After months of constant, anxious service in another place, away
from Massachusetts, I am permitted to stand among you again, my
fellow-citizens, and to draw satisfaction and strength from your
generous presence. [_Applause._] Life is full of change and contrast.
From slave soil I have come to free soil. [_Applause._] From the
tainted breath of Slavery I have passed into this bracing air of
Freedom. [_Applause._] And the heated antagonism of debate, shooting
forth its fiery cinders, is changed into this brimming, overflowing
welcome, while I seem to lean on the great heart of our beloved
Commonwealth, as it palpitates audibly in this crowded assembly. [_Loud
and long applause._]
Let me say at once, frankly and sincerely, that I am not here to
receive applause or to give occasion for tokens of public regard, but
simply to unite with fellow-citizens in new vows of duty. [_Applause._]
And yet I would not be thought insensible to the good-will now swelling
from so many honest bosoms. It touches me more than I can tell.
During the late session of Congress, an eminent supporter of the
Nebraska Bill said to me, with great animation, in language which I
give with some precision, that you may appreciate the style as well as
the sentiment, "I would not go through all that you do _on this nigger
question_ for all the offices and honors of the country." To which I
naturally and promptly replied, "Nor would I,--for all the offices and
honors of the country." [_Laughter and long applause._] Not in such
things are the inducements to this warfare. For myself, if I have been
able to do aught in any respect not unworthy of you, it is because I
thought rather of those commanding duties which are above office and
honor. [_Cries of "Good! good!" and loud applause._]
And now, on the eve of an important election in this State, we are
assembled to take counsel how best to perform those duties which we
owe to our common country. We are to choose eleven Representatives in
Congress,--also, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and members of the
Legislature, which last will choose a Senator of the United States,
to uphold, for five years ensuing, the principles and honor of
Massachusetts. If in these elections you were governed by partialities
or prejudices, personal or political, or merely by the exactions of
party, I should have nothing to say now, except to dismiss you to the
ignoble work. ["_That is it!_" "_Good! good!_"] But I assume that you
are ready to renounce these influences, and press forward with single
regard to the duties now incumbent.
* * * * *
Here two questions occur, absorbing all others: _first_, what are
our political duties here in Massachusetts at the present time? and,
_secondly_, how, and by what agency, shall they be performed? What and
how? These are the two questions, of which I shall briefly speak in
their order, attempting no elaborate discussion, but aiming to state
the case so that it will be intelligible to all who hear me.
* * * * *
And first, what are our present duties here in Massachusetts? Unfolding
these, I need not dwell on the wrong and shame of Slavery, or on the
character of the Slave Power--that Oligarchy of Slaveholders--now
ruling the Republic. These you understand. And yet there are two
outrages, fresh in recollection, which I must not fail to expose, as
natural manifestations of Slavery and the Slave Power. One is the
repeal of the Prohibition of Slavery in the vast Missouri Territory,
now known as Kansas and Nebraska, contrary to time-honored compact and
plighted faith. The other is the seizure of Anthony Burns on the free
soil of Massachusetts, and his surrender, without judge or jury, to a
Slave-Hunter from Virginia, to be thrust back into perpetual bondage.
["_Shame! shame!_"] These outrages cry aloud to Heaven, and to you,
people of Massachusetts! [_Sensation._] Their intrinsic wickedness is
enhanced by the way in which they were accomplished. Of the first I
know something from personal observation; of the latter I am informed
only by public report.
It is characteristic of the Slave Power not to stick at the means
supposed needful in carrying forward its plans; but never, on any
occasion, were its assumptions so barefaced and tyrannical as in the
passage of the Nebraska Bill.
This bill was precipitated upon Congress without one word of public
recommendation from the President, without notice or discussion in any
newspaper, and without a single petition from the people. It was urged
by different advocates, on two principal arguments, so opposite and
inconsistent as to slap each other in the face [_laughter_]: one, that,
by the repeal of the Prohibition, the territory would be absolutely
open to the entry of slaveholders with their slaves; and the other,
that the people there would be left to determine whether slaveholders
should enter with their slaves. With some, the apology was the alleged
rights of slaveholders; with others, the alleged rights of the people.
With some, it was openly the extension of Slavery; and with others,
openly the establishment of Freedom, under the pretence of "popular
sovereignty." The measure thus upheld in defiance of reason was carried
through Congress in defiance of all the securities of legislation.
It was carried, _first_, by _whipping in_, through Executive influence
and patronage, men who acted against their own declared judgment and
the known will of their constituents; _secondly_, by _thrusting out
of place_, both in the Senate and House of Representatives, important
business, long pending, and usurping its room; _thirdly_, by _trampling
under foot_ the rules of the House of Representatives, always before
the safeguard of the minority; and, _fourthly_, by _driving it to a
close_ during the present Congress, so that it might not be arrested
by the indignant voice of the people. Such were some of the means by
which the Nebraska Bill was carried. If the clear will of the people
had not been defied, it could not have passed. If the Government had
not nefariously interposed, it could not have passed. If it had been
left to its natural place in the order of business, it could not have
passed. If the rules of the House and the rights of the minority had
not been violated, it could not have passed. If it had been allowed to
go over to another Congress, when the people might be heard, it would
have failed, forever failed.
Contemporaneously with the final triumph of this outrage at Washington,
another dismal tragedy was enacted at Boston. In those streets where
he had walked as freeman Anthony Burns was seized as slave, under the
base pretext that he was a criminal,--imprisoned in the Court-House,
which was turned for the time into fortress and barracoon,--guarded by
heartless hirelings, whose chief idea of Liberty was license to wrong
[_loud applause, and cries of "That's it! that's it!"_],--escorted by
intrusive soldiers of the United States,--watched by a prostituted
militia,--and finally given up to a Slave-Hunter by the decree of a
petty magistrate, who did not hesitate to take upon his soul the awful
responsibility of dooming a fellow-man, in whom he could find no fault,
to a fate worse than death. How all this was accomplished I need not
relate. Suffice it to say, that, in doing this deed of woe and shame,
the liberties of all our citizens, white as well as black, were put in
jeopardy, the Mayor of Boston was converted to a tool [_applause_], the
Governor of the Commonwealth to a cipher [_long continued applause_],
the laws, the precious sentiments, the religion, the pride and glory
of Massachusetts were trampled in the dust, and you and I and all of us
fell down while the Slave Power flourished over us. [_"Shame! shame!"
and applause._]
These things in themselves are bad, very bad; but they are worse,
when regarded as natural offspring of the Oligarchy now swaying the
country. And it is this Oligarchy which, at every political hazard,
we must oppose, until it is overthrown. Lord Chatham once exclaimed,
that the time had been, when he was content to bring France to her
knees; now he would not stop till he had laid her on her back. Nor
can we be content with less in our warfare. We must not stop till we
have laid the Slave Power on its back. [_Prolonged cheers._] And,
fellow-citizens, permit me to say, not till then will the Free States
be absolved from all political responsibility for Slavery, and relieved
from that corrupt spirit of compromise which now debases at once their
politics and their religion; nor till then will there be repose for
the country. [_Immense cheering._] Indemnity for the past and security
for the future must be our watchwords. [_Applause._] But these can be
obtained only when Slavery is dispossessed of present vantage-ground,
by driving it back exclusively within the limits of the States, and
putting the National Government, everywhere within its constitutional
sphere, openly, actively, and perpetually on the side of Freedom. The
consequences of this change of policy would be of far-reaching and
incalculable beneficence. Not only would Freedom become national and
Slavery sectional, as was intended by our fathers, but the National
Government would become the mighty instrument and herald of Freedom,
as it is now the mighty instrument and herald of Slavery. Its powers,
its treasury, its patronage, would all be turned, in harmony with the
Constitution, to promote Freedom. The Committees of Congress, where
Slavery now rules,--Congress itself, and the Cabinet also,--would all
be organized for Freedom. The hypocritical disguise or renunciation
of Antislavery sentiment would cease to be necessary for the sake of
political preferment; and the Slaveholding Oligarchy, banished from the
National Government, and despoiled of ill-gotten political consequence,
without ability to punish or reward, would cease to be feared, either
at the North or the South, until at last the citizens of the Slave
States, where a large portion have no interest in Slavery, would demand
Emancipation, and the great work would commence. Such is the obvious
course of things. To the overthrow of the Slave Power we are summoned
by a double call, one political and the other philanthropic,--first,
to remove an oppressive tyranny from the National Government, and,
secondly, to open the gates of Emancipation in the Slave States. [_Loud
applause._]
While keeping this great purpose in view, we must not forget details.
The existence of Slavery anywhere within the national jurisdiction,
in the Territories, in the District of Columbia, or on the high seas
beneath the national flag, is an unconstitutional usurpation, which
must be opposed. The Fugitive Slave Bill, monstrous in cruelty, as
in unconstitutionality, is a usurpation, which must be opposed. The
admission of new Slave States, from whatsoever quarter, from Texas
or Cuba [_applause_], Utah or New Mexico, must be opposed. And to
every scheme of Slavery, whether in Cuba or Mexico, on the high seas
in opening the slave-trade, in the West Indies, or in the Valley of
the Amazon, whether accomplished or merely plotted, whether pending
or in prospect, we must send forth an EVERLASTING NO!
[_Long continued applause._] Such is the present, immediate duty of
Massachusetts, without compromise or hesitation.
Thus far I have spoken of duties in national matters; but there are
other duties of pressing importance, here at home, not to be forgotten
or postponed. It is often said that charity should begin at home.
Better say, _charity should begin everywhere_. While contending
with the Slave Power on the broad field of national politics, we
must not forget the duty of protecting the liberty of all who tread
the soil of Massachusetts. [_Immense cheering._] Early in Colonial
history Massachusetts set her face against Slavery. At the head of
her Declaration of Rights she solemnly asserted that all men are born
free and equal, and in the same Declaration surrounded the liberties
of all within her borders by the inestimable rights of Trial by Jury
and _Habeas Corpus_. Recent events on her own soil have taught the
necessity of new safeguards to these great principles,--to the end that
Massachusetts may not be the vassal of South Carolina and Virginia,
that the Slave-Hunter may not range at will among us, and that the
liberties of all may not be violated with impunity.
I am admonished that I must not dwell longer on these things. Suffice
it to say that our duties in National and State affairs are identical,
and may be described by the same formula: In the one case to put the
National Government, in all its departments, and in the other case
the State Government, in all its departments, openly, actively, and
perpetually on the side of Freedom. [_Loud applause._]
* * * * *
Having considered _what_ our duties are, the question now
presses, _How_ shall they be performed?--by what agency, by what
instrumentality, in what way?
The most obvious way is by choosing men to represent us in the National
Government, and also at home, who will recognize these duties, and
be ever loyal to them [_cheers_],--men who at Washington will not
shrink from conflict with Slavery, and also other men who at home
in Massachusetts will not shrink from the same conflict when the
Slave-Hunter appears. [_Loud applause, and cries of "Good! good!"_] In
the choice of men we are driven to the organization of parties; and
here the question arises, By what form of organization, or by what
party, can these men be best secured? Surely not by the Democratic
party, as at present constituted [_laughter_]: though, if this party
were true to its name, pregnant with human rights, it would leave
little to be desired. In this party there are doubtless individuals
anxious to do all in their power against Slavery; but indulge me
in saying, that, so long as they continue members of a party which
upholds the Nebraska Bill, they can do very little. [_Applause and
laughter._] What may we expect from the Whig party? [_A voice,
"Resolutions."_] If more might be expected from the Whig party than
the Democratic party, candor must attribute much of the difference to
the fact that the Whigs are _out of power_, while the Democrats are
_in power_. [_Long continued cheers._] If the cases were reversed, and
the Whigs were in power, as in 1850, I fear, that, notwithstanding
the ardor of individuals and the Resolutions of Conventions [_great
laughter_],--made, I fear, too often, merely to be broken,--the party
might be brought to sustain an outrage as great as the Fugitive Slave
Bill. [_Laughter and applause._] But, without dwelling on these things
(to which I allude with diffidence, and, I trust, in no uncharitable
temper or partisan spirit), I desire to say that no party which
calls itself _National_, according to the common acceptation of the
word,--which leans upon a slaveholding wing [_cheers_], or is in
combination with slaveholders [_cheers_],--can at this time be true
to Massachusetts. [_Great applause._] And the reason is obvious. It
can be presented so as to penetrate the most common understanding.
_The essential element of such a party, whether declared or concealed,
is Compromise; but our duties require all constitutional opposition
to Slavery and the Slave Power, without Compromise._ ["_That's it!_"
"_Good! good!_"] It is difficult, then, to see how we can rely upon the
Whig party.
To the true-hearted, magnanimous citizens ready to place Freedom
above Party, and their Country above Politicians, I appeal. [_Immense
cheering._] Let them leave old parties, and blend in an organization
which, without compromise, will maintain the good cause surely to the
end. Here in Massachusetts a large majority concur in sentiment on
Slavery,--a large majority desire the overthrow of the Slave Power.
These must not scatter their votes, but unite in one firm, consistent
phalanx [_applause_], whose triumph will constitute an epoch of
Freedom, not only in this Commonwealth, but throughout the land. Such
an organization is presented by this Republican Convention, which
announces its purpose to coöperate with the friends of Freedom in
other States. [_Cheers._] As REPUBLICANS, we go forth to encounter the
_Oligarchs_ of Slavery. [_Great applause._]
Through this organization we shall secure the election of men who,
unseduced and unterrified, will at Washington uphold the principles
of Freedom,--and also here at home, in our own community, by example,
influence, and vote, will help invigorate Massachusetts. I might go
further, and say that by no other organization can we reasonably hope
to obtain such men, unless in rare and exceptional cases.
Men are but instruments. It will not be enough to choose those who are
loyal. Other things must be done here at home. In the first place, all
existing laws for the protection of human freedom must be rigorously
enforced [_applause, and cries of "Good!"_]; and since these are
found inadequate, there must be new laws for this purpose within the
limits of the Constitution. Massachusetts will do well in following
Vermont, which by special law places the fugitive slave under the
safeguard of Trial by Jury and the writ of _Habeas Corpus_. But a
Legislature true to Freedom will not fail in remedies. [_Applause._] A
simple prohibition, declaring that no person, holding the commission
of Massachusetts as Justice of the Peace, or other magistrate, shall
assume to act as a Slave-Hunting Commissioner, or as counsel of any
Slave-Hunter, under some proper penalty, would go far to render the
existing Slave Act inoperative. [_Applause._] There are not many so
fond of this base trade as to continue in it, when the Commonwealth
sets upon it a legislative brand.
Besides more rigorous legislation, Public Opinion must be invoked
to step forward and throw over the fugitive its protecting ægis.
A Slave-Hunter will then be a by-word and reproach; and all his
instruments, especially every one who volunteers in this vileness
without positive obligation of law, will naturally be regarded as part
of his pack, and share the ignominy of the chief hunter. [_Laughter
and cheers._] And now, from authentic example, drawn out of recent
history, learn how the Slave-Hunter may be palsied by contrition. I
take the story from late letters on Neapolitan affairs by the eminent
English statesman, Mr. Gladstone, who has copied it from an Italian
writer. A most successful member of the Neapolitan police, Bolza, of
the hateful tribe known as _sbirri_, whose official duties involved
his own personal degradation and the loathing of others, has left a
record of the acute sense retained of his shame by even such a man. "I
absolutely forbid my heirs," says this penitent official, "to allow any
mark, of whatever kind, to be placed over the spot of my burial,--much
more any inscription or epitaph. I recommend my dearly beloved wife
to impress upon my children the injunction, that, in soliciting any
employment from Government, they shall ask for it elsewhere than in the
_executive police_, and not, unless under extraordinary circumstances,
to give her consent to the marriage of any of my daughters with a
member of that service."[135] Thus testifies the Italian instrument of
legal wrong. Let public opinion here in Massachusetts once put forth
its might, and every instrument of the Fugitive Slave Act will feel a
kindred shame. [_Great applause._] They will resign. When, under the
heartless Charles the Second of England, the Act of Uniformity went
into operation, upwards of two thousand pulpits were vacated by the
voluntary withdrawal of men who thought it better to face starvation
than treachery to their Master. Here is an example for us. Let
magistrates and officers, called to enforce a cruel injustice, take
notice.
[135] Two Letters to the Earl of Aberdeen, on the State
Prosecutions of the Neapolitan Government, by the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, (London, 1851,) Letter II. p. 45.
It is sometimes gravely urged, that, since the Supreme Court of the
United States has affirmed the constitutionality of the Fugitive Act,
there only remains to us, in all places, whether in public station or
in private life, the duty of absolute submission. Yes, Sir, that is the
assumption, which you will perceive is applied to the humblest citizen
who holds no office and has taken no oath to support the Constitution,
as well as to the public servant who is under the special obligations
of an official oath. Now, without stopping to consider the soundness
of the judgment affirming the constitutionality of this Act, let me
say that the Constitution, as I understand it, exacts no such _passive
obedience_. In taking the oath to support the Constitution, it is as I
understand it, and not as other men understand it. [_Loud applause._]
In adopting this rule, first authoritatively enunciated by Andrew
Jackson, when, as President of the United States, in the face of the
Supreme Court, he asserted the unconstitutionality of the Bank, I
desire to be understood as not acting hastily. Let me add, that, if
it needed other authority in its support, it has the sanction also of
the distinguished Cabinet by which he was then surrounded, among whom
were that unsurpassed jurist, Edward Livingston, Secretary of State,
and that still living exemplar of careful learning and wisdom, Roger B.
Taney, then Attorney-General, now Chief-Justice of the United States.
Beyond these, it has the unquestionable authority of Thomas Jefferson,
by whom it was asserted again and again as a rule of conduct. Thus, if
any person at this day be disposed to deal sharply with me on account
of the support which I now most conscientiously give to this rule,
let him remember that his thrusts will pierce not only myself, the
humblest of its supporters, but also the great fame of Andrew Jackson
and of Thomas Jefferson,--patriots both of eminent life and authority,
on whose Atlantean shoulders this principle of Constitutional Law will
ever firmly rest.
Reason here is in harmony with authority. From the necessity of
the case I must swear to support the Constitution either _as I do
understand it_ or _as I do NOT understand it_. [_Laughter._]
But the absurdity of dangling on the latter horn of the dilemma compels
me to take the former, and there is a natural end of the argument.
[_Great laughter and cheers._] Is there a person in Congress or out
of it, in the National Government or State Government, who, when this
inevitable alternative is presented, will venture to say that he
swears to support the Constitution as he does _not_ understand it?
[_Laughter and applause._] The supposition is too preposterous. But
let me ask gentlemen disposed to abandon their own understanding of
the Constitution, and to submit their conscience to the standard of
other men, By whose understanding do they swear? Surely not by that
of the President: this is not alleged: but by the understanding of
the Supreme Court. In other words, to this Court, being at present
nine persons,--represented by a simple majority, it may be of _one_
only,--is accorded the power of fastening such interpretation as
they see fit upon any part of the Constitution,--adding to it, or
subtracting from it, or positively varying its requirements,--actually
making and unmaking the Constitution; and to their work all good
citizens must bow, as of equal authority with the original instrument,
ratified by solemn votes of the whole people! [_Great applause._]
If this be so, the oath to support the Constitution is hardly less
offensive than the famous "et cætera" oath devised by Archbishop Laud,
where the subject swore to certain specified things, with an "&c."
added. Such an oath I have not taken. ["_Good! good!_"] An old poet
anticipates my objection:--
"Who swears _&c._ swears more oaths at once
Than Cerberus out of his triple sconce;
Who views it well with the same eye beholds
The old half serpent in his numerous folds
Accursed."[136]
[136] Cleveland. See Hudibras, ed. Grey, Part I. Canto 2, Note to
v. 650.
The power of our Supreme Court is great, and its sphere is vast;
but there are limits to its power and its sphere. According to the
Constitution, "the judicial power shall extend to _all cases_ in
law and equity, arising under the Constitution, the laws of the
United States, and treaties"; but it by no means follows that the
interpretation of the Constitution, _incident_ to the trial of these
"cases," is final. Of course, the judgment in the "case" actually
pending is final, as the settlement of a controversy, for weal or
woe, to the litigating parties; but as a _precedent_ it is not final
even on the Supreme Court itself. When cited afterwards, it will be
regarded with respect as an _interpretation of the Constitution_, and,
if nothing appears against it, of controlling authority; but, at any
day, in any litigation, at the trial of any "case," it will be within
the unquestionable competency of the Court to review its own decision,
_so far as it establishes any interpretation of the Constitution_. If
the Court itself be not constrained by its own precedents, how can
coördinate branches, under oath to support the Constitution, and, like
the Court itself, called _incidentally_ to interpret the Constitution,
be constrained by them? In both instances, the power to interpret is
simply _incident_ to other principal duties, as the trial of "cases,"
the making of laws, or the administration of government; and it seems
as plainly _incident_ to a "case" of legislation or of administration
as to a "case" of litigation. And on this view I shall act with entire
confidence, under the oath I have taken.
For myself, let me say, that I hold judges, and especially the Supreme
Court, in much respect; but I am too familiar with the history of
judicial proceedings to regard them with any superstitious reverence.
[_Sensation._] Judges are but men, and in all ages have shown a full
share of human frailty. Alas! alas! the worst crimes of history have
been perpetrated under their sanction. The blood of martyrs and of
patriots, crying from the ground, summons them to judgment. It was
a judicial tribunal which condemned Socrates to drink the fatal
hemlock, and which pushed the Saviour barefoot over the pavements
of Jerusalem, bending beneath his cross. It was a judicial tribunal
which, against the testimony and entreaties of her father, surrendered
the fair Virginia _as a slave_,--which arrested the teachings of the
great Apostle to the Gentiles, and sent him in bonds from Judæa to
Rome,--which, in the name of the Old Religion, persecuted the saints
and fathers of the Christian Church, and adjudged them to a martyr's
death, in all its most dreadful forms,--and afterwards, in the name
of the New Religion, enforced the tortures of the Inquisition, amidst
the shrieks and agonies of its victims, while it compelled Galileo to
declare, in solemn denial of the great truth he had disclosed, that the
earth did not move round the sun. It was a judicial tribunal which, in
France, during the long reign of her monarchs, lent itself to be the
instrument of every tyranny, as during the brief Reign of Terror it did
not hesitate to stand forth the unpitying accessary of the unpitying
guillotine. Ay, Sir, it was a judicial tribunal in England, surrounded
by all forms of law, which sanctioned every despotic caprice of Henry
the Eighth, from the unjust divorce of his queen to the beheading of
Sir Thomas More,--which lighted the fires of persecution that glowed at
Oxford and Smithfield, over the cinders of Latimer, Ridley, and John
Rogers,--which, after elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyranny
of ship money against the patriot resistance of Hampden,--which, in
defiance of justice and humanity, sent Sidney and Russell to the
block,--which persistently enforced the laws of Conformity that our
Puritan fathers persistently refused to obey, and afterwards, with
Jeffreys on the bench, crimsoned the pages of English history with
massacre and murder, even with the blood of innocent women. Ay, Sir, it
was a judicial tribunal in our own country, surrounded by all forms of
law, which hung witches at Salem,--which affirmed the constitutionality
of the Stamp Act, while it admonished "jurors and people" to obey,--and
which now, in our day, lends its sanction to the unutterable atrocity
of the Fugitive Slave Act. [_Long continued applause, and three cheers
for Sumner._]
Of course judgments of courts are binding upon inferior tribunals,
and their own executive officers, whose virtue does not prompt them
to resign rather than aid in executing an unjust mandate. Over all
citizens, whether in public or private station, they will naturally
exert, _as precedents_, an impartial influence. This I admit. But no
man, who is not lost to self-respect, and ready to abandon that manhood
which is shown in the Heaven-directed countenance, will voluntarily
aid in enforcing a judgment which in conscience he believes wrong. He
will not hesitate "to obey God rather than men," and calmly abide the
peril he provokes. Not lightly, not rashly, will he take the grave
responsibility of open dissent; but if the occasion requires, he will
not fail. Pains and penalties may be endured, but wrong must not be
done. [_Cheers._] "Where I cannot obey I am willing to suffer," was the
exclamation of the author of "Pilgrim's Progress," when imprisoned for
disobedience to an earthly statute. Elsewhere I have said what I now
repeat and proclaim on the house-top. Better suffer injustice than do
it. Better be even the poor slave returned to bondage than the unhappy
Commissioner. [_Applause and sensation._]
I repeat, judges are but men, and I know no difference between the
claim of power now made for them and that other insulting pretension
put forth sometimes in the name of a king and sometimes of a people.
Listen to what King James of England once wrote: "It is atheism
and blasphemy to dispute what God can do: good Christians content
themselves with his will revealed in his word. So it is presumption and
high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do, or say that
a king cannot do this or that: but rest in that which is the king's
revealed will in his law."[137] Thus wrote one who was called "the
wisest fool of Christendom." And so we are to rest in that popular will
revealed in the Fugitive Slave Act, and ratified by the Supreme Court.
The rabble of revolutionary France, in a spirit kindred to that of King
James, cried out, as the executioner's cart tracked its way in blood,
"We can do what we please,"--adding, "There is no God." Of course,
if there were no God, they could not do as they pleased; nor could
the king, whose pretension for himself was no better than that of the
rabble. But there is a God, to be obeyed in all things, although kings,
people, and even courts, assert the contrary.
[137] Speech in the Star-Chamber, June 20, 1616: Works of the Most
High and Mighty Prince, James, by the Grace of God King of Great
Britain, &c., (London, 1616, folio,) p. 557. See also Finch's Law,
p. 81.
The whole dogma of _passive obedience_ must be rejected, whatever guise
it assumes, under whatever _alias_ it skulks,--whether in tyrannical
usurpations of king, parliament, or judicial tribunal,--whether in
exploded theories of Sir Robert Filmer, or rampant assumptions of
the Fugitive Slave Act. The rights of the civil power are limited;
there are things beyond its province; there are matters out of its
control; there are cases in which the faithful citizen may say,--ay,
_must_ say,--"I will not obey." One of the highest flights of Mirabeau
was, when, addressing the National Assembly of France, he protested
against a law then pending, and exclaimed, "If you make such a law,
I swear never to obey it!"[138] No man now responds to the words of
Shakespeare, "If a king bid a man be a villain, he is bound by the
indenture of his oath to be one." Nor, in this age of civilization and
liberty, will any prudent reasoner, who duly considers the rights of
conscience, claim for any earthly magistrate or tribunal, howsoever
styled, a power which the loftiest monarch of a Christian throne,
wearing on his brow "the round and top of sovereignty," dare not assert.
[138] Projet de Loi sur les Émigrations, 28 Février, 1791:
OEuvres, (Paris, 1834,) Tom. III. p. 85.
On this twofold conclusion I rest, and do not doubt the final result.
The citizen who has sworn to support the Constitution is constrained to
support it simply as he understands it. The citizen whose private life
has kept him from assuming the obligations of official oath may bravely
set at nought the unrighteous ruling of a magistrate, and, so doing, he
will serve justice, though he expose himself to stern penalties.
Fellow-citizens of Massachusetts, our own local history is not without
encouragement. In early colonial days, the law against witchcraft, now
so abhorrent to reason and conscience, was regarded as constitutional
and binding,--precisely as the Fugitive Slave Act, not less abhorrent
to reason and conscience, is regarded as constitutional and binding. A
special Court of Oyer and Terminer, with able judges, whose names are
entwined with our history, enforced this law at Salem by the execution
of nineteen persons as witches,--precisely as petty magistrates,
acting under sanction of the Supreme Court of the United States, and
also of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, have enforced the Fugitive
Act by the reduction of two human beings to slavery. The clergy of
Massachusetts, particularly near Boston, and also Harvard College,
were for the law. "Witchcraft," shouted Cotton Mather from the pulpit,
"is the most nefandous high treason," "a capital crime,"--even as
opposition to the Fugitive Act has been denounced as "treason."
[_Laughter._]
But the law against witchcraft was not triumphant long. The General
Court of the Province first became penitent, and asked pardon of God
for "all the errors of his servants and people in the late tragedy."
Jurymen united in condemning and lamenting the delusion to which they
had yielded under the decision of the judges, and acknowledged that
they had brought the reproach of wrongful bloodshed on their native
land. Sewall, one of the judges, and author of the early tract against
Slavery, "The Selling of Joseph," whose name lives freshly in his
liberty-loving descendant [Hon. S. E. SEWALL] [_applause_],
stood up in his place at church, before the congregation, and implored
the prayers of the people, that the errors he had committed might not
be visited by the judgments of an avenging God on his country, his
family, or himself. And now, in a manuscript diary of this departed
judge, may be read, on the margin against the contemporary record, in
his own handwriting, words of saddest interjection and sorrow: _Væ! væ!
væ!_ Woe! woe! woe![139] [_Sensation._]
[139] Holmes, Annals, Vol. I. p. 440, note. In similar spirit, John
Winthrop, the early Governor of Massachusetts, on his death-bed
refused to sign an order to banish a heterodox person, saying, "I
have done too much of that work already."--Hutchinson, History of
Massachusetts, Vol. I. p. 142.
The parallel between the law against witchcraft and the Fugitive Act
is not yet complete. It remains for our Legislature, successor of that
original General Court, to lead the penitential march. [_Laughter._] In
the slave cases there have been no jurymen to recant [_laughter_]; and
it is too much, perhaps, to expect any magistrate who sanctioned the
cruelty to imitate by public penitence the magnanimity of other days.
Yet it is not impossible that future generations may be permitted to
read, in some newly exhumed diary or letter by one of these troubled
functionaries, words of woe not unlike those wrung from the soul of
Sewall. [_Sensation._]
* * * * *
Fellow-citizens, one word in conclusion: Be of good cheer. ["_That's
it!_"] I know well the difficulties and responsibilities of the
contest; but not on this account do I bate a jot of heart or hope.
[_Applause._] At this time, in our country, there is little else to
tempt into public life an honest man, who wishes, by something that he
has done, to leave the world better than he found it. There is little
else to afford any of those satisfactions which an honest man can
covet. Nor is there any cause which so surely promises final success.
There is nothing good--not a breathing of the common air--which is not
on our side. Ours, too, are those great allies described by the poet,--
"Exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind."
And there are favoring circumstances peculiar to the present moment.
By the passage of the Nebraska Bill, and the Boston kidnapping case,
the tyranny of the Slave Power is unmistakably manifest, while at
the same time all compromises with Slavery are happily dissolved,
so that Freedom stands face to face with its foe. The pulpit, too,
released from ill-omened silence, now thunders for Freedom, as in
the olden time. [_Cheers._] It belongs to Massachusetts, nurse of
the men and principles which made the earliest Revolution, to vow
herself anew to her ancient faith, as she lifts herself to the great
struggle. Her place now, as then, is in the van, at the head of the
battle. [_Sensation._] To sustain this advanced position with proper
inflexibility, three things are needed by our beloved Commonwealth, in
all her departments of government,--the same three things which once,
in Faneuil Hall, I ventured to say were needed by every representative
of the North at Washington. The first is _backbone_ [_applause_]; the
second is BACKBONE [_renewed applause_]; and the third is
BACKBONE. [_Long continued cheering, and three cheers for "Backbone."_]
With these Massachusetts will be felt and respected, as a positive
force in the National Government [_applause_], while at home, on her
own soil, free at last in reality as in name [_applause_], all her
people, from Boston islands to Berkshire hills, and from the sands of
Barnstable to the northern line, will unite in the cry,--
"No slave-hunt in our borders! no pirate on our strand!
No fetters in the Bay State! no slave upon our land!"