of intoxicating drink. The government of Boston, which violated the laws
of Massachusetts, to kidnap a man, and deliver him to his tormentors,
asks the city marshal to give such information as is calculated to check
the progress of crime and intemperance. He reports--"Execute the laws!"
In 1851, Boston has the honor of kidnapping one of her inhabitants, and
sending him to slavery, and of supporting fifteen hundred rum-shops, in
continual violation of the laws of Massachusetts.
[31] While these volumes are getting printed, one of the sectarian
newspapers of Boston publishes the following paragraph:--
"The English railways are all in use on the Sabbath, and all evidently
under a curse. Their stock is ruinously low. Three hundred and fifty
millions of dollars have been embarked in these enterprises, and the
average dividends which they pay is but three per cent. And more than
this, a large number of fatal accidents have occurred of late. While we
regret that the business men of England, who control these lines, have
not wisdom enough to see the folly of making haste to be rich, in
defiance of the ordinances of God, we rejoice that so many of the
railroad operators in this country, rest on the Sabbath day, according
to the commandment." See note [B]** on p. 267.
[32] The tattered garment is still kept as a melancholy monument of the
civilization of Boston in the middle of the nineteenth century.
[33] Mr. Sims was sent off to bondage in the barque Acorn by the city
authorities of Boston. I believe he is the first man ever returned as a
fugitive slave from Massachusetts by the form of law since the adoption
of the Constitution. Arrived at Savannah, he was immediately conducted
to prison. His mother and other relatives were not allowed to see him.
He was cruelly and repeatedly scourged. Meantime the citizens of Boston,
who had aided in kidnapping him, and had accompanied him to Savannah,
were publicly feasted by the inhabitants of Georgia. The present fate of
Mr. Sims is unknown to me.
Nov. 27th, 1851.
VII.
THE THREE CHIEF SAFEGUARDS OF SOCIETY.--CONSIDERED IN A SERMON AT THE
MELODEON, ON SUNDAY, JULY 6, 1851.
PROVERBS XIV. 34.
Righteousness exalteth a Nation.
This is the first Sunday after the anniversary of the national
birth-day. It seems proper, on this occasion, to go beyond matters
merely personal, and affecting us only as individuals. I will speak of
the duties of man in a wider sphere; of political affairs. So I ask your
attention to a Sermon of the Safeguards of Society. I choose this
subject, because some men profess a fear that American society is in
danger, and because some persons are busily teaching doctrines which
seem hostile to the very design of society itself. I shall not speak of
politics as economy, but as morality, and look at the affairs of State
from a religious point of view.
We are often told, that human society is of divine
appointment,--society meaning the mass of men living together in a
certain fellowship. If this means that man is by nature a social being,
and in their progressive development men must unite and form societies,
then, it is true, society is of divine appointment. But so is a farm;
for man is by nature and position an agricultural being, and in their
progressive development men make farms and practise agriculture.
Agriculture is as necessary as society.--But it does not follow from
this, that the Egyptian, the Flemish, or the American mode of
agriculture is of divine appointment, and men bound by God to practise
that, or to limit themselves thereto; and it no more follows that the
Egyptian, the Flemish, or the American mode of society is of divine
appointment, and men bound by God to limit themselves to it. It would be
thought ridiculous to claim divinity for Dutch farming, or any other
special mode of farming; but it is just as ridiculous to claim divinity
for Dutch society, or any other society. The farm and the society are
alike and equally the work of men.
Then we are often told, that human government is of divine appointment,
and men morally bound to submit to it,--government being used as a
collective term to include the political, ecclesiastical, and social
establishments of a people, and the officers who administer them. If
this means, that, at a certain stage of man's progressive political
development, it is necessary to have certain political, ecclesiastical,
and social establishments, such as a monarchy or an aristocracy, with
persons to administer them, then it is true, and government is of divine
appointment.--But the fence of a farm is just as necessary to
agriculture, at a certain stage of agricultural development, as
government to society. However, it does not follow from this, that a
stone-wall or a rail-fence is of divine appointment; and it no more
follows that a monarchy or an aristocracy is of divine appointment. It
would be thought ridiculous for a farmer to claim divinity for his
fence; it is just as absurd for a politician to claim it for his
government. Both are alike and equally the work of men.
Again it is said that human statutes are of divine appointment, and
therefore binding on the conscience of men. If this means, that, at a
certain stage of social and political development, men must form certain
rules for social and political conduct, then it is true, and human
statutes are of divine appointment. But rules for agricultural conduct
are just as necessary for the farm and the garden as political rules for
society and the State, and so equally divine.--But it does not follow
from this, that the agricultural rules for the farm and the garden laid
down by Columella the Roman, or Cobbett the Briton, are of divine
appointment; and it no more follows that the political rules for society
and the State laid down by the men of New England or the men of New
Holland,--by men "fore-ordained" at birth to be lawgivers, or by men
"elected" in manhood to make laws,--are of divine appointment. It would
be thought ridiculous for a British farmer to claim divinity for
Tusser's "Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry;" but it is just as
absurd for a British politician to claim divinity for the British
Constitution, or the statutes of the realm. Rules for farming the land
and rules for farming the people are alike and equally the work of men.
Still further, it is said that human officers to execute the statutes,
administer the government, and sustain society, are also of divine
appointment; and hence we are morally bound to employ, honor, and obey
them. If this means, that at a certain stage of man's social, political,
and legal development, it is necessary to have certain persons whose
official business it shall be to execute those statutes, then it is
true, and human officers are of divine appointment. But it is just as
necessary to have certain persons, whose official business it shall be
to execute the rules for farming the land; and so the agricultural
officers are just as much of divine appointment as the political. But it
does not follow that ploughman Keith and reaper Gibson are such by the
grace of God, and therefore we are morally bound to employ, honor, and
obey them; and it no more follows that King Ferdinand or President
Fillmore are such by the grace of God, and we morally bound to employ,
honor, and obey them. It would be thought ridiculous for Keith and
Gibson to claim divinity for their function of ploughman or reaper; but
it is equally absurd for Fillmore and Ferdinand to claim divinity for
their function of president or king. The farm-office and the
state-office are alike and equally the work of men.
Yet it is often taught that society, government, statutes, and officers
are peculiarly and especially of divine appointment, in a very different
sense from that mentioned just now; and therefore you and I are morally
bound to respect all the four. We are told this by men who would be
astonished if any one should claim divine appointment for farm-fences,
rules of husbandry, for ploughmen and reapers.--This is sometimes done
by persons who know no better.
In conformity with that fourfold claim of divinity for things of human
appointment, we are told that the great safeguard of man's social
welfare is this,--Entire subordination of the individual to the
community, subordination in mind and conscience, heart and soul; entire
submission to the government; entire obedience to the statute; entire
respect for the officer; in short, the surrender of the individual to
the State, of his mind to the public opinion, of his conscience to the
public statute, of his religion to some bench of attorneys, and his will
to the magistrate. This fourfold subordination of the individual is
demanded, no matter what the community, the government, the statutes,
or the officers may be.--Let us look a little more narrowly into this
matter, and see what is the purpose, the end, and aim of individual
human life, and of social human life; then we may be the better able to
determine what are the safeguards thereof.
* * * * *
What is man here on earth to accomplish? He is to unfold and perfect
himself, as far as possible, in body and spirit; to attain the full
measure of his corporeal and spiritual powders, his intellectual, moral,
affectional, and religious powers; to develop the individual into a
complete man. That, I take it, is the purpose, the end, the scope, and
final cause of individual life on earth. Accordingly, that is the best
form of individual life which does this most completely; that worst
which does it least. He is the most fortunate man who gets the greatest
development of his body and his spirit in all their several and
appropriate functions: all else is means thereto, and this the end
thereof. Ease, wealth, honor, fame, power, and all the outward things
men wish for, and all such things as are valuable, are means to this
end, no more. Wise men do not account him lucky who comes into the world
born to riches, distinction, thrones of power; but him who goes out of
it wise, just, good, and holy.
Accordingly, all else is to be subordinated to the attainment of this
purpose; this to nothing. But what faculties of the individual are to
rule and take precedence? The highest over the lowest; the lasting over
the transient; the eternal over the perishing. I will wound my hand to
save my head, subordinating the less to the greater. Not barely to live,
but to live nobly, is my purpose. I will wound or sacrifice my body to
save the integrity of my spirit, to defend the rights of my mind, of my
conscience, of my affections, of my religious faculty--my soul.
Conscience, when awakened, commands this. Prophets of the Old Testament,
and apostles of the New Testament, martyrs of all the churches under
heaven, are historical witnesses to this instinct of human nature.
Millions of soldiers have been found ready to sacrifice the life of
their body to the integrity of their spirit: they would die, but not
run.
Man is social by nature: gregarious by instinct, he is social with
self-conscious will. To develop the individual into the perfect man, men
must mix and mingle. Society is the condition of individual development.
Moses or Newton, living all alone, would not have attained the human
dignity of a clown or a savage; they would never have mastered
articulate speech: the gregarious elephant, the lonely eagle, would
surpass these men, born to the mightiest genius. Society, companionship
of men, is both a necessity and a comfort, a good in itself, a means to
other good.
As the great purpose of human life is to develop the individual into
the complete and perfect man in body and spirit, so the purpose of
society is to help furnish the means thereto; to defend each, and
furnish him an opportunity and all possible help to become a complete
and perfect man. Individuals are the monads, the primitive atoms, of
which society is composed: its power, its perfection, depend primarily
on the power and perfection of the individuals, as much so as the weight
of a pendulum or of Mount Sheehallin depends on the primitive atoms
thereof. Destroy the individuality of those atoms, human or
material,--all is gone. To mar the atom is to mar the mass. To preserve
itself, therefore, society is to preserve the individuality of the
individual.
Such is its general purpose: this involves several particulars. One is
purely negative in its form,--To prevent men from hurting one another.
In early ages, that was the chief business of society which men had
become conscious of. Society was recognized as an instrument to help
accomplish two things: first, to defend itself against other societies
or collections of men, and so preserve the integrity of the mass. This
was done by means of armies, forts, fleets, and all the artillery of
war. The next thing was, within itself, to defend the many feeble from
the few that are strong, or the few strong from the many weak; to
preserve the integrity of the individuals, the atoms which compose the
mass. This was done by statutes of prohibition, declaring, "Thou shalt
not." This defence from foreign or domestic harm involves two things:
first, the protection of the person, the substance of the community or
the individual; and, next, the protection of the property, the accident
of the social or individual person. All this may be comprised in one
term as the negative function of society, appearing in two modes, as it
protects from foreign or domestic hurt. This function is performed
consciously: one community says to other communities, "You shall not
hurt me," and to its own members, "You must not hurt one another," and
knows what it is about in so doing. Some of the nations of Europe have
scarcely got beyond this; their government seems to acknowledge no
function but this negative one.
Then comes the positive function of society. That is, To furnish
opportunities for the mass, as such, to develop itself; and the
individual, as such, to develop himself, individually and socially, and
exercise all his faculties in his own way; subject only to this rule,
that he hurts nobody else. See how this is done abroad between society
and society. This community agrees with others, that they, mutually,
shall not only not injure each other, but positively help one another.
"Protect my citizens by your statutes, whilst in your land; and I will
do the same with yours," says Belgium to France. That is agreed upon.
"Let my ships into your harbors," says England, "come whence they may,
and with what they may bring; and I will do the same by yours." America
says, "Agreed;" and it is so to the good of both. Thus each Christian
nation secures for itself opportunities for development in all other
Christian countries, and so helps the person, and also his property.
This is done by treaties; and each nation has its ministers and consuls
to lie abroad, and help accomplish this work. This is the foreign part
of the positive function of society, and is destined to a great
expansion in times to come.
See how it is done at home, and the whole furnishes positive helps to
the special parts. Society establishes almshouses, hospitals, schools,
colleges, churches, and post-offices; coins money as a standard measure
of all values; builds roads of earth, of water, or of iron; carries
letters; surveys the land; prints books telling of its minerals, plants,
and living things that swim or creep or fly or walk; puts light-houses
along the coast, and breakwaters to protect a port. Thus society
furnishes its members a positive help for the mind, body, and estate;
helps the individual become a complete and perfect man, by affording him
facilities for the development of his substance, and the possession of
his accidents. This is the domestic part of the positive function of
society. Some men, as the socialists in France, wish to extend it much
further, making the government patriarchal to bless,--not, as of old,
despotic to curse. This also is done with a distinct self-consciousness
of the immediate end and the means thereto.
But the greater part of this positive work is done with no such distinct
consciousness thereof: it is brought about by the men living together;
is done, not by government, but by society. The presence of numbers
increases the intellectual temperature, so to say, and quickens the
social pulse. Machines are invented, science extended, new truths in
morals and religion are found out, literature and art create new
loveliness, and men become greater and more noble, while society takes
no heed; and so all are helped. The government often only checks this
work.
By most subtle contrivances, though not of you and me, a provision is
made for the great. Without willing it, we prepare a cradle for every
giant, ready to receive him soon as he is born. A young woman has a rare
genius for music; no legal and constitutional provision has been made
for her, society having no instinctive and prophetic consciousness of
such an advent; but men with music in their souls, and spell-bound by
their ears, are drawn together, and encourage her sweet soul into all
the wildest, sweetest, and most bewildering witchery of song. If some
lad of marvellous genius is born in the woods, men seek him out, and
train him up with the accumulated wisdom of ten thousand years, that
this newest diamond from the mine of God may be appropriately set. So
it is with a thousand other things; and thus society calls out the
dainties of the cook, the machine of the inventor, the orator's
persuasive power, the profound thought of the thinker, the poet's vision
and his faculty divine, the piety of the highest saint God sends. Thus,
spite of all the Herods in Jerusalem, a crown is got ready for him that
is born King of the world; wise men are always waiting for the star
which goes before the new-born Son of God; and, though that star stand
still over a stable, they are ready on the spot with their myrrh, their
frankincense, and their gold. Society has its shepherds watching their
flock, and its angels to proclaim the glad tidings of great joy to all
mankind.
While society, in its positive function, thus helps the strong, it
provides also for the weak, and gives them the benefit of the strong
man's protection: thus the individuality of the ablest and the most
feeble is defended at the same time. This is done in part by private
charity; in part also by the organized public charity. The sick, the
poor, the crazy, the lame, the blind, the deaf, are sacredly cared for.
Even the fool is not left in his folly, but the wisdom of society
watches over his impotent and wretched brain. Thus the two extremes of
the human race are provided for: the man of vast genius and a tough body
gets his culture and his place; and from his station in the senate, the
pulpit, or the closet, sends out his thunder, his lightning, or his
sunshine over all the land, to save the people and to bless; while the
lame man, the lunatic woman, the blind boy, the poor and sickly little
girl, born with the scrofulous worm feeding on her cheek,--all have the
benefit of the manifold power of society. The talent of a Webster, the
genius of an Emerson, the frailty of an unacknowledged child left on the
doorstone at night, to die next month in the almshouse, all have their
place in the large cradle of society, whose coverlet wraps them
all,--the senator, the poet, and the fool. Attend a meeting of the
alumni of Harvard College, of the heads of the railroads or factories of
New England, a convention of merchants, naturalists, metaphysicians, of
the senate of the nation, you see how society gives place and protection
to the best heads in the State. Then go to some house of industry, and
see the defence afforded for the worst; you see what a wonderful
contrivance society itself is. I say a contrivance, yet it is not the
contrivance chiefly of Solon or Charlemagne, but of Almighty God; a
contrivance for three things,--To prevent men from hurting one another
in person or property; to give the strong and the weak the advantage of
living together; and thus to enable each to have a fair chance for the
development of his person and the acquisition of property. The mechanism
of society, with its statical and dynamical laws, is the most marvellous
phenomenon in the universe. Thereby we are continually building wiser
than we know, or rather the providence of the Father builds by us, as by
the coral insect of Pacific Seas, foundations for continents which we
dream not of.
* * * * *
These three things are the general end of society, and indispensable to
the purpose of life. To attain them, there must be a certain amount of
individual variety of action, a certain amount of social unity of
action; and the two must be to a certain degree balanced into
equilibrium. The larger the amount of individual variety and social
unity of action, the more complete the equilibrium of the two, the more
completely is the purpose of individual and social life accomplished and
attained: the atom is not sacrificed to the mass, nor the mass to the
atom; the individual gains from being a citizen, the citizen from his
individuality; all are the better for each, and each for all.
To accomplish this purpose, men devise certain
establishments,--institutions, constitutions, statutes--human machinery
for attaining the divine end in the individual and the social form. But
here is the condition of existence which all these establishments must
conform to. Every thing in nature has a certain constant mode of action:
this, we call a law of nature. The laws of nature are universal,
unchangeable, and perfect as God, whose mind they in part express. To
succeed in any thing, we must find out and keep the natural laws
relating thereto. There are such laws for the individual,--constant
modes of action which belong to human nature, writ therein by God. My
mind and conscience are the faculties by which I learn these laws.
Conscience perceives by instinct; mind sees afterwards by experiment.
There are also such laws for society, constant modes of action, which
belong to human nature in its social form. They are also written in the
nature of man. The mind and conscience of the individuals who make up
the society are the faculties by which these laws likewise are found
out. These laws, constant modes of individual or social action, are the
sole and exclusive basis of human establishments which help attain the
end of individual and social life. What conforms to these natural rights
is called right; what conforms not, is wrong. A mill-dam or a monument
must conform to the statical laws of matter, or not serve the purpose it
was meant for; a mill or a steam-engine must conform to the dynamical
laws of matter, or it is also useless. So all the social establishments
of mankind, designed to further the positive or negative functions of
society, must conform to the laws of human nature, or they will fail to
achieve the purposes of individual and social life.
As I come to individual self-consciousness, I give utterance to these
natural laws, or my notion of them, in certain rules of conduct which I
make for myself. I say, "This will I do, for it is right; that will I
not do, for it is wrong." These are my personal resolutions, personal
statutes. I make them in my high act of prayer, and in my common life
seek to conform thereto. When I rise higher, in another act of prayer
which has a greater experience for its basis and so represents more
life, I shall revise the old rules of conduct, and make new ones that
are better. The rules of conduct derive all their objective and real
value from their conformity with the law of God writ in my nature; all
their subjective and apparent value, from their conformity to my notions
of the law of God. The only thing which makes it right, and an
individual moral duty for me to keep my resolutions, is, that they
themselves are right, or I believe them so. Now, as I see they are
wrong, or think I see it, I shall revise or change them for better.
Accordingly, I revise them many times in my life: now by a gradual
change, the process of peaceful development; now by a sudden change,
under conviction of sin, in penitence for the past, and great concern of
mind for the future, by the process of personal revolution. But these
rules of conduct are always provisional,--my ladder for climbing up to
the purposes of individual life. I will throw them away as soon as I can
get better. They are amenable subjectively to my notion of right, and
objectively to right itself,--to conscience and to God.