George Washington Flowers 
 Memorial Collection 
 
 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 ESTABLISHED BY THE 
 FAMILY OF 
 COLONEL FLOWERS 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/nationalsinsfastOOthor 
 
THE FLOWERS COLIECTIOM 
 
 Itational §m. 
 
 FAST-DAT SERMON: 
 
 PREACHED IN THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, COLUMBIi, S. C, 
 
 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1860, 
 
 By Rev. J. H. THORNWELL, D. D 
 
 COLUMBIA, S. C: 
 
 SOUTHERN GUARDIAN STEAM-POWER PRESS. 
 
 1860. 
 
S E R M O N 
 
 And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his 
 clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the 
 Lord." — Isaiah 37 : 1. 
 
 I have no design, in the selection of these words, to inti- 
 mate that there is a parallel between Jerusalem and our own 
 Commonwealth in relation to the Covenant of God. I am 
 far from believing that we alone, of all the people of the 
 earth, are possessed of the true religion, and far from en- 
 couraging the narrow and exclusive spirit which, with the 
 ancient hypocrites denounced by the Prophet, can com- 
 placently exclaim, the temple of the Lord, the temple of 
 the Lord, are we. Such arrogance and bigotry are utterly 
 inconsistent with the penitential confessions which this day 
 has been set apart to evoke. We are here, not like the 
 Pharisee, to boast of our own righteousness, and to thank 
 God that we are not like other men ; but we are here like 
 the poor publican, to smite upon our breasts, and to say, God 
 be merciful to us, sinners. My design, in the choice of 
 these words, is to illustrate the spirit and temper with 
 which a Christian people should deport themselves in times 
 of public calamity and distress. Jerusalem was in great 
 straits. The whole country had been ravaged by a proud 
 and insolent foe. The Sacred City remained as the last 
 hold of the State, and a large army lay encamped before 
 its walls. Ruin seemed to be inevitable. It teas a day of 
 trouble, and of rebuke^ and of blasphemij. The children had 
 come to the birth, and there was not strength to bring forth. In 
 
4 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 the extremity of the danger, the sovereign betakes himself 
 to God. Kenouncing all human confidence, and all human 
 alliances, he rent his clothes, and covered himself with 
 sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 
 
 In applying the text to our own circumstances, widely 
 different in many respects from those of Jerusalem at the 
 time referred to, I am oppressed with a difficulty, which 
 you that are acquainted w^ith my views of the nature and 
 functions of the Christian ministry can readily under- 
 stand. During the twenty-five years in which I have 
 fulfilled my course as a preacher — all of which have been 
 spent in my native State, and nearly all in this city — 
 I have never introduced secular politics into the instruc- 
 tions of the pulpit. It has been a point of conscience with 
 me to know no party in the State. Questions of law and 
 public administration I have left to the tribunals appointed 
 to settle them, and have confined my exhortations to those 
 greatmattersthat pertain immediately to thekingdom of God 
 I have left it to Ci^sar to take care of his own rights, and 
 have insisted only upon the supreme rights of the Almighty. 
 The angry disputes of the forum I have excluded from the 
 house of the Lord. And while all classes have been ex- 
 horted to the discharge of their common duties, as men, 
 as citizens, as members of the family — while the sanctions 
 of religion have, without scruple, been applied to all the re- 
 lations of life, whether public or private, civil or domestic — 
 the grounds of dissension which divide the community into 
 parties, and range its members under difierent banners, have 
 not been permitted to intrude into the sanctuary. The 
 business of a preacher, as such, is to expound the Word of 
 God. He has no commission to go beyond the teaching of 
 the Scriptures. He has no authority to expound to sena- 
 tors the Constitution of the State, nor to interpret for 
 judges the law of the land. In the civil and political sphere, 
 the dead must bury their dead. It is obvious, however, 
 that religious sanctions cannot be applied to civil and 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 5 
 
 political duties without taking for granted the relations out 
 of wliieh these duties spring. Religion cannot exact sub- 
 mission to the powers that be, without implying that these 
 powers are known and confessed. It cannot enjoin obe- 
 dience to C^^sar, without taking it for granted that the 
 authority of Caesar is acknowledged. When the Constitu- 
 tion of the State is fixed and settled, the general reference 
 to it which religion implies, in the inculcation of civil and 
 political duties, may be made without intruding into the 
 functions of the magistrate, or taking sides with any par- 
 ticular pRrty in the Commonwealth. The relations which 
 condition duty are admitted, and the conscience instantly 
 recognizes the grounds on which the minister of the Gospel 
 exhorts to fidelity. The duties belong to the department 
 of religion ; the relations out of which they spring belong- 
 to the department of political science ; and must be deter- 
 mined apart from the Word of God. The concrete cases, 
 to which the law of God is to be applied, must always be 
 given ; the law itself is all that the preacher can enforce as 
 of Divine authority. As the law, without the facts, how- 
 ever, is a shadow without substance ; as the duty is un- 
 meaning which is determined b}^ no definite relations ; the 
 preacher cannot inculcate civil obedience, or convict of 
 national sin, without allusions, more or less precise, to the 
 theory and structure of the government. He avoids pre- 
 sumption, b}^ having it distinctly understood, that the theory 
 which he assumes is not announced as the Word of God, 
 but is to be proved, as any other facts of history and expe- 
 rience. He speaks here only in his own name, as a man, 
 and proniulges a matter of opinion, and not an article of 
 faith. If the assumptions which he makes are true, the 
 duties which he enjoins must be accepted as Divine com- 
 mands. The specuhitive antecedents being admitted, the 
 practical consequents cannot be avoided. There are cases 
 in which the question relates to a change in the govern- 
 ment, in which the question of duty is simply a question of 
 
6 
 
 FAST-DAY SEEMON. 
 
 revolution. In such cases the minister has no commission 
 from God to recommend or resist a change, unless some 
 moral principle is immediately involved. He can explain 
 and enforce the spirit and temper in which revolution 
 should be contemplated and carried forward or abandoned. 
 He can expound the doctrine of the Scriptures in relation 
 to the nature, the grounds, the extent and limitations of 
 civil obedience ; but it is not for him, as a preacher, to say 
 wdien evils are intolerable, nor to prescribe the mode and 
 measure of redress. These points he must leave to the 
 State itself. When a revolution has once been achieved, 
 he can enforce the duties which spring from the new con- 
 dition of aifairs. 
 
 Thus much I have felt bound to say, as to my views of 
 the duty of a minister in relation to matters of State. As 
 a citizen, a man, a member of the Commonwealth, he has 
 a right to form and express his opinions upon every subject, 
 to whatever department it belongs, which affects the 
 interests of his race. As a man, he is as free as any other 
 man ; but the citizen must not be confounded with the 
 preacher, nor private opinions with the oracles of God. 
 Entertaining these sentiments concerning the relations of 
 the sacred office to political affairs, I am oppressed with 
 the apprehension, that in attempting to fulfil the requi- 
 sitions of the present occasion, I may transgress the limits 
 of propriety, and merge the pulpit into the rostrum. I am 
 anxious to avoid this error, and would, therefore, have it 
 "understood, in advance, that whatever theory may be 
 assumed of the nature and structure of our Government, is 
 assumed upon the common grounds of historical knowledge, 
 and is assumed mainly as fixing the points from which I 
 would survey the sins of the country. If true — and no man 
 has a right to reject them, without being able to disprove 
 them — my conclusions in reference to our national guilt are 
 irrefragably established. If not true, we must either deny 
 that we are sinners, or must seek some other relations in 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 7 
 
 which to ground the consciousness of sin. If that conscious- 
 ness should be thoroughly grounded, the services of this 
 day will not be in vain. I can trul}^ say that niy great aim 
 is not to expound our complex institutions, but to awaken 
 the national conscience to a sense of its responsibility be- 
 fore God. It is not to enlighten your minds, but to touch 
 your hearts ; not to plead the cause of States rights or 
 Federal authority, but to bring you as penitents before 
 the Supreme Judge. This is no common solemnity. The 
 day has been set apart by the constituted authorities of this 
 Commonwealth, by joint resolution of both branches of the 
 Legislature, and proclaimed by the Chief Magistrate of the 
 State, as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer. South 
 Carolina, therefore, as an organized political community, 
 prostrates herself this day before God. It is a time of 
 danger, of blasphemy and rebuke, and, imitating the exam- 
 ple of Hezekiah, she rends her clothes, covers herself with 
 sackcloth, and comes into the House of the Lord. The 
 question is, how she should demean herself under these 
 solemn circumstances. Every minister, this day, becomes 
 her organ, and he should instruct the people as to the 
 attitude which we should all assume in the presence of 
 Jehovah. It is a day of solemn worship, in which the 
 State appears as a penitent, and lays her case before the 
 Judge of all the earth. 
 
 The points to which I shall direct your attention, are, 
 first, the spirit in which we should approach God, and 
 second, the errand on which we should go. 
 
 I. As the individual, in coming to God, must believe that 
 He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek Him, so the State must be impressed with a 
 profound sense of His all-pervading providence, and of its 
 responsibility to Him, as the moral Ruler of the world. 
 The powers that be are ordained of Him. From Him the 
 magistrate receives his commission, and in His fear, he must 
 use the sword as a terror to evil doers and a praise to them 
 
8 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 that do well. Civil government is an institute of Heaven, 
 founded in the character of man as social and moral, and is 
 designed to realize the idea of justice. Take away the 
 notion of mutual rights and the corresponding notions of 
 duty and ohligation, and a commonwealth is no more con- 
 ceivable among men than among brutes. As the State is 
 essentially moral in its idea, it connects itself directly with 
 the government of God. It is, indeed, the organ through 
 which that government is administered in its relations to 
 the highest interests of earth. A State, therefore, which 
 does not recognize its dependence upon God, or which fails 
 to apprehend, in its functions and offices, a commission from 
 heaven, is false to the law of its own being. The moral 
 finds its source and centre only in God. There can be no 
 rights without responsibility, and responsibility is incom- 
 plete until it terminates in a supreme will. The earthly 
 sanctions of the State, its rewards and punishments, are 
 insufficient either for the punishment of vice or the encour- 
 agement of virtue, unless they connect themselves with the 
 higher sanctions which religion discloses. If the State had 
 to deal only with natures confessedly mortal; if its subjects 
 were conscious of no other life than that which they bear 
 from the cradle to the grave ; if their prospect terminated 
 at death ; if they were only brutes of a more finished make, 
 but equally destined to everlasting extinction, who does not 
 see that the law would lose its terror, and obedience be 
 stripped of its dignity. The moral nature of man is insep- 
 arably linked with immortality, and immortality as insep- 
 arably linked with religion. Among Pagan idolaters, the 
 instinct of immortality, though not developed into a doc- 
 trine, nor realized as a fact in reflection, is yet the secret 
 power which, in the spontaneous workings of the soul, gives 
 efficacy to punishment, and energy to rewards. Man feels 
 himself immortal, and this feeling, though operating blind- 
 ly, colors his hopes and his fears. The State, therefore, 
 which should undertake to accomplish the ends of its being, 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 9 
 
 without taking into account the religious element in man, 
 palsies its own arm. Subjects that have no religion are 
 incapable of law. Eules of prudence they may institute ; 
 measures of precaution they may adopt; a routine of 
 coercion and constraint they may establish ; but laAvs they 
 cannot have. They may be governed like a lunatic asylum ; 
 but where there is no nature which responds to the sentiment 
 of duty, there is no nature which confesses the majesty of 
 law. Every State, therefore, must have a religion, or it 
 must cease to be a government of men. Hence no Com- 
 monwealth has ever existed without religious sanctions. 
 ^'Whether true or false, sublime or ridiculous," says the 
 author of the Consulate and the Empire, "man must have 
 a religion. Every where, in all ages, in all countries, in 
 ancient as in modern times, in civilized as well as in barba- 
 rian nations, we find him a worshipper at some altar, be it 
 venerable, degraded, or blood-stained." 
 
 It is not only necessary that the State should have a 
 religion ; it is equally necessary, in order to an adequate ful- 
 filment of its own idea, that it have the true religion. Truth 
 is the only proper food of the soul, and though superstition 
 and error may avail for a time as external restraints, they 
 never generate an inward principle of obedience. They 
 serve as outward motives, but never become an inward life, 
 and when the falsehood comes to be detected, the mind is 
 apt to abandon itself to unrestrained licentiousness. The 
 reaction is violent in proportion to the intensity of the pre- 
 vious delusion. The most formidable convulsions in States 
 are those which have been consequent upon the detection 
 of religious imposture. " When a religion," says McCosh, 
 " waxes old in a country — when the circumstances which 
 at first favored its formation or introduction have changed 
 — when in an age of reason it is tried and found unreason- 
 able — when in an age of learning it is discovered to be the 
 product of the grossest ignorance — when in an age of levity 
 it is felt to be too stern — then the infidel spirit takes cour- 
 2 
 
10 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 age, and, witli a zeal in whicli there is a strange mixture 
 of scowling revenge and liglit-hearted wantonness, of deep- 
 set hatred and laughing levity, it proceeds to level all exist- 
 ing temples and altars, and erects no others in their room." 
 The void which is created is soon filled with w^antonness 
 and violence. The State cannot be restored to order until 
 it settles down upon some form of religion again. As the 
 subjects of a State must have a religion in order to be truly 
 obedient, and as it is the true religion alone which converts 
 obedience into a living principle, it is obvious that a Com- 
 monwealth can no more be organized, which shall recog- 
 nize all religions, than one which shall recognize none. 
 The sanctions of its laws must have a centre of unity 
 some where. To combine in the same government contra- 
 dictory systems of faith, is as hopelessly impossible as to con- 
 stitute into one State men of different races and languages. 
 The Christian, the Pagan, Mohammedan ; Jews, Infidels and 
 Turks, cannot coalesce as organic elements in one body 
 politic. The State must take its religious type from the 
 doctrines, the precepts, and the institutions of one or the 
 other of these parties. 
 
 When we insist upon the religious character of the State, 
 we are not to be understood as recommending or favoring 
 a Church Establishment, To have a religion is one thing — 
 to have a Church Establishment is another ; and perhaps 
 the most efiectual way of extinguishing the religious life 
 of a State is to confine the expression of it to the forms 
 and peculiarities of a single sect. The Church and the 
 State, as visible institutions, are entirely distinct, and 
 neither can usurp the province of the other without injury 
 to both. But religion, as a life, as an inward principle, 
 though specially developed and fostered by the Church, 
 extends its domain beyond the sphere of technical worship, 
 touches all the relations of man, and constitutes the inspi- 
 ration of every duty. The service of the Commonwealth 
 becomes an act of piety to Grod. The State realizes its 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 11 
 
 religious character through the religious character of its 
 subjects ; and a State is and ought to be Christian, because 
 all its subjects are and ought to be determined by the prin- 
 ciples of the Gospel. As every legislator is bound to be 
 a Christian man, he has no right to vote for any laws which 
 are inconsistent with the teachings of the Scriptures. He 
 must carry his Christian conscience into the halls of leg- 
 islation. 
 
 In conformity with these principles, we recognize Chris- 
 tianity to-day as the religion of our Commonwealth. Our 
 standard of right is that eternal law which God proclaimed 
 from Sinai, and which Jesus expounded on the Mount. 
 "We recognize our responsibility to Jesus Christ. He is 
 head over all things to the Church, and the nation that will 
 not serve Him is doomed to perish. Before men we are a 
 free and sovereign State ; before God we are dependent 
 subjects ; and one of the most cheering omens of the times 
 is the heartiness with which this truth has been received. 
 "VYe are a Christian people, and a Christian Commonwealth. 
 As on the one hand we are not Jews, Infidels or Turks, so 
 on the other, we are not Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopa- 
 lians, or Methodists. Christianity, without distinction 
 of sects, is the fountain of our national life. We accept 
 the Bible as the great moral charter by which our laws 
 must be measured, and the Incarnate Redeemer as the 
 Judge to whom we are responsible. 
 
 In contending that Christianity is the organic life of the 
 State, we of course do not exclude from the privileges of 
 citizens, nor from the protection of the laws, those who do 
 not acknowledge the authority of Jesus. They do not cease 
 to be men, because they are not Christians, and Christian 
 principle exacts that their rights should be sacredly main- 
 tained by an institute which is founded in the idea of 
 justice. As, moreover, the religion of the State realizes 
 itself through the religious life of its subjects, it is not to 
 be supported by arbitrary tests or by civil pains and disa- 
 
12 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 bilities. Religion is essentially free and spontaneous. It 
 cannot be enacted as a law, nor enforced by authority. 
 When the State protects its outward institutions, such as 
 the sanctity of the Sabbath, it enjoins nothiug which does 
 violence to any man's conscience. It is only giving vent 
 to the religious life of the people, without exacting from 
 others what they feel it sinful to perform ; and so long as 
 freedom of conscience and the protection of their rights 
 are secured to men, they have no reason to complain that 
 they are not permitted to unsettle the principles upon 
 which all law and order ultimately rest. As long as they 
 are not required to profess what they do not believe, nor to 
 do what their consciences condemn ; as long as they are 
 excluded from no privilege and deprived of no right, they 
 cannot complain that the spirit and sanction of the laws 
 are a standing protest against their want of sympathy with 
 the prevailing type of national life. If Christianity be true, 
 they ought certainly to be Christians. The claim of this 
 religion, in contradistinction from every other, or from 
 none at all, is founded only in its truth. If true, it must 
 be authoritative, and the people who accept it as true 
 would be traitors to their faith if they did not mould their 
 institutions in conformity with its spirit. It is only as a 
 sanction, and not as a law, that we plead for its influence ; 
 and how a Christian people can have any other than Chris- 
 tian institutions, it surpasses our intelligence to compass. 
 That the State should treat all religions w^ith equal indif- 
 ference, is to suppose that the subjects of the State can 
 have a double life, flowing in parallel streams, which never 
 approach nor touch — a life as citizens, and a life as men. It 
 is to forget the essential unity of man, and the convergence 
 of all the energies of his being to a religious centre. It is 
 to forget that religion is the perfection of his nature, and 
 that he realizes the idea of humanity in proportion as reli- 
 gion pervades his whole being. A godless State is, in fact, 
 a contradiction in terms; and if we must have some god, or 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 13 
 
 cease to be citizens because we have ceased to be men, 
 who will hesitate between the God of the Bible and the 
 absurd devices of human superstition and depravity ? 
 
 It is, then, before the Supreme Jehovah that we prostrate 
 ourselves to-day. We come as a Commonwealth ordained 
 bv Him. We come as His creatures and His subjects. 
 The sword by which we have executed justice, we received 
 from His hands. We believe that He is — that He is our 
 God ; that His favor is life, and His loving kindness better 
 than life. We ascribe to His grace the institutions under 
 which we have flourished. We trace to His hands the 
 blessings which have distinguished our lot. Under Him 
 the foundations of the State were laid, and to Him we owe 
 whatsoever is valuable in our laws, healthful in our customs, 
 or precious in our history. We come this day to acknowl- 
 edge our dependence, swear our allegiance, and confess our 
 responsibility. By Him we exist as a State, and to Him 
 we must answer for the manner in which we have discharged 
 our trust. " God standeth in the congregation of the mighty. 
 He judgeth among the gods.'' 
 
 n. Having explained the spirit in which we should 
 approach God, let me call your attention, in the next place, 
 to the ERRAND which brings us before Him this day — fast- 
 ing, humiliation, and prayer. These terms define the 
 worship which we are expected to present. Fasting is the 
 outward sign ; penitence and prayer are the inward graces. 
 In fasting, we relinquish for a season the bounties of Provi- 
 dence, in token our conviction, that we have forfeited all 
 claim to our daily bread. It is a symbolical confession 
 that we deserve to be stripped of every gift, and left to 
 perish in hunger, nakedness, and want. On occasions of 
 solemn moment, and particularly when "manifestations of 
 the Divine anger appear, as pestilence, war, and famine, 
 the salutary custom of all ages has been for pastors to 
 exhort the people to public fasting and extraordinary 
 prayer." Through such a solemnity Nineveh was saved; 
 
14 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 and if we are equally penitent, who shall say that we may 
 not also be delivered from the judgments which our sins 
 have provoked ? Fasting, apart from inward penitence, is 
 an idle mockery. Is it such a fast as 1 have chosen ? a day 
 for a man to afflict his soul ? is it to how down his head as a 
 bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt 
 thou call this a fast and an acceptahle day to the Lord ? Is 
 not this the fast that I have chosen f to loose the hands of wick- 
 edness, to undo the heavy hardens, and to let the oppressed go 
 free, and that ye hreak every yoke f Is it not to deal thy hread 
 to the hungry, and that thou hring the poor that are cast out to 
 thy house f when thou seest the naked that thou cover him ; and 
 that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? The great 
 thing with us to-day is, to be impressed with a sense of 
 our sins as a people; to confess them humbly before God; 
 to deprecate His judgments, and to supplicate His favor. 
 "We are too apt to restrict the notion of sin in its proper 
 sense to the sphere of the individual ; to regard it as alto- 
 gether private and personal, and not capable of being- 
 predicated of the mal-administration of the State. But if 
 the State is a moral institute, responsible to God, and exist- 
 ing for moral and spiritual ends, it is certainly a subject 
 capable of sin. It may endure, too, the penalty of sin, 
 either in its organic capacity, by national judgments, by 
 war, pestilence, weakness, and dissolution, or in its indi- 
 vidual subjects, whose offences as citizens are as distinctly 
 transgressions as any other forms of iniquity, and enter into 
 the grounds of the Divine dispensation^ towards them. 
 The State exists under a law which defines its duty. It is 
 a means to an end, which limits its powers and determines its 
 functions. It is the realization of an idea. Like an indi- 
 vidual, it may sin by defect in coming short of its duty, 
 and sin by positive contradiction to it. It may fail to com- 
 prehend its vocation ; it may arrogate too much, or claim 
 too little. It may be wanting in public spirit, or it may 
 give public spirit a wrong direction. It may subordinate 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 15 
 
 the spiritual to the material, and, in encouraging the in- 
 crease of national wealth, neglect to foster national great- 
 ness. In aspiring to be rich and increased in goods, it may 
 forget that the real glory of a nation is to be free, intelli- 
 gent, and virtuous. The power which it has received as 
 an instrument of good, it may pervert into an engine of 
 tyranny. It may disregard the welfare and prosperity of 
 its subjects, and degenerate into a tool for the selfish pur- 
 poses of unscrupulous rulers. It may seek to aggrandize 
 factions, instead of promoting the well-being of the 
 people. The State, too, as a moral person, stands in rela- 
 tions to other States, in consequence of which it may be 
 guilty of bad faith, of inordinate ambition, of covetousness, 
 rapacity, and selfishness. The same vices which degrade 
 the individual among his fellows, may degrade a common- 
 wealth among surrounding nations. It may be mean, vora- 
 cious, insolent, extortionary. It may cringe to the strong, 
 and oppress the weak. It may take unworthy advantages 
 of the necessities of its neighbors, or make unworthy con- 
 cessions for temporary purposes. The same laws regulate, 
 and the same crimes disfigure, the intercourse of States with 
 one another, which obtain in the case of individuals. The 
 political relations of the one are precisely analogous to the 
 social relations of the other. The same standard of honor, 
 of integrity and magnanimity which is incumbent upon 
 their subjects, is equally binding upon the States them- 
 selves, and character ought to be as sacred among sovereign 
 States as among private individuals. 
 
 The true light, therfore, in which national defects and 
 transgressions should be contemplated, is formally that of 
 sin against God. Their injustice to their people is treach- 
 ery to Him, and their failure to comprehend or to seek to 
 fulfil the end of their being, is contempt of the Divine 
 authority. We take too low a view, when we regard their 
 errors simply as impolitic ; their real magnitude and enor- 
 
16 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 mity we can never apprehend until we see them in the 
 light of sins. 
 
 It is to be feared that this notion of sin has not the hold 
 which it should have of the public conscience. We are 
 not accustomed to judge of the State by the same canons 
 of responsibility which we apply to individuals. In some 
 way or other, the notion of sovereignty, which only defines 
 the relation of a State to earthly tribunals, affects our views 
 of its relations to God ; and, whilst we charge it with errors, 
 with blunders, with unfaithfulness to its trust, and deplore 
 the calamities which its misconduct brings upon its subjects 
 as public evils, we lose sight of the still more solemn truth, 
 that these aberrations are the actions of a moral agent, and 
 must be answered for at the bar of God. The moral law 
 is one, and the State is bound to do its duty, under the 
 same sanctions which pertain to the individual. When the 
 State fails, or transgresses, its offences are equally abomina- 
 tions in the sight of God. It is clearly idle to talk of national 
 repentance, without the consciousness of national sin. This 
 doctrine, therefore, I would impress upon you in every form 
 of statement, that the misconduct of the State is rebellion 
 against God, and that a nation which comes short of its 
 destination, and is faithless to its trust, is stained with sin 
 of the most malignant dye. God may endure it in patience 
 for a season, but it is loathsome and abominable in His 
 eyes, and the day of reckoning will at last come. Sin must 
 either be pardoned or punished, confessed and forsaken, 
 or it will work death. Sin has been the ruin of every Em- 
 pire that ever flourished and fell. Assyria, Persia, Greece, 
 and Rome, have paid the penalties to the Divine law. The 
 only alternative with States, as with their subjects, is, repent 
 or perish. The first duty, therefore, which, as a Christian 
 people, we should endeavor to discharge this day, is to con- 
 fess our national sins with humility and penitence. We 
 should endeavor to feel their magnitude and enormity, not 
 as injuries to man, but as offences against the majesty of 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 17 
 
 God. Our language should be that of David: Against Thee, 
 Thee onI</^ have ice sinned^ and done this evil in thy sight. 
 
 Another errand which it behooves us equally to prose- 
 cute to-day is. to seek Divine guidance and Divine strength 
 for the future. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps, 
 and States are no more competent than individuals to 
 discharge their duties without the grace of God. Let tis 
 endeavor to cherish a sense of our dependence, and aspire 
 to the distinction of that happy people whose God is ths 
 Lord. It is a great thing to contemplate our civil duties 
 iu the light of obedience to Him : and when they are 
 undertaken in the spirit of worship, they are likely to be 
 performed in the spirit of taithfulness. Lf we are truly 
 penitent, and truly sensi\)le of our dependence upon God ; 
 if it is the reigning desire of our hearts to know His will, 
 and our fixed purpose, in reliance on His strength, to do it. 
 He may give us an answer of peace. He may bring light otit 
 of darkness, and extract safety from danger. 
 
 Having indicated the spirit in which we shotild approach 
 God. and pointed out the purposes for which we should go, 
 it remains that we apply the truth to our present circum- 
 stances, by signalizing the sins which it behooves us to con- 
 fess, and by designating the blessings which it behooves us 
 to implore. The conscience is never touched by vagtie 
 generalities : we must come to particulars : thus and thus 
 hast thou done. The State appears as a penitent this day. 
 She has, therefore, sins to confess. There is a bm-den upon 
 her heart which must needs be relieved. What are these 
 sins ? What is this burden ? The completeness of our 
 answer to these qtiestions will measure the extent and sin- 
 cerity of our repentance. 
 
 To understand our sins, we must look at ourselves iu a 
 double light : first, as a member of this Confederacy, as 
 part and parcel of the people of these United States : and, 
 in the next place, as a particular Commonwealth, a perfect 
 State in otirselves. As long as we are members of this 
 
18 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 Confederacy we cannot detach ourselves from a personal 
 interest in the sins and transgressions of the whole people ; 
 and, though there may be offences in which we have had 
 no actual participation, we are not at liberty to indulge in 
 a seif-righteous temper, nor to employ the language of 
 recrimination and reproach. The spectacle of sin is always 
 sad. The fall of none should be contemplated with exul- 
 tation or with triumph. We should look upon the errors 
 of our brethren Avith pity and with sorrow, and, as Daniel 
 confessed, in humility and contrition, and with deep com- 
 miseration for their misery, the sins of his people, so we 
 should endeavor this day to deplore the shortcomings of 
 our common country, as a matter of personal distress to 
 ourselves. When we come before €rod, we should endeavor 
 to contemplate the moral aspects of the country in the light 
 of His awful holiness. And the more profoundly we are 
 impressed with the malignity of our national guilt, the 
 deeper should be our concern for the transgressors them- 
 selves. Sinners cannot triumph over sinners. Those 
 whose only plea is mercy to themselves, ought not to be 
 unmerciful to others. Much more should we be filled with 
 sorrow when the sins we deplore are likely to prove the 
 ruin of a great nation. To behold a vast, imperial repub- 
 lic, like ours, bequeathed to us by a noble ancestry, conse- 
 crated by a noble history, the work of illustrious statesmen 
 and patriots, falling a prey to national degeneracy and cor- 
 ruption, is enough to make angels weep, and should wring 
 from our hearts tears of bitterness and blood. The sin must 
 be enormous where the punishment is so fearful. In less 
 than a century we have spoiled the legacy of our fathers. A 
 Christian people, with Christian institutions, the envy and 
 admiration of the world, have not lived to the age of pagan 
 Greece. Surely, God has a controversy with us, and it 
 becomes us to inquire, with all solemnity, into the cause of 
 His fierce anger. The union, which our fathers designed 
 to be perpetual, is on the verge of dissolution. A name once 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 19 
 
 dear to our hearts, has become intolerable to entire States. 
 Once admired, loved, almost adored, as the citadel and safe- 
 guard of freedom, it has become, in many minds, synonymous 
 with oppression, with treachery, with falsehood, and with 
 violence. The o-overnment to which we once invited the 
 victims of tyranny from every part of the world, and under 
 whose ample shield we gloried in promising them security 
 and protection — that government has become hateful in 
 the very regions in which it was once hailed with the 
 greatest loyalty. Brother has risen up against brother, 
 State against State ; angry disputes and bitter crimina- 
 tions and recriminations abound, and the country stands 
 upon the very brink of revolution. Surely, it is time to 
 come to ourselves; to look our follies and our wickednesses 
 in the face ; time for every patriot to rend his garments, 
 cover himself with sackcloth, and come into the house of 
 the Lord. Let us deal faithfully this day; let us survey 
 the sins of the land, not to accuse one another, but to 
 humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. 
 
 1. To appreciate the sins which attach to us in our unity 
 as a confederated people, we must advert for a moment to 
 the peculiar structure of our government. When we came 
 out of the Revolution, it is admitted on all hands that we 
 were separate and independent States. Each was sovereign 
 — that is, completely a nation in itself ; but our fathers 
 looked around them, and saw that the grounds of unity 
 were as conspicuous as the elements of diversity. The 
 people were of one blood, one language, one religion. 
 They were, in short, one race. They surveyed the conti- 
 nent from north to south, from east to west, and its geog- 
 raphy indicated that it ought to be the dwelling-place of a 
 united population. While there were differences in soil, 
 climate, and productions, that would naturally develope 
 different types of industry, and give rise to different forms 
 of interest, there were great connecting bonds in the 
 mighty rivers which traversed the country, that as clearly 
 
20 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 signified that the diversity was not inconsistent with unity. 
 The problem, accordingly, which the wisdom of our ances- 
 tors undertook to solve was, to harmonize this diversity with 
 unity ; to make the people, who were already many, at the 
 same time, one. One- nation, in the strict and proper sense, 
 they could never become ; that would be to absorb the 
 diversity in unity. Many nations, in all the relations of 
 sovereign States, they could not be ; that would be to 
 abolish the unity altogether. The problem was solved 
 by a happy application of the federal principle. The 
 diversity existed already in the many States which had just 
 achieved their independence. These many States, in the 
 exercise of their sovereignty, formed an alliance, which 
 cemented them together in one body politic. This alliance 
 was, in its principle, a treaty, and in its result, a govern- 
 ment. In its principle it was a treaty, because it was a 
 compact among sovereigns. In its result it was a govern- 
 ment, because it created organs of political power which, 
 under certain conditions, acted immediately upon the people 
 of all the States, without the formal ratification of their own 
 Legislatures, and in all foreign relations stood as the repre- 
 sentative of their common sovereignty. It is obvious that 
 the ultimate ground of the authority of federal legislation 
 is the consent of the confederating States. The laws of 
 Congress bind me, only because South Carolina has con- 
 sented that I should be bound. The rights of Congress 
 are only the concessions of the sovereign States. This will 
 appear from a moment's reflection. It is obvious that the 
 States might have required that no measures of the Federal 
 Government should be of force within their own borders, 
 without the formal sanction of their own Legislatures. In 
 that case, there could have been no dispute as to the ulti- 
 mate ground of obedience. The difiiculties of such an 
 arrangement are too obvious to be enumerated, but how 
 were these difiaculties to be avoided ? By surrendering the 
 principle on which the authority of Congress depended, or 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 21 
 
 by changing the mode of its application ? To have surren- 
 dered the principle would have been to abjure their own 
 sovereignty. There was evidently, then, only a change in 
 the mode of its application. That change consisted in defin- 
 ing the conditions under which consent might be presumed 
 beforehand. The Constitution of the United States, in its 
 grants of power to Congress, is only a device by which a 
 general description is given, in advance, of the kind of legis- 
 tion that each State will allow to be obligatory on its own 
 people. The provisions of the Constitution are really 
 anticipations of the concurrence of the States. They are 
 formal declarations to the Federal Legislature, that within 
 such and such limits, you have our consent to bind our 
 people. In this way our fathers organized a government 
 that united us for all common purposes, and left us in our 
 original diversity to prosecute our separate and local inter- 
 ests. Congress is, therefore, only the creature of the States, 
 and acts only through them. It is their consent, their 
 treaty, which gives to its enactments the validity of law. 
 As the Federal Legislature was clearly designed to realize 
 the unity of the people, its powers are restricted, from the 
 very necessities of the case, to those points in which all the 
 States have a common interest. The creature of a treaty, 
 in which the contracting parties were all equal, it is mani- 
 festly the servant, and not the master, of the States. It is 
 an agent, and not a principal. 
 
 If this view of the subject be correct, the Federal Gov- 
 ernment is preeminently a government, whose very exist- 
 ence depends upon a scrupulous adherence to good faith. 
 It requires the sternest integrity to work it. Its very life- 
 blood is honor. ]^ow, there are two respects in which it 
 may fatally err. In the first place, Congress may transcend 
 its powers, and thus be guilty of a breach of trust, and of 
 disloyalty to its own masters. It may presume upon the 
 consent of the States, where no consent has been given. 
 It may forget that it is a servant, and aspire to be lord. It 
 
22 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 may forget tliat it is an agent, and arrogate to itself the 
 rights and authority of the principaL When it surveys the 
 extent of its jurisdiction, the amount of its patronage, and 
 the weight of its influence abroad, it may become dazzled 
 with the contemplation of its own greatness, and attribute 
 to itself the light that is reflected upon it. Its one people 
 it may construe into one nation, and, unmindful of its ori- 
 gin, treat the sovereignties which created it as dependent 
 provinces. Treating upon a footing of equality with for- 
 eign Powers, it may insensibly ascribe to itself the autho- 
 rity of Kings and Emperors. All this is conceivable ; to 
 some extent it is inevitable, unless the most scrupulous 
 integrity should reign in the Federal Councils. But to 
 sin in any of these respects is fraud, and fraud connected 
 with treason. In the next place, the States may break 
 faith with one another. Thej^ may refuse to fulfil their 
 engagements. They may pervert the Federal authorities 
 to the accomplishment of selfish and sectional ends. They 
 may undertake to make their common agent the minister 
 of partial advantages, or they may use lawful powers for 
 unlawful purposes. Here, too, in the relation of the States 
 to each other, is wide scope for fraud. 
 
 In one, or in both these directions, we may look for 
 instances of national transgression ; and on this day, we 
 should solemnly review the history of the Republic, for the 
 purpose of bringing our consciences before the tribunal of 
 God. Perfidy, under all circumstances, is an aggravated 
 sin ; but when it brings in its train the destruction of 
 institutions which have been the hope and admiration of 
 the world ; when it subverts the foundations of a great 
 empire, scattering the seeds of dissension, bitterness and 
 strife ; when it arms house against house, and State against 
 State, and converts a happy union into a scene of implaca- 
 ble and deadly feuds, language is hardly competent to 
 describe the enormity of the guilt. The fraud which 
 makes our government a failure, must darken the prospects 
 
FAST-DAT SERMON. 
 
 23 
 
 of liberty throughout the world. No polity can be devised 
 which shall perpetuate freedom among a people that are 
 dead to honour and integritv. Liberty and virtue are twin 
 sisters, and the best fabric in the world, however ingen- 
 iously framed, and curioush^ balanced, can be no security 
 ao^ainst the corrodino; influences of bad faith. Perfldv is 
 always weakness ; and a government whose basis is the 
 faith of treaties, must inevitably perish before it. The 
 combination of the federal principle with the sovereignty 
 of States, is the only principle which can maintain free 
 institutions upon a broad scale. This combination can 
 secure freedom to a continent ; it might even govern the 
 world. The day of small States is passed, and as the 
 federal principle is the only one which can guarantee 
 freedom to extensive territories, the federal principle 
 must constitute the hope of the human race. It was 
 the glory of this country to have lirst applied it to 
 the formation of an effective government, and, had 
 we been faithful to our trust, a destiny was before us which 
 it has never been the lot of any people to inherit. It was 
 ours to redeem this continent, to spread freedom, civiliza- 
 tion and relio'ion throuo'h the whole leuo-th of the land. 
 Geographically placed between Europe and Asia, we were, 
 in some sense, the representatives of the human race. The 
 fortunes of the world were in our hand. We were a city 
 set upon a hill, whose light was intended to shine upon 
 every people and upon every land. To forego this destiny, 
 to forfeit this inheritance, and that through bad faith, is an 
 enormity of treason equalled only by the treachery of a 
 Judas, who betrayed bis master with a kiss. Favored as 
 we have been, we can expect to perish by no common 
 death. The judgment lingers not, and the damnation 
 slumbers not, of the reprobates and traitors, who, for the 
 wages ot unrighteousness, have sapped the pillars and 
 undermined the foundations of the stateliest temple of 
 liberty the world ever beheld. Rebellion against God, and 
 
24 
 
 FAST DAY SEEMON. 
 
 treason to man, are combined in the perfidy. The inno- 
 cent may be spared, as Lot was delivered from the destruc- 
 tion of Sodom; but the guilty must' perish with an aggra- 
 vated doom. The first instances of transgression may seem 
 slight and insignificant, but when they strike at the prin- 
 ciple of good faith, like a puncture of the heart, they strike 
 at the root of our national life. The Union was conceived 
 in plighted faith, and can only be maintained by a com- 
 plete redemption of the pledge. The moment faith is 
 broken, the Union is dissolved. Entertaining these views of 
 the radical relations of good faith to the success and stabil- 
 ity of our government, I would impress upon the country 
 the flagrant iniquity of dealing loosely with its covenants. 
 It is here that our dangers are concentrated, and here we 
 should look for the sins that have provoked the judgments 
 of God. Here is the secret of our bitter strifes, our furious 
 contention, our deadly animosities ; and, should this Gov- 
 ernment be destined to fall, the epitaph which may be writ- 
 ten on its tomb, is a memorial of broken faith. 
 
 The foregoing remarks are general, and designed to 
 bring no railing accusation against any section of the 
 country, but to excite every part of it to a faithful review 
 of its dealino^s under the Constitution. There is one sub- 
 ject, however, in relation to which the non-slaveholding 
 States have not only broken faith, but have justified their 
 course upon the plea of conscience. We allude to the 
 subject of slavery. They have been reluctant to open the 
 Territories to the introduction of slaves, and have refused 
 to restore fugitives to their masters, and have vindicated 
 themselves from blame by appealing to a higher law than 
 the compacts of men. The doctrine of a higher law, prop- 
 erly interpreted and applied, we are far from repudiating. 
 God is greater than man, and no human covenants can set 
 aside or annul the supreme obligations of His will. But, 
 in the present case, the plea is improperly applied. If it is 
 wrong to countenance slavery by restoring fugitives to 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 25 
 
 their masters, or by permitting it to enter into the Territo- 
 ries, then the true method is to abrogate the contract Avhich 
 requires both. We repent of sin by forsaking it, and the 
 only way to undo a wicked bargain is to cancel it. If the 
 non-slaveholdino' States cannot in conscience redeem their 
 faith, they are bound in honor to take back their pledges, 
 to withdraw from the Union, and to release their confed- 
 erates from all the conditions of the contract, l^o other 
 course can they pursue without sin. To swear to observe 
 the Constitution, when the Constitution binds them to do 
 what they believe to be wicked, is an oath which, whether 
 broken or kept, cannot be taken without dishonor. To 
 keep it, is to violate the conscience in the unlawful article. 
 To break it, is to be guilty of perjury. The only escape 
 from this dilemma is, not to take it at all. 
 
 But, in truth, even upon the supposition that slavery is 
 immoral, there is nothing wrong in the oath to observe the 
 Constitution. The responsibility of slavery is not upon 
 the non-slaveholding States. It is not created by their laws, 
 but by the laws of the slaveholding States; and all they do 
 in the case of the fugitive from his master, is to remand 
 him to the jurisdiction of the laws from which he has 
 escaped. They have nothing to do with the justice or 
 injustice of the laws themselves. They are simply required 
 to say that the accident of being on their soil shall not dis- 
 solve the relation between a subject and its government. 
 The treaty existing among the States, in reference to this 
 point, is precisely analogous to a treaty among foreign 
 nations, requiring the surrender of criminals that have fled 
 from justice. The country surrendering passes no judg- 
 ment upon the merits of the case. It leaves the whole of 
 the responsibility to the laws of the country claiming juris- 
 diction. All that it does is not to interpose and arrest the 
 operation of those laws. Surely, there is nothing unright- 
 eous in this ; nothing unrighteous in refusing to screen a 
 man from the authority of the code under which Provi- 
 4 
 
26 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 dence has cast his lot. There is no oblio^ation to do it 
 without a treaty ; but tliere is nothing inherently unlawful 
 in making such a treaty, and in strictly adhering to it when 
 made. The plea of conscience proceeds from a palpable 
 misapprehension of the nature of the case. 
 
 The plea is still more flagrantly inadequate when applied 
 to the exclusion of slavery from the Territories. All the 
 States have confessedly an equal right of property in them. 
 They are a joint possession. The citizens of any State 
 may go there and take up their abode, and, without express 
 contract to the contrary among the proprietors, they are at 
 liberty to observe the customs of their own States. It is as 
 if the land were distributed, and each State had a part. In 
 that case, each State would evidently put its part under the 
 jurisdiction of its own laws. The joint possession, to the 
 extent of the partnership, places the Territory in the same 
 relation to the laws of all the States. One has no more 
 right to introduce its peculiarities than another, and with- 
 out positive contract the peculiarities of none can be 
 excluded. The case is as if a Christian and a Pagan people 
 should acquire a common territory. Would it be compe- 
 tent for the Christian people, in the absence of a positive 
 stipulation, to say to their Pagan neighbors, You shall not 
 bring your idols into this land? You may come yourselves, 
 but you come only on condition that you renounce your 
 worship ? If there is any wrong, it is in making the treaty 
 at first; but if Christians and Pagans can enter into treaties 
 at all, there is no crime in observing them. If they can 
 lawfully acquire joint possession of a soil, the Pagan has 
 as much rig-ht to introduce his idols as the Christian his 
 purer worship. In respect to the question of slavery, if 
 there is wrong any where, it is in the union of slaveholding 
 and non-slaveholding States in one confederacy; but, being 
 confederate, there can be no just scruple as to the fulfillment 
 of their contracts. It is a mistake to suppose that the ITorth 
 sanctions slavery by doing justice to the South. It leaves 
 
FAST-DAY SERMOX. 
 
 27 
 
 tlie whole responsibility of the institution where God has 
 phaced it, among the people of the South themselves. "We 
 do not ask the ^STorth to introduce it upon their own soil; we 
 do not ask them to approve it ; we do not ask them to 
 speak a single word in its defence : we only ask them to 
 execute in good faith the contract which has been solemnly 
 ratified betwixt us. We ask them not to interfere with the 
 jurisdiction of our own laws over our own subjects, nor 
 with the free use of our own property upon our own soil. 
 This is the head and front of our pretensions, and when 
 these reasonable demands are met by the plea of conscience 
 and the authority of a higher law, they must pardon our 
 dulless, if we cannot understand that delicate sensibility 
 to honor which makes no scruple of an oath that it does 
 not mean to observe, and holds to the profit, without ful- 
 filling the conditions, of the contract. When they ask to 
 be released from their engagements, and, in token of their 
 sincerity, are willing to release us from ours ; when they 
 are willing to abandon the Union rather than ensnare their 
 consciences ; when they abhor the wages, as sincerely as the 
 deeds, of unrighteousness — then, and not till then, they may 
 expect their plea to be admitted. 
 
 2. In the next place, we shall find ample ground of 
 humiliation, if we consider the manner in which the organs 
 of Government have been perverted from their real design, 
 and changed in their essential character. All our institti- 
 tions are representative. We legislate by parliaments, we 
 judge by courts, and we execute by officers appointed for 
 the purpose. The people in their collective capacity do 
 nothing but choose their representatives. They enact no 
 laws ; they conduct no trials ; they execute no sentences. 
 I^ow, what is the genius and spirit of a representative assem- 
 bly? Is it to give expression to the popular will ? Is it to 
 find out and do what the people, if assembled in mass, would 
 do ? Is it simply a contrivance to avoid the inconveniences 
 of large convocations, and bound to seek the same results 
 
28 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 which theee convocations would be likely to eiFect? This 
 doctrine I utterly and absolutely deny. Representatives 
 are appointed, not to ascertain what the will of the people 
 actually is, but what it ought to be. The people are not 
 permitted to legislate en masse, because their passions and 
 caprices are likely to prove stronger than reason and truth. 
 Representation is a check upon themselves. Every State 
 is bound to realize the idea of justice. This requires calm 
 deliberation and sober thought. To provide for this delib- 
 eration, to protect themselves from their own prejudices 
 and passions, and to cause the voice of reason to be heard, 
 they retire from the scene, and leave the inquiry and decis- 
 ion of their duty to chosen^ men, in whose wisdom they 
 have confidence. This is the true theory of parliamentary 
 government. Courts are appointed to interpret the law, 
 and officers to execute the decrees of the courts, in order 
 that justice and not passion may rule in every trial. The 
 supremacy of reason and justice is the supremacy of law 
 and order. Contemplated in this light, parliamentary 
 government is the most perfect under heaven. It avoids 
 equally the extremes of the despotism of a single will, 
 which is sure to terminate in tyranny, and of the still more 
 hateful despotism of mobs, which is sure to terminate in 
 anarchy. It gives rise to a free commonwealth. It aims 
 at the true and right, and truth and rectitude are the safe- 
 guards of freedom. Such is the genius of our own institu- 
 tions. But how has the gold become dim, and the line 
 gold changed ! Has the Congress of these United States 
 fulfilled its high idea ? Called together to deliberate, to 
 discuss, to inquire after truth; bound to listen to no voice 
 but the voice of wisdom and justice — has it always pre- 
 sented the spectacle of gravity, decorum, and candor, which 
 we expect to behold in the Senate of a free people? What 
 shall we say, when gold has usurped the authority of truth, 
 when votes have been bought and sold, and the interests of 
 a faction allowed to outweigh the rights and interests of a 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 29 
 
 whole people? What shall we say, when hlows have taken 
 the place of argument, and our halls of legislation have 
 been converted into an arena for the combats of fierce 
 gladiators? What shall we say, when, instead of the lan- 
 guage of calm deliberation, the representatives of the people 
 have vied with each other in vituperation and abuse, and, 
 when they have exhausted the dialect of Billingsgate, have 
 rushed upon each other with the ferocity of tigers, or with 
 the fury of the bulls of Bashan ? The offence is rank, and 
 smells to heaven. Such an awful prostitation of high 
 functions can not take place Avith impunity. The hall which 
 should have inscribed upon its portals the scene of ivisdom 
 and of high debate, cannot become a den of robbers, or a 
 rendezvous for bullies and hectors, without provoking the 
 just judgments of God. It is a lamentation, and shall be 
 for a lamentation, that the Federal Legislature, which ought 
 to have been a model of refined, impartial and courteous 
 debate — a model to which we could always point with an 
 honest pride, has made itself a scandal to a civilized people. 
 The day of reckoning was obliged to come. The country 
 is brought to the brink of dissolution. 
 
 The corruption is of the same kind when the tribunals 
 of the law are set aside, and mobs usurp the jurisdic- 
 tion of courts. There may be occasions when the estab- 
 lished order is unable to check a threatenino; evil. In such 
 cases, the necessities of self-defence may justify society in 
 falling back upon its primordial rights. But these occa- 
 sions are rare. But when society assumes, without necessity, 
 the functions of judges and magistrates, it is guilty of an 
 abuse which, if not arrested, must end in anarchy. There 
 only is security where the law is supreme; and the worst 
 of all social evils is where the populace is stronger than the 
 law — where the sentence of courts is annulled by the phren- 
 zy of mobs, and the officers of justice are insulted and 
 restrained in the execution of their functions. 
 
30 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 In these respects, all of which resolve themselves mto the 
 abuse of the representative principle, we have national sins 
 to confess. We have poisoned the springs of our govern- 
 ment. We have given to faction what is clue to truth. We 
 have dethroned reason and justice, and made our legisla- 
 tion a miserable scramble for the interests of sections and 
 parties. We have deified the people, making their will, as 
 will, and not as reasonable and right, the supreme law ; and 
 they, in turn, have deified themselves, by assuming all the 
 attributes of government, and exercising unlimited domin- 
 ion. They have become at once legislators, judges, juries, 
 and executioners. The last form of evil has been only 
 occasional, but unless checked and repressed, it may 
 strengthen and expand. In proportion as it increases, 
 reverence for law and for the forms of law loses its power. 
 The tendency to sink our institutions into a pure demo- 
 cracy has been steadily growing. We are rapidly losing 
 even the notion of a representative, by merging it into that 
 of a deputy ; and it is but the natural product of this error, 
 that Congress should be the battle-ground of conflicting 
 wills, and that its sole inquiry should become : what says 
 the voice of the majority? Vox jwjndi, vox Dei. 
 
 I have said, I think, enough to show that in our federal 
 relations, we have reason to be humbled in the presence ot 
 God. Our Government is a noble one. Human wisdom 
 could not have devised a better. With all our unfaithful- 
 ness it has made us great ^nd prosperous. It has won for 
 us the homage and respect of the world ; and had we been 
 faithful to its principles, the blessings it has already con- 
 ferred upon us would be but the beginning of its triumphs. 
 Could we continue a united people, united in heart as well 
 as in form ; could the government be administered accord- 
 ing to the real genius of our federal and representative in- 
 stitutions, imagination can hardly conceive the scene of 
 prosperity, influence and glory wdrich would dawn upon 
 our children a hundred years hence. When we contem- 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 31 
 
 plate what we might become, and then look at the prospect 
 which is now before us, we have reason to put our hands 
 on our mouths, and our mouths in the dust, and to exclaim : 
 God he merciful to us sinners ! Let us weep for the country. 
 Let us confess our own sins and the sins of the people. 
 God may hear the cry of the penitent, and say to them, as 
 He said to Moses, when he deplored the sins of his people, 
 I loill make of thee a great nation. 
 
 3. There are other forms of sin which, though not national 
 in the sense that they pertain to the administration of the 
 government, are national in the sense that they are widely 
 diffused among the people : they enter into the grounds of 
 the Divine controversy with us ; and, if not repented of and 
 forsaken, must end in national calamities. Conspicuous 
 among these is the sin of profaneness. The name of God 
 is constantly on our lips, and if the frequency with which 
 it is used were any sign of religion, ours might pass for the 
 most devout people under heaven. We introduce it into 
 every subject, and upon all occasions. A sentence is never 
 complete without it. If we are earnest, it enlivens our dis- 
 course ; if we are angry, it affords a vent to our passions ; 
 if we are merry, it quickens our enjoyments, and if we are 
 sad, it relieves our misery. Like those particles in the 
 Greek tongue, which to the philologist give a delicate turn 
 to the meaning, but which to the common reader might be 
 removed without being missed, the name of God is indis- 
 pensable in the vulgar dialect of the people, but it takes a 
 practised ear to detect the shade which it gives to the sen- 
 tence. Many persons would be dumb if they were not 
 allowed to be profane. The only words which, as nimble 
 servitors, are ready to obey their bidding, are the names of 
 God and the awful terms in which He announces the final 
 doom of the guilty. These are their vocabulary. Judging 
 from the discourse which he is likely to hear in the streets, 
 a stranger might infer that the name was all that we had 
 left of God ; that we were a nation of atheists, who had at 
 
32 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 last discovered tliat He was only a word, and, determined to 
 make reprisals for the terrors with which superstition had 
 clothed Him, we were degrading even the name by the j 
 lowest associations. That a puny mortal should thus trifle j 
 with the majesty of God, and make a jest of the Divine j 
 judgments, is a spectacle which may- well astonish the j 
 angels, and ought to confound ourselves. Devils hate, but 
 they dare not make light of God. It is only here upon 
 earth, where the patience of God is as infinite as His being, 
 that the name which fills heaven with reverence and hell | 
 with terror is an idle word. Profaneness naturally leads \ 
 to licentiousness, by dissolving the sentiment of reverence. ' 
 
 Closely connected with levity in the use of the Divine j 
 name, is the profaneness which treats with contempt the ' 
 positive institution of the Sabbath. Here the government ] 
 is implicated in the sin. It encourages the desecration of j 
 the Lord's Day by the companies which carry its mails. ; 
 The Sabbath, as an external institute, is absolutely essential 
 to the maintenance and propagation of Christianity in the 
 world, and until the Christian religion is disproved, and the 
 supremacy of Christ set aside, no government on earth can 
 annul it with impunity. 1 
 
 It is also characteristic of our people that they are self- 
 sufiicient and vainglorious, to a degree that makes them i 
 ridiculous. They love to boast, and they love to sacrifice 
 to their own drag and to burn incense to their own net. ■ 
 They feel themselves competent for every enterprise. They j 
 can scale heaven, weigh the earth, and measure the sea. ! 
 Their own arms and their own right hand will get them the J 
 victory in every undertaking. Even the style of their con- 
 versation is grandiloquent. The hyperbole is their fa- 
 vorite figure, and the superlative their favorite degree 
 of comparison. To hear their self-laudations, you would I 
 never dream that they acknowledged a Providence, or ; 
 depended on any superior power. All this is the ] 
 grossest atheism. The consequence of this self-sufficiency 
 
 i 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 8a 
 
 is a want of reverence for any thing. We honor neither 
 Gocl nor the king. We revile our rulers, and speak evil of 
 dignities, with as little compunction as we profane the ordi- 
 nances of religion. Nothing is great but ourselves. It is 
 enough to indicate these types of sin, without dwelling 
 upon them. The important thing is to feel that they are 
 sins. They are so common that they cease to impress us, 
 and in some of their aspects they are so grotesque, they 
 provoke a smile more readily than a tear. 
 
 4. Having adverted to the sins which belong to us as 
 members of the Confederacy, let us now turn to those which 
 belong to us as a particular Commonwealth. I shall restrict 
 myself to our dealings with the institution which has pro- 
 duced the present convulsions of the country, and brought 
 us to the verge of ruin. That the relation betwixt the slave 
 and his master is not inconsistent with the word of God, we 
 have long since settled. Our consciences are not troubled, 
 and have no reason to be troubled, on this score. We do 
 not hold our slaves in bondage from remorseless considera- 
 tions of interest. If I know the character of our people, I 
 think I can safely say, that if they were persuaded of the 
 essential immorality of slavery, they would not be back- 
 ward in adopting measures for the ultimate abatement of 
 the evil. We cherish the institution not from avarice, but 
 from principle. We look upon it as an element of strength, 
 and not of weakness, and conhdently anticipate the time 
 when the nations that now revile us would gladly change 
 places with us. In its last analysis, slavery is nothing but 
 an organization of labor, and an organization b}^ virtue of 
 which labor and capital are made to coincide. Under this 
 scheme, labor can never be without employment, and the 
 wealth of the country is pledged to feed and clothe it. 
 Where labor is free, and the laborer not a part of the capi- 
 tal of the country, there are two causes constantly at work, 
 which, in the excessive contrasts they produce, must end in 
 agrarian revolutions and intolerable distress. The first is 
 5 
 
34 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 the tendency of capital to accumulate. Where it does not 
 include the laborer as a part, it will employ only that labor 
 which will yield the largest returns. It looks to itself, and 
 not to the interest of the laborer. The other is the ten- 
 dency of population to outstrip the demands for employ- 
 ment. The multiplication of laborers not only reduces 
 wages to the lowest point, but leaves multitudes wholly 
 unemployed. While the capitalist is accumulating his 
 hoards, rolling in affluence and splendor, thousands that 
 would work if they had the opportunity are doomed to 
 perish of hunger. The most astonishing contrasts of pov- 
 erty and riches are constantly increasing. Society is divided 
 between princes and beggars. If labor is left free, how is 
 this condition of things to be obviated ? The government 
 must either make provision to support people in idleness, or 
 it must arrest the law of population and keep them from 
 being born, or it must organize labor. Human beings can- 
 not be expected to starve. There is a point at which they 
 will rise in desperation against a social order which dooms 
 them to nakedness and famine, whilst their lordly neighbor 
 is clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously 
 every day. They will scorn the logic which makes it their 
 duty to perish in the midst of plenty. Bread they must 
 have, and bread they will have, though all the distinctions 
 of property have to be abolished to provide it. The govern- 
 ment, therefore, must support them, or an agrarian revolu- 
 tion is inevitable. But shall it support them in idleness ? 
 Will the poor, who have to work for their living, consent 
 to see others as stout and able as themselves clothed and 
 fed like the lilies of the field, while they toil not, neither 
 do they spin ? Will not this be to give a premium to idle- 
 ness ? The government, then, must find them employment; 
 but how shall this be done ? On what principle shall labor 
 be organized so as to make it certain that the laborer shall 
 never be without employment, and employment adequate 
 for his support ? The only way in which it can be done, as 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 35 
 
 a permanent arrangement, is by converting tlie laborer into 
 capital ; that is, by giving the employer a right of property 
 in the Labor employed ; in other words, by slavery. The 
 master must always find work for his slave, as well as fooc^ 
 and raiment. / The capital of the country, under this sys- 
 tem, must always feed and clothe the country. There can 
 be no pauperism, and no temptations to agrarianism. That 
 non-slaveholding States will eventually have to organize 
 labor, and to introduce something so like to slavery that it 
 will be impossible to discriminate between them, or to 
 sutler from the most violent and disastrous insurrections 
 against the system which creates and perpetuates their 
 misery, seems to be as certain as the tendencies in the laws 
 of capital and* population to produce the extremes of pov- 
 erty and wealth. We do not envy them their social condi-^ 
 tion. With sanctimonious complacency they may affect to 
 despise us, and to shun our society as they would shun the 
 infection of a plague. They may say to us, Stand by — we 
 are holier than thou; but the day of reckoning must come. 
 As long as the demand for labor transcends the supply, all 
 is well : capital and labor are mutual friends, and the coun- 
 try grows in wealth with mushroom rapidity. But when it 
 is no longer capital asking for labor, but labor asking for 
 capital ; when it is no longer work seeking men, but men 
 seeking work — then the tables are turned, and unemployed 
 labor and selfish capital stand face to face in deadly hostil- 
 ity. We desire to see no such state of things among our- 
 selves, and we accept as a good and merciful constitution 
 the organization of labor which Providence has given us 
 in slavery. Like every human arrangement, it is liable to 
 abuse ; but in its idea, and in its ultimate influence upon 
 the social system, it is wise and beneficent. We see in it 
 a security for the rights of property and a safeguard against 
 pauperism and idleness, which our traducers may yet live 
 to wish had been engrafted upon their own institutions. 
 The idle declamation about degrading men to the condition 
 
86 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 of chattels, and treating them as cows, oxen, or swine ; the 
 idea that the}- are regarded as tools and instruments, and 
 not as beings possessed of immortal souls, betray a gross 
 ignorance of the real nature of the relation. Slavery gives 
 one man the right of property in the labor of another. 
 The property of man in man is only the property of man 
 in human toil. The laborer becomes capital, not because 
 he is a thing, but because he is the exponent of a presumed 
 amount of labor. This is the radical notion of the system^ 
 and all legislation upon it should be regulated by this fun- 
 damental idea. 
 
 The question now arises, Have we, as a people and a 
 State, discharged our duty to our slaves? Is there not rea- 
 son to apprehend that in some cases we have given occasion 
 to the calumnies of our adversaries, by putting the defence 
 of slavery upon grounds which make the slave a different 
 kind of being from his master? Depend upon it, it is no 
 light matter to deny the common brotherhood of humanity. 
 The consequences are much graver than flippant specu- 
 lators about the diversity of races are aware of. If the 
 African is not of the same blood with ourselves, he has no 
 lot nor part in the Gospel. The redemption of Jesus Christ 
 extends only to those who are partakers of the same flesh 
 and blood with Himself. The ground of His right to 
 redeem is the participation, not of a like, but of a common 
 nature. Had the humanity of Jesus been miraculously 
 created apart from connection with the human race, though 
 it might in all respects have been precisely similar to ours, 
 He could not, according to the Scriptures, have been our 
 Eedeemer. He must be able to call us brethren before He 
 can impart to us His saving grace, l^o Christian man, 
 therefore, can give any countenance to speculations which 
 trace the negro to any other parent but Adam. If he is 
 not descended from Adam, he has not the same flesh and 
 blood with Jesus, and is therefore excluded from the possi- 
 bility of salvation. Those who defend slavery upon the 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 37 
 
 plea that the African is not of the same stock with our- 
 selves, are aiming a fatal blow at the institution, by bring- 
 ing it into conflict with the dearest doctrines of the gospel. 
 To arm the religious sentiment against it, is to destroy it. 
 When the question at stake is, whether a large portion of 
 mankind can be saved, we want some thing more than 
 deductions from doubtful phenomena. Nothing but the 
 Word of God can justify us in shutting the gates of mercy 
 upon any portion of the race. The science, falsely so 
 called, which proflers its aid upon such conditions, is such 
 a friend to slaverj- as Joab to Amasa, who met him with 
 the frieudly greeting. Art thou in healthy my brother? and 
 stabbed him under the fifth rib. I am happy to say that 
 such speculations have not sprung from slavery. They 
 were not invented to justify it. They are the offspring of 
 infidelity, a part of the process by which science has been 
 endeavoring to convict Christianity of falsehood ; and it is 
 as idle to charge the responsibility of the doctrine about 
 the diversity of species upon slaveholders, as to load them 
 with the guilt of questioning the geological accuracy of 
 Moses. Both are assaults of infidel science upon the 
 records of our faith, and both have found their warmest 
 advocates among the opponents of slavery. Our ofience 
 has been, that in some instances we have accepted and con- 
 verted" into a plea, the conclasions of this vain deceit. Let 
 us see to it that we give our revilers no handle against us ; 
 above all, that we make noc God our enemy. Let us not 
 repudiate our kindred with the poor brethren whom He 
 has scattered among us, and entrusted to our guardianship 
 and care. Let us receive them as bone of our bone, and 
 flesh of our flesh. Let us recognize them as having the 
 same Father, the same Redeemer, and the same everlasting 
 destiny. 
 
 Let us inquire, in the next place, whether we have ren- 
 dered unto our servants that which is just and equal. Is 
 our legislation in all respects in harmony with the idea of 
 
38 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 slavery? Are our laws sucli that we can heartily approve 
 them in the presence of God ? Have we sufficiently pro- 
 tected the person of the slave ? Are our provisions ade- 
 quate for giving him a fair and impartial trial when prose- 
 cuted for offences ? Do we guard as we should his family 
 relations? And, above all, have we furnished him with 
 proper means of religious instruction ? These and such 
 questions we should endeavor to answer with the utmost 
 solemnity and truth. We have come before the Lord as 
 penitents. The people whom we hold in bondage are the 
 occasion of all our troubles. We have been provoked by 
 bitter and furious assailants to deal harshly with them, and 
 it becomes us this day to review our history, and the history 
 of our legislation, in the light of God's truth, and to aban- 
 don, with ingenuous sincerity, w^hatever our consciences 
 can not sanction. Let not the taunts of our revilers shake 
 us from our propriety. Let it be our first care to commend 
 ourselves to God, and, if He be for us, what does it signify 
 who is against us ? Our slaves are a solemn trust, and 
 while we have a riHit to use and direct their labor, we are 
 bound to feed, clothe and protect them, to give them the 
 comforts of this life, and to introduce them to the hopes of 
 a blessed immortality. They are moral beings, and it w^ill 
 be found that in the culture of their moral nature we reap 
 the largest rew^ard from their service. The relation itself is 
 moral, and in the tender affections and endearing sympathies 
 it evokes, it gives scope for the exercise of the most attractive 
 graces of human character. Strange as it may sound to those 
 who are not familiar w^ith the system, slavery is a school of 
 virtue, and no class of men have furnished sublimer in- 
 stances of heroic devotion than slaves in their loyalty and 
 love to their masters. We have seen them rejoice at the 
 cradle of the infant, and weep at the bier of the dead; and 
 there are few amongst us, perhaps, who have not drawn 
 their nourishment from their generous breasts. Where the 
 relations are so kindly, there is every motive of fidelity on 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 39 
 
 our part. Let u? apr»l y with unflinching candor the golden 
 rule of our Saviour. Have we rendered to our slaves what, 
 if we were in their circumstances, we should think it right 
 and just in them to render to us. ^"e are not bound to 
 render unto tliem what they may in fact desire. Such a 
 rule would transmute morality into arbitraiy caprice. But 
 we are bound to render unto them what they have a right 
 to desire : that is. we are bound to render unto them that 
 wliieli is just and erjual. The Saviour requires us to ex- 
 change places, in order that we may appreciate what is just 
 and equal, free from the benumbing influences which are 
 likely to j^tervert the judgment when there is no personal 
 interest in the decision. I need not say that it is our duty 
 as a Commonwealth to develope all the capabilities of good 
 which the relation of slavery contains. They have never 
 yet been fully uufulded. AVe have had to attend so much 
 to the outer defences, that we have not been in a condition 
 to give full play to the energies of the inward life. This 
 is the problem to which Clnistian statesmen should here- 
 after direct their elibrts, 
 
 II. This day is a day of prayer, as well as of humiliation 
 and confession. There are blessings which in our present 
 circumstances we urgently need, and we should make them 
 the burden of importunate supplications. The first is the 
 grace of magnanimity, that our moderation may be known 
 unto all men. By moderation. I do not mean tameness and 
 servility of spirit: and by magnanimity I do not mean what 
 Aristotle seems to understand by it — a consciousness of 
 worth which feels itself entitled to great rewards. The 
 true notion of it is, a just sense of what is due to the 
 dignity of the State, and an humble reliance upon God to 
 make it equal to every occasion. The mind that feels the 
 responsibility of ifs spiritual endowments, and aims at the 
 perfection of its nature in the consummation of an end 
 which satisfies the fullness of its being, while it arrogates 
 nothing of merit to itself, but ascribes all its capacities to 
 
40 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 the unmerited bounties of God ; tlie mind that is conscious 
 of what is due to mind, and intent upon fulfilling its own 
 idea — is truly great ; and the more thoroughly it is pene- 
 trated with this consciousness, the more deeply it is hum- 
 bled under the conviction of its manifold shortcomins^s, and 
 the more earnest in its cries for grace to enable it to win 
 the prize. To know our true place in the universe, 
 to feel that we are possessed of noble jjowers, and 
 that we are bound to pursue an end that is worthy of 
 them, is not pride, but sobriety of judgment. Pride 
 emerges when we attribute to ourselves the excellence of 
 our gifts ; when we cherish a spirit of independence and 
 self sufficiency, and rob God of the glory which is due to 
 His bounty. Humility is not a confession that mind is 
 intrinsically little : it is only the conviction of its absolute 
 dependence upon God, and of its relative nothingness when 
 compared with Him. A Commonwealth is magnanimous 
 w^hen it comprehends the vocation of a State, when it rises 
 to the dignity of its high functions, and seeks to cherish a 
 spirit in harmony with the great moral purposes it was 
 ordained to execute. A magnanimous State can not be the 
 victim of petty passions. It is superior to rashness, to 
 revenge, to irritation, and caprice. It has an ideal which 
 it aims to exemplif}^ ; cultivates a mind upon a level with 
 its calling, and, turning neither to the right nor to the left, 
 presses with undeviating step to the goal before it. It is 
 calm, collected, self-possessed, resolved. It dares do all 
 that may become a State. It will attempt nothing more ; 
 it will be content with nothing less. That we, as a Com- 
 monwealth, in the trying circumstances in which we are 
 placed, may be able to exhibit this spectacle of magna- 
 nimity to the world; that we may command its admiration 
 by the dignity and self-respect of our beai^ing, even though 
 we should not secure its assent to the wisdom of our policy; 
 that we may make all men see and feel that we are actuated 
 by principle, and not by passion, should be a subject of our 
 
FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 41 
 
 fervent supplications this day. Wisdom and courage are 
 the inspiration of God. 
 
 In the next place, we should look to Him to raise up for 
 us, as guides and leaders in the present emergency, men of 
 counsel and understanding. Statesmen in the State, as 
 Apostles in the Church, are special ministers of God. 
 They arise at His bidding, and execute His behests. Moses 
 and Joshua, Solon and Lycurgus, the Prince of Orange and 
 "Washington, were anointed and commissioned of Heaven 
 for the work they so happily performed. To construct a 
 Government of any kind, is a work of no ordinary magni- 
 tude ; but the Government of a free people, with its com- 
 plicated checks and balances, it is given only to the loftiest 
 minds to be able to conceive, much less to create. If ever 
 there was a time, since the adoption of the Federal Consti- 
 tution, when the whole country needed the counsel and 
 guidance of patriotic statesmen, it is now, when, under the 
 lead of demagogues, factions and politicians, we have cor- 
 rupted every principle of our polity, and brought the Gov- 
 ernment to the brink of dissolution, l^o human arm is 
 equal to the crisis. No human eye can penetrate the future. 
 Our only help is in God ; from Him alone cometh our sal- 
 vation. The highest proof of patriotism in the present 
 conjuncture, is in penitence and humility to seek His favor, 
 and if it is His purpose to redeem and save us, in answer to 
 our prayers, He will cause the men to stand forth, and the 
 people to honor and accept them whom He has commis- 
 sioned to conduct us through the wilderness. In the mean- 
 time, let us scrupulously resist every influence that is 
 unfriendly to the influence of His Spirit. Let us mortify 
 every thought, and subdue every passion, upon which we 
 can not sincerely invoke His blessing. Jf we are to lay the 
 foundations if a new empire, or to readjust the proportions 
 of the old, the only pledge of permanent success is the 
 Divine favor. Happy is that people, and that people alone, 
 whose God is the Lord. 
 6 
 
42 
 
 FAST-DAY SERMON. 
 
 Finally, let us pray that our courage may be equal to 
 every emergency. Even thougli our cause be just, and our 
 course approved of Heaven, our path to victory may be 
 through a baptism of blood. Liberty has its martyrs and 
 confessors, as well as religion. The oak is rooted amid 
 wintry storms. Great truths come to us at great cost, and 
 the most impressive teachers of mankind are those who 
 have sealed their lessons with their blood. Our State may 
 suffer; she may suffer grieviously; she may suffer long: 
 Be it so : we shall love her the more tenderly and the more 
 intensely, the more bitterly she suffers. It does not follow, 
 even if she should be destined to fall, that her course was 
 wrong, or her sufferings in vain. Thermopylse was lost, 
 but the moral power of Thermopylae will continue as long 
 as valor and freedom have a friend, and reverence for law 
 is one of the noblest sentiments of the human soul. Let 
 it be our great concern to know God's will. Let right and 
 duty be our watchword; liberty, regulated by law, our goal 
 and, leaning upon the arm of everlasting strength, we shall 
 achieve a name, whether we succeed or fail, that posterity 
 will not willingly let die. 
 
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