was at hand; the Democratic convention was to meet
at Baltimore in May. Mr. Van Buren was the most
prominent candidate of the party. Most of the dele
gates to the convention had been instructed to support
him. But he was a Northern man ; while President he
had not favored annexation ; he had lately written a
public letter (April 20, 1844), and plainly declared
himself hostile to annexation. Mr. Ritchie, " the
senior field-marshal of Van Buren's party," forsook
and opposed his old friend. Mr. Cross, of Arkansas,
" would not vote under any circumstances for a man
opposed to the annexation of Texas ; " Van Buren was
" not the proper person for the party to rally around
in the coming struggle ; " " nine out of ten of our
friends think so." The Tyler committee wrote on
their card, as for Van Buren, "Texas has destroyed
him ; " " the last, best, and wisest counsel of Andrew
Jackson was — the annexation of Texas."
The convention assembled ; Van Buren got more than
a majority, but could not get two-thirds. Candidates
were numerous, Cass, Calhoun, Buchanan, Tyler, Te-
cumseh- Johnson ; some even thought it best to take
again Andrew Jackson, gallant " Old Ironsides " ;
Commodore Stewart was talked of. When the po
litical tide ebbs clean out of the harbor, strange things
appear on the bottom, only seen on such occasions.
Men thought it very surprising that such a man should
be spoken of — certainly it had no precedent, and he
no political experience. Now the nomination would
not be at all surprising or irregular. The Commo
dore's letter looks silly enough now. But who knows,

64 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
if only elected, that he would not have been as great
a man as Mr. Polk, nay, as Tyler, or Taylor? He
was for " immediate annexation," and would " throw
ourselves on the justice of our cause before God and
the nations." Valiant Commodore! he might have
been as great a man as Mr. Polk, had the tide of nom
ination served in his favor.
After all the mountainous labor of the Baltimore
Convention, there came forth Polk ; Mr. James K. Polk.
Men wondered. " Who the devil is James — K 
Polk ? " said many Democrats ; and when told, they
thought it was " a nomination not fit to be made."
None of them proved it, by facts and arguments, quite
so faithfully as the distinguished author of that phrase
did on a recent occasion at Marshfield; they left that
for Mr. Polk to do (not by logic, but by experiment),
and he did — in due time. Mr. Van Buren was " sin
cerely desirous " for the success of the nominees. The
Whigs were pretty firmly united in support of Mr.
Clay, " Harry of the West," and " that same old
coon," as he has publicly called himself. He was not,
publicly, much opposed to annexation, nor much in
favor of it, and in respect to that was a pretty good
index of his party. Yet some Whigs were seriously
and conscientiously opposed to the annexation of
Texas as a slave territory ; so were a few Democrats,
who constituted the moral element of the party. Both
of these minorities have since reported their presence
in the politics of the land, indications of something
yet future. It was a rash movement of the Demo
cratic party, this changing their leader and their line
on the very brink of battle, under the guns of their
opponent, already put in battery and ready to fire;
but they were confident in their strength, and so well

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 65
drilled that they only needed the word of command to
perform any political evolution or revolution.
It is curious to look back. On the 3rd of March,
1843, twenty-one members of Congress solemnly de
clared that " annexation would be identical with disso
lution ; would be an attempt to eternize an institution
and a power of a nature so unjust ... as
not only to result m a dissolution of the
Union, . . . but fully to justify it." Five of
the twenty-one were from Massachusetts. The pro
test of March 3rd was not very distinctly remembered
at a later date by every one of the signers thereof.
At the other extreme was South Carolina. This is
a very remarkable State, and her doings — we mean
the doings of her lips — deserve a special notice. Be
fore the Baltimore Convention of 1844 it was neces
sary for that State to speak out, her trumpet giving
no uncertain sound. So, on the 15th of May, the peo
ple of Charleston, who had " forborne to give any pub
lic declaration of . . . opinions and wishes,
. . . and patiently waited," at length and sol
emnly " resolved " that annexation is " an American
and national measure, antagonistic to foreign inter
ference and domestic abolitionism ; " " if the treaty for
the recovery ( !) of Texas be defeated because of the
increase it will give to the slaveholding States, it will
be the denial of a vital right to them."
Even after the convention the danger of the patri
archal institution is so great that there must be a
Southern convention. The South Caroliman, of May
30th, said, annexation is " a question not of party, but
of country, and to the South one of absolute self-
preservation ; " " under the subtle encroachments of
our old enemy of Britain, aided by the traitorous abo-
XIII— 5

66 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
litionists at home, . . . her doom is sealed if she
does not arise in her might . . . and effect a
union with Texas ; " " England once firmly seated in
Texas, there is an end of all power or safety for the
South, which would soon be made another San Do
mingo." A convention of slave States was to be called
" to take into consideration the question of annexing
Texas to the Union, if the Union will accept it; or
if the Union will not accept it, then of annexing Texas
to the Southern States." The convention was to offer
the Union this " alternative : " " either to admit Texas
into the Union, or to proceed peaceably and calmly to
arrange the terms of a dissolution of the Union." A
meeting in the Williamsburg district declared, quite
" in the Ercles " dialect of that region, that " the doom
of the South is sealed and the dirge of our fair Repub
lic will ere long be sung by liberty's last minstrel, if
she does not arise in her might and effect a union with
Texas." An " unsuspected nullifier " of 1832 came out to
assure the people that " the political Moses [to wit,
Mr. Moses-Calhoun] is neither lost nor dead, but he
is ready to follow the pillar of cloud by day, or fire
by night." " True, there is a Joshua [Mr. Joshua
Polk] , full of the spirit of wisdom, for that Moses has
laid his hands on him ; " but " there is still no prophet
in Israel like Moses." But somehow it seemed Moses
had been so long talking with his Lord, that the Balti
more Convention, — could not steadfastly look upon the
face of this Moses and make him their President ; and
so, the people of South Carolina wot not what would
become of him, nor even of themselves without Texas.
A writer in the Charleston Mercury asked, " What is
the remedy for the evils which afflict the South? " and

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 67
is thus replied to by a far-sighted man in the same
journal: "I answer, unreservedly, Resistance —
combined Southern resistance, if you, can procure it;
if not, then State resistance."
The Mercury exclaimed, " Two thousand eight hun
dred and thirty-two men, with arms in their hands, in
the drill-field, have expressed their decided determina
tion to sustain the measure." This was the thing —
" combined Southern resistance if it could be had ; if
not, then State resistance " — the resistance of South
Carolina. In the times of nullification in 1832, the
great oath of Andrew Jackson laid South Carolinian
valor low in the dust ; to accomplish that in 1844 it took
only the common swearing of John Tyler. The only
aggressive act committed by the petulant little
commonwealth, spite of the resolutions of its forty-
third regiment, of the " decided determination " of
the " two thousand eight hundred and thirty-two men
with arms in their hands," was the expulsion of an
unarmed gentleman, Samuel Hoar, on the 5th of De
cember, who had been sent from Massachusetts to look
after her own citizens. Thus was " abolition " re
pelled. There are noble elements in that State, and
some noble men. If ever it becomes a democracy and
not an oligarchy, if the majority ever rule there, we
shall see very different things, and South Carolina will
not be a proverb in the nation.
Mr. Polk was elected. In January, 1845, a joint
resolution for annexation passed the House of Repre
sentatives, by a vote of 120 to 98, and soon after the
Whig Senate by a majority of two votes; it was
signed by the President on the 1st of March. So the
work of annexation was completed before Mr. Polk
came into power, though by no means without his aid.

68 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
If this could have been done justly, without extend
ing slavery, few men at the North would have had
cause to complain. We do not blame the Texans for
desiring independence, or achieving it ; we find no fault
with extending the area of freedom over the whole
world. We cannot think that Mexico had just cause
of war in the bare act of annexation. But when we
remember that America colonized Texas for the sake
of wresting it from Mexico, who would not sell it ; that
Americans got up the Texan revolution, and fought
it through, and did all this for the sake of getting
nine slave States as large as Kentucky; that this was
done secretly, fraudulently, with a lie on the lips of
the government — we must say the deed itself was a
base deed, and the motive base and miserable.
In 1845, such was the state of foreign affairs. In
all that concerned domestic welfare, the nation was
never so well off before. There had been a consider
able period of remarkable prosperity. It must be a
very bad government which, in four years, can seri
ously injure a nation like this, where so little de
pends on the central power. Mr. Tyler appealed
to the judgment of posterity for his vindication;
but certainly no party was sorry when, he went out
of office.
During the year ending June 30th, 1845, the im
ports of the United States amounted in value to $117,-
254,564 ; the exports to $114,646,606. The national
revenue was $29,769,133 ; the expenditures $29,968,-
207. There was a balance in the treasury of $7,658,-
306. The amount of public debt on the 1st of- Oc
tober, was $17,075,445.
The distinctive measures proposed for Mr. Polk
were:

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 69
1. " The separation of the money of government
from banking institutions."
2. " A tariff for revenue."
3. " The re-occupation of Oregon."
These measures were seldom submitted to a scientific
and careful examination. They were abundantly dis
cussed in Congress and out of Congress, but almost
wholly in the spirit of party. Some of them were
finally carried by a mere party vote ; measures, too,
on which the welfare of the nation was thought to
depend. As we look over the speeches made in refer
ence to the tariff or the subtreasury, we find ability
enough; now and then a knowledge of the subject
in hand, though that is far enough from common, —
but fairness which is willing to see good in the meas
ures of a political opponent we almost never find.
In his first message (Dec. 2nd, 1845), Mr. Polk
recommended the establishment of a " constitutional
treasury . . . as a secure depository for the pub
lic money, without any power to make loans or dis
counts, or to issue any paper whatever as a currency or
circulation." In conformity with this suggestion,
a bill was reported with a proviso called " the specie
clause " — that all payments to or from the govern
ment should be made in gold or silver. This bill passed
the House by a vote of 123 to 64, the Senate by 28
to 24, and went into operation on the 1st of January,
1847, though the government did not pay specie till the
1st of April following. Before the end of the year Mr.
Polk could say with truth (Message, Dec. 8th, 1846),
" that the amount of gold and silver coin in circulation
in the country is greater than ever before." The banks
were kept from inflating the currency. The measure has
proved itself a wise one. Its good effect in retaining

70 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
coin in the country and thus preventing a suspension
of specie payment by the banks during the commercial
crisis of 1847-1849, was felt throughout the land,
and is now extensively acknowledged. The adminis
tration deserves the gratitude of the people for this
measure. But what Whig journal will venture to do
justice to the subtreasury!
Mr. Polk also recommended a " tariff for revenue ; "
Mr. Walker, the Secretary of the Treasury, presented
his scheme of such a tariff. In due time a bill was
reported. There was no impartial discussion of the
subject in Congress, or in the newspapers. We doubt
that there is a single political or commercial journal
in the United States, which would open its columns
to a free and full discussion of the subject on the
merits of the case. Political economy can hardly be
considered an exact science as yet ; but American poli
ticians, even the most eminent, with here and there an
exception, seem ignorant of the conclusions which may
be regarded as established. Very few of them seem
to study political economy — even to learn the facts
on which it is based, still less to learn the natural laws
on which the material prosperity of the nation de
pends. It is a tiresome work to instruct a great na
tion, and mankind seldom loves its school-masters in
their lifetime, while it requires little effort to swim with
the tide. In 1827, the citizens of Boston " assem
bled to take into consideration the proposed increase
of duties ; " their committee made a long and very able
report adverse to that increase, and very justly say : —
"The success or failure of the candidates for the Presidency,
may be of great moment to the country, and still greater to
those partisans whose political fortunes are depending on that
event; but to the nation at large, the evil or the good which
may arise out of the choice of the one or the rejection of the

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 71
other, can only be of temporary and limited importance, com
pared with the wise and just disposition of a question on which
our whole foreign and domestic policy turns, and which may, in
its consequences, affect the stability and happiness of the Union
for ages to come."
In 1789, a moderate protective duty was established,
on all imported articles; in 1816, a high protective
tariff was for the first time established. Mr. Clay and
Mr. Calhoun were its most important advocates. The
tariff was raised in 1818 and in 1822, and was made
much higher in 1824. Mr. Webster opposed it with his
peculiar ability, in a speech not yet forgotten. In
1828, a very high tariff was established by what has
been called the " Bill of Abominations." In 1832-3,
the tariff relaxed a little, to avert a civil war. Mr.
Clay got his celebrated " compromise act " established.
The compromise lasted about nine years, till 1842.
The tariff of 1842 was passed under the administra
tion of Mr. Tyler. Mr. Webster admitted it had " its
imperfections." Mr. Polk came into power with the idea of a revenue
tariff in his mind. The bill passed the House of Rep
resentatives by a vote of 114 to 95, 1 Whig and 113
Democrats voting on that side; 71 Whigs, 18 Demo
crats, and 6 " native Americans " voting on the op
posite side. It passed the Senate by the casting vote
of the Vice-President, who was pledged to the measure
before his election. A law of this magnitude has sel
dom passed any modern legislature with such imper
fect discussion. In the Senate only a single man, Mr.
Lewis, spoke in defense of the bill. Certainly the
conduct of the friends of the bill was eminently un
just, and the bill itself was carried, not by its merits,
but by the power of the party ; not by force of mind,
but force of numbers.

72 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Mr. Webster made a learned, and in many respects
a very able, speech, though he weakened his rhetoric
with a little extravagance, unusual with him, — against
the new tariff — against its general principles, and its
particular details. He said, in the Senate :
" The Treasury cannot, in my opinion, be supplied at the ratio
which has been stated, and is expected, by any possible, I will
say passible, augmentation of importations." " Why, the effect
of this bill is to diminish freights, and to affect the navigating
interests of the United States most seriously, most deeply; and
therefore it is, that all the ship-owners of the United States,
without an exception, so far as we hear from them, oppose the
bill. It is said to be in favor of free trade and against mo
nopoly. But every man connected with trade is against it; and
this leads me to ask, and I ask with earnestness, and hope to
receive an answer, at whose request, at whose recommendation,
for the promotion of what interest; is this measure introduced?
Is it for the importing merchants? They all reject it, to a man.
Is it for the owners of the navigation of the country? They
remonstrate against it. The whole internal industry of the
country opposes it. The shipping interest opposes it. The im
porting interest opposes it. Who is it that calls for it, or pro
poses it? Who asks for it? Who? Has there been one single
petition presented in its favor from any quarter of the country?
Has a single individual in the United States come up here and
told you that his interest would be protected, promoted, and
advanced, by the passage of a measure like this? Sir, there is
an imperative unity of the public voice the other way, alto
gether the other way. And when we are told that the public
requires this, and that the people require it, we are to under
stand by the public, certain political men, who have adopted
the shibboleth of party, for the public; and certain persons who
have symbols, ensigns, and party flags, for the people; and
that is all."
Before the passage of the bill, Mr. Webster pre
sented in the Senate a memorial " signed by every im
porter of dry goods in the city of Boston," against it.
Has the tariff of 1846 failed to produce a revenue?
has it drained the specie out of the country? has it
led to a great extension of paper money? has it pro-

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 73
duced the confusion occasioned by the tariffs of '16,
of '28, of '42? Has it impoverished the nation? The
answer is all about us! Still, by adopting the ad
valorem instead of specific duties, an opportunity has
been left for fraudulent invoices, and great fraud has
been committed, doing a wrong to the government,
and still more to the fair and honorable merchant.
The " re-occupation of Oregon " was recommended
in Mr. Polk's first message. Our title to the whole
of Oregon territory was " asserted, and, as is believed,
maintained, by irrefragable facts and arguments ; "
our " claims could not be abandoned without a sacri
fice of both national honor and interests," and " no
compromise which the United States ought to accept
could be effected." He recommended that we should
give the British notice of our intention to terminate
the period of joint occupancy, as the treaty of 1818
allowed either party top do. Mr. Polk, on other occa
sions, showed himself rather raw in diplomatic affairs ;
it would seem that he knew little of the matter in hand
when he wrote the sentences above. They show him as
a mere servant of his party, not as a great statesman,
able to mediate between two mighty nations, and dis
tribute justice with an even hand.
A great deal of discussion took place. The Union
— the organ of the government at Washington • —
contended for " the whole of Oregon or none." But
the Charleston Mercury was all at once afflicted with
a conscience, and could distinguish between " claims "
and " rights." We shall presently see the reason of
the difference. In the Senate, Mr. Sevier, of Arkan
sas, said that " war will come ; " Mr. Breese, of Illi
nois, would not have the government " grant any po
sition to Great Britain upon any spot whatever of

74 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Oregon." Mr. Allen, of Ohio, said the " American
Government could not recede short of 54, 40." Mr.
Hannegan, of Indiana, thought that " the abandon
ment or surrender of any portion of . . . Oregon
would be an abandonment of the power, character, and
best interests of the American people." Mr. Cass
thought war, " an old-fashioned war," was " almost
inevitable ; " Great Britain " might be willing to sub
mit the question to arbitration, but the crowned heads
whom she would propose as arbitrators would not be
impartial, for they would cherish anti-republican feel
ings." He would negotiate, as Mr. Webster very
justly said, with the avowed predetermination to take
nothing less than the whole of the territory in dispute.
In the House of Representatives, John Quincy Adams
went in for the territory on religious grounds, and
claimed the whole of Oregon on the strength of the
first chapter of Genesis. His conduct and his coun
sels on this occasion can hardly be called less than
rash. The South was not anxious to obtain the whole of
Oregon.' Mr. Calhoun was singularly moderate in his
desire for re-occupation ; nice about questions of title
and boundary, and desirous of keeping the peace. The
reason is obvious. Mr. Hannegan said well, " If it
[Oregon] was good for the production of sugar and
cotton, it would not have encountered the objection
it has done." " I dreaded, on the part of those who
were so strenuously in favor of the annexation of
Texas at the Baltimore Convention, — I dreaded, on
their part, Punic faith." Poor, deluded Mr. Hanne
gan ! he found it. After Texas was secured, they who
hunted after Oregon were left to beat the bush alone ;
nay, were hindered.

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 75
" Here," says he, " we are told that we must be careful and
not come in collision with Great Britain about a disputed
boundary! But if it were with feeble Mexico that we were
about to come into collision, we would then hear no such cau
tions. There was a question of disputed boundary between this
country and Mexico, and those who have a right to know some
thing of the history of that boundary told us that our rights
extended only to the Nueces. How did we find the friends of
Texas moving on that occasion? Did they halt for a moment
at the Nueces? No, sir; at a single bound they cross the
Nueces, and their war-horses prance upon the banks of the
Rio del Norte. There was no negotiation then — we took the
whole; but when Oregon is concerned, it is all right and proper
to give away an empire, if England wills it."
In the House, Mr. Winthrop suggested that, " in
arbitration, reference was not necessarily to crowned
heads," but the matter might be left to " a commission
of able and dispassionate citizens, either from the two
countries ... or the world at large." Mr. Ben
ton was moderate and wise ; his speeches on the Oregon
question did much to calm the public mind and pre
pare for a peaceful settlement of the difficulty. The
conduct of Mr. Webster was worthy of the great man
who had negotiated the treaty of Washington. He
said in the beginning, " Let our arguments be fair ; let
us settle the question reasonably."
Congress resolved to terminate the joint occupancy.
The British Government was willing to settle the busi
ness by arbitration or direct negotiation. America
prefers the latter. Britain sends over her proposition
to settle on the 49th degree as a general basis. Mr.
Polk referred the whole matter to the Senate, and
asked their advice. He had not changed his opinion.
If the Senate did not take the responsibility and ad
vise him to accept the British proposal, he should feel
it his duty to reject the offer. Thus the responsibility
was thrown upon the Senate. The proposal was ac-

76 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
cepted, a treaty was speedily made, and the only remain
ing cause of contention with England put to rest for
ever. The conduct of Mr. Polk, in making such pre
tensions, and holding out such boasts, on such a sub
ject, was not merely rash, weak, and foolish; it was
far worse than that. But for the unexpected pru
dence of a few men in the Senate, and the aversion of
the South to acquire free territory, he would have lit
the flames of war anew, and done a harm to mankind
which no services he could render would ever atone
for. On the 4th of July, 1845, Texas accepted the con
tract of annexation, and on the 22nd of December,
two hundred and twenty-five years after the landing
of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, the Senate of the
United States passed upon the matter finally, and the
work was done. However, previous to this event, Mr.
Polk had proposed to renew our diplomatic relations
with Mexico, which had been broken off. Mexico con
sented to receive " a commissioner . . . with full
powers to settle the present dispute." America sent
Mr. Slidell as a permanent minister plenipotentiary.
He was refused pro causa. The instructions given to
Mr. Slidell have not, we think, been officially published,
though they were requested by the House. However,
a document purporting to contain those instructions
was published Mwofficially. From that it appears that
he was instructed to purchase New Mexico and Cali
fornia; he was allowed to offer $25,000,000 and the
American claims on Mexico, amounting, by his esti
mate, to $8,187,684. Thus the whole territory of
New Mexico and California was thought to be worth
$33,187,684. Soon after the accession of Mr. Polk to office, Gen-

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 77
eral Taylor was ordered to Texas with an army. On
the 15th of June, he was advised by the Secretary of
War, Mr. Marcy: " The point of your ultimate des
tination is the western portion of Texas, where you
will select and occupy, on or near the Rio Grande del
Norte, such a site as . . . will be best adapted to
repel invasion. You will limit yourself to the defense
of the territory, unless Mexico shall declare war
against the United States." General Taylor took pos
session on the Nueces at Corpus Christi, " the most
western point ever occupied by Texas," but nearly two
hundred miles east of the Rio Grande. August 6th,
Mr. Marcy writes: —
" Orders have already been issued to send ten thousand
muskets and a thousand rifles into Texas."
August 23rd,
" Should Mexico assemble a large body of troops on the Rio
Grande, and cross it with a considerable force, such a move
ment would be regarded as an invasion of the United States."
August 30th,
" An attempt to cross, . . . with such a force, will be
considered in the same light. . . . Mexico having thus com
menced hostilities, you may . . . cross the Rio Grande, dis
perse or capture the forces," etc.
He was authorized to draw militia from five States
— Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and
Tennessee. Still General Taylor remained at Corpus
Christi, not undertaking to commit an act of war by
marching into the territory of Mexico. On the 13th
of July, 1846, he was ordered to advance and oc
cupy . . . positions on or near the east bank of
the Rio Grande. Accordingly General Taylor
marches from the Nueces to the Rio Grande, finding no

78 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Texans or Americans on his way — only " small armed
parties of Mexicans," who appeared " desirous to avoid
us." He takes his position on the left bank of the
Rio Grande, and plants his guns — four eighteen-
pounders — so as to " bear directly upon the public
square of Matamoras, and within good range for de
molishing the town." Behold General Taylor nearly
two hundred miles within the territory of Mexico, by
the command of Mr. Polk — in a district, to use the
words of Mr. Trist in his letter to Mr. Buchanan,
which " just as certainly constituted a part of Tamaul-
ipas, and not of Texas, . . . as it is certain that
the counties of Acomac and Northampton do now
constitute a part of the State of Virginia and not of
Maryland." An interview took place between the
American general, Worth, and General Vega on the
part of Mexico. General Vega remarked that " we "
felt indignant at seeing the American flag placed on
the Rio Grande, in a portion of the Mexican territory.
General Worth replied, " that was a matter of taste ;
notwithstanding there it would remain." On the 12th
of April, the Mexican general, Ampudia, very justly
said, " Your government . . . has not only in
sulted, but exasperated the Mexican nation, bearing
its conquering banner to the left bank of the Rio
Grande del Norte."
It was plain that America had committed an act of
war; still the Mexicans did not commence hostilities.
On the 12th of April, Ampudia summoned the Ameri
can general to " withdraw within twenty-four hours ; "
he answered the same day that he " should not retro
grade." On the 17th he blockaded the mouth of the
Rio Grande, thus cutting off supplies from Matamoras,
and wrote home that " it will at any rate compel the

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 79
Mexicans either to withdraw their army from Mata
moras, where it cannot be subsisted, or to assume the
offensive on this side of the river." Still there was
no fighting. But on the 23rd of April, General Tay
lor thus writes:
"With a view to check the depredations of small parties of
Mexicans on this side of the river, Lieutenants Dobbins, 3rd
infantry, and Porter, 4th infantry, were authorized by me, a
few days since, to scour the country for some miles, with a.
select party of men, and capture or destroy any such parties
that they might meet. It appears that they separated, and that
Lieutenant Porter, at the head of his own detachment, surprised
a Mexican camp, drove away the men, and took possession of
their horses. Soon afterwards there fell a heavy rain, and, at
a moment when the party seem to have been quite unprepared
for an attack, they were fired upon from the thicket. In at
tempting to return it, the muskets missed fire, and the party
dispersed in the thicket."
It is plain that America not only committed the first
act of war, by invading the territory of Mexico, but
actually first commenced hostilities. It is true the
president of Mexico, on the 18th of April, had said:
" From this day begins our defensive war, and every
part of our territory attacked or invaded shall be de
fended." On the 24th he issued his proclamation de
claring that " hostilities have been commenced by the
United States, in making new conquests upon our ter
ritories within the boundaries of Tamaulipas and New
Leon. I have not the right to declare war." The
same day General Arista informed General Taylor that
he considered hostilities commenced, and should prose
cute them. It was on that very day that the two par
ties " became engaged."
General Taylor's letters reached Washington on
Saturday, May 9th ; on Monday, Mr. Polk sent a mes
sage to Congress and declared that —

80 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
" War exists, and notwithstanding all our efforts to avoid it,
exists by the act of Mexico;" "the Mexican government have
at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood of our fellow-
citizens on our own soil ; " " we have been exerting our best
efforts to propitiate her good will; " "we have tried every effort
at reconciliation." " The cup of forbearance had been ex
hausted even before the recent information from the frontier of
the Del Norte. But now Mexico has passed the boundary of
the United States, has invaded our territory, and shed American
blood upon the American soil."
Documents accompanied the message. Mr. Win-
throp proposed they should be read. No. In a very
short time a bill passed the House placing the army
and navy at the President's disposal, authorizing him
to raise 50,000 volunteers, and putting in his hands
$10,000,000, for the purpose of enabling him to
" prosecute said war to a speedy and successful ter
mination." In the Senate, the same bill passed the
next day. The preamble was in these memorable
words : " Whereas, by the act of the Republic of
Mexico, war exists between that government and the
United States." In the House, fourteen voted against
the bill, and two in the Senate.* Six of the sixteen
were from Massachusetts, two were from other parts
of New England, and five from Ohio, one of her
daughter States.
The history of the war is well known. It was con
ducted with great vigor ; on the whole, with great mil
itary skill, and with as much humanity as could be
expected. War at best is prolonged cruelty. Still we
* Here are the names. In the Senate,— Thomas Clayton, Dela
ware; John Davis, Massachusetts. In the House,— John Quincy
Adams, George Ashmun, Joseph Grinnell, Charles Hudson,
Daniel P. King, of Massachusetts; Henry P. Cranston, Rhode
Island; Luther Severance, Maine; Erastus D. Culver, New York;
John Strahan, Pennsylvania; Columbus Delano, Joseph M. Boot,
Daniel R. Tilden, Joseph Vance, Joshua R. Giddings, Ohio.

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 81
have read of no war conducted with less inhumanity
than this. Some acts of wantonness were certainly
committed. The capture of Tabasco is an example.
The conduct of the volunteers was often base and re
volting. General Taylor was furnished with a procla
mation, to distribute in Mexico, designed to foment
discord, to promote hostility between the rich and poor.
Their leaders were called " tyrants," and " their real
purpose " was " to proclaim and establish a mon
archy." Colonel Stevenson was told to make the peo
ple " feel that we come as deliverers ; their rights of
person, property, and religion must be respected and
sustained." General Kearney proclaimed: " It is the
wish and intention of the United States to provide for
New Mexico a free government, — similar to those in
the United States." " We shall want from you," says
General Taylor's proclamation, " nothing but food for
our army, and for this you shall always be paid in
cash the full value." But on the 9th of July, General
Taylor was told in a confidential letter : —
" You will also readily comprehend that in a country so
divided into races, classes, and parties, as Mexico is, and with
so many local divisions among departments, and personal di
visions among individuals, there must be great room for operating
on the minds and feelings of large portions of the inhabitants,
and inducing them to wish success to an invasion which has
no desire to injure their country; and which, in overthrowing
their oppressors, may benefit themselves. Between the Spaniards,
who monopolize the wealth and power of the country, and
the mixed Indian race, who bear its burdens, there must be
jealousy and animosity. The same feelings must exist between
the lower and higher orders of the clergy; the latter of whom
have the dignities and the revenues while the former have pov
erty and labor. ... In all this field of division — in all
these elements of social, political, personal, and local discord
— there must be openings to reach the interests, passions, or
principles of some of the parties, and thereby to conciliate
XIII— 6

82 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
their good will, and make them co-operate with us in bringing
about an honorable and speedy peace.
" Availing yourself of divisions which you may find existing
among the Mexican people — to which allusion has been made
— it will be your policy to encourage the separate departments
or States, and especially those which you may invade and oc
cupy, to declare their independence of the central government
of Mexico, and either to become our allies, or to assume, as it
is understood Yucatan has done, a neutral attitude in the exist
ing war between the United States and Mexico."
The war once begun, it was to be prosecuted to a
" successful termination ; " that is, to the dismember
ment of Mexico. Captain Sloat lands at Monterey,
on the Pacific coast of Mexico, on the 7th of July,
1846, issues his proclamation, and declares that,
" henceforward California will be a portion of the
United States, . . . and the same protection will
be extended as toi the other States of the Union."
Commodore Stockton sets up his " Ebenezer " at Ciu-
dad de los Angeles on the 17th of August, 1846, and
says, " I, Robert F. Stockton, ... do hereby
make known to all men, ... do now declare Up
per and Lower California to1 be a territory of the
United States, under the name of the territory of
California." Here is annexation without the least de
lay; swift enough to satify even South Carolina.
One pleasant thing we find in looking through the
disagreeable and often hypocritical documents con
nected with the Mexican War, the instructions sent by
Secretary Bancroft to Commodore Conner, July 11th,
1845 : —
" This is, perhaps, the largest fleet that ever sailed under the
American flag; and while it is sufficient, in case of war, to win
glory for yourself, your associates, and the country, you will
win still higher glory if, by the judicious management of your
force, you contribute to the continuance of peace."

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 83
In his second annual message, Dec. 8th, 1846, Mr.
Polk said, " The war has not been waged with a view
to conquest; but having been commenced by Mexico
it has been carried into the enemy's country, and will
be vigorously prosecuted there, with a view to obtain
an honorable peace, and thereby secure an ample in
demnity for the expenses of the war." But in the
message of Dec. 7th, 1847, he says : " As Mexico re
fuses all indemnity, we should adopt measures to in
demnify ourselves, by appropriating permanently a
portion of her territory." " New Mexico and Cali
fornia were taken possession of by our forces ; I am
satisfied that they should never be surrendered to
Mexico." Some one said to General Pillow, " I
thought the object of your movement in this war was
a treaty of peace." " True," (replied General Pil
low) " that is the object of the war; but the object of
this campaign was to capture the capital, and then
make peace ; " again, " this army has not come to con
quer a peace; it has come to conquer the country;
we will make them dine and sup on the horrors of war."
The statements of Mr. Polk require no comment. We
do not wish to apply to them the only word in the
English tongue which describes them. The Presi
dent made the war, and Mr. Nicholas P. Trist, a sec
retary in the Department of State, made the peace.
As the war was begun by Mr. Polk without legal au
thority, so the treaty was made without legal author
ity. The Senate confirmed it.
One or two things in the correspondence of Mr.
Trist are too remarkable to pass by. June 2nd, 1847,
he writes to Secretary Buchanan, speaking of a cer
tain boundary:

84 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
" It includes a vast and rich country, with many inhabitants.
It is too much to take. The population is mostly as dark as
our mulattoes, and nominally free, and would be actually so
under our government. The North would oppose taking it lest
slavery should be established there; and the South lest its
colored population should be received as citizens, and protect
their runaway slaves."
Again September 4 :
" Among the points which came under discussion was the
exclusion of slavery from all territory which should pass from
Mexico. I was told that if it were proposed to the people of
the United States to part with a portion of their territory, in
order that the Inquisition should be therein established, the
proposal could not excite stronger feelings of abhorrence than
those awakened in Mexico by the prospect of the introduction
of slavery in any territory parted with by her. Our conversa
tion on this topic was perfectly frank, and no less friendly;
and the more effective upon their minds, inasmuch as I was
enabled to say with perfect security, that although their im
pressions respecting the practical fact of slavery, as it existed
in the United States, were, I had no doubt, entirely erroneous;
yet there was probably no difference between my individual
views and sentiments on slavery, considered in itself, and those
which they entertained. I concluded by assuring them that
the bare mention of the subject in any treaty to which the
United States were a party, was an absolute impossibility;
that no President of the United States would dare to present
any such treaty to the Senate; and that if it were in their
power to offer me the whole territory described in our project,
increased tenfold in value, and, in addition to that, covered
a foot thick all over with pure gold, upon the single condi
tion that slavery should be excluded therefrom, I could not
entertain the offer for a moment, nor think even of com
municating it to Washington."
America had Mexico entirely at her mercy, and
wanted " indemnity for the past, and security for the
future," — indemnity for the cost of the war. She
took California and New Mexico. The portion of
the territory west of the Rio Grande, according to
Mr. Walker's statement, amounts to 526,078 square

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 85
miles, or 336,689,920 acres; (Texas, within its "as
sumed limits," contains 325,529 square miles, or 208,-
332,800 acres.) For this the United States were to
pay Mexico $15,000,000, and abandon all the cele
brated claims which Mr. Slidell estimated at $8,187,-
684, paying to our citizens, however, not more than
$3,250,000. Taking the smallest sum — the United
States pays Mexico for the territory $18,250,000,
and throws in the cost of the war. Certainly, we must
be in great want of land to refuse to pay more than
our " claims " and $25,000,000, and then actually
pay the claims and $15,000,000, flinging in all the
cost of the war, and the loss of life.
If England had one of her victims as completely
at her feet as Mexico lay helpless at ours, she would
have demanded all the public property of Mexico, a
complete " indemnity for the cost of the war," and
a commercial treaty highly disadvantageous to Mex
ico, and highly profitable to England. Why was Mr.
Polk so moderate? Had the administration become
moral, and though careless of the natural justice of
the war, careful about justice in the settlement ? No, —
there were a few men in the land hostile to the war;
some because it was war, some because it was a wicked
war. These men, few in number, obscure in position,
often hated, and sometimes persecuted, reproached
by the President as affording " aid and comfort to
the enemy," being on the side of the Eternal Justice,
had it on their side. The moral portion of both
political parties — likewise a small portion, and an
obscure, not numbering a single eminent name — op
posed the war, and the government trembled. The
pretensions of the South, her arrogance, her cun
ning, awakened at last the tardy North. Men began

86 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
to talk of the Wilmot Proviso ; of restricting slavery.
True, some men fired by the instinct for office cried
" Be still," and others fired with the instinct for gold,
repeated the cry. Those who had the instinct for jus
tice would not be still; no, nor will not; never. The
slaveholders themselves began to tremble — and hence
the easy conditions on which Mexico was let off.
The whole direct cost of the war is a tax of $10
on each person in the United States, bond or free, old
or newly born, rich or poor; like all other taxes, it
is ultimately to be paid by the labor of the country,
by the men who work with their hands, chiefly by poor
men. The twenty-million-headed nation, blindly led
by guides not blind, little thought of this when they
shouted at each famous victory, and denounced hum
ble men who both considered the natural justice of
the war, and counted its cost.
Mr. Polk found the nation with a debt of $17,-
075,445 ; he left it with a debt of $64,938,401. That
was the debt on the 4th of March, 1849.
Mr. Polk refused his signature to three bills passed
by Congress ; one making " appropriations for the
improvement of certain harbors and rivers," one for
the ascertainment and satisfaction of " claims of
American citizens " on France before the 31st of
July, 1801, a third " for continuing certain works
in the territory of Wisconsin, and for other purposes."
It is a little remarkable to find a man who commenced
war upon Mexico by invading her territory, seized
with such scruples about violating the Constitution
while paying an honest debt. The Constitution which
can be violated to promote slavery, can easily afford
an excuse for the neglect of justice.
Mr. Polk has gone to the Judge of all men, who is

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 87
also their Father. The hurrah of the multitude and
the applause of an irresponsible party are of no more
value than the water which a Methodist minister
sprinkled on the head of the dying man. His wealth
became nothing; his power and his fame went back
to those that gave; at the grave's mouth his friends
(and he had friends) forsook him; and the monarch
of the nation, the master of negro slaves, the author
of a war, was alone with his God. Not a slave in the
whole wide world would have taken his place. But
God sees not as man. Here let us leave him, not with
out pity for his earthly history — not without love
for a brother man whose weakness, not his wicked
ness, wrought for our nation such shame and woe.
He proved by experiment that his was " a nomination
not fit to be made ; " not fit to be confirmed after the
convention had made it ; he demonstrated by experi
ment the folly of putting a little man intoi a great
man's place ; the folly of taking the mere creature
of a party to* be the President of a nation. It was
not the first time this had been done, nor the last.
Yet such is the structure of government and society
in America, such the character of the people, so young,
so free, SO' fresh, and strong — that not even such an
administration as Mr. Polk's can permanently impede
the nation's march. Cattle and corn were never more
abundant. Foreigners came here in great numbers,
220,483 in the year 1848. Our total increase must
have been considerably more than half a million a
year. Not long ago men sneered at America — a
republic could not hold its own, or only with men like
Washington at its head. But in 1848, when the na
tions of Europe were convulsed with revolutions, whose
immediate failure is now the joy of the enemies of man-

88 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
kind, west of the ocean not less than east thereof —
America stood firm, though her nominal guide was only
James K. Polk. Ours is the most complicated gov
ernment in the world, but it resembles the complica
tion of the human body, not that of a fancy watch.
Our increase in wealth was greater far than our pro
portionate growth of numbers. When trade is free,
and labor free, and institutions free for all men, there
is no danger that men will multiply faster than bread to
fill their mouths. This is God's world and not the
devil's. We are a new people in a new world; flexible still,
and ready to take the impress of a great idea. Shame
on us that we choose such leaders ; men with no noble
gifts of leadership, no lofty ideas, no humane aims;
men that defile the continent with brother's blood most
wickedly poured out ! The President of the Democrats
showed himself the ally of the autocrats of the East.
The good things of Mr. Polk's administration we
have spoken of and duly honored; the abomination
thereof — whence came that? From the same source
out of which so much evil has already come: from
slavery. A nation, like a man, is amenable to1 the law
of" God ; suffers for its sin, and must suffer till it ends
the sin. In the North, national unity of action is
preserved with little sacrifice of individual variety of
action; the union of the people and the freedom of
the person are carefully kept secure. Hence each
man has as much freedom as he can have in the pres
ent state of physical, moral, and social science. But
in the South it is not so; there, in a population of
7,334,431 persons, there are 2,486,326 slaves; so if
the average amount of freedom in the North be rep
resented by one, in the South it will be but about two-

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 89
thirds ; it is doubtful that the inhabitants of any part
of Europe, except Russia and Turkey, have less.
Think you, O reader, while we thus trample on the
rights of millions of men, we shall not suffer for the
crime? No! God forbid that we should not suffer!
There are two things the nation has to fear — two
modes of irresponsible power. One is the power of
party; one the power of gold. Mr. Polk was the
creature of a party; his ideas were party ideas, his
measures party measures, his acts party acts, himself
a party man. A party can make a President, as a
heathen his idol, out of anything; no material is too
vulgar; but a party cannot make a great man out
of all the little ones which can be scented out by the
keenest convention which ever met. The Democratic
party made Mr. Polk; sustained him; but no huzzas
could make him a great man, a just man, or a fair
man. No king is more tyrannical than a party when
it has the power; no despot more irresponsible. The
Democrats and Whigs are proof of this. One has
noble instincts and some noble ideas — so had the
other once; but consider the conduct of the Baltimore
Convention in 1844 ; their conduct for five years after.
Consider the convention of Philadelphia in 1848, and
the subsequent conduct of the Whigs! This irre
sponsible power of party has long been controlled by
the South.
The irresponsible power of gold appears in two
forms, as it is held by individuals or corporations. The
power of gold, when vast sums are amassed by a
single individual who owns more property than five
counties of Massachusetts, is certainly dangerous, and
of an evil tendency. But yet as the individual is
transient, it is not presently alarming; a wise law,

90 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
unwelcome often to the rich man, limits his control
to a few years. His children may be fathers of poor
men. But when vast sums are held by a corporation,
permanent in itself, though composed of fleeting ele
ments, this power, which no statute of mortmain here
holds in check, becomes alarming as well as danger
ous. This power of gold belongs to the North, and
is likewise irresponsible. Sometimes the two help bal
ance, and counteract one another. It was so in the
administration of Jackson and Van Buren. Jackson
set the power of party to smite the power of gold.
Even Mr. Polk did so in two remarkable instances.
But this is not always to be expected; the two' are
natural allies. The feudalism of birth, depending
on a Caucasian descent, and the feudalism of gold,
depending on its dollars, are of the same family, only
settled in different parts of the land; they are true
yoke-fellows. The slaveocracy of the South, and the
plutocracy of the North, are born of the same mother.
Now, for the first time for many years, they have
stricken hands ; but the Northern power of gold at the
Philadelphia convention was subjugated by the South
ern power of party, and lent itself a willing
tool. Together they have selected the man of their
choice, confessedly ignorant of politics, of small abil
ity, and red with war; placed him on the throne of
the nation. The slaveocracy and the plutocracy each
gave him its counsel. By his experiment he is to
demonstrate his fitness, his impotence, or his crime.
He is on trial before the nation. It is not ours to
judge, still less to prejudge him. Let General Tay
lor be weighed in an even balance. We wish there
might be a more honorable tale to tell of the first mere
military chief the nation ever chose. There are great

ADMINISTRATION OF POLK 91
problems before the nation, involving the welfare of
millions of men. We pause, with hope and fear, for
the Whigs to soive them as they can under the admin
istration of Taylor and Fillmore.

HI
THE STATE OF THE NATION
1850
Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any
people. _ Proverbs xjy. 34>
We come together to-day, by the governor's proc
lamation, to give thanks to God for our welfare, not
merely for our happiness as individuals or as families,
but for our welfare as a people. How can we better
improve this opportunity, than by looking a little into
the condition of the people? And accordingly I in
vite your attention to a sermon of the State of this
Nation. I shall try to speak of the condition of the
nation itself, then of the causes of that condition, and,
in the third place, of the dangers that threaten, or are
alleged to threaten, the nation.
First, of our condition. Look about you in Bos
ton. Here are a hundred and forty thousand souls,
living in peace and in comparative prosperity. I
think, without doing injustice to the other side of the
water, there is no city in the Old World, of this pop
ulation, with so' much intelligence, activity, morality,
order, comfort, and general welfare, and, at the same
time, with so little of the opposite of all these. I
know the faults of Boston, and I would not disguise
them; the poverty, unnatural poverty, which shivers
in the cellar; the unnatural wealth which bloats in the
parlor; the sin which is hid in the corners of the jail;
and the more dangerous sin which sets up Christian
ity for a pretense ; the sophistry which lightens in the
92

STATE OF THE NATION 93
newspapers, and thunders in the pulpit — I know all
these things, and do not pretend to disguise them ; and
still I think no city of the Old World, of the same
population, has so much which good men prize, and
so little which good men deplore.
See the increase of material wealth; the buildings
for trade and for homes ; the shops and ships. This
year Boston will add to her possessions some ten or
twenty millions of dollars, honestly and earnestly got.
Observe the neatness of the streets, the industry of
the inhabitants, their activity of mind, the orderliness
of the people, the signs of comfort. Then consider
the charities of Boston; those limited to our own bor
der, and those which extend further, those beautiful
charities which encompass the earth with their sweet
influence. Look at the schools, a monument of which
the city may well be proud, in spite of their defects.
But Boston, though we proudly call it the Athens
of America, is not the pleasantest thing in New Eng
land to look at ; it is the part of Massachusetts which
I like the least to look at, spite of its excellence. Look
further, at the whole of Massachusetts, and you see a
fairer spectacle. There is less wealth at Provincetown,
in proportion to the numbers, but there is less want ;
there is more comfort; property is more evenly and
equally distributed there than here, and the welfare of
a country never so much depends upon the amount of
its wealth, as on the mode in which its wealth is dis
tributed. In the State, there are about one hundred
and fifty thousand families — some nine hundred and
seventy-five thousand persons, living with a degree of
comfort, which, I think, is not anywhere enjoyed by
such a population in the Old World. They are mainly
industrious, sober, intelligent, and moral. Everything

94 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
thrives ; agriculture, manufactures, commerce. " The
carpenter encourages the goldsmith; he that smites
the anvil, him that smootheth with the hammer." Look
at the farms, where intelligent labor wins bread and
beauty both, out of the sterile soil and climate not over-
indulgent. Behold the shops all over the State; the
small shops where the shoemaker holds his work in
his lap, and draws his thread by his own strong mus
cles ; and the large shops where machines, animate with
human intelligence, hold, with iron grasp, their costlier
work in their lap>, and spin out the delicate staple of Sea
Island cotton. Look at all this ; it is a pleasant sight.
Look at our hundreds of villages, by river, mountain,
and sea ; behold the comfortable homes, the people well
fed, well clad, well instructed. Look at the school-
houses, the colleges of the people ; at the higher sem
inaries of learning; at the poor man's real college
further back in the interior, where the mechanic's and
farmer's son gets his education, often a poor one,
still something to' be proud of. Look at the churches,
where, every Sunday, the best words of Hebrew and of
Christian saints are read out of this Book, and all
men are asked, once in the week, to remember they
have a Father in heaven, a faith to swear by, and a
heaven to live for, and a conscience to keep. I know
the fault of these churches. I am not in the habit of
excusing them ; still I know their excellence, and I will
not be the last man to acknowledge that. Look at the
roads of earth and iron which join villages together,
and make the State a whole. Follow the fisherman
from his rocky harbor at Cape Ann ; follow the mari
ner in his voyage round the world of waters ; see the
industry, the intelligence, and the comfort of the peo
ple. I think Massachusetts is a State to be thankful

STATE OF THE NATION 95
for. There are faults in her institutions and in her
laws, that need change very much. In her form of
society, in her schools, in her colleges, there is much
which clamors loudly for alteration — very much in
her churches to be Christianized. These changes are
going quietly forward, and will in time be brought
about. I love to look on this State, its material prosperity,
its increase in riches, its intelligence and industry,
and the beautiful results that are seen all about us
to-day. I love to look on the face of the people, in
halls and churches, in markets and factories ; to think
of our great ideas ; of the institutions which have come
of them ; of our schools and colleges, and all the institu
tions for making men wiser and better; to think of
the noble men we have in the midst of us, in every
walk of life, who eat an honest bread, who love man
kind, and love God, who have consciences they mean
to keep, and souls which they intend to save.
The great business of society is not merely to have
farms, and ships, and shops — the greater shops and
the less — but to have men; men that are conscious
of their manhood, self-respectful, earnest men, that
have a faith in the living God. I do not think we have
many men of genius. We have very few that I call
great men ; I wish there were more ; but we have an
intelligent, an industrious, and noble people here in
Massachusetts, which we may be proud of.
Let us go a step further. New England is like
Massachusetts in the main, with local differences only.
All the North is like New England in the main; this
portion is better in one thing; that portion worse in
another thing. Our ideas are their ideas; our insti
tutions are the same. Some of the Northern States

96 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
have institutions better than we. They have added
to our experience. In revising their constitutions and
laws, or in making new ones, they go beyond us, they
introduce new improvements, and those new improve
ments will give those States the same advantage over
us, which a new mill, with new and superior machinery,
has over an old mill, with old and inferior machinery.
By and by we shall see the result, and take counsel from
it, I trust.
All over the North we find the same industry and
thrift, and similar intelligence. Here attention is
turned to agriculture, there to mining; but there is a
similar progress and zeal for improvement. Atten
tion is bestowed on schools and colleges, on academies
and churches. There is the same abundance of ma
terial comfort. Population advances rapidly, pros
perity in a greater ratio. Everywhere new swarms
pour forth from the old hive, and settle in some con
venient nook, far off in the West. So the frontier
of civilization every year goes forward, further from
the ocean. Fifty years ago it was on the Ohio; then
on the Mississippi; then on the upper Missouri; pres
ently its barrier will be the Rocky Mountains, and
soon it will pass beyond that bar, and the tide of the
Atlantic will sweep over to the Pacific — yea, it is al
ready there! The universal Yankee freights his
schooner at Bangor, at New Bedford, and at Boston,
with bricks, timber, frame-houses, and other " notions,"
and by and by drops his anchor in the smooth Pacific,
in the Bay of St. Francis. We shall see there, ere
long, the sentiments of New England, the ideas of New
England, the institutions of New England ; the school-
house, the meeting-house, the court-house, the town-
house. There will be the same industry, thrift, intel-

STATE OF THE NATION 97
h'gence, morality, and religion, and the idle ground
that has hitherto borne nothing but gold, will bear
upon its breast a republic of men more precious than
the gold of Ophir, or the rubies of the East.
Here I wish I could stop. But this is not all. The
North is not the whole nation; New England is not
the only type of people. There are other States
differing widely from this. In the Southern States
you find a soil more fertile under skies more genial.
Through what beautiful rivers the AUeghenies pour
their tribute to the sea! What streams beautify the
land in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi !
There genial skies rain beauty on the soil. Nature is
wanton of her gifts. There rice, cotton, and sugar
grow; there the olive, the orange, the fig, all find a
home. The soil teems with luxuriance. But there is
not the same wealth, nor the same comfort. Only
the ground is rich. You witness not a similar thrift.
Strange is it, but in 1840 the single State of New
York alone earned over four million dollars more
than the six States of North and South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi! The
annual earnings of little Massachusetts, with her seven
thousand eight hundred square miles, are nine mil
lion dollars more than the earnings of all Florida,
Georgia, and South Carolina! The little county of
Essex, with ninety-five thousand souls in 1840, earned
more than the large State of South Carolina, with
five hundred and ninety-five thousand.
In those States we miss the activity, intelligence, and
enterprise of the North. You do not find the little
humble school-house at every corner; the frequent
meeting-house does not point its taper finger to the
sky. Villages do not adorn the margin of the moun-
XIII— 7

98 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tain stream, and sea ; shops do not ring with industry ;
roads of earth and iron are poorer and less common.
Temperance, morality, comfort are not there as here.
In the slave States, in 1840, there were not quite
three hundred and two thousand youths and maidens
in all the schools, academies, and colleges of the South ;
but in 1840, in the free States of the North there were
more than two million two hundred and twelve thou
sand in such institutions ! Little Rhode Island has five
thousand more girls and boys at school than large
South Carolina. The State of Ohio alone has more
than seventeen thousand children at school beyond
what the whole fifteen slave States can boast. The
permanent literature of the nation all comes from
the North; your historians are from that quarter —
your Sparkses, your Bancrofts, your Hildreths, and
Prescotts, and Ticknors ; the poets are from the same
quarter — your Whittiers and Longf ellows, and Low
ells, and Bryants ; the men of literature and religion —
your Channings, and Irvings, and Emersons — are
from the same quarter ! Preaching — it is everywhere,
and sermons are as thick almost as autumnal leaves ;
but who ever heard of a great or famous clergyman
in a Southern State? of a great and famous sermon
that rang through the nation from that quarter? No
man. Your Edwards of old time, and your Beechers,
old and young, your Channing and Buckminster, and
the rest, names which throng to every man's lips — all
are from the North. Nature has done enough for the
South ; God's cup of blessing runs over — and yet you
see the result ! But there has been no pestilence at the
South more than at the North; no earthquake has
torn the ground beneath their feet ; no war has come
to disturb them more than us. The government has

STATE OF THE NATION 99
never laid a withering hand on their commerce, their
agriculture, their schools and colleges, their litera
ture and their church.
Still, letting alone the South and the North as
such, not considering either exclusively, we are one
nation. What is a nation? It is one of the great
parties in the world. It is a sectional party, having
geographical limits ; with a party organization, party
opinions, party mottoes, party machinery, party lead
ers, and party followers ; with some capital city for
its party headquarters. There has been an Assyrian
party, a British, a Persian, an Egyptian, and a Roman
party ; there is now a Chinese party, and a Russian, a
Turkish, a French, and an English party ; these are
also called nations. We belong to the American party,
and that includes the North as well as the South; and
so all are brothers of the same party, differing amongst
ourselves — but from other nations in this, that we are
the American party, and not the Russian nor the
English. We ought to look at the whole American party, the
North and South, to see the total condition of the
people. Now at this moment there is no lack of cat
tle and corn and cloth in the United States, North or
South, only they are differently distributed in the dif
ferent parts of the land. But still there is a great
excitement. Men think the nation is in danger, and
for many years there has not been so great an outcry
and alarm amongst the politicians. The cry is raised,
" The Union is in danger ! " and if the Union falls,
we are led to suppose that everything falls. There will
be no more Thanksgiving Days ; there will be anarchy
and civil war, and the ruin of the American people!
It is curious to see this material plenty, on the one

100 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
side, and this political alarm and confusion on the
other. Let me now come to the next point, and consider the
causes of our present condition. This will involve
a consideration of the cause of our prosperity and of
our alarm.
1. First, there are some causes which depend on
God entirely ; such as the nature of the country, soil,
climate, and the like; its minerals, and natural pro
ductions; its seas and harbors, mountains and rivers.
In respect to these natural advantages, the country
is abundantly favored, but the North less so than the
South. Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama, certainly
have the advantage over Maine, New Hampshire, and
Ohio. That I pass by ; a cause which depends wholly
on God.
2. Then again, this is a wide and new country. We
have room to spread. We have not to contend against
old institutions, established a thousand years ago ; and
that is one very great advantage. I make no doubt
that in crossing the ocean, our fathers helped forward
the civilization of the world at least a thousand years ;
I mean to say, it would have taken mankind a thou
sand years longer to reach the condition we have at
tained in New England, if the attempt had of ne
cessity been made on the soil of the Old World and
in the face of its institutions.
3. Then, as a third thing, much depends on the pe
culiar national character. Well, the freemen in the
North and South are chiefly from the same race, this
indomitable Caucasian stock; mainly from the same
composite stock, the tribe produced by the mingling
of Saxon, Danish, and Norman blood. That makes
the present English nation, and the American also.

STATE OF THE NATION 101
This is a very powerful tribe of men, possessing some
very noble traits of character; active and creative in
all the arts of peace ; industrious as a nation never was
before; enterprising, practical; fond of liberty, fond
also of law, capable of organizing themselves into
great masses, and acting with a complete concert and
unity of action. In these respects, L think this tribe,
which I will call the English tribe, is equal to any
5ace-of men. Jn_±he world that has been or is; perhaps
superior to, any race that, has Jjeen^deyeloped Jhrfcherto.
But in what relates to the higher reason and imagina
tion, to the affections and to the soul, I think this tribe
is not so eminent as some others have been. North
and South, the people are alike of Anglo-Norman
descent. 4. Another cause of our prosperity, which depends
a great deal on ourselves, is this — the absence of war
and of armies. In France, with a population of less
than forty millions, half a million are constantly under
arms. The same state of things prevails substantially
in Austria, Prussia, and in all the German States. Here
in America, with a population of twenty millions, there
is not one in a thousand that is a soldier or marine.
In time of peace, I think we waste vast sums in mili
tary preparations, as we did in actual war not long
since. Still, when I compare this nation with others,
I think we have cause to felicitate ourselves on the
absence of military power.
5. Again, much depends on the past history of the
race; and here there is a wide difference between the
different parts of the country. New England was set
tled by a religious colony. I will not say that all the
men who came here from 1620 to 1650 were moved by
religious motives ; but the controlling men were brought

102 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
here by these motives, and no other. Many who cared
less for religious ideas, came for the sake of a great
moral idea, for the sake of obtaining a greater degree
of civil freedom than they had at home. Now the
Pilgrims and the Puritans are only a little way behind
us. The stiff ruff, the peaked beard, the " Prophesy
ing Book " are only six or seven generations behind the
youngest of us. The character of the Puritans has
given to New England much of its present character
and condition. They founded schools and colleges ;
they trained up their children in a stern discipline
which we shall not forget for two centuries to come.
The remembrance of their trials, their heroism, and
their piety affects our preaching to-day, and our poli
tics also. The difference between New England and
New York, from 1750 to 1790, is the difference be
tween the sons of the religious colony and the sons
of the worldly colony. You know something of New
York politics before the Revolution, and also since
the Revolution; the difference between New York and
New England politics at that time, is the difference
between the sons of religious men and the sons of men
who cared very much less for religion.
Just now, when I said that all the North is like New
England, I meant substantially so. The West is our
own daughter. New England has helped people the
western part of the State of New York ; and the best
elements of New England character mingling with
others, its good qualities will appear in the politics of
that mighty State.
The South, in the main, had a very different origin
from the North. I think few if any persons settled
there for religion's sake ; or for the sake of freedom
in the State. It was not a moral idea which sent men

STATE OF THE NATION 103
to Virginia, Georgia, and Carolina. " Men do not
gather grapes of thorns." The difference of the seed
will appear in the difference of the crop. In the char
acter of the people of the North and South, it appears
at this day. The North is not to be praised, nor the
South to be blamed for this ; they could not help it :
but certainly it is an advantage to be descended from
a race of industrious, moral and religious men; to
have been brought up under their training, to have
inherited their ideas and institutions, — and this is a
circumstance which we make quite too little account of.
I pass by that.
6. There are other causes which depend on ourselves
entirely. Much depends on the political and social or
ganization of the people. There is no denying that
government has a great influence on the character of
the people ; on the character of every man. The dif
ference between the development of England and the
development of Spain at this day, is mainly the result
of different forms of government ; for three centuries
ago the Spaniards were as noble a race as the English.
A government is carried on by two agencies : the first
is public opinion, and the next is public law, — the fun
damental law which is the Constitution, and the sub
sidiary laws which carry out the ideas of the Consti
tution. In a government like this, public opinion
always precedes the laws, overrides them, takes the place
of laws when there are none, and hinders their execution
when they do not correspond to public opinion. Thus
the public opinion of South Carolina demands that
a free colored seaman from the North shall be shut
up in jail at his employer's cost. The public opinion
of Charleston is stronger than the public law of the
United States on that point, stronger than the Con-

104 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
stitution, and nobody dares execute the laws of the
United States in that matter. These two things should
always be looked at, to understand the causes of a
nation's condition — the public opinion, as well as the
public law. Let me know the opinions of the men be
tween twenty-five and thirty-five years of age, and I
know what the laws will be.
Now in public opinion and in the laws of the United
States, there are two distinct political ideas. I shall
call one the democratic, and the other the despotic
idea. Neither is wholly sectional; both chiefly so.
Each is composed of several simpler ideas. Each
has enacted laws, and established institutions. This
is the democratic idea; that all men are endowed
by their Creator with certain natural rights, which
only the pqssessor can alienate; that all men are equal
in these rights ; that amongst them is the right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that the busi
ness of the government is to preserve for every man
all of these rights until he alienates them.
This democratic idea is founded in human nature,
and comes from the nature of God who made human
.nature. To carry it out politically is to execute jus
tice, which is the will of God. This idea, in its reali
zation, leads to a democracy, a government of all,
for all, by all. Such a government aims to give every
man all his natural rights ; it desires to have political
power in all hands, property in all hands, wisdom in all
heads, goodness in all hearts, religion in all souls. I
mean the religion that makes a man self -respectful,
earnest, and faithful to the Infinite God, that dis
poses him to give all men their rights, and to claim
his own rights at all times ; the religion which is piety
within you, and goodness in the manifestation. Such

STATE OF THE NATION 105
a government has laws, and the aim thereof is to give
justice to all men; it has officers to execute these laws,
for the sake of justice. Such a government founds
schools for all ; looks after those most who are most in
need; defends and protects the feeblest as well as the
richest and most powerful. The State is for the indi
vidual, and for all the individuals, and so it reverences
justice, where the rights of all, and the interests of all,
exactly balance. It demands free speech; everything
is open to examination, discussion, " agitation," if you
will. Thought is to be free, speech to be free, work
to be free, and worship to be free. Such is the demo
cratic idea, and such the State which it attempts to
found. The despotic idea is just the opposite: That all men
are not endowed by their Creator with certain natural
rights which only the possessor can alienate, but that
one man has a natural right to overcome and make use
of some other men for his advantage and their hurt ;
that all men are not equal in their rights ; that all men
have not a natural right to life, liberty, and the pur
suit of happiness ; that government is not instituted to
preserve these natural rights for all.
This idea is founded on the excess of human passions,
and it represents the compromise between a man's idle
ness and his appetite. It is not based on facts eternal
in human nature, but on facts transient in human na
ture. It does not aim to do justice to all, but injustice
to some ; to take from one man what he ought not to
lose, and give to another what he ought not to get. '
This leads to aristocracy in various forms, to the
government of all by means of a part and for the
sake of a part. In this state of things political power
must be in few hands ; property in few hands ; wisdom

106 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
in few heads; goodness in few hearts, and religion in
few souls. I mean the religion which leads a man to
respect himself and his fellow-men; to be earnest, and
to trust in the Infinite God; to demand his rights of
other men and to give their rights to them.
Neither the democratic nor the despotic idea is fully
made real anywhere in the world. There is no perfect
democracy, nor perfect aristocracy. There are demo
crats in every actual aristocracy ; despots in every
n actual democracy. But in the Northern States the
democratic idea prevails extensively and chiefly, and
we have made attempts at establishing a democratic
government. In the Southern States the despotic idea
prevails extensively and chiefly, and they have made at
tempts to establish an aristocratic government. In an
aristocracy there are two classes : the people to be gov
erned, and the governing class, the nobility which is
to govern. This nobility may be movable, and depend
on wealth ; or immovable, and depend on birth. In the
Southern States the nobility is immovable, and depends
on color.
In 1840, in the North there were ten million free
men, and in the South five million free men and three
million slaves. Three-eighths of the population have
no human rights at all — privileges as cattle, not rights
as men. There the slave is protected by law, as your
horse and your ox, but has few more human rights.
Here, now, is the great cause of the difference in the
condition of the North and South; of the difference
in the material results, represented by towns and vil
lages, by farms and factories, ships and shops. Here
is the cause of the difference in schools, colleges,
churches, and in the literature ; the cause of the differ
ence in men. The South, with its despotic idea, dis-

STATE OF THE NATION 107
honors labor, but wishes to compromise between its idle
ness and its appetite, and so kidnaps men to do its
work. The North, with its democratic idea, honors
labor ; does not compromise between its idleness and its
appetite, but lays its bones to the work to satisfy its
appetite; instead of kidnapping a man who can run
away, it kidnaps the elements, subdues them to its com
mand, and makes them do its work. It does not kid
nap a freeman, but catches the winds, and chains them
to its will. It lays hands on fire and water, and breeds
a new giant, which " courses land and ocean without
rest," or serves while it stands and waits, driving the
mills of the land. It kidnaps the Connecticut and the
Merrimac ; does not send slave-ships to Africa, but en
gineers to New Hampshire ; and it requires no fugitive
slave law to keep the earth and sea from escaping, or
the rivers of New England from running up hill.
This is not quite all. I have just now tried to hint
at the causes of the difference in the condition of the
people, North and South. Now let me show the cause
of the agitation and alarm. We begin with a sen
timent ; that spreads to an idea ; the idea grows to an
act, to an institution ; then it has done its work.
Men seek to spread their sentiments and ideas. The
democratic idea tries to spread; the despotic idea tries
to spread. For a long time the nation held these two
ideas in its bosom, not fully conscious of either of
them. Both came here in a state of infancy, so to say,
with our fathers; the democratic idea very dimly un
derstood; the despotic idea not fully carried out, yet
it did a great mischief in the State and Church. In
the Declaration of Independence, writ by a young
man, only the democratic idea appears, and that idea
never got so distinctly stated before. But mark you,

108 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and see the confusion in men's minds. That demo
cratic idea was thus distinctly stated by a man who
was a slaveholder almost all his life; and unless pub
lic rumor has been unusually false, he has left some
of his own offspring under the influence of the despotic
and not the democratic idea; slaves and not free men.
In the Constitution of the United States these two
ideas appear. It was thought for a long time they
were not incompatible ; it was thought the great Amer
ican party might recognize both, and a compromise
was made between the two. It was thought each might
go about its own work and let the other alone ; that the
hawk and the hen might dwell happily together in the
same coop, each lay her own eggs, and rear her own
brood, and neither put a claw upon the other.
In the meantime each founded institutions after its
kind; in the Northern States, democratic institutions;
in the Southern, aristocratic. What once lay latent
in the mind of the nation has now become patent. The
thinking part of the nation sees the difference between
the two. Some men are beginning to see that the two
are completely incompatible, and cannot be good
friends. Others are asking us to shut our eyes and not
see it, and they think that so long as our eyes are shut,
all things will go on peacefully. Such is the wisdom
of the ostrich.
At first the trouble coming from this source was a
very little cloud, far away on the horizon, not bigger
than a man's hand. It seemed so in 1804, when the
brave senator from Massachusetts, a Hartford Con
vention Federalist, a name that calls the blood to some
rather pale cheeks now-a-days, proposed to alter the
Constitution of the United States, and cut off the
North from all responsibility for slavery. It was a

STATE OF THE NATION 109
little cloud not bigger than a man's hand; now it is a
great cloud which covers the whole hemisphere of
heaven, and threatens to shut out the day.
In the last session of Congress, ten months long, the
great matter was the contest between the two ideas.
All the newspapers rang with the battle. Even the
pulpits now and then alluded to it; forgetting their
" decency, that they must preach ' only religion,' which
has not the least to do with politics and the welfare of
the State."
Each idea has its allies, and it is worth while to run
our eye over the armies and see what they amount to.
The idea of despotism has for its allies : —
1. The slaveholders of the South with their depen
dents; and the servile class who take their ideas from
the prominent men about them. This servile class is
more numerous at the South than even at the North.
2. It has almost all the distinguished politicians of
the North and South; the distinguished great politi
cians in the Congress of the nation, and the distin
guished little politicians in the Congresses of the sev
eral States.
3. It has likewise the greater portion of the wealthy
and educated men in many large towns of the North;
with their dependents and the servile men who take
their opinions from the prominent class about them.
And here, I am sorry to say, I must reckon the greater
portion of the prominent and wealthy clergy, the clergy
in the large cities. Once this class of men were mas
ters of the rich and educated; and very terrible mas
ters they were in Madrid and in Rome. Now their
successors are doing penance for those old sins. " It
is a long lane," they say, " which has no turn," and
the clerical has had a very short and complete turn.

110 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
When I say the majority of the clergy in prominent
situations in the large cities are to be numbered among
the allies of the despotic idea, and are a part of the
great pro-slavery army, I know there are some noble
and honorable exceptions, men who do not fear the
face of gold, but reverence the face of God.
Then on the side of the democratic idea there are : —
1. The great mass of the people at the North;
farmers, mechanics, and the humbler clergy. This
does not appear so at first sight, because these men
have not much confidence in themselves, and require
to be shaken many times before they are thoroughly
waked up.
2. Beside that, there are a few politicians at the
North who are on this side; some distinguished ones in
Congress, some less distinguished ones in the various
legislatures of the North.
3. Next there are men, North and South, who look
at the great causes of the welfare of nations, and
make up their minds historically, from the facts of
human history, against despotism. Then there are
such as study the great principles of justice and truth,
and judge from human nature, and decide against
despotism. And then such as look at the law of God,
and believe Christianity is sense and not nonsense ; that
Christianity is the ideal for earnest men, not a pre
tense for a frivolous hypocrite. Some of these men
are at the South ; the greater number are in the North ;
and here again you see the difference between the son
of the planter and the son of the Puritan.
Here are the allies, the threefold armies of despotism
on the one side, and of democracy on the other.
Now it is not possible for these two ideas to continue
to live in peace. For a long time each knew not the

STATE OF THE NATION 111
other, and they were quiet. The men who clearly
knew the despotic idea, thought, in 1787, it would die
" of a rapid consumption : " they said so ; but the
culture of cotton has healed its deadly wound, at least
for the present. After the brief state of quiet, there
came a state of armed neutrality. They were hostile,
but under bonds to keep the peace. Now the neu
trality is over; attempts are made to compromise, to
compose the difficulty. Various peace measures were
introduced to the Senate last summer; but they all
turned out war measures, every one of them. Now
there is a trial of strength between the two. Which
shall recede? which be extended? Freedom or slav
ery ? That is the question ; refuse to look at it as we
will, — refrain or refrain not from " political agita
tion," that is the question.
In the last Congress it is plain the democratic idea
was beaten. Congress said to California, " You may
come in, and you need not keep slaves unless you
please." It said, " You shall not bring slaves to
Washington for sale, you may do that at Norfolk,
Alexandria, and Georgetown, it is just as well, and
this ' will pacify the North.' " Utah and New Mexico
were left open to slavery, and fifty thousand or sev
enty thousand square miles and ten million dollars were
given to Texas lest she should " dissolve the Union,"
— without money or men ! To crown all, the Fugitive
Slave Bill became a law.
I think it is very plain that the democratic idea was
defeated, and it is easy to see why. The three pow
ers which are the allies of the despotic idea, were ready,
and could act in concert — the Southern slaveholders,
the leading politicians, the rich and educated men of
the Northern cities, with their appendages and servile

112 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
adherents. But since then, the conduct of the people
in the North, and especially in this State, shows that
the nation has not gone that way yet. I think the
nation never will ; that the idea of freedom will never
be turned back in this blessed North. I feel sure it
will at last overcome the idea of slavery.
I come to this conclusion, firstly, from the charac
ter of the tribe: this Anglo-Norman-Saxon tribe loves
law, deliberation, order, method ; it is the most method
ical race that ever lived. But it loves liberty, and
while it loves law, it loves law chiefly because it keeps
liberty; and without that it would trample law under
foot. See the conduct of England. She spent one hun
dred millions of dollars in the attempt to wipe slavery
from the West Indies. She keeps a fleet on the coast
of Africa to put down the slave-trade there — where
we also have, I think, a sloop-of-war. She has just
concluded a treaty with Brazil for the suppression of
the slave-trade in that country, one of her greatest
achievements in that work for many years.
See how the sons of the Puritans, as soon as they
came to a consciousness of what the despotic idea was,
took their charters and wiped slavery clean out, first
from Massachusetts, and then from the other States,
one after another. See how every Northern State, in
revising its constitution, or in making a new one, de
clares all men are created equal, that all have the right
to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Then the religion of the North demands the same
thing. Professors may try to prove that the Old Tes
tament establishes slavery; that the New Testament
justifies the existence of slavery ; that Paul's epistle to
Philemon was nothing more than another fugitive

STATE OF THE NATION 113
slave law, that Paul himself sent back a runaway ; but
it does not touch the religion of the North. We know
better. We say if the Old Testament does that and the
New Testament, so much the worse for them both.
We say, " Let us look and see if Paul was so be
nighted," and we can judge for ourselves that the pro
fessor was mistaken more than the apostle.
Again, the spirit of the age, which is the public
opinion of the nations, is against slavery. It has
broken down in England, France, Italy, and Spain;
it cannot stand long against civilization and good
sense ; against the political economy and the religious
economy of the civilized world. The genius of free
dom stands there, year out, year in, and hurls fire
brands into the owl's nest of the prince of darkness,
continually, — and is all this with no effect?
Besides that, it is against the law of God. That
guides this universe, treating with even-handed justice
the great geographical parties, Austrian, Roman,
British, or American, with the same justice wherewith
it dispenses its blessings to the httle local factions that
divide the village for a day ; marshaling mankind for
ward in its mighty progress towards wisdom, freedom,
goodness towards men, and piety towards God.
Of the final issue I have no doubt; but no man can
tell what shall come to pass in the meantime. We
see that political parties in the State are snapped
asunder : whether the national party shall not be broken
up, no man can say. In 1750, on the 28th day of
November, no man in Old England or New England
could tell what 1780 would bring forth. No man,
North or South, can tell to-day what 1880 will bring
to pass. He must be a bold man who declares to the
nation that no new political machinery shall be intro-
XIII— 8

114 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
duced, in the next thirty years, to our national mill.
We know not what a day shall bring forth, but we
know that God is on the side of right and justice, and
that they will prevail so long as God is God.
Now, then, to let alone details, and generalize into
one all the causes of our condition, this is the result:
We have found welfare just so far as we have followed
the democratic idea, and enacted justice into law. We
have lost welfare just so far as we have followed the
despotic idea, and made iniquity into a statute. So
far as we have reaffirmed the ordinance of nature and
re-enacted the will of God, we have succeeded. So
far as we have refused to do that, we have failed. Of
old it was written, " Righteousness exalteth a nation :
but sin is a reproach to any people."
And now a word of our dangers. There seems no
danger from abroad; from any foreign State, un
less we begin the quarrel; none from famine. The
real danger, in one word, is this — That we shall try
to enact injustice into a law, and with the force of the
nation to make iniquity obeyed.
See some of the special forms of injustice which
threaten us, or are already here. I shall put them into
the form of ideas.
1. One, common among politicians, is, — That the
State is for a portion of the people, not the whole.
Thus it has been declared that the Constitution of the
United States did not recognize the three million slaves
as citizens, or extend to them any right which it guar
antees to other men. It would be a sad thing for the
State to declare there was a single child in the whole
land to whom it owed no protection. What, then, if
it attempts to take three millions from under its shield?
In obedience to this false idea, the counsel has been

STATE OF THE NATION 115
given, that we must abstain from all " political agita
tion " of the most important matter before the people.
We must leave that to our masters, for the State is
for them, it is not for you and me. They must say
whether we shall " agitate " and " discuss " these
things or not. The politicians are our masters, and
may lay their fingers on our lips when they will.
2. The next false idea is, — That government is
chiefly for the protection of property. This has long
been the idea on which some men legislated, but on
the 19th day of this month, the distinguished Secretary
of State,* in a speech at New York, used these words :
" The great object of government is the protection of
property at home and respect and renown abroad."
You see what the policy must be where the government
is for the protection of the hat, and only takes care
of the head so far as it serves to wear a hat. Here
the man is the accident, and the dollar is the substance
for which the man is to be protected. I think a no
tion very much Hke this prevails extensively in the
great cities of America, North and South. I think
the chief politicians of the two parties are agreed in
this — that government is for the protection of prop
erty, and everything else is subsidiary. With many
persons politics are a part of their business ; the State
House and the custom-house are only valued for their
relation to trade. This idea is fatal to a good govern
ment. Think of this, that "the great object of govern
ment is the protection of property." Tell that to
Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, and Washington,
and the older Winthrops, and the Bradfords and Car
vers ! Why ! it seems as if the buried majesty of Mas-
* Daniel Webster.

116 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
sachusetts would start out of the ground, and with its
Bible in its hand say — This is false !
3. The third false idea is this — That you are
morally bound to obey the statute, let it be never so
plainly wrong and opposed to your conscience. This
is the most dangerous of all the false ideas yet named.
Ambitious men, in an act of passion, make iniquity
into a law, and then demand that you and I, in our
act of prayer, shall submit to it and make it our daily
life; that we shall not try to repeal and discuss and
agitate it! This false idea lies at the basis of every
despot's throne, the idea that men can make right
wrong, and wrong right. It has come to be taught in
New England, to be taught in our churches — though
seldom there, to their honor be it spoken, except in
the churches of commerce in large towns — that if
wrong is law, you and I must do what it demands,
though conscience declares it is treason against man
and treason against God. The worst doctrines of
Hobbes and Filmer are thus revived.
I have sometimes been amazed at the talk of men
who call on us to keep the Fugitive Slave Law, one of
the most odious laws in a world of odious laws — a law
not fit to be made or kept. I have been amazed that
they should dare to tell us the law of God, writ on the
heavens and our hearts, never demanded we should
disobey the laws of men ! Well, suppose it were so.
Then it was old Daniel's duty at Darius's command
to give up his prayer ; but he prayed three times a day,
with his windows up. Then it was John's and Peter's
duty to forbear to preach of Christianity; but they
said, "Whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye."
Then it was the duty of Amram and Jochebed to take

STATE OF THE NATION 117
up their new-born Moses and cast him into the Nile ; for
the law of King Pharaoh, commanding it, was " consti
tutional," and " political agitation " was discounte
nanced as much in Goshen as in Boston. But Daniel
did not obey; John and Peter did not fail to preach
Christianity ; and Amram and Jochebed refused " pas
sive obedience " to the king's decree ! I think it will
take a strong man all this winter to reverse the judg
ment which the world has passed on these three cases.
However, there is another ancient case, mentioned
in the Bible, in which the laws commanded one thing and
conscience just the opposite. Here is the record of
the law : — " Now both the chief priests and the Phari
sees had given a commandment, that if any one knew
where he [Jesus] were, he should show it, that they
might take him." Of course, it became the official and
legal business of each disciple who knew where Christ
was, to make it known to the authorities. No doubt
James and John could leave all and follow him, with
others of the people who knew not the law of Moses,
and were accursed ; nay, the women, Martha and Mary,
could minister unto him of their substance, could wash
his feet with tears, and wipe them with the hairs of
their head. They did it gladly, of their own free will,
and took pleasure therein, I make no doubt. There
was no merit in that — " Any man can perform an
agreeable duty." But there was found one disciple
who could " perform a disagreeable duty." He went,
perhaps " with alacrity," and betrayed his Saviour to
the marshal of the district of Jerusalem, who was called
a centurion. Had he no affection for Jesus? No
doubt; but he could conquer his prejudices, while Mary
and John could not.
Judas Iscariot has rather a bad name in the Chris-

118 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tian world : he is called " the son of perdition," in the
New Testament, and his conduct is reckoned a " trans
gression ; " nay, it is said the devil " entered into him,"
to cause this hideous sin. But all this it seems was
a mistake; certainly, if we are to believe our repub
lican lawyers and statesmen, Iscariot only fulfilled his
" constitutional obligations." It was only " on that
point," of betraying his Saviour, that the constitutional
law required him to have anything to do with Jesus.
He took his thirty pieces of silver — about fifteen dol
lars ; a Yankee is to do it for ten, having fewer preju
dices to conquer — it was his legal fee, for value re
ceived. True, the Christians thought it was " the
wages of iniquity," and even the Pharisees — who com
monly made the commandment of God of none effect
by their traditions — dared not defile the temple with
this " price of blood ; " but it was honest money. It
was as honest a fee as any American commissioner or
deputy will ever get for a similar service. How mis
taken we are ! Judas Iscariot is not a traitor ; he was
a great patriot; he conquered his prejudices, per
formed a disagreeable duty as an officer of " high mor
als and high principle ; " he kept the law and the Con
stitution, and did all he could to " save the Union ; "
nay, he was a saint, " not a whit behind the very chief -
est apostles." " The law of God never commands us
to disobey the law of man." Sonde Iscariote, ora pro
nobis! It is a little strange to hear this talk in Boston, and
hear the doctrine of passive obedience to a law which
sets Christianity at defiance, taught here in the face of
the Adamses, and Hancock, and Washington! It is
amazing to hear this talk, respecting such a law,
amongst merchants. Do they keep the usury laws?

STATE OF THE NATION 119
I never heard of but one money-lender who kept them,*
and he has been a long time dead, and I think he left
no kith nor kin ! The temperance law, — is that kept?
The fifteen gallon law, — were men so very passive in
their obedience to that, that they could not even " agi
tate? " yet it violated no law of God — was not un
christian. When the government interferes with the
rumsellers' property, the law must be trod under foot ;
but when the law insists that a man shall be made a
slave, I must give up conscience in my act of prayer,
and stoop to the vile law men have made in their act of
passion !
It is curious to hear men talk of law and order in
Boston, when the other day one or two hundred smooth
faced boys, and youths beardless as girls, could dis
turb a meeting of three or four thousand men, for two
hours long ; and the chief of the police and the mayor
of the city stood and looked on, when a single word
from their lips might have stilled the tumult and given
honest men a hearing. f
Talk of keeping the Fugitive Slave Law! Come,
come, we know better. Men in New England know
better than this. We know that we ought not to keep
a wicked law, and that it must not be kept when the
law of God forbids !
But the effect of a law which men cannot keep with
out violating conscience, is always demoralizing.
There are men who know no higher law than the statute
of the State. When good men cannot keep a law that
is base, some bad ones will say, " Let us keep no law
at all," — then where does the blame he? On him
that enacts the outrageous law.
* The late Mr. John Parker.
f At a meeting in Faneuil Hall to welcome Mr. George
Thompson, Nov. IS, 1850.

120 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
The idea that a statute of man frees us from ob
ligation to the law of God, is a dreadful thing. When
that becomes the deliberate conviction of the great
mass of the people, North or South, then I shall despair
of human nature; then I shall despair of justice, and
despair of God. But this time will never come.
One of the most awful spectacles I ever saw, was
this : A vast multitude attempting, at an orator's sug
gestion, to howl down the " higher law ; " and when
he said, " Will you have this to rule over you ? " they
answered, " Never ! " and treated the " higher law " to
a laugh and a howl ! It was done in Faneuil Hall ; *
under the eyes of the three Adamses, Hancock, and
Washington ; and the howl rang round the venerable
arches of that hall ! I could not but ask, " Why do
the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
the rulers of the earth set themselves, and kings take
counsel against the Lord and say, ' Let us break his
bands asunder, and cast off his yoke from us.' " Then
I could not but remember that it was written, " He
that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall
have them in derision. He taketh up the isles as a
very little thing, and the inhabitants of the earth are
as grasshoppers before him." Howl down the law of
God at a magistrate's command! Do this in Boston!
Let us remember this — but with charity.
Men say there is danger of disunion, of our losing
fealty for the Constitution. I do not believe it yet!
Suppose it be so. The Constitution is the machinery
of the national mill; and suppose we agree to take it
out and put in new ; we might get worse, — very true,
but we might get better. There have been some mod-
*At the "Union meeting," two days before the delivery of
this sermon.

STATE OF THE NATION 121
ern improvements; we might introduce them to the
State as well as the mill. But I do not believe there
is this danger. I do not believe the people of Massa
chusetts think so. I think they are strongly attached
to the Union yet, and if they thought the Union was in
peril — this day, and everything the nation prizes was
likely to be destroyed, — we should not have had a
meeting of a few thousands in Faneuil Hall, but the
people would have filled up the city of Worcester with
a hundred thousand men, if need be; and they would
have come with the cartridge-box at their side, and the
firelock on their shoulder. That is the way the people
of Massachusetts would assemble if they thought there
was real danger.
I do not believe the South will withdraw from the
Union, with five million free men, and three million
slaves. I think Massachusetts would be no loser, I think
the North would be no loser ; but I doubt if the North
will yet allow them to go, or is so disposed. Do you
think the South is so mad as to wish it?
But I think I know of one cause which may dissolve
the Union — one which ought to dissolve it, if put in
action : that is, a serious attempt to execute the Fugi
tive Slave Law, here and in all the North. I mean an
attempt to recover and take back all the fugitive slaves
in the North, and to punish, with fine and imprison
ment, all who aid or conceal them. The South has
browbeat us again and again. She has smitten us on
the one cheek with " Protection," and we have turned
the other, kissing the rod; she has smitten that with
" Free Trade." She has imprisoned our citizens ;
driven off, with scorn and loathing, our officers sent
to ask constitutional justice. She has spit upon us.
Let her come to take back the fugitives — and trust
me, she " will wake up the lion."

122 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
In my humble opinion, this law is a wedge — sharp
at one end, but wide at the other — put in between
the lower planks of our Ship of State. If it be driven
home, we go to pieces. But I have no thought that
that will be done quite yet. I believe the great poli
ticians, who threaten to drive it through the gaping
seams of our argosy, will think twice before they
strike again. Nay, that they will soon be very glad
to bury the wedge " where the tide ebbs and flows four
times a day." I do not expect this of their courage,
but of their fears ; not of their justice — I am too old
for that — but of their concern for property, which
it is the " great object of government " to protect.
I know how some men talk in public, and how they
act at home. I heard a man the other day, at Faneuil
Hall, declare the law must be kept, and denounce, not
very gently, all who preached or prayed against it,
as enemies of " all law." But that was all talk, for
this very man, on that very day, had violated the law ;
had furnished the golden wheels on which fugitives rode
out of the reach of the arms which the marshal would
have been sorry to lift. I could tell things more sur
prising — but it is not wise j ust now !
I do not believe there is more than one of the New
England men who publicly helped the law into being,
but would violate its provisions ; conceal a fugitive ;
share his loaf with a runaway; furnish him golden
wings to fly with. Nay, I think it would be difficult
to find a magistrate in New England, willing to take
the public odium of doing the official duty.* I be
lieve it is not possible to find a regular jury, who will
•Subsequent events have shown the folly of this statement.
Clergymen, it is said, are wont to err, by overrating the moral
principle of men. (T. P., 1851.)

STATE OF THE NATION 123
punish a man for harboring a slave, for helping his
escape, or fine a marshal or commissioner for being a
little slow to catch a slave.* Men will talk loud in
public meetings, but they have some conscience after
all, at home. And though they howl down the higher
law in a crowd, yet conscience will make cowards of
them all, when they come to lay hands on a Christian
man, more innocent than they, and send him into slav
ery for ever! One of the commissioners of Boston
talked loud and long, last Tuesday, in favor of keep
ing the law. When he read his litany against the law
of God, and asked if men would keep the " higher
law," and got " Never " as the welcome, and " Amen "
for response — it seemed as if the law might be kept,
at least by that commissioner, and such as gave the
responses to his creed. But slave-hunting Mr.
Hughes, who came here for two of our f ellow-worship-
ers,f in his Georgia newspaper, tells a different story.
Here it is, from the Georgia Telegraph, of last Fri
day. " I called at eleven o'clock at night, at his [the
commissioner's] residence, and stated to him my busi
ness, and asked him for a warrant, saying that if I
could get a warrant, I could have the negroes [William
and Ellen Craft] arrested. He said the law did not
authorize a warrant to be issued: that it was my duty
to go and arrest the negro without a warrant, and
bring him before him ! "
This is more than I expected. " Is Saul among
the prophets ? " The men who tell us that the law
must be kept, God willing, or against His will —
* Recent experiments fortunately confirm this, and, spite of
all the unjust efforts to pack a jury, none has yet been found
to punish a man for such a " crime."
f Mr. William Craft, and Mrs. Ellen Craft.

124 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
there are Puritan fathers behind them also; Bibles
in their houses; a Christ crucified, whom they think
of; and a God even in their world, who slumbers not,
neither is weary, and is as little a respecter of parch
ments as of persons ! They know there is a people,
as well as politicians, a posterity not yet assembled,
and they would not like to have certain words writ on
their tombstone. " Traitor to the rights of mankind,"
is no pleasant epitaph. They, too, remember there is
a day after to-day ; aye, a forever ; and, " Inasmuch as
ye have not done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have not done it unto me," is a sentence
they would not like to hear at the day of judg
ment.* Much danger is feared from the " political agita
tion " of this matter. Great principles have never been
discussed without great passions, and will not be, for
some time, I suppose. But men fear to have this des
potic idea become a subject of discussion. Last
spring, Mr. Webster said here in Boston, " We shall
not see the legislation of the country proceed in the old
harmonious way, until the discussion in Congress and
out of Congress, upon the subject [of slavery], shall
be in some manner suppressed. Take that truth home
with you!" We have lately been told that political
agitation on the subject must be stopped. So it seems
this law, like that which Daniel would not keep, is
one that may not be changed, and must not be
talked of.
Now there are three modes in which attempts may
be made to stop the agitation.
1. By sending
•This also appears to have been a mistake. Still I let the
passage stand.

STATE OF THE NATION 125
"  troops, with guns and banners,
Cut short our speeches and our necks,
And break our heads to mend our manners."
That is the Austrian way, which has not yet been
tried here, and will not be.
2. By sending lecturers throughout the land, to stir
up the people to be quiet, and agitate them till they are
still ; to make them sign the pledge of total abstinence
from the discussion of this subject. That is not likely
to effect the object.
3. For the friends of silence to keep their own coun
sel — and this seems as little likely to be tried, as the
others to succeed.
Strange is it to ask us to forbear to talk on a sub
ject which involves the welfare of twenty million men !
As well ask a man in a fever not to be heated, and
a consumptive person not to cough, to pine away and
turn pale. Miserable counselors are ye all, who give
such advice! But we have seen lately the lion of the
Democrats, and the lamb of the Whigs, lie down to
gether, joined by this opinion, so gentle and so loving,
all at once, that a little child could lead them, and so
" fulfil the sure prophetic word." Yes, we have seen
the Herod of one party, and the Pilate of the other,
made friends for the sake of crucifying the freedom
of mankind.
But there is one way in which, I would modestly
hint, that we might stop all this talk " in Congress and
out of Congress ; " that is, to " discuss " the matter till
we had got at the truth, and the whole truth ; then to
" agitate " politically, till we had enacted justice into
law, and carried it out all over the North, and all over
the South. After that there would be no more dis
cussion about the Fugitive Slave Bill, than about the

126 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Boston Port Bill; no more agitation about American
slavery, than there is about the condition of the peo
ple of Babylon before the flood. I think there is no
other way in which we are likely to get rid of this dis
cussion. Such is our condition, such its causes, such our
dangers. Now, for the lesson, look a moment else
where. Look at continental Europe, at Rome, Aus
tria, Prussia, and the German States — at France.
How uncertain is every government ! France — the
stablest of them all ! Remember the revolution which
two years ago shook those States so terribly, when
all the royalty of France was wheeled out of Paris in
a street cab. Why are those States so tottering?
Whence those revolutions? They tried to make in
iquity their law, and would not give over the attempt L
Why are the armies of France five hundred thousand
strong, though the nation is at peace with all the
world? Because they tried to make injustice law!
Why do the Austrian and German monarchs fear an
earthquake of the people? Because they tread the
people down with wicked laws ! Whence came the
crushing debts of France, Austria, England? From
the same cause: from the injustice of men who made
mischief by law!
It is not for men long to hinder the march of hu
man freedom. I have no fear for that, ultimately, —
none at all, simply for this reason, that I believe in the
Infinite God. You may make your statutes; an ap
peal always lies to the higher law, and decisions ad
verse to that get set aside in the ages. Your statutes
cannot hold Him. You may gather all the dried grass
and all the straw in both continents; you may braid
it into ropes to bind down the sea ; while it is calm, you

STATE OF THE NATION 127
may laugh, and say, " Lo, I have chained the ocean ! "
and howl down the law of Him who holds the universe
as a rosebud in His hand — its every ocean but a drop
of dew. " How the waters suppress their agitation,"
you may say. But when the winds blow their trum
pets, the sea rises in its strength, snaps asunder the
bonds that had confined his mighty limbs, and the
world is littered with the idle hay! Stop the human
race in its development and march to freedom? As
well might the boys of Boston, some lustrous night,
mounting the steeples of this town, call on the stars
to stay their course ! Gently, but irresistibly, the
Greater and the Lesser Bear move round the pole;
Orion, in his mighty mail, comes up the sky ; the Bull,
the Ram, the Heavenly Twins, the Crab, the Lion, the
Maid, the Scales, and all that shining company, pur
sue their march all night, and the new day discovers
the idle urchins in their lofty places, all tired, and
sleepy > and ashamed.
It is not possible to suppress the idea of freedom,
or for ever hold down its institutions. But it is pos
sible to destroy a State; a political party with geo
graphical bounds may easily be rent asunder. It is
not impossible to shiver this American Union. But
how? What clove asunder the great British party,
one nation once in America and England? Did not
our fathers love their fatherland? Aye. They called
it home, and were loyal with abundant fealty; there
was no lack of piety for home. It was the attempt to
make old English injustice New England law! Who
did it, — the British people? Never. Their hand did
no such sacrilege! It was the merchants of London,
with the Navigation Act; the politicians of West
minster with the Stamp Act; the Tories of America,

128 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
who did not die without issue, that for office and its
gold would keep a king's unjust commands. It was
they, who drove our fathers into disunion against their
will. Is here no lesson? We love law, all of us love
it; but a true man loves it only as the safeguard of
the rights of man. If it destroys these rights, he
spurns it with his feet. Is here no lesson? Look
further, then.
Do you know how empires find their end? Yes,
the great States eat up the little. As with fish, so with
nations. Aye, but how do the great States come to
an end? By their own injustice, and no other cause.
They would make unrighteousness their law, and God
wills not that it be so. Thus they fall ; thus they die.
Look at these ancient States, the queenliest queens of
earth. There is Rome, the widow of two civilizations,
— the pagan and the Catholic. They both had her, and
unto both she bore daughters and fair sons. But, the
Niobe of nations, she boasted that her children were
holier and more fair than all the pure ideas of justice,
truth, and love, the offspring of the eternal God. And
now she sits there, transformed into stone, amid the
ruins of her children's bones. At midnight I have
heard the owl hoot in the Coliseum and the Forum,
giving voice to desolation ; and at midday I have seen
the fox in the palace where Augustus gathered the
wealth, the wit, the beauty, and the wisdom of a con
quered world; and the fox and the owl interpreted to
me the voice of many ages, which came to tell this
age, that though hand joined in hand, the wicked
shall not prosper.
Come with me, my friends, a moment more, pass
over this Golgotha of human history, treading rever
ent as you go, for our feet are on our mothers' grave,

STATE OF THE NATION 129
and our shoes defile our fathers' hallowed bones. Let
us not talk of them; go further on, look and pass by.
Come with me into the Inferno of the nations, with
such poor guidance as my lamp can lend. Let us dis
quiet and bring up the awful shadows of empires
buried long ago, and learn a lesson from the tomb.
Come, old Assyria, with the Ninevitish dove upon
thy emerald crown ! What laid thee low? " I fell
by own injustice. Thereby Nineveh and Babylon
came, with me, also, to the ground."
Oh, queenly Persia, flame of the nations, wherefore
art thou so fallen, who troddest the people under thee,
bridgedst the Hellespont with ships, and pouredst thy
temple-wasting millions on the western world ? " Be
cause I trod the people under me, and bridged the
Hellespont with ships, and poured my temple-wast
ing millions on the western world. I fell by own mis
deeds." Thou muse-like, Grecian queen, fairest of all thy
classic sisterhood of States, enchanting yet the world
with thy sweet witchery, speaking in art, and most se
ductive song; why liest thou there with beauteous yet
dishonored brow, reposing on thy broken harp? " I
scorned the law of God ; banished and poisoned wisest,
justest men ; I loved the loveliness of flesh, embalmed
it in the Parian stone ; I loved the loveliness of thought,
and treasured that in more than Parian speech. But
the beauty of justice, the loveliness of love, I trod
them down to earth ! Lo, therefore, have I become as
those Barbarian States — as one of them ! "
Oh, manly and majestic Rome, thy sevenfold mural
crown, all broken at thy feet, why art thou here? It
was not injustice brought thee low ; for thy great book
of law is prefaced with these words, Justice is the un-
XIII— 9

130 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
changing, everlasting will to give each man his right!
" It was not the saint's ideal : it was the hypocrite's
pretense ! I made iniquity my law. I trod the nations
under me. Their wealth gilded my palaces, — where
thou mayst see the fox and hear the owl, — it fed my
courtiers and my courtesans. Wicked men were my
cabinet-counselors, the flatterer breathed his poison
in my ear. Milhons of bondmen wet the soil with
tears and blood. Do you not hear it crying yet to
God? Lo, here have I my recompense, tormented with
such downfall as you see ! Go back and tell the new
born child, who sitteth on the Alleghanies, laying his
either hand upon a tributary sea, a crown of thirty
stars about his youthful brow — tell him that there
are rights which States must keep, or they shall suffer
wrongs ! Tell him there is a God who keeps the black
man and the white, and hurls to earth the loftiest
realm that breaks His just, eternal law! Warn the
young Empire that he come not down dim and dis
honored to my shameful tomb! Tell him that jus
tice is the unchanging, everlasting will to give each
man his right. I knew it, broke it, and am lost. Bid
him to know it, keep it, and be safe ! "
" God save the Commonwealth ! " proclaims the gov
ernor. God will do His part, — doubt not of that.
But you and I must help Him save the State. What
can we do? Next Sunday I will ask you for your
charity; to-day I ask a greater gift, more than the
abundance of the rich, or the poor widow's long-re
membered mite. I ask you for your justice. Give
that to your native land. Do you not love your coun
try? I know you do. Here are our homes and the
graves of our fathers; the bones of our mothers are
under the sod. The memory of past deeds is fresh

STATE OF THE NATION 131
with us; many a farmer's and mechanic's son inherits
from his sires some cup of manna gathered in the
wilderness, and kept in memory of our exodus; some
stones from the Jordan, which our fathers passed over
sorely bested and hunted after; some Aaron's rod,
green and blossoming with fragrant memories of the
day of small things, when the Lord led us — and all
these attach us to our land, our native land. We love
the great ideas of the North, the institutions which
they founded, the righteous laws, the schools, the
churches, too — do we not love all these ? Aye. I
know well you do. Then by all these, and more than
all, by the dear love of God, let us swear that we will
keep the justice of the Eternal Law. Then are we
all safe. We know not what a day may bring forth,
but we know that eternity will bring everlasting peace.
High in the heavens, the pole-star of the world, shines
justice ; placed within us, as our guide thereto, is con
science. Let us be faithful to that —
"Which though it trembles as it lowly lies,
Points to the light that changes not in heaven."

IV
THE LIKE AND THE DIFFERENT
1851
A few months ago, the Right Honorable W. E.
Gladstone, member of the British Parliament for Ox
ford, published " Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen
on the State Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Govern
ment." Mr. Gladstone appears to be one of the most
conservative Commoners in England; and he writes
to one of the most conservative of the Lords. The
letters have filled England with amazement. The work
was published last July, and it is now the twenty-
fourth of October while I write ; but ten editions have
already been exhausted in England, and the eleventh
has had time to travel three thousand miles, and find
its way to my desk.
Mr. Gladstone makes some disclosures which have
astonished the simplicity of Father England. He ac
cuses the government of Naples, in its treatment of
those accused of political offenses, of " an outrage
upon religion, upon civilization, upon humanity, and
upon decency." What is more, he abundantly sub
stantiates his accusation by details so horrible, that he
thinks they will not be credited by his countrymen ; for
the actual wickedness of the Neapolitan Government
surpasses all that Englishmen had thought it possible
for malice to invent or tyranny to inflict.
He says : " It is not mere imperfection, not ambi
tion in low quarters, not occasional severity, that I am
about to describe; it is an incessant, systematic, delib
erate violation of the law by the power appointed to
132

LIKE AND DIFFERENT 133
watch over and maintain it. It is such violation of
human and written law as this, carried on for the pur
pose of violating every other law, unwritten and eter
nal, human or divine." " It is the awful profanation
of public religion, by its notorious alliance, in the
governing powers, with the violation of every moral
law, under the stimulant of fear and vengeance."
" The effect of all this is total inversion of all the
moral and social ideas. Law, instead of being re
spected, is odious. Force, and not affection, is the
foundation of government. The governing power is
clothed with all the vices for its attributes."
Mr. Gladstone thinks there are not less than twenty
thousand prisoners for political offenses, locked up
in jail; between four and five hundred were to be
tried for their lives on the 15th of May. Of one
hundred and forty deputies who formed the Legis
lative Assembly in 1849, seventy-six had been arrested,
or had fled into exile. The law of Naples requires
that " personal liberty shall be inviolable, except un
der a warrant from a court of justice, authorized for
the purpose." But in defiance of this law, " the gov
ernment watches and dogs the people ; pays domiciliary
visits very unceremoniously at night ; ransacks houses ;
seizes papers ; imprisons men by the score — by the
hundred — by the thousand — without any warrant
whatever, sometimes without any written authority
at all, or anything beyond the word of a policeman.'*
After the illegal arrest, the trial is long delayed, —
sometimes more than two years. " Every effort is
made to concoct a charge, by the perversion and par
tial production of real evidence; and, this failing, the
resort is to perjury and forgery. The miserable crea
tures, to be found in most communities, who are

134 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
ready to sell the liberty and life of fellow-subjects
for gain, and throw their own souls into the bargain,
are deliberately employed by the executive power to
depose, according to their instructions, against the
men whom it is thought desirable to ruin." If the
defendant has counter-evidence, he is not allowed to
produce it in court.
Here are matters of fact of a more particular na
ture. The filth of the prisons is beastly. The doc
tors never visit the prisoners. Three or four hundred
prisoners " all slept in a long, low, vaulted room,
having no light except from a single and very moder
ate-sized grating at one end." From December 7th,
1850, to February 3rd, 1851, Signor Pironte, a gen
tleman who had been a judge, was shut up in a cell
" about eight feet square, below the level of the
ground, with no light except a grating at the top
of the wall, out of which he could not see." This was
in the city of Naples.
Signor Carlo Poerio, formerly a minister of the
Court, was illegally arrested, thrown into jail, and
kept for seven or eight months in total ignorance of
the offense charged against him. At length he was
accused of belonging to a party which did not ex
ist. He was tried by a special court. The only evi
dence against him was that of a hired and worthless
informer of the government; even that was incon
sistent, contradictory, and of no value. .Of course,
Signor Poerio was found guilty. He was sentenced
to twenty-four years imprisonment in irons. He and
sixteen others were confined in the Bagno of Niseda,
in a cell about thirteen feet by ten, and ten feet high.
When the beds were let down for these seventeen men,
there was no space between them. The prisoners were

LIKE AND DIFFERENT 135
chained in pairs, with irons that weigh about thirty-
three pounds to each man. The chains are never
taken off. The food is bread, and a soup so nauseous
that only famine can force it down the throat.
To justify itself, the government has published
a " Philosophical Catechism for the Use of Schools,"
which teaches the theory which the authorities prac
tise. It declares that the prince is not bound to keep
the constitution when it " impugns the right of sov
ereignty " of himself. " Whenever the people may
have proposed a condition which impairs the sover
eignty [the arbitrary power of the king], and when
the prince may have promised to observe it, that pro
posal is an absurdity, that promise is null." " It
is the business of the sovereign " " to decide when the
promise is null." This catechism, which seeks to- jus
tify the perjury of a monarch, and announces the
theory of crime, is published by authority, and in the
name of " the Most Holy and Almighty God, the
Trinity in Unity."
The disclosures in Mr. Gladstone's letters filled Eng
land with horror. Even Naples fears the public opin
ion of Europe, and the Neapolitan Government became
alarmed. Some attempts have been made by its offi
cials, to deny the facts. The British thought them
too bad to be true. Yet the government of Naples is
not wholly inaccessible to mercy. For Mr. Morris,
the American minister at Naples, becoming interested
in a young man, Signor Domenico Nostromarina, con
fined in the island of Capri for some alleged political
offense, asked his pardon of the king, and it was
granted. The American Declaration of Independence an
nounces as self-evident, that all men are created

136 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
equal, and with certain inalienable rights, and amongst
them the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness ; and the design of government is to secure those
rights. The Constitution of Massachusetts provides
that " every person has a right to be secure from all
unreasonable searches and seizures of his person," and
" all warrants therefore are contrary to this right,
if the cause or foundation of them be not previously
supported by oath or affirmation." But, in Septem
ber, 1851, more than fifty persons were seized by the
creatures of the city government of Boston, with no
warrant, not for the purpose of a trial, and were
publicly exhibited, by the marshal of the city, to the
mob who came to stare at them.
In April, 1851, an officer in the pay of the city of
Boston, with no warrant, seized Thomas Sims, then
an inhabitant of that city, on a false pretense, by
night, and brought him before a subaltern officer
of the general government of the United States. He
was confined in a court-house belonging to one of
the counties of Massachusetts, which was, for the
time, converted into a jail for his detention, contrary
to the law of the State. Officers acting under the
laws of Massachusetts, and subject to its penalties,
aided in kidnapping and detaining this unfortunate
man, though the law of Massachusetts forbids such
conduct on their part.
At the request of Mr. Sims, I visited him in his
place of confinement, where he was guarded by about
a dozen men who were in the same room with him.
One of them had a drawn sword in his hand.
After what was called a trial, before a single man,
and he a creature of the government, who was to be
paid twice as much for deciding against his prisoner

LIKE AND DD7FERENT 137
as for him, a trial conducted without " due form of
law," Mr. Sims was sentenced to bondage for his
natural life. Yet he was accused of no offense, ex
cept that of escaping from those who had stolen him
from himself, and claimed his labor and his limbs as
theirs. When he was to be carried off, and deliv
ered to his tormentors, fifteen hundred citizens of Bos
ton volunteered to conduct the victim of illegal tyr
anny out of the State, and deliver him up to the men
who had taken him at first. A brigade of soldiers,
since called " The Sims Brigade," was called out
at the expense of the city, and by direction of its
magistrates, and kept under arms day and night, to
aid in violating the laws of Massachusetts, and pro
faning the laws of God. Their headquarters were
in what was once called the " Cradle of Liberty," in
Faneuil Hall.
The court-house was surrounded by chains for sev
eral days, and guarded by mercenaries of the city,
hired for the purpose, and armed with bludgeons. I
counted forty-four of these men on guard at the same
time. They molested and turned back men who had
business in the court-house, but admitted any " gen
tleman from the South." The judges of the State
courts stooped and crouched down, and crawled un
der the chain, to go, emblematically, to their places.
A portion of the city police, armed with swords,
was drilled one day in a public square, and the move
ments of the awkward squad were a little ridiculous to
such as had never seen British clowns under a drill
sergeant. One of the by-standers laughed, and the
chief police officer on the station threatened to lock
him up in a jail if he laughed again.
The mayor of the city rose, soberly, and with two

138 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
or three hundred of the police of the city, armed
with bludgeons and swords, in the darkest hour of the
night, took their victim, weeping, out of his jail.
Some benevolent men furnished him with clothes for
his voyage. He was then conducted by this crew
of kidnappers through the principal street of the city
to a vessel waiting to receive him. As he went aboard,
he burst into tears, and exclaimed, " This is Massa
chusetts liberty ! " Several of the inhabitants of the
city attended their victim to Savannah, in Georgia,
whence he had fled away. There they were honored
with a public entertainment given by the citizens of
that place.
Their victim was conducted to jail, and severely
flogged. He was not allowed to see his mother, or
any other relative. It was afterwards related that
his master, still keeping him in jail, ordered him to
be tortured every day with a certain number of lashes
on his bare back, but once offered to remit a part
of the torture on condition that he should ask par
don for running away: he refused, and took the
blows. But one day, the jail-doctor, finding the man
feeble and daily failing, told the master his slave was
too unwell to bear that torture. The master said,
" Damn him, give him the lashes if he dies ! " and
the lashes fell.
Mr. Sims was a smart, dashing young fellow, of
some one or two and twenty years. He had a wife
at Savannah (handsome, and nearly white), not be
longing to his master, it is said. After his escape to
Boston, he informed her of his hiding-place. She
was the concubine of a white man, and told him her
husband's secret. He informed the master, and at
his direction, with some witnesses hired for the pur-

LIKE AND DIFFERENT 139
pose, came to Boston in search of the runaway. By
the illegal measures of the city government of Boston,
the slave-hunter secured his object and returned home.
In Boston, a dealer in goods for the Southern mar
ket, a rich man, entertained the slave-hunter and his
crew while there, took them to ride in a coach, and
gave them a costly supper at one of the principal
hotels in the city.
The last legal effort to save the man from the terri
ble punishment which the Bostonians were desirous of
inflicting upon him, was made by a distinguished
citizen of this State, before the circuit judge. I shall
not now tell all I know about the matter here; but
when the judge decided against his victim, and thus
cut off his last hope, the sentence was received by the
rich and mercantile audience that crowded the court
house with applause and the clapping of hands.
Leading citizens of Boston rejoiced at the transaction
and its result. Some of them publicly mocked at all
efforts made in behalf of the unfortunate man who
had been kidnapped. The commercial and political
newspapers of the city gave expression to the com
mon joy, that an inhabitant of Boston had, for the
first time for many years, and at the expense of the
city, been doomed to eternal bondage by the author
ities of the place. It was thought trade would im
prove ; and it is now stated that Boston has had more
Southern " patronage " since the kidnapping of Sims,
than in any previous six months since the adoption
of the Constitution.
The leading clergy of the town were also deeply de
lighted at the success of this kidnapping; several of
them, in their pulpit services, expressed their appro
bation of the deed, and gave God thanks, in their

140 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
public prayers, that the Fugitive Slave Law had been
executed in Boston. One of them, the most promi
nent clergyman in the city, declared, in private, that
if a fugitive should seek shelter of him, " I would
drive him away from my own door." Another had
previously declared, in public, that he would send his
own mother into slavery to keep the law. At a sub
sequent period, the President of the United States,
in his visit to Boston, congratulated the authorities
of the State on this execution of his law.
The laws of Massachusetts are flagrantly violated
in Boston ; especially the usury laws and the license
law. At this moment there are, probably, at least
a thousand places in the city where liquor is publicly
sold in violation of the law. It is notorious that even
the banks daily violate the usury law. These are
matters of continual occurrence. But, last spring,
a citizen of Boston was assassinated, in broad day
light, in Haymarket Square. The assassin was well
known, but he has not been arrested. The city gov
ernment has, as yet, offered no public reward for his
apprehension. It is rumored that the man was mur
dered by one whom he had complained of for vio
lating the license law.
The Fugitive Slave Law drove into exile about four
or five hundred inhabitants of Boston in less than a
year. They had committed no crime, except to be
lieve themselves the owners of their own bodies, and
act on that belief. Several Unitarian clergymen have
been driven from their parishes in consequence of op
posing that law. It has been proclaimed by the most
eminent politicians of the nation, that there is no law
higher than the statutes of Congress. Prominent
clergymen assent to the doctrine. Thus the negation

LIKE AND DIFFERENT 141
of God is made the first principle of politics. In a
certain town, in Massachusetts, the names of all anti-
slavery men are rejected from the list of jurors. Some
of the leading commercial newspapers of Boston ad
vise men not to employ such as are opposed to the
Fugitive Slave Law.
Many clergymen declare that slavery is a Christian
institution ; some of great eminence, — as men esti
mate clerical eminence, — have undertaken to support
and justify it out of the Bible. Several wealthy citi
zens of Boston are known to own slaves at this mo
ment ; they buy them and sell them. There is one who
has made a large fortune by selling rum on the coast
of Africa, and thence carrying slaves to America. In
Boston it is respectable to buy and sell men, — the
slave-hunter, the kidnapper, is an " honorable man," —
even the defender of kidnapping and slave-hunting is
respected and beloved, while the philanthropist, who
liberates bondmen, is held in abhorrence. The blacks
are driven from the public schools by a law of the
city. There is a church in which colored men are not
allowed to buy a pew. They are not permitted to
enter the schools of theology or of medicine. They
are shut out from our colleges. In some places they
are not allowed to be buried with white men. An
Episcopal church, in New York, holds a cemetery on
this condition, that " they shall not suffer any colored
person to be buried in any part of the same." A
Presbyterian church advertised that in its grave-yard,
" neither negroes nor executed felons " should ever be
buried there. No sect opposes slavery ; no prominent
sectarian. The popular religion of New England
teaches that it is Christian to buy slaves, sell slaves,
and make slaves. " Slavery, as it exists, at the pres-

142 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
ent day," says an eminent divine, " is agreeable to the
order of Divine Providence."
One of the newspapers in Boston, on the 10th of
October, 1851, speaking of the abolitionists and lib
erty party men, says : " Such traitors should every
one be garroted " — strangled to death. Another,
of the same date, says that Mr. Webster's " wonderful
labors in behalf of the Constitution " " have vindi
cated his claim to the highest title yet bestowed upon
man." The Church and the State alike teach that
though the law of God may be binding on him, it is
of no validity before an Act of Congress.
America is a republic; and Millard Fillmore is by
accident President of the United States. Naples is a
monarchy ; and Ferdinand is " by the grace of God "
King. Such is the different; reader, behold the like!

THE FUGITD7E SLAVE LAW *
1851
The subject of debate was " The Duty of Min
isters under the Fugitive Slave Law." This had
been brought up, by Rev. Mr. May of Syracuse, at a
business meeting of the American Unitarian Asso
ciation, and was refused a hearing. It was again
brought forward at the meeting of the Ministerial
Conference on Wednesday. The Conference ad
journed to Thursday morning, at nine o'clock.
On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, a good deal
was done to prevent the matter from being discussed
at all ; and done, as it seemed to me, in a disingenuous
and unfair manner. And on Thursday morning much
time was consumed in mere trifles, apparently with the
intention of wearing away the few hours which would
otherwise be occupied in discussing the matter at is
sue, before the Conference. At length the question
was reached, and the debate began.
Several persons spoke. Mr. Pierpont made a
speech, able and characteristic, in which he declared
that the Fugitive Slave Bill lacked all the essentials
of a law; that it had no claim to obedience; and that
it could not be administered with a pure heart or un
sullied ermine.
Several others made addresses. Rev. Mr. Osgood
of New York defended his ministerial predecessor, Rev.
Dr. Dewey — making two points.
1. Dr. Dewey's conduct had been misrepresented;
he had never said that he would send his own mother
* Speech delivered at a Ministerial Conference in Boston.
143

144 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
into slavery to preserve the Union ; it was only his son,
or brother. [Mr. Parker remarked that the principle
was the same in all three cases, there was only a di
versity of measure.]
2. Dr. Dewey's motives had been misrepresented.
He had conversed with Dr. Dewey; and Dr. Dewey
felt very bad ; was much afflicted — even to weeping,
at the misrepresentations made of him. He had not
been understood. Dr. Dewey met Dr. Furness in the
street, [Dr. Furness had most manfully preached
against the Fugitive Slave Act, and thereby drawn
upon himself much odium in Philadelphia, and the in
dignation of some of his clerical brethren elsewhere,]
and said, " Brother Furness — you have taken the easy
road to duty. It is for me to take the hard and dif
ficult way ! I wish it could be otherwise. But I
feared the dissolution of the Union ! " etc., etc.
Mr. Osgood then proceeded to censure " one of this
Conference " [Mr. Parker] for the manner in which
he had preached on this matter of the Fugitive Slave
Law. " It was very bad ; it was unjust ! " etc.
Rev. Dr. Gannett spoke at some length.
1. He said the brethren had laughed, and shown
an indecorum that was painful; it was unpardonable.
[The chairman, Rev. Dr. Farley, of Brooklyn, N. Y.,
thought otherwise.]
2. He criticized severely the statement of Rev. Mr.
Pierpont that the Fugitive Slave Law " could not be
administered with a pure heart or unsullied ermine."
[Mr. Pierpont affirmed it anew, and briefly defended
the statement. Mr. Gannett still appeared dissatis
fied.] His parishioner, Mr. George T. Curtis, had the
most honorable motives for attempting to execute the
law.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 145
3. He (Dr. Gannett) was in a minority, and the
majority had no right to think that he was not as hon
est in his opinion as the rest.
4. Here Dr. Gannett made two points in defense of
the Fugitive Slave Bill, of making and obeying it.
(1.) If we did not obey it the disobedience would
lead to the violation of all law. There were two things
— law without liberty ; and liberty without law. Law
without liberty was only despotism; liberty without
law only license. Law without liberty was the better of
the two. If we began by disobeying any one law, we
should come to violating all laws.
(2) We must obey it to preserve the Union: with
out the Fugitive Slave Law, the Union would have
been dissolved; if it were not obeyed it would also be
dissolved, and then he did not know what would be
come of the cause of human freedom and human rights.
Then Rev. George E. Ellis of Charlestown spoke.
He would not have the Conference pass any resolu
tions ; he stood on the first principles of Congregation
alism — that the minister was not responsible to his
brothers, but to himself and his God. So the breth
ren have no right to come here and discuss and con
demn the opinions or the conduct of a fellow-minister.
We cannot bind one another ; we have no right to criti
cize and condemn.
Next he declared his hatred of the Fugitive Slave
Bill. If we must either keep it or lose the Union,
he said, " Perish the Union." He had always said
so, and preached so.
After Mr. Ellis, Mr. Parker spoke as follows:
Me. Chairman and Gentlemen — I am one of
those that laughed with the rest, and incurred the dis
pleasure of Dr. Gannett. It was not from lightness,
XIII— 10

146 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
however ; I think no one will accuse me of that. I am
earnest enough; so much so as to be grim. Still it is
natural even for a grim man to laugh sometimes ; and
in times like these I am glad we can laugh.
I am glad my friend, Mr. Ellis, said the brethren
had no right here to criticize and condemn the opin
ions of one of their members ; but I wish he and they
had come to this opinion ten years ago. I should
have been a gainer by it ; for this is the first time for
nine years that I have attended this Conference with
out hearing something which seemed said with the in
tention of insulting me. I will not say I should have
been in general a happier man if Mr. Elhs's advice
had been followed; nay, if he had always followed it
himself; but I should have sat with a little more com
fort in this body if they had thought I was not respon
sible to them for my opinions.
I am glad also to hear Dr. Gannett say we have no
right to attribute improper motives to any one who
differs from us in opinion. It was rather gratuitous,
however; no man has done it here to-day. But it is
true, no man has a right thus to " judge another."
But I will remind Dr. Gannett that, a few years ago,
he and I differed in opinion on a certain matter of
considerable importance, and after clearly expressing
our difference, I said, " Well, there is an honest dif
ference of opinion between us," and he said, " Not an
honest difference of opinion, Brother Parker," for he
called me "brother" then, and not "Mr." as since,
and now, when he has publicly said he cannot take my
hand fraternally. Still there was an honest difference
of opinion on his part as well as mine.
Mr. Osgood apologizes for Dr. Dewey; — that is,
he defends his motives. I am glad he does not under-

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 147
take to defend his conduct, only to deny that he [Dr.
Dewey] uttered the words alleged. But I am sorry
to say that I cannot agree with Mr. Osgood in his
defense. I do not believe a word of it to be true:
I have evidence enough that he said so.
Mr. Gannett in demanding obedience to the Fugitive
Slave Law made two points, namely; if it be not
obeyed, first, we shall violate all human laws ; and next,
there will be a dissolution of the Union.
Let me say a word of each. But first let me say
that I attribute no unmanly motive to Mr. Gannett.
I thought him honest when he denied that I was ; I
think him honest now. I know him to be conscien
tious, laborious, and self-denying. I think he would
sacrifice himself for another's good. I wish he could
now sink through the floor for two or three minutes,
that I might say of him absent yet more of honorable
praise, which I will not insult him with or address to
him while before my face. Let me only say this, that
if there be any men in this Conference who honor and
esteem Dr. Gannett, I trust I am second to none of
them. But I do not share his opinions nor partake
of his fears. His arguments for obeying the Fugitive
Slave Law (ab inconvenienti) I think are of no
value. If we do not obey this law, he says, we shall disobey
all laws. It is not so. There is not a country in the
world where there is more respect for human laws than
in New England ; nowhere more than in Massachusetts.
Even if a law is unpopular, it is not popular to dis
obey it. Our courts of justice are popular bodies,
nowhere are judges more respected than in New Eng
land. No officer, constable or sheriff, hangman or
jail-keeper, is unpopular on account of his office. Nay,

148 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
it is popular to inform against your neighbor when he
violates the law of the land. This is not so in any
other country of the Christian world; but the in
former is infamous everywhere else.
Why are we thus loyal to law? First, because we
make the laws ourselves, and for ourselves; and next,
because the laws actually represent the conscience of
the people, and help them keep the laws of God. The
value of human laws is only this — to conserve the
great eternal law of God; to enable us to keep that;
to hinder us from disobeying that. So long as laws
do this we should obey them: New England will be
loyal to such laws.
But the Fugitive Slave Law is one which contra
dicts the acknowledged precepts of the Christian re
ligion, universally acknowledged. It violates the no
blest instincts of humanity; it asks us to trample on
the law of God. It commands what nature, religion,
and God alike forbid ; it forbids what nature, religion,
and God alike command. It tends to defeat the object
of all just human law; it tends to annihilate the ob
servance of the law of God. So faithful to God, to
religion, to human nature, and in the name of law
itself, we protest against this particular statute, and
trample it under our feet.
Who is it that oppose the Fugitive Slave Law?
Men that have always been on the side of " law and
order," and do not violate the statutes of men for their
own advantage. This disobedience to the Fugitive
Slave Law is one of the strongest guarantees for the
observance of any just law. You cannot trust a peo
ple who will keep law ; because it is law; nor need we
distrust a people that will only keep a law when it is
just. The Fugitive Slave Law itself, if obeyed, will

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 149
do more to overturn the power of human law, than all
disobedience to it — the most complete.
Then as to dissolution of the Union. I [have]
thought if any State wished to go, she had a natural
right to do so. But what States wished to go? Cer
tainly not New England: by no means. Massachu
setts has always been attached to the Union, — has
made sacrifices for it. In 1775, if she had said,
" There shall be no Revolution," there would have been
none. But she furnished nearly half the soldiers for
the war, and more than half of the money. In '87,
if Massachusetts had said, " Let there be no Union ! "
there would have been none. It was with difficulty
that Massachusetts assented to the Constitution. But
that once formed, she has adhered to it; faith
fully adhered to the Union. When has Massachusetts
failed in allegiance to it? No man can say. There
is no danger of a dissolution of the Union; the men
who make the cry know that it is vain and deceit
ful. You cannot drive us asunder — just yet.
But suppose that was the alternative: that we must
have the Fugitive Slave Law, or dissolution. Which
were the worst ; which comes nearest to1 the law of
God which we all are to keep? It is very plain. Now
for the first time since '87, many men of Massachusetts
calculate the value of the Union. What is it worth?
Is it worth so much to us as conscience; so much as
freedom; so much as allegiance to the law of God?
let any man lay his hand on his heart and say, " I
will sacrifice all these for the union of the thirty
States! For my own part, I would rather see my
own house burnt to the ground, and my family thrown,
one by one, amid the blazing rafters of my own roof,
and I myself be thrown in last of all, rather than

150 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
have a single fugitive slave sent back as Thomas Sims
was sent back. Nay, I should rather see this Union
" dissolved " till there was not a territory so large as
the county of Suffolk! Let us lose everything but
fidelity to God.
Mr. Osgood reflects on me for my sermons ; they are
poor enough. You know it if you try to read such as
are in print. I know it better than you. But I am
not going to speak honeyed words and prophesy
smooth things in times like these, and say, " Peace !
peace ! when there is no peace ! "
A little while ago we were told we must not preach
on this matter of slavery, because it was " an abstrac
tion ; " then because the North was " all right on that
subject;" and then because we had "nothing to
do with it," we " must go to Charleston or New Or
leans to see it." But now it is a most concrete thing.
We see what public opinion is on the matter of slavery ;
what it is in Boston; nay, what it is with members of
this Conference. It favors slavery and this wicked
law ! We need not go to Charleston and New Orleans
to see slavery ; our own court-house was a barracoon ;
our officers of this city were slave-hunters, and mem
bers of Unitarian churches in Boston are kidnappers.
I have in my church black men, fugitive slaves.
They are the crown of my apostleship, the seal of my
ministry. It becomes me to look after their bodies in
order to " save their souls." This law has brought us
into the most intimate connection with the sin of slav
ery. I have been obliged to take my own parishion
ers into my house to keep* them out of the clutches
of the kidnapper. Yes, gentlemen, I have been obliged
to do that ; and then to keep my doors guarded by day
as well as by night. Yes, I have had to arm my-

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 151
self. I have written my sermons with a pistol in my
desk, — loaded, a cap on the nipple, and ready for
action. Yea, with a drawn sword within reach of my
right hand. This I have done in Boston; in the mid
dle of the nineteenth century; been obliged to do it
to defend the [innocent] members of my own church,
women as well as men!
You know that I do not like fighting. I am no
non-resistant, " that nonsense* never went down with
me." But it is no small matter which will compel me
to shed human blood. But what could I do? I was
born in the little town where the fight and bloodshed of
the Revolution began. The bones of the men who first
fell in that war are covered by the monument at Lex
ington, it is " sacred to liberty and the rights of man
kind ; " those men f ejj " in the sacred cause of God
and their country." This is the first inscription that
I ever read. These men were my kindred. My grand
father drew the first sword in the Revolution ; my fath
ers fired the first shot ; the blood which flowed there was
kindred to this which courses in my veins to-day. Be
sides that, when I write in my library at home, on the
one side of me is the Bible which my fathers prayed
over, their morning and evening prayer, for nearly a
hundred years. On the other side there hangs the
firelock my grandfather fought with in the old French
war, which he carried at the taking of Quebec, which
he zealously used at the battle of Lexington, and be
side it is another, a trophy of that war, the first gun
taken in the Revolution, taken also by my grandfather.
* Mr. May of Syracuse afterwards objected to the word
nonsense as applied to non-resistance. The phrase was quoted
from another member of the Conference, whose eye caught mine
while speaking, and suggested his own language.

152 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
With these things before me, these symbols ; with these
memories in me, when a parishioner, a fugitive from
slavery, a woman, pursued by the kidnappers, came to
my house, what could I do less than take her in and
defend her to the last? But who sought her life —
or liberty? A parishioner of my brother Gannett
came to kidnap a member of my church ; Mr. Gannett
preaches a sermon to justify the Fugitive Slave Law,
demanding that it should be obeyed ; yes, calling on his
church members to kidnap mine, and sell them into
bondage forever.
Yet all this while Mr. Gannett calls himself a
" Christian," and me an " infidel ; " his doctrine is
" Christianity," mine only " infidelity," " deism, at
the best ! "
O my brothers, I am not afraid of men, I can of
fend them. I care nothing for their hate, or their
esteem. I am not very careful of my reputation.
But I should not dare to violate the eternal law of
God. You have called me " infidel." Surely I differ
widely enough from you in my theology. But there
is one thing I cannot fail to trust; that is the Infinite
God, Father of the white man, Father also of the white
man's slave. I should not dare violate His laws, come
what may come; — should you? Nay, I can love
nothing so well as I love my God.

VI
AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS *
1854
Ladies and Gentlemen, — I shall ask your atten
tion this evening to some few thoughts on the pres
ent condition of the United States in respect to slav
ery. After all that has been said by wise, powerful,
and eloquent men, in this city, this week, perhaps I
shall have scarce anything to present that is new.
As you look on the general aspect of America to
day, its main features are not less than sublime, while
they are likewise beautiful exceedingly. The full
breadth of the continent is ours, from sea to sea, from
the Great Lakes to the great Gulf. There are three
million square miles, with every variety of climate, and
soil, and mineral; great rivers, a static force, inclined
planes for travel reaching from New Orleans to the
Falls of St. Anthony, from the mouth of the St. Law
rence to Chicago; smaller rivers, a dynamic force,
turning the many thousand mills of the industrious
North. There is a coast most richly indented, to aid
the spread of civilization. The United States has
more than twelve thousand miles of shore line on the
continent ; more than nine thousand on its islands ; more
than twenty-four thousand miles of river navigation.
Here is the material groundwork for a great State —
not an empire, but a commonwealth. The world has
not such another.
There are twenty-four millions of men; fifteen and
a half millions with Anglo-Saxon blood in their veins
— strong, real Anglo-Saxon blood ; eight millions and
* Address delivered before the New York Anti-Slavery Society.
153

154 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
a half more of other families and races, just enough
to temper the Anglo-Saxon blood, to furnish a new
composite tribe, far better, I trust, than the old. What
a human basis for a State to be erected on this material
groundwork !
On the eastern slopes of the continent, where the
high lands which reach from the Katahdin mountain
in Maine to the end of the Appalachians in Georgia —
on the Atlantic slopes, where the land pitches down to
the sea from the 48th to the 28th parallel, there are
fifteen States, a million square miles communicating
with the ocean. In the South, rivers bear to the sea
rice, cotton, tobacco, and the products of half -tropic
agriculture ; in the North, smaller streams toil ah day,
and sometimes all night, working wood, iron, cotton,
and wool into forms of use and beauty, while iron roads
carry to the sea the productions of temperate agricul
ture, mining and manufactures.
On the western slope, where the rivers flow down
to the Pacific Ocean from the 49th to the 32nd par
allel, is a great country, almost eight hundred
thousand square miles in extent. There, too, the
Anglo-Saxon has gone; in the South, the gold-hunter
gathers the precious metals, while the farmer, the miner,
and the woodman gather far more precious products in
the North.
In the great basin between the Cordilleras of the
West and the Alleghanies, where the Mississippi drains
half the continent to the Mediterranean of the New
World, there also the Anglo-Saxon has occupied the
ground — twelve hundred thousand square miles ; in
the south to rear cotton, rice, and sugar; in the north
to raise cattle and cereal grasses, for beast and for
man.

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 155
What a spectacle it is! A nation not eighty years
old and still in its cradle, and yet grown so great.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, there was not an
Anglo-Saxon on all this continent. Now there is an
Anglo-Saxon commonwealth twenty-four millions
strong. Rich as it is in numbers, there are not yet
eight men to the square mile.
All this is a republic; it is a democracy. There is
no born priest to stand betwixt the nation and its
God; no pope to entail his nephews on the Church;
no bishop claiming divine right to rule over the people
and stand betwixt them and the Infinite. There is no
king, no born king, to1 ride on the nation's neck.
There are noble-men, but none noble-born to usurp the
land, to monopolize the government and keep the com
munity from the bosom of the earth. The people is
priest, and makes its own religion out of God's revela
tion in man's nature and history. The people is its
own king to rule itself; its own noble to occupy the
earth. The people make the laws and choose their
own magistrates. Industry is free; travel is free; re
ligion is free; speech is free; there are no shackles on
the press. The nation rests on industry, not on war.
It is formed of agriculturists, traders, sailors, miners
— not a nation of soldiers. The army numbers ten
thousand — one soldier for every twenty-four thou
sand men. The people are at peace ; no nation invades
us. The government is firmly fixed and popular. A
nation loving liberty, loves likewise law; and when it
gets a point of liberty, it fences it all round with law
as high up as the hands reach. We annually welcome
four hundred thousand immigrants who flee from the
despotism of the Old World.
The country is rich — after England, the richest

156 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
on earth in cultivated lands, roads, houses, mills. Four
million tons of shipping sail under the American flag.
This year we shall build half a million tons more,
which, at forty dollars a ton, is worth twenty millions
of dollars. That is the ship crop. Then, the corn
crop is seven hundred millions of bushels — Indian
corn. What a harvest of coal, copper, iron, lead, of
wheat, cotton, sugar, rice, is produced !
Over all and above all these there rises the great
American political idea, a " self-evident truth " —
which cannot be proved — it needs no proof ; it is an
terior to demonstration; namely, that every man is
endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights,
and in these rights all men are equal ; and on these the
government is to rest, deriving its sole sanction from
the govemed's consent.
Higher yet above this material groundwork, this
human foundation, this accumulation of numbers, of
riches, of industry — as the cross on the top of a tall,
wide dome, whose lantern is the great American po
litical idea — as the cross that surmounts it rises the
American1 religious idea — one God ; Christianity the
true religion; and the worship of God by love; in
wardly it is piety, love to God ; outwardly love to man
— morality, benevolence, philanthropy.
What a spectacle to the eyes of the Scandinavian,
the German, the Dutchman, the Irishman, as they view
America from afar! What a contrast it seems to
Europe. There liberty is ideal, it is a dream ; here it
is organic, an institution; one of the establishments
of the land.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the aspect which
America presents to the oppressed victims of European
despotism in Church and in State. Far off on the

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 157
other side of the Atlantic, among the Apennines, on
the plains of Germany, and in the Slavonian lands, I
have met men to whom America seemed as this fair-
proportioned edifice that I have thus sketched out be
fore your eyes. But when they come nearer, behold half
the land is black with slavery. In 1850, out of more
than two hundred and forty hundred thousand Amer
icans (24,000,000), thirty-two hundred thousand
(3,200,000) were slaves — more than an eighth of the
population counted as cattle ; not as citizens at all.
They are only human material, not yet wrought into
citizens — nay, not counted human. They are cattle,
property ; not counted men, but animals and no more.
Manhood must not be extended to them. Listen while
I read to you from a Southern print. It was recom
mended by the governor of Alabama that the legisla
ture should pass a law prohibiting the separation of
families ; whereupon the Richmond Inquirer discourses
thus : —
" This recommendation strikes us as being most unwise and
impolitic. If slaves are property, then should they be at the
absolute disposal of the master, or be subject only to such
legal provisions as are designed for the protection of life and
limb. If the relation of master and slave be infringed for one
purpose, it would be difficult to fix any limit to the encroach
ment."They are property, no more, and must be treated as
such, and not as men.
Slavery is on the Atlantic slopes of the continent.
There are one million six hundred thousand (1,600,-
000) slaves between the Alleghany range and the At
lantic coast. Slavery is in the central basin. There
are a million and a half of slaves on the land drained
by the Mississippi. Spite of law and constitution,
slavery has gone to the Pacific slopes, travelling with

,158 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
the goldhunter into California. The State whose cap
ital county " in three years committed over twelve hun
dred murders " has very appropriately legalized
slavery for a limited time. I suppose it is only pre
liminary to legalizing it for a time limited only by the
Eternal God. In the very capital of the Christian
democracy there are four thousand purchased men.
In the Senate-house, a few years ago, a Mississippi
senator belched out his imprecations against that one
New Hampshire senator who has never yet been found
false to humanity. Mr. Foote was a freeman, a citi
zen, and a " Democrat ; " and while, in the halls of
Congress, he was threatening to hang John P. Hale
on the tallest pine tree in Mississippi, there toiled in a
stable, whose loft he slept in by night, one of that
senator's own brothers. The son of Mr. Foote's
father was a slave in the capital of the United States,
while his half-brother — by the father's side — threat
ened to hang on the tallest pine in Mississippi the only
senator that New Hampshire sent to Washington who
dared be true to truth and free for freedom.
But a few years ago, Mr. Hope H. Slatter had his
negro market in the capital of the United States; one
of the greatest slave-dealers in America. He was a
member also, it is said, of a " Christian church." The
slave-pen is a singular institution for a democratic
metropolis, and the slave-trader a peculiar ornament
for the Christian church in the capital of a democracy.
He grew rich, went to Baltimore, had a fine house, and
once entertained a " President of the United States "
in his mansion. The slave-trader and the Democratic
President met together — Slatter and Polk ! fit guest
and fitting host !
In all the three million square miles of American

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 159
land there is no inch of free soil, from the St. John's
to the Rio' Gila, from Madawasca to San Diego. The
star-spangled banner floats from Vancouver Island
by Nootka Sound to Key West, on the south of Flor
ida, and all the way the flag of our Union is the stand
ard of slavery. In all the soil that our fathers fought
to make free from English tyranny, there is not an
inch where the black man is free, save the five thousand
miles that Daniel Webster surrendered to Lord Ash-
burton by the treaty of 1842. The symbol of the
Union is a fetter. The President should be sworn on
the auction block of a slave-trader. The New Hamp
shire President, in his inaugural, declared, publicly,
his allegiance to- the slave power — not to the power
of Northern mechanics, free farmers, free manufac
turers, free men ; but allegiance to the slave power ; he
swears special protection to no property but " prop
erty " in slaves ; specific allegiance to no law but the
Fugitive Slave Bill ; devotion to no right but the slave
holder's " right " to his property in man.
The Supreme Court of the United States is a slave
court; a majority of the Senate and of the House of
Representatives the same. It has been so this forty
years. The majority of the House of Representa
tives are obedient to the lords of the lash; a majority
of Northern politicians, especially of that denomina
tion which is called " dough-faces," are only overseers
for the owner of the slave. Mr. Douglas is a great
overseer; Mr. Everett is a little overseer, very little.
The nation offers a homestead out of its public
land; it is only to the white man. What would you
say if the emperor of Russia offered land only to
nobles ; the pope only to priests ; Queen Victoria only
to lords? Each male settler in Utah, it seems, is to

160 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
have four hundred and eighty acres of land if he is
not married, and a hundred and sixty more, I believe,
according to one proposition, for every wife that he
has got. But if he has the complexion of the only
children that Madison left behind him, he can have no
land at all.
Even a Boston school-house is shut against the black
man's children. The arm of the city government
slams the door in every colored boy's face. His father
helps pay for the public school ; the son and daughter
must not come in.
In the slave States, it is a crime to teach the slave to
read and write. Out of four millions of children of
America at school in 1850, there were twenty-six thou
sand that were colored. There were more than four
hundred thousand free colored persons, and there were
more than two hundred and fourteen thousand thereof
under the age of twenty ; of these, there were at school
only twenty-six thousand — one child m nine! Out
of three and a quarter milhons of slaves, there was
not one at school. It is a crime by the statute in
every slave State to teach a slave to spell " God."
He may be a Christian ; he must not write " Christ."
He must worship the Bible; he must not read it! It
is a crime even in a Sunday School to teach a child
the great letters which spell out " Holy Bible." I
knew a minister, he was a Connecticut man, too, who
went off from New Orleans because he did not dare to
stay ; and he did not dare to stay because he tried to
teach the slave to read in his Sunday School. He went
back to Connecticut, whence he will, perhaps, go as
missionary to China or Turkey, and find none to hinder
his Christian work.
At the North, the black man is shut out of the

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 161
meeting-house. In heaven, according to the theology
of America, he may sit down with the just made per
fect, his sins washed white " in the blood of the
Lamb ; " but when he comes to a certain Baptist
church in Boston, he cannot own a pew. And there
are few churches where he can sit in a pew. The rich
and the poor are there ; the one Lord is the Maker of
them all ; but the Church thinks He did not make the
black as well as the white. Nay; he is turned out of
the omnibus, out of the burial ground. There is a
burial ground in this State, and in the deed that con
fers the land it is stipulated that no colored person or
convict can ever be buried there. He is turned out
of the graveyard, where the great mother of our bodies
gathers our dust when the sods of the valley are
sweet to the soul. Nowhere but in the jail and on the
gallows has the black man equal rights with the white
in our American legislation !
The American press — it is generally the foe of the
slave, the advocate of bondage.
In Virginia, it is felony to deny the master's right to
own his slave. There is an old law, re-enacted in the
revision of the Virginia statute, which inflicts a punish
ment of not more than one year's confinement on any
one guilty of that offense. It was proposed in the
Virginia legislature, last winter, that if a man had
conscientious objections to holding slaves, he should
not be allowed to sit on any jury where the matter of
a man's freedom was in question. Nor is that all.
There is a law in Virginia, it is said, that when a man
has three-quarters white blood in his veins, he may re
cover his freedom in virtue of that fact. It is well
known that at least half the slaves in Virginia are half
white and one-quarter of them three-quarters white.
XIII— 11

162 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Accordingly, it was proposed in one of their news
papers that that old law should be repealed, and an
other substituted, providing that no man should re
cover his freedom in consequence of his complexion,
unless he had more than nine-tenths white blood in his
veins. The slave has no rights; the ideas of the Declara
tion of Independence are repudiated ; he is not " en
dowed by his Creator " with " certain inahenable
rights " to " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi
ness." Accomplished Mr. Agassiz comes all the way
from Switzerland to teach us the science which God
has stored up in the ground under our feet — the
perennial Old Testament — or in the frames of our
bodies, this living New Testament of Almighty God
in man ; and he tells us this : " The Mandingo and
the Guinea negro " together " do not differ more from
the orang outang than the Malay or white man dif
fers from the negro." So, according to Mr. Agassiz,
the negro is a sort of arithmetic mean proportional
between a man and a monkey. The upright form, the
power of speech, the religious faculty, permanence of
affection, self-denial, power to master the earth, and
smelt iron ore, as the African has done, and is doing
still, every year, do not distinguish the black man from
the orang outang.
" O star-eyed science ! hast thou wandered there,
To waft us home the message of despair? "
Mr. Agassiz is an able man, of large genius, industry
that never surrenders, and was a bold champion of
freedom on his own Swiss hills. He comes to Amer
ica; he is subdued to the temper of our atmosphere;
and, from a great man of science, he becomes the

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 163
Swiss of slavery. Southern journals rejoice at the
confirmation of their opinion. Listen to what a
Southern editor says. I am quoting now from one of
the most powerful Southern journals, printed at the
capital of Virginia, the Richmond Examiner; and the
words which I read were written by the American
charge d'affaires at Turin. He says: " The founda
tion and right of negro slavery is in its utility and
the fitness of things ; it is the same right by which we
hold property m domestic animals." The negro is
" the connecting link between the human and brute
creation." " The negro is not the white man. Not
with more safety do we assert that a horse is not a hog.
Hay is good for horses — but not for hogs; liberty
is good for white men, but not for negroes." " A law
rendering perpetual the relation between a negro and
his master is no wrong, but a right."
Then, in reply to some writer in the Tribune, who
had asked, "Have they no souls?" he says, "They
may have souls for aught I know to the contrary ; so
may horses and hogs." Then, when somebody quotes
the Bible in behalf of the rights of men, he answers:
" The Bible has been vouchsafed, to mankind for the
purpose of keeping us out of hell-fire and getting us
into heaven by the mysteries of faith and the inner
life; not to teach us a government pohtical economy,"
etc. The American Church repudiates the Christian re
ligion when it comes to speak about the African. It
does not apply the Golden Rule to the slave. The
" servants " of the New Testament, in the slave lan
guage, were " slaves," and the American Church com
mands them to be obedient to their masters. There
must be no marriage — the affectional and passional

164 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
union of one man and one woman for life — only
transient concubinage. Marriage is inconsistent with
slavery, and the slave wedlock in the American Church
is not a sacrament. " Manifest destiny " is the cry of
politicians, and that demands slavery : " the will of
God " is the cry of the priests, and it demands the
same thing. I am not speaking of ministers of Chris
tianity; they are very different sort of men, and preach
a very different creed from that — only of the min
isters in the churches of commerce. According
to the popular theology of all Christendom, Jesus
Christ came on earth to seek and to save that which
is lost. The good physician does not go among
the whole, but among the sick. If he were to
come here to seek to relieve the slave, the leading
men in American denominations would tell him he came
before he was called ; he ran before he was sent — that
it was no mission from God to break a single American
fetter, nor to let the oppressed go free. Is not the
" Constitution " above " conscience," and the Fugitive
Slave Bill more holy than the Bible? the commissioner
of more authority than Christ?
" O Faith of Christians, hast thou wandered there
To waft us home the message of despair?
Then bind the palm thy sage's brow to suit,
Of blasted leaf and death-distilling fruit."
Such is the aspect of America when the immigrant
comes near and looks the nation in the face. What a
spectacle that is to put alongside of the other! Eu
rope repudiates bondage — Scandinavia, Holland,
France, England. Since Britain emancipated her
slaves, the present Emperor of Russia has set free over
seven million of slaves that belonged to his own pri
vate domain, and established more than four thousand

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 165
schools, free for those seven milhons of emancipated
slaves; and did he not fear an outbreak in a country
where " revolution is endemic," he would set free the
other five-and-thirty millions that occupy his soil to
day. And when he extends his territory, he never
extends the area of bondage, only the area of what in
Russia is freedom.
What a spectacle! A country reaching from sea
to sea, from the gulf of tropic heat to Lake Superior's
arctic cold, and not an inch of free soil all the way!
Three milhons of square miles, and not a foot where
a fugitive from slavery can be safe! A democracy,
and every eighth man bought and sold !
It is the richest nation in the world, after England ;
yet, we are so poor that every eighth man is unable to
say that he owns the smallest finger on his feeblest
hand. So poor are we amid our riches, that every
eighth woman is to such an extent a pauper that she
does not own the baby she has borne into the world,
nor even the baby that she bears under her bosom!
Maternity is put up at public vendue, and the auc
tioneer says, " So much for the mother and so much
for the hopes and expectations of another life that is
to be born ! "
America calls herself " the best educated nation in
the world," and yet, in fifteen democratic States, it is
a felony by statute to teach a child to know the
three letters that spell " God." What a spectacle is
that! Nor is that all; but able men, well-educated and
well-endowed, come forward to teach us that slavery
is not only no evil, but is right as a principle, and is
divine — is a part of the divine revelation which the
great God miraculously made to man. What a spec
tacle !

166 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Four hundred thousand immigrants come here openly
every year, and a thousand fugitives flee off by night,
escaping from American despotism. They go by the
underground railroad, shut up in boxes smaller than
a coffin, or, as lately happened, riding through the
storms of ocean in the fore-chains of a packet ship,
wet by every dash of the sea, and frozen by the win
ter's wind. Far off in the South the spirit of free
dom came in the Northern blast to the poor man, and
said to him, " It is better to enter into freedom halt
and maimed rather than, having two hands and two
feet, to continue in bondage for ever ; " and he puts
himself in the fore-chains of a packet ship, and, half
frozen, with the loss of two of his limbs, he gets to
the North, and thanks God that he has got one hand
and one foot to enter into freedom with. Alas ! he is
carried back, halt and maimed, to die; then he goes
from bondage to that other Commonwealth where even
the American slave is free from his master, and Demo
crats " cease from troubling."
America translates the Bible — I am glad of it, and
would give my mite thereto — into a hundred and
forty-seven different tongues, and sends missionaries
all over the world; and here at home are three and a
quarter millions of American men who have no Bible,
whose only missionary is the overseer.
In the Hall of Independence, Judge Kane and Judge
Grier hold their court. Two great official kidnappers
of the Middle States hold their slave-court in the very
building where the Declaration of Independence was
decreed, was signed, and thence published to the world.
What a spectacle it is! We thought, a little while
ago, that Judge Jeffreys was an historical fiction ; that
Scroggs was impossible. We did not think such a

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 167
thing could exist. Jeffreys is repeated in Philadel
phia ; Scroggs is brought back to life in various North
ern towns. What a spectacle is that for the Swiss,
the German, and the Scandinavian who come here !
Do these immigrants love American slavery? The
German, the Swiss, the Scandinavian hate it. I am
sorry to say there is one class of men that come here
who love it; it is the class most of all sinned against
at home. When the Irishman comes to America, he
takes ground against the African. I know there are
exceptions, and I would go far to honor them; but
the Irish, as a body, oppose the emancipation of the
blacks as a body. Every sect that comes from abroad
numbers friends of freedom — except the Catholic.
Those who call themselves infidels from Germany do
not range on the slaveholder's side. I have known
some men who take the ghastly and dreadful name
of atheists ; but they said, " there is a law higher than
the slaveholder's statute." But do you know a Cath
olic priest that is opposed to slavery? I wish I did.
There are good things in the Catholic faith — the
Protestants have not wholly outgrown it — not yet.
I wish I could hear of a single Catholic priest of any
eminence who ever cared anything for the freedom of
the most oppressed men that are here in America. I
have heard of none.
Look a little closer. The great interests prized
most in America are commerce and politics. The
great cities are the headquarters of these, too. Agri
culture and the mechanic arts, they are spread abroad
all over the country. Commerce and politics predom
inate in the cities. New York is the great metropolis
of commerce; Washington of politics. What have
been the views of American commerce in respect to

168 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
freedom? It has been against it, I am sorry to say
so. In Europe commerce is the ally of freedom, and has
been, so far back that the memory of man runs not
to the contrary. In America, the great commercial
centers, ever since the Revolution, have been hostile to
freedom. In Massachusetts we have a few rich men
friendly to freedom — they are very few; the greater
part of even Massachusetts capital goes towards
bondage — not towards freedom. In general, the
great men of commerce are hostile to it. They want
first money, next money, and money last of all ; fairly
if we can get it — if not, unfairly. Hence the com
mercial cities are the headquarters of slavery; all the
mercantile capitals execute the Fugitive Slave Bill —
Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati
— only small towns repudiate man-stealing. The
Northern capitalists lend money and take slaves as col
lateral; they are good security: you can realize on
it any day. The Northern merchant takes slaves into
his ships as merchandise. It pays very well. If you
take them on a foreign voyage, it is " piracy ; " but
taken coastwise, the domestic slave trade is a legal
traffic. In 1852, a ship called the " Edward Everett "
made two voyages from Baltimore to New Orleans, and
each time it carried slaves, once twenty, once twelve.
A sea captain in Massachusetts told a story to a
commissioner sent to look after the Indians, which I
will tell you. He commanded a small brig, which plied
between Carolina and the Gulf States. " One day,
at Charleston," said he, " a man came and brought
to me an old negro slave. He was very old, and had
fought in the Revolution, and been very distinguished
for bravery and other soldierly qualities. If he had

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 169
not been a negro, he would have become a captain at
least, perhaps a colonel. But, in his old age, his
master found no use for him, and said he could not
afford to keep him. He asked me to take the revolu
tionary soldier and carry him South and sell him. I
carried him," said the man, " to Mobile, and I tried to
get as good and kind a master for him as I could, for
I didn't like to sell a man that had fought for his
country. / sold the old revolutionary soldier for a
hundred dollars to a citizen of Mobile, who raised
poultry, and he set him to attend a hen-coop." I sup
pose the South Carolina master drew the pension till
the soldier died. " Why did you do such a thing? "
said my friend, who was an anti-slavery man. " If
I didn't do it," he replied, " I never could get a bale
of cotton, nor a box of sugar, nor anything to carry
from or to any Southern port."
In politics, almost all leading men have been serv
ants of slavery. Three " major prophets " of the
American Republic have gone home to render their ac
count, where the servant is free from his master and
" the wicked cease from troubling," and the " weary
are at rest." Clay, Calhoun, Webster; they were all
prophets of slavery against freedom. No men of
high political standing and influence have ever lived
in this century who were sunk so deep in the mire of
slavery as they during the last twenty years. No po
litical footprints have sunk so deep into the soil —
their tracks run towards bondage. Where they
marched slavery followed.
Our Presidents must all be pro-slavery men. John
Quincy Adams even, the only American thus far who
inherited a great name and left it greater, as Presi
dent, did nothing against slavery that has yet come to

170 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
light; said nothing against it that has yet come to
light. The brave old man, in his latter days, stirred
up the nobler nature that was in him, and amply re
paid for the sins of omission. But the other Presi
dents, a long line of them — Jackson, Van Buren,
Harrison (they are growing smaller and smaller), Ty
ler, Polk, Taylor (who was a brave, earnest man, and
had a great deal of good in him — and now they begin
to grow very rapidly small), Fillmore, Pierce — can
you find a single breath of freedom in these men ? Not
one. The last slave President, though his cradle was
rocked in New Hampshire, is Texan in his latitude.
He swears allegiance to slavery in his inaugural ad
dress. Is there a breath of freedom in the great Federal
officers — secretaries, judges? Ask the Cabinet; ask
the Supreme Court; the Federal officers; they are, al
most without exception, servants of slavery. Out of
forty thousand government officers to-day, I think
thirty-seven thousand are strongly pro-slavery ; and
of the three thousand who I think are at heart anti-
slavery, we have yet to listen long before we shall hear
the first anti-slavery lisp. I have been listening ever
since the 4th of March, 1853, and have not heard a
word yet. In the English Cabinet there are various
opinions on important matters ; in America, they " are
a unit," a unit of bondage. In Russia, a revolution
ary man sometimes holds a high post and does great
service; in America, none but the servant of slavery
is fit for the political functions of democracy. I be
lieve, in the United States, there is not a single editor
holding a government office who says anything against
the Nebraska Bill. They do not dare. Did a Whig
office-holder oppose the Fugitive Slave Bill or its en-

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 171
forcement? I never heard of one. The day of of
fice, like the day of bondage, " takes off half a man's
manhood," and the other half it hides ! A httle while
ago, an anti-slavery man in Massachusetts carried a
remonstrance against the Nebraska Bill, signed by al
most every voter in his town, to the postmaster, and
asked him, " Will you sign it? " " No, I shan't,"
said he. "Why not?" Before he answered, one of
his neighbors said, " Well, I would not sign it if I
was he." "Why not?" said the man. "Because
if he did, he would be turned out of office in twenty-
four hours; the next telegraph would do the business
for him." " Well," said my friend, " if I held an of
fice on that condition, I would get the biggest brass
dog-collar I could find and put it around my neck,
and have my owner's name on it, in great, large let
ters, so that everybody might see whose dog I was."
In the individual States, I think there is not a single
anti-slavery government. I believe Vermont is the
only State that has an anti-slavery Supreme Court;
and that is the only State which has not much con
cern in commerce or manufactures. It is a State of
farmers. For a long time the American Government has been
controlled by slavery. There is an old story told by
the Hebrew rabbis, that before the flood there was an
enormous giant, called Gog. After the flood had got
into full tide of successful experiment, and everybody
was drowned except those taken into the ark, Gog
came striding along after Noah, feeling his way with
a cane as long as a mast of the " Great Republic."
The waters had only just come up to his girdle. It
was then over the hill tops, and was still rising — rain
ing night and day. The giant hailed the Patriarch.

172 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Noah put his head out of the window and said, " Who
is there? " " It is I," said Gog. " Take us in; it is
wet outside ! " " No," said Noah, " you're too big ;
no room. Besides, you're a bad character. You
would be a very dangerous passenger, and would make
trouble in the ark ; I shall not take you ; " and he
clapped to the window. " Go to thunder," said Gog :
" I will ride after all ; " and he strode after him, wad
ing through the waters and keeping out of the deep
holes, and mounting on the top of the ark, with one
leg over the larboard and the other over the star
board side, steered it just as he pleased, and made it
rough weather inside. Now, in making the Constitu
tion, we did not care to take in slavery in express
terms. It looked ugly. So it got on the top astride,
and it steers us just where it pleases.
The slave power controls the President, and fills ah
the offices. Out of the twelve elected Presidents, four
have been from the North, and the last of them might
just as well have been taken by. lot at the South any
where. Mr. Pierce, I just now said, was Texan in
his latitude. His conscience is Texan; only his cradle
was New Hampshire. Of the nine judges of the Su
preme Court, five are from the slave States — the
chief justice from the slave States. A part of the
Cabinet are from the North — I forget how many ;
it makes no difference ; they are all of the same South
ern complexion ; and the man that was taken from the
farthest north, Caleb Cushing, I think is most South
ern in his slavery proclivities.
The nation fluctuates in its policy. Now it is for
internal improvements: then it is against them. Now
it is for a bank ; then a bank is unconstitutional. Now
it is for free-trade; then for protection; then for

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 173
free-trade again — protection is altogether unconsti
tutional. Mr. Calhoun turns clear round. When the
North went for free-trade and grew rich by that, Cal
houn did not like it, and wanted protection. He
thought the South would grow rich by it. And when
the North grew rich under protection, he turned round
to free-trade again. Now the nation is for giving
away the public lands. Sixteen milhons of acres of
" swamp lands " are given, within seven years, to
States. Twenty-five millions of the public lands are
given away gratuitously to soldiers — six millions in
a single year. Forty-seven milhons of the public
lands to seventeen States for schools, colleges, etc.
Forty-seven thousand acres for deaf and dumb
asylums. And look; just now it changes its policy,
and Mr. Pierce is opposed to granting any land - —
it is not constitutional — to Miss Dix, to make the
insane sober, and bring them to their right minds.
He may have a private reason for keeping the people
in a state of craziness, for aught I know.
The public policy changes in these matters. It
never changes in respect to slavery. Be the Whigs in
power, slavery is Whig; be the Democrats, it is Demo
cratic. At first, slavery was an exceptional measure,
and men tried to apologize for it and excuse it. Now
it is a normal principle, and the institution must be
defended and enlarged.
Commercial men must be moved, I suppose, by com
mercial arguments. Look, then, at this statement of
facts. Slavery is unprofitable for the people. America is
poorer for slavery. I am speaking in the great focus
of American commerce * — the third city for popula-
* New York City.

174 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tion and riches in the Christian world. Let me, there
fore, talk about dollars. America, I say, is poorer
for slavery. If the three and a quarter millions of
slaves were freemen, how much richer would she be?
There is no State in the Union but it is poorer for
slavery. It is a bad tool to work with. The edu
cated freeman is the best working-power in the world.
Compare the North with the South, and see what a
difference in riches, comfort, education. See the su
periority of the North. But the South started with
every advantage of nature — soil, climate, everything.
To make the case plainer, let me take two great States,
Virginia and New York. Compare them together.
In geographical position Virginia has every ad
vantage over New York. Almost everything that will
grow in the Union will grow somewhere in Virginia,
save sugar. The largest ships can sail up the Po
tomac a hundred miles, as far as Alexandria. The
Rappahannock, York, James, are all navigable riv
ers. The Ohio flanks Virginia more than three hun
dred miles. There is sixty miles of navigation on the
Kanawha. New York has a single navigable stream
with not a hundred and fifty miles of navigation, from
Troy to the ocean. Virginia has the best harbor on
the Atlantic coast, and several smaller ones. Your
State has but a single maritime port. Virginia
abounds in water-power for mills. I stood once on the
steps of the Capitol at Washington, and within six
miles of me, under my eyes, there was a water-power
greater than that which turns the mills of Lawrence,
Lowell, and Manchester, all put together. In 1836
it did not turn a wheel ; now, I am told, it drives a
grist mill. No State is so rich in water-power. The Al-
leghenies are a great watershed, and at the eaves the

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 175
streams rush forward as if impatient to turn mills.
New York has got very little water-power of this sort.
Virginia is full of minerals — coal, iron, lead, cop
per, salt. Her agricultural resources are immense.
What timber clothes her mountains ! what a soil for
Indian corn, wheat, tobacco, rice! even cotton grows
in the southern part. Washington said the central
counties of Virginia were the best land in the United
States. Daniel Webster, reporting to Virginians of
his European tour, said he saw no lands in Europe
so good as the valley of the Shenandoah. Virginia
is rich in mountain pastures favorable to sheep and
horned cattle. Nature gives Virginia everything that
can be asked of nature. What a position for agricul
ture, manufactures, mining, commerce! Norfolk is a
hundred miles nearer Chicago than New York is, but
she has no intercourse with Chicago. It is three hun
dred miles nearer the mouth of the Ohio ; but if
a Norfolk man wants to go to St. Louis, I believe his
quickest way lies through New York. It is not a
day's sail farther from Liverpool; it is nearer to the
Mediterranean and South American points. But what
is Norfolk, with her 23,000 tons of shipping and her
14,000 population? What is Richmond, with her 27,-
000 men — 10,000 of them slaves? Nay, what is Vir
ginia itself, the very oldest State? Let me cipher
out some numerical details.
In 1790 she had 748,000 inhabitants; now she has
1,421,000. She has not doubled in sixty years. In
1790 New York had 340,000 ; now she has 3,048,000.
She has multiplied her population almost ten times.
In Virginia, in 1850, there were only 452,000 more
freemen than sixty years before; in New York, there
were 2,724,000 more freemen than there were in 1790.

176 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
There are only 165,000 dwellings in Virginia; 463,-
000 in New York. Then the Virginia farms were
worth $216,000,000, yours $554,000,000 ; Virginia is
wholly agricultural, while you are also manufacturing
and commercial. Her farm tools were worth $7,000,-
000; yours $22,000,000. Her cattle $33,000,000;
yours $73,000,000. The orchard products of Virginia
were worth $177,000 ; of New York $1,762,000. Vir
ginia had 478 miles of railroad ; you had 1,826 miles.
She had 74,000 tons of shipping; you had 942,000.
The value of her cotton factories was not two mil
lions ; the value of yours was four and a quarter mil
lions. She produced $841,000 worth of woolen goods ;
you produced $7,030,000. Her furnaces produced
two millions and a half ; yours produced eight millions.
Her tanneries $894,000; yours $9,804,000. All of
her manufactures together were not worth $9,000,000 ;
those of the city of New York alone have an annual
value of $105,000,000. Her attendance at school
was 109,000 ; yours 693,000.
But there is one thing in which Virginia is far in
advance of you. Of native Virginians, over twenty
years old, who could not read the name of " Christ"
nor the word " God " — free white people who can
not spell "democrat" — there were 87,383. That
is, out of every five hundred free white persons, there
were one hundred and five that could not spell
" Pierce." In New York there are 30,670 — no more ;
so that, out of five hundred persons, there are six
that cannot read and write. Virginia is advancing
rapidly upon you in this respect. In 1840 she had
only 58,787 adults that could not read and write;
now 28,596 more. So, you see, she is advancing.
Virginia has 87 newspapers ; New York 428. The

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 177
Virginia newspaper circulation is 89,000; New York
newspaper circulation is 1,622,000. The Tribune —
and I think it is the best paper there is in the world
— has an aggregate circulation of 110,000; 20,000
more than all the newspapers of Virginia! Virginia
prints every year 9,000,000 of copies of newspapers all
told. New York prints 115,000,000. The New York
Tribune prints 15,000,000 — more than the whole
State of Virginia put. together. Such is the state of
things counted in the gross, but I think the New York
quality is as much better as the quantity is more.
Virginia has 88,000 books in libraries not private.
New York 1,760,000 ; a little more than twenty times
as much. Virginia exports $3,500,000; New York
$53,000,000. Virginia imports $426,000 ; New York
$111,000,000. But in one article of export she is in
advance of you — she sends to the man-markets of
the South about $10,000,000 or $12,000,000 worth of
her children every year; exports slaves! The value
of all the property real and personal in the State of
Virginia, including slaves, is $430,701,882; of New
York $1,080,000,000, without estimating the value of
the men who own it. Virginia has got 472,528 slaves.
I will estimate them at less than the market value —
at $400 each ; they come to $189,000,000. I subtract
the value of the working people of Virginia, and she
is worth not quite $242,000,000. Now, the State of
New York might buy up all the property of Virginia,
including the slaves, and still have $649,000,000 left ;
might buy up all the real and personal property of
Virginia, except the working-men, and have $838,000,-
000 left. The North appropriates the rivers, the
mines, the harbors, the forests, fire and water — the
South kidnaps men. Behold the commercial result.
XIII— 12

178 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Virginia is a great State — very great ! You don't
know how great it is. I will read it to you presently.
Things are great and small by comparison. I am
quoting again from the Richmond Examiner (March
24th, 1854.) "Virginia in this confederacy is the
impersonation of the well-born, well-educated, well-
bred aristocrat " [well-born, while the children of
Jefferson and the only children of Madison are a
" connecting link between the human and brute cre
ation ; " well-educated, with 21 per cent, of her white
adults unable to read the vote they cast against the in
alienable rights of men; well-bred, when her great
product for exportation is — the children of her own
loins! Slavery is a " patriarchal institution ; " the
Democratic Abrahams of Virginia do not offer up
their Isaacs to the Lord; that would be a sacrifice;
they only sell them. So] ; " she looks down from her
elevated pedestal upon her parvenu, ignorant, men
dacious Yankee vilifiers, as coldly and calmly as a
marble statue; occasionally she condescends to recog
nize the existence of her adversaries at the very mo
ment when she crushes them. But she does it with
out anger, and with no more hatred of them than
the gardener feels towards the insects which he finds
it necessary occasionally to destroy." " She feels that
she is the sword and buckler of the South — that it
is her influence which has so frequently defeated and
driven back in dismay the abolition party when flushed
by temporary victory. Brave, calm and determined,
wise in times of excitement, always true to the slave
power, never rash or indiscreet, the waves of North
ern fanaticism burst harmless at her feet ; the contempt
for her Northern revilers is the result of her conscious
ness of her influence in the political world. She makes

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 179
and unmakes Presidents; she dictates her terms to the
Northern Democracy, and they obey her. She selects
from among the faithful of the North a man upon
whom she can rely, and she makes Mm President."
[This latter is true ! The opinion of Richmond is of
more might than the opinion of New York. Slavery,
the political Gog on the outside, steers the ark of com
mercial Noah, and makes it rough or smooth weather
inside, just as he likes.]
" In the early days of the Republic, the superior
sagacity of her statesmen enabled them to rivet so
firmly the shackles of the slave, that the abolitionists
will never be able to unloose them."
" A wide and impassible gulf separates the noble,
proud, glorious Old Dominion from her Northern tra-
ducers ; the mastiff does not willingly assail the skunk ! "
" When Virginia takes the field, she crushes the whole
abolition party ; her slaughter is wholesale, and a hun
dred thousand abolitionists are cut down when she is
sues her commands ! "
Again (April 4th, 1854), "A hundred Southern
gentlemen, armed with riding-whips, could chase an
army of invading abolitionists into the Atlantic."
In reference to the project at the North of sending
Northern abolitionists along with the Northern slave-
breeders to Nebraska, to put freedom into the soil
before slavery gets there, the Examiner says — " Why,
a hundred wild, lank, half-horse, half-alligator Mis
souri and Arkansas emigrants would, if so disposed,
chase out of Nebraska and Kansas all the abolition
ists who have figured for the last twenty years at anti-
slavery meetings."
I say slavery is not profitable for the nation nor for
a State, but it is profitable for slave-owners. You will

180 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
see why. If the Northern capitalist owned the weav
ers and spinners at Lowell and Lawrence, New England
would be poorer, and the working-men would not be
so well off, or so well educated; but Undershot and
Overshot, Turbine Brothers, Spindle and Co., would be
richer, and would get larger dividends. Land monop
oly in England enfeebles the island, but enriches the
aristocracy. How poor, ill-fed, and ill-clad were the
French peasants before the Revolution ; how costly
was the chateau of the noble. Monopoly was bad for
the people ; profitable for the rich men. . How poor are
the people in Italy ; how rich the cardinals and the
pope! Oppression enriches the oppressor; it makes
poorer the downtrodden. Piracy is very costly to the
merchant and to mankind; but it enriches the pirate.
Slavery impoverishes Virginia, but it enriches the mas
ter. It gives him money — commercial power — of
fice — political power. The slave-holder is drawn in
his triumphal chariot by two chattels: one, the poor
black man, whom he " owns legally " ; the other is
the poor white man, whom he owns morally, and har
nesses to his chariot. Hence these American lords of
the lash cleave to> this institution — they love it. To
the slaveholders, slavery is money and power!
Now the South, weak in numbers, feeble in respect to
money, has continually directed the politics of Amer
ica just as she would. Her ignorance and poverty
were more efficacious than the Northern riches and
education. She is in earnest for slavery; the North
not m earnest for freedom! only earnest for money.
So long as the Federal Government grinds the axes of
the Northern merchant, he cares little whether the stone
is turned by the free man's labor or the slave's. Hence,
the great centers of Northern commerce and manu-

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 181
factures are also the great centers of pro-slavery pol
itics. Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Buffalo, Cin
cinnati, they all liked the Fugitive Slave Bill ; all took
pains to seize the fugitive who fled to a Northern altar
for freedom; nay, the most conspicuous clergymen in
those cities became apostles of kidnapping; their
churches were of commerce, not Christianity. The
North yielded to that last most insolent demand. Un
der the influence of that excitement she chose the pres
ent administration, the present Congress. Now see
the result! Whig and Democrat meet on the same
platform at Baltimore. It was the platform of slav
ery. Both candidates gave in their allegiance to the
same measure — Scott and Pierce — it was the meas
ure which compromised the first principles of the Amer
ican Independence — they were sworn on the Fugitive
Slave Bill. Whig and Democrat knew no "higher
law," only the statute of slaveholders. Conscience
bent down before the Constitution. What sort of a
government can you expect from such conduct? What
representatives? Just what you have got. Sow the
wind, will you? then reap the whirlwind. Mr. Pierce
said in his inaugural, " I believe that involuntary servi
tude is recognized by the Constitution ; " " that it
stands like any other admitted right. I hold that the
compromise measures (i. e., the Fugitive Slave Bill)
are strictly constitutional, and to be unhesitatingly
carried into effect." The laws to secure the master's
right to capture a man in the free States " should be
respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encour
aged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a
different state of society, but cheerfully and according
to the decision of the tribunal to which their exposition
belongs." These words were historical — reminis-

182 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
cences of the time when " no higher law " was the
watchword of the American State and the American
Church ; they were prophetic — ominous of what we
see to-day.
I. Here is the Gadsden Treaty which has been ne
gotiated. How bad it is I cannot say ; only this. If
I am rightly informed, a tract of 39,000,000 acres,
larger than all Virginia, is " re-annexed " to the slave
soil which the " flag of our Union " already waves
over. The whole thing, when it is fairly understood
by the public, I think will be seen to be a more in
iquitous matter than this Nebraska wickedness.
II. Then comes the Nebraska Bill, yet to be con
summated. While we are sitting here in cold debate,
it may be the measure has passed. From the begin
ning I have never had any doubts that it would pass ;
if it could not be put through this session — as I
thought it would — I felt sure that before this Con
gress goes out of office, Nebraska would be slave soil.
You see what a majority there was in the Senate; you
see what a majority there is in the House. I know
there is an opposition — - and most brilliantly con
ducted, too, by the few faithful men; but see this:
the administration has yet three years to run. There
is an annual income of sixty millions of dollars. There
are forty thousand offices to be disposed of — four
thousand very valuable. And do you think that a Dem
ocratic administration, with that amount of offices, of
money and time, cannot buy up Northern doughfaces
enough to carry any measure it pleases? I know bet
ter. Once I thought that Texas could not be annexed.
It was done. I learned wisdom from that. I have
taken my counsel of my fears. I have not seen any
barrier on which the North would rally that we have

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 183
come to yet. There are some things behind us. John
Randolph said, years ago, " We will drive you from
pillar to post, back, back, back." He has been as good
as his word. We have been driven " back, back,
back." But we cannot be driven much farther. There
is a spot where we shall stop. I am afraid we have
not come to it yet. I will say no more about it just
now — because, not many weeks ago, I stood here and
said a great deal. You have listened to me when I
was feeble and hollow-voiced; I will not tax your pa
tience now, for in this, as in a celebrated feast of old,
they have " kept the good wine until now ! " (allud
ing to Garrison and Phillips, who were to follow).
If the Nebraska Bill is defeated, I shall rejoice that
iniquity is foiled once more. But if it become a law —
there are some things which seem probable.
1. On the 4th of March, 1856, the Democrats will
have leave to withdraw from office.
2. Every Northern man who has taken a prominent
stand in behalf of slavery will be politically ruined.
You know what befell the Northern politicians who
voted for the Missouri Compromise; a similar fate
hangs oyer the men who enslave Nebraska. Already,
Mr. Everett is, theologically speaking, among the
lost ; and, of all the three thousand New England min
isters whose petition he dared not present, not one will
ever pray for his political salvation.
Pause with me and drop a tear over the ruin of
Edward Everett, a man of large talents and commen
surate industry, very learned, the most scholarly man,
perhaps, in the country, with a persuasive beauty of
speech only equaled by this American (Mr. Phillips),
who surpasses him ; he has had a long career of public
service, public honor — clergyman, professor, editor,

184 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
representative, governor, ambassador, president of
Harvard College, alike the ornament as the auxiliary
of many a learned society — he yet comes to such an
end. "This is the state of man: to-day, he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow, blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, Nebraska's frost;
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely,
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls  ."
" O, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on public favors!
There is betwixt that smile he would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of voters, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have;
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again ! "
Mr. Douglas also is finished; the success of his
measure is his own defeat. Mr. Pierce has three short
years to serve; then there will be one more ex-Presi
dent — ranking with Tyler and Fillmore. Mr. Seward
need not agitate,  "Let it work,

For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard."
III. The next thing is the enslavement of Cuba.
That is a very serious matter. It has been desired a
long time. Lopez, a Spanish filibuster, undertook it
and was legally put to death. I am not an advocate
for the garrote, but I think, all things taken into con
sideration, that he did not meet with a very inadequate
mode of death : and I believe that is the general opin
ion, not only in Cuba, but in the United States. But
Young America is not content with that. Mr. Dean,

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 185
a little while ago, in the House, proposed to repeal the
neutrality laws — to set filibusterism on its legs again :
You remember the President's message about the
" Black Warrior " — how black-warrior like it was ;
and then comes the " unanimous resolution " of the
Louisiana legislature asking the United States to in
terfere and declare war, in case Cuba should undertake
to emancipate her slaves. Senator Slidell's speech is
still tingling in our ears, asking the government to re
peal the neutrality laws and allow every pirate who
pleases, to land in Cuba and burn and destroy. You
know Mr. Soule's conduct in Madrid. It is rumored
that he has been authorized to offer $250,000,000 for
Cuba. The sum is enormous ; but, when you consider
the character of this administration and the inaugural
of President Pierce, the unscrupulous abuse made of
pubhc money, I do not think it is a very extraordinary
supposition. But this matter of getting possession of Cuba is
something dangerous as well as difficult. There are
three conceivable ways of getting it : one is by buying,
and that I take it is wholly out of the question. If
I am rightly informed, there is a certain Spanish debt
owing to Englishmen, and that Cuba is somehow
pledged as a sort of collateral security for the Spanish
bonds. I take it for granted that Cuba is not to be
bought for many years without the interference of
England, and depend upon it England will not allow it
to be sold for the establishment of slavery; for I think
it is pretty well understood by politicians that there is
a regular agreement entered into between Spain on
one side and England on the other, that at a certain
period within twenty-five years every slave in Cuba
shall be set free. I believe this is known to men some-

186 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
what versed in the secret history of the two cabinets
of England and of Spain. England has the same
wish for land which fires our Anglo-Saxon blood. She
has islands in the West Indies; the Morro in Cuba is
only 100 miles from Jamaica. If we get Cuba for
slavery, we shall next want the British West Indies for
the same institution. Cuba filled with filibusters would
be a dangerous neighbor.
Then there are two other ways : one is by filibus-
terism, and that Mr. Slidell and Mr. Dean want to
try; the other is by open war. Now, filibusterism
will lead to open war, so I will consider only this issue.
I know that Americans will fight more desperately,
perhaps, on land or sea, than any other people. But
fighting is an ugly business, especially with such an
tagonists as we shall have in this case. It is a mat
ter well understood that the captain-general of Cuba
has a paper in his possession authorizing him discre-
tionally to free the slaves and put arms in their hands
whenever it is thought necessary. It is rather difficult
to get at the exact statistics of Cuba. There has been
no census since 1842, I think, when the population
was estimated at a million. I will reckon it now at
1,300,000 — 700,000 blacks, and 600,000 whites. Of
the 700,000 blacks, half a million are slaves and
200,000 free men. Now, a black free man in Cuba
is a very different person from the black free man in
the United States. He has rights. He is not turned
out of the omnibus nor the meeting house nor the
graveyard. He is respected by the law; he respects
himself, and is a formidable person ; let the blacks be
furnished with arms, they are formidable foes. And
remember there are mountain fastnesses in the center
of the island ; that it is as defensible as San Domingo ;

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 187
and it has a very unhealthy climate for Northern men.
The Spaniard would have great allies. The vomito
is there; typhoid, dysentery, yellow fever — the worst
of all — is there. A Northern army even of filibus
ters would fight against the most dreadful odds. " The
Lord from on high," as the old Hebrew would say,
would fight against the Northern men; the pestilence
that swept off Sennacherib's host would not respect
the filibuster.
That is not all. What sort of a navy has Spain?
One hundred and seventy-nine ships of war! They
are small mostly, but they carry over 1,400 cannon
and 24,000 men — 15,000 marines and 9,000 sailors.
The United States has seventy-five ships of war ; 2,200
cannon, 14,000 men — large ships, heavy cannon.
That is not all. Spaniards fight desperately. A
Spanish armada I would not be very much afraid of;
but Spain will issue letters of marque, and a Portu
guese or Spanish pirate is rather an uncomfortable
being to meet. Our commerce is spread all over the
seas ; there is no mercantile marine so unprotected as
ours. Our ships do not carry muskets, still less can
non, since pirates have been swept off the sea. Let
Spain issue letters of marque, England winking at it,
and Algerine pirates from out the Barbary States of
Africa and other pirates from the Brazilian, Mexican,
and the West Indian ports, would prowl about the
coast of the Mediterranean and over all the bosom of
the Atlantic; and then where would be our commerce?
The South has nothing to fear from that. She has
got no shipping. Yes, Norfolk has 23,000 tons.
The South is not afraid. The North has nearly four
million tons of shipping. But touch the commerce of
a Northern man and you touch his heart.

188 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
England has conceded to us as a measure just what
we asked. We have always declared 'fcfree ships make
free goods." England said " enemies' goods make
enemies' ships." Now she has not affirmed our princi
ple ; she has assented to our measure. That is all you
can expect her to do. But, if we repeal our neutrahty
laws and seek to get Cuba in order to establish slavery
there, endangering the interests of England, and the
freedom of her colored citizens, depend upon it Eng
land will not suffer this to be done without herself in
terfering. If she is so deeply immersed in European
wars that she cannot interfere directly, she will indi
rectly. But I have not thought that England and
France are to be much engaged in a European war.
I suppose the intention of the American Cabinet is to
seize Cuba as soon as the British and Russians are
fairly fighting, thinking that England will not inter
fere. But in " this war of elder sons " which now
goes on for the dismemberment of Turkey, it is not
so clear that England will be so deeply engaged that
she cannot attend to her domestic affairs, or the inter
est of her West Indies. I think these powers are going
to divide Turkey between them, but I do not believe
they are going to do much fighting there. If we are
bent on seizing Cuba, a long and ruinous fight is a
thing that ought to enter into men's calculations.
Now, let such a naval warfare take place, and how
will your insurance stock look in New York, Philadel
phia, and Boston? How will your merchants look
when reports come one after another that your ships
are carried in as prizes by Spain, or sunk on the ocean
after they have been plundered? I speak in the great
commercial metropolis of America. I wish these
things to be seriously considered by Northern men.

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 189
Though I would not fear a naval war, let the Northern
men look out for their own ships. But here is a mat
ter which the South might think of. In case of for
eign war, the North will not be the battle-field. An
invading army would attack the South. Who would
defend it — the local militia, the " chivalry " of South
Carolina, the " gentlemen " of Virginia, who are to
slaughter 100,000 abolitionists in a day? Let an
army set foot on Southern soil, with a few black regi
ments; let the commander offer freedom to all the
slaves and put arms in their hands; let him ask them to
burn houses and butcher men; and there would be a
state of things not quite so pleasant for gentlemen of
the South to look at. " They that laughed at the
groveling worm and trod on him may cry and howl
when they see the stoop of the flying and fiery-mouthed
dragon ! " Now, there is only one opinion about the
valor of President Pierce. Like the sword of Hudi-
bras, it cut into itself,  " for lack

Of other stuff to hew and. hack."
But would he like to stand with such a fire in his
rear? Set a house on fire by hot shot, and you don't
know how much of it will burn down.
IV. Well, if Nebraska is made a slave territory,
as I suppose it will be, the next thing is the possession
of Cuba. Then the war against Spain will come, as
I think, inevitably. But even if we don't get Cuba,
slavery must be extended to other parts of the Union.
This may be done judicially by the Supreme Court —
one of the powerful agents to destroy local self-gov
ernment and legalize centralization ; or legislatively by
Congress. Already slavery is established in Califor-

,190 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
nia. An attempt, you know, was made to establish it
in Illinois. Senator Toombs, the other day, boasted
to John P. Hale, that it would " not be long before
the slaveholder will sit down at the foot of Bunker
Hill monument with his slaves." You and I may live
to see it — at least to see the attempt made. A writer
in a prominent Southern journal, the Charleston Courier
(of March 16, 1854), declares that " domestic slav
ery is a constitutional institution, and cannot be
prohibited in a territory by either territorial or con
gressional legislation. It is recognized by the Consti
tution as an existing and lawful institution
and by the recognition of slavery eo nomine in the
District of Columbia, under the constitutional provision
for the acquisition of and exclusive legislation over
such a capitoline district; and by that clause also
which declares that the citizens of each State shall be
entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens
in the several States." " The citizens of any State
. . cannot be constitutionally denied the equal
right ... of sojourning or settling . . .
with their man-servants and maid-servants . . .
in any portion of the widespread Canaan which the
Lord their God hath given them, there to dwell unmo
lested in person or property." Admirable exposition
of the Constitution ! The free black man must be shut
up in jail if he goes from Boston in a ship to Charles
ton, but the slaveholder may bring his slaves to Mas
sachusetts and dwell there unmolested with his prop
erty in men. South Carolina has a white population
of 274,567 persons, considerably less than half the
population of this city. But, if South Carolina says
to the State of New York, with three million men in it,
Let us bring our slaves to New York, what will the

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 191
" Hards," and the " Softs," and the " Silver Greys "
answer? Gentlemen, we shall hear what we shall hear.
I fear not an office-holder of any note would oppose
the measure. It might be carried with the present
Supreme Court, or Congress, I make no doubt.
But this is not the end. After the Gadsden Treaty,
the enslavement of Nebraska, the extension of slavery
to the free States, the seizure of Cuba, with other
islands — San Domingo, etc., — there is one step more
 THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-
TRADE. A recent number of the Southern Standard thus de
velops the thought : " With firmness and judgment
we can open up the African slave emigration again to
people the whole region of the tropics. We can
boldly defend this upon the most enlarged system of
philanthropy. It is far better for the wild races of
Africa themselves." " The good old Las Casas, in
1519, was the first to advise Spain to import Africans
to her colonies. . . . Experience has shown his
scheme was founded in wise and Christian philan
thropy. . . . The time is coming when we will
boldly defend this emigration [kidnapping men in Af
rica and selling them in the Christian Republic] be
fore the world. The hypocritical cant and whining
morality of the latter-day saints will die away before
the majesty of commerce. . . . We have too long
been governed by psalm-singing schoolmasters from
the North. . . . The folly commenced in our
own government uniting with Great Britain to de
clare slave-importing piracy." . . . "A general
rupture in Europe would force upon us the undis
puted sway of the Gulf of Mexico and the West In
dies. . . . With Cuba and San Domingo, we could

192 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
control the . . . power of the world. Our true
policy is to look to Brazil as the next great slave
power. ... A treaty of commerce and alliance
with Brazil will give us the control over the Gulf of
Mexico and its border countries, together with the
islands ; and the consequence of this will place African
slavery beyond the reach of fanaticism at home or
abroad. These two great slave powers . .
ought to guard and strengthen their mutual interests.
. . . We can not only preserve domestic servitude,
but we can defy the power of the world."
" The time will come that all the islands and regions
suited to African slavery, between us and Brazil, will
fall under the control of these two powers. . .
In a few years there will be no investment for the $200,-
000,000 ... so profitable ... as the de
velopment ... of the tropical regions " [that is,
as the African slave-trade]. . . . " If the slave-
holding race in these States are but true to themselves,
they have a great destiny before them."
Now, gentlemen and ladies, who is to blame that
things have come to such a pass as this? The South
and the North; but the North much more than the
South, — very much more. Gentlemen, we let Gog get
upon the ark ; we took pay for his passage. Our most
prominent men in Church and State have sworn alle
giance to Gog. But this is not always to last ; there
is a day after to-day — a forever behind each to-day.
The North ought to have fought slavery at the
adoption of the Constitution, and at every step since ;
after the battle was lost then, we should have re
sisted each successive step of the slave power. But we
have yielded — yielded continually. We made no
fight over the annexation of slave territory, the ad-

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 193
mission of slave States. We should have rent the
Union into the primitive townships sooner than con
sent to the Fugitive Slave Bill. But as we failed to
fight manfully then, I never thought the North would
rally on the Missouri Compromise line. I rejoice at
the display of indignation I witness here and else
where. For once New York appears more moral than
Boston. I thank you for it. A meeting is called in
the Park to-morrow. It is high time. — I doubt
that the North will yet rally and defend the line drawn
in 1820. But there are two lines of defense where
the nation will pause, I think — the occupation of
Cuba, with its war so destructive to Northern ships ;
and the restoration of the African slave-trade. The
slave-breeding States, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Missouri, will oppose that ; for, if the Gulf
States, and the future tropical territories can import
Africans at $100 a head, depend upon it, that will spoil
the market for the slave-breeders of America. And,
gentlemen, if Virginia cannot sell her own children,
how will this " well-born, well-educated, well-bred aris
tocrat " look down on the poor and ignorant Yankee !
No, gentlemen, this iniquity is not to last for ever.
A certain amount of force will compress a cubic foot
of water into nine-tenths of its natural size; but the
weight of the whole earth cannot make it any smaller.
Even the North is not infinitely compressible. When
atom touches atom, you may take off the screws.
Things cannot continue long in this condition.
Every triumph of slavery is a day's march towards its
ruin. There is no higher law, is there? " He taketh
the wise in their own craftiness, the council of the
wicked is carried " — aye, but it is carried headlong.
Only see what a change has been coming over our
XIII— 13

194 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
spirit just now. Three years ago, Isaiah Rynders and
Hiram Ketchum domineered over New York ; and those
gentlemen who are to follow me, and whom you are
impatient to hear, were mobbed down in the city of
New York, two years ago ; they could not find a hall
that would be leased to them for money or love, and
had to adjourn to Syracuse to hold their convention.
Look at this assembly now.
A little while ago all the leading clergymen were
in favor of the Fugitive Slave Bill; now three thou
sand of New England ministers remonstrate against
Nebraska. They know there is a fire in their rear,
and, in theological language, it is a fire that " is not
quenched." It goeth not out by day, and there is no
night there. The clergymen stand between eternal
torment on one side and the little giant of slavery on
the other. They do not go back ! Two thousand
English clergymen once became non-conformists in a
single day. Three thousand New England ministers
remonstrated against the enslavement of Nebraska.
Now is the time to push and be active, call meetings,
bring out men of all parties, all forms of religion,
agitate, agitate, agitate. Make a fire in the rear of
the government and the representatives. The South
is weak — only united. The North is strong in
money, in men, in education, in the justice of our great
cause — only not united for freedom. Only be faith
ful to ourselves, and slavery will come down, not
slowly, as I thought once, but when the people of the
North say it, it will come down with a great crash.
Then, when we are free from this plague-spot of
slavery — the curse to our industry, our education,
our politics, and our religion — we shall increase more
rapidly in number and still more abundantly be rich.

AN ANTI-SLAVERY ADDRESS 195
The South will be as the North — active, intelligent —
Virginia rich as New York, the Carolinas as active as
Massachusetts. Then, by peaceful purchase, the
Anglo-Saxon may acquire the rest of this North Amer
ican continent. The Spaniards will make nothing of
it. Nay, we may honorably go farther South, and
possess the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the North
ern continent, extending the area of freedom at every
step. We may carry thither the Anglo-Saxon vigor
and enterprise, the old love of. liberty, the love also
of law ; the best institutions of the present age —
ecclesiastical, pohtical, social, domestic. Then what a
nation we shall one day become. America, the mother
of a thousand Anglo-Saxon States, tropic and temper
ate, on both sides of the equator, may behold the Mis
sissippi and the Amazon uniting their waters, the
drainage of two vast continents in the Mediterranean
of the western world; may count her children at last
by hundreds of millions — and among them all behold
no tyrant and no slave ! What a spectacle — the
Anglo-Saxon family occupying a whole hemisphere,
with industry, freedom, rehgion. The fulfilment of
this vision is our province ; we are the involuntary in
struments of God. Shall America scorn the mission
God sends her on? Then let us all perish, and may
Russia teach justice to mankind.

VII
THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
1854
At this day there are two great tribes of men in
Christendom, which seem to have a promising future
before them — the Slavonic and the Anglo-Saxon.
Both are comparatively new. For the last three hun
dred years each has been continually advancing in
numbers, riches, and territory ; in industrial and mili
tary power.( To judge from present appearances, it
seems probable that a hundred years hence there will
be only two great national forces in the Christian
world — the Slavonic and the Anglo-Saxon.
The Anglo-Saxon tribe is composite, and the ming
ling so recent, that we can still easily distinguish the
main ingredients of the mixture. There are, first, the
Saxons and Angles from North Germany; next, the
Scandinavians from Denmark and Sweden ; and,
finally, the Normans, or Romanized Scandinavians,
from France.
This tribe is now divided into two great political
branches, namely, the Anglo-Saxon Briton, and the
Anglo-Saxon American ; but both are substantially the
same people, though with different antecedents and
surroundings. The same fundamental characteristics
belong to the Briton and the American.
Three hundred years ago, the Anglo-Saxons were
scarce three millions in number; they did not own the
whole of Great Britain. Now there are thirty or
forty millions of men with Anglo-Saxon blood in their
veins. They possess the British Islands; Heligoland,
196

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 197
Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Isles; St. Helena,
South Africa, much of East and West Africa; enor
mous territories in India, continually increasing; the
whole of Australia ; almost all of North America, and
I know not how many islands scattered about the At
lantic and Pacific seas. Their geographical spread
covers at least one-sixth part of the habitable globe;
their power controls about one-fifth of the inhabitants
of the earth. It is the richest of all the families of
mankind. The Anglo-Saxon leads the commerce and
the most important manufactures of the world. He
owns seven-eighths of the shipping of Christendom,
and half that of the human race. He avails himself
of the latest discoveries in practical science, and ap
plies them to the creation of comforts and luxuries.
Iron is his favorite metal; and about two-thirds of the
annual iron crop of the earth is harvested on Anglo-
Saxon soil. Cotton, wheat, and the potato, are his
favorite plants.
The pohtical institutions of the Anglo-Saxon se
cure national unity of action for the State, and indi
vidual variety of action for each citizen, to a greater
degree than other nations have thought possible. In
ah Christendom, there is scarce any freedom of the
press except on Anglo-Saxon soil. Ours is the only
tongue in which liberty can speak. Anglo-Saxon
Britain is the asylum of exiled patriots, or exiled des
pots. The royal and patrician wrecks of the revolu
tionary storms of continental Europe, in the last cen
tury and in this, were driven to her hospitable shore.
Kossuth, Mazzini, Victor Hugo, and Comte, relics of
the last revolution, are washed to the same coast.
America is the asylum of exiled nations, who flee to her
arms, four hundred thousand in a year, and find shelter.

198 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
The Slavonians fight with diplomacy and the sword,
the Anglo-Saxon with diplomacy and- the dollar. He
is the Roman of productive industry, of commerce, as
the Romans were Anglo-Saxons of destructive con
quest, of war. The Slavonian nations, from the acci
dent of their geographical position, or from their
ethnological peculiarity of nature, invade and con
quer lands more civilized than their own. They have
the diplomatic skill to control nations of superior in
tellectual and moral development. The Anglo-Saxon
is too clumsy for foreign politics ; when he meddles
with the affairs of other civilized people, he is often
deceived. Russia outwits England continually in the
political game now playing for the control of Europe.
The Anglo-Saxon, more invasive than the Slavonian,
prefers new and wild lands to old and weU-cultivated
territories ; so he conquers America, and tills its virgin
soil: seizes on Africa, — the dry nurse of lions and of
savage men, — and founds a new empire in Austraha.
If he invades Asia, it is in the parts not Christian.
His rule is a curse to countries full of old civihzation ;
I take it that England has been a blight to India, and
will be to China, if she sets there her conquering foot.
The Anglo-Saxon is less pliable than the Romans, a
less indulgent master to conquered men; with more
plastic power to organize and mold, he has a less com
prehensive imagination, limits himself to a smaller
number of forms, and so hews off and casts away what
suits him not. Austria conquers Lombardy, France
Algiers, Russia, Poland, to the benefit of the con
quered party, it seems. Can any one show that the
British rule has been a benefit to India? The Rus
sians make nothing of their American territory. But
what civilization blooms out of the savage ground
wherever the Saxon plants his foot !

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 199
I must say a word of the leading peculiarities of
this tribe.
1. There is a strong love of individual freedom.
This belongs to the Anglo-Saxons in common with all
the Teutonic family. But with them it seems emi
nently powerful. Circumstances have favored its de
velopment. They care much for freedom, little for
equality. 2. Connected with this, is a love of law and order,
which continually shows itself on both sides of the
ocean. Fast as we gain freedom, we secure it by law
and constitution, trusting little to the caprice of mag
istrates. 3. Then there is a great federative power — a ten
dency to form combinations of persons, or of com
munities and states — special partnerships on a small
scale for mercantile business ; on a large scale, like the
American Union, or the Hanse towns, for the political
business of a nation.
4. The Anglo-Saxons have eminent practical power
to organize things into a mill, or men into a State,
and then to administer the organization. This power
is one which contributes greatly to both their commer
cial and political success. But this tribe is also most
eminently material in its aims and means; it loves
riches, works for riches, fights for riches. It is not
warlike, as some other nations, who love war for its
own sake, though a hard fighter when put to it.
5. We are the most aggressive, invasive, and ex
clusive people on the earth. The history of the Anglo-
Saxon, for the last three hundred years, has been one
of continual aggression, invasion, and extermina
tion. I cannot now stop to dwell on these traits of our

200 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tribal anthropology, but must yet say a word touch
ing this national exclusiveness and tendency to ex
terminate. Austria and Russia never treated a conquered na
tion so cruelly as England has treated Ireland. Not
many years ago, four-fifths of the population of the
island were Catholics, a tenth Anglican churchmen.
All offices were in the hands of the little minority.
Two-thirds of the Irish House of Commons were nom
inees of the Protestant gentry; the Catholic members
must take the declaration against transubstantiation.
Papists were forbidden to vote in elections of members
to the Irish Parliament. They suffered " under a
universal, unmitigated, indispensable, exceptionless
disqualification." " In the courts of law, they could
not gain a place on the bench, nor act as a barrister,
attorney, or solicitor, nor be employed even as a hired
clerk, nor sit on a grand jury, nor serve as a sheriff,
nor hold even the lowest civil office of trust and profit ;
nor have any privilege in a town corporation ; nor be
a freeman of such corporation; nor vote at a ves
try." * A Catholic could not marry a Protestant :
the priest who should celebrate such a marriage was
to be hanged. He could not be " a guardian to any
child, nor educate his own child, if its mother were a
Protestant," or the child declared in favor of Protes
tantism. " No Papist might instruct a Protestant.
Papists could not supply their want by academies and
schools of their own; for a Catholic to teach, even
in a private family, or as usher to a Protestant, was
a felony, punishable by imprisonment, exile, or death."
" To be educated in any foreign Catholic school was
* Bancroft, History of United States, vol. v. p. 66, et »eq.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 201
an unalterable and perpetual outlawry." " The child
sent abroad for education, no matter of how tender an
age, or himself how innocent, could never after sue
in law or equity, or be guardian, executor, or admin
istrator, or receive any legacy or deed of gift ; he for
feited all his goods and chattels, and forfeited for his
hfe all his lands ; " whoever sent him incurred the same
penalties. The Cathohc clergy could not be taught at home or
abroad : they " were registered and kept, hke prison
ers at large, within prescribed limits." " All papists
exercising ecclesiastical jurisdiction; all monks, friars,
and regular priests, and all priests not actually in
parishes, and to be registered, were banished from
Ireland under pain of transportation; and, on a re
turn, of being hanged and quartered." " The Cath
ohc priest abjuring his religion, received a pension of
thirty, and afterwards of forty pounds." " No non
conforming Catholic could buy land, or receive it by
descent, devise, or settlement; or lend money on it as
security ; or hold an interest in it through a Protes
tant trustee ; or take a lease of ground for more than
thirty-one years. If under such a lease he brought
his farm to produce more than one-third beyond the
rent, the first Protestant discoverer might sue for the
lease before known Protestants, making the defendant
answer all interrogations on oath ; so that the Cathohc
farmer dared not drain his fields, nor inclose them,
nor build solid houses on them." " Even if a Cath
olic owned a horse worth more than five pounds, any
Protestant might take it away," on payment of that
sum. " To the native Irish, the English oligarchy
appeared as men of a different race and creed, who
had acquired the island by force of arms, rapine, and

202 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
chicane, and derived revenues from it by the employ
ment of extortionate underlings or overseers." *
The same disposition to invade and exterminate
showed itself on this side of the ocean.
In America, the Frenchman and the Spaniard came
in contact with the red man; they converted him to
what they called Christianity, and then associated with
him on equal terms. The pale-face and the red-skin
hunted in company ; they fished from the same canoe
in the Bay of Fundy and Lake Superior ; they lodged
in the same tent, slept on the same bear-skin ; nay, they
knelt together before the same God, who was " no
respecter of persons," and had made of one blood all
nations of men ! The white man married the Indian's
daughter; the red man wooed and won the pale child
of the Caucasian. This took place in Canada, and
in Mexico, in Peru, and Ecuador. In Brazil, the
negro graduates at the college; he becomes a general
in the army. But the Anglo-Saxon disdains to min
gle his proud blood in wedlock with the " inferior
races of men." He puts away the savage — black,
yellow, red. In New England, the Puritan converted
the Indians to Christianity, as far as they could ac
cept the theology of John Calvin ; but made a careful
separation between white and red, " my people and
thy people." They must dwell in separate villages,
worship in separate houses ; they must not intermarry.
The general court of Massachusetts once forbade all
extra-matrimonial connection of white and red, on
pain of . death ! The Anglo-Saxon has carefully
sought to exterminate the savages from his territory.
The Briton does so in Africa, in Van Diemen's Land,
in New Zealand, in New Holland — wherever he meets
* Bancroft, ubi sup. p. 67, et seq.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
them. The American does the same in the western
world. In New England the Puritan found the wild
woods, the wild beasts, and the wild men; he under
took to eradicate them all, and has succeeded best with
the wild men. There are more bears than Indians
in New England. The United States pursues the
same destructive policy. In two hundred years more
there will be few Indians left between the Lake of the
Woods and the Gulf of Mexico, between the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans.
Yet the Anglo-Saxons are not cruel; they are sim
ply destructive. The Dutch, in New York, perpe
trated the most wanton cruelties: the savages them
selves shuddered at the white man's atrocity : " Our
gods would be offended at such things," said they;
" the white man's God must be different ! " The cru
elties of the French, and, still more, of the Spaniards
in Mexico, in the West Indies, and South America, are
too terrible to repeat, but too weU known to need re
lating. The Spaniard put men to death with refine
ments of cruelty, luxuriating in destructiveness. The
Anglo-Saxon simply shot down his foe, offered a re
ward for homicide, so much for a scalp, but tolerated
no needless cruelty. If the problem is to destroy a
race of men with the least expenditure of destructive
force on one side, and the least suffering on the other,
the Anglo-Saxon, Briton, or American, is the fittest
instrument to be found on the whole globe.
So much for the Anglo-Saxon character in general.
It is well to know the anthropology of the stock be
fore attempting to appreciate the character of the
special people. America has the general character
istics of this powerful tribe, but modified by her pe
culiar geographical and historical position. Our

204 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
fathers emigrated from their home in a time of great
ferment, and brought with them ideas which could
not then be organized into institutions at home. This
was obviously the case with the theological ideas of
the Puritans, who, with their descendants, have given
to America most of what is new and peculiar in her
institutions. Still more, the early settlers of the
North brought with them sentiments not ripened yet,
which, in due time, developed themselves into ideas,
and then into institutions.
At first, necessity, or love of change, drove the wan
derers to the wilderness ; they had no thought of sepa
rating from England. The fugitive Pilgrims in the
Mayflower, who subscribed the compact, which so many
Americans erroneously regard as the " seed-corn of
the republican tree, under which milhons of her
men now stand," called themselves " loyal subjects of
our dread sovereign, King James," undertaking to
plant a colony " for the glory of God, and advance
ment of the Christian faith and honor of our king
and country." In due time, as the colonists devel
oped themselves in one, and the English at home in
a different direction, there came to be a great diver
sity of ideas, and an opposition of interests. When
mutuality of ideas and of interests, as the indispen
sable condition of national unity of action, failed, the
colony fell off from its parent: the separation was
unavoidable. Before many years, we doubt not, Aus
tralia will thus separate from the mother country, to
the advantage of both parties.
In America, two generations of men have passed
away since the last battle of the Revolution. The
hostility of that contest is only a matter of history
to the mass of Britons or Americans, not of daily con-

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 205
sciousness; and as this disturbing force is withdrawn,
the two nations see and feel more distinctly their
points of agreement, and become conscious that they
are both but one people.
The transfer of the colonists of England to the
western world was an event of great importance to
mankind; they found a virgin continent, on which
to set up and organize their ideas, and develop their
faculties. They had no enemies but the wilderness
and its savage occupants. I doubt not that, if the
emigrant had remained at home, it would have taken a
thousand years to attain the same general develop
ment now reached by the free States of North Amer
ica. The settlers carried with them the best ideas
and the best institutions of their native land — the
arts and sciences of England, the forms of a rep
resentative government, the trial by jury, the com
mon law, the ideas of Christianity, and the traditions
of the human race. In the woods, far from help,
they were forced to become self-reliant and thrifty
men. It is instructive to see what has come of the
experiment. It is but two hundred and forty-six years
since the settlement of Jamestown — not two hun
dred and thirty-four years since the Pilgrims landed
at Plymouth; what a development since that time —
of numbers, of riches, of material and spiritual power !
In the ninth century, Korb Flokki, a half -mythical
person, " let loose his three crows," it is said, seek
ing land to the west and north of the Orkneys, and
went to Iceland. In the tenth century, Gunnbjiorn,
and Eirek the Red, discovered Greenland, an " ugly
and right hateful country," as Paul Egede calls it.
In the eleventh century, Leife, son of Eirek, with
Tyrker the Southerner, discovered Vinland, some part

206 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
of North America, but whether Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, or New England, I shall leave others to de
termine. It is not yet four hundred years since
Columbus first dropped his anchor at San Salvador,
and Cabot discovered the continent of America, and
cruised along its shores from Hudson's Bay to Flor
ida, seeking for a passage to the East Indies. In
1608 the first permanent British settlement was made
in America, at Jamestown; in 1620 the Pilgrims be
gan their far-famed experiment at Plymouth. What
a change from 1608 to 1854 ! It is not in my power
to determine the number of immigrants before the
Revolution. There was a great variety of national
ities — Dutch in New York, Germans in Pennsyl
vania and Georgia, Swedes and Finns in Delaware,
Scotch in New England and North Carolina, Swiss
in Georgia ; Acadians from Nova Scotia ; and Hugue
nots from France.
America has now a stable form of government.
Her pyramid is not yet high. It is only humble pow
ers that she develops, no great creative spirit here
as yet enchants men with the wonders of literature
and art — but her foundation is wide and deeply laid.
It is now easy to see the conditions and the causes
of her success. The conditions are, the new conti
nent, a virgin soil to receive the seed of liberty; the
causes were, first, the character of the tribe, and next,
the liberal institutions founded thereby.
The rapid increase of America in most of the ele
ments of national power, is a remarkable fact in the
history of mankind.
Look at the increase of numbers. In 1689, the
entire population of the English colonies, exclusive
of the Indians, amounted to about 200,000. Twen-

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA

207

ty-five years later there were 434,000, now 24,000,-
000.* The present population of the United States con-

* Table of Population in 1715.

Colonies.

Whites.

Negroes.

Total.

New Hampshire 
Massachusetts 
Rhode Island 
Connecticut 
New York 
New Jersey 
Pennsylvania and Delaware
Maryland 
Virginia 
North Carolina 
South Carolina 

9,500
94,000 8,500
46,00027,00021,00043,300
40,700 72,000 7,500 6,250

150
2,000 500
1,500
4,000 1,500
2,500 9,500
23,000 3,700
10,500

9,650
96,000 9,000
47,500
31,00022,50045,80050,200 95,000 11,20016,750

375,750

58,850

134,600

In 1754, another return was made to the Board of Trade, in
the following: Table of Population in 1754.
Whites. Blacks. Total.
1,192,896 292,738 1,485,634
We will now give the population at seven successive periods,
as indicated by the returns of the official census of the United
States. Table of Population from 1790 to 1850.

Years.

Whites.

Free Colored

. Slaves.

Total.

1790

3,172,464

59,466

697,897

3,929,827

1800

4,304,489

108,395

893,041

5,305,925

1810

5,862,004

186,446

1,191,364

7,239,814

1820

7,872,711

238,197

1,543,688

9,654,596

1830

10,537,378

319,599

2,009,043

12,866,020

1840

14,189,555

386,348

2,487,355

17,069,453

1850

19,630,738

428,661

3,198,324

23,257,723

208 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
sists of the following ingredients. The numbers are
conjectural and approximate: Table of Nationality.
White Immigrants since 1790, and their
white descendants  4,350,934
Africans, and their descendants  3,626,585
White Immigrants previous to 1790, and
their white descendants  15,279,804
This does not include the Indians living within the
territories and States of the Union. These facts show
that a remarkable mingling of families of the Cau-
The following is the official report of immigration from 1790
to 1850. Much of it is conjectural and approximate.
Table of Immigration from 1790 to 1850.
From 1790 to 1800  120,000
From 1810 to 1820  114,000
From 1820 to 1830  203,979
From 1830 to "1840  778,500
From 1840 to 1850  1,542,840

2,759,329

The immigrants are thus conjecturally distributed among the
nations of the earth. The estimate is a rough one.
Table of Nationality.
Celtic — Irish (one-half)  1,350,000
Teutonic — Germans, Danes, Swedes, etc. (one-fourth) 675,000
Miscellaneous — ¦ All other nations  734,329
The following statement exhibits the nationality of the immi
gration to the United States for the calendar year, 1851 (Dec.
31, 1850, to Dec. 31, 1851): —
Nationality of Immigrants in 1851.
From Great Britain and Ireland  264,222
From Germany  72,283
From France  20,107
Of these there were Males  245,017
Of these there were Females  163,745
Of these there were Unknown  66

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 209
casian stock is taking place. The exact statistics
would disclose a yet more remarkable mingling of the
Caucasian and the Ethiopian races going on. The
Africans are rapidly " bleaching " under the influ
ence of democratic chemistry. If only one-tenth of
the colored population has Caucasian blood in its veins,
then there are 362,698 descendants of this " amalga
mation " ; but if you estimate these hybrids as one in
five, which is not at all excessive, we have then 725,-
397. The thirty-one States now organized have a sur
face of 1,485,870 square miles, while the total area
of the United States, so far as I have information,
on the 17th of May, 1853, was 3,220,000 square miles.
In the States, on an average, there are not sixteen
persons to the square mile; in the whole territory,
not eight to a mile." Massachusetts, -the most densely
peopled State, has more than one hundred and twenty-
six to the mile, while Texas has but eighty-nine men
for a hundred miles of land, more than eight hun
dred acres to each human soul.
In 1840, there were ten States, whose united pop
ulations exceeded 4,000,000, which yet had no town
with 10,000 inhabitants.*
Table of Immigration for the first four months of 1853.
From the British Islands  15,023
From the French Ports  8,768
From the German Ports  3,511
From the Belgian and Dutch  2,747
From the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. 135
* The following table shows the occupation of 4,798,870 per
sons in 1840, ascertained by the census: —
Table of Occupation.
Engaged in Mining  15,211
Engaged in Agriculture  3,719,951
XIII— 14

210 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Look next at the products of industry in the
United States.*
The contrast between the Spanish and the Anglo-
Saxon settlements in America is amazing. A hun-
Engaged in Commerce  117,607
Engaged in Manufactures  791,749
Engaged in Navigation (Ocean)  56,021
Engaged in Navigation (Inland Waters) 33,076
Engaged in Learned Professions  65,255
* I take these results of the census of 1840, as deduced by
Professor Tucker, in his admirable book, Progress of the United
States in Population and Wealth in Fifty Years. New York,
1843. 1 vol. 8vo.
Value of Animal Products of Industry, 1840.
Agriculture  $654,387,597
Manufactures  236,836,224
Commerce  79,721,086
Mining  42,358,761
The Forest  16,835,060
The Ocean  11,996,108
Total  $1,063,134,736
In 1850, the iron-crop in the United States amounted to
564,755 tons. The ship-crop was 1360 vessels, with a measure
ment of 272,218 tons. The increase of American shipping is
worth notice, and is shown in the following:
Table of American Tonnage from 1815 to 1850.
Years. Tons.
1815  1,368,127
1820  1,280,165
1825  1,423,110
1830  1,181,986
1835  1,824,939
1840  2,180,763
1845  2,417,001
1850  3,535,454
The tonnage is still on the increase. In 1851 it amounted to
3,772,439, and at this moment must be considerably more than
4,000,000. The first ship built in New England was the " Blessing

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 211
dred years ago, Spain, the discoverer of America, had
undisputed sway over all South America, except Bra
zil and the Guianas. All Mexico was hers — all Cen
tral America, California unbounded on the north, ex
tending indefinitely, Louisiana, Florida, Cuba, Porto
Rico, and part of Hayti. She ruled a population
of twenty mihion men. Now Cuba trembles in her
faltering hand; ah the rest has dropped from the
arms of that feeble mother of feeble sons. In 1750
her American colonies extended from Patagonia to
Oregon. The La Plata was too far north for her south
ern limit, the Columbia too far south for her north-
of the Bay," a "bark of thirty tons," launched in 1634. Not
far from the spot where her keel was laid, a ship has recently
been built, three hundred and ten feet long, and more than six
thousand tons burden.
On the 30th September, 1851, there were, if the accounts are
reliable, 12,805 miles of railroad in the United States. At pres
ent, there are probably about 15,000 miles.
The most important articles of export for five-and-twenty years
appear in the following:
Table of the chief articles of Export from 1825 to 1850.

fears.

Cotton.

Breadstuff s and
Provisions.

Tobacco.

1825

$36,846,649

$11,634,449

$6,115,623

1830

29,674,883

12,075,430

5,586,365

1835

64,961,302

12,009,399

8,250,577

1840

63,870,307

19,067,535

9,883,957

1845

51,739,643

16,743,421

7,469,819

1850

71,484,616

26,051,373

9,951,023

1852

87,965,732

25,857,177

10,031,283

The greatest amount of cotton was exported in 1852, — 1,093,-
230,639 pounds; but the greatest value of cotton was in 1851,
amounting to $112,351,317. In 1847, the value of breadstuffs
and provisions exported was $68,701,921.
The government revenues for the fiscal year 1852 were $49,-
728,386.89; there was a balance in the treasury of $10,911,645.68;
making the total means for that year $60,640,032.57. On the
1st January, 1853, the national debt amounted to $65,131,692.

212 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
em bound. The Mississippi and the Amazon were
Spanish rivers, and emptied the waters of a continent
into the lap of America, the Mexique Gulf, which
was also a Spanish sea. But Spain allowed only
eight-and-thirty vessels to ply between the mother
country and the family of American daughters on
both sides of the continent. The empire of Spain,
mother country and colonies, extending from Bar
celona to Manila, with more sea-coast than the whole
continent of Africa, employed but sixteen thousand
sailors in her commercial marine. Portugal forbade
Brazil to cultivate any of the products of the Indies.
Look at this day at Anglo-Saxon, and then at Span
ish America. In 1606 there was not an English set
tlement in America. In 1627 only two, Jamestown
and Plymouth. But the Spanish colonies date back
to 1493. Compare the history of the basin of the
Amazon with the valley of the Mississippi. The
Amazon, with its affluents, commands seventy thou
sand miles of internal navigation, draining more ara
ble land than all Europe contains, the largest, the
most fertile valley in the world. It includes 1,796,-
000 square miles. Everything which finds a home
on earth will flourish in the basin of the Amazon,
between the level of the Atlantic and the top of the
Andes. But the tonnage on the Amazon does not
probably equal the tonnage on Lake Champlain.
Only an Anglo-Saxon steamer ruffles the waters of the
Amazon. Para, at its mouth, more than three hun
dred years old, contains less than 20,000 inhabitants.
The Mississippi with its tributaries drains 982,000
square miles, and affords 16,694 miles of steam nav
igation. In 1851 there were 1,190 steamboats on its
bosom, measuring 249,054 tons, running at an an-

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 213
nual cost of $39,774,194 ; the value of the merchan
dise carried on the river in 1852 was estimated at
$432,651,240, more than double the whole foreign
trade of the United States for that year. New
Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi, was founded
in 1719, and in 1850 contained 119,461 inhabitants;
in 1810 it had not 18,000!
The Anglo-Saxon colonists brought with them the
vigorous bodies and sturdy intellect of their race ; the
forms of representative and constitutional govern
ment; publicity of political transactions; trial by
jury; a fondness for local self-government; an aver
sion to centralization ; the Protestant form of religion ;
the Bible; the right of private judgment; their na
tional administrative power ; and that stalwart self-
reliance and thrift which mark the Englishman and
American wherever they go. New Spain had priests
and soldiers ; New England, ministers and school-mas
ters. In two centuries, behold what consequences
come of such causes !
But America itself is not unitary ; there is a Span
ish America in the United States. Unity of idea and
interest by no means prevails here.
America was settled by two very different classes
of men, one animated by moral or religious motives,
coming to realize an idea ; the other animated by only
commercial ideas, pushing forth to make a fortune
or to escape from jail. Some men brought religion,
others only ambition; the consequence is, two antag
onistic ideas, with institutions which correspond, an
tagonistic institutions.
First there is the democratic idea: that all men are
endowed by their Creator with certain natural rights ;
that these rights are alienable only by the possessor

214 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
thereof; that they are equal in all men; that govern
ment is to organize these natural, inalienable, and
equal rights into institutions designed for the good of
the governed; and therefore government is to be of
ah the people, by all the people, and for all the
people. Here government is development, not ex
ploitation. Next there is the oligarchic idea, just the opposite
of this ; that there is no such thing as natural, inalien
able, and equal rights, but accidental, ahenable, and
unequal powers ; that government is to organize the
might of all, for the good of the governing party ;
is to be a government of all, by a part, and for the
sake of a part. The governing power may be one
man, King Monarch; a few men, King Noble; or the
majority, King Many. In all these cases, the mo
tive, the purpose, and the means, are still the same,
and government is exploitation of the governed, not
the development thereof. So far as the people are
developed by the government, it is that they may be
thereby exploitered.
Neither the democratic nor the oligarchic idea is
perfectly developed as yet: but the first preponder
ates most at the North, the latter at the South — one
in the free, the other in the slave States.
The settlers did not bring to America the demo
cratic idea fully grown. It is the child of time. In
all great movements there are three periods — first,
that of sentiment — there is only a feeling of the
new thing; next of idea — the feeling has become
a thought; finally of action — the thought becomes
a thing. It is pleasant to trace the growth of the
democratic sentiment and idea in the human race,
to watch the efforts to make the thought a thing, and

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 215
found domestic, social, ecclesiastical, and political in
stitutions corresponding thereto. Perhaps it is easier
to trace this here than elsewhere. It has sometimes
been claimed that the Puritans came to America to
found such institutions. But they had no fondness
for a democracy ; the thought did not enter their heads
that the substance of man is superior to the acci
dents of men, his nature more than his history. New
England men on the 4th of July claim the compact
on board the Mayflower, as the foundation of de
mocracy in America, and of the Declaration of In
dependence. But the signers of that famous doc
ument had no design to found a democracy. Much
of the hberahty of the settlers at Plymouth seems
to have been acquired by their residence in Holland,
where they saw the noblest example of religious tol
eration then in the world.
The democratic idea has had but a slow and grad
ual growth, even in New England. The first form
of government was a theocracy, an intense tyranny
in the name of God. The next world was for the
" elect " said Puritan theology ; " let us also have
this," said the elect. The distinction between cler
ical and laical was nowhere more prominent than in
puritan New England. The road to the ballot-box
lay under the pulpit ; only church-members could vote,
and if a man's politics were not marked with the
proper stripe it was not easy for him to become a
church-member. The " Lords Brethren " were as
tyrannical in the New World as the " Lords Bishops "
in the Old.
There was a distinction between " gentlemen," with
the title of Mr., and men with only the name, John,
Peter, and Bartholomew, or the title " Goodman."

216 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Slavery was established in the New World; there
were two forms of it — absolute bondage of the Af
ricans and the Indians; the conditional bondage of
white men, called " servants," slaves for a hmited
period. Before the Revolution the latter were nu
merous, even in the North.
The Puritan had little religious objection to the
establishment of slavery. But the red man would
fight, and would not work. It was not possible to
make useful slaves- of Indians: the experiment was
tried; it failed, and the savage was simply destroyed.
In theocratic and colonial times at the North, the
democratic idea contended against the Church; and
gradually weakened and overcame the power of the
clergy and of all ecclesiastical corporations. At
length all churches stand on the same level. The
persecuted Quaker has vindicated his right to free
inspiration by the Holy Ghost; the Baptist enjoys the
natural right to be baptized after the apostolic fash
ion ; the Unitarian to deny the Holy Trinity ; the
Universalist to affirm the eternal blessedness of all
men ; and the philosophical critic to examine the claims
of Christianity as of all religions, to sweep the whole
ocean of religious consciousness, draw his net to land,
gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away.
The spirit of freedom contended against the claims
of ancestral gentility. In the woods of New Eng
land it was soon found that a pair of arms was worth
more than a coat of arms, never so old and horrid
with griffins. A man who could outwit the Indians,
" whip his weight in wild cats," hew down trees, build
ships, make wise laws, and organize a river into a
mill, or men into towns and States, was a valuable
person; and if born at all was well born. Men of

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 217
no family grew up in the new soil, and often over
topped the twigs cut from some famous tree. In
the humblest callings of life I have found men of
the most eminent European stocks. But it was rare
that men of celebrated families settled in America;
monarchy, nobility, prelacy did not emigrate, it was
the people who came over. And in 1780, the Con
vention of Massachusetts put this in the first Article
of the Constitution of the State : " All men are born
free and equal, and have certain natural, essential, and
inalienable rights." Ah distinction of gentle and sim
ple, bond and free, perished out of Massachusetts.
The same thought is repeated in the constitutions of
many Northern States.
This spirit of freedom contended against the
claims of England. Local self-government was the
aim of the colonies. Opposition to centralization of
authority is very old in America. I hope it will be
always young. England was a hard master to her
western children ; she left them to fight their own bat
tles against the Indians, against the French; and
this circumstance made all men soldiers. In King
Philip's War every man capable of bearing arms took
the field, first or last. The frontier was a school for
soldiers. The day after the battle of Lexington, a
hundred and fifty men, in a large farming town of
New Hampshire, shouldered their muskets and
marched for Boston, to look after their brethren.
It was long before there was a clear and distinct
expression of the democratic idea in America. The
Old Testament helped it to forms of denunciatory
speech. The works of Milton, Sidney, Locke, and
the writers on the law of nature and of nations, were
of great service. Rousseau came at the right time, and

218 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
aided the good cause. Calvin and Rousseau, strange
to say, fought side by side in the battle for freedom.
It was a great thing for America and the world, that
this idea was so clearly set forth in the Declaration
of Independence, announced as a self-evident truth.
A young man's hand came out of the wall, and wrote
words which still make many tremble as they read.
The battle for human freedom yet goes on; its
victory is never complete. But now in the free States
of the North the fight is against all traditional forms
of evil. The domestic question relates to the equal
rights of men and women in the family and out of it;
there is a great social question, — " Shah money
prevail over man, and the rich and crafty exploiter
the poor and the simple? " In the Church, men ask
— " Shall authority — a book or an institution, each
an accident of human history — prevail over reason,
conscience, the affections, and the soul — the human
substance? " In the State, the minority looks for
the eternal principles of right ; and will not heed the
bidding of famous men, of conventions, and majori
ties ; appeals to the still, small voice within, which
proclaims the higher law of God. Even in the North
a great contest goes on.
The democratic idea seems likely to triumph in
the North, and build up its appropriate institutions —
a family without a slave, a family of equals; a com
munity without a lord, a community of co-operators;
a Church without a bishop, a Church of brethren;
a State without a king, a State of citizens.
The institutions of the free States are admirably
suited to produce a rapid development of the under
standing. The State guarantees the opportunity of
education to all children. The free schools of the

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 219
North are her most original institution, quite imper
fect as yet. The attempts to promote the public ed
ucation of the people have already produced most
gratifying results.
More than half of the newspaper editors in the
United States have received all their academical edu
cation in the common school. Many a Methodist and
Universahst minister, many a member of Congress,
has been graduated at that beneficent institution.
The intelligence and riches of the North are due to
the common schools. In the free States books are
abundant; newspapers in all hands; skilled labor
abounds. Body runs to brain, and work to thought.
The head saves the hands. Under the benignant in
fluence of public education, the children of the Irish
emigrant, poor and despised, grow up to equality with
the descendants of the rich; two generations will ef
face the difference between them. I have seen, of a
Sunday afternoon, a thousand young Irish women,
coming out of a Cathohc church, all well dressed, with
ribbons and cheap ornaments, to help elevate their
self-respect; and when remembering the condition of
these same women in their native land, barefoot, dirty,
mendicant, perhaps thievish, glad of a place to serve
at two pounds a year, I have begun to see the impor
tance of America to the world; and have felt as John
Adams, when he wrote in his diary, " I always con
sider the settlement of America with reverence and
wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design
of Providence, for the illumination of the ignorant,
and the emancipation of the slavish part of man
kind, all over the earth."
The educational value of American institutions, in
the free States is seldom appreciated. The schools

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
open to all, where all classes of the people freely min
gle, and the son of a rude man is brought into con
tact with the good manners and self-respectful de
portment of children from more fortunate homes;
the churches, where everybody is welcome (if not
black) ; the business which demands intelligence, and
educates the great mass of the people; the public
lectures, delivered in all the considerable towns of
New England, the winter through; the newspapers
abundant, cheap, discussing everything with as little
reserve as the summer wind; the various social meet
ings of incorporated companies to discuss their af
fairs; the constitution of the towns, with their meet
ings, two or three times a year, when officers are
chosen, and taxes voted, and all municipal affairs
abundantly discussed; the public proceedings of the
courts of law, so instructive to jurors and spectators ;
the local legislatures of the States — each consisting
of from two to four hundred members, and in session
four or five months of the year; the politics of the
nation brought home to every voter in the land —
all these things form an educational power of im
mense value, for such a development of the lower
intellectual faculties, as men esteem most in these
days. But the oligarchic idea is also at work. You meet
this in all parts of the land, diligently seeking to or
ganize itself. It takes no new forms, however, which
are peculiar to America. It re-enacts the old stat
utes which have oppressed mankind in the eastern
world ; it attempts to revive the institutions that have
cursed other lands in darker days. Now the few
tyrannize over the many, and devise machinery to op
press their fellow-mortals; then the majority thus

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 221
tyrannize over the few, over the minority. There
are two forms of democracy — the satanic and the
celestial : one is selfishness, which knows no higher law ;
the other philanthropy, that bows to the justice of
the Infinite God, with " Thy will be done." In Amer
ica we find both — the democratic devil and the dem
ocratic angel.
The idea of the North is preponderatingly demo
cratic in the better sense of the word ; new justice is
organized in the laws ; government becomes more and
more of all, by ah, and for all. You trace the prog
ress of humanity, of liberty, equality, and frater
nity in the constitution of the free States from Mas
sachusetts to Wisconsin.
But in the Southern States the oligarchic idea pre
vails to a much greater extent, and becomes more
and more apparent and powerful. The South has
adopted the institution of slavery, elsewhere discarded,
and clings to it with strange tenacity. In South
Carolina the possession of slaves is made the condi
tion, sine qua non, of eligibility to certain offices. The
constitution provides that a citizen shall not " be
eligible to a seat in the House of Representatives,
unless legally seized and possessed m his own right,
of a settled freehold estate of five hundred acres of
land, and ten negroes." *
The Puritans of New England made no very strong
objection to slavery. It was established in all the
colonies of the North and South. White servitude
continued till the Revolution. As late as 1757, white
men were kidnapped, " spirited away," as it was
called in Scotland, and sold in the colonies.
Negro slavery began early. Even the gentler
*Art. I, § 6.

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Puritans at Plymouth had the Anglo-Saxon antipathy
to the colored race. The black man must sit aloof from
the whites in the meeting-house, in a negro pew; he
must "not be joined unto them in burial;" a place
was set apart in the graveyard at Plymouth, for
colored people, and still remains as from time imme
morial. In 1851, an abolitionist, before his death,
insisted on being buried with the objects of his ten
der solicitude. The request was complied with.
After the Revolution, the Northern States grad
ually abolished slavery, though not without violent
opposition in some places. In 1788 three colored
persons were kidnapped at Boston and carried to the
West Indies ; the crime produced a great excitement,
and led to executive and legislative action. The same
year, the General Presbyterian Assembly of America
issued a pastoral letter, recommending " the abohtion
of slavery, and the instruction of the negroes in let
ters and religion." In 1790, Dr. Franklin, presi
dent of the " Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition
of Slavery," signed a memorial to Congress, asking
that body " to countenance the restoration of liberty
to the unhappy men who alone in this land of free
dom are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who,
amid the general joy of surrounding provinces, are
groaning in servile subjection; that you will devise
means for removing this inconsistency from the char
acter of the American people; that you will permit
mercy and justice towards this distressed race; and
that you will step to the very verge of the power
vested in you for discouraging every species of traf
fic in the persons of our fellow-men."
The memorial excited a storm of debate. Slavery
was defended as a measure of political economy, and a

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
principle of humanity, South Carolina leading in the
defense of her favorite institution. Yet many emi
nent Southern men were profoundly convinced of the
injustice of slavery; others saw it was a bad tool to
work with.
Since that time the Southern idea of slavery appears
to have changed. Formerly, it was granted by the
defenders of slavery that it was wrong; but they
maintained: 1. That Americans were not responsible
for the wrong, as England had imposed it upon the
colonies. 2. That it was profitable to the owners
of slaves. 3. That it was impossible to get rid of
it. Now the ground is taken that slavery is not a
wrong to the slave, but that the negro is fit for a
slave, and a slave only.,
I pass by the arguments of the Southern clergy
and the Northern clergy — whose conduct is yet more
contemptible — to cite the language of the prom
inent secular organs of the South. The Richmond
Examiner, one of the most able journals of the
South, declares : —
" When we deprive the negro of that exercise of
his will which the white calls liberty, we deprive him
of nothing; on the contrary, when we give him the
guidance and protection of a master, we confer on
him a great blessing."
" To treat two creatures so utterly different as the
white man and the negro man on the same system, is
an effort to violate elementary laws." " The aphor
isms of the Declaration of Independence " are illog
ical when applied to the negro. " They involve the
assumption that the negro is the white man, only a
little different in external appearance and education.
But this assumption cannot be supported." " A law

224 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
rendering perpetual the relation between the negro and
his master is no wrong, but a right." " Negroes are
not men, in the meaning of the Declaration of In
dependence." " ' Haven't negroes got souls ? ' asks some sepul
chral voice. ' Have they no souls?' That question
we never answer; we know nothing about it. Non
mi ricordo; they may have souls, for aught we know
to the contrary; so may horses and hogs."
" We expect the institution of slavery to exist for
ever." " The production of cotton, rice, sugar, cof
fee, and tobacco, demands that which slavery only
can supply. And in all portions of this Union where
these staples are produced, it will be retained. And
when we get Hayti, Mexico, and Jamaica, common
sense will doubtless extend it, or rather, re-establish
it there, too." *
I will now quote a little from the Mr. De Bow's
large work : —
" No amount of education or training can ever
render the negro equal in intellect with the white."
" ' You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's lug,'
is an old and homely adage, but not the less true;
so you cannot make anything from a negro but ne-
groism, which means barbarism and inferiority." " As
God made them so they have been, and so they will
be; the white man, the negro, and the jackass; each
to his kind, and each to his nature ; true to the finger
of destiny (which is the finger of God), and unde-
viatingly pursuing the track which that finger as un-
deviatingly points out."
"Is the negro made for slavery? God in heaven!
what are we, that because we cannot understand the
* Richmond (Va.) Semi^weekly Examiner, January 4, 1853.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
mystery of this Thy will, we should dare rise in re
bellion, and call it wrong, unjust, and evil? The
kindness of nature fits each creature to fulfil
its destiny. The very virtues of the negro fit him
for slavery, and his vices cry aloud for the shackles
of bondage!" "It is the destiny of the negro, if
by himself, to be a savage; if by the white, to be a
serf." " They may be styled human beings, though
of an inherently degraded species. To attempt to re
lieve them from their natural inferiority is idle in
itself, and may be mischievous in its results."
"Equality is no thought nor creation of God.
Slavery, under one name or another, will exist as long
as man exists; and abolition is a dream whose exe
cution is an impossibility. Intellect is the only divine
right. The negro cannot be schooled, nor argued,
nor driven into a love of freedom."
"Alas for their folly!' (the abolitionists. ) But
woe! woe! a woe of darkness and of death, a woe of
hell and perdition to those who, better knowing, goad
folly on to such an extreme. This is, indeed, the sin
not to be forgiven; the sin against the Holy Ghost,
and against the Spirit of God! The beautiful order
of creation breathed down from Almighty intelhgence,
is to be molded and wrought by fanatic intelligence,
until dragged down, at last, to negro intelligence!"
Chancellor Harper, of South Carolina, in an ad
dress delivered before " The Society for the Advance
ment of Learning," at Charleston, makes some state
ments a little remarkable: —
" The institution of slavery is a principle cause of
civilization." " It is as much the order of nature
that men should enslave each other, as that other ani
mals should prey upon each other." " The savage
XIII— 15

226 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
can only be tamed by being enslaved or by having
slaves." " The African slave-trade has given and
will give the boon of existence to milhons and mil
lions in our country who would otherwise never have
enjoyed it."
He quotes the Bible to justify slavery : —
" ' They shall be your bondmen for ever.' "
" Servitude is the condition of civilization. It was
decreed when the command was given, ' Be fruitful
and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it ; '
and when it was added ' In the sweat of thy face
shalt thou eat bread.' " Slavery was "forced on us
by necessity, and further forced upon us by the su
perior authority of the mother country. I, for one,
neither deprecate nor resent the gift." " I am by no
means sure that the cause of humanity has been served
by the change in jurisprudence which has placed their
murder on the same footing with that of a freeman."
" The relation of master and slave is naturally one
of kindness." " It is true that the slave is driven to
his labor by stripes ; such punishment would be de
grading to a freeman, who had the thoughts and as
pirations of a freeman. In general, it is not degrad
ing to a slave, nor is it felt to be so."
It is alleged that " the slave is cut off from the
means of intellectual, moral, and religious improve
ment, and in consequence his moral character becomes
depraved, and he addicted to degrading vices." To
this the Democratic chancellor of South Carolina
replies : —
" The Creator did not intend that every individual
human being should be highly cultivated, morahy and
intellectually." " It is better that a part should be
highly cultivated, and the rest utterly ignorant."

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 227
*' Odium has been cast upon our legislation on account
of its forbidding the elements of education to be com
municated to slaves. But, in truth, what injury is
done them by this? He who works during the day
with his hands does not read in intervals of leisure
for his amusement, or the improvement of his mind."
*' Of the many slaves whom I have known capable of
reading, I have never known one to read anything but
the Bible, and this task they imposed on themselves
as matter of duty." " Their minds generally show
a strong religious tendency, . . . and perhaps their
religious notions are not much more extravagant
than those of a large portion of the free popula
tion of our country." " It is certainly the master's
interest that they should have proper religious senti
ments." " A knowledge of reading, writing, and the ele
ments of arithmetic, is convenient and important to
the free laborer . . . but of what use would they be
to the slave? " " Would you do a benefit to the horse
or the ox by giving him a cultivated understanding or
fine feelings ? " *
" The law has not provided for making those mar
riages [of slaves] indissoluble; nor could it do so."
" It may perhaps be said, that ' the chastity of wives
is not protected by law from the outrages of vio
lence.' " " Who ever heard of such outrages being
offered? . . . One reason, doubtless, may be that
often there is no disposition to resist, . . . there is
httle temptation to this violence as there is so large
a population of this class of females [slave wives] who
set httle value on chastity." " It is true that in this
respect the morals of this class are very loose, . . .
*De Bow, vol. ii, p. 217, et seq.

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and that the passions of the men of the superior caste
tempt and find gratification in the easy chastity of
the females. This is evil, . . . but evil is incident
to every condition of society."
"The female slave [who yields to these tempta
tions] is not a less useful member of society than be
fore. . . . She has done no great injury to herself
or any other human being; her offspring is not a bur
den but an acquisition to her owner; his support is
provided for, and he is brought up to usefulness; if
the fruit of intercourse with a free man, his condition
is perhaps raised somewhat above that of his mother."
" I do not hesitate to say, that the intercourse which
takes place with enslaved females is less debasing in
its effects [on man] than when it is carried on with
females of their own caste, . . . the attraction is
less, . . . the intercourse is generally casual,
. . . he is less liable to those extraordinary fascina
tions." " He [the slave husband] is also liable to be sepa
rated from wife or child, . . . but from native
character and temperament, the separation is much
less severely felt."
" The love of liberty is a noble passion. But, alas !
it is one in which we know that a large portion of the
human race can never be gratified." " If some su
perior power should impose on the laborious poor of
this, or any other country, this [' a condition which
is a very near approach to that of our slaves'] as
their undeniable condition, . . . how inapprecia
ble would the boon be thought." "The evils of
their situation they [the slaves] but slightly feel, and
would hardly feel at all if they were not sedulously
instructed into sensibility." " Is it not desirable that

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
the inferior laboring class should be made up of such
who will conform to their condition without painful
aspirations and vain struggles ? "
" I am aware that, however often assumed, it is
hkely to be repeated again and again : — How can
that institution be tolerable, by which a large class of
society is cut off from the hope of improvement and
knowledge ; to whom blows are not degrading, theft no
more than a fault, falsehood and the want of chastity
almost venial; and in which a husband or parent looks
with comparative indifference on that which to a free
man would be the dishonor of a wife or child? But why
not, if it produce the greatest aggregate of good?
Sin and ignorance are only evils because they lead to
misery." " The African negro is an inferior variety of the
human race, . . . and his distinguishing charac
teristics are such as peculiarly mark him out for the
situation which he occupies among us; . . . the
most remarkable is their indifference to personal lib
erty." " Let me ask if this people do not present the
very material out of which slaves ought to be made? "
" I do not mean to say that there may not be found
among them some of superior capacity to many white
persons. . . . And why should it not be so? We
have many domestic animals — infinite varieties, dis
tinguished by various degrees of sagacity, courage,
strength, swiftness, and other qualities."
" Slavery has done more to elevate a degraded race
in the scale of humanity ; to tame the savage, to civ
ilize the barbarous, to soften the ferocious, to en
lighten the ignorant, and to spread the blessing of
Christianity among the heathen, than all the mission
aries that philanthropy and religion have ever put

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
forth." " The tendency of slavery is to elevate the
character of the master," " to elevate the female char
acter." " There does not now exist a people in a
tropical climate, or even approaching to it, where
slavery does not exist that is in a state of high civili
zation. Mexico and the South American republics,
having gone through the farce of abolishing slavery,
are rapidly degenerating." " Cuba is daily and rap
idly advancing in industry and civilization; and it is
owing exclusively to her slaves. San Domingo is
struck out of the map of civihzed existence, and the
British West Indies shortly will be so." " Greece is
still barbarous, and scantily peopled." " Such is the
picture of Italy — nothing has dealt upon it more
heavily than the loss of domestic slavery. Is not this
evident? " *
A writer in the same work, speaking of the future
of the South, refers to the British and French West
Indies as follows : —
" The mind of the devout person who contemplates
the condition of the cirdevamt slave-colonies of these
two powers, must become impressed with the fact
that Providence must have raised up those two exam
ples of human folly for the express purpose of a les
son to' these States, to save which from human errors
it has, on more than one occasion, manifestly and
directly interposed." " England itself . . . is in
some sort the slave of Southern blacks."
" The few articles which are most necessary to mod
ern civilization — sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco
— are products of compulsory black labor." f
Another writer, whom I take to be a clergyman and
*De Bow, vol. ii, pp. 222-229.
fDe Bow, vol. iii, pp. 39, 40.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 231
a Jesuit,* goes so far as to forbid all sympathy for
the sufferings of slaves: —
" Sympathy for them could do them no good, be
cause a relief from slavery could not elevate them ¦ —
could do them no good, but an injury. Hence such
sympathy is forbidden ; " meaning it is forbidden by
God, in such passages as this : " Thine eye shall not
pity him" (Deut. xix, 13). He maintains that Af
rican slavery is a punishment divinely inflicted on the
descendants of Ham for his offense. Ham, he thinks,
married a descendant of Cain, and his children inher
ited the " mark " set upon the first murderer !
Let us now look at some facts connected with slav
ery in America.
No nation has, on the whole, treated its African
slaves so gently as the Americans. This is proved by
the rapid increase of the slave population. Compare
America in this respect with some of the British
West Indies.
In seventy-three years, from 1702 to 1775, the in
crease of the colored population of Jamaica was
158,614; but in that period there were imported and
retained in the island, 360,622 ; so the slave-owners
in seventy-three years must have used up and de
stroyed about 300,000 human beings. This dreadful
exploitation continued a long time. From 1775 to
1794, about 113,000 more were imported; but in
1791 there were only 260,000 colored persons in
Jamaica. In sixteen years, the loss was more than
47,000 greater than the entire importation. To say
it all in a word : in 1702, Jamaica started with 36,000
slaves ; up to 1791, she had imported and retained in
* " John Fletcher of Louisiana," in his Studies on Slavery in
(119) Easy Lessons. Natchez, 1852. 8vo. pp. xiv, and 637.

232 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
bondage 473,000 more; making a total of 509,000
souls, and in 1791, she had only 260,000 to show as the
result of her traffic in human souls. There was a waste
of 249,000 lives !
About 750,000 slaves were imported into Jamaica
between 1650 and 1808. If that number seems ex
cessive, diminish it to 700,000, which is certainly be
low the fact; then add all the children born in the
one hundred and eighty-four years which elapsed be
fore the day of emancipation came. Remember that
only 311,000 were there to be emancipated in 1834,
and it is plain what a dreadful massacre of human hfe
had been going on in that garden of the western world.*
About 1,700,000 slaves have been imported into
the British West Indies. Of all this number, and the
vast families of children born thereof, in 1834 there
were only 780,993 to be emancipated.
Look at the course of things in the United States.
In 1714 the number of colored persons was 58,850 ; in
1850, 3,626,985.
The United States can show ten Africans now liv
ing for every one brought into the country, while the
* The same thing took place in all the British West Indies.
Look at the following:
Table of Slave Population of British Guiana.
Number in 1820 77,376
Number in 1826 71,382
Number in 1832 65,517
Loss in twelve years 11,859
Table of Births and Deaths.
Years. Registered Births. Registered Deaths.
1817 to 1820 4868 7140
1820 to 1823 4512 7188
1823 to 1826 4494 7634
1826 to 1829 4684 5731
1829 to 1832 4086 7016

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
British West Indies, in 1834, could not show one liv
ing man for each two brought thither as slaves.*
A Texan newspaper, the Columbian Planter, of
April 5, 1853, deprecates all discussion of slavery, and
thus speaks of the slave code of that State : — " We
consider it the duty of the county court to have these
local laws compiled and printed in a cheap form, and
a copy placed on each plantation in the county. But
* The above facts, and the authorities for them, are taken
from a valuable and readable book, by H. C. Carey, " The
Slave Trade, Domestic and Foreign; why it exists, and how
it may be extinguished." Philadelphia, 1853. 1 vol. 12mo., pp.
426. Another work, by M. Charles Comte, contains much in
formation relative to slavery, and its effects in ancient and
modern times : — ¦ TraitS de Ligislation on Exposition des Lois
Generales suivant lesquelles les Peuples prospirent, deperissent,
ou restent stationaires, etc. (3me Edition. Bruxelles, 1837.)
Livre v.
In De Bow, vol. ii, p. 340, et seq., is a statement of the im
portation of slaves to Charleston, from 1804 to 1807, whence I
construct the following:
Table of South Carolina Slave-Trade 1804-1807.
70 vessels owned in England  brought 19,649 slaves.
3 vessels owned in France  brought 1,078 slaves.
61 vessels owned in Charleston  brought 7,723 slaves.
59 vessels owned in Rhode Island  brought 8,238 slaves.
4 vessels owned in Baltimore  brought 750 slaves.
3 vessels owned in other Southern Ports. brought 787 slaves.
3 vessels owned in other Northern Ports. brought 650 slaves.
39,075 slaves.
Of these, 3433 were imported on account of citizens of the
slaveholding States, and 35,642 on account of capitalists in
countries where slavery was prohibited! Newport, in Rhode
Island, was famous for the slave-trade, and its prosperity fell
with that business. The cost of paving the only street in the
town paved with stone was defrayed by a tax of ten dollars
on each slave brought into the harbor. So late as 1850, Boston
vessels were engaged in the African slave-trade. The domestic
slave-trade still employs many northern vessels, — 1033 slaves
were shipped at Baltimore, for various southern ports, in 1851.

234 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
we cannot, with what we consider the true pohcy and
interest of the South, open the columns of the Planter
for their publication."
" We regard the institution of domestic slavery
as purely a local subject, which should he at the feet
of the Southern press with deathlike silence; for its
great importance will not admit of its discussion."
I will mention three cases of cruelty which have
lately come to my knowledge. A black free man, in
a city of Kentucky, had a wife who was a slave. One
evening her master, who had a grudge against the hus
band, found him in the kitchen with her, and ordered
him out of the house. He went, but left the gate
of the back yard open as he passed out. The white
man ordered him to return and shut it; the black
man grumbled and refused; whereupon the white man
shot him dead ! The murderer was a " class leader "
in the church, and attended a meeting shortly after
this transaction. He was asked to " comfort the souls
of the meeting, and improve his gift " by some words
of exhortation. He declined on the ground that he
felt dissatisfied with himself, that he himself " needed to
be strengthened, and wished for the prayers of the
brethren." They appointed a committee to look into
the matter, who reported that he had done nothing
wrong. The affair was also brought before a mag
istrate, who dismissed the case!
Here is another, yet more atrocious. A slave
holder in South Carolina had inflicted a brutal and
odious mutilation, which cannot be named, on two male
slaves for some offense. Last year the master at
tempted to inflict the same barbarity upon a third
slave. He ordered another black man to help bind the
victim. The slave, struggling against them both,

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 235
seized a knife, killed the master, and then took his
own life. The neighbors came together, ascertained
the facts, and hung up the slave's dead body at the
next four corners, as a terror to the colored people
of the place! No account of it was published in the
newspapers. Slavery " should lie at the feet of the
Southern press with deathlike silence ! "
While writing this address I receive intelligence
of a slave women recently whipped to death in Mis
souri. An incautious German, who had not been long
enough in the country to become converted to Amer
ican Christianity, and so callous to such things, pub
lished an account of the transaction in a German news
paper. The murderers were not punished.*
* The following advertisement is taken from a newspaper
published in Wilmington (North Carolina), in March, 1853.
Nothing in Mrs. Stowe's work is so atrocious; for American
fiction halts this side of the American fact:- —
225 Doixars Reward. — State of North Carolina, New Hanover
County. — Whereas, complaint upon oath has this day been
made to us, two of the Justices of the Peace for the State
and county aforesaid, by Benjamin Hallett, of the said county,
that two certain male slaves belonging to him, named Lott,
aged about twenty-two years, five feet four or five inches
high, and black, formerly belonging to Lott Williams, of
Onslow Co.; and Bob, aged about sixteen years, five feet high,
and black, have absented themselves from their said master's
service, and supposed to be lurking about this county, com
mitting acts of felony and other misdeeds. These are, there
fore, in the name of the State aforesaid, to command the said
slaves forthwith to return home to their masters; and we do
hereby, by virtue of the Act of the General Assembly in such
cases made and provided, intimate and declare, that if the said
Lott and Bob do not return home and surrender themselves,
any person may kill and destroy the said slaves, by such means
as he or they may think of, without accusation or impeachment
of any crime or offense for so doing, and without incurring

286 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
I will next proceed to show some of the effects of
democracy at the North, and despotism at the South.
First notice the effect on the increase of population.
In 1790, the entire population of the territory now
occupied by the slave States was 1,961,372 exclusive
of Indians; that of the free States was 1,968,455.
In 1850, with an addition of immense territories —
Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico — the popu
lation of the slave States amounted to 9,719,779 ; the
free States and territories, not including Oregon and
California, had 13,348,371 souls. The population of
the free States has increased about six hundred per
cent., that of the slave only about four hundred per
cent. Let us compare a free and a slave State which
lie side by side. In soil and climate Kentucky is su
perior to Ohio — only the stream separates them.
Slavery is on one side, freedom on the other; and what
a difference! Kentucky contains 37,680 square miles. It is well
watered with navigable rivers — the Ohio, Cumberland,
Kentucky, Green, and Salt. The soil is admirable,
producing abundantly ; the climate mild and salubrious.
It abounds in minerals — coal, iron, lead. The salt
springs were famous even with the French and Indians.
Rice, cotton, and the sugar-cane grow in Kentucky.
any penalty or forfeiture thereby.
Given under our hands and seals, this 28th day of February,
1853. W. N. Peden, J. P. [seal.]
W. C. Bettencourt, J. P. [seal.]
225 Dollars Reward.— Two hundred dollars will be given for
negro Lott, either dead or alive; and twenty-five dollars for
Bob's head, delivered to the subscriber in the town of Wil
mington. Benjamin Hallett.
March 2, 1853.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 237
Ohio contains 39,964 square miles of land, no bet
ter watered, with a soil not superior, less favored with
mineral riches, yet also abounding in iron and coal;
the climate is sterner, the water power less copious.
In 1790, Kentucky had 73,077 inhabitants; Ohio
not a white man. In 1800, Kentucky had 220,959;
Ohio only 45,365. But in 1850, Kentucky had only
982,405; while Ohio had grown to 1,980,427 souls.
To-day, Kentucky has not 775,000 freemen, while
Ohio has more than 2,000,000.
In 1810, Louisville, the capital of Kentucky, num
bered 4,012 persons; Cincinnati, the chief town of
Ohio, contained 9,644. Now Louisville has less than
50,000, and Cincinnati more than 150,000; while
Cleveland and Columbus, in the same State, have risen
from nothing to cities each containing 20,000 inhab
itants. Look next at the effect of these different institu
tions on the productive industry of the different sec
tions of the land. In the North, labor is respected.
In 1845, there were in Boston 19,037 private fam
ilies ; there were 15,744 who kept no servant, and
only 1,069 who had more than one. Is Boston poor?
In 1854, the property of her citizens, taxable on the
spot, is more than $225,000,000.
In 1847, the real property in Boston was valued at
$97,764,500 — $45,271,120 more than the value of
all the real estate of South Carolina, with her 24,-
500 square miles of land. South Carolina owns 384,-
984 slaves; at $400 a head, they would come to $153,-
993,600. The actual property of the inhabitants of
Boston, in 1854, is sufficient to buy all those slaves,
and then leave a balance sufficient to pay the market
value of all the houses and land in that proud State.

238 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
In 1839, the census value of the annual agricultural
products of the entire South was $312,380,151 ; that
of the free States, $342,007,446. Yet the South had
an advantage by nature, and 249,780 more persons en
gaged in agriculture.
The manufactures of the South for that year were
worth $42,178,184 ; of the North, $197,658,040.
The aggregate earnings of all the South were $403,-
429,718, of the North, $658,705,108. The entire
earnings of the two Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mis
sissippi, and Louisiana, amounted to $189,321,719 ;
those of New York to $193,806,433.
Omitting the territories and California from the es
timate, in 1850, the fifteen slave States contained 190,-
297,188 acres of land in farms; the fifteen Northern
States only 97,087,778 acres. But the Northern
farms were worth $283,023,483, while the Southern
were valued at only $253,583,234. The South has
93,000,000 acres the most land, and it is worth $30,-
000,000 the least.
The South has invested $95,918,842 in manufac
turing establishments which give an annual return of
$167,906,350: while the North has $431,290,351 in
manufactures, with a yearly earning of $845,430,428.
In 1853 the South had 438,297 tons of shipping;
at $40 a ton it was worth $17,331,880. The North
had 3,831,047 tons, worth $153,241,880.
On the 1st of September, 1852, the South had
2,144 miles of railroad ; the North 9,661 miles. The
cost of 1,140 miles of railroad in Massachusetts with
its equipment was $56,559,982.
In 1850, the aggregate value of all the property
real and personal of the fifteen slave States was $2,
755,411,554; that of fifteen free States — omitting

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 239
California — was $3,186,683,924. But in the South
ern estimate the value of the working men is included ;
appraising the 3,200,412 at $400 apiece, they come
to $1,280,164,800 ; deduct this from the gross sum and
there remains $1,475,246,754 as the worth of all the
material property of all the persons in the fifteen slave
States; while the inhabitants of the free States have
material property amounting to $3,186,683,924.
The different effects of democracy and despotism
appear in the higher forms of industry — the inven
tions which perform the work of human hands. From
1790 to 1849, there were 16,514 patents granted for
inventions made in the free States, and only 2,202 in
the slave States. I omit patents granted to citizens of
the district of Columbia, and to foreigners. In 1851,
64 patents were granted to citizens of the slave States ;
656 to those of the free States. Besides, many of
the Southern patents are granted to men born and
bred at the North.
It is not too much to say, that the machinery of
Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts, driven
by water and steam, earns every year more than all
the 3,000,000 slaves of the entire South. Even Chan
cellor Harper confesses that " free labor is cheaper
than the labor of slaves." The South kidnaps men,
breeds them as cattle, brands them as cattle, beats them
as cattle, sells them as cattle — does not know " whether
they have a soul or not " ; declares them cursed by
God, not fit for human sympathy, incapable of devel
opment, indifferent to liberty, to chastity, without nat
ural affection ; breaks up their marriages, forbids them
to be taught reading and writing — behold the prac
tical results !
Look at the effect of these two institutions, the dem-

240 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
ocratic and the despotic, on the intellectual education
of the people, in the North and South.
In 1839, there were in the slave States, at schools
and colleges, 301,172 pupils; in the free States,
2,212,444 pupils at school and college. New York
sends, to school and college, more than twice as many
young persons as ah the slave States.
At that time there were in Connecticut 163,843 free
persons over twenty years of age; of these only 526
were unable to read and write. In South Carolina,
there were 111,663 free persons over twenty, and of
these 20,615 were reported as unable to write or read.
The ignorant men of Connecticut were almost ah for
eigners, those of South Carolina natives of that soil.
A sixth part of the voters of South Carolina are un
able to read the ballot they cast.
According to the census of 1850, in the year 1849,
the South paid $2,717,771 for public schools; the
North $6,834,388. The South had 976,966 children
at school ; the North, 3,106,961.
The South had 2,867,567 native whites over twenty
years of age ; of these 532,605 were unable even to read
— more than eighteen per cent. In the North there
were 6,649,001 native whites over twenty, and only
278,575 thus illiterate — not four and one-fourth per
cent. In 1850, there were in the United States 2,800
newspapers and other periodicals, from the daily to
the quarterly, issuing annually about 422,700,000
copies, to about 5,000,000 subscribers. Of these
journals, 716 were in the slave States — including
those printed in the capital of America — and 2,084
in the free States. The circulation of Southern peri
odicals, however, is limited: their average is not more

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 241
than one-half or two-thirds that of the northern jour
nals. Almost all who are eminent in science, hterature, or
art — naturalists, historians, poets, preachers — are
Northern men. The Southern pulpit produces noth
ing remarkable but evidences of the divinity of
slavery. The respective military power of the democratic and
despotic institutions was abundantly tested in the Rev
olutionary War. From 1775 to 1783, the free pop
ulation of the slave States was 1,307,549; there were
also 657,527 slaves. New England contained 673,-
215 free persons, and 3,886 slaves. During the nine
years of that war, the slave States furnished the con
tinental army with 58,421 regular soldiers ; New Eng
land alone furnished 118,380 regulars. The slave
States had also 12,719 mihtia-men, and New England
46,048 mihtia-men.
After the battle of Bunker Hill, when the States in
Congress were called on to furnish soldiers, South
Carolina, in consequence of her " peculiar institu
tions," asked that hers might remain at home. In
1779 (March 29th) a committee of Congress reported
that " the State of South Carolina is unable to make
any effectual effort, with militia, by reason of the
great proportion of the citizens necessary to remain at
home, to prevent insurrection among the negroes, and
prevent the desertion of them to the enemy." From
1775 to 1783, South Carolina contained 166,018 free
persons, Connecticut only 158,760. During the nine
years of the war, South Carolina sent 5,508 soldiers to
the army, and Connecticut 39,831. While the six
slave States could raise only 58,421 soldiers, and 12,-
779 militia-men, Massachusetts alone contributed 67,-
XIII— 16

242 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
937 soldiers to the continental army, and 15,155 mi
litia-men — in all 83,092 !
The demoralizing influence of American despotism
is fearfully obvious in the conduct of the general gov
ernment. It debases the legislative and the executive
power ; the Supreme Court is its venal prostitute. You
remember the inaugural of President Pierce : —
" I believe that involuntary servitude is recognized
by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any
other admitted right. I hold that the laws of 1850,
commonly called the 'compromise measures,' are
strictly constitutional, and to be unhesitatingly car
ried out." "The laws to enforce these [rights
to property in the body and soul of men] should be
respected and obeyed, not with a reluctance encour
aged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a
different state of society, but cheerfully, and accord
ing to the decisions of the tribunal to which their ex
position belongs."
The effect of slavery on the morality of the North
is painful to reflect upon. Northern merchants en
gage in the internal slave trade; in the foreign slave
trade; they own plantations at the South; they lend
money to the South, and take slaves as security. The
Northern church is red with the guilt of bondage ; most
of its eminent preachers are deadly enemies to the free
dom of the African. How many clerical defenders
has the Fugitive Slave Act found in the North? The
court-house furnished kidnappers at Philadelphia, New
York, and Boston; the church justified them in the
name of God. I know of no church which has ever
showed itself more cowardly than the American.
Since 1849, the Bible Society dares not distribute the
Scriptures to slaves. The American Tract Society

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA
adapts its publications to the Southern market, by
expunging every word hostile to the patriarchal insti
tution. Mr. Gurney says, " If this love had always
prevailed among professing Christians, where would
have been the sword of the crusader? Where the Af
rican slave-trade? Where the odious system which
permits to man a property in his fellow-man, and con
verts rational beings into marketable chattels? " The
American Tract Society alters the text, and instead of
what I have italicized, it prints : " Where the tortures
of the Inquisition? Where every system of oppres
sion and wrong by which he who has the power revels
in luxury and ease at the expense of his fellow-men ! "
In 1850 and 1851, the most prominent preachers in
the North came out in public and justified the kidnap
ping of men in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.
It is true some noble ministers lifted up their voices
against it; but the theological leaders went for man-
stealing, and knew no higher law.
Commercial and political journals denounced every
minister who applied the Golden Rule of the Gospel to
the poor fugitives from slavery. Several clergymen
were driven from their parishes in Massachusetts, be
cause they preached against kidnapping. Metropoli
tan newspapers invited merchants to refuse to trade
with towns where the Fugitive Slave Bill was unpopu
lar; lawyers and doctors opposed to slavery must not
be employed.
Anti-Slavery sentiments are carefully excluded
from school-books: the writers want a Southern mar
ket. The principal men in the Northern colleges ap
pear to be on the side of oppression. The political
and commercial press of the North is mainly on the
side of the slaveholder. While preparing this paper

244 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
I find in a Northern newspaper (the Boston Courier,
of April 26, 1853) an advertisement as follows: —
A RARE CHANCE FOR CAPITALISTS!
FOR SALE.
" The Pulaski House, at Savannah, and Furniture, and a
number of prime negroes, accustomed to hotel business," etc.
The advertisement is dated " Savannah, \Qth April."
On that day, 1851, Boston landed at Savannah a
man whom she had kidnapped in her own streets ; on
that day, in 1775, a few miles from Boston, a handful
of farmers and mechanics first drew the sword of
America against the oppressions of her parent, " in the
sacred cause of God and their country." Nemesis is
never asleep ! If men are to be advertised for sale in
a Boston newspaper, it is well that the advertisement
should date from the battle of Lexington, or the
Declaration of Independence.
Last year the State of Illinois passed " An Act to
prevent the immigration of free negroes " into that
State. A man who brings a free negro or mulatto
into the State is to be fined not less than $100, nor more
than $500, and to be imprisoned not more than a year.
Every negro thus coming, shall be fined fifty dollars,
and, if unable to pay, shall be sold to any person
" who will pay said fine and costs, for the shortest
time." " Every person who shall have one-fourth
negro blood shall be deemed a mulatto." Delaware
has just passed a similar law, though with penalties
less severe.
In the commercial journals of the free and the slave
States, the most scandalous abuse has been poured out
upon Mrs. Stowe for her " Uncle Tom's Cabin," and
its key. " Priestess of Darkness " is one of the pleas-

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 245
ant epithets applied to her. The Duchess of Suther
land receives, also, a large share of abuse from the
same quarter. When the kidnapper is honored; when
" prime negroes " are advertised for sale ; when clergy
men recommend man-stealing in the name of Christ
and of God, it is very proper that ladies of genius and
philanthropy should be held up as objects of scorn
and contempt! Men who know no law higher than
the Fugitive Slave Bill, must work after their kind.
It is a strange spectacle which America just now
offers. Exiles flee hither, four hundred thousand in a
year, and are welcome ; while Americans born take their
lives in their hand, and fly to Canada, to Nova Scotia,
for an asylum. Unsuccessful " rebels," who have
committed " treason " at home, find a shelter in Amer
ica, a welcome, and the protection of the democratic
government; while 3,300,000 men, guilty of no crime,
are kept in a bondage worse than Siberian. The
" chief judicial officer " of South Carolina thinks of
all " distinguishing characteristics " of the negroes
" the most remarkable is their indifference to personal
liberty." But democratic Calhoun, with Clay, Web
ster, and all the leaders of the South, must unite to
make the Fugitive Slave Bill, and hinder those men
who are indifferent to personal liberty from running
away ! After all the tumult, fifteen hundred fugitives
got safely out of the slave soil of the United States in
the year 1853. Alas, they must escape to the terri
tories of a monarch! Every foot of monarchic
British soil can change a slave to a free man;
while in all the three million square miles of democratic
America, there is not an inch of land where he can
claim the natural and inalienable right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. English is the only

246 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tongue for hberty ; it is also the only speech in which
kidnapping is justified by the clergy in the name of
God. The despots of the European continent point
with dehght to the American democrats enslaving one
another, and declaring there is no higher law.
There can be no lasting peace between the two con
flicting ideas I have named above. One wants a
democracy, the other a despotism ; each is incursive, ag
gressive, exterminating. Which shah yield? The an
swer is plain: slavery is to perish out of America;
democracy is to triumph. Every census makes the
result of the two ideas more apparent. The North in
creases in numbers, in riches, in the intellectual devel
opment of the great mass of its people — out of all
proportion to the South. Slavery is a bad tool to
work with. In the South, there is little skilled labor,
little variety of industry; rude farm labor, rearing
corn, coffee, tobacco, sugar, cotton, that is all. At
Boston, at New York, on the Kennebec, and the
Penobscot, Northern men build ships of oak from Vir
ginia, and hard pine from Georgia ; they get the pitch
and tar from Carolina, the hemp from Kentucky - —
that State which has no shipping. Labor is cheap on
the fair land of the Carolinas, the best in the world
for red wheat; labor is dear in Pennsylvania, but she
undersells the Carolinas in the wheat market. Ten
nessee has rich mines of iron ore — the fine bloomer
iron; slave labor is cheap, coal abundant. Work is
dear, in Pennsylvania ; but there free labor makes bet
ter iron at cheaper rates. The South is full of water
power ; within six miles of the President's house' there
is force enough to turn aU the mills of British Man
chester; it runs by as idle as a cloud. The South
erner draws water in a Northern bucket, drinks from

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 247
a Northern cup; with a Northern fork and spoon he
eats from a Northern dish, set on a Northern table.
He wears Northern shoes made from Southern hides;
Northern coats, hats, shirts; he keeps time with a
Northern watch; his wife wears Northern jewels, plays
on a Northern pianoforte ; he sleeps in a Northern bed ;
reads (if read he can) a Northern book; and writes
(if writing be not a figure of speech) on Northern
paper, with a pen from the North. The laws of Mis
sissippi must be printed in a Northern town! The
Southerner has no market near at hand, no variety of
labor, little that is educational in toil ; industry is dis
honorable. It is the curse of slavery which makes
it so!Three forces now work against this institution: po
litical economy, showing that it does not pay ; the
public opinion of England, France, Germany, of all
Christendom, heaping shame on the " model repub
lic " — " the first and most enlightened nation in the
world ; " the still small voice of conscience in all men.
The pohtical economist scoffs at the absolute right;
the partisan politician mocks at the higher law; the
Pharisee in the pulpit makes mouths at the invisible
Spirit, which silently touches the hearts of women and
of men. But he who knows the world because he
knows man, and man's God, understands very well, that
though Justice has feet of wool, her hands are of iron.
These three forces — it is plain what they will do with
American slavery.
This institution of slavery has brought us into most
deadly peril. A story is told of some Italian youths,
of famous family, in the middle ages. Borgia and
his comrades sat riotously feasting, long past mid
night, hot with young blood, giddy with passion,

248 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
crazed with fiery wine. In their intemperate laughter
they hear the hoarse voice of monks in the street, com
ing round the corner, chanting the Miserere as service
for the dying, " Have mercy upon me, O God, accord
ing to thy loving-kindness ! " " What is that? " cries
one. " Oh," answers another, " it is only some poor
soul going to hell, and the priests are trying to cheat
the devil of his due ! Push round the wine." Again
comes the chant, " For I acknowledge my transgres
sion, and my sin is ever before me ! " " How near it
is ; under the windows," says a reveler, turning pale.
" What if it should be meant for one of us ; let me
look." He opens the window, the torches flash in
from the dark street, and the chant pours on them,
" Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean : wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow ! " They all spring
to their feet. " Whom is it for? " they cry out.
" Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God
of my salvation; and my tongue shah sing aloud of
thy righteousness," is the answer. They throw open
the door — the mother of Borgia rushes in : " You
are all dead men," she cries ; " I poisoned the wine my
self. Confess, and make your peace with God; here
are His ministers." The white-robed priests fill up the
room, chanting, " The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou
wilt not despise ! " " But here is an antidote for my
son," cries the mother of Borgia. " Take it ! " He
dashes the cup on the ground — and the gay com
pany lies there, pale-blue, poisoned, and dead! Shall
that be the fate of America ? Yes ; if she cast the cup
of healing to the ground! Other admonitions must
come, yet more terrible, before we learn for whom the
Miserere is now wailing forth.

THE PROGRESS OF AMERICA 249
If America were to keep this shameful pest in the
land, then ruin is sure to follow, — ruin of all the dear-
bought institutions of our fathers. The slaves double
in about twenty-five years ; so in a. d. 1930, there
would be 27,000,000 of slaves! What a thought!
The question is not merely, shall we have slavery and
freedom, but slavery or freedom. The two cannot
long continue side by side.

VIII
THE NEW CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
1854
Since last we came together, there has been a man
stolen in this city of our fathers. It is not the first ; it
may not be the last. He is now in the great slave
pen in the city of Boston. He is there against the
law of the Commonwealth, which, if I am rightly in
formed, in such cases prohibits the use of State edi
fices as United States jails. I may be mistaken. Any
forcible attempt to take him from that barracoon of
Boston, would be wholly without use. For besides the
holiday soldiers who belong to the city of Boston, and
are ready to shoot down their brothers in a just or an
unjust cause, any day when the city government gives
them its command and its liquor, I understand that
there are one hundred and eighty-four United States
marines lodged in the court-house, every man of them
furnished with a musket and a bayonet, with his side
arms, and twenty-four ball cartridges. They are sta
tioned also in a very strong building, and where five
men, in a passage-way, about the width of this pulpit,
can defend it against five-and-twenty, or a hundred.
To " keep the peace," the mayor, who, the other day
" regretted the arrest " of our brother, Anthony Burns,
and declared that his sympathies were wholly with the •
alleged fugitive — and of course wholly against the
claimant and the marshal — in order to keep the peace
of the city, the mayor must become corporal of the
guard for kidnappers from Virginia. He must keep
the peace of our city, and defend these guests of Bos-
250

THE NEW CRIME 251
ton over the graves, the unmonumented graves, of John
Hancock and Samuel Adams.
A man has been killed by violence. Some say he
was killed by his own coadjutors: I can easily believe
it; there is evidence enough that they were greatly
frightened. They were not United States soldiers, but
volunteers from the streets of Boston, who, for their
pay, went into the court-house to assist in kidnapping
a brother man. They were so cowardly that they
could not use the simple cutlasses they had in their
hands, but smote right and left, like ignorant and
frightened ruffians as they are. They may have slain
their brother or not — I cannot tell. It is said by
some that they killed him. Another story is, that he
was killed by a hostile hand from without. Some say
by a bullet, some by an ax, and others still by a knife.
As yet nobody knows the facts. But a man has been
killed. He was a volunteer in this service. He liked
the business of enslaving a man, and has gone to ren
der an account to God for his gratuitous wickedness.
Twelve men have been arrested, and are now in jail to
await their examination for wilful murder!
Here, then, is one man butchered, and twelve men
brought in peril of their lives. Why is this? Whose
fault is it?
Some eight years ago, a Boston merchant, by his
mercenaries, kidnapped a man " between Faneuil Hall
and old Quincy," and carried him off to eternal slav
ery. Boston mechanics, the next day, held up the
half -eagles which they received as pay for stealing a
man. The matter was brought before the grand jury
for the county of Suffolk, and abundant evidence was
presented, as I understand, but they found " no bill."
A wealthy merchant, in the name of trade, had stolen

252 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
a black man, who, on board a ship, had come to this
city, had been seized by the mercenaries of this mer
chant, kept by them for awhile, and then, when he es
caped, kidnapped a second time in the city of Boston.
Boston did not punish the deed!
The Fugitive Slave Bill was presented to us, and
Boston rose up to welcome it! The greatest man in
all the North came here, and in this city told Massa
chusetts she must obey the Fugitive Slave Bill with
alacrity — that we must all conquer our prejudices in
favor of justice and the inalienable rights of man.
Boston did conquer her prejudices in favor of justice
and the inahenable rights of man.
Do you not remember the " Union meeting " which
was held in Faneuil Hall, when a " political soldier of
fortune," sometimes called the " Democratic Prince of
the Devils," howled at the idea that there was a law
of God higher than the Fugitive Slave Bill? He
sneered, and asked, " Will you have the ' higher law of
God,' to rule over you? " and the multitude which oc
cupied the floor, and the multitude that crowded the
galleries, howled down the higher law of God! They
treated the higher law to a laugh and a howl ! That
was Tuesday night. It was the Tuesday before
Thanksgiving Day. On that Thanksgiving Day, I told
the congregation that the men who howled down the
higher law of Almighty God, had got Almighty God
to settle with ; that they had sown the wind, and would
reap the whirlwind. At that meeting Mr. Choate told
the people — "REMEMBER! Remember! Remem
ber! " Then nobody knew what to remember. Now
you know. That is the state of that case.
Then you remember the kidnappers came here to
seize Thomas Sims. Thomas Sims was seized. Nine

THE NEW CRIME 253
days he was on trial for more than his life ; and never
saw a judge — never saw a jury. He was sent back
into bondage from the city of Boston. You remember
the chains that were put around the court-house ; you
remember the judges of Massachusetts stooping,
crouching, creeping, crawling under the chain of slav
ery, in order to get to their own courts. All these
things you remember. Boston was non-resistant. She
gave her " back to the smiters " — from the South ;
she " withheld not her cheek " — from the scorn of
South Carolina, and welcomed the spitting of kidnap
pers from Georgia and Virginia. To-day we have our
pay for such conduct. You have not forgotten the
" fifteen hundred gentlemen of property and stand
ing," who volunteered to conduct Mr. Sims to slav
ery — Marshal Tukey's " gentlemen." They remem
ber it. They are sorry enough now. Let us forgive
— we need not forget. "REMEMBER! Remem
ber ! Remember! "
The Nebraska Bill has just now been passed. Who
passed it? The fifteen hundred " gentlemen of prop
erty and standing" in Boston, who, in 1851, volun
teered to carry Thomas Sims into slavery by force of
arms. They passed the Nebraska Bill. But to every
demand of the slave power, Massachusetts has said,
" Yes, yes ! — we grant it all ! " " Agitation must
cease ! " " Save the Union ! "
Southern slavery is an institution which is in
earnest. Northern freedom is an institution that is
not in earnest. It was in earnest in '76 and '83. It
has not been much in earnest since. The compromises
are but provisional! Slavery is the only finality!
Now, since the Nebraska Bill is passed, an attempt is
made to add insult to insult, injury to injury. Last

254 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
week, at New York, a brother of the Rev. Dr. Pen
nington, an established clergyman, of large reputation,
great character, acknowledged learning, who has his
diploma from the University of Heidelberg, in Ger
many — a more honorable source than that from
which any clergyman in Massachusetts has received
one — his brother and two nephews were kidnapped
in New York, and without any trial, without any de
fense, were hurried off into bondage. Then, at Bos
ton, you know what was done in the last four days.
Behold the consequences of the doctrine that there is
no higher law. Look at Boston to-day. There are
no chains round your court-house — there are only
ropes round it this time. A hundred and eighty-four
United States soldiers are there. They are, I am told,
mostly foreigners — the scum of the earth — none but
such enter into armies as common soldiers, in a country
like ours. I say it with pity — they are not to blame
for having been born where they were and what they
are. I pity the scum as well as I pity the mass of
men. The soldiers are there, I say, and their trade is
to kill. Why is this so?
You remember the meeting at Faneuil Hall, last
Friday, when even the words of my friend, Wendell
Phillips, the most eloquent words that get spoken in
America in this century, hardly restrained the multi
tude from going, and by violence storming the court
house. What stirred them up? It was the spirit of
our fathers — the spirit of justice and liberty in your
heart, and in my heart, and in the heart of us all.
Sometimes it gets the better of a man's prudence, es
pecially on occasions like this ; and so excited was that
assembly of four or five thousand men, that even the
words of eloquent Wendell Phillips could hardly re-

THE NEW CRIME 255
strain them from going at once rashly to the court
house, and tearing it to the ground.
Boston is the most peaceful of cities. Why? Be
cause we have commonly had a peace which was worth
keeping. No city respects laws so much. Because the
laws have been made by the people, for the people,
and are laws which respect justice. Here is a law
which the people will not keep. It is a law of our
Southern masters ; a law not fit to keep.
Why is Boston in this confusion to-day? The
Fugitive Slave Bill commissioner has just now been
sowing the wind, that we may reap the whirlwind.
The old Fugitive Slave Bill commissioner stands back ;
he has gone to look after his " personal popularity."
But, when Commissioner Curtis does not dare appear
in this matter, another man comes forward, and for
the first time seeks to kidnap his man also in the city
of Boston. Judge Loring is a man whom I have re
spected and honored. His private life is mainly blame
less, so far as I know. He has been, I think, uni
formly beloved. His character has entitled him to the
esteem of his fellow-citizens. I have known him some
what. I never heard a mean word from him — many
good words. He was once the law-partner of Horace
Mann, and learned humanity of a great teacher. I
have respected him a good deal. He is a respectable
man — in the Boston sense of that word, and in a much
higher sense; at least, I have thought so. He is a
kind-hearted, charitable man ; a good neighbor ; a fast
friend — when politics do not interfere ; charitable
with his purse; an excellent husband; a kind father;
a good relative. And I should as soon have expected
that venerable man who sits before me, born before
your Revolution [Samuel May], — I should as soon

256 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
have expected him to go and kidnap Robert Morris, or
any of the other colored men I see around me, as I
should have expected Judge Loring to do this thing.
But he has sown the wind, and we are reaping the
whirlwind. I need not say what I now think of him.
He is to act to-morrow, and may yet act like a man.
Let us wait and see. Perhaps there is manhood in him
yet. But, my friends, all this confusion is his work.
He knew he was stealing a man born with the same
inalienable right to " life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness " as himself. He knew the slaveholders had
no more right to Anthony Burns than to his own
daughter. He knew the consequences of steahng a
man. He knew that there, are men in Boston who
have not yet conquered their prejudices — men who
respect the higher law of God. He knew there would
be a meeting at Faneuil Hall — gatherings in the
streets. He knew there would be violence.
Edward Greeley Loring, Judge of Probate for the
county of Suffolk, in the State of Massachusetts,
Fugitive Slave Bill Commissioner of the United States,
before these citizens of Boston, on Ascension Sunday,
assembled to worship God, I charge you with the death
of that man whoi was killed on last Friday night. He
was your fellow-servant in kidnapping. He dies at
your hand. You fired the shot which makes his wife
a widow, his child an orphan. I charge you with the
peril of twelve men, arrested for murder, and on trial
for their lives. I charge you with filling the court
house with one hundred and eighty-four hired ruffians
of the United States, and alarming not only this city
for her liberties that are in peril, but stirring up the
whole Commonwealth of Massachusetts with indigna
tion, which no man knows how to stop — which no
man can stop. You have done it all !

THE NEW CRIME 257
This is my Lesson for the Day.
My text is
" Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto
the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me,
and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with
him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought
opportunity to betray him." — Matt. xxvi. 14-16.
" Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he
was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty
pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they
said, What is that to us? see thou to that." — Matt, xxvii. 3, 4.
[The sermon which follows was printed in the Boston Com
monwealth, on Monday, from the phonographic report of
Messrs. Slack and Yerrinton. They copied out the notes at my
house, and I revised them. We did not complete our labors
till half-past three o'clock Monday morning. It may easily
be imagined that some errors appeared in the print — for the
perishable body weigheth down the mind, and, though the spirit
be willing, the flesh is too weak to work four-and-twenty hours
continuously. Yet the errors were surprisingly few. In this
edition of the sermon some passages have been added which
were omitted in the report, and some also which, though writ
ten, were not delivered on Sunday.]
Boston, June 10, 1854.
Within the last few days, we have seen some of the
results of despotism in America, which might indeed
easily astonish a stranger; but a citizen of Boston has
no right to be surprised. The condition of this town
from May 24th to June 2nd is the natural and un
avoidable result of well-known causes, publicly and de
liberately put in action. It is only the first-fruit of
causes which in time will litter the ground with similar
harvests, and with others even worse. Let us pretend
no amazement that the seed sown has borne fruit after
its kind. Let us see what warning or what guidance
we can gather from these events, their cause and con
sequence. So this morning I ask your attention to
XIII— 17

258 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
a sermon of the New Crime against Humanity commit
ted in the midst of us, of the last kidnapping which
has taken place in Boston.
I know well the responsibility of the place I occupy
this morning. To-morrow's sun shall carry my words
to all America. They will be read on both sides of
the continent. They will cross the ocean. It may
astonish the minds of men in Europe to hear of the
iniquity committed in the midst of us. Let us be calm
and cool, and look the thing fairly in the face.
Of course you will understand, from my connection
with what has taken place in part, that I must speak
of some things with a good deal of reserve, and others
pass by entirely. However, I have only too much to
say. I have had but short time for preparation, the
deed is so recent. Perhaps I shall trespass a httle
on your patience this morning, that hand overrun
ning my customary hour some twenty or thirty min
utes. If any of you find your patience exhausted,
and standing too wearisome, you can retire; and, if
without noise, none will be disturbed, and none
offended. On Wednesday night, the 24th of May, a young
man, without property, without friends — I will con
tinue to call his name Anthony Burns — was return
ing home from his usual lawful and peaceful work
in the clothing shop of Deacon Pitts, in Brattle Street.
He was assaulted by six ruffians, who charged him
with having broken into a jeweller's shop. They
seized him, forced him to the court-house, thrust him
into an upper chamber therein, where he was surrounded
by men, armed, it is said, with bludgeons and revolvers.
There he was charged with being a fugitive slave.
A man from Virginia, claiming to be his owner, and

THE NEW CRIME 259
another man, likewise from Virginia, confronted the
poor victim, and extorted from him a confession, as
they allege, that he was the claimant's fugitive slave —
if, indeed, the confession was not purely an invention
of his foes who had made the false charge of
burglary ; for they who begin with a lie are not to be
trusted after that lie has been told. He was kept all
night, guarded by ruffians hired for the purpose of
kidnapping a man. No friend was permitted to see
him; but his deadliest foes, who clutched at what
every one of us holds tenfold dearer than life itself,
were allowed access. They came and went freely,
making their inquisition, extorting or inventing
admissions to be used for Mr. Burns's ruin.
At nine o'clock the next morning, Thursday (May
25th), the earliest hour at which the courts of Massa
chusetts ever open, he was brought to the court-room
and arraigned before Edward Greeley Loring, judge
¦ of probate, one of the Fugitive Slave Bill com
missioners of the city of Boston, and immediately put
on trial. Intimidated by the mob about him, and
stupefied with terror and fear, he makes no defense.
" As a lamb before his shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth." How could he dare make a defense,
treated as he had been the night before? — confronted
as he was by men clutching at his liberty ? — in a court
room packed with ruffians, where the slaveholders'
counsel brought pistols in their breasts? He had been
in duress all night, with inquisitors about him. His
claimant was there, with documents manufactured in
Alexandria; with a witness brought from Richmond;
with two lawyers of Boston to aid them.
What a scene it was for a Massachusetts court ! A
merchant from Richmond, so Mr. Brent called him-

260 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
self; another from Alexandria, who was a sheriff and
member of the Virginia legislature — for such Colonel
Suttle has been — they were there to steal a man !
They had him already in jail; they went out and came
in as they liked, and shut from his presence everybody
who was not one of the minions hired to aid them in
their crime.
Further they had two lawyers of Boston giving them
the benefit of their education and their knowledge of
the law ; and, in addition to' that, the senior lawyer,
Seth J. Thomas, brought considerable experience, ac
quired on similar occasions — for he has been the kid
nappers' counsel from the beginning. The other law
yer was a young man of good culture and amiable
deportment, I think with no previous stain on his
reputation. This is his first offense. I trust it will
be also his last — that he will not bring shame on his
own and his mother's head. I know not how the kid
nappers enticed the young man to do so base a deed ;
nor what motive turned him to a course so foul as this.
He is a young man, sorely penitent for this early
treason against humanity. Generous emotions are
commonly powerful in the bosoms of the young. A
young man with only cruel calculation in his heart is a
rare and loathsome spectacle. Let us hope better
things of this lawyer; that a generous nature only
sleeps in him. It is his first offense. I hope he will
bring forth " fruits meet for repentance." Judge of
him as charitably as you can. Of Mr. Thomas I have
only this to add: — that he is chiefly known in the
courts as the associate of Mr. Curtis in attempts like
this ; the regular attorney of the stealers of men, and
apparently dehghted with his work. He began this
career by endeavoring to seize William and Ellen

THE NEW CRIME 261
Craft. He is a member of the Democratic party who
has not yet received his reward.
On the side of the kidnapper there were also' the
district marshal, the district attorney, the Fugitive
Slave Bill commissioner, and sixty-five men whom I
counted as the marshal's " guard." When the com
pany was ordered to disperse, and the guard to re
main, I tarried late, and counted them. I reckoned
sixty-five in the court-room, and five more outside. I
may have been mistaken in the count.
On the other side there was a poor, friendless negro,
sitting between two bullies, his wrists chained together
by stout handcuffs of steel — a prisoner without a
crime, chained; on trial for more than life, and yet
there was no charge against him, save that his mother
had been a slave!
Mr. Burns had no counsel. The kidnapper's law
yers presented their documents from Alexandria,
claiming him as a slave of Colonel Suttle, who had es
caped from " service." They brought a Virginia
merchant to identify the prisoner. He was swiftly
sworn, and testified with speed. The claimant's law
yers declared that Mr. Burns had acknowledged al
ready that he was Colonel Suttle's slave, and willing
to go back. So they demanded a " certificate " ; and
at first it seemed hkely to be granted at once. Why
should a Fugitive Slave Bill commissioner delay?'
Why does he want evidence? Injustice is swift of foot.
You know what was done in New York, the very same
week: — three men were seized, carried before a com
missioner, and, without even a mock trial, without any
defense, hurried to bondage, pitiless and for ever!
Only an accident, it seems, saved Boston from that
outrage.

262 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
But there came forward in the court-room two young
lawyers, Richard H. Dana and Charles M. Ellis, noble
and honorable men, the pride of the mothers that bore
them, and the joy of the fathers who have trained
them up to piety and reverence for the law of God.
Voluntarily, gratuitously, they offered their services
as counsel for Mr. Burns. But it was said by the
kidnappers that he did not want counsel; that he
would make no defense ; that he was " willing to go
back." Messrs. Dana and Ellis did not wish to speak
with him, or seem to plead that he might be their
client. I spoke with him. His fear gave him a sad
presentiment of his fate. He feared that he should
be forced into slavery. How could he think other
wise? Arrested on a lying charge; kept in secret
under severe and strict duress ; guarded by armed men ;
confronted by his claimant; seeing no friends about
him; how could he do otherwise than despair? If he
went back at all, it was natural that he should " wish
to go back easily," fearing that, if he resisted his
claimant in Boston, he " must suffer for it in Alex
andria." His conqueror, he thought, would take ven
geance on him when he got him home, if he resisted his
claim. That is the best evidence which I have seen
that the man had ever been a slave : he knew the taste
and the strength of the slave-driver's whip. That was
not brought forward in evidence. If I had been the
kidnapper's counsel I should have said, " The man is
doubtless a slave ; he is afraid to go back ! " When
I was in the court-room, as I was about to ask poor
Burns if he would have counsel, one of the guard said
to me, " You will never get him to say he wants a de
fense." Another more humanely said, "I hope he
will ; at any rate, it will do no harm to try." I asked
him, and he said, " Do as you think best."

THE NEW CRIME 263
But still the counsel felt a delicacy in engaging
under such circumstances. For they thought that, if,
after ah, he was to be sent to bondage, and when in the
hands of the slave-master should be tortured the more
for the defense they had made for him in Boston
court-house, it would surely be better to let the mar
shal take his victim as soon as he liked, and allow the
Fugitive Slave Bill commissioner to earn his "thirty
pieces of silver " without delay. They begged for
time, however, that the intimidated man might make
up his mind, and determine whether he would have a
defense or not.
There is no end to human atrocity. The kidnap
per's lawyers objected to the delay, and wished the
trial to proceed at once " forthwith." They said that
the claimant, Colonel Suttle, was here, having come all
the way from Alexandria to Boston, at great cost;
that the case was clear; that Burns made no defense:
and they asked for an instant decision. The Demo
cratic lawyer [Thomas] thought it was not worth
while to delay ; there was only the liberty of a man at
stake — a poor man, with no reputation, no friends,
nothing but the " natural, essential, and inalienable
rights " wherewith he was " endowed by his Creator "
— nothing but that : — let the Virginia colonel have his
slave! That is administration democracy in Massa
chusetts. There are two democracies — the celestial
and the satanic. One — it is the democracy of the
Beatitudes of the New Testament and of Jesus Christ ;
that says, " My brother, you are as good as I : come
up higher, and let me take you by the hand, and we
will help each other." Such democracy is the wor
ship of the great God. The other — it says, " I am
as good as you, and, if you don't let me triumph over

264 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
you, I will smite you to the ground." That is the
democracy of Caleb Cushing, the democracy of the
administration, and of a great many political men,
Democrat and Whig, and neither Whig nor Democrat.
Commissioner Loring asked Mr. Burns if he wanted
time to think of the matter, and counsel to aid in his
defense. I shall never forget how he looked round
that court-room, at the marshal, at the kidnapper's
lawyers, at the commissioner, the claimant and his wit
ness! Save the counsel, whom he had never seen be
fore, there was scarce a friendly face that his eye
rested on. At length he said timidly, and catching
for breath, " Yes." Mr. Loring put off the case until
Saturday. The Fugitive Slave Bill commissioner was
to lecture at Cambridge on Friday. He is a professor
at Harvard College, and he could not conveniently hold
court on that day. He is a judge of probate, and
looks after widows and orphans ; he must be in the
probate office on Monday. Saturday was the most
convenient day for the commissioner. So, in a matter
which was to determine whether the prisoner should
be a free man or only a thing which might be sold and
beaten as a beast, the court allowed him forty-eight
hours' delay ! It really gave him time to breathe a
little. Let us be grateful to the commissioner! He
gave more favor than any Fugitive Slave Bill com
missioners have done before, I believe.
You know the rest. He was on trial ten days. He
was never in a court; all this time he has not seen a
jury; he has not even seen a judge; the process is
" summary," not " summary in time," as Mr. Loring
declares ; but it is " without due form of law." Why
do you want a court to make a negro a slave in Bos
ton? Surely, a commissioner is enough in such a

THE NEW CRIME 265
case. Let him proceed as swiftly as he will : — the
kidnapper's lawyers said — " forthwith ; " not in a
hurry, but " immediately."
You remember what followed. You have seen the
streets crowded with armed men. You have read the
newspapers, the handbills, and the posters. You re
member the Faneuil Hall meeting, when all the influ
ence of the platform scarce kept the multitude from
tearing the court-house that night to the ground. You
remember the attack on the court-house — a man killed
and twelve citizens in jail, charged with crimes of an
atrocious character. You recollect the conventions —
Free-soil and anti-slavery. You call to mind the as
pect of Court Square last Monday. Boston never
saw such an Anniversary Week. There were meetings
of theological societies, philanthropic societies, reform
atory societies, hterary societies : and Boston was in
a state of siege — the court-house full of United States
soldiers — marines from the navy yard, troops from
the forts, from New York, from Portsmouth, from
Rhode Island. The courts sat with muskets at their
backs, or swords at their bosoms; drunken soldiers
charged bayonet on the witnesses, on counsel, and on
strangers, who had rights where the soldier had none.
The scene last Friday you will never forget — busi
ness suspended, the shops shut, the streets blocked up,
all the " citizen-soldiery " under arms. Ball cart
ridges were made for the city government on Thursday
afternoon in Dock Square, to be fired into your bosoms
and mine; United States soldiers loaded their pieces
in Court Square, to be discharged into the crowd of
Boston citizens whenever a drunken officer should give
command; a six-pound cannon, furnished with forty
rounds of canister shot, was planted in Court Square,

266 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
manned by United States soldiers, foreigners before
they enlisted. The town looked Austrian. And, at
high change, over the spot where, on the 5th of March,
1770, fell the first victim in the Boston Massacre, —
where the negro blood of Crispus Attucks stained
the ground, — over that spot Boston authorities car
ried a citizen of Massachusetts to Alexandria as a
slave ; " and order reigns in Boston " — or Warsaw,
call it which you will.
So much for a brief statement of facts.
Pause with me a moment, and look at the general
causes of the fact. Here are two great forces in the
nation. One is slavery, freedom is the other. The
two are hostile, deadly foes — irreconcilable. They
will go on fighting till one kills the other outright.
From 1775 to 1788, freedom generally prevailed over
slavery. It was the period of revolution, when the
nation fell back on its religious feelings, and thence
developed the great political ideas of America. But
even then slavery was in the midst of us. It came
into the Constitution, and, from the adoption of the
Federal Constitution to the present time, it has ad
vanced, and freedom declined. It has gone over the
Alleghanies, over the Rio del Norte, over the Cordil
leras; it extends from the forty-ninth parallel to the
thirty-second, from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; it has
gone into ten new States, into all the territories except
Oregon. Since the annexation of Texas, in 1845, slavery has
been the obvious master, freedom the obvious servant.
Fidelity to slavery is the sine qua non for office-holders.
Slavery is the " peculiar institution " of the industrial
democracy of America. Slavery is terribly in earnest,
as freedom has never been since the Revolution. It

THE NEW CRIME 267
controls ah the politics of the country. It strangles
all our " great men." There is not a great Demo
crat, nor a great Whig, who dares openly oppose slav
ery. All the commercial towns are on its side. There
is not an anti-slavery governor of any State in the
Union. The supreme courts of the States are all pro-
slavery, save in Vermont. The leading newspapers are
nearly all on the side of wrong — almost all the com
mercial, almost all the political newspapers. I know but
few exceptions — of course I do not speak of those de
voted to philanthropy — the democratic Evening
Post, truly democratic, of New York; and the New
York Tribune, which is truly democratic, though it
hoists another banner. Many of the theological jour
nals — Protestant as well as Catholic — are cruelly
devoted to slavery. But proudly above all the re
ligious journals of the land rises the Independent, and
bears a noble witness to the humane spirit of Chris
tianity. These are eminent exceptions, which would
do honor to any nation.
The friends of freedom appeal religiously to the
souls and consciences of men : piety and justice demand
that all be free ; the appeal immediately touches a few.
They address also the reason and the understanding of
men: Freedom is the great idea of politics; it is
self-evident that " all men are created equal." That
argument touches a few more. But the religious, who
reverence God's higher law, and the intellectual, who
see the great ideas of politics, they are few. Slavery
addresses the vulgar interests of vulgar men. To the
slaveholder it gives political power, pecuniary power,
and here is an argument which the dullest can under
stand, and the meanest appreciate. Able and cun
ning men feel this, and avail themselves of slavery to

268 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
secure money and political power. These are the ob
jects of most intense desire in America. They are our
highest things — marks of our " great men." Office
is transient nobility ; money is permanent, heritable no
bility. Accordingly, slavery is the leading idea of
America — the great American institution. I think
history furnishes no instance of one section of a coun
try submitting so meanly to another as we have done
in America. The South is weak in numbers and in
money — the North strong in both. The South has
few schools, no commerce, few newspapers, no large
mass of intelligent men, wherein the North abounds.
But the most eminent Southern men are devoted to
politics, while the Northern turn to trade: and so the
South commands the North. I am only translating
facts into ideas, and bringing the condition of Amer
ica to the consciousness of America. Some men knew
these things before, but the mass of men know them
not. So much for the general causes.
Now look at some of the special causes. I shall limit
myself chiefly to those which Massachusetts has had a
share in putting into activity.
In 1826, on the 9th of March, Mr. Edward Everett
made a speech in Congress. He was the representa
tive of Middlesex county. Once he was a minister
of the church where John Hancock used to worship,
and as clergyman officially resided in the house which
John Hancock gave to that church. Next, he was a
professor in Harvard College, where the Adamses —
the three Adamses, Samuel, John, and John Quincy —
were educated, and where John Hancock had gradu
ated. He represented Lexington, and Concord, and
Bunker Hill, and in his speech he said : —

THE NEW CRIME 269
" Neither am I one of those citizens of the North
who would think it immoral and irreligious to join in
putting down a servile insurrection at the South. I
am no soldier, sir. My habits and education are very
unmilitary; but there is no cause in which I would
sooner buckle a knapsack to my back, and put a mus
ket to my shoulder, than that." " Domestic slavery
. is not, in my judgment, to be set down as an
immoral or irreligious institution." " Its duties are
presupposed by religion." " The New Testament
says, ' Slaves, obey your masters.' "
The Daily Advertiser defended Mr. Everett, declar
ing that it was perfectly right in him to justify the
continuance of the relation between the master and his
slaves, and added (I am now quoting from the Daily
Advertiser of March 28th, 1826):— "We hold that
it is not time, and never will be, that we should be
aroused to any efforts for their redemption." That
was the answer which the " respectability of Boston "
gave to Mr. Everett's speech. True, some journals
protested against the iniquitous statement ; the Chris
tian Register was indignant. But Middlesex county
sent him again. Lexington, and Concord, and Bunker
Hill returned their apostate representative a second,
a third, a fourth, and a fifth time. And, when he
was weary of that honor, the State of Massachusetts
made him her governor, and he carried to the State
House the same proclivities to despotism which he had
evinced in his maiden speech.
In 1835, the anti-slavery men and women were
mobbed in Boston by an assembly of " respectable
gentlemen ; " the mayor did not stop the tumult, the
destruction of property, and the peril of life ! There
were no soldiers in the streets then; nobody, I think,
was punished.

270 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
The next winter, the General Assemblies of several
Southern States sent resolutions to the Massachusetts
General Court, whereof this is one from South Caro
lina : — " The formation of abolition societies, and the
acts and doings of certain fanatics, calling themselves
abolitionists, in the non-slaveholding States of this con
federacy, are in direct violation of the obligations of
the compact of the Union."
South Carolina requested the government
" promptly and effectually to suppress all those asso
ciations," and would consider " the abolition of slav
ery in the District of Columbia as a violation of the
rights of citizens, and a usurpation to be at once re-
sited." Georgia asked Massachusetts " to crush the
traitorous designs of the abolitionists." Virginia re
quired the non-slaveholding States " to adopt penal
enactments, or such other measures as will effectually
suppress all associations within their respective limits,
purporting to be, or having the character of, abolition
societies ; " and that they " will make it highly penal
to print, publish, or distribute newspapers, pamphlets,
or other publications, calculated or having a tendency
to incite the slaves of the Southern States to insurrec
tion and revolt." How do you think Massachusetts
answered? In solemn resolutions the committee of
the Massachusetts legislature declared that the agita
tion of the question of domestic slavery had " already
interrupted the friendly relations between the several
States of the Union ; " expressed its " entire disappro
bation of the doctrines and speeches of such as agitate
the question," and advised them " to abstain from all
such discussion " as might " tend to disturb and agitate
the public mind." That was the voice of a committee
appointed by the Massachusetts legislature. True,

THE NEW CRIME 271
it was not accepted by the House of Representatives,
but the report was only too significant. What fol
lowed? In 1844, one of the most eminent lawyers of this
State was sent by Massachusetts to the city of Charles
ton, to proceed legally and secure the release of Massa
chusetts colored citizens from the jails of Charleston,
where they were held without charge of crime, and con
trary to the Constitution of the United States. Mr.
Hoar was mobbed out of Charleston by a body of re
spectable citizens, the high sheriff aiding in driving
him out.
Mr. Hoar made his report to the governor of Mas
sachusetts, and said : —
" Has the Constitution of the United States the least
practical vahdity or binding force in South Carolina,
excepting when she thinks its operation favorable to
her? She prohibits the trial of an action in the tri
bunals established under the Constitution for de
termining such cases, in which a citizen of Massa
chusetts complains that a citizen of South Carolina
has done him an injury ; saying that she has herself
already tried that cause, and decided against the plain
tiff." The evil complained of continues unabated to this
day. South Carolina imprisons all the free colored
citizens of the North who visit her ports in our ships.
In 1845, Texas was admitted, and annexed as a
slave State, with the promise that she might bring in
four other slave States.
In 1847 and '48 came the Mexican War, with the
annexation of an immense territory as slave soil.
Many of the leading men of Massachusetts favored
the annexation of Texas. New England might have

272 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
stopped it; Massachusetts might have stopped it;
Boston might have stopped it. But Mr. Web
ster said she could not be aroused. The politicians
of Massachusetts favored the Mexican War. It
was a war for slavery. Boston favored it. The news
papers came out in its defense. The governor called
out the soldiers, and they came. From the New Eng
land pulpit we heard but a thin and feeble voice against
the war.
But there were men who doubted that wrong was
right, and said, " Beware of this wickedness ! " The
sober people of the country disliked the war : they said,
" No ! let us have no such wicked work as this ! " Gov
ernor Briggs, though before so deservedly popular,
could never again get elected by the people. He had
violated their conscience by issuing his proclamation
calling for volunteers.
In 1850 came the Fugitive Slave Bill. You all re
member Mr. Webster's speech on the 7th of March.
Before that time he had opposed all the great steps
of the slave power — the Missouri Compromise, the
annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the increase
of slave territory. He had voted, I think, against the
admission of every slave State. He was opposed to
the extension of American slavery, " at all times, now
and for ever." He claimed the Wilmot Proviso as
his " thunder." He could " stand on the Buffalo plat
form " in 1848. But, in 1850, he proffered his sup
port to the Fugitive Slave Bill, " with all its pro
visions, to the fullest extent." He volunteered the
promise that Massachusetts would " obey," and that
" with alacrity." You remember his speech at the
Revere House — discussion " must be suppressed, in
Congress and out ; " Massachusetts must " conquer her

THE NEW CRIME 273
prejudices " in favor of the inalienable rights of man,
which she had fought the Revolution to secure. You
have not forgotten his speeches at Albany, at Syra
cuse, at Buffalo; nor his denial of the higher law
of God at Capon Springs in Virginia — " The North
Mountain is very high; the Blue Ridge higher still;
the Alleghanies higher than either ; yet this ' higher
law ' ranges an eagle's flight above the highest peak
of the Alleghanies." What was the answer from the
crowd? Laughter. The multitude laughed at the
higher law. There is no law above the North Moun
tain, above the Blue Ridge, above the peaks of the
Alleghany — is there? The Fugitive Slave Bill
reaches up where there is no God!
Men of property and standing all over New Eng
land supported the apostacy of Mr. Webster. You
remember the letters from Maine, from New Hamp
shire, and the one from Newburyport. I am sure you
have not forgotten the letter of the nine hundred and
eighty-seven prominent men in and about Boston, tell
ing him that he had " convinced the understanding and
touched the conscience of a nation." Good men,
whom I have long known, and tenderly loved, put
their names to that letter. Did they think the " Union
in danger? " Not one of them. A man of great un
derstanding beguiled them.
You remember the tone of the newspapers, Whig
and Democratic. With alacrity they went for kidnap
ping to the fullest extent. They clasped hands in
order to seize the black man. When the time came,
Mr. Eliot gave the vote of Boston for the Fugitive
Slave Bill. When he returned to his home, some of
the most prominent men of the city went and thanked
him for his vote. They liked it.
XIII— 18

274 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
nent man " of Boston spoke against it. They
" strained their consciences," as Mr. Walley has just
said, " to aid in the passage of the Fugitive Slave
Act." Boston fired a hundred guns on the Common,
at noon-day, in honor of that event.
I know there was opposition — earnest and fierce
opposition; but it did not come from the citizens of
" eminent gravity," whom Boston and Massachusetts
are accustomed stupidly to follow. You know what
hatred was felt in Boston against all men who taught
that the natural law of God was superior to the Fu
gitive Slave Bill, and conscience above the Con
stitution. You have not forgotten the Union meeting at Fan
euil Hall. I never saw so much meanness and so
little manhood on that platform. The Democratic
Herods and the Whig Pilates were made friends that
day that they might kidnap the black man. You
recollect the howl of derision against the higher law
of God, which came from that ignoble stage, and was
echoed by that ignoble crowd above it and below —
speakers fit for fitting theme.
When the Fugitive Slave Bill was proposed, prom
inent men said, " It cannot pass: the North will reject
it at once; and, even if it were passed, it would be
repealed the next day. We will petition for its re
peal." After it was passed, they said : " It can
not be executed, and never will be." But, when asked
to petition for its repeal, the same men refused —
" No, it would irritate the South." I received the pe
titions which our fellow-citizens sent from more than
three hundred towns in Massachusetts. I took the
smallest of them all, and sent it to the representative
of Boston, Mr. Eliot, with a letter, asking him to

THE NEW CRIME 275
present it to the House. He presented it to — me!
It was not " laid on the table " ; he put it in the post-
office. I sent it back to Washington, to some South
ern or Western member, and he presented it in Con
gress. The next Congress reaffirmed the Fugitive Slave
Bill. " Twice they routed all their foes,
And twice they slew the slain."
The new representative from Boston, Mr. Apple-
ton, gave the vote of Boston for it. He was never
censured for that act. He was approved, and re
elected. You remember the conduct of the Boston newspa
pers. Almost all of them went for the Fugitive Slave
Bill. They made atheism the first principle in Amer
ican politics — " There is no higher law." The in
stinct of commerce is adverse to the natural rights
of labor: so the chief leaders in commerce wish to
have the working man but poorly paid; the larger
gain falls into their hands; their laborer is a mill,
they must run him as cheap as they can. So the
great cities of the North were hostile to the slave —
hostile to freedom. The wealthy capitalists did not
know that in denying the higher law of God they
were destroying the rock on which alone their money
could rest secure. The mass of men in cities, serv
ants of the few, knew not that in chaining the black
man they were also putting fetters on their own feet.
Justice is the common interest of all men ! Alas, that
so few know what God writes in letters of fire on the
world's high walls!
You have not forgotten the general tone of the
pulpit — " Conscience and the Constitution," at An-

276 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
dover. Mr. Stuart says, " Keep the laws of men, come
what may come of the higher law of God." One min
ister of Boston said, " I would drive the fugitive from
my own door." The most eminent doctor of divinity
in the Unitarian ranks declared he would send his
own mother into slavery. He says he said brother!
Give him the benefit of the ethical distinction ; he would
send back his own brother! What had Andover and
New Haven to say, in their collegiate churches? What
the churches of commerce in New York, Boston, Phil
adelphia, Albany, Buffalo? They all went for
kidnapping. " Down with God and up with iniquity."
That was the shout of the lower-law religion which
littered the land. The ecclesiastical teachers did more
to strengthen infidelity then, than all the " infidels "
that ever taught. What else could you expect from
the lower-law divines? All at once this blessed Bible
seemed to have become a treatise in favor of man-
stealing. Kidnapping arguments were strewn all the
way through from Genesis to Revelation. These were
the reverend gentlemen who call me " infidel," or " athe
ist ! " Nothing has so weakened the Church in Amer
ica as this conduct of these " leading ministers " at
that time. I mean ministers of churches that are rich
in money, which lead the fashion and the opinion of
the day. What defenses of kidnapping have I heard
from clerical lips ! " No matter what the law is — it
must be executed. The men who made the Fugitive
Slave Bill, and those who seek to execute it, are
' Christian men,' ' very conscientious ! ' " Turn back
and read the newspapers of 1850 and 1851. Nay, read
them not — they are too bad to read !
When the Fugitive Slave Bill was before Congress,
some of the Northern politicians said to the people,,

THE NEW CRIME 277
" Let it pass ; it will ' save, the Union,' and we will
repeal it at the next session of Congress." After it
had passed they said, " Do not try to repeal it ; that
would irritate the South, and ' dissolve the Union ' ;
it will never be executed; it is too bad to be." But
when the kidnapper came to Boston, and demanded
William and Ehen Craft, the same advisers said, " Of
course the niggers must be sent back; the law must
be enforced because it is law ! "
At length the time came to execute the Act. Mor
ton was busy in New York, Kane in Philadelphia, Cur
tis, the Boston commissioner, was also on his feet.
William and Ellen Craft fled off from the stripes of
America to the hon of England. Shadrach — he will
be remembered as long as Daniel — sang his psalm of
deliverance in Canada. Taking him out of the Kid
nappers' Court was high treason. It was " levying
war." Thomas Sims will not soon be forgotten in
Boston. Mayor Bigelow, Commissioner Curtis, and
Marshal Tukey, they will also be remembered; they
will all three be borne down to posterity, riding on the
scourged and bleeding shoulders of Thomas Sims.
The government of Boston could do nothing for the
fugitive but kidnap him. The officers of the county
nothing; they were only cockade and vanity. The
Supreme Court could do nothing; the judges crouched
and crawled, and went under the chain. The Free-
soil governor could do nothing; the Free-soil legisla
ture nothing. The court-house was in chains. Fan
euil Hall was shut. The victim was on trial. A
thousand able-bodied men sat in Tremont Temple all
day in a Free-soil convention, and — went home at
night! Most of the newspapers in the city were for
kidnapping. The greater part of the clergy were

278 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
for returning the fugitive — " Send back our brother."
In Boston wealthy traders entertained the kidnappers
from the South. Merchants and railroad directors
withdrew their advertising from newspapers which op
posed the steahng of men. More than one minister
in New England was driven from his pulpit for de
claring the Golden Rule superior to the Fugitive
Slave Bill!
When Judge Woodbury decided not to grant the
writ of habeas corpus, and thus at one spurt of his
pen cut off Mr. Sims's last chance for liberty and life,
the court-house rang with plaudits, and the clapping
of hands of " gentlemen " who had assembled there !
Fifteen hundred " gentlemen, of property and stand
ing," volunteered to escort the poor fugitive out of
the State, and convey him to bondage for ever. It
was not necessary. When he stepped from Long
Wharf on board John H. Pearson's brig, — the owner
is sorry for it now, and has repented, and promises to
bring forth fruits meet for repentance; let that be
remembered to his honor, — when Thomas Sims stepped
on board the " Acorn," these were his words : " And
this is Massachusetts liberty ! " There was that great
stone finger pointing from Bunker Hill towards
heaven ; and this was Massachusetts liberty ! " Or
der reigned in Warsaw." But it was some comfort
that he could not be sent away till soldiers were bil
leted in Faneuil Hall; then, only in the darkest hour
of the night !
Boston sent back the first man she ever stole since
the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Sims
reached Savannah on the 19th of April, seventy-six
years after the first battle of the Revolution, fought
on the soil of Lexington. He was sent back on Sat-

THE NEW CRIME 279
urday, and the next Sunday the " leading ministers "
of this city — I call them leading, though they lead
nobody — gave God thanks. They forgot Jesus.
They took Iscariot for their exemplar. " The Fugi
tive Slave Bill must be kept," they said, " come what
wih come to justice, liberty, and love; come what
may come of God."
I know there were noble ministers, noble men in
pulpits, whose hearts bled in them, and who spoke brave
warning words of liberty; some were in the country,
some in town. I know one minister, an " orthodox
man," who in five months helped ninety-and-five fugi
tives flee from American stripes to the freedom of
Canada ! I dare not yet teh his name ! Humble
churches in the country towns — Methodist, Baptist,
Unitarian — of ah denominations save that of com
merce — dropped their two mites of money into the
alms-box for the slave, and gave him their prayers
and their preaching too. But the " famous churches "
went for " law," and stealing men.
Slavery had long been master at Washington: the
" Union meeting " proved that it was master at Bos
ton ; proved it by words. The capture and sending
back of Thomas Sims proved it by deeds. No prom
inent Whig openly opposed the Fugitive Slave Bill
or its execution. No prominent Democrat op
posed it. Not a prominent clergyman in Boston
spoke against it. I mean a clergyman of a " rich
and fashionable church " — for in these days the wealth
and social standing of the church make the minister
prominent. Intellectual power, eloquence, piety, —
they do not make a " prominent minister " in these
days.* Not ten of the rich men of Massachusetts gave
* Dr. Charles Lowell, with the humane piety which has beauti-

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
the weight of their influence against it. Slavery is
master; Massachusetts is one of the inferior counties
of Virginia; Boston is only a suburb of Alexandria.
Many of our lawyers, ministers, merchants, politi
cians, were negro-drivers for the South. They proved
it by idea before ; then by deed. Yet there were men in
Boston who hated slavery — alas ! they had httle in
fluence. Let me not pass by the Baltimore Conventions, and
the two platforms. The Fugitive Slave Bill was the
central and topmost plank in them both. Each con
fessed slavery to be master; it seemed that there was
no North; slave soil all the way from the south of
Florida to the north of Maine. All over the land
slavery ruled.
You cannot forget the President's inaugural ad
dress, nor the comments of the Boston press thereon.
He says the Fugitive Slave Bill is to be " unhesi
tatingly carried into effect ; " " not with reluctance,"
but " cheerfully and willingly." The newspapers of
Boston welcomed the sentiment; and now Mr. Pierce's
organ, the Washington Union, says it is very proper
this Bill should be enforced at Boston, for " Boston
was among the first to approve of this emphatic decla
ration." So let the promise be executed here till we
have enough of it !
You know the contempt which has been shown
towards everybody who opposed slavery here in Massa
chusetts. Horace Mann — there is not a man in the
State more hated than he by the " prominent politi
cians," — or more loved by the people — because he
opposed slavery with all his might; and it is a great
fied his long and faithful ministry, at that time opposed the
Fugitive Slave Bill with manly earnestness.

THE NEW CRIME 281
might. Robert Rantoul, though a politician and a
party man, fought against slavery ; and when he died,
though he was an eminent lawyer, the members of the
Suffolk bar, his brother lawyers, took no notice of
him. They wore no crape for Robert Rantoul! He
had opposed slavery ; let him die unnoticed, unhonored,
unknown. Massachusetts sent to the Senate a man
whose chief constitutional impulse is the instinct
of decorum — Mr. Everett, who had been ready to
buckle on his knapsack, and shoulder his musket, to
put down an insurrection of slaves; a Cambridge
professor of Greek, he studied the original tongue
of the Bible to learn that the Scripture says " slaves,"
where the English Bible says only " servants." Fit
senator !
Then came the Nebraska Bill. It was at once a
measure and a principle. As a measure, it extends
the old curse of slavery over half a million square
miles of virgin soil, and thus hinders the growth of
the territory in population, riches, education, in moral
and religious character. It makes a South Carolina
of what might else be a Connecticut, and establishes
paganism in the place of Christ's piety. As a prin
ciple, it is worse still — it makes slavery national and
inseparable from the national soil; for the principle
which is covertly endorsed by the Nebraska Bill
might establish slavery in Massachusetts — and ere
long the attempt wih be made.
In the House of Representatives, forty-four North
ern men voted for the enslavement of Nebraska. They
are all Democrats — it is an administration measure.
Mr. Everett, the senator from Boston, did " not know
exactly what to do." The thing was discussed in
committee, of which he was a member; but when it

282 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
came up in public, it " took him by surprise." He
wrote, I am told, to eleven prominent Whig gentle
men of Massachusetts, and asked their advice as to
what he should do. With singular unanimity, every
man of them said, " Oppose it with all your might ! "
But he did not. Nay, his vote has not been recorded
against it yet. I am told his vote was in favor of
prohibiting aliens from voting in that territory; his
name against the main question has never been re
corded yet. Nay, he did not dare to present the
remonstrance which three thousand and fifty of his
fellow-clergymen manfully sent to their clerical
brother, and asked him to lay before the Senate. Did
any one suppose that he would dare do it? None
who knew his antecedents.
There was an anti-Nebraska meeting in Boston at
Faneuil Hall. It was Siberian in its coldness — it
was a meeting of icebergs. The platform was arctic.
There seemed to be no heart in the speeches. It must
have been an encouragement to the men at Wash
ington who advocated the bill. I suppose they un
derstood it so. I am sure I should. The mass of
the people in Massachusetts who think at all, are in
dignant; but so far as I can learn, the men who
control the politics of Boston, or who have controlled
them until the last week, feel no considerable interest
in the matter. In New York, men of great property
and high standing came together and protested
against this iniquity. New York has been, for once,
and in one particular, morally in advance of Boston.
The platform there was not arctic, not even Siberian.
Such a meeting could not have been held here.
Now, put all these things together, and you see
the causes which bore the fruits of last week — in

THE NEW CRIME 283
general, the triumph of slavery over freedom, and in
special, the indifference of Massachusetts, and partic
ularly of Boston, to the efforts which are made for
freedom; her zeal to promote slavery and honor its
defenders. Men talk of dividing the Union. I never
proposed that. Before last week I should not have
known where to begin. I should have had to draw
the line somewhere north of Boston.
Last week Massachusetts got part of her pay for
obeying the Fugitive Slave Bill with alacrity ; for
suppressing discussion; for conquering her preju
dices; pay for putting cowardly, mean men, in the
place of brave, honorable men; pay for allowing the
laws of Massachusetts to be trodden underfoot, and
her court-house of Northern granite to be surrounded
by Southern chains. Thomas Sims was scourged on
the 19th of April, when he was carried back to Sa
vannah. Boston did not feel it then. She felt it
last week — felt it sorely. In September, 1850, we
heard the hundred guns fired on Boston Common, in
honor of the Fugitive Slave Bill — fired by men of
" eminent gravity." Last Friday you saw the can
non! One day you will see it again grown into
many cannons. That one was only a devil's grace
before a devil's meat! No higher law, is there?
Wait a httle longer, and you shall find there is a
" lower law," a good deal lower than we have yet come
to ! Sow the wind, shall we ? When the whirlwind comes
up therefrom, it has a course of its own, and God only
can control the law of such storms as those. We
have not yet seen the full consequences of sowing athe
ism with a broad hand among the people of this
continent. We have not yet seen the end. These
are only the small early apples that first fah to the

284 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
earth. There is a whole tree full of them. When
some autumnal storm shakes the boughs, they will
cover the ground — sour and bitter in our mouths,
and then poison.
Yet this triumph of slavery does not truly repre
sent the wishes of the Northern people. Not a sin
gle pro-slavery measure has ever been popular with
the mass of men in New England or Massachusetts.
The people disliked the annexation of Texas in that
unjust manner: they thought the Mexican War was
wicked. They were opposed to the extension of slav
ery; they hated the Fugitive Slave Bill, and rejoiced
at the rescue of Shadrach. The kidnapping of
Thomas Sims roused a fierce indignation. Only one
town in ah New England has ever returned a fugi
tive — all the rest hide the outcasts, while Boston
bewrays him that wandereth. The Nebraska Act is
detested by the people.
A few editors have done a manly duty in opposing
all these manifold iniquities. A few ministers have
been faithful to the spirit of this Bible, and to their
own conscience, heedless of law and constitution.
Manly preachers of all denominations — save the com
mercial — protested against kidnapping, against en
acting wickedness by statute. From humble pulpits
their voices rang out in Boston and elsewhere. But
what were they among so many? There were theo
logical journals which stoutly resisted the wickedness
of the prominent men, and rebuked the mammon-wor
ship of the churches of commerce. The Independent
at New York, the Congregationalist at Boston, not to
mention humbler papers, did most manly service — now
with eloquence, now with art, then with satiric scorn —
always with manly rehgion. Even in the cities, there

THE NEW CRIME 285
were editors of secular prints who opposed the wicked
law and its execution.
No man in New England, within the last few years,
has supported slavery without at the same time losing
the confidence of the best portion of the people —
sober, serious, religious men ; who believe there is a law
of God writ in the nature of things. Even Mr. Web
ster quailed before the conscience of the North: the
Supreme Court of Massachusetts no longer enjoys the
confidence of the people ; the most " prominent cler
gymen " of New England — pastors, I mean, of the
richest churches — are not looked up to with the
same respect as before.
The popularity of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " showed
how deeply the feelings of the world were touched by
this great outrage. No one of the encroachments
of slavery could have been sustained by a direct pop
ular vote. I think seven out of every ten of all the
New England men would have voted against the Fugi
tive Slave Bill; nine out of ten against kidnapping.
But alas ! we did not say so — we allowed wicked men
to rule over us. Now behold the consequences ! Men
who will not love God must fear the devil.
Boston is the test and touchstone of political prin
ciples and measures. Faneuil Hall is the " Cradle of
Liberty," and therein have been rocked the great ideas
of America — rocked by noble hands.
Well, if Boston had said, " No Texan annexation
in that wicked way ! " we might have had Texas on
fair conditions. If Boston had opposed the Mexican
War, all New England would have done the same
— almost all the North. .We might have had all the
soil we have got, without fighting a battle, or taking
or losing a hf e, at far less cost ; and have demoralized

286 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
nobody. If, when the Fugitive Slave Bill was be
fore Congress, Boston had spoken against that iniq
uity, all the people would have risen, and there would
have been no Fugitive Slave Act. If, after that
Bill was passed, she had said, " No kidnapping,"
there would have been none. Then there would have
been no Nebraska Bill, no repeal of the Missouri Com
promise, no attempt to seize Cuba and San Domingo.
If the fifteen hundred gentlemen of " property and
standing " in Boston, who volunteered to return Mr.
Sims to bondage, or the nine hundred and eighty-seven
who thanked Mr. Webster for the Fugitive Slave Bill,
had come forward on the side of justice, they might
have made every commissioner swear solemnly that
he would not execute that Act. Thus the " true sons of
liberty," on the 17th of December, 1765, induced
Commissioner Oliver to swear solemnly, at noon-day,
in " presence of a great crowd," and in front of the
Liberty Tree, that he would not issue a single stamp!
Had that been done, there would have been no man
arrested. There are only eight commissioners, and
public opinion would have kept them all down. We
should have had no kidnappers here.
Boston did not do so; Massachusetts did no such
thing. She did just the opposite. In 1828, the leg
islature of Georgia passed resolutions relative to the
tariff, declaring that the General Government had no
right to protect domestic manufactures, and had been
guilty of a " flagrant usurpation ; " she will insist
on her construction of the Constitution, and " will sub
mit to no other." Georgia carried her point. The
tariff of 1828 went to the ground! South Carolina
imprisons our colored citizens ; we bear it with a pa
tient shrug, — and pay the cost; Massachusetts is

THE NEW CRIME 287
non-resistant; New England is a Quaker, — when a
blustering httle State undertakes to ride over us. Geor
gia offers a reward of five thousand dollars for
the head of a non-resistant in Boston, — and Boston
takes special pains to return Ellen Craft to a citizen
of Georgia, who wished to sell her as a harlot for the
brothels of New Orleans ! Northern clergymen de
fended the character of her " owner " — a man of
" unquestionable piety." You know what denuncia
tions were uttered in this city against the men and
women who sheltered her! Boston could not allow
the poor woman to remain. Did the churches of com
merce " put up a prayer " for her? " Send back my
own mother ! " Not a Northern minister lost his pul
pit or his professional respectability by that form
of practical atheism. Not one ! At the South not a
minister dares preach against slavery ; at the North
— think of the preaching of so many " eminent di
vines ! "
My friends, we deserve all we have suffered. We
are the scorn and contempt of the South. They are
our masters, and treat us as slaves. It is ourselves
who made the yoke. We offer our back to the slave-
driver's whip. A Western man travels all through
Kentucky — he was in Boston three days ago — and
hears only this rumor : " The Yankees are cowards ;
they dare not resist us. We will drive them just where
we like. We wih force the Nebraska Bill down their
throats, and then force San Domingo and Cuba af
ter it." That is public opinion in Kentucky. My
brothers, it is very well deserved.
The North hated the Missouri Compromise. Daniel
Webster fought against it with all his manly might;
and then it was very manly and very mighty. When

288 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
he collects his speeches, in 1850, for electioneering
purposes — a political pamphlet in six octavos — he
leaves out all his speeches and writings against the
Missouri Compromise! His friend, Mr. Everett,
writes his memoir, and there is nothing about Mr.
Webster's opposition to the extension of slavery ; about
the Missouri Compromise not one single word.
My friends, the South treat us as we deserve. They
make compromises, and then break them. They say
we are cowards. Are they mistaken? They put our
seamen in jail for no crime but their complexion. We
allow it. Then they come to New England, and in
Boston steal our fellow-citizens — no! our fellow-sub
jects, our fellow-slaves. We call out the soldiers to
help them ! Go into a bear's den, and steal a young
cub; and if jou take only one, all the full-grown
bears in the den will come after you and follow till
you die, or they die, or their strength fails, and they
must give up the pursuit.
"O Justice! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!"
The Nebraska Bill has hardly got back to the Sen
ate again when a Virginian comes here to see how much
Boston will bear. He brings letters to eminent cit
izens of Boston, lodges at the Revere House, and
bravely shows himself to the public in the streets. He
walks upon the Common, and looks at the eclipse —
the eclipse of the sun I mean, not the eclipse of Bos
ton; that he needs no glass to look at, as there is
none smoked dark enough to hinder it from dazzling
his eyes. He gets two Boston lawyers to help him
kidnap a man. He finds a commissioner, a probate
officer of Massachusetts, ready to violate the tenure

THE NEW CRIME 289
of his own trust, prepared for the work; a marshal
anxious to prove his democracy by stealing a man;
he finds newspapers ready to sustain him; the gov
ernor lets him go unmolested; the mayor lends him
all the pohce of the city ; and then, illegally and with
out any authority, against the protestations of the
aldermen, calls out all the soldiers among a hundred
and sixty thousand people, in order to send one inno
cent negro into bondage, and gives them orders, it
is said, to shoot down any citizen who shall attempt
to pass their hnes! The soldiers, half drunk, present
their horse-pistols at the heads of women — their
thumb on the hammer! They stab horses, and with
their sabers slash the heads of men !
When Mr. Burns was first seized by the kidnappers,
nearly all the daily newspapers took sides against the
fugitive. The city was full of ministers all the week ;
two anti-slavery conventions were held, one of them
two thousand men strong ; the Worcester " Freedom
Club " came down here to visit us : they all went home,
and " order reigns in Warsaw." In South Carolina
there is a pubhc opinion stronger than the law. Let
Massachusetts send an honored citizen to> Charleston,
to remonstrate against an iniquitous statute, and most
respectable citizens drive him away. Colored citizens
of Massachusetts rot in the jails of Charleston.
Northern merchants pay the costs. Boston merchants
remonstrated years ago, and the Boston senator did
not dare to offer their paper in Congress ! Yes, a
Boston senator did not dare present the remonstrances
of Boston merchants! The South despises us. Do
you wonder at the treatment we receive? I wonder
not at ah.
Now, let me say another word — it must be a brief
XIII— 19

290 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
one — of this particular case. When Mr. Burns was
kidnapped, a public meeting was called in Faneuil
Hall. Who went there? Not one of the men who are
accustomed to control pubhc opinion in Boston. If
ten of them had appeared on that platform, Mr. Phil
lips and myself would not have troubled the audience
with our speech. We would have yielded the place —
to citizens of " eminent gravity " giving their coun
sel, and there would have been no man carried out of
Boston. I could mention ten men, known to every
man here, who, if they had been there, would have
so made such public opinion, that the Fugitive Slave
Bill commissioner never would have found " evidence "
or " law " enough to send Anthony Burns back to
Alexandria. There was not one of them there. They
did not wish to be there. They cared nothing for
freedom. In general, the blame of this wickedness rests on the
city of Boston, much of it on Massachusetts, on New
England, and on all the North. But here I must
single out some of the individuals who are personally
responsible for this outrage.
I begin with the commissioner. He was the prime
mover. Now, as a general thing, the commissioners who kid
nap men in America have had a proclivity to wicked
ness. It has been structural, constitutional. Man-
stealing was in their bones. It was an osteological
necessity. A phrenologist, examining their heads,
would have said: "Beware of this man. He is 'fit
for treason, stratagems, and spoils.' "
It seems natural that Mr. Kane should steal men
in Philadelphia. His name is warrant to bear out
the deed. In Boston, the former kidnapper lost no

THE NEW CRIME 291
" personal popularity " by the act. His conduct seems
alike befitting the disposition he was born with, and
the culture he has attained to ; and so appears equally
natural and characteristic. But I thought Mr. Loring
of a different disposition. His is a pleasant face
to look at, dignified, kindly — a little weak, yet not
without sweetness and a certain elevation. I have
seen him sometimes in the probate office, and it seemed
to me a face fit to watch over the widow and the fa
therless. When a bad man does a wicked thing, it
astonishes nobody. When one otherwise noble and
generous is overtaken in a fault, we " weep to record,
and blush to give it in," and in the spirit of meekness
seek to restore such a one. But when a good man
deliberately, voluntarily, does such a deed as this,
words cannot express the fiery indignation which it
ought to stir up in every man's bosom. It destroys
confidence in humanity.
The wickedness began with the commissioner. He
issued the writ. It was to end with him — he is
sheriff, judge, jury. He is paid twice as much for
condemning as for acquitting the innocent.
He was not obliged to be a commissioner. He was
not forced into that bad eminence. He went there
voluntarily fifteen years ago, as United States com
missioner, to take affidavits and acknowledgments.
Slave-catching was no part of his duty. The soldiers
of Nicholas execute their master's tyranny because
they are forced into it. The only option with them
is to shoot with a musket, or be scourged to death
with the knout. If Mr. Loring did not like kidnap
ping, he need not have kept his office. But he liked
it. He wrote three articles, cold and cruel, in the
Daily Advertiser, defending the Fugitive Slave Bill.

292 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
But if he kept the office he is not officially obliged to
do the work. The district attorney is not suspected
of being so heavily fraught with conscience that he
cannot trim his craft to sail with any political wind
which offers to carry him to port; but even Mr. Hal
lett refused to kidnap Ellen Craft. He did not hke
the business. It was not a part of Mr. Loring's
official obligation. A man lets himself to a sea-cap
tain as a mariner to go a general voyage. He is not
obliged to< go privateering or pirating whenever the
captain hoists the black flag. He can leave at the
next port. A laborer lets himself to a farmer to do
general farm work. By and by his employer says,
" I intend to steal sheep." The man is not obliged
by his contract to go and steal sheep because his em
ployer will. That would be an illegal act no doubt.
But suppose the General Government had made a law,
authorizing every farmer to steal all the black sheep
he can lay his hands on ; nay, commanding the felony.
Is this servant, who is hired to do general farm work,
obliged in his official capacity to go and steal black
sheep? I do not look at it so. I do not think any
man does. A lawyer turns off many a client. A con
stable refuses many a civil job. He does not like the
business. The commissioner took this business be
cause he liked to take it. I do not say he was not
" conscientious." I know nothing of that. I only
speak of the act. Herod was " conscientious," for
aught I know, and Iscariot and Benedict Arnold, and
Aaron Burr. I do not touch that question. To their
own master they stand or fall. The torturers of the
Spanish Inquisition may have been " conscientious."
It was entirely voluntary for Mr. Loring to take
this case. There was no official obligation, no profes-

THE NEW CRIME 293
sional honor, that required him to do it. He had a
" great precedent," even, in Mr. Hallett, to decline it.
In 1843, Massachusetts enacted a law prohibiting
any State officer from acting as slave-catcher, for
fear of abuse of our own law. Since that, Mr. Lor
ing has become judge of probate. There was a
chance for a good man to show his respect for the
law of the State which gives him office.
Now see how the case was conducted. I am no
lawyer, and shall not undertake to judge the technical
subtleties of the case. But look at the chief things
which require no technical skill to judge.
The commissioner spoke very kindly, and even pa
ternally, when he consulted Burns. I confess the tear
started to my eye when he looked so fatherly towards
the man, hke a judge of probate, and asked him,
" Would you like a little time to prepare to make a
defense?" And when Mr. Burns replied, "Yes," he
honorably gave him some time, forty-eight hours, to
decide whether he would make a defense on Saturday,
May 27. He also honorably gave Mr. Burns and
his counsel a httle time to make ready for trial. He
gave them from Saturday until Monday ! True, it
was only twenty-four hours ; Sunday intervened, and
lawyers, like other laymen, and ministers, are sup
posed to be at meeting on Sunday. That twenty-
four hours — it was not very much time to allow for
the defense of a man whose liberty was in peril! If
Mr. Burns had been arraigned for murder, he would
have had several months to prepare for his trial, the
purse and the arm of Massachusetts to summon wit
nesses for his defense. But as he was charged with
no crime, only with being the involuntary slave of one
of our Southern masters — as the Fugitive Slave Act

294 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
was not designed to " establish justice," but its oppo
site, or to " insure the blessings of liberty," but the
curse of bondage — he may have- only twenty-four
hours to make ready for his defense: his counsel and
a minister may visit him — others are excluded!
If Mr. Burns had been arraigned for stealing a
horse, for slander, or anything else, not twenty-four
hours, or days, but twenty-four weeks would have been
granted him to make ready for trial. A common
lawsuit, for a thousand dollars, in the Supreme Court
of Suffolk, is not ordinarily tried within a year; and,
if any questions of law are to be settled, not disposed
of within two years. Here, however, a man was on
trial for more than life, and but twenty-four hours
were granted him ! I accept that thankfully, and ten
der Mr. Loring my gratitude for that! It is more
than I looked for from any Fugitive Slave Bill com
missioner, except him. I never thought him capable
of executing this wickedness. Honor him for this
with due honor — no more, no less.
When the hearing began, the kidnapper's counsel
urged that the testimony taken at first, when Mr.
Burns was brought up, was in the case. The com
missioner held to this monstrous position; and it was
only after the urgent opposition of the prisoner's
counsel that he consented it should be put in de novo.
But after the kidnapping lawyers put in their evi
dence, the counsel for Mr. Burns asked time for con
ference and consultation, as the most important ques
tions of law and fact came up; they were weary with
long service and exhausting labor — and they begged
the commissioner to adjourn for an hour or two. It
was already almost three o'clock. When hard pressed,
he granted them thirty minutes to get up their law

THE NEW CRIME 295
and their evidence, take refreshment, and come back
to court. At length he extended it to forty minutes !
Much of that time was lost to one of the counsel by
the troops, who detained him at the door. But the
next day, after Mr. Burns's counsel had brought in
evidence to show that he was in Boston on the 1st
of March — which nobody expected, for Brent al
leges that he saw him in Virginia on the 19th of
March, and that he escaped thence on the 24th —
then, after a conference with the marshal, he grants
the kidnapper's lawyers an hour and a quarter to
meet this new and unexpected evidence. Of course he
knew that in granting them this he really gave them all
night to get up their evidence, prepare their defense,
and come into court the next morning, and rebut what
had been said. Is that fair? Consider what a mat
ter there was at stake — a man's hberty for ever and
ever on earth! Consider that Mr. Loring was judge
and jury — that it was a " court " without appeal ;
that no other court could pass upon his verdict, and
reverse it, if afterwards it was shown to be suspicious
or proved to be wrong. He grants Mr. Burns thirty
minutes, and the other side, at once, an hour and a
quarter, virtually all night! That is not all. His
decision was limited to one point, namely, the identity
of the prisoner. If Mr. Burns answered the descrip
tion of the fugitive given in the record, the commis
sioner took it for granted, first, that he was a slave —
there was no proof; second, that he had escaped into
another State — that was not charged in the record,
nor proved by testimony; third, that he owed service
and labor to Colonel Suttle, not to the lessee, who
had a limited fee in his services, nor to the mortgagee,
who had the conditional fee of his person ; but to

296 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Colonel Suttle, the reversioner, the original claimant
of his body.
Now the statute leaves the party claimant his choice
between two processes ; one under its sixth section, the
other under the tenth.
The sixth section obliges the claimant to prove
three points — 1, That the person claimed owes serv
ice; 2, That he has escaped; and, 3, That the party
before the court is the identical one alleged to be a
slave. The tenth section makes the claimant's certificate
conclusive as to the first two points, and only leaves
the identity to be proved.
In this case, the claimant, by offering proof of
service and escape, made his election to proceed un
der the sixth section.
Here he failed: failed to prove service; failed to
prove escape. Then the commissioner allowed him to
swing round and take refuge in the tenth section, leav
ing identity only to be proved; and this he proved
by the prisoner's confession, made under duress and
in terror, if at all ; wholly denied by him ; and proved
only by the testimony of a witness of whom we know
nothing, but that he was contradicted by several wit
nesses as to the only point to which he affirmed capa
ble of being tested.
So, then, the commissioner reduced the question pre
cisely to this: Is the prisoner at the bar the same
Anthony Burns whom Brent saw in Virginia on the
19th day of March last, and who the claimant swears
in his complaint escaped from Virginia on the 24th
of March?
One man, calling himself " William Brent, a mer
chant of Richmond," testified as to the question of

THE NEW CRIME 297
identity — " This is Burns." He was asked, " When
did you see him in Virginia? " and he answered, " On
the 19th of March last." But nobody in court knew
Mr. Brent, and Mr. Loring himself confessed that he
stood " under circumstances that would bias the fair
est mind." He had come all the way from Richmond
to Boston to make out the case. Doubtless he ex
pected his reward — perhaps in money, perhaps in
honor; for it is an honor in Virginia to support the
institutions of that State. But on the other side,
many witnesses testified that Burns was here in Bos
ton on the 1st of March, and worked several days at
the Mattapan Iron Works, at South Boston. Several
men, well known in Boston — persons of unimpeached
integrity — testified to the fact. No evidence
rebutted their testimony. Nothing was urged to im
pugn their veracity. The commissioner says their
" integrity is admitted," and " no imputation of bias
could be attached " to them. So, to decide between
these two, Mr. Loring takes the admissions of the
fugitive, alleged to have been made under duress, in
the presence of his "master," made in jail; when he
was surrounded by armed ruffians ; when he was " in
timidated " by fear — admissions, which Mr. Burns
denied to the last, even after the decision. This was
the proof of identity!
The record called Burns a man with " dark com
plexion." The prisoner is a full-blooded negro. His
complexion is black almost as my coat. The record
spoke of Burns as having a scar on his right hand.
The right hand of this man had been broken; it was
so badly injured that when it was opened he could
only shut it by grasping it with his left. The bone
stuck out prominent. The kidnapper's witness tes-

298 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tified that Burns was in Virginia on the 19th of March.
Several witnesses — I know not how many — testified
that he was in Boston nineteen days before!
Mr. Brent stated nothing to show that he had ever
had any particular knowledge of Mr. Burns, or par
ticularly observed his person. Some of the witnesses
for the prisoner did not testify merely from general
observation of his form or features, but they stated
that they had noted especially the scar on his cheek,
and his broken hand, and they knew him to be the man.
Besides, this testimony is of multiplied force, not
being that of so many to one fact; that of each
stands by itself. There was a cloud of witnesses to
prove that Mr. Burns was in Boston from the 1st of
March. If their evidence could be invalidated, it was
not attacked in court. Their fairness was admitted.
Not many years ago, a woman was on trial in Bos
ton for the murder of her own child. At first she
pleaded guilty, and, weeping, stated the motives which
led to the unnatural crime. But the court interfered,
induced her to retract the plea, and to make a de
fense. And in spite of her voluntary admissions made
in court, she was acquitted — for there was not evi
dence to warrant a legal conviction.
Mr. Loring seemed to regard slavery as a crimen
exceptum; and when a man is charged with it he is
presupposed to be guilty, and must be denied the usual
means of defense. So out of the victim's own mouth
he extorts the proof that this is the man named in
the record.
A man not known to anybody in court brings a paper
from Alexandria claiming Anthony Bums as his slave ;
the paper was drawn up five hundred miles off ; in the
absence of Mr. Burns ; by his enemies, who sought for

THE NEW CRIME 299
his liberty and more than his life. He brought one
witness to testify to the identity of the man, who says
that, in his fear, Burns said, " I am the man." But
seven witnesses, whose veracity was not impeached in
the court, testify that the prisoner was in Boston in
the early part of March ; and therefore it appears that
he is not the Burns who was in Virginia on the 19th
of March, and thence escaped on the 24th. To de
cide between the two testimonies — that of one Vir
ginian under circumstances that would bias the
fairest mind, and seven Bostonians free from all bias
— the commissioner takes the words put into the
mouth of Mr. Burns.
Now, the Fugitive Slave Bill provides that the tes
timony of the fugitive shall not be received as evi
dence in the case. Mr. Loring avoids that difficulty.
He does not call it " testimony " or " evidence " He
calls it " admissions " ; accepts it to prove the " iden
tity," and decides the case against him. But who
proves that Mr. Burns made the admissions? There
are two witnesses: 1. A man hired to kidnap him,
one of the marshal's " guard," a spy, a hired informer,
set to watch the prisoner and make inquisition. Of
what value was his testimony? 2. Mr. Brent, who
had come five hundred miles to assist in catching a
runaway slave, and claimed Mr. Burns as the slave.
This was the only valuable witness to prove the ad
mission. So the admission is proved by the admission
of Mr. Brent, and the testimony of Mr. Brent is proved
by the admission ! Excellent Fugitive Slave Bill " ev
idence " ! Brent confirms Brent ! There is, I think,
a well-known axiom of the common law, that " admis
sions shall go in entire " — all that the prisoner said.
Now, Mr. Loring rules in just what serves the in-

300 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
terest of the claimant, and rules out everything that
serves Mr. Burns's interest. And is that Massachu
setts justice?
Remember, too, that Commissioner Loring is the
whole court — a " judge " not known to the
Constitution ; a " jury " only known in the in
quisition! There is no appeal from his decision.
The witness came from Virginia to swear away
the freedom of a citizen of Massachusetts, charged
with no crime. When the marshal, and the men
hired to kidnap, are about the poor black man,
it is said he makes an admission that he is the fugitive ;
and on that " evidence " Mr. Loring decides that he
is to go into bondage for ever. It was conduct
worthy of the Inquisition of Spain ! * Let doubts
weigh for the prisoner, is a rule as old as legal at
tempts at justice. Here, they weigh against him.
The case is full of doubts — doubts on every side.
He rides over them all. He takes the special words he
wants, and therewith strikes down the prisoner's claim
to liberty.
Suppose, in the present instance, the fugitive had
been described as a man of light complexion, blue
eyes, and golden hair: then, suppose some white man,
you or I, answered the description, and some ruffian
swore to the identity. By that form of law, any
man, any woman, in the city of Boston, might have
been taken and carried off into bondage straightway,
irredeemable bondage, bondage for ever.
Commissioner Loring had no better ground for tak-
* Tacitus thinks it a piece of good fortune that Agricola
died before such "admissions" were made evidence to ruin a
man, as in Domitian's time quum suspiria nostra subscriberen-
tur! — Agricola, c. xlv.

THE NEW CRIME 301
ing away the liberty of Anthony Burns than in the
case I have just supposed.
Suppose Colonel Suttle had claimed the mayor and
aldermen of Boston as his slaves; had brought a
" record " from Alexandria reciting their names, and
setting forth the fact of their owing service, and their
escape from it; had them kidnapped and brought be
fore Mr. Loring. According to his own ruling, the
only question he has to determine is this : " the iden
tity of the persons." A witness testifies that the mayor
and aldermen of Boston are the parties named in the
record as owing service and having escaped there
from. The Commissioner says " the facts to be
proved by the claimant are three.
" 1. That the parties charged owed him service in
Virginia. " 2. That they escaped from that service.
" These facts he has proved by the record which
the statute (sec. 10) declares 'shall be held, and
taken to be full and conclusive evidence of the fact
of escape, and that the service or labor of the
person escaping is due to the party in such record
mentioned.' " Thus these two facts are removed entirely and ab
solutely from my jurisdiction, and I am entirely and
absolutely precluded from applying evidence to them ;
if, therefore, there is in the case evidence capable of
such application, I cannot make it.
" 3. The third fact is the identity of the parties
before me with the parties mentioned in the record.
" This identity is the only question I have a right to
consider. To this, and to this alone, I am to apply
the evidence.
" And then, on the whole testimony, my mind is sat-

302 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
isfied beyond a reasonable doubt of the identity of the
respondents with the parties named in the record.
" On the law and facts of the case, I consider the
claimant entitled to the certificate from me which he
claims." The mayor and aldermen go into bondage for ever.
The liberty of all this audience might be thus sworn
away by a commissioner and another kidnapper.
But the " ruling " is not the worst thing in the case.
The commissioner had prejudged it all. He had pre
judged it entirely before he had even begun this mock
trial; before he heard the defense; before the pris
oner had any counsel to make a defense. Here is my
proof. On Friday (May 26), Wendell Phillips went
to Cambridge to see Mr. Loring. He is a professor
of law in Harvard College, teaching law and justice
to the young men who go up thither to learn law and
justice! Mr. Phillips went there to get permission to
visit Mr. Burns, and see if he would make a defense
and have counsel. Mr. Loring advised Mr. Phillips
to make no defense. He said : " Mr. Phillips, I think
the case is so clear that you would not be justified in
placing any obstructions in the way of the man's go
ing back, as he probably will."
So, as the matter was decided beforehand, it was to
be only a mock trial, and might just as well have been
dispensed with. It keeps up some hollow semblance
to the form of the Fugitive Slave Bill ; but it was all
prejudged before Mr. Bums had selected his coun
sel or determined to have any. Place no " obstruc
tions in the way of the man's going back, as he prob
ably will! "
Nor is that all. Before any defense had been made,
on Saturday night, Mr. Loring drew up a bill of sale

THE NEW CRIME 303
of Anthony Burns. Here it is, in his own handwrit
ing:— " Know all men in these Presents — That I, Charles
F. Suttle, of Alexandria, in Virginia, in consideration
of twelve hundred dollars, to me paid, do hereby re
lease and discharge, quitclaim and convey to Antony
Byrnes, his liberty; and I hereby manumit and re
lease him from all claims and services to me for ever,
hereby giving him his liberty to ah intents and effects
for ever.
" In testimony whereof, I have hereto set my hand
and seal, this twenty-seventh day of May, in the year
of our Lord, eighteen hundred and fifty-four."
What should you say of a judge of the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts who should undertake to ne
gotiate a note of hand which was a matter of litiga
tion before him in court? What if the chief justice,
before he had heard a word of the case of the last
man tried for murder — before the prisoner had any
counsel — had told some humane man taking an in
terest in the matter, " You would not be justified in
placing any obstructions in the way of the man's be
ing hanged as he probably will"? Add this, also:
here Commissioner Loring is justice to draw the writ,
judge, jury, ah in one! Do the annals of judicial
tyranny show a clearer case of judgment without a
hearing? This is not yet the end of the wickedness. Last
Wednesday night the Kidnapper's Court adjourned till
Friday morning at nine o'clock. Then the " deci
sion " was to be made. But the kidnapper and his
assistants, the marshal, etc., knew it on Thursday night.
How long before, I know not. The men who hired
Mr. Loring to steal a man, with the Fugitive Slave Bill

304 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
for his instrument, they knew the decision at least four
teen hours before it was announced in court — I think
twenty hours before.
First, he judged the case before he heard it; second,
he judged it against evidence when he heard it; third,
he clandestinely communicated the decision to one of
the parties half a day before he declared it openly in
court. Could Kane or Curtis do worse? I do not
find that they have ever done so bad. Does Boston
teem with Epsoms and Dudleys, the vermin of the law ?
Does New England spawn Jeffreyses and Scroggses,
whom we supposed impossible — fictitious characters
too bad to be?
Look at the marshal's conduct. Of his previous
character I say nothing. But his agents arrested Mr.
Burns on a false charge; threatened violence if he
should cry out; they kept him in secret. Nobody
came nigh unto him.
The trial was unfairly conducted on the marshal's
part. The public was excluded from the court-house.
His servants lined the stairways, insulting the people.
Southerners were freely admitted, but Northern gen
tlemen kept out. Rude, coarse, and insolent fellows
found no check. Clergymen and lawyers were turned
back, and Southern students of law let in. Two gen
tlemen were refused admission; but when one declared
he was from Virginia, the other from South Carolina,
they were both admitted on the instant. The whole
court-house seemed to be the property of the slave
power. He crowded the court-house with soldiers. Some of
them were drunk, and charged bayonet upon the coun
sel and witnesses for Burns, and thrust them away.
He employed base men for his guard. I never saw

THE NEW CRIME 305
such a motley crew as this kidnapper's gang collected
together, save in the darkest places of London and
Paris, whither I went to see how low humanity might
go down, and yet bear the semblance of man. He
raked the kennels of Boston. He dispossessed the
stews, bawding the courts with unwonted infamy. He
gathered the spoils of brothels; prodigals not peni
tent, who upon harlots had wasted their substance in
riotous hving; pimps, gamblers, the succubus of slav
ery ; men which the gorged jails had cast out into the
streets scarred with infamy; fighters, drunkards, pub
lic brawlers; convicts that had served out their time,
waiting for a second conviction ; men whom the subtlety
of counsel, or the charity of the gallows, had left un
hanged. " No eye hath seen such scarecrows." The
youngest of the police judges found ten of his constit
uents there.* Jailer Andrews, it is said, recognized
forty of his customers among them. It is said that
Albert J. Tirrell was invited to move in that leprous
gang, and declined ! f " The wicked walk on every
side when the vilest men are exalted ! " The publican
who fed those locusts of Southern tyranny, said that
out of the sixty-five, there was but one respectable man,
and he kept aloof from all the rest. I have seen courts
of justice in England, Hohand, Belgium, Germany,
France, Italy, and Switzerland, and I have seen just
such men. But they were always in the dock, not the
servants of the court. The marshal was right ; " the
statute is so cruel and wicked that it should not be
executed by good men." He chose fit tools for fitting
* Thomas Russell.
t While these sheets are passing through the press I learn
that three of the marshal's guard have been arrested for crimes
of violence committed within twenty-four hours after the rendi
tion. Set a thief to serve a
XIII— 20

306 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
work. I do not think Herod sent the guardian of or
phans to massacre the innocents of Bethlehem. I
doubt that Pontius Pilate employed a judge of pro
bate to crucify Jesus between two thieves!
There was an unfairness about the offer to sell Mr.
Burns. I do not know whose fault that was. His
claimant pretended that he would sell; but when
the money was tendered, his agents delayed, equivo
cated, wore out the time, till it was Sunday; and the
deed could not legally be done. It was the man, and
not the money they wanted. He offered to sell the
man for twelve hundred dollars. The price was ex
orbitant, he would not bring eight hundred at Alex
andria. There was another trick. At one time it was
thought the evidence would compel the reluctant com
missioner to free his victim. Then it was proposed
that he should be seized in the court, and either sum
marily declared a slave by some other commissioner,
or else carried off with no further mock trial. I think
it would have been done ; but Commissioner Loring was
ready to do the work demanded of him, and earn his
twofold pay.
The conduct of the governor requires same expla
nation. The law of Massachusetts was cloven down
by the sword of the marshal ; no officer could be found
to serve the writ of personal replevin, designed by
the Massachusetts legislature to meet exactly such
cases, and bring Mr. Bums before a Massachusetts
court. The governor could not be induced to attend
to it : Monday he was at the meeting of the Bible Soci
ety ; Thursday at the meeting of the Sunday Schools.
If the United States marshal had invaded the sov
ereignty of South Carolina, where do you think her
governor would have been?

THE NEW CRIME 307
The conduct of the mayor of Boston deserves to be
remembered. He had the police of the city in Court
Square, aiding the kidnapper. It was not their fault.
They served against their will. Captain Hayes, of
the pohce, that day magnanimously resigned his
charge.* The mayor called out the soldiers at great
cost, to some one. He did this on his own responsi
bility. Five aldermen have publicly protested against
the breach of honor and justice. After the wicked
deed was over, he attended a meeting of Sunday School
children in Faneuil Hall. When he was introduced
to the audience, " out of the mouth of babes and
suckhngs " came a hiss ! At night, the " citizen sol
diery " had a festival. The mayor was at the sup
per, and toasted the military — eating and drinking
and making merry. What did they care, or he, that
an innocent citizen of Boston was sent into bondage
for ever, and by their hands ! The agony of Mr.
Burns only flavored their cup.
Thus, on the 2nd of June, Boston sent into bond
age the second victim. It ought to have been fifteen
* Here is the note of Mr. Hayes to the city authorities ; one
day his children will deem it a noble trophy: —
" Boston, June 2, 1854.
" To His Honor the Mayor and the Aldermen of the City of
Boston : —
" Through all the excitement attendant upon the arrest and
trial of the fugitive by the United States Government, I have
not received an order which I have conceived inconsistent with
my duties as an officer of the police until this day, at which
time I have received an order which, if performed, would im
plicate me in the execution of that infamous "Fugitive Slave
Bill." " I therefore resign the office which I now hold as a Captain
of the Watch and Police from this hour, 11 a. m.
Most respectfully yours, Joseph K. Hayes."

308 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
days later — the 17th of June. What a spectacle it
was ! The day was brilliant ; there was not a cloud ;
all about Boston there was a ring of happy summer
loveliness; the green beauty of June; the grass, the
trees, the heaven, the hght ; and Boston itself was the
theater of incipient civil war!
What a day for Boston ! Citizens applauding that
a man was to be carried into bondage! Drunken sol
diers, hardly able to stand in the street, sung their
ribald song — " Oh, carry me back to old Virginia ! " *
* I copy this from one of the newspapers: —
" The Pay of the Boston Military for their Aid in the Rendition
of Anthony Burns.
" We write with an ' iron pen ' for the benefit of some future
historian, that in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and
fifty-four, in the city of Boston, there was received for their
aid in consigning to the bondage of American chattel slavery
one Anthony Burns, — by the grace of God and his own efforts
a freeman, — by the independent volunteer militia of said city,
the following sums: —
" National Lancers, Capt. Wilmarth  $ 820.00
Boston Light Dragoons, Capt. Wright  1,128.00
Fifth Regiment of Artillery, by Col. Cowdin,
for himself, staff, and regiment  3,946.00
Boston Light Infantry, Capt. Rogers  460.00
New England Guards, Capt. Henshaw  432.00
Pulaski Guards, Capt. Wright  328.00
Boston Light Guard, Capt. Follett  500.00
Boston City Guard, Capt. French  488.00
(of which $190 was paid by order to George
Young for 'refreshments.')
Boston Independent Fusileers, Capt. Cooley. . . 320.00
Washington Light Infantry, Capt. Upton  536.00
Mechanic Infantry, Capt. Adams  428.00
National Guard, Lieut. Harlow commanding. . 416.00
Union Guard, Capt. Brown  476.00
Sarsfield Guard, Capt. Hogan  308.00
Boston Independent Cadets, Capt. Amory  1,136.00
Boston Light Artillery, Capt. Cobb  168.00
Major-General Edmands and staff  715.00

THE NEW CRIME 309
Daniel Webster lies buried at Marshfield; but his
dead hand put the chain on Anthony Burns. Last
winter it was proposed to build him a monument. He
needs it not. Hancock has none ; Samuel Adams sleeps
in a nameless grave ; John Adams has not a stone. We
are their monuments ; the homage of the people is their
epitaph. Daniel Webster also had his monument last
Friday. It was the court-house crowded with two
hundred and twenty United States soldiers and flanked
with a cannon. His monument reached all the way
from John Hancock's house in Court Street to the T
Major Pierce and staff of the First Battalion
Light Dragoons  $ 146.00
Colonel Holbrook and staff of the first Regi
ment of Light Infantry  26.00
Brigadier-General Andrews and staff of the
First Brigade  107.50
Major Burbank and staff of the Third Bat
talion of Light Infantry  76.00
William Read, hardware and sporting appa
ratus dealer, for ammunition  155.28
Total  $13,115.78"
The sum paid to the civil officers of Boston for their services
has not yet been made public.
Mr. Bums was subsequently sold to David McDaniel, of Nash
county, N. C, on condition that he should "never be sold to
go North." A most piteous letter was received from him in
January, 1855, full of pious gratitude to all who sought to
preserve for him the inalienable right to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.
Presently, after Commissioner Loring had accomplished his
"legal" kidnapping, he tried to purchase a piece of meat of
a noble-hearted butcher in Boylston Market. " I will take that
pig," said the Commissioner. "You can't have it," replied the
butcher. "What, is it sold?" "No, sir! But you can't buy
your meat of me. I want none of your blood-money. It would
burn my pocketl"
Rev. Nehemiah Adams, D.D., subsequently sent to the Com
missioner a presentation copy of his "South Side View of
Slavery," with the author's regards!

310 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Wharf; nay, it went far out to sea in the revenue
cutter, and is borne seaward or shoreward. Conquer
your prejudices! No higher law! On the brass can
non you could read, I still live.
Mr. Burns was seized on that day which the Chris
tian Church has consecrated to two of the martyrs,
Saints Donatian and Rogatian. They seem to have
been put to death by Rictius Varus, the commissioner
of Belgic and Celtic Gaul. They suffered death at
Nantes. They were impeached for professing them
selves Christians. Simple death was not torment
enough for being a Christian in the year 287. They
were put to the rack first. Their bodies, still held in
great veneration, now sleep their dusty slumber in the
great cathedral of the town. The antiquarian trav
eler wonders at the statues of those two martyrs still
standing at the corner of the Money-Changers' Street,
and telling the tale of times when the Christians only
suffered persecution. St. Rogatian's day was not an
unfitting time for puritanic Boston to steal a man !
The day on which Mr. Burns was sent from Boston
into Alexandrian bondage is still more marked in the
Christian Church. It is consecrated to a noble army
of martyrs who tasted death at Vienna, in Gaul, — now
Vienne, in the south of France — in the year 178 after
Christ. I shall never forget the little town, once fa
mous and eminent, where the dreadful event took
place. A letter written, it is said, by St. Irenasus him
self details the saddening history. It begins, " We
the servants of Christ [Mr. Everett might translate it
' slaves '], dwelling at Vienna and Lyons in Gaul, to
the brethren in Asia and Phrygia who have the same
faith and hope with us. Peace, and Grace, and Glory
from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus

THE NEW CRIME 311
Christ." The whole letter is a most touching me
morial of the faithful piety of the Christians in days
when it cost life to be religious. Anybody may read
what remains of it in Eusebius. Here is the story in
short : —
A law was passed forbidding Christians to be out
of their own houses " in any place whatsoever." The
most cruel punishments were denounced against all
persons who professed the Christian religion.
The governor, who was also a commissioner ap
pointed for persecuting and murdering the Christians,
had the most prominent members of the Church ar
rested and brought before him. In the " examina
tion " they were treated with such cruelty that Vet-
tius Epagathus, a Christian of distinguished family,
undertook their defense, a man so exactly virtuous,
that, though young, he won the honor of old Zacharias
— " walking in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord blameless." The commissioner asked him :
" Art thou also a Christian ? " Epagathus made his
" admission " in a loud voice, and shared the fate of
the martyrs. The Christians called him the Comforter
of Christians, — " for he had the Comforter, the Spirit,
in him, more than Zacharias himself ; " a title as hate
ful then as Friend of the Slave now is in the Court or
the Church of Kidnappers in Boston.
Sanctus, the deacon ; Maturus, a new convert ; At-
talus, from Asia Minor, one of the pillars of the
Church ; Blandina, a female slave ; Pothinus, ninety
years old, and Bishop of Lyons, hard by, were put to
the most cruel tortures. Four of them were exposed
to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre to divert the
spectators ! Blandina was fastened to a post to be
eaten up by the beasts, and when they left her un-

312 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
touched, the marshal haled her to prison again.
" But, last of all, St. Blandina, like a well-bom mother
who has nursed her children and sent them victorious
to the king, hastened after them, rejoicing and leap
ing for joy at her departure; thrown, indeed, to the
wild beasts, she went as if invited to a bridal feast;
and after the scourging, after the exposure to wild
beasts, after the chair of fire, she was wrapped in a
net and tossed by a bull — and at last killed." Others
fell with them : Ponticus, a boy of fifteen ; Alexander
the Phrygian, and many more. They were tortured
with cudgels, with whips, with wild beasts, and red-hot
plates of iron; at last they died, one by one. The
tormentors threw their dead bodies to the dogs: some
raged and gnashed their teeth over the dead, seeking
to take yet more abundant vengeance thereon; others
laughed and made mockery thereof. And others,
more gentle, seeming to sympathize as much as they
dared, made grievous reproaches, and said, " Where is
now their God, and of what profit is their piety, which
they loved better even than their own hfe! Now we
shall see if they will ever rise from the dead, and if
their God can help and deliver them out of our
hands ! "
So things went at Allobrogian Vienna on the 2nd
of June, sixteen hundred and seventy-six years ago
last Friday. The murder of those Christians was just
as " legal " as the rendition of Anthony Burns. It
would be curious to know what the " respectable " men
of the town said thereupon: to see the list of fifteen
hundred citizens volunteering their aid ; to read the let
ter of nine hundred and eighty-seven men thanking
the commissioner for touching their conscience. The
preaching of the priests must have been edifying:. —

THE NEW CRIME 313
" I would drive a Christian away from my own door !
I would murder my own mother ! "
Doubtless some men said, " The statute which com
mands the torturous murder of men, women, and chil
dren, for no crime but piety, if constitutional, is
wicked and cruel." And doubtless some heathen
" Chief Justice Parker " choked down the rising con
science of mankind, and answered, " Whether the stat
ute is a harsh one or not, it is not for us to deter
mine." * No ! it is not for the bloodhound to ask
whether the victim he rends to quivering fragments is
a sinner or a saint ; the bloodhound is to bite, and not
consider; he has teeth, not conscience. The Fugitive
Slave Bih commissioner is not to do justly, and love
mercy, and walk humbly with his God ; he is to kidnap
men in Boston at ten dollars a head! The pagan
murder of Christians at Vienna under Aurelian, did not
differ much from the Christian kidnapping of Mr.
Burns in Boston under Pierce. But, alas for these
times — it is not recorded of the Romans that any
heathen judge of probate came forward and volun
teered to butcher the widows and orphans of the early
Church! Then the tormenter worshiped Mars and
Bellona ; now he sits in the Church of Jesus Christ.
Boston chose a fit day to consummate her second
kidnapping. St. Pothinus was a Christian preacher,
so was Anthony Burns — " a minister of the Baptist
denomination," " regularly ordained ! " Commis
sioner Loring could not have done better than select
this time to execute his " decision." On St. Pothinus's
day, let Anthony Burns be led to a martyrdom more
* Reference is here made to the words used by Commissioner
Loring in his " decision," citing the words of the late Chief
Justice Parker.

314 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
atrocious ! The African churches of Boston may
write a letter to-day, which three or four thousand
years hence will sound as strange as now the epistle
of St. Iremeus. Sixteen hundred and seventy-six years
hence, it may be thought the marshal's " guard " is a
fair match for the bullies who tortured Blandina. In
the next world the district marshal may shake hands
with the heathen murderer who put the boy Ponticus
to cruel death. I make no doubt there were men at
the corners of the streets who clapped hands, as one
by one the lions in the public square rent the Christian
maidens limb from limb, and strewed the ground with
human flesh yet palpitating in its severed agony.
Boston can furnish mates for them. But the judge
of probate, the teacher of a Sunday School, the mem
ber of a church of Christ, — he may wander through
all Hades, peopled thick with Roman tormentors, nor
never meet with a heathen guardian of orphans who
can be his match. Let him pass by. Declamation
can add nothing to his deed.
" To guild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess."
No doubt the commissioner for murdering the Chris
tians at Vienna reasoned as " legally " and astutely in
the second century as the Fugitive Slave Bill commis
sioner at Boston in the nineteenth. Perhaps the " ar
gument " was after this wise : — *
" This statute has been decided to be constitutional
by the unanimous opinion of the judges of the Su-
* See the commissioner's " decision."

THE NEW CRIME 315
preme Court of the Province of Gaul, after the fullest
argument and the maturest deliberation, to be the law
of this province, as well as and because it is a consti
tutional law of the Roman Empire; and the wise
words of our revered chief-justice * may well be re
peated now, and remembered always. The chief jus
tice says: —
" ' The torture, persecution, and murder of Chris
tians was not created, established, or perpetuated by
the constitution ; it existed before ; it would have ex
isted if the constitution had not been made. The
f ramers of the constitution could not abrogate the cus
tom of persecuting, torturing, and murdering Chris
tians, or the rights claimed under it. They took it as
they found it, and regulated it to a limited extent.
The constitution, therefore, is not responsible for the
origin or continuance of this custom of persecuting,
torturing, and murdering Christians — the provision it
contains was the best adjustment which could be made
of conflicting rights and claims to persecute, torture,
and murder, and was absolutely necessary to effect
what may now be considered as the general pacification
by which harmony and peace should take the place of
violence and war. These were the circumstances, and
this the spirit in which the constitution was made —
the regulation of persecution, torture, and murder of
Christians, so far as to prohibit provinces by law from
harboring fugitive Christians, was an essential element
in its formation ; and the union intended to be estab
lished by it was essentially necessary to the peace and
happiness and highest prosperity of all the provinces
* Hon. Lemuel Shaw. See his " opinion " on the constitu
tionality of the Fugitive Slave Bill, in 7 Cushing's Reports,
p. 285, et seq.

316 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and towns. In this spirit, and with these views stead
ily in prospect, it seems to be the duty of all judges
and magistrates to expound and apply these pro
visions in the constitution and laws of the Roman Em
pire, and in this spirit it behooves all persons bound
to obey the laws of the Roman Empire to consider and
regard them.'
" Therefore Christianos ad Leones — Let the Chris
tians be torn to pieces by the wild beasts."
Wednesday, the 24th of May, the city was all calm
and still. The poor black man was at work with one
of his own nation, earning an honest livelihood. A
judge of probate, Boston born and Boston bred, a
man in easy circumstances, a professor in Harvard
College, was sitting in his office, and with a single
spurt of his pen he dashes off the hberty of a man —
a citizen of Massachusetts. He kidnaps a man en
dowed by his Creator with the inalienable right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He leaves
the writ with the marshal, and goes home to his family,
caresses his children, and enjoys his cigar. The friv
olous smoke curls round his frivolous head, and at
length he lays him down to sleep, and, I suppose, such
dreams as haunt such heads. But when he wakes next
morn, ah the winds of indignation, wrath, and honest
scorn, are let loose. Before night, they are blowing
all over this Commonwealth — aye, before another
night they have gone to the Mississippi, and wherever
the lightning messenger can tell the tale. So have I
read in an old medieval legend, that one summer after
noon there came up a " shape, all hot from Tartarus,"
from hell below, but garmented and garbed to represent
a civil-suited man, masked with humanity. He walked
quiet and decorous through Milan's stately streets, and

THE NEW CRIME 317
scattered from his hand an invisible dust. It touched
the wahs ; it lay on the streets ; it ascended to the cross
on the minister's utmost top. It went down to the
beggar's den. Peacefully he walked through the
streets, vanished and went home. But the next morn
ing, the pestilence was in Milan, and ere a week had
sped half her population were in their graves; and
half the other half, crying that hell was clutching at
their hearts, fled from the reeking City of the Plague !
Why did the commissioner do all this? He knew
the consequences that must follow. He knew what
Boston was. We have no monument to Hancock and
Adams; but still we keep their graves; and Boston,
the dear old mother that bore them, yet in her bosom
hides the honored bones of men whom armies could
not terrify, nor England bribe. Their spirit only
sleeps. Tread roughly, tread roughly on the spot —
their spirit rises from the ground ! He knew that here
were men who never will be silent when wrong is done.
He knew Massachusetts ; he knew Boston ; he knew that
the Fugitive Slave Bill had only raked the ashes over
fires which were burning stilh and that a breath might
scatter those ashes to the winds of heaven, and bid the
slumbering embers flame. Had he determined already
what should happen to Anthony Burns? He knew
what had befallen Thomas Sims. Did he wish another
inhabitant of Boston whipped to death?
I have studied the records of crime — it is a part of
my ministry. I do not find that any college profes
sor has ever been hanged for murder in all the Anglo-
Saxon family of men, tih Harvard College had that
solitary shame. Is not that enough? Now she is the
first to have a professor that kidnaps men. " The
Athens of America " furnished both.

318 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
I can understand how a man commits a crime of
passion, or covetousness, or rage, — nay, of revenge,
or of ambition. But for a man in Boston, with no
passion, no covetousness, no rage, with no ambition nor
revenge, to steal a poor negro, to send him into bond
age, — I cannot comprehend the fact. I can under
stand the consciousness of a lion, not a kidnapper's
heart. Once Mr. Loring defined a lawyer to be " a
human agent for effecting a human purpose by human
means." Here, and now, the commissioner seems an
inhuman agent for effecting an inhuman purpose by
inhuman means.
I belong to a school that reverences the infinite per
fection of God, — if, indeed, there be such a school.
I believe, also, in the nobleness of man; but last week
my faith was somewhat sorely tried. As I looked at
that miscreant crew, the kidnapper's body-guard, and
read in their faces the record and the prophecy of
many a crime,
" Felons by the hand of nature marked,
Quoted and signed to do a deed of shame,"
I could explain and not despair. They were tools,
not agents. But as I looked into the commissioner's
face, mild and amiable, a face I have respected, not
without seeming cause; as I remembered his breeding
and his culture, his social position, his membership of a
Christian church, and then thought of the crime he was
committing against humanity, with no temptation, I
asked myself, can this be true? Is man thus noble,
made in the dear image of the Father, God? Is my
philosophy a dream: or are these facts a lie?
But there is another court. The Empsons and the
Dudleys have been summoned there before; Jeffreys

THE NEW CRIME 319
and Scroggs, the Kanes, and the Curtises, and the
Lorings, must one day travel the same unwelcome road.
Imagine the scene after man's mythologic way. " Ed
ward, where is thy brother Anthony? " " I know
not ; am I my brother's keeper, Lord? " " Edward,
where is thy brother Anthony? " " Oh, Lord, he was
friendless, and so I smote him; he was poor, and I
starved him of more than life. He owned nothing but
his African body. I took that away from him, and
gave it to another man ! "
Then listen to the voice of the Crucified — " Did I
not teh thee, when on earth, ' Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy understanding and thy heart? ' "
" But I thought thy kingdom was not of this world."
" Did I not tell thee that thou shouldst love thy
¦eighbor as thyself? Where is Anthony, thy brother?
I was a stranger, and you sought my hfe ; naked, and
you rent away my skin; in prison, and you delivered
me to the tormentors — fate far worse than death.
Inasmuch as you did it to Anthony Burns, you did it
unto me."
The liberty of America was never in greater peril
than now. Hessian bayonets were not half so danger
ous as the gold of the national treasury in the hands
of this administration. Which shall conquer, slavery
or freedom? That is the question. The two cannot
long exist side by side. Think of the peril; remem
ber the rapacity of this administration; its reckless
leaders: think of Douglas, Cushing, and the rest.
They aimed at the enslavement of Nebraska. The
Northern majority in Congress yielded that.
Now they aim at Hayti and Cuba. Shall they
carry that point? Surely, unless we do our duty.
Shall slavery be established at the North, at the West,

320 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and the East; in all the free States? Mr. Toombs
told Mr. Hale — " Before long the master wih sit
down at the foot of Bunker Hill monument with his
slaves." Will do it? He has done it already, and
not an officer in the State of Massachusetts made the
least resistance. Our laws were trod down by insolent
officials, and Boston ordered out her soldiers to help the
disgraceful deed. Strange that we should be asked to
make the fetters which are to chain us. Mr. Suttle
is only a feeler. Soon there will be other Suttles in
Boston. Let them come !
It is not only wicked ; it is costly. The kidnapping
of Mr. Burns must have cost in all at least one hun
dred thousand dollars, including the loss of time and
traveling expenses of our friends from the country.
The publican's bill for feeding the marshal's crew is al
ready more than six thousand dollars !
Consider the demoralization of the people produced
by such a deed. Mr. Dana was knocked down in the
street by one of the marshal's posse — as it is abun
dantly proved.* The blow might easily have been
fatal. It is long since a bully had attacked a re
spectable citizen in Boston before. Hereafter I fear
it will be more common. You cannot employ such a
body-guard as the marshal had about him in such
business without greatly endangering the safety of
the persons and the property of the town. We shall
hear from them again. What a spectacle it was ; the
army of the United States, the soldiers of Boston,
sending an innocent man into slavery ! What a lesson
*The culprit was held in trifling bail by the court, one of
the marshal's gang became his surety. But the ruffian ab
sconded, was subsequently arrested at New Orleans, and sent to
the House of Correction for a year and a half.

THE NEW CRIME 321
to the children in the Sunday Schools — to the vagrant
children in the streets, who have no school but the
sights of the city! What a lesson of civilization to
the Irish population of Boston ! Men begin to under
stand this. There never was so much anti-slavery
feeling in Boston before — never so much indignation
in my day. If a law aims at justice, though it fail of
the mark we will respect the law — not openly resist
it or with violence : wait a little, and amend it or repeal
it. But when the law aims at injustice, open, mani
fest, palpable wickedness, why, we must be cowards
and fools too, if we submit.
Massachusetts has never felt so humiliated before.
Soldiers of the government enforcing a law in peaceful
Boston, the most orderly of Christian cities ! We have
had no such thing since the Declaration of Inde
pendence ! The rendition of Mr. Burns fills New Eng
land with sorrow and bitter indignation. The people
tolled the bells at Plymouth. The bones of the fore
fathers gave that response to the kidnappers in Boston.
At Manchester and several other towns they did the
same. To-day, ministers are preaching as never be
fore. What will it all come to? Men came to Bos
ton peacefully last week. Will they always come
" with only the arms God gave ? " One day in the
seventeenth century five thousand country gentlemen
rode into London with a " petition to the king " —
with only the arms God gave them. Not long after
they went thither with Oliver Cromwell at their head
and other " arms " which God also had given. May
such times never return in New England ! *
* While this sermon is passing through the press, I find the
following paragraph in a newspaper: —
"One of the Fourth of July celebrations at Columbus, Ga.2
XIII— 21

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
We want no rashness, but calm, considerate action,
deliberate, prudent far-seeing. The Fugitive Slave
Bill is a long wedge, thin at one end, wide at the other ;
it is entered between the bottom planks of our Ship
of State ; a few blows thereon will " enforce " more
than the South thinks of. , A little more, — and we
shall go to pieces. Men talk wildly just now, and I
do not credit what cool men say in this heat. But I
see what may come — what must come, if a few more
blows be struck in that quarter. It was only Mr.
Webster's power to manufacture public opinion by his
giant will and immense eloquence, which made the
North submit at all to the Fugitive Slave Bill. He
strained his power to the utmost — and died ! Now
there is no Webster or Clay ; not even a Calhoun ; not
a first-rate man in the pro-slavery party, North or
South. Slavery is not well manned — many hands,
dirty, cunning, stealthy, — not a single great, able
head. The cowardice of Mr. Everett has excited the clergy
of New England; of all the North. They are stung
was the sale of ninety or a hundred men, women, and boys, by
the order of Robert Toombs, United States senator. Here is
the advertisement : —
" ' Admikistkator's Saxe. — Will be sold on the first Tuesday
in July next, at the court-house door of Stewart county, within
the usual hours of sale, between ninety and one hundred ne
groes, consisting of men, women, boys, etc. These negroes are
all very likely, and between forty and fifty of the number are
men and boys. Sold as the property of Henry J. Pope, deceased,
in pursuance of an order of the Court of Ordinary of Stewart
county, for the benefit of heirs and creditors. Terms of sale,
a credit (with interest) until 25th December next.
" ' Robeht Toombs,
"'Adm'r of Henry J. Pope, deceased.'
"'Men, women, and boys,' bought on the Fourth of July, —
paid for on Christmas ! "

THE NEW CRIME
with the reproach of the people, and ashamed of their
own past neglect. The Nebraska Bill opens men's
eyes. Agitation was never so violent as at this day.
The prospect of a war with Spain is not inviting to
men who own ships, and want a clear sea and open
market. Pirates, privateers, — Algerine, Greek, Span
ish, Portuguese, West Indian, — are not welcome to the
thoughts of men. The restoration of the slave trade
is not quite agreeable to the farmers and mechanics
of the North. This attempt to seize a man in Boston ;
the display of force ; the insolence of the officials ; the
character of the men concerned in this iniquity — all is
offensive. Then there was insult, open and intentional.
Boston merchants feel as they never did before. All
Massachusetts is incensed. The wrath of Massachu
setts is slow, but she has wrath, has courage, " perse
verance of the saints."
Let us do nothing rashly. What is done hastily
must be done over again — it is not well done. This is
what I would recommend:
1. A convention of all Massachusetts, without dis
tinction of party, to take measures to preserve the
rights of Massachusetts. For this we want some new
and stringent laws for the defense of personal liberty,
for punishing all who invade it on our soil. We want
powerful men as officers to execute these laws.
2. A general convention of all the States to> organize
for mutual protection against this new master.
It is not speeches that we want — but action ; not
rash, crazy action, but calm, deliberate, systematic
action — organization for the defense of personal lib
erty and the State rights of the North. Now is a good
time; let us act with cool energy. By all means let
us do something, else the liberties of America go to

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
ruin — then what curses shall mankind heap upon
us!
"And deep, and more deep — as the iron is driven, —
Base slaves, will the whet of our agony be,
When we think — as the damned haply think of the heaven
They had once in their reach — that we might have been free."
But, my friends, out of all this dreadful evil we
can bring relief. The remedy is in our hearts and
hands. God works no miracles. There is power in
human nature to end this wickedness. God appointed
the purpose, provided the means — a divine purpose,
human means. Only be faithful, and in due time we
shall triumph over the destroyer. Every noble quality
of man works with us; each attribute of God. We
are His instruments. Let us faithfully do the ap
pointed work ! Darkness is about us ! Journey for
ward ; hght is before us !
"O God, who in Thy dear still heaven
Dost sit and wait to see
The errors, sufferings, and crimes
Of our humanity;
How deep must be Thy causal love,
How whole Thy final care,
Since Thou who rulest all above
Canst see, and yet canst bear ! "
APPENDIX I
My friend, the Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher, thinks I have
been unjust to the ministers, — judging from the sermon as re
ported in the Commonwealth. So he published an article in
that paper on Friday, June 9. It comes from a powerful and
noble man. I wish he had made out a stronger case against me.
" Theodore Parker aitd the Ministry.
" Mr. Editor,— In his sermon, last Sabbath, Mr. Parker seems
to charge the clergy of the country with a general, if not uni-

THE NEW CRIME 325
versal, delinquency in the cause of freedom with respect to the
Fugitive Slave Law.
*******
" Now, if Mr. Parker were to be represented, on both con
tinents, as an advocate of kidnapping, and of the Fugitive
Slave Law, he would probably regard it as unjust. But he
does not seem to be sufficiently alive to the idea, that it is
unjust to convey the idea* that this is true of clergymen who
have from the first opposed these measures as earnestly and
decidedly as he himself. He seems to be fully convinced that
to rob even one slave of his liberty is a crime. He does not
seem as deeply to feel that it is a crime to rob even our min
isters of that reputation which in his own case he prizes so
highly. Even if the cases of fidelity were few, for that very
reason they should receive from a lover of the cause the more
careful and particular notice and praise. In cases like these,
if ever, discriminations and truthful statements of facts are a
sacred duty. Let those be censured who deserve censure, and
let those be commended who deserve praise.
" Allow me, then, to state some of the facts of the case chiefly
concerning the Orthodox Congregational pastors and churches,
leaving to other denominations, if they see fit, to state similar
facts, more at large, in their own case. From my own knowl
edge, I am assured that it would not be difficult to multiply
them, especially if a full account were to be given of all the
unpublished sermons of the times.
" It is not true, as Mr. P.'s statements imply, that Mr.
Parker was the only one who preached and wrote and prayed
against the Fugitive Slave Law.
"The Congregationalist, then edited by the Rev. H. M. Dex
ter, Rev. Mr. Storrs, and myself, devoted all its energies to
a conflict with the Fugitive Slave Bill, and a vindication of
the claim of the higher law. Some of its articles were con
sidered of such importance as to be honored with special at
tention and censure by Mr. Choate, at the Boston Union Saving
meeting. Our articles, if collected, would make a large volume.
" The law was also most earnestly opposed from the pulpit
by many ministers, Mr. Stone, Mr. Dexter, and myself among
the number. The same thing was true of a large number of
the clergymen of New England and the Middle States. I have
before me published sermons or other addresses to this effect
from Storrs and Spear, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Beecher, of Newark,
N. J.; Thompson and Cheever, of New York; Bacon, of New
Haven, Conn.; Colver, of Boston; Wallcott, now of Providence;
Leavitt, then of Newton; Withington, of Newbury, Mass.;

326 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Whitcomb, of Stoneham; Thayer, of Ashland; Arvine, of West
Boylston, and others. Nothing can be more able and eloquent
than their defense of God's law, as opposed to the infamous
Slave Bill. Others also were published which I have not on
file, and I know of several very able discourses against the
law which were not published. If a true report could be made
of all the sermons then preached, and of the influence then
exerted in other ways by the ministry of the North, there is
reason to believe that a very large majority would be found
to have set themselves decidedly against the law, and to have
advocated its entire disobedience.
" The fact is, that undue importance has been given to those
of the ministry who favored obedience to that law, and they
have been made to overshadow its more numerous opponents.
"In relation to Andover, the facts are these: — Professor
Stuart, who for some years had ceased to act as professor in
the Seminary, published his views, greatly to the regret of a
large portion of his brethren. That the body of the professors
of the institution did not sympathize in these views, is evident
from the fact that when a paper approving the compromise
was circulated there, Professors Park, Phelps, and Edwards
refused to sign. Only one acting professor did sign, much to
his own subsequent regret. This does not justify the sweeping
affirmation, ' Andover went for kidnapping.' Mr. Parker ought
to be more careful, and less free in the use of such wholesale
charges. Moreover, the positions of Professor Stuart were
thoroughly exposed by members of his own denomination.
" The Rev. Rufus Clark, now of East Boston, published in
the columns of the Atlas a thorough refutation of his pamphlet
in a series of very able articles, which were subsequently re
published in a pamphlet form.
" Rev. George Perkins, of Connecticut, performed a similar
service in that State. Rev. Mr. Dexter, of Boston, exposed
himself to an excited retort from Professor Stuart, for his
keen and able exposure of his course on the Compromises.
" That there was a sad failure on the part of too many of
the clergy of Boston and other commercial cities, cannot be
denied; nor do I desire to avert from them merited censure.
But ought the labors of such men as the clerical editors and
contributors of the Independent to be passed by in silence in
speaking of the prominent clergy of the city of New York?
" As to the other cities named, if there were but one excep
tion in each, it ought to have been prominently named and
honored. I do not doubt that there were more.
"As to the country churches and pastors of New England,

THE NEW CRIME 327
I have already stated my opinion that the vast majority were
opposed to the Fugitive Slave Law. It is not just to regard
the Nebraska protest as a virtual confession and reparation of
past neglect, but rather as a development of the real feeling
of the clergy of New England. Charity thinketh no evil, and
there is no gain at this time in depreciating the merits of any
earnest opponents of the aggressions of slavery.
" As Mr. Parker expects to be read in all parts of this na
tion and on both sides of the Atlantic, I will not doubt that his
strongly avowed appreciation of what is just and honorable in
action will induce him to revise and correct his statement of
facts, and instead of such sweeping and indiscriminate censure,
to give honor where honor is due. Edward Beecher."
I have repeatedly and in the most public manner done honor
to the ministers who have oppbsed this great iniquity, and did
not suppose that any one would misunderstand the expressions
which Dr. Beecher considers as " sweeping." When he reads
in the Bible that " Jerusalem and all Judea went out," I sup
pose he thinks that some persons stayed at home. But I am
sorry he could not make out a stronger case for his side. I
know nothing of what was said privately, or of sermons which
never get spoken of out of the little parish where they are
written. He mentions sixteen Orthodox ministers who pub
lished matter in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Bill. It is
not a very large number for all the churches in New Jersey,
New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts to
furnish. I can mention more.
These are the facts in respect to Andover: Professor Stuart,
the most distinguished clergyman in all New England, wrote
an elaborate defense of the Fugitive Slave Bill, and of Mr.
Webster's conduct in defending it. He was induced to do this
by Mr. Webster himself. The work is well known — Conscience
and the Constitution — and it is weak and doting as it is
wicked. Professor Stuart and two other Andover professors
— Rev. Ralph Emerson, D.D., and Rev. Leonard Woods, D.D.
— signed the letter to Mr. Webster expressing their "deep
obligations for what this speech has done and is doing;" thank
ing him " for recalling us to our duties under the Constitution,
and for the broad, national, and patriotic views " it inculcates,
and desiring to " express to you our entire concurrence in the
sentiments of your speech." It seems three other professors —
Messrs. Park, Phelps, and Edwards — did not sign it, and one
of the signers — Dr. Woods or Dr. Emerson — did it much to
his own subsequent regret. But did he make his regret public?

328 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Did Andover in public say anything against the conduct of the
signers ?
At the Annual Conference of Unitarian Ministers, in May,
1851, long and public defenses of kidnapping were made by
" the most eminent men in the denomination." One doctor of
divinity vindicated the attempt of his parishioners to kidnap
mine, whom I took to my house for shelter. Dr. Dewey's
promise to send back his own mother or brother got the
heartiest commendation from more than one " prominent min
ister." Dr. Dewey was compared with " faithful Abraham ; "
his declaration was "imputed to him for righteousness." Many
of the country ministers were of a different opinion. Some of
them declared his conduct " atrocious." Of course there were
noble men in the Unitarian denomination, who were faithful
to the great principles of Christianity. I have often spoken in
their praise, and need not now -mention their names, too well
known to require honor from me.
But I am sorry to say that I can retract nothing from what
I have said in general respecting the conduct of the clergy of
all denominations at that time. At a large public meeting in
Boston a Vigilance Committee was appointed to look after
the fugitives and furnish them aid. The Committee sent a
circular to every church in Massachusetts, asking for the fugi
tives donations of money and clothes; and received replies from
eighty-seven churches, which gave us $1484.56!
Here is my letter in reply to Dr. Beecher, from the Com
monwealth of June 10, 1854: —
" Dr. Edward Beecher and Theodore Parker.
"Rev. Edward Beecher, D.D., — My dear Sir, I have just read
your letter in the Commonwealth of this morning, in which
you maintain that the statements in my last sermon respecting
the delinquency of the Northern clergy were too sweeping, and
that I did injustice to the ministers who stoutly resisted the
Fugitive Slave Bill and its execution. Perhaps the language
of the sermon would seem to warrant your opinion. But I have
so many times, and in so public a manner, expressed my respect
and veneration for those noble men who have been found faith
ful in times of peril, that I cannot think I am in general ob
noxious to the charge you make against me.
In respect to the special sermon of last Sunday, I beg leave
to inform you that the whole was neither printed nor preached;
the entire sermon is now in press, and when you see it, I
think you will find that I do no injustice to the men you
speak of. As I spoke on Sunday, I did not suppose any one

THE NEW CRIME 329
would misunderstand my words, or think I wished to be re
garded as the only one found faithful. Certainly I have many
times done honor to the gentlemen you mention, and to the
journals you refer to — with others you do not name. And
allow me to say, the conduct of yourself and all your family
has not only been a strong personal encouragement to me, but
a theme of public congratulation which I have often brought
forward in lectures, and sermons, and speeches. I am a little
surprised that you should suppose that by the churches of
commerce in New York, Boston, etc., I mean all the churches
of these towns. I still think that from 1850 to 1852 the gen
eral voice of the New England churches, so far as it was
heard through the press, was in favor of the Fugitive Slave
Bill and its execution. This was especially true of the rich
and fashionable churches in the great commercial towns.
Surely you cannot forget the numerous clerical eulogies on
the late Mr. Webster, which sought to justify all his political
conduct. I do not think you have made out a very strong case
for Andover.
" I am sorry to have given pain to a man whose life is so
noble and his character so high; but believe me,
Respectfully and truly yours, Theodore Parker.
II
" Mr. Attorney Hallett's Interference with the Purchase
of the Fugitive.
Boston, Saturday, June 3, 1854.
" To the Editors of the Atlas: — You have called my attention
to an article in your paper this morning signed " L.," and to
a contradiction of its statement in the Journal of this evening,
by authority of the United States district attorney. I know
nothing of the origin of either of these articles, but will, at
your request, give you a narrative of my own connection with
the recent negotiation for the freedom of " Byrnes," believing
that such a narrative will be altogether pertinent to the fact
which you seek to establish, namely, the interference of the
United States district attorney in the negotiation above re
ferred to.
" On Saturday afternoon last, the Rev. Mr. Grimes called upon
me and said that the owner of Byrnes had offered to sell him
for twelve hundred dollars, and that he (Grimes) was anxious
to raise the money at once. He desired my advice and as
sistance in the matter, and requested me to draw up a suitable
subscription paper for that purpose, which I did in these
words : —

330 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Boston, May 27, 1854.
" We, the undersigned, agree to pay to Anthony Byrnes, or
order, the sum set against our respective names, for the purpose
of enabling him to obtain his freedom from the United States
Government, in the hands of whose officers he is now held as
a slave.
" This paper will be presented by the Rev. L. A. Grimes, pas
tor of the 12th Baptist Church.
" Upon this paper Mr. Grimes obtained signatures for six
hundred and sixty-five dollars, and with the aid of Colonel
Suttle's counsel, Messrs. Parker and Thomas, who interested
themselves in this matter, four hundred dollars more were got
in a check, conditionally, and held by Mr. Parker. It was
agreed by me that I should be near at hand on Saturday
night, to assist and advance the money, which was accordingly
done; and my check for eight hundred dollars, early in the
night, was placed in the hands of the United States marshal for
this purpose. About eleven o'clock, all parties being repre
sented, we met at Mr. Commissioner Loring's office. This gen
tleman, with commendable alacrity, prepared necessary papers.
"At this juncture the actual money was insisted on, which
threatened for a time the completion of the negotiation; but
anticipating this contingency, which, under all circumstances,
was not an unreasonable demand, we adjourned to the mar
shal's office, and I prepared myself with the needful tender.
The United States attorney, Mr. Hallett, was in attendance,
and the respective parties immediately discussed the mode of
procedure. The hour of twelve was rapidly approaching, after
which no action could be taken. Mr. Grimes was prepared to
receive Byrnes, and anxious to take him as he might peace
fully. The matter lingered, and official action ceased.
" I am not disposed to charge any one with designedly de
feating the desired end on that occasion. The business was
new, the questions raised novel. But when we had proceeded
thus far, and were ready in good faith to make good the sum
requisite on Monday, in view also of the friendly understand
ing had after midnight with all parties in interest, we had a
right to expect Byrnes's liberation on Monday. When that day
came, the owner refused to treat. Learning from rumor only
that four thousand dollars had been named as the sum then
asked for, I on Monday addressed Colonel Suttle, then in
court, a respectful note, reminding him of the position of things
on Saturday night, and urging that Mr. Grimes had the right
to expect the original agreement to be carried out, but further
asking him if any additional sum was required; to which he

THE NEW CRIME 331
replied, that the "case is before the Court, and must await its
decision." " Tuesday morning, I had an interview with Colonel Suttle in
the U. S. marshal's office. He seemed disposed to listen to
me, and met the subject in a manly way. He said he wished
to take the boy back, after which he would sell him. He wanted
to see the result of the trial, at any rate. I stated to him
that we considered his claim to Byrnes clear enough, and that
he would be delivered over to him, urging particularly upon
him that the boy's liberation was not sought for except with
his free consent, and his claim being fully satisfied. I urged
upon him no consideration of the fear of a rescue, or possible
unfavorable result of the trial to him, but offered distinctly, if
he chose, to have the trial proceed, and whatever might be the
result, still to satisfy his claim.
" I stated to him that the negotiation was not sustained by any
society or association whatsoever, but that it was done by some
of our most respectable citizens, who were desirous not to ob
struct the operation of the law, but in a peaceable and honor
able manner sought an adjustment of this unpleasant case; as
suring him that this feeling was general among the people. I
read to him a letter, addressed to me by a highly-esteemed
citizen, urging me to renew my efforts to accomplish this, and
placing at my disposal any amount of money that I might
think proper for the purpose.
" Colonel Suttle replied that he appreciated our motives, and
that he felt disposed to meet us. He then stated what he
would do. I accepted his proposal at once; it was not entirely
satisfactory to me, but yet, in view of his position, as he de
clared to me, I was content. At my request, he was about to
commit our agreement to writing, when Mr. B. F. Hallett en
tered the office, and they two engaged in conversation apart
from me. Presently Colonel Suttle returned to me, and said:
" I must withdraw what I have done with you." We both im
mediately approached Mr. Hallett, who said, pointing to the
spot where Mr. Batchelder fell, in sight of which we stood,
' That blood must be avenged.' I made some pertinent reply,
rebuking so extraordinary a speech, and left the room.
" On Friday, soon after the decision had been rendered, finding
Colonel Suttle had gone on board the cutter at an early hour,
I waited upon his counsel, Messrs. Thomas and Parker, at the
court-house, and there renewed my proposition. Both these gen
tlemen promptly interested themselves in my purpose, which
was to tender the claimant full satisfaction, and receive the
surrender of Byrnes from him, either there, in State Street,

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
or on board the cutter, at his own option. It was arranged
between us that Mr. Parker should go at once on board the
cutter, and make an arrangement, if possible, with the Colonel.
" I provided ample funds, and returned immediately to the
court-house, when I found that there would be difficulty in get
ting on board the cutter. Application was made by me to the
marshal; he interposed no objection, and I offered to place Mr.
Parker alongside the vessel. Presently Mr. Parker took me aside
and said these words: "Colonel Suttle has pledged himself to
Mr. Hallett that he will not sell his boy until he gets him
home." Thus the matter ended.
" In considering, Mr. Editor, whose interference was potent in
thus defeating the courteous endeavors of citizens of Boston,
peacefully and with due respect to the laws of the land, to put
to rest the painful scenes of the past week, it must be borne
in mind that the United States marshal, who, throughout this
unfortunate negotiation, has conducted himself towards us with
great consideration, consented individually to hold- the funds,
as a party not in interest, thus early acquiescing in the success
of our plan; the owner himself was willing to release his claim;
his counsel, Messrs. Thomas and Parker, volunteered their aid
in raising the money, urged it, and interested themselves in its
speedy accomplishment — even in the latest moment when it
could be effected, with commendable alacrity, they offered their
assistance; the United States commissioner himself consented to
be at his post until midnight of Saturday, to give his official
service for the object — I repeat, in view of all these consid
erations, the conclusion must come home irresistibly to every
candid mind, that there was one personage who, officially or
individually, in this connection either did do, or left undone,
something whereby his interference became essential to a less
painful termination of this case.
Respectfully, Hamilton Willis."

IX
THE RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA
1854
And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their
soul. — Psalm cvi. 15.
Next Tuesday will be the seventy-eighth anni
versary of American Independence. The day suggests
a national subject as theme for meditation this morn
ing. The condition of America makes it a dark and
a sad meditation. I ask your attention, therefore, to
a sermon of the Dangers which threaten the Rights of
Man in America.
The human race is permanent as the Mississippi, and
like that is fed from springs which never dry ; but the
several nations are as fleeting as its waves. In the
great tide of humanity, States come up, one after the
other, a wave or a bubble ; each lasts its moment, then
dies — passed off, forgot :
" Or like the snow-falls in the river,
A moment white — then melts forever,"
while the great stream of humanity rolls ever forward,
from time to eternity : — not a wave needless ; not a
snow flake, no drop of rain or dew, no ephemeral bub
ble, but has its function to perform in that vast, un
measured, never-ending stream.
How powerless appears a single man! He is one
of a thousand million men ; the infinitesimal of a vul
gar fraction ; one leaf on a particular tree in the forest.
A single nation, hke America, is a considerable part
of mankind now living; but when compared with the
333

334 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
human race of all time, past and to come, it seems as
nothing; it is but one bough in the woods. Nay, the
population of the earth, to-day, is but one tree in the
wide primeval forest of mankind, which covers the
earth and outlasts the ages. The leaf may fall and
not be missed from the bough; the branch may be
rudely broken off, and its absence not marked; the
tree will die and be succeeded by other trees in the
forest, green with summer beauty, or foodful and
prophetic with autumnal seed. Tree by tree, the
woods will pass away, and, unobserved, another forest
take its place, — arising, also, tree by tree.
How various the duration of States or men — dying
at birth, or lasting long periods of time ! For more
than three thousand years, Egypt stood the queen of
the world's young civilization, invincible as her own
pyramids, which yet time and the nations alike respect.
From Romulus, the first half-mythologic king of the
seven-hilled city, to Augustulus, her last historic em
peror, it is more than twelve centuries. At this day
the Austrian, the Spanish, the French and German sov
ereigns sit each on a long-descended throne. Victoria
is " daughter of a hundred kings." Pope Pius the
Ninth claims two hundred and fifty-six predecessors,
canonical and infallible. His chair is reckoned
more than eighteen hundred years old ; and it rests on
an Etrurian platform yet ten centuries more ancient.
The Turkish throne has been firmly fixed at Constanti
nople for four hundred years. Individual tyrants,
like summer flies, are short-lived; but tyranny is old
and lasting. The family of ephemera, permanent
amid the fleeting, is yet as old as that of elephants,
and will last as long.
But free governments have commonly been brief.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 335
If the Hebrew people had well-nigh a thousand years
of independent national life, their commonwealth
lasted but about three centuries; the flower of their
literature and religion was but little longer. The his
toric period of Greece begins 776 b. c. ; her inde
pendence was all over in six hundred and thirty years.
The Roman deluge had swallowed it up. No Deucal
ion and Pyrrha could re-people the land with men.
Her httle states — how brief was their hour of free
dom for the people ! From the first annual archon of
Athens to her conquest by Phihp, and the death of her
liberty, it was only two hundred and forty-five years !
Her tree of freedom grew in a narrow field of time
and briefly bore its age-outlasting fruit of science,
literature, and art. Now the tree is dead; its frag
ments are only curious Athenian stone. The Grecian
colonies in the East, ^Etolian, Dorian, Ionian — how
fair they flourished in the despotic waste of Asia ! how
soon those liberal blossoms died! Even her colonies
in the advancing West had no long independent life.
Cyrene, Syracusa, Agrigentum, Crotona, Massilia,
Saguntum, — how soon they died ! — flowers which the
savage winter swiftly nipped.
The Roman commonwealth could not endure five
hundred years. Her theocratic Tarquin the Proud
must be succeeded by a more despotic dictator, with
the style of democrat; and Rome, abhorring still the
name of king, must see all her liberties laid low. The
red sea of despotism opened to let pass one noble troop
— • the elder Brutus at the head, the younger bringing
up the rear — then closed again and swallowed up that
worse than Egyptian host, clamoring only for " bread
and games ! "
The republics of Italy in the middle ages were no

336 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
more fortunate. The half-Grecian commonwealths,
Naples, Amalfi, Gaeta, — what promise they once
held forth ; and what a warning fate ! They were only
born to die. A similar destiny befell the towns of
more northern Italy, where freedom later found a
home, — Milan, Padua, Genoa, Verona, Venice, Bo
logna, Florence, Pisa. Nay, in the midnight of the
dark ages, seven hundred years ago, in the very city
of the Popes and Cassars, in the center of that red
Roman sea of despotism, there was a momentary spot
of dry free land; and Arnaldo da Brescia eloquently
spoke of " Roman Liberty." The " Roman Repub
lic " and " Roman Senate " became once more fa
miliar words. Italian liberty, Lombard republics, —
how soon they all went down ! No city — not even
Florence — kept the people's freedom safe three hun
dred years. Silently the wealthy nobles and despotic
priests sapped the walls. Party spirit blinded the else
clear eyes : " the State may perish ; let the faction
thrive." The Republicans sought to crush the ad
jacent feeble States. They forgot justice, the higher
law of God: unworthy of liberty, they fell and died!
Let the tyrant swallow up the Italian towns ; they were
unfit for freedom. " A generous disdain of one man's
will is to republics what chastity is to woman ; " they
spurned this austere virtue. Let them serve their des
pots. " Liberty withdrew from a people who dis
graced her name." Let Dante bum his poetic brand
of infamy into the forehead of his countrymen. But
while freedom lasted, how fair was her blossom, how
rich and sweet her fruit! What riches, what beauty,
what science, letters, art, came of that noble stock!
Italy was the world's wonder — for a day ; its sorrow
ever since. So the cactus flowers into one gorgeous

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 337
ecstasy of bloom; then the excessive blossom, with
withering collapse, swoons and dies of its voluptuous
and tropical delight.
Liberty wanders from the North, through Italy, the
fairest of ah earthly lands ; then sits sadly down on
the tallest of the Alps, and once more reviews those
famous towns; the jewels that adorn the purple robe
of history — all tarnished, shattered, spoiled. Slowly
she turns her face northward and longs for hope. But
even the Teutonic towns, where freedom ever wore a
sober dress, were only spots of sunshine in a day of
wintry storm. Swiss, German, Dutch, they were brief
as fair. In Novogorod and in Poland, how soon was
Slavonian freedom lost!
So in a winter day in the country have I seen a little
frame of glass screening from the northern snow and
ice a nicely sheltered spot, where careful hands tended
little delicate plants, for beauty and for use. How
fair the winter garden seemed amid the wildering snow,
and else all-conquering frost! The httle roses lifted
up their face and kissed the glass which sheltered from
the storm. But anon, some rude hand broke the frail
barrier down, and in an hour the plants were frozen,
stiff and dead ; and the little garden was all filled with
snow and ice ; — a garden now no more !
How often do you see in a great city a man per
ish in his youth, bowed down by lusts of the body.
The graves of such stand thick along the highway
of our mortal hfe, — numberless, nameless, or all too
conspicuously marked. Other men we see early
bowed down by their ambition, and they live a life
far worse than merely sensual death — themselves the
ghasthest monuments, beacons of ruin ! And so, along
the highway that mankind treads, there are the open
XIII— 23

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
sepulchers of nations, which perished of their sin;
or else transformed to stone, the gloomy sphinxes
sit there by the wayside — a hard, dread, awful les
son to the nations that pass by. Let America,
" The heir of all the ages ! and the youngest born of time ! "
gather up every jewel which the prodigal scattered
from his hand, look down into his grave, and then
confront these gloomy, awful sphinxes, and learn what
lessons of guidance they have; or of warning, if it
al6ne is to be found! Ever the sphinx has a riddle
which we needs must learn, or else perish.
The greater part of a nation's life is not delight;
it is discipline. A famous political philosopher, who
has survived two revolutionary storms in France, has
just now written, " God has made the condition of
all men more severe than they are willing to believe.
He causes them at all times to purchase the success
of their labors and the progress of their destiny
at a dearer price than they had anticipated."
The merchant knows how difficult it is to acquire
a great estate; the scholar, youthful and impatient,
well understands that the way of science or of letters
is steep and hard to climb ; the farmer, knowing the
stern climate of New England, her niggard soil, rises
early and retires late, and is never off his guard.
These men ah thrive. But, alas ! the people of Amer
ica do not know on what severe conditions alone na
tional welfare is to be won. Human nature is yet
only a New England soil and climate for freedom to
grow in.
Nations may come to an end through the decay
of the family they belong to; and thus they may
die out of old age, — for there is an infancy, man-

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 339
hood, and old age to a nation as well as to a man.
Then the nation comes to a natural end, and like
a shock of corn fully ripe, in its season, it is gath
ered to its people. But I do not find that any State
has thus lived out its destiny, and died a natural
death. Again, States may perish by outward violence, mil
itary conquest, — for as the lion in the wilderness
eateth up the wild ass, so the strong nations devour
the weak. But this happened most often in ancient
times, when men and States were more rapacious even
than now.
Thirdly, States may perish through their own vice,
moral or political. Their national institutions may
be a defective machine which works badly, and fails
of producing national welfare of body or spirit. It
may not secure national unity of action — there be
ing no national gravitation of the great masses which
fly asunder; or it may fail of individual variety of
action — having no personal freedom ; excessive na
tional gravitation destroys individual cohesion, and
pulls the people flat; the men are slaves; they can
not reach the moral and spiritual welfare necessary
for a nation's continuous hfe. In both these cases
the vice is political; the machinery is defective, made
after false ideas. Or when the institutions are good
and capable of accommodating the nation's increase and
growth, the vice may be moral, lying deeper in the
character of the people. They may have a false and
unimprovable form of religion, which suits not the
nature of man or of God, and which consequently
produces a false system of morals, and so corrupts the
nation's heart. They may become selfish, gross, cow
ardly, atheistic, and so decay inwardly and perish.

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
If left all alone, such a people will rot down and
die of internal corruption. Mexico is in a perishing
condition to-day ; so is Spain ; so are some of the
young nations of South America, and some of the
old of Asia and Europe. Nothing can ever save Tur
key, — not all the arms of all the allied West; and
though Protestant and Catholic join hands, Christen
dom cannot propagate Mahometanism, nor keep it
from going down.
Leave these nations to their fate and they will
die. But commonly, they are not left to themselves;
other people rush in and conquer. The wild indi
vidual man is rapacious by instinct. The present
nations are rapacious also by calculation; they prey
on feeble States. The hooded crow of Europe
watches for the sickly sheep. In America the wolves
prowl round the herd of buffaloes and seize the sickly,
the wounded, and the old. And so there are scaven
gers of the nations, — filibusters, the flesh-flies and
carrion-vultures of the world, who have also their
function to perform. Wealth and power are never
left without occupants. Rome was corrupt, her
institutions bad, her religion worn out, her morals des
perate ; northern nations came upon her. " Whereso
ever the body is, thither the eagles will be gathered
together." In Europe there are nations in this state of decay,
from moral or political vice. All the Italo-Greek pop
ulations, most of the Celto-Roman, all the Celtic, all
the old Asiatic populations — the Hungarians and
Turks. The Teutonic and Slavic families alone seem
to prosper, full of vigorous, new life, capable of mak
ing new improvements, to suit the altered phases of
the world.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 341
In America there is only one family in a condition
of advance, of hardy health. Spanish America is
in a state of decay; she has a bad form of rehgion,
and bad morals ; her republics only " guarantee the
right of assassination ; " an empire is her freest state.
But in the north of North America the Anglo-Saxon
British colonies rapidly advance in material and spir
itual development, and one day doubtless they will
separate from the parent stem and become an inde-
dependent tree. The roots of England run under the
ocean; they come up in Africa, India, Australia,
America, in many an island of all the seas. Great
fresh, living trunks grow up therefrom. One day
these offshoots will become self-supporting, with new
and independent roots, and ere long will separate from
the parent stem; then there will be a great Anglo-
Saxon trunk in Australia, another in India, another
in Africa, another in the north of our own continent,
and yet others scattered over the manifold islands of
the sea, an Anglo-Saxon forest of civilization.
But in the center of the North American continent,
the same Anglo-Saxons have passed from their first
condition of scattered and dependent colonies, and
become a united and independent nation, five-and-
twenty millions strong. Our fellow-countrymen here
in America compose one-fortieth part of all the in
habitants of the globe. We are now making the
greatest political experiment which the sun ever looked
down upon.
First, we are seeking to found a State on industry,
and not war. All the prizes of America are rewards
of toil, not fighting. We are ruled by the constable,
not by the soldier. It is only in exceptional cases,
when the liberal institutions of America are to be

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
trodden under foot, that the constable disappears,
and the red arm of the soldier clutches at the people's
throat. That is the first part of our scheme — we are
aiming to found an industrial State.
Next, the national theory of the government is a
democracy — the government of all, by all, for all.
Ah officers depend on election, none are foreordained.
There are to be no special privileges, only natural,
universal rights.
It would be a fair spectacle, — a great industrial
commonwealth, spread over half the continent, and
folding in its bosom one-fortieth of God's whole fam
ily! It is a lovely dream; not Athenian Plato, nor
English Thomas More, nor Bacon, nor Harrington,
ever dared to write on paper so fair an ideal as our
fathers and we have essayed to put into men. I once
thought this dream of America would one day be
come a blessed fact! We have many elements of na
tional success. Our territory for quantity and quality
is all we could ask ; our origin is of the Caucasian's
best. No nation had ever so fair a beginning as
we. The Anglo-Saxon is a good hardy stock
for national welfare to grow on. To my American
eye, it seems that human nature had never anything
so good for popular liberty to be grafted into. We
are already strong, and fear nothing from any foreign
power. The violent cannot take us by force. No
nation is our enemy.
But the question now comes, Is America to live or
to die? If we live, what life shall it be? Shah we
fall into the sepulcher of departed States — a new de
bauchee of the nations? Shall we live petrified to
stone, a despotism many-headed, sitting — another
sphinx — by the wayside of history, to scare young

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 343
nations in their march and impede their progress? Or
shall we pursue the journey — a great, noble-hearted
commonwealth, a nation possessing the continent, full
of riches, fuh of justice, full of wisdom, full of piety,
and full of peace? It depends on ourselves. It is
for America, for this generation of Americans, to say
which of the three shall happen. No fate holds us up.
Our character is our destiny.
I am not a timid man ; I am no excessive praiser of
times passed by; I seldom take counsel of my fears,
often of my hopes ; — but now I must say that since
'76 our success was never so doubtful as at this time.
England is in peril; the despots on the Continent hate
her free Parliament, which makes laws for the people
— just laws; they hate her free speech, which tells
every grievance at home or abroad; they hate her
free soil, which offers a home to every exile, republican
or despotic. England is in peril, for every tyrant
hates her. Russia is in danger, for the two strongest
powers of Christendom have just clasped hands, and
sworn an oath to fight against that great marauding
empire of the East. Their armies threaten her cities ;
her sovereign deserts his capital; her treasure is car
ried a thousand miles inward ; the western fleets block
ade her ports and sweep her navies from the sea. But
Russia has no peril like ours ; England has no danger
so great as that which threatens us this day. In the
darkest periods of the American Revolution, when
Washington's army, without blankets, without coats,
without shoes, fled through the Jerseys, when they
marked the ice of the Delaware, and left revolutionary
tracks in frozen blood, we were not in such peril as
to-day. When General Gage had the throat of Bos
ton in his hand, and perfidiously disarmed the people,

344 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
we were not in such danger. Yea, when four hun
dred houses in yonder town went up in one great
cloud of smoke towards heaven, the liberties of Amer
ica were not in such peril as they are to-day. Then
we were called to fight with swords — and when that
work was to be done, was America ever found wanting?
Then our adversary was the other side of the sea, and
wicked statutes were enacted against us in Westmin
ster Hall. Now our enemy is at home; and some
thing far costlier than swords is to be called into
service. Look at some of these dangers. I shah pass by all
that are trifling. I find four great perils. Here
they are: —
I. There comes the danger from our exclusive de
votion to riches.
II. The danger from the Roman Catholic Church,
established in the midst of us.
III. The danger from the idea that there is no
higher law above the statutes which men make.
IV. The danger from the institution of slavery,
which is based on that atheistic idea last named.
I. Of the danger which comes from our exclu
sive DEVOTION TO RICHES.
Power is never left without a possessor : when it fell
from the theocratic and military classes, from the
priest, the noble, and the king, it passed to the hands of
the capitalists. In America, ecclesiastical office is not
power; noble or royal birth is of small value. If
Madison or Jefferson had left any sons but mulattoes,
their distinguished birth would avail them nothing.
The son of Patrick Henry lived a strolling school-

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 345
master, and a pauper's funeral was asked for his
body. Money is power; the only permanent and
transmissible power ; it goes by device. Money " can
ennoble sots and slaves and cowards."
It gives rank in the Church. The millionaire is
always a saint. The priests of commerce will think
twice before damning a man who enhances their sal
ary and gives them dinners. In one thing the Amer
ican heaven resembles the New Jerusalem : — its
pavement is " of fine gold." The capitalist has the
chief seat in our Christian synagogue. It is a rare
minister who dares assail a vice which has riches on its
side. Is there a clergyman at the South who speaks
against the profitable wickedness which chains three
million American men? How few at the North!
European gentility is ancient power ; American is new
money hot from the stamping.
In society, money is genteel; it is always respecta
ble. The high places of society do not belong to
ecclesiastical men, as in Rome; to military men, as
in St. Petersburg; to men of famous family, as in
England and Spain; to men of science and literature,
men of genius, as in Berlin ; but to rich men.
Money gives distinction in literature, so far as the
literary class can control the public judgment. The
colleges revere a rich man's son; they name profes
sorships after such as endow them with money, not
mind. Critics respect a rich man's book; if he has
not brains, he has brass, which is better. The cap
itahst is admitted a member of the Academies of Arts
and Sciences, of collegiate societies ; if he cannot write
dissertations, he can give suppers, and there must be
a material basis for science. At anniversaries, he re
ceives the honorary degree. " 'Tis easier to weigh

346 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
purses, sure, than brains." A dull scholar is expelled
from college for idleness, and twenty years later returns
to New England with half a million of money, and
gets his degree. As he puzzles at the Latin diploma,
he asks, " If I had come home poor, I wonder how
long it would have taken the ' Alma Mater ' to find
out that I was ever a ' good scholar,' and now ' merited
an honorary degree ' — facts which I never knew be
fore!" In politics, money has more influence here than in
Turkey, Austria, Russia, England, or Spain. For
in our politics the interest of property is preferred
before all others. National legislation almost invaria
bly favors capital, and not the laboring hand. The
Federalists feared that riches would not be safe in
America — the many would plunder the wealthy few.
It was a groundless fear. In an industrial common
wealth, property is sure of popular protection.
Where all own hayricks no one scatters firebrands.
Nowhere in the world is property so secure or so
much respected; for it rests on a more natural basis
than elsewhere. Nowhere is wealth so powerful, in
Church, society, and State. In Kentucky and else
where, it can take the murderer's neck out of the hal
ter. It can make the f oohsh " wise ; " the dull man
" eloquent ; " the mean man " honorable, one of our
most prominent citizens ; " the heretic " sound ortho
dox ; " the ugly " fair ; " the old man a " desirable
young bridegroom." Nay, vice itself becomes virtue,
and man-stealing is Christianity!
Here, nothing but the voter's naked ballot holds
money in check : there are no great families with their
historic tradition, as in all Europe ; no bodies of liter
ary or scientific men to oppose their genius to mere

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 347
material gold. The Church is no barrier, only its serv
ant, for when the minister depends on the wealth of
his parish for support, you know the common con
sequence. Lying rides on obligation's back. The
minister respects the hand that feeds him: "the ox
knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib."
Yet now and then a minister looks starvation in the
face, and continues his unpopular service of God.
No political institutions check the authority of wealth ;
it can bribe and buy the venal ; the brave it sometimes
can intimidate and starve. Money can often carry
a bill through the legislature — State or national.
The majority is hardly strong enough to check this
pecuniary sway.
In the " most democratic " States, gold is most
powerful. Thus, in fifteen States of America, three
hundred thousand proprietors own thirteen hundred
milhons of money invested in men. In virtue thereof
they control the legislation of their own States, making
their institutions despotic, and not republican ; they
keep the poor white man from political power, from
comfort, from the natural means of education and
religion; they destroy his self-respect, and leave him
nothing but his body; from the poorest of the poor,
they take away his body itself. Next they control
the legislation of America; they make the President,
they appoint the Supreme Court, they control the
Senate, the Representatives ; they determine the do
mestic and foreign policy of the nation. Finally,
they affect the laws of all the other sixteen States —
the Southern hand coloring the local institutions of
New Haven and Boston.
That is only one example — one of many. Russia
is governed by a long-descended czar; England by a

348 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
queen, nobles, and gentry, — men of ancient family,
with culture and riches. America is ruled by a troop
of men with nothing but new money and what it brings
— three hundred thousand slaveholders and their
servants, North and South. Boston is under their
thumb; at their command the mayor spits in the face
of Massachusetts law, and plants a thousand bayonets
at the people's throat. They make ball-cartridges
under the eaves of Faneuil Hall.
Accordingly, money is the great object of desire
and pursuit. There are material reasons why this is
so in many lands : — in America there are also social,
political, and ecclesiastical reasons for it. " To be
rich is to be blessed : poverty is damnation : " that is
the popular creed.
The public looks superficially at the immediate ef
fect of this opinion, at this exceeding and exclusive
desire for riches ; they see its effect on Israel and John
Jacob, on Stephen, Peter, and Robert: it makes them
rich, and their children respectable and famous. Few
ask, What effect will this have on the nation? They
foresee not the future evil it threatens. Nay, they
do not consider how it debauches the institutions of
America — ecclesiastical, academic, social, political;
how it corrupts the hearts of the people, making them
prize money as the end of life, and manhood as only
the means thereto, making money master, and human
nature its tool or servant, but no more.
The political effect of this unnatural esteem for
riches is not at all well understood. History but
too plainly tells of the dangerous power of priests or
nobles consolidated into a class, and their united forces
directed by a single able head. The power of ahied
kings, concentrating whole realms of men and money

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 349
on a single point; the effect of armies and navies col
lected together and marshaled by a single will; is ah
too boldly written in the ruin of many a State. We
have often been warned against the peril from forts,
and castles, and standing armies. But the power of
consolidated riches, the peril which accumulated prop
erty may bring upon the liberties of an industrial
commonwealth, though formidably near, as yet is all
unknown, all unconsidered too. Already the consol
idated property of one-eightieth part of the popula
tion controls ah the rest.
Two special causes, both exceptional and fleeting,
just now stimulate the acquisitiveness of America al
most to madness.
One is the rapid development of the art of manu
facturing the raw materials gathered from the bosom
or the surface of the earth. The invention of printing
made education and freedom possible on a large scale ;
one of the immediate results thereof is this — the head
briefly performs the else long-protracted labor of the
hand. Wind, water, fire, steam, lightning, have be
come pliant forces to manufacture wood, flax, cotton,
wool, and all the metals. This result is nowhere so
noticeable as in New England, where education is al
most universal. The New England school-house is
the machine-shop of America. What the State in
vests in slates and teachers pays dividends in hard
coin. This new power over the material world, the
first and unexpected commercial result of the public
education of the people, gives a great and perhaps
lasting stimulus to the pursuit of wealth. It affects the
most undisciplined portions of the world, — for the edu
cated man leaves much rough labor for the ignorant,
and enhances the demand for the results of their toil.

350 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
The thinking head raises the wages of all mere hands..
Hence arises the increased value of slaves at the South,
and the rapid immigration of the most ignorant Irish
men to the North. They are to the thoughtful pro
jector what the Merrimac is to the cotton-spinner —
a rude force pliant before his will. Dr. Faustus is
the unconscious pioneer of many a pilgrimage.
The other cause is the discovery of gold in Cali
fornia and then in Austraha. This doubles or trebles
the pecuniary momentum of America. Its stimula
ting influence on our covetousness, accumulation, and
luxury, is obvious. What further and ultimate ef
fects it wih produce I shall not now pause to inquire.
When a whirlwind rises, all men can see that dust is
mounting to the sky.
Besides, the form of American industry is changed.
Once New England and all the North were chiefly
agricultural; manufactures and commerce were con
ducted on a small scale ; and therein each man wrought
on his own account. There was a great deal of in
dividual activity, individuality of character. Few
men worked for wages. Now New England is mainly
manufacturing and commercial, Vermont is the only
farming State. Mechanics, men and women, work
for wages; many in the employment of a single man;
thousands in the pay of one company, organized by
superior ability. The workman loses his independ
ence, and is not only paid but governed also by his
employer's money. His opinions and character are
formed after the prescribed pattern, by the mill he
works in. The old military organizations for de
fense or aggression brought freedom of body dis
tinctly in peril: the new industrial organizations jeop
ardize spiritual individuality, all freedom of mind and

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 351
conscience. New England is a monumental proof
thereof.
Another change also follows: the military habits of
the North are all gone. Once New England had
more firelocks than householders ; every man was a sol
dier and a marksman. Now the people have lost their
taste for military discipline, and neither keep nor bear
arms. Of course a few holiday soldiers, called out by
a doctor, and commanded by an apothecary, can over
awe the town.
The Northern, and especiahy the Eastern and Mid
dle States, are the great center of this industrial de
velopment. Here, and especially in New England
the desire for riches has become so powerful that a
very large proportion of our men of the greatest
practical intellect have almost exclusively turned their
attention to purely productive business, to commerce
and manufactures. They rarely engage in the work
of politics — unprofitable and distasteful to the in
dividual, and, at first sight, merely preservative and
defensive to the community. This they shun or
neglect, as the mass of men avoid military discipline.
The statutes must be made and administered by poli
ticians. Here they are not able men. Of the forty-
one New England delegates in Congress, of the six
governors, of the many other professional leaders in
pohtics, how many first-rate men are there? how many
middle-sized second-rate men? The control of the
national affairs passes out of the fingers of the North
— which has yet three-fifths of the population, and
more than four-fifths of the speculative and practical
intelhgence and material wealth. The nation is con
trolled by the South, whose ablest men almost exclu
sively attend to politics. Besides, the State politics

352 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
of the North fall into the hands of men quite inade
quate to such a weighty trust. This mistake is as
fatal as it would be in time of war to send all the able-
bodied men to the plough, and the women and children
to the camp. We are mismanaged at home, and dis
honorably routed in the Federal capital. In the pres
ent state of the world I think no nation would be
justified in turning non-resistant, tearing down its
forts, disbanding its armies, melting up its guns and
swords; and I am sure the North suffers sadly from
devoting so large a part of its masterly, practical men
to the productive work of commerce and manufactures.
Her politicians are not strong enough for her own de
fense. In American politics the great battle of ideas
and principles, yea, of measures, is to be fought.
Shah we keep our Washingtons surveying land?
The national effect of this estimate and accumula
tion of riches is to produce a great and rapid develop
ment of the practical understanding; a great love for
vulgar finery which pleases the palate or the eye ; great
luxury of dress, ornament, furniture. You see this
in the hotels and public carriages on land and sea, in
the costume of the nation, at pubhc and private tables.
Along with this there comes a certain refinement of the
public taste.
But there is no proportionate culture of the higher
intellectual faculties — of the reason and imagination ;
still less of yet nobler powers — moral, affectional,
and religious. From the common school to the col
lege, the chief things taught are arithmetic and elocu
tion ; not the art to reason and create, but the trade to
calculate and express. Everything is measured by
the money standard. " The protection of property
is the great object of government." The politician

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 353
must suit the pecuniary interest of his constituency,
though at the cost of justice; the writer, author, or
editor, the pecuniary interest of his readers, though
at the sacrifice of truth; the minister, the pecuniary
interest of his audience, though piety and morality
both come to the ground. Mammon is a profitable
god to worship — he gives dinners.
I think it must be confessed in the last eighty years
the general moral and religious tone of the people in
the free States has improved. This change comes
from the natural forward tendency of mankind, the
instinct of development quickened by our free institu
tions. But, at the same time, it is quite plain to me
that the moral and religious tone of American politi
cians, writers, and preachers, has proportionately and
absolutely gone down. You see this in the great
towns : if Boston were once the " Athens of America,"
she is now only the " Corinth." Athens has retreated
to some inland Salamis.
But, in general, this peril from the excessive pursuit
of riches comes unavoidably from our position in time
and space, and our consequent political institutions.
It belongs to the period of transition from the old
form of vicarious rule by theocratic, military, and
aristocratic governments, to the personal administra
tion of an industrial commonwealth. I do not much
fear this peril, nor apprehend lasting evil from it.
One of the great things which mankind now most needs
is power over the material world as the basis for the
higher development of our spiritual faculties. Wealth
is indispensable; it is the material pulp around the
spiritual seed. No nation was ever too rich, too well
fed, clad, housed, and comforted. The human race
still suffers from poverty, the great obstacle to our
XIII— 22

354 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
progress. Doubtless we shall make many errors in
our national attempt to organize the productive forces
into an industrial State, as our fathers — thousands of'
years ago — in organizing their destructive powers
into a military state. Once, man cut his fingers with
iron; he now poisons them with gold. All Christen
dom shares this peril, though America feels it most.
She is now like a thriving man who gets rich fast, and
thinks more than he ought of his money, and less of
his manhood. Some misfortune, the ruin of a prodi
gal son perishing in quicksands of gold, will, by and
by, convince him that riches is not the only thing in
life. II. Or THE DANGER WHICH COMES FROM THE ROMAN
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
The Roman Catholic Church claims infallibility for
itself, and denies spiritual freedom, liberty of mind
or conscience, to its members. It is therefore the foe
to all progress ; it is deadly hostile to democracy. To
mankind this is its first command — Submit to an ex
ternal authority; subordinate your human nature to
an element foreign and abhorrent thereto ! It aims
at absolute domination over the body and the spirit of
man. The Catholic Church can never escape from the
consequences of her first principle. She is the nat
ural ally of tyrants, and the irreconcilable enemy of
freedom. Individual Catholics in America, as else
where, are inconsistent, and favor the progress of
mankind. Alas! such are exceptional; the Cathohc
Church has an iron logic, and consistently hates hb
erty in all its forms — free thought, free speech.
I quote the words of her own authors in America,
recently uttered by the press. "Protestantism

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 355
has not and never can have any rights where
Catholicity is triumphant." " We lose all the breath
we expend in declaiming against bigotry and intol
erance, and in favor of religious liberty." " Religious
liberty [in America] is merely endured until the op-
posite can be carried into execution without peril to
the Cathohc world." " Catholicity will one day rule
in America, and then religious liberty is at an end."
" The very name of Liberty . . . ought to be
banished from the very domain of religion." " No
man has a right to choose his rehgion." " Catholicism
is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance it
self, for it is the truth itself." *
The Catholic population is not great in numbers.
In 1853, there were in America 1,712 churches, 1,574
priests, 396 theological students, 32 bishops, 7 arch
bishops, church-property worth about $10,000,000,
and 1,728,000 Catholics. But most of them are of
the Celtic stock, which has never much favored Prot
estantism or individual liberty in religion ; and in this
respect is widely distinguished from the Teutonic pop
ulation, who have the strongest ethnological instinct for
personal freedom.
Besides, the Catholics are governed with absolute
rigor by their clergy, who are celibate priests, a social
caste by themselves, not sympathizing with mankind,
but emasculated of the natural humanities of our race.
There are exceptional men amongst them, but such
seems to be the rule with the class of Catholic priests
in America. They are united into one compact body,
* The above, and many more similar declarations, may be
found in a little pamphlet — " Familiar Letters to John B.
Fitzpatrick, the Catholic Bishop of Boston, by an Independent
Irishman." Boston, 1854.

356 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
with complete corporate unity of action, and ruled
despotically by their bishops, archbishops, and pope.
The Catholic worshiper is not to think, but to believe
and obey ; the priest not to reason and consider, but
to proclaim and command; the voter is not to inquire
and examine, but to deposit his ballot as the ecclesias
tical authority directs. The better rehgious orders
do not visit America; the Jesuits, the most subtle
enemies of humanity, come in abundance ; some are
known, others stealthily prowl about the land, all the
more dangerous for their disguise. They all act under
the direction of a single head. One shrewd Protestant
minister may be equal to one Jesuit, but no ten or forty
Protestant ministers is a match for a combination of ten
Jesuits, bred to the business of deception, knowing no
allegiance to truth or justice, consciously disregarding
the higher law of God, with the notorious maxim that
" the end justifies the means," bound to their order by
the most stringent oath, and devoted to the worst pur
poses of the Catholic Church.
All these priests owe allegiance to a foreign head.
It is not an American Church; it is Roman, not free,
individual, but despotic ; nay, in its designs not so
much human as merely papal.
The Catholic Church opposes everything which fa
vors democracy and the natural rights of man. It
hates our free churches, free press, and, above all, our
free schools. No owl more shuns the light. It hates
the mle of majorities, the voice of the people; it loves
violence, force, and blood.
The Catholic clergy are on the side of slavery.
They find it is the dominant power, and pay court
thereto that they may rise by its help. They love
slavery itself ; it is an institution thoroughly congenial

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 357
to them, consistent with the first principles of their
Church. Their Jesuit leaders think it is " an ulcer
which will eat up the Republic," and so stimulate and
foster it for the ruin of democracy, the deadliest foe
of the Roman hierarchy.
Besides, most of the Catholics are the victims of op
pression, — poor, illiterate, oppressed, and often
vicious. Their circumstances have ground the hu
manity out of them. No sect furnishes half so many
criminals — victims of society before they become its
foes; no sect has so little philanthropy; none is so
greedy to oppress. All this is natural. The lower
you go down the coarser and more cruel do you find
the human being.
I am told there is not in all America a single Cath
olic newspaper hostile to slavery; not one opposed to
tyranny in general; not one that takes sides with the
oppressed in Europe. There is not in America a man
born and bred in the Cathohc Church, who is eminent
for philosophy, science, hterature, or art; none dis
tinguished for philanthropy ! The water tastes of the
fountain. Catholic votes are in the market; the bishops can
dispose of them — politicians will make their bid.
Shall it be the sacrifice of the free schools? of other
noble institutions? In some States it seems not un
likely. •
I do not think our leading men see all this danger.
But the baneful influence of the Church of the dark
ages begins to show itself in the press, in the schools,
and still more in the politics of America. Yet I am
glad the Catholics come here. Let America be an
asylum for the poor and the downtrodden of all lands ;
let the Irish ships, reeking with misery, land their hu-

358 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
man burdens in our harbors. The continent is wide
enough for all. I rejoice that in America there is no
national form of religion ; — let the Jew, the Chinese
Buddhist, the savage Indian, the Mormon, the Prot
estant, and the Catholic have free opportunity to be
faithful each to his own conscience. Let the American
Cathohc have his bishops, his archbishops, and his
pope, his Jesuits, his convents, his nunneries, his celi
bate priesthood of hard drinkers, if he wih. Let him
oppose the public education of the people ; oppose the
press, the meeting-house, and the ballot-box ; nay, op
pose temperance and religion, if he likes. If, with
truth and justice on our side, the few Catholics can
overcome the many Protestants, we deserve defeat.
We should be false to the first principles of democratic
theory, if we did not grant them their inalienable
rights. Let there be no tyranny ; let us pay the Cath
olics good for ill; and cast out Satan by the finger
of God, not by the Prince of Devils. This peril is
easily mastered. The Catholic Church has still many
lessons to offer the Protestants.
III. Of the danger from the idea that there
IS no higher law above the statutes of men.
Of late years, it has been industriously taught in
America that there is no law of nature superior to the
statutes which men enact; that politics are not amen
able to conscience or to God. Accordingly, the Amer
ican Congress knows no check in legislation but the
Constitution of the United States and the will of the
majority ; none in the Constitution of the Universe and
the will of God. The atheistic idea of the Jesuits,
that the end justifies the means, is made the first prin
ciple in American politics. Hence it has been repeat-

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 359
edly declared by " prominent clergymen " that poli
tics should not be treated of in the pulpit ; they are
not amenable to religion; Christianity has nothing to
do with making or administering the laws. When
the Pharisees and Sadducees have silenced the prophet
and the apostle, it is not difficult to make men believe
that Machiavehi is a great saint, and Jesuitism the
revealed religion of politics ! Let the legislators make
what wicked laws they will against the rights of man ;
the priest of commerce is to say nothing. Nay, the
legislators themselves are never to refer to justice and
the eternal right, only to the expediency of the hour.
Then when the statute is made, the magistrate is not
to ask if it be just, he is only to execute it; the peo
ple are to obey and help enforce the wicked enactment,
never asking if it be right. The highest virtue in the
people is — " unquestioning submission to the Consti
tution ; " or, when the statute violates their conscience,
to do " a disagreeable duty ! " Thus the political ac
tion of the people is exempted from the jurisdiction
of God and His natural moral law ! " Christianity
has nothing to do with politics ! "
Within a few years this doctrine has been taught
in a great variety of forms. At first it came in with
evil laws, simply as the occasional support of a meas
ure ; at length it is announced as a principle. It has
taken a deep hold on the educated classes of the com
munity ; for our " superior education " is almost
whohy of the intehect, and of only its humbler pow
ers. It appears among the lawyers, the politicians,
the editors, and the ministers. Some deny the natural
distinction between right and wrong. " Justice," is a
matter of convention ; things are not " true," but
" agreed upon ; " not " right," only " assented to."

360 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
There is no " moral obligation." Government rests
on a compact, having its ultimate foundation on the
caprice of men, not in their moral nature. What are
called natural rights are only certain conveniences
agreed upon amongst men ; legal fictions — their rec
ognition is their essence, they are the creatures of a
compact. Property has no foundation in the nature
of things; it may consist of whatever the legislature
determines — land, cattle, food, clothing ; or of men,
women, and children. Dives may own Lazarus as well
as the dogs who serve him at the gate. There is no
political morality, only political economy.
This conclusion arises from the philosophy of
Hobbes and Filmer; yes, from the first principles of
Locke and Rousseau. It is one of the worst results
of materialism and practical atheism. It takes dif
ferent forms in different nations. In a monarchy it
has for its axiom, " The king can do no wrong ; he is
the norm of law — Vox Regis vox Dei." In a de
mocracy, "The majority can do no wrong; they are
the norm of law — Vox Populi vox Dei." So the
statute becomes an idol; loyalty takes the place of
religion, and despotism becomes enthroned on the necks
of the people.
It is not surprising that this doctrine should be
taught from the pulpit in Catholic countries — it is
conformable to the general conduct of the Roman
Church. It belongs also with the sensational phi
losophy which has yet done so much to break to pieces
the theology of the dark ages ; — and does not aston
ish one in the sects which build thereon. But at first
sight it seems amazing that American Christians of
the puritanic stock, with a philosophy that transcends
sensationalism, should prove false to the only principle

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 361
which at once justifies the conduct of Jesus, of Lu
ther, and the Puritans themselves. For certainly if
obedience to the established law be the highest virtue,
then the patriots and Pilgrims of New England, the
reformers of the Church, the glorious company of the
apostles, the goodly fehowship of the prophets, and
the noble army of martyrs, — nay, Jesus himself, —
were only criminals and traitors. To appreciate this
denial of the first principle of all religion, it would
be necessary to go deep into the theology of Chris
tendom, and touch the fatal error of ah the three
parties just referred to. For that there is now no
time. One of the consequences of this atheistic denial of
the natural foundation of human laws is the prepon
derance of parties. An opinion before it becomes a
law, while it is yet a tendency, becomes organized into
a faction, or party. Members of the party feel the
same loyalty thereto which narrow patriots feel for
their nation, or bigots for their sect; they give up
their mind and conscience to their party. S01 fidelity
to their party, right or wrong, is deemed a great po
litical virtue; the individual member is bound by the
party opinion. Thus is the private conscience stih
further debauched by the second act in this atheistic
popular tragedy.
Thus both national and party politics are taken out
of the jurisdiction of morals, declared not amenable
to conscience : in other words, are left to the control of
political Jesuits. An American may read the natural
result of such principles in the downfall of the Grecian
and Italian Repubhcs, or wait to behold it in his own
land.

362 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
IV. Of the dangers from the institution of
slavery which rests on this false idea.
Slavery is the child of violence and atheism. Brute
material force is its father : the atheistic idea that there
is no law of God above the passions of men — that is
the mother of it. I have lately spoken so long, so
often, and with such publicity, both of speech and
print, respecting the extent of slavery in America, and
its constant advance since 1788, that I shall pass over
ah that theme, and speak more directly of the present
danger it brings upon our freedom.
There can be no national welfare without national
unity of action. That cannot take place unless there
is national unity of idea in fundamentals. Without
this a nation is a " house divided against itself ; " of
course it cannot stand. It is what mechanics call a
figure without equihbrium; the different parts thereof
do not balance.
Now, in the American State there are two distinct
ideas — freedom and slavery.
The idea of freedom first got a national expression
seventy-eight years ago next Tuesday. Here it is.
I put it in a philosophic form. There are five points
to it.
First. All men are endowed by their Creator with
certain natural rights, amongst which is the right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Second. These rights are inalienable; they can be
alienated and forfeited only by the possessor thereof;
the father cannot alienate them for the son, nor the
son for the father ; nor the husband for the wife, nor
the wife for the husband; nor the strong for the
weak, nor the weak for the strong; nor the few for
the many, nor the many for the few ; and so on.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 363
Third. In respect to these all men are equal; the
rich man has not more, and the poor less; the strong
man has not more, and the weak man less : — all are
exactly equal in these rights, however unequal in their
powers. Fourth. It is the function of government to secure
these natural, inahenable, and equal rights to> every
man. Fifth. Government derives all its divine right from
its conformity with these ideas, all its human sanction
from the consent of the governed. _
That is the idea of freedom. I used to call it " the
American idea ; " it was when I was younger than I
am to-day. It is derived from human nature ; it rests
on the immutable laws of God; it is part of the nat
ural rehgion of mankind. It demands a government
after natural justice, which is the point common be
tween the conscience of God and the conscience of
mankind, the point common also between the interests
of one man and of all men.
Now this government, just in its substance, in its
form must be democratic : that is to say, the govern
ment of ah, by all, and for ah. You see what con
sequences must follow from such an idea, and the
attempt to re-enact the law of God into political insti
tutions. There will follow the freedom of the people,
respect for every natural right of all men, the rights
of their body, and of their spirit — the rights of mind
and conscience, heart and soul. There must be some
restraint — as of children by their parents, as of bad
men by good men ; but it will be restraint for the joint
good of all parties concerned; not restraint for the
exclusive benefit of the restrainer. The ultimate con
sequence of this will be the material and spiritual wel-

364 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
fare of ah — riches, comfort, noble manhood, all de
sirable things.
That is the idea of freedom. It appears in the
Declaration of Independence; it reappears in the Pre
amble to the American Constitution, which aims " to
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide
for the common defense, promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty." That is a re
ligious idea ; and when men pray for the " reign of
justice" and the "kingdom of heaven," to come on
earth politically, I suppose they mean that there may
be a commonwealth where every man has his natural
rights of mind, body, and estate.
Next is the idea of slavery. Here it is. I put it
also in a philosophic form. There are three points
which I make.
First. There are no natural, inalienable, and equal
rights, wherewith men are endowed by their Creator;
no natural, inalienable, and equal right to hfe, hberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.
Second. There is a great diversity of powers, and
in virtue thereof the strong man may rule and op
press, enslave and ruin the weak, for his interest and
against theirs.
Third. There is no natural law of God to forbid the
strong to oppress the weak, and enslave and ruin the
weak. That is the idea of slavery. It has never got a na
tional expression in America; it has never been laid
down as a principle in any act of the American people,
nor in any single State, so far as I know. All profess
the opposite ; but it is involved in the measures of both
State and nation. This idea is founded in the selfish
ness of man; it is atheistic.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 365
The idea must lead to a corresponding government ;
that will be unjust in its substance — for it will depend
not on natural right, but on personal force ; not on the
constitution of the universe, but on the compact of
men. It is the abnegation of God in the universe and
of conscience in man. Its form will be despotism —
the government of all by a part, for the sake of a
part. It may be a single-headed despotism, or a des
potism of many heads; but whether a Cyclops or a
Hydra, it is ahke " the abomination which maketh
desolate." Its ultimate consequence is plain to fore
see — poverty to a nation, misery, ruin.
At first slavery came as a measure; nothing was
said about it as a principle. But in a country full of
schoolmasters, legislatures, newspapers, talking men - —
a measure without a principle to bear it up is like a
single twig of willow cast out on a wooden floor ; there
is nothing for it to grow by; it will die. So of late
the principle has been boldly avowed. Mr. Calhoun
denied the self-evident truths of the Declaration of
Independence; denied the natural, inalienable, and
equal rights of man. Many since have done the same —
political, literary, and mercantile men, and, of course,
ecclesiastical men ; there are enough of them always in
the market. All parts of the idea of slavery have been
affirmed by prominent men at the North and the South.
It has been acted on in the, formation of the constitu
tion of every slave State, and in the passage of many
of its laws. It hes at the basis of a great deal of na
tional legislation.
Hear the opinions of some of our Southern patriots :
" Slavery is coeval with society : " " It was com
mended by God's chosen theocracy, and sanctioned by
His apostles in the Christian Church." All ancient

366 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
literature is " the literature of slaveholders ; " " Rome
and Greece owed their hterary and national greatness
exclusively to the institution of slavery ; " " Slavery
is as necessary for the welfare of the Southern States
as sunshine is for the flowers of the prairies ; " "A
noble and necessary institution of God's creation." *
" Nature is the mother and protector of slavery ; "
" Domestic slavery is not only natural and necessary,
but a great blessing." " Free society is a sad and
signal failure ; " " It does weh enough in a new coun
try." " Free society has become diseased by abolish
ing slavery. It can only be restored to pristine health,
happiness, and prosperity by re-instituting slavery."
" Slavery may be administered under a new name."
" Free society is a monstrosity. Like all monsters it
will be short-lived. We dare and do vindicate slavery
in the abstract." The negro " needs a master to pro
tect and govern him ; so do- the ignorant poor in old
countries." ¦f
" There is no moral wrong in slavery ; " it " is the
normal condition of human society." " The benefits
and advantages which so far have resulted from this
institution we take as lights to guide us to the brighter
truths of its future history." " We belong to that
society of which slavery is the distinguishing element,
and we are not ashamed of it. We find it marked by
every evidence of Divine approval." J
These two ideas are now fairly on foot. They are
hostile ; they are both mutually invasive and destruc
tive. They are in exact opposition to each other, and
the nation which embodies these two is not a figure
* Richmond Examiner for June 30, 1854.
f Richmond Examiner, June 23, 1854.
^Charleston Standard (S.C.), June 21, 1854.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 367
of equilibrium. As both are active forces in the minds
of men, and as each idea tends to become a fact — a
universal and exclusive fact — as men with these ideas
organize into parties as a means to make their idea
into a fact, it follows that there must not only be
strife amongst philosophical men about these antag
onistic principles and ideas, but a strife of practical
men about corresponding facts and measures. So the
quarrel, if not otherwise ended, will pass from words
to what seems more serious ; and one will overcome the
other. So long as these two ideas exist in the nation as
two political forces there is no national unity of idea,
of course, no unity of action. For there is no center
of gravity common to freedom and slavery. They
will not compose an equilibrious figure. You may cry,
" Peace ! peace ! " but so long as these two antagonistic
ideas remain, each seeking to organize itself and get
exclusive power, there is no peace ; there can be none.
The question before the nation to-day is, Which
shall prevail — the idea and fact of freedom, or the
idea and the fact of slavery; freedom, exclusive and
universal, or slavery, exclusive and universal? The
question is not merely, Shall the African be bond or
free? but, Shall America be a democracy or a despo
tism? For nothing is so remorseless as an idea, and no
logic is so strong as the historical development of a na
tional idea by millions of men. A measure is nothing
without its principle. The idea which allows slavery in
South Carolina will establish it also in New England.
The bondage of a black man in Alexandria imperils
every white woman's daughter in Boston. You can
not escape the consequences of a first principle more
than you can " take the leap of Niagara and stop

368 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
when half-way down." The principle which recog
nises slavery in the Constitution of the United States
would make all America a despotism ; while the princi
ple which made John Quincy Adams a free man would
extirpate slavery from Louisiana and Texas. It is
plain America cannot long hold these two contradic
tions in the national consciousness. Equilibrium must
come. Now there are three possible ways of settling the
quarrel between these two ideas ; only three. The cate
gories are exhaustive.
This is the first: The discord may rend the nation
asunder and the two elements separate and become dis
tinct nations — a despotism with the idea of slavery,
a democracy with the idea of freedom. Then each
will be an equilibrious figure. The Anglo-Saxon des
potism may go to ruin on its own account, while the
Anglo-Saxon democracy marches on to national wel
fare. That is the first hypothesis.
Or, second: The idea of freedom may destroy slav
ery, with all its accidents — attendant and consequent.
Then the nation may have unity of idea, and so a
unity of action, and become a harmonious whole, a
unit of freedom, a great industrial democracy, re-
enacting the laws of God, and pursuing its way, con
tinually attaining greater degrees of freedom and pros
perity. That is the second hypothesis.
Here is the third : The idea of slavery may destroy
freedom, with all its accidents — attendant and conse
quent. Then the nation will become an integer; only
it will be a unit of despotism. This involves, of
course, the destructive revolution of all our liberal in
stitutions, State as well as national. Democracy must
go down ; the free press go down ; the free church go

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 369
down ; the free school go down. There must be an in
dustrial despotism, which will soon become a military
despotism. Popular legislation must end; the Fed
eral Congress will be a club of officials, like Nero's Sen
ate, which voted his horse first consul. The State leg
islature will be a knot of commissioners, tide-waiters,
postmasters, district attorneys, deputy-marshals. The
town-meeting will be a gang of government officers,
like the " Marshal's Guard," revolvers in their pock
ets, soldiers at their back. The habeas corpus will
be at an end; trial by jury never heard of, and open
courts as common in America as in Spain or Rome.
Commissioners Curtis, Loring, and Kane will not be
exceptional men; there will be no other " judges; " all
courts, courts of the kidnapper ; all process summary ;
ah cases decided by the will of the government ; arbi
trary force the only rule. The constable will disap
pear, the soldier come forth. All newspapers will be
hke the " Satanic press " of Boston and New York,
like the journal of St. Petersburg, or the Diario Ro
mano, which tell lies when the ruler commands, or tell
truth when he insists upon it. Then the wicked will
walk on every side, for the vilest of men will be exalted,
and America, become the mock and scorn and hissing
of the nations, will go down to worse shame than was
ever heaped upon Sodom ; for with her lust for wealth,
land, and power, she wih also have committed the
crime against nature. Then America will be another
Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, yea, like Gomorrah — for
the Dead Sea will have settled down upon us with noth
ing living in its breast, and the rulers will proclaim
peace where they have made solitude.
Which of these three hypotheses shall we take?
I. Will there be a separation of the two elements,
XIII— 24

370 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and a formation of two distinct States, — freedom with
democracy, and slavery with a tendency to despotism?
That may save one half the nation, and leave the other
to voluntary ruin. Certainly it is better to enter into
hfe halt or maimed, rather than having two hands and
two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.
Now, I do not suppose it is possible for the Anglo-
Saxons of America to remain as one nation for a great
many years. Suppose we become harmonious and
prosper abundantly : when there are a hundred millions
on the Atlantic slope, another hundred millions in the
Mississippi Valley, a third hundred millions on the
Pacific slope, and a fourth hundred millions in South
America, — it is not likely that all these will hold to
gether. ( We shall be too wide spread. And, besides,
it is not according to the disposition of the Teutonic
family to aggregate into one great State any very
large body of men ; division, not conglomeration, is
after the ethnologic instinct and the historical custom
of the Teutonic family, and especially of its Anglo-
Saxon tribe. We do not like centralization of power,
but have such strong individuality that we prefer local
self-government; we are social, not gregarious like the
Celtic family. I, therefore, do not. look on the union
of the States as a thing that is likely to last a great
length of time, under any circumstances. I doubt if
any part of the nation will desire it a hundred years
hence. True, there are causes which tend to keep us united :
community of ethnologic origin — fifteen millions are
Anglo-Saxon; — unity of language, literature, re
ligion; historic and legal traditions, and commercial
interest. But all these may easily be overcome, and
doubtless will be. So a dissolution of the great Anglo-

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 371
Saxon State seems likely to take place, when the
territory is spread so wide that there is a practical in
convenience in balancing the nation on a single govern
mental point; when the numbers are so great that we
require many centers of legislative and administrative
action in order to secure individual freedom of the
parts, as well as national unity of the whole ; or when
the Federal Government shall become so corrupt that
the trunk will not sustain the limbs. Then the
branches which make up this great American banyan-
tree will separate from the rotten primeval trunk, draw
their support from their own local roots, and spread
into great and independent trees. All this may take
place without fighting. Massachusetts and Maine
were once a single State ; now friendly sisters.
But I do not think this " dissolution of the Union "
will take place immediately, or very soon. For Amer
ica is not now ruled — as it is commonly thought —
either by the mass of men who follow their national,
ethnological, and human instincts; or by a few far-
sighted men of genius for politics, who consciously
obey the law of God made clear in their own masterly
mind and conscience, and make statutes in advance of
the calculation or even the instincts of the people, and
so manage the Ship of State that every occasional tack
is on a great circle of the universe, a right line of
justice, and therefore the shortest way to welfare ; but
by two very different classes of men ; — by mercantile
men, who covet money, actual or expectant capitalists ;
and by political men, who want power, actual or ex
pectant office-holders. These appear diverse; but
there is a strong unanimity between the two ; — for the
mercantile men want money as a means of power, and
the political men power as a means of money. There

372 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
are noble men in both classes, exceptional, not instan-
tial, men with great riches even, and great office. But
as a class, these men are not above the average moral
ity of the people, often below it: they have no deep,
religious faith, which leads them to trust the higher
law of God. They do not look for principles that
are right, conformable to the constitution of the uni
verse, and so creative of the nation's permanent wel
fare ; but only for expedient measures, productive to
themselves of selfish money or selfish power. In general,
they have the character of adventurers, the aims of ad
venturers, the morals of adventurers ; they begin poor,
and of course obscure, and are then " democratic,"
and hurrah for the people : " Down with the powerful
and the rich " is the private maxim of their heart. If
they are successful, and become rich, famous, attain
ing high office, they commonly despise the people:
" Down with the people ! " is the axiom of their heart
— only they dare not say it ; for there are so many
others with the same selfishness, who have not yet
achieved their end, and raise the opposite cry. The
line of the nation's course is a resultant of the com
pound selfishness of these two classes.
From these two, with their mercantile and political
selfishness, we are to expect no comprehensive morality
which will secure the rights of mankind; no compre
hensive policy, which will secure expedient measures
for a long time. Both will unite in what serves their
apparent interest, brings money to the trader, power
to the politician, — whatever be the consequence to the
country. As things now are, the Union favors the schemes of
both of these classes of men; thereby the politician
gets power, the trader makes money.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 373
If the Union were to be dissolved and a great North
ern commonwealth were to be organized, with the idea
of freedom, three quarters of the politicians, Federal
and State, would pass into contempt and oblivion ; all
that class of Northern demagogues who scoff at God's
law, such as filled the offices of the late Whig admin
istration in its day of power, or as fill the offices of the
Democratic administration to-day — they would drop
down so deep that no plummet would ever reach them ;
you would never hear of them again.
Gratitude is not a very common virtue; but grati
tude to the hand of slavery, which feeds these crea
tures, is their sole and single moral excellence; they
have that form of gratitude. When the hand of slav
ery is cut off, that class of men will perish just as
caterpihars die when, some day in May, the farmer
cuts off from the old tree a great branch to graft in a
better fruit. . The caterpillars will not vote for the
grafting. That class of men will go for the Union
while it serves them.
Look at the other class. Property is safe in Amer
ica: and why? Because we have aimed to establish
a government on natural rights, and property is a
natural right ; say oligarchic Blackstone and socialistic
Proudhon what they may, property is not the mere
creature of compact, or the child of robbery; it is
founded in the nature of man. It has a very great
and important function to perform. Nowhere in the
world is it so much respected as here.
But there is one kind of property which is not safe
just now: — property in men. It is the only kind
of property which is purely the creature of violence
and law ; it has no root in itself.
Now, the Union protects that " property." There

374 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
are three hundred thousand slaveholders, owning thir
teen hundred millions of dollars invested in men. Their
wealth depends on the Union; destroy that, and their
unnatural property wih take to itself legs and run off,
seeking liberty by flight, or else stay at home and, like
an Anglo-Saxon, take to itself firebrands and swords,
and burn down the master's house and cut the master's
throat. So the slaveholder wants the Union; he
makes money by it. Slavery is unprofitable to the
nation. No three millions earn so little as the three
million slaves. It is costly to every State. But it en
riches the owner of the slaves. The South is agri
cultural ; that is all. She raises cotton, sugar, and corn ;
she has no commerce, no manufactures, no mining.
The North has mills, ships, mines, manufactures ; buys
and sells for the South, and makes money by what im
poverishes the South. So all the great commercial
centers of the North are in favor of Union, in favor
of slavery. The instinct of American trade just now
is hostile to American freedom. The money-power
and the slave power go hand in hand. Of course such
editors and ministers as are only the tools of the
money power, or the slave power, will be fond of
" Union at all hazards." They will sell their mothers
to keep it. Now these are the controlling classes of
men ; these ministers and editors are the mouthpieces
of these controlling classes of men; and as these
classes make money and power out of the Union, for
the present I think the Union wih hold together. Yet
I know very well that there are causes now at work
which embitter the minds of men, and which, if much
enforced, will so exasperate the North that we shall
rend the Union asunder at a blow. That I think not
likely to take place, for the South sees the peril and
its own ruin.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 375
II. The next hypothesis is, freedom may triumph
over slavery. That was the expectation once, at the
time of the Declaration of Independence; nay, at the
formation of the Constitution. But only two national
steps have been taken against slavery since then ¦ —
one the Ordinance of 1787, the other the abolition of
the African slave-trade; really that was done in 1788,
formally twenty years after. In the individual States,
the white man's freedom enlarges every year; but the
Federal Government becomes more and more addicted
to slavery. This hypothesis does not seem very likely
to be adopted.
III. Shall slavery destroy freedom? It looks very
much like it. Here are nine great steps, openly taken
since '87, in favor of slavery. First, America put
slavery into the Constitution. Second, out of old
soil she made four new slave States. Third, America,
in 1793, adopted slavery as a Federal institution, and
guaranteed her protection for that kind of property
as for no other. Fourth, America bought the Louisi
ana territory in 1803, and put slavery into it. Fifth,
she thence made Louisiana, Missouri, and then Ar
kansas slave States. Sixth, she made slavery perpetual
in Florida. Seventh, she annexed Texas. Eighth, she
fought the Mexican War, and plundered a feeble sister
republic of California, Utah, and New Mexico, to get
more slave soil. Ninth, America gave ten millions of
money to Texas to support slavery, passed the Fugitive
Slave Bill, and has since kidnapped men in New Eng
land, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, in all the East,
in all the West, in all the Middle States. All the great
cities have kidnapped their own citizens. Professional
slave-hunters are members of New England churches ;

376 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
kidnappers sit down at the Lord's table in the city of
Cotton, Chauncy, and Mayhew. In this very year, be
fore it is half through, America has taken two more
steps for the destruction of freedom. The repeal of
the Missouri Compromise and the enslavement of Ne
braska: that is the tenth step. Here is the eleventh:
The Mexican treaty, giving away ten milhons of dol
lars and buying a little strip of worthless land, solely
that it may serve the cause of slavery.
Here are eleven great steps openly taken towards
the ruin of liberty in America. Are these the worst?
Very far from it ! Yet more dangerous things have
been done in secret.
I. Slavery has corrupted the mercantile class. Al
most all the leading merchants of the North are pro-
slavery men. They hate freedom, hate your freedom
and mine! This is the only Christian country in
which commerce is hostile to freedom.
II. See the corruption of the political class. There
are forty thousand officers of the Federal Government.
Look at them in Boston — '¦ their character is as weh
known as this hall. Read their journals in this city —
do you catch a whisper of freedom in them? Slavery
has sought its menial servants — men basely born and
basely bred: it has corrupted them still further, and
put them in office. America, like Russia, is the country
for mean men to thrive in. Give him time and mire
enough, a worm can crawl as high as an eagle flies.
State rights are sacrificed at the North ; centralization
goes on with rapid strides ; State laws are trodden under
foot.* The Northern President is all for slavery.
* While this volume is passing through the press, another
example of this same corruption appears. The Senate passes
a bill to protect United States officers engaged in kidnapping

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 377
The Northern members of the Cabinet are for slavery ;
in the Senate, fourteen Northern Democrats were for
the enslavement of Nebraska ; in the House of Repre
sentatives, forty-four Northern Democrats voted for
the bill, — fourteen in the Senate, forty-four in the
House, fifty-eight Northern men voted against the con
science of the North and the law of God. Only eight
men out of ah the South could be found friendly to
justice and false to their own local idea of injustice.
The present administration, with its supple tools of
tyranny, came into office while the cry of " No higher
law " was echoing through the land !
III. Slavery has debauched the press. How many
leading journals of commerce and politics in the great
cities do you know that are friendly to freedom and
opposed to slavery? Out of the five large daily com
mercial papers in Boston, Whig or Democratic, I know
of only one that has spoken a word for freedom this
great while. The American newspapers are poor de
fenders of American hberty. Listen to one of them,
speaking of the last kidnapping in Boston : " We
shall need to employ the same measures of coercion as
are necessary in monarchical countries." There is al
ways some one ready to do the basest deeds. Yet
there are some noble journals — political and commer
cial ; such as the New York Tribune and Evening Post.
IV. Then our colleges and schools are corrupted by
slavery. I do not know of five colleges in all the North
which publicly appear on the side of freedom. What
the hearts of the presidents and professors are, God
knows, not I. The great crime against humanity,
practical atheism, found ready support in Northern
citizens of the free States, from the justice of the people. Such
kidnappers are to be tried in the Kidnappers' Court.

378 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
colleges, in 1850 and 1851. Once, the common read
ing books of our schools were full of noble words.
Read the school-books now made by Yankee peddlers of
literature, and what liberal ideas do you find there?
They are meant for the Southern market. Slavery
must not be offended!
V. Slavery has corrupted the churches ! There are
twenty-eight thousand Protestant clergymen in the
United States. There are noble hearts, true and just
men among them, who have fearlessly borne witness to
the truth. I need not mention their names. Alas!
they are not very numerous; I should not have to go
over my fingers many times to count them all. I honor
these exceptional men. Some of them are old, far older
than I am ; older than my father need have been ; some
of them are far younger than I; nay, some of them
younger than my children might be: and I honor these
men for the fearless testimony which they have borne
— the old, the middle-aged, and the young. But they
are very exceptional men. Is there a minister in the
South who preaches against slavery? How few in all
the North!
Look and see the condition of the Sunday Schools.
In 1853, the Episcopal Methodists had 9,438 Sunday
Schools; 102,732 Sunday School teachers; 525,008
scholars. There is not an anti-slavery Sunday School
in the compass of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Last 'year, in New York, they issued, on an average,
two thousand bound volumes every day in the year,
not a line against slavery in them. They printed also
two thousand pamphlets every day ; there is not a line
in them all against slavery; they printed more than
two hundred and forty million pages of Sunday School
books, not a line against slavery in them all; not a

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 379
line showing that it is wicked to buy and sell a man,
for whom, according to the Methodist Episcopal
Church, Christ died!
The Orthodox Sunday School Union spent last year
$248,201 ; not a cent against slavery, our great na
tional sin. They print books by the million. Only one
of them contains a word against slavery ; that is Cow-
per's Task, which contains these words — my mother
taught them to me when I was a little boy, and sat in
her lap : —
" I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me when I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews, bought and sold, have ever earned ! "
You all know it: if you do not, you had better learn
and teach it to your children. That is the only anti-
slavery work they print. Once they published a book
written by Mr. Gallaudet, which related the story, I
think, of the selling of Joseph : at any rate, it showed
that Egyptian slavery was wrong. A little girl in a
Sunday School in one of the Southern States one day
said to her teacher, " If it was wrong to make Joseph
a slave, why is it not wrong to make Dinah, and Sambo,
and Chloe slaves ? " The Sunday School teacher and
the church took alarm, and complained of the Sunday
School Union : " You are poisoning the South with
your religion, telling the children that slavery is
wicked." It was a serious thing, " dissolution of the
Union," " levying war," or at least, " misdemeanor,"
for aught I know, " obstructing an officer of the United
States." What do you think the Sunday School Union
did? It suppressed the book ! It printed one Sunday
School book which had a line against Egyptian slavery

380 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and then suppressed it! and it cannot be had to-day.
Amid all their million books, there is not a hne against
slavery, save what Cowper sung. There are five million
Sunday School scholars in the United States, and there
is not a Sunday School manual which has got a word
against slavery in it.
You ah know the American Tract Society. Last
year the American Tract Society in Boston spent $79,-
983.46; it visited more than fourteen thousand fam
ilies; it distributed 3,334,920 tracts — not a word
against slavery in them all. The American Tract So
ciety in New York last year visited 568,000 families,
containing three million persons ; it spent for home
purposes $406,707; for foreign purposes $422,294;
it distributed tracts in' English, French, German,
Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Italian, Hungar
ian, and Welsh — and it did not print one single line,
nor whisper a single word against this great national
sin of slavery! Nay, worse: — if it finds English
books which suit its general purpose, but containing
matter adverse to slavery, it strikes out all the anti-
slavery matter, then prints and circulates the book.
Is the Tract Society also managed by Jesuits from
the Roman Church?
At this day, 600,000 slaves are directly and per
sonally owned by men who are called " professing
Christians," " members in good fellowship " of the
churches of this land; 80,000 owned by Presbyterians,
225,000 by Baptists, 250,000 owned by Methodists:
— 600,000 slaves in this land owned by men who pro
fess themselves Christians, and in churches sit down to
take the Lord's Supper, in the name of Christ and
God ! There are ministers who own their fellow-men —
" bought with a price."

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 381
Does not this look as if slavery were to triumph over
freedom? VI. Slavery corrupts the judicial class. In Amer
ica, especially in New England, no class of men has
been so much respected as the judges; and for this
reason: we have had wise, learned, excellent men for
our judges; men who reverenced the higher law of
God, and sought by human statutes to execute justice.
You all know their venerable names, and how rever
entially we have looked up to them. Many of them are
dead; some are still hving, and their hoary hairs are
a crown of glory on a judicial life, without judicial
blot. But of late slavery has put a different class of
men on the benches of the Federal courts — mere tools
of the government ; creatures which get their appoint
ment as pay for past political service, and as pay in
advance for iniquity not yet accomplished. You see
the consequences. Note the zeal of the Federal judges
to execute iniquity by statute and destroy liberty. See
how ready they are to support the Fugitive Slave Bill,
which tramples on the spirit of the Constitution, and
its letter too; which outrages justice and violates the
most sacred principles and precepts of Christianity.
Not a United States judge, circuit or district, has
uttered one word against that " bill of abominations."
Nay, how greedy they are to get victims under it!
No wolf loves better to rend a lamb into fragments
than these judges to kidnap a fugitive slave, and pun
ish any man who dares to speak against it. You know
what has happened in Fugitive Slave Bill courts. You
remember the " miraculous " rescue of Shadrach ; the
peaceable snatching of a man from the hands of a
cowardly kidnapper was "high treason;" it was
" levying war." You remember the " trial " of the

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
rescuers! Judge Sprague's charge to the grand jury,
that, if they thought the question was which they ought
to obey, the law of man or the law of God, then they
must " obey both ! " serve God and mammon, Christ
and the devil, in the same act! You remember the
" trial," the " ruling " of the Bench, the swearing on
the stand, the witness coming back to alter and " en
large his testimony " and have another gird at the
prisoner! You have not forgotten the trials before
Judge Kane at Philadelphia, and Judge Grier at
Christiana and Wilkesbarre.
These are natural results of causes well known. You
cannot escape a principle. Enslave a negro, will you?
— you doom to bondage your own sons and daughters,
by your own act.
Do you forget the Union meeting in Faneuil Hah,
November 26th, 1850, the Tuesday before Thanksgiv
ing Day? It was called to indorse the Fugitive Slave
Bill — a meeting to promote the stealing of men in
Boston, of your fellow-worshipers and my parishioners.
Do you remember the Democratic Herods and Whig
Pilates, who were made friends that day, melted into
one unity of despotism, in order that they might en
slave men? They had unity of idea and unity of ac
tion, that day. Do you remember the speeches of Mr.
Curtis and Mr. Hallett ; their yelp against the inaliena
ble rights of men; their howl at God's higher law?
The worser half of that platform is now the United
States court; — the Fugitive Slave Bill judge, the
United States attorney. They got their offices for
their political services past and for their character —
very fitting reward to very fitting men ! A man pro
fesses a fondness for kidnapping, hurrahs for it in
Faneuil Hall: — give him the United States judgeship;

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 383
make him United States attorney — fit to fit ! When
slavery dispenses offices, every service rendered to des
potism is well paid. Men with foreheads of brass,
with iron elbows, with consciences of gum elastic, whose
chief commandment of their law, their prophets, and
their gospel, is to
"  crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning;"
verily they shall have their reward! They shall be
come Fugitive Slave Bill judges ; yea, attorneys of the
United States !
In 1836, a poor slave girl named Med, who had
been brought from Louisiana to Boston by her master,
sued for her freedom in the courts of Massachusetts.
Mr. Benjamin R. Curtis appeared as the slave-hunter's
counsel, long, and stoutly, and learnedly contending
that she should not receive her freedom by the laws,
Constitution, and usages of this Commonwealth, but
should be sent back to eternal bondage.* On the 7th
of March, 1850, Mr. Webster made his speech against
freedom, so fatal to himself ; but soon after found such
a fire in his rear that he must return to Massachusetts
* The girl was set free, and the principle laid down that
slaves coming to a free State with the consent of their masters,
secured their freedom. An account of the case was published
in the Boston Daily Advertiser of August 29, 1836, and intro
duced with the following editorial comment: — "In some of the
States there is, we believe, legislative provision for cases of
this sort [namely, allowing the master to bring and keep slaves
in bondage], and it would seem that some such provision is
necessary in this State, unless we would prohibit citizens of the
slaveholding States from traveling in this State with their
families, and unless we would permit such of them as wish to
emancipate their slaves, to throw them at their pleasure upon
the people of this State."

384 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
to rescue his own popularity — then apparently in
great peril. On the 29th of April, the same Mr. Cur
tis, faithful to his proclivities towards slavery, made
a public address to the apostate senator, at the Revere
House, and expressed his " abounding gratitude for
the ability and fidelity" which Mr. Webster had
" brought to the defense of the Constitution and the
Union ; " praising him as " eminently vigilant, wise,
and faithful to our country, without shadow of turn
ing." At the Union meeting in Faneuil Hall (Nov.
26th), Mr. Curtis declared the fugitive slaves " a class
of foreigners," " with whose rights Massachusetts has
nothing to do. It is enough for us that they have no
right to be here." Other services, similar or analogous,
which he has rendered to the cause of inhumanity, I
here pass by.
This is a world in which " men do nothing for noth
ing ; " the workman is worthy of his hire ; in due time
Mr. Curtis received his reward.
He has lately (June 7th) "charged" the grand
jury of the circuit court of the United States, point
ing out their duty in respect to recent events in Boston.
A Federal enactment of 1790 provides that, if any per
son shall wilfully obstruct, resist, or oppose any officer
of the United States in executing any legal writ or
process thereof, he shall be imprisoned not more than
twelve months, and fined not more than three hundred
dollars. Mr. Curtis charges that the offense is " a
misdemeanor : " to constitute the crime, it is " not nec
essary to prove the accused used or even threatened
active violence." " If a multitude of persons should
assemble, even in a public highway, with the design to
stand together, and thus prevent the officer from pass
ing freely along the way, .... this would of

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 385
itself, and without any active violence, be such an ob
struction as is contemplated by this law."
So much for what constitutes the crime. Now see
who are criminals : " Ah who are present and actually
obstruct, resist, or oppose, are of course guilty. So
are all who are present, leagued in the common design,
and so situated as to be able, in case of need, to afford
assistance to those actually engaged, though they do
not actuahy obstruct, resist, or oppose." That is, they
are guilty of a misdemeanor, because they are in the
neighborhood of such as oppose a constable of the
United States, and are " able " " to afford assistance."
" If they are present for the purpose of affording as
sistance, though no overt act is done by them, they
are stih guilty under this law." They are guilty of
a misdemeanor, not merely as accessory before the fact,
but as principals, for " in misdemeanors all are prin
cipals." " Not only those who are present, but those who,
though absent when the offense was committed, did
procure, counsel, command, or abet others to commit
the offense, are indictable as principals." But what
amounts to such counseling as constitutes a misde
meanor? " Evincing an express liking, approbation,
or assent to another's criminal design." It need not
appear that the precise time, or place, or means ad
vised, were used." So all who evinced " an express
liking, approbation, or assent " to the rescue of Mr.
Burns are guilty of a misdemeanor; if they evinced
" an express liking " that he should be rescued by a
miracle wrought by Almighty God, — and some did
express " approbation " of that " means," — they are
indictable, guilty of a misdemeanor ; " " it need not
appear that the precise time, or place, or means ad-
XIII— 25

386 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
vised, were used ! " If any colored woman, during the
wicked week — which was ten days long — prayed that
God would deliver Anthony, as it is said his angel de
livered Peter, or said " Amen " to such a prayer, she
was " guilty of a misdemeanor : " to be indicted as a
" principal." So every man in Boston who, on that bad Friday,
stood in the streets of Boston between Court Square
and T Wharf, was " guilty of a misdemeanor," liable
to a fine of three hundred dollars, and to jailing for
twelve months. All who at Faneuil Hall stirred up
the minds of the people in opposition to the Fugitive
Slave Bill; ah who shouted, who clapped their hands
at the words or the countenance of their favorites, or
who expressed " approbation " by a whisper of ", as
sent," are " guilty of misdemeanor." The very
women who stood for four days at the street corners,
and hissed the infamous slave-hunters and their co
adjutors, they, too, ought to be punished by fine of
three hundred dollars and imprisonment for a year!
Well, there were fifteen thousand persons " assembled "
" in the highway " of the city of Boston that day op
posed to kidnapping ; half the newspapers in the coun
try towns of Massachusetts " evinced an express lik
ing " for freedom, and opposed the kidnapping ; they
are all " guilty of a misdemeanor ; " they are " prin
cipals." Nay, the few ministers all over the State, who
preached that kidnapping was a sin ; those who read
brave words out of the Old Testament or the New;
those who prayed that the victim might escape: they,
likewise, were " guilty of a misdemeanor," liable to be
fined three hundred dollars and jailed for twelve
months. Excellent Fugitive Slave Bill judge! Mr.
Webster did wisely in making that appointment ! He

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 387
chose an appropriate tool. The charge was worthy
of the worst days of Jeffreys and the second James !
We all know against whom this judicial iniquity
was directed — against men who at Faneuil Hall, under
the pictured and sculptured eyes of John Hancock
and the three Adamses, appealed to the spirit of hu
manity, not yet crushed out of your heart and mine,
and lifted up their voices in favor of freedom and the
eternal law of God. If he had called us by our names
he could not have made the thing plainer. You know
the zeal of the United States attorney, you have heard
of the swearing before the grand jury and at the grand
jury. Did the judge's lightning only glow with ju
dicial ardor and zeal for the Fugitive Slave Bill? — or
was it also red with personal malignity and family
spleen ? Judge you !
But, alas! there was a grand jury, and the Sal-
monean thunder of the Fugitive Slave Bill judge fell
harmless — quenched, conquered, disgraced, and brutal
— to the ground. Poor Fugitive Slave Bill court ! it
can only gnash its teeth against freedom of speech in
Faneuil Hall ; only bark and yelp against the inaliena
ble rights of man, and howl against the higher law of
God ! it cannot bite ! Poor imbecile, malignant court !
What a pity that the Fugitive Slave Bill judge was not
himself the grand jury, to order the indictment ! what a
shame that the attorney was not a petty jury to con
vict! Then New England, like Old, might have had
her " bloody assizes," and Boston streets might have
streamed with the heart's gore of noble men and women ;
and human heads might have decked the pinnacles ah
round the town ; and Judge Curtis and Attorney Hal
lett might have had their place with Judge Jeffreys
and John B oilman of old. What a pity that we have

388 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
a grand jury and a traverse jury to stand between
the malignant arm of the slave-hunter and the heart
of you and me! Perhaps the court will try again,
and find a more pliant grand jury, easier to intimidate.
Let me suggest to the court, that the next time it should
pack its jurors from the marshal's " guard." Then
there will be unity of idea ; of action, too — the court a
figure of equilibrium.*
At a Fugitive Slave Bill meeting in Faneuil Hah, it
is easy to ask a minister a question designed to be in
sulting, and not dare listen to the proffered reply ; easy
to bark at justice, and howl at the inalienable rights
of man ; easy to yelp out the vengeance of a corrupt
administration of slave-hunters upon ah who love the
higher law of God ; but He himself has so fashioned the
hearts of men that we instinctively hate all tyranny, all
oppression, all wrong ; and the hand of history brands
ineffaceable disgrace on the brass foreheads of all such
as enact iniquity by statute, and execute wickedness as
law. The memory of the wicked shall rot. Scroggs
and Jeffreys also got their appointment as pay for
their service and their character — fitting blood
hounds for a fitting king. For near two hundred years
their names have been a stench in the face of the Anglo-
Saxon tribe. Others as unscrupulous may take warn
ing by their fate.
Thus has slavery debauched the Federal courts.
VII. Alas me! Slavery has not ended yet its long
career of sin. Its corruption is sevenfold. It de
bauches the elected offices of our city, and even our
State. In the Sims time of 1851, the laws of Mas-
*The experiment was made; the brother-in-law of the Fugi
tive Slave Bill judge was put on the jury, and indictments
were found in October and November.

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 389
sachusetts were violated nine days running, and the
Free-soil governor sat in the State House as idle as a
feather in his chair. In the wicked week of 1854, the
Whig governor sat in the seat of his predecessor ; Mas
sachusetts was one of the inferior counties of Virginia,
and a slave-hunter had eminent domain over the birth
place of Franklin and the burial-place of Hancock!
Nay, against our own laws the Free-soil mayor put the
neck of Boston in the hands of a " train-band captain "
— the people " wondering much to see how he did
ride ! " Boston was a suburb of Alexandria ; the
mayor a slave-catcher for our masters at the South !
You and I were only fellow-slaves !
All this looks as if slavery was to triumph over
freedom. But even this is not the end. Slavery has
privately emptied her seven vials of wrath upon the na
tion — committing seven debaucheries of human safe
guards of our natural rights. That is not enough
— there are other seven to come. This apocalyptic
dragon, grown black with long-continued deeds of
shame and death, now meditates five further steps of
crime. Here is the programme of the next attempt
— a new political tragedy in five acts.
I. The acquisition of Dominica — and then all
Hayti — as new slave territory.
II. The acquisition of Cuba, by purchase, or else by
private filibustering and public war, — as new slave ter
ritory. I
III. The re-establishment of slavery in all the free
States, by judicial " decision " or legislative enact
ment. Then the master of the North may " sit down
with his slaves at the foot of Bunker Hill monument ! "
IV. The restoration of the African slave-trade,
which is already seriously proposed and defended in

390 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
the Southern journals. Nay, the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations recommend the first step towards
it — the withdrawal of our fleet from the coast of
Africa. You cannot escape the consequence of your
first principle : if slavery is right, then the slave-trade is
right; the traffic between Guinea and New Orleans is
no worse than between Virginia and New Orleans; it
is no worse to kidnap in Timbuctoo than in Boston.
V. A yet further quarrel must be sought with Mex
ico, and more slave territory be stolen from her.
Who shall oppose this fivefold wickedness? The
Fugitive Slave Bill party ; — the Nebraska enslave
ment party? Northern servility has hitherto been
ready to grant more than Southern arrogance dared
to demand!
All this looks as if the third hypothesis would be ful
filled, and slavery triumph over freedom; as if the na
tion would expunge the Declaration of Independence
from the scroll of Time, and, instead of honoring Han
cock and the Adamses and Washington, do homage to
Kane and Grier and Curtis and Hallett and Loring.
Then the Preamble to our Constitution might read —
" to establish injustice, insure domestic strife, hinder
the common defense, disturb the general welfare, and
inflict the curse of bondage on ourselves and our pos
terity." Then we shall honor the Puritans no more,
but their prelatical tormentors ; nor reverence the great
reformers, only the inquisitors of Rome. Yea, we may
tear the name of Jesus out of the American Bible;
yes, God's name; worship the Devil at our Lord's
table, Iscariot for Redeemer !
See the steady triumph of despotism! Ten years
more, like the ten years past, and it will be all over
with the liberties of America. Everything must go

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 391
down, and the heel of the tyrant will be on our neck.
It wih be ah over with the rights of man in America,
and you and I must go to Austria, to Italy, or to Si
beria for our freedom ; or perish with the liberty which
our fathers fought for and secured to themselves —
not to their faithless sons ! Shah America thus mis
erably perish? Such is the aspect of things to-day!
But are the people alarmed? No, they fear noth
ing — only the tightness in the money-market ! Next
Tuesday at sunrise every bell in Boston will ring joy
ously ; every cannon will belch sulphurous welcome
from its brazen throat. There will be processions, —
the mayor and the aldermen and the marshal and the
naval officer, and, I suppose, the " marshal's guard,"
very appropriately taking their places. There is a
chain on the Common to-day — it is the same chain that
was around the court-house in 1851 — it is the chain
that bound Sims; now it is a festal chain. There are
mottoes about the Common — " They mutually pledged
to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor." I suppose it means that the mayor and the
kidnappers did this. " The spirit of '76 still lives."
Lives, I suppose, in the Supreme Court of Fugitive
Slave Bill judges. " Washington, Jefferson, and their
compatriots ! — their names are sacred in the heart of
every American." That, I suppose, is the opinion of
Thomas Sims and of Anthony Burns. And opposite
the great Park Street Church, where a noble man is
this day, I trust, discoursing noble words, for he has
never yet been found false to freedom — " Liberty and
independence, our father's legacy ! — God forbid that
we their sons should prove recreant to the trust ! "
It ought to read, " God forgive us that we their sons
have proved so recreant to the trust ! " So they will

392 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
celebrate the 4th of July, and call it " Independence
Day ! " The foolish press of France, bought and
beaten and trodden on by Napoleon the Crafty, is full
of talk about the welfare of the " Great Nation ! "
Philip of Macedon was conquering the Athenian allies
town by town; he destroyed and swept off two and
thirty cities, selling their children as slaves. All the
Cassandrian eloquence of Demosthenes could not rouse
degenerate Athens from her idle sleep. She also fell
¦ — the fairest of all free States; corrupted first —
forgetful of God's higher law. Shah America thus
perish, all immature!
So was it in the days of old: they ate, they drank,
they planted, they builded, they married, they were
given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered
into the ark, and the flood came and devoured them all !
Well, is this to be the end? Was it for this the
Pilgrims came over the sea? Does Forefathers' Rock
assent to it? Was it for this that the New England
clergy prayed, and their prayers became the law of the
land for a hundred years ? Was it for this that Cotton
planted in Boston a little branch of the Lord's vine,
and Roger Williams and Higginson — he still lives in
an unregenerate son — did the same in the city which
they called of peace, Salem? Was it for this that
Eliot carried the Gospel to the Indians? that Chauncy,
and Edwards, and Hopkins, and Mayhew, and Chan-
ning, and Ware labored and prayed? for this that our
fathers fought — the Adamses, Washington, Han
cock? for this that there was an eight years' war, and
a thousand battle-fields? for this the little monument
at Acton, Concord, Lexington, West Cambridge, Dan-
vers, and the great one over there on the spot which
our fathers' blood made so red? Shall America be-

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 393
come Asia Minor? New England, Italy? Boston
such as Athens — dead and rotten ? Yes ! if we do not
mend, and speedily mend. Ten years more, and the
hberty of America is all gone. We shall fall, the
laugh, the byword, the proverb, the scorn, the mock
of the nations, who shall cry against us. Hell from
beneath shall be moved to meet us at our coming, and
in derision shall it welcome us : —
" The heir of all the ages, and the youngest born of time ! "
We shall lie down with the unrepentant prodigals of
old time, damned to everlasting infamy and shame.
Would you have it so? Shall it be?
To-day, America is a debauched young man, of
good blood, fortune, and family, but the companion
of gamesters and brawlers; reeking with wine; wast
ing his substance in riotous living ; in the lap of harlots
squandering the life which his mother gave him.
Shah he return? Shall he perish? One day may de
termine. Shall America thus die? I look to the past, — Asia,
Africa, Europe, and they answer, " Yes ! " Where is
the Hebrew Commonwealth; the Roman Republic;
where is liberal Greece, — Athens, and many a far-
famed Ionian town; where are the commonwealths of
medieval Italy ; the Teutonic free cities — German,
Dutch, or Swiss? They have all perished. Not one
of them is left. Parian statues of liberty, sorely muti
lated, still remain ; but the Parian rock whence Liberty
once hewed her sculptures out — it is all gone. Shall
America thus perish? Greece and Italy both answer,
" Yes ! " I question the last fifty years of American
history, and it says, " Yes." I look to the American
pulpit, I ask the five million Sunday School scholars,

394 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and they say, " Yes." I ask the Federal court, the
Democratic party, and the Whig, and the answer is
still the same.
But I close my eyes on the eleven past missteps we
have taken for slavery; on that sevenfold clandestine
corruption; I forget the Whig party; I forget the
present administration; I forget the judges of the
courts ; — I remember the few noblest men that there
are in society, Church and State; I remember the
grave of my father, the lessons of my mother's life;
I look to the spirit of this age — it is the nineteenth
century, not the ninth ; — I look to the history of the
Anglo-Saxons in America, and the history of man
kind; I remember the story and the song of Italian
and German patriots ; I recall the dear words of those
great-minded Greeks — Ionian, Dorian, ./Etolian ; I re
member the Romans who spoke, and sang, and fought
for truth and right; I recollect those old Hebrew
prophets, earth's nobler sons, poets and saints ; I call
to mind the greatest, noblest, purest soul that ever
blossomed in this dusty world ; — and I say, " No ! "
Truth shall triumph, justice shall be law ! And, if
America fail, though she is one fortieth of God's fam
ily, and it is a great loss, there are other nations be
hind us; our truth shall not perish, even if we go
down. But we shall not fail ! I look into your eyes —
young men and women, thousands of you, and men
and women far enough from young! I look into the
eyes of fifty thousand other men and women, whom,
in the last eight months, I have spoken to, face to face,
and they say, " No ! America shall not fail ! "
I remember the women who were never found faith
less when a sacrifice was to be offered to great princi-

RIGHTS OF MAN IN AMERICA 395
pies; I look up to my God, and I look into my own
heart, and I say, "We shah not fail! We shall not
fail ! "
This, at my side, it is the willow ; * it is the symbol
of weeping: — but its leaves are deciduous; the au
tumn wind will strew them on the ground ; and beneath,
here is a perennial plant; it is green all the year
through. When this willow branch is leafless, the
other is green with hope, and its buds are in its bosom ;
its buds wih blossom. So it is with America.
Did our fathers live? are we dead? Even in our
ashes hve their holy fires! Boston only sleeps; one
day she wih wake ! Massachusetts will stir again !
New England will rise and walk! the vanished North
be found once more queenly and majestic! Then it
wih be seen that slavery is weak and powerless in itself,
only a phantom of the night.
Slavery is a "finality," — is it? There shall be no
" agitation," — not the least, — shall there? There is
a Hispaniola in the South, and the South knows it.
She sits on a powder magazine, and then plays with
fire, while humanity shoots rockets all round the world.
To mutilate, to torture, to burn to death revolted Af
ricans whom outrage has stung to crime — that is only
to light the torches of San Domingo. This black
bondage will be red freedom one day: nay, lust, ven
geance, redder yet. I would not wait till that flood
comes and devours all.
When the North stands up>, manfully, united, we
can tear down slavery in a single twelvemonth; and,
when we do unite, it must be not only to destroy slavery
in the territories, but to uproot every weed of slavery
throughout this whole wide land. Then leanness wih
* Referring to the floral ornaments that day on the desk.

396 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
depart from our souls; then the blessing of God will
come upon us ; we shah have a commonwealth based on
righteousness, which is the strength of any people, and
shah stand longer than Egypt, — national fidelity to
God our age-outlasting pyramid!
How feeble seems a single nation; how powerless a
solitary man! But one of a family of forty, we can
do much. How much is Italy, Rome, Greece, Pales
tine, Egypt to the world? The solitary man — a
Luther, a Paul, a Jesus — he outweighs milhons of
coward souls! Each one of you take heed that the
Republic receive no harm!

THE PRESENT ASPECT OF THE ANTI-
SLAVERY ENTERPRISE
1856
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — After
that Trinitarian introduction,* in which I am pre
sented before you as one anti-slavery nature in three
persons, — a fanatic, an infidel, and a traitor, — I am
sure a Unitarian minister will bring his welcome along
with him. And yet I come under great disadvantages :
for I follow one whose color is more than the logic,
which his cause did not need (alluding to Mr. Re-
mond) ; and another whose sex is more eloquent than
the philosophy of noblest men (referring to Mrs.
Blackwell), whose word has in it the wild witchery
which takes captive your heart. I am neither an Af
rican nor a woman. I shall speak, therefore, some
what in the way of logic, which the one rejected ; some
thing also, perhaps, of philosophy, which the other
likewise passed by.
Allow me to say, however, still further, by way of
introduction, that I should not weary your ears at
all this morning, were it not that another man, your
friend and mine, Mr. Phillips, lies sick at home. Re-
* The President, Mr. Garrison, thus introduced Mr. Parker
to the audience at New York : ¦ —
" Ladies and Gentlemen, — The fanaticism and infidelity and
treason which are hateful to the traffickers in slaves and the
souls of men must be well-pleasing to God, and are indications
of true loyalty to the cause of liberty. I have the pleasure of
introducing to you a very excellent fanatic, a very good infidel,
and a first-rate traitor, in the person of Theodore Parker, of
Boston." 397

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
member the threefold misfortune of my position: I
come after an African, after a woman, and in the
place of Wendell- Phillips.
I shall ask your attention to some Thoughts on the
Present Aspect of the Anti-slavery Enterprise, and
the Forces which work therefor.
In all great movements of mankind, there are three
special works to be done, so many periods of work, and
the same number of classes of persons therein en
gaged. First is the period of sentiment. The business is
to produce the right feeling, — a sense of lack, and a
fore-feeling of desire for the special thing required.
The aim is to produce a sense of need, and also a feel
ing of want. That is the first thing.
The next period is that of ideas, where the work
is to furnish the thought of what is wanted, — a dis
tinct, precise, adequate idea. The sentiment must
precede the thought: for the primitive element in all
human conduct is a feeling; everything begins in a
spontaneous emotion.
The third is the period of action, when the business
is to make the thought a thing, to organize it into
institutions. The idea must precede the action, else
man begins to build and is not able to finish: he runs
before he is sent, and knows not where he is going, or
the way thither.
Now these three special works go on in the anti-
slavery movement; there are these three periods ob
servable, and three classes of persons engaged in the
various works. The first effort is to excite the anti-
slavery feeling; the next, to furnish the anti-slavery
idea; and the third is to make that thought a thing, — ¦
to organize the idea into institutions which shall be as

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 399
wide as the idea, and f uhy adequate to> express the feel
ing itself.
I. The primitive thing has been, and still is, to
arouse a sense of humanity in the whites, which should
lead us to abolish this wickedness.
Another way would be to arouse a sense of indigna
tion in the person who has suffered the wrong, — in
the slave, — and to urge him, of himself, to put a stop
to bearing the wickedness.
Two things there were which hindered this from
being attempted. First, some of the anti-slavery lead
ers were non-resistant ; they said it is wrong for the
black man to break the arm of the oppressor, and we
will only pray God to break it: the slaves must go
free without breaking it themselves. That was one
reason why the appeal was not made to the slave.
The leaders were non-resistants ; some of them covered
with a Quaker's hat, some of them (pointing to Mr.
Garrison, who was bald) not by any covering at all.
The other reason was, the slaves themselves were
Africans, — men not very good at the sword. If the
case had been otherwise, — if it had been three and a
half millions of Anglo-Saxons, — the chief anti-slavery
appeal would not have been to the oppressor to> leave
off oppressing, but to the victim to> leave off bearing
the oppression. For, while the African is not very
good with the sword, the Anglo-Saxon is something of
a master with that ugly weapon ; at any rate, he knows
how to use it. If the Anglo-Saxon had not been a
better fighter than the African, slave-ships would fill
this side of Sandy Hook and Boston Bay ; they would
not take pains to go to the Gulf of Guinea. The
only constitution which slave-hunters respect is writ
on the parchment of a drum-head. If the three and a

400 THE RIGHTS OF MAN-
half millions of slaves had been white men, with this
dreadful Anglo-Saxon blood in their bosoms, do you
suppose the affair at Cincinnati would have turned
out after that sort? Do you believe Governor Chase
would have said, " No slavery outside of the slave
States ; but, inside of the slave States, just as much en
slavement of Anglo-Saxon men as you please " ?
Why, his head would not have been on his shoulders
twenty-four hours after he had said it. In the State
of Ohio, when Margaret Garner was surrendered up,
there were four hundred thousand able-bodied men
between the ages of eighteen and forty-five; there
were half a million of firelocks in that State; and, if
that woman had been the representative of three and a
half millions of white persons held as slaves, every one
of those muskets would have started into hfe, and four
hundred thousand men would have come forth, each
with a firelock on his shoulder; and then one hundred
thousand women would have followed, bringing the
rest of the muskets. That would have been the state
of things if she had been a white Caucasian woman,
and not a black African. We should not then have
asked Quakers to lead in the greatest enterprise in the
world : the leaders would have been soldiers ; I mean
such men as our fathers, who did not content them
selves with asking Great Britain to leave off oppres
sing them. They asked that first; and when Great
Britain said, " Please God, we never will ! " what did
the Saxon say? "Please God, I will make you!"
And he kept his word.
"Gods!" (we should have said,)
" Can a Saxon people long debate
Which of the two to choose, — slavery, or death?
No: let us rise at once, gird on our swords,
. . . Attack the foe, break through the thick array
Of his thronged legions, and charge home upon him ! "

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 401
That would have been the talk. Meetings would have
been opened with prayer by men who trusted in God,
and likewise kept their powder dry.
But in this case it was otherwise. The work has
not been to arouse the indignation of the enslaved,
but to stir the humanity of the oppressor, to touch his
conscience, his affection, his religious sentiment; or to
show that his political and pecuniary interests re
quired the freedom of all men in America.
And it has been very fortunate for us that this great
enterprise fell into the hands of just such men as
these, — that it was not soldiers who chiefly engaged
in it, but men of peace. By and by I will show you
why. The attempt was made at first, and by that gentle
man too (pointing to Mr. Garrison), with others, to
arouse the anti-slavery feeling in the actual slave
holders at the South. You know what followed. He
and every one who tried it there were driven over the
border. Then the attempt was made at the North;
and there it has been continued. It is exceedingly
important to get a right anti-slavery feeling at the
North: for two-thirds of the population are at the
North; three-fourths of the property, four-fifths of
the education are here, and I suppose six-sevenths of
the Christianity ; and one of these days it may be found
out that seven-eighths of the courage are at the North
also. I do not say it is so ; but it may turn out so.
So much for the matter of sentiment.
II. Now look at the next point. If the sentiment
be right, then the mind is to furnish the idea. But a
statement of the idea before the sentiment is fixed
helps to excite the feeling; and so a great deal has
been done to spread abroad the anti-slavery idea, even
XIII— 26

402 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
amongst persons who had not the anti-slavery feeling ;
for, though the heart helps the head, the head likewise
pays back the debt by helping the heart. If Mr. Gar
rison has a clear idea of freedom, he will go to men
who have no very strong sentiment of freedom, and will
awake the soul of liberty underneath those ribs of
death. The womanhood of Lucy Stone Blackweh will
do it; the complexion of Mr. Remond wih do it.
In spreading this idea of freedom, a good deal has
been done, chiefly at the North, but something also at
the South. Attempts have been made to diffuse the
anti-slavery idea in this way: Men go before mer
chants, and say, " Slavery is bad economy ; it don't
pay: the slave can't raise so much tobacco and cotton
as the freeman." That is an argument which Mr.
May's mercantile friend could have understood; and
a political economist might have shown him, that, al
though there were millions of dollars invested " on ac
count of slavery," there were tens of millions in
vested on account of freedom; and that latter in
vestment would pay much larger dividends when it got
fairly to its work.
Then, too, the attempt has been made to show that
it was bad policy : bondage would not breed a stalwart,
noble set of men ; for the slave contaminated the mas
ter, and the master's neighbor not the less.
It has been shown, likewise, that slavery injured
education; and while, in Massachusetts, out of four
hundred native white men, there is but one who can
not read the Bible, in Virginia, out of nine white na
tive adults born of " the first families " (they having
none others except "black people"), there is always
one who cannot read his own name.
All kinds of schemes, too, have been proposed to

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 403
end this wickedness of slavery. There has been a
most multifarious discussion of the idea ; for, after we
have the right sentiment, it is difficult to get the intel
lectual work done, done well, in the best way. It takes
a large-minded man, with great experience, to cipher
out all this intellectual work, and show how we can
get rid of slavery, and what is to take its place, and
how the thing is to be done. Accordingly, very vari
ous schemes are proposed.
Now, the idea which has been attained to, the anti-
slavery idea reached by the ablest men, is embodied
in these two propositions : first, no slavery any
where in America; second, no slavery anywhere
on earth. That is the topmost idea.
There has been an opposite work going on. First,
an attempt " to crush out " the sentiment of humanity
from ah mankind. That was the idea of a very dis
tinguished son of Massachusetts. He said, " It must
be crushed out." Second, to put down the idea of
freedom. That has been attempted, not only by po
litical officers, but also by a great many other men. It
is not to be denied that, throughout the South, in the
controlhng classes of society, the sentiment and idea
of freedom are much less widely spread than twenty
years ago. The South has grown despotic, while the
North becomes more humane.
III. The third thing is to do the deed. After the
sentiment is right, and the idea right, organization
must be attended to. But the greatest and most dif
ficult work is to get the heart right and the head right ;
for, when these are in a proper condition, the hand obeys
the two, and accomplishes its work. Still it is a dif
ficult matter to organize freedom. It will require great
talent and experience; for, as it takes a master mind

404 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
to organize thought into matter, and to make a Sharp s
rifle or a sewing-machine, so it requires a great deal
more mind to organize an idea into political institu
tions, and establish, a State where the anti-slavery senti
ment shall blossom into an idea, and the idea grow into
a national fact, a State where law and order secure to
each man his natural and inalienable rights.
In the individual Northern States a good deal has
been done in five-and-twenty years to organize the idea
of freedom for white men, a little also for colored men ;
for the feeling and thought must lead to action. But
in the Federal Government the movement has been con
tinually the other way. Two things are plain in the
conduct of Congress: (1) Acts to spread and
strengthen African slavery; (2) Subsidiary acts to
oppress the several Northern States which love free
dom, and to " crush out " individual men who love free
dom. Slavery centralizes power, and destroys local
self-government. Something has been done in the Northern States in
respect to awakening the sentiment and communicating
the idea ; but there has nothing been done as yet in the
Federal Congress towards accomplishing, the work. I
mean to say, for the last seventy years, Congress has
not taken one single step towards abolishing slavery,
or making the anti-slavery idea an American fact. So
even now ah these three operations must needs go on.
Much elementary work still requires to be done, pro
ducing the sentiment and the idea, before the nation
is ready for the act.
Now look at the special forces which are engaged
in this enterprise. I divide them into two great par
ties. The first party consists of the political reformers, —

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 405
men who wish to act by political machinery, and are
in government offices, legislative, judicial, and execu
tive. The second party is the non-political reformers, who
are not, and do not wish to be, in government offices,
legislative, judicial, or executive.
Look a moment at the general functions of each
party, and then at the particular parties themselves, —
at the business, and then at the business men.
The business of the political man, legislative, judi
cial, and executive, is confined to the third part of the
anti-slavery work ; namely, to organizing the idea, and
making the anti-slavery thought a thing. The po
litical reformer, as such, is not expected to kindle the
sentiment or create the idea, only to take what he finds
ready, and put it into form. The political legislature
is to make laws and institutions which organize the
idea. The political judiciary is to expound the laws,
and is limited thereby. The political executive is to
administer the institution, and is limited to that: he
cannot go beyond it. So* the judiciary and the ex
ecutive are limited by the laws and institutions. The
legislature is chosen by the people to represent the
people; that is, it is chosen to represent and to or
ganize the ideas, and to express the sentiments, of the
people; not to organize sentiments which are in ad
vance of the people, or which are behind the people.
The political legislator is restricted by the ideas of
the people: if he wants what they do not want, then
they do not want him. If Senator Wilson had a mil
lion of men and women in Massachusetts who enter
tained the sentiments and ideas of Mr. Garrison, why
he would represent the sentiments and ideas of Mr.
Garrison, would express them in Congress, and would
go to work to organize those ideas.

406 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
In hoisting the anchor of a ship, two sets of men
are at work, two machines. One, I think, is called the
windlass. Many powerful men put their levers to
that, and hoist the anchor up out from the deep. Be
hind them is the capstan, whose business it is to haul
in the rope. Now, the function of the non-political
reformer is to hoist the anchor up from the bottom:
he is the windlass. But the business of Chase, Hale,
Sumner, and Wilson, and other political reformers,
is to haul in the slack, and see that what the windlass
has raised up is held on to, and that the anchor does
not drop back again to the bottom. The men at the
windlass need not call out to the men at the capstan,
" Haul in more slack ! " when there is m} more to haul
in. This is the misfortune of the position of the men
at the capstan, — they cannot turn any faster than the
windlass gives them slack rope to wind up. That
ought to be remembered. Every political man, before
he takes his post, ought to understand that; and the
non-political men, when they criticize him never so
sharply, ought to remember that the men at the cap
stan cannot turn any faster than the men at the wind
lass. If the politician is to keep in office, he must accom
modate himself to the ideas of the people ; for the peo
ple are sovereign, and reign, while the politicians only
govern with delegated power, but do not reign: they
are agents, trustees, holding by a special power of at
torney, which authorizes them to do certain things,
for doing which they are responsible to the people.
In order to carry his point, the politician must have a
majority on his side: he cannot wait for it to grow,
but must have it now, else he loses his post. He takes
the wolf by the ears ; and, if he lets go, the wolf eats

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 407
him up : he must therefore lay hold where he can clinch
fast and continue. If Mr. Sumner, in his place in
the Senate, says what Massachusetts does not indorse,
out goes Mr. Sumner. It is the same with the rest.
All politicians are well aware of that fact. I have
sometimes thought they forgot a great many other
things ; they very seldom forget that.
See the proof of what I say. If you will go into
any political meeting of Whigs or Democrats, you
shall find the ablest men of the party on the platform,
— the great Whigs, the great Democrats ; " the rest of
mankind" will be on the floor. Now, watch the
speeches. They do not propose an idea, or appeal
to a sentiment that is in advance of the people. But,
when you go into an anti-slavery meeting, you find
that the platform is a great ways higher than the
pews, uniformly so. Accordingly, when an African
speaks (who is commonly supposed to be lower than
the rest of mankind) and says a very generous thing,
there is a storm of hisses all round this hall. What
does it show? That the anti-slavery platform which
the African stands on is somewhat higher than the
general level of the floor, even in the city of New
York. The politician on his platform often speaks
to the bottom of the floor, and not to the top of the
ceiling. So much for the political reformers : I am not speak
ing of political hunkers. Now a word of the non-
political reformers. Their business is, first, to produce
the sentiment ; next, the idea ; and, thirdly, to suggest
the mode of action. The anti-slavery non-political re
former is to raise the cotton, to spin it into thread, to
weave it into web, to prescribe the pattern after which
the dress is to be made ; and then he is to pass over the

408 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
cloth and the pattern to the political reformer, and
say, " Now, sir, take your shears, and cut it out, and
make it up." You see how very inferior the business
of the political reformer is, after all. The non-po
litical reformer is not restricted by any law, any con
stitution, any man, nor by the people, because he is
not to deal with institutions; he is to make the insti
tutions better. If he does not like the Union, he is
to say so; and, just as soon as he has gathered an
audience inside of the Union that is a little too large
for its limits, the Union will be taken down without
much noise, and piled up, — just as this partition (al
luding to the partition dividing the hall) has been
taken down this morning, — and there will be a larger
place. The non-political reformer can say, " Down
with the Constitution ! " but the political reformer has
sworn to keep the Constitution. He is foreclosed from
saying that to-day : by and by he can recant his oath,
and say it when he gets ready. The non-political re
former is not restricted by fear of losing office. Wen
dell Phillips can say just what he pleases anywhere: if
men will not hear him in Faneuil Hall, they wih, per
haps, in the Old South Meeting-house. If they will
not hear him there, he can speak on the Common; at
any rate, in some little school-house.
The political reformer must have a majority with
him, else he cannot do anything ; he has not carried
his point or accomplished his end. But the non-po
litical reformer has accomplished part of his end, if he
has convinced one man out of a million ; for that one
man will work to convince another, and by and by the
whole will be convinced. A political reformer must
get a majority; a non-political reformer has done
something if he has the very smallest minority, even if

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 409
it is a minority of one. The politician needs bread:
he goes, therefore, to the baker; and bread must be
had to-day. He says, " I am starving: I can't wait."
The baker says, " Go and raise the corn." " Why,
bless you," he replies, " it will take a year to do that ;
and I can't wait." The non-political reformer does
not depend on the baker. The baker says, " I have
not much flour." " Very well," he says, " I am going
to procure it for you." So he puts in the seed, and
raises the harvest. Sometimes he must take the land
wild, and even cut down the forest, and scare off the
wild beasts. After he has done that preliminary work,
he has to put in the anti-slavery seed, raise the anti-
slavery corn, and then get the public baker to make
the bread with which to feed the foremost of the po
litical reformers, — men like Seward, Hale, Sumner,
and Wilson. They do all that is possible in their pres
ent position, with such a constituency behind them:
they will do more and better soon as the people com
mand ; nay, they wih not wait for orders, — soon as
the people allow them. These men are not likely to
prove false to their trust. They urge the people for
ward. So much for the business. Now look at the business
men. I. Look first at the political part of the anti-slavery
forces. 1. There is the Repubhcan party. That is a direct
force for anti-slavery; but, as the anti-slavery idea
and sentiment are not very wide-spread, the ablest
members of the Republican party are forced to leave
their special business as politicians, and go into the
elementary work of the non-political reformers. Ac
cordingly, Mr. Wilson stumped all Massachusetts last

410 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
year, — yes, all the North ; not working for a purpose
purely political, but for a purpose purely anti-slavery,
— to excite the anti-slavery sentiment, to produce an
anti-slavery idea. And Mr. Sumner has had to do
that work, even in our city of Boston. Yet New Eng
land is further advanced in anti-slavery than any other
part of America. The superiority of the Puritan
stock shows itself everywhere; I mean its moral su
periority. Look at this platform: how many persons
here are of New England origin? If an anti-slavery
meeting was held at San Francisco or New Orleans, it
would be still the same; the platform would be Yan
kee. It is the foot of New England which stands on
that platform. It is to tread slavery down. But,
notwithstanding New England is the most anti-slavery
portion of the whole land, these political men, whose
business ought to be only to organize the anti-slavery
ideas, and give expression to anti-slavery sentiments
in the Senate, or House of Representatives, are forced
to abandon that work from time to time, to go about
amongst the people, and produce the anti-slavery senti
ment and idea itself. Let us not be very harsh in
criticising these men, remembering that they are not
so well supported behind as we could all wish they
were. This Republican party has some exceedingly able
men. As a Massachusetts man, in another State, I am
not expected to say anything in praise of Mr. Sum
ner, or Mr. Wilson, or Mr. Banks. It would be
hardly decorous for a Massachusetts man, out of his
own State, to speak in praise of those men. And they
need no praise from my lips. And, as a New Eng
land man, I think it is not necessary for me to praise
Mr. Hale or Mr. Foote, Mr. Collamer, Mr. Fessenden,

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 411
or any other eminent political men of New England.
But, as a New Englander and a Massachusetts man,
you will allow me to say a word in praise of one who
has no drop of Puritan blood in his veins ; who was
never in New England but twice, — the first time to
attend a cattle-show, and the last to stand on Plymouth
Rock, on Forefathers' Day, and, in the bosom of the
sons and daughters of the Puritans, to awaken the
anti-slavery sentiment and kindle the anti-slavery idea.
I am speaking of your own Senator Seward. As I
cannot be accused of State pride or of sectional vanity
in praising him, let me say, that, in all the United
States, there is not at this day a politician so able, soi
far-sighted, so cautious, so wise, so discriminating,
and apparently so gifted with power to organize ideas
into men, and administer that organization, as Wil
liam Henry Seward. I know the other men ; I detract
nothing from them. It is a great thing to be second
where Seward is first.
Of course, this party, as such, will make mistakes;
individual Republicans will do wrong things. It has
been declared here that Mr. Hale says, in his place in
the Senate, that he would not disturb slavery nor the
slaveholders. I doubt that he ever said so in public;
I am sure it is not his private opinion. I know not
what he said that has been so misunderstood. His
sentiment is as strongly anti-slavery as our friend
Garrison's; but he is just now in what they cah a
" tight place , " he wants to do one thing at a time.
The same is true of Henry Wilson and of Charles
Sumner: they want to do one thing at a time. I do
not find fault with their wishing to do that. The Con
stitution is the power of attorney which tells them how
to act as official agents of the people; how to govern

412 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
for the sovereign people, whose vicegerents they are.
But there are Republican politicians who limit their
work to one special thing, and say, " To-day will we
do this, and then strike work for ever. We do not
intend to do anything to-morrow." They say,
" Please God, we will pull up these weeds to-day."
The South says, " You shan't ! " And these men say,
" Let us pull up these : we will never touch those which
grow just the other side of the path." They hate
those other weeds just as much; they mean to pull them
up: but I am sorry to hear them say they do not in
tend to: and I am glad to hear severe censure passed
upon them for promising never to do that particular
thing, — not for taking one step at a time. If we only
find fault with real offenders, we shall still have work
enough to do.
I say this party has great names and powerful men.
It will gain others from the Democrats and from the
Whigs alike. See what it has gathered from the Dem
ocrats! Look at that high-toned and noble newspa
per, the Evening Post, and its editor, not only gifted
with the genius of poetry, which is a great thing, but
with the genius of humanity, which is tenfold greater.
See likewise such a man as Francis P. Blair coming
into this movement! Governor Chase is another that
it has gathered from that party. There are various
other men whom I might mention from both the old
political parties. Then see what service is rendered
to the cause of humanity by a newspaper, which, a
few years ago, seemed sworn for ever to Henry Clay.
I speak of the only paper in the world which counts its
readers by the million, — the New York Tribune. The
Republican party gathers the best hearts and the
noblest heads out of the Whig and the Democratic

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 413
parties. If faithful, it will do more in this way for
the future than in the past. The Democratic party
continues to exist by these two causes: (1) Its ad
mirable organization; (2) The tradition of noble ideas
and sentiments. In this respect, it is to the Americans
what the Catholic Church is to Europe ; the leaders of
the two about equally corrupt, the rank and file about
equally deceived, hoodwinked, and abused. Which is
the better, — to be politician-ridden, or priest-ridden?
Good men will become weary of such service, and leave
the party for a better, soon as they are sure that it is
better. 2. Look next at the American party, so called: it
is anti-American in some particulars. This is an in
direct anti-slavery force, as the Republican party is a
direct anti-slavery force. I suppose you know what
its professed principle is, — " No foreign influence in
our politics." Now, that principle comes partly from
a national instinct, whose function is this : first, to pre
vent the excess of foreign blood in our veins ; and, sec
ondly, the excess of foreign ideas in the American con
sciousness. Well, it was necessary there should be
that party. It has a very important function; be
cause it is possible for a people to take so much for
eign blood in its veins, and so many foreign ideas to
its consciousness, that its nationality perishes.
In part, this principle comes from the national in
stinct; and that is always stronger in the great mass
of the people than it is in any class of men with " su
perior education : " for the superior education consists
almost wholly in development of the understanding, —
the thinking part, — not in culture of the conscience,
the affections, and the religious element. Therefore,
for the national instinct, I never look to lawyers, min-

414 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
isters, doctors, literary and scientific men, or, in short,
to the class of men who have what is called the " best
education : " I look to the great mass of the people.
It seems to me that the national instinct of the Saxon
had something to do in making this principle of the
American party so popular.
However, I do not think the chief devotion to this
principle comes from that source, but from one very
much corrupter than that, — a source a great deal
lower than the uneducated mass of the Northern peo
ple. It comes from pohtical partisans, — men who
want office. There are two ways of getting into high
office. One is to fly there: that is a very good way for
an animal furnished with wings. The other is to
crawl there : that is the only way left for such as have
no wings, and no legs, and no arms. Well, there was
a class of men at the North who could not fly into of
fice; and when the way which led up to the office was
perpendicular, and went up straight, they could not
crawl; they were so slippery, that they fell off: there
was not strength enough in their natural gluten to
hold up their natural weight. Such men could not
fly there; they could not crawl there, so long as the
road went straight up ; so they took the Know-nothing
plank, which sloped up pretty gradually; and on it
Mr. Gardner crawled into the governorship of Massa
chusetts. A good many men, in various other States,
wormed up on that gently sloping inclined plane, who
else never would have been within sight of any con
siderable office. Now it is this class of men, who
caught sight of that principle demanded by the na
tional instinct, which fears an excess of foreign blood
in our veins, and of foreign ideas in our conscious
ness ; and they said, " Let us make use of that as a

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 415
plank upon which we can crawl up into office." They
have got in there ; but before long they will fall out
of their lofty hole, or, if they stay in, will be shriv
eled up, dried clear through, and by and by be blown
off so far that no particle of them will ever be found
again. The American party just now, throughout
all the United States, I fear, has fallen into the hands
of this class of men. It does not any longer, I think,
represent the instinct of the less-educated people, or
the consciousness of the more thoughtful people, but
the designs of artful, crafty, and rather low-minded
persons. But let no injustice be done. In the party are still
noble men, who entered it full of this national instinct,
with these three negations on their banner, — No
Priestcraft, No Liquor, No New Slave States. Some
of them still adhere to the worst of the leaders of
their party. Loyalty is as strong in the Saxon as in
the Russian or Spaniard; as often attaches itself to a
mean man. It is now painful to see such faithful
worshipers of such false " gods." " An idol is noth
ing," says St. Paul : it may also be a Know-nothing.
This party, notwithstanding its origin and charac
ter, has done two good works — one negative, one
positive. First, it helped destroy the Whig and Democratic
party. That was very essential. The anti-slavery
man, the non-pohtical reformer, wanted to sow his seed
in the national soil. It was dreadfully cumbered with
weeds of two kinds — Whig-weed and Democrat-
weed. The Know-nothings lent their hands to destroy
these weeds; and they have pulled up the Whig-weed
pretty thoroughly : they have torn it up by the roots,
shaken the soil from it, and it hes there partly drying

416 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and partly rotting, but, at any rate, pretty thor
oughly dead. They laid hold of the Democrat-weed.
That was a little too rank, and strongly rooted in the
ground, for them to pull up. Nevertheless, they
loosened its roots; they gave it a twist in the trunk;
they broke off some branches, and stripped off some
of its leaves, and it does not look quite so flourishing
as it did several years ago.
Now this negative work is very important; for, if
we could get both these kinds of weed out of the soil,
it would not be a very difficult matter to sow the seed
and raise a harvest of anti-slavery.
Next for the positive work. It calls out men who
hitherto have never taken the initiative in pohtics, but
have voted just as they were bid. I will speak of
Massachusetts, of Boston. We had there a large
class of excellent men, who always went, a week or two
before the election, to the Whigs and Democrats, and
said, " Whom are we to vote for? " The great
Whigs said, " We have not yet taken counsel of the
Lord; we shall do so to-morrow, and then we will teh
you." So these men went home, and bowed their
knees, and waited in silent submission ; and the next
day their masters said, " You are to vote for John
Smith or John Brown," or whosoever it chanced to
be. And the people said, " Hurrah for the great
John Smith ! " " Hurrah for the great John
Brown ! " " Did you ever hear of him before? "
asked some one. " No : but he is the greatest man
alive." "Who told you so?" "Oh! our masters
told us so." Now, the Know-nothings went to that
class of men, and said, " You have been fooled long
enough." " So we have," said the people, " and no
mistake! and we wih not bear it any longer." They

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 417
would not be fooled any longer by the Whigs, and
some of them no longer by the Democrats; but they
were fooled by the Know-nothings. Nevertheless, it
was an important thing for this class of people to
take the initiative in political matters. If they
stumbled as they tried to go alone, it is what all chil
dren have done. " Up and take another," is good
advice. So the Know-nothings not only pulled up
the Whig-weed, and left it to rot, but they stirred
the land ; they ploughed it deep with a subsoil plough,
turning up a whole stratum of people which had
never been brought up to the surface of the political
garden before. That was another very important
matter; and yet, allow me to say, with all this sub-
soiling, they have not turned up one single man who
proves powerful in politics, and at the same time new.
Mr. Wilson owes his place in the Senate to the Know-
nothings: he was known to be a powerful man be
fore. Mr. Banks owes his place to this party; he
also was a powerful man before. I do not find, any
where in the United States, that the Americans have
brought one single able man before the people, who
was not known to the people just as well before.
You shall determine what that fact means. I shall not
say just now.
At the South, this party has done greater service
than at the North; for, among the non-slaveholders
at the South, there is a class of men with very little
money, less education, and no social standing what
soever. That class have been deprived of their po
litical power by the rich, educated, and respectable
slaveholders; for the slaveholders make the laws,
fill the offices, and monopolize all the government of
the South. Those " poor whites " are nothing but the
XIII— 27

418 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
dogs of the slaveholder. Whenever he says, " Seize
him, Dirt-eater ! " away goes this whole pack of pro-
slavery dogs, catching hold of whomsoever their mas
ter set them upon. This class of men, having no
money and no education, and no means of getting
any, deprived of political influence, felt that they
were crushed down; but they were too ignorant to
know what hurt them. They had no newspapers, no
means of concerted action. Northern men have un
dertaken to help those men. Mr. Vaughan estab
lished his newspaper at Cleveland chiefly for the pur
pose of reaching them. Cassius M. Clay, in Ken
tucky, said, " Let us speak to that class of men."
Once in a while, you hear of their holding a meeting
somewhere in Virginia, and uttering some kind of
anti-slavery sentiment or idea. Very soon they are
put down. Now, the Know-nothings went among the
" poor whites " in the South, and organized American
lodges. The whole thing was done in secret; so that
the organization was established, and set on its legs,
before the slaveholders knew anything about it: it
was strong, and had grown up to be a great boy be
fore they knew the child was born. Of course, the
Southern Know-nothing party, at first, does not know
exactly what to do; so it takes the old ideas of per
sons that are about it, and becomes intensely pro-
slavery. That is not quite all. The Whigs at the
South have always been feeble. They saw that their
party was going to pieces; and, with the instinct of
that other animal which flees out of the house which
is likely to fall, they sought shelter under some safer
roof: they fled to the Know-nothing organization.
The leading Whigs got control of the party at the
South, and made that still more pro-slavery in the

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 419
South which was already sufficiently despotic at the
North. Nevertheless, there has now risen up, at the
South, a body of men who, when they come to com
plete consciousness of themselves, will see that they
are in the same boat with the black man, and that what
now curses the black man will also ruin the " poor
white " at last. At present, they are too ignorant to
understand that; for the bulk of the American party
at the South consists of Know-nothings, who were
such before they ever went into a lodge — natural
Know-nothings, who need no initiation. Neverthe
less, they are human ; and the truth, driven with the
slave-holder's hammer, will force itself even into such
heads. Such men are not hopeless. One day, we shah see
a great deal of good come from them. At present,
they are in the same condition with the Irish at Bos
ton — first, ignorant ; and next, controlled by their
priests ; for, as the Irish Cathohc in Boston and New
York is roughly ridden by that heavy ecclesiastical
rider, the priest, so the Know-nothings at the South
are still more roughly ridden by this desperate po
litical rider mounted upon their backs. One day,
both the Irish and the Know-nothing master wih be
unhorsed, and there will be no more such riding.
So much for these two anti-slavery forces — one
direct, and the other indirect.
This, let me say in general, is the sin of the poli
tician — he seeks office for his own personal gain,
and, when he is in it, refuses to organize the anti-
slavery ideas which he was put in office to develop and
represent. After the windlass has lifted the anchor,
he refuses to haul in the slack cable. That was the
case with Webster; it caused him his death. It was

420 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
the case with Everett; it brought him to private life
and political min. Many are elected as anti-slavery
men, who prove false to their professions. New Eng
land is rich in traitors. The British executive
bought Benedict Arnold with money; the American
executive has since bought many an Arnold. Look
at the present national administration. In 1852,
had he published his programme of principles and
measures, do you think Mr. Pierce would have had
the vote of a single Northern State? Not an elec
toral vote would have been given by the North for
robbing the people of a million square miles of land,
and bestowing it on three hundred and fifty thousand
slaveholders! He is an official swindler. He got
his place by false pretenses — the juggling trick of
the thimble-rigger. Mr. Hale says, " For every
doughfaced representative, there is a doughfaced
constituency." It is true; but the constituency is
not always quite so soft as the delegate ; it is at least
slack-baked, and does not pretend to be what it knows
it is not.
Here, too, let me say, it is a great misfortune
that the North has not sent more strong men to the
political work. In time of war, you take the ablest
men you can find, and put them to do the military
work of the people. The North commonly sends her
ablest men to science, literature, productive industry,
trade, and manufactures ; the South, hers to politics ;
and so she outwits and beats us from one fifty years
to another. But, in such a terrible battle as this
before us now, rest assured the North cannot afford
to send her strong men to calhngs directly productive
of pecuniary value : we must have them in politics —
men of great mind, able to see far behind and be-

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 421
fore; of great experience, to organize and administer.
Above all must our statesmen be men of great justice
and humanity, such as reverence the higher law of
God. Integrity is the first thing needed in a statesman.
The time may come when the men of largest human
power may go to the shop, the counting-room, the
farm, the ship, to science, or preaching: just now we
cannot afford to make a land-surveyor out of a Wash
ington, or turn our Franklins into tahowchandlers.
When we can afford such expenditure, I shall not ob
ject: now we are not rich enough to allow Moses to
tend sheep, asses, and young camels, or to keep Paul
at tent-making.
Here are the anti-slavery forces which are not po
litical. They are various.
At first, the anti-slavery men looked to the American
Church, and said : " That will be our great bulwark
and defender." Instead of being a help, it has been a
hindrance. If the American Church, twenty years
ago, could have dropped through the continent, and
disappeared altogether, the anti-slavery cause would
have been further on than it is at this day. If, re
maining above ground, every minister in the United
States had sealed his lips, and said, " Before God,
I wih say no word for freedom or against it, in be
half of the slaveholder or of his victim," the anti-
slavery enterprise would have been further on than it
is at this day. I say that, notwithstanding the ma
jestic memory of William Ehery Channing, a mag
nanimous man, whose voice rang like a trumpet
through the continent, following that other clearer,
higher, more widely sounding voice, still spared to
us on earth (Mr. Garrison's); notwithstanding the
eloquent words which do honor to the name of Beecher

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
and the heart of humanity ; notwithstanding the pres
ence of this dear good soul (referring to Samuel J.
May), whose presence in the anti-slavery cause has
been like the month whose name he bears, and has
brought a whole lapful of the sweetest flowers, —
the Church has hindered more than it has helped.
For the tallest heads in the great sects were lifted up
to blaspheme the God of Righteousness, and commit
the sin which Mr. Remond says is second only to
atheism, — the denial of humanity. While the atheist
openly denied God, many a minister openly denied
man. I think the minister committed the worst sin;
for he sinned in the name of God, and hypocritically :
he wrought his blasphemy that he might gain his
daily bread, while the atheist periled his bread and
his reputation when he stood up, and said, " I think
there is no God." I have no respect for atheism ; but
when a man in the pulpit blasphemes the divinity of
God by treading the humanity of man under his
anointed foot, I say I would take my chance in the next
world with him who speaks out of his own heart, in
his blindness, and says, " There is no God," rather
than share the lot of that man who, in the name of
Jesus and of the Father, treads down humanity, and
declares there is no higher law.
There are a great many direct anti-slavery forces.
1. The conduct of the slaveholders in the South,
and their allies, has awakened the indignation of the
North. The Fugitive Slave Bill was an anti-slavery
measure. We said so six years ago ; now we know it.
Kidnapping is anti-slavery; it makes anti-slavery
men. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise stirred
anti-slavery sentiment in Northern hearts. The con
duct of affairs in Kansas, Judge Kane's wickedness,

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 423
and the horrible outrage at Cincinnati, — all these
turn out anti-slavery measures. Mr. Douglas stands
in his place in the Senate, and turns his face north,
and says, " We mean to subdue you." The mass at
the North says, " We are not going to be subdued."
It is an anti-slavery resolution. The South repu
diates Democracy: the Charleston Mercury and the
Richmond Examiner say that the Declaration of In
dependence is a great mistake when it says all men
are by nature equal in their right to hfe, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness, — that there is no greater
lie in the world. When the North understands that,
it says, " I am anti-slavery at once." The North has
not heard it yet thoroughly. One day it will.
2. Then there are the general effects of education:
it enhghtens men, so that they can see that slavery is
a bad speculation, bad economy.
3. Then there is the progressive moralization of
the North. The North is getting better, more and
more Christian and humane. It was never so tem
perate as to-day, never so just, never so moral, never
so humane and philanthropic. To be sure, even now
we greatly overlook our black brother: it is because
he is not an Anglo-Saxon. But he has human blood
in his veins : by and by we shall see our black brother
also. » 4. Then the better portion of the Northern press
is on our side. Consider what quantities of books
have been written within the last ten years full of
anti-slavery sentiment, and running over with anti-
slavery ideas. Think of " Uncle Tom's Cabin " and
the host of books, only inferior to that, which have
been published. Then look at the newspapers. I
just spoke of the Evening Post, and Tribune: look

424 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
at the New York Independent, with twenty thousand
subscribers, with so much anti-slavery in it. It does
not go the length that I wish it did, and sometimes
it does very mean things; for it is not unitary. See
what powerful anti-slavery agents are the Evening
Post, the Independent, the New York Times, and the
New York Tribune, and that whole army of news
papers, some of them in every Northern city; not to
forget the National Era, at Washington. Besides
these, there are the anti-slavery newspapers proper,
the Liberator, the Standard, and divers others, only
second where it is praise to be inferior.
5. Then there is the anti-slavery party proper,
with its men, its money, and its immense force in the
country. What power of religion it has ! I know
it has been called anti-religious, anti-Christian, in
fidel. Was not Jesus of Nazareth nailed to the cross,
between two thieves, on the charge that he blasphemed
God? How rich is this party in its morals, how
mighty in its eloquence ! I am sorry its most per
suasive lips are not here to-day to speak for them
selves and for you, and instead of me. Here is a
woman also in the anti-slavery ranks. I need say
nothing of her: her own sweet music just now awoke
the tune of humanity in your hearts, and I saw the
anti-slavery sentiment spring in tears out of your
eyes. One day, from such watering, it will blossom
into an anti-slavery idea, and fruiten into anti-slavery
acts. (1.) Here is the merit of this anti-slavery party.
It appeals to the very widest and deepest humanity.
It knows no restriction of State or Church. If the
State is wrong, the anti-slavery party says, " Away
with the State ! " if the Church is mistaken, " Down

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 425
with the Church ! " If the people are wrong, then
it says, " Woe unto you, 0 ye people ! you are sinning
against God, and your sin will find you out." It does
not appeal to the pohtician, the priest, the editor
alone ; it goes to the people, face to face, eye to eye,
heart to heart, and speaks to them, and with immense
power. It knows no man after the flesh. Let me
suppose an impossibility — that Mr. May should be
come as Everett, and Mr. Garrison as Webster: would
their sin be forgiven by the abolitionists? No: those
who sit behind them now would stand, not on this
platform, but on this table, and denounce them for
their short-coming and wrong-doing. They spare
no man; they forgive no sin against the idea of free
dom. They are not selfish; for they ask nothing except
an opportunity to do their duty. And they have had
nothing except a " chance " to do that ; always in ill
report until now, when you shall judge how much
there is of good report awaiting them.
They are untiring. I wish they would sink
through the platform, so that I could say what would
now put them to the blush before so large an audi
ence. They appeal to the high standard of absolute right.
This is their merit. The nation owes them a great
debt, which will not be paid in this life. Their re
ward is in the nobleness which does such deeds and
lives such life : thus they will take with them " an in
heritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth
not away."
(2.) Here, I think, is their defect. They forget,
sometimes, that there must be political workmen.
This comes from the fact, that, to so great an extent,

426 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
they are non-voters, even " non-resistants." If they
were the opposite, they would have appealed to vio
lence : being Quakers and non-resistants, they have not
done quite justice always, it seems to me, to those who
work in the political way.
This has been charged against them: that they
quarrel among themselves; two against three, and
three against two ; Douglass against Garrison, and
Garrison against Douglass; the liberty-party men
against the old anti-slavery men; and ah that. That
is perfectly true. But remember why it is so. You
can bring together a Democratic body, draw your hne,
and they all touch the mark : it is so with the Whigs.
They have long been drilled into it. But, whenever
a body of men with new ideas comes to organize, there
are as many opinions as persons. Pilate and Herod,
bitter enemies of each other, were made friends by
a common hostility to Jesus; but, when the twelve
disciples came together, they fell out: Paul resisted
Peter; James differed from John; and so on. It is
always so on every platform of new ideas, and wih
always be so — at least for a long time. We must
bear with one another the best we can.
I think that the anti-slavery party has not always
done quite justice to the political men. See why. It
is easy for Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips or me to
say all of our thought. I am responsible to nobody,
and nobody to me. But it is not easy for Mr. Sum
ner, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Chase to say all of their
thought; because they have a position to maintain,
and they must keep in that position. The political
reformer is hired to manage a mill owned by the peo
ple, turned by the popular stream — to grind into
anti-slavery meal such com as the people bring him

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 427
for that purpose, and other grain also into different
meal. He is not principal and owner, only attorney
and hired man. He must do his work so as to suit
his employers, else they say, " Thou mayest be no
longer miller." The non-political reformer owns his
own mill, which is turned by the stream drawn from
his private pond: he put up the dam, and may do
what he wih with his own — run it- ah night, on Sun
day, and the 4th of July ; may grind just as he hkes,
for it is his own corn. He sells his meal to such as
wih buy. He is in no danger of being turned out of
his office ; for he has no master — is not hired man to
any one.
The anti-slavery non-political reformer is to ex
cite the sentiment, and give the idea: he may tell his
whole scheme ah at once, if he will. But the political
reformer, who, for immediate action, is to organize
the sentiment and idea he finds ready for him, cannot
do or propose all things at once : he must do one thing
at a time, tell one thing at a time. He is to cleave
slavery off from the government ; and so must put the
thin part of his wedge in first, and that where it will
go the easiest. If he takes a glut as thick as an anti-
slavery platform, and puts it in anywhere, head fore
most, let him strike never so hard, he will not rend
off a splinter from the tough log; nay, will only
waste his strength, and split the head of his own
beetle !
Stih, this non-political, anti-slavery party — averse
to fighting, hostile to voters under present, if not all
possible, circumstances — has been of most immense
value to mankind. It has been a perpetual critic on
politicians; and now it has become so powerful that
every pohtical man in the North is afraid of it; and,

428 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
when he makes a speech, he asks not only, What will
the Whigs or the Democrats think of it? but, What
will the anti-slavery men say; what will the Liberator
and the Standard say of it? And, when a candidate
is to be presented for the office of President, the men
who make the nomination go to the Quakers of Penn
sylvania, and say, " Whom do you want? " They go
to the non-resistants of Massachusetts — men that
never vote or take office — and ask if it wih do to nom
inate this, that, or the other man. A true Church is to
criticize the world by a higher standard. The non-
political anti-slavery party is the Church of America
to criticize the politics of America. It has been of im
mense service ; it is now a great force.
6. Besides that, there is the spirit of the Anglo-
Saxon tribe, which hates oppression, which loves justice
and hberty, and will at last have freedom for all. Look
at its history for three hundred years — from 1556,
when the three millions of Old England were ruled by
the bloody Mary, to 1856, when the three millions of
New England govern themselves! Do you fear for
the next three hundred years? That historic momen
tum will not be lost.
7. Then there is the spirit of the age we hve in.
Only see what has been done in a century ! A hundred
years ago there were slaves in every corner of the land.
There are men on this platform, whose fathers, within
fourscore years, have not only owned black, but red
and white slaves also. See what a steady march there
has been of freedom in New England, and throughout
the North — likewise on the continent of Europe!
Christendom repudiates bondage. Think of British
and French emancipation, of Dutch and Danish.
Slavery is only at home in three places in Christendom,

ANTI-SLAVERY ENTERPRISE 429
— Russia, Brazil, and the south of the United States.
A hundred years ago there was not a spot in ah Eu
rope where there was not slavery in one form or an
other, — men put up at auction. It is only ninety-
eight years ago since men were kidnapped in Glasgow,
Scotland, and sold into bondage for ever in the City
of Brotherly Love, at Philadelphia. That thing took
place in 1758. See what an odds there is !
It is plain that American slavery is to end ultimately.
It cannot stand. The question before us is, " Shall it
ruin America before it stops ? " I think it will not.
The next question is, " Shall it end peaceably, as the
Quakers wish, and as all anti-slavery men wish, or shall
it end in blood? " On that point I shall not now give
my opinion.

XI
THE PRESENT CRISIS IN AMERICAN
AFFAIRS 1856
" Oh! ill for him, who, bettering not with time,
Corrupts the strength of Heaven-descended will,
And ever weaker grows through acted crime,
Or seeming-genial venial fault, —
Recurring and suggesting still!
He seems as one whose footsteps halt, —
Toiling in immeasurable sand,
And o'er a weary, sultry land;
Far beneath a blazing vault,
Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill,
The city sparkles like a grain of salt."
America has now come to such a pass, that a smah
misstep may plunge us into lasting misery. Any other
and older nation would be timidly conscious of the peril ;
but we, both so confident of destined triumph and so
wonted to success, forecast only victory, and so heed
none of all this danger. Who knows what is before
us? By way of warning for the future, look at the
events in the last six years.
1. In the spring of 1850, came the discussions on
the Fugitive Slave Bill, and the programme of prac
tical atheism; for it was taught, as weh in the Senate
as the pulpits, that the American Government was
amenable to no natural laws of God, but its own mo
mentary caprice might take the place of the eternal
reason. " The Union is in danger " was the affected
cry. Violent speeches filled the land, and officers of
the government uttered such threats against the people
of the North as only Austrian and Russian ears were
430

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 431
wont to hear. Even " discussion was to cease." That
year, the principle was sown whence measures have since
sprung forth, an evil blade from evil seed.
2. The next spring, 1851, kidnapping went on in
ah the North. Kane ruled in Philadelphia, Rynders in
New York. Boston opened her arms to the stealers of
men, who barked in her streets, and howled about the
" Cradle of Liberty," — the hiding-place of her ancient
power. Ah the municipal authority of the town was
dehvered up to the kidnappers. Faneuil Hah was
crammed with citizen-soldiers, volunteers in men-steal
ing, eager for their —
" Glorious first essay in war.''
Visible chains of iron were proudly stretched round
the court-house. The supreme judges of Massachu
setts crouched their loins beneath that yoke of bondage,
and went under to their own place, wherein they broke
down the several laws they were sworn and paid to
keep. They gave up Thomas Sims to his tormentors.
On the 19th of April, the seventy-sixth anniversary of
the first battle of the Revolution, the city of Hancock
and Adams thrust one of her innocent citizens into a
slave-prison at Savannah; giving his back to the
scourge, and his neck to the everlasting yoke.
3. In the spring of 1854, came the discussions on the
Kansas-Nebraska Bill; the attempt to extend bondage
into the new territory just opening its arms to the in
dustrious North ; the legislative effort to rob the North
ern laborer thereof, and give the spoils to Southern
slaveholders. Then came the second kidnapping at
Boston : a judge of probate stole a defenseless man,
and made him a slave. The old volunteer soldiers put
on their regimentals again to steal another victim. But

THE RIGHTS OF MAN
they were not quite strong enough alone ; so the United
States troops of the line were called out to aid the work
of protecting the orphan. It was the first time I ever
saw soldiers enforcing the decisions of a New England
judge of probate ; the first time I ever saw the United
States soldiers in any service. This was characteristic
work for a democratic army ! Hireling soldiers, mostly
Irishmen, — sober that day, at least till noon, — in the
public square loaded their cannon, charged their mus
kets, fixed their bayonets, and made ready to butcher
the citizens soon as a slaveholder should bid them strike
a Northern neck. The spectacle was prophetic.
4. Now, in 1856, New England men migrate to Kan
sas, taking their wives, their babies, and their cradles.
The old Bible goes also on that pilgrimage, — it never
fails the sons of the Puritans. But the fathers are not
yet dead ; —
" E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires."
Sharp's rifle goes as missionary in that same troop ; an
indispensable missionary — an apostle to the Gentiles
— whose bodily presence is not weak, nor his speech
contemptible, in Missouri. All the parties go armed.
Like the father, the Pilgrim son is also a Puritan, and
both trusts in God and keeps his powder dry.
A company went from Boston a few days ago, a
few of my own friends and parishioners among them.
There were some five-and-forty persons, part women
and children. Twenty Sharp's rifles answered to their
names, not to speak of other weapons. The ablest min
ister in the United States stirs up the " Plymouth
Church " to contribute firearms to this new mission ; and
a spirit, noble as Davenport's and Hooker's, pushes off
from New England, again to found a New Haven in the

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 433
wilderness. The bones of the regicide sleep in Con
necticut ; but the revolutionary soul of fire flames forth
in new processions of the Holy Ghost.
In 1656, when Boston sent out her colonists, they
took matchlocks and snaphances to fend off the red
savage of the wilderness ; in 1756, they needed weapons
against the French enemy ; but, in 1856, the dreadful
tools of war are to protect their children from the white
border-ruffians, whom the President of the United States
invites to burn the new settlements, to scalp and kill.
In 1850, we heard only the threat of arms ; in 1851,
we saw the volunteer muskets in the kidnapper's hand ;
in 1854, he put the United States cannon in battery ;
in 1856, he arms the savage Missourians. But now,
also, there are tools of death in the people's hand. It
is high time. When the people are sheep, the govern
ment is always a wolf. What will the next step be?
Mr. Cushing says, " I know what is requisite ; but it is
means that I cannot suggest! " Who knows what coup
d'etat is getting ready? Surely affairs cannot remain
long in this condition.
To understand this present emergency, you must go
a long ways back, and look a little carefully at what
hes deep down in the foundation of States.
The welfare of a nation consists in these three things ;
namely : first, possession of material comfort, things of
use and beauty; second, enjoyment of all the natural
rights of body and spirit ; and, third, the development
of the natural faculties of body and spirit in their har
monious order, securing the possession of freedom, in
telligence, morality, philanthropy, and piety. It ought
to be the aim of a nation to obtain these three things
in the highest possible degree, and to extend them to
ah persons therein. That nation has the most welfare
XIII— 28

434 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
which is the furthest advanced in the possession of these
three things.
Next, the progress of a nation consists in two things :
first, in the increasing development of the natural facul
ties of body and spirit, — intellectual, moral, affec
tional, and religious, — with the consequent increasing
enjoyment thereof ; and, second, in the increasing acqui
sition of power over the material world, making it yield
use and beauty, an increase of material comfort and
elegance. Progress is increase of human welfare for
each and for all. That is the most progressive nation
which advances fastest in this development of human
faculties, and the consequent acquisition of material
power. There is no limit to this progress.
That is the superior nation, which, by nature, has the
greatest amount of bodily and spiritual faculties, and,
by education, has developed them to the highest degree
of human culture, and, consequently, is capacious of
the greatest amount of power over the material world,
to turn it into use and beauty, and so of the greatest
amount of universal welfare for all and each. The su
perior nation is capable of most rapid progress ; for
the advance of man goes on with accelerated velocity ;
the further he has gone, the faster he goes.
The disposition in mankind to acquire this increase
of human development and material power, I will call
the instinct of progress. It exists in different degrees
in various nations and races: some are easily content
with a small amount thereof, and so advance but slowly ;
others desire the most of both, and press continually
forward. Of all races, the Caucasian has hitherto shown the
most of this instinct of progress, and, though perhaps
the youngest of all, has advanced furthest in the devel-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 435
opment of the human faculties, and in the acquisition
of power over the material world; it has already won
the most welfare, and now makes the swiftest progress.
Of the various families of the Caucasian race, the
Teutonic, embracing ah the Germanic people kindred
to our own, is now the most remarkable for this instinct
of progress. Accordingly, in the last four hundred
years, all the great new steps of peaceful Caucasian
development have been first taken by the Teutonic peo"
ple, who now bear the same relation to the world's
progress that the Greeks did a thousand years before
Christ, the Romans eight hundred years later, and the
Romanized Celts of France at a day yet more recent.
Of the Teutons, the Anglo-Saxons, or that portion
thereof settled in the Northern States of America, have
got the furthest forward in certain important forms of
welfare, and now advance the most rapidly in their gen
eral progress. With no class of capitalists or scholars
equal to the men of great estates and great learning in
Europe, the whole mass of the people have yet attained
the greatest material comfort, enjoyment of natural
rights, and development of the human faculties. They
feel most powerfully the general instinct of progress,
and advance swiftest to future welfare and develop
ment. Here the bulk of the population is Anglo-
Saxon; but this powerful blood has been enriched by
additions from divers other sources, — Teutonic and
Celtic. The great forces which in the last four hundred
years have most powerfully and obviously helped this
welfare and progress, may be reduced to two. marked
tendencies, which I will sum up in the form of ideas,
and name the one Christianity and the other Democ
racy.

436 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
By Christianity I mean that form of religion which
consists of piety — the love of God, and morality —
the keeping of His laws. That is not the Christianity
of the Christian Church, nor of any sect ; it is the ideal
religion which the human race has been groping after,
if haply we might find it. It is yet only an ideal, ac
tual in no society.
By Democracy I mean government over ah the peo
ple by all the people, and for the sake of all. Of
course, it is government according to the natural law
of God, by justice, the point common to each man and
all men, to each nation and all mankind, to the human
race and to God. In a democracy, the people reign
with sovereign power; their elected servants govern
with delegated trust. There is national unity of ac
tion, represented by law ; this makes the nation one, a
whole ; it is the centripetal force of society. But there
is also individual variety of action, represented by the
personal freedom of the people who ultimately make
the laws ; this makes John John, and not James, the
individual, a free person, discrete from all other men ;,
this is the centrifugal force of society, which counter
acts the excessive solidification that would else go on.
Thus, by justice, the one and the many are balanced
together, as the centripetal and centrifugal forces in
the solar system.
This is not the democracy of the parties, but it is
that ideal government, the reign of righteousness, the
kingdom of justice, which all noble hearts long for,
and labor to produce, the ideal whereunto mankind
slowly draws near. No nation has yet come so close
to it as the people of some of the Northern States, who
are yet far beneath ideals of government now known*
that are yet themselves vastly inferior to others which

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 437
mankind shah one day voyage after, discover, and an
nex to human possession.
In this democracy, and the tendency towards it, two
things come to all; namely, labor and government.
Labor for material comfort, the means of use and
beauty, is the duty of all, and not less the right, and
practically the lot, of all; so there is no privilege for
any, where each has his whole natural right. Accord
ingly, there is no permanent and vicariously idle class,
born merely to enjoy and not create, who live by the
unpurchased toil of others; and, accordingly, there is
no permanent and vicariously working-class, born
merely to create and not enjoy, who toil only for oth
ers. There is mutuality of earning and enjoying:
none is compelled to work vicariously for another,
none allowed to rob others of the natural fruit of their
toil. Of course, each works at such calling as his na
ture demands : on the mare liberum, the open sea of hu
man industry, every personal bark sails whither it may,
and with such freight and swiftness as it will or can.
Government, in social and political affairs, is the
right of ah, not less their duty, and practically the
lot of each. So there is no privilege in politics, no
lordly class born to command and not obey, no slavish
class born to serve and not command: there is mutu
ality of command and obedience. And as there is no
compulsory vicarious work, but each takes part in the
labor of ah, and has his share in the enjoyment thereof;
so there is no vicarious government, but each takes part
in the making of laws and in obedience thereunto.
Such is the ideal democracy, nowhere made actual.
Practically, labor and government are the two great
forces in the education of mankind. These take the
youth where schools and colleges leave him, and carry

438 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
him further up to another seminary, where he studies
for what honors he will, and graduates into such de
grees as he can attain to.
This sharing of labor and government is the indis
pensable condition for human development ; for, if any
class of men permanently withdraws itself from labor,
first it parts from its human sympathy ; next it becomes
debauched in its several powers ; and presently it loses
its masculine vigor and its feminine delicacy ; and dies,
at last, a hideous ruin. Do you doubt what I say?
Look then at the Roman aristocracy from two cen
turies before Christ to four centuries after — at the
French aristocracy from Louis XIII. to Louis XVI.
If any class of men is withheld from government —
from its share in organizing the people into social, po
litical, and ecclesiastical forms, from making and ex
ecuting the laws — then that class loses its manhood
and womanhood, dwindles into meanness and insignifi
cance, and also must perish. For example, look at
the populace of Rome from the second century before
Christ to the fourth after ; look at the miserable people
of Naples and Spain, too far gone ever to be raised
out of the grave where they are buried now ; look at
the inhabitants of Ireland, whose only salvation con
sists in flight to a new soil, where they may have a
share in pohtical government, as well as in economic
labor. So much for the definition of terms frequently to be
used, and the statement of the great principles which
lie at the foundation of human progress and welfare.
Now, in the history of a nation, there are always
two operating forces, — one positive, the other nega
tive. One I will call the progressive force. It is that
instinct of progress just named, with the sum total of

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 439
ah the excellencies of the people, their hopefulness,
human sympathy, virtue, religion, piety. This is the
power to advance. The other I will call the regressive
force; that is, the vis inertia!, the sluggishness of the
people, the sum total of all the people's laziness and
despair, all the selfishness of a class, all the vice and
anti-religion. This is power to retard. I do not
speak of the conservative force which would keep, or
the destructive force which would wastefully consume,
but only of those named. The destructive force in
America is now small; the conservative, or preserva
tive, exceeding great.
Every nation has somewhat of the progressive force,
each hkewise something of the regressive. Let me
ihustrate this regressive force a little further. You
sometimes in the country find a thriving, hardy family,
industrious, temperate, saving, thrifty, up early and
down late. By some unaccountable misfortune, there
is born into' the family, and grows up there, a lazy boy.
He is weak in the knees, drooping in the neck, limber
in the loins, and sluggish all over. He rises late in the
morning, after he has been called many times, and, in
the dog-days, comes down whilst his mother is getting
breakfast, and hangs over the fire. Most of you have
doubtless seen such; I have, to my sorrow. That is
one form of the regressive force. He is what the Bible
calls a heaviness to his mother, and a grief to his
father. There is a worse retarding force than this,
to wit: sometimes a bad boy is born into the family
with head enough, but with a devilish heart; he is a
malformation in respect to all the higher faculties, —
a destructive form of the regressive force. Now, a
nation may have that regressive force in these two
forms, — the lazy retardative, the wicked destructive.

440 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Sometimes this progressive force seems limited to a
small class of persons, — men of genius, hke the He
brew prophets, the Socratic philosophers, the German
reformers of the sixteenth century, or the French
savants of the eighteenth. But it is not likely it is
really thus limited ; for these men of genius are merely
trees of the common kind, rooted into the public soil,
but grown to taller stature than the rest.
In the Northern States of America, and also in Eng
land and Scotland, it is plain this progressive force is
widely spread among the great mass of the people,
who are not only instinctively, but of set purpose,
eager for progress ; that is, for the increasing develop
ment of faculties, and for the consequent increasing
power over the material world, transforming it to use
and beauty. New England is a monument attesting
this fact. But still this force arrives to its highest
form in men of genius. Here, in the North, you may
find men of money, men of education, literary culture,
and scientific skill ; men of talent, able to learn readily
what can now be taught — who do not share this pro
gressive instinct, whose will is regressive; but these are
exceptional men — some maimed by accident, others
impotent from their mother's womb ; whom no Peter
and John could make otherwise than halt and lame.
But all the men of genius — aboriginal power of sight,
ability to create, to know and teach what none learned
before — are on the side of this progressive force. In
all the Northern States, I know but one exception
among the men of politics, science, art, letters, or re
ligion. Even in his cradle, the Northern genius
strangles the regressive snakes of fogydom. Still,
these men of genius are not the cause of the progres
sive force, only expressions of it; not its exclusive

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 441
depositaries. They are the thunder and lightning, per
haps the rain, out of the cloud, sparks from the elec
tric charge : they are not the cloud ; they did not make
it. Of course, where the cloud is fullest of the fire
of heaven, there is the reddest lightning, the heaviest
thunder, and the most abounding rain. Still, the men
of genius did not make the progressive spirit of the
North; they but express and help to educate that
force. In the North, those two educational factors, labor
and government, are widely diffused : more persons par
take of each than anywhere else in the world. So there
is no exclusive, permanent servile class — none that
does all the work, and en j oys none of the results : there
is no exclusive and permanent ruling class ; all are mas
ters, all servants ; all command, and all obey.
So much for the progressive force.
The regressive force may consist in the general
sluggishness of the whole mass of the people: then it
wih be either an ethnological misfortune, which be
longs to the constitution of the race — and I am sorry
to say that the Africans share that in the largest de
gree, and, accordingly, have advanced the least of any
of the races — or else an historic accident entailed on
them by oppression ; and that is the case also with a
large portion of the Africans in America, who have a
double misfortune — that of ethnologic nature and his
toric position. But among the Caucasians, especially
among the Teutons, this regressive force is chiefly
lodged in certain classes of men, who are exceptional
to the mass of the people, by an accidental position
separated therefrom, and possessed of power thereover,
which they use for their own selfish advantage, and
against the interest of the people. They commonly

442 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
aim at two things — to shun all the labor, and to pos
sess all the government.
This exceptional position was either the accidental
attainment of the individual, or else a trust thereto
delegated from the people; but the occupiers of the
tmst considered it at length as their natural, personal
right, and so held to it as a finality, and asked man
kind to stop the human march in order that they might
rejoice in their special occupation. Thus the fletchers
of the fourteenth century, who got their bread by mak
ing bows and arrows, opposed the use of gunpowder
and cannon; thus the scribes of the fifteenth century
opposed printing, and said Dr. Faustus was " pos
sessed by the devil." In England, two hundred years
ago, every top-sawyer resisted the use of saw-mills to
cut logs into boards, and wanted to draw off the water
from the ponds. Forty years ago, the hand-weaver
of England opposed power-looms. In 1840, the wor
shipful company of ass-drivers in Italy begged the
pope of Rome not to allow a single railroad in his
territory, because it would injure their property in
vested in packsaddles and jackasses. The pope con
sented, and no steam-engine dared to scream and whis
tle in the papal States. In Boston, twenty years ago,
the Irishmen objected to steam pile-drivers, and broke
them to pieces ; just now, the stevedores of Boston in
sist that ships shall not be unladen by horses or steam-
power, but that a man, who yet has a head, shall live
only by the great muscles in his arms; that all mer
chandise shall be taken out of ships by an Irishman
hanging at the end of a rope. All these men consider
that their exceptional position and accidental business
is a finality of human history, a natural right, which
the top-sawyer, the scribe, and the others have to stop

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 443
mankind. The stevedore and hand-loom weaver must
have no competitors in the labor-market; the steam-
engine must be shoved off the track, in order that the
donkey may have the whole country wherein to bray
and wheeze.
In Europe, at this day, the regressive force is lodged
chiefly in the twofold aristocracy which exists there,
ecclesiastical and pohtical. In the sixteenth century,
mankind, and especially the Teutonic family, longed
to have more Christianity: the priestly class, with the
pope at their head, refused, hewed the people to pieces,
burnt them to ashes at Madrid and Oxford. The
priest stood between the people and the Bible, and said,
" The word of God belongs to us : it is for the priests
only, not for you, you infidels ; down with you ! " He
counted his stand as the stopping-place of mankind:
the human race must not go an inch further — he
would kill all that tried. The result attained was a
finality. So the thinker must be burned alive, that
the ass-driver might have the whole world to snap his
fingers in and cough to his donkey ! Even now the
same class of men repeat the old experiment ; and, in
Italy, Spain, and Spanish America, the regressive
power carries the day.
In this century, when the people of Europe wished
to move on a little nearer to democracy than before,
the political class of aristocrats refused to suffer it;
they put men of political genius in jail, or hung them.
Kossuth and Mazzini were lucky men to escape to a
foreign land; thousands fled to America. In Europe,
at present, and especially on the continent, this regres
sive power carries the day, and the progressive force
is held down. For priests, kings, and nobles, inherit
ing a position which was once the highest that man-

444 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
kind had attained to, and then taking it as a trust, now
count it a right of their own, a finality of the human
race, the end of man's progress.
When a nation permanently consents to this tri
umph of the regressive over the progressive force, al
lows one class to do all the government and shun ah
the labor, it is presently ah over with that nation.
Look at Italy, with Rome and Naples ; at Spain, which
is too far gone ever to be galvanized into hfe. See
what already takes place in France, where the son of
the nephew has just been born, and the httle baby is
recognized as emperor. Look at an election-day in
Massachusetts, where the people choose one of them
selves to be their temporary governor, responsible to
them, swearing him on their statute-book: compare
that with the preparation which Napoleon the Little
made to anticipate the birth of Napoleon the Least!
Why, the garments got ready for this equivocal baby
have already cost more than the clothes of all our
Presidents since " a young buckskin taught a British
general the art of fighting." Eighty thousand dol
lars is decreed to pay for baptizing this imperial
bantling. If twice that sum could christen the father,
it might not be ill spent, if thereto decreed. Look at
New England, and then at Spain, to see the odds be
tween a people that has the progressive force upper
most, and a nation where the regressive force has trod
the people down, and become, as it must, destructive.
The Romanic nations of Italy and Spain, and the
Romanized Celts of France, consent to a despotism
which puts all the labor on the people, and takes all the
government from them: they easily enough accept the
rule of the pohtical and ecclesiastical aristocracy. But
the Teutons, especially the Saxon Teutons, and, above

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 445
all others, those in the Northern States of America,
with their immense love of individual liberty, hate des
potism, either political or ecclesiastical. They perpet
ually demand more Christianity and democracy; that
each shah do his own work, and rejoice in its result;
that each shall have his share in the government of all.
The women, long excluded from this latter right, now
claim, and will at length, little by little, gain it. When
all thus share the burdens and the joys of life, there is
no class of men compelled by their position to hate
society : so law and order prevail with ease ; each keeps
step with all, nor wishes to stay the march; property
is secure, the government popular. But when one
class does all the ruling, and forces all the toil on an
other class, nothing is certain but trouble and violence.
Thus, in San Domingo, red rebellion scoured black
despotism out of the land, but with blood. If a gov
ernment, like a pyramid, be wide at the bottom, it takes
little to hold it up.
So much for the regressive force.
In the United States we have two peoples in one na
tion, similar in origin, united in their history, but for
the last two generations so diverse in their institutions,
their mode of life, their social and political aims, that
now they have become exceedingly unlike, even alien
and hostile ; for, though both the stems grow out from
the same ethnologic root, one of them has caught such
a mildew from the ground it hangs over, and the other
trees it mixes its boughs among, that its fruit has be
come " peculiar," and not like the native produce of
the sister trunk. One of these I will call the Northern
States, the other the Southern States. At present,
there is a governmental bond put round both, which
holds them together; but no moral union makes the

446 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
two one. There is no unity of idea between them. A
word of each.
In the Northern States we have a population fifteen
millions strong, mainly of Anglo-Saxon origin, but
early crossed with other Teutonic blood — Dutch, Ger
man, Scandinavian — which bettered the stock. Of
late, numerous Celts have been added to the mixture,
but so recently that no considerable influence yet ap
pears in the collective character, ideas, or institutions
of the North. A hundred years hence, the ethnologic
fruits of this other seed will show themselves.
These Northern Saxons, moreover, are mainly de
scended from men who fled from Europe because they
had ideas, at least sentiments, of Christianity and de
mocracy which could not be carried out at home.
They are born of Puritan pilgrims, who were the most
progressive portion of the most progressive people, of
the most progressive stock, in all Christendom. They
came to America, not for ease, honor, money, or love
of adventure, but for conscience' sake, for the sake
of their Christianity and their democracy. Such men
founded the chief Northern colonies and institutions,
and have controlled the doctrines and the development
thereof to a great degree.
We see the result of such parentage: more than all
other nations of the earth, the North has cut loose from
the evil of the past, and set its face towards the future.
At one extreme, it has no lordly class, ecclesiastical or
political, exclusively and permanently to shun labor
and monopolize government, vicariously to enjoy the
result of work, vicariously to rule; and, at the other
extreme, there is no class slavishly and unwillingly to
do the work, and have none of its rewards; to suffer
ah the obedience, and enjoy none of the command.

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 447
No class is permanent, highest or lowest. The North-
em States are progressively Christian, also progres
sively democratic, in the sense just given of Chris
tianity and democracy. No people on earth has such
material comfort, such enjoyment of natural rights of
body and spirit already possessed, such general devel
opment of the human faculties. But the attainment
does not satisfy us; for we share this instinct of
progress to such a degree, that no achievement will
content us. Be the present harvest never so rich, our
song is —
" To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
No nation has such love of liberty, such individual
variety of action, or such national unity of action ;
nowhere is such respect for law; nowhere is property
so secure, life so safe, and the individual so little dis
turbed. And, with all this, we are not at all destruc
tive, but eager to create, and patient to preserve. The
first thing which a Northern man lays hold of is a
working-tool, an ax, or a plough; the last thing he
takes in hand is a fighting-tool, a bowie-knife, a rifle:
he never touches that till he is driven to the last ex
tremity. He loves to organize productive industry,
not war.
So much for the nation North.
Next, there are the Southern States ten millions in
population. There also the original germ was Anglo-
Saxon, to which additions were made from other stocks,
Teutonic and Celtic, though in a smaller degree:
France and Spain added more largely to the mixture.
But what has most affected the ethnological character
of the South is the African element. There are three
and a half millions of men in the Southern States, of

448 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
African origin, whereof half a million are (acknowl
edged) mulattoes, African Caucasians; but those mon
umental half-breeds are much more numerous than the
census dares confess.
This is not the only human difference between the
North and the South. While the Saxons, who orig
inally came to the North, and have since controlled its
institutions and ideas, were mainly pilgrims, who,
driven by persecution, fled hither for the sake of estab
lishing democracy and Christianity — the foremost
people in an age of movement, when revolution shook
the whole Teutonic world, bringing the most Chris
tian and democratic institutions and ideas of their age,
and developing them to forms still more human and
progressive — the settlers of the South were adventur
ers, who came to America to mend their fortunes, for
the sake of money, ease, honor, love of change.
Whilst, subsequently, emigrants came from Europe to
the North of their own accord, shared the Northern
labor and government, partook of its Christianity and
democracy, partook of its best influences, and soon
mingled their blood in the great stream of Northern
population : many persons from Africa were forced to
emigrate to the South, and, by legal violence, com
pelled to more than their share of labor, driven from
all share in the government, branded as inferior, and
mingled with the Caucasian population only in illicit
lust — which bastardized its own sons and daughters
— and were made subordinate to the owners' lash.
While the North, from 1620 to 1856, has aimed to
spread education over all the land, and facilitate the
acquisition of property by the individual, and prevent
its entailment in families, or its excessive accumulation
by transient corporations, the South has always en-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 449
deavored to limit education, making it the exclusive
monopoly of the few — who yet learned not much —
and now makes it a State prison offense to teach the
laboring class to read and write: it aims to condense
money into large sums, permanently held, if not in
families, at least in a class. Thus, at one extreme, the
South had formed a permanently idle and lordly class,
who shun labor and monopolize government.
The South'culminates in Virginia and South Caro
lina, which bear the same relation to the slave States
that New England does to the free States; that is,
they are the mother-city of population, ideas, institu
tions, and character. As I just said, Christendom
cannot boast a population in any other country where
there are fifteen millions of men so nobly developed as
the fifteen millions of the North; so far advanced in
Christianity and democracy ; with so much material
comfort, enjoyment of natural rights, and develop
ment of natural powers. Compare New England with
Old England, Scotland, France, Saxony, Belgium,
Prussia, any of the foremost nations of Europe, and
you see that it is so. But take the ten milhons of the
South, and see what they are : nowhere in Europe, north
of Turkey and west of Russia, can you find ten mil
lions of contiguous men who have so low a develop
ment, intellectual, moral, affectional, and religious, as
the ten millions of the slave States; nowhere can you
find Caucasians or any other people in Western Europe
so slightly advanced above the savage. Three and a
quarter millions are actual slaves. Take the States of
Virginia and South Carolina, in which the South comes
to its flower: there are 1,170,000 whites, 920,000 col
ored, whereof 860,000 are slaves ; that is to say, out
of two millions, more than one-third are only human
XIII— 29

450 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
property, not counted as human persons. In South
Carolina, out of a hundred native whites over twenty
years of age, there are seven who cannot read the name
Pierce, the political lord they worship; in Virginia,
out of a hundred native whites over twenty years, there
are nine who cannot write the word slave, nor spell it
after it is written all over their State; whereas,
in Massachusetts, out of four hundred persons over
twenty, there is only one man who cannot write, with
his own hand, Liberty for all men now and for
ever! Take the two million population of Virginia and
South Carolina : there is no people in Western Europe
so little advanced as they ; and, in all Christendom,
there are only two nations or collections of men who
stand on the same level — the Russian Empire and
Spanish America. Behold the reason for the phe
nomenon which struck many with surprise, — that
South Carolina and Virginia, in their politics, have re
cently sympathized with Russia and Brazil. Birds of
a feather flock together, like consorting with like.
Here, then, are these two nations, alike in their
ethnological origin, joint in their history, now ut
terly diverse and antagonistic in disposition and aim.
The North has organized freedom, and seeks to extend
it ; the South, bondage, and aims to spread that. The
North is progressively Christian and democratic ; while
the South is progressively anti-Christian and undemo
cratic. First, only the Southern measures were anti-
Christian and undemocratic; now also its principles.
It lays down anti-Christianity and anti-democracy as
the only theory of religion and politics. In New Eng
land, man is put before property, the human substance
above the material accident; in Virginia and South

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 451
Carolina, property is put before man, the material ac
cident before the human substance itself; and, of all
property that which is most valued and most carefully
preserved, though most " aristocratic " and sacred, is
property in the bodies of men.
That is the odds between the North and the South.
Now, the progressive power of America is lodged
chiefly in the North, where it is diffused almost uni
versally amongst the people, but most conspicuously
comes to light in the men of genius. Accordingly,
every man of poetic or scientific genius in the North is
an anti-slavery man; every preacher with any spark
of Christian genius in him is a progressive man and
hostile to slavery.
The regressive power is lodged chiefly at the South,
where it is considerably diffused among the people.
That wide diffusion comes partly from the ethnologic
sluggishness of the African element mixed in with the
population, but still more from the degradation inci
dent to a people who have long sat under tyrannical
masters. It is this which has debased the Caucasian
of Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina.
But as the progressive force of the North comes
clearest to light in the men of genius, so the regressive
force at the South is most shown in the men of emi
nent ability, ecclesiastical and political, of whom not a
single man is publicly progressive in Christianity or
democracy. Compare the spirit of the great news
papers of the South, the Richmond Examiner, the
Charleston Mercury, with those of the North, the New
York Tribune, the Evening Post; compare the South
ern pohticians, the Masons and Toombses, with the
Sewards and Chases of the North. See the odds be
tween the mass of the people at the North and the

452 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
South ; between the eminent genius, all of which at the
North is progressive, but all of which at the South
turns its back on human progress, and would leave
humanity behind. There is the difference.
This regressive force accepts slavery as the Dagon
of its idolatry, its " peculiar institution ; " and slavery
is to the South what the book of Mormon or the car of
Juggernaut is to its worshipers. This institution is so
iniquitous and base, that in Christian Europe, all the
Teutonic nations have swept it away ; and all the Celtic,
all the Romanic nations, even the inhabitants of Spain,
have trodden bondage under their feet. Yes, the
Ugrians have driven out such slavery from Hungary,
from Livonia, from Lapland itself; and, of all parts
of Europe, Russia and Turkey alone still keep the
unclean thing; but even there it is progressively di
minishing. As a measure, it is felt to be exceptional,
and publicly denounced; as a principle, no man de
fends it: it is there as a fact without a theory. Only
two tribes in Christendom yet hold to the theory of
this unholy thing, — Spanish America and the slave
part of Saxon America, the two Barbary States of the
New World.
Ah the regressive power of Christendom gathers
about American slavery, which is the stone of stum
bling, the rock of offense in the world's progress.
Slavery is the great obstacle to the present welfare
and future progress of the South itself. It prevents
the mass of the Southern people from the possession
of material comfort, use and beauty; from the en
joyment of their natural rights; and also, for the fu
ture, it hinders them from the increasing development
of their natural faculties, and the consequent increas
ing acquisition of power over the material world. It

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 453
hinders Christianity and Democracy, which it would
destroy, or else itself must thereby be brought to the
ground. It shuts the mass of the people from their
share of the government of society, forces many to un
natural and vicarious labor, and robs them of the fruit
of their toil. Thus it is the great obstacle alike to
present welfare and future development.
The headquarters of this regressive force are at the
South, where its avowed organization and its institu
tions may be found. At the North it has three classes
of allies. Here they are : —
1. The first class is of base men, such as are some
what inhuman by birth; men organized for cruelty,
as fools for folly, idiotic in their conscience and heart
and soul. If there had been no " inherited sin " up
to last night, these men would have " originated " it
the first thing this morning; if Adam had had no
" fall," and the ground did not incline downward any
where, they would dig a pit on their own account, and
leap down headlong of their own accord. These men
are aboriginal kidnappers, and grow up amid the filth
of great towns, sweltering in the gutters of the metro
politan pavement at Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New
York. Nay, you find them even at Boston, lurking
in some office, prowling about the court-house, sneak
ing into aheys, barking in the newspapers, to let their
masters know their whereabouts, turning up their
noses in the streets, snuffing after some victim as
the wind blows from Virginia or Georgia, and gen
erally seeking whom they may devour. There are
" earthly, sensual, devilish." For the honor of hu
manity, this class of men is exceedingly small, and,
like other poisonous vermin, commonly bears its warn
ing on its face.

454 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
2. The next class is of mean men, of large acquisi
tiveness, or else a great love of approbation, little con
science, little affection, and only just religion enough
to swear by. These men you can buy with office,
honor, money, or with a red coat and a fife and drum.
There are a great many such persons; you find them
in many places ; and, for the disgrace of my own pro
fession, I am sorry to say they are sometimes in the
pulpit, taking a South-side view of all manner of
tyranny, volunteering to send their mothers into bond
age, and denying the higher law of God.
3. The third class is of ignorant men, who know no
better, but may be instructed.
At the South, this regressive force is thus distributed :
— (1) There are three hundred and fifty thousand
slaveholders, who, with their families, make up a pop
ulation of a million and three-quarters; (2) There are
four and three-quarter millions of non-slaveholders ;
and (3) Three and a half mihions of slaves. A word
of each.
1. First, of the slaveholders. Slavery makes them
rich : they own the greater part of the land, and all the
slaves, and control the greater part of the colored or
white laboring population. Slavery is a peculiar curse
to the South in general, but a peculiar comfort to the
slaveholders. They monopolize the education, own
the wealth, have all the pohtical power of the South —
are the " aristocracy." Butj since the American Revo
lution, I think this class has not born and bred a single
man who has made any valuable contribution to the art,
science, literature, morals, or religion of the American
people. Marshall's " Life of Washington " is the only
great literary work of the South ; its hero was bom in
1732, its author in 1755; and both Washington the

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 455
hero, and Marshall the writer, at their death, abjured
the " peculiar institution " of the South.
The Southern " aristocracy " rears two things —
negro slaves, of which it is often the father, and re
gressive pohticians, who make the institutions to keep
the slaves in bondage for ever, shutting them out from
Christianity and democracy. Behold the " aristoc
racy " of the South ! By their f raits ye shall know
them. Of the general morals of this class I need not
speak : " the dark places of the earth are full of the
habitations of cruelty." Since the 1st of January,
they have burned four negroes alive, as a joyous spec
tacle and " act of faith ; " a sort of profession of
Christianity, hke the more ceremonious autos-da-fe of
their Spanish prototypes. Yet among the slave
holders are noble men; some who, but for their sur
roundings, would have stood with those eminent in
talent, station, and in service, too, the forerunners of
human progress. Blame them for their wrong, pity
them for the misfortune which they suffer. Yet let
me do the South no injustice. Her three hundred and
fifty thousand slaveholders have ruled the nation for
sixty years ; her politicians have beat the North in all
great battles.
Now, we commonly judge the South by the slave
holders. This is wrong: it is hke measuring England
by her gentry, France and Germany by their men of
science and letters, Italy by her priests. You shall
judge what the whole mass of the people are when the
" aristocracy," the picked men, are of that stamp.
2. Next are the non-slaveholders, four and three-
quarter millions of men. Some of these are noble men,
with property in land and goods, with some intelli
gence; but, as a class, they are both necessitous and

456 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
illiterate, with small political power. They are cursed
by slavery, which they yet defend ; for it makes labor
a disgrace, and, if poor, puts them on the same level
with the slave himself. Slavery hinders their develop
ment in respect to property, intellectual culture, and
manly character ; yet, as a whole, they are too ignorant
to understand the cause which keeps them down. The
morals of this class are exceedingly low: it abounds in
murders, and is full of cruelty towards its victims.
Nay, where else in Christendom, save Spanish America,
is the Caucasian found to take delight in burning his
brother with a slow fire, for his own sport, and to
please a licentious mob?
3. The third class consists of the slaves themselves,
of whom I need say only this — that public opinion
and the law, which is only the thunder from that cloud,
keep them at labor and from government, from Chris
tianity and democracy, from all the welfare and de
velopment of the age, and seek to crush out the in
stinct of progress from the very nature of the victims.
The slave has no personal rights, ecclesiastical, po
litical, social, economical, individual ; no right to prop
erty — a human accident ; none to his body or soul ¦ —
the substance of humanity itself.
But I fear you do not yet quite understand the dif
ference between the regressive force of slavery at the
South, and the progressive force of freedom at the
North. Therefore, to see in noonday hght the effect
of each on the present welfare and the future progress
of a people, compare an old typical slave State with
an old typical free State, and then compare a new
slave State with a new free State.
1. South Carolina contains 29,385 square miles of
land; Connecticut, 4,674. In 1850, South Carolina

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 457
had 668,507 inhabitants, whereof 283,523 were free,
and 384,984 slaves; while Connecticut had 370,792
inhabitants, all free.
The government value of all the land in South Caro
lina was $5.08 an acre; in Connecticut it was $30.50
the acre. Ah the farms in South Carolina contained
16,217,700 acres, and were worth $82,431,684; while
the farms of Connecticut were worth $72,726,422,
though they contained only 2,383,879 acres. Thus
slavery and freedom affect the value of land in the old
States. In 1850, South Carolina had 340 miles of railroad ;
and Connecticut 547, on a territory not equal to one-
sixth of South Carolina. In 1855, South Carolina
had $11,500,000 in railroads ; Connecticut had then
$20,000,000. The shipping of South Carolina amounts to 36,000
tons; in Connecticut, to 125,000, though she is not
advantageously situated for navigation.
The value of the real and personal property in
South Carolina, in 1850, was estimated by the Federal
Government at $288,257,694. This includes the value
of ah the slaves, who, at $400 apiece, amount to
$153,993,600. Subtracting this sum, which is neither
property in land nor things, but wholly unreal and
fictitious, there remains $134,264,094 as the entire
property of the great slave State ; while the total val
uation of the land and things in Connecticut, in 1850,
was $155,707,980. In other words, in South Caro
lina, 670,000 persons, with 30,000 square miles of
land, are worth $134,000,000; while in Connecticut,
370,000 men, with only 4,600 square miles of land,
are worth $156,000,000. Thus do slavery and free
dom affect the general wealth of the people in the
old States.

458 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
In 1850, South Carolina had 365,026 persons under
twenty years of age; her whole number of pupils, at
schools, academies, and colleges, was 40,373. Con
necticut had only 157,146 persons of that age, but
83,697 at school and cohege. Will you say it is of
no consequence whether the colored child is educated
or not? Then remember that South Carolina had
149,322 white children, and only sent 40,373 of them
to school at all in that year; while, out of 153,862
white children, Connecticut gave 82,433 a permanent
place in her noble schools.
In South Carohna, there are but 129,350 free per
sons over twenty years of age; and, of these, 16,564
are unable to read the word heaven. So, in ah that
great and democratic State, there are only 112,786
persons over twenty who know their A B C's; while
in Connecticut there are 213,662 persons over twenty ;
and, of all that number, only 5,306 are illiterate, and
of them 4,013 are foreigners. But, of ah the 16,564
ignoramuses of South Carolina only 104 were born out
of that State!
Out of 365,026 persons over twenty, South Caro
hna has only 112,786 who can read their primer;
while, out of 213,662, Connecticut has 208,356 who
can read and write. South Carolina can boast more
than 250,000 native adults who cannot write or read
the name of their God — a noble army of martyrs, a
cloud of witnesses to its peculiar institution; while
poor Connecticut has only 1,293 native adults unable
to read their Holy Bible.
Such is the effect of slavery and freedom on educa
tion in the old States. The Southern pohtician was
right : " Free society is a failure ! "
2. Now compare two new States of about the same

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 459
age. Arkansas was admitted into the Union in 1836,
Michigan in 1837.
Arkansas contains 52,198 square miles, and 209,-
807 inhabitants, of whom 151,746 are free, and 58,-
161 are slaves. Michigan contains 56,243 square
miles, and was entered for settlement later than her
sister, but contains 397,654 persons, all free.
In Arkansas, the land is valued at $5.88 the acre;
and in Michigan at $11.83. The slave State has
781,531 acres of improved land; and Michigan,
1,929,110. The farms of Arkansas are worth $15,-
265,245 ; and those of Michigan, $51,872,446. Thus
slavery and freedom affect the value of land in the
new States.
Michigan had, in 1855, 699 miles of railroad, which
had cost $19,000,000 ; Arkansas had paid nothing for
railroads. The total valuation of Arkansas, in 1850,
was $39,871,025 : the value of the slaves, $23,264,400,
was included. Deducting that, there remains but
$16,576,625, as the entire worth of Arkansas; while
Michigan has property to the amount of $59,787,255.
Thus slavery and freedom affect the value of property
in the new States.
In 1850, Arkansas had 115,023 children under
twenty, whereof 11,050 were in schools, academies, or
colleges; while Michigan had 211,969, of whom 112,-
382, were at school, academy, or college. Or, to omit
the colored population, Arkansas had 97,402 white
persons under twenty, and only 11,050 attending
school ; while, of 210,831 whites of that age in Michi
gan, 112,175 were at school or college. Last year,
Michigan had 132,234 scholars in her public common
schools. In 1850, Arkansas contained 64,787 whites
over twenty — but 16,935 of these were unable to

460 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
read and write; while out of 184,240 of that age in
Michigan, only 8,281 were thus ignorant — of these,
3,009 were foreigners; while of the 16,935 illiterate
persons of Arkansas, only 37 were born out of that
State. The slave State had only 47,852 persons over
twenty who could read a word; while the free State
had 175,959. Michigan had 107,943 volumes in
" libraries other than private," and Arkansas 420 vol
umes. Thus slavery and freedom affect the education
of the people in the new States.
Now see the effect of slavery and freedom on prop
erty and education in their respective neighborhoods.
I take examples from the States of Missouri and Vir
ginia, kindly furnished by an ingenious and noble-
hearted man.
1. In the twelve counties of Missouri, which border
on slaveholding Arkansas, there are 20,982 free white
persons, occupying 75,360 acres of improved land,
valued at $13 an acre, or $989,932: while in the ten
counties of Missouri bordering on Iowa, a free State,
though less attractive in soil and situation, there are
26,890 free white persons, with 123,030 acres of im
proved land, worth $19 an acre, or $2,379,765. Thus
the neighborhood of slavery retards the development
of property.
In those ten Northern counties bordering on free
dom, there were 2,329 scholars in the public schools;
while in the twelve Southern, bordering on Arkansas,
there were only 339. Thus the neighborhood of
slavery affects the development of education.
2. Compare the Northern with the Southern coun
ties of Virginia, and you find the same results.
Monongahela and Preston counties, in Virginia, bor
dering on free Pennsylvania, contain, 122,444 acres

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 461
of improved land, valued at $21 an acre, or $2,784,137
in all; are occupied by 24,095 persons, whereof 263
only are slaves; and there are 1,747 children in the
public schools: while the corresponding counties of
Patrick and Henry, touching on North Carohna, con
tain but 99,731 acres of improved land, worth only
$15 an acre, or $1,554,841 in all; are occupied by
18,481 inhabitants, 5,664 of them slaves; and have
only 961 children at school. But cross the borders,
and note the change: the adjacent counties of North
Carolina, Rockingham, and Stokes, contain 103,784
acres of improved land, worth $14 an acre, or $1,517,-
520; 23,701 persons, of whom 7,122 are slaves; and
have only 2,050 pupils at school or college: while
Fayette and Green counties, in Pennsylvania, ad
jacent to the part of Virginia above spoken of, con
tain 297,005 acres of improved land, valued at $49
an acre, or $7,618,919; 61,248 persons, all free; and
12,998 pupils at the common schools.
The South has numerous natural advantages over
the North, — a better soil, a more genial climate, the
privilege of producing those tropical plants now
deemed indispensable to civilization. Of $193,000,000
of exports last year, $93,000,000 were of Southern
cotton and tobacco. Yet such is her foolish and
wicked system, that, while the North continually in
creases in riches, the South becomes continually poorer
and poorer in comparison. Boston alone could buy up
two States like South Carohna, and still have thirteen
milhons of dohars to spare. Three hundred years
ago, Spain monopolized this continent; she exploit-
ered Mexico, Peru, the islands of the Gulf; ah the
gold of the New World came to her hand. Where is
it now? Spain is poorer than Italy. Is here no les
son for South Carolina and Virginia ?

462 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
In civilized society, there must be an organization
of things and of persons, of labor and of government ;
and so slavery is to be looked at, not only in its eco
nomical relations, as affecting labor and wealth, power
over matter, but also in its pohtical relations, as affect
ing government, which is power over men.
There are 350,000 slaveholders in the United
States, with their families, making a population of
1,750,000 persons. Now slavery is a political in
stitution which puts the government of all the people
of the slave States into the hands of those few men:
the majority are the servants of this minority.
1. The 350,000 slaveholders control the 3,250,000
slaves ; owning their bodies, and, by direct legislation,
purposely preventing their development.
2. They control the 4,750,000 non-slaveholders,
cutting them off from their share of government, and
hindering them ahke in their labor and their educa
tion, and purposely preventing their development.
3. They control the Federal politics, and thereby
affect the organization of things and persons, of labor
and government, throughout the whole nation, and
purposely prevent the development of the whole peo
ple. In all these three forms of pohtical action, they
have selfishly sought their own immediate interest, and
wrought to the lasting damage of the slaves, the non-
slaveholders, and the whole people. But neither the
slaves nor the non-slaveholders have made any pow
erful opposition to this injury : the chief hostility has
been shown by the North, or rather by the few persons
therein who either had mind enough to see this mani
fold mischief clearly, or else such moral and religious
instinct as made them at once revolt from this wick-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 463
edness. But, ever since the Declaration of Independ
ence, there has been a strife, open or hidden, between
the South and this portion of the Northern people;
and though the battle has been often joined, yet, since
1788, the North has been beaten in every conflict,
pitched battle or skirmish, until last January; then,
after much fighting, the House of Representatives
chose for Speaker a man hostile to slavery. Always
before, the South conquered the North; that is, the
minority conquered the majority. The party with
the smahest numbers, the least money, the meanest
intelhgence, the wickedest cause, yet beat the larger,
richer, more intelhgent party, which had also justice
on its side. There is now no time to explain this po
htical paradox.
Between 1787 and 1851, the regressive power, Slav
ery, took nine great steps towards absolute rule over
the United States. These I have spoken of before.
It now lifts its foot to take a tenth step, — to stamp
bondage on all the territories of this Union, and
then organize them into slave States. Look at the
facts. We have now one million four hundred thousand
square miles of territory not organized into States
(1,400,934). Of this, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mex
ico, and Utah make nine hundred and twenty-six thou
sand (926,857). Now, the South aims to make it all
slave territory, to deliver it over to this regressive
force, and establish therein such institutions that a few
men shah at first own all the land; next, own the
bulk of the working people; and, thirdly, shall con
trol the rest of the whites ; then themselves monopohze
education, and yet get very httle of it; repress free
dom of speech, and enact laws for the advantage of

464 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
the vulgarest of all oligarchies, — a band of men-
stealers. Let me suppose that there is no immediate danger
that slavery will go to Oregon or Washington ter
ritory, — rather a gratuitous admission: there are still
nine hundred and twenty-six thousand square miles
of land to plant it on; that is, about one-third of all
the country which the United States own! the South
is endeavoring to establish it there. Within three
years the great battle is to be fought; for, before the
4th of March, 1859, all that territory of fourteen
hundred thousand square miles wih be either free ter
ritory or else slave territory.
The battle is first for Kansas. Shah it be free, as
the majority of its own inhabitants have voted; or
slave, as the Federal Government and the slave power
— the general regressive force of America — have de
termined by violence to make it? This is the ques
tion, Shall the nine hundred and twenty-six thousand
miles of territory belong to three hundred and fifty
thousand slaveholders, or to the whole people of the
1 United States? This is a question which directly con
cerns the material interest of every working man in
the nation, and especially every Northern working
man. Before the 1st of January, 1858, perhaps be
fore next January, Kansas, with its 114,790 square
miles, will be a free State or a slave State. See what
follows, immediately or ultimately, if we let the slave
holders have their way, and make Kansas a slave
State. Look, first, at the effect on the welfare and progress
of individuals.
L A privileged class, an oligarchy of slavehold
ers, will be founded there, such as exists in the present

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 465
slave States. They will own all the land, almost all
the laborers ; wih make laws for the advantage of the
slaveholder against the interest of the slave and the
non-slaveholder. That is the effect on the Southern
man. 2. Next see the effect on the working men of the
North who emigrate to that quarter. They must go
as slaveholders or as non-slaveholders.
Some will go as slaveholders, such as take a South-
side view of human wickedness in general. You know
what the effect wih be on them. Compare the con
dition, the intellectual and moral character, of New
England men who have settled in Georgia, and be
come slaveholders, with others of the same families
— their brothers and cousins — who have remained
at home, and engaged in agriculture, commerce, and
manufactures. But not many Northern men will go there and be
come slaveholders. Some will go as non-slavehold
ers; and you wih see under what disadvantage they
must labor.
1. They must live by their work, and in a place
where industry is not honored, as in Connecticut, but
is despised, as in South Carolina and Arkansas. The
working white man must stand on a level with the
slave. He belongs to a despised caste. He will have
but httle self-respect, and soon wih sink down to the
character and condition of the " poor whites " in the
old slave States. A scientific friend of mine, who trav
els extensively in both hemispheres, says that he has
not found the Caucasian people anywhere so degraded
as in Tennessee and the Carolinas.
2. Next, there will be no miscehaneous mechanical
industry, as in New England and all the free States.
XIII— 30

<h66 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Agriculture will be the chief business, almost the only
business ; and that will be confined to the great staples
— corn, wheat, rice, tobacco, cotton ; the aim will be
only to produce the raw material. Agriculture will be
poor, land will be low in price, and continuahy getting
run out by unskilful culture. The slave's foot burns
the soil and spoils the land; that is the master's fault.
Twenty years hence, land will not be worth $16 an
acre, as in sterile New Hampshire, but $4, as in fertile
Georgia. There will be no rapid development of
wealth; and, as the Northern man values riches, I
think he should look to this, and see that the land is
not taken from under his foot, and the power of creat
ing wealth from his head and hand.
3. Then there will be no good and abundant roads,
as in New England, but only a few, as in Carolina and
Virginia, and those miserably poor. In Kansas twenty
years hence, there will not be 1,964 miles of railroad,
as in Illinois, but 231 miles, as in Missouri.
4. There will be no abundance of beneficent free
schools, as in New England, but a few, and of the
worst sort. Education will be the monopoly of the
rich, who will not get much thereof. Laws will forbid
the education of the slave, and discourage the culture
of the mass of the people.
5. There will be no lyceums, no courses of lectures ;
but, in their place, there will be horse-races, occa
sionally the lynching of an abolitionist, or the burning
of a black man at a slow fire ! Yet, now and then, a
Northern man will be invited thither by the slave
holders; some unapostolical fisherman will take the
majestic memory of Washington, disembowel it of ah
its most generous humanity, skilfully arrange it as
bait; and then, with bob and sinker, hook and line,

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 467
this " political Micawber," " looking for something
to turn up," will go angling along the shore, praying
for at least a presidential bite, and possibly obtain a
conventional nibble.
6. There will be no " libraries other than private,"
with their one hundred and eight thousand volumes,
as in Michigan; only four hundred and twenty vol
umes, as in Arkansas. But a noble army of igno
ramuses, twenty-five men out of each hundred adult
white men, wih attest the value of the " peculiar insti
tution." 7. There wih be no multiplicity of valuable news
papers, with an annual circulation of 3,324,000 cop
ies, as in Michigan; but a few political journals, scat
tering 377,000 dingy sheets, as in Arkansas.
8. There will be no abundant and convenient meet
ing-houses, as in the North; not one hundred and
twenty thousand comfortable pew-seats in neat and
decorous churches, as in Michigan; but only sixty
thousand benches in barns and log-huts, as in Ar
kansas. No army of well-educated ministers will help,
instruct, and moralize the community, but ignorant
ranters or calculating hypocrites will stalk through
the Christian year, perverting the Bible to a Fugitive
Slave Bill, and denying the higher law which God
writes in man.
9. There will be no laws favoring all men; but
statutes putting the neck of labor into the claws of
capital, by which the strong will crush the weak, and
enslave the feeblest of all; constitutions like those of
South Carolina, which provide that nobody shall sit
in the popular house of the legislature, unless, in his
own right, he own " ten negro slaves."
10. There will be no universal suffrage, as in Mas-

468 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
sachusetts; but a man's political rights will be deter
mined by the color of his skin, and the amount of his
estate. One permanent class wih monopolize govern
ment, money, education, honor, and ease; the other
permanent class will be forced to bondage, ignorance,,
poverty, and shame. This is the prospect which the
Northern man wih find before him if slavery prevails
in the new territory.
11. That is not all: his property and person will
not be safe, as in Michigan; border-ruffians wih per
manently have gone over the border, and a new Ar
kansas be established in Kansas.
Under such circumstances, Northern men will not
go there; and so Kansas, and then all the other terri
tory, is stolen from the North, as effectually as if
ceded to Russia or annexed to the Spanish domain.
Yes, more completely lost; for, if it did belong to
Spain, we might reclaim it by filibustering; and the
American Government would not disturb, but help us.
Then, if a Northern man wishes to migrate, he has
only the poorer land of Washington and Oregon be
fore him, and is shut out from the most valuable ter
ritory of the United States.
If the city government of Boston were, next month,
to establish a piggery on Boston Common, with fifty
thousand swine, and set up an immense slaughter
house of the savagest and filthiest character in the
Granary Burying-ground, on Copp's Hill, and in each
of the public squares ; were to give ah vacant land to
the gamblers, thieves, pimps, kidnappers, and mur
derers — they would not commit a worse injustice,
and they would not do a greater proportional damage
to the real estate, and more mischief to the health of
the inhabitants of the city, than the American Gov-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 469
emment would do the working people of the South and
North by creating this nuisance of slavery on the free
soil of Kansas.
So much for the effect of this on the individual in
terests of the working people of America. I have
only taken the lowest possible view of the subject.
See its effects on American politics — on the welfare
and progress of the nation. If Kansas is made a
slave State, we shall either keep united, or else dissolve
the Union and separate.
I. Suppose we keep united: what follows?
First, New Mexico will be a slave State, then Utah.
California is only half for freedom now, and will
soon spht into two ; Lower California will be slave.
Then Texas will peel off into new States; Western
Texas will soon be made a new slave State.
The Mesilla Valley, bigger than Virginia, will be a
slave territory.
Then we shah dismember Mexico — make slave ter
ritory there.
We shall re-annex the Mosquito territory : the gov
ernment wants it, and lets ah manner of filibusters go
there now.
We shah seize Cuba, to make that soil red with the
white man's blood, which is now black with African
bondage. San Domingo must next fall a prey to American lust
for land.
Then we shall carry out the Fugitive Slave Bill in
the North as never before. In 1836, Mr. Curtis
asked the Supreme Court of Massachusetts to decree
that a slaveholder from Louisiana might take his
bondman to Boston as a slave, hold him as a slave, sell
him as a slave, or, as a slave, carry him back. In

470 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
1855, Mr. Kane decreed that a slaveholder might
bring his slave into a free State, and keep him there
as long as he would in transitu. Then we must have
laws to enforce these demands : Congress wih legislate,
and the Supreme Court will rule to put slavery into
every Northern State. In the beginning of June,
1854, this same Mr. Curtis, then become a judge, gave
a " charge," in which he made it appear that, to make
a speech in Faneuil Hah against kidnapping was
" a misdemeanor." Yes, if a Massachusetts minister
sees his parishioners kidnapped, and makes a speech
in Faneuil Hall against that iniquity, and tells the
people that they are slaves of Southern masters, Mr.
Justice Curtis says that that man has committed a
crime, to be punished by imprisonment for twelve
months, and a fine of three hundred dollars ! By and
by, that charge will be " good common law : " all law
yers will be slave-hunters; all judges of the Scroggs
family ; all court-houses girt with chains ; all the news
papers administration and satanic; all the Trinitarian
doctors of divinity will take a South-side view of
wickedness in high places ; all the Nothingarian doc
tors of divinity will send back their mothers — for a
consideration ! And then what becomes of freedom of
speech, freedom to worship God? What of inaliena
ble rights to hfe, liberty, and the pursuit of happi
ness? They ah perish; and the mocking of tyrants
rings round the land: "We meant to subdue you,"
scoffs one ; " I said, ' We will crash out humanity,' "
laughs forth another. Where, then, is America?
It goes where Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram are
said to have gone long ago. The earth will open her
mouth and swallow us up ; the justice of God will visit
us — our crime greater than that of Sodom and Go-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 471
morrah — for we shall have committed high treason
against the dearest rights of man! He will rain on
us worse than fire and brimstone; our name shall
rot in the Dead Sea of infamy, and the curses of man
kind hang over our memory for ever and ever, world
without end!
II. Suppose we separate. The North may at
length feel some little manhood; become angry at this
continual insult, and be roused by fear of actual ruin ;
calculate the value of the Union, and find it not worth
while any longer to be tied to this offensive partner.
See what may follow in the attempt at dissolution.
Look at the comparative military power — the men
and money — of the North and South.
Omitting California and the territories, the North
has fifteen million freeman, or three million men able to
do military duty; and also thirty-two hundred million
dollars ($3,200,000,000) ; while the South has fifteen
hundred million dohars ($1J500,000,000), six million
five hundred thousand freeman, and three million five
hundred thousand slaves. But the latter are a negative
quantity to be subtracted from the whole. So the
effective population is three millions, or six hundred
thousand men able to bear arms. Such is the com
parative personal and material force of the two. I
wih not speak of the odds in the quality of Northern
and Southern, men, looking now only at the obvious
quantitative difference.
The contest could not be doubtful or long. The
North could dictate the terms of separation, and would
probably take two-thirds of the naval and military
property of the nation, and all of the territories.
Then would come the question, Where shall be the line
of demarcation between freedom and slavery? I

472 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
think the North might fix the Potomac and Ohio as
the northern, and the Mississippi as the western limit
of slavery. Depend upon it, we shall not leave more
land than these boundaries indicate to the cause of
bondage. Then the ten Barbary States of America
might found a new empire, with despotism for their
central idea ; take the name of Braggadocia, Servilia,
Violentia, Thrasonia, or, in plainer Saxon title, Bully-
dom; and become as famous in future history as the
" Five Cities of the Plain " were in the past. But
would Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, con
sent to be border States, with no Fugitive Slave Bill
to fetter their bondmen?
I do not propose disunion — at present. I would
never leave the black men in bondage, or the whites
subject to the slaveholding oligarchy which rules them.
The Constitution itself guarantees " a repubhcan form
of government " to each State in the Union : no slave
State has had it yet. Perhaps the North will one day
respect the other half of " the compromises of the Con
stitution." Certainly there must be national unity of
idea, either of freedom or of slavery, or else we separate
before long.
This regressive force, which retards the progress
and diminishes the welfare of the South, and yet con
trols the politics of America, is determined to conquer
the progressive force, to put liberty down, to spread
bondage over all the North, to organize it in all the wild
land of the continent. The ablest champions of this
iniquity are Northern men. The same North which
bore Seward and Giddings, Sumner and Hale, not to
mention others equally able, is mother also to Cushing
and Douglas ; and one of these would " crash out " all
opposition to slavery, all love of welfare and progress ;

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 473
the other is reported to have said to the North, in the
Senate, " We mean to subdue you." Mark the words
— " We mean to subdue you! " That is the aim of
the administration, to make progress, regress ; welfare,
illfare; to make Democracy and Christianity, Despo
tism and anti-Christianity ; that is the purpose of the
oligarchy of slaveholders, to be executed with those
triple Northern tools already named — base men, mean
men, ignorant men.
The first great measure is to put slavery into Kan
sas and Nebraska, into four hundred and fifty thousand
six hundred and eighty miles of wild land.
To accomphsh that, five steps were necessary. Here
they are : —
I. The first was to pass a pro-slavery Act to or
ganize the Kansas and Nebraska territory. That ac
complished two things : —
1. It repealed the Missouri Compromise, and laid
the territory open to the slaveholder.
2. It established squatter sovereignty, and allowed
the settlers to make laws for slavery or freedom, as
they saw fit. The South intended that it should be a
slave State.
You know how this first step was taken in 1854;
what was done by Congress, by the President; you
have not forgotten the conduct of Mr. Douglas of Illi
nois. Massachusetts yet remembers the behavior of
Mr. Everett. It is rather difficult to find all the facts
concerning this Kansas business ; lies have been woven
over the whole matter, and I know of no transaction in
human history which has been covered up with such
abundant lying, from the death of Ananias and Sap-
phira down to the first nomination of Governor Gard
ner. Still the main facts appear through this gar
ment of lies.

474 the Rights of man
II. The second step was to give the new territory
a slave government, which would take pains to organize
slavery into the land, and freedom out of it. So the
executive appointed persons supposed to be compe
tent for that work, and, amongst others, Mr. Reeder,
of Easton, in Pennsylvania, who was thought to be
fit for that business. But it turned out otherwise: he
became conscientious, and refused to execute the in
famous and unlawful commands of the executive.
Finding it was so, the President — I have it on good
authority — tried to bribe him to. resign, offering
him the highest office then vacant — the ministry to
China. Governor Reeder refused the bribe, and then
was discharged from his office on the pretense of some
pecuniary unfaithfulness. Mr. Shannon was thrust
into his place, for which he seems to the manner born ;
for — I have this also on good authority — his ha
bitual drunkenness seems to be one of the smallest of his
public vices.
III. The third step was to establish slavery by
squatter sovereignty. For this, two things were indis
pensable: (1.) To elect a legislature friendly to
slavery; and (2.) To get laws made by that legis
lature to secure the desired end.
1. This must be done by actual settlers; and then,
for the first time in this career of wickedness, a diffi
culty was found. The people were to be consulted;
and no coup d'etat of the government could do the
work. There was an unexpected difficulty; for, soon
as Kansas was open, great bodies went there from the
North to settle and secure it to freedom. It soon be
came plain that they were numerous enough to bring
squatter sovereignty itself over to the side of human
ity, and, by their votes, exclude bondage for ever.

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 475
That must be prevented by the regressive force. Mr.
Atchison, Mr. Stringfehow, and others were appointed
to take the matter in hand. Citizens of Missouri or
ganized themselves into companies, and in military
order, with pistols and bowie-knives, and in one instance
with cannon, went over the border into Kansas to de
termine the elections by excluding the legal voters, and
themselves casting the ballot. In ten months, they
made four general invasions of Kansas, if I am rightly
informed; namely, (1.) On the 29th of July, 1854;
(2.) 29th of November, 1854; (3.) 30th March, 1855,
and (4.) 22nd May, 1855. The third was the great
invasion, made to elect the legislators who were to
enact the territorial laws. It appears that four thou
sand men marched bodily from Missouri to Kansas,
some of them penetrating two hundred miles into the
interior, and delivered their votes, electing men who
would put slavery into the land. The fourth was a
smaller and local invasion, to fill vacancies in the legis
lature. I cannot dwell on these things, nor stop to speak of
the violence and murder repeatedly committed1 by these
border ruffians, under the eyes, and with the consent,
and by the encouragement, of the American execu
tive. You can read those things in the newspapers,
at least in the New York Tribune and Evening Post.
But, suffice it to say, the legislature thus chosen was
whohy illegal. If Jersey City were to order a munici
pal election, and New York were to go there, and choose
aldermen and common councilmen, and the new officers
were to act in that capacity, we should have a parallel
of what took place in Kansas.
Thus the slave power which controls the Federal
Government secured the first requisite, — a slave legis
lature.

476 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
2. They must next proceed to make the appropriate
laws. The legislature came together on the 2nd July,
1855, at the place legally fixed by Governor Reeder:
they passed an ihegal Act, fixing the seat of govern
ment at Shawneetown, on the borders of Missouri, and
adjourned thither. The governor vetoed the Act, and
repudiated the legislature, illegally chosen at first, il
legally acting afterwards. But they continued in ses
sion there from July 15th to August 31st, and made
a huge statute-book of more than a thousand great
pages. It contains substantially the laws of Missouri ;
but, in some instances, they were made worse. Take
this for example : —
" No person who shall have been convicted of any violation of
any of the provisions of an Act of Congress " (the Fugitive
Slave Bills of 1793 and 1850), " whether such conviction was
by criminal proceeding or by civil action, in any courts of the
United States, or of any State or territory, shall be entitled to
vote at any election, or to hold any office in this territory."
"If any person offering to vote shall be challenged and re
quired to take an oath or affirmation that he will sustain the
provisions of the above-recited Acts of Congress " (the Fugi
tive Slave Bills), " and shall refuse to take such oath or affirma
tion, the vote of such person shall be rejected." — Ch. lxvi. §
11, p. 332.
There is no similar provision depriving a man of his
vote if he violate any other statute : but a deed of com
mon humanity disfranchises a man for ever; nay, per
forming an act of kindness to a brother perpetually
deprives a man of his share in the government !
Look at this statute : —
Sect. 11. — " If any person print, write, introduce into, publish,
or circulate, or cause to be brought into, printed, written, pub
lished, or circulated, or shall knowingly aid or assist in bringing
into, printing, publishing, or circulating, within this territory,
any book, paper, pamphlet, magazine, handbill, or circular, con-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 477
taining any statements, arguments, opinions, sentiments, doc
trines, advice, or inuendo, calculated to promote a disorderly,
dangerous, or rebellious disaffection among the slaves in this
territory, or to induce such slaves to escape from the service of
their masters, or to resist their authority, he shall be guilty of
a felony, and be punished by imprisonment and hard labor for
a term not less than five years."
But stealing a free child under twelve is punished
with imprisonment for not more than five years, or con
finement in the county jail not less than six months, or
a fine of $500 (Ch. xlviii. Sec. 43).
Chap. xv. Sect. 13. — "No person who is conscientiously op
posed to holding slaves, or who does not admit the right to
hold slaves in this territory, shall sit as a juror on the trial of
any prosecutions for any violation of any of the sections of
this Act."
That law excludes the New Testament and the Old
Testament, as weh as the Declaration of Independence,
and the works of Frankhn, Jefferson, and Madison:
it shuts humanity from the jury-box.
IV. The next step was to get a pro-slavery delegate
from Kansas into the House of Representatives at
Washington. So, on the 1st of October, 1855, the
day appointed by the border-ruffian legislature to elect
a delegate, a fifth invasion was made by outsiders from
Missouri, who, as before, took possession of the polls,
and chose Hon. J. W. Whitfield to that office. Mr.
Shannon, the new and appropriate governor of the
territory, gave him a certificate of lawful election. He
is now at Washington in that capacity. But the
House of Representatives has the matter under advise
ment; a committee has gone to Kansas to investigate
the matter; and the country waits, anxious for the re
sults. V. The only remaining step is to enforce their slave-

478 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
law, and then Kansas becomes a slave State. But this
is a difficult matter: for the people of the territory,
indignant at this invasion of their rights, long since
repudiated the legislature of ruffians; held a conven
tion at Topeka ; formed a constitution, which was sub
mitted to the people, and accepted by them. They
have chosen their own legislature, State officers, sena
tors, and representatives, and applied for admission
into the Union as a free State. But men who have
already five times invaded the territory, threaten to go
there again and enforce the laws which they have al
ready made.
I need only refer to the conduct of the President, and
his masters in the Cabinet, and say that he has been
uniformly on the side of this illegal violence. You
remember his message last winter, his proclamation at
a later day, his conduct all the time. He encourages
the violence of these tools of the slave power, who have
sought to tread the people down. Hence it becomes
indispensable for the Northern emigrants to take arms.
It is instructive to see the old Puritan spirit coming
out in the sons of the North, even those who went on
theological errands. Excepting the Quakers, the Uni
tarians are the most unmilitary of sects ; in Boston,
their most conspicuous ministers have been — some of
them still are — notorious supporters of the worst in
iquities of American slavery. Surely you will not
forget the ecclesiastical defenses of the Fugitive Slave
Bill, the apologies for kidnapping. But a noble-
hearted Unitarian minister, Rev. Mr. Nute, " felt
drawn to Kansas." Of course he carried his Bible:
he knew it also by heart, His friends gave him a " re
peating rifle " and a " revolver." These also " felt
drawn to Kansas." This " minister at large " — very

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 479
much at large, too, his nearest denominational brother,
on one side five hundred miles off, on the other fifteen
hundred — trusts in God, and keeps his powder dry.
Listen to this, written December 3rd, 1855 : —
"I have just been summoned to be in the village with my
repeating rifle. I shall go, and use my utmost efforts to pre
vent bloodshed. But, if it comes to a fight, in which we shall
be forced to defend our homes and lives against the assault of
these border savages (and by the way, the Indians are being
enlisted on both sides), I shall do my best to keep them off."
On the 10th, he writes : —
" Our citizens have been shot at, and, in two instances, mur
dered; our houses invaded; hay-ricks burnt; corn and other
provisions plundered; cattle driven off; all communication cut
off between us and the States; wagons on the way to us with
provisions stopped and plundered, and the drivers taken pris
oners; and we in hourly expectation of an attack. Nearly
every man has been in arms in the village. Fortifications have.
been thrown up by incessant labor night and day. The sound
of the drum, and the tramp of armed men resounded through
our streets; families fleeing with their household goods for
safety. Day before yesterday the report of canhon was heard
at our house from the direction of Lecompton. Last Thursday,
one of our neighbors — one of the most peaceable and excellent
of men, from Ohio — on his way home, was set upon by a
gang of twelve men on horseback, and shot down. Several of the
ruffians pursued him some distance after he was shot; and one
was seen to push him from his horse, and heard to shout to his
companions that he was dead. A neighbor reached him just
before he breathed his last. I was present when his family
came in to see the corpse, for the first time, at the Free-State
Hotel, — a wife, a sister, a brother, and an aged mother. It
was the most exciting and the most distressing scene that I
ever witnessed. Hundreds of our men were in tears, as the
shrieks and groans of the bereaved women were heard all over
the building, now used for military barracks. Over eight hun
dred men are gathered under arms at Lawrence. As yet, no
act of violence has been perpetrated by those on our side; no
blood of retaliation stains our hands. We stand, and are ready
to act, purely in the defense of our homes and lives. I am
enrolled in the cavalry, though I have not yet appeared in the

480 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
ranks; but, should there be an attack, I shall be there. I have
had some hesitation about the propriety of this course; but
some one has said: "In questions of duty, the first thought
is generally the right one." On that principle, I find strong
justification. I could feel no self-respect until I had offered my
services. " Day before yesterday we received the timely reinforcement
of a twelve pounder howitzer, with ammunition therefor, in
cluding grape and canister, with forty bomb-shells. It was
sent from New York (made at Chicopee). By a deed of suc
cessful daring and cunning, it was brought through the country
invested by the enemy, a distance of fifty miles, from Kansas
City, by an unfrequented route, boxed up as merchandise.
"Sunday Morning, Dec. 9. — The governor has pledged him
self to do all he can to make peace; and we are told that the
invaders are beginning to retreat; but we know not what to
believe. Our men are to be kept under arms for twenty-four
hours longer, at least. No religious meetings for the last three
weeks. No work done, of course. Some of the logs to be
sawed for our church were pressed into service to build a fort,
of which we have no less than five, and of no mean dimensions
or strength. For a time, it seemed probable that the founda
tion-stones for the church would be wet by the blood of the
martyrs for liberty. They were piled up on the ground, and
with the earth thrown out of the excavation, made quite a fort
on the hillside just outside of the line of intrenchments."
That is the report of a Unitarian missionary. You
know what the Trinitarians have done: the conduct of
that valiant man, Henry Ward Beecher, — the most
powerful and popular minister in the United States, —
and his " Plymouth Church," and other " religious
bodies " at New Haven and elsewhere, need not be
spoken of.
One effect of this warhke spirit is curious ; " pious "
newspapers are very much troubled at the talk of rifles,
pistols, and cannon. In 1847, they rated me roundly
for preaching against the Mexican War, — a war for
plundering a feeble nation, that we might blacken her
soil with slavery : it was " desecrating the Sabbath."
They liked the Sims brigade, the Bums division ; they

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 481
did homage to the cannon which men-stealers loaded in
Boston, therewith to shoot the friends of humanity
on the graves of Hancock and Adams! Now, the
mean men and the base men are brought over to " peace
principles : " a rifle is " not of the Lord ; " a cannon
is " a carnal weapon ; " a sword is " of the devil." All
the South thinks gunpowder is " unchristian." Such
a " change of heart " has not been heard of since the
conversion of St. Ananias and Sapphira.
I have no fondness for fighting; not the average
" instinct of destruction." I should suffer a great while
before I struck a blow. But there are times when I
would take down the dreadful weapon of war: this is
one of them for the men in Kansas.
It is not easy for the border ruffians alone to put
down Kansas; not possible for them to break up the
popular organization, destroy the new Constitution,
and hang the officers. Will the President send the
United States soldiers to do this? No doubt his heart
is good enough for that work. We remember what he
did with United States soldiers at Boston, in 1854: the
only service they ever rendered in that town for more
than forty years was to kidnap Anthony Bums. But
the President falters: there is a North; all last winter
there was a North, — Northern ice in the Mississippi ;
Banks, of the North, at Washington, in the Speaker's
chair. Kansas and Nebraska are the " Children in the
Wood." They had a fair inheritance ; but the parents,
dying, left them to a guardian uncle, — the President.
I heard the Northern mother say to him, —
" You must be father and mother both,
And uncle, all in one."
" You are the man must bring our babes
To wealth or misery.
XIII— 31

482 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
And, if you keep them carefully,
Then God will you reward;
But, if you otherwise should deal,
God will your deeds regard."
It is still the old story : the Executive uncle promises
well enough: yet —
" He had not kept these pretty babes
But twelve months and a day,
Before he did devise
To make them both away.
He bargained with two ruffians strong
[That is, Straightwhig and Democrat,]
Which were of furious mood,
That they should take these children young,
And slay them in a wood."
It is still the old story. One of the ruffians kills
the other; but, in this case, Democrat, the strong ruf
fian, killed Straightwhig, — a weak ruffian, who had no
" backbone," — and now seeks to kill the babes. He
is not content to let them starve, —
" Their pretty lips with blackberries
So all besmeared and dyed;"
he " would make them both away." But that is not
quite so easy. Kansas, the elder, turns out a very
male child, a thrifty boy: he will not die; he refuses
to be killed, but, with such weapons as he has, shows
what blood he came of. His relations hear of the
matter, and make a noise about it. The uncle becomes
the town talk. Even the ghost of Straightwhig is
disquieted, and " walks " in obscure places, by grave
yards, " haunting " some houses. Nay, the Northern
mother rises from the grave: perhaps the Northern

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 483
father is not dead, but only sleeping, like Barbarossa
in that other fable, with his Sharp's rifle for a pillow.
Who knows but he, too, will " rise," and execute his
own will? The history may yet end after the old
sort: — " And now the heavy wrath of God
Upon the uncle fell;
Yea, fearful fiends did haunt his house;
His conscience felt a hell.
His barns were fired, his goods consumed,
His lands were barren made;
Conventions failed to nominate;
No office with him staid."
Kansas applies for admission as a free State, with
a constitution made in due form and by the people.
The regressive force is determined that she shall be a
slave State; and so all the 926,000 miles of territory
become the spoil of the slaveholder. See the state of
things. The majority of the Senate is pro-slavery, of the
satanic democracy. For once, the House inclines the
other way, — leans towards freedom. A bill for mak
ing Kansas a slave State will pass the Senate ; will be
resisted in the House : then comes the tug of war. The
North has a majority in the House, but it is divided.
If all will unite, they make Kansas a free State before
the 4th of next July. They can force the adminis
tration to this act of justice, simply by refusing to
vote a dollar of money until Kansas is free. If the
House will determine on that course, the two executives
— the presidential and the senatorial — will soon come
to terms. This is no new expedient: it was often
enough resorted to by our fathers in old England, un
der the Tudors and Stuarts ; nay, even the Dutch used
it against Philip II.

484 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
But perhaps there is not virtue enough in the House
to do this; then let the State legislatures which are
now in session send instructions, the people — who are
always in session — petitions, to that effect.
But perhaps the people themselves are not quite
ready for this measure ; and the House and Senate can
not agree. Then the question goes over to the next
presidential election, where it will be the most impor
tant element. There will be three candidates, perhaps
four; for the straight Whigs may put up some in
vertebrate politician, hoping to catch whatever shall
" turn up." It is possible there shall be no choice by
the people ; then the election goes to the present House
of Representatives, where the choice is by States. In
either case, if the matter be managed well, the progres
sive force of America may get into the presidential
chair. I mean to say, we can choose an anti-slavery
President next autumn, — some one who loves man and
God, not merely money, loaves and fishes, — who will
counsel and work for the present welfare and future
progress of America, and so promote that Christianity
and democracy spoken of before. I shall not pretend
to say who the man is: it must be some one who rev
erences Justice, — the higher law of God. He must
be a strong man, a just man, a man sure for the right.
Let there be no humbug this time, no doubtful man.
If we once put an anti-slavery man, never so mod
erate, into the Presidency, then see what follows im
mediately or at length: —
1. The Executive holds 40,000 offices in his right
hand, and 70,000,000 annual dollars in his left hand:
both will be dispensed so as to promote the welfare and
the prosperity of the people. All the great offices, ex
ecutive, judicial, diplomatic, commercial, will be con-

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 485
trolled by the progressive force; the administration
will be celestial-democratic, not satanic merely, and
seek by natural justice to organize things and persons
so that all may have a share in labor and government.
Then, when freedom has money and office to bestow,
she will become respectable in the South, where noble
men, slaveholders and non-slaveholders, will come out
of their hiding-places to bless their land which others
have cursed so* heavily and so long. There are anti-
slavery elements at the South : " One swallow makes
no summer ; " but one presidential summer of freedom
will bring many swallows out from their wintry sleep,
fabulous or real. Nay, the ignorant men of the North
will be instructed; her mean men will be attracted by
the smeh of dinner ; and her base men, left alone in their
rot, wih engage in other crime, but not in kidnapping
men. 2. Kansas becomes a free State before the 1st of
January, 1858. Nebraska, Oregon, Washington,
Utah, New Mexico, all will be free States. When
Texas sends down a pendulous branch, which takes in
dependent root, a tree of freedom will grow up there
from. Western Texas will ere long be a free State;
she is half ready now. Freedom will be organized in
the Mesilla Vahey. If we acquire new territory from
Mexico, it will be honestly got, and democracy and
Christianity spread thither. If Central America,
Nicaragua, or other new soil, become ours, it will be
all consecrated to freedom, and the inalienable rights
of man. Slavery wih be abolished in the District of
Columbia. 8. There will be no more national attempts to de
stroy freedom in the North, but continual efforts to
restrict slavery. The democratic parts of the Consti-

486 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
tution, long left a dead letter therein, will be developed,
and the despotic clauses, exceptionable there, and
clearly hostile to its purpose and its spirit, will be
overruled, and forced out of sight, like odious features
of the British common law. There will be a Pacific
railroad, perhaps more than one; and national at
tempts will be made to develop the national resources
of the continent by free labor. The South will share
with the North in this better organization of things
and persons, this development of industry and educa
tion. 4. And what will be the future of Kansas? Her
114,000 square miles will soon fill up with educated and
industrious men, each sharing the labor and the gov
ernment of society, helping forward the welfare and
the progress of all, aiding the organization of Chris
tianity and democracy. What a development there
will be of agriculture, mining, manufactures, com
merce! What farms and shops! What canals and
railroads! What schools, newspapers, libraries, meet
ing-houses! Yes, what families of rich, educated,
happy, and religious men and women! In the year
1900, there will be 2,000,000 men in Kansas, with
cities like Providence, Worcester, perhaps like Chicago
and Cincinnati. She will have more miles of railroad
than Maryland, Virginia, and both the Carolinas can
now boast. Her land will be worth $20 an acre, and
her total wealth will be $500,000,000 of money ; 600,-
000 children will learn in her schools.
5. There wih be a ring of freedom all round the
slave States, and in them slavery itself will decline.
The theory of bondage will be given up, like the theory
of theocracy and monarchy ; and attempts will be made
to get rid of the fact. Then the North will help the

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 487
Southern States in that noble work. There will never
be another slave State nor another slave President ; no
more kidnapping in the North; no more chains round
the court-house in Boston ; no more preaching against
the first principles of all humanity.
Three hundred years ago, our fathers in Europe
were contending for liberty. Then it was freedom of
conscience which the progressive force of the people
demanded. Julius the Third had just been pope, who
gave the cardinalship, vacated at his election, to the
keeper of his monkeys; and Paul IV. sat in his stead
in St. Peter's chair, and represented in general for
all Europe the regressive power; while Bloody Mary
and bloodier Phihp sat on England's throne, and, in
cited thereto by the pontiff, smote at the rights of
man. Two hundred years ago, our fathers in the two
Englands — old and new — did grim battle against
monarchic despotism: one Charles slept in his bloody
grave, another wandered through the elegant debauch
eries of the Continent ; while Cromwell and Milton made
liberal England abidingly famous and happy.
One hundred years ago, other great battling for the
rights of man was getting begun. Ah me! the long-
continued strife is not ended. The question laid over
by our fathers is adjourned to us for settlement. It
is the old question between the substance of man and
his accidents, labor and capital, the people and a caste.
Shall the 350,000 slaveholders own all the 1,400,000
square miles of territory not yet made States, and drive
all Northern men away from it, or shall it belong to
the people; shah this vast area be like Arkansas and
South Carolina, or like Michigan and Connecticut?
That is the immediate question.

488 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
Shall slavery spread over all the United States, and
root out freedom from the land? or shall freedom
spread wide her blessed boughs till the whole continent
is fed by her fruit, and lodged beneath her arms —
her very leaves for the healing of the nations? That
is the ultimate question.
Now is the time for America to choose between these
two alternatives, and choose quick. For America?
No, for the North. You and I are to decide this
mighty question. I take it, the Anglo-Saxon will not
forego his ethnological instinct for freedom; wih not
now break the historic habit of two thousand years ;
he will progressively tend to Christianity and democ
racy ; will put slavery down, peaceably if he can, forci
bly if he must.
We may now end this crime against humanity by
ballots; wait a little, and only with swords and with
blood can this deep and widening blot of shame be
scoured out from the continent. No election, since
that first and unopposed of Washington, has been so
important to America as this now before us. Once
the nation chose between Aaron Burr and Thomas Jef
ferson. When the choice is between slavery and free
dom, wih the North choose wrong? Any railroad
company may, by accident, elect a knave for Presi
dent; but when he has been convicted of squandering
their substance on himself, and blowing up their en
gines, nay, destroying their sons and daughters, will
the stockholders choose a swindler for ever?
I think we shall put slavery down; I have small
doubt of that. But shah we do it now and without
tumult, or by and by with a dreadful revolution, San
Domingo massacres, and the ghastly work of war?
Shall America decide for wickedness, — extend the

CRISIS IN AMERICAN AFFAIRS 489
dark places of the earth, filled up yet fuller with the
habitations of cruelty? Then our rain is certain, —
is also just. The power of self-rule, which we were
not fit for, wih pass from our hands, and the halter of
vengeance wih gripe our neck, and America shall lie
there on the shore of the sea, one other victim who
died as the fool dieth. What a ruin it would be!
Come away ! I cannot look, even in fancy, on so foul
a sight. If we decide for the inalienable rights of man; for
present welfare, future progress ; for Christianity and
democracy; and so organize things and men that ah
may share the labor and government of society —
then what a prospect is before us ! How populous,
how rich, wih the land become ! Ere long her borders
wide will embrace the hemisphere — how full of men!
If we are faithful to our duty, one day, America,
youngest of nations, shall sit on the Cordilleras, the
youthful mother of the continent of States. Behind
her are the Northern lakes, the Northern forest
bounded by Arctic ice and snow; on her left hand
swehs the Atlantic, the Pacific on her right — both
beautiful with the white lilies of commerce, giving
fragrance all round the world; while before her spreads
out the Southern land, from terra firma to the isles of
fire, blessed with the Saxon mind and conscience, heart
and soul; and underneath her eye, into the lap of the
hemisphere, the Amazon and the Mississippi — classic
rivers of freedom — pour the riches of either continent ;
and behind her, before her, on either hand, all round,
and underneath her eye, extends the new world of hu
manity, the commonwealth of the people, justice, the
law thereof, and infinite perfection, God; a Church
without a bishop, a State without a king, a community

490 THE RIGHTS OF MAN
without a lord, a family with no holder of slaves ; with
welfare for the present, and progress for the future,
she will show the nations how divine a thing a people
can be made.
" Oh, well for him whose will is strong !
He suffers, but he will not suffer long;
He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong;
For him nor moves the loud world's random mock,
Nor all calamity's hugest waves confound,
Who seems a promontory of rock,
That, compassed round with turbulent sound,
In middle ocean meets the surging shock,
Tempest-buffeted, citadel-crown'd."