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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

ASSAULTS UPON FREEDOM!

OR,

KIDNAPPING AN OUTRAGE UPON HUMANITY AND ABHORRENT TO GOD-

DISCOURSE,

OCCASIONED BY THE

RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS.

BY E. H. GRAY,
Pastor oi the Baptist Church, sfielburne Falls, Mass.

" God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

SHELBURNE FALLS,
PUBLISHED BY D. B. GUNN.
1854.

Shelburne Palls, Juke, 15 1854.
Rev. and Dear Sir,
We the undersigned, having listened with great interest to the plain,
yet powerful and impressive discourse, delivered by you, on the last Sab
bath morning, upon Southern Aggression and the Rendition of Burns, and
believing its publication would contribute to advance the cause of liberty,
and strengthen true principles, hereby request of you a copy for the press.
With sincere regard, yours truly,
E. G. Lamson,
S. J. W. Tabor,
J. B. Montague,
H. A. Pratt,
W. J. Davis,
W. S. Clemknt,
J. B. Bardwell,
D. B. Gunn.
Rev. E. H. Gray.

Shelburne Falls, June 20, 1854.
To E. G. Lamson, Esq., Dr. S. J. W. Tabor, and other Committee,
Gentlemen,
Your note requesting for the press a copy of my Discourse on the
Aggressions of Slavery and the Rendition of Burns is received. The Ser
mon was not prepared with the remotest idea that it would be published, but
if, in your judgment, its publication would contribute, in any degree, to
advance the cause of Freedom, it is cheerfully submitted. God grant that
the time may be near when such Discourses will no longer be needed.
I am, Gentlemen, Very Truly, Your Servant,
E. H. Gray.

CL*- .|

DISCOURSE.

"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Iam the Lord."— Lev. xix: 18.
"Deliver the poor and the needy; rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
Ps. lxxxii:4.
"Hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth; let mine outcasts dwell
with thee; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler. Isaiah xvi : 3, 4.
"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant which has escaped from his
master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee, even among you in that place which
he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best. Thou shalt not oppress
him." — Dedt. xxiii:15, 16.
" Then Peter and the other Apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God
rather than men." — Aotsv:29.
"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; fear God and keep his com
mandments, for this is the whole duty of man." — Eccl. xii:13.
The Ancients had a saying, that " whom the Gods deter
mined to destroy, they first made mad." Then, if we were to
adopt their maxim as true, we might well imagine that the doom
of Slavery was already fixed — the edict for its destruction
already gone forth. For that it is seized with madness, who
can doubt, that sees its writhings on the floor of Congress, and
hears its howlings among our mountains and along our valleys,
on the Soil of Freedom ?
There are two mighty, active, antagonistic forces at work in
this country — hostile, deadly, irreconcilable foes — Slavery
and Freedom. They are both seeking for ascendancy in this
Union. They are both more vigorous, active and self-aggran
dizing now, perhaps, than at any other period in the history of
this country. The contest between these powers, since the

inauguration of our Federal Government, has only been pro
tracted, never decided. The decision is a great crisis to be
reached in our National Hereafter.
So far, Slavery seems to have had the advantage. It has,
by despotic legislation, annihilated the manhood of over three
millions of our fellow men. It has disrobed them of their
humanity, and turned them over, chattels to the tender mercies,
not of masters only, but of owners, to be polluted, worked,
scourged or sold, as shall best suit the lustful, the wrathful, or
the mercenary caprice of their unbridled owners. There is no
offence against religion, against morals, against humanity,
which may not, by the license of Slavery, stalk abroad " un-
whipt of justice." For the husband and wife, there is no mar
riage ; for the mother, there is no assurance that her infant shall
not, at any time, be torn from her breast ; for all who bear the
name of Slave, there is nothing that they can call their own.
Without a father, without a mother, almost without a God, the
Slave has nothing but a master, and this he is not often left to
doubt. Upon such wholesale and unmitigated atrocity, the
civilized world has fixed its gaze. And as it beholds Slavery
enthroned in this Christian land of Freedom, usurping the chief
offices of State ; making laws in our halls of legislation ; send
ing forth edicts from the Capitol, and with its crushing heel on
the neck of Liberty, we may read in that gaze, the world's
wonder, and horror, and scorn !
But before I proceed further, let me specify some of the par
ticular acts by which Slavery has made assaults upon Freedom.
In 1787, Slavery was .inaugurated into the Constitution of
America, " the home of the brave, the land of the free ! " Pro
vision also was made, so that the owners of slaves should have
their property represented in Congress — five slaves count
ing the same as three free-men. Hence, to-day, the South
has delegates in Congress, in consequence of her slaves, equal
to the representation of about two millions of Freemen in New
England.

In 1792, Kentucky was received as a new State, in which
Slavery was established. This was the first act of Congress
establishing new Slavery, so far as she had power.
In 1800, the Government purchased of Maryland and Vir
ginia, a tract of land, ten miles square, to be occupied as the
Capital of the United States. And in 1802, Congress estab
lished Slavery there. And to-day, the Capital of the only
Christian Kepublic in the world ; and boastingly declaring in
her " Programme of political principles," " That all men are
created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness • " such a Government has her Capital on Slave Soil !
In 1803, Louisiana was purchased of France, and organized
into a Territory, with Slavery in it. This was the first act of
Congress in carrying Slavery into new territory, acquired since
the Declaration of Independence.
In 1820, Missouri was organized as a State, and applied for
admission into the Union, whereupon arose a great battle. The
South wished to extend Slavery — the North, to resist it. Hence
originated the famous " Compromise " of which we have heard
so much. Missouri was admitted as a Slave State ; and as the
price paid for this accumulation of the Slave power in the Gov
ernment, the South allowed Congress to enact, or rather the
South itself enacted, (for Southern members were leaders in the
movement,) " That in all that territory ceded by France to the
United States, under the name of Louisiana, , which lies north
36 deg. 30 min. of north latitude, not included within the
limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and in
voluntary servitude, otherwise than as the punishment of
crimes, shall be, and is hereby forever prohibited."
That was the " Missouri Compromise" in which the North
supposed that great Territory was made over in good faith, and
forever, to Freedom.
In 1845, Florida was admitted as a Slave State. Thus
Slavery went down to the very Gulf of Mexico.

6
In 1845, also, Texas was annexed. From this territory,
Mexico, benighted, Heathenish, Philistine Mexico, had banished
Slavery. Christian America seizes it — introduces Slavery,
and makes it a State.
Then, in 1847-8, came the war with Mexico — a war begun,
and continued, and ended for Slavery. ^1 or was this satisfac
tory. It was not enough for Slavery, that it had been con
stantly and steadily extending the area of its dark domain, —
it was not enough that masters had the privilege themselves, to
chase and capture the flying Fugitives, but they conspired to
turn our Free Soil into Slave-hunting ground, and metamor
phose every one of us into Slave-catchers.
This they did in the passage of the " Fugitive Slave Law "
of 1850. It was resisted powerfully. God be thanked that it
did not pass without a struggle. But the old cry of " dissolv
ing the Union " was set up. The South " screamed, and swag
gered, and stood on tip-toe, and spread her fingers, and raved,
and tore her hair, and assaulted the very heavens with her
scary speech." And it passed ; and why should it not ? The
South demanded it. Nevertheless, it was the greatest stride
of all that Slavery had taken yet. It was the most insulting to
the North, the most revolting to our political ideas, and the
principles of our religion. Nor is this all. " The Fugitive
Slave Bill " was the most deadly attack ever made upon
Southern Institutions. Ten thousand Abolition Lecturers, sent
abroad to every village and hamlet in the land, would have
made but a ripple, in comparison to the wave of feeling that is
now rolling across the public mind. It has struck earnestness
into those who aforetime were indifferent or careless. It has
changed conservative men, into men of fast travelling speed,
and it has aroused, and is arousing such a tide of indignation
as few men soon will care to face. The feeling is not decreas
ing, it is deepening every day. Aid the community is begin
ning to feel, by this infamous mockery of a Law, that they are

driven back upon their sacred, inalienable rights, " Life,
Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ! "
The first Fugitive delivered up by Boston under this act, was
Thomas Simms. " Exactly seventy-six years before, Samuel
Adams, hearing the report of the great guns, fired by our
Fathers at Lexington, lifted up his hands and exclaimed, " Oh
what a glorious day is this I " Seventy-six years after this,
Boston, at the bidding of Slavery, seized one of her own citi
zens — one whom God had said, " Thou shalt not deliver up
to his master, but he shall dwell with thee, even within thy
gates, where he shall choose." Boston, which holds as her
most sacred relics, " The Cradle of Liberty " and " The Tree
of Liberty," kidnapped on her soil, and against her own laws,
and carried back a man to a Georgian Jail, to be scourged, till
even the executioner cried out, " Hold, hold, the man will
die. " Let him die," said the master, with an oath, " beat
on." What a glorious deed was that — not for Algiers, or War
saw, or Madrid, but for Boston.
But Slavery has not yet enough. Freedom is not sufficiently
humbled. The climax is not complete. It speaks again, and
lo ! the " Nebraska Bill " appears, by which Liberty is cloven
down at a single stroke, in the broadest territory in all our
land. Fitting time, for a deed so infamous, the midnight. For
it was a deed of darkness ! Had it been perpetrated in the
daylight, it should have been on the 26 th of May, the day of
the Great Eclipse. Fitting accompaniments to such an act of
perfidy, " the darkening of the sun, the moon withdrawing her
light and the stars falling from heaven ! " Fit persons they,
who did the deed : drunken, brawling, kidnapping politicians,
disgracing Congress, outraging humanity, and defying Al
mighty God ! By this perfidious act, they violated a most
sacred compact — one which was devised, and sealed, and de
livered, by men of the Slave States. Such as Louis McLane,
of Delaware ; William Pinkney, of Maryland ; Charles F.
Mercer, of Virginia ; John Gaillaird, of South 'Carolina ;

8
Henry Clay, of Kentucky ; with James Munroe as President,
and William H. Crawford, John C. Calhoun and William
Wirt — all Southern men, in the Cabinet — to-urge it forward.
The Compromise was a Southern measure. The humbled North
stood by and obsequiously bowed acquiescence. Slavery de
manded that compact then, and it was made. Now, Slavery
demands it to be broken, and it is broken. And by breaking it,
there is doomed to perpetual Slavery, a territory as large as all
the thirteen States that fought the battles of the Eevolution, and
one hundred and twenty-one thousand square miles besides !
Thus, from 1787 to 1854, has Slavery been constantly mak
ing assaults upon Freedom, and at each successive step it has
become more grasping, more imperious, and more insulting.
And I ask, in the name of God, when and where shall it stop 1
Why, if it were possible, it would go up to heaven and lay hold
and drag down into Slavery, fugitives from before the very
throne of God ! Nay, more, if it could, it would make a law
to press the Angels into the service, and make kidnappers of
them. And if the Angels were like some of our Northern
politicians, they would haste to do the bidding of the Slave
power and send back the spirits of every Fugitive that escaped
from bondage !
Here allow me to present a thought by way of contrast. It
is from our illustrious Senator.*
"Far away in the East, at the gate-way of day, in dark
benighted India, Slavery has been condemned. In Constanti
nople, the queenly seat of the most powerful Mahommedan
Empire, where barbarism still mingles with civilization, the
Sultan has fastened upon Slavery the stigma of his disapproba
tion. The Barbary States of Africa, occupying the same paral
lels of latitude with the Slave States of our Union, and resem
bling them in the nature of their boundaries, their productions,
their climate, and the peculiar institution, have been changed
into Abolitionists. Algiers also has been dedicated to Freedom.
•Charles Sumner.

Morocco, by its untutored Puler, has expressed a desire, stamped
in formal terms of a treaty, that the very name of Slavery may
perish from the minds of men. And only recently the Dey of
Tunis has decreed the total abolition of Slavery throughout all
his dominions."
Now, while these barbarous and uncivilized nations have
been casting down the Moloch of Slavery, and manfully de
claring for Freedom, Christian America — with all the light
and refinement of the nineteenth century — with the Bible
in her home, and the Gospel of the blessed God in her
heart, has adopted anew this barbarism, which these barbarous
tribes have renounced, and deliberately, by the enactment of
law, doomed an immense territory to the curse of perpetual
Slavery ! " Oh Freedom, thou hast fled to barbarous shores,
And we have lost our reason ! "
The booming of the midnight guns at Washington, over the
passage of the " Nebraska Bill " had scarcely died away, when
a man comes from Virginia to Boston to seek his slave. On the
twenty-fourth day of May, at night, as Anthony Burns was
returning home from his lawful and peaceful calling, he was
suddenly seized by six ruffians — charged with having broken
into a jeweller's shop — forced to the Court House — thrust
into an upper story, and immediately surrounded by men armed
with bludgeons and revolvers. Here he was charged, not with
being a fugitive from justice, but a fugitive from Slavery. The
kidnappers did not dare to make that charge when seizing him
in the street, lest the enraged populace should have torn the
victim from their grasp. The man who professes to be owner
of this body and soul, confronts him. The Marshal summons
his posse to guard this " Thing," to keep it from running away,
or others from running away with it. A Judge of Probate,
and Professor or Lecturer, in our State University, comes for
ward to act as Judge and Jury. The Court House was filled

10
with United States soldiers — Marines from the Navy- Yard,
and troops from the island. The Court 'f sat with bayonets at
their backs or swords at their bosoms. Drunken soldiers
charged bayonets on the witnesses, on the counsel and on stran
gers, who had rights where the soldiers had none." Boston was
in a state of siege. Thousands of people came in from the
surrounding country to look on the spectacle and see the sacri
fice. Stirred with deep indignation at the insult offered Free
dom, and the base prostration of the City of Pilgrims at the
feet of the Slave Power, the populace rush to the Court House
and endeavor to effect an entrance, but are beat back ; and in
the melee one man, fighting for Slavery, is killed. Business
was suspended, stores closed, the streets blocked up, and the
citizen soldiery under arms. The Sabbath comes — the blessed,
holy, peaceful Sabbath. This Fugitive is a professed Chris
tian — a member, it is said, of a Baptist Church — a member of
the same Church with his master, Col. Suttle, and a Minister !
Hence he believes in prayer ; and agreeably to the direction of
the Apostle Paul, who says, " Remember them that are in
bonds, as being bound with them," he asks for the sympathy
and the prayers of his fellow Christians. Some heeded that
request, and some did not. If Paul himself had been there,
bound with a chain as he was at Rome, and made a similar
request, some, no doubt, would not have heeded it. But neither
prayers, nor pleas, nor justice, nor humanity could avail.
Slavery said, " Give me that victim ! " The kidnapper said,
" Give me that man ! " The slave-driver said, " Give me that
1 thing ! ' " And the authorities of the city of Boston, and the
government of Massachusetss, and the government of the
United States, obeyed, and gave up the victim, and the chattel,
and the man. Now the military of the largest city of. New
England is called out to send a man into Slavery. Soldiers
load their pieces to fire into the bosoms of citizens, whenever a
drunken officer should give command. And one captain, more
furious than the rest, did order his company to fire upon the

11
people ; but the order was countermanded and thus the flowing
of blood was prevented. Thus armed with cutlasses, and re
volvers, and muskets, and cannon ; fifteen hundred soldiers
march one poor "nigger" (for they say "nigger," at the
South) from the Court House, (the Boston Slave-Pen,) through
fifty thousand spectators down to the wharf, where a steamer
and a United States vessel, manned with United States officers,
were anxiously waiting to carry a man back into Slavery. And
while they sailed out of Boston harbor, " the great stone finger
of Bunker Hill " — the monument of blood and of Freedom, —
stood silently and mockingly, pointing to the skies.
" Hail Columbia, happy land ;
Hail ye heroes, heaven-born band,
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause.
And now the storm of war is gone,
Enjoy the peace your valor won.
Let Independence be your boast ;
Ever mindful what it cost ;
Ever grateful for the prize,
Let its altar reach the skies.
Firm, united, let us be ;
Rallying round our Liberty.
Hail Columbia, happy land ! "
Just think. Why are the Lectures of the Law School in our
State University, interrupted for a whole week ? Why, the Lec
turer has gone to help Mr. Suttle catch his slave. What is that
Court about, guarded by United States officers and soldiers ?
Helping Mr. Suttle catch his slave. Why are the United States
troops and marines brought into the city ? To help Mr. Suttle
catch his slave. Why is the Court House in Boston made a
slave-pen ? To aid Mr. Suttle in catching his slave. AVhy is a
man sabred, a horse stabbed, and a man killed ? They were
done in helping Mr. Suttle catch his slave. Why were the
military ordered out, and one company ordered to fire upon the
people ? To overawe the populace, and help Mr. Suttle catch
his slave. Why was the city put under martial law, stores

12
closed and business interrupted ? All to help Mr. Suttle catch
his slave. What were fifty thousand spectators crowded into
the streets of Boston, doing ? Seeing the City Government,
and the State Government, and the United States Government,
catch Mr. Suttle's slave. Why are the United States Marshal
and a body of the police going off in the United States cut
ter ? To comfort Mr. Suttle, and help him keep his slave !
Now, I ask if this demonstration is not one of the most
supremely ridiculous farces ever played in this country before
High Heaven ? Though to the poor Fugitive, it was no farce.
With him it was a question of Liberty or Slavery ; and the
result proved it was Slavery.
Here, then, a most important question presents itself. Ought
the Fugitive Slave Act (I will not call it a law) to be obeyed ?
No. Humanity says no. Conscience says no. God says no. This
Slave Bill is no law ; it is an abuse of human rights, an act of ty
ranny which would have disgraced the reign of Nero — it is a
barbarous invention worthy of eternal night — it is an atrocious,
villainous assault upon the rights of Freemen and Freedom —
an act alike dishonorable to man and odious to God !
Just reflect. Our Fathers not only would not obey, but
actually resisted the " Stamp Act and Tea Tax;" and these
were virtues, compared with this kidnapping, heaven-defying
Slave Bill. They caught the Commissioner who issued Stamps
and made him take a solemn oath that he would not execute
his commission — would not issue a single Stamp ; and he kept
his oath. Would that the Commissioners of the Slave Bill were
served in the same manner.
This, in the case of our Fathers, was not only refusing
obedience, but actual resistance to law ; and yet posterity does
not condemn, but sustains them in it, blesses them for it,
and on every fourth of July, gets up a regular glorification in
commemoration of their patriotism and bravery. If they did
right in resisting laws, much more shall we in refusing obedience
to this most infamous of Bills.

•13
The Fugitive Slave Bill requires me to violate the Law of
God, therefore I am absolved from it.
Any Law wich requires me to disobey God, is not, and can
not be binding. This is not new or doubtful doctrine. This
truth is so clear and self-evident, the marvel is, that any should
fail to see and acknowledge it.
Philosophers and Moralists have fully developed it, and
Jurists themselves, have frequently confessed it. Says Calvin,
" If Rulers command anything against the Lord, it ought not to
have the least attention." Says President Edwards the younger,
" Rulers are bound to rule in the fear of God, and for the good
of the people ; and if they do not, then in resisting them we
are doing God service." Says Blackstone, the great expositor
of English Law, " The Law of Nature being coeval with man
kind and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obli
gation to any other. It is binding over all the globe, in all
countries, and at all times. iVo human laws are of any va
lidity, if contrary to this ; and such of them as are valid, de
rive all their force and all their authority, mediately and imme
diately from this original."
And then one greater than Blackstone, or Edwards, or Cal
vin, and far more authoritative, has said, " We ought to obey
God rather than men." Hence I repeat, when the law of the
land requires me to disobey God, I am not bound to obey it.
There is, therefore, a Higher Law to which we are held
amenable, above every human law. There is a code higher and
more imperative than the Constitution of America and the
Declaration of Independence : it is " the Constitution of the
Universe, and the Declaration of Almighty God."
Away then with the dogma, that we know of no higher law
as a rule for political action, than the Constitution of the United
States ! Against that perilous principle, by whomsoever adopted
or sanctioned — against that dogma so destructive to liberty, and
to all true manliness, I protest in the name of conscience and
of God ! there is a higher law, and you know it my hearers ; a

14.
law to which all men owe obedience in all the activities of life
and all the relations of society. There is a difference between
right and wrong, between justice and injustice, between right
eousness and wickedness ; older than the Constitution, — older
than all human compacts and enactments, — older and more
lasting than the world itself, — it is eternal as God ; — and that
difference,, sanctioned and guarded by the Divine Justice, is the
Higher Law. In vain you may affect to be ignorant of it.
Whatever you do, wherever you go, it attends you like the pre
sence of God ; every moment it hangs over you with its inex
orable demands, and with the mysteriousness of its sanctions.
The Higher Law ! There it is ! you cannot escape from it !
It forces itself continually upon your intuition. That Higher
Law ! And when you pass away from earth and time, and find
yourself surrounded by the mysteries of Eternity ; the Higher
Law will meet you there and reckon with you.
But how is it to be known, and who is to decide when the
law of God, and the law of the State, come in conflict ? Shall
the State decide ? certainly not ; for different governments, like
different men, disagree as to what the Law of God teaches, and
the same government often repudiates what it once demanded.
As England, for instance, was formed in a*n age, embracing wor
ship to the Virgin Mary, and England in the next, denounced
it as idolatry, the State therefore cannot be trusted to decide
whether a given law contravenes the law of God or not. Can
the Church be trusted to decide that matter ? Not safely. For
the Church, like the State in one age, has decreed and enjoined
what the Church in another age has declared impious and rejec
ted with scorn.
Then who shall decide when the laws of God and the laws of
man conflict ? Each man for himself, I answer. The State
cannot decide that matter, the Church cannot, but every man
must decide for himself, taking God's Word for his standard.
This is a point which I believe can be sustained fully
anywhere and at any time.

15
Now do you doubt whether in aiding to send back a Fugitive
to Slavery, you disobey God ? Turn back and read the texts
simply, they aie sufficient to decide the case.
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Can this com
mand be observed in any sense, while you aid in thrusting your
neighbor into a bondage the most cruel that ever cursed the earth ?
Again, " Deliver the poor and needy, rid them out of the
hand of the wicked." Do you not violate both the letter and
the spirit of this injunction, when you seize " the poor and
needy," and deliver them into the hand of the wicked ?
Again, " Hide the outcasts, betray not him that wandereth,
be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." If there
is an outcast on God's earth, it is the Fugitive Slave ; if then
you seek out his hiding place, and betray him and give him up
to the spoiler, do you not disobey this plain command of God ?
And will not the blood of your brother cry to God from the land
ofthe spoiler?
Once more, " Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the ser
vant which is escaped from his master unto thee. He shall
dwell with thee, even among you in that place which he shall
choose, in one of thy gates where it liketh him best ; thou shalt
not oppress him ! " Can any thing be more to the point ?
Here is a provision expressly for the fleeing Fugitive, " Thou
shalt not deliver him up to his master, he shall dwell with thee,
thou shalt not oppress him ! " Can this declaration of the Most
High, be made, in the slightest degree, to harmonize with the
requirements of the Fugitive Slave Bill ?
Hence, I conclude, that this Fugitive Bill is at variance with,
contravenes, scorns and overrides the law of God. Therefore I
cannot obey it, — I would not have others obey it. I do not say
r esist it ; I have not said so, I do not mean to say so. I only
say, DO NOT OBEY IT ! if you do, you disobey God, and he
will hold you accountable for your sin !
Just see, here is a man dwelling by my side who is claimed
by the person he formerly served. He is pursued by the officer-

16
He is on the point of being taken. He comes to me for help and
counsel. The law of Congress says to me, " you shall not give
it. The law of the land says, " you shall seize that neighbor at
the call of the officer, and deliver him up to his pursuers." Now
the question for me to decide is, is that law right ? Not was it
passed with the proper formalities, or certified by the proper of
ficers, or does it harmonize with the other existing laws, or is
it likely to be enforced by the arm of the State. That is
not the question. Is that law RIGHT ? Is it equitable
and just ? Does it agree with the law which God has given
me, when he commands me to " love my neighbor as myself ? "
If I refuse to give aid and protection to that man, but on the
other hand, seize and deliver him to his master, shall I do what
God approves ?
To answer these inquiries, I turn back and read in the text,
" Thou shalt not deliver unto his master, the servant which has
escaped from his master unto thee. He shall dwell with thee
even among you, in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best.
Thou shalt not oppress him ! " Do you say that this spe
cific requirement terminated with the Jewish polity. I reply, if
the principle were right then, it must be now, for God is the
same ; and if the law required that humane act, how much more
the Gospel.
But further, let us inquire to what am I required to send
this man back ? To the endurance of a system which no phi
lanthropist can contemplate without a shudder, — to a system
which puts the man entirely into the power of the master, to be
used by him as he wills, only his life being preserved, — to be
sold by him when he will, and to whomsoever he pleases, to have
his wife and children torn from him and sold, at the pleasure
ofthe master — wife and children as dear to him, as yours and mine
are to us. It is a system that forbids its subject to read or write,
that keeps him ignorant, and depends upon that ignorance for
its own preservation, — that debars him from all accumulation
and progress, — that dashes every pleasure by the sense of in-

17
security, — that takes the joy from every hope by hanging it on
another's will, — that darkens every prospect by the shadow of
a constant and inevitable fear, — that takes away the Bible by
legislative authority, and thus destroys the right to think, act or
live for God and Eternity, only as it is done through the ca
price of another. Such is the system to which I am to send
back a man, and it will doubtless be administered with double
rigor, because he has once escaped its grasp. Ought I to do it ?
Do the laws of humanity and of God exact this at my hand ?
If I could return him as Paul did Onesimus to his master,
" not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved,"
and he would go, then my duty might be plain. But he does
not choose to go back, and his master does not ask him to come
as a " brother beloved," and " above a servant," but as a
" thing," — a " chattel," robbed of all the rights and attributes
of manhood. The man implores me not to send him back.
Why should I send him ? Why should I do him this mortal
injury ? He is my brother by creation and my brother by re
demption ! Both of us are responsible to the same Heavenly
Father — both of us are looking for the same Eternity. Why
should I send him to a bondage which he abhors, and I abhor, —
a bondage not founded in equity, not accepted by himself and
not obligatory upon his conscience nor mind ?
Nay, — nay, I cannot do this great crime. I should trespass
against man. I should sin against God ! But the Government
will be imperiled by refusing obedience to law. I cannot help
that. The Government should not enact such laws. I am to
obey God's law, though the world shake beneath my feet. He
and he only, who does right under God's Government is safe. It
is right to obey Magistrates as the officers of society, so long as
they rule justly. " Put them in mind," says the Apostle, " and
I obey this injunction to-day, to be subject to principalities, to
obey Magistrates, and to be ready to every good work ! " But
God has given us a law that is primary ; a law that concerns us
as immortals ; that supersedes every other. When human law

18
conflicts with this, we must say with Peter, " We ought to obey
God rather than men." And God's law is decisive, unequiv
ocal, always binding upon each one of us ; revealed to the con
science as light is to the eye. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy
self." There is no other law on earth or in Heaven, greater than
these, and no other consequently, that can supersede them. But
further, we not only have the precepts ofthe Bible, but also the
example of good men, inspired men, for authority in refusing to
obey wicked and unrighteous laws.
Nebuchadnezzar set up an image in the plain of Dura, and
commanded all the people when they heard the sound of music
to fall down and worship the image, the king had set up ; and
it was added, " Whosoever would not fall down and worship,
should be cast into a furnace of fire." There were three wor
shippers of Jehovah there, — Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They were " Higher Law " men. What now should be done ?
The law of the kingdom conflicts with the law of God. The law
of the kingdom says, " fall down and worship an image."
The law of God says, "Thou shalt not bow down to any
graven image." Here was an alternative. They decided to
obey God and consequently refused obedience to the law of the
land. They were cast into the burning flame, and came out
again with not so much as the "smell of fire upon them."
Thus God has taught us conclusively, that it is right to refuse
obedience to the laws of the land, whenever they conflict with
the laws of heaven.
Again : Darius made a decree that any person who should
ask a petition of any God or man, for thirty days, save of the
King, should be cast into a lion's den. This writing was signed
and sealed, and became a law of the Medes and Persians, which
altereth not. Daniel was a man of God, and therefore a man
of prayer ; what should he do ? The law of the land declared
that he should not pray for thirty days. Daniel, likewise, was
an officer of government — the first in the kingdom — next to

19
the King ; hence, a refusal on his part to obey the law, might
be greatly prejudicial to the interests ofthe kingdom. It
would be casting' peculiar contempt upon the laws, upon the
King, and encouraging disobedience in others.. But Daniel,
also, was a ',' Higher Law " man. He therefore refused obedi
ence to the laws of that great kingdom, which interfered with
his sacred obligations to God. And this he did, as he supposed,
to the loss of both his office and his life. Ah, Daniel would
not have made a good " United States Commissioner." He
would have resigned his office and his life, I think, before he
would have disobeyed God in sending Burns back to Slavery.
So of Peter and the other Apostles who were commanded to
preach no more in the name of Jesus ; they gave no heed to
this command of the authorities, for a greater command, and, as
they imagined, far mor authoritative, required them to preach
the Gospel to every creature. And when the officers laid hold
of them and thrust them into prison for disobedience to law,
God sent his angel and brought them out, and said, " Go speak
to the people all the words of this fife." And they went forth
and preached. Did they do right ? They acted in defiance of
human law, and yet, in obedience to God. And when they
were brought before the court to answer for their contempt of
law, and the authorities, said, " Did not we straitly command
you that ye should not teach in this name ? " they were pre
pared to reply, " We ought to obey God rather than man ! "
And they did.
Hence I contend, yielding obedience to the " Higher Law,"
, the law of God in preference to human law, when they conflict,
is no new doctrine — it is as old as Christianity. It is alike
authorized by the word of God, and the example of holy men
in every age. It has beamed like a star over every martyr-fire.
It has throbbed as the life of every Reformer, — in Wickliffe,
Huss, Lul-her, and the Pilgrims. It has wrought out the
grandest achievements in the annals of time. By it, men have
risen up against tyrannies, overthrown oppressions, cast off des-

20
potisms, established free States, illustrated the power of Chris
tianity, and wrought out immortality ! Demagogues may decry
it, political interests may heave against it; but they cannot
overthrow it. The clouds of sophistry may hide it for a time,
but not forever ; the fury of the violent, bound to the oppres
sor, may be poured upon it, but God's law shall stand, in spite
of all human enactments, for God only is great !
What now shall be done? Slavery is in the Capital; the
Fugitive Slave Bill is in full force ; it makes us all kidnappers ;
the Nebraska Bill has just thrown open an immense territory to
the cause of Slavery, and the Federal Government is at the feet
of the Slave Power. What shall be done ? I answer —
1st. Refuse obedience to the Fugitive Slave Act. To exe
cute it, is not only to rob man of his manhood, but God of his
.glory. 2d. As freemen, forget minor distinctinctions, relinquish
party considerations, disregard past hostilities, rise in your might,
go to the Ballot^Box, and wrest the country from the mighty
conspiracy of Slaveholders.
3d. Let the men who have voted for, and otherwise aided
the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act, Nebraska Bill, &c., go
into profound retirement. Let them be " broken on the
wheel of public opinion." Let them be politically disfran
chised, now and forever.
4th. Let those who have dogged the Fugitive, and seized
him, and sent him back to bondage, be followed with the con
tempt, and indignation, and abhorrence of the people. Let the
.child flee from him, and men point at him in the street, and old
age leaning on its staff, hasten out of his way. And God grant
that in his waking hours — in solitude and in company — in
his silent meditations, and in the public affairs of men where-
(ever he turns — there may his victim stare him in the face.
From the distant rice-fields and sugar -plantations of the South,
may his cries beneath the lash, and his moans at the thought of

21
liberty once his, but now vanished from him, pursue him like
a spectre, repeating the tale of his fearful doom and forever
sounding in his ears, " Thou art my destroyer." And when
he lies down to sleep, in his dreams may he see his victim come
to his bed-side, and stretching out his black, brawny, nightmare
hand, lay it on his conscience. It may prevent his sending
others back.
5th. Rise up and demand the repeal of the infamous Fug1-
tive Slave Act and the Nebraska Bill, and all the compromises
with Slavery. Demand the abolition of Slavery at the Capital,
and in all the Territories, and then go to work to blot it out
from the Constitution. Let the Freemen of the North rise up
in their majesty and assert their rights, and it can be done !
Men and brethren, do you believe this great wickedness will
always continue ? Remember, the wheels of destiny turn not
back. Mankind are marching toward Freedom. Each revolu
tion is a step. Lay down your ear, as another has expressed
it,* to the great ocean of humanity, and hearken to the ground
swell which is going on there. That mighty roar of waters,
and eddying tides, and chafing currents at the bottom of human
destiny, does not augur peace to oppression, or safety to the
tyrant !
Thank God there are signs of promise. There is a bow
forming on the cloud. But a few years ago, mobs tore down
printing-presses if they dared boldly to proclaim anti-Slavery
doctrine, and destroyed them. Now, almost every press in the
North is as anti-Slavery as those which the mobs demolished.
Once, the suspicion of abolition would bring any man home
from Congress, and keep him there. Now, for the most part,
men who would go there from the North, must have, at least,
an anti-Slavery taint. Once, Legislators resisted every mention
of the subject, and he was deemed scarcely less than a maniac,
who, in the Legislatures of the Free States, dared to introduce
•Theodore Parker.

22
the inflammatory topic. Now, Legislatures are anti-Slavery bat
teries and give annual broadsides of anti-Slavery resolutions.
Once, pulpits dreaded the dangerous doctrine ; but now the
pulpit, to a great extent, is the exponent of Liberty, and there
fore the odium and hatred of all who fear the advancing march
of Freedom. In other days, mobs broke up anti-Slavery meet
ings, destroyed the houses of colored men ; but now the enraged
populace defend fugitive slaves and gird about their hiding-
places. And where they are unable to protect a victim, they
gather about him by thousands to look on the spectacle.
Now mark the ominous fact. When it requires fifteen hun
dred men under arms, and at a cost of forty thousand dollars,*
to send back one single fugitive into Slavery ; and this is done
in the presence of fifty thousand spectators, remember the
beginning of the end has come. A few such victories on the
part of Slavery, would ruin the " peculiar institution."
This, then, is no time for Freemen to hesitate — no time to
falter. It is a time for active vigilance, unceasing exertion,
unfailing perseverance — a time for mighty wrestling for right,
without period or pause, till Slavery is vanquished and the Na
tion is free !
The South, by the repeal of the " Missouri Compromise,"
has taught us that all acts of compromise are repealable statutes,
equally with other acts of Congress. Hence, Congress may
abolish Slavery to-morrow at the Capital, and in all Terri
tories, for anything that a preceding Congress has done.
The hour is struck ! The night cometh and then the morn
ing ! And when the morn of Freedom breaks on all the Nation,
the shout of an host shall go up to heaven, " Jehovah has
triumphed," the Bondman is Free !
* Some estimates are higher.