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BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 William Anderson Scott 
 Collection 
 
"THE HIGHER LAW" 
 
 IN ITS APPLICATION TO 
 
 THE FUGITIVE SLAVE BILL, 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 ON THE 
 
 DUTIES MEN OWE TO GOD 
 
 AND TO GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 
 
 ON THANKSGIVING DAY. 
 
 BY JOHN C. LORD, D.D. 
 
 (Pastor of said Church,) 
 
 AUTHOR OF "LECTURES ON GOVERNMENT AND CIVILIZATION." 
 
 BUFFALO: 
 GEORGE H. DERBY AND CO. 
 
 1851. 
 
STEAM PRESS OF JEWETT, THOMAS & Co., 
 
 COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER OFFICE, 
 
 BUFFALO, N. Y. 
 
BANCROFT 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BUFFALO, Dec. 12, 1850. 
 
 TO THE REV. J. C. LORD, D.D. 
 
 DEAR SIR: Having listened with great pleasure and profit to your 
 Sermon on the subject of the obligation of the citizen to government, and 
 believing that its wide dissemination woftld be productive of great good, in 
 this day of agitation and alarm, we request a copy of the same for publica- 
 tion, and hope that you may be able to furnish it at a very early moment 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 H. SHUMWAY, 
 E. D. EFNER, 
 BENONI THOMPSON, 
 J. J. BALDWIN, 
 L. K. PLYMPTON, 
 J. 0. PUTNAM, 
 JOSEPH DART, JR., 
 P. G. PARKER, 
 J. CAMERON, 
 H. CAMERON, 
 
 
 S. G. HAVEN, 
 GEO. R. BABCOCK, 
 GEO. PALMER, 
 W. A. FOX, 
 WELLS BROOKS, 
 PERRY P. ROGERS, 
 J&MES G. DICKIE, 
 T. T. LOCKWOOD, 
 JABEZ J. ROGERS. 
 
,* * 
 
 S ( 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
S'ERMON, 
 
 Tell us therefore what thinkest thou ? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cse- 
 sar, or not ? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, why tempt 
 ye me, ye hypocrite*? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought 
 unto him a penny ; and he saith unto them, whose is this image and su- 
 perscription ? They say unto him Caesar's. Then said he unto them, 
 render therefore unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God 
 the things that are God's. MATH, xxii., 17, 21. 
 
 WE are summoned to day by the proclamation of the Chief 
 Magistrate of this State, to consider and acknowledge the mer- 
 cies of God during the year that is past. As individuals, for 
 ourselves, and our households, it becomes us to acknowledge 
 our personal deliverances, and the varied proofs of the Divine 
 goodness which we have experienced since we last assembled 
 to render our annual tribute of praise, prayer, and thanksgiving, 
 to Him, " who causeth the outgoings of the morning and the 
 evening to rejoice ; who giveth the early and the latter rain ; 
 who appointeth fruitful seasons and abundant harvests ; who 
 openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living 
 thing." As citizens, it concerns us to consider the general 
 prosperity of the State and the Nation, to notice the various 
 tokens of the Divine mercy in regard to the preservation of 
 the free government under which we live, founded by the sa- 
 crifices of our pious ancestry, and perpetuated, as we may well 
 believe,, for this reason, among others, that their " prayers are 
 yet had in remembrance before God, and their tears preserved 
 in his bottle." As individuals, our presence in this house to 
 
day is a proof of the personal mercies which should lead us to 
 offer the acceptable sacrifice of praise. Some who once sat 
 with us in this sanctuary have gone to the congregation of the 
 dead ; dea to the requiem which the winds of winter are now 
 mournfully murmuring over their graves ; insensible to all 
 sounds, until the palsied ear shall hear the " voice of the arch- 
 angel and the trump of God ;" others are upon beds of sick- 
 ness, pain, and sorrow, and know not whether they shall enter 
 again the house of prayer, to mingle their praises with yours, 
 or pass from the couch of suffering to the life to come, to be- 
 hold the mysteries of the unseen world, and worship with that 
 august throng, that "innumerable company of angels and 
 spirits of just men made perfect," who fill the arches of Hea- 
 ven with the voices of praise and thanksgiving, ascribing 
 " blessing and honor and dominion and jjower to Him that 
 sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever." 
 Some are full of affliction, oppressed with poverty or over- 
 whelmed with reverses "Which prevent them from mingling 
 with us in the worship of the sanctuary on this day of thanks- 
 giving : and ajas I'that it should be so, there are others who 
 are full of prosperity " whose Qyes stick out with fatness, who 
 are not in trouble as other men," "~who are so unmindful of their 
 dependance -upon Him in "whom they live and move and 
 have their being ;" so regardless of all the goodness and mercy 
 of God, that they never darken the doors of the house of prayer, 
 and never unite in the worship and praise of the Father of 
 mercies. But by our presence in this place to day, we are 
 seen to be the witnesses of the Divine goodness, we acknow- 
 ledge ourselves the recipients of unnumbered favors, we pro- 
 pose to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon our 
 souls and all within us to magnify the name of our Father, 
 Preserver, Benefactor, and Redeemer. 
 
But not alone for private and personal mercies should we 
 render thanks to-day. As citizens of this State, and of the 
 great Republic of which it is the chief member, we are called 
 to consider the preservation of public tranquillity, the adjust- 
 ment of sectional difficulties, and the continuance of the bonds 
 of our union, amid excitements which threatened its integ- 
 rity ; amid a storm, the original violence of which is manifest in 
 the clouds which yet obscure our political horizon ; in the deep- 
 toned thunders that are yet muttering in the distance. It is 
 not necessary to adapt the opinions of the extreme alarmists in 
 either section of the country,; to conclude that great dangers 
 have threatened, if they do not still threaten, the union of these 
 States. Ittdoes not require very great discernment to see that 
 the continued agitation of the vexed question of Slavery, pro- 
 ducing alienation and distrust between the North and the 
 South, must, in the end, either sever the bonds between the 
 free and the slave States, or render them not worth preserving. 
 A unity maintained by force, if this 'were possible., would not 
 pay the cost of its keeping. If, in the heat of the existing con- 
 troversies, these tw"o great sections of the Union, come at Jast 
 to forget their common ancestry, and the mutual perils shared 
 by them in the revolutionary struggle ; if South Carolina and 
 Massachusetts, who stood shoulder to shoulder in the doubtful 
 contest for American freedom, come to disregard the voices of 
 their illustrious dead, who lie side by side in every battle field 
 of the revolution ; if Virginia and New Y9rk refuse, in the 
 heats engendered by this unhappy stife, to listen ionger to the 
 voice of Washington, warning them in his farewell address of 
 this very rock of sectional jealousy and alienation ; if the 
 words of the Father of his country are no longer regarded 
 with reverence in the ancient commonwealth of his birth, or 
 in the great State whose deliverance from a foreign enemy was 
 
8 
 
 the crowning achievement of his military career ; and if the 
 compromises upon which the Union was consummated, continue 
 to be denied or disregarded ; there is an end of the confede- 
 racy. If the stronger should crush the weaker and hold on to 
 an apparent union with the grasp of military power, it would 
 no longer be a confederacy, but a conquest. When there is no 
 longer mutual respect ; no more fraternal forbearance ; no more 
 regard for each other's local interests ; no more obedience in 
 one section, to the laws which protect the guaranteed rights of 
 the other, the basis of union is wanting, and nothing but a 
 military despotism, with a grasp of iron, and a wall of fire, can 
 hold the discordant elements together. 
 
 In the discussions which the recent agitations of the coun- 
 try have originated, grave questions have arisen in regard to 
 the obligation of the citizen to obey laws which he may dis- 
 approve ; appeals have been made to a HIGHER LAW, as a justifi- 
 cation, not merely of a "neglect to aid in enforcing a particular 
 statute, but of an open and forcible resistance by arms. Those 
 subject to the operations of the recent enactment of Congress 
 in regard to fugitive slaves have been counselled from the pul- 
 pit, and by men who profess a higher Christianity than others, 
 to carry deadly weapons and shoot down any who should at- 
 tempt to execute its provisions. The whole community at the 
 North have been excited by passionate appeals to a violent and 
 revolutionary resistance to laws passed by their own represen- 
 tatives, to sustain an express provision of the Constitution of 
 the United States, which, if defective in their details, are yet 
 clearly within the delegated powers and jurisdiction of our na- 
 tional Legislature. The acknowledged principle that the law 
 of God is supreme, and when in direct conflict with any mere 
 human enactment renders it nugatory, has been used to justify 
 an abandonment of the compromises of the Constitution ; an 
 
9 
 
 armed resistance to the civil authorities, and a dissolution of 
 that Union with which are inseparably connected our national 
 peace and prosperity. The consideration of the duties which 
 men owe to God, as subjects of his moral government, 
 and which, as citizens they owe the commonwealth, is at all 
 times of importance, but now of especial interest in view of the 
 agitations of the day. It is high time to determine whether 
 one of the highest duties enforced by the Gospel, obedience to 
 the law of God as supreme, can be made to justify a violent 
 resistance to the late enactment of Congress ; whether our 
 Christianity enjoins the dissolution of our Union ; whether the 
 advocates of a higher law stand really upon this lofty vantage 
 ground of conscience, or are scattering "fire brands, arrows 
 and death," either under a mistaken view of duty, or the 
 impulses of passion and fanaticism, or inflamed by that dema- 
 gogueism, which, if it cannot rule, would ruin ; which, like 
 Milton's fallen angel, would rather " reign in Hell than serve 
 in Heaven ?" 
 
 That this subject is not out of place in the pulpit is mani- 
 fest, from the fact, that it is strictly a question of morals. Our 
 duties to God constitute the subject matter of revealed religion, 
 and their enforcement is the great business of the Gospel minis- 
 ter ; our duties to government FLOW OUT OF OUR RELATION TO 
 THE SUPREME GOVERNOR, as well as our relations to each other, 
 and are clearly pointed out and forcibly enjoined in the Gos- 
 pel. " Put them in mind," says an Apostle, " to be subject to 
 principalities and powers ; to obey magistrates ; to be ready to 
 every good work :" " Let every soul be subject unto the 
 higher powers ; the powers that be are ordained of God." In 
 the text, we are informed of an attempt made by the Jewish 
 casuists to ensnare our Lord in his words, by proposing the 
 question whether it was lawful to pay tribute to Csesar ; it 
 
10 
 
 being supposed by them, that any reply he could make would 
 lead him into difficulty ; for the Jews were perpetually galled 
 by the Roman yoke, and any response favoring their oppress- 
 ors would have aroused their indignation ; while, if the lawful- 
 ness of tribute were denied by the reply of our Lord, it would 
 have given his enemies ground to accuse him before the autho- 
 rities, of sowing sedition. If our Saviour, in response to the 
 question of the lawfulness of tribute, should answer in the 
 affirmative, the Jews would stone him ; if in the negative, the 
 Romans would arraign him as a violater of law. He who 
 knows all hearts perceived their wickedness, and said, " Why 
 tempt ye me, ye hypocrites ? Show me the tribute money ; 
 and they brought him a penny, and he said unto them, Whose 
 is this image and superscription ? They say unto him, Caesar's ; 
 Then said he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar's, and unto God, the things that are 
 God's." Well might " they marvel and go their way," baffled 
 by the answer of divine wisdom. Our Lord escaped their 
 malice, by stating the true principle on which the obedience of 
 the citizen is demanded by government, in the legitimate exer- 
 cise of its powers. The coining of money is an act of sove- 
 reignty ; the impress of Caesar upon the penny was proof 
 that the Romans possessed the government of Judea, de facto, 
 and were, therefore, to be obeyed as the supreme authority in 
 all civil enactments ; while any attempt to interfere with the 
 religious principles or practices of the Jews might be conscien- 
 tiously resisted. 
 
 We take the ground, that the action of civil governments 
 within their appropriate jurisdiction is final and conclusive 
 upon the citizen ; and that, to plead a higher law to justify dis- 
 obedience to a human law, the subject matter of which is 
 within the cognizance of the State, is to rejeet the authority of 
 
11 
 
 God himself; who has committed to governments the power 
 and authority which they exercise in civil affairs. This is 
 expressly declared by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Ro 
 mans, " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for 
 there is no power but of God ; the powers that be are ordained 
 of God ; whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the 
 ordinance of God. For he (that is, the civil magistrate) 
 beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, 
 a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Where- 
 fore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for 
 conscience sake ; render therefore to all their dues, tribute to 
 whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom 
 fear, honor to whom honor." 
 
 The language here cannot be misunderstood. Obedience to 
 governments, in the exercise of their legitimate powers, is a 
 religious duty, positively enjoined by God himself. The same 
 authority which commands us to render to God the things 
 which are God's, enjoins us, by the same high sanctions, to 
 render to Caesar the things which are Caesar's. 
 
 The following general principles may be deduced from the 
 Sacred Scriptures, and from the example, as well as the teach 
 ings, of our Lord and his Apostles. 
 
 First. Government is a divine constitution, established at the 
 beginning, ly the Creator, which exists of necessity and is of 
 perpetual obligation. Men are born under law, both as it re- 
 spects the Law of God and the enactments of States. By 
 the ordination of the supreme law, they owe allegiance to the 
 country of their birth, and are naturally and unavoidably the 
 subjects of its government ; their consent to this is neither 
 asked or given ; their choice can only respect the mode, never 
 the fact of Government. The mutual compact, of which poli- 
 ticians and lawyers speak, is a mere figment of the imagina- 
 
12 
 
 tiou, without warrant from the word of God, and contradicted 
 by all the facts iii the case. We might as well affirm that 
 men agree to be born, and to be subject to their parents, by a 
 mutual compact, in which the child surrenders certain rights 
 for the sake of parental protection, and the parent covenants 
 to provide and govern on the promise of obedience. The 
 statement in the last case is no more absurd than in the first. 
 In the family is found the rudimental government, and the 
 fifth commandment has always been understood by Christians 
 as ordaining subjection to magistrates as well as parents. 
 
 Second. Governments have jurisdiction over men in all 
 a fairs which belong peculiarly to the present life; in all the 
 temporal relations which bind societies, communities, and fam- 
 ilies together, in respect to all rights of person, and property, 
 and their enforcement by penalties. General rules are, indeed, 
 laid down in the Scriptures for the regulation of human con- 
 duct, but God has ordained the " powers that be" to appoint 
 their own municipal laws, to regulate and enforce existing re- 
 lations, and to execute judgment upon offenders, under such 
 form of administration as shall be suitable to the circum- 
 stances of the people, and chosen by themselves. Govern- 
 ments, as to their, mode, do not form but follozv the character 
 and moral condition of a people, and are an indication of their 
 real condition intellectually and morally. The idea that the 
 mere change of the form of a despotic government will neces- 
 sarily elevate a nation is a mistaken one. A people must be 
 elevated before they can receive free institutions. The mode 
 of government is the index and not the cause of the condition 
 of the different nations of the earth, which may be demon- 
 strated by the history of empires and states, and by the vain 
 efforts, recently made in Europe to adopt our institutions, with- 
 out the moral training and preparation which can alone make 
 
13 
 
 them either possible or valuable. France, to-day, is a despo- 
 tism under the forms of a free government, and maintains her 
 internal tranquillity by a hundred thousand bayonets. 
 
 Third. In regard to his own worship^ and the manner in 
 which we are to approach HIM, the Supreme Governor has 
 given full and minute directions. He has revealed himself, his 
 attributes, and the great principles of his government, which 
 constitute the doctrines of Christianity; and has conferred 
 upon no human authority, the right to interfere, by adding to 
 or taking from them. IN THE THINGS THAT BELONG 
 TO HIMSELF, God exercises sole and absolute jurisdiction, 
 and has, in regard to them, appointed no inferior or delegated 
 authority. 
 
 Fourth. The decisions of governments upon matters within 
 their jurisdiction, though they may be erroneous, are yet, from 
 the necessity of the case, absolute. Every man has a right to 
 test the constitutionality of any law by an appeal to the judiciary, 
 but he cannot interpose his private judgment as a justification of 
 his resistance to an act of the government. Freedom of opinion 
 by no means involves the right to refuse obedience to law ; for, if 
 this were so, the power to declare war and make peace ; to 
 regulate commerce and levy taxes ; in short, to perform the 
 most essential acts of government, would be a mere nullity. 
 No statute could be executed on this principle, which would 
 leave every man to do what seemed right in his own eyes, 
 under the plea of a higher law and a delicate conscience. 
 Even courts of justice, which are the constituted tribunals for 
 ascertaining and determining the validity of all legislative en- 
 actments, by bringing them to the test of constitutional law 
 and first principles, as well as for the decision of causes arising 
 under the laws in relation to persons and property, may form 
 an erroneous conclusion; for no mere human wisdom is infallible; 
 
14 
 
 yet their final decisions are binding, from the same necessity. 
 The fact that an innocent man may be condemned and suffer 
 the penalty of a law which he has never broken, might as well 
 be urged to impeach the authority of a judicial decision, as 
 that the fallibility which is manifest in hasty and unwise 
 legislation, should be alleged as an excuse for resistance to a 
 particular statute. 
 
 The private judgments of individuals, for instance, that all 
 wars are unlawful, even those which are defensive ; or that the 
 existence of slavery is, per se, sinful is no just ground of resist- 
 ance to the government which declares war, or the legislation 
 which recognizes domestic servitude, and regulates it. Both 
 these subjects are properly within the jurisdiction of civil gov- 
 ernment. The State may engage in an unjust war, but does 
 this discharge the subject from his allegiance ? No sane man 
 will affirm it. The government may recognize an oppressive 
 form of domestic servitude, or enact laws in relation to it which 
 are deemed by many oppressive. Is this a just ground of for- 
 cible resistance on Christian principles ? No intelligent man 
 who regards the authority of the Bible can consistently main- 
 tain such a position. Many at the North who assert such 
 opinions have long since rejected the authority of the word of 
 God, and have in their conventions publicly scoffed at divine 
 as well as human authority. 
 
 But the position we have taken, that the decisions of go- 
 vernments are final in cases where they have jurisdiction, even 
 when mistaken or oppressive, is not only sustained by the 
 passages which have been cited from the Scriptures, but also 
 by the example and practice of the primitive Christians. The 
 words of our Saviour in the text, and of the Apostle, in his 
 Epistle to the Romans, while they have a general application 
 to all times and all governments, had a particular reference to 
 
15 
 
 the existing authorities of Rome, which were not only despotic 
 in their general administration but peculiarly oppressive in 
 their treatment of the infant church. The government under 
 which our Saviour and the Apostles lived, and of which they 
 spake, was habitually engaged in aggressive wars, aiming at 
 the conquest of the world. Slavery was universal throughout 
 the Roman Empire, and the laws gave the master the power 
 of life and death over his servant. Did the Saviour and his 
 Apostles, on this account, reject their authority, or incite their 
 disciples to disobedience and resistance ? Did they interfere 
 1 with existing civil institutions, urging the slave to escape from 
 his master, the citizen to rebel against the magistrate ? Their 
 conduct was the exact reverse of this ; they preached to the 
 master forbearance and kindness to the servant submission 
 and obedience to both, the Gospel. Paul sent Onesimus back 
 to his master, on the very principles which he enjoined upon 
 the Romans subjection to existing civil authority. The 
 inspired teachers of Christianity, instructed both masters and 
 slaves in regard to the duties which grow out of the institu- 
 tion of Slavery, without either approving or condemning the 
 relation itself. They exhorted Soldiers, on the same princi- 
 ple, to be content with their wages, and to forbear from mutiny 
 and cruelty ; without offering any opinion concerning the jus- 
 tice or injustice of the Roman wars. They spake indeed of a 
 promised and predicted day, when wars, tumults and oppres- 
 sions should cease, when at the name of Jesus every knee 
 should bow, and there should be none, any more, to hurt or mo- 
 lest in the Mountain of the Lord. The early Christians were, 
 beyond controversy, obedient to the in unction of the Apostle. 
 They obeyed law even when it was onerous or unjust. They 
 had civil and military appointments under the Roman govern- 
 ment in which they refused not to serve ; they were obedient 
 
16 
 
 to the existing civil powers, in all matters within the jurisdic- 
 tion of the State ; they were no abettors of sedition and strife* 
 Whole legions in the armies that were sent out for conquest 
 by Rome, were composed of Christians, who were, doubtless, 
 drawn in the general conscription for this service, and who felt 
 it to be their duty to " render to Caesar the things that are 
 Caesar's ;" however much they might dislike the business of 
 war. Not until Csesar intermeddled with the things of God ; 
 not until, passing the legitimate jurisdiction of civil govern- 
 ment, the Roman magistrate commanded them to adore the 
 image of the Emperor, and to offer incense to false Gods ; did 
 the Christian refuse obedience. But here he was immovable 
 no flattery could subdue, no terrors appal him. Every engine 
 of torture, which the barbarous ingenuity of Rome could invent, 
 failed of its purpose. They were tortured by fire ; they were 
 cast out to wild beasts; they were exposed in the amphithea- 
 tre, to the gaze of thousands who mocked their dying agonies. 
 Like the ancient prophets, "they were stoned ; they were sawn 
 asunder ; they were tempted ; they were slain with the sword ; 
 they wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of 
 the earth." It was enough, that the Master had said, "render to 
 God the things which are God's." Nor was their resistance 
 that of armed and violent men ; they assassinated no officers, 
 and excited no seditions, but, after the example of their Lord, 
 suffered with that passive firmness, which is the highest form 
 of courage. But it may be replied to this, your argument 
 proves too much. You reaffirm the old doctrine of tyrants, of 
 passive obedience and non-resistance; your position would 
 render all revolutions unlawful ; all changes of government im- 
 possible. To this, it may be said, that it does not belong to the 
 Church in her organized capacity, nor to Christians, considered 
 solely as such, and with reference to then: religious duties, to 
 
17 
 
 revolutionize governments ; for this reason, the Gospel is silent 
 on this subject, while enforcing the general duties of the citi- 
 zens under all governments de facto, whether revolutionary 
 or otherwise ; whether despotic or democratic. That, under cer- 
 tain circumstances, the people, by which is meant the large ma- 
 jority, have a right to revolutionize a government is conceded. 
 Presbyterians have ever resisted the High Church and tory 
 doctrine of the divine right of Kings, in the State ; and Prelates, 
 in the Church. They stood, to a man, with the Patriots who 
 achieved, under God, the independence of our beloved country ; 
 they have maintained the principles of civil and religious liberty, 
 at the hazard of life and fortune, in both hemispheres. The 
 Presbyterians of Scotland, and the Puritans of England, were 
 the founders of English liberty, by the admission of Hume 
 himself, who hated them with infidel and tory extravagance. 
 The right of a people to select their own form of government, 
 a question entirely distinct from the fact of government, which 
 is of necessity by a Divine Constitution, has ever been main- 
 tained by us as existing, not only in the nature of the case, but 
 as warranted by the Word of God ; of which, the choice by the 
 Hebrews of a King, and the rejection of their ancient democra- 
 tic mode of government, which they received from the Su- 
 preme Lawgiver, himself, is an example. This change was 
 expressly allowed them at their desire, though with a plain 
 intimation that their choice was a bad one. So the revolt of 
 the ten tribes upon the declaration of Rehoboam, that he would 
 govern them in a despotic and arbitrary sway, that "his little 
 finger should be thicker than his father's loins," appears after- 
 wards to have been sanctioned by the Most High ; who gave 
 them Jeroboam for a King, and rent Israel forever from the 
 house of David and Solomon. 
 
 The right of revolution is a civil right, which can be pro- 
 B 
 
18 
 
 perly exercised only, ~by a decided majority, under circumstan- 
 ces of aggravated oppression and upon a reasonable assurance 
 of success. It is not for the Church, as such, to determine 
 when a just ground for revolution exists, it belongs to the body 
 of the people in their civil capacity. If. in the judgment, for 
 example, of a great majority of tlje citizens of the United 
 States, it would be better to abandon our Union; if the South, 
 in her exasperation against the North, for interference 
 with her domestic relations, and in the vain hope to secure an 
 increase of wealth and population corresponding with that of 
 the free states, desire disunion ; if we of the North are unwilling 
 observe the guarantees of the Constitution, and think it worth 
 while to abandon the advantages of the confederacy for the 
 sake of making our territory a place of refuge for run- 
 away slaves ; the Union will be dissolved by a revolution, the 
 most disastrous the world ever saw. But while the Constitu- 
 tion remains ; while the Government continues ; let us observe 
 the laws; let us not justify murder and sedition; and, least of 
 all, let us not talk of a higher law, which absolves men from 
 obedience to a Constitution which they have sworn to maintain. 
 If there be any higher law, it is the law of resistance and 
 revolution; and the sooner this is understood and openly 
 avowed, by the ultraists and fanatics, both North and South, 
 the better for the country. The people of these United States 
 are not likely, with their eyes open, to plunge into the gulf 
 which disunionists are opening up beneath their feet; and when 
 the real designs of these men are seen, when they openly avow 
 that a revolution is the end of their movement, we believe that 
 they will be crushed under the weight of public indignation. 
 
 But, in regard to the question of a higher law, which we 
 think we have demonstrated cannot be urged to annul the legis- 
 lation of a State, in relation to any matter properly within 
 
19 
 
 its jurisdiction ; it may be further replied that it is not yet 
 proved that the enactment or recognition of Slavery is within 
 the powers divinely delegated to Governments; that it is 
 against the Supreme Law, and therefore all human legislation 
 on the subject is inoperative and void. To this we reply, in 
 the first place, that there are many evils incident to the fallen 
 condition of our race, such as War and Slavery, the existence 
 of which is be regretted, but which are necessarily, in the 
 actual condition of mankind, the appropriate subjects of munici- 
 pal regulation. A State must possess the right of self-defence 
 in order to maintain its existence ; this involves not only the 
 authority of the Magistrate to punish criminals, but of the 
 Government to declare war. This is clearly implied by the 
 Apostle in the expression " he beareth not the sword in vain." 
 But the State having this right, may and do often abuse it by 
 aggressive wars, the injustice of which, we have already seen, 
 is no ground of forcible resistance to the civil authority. So 
 the right of legislation in regard to servitude as a punishment 
 for crime, or as a method for disposing of prisoners taken in 
 war, has been exercised from the earliest ages and among all 
 nations, and will hardly be denied by any intelligent and fair- 
 minded man. The State having jurisdiction of the subject, 
 may, as in the waging of an aggressive war, abuse their 
 power, by enacting unjust and oppressive laws of servitude, but 
 is such legislation, therefore, inoperative and void ? To affirm 
 this, is to contradict the decision of the Apostle in his Epistle 
 to the Romans, and to subvert every established principle, 
 whether human or divine, on which rests the authority of civil 
 government. In certain conditions of society, Slavery is uni- 
 versal ; it was recognised and regulated by law in all the free 
 States of antiquity ; it is the first movement towards civiliza- 
 tion by savage and barbarous nations, to reduce their captives, 
 
20 
 
 taken in war to Slavery, instead of subjecting them to torture 
 and death. A recent traveler in the vast Empire of China, 
 Mr. Lay, affirms that in that country the institution of Slavery 
 is a positive blessing, as it prevents infanticide by the poorer 
 classes, and provides for multitudes who must otherwise perish 
 of want. That it exists in a mild form in China is admitted? 
 but the question does not depend upon a comparison of the 
 laws of different countries on this subject, but whether it is a 
 condition of society which can in any case be alloiued, whether 
 civil governments have any authority or jurisdiction to enact 
 laws upon the subject, or in any way to recognise or regu- 
 late it. 
 
 But there is higher authority for the determination of this 
 question, than any thing we have yet suggested. The exis- 
 tence of domestic Slavery was expressly allowed, sanctioned 
 and regulated by the Supreme Lawgiver, in that divine eco- 
 nomy which He gave the Hebrew State. The fact is open 
 and undisputed ; the record and proof of it are in the hands 
 of every man who has in his possession a copy of the Bible. 
 All the ingenuity and art of all the Abolitionists in the United 
 States can never destroy the necessary conclusion of this ad- 
 mitted divine sanction of Slavery, that it is an institution 
 which may lawfully exist, and concerning which, Governments 
 may pass laws and execute penalties for their evasion or 
 resistance. 
 
 To allege that there is a higher law, which makes slavery, 
 2^er se, sinful, and that all legislation that protects the rights of 
 masters, and enjoins the re-delivery of the slave, is necessarily 
 void and without authority, and may be conscientiously re- 
 sisted by arms and violence, is an infidel position, which is 
 contradicted by both Testaments ; which may be taught in 
 the gospel of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and in the revelation of 
 
21 
 
 the Sceptics and Jacobins, who promised France, half a century 
 ago, universal equality and fraternity ; a gospel whose baptism 
 was blood, a revelation whose sacrament was crime ; but it 
 cannot be found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or in the reve- 
 lation of God's will to men. We do not mean to affirm that 
 sincere and conscientious persons may not to be found who have 
 persuaded themselves that forcible resistance to slavery is 
 obedience to God ; and that in the increased light of the nine- 
 teenth century, the example of the 'Jewish economy, and the 
 teachings and practice of our Lord and the Apostles, are anti- 
 quated and of no binding force upon the consciences of men. 
 Such honest, but mistaken, persons should remember that if the 
 institution of slavery is necessarily and from its nature sinful 
 now, it must always have been so; as universal principles ad- 
 mit of no change, and their argument is, therefore, an impeach- 
 ment of the benevolence of God, and a denial of the supreme au- 
 rity of the Gospel, as a system of ethics. They must, to 
 sustain their position, assume that we are wiser and better 
 men than the Saviour and the Apostles, and that the government 
 of God and the Gospel need revision and emendation. Such 
 a conclusion is inevitable from the premises, and I would 
 affectionately warn all who have named the name of Christ, 
 and who have been betrayed by passion or sympathy into such 
 a position, .to see to it before they take the inevitable plunge* 
 with the Garrison school, into the gulf of infidelity. I would 
 respectfully entreat them to remember that this is not the first 
 proclamation, " Lo, here is Christ, or there," which has proved 
 a device of the adversary ; that Jacobins, Fourierites, Commu- 
 nists, and Levellers of all sorts, reject the Gospel on the 
 ground that it does not come up to their standard of liberty, 
 equality, and fraternity, and has no sufficiently comprehensive 
 views of the rights of man. Those who preach the Gospel 
 
22 
 
 ought specially to remember that our race are apostate, and 
 live under a remedial government ; and that it is our mission to 
 deal with the world as it is, and men as we find them, just as 
 did the Saviour and the Apostles remembering that here 
 we have " no continuing city," and that the Gospel does not 
 propose to us an equalization of human conditions in time ; 
 that " there remaineth a rest for the people of God," and to 
 this, the Master of life and his Apostles pointed the rich and 
 the poor, the high and thp low, the bond and the free. They 
 made it no part of their work to array the prejudices of one 
 class against another ; to discontent the slave with his condi- 
 tion ; or the citizen with the government ; but treated all these 
 things as of inferior consideration, compared with the hope of 
 another and a better life, through the blood of atonement. 
 
 The comparative mildness of Hebrew slavery which is 
 alleged, if it were true, is of no moment in the decision of the 
 question before us ; for it is not, whether American legislation 
 on this subject be unwise and unjust, but whether the institu- 
 tion of slavery is necessarily sinful, and all legislation on the 
 subject void for want of jurisdiction, and because of a higher 
 law that prohibits its existence. 
 
 Domestic slavery, in this country, is older than the Constitu- 
 tion ; it had existed for several generations before the revolu- 
 tion. The people of the North, in their union with the slave 
 States under a general Government, upon the adoption of a 
 common Constitution, bound themselves to respect the institu- 
 tion of slavery as it then existed, so far as to deliver up fugi- 
 tives to their masters. What has been said proves, we think, 
 that such an arrangement was not void as being against a 
 higher law, and consequently any legislation, by Congress, 
 which fairly carries out this provision, and enforces this guaran- 
 tee, is constitutional and lawful, and cannot be resisted upon 
 
23 
 
 any moral grounds. Whether the law is the best or the worst 
 that could have been devised, is not the question here ; nor is it 
 really the question with the country, for it is the recognition 
 of Slavery by the Constitution, and the right of re-capture which 
 it confers, which lies at the bottom of this agitation, all the 
 rest is merely for effect, vox et preterea nihil, and those who 
 recommend the violation of this law would undoubtedly advise 
 resistance to any enactment of Congress which should carry 
 out the provision of the Constitution for the restoration of fugi- 
 tive slaves. 
 
 It is somewhat singular that those whose consciences have 
 been so much aroused in regard to a higher law than the Con- 
 stitution, should have forgotten, in their contemplation of mo- 
 ral and religious questions, that the observance of the compact 
 between the North and the South falls within the moral rule 
 which enjoins good faith, honesty, and integrity among men. 
 Until this compact is rescinded by the power that made it, 
 and by the parties who assented to it, its fulfillment is re- 
 quired by every principle of common honesty. With what 
 pretence of right can the North say to the South, we will hold 
 you to your part of the bargain; you must remain in the 
 Union, but we have conscientious scruples in regard to per- 
 forming our part of the agreement. Is this the language of 
 good faith and integrity ? Would it be thought honest in any 
 private transaction or compact ? Is it for those who threaten 
 the South with force in case of their resistance of Constitutional 
 enactments who are themselves advocating the violation of 
 the laws which protect the rights secured to the slave States 
 by the Constitution to talk about higher laws and sensitive 
 consciences ? Does the assertion, so often made, that there is 
 no danger of disunion if the law of recapture is violated ; that . 
 the South are not strong enough to set up for themselves \ 
 
24 
 
 that they need the protection of the North to prevent a ser- 
 vile insurrection, add any thing to the moral beauty of this 
 position ? What is this but the divine right of lawless force, 
 the higher law of the strongest ? What is this but a disavowal 
 of all regard for the claims of the weak. In the words of a 
 Highland song of the olden time, 
 
 " For why ? because the good old rule 
 Sufficeth them ; the simple plan, 
 That they must get who have the power, 
 And they must keep who can." 
 
 May Vermont be permitted to pass laws to evade and prevent 
 the execution of the legislation of Congress, and South Caro- 
 lina threatened with investment by sea and land, by the army 
 and navy of the United States, for doing the same thing ? Is 
 this good faith between sovereign states ? Nay, is it common 
 honesty among men ? "I speak to wise men, judge ye !" 
 
 If we are comparatively so much stronger than the South, 
 as is alleged, is it magnanimous, is it just, for us to take ad- 
 vantage of their weakness, to violate their constitutional rights ? 
 If they look upon the greater prosperity of the North with a 
 degree of jealousy, and are the more sensitive, on that account 
 upon any appearance of a disregard, on our part, of the guar- 
 antees of the constitution, there is the more reason for our 
 forbearance ; especially when it is considered that in the very 
 formation of the Union there was an implied understanding 
 that good will and forbearance should characterize the inter- 
 course of the parties ; that " Ephraim should not vex Judah ; 
 or Judah, Ephraim." Why should the Saxon obstinacy of the 
 North, and the Norman pride of the South be forever excited 
 by these unhappy disputes in regard to slavery ; a question 
 which time, and patience, and God's" providence can alone re- 
 solve. The South are not so dependent upon us as we ima- 
 
25 
 
 gine ; in the case of a servile insurrection they would hardly 
 look for aid, in the present state of things, from the North, and 
 our constant allegations of their weakness constitute one 
 ground of their dissatisfaction ; and one temptation to a sepa- 
 ration, that they may prove to the North and the World that 
 they can take care of themselves. They have the old Norman 
 temper ; the blood of the Cavalier predominates over that of 
 the Puritan in the southern States, and they would rather 
 see their territory desolated with fire and sword than yield a 
 single point of honor than to feel, much less to acknowledge, 
 that they are dependent upon the North for protection 
 against their own slaves. It is evident that the great body 
 of the people at the South are attached to the Union, and will 
 not readily yield it ; but it is equally manifest that they have 
 demagogues and traitors there, who desire to exercise dominion 
 and lordship in a Southern Confederacy that shall extend from 
 Virginia to Cuba ; who, like some at the North, would rather 
 be Presidents and Secretaries by a division of the country, 
 than to be out of office by its continued Union. 
 
 If such men would boldly announce their design, if they 
 would form an anti-union party and present this question of 
 a revolution in our government, and an abandonment of our 
 constitution before the people, it would go far to dissipate the 
 danger which threatens the Republic, and to quiet the perpe- 
 tual agitations that are wearing out the strong bands that hold 
 us together. For whatever aUegations may be made that 
 there is no danger of disunion ; whatever cries of "peace, peace," 
 may be reiterated by men who are doing what they can to 
 nullify their own predictions ; we may be assured there is 
 treachery and danger all around us. The separation of large 
 communions of Christians into Northern and Southern 
 churches was one of the first signs of evil omen to the 
 
26 
 
 country. But two of the leading Protestant denominations 
 remain united.* I thank God that one of them is the Pres- 
 byterian Church, who are still one in form and fact, in heart 
 and spirit, from New York to New Orleans, from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific, having long since met this question and settled 
 it, finally and peacefully upon Gospel principles. The con- 
 stant agitation of the slavery question at the North, the un- 
 tenable positions assumed, the fierce denunciations, the bitter 
 revilings, the contumelious epithets which have been heaped 
 upon our Southern brethren and all who would not consent to 
 unite in a crusade against them, are producing their legitimate 
 fruits of alienation, distrust, and hatred. If no positive proof 
 exists of a conspiracy among certain hot-headed and ambitious 
 demagogues at the South, to dismember the Union ; that a 
 Southern Confederacy may be formed which will make them 
 all great men ; yet, it is manifest that such a design has been 
 formed, either with or without concert, among a class of ab- 
 stractionists there, who are co-operating with the abolitionists, 
 at the North, to agitate and inflame the public mind, until a 
 revolution is inevitable. The recent settlement of the vexed 
 sectional questions, which was hailed by the country with con- 
 fidence and hope, is sought to be disturbed not only by denun- 
 ciation, but by a violent resistance of the laws enacted, and 
 this, too, before sufficient time has elapsed to test them. 
 Every kind of phantom is conjured up ; visions of free men 
 forcibly hurried into slavery ; appalling pictures of cruelty 
 and injustice are continually exciting the public mind ; though 
 but six captures are said to have been made under the fugitive 
 slave law since its passage, and with two exceptions it is be- 
 lieved the alleged fugitives have been discharged or redeemed. 
 
 * The Protestant Episcopal and the Presbyterian. 
 
27 
 
 If those who harrow up the sensibilities of innocent and 
 ignorant persons by these dreadful imaginations, are sincere 
 in the fears which they express, that free persons of color are 
 likely to be enslaved by the existing law, it shows how utterly 
 fanaticism disregards facts; if they are opposed to the re- 
 delivery of fugitive slaves under the provision of the Constitu- 
 tion, the only honest position they can take is to declare at 
 once and openly for a dissolution of the Union, or the subjuga- 
 tion of the South, by force of arms, to the North. 
 
 Before we leave this subject, we ought to notice the proba- 
 ble results of a dissolution of the Union. What its advanta- 
 ges have been, are matters of history and experience. Under 
 God, the Union has made us a great and prosperous people. 
 We have maintained peace at home, and commanded respect 
 abroad ; our country has been the asylum of the oppressed of 
 every land, the permanency of our institutions has been 
 hailed as the last hope of freedom for the world. Every 
 state has preserved its local sovereignty, while obedient to the 
 general law. Every citizen has enjoyed the largest liberty 
 consistent with the preservation of order, and dwelt under his 
 "own vine and fig tree, with none to molest him or make him 
 afraid." We may say with the Psalmist, " the lines have fall- 
 en unto us unpleasant places, and God has given us a goodly 
 heritage." 
 
 On the other hand, all the disastrous consequences which 
 must flow from disunion, are known only to Him who sees the 
 end from the beginning. One thing is certain, no benefit can 
 flow from a separation of the States, to that unhappy race about 
 whom this whole controversy exists. No possible or conceiva- 
 ble advantage can arise to them, if the Union were sundered 
 to-morrow. Their condition at the North, would not be im- 
 proved, their state at the South would be rendered so far 
 
 
28 
 
 worse, as an increased severity of legislation might be required 
 to prevent their escape to an enemy's frontier. If a small in- 
 crease of the number of those who escape to the North should 
 be secured, which is doubtful, the question arises, and it is a 
 grave and unsettled one, whether their residence with us is a 
 substantial improvement of their condition. The forms of 
 freedom are of little consequence to him who is made by color 
 and caste a " hewer of wood and a drawer of water." That 
 the colored race are capable of elevation I have always main- 
 tained -just as capable as the white, if they can be made to 
 possess the same advantages; but I am fully persuaded that col- 
 onization can alone secure those advantages and give to the Af- 
 rican that which alone makes personal freedom and free 
 institutions valuable. In any view of the subject, the agita- 
 tions and divisions of the country, on the question of slavery 
 and the revolution which may result from them, are of no con- 
 ceivable consequence to those about whose interest the contro- 
 versy exists. A more unprofitable and inconsequential ab- 
 straction was never before made to disturb the peace, and 
 hazard the existence of a great Empire. 
 
 With reference to the positive evils of a revolution, it is the 
 opinion of the most profound statesmen in the country, that a 
 division of the Union must result in a perpetual war between 
 the two sections. This agrees with all the facts of History, 
 and the conclusions of the most profound observation upon hu- 
 man nature. Peace would be impossible under the circumstan- 
 ces. A line of fire would mark the boundary between the 
 free and slave states, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi; from 
 the Mississippi to the Pacific. The blackened roof-trees of all 
 human habitations, for miles on either side of this accursed 
 line, would demonstrate the bitterness of a conflict between 
 men of the same blood, and verity the declaration of scripture 
 
29 
 
 that " the contentions of brethren are like 'the bars of a castle.' 
 Across the entire continent, the boundaries of the two govern-' 
 uients would be marked by conflagration, rapine and violence. 
 Armed plunderers, with whom war would be the excuse for 
 murder and robbery, would make a desert of the country adja- 
 cent on either side, which would soon be known over the 
 whole world by two names, ACELDAMA and GOLGOTHA, 
 a field of blood a place of skulls. There are no visionaries so 
 wild as those who dream, that this vast Empire can be disuni- 
 ted peacefully, or that peace can ever be maintained between 
 the North and the South, under separate governments, with all 
 the old memories, the bitter prejudices, the unavoidable rival- 
 ries, the unceasing disputes of jurisdiction with the mouth 
 of the Mississippi in one territory, and its sources in the 
 other, and with the ominous slave quesipri, embittered a thou- 
 sand fold by the dismemberment of the country. If, in this 
 unnatural contest, the North should prevail over the t South, it 
 would be by making a desert of the territory from the Poto- 
 mac to the Gulf of -Mexico, and by the destuction of both the 
 races who now occupy it, a victory barren of glory the jest 
 of tyrants, and the scorn of the world. 
 
 But the spirit of disunion once evoked, may extend its ma- 
 lign influences until, by the supposition, having accomplished 
 the ruin of the South, the states at the North should divide, 
 and each set up for itself, and, like the petty governments, or 
 rather anarchies, of South America, command neither respect 
 abroad, or obedience at home. 
 
 The beginnings of strife are like the letting out of waters, and 
 to this miserable conclusion at last, these unhappy divisions 
 may bring us. It is an old adage, that those whom God 
 would destroy he first makes mad; and it would seem that 
 nothing short of judicial blindness can lead to the further 
 
30 
 
 agitation of a question fraught with ruin to our beloved coun- 
 try, and to the hopes of political freedom over the entire globe. 
 The dismemberment of this country will be the death-blow of 
 its prosperity. Our rights will be no more regarded abroad or 
 our laws at home, for our strength will be exhausted in our 
 domestic wars; property, both at the North and South, wil^ 
 immediately and decidedly depreciate in value ; all confidence 
 in the stability of our institutions will be destroyed; and 
 Despots will hold a jubilee over the grave of the American 
 Constitution. Worst of all, this disastrous event will have been 
 brought about by no foreign war, by no struggle with the civil 
 or religious despotisms of the world; by no honorable resistance 
 to foreign interference; but by the madness of men ready to 
 sacrifice to one idea, and that an impracticable one; to one prin- 
 ciple, and that a false one; the legacy of Freedom aru Union- 
 which we hold from our fathers, and which we are bound to 
 transmit to our children by every consideration of patriotism, 
 by every obligation of religion ; and failing to do which, both 
 Earth and Heaven will cry out against us, as false to the trust 
 committed to us by our noble ancestry ; false to our allegiance 
 and our oaths ; false to our children and posterity ; false to 
 our religion and to God, who has committed to our keeping 
 the ark of civil and religious liberty, for the benefit of our race, 
 to be held as a sacred deposit for the world. The plea of sym- 
 pathy with the colored race, in view of their degraded condi- 
 tion, 'however suitable such sympathy may be, and demanded 
 by Him, who hath made of one blood all nations and races, 
 to dwell together on the face of the earth, will never avail 
 to justify an agitation which is useless to them and ruin- 
 ous to us. A man who should expose a whole community 
 to destruction, under the plea of delivering one of its mem- 
 bers from servitude, or who should fire his neighbor's 
 
31 
 
 dwelling for the &me purpose, at th risk of a conflagration ' 
 which must consume both master and slave, and even expose 
 his own house and his own children to a miserable death, could 
 hardly be counted a philanthropist, or find a justification of his 
 conduct in any abstract question of human rights I would 
 that I had a voice to penetrate every habitation in this great 
 Empire, to reach every ear from ocean to ocean, from Maine to 
 Florida to entreat my countrymen to pause from a contro- 
 versy, from which there will soon be no retreat, and of which, 
 if protracted, there can be but one issue the dissolution of the 
 Union and the ruin of the Republic. By their duty to God 
 and to the Government, I would implore them to be obedient 
 to the laws ; by their regard for their children, by their respect 
 for the interests of our common humanity, I would beseech 
 them to take care of the Commonwealth, than which there js 
 no higher law for the Christian citizen. I would appeal to the 
 North and the South, by their common ancestry, by the au- 
 gust memories of the revolutionary struggle, by the bones of 
 their fathers which lie mingled together at Yorktown and 
 Saratoga, at Trenton and Charlestown, by the farewell coun- 
 sels of the immortal Washington, to lay aside their animosities 
 and to remember that they are brethren. I would remind 
 them that the Union has given us the blessings which we 
 enjoy that under its Flag our victories have been won ; our 
 borders extended ; our wealth and population increased ; our 
 ships respected in every port of every sea, until our national 
 progress has excited the admiration, or aroused the envy, of all 
 the Nations and Potentates of the earth. I would warn them of 
 that abyss of ruin which fanaticism and treason are opening 
 beneath them; into which they would plunge our present 
 fortunes and our future hope's. I would beseech them to stand 
 by the Union, to obey the laws, to frown upon agitation, in 
 
32 
 
 this crisis of our beloved country. I would admonish them 
 that failing to do this, failing to sustain the free institutions, 
 and to regard the mutual compacts which we received from our 
 fathers, we may expect as a consequence the curses of pos- 
 terity, the contempt of the world, and the judgments of God. 
 May the Ruler of nations avert from us these impending cala- 
 mities. May the Holy Trinity, in whom our fathers trusted, 
 give us, as a people, the spirit of wisdom and understanding 
 and of a sound mind. May we hereafter on occasions like the 
 present have a new motive of thanksgiving and praise in the 
 proofs of the peaceful settlement of all sectional controversies 
 in the fact that the Ship of State long tossed by tempests and 
 threatened with destruction by conflicting and angry elements, 
 is at last sailing in a calm sea with a law-abiding crew, AND 
 THE FLAG OF THE UNION NAILED TO HER MASTS. 
 
 THE END.